GLOBAL ANTI-SEMITISM Posted by Bryna Berch, December 31, 2003.

This is an article by Arnold Beichman that appeared in the Washington Times today. It makes the important point that Israel could kick out the quarter of a million Jews living in Biblical Israel but that won't bring peace, because the Palestinians want to destroy Israel, not make peace with her. Mr. Beichman is a Hoover Institution research fellow and a columnist for The Washington Times. I wonder why the thesis is rarely examined publicly that the Palestinians will never never never never never never never be allowed to make peace with Israel even if the Palestinians wanted to. Yasser Arafat, Hamas, Hezbollah and free-lance terrorists won't allow it to happen because they believe victory is at hand. The reason this thesis is not on anybody's public agenda is that were it considered a reality it would mean recognizing the futility of Oslo-Camp David-shuttle diplomacy. To operate from such an approach would mean accepting that peace and stability in the area is inconceivable. I believe that Israel could close down all the settlements, home to 220,000 Jews, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and still the three-year Palestinian uprising would continue and intensify. Why? Because the PLO regards Israel as the Settlement, which has to be "relocated," as the PLO constitution has it, right into the Mediterranean Sea. And the PLO's dedication to terrorism is fully supported by its neighbors. Their revolting propaganda, directed at their Arab citizenry and future generations of suicide bombers, underscores that belief. I have seen translations of schoolbooks used by Egyptian, Syrian and Palestinian students. The books are anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli tracts. I have just seen on Syrian TV a horrible movie showing Arab actors costumed as bearded, nightmarish rabbis wielding butcher knives as they slash the throat of a Syrian Christian boy lashed on a gurney in order to drench matzoh flour in Christian blood. In other words, upcoming generations are being trained as future guerrilla warriors against Israel. I have seen translations of Friday mosque sermons that could easily compete with the worst obscenities of Julius Streicher's Nazi newspaper, Der Steurmer. The latest piece of evidence of the unwillingness of the Palestinians to consider a peaceful settlement with Israel is what happened a few days ago to Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher when he came to pray at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque. He was pelted with the shoes of his co-religionists and had to be dragged out by his bodyguards and hospitalized. His crime? At Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's direction Mr. Maher had met with senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, to see if the so-called peace process could be revivified. The attack was a warning to Mr. Maher: shoes today, bullets next time. It was a reminder of the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat after he signed an accord with Israel in 1979. The PLO will not allow the intifada, which began in October 2000, to end. Oh yes, I forgot to mention: Mr. Arafat criticized the shoe-pelters. Why should the Palestinians give up hope and make peace where anti-Semitism has seen its biggest growth since the Hitler era, not just among skinheads but also among "the best people?" I'm thinking of those who use Israel as their cover for anti-Semitism, as the French ambassador to Britain did a few weeks ago. Why should the Palestinians give up hope when Matahir Mohammed at an international conference talks about Jewish control of the world and there is applause? Or when the best-selling book in Egypt is the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a century-old forgery created in the tsarist era by the Russian gendarmerie? The real problem for Israel is not that the Palestinians will not or cannot make peace with Israel but that a world of otherwise intelligent, literate people will not make peace with an entity called "the Jews." Anti-Semitism is now globalized as it never has before in modern history and it has its effects. My granddaughter, Abbie, who has become a devout orthodox Jew (she's a grad student at Berkeley) plans a trip to Paris in the Spring. I have advised her not to wear her Star of David necklace - in Paris 2004. Why take chances? If there were no globalized Judeophobia an Israeli-Palestinian armistice could be achieved, but this epidemic is spreading just at a time when even the century-old conflict between India and Pakistan, yesterday considered unresolvable, seems to be drawing to a close. Will there never be peace between Jews and the rest of the world? It cannot be the mere existence of Israel, which is responsible for the globalization of anti-semitism. After all, Auschwitz and the other death camp furnaces were operating at full blast when there was no Israel. Hitler wrote "Mein Kampf" when Zionism was an insignificant credo. The Iron Guard flourished in Romania and similar groups flourished in Hungary, Austria and especially Poland well before 1933, the year of Hitler's triumph. It was a lot easier to catch Saddam Hussein than it will be to fashion an Israeli-PLO armistice. Saddam's trial, which will last over many years, will arrive at a final verdict but the war against Israel's existence will go on and on and on.

2003 - A YEAR TO REMEMBER Posted by Tamar Rush, December 31, 2003.

2003 will be remembered as the year that the Likud party in Israel adopted the "Unilateral disengagement - Gaza first" plan that had been the Labour party platform in the last elections. Though rejected by the Israeli public, the plan has now become "our only hope for peace" according to the Israeli Government of Ariel Sharon. Ultra-Leftist serial-loser Yossi Beilin, and a coalition of defeatists, anti-Zionists, and ex-communists have come up with another "only hope for peace" plan - this one with the sober-sounding title of the "Geneva Accords". Both plans offer the Palestinian terror-meisters instant Statehood, unconditionally, and in the case of the "Geneva Double-cross", er, I mean "Accords", foreign troops will be deployed to defend the PLO state from the neighbourhood bully that is Eretz Israel. President Bush has promised an International Conference: Convened by "The Quartet", in consultation with the parties, at beginning of 2004 to endorse agreement reached on an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders and formally to launch a process with the active, sustained, and operational support of the Quartet, leading to a final, permanent status resolution in 2005, including on borders, Jerusalem, refugees, settlements; and, to support progress toward a comprehensive Middle East settlement between Israel and Lebanon and Israel and Syria, to be achieved as soon as possible. [The "Road Map"] To that end, the White-house and State Dept. have welcomed the Geneva Travesty, and are open to any other non-democratic proposal for establishing an official "Terror State" 8 miles from my front door. On this New Year's Eve, we should look back on the past 12 months and try to understand what the PLO-PA and their supporters have done to demonstrate their commitment to a peaceful resolution of the "Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. "Give 'em a State" indeed! Jan 2, 2003 - The charred body of Massoud Makhluf Alon, 72, from Menahemiya in the Lower Galilee, was found in the northern Jordan Valley in his burned out car. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for the murder. Jan 5, 2003 - Twenty-three people - 15 Israelis and 8 foreign nationals - were killed and about 120 wounded in a double suicide bombing near the old Central Bus Station in Tel-Aviv. The attack was apparently carried out by two members of the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, with the help of the Islamic Jihad. The Israeli victims: Moshe (Maurice) Aharfi, 60, of Tel-Aviv; Mordechai Evioni, 52, of Holon; Andrei Friedman, 30, of Tel-Aviv; Meir Haim, 74, of Azor; Hannah Haimov, 53, of Tel Aviv; Avi Kotzer, 43, of Bat Yam; Ramin Nasibov, 25, of Tel-Aviv; Staff Sgt. Mazal Orkobi, 20, of Azor; Ilanit Peled, 32, of Azor; Viktor Shebayev, 62, of Holon; Boris Tepalshvili, 51, of Yehud; Sapira Shoshana Yulzari-Yaffe, 46, of Bat Yam; Lilya Zibstein, 33, of Haifa; Amiram Zmora, 55, of Holon; Igor Zobokov, 32, of Bt Yam. Foreign workers: Krassimir Mitkov Angelov, 32, of Bulgaria; Steven Arthur Cromwell, 43, of Ghana; Ivan Gaptoniak, 46, of Ukraine; Ion (Nelu) Nicolae, 34, of Romania; Guo Aiping, 47, of China; Li Peizhong, 41, of China; Mihai Sabau, 38, of Romania. Zhang Minmin, 50, of China died of her wounds on January 13. Jan 12, 2003 - Eli Biton, 48, of Moshav Gadish was killed and four people wounded when terrorists infiltrated the community and opened fire. Two terrorists were killed by Israeli forces. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. Jan 12, 2003 - Cpl.(res.) Mikhail Kazakov, 34, of Jerusalem was killed by terrorists who infiltrated across the Israel-Egypt border, near the Negev town of Nitzana. Jan 17, 2003 - Netanel Ozeri, 34, was killed when terrorists entered his home, in an outpost north of Kiryat Arba, and opened fire. His 5-year-old daughter and two friends were wounded. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. Jan 23, 2003 - Cpl. Ronald Berer, 20, of Rehovot; Cpl. Assaf Bitan, 19, of Afula; and St.-Sgt. Ya'akov Naim, 20, of Kfar Monash were killed by terrorists while on patrol south of Hebron. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. Feb 6, 2003 - 2nd Lt. Amir Ben-Aryeh, 21, of Maccabim, and St.-Sgt. Idan Suzin, 20, of Kiryat Tivon were killed and two more soldiers were wounded in a shooting attack in the area of Nablus. Both gunmen were killed by return fire from IDF troops. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Fatah-Tanzim claimed responsibility for the attack. Feb 11, 2003 - Maj. Shahar Shmul, 24, of Jerusalem was killed by a Palestinian sniper near the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem while checking a suspicious vehicle. The PFLP and the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. Feb 15, 2003 - Cpl. Noam Bahagon, 20, of Elkana; Sgt. Tal Alexei Belitzky, 21, of Rishon Lezion; St.-Sgt. Doron Cohen, 21, of Rishon Lezion; and Sgt. Itay Mizrahi, 20, of Be'er Sheva were killed when their tank drove over an explosive device weighing 100 kgs while on patrol in the Gaza Strip. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. Feb 23, 2003 - Sgt. Doron Lev, 19, of Holon was shot and killed when a Palestinian sniper opened fire at an army position in the southern Gaza Strip. The PFLP claimed responsibility for the attack. Mar 5, 2003 - Seventeen people were killed and 53 wounded in a suicide bombing of an Egged bus #37 on Moriah Blvd. in the Carmel section of Haifa, en route to Haifa University. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Maryam Atar, 27, of Haifa; Smadar Firstater, 16, of Haifa; Kamar Abu Hamed, 12, of Daliat al-Carmel; Daniel Haroush, 16, of Safed; Mordechai Hershko, 41, of Haifa; Tom Hershko, 15, of Haifa; Meital Katav, 20, of Haifa ; Elizabeta Katzman, 16, of Haifa; Tal Kerman, 17, of Haifa; St.-Sgt. Eliyahu Laham, 22, of Haifa; Abigail Litle, 14, of Haifa; Yuval Mendelevitch, 13, of Haifa; St.-Sgt. Be'eri Oved, 21, of Rosh Pina; Mark Takash, 54, of Haifa; Assaf Tzur (Zolinger), 17, of Haifa. Anatoly Biryakov, 20, of Haifa, died of his injuries on March 8. Moran Shushan, 20, of Haifa, died of her injuries on March 11. Mar 7, 2003 - Rabbi Eli Horowitz, 52, and his wife Dina, 50, of Kiryat Arba, were killed and five wounded Friday night by armed terrorists disguised as Jewish worshippers who infiltrated Kiryat Arba, entered their home and murdered them while they were celebrating the Sabbath. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. Mar 10, 2003 - St.-Sgt. Tomer Ron, 20, of Moshav Moledet, was killed and four soldiers were wounded - one seriously - in Hebron, on the road between the Cave of the Patriarchs and Kiryat Arba, when Palestinian terrorists opened fire on a foot patrol. Two organizations - Hamas and Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front-General Command - claimed responsibility for the attack. Mar 12, 2003 - St.-Sgt. Assaf Moshe Fuchs, 21, of Kibbutz Gvat was killed and another soldier wounded Wednesday morning in an exchange of fire with wanted terrorists from the Islamic Jihad in the West Bank village of Saida, near Tulkarm. Mar 18, 2003 - Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Ami Cohen, 27, of Netanya was killed and another soldier wounded south of Bethlehem when Palestinians opened fire during a search for wanted terrorists. Mar 19, 2003 - Zion Boshirian, 51, of Mevo Dotan was shot and killed while driving in his car between Mevo Dotan and Shaked in northern Samaria. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. Apr 10, 2003 - St.-Sgt. Yigal Lifshitz, 20, of Rishon Lezion, and St.-Sgt. Ofer Sharabi, 21, of Givat Shmuel were killed and nine others wounded when Palestinian terrorists opened fire before dawn on their base near Bekaot in the northern Jordan Valley. The PFLP and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. Apr 15, 2003 - Lt. Daniel Mandel, 24, of Alon Shvut was killed and another soldier was wounded in an exchange of gunfire during a search for wanted Hamas terrorists in Nablus. Apr 15, 2003 - Zachar Rahamin Hanukayev, 39, of Sderot and Ahmed Salah Kara, 20, of Shuafat in northern Jerusalem were killed and four Israelis were wounded when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire at the Karni industrial zone crossing in the Gaza Strip. The gunman was killed by security personnel. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. Apr 20, 2003 - IDF photographer Cpl. Lior Ziv, 19, of Holon, was killed and three other soldiers were wounded during an operation to destroy a Hamas smuggling tunnel in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip. Apr 24, 2003 - Alexander Kostyuk, a 23-year-old security guard from Bat Yam, was killed and 13 were wounded, two seriously, in a suicide bombing outside the train station in Kfar Sava. Groups related to the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the PFLP clamied joint responsibility for the attack. Apr 30, 2003 - Ran Baron, 23, of Tel Aviv, Dominique Caroline Hass, 29, of Tel Aviv, and Yanai Weiss, 46, of Holon, were murdered and about 60 people were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a beachfront pub, "Mike's Place," in Tel Aviv. The Fatah Tanzim and Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, carried out as a joint operation. May 5, 2003 - Gideon Lichterman, 27, of Ahiya, was killed and two other passengers, his six-year-old daughter Moriah and a reserve soldier, were seriously wounded when terrorists fired shots at their vehicle near Shvut Rachel, in Samaria. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. May 11, 2003 - Zion David, 53, of Givat Ze'ev near Jerusalem, was shot in the head and killed by Palestinian terrorists in a roadside ambush half a kilometer from Ofra, north of Jerusalem. Both Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack. May 17, 2003 - Gadi Levy and his wife Dina, aged 31 and 37, of Kiryat Arba were killed by a suicide bomber in Hebron. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. May 18, 2003 - Seven people were killed and 20 wounded in a suicide bombing on Egged bus no. 6 near French Hill in Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Olga Brenner, 52; Yitzhak Moyal, 64; Nelly Perov, 55; Marina Tsahivershvili, 44; Shimon Ustinsky, 68; and Roni Yisraeli, 34 - all of the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood in Jerusalem; and Ghalab Tawil, 42, of Shuafat. A second suicide bomber detonated his bomb when intercepted by police in northern Jerusalem. The terrorist was killed; no one else was injured. May 19, 2003 - Kiryl Shremko, 22, of Afula; Hassan Ismail Tawatha, 41, of Jisr a-Zarqa; and Avi Zerihan, 36, of Beit Shean were killed and about 70 people were wounded in a suicide bombing at the entrance to the Amakim Mall in Afula. The Islamic Jihad and the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades both claimed responsibility for the attack. June 5, 2003 - The bodies of David Shambik, 26, and Moran Menachem, 17, both of Jerusalem, were found near Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem, brutally beaten and stabbed to death. June 8, 2003 - Sgt. Maj. (Res.) Assaf Abergil, 23, of Eilat; Sgt. Maj. (Res.) Udi Eilat, 38, of Eilat; Sgt. Maj. Boaz Emete, 24, of Beit She'an; and Sgt. Maj. (Res.) Chen Engel, 32, of Ramat Gan were killed and four reserve soldiers were wounded when Palestinian terrorists wearing IDF uniforms opened fire on an IDF outpost near the Erez checkpoint and industrial zone in the Gaza Strip. Three terrorists were killed by IDF soldiers. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad issued a joint statement claiming responsibility for the attack. June 8, 2003 - St.-Sgt. Matan Gadri, 21, of Moshav Moledet was killed in Hebron while pursuing two Palestinian gunmen who earlier had wounded a Border Policeman on guard at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. The two terrorists were killed. June 11, 2003 - Seventeen people were killed and over 100 wounded in a suicide bombing on Egged bus #14A outside the Klal building on Jaffa Road in the center of Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Sgt. Tamar Ben-Eliahu, 20, of Moshav Paran; Alan Beer, 47, of Jerusalem; Eugenia Berman, 50, of Jerusalem; Elsa Cohen, 70, of Jerusalem; Zvi Cohen, 39, of Jerusalem; Roi Eliraz, 22, of Mevaseret Zion; Alexander Kazaris, 77, of Jerusalem; Yaffa Mualem, 65, of Jerusalem; Yaniv Obayed, 22, of Herzliya; >Bat-El Ohana, 21, of Kiryat Ata; Anna Orgal, 55, of Jerusalem; Zippora Pesahovitch;, 54, of Zur Hadassah; Bianca Shahrur, 62, of Jerusalem; Malka Sultan, 67, of Jerusalem; Bertine Tita, 75, of Jerusalem. Miriam Levy, 74, of Jerusalem died of her wounds on June 12. The 17th victim, male, who has not yet been positively identified, is believed to be a foreign worker from Eritrea. June 12, 2003 - Avner Maimon, 51, of Netanya, was found shot to death in his car near Yabed in northern Samaria. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. June 13, 2003 - St.-Sgt. Mordechai Sayada, 22, of Tirat Carmel, was shot to death in Jenin by a Palestinian sniper as his jeep patrol passed by. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. June 17, 2003 - Noam Leibowitz, 7, of Yemin Orde was killed and three members of her family wounded in a shooting attack near the Kibbutz Eyal junction on the Trans-Israel Highway. The terrorist fired from the outskirts of the West Bank city of Kalkilya. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command claimed responsibility for the attack. June 19, 2003 - Avner Mordechai, 58, of Moshav Sde Trumot, was killed when a suicide bomber blew up in his grocery on Sde Trumot, south of Beit Shean. The suicide bomber was killed. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. June 20, 2003 - Zvi Goldstein, 47, of Eli, was killed when his car was fired upon in an ambush by Palestinian terrorists near Ofra, north of Ramallah. His parents, Eugene and Lorraine Goldstein, from New York, were seriously wounded and his wife lightly injured. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. June 26, 2003 - Amos (Amit) Mantin, 31, of Hadera, a Bezeq employee, was killed in a shooting attack in the Israeli Arab town of Baka al-Garbiyeh. The shots were fired by a Palestinian teenager, who was apprehended by police. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. June 27, 2003 - Sgt. Maj. Erez Ashkenazi, 21, of Kibbutz Reshafim, an Israeli navy commando, was killed in an operation in Gaza to capture a Hamas cell, believed responsible for several bombings and the firing of anti-tank missiles in the Netzarim area. June 30, 2003 - Krastyu Radkov, 46, a construction worker from Bulgaria, was killed in a shooting attack on the Yabed bypass road in northern Samaria, west of Jenin, while driving a truck. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack, in opposition to the declared ceasefire. July 7, 2003 - Mazal Afari, 65, of Moshav Kfar Yavetz was killed in her home on Monday evening and three of her grandchildren lightly wounded in a terrorist suicide bombing. The remains of the bomber were also found in the wreckage of the house. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. July 15, 2003 - Amir Simhon, 24, of Bat Yam was killed when a Palestinian armed with a long-bladed knife stabbed passersby on Tel Aviv's beachfront promenade, after a security guard prevented him from entering the Tarabin cafe and was wounded. The terrorist, who was shot and apprehended, is a member of the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. July 21, 2003 - The body of IDF soldier Cpl. Oleg Shaichat, 20, of Upper Nazareth, abducted and murdered on July 21 while on his way home, was found on July 28, buried in an olive grove near Kafr Kana, an Arab village in the Lower Galilee. Aug 8, 2003 - Third Petty Officer Roi Oren, 20, an Israel Navy commando, was shot in the head and killed in an assault on a Hamas bomb factory in Nablus. Aug 10, 2003 - Haviv Dadon, 16, of Shlomi, was struck in the chest and killed by shrapnel from an anti-aircraft shell fired by Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon, as he sat with friends after work. Four others were wounded. Aug 12, 2003 - Yehezkel (Hezi) Yekutieli, 43, of Rosh Ha'ayin, was murdered by a teenaged Palestinian suicide bomber who detonated himself as Yekutieli was shopping for his children's breakfast at his local supermarket. Aug 12, 2003 - Erez Hershkovitz, 18, of Eilon Moreh, was murdered by a teenaged Palestinian suicide bomber who detonated himself at a bus stop outside Ariel less than half an hour after the Rosh Ha'ayin attack. Amatzia Nisanevitch, 22, of Nofim, died of his wounds on August 28. Aug 19, 2003 - Twenty-three people were murdered and 134 wounded when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated himself on a No. 2 Egged bus in Jerusalem's Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Avraham Bar-Or, 12, of Jerusalem; Binyamin Bergman, 15, of Jerusalem; Yaakov Binder, 50, of Jerusalem; Feiga Dushinski, 50, of Jerusalem; Miriam Eisenstein, 20, of Bnei Brak; Lilach Kardi, 22, of Jerusalem; Menachem Leibel, 24, of Jerusalem; Elisheva Meshulami, 16, of Bnei Brak; Tehilla Nathanson, 3, of Zichron Ya'acov; Chava Nechama Rechnitzer, 19, of Bnei Brak; Mordechai Reinitz, 49, and Issachar Reinitz, 9, of Netanya; Maria Antonia Reslas, 39, of the Philippines; Liba Schwartz, 54, of Jerusalem; Hanoch Segal, 65, of Bnei Brak; Goldie Taubenfeld, 43, and Shmuel Taubenfeld, 3 months, of New Square, New York; Rabbi Eliezer Weisfish, 42, of Jerusalem; Shmuel Wilner, 50, of Jerusalem; Shmuel Zargari, 11 months, of Jerusalem. Fruma Rahel Weitz, 73, of Jerusalem died of her wounds on August 23; Mordechai Laufer, 27, died of his on September 5; and Tova Lev, 37, died on September 12. Aug 29, 2003 - Shalom Har-Melekh, 25, of Homesh was killed in a shooting attack while driving northeast of Ramallah. His wife, Limor, who was seven months pregnant, sustained moderate injuries, and gave birth to a baby girl by Caesarean section. The Fatah al-Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. Sept 4, 2003 - St.-Sgt. Gabriel Uziel, 20, of Givat Ze'ev was shot and mortally wounded by a terrorist sniper in Jenin; he died en route to the hospital. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. Sept 5, 2003 - 2nd Petty Officer Ra'anan Komemi, 23, of Moshav Aminadav, from the Naval Commandos was killed in a clash with armed Palestinians in Nablus. A senior Hamas bomb-maker, believed to have orchestrated several fatal suicide bombings, was also killed in the clash. Four soldiers were wounded, one seriously. Sept 9, 2003 - Eight IDF soldiers were killed and 32 people were wounded in a suicide bombing at a hitchhiking post for soldiers outside a main entrance to the Tzrifin army base and Assaf Harofeh Hospital. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Senior Warrant Officer Haim Alfasi, 39, of Haifa; Chief Warrant Officer Yaakov Ben-Shabbat, 39, of Pardes Hanna; Cpl. Mazi Grego, 19, of Holon; Capt. Yael Kfir, 21, of Ashkelon; Cpl. Felix Nikolaichuk, 20, of Bat Yam; Sgt. Yonatan Peleg, 19, of Moshav Yanuv; Sgt. Efrat Schwartzman, 19, of Moshav Ganei Yehuda; and Cpl. Prosper Twito, 20, of Upper Nazareth. Sept 9, 2003 - Seven people were killed and over 50 wounded when a suicide bomber at Cafe Hillel on Emek Refaim St., the main thoroughfare of the German Colony neighborhood in Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Dr. David Appelbaum, 51, and his daughter Nava Appelbaum, 20, of Jerusalem; David Shimon Avizadris, 51, of Mevaseret Zion; Shafik Kerem, 27, of Beit Hanina; Alon Mizrahi, 22, of Jerusalem; Gila Moshe, 40, of Jerusalem; and Yehiel (Emil) Tubol, 52, of Jerusalem. Sept 25, 2003 - St.-Sgt. Avihu Keinan, 22, of Shilo was killed and six soldiers wounded in an IDF operation to arrest wanted Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorists in the El Boureij refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. Sept 26, 2003 - Eyal Yeberbaum, 27, and seven-month-old Shaked Avraham, both of Negohot, south of Hebron, were killed during the holiday meal on the eve of Rosh Hashana in the Yeberbaum home when a Palestinian terrorist who infiltrated the settlement opened fire with an M-16 assault rifle. The terrorist was killed by IDF forces. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. Oct 4, 2003 - Twenty-one people were killed, including four children, and 58 wounded in a suicide bombing carried out by a female terrorist from Jenin in the Maxim restaurant in Haifa. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Admiral (res.) Ze'ev Almog, 71, of Haifa, and his wife Ruth Almog, 70; their son Moshe Almog, 43, and grandsons Tomer Almog, 9, and Assaf Staier, 11, all of Haifa; Zvi Bahat, 35, of Haifa; Mark Biano, 29, of Haifa, and his wife Naomi Biano, 25; Hana Francis, 39, of Fassouta; Mutanus Karkabi, 31, of Haifa; Sharbal Matar, 23, of Fassouta; Osama Najar, 28, of Haifa, cook; Nir Regev, 25, of Nahariya; Irena Sofrin, 38, of Kiryat Bialik; Bruria Zer-Aviv, 59, her son Bezalel Zer-Aviv, 30, and his wife Keren Zer-Aviv, 29, with their children Liran, 4, and Noya, 1, all of Kibbutz Yagur. Lydia Zilberstein, 58, died on October 10 and George Matar, 57, died October 15. Oct 15, 2003 - Three American diplomatic personnel - John Eric Branchizio, 37, of Texas, John Martin Linde, Jr., 30, of Missouri, and Mark T. Parson, 31, of New York, were killed and one was wounded at the Beit Hanoun junction in the Gaza Strip when a massive bomb demolished an armor-plated jeep in a convoy carrying U.S. diplomats. Oct 19, 2003 - St.-Sgt. Erez Idan, 19, of Rishon Lezion, Sgt. Elad Pollack, 19, of Kiryat Motzkin, and Sgt. Roi Ya'acov Solomon, 21, of Tel Aviv, were killed and another soldier was seriously wounded while on patrol in Ein Yabrud, north of Ramallah, when terrorists fired on them from behind. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. Oct 24, 2003 - Three IDF soldiers - St.-Sgt. Alon Avrahami, 21, of Or Yehuda, Sgt. Adi Osman, 19, of Kfar Sava, and Sgt. Sarit Schneor-Senior, 19, of Shoham - were killed and two others wounded when a Palestinian terrorist infiltrated the army base in the Gaza Strip settlement of Netzarim and opened fire on the soldiers' barracks. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed joint responsibility for the attack. Nov 18, 2003 - Two IDF soldiers, Sgt.-Maj. Shlomi Belsky, 23, of Haifa, and St.-Sgt. Shaul Lahav, 20, of Kibbutz Shomrat, were killed by a Palestinian terrorist who opened fire with an AK-47 assault rifle, hidden in a prayer rug, at a checkpoint on the tunnel bypass road, linking Jerusalem and the Gush Etzion bloc. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. Nov 19, 2003 - Patricia Ter'n Navarrete, 33, of Ecuador was killed and four other tourists, pilgrims from Ecuador, were wounded when a terrorist entered the Israel-Jordan border crossing terminal north of Eilat from the Jordanian side and opened fire. The terrorist was killed by Israeli security guards. Nov 22, 2003 - Two Israeli security guards, Ilya Reiger, 58, of Jerusalem, and Samer Fathi Afan, 25, of the Bedouin village Uzeir near Nazareth, were shot dead at a construction site along the route of the security fence near Abu Dis in East Jerusalem. The Jenin Martyrs' Brigades, affiliated with Fatah, claimed responsibility for the attack. December 25, 2003 - A suicide bomber killed four people and wounded more than 20 in an explosion near a bus stop at Geha Junction in Petah Tikvah, a suburb of Tel Aviv. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility. For a list of Palestinian fatal Terror-attacks against Israelis go to; http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Terrorism/victims.html Palestinian Arab Violations of President Bush's "Road Map" Plan A Survey of Week #34: December 16, 2003 - December 22, 2003. This is crossposted on IsraPundit.

WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE Posted by Ted Belman, December 31, 2003.

The debate on this one is all over the block. Did the IDF violate the rules of engagement? Are there different rules for dealing with protests by Arabs and by Jews? The rules should be changed to make sure it doesn't happen again, but are they looking for rules that make sure such protests don't happen again or that such protestors aren't shot? What is acceptable protest? What should be done to prevent unacceptable protest? Etc, etc. I detect a tendency on the part of the Israelis, to apologize or feel guilty or to worry about international reaction. What I don't see enough of is confidence in the Israeli cause or methods. Israel is easy pickings. And the Left and the Arabs know it. Throughout the last few years, the world has done everything it can to tie Israel's hands. "There is no military solution.". "Exercise restraint." "Don't use excessive force." "Don't act unilaterally." "Don't prejudge the outcome by putting facts on the ground." "Don't do a land grab." "Don't build the fence." "Don't set up blockades or restrict Palestinians." "Stop targeted killings." Ad nauseum. It is one thing for the Left to buy into these restrictions. It's another thing for the Right to do so. What is happening here is an attempt to prevent Israel from using its military strength to get a better result in the final settlement. Mind you, the Arabs are allowed to do everything in their power to get a better result, such as incitement, terror, propaganda, anti-Semitism, UN resolutions etc. If that weren't enough, the Roadmap that was dreamed up by the Quartet with the Saudi's approval, further favours the Arabs with a better result then they could achieve with negotiations. It mandates that there should be a Palestinian state, that it should be "viable" and that it should be "contiguous." Whereas Res. 242 mandates "secure and recognized borders," the Roadmap has finessed this requirement into an Israeli entitlement to "peace and security." So security must come from peace rather than from secure borders. Nowhere does one hear anything about Israel's rights to any part of Yesha. There are none, so they say. We are expected to give back all the land and are told that security will come from peace. Israel must choose between dancing this tune and marching to its own drummer. This is the context in which the debate above mentioned must be resolved. Imagine, if you will, a major assault upon the fence by 10,000 unarmed protestors over a distance of 100 miles with the intent of destroying the fence. What should the rules of engagement say then? For Israel to allow the fence to be destroyed would be a major setback both militarily and psychologically. So the fence is our line of defence. It must be protected at all costs, even if it means killing such saboteurs. Let's not dignify them by calling them "protesters." People who violate military curfews are often shot. People who violate orders to stop at barricades are shot. Boats that come too close to warships are blown out of the water. Planes that violate orders can be shot down even if they contain innocent passengers. There is no shortage of precedents. And people, whether Arab or Israeli, who enter restricted military zones, such as exist along the fence, should be shot. The rules of engagement should provide for it. Such rules are already in place along the Gaza fence where Arabs, whether terrorists or labourers, have been shot attempting to cross the fence. The rationale for doing this should not be limited to whether one's life is in danger. To expect Israel to have thousands of troops along the fence, prepared to do battle with the saboteurs for a number of days running without the use of lethal force, is to put Israel at an untenable disadvantage. Israel must play by its own rules and the rules must be drawn up to ensure Israel comes out the winner. Whether the Left likes it or not, winning is everything. There is no duty to compromise. Whether in defense of one's life or one's country, killing is acceptable. Values such as "thou shalt not kill" or any other value that the Left wants to hold over Israel, give way to her duty to survive. The Left argues that Israel is losing her soul to save her body. Quite the contrary. Only if Israel fights to save her body will she save her soul. Her "soul", should one worry about it, should include such values as pride, love of self, self respect, honour, patriotism, courage and the like. If Israel is not for herself, then she has lost her soul. Ted Belman is co-publisher of IsraPundit (http://israpundit.com), which is "dedicated to pro-Israel advocacy through the presentation of news and views." This article is archived at http://israpundit.com/archives/004049.html#more

U.S. STILL DESTROYING ISRAELI DEFENSE INDUSTRY Posted by Richard H. Shulman, December 31, 2003.

Just as the US got Israel to abandon its superior Lavi fighter plane, now it is getting Israel to abandon its superior Merkava tank. The US motive is both mercenary and anti-Zionist. A strong Israeli military industry competes with the American one and helps shore up the Jewish state financially and militarily. The Lavi jet combined excellent ground support and air superiority. It is the type of plane that meets Israeli needs as does no other plane. Former Sec. of Defense Weinberger had pressured Israel to cancel production of that plane (and to cancel some naval projects) in favor of US-made F-16s. The F-16 is not designed for close ground support. The Lavi (which had development cost overruns) would have cost $17 million each, including spare parts, or half what other countries charge for their planes. The Lavi was lighter and faster than the F-16, showed up less on radar, carried heavier armaments, and was a good training vehicle. Congress had helped finance the Lavi, because hundreds of Americans would have been employed making parts for it. PM Rabin, however, slighted a warming Congressional relationship by getting his Cabinet to drop the Lavi. Israel lost many jobs as a result. Now the Merkava tank, in which Israel has invested $6.5 billion, is to be sacrificed for lighter US tanks. The US needs light tanks, transportable by air; Israel does not. Israel's enemies present themselves at the border. The heavy Merkava is designed to meet and thwart them. It affords better protection from small-arms attack, roadside bombs, and shoulder-fired missiles, can transport troops, and has better offensive capabilities. It costs half as much as the main US tank, that is not designed for desert warfare. The US Abrams tank breaks down in the sand. Incidentally, the US does not make Abrams tanks any more. It proposes to sell Israel used ones. How Israel would replace them, and why it should become dependent upon a foreign (and capricious) foreign supplier for spare parts, is not sensible. During several war games, the Merkava one-sidedly beat the US tank. News of US tank inferiority would have embarrassed the US, so it was suppressed. Due, again, to an underhanded scheme of Sec. Weinberger, Egypt manufactures the Abrams tank. Israeli generals want the Merkava, to keep their qualitative edge against Egypt, armed with US weaponry. Merkava sales abroad earn hundreds of millions of dollars. By abandoning that tank, "Israel will lose its status as one of the leaders of the world in tank technology and will, therefore, lose projects of co-development and co-production of armored systems with other nations." (Winston Mid East Analysis, 12/16, e-mail, with last quotation from Brig. Gen. (Res.) Ze'ev Bar-Gil.) The Merkava tank is worth about as much as the total US military aid to Israel. If Israel has to sacrifice something, let it be US military aid! Israel must not let its ordnance become dependent upon the US, which in the past has threatened to withhold it unless Israel gave in to the Arabs.

SCAPEGOATING THE "SETTLERS" Posted by Women In Green, December 31, 2003.

This was written by Shalom Freedman. There were no settlers in Judea and Samaria and Gaza in 1967. There were none in 1956. Those Jews who lived there in 1947 and 1948, and were murdered or driven out by the Arabs, were not called "settlers", but rather Jews of Palestine living in Eretz Yisrael. Yet, even without the settlers, the Arabs tried to destroy the Jewish presence in the Holy Land, managed to kill Jews in whatever cruel ways they could. This is also true in the 1920s and 1930s. It did not take 'settlers to create a quarrel' between the Jews and their Arab neighbors. And it did not take settlers to induce the Arabs to try to make all of Israel/Palestine Judenrein. The settlers are not now, and have never been the real cause of Arab hostility to Israel, unless, that is, you regard every Jew in the Holy Land as a settler. In that case, it really is the settlers with whom the Arabs are not willing to live in peace, at all. Despite this, the world media, under Arab propaganda instruction, see the settlers as the main obstacle to peace. And this despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of them live on land that no Arab lived on. In fact, many of those very left-wing Jews who also "blame the settlers" do live on properties that Arabs once lived on; while the settlers live on state lands, which were never settled before. Arab hatred of the settlers comes, I suspect, in part because they understand that the settlers share a certain value with them. The settlers value 'the land' and the Arabs value land above all. The settlers are their rivals in a way that Jews content to dwell in high-rises in the cities are not. The Arabs hate the settlers, because they consider them their real rivals in claims of possession of state lands, which no one really owns. The scapegoating of the settlers is also the means by which the Israeli Left makes the conflict a 'rational' and 'solvable' one. In order to be balanced, in order to give justification to their vision of peace, the Israeli Left must find the Jewish bad-guys. The settlers are given this role. The Israeli Left, because of this vision of 'balancing it out', has made terrible mistakes of judgment, which have caused Israel many lives. The Left does not understand that the heart of the conflict has nothing whatever to do with the settlers, but has everything to do with the right of Jews to have a state of their own in the holy land. The world too, in order to be fair, has to find a Jewish source of evil to balance against Arab evil, such as Palestinian suicide bombers. The settlers play that role. The absurdity of comparing people whose major crime is living in their ancestral homeland with terrorists, who deliberately kill Jews wherever they can, does not seem to deter Middle East pundits. They know if the settlers would only go away, real peace would be established. The truth is that it is not because there are too many 'settlers', but because the Jewish people failed to bring another two million people into Judea and Samaria, we continue to hear demands to make these parts of the ancestral Jewish homeland free of a Jewish presence. The great shame and error is not that there are too many settlers, but that there are too few Jews in those parts of the land of Israel that are closest to us historically and religiously. Women in Green is an activist group of Jewish women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org

WHY ARE WE STILL THERE? Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, December 31, 2003.

I'm forwarding this. It was send to Ellen by a friend. It is time to take a serious look at our involvement there. Every day there are news reports about more deaths. Every night on the TV are photos of death and destruction. Why are we still there? The land is too large to secure all of it. The bad people causing this damage can roam anywhere, and we can't possibly police the whole place. Why are we still there? We occupied this land, which we had to take by force, but it causes us nothing but trouble. Why are we still there? Their government is unstable, and in the process of changing. Why are we still there? Refugees are fleeing by the thousands, driven from their homes. Why are we still there? It will cost billions to rebuild, which we can't afford. Why are we still there? There are more than 1000 religious sects. We can't even secure the borders. Why are we still there? And to repeat. Every day we hear of more Americans killed in this dangerous land. It is clear!   We must abandon California.

STEPHAN PASTIS' PRAISEWORTHY CARTOON STRIP Posted by CAMERA, December 31, 2003.

Syndicated Cartoonist Stephan Pastis, creator of the cartoon strip "Pearls Before Swine," deserves praise for his Sunday, Dec. 28 cartoon which humanizes Israeli child victims of Palestinian terror. Perhaps as part of a letter-writing campaign by anti-Israel activists, Pastis has received many letters protesting his Dec. 28 strip. Pastis, who is syndicated by United Media, has rarely if at all focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Please let him hear from more than just members of the public who can't bear for anyone to show sympathy or compassion for Israelis. Let him hear from people who share his view that terrorism against children is unacceptable. His email address is stpastis@yahoo.com The Dec 28 cartoon showed a TV with the following news report being read throughout the various segments of the strip: "Leading off the news tonight, six Israeli children died early today when the bus they were riding in exploded in downtown Jerusalem...They were little kids...with backpacks filled with sandwiches and juice and gym shoes and math books...They had bedrooms with posters of race cars and soccer players, and they had unmade beds with spiderman sheets...They had little sisters and dentist appointments and cats and jeans with holes in the knee...They took piano lessons on Tuesday and spent Sunday afternoons with their dads, who made them hold hands whenever they crossed a street...And on the wall of the hall to their bedrooms was a long line of photos, with each of their annual school pictures placed chronologically...By a Mom...Who kissed her son goodbye that morning and watched him board the bus...That exploded in downtown Jerusalem." United Media's website describes "Pearls Before Swine" as "the comic strip tale of two friends: a megalomaniacal Rat who thinks he knows it all and a slow-witted Pig who doesn't know any better...While Pig is content with his humble status in life, Rat is always on a futile search for fame, riches and immortality." The Dec. 28 cartoon about Israeli terror victims can be viewed at www.unitedmedia.com/comics/pearls/archive/pearls-20031228.html The cartoon strip reportedly appeared in the Washington Post on Dec. 28 and appeared in hundreds of other newspapers across the country in the Sunday comic strip section. The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reoorting in America (CAMERA) monitors bias and unfairness in the news and broadcast media. Their website address is http://www.camera.org

EGYPTIAN AND ARAB PRESS REACTIONS TO THE ATTACK ON EGYPTS'S FOREIGN MINISTER INSIDE AL-AQSA MOSQUE Posted by MEMRI, December 31, 2003.

Egyptian and Arab Press Reactions to the Attack on Egypt's Foreign Minister Inside Al-Aqsa Mosque Special Dispatch - Egypt/ Palestinian Authority, January 1, 2004, No. 636. While visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque on his recent trip to Israel, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher was attacked by a group of Palestinians who cursed him, threw shoes at him, and called for the resumption of Jihad in Egypt. According to media reports, the assailants belonged to Hizb Al-Tahrir (the Islamist "Liberation Party"). The following is a compilation of Arab media reactions to the attack, which was highly critical of the Palestinians: 'You Have Cast Shame and Disgrace on Yourselves and Your Cause' Two days after the incident, many articles and op-eds concerning the attack on Maher appeared in the Egyptian press. Ahmad Ragab, who provides a daily comment for the op-ed page of the government daily Al-Akhbar, stated that the problem begins at an early age and emanates from the Arab world's curriculum: "In Arab language classes, the pupils are taught [the sentence] 'Omar hit Zayd,' but never [the sentence] 'Omar hit Cohen.'"(1) In the Egyptian daily Al-Masaa, columnist Muhammad Foudah tried to stir a sense of shame among the Palestinians: "Did those Palestinians who attacked the Egyptian foreign minister ... ask themselves why Maher agreed to take upon himself the suffering of going to Israel and meeting with Sharon and his cabinet? Did he go just to tour a country with which we have cut off relations and gotten into political crisis for the sake of Palestine...? Do the Palestinians want Egypt to keep its hands off the Palestinian issue? This would be the easiest thing to do and has already been done by many Arab countries... You beat the man who came on your behalf, and it is Israel that takes him to the hospital for treatment. What shame and disgrace you have cast upon yourselves and on your cause!..."(2) 'There's Nothing Unresolved Between Egypt and Israel But the Palestinian Cause' The editor of Al-Akhbar, Galal Duweidar, wrote: "... The whole world, including the Palestinians, knows that there is no unresolved problem between Egypt and Israel after the [1973] October victory and the signing of the peace agreement... The only [remaining] reason [for problems between Egypt and Israel] is the defense of the rights of the Palestinians, and not the defense of any direct Egyptian interests... "Despite [Egypt's] ongoing sacrifice [for the Palestinians] which spoils Egypt's relations with Israel and with the Zionist lobby, and thus with the U.S., we were surprised by this rogue rebellious Palestinian group that carried out the barbaric and mean attack on the foreign minister of Egypt - which is the only base of support for the Palestinian people. How can we, the Egyptian columnists who every day defend the rights of this people by confronting the Israeli aggression, [how can we] explain this despicable act?... This group of criminals ... is treacherous and works for Israel and for all the enemies of the Arab nation... Yes, these sinning assailants are deserving of the curse of 70 million Egyptians who yesterday watched this cowardly act on television..."(3) 'Hasn't the Time Come to Focus on Our Domestic Problems?' Also in Al-Akhbar, columnist Said Sunbul wrote: "... Accusing the Egyptian foreign minister of betrayal means accusing Egypt of betrayal. This is not the first time that Egypt has been accused of betrayal, despite all that it did and does for the Palestinians. 'Betrayal' is a most used word in the Palestinian dictionary. They used it against former [PA] prime minister Abu Mazen, who preferred to resign; they used it against former minister Yasser Abd Rabbo and his colleagues, who went to Geneva to agree on a peace document that would guarantee a life of dignity for the Palestinians. "Even before then, the Palestinians accused [Egyptian president Gamal] Abd Al-Nasser of betrayal for accepting U.S. Secretary of State Rogers' plan. They accused Anwar Sadat of betrayal when he invited them to the conference at Mina House. Had they agreed to participate in this conference, or to accept the principles of the Camp David agreement, they would not have made it possible for Israel to establish the settlements and the separation fence, and would not have needed to make all these concessions!... "The contemptible attack on the Egyptian foreign minister ... causes many to ask whether the time has not come to focus on our domestic problems - many of which stem from the wars in which we participated for the sake of Palestine - instead of wasting efforts [in an attempt] to solve the problem of a people who are at odds among themselves and accuse each other, and others, of betrayal."(4) 'No More Will We Turn the Other Cheek' The most scathing commentary came from Ibrahim Sa'dah, editor of the Akhbar Al-Youm weekly. Sa'dah wrote that he was "unconvinced" by the Egyptian foreign minister's attempts to downplay the severity of the incident. He called for convening the Egyptian Parliament in order to discuss Egyptian policy on the Palestinian issue, in the wake of "the assassination attempt on the Egyptian foreign minister." Sa'dah reviewed the history of Egyptian-Palestinian relations from the time of President Sadat, and wrote: "Despite the contemptible attacks planned and carried out by the Arabs, under the leadership of Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat, against the [peace] initiative of the Egyptian president, Sadat attached no importance to this nastiness, and continued courageously on the path of peace... "I do not think that the Egyptian people can forget or disregard those years when its political leadership was the target of the ugliest of attacks - not only by the Arab media but also by some rulers, led by Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat... The Egyptian people will also not forget that Yasser Arafat danced with joy when the assassination of President Sadat was announced... "The time has come to tell the Palestinian Authority, 'No! A thousand times no!'... No more will we turn the right cheek to take the same slap that the left cheek has taken time and again. We are fed up, Your Excellency, sole spokesman of the Palestinian people, with your repeated statements [blaming] any anti-Egyptian act on the part of the Palestinians on a tiny, stupid minority... "Personally, I do not accept the apology of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat... I demand that Parliament convene for a special session, with the presence of the foreign minister, to be dedicated to examining our policy regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict... Perhaps its members will think otherwise, but I also propose as a solution for this dispute ... to conduct a poll among the sectors of the Egyptian people regarding our policy in the Palestinian issue..."(5) In the Al-Ahram daily, columnist Salah Muntasir used more restrained language: "I am trying, instead of arousing additional rage, to maintain restraint. Egypt will not permit those who are the enemies of their own cause, the enemies of their own rights, the enemies of their own struggle, to accomplish their goals. This is the tax that we have paid and are paying, while those hostile and ungrateful people who tarnish their own image belong in [the] garbage bin of history."(6) The liberal-leaning Hazem Abd Al-Rahman wrote in his Al-Ahram column: "... Are these scum of the earth capable of accomplishing something for the Palestinian people? It is reasonable to assume that they, like the supporters of suicide bombings, are the first to damage the Palestinian cause, and are bringing death upon the Palestinian people..."(7) Mursey 'Atallah, editor of the Al-Ahram evening edition, wrote: "...This rabble, that patronizes others and claims it is more patriotic, still seeks to trap the nation in a cycle of conflict just to inflame the emotions. Everything that happened to the Palestinians as a result of their being dragged after the leaders of words, who for over half a century waved the motto of complete liberation from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea, until we lost nearly everything and Palestine was left practically without a river and without a sea, was not enough for them..."(8) 'This Attack Should Be Condemned By Anybody With A Brain Or Half A Brain' The Arab press's condemnation of the attack on Foreign Minister Maher was nearly unanimous. For example, in the Qatari daily Al-Raya, columnist Abd Al-Karim Hashish wrote: "I don't need to repeat what others have said, that is, that the attack was organized by the Israelis. Such an allegation is first of all nonsense, and emanates from some peoples' addiction to turning the facts upside down, and burying their heads in the sand. Those who attacked the Egyptian foreign minister... are flesh-and-blood Palestinians, and the Israelis had nothing to do with it... The truth is, I don't care which faction they belong to. This attack should be [condemned] by anybody with a brain, or half a brain. What I wanted to emphasize is that this stupid behavior will have serious ramifications for the status of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and might give legitimacy to Israeli intervention and Israeli security supervision over it..."(9) 'The Arabs Are Their Own Worst Enemy' In the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, editor Jubran Tuweini wrote that the attack on Maher was "the height of baseness and of Arab humiliation. It was a free gift to the enemies of the Arabs, headed by Israel. Once again, we realize that the Arabs are their own worst enemy - just as the worst enemy of the Palestinian cause is the Palestinians, who have endorsed a policy of refusal and fundamentalist extremism as a way of behavior. How many times have they already served Israel with their deeds? How many times has the behavior of these groups already saved Ariel Sharon and his government? "What happened to Minister Maher reminds us of the history of inter-Arab relations... A simple calculation reveals that the number of instances of Arab-Arab aggression surpasses the number of Arab-Israeli wars..."(10) Al-Quds Al-Arabi: A Pro-Saddam Position A different opinion was expressed by the pro-Saddam editor of the London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Abd Al-Bari Atwan. The morning after the attack, he wrote in an article titled "Shoes of Early Warning:" "The shoes that were pelted like rain on the head of Ahmad Maher... are a lesson to all Arab leaders and their representatives who scorned the Arab street, its demands, and its sentiments, and who listen today only to the American administration and its humiliating demands to normalize relations with the Hebrew state, serve its interests, and conceal its terrorist policy. "Mr. Maher humiliated the Egyptian people and its living national forces when, against their will and out of disdain for its sentiments, he went to Tel Aviv to meet with the Israeli prime minister, whose hands are drenched with the blood of Palestinian fighters and of the Egyptian soldiers who martyred themselves in defense of the honor of their nation and their country. "When the Egyptian foreign minister becomes neutral in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the Egyptian government becomes 'an honest broker' between the parties, we should not be surprised that Foreign Minister Maher is hit by shoes..."(11) An Egyptian Response to Atwan In response to Atwan's article, columnist Kamal Abd Al-Raouf wrote in the Egyptian Akhbar Al-Youm weekly: "I regret that most of the commentary I heard on international radio from Palestinians was lukewarm rather than powerful. Some of them clearly blamed our foreign minister [Ahmad Maher]. One of these was Abd Al-Bari Atwan ... who condemned Ahmad Maher. This was to be expected from Atwan, who for many years has been fighting for the cause from the saloons of London. Nobody knows with whom or against whom this Atwan stands. The only thing I know is that he gives foreign radio a reason to believe that Israel is right."(12) Liberal Arab Website: 'Those Behind This Aggression Are Not A Minority' On the liberal Arab website Elaph, Egyptian columnist Sami Buheiri wrote: "We should be frank with ourselves: Those behind this aggression are not a minority, as the official Palestinian and Egyptian statements claim. Unfortunately, they represent the rabble majority of the Arab and Palestinian street today. They refuse to accept any kind of a peace agreement with Israel... It is they who applaud the bus and restaurant bombings in order to destroy any spark of hope for peace... They are Arab nationalists who have failed completely in all their wars with Israel and in all attempts to achieve peace with Israel, because they were not serious, and they were not men - neither in fighting nor in peacemaking... The flying shoes at Al-Aqsa Mosque represent the Arab mind that has flown off into the air and not returned."(13) Endnotes: (1) Al-Akhbar (Egypt), December 25, 2003. (2) Al-Masaa (Egypt), December 24, 2003. (3) Al-Akhbar (Egypt), December 24, 2003. (4) Al-Akhbar (Egypt), December 24, 2003. (5) Akhbar Al-Youm (Egypt), December 27, 2003. (6) Al-Ahram (Egypt), December 24, 2003. (7) Al-Ahram (Egypt), December 24, 2003. (8) Al-Ahram Al-Masaai (Egypt), December 23, 2003. (9) Al-Raya (Qatar), December 24, 2003. (10) Al-Nahar (Lebanon), December 24, 2003. (11) Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London), December 23, 2003. (12) Akhbar Al-Youm (Egypt), December 27, 2003, as cited in Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London), December 29. (13) http://www.elaph.com.:8080/elaph/arabic/index.html, December 30, 2003. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East. Its website address is http://www.memri.org

NO WONDER WE ARE IN TROUBLE Posted by Barry Shaw, December 31, 2003.

Zvi Hefetz, Israel's choice to be its next Ambassador to the Court of St.James, will be our prime representative to the United Kingdom. He will be our leading advocate, our face, our voice, to make Israel's case to an increasing antagonistic British public. He must be the man to help sway public opinion in Britain. His candidacy was overwhelmingly approved all the way from the Foreign Office to the office of the Prime Minister. One of the Foreign Office officials on the selection committee said, "I came away with no reservations about him. We were impressed by Mr. Hefetz's C.V. and by his appearance before our panel. He will be successful as our Israel Ambassador in Britain". Fine words, indeed. Words that display full confidence in the selected candidate after a lengthy selection process by top Israeli officials. There is only one small matter that needs raising. THE NEW AMBASSADOR TO BRITAIN CANNOT SPEAK ENGLISH!!!! Really Foreign Office! Is this a New Year's joke on the British? Or on us? It should give our enemies in our hasbara war a good belly laugh. Putting aside the fact that Zvi Hefetz has absolutely no ambassadorial experience. Overlooking the fact that he has no diplomatic experience save for just one month work as an emissary for Nativ in Moscow. Let's concentrate on one fact. HE CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH! Is this the way that the Israeli Government select its leading advocates? This is, literally, decision making at the highest level of incompetence! Is this the very best candidate in the State of Israel that they can find to champion our cause in Britain? How will he fight our case in the corridors of Whitehall? By organizing courses in Hebrew for British civil servants? How can he convince a biased media? Or inform a misinformed public? How can he even ask key questions, and personally speak to and understand the feelings and fears of members of the Jewish community? For those of us who care so much about Israel's image abroad this selection is a tragedy. It is not only the Palestinians who miss an opportunity for missing an opportunity. In public affairs, we are far worse. No wonder we're in trouble! Barry Shaw writes "The View From Here." Write him at netre@matav.net.il to subscribe.

WHY THE ROAD MAP IS GOING NOWHERE Posted by Leo Rennert, December 31, 2003.

I sent this to the Washington Post. Robin Wright misses the mark when she blames President Bush's "moribund" diplomacy for stalling his Mideast peace plan ("Palestinian State Remains Bush's Unfulfilled Goal", Dec. 31). The reason for lack of progress is the "moribund" conduct of Yasir Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, which have left Israel and the United States without a reliable negotiating partner to move the process forward. As long as Palestinian leaders refuse to acknowledge the permanence of Israel and embrace terrorism as a strategic option, Palestinians can kiss statehood goodbye. Just as Britain and the United States insisted on the Irish Republican Army putting down its weapons as a pre-condition for a peace deal in Northern Ireland, there can be no two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians if Hamas and Islamic Jihad are free to pursue their murderous campaign against the Jewish state.

TEFILIN BINDING GENERATIONS Posted by Judy Balint, December 31, 2003.

This was written by Moshe Kempinski of Jerusalem. He can be reached at http://www.shorashim2u.net. Every weekday morning, Reb Gil arrives at the western wall for pre- dawn prayers.He attempts to arrive earlier than most of the others in order to help setting up the chairs for those arriving for Neitz Prayers. Since ancient days, Jewish people have been awakening the dawn with prayer, not awakening with the dawn but awakening the dawn. Last week a new person joined the group at the wall. He was visiting from America and very soon became a regular with this special group. The man, known as Leibel, began to help Reb Gil in the setting up of the chairs. As they were working he asked Gil "what exactly do you do?" Gil smiled and answered that "I help people put on their tefilin (phylacteries) here at the Kotel." Laibel's eyes opened wide and he responded, "well I helped people put on tefilin in the death camps." Gil stared at him for a while and then quickly had him sit down and tell his story. When Laibel was a young boy, the Germans came to take him and his family to the death camps during one of the "aktions". Just as he was leaving the house Laibel's father gave him large boots to keep his feet warm. Laibel ran to his room and grabbed the tefilin and siddur (prayerbook) he had recently acquired at his bar-mitzva and stuffed them into his new oversized boots.Then the family left their home and their past forever. The cattle car train ride to the camp was horrific and Laibel soon found himself separated from his family.Because of his small size, he was told to gather with many of the other children on the left side of the ramp. It was already known amongst the Jews that the left side led to the ominous building that meant death. As they gathered in the room where they were told to remove their clothes to prepare for the "showers" the children stood there transfixed in shock.Laibel turned to the others and declared that this was not the way Jews were meant to enter heaven. He asked them to form rows of five and march together. They would enter the gas chambers singing "Ani Maamin( I Believe)." As the german guards stared in disbelief, this group of young Jewish children formed rows of five and defiantly began singing as loud as they could. As they began to move in the direction of the doors one of the officers began screaming at them to be silent. For some unknown reason he then barked at them to turn to a different direction and to gather their prison clothes. Stunned, the group turned away from death. As they stood in line to recieve their striped rags. Laibel saw his fathers boots standing at the edge of the pile of all their old clothes.He turned to some of the other children and asked them to help him. He asked them to begin bickering and fighting amongst themselves.They could not refuse the boy whose inspiration saved their lives. In the midst of the noise Laibel was able to retrieve both the tefilin and the siddur. Throughout the remaining years in the camps Laibel succeeded in hiding his treasure. As a result he and many that were with him succeeded, as well, in putting on the tefilin whenever the opportunity arose. In the midst of the fires of hell, young Jews were fulfilling G-d's will and wrapping themselves up in the tefilin. In the midst of the pit of darkness they recited the following prayer from the book of Hoshea and enacted the act of betrothal so integral to the Tefilin ritual. "And I will betroth thee unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth Thee unto Me in righteousness, and in justice, and in lovingkindness, and in compassion. And I will betroth Thee unto Me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the LORD". Gil and Laibel continued talking until it was time to begin the morning prayers as the dawn quickly dispelled the darkness of the night and the memories. Later that day, Reb Gil was back at his stand at the western wall asking people if they were interested in putting on tefilin. He began talking to a soldier visiting the western wall with his unit. The soldier looked at Gil with a certain air of ridicule and said," sorry not me."Gil replied, " I need to tell you a story I heard just this morning." He repeated Laibel's story. The soldier looked down, and then towards the heavens. With eyes slightly moist with tears, this young soldier wrapped the tefilin on his arms and on his head and read the Shma. Next morning Gil rushed up to Laibel and told him the story. Laibel just smiled and shook his head. A simple young child helped Jewish prisoners in a death camp to connect with their Creator. That simple eloquent act did the exact same thing sixty years later to a Jewish warrior in the reborn state of Israel. The author is one of a group of diarists, who are recording their experiences living in Israel right now. "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" by Judy Lash Balint (Gefen) is available for purchase from www.israelbooks.com.

THE AIR ON THE GOLAN STINKS OF BETRAYAL - AGAIN Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, December 31, 2003.

As Syrian President Bashar Assad spouts anti-Semitic epithets, the Arabist U.S. State Department is investigating whether his father, Hafez al Assad had finalized 80-90% of a peace agreement with Israel. You remember, Hafez al Assad, the mirror image of Saddam in terms of his horrific record of Terror and even murdering his own people. Most of us who write about the Middle East knew it would be just a matter of time before President Bush, family, oil friends and the U.S. State Department would get around to shoving the evacuation of the Golan Heights down Israel's throat. Something like he is doing with the Palestinian Terror State. Have you ever wondered about the Bush family's support of Arafat, Saddam (under Bush Sr. and James Baker's administration), Hafez al Assad (under several American Presidents) - but always the same ever present Arabist U.S. State Department? I suppose one could throw in the Saudis, Noriega, Pinochet, and most of the dictatorial thugs we seem to have buddied up with over the past several decades. Now we hear that 'somehow' the mere discussions (all inconclusive) that took place under former Prime Ministers Rabin, Peres and Barak were not 'discussions' but actually finalized agreements now to be pocketed by Bashar Assad and the State Department. Then there only remains 10-20% to discuss - according to the twisty State Department. Bashar and his controlling Generals continue to task Terrorists to attack Israel, supply them with weapons - including 10,000 missiles, some with chemical warheads, for Hezb'Allah (Iranian backed Terror organization) which is now mobilized on the Lebanese border with Israel. Bashar says there is a "standing 80-90% Agreement for Peace" left over from past discussions. I guess only an Arab/Muslim can revise history and believe it himself. In this case, the stink of betrayal hangs like an odious gas over the Golan. I recall the cowardly Leftist, PM Ehud Barak in lockstep with the U.S. State Department, threatening Israeli citizens that Syria could overrun the Golan, killing all the soldiers and Israeli civilians and, therefore, we must evacuate very soon. Barak, as you may recall, ran like a scared mouse from Lebanon, deserting Israel's Christian Lebanese allies for the promise that President Clinton would compensate Barak for his perfidious retreat. Barak did run but, nothing was ever paid by the Clinton Administration for Barak's ignominious exit. Now the U.S. State Department wants Israel to abandon the Golan to a nation that has exhibited extraordinary savagery toward the Jewish State. When I talk of savagery, I mean torturing Israeli prisoners, tasking its 10 or 12 resident Terrorist organizations to kill Israeli civilians and - let's not forget its tasking the truck bomb attack against the American barracks that killed 241 Marines in Beirut while they slept. Then it was Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger who countermanded President Reagan's orders to shell Syria. Although Syria was as corrupt a regime as Saddam Hussein's Iraq was, Syria has been a special 'protectorate' of Bush/Baker and the U.S. State Department and no one knows why! Indeed, the stink of betrayal is suffocating! Now the question is: Would Prime Minister Ariel Sharon go along with this charade about 80/90% prior agreement of transferring Jews off of the Golan and giving Syria the land down to Lake Kinneret and possibly into Israel's only fresh water reservoir? If Sharon and his Leftist leftovers already have been in discussion over this 80/90% gambit, then there is no doubt he has betrayed the Jewish nation and should be removed from office. As for the Jew-hating U.S. State Department, they have been an advocate for the removal of the Jewish State since 1947 til today. Nothing they would do against the Jewish State would surprise me. I still wonder why there has been no investigation of the State Department by the American Congress for their acting as the enabler for the U.S. to be flooded with Arab Muslim Jihadists which gave us 9/11. But, then again, they have friends in high places who acted in cahoots to accommodate rogue Arab/Muslim nations and thus have a certain self-serving reason to not allow open hearings. Be assured, it wasn't the FBI or CIA who were at fault for NOT investigating the 9/11 Arab/Muslims. Before 9/11, every investigator was slapped down by the State Department for daring to start tracking suspicious behavior by Arab/Muslims who immigrated so freely into these United States. Tracking or profiling Arab Muslims was not exactly a smart career move if you were in any of the American Intelligence Agencies. It wasn't considered PC: Politically Correct. For Israel, it really wouldn't matter if Bashar shook the hand of Sharon - much as Arafat shook the hand of Rabin. The Golan Heights is an irreplaceable natural barrier to any attack from the North. No early alert electronics could replace the physical presence of Israeli controlled tanks, mines, observation posts that look directly into Damascus. Nor could Israel rely on any other nation to occupy those vital high ground positions and hope that they would relay warnings in real time. If the Arabist State Department had their way, the warning would be issued only after Syrian tanks were pouring down the slopes of the Golan into Israel. If Sharon has gone belly up on both Judea/Samaria and the Golan, then he has become a clear and present danger to the safety of the nation. So, let's ask him: Arik have you been secretly discussing a Barak-like bug-out from the Golan?

FIRST VISIT Posted by Judy Balint, December 31, 2003.

This is a Jerusalem diary page written by Laura, who made aliya with her family from the U.S. to Neve Daniel, Gush Etzion. "How embarrassing that my baby, a sabra, has been living his whole life (7 and 1/2 months) a mere 25 minutes from the Kotel, the Wall, at the holiest site on this earth - and I've never taken him there!! Jews all over the world pray three times a day towards this spot, and I couldn't take an afternoon and bring him there? (Well, you see, the parking is terrible there, and there are all these stairs, and the stroller... okay, I'll stop.) Today was the perfect opportunity. I was in Jerusalem, my baby was with me, I didn't have a car to deal with parking, and I had TIME - a precious commodity. So we hopped into a cab and were driven way closer than I ever could have parked. My older sons Eitan and Ezra marched off to the men's side. They wanted to bring Yaakov since he is a (very) little man, but I waited 7 and 1/2 months for this, it was my moment. The Kotel plaza was rather crowded today, but the moment my sons walked off, the rest of the people melted away. It was just me and my Yaakov as I softly explained to him where we were and why this place is so special to us. I brought him right up to the wall and patiently waited for an opening in the sea of praying women. When it came I placed Yaakov's little hand on the stones and savored that special moment. Then I slowly backed away, Yaakov staring silently ahead, as if he, too, felt the extraordinary feelings that were washing over me. I know Yaakov won't remember today. We don't even have any pictures to prove he was there. But if it is important to speak to a baby, to play with him, let him hear music, see colors, have experiences, then what more meaningful experience is there to have then to go to the spiritual center of the world? The Jerusalem Diarists are a group of people living in Israel, who record how it is to live in Israel right now. "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" by Judy Lash Balint (Gefen) is available for purchase from www.israelbooks.com.

ISRAEL TO STRENGTHEN POSITION IN THE GOLAN HEIGHTS Posted by Isralert, December 31, 2003.

Isralert's source for this item was www.meed.com/nav?page=meed.backgrounder.news.detail&fixture_story=669664&newsletterId=627725 Israel aims to increase the size of the Jewish population in the Golan Heights, reported the local Yedioth Aharonoth daily on 31 December. The report said that a cross-ministerial commission had ratified a plan to speed up the building of some 900 homes in the area, increasing the Jewish population to 15,000 from 10,500 over three years. "The aim is to send an unequivocal message: the Golan is an integral part of Israel and we will continue to develop the settlements," said the head of the commission, Agriculture Minister Israel Katz. The new homes will cost about $60 million and will lead to at least nine new settlements. However, local councillors in the Golan Heights have denied that any new settlements are to be built and say that the money is for a planned tourist project. "This is a project that we have been working on since May," said the head of the Golan Regional Council, Eli Malka. "We want to bring 1,000 people to the Golan every year for the next five or six years to rejuvenate the population." About 17,000 Israelis live in the disputed Golan area.

MORE HARASSMENT IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, December 31, 2003.

Another one of Sharon's goon squads harassing decent, law abiding Jews. This is a news item from Arutz-7 (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=55435). Police Arrest 3 at Gilad Farm in the Shomron (IsraelNN.com) Three police jeeps arrived at Gilad Farm in the Shomron this morning. Three residents were arrested. Two of the suspects stand accused of attacking an Arab during the Sabbath. The third suspect is a grandchild of Moshe Zar, who owns the farm that was named after his son, the father of the suspect. Zar's grandchild is being charged with possessing an unlicensed weapon. The elder Zar denied the charges of the two involved in an assault, explaining they were in Hevron during the Sabbath. As far as the so-called unlicensed weapon he explained the gun is licensed but the permit has expired and they are unable to renew it due to the Ministry of the Interior strike now in its fourth month. The suspects were taken to the police station in Ariel.

YESHA RESIDENTS AT THE FOREFRONT OF ORGANIC FARMING Posted by Eliezar Edwards, December 31, 2003.

This was a news item in today's Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNN.com). It's interesting that so many of farmers who live in Biblical Israel are willing to do the hard work of farming without pesticides. Of course, nothing they do wins them praise from the Israeli Marxists. Jewish farmers in Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) produce much of Israel's organic fruits, vegetables, eggs and dairy products. Left-wing activists, however, are trying to pressure distributors to launch a boycott. Organically grown fruits and vegetables have become a major source of income for Jewish residents of Yesha. A quick browsing of licensed organic vegetable growers in Israel reveals a disproportionate number of organic farmers located in Jewish towns and hilltops across Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Minister of Trade Ehud Olmert recently decided to agree to the European demand that made-in-Yesha products be specially marked, leading to higher tariffs on these products and their likely exclusion from European markets. Left-wing leaders in Israel have often called for an internal boycott of Yesha products within Israel as well. An article in Monday's edition of Ha'aretz newspaper lamented the fact that health-conscious Israelis are often faced with the choice of supporting Yesha farmers with their purchases or giving up on their health preferences. The Ha'aretz reporter was not bashful about taking sides. She noted, for instance, that seven of eight egg-suppliers for one company are safely within the Green Line; "however, the eighth grower is Ran Avri from Itamar, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, who is considered a leader among the Jewish settlers, strikes fear into the hearts of his Palestinian neighbors and has been accused in the past of beating leftist activists." She also wrote that "there is a problem" regarding fresh organic fruits and vegetables, in that "30% of the lettuce that is marketed under the Adama brand name comes from grower Pinhas Eidan from the Jewish settlement of Itamar." The reporter noted that many "concerned consumers" have informed grocers and asked, successfully, that they find alternatives to Yesha-grown products. Land of Israel supporters and members of Israel's Organic Association have suggested that those wishing to support Yesha's organic farming can similarly inform their grocer of their desire to purchase such products. Harduf, a major distributor of organic foods, buys from many smaller farms and hatcheries, repackaging the produce under its own label. Left-wing activists are pressuring Harduf to boycott Yesha products; the same phone number - 1-800-388-001 - can be used to show support for their policies as well. Organic-farming student Miriam HaLevi emphasizes that Yesha farmers and Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in the Beit She'an Valley "continue to adhere to the ideological underpinnings of organic farming striving to provide health and environmental harmony." Many Yesha farmers use the natural enemies of certain harmful insects, instead of pesticides, to ward them off. The religious Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu raises both these bugs and bees that aid in the cross-pollination necessary for fruit growth. Sde Eliyahu also happens to be home to the founder of Israel's Organic Association, 80-year-old Mario Levi, who introduced organic farming in Israel and has taught many of Yesha's organic farmers their trade. Many fruits and vegetables grown in the organic farms of Yesha can only be found in the heartland of Judea and Samaria. Some varieties of exotic mushrooms, for instance, are only available through the Tekoa Mushroom Farm, located in Gush Etzion. The farm was named "Enterprise of the Year" in the Advanced Agriculture category by the Israeli Journal of Agricultural Settlements. Why is it that so many organic farms are located in the Jewish hilltops of Judea, Samaria and Gaza? HaLevi attributes this to an ideological connection between the motivation to settle the Land of Israel and the motivations behind organic farming. "It is always an ideological decision to do without pesticides," she said. "It is therefore no surprise that the same people willing to sacrifice for the ideal of a complete Land of Israel are also willing to forgo the easy answers that modern chemical farming supplies in favor of farming organically, which requires the same traits of patience, faith, and idealism while refusing to use poisonous means to reach questionable ends."

AND THEN THE SUNDAY PEOPLE Posted by David Frankfurter, December 31, 2003.

A year ago I was in correspondence with a leader of the French Jewish community, discussing efforts to encourage the European Parliament to curb the Palestinian Authority siphoning off of European money to corruption, hatred and terrorism. I tried to point out the importance of the issue to diaspora Jewry. I said "Time is of the essence for us - but also for you. I was in Paris in May & was told to put a cap over my kippa [Jewish skullcap - also known as yarmulke] in order to avoid a beating or worse." He answered: "Concerning antisemitism in France it is obvious that it has increased but there is no problem concerning kipat and personal security." The French, struggling with the rise of Christian-Muslim racial tensions, are introducing secularist legislation to restrict Muslim girls from wearing traditional headscarves - which will also restrict other outward signs of religious faiths, such as large crucifixes, Stars of David and Jewish skullcaps. The Grand Rabbi of France opposes the legislation, although, for their own safety, he has recently advised Jewish Frenchmen to wear a cap rather than the identifying kippa. Middle Eastern anti-Semitism has been exported to France in a big way. A lengthy article in Ha'aretz [1] tells of the fear of the local community. A year ago the Jewish leadership in France was so sure that personal security in France is not a problem. Today, Ha'aretz reports, that a high school of 650 Jewish students in the Paris suburbs is now "guarded like a military site" and encourages its students to hide all signs of their Jewishness when in public. The headmistress reports that this doesn't always help: "There isn't a student in the school who has been spared an anti-Semitic incident." Anti-Semitic broadcasts are beamed in from the Middle East, to join other forms of exported racism which cannot be contained. The content is crude and frightening - drawing on the best European anti-Semitic fabrications of the last centuries. The Tsarist Russian forgery "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is produced in Egyptian UNESCO sponsored museums [2], newspapers [3] and television [4] as a true version of the Zionist attempt at world domination. Syrian movies [5] are broadcast, portraying the medieval blood libel of Jews drinking Christian children's blood and using it to bake Passover Matzas. London has become base for worldwide distribution of Hamas [6], Muslim Brotherhood [7] and other [8] radical Islamic propaganda supporting terrorism. The adoption by large portions of Europe of the Palestinian narrative, delegitimising the State of Israel and pouring money into the radicalisation of the next generation is bearing its fruits. Let's hope that Europe wakes up before the street-cry of Islamic extremists becomes a reality. "First the Saturday People [Jews] and then the Sunday People [Christians]!" Last year, the urgency was for Jewish leadership to act. As we enter 2004, it would seem just as urgent for Christian leadership to act. One has to wonder though, whether young Muslims who are being deliberately radicalised will interpret banning their traditional garb as an example of tolerance to be emulated. Wouldn't it be better to educate to tolerance and cut off the sources and funding of racist education? 1. http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/376203.html 2. http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/000311.php 3.  http://www.danielpipes.org/article/499 4.  www.memri.de/uebersetzungen_analysen/themen/antisemitismus/ as_ramadantv_06_12_01.pdf 5.  http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/sib/t_as12_03/as_tv.htm 6.  http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/bu/britain/sib2_10_03.htm 7.  http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/bu/britain/sib10_03.htm 8.  http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/bu/britain/suicide.htm David Franfurter writes "Letter From Israel". To subscribe, send an email to David.Frankfurter@iname.com.

THE EURO-SOCIALISTS' JUDEOPHOBIA Posted by Israela Goldstein, December 31, 2003.

This article is by Marc Tobiass and is archived on the Front Page Magazine website (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=11495). It was originally in French in Proche Orient (http://www.Proche-Orient.com) and was translated into English by David A. Harris. A Catalan from Barcelona, Pilar Rahola is a highly colorful figure on the Spanish scene. She is known for her feminism, as well as for her frank and direct manner. A former parliamentarian, Pilar Rahola sat in the national legislature in Madrid for eight years, first as part of the republican left, then as the founder of the Independence Party. However, she decided to leave political life just over a year ago to devote more time to her other passions. She has just published "The History of Ada," a metaphor for abandoned children, those child-slaves or children-soldiers one finds all over the world, that is, when they are not turned into human bombs. She has also decided to step forward to denounce the flagrant imbalance in the handling of information from the Middle East. Her most recent piece, "In Favor of Israel," is to be published in a book in which fifteen Spanish intellectuals, including Jon Juaristi, president of the Cervantes Institute and Gabriel Alviac, a well-known journalist with El Mundo [translator's note : a Spanish daily newspaper], seek to re-establish the facts. Marc Tobiass (of proche-orient.com) talks with Pilar Rahola. Marc Tobiass: Why did you feel the need to write "In Favor of Israel"; to participate in the publication of this book? Pilar Rahola: Since the start of the second intifada, the Spanish press, on the right as well as the Left, has taken a particularly aggressive approach toward Israel, an approach that leaves out the reasons for Israel's actions and tends to ignore the Israeli victims in this conflict. In this situation, a small minority of intellectuals, public personalities - sensitive to the Jewish question in general and to Israel in particular - felt deeply touched by this problem. Outraged by the return of Judeophobia in Spain, we, each in our own way, began to write articles; to use the media to condemn this situation. And then Oracia Vasquez Real, an important writer in Spain, suggested that we coordinate our activity; that we collect into one work the vision of the Middle East conflict held by fifteen well-known intellectuals. Marc Tobiass: For whom did you write this book, and with what objective? Pilar Rahola: Fundamentally, this book is addressed to the anti-Jewish school of thought in Spain. The goal of our book is to launch a debate about Judeophobia in Spain. We are convinced that the current view of the conflict, so Manichaean - with the good, always the Palestinians, and the evil, always the Israelis - has deep roots. It comes from an ancient anti-Jewish feeling that exists in Spain and that also explains the history of Spain. This feeling softened slightly after the Franco era [translator's note: post-1975], but today there is a virulent resurgence of this savage feeling to the point where one can find genuinely anti-Semitic expressions in the Spanish press. In essence, this is a provocative book in the face of totally pro-Arab thinking in Spain, that is completely uncritical of the mistakes of the Arab world in general and of the Palestinians in particular. We want to counter this flagrant imbalance... Marc Tobiass: This imbalance is not specifically Spanish, nor, for that matter, is the Judeophobia. You rightly recall in your piece the troubling remark of Hermann Broch [translator's note: Austrian anti-Nazi novelist, 1886-1951] denouncing the indifference of Europe as the worst of the crimes in the bloody madness of the Hitler era?. Pilar Rahola: Yes, I think that Europe was indifferent on the surface because it felt guilty within. I believe that this indifference unquestionably comes from Judeophobia. And in the ultimate paradox, the Jewish soul is part and parcel of Europe. Europe cannot be explained without its Jewish soul, but it is also explained by its hatred of the Jews. Thus, all the repeated attempts of Europe to get rid of its Jewish soul are, in fact, a kind of suicide. After the Holocaust, after Auschwitz, that is, after the ultimate stage in the destruction of the Jewish soul - a process which lasted for centuries in Europe - Europe is shattered, many of its elements are dead, but it also has a bad conscience; it knows it is guilty. Since then, Europe has looked for and found in the Palestinian cause the expiation for its guilt. It is from this that the uncritical and Manichean attitude toward the Palestinian cause emerges - it is, primarily, the last heroic (European) adventure. Further, the more the Jews are presented as being the evil party, the bad ones, the less difficult it is to carry the responsibility and the guilt. This is a process of collective psychology. From such a perspective, there essentially is no difference between France, for example, and Spain... It is unbelievable how Europe continues to hate its Jewish soul, even after it has expelled it! Marc Tobiass: According to you, it is this Judeophobia that explains the "pro-Palestinian hysteria" that exists in Europe. Pilar Rahola: I am sure of it... There is undeniably of late a very serious effort at disinformation about everything to do with the Middle East. There is a kind of madness that excuses all the crimes, abuses, and errors of the Palestinian side, and, at the same time, there is a historical predisposition that condemns any single error of the Israeli side - and this to the point where the Palestinian victims are given maximum attention and the Israeli (victims) are ignored. It is as if the Jewish victims didn't exist, on the pretext that they were responsible for their own deaths! The worst thing is that there is also a problem of terrorism in Spain, but when the crimes of ETA [translator's note: the Basque terrorist group] are mentioned, one speaks of terrorism, while when the crimes of Hamas are mentioned, one speaks of militants, activists, resistance, struggle... When one mentions the Palestinian victims, one speaks of children, civilians, innocents, but when one mentions the Israeli victims, one speaks of people without a name, as if to suggest that they are only soldiers, members of the army. There is a distortion in the presentation of the conflict, a dangerous manipulation that feeds the hatred and the anti-Semitism. Marc Tobiass: Your remarks add up to an indictment of the European media. Pilar Rahola: What I want is to launch an appeal to the collective European way of thinking, and especially to the intellectuals and journalists, because, from my point of view, they are in the process of creating a collective reality that is Judeophobic. Today one must prove oneself to be on the left ; it is necessary to be anti-Semitic to have credibility. Things have reached the point where, for instance, Sharon is always guilty of being guilty, while Arafat is seen as an honest figure, innocent, a tireless old resistance fighter, a heroic figure, a kind of Gandhi - in brief, a person gussied up in romantic finery, when in reality he is head of an oligarchy that has so much blood on its hands. Israel is not (just) a country that is trying, for better or worse, to survive for fifty years, but it is reduced to one sole image: a country that occupies the territories and whose vocation is to make life miserable for the poor Palestinians. The history of the Holy Land is being reinvented. Everything takes place as if there were instructions: Never recall the faults and errors of the Palestinians, never recall their alliances with dangerous countries such as Iraq, in order to heap more shame on the United States and Israel. The profound reasons for this war are never made clear, never discussed. Marc Tobiass: There is a comment in your text that sent shivers down my spine. You say that Judeophobia is, in the final analysis, the common denominator between Europe and the Palestinians. Pilar Rahola: It's true that there are in Europe non-Jews who are sensitive and respect the Jewish soul, which is also part of the foundation of Europe, but they constitute a minority. The majority, the unconscious European collective, does not understand, does not absorb, nor accept, the Jewish phenomenon. And it is there that the essential meeting point between the European and the Palestinian takes place. Palestinian identity is not just a recent phenomenon, but it is, above all, built on hatred of Israel, hatred of the Jews. If Europe can be explained by its Jewish component and by its hatred of the Jews, as if they were two sides of the same coin, Palestinian identity can essentially be explained only by its anti-Jewish component. It is for this reason that the Palestinians have such difficulty putting an end to their violence. If the Palestinians renounced their hatred of the Jews, they would at the same time lose a significant part of their identity. To get beyond this violence, they would have to get beyond the hatred and thus change their identity. In other words, they would have to reinvent themselves. It is on the basis of this hatred that the Palestinian meets and agrees with the European. Often, this takes place with people of the Left, which is a veritable calamity for people like myself, as we are of the Left. We are Europeans, but we do not accept Judeophobia, just as we do not accept the anti-Zionism that justifies and nourishes the anti-Semitism of the Spanish Left today. Marc Tobiass: Isn't this legitimization of hate the true obstacle to peace? Pilar Rahola: Without doubt. I believe that Europe is directly responsible, and not only for the conflict. In the final analysis, who, if not Europe, created the Jewish problem in the world? In a certain sense, one can even say that Europe is the actual founder of the State of Israel. Europe expelled its Jews - its Spanish Jews, its Russian Jews, its French Jews, and its German Jews. It expelled them from its body, even though these Jews felt themselves to be European to the core?. Marc Tobiass: You describe yourself as being on the Left and, for you, being a leftist is above all an existential position toward life, toward society. Yet, you yourself say that when this position turns into ideology, at times it becomes an excuse for channeling uncritical dogma, a simplistic Manichaeanism, indeed racism. You, who were a parliamentarian of the Left, how can you handle this contradiction? Pilar Rahola: Those on the Left in Spain have a real problem. In some respects we are the heirs of the French Revolution ; we have been influenced by the great ideologues like [Jean-Paul] Sartre and [Albert] Camus, and also by May 1968. That is to say, the overall thinking of the Spanish Left comes from France. Now, France is fundamentally anti-American... from which (comes) our anti-Americanism, that at times borders on the pathological, an anti-Americanism which is also anti-Semitic. This explains why to a certain extent the Spanish Left is anti-Semitic. Obviously, people like myself have great difficulty with this state of affairs. I believe that if the Left has failed as a great world ideology, it is because the Left did not succeed in breaking with the worst of its dogmatic thinking. The Left can be very progressive, but it can also be very dogmatic. Unfortunately, the Left became infatuated with such infamous dictators as Pol Pot, Mao, and Stalin, and now it is in love with Arafat. The Left should be critical, and in the first place, self-critical. Marc Tobiass: And what is the dogma that worries you the most today? Pilar Rahola: The most absurd thing is to watch leaders of the Left today greet and celebrate Arab leaders, even when they are fundamentalists. For example, in the debates that followed the attacks of September 11, we heard an anti-American discourse here, pooh-poohing the victims, something which is in and of itself terrible! And there were those who tried to downgrade - with that tawdry third-worldism which characterizes some circles of the Left - the danger embodied in individuals like bin Laden, who is, in fact, an authentic fascist. I believe that for the moment the world remains blind to the biggest totalitarianism of the twenty-first century, which is Islamic fundamentalism. Now we must prepare ourselves seriously to face this danger: For me, this totalitarianism is without any shadow of a doubt comparable to Stalinism and Nazism, the biggest scourges of the twentieth century. Marc Tobiass: To finish this interview, Pilar Rahola, I would like to cite a sentence from your text: You say that to be "in favor of Israel" is the most intelligent, rational, prudent, and honest way to be in favor of Palestine. Pilar Rahola: First of all, I do not accept the use of defense of the Palestinian cause as a pretext for a new epidemic of anti-Semitism. If Europe had had a critical discussion that did not hesitate to condemn the grave and permanent mistakes of the Palestinian side; if Europe had been more critical of the Palestinians, we would be closer to a solution today. But Arafat enjoys support and legitimacy in Europe which allows him to never miss an opportunity for missing the opportunity of peace. I believe that if Europe had been more critical toward Arafat, toward the different aspects of Palestinian violence, if Europe had been tougher in its statements, the Palestinians would have been compelled to step back from the violence and the suicide attacks. A sense of justice calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state next to the State of Israel, but not in its place. Yet, at its core, Europe is ill at ease with the existence of Israel, and one can even say that the existence of this state provokes resentment and anger on the European left. Even if this is not acknowledged, many Europeans contend that a Palestinian state must replace the State of Israel. But for those of us who support Israel, who are in favor of good neighborly relations - for coexistence between the State of Israel and a Palestinian state - our way of saying YES to a Palestinian state is also a way of saying YES to the existence of the State of Israel. ( http://www.MidEastTruth.com

A CALL TO ARMS TO OPPOSE SLAPP SUITS Posted by Steven Plaut, December 31, 2003.

Libel suits for the purpose of suppressing free speech are common in the world and they have become known in the US as SLAPP Suits. Many states in the US now have anti-SLAPP laws. For an excellent web site that reviews these and legal cases involving suppression of free speech through suing for libel, see http://www.gjs.net/web-slap.htm You can see that Israel is desperately in need of an anti-SLAPP law. You might want to write your Knesset member and urge that these be passed in Israel. As you know, I am being harassed by just such a SLAPP suit by an extremist leftist employed by Ben Gurion University, and there are several other similar suits now in progress against others. Meanwhile, I would like to invite all Plaut listers to write to the heads of Ben Gurion University (addresses below) and tell them what you think of Neve Gordon, political science lecturer, using SLAPP suits as a tactic to suppress free speech of his critic (me). While you are at it, let them know what you think of Gordon calling Israel a fascist country, a terrorist state, an apartheid state, his insisting that terror is caused by injustice, his sympathy for a bi-national state solution, his belief that Israel "only understands violence", and his praising the ideas and book by Norman Finkelstein, universally seen as a fraud and anti-Semite and pro-nazi. Reprint of Daniel Doron's article on Gordon follows below. Finally you might comment on the fact that Gordon lists quite a few Israel-bashing political pieces as part of his academic publication record. Gordon's record appears at http://www.bgu.ac.il/politics/fac/gordon/publications.htm Have a look and make up your mind about him! (The Palestine Israel Journal is regarded by many as a PLO front) (Note the review of Norman Finkelstein listed on the page as an academic publication) Officials at Ben Gurion University: Professor Avishay Braverman President, Ben-Gurion University Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel Fax: 972-8-647-2937 Professor Jimmy Weinblatt Rector, Ben-Gurion University Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel Tel. 972-7-6461105 Fax: 972-7-6472945 weinb@bgumail.bgu.ac.il Professor Avishai Henik Dean of Social Sciences henik@bgumail.bgu.ac.il 972-8-6472945 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, P.O.B. 653 Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Be'er-Sheva 84105, Israel. Letters to the American Associates of Ben Gurion University (AABGU) should be sent to 1430 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10018. Zvi Alon is President of AABGU and Vivien Marion is the Executive Vice-President. (phone: 212-687-7721; fax: 212-302-6443; email: info@aabgu.org) THE LEFT IS PATHOLOGICAL by Daniel Doron, December 18, 2003 Political pathology is to be found at both extremes of the political spectrum. It was a right-wing fanatic who assassinated a prime minister and his likes are committing outrages against innocent Arabs in Judea and Samaria, thus discrediting a Jewish community acting with extreme restraint in face of Arab terrorism. However, since the Left has become the dominant force in Israeli politics, it is the chief carrier of political pathology. The Left gained its dominance since the early 1920s when the Zionist organization's immigration policies, funded by Jewish capitalists, favored young pioneers who were settled in collectivist namely communist settlements. Ben-Gurion and his comrades were true Bolshevik believers then. They fashioned Zionism as a spearhead for a Middle East communist revolution, practicing a violent class struggle against the middle classes, destroying their economic bases and institutions and becoming the dominant force in the life of the mandatory Yishuv. Ben-Gurion and his party became gradually disenchanted with Soviet communism, but up until the mid-1950s, about 30% of the Israeli electorate voted for Stalinist parties. This caused Ben-Gurion great anxiety. He worried about the spread of pro-Stalinist sympathies (which he claimed destroyed the true Leninism that he upheld) among the highest echelons of the IDF as well as among intellectuals, academicians, media persons and artists, who were molding the consciousness of the young. So he took two politically dangerous steps: He disbanded the Palmah, the elite unit of the Hagana, because it was totally dominated by pro-Moscow generals. And he sacrificed and disbanded one of his own proud creations the Labor-affiliated school system. The scions of the Stalinists whom Ben-Gurion fought still dominate life now in the guise of a post-Zionist New Left in academia, the media and among intellectuals and artists. Ben-Gurion considered the pro-Moscow, Stalin-worshiping radical Left pathological apostates, betrayers of Zionism and Judaism who sought to convert Jews to the secular faith of Stalinism (several kibbutzim held Seder ceremonies in which a Haggada was recited that was dedicated to "the rising sun of humanity, Comrade Joseph Stalin"). THIS IS not the occasion to delve into the etiology of the violent and destructive nature of the political pathology inflicting utopian movements from the French Revolution onward. Freud's most original successor, Wilhelm Reich, analyzed it in his seminal The Mass Psychology of Fascism. Later works, Theodore Adorno's The Authoritarian Personality and Erich Fromm's The Fear of Freedom, further elaborated the relationship between personality disorders and political extremism. Radical movements seem to attract personalities that seethe with explosive rage. Their rage is attached to a cause as Dostoevsky so memorably limned in The Devils giving its destructiveness an appearance of virtue and legitimacy. This may explain why, despite their protestations that they defend freedom, so many leftists actually support the most murderous tyrants from Stalin to Arafat, and why some liberals give aid and comfort to aggressive, oppressive and corrupt dictatorships such as the Palestinian Authority. Neve Gordon is a prime example of this paradox. Gordon, one of the rabidly post-Zionist revisionist historians who teaches political science at Ben-Gurion University. Most of the articles Gordon has published are devoted to denouncing Israel as a fascist terrorist state. Gordon would probably claim that he is fighting for the rights of oppressed Palestinians, but tellingly he devotes most of his energy to recycling calumnies that subvert Israel's legitimacy. Gordon does not seem to care for the Palestinians except as instruments of his rage. He goes beyond the radical-chic support for the PLO given by most Israeli academic leftists. On a visit to Ramallah he embraced Arafat and implicitly protected with his body the terrorists hiding in the compound. Gordon has expressed understanding for terrorism because it is caused by "injustice." He does not seem to care that the Palestinians are subjected to the most brutal and oppressive dictatorship so long as they are nominally "independent." He was among the signers of the petition before the recent Iraq war declaring that Israel was planning to perpetrate atrocities and massive crimes against humanity once the war broke out. He also endorsed boycotts against Israel. Had Israel enjoyed an open, pluralistic public debate especially in the media and the universities one could let the pathological defamers do their thing. But the public arena in Israel is dominated by politically correct leftists who silence any opposition. Like the Islamic fundamentalist parties in countries such as Iran or Algeria where democratic elections have been exploited to abolish democracy so does the pathological Left exploit democratic freedoms, including academic freedom and freedom of speech, in order to defy the majority will and subvert it from within. The post-Zionists and neo-Marxists on the Ben-Gurion University faculty, that Gordon exemplifies, are true believers. They are capable of calling for a boycott of Israeli universities for alleged crimes against humanity; they are not promoters of free speech or pluralism. This is, alas, also true of many other social-science and humanities departments in Israel where, in the words of the (Meretz) former minister of education Amnon Rubinstein "a unison choir" of political correctness suppresses free debate. In fact, several attempts have been made by BGU leftists to use the law to intimidate adversaries and suppress criticism. The most recent, a frivolous libel suit filed by Neve Gordon against Prof. Steven Plaut of Haifa University, a stalwart defender of free speech. Those who support freedom for terrorists cannot stomach any opposition. They file suits simply to harass critics and intimidate potential adversaries by causing them great expense and loss of time. Serious consideration must therefore be given to the protection of academic freedom and free speech from a pathological Left that is so adept at abusing them. Daniel Doron is president of The Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress, an independent pro-market policy think tank. 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. [Ed. Note: Additional material on the SLAPP suit against Professor Plaut can be found in Lakisher's article "The David Irving Trial in Israel", December 17, 2003, the December 2003 Blog-Ed page (http://www.think-israel.org/dec03bloged.html), this issue.]

DISCRIMINATION BY ANY OTHER NAME Posted by Michael Freund, December 31, 2003.

There is a new breed of racism afoot in the land, and it emanates from the most unexpected of quarters. The odium, while packaged in flowery language and universalist rhetoric, is nevertheless strident and uncompromising. Israel's new band of bigots is the racist Left, and its power seems to be growing. At first glance, the very idea of a racist Left might seem preposterous. After all, these are the people who profess a belief in the most profound and noble of principles, who march on behalf of the rights of others and cling to a vision of reconciliation and peace under the most trying of circumstances. The Left is the first to cry racism when any distinction is made between Israeli Arabs and Jews, sometimes with good reason. Yet it is the Left itself that is advocating the most sweeping distinctions between how Jews and Arabs are treated under the law. Take, for example, the question of illegal building in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Over the past year, the far Left has vociferously called for uprooting the dozens of outposts erected by Jewish settlers throughout the territories. They send teams of monitors to track the growth and expansion of these budding communities, utilize satellite photographs and imagery to keep an eye on their development, and compile and issue reports and press releases on the subject. The reason? Ostensibly, it is about law and order. Many of the Jewish outposts are said to have been built without the necessary permits from the government; hence, the Left demands that they be taken down. Now, I am all in favor of respecting the law, but a key element, in democracies at least, is the idea that all are equal before it. And yet, when it comes to illegal building in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, the Left only seems to make noise about Jewish structures, not Arab ones. As anyone who has driven through the territories knows, there are untold thousands of illegal buildings that have gone up in recent years in Arab villages and towns and along roads overlooking Jewish settlements. If the law is supreme, then it should not matter who erects an illegal structure. Whether he follows Moses or Muhammad, he has violated the law. But to Israel's racist leftists, this is simply not the case. They apply their principles selectively, demanding legal action against one ethnic group while ignoring the violations of another. They insist on holding Jews to one standard and Arabs to another. Isn't that racial discrimination? And then there is the issue of demography. At the Herzliya conference earlier this month, Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu suggested that the growth rates of Israeli Arabs pose a demographic threat to the Jewish nature of the state. He was immediately pounced on by various members of the Left, who ridiculed his remarks and denounced them as racist. And yet, when it comes to Israel's ultra-Orthodox community, many on the Left have little compunction about making exactly the same remarks, warning that the high birthrate of the ultra-Orthodox threatens to tilt the balance against the secular and in favor of religious Jews. In other words, as far as the racist Left is concerned, you can voice concern about Jewish population growth, but not Arab expansion. There are plenty of other examples. Administrative detention without trial disturbs the Left when those imprisoned are Palestinian Arabs, but not when a Jewish settler from Hebron is detained. Incitement to violence by Israeli Jews is treated differently from incitement by Arabs, as are unruly protests and dissent. To be fair, not all of the Left is plagued by such two-faced beliefs. There are plenty of thoughtful and reasonable people who lean to the left and still believe in maintaining one standard for all. Unfortunately, though, their voices seem to have been drowned out, as the more extreme fringes of the Left have come to the fore. Indeed, across the board, the far Left speaks of equality for Arabs and Jews even as it practices inequity and discrimination. For, implicit in the double standard applied to Arabs is the paternalistic belief that one cannot expect very much from "such people," as though Arabs were somehow innately inferior. This, of course, is racism in its purest and ugliest of forms, the type of thinking that is incapable of looking beyond a person's origins and judging him or her as an individual. Whether they will admit it or not, extreme leftists have become infected with this pernicious ailment, advancing a narrow form of chauvinism and prejudice under the guise of progressive values and beliefs. It is time to tear off their mask of respectability, and see them for what they are: Israel's racist Left. This appeared today in the Jerusalem Post. Michael Freund served as Deputy Director of Communications & Policy Planning in the Prime Minister's Office under former premier Binyamin Netanyahu.

ASSESSING ISLAMIST WEB SITE REPORTS OF IMMINENT TERROR ATTACKS IN THE U.S. Posted by Yigal Carmon, December 30, 2003.

Recently there has been an increase in postings on Islamist Web forums regarding imminent large-scale terror attacks in the U.S. However, beyond their general religious leanings, it is not known whether these forums are actually affiliated with Al-Qa'ida. In order to assess the credibility of these threats, there is a need to examine their content. The following are three examples: I. Operation Cave of Darkness In late December 2003, a Web site called Global Islamic Media posted a communique warning of an imminent large-scale attack in the U.S. called Operation Cave of Darkness. [1] An examination of the text of the posting reveals that: The communique makes several demands, suggesting that meeting these demands will eliminate the threat of attack. Such bargaining is unknown in the Al-Qa'ida modus operandi, and has never appeared in any bin Laden speech to date. Among these demands are "returning all monies, but in gold and not in paper, as we have demanded from you in the past;" "restoring all old borders... particularly the northern one;" and "dismantling what are unjustly and oppressively called the Oppressed Nations [i.e. the U.N.] and the Satanic Council [i.e. the U.N. Security Council]." The communique also states that "the price of oil will be set by us, and we promise not to stop the flow and not to create a monopoly." Such attempts to bargain have never appeared in the Al-Qa'ida ideology and modus operandi; Al-Qa'ida's attacks are motivated by religious ideology and by the promised reward in the afterlife - not material reward in this world. The communique is not written in the Islamist style. The text includes not a single Qur'anic quote, and no mention of the Prophet's conduct. Rather than call the Americans infidels and enemies of Allah, as is common in the Islamist discourse, it asserts that the Americans are "taking over the world dictatorially, in a senseless and infantile manner reminiscent of the behavior of infants or madmen." It is noteworthy that on the Islamist Web forum Al-Qal'a, some members dismissed this communique as a fake. Based on all the above, this communique should not be regarded as a valid threat made by elements genuinely affiliated with Al-Qa'ida and Osama bin Laden. II. Countdown to an Imminent Attack Following the many reports in the American media about Operation Cave of Darkness, Islamist forums began posting follow-up reports. One of the more prominent of these was the countdown to an upcoming attack titled "End U.S." which appeared on the Islamist www.khayma.com. It read as follows: "In the name of Allah, the all-merciful and compassionate, [this is] the countdown for the biggest event, the defeat and collapse of America, the Hubal of this generation. [2] According to the predictions [on the Web site] Al-Sayf Al-'Aasim, 36 days, 13 hours, and 23 seconds at most remain [as of time of publication] until the prediction is fulfilled. God willing, the collapse of America is nigh." [3] Members of Islamist forums such as Al-Qal'a determined that this countdown referred to Operation Cave of Darkness. [4] An examination of the text of this posting reveals that: The warning is based on the Al-Sayf Al-'Aasim Web site, which features a Nostradamus-style compilation of prophesies and futuristic predictions. Recently, this site was hacked and replaced by a pornography site. This warning contains no Islamist discourse, no Qur'anic quotes, no reference to the Prophet's conduct, etc. A video clip depicting America's end that accompanies the posting is comprised of segments of Hollywood disaster films, particularly one about a meteor striking the Earth. Based on the above, this threat is not credible. III. Threats of Attacks in an Ongoing Battle In late December, another type of threat appeared, on the Global Islamic Media site. It is authored by Abu Abd Al-Rahman Al-Turkemani (most likely an alias). This posting is aimed at reinforcing the morale of Islamist activists in their ongoing struggle. Al-Turkemani threatens attacks - but unlike the other threats, he sets no target date, explaining that perhaps the attacks will take a long time to prepare, and perhaps they will not take the form of military clashes. The following are the main elements of this posting, which was titled "The Final Blows in the Decisive Battles Are At Hand:" [5] "The final blows in the crucial battles are at hand. We are now living in crucial days and we are seeing how