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ZIONISM IS BEAUTIFUL
Posted by Gary S., February 28, 2006. |
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This was written by Rabbi Shaul Praver Congregation Adath Israel, Newtown, CT. Israel", "Jew" and "Zionism" are beautiful words. Yet repetitive racial slurs concerning these words make them sound ugly and pejorative. Zionism means scorched desert wastelands transformed into magnificent gardens and green farm lands. Zionism means oppressed downtrodden Jews becoming uplifted and able to affirm their continuity from Biblical times. Zionism means Jews living proudly once again in their ancient homeland. Zionism means the collective creativity of Jews of very ethnicity coming together to build a free civilization. Zionism means the opportunity to enact an ancient dream that will not die. Zionism means establishing a modern civilization that shares a messianic vision of making earth a little more like Heaven. Zionism means sharing Israeli's blessings with the world. Zionism is not Racism. Jews come in every race and ethnicity. Zionism is not an apartheid State: While Jews are the Majority in Israel, Arabs vote and are represented in the Israeli government. Zionism is not Colonialism: Jews won the war of Independence against the British colonists and lay claim to only Israel. Furthermore, Israel is no more a racist state for creating a haven for Jews then Saudi Arabia is a racist state for creating a haven for Arabs. Whosoever points an accusing finger toward Israel in this regard will find four fingers pointing back at them, because Israel is a democratic state where freedom of religion is enjoyed by a multitude of ethnic groups. Charges of racism are empty and inflammatory. Jews are willing to share their land with the [Arab] Palestinians. But peace also depends upon the willingness of Palestinians to share their land with the Jews. Please ask yourself a basic question: If Israel laid down her weapons and retired her army, navy and air force, how long do you think it would take for Israel to be conquered by Muslims? Days? Weeks? Or Months? Now, ask yourself the question in reverse. If all of Israel's neighbors laid down their weapons in the same manner, is it likely Israel would attempt to conquer Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia? I believe honest answers to these questions clarify the essence of the conflict. Namely that only one party seeks the destruction of the other. Israel has suffered many horrible terrorist attacks in restaurants, hotels, city buses, trains, beaches, streets, universities, school buses, highways, banks, grocery stores, private homes, kibbutzim, parks, caves and fields. And if, God forbid, these same attacks occurred in the United States, our military would respond with decisive force and alacrity. Losing such a war on terrorism would be tantamount to losing one's country and losing one's very civilization; it is not an option. For half a century, [Arab] Palestinians have professed an interest in acquiring a state of their own. Several attempts to grant Palestinians their wish were made, starting with the 1948 U.N. Partition Plan and concluding with the offer made by former Israeli Prime Minister Barak in 2001 at Taba, 98% of the requested land - including east Jerusalem, as per Yassir Arafat's request - was offered. But, even that offer was answered with war. For many, it would seem that Barak called Arafat's bluff; revealing the peace process to be a process of war. Due to these harsh realities, the Sharon administration has pursued the building of a security fence and has just completed the disengagement of all the Jewish communities from Gaza. Yet, a million Arabs live in Israel and enjoy democratic rights and freedoms. Is this fair? Why can't Jews live under the Palestinian flag just as Arabs live under the Israeli flag? The Sharon administration say it's a practical matter; Israel no longer wishes to deploy its Army to defend a small number of Gaza Jews. But wait! Stop! Think! Is there a need for a Palestinian Army to protect Israeli Arabs? No! Israeli Arabs need no protection; they are safe as citizens of Israel. Israelis simply want peace and would much prefer spending their time, tending their gardens, doing art, finding a cure for cancer, composing and performing world class music, and inventing more incredible bio-pharmaceuticals and computer technology. Real time internet applications, cellular telephones, color printing are just a few examples of the technology developed in Israel. There is so much brainpower and creative energy emanating from Israel?s diverse ethnic population that benefits every person on the planet. Yet even at a time that Israel pursues territorial concessions for the sake of peace, many people lack the ability to say even a few kind words. I will say to them then, "Zionism is Beautiful!" Contact Gary S. at ahavat@telkomsa.net |
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KADIMA: FOLLOW ME TO THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
Posted by Naomi Ragen, February 28, 2006. |
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Friends, This article appears in Hebrew on YNET at http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3221499,00.html It's gotten over four hundred responses. Perhaps the sheep following Kadima to the ballot box will turn around and stop in time. Naomi During dinner one evening at the recent Herzlyia Conference I sat next to a well-fed local businessman, a man of middle-age with an expensive black suit and shiny black hair. We were there to hear Benjamin Netanyahu, so we got to talking politics. Are you going to vote for him? I asked. He shook his head no. "I'm going to vote for Kadima," he said, painting a straight line in the air with his finger. "Right down the middle." "In what way," I asked him in surprise, "is Kadima in the middle?" He looked at me blankly, astonished at the question. Israelis love slogans. Come up with the right slogan, even if it makes no sense, if it's a total lie, and they will support anyone, and any cause. Sell them "Peace Now" wrapped up in little white doves, and they'll vote for that. And if instead they get exploding buses and pizza parlors, dead babies on the streets, they won't stop believing. They won't look back and say: "Gee, those politicians were incompetent liars, let's kick them out of office and keep them there. " Not at all. Come up with another slogan and the exact same politicians will get their vote again. Take Shimon Peres, architect of Oslo. author of the "The New Middle East" which has to go down in history with "Peace in Our Time" as the political blooper of the century. Peres has a new slogan: Kadima! Peres is now "in the center." Kadima is a great slogan. It's the cry of a general leading men on a battlefield. It means: Forward! Follow me! Don't look around at the fallen and dying all around you! Keep going. Don't look back! Never mind that it was founded by a controversial general known for his impulsiveness and determination - qualities sometimes helpful on the battlefield, but quite disastrous in matters of state. Never mind that his greatest accomplishment in office, carried out with bulldozer determination, has in record time already proven an unmitigated disaster: The disengagement provided the Hamas with its successful campaign slogan:" Ten years of negotiation, five years of Intifada." Never mind that daily rockets now land in the Negev and Ashkelon and Ashdod and Sderot. Never mind that for the first time in our history the national consensus towards the IDF has begun to unravel. Never mind that. Kadima! So the head of the party and its moving force is now incapacitated? Replace him! Never mind that Ehud Olmert was the worst Mayor Jerusalem ever had. A man whose coalition with the haredim turned the city into a filthy, poor backwater full of ugly high-rises. In between his own police investigations, Mr. Olmert has had a chance to totally change his political slogans with the times. He is a man who stands for nothing and has accomplished even less. But never mind that. Kadima! Never mind that the Party has collected such Israeli political luminaries as Dalia Itzik, Haim Ramon, Ruhama Avraham, and Omri Sharon. Never mind that Tzachi Hanegbi now sits with them, and that Avi Dichter, a former head of intelligence, who said: "The numbers speak for themselves... it is clear that disengagement has decreased terror" is number five on their list. Never mind. Give them your vote. Kadima! The Jews, the bible tells us, are a stiff-necked people. As everyone knows, when you have a stiff-neck, you can't turn around and look behind you. You have to face forward. Those voting Kadima can only do it if they stick with the slogans and don't check them against reality. If you turn around and look at where the party came from and who is in it, you, like my friend in Herzylia, would be astonished. Why, you would ask yourself, would anyone vote for the biggest collection of losers in Israel's political history all gathered in one spot? Brothers and sisters, we have a very little country. We have made so many, many mistakes. Isn't it time we stopped electing leaders who blindly put our women and children on the front lines against our enemies? Isn't it time we stopped listening to our not very intelligent journalists and TV news people, clueless leftists all? Isn't it time to look back before we jump over the cliff once more? Kadima is in the middle all right. In the middle of no where. Naomi Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist and journalist who lives in Jerusalem. She can be contacted at www.naomiragen.com, where you can subscribe to her newsletter. |
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EVIL AT ITS BEST
Posted by Anita Tucker, February 28, 2006. |
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Most of Caravillas will NOT be ready at on March 23 according to almost all involved in the Ein Tzurim site ---therefore according to this letter from Prime Ministers office -- Sela -- they want us to be ready to be moved to another temporary something. What am I supposed to do -- put my few pairs of underwear and other minimums -- toothbrush etc -- back into my back back (sorry will need something larger cause of all the gifts we received from Jews who care, tell my grandkids to pack their few toys in a plastic bag, say goodbye to their friends in the Ein Tzurim Gan that they have finally adjusted to etc, etc, etc. The Caravillas are not ready and apparently more important guests than us must be hosted in the hotel rooms This involves about 130 families from Netzer HAzani, Neve Dekalom and several from Gadid. This is the newest edict signed "with the kings official seal" -- we are again to be sent to exile to wander again. It will be enforced by the "the kings men" erev Shabbat HAgadol -- so there is a plan to make sure that on that very Shabbat when all caring Jews express their renewed faith in Hashem's miracles and salvation, Sela has plans for us to be again sent to wander to a new exile in our own homeland. EVIL! We know that as always Hakadosh Baruch will be with us and we have faith that caring people who have stood with us and brought us light in this darkness will find a way to chase away this evil as well with more light. Let's get to work! This is not a Purim joke!
Anita Tucker lives in Gush Katif, Gaza, with her family. They grew
wonderful organic vegetables. They are no homeless in Israel, subject
to the vindictic whims of the "Disengagement Authority."
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DUBAI PORTS BOYCOTTS ISRAEL, VIOLATES USA LAW
Posted by David Meir-Levi, February 28, 2006. |
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Dear Mr. President, Is it not illegal in our country to boycott Israel? didn't I read someplace where the USA decided that since Israel is an ally of the USA, the USA cannot support any efforts to boycott Israel? Is it not the case that in September, 2004, a bi-partisan group of thirteen Members of Congress sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce, urging the shutdown of anti-Israel divestment campaigns, because they violate U.S. laws regarding the Arab boycott of Israel. The letter was initiated by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). As I recall, the bi-partisan group was led by U.S. Representatives Jim Saxton (R-NJ) and Rob Andrews (D-NJ), and also signed by eleven other members of the Congress. The signers pointed out that by urging Americans to divest their holdings in companies doing business with Israel, the divestment proponents were illegally furnishing information about U.S. companies that have business relationships in or with Israel, and specifically advocating that these companies be boycotted. Such actions are "expressly prohibited by the anti-boycott provisions of the Export Administration Act, which were enacted in response to congressional concerns about the Arab boycott of Israel." So the government of Dubai and the Dubai Ports World are actually in violation of U.S. law. Did their legal staff neglect to point this out to them before they entered into their deal with you? Did your legal staff neglect to point this out to you before you threatened a veto over Congressional action stopping the Dubai take-over of 21 ports? Would you be kind enough to explain this strange anomalous situation where our own president is aiding and abetting the violation of our country's laws? Israel news on line. 2.28.06: "Dubai Ports boycott Israeli products" David Meir-Levi is an American-born Israeli, currently living in Palo Alto. His expertise is in Near Eastern studies and the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is Director of Peace and Education at Israel Peace Initiative (www.ipi-usa.org). Contact him at david_meirlevi@hotmail.com |
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EU SUPPORT FOR PA
Posted by Dr. Asher Eder, February 28, 2006. |
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The EU has decided to pay 250 mio Euro to Abu Mazen's PA in an attempt to prevent its collapse. That money, it is said, should go only to civil services as hospitals, schools, road construction, salaries of PA personal; and the like. Sounds really nice in the ears of PA fans; and makes surely sense in the eyes of blockheads. Suppose, all that money would really go to the institutions mentioned (never mind if those hospitals treat also terrorists wounded in action), it would release the Hamas-government from taking up its financial responsibility for those civic institutions; and would allow it using all the money it gets from supporters like Iran, for its warfare against Israel. Why not? Didn't Israel's Acting PM state that Hamas is not a strategic threat to the country? So, let them have all the money they think they need, as long as it seems face saving. Quite in line with the above paper tiger's logic is also the fact that Hamas leaders can travel freely all over the world. True, Hamas is declared a terrorist organization (even by Pres. Bush); and our army units in risking lives of our soldiers chase its fighters, but their leaders can form the government of the PA (=Palestinian Aberration); and as said, can travel freely all over the world to garner support (so far not in Israel's rump state, but who knows?). Could someone imagine that in WWII, Churchill would have allowed a third nation to transfer money officially to Germany to help its suffering civilians; and let Hitler & Co travel to wherever they wanted to go in order to drum up support, or were invited to? And mind you, Hitler did not threaten England wiping it off the map; and butcher all her citizens... but Hamas, in chorus with Iran, proclaims Israel's destruction as the goal. Eviva democracia! Wouldn't that slogan make a nice inscription on our tomb stones? Or, perhaps better, buy for the above money some eye salve, and rub it into the eyes for getting a clearer sight? Or, should paper tiger's logic go on? Dr. Asher Eder is Jewish Co-Chairman of Islam-Israel Fellowship, Root and Branch Association Ltd, Jerusalem/Israel. |
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WE'RE YOUR FRIEND, YOUR ONLY FRIEND...
Posted by Eugene Narrett, February 28, 2006. |
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1956: USA diplomatic & Intelligence [sic] services to Israel "Please help us out with this one. You've got to withdraw from the Sinai. We can't have this perception of Western Imperialism in the Arab world. You know how they are..." What? you have over a hundred murders each year? It's a small price to pay for peace. It's better than 1944, right? You know how they are: we can't reason with them. But you're our friends, we rely on your good judgment. And we're your best friend, your only friend. You've got to withdraw from the Sinai. We don't want any more global increase in anti-Semitism, do we?' 1967: USA diplomatic & Intelligence [sic] services to Israel "Please help us out with this one. You've got to withdraw from the occupied territories. We can't have this perception of Western Imperialism in the Arab world. You know how they are about western Imperialism. Didn't you say the territories are bargaining chips? Please help us out just this time..." What? you have over a hundred murders each year? The Auschwitz borders? Isn't that a bit far-fetched? Holy sites? It's a small price to pay for peace. It's better than 1944, right? You know how they are: we can't reason with them. But you're our friends, we rely on your good judgment. You're always so reasonable. Besides, we'll guarantee the peace and your secure and defensible borders. We're your friends, your only friends. You've got to withdraw from the territories, with a few insubstantial modifications. We don't want any more global increase in anti-Semitism, do we? There shouldn't be a major accident, God forbid? You don't want to have an accident, right" 1978: USA diplomatic & Intelligence [sic] services to Israel "Please help us out with this one. You've got to withdraw from the occupied territories. We can't have this perception of Western Imperialism in the Arab world. You know how they are about western Imperialism. Didn't you say the territories are bargaining chips? Please help us out just this time..." What? The Auschwitz borders? Isn't that a bit far-fetched? Holy sites? It's a small price to pay for peace. It's better than 1944, right? Why do you need to live in Hebron or the West Bank? You know how they are: we can't reason with them. But you're our friends, we rely on your good judgment. You're always so reasonable. Besides, we're going to guarantee the peace. We'll put peacekeepers in place; nice European boys to guarantee your safety within defensible borders. What's that? No we're not laughing; just a tickle in the throat.... Remember, we're your best friend, your only friend. You've got to withdraw from the territories, with a few insubstantial modifications. We don't want any more global increase in anti-Semitism, do we? There shouldn't be a major accident, God forbid? You don't want to have an accident, right" 1991, Madrid: USA diplomatic & Intelligence [sic] services to Israel "Please help us out with this one. You've got to withdraw from the occupied territories. We can't have this perception of Western Imperialism in the Arab world. You know how they are about western Imperialism. Things are especially delicate now that we had to defend our allies the Kuwaitis. You know how much they mean for our deterrence and, uh, economy. Anyway, didn't you say the territories are bargaining chips? No, you didn't by your predecessors did. Please help us out just this time..." What? The Auschwitz borders again? Isn't that a bit far-fetched? Holy sites? It's a small price to pay for peace. It's better than 1944, right? Why do you need to live in Hebron or the West Bank? We told you to stop the settlers. No, Begin was too easy on them. And you know how the Arabs are: honor means alot to them. They're very proud people. We can't reason with them. And of course we need the oil so badly. But you're our friends, we rely on your good judgment. You're always so reasonable. Besides, we're going to guarantee the peace. Look, we didn't even ask you to participate in the War. There's a perception that you're not pulling your weight. We have to address this, at least in public. We'll put peacekeepers in place; nice European boys to guarantee your safety within defensible borders. What's that? No we're not laughing; just a tickle in the throat.... Remember, we're your best friend, your only friend. You've got to withdraw from the territories, with a few insubstantial modifications. We don't want any more global increase in anti-Semitism, do we? There shouldn't be a major accident, God forbid? You don't want to have an accident, right" We'll have a peace for a lifetime agreement and academy awards. 1993, Oslo: USA diplomatic & Intelligence [sic] services to Israel "Please help us out with this one. You've got to shake his hand and sign the paper. Yes, on the White House lawn. You know how much I love Jews. So just promise to withdraw from the occupied territories; sure, set limits. You can always take them back if they don't keep their word, and you know they never honor a deal. It's all for the cameras. Do it for me, a favor for a friend. You know we're the liberals and we know Jews love liberals. You help us out, we'll help you out. Some of my best girl friends are Jewish...... Besides, we can't have this perception of Western Imperialism in the Arab world. You know how they are about western Imperialism. Things are especially delicate now after that little nastiness in Waco. Anyway, didn't you say the territories are bargaining chips? No, you didn't but your predecessors did. Please help us out just this time..." What? The Auschwitz borders again? Isn't that a bit far-fetched? Holy sites? It's a small price to pay for peace. It's better than 1944, right? Why do you need to live in Hebron or the West Bank? We told you to stop the settlers. No, Begin was too easy on them. And you know how the Arabs are: honor means alot to them. They're very proud people. We can't reason with them. And of course we need the oil so badly. But you're our friends, we rely on your good judgment. You're always so reasonable. Besides, we're going to guarantee the peace. We'll put peacekeepers in place; nice European boys to guarantee your safety within defensible borders. What's that? No we're not laughing; just a tickle in the throat.... And hey, the Secretary of State is Jewish, at least, she used to be a long time ago... Remember, we're your best friend, your only friend. You've got to withdraw from the territories, with a few insubstantial modifications. We don't want any more global increase in anti-Semitism, do we? There shouldn't be a major accident, God forbid? You don't want to have an accident, right" We'll have a peace-for-a-lifetime agreement and academy awards. 1995; 1997; 2000; 2001 - 06, Oslo II to the Road Map, USA diplomatic & Intelligence [sic] services to Israel Your our friends, our dear, dear friends. And we're your friend, you're only friend. We're so sorry about the late Prime Minister. we'll all be there for his funeral, say, about 10 days before your elections. What? Jonathan Pollard? You don't want to have an accident, do you? The world's a dangerous place, you know. You know that; why, any day that maniac in Iran might do something very regrettable. But we'll be there with the payback, rest assured of that. Glad to see you beginning to work with the new Hamas. If we can, you can. They're going to recognize your right to exist. That will be big news. This is it; this is the end of concessions. Just brace yourself for this last round of disengagements and we'll put a lasting peace in place. We'll guarantee the agreement. We're your friends, your only friends...................." Sometimes, there's only one way to solve a problem. Professor Eugene Narrett teaches writing and Literature at Boston University. He is the author of hundreds of articles, columns and reviews on politics, American culture and the arts. He is completing a study on Romanticism and the longterm decline of Western Culture. He writes often on subjects relating to Israel and Judaism and is a weekly columnist for the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Massachusetts. Contact him at Culturtalk@aol.com |
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WESTERN NON DEFENSE; HOPE FOR UNO & HAMAS REFORM? NY TIMES VS. DANISH CARTOONISTS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, February 28, 2006. |
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IDF RESPONSE TO P.A. ROCKETS The IDF, operating under government self-imposed restraint, declared it would not respond to every rocket attack. IMRA interprets that to mean it would respond only when Israeli casualties engender sufficient public outrage (IMRA, 2/10). Such policy violates the basic duty of government and sets the government at odds with the democratic ethos, that the government retains popular support by meeting the country's needs. There is some truth to IMRA's interpretation. The government is being directed more by the will of a leftist cabal and an anti-Zionist State Dept.. The people are dupes and pawns. The government media are in a conspiracy to persuade the people that its policies of surrender to the enemy are protecting them from that enemy or that their own patriots are the enemy. The White House and Congress often provide for special interests at the expense of the country as a whole, while misstating what is done as for the benefit of the whole. On the other hand, the IDF is right, it cannot respond to every rocket attack. It doesn't know where every rocket is fired from. That is no excuse for not stamping out the attacks. Nor should the IDF respond to every attack if it could. However, instead of picking off a couple of terrorists a day, it should bombard the rocket-launching area and send in ground forces to prevent more attacks. It also should shut off services to the P.A.. The P.A. should not be able to dish out total war, without taking total war. Israel should win this war. Victory would end the human casualties, the economic drain, the political toll, and the terrorists' hope. WHAT TO DO ABOUT IRAN Iran trains and sends forces into Iraq to battle civilians and Western liberators. The US has expelled many Iranian diplomats "caught photographing New York tunnels, bridges, subway stations, and monuments." Iran is coordinating international terrorism, particularly against the West. (Iran also is financing the terrorist war on Israel and is building missiles capable of bringing mass-destruction to Europe and beyond.) Despite being menaced by Iran, "...not a single Western country has come up with a serious Iran policy." No Western leader has called for the liberation of Iran (Jewish Political Chronicle, 1/2006, p.10 from Michael Ledeen, National Review On-line, 10/31). The West suffers from a dearth of information and a surfeit of propaganda), poor vision, unwillingness to pay for something not a consumer benefit, and failure of nerve. The US might have issued the call, but the State Dept. is tied up with petty squabbles over this, the Democrats are isolationist, and Bush has money for subsidies to rich corporations and a drug plan, but not for additional means of national defense. IS THERE HOPE FOR HAMAS TO REFORM? Sec. General Annan said "There is an opportunity here for Hamas to transform itself into a political party and work with the international community and the Israeli government." As if in refutation, the Hamas Web site has produced two videos. One vows they will drink the Jews' blood until they leave "Muslim countries." The other shows a mother dressing her son for suicide bombing (NY Sun, 2/15, Ed.). Happy Valentine's Day! Hamas is following the route of Hizbullah, entering politics but retaining terrorist militia. Islam defines a "Muslim country" as one that Muslims at one time conquered. They define "resistance" as their efforts to recapture a country liberated from them. Popular among Muslim government and media, regardless of whether the West dubs them "moderate", is the blood libel of Jews murdering gentile children for their blood in some religious ritual. But drinking blood, which religious Jews won't do even in the form of chicken gravy, is a powerful symbol that Arabs use and sometimes practice. IS THERE HOPE FOR UNO? Exhibit one: Sec. General Annan's remark, above, that did not take into account how fanatical Hamas is. Exhibit two: the editorial rephrased another remark as: "try to continue to negotiate with the Holocaust-denying, terrorist-supporting regime in Iran that is repressing its own people, yet that remains a member in good standing at the United Nations." Exhibit three: oil-for-food (Op. Cit.). Exhibit 4: Veto-wielding Security Council members deciding on inaction against Iran in order to "maintain unity." China and Russia oppose forcefulness against Iran. Iranian negotiators customarily retract hard-line positions just before Council meetings, so the Council can pretend to perceive moderation (Benny Avni, NY Sun, 2/15, p.7). Inside Iran, striking bus drivers have been fired and arrested. Their wives are so desperate as to defy the regime by appealing for charity. Students are taking an interest in this. Dissidents see an opportunity for uniting opposition and bringing down the hated regime, if supported by Western funds and publicity (Eli Lake, NY Sun, 2/15, p.7). Western assumptions about the Mid East are being shown up as its diplomacy unravels. The democratically elected Prime Minister of Lebanon failed to unite the factions, with the result that Hizbullah is leading what may become the dominant bloc. It allied with the Christians (Nibras Kazimi, NY Sun, 2/15, Op. Ed.), who thereby risk their necks!
Reform of the UNO is not likely while its membership includes many of the very kinds of governments that the UNO was established to check (NY Sun, 2/15, Ed.) Ambassador Bolton's reform efforts failed for that reason. As for the Council, "unity" for what? IRAN'S PRESIDENT VIDEOTAPED On tape, he commented to a cleric about his UNO speech. He claimed that a halo appeared around his head. "I felt the atmosphere suddenly change. And for those 27 or 28 minutes, the leaders of the world did not blink... It seemed as if a hand were holding them there, and it opened their eyes to receive the message from the Islamic Republic." Charles Krauthammer notes, "Negotiations to deny this certifiable lunatic genocidal weapons have been going nowhere. Everyone knows they will go nowhere. And no one will do anything about it." (Jewish Political Chronicle, 1/2006, p.12.) Spread the word about this. No comment from me necessary. QUARTET TO THE RESCUE OF HAMAS Quartet envoy Wolfensohn said he would help the P.A. through its financial crisis unconditionally (IMRA, 2/11). He contradicts E.U. assertions that it is demanding that Hamas retract its declaration of war against Israel, in order to remain eligible for more aid. No evil too odious for him. Why set up a superfluous Arab state to be a charity case? The West has not explained its eagerness to do so. Is its appeasement so fixed that it supports an anti-Western terrorist entity? Is it doing so as a means of bringing down the Jewish state? The first motive is the more foolish, and the second is the more evil. THOMAS FRIEDMAN ADVISES ON THE P.A. Mr. Friedman admits that Hamas is murderous, but warns that letting the P.A. collapse would release more gunmen onto the street and appear as if Hamas didn't get a chance to run an effective government. He advises, "Let Hamas Sink or Swim on Its Own". Let it evolve, negotiate peace, and be more able to carry out any agreement it makes with Israel than was Fatah (NY Times, 2/17, Op. Ed.). He means, keep shekels and dollars flowing. Bear in mind that Friedman is obsessed with anti-Zionism -- he continually rationalizes for Israeli appeasement of the Arabs. Reasonable in tone, his advice is misconceived. Religious fanatics don't suddenly evolve. Hamas plans to recruit more. Friedman mistakenly implies that Fatah violated peace agreements because it was ineffective, rather than deceitful and dedicated to jihad. Instead of letting fanatical Arab terrorists hold us hostage for aid, we must fight them. If we withdrew subsidy, the P.A. would collapse, though Iran would give some money for terrorism. Israel could defeat that terrorism, if it weren't restrained by politically correct respect for fanatical terrorists' self-government. But if the West is to have any economic leverage with the enemy it must conserve fuel and get renewable energy. NY TIMES VS. DANISH CARTOONISTS A Times Op.-Ed argues that the West maintains a civil society by self-censorship. How can we ask Muslims to stop cartooning against the West, when we draw cartoons against them? As for violence, it has occurred in the West, too, such as American race riots. Therefore, why blame the Muslims for theirs? Actually, most Muslims aren't so exercised over the cartoons, but demagogues agitate them (Robert Wright, 2/17). My standards: allow opinions, including nonsensical ones that there was no Holocaust; stick to the truth; don't insult gratuitously; fight back against our enemies; stop political correctness; and ban inciting to violence. The Times article is sophistry. Is over-simplifies and it equates dissimilarities. The political correctness that Mr. Wright urges is more a model of totalitarianism than of consideration. It goes far beyond avoiding gratuitous insult. Wright implies that the Danish cartoons were offensive, but they were not. Moreover, we are in a world war against Islamism, but Wright would have our side not even raise the alarm. Imagine if in WWII we were worried about not insulting the fascists! Yes, there has been violence in the West. Mostly it was in the past. We have advanced beyond it. But Wright holds that violence up as another model. It was wrong then, and does not justify Islamist violence now. Those so easily roused are rabble. Equating cartoons of East and West is erroneous. (1) The Danish cartoons were accurate, whereas Muslim (not just Islamist) cartoons are blood libel. (2) The Muslims had been publishing vicious and defamatory cartoons for years, without much protest. Now some Westerners ask how can Muslims protest against the few Western cartoons about Islam that came in reaction to years of bitterly anti-Western cartoons. Wright turns the issue upside down, by making the Western reaction seem hypocritical, when it is the West complaining that the excessive Muslim reaction is hypocritical. Write thinks he is being considerate, but doesn't show that he protested against Muslim cartoons years ago. IRAN DURING THE HOLOCAUST Before WWII, Iran welcomed Gestapo agents to work there against the British and the Jews. During the war, Iran was regional Gestapo headquarters. The SS recruited Iranians into units murdering Jews and others in Bosnia. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company supplied the German forces in Central Europe. German crews escaped the British invasion of Iraq by flight to Iran. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem did likewise. The Allies had to invade Iran and oust the Shah Iran charged a lot but allowed Jewish refugees to escape through Iran and into Israel. Now Iran denies that the Holocaust happened (Jewish Political Chronicle, 1/2006, p.13 Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 12/19). This is another example of Muslims' hypocrisy. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com. |
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THE STATE DEPT'S VIEW OF ISRAELI LEADERS
Posted by Marcel Cousineau, February 28, 2006. |
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The U.S. Government and media no longer care about Israel, they ignore the fact that the UAE boycotts Israel as well as not recognizing Israel. This is intentional. It's past time for Israel to wake up and realize that it is only Hashem which they can turn to and trust? This parody has more truth than most people realize! Top Secret
Classified top secret: for your eyes only Standard U.S. Protocol as related to Israel and the Palestinian's 'There is to be no deviation from this list by any spokesmen or employees of those U.S. Government agencies involved in the final solution break up of Israel.' 1.Condemn all attacks against Israel but do nothing else. This is the standard 'condemnation' used since our Oslo Plan to weaken and dismember Israel, memorize it and use it. "We condemn this vicious action of terror".
2.Never, never follow up or expect the Palestinians to do more than their standard condemnation, and always keep their funding growing so they can become a greater threat to Israel than they are now. 3, With large and more serious attacks use the word's 'strongly condemn'. 4.A day after the attack, move Israel's leaders away from doing anything substantive as a deterrent with the Palestinians. This may set back our plans to finalize the Israel problem. Use the argument that it may harm the nonexistent peace process. 5. If Israel does hit back hard, begin major pressure to restrain them immediately. If threats are needed to put a stop to Israel's attacks against the terrorist hotbeds, this will be done by POTUS and or CONDI. 6. Remain silent and concillatory towards Israeli Government official's. We must keep them in our 'friend' box on a tight leash. If we antagonize them too much, they may break loose from our grasp, free to put an end to our agenda and this must not happen. They might just go in and defeat the Palestinian's and end the intifada. That would be disasterous for our plans. 7. The plan is working well. Olmert, Mofaz and Peres, our well trained puppets offer us no problems or resistance. They obey us quite religiously. We are their masters. Netanyahu is in place to surrender more Jewish land for our Palestinian state if there is a right wing win in Israel against Kadima and Olmert. 8. With Hamas in control and our continueing funding thru backdoor channels, Israel will be weakened even more, ensuring that our Arab and Saudi partners continue economic investments and keeping a strong U.S. economy. It's all about the oil and the money. 9. The media is doing a great job, so please keep a positive relationship with all of them. Buy them drinks, take them out to dinner, cultivate their continued loyalty and always focus them on the Palestinians as victimized and suffering, and never!, never never allow the Jews to be viewed in this light. liz Marcel Cousineau can be reached at up2zionsg8@yahoo.com. Or go to his website: A Very Heavy Stone (http://averyheavystone.blogspot.com). |
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EXPOSING HAMAS
Posted by Barry Rubin, February 28, 2006. |
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Read this column and find out how a conservative British aristocrat, a German revolutionary philosopher, and a New York Yankee's catcher can teach us to understand the Middle East's new era. Let's begin with the philosopher, Karl Marx who wrote that history does repeat itself but not precisely. The first time something happens takes place as tragedy, the second time as farce. This certainly applies to the way Hamas is repeating the history of the PLO, fooling the same people who should have learned better from the first go-round. Even the fact that virtually no one notices this duplication of the past is sufficient proof for the triumph of foolishness even more than happened in the original example. Back in February 1974, the PLO's basic program of "Let's throw the Jews into the sea" was not exactly an inspired public relations' slogan. As a result that master showman Yasir Arafat came up with a new idea. The PLO stated that its aim was to "establish a national authority on any lands that can be wrested from Zionist occupation." Arafat explained this did not mean peace or recognition of Israel within its pre-1967 borders. Instead, if the Palestinians gained the West Bank and Gaza Strip they would use them as a base to attain total victory. In this two-stage plan to eliminate Israel, terrorism, the demand that all Palestinian refugees return to their ancestors' pre-1948 homes and the rejection of negotiations with Israel would all continue. In Arafat's words, the strategy was not about peace but about "how the rest of Palestine is to be liberated." And if any regime was established in the territories its main duty would be to complete "the liberation of all Palestinian soil" by wiping Israel off the map in an act of genocide. Marx had written in favor of revolutionary candor, "The Communists disdain to conceal their aims." And the PLO told us exactly what they intended if one merely read the speeches and documents. If the rest of the world wanted to pretend otherwise that was scarcely Arafat's fault. Of course, there were cute gimmicks. For example, when a PLO leader declared, "We want to liberate all the Palestinian territories," Palestinians knew he meant everything while Westerners could pretend he was only talking about the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and east Jerusalem. It is a strategy of what British comedians call, "Wink, wink; nudge, nudge." Shortly afterward, of course, Arafat was invited to the UN since this plan supposedly made him a moderate. Still, perhaps one shouldn't complain too much about the first coming of the two-stage plan since, after all, it took 20 years for the PLO to evolve far enough in terms of giving lip service to moderation for real recognition and negotiations to begin, with the 1994 Oslo agreement. Yet here we are 12 years after that and even the PLO's 1994 promises have been shown to be hollow. In fact, the Palestinian nationalists are still back in 1974. Now fast forward to the present and Hamas, which brings us to Lord Chesterfield who warned that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The Hamas victory has rolled the clock back around 32 years. The statements which are winning Hamas nice treatment and the "moderate" seal of approval are almost precisely the same as the PLO's 1974 position. Indeed, the Hamas strategy must be deliberate on this point. The most important statement made by Hamas since the election was that of Hamas Political Bureau deputy head Musa Abu Marzouq in a February 14 interview with Dream 2 TV. (To see it go to http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1043.) Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and co-author of "Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography" and "Hating America: A History" (Oxford University Press, August 2006). Prof. Rubin's columns can now be read online at http://gloria.idc.ac.il/columns/column.html. |
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APPEASEMENT 101
Posted by Unity Coalition for Israel (UCI), February 28, 2006. |
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This article was written by Victor Davis Hanson. It appeared on the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies, February 16, 2006. It is easy to damn the 1930s appeasers of Hitler -- such as Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain in England and Edouard Daladier in France -- given what the Nazis ultimately did when unleashed. But history demands not merely recognizing the truth post facto, but also trying to reconstruct the rationale of something that now in hindsight seems inexplicable. Appeasement in the 1930s was popular with the European public for a variety of reasons. All of them are instructive in our hesitation about stopping a nuclear Iran, or about defending the right of Western newspapers to print what they wish -- or about fighting radical Islamism in general. First, Europe had nearly been destroyed during the Great War, a mere 20 years prior. No responsible postwar leader wished to risk a second continental bloodbath. Unfortunately, Hitler understood that all too well. In a game of diplomatic chicken, he figured many responsible democratic statesmen had more to lose than he did, as the weaker and once-beaten enemy. British intellectuals, like European Union idealists today, wrote books and treatises on the obsolescence of war. Conflicts were supposedly caused only by rapacious arms merchants and profiteers at home, not by anti-democratic dictators who interpreted forbearance as weakness. Winston Churchill was a voice in the wilderness -- and demonized as a warmonger and worse. Today, the 50-year Cold War is over, and Europe is at last free of burdensome military expenditure and the threat of global annihilation. Like Osama Bin Laden, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad senses a certain weariness in much of the West as it counts on perpetual peace. He assumes that most sober Westerners will do almost anything to avoid military confrontation to stop a potential threat -- even though, unlike Hitler, Ahmadinejad not only promises to liquidate the Jews but reveals his method in advance by seeking nuclear weapons. Some naive conservatives in prewar Europe thought the German and Italian fascists would prove a valuable bulwark against communism, and so could be politically finessed. So, too, it has been at times with Islamic fascism. Arming the mujahadeen in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Saudi Arabia was once seen as an inspired way of thwarting Soviet communist imperialism. At the time of the Ayatollah Khomeini's homicidal fatwa against Salman Rushdie, religious conservative commentators from Patrick Buchanan to New York's Cardinal O'Connor attacked Rushdie, rather than defended the Western right of free expression. Apparently, they felt such Islamic threats to supposed blasphemers might have positive repercussions in discouraging left-wing anti-Christian attacks as well. In the 1930s, the doctrine of appeasement fobbed off responsibility of confronting fascism onto the League of Nations. Both France and England were quiet about the 1936 Italian invasion of Ethiopia and the German militarization of the Rhineland. They counted on multilateral action of the League, which issued plenty of edicts but marshaled few troops. Likewise, the moral high ground today supposedly was to refer both the Iraqi and Iranian problems to the United Nations. But considering the oil-for-food scandals and Saddam's constant violations of U.N. resolutions, it is unlikely that the Iranian theocracy has much fear that the Security Council will thwart its uranium enrichment. As fascism spread, France worked on fortifying its German border with the Maginot Line, Oxford undergraduates voted to refuse "in any circumstances to fight for King and Country," and British newspapers decried the Treaty of Versailles for unduly punishing Germany. This was all long before the "no blood for oil" slogan and Al Gore in Saudi Arabia apologizing to his Wahhabi hosts for the supposed American maltreatment of Arabs. But deja vu pertains not just to us, but our enemies as well. Like the Nazi romance of an exalted ancient Volk, the Islamists hearken back to a mythical purity, free of decadence brought on by Western liberalism. Similarly, they feed off victimization -- not just recent defeats, but centuries-old bitterness at the rise of the West. Their version of the stab-in-the-back Versailles Treaty is always the creation of Israel. Just as Hitler concocted incidents such as the burning of the Reichstag to create outrage, Islamist leaders incite frenzy in their followers over a supposed flushed Koran at Guantanamo and several inflammatory cartoons, some of them never published by Danish newspapers at all. Anti-Semitism, of course, is the mother's milk of fascism. It is always, they say, a small group of Jews -- whether shadowy cabinet advisers and international bankers of the 1930s or the manipulative neoconservatives and Israeli leadership of the present -- who alone stir up the trouble. The point of the comparison is not to suggest that history simply repeats itself, but to learn why intelligent people delude themselves into embracing naive policies. After the removal of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, the furious reply of the radical Islamist world was to censor Western newspapers, along with Iran's accelerated efforts to get the bomb. In response, either the West will continue to stand up now to these reoccurring post-Sept. 11 threats, or it will see the bullies' demands only increase as its own resistance weakens. Like the appeasement of the 1930s, opting for the easier choice will only guarantee a more costly one later on.
The Unity Coalition for Israel (http://www.israelunitycoalition.org) is "the largest worldwide coalition of Jewish and Christian organizations, with more than 200 groups representing millions of people dedicated to Israel. Though we have many different backgrounds, we have one common goal: A Safe and Secure Israel." "Israel is not just a Jewish issue. Millions of Christians resolutely endorse the principle of peace with security for the state of Israel. Because we work closely together and speak with a united voice, our message is being heard!" |
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HAMAS AND EL-QAEDA: ALL NON-MUSLIMS AND FOREIGNERS OUT OF GAZA
Posted by David Meir-Levi, February 28, 2006. |
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I recall, years ago, as a kid living with my grandparents in Baltimore, Md., learning from my grandfather why he left the Ukraine. He was a healthy young man from a well-to-do family in Yekaterinaslav (today's Dnieperpetrovsk, a major port and industrial city on the Dnieper river, south of Kiev) with a good future in his father's thriving business. His parents were aghast at his decision to go to 'der goldene medineh". He left because when he went for the first time as a young adult to a local town hall meeting, the Ukranian sergeant at arms, under the direction of the mayor of the city, started the meeting with the pronouncement: "all Jews and foreigners out". At that time, c. 1910, Yekaterinaslav was a city whose majority was Jewish. The Jewish community traced its roots back to the 9th century when the first 'pie-powders' (jewish peddlers with dusty feet who plied the dirt paths from village to village selling iron implements otherwise not available in the back country of the Ukra'ina wilds) came from Poland and Germany, settled, imported a Rabbi and a butcher, and started a small community with the blessing of the local warlord. Since Ukrainians at that time could not read or write, Jews were a welcome addition to the warlord's retinue; since they could manage the finances of his land holdings, run the lumber business based on his forest lands, and collect taxes (and thus inspire the hatred of the 'schlobs' - the serf- peasants). Now, a thousand years later, after being an integral part of the city's growth and entry into the modern era with industry and banks and international trading centers ...etc...many founded and owned by Jews, Jews were being unceremoniously pushed out by an armed policeman whose boss decided that Jews were the equivalent of foreigners and thus not true Ukrainians, not to be trusted, not to be involved in the business of the city. Only Christians could be true Ukrainians. By fiat the Jews were demoted to less than 2nd class. In his mind, that boded ill for the future of the Jews in the Ukraine. He was right. Interesting how the very worst psychoses of history repeat themselves....but in slightly different iterations. Now hamas and el-qaeda are doing the same thing in Gaza.....to all non-Moslems. All those sincere humanitarians in ISM, and the Peace and Justice folk, and Rachel Corrie's comrades, and the Justice for Palestinians activists, and the Presbyterian ministers who love to press the flesh with Hezbollah and Hamas, and the human shields,....all must go; all scrambling into high gear to get out of Dodge. They are not Moslem. Now lets recall that el-Qaeda's main enemy (per Osama's own video-tapes) is "Global Un-Beleif" (that's us), and Hamas intends to turn its guns on the USA and the West (the epi-center of Global un-belief) once Israel is no more. What fate awaits us non-Moslems if they win? Obviously Shari'a law and dhimmitude at best. el-Qaeda's hit-list below gives us an idea of what sort of society Osama et al will create. David ML DEBKAfile Reports: "Al Qaeda's Gaza Cell issues ultimatum
for immediate departure of all non-Muslim foreigners"
Urgent consultations in European and Arab capitals and Jerusalem are reported by DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources over the threatened targets published by Al Qaeda's Gaza cell -- the Army of Jihad - dated Feb. 16. Not only must "non-Muslim foreigners of all nationalities" leave, but "foreign embassies and consulates must be evacuated and their staff leave within one month of this warning." Our sources report that the al Qaeda communiqué was urgently translated by foreign embassies in Tel Aviv and transmitted to their governments. They concluded that the document was put together by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's subordinates posted in the Gaza Strip and contains a direct threat to unleash Iraq-style terror in the Palestinian territory against the targets listed below. Therefore, diplomatic, security and international aid staff can expect to be pulled out of the Gaza Strip without delay. DEBKAfile's sources stress that the meaning for the Palestinian Authority, Israel and even Hamas, is the launch of an al Qaeda offensive to transform the Gaza Strip into a radical Islamic entity as set out by the statement issued by the Army of Jihad "...we address all believers of our people and all those who sacrificed their blood and property to defend Islam and Muslims against the Zionist occupation. Allah ordered us to fight to combat atheism. With Allah's support we defeated our enemy and obliged Israel to withdraw in humiliation from the Gaza Strip. One thing remaining to be done is to implement Sharia laws." These are the targets listed in the al Qaeda statement:
Monday, Feb. 27, Israel's acting prime minister Ehud Olmert said he does not see Hamas as being a strategic security threat to the country. This is seen by DEBKAfile's political sources as an effort to soothe concerns and divert attention from the menace building up in the Gaza Strip. David Meir-Levi is an American-born Israeli, currently living in Palo Alto. His expertise is in Near Eastern studies and the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is Director of Peace and Education at Israel Peace Initiative (www.ipi-usa.org). Contact him at david_meirlevi@hotmail.com |
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HAMAS DECLARED WAR....WHY FUND ENEMY WHO WANTS TO DESTROY US?
Posted by David Meir-Levi, February 28, 2006. |
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Steven Erlanger's "Europeans offer $144 Million Aid to Palestinians" (NY Times, 2.28.06) bemoans the sad fiscal fate of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and urges that the West help Abbas and Hamas to bail the PA out of its bankruptcy. But one very important fact is omitted. The aid is not to the Palestinians. It is to Hamas. Hamas now runs the PA; and Hamas has declared eternal, total, apocalyptical war on Israel, on Jews world-wide, and on all non-Moslem states and institutions. If anyone doubts that, just read the Hamas Covenant. Why should any nation fund Hamas, knowing as we do now that some or all of the money will end up supporting their terrorist enterprise -- an enterprise that ultimately has all of us non-Moslems in its cross-hairs? Erlanger wrote that "[t]he Europeans acted in partial response to a letter from James D. Wolfensohn, the special Middle East envoy of the so-called Quartet made up of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Mr. Wolfensohn warned in a letter dated Saturday that 'unless a solution is found, we may be facing the financial collapse of the P.A. within two weeks,'" "If we do not want to see rising tension leading to violence and chaos," Mr. Wolfensohn wrote, "we will have to develop urgently a convincing strategy addressing the P.A.'s financial and developmental needs not only in the short-term of the next few weeks but also in a longer time frame." That includes the revenues withheld by Israel, he said, adding, "It cannot be in Israel's interests to have a sharp deterioration of the economic and humanitarian situation next door." But a senior Israeli official said Monday that Israel could not stand by while a group it considered terrorist and sworn to its destruction consolidated power next door, and that neighboring countries like Egypt and Jordan were also extremely nervous. "We need to keep the pressure on Hamas and not give any discounts," the official said. "The U.S. is with us, that pressure is very important now." "We take Hamas too seriously to think they will change in the short or medium run," the official said. "It will take a lot of pressure to force them to change." The European Union is the largest donor to the Palestinians, but like the United States it lists Hamas as a terrorist organization and is reviewing its aid once Hamas takes power. No disrespect to Wolfensohn, but anyone suggesting that the Allies fund the German government in 1944, so that it could take care of its humanitarian needs and pay its government employees' salaries, would have been considered either insane or a traitor. The situation is no different today with Hamas. David Meir-Levi is an American-born Israeli, currently living in Palo Alto. His expertise is in Near Eastern studies and the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is Director of Peace and Education at Israel Peace Initiative (www.ipi-usa.org). Contact him at david_meirlevi@hotmail.com |
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ISRAELI SUPREME COURT
Posted by Batya Medad, February 28, 2006. |
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Sometimes it's very difficult, even years after my aliyah to truly comprehend how things work here. The Supreme Court is a perfect example. In the United States the justices must decide according to the American Constitution and their interpretation of it. Of course their own personal philosophy colors and influences their decisions. I remember that one of my "Social Studies" teachers explained that: "Law is whatever 5 out of 9 justices decide it is, and it can change from year to year." Here in Israel, there is no constitution; there's just a hodge podge of laws, including some from the British Mandate that were never revoked. The Israeli justices take their responsibilities very seriously as "moral guides." In actuality, they make the law, rather than interpret it. Not only do they decide what is legal; they also decide what is moral and mix up the two concepts. Their recent decision, that Israeli soldiers cannot ask the neighbors of suspected terrorists to knock on t! he door seriously endangers our soldiers. This doesn't concern the Supreme Court Justices. What concerns them is the protection of Arabs, even those who may be terrorists. This is a moral decision, having no connection to law, and what's the morality in endangering Israeli soldiers? That's the issue behind the movement my neighbor, Moshe Keinan, started after his son, Avihu, was killed in a badly planned army action. That's why we have been marching to Jerusalem every Succot in recent years. This perverse morality endangers our very existence. Chodesh Tov Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be
reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il
This article is archived at
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NEEDING TO WAKE UP, WEST JUST CLOSES ITS EYES
Posted by IsrAlert, February 27, 2006. |
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This was written by Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times Columnist, www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn26.html In five years' time, how many Jews will be living in France? Two years ago, a 23-year-old Paris disc jockey called Sebastien Selam was heading off to work from his parents' apartment when he was jumped in the parking garage by his Muslim neighbor Adel. Selam's throat was slit twice, to the point of near-decapitation; his face was ripped off with a fork; and his eyes were gouged out. Adel climbed the stairs of the apartment house dripping blood and yelling, "I have killed my Jew. I will go to heaven." Is that an gripping story? You'd think so. Particularly when, in the same city, on the same night, a Jewish woman was brutally murdered in the presence of her daughter by another Muslim. You've got the making of a mini-trend there, and the media love trends. Yet no major French newspaper carried the story. This month, there was another murder. Ilan Halimi, also 23, also Jewish, was found by a railway track outside Paris with burns and knife wounds all over his body. He died en route to the hospital, having been held prisoner, hooded and naked, and brutally tortured for almost three weeks by a gang that had demanded half a million dollars from his family. Can you take a wild guess at the particular identity of the gang? During the ransom phone calls, his uncle reported that they were made to listen to Ilan's screams as he was being burned while his torturers read out verses from the Quran. This time around, the French media did carry the story, yet every public official insisted there was no anti-Jewish element. Just one of those things. Coulda happened to anyone. And, if the gang did seem inordinately fixated on, ah, Jews, it was just because, as one police detective put it, "Jews equal money." In London, the Observer couldn't even bring itself to pursue that particular angle. Its report of the murder managed to avoid any mention of the unfortunate Halimi's, um, Jewishness. Another British paper, the Independent, did dwell on the particular, er, identity groups involved in the incident but only in the context of a protest march by Parisian Jews marred by "radical young Jewish men" who'd attacked an "Arab-run grocery." At one level, those spokesmonsieurs are right: It could happen to anyone. Even in the most civilized societies, there are depraved monsters who do terrible things. When they do, they rip apart entire families, like the Halimis and Selams. But what inflicts the real lasting damage on society as a whole is the silence and evasions of the state and the media and the broader culture. A lot of folks are, to put it at its mildest, indifferent to Jews. In 2003, a survey by the European Commission found that 59 percent of Europeans regard Israel as the "greatest menace to world peace." Only 59 percent? What the hell's wrong with the rest of 'em? Well, don't worry: In Germany, it was 65 percent; Austria, 69 percent; the Netherlands, 74 percent. Since then, Iran has sportingly offered to solve the problem of the Israeli threat to world peace by wiping the Zionist Entity off the face of the map. But what a tragedy that those peace-loving Iranians have been provoked into launching nuclear armageddon by those pushy Jews. As Paul Oestreicher, Anglican chaplain of the University of Sussex, wrote in the Guardian the other day, "I cannot listen calmly when an Iranian president talks of wiping out Israel. Jewish fears go deep. They are not irrational. But I cannot listen calmly either when a great many citizens of Israel think and speak of Palestinians in the way a great many Germans thought and spoke about Jews when I was one of them and had to flee." It's not surprising when you're as heavily invested as the European establishment is in an absurd equivalence between a nuclear madman who thinks he's the warm-up act for the Twelfth Imam and the fellows building the Israeli security fence that you lose all sense of proportion when it comes to your own backyard, too. "Radical young Jewish men" are no threat to "Arab-run groceries." But radical young Muslim men are changing the realities of daily life for Jews and gays and women in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo and beyond. If you don't care for the Yids, big deal; look out for yourself. The Jews are playing their traditional role of the canaries in history's coal mine. Something very remarkable is happening around the globe and, if you want the short version, a Muslim demonstrator in Toronto the other day put it very well: ''We won't stop the protests until the world obeys Islamic law.'' Stated that baldly it sounds ridiculous. But, simply as a matter of fact, every year more and more of the world lives under Islamic law: Pakistan adopted Islamic law in 1977, Iran in 1979, Sudan in 1984. Four decades ago, Nigeria lived under English common law; now, half of it's in the grip of sharia, and the other half's feeling the squeeze, as the death toll from the cartoon jihad indicates. But just as telling is how swiftly the developed world has internalized an essentially Islamic perspective. In their pitiful coverage of the low-level intifada that's been going on in France for five years, the European press has been barely any less loopy than the Middle Eastern media. What, in the end, are all these supposedly unconnected matters from Danish cartoons to the murder of a Dutch filmmaker to gender-segregated swimming sessions in French municipal pools about? Answer: sovereignty. Islam claims universal jurisdiction and always has. The only difference is that they're now acting upon it. The signature act of the new age was the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran: Even hostile states generally respect the convention that diplomatic missions are the sovereign territory of their respective countries. Tehran then advanced to claiming jurisdiction over the citizens of sovereign states and killing them -- as it did to Salman Rushdie's translators and publishers. Now in the cartoon jihad and other episodes, the restraints of Islamic law are being extended piecemeal to the advanced world, by intimidation and violence but also by the usual cooing promotion of a spurious multicultural "respect" by Bill Clinton, the United Church of Canada, European foreign ministers, etc. The I'd-like-to-teach-the-world-to-sing-in-perfect-harmonee crowd have always spoken favorably of one-worldism. From the op-ed pages of Jutland newspapers to les banlieues of Paris, the Pan-Islamists are getting on with it. Harv Weiner, a businessman in Dallas, Texas, is the founder and moderator of Isralert. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com |
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ISRAEL MUST BE THE MASTER OF HER FATE, THE CAPTAIN OF HER SOUL
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, February 27, 2006. |
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Israel must be the master of her fate, the captain of her soul. No other nation must be allowed to interfere with or attempt to influence her sovereign decisions, including any negotiations, crafted by leaders within an elected Knesset. Facts on the ground for one suggest Mahmoud Abbas lacks de facto authority, thus is "no longer relevant" per prescient Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, contrary to views expressed by the United States and the European Union. Ms. Livni told Israeli radio that Abbas "cannot serve as the pretty face of ugly terrorism, which is hiding behind him." Her perspective, in line with Israeli strategists, supersedes the wisdom of such powerful governments with recent less than inspiring foreign policy insights as demonstrated by a dysfunctional post invasion game-plan for tribally diverse Iraq and an International Court of Injustice at The Hague's bizarre less than erudite proclivity to skewer Israel for erecting a security wall to thwart homicide/suicide martyrs. Let Western powers tend to Western matters, the Jewish state comprehends its own neck of the desert quite well thank you, thus can deal directly and effectively with a fanatical "we don't recognize Israel" Hamas without wasting valuable time trading barbs and bargaining with a U.S. E.U. propped up "smoothie" having no teeth. In effect, the Roadmap was torn to shreds when so-called Palestinian voters vaulted a cadre of fanatical Muslims from street gang status to positions of authority. Alas, such lofty ascendance assures no make over of a mind set afflicted with the delusional mantra of a Palestine sans Israel. Hamas' bereft of nuance perceptions of strength and weakness preclude compromise, hence astute Israeli leaders will not repeat the Gaza give-away by ceding further territory or making other unconscionable concessions that will whet the salivary glands of a mortal enemy. Outsiders with opposing agendas can fumble or misplay footballs on their own fields of dreams without creating nightmares for the beleaguered state of Israel. Hamas not Abbas must attract the laser-like focus of Israeli politicos and generals, unblinking ever thinking, reacting to and thwarting with ten fold might any terrorist slithering. Let the Islamic zealots tend to the over-flowing sewers and disintegrating infrastructure of the populace they now steward. The Arab peoples' choice has much to do without tormenting its first world neighbor. Israel, no nation's protectorate, can steer its ship of state with sextant inspired by its own constellations' starlight. Isn't that what sovereignty is all about? Lawrence Uniglicht is a career civil servant, working for the Social Security Administration. He advocates for the State of Israel with an American perspective. He writes, "Advocating for the disrespected underdog has been my passion, no doubt Israel falls into that category." Contact him by email at luniglicht@snip.net |
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PA TV: MOM SAD DAUGHTER ARRESTED, BUT NOT BECAUSE OF BOMBING ATTEMPT
Posted by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, February 27, 2006. |
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A new interview on official Palestinian Authority television offers a chilling twist on the popular TV topic - Palestinian mothers' support for their children's suicide terror missions. The interview features the mother of Wafa Al-Bas, a 21-year-old Palestinian woman who was arrested at the Erez border crossing in June 2005 with a 20-pound bomb inside her underwear. Her target was the outpatient clinic of Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, where she had been receiving regular treatments for serious burns to 45 per cent of her body from a gas stove explosion in her home. Her greatest wish, she said later, was to kill 30 to 50 Israelis, including children. The hospital attack would likely have killed or maimed the Israeli doctor who had saved her life. In last week's PA TV interview with Wafa's parents, her mother says the event was hard for her - not because her daughter was on a suicide mission, but because she was arrested. The mother says she knew that her daughter had wanted to be a martyr since she was a little girl, but the mother hadn't encouraged her - not because the mother opposed the idea of suicide bombing, but because Wafa was female. "If it was a boy, I would have supported, but since she is a girl I discouraged." Once again, the message to Palestinian society from broadcasts like this is that suicide bombing is not wrong. Indeed, it is seen as an honor and a joy to raise a child to be a suicide bomber - at least if that child is a son. Following the transcript of the interview are a series of examples of Palestinian mothers expressing joy on Palestinian television that their children became suicide terrorists - a popular subject on PA TV for many years. Transcript of Interview Interviewer: "How did you receive the news of Wafa's arrest?" Wafa's mother: "When I received the news, it was hard for me. Hard." Interviewer: "Excuse me, was the hardship in that she failed in the martyrdom-seeking operation and was arrested, or in the arrest itself?" Wafa's mother: "The arrest itself. Her wish was martyrdom, Wafa, since she was a little girl." Interviewer: "Meaning, you hoped she would be a martyr?" Wafa's mother: "Her wish was to be a martyr." Interviewer: "Did you encourage her?" Wafa's mother: "To tell you the truth, I didn't encourage her. I talked to Wafa about the issue, about not agreeing to it because she is a girl. Were it a boy, I would have supported, but since she is a girl, I discouraged." [PA TV, February 20, 2006] Previous Examples * Mother of suicide terrorist: My son's martyrdom was as a wedding, a time of joy, November 17, 2004 More examples of mothers expressing joy, and of Palestinian cultural and religious figures saying how mothers should be happy at news of their sons' martyrdom can be seen on the Palestinian Media Watch website. Itamar Marcus is director of PMW -- Palestinian Media Watch - (http://www.pmw.org.il). PMW is based in Jerusalem. Barbara Crook, a writer and university lecturer based in Ottawa, Canada, is PMW's North American representative. |
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WILL HAMAS RECOGNIZE ISRAEL?
Posted by Alex Grobman, February 27, 2006. |
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A number of reports in the media claim that Hamas is softening its position toward recognizing Israel. A careful review of the interview in The Washington Post with Hamas's new Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh reveals that this is nothing more than a ruse. In response to a question about recognizing Israel's right to exist, Haniyeh said, "The answer is to let Israel say it will recognize a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, release the prisoners and recognize the rights of the refugees to return to Israel. Hamas will have a position if this occurs." The demand to release murderers and permit millions of Arabs to enter the country is not new. What self-respecting nation would allow individuals who have killed its citizens to go free? What message would Israel be sending to terrorists if they were to agree to this prerequisite to recognition? Arabs have been insisting on their "right of return to Israel" for so many years that they have convinced numerous people that this is a legitimate claim. Since 1947, the UN General Assembly (GA) has adopted a number of resolutions regarding the Palestinian refugees. GA resolution 194 (III) of December 11,1948, established the principle in paragraph 11 "that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date." The operative word is peace. That is a sine qua non. Even before the resolution passed, David Ben-Gurion said on August 1, 1948, that as long as the Arab states refused to make peace with the Jews, Israel could not trust the assurances made by the Arab refugees that they would live in peace with their neighbors. He did not preclude the possibility repatriating a limited number of Arab refugees, but insisted that the fundamental solution was to resettle them in Arab States. Abba Eban, Israel's representative to the UN, reminded the UN delegates that seven states including six Members of the UN had attacked Israel in an effort to reverse the GA's resolution by force, driving out hundreds of thousands seeking refuge outside the country. Furthermore, Israel was the only state involved in the conflict that had complied with the Security Council's resolution of November 16, 1948, calling upon the warring governments to negotiate an armistice as a first step to a lasting peace. A.B. Yehoshua, one of Israel's most prominent writers and a leading figure in the Israeli left, contends that the Palestinian Arabs have no right of return. Either they or the Arab nations were responsible for their plight. Those who fled or were expelled are not refugees, he argues, but displaced persons (DP). The difference is significant. A refugee is an individual who fled or was forced out of his native country; a DP is a person who fled or was expelled from his residence, but stays within the border of his country of origin. When the Arabs forced Jews to flee from the Old City of Jerusalem, Kfar Darom, Beit Ha'arava, Atarot, and the Etzion Bloc into Israeli territory, the Jews were not refugees, they were DPs who were immediately given new homes in Israel. During the 19 years the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were under Jordanian, Palestinian and Egyptian rule, these refugees could have returned to their homeland, where they would be DPs instead of refugees. "This," he said "is the beginning of the tragedy of the Palestinians, for which they themselves and the Arab countries carry direct moral responsibility. Even if (from their point of view) they did have a legitimate hope that they would see the day when they would be able to eliminate the Jewish state and take back all of Palestine - or at least return to their homes just as the displaced persons from the Etzion Bloc and the Old City did - there was still nothing to prevent the Palestinian displaced persons from building real homes. They could have lived ordinary, respectable lives within their homeland, instead of humiliating provisional existences in miserable camps." Yehoshua believes the Palestinian Arabs confuse "the concept of homeland with the concept of home.." When the Soviet Union launched an aggressive war against Finland at the beginning of World War II, they expelled Finnish citizens to other parts of the Finnish state where they were DPs, not refugees. They built homes and new lives in their homeland. In contrast, Arab refugees and DPs harbor the idea of literally returning to their former homes. "When my Palestinian friends," he said, "demand the right of return I tell them that I would be prepared to bring all the Palestinian refugees back to their homes in Israel on the condition that they first bring back the 6,000 Israelis killed during the aggressive war of 1948, when Israel was pleading for its life after the UN partition plan and seeking peaceful coexistence." In determining a response to Hamas demands, Israel would be wise to consider what Edmund Burke said in 1775: "The concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear." Appeasement has a place in resolving disputes, he believed, but not in dealing with aggression. Israel has yet to learn this lesson. Dr. Grobman's most recent book is "Battling for Souls: The Vaad Hatzala Rescue Committee in Post War Europe" [KTAV]. He is also co-author of "Denying History: Who Says The Holocaust Never Happened?" (University of California Press, 2000) His most recent book is entitled "Zionism=Racism: The New War Against The Jews". |
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A PURIM READ
Posted by Shifra Shomron, February 27, 2006. |
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I've translated this Purim article from Hebrew by Israel Eldad. Briefly, he was the ideological successor of Yair Stern. Following Yair Stern's murder in 1942, Eldad became one of the three men who formed the Lehi's 'Center'. After the state, Eldad became active in publishing a monthly magazine named Sulam. This article is taken from a Sulam magazine. Written by Israel Eldad, "Sulam" magazine, Adar 5717.
Four Purim Questions Masks How does Purim in which we dress up, wear masks, play Purim games, differ from Pesach in which there are no costumes and no masks and no games? That Purim was all about dressing up, covering. Esther doesn't tell; dresses up to a Persian lady. And also when her heart was grieving she wore lovely royal garments and beautified herself in order to find favor in the king's eyes, and the fate of her nation depended in the perfection of her make-up and the comeliness of her blue eye shadow. And juxtaposed to her was Mordechai who was covered in sack and ashes as he prayed. She was before a king; he was before the King of Kings. And now to the feasts? From the beginning until the end -- feasts. Here is the origin of the games. And so many secrets and sly diplomacy. Bigtan and Terash, Achashverosh and Haman, Mordechai and Esther, Esther and Achashverosh. Secrets and conspiracies. Not so in Pesach. There everything is revealed. From Moshe's being revealed as a Hebrew until G-d's revealment to Moshe at the burning bush. And the much revealed exodus. And from the beginning until the end all is revealed and known and everything is deeply serious. Without games and feasts. There is no redemption in costumes. The redemption is visible. "To Life" How does drinking on Purim which is drinking "le chaim", differ from drinking on Pesach in which one does not say "to life"? Because that is the essence of Purim: the life was saved in the lottery, in fate. There was a decree to kill and the decree was canceled and the Jews of Persia and Madai were left alive. On Pesach we drink four cups of redemption. In Purim there wasn't redemption at all and only the life, the life alone, the life in its nakedness was given to us. And hence the drinking "to life". And in Pesach we drink to redemption. No Measurement versus Four How does Purim in which no measurement was set for the amount of drinking, differ from Pesach in which four cups were set? Because Purim is a matter of a miracle, and the miracle is a thing without measurement, without law. In fact: the miracle is the breaking of law. But Pesach is a matter of redemption, and redemption has laws and doesn't have chances, it has necessity and doesn't have successes, hence it has rules, and even drinking rules. Because there is law to redemption. Gifts How does Purim in which we were commanded to give Mishloach Manot, differ from Pesach in which we were not commanded thus? Since on Purim we were given life as a gift. It's a matter of rescuing, and every rescue is a gift whether if from Heaven or from human hands. But redemption is not a matter of a gift. Redemption is a law. Which we will take and we will receive not as a gift. As a law. Contact Shifra Shomron at shifra@email.com |
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RAV BENNY'S VISION OF NU, THE NATIONAL UNION, ICHUD LEUMI
Posted by Batya Medad, February 27, 2006. |
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This feature article from the Jerusalem Post gives a good clear explanation of Rav Benny Elon's vision and political stance. Personally, I found it reassuring, since there have been some things publicized of late which bothered me tremendously. I am 100% convinced that when taking all into account, that there is only one party to vote for in the upcoming Israeli elections, and that's the Ichud Le'umi, The National Union. I agree with Rav Benny that the Likud is finished. Honestly, I never liked Limor Livnat, even though her mother is wonderful. Limor destroyed her credibility as an intelligent human being, forget about being a wily, wise, ideological politician, when she developed and supported the Dovrat Commission, for the "restructuring" of the Israeli Educational System. She failed in every aspect of her job as Minister of Education. Her wishy-washy stance on Disengagement only confirmed my worst suspicions. About Sylvan Shalom, who sees himself as Likud leader vying for top spot, I still can't see him as a real Likud ideologue. He always impressed me as one of those who joined the Likud when it was the party in power, because he wanted to be on the winning team. Rather inexplicably he stayed with the Likud, while the super-dirty-oportunists, like Olmert formed Kadima. My feeling is that he was left to bring the rest of Likud into a coalition with Kadima. And how can I forget Bibi Netanyahu, who took the flack as the tough Finance Minister taking responsibility for unpopular decisions and policies in the Sharon Government. Somehow, I get this strong feeling that regardless of the outcome of next month's elections, his career is far from over, especially if he inherited his father's longevity. Yes, Bibi was already Prime Minister once and did a disastrous job, but he'll keep trying. As depressing as the present situation is, we must vote. By not voting we are giving victory to those who want to destroy the State of Israel. This article is called "The Likud has finished its historic role" and was written by Gil Hoffman and appeared in the February 23, 2006 Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1139395469007&pagename= JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull). National Union-National Religious Party leader Benny Elon had tried unsuccessfully for years to unite the Right. He attempted to draft enough support on the Right to topple Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and prevent disengagement. He tried to delay the election by drafting the 61 MKs needed for Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu to form a temporary government. And he sought to bring a cluster of right-wing parties -- or at least all the religious-Zionist parties -- into one bloc that would run together in the March 28 election. Elon succeeded in his last goal after weeks of bitter negotiations between the National Union and the NRP -- and, it emerged, after discovering that a tumor in his throat was malignant. Some people in both parties consider the partnership temporary, though, according both to Elon and to NRP head Zevulun Orlev, the cancer will impede neither the alliance nor Elon's ability to remain at its helm. In fact, Elon sees the merger as just the first step toward building a solid right-wing bloc that could prevent Kadima from forming a coalition, and then, as the basis for a ruling party. Even before the nascent political bond has been tested, its potential success has already been questioned by pollsters who have predicted that it will not add a single mandate and by naysayers to the right and left of the party on the political spectrum. (An editorial in The Jerusalem Post said that the merger "marks...the unfortunate dilution of a unique and proud political institution that combined Zionism and religious moderation.") Elon answers his critics by saying that religious Zionism can still maintain its role as a bridge between the world of Torah and the world of academia, and that the NU-NRP alliance will lead not to the death of religious-Zionism but to its renaissance. You succeeded in uniting the National Union and the NRP. What's your next step? Short-term, we want the public to see that together with the religious parties, Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu, it is possible to build a bloc of 61 MKs that could prevent Kadima from forming a coalition. Long-term, we want to present an alternative ruling party built by a different community, a community of believers. The political "big bang" that Sharon used to explode the Likud necessitates doing something different. It would be easier, more practical and more right to build a new framework -- a new house -- than to remodel the old Likud house that has been destroyed. The crisis in the country is a spiritual crisis. A Right that rests only on hawkishness and security without relying on heritage, Bible and Torah will not last. The young religious people in the army and all facets of society are building a new right wing that is more spiritual. This new Right is more right. It's not just a matter of wearing a kippa. It's a deeper matter of faith. But without Sharon, why can't the Likud start over? Sharon was a Right of lies and we can't let that happen again. I want a Right that believes in security but also says this land is ours according to the Bible. We won't defeat the Arabs if we forget that justice is on our side. Justice says this isn't occupied -- it's mine. The Likud gave us a supermarket with no ethics. Much of the Likud can integrate itself into our new framework. The Likud talked about Judaism but it was mostly a ploy to bring in votes from traditional Sephardim. The Likud has finished its historic role and become a trap with no hope. The Likud won 40 seats against [Labor candidate Amram] Mitzna and look where they brought us. They didn't bring us closer to security or peace. They did bring us a Hamas state. We can say "I told you so" about Oslo and disengagement, but it won't help unless we provide an alternative. Without a partner, what can Israel do? Israel should adopt the idea that Sharon once talked about and I support, which calls for Jordan becoming a Palestinian state, Israel exercising sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria, and the Arabs living there becoming full citizens of Jordan. The Palestinian problem can be solved using an existing country that we have relations with, instead of creating a third country run by a bunch of gangsters. We should have tried to reach a regional solution with our neighbors. Instead we tried to create something new, ex nihilo, and now it should be clear that it failed. We should say we won't create a new Palestinian state. We will sit with Egypt and Jordan and talk about how to redefine the situation. If we have to share some land with them, we will. If we only have to divide responsibilities, it would be even better. We cannot create a fundamentalist state that would become a monster. Another state would topple us. Jordan was the only possible partner. Without them, we would be left with no option. How would you solve the demographic problem? It's clear that a fence is not enough if we control both sides of it. The way to fix the demographic problem is aliya or deciding that Palestinians don't vote for the Knesset because their capital is in Amman. It's better than giving the other side of the fence to the chaos of Hamas. Kadima doesn't have anything to say about that. If they withdraw unilaterally, they have to realize to whom they are giving it. How do you respond to those who wrote recently that religious Zionism moved to the fringe when the NRP merged with the National Union under your leadership? It's true that I haven't been part of the political mainstream, but religious Zionism isn't just politics. The religious-Zionist renaissance is learning Torah while being part of academia, the army and settling all of the land. In this, I am mainstream. I don't believe in the secular Right anymore. I don't believe in hawkishness that's not based on anything. I believe in the classic religious Zionism of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook -- of Torah and being part of the world. That makes me mainstream. Religious Zionism is the alternative, not just in politics but in education and society. It's important for a secular kid to know how to open a siddur. Our agenda won't be just about the Land of Israel. We need all the kids of Israel to be connected to tradition. It's hard to live in this country with reserve duty and taxes. People need motivation to live here. We need a foreign minister who travels the world with the Bible and makes a coalition of all the believers who know that God wants a strong Israel. Aren't you worried about moderate people who might be frightened off? There is a natural tendency of some Rightists not to vote for us because the NRP is not right-wing enough and some because the National Union is too hawkish. We will make every effort to reach these people and convince them that what we have in common is much more than what divides us, and I believe we will succeed. These people are smaller in number than the majority that was enthusiastically in favor. How can you talk about building a ruling party when religious Zionists are a small minority? First of all, in the polls, the Likud has fallen to 13-15 mandates and our numbers say we have 14, so it's not that unrealistic. The numbers are that 24 percent of Israelis send their children to religious-Zionist schools and some 50% of people at different religious levels consider themselves traditional. I think socially and educationally we are already the alternative and we will become so politically, too. After this election, it will become a lot clearer, and after the next election, it will be clear to everyone. It's a historic process. I am not saying they are wrong and we are right; I think it's a relay race and our time has come to take the baton. How do you explain polls published in The Jerusalem Post that have found that the merger didn't bring the Right more mandates, and the National Union and NRP will combine for only eight or nine seats whether or not they are united? I don't think the poll is reliable. All our polls say we have at least 12 seats before we start working, and I believe it will be much higher, because we will go from house to house as we did with the Likud referendum, bypassing the press and getting to people personally. I always believed in direct marketing. What are the chances the NU-NRP will be in the government? I still think there is a chance for Bibi to become prime minister if the Likud runs better. If the Right succeeds in winning the 61 MKs needed to block Kadima and the Left from forming a coalition, Kadima will split and then the Right could have 80 seats in the next Knesset. And if Olmert wins the election? We don't boycott people. We could join the coalition if Olmert decides that because there is no partner on the Palestinian side, the government's efforts need to be focused on socioeconomic issues and education. Allowing diplomatic issues to set the agenda at a time when there is no partner would be a waste of time. We will not sit in a government that will uproot even one Jewish settlement, no matter who is prime minister. But with no partner, even Labor cannot uproot settlements. Therefore, even if Amir Peretz wins the election, and he asks us to join a government with a socioeconomic and educational agenda, I say why not? If you ask me, this is the most urgent thing that needs to be done now, and this can unify the country. I have no problem sitting in a coalition on socioeconomic issues, even with Meretz. My problem with Meretz was the pleasure that they took in seeing Jews uprooted from the Gaza Strip. They were willing to vote for the budget and they gave up their socioeconomic agenda to allow disengagement to happen. All the social justice they talk about took a back seat. What keeps them together is just their hatred of the settlers. I would sit with them if they can get over their irrational hatred. Why is your only secular candidate, MK Aryeh Eldad, only eighth on the list? With all the political limitations, it was the best we could do. Places on lists don't matter. The proof of that is that Ehud Olmert was 33rd on the Likud list. Eldad was the last candidate in the National Union to make it into the Knesset in the last election and he proved that he could be successful. We also tried to raise our Anglo candidate, Uri Bank, beyond the 16th slot that he is in, but I have no doubt that he will join the Knesset, too. If we are in the coalition, we can adopt the Norwegian Law and have all our ministers quit to make room for more MKs. Why don't you quit the Knesset now, so Uri Bank, who is next on the list, will get in? I am considering it, but I am afraid of the public reaction. The MKs who joined the Knesset temporarily were accused of stealing government benefits. But if the public would accept it, and it helps Uri win more votes from the Anglos, I would be fine with it. Why did it take so long for the deal with the NRP to be finalized? It took a long time to find the wording to ensure that it wouldn't be a fictitious marriage. For instance, we needed to find a way to prevent the NRP from joining the coalition without us, while still allowing the parties to remain independent. We want the deal to last a lot longer than just the few weeks until the March 28 election. For gentiles, weddings can be just cocktails and happiness. In Jewish weddings, we read the ketuba with all of its unromantic details about divorce. Then, we say mazal tov and move on. Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il |
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RABBI WOODSTOCK'S VENEZUELAN "CHAVER"
Posted by Steven Plaut, February 26, 2006. |
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1. Waskow's New "Chaver" Now if you are like me, you consider the term "Reconstructionist Rabbi" a bit of an oxymoron. I do not quite know what Reconstructionism is (I prefer to call it Reconstructionist Deconstructionism, by the way), but I certainly do not consider it to be a legitimate movement within Judaism (regardless of what it might have once thought it was becoming, back in the days of Mordecai Kaplan). It is today little more than a whacky-dopey political movement that is based on "belief" in nothing at all except the left's agenda. It's "Rabbinic Seminary" was long ago hijacked by Tikkunites, and evidently was then merged with Rolling Stone Magazine, based on course contents. Many members of the Reconstructionist congregations I am familiar with are not even Jewish. Reconstructionism is about as legitimate a branch of Judaism as is the "Jews for Jesus". And while the entire movement is muddled and loopy, none come close to the level of complete lunacy as "Rabbi" Arthur Waskow. Long nicknamed Rabbi Woodstock in these corners, Waskow has devoted his life to promoting a pseudo-Judaism based upon bashing Israel, bashing America, green environmentalist extremism, and recently has even been promoting polygamy as a great Judaic ethic. His understanding of Judaism evidently comes from the Easy Rider movie. He plays Rabbi Cheech to Michael Lerner's Rabbi Chong, and the Cheech-and-Chong tag team have long dominated Tikkun and its satellites. Waskow is not taken seriously by anyone with any semblance of an understanding of Judaism, but nevertheless is a regular commentator at the Jerusalem Report, which has staked out the Jewish Left as its own turf. The magazine is popular among the Woodstockischer Chassidim. Which brings us to Rabbi Woodstock's letter in the Jerusalem Report of March 6, 2006. Responding to complaints among Jewish leaders that Venezuelan chief Hugo Chavez is an anti-Semitic and anti-American moonbat, Waskow rushes to Chavez' defense. His letter is entitled "Chaver Chavez". (I guess since Clinton's use of the term Chaver, nothing more demeaning to it can be done!) Waskow claims the reports of Hugo making anti-Jewish remarks are "mistaken". He insists Chavez is helping the poor folks in Philadelphia, where Waskow tokes, by providing them with cheaper oil. "Now they are receiving oil at very low prices from the Chavez government," opines the "Rabbi". We are not sure what Waskow had smoked before making THAT claim! While he criticizes Chavez for not being environmentalist enough for Waskow's PETA tastes, he also defends Chavez from attacks by Secretary Rumsfeld, insisting that while Hitler burned people alive in furnaces, Chavez is helping keep people alive by giving them oil to heat their furnaces. Yep, he really writes that! You may recall that Chavez said in a televised Christmas Eve speech that "minorities, descendants of those who crucified Christ ... have grabbed all the wealth of the world for themselves." I do not think he was talking about the Incas. The Wall Street Journal's "Americas" columnist, Mary Anastasia O'Grady, charged that his words constituted an "ugly anti-Semitic swipe that was of a piece with an insidious assault over the past several years on the country's Jewish community." Chavez was one of Iraq's friends before the war. The Weekly Standard has run a long piece (www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/903jhsjt.asp) on Chavez' anti-Semitism. He supplied Iraq with goods in violation of the embargo and was seen at least twice on national TV kissing Saddam Hussein. Earlier last year, the Caracas police stormed a Jewish pre-school with a lame excuse of looking for terrorists; they harassed the parents and petrified Jewish children. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre (www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/001373.html), and French journals Liberation and Le Monde have accused Chavez of being an anti-Semite. Chavez is so openly anti-Semitic that even Alexander Cockburn and Counterpunch endorse him. But Waskow seems to adore his Rabbi Hugo (www.spymac.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=193875), indeed seems to confuse him for the Vilna Gaon, not only because of Reb Hugo's anti-Semitism but of course mainly because of his gutter anti-Americanism (www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=12431). All of which makes Arthur Waskow the Harry Belafonte of the Jewish community, except that Belafonte may know more about real Judaism than Rabbi Woodstock does. Here is an older posting on this matter: After painful research I have now traced the origins of a bizarre sect of Hassidim. They originate in the Belarussian stedtel named Bialowoodstock. They have become known for short as the Woodstockischer Hassidim. Their movement spread at first to Galicia and Moldavia, where followers would search the forest floors in the Bulkovina in order to find hallucenogenic mushrooms and cannabis. Later the sect moved its headquarters to Philadelphia, with devotees as far off as Sebastopol (California). The Woodstockischers, also called the Mastoolishers, are led by a renowned Rav known as the Woodstock Rebbe Shlita, although before the era of perestroika he was also called Arthur Moscow. His follows are organized into groups called the Havurot of Heaviness. Occasionally, the Woodstock Rebbe holds his own Tisch-In or Be-In. He also specializes in romping through the forest while hugging trees. The Woodstockischer Hassidim are best known for their singing. The following is a typical song. It is of course in Yiddish, but you may be able to grasp the basic message in it if you really concentrate: Und when Der Rebbe Tokes, Und when Der Rebbe Tokes, 2. Excerpt from February 17, 2006 report to Ohio Jewish Communities: BOYCOTTS -- JCPA reported this week that the Association of American University Professors postponed its conference on academic boycotts. JCPA and its member agencies expressed concern over the conference's attendees-nearly half of which were outspoken supporters of an academic boycott of Israel-and the necessity of such a conference when the AAUP has held a long-standing policy against academic boycotts. Funders of the conference urged its postponement when Holocaust-denying material was circulated to conference attendees as background reading. 3. When President Bush announced that U.S. funds would be used to help rebuild a mosque damaged in Iraq this week, one would have expected an immediate firestorm of outrage from the ACLU and other liberal extremists. A "Violation of separation of church and state!" they would have been expected to argue in typical knee-jerk reaction. But, oddly enough, not a peep out of the ACLU, or the other usual suspects on the loony left. How to explain this indifference? After all, Bush's proposal involves an assault on the constitutionally-required separation of church and state, which, although it does not actually exist, is nevertheless revered as holy by liberals. Then I remembered. Liberals pursue church-state arguments only when it concerns Christian symbols and values. And they do so to advance their "Tear America Down" agenda. In other words, its perfectly fine to spend scores of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to rebuild a Mosque in Iraq, but not OK to display a cross or nativity scene in a public park at Christmas, or to delineate the Ten Commandments in a court house or other government building in America. Once again, liberal hypocrisy proves very vexing. One is at a loss to explain how such misguided and harmful thinking is able to survive in a sophisticated, modern society like America. John W. Lillpop
Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments -- both seriously and satirically -- on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or contact him by email at stevenplaut@yahoo.com. |
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MUSLIM PREACHER ON TEMPLE MOUNT: RESTORE WORLDWIDE ISLAMIC RULE
Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, February 26, 2006. |
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This was written by Hillel Fendel and is from Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews.com). Sheikh Ismail Nawahda, preaching to Moslem masses on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Friday, has brought it out into the open: the call to restore the Moslem Khalifate, or, "Genuine Islamic Rule." A plan for the "Return of the Khalifate" was published secretly in 2002 by a group called "The Guiding Helper Foundation." The group explained that it wished to "give direction to the educated Muslim populace in its increasing interest in the establishment of Islam as a practical system of rule." This past Friday, Feb. 24, however, the plan went public. Sheikh Nawahda called publicly for the renewal of the Islamic Khalifate, which would "unite all the Moslems in the world against the infidels." The Khalifate system features a leader, known as a Khalif, who heads worldwide Islam. Assisted by a ten-man council, his decisions are totally binding on all Moslems. According to the Foundation's vision of the Khalifate, significant punishment can only be meted out for 14 crimes, including "accusing a chaste person of fornication," "not performing the formal prayer," and "not fasting during Ramadan." The Foundation recommends working to restore the Moslem dictatorship using a system of small groups around the world. The purpose is so that the "enemies of Islam" who "will definitely try to stop us" will have a "much harder task, if not impossible, if they are faced with a myriad of small groups of differing locations, ethnicities," etc. This method also "ensures that if one group... is found and cut off, other similar groups will remain undetected." Sheikh Nawahda reminded his Temple Mount audience that the first step taken by Muhammed in stabilizing his rule was to form the nucleus of the first Islamic country in the city of Medina. Nawahda also said that the status of Moslems around the world has dropped drastically ever since the collapse of the last Khalifate in 1924, after Turkey became a democratic republic. Nawahda called upon the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority to rise above their personal and party interests, and said that Moslems must return to Islam and join forces in the struggle against the West. He praised the worldwide protests against the anti-Muhammed cartoons, and encouraged the Moslem public to continue such activities. He implied that those who insulted Muhammed are liable for death. The Sheikh designated the Moslem masses as a strong point that can be utilized in the fight against the West. [Ben-Menachem: Okay, and now for the quiz. Anybody recognize the real source of these ideas? If you haven't caught on yet, I'll reveal to you where these Satanic jerks get their ideas. The book is called, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion". It's amazing but these imbaciles are actually trying to follow that!] Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org |
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THE ANTI-POLL: AN UNSCIENTIFIC STUDY
Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, February 26, 2006. |
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Dr. Aaron Fine, the head of Israel's Tatzpit polling agency told Arutz-7 Sunday that 75% of the public refuses to take part in polls, rendering poll results nearly useless (www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=98406). There's a fairly well-established tradition in Israel. On election night, the kids get to stay up late and families huddle around their televisions waiting to hear Haim Yavin (or whoever) predictably pronounce the word ma'hapach. In electoral jargon, that would mean an upset. The word is stronger in Hebrew and implies a revolutionary change. The almost routine anticipation of a dramatic electoral turnabout may sound a bit far fetched for some of you, but in Israel, tumult is par for the course. My favorite part of the televised episode is getting to watch all those pundits and pollsters with their sheepish little grins as they try to explain their failure in predicting the correct results. Dr. Mina Zemach from Dahaf does it best. Now, the nation of Israel has no deficiency of smart numbers people. I imagine we have a glut of accountants, statisticians and demographers. At times, it seems that the entire country is caught-up in the spell cast by some obsessive compulsive people who toy day in and day out with figures and percentages. For example, Peace Now is full of such individuals. They spend their days counting the number of houses, structures, people and progress in the Jewish communities outside of their headquarters which is located in the sovereign territory of Gush Shalom (which is located in a section of the Pink City which used to be known as Tel Aviv, until rose-colored glasses and ostrich feathers became fashionable). And then they devise a variety of practical ploys to thwart that growth. But it's a kind of an exercise in masochism (they're into that) and frustration. Because no matter how hard they try, those numbers outside of their fair city keep increasing. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=98101 So there must be other factors at play here that transcend the loaded polls, political ploys, and media deception employed by those who are intent on burying Zionism, Judaism and Eretz Yisrael. Let's face it, polling services, their clients, employees and the folks on the receiving end of the phone line are only human (or inhuman), and personal/political agendas are always a component. So to be fair, let's consider that the margin of error in any Israeli poll ranges from a reasonable 4.4 to an outrageous 44 percent. In this way, the pollsters can always blame the results on a misplaced decimal point. But there are other factors at play which should certainly be considered: The Couch Potato Factor: these are the people who say, "yeah, sure I'll answer the pollster on the telephone, but it'll take a crane to lift me off of this recliner and drag me out to vote." The Spook Factor: These are the right-wingers among us who are sure that their phones are tapped and that every call from a telemarketer to a pollster to their sister in-law is no doubt a shabak agent. Rule of thumb: when the phone rings, keep 'em guessing. The Ellen's Husband Factor: A very funny guy (at least that's what he tells me) with a very Israeli sense of humor. He has come up with a variety of voting combinations made to perplex the most astute pollster. My personal favorite is his impersonation of the Meretz activist with 22 children from Mea Shearim (great Yiddish accent!). Come to think of it, we haven't been called at all this year (which must also be factored in, as these pollsters are simply are not calling the right people). Perhaps the most baffling and unpredictable factor for anyone involved in the numbers game is... (thunder or drum roll, please)... The G-d Factor: This factor is so elusive that your average expert is completely unaware of it or, if cognizant of it, may go as far as to deny its relevance. But those in the know, know that this is the ultimate factor and it is also the key as to why scientific polls and demographic studies taken in the Land of Israel are, more often than not, notoriously inaccurate and inapplicable. So, as we're hounded by the weekly figures and pie charts, remember that it's the human factor in us that causes us to put a degree of faith in Arabic and Roman numerical systems. And as the weeks before the vote decrease, and tensions increase, remember that man-made polling projections and our electoral system are as flawed as is man himself. Nevertheless, elections are indeed a vehicle for change and we are duty bound to vote and to try and effect change via a tiny slip of paper. Remember that it's our hopes, prayers and actions which can flood the ballot box with light and miraculously translate into positive results. If that doesn't relieve your anxiety, then remember Mina's sheepish and defeated little grin -- and it's sure to make you laugh. "Pollsters Fill Out the Forms Themselves"
Channel 10 expose: Though political polls play a large role in Israel's public discourse, they're not carried out professionally. In one prominent institute, staffers fill out some forms themselves. Channel Ten "spies" who went to work for some of the polling companies found that in some cases, for fear of being fined for not meeting the quota, the surveyors fill out the forms themselves. In the Dachaf Institute, Israel's largest polling firm, Channel Ten found that supervision over the question-askers was very weak. In one instance, when a major foul-up was detected in a poll, the supervisor merely said, "Our entire poll is messed up, but we of course have a way to overcome it..." At the Shvakim Panorama polling institute, Channel Ten found that it is "easy to get work there," the workers do not always actually make phone calls to find out the public's opinions, and that supervision is lax. "The worker next to me said it's OK to do what I want," one planted Channel Ten staffer said, "and even to fill out the forms myself. The supervisor passes through once an hour to collect the forms." In response, Dachaf said that the claims raised have no basis in evidence and are groundless. A recent Arutz-7 interview with Dr. Aharon Fein, head of the Tatzpit polling firm, revealed other types of critical deficiencies with public surveys. Fein said that the polls reflect only the opinion of those who are willing to cooperate with the pollsters, and that these sometimes number only 25% of the populace. "We feel that most of those who do not respond lean towards the right-wing," he said. "The polls are distorted, and we will see this in the elections." Polls published on Friday show that the Kadima Party continues to lead, with 39-40 Knesset seats, with Labor and Likud to receive fewer than half that amount.
Ellen Horowitz and her family live on the Golan Heights. She is a
painter, columnist and author of The Oslo Years: A Mother's Journal
(http://osloyears.com).
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'TOM AND JERRY' IS A JEWISH CONSPIRACY
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, February 26, 2006. |
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If you might have been wondering why normal people are a bit nervous about the Iranians acquiring nuclear weapons, now you know. This is from WorldNetDaily (www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48996). Tom and Jerry -- a Jewish makeover? Iranian official says cartoon is conspiracy to improve image of mice, Jews 
Tom and Jerry, the lovable cat and mouse locked in cartoon combat, is a Jewish conspiracy, according to an Iranian official. Prof. Hasan Bolkhari, a cultural advisor to the Iranian Education Ministry, delivered the news last week on Iran's Channel 4 during a broadcast of film seminar where he was lecturing. An excerpt of the video was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1049). "The Jewish Walt Disney Company gained international fame with this cartoon," said Bolkhari. "It is still shown throughout the world. This cartoon maintains its status because of the cute antics of the cat and mouse -- especially the mouse. "Some say that the main reason for making this very appealing cartoon was to erase a certain derogatory term that was prevalent in Europe." According to the professor, "Tom and Jerry" was created to irradicate the association between mice and Jews created in the minds of Europeans by Hitler. "If you study European history, you will see who was the main power in hoarding money and wealth in the 19th century," continued Bolkhari. "In most cases, it is the Jews. Perhaps that was one of the reasons which caused Hitler to begin the anti-Semitic trend, and then the extensive propaganda about the crematoria began. ... Some of this is true. We do not deny all of it. "Watch 'Schindler's List.' Every Jew was forced to wear yellow star on his clothing. The Jews were degraded and termed 'dirty mice.' 'Tom and Jerry' was made in order to change the Europeans' perception of mice. One of terms used was 'dirty mice.' "It should be noted that mice are very cunning ... and dirty." "Tom and Jerry," the creation of Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna, was created in 1939, the year World War II began and while the Holocaust was in full force, for the MGM cartoon studios, not Disney. During the next 18 years, Hanna and Barbera created over 200 cartoons featuring Tom and Jerry, earning the pair seven Academy Awards. Today, "Tom and Jerry" is owned by Turner Entertainment. "If you happen to watch this cartoon tomorrow, bear in mind the points I have just raised," said Bolkhari, "and watch it from this perspective. The mouse is very clever and smart. Everything he does is so cute. He kicks the poor cat's a--. Yet this cruelty does not make you despise the mouse. He looks so nice, and he is so clever. ... This is exactly why some say it was meant to erase this image of mice from the minds of European children, and to show that the mouse is not dirty and has these traits. Unfortunately, we have many such cases in Hollywood shows."
Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is
Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit
(www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet
buying facility for American visitors to Israel.
Contact him at zelasko@actcom.co.il
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TERRORIST ATTACK ON JEWISH TOWN
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, February 26, 2006. |
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It is long beyond time for Jews to recognize that these attack are acts of terrorism. This is a news item from today's Arutz Sheva - www.IsraelNationalNews.com (www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=99192). It is called "Army Evicts Jews from Givat Ha'Or Shortly Before the Sabbath" (IsraelNN.com) Residents of the Givat Ha'Or outpost near Beit El report that police and army soldiers arrived about 15 minutes before the start of the Sabbath on Friday afternoon to evict them from that location. They were forced out of the area, with at least one resident compelled to walk back to Beit El, since the Sabbath had already begun. When asked to show the order permitting the action, the officers in charge did not, leading residents to believe there was no order. In addition, the residents charge the action led to unnecessary desecration of the Sabbath since security forces videoed the area and confiscated property well after the Sabbath began, in addition to breaking into a car that was in the outpost and confiscating some of its contents. Residents added that the breaking into the vehicle was an illegal act since there was no court order permitting such a move. Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel. Contact him at zelasko@actcom.co.il |
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LALA LAND! WHERE ARE THEIR VOICES?
Posted by Arlene Peck, February 26, 2006. |
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We, who live in the land of Hollywood or rather, "La La Land," seem to do everything a little grander than the norm. Our benefits are filled with dubious celebrities. Most of them have no idea which charity they are allegedly supporting. In reality their publicists arrange for them to show up, quite often just to receive an "honor." This way, they can be assured of having national press coverage of the event, as well as driving away in their fancy limos with a plaque in hand; another trophy to put on the wall for all to see, another enhancement to their self esteem. I can name several who, once the camera is gone, want nothing more to do with the charity they are supposedly representing. They absolutely love whales, the environment, their Jags, nannies, botox and their leftist causes. Some of the Jewish stars whom I have met actually kept their original names. Most of them don't have a clue what the word "Jewish" actually means. They really believe that once the area of Gaza was cleared of a group that we had been brain-washed for years into thinking were interlopers or "settlers" in Gaza, the "Palestinians" would go about printing their own currency and stamps and be on their way to their own peaceful country. Their "friends," Hamas now wants a free market? Maybe it's time to tell them that if they can't grasp the concept of freedom of expression and speech without having heads and hands cut off, they can hardly be ready for the "perks" that come along with democracy. Turkey and Russia are meeting with the Arab terrorists. Don't both of these countries have their hands full with Muslin rebels? I remember that not so long ago Muslims were using Russian school children for target practice. And now, Putin invites them for tea! When is the next infusion of EU, US and Israeli money due to keep the PA government running? Or rather, the supply lines for weapons and terrorism running. We seem to be amazed that the answer to changing the nature of these alligators who call themselves Palestinians isn't to throw them more meat. Frankly, as bad as I see the present leadership in Israel, I am more afraid of the direction we are being led. There appears to be a severe vacuum of leadership in both Israel and the US. I watched George Bush during his press conference say: "These are cold blooded murderers who want to destroy America. You cannot reason with them. You have to destroy them." Then, he approves turning over security control of six major American seaports to an Arab company based out of United Arab Emirates. Do you see anything wrong with this picture? Obviously former President Jimmy Carter doesn't as he on record saying how upset he is over the negative response...Did I mention that I am from Georgia and he was the worst governor that we ever had? While the media has been preoccupied with the break-up of Britney Spears and the Cheney buckshot that went astray, this administration has approved a plan for major seaports of the United States, probably one of the most vulnerable targets for terrorism, to be turned over to a state owned company of the United Arab Emirates. That would make them privy to matters of national security concerning the way we protect our ports. And this, folks, is who Israel is supposed to be taking direction from in the Road map to Hell? Yet, this is the same man who, while promoting his "War on Terror," refuses to close our borders to illegal, potentially dangerous aliens who are pouring into the US via Canada and Mexico. He's even welcoming another 25,000 Saudi "students" in the coming year. He discourages any plan to build hybrid cars. Frankly, as bad as I see the present leadership in Israel, I fear for the direction we, in the US, are being led even more. Now, however, the Bush administration has gone on record and rebuffed criticism about the dangers of the 6.8 billion dollar sale that gives his good friends, the Arabs, control over security operations at six major American ports. I feel ever so much better... Or I would feel better if we could be assured that government leadership in the US and Israel recognized the dangers currently confronting the democratic, civilized, free world and were really paying close attention to national security. Our fellow Jews in Hollywood don't understand that throwing more of our tax dollars at the problem is simply not working. I never had a doubt in the world about what is now occurring. A year ago, I wrote that the minute the Jews left Gaza chaos would rein supreme and the Arabs would have an instant base from which to attack Israel. Isn't that exactly what has happened? Unfortunately, the world seems to have taken it in stride. And, those in "the industry" continue to think just giving them a 'hug' will solve everything. I speak to so many groups and here are some of the questions they ask me: "Who in Hollywood is supporting Israel." "Name the stars who have no problem adding to their 'benefit schedule' participation in a rally for Israel"? "Who out there is protesting the Nazi behavior that our fathers witnessed in Nazi Germany." Unfortunately, I can't think of any. And the few that I can, aren't even Jewish. I am furious about the fact that out of a culture of 1.4billion people, I can't find fifty who are vocal in their opposition to the barbaric behavior of their Islamic brothers and sisters and are publicly stating that these fanatics don't represent them. But, what about our own? I am tired of looking at raging scenes in our newspapers and on our television of hundreds of thousands of Islamic killers burning, looting and destroying everything in sight. I am both appalled and delighted that these fanatics, who have no humor in their souls, are killing one another over cartoons! Peace? Not in my lifetime. The Muslims don't want the democracy that we are offering. They live to sing "death to the Jews" all day... every day. No matter how many pieces of land Israel gives away there will never be acceptance of the Jewish state. The Hollywood crowd doesn't get it. I used to think that this sign of hostility was peculiar only to the Middle East, but now I know that a Jewish state is not wanted anywhere, maybe not even by some Jewish Americans. So many of the Hollywood crowd, in their quest to be politically correct, have lost sight of the fact that they are Jewish. Hamas has only one myopic goal and that is the eradication of Israel, one slice at a time. Kill Jews, destroy Israel. This is what they want and militant Islamism demands it. The Saturday people are ho-hum now. The Sunday people are next and the Muslims are burning down churches with glee. This crazed culture of death is speeding up their "final plan" and they are hell-bent on destroying anyone, from any culture and country, that isn't "them." So, I wonder. Who benefits from the public relations bounty gained by the constant concessions of the Israeli people? My goodness, could the undeserving beneficiaries of the "aid" to the Middle East be the very same ones who have over eleven billion dollars in hidden Swiss bank accounts or in Shua Arafat's shopping bag in Paris? Are those the primary beneficiaries cashing the checks from our grandiose giving? Helping the needy and supporting charitable causes is admirable. However, my momma, Queen Mollie, used to tell me, "He who tends everybody else's garden, gets weeds in their own!" Besides, as they like to think in the land of the stars, "Is it tax deductible"? Charity really does begin at home...Besides, it would give the folks here in La La Land an excuse to give a benefit and go home with a plaque. And, maybe President Bush could give one of his Arab Kings another hug and walk into the sunset once again holding hands. Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess. She can be reached at: bestredhead@earthlink.net and www.arlenepeck.com |
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SYNAGOGUE DESTROYED
Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, February 25, 2006. |
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Decent people of the world were horrified by the destruction of the gold domed mosque last week, but on the same day, the destruction of an active synagogue -- by a progressive government, supposedly based on civil law -- was hardly even noted. On February 22, 2006, an active mosque, much beloved by its Muslim congregation, was destroyed after a powerful bomb exploded inside it, destroying the gold dome on its roof. This was one of Iraq's most famous religious shrines. Terrorists detonated powerful explosives, destroying most of the building, and prompting thousands of people to flood into streets across the country in protest. (This attack, 60 miles north of Baghdad, caused extensive international outrage.) On February 22, 2006, an active synagogue, much beloved by its Jewish congregation, was destroyed after heavy construction equipment tore off the roof, crushed its concrete walls and drove through its sanctuary. This was the only active synagogue in the country of Tajikistan, a country north of Afghanistan and south of Russia. The synagogue was destroyed so the government can build a grand palace for its president. "If the Jews want to have [rebuild] a synagogue, let them pay for it out of their own funds," said Shamsuddin Nuriddinov, head of the City of Dushanbe, Religious Affairs Department. (This attack, 280 miles north of Kabul, Afghanistan, caused NO international outrage.) According to Google News, 2,930 news articles appear for the mosque destruction, while only six exist on the synagogue destruction -- and those six are really just one brief mention that has been repeated through syndication in American newspapers. In regard to the mosque destruction, statements were issued from leaders around the world. President Bush stated, "I extend my deepest condolences to the people of Iraq for the brutal bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra....The American people pledge to work with the people of Iraq to rebuild and restore the Golden Mosque of Samarra to its former glory." He added: "The United States stands ready to do all in its power to assist the Government of Iraq to identify and bring to justice those responsible for this terrible act." There are some 150 Jews in Tajikistan, mostly elderly Bukharian Jews. When news of the destruction of the Tajikistan synagogue reached the Bukharian community in the United States, the news was met with shock; people whose children were brought up in that synagogue reacted in tears. Members of the Bukharian community in Atlanta, Georgia stated they worry about the Jewish cemeteries that are near the synagogue, what will happen to them? In regard to the synagogue destruction, not one statement was made by any government of any country around the world. The only Jewish organization to speak up on this was the International Sephardic Leadership Council, of which this writer is executive director of. While the media covered some 1,000 Israeli fans of a Tel Aviv basketball team demonstrating on Saturday night against the destruction of the team's historic arena, not one person in the main stream media has come out to address the destruction of the center of Jewish life in Tajikistan. First the government destroyed the mikvah (ritual bath), then the kosher butcher shop, now the entire synagogue. While Iraq is 97% Islamic, Tajikistan comes in at 85% Islamic and growing. And while the Iraqi Muslims claim say the community near the gold domed mosque was there for 1000 years, the Jewish community has been in the area surrounding Tajikistan for 2000 years. And while the gold domed mosque in Iraq was built in 1905 -- a little over 100 years ago -- the synagogue in Tajikistan was built 100 years ago as well. Yet, everyone is quiet about this. Including Jewish organizations -- this must change. The destruction of the Tajikistan synagogue is the most disgraceful act committed by a sovereign state toward its Jewish population since the end of WWII. The Soviet Union and its successor states may have oppressed and harassed their Jewish communities, but even at the height of Stalin's anti-Semitic purges they did not seek to wipe every element of Jewish existence like the Tajikistan government. It is an ominous message for a Jewish community, that while living under a government that is attempting to rebuild its economic, political and social image -- it starts by wiping out the only synagogue in its country. Where is the outrage!? This below is a special statement from Shelomo Alfassa, Executive Director, International Sephardic Leadership Council (http://www.sephardiccouncil.org). The Council is at 45 John St, NYC. "The International Sephardic Leadership Council is based in the heart of the vibrant Near-Eastern Sephardic Community of New York City, a community highly committed to Judaism, made up of 75,000 Syrian, Egyptian, Lebanese, Turkish and North African Jews; one of the largest, strongest, and fastest growing Sephardic communities in the world." (New York, NY) February 22, 2006 -- The International Sephardic Leadership Council is dismayed that the city of Dushanbe in Tajikistan has started to destroy an active and functioning synagogue-the only synagogue in the entire country. The 150 members of the Jewish community, mainly made up of Bukharian Jews, is elderly and poor and cannot afford to build a new synagogue. 
The synagogue was built by the Jewish community a century ago. It was earmarked for demolition under plans for construction of a "Palace of Nations" (the Tajik president's new residence). Between February 7-20, 2006 the city authorities demolished the mikva (ritual bathhouse), classroom and kosher butchery of the synagogue. While the government claims the synagogue technically belongs to the state, Rabbi Mikhail Abdurakhmanov of Dushanbe told a human rights group, "By rights the synagogue ought to belong to the Jews who paid for its construction about 100 years ago." He reported then that the authorities had offered a plot of land some distance from central Dushanbe, where the community could build a new synagogue. Yet, there was no way the mainly elderly congregation could afford to build a new synagogue. Forum18 News reported Shamsuddin Nuriddinov, head of the Dushanbe Religious Affairs Department indicated the government had no intention of offering financial compensation for the demolition of the synagogue. "Religion is separate from the state here in Tajikistan. If the Jews want to have a synagogue, let them pay for it out of their own funds." Shelomo Alfassa, director of the International Sephardic Leadership Council stated: It is an ominous message for a Jewish community, that while living under a government that is attempting to rebuild its economic, political and social image-it starts by wiping out the only synagogue in its country. The international Jewish community must do everything it can to help the remaining elderly and poverty-stricken Jews there, this includes considering emigration. In past years, the secular led Tajikistan government has been accused of tolerating the presence of training camps for Islamic militants, an accusation which it has strongly denied. A local citizen reported that when a Jewish member of the synagogue filmed the destruction, officials threatened to break his video-camera. Reports have circulated that members of the community indicate that they have been threatened by government officials for raising their voices. Tajikistan, west of China and north of Afghanistan, became independent in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union and has now completed its transition from the civil war that plagued the country from 1992 to 1997. Today, the country is 90% Muslim. Bukharian Jews have lived in Tajikistan for over 1,000 years without experiencing anti-Semitism. They were joined by a small Ashkenazi presence following World War II. In 1995, the Dushanbe synagogue and several Jewish homes were broken
into and ransacked. From this event, fear caused many Jews from
Dushanbe to emigrate. About 10,000 Tajik Jews have fled to Israel
since 1989. In 1992, there was a little-known but successful airlift
operation to bring Jews out of Tajikistan and into Israel. In August
2005 the Israeli Consul to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, Anatoliy
Livshits visited the community about potentially emigrating to Israel,
this is something the International Sephardic leadership Council
strongly supports.
Ellen Horowitz and her family live on the Golan Heights. She is a
painter, columnist and author of The Oslo Years: A Mother's Journal
(http://osloyears.com).
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THE TORTURE AND MURDER OF ILAN HALIMI, FRENCH JEW
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, February 25, 2006. |
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The following story by Caroline Glick is not only about a Jew being tortured to death in France by Algerian Muslims which is horrible enough -- but -- its seems that the Jewish leadership didn't even care. That was the more horrible failure. It speaks to the possibility of the re-establishment of the Judenrat of Germany who collaborated with their executioners -- and the rest of Europe who also followed along as it the German Nazis were their masters. This story also speaks about the Left Liberal government in Israel under the Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who, like the Judenrat, has more in common with Hamas than with the Jewish people. I believe in the coming years, after the Left Liberals abandon the Jewish Land, which will quickly be filled with Muslim Arab Terrorists who will rain down missiles on Tel Aviv -- only then will the hunt for the collaborators begin in earnest. The collaborators will be equally as quick to deny their role, adopting new masks, claiming innocence in the pending deaths of so many of their Jewish neighbors, friends -- even their own families. But, I feel certain that those who will be again called survivors will hunt them down and seek vengeance for the loses they have suffered. From the highest government official to the lowest, they will be made to pay for their crimes against the Jewish people. As Caroline Glick points out: The murder and torture of Ilan Halimi was met with silence by Israeli leaders, making them co-conspirators after the fact of Halimi's murder. Apparently, Halimi's murder had some connection to Hamas. French Interior Minister said the Police found propaganda published by the Palestinians Charity Committee or the CBSP -- a front group for Palestinian Terrorists. In August 2003 the U.S. government froze the organization's U.S. bank accounts, accusing it of links with Hamas. The French police refused to take the anti-Semitic motivations of the kidnapers seriously, although in phone conversations with Ilan's family, they recited verses from the Koran while Ilan was heard screaming in agony in the background. The French government waited a week before acknowledging the anti-Semitic nature of the crime -- because French Muslims make up at least 10 to 13% of the French population, and comprise a quarter of the population under 25 years old. The Israeli government's failure to recognize the exterminationist anti-Semitism of Ilan's murderers proven by the fact that there were no official Israeli reactions to Ilan's abduction, torture and murder. The French Jewish community considers Halimi's murder the greatest calamity to have befallen it in recent years. Aliya rose 25% last year. Ilan's mother told reporters that her son had planned to make aliya soon. The French press noted the Israeli media have not given the story prominent coverage. The unelected Kadima interim government, like the Israeli media, is doing everything in its power to lull the Israelis into complacency toward the storm of rage in Judea, Samaria and Gaza; the ascension of Hamas to power; and Iran's threats of nuclear annihilation. As a result, Israel's citizens and the media appears inert. Israel's latest Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni claimed Israel's current creed was "Conditional Zionism"...that Israel's international legitimacy is conditional. Unless another Palestinian State is established in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, Livni warned, Israel will lose its legitimacy as a Jewish State. As Caroline Glick said: The acting oligarchy including "Livni, Acting PM Ehud Olmert, Shimon Peres and the rest of the Kadima gang, unlike every other people in the world, the Jewish people does not have an inherent, natural right to exist as a free, sovereign and independent people in its homeland. For Kadima, the Jewish people's right to self-determination in our Land is merely conditional on our enemies acceptance for our right to be here." 
enemies, who shout from every soapbox and prove at every opportunity that their goal is the annihilation of the Jewish people. From 1933-1945, the enemy was Nazi Germany. Today, the enemy is political Islam. Its call for jihad aimed at annihilating the Jews and dominating the world is answered by millions of people throughout the world. Among the lessons of the Holocaust, there is one that is almost never mentioned. That lesson is that it is possible, and indeed fairly easy to exterminate the Jews. The fact that the Holocaust happened proves that it is absolutely possible for the Jewish people to be wiped off the map -- just as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hamas leader Khaled Mashal promise. The story of Ilan Halimi's murder at the hands of a terrorist gang of French Muslims brings to the surface the various pathologies now converging to make the prospect of annihilating all Jews seem possible to our enemies. First, there are the murderers who took such apparent pleasure and felt such pride in the fact that for 20 days they tortured their Jewish hostage to death. This makes sense. Anti-Semitism in the Muslim dominated suburbs of Paris and other French cities is all-encompassing. As Nidra Poller related in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, "One of the most troubling aspects of this affair is the probable involvement of relatives and neighbors, beyond the immediate circle of the gang [of kidnappers], who were told about the Jewish hostage and dropped in to participate in the torture." It appears that Ilan Halimi's murderers had some connection to Hamas. Tuesday, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said that police found propaganda published by the Palestinian Charity Committee or the CBSP at the home of one of the suspects. The European Jewish Press reported this week that Israel has alleged that the organization is a front group for Palestinian terrorists and that in August 2003 the US government froze the organization's US bank accounts, accusing it of links with Hamas. Halimi's family alleges that throughout the 20 days of Ilan's captivity, the French police refused to take the anti-Semitic motivations of the kidnappers into account. The investigators insisted on viewing his kidnap as a garden variety kidnap-for-ransom criminal case, which they said generally involves no threat to the life of the captive. The police maintained their refusal to investigate the anti-Semitic motivations of the kidnappers in spite of the fact that in their e-mail and telephone communications with Ilan's family, his captors repeatedly referred to his Judaism, and on at least one occasion recited verses from the Koran while Ilan was heard screaming in agony in the background. The family alleges that if the police had been willing to acknowledge that Ilan was abducted because he was Jewish, they would have recognized that his life was in clear and immediate danger and acted with greater urgency. Like the police, the French government waited an entire week after Ilan was found naked, with cuts and burns over 80 percent of his body by a train station in suburban Paris, before acknowledging the anti-Semitic nature of the crime. According to the press reports, the French government was at least partially motivated to suppress the issue of anti-Semitism because it feared inflaming the passions of the French Muslims who make up between 10 to 13 percent of the French population and comprise a quarter of the population under 25 years old. And yet, now that the French government has acknowledged that the crime was motivated by hatred of Jews, it is behaving responsibly in pursuing the murderers and decrying the attack on French Jewry. In addition to the exterminationist anti-Semitism of Ilan's murderers and the unwillingness of the French authorities to acknowledge the anti-Semitic nature of the crime until it was too late, there is one more aspect of the case that bears note. That is Israel's reaction to the atrocity. In short, there has been absolutely no official Israeli reaction to the abduction, torture and murder of a Jew in France by a predominantly Muslim terrorist gang that kidnapped, tortured and murdered him because he was a Jew. No Israeli government minister, official or spokesman has condemned his murder. No Israeli official has demanded that the French authorities investigate why the police refused to take anti-Semitism into account during Ilan's captivity. No Israeli official flew to Paris to participate in Ilan's funeral or any other memorial or demonstration in his memory. The Foreign Ministry's Web site makes no mention of his murder. The Israeli Embassy in Paris -- which has been without an ambassador for the past several months -- only publicly expressed its condolences to the Halimi family on February 23, 10 days after Ilan was found. This, when the French Jewish community considers Halimi's murder to have been the greatest calamity to have befallen it in recent years; when aliya rates rose 25% last year; and when Ilan's mother has told reporters that her son had planned to make aliya soon and was just staying in France to save money to finance his move to Israel. For its part, as Michelle Mazel pointed out in The Jerusalem Post yesterday, the French press has noted that the Israeli media has not given the story prominent coverage. Halimi's murder has not appeared on the front pages of the papers or at the top of the television or radio broadcasts. Although appalling, the absence of an official Israeli outcry against Halimi's murder is not the least surprising. Today, the unelected Kadima interim government, like the Israeli media, is doing everything in its power to lull the Israeli people into complacency towards the storm of war raging around us. Against the daily barrages of Kassam rockets on southern Israel; nervous reports of al-Qaida setting up shop in Judea, Samaria and Gaza; the ascension of Hamas to power in the Palestinian Authority; and Iran's threats of nuclear annihilation, Israel's citizenry, under the spell of Kadima and the media, appears intent on ignoring the dangers and pretending that what happens to Jews in France has nothing to do with us. Israel's societal meekness accords well with Kadima's ideology. Its creed was best expressed by Foreign Minister, Justice Minister and Immigration Minister Tzipi Livni last month at the Herzliya Conference and is best characterized as "Conditional Zionism." In her speech, Livni explained that Israel's international legitimacy is conditional. Unless a Palestinian state is established in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, she warned, Israel will lose its legitimacy as a Jewish state. So for Livni, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Shimon Peres and the rest of the Kadima gang, unlike every other people in the world, the Jewish people does not have an inherent, natural right to exist as a free, sovereign and independent people in its homeland. For Kadima, the Jewish people's right to self-determination in our land years is conditional on our enemies' acceptance of our right to be here. Kadima's conditional Zionism finds expression in its policies in Judea and Samaria. There, the gist of the government's actions is that the only people with inherent human rights in Judea and Samaria are the Arabs. Throughout the areas, the government, backed by the post-Zionist courts, prohibits Jews from building on land that Jews own. Today, as Moshe Rosenbaum, the mayor of Beit El explains, even receiving a permit to build an extension on a standing house or additional classrooms in a school is all but impossible. While Olmert and Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra have repeatedly condemned Jews for allegedly cutting down trees owned by Arabs in Judea and Samaria, the government has said nothing and done nothing to stop the wholesale destruction of Jewish orchards and national forests in the areas by Palestinians. Over the past several months, in the vicinity of Gush Etzion alone, thousands of Jewish-owned trees have been chopped down by Arab vandals. Two national forests have been laid to waste. Busy directing their energies and attentions at delegitimizing the Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria, the government has ignored Israel's enemies. And so, as Kassam attacks against Israel multiply by the day and Hamas leaders hold Jew-hating love-fests with Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenaei in Teheran, Olmert assured us Wednesday that Hamas is not a strategic threat to Israel. When the Israeli government itself is claiming Jewish rights are not inherent but rather defined and granted by others, it can surprise no one the government has ignored Halimi's murder. Luckily for both Israel and the Jews around the world, the current leadership is not our only option. We have other leaders, the most prominent among them being Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu and former IDF chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Moshe Ya'alon. Both of these men understand well that the two most important lessons for the Jews from the Holocaust are that we must never grant anyone else the authority, legitimacy or power to define who we are or what our rights are, and we are all responsible for one another. On Tuesday, Ya'alon, who is currently based at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, came to Jerusalem for the day to speak at a conference on the strategic implications of Hamas's takeover of the Palestinian Authority. There Ya'alon explained what he considers to be the key to Israel's security. Israel, he said, has the military capability to defeat its enemies. But for Israel to be able to take the steps it needs to take to win the war being waged for our destruction, Ya'alon explained that first we need to accept the fact that we have an intrinsic, unconditional right to our land and our sovereignty. Once we understand that our rights our unconditional, we will understand that we have an obligation to wage war against those who work for our destruction. That is, Ya'alon explained that for Israel to survive, we need to return to our unconditional Zionism. Sir Martin Gilbert, perhaps the preeminent British historian of World War II, has said, "The interesting thing about history is that it always repeats itself." As was the case in World War II, today the Jewish people in Israel and throughout the world is being targeted for annihilation by an enemy bent on world domination. Ilan Halimi's monstrous murder is just the latest sign of this disturbing reality. Today, as 70 years ago, the Jews are dis-served by poor and weak leaders who refuse to see the dangers. But if we learn from history and we assess our options, we will see that history needn't repeat itself. It is within our power to reverse the course of our all too repetitious past.
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THE BLOOD LIBEL
Posted by Max Yas, February 24, 2006. |
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"This anti-Semitic myth, known as the blood libel, originated 1144 in medieval England, when a Christian boy named William went missing. When his body was found, the monks who examined the corpse claimed that the boy's head had been pierced by a crown of thorns. For hundreds of years thereafter it has been claimed that Jews kill Christian boys and drain their blood for ritual purposes. This libel continued in the Christian world and resulted in many expulsion, pogroms, inquisition and mass murder of Jews, culminating with the Holocaust during World War II. The last trial for this "crime" occurred in 1911 in Kiev, Russia when Mendel Beilis was arrested and put on trial. International pressure forced the Russians to find the accused not guilty and he was released in 1913. But myths persist. That one has been given a new life after 1948, by Muslim radicals. The caricatures about Jews and their religion in Muslim publications make the Danish cartoons look benign! And last year Egyptian TV produced a series of 47 segments, based on a late 19th Century forgery: "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion", an antisemitic forgery to show the existence of an international conspiracy by Jews in order to seize power over the entire world. This document was judged to be a forgery by many jurisdictions. Many will remember the incident in Ramallah, PA controlled territory, when two Israelis lost their way several years ago and were lynched by an Arab mob. Their torn bodies were dragged up to a second story and thrown out of a window, whereupon the faithful rushed to dip eager hands in their wounds and licked their bloody fingers. In a recent Palestinian parade commemorating this heroic act, over a thousand kindergarten children marched with their hands dipped in red paint. Teaching hate appears to be a Palestinian priority. Following the standards set by Goebels, Hitler's minister of propaganda, indoctrination of Palestinians cannot start too early. Who can forget the widely publicized photo of a Palestinian 18 month-old baby dressed in a uniform and suicide-bomber belt? Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin Reports, February 14, 2006: A video titled " Hamas Drinks Jew blood" consisting of final messages by suicide-bombers-in-waiting. One example: "My message to the loathed Jews is that there is no god but Allah, we will chase you everywhere! We are a nation that drinks blood, and we know that there is no blood better than the blood of Jews. We will not leave you alone until we have quenched our thirst with your blood, and our children's thirst with your blood. We will not leave until you leave the Muslim countries." How can Shari'a law be so flexible? The consumption of any part of a pig is forbidden to Muslims. Muslim publications habitually refer to Jews as the sons of monkeys and pigs. Does it not follow that the consumption of blood from the son of a pig is also forbidden? Muslim spiritual leaders can be very nimble when it suits their purpose. The Sunday Telegram reported last week on another example of such supple thinking: "Iran's hardline spiritual leaders have issued an unprecedented new fatwa, or holy order, approving the use of atomic weapons against its enemies. In yet another sign of Teheran's stiffening resolve on the nuclear issue, influential Muslim clerics have for the first time questioned the theocracies' traditional stance that Shari'a law forbade the use of nuclear weapons." What changed their minds? Iran is closer than ever to the "Muslim nuclear bomb." Translation: Traditional moral religious ethics, out. New religious sanction to murder, in. Shalom from Max Max Yas can be contacted by email at maxyas@victoria.tc.ca |
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OLMERT'S PLAN TO ABANDON JEWS OF WEST BANK BASED UPON FAULTY DEMOGRAPHICS
Posted by Jerome S. Kaufman, February 24, 2006. |
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This was written by Aaron Klein and it appeared in the Jewish Press February 17, 2006. JERUSALEM - If acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party wins next month's elections, members of Israel's Knesset will be asked to determine Israel's "permanent borders" in a vote on West Bank withdrawal, Olmert said. Olmert justified his plan to vacate the West Bank, which borders most of Israel's major cities, by claiming that unless Israel soon separates from the Palestinians, Arabs will outnumber Jews and threaten the country's Jewish character. But recent studies indicate that Olmert is relying on faulty demographic information, and that Jews likely will outnumber Arabs by more than double in 20 years. "The members of the next Knesset, who will convene here in a couple of months, will have a series of historic missions," Olmert told a special session celebrating the Knesset's 57th birthday. "Before our eyes stands a supreme goal of consolidating Israel's status as a Jewish, democratic state. The first mission on the road to achieving this goal will be determining the state of Israel's final borders," said Olmert. Announcing what had long been assumed, Olmert last week laid out his Kadima party's platform of withdrawing from most of the West Bank. He said that under his plan, Israel will maintain select security zones and some of the area's major West Bank Jewish communities, alluding to the evacuation of West Bank towns that fall outside Israel's security fence. Kadima is leading overwhelmingly in polls as Israel's March elections draw near. About 250,000 Jews live in the West Bank. The security fence, still under construction in certain areas, cordons off nearly 95 percent of the territory from Israel's pre-1967 borders. More than half the West Bank's Jewish residents reside on the side of the fence closest to Israel. About 80,000 more Jews live on the other side of the barrier. Olmert said he is seeking a West Bank withdrawal to set "the permanent borders of the state of Israel to ensure a Jewish majority." But a new study presented last month by American researchers is picking up steam in academic circles here. It contends that a West Bank withdrawal based on demography is groundless because Israel's Jewish population will more than double that of Arabs in 20 years. The study, titled "Forecast for Israel and the West Bank 2025," found Palestinians have inflated their population figures by as much as 1.5 million. It also said Jewish birthrates are outstripping Palestinian rates by far, and that Israel's own statistics fail to account for even low levels of Jewish immigration when calculating national demographic trends. Americans Bennet Zimmerman, Roberta Seid and Michael Wise put the current Palestinian-Arab population of the West Bank at 1.4 million and Gaza 1.1 million, for a total of 2.4 million, instead of the 3.8 million reported by the Palestinian Authority Central Bureau of Statistics. Zimmerman's team has shown birthrates among Israeli Orthodox Jews are at their highest levels ever and that general Israeli Jewish fertility over the past five years has risen above top scenarios first considered by Israel's Bureau of Statistics. The study says Israel did not account for a likely continuation of Jewish immigration trends over the next 20 years. The PA information was adopted by such prominent Israeli demographers as the University of Haifa's Arnon Soffer and the Hebrew University's Sergio Della Pergola, who both famously warned that by 2020 Jews will make up between 40 and 46 percent of the population in both Israel and the territories. Under Zimmerman's mid-case scenario, however, Israeli Jews maintain current fertility rates and immigration averages of 20,000 per year or 400,000 over two decades. Israeli Arab fertility rates, meanwhile, fall slowly over a 20-year period. The result is a Jewish majority in Israel in 2025 of 63 percent. According to other likely scenarios contained in the new data, Jews could outnumber Arabs by 71 percent if Jewish fertility rates continue to rise and immigration increases further. Some Israeli critics, a few of whom have been associated with Israel's liberal parties, have slammed Zimmerman's study. Della Pergola, who conducted previous studies in Israel upholding the PA claims, called Zimmerman's findings "groundless," politically slanted and baseless from a research perspective. But Della Pergola has changed his demographic forecasts several times and admitted in debates that he relied in part on PA population numbers. Zimmerman's study has been lauded by American demographers Nicholas Eberstadt and Murray Feshbach, among others. "It is ironic that just as we now find Israelis in the best position ever with regard to population, Olmert announces a plan to run away and give up the West Bank, claiming Israel's Jewish character is threatened," said Zimmerman. [Editor's note: These are from http://www.pademographics.com
Jerome S. Kaufman is National Secretary of the Zionist Organization of America. and host the Israel Commentary website (http://www.israel-commentary.org). |
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PERILOUS E.U. POLITICAL CORRECTNESS; PECULIAR WESTERN REACTION TO
CARTOONS; EXCUSING MUSLIM RIOTING
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, February 24, 2006. |
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THE APPALLING BUT PRAISED P.A. ELECTION Almost everyone is praising the P.A. election. That election emphasized rivalry over which party would better and less corruptly carry on the armed and diplomatic struggle against Israel. Among the Arabs, prestige depends on how murderous one is. The Arabs exalt murder, and the West praises their election for being orderly? Obviously, our world is confused about ethics. Let us Americans cease craving for foreign approval and UNO sanction. Instead, let us do what we think is right instead of allowing the UNO to demand we do what is wrong, i.e., to be inactive against evil. WHEN ISRAEL RAIDS IRAN I can foresee the next major US betrayal of Israel. Suppose the US facilitates an Israeli raid that destroys the nuclear weapons facilities in Iran. Judging by what happened when Israel did the same with Iraqi nuclear bomb facilities, the world secretly would be relieved but outwardly would condemn Israel as an aggressor. That would be unfair, because Iran has declared war on Israel. Israel should not have to wait to be bombed when Iran develops the nuclear weaponry its fanatics vow to use. The US would declare that since Iran has lost its nuclear weapons, Israel should give up its own. The US does not volunteer to give up its own, for the US sets a different standard for itself. But Israel is responsible with its nuclear capability -- it never bombed. DANGEROUS E.U. POLITICAL CORRECTNESS The E.U. urged European non-Muslim cartoonists not to wound the feelings of Muslims. It did not urge Muslim cartoonists not to wound the feelings of Christians and Jews, as they do routinely. The E.U. is acting out of political correctness and fear of rioting, not out of a sense of decency. If decent, it would not ignore the Muslim cartoons, which, unlike the Danish ones, are false and malicious and therefore meant to offend. Political correctness hampers Europeans from realizing war is being made on them. This is a war for the survival of civilization. It must not be lost. The way to lose is to appease the aggressor, who then would demand more one-sided "understanding," thereby fastening a tighter grip on Europe. The way to win is to fight, to take the offensive. Europe should encourage cartoonists to depict the truth about Islamist aggression, which is based on Islamic principles, without the gratuitous mockery that makes Muslim cartoons genuinely offensive. Frank cartoonists run a great risk from murderous Muslims, of whom there are a significant number. That risk should be alleviated by removing the Muslim masses from their midst. Ancient Rome took in masses of barbarians, who helped overrun it. Why should modern Europe make the same mistake? Not out of a need for laborers. Half are unemployed; the other half could be replaced. PECULIAR WESTERN REACTION TO CARTOONS The controversy about the cartoons is perverted: (1) A Danish newspaper published a dozen cartoons; (2) Muslims made certain allegations about them; (3) Muslims threatened the journalists and non-involved people, and rioted; (4) The West takes up the discussion as of the Muslim characterization of the cartoons; and (5) Although some Westerners express solidarity with the rights of the journalists, most chide the journalists. What is the proper way for the West to deal with the allegations? (a) Condemn, as some journalists did, Muslim governments that instigated riots and Islamic culture for its mob mentality; (b) Condemn as terrorism attacks on non-involved people, such as members of the same nationality or even just the same continent as the journalists; (c) Condemn Muslims who threaten to murder the offending journalists. Murder is not a fitting answer to perceived insult; explanations and libel suit are. Murder is barbaric. Indeed, it validates the cartoons; (d) Publish and discuss the Danish cartoons, so people can see that the accusations against them are false; (e) Expose the false, hate-mongering cartoons published routinely in Arab newspapers and Arab and Iranian broadcasts that call for the murder of Americans and Israelis, Christians and Jews; and (f) Stop kowtowing to what Muslims define as "offensive" -- they define anything not kowtowing as offensive. They don't want Muhammad shown pictorially, but that is their rule, not binding on us -- we do not consider it offensive per se. The most peculiar aspect of the controversy is the Western failure to discuss the cartoons, themselves. It simply accepts the word of the Muslims about them. I attribute this non-intellectual reaction to habits of political correctness. Whenever a non-Jew claims to be insulted, his claim is taken for granted and the other party is penalized or asked to apologize. Unlike ordinary libel, truth is no defense to the politically correct. They don't believe in truth or eternal ethics. They don't let facts stand in the way of preconceptions. The dozen cartoons are not insulting. The most controversial pair is truthful. The pair warns about the terrorism that originated in early Islam. The cartoonists exercised their duty to alert audiences to the war of jihad being waged against them. The politically correct mischaracterize those cartoons as hate mongering. Those cartoons don't express hatred but do identify and define the enemy. If one cannot identify and define the enemy making war on us, we already have become subjugated to the enemy, in part, and the more readily would succumb, on the whole. The West is pretending that there is no global jihad and that Islamic terrorism has no religious underpinning. Terrorism, however, is preached from most mosques and upheld in most Muslim papers and TV stations. The cartoonists should be commended for the risk they took to enlighten and alarm the West. They should be encouraged to be more frank and show how much of a threat to the West the Islamists pose. For that, they need better protection. The best way to protect them, I think, is to remove Muslims from the West, so we can enjoy our freedom and live our own way of life. Removal would preserve Europe and be a major victory. THE REAL DEAL ON ISRAEL Here is a glimpse behind the posturing into how diplomacy really works, not as the Times reports. It is speculative but seems based on sufficient facts to be realistic. Egypt suggested to Hamas that it form a coalition government in which it would hold minor posts but would have front men running the government. As a bargaining posture, Hamas threatened to resume full-scale terrorism against Israel. Sec. Rice told Acting PM Olmert that the US favored a coalition government, during which Abbas would rebuild Fatah's strength and then oust Hamas. Abbas asked the US for six months time in which to do it. But the US doesn't think he has a chance to succeed. Rather, the US expects that with funds transferred from Israel, Hamas would build up its strength and gain the confidence of international donors, without recognizing Israel or disarming. The US did not consult Israel on this. Who thought of this plan, Rice, Pres. Bush, or former Sec. Baker still pulling strings? To put this in perspective, remember that Sec. Rice just cajoled Israel into accepting a Security Council consideration of Iran's nuclear development together with a statement of objective of ridding the Mideast of all weapons of mass-destruction. That would include Israel's. There is some indication that Olmert and Peres were party to that (Winston Mid East Analysis, 2/7 from DEBKAfile). Rice also foisted upon Israel the reopening of the Gaza border to a free flow of arms and terrorists. She also continues US policy of demanding that Israel not defend itself much and that it continue to subsidize the P.A. that it really should destroy. Representing the Executive Branch, she is quite the enemy of Israel. There is no sign that Israelis realize this, as their own leaders go along with it. EXCUSING MUSLIM RIOTING OVER THE CARTOONS Haaretz is full of understanding of Muslim insult over the (non-insulting) cartoons. It chides the cartoonists. Its commentators hardly rebuke the masses of manipulated Muslims rioting and murdering innocent people over the cartoons. It depicts the real problem as European intolerance of the nice Muslims. Why, Europeans are considering expelling the Muslims, due to European racism. The Europeans are hypocritical, preaching multiculturalism and then being chauvinist, asserts Haaretz. The hypocrites are in Haaretz, which publishes insulting cartoons of Orthodox Jews (Prof. Steven Plaut, 2/7). European Muslims riot and boast they will take over. It is they who are not multicultural. European multiculturalism let in a Trojan horse. P.S.: The Muslims are racist. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com. |
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YOU MEAN THEY LIE?
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, February 24, 2006. |
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My goodness. Are we to understand that the State controlled education system might actually lie about the real nature of the political system? Why in the world would a Fascist, police State that has routinely uses brutal violence since its inception to suppress opposition to its rule try to fool impressionable youngsters into believing that it is really a liberal democracy? I just can't thing of any reason, can you? This is from today's Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=99158) and is called "Not Getting Along: Religious Students, Civics Lessons." Rabbi of Ofrah: "After what these students have been through recently, particularly in Gush Katif and Amona, they cannot take their civics lessons seriously." Rabbi Avi Gisser, of Ofrah, who also serves as the Chairman of the Public-Religious Education Council, spoke with Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine on Thursday. "Everthing that has happened over the past two years, " Rabbi Gisser said, "especially the disengagement, the uprooting and expulsion, and most of all, what happened at Amona -- all of this certainly leaves very heavy scars. The students were very involved in these events, and some of them were uprooted themselves, and when they have to learn about proper government in Israel, they simply are unable to really believe in it." Many of the students, too, were "offered" a first-hand and inside look at the justice and prison systems over the past several months. "I saw real evil," said Yaakov F., 22, while others talked of the judges being "rubber stamps" for the prosecution's positions. Many youths were beaten by police not only at Amona, but also in pre-expulsion street protests. "Look," Rabbi Gisser said, "if the teacher would say to them that they're simply learning science fiction, and they just have to know the facts for their matriculation exams, then OK. But if they want to take it seriously, then they are in a great crisis.... Teachers are reporting that the students are cynical towards the subject matter, don't care about it, and don't show up for classes. This is because the subject is so loaded, and appears to them to be some kind of ideological payment to the government -- when they themselves have been hurt and are still pained by Israel's democracy." "What do you suggest?" asked Arutz-7's Yigal Shok of Rabbi Gisser. "I think that all the government institutions must be made aware of the rotten fruit that has resulted from the events of the past two years. In addition, they must be called to order and made to improve their actions. Regarding the students, we must explain the ideals behind democracy, and that it's the least bad of all the alternatives. However, it must be emphasized that even the best values can be abused, and that when democracy is abused, then for sure the results are what we see. Our guiding principle is to distinguish between the values themselves and they way they are implemented." Rabbi Gisser said that the Public Religious Education Council has long been demanding that the one civics textbook used for the last five years should be changed to reflect the values of the public religious network. "Most ironically," he said, "the Arab schools have been allowed to make changes in certain subjects regarding the Jewish state and minorities' rights, while we have not received such permission, even though civics must be taught in a particular manner in religious schools. We hope that the current crisis will in fact lead to the necessary changes." Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel. Contact him at zelasko@actcom.co.il |
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CARTOONS THE PC CROWD DEFENDS; COLE IN AT YALE; SUMMERS OUT AT HARVARD
Posted by Steven Plaut, February 24, 2006. |
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1. So when Do Western Bleeding Hearts NOT Think that Cartoonists Need to be Repudiated?
By Steven Plaut http://antiprotester.blogspot.com/2006/02/ no-riots-over-anti-semitic-cartoons.html All those people whining about how the West needs to be more sensitive when it comes to cartoons depicting Moslems or Islamic symbols, have never had anything to say about the vicious anti-Semitic cartoons of Australian cartoonist, Michael Leunig. Leunig's cartoons are so anti-Semitic that they were subjects of a practical joke and hoax over the past few days. As you know, Iran is having its own Holocaust denial Cartoon contest, to "avenge" the Danish cartoons that showed the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban, and some other offensive images. Perhaps as a prank to show how easily Leunig's own cartoons can pass for Nazi caricatures, an Australian freelance journalist operating under the pen name "The Chaser" sent one of Leunig's images from 2002 to Iran's Hamshahri newspaper, which is holding the cartoon competition on the Holocaust in 'retaliation' for the publication of anti-Muslim images by Denmark's Jyllands-Posten and other European newspapers. Leunig's cartoon, which was accompanied by a fake email claiming that the submission was a "show of solidarity with the Muslim world," was drawn for The Age in May 2002. The first section of the cartoon consists of a Jewish concentration camp inmate gazing up at the Nazi slogan, "Work brings Freedom." The second section is of an Israeli soldier in 2002 confronted with another lie, "War brings Peace. Subtle! You can view it here. Leunig also drew a dumb picture that described the founder of Hamas merely as an "old Palestinian man in a wheelchair." An Australian paper declined to run one of his cartoons that called Australian Prime Minister John Howard a "suckhole". Many people have accused the millionaire cartoonist of being an anti-Semite. Several Australian newspapers have refused to print Leunig's anti-Semitic cartoon, including The Age and its editor Michael Gawenda, and this ignited a roar of protest from the Trotsky-Trash and similar ultra-moonbats. Leunig has also defended Helen Darville (Demidenko), an author caught up in academic fraud but whose most serious atrocity was producing a virulently anti-semitic book called The Hand That Signed The Paper. She blames the Jews for all her problems. Convicted Holocaust denier David Irving himself has nothing but praise for Darville. Ted Lapkin, policy director for the Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council, said there was no denying Leunig's cartoons are offensive. "His cartoons have offended the Jewish community -- but contrast the reaction here to the Middle East, where they are rampaging the streets over cartoons." Paul Gardner, chairman of the Jewish human rights group, the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission, said it was "completely objectionable" for someone to falsely implicate Leunig by entering his cartoon in such a competition. But he described the cartoon as "entirely objectionable," because it made a false analogy between Nazism and the actions of Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians. 2. Is Juan Cole Moving to Yale? Cole is a pseudo-scholar who teaches at the University of Michigan. He used to be the chief jihadnik at the pro-terror anti-American and anti-Jewish Middle East Studies Association, a propaganda group pretending to be a scholarly association. Cole, who led the lobby to clear Saddam of any ties with terrorism, believes that a group of Jewish "neo-conservatives" largely runs U.S. policy toward the Middle East. His recurrent theory is that a nebulous "pro-Likud. cabal controls the U.S. government from a small number of key positions in the Executive Branch." Jonathan Calt Harris has declared: "He (Cole) is blindly anti-Israel to the point of being an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist, an apologist for radical Islam, and someone who despises American public opinion." Cole has also pushed the Israel divestment campaign by campus anti-Semites, supposedly because Arabs are "mistreated" by Israel. Never mind that Arabs in Israel are treated a thousand times better than are Arabs in Arab countries. Cole is notoriously dishonest, and is a close comrade of Justin Raimondo, whom Cole regards as a reliable source. The Yale Herald reveals the imminent threat to Yale students blowing in with the hot air from Michigan. One Yalie expresed her fears: 'Naamah Paley, another sophomore who took his class, pointed out that a professor can profoundly influence and alter students. perceptions of a controversial and complex topic. According to Paley, Cole's lecture on the history of Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was given on Rosh Hashanah, when no religious Jewish students were present in class to contest his views. Moreover, Paley said Cole's midterm exam concentrated on the controversial massacres at the Arab village of Deir Yassin and Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon rather than on balanced coverage of Israeli history. For Paley, moreover, the close-minded opinions of a political firebrand like Cole can alienate and stifle students. Earlier this year, Paley met with Cole to discuss her interest in studying abroad in Egypt next year. Yet she said she feared engaging Cole in an argument or even mentioning her Judaism or Zionist beliefs. "I didn\t want him to see me in his eyes as a Jewish student, but as a serious student of Middle East studies who wanted to talk to him about Arabic," she said. We recently revealed that Cole still links his personal web site to that of an unemployed Holocaust Denier and neo-nazi, Kurt Nimmo, whom Cole considers to be "progressive" and "academic", even though Nimmo himself (who writes poems about his own hemorrhoids) was even fired by Counterpunch for his dopey conspiracism and anti-Semitism. I guess Counterpunch now has higher standards than Yale.... 3. Wisse on Harvard's Persecution of Summers: February 23, 2006 Coup d'cole" by Ruth R. Wisse February 23, 2006; Page A17 CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The resignation of Lawrence Summers as president of Harvard turns the spotlight on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), which has consecrated more time and energy to his ouster than to any other project of the past five years. Until now, all blame has been leveled at the president: "Fear and manipulation have been used to govern maliciously," charged one professor, who has since been awarded with a deanship. But now that these cowering professors have successfully unseated their president, scrutiny will quite rightly be leveled at them. What do they gain from their victory, and what does the rest of the university stand to lose? The movement to unseat Mr. Summers remains a mystery to most people outside Harvard. In the early days of his presidency, he challenged several tenured professors to account for the direction of their research and teaching. After some faculty had signed a petition urging divestment from Israel, he warned against the recurrence of anti-Semitism in a new guise. At an academic conference on the under-representation of women in science, he speculated on the implications of the differences between male and female test scores. At convocation ceremonies he congratulated Harvard students who served in the ROTC, which had been banned from the campus since the days of the Vietnam War. Each of these actions offended one faculty interest group or another, and jointly they signaled a bold style of leadership in a direction broadly perceived as "conservative" -- though it was in the service of once-liberal ideals. Since most Americans think it appropriate for a president to thus demonstrate his stewardship and leadership, they could not understand why such actions should have triggered faculty revolt. Even members of the media had trouble understanding what the fuss was about: incredulous, for example, that academics would protest against any expressed opinion. The governing body that appointed Mr. Summers and gave him a mandate for change, the Harvard Corporation, seemed for its part to welcome the energy he brought to the job. Several neglected campus units, such as the Law School and the School of Education, flourished as a result of his interventions. Mr. Summers strongly supported new investments in science and technology, areas where Harvard had been falling behind. Harvard students frankly blossomed under the special attention he paid them. No university president in my experience had ever taken such a warm personal interest in undergraduate education. Not surprisingly, the students return his affection, polling three to one in favor of his staying on. The day he announced his resignation, they were out in force in Harvard Yard, chanting "Five More Years!" The student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, has been outspoken in its criticism of the faculty that demanded the president's ouster. "No Confidence in 'No Confidence'" ran the headline of an editorial demonstrating the spuriousness of the charges being brought against the president, and reminding faculty to stay focused on the educational process that ought to be its main concern. Hence, supporters of the president are right to be dismayed by the corporation's decision to seek or to accept Mr. Summers's resignation. My colleague Alan Dershowitz calls it an "academic coup d'état by ... the die-hard left of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences." A second colleague, Steven Pinker, thinks that the president may have lost the fight himself a year ago when he apologized to antagonists for his political incorrectness instead of holding his intellectual ground. For the moment, the attackers have won the day, asserting their right to dictate to the rest of the university the accommodations they favor. But student response to the ouster suggests another long-term outcome. Although the activists of yesteryear may have found a temporary stronghold in the universities, a new generation of students has had its fill of radicalism. Sobered by the heavy financial burdens most of their families have to bear for their schooling, they want an education solid enough to warrant the investment. Chastened by the fall-out of the sexual revolution and the breakdown of the family, they are wary of human experiments that destabilize society even further. Alert to the war that is being waged against America, they feel responsible for its defense even when they may not agree with the policies of the current administration. If the students I have come to know at Harvard are at all representative, a new moral seriousness prevails on campus, one that has yet to affect the faculty members because it does not yet know how to marshal its powers. As long as FAS went about its business as usual, no one may have noticed its skewed priorities, but its political victory sets its actions and inaction in bolder relief. The same professors who fought so hard to oust their president did not once since the events of 9/11 consider whether they owed any responsibilities to a country at war. FAS continued to ban ROTC from campus on the excuse that the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy discriminates against homosexuals. Many students realize that this is tantamount to letting others do the fighting while advertising their moral superiority. Several years ago, the Undergraduate Council voted to give ROTC its approval. Although the faculty ignored this vote and simply waited for that cohort to graduate, other students will sooner or later stand up for their contemporaries who want to serve their country. "Harvard's greatness has always come from its ability to evolve as the world and its demands change -- to educate and draw forth the energy of each successive generation in new and creative ways." These words by Mr. Summers as he announced his resignation may yet prove true, although he would not be the one to put them into effect. It is inconceivable that the currently entrenched culture of grievance should be allowed to continue to sour the university. Perhaps the corporation ought to have put FAS into receivership before giving up on its president. Since it has given in for the moment, we will have to wait a little longer for this new student generation to teach us courage. Ms. Wisse is the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and professor of comparative literature at Harvard. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments -- both seriously and satirically -- on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or contact him by email at stevenplaut@yahoo.com. |
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MESSRS. RIEGER AND HOENLEIN: HELP US UNDERSTAND WHY YOU AREN'T HELPING THESE JEWS IN NEED
Posted by Buddy Macy, February 24, 2006. |
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Distinguished American Jewish Gentlemen: I had volunteered for my local Jewish Federation for more than 25 years. This past Friday, February 17, 2006, I resigned from the Board of Trustees, and from my position of recording secretary, of the Jewish Federation of Greater Clifton-Passaic (NJ), in protest of the United Jewish Communities' silence regarding the issues described in this email, that is addressed to the President of the UJC and the Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. I welcome your comments, reactions and ideas, and thank you for your interest in helping all Jews in need. My e-mail is being simultaneously published in IsraelLives, a daily, pro-Israel n! ewsletter that can be subscribed to by writing janetlehr@mindspring.com. This email is being sent to more than 9,400 people, many of whom represent Jewish media or charitable organizations based in the U.S. and/or Israel. As one who has practically been weaned on the concept and practice of tzedakah, I am having an extremely difficult time understanding why the leaders of the American Jewish charitable community, whose mantra is, "Helping Jews in need locally, in Israel and around the world," have purposefully avoided helping the Jews expelled from Gaza and northern Samaria, and, have not spoken out against the brutal, inhumane and horrific treatment of the protestors in Amona, by the local police, border police and IDF, that was sanctioned and encouraged by the Israeli Government. Your silence in the face of the tremendous suffering of thousands of brave, extremely devoted citizens of the Jewish State, is more than a little perplexing. Six long months after being physically dragged from their homes in Gaza and northern Samaria, most of our expelled brethren have still not received the compensation promised them by their "elected" officials; many of the bread winners of the families are unemployed; a large percentage of the families do not have suitable housing or access to proper medical care; and, hundreds of school age children do not have a stable learning environment. Yet, perhaps more painful than all of the preceding hardships incurred daily by the expelled residents, is the slow but steady breakdown of the support systems contained within their beautiful, former communities...their loss of friends, rabbis, teachers, neighbors, synagogues, schools, work -- through the intentional separation by the Israeli government of communities by scattering members throughout Israel instead of making every effort to keep these extended families together. The suffering they have endured is unimaginable to most of us who are living, at a minimum, in relative safety, stability and comfort. Howard (Rieger), Malcolm (Hoenlein): The Jews who were expelled from their homes need our help, both financially and emotionally. It is vital that we provide financial assistance to our sisters and brothers who are in severe need; and, simultaneously, demonstrate to them, and to the State of Israel, that we care deeply about our fellow Jews. Ironically, if the expelled Jews had been living in any other country in the world, and were forced to permanently leave their homes by an edict of an anti-Semitic local government, the UJC, the Jewish Agency, and many other of the American and Israeli Jewish charities would have immediately come to their aid; millions of dollars would have poured in to help the displaced Jews rebuild their lives; doctors and nurses would have arrived to make sure they were in good health; and, in the irony of ironies, the Government of Israel would have rushed in to bring the victims of anti-Semitism to Israel; and, it would have provided them with housing -- accommodations, no doubt, that would be far superior to those which have been supplied to its own Israeli citizens, its own victims! THEN CAME AMONA The horrors of Amona will be felt for many years...well beyond the length of my days. The systematic, purposeful, carefully choreographed, inhumane, unfeeling and brutal attack of a majority of the protestors, who did not lift a finger against the attacking forces, is beyond my comprehension. Jews were trained (brainwashed, hopefully!) to degrade, brutalize and severely injure their fellow Jews. Let me tell you: If I were one of the passionate, idealistic, brave, dedicated, religious Israeli youths who were treated in that obscene manner, I would have relinquished any vestige of hope or respect for the silent majority of Israelis. Shortly after the destruction of the nine homes in Amona, Acting Prime Minister Olmert and groups such as "Peace" Now, stated that they were against a publi! c inquiry into "alleged" police brutality. Yet, if a foreign government had authored and carried out a systematic, intentional rampage of brutality and degradation against some of its Jewish citizens, in the manner of Amona, Jews in America and Israel (especially, the Israeli Government!) would have raised their voices to the rooftops, decrying the vile anti-Semitic acts. Mr. Rieger and Mr. Hoenlein: I appeal to your compassion, morality and Jewish identity. Please leave me with a shred of hope and respect for the American Jewish charities' establishment. Initiate, immediately, a nationwide special campaign, the funds from which will be spent exclusively to help the expelled Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria. And, speak out, loudly and unequivocally, against the brutal, degrading and inhumane treatment ordered by the Israeli Government against some of its own citizens. Israel 's very soul and spirit are at stake! Most sincerely,
Buddy Macy is a 1979 graduate of Brandeis University. He writes that his "perspective and opinions, incorporating reality, developed much later in life." He is a secular Jew who believes in the freedom of religion. Contact him by email at vegibud@aol.com |
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SKEWED THINKERS ABOUND
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, February 23, 2006. |
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Why do so many so-called sophisticated individuals in Europe and elsewhere refuse to recognize the perils associated with any culture that mistreats its women and allows its children to explode human flesh into thousands of blood-soaked particles? Indeed, why are so many moderates within such a culture reticent to speak out loudly against that sort of barbaric cruelty? Fundamentalists who attempt to justify despicable behavior on religious grounds defile the very faith they presume to represent. Israel is a land where both men and women are treated with dignity. It is absolutely inconceivable that a Jew would encourage a child (or anyone else) to violate the most basic law of existence by committing an inhuman suicidal act. Why won't the so-called sophisticated world reach a consensus and support Israeli culture while condemning those enemies of Israel that disrespect their women and defile the sanctity of their children? Must the so-called sophisticates of modern cultures continue to select convenient issues and berate Israel while minimizing outrage at the despicable behavior and savage acts of Israel's hostile neighbors? Perhaps those who do this have lost their sense of justice and do not recognize the dangers inherent in such skewed thinking. The Church of England, following the lead of Palestinian apologists governing the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., for one recently threatens divesture from corporations dealing with Israel, presumably due to the Jewish State's mistreatment of Arabs perilously about to be lead by a cadre of Hamas terrorists that inspires homicide/suicide martyrdom and intends to compel women to obey a misogynist sharia code. Does such a Christian organization not grasp the significance of indirectly supporting, thus positively reinforcing, a Muslim culture so out of tune with principles that ought to distinguish an emerging century twenty-one? Penalizing perpetrators of true injustice, demonstrated by bizarre sadomasochistic behavior and the suppression of female rights, would surely be appropriate yet skewed thinkers still prefer to engage in their sanctimonious agenda of bashing a moral and productive Israel, unconsciously abetting a devolving segment of our species hence contradicting the very tenets of progressive civilization they profess to represent. If movers and shakers who should know better wallow in a state of muddled misapprehension, pandering to the self-defeating inanity of a delusional politically correct philosophy creating victims rather than demanding responsible action, humanity's road ahead will be treacherous. Indeed, might we infer the more civil populations favorably perceive Israel's point of view, the more Dame Fortune will smile on our currently dysfunctional third stone from its sun? Let it be. Lawrence Uniglicht is a career civil servant, working for the Social Security Administration. He advocates for the State of Israel with an American perspective. He writes, "Advocating for the disrespected underdog has been my passion, no doubt Israel falls into that category." Contact him by email at luniglicht@snip.net |
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PROFILE OF AN UNJEWISH LEADER
Posted by Steven Shamrak, February 23, 2006. |
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During his speech to a dovish American group, the Israel Policy Forum, Olmert claimed that Israelis long for peace because "we are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies." It is strange, that acting leader of Jewish country, and I am not talking about legitimacy of his current position, is tired of fighting enemies of the Jewish people. If he unable or unwilling to perform his duty, shouldn't he resign? He ignored the report about thousands of illegal Arab buildings in Jerusalem, but at the same time he is full of energy and determination in leading the brutal expulsion of Jewish patriots from Amona, the Jewish land. In 1996, while serving as mayor, it was alleged that he set up a shell corporation and forged agency to handle illegal contributions to Likud in 1988. It was Olmert who introduced Gilad Sharon to the Greek intermediary in the Greek Island Affair. Could it be the reasons why he became the 'trusted man' of Arial Sharon? Where is his defeatist rhetoric and self-hating attitude coming from? Is his mind-set an accident or symptomatic? Let look at the make up of Olmert family: His wife Aliza is a supporter of the left-wing Meretz party and has taken part in numerous demonstrations organized by Peace Now. His daughter Donna is a self-professed lesbian, who is a member of the Machsom Watch, a group of women who endanger the lives of Israeli soldiers by deliberately interfering with their duties at various checkpoints. The oldest son, a left-wing activist, who had refused to do Army Service and has left Israel. The Youngest son avoided Army service by studying literature in Paris. This is just a brief look at the corrupt, unscrupulous and self-serving the Israel's first family. Can Israel and Jewish Nation afford another betrayal by gutless and self-hating leadership? Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin wrote that Olmert "is a man who has proven that everything is justified in order to attain power... We must remind the public how dangerous it would be to abandon the leadership of the country to his hands." Traitors must be stopped! Jewish traditional values and aspirations need to be rekindle! Food for Thought. "It is all about the Jewish National and religious aspirations, as well as moral, historical and legal rights. Just because our 'friends' (Arabs, Muslim, Christian etc...) continue their traditional anti-Semitism by replacing and camouflaging it by anti-Zionism, it does not mean that Jews must obey the rules imposed on us." "Our apathy, laziness and inaction the cause of the pathetic Jewish leadership we have been enduring! Anyone of us can start act now by organising local active group, encourage family members in Israel to vote for the parties supporting the Jewish National goal." Time to Recognize the Another Enemy Within. Two Israeli Arab parties have merged ahead of Knesset elections, launching their campaign by calling for Islamic rule in Israel and praising the Hamas terror group. "We believe in Islam and in the Caliphate and not in separation between state and religion." chairman of the new Arab party Ibrahim Sarsour said. He said the party would work to increase Arab immigration to the Jewish state. (It is not even about Israel. It is about global domination of Islam!) Hamas Members on Israel's Payroll? Hamas and Fatah activists in Jerusalem enjoy Israeli state benefits. Hundreds of Arabs who live in eastern Jerusalem and are entitled to government unemployment and health subsidies are members of Hamas. Would not stop unless there was new Knesset legislation depriving Arabs with Hamas links of the mandatory rights accorded to Israeli residents. (This would require from Israel's politicians some thinking and action. Last year 50,000 Arabs moved to Israel. Still, nothing is done by gutless and lethargic parasites!) Israel is Financing the Arab Terrorism. Israel may stop sending the Palestinians the $50 million a month in taxes it collects on PA behalf. Furthermore, PA gets back more than three-quarters of the money withheld from the paychecks of Arab Palestinians who work across the border. (Wouldn't it be more honest, if Israel starts providing bullets directly to Hamas, Fatah and others Jew-hating thugs?) Quote of the Week: "Our program is to liberate Palestine, all of Palestine....The Qassam Brigades will continue to increase in numbers, supplies, and weapons... until the liberation is completed." -- The head of Hamas in Gaza, Mahmoud A-Zahar revealed at a meeting with University of Cairo faculty. (He also emphasized that Hamas recognizes Israel's existence as an existing fact, but Hamas would never accept Israel's right to exist.) PA Needs More Money. About $700 million has been pilfered from the PA coffers, PA Attorney General Ahmad al-Moghani said Sunday. "Some of these millions were transferred into personal accounts here and abroad." Several top PA officials have fled the West Bank and Gaza since Hamas' election victory, PA security sources revealed. (West must stop financing PA terrorism and corruption. Let Arab and Muslim countries do it!) List of Terror suspects. The US National Counter terrorism Center claimed a list of up to 325,000 names of international terrorism suspects in a combined data base. The same person may appear under different spellings or aliases, the true number of separate individuals is estimated to be more than 200,000. In Katusha Range. Russian-made rocket, which the Arab terrorists have dubbed Aqsa 2 or Aqsa 207, arrived in the Gaza Strip last week through northern Sinai. It extends the range of Arab Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip to a maximum of 16-18 kilometres. Al Aqsa Brigades have furthermore put into service short-range, 8-kilometer Arafat 1 and Arafat 2 rockets. Some 20 are reported to have been fired till now against Israeli locations across the Gaza border. (Since Hamas won election, Fatah assumed more terror pro-active role. When will it be enough? When will we remove them all from the Jewish land?) Comments on Comments: "I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror." President Bush said. -- Did they listen, Mr. President! What next? You have been fostering narco-government in Afghanistan and stuck in Iraq. Both countries will collapse as soon as US army withdraw. The stupidity of US foreign policy must be rejected by Israel and not allowed on Jewish land. Honour the Cherry Tomatoes Inventor. The 2006 Israel Prize for Agriculture Research will go to Nahum Keidar, who developed the bite-sized fruit, the cherry tomato, now enjoyed worldwide. (Surprise, the cherry tomato made in Israel too!) It is only Jews. They can Wait. The Netherlands' biggest art dealer before World War II, Jacques Goudstikker, fled the country at the start of the war with his wife and son, losing an estimated 1,300 artworks. The holdings were taken by the Nazis. (Only 58 years after the war, the Dutch government has started considering whether to give the art collections to the descendants of the owner!) The Same Old Game. The PA released all 39 Islamic Jihad terrorists held in its prison in the West Bank city of Jericho last week. Juvenile crime on rise in Israel. Barely a decade ago, Israel was considered a country with a relatively low rate of social deviance and crime among its youth. However, now, after Oslo war and 'peace process', it is a serious problem: murders, rapes, sexual abuse and knife attacks -- all perpetrated by adolescents. The police do not regard recent youth crimes as isolated incidents. Criminologists and educationists also believe that Israeli youth violence is an epidemic that will escalate in the years to come. just two months -- April-May 2005 -- 8,700 new cases of knife attacks, murders and sexual abuse were reported to the police. (Lack of national direction, ideals and pride, immoral and self-disrespectful behaviour of Israel's political elite, policies of appeasement of Jewish enemies -- These are the reasons behind the disintegration of Jewish society in Israel and world wide! It has created the atmosphere of apathy, disunity and is destroying Jewish idealism. The entry of over 100,000 of non-Jews from former Soviet Union during the last 15 years is contributing factor to rise of crime too!) Steven Shamrak was born in the former Soviet Union (USSR) and participated in the Moscow Zionist "refusenik" movement. For the last few years, he has been publishing internet editorial letters on the Arab-Israeli conflict -- independently, not as a member of any organization or political movement. He can be reached by email at StevenShamrak@mail2world.com |
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MOHAMMED AND ALLIE
Posted by Naomi Ragen, February 23, 2006. |
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Friends, Well, the cartoon controversy gets better and better. Muslim "rage" has given cartoonists all over the world new inspiration. The subject: sitcom situations for Mohammed. For a laugh and a selection, please go to http://tinyurl.com/7lpv3
Naomi 
Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist and journalist who lives in Jerusalem. She can be contacted at www.naomiragen.com, where you can subscribe to her newsletter. |
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HAS JUSTICE BEEN SERVED?
Posted by Dr. Alex Grobman, February 23, 2006. |
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British Holocaust denier David Irving has been sentenced to three years in prison in Austria for denying that the Holocaust occurred. As the author of a number of books on the military history of World War II, Irving is the most historically sophisticated of the deniers, yet he is not a trained professional historian. The trial raises the question whether Irving has recanted and whether jail time is justified for this violation. Fabricating history is a threat to the way all groups pass on their history from one generation to the next. That is why it is so pernicious. The Jews of Europe went to great lengths to ensure that what happened would be not be forgotten, not only for the sake of the Jewish people, but for the world. At his trial, Irving acknowledged that the Nazis had attempted to systematically murder the Jews of Europe, and that there were homicidal gas chambers at Auschwitz. This is an important admission. At the David Irving/ Deborah Lipstadt trial in London in 2000, Irving asserted that the gas chambers were used to gas "objects and cadavers." After Irving concluded that there were no homicidal gas chambers at Auschwitz in 1988, he did not visit the archives or the archeological remnants at Auschwitz to determine if this was true. He could not go, he said, because it was under communist rule. Yet this did not stop others from doing research in Poland during that period. Later Irving argued that Auschwitz authorities would not allow him access to the camp for fear of what he might find. Was his guilty plea to this criminal offense in Austria a ploy to preclude being imprisoned for the maximum of 10 years as the law allowed or did it signal a change in Irving's thinking? According to Ha'aretz, after pronouncing the sentence, Peter Liebetreu, the presiding judge at the trial, said, "The court did not consider the defendant to have genuinely changed his mind. The regret he showed was considered to be mere lip service to the law." Irving's willingness to concede historical errors he once held when confronted by a prosecutor in a courtroom is not new. In the Irving/Lipstadt trial, Justice Charles Grey found that "a striking feature of the case" was that "Irving made, or appeared to make, concessions about major issues," that were different to those he alleged prior to the trial. Previously, he claimed for example, that the mass shooting of Jews in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere in the East had not been officially authorized, but were the actions of small groups of criminals, and that Hitler had limited information about the killings. At the trial, Irving agreed that conceivably 1.5 million Jews were systematically killed under orders from Reinhard Heydrich. Robert January van Pelt, a key expert on Auschwitz for the defense, also notes that Irving was forced to change his claim "on the basis of probabilities," that Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka were extermination camps. Justice Grey concluded that he was "unable to accept Irving's contention that his falsification of the historical record is the product of innocent error or misinterpretation or incompetence on his part. " It appeared that "for the most part the falsification of the historical record was deliberate and that Irving was motivated by a desire to present events. consistent with his own ideological beliefs even if that involved distortion and manipulation of historical evidence." Should Irving be incarcerated for this transgression or should his views be seen as an act of free speech? In Austria and German the situation is different than in the U.S. In these countries, Holocaust denial, Nazi symbols, literature and music are banned. Hans-Ulrich Wehler, one of Germany's most esteemed historians, is quoted in Spiegel Magazine as favoring of Irving's incarceration. "The Holocaust," he said "is a matter of the industrially organized mass murder of six million human beings. And to brazenly deny this, in the peculiar manner of the current Iranian government, is unbearable at least in the German public sphere." After the initial success of the (neo-Nazi) NPD "in the late sixties, right-wing radicals began to pose as 'avengers' of a sort," prompting a ruling that one could be prosecuted in Germany for denying the Holocaust. This has been "a gradual process," which did not begin immediately after 1949. Those who fear that this will make Irving a martyr should know that after the trial in London, his followers greeted him as a hero. To the true believers, he will remain their champion. At the end of the London trial, Richard Rampton, the British defense attorney, bemoaned that the victory did not make a difference: "The judgment doesn't bring the dead back, it doesn't bring them back." That was never the point as London reporter James Dalrymple observed. "Historical revisionism," he observed, "has only one subject-the Holocaust. Here "doubt can be planted like seed in the wind, to grow and fester as the screams of history grow fainter with the years." The trial exposed Irving as a falsifier of history. It is imperative that we not allow those who wish to distort our history be given free reign to do so. Our ancestors urged that we "know how to respond." That is our task. Dr. Grobman's most recent book is "Battling for Souls: The Vaad Hatzala Rescue Committee in Post War Europe" [KTAV]. He is also co-author of "Denying History: Who Says The Holocaust Never Happened?" (University of California Press, 2000) His most recent book is entitled "Zionism=Racism: The New War Against The Jews". |
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CHRISTIANS UNDER THREAT IN GAZA
Posted by Middle East News Line, February 23, 2006. |
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GAZA CITY [MENL] -- The tiny Christian community in the Gaza Strip has come under threat. Palestinians have threatened to blow up a Christian center in Gaza City. The Palestinian Bible Society was accused of missionary activities and given until February 28 to leave the Gaza Strip. "We are under serious threat," a Gaza Christian who did not want to be identified said. "There is nobody here willing to help us." [On Friday, at least two Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip. Two other Palestinians were injured in an Israeli air strike meant to stop a Kassam-class missile launch.] This was the latest threat against the 1,500 Christians in the Gaza Strip. In early February, the only church in the Gaza Strip was vandalized and clerics were threatened. Last week, a firebomb was hurled at a church in the West Bank city of Ramallah. PA police have not arrested any suspects. The threats against the foreign-based Palestinian Bible Society were reported amid the furor in the Arab world over anti-Muslim cartoons published in the European press. Christian clerics in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank have condemned the cartoons. The Palestinian Bible Society, part of the United Bible Societies, began operations in the Gaza Strip in 1999. The society, with 11 employees, contains computer rooms, multi-purpose halls and a library. Palestinian anger over the European cartoons was quickly diverted to the Christian center. On February 2, a bomb exploded outside the Bible Society. Nobody was injured. By February 16, the center was warned in an anonymous letter that it would be blown up unless the building was vacated by February 28. Christian sources said the PA advised the center to lock its doors, but has not provided protection. Christian sources said they believe the threats have come from elements in the Fatah Party headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The sources said Fatah has sought to block the Hamas takeover of government by sparking violence and seizing official and other facilities in the Gaza Strip. Contact Israel Resource News Agency (http://Israelbehindthenews.com) by email at media@actcom.co.il |
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ILLEGAL HOME DEMOLITIONS
Posted by David Meir-Levi, February 23, 2006. |
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Since the issue of Israel's demolition of some Arab homes keeps on cropping up in emails that I get, or articles that I read, I thought I'd send around this essay and article. Pass it on to anyone who is concerned about what is really going on, and why this whole issue is really part of the Arab war against Israel. the reality of Isrraeli home demolitions This is for those (you, your friends or relatives, neighbors, your colleagues, your enemies) who wring their hands and weep, or nearly weep, at the news of Israeli demolition of illegal Arab housing. The Arab anti-Israel PR war of illegal home construction is very well choreographed, and highly successful. One of the best signs of its success is just how many Israelis, Jews all over the world, and many other equally sincere honest humanitarian considerate compassionate people are aghast at the scenes of Israeli bulldozers destroying Arab houses. These good-hearted, right-minded folks do not get it.....the Arab illegal building spree is part of the long-term Arab war against Israel....a war whose goal is the destruction of Israel and the genocide of its Jews. And the anti-Israel agitation and letter writing and demonstrations and NGO condemnation...all aid the Arabs in their genocidal intent. As I have demonstrated in previous emails, the Palestinian Authority, with funding from various Arab countries, has used illegal home construction as a weapon against Israel in the Intifada. Thousands of Arab homes built illegally in and around Jerusalem create faites accomplis (or as we say in the Holy Tongue: Ubdot baShetah = facts on the ground) regarding where Israeli sovereignty ends. This situation is a win-win for the Palestinians and a lose-lose for Israel. If left standing, these houses are nicer homes than Palestinians could build with their own funding, but since they are built with funds from Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq (before the last Gulf War), they are a significant up-grade. So Palestinians gain nice homes and Israel has its long-range plan for Jerusalem and environs violated and constrained; and its future territorial integrity compromised. Palestinians win and Israel loses. If demolished, the Palestinian family is compensated by the same Arab sources that funded the construction (so they can go and build another home somewhere else), and the Israeli demolition is reframed by international TV and other media outlets as crimes against the Palestinians (even though the homes are built illegally, and all countries in the Western civilized world have laws of eminent domain and regulations that require demolition in some cases when houses are built without permit). So the Palestinian family gets a new home, the Palestinian propaganda gets more great photo-ops of Israeli bulldozers destroying Palestinian homes, and Israel is demonized. Palestinians win and Israel loses. Palestinians: win win
Now that the Palestinian leadership recognizes that this strategy works (more than 6000 Arab homes built in the Jerusalem area, and only c. 200 demolished, and great anti-Israel PR achieved when the anti-Israel photo-ops are created, and when the media and world at large believe the galactically exaggerated claims of 'thousands left homeless'), they expand the strategy beyond Jerusalem. So illegal Arab building between Gush Etzion and Jerusalem will create Palestinian homes that will be "facts on the ground" when it comes time to negotiate the legal and internationally recognized border between "Palestine" and Israel. But if Israel tries to demolish these illegal constructions, it will get more bad PR and more demonization; even though its actions are perfectly legal in both national and international law; and even though the Arab illegal building actions are a clearly dangerous part of the over-all anti-Israel strategy of the Palestinian leadership. So now, per the article below, the Israeli government is paralyzed with indecision: which loss does Israel suffer? The loss of sovereignty and control of its own land by letting the illegal building continue, or the loss of the PR war to the successful Arab-produced images of the 'horrible, inhuman, brutal, apartheid, racist Israeli denial of the Palestinians' human rights". David ML PS. It is important to recall that per international law, and despite the endless Arab rant about 'illegal occupation", Israel's sovereignty over the West Bank is completely legal, and the Israeli government's ownership of all West Bank land not owned by a specific individual (natural or legal person or legal commune) is the legal and internationally recognized concept of "crown land" or "state land". Therefore, Arab building on West Bank land not owned by some specific individual is subject to the laws of that land's legal owner -- the state of Israel. PPS. It is not well known but the same type of struggle is going on in the Negev, where Israeli Arab Bedouin are systematically carrying out a land-grab war as they illegally expand the areas of their tents and shanties over Israeli state land (grazing has always been allowed, but not permanent or semi-permanent buildings without permits), without permits, and in defiance of stop-orders (see last two paragraphs of article below). And here too Israel is paralyzed because it does not want the bad PR and horrific photo-ops of the Israeli government uprooting Arabs. Even though such uprooting is completely legal and part of the laws and law-enforcement norms of all western countries. And what is even more galling, the inhabitants of these "unrecognized settlements" then sue the Israeli government for not providing them with running water and sewerage and electricity and phone service and a feeder road. A real win-win for the Bedouin: build illegally and unjustifiably claim the land; then pay no taxes because your status as a legal occupant is not legally recognized; and then demand all the services that the government provides to legal settlements and for which taxes pay part of the expense........ .........and if the government balks....well then you have the great PR of "Israel discriminates against its Arab citizens". PPPS. I suspect (just my opinion...I'm an insurance broker....we all know to which part of the human anatomy opinions are likened) that Olmert's sudden get-tough attitude toward the Jews of Hebron squatting illegally in abandoned Arab houses near the Suq may be a function of his sensitivity to the PR value of such an attitude. The world now sees that Israel is a country run by rule of law, and applies that law with equanimity against law-breakers -- Jewish or not. It is not just Arabs against whom laws of eminent domain are applied. Israel uproots Jews too. Olmert hopes my guess) that such action makes Israel look better to the world. This article is called "Govt Silent as Illegal Arab Building Cuts Off Gush Etzion." It is by Ezra HaLevi and appeared in Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews.com) 19 Jan 2006. It is based upon Erez Tadmor's article in Makor Rishon. As the government declares "war" on unauthorized Jewish communities, Arabs, funded by the Palestinian Authority, are deciding Israel's future borders through unhindered illegal building. An investigative report by Erez Tadmor, of the Hebrew weekly Makor Rishon, exposed the massive unauthorized Arab building projects, which are going on all over Gush Etzion, the 'settlement bloc' just south of Jerusalem that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon repeatedly claimed would remain in Jewish hands. Mr. Sharon insisted that a letter he received from US President George W. Bush bolstered that claim. The Gush Etzion bloc is shown even by left-wing polls to be within the consensus of Israeli willingness to fight to retain. According to the platforms of the Kadima and Labor parties, and even Yossi Beilin's Geneva Initiative, Gush Etzion's future under Israeli sovereignty is assured. At the same time, however, the region, where Jews return to in 1967 after being expelled in 1948, is being surrendered through the government's decision to destroy only unauthorized Jewish building, ignoring 7,380 Arab violations. In 1998, then-Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon was broadcast on Israel Radio exhorting idealistic Jews to, "Move, run, grab more hills, expand the territory. Everything that's grabbed, will be in our hands. Everything we don't grab will be in their hands." Sharon has since destroyed 25 Jewish towns in Gaza and northern Samaria and is now in a coma, while his deputy, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, has declared "war" on unauthorized Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria. With the Partition Wall about to be constructed in the region, it is acknowledged that the real route of the fence will be drawn by the State's High Court, which has already taken Arab agriculture and construction into consideration over Jewish contiguity in Samaria. The route of the Partition Wall will be the future border of the State of Israel, according to Justice Minister Tzippy Livni. The decisions of the Supreme Court on the fence-route in Ariel Bloc in Samaria resulted in a route that looks very similar to the map of Jewish communities in Gaza prior to their destruction -- a group of isolated enclaves, connected to pre-1967 Israel by narrow corridors, similar to the Kissufim corridor, and just as susceptible to attacks. "Those who have truly internalized the rules of the game are the Palestinian Authority and international bodies," Tadmor wrote, "who are now acting with the intent of isolating Gush Etzion in accordance with the rules established by the Supreme Court." In the weeks leading up to the beginning of the construction of the Partition Wall in Gush Etzion, local Arabs are racing to create facts on the ground. "In the full light of day and with the knowledge of the relevant authorities, intensive works have been underway during the past months to seize control of thousands of [acres] of uncultivated lands between the settlements of western Gush Etzion and the Green Line. The goal is to prevent any possibility of creating territorial contiguity in the direction of Jerusalem and in the direction of Beitar-Illit and Tsur Hadassah. In the last months, the Palestinians have expedited the pace of work undertaken in a number of parallel areas. So far, they've managed to seize control of hundreds of acres of state lands in the southwestern Gush, and one sees a similar picture unfolding in the central Gush and in the lands north of it." According to the report, official vehicles of the Palestinian Authority, manned by paid PA employees, are supervising the work and traveling freely in the areas between Gush Etzion's Jewish towns. The areas are worked day in and day out using heavy equipment such as bulldozers, tractors, dump trucks, and large teams of workers. They are focusing on state lands (land purchased by the JNF prior to the state on behalf of the Jewish people) and on 'survey' lands (lands whose status is unclear due to their lack of registry in the lands authority, much of them state lands as well). New roads are being paved, dirt paths are being widened, land is being indiscriminately plowed, and terraces are being built to seize legal control of the land, all with the financial backing of the PA and international donors under the guise of assisting Palestinian farmers. A similar effort by the PA was halted by Ehud Barak during his term as prime minister, after he and Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh were convinced that the project at that time aimed at driving wedges between the Gush Etzion communities and between the region and the Green Line, rather than to assist the small farmer. The Civil Administration was instructed to prevent any future attempts at seizing land, including the impounding of equipment working the area. In recent months, however, the Civil Administration has not interfered with the illegal building. During these months the Civil Administration called in massive forces to destroy a small house in the Jewish outlying community of Sde Boaz, whose residents witness the illegal Arab construction a stone-throw from their homes daily. The report outlines details of the construction projects that are ongoing: "The PA has seized hundreds of [acres] on every one of the slopes that descend from the settlements of the Gush westwards and northwards. On the slopes that descend westwards from the communities of Elazar and Givat Hachish (Alon Shvut's caravan neighborhood), heavy equipment has been working to clear wide tracts, by hewing the rocky landscape and opening access routes for trucks. At the same time, dozens of laborers are operating in the area continuously with the help of tractors. Tract after tract of terraces are prepared, followed by a stream of trucks that dump their loads of arable soil onto the newly created terraces. "The result, after a few days of work is to transform the area from a virgin and rocky hillside to a terraced landscape awaiting planting. In addition, wells are being dug to facilitate the future agriculture. A similar situation exists on the northern and western slopes of Neve Daniel, where Sde Boaz is located, and on land abutting the city of Beitar Illit, separating it from the rest of Gush Etzion." A large sign has even been erected in the area, displaying the logos of the PA and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). "The UNDP, which is supposed to be a neutral organization that assists Palestinian farmers, is overreaching its mission by lending its authority and resources to aid the PA in its land-grab," reads the report. As for the Civil Administration, 7,380 demolition orders have been issued against illegal Arab building projects in Judea and Samaria that have not been executed due to orders by the government. Orders to dismantle hundreds of other illegal structures in the Negev also have not been carried out. Bedouins in the Negev have built thousands of illegal metal shacks on land that they have taken over during the past two decades. Instead of calling them "illegal" or "unauthorized" the government and state-run media call them "unrecognized villages." A spokesman for the Negev District Police said recently that the Arabs have erected over 35,000 illegal structures in that region. Few of these structures are ever demolished. David Meir-Levi is an American-born Israeli, currently living in Palo Alto. His expertise is in Near Eastern studies and the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is Director of Peace and Education at Israel Peace Initiative (www.ipi-usa.org). Contact him at david_meirlevi@hotmail.com |
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WESTERN NATIONS SHOULD NOT TOLERATE CALLS FOR THE MURDER OF THEIR CITIZENS
Posted by David Holcberg, February 23, 2006. |
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Western nations should not tolerate calls for the murder of their citizens by men like the Pakistani imam and the minister from India who offered bounties for the assassination of Danish cartoonists. We are still paying for doing nothing in response to the 1989 fatwa Iran issued against Salman Rushdie and the translators and publishers of his book, "The Satanic Verses." Seventeen years later, hundreds of Western intellectuals and politicians live in hiding from Islamist threats to their lives and families. To fulfill their responsibility to safeguard our freedom and security, our governments must make sure that the Islamists who threaten individuals for criticizing Islam do not get away with their threats. More fundamentally, our governments must end all state support of Islamic terrorism--including any support or toleration of those who incite violence and murder. David Holcberg is with the Ayn Rand Institute (http://www.aynrand.org/) in Irvine, CA. The Institute promotes the ideas of Ayn Rand--best-selling author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead and originator of the philosophy of Objectivism. |
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POLLARD CHALLENGES WITHHOLDING OF OWN CASE FILE; SENSITIVITY; STOPPING IRAN
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, February 23, 2006. |
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SHARON'S SCAM Claiming without any basis that the expulsion of the Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria would benefit Israel, PM Sharon promised to compensate them. Most of them now are homeless, jobless, and held responsible for continuing payments on the houses destroyed by the government. A few were given some funds and slum-like mini-trailers. The Jewish refugees are depending for survival upon the generosity of ordinary Israelis. Why did US Jewry, which often rushes to aid gentiles, not fill the breach? Ordinary Jews cannot trust the government of Israel or organized US Jewry (Winston Mid East Analysis, 2/9). We Jews are bereft of faithful, wise leadership. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? " Palestinian Authority security forces knew in advance that militants in Gaza were planning an attack at the Erez crossing into Israel, defense establishment officials said on Thursday." (IMRA, 2/9.) What does that mean? Did the P.A. know which terrorists were planning the attack, and withhold the information from Israel? Was Abbas party to it? Or was the knowledge too general to act upon? SHIFT IN PERPETRATORS OF TERRORISM Although P.A. terrorism continues under the auspices of the main terrorist organizations, the attacks actually are perpetrated by local, informal networks. Local clans are struggling for power. They seek it via terrorism (IMRA, 2/9). POLLARD PETITIONS SUPREME COURT The US Court of Appeals turned down a petition by Pollard's lawyers. They had been appealing their denial of access to the full court docket on Pollard. They needed to see it, in order to base their plea for clemency. They were told it is classified. However, those lawyers have security clearance. Therefore, the denial was illogical. The Court of Appeals denied the petition as violating separation of powers. It ruled that the Court does lacks jurisdiction over the file. The government and previous courts had agreed that there is no jurisdictional problem. Why should there be? The court docket belongs to the judicial branch, and not the executive branch. Hence, there would be no violation of separation of powers. Therefore, the denial was illogical. Pollard's attorneys are appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court (IMRA, 2/9). Are US courts, like Israel's, using false logic to deny justice? US courts deny substantive hearings on shaky procedural grounds. DEMOGRAPHY The main argument in favor of the abandonment of Gaza and northern Samaria is demographic. The Sharon regime claimed that if Israel retained most of the Territories, the Arabs would outnumber them. Masses of Arabs have been moving out of the Territories. The result is that their population growth is less than that of the Jews in Israel and in the Territories. With the entry of Hamas into governing circles, and investigations of Fatah corruption, many Fatah officials and their families have fled. The Arab birth rate has been declining. Among the factors in this are: "Intensified family planning (e.g. 52% of married women using contraceptives), expanded education system, increase of median wedding age, upsurge of divorce rate, stronger career mentality among women, and a dramatic transformation from a poor rural to a poor urban society." Intensified family planning (e.g. 52% of married women using contraceptives), expanded education system, increase of median wedding age, upsurge of divorce rate, stronger career mentality among women, and a dramatic transformation from a poor rural to a poor urban society. The claim is false. When presented with documentation disproving it, the media refused to publish the refutation. Policy for national security was based on Arab projections! (Winston Mid East Analysis, 2/9 with commentary by Yoram Ettinger.) The argument should not have been applied to northern Samaria, which had very few Arabs in it. I think that the argument was not sincere. It was meant just to seem impressive. It was used by biased sources making ridiculous projections. Now we know the argument is wrong. We know that abandonment does not boost Israeli security as the regime also claimed. It boosts the death rate. Will the policy be changed? Why not a policy that accelerates Arab emigration? If Israel had a regime not itself corrupt and corrupted by the P.A., it would publish proof of corruption by Fatah officials. PECULIAR "SENSITIVITY" The EU, BBC, and "NY Times" urge the West to be more "sensitive" to Muslims with banners declaring, "Behead the enemies of Islam!" Let Westerners instead be sensitive to self-preservation by defeating the Islamists (Mark Steyn, NY Sun, 2/13, Op. Ed.). ADDING UP THE FACTS ABOUT RAIDING IRAN The editor of the Jewish Political Chronicle noted: (1) The AIPAC case revealed incidentally that Israeli agents were in Iraq along the border with Iran; (2) The US sold Israel bombs not useful to Israel except for destroying Iran's underground nuclear facilities; (3) Israeli raiders would have to fly over Iraqi air space, which the US controls, and would have to land in Iraq on the way back, to refuel. This is the big picture of Iraq (1/06, Ed.) that critics of US policy missed. U.S. CALLS CORRUPT WARLORDS "REFORMERS" Some Western Arabists have called Jibril Rajoub and Mohammed Dahlan a younger generation and reformers (or "strongmen."). A reformed PLO official, Abu Toameh considers them crooks and warlords. (I consider them to be terrorists, too.) People ask, "Is America going to pressure Israel for peace"? The media fails to ask, "When are the Arabs going to pressure the Palestinians (fellow Arabs) for peace"? (Israel signed peace agreements with the P.A., but the Arabs violate them.) The US demands that Israel provide corridors to facilitate Arab movement between Gaza and Judea-Samaria. The ostensible assumption is that the two sections are culturally compatible. Actually, they are not. Arab residents of Judea-Samaria laugh at the notion of visiting the lower class Gaza. In 1994, Arafat tried to bring P.A. police from Gaza to Ramallah. "The Gazans were kicked out in five days." (Ira Stoll, NY Sun, 2/13, p.11.) STRANGE REACTION? Gaza has become "the most active terror base in the Arab world." The world does not urge Israel to destroy it, but to appease it (Jewish Political Chronicle, 1/2006, p.6 from Caroline Glick, Jer. Post, 1/06/06) at least as of before the election. ABBAS, SUPPOSED OPPONENT OF TERRORISM Abbas released 39 Islamic Jihad terrorists from prison in Jericho (IMRA, 2/9). Why? WOULDN'T TAKE MUCH TO STOP IRAN Skeptics about the efficacy of raiding Iran's nuclear facilities argue that there are too many buildings to knock them all out. Not all, however, would have to be destroyed, to set Iran back for years. Demolition of several key buildings would disrupt the program. Iran cannot re-purchase much of the material it obtained before embargoes were laid upon them (IMRA, 2/9 from Edward N. Luttwak). This subject has been discussed in a limited way. The occasional articles on it reflect a writer's limited perspective. Better to get several experts together, and thrash it out. PARANOIA VS. MYOPIA People have mocked Pres. Bush's warnings about evil abroad as paranoid. Then Iran's President denied the Holocaust and vowed to initiate a nuclear one (whose clouds drift over other countries). That should sober Bush's critics, but they are not rehabilitating his reputation (Jewish Political Chronicle, 1/2006, p.8 from Joseph Loconte). They pursue partisan politics while disaster threatens. It cripples his initiative. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com. |
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THE SLEAZE OF ALMERT-SMOLMERT
Posted by Steven Plaut, February 23, 2006. |
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1. Sleaze This is not the first time Daniel Abrams has been involved in Israeli politics. He has close personal ties with Shimon Peres and helps fund the "Peres Center", the pet "think tank" Peres operates to promote his "ideas". Israel's State Comptroller is already investigating a $120,000 contribution from Abrams in 2004 to Shimon Peres' campaign for the Labor Party primaries last November. Abrams is a wealthy American Jewish liberal, who owns and controls the "Slim Fast" product line of diet foods. Years ago I did a spoof of Abrams and his company when he was just about the investor in the world who accepted Shimon Peres' invitation (after the first Oslo Accord) to invest in the Gaza Strip. Abrams agreed to set up a Slim Fast factory there. I did a whole comedy routine based on this. I will save you the Full Monty thereof, but it involved setting up a factory for providing low-cal diet foods to the overeating suicide bombers in Gaza. This way they could trim the fat and avoid getting all that cellulite all over the celluloid of the film crew taking pictures of the carnage after they blow themselves up fort peace. Well, now it turns out that the same Abrams is a bedfellow of Ehud Olmert. Abrams had contributed NIS 193,000 to Olmert's campaign in the Jerusalem mayoral elections. But now new ties have been revealed. All the details are coming out in stages, but Abrams funneled quite a lot of money to Olmert personally in ways that are pretty obviously violations of Israel's campaign finance laws. Now Olmert has been involved in plenty of sleaze in the past. He was investigated for suspicion of taking bribes (www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2004/04/04/ israel_shuts_corruption_probe_into_olmert?mode=PF). In 1997 an Israeli court found Olmert innocent of charges that he had engaged in financial irregularities in the 1988 election campaign, when Olmert was treasurer of the Likud Party. Olmert claimed his only "mistake" then was that he signed financial reports without double-checking them. Olmert also took funds from Marc Rich, whom you may recall as one of Clinton's weasels, pardoned on Clinton's last day in office http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2001-02-22-richisrael.htm). Campaign sleaze is not exactly unusual in Likud-Kadima (www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=240635&contrassID= 2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y), and even less so in the Labor Party. (See www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=8593=8593&format=0) The current sleaze involving Olmert and Abrams has to do with Olmert's private home in the expensive Rehavia neighborhood in Jerusalem. Olmert, while a full-time politician and civil servant, mysteriously raised oodles of cash to buy his home. The current scandal involves the fact that Olmert sold his Jerusalem home to Abrams operating through an offshore company for $2.69 million in 2004, but is still living there and paying the new owner rent. Why is this a scandal? Cause the home was evidently sold to Abrams for far more than it was worth and Abrams then leased it back to Olmert for a rent far BELOW what it is worth. Those of you who can put two and two together without using Excel might find this suspicious. Olmert also keeps changing his story about the deal (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/686244.html ). The whole story came out because Haaretz started snooping. Haaretz
is of course politically driven, hoping to boost the showing of Peretz
and the Left in the coming elections, but the sleaze is nevertheless
what one would expect from Olmert. (By the way, Netanyahu's people are
calling him "Smolmert", based on "Smol" which means "Left".
2. Leftist Rules of Debating The following are the basic principles upon which all public debate must be conducted if you wish to be a true progressive and leftist person who cares: 1. Leftists should be free to call everyone else nasty names, because they are so moral, but no one should be permitted to call leftists nasty names. 2. For a leftist to call someone nasty names shows social concern and awareness. For someone to call a leftist a nasty name back is immature and impolite and avoiding the issues. 3. Leftists need never document their claims. 4. Whenever a leftist is presented with documentation of facts that contradict the leftist's theology, the leftist must insist that no facts have been presented at all. 5. No scientific sources that presents facts contradicting leftist theology are admissable. They must be dismisse as being "right-wing". 6. All arguments may be settled by telling a non-leftist that he reminds you of Rush Limbaugh. 7. Never ever take an economics course. 8. Never recognize the fact that every idea of Marx's was debunked over 150 years ago. Never read any social science written since Marx. Never admit that you know that Marx was a racist and anti-Semite. 9. Never visit the library. 10. Never study statistics or public policy analysis. 11. Always say "people of color" so everyone will know you care. 12. Recycle. 13. Whine. 14. Pretend that you do not care about material things, but never sell your VCR or cellular phone or condo to help the underprivileged. 15. Never admit that life ever involves tradeoffs. After all, when there are tradeoffs it is harder to feel righteous. 16. Always support proposals that make real problems of the world worse just as long as advocating them can make you feel caring and righteous. Remember, it is all about YOU! 17. Never admit that anything could be positive about the United States. 18. Always insist that there are few world problems that could not be improved through the destruction of Israel. 19. Always insist that you have no idea what political correctness is or that it exists. 20. Always use the female pronouns half the time or more. That way everyone will know you are egalitarian. 21. Insist that you are more caring and compassionate than anyone else. 22. Remember, you would prefer that poor people in the Third World starve rather than that they should embrace capitalism and live like you do. 23. Other people must always be required to relinquish their material things so that you may feel idealistic and righteous. 24. Your property is sacred; other people's property is to be used for social engineering and doing good. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments -- both seriously and satirically -- on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or contact him by email at stevenplaut@yahoo.com. |
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BESMIRCHING THE BESMIRCHERS
Posted by Marion D.S. Dreyfus, February 22, 2006. |
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What the nearly global "cartoon riots" reveal is not comic. But apologies are not the answer. In fact, apologizing is diametrically the wrong tack to take in regard to this latest wrinkle in Islam's delinquency to the universe. As analysts Daniel Pipes and Michelle Malkin have noted, it is the essence of maintaining our very lives and independence to assert and defend our correct rights to self-expression. Should we foolishly and outlandishly bend to their triumphalism of droit du religion--only Islam of all isms must be respected and obeyed, evidently; all others may be trampled upon by these disrespectful and violence-worshipping people--we will have succumbed to the ugliness of dhimmitude and the squalor of inevitable decline under their ceaseless and envious bullying. The recapitulation after four months of cartoons only a few of which, by the way, were authentically drawn by cartoonists in response to a request for depiction of the islamist issues relevant to today, of these mostly innocuous depictions, is a ploy of several Middle Eastern autocratic/dictatorial governments involved, predominantly Syria. The vociferous rubbish indulged in by this mind-poisoned scourge--does not a single male Muslim work, ever??? anywhere in the Middle East?--is a potempkin front to rattle our infidel cages. Be assured they are state-sanctioned showcases: See what we can engineer, when we put our minds, matches and feet to it!? Side B: Look at our fireworks, ye mighty, and be afraid, be very afraid. The mass of the rampaging and artificially ramped-up crowd hardly devours its own media, and is moreover largely unacquainted with Danish, let alone Chileno or adjuvant news. The technique of priming the rage of the unhappily underemployed was flogged similarly by the nazi tyrant 65 years ago to distract from economic, sociological and communal woes that bore little resemblance to the proximal 'cause' of the demonstrations, however. No country should apologize. Unless the weasel states apologize to the West for their canker acts of decapitation, name-calling and retail rewriting of history. If these same vile states of insult continue to lambaste and caricature Christianity, Hinduism and Judaism, they must learn that turnabout is just fair play. A major lesson must be extrapolated from one of the placards held aloft in one of these demos: 'To hell with your freedom,' it read. The concept that they willingly lap up their lack of freedom is an ironic statement no government bloviation can obscure. Their message is plainer than mud on a mollusk: We want to be preliterate and pre-modern. We know enough English to tell you our mindset, but we don't have a farthing's-worth of regard for what you hold dear, even if it would look good in our breakfronts for the occasional hudna. Eventually, their Jurassic, ignorant exceptionalism will be penetrated by the futility of defending the dank feudal they have sold their souls to in a bad bid for virgins or rescue. Marion D.S. Dreyfus writes frequently on healthcare, social issues, and particularly the politics and problems of the Middle East. Contact her by email at dreyfusmarion@hotmail.com |
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WEAK ON HAMAS
Posted by Women in Green, February 22, 2006. |
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This article was written by Caroline Glick and it appeared in the Jerusalem Post February 20, 2006. At its Sunday morning cabinet meeting did Israel's interim government finally lay out a strategy for contending with the fact that Hamas has taken over the Palestinian Authority? The Israeli and international media reports of the meeting could easily lead a person to think so. Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth. The interim government's decisions Sunday show that the government has no policy for contending with Hamas. The absence of a policy is a result of the government's lack of a basic understanding of -- or its unwillingness to understand -- the threat the Hamas takeover of the PA poses to Israel. In declaring that the government had decided to stop all direct transfers of funds to the PA, Sunday's headlines indicated that Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his associates have launched a concerted campaign against the Hamas-led PA. But the small print told a different story completely. Over the objections of the IDF, the government is continuing to allow Palestinians to work in Israel. The government also rejected the IDF's recommendation to cut off all links to Gaza and transform the passages from Gaza to Israel into international border crossings. Far from working to cut off international funding of the Palestinians, the Olmert government continues to support international funding of non-governmental and UN organizations that operate in the PA; and apparently does so unconditionally. Finally while Olmert admitted Sunday that the PA has become a "terrorist authority," he and his ministers failed to take any actions -- either diplomatically or militarily -- that legally arise from this designation. OLMERT'S opponents, and specifically Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu, were quick to criticize the government's decisions. They argued that in acting in such an ambiguous manner, the government ignored the threat Hamas -- which is supported by Iran and works in concert with Hizbullah and al-Qaida -- poses to Israel's survival. Responding to those critics Olmert defended his government's contradictory decisions by castigating his detractors as "fear-mongers." Olmert further stated: "There is no reason to terrify the State of Israel by claiming that the sky has fallen." Olmert and his colleagues justified their limited steps against Hamas by saying that they were motivated by "humanitarian" considerations. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters that Israel wants to prevent a "humanitarian crisis" in the PA. Were such a crisis to unfold, Livni warned, Israel would be blamed for it. Livni, like Olmert and all other Kadima spokesmen, further maintained that by acting in such a limited manner, the government is safeguarding international support generally, and US support specifically, for Israel's bid to isolate the Hamas-led PA. PERHAPS THE strongest indication that the Olmert interim government has no idea how to craft national strategies or advance Israel's national interest is the fact that the US Congress and the Bush administration are both taking much clearer stands against Hamas than Israel's government. Perversely, far from working to build a strong and unambiguous international consensus against the Hamas-ruled PA, the Olmert government is undermining the efforts of Israel's friends in the US Congress. Its contradictory moves toward the Hamas-led PA serve to undercut Israel's supporters in Washington while strengthening the leftist American Jewish groups now working feverishly to scuttle a concerted US response to the Hamas takeover of the PA. Immediately after the PA election results were announced, US Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who chairs the House of Representative's Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia, submitted a bill that updates US policy toward the PA in response to the Hamas takeover. Her bill, which enjoys wide support in both houses of Congress and is backed by AIPAC and other mainstream American Jewish organizations, would end not only all US direct assistance to the PA, but also bar US support for non-governmental organizations and UN agencies operating in the PA areas that have any links whatsoever to terrorism. Furthermore, the Ros-Lehtinen bill designates the PA as a terrorist sanctuary. In line with this designation, the legislation bars PA officials from receiving visas to enter the US; bars the PA from having representative offices in the US; and places travel restrictions on PA and PLO representatives to the UN. Finally, the bill bars US diplomats from having any contact of any kind with members of Palestinian terror groups including Hamas, the Aksa Martyr Brigades, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. AS OPPOSED to other Congressional actions taken against the PA in the past, the proposed legislation does not include a presidential waiver that would allow the administration to ignore the law if the president deemed it necessary for national security reasons. For this reason, the State Department opposes its passage. But even the State Department -- which has distinguished itself for over 20 years mainly for its equivocation regarding Palestinian terrorism -- has minced no words about its view of the Hamas-led PA. Last Friday a State Department spokesman publicly demanded that the PA return $50 million in direct US assistance which was transferred to the PA before the elections. For its part, the Olmert government has made no similar demand for the return of the $50 million in tax revenues that it transferred to the PA after the Hamas electoral victory. As well, on Sunday the US Treasury Department blocked the assets of KindHearts charitable organization. That group, which is based in Toledo, Ohio, was determined to be a terrorist organization because it funds Hamas. According to the Akron, Ohio, Beacon Journal, since its founding in 2002 KindHearts has raised and transferred some $4 million per year to Hamas. As the actions of Congress and the Bush administration show, the US continues to define Hamas as a global terrorist organization, and is abiding by US laws regarding terrorist organizations in its dealings with the Hamas-led PA. In light of this the Olmert government's halting and confused steps against the Hamas-led PA seem all the more ridiculous. THE ONLY constituency in the US that has galvanized around the Israeli government's incoherent response to Hamas's takeover of the PA is the Jewish American Left. American Friends for Peace Now, the Israel Policy Forum and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism are all actively lobbying Congress to derail the Ros-Lehtinen bill. As reported in The Jewish Week, these organizations are trying to bring about the defeat of the proposed legislation because, in their view, it will make it impossible for the US to reward "incremental movement [by Hamas] toward abandoning its traditional commitment to destroy Israel." One of the excuses the government has given for its refusal to take concerted action against the Hamas-led PA is that it wishes to prevent the PA's "collapse." Yet, in an address last week in Washington, former IDF chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. (res.) Moshe Ya'alon explained: "We should not fear collapse; the experience of Israel's security operations in recent years shows that Palestinian society will not collapse -- as the word is commonly interpreted -- even under extreme conditions. Municipalities, for example, continued to operate and provide services even at the height of Israel military actions against the PA." Ya'alon further explained, "It must be remembered that the Palestinian people elected Hamas with full awareness of its terrorist nature. It is therefore highly important that the international community send a clear message that terrorism does not pay." Sadly, Ya'alon's clear and rational statements, which enjoy the support of the US government and the American people and are already codified in US law, are undermined by the Israeli government and by a handful of leftist Jewish American organizations. Through its ambiguous and contradictory policies toward the PA since the elections, far from acting to forge an international consensus against the Hamas-led PA, the Olmert government is undercutting US resolve to isolate it. In so doing it is strengthening the positions of Russia, Turkey, the Arab League and France, which advocate embracing Hamas as a legitimate political force. Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org |
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HAMAS, THE VIDEO
Posted by Barry Shaw, February 22, 2006. |
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This is the answer to Oscar nominees 'Munich' and 'Paradise Now'. This letter comes from Dr. Irene Lancaster, Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester. Dear Friends I would be grateful if you could just take a minute to view this video by Hamas, which fully explains their view of Jews worldwide and their latest plans concerning Israel. Hamas in full colour, speaking for themselves... briefly. http://www.pmw.org.il/asx/PMW_hamas_suicide.asx Barry Shaw made aliyah from Manchester, England, 25 years ago with his family. He spent eleven years on various kibbutzim, ending up at Mishmar HaSharon, the same kibbutz that served as home to Ehud Barak. He now lives in Netanya, where he runs a real estate office. To receive his "View from Here" columns, contact him at netre@matav.net.il |
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CONSTANTINOPLE'S GHOSTS ... OR THEOCRACY AGAINST OCHLOCRACY
Posted by Alex Maist, February 22, 2006. |
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In 2000, at the very beginning of "intifada", the famous political correspondent Ehud Yari warned, that even a drawn game with Palestinians will be a disaster for Israel. Today there are no doubts: we haven't succeeded in bringing this round of conflict to a drawn game, we've lost it. After five years of a wild outburst of violence two new substances were born from the bloody foam almost simultaneously, changing the essence of the conflict dramatically. Until very recently the confrontation was on the democracy-dictatorship line. Now it has changed to theocracy-ochlocracy conflict (according to Aristotle ochlocracy is government by the masses which can't either reasonably use power or hold on to it). The transformation periods of both Israel and Palestine were long, but they ended practically at the same time. And it's very symbolic. Islamic Palestine was born from boundless corruption, infinite despotism and money-grubbing, disgusting power of gangster bands, clans and local "barons". The Israeli ochlocracy arose from the ruins of democracy -- not a perfect one, but democracy nevertheless. Two factors lead to this tragic phenomenon, which we can't comprehend in full measure. The first one was the emasculating of the inner world of the society, the cynical and unrestrained cult of consumption. The second one was the collapse of all ideologies. The "right" and "left" have disappeared -- the worst enemies couldn't live without each other. The present "right" not only began to implement the Meretz's dream, but did it and continue to do it in the worst possible way. There was certain logic in the ideology of Meretz, although Utopian: the creation of two states existing side by side. Disengagement, of course, corresponds to the aspirations of "starry-eyed", but doesn't comply with their conception of two states. The unilateral withdrawal does not make the Arab world recognize the Jewish state. It retains the "occupation" and legitimizes terror. It also deprives Israel its "trump cards" in the negotiations. The present parties have lost any ideology and meaning they used to have. And finally they have lost their voters. The political system of Israel turned into an impetuous whirl, in which, as it happens in similar cases, not statesmen with principles and steadfast views but popular oracles, who give the crowd what it thirsts for, come to the top of the social pyramid. Only in such atmosphere a one-day party like Kadima, an eclectic formation without ideas, program and already without a leader, could become the leading force in the country. Its main strategy is to indulge the public opinion of the "silent majority". And what is the state of mind of the "silent majority" now? It's tired of shocks and only desires for quietness. The unilateral withdrawal gives such a chance. However, it's the worst scenario of all the possible. It doesn't reveal any long-term perspective. There are practically no examples in history, when a civilized society could hold barbarians on any frontier, having begun to retreat. Kadima is the picture of the triumphant ochlocracy. It is the case of people who have lost their ideology and national values. This resulted in bringing to power conformists and adherents to populist solutions. Hamas gave its people some national-religious idea. It headed for the victory zealously promoting its ideas, absorbing the best things of the "Palestinian street", inviting such famous and respectable people, as professors, teachers, engineers and public figures not involved in corruption. There was no power in Israel, adequate to such enemy. All activity of the national-religious camp leaders only alienated the Israeli masses. Efi Eitam and Arye Eldad behave like generals, who got involved into a skirmish in the firing line, forgetting their army. Instead of working out some strategy and recruiting new supporters, they started brawls in Amona and East Jerusalem. And that was the maximum of their creativity and the same zealots' outlook, which ended in the destruction of the Second Temple and the tragedy of the Jewish people. Ismail Hania would hardly enroll such scholars even at the first-year studies. What were the purposes of Palestinian theocracy and Israeli ochlocracy? Hamas doesn't conceal that it aims at creation of Islamic Palestine "from the river to the sea" and then in the Jordanian territory. And what about Kadima? Does it have any aim at all? To all appearances, its purpose is a banal flight called the bombastic name "disengagement"; an attempt to gain time, hide beyond the fence, live "here and now" not thinking about the future. It may be astonishing, but the goals of the two sides coincide. Hamas needn't even make efforts. Its enemy does all the work instead of it. It's not so difficult to foresee the development of the events if Israel does not revalue the situation. To learn the future the Kadima leaders should conduct a spiritualistic séance and bring to life the Basilevs of Byzantine ghosts. And they would see what the usual end of those who try to appease the aggressive Islam is. Once the most potent and developed East Mediterranean power turned into a typical ochlocracy during the last decades of its existence. It suffered from endless disturbances and civil wars that brought to power the third-rate corrupt temporary leaders. The rich Genoa's assistance was the last hope of the Byzantine Empire. But Genoa couldn't save the doomed Constantinople... Alex Maist is a Jerusalem-based journalist who writes on political and religious themes. Contact him at amaist@lycos.com |
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WOUNDED POLICEMAN MYTH; THE CARTOONS MERIT PRAISE; IF PA PROSPERED?
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, February 22, 2006. |
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SPAIN & TURKEY'S IMAGINARY ROLE Spain and Turkey depicted themselves as historically at the juncture of the Islamic and Western worlds. Now they plan to have the two civilizations cooperate. Their press release appeals for Europe not to publish the cartoons that Muslims find "deeply offensive" (IMRA, 2/6). "Cooperation" means the West concedes, Muslims don't. Most of those cartoons are not offensive at all. The rest are a reasonable reaction to jihad. Why, if the two civilizations are to cooperate, don't the two foreign ministries add in their press release that the Muslims should cease their unreasonably offensive cartoons against Western religions and the US? Why don't they denounce jihad? Spain thinks it can appease Islam. Islam, however, is relentless. The Islamists are leading it into a clash of civilizations. The Islamists have an eye on reconquering Spain. That is part of Islamic ideology. Spain is blithely unaware of that. Deadly naivete! The role of Turkey, as of other supposedly moderate Islamic states, is to lull the defenses of the rest of the world. THE WOUNDED POLICEMAN FROM AMONA An ambulance driver in Jerusalem saw most of the couple of hundred wounded opponents of the government dispossession of the Jews of Amona and most of the half a hundred wounded police. All the civilians had broken bones and wounds in the head and limbs. All the police had minor cuts and bruises. The media supported government propaganda by exaggerating the facial cut of one policeman as "badly wounded." Reporters depicted police as engaged in a battle rather than mostly engaged in brutality. The driver witnessed first hand how the media presents the facts -- lies, half truths, and disinformation. That "badly wounded" cop, walking on his own, threatened to further injure civilian patients in the emergency room (Israel Resources News Agency, 2/6). Israel is not an equal opportunity police state -- it does not pick on the Arabs. Its ruling class hates good Jews. The media missed the key point of the story. The Yesha Council had asked Olmert to give the Amona people two weeks to produce proof of ownership of the land. If not produced, then the Council pledged either to move or demolish the houses. This would avoid bloodshed. Polls, however, showed a significant drop in support for Olmert's Party from his compromise in Hebron. Therefore, he went for blood (IMRA, 2/6). Not only did some police suffer cuts, but many were fatigued from beating unresisting protestors. It gets tiring, throwing people to the ground and swinging those heavy clubs or dragging people over rocky terrain. But punishing people on the spot saves paperwork and resources of the ?justice system.? It also gratifies hate-filled liberals. WHY DOESN'T ISRAEL STOP THE ROCKETS? The IDF knows where the terrorists launch rockets! It could bomb the sites. It doesn't. Why? (Israel Resources News Agency, 2/5.) Is it cowed by the hostile media? HAMAS' CONCLUSION Hamas has a video showing the Israeli abandonment of Gaza, which it calls the path to Haifa. It concludes that warfare produced the Israeli retreat. It considers warfare more important than negotiations, compromises, and promises (IMRA, 2/6). Yes, but Hamas is coming around to using negotiations to augment warfare. Iran uses negotiations to stall resistance to its aggressive plans. This deceives France and Democrats. INFORMAL ABANDONMENT Israeli abandonment of Gaza led to a terrorist advance towards Israel. The Arabs have been bombarding Jewish communities in the Negev. The residents of Carmia have abandoned their Negev kibbutz. Israel Resource News Agency is involved in what it calls, after the type of rocket used by terrorists, ?Kassam tours.? Journalists escort residents of central Israel to the Negev, to show them the damage that awaits them from bombardment due to further abandonment or from an increase in the range of rockets placed nearer to Israel after the prior abandonment (David Bedein of the Agency, 2/7). AMNESTY INTL. ON THE CARTOONS Amnesty Intl. characterized the Danish cartoons as hate-speech to be refrained from, if not proscribed. It was much less clear about the Islamic reaction, exhorting unnamed people to calm the atmosphere of threatening violence (IMRA, 2/7). I do not consider those cartoons to embody hatred, but the main Muslim reaction to it does. Two of the cartoons rebuked Islam, in the person of Muhammad, for the techniques of conducting violent jihad. They are valuable wake-up calls to the West. The rest of the cartoons are innocuous. One wonders whether their Western critics know this. I think Amnesty Intl. behaves like a cartoon character. It divides the West when the West needs unity against jihad. Amnesty Intl. pays the usual lip service to freedom of the press, but calls for restraint in discussions of Islam, and not restraint by Muslim cartoonists who constantly inflame their audiences with blood libel against the US, Israel, and Jews, and whose broadcasters and preachers urge the murder of Christians. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com. |
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THE HAMAS UNRWA CONNECTION
Posted by David Bedein, February 21, 2006. |
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At a time when the governments of Israel and the US have made a policy decision to cut funds for to pay health, education and social service salaries to the Hamas dominated Palestinian Authority, it has been suggested that Israel and the US simply allocate the funds through UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency that administers 59 refugee camps for Palestinian Arab refugees from 1948 and for their descendent. All told. UNRWA services about three million Palestinian Arabs, one third of whom actually live in the camps, with the rest of the UNRWA clientele living contiguous to the camps. However, the Hamas connection to UNRWA is pervasive and deep. Writing about UNRWA during a week that the Israel Defence Forces (The IDF) is engaged in house to house search operations of wanted Hamas terrorists in the UNRWA camp in Balata, near Nablus, the use and the infiltration into UNRWA facilities and UNRWA operations by Hamas and by Hamas-affiliated people who are in the employ of UNRWA is nothing new. At the memorial ceremony for Sheikh Yassin which as held at the UNRWA boys' school in that same Balata refugee camp on April 3, 2004, veiled operatives held mock Kassam rockets; the families of "martyrs" were given gifts and certificates of gratitude. In an earlier incident Hamas convened a conference in a school in the Jabalya refugee camp, in which the school's administration, teachers and hundreds of students participated was reported on the website of the Israeli prime minister. Saheil Alhinadi, representing the UNRWA Teachers Association, praised UNRWA pupils s who carried out suicide attacks against Israel. That Alhinadi was speaking for the teachers should not be surprising, since Hamas-affiliated officials dominate in the teachers' union of UNRWA in Gaza, and control its executive committee. This is particularly worrisome because of the influence on young refugees studying in UNRWA schools. Hamas has influenced the UNRWA schools in yet another way, as well: The Islamic Bloc, which works within the Hamas, and refers to itself as a "Jihad" organization,. dedicated to the "Islamization" of the Palestinian cause and the necessity of liberating all of the land of Palestine, and it has been charged by Hamas with furthering the goal of Hamas within the schools. IDF Colonel (ret.) Yoni Fighel, a former IDF intelligence officer, observed that "As long as UNRWA employees are members of Fatah, Hamas, or PFLP, they are going to pursue the interests of their party within the framework of their job... Who's going to check up on them to see that they don't? UNRWA? They are UNRWA." Meanwhile, Israel's former UN Ambassador, Dr. Dore Gold, visited the UNRWA camp in Jenin in April 2002 and himself witnessed the presence of shahid (martyr) posters on the walls in the homes of UNRWA workers. "It was clear," he says, "that UNRWA workers were doubling as Hamas agents." It should be noted that, for political reasons, adequate vetting of prospective employees in Judea and Samaria is not done by UNRWA, while such vetting of prospective employees for UNRWA does take place in the UNRWA camps in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. At UNRWA's international conference that was held in Geneva in June, 2004, I asked Peter Hansen, then the UN Commissioner General for UNRWA, how he could account for the fact that Hamas members were on the payroll of UNRWA. Hansen then admitted that "We do not check the religious affiliation of our staff members." A week later, Hansen was interviewed by CBC radio and said that he saw no problem with having Hamas members on his staff. Employee involvement with Hamas should not come as any surprise, since the employees of UNRWA are themselves Palestinian Arab refugees, and the evidence that the refugee population is supportive of and affiliated with Hamas is quite considerable: Indeed, UNRWA has never denied beneficiaries aid or relief because of Hamas (or other terrorist) associations. This is because UNRWA has a "don't ask, don't tell" policy on the matter. Inevitably, then, funds given to UNRWA recipients ends up paying the salaries of Hamas officials. This week, The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed UNRWA of its great displeasure with the fact that Hamas officials remain on the payroll of UNRWA. In other words, there is no way to support UNRWA without at some level providing aid and assistance to Hamas at the same time. David Bedein is Bureau Chief, Israel Resource News Agency. (http://Israelbehindthenews.com) and President, Center for Near East Policy Research. Contact him at media@actcom.co.il or visit www.ibtn.co.il |
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NADIA MATAR INDICTED!
Posted by Women in Green, February 21, 2006. |
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As you may have already heard on the media, NADIA MATAR, Co-chair of Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women In Green) has been indicted by the State of Israel. The charge in the indictment is "Insulting a Public Servant." More than a year ago, Nadia wrote an open letter to Yonatan Bassi who is head of the Disengagement Authority. Is Freedom of Speech, and Discussion not permissible in Israel's Democracy? In preparation for the trial, we call upon Israeli citizens ONLY to add your signatures to Nadia's letter. After many signatures have been gathered, the letter will be resent to Bassi. More than 1600 such citizens have already signed the letter/Petition. Shall we stand by and allow the authorities to muzzle the National Camp, while the "left" in Israel can say or do anything they please? Add your signatures to the Petition now, and protest the hypocritical and discriminatory policies of the State Prosecution. We must raise our voices to the ongoing persecution of Nadia Matar in particular, and the loyalists of the Land of Israel in general. Please sign our Petition by clicking here. Please Forward this Petition to friends, relatives, acquaintances and to other email lists! For donations to cover legal expenses, please send your donations to Women In Green, P.O.B. 7352, Jerusalem, 91072, Israel, or go to our website and donate in a safe and secure manner by credit card. Ruth Matar and Anita Finkelstein
Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org |
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REASSURING
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, February 21, 2006. |
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All this is rally a bit reassuring. I had serious doubt as to Olmert (pronounced all-merde) basic intelligence and ability to actually do anything more complicated than throw mud from the gutter. It seems that he at least has the brains necessary to be a mid level crook. But then again, maybe he just has a few good lawyers. These are from Arutz Sheva. "State Comptroller Investigating Acting Prime Minister Olmert For Corruption,"
(IsraelNN.com) State Comptroller, Judge Micha Lindenstrauss, will look into suspicions that Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took part in an illegal real estate deal worth millions of dollars. The details of the affair, which was first published by investigative journalist Yoav Yitzchak's News First Class, allege that Olmert "lent his hand to grave crimes that were committed, including stealing money from creditors, among them the Income Tax authorities, Bank Leumi, players on the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team such as Ronen Harazi, and others." The State Comptroller's office says Lindenstrauss has asked Olmert to submit relevant documents in order to the allegations to be examined. Olmert Linked to Pre-Liquidation Scam
Ehud Olmert and corruption: Investigative reporter Yoav Yitzchak reports that Olmert, using fictitious arbitration, enabled the dishonest extraction of 5 million shekels from a failing soccer team. Yitzchak, reporting on the Hebrew investigative news-site NFC he edits, reveals that Olmert "lent his hand to grave crimes that were committed, including stealing money from creditors, among them the Income Tax authorities, Bank Leumi, players on the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team such as Ronen Harazi, and others." Yitzchak writes that the above information is known to "some elements, but they have hesitated to take legal measures against Olmert. In addition, some media outlets that have received this information chose to remain silent." Olmert's role as arbitrator in the Beitar Jerusalem matter in the year 2000 is well-known, Yitzchak writes, but the scoop lies in the fact that the arbitration was fictitious, and in the revelation of Olmert's role in this fiction. Yitzchak acknowledges that the case is "complex" and requires further investigation. "The decision to open such an investigation is in the hands of Attorney General Menachem Mazuz," Yitzchak writes today, "and in light of Olmert's role as Acting Prime Minister, Mazuz will have to consider the issue with sensitivity but with all due haste." The essential accusation is that Olmert participated in a procedure that allowed a creditor and a debtor to cooperate on the payment of a debt, part of which may not even have been genuine, at the expense of other creditors. The story began in 1999, when the Beitar soccer team, encountering financial difficulties, sold off its properties in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem in order to pay off its creditors. The property was sold for 27 million shekels. However, Moshe Dadash, the man who essentially ran the team for many years, soon withdrew 5.2 million shekels of the money into his own account. Dadash later claimed that running the team voluntarily had cost him much money over the years, for which he was never reimbursed. He provided no receipts, however. He also claimed a prior debt of $180,000 that had swollen to $540,000. Olmert, the Mayor of Jerusalem at the time, was asked to be the arbitrator of an agreement between Dadash and the team. The sides arrived for one meeting, at which Olmert asked them to go outside and come up with a compromise. The agreement they quickly came up with was that the money already taken by Dadash would suffice to cover the alleged debts. Olmert signed, and the matter was considered closed. However, Yitzchak accuses, Olmert never asked to see a 'power of attorney' empowering any of the participants to represent the company in this matter. In addition, the same lawyer represented both Dadash and the team. Finally, Yitzchak maintains, a lawyer involved in the liquidation of Beitar confirmed to him that the arbitration was merely carried out to legitimize a shady deal and to retroactively authorize the taking of money that could have been used to pay off other creditors. The lawyer, Ami Fulman, said that the sides chose to come to Olmert and not to a judge or another arbitrator, because they knew that Olmert would agree to be a fictitious arbitrator. Olmert has close personal ties with Dadash, Yitzchak alleges. "Olmert never said a word," Yitzchak writes, "and cooperated with the sides." On Jan. 1 of this year, Beitar Jerusalem Ltd., specified as a company in the process of being liquidated, sued for the return of the money taken by Dadash. Olmert was contacted by NFC on Friday for his response. He said only that the issue has been publicized before, and has even been looked into by the State Comptroller and the Associations Registrar. Yitzchak says, however, that the only aspect of this case that was investigated was Dadash's receipt of money -- after which he was in fact ordered by the Registrar to return it. Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin, who was chairman of the Beitar Association at the time -- but not when the legal entanglings began - said today, "I knew of no spin or that someone was planning to have the money go elsewhere... If the facts are true, they are grave." "Olmert can claim that he knew nothing of what was going on," Yitzchak writes, "but in addition to the fact that this would be a groundless claim, can he be considered fit to serve in a senior public position or to run the affairs of the State of Israel?" Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel. Contact him at zelasko@actcom.co.il |
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PRETENSE GUIDES FOREIGN POLICY; MUSLIMS DENY JIHAD; JIHADI PLAN FOR WORLD SUPREMACY
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, February 21, 2006. |
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SPARE THE TAX OR SPOIL THE CHILD Hamas boasts of having alternatives to Western sources of financing. It's probably anticipating a subvention from terrorist states afloat on our petrodollars. Pres. Bush just submitted a proposed budget that calls for alternative fuels but still fails to reduce fuel consumption by requiring higher gasoline mileage, more efficient air conditioning in buildings, and more energy-efficient building in general. In any case, the West should take Hamas up on the invitation. Let the West cease subsidizing the P.A.. Let Arab taxpayers waste their money on the P.A.. PRETENDING PUTIN IS REASONABLE Foreign Min. Livni of Israel advised Russian Pres. Putin against inviting Hamas to Russia. She said Russia would be on a slippery slope of accommodating evil. Does Livni think Israel is not on a slippery slope, when it agrees to continue the subsidy of the P.A., supposedly only until Hamas takes over? Oslo was the slope that the slippery State Dept. has kept Israel on, with false and unredeemed promises, until it distorted Pres. Bush's Road Map into a steeper slope. Somebody should advise her that Putin long has slid far down, himself. He is trying to reconstitute the USSR. He imagines that his country -- in which the Christians are dying out, because pollution, AIDS, and low birth rates are tipping the balance towards the Muslims -- will regain great power status. He plays the old game of working against the West. He should be uniting with the West and disassociating his Russians from the Muslims. But he doesn't, and she should not pretend otherwise. Israel cannot survive by imagining itself in a world of make-believe without enemies plotting its destruction. The difficulty is in recognizing that one's ostensible friends are not benign and one's ideologies may have failed. Thomas Friedman stumbled on that in his plea for the US to try to get Russia, China, and India to pressure Iran to stand down, and meanwhile we should conserve fuel so Iran isn't flush with a war chest. He is right. But how does the US overcome its false comfort of supposedly being the sole super-power? Then, how does the US convince those other world powers that the danger to them of nuclear winter supersedes oil and other trade rivalry and Russian and Chinese ambitions for global preeminence? Arrogance, carelessness, and sometimes profligacy seem to come with a rise in prominence. Countries find it easier to gear up ideologically for another round of the last war, than to detect the next and more serious enemy. There is opportunity here for Pres. Bush to manifest greatness. The Democrats, who call him stupid, are unaware of the problem. Their constant carping is sucking him into appeasement mode. Mr. Friedman exemplifies this. He persists in blind antagonism towards the Jewish state, which the US needs as an ally against jihad and whose downfall would bolster jihad. QUOTE OF THE DAY At Davos, "At a session on Islamic terrorism and the efforts by Islamic societies to 'eradicate extremists,' half a dozen Islamic leaders expressed repeated denials, equivocations, and rationalizations. There was no such thing as 'Islamic terrorism,' they insisted, and to the extent that people perceived such a thing, it was the fault of the Western media, which continually stereotypes and demeans those who identify themselves as Muslims, while ignoring the extremists and terrorists who are Christian or Jewish." (Diane Ravitch, NY Sun, 2/7, Op. Ed..) Like the Communists and Nazis, the totalitarian Muslims pretend to be innocent victims of those whom they victimize. There is no Jewish terrorist movement, though Israel is a police state of a sort. There are a few non-Muslim terrorist groups -- the IRA, Basque separatists, Tamils, eco-terrorists, and a few Latin Maoists. They are a nuisance and should be dealt with. They do not threaten other countries or world war. The Muslims do, and are in such a war. Although they are the aggressors, they plead for sympathy by pretending that the Western media is picking on them. Reality is more complicated. The Islamists pick on the West. The Western media reacts variedly. Some side with certain Islamists. Some treat them with respect. They assume that Western wrongdoing induces Islamist hatred and violence, rather than, as is the case, Muslim and Arab culture induces it. Others in the West sound the alarm. Few Western journalists falsely stereotype Muslims; some individuals do. Since Islam is a predatory religion,what the West does is in reaction to it. Islam endorses deception in advancement of the faith. The conferees were lying. They self-servingly redefined terrorism as only what non-Muslims do, until Islamist terrorists struck in Muslim countries so much it couldn't be ignored any longer. THE JIHADISTS HAVE A PLAN There is a "... plan by Global Jihadists of Islam to plant outposts in every nation around the world. Once there they start the process of feeding as a parasite on their hosts until they achieve critical mass. Then begins the more serious task of subverting their hosts until they first have disproportionate influence and then total control. The West has yet to come to grips on what amounts to a cultural pandemic. Artful denial is the mark of Eurabia as Muslims commandeer their streets." (Winston Mid East Analysis, 2/5.) The Islamists have been quoted all over as looking forward to uniting conquered states under a single caliphate. The West should pay attention to the fate they have in store for it. Unless the West takes active steps to oppose the Muslims, the Muslims, whose population increases, will take over. ISRAELI RESOLVE SHORT LIVED Acting PM Olmert declared that he would not subsidize the P.A., now that Hamas has won the election there. Within a couple of days, he declared that he would subsidize it, since Hamas did not take over yet (Prof. Steven Plaut, 2/5). He was rationalizing, just as does the rest of the West. He and they are contemptuous of us, because we let them get away with such transparent excuses. Israel constantly retreats from a firm stand. P.A. REACTION TO ISRAELI REACTION After weeks of ignoring the rockets fired into Israel from the P.A., Israeli forces received permission to resume targeted assassination of terrorist commanders. A P.A. leader complained to Europe about this "Israeli escalation" while the P.A. is "committed to a truce" (IMRA, 2/5). The Arabs don't honor truces. It isn't an escalation, but an overdue though limited reaction to P.A. escalation. Arab talk of a truce is as attempt to get Israel to hold back while the Arabs do not hold back. TERRORIST CAPTURED IN ISRAEL A Hamas terrorist was captured in Israel, before he could complete his mission of kidnapping. He has passed from Gaza into the Sinai and from Sinai into Israel. Had Sharon not abandoned Gaza, he would not have gotten out of Gaza (IMRA, 2/5). HOW FATAH & HAMAS WILL SHARE POWER Hamas does not want to rule alone. The P.A. Arabs shun civil war. They may form a coalition government between Hamas and Fatah, each retaining its militia. Fatah would be the emissaries to the West, so the West would have an excuse for continuing to underwrite the P.A.. Hamas officials would not agree to anything that smacks of compromise with the infidels. It would retain what it considers its purity of arms. Since none of the terrorist groups would disarm, war, disorder and poverty may continue. Hamas is not likely to reform the P.A.. It believes in the pre-modern world, as did the Taliban. The P.A. is on a "path for self-destruction." (IMRA, 2/5 from Efraim Inbar.) Let it self-destruct! Stop prattling about a "two-state solution." Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com. |
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JUST ON WHOSE SIDE ARE THE "ISRAELI" ARABS ANYWAY?
Posted by Dr. Steve Carol, February 21, 2006. |
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On Feb. 15, 2006 two "Israeli" Arab political parties announced a merger. The United Arab List and the Ta'al Party formed a joint list for the forthcoming Israeli elections. New party chairman Ibrahim Sarsour stated that "We believe in Islam and in the Caliphate and not in separation between state and religion." He denounced the "Israelization" of the "Israeli" Arabs calling for Arab and Islamic rule over the Arab areas of Israel. Specifically Sarsour said the party would work to increase Arab immigration to the Jewish state and increase relations between Arabs with Israeli citizenship and the Palestinian Authority. His comments included praise for Hamas, and its recent election victory in the Gaza Strip as well as a denunciation of the United States and its government. Hamas now runs the Palestinian Authority. Sarsour called upon the Palestinian government of Hamas to lead the Arabs of both Israel and Palestine to "progress and achievements, not catastrophes," an allusion to the Nakbah -- the catastrophe, as the Arabs of the region call it, that befell them when Israel was re-established in 1948. The world knows what Hamas seeks to achieve, just by referring to the Hamas Covenant. Hamas wants the elimination of the State of Israel, and the removal of all Jews from the region by one means or another, no matter what borders may be established in the future. While many in the world urge Hamas to voice a change in its charter, any such announcement would be as worthless as those uttered by Yasir Arafat and the PLO in the past. Arafat on several occasion claimed that the PLO charter had been revised or abrogated, and factually never did it. Indeed Hamas leaders are meeting in Beirut, Lebanon, to tone down the rhetoric of their charter in order to keep Western funds streaming into the Palestinian Authority without actual changes to their desired end goal of the destruction of Israel. This demonstrates that "Israeli" Muslim Arabs consider themselves Arabs first, "Palestinians" second, and "Israeli" citizens last. They seek continually to use the freedom and democracy in Israel to undermine that very state. This has been a growing trend since the Six Day War of 1967 and since the recognition of the PLO by the world in 1974. Additionally the so-called Oslo "peace process" of 1993 accelerated it. A more open change in loyalty began to emerge in 2000 when Israeli Arabs rioted in favor of the start of "Al Aqsa (the second) intifada." Many "Israeli" Arabs are active in working with the Palestinian Authority in addition to various terrorist organizations. For example, two Israeli Arab dentists were arrested for spying for Hamas since the early 1990s, last October. These were middle class Arabs who grew up in Israel and benefited from the Israeli law to be able to travel abroad for their "studies," which included espionage, and terrorist training. In the Negev Hamas has already made inroads among the Bedouin, where they make up one-third of the population of that largely rural desert region. Many Israeli Arabs are in agreement with the Arab long standing demand, that once Israel retreats to the 1949 armistice lines -- towards which they are now headed due to the policy of unilateral retreat and surrender -- Israel must allow the "democratic" process to take place. A referendum would be demanded that would allow the Israeli Arabs to secede, population and land area, from Israel and join the new "Palestinian" state. This in turn means returning Israel to the 1947 UN partition lines, which is an indefensible position. The Arab population of Israel has never shared the ideology and national ambitions of the Jewish State. They do not wish to integrate with, nor assimilate into the Israeli population. This is the same problem now confronting many nations in Europe vis-à-vis their own Muslim populations. Further unilateral Israeli concessions will greatly embolden the Arabs, both within Israel and outside of it, and their demands will continue to escalate. The democratic process will be subverted and used to destroy the Jewish State. Those Arabs who do not want to be part of Israel, or "Israelized" as they put it, should move to Arab controlled areas of the Middle East. There will be, no doubt, cries from the Israeli left and their world-wide supporters that Israel is trying to make the Jewish state "Arab-rein." These same leftists have overlooked the fact that they already have been accomplices of the continual 125-year Arab war to make the entire Middle East "judenrein." In light of the positions taken by "Israeli" Arabs of late, it is time for Israel to wake up and face the harsh realities of the situation. Dr. Steve Carol is Prof. of History (retired), Senior Fellow Center for Advanced Middle East Studies (www.cames.ws) and Official Historian, Middle East Radio Forum, (www.middleeastradioforum.org), in Scottsdale, Arizona. |
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MERETZ'S VERSION OF "THE PRODUCERS"
Posted by Steven Plaut, February 21, 2006. |
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1. As Israel's election approaches, the most entertaining part of life in Israel is watching the Meretz version of "The Producers". Let me explain. As you recall, "The Producers" was a highly successful and hilarious movie and Broadway show. (It is even now on the stage in translation to Hebrew in Tel Aviv.) It is based on the story of some theater producers who need to produce a terrible flop to extract themseles from financial difficulties, but a commercial success will ruin them. The semi-Marxist Meretz Party seems to be operating under the same modus operandi. It has designed its campaign and election slogans to guarantee that no one, not even the most devoted self-hating Israeli lemming, will vote for it. I wonder if a Gush Katif settler has hacked their web site and campaign computer? Since you will think that this is another of my spoofs, I direct you to this web page, http://meretz.org.il/elections/mod.php, where you can see the ads for yourself. The campaign began with billboards proclaiming that "Meretz is the Party of Arab Lovers", followed by "Meretz is the Party of Lovers of Homosexuals and Bleeding Hearts". But the cherry on the pie is the new one, which you can see on the above site, also at the entrance to Haifa on a huge billboard: A photo of Yossi Beilin's head with a banner proclaiming "I do not have an Arab Mother." The slogan is based on an old urban legend whispered about Isreal that Beilin supposedly had an Arab Mother. (Incorrect as it turns out.) It could explain a lot of his political behavior. The billboards will not only disgust a lot of Jews but no doubt enrage a lot of Arab voters, who are traditionally a significant part of the Meretz contingent. The only thing now missing would be a new ad, with Beilin in tights, dancing and prancing to the tune of "Springtime with Hitler in Germany", singing "Springtime with Hamas in Oslo". 2. Haaretz' Der Sturmer Headline Just when you think Haaretz could not possibly become any worse, along it comes to surprise us. Haaretz is the Israeli Far Leftist daily whose notion of journalistic plualism resembles that of Pravda back in the days of Brezhnev. It is little more than a Palestinian newspaper printed in Hebrew. The headline in Haaretz this morning is "The Candidate for the Army's Chief Rabbi: 'The Sabbath is More Important than the Life of Gentiles.'" At least that is the Hebrew headline. It is tuned down a bit in its English version, which you can see at www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=rabbi&itemNo=685158 The article tries to represent the person being considered for the army's chief rabbi slot (in charge of things like kosher food in the military and religious issues that come up) as a foaming racist and primitive bigot. The paper even notes that the rabbi's own children were opposed to the Gush Katif withdrawal. Oh the humanity! But reading the article fails to produce a single statement by the Rabbi that is consistent with the headline. So what gives? Well, it seems the Rabbi once discussed what should be done if the army captured a wounded terrorist on the sabbath. He discussed the religious considerations for whether one should violate the sabbath to save the life of a murderer/terrorist. Not exactly the same thing as saying that the Rabbi considers the sabbath more important than the life of gentiles, huh? The Rabbi actually reaches the conclusion that the sabbath MAY be violated to save the terrorist, although adds that this could be for purposes of allowing intelligence to interrogate him or to avoid fueling loathing of Jews. I personally think it would be obligatory to execute the terrorist, sabbath or not, but I am not exactly a rabbinic authority. Haaretz has a long history of Der-Sturmer-like caricatures and obscene representations of religious Jews and the paper for the thinking Israel is not at all troubled that nazis and anti-Semites all over the globe will latch on to its lying headline about an Israeli Rabbi from this morning. To read about past Haaretz anti-Semitic caricatures, see http://www.freeman.org/m_online/oct98/winston2.htm or http://www.gamla.org.il/english/article/1998/sept/win4.htm To get a better feel for what Haaretz is, consider last week's weekend magazine supplement in the paper for the thinking Israeli. The cover story was about a Haaretz writer who took a course in getting women into bed, featuring such advice as How to Screw a Lot of Women without being Nice to Them. It is accompanied by photos of sluts and bimbos. This was accompanied by an article by Post-Zionist Tom Segev in which he tells about how the BBC investigated whether the Israeli media or the Palestinians are better at reporting on the Middle East conflict (guess who Segev thinks does a better job). He expresses his anguish that the Hamas is still regarded by the BBC as a terrorist group. Then Haaretz runs its weekly feature by Gideon Levy, a person who has openly called for Israel to be destroyed and writes in Counterpunch. Levy each Friday runs a sob story about some Palestinian who was wounded, crippled, or otherwise is having a sad life. In most cases the po' Palestinian was shot or wounded as a result of Israelis returning fire after terrorists attack them, but Levy never mentions that. Levy has yet to express his anguish at the killing and maiming of any Jews. This week's Levy-Palestinian lost two legs from a shell Israel firedback at terrorists. This is followed by a piece about how a Far-Leftist anti-Zionist actor and playwriter in Israel (Yehoshua Sobel) is "in love with Amir Peretz". No, not in the Brokeback Mountain sense. Then there is an article on a brother and sister where the brother is about to have a sex change operation and the two are shown in a spread where they are naked and one can examine the bris of the brother about to become a sister in allits detail. Really. Haaretz weekend magazine also usually has a set of recipes for preparing shrimp, ham, or similar items. I mean, you would think they would leave out the ham recipes if only to avoid offending their Moslem readers. 3. "Time to Indict some More Holocaust Deniers," by Autonomist Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2006 at 1:51 AM Jail them! Well, David Irving is going to prison. He was convicted in Austria of being a Holocaust Denier, which is a crime in Austria. All very well, but why is ONLY David Irving going to prison? Why is not DePaul "University's" Norman Finkelstein going to Austrian prison, or DePaul's President Dennis Holtschneider for the crime of employing Finkelstein and defending his "scholarship"? The Anti-Defamation League has declared him to be a Holocaust denier. How about Northwestern University's Arthur Butz? How about Jeff Rense, who runs the Holocaust Denial web site Rense.com, and his assorted nazi columnists? How about the University of Ottawa's Michel Chossudovsky? And then there is the unemployed skinhead and Holocaust Denier, Kurt Nimmo, or the potty poet from New Mexico, as we affectionately like to refer to him. Nimmo's reaction to the conviction of Irving on his little personal web site "Now that the "Notorious Holocaust Denier," as the New York Times characterized David Irving, has pleaded guilty and faces three years in an Austrian prison for the crime of deviating from the official, Zionist-sanctioned and imposed history of the Second World War, we can expect triumphant ballyhoos from the Zionists, a screaming and obnoxious declaration of victory for the small outlaw nation of Israel and its endless blackmailing of millions of people who had nothing to do with Auschwitz and its discredited gas chambers. "Mr. Irving's trial came during a period of intense debate in Europe over freedom of expression, after European newspapers printed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that set off deadly protests worldwide," notes the New York Times. In other words, straying from the Holocaust orthodoxy is a punishable crime while sacking the Prophet Muhammad is freedom of expression.' Nimmo, best known for his poems about his own hemorrhoids, used to be a regular columnist for Counterpunch until Alexander Cockburn fired his poetic posterior for his being a conspiracy nut. Nimmo likes to whine to his few readers how unfair it is to call him a nazi or Holocaust Denier. We figure the above citation sets the record straight. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments -- both seriously and satirically -- on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or contact him by email at stevenplaut@yahoo.com. |
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WHEN FEAR COWS THE MEDIA
Posted by Jeff Jacoby, February 21, 2006. |
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is Boston's leading ''alternative" newspaper, the kind of brash, pull-no-punches weekly that might have been expected to print without hesitation the Mohammed cartoons that Islamists have been using to incite rage and riots across the Muslim world. Its willingness to push the envelope was memorably demonstrated in 2002, when it broke with most media to publish a grisly photograph of Daniel Pearl's severed head, and supplied a link on its website to the sickening video of the Wall Street Journal reporter's beheading. (The Phoenix was widely criticized, though not by me. I defended its actions in a column that concluded: "This is no time to be covering our eyes.") But the Phoenix isn't publishing the Mohammed drawings, and on February 10, in a brutally candid editorial, it explained why. ''Our primary reason," the editors confessed, is ''fear of retaliation from ... bloodthirsty Islamists who seek to impose their will on those who do not believe as they do. ... Simply stated, we are being terrorized, and ... could not in good conscience place the men and women who work at the Phoenix and its related companies in physical jeopardy. As we feel forced, literally, to bend to maniacal pressure, this may be the darkest moment in our 40-year-publishing history." The vast majority of US media outlets have shied away from reproducing the drawings, but to my knowledge only the Phoenix has been honest enough to admit that it is capitulating to fear. Many of the others have published high-minded editorials and columns about the importance of ''restraint" and ''sensitivity" and not giving ''offense" to Muslims. Several have claimed they wouldn't print the Danish cartoons for the same reason they wouldn't print overtly racist or anti-Semitic material. The managing editor for news of The Oregonian, for example, told her paper's ombudsman that not running the images is like avoiding the N-word -- readers don't need to see a racial slur spelled out to understand its impact. Yet a Nexis search turns up at least 14 occasions since 1999 when The Oregonian has published the N-word unfiltered. So apparently there *are* times when it is appropriate to run material that some may find offensive. Rationalizations notwithstanding, the refusal of the US media to show the images at the heart of one of the most urgent stories of the day is not about restraint and good taste. It's about fear. Editors and publishers are afraid the thugs will target them as they targeted Danny Pearl and Theo van Gogh ; afraid the mob will firebomb their newsrooms as it has firebombed Danish embassies. ''We will not accept less than severing the heads of those responsible," an imam in Gaza preaches. ''Whoever insults a prophet, kill him," reads the sign carried by a demonstrator in London. Those are not figures of speech but deadly threats, and American newspapers and networks are intimidated. Not everyone has succumbed. The Weekly Standard reproduced the 12 cartoons, and some have appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the New York Sun, and even Spare Change News, a Boston biweekly sold by homeless people. But there has been nothing like the defiance shown in Europe, where some two dozen publications in 13 countries have run the cartoons, insisting that they will not allow thugs to decide what a free press can publish. Journalists can be incredibly brave, but when it comes to covering the Arab and Muslim world, too many news organizations have knuckled under to threats. Thomas Friedman of The New York Times, a veteran foreign correspondent, admitted long ago that ''physical intimidation" by the PLO led reporters to skew their coverage of important stories or to ignore them ''out of fear." Similarly, CNN's former news executive, Jordan Eason, acknowledged after the fall of Saddam Hussein that his network had long sanitized its news from Iraq, since reporting the unvarnished truth ''would have jeopardized the lives of ... our Baghdad staff." Like the Nazis in the 1930s and the Soviet communists in the Cold War, the Islamofascists are emboldened by appeasement and submissiveness. Give the rampagers and book-burners a veto over artistic and editorial decisions, and you end up not with heightened sensitivity and cultural respect, but with more rampages and more books burned. You betray ideals that generations of Americans have died to defend. And worse than that: You betray as well the dissidents and reformers within the Islamic world, the Muslim Sakharovs and Sharanskys and Havels who yearn for the free, tolerant, and democratic culture that we in the West take for granted. What they want to see from America is not appeasement and apologies and a dread of giving offense. They want to see us face down the fanatics, be unintimidated by bullies. They want to know that in the global struggle against Islamist extremism, we won't let them down. Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for the Boston Globe. Contact him at jacoby@globe.com This article appeared February 19, 2006 at www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/ 2006/02/10/when_fear_cow_the_media. The original article contains live links to additional material. |
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ORGANIZED ISLAM REARS ITS UGLY HEAD
Posted by IsrAlert, February 20, 2006. |
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This was written by Randy Taylor and comes from Northeast Intelligence Network http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/site/modules/news/article.php?storyid=97 18 February 2006: Looking for the center of Islamic evil, organized civil unrest, terrorism planning and financing? Wondering where Global Islamic Terrorism was conceived, discussed, planned and then implemented into a global movement? Wonder where al Qaeda came from? Look no further than Ali Khamene, the Valy-e-Faghih or Supreme Spiritual Leader in Iran as of this minute and his predecessor and mentor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The first steps in establishing a central Islamic state and a central Islamic leader started when these people overthrew the Shah of Iran in 1979. That is when the center of operations for global Islamic terrorism was established and had an official home. The current Supreme Leader, Khamene is the highest ranking official in Iran and is in charge of all three branches of the Iranian government which are the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial branch much like the three branches in the US government. But the similarities stop there. This is the area that the main stream media doesn't touch on at all in their coverage of Iran and Iran's defiance towards the rest of the world regarding the nuclear issues. The focus lately has been on the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his radical statements regarding Israel, the Holocaust, Europe and America. This Iranian president isn't assigned the same capacity as the President of the United States and shouldn't be viewed as even having close to the same type power or authority as our President. The president of Iran still answers to the Supreme Leader and the Supreme Council which consists of Islamic "Intellectuals", if there is such a thing. I personally have insisted for years that Osama Bin Laden, al Zawahiri and al Qaeda are the tools of Iran. The conception of al Qaeda was dreamed up by the Supreme Council in Iran and although Osama Bin Laden may not have been their first choice, ultimately Bin Laden was the one that grew al Qaeda from a concept into an actual working model with the help and funding of the Iranian government primarily the intelligence services. Iran most likely has their fingerprints all over 9/11 and I think that in due time, there will be evidence released to the American public that will support the theory of Iran being the actual backers of al Qaeda who ultimately launched the attack against New York in 2001. After the war in Afghanistan against the Russians, Bin Laden wanted to focus his attention on the west which he knew ultimately to be the ultimate enemy to the growth of radical Islam. He approached his mentor Abdullah Assam with his ideas of taking the war to the west and Assam preferred to go back to Palestine and wage war against Israel with Yassar Arafat. This didn't fit into Osama Bin Laden's plans nor did it fit into Iran's plans as they have always considered Israel to be much less of a threat to Islam than the US, which is correct. So Assam was taken out in 1989 by either Bin Laden or Iranian intelligence agents as being for the "greater good" of the movement. Iran couldn't risk having two very powerful, charismatic people like Osama Bin Laden and Abdullah Assam disagreeing with each other or changing focus from the "Grand Plan" that Iran had devised for the growth of Islam and the destruction of anyone who presented a threat to the spread of Islam throughout the world. Iran isn't interested in winning a war with the west since they know this isn't possible. But they do want to start and wage a war against all non-Muslims simply because they believe it is their destiny to do so. The Iranian intellectuals honestly believe that they are following the will of Allah and their destiny is to bring about the last great conflict of the human race. But they have to do it in such a fashion that there is no return from it once started. That all mankind suffers. Let's look at some interesting events here recently. Iran backs away from the rest of the world in regard to their nuclear development. Iran's president, the "official" mouthpiece and puppet of the Iranian government speaks out openly about the annihilation of Israel as a country and flatly tells the rest of the world that Iran will do as it chooses as far as developing nuclear technology. The world cringes at the prospect of Iran having or developing nuclear technology since they are known to be a radical Islamic terrorist state. Suddenly, out of the blue there are worldwide protests and riots over a cartoon of the "prophet" Mohammed that was actually published last year. The entire world turns their focus to the riots, the civil unrest and Iran hopes that the world sees that Muslims are unified and willing to fight over a religious issue. Big surprise huh? No, it is another measured attempt by Iran to openly neither engage nor disengage with the west in a war, but instead to buy more time so that they can arm themselves better for the conflict they are themselves planning with the rest of the free world. It is a cat and mouse game with the planet as the game board. Iran cannot afford for Israel or the United States to attack them and their nuclear facilities right now, as it would not destroy their plans for a worldwide conflict, but would delay those plans possibly for decades or even centuries as they would have to go back to 1979 and start all over again with the overthrow of another Islamic country and they would have to attempt to regain lost ground at that point. If I were asked to gamble on the location of the future "Caliphate", my vote is Iran. It is my theory that when we finally come to a confrontation with Iran and most likely Syria, we obviously would defeat them in an all out battle through conventional means and they are well aware of this and have always known this. But we cannot overlook the other greatest and most effective part of the equation which is al Qaeda and the networks that have been carefully installed all over the world primarily in the countries of their enemies such as the United States, the UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy and most of the rest of the world. We should have learned here recently that no one is immune to the threat of Islam, including peaceful small countries like Denmark. It is the internal attacks that will yield the greatest losses to our countries and our way of life. Typically when we, the US decide we are going to take military action we will send in small contingent forces to recon and set up within the country we are going to act against. That is at the most several months ahead of time. These Islamic fundamentalists started planting their people in our countries over thirty years ago. We are on the second and third generations of al Qaeda cells in our country now in 2006. Everyone acts like al Qaeda suddenly sprouted up on September 11th, 2001 when in fact they have been here for decades and have only multiplied since 2001. When we take military action against Iran which is unavoidable at some point, we will see the true fruits of al Qaeda and Islam's labors for the last decades. We will get hit so hard internally here in the USA, it will be difficult to function properly as a super power overseas because of the fear, destruction and turmoil here on our own soil. We will be hit with every conceivable act of domestic terrorism that we can imagine. All of our worst nightmares will be reality. The powers of Islam have studied the United States for many, many years and they know that when confronted, we will retaliate and be unified as we have been in every conflict thrust upon us. But just as we did after 9/11 and just as we did after the invasion and liberation of Iraq, we soon turn to fighting and arguing amongst ourselves. This is where we will suffer the most. Islam is banking on us imploding at that point as a super-power. They are banking on the Congress and Senate, the people and the weak ones among us seeking appeasement from our attackers. But the Barbara Boxer's of the world do not understand that there will be no escape, no surrender, no quarter. These weak, spineless politicians that want to appease every little whim of Islam today are the true enemies of the American people and a detriment to our very way of life. The ones that are crying about the NSA listening in on overseas communications and forever pointing fingers at the administration for our efforts in Iraq are the ones that will either surrender our way of life to a Taliban type government or cause the implosion and destruction of the American way of life to where we cannot survive. We are at a crossroads right now in the world and in the human race. The enemy has shown their face and their intentions, yet we still are worried about offending them. Islam has moved itself into the most controversial subject today in American society through multiple venues. It was planned this way and we are playing right into the hands of the designers of this ridiculous notion of Islam. When the next great conflict happens, there will be no neutral countries in the fray. If we wish to postpone a conflict that may determine the very existence of mankind, we should disarm Iran immediately. We cannot change what will happen in the end times, but if we choose to do so, we can postpone it and generations from now they will have to deal with it again, as it isn't going to go away forever. Question is, do we confront it now, or wait until Iran is in a much better position with nuclear weapons. Our position in the middle east geographically is probably at an optimum right now as to access to needed airspace and we have the capability of moving troops where needed as needed using Iraq and Afghanistan as the staging ground. No matter what, in my humble opinion, Iran has smaller nukes now, is building larger, longer range weapons and eventually they will unleash them. Question isn't an "if" question, it is a "when" question. I wrote this article to get people to sit down and think. Think about reality. Think about who the enemy is and what their intentions are. These are questions that I have my own answers to, largely based on religious beliefs, much like our enemy. I want you to answer your own questions now. Think about your future, your children's future, the future of your grandchildren. I don't have the answers. You do. Stay safe. |
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EX-IDF OFFICER ALLEGES POLICE BRUTALITY AGAINST GIRLS AT AMONA
Posted by Marlene Young, February 20, 2006. |
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This was written by Nadav Shragia, Haaretz Correspondent and is archived at www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/685119.html A retired Israel Defense Forces colonel who was present at the evacuation of nine structures in the West Bank outpost of Amona submitted a complaint Monday alleging police brutality against protesters who clashed with security forces. Colonel (res.) Moti Yogev petitioned the Justice Ministry's Police Investigations Department for an inquiry into claims that Border Policemen, without provocation, struck young girls who asked to exit the vicinity where the clashes were taking place. In his petition, Yogev writes that close to 11 A.M. on the day of the incident, an entire Border Police unit descended on a group of girls who, along with their teacher, were pinned against the wall, "begging [the officers] to allow them to leave the riot area." "The officers began shoving them and hitting them for no reason," Yogev writes. Yogev recalled how he approached an officer believed to be the commander of a police unit and requested that the security forces cease striking the girls and allow them to leave the scene. "Three Border Policemen, among them Eyal Peri, pushed me and struck me with clubs in my stomach," Yogev wrote. "I fell as I was struggling to breathe, but the policemen kept pushing me and rolling me on the floor again and again. When I managed to get up, they pushed me against, and then I hurt my knee." "Today I walk around on crutches with an injured knee that will require extensive rehabilitation," he wrote. Yogev said that he witnessed "horses trampling over people lying underneath their horseshoes", a police commander who ordered his officers to catch young protesters who were loitering peacefully and to "just hit them." Yogev also recounts how police officers entered a building where girls had locked arms. One of the girls told an officer: "My brother, don't hit me. I'm your sister." Yogev said the officer "answered her in a Russian accent: 'Shut up you Jewish bitch' and brutally struck her." Yogev, a former commander of special forces unit Sayeret Shaked and a deputy commander of Sayeret Matkal, submitted the complaint through attorneys Amikam Hadar and Hedva Shapira. The petition is the latest in a series of petitions to PID alleging excessive use of force at Amona. On Monday, a human rights groups representing the Yesha council of settlements revealed that three policemen who were at Amona volunteered information about the day's events, including the claim that police received unequivocal instructions to "crack open heads." Contact Marlene Young at marleneyoung1@yahoo.com |
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HAMAS GOV'T WILL NOT BRING PEACE TO MIDDLE EAST
Posted by Unity Coalition for Israel, February 20, 2006. |
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CLICK HERE to send this message to the United States and Israeli Leadership. You may change the wording as you see fit. Your message will be sent to 1). U.S. Congressional leaders with copies to President Bush and Vice President Cheney, 2). Knesset leaders, and 3). Israeli Mayors. The battle takes place at the frontline -- in Israel where terrorism continues to thrive each day
There is so much at stake. We cannot appease terrorists and reward them with the land of Israel and expect peace. Terrorism, this disease, this cancer of hatred, must not be allowed to fester and grow. We cannot abandon Israel and then just wait for the battle to move to American soil -- to allow it to expand exponentially, resulting in much greater bloodshed and loss. Today we must battle terrorism at the frontline in Israel -- by saying NO to a Palestinian State governed by Hamas. As recently as February 9th, Khaled Mashaal reiterated that "no matter what, Hamas will not agree to the demand to acknowledge Israel." Hamas agrees on one thing and one thing only -- the total destruction of Israel, the spread of Radical Islam and worldwide domination. We must decisively respond to this threat at the source -- in Israel. Otherwise, all of the tax dollars spent for the war in Iraq will have been spent in vain. Hard working Americans deserve to have their tax dollars spent wisely -- they deserve to continue to have a great nation with freedom, opportunity and justice for all. The article below is called "Terror's Missing Link" and was written by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen. It appeared in www.FrontPageMagazine.com February 13, 2006. Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is author of Funding Evil; How Terrorism is Financed-and How to Stop It, Director of American Center for Democracy and a member of the Committee on the Present Danger. Alyssa A. Lappen is a Fellow at the American Center for Democracy. President George W. Bush's most recent reminder that the U.S. needs to fight the worldwide terrorism of the Islamists, ignored a major target and victim of this terrorism -- Israel. In a February 9 speech at the National Guard Memorial Building, in Washington DC, the President noted many of the countries that have been the victims of Islamist terrorist attacks. As he had done repeatedly several times before, he mentioned: Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey, Spain and England. Conspicuously absent from the list is Israel. Yet, Israel was the first target of the Islamist terrorism, decades before this war started. Moreover, Israel remains at the center of the Islamist Jihad. The Israeli government official statistics put the number of deaths resulting from attacks by Palestinian terror groups at 1,084 since September 29, 2000, alone. The number of injured since then is 7,633 Israelis. And this is not all; thousands of Israeli casualties also suffered Palestinian terrorist attacks since the first Intifada in 1987. Yet, Israel's plight seems to escape the President's attention when he reminds Americans of the international atrocities committed by Islamist terrorists. Israel is not only fighting this war on terrorism along with the U.S., it has been fighting the same war for decades. The Islamists opened their first front in Israel decades ago. But because they successfully misrepresented themselves as the "under dog," they obtained from the West the leeway and the encouragement to expand their reach. Indeed, the terrorists themselves have for years advertised that the war against Israel and the war on America are one and the same. In January 2001, the terrorist chieftains of Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, met at a conference in Beirut, Lebanon. The communiqué they issued said: "Destroy Israel ... Boycott America." It also called for "Jihad in all its forms and resistance" against Israel and urged a boycott of American goods, since "American products are exactly like the Israeli products." This was neither the first nor the last time such statements, supported by HAMAS and other Palestinian terror groups, were made. Yet, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, remarked after her February 8 meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, "The Palestinian people have been through an election. They voted for change, but I don't think they voted to change their aspirations for a peaceful life." Considering the fact that the Palestinian majority elected HAMAS, a terrorist organization whose culture is death and who calls to annihilate Israel, take over Spain and impose global Shiite rule, clearly, the Palestinian understanding of "peaceful life" differs sharply from that of Secretary Rice. Foreign Minister Livni stated the fact that, "Hamas is a terrorist organization." She went on to state what should be obvious to the U.S. Administration, that if Hamas forms the Palestinian Authority's next government "this entity, this authority, this state, is going to transf[orm] into a terror state." However, judging by the Secretary's remarks, the U.S. Administration is in desperate need of a good Otorhinolaryngologist, since it is clearly deaf. HAMAS leaders repeatedly assert that they will not recognize Israel. Most recently, on February 9, Khaled Mashaal, reiterated that "no matter what, HAMAS will not agree to the demand to acknowledge Israel." It doesn't have to. HAMAS will receive the financial aid it needs from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. Nevertheless, Mashaal called upon the U.S. and Europe to continue their economic support for the PA, while also vowing that "HAMAS will not trade its principles for money Mashaal welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin's statement in Madrid, that "Russia is maintaining contacts with the Hamas organization and intends in the near future to invite the leadership of this organization to Moscow." Mashaal commended Putin "for Russia's brave position," saying that "it will bring some balance" into international relations. Russia's stand, according to the HAMAS leader, will help to decrease America's influence at a time when the U.S. faces intractable international difficulties. Could these difficulties be underpinning Secretary Rice's' insistence on sticking to the scripted "two-state-solution," even when HAMAS so clearly remains committed to its Islamist terrorist agenda? While Secretary Rice states that HAMAS should recognize Israel first, HAMAS sources claim, "There are signals arriving from the U.S. government that it does not reject the possibility of cooperating with a Hamas-led government." If the U.S. is serious about winning the war on terrorism, dismantling HAMAS should be a priority. Legitimizing an Islamist terrorist entity would not assist in the U.S. war against terrorism, Moreover, it would weaken the U.S. standing and international influence in the world, fulfilling Mashaal wishes. The Unity Coalition for Israel (http://www.israelunitycoalition.org) is "the largest worldwide coalition of Jewish and Christian organizations, with more than 200 groups representing millions of people dedicated to Israel. Though we have many different backgrounds, we have one common goal: A Safe and Secure Israel." "Israel is not just a Jewish issue. Millions of Christians resolutely endorse the principle of peace with security for the state of Israel. Because we work closely together and speak with a united voice, our message is being heard!" |
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AFSI CHIZUK MISSION TO ISRAEL -- MAY 21-30, 2006
Posted by AFSI, February 20, 2006. |
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Please join Americans for a Safe Israel on our next Chizuk Mission as Jerusalem enters its 40th year of re-unification. May 26, 2006 will be a day of great significance and AFSI will be there. In addition to celebrating Yom Yerushalayim-Jerusalem Day- AFSI will re-visit the refugees from the scattered communities of the former Gush Katif, as well as the residents of the threatened communities of Judea, Samaria and east Jerusalem. Members of Knesset Aryeh Eldad and Effie Eitam, who were seriously injured at Amona, will be among those invited to speak to the group. Leaders of grass roots movements resisting any further expulsions will address the group as well. TRAVEL INFORMATION The AFSI Chizuk mission will be departing from the New York area on Sunday, May 21, returning on May 30. The entire cost, including round-trip airfare on El-Al, land accommodations, guides, bullet-proof bus, and most meals, is $2200, not including airport taxes, single supplement fees, and personal changes in the group's air itinerary. Non-members are charged an additional $100. (Membership in AFSI is only $50, so we urge interested parties to join the organization, thus saving $50 and receiving all the benefits of membership.) A $200 deposit is necessary to ensure your space. Please send it to the AFSI office, or call 212-828-2424 or 1-800-235-3658 to use the VISA or Mastercard charge. Helen Freedman and Bruce Rudolph will once again be the tour planners, in coordination with Barry Freedman at the AFSI office. Rabbi Bruce will be handling the travel plans. Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI is a pro-active pro-Israel advocacy group. AFSI may be contacted by mail at 1623 Third Ave., Suite 205, New York, N.Y. 10128 (Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717); by email at afsi@rcn.com; or by accessing its website: www.afsi.org. Helen Freedman is Executive Director. |
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LEGALITY OF ISRAEL'S JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN JERUSALEM, JUDEA AND SAMARIA
Posted by David Bedein, February 20, 2006. |
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A report will be presented tomorrow to the media by "Bitselem", which claims that Israel's policies of settling Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, in areas that came under Israel's control after the 1967 war, are patently "illegal and in violation of international law." While it would seem somewhat unnecessary to defend the right of a Jew to build a home in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem or in the hills of Judea, it is still necessary to explicate the legality of settling Jewish communities in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Israel is not an occupier in any part of Jerusalem, which is its capital city. Israel lost the Old City of Jerusalem in the 1948 war and regained control of all of Jerusalem after repulsing an attacked by the Arab legion in Jerusalem in 1967. Israel is not an occupier in Judea-Samaria. "Occupation" can only occur when one sovereign state usurps the land of another sovereign state. However, when Israel acquired control of Judea-Samaria in 1967, in the course of fighting a defensive war, there was no state to whom this area belonged. It was in the hands of Jordan, but Jordan was simply an occupier of that area, whose presence in Judea and Samaria was recognized only by Great Britain and Pakistan and was unclaimed Mandate land, to which Israel had substantial claim. During the period of the British Mandate for Palestine, Britain was charged with "secur(ing) the establishment of the Jewish national home" and "encourag(ing) close settlement by Jews on the land", under the terms of the San Remo Treaty, which was ratified by the League of Nations, with allowance for Jewish settlement in all of Palestine, west of the Jordan River, which includes, of course, Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. This was set in international law and it has never been superseded. When the United Nations replaced the League of Nations, it assumed obligations of the League. The 1947 partition resolution for Palestine , passed by the United Nations General Assembly on November 29th, 1947, did not supersede the Mandate. The General Assembly makes only recommendations, which have no standing in international law. Judea-Samaria and the eastern part of Jerusalem are often alluded to as "Arab" in nature. This is only because the Jordanians forbid Jews from living there from 1948 until 1967, after having banished all Jews from areas where they had lived for centuries. There was no significant international protest about the exclusion of Jews from traditionally Jewish areas of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. There are calls today for Israel to move back to the 1967 lines, as if this line represents the "real" borders of Israel. However, what came to be known as the "Green Line" was never a border. It was an armistice line, established at the end of the 1948-49 war. It was never intended to be a border; and the expectation at the time was that in short order Israel would negotiate with her Arab neighbors in order to set final borders. Those negotiations still have not taken place. On 22 November 1967, the UN Security Council indeed adopted Resolution 242, which called for "Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict" as well as "termination of all claims or states of belligerency" and recognition that "every State in the area" has the "right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." Resolution 242 never called for withdrawal from ALL territories occupied in the Six Day War -- any withdrawal was to be contingent on negotiations that would secure a state of peace for Israel. As far back as the late 1800s, individual Jews had begun purchasing land in Palestine, in anticipation of the establishment of a Jewish state. The Jewish National Fund began to do the same starting in 1901. (Before the end of WWI, this took place within the Ottoman Empire, it continued during the Mandate period and the British worked to establish a land registry.) Subsequent to the 1967 war, when Israel acquired control of Judea-Samaria, this Jewish-owned land came into Israeli hands. Thus, there is some portion of Judea-Samaria that is simply owned by Jews, legally and outright. Some of these Jewish communities rest on such land -- for example, in the area of Gush Etzion, which predates the establishment of Israel. When Israel assumed control over all of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria in 1967, she became the custodian of that part of the land not owned outright by anyone. This is according to international law, which gives Israel the right to build on this land for purposes of security. The Israeli Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria do not represent a "cause" of Palestinian Arab intransigence or violence, nor are they or the stumbling block to peace. After all: The Palestinian Liberation Organization was founded in 1964, when Judea-Samaria was not under the control of Israel. What the PLO wanted to "liberate" was Israel within the 1967 lined. At that time, the PLO charter specifically stated that it had NO CLAIM on the lands controlled by Jordan and Egypt, that is, on Judea-Samaria and Gaza. It never changed that charter and the claim that land until Israel had control of it. To this day, the PLO -- and even more so now, Hamas -- sees any city in any part of Israel as constituting an "illegal settlement" -- this includes Israel within the Green Line. The presence of Israel in any part of the land whatsoever is seen as illegitimate. Just view www.palestineremembered.com David Bedein is Bureau Chief, Israel Resource News Agency. (http://Israelbehindthenews.com) and President, Center for Near East Policy Research. Contact him at media@actcom.co.il or visit www.ibtn.co.il |
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REPORT FROM INSIDE THE PALESTINIAN CONFERENCE AT GEORGETOWN U.
Posted by Stand With Us, February 20, 2006. |
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Roz Rothstein, national director of StandWithUs, attended the Conference, which occurred on February 18, 2006 and posted this report. She is available for interviews. Please contact: Jennifer at 310/245-4109 or 310/739-2682 Thank you. This report was written by StandWithUs Campus professionals. During the next few days you may read several reports written about this conference, because we saw pro-Israel colleagues in attendance. We saw campus professionals from the David Project and American Jewish Congress there, among many others. Special thanks to staff from American Jewish Congress for contributing information to this report. PLEASE READ AND DISTRIBUTE THIS REPORT. We are still here in Washington D.C., having just attended the much anticipated Palestinian conference where approximately 200 students and community activists gathered to learn how to promote "divest from Israel" campaigns, how to work with the media and church groups, and how to frame campaigns that demonize Israel. We cannot help but wonder why the people under the PSM umbrella did not gather to teach or learn how to improve the lives of ordinary Palestinians by building hospitals and schools or how to build peace-directed coalitions by promoting dialogue with pro-Israel, pro-peace advocates around the world. Nor did anyone address the tragic outcome of the recent Palestinian elections, or whether HAMAS will change its charter and work towards peace in the region. Instead, the sole purpose of this conference was to create campaigns that would hope to label Israel as a "pariah" state. Many of the campaigns involved deception, and the agendas were the same as those in prior years, ignoring the fact that so much has changed in the Middle East during the last year in the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians. This conference simply ignored that so much has changed on the ground. Non-violence was not high on their agenda. Opening panelist Philip Farah told the audience that Mahatma Ghandi had once said that "If the choice were between violence and submission, we would choose violence a thousand times." And there was an acceptance of the art of deception throughout the conference. For example, opening panelists advised the audience to "inoculate" themselves against the charge of anti-Semitism by working with "Jews and Israelis." The message was that when you have Jews on your team, you obviously cannot be accused of being anti-Jew. Holding the conference on the Sabbath did not seem to trouble the two ultra-orthodox Neturei Karta rabbis who showed up and stayed all day so they could attend this conference. Neturei Karta and Hamas coincidentally have the same agenda-- they just come to it from different angles. Both want the the "dismantlement of the State of Israel." The two rabbis were well known and greeted warmly by many of the conference leaders, speakers and participants. This is because many of the more radical Muslim groups on campuses invite Neturei Karta to speak to their student body about their vision of the end of the state of Israel. Sadly, we found tee shirts, buttons and pins on sale at this conference that promoted the same extremist goals as Neturei Karta and HAMAS. As you can see from the photos included in this report, we found pins that depicted a fist clasping a machine gun, machine guns alone, and maps of Israel with the Territories all painted green with "Palestine" written on the entire map. The extremist message of the various maps was obviously Palestine INSTEAD of Israel, not NEXT to Israel. Simply put, this is what is meant by the term "Free Palestine." Look at the pin showing a terrorist with a suicide belt holding two machine guns and a tag line that reads: "Revolution til victory." And in case there remained any doubt, one could purchase tee shirts in a variety of colors with the words: "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." This refers to the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The only land they are talking about would be Israel. Granted, not all the vendors selling these messages in the form of pins or shirts represented the PSM conference organizers. The ones shown in this report were found at a table organized by the New Jersey (Palestine) Solidarity Movement. But we are certain that the PSM organizers would not have allowed the KKK to sell its paraphernalia at their conference because it would clearly have tainted the reputation of the PSM. Why, then, would they allow Charlotte Kates and the New Jersey Solidarity group to sell its radically violent materials that reflect the goal of eliminating Israel? You might remember Charlotte as the organizer of the controversial Rutgers conference two years ago. She was upset when her conference was moved off campus by Rutgers University. Maybe Rutgers administration saw Charlotte's pins. All the sessions that we attended had a single end goal: demonize Israel to your local church, your campus, and your communities in order to convince them that they should push divestment from companies that do business in Israel. Create hatred for the Jewish state by linking it to images of Nazis and to South Africa's apartheid system so that there is absolutely no question about Israel's guilt for everything that has ever gone wrong with the Palestinian people. Participants were taught how to frame divestment, how to work with the media, how to manipulate church communities, etc, all for the purpose of creating a grassroots movement that will lead to Israel being seen as a pariah state. There were no references to the painful steps that Israel has taken by moving Jews from Gaza in order to make way for a Palestinian State. There was no reference to the Hamas victory unless it was brought up in questioning. There was never a hint of the attacks that led Israel to decide to build a security fence. Everything was presented out of context, as though Israel is deliberately erecting walls and checkpoints in order to harass the Palestinian people. Some incredible examples of the training we witnessed that teach deception, follow: Maher Bitar and Nadeem Muaddi told people how to infiltrate churches in order to gain support for an anti-Israel agenda. They emphasized "targeting" small churches that don't have their own political agendas already. "Be patient about bringing up the divestment issue with your new Christian friends", Mauddi advised. To win the congregants' trust, he encouraged activists to deceive their new prospective friends by "looking and acting Christian." "Dress conservatively," he said. No kyffias, sandals or jeans. Instead, "men should wear button-down shirts, sports coats or khakis." He went on to say that women should wear mid-length skirts with colored pantyhose. He told them to be well-groomed and to speak nicely, avoiding curse words and slang. "Mind your manners." he said. "If someone sneezes, say 'God Bless you.' And always come bearing gifts, especially something from the Holy Land like holy water or rosary beads." He further advised the activists to get involved in the church community. "Don't look down on the church ladies' clubs -- join them." All the participants regarded the Presbyterian vote (that has been considering divestment) as an exciting victory. They gave credit to Sabeel, the Palestinian Christian group that has worked hard to demonize Israel and promote divestment in North and South American mainline churches. The people in all these sessions seemed to welcome the advice about how to deceive and manipulate the churches so they could spread the virus of hatred through well meaning religious communities.. In another session, University of Wisconsin philosophy graduate student Mohammed Abed told participants that the two-state paradigm would never give Palestinians their full right to "cultural self-determination." In order to flourish, he said, the Palestinians need access to the ENTIRETY of their homeland, not just the West Bank and Gaza. Abed was giving a clear message to eliminate Israel. Other sessions focused on training college students how to work more effectively with the media and how to plan and implement divestment campaigns. Students were encouraged to monitor and become involved with the school paper and to make news dramatic enough so journalists would report the stories. The goal, of course, is to get the Palestinian message out -- which is implicitly translated by the speakers at the PSM conference as the demonization of Israel. Students were also told to build coalitions in order to bring a multi-cultural face to their (anti-Israel) efforts. Even though this might mean that groups will have to listen to people with other agendas, that's part of the way to build a larger group that will ultimately promote divestment or other anti-Israel agendas on campus. The fact that this conference was about how to demonize Israel and how to make people want to punish Israel through divestment is deeply disturbing. Not just because it is wrapped around negative goals and the ultimate demise of one state, but also because the end goals centered on the necessity of deceiving people. There was no mention of suicide bombing unless it was brought up in questions, and the answers always referred to Israel's responsibility for any acts of Palestinian terrorism and equated Israel's methods of self defense with terrorist attacks. The irony is that now, particularly on capital hill, Arab groups will begin working hard and fast to spin HAMAS, to push for the continuation of US funding for the Palestinians because after all, (they argue) its the Palestinian people that will be hurt by the US divesting from the newly elected Palestinian leadership. They will site examples like Iraq, how babies and ordinary people were hurt by divesting dollars from Iraq. And these same people will work endlessly to promote hatred and divestment from Israel, completely unconcerned about the effect on the ordinary Israeli citizen. Israel is not perfect, and we all know that Israelis of all faiths and their supporters regularly debate policy. But the extremism represented at this conference does not lend itself to a discussion about how a Palestinian and a Jewish State can live peacefully side-by-side. Maybe one day there will be conferences held by people who don't promote lies, hatred or divesting from one side in a conflict, but instead encourage honest dialogue and sincere reflection that will lead to stable peace in the region. More on this report to come. |
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RIPOSTE TO "RAGING GRANNIES INCENSES BY WAR"
Posted by Marion D.S. Dreyfus, February 20, 2006. |
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Age doesn't necessarily confer correctness of cause --or wisdom Achieving the age of grandparenthood does not, contrary to some writers and editorialists -- "Raging Grannies incensed by war," 13 February, by Erika Slife, in Florida's Sun-Sentinel -- confer wisdom. Yes, age does confer years. It connotes a softening, sometimes, of one's former calcified rebellions. Merely attaining a weight of decades emphatically has nothing to say about judgment, though TV sit-coms, dramaturgs and journalists seem to equate immediate mental acuity to such demographics, unless doddery humor is the target. Nor is it particularly enlightening to have to wade through comfortable assumption-land in regard to females' being of a certain age and thus recipients of some magical consequent superiority. When was the last (or first) time men in their 70s or 80s were cited using a cutesy appellation, Gramps, as in "Grampas leave their rockers to foment over school lunches" or some such? Was Harry Whittington, at 78, gleefully headlined "Grandpa takes birdshot and hits the dirt." with the recent regrettable Dick Cheney hunting accident? Never, that's when. The nomenclature and verbiage for men having attained a decade or two over the age of average voters does not come off as adorable or jolly to the average reader. No one sizes them up by their offspring count. One might never learn that older men have any grandkids at all. And that is how it should be. For both sexes. Yet in daily papers, surveys and op-eds, older women are often dubbed "grannies" (whether they have grandkids, for that matter, or not). And for their part, respectful grandchildren -- the usually male descriptive historians of the issue of the moment, script or movie sequel -- assign an unearned merit badge of false homage to political positions taken by these PC-approved 'persons of years.' Though few would have cavils against any group, mature or not, fighting to restrain over-development (although what constitutes too much? A developer would have one definition, a firebrand environmentalist, another) and ecological degradation, it is not clear that any organization called Grannies has any corner on moral rectitude when it comes to military engagement, what we abbreviate as war. Who indeed likes war? Even the Bush Administration, amidst waging battle against a foe that is frustratingly amorphous, frighteningly amoral yet enormously tenacious, does not "like" war. It does what it must; what centuries of conscience and decency and birthright have determined as necessary in the teeth of overwhelming barbarity and threat. Simplistic objections to being in such a conflict, however, do little to clarify for the public the issues at hand. In the past, though ostriches would object, both world wars were undertaken as a last-ditch effort that was unarguably successful at vanquishing the then-foe, fascism and nazism on the unstoppable rise. The battles that followed, in Korea, Viet Nam, the long Cold War, and loci from ethnic fastnesses in Eastern Europe to sorry dumps like Mogadishu, owe their impetus to festering disarray and wounds inflicted that could not be medicated by the diffident slow oxygen of diplomacy's hiss. Grannies vocalizing against the deadly toe-to-toe now in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and Iraq, will not stop the juggernaut of ferocious Wahhabism that threatens to annihilate the Western model of life we have been waking up to for several hundred years on this side of the Atlantic. The gauntlet has been thrown down repeatedly by those who think us dim-witted, cowardly and afraid. To retract our response will be read as a fatal failure of nerve that will do the historical obvious: Invite further, and deeper, incursions and attacks. The people implacably improvise-bombing the transport vehicles of Baghdad and Fallujah, decapitating "peace" workers and independent contractors, kidnapping and slaughtering Christian girls whose only sin lay in being too geographically close to the deadly intolerant sword of the religion of peace -- these sanguinary engines of hate-filled DNA will not celebrate the bombastic earnest of feisty oldsters by laying aside their weapons and laser-guided destructive devices. A trivial cartoon can ignite their myriad militancy. A foam-flecked sermon can bring out millions to burn down our civilizing influences. The heavily Syrian- and Iranian-funded ragtags will not forget their sworn screeds of imposing dire shari'a law on our entire polity. Nor would such raging killers exempt such grannies, or their progeny for that matter, from their schedule of killing the kuffar, infidel, despite their naive championing of a cessation of effort. At the risk of tautology: No one here favors war. But the race to national extirpation via intolerance, using weaponry too ghastly to focus on for long, is decidedly on. We no longer have a choice in the matter. As the President says: We must win. Unless, of course, losing to such implacable thugs and its unthinkable consequences is an option. Even for grannies, closer perhaps to the dreamless who cares? of eternity than the rest of us, it is not. And cute, as in condescension and patronizing nomenclature, has nothing to say about that. Celebrating the unavailable Column B of stepping away from defending our way of life and the future of our actual lives is a dereliction of duty no less important because, for some unstated PC reason, it is considered indelicate to expressly state. Perhaps such interest groups as the Grannies could stick to their knitting, protesting environmental ills that can be alleviated by placarding or impacting their elected representatives. Lethal, egregious, committed fanaticism won't stop to applaud and chuckle. Marion D.S. Dreyfus writes frequently on healthcare, social issues, and particularly the politics and problems of the Middle East. Contact her by email at dreyfusmarion@hotmail.com |
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THE IDF'S CONFUSION
Posted by Women in Green, February 20, 2006. |
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This was written by Caroline Glick and it appeared in the Jerusalem Post, February 16, 2006. Since Israel withdrew its citizens and military forces from the Gaza Strip last summer, a great deal has been written about the consequences of the destruction of the Jewish communities there for the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. Much has also been said of the rising threats to Israel's security in the South as a result of the retreat from Gaza. There is a third aspect of the Israeli retreat from Gaza and northern Samaria that to date has not garnered any significant public attention. That issue is the impact of the operation on the Israel Defense Forces. Given that the IDF is the national organization charged with ensuring Israel's survival, anything that happens to the IDF has direct consequences for Israel's national security. And so it is worth considering what, if any, impact the operation has had on the IDF. Disturbingly, the military's organizational behavior since the withdrawal from Gaza, as manifested in operations on the ground and in statements by senior commanders, indicates that the withdrawal of IDF forces from Gaza has harmed the IDF's self-assessment and its understanding of its mission. This troubling situation is most clearly evident in Southern Command. That command devoted itself last year almost entirely to the non-military task of preparing and carrying out the uprooting of the Jewish communities from Gaza. Now it is contending with the new threats that have emerged along Israel's long border with Egypt and in the Gaza Strip since it completed that mission. As the daily Kassam rocket and mortar strikes on Ashkelon, Sderot and the rest of the Israeli communities bordering Gaza have shown, since the withdrawal, Southern Command has failed in its mission to provide security to southern Israel. Last Thursday afternoon, OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant briefed military reporters in Tel Aviv. The day before the briefing, Ashkelon's industrial area -- home to some of Israel's most vital national infrastructures -- was struck by Kassam rockets. That attack on the industrial area was launched from Gaza right after the IDF declared the successful conclusion of "Operation Lightning Strike." That operation was supposed to prevent the shooting of Kassam rockets on southern Israel. As well, last Thursday morning, soldiers from the Givati Brigade killed two terrorists who attacked them with rifle fire from the Erez crossing where Gazan workers enter Israel. Addressing reporters, Galant declared that on the one hand, "Israeli bloodshed will not be met with silence." On the other hand, he said, "I can't say that we have a perfect response for the Kassam rockets, but our operations are effective. The Palestinians think twice before they shoot." Galant brushed off the fact that the Palestinians are lobbing rockets and mortars at Israel on a daily basis in spite of the IDF's "effective" responses, by saying: "You have to look at the glass as half full. It could be better, it could be worse." Finally, one week after the Palestinians voted Hamas into office, the commander who holds direct responsibility for the security of southern Israel said: "With our departure from the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians were given the chance to choose a new path. Instead of fighting, I hope that they will choose the path of hope and of fighting terror." What Galant's statements make clear is that in its post-withdrawal operations against Palestinian attacks, the IDF is simply ignoring its duty to secure the country. Galant's basic message last Thursday was that rather than do its job or admit that in the absence of ground forces in Gaza it cannot do its job, the IDF excuses its failure to protect the country with hollow and pathetic political slogans. Most depressingly, the IDF does this with the full expectation that the Israeli public will not notice the fact that our army is unable or unwilling to uphold its basic obligation to the nation. In an interview Wednesday with the Ynet Web site, a high-ranking officer in Central Command said that over the past year the IDF had prevented 10 Palestinian shooting attacks on Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood. He also revealed that Palestinians in the Bethlehem district possess mortars. The officer seemed to be using his interview as a way to beg the government and his commanders not to take away his forces' freedom of activity in the Bethlehem district. In his words, "There is a threat of gunfire attacks on Gilo, but we have an effective answer to that threat as long as we retain the freedom to act and collect intelligence in Bethlehem. Today we have freedom of action in the city, but there are mortars moving around in Bethlehem. There are attempts to transfer know-how, attempts to transfer missiles. We also see attempts to connect the area to northern Samaria and Gaza, and by that I mean in terms of weaponry, know-how and personnel." Yet, in seeming disregard to this rising terror threat, the officer said the IDF's major activities in 2006 in the Bethlehem-Gush Etzion area would center around two issues: the construction of the security fence against the backdrop of both Arab and Jewish opposition to the project; and contending with the Hamas takeover of the Palestinian Authority. It was difficult not to despair after reading that officer's interview. There are mortars at the gates of Jerusalem and the IDF has made guarding a fence its first priority for 2006. It seemed apparent from his remarks that this commander himself is aware of the absurdity of the IDF's operational priorities. It is not the army's job to guard fences. The army's duty is to secure the state and its citizens. Against the emerging mortar and rocket threat to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv from Hamas-ruled Judea and Samaria -- a threat that this officer claims finds its origins in the territories the IDF vacated last summer -- what this officer most fears is that he will be ordered to retreat. The officer's conflation of Israeli and Palestinian opponents of the security fence around Gush Etzion echoes the statements made by OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh after the violent clashes between police and civilians at Amona two weeks ago. There Naveh drew parallels between the Jewish protesters and Palestinian terrorists who fight IDF forces in Palestinian cities. Both officers' statements expose a deep confusion about the role of the IDF. Last week, a US Army commander, who observed the events in Amona from afar, shared with me his deep concern for the future of the IDF. In his words, "The Israeli army will not be able to survive as an effective fighting force if it continues to place itself in the middle of the mainstream political debate in Israel. It cannot survive if it allows itself to confuse the Israeli public with Israel's enemies." At the same time as they confuse the government's political opposition with Israel's enemies, IDF commanders also actively deny the threat Israel's enemies constitute for the country. On Tuesday, in his first appearance before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, incoming OC Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin said Hamas was now trying to decide whether it would form a moderate or radical government. He added that the key question was whether Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas would restrain Hamas by forming a dictatorial government, or whether he would attempt to reach agreements with Hamas as had been his wont until now. In so relating to the Hamas takeover of the PA, Yadlin echoed statements by other IDF commanders and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz regarding the possibility of separating the Hamas government from Palestinian society. By framing Israel's strategic predicament in this fashion, IDF commanders are making it all but impossible for the public to recognize the fact that it is not just terrorist organizations that are waging this war against the country. Palestinian society as a whole is warring against Israel. That was the message of the Palestinian elections, which brought Hamas to power. And so the question of what sort of government Hamas will form and what Abbas's relationship to that government will be is strategically irrelevant. Perhaps the most remarkable recent example of the confusion that has plagued the IDF since the withdrawal from Gaza was the joint press conference Mofaz held with IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz on Monday. The two heads of Israel's defense establishment announced that they were cutting the length of compulsory military service for male IDF conscripts from 36 months to 28-32 months. It should be recalled that in August 2000, as IDF chief of General Staff, Mofaz gave the same announcement at a press conference with then prime minister and defense minister Ehud Barak. The next month the Palestinians launched their terror war. Given the precedent, the beginning of the next big round of the Palestinian terror war may be set to begin next month. The fact that the Palestinian war is a societal war that threatens the existence of Israel was given disturbing expression on Wednesday when the heads of the Israeli Arab political parties announced in a press conference that that they were unifying their Knesset lists in an alliance against the "Zionist political parties." Ibrahim Sarsour, the head of the Islamic Movement's southern branch, who now heads the unified list, declared unabashedly that the Israeli Arab public supports the Palestinian and global jihad forces working to destroy Israel and take over the Western world. In his words: "The entire Arab public, but especially the Muslim public, is in the crosshairs. It is the target of a global attack. As the Islamic Movement, we wish to see the establishment of the Islamic caliphate without borders, and this is what scares the West." Sarsour applauded the Palestinians for electing Hamas, saying: "The Palestinian people did not choose the Hamas movement in order to add another tragedy to the tragedies it has already undergone, but in order to reap achievements." The threats Israel faces, as a frontline state in the global jihad are exacerbated with every retreat and statement of defeatism by Israeli political leaders and military commanders. To surmount these threats, Israel needs an army that is capable of contending with the reality of war that characterizes our times. Over the past year and a half, the government has forced the IDF to occupy itself with missions that are unrelated or counterproductive to its core duty of defending the country and its citizens. The removal of its forces from Gaza last summer has made the IDF's duty to secure southern Israel impossible to fulfill. But rather than admit that the limitations the government has placed on its operations have made it impossible for the military to defend the country, IDF commanders take sides in political disputes and make excuses for their failures. There can be little doubt that the withdrawal from Gaza had a terrible impact on the IDF. It can only be hoped that the General Staff will pull itself together and face reality before the next round of war begins so that it can adequately prepare our soldiers and our society for the challenges that await us. Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org |
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IS GEORGETOWN U INDEPENDENT?; CHIEF LESSON OF HAMAS VICTORY
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, February 20, 2006. |
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STATE DEPT. ON THE CARTOONS The State Dept. called the cartoons "unacceptable." The Temporary Intl. Presence in Hebron, consisting largely of Scandinavians, withdrew from Hebron under assault by a Muslim Arab mob. TIPH was formed to observe and report on tensions in Hebron between Muslims and Jews (NY Sun, 2/9. p.1 & 6). Note the Muslim prejudice in attacking TIPH observers merely because they come from the same area as the cartoonists. The TIPH observers did not draw the cartoons. Ironically, TIPH has taken the side of Arab mobs rampaging against Jews, and tried to block IDF action against terrorists. Are the Scandinavians realizing that they and the Jews have a common enemy in Islam, one that blames whole countries for grievances against a few individuals, or which tries to get its way by general extortion? Why "unacceptable"? What does the State Dept. find incorrect about them -- their point is that Muslims justify terrorism as sanctioned by their religion. Most Muslims concur or acquiesce to that. How can they object when targets of terrorism criticize that religious sanction? The State Dept. would deny anyone a serious discussion of the effects of Islam upon non-believers. Are Muslim cartoons against Judaism acceptable? The cartoonists may have done the West a service. They initiated a chain of events that show how prejudiced and violent Muslims are, not fit for Western society. True, some Muslim states may have orchestrated protests. Even so, the ability to rouse the Muslim rabble into violent mobs demonstrates their vicious character. ISRAELIS DE-POLARIZE Secular socialists and religious settlers held a meeting in Hebron to express solidarity with the Hebron Jews (religious) whom the government is expelling from Jewish-owned property that the Arabs previously had confiscated. The meeting was most unusual, in convening two groups thought mutually antagonistic but who here jointly upheld the ethos of Zionist settlement in the homeland. Unfortunately, the event drew no reports from the major media (Judith Lash Balint, IMRA, 2/4). Why was it ignored? WHAT KIND OF A UNIVERSITY IS GEORGETOWN The President of Georgetown U. recently rejected a Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM) call to divest from Israel, but the university agreed to host PSM's conference. The prior conferences exhorted to hatred against Israel, although the university code forbids campus events that promote hatred. PSM also promotes a boycott of Israel, which contravenes federal law. Georgetown recently accepted a huge gift from a Saudi prince. Is Georgetown U. beholden to hostile foreign interests? (ZOA in IMRA, 2/4.) CHIEF LESSON OF HAMAS VICTORY The US promotes P.A. statehood. Statehood would facilitate Hamas assaults on Israeli survival. The Hamas victory in the P.A. proves the futility of the "two-state solution." Since Hamas is being promoted by Iran, the P.A. also poses a danger to the US. The Quartet nevertheless is continuing to subsidize the P.A.. Rice also is demanding that Israel continue subsiding it. Bush said that he would deal with Hamas, if it renounced violence, the way Fatah did. But Fatah's renunciation was duplicitous. It remained violent. Does this mean Bush would accept Hamas lying about it? (Yes, he would call that the powerful influence of democracy.) Bush has retreated on bringing democracy and peace to the Mideast. He now accepts elections, though such elections Islamicize rather than democratize. Israel pretends, despite Hamas' clear statement of hostile intent against Israel, that it can trade land and statehood for peace. Acting PM Olmert has taken up Hamas' cause against Israel, by launching a to dispossess the Jewish residents of Judea-Samaria. This armed struggle diverts attention from his failure to defend Israel from the P.A.. Israeli cities cannot be secure unless Israel controls the P.A. cities (IMRA, 2/4 from Caroline Glick). She means that otherwise, the P.A. bombards the Israeli cities. A RADICAL MOSQUE IN BRITAIN Britain just convicted Abu Hamza of several crimes of terrorism, including inciting to murder. The sentences were concurrent, so he is eligible for parole in a couple of years. Police found in his mosque chemical weapons protection suits, firearms and other weapons, false passports, and equipment used in terrorist training camps in England. The Islamist propaganda machine depicted his trial as a show trial and himself as a martyr (Daniel Johnson, NY Sun, 2/9, Op. Ed.). Islamists always defend the guilty. It's war! FREE SPEECH IN ISRAEL Jewish leftists and terrorists may endorse terrorism and antisemitism. That is their right of free speech. Other Jews may not criticize Oslo without risking arrest for "incitement." They may not attend a protest against government uprooting of Jews from Judea-Samaria without risking having their skulls cracked by government police. For that there is no freedom of assembly. Thus MK Bishara, who committed such treasonous illegalities as going to Syria to praise Hizbullah, which attacks Israel, was cleared by the Chief Justice as merely performing his Knesset duties. It is a new definition of Knesset duties. The Attorney-General recommended prosecuting for racism the Rabbi of Safed, who complained about Jewish women being held captive in Arab villages (which is true) and who complained, after an Arab student cooperated with terrorism in Safed, that perhaps Arab students should not be admitted (Prof. Steven Plaut, 2/4). W. EUROPE STILL DOESN'T GET IT Iran constantly is threatening to resume its nuclear program and annihilate Israel, and denies the Holocaust. It is building missiles to reach Europe. Nevertheless, European governments think they can dissuade that fanatical state from completing its development of nuclear weapons. France, Britain, and Germany eschew the use of force. The question is not whether to use force against Iran, but when. It's not that Europeans are shortsighted, but that their leaders are. A large majority in France approves of military action. 51% of Austrians do. In Britain and Germany, 49% and 46% do, which is more than the number disapproving. Half the Europeans know about Iran's inflammatory statements. When will their governments realize what most of their people do, and give the US a green light and help it? (NY Sun, 2/9, Ed..) Having suffered from the wrongful use of force, Europe won't exercise the rightful use of force. Having come to feel guilty over imposing upon the Third World, Europe allows the Third World to impose on it. Europe suffers the inertia of an ideology that, once set in motion, tends to stay in motion. IRONY IN DENMARK It is a sad irony that this small country of 5.2 million -- which has welcomed over 200,000 Muslim immigrants -- should become a flashpoint for intolerant Islam. The tolerant become the victims of the intolerant. Denmark needs to be bolstered by Western solidarity against the anti-Western jihad. Unfortunately, "Many American newspapers and some television networks have declined to publish the 'offending' cartoons, thereby playing into the hands of the rioters." Actually, the dozen cartoons about Muhammad mostly were not anti-Muslim or anti-Muhammad. The two most prominent ones could be seen as such, though they were true to life. The others were neutral or positive. Some did not portray Muhammad (John P. Avlon, Cal Thomas, and Hillel Halkin, NY Sun, 2/7, Op. Ed.). Ironic. The Muslims are not being rational about this. Their leaders don't want to be. They resent having been eclipsed by the West for several centuries, after having had a superior civilization. "The people of the East are waiting for an avenger, not a savior." "Furthermore, radicalism is being actively bankrolled, and its message disseminated by advancing technology. Today, with chat rooms and text messaging, mobs can be coordinated and incited to riot after watching inflammatory images on Saudi-owned satellite channels." (Nibras Kazimi, NY Sun, 2/8, Op. Ed..) When will people, Muslims and Westerners, realize they are being manipulated, and stop being so credulous? Those who manipulate them harm them more than the ostensible enemy. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com. |
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ISLAM'S MARCH AGAINST THE WEST
Posted by Gary S., February 20, 2006. |
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This was excerpted from a speech given by Brigitte Gabriel at the Intelligence Summit in Washington DC,, February 18, 2006. It can be viewed at www.intelligencesummit.org/speakers/BrigitteGabriel.php Brigitte Gabriel is an expert on the Middle East conflict and lectures nationally and internationally on the subject. She's the former news anchor of World News for Middle East television and the founder of American Congress for Truth.com. Brigitte Gabriel is the author of a forthcoming book on the same subject to be published by St. Martin's Press later in 2006. We gather here today to share information and knowledge. Intelligence is not merely cold hard data about numerical strength or armament or disposition of military forces. The most important element of intelligence has to be understanding the mindset and intention of the enemy. The west has been wallowing in a state of ignorance and denial for thirty years as Muslim extremist perpetrated evil against innocent victims in the name of Allah. I was ten years old when my home exploded around me burying me under the rebel drinking my blood to survive as the perpetrators shouted Allah Akbar. My only crime was that I was a Christian living in a Christian town. I learned at 10 years old the meaning of the word "infidel." I had a crash course in survival not in girl scouts, but in a bomb shelter where I lived for seven years in pitch darkness, freezing cold, drinking stale water and eating grass to live. At the age of thirteen I dressed in my burial clothes going to bed at night waiting to be slaughtered and by the age of 20 I had buried most of my friends who were killed by Muslims. We were not Americans living in New York, or Britons in London, we were Arab Christians living in Lebanon. As a victim of Islamic terror, I was amazed when I saw Americans waking up on September 12th 2001 asking themselves "Why do they hate us?" The psychoanalyst experts were coming up with all sort of excuses as to what did we do to offend the Muslim World? If America and the west were paying attention to the Middle East they would not have had to even ask the question. Simply put, they hate me and you because we are defined in their eyes by one simple word, "infidels." Under the banner of Islam "la, ilaha illa allah, muhammad rasoulu allah," there is no God but Allah, Muhammad is his prophet, they murdered Jewish children in Israel, massacred Christians in Lebanon, killed Copts in Egypt, Assyrians in Syria, Hindus in India, and expelled almost 900,000 Jews out of Muslim lands. We Middle Eastern infidels paid the price then and for their indifference and shortsightedness infidels worldwide are paying the price now. Tolerating evil is a crime. Appeasing murderers doesn't buy protection, it earns disrespect and loathing in the enemy's eyes. Apathy is the weapon by which the west is committing suicide. Political correctness is the shackles around our ankles by which Islamists are leading us to our demise. America and the West are doomed to failure in this war unless they stand up and identify the real enemy. Islam. You hear about Wahabbi and Salafi Islam as the only extreme form of Islam. All the other Muslims are wonderful moderates. I hope the pictures of the irrational eruption of violence from around the world in reaction to the cartoons of Mohammed from burning embassies, to calls to butcher those who mock Islam, or to warnings to be prepared for the real holocaust, has given you a glimpse into the real face of the enemy. The news pictures and video of these events represents a canvas of hate decorated by different nationalities who share one common ideology of hate, bigotry and intolerance derived from one source. Authentic Islam. An Islam that is awakening from centuries of slumber to re-ignite its wrath against the infidel and dominate the world. An Islam which has declared "Intifada" on the West. America and the west can no longer afford to lay in their lazy state of overweight ignorance. The consequences of this mental disease are starting to attack the body and if they don't take the necessary steps now to control it, death will be knocking soon. If you want to understand the nature of the enemy we face, visualize a tapestry of snakes. They slither and they hiss, and they would eat each other alive, but they will unite in a hideous mass to achieve their common goal of imposing Islam on the world. This is the ugly face of the enemy we are fighting. We are fighting a powerful ideology that is capable of altering human basic instincts. An ideology that can turn a mother into a launching pad of death. A perfect example is a recently elected Hamas official in the Palestinian Territories who raves in heavenly joy about sending her three sons to death and offering the ones who are still alive for the cause. It is an ideology that is capable of offering highly educated individuals such as doctors, and lawyers far more joy in attaining death than any respect and stature, life in society is ever capable of giving them. The United States has been a prime target for radical Islamic hatred and terror. Every Friday, mosques in the Middle East ring with shrill prayers and monotonous chants calling death, destruction and damnation down on America and its people. The radical Islamists' deeds have been as vile as their words. Since the Iran Hostage crisis, more than three thousand Americans have died in a terror campaign almost unprecedented in its calculated cruelty along with thousands of other citizens worldwide. Even the Nazis did not turn their own children into human bombs, and then rejoice at their deaths as well the deaths of their victims. This intentional, indiscriminate and wholesale murder of innocent American citizens is justified and glorified in the name of Islam. America cannot effectively defend itself in this war unless and until the American people understand the nature of the enemy that we face. Even after 9/11 there are those who say that we must "engage" our terrorist enemies, that we must "address their grievances". Their grievance is our freedom of religion. Their grievance is our freedom of speech. Their grievance is our democratic process where the rule of law comes from the voices of many not that of just one prophet. It is the respect we instill in our children towards all religions. It is the equality we grant each other as human beings sharing a planet and striving to make the world a better place for all humanity. Their grievance is the kindness and respect a man shows a woman, the justice we practice as equals under the law, and the mercy we grant our enemy. Their grievance cannot be answered by an apology for who or what we are. Our mediocre attitude of not confronting Islamic forces of bigotry and hatred wherever it raised its ugly head in the last 30 years, has empowered and strengthened our enemy to launch a full scale attack on the very freedoms we cherish in their effort to impose their values and way of life on our civilization. If we don't wake up and challenge our Muslims community to take action against the terrorists within it, if we don't believe in ourselves as Americans and in the standards we should hold every patriotic American to, we are going to pay a price for our shortsighted delusion. For the sake of our children and our country, we must wake up and take action. In the face of a torrent of hateful invective and terrorist murder, America's learning curve since the Iran hostage crisis is so shallow that it is almost flat. The longer we lay supine, the more difficult it will be to stand erect. Contact Gary S. by email at ahavat@telkomsa.net |
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O HAPPY DAY!
Posted by Eugene Narrett, February 19, 2006. |
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Some of us keep looking at the photo of the dais at the United Nations on November 29th when they unveiled that map of "Palestine" in all the area west of the Jordan where Israel used to be. There was the "Palestinian" flag. There was his excellence, that distinguished humanitarian, Kofi Anan. There was yet another example of one of the many things that make that organization of dictators, drug dealers and slave traders stink in the face of heaven, and in our faces too, we Americans who have paid so much for it, and not just with money. And we have surrendered so much valuable real estate to the vilify Israel-and-America crowd. The gang that for decades has done so much to legitimize the murder of Jews and destruction of Israel which literally has become the writing on its wall... So let us propose a plan that removes a giant negative and replaces it with numerous positive, lovely, and constructive intiatiatives: ladies & gentlemen, the re-cycling of the UN. 1) Some of you can picture all those lovely town houses on Fifth Avenue facing the Park, and in the east fifties and sixties. Those lovely and very, very expensive town houses now occupied by "diplomats" with immunity from most American laws, living off American taxpayers and stealing urgently needed revenues from the City and State of New York. How's about we expel ALL these diplomats (they like expulsions, right!! Expelling Jews made even Ariel Sharon their hero, -- for one day); we will expel ALL those diplomats, escort them to the piers or JFK and see them off with prejudice. Hit the road, Jaques and Jillio, get lost. The UN is done on these shores... Now those lovely dwellings wil be filled with Americans paying taxes and using services in good old New York while the globocrats take their arrogance where it will be appreciated: Brussels, maybe, or Teheran, just in time for a date with destiny... 2) The UN and its plaza are evacuated. Engineers place contact charges on all the lower levels & on every supporting beam. Implosion time! Every single crumb of this rubble will be disinfected and recylcled. Let's ship it down to N'awrleans and build that dear suffering city a beautiful, state-of-the-art breakwater. That's called bringing good from evil. 3) The beautiful and cleaned up open space now available to the people of New York and all Americans will be landscaped with grass, flowering trees, perennial flowers, fountains, lawns for kids to run; a boat basin with low cost sailing down to the harbor for sightseeing, a splendid enhancement of life in the city. The tall ships will visit once per year. We'll add an annex of the Museum of the city of NY and include a diorama of several victories from the American Revolution. The air will be sweet, the views lovely, the space graciously welcome. The joyous sounds of young and old will be heard where once entitled gangsters ranted and condemned American and worked to destroy the Jewish people. O HAPPY DAY! Professor Eugene Narrett teaches writing and Literature at Boston University. He is the author of hundreds of articles, columns and reviews on politics, American culture and the arts. He is completing a study on Romanticism and the longterm decline of Western Culture. He writes often on subjects relating to Israel and Judaism and is a weekly columnist for the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Massachusetts. Contact him at Culturtalk@aol.com |
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HOW MANY ISLAMIC "EXTREMISTS" SEEK TO DESTROY THE UNITED STATES,
ISRAEL AND OTHER WESTERN DEMOCRACIES?
Posted by Dr. Steve Carol, February 19, 2006. |
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The recent rioting, burnings and murders throughout the Muslim world in reaction to 12 cartoons plus three additional more inflammatory pictures inserted by Muslim clerics themselves, have shocked the world. The numbers of participants in these acts of hatred and violence are staggering -- 40,000 rioted in Karachi, 70,000 in Peshawar, two cities in Pakistan, while tens of thousands with government encouragement and approval went on their destructive spree in Damascus, Syria, and Benghazi, Libya. The Muslim world would have us believe that there is only a tiny minority of Muslim extremists including their supporters -- maybe only 5 or 10 percent. The following are a list of percentages that may be Islamic extremists that believe in the literal teachin gs of the Koran and as such are a threat to us: (The total world Muslim population is estimated at between 1.3 and 1.5 billion.)
These are sobering numbers. Let us not forget that every "victory" by the Islamofascists, be it from American and European newspapers concern over printing the actual cartoons for fear of reprisals, to the killing of American and European hostages,and the unilateral Israeli retreat from Gaza. This is hailed throughout the Arab/Muslim world as "proof" that terrorism pays. The greater their achievements, the more followers will stream to their Islamofascist cause. Think of the following: How many Nazis and other fascists there were in Europe in early 1924, after Hitler's failed Munich Beer Hall putsch? How many in 1933 when Hitler came to power? How many Europe-wide in the summer of 1941 at the high tide mark of Nazism/Fascism? And then how many in June 1945 after the defeat of Germany. We had to battle them, and we almost waited too long. We prevailed at a steep price in men and material. We did not kill all of them. We did not have to kill all of them. The "followers" no longer followed for we had defeated the core of their ideology. Similarly we have to defeat the core of the Islamofascist movement and plant the seed of change -- change by them, from within --- which will take time -- years, decades or longer. There is no other course since appeasement, which only incurs more terrorism, has not worked. Retreat to "Fortress America " wasn't realistic in 1941. It is even less so, dangerously foolhardy, today. Every victory against the true Western democracies will bring the Islamofascists millions more "volunteers." Continued acquiescence and appeasement by the West will only make a postponed confrontation all the more costly for us in the future. No matter what the percentage of Islamofascists, they are a mortal threat to the Western democracies. Dr. Steve Carol is Prof. of History (retired), Senior Fellow Center for Advanced Middle East Studies (www.cames.ws) and Official Historian, Middle East Radio Forum, (www.middleeastradioforum.org), in Scottsdale, Arizona. |
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THE SCAPEGOAT APPETIZER
Posted by Women in Green, February 19, 2006. |
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This was written by Sarah Honig and it appeared in the Jerusalem Post, February 2006. Doha-based Egyptian-born Yusuf al-Qaradawi is one of Islam's most popular and influential clerics. His al-Jazeera program, Shari'a and Life, made him a household preacher in the Arabic-speaking world. A self-proclaimed moderate, he only condones suicide-bombings against Israelis (of all ages and genders, maintaining that there are no innocent non-combatants among them). Indeed, many of his conservative co-religionists have condemned him in fiery oratory for being too soft on the West. Nevertheless, like fellow Muslim scholars, Qaradawi is outraged by what he perceives as European hypocrisy in the Danish cartoons brouhaha. He acknowledges that "the Danes say they can ridicule Jesus and his mother, but can they ridicule Jews?" he demands, "Nobody even has the right to question the number of Holocaust victims." Qaradawi's acid test for true liberality is Holocaust denial. Whoever doesn't sanction erasing the memory of slaughtered Jews cannot claim the credentials of impartiality and unprejudiced intellectual integrity. It'd be tempting to dismiss this as fanatical in-house Muslim rhetoric, were there not very fertile receptors for Qaradawi's rationale in -- of all places -- embattled Europe, which ostensibly these days upholds the intrinsic values of tolerant pluralistic civilization. Yet precisely those who now find themselves attacked by militant Islam -- the very ones from whom Jews might belatedly expect greater understanding, if not actual empathy -- succumb to Qaradawi's logic whereby true neutrality hinges on espousing the crudest of anti-Jewish dialectics (though the compulsion to rewrite Holocaust history or draw propagandistic analogies thereto belie claims that this is merely justifiable criticism of Israeli policies). The notion that Arab/Muslim grievances (as numerous as Arabs'/Muslims' failed attempts to aggressively get their way) must be redressed or balanced by Jew-bashing has become near axiomatic in cosmopolitan European discourse. Examples abound. As the Danish cartoons furor inflamed Muslim passions worldwide, BBC HARDtalk presenter Stephen Sackur grilled Flemming Rose -- the since-suspended culture editor of Jyllands-Posten which printed the controversial cartoons -- to discover whether he's limitlessly broadminded, or whether his publication policy isn't as libertarian as professed. "Would you portray a rabbi as a Nazi after Israelis killed Palestinians?" Sackur pressed. Valiant Rose immediately rose to the challenge: "Last December we printed a cartoon depicting Sharon killing Palestinian children." The fact that Sharon never ordered the slaying of Palestinian kids appeared entirely beside the point. The fact that the only tots deliberately targeted are Jewish (Qaradawi, revered by Hamas, permitted suicide-bombers to blow up Israeli youngsters) was even further from attention. EUROPEAN SATIRISTS never take up the cause of underaged Jewish terror victims. Even Jews in baby strollers somehow have it coming and deserve no bon-ton compassion. Slandering Jews as sinister, hook-nosed Hitlerite practitioners of infanticide, a la medieval blood libels, is their hallmark of enlightened objectivity. Rose courageously resisted submission to taboos Muslims sought to impose on his culture. The very notion that the whole world must abide by Muslim prohibitions is patently a form of theocratic imperialism. It assumes that there's only one overriding truth and all else is heresy. It's as if Muslims would one day order all Western women to wear the hijab or risk violence for offending Muslim sensibilities. But the fact that even Rose assumed he evinces evenhandedness by slandering Jews should send chills down our spines. For Sackur, however, Rose's self-vindication was insufficient. He wouldn't let go the rabbi-as-Nazi imagery. Sackur's seeming premise was that any alleged injustice to Muslims must be corrected via injustice to Jewish scapegoats. By this yardstick, Iran's Holocaust-lampooning caricature competition (which Rose considered featuring) and obviously its nuclear ambitions are proper tit-for-tat. Sackur could claim his Nazi/rabbi correlation was mere provocative illustration to expose Rose's bias. Yet he dragged Jews into an extraneous issue. Sackur made (and repeatedly emphasized) a symptomatic and superfluous suggestive association, intimating to impressionable audiences that it's unfair if Jews too aren't denigrated. Sackur doesn't anyway deserve the benefit of our doubt. During his two-year stint as the BBC's Mideast correspondent, he was consistently tendentious. "Thirty years after Israel's military conquest," pontificated Sackur on June 5, 1997, characterizing Israel's self-defense as land-grabbing adventurism, "we returned with Muhammad Burkan to the Jerusalem house he owned before 1967. Now a Jewish family lives there?" Sackur failed to mention -- or perhaps didn't bother to check - that Burkan never owned said property and lost all appeals to Israel's exceedingly accommodating and solicitous courts. In 2002 Sackur took on America's Jewish lobby, painting it as a dark force that holds the hapless White House captive in its inextricable grip -- shades of Protocols -- vintage conspiracy libels. Sackur's predecessor at HARDtalk, Tim Sebastian, lately chairs another BBC offering, The Doha Debates, spotlighting the Arab media. The day Sackur harped on Nazi-rabbis, Sebastian's panelists argued vehemently about who's culpable for lack of adequate international animosity towards Israel and awareness of "Zionist crimes." The failure of articulate and analytical Arab journalists to wonder whether they aren't abetting calumny and aren't themselves fed a load of lies didn't move a muscle on Sebastian's otherwise expressive face. Nearby, enjoying the same Qatari city's hospitality, Qaradawi must be having a wry last laugh as his "beat-the-Jew" motif resonates from oil-rich Doha's explicitness to oil-dependent Europe's subtext. The sacrifice he demands of another Jewish scapegoat is just an appetizer. He wants more. Islam, he declares, "is poised to take over the world. The harbinger of Islamic triumph will be the conquest of Rumia" - a.k.a. Rome. "Islam will return to Europe as the victorious conqueror, after having been twice ousted from it." Remember: Qaradawi is a relative moderate. Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org |
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FINDING OCCASIONS TO RIOT
Posted by Deena Drosh, February 19, 2006. |
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Jews enjoy occasions for getting together and hanging loose like everyone else. So let me list some excellent situations that can serve as the occasion for a riotous time. 1. Sears Roback had a happy TV ad about a one-day sale JUST on Saturday. Here I've been waiting for months to buy a new dishwashing machine and now I can't. It's infuriating and insulting. Now I'll have to get along with a temperamental machine that is too honest for its own good -- the dishes come out with the same amount of dirt they had going in. Or I'll have to buy another one on a weekday and that will be costly. I've been discriminated against! So let's go partying, folks, in front of their store! 2. I just got a kosher alert. Seems there's a sneaky snacks company that has a kosher certificate for their chips, but not for their nuts-pretzel mix. So what did the insensitive dastards do? They packaged them together. First, it's wasteful -- we have to throw out the other package. Or even worse, chas v'halila some one will assume they are both kosher and serve them to innocent children! I don't know whether to sue them on my own, or make it a class action suit. Maybe I'll just threaten to sue them. If that doesn't scare them the first time, it will the next. 3. Now everyone knows that when there's just a K on the box, it isn't from one of the known certification groups like O-U or Kof-K. It's from a private rabbi. So you'd think the company would take some care to make sure the rabbi they use is trustworthy. After all, we aren't always in a position to check out the information. Take the time I ran out of jam in the middle of a baking session. I ran to the grocery and they were all out of the jam I needed, except for some new brand that just had a K on it. What was I to do? There was no good solution. Make something other that what I'd promised -- and disappoint the kids? Use the jam and hope for the best? Drive to the next grocery in the middle of rush hour? It was maddening, and I'm sure it took years off my life. I ended up driving, got sideswiped by a SUV driven by a dwarf lady who was busy yelling at her son, needed a new body part for the car and never got back to the baking, resulting in some very disappointed kids. And all this happened because I couldn't rely on the people who produce our jam. We must demand more consideration from companies that purport to be putting out acceptably kosher products. Rioting isn't practical -- I don't know enough people in the area who would go stand in front of their manufacturing plant. Maybe I'll go burn some carts in front of the grocery so they will know how irate I am. Come join me. Getting exercised is good exercise. 4. Yesterday, my kid came back from school with a D in gym -- he was hiding out in the locker room reading another one of his crazy sci-fi books. A D! A First. This isn't what we meant when we said he should come in first. He didn't deserve a D. He was just desperate and frustrated. He was too busy to practice these high swing and jump thingamagigs. Then they said he had to do it or take gym class another whole semester! So naturally, he revolted. It's all the school's fault -- seems they'd rather have a dummy with big muscles, some biceritops tyrannosaurus, than a mathematician for the space age. We've got to show them the error of their ways. I suggest we get together and set the gym on fire. What say? 5. The local county council has absolutely no consideration. We live on a quiet street, but if I want take the kids to the park on the Sabbath, I need to cross this wide avenue and there's always cars going by. To make them stop, I'd have to push a button. Now, that's impossible. I've written the council twice, politely asking that they make the traffic light automatic. And they keep telling me it doesn't affect enough people. So enough already, enough Mrs Nice Girly. My gloves are off. I am going to have Shmueli's birthday party in front of the new council building and have a new and exciting game for the kiddies -- a genuine rock and roll session. First prize will go to the tyke who hit the most windows. Second prize to the kid who can throw the biggest rock. Candy and cake and prizes for all. I must remember to ask the parents for the correct spelling of their names. After all, it won't be fun unless the TV and newspaper people are invited. 6. I finally found the lemon-raspberry sauce I've been looking for -- who has time to make it. And it turns out it is not kosher. The manufacturers tell you this in the text describing what sounds like a wonderful sauce. That's insulting. It's deliberate discrimination. They use simple ingredients. All they have to do is get one of the certification groups to check it out. And they don't care enough to do that. I am going to get all my friends to write letters. That won't work? I know that. They'll just ignore it. But not when we show up in front of the distributer with dozens of carts filled with these letters (and maybe the last few weeks of the junk mail that fills my mailbox). I can't decide whether the signs our spontaneous group will carry should be lemon-colored or in raspberry. Decisions! decisions! decisions! 7. My street is quiet, except of course after 3 in the afternoon, when crazy teenagers see how fast they can zoom up the street. I have asked and asked and asked for the county to install a camera to stop this racing before some kid on his bike is killed. But no, they haven't. They say they don't have the money, there isn't enough traffic, no one else has asked -- you know, all the lazy excuses. They just plain don't care about us. So I am going to change their minds. We pay our taxes just like anyone else. I'm going to buy my neighbors' kids bows and arrows and teach them to aim at tires. That will fix the problem in no time. Nobody is going to mess with us. 8. I noticed when I went to the school about Shmueli's D in gym that several children were wearing large crosses. I am thinking that this might be a violation of the separation of church and state. It's true that Shmueli wears a magan david, but after all, where would the western moral structure be without the Torah? I'm still deciding what to do? Maybe I can get them to erase the D in return for not complaining about the crosses. You think this is unethical? Unethical in the service of ethical is never unethical. So there. So you see, friends and neighbors and coreligionists, it's simple to turn almost any minor aggravation into a major cause for having a riot of a time. Have fun. |
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OLMERT'S WAR AGAINST THE SETTLERS
Posted by Shaul and Aviva Ceder, February 19, 2006. |
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This is called "Olmert's War against the settlers" and is by Fern Sidman. It was recently reported that Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert directed Israeli forces to use extreme violence against Jewish protestors during last week's televised evacuation and demolition of Jewish homes in Amona. According to WorldNetDaily.com a top official in Olmert's Kadima party divulged this information. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, routinely serves as an Olmert advisor on international issues, has charged that Olmert ordered the violence as a tactic to win votes from leftist Israelis by demonstrating that he is capable of withdrawing Jews from Judea and Samaria. "The extreme television images last week of settlers being brutalized was what Olmert needed. He knows he lost the right-wing voters to Likud and the nationalist parties. He has the center voters. Now he is trying to attract votes from Israelis on the left who strongly oppose the settlements," the unnamed official said. MK Benny Elon said, "Olmert is not a military man. He doesn't have a strong defense background like Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who everyone knows can get tough. So Olmert's public relations people told him he needs to act macho against the settlers ahead of the elections to prove to them he can push through what the extreme leftists want, a West Bank evacuation." It was also recently reported that the Yassamniks and Israeli police sexually abused young Jewish settler girls. According to direct testimony, the girls said the police called them prostitutes, threatened to rape them and touched their private parts. Older women as well have said that police groped their bodies. "Police officers rubbed up against us and touched our chest and intimate body parts. They used dirty words while doing it. One policeman said: 'Come, I'll screw you'... We felt like we were being raped." (The testimony of a girl in Amona) It is clear that Mr. Olmert was responsible for the approval of this heinous brutality and humiliation of the settlers. It is clear that in order to ensure a political victory for himself, he is willing to destroy the entire settler movement. He has referred to the settlers as the "Jewish Hamas". He is willing to use the blood of Jewish children in order to capture votes. The actions of the Olmert government are an egregious usurption of the basic civil rights of the settlers. It is not surprising that Olmert has refused to open up an investigation into the police brutality in Amona. If all the facts were to surface it would clearly indict him of government sponsored violence of against a segment of the population. It is also clear that many agree with Olmert's policy of making further territorial concessions to the Arab enemy. It is also clear that the Olmert government possesses self-destructive predilections. Case in point is the recent government decision to hand over $55 million in excise tax revenues to the PA, which will be controlled by Hamas. Olmert's vitriolic rhetoric and actions against the settler movement is going to escalate. His vituperative should be a clarion call for Jews to wake up and voice their outrage and indignation at this latest attack on righteous Jews. The demonstration in Jerusalem in which over 100,000 people attended, testifies to the strength of the settler movement. There must be many, many more demonstrations of this kind. We must put relentless pressure on the Olmert government to proceed with this investigation into the police brutality at Amona. We must demand that! those responsible for this despicable abuse be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This must include government officials as well, Mr. Olmert notwithstanding. We must encourage our Jewish youth to learn to defend themselves against this Nazi style police violence, for surely such incidents of this kind are bound to happen again. We must display our support and succor to those who refuse to acquiesce to the totalitarian rule of the Israeli government. Mr. Olmert has drawn up the battle lines. It is a battle between good and evil, between the holy and the profane. May the G-d of Israel protect us, shield us and strengthen us for the protracted battles that lie ahead. Contact Shaul and Aviva Ceder at ceder@netvision.net.il |
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THE DANES PROTEST
Posted by Max Yas, February 18, 2006. |
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One by one the Western democracies caved in. Abandoned by their European "friends" the Danes value their freedom above their long - term need for oil. FROM A.P. 17/02/06, Peshawar, Pakistan: A Pakistani cleric announced a US$1-million for killing a cartoonist who drew the Prophet Muhammad. Denmark announced the temporary closed its embassy in Pakistan. In Bengazi, Lybia: A demonstration against caricatures left the Italian consulate on fire and at least nine people dead, an Italian diplomat said. This article is called "The Danes protest" and is from the Brussels Journal. Send your comments to the Editor -- at http://www.brusselsjournal.com Shalom from Max The capitulation by America and Europe over the Danish cartoons has provoked a remarkable protest by one of the journalists on Jyllands-Posten, Per Nyholm, a translation of which appears on the Brussels Journal website. How many times lately have we not heard people of power, the opinion makers and others say that of course we have freedom of speech, BUT. They have said it, all of them, from Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, to our own Bendt Bendtsen [a Danish Politician]. Once we had to be sensitive to the easily hurt feelings of the Nazis, then came the Communists, now it is the Islamists. The reason I say "Islamists" is that I do not for a moment believe all the world's Muslims are spitting on us. I think we are dealing with thugs, fools and misled people. Those are the ones we have to deal with, and then the chickenlivered politicians. The cartoons are no longer something Jyllands-Posten can control. They have already been manipulated and misrepresented to the point that few know what is going on and fewer know how to stop it. This affair is artificially being kept buoyant in a sea of lies, suppressions of the truth, misconceptions, lunacy and hypocrisy, for which this newspaper bears no blame. The only thing Jyllands-Posten did was provide a pin-prick which has made a boil of nastiness erupt. This would have happened sooner or later. That it happened more than four months after the publication of the cartoons, raises a question of its own. Are we dealing with random events or with a staged clash of civilizations? One might hope for the former yet be prepared to expect the latter. That is why I say: freedom of speech is freedom of speech is freedom of speech. There is no but. Initially I was doubtful of the timeliness of publishing the cartoons. Later events have convinced me that it was both just and useful to do so. That they are consistent with Danish law and Danish custom seem to me less important than this: that we now know that remote, primitive countries deem themselves justified in telling us what to do. Unfortunately we must also note that governments close to us are agreeing with them in the name of expedience. It was right and just for this newspaper to launch an offensive for freedom of speech, and useful, as we have now acquired new knowledge. Welcome to a brave new world where even our Prime Minister-- in spite of his laudable firmness--must gaze out upon a scorched political landscape. True, his friend in Washington, George Bush, has uttered the customary condemnation of the torching of our embassies, but his State Department alludes to us as being the guilty ones in this case. The suggestion that Danish troops might contribute to democratization is buried under the charred remains of our diplomatic representations in Beirut and Damascus. Perhaps it is time we started mopping up this mess. Perhaps Editor-in-Chief Carsten Juste ought to remove his apology which has gone stale sitting so long on the front page of our internet edition and which does not seem to interest the madmen. Perhaps our government ought to announce to Mona Omar Attia, the strange Ambassador of Egypt, that she is persona non grata. Perhaps the ambassadors that have been called home to fictitious consultations in the Middle East should be told that they may spare themselves the cost of the return ticket. Insofar as possible, the Lying Imams probably ought to be expelled. And then we ought to make an effort to support those Muslims who in a difficult situation have proven themselves to be true citizens. We, for our part, have no wish to be a burden to the Arab governments. We will happily withdraw our soldiers, policemen and diplomats. If they think our money smells, we will retract our aid. Our trade must make do as well as it can. We promise to not bear a grudge and, in time, we will be glad to return, but we are through with the hypocrisy. We have better things to do than being spat upon at our own expense. Cut down our activities in the Middle East. The world holds plenty of other opportunities. Max Yas can be contacted by email at maxyas@victoria.tc.ca |
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OLEG CARTOON: ANTI-JEWISH CARTOONS OK
Posted by Women in Green, February 18, 2006. |
Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org |
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LE PEN AND MOSLEMS AGAINST JEWS, ISRAEL, AMERICA
Posted by David Meir-Levi, February 17, 2006. |
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Tough times ahead for the Jews of France. Le Pen openly hates Jews. All too many Moslems openly hate Jews. So Le Pen and those Moslems hate Jews and are therefore natural allies against Jews, Israel and America. Note especially paragraph 4: "The Islamicization of France is largely a fait accompli". Who's next? This article is from the February 17, 2006 Edition and is entitled "France's Le Pen To Strike a Deal With Muslims." It is by Michel Gurfinkiel -- Special to the New York Sun -- and is archived at http://www.nysun.com/article/27822. It looks like a political oxymoron, but Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front is poised to strike an alliance with France's large immigrant Muslim community. A generation after France's right-wing party began its surge with a tough anti-immigration campaign tinged with both racism and anti-Semitism, three factors are coming into play that could spell a strategic realignment. These factors, which are still little grasped outside political circles in France but will have an enormous impact, include:
Mr. Le Pen's inner circle seems to have entertained such a strategy for quite a time. Back in 1999, Samuel Marechal, one of Mr. Le Pen's sons-in-law, stated that France was becoming "a multiethnic and multireligious society," and that "Islam was now France's second religion." This was greeted by an outcry among the Front's rank and file and Mr. Marechal had to step down from various positions. Still, he remained one of Mr. Le Pen's closest advisors. More recently, Jean-Claude Martinez, a National Front member of the European Parliament and Mr. Le Pen's "strategic adviser," has reiterated Mr. Marechal's challenge in a book issued under the improbable title "To all French citizens who may have voted for Le Pen if only once in their life." He argued that the National Front must adjust to globalization, forget about some of its founding myths, like "Joan of Arc fighting an alien invasion," and welcome immigrant blacks and Arabs into the national fold. He even expressed enthusiasm for black and Arab rap, as long as it is sung in French rather than English. This time there was no talk of disciplinary measures against the heretic. Various sources are now reporting that Mr. Martinez is supported by Marine Le Pen, Jean-Marie's eldest daughter and heir apparent. During the 2005 riots, when even communist and socialist mayors were asking for police and even army deployment in the French urban communities, the National Front refrained from any active anti-immigrant or anti-Islamic campaigning. Over the last weeks, in the wake of the crisis over the Danish cartoons, the National Front has sided with Muslims in their claim that "religious sensibilities must be respected." "We have nothing against Islam as a religion," the National Front Federation of the Var county, in Southern France, stated earlier this month. Political analysts wonder how far the experiment can go. The real issue, many analysts say, is a schism within the French far right on who is the chief enemy. The National Front has always been a coalition of two very distinct political families: Neofascists, like Mr. Le Pen himself, and traditional, Christian right-wingers. Neofascists think Jews and Americans are the chief enemy, rather than Arabs and Muslims. In a way, they even tend to celebrate Arabs and Muslims as fellow fascists. As for Christian right-wingers, they see Arabs and Muslims as the chief enemy. For years, Mr. Le Pen has been pretending he is a Christian right-winger rather than a Neofascist and that resistance to Muslim immigration is his major concern. Now he has emerged on the side of the Neofascist branch and is ready to drop the anti-Muslim issue. The Christian right-wingers -- who may have provided more than 50% of the party activists and more than 50% of the voters -- are horrified, feel betrayed and have started deserting en masse. Many are turning to Philippe de Villiers, France's chief Eurosceptic, who is quickly reorganizing his own party, Mouvement Pour la France or MPF, into a nativist, Christian-minded, anti-Muslim group. According to the newspaper Liberation, the global National Front membership has dropped from 40,000 in the late 1990s to 20,000 in 2002 and to 12,000 in 2005. According to CSA, a polling institute, support for Mr. Le Pen among prospective voters has dropped to 9% in February from 11% in December and 12% in September. During the same period, MPF's support more than doubled to 7%. What remains to be seen is whether Le Pen will actually compensate the Christian right-wingers' hemorrhage with a substantial influx of Muslim supporters. Islamic leaders in France are advising their followers to act as "democratic and responsible citizens," i.e., to register as prospective voters and to enter as full-fledged activists into all major political parties, either right of left. Indeed, a reconstructed, Muslim-friendly National Front stands a good chance to win many of them. David Meir-Levi is an American-born Israeli, currently living in Palo Alto. His expertise is in Near Eastern studies and the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is Director of Peace and Education at Israel Peace Initiative (www.ipi-usa.org). Contact him at david_meirlevi@hotmail.com |
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WHY DOES TOM FRIEDMAN LEGITIMIZE HAMAS?
posted by David Meir-Levi, February 17, 2006. |
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Tom Friedman's "Let Hamas Sink or Swim on its Own" (NY Times, 2.17.06) raises an interesting question. What is to be gained by legitimizing an apartheid, racist, genocidal religious party whose sole defining paradigm is terrorism, whose short term plan is the destruction of a sovereign state and whose long term plan is "Islam uber Alles"? (and if you think this is an unfair characterization, read their "Covenant"). Putin has much to gain from his decision to recognize Hamas and sell them weapons. This latest knife in America's back is of a piece with his promise to intervene if the USA makes moves against Iran in the UN. He gets enhanced status in the "hate America" world for snubbing America, gains greater influence in the Moslem world, paves the way for more lucrative multi-billion dollar deals like the ones he had in Iraq before Gulf War 2. And, maybe, if he is nice to Hamas, other Moslem terrorists will not savage innocent Russian civilians the way they did in Moscow and Beslan last year. France has pretty much the same to gain by support for Putin's stand. And, maybe the banlieux will be lest restive. Hugo Chavez is already host to some ten thousand Arab terrorists in the mountains bordering Colombia, and he has welcomed Iran's influence and money into Venezuela. No surprise, then that he recognizes Hamas and welcomes them into the family of nations. That cements his ties with Iran and casts him as another brave little guy who has the pluck to stand up and punch Uncle Sam in the eye. And Cuba follows suit... no surprise there. I wonder when Bolivia will pipe up with some pro-Hamas prose. The EU is a bit more circumspect, but completely candid in its warning to the USA: "Withholding money will lead to chaos... unemployed police will roam the streets behaving like armed gunmen". (so maybe better to give money to the armed gunmen before they start roaming?) "For us, it's going to be very difficult to sit by and not to do anything if the Palestinian people seem to be suffering from a blockade (Odd. That's what they do regarding every other country experiencing violence and oppression -- why is "Palestine" so special?). "Europeans don't want chaos in the Palestinian territories (and what has there been until now?)." (NY Times 2/17/06 "U.S. Digs In on Withholding Aid to Hamas Government", By Steven Weisman). Oil rich Moslem states share Hamas' short and long term plans. King Abdullah 2 of Jordan offered Hamas an official office in Amman, so they will have an alternative base of operations in Jordan, with direct access to the West Bank. This is no surprise when you consider that 75% of his country is Palestinian as is 60% of his Jordan Legion officer corps. Meanwhile, Hamas sponsors daily terror attacks against Israel, promises to kidnap Israelis to exchange for Hamas prisoners, declares a 3rd Intifada, links up with el-Qaeda bases in Sinai, imports el-Qeada cells to Gaza, re-enforces its long-standing links with Hezbollah, imports longer-range katyushas and anti-aircraft missiles; and every major Hamas leader re-iterates the Hamas credo summarized in their website video with the message: "We will not leave you alone until we quench ourselves with your blood and we will quench the thirst of our children with your blood. We will not rest until you leave the lands of the Muslims... By the life of Allah, we will destroy you. We will blow you up. We will take our revenge on you. We will purify our land of you, pigs, who have defiled our land. By the life of Allah, we will take our vengeance. We are carrying out this operation as harsh revenge against the sons of monkeys and pigs (traditional Moslem epithet for Jews)." So it is easy to see what all of these countries and leaders gain by their legitimization of Hamas. But, what does Tom Friedman have to gain? David Meir-Levi is an American-born Israeli, currently living in Palo Alto. His expertise is in Near Eastern studies and the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is Director of Peace and Education at Israel Peace Initiative (www.ipi-usa.org). Contact him at david_meirlevi@hotmail.com |
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DETACHED FROM REALITY
Posted by Steven Shamrak, February 17, 2006. |
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Extracts from Netanyahu interview to Army Radio. "Olmert is detached from reality," Netanyahu told Army Radio today. "He did not see that his policy of free withdrawals led to the Hamas victory, and he did not foresee the firing of Kassams at Ashkelon, and he does not see the Hamas state that has arisen atop of Gush Dan [the greater Tel Aviv-Netanya area]." "...We have just undergone a veritable earthquake, with the rise of a fundamentalist-Islamic terrorist organization to power, giving it the ability to create another Iran right on our border -- and we just pass over it as if it were nothing." "Olmert reveals inexperience in his attempts to deal with a complex reality that can be dealt with. He allowed Hamas to vote in Jerusalem, gave it money, brought the partition wall closer to central Israel, and now, after the horses have run away, he wants to close the barn doors that he left open." (I just hope that Netanyahu in touch with the reality now and has learned from his mistakes. He was the one who gave up Hebron and perpetuated the Oslo war!) Steven Shamrak was born in the former Soviet Union (USSR) and participated in the Moscow Zionist "refusenik" movement. For the last few years, he has been publishing internet editorial letters on the Arab-Israeli conflict -- independently, not as a member of any organization or political movement. He can be reached by email at StevenShamrak@mail2world.com |
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"SENSITIVITY TO RELIGION"; PRESSING ISRAEL TO DENUCLEARIZE; MUSLIM INDIGNATION
Posted by Richard Shulman, February 14, 2006. |
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"SENSITIVITY" TO RELIGION Western leaders defend freedom of press but urge press "sensitivity" to the feelings of Muslims. Western "artists" decorate the icons of Christianity and Judaism with animal waste products. Western leaders do not urge artists to be sensitive to the feelings of Christians and Jews; the media calls such artists brave. Why the double standard? Is it because Christians and Jews don't threaten to murder people, but Muslims do? (Or is it because Western leaders don't care about Christians and Jews but appease Muslims?) How brave are artists whom become enriched by the controversy and not penalized? The Danish newspaper that published the cartoons wanted to shake Danes out of their self-censorship about Islam. The Muslims are encroaching on Western self-rule by demanding multicultural "sensitivity" only for themselves. They have gotten Westerners to withdraw ads, TV shows, the English flag from prisons, etc.. We cannot tolerate having our societies become places in which we have to fear being murdered if we speak our minds (Mark Steyn, NY Sun, 2/6, Op. Ed.). We have allowed Muslims and their preachers into our society, and they have been imposing upon us their values antithetical to ours. They complain of oppression in France, but they are oppressing the French. The answer is to cast them out. It is an unusual answer, but the problem they create is an unusual one. The answers we have developed for previous problems do not apply to this one. We are not "nice" people for admitting Muslims into the West, when they strive to destroy its freedom. THE DECLINE OF THE ISRAELI ARMY Will Israeli youngsters, especially the religious ones who develop the best records in the Army, continue to volunteer? They saw the Army politicalized like the police and acting like thugs against their own people. They beat unarmed people mercilessly (Winston Mid East Analysis, 2/3). SECURITY COUNCIL ON THE P.A. ELECTION Speaking for the Security Council, US Ambassador Bolton congratulated the P.A. for a fair election and Abbas for pledging to a "two-state solution via Road Map. It encouraged the incoming regime to help the people realize their aspiration for peace and statehood, and donor governments to help maintain fiscal stability (IMRA, 2/4). This is my first disappointment in Bolton. His statement was pretense. What good is a fair electoral contest between two terrorist groups" Abbas violates the Map and doesn't want two states but one, an Arab one. The Arabs don't want peace. Statehood would help them prosecute war, and fiscal stability would help them continue it. THE NEW STRUGGLE TO DE-NUCLEARIZE ISRAEL Egypt got the Intl. Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to equate Israeli possession of nuclear weapons and missiles with Iran's acquisition of them. The IAEA head suggested one cannot allow some countries nuclear weapons and tell others they may not have them. Pres. Bush bolstered that point by suggesting that the US would defend Israel, if it gave up its nuclear option. Bush's expansiveness is not a treaty, and Israel never asked the US to defend it. Israel doesn't want to depend upon a protector, can't rely upon one, and would not be a valuable ally if it became a dependant. Iran is not just Israel's problem, as Iran's longer-range bombs and bombast make clear. Yes, one can tell rogue states such as Iran, which threaten to initiate war as soon as they get nuclear weapons, that they may not have them. One also may have confidence that Israel is responsible about any stockpile. Now Iran is likely to denounce steps against its nuclear facilities that didn't yet produce a bomb unless steps are taken first against Israel, for supposedly already having bombs (David Twersky, NY Sun, 2/6, Op. Ed.). Sec. Rice arranged this Security Council concession to the Arabs at Israel's expense without even consulting Israel. When is Israel going to argue back against the US for betrayal? Interesting, isn't it, that Pres. Bush (without authorization) promises the US would protect Israel in the same maneuver that the US betrays Israel! The US is backing down from opposition to jihad in various policies. The government of Israel is unaware of its own danger, lack of policy, and lack of a program to make that policy known and approved (Winston Mid East Analysis, 2/4). The Arabs have larger conventional forces than Israel and larger forces of non-nuclear weapons of mass destruction. Given their unremitting wars on Israel, Israel needs nuclear weaponry as a deterrent. ISRAEL STOPS RETALIATING AGAINST ROCKETS "The government wants to prevent any escalation in the Palestinian arena, particularly before the Israeli elections," a military source said. "So, unless, there are serious injuries, we just don't respond to the Kassams." The Arabs have been firing rockets every night (IMRA, 2/4). One may interpret this policy as a combination of politics -- a pretense that there is no war or security problem -- with appeasement of the US, which usually objects to Israeli self-defense, though sometimes Pres. Bush states that self-defense is understandable. Nevertheless, he objects to the various alternative means used by Israel Not only does Pres. Bush betray Israel by pressing it not to defend itself, but so does the government of Israel by not defending itself. MUSLIM INDIGNATION The Organization of the Islamic Conference condemned the anti-Muhammad cartoonists for "using the freedom of expression as a pretext to defame religions" and expressed "concern at rising hatred against Islam and Muslims..." (Hassan M. Fatttah, NY Times, 2/9, A1.) "Defame" usually means slander. Slander is false. The Muslims have yet to show anything false in the cartoons. Why don't Muslims use Western freedom of expression to defend their reputation, instead of feeding that ill repute by attacking innocent people all over the world and striving, with some success, to reduce Western freedom of expression? Yes, there is rising alarm about Islam. Does the Organization know why? The alarm is spreading over Islam's jihad against the world. The cartoons were a reaction both to that jihad and to the chilling effect it has on freedom of the press. Some publishers fired editors who reprinted the cartoons so as to inform readers what the controversy is over. The pictures should be accompanied by some explanation, so readers can judge whether the cartoons are libelous. KING OF JORDAN WEIGHS IN King Abdullah upheld freedom of the press (that Jordan lacks), and condemned the Danish cartoonists for insulting his ancestor, Muhammad. He also said, '' We behold with horror and disgust the recent targeting of Christian churches in Iraq, breaking with a 1400 year tradition of Christian-Muslim friendship and mutual acceptance amongst the Arabs of the Levant.'' He declared that extremists distort Islam, which rejects hatred and violence (IMRA, 2/4). His disgust with the attacks on Iraqi Christians would seem more sincere if he also expressed disgust with Western Palestinian attacks on Christians and if he didn't pretend there was a tradition of Christian Muslim friendship and mutual acceptance. Guess he forgot about consigning Christians and other non-believers to second-class citizenship and persecuting them. UNNECESSARILY SURPRISED OVER HAMAS VICTORY Since Oslo began, the P.A. has been inciting its people against Israel, without eliciting much international protest over that violation of Oslo. "Elections in a society which promotes hatred and outrageous values will simply elect leaders who espouse these values." (Morton A. Klein, Pres. of ZOA, NY Sun, 2/6, letter.) The PLO radicalized its people, who then did not find it radical enough. Same was happening in S. Arabia. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com. |
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THREE ITEMS TO SHARE WITH YOU
Posted by Arnold Roth, February 17, 2006. |
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Dear friends, This is one of those relatively rare occasions when I send out an unsolicited letter. This one is intended for friends and acquaintances who have expressed some interest in the work of Keren Malki or in my viewpoint or in those of my wife, Frimet -- but who have not signed up (yet) for the Friends of Keren Malki mailing list. If you care to pass it along to your friends and contacts, that will be very much appreciated. I dislike spam at least as much as the next person. That's why I generally refrain from broadcasting emails. My feeling is that anyone interested in knowing what I have to say on the subjects that interest me (mainly -- terrorism; the case for Israel; European funding of Palestinian corruption and terror; the work of the Malki Foundation) can sign up for the Friends of Keren Malki email list. That way, I know I don't need to apologize for sharing my viewpoint with them, since whoever does not want to be exposed to it can then unsubscribe from that list at any time. Still, every so often -- about once each year -- I do what I am doing now. I send out an email to people whose paths I have crossed recently or who have shared their own emailed views with me, solicited or otherwise. The point of this particular email is to share a couple of specific issues with you, and to ask you to consider signing up today to the Friends of Keren Malki email list. Issue #1: Europe and Palestinian corruption and terror With Hamas 'legitimized' by January's Palestinian elections, the EU public service and its ministerial masters are deeply into acrobatic mode. How do you keep pretending you believe they're terrorists while hiding your own decade-long involvement as financier of those acts of terror? The Funding for Peace Coalition, a very fine organization, has a website that's always worth visiting -- http://www.eufunding.org/. This week they published fresh revelations showing how Brussels covered up its decade-long and ongoing program of funding Palestinian terror. I found the details at http://www.eufunding.org/Realpolitik/Nielson4.html especially interesting. Basically, much of the European tax-payer cash that didn't go into funding terror ended up in the pockets of the PA's kleptocratic leadership clique. Heads are now rolling in Gaza, for the information of those who are not paying attention. So it's instructive to see how much is known, and was known all along, about eurocorruption and its Israeli victims. Fair disclosure for those not aware: my fifteen year-old daughter's murder in August 2001 generated significant personal income for several named Palestinian individuals so I have more than a passing interest in material of this kind. Issue #2: The things that terror victims have in common with each other, no matter where they live I spent most of this past week in, and getting to and from, Spain. The third international congress of terror victims, a very impressive and dignified event, took place in Valencia on Monday and Tuesday. I attended the first two congresses (Madrid in 2004, Bogota in 2005). But this week's event was the first on in which I took part as an official invited guest with my expenses covered by the organizers. (When the group of four Israeli terror victims, of which I was one, let the organizers of the first congress in Madrid know we were coming, we were given clear and explicit advice not to come -- that we were essentially persona non grata. A lot has happened since then -- in Spain and in general.) In Valencia, I spoke from the podium on the shameful failure by the United Nations over a decade to come up with a convention condemning terror. It's a story with details that few people know. If I say so myself, the presentation was interesting and informative. It's now posted at http://www.kerenmalki.org/Valencia_Conference_Feb06.htm along with some photographs of the congress and a link to the slides that illustrated my speech. I hope you will take a few moments to click and read. There are some important and practical consequences to the matters I raised there. In fact, it now appears there may be some effective political action arising from my speech and the chain reaction it set off. If you sign up to the Friends of Keren Malki email list, I promise to update you on the next steps. Issue #3: Keren Malki's work helps people in ways that are efficient, effective and equitable The murder of our daughter left my wife and children and me searching for a way to go on, and to memorialize a beautiful life that had been snuffed out by brutal and hateful people. (The challenges are more complex than you might guess. Consider, for example, that there are people sitting in the Palestinian parliament as from tomorrow - Saturday -- who were themselves, personally, involved as accessories to Malki's murder.) We created a foundation -- The Malki Foundation - which gives Israeli families from every religious and social background support for them to provide quality home-care for their seriously disabled child. We have reached hundreds of such families. And we are growing rapidly. The way we have set it up is uncommonly efficient and effective. Mostly it involves Frimet and me sitting at our computers or at the kitchen table or on the phone. We are greatly helped by a dedicated group of volunteers. I don't know a more effective way to spend philanthropic money, which is way I have no moral difficulty in turning to you and to everyone I meet and asking for your support. We have grown to a substantial size on the basis of donations small and large from people who understand the need to respond to terror and hatred with actions like those of Keren Malki. I am inviting you to please join us by donating and giving us your support. And finally, a reminder again to please sign on as a subscriber to
the Friends of Keren Malki email list -- click here.
Good wishes,
Contact the Foundation at malkifoundation@gmail.com |
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PREPARING FOR THE NEXT POGROM
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, February 17, 2006. |
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This article was written by Aaron Klein for today's World Net Daily (www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48870). JERUSALEM -- Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has directed Israeli forces to evacuate within days a small Jewish enclave alongside the biblical city of Hebron in the West Bank and to use all force necessary during the evictions, security officials told WorldNetDaily. The order follows Olmert's announcement this week his administration will seek to withdraw from most of the West Bank, which borders major Israeli cities and the country's international airport. Olmert's directions fueled speculation by critics the Israeli official is carrying out isolated evictions of settlers as a tactic to win leftist votes ahead of next month's elections. "Olmert knows he will not have the right wing votes. He already has the center. Now he has to flex his muscles against the settlers before the elections to show leftists and extreme leftists he can carry out the Kadima platform of an Israeli withdrawal," charged Israeli nationalist lawmaker Benny Elon. Israeli Defense Force officials said they have been ordered to demolish Chazon David, a small Jewish section outside Hebron consisting of a synagogue and a few mobile homes. Jews have lived in nearby Hebron -- home to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, believed to be the resting place of biblical patriarchs and matriarchs -- almost continuously for over 2,500 years. It is considered the oldest Jewish community in the world. Hebron spokesman David Wilder told WND, "Olmert needs these evictions. He needs to show he has the strength of [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon, that he can stand up to the so-called settlers and carry out a withdrawal." Wilder pointed out while Olmert is enforcing the removal of a small Jewish outpost, over 3,000 illegal Arab settlements in the area remain intact. The IDF sources told WND they have been cleared to use "all necessary force" to remove Chazon David residents. Olmert sparked fury here last month when he ordered the IDF to use force against protesters during the demolition of nine homes in the West Bank community of Amona. More than 1,500 soldiers and police officers were called up to destroy the homes after the court system ruled they were constructed without a permit. Aside from the homes, the rest of the Amona community was allowed to remain standing. During the demolitions, horse-mounted police, water cannons and specially trained riot officers faced off against hundreds of protesters who massed in Amona in hopes of halting the efforts. Israeli television broadcast live footage of demonstrators, including women and children, being dragged and beaten by soldiers. Teenagers with bloody noses and head wounds were seen being removed from the scene. Police were videotaped using batons and gas canisters to clear the area of demonstrators. More than 300 protesters were treated in makeshift first aid tents. At least 70 were evacuated to Jerusalem hospitals with moderate-to-serious injuries. Three Israeli nationalist lawmakers, including Elon, were wounded in the clashes. As WND reported, over 100,000 Israelis protested in Jerusalem earlier this month to demand a commission of inquiry into the violence at Amona. Olmert at first refused to establish an investigative committee, but last week he relented. Olmert this week told the Knesset if his Kadima Party wins next month's elections, Parliament members will be asked to vote on whether to "change Israel's borders" by withdrawing from most of the West Bank, including strategic areas military strategists say are needed to defend Israel from a ground invasion. According to most polls, Kadima is poised to win overwhelmingly. Olmert justified his plan to vacate the West Bank, which is within rocket firing range of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, by claiming Arabs will soon outnumber Jews and threaten the country's Jewish character. But recent studies indicate Olmert is relying on faulty demographic information and that Jews likely will outnumber Arabs by more than double in 20 years. One study, titled "Forecast for Israel and the West Bank 2025," found Palestinians have inflated their population figures by as much as 1.5 million. It also said Jewish birthrates are on the rise while Palestinian rates are falling, and that Israel's own statistics fail to account for even low levels of Jewish immigration when calculating national demographic trends. Americans Bennet Zimmerman, Roberta Seid and Michael Wise put the current Palestinin-Arab population of the West Bank at 1.4 million and Gaza 1.1 million, for a total of 2.4 million, instead of the 3.8 million reported by the Palestinian Authority Central Bureau of Statistics. They found faults in the methods used by the Palestinian Authority to determine its population, including counting the 230,000 Arab residents of Jerusalem twice and retroactively raising growth and birth rates while the rates actually have been declining. The allegedly inflated PA population numbers have been accepted by Israel and were used in formulating future demographic statistics, including those reportedly used by Olmert in formulating a West Bank withdrawal. "It is ironic that just as we now find Israel is in the best position ever with regard to population, Olmert announces a plan to run away and give up the West Bank, claiming Israel's Jewish character is threatened," said Zimmerman. The West Bank is considered landlocked territory not officially recognized as part of any country. Israel calls the land "disputed," while the United Nations says the West Bank is "occupied" by Israel. The Jewish state maintains overall control of most of the area while the Palestinian Authority has jurisdiction in about 40 percent. The territory remained under Jordanian rule from 1948 until Israel captured it in 1967 after Jordan's King Hussein ignored Israeli pleas for his country to stay out of the Six Day War. Most countries rejected Jordan's initial claim on the area, which it formally renounced in 1988. Terrorist groups have warned if Israel withdraws, they will launch rockets from the West Bank into Israeli cities. Many villages in the West Bank, which Israelis commonly refer to as the "biblical heartland," are mentioned throughout the Torah. The book of Genesis says Abraham entered Israel at Shechem (Nablus) and received God's promise of land for his offspring. He later was buried in Hebron. The nearby town of Beit El, anciently called Bethel meaning "house of God," is where Scripture says the patriarch Jacob slept on a stone pillow and dreamed of angels ascending and descending a stairway to heaven. In that dream, God spoke directly to Jacob and reaffirmed the promise of territory. And in Exodus, the holy tabernacle rested in Shiloh, believed to be the first area the ancient Israelites settled after fleeing Egypt. Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel. Contact him at zelasko@actcom.co.il |
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THESE EUROPEAN JEWS ARE FOR MASS MURDER OF JEWS
Posted by Steven Plaut, February 17, 2006. |
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Yesterday something extraordinary happened in Israel. The Israeli authorities refused to let three vicious anti-Semites enter Israel. This of course is unusual and entirely out of character for Israel, which ordinarily welcomes foreign anti-Semites and then sends them to the West Bank where they can vandalize Israel's security fence and violently attack soldiers and police. So what made Israel behave with sudden uncharacteristic survivalist dignity yesterday? Well, first of all, the three were so obviously anti-Semites that Israel's far-leftist daily Haaretz referred to them as "peace activists". The three were from the fanatically anti-Israel "European Jews for a Just Peace". The "just peace" they have in mind is where all the Israeli Jews have been shipped out in cattle cars to nice work camps. See http://www.ejjp.org/. EJJP claims to represent 18 different leftist anti-Jewish groups of European Jews, but we suspect all 18 groups have the same 8 members. There are only 8 people listed here as members http://www.ejjp.org/main.asp?pagid=8 and several have clearly non-Jewish names. The terror leader of this group is one Dror Feiler. You probably remember Feiler as the Swedish ex-Israeli "sculptor" who created a "work of art" celebrating the mass murderer suicide bomber woman who murdered 23 people in a Haifa restaurant, including members of three generations of a single family. One child lost his parents and was left alive, blinded. The bomber beloved by Feiler intentionally stood next to a baby carriage when she set the bomb off to make sure the baby was blown to bits. The bomber was a West Bank lawyer, not a starving refugee. Feiler's "art show" compared her to Snow White in her purity. Feiler was raised a red diaper baby by his communist mother Pnina Feiler, then moved to Sweden. When the Israeli Ambassador to Sweden saw the atrocity that Feiler had created to celebrate the mass murderer, he vandalized it. Israel's Lefties then had a conniption at this "destruction of art". Feiler became the overnight hero for the Sormfront organization of Nazis and Holocaust Deniers: http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?mode=hybrid&t=110784 When he is not busy celebrating genocide and mass murder of Jews, Feiler serves as "chairman" of the "European Jews for a Just Peace". Yesterday three of the group's members were busted when they arrived at Tel Aviv airport. They were supposed to hook up with Palestinian terrorists and Israeli leftist thugs and help attack Israeli police protecting Israel's security fence near the village of Bil'in. After busting them, Feiler himself gave a press briefing in which he said, "There is no other country on earth that behaves like this!" He is of course correct. In any other country, overseas trouble-makers coming in to assist genocidal terrorists would be taken out back and shot, or at least shipped off to Gitmo. Feiler's campaign for genocidal terrorism was earlier discussed by us here: http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=5654 We reprint some earlier observations about him: 'Ah, the Israeli left! Every days brings us new wonders from it, new manifestations of anti-Semitism and treason. 'Among the Israeli or ex-Israeli leftist anti-Semites trekking the globe is one Mapplethropian ''artist'' named Dror Feiler. Feiler hates Israel with a passion and supports Jihad and Palestinian terrorism. He lives in Stockholm with his Swedish wife whence he spreads his views, including on the Internet. He also claims to be a musician who makes ''music and noise'' and my guess is more of the latter than the former. (http://www.furious.com/perfect/drorfeiler.html ) 'Among Feiler's recent ''artistic'' creations is a work celebrating the terrorist woman who blew herself up inside the Maxim restaurant in Haifa, murdering 23 people, some of them Arabs, many of the children. Feiler seems to think this woman is a great hero, so he drew a portrait of her floating happily in a pool of Jewish blood. The work is entitled Snow White and the Madness of Truth (http://www.makingdifferences.com/site/calendar.php?id=20 ). It was displayed in Sweden in a museum, the Historiska Museet, together with a poem that included the following phrases: 'She was also a woman as white as snow, as red as blood, and her hair was as black as ebony. like a weed in her heart until she had no peace day and night Hanadi Jaradat was a 29-year-old lawyer Weeping bitterly, she added: "If our nation cannot realize its dream and the goals of the victims, and live in freedom and dignity, then let the whole world be erased "Run away, then, you poor child. and the red looked beautiful upon the white.'' 'It was all part of the preparations for some sort of Swedish conference on ''genocide,'' which by all expectations will end up endorsing Arab plans to conduct genocide against Jews. 'The art was on display in Stockholm when the Israeli Ambassador decided to respond to it in a manner almost unseen by Israeli officials since the start of Oslo appeasement. He responded to it as a Jew and a Zionist; after asking nicely that it be taken down, he vandalized the obscenity. Curiously, the Ambassador is an appointee of Labor Party dove Ehud Barak, who was on Israeli TV soon afterwards cheering on the Ambassador for this rare act of Israeli self-pride and courage. Surprisingly, Barak's party and Meretz have NOT suggest that Feiler be granted the Israel Prize. 'Feiler runs a PLO front group called Jews for Israeli Palestinian Peace (JIPF). He also serves as head of European Jews for a Just Peace, which might or might not have other members besides himself. The artist has filed a complaint with the Swedish police against the Ambassador for the vandalizing, and it set off a diplomat confrontation between Sweden and Israel. I personally think the Ambassador should say he was just engaging in theater and so his actions should be protected artistic expression. '''This was not a piece of art,'' the ambassador told Sweden's SR radio news station. ''It was a monstrosity. For me it was intolerable and an insult to the families of the victims,'' he said. ''As ambassador [of] Israel I could not remain indifferent to such an obscene misrepresentation of reality.'' 'Feiler describes himself as the ''eye-bleeding ultimate composer of intifadic and eruptive lung-outs.'' It turns out his parents were both communist party members in Israel and he was raised on a kibbutz. 'What is most interesting about this is how readily much of the Israeli Left has been to denounce the ambassador for defending Jewish dignity and to defend the anti-Semitic artist and his absolute right to produce such obscenity. The far leftist daily Haaretz ran an editorial, several op-eds and lots of letters to the editor denouncing the ambassador as a bully and vandal and defending the piece of ''art.'' They were joined by many others on the Israeli Left. Suddenly ''artistic'' expression is absolutely protected. Except the theater by the Ambassador is not. 'Some in the academic Left are also chiming in. Here is a letter written by Prof. Amiram Goldblum, one of the founders and long-time leaders in Peace Now, circulated this week on the web: '''The Stockholm Bully'' The aggressive response of Mazel to what seems to be an idiotic artistic expression, will remain in public memory as another display of Israeli violence, deriving from 35 years of occupation. That is also the source of the governmental response, praising the bully rather than recalling him and replacing him ASAP. Israel has enough rednecks in the academy, no need to have them as diplomats. 'Amiram Goldblum, Ph.D. Cell
'Now it is interesting to place this sudden absolutism of the Left regarding artistic expression in context. This is the very same Israeli Left that insists that any poster that shows politicians the Left likes in unflattering manner, such as Yossi Beilin or Yossi Sarid wearing an Arab kafiya, should be grounds for prosecution for ''incitement.'' This is the same Left that cheered uncontrollably when Tatiana Suskin, the poor young woman who had made a poster of the Prophet Mohammed as a pig, was sentenced to a long prison term. These are leftists who want pornography suppressed because it dishonors women. This is the same Israeli Left that has campaigned to tear down and bulldoze a memorial stone marker for Baruch Goldstein, who shot up the Mosque in Hebron. And this is the Left that argues that T-shirts that read "Where there are no Arabs there is no Terrorism" should be jailed for "racism" and "incitement". 'In other words, by defending this nazi obscenity in Sweden, the Left is showing how openly anti-Semitic and anti-democratic it is. Here is some more on the Jewish anti-Semites in Europe:
Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments -- both seriously and satirically -- on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or contact him by email at stevenplaut@yahoo.com. |
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PALESTINE'S UNITED TERROR FRONT
Posted by David Bedein, February 17, 2006. |
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The Fatah movement, which controls the Palestinian Authority security agencies, has said it is ready to join Hamas in the war against Israel. Former Civil Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan, regarded as Fatah's chief in the Gaza Strip, earlier said the movement would not join Hamas in any government coalition. But Dahlan said Fatah was now ready to fight alongside Hamas against Israel on Egypt's Nile Channel on January 29th and that he hoped Hamas would succeed in joining forces with Fatah in a protracted war against Israel. Dahlan also said Hamas would also run military facilities: "Certainly we will join forces in facing Israel, and Hamas announced that it will join its forces, will lead a struggle against Israel and also will run bases," Dahlan said. "I hope Hamas will succeed in those three things." So far, Hamas and Fatah have also been threatening each other. On Febuary 1st, insurgents detonated a bomb in front of the house of a major commander of Dahlan's former organization, the Preventive Security Apparatus (PSA). Seeking to prevent Fatah retaliation, Hamas leaders denied any connection to the attack on former PSA director Col. Suleiman Abu Mutlaq. The PSA, however, blamed Hamas for the bombing. Mutlaq was Fatah's candidate who ran and lost for the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in the KhanYunis region. Hamas blamed Fatah rivals of Abu Mutlaq for the bombing which damaged his house. Despite Dahlan's dismissal, Hamas has not given up on Fatah participation in the next Palestinian Authority (PA) government. Hamas leaders told the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat newspaper on February 4th that Egypt, Syria, and some Gulf Cooperation Council states have prepared a plan for Fatah participation in any Hamas-led government. The newspaper said that under the plan, Hamas would agree to reduce the powers of the prime minister and the cabinet. The changes would limit the prime minister's role in foreign affairs and security, while strengthening PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Under the plan, Fatah would be given several key ministries. This would include the Interior Ministry and National Security office. Hamas has not formally responded to the Arab plan. Egypt has urged Hamas to include several Fatah figures in the next government. A-Sharq Al Awsat, as well as Al Quds, all Palestinian Authority newspapers, reported that PLC member Ziyad Abu Amr would be offered the job of foreign minister. Salam Fayyad would be allowed to keep his post of finance minister. Meanwhile, Hamas has declared that all Palestinian agreements with Israel have been annulled. Ahmed Bahr, a leader of the Hamas movement, told Al Quds on Feb. 1st that all agreements with Israel were annulled. Bahr said Hamas did not win the elections in the Palestinian Legislative Council on the basis of the 1993 Oslo agreements that established the Palestinian Authority. "There is a tremendous difference in this matter," Bahr said. "We would never enter the elections on the basis of the Oslo agreements. We entered the 2006 elections in accordance with a Palestinian-Palestinian agreement in Cairo in March 2005." "We have never said and we'll never say that we will conduct negotiations with Israel," Bahr said to the PA run Al Kuds on Feb. 5th, 2006. This should mean the Oslo Accords are dead. But nobody in the West says this. Bahr also said Hamas was not committed to any of the Oslo agreements that stipulated peaceful dialogue and cooperation with Israel. He said Hamas and Fatah, led by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, were committed to the same aim: "the end of the Israeli occupation." "It is true that our brother Mahmoud Abbas and our brothers in the PA say that they want to end the occupation through negotiations," Bahr said. "And we say you have negotiated more than 10 years and have not ended the occupation." He referred, of course, to Israel not negotiating itself out of existence, not just the West Bank and Gaza. Bahr said the "resistance drove out the occupation from the Gaza Strip. I stress that I have not entered the elections on the Oslo agreements. I stress that we entered the Palestinian elections in the interest of the Palestinians." The Hamas leaders said the purpose of the Oslo agreements was to ensure Palestinian recognition of Israel. Bahr said Oslo was designed for the Palestinian concession of a large percentage of its land (Israel within secure borders) as well as the annulment of the PLO covenant. "Oslo has already brought us disaster and helped settlements, raised the level of corruption to alarming proportions and increased Israeli attacks," Bahr said. Bahr said Hamas would unite the PA security forces and ensure that they serve the Palestinian people. He denied the assertion by another PLO leader, Khaled Masha'al, that Hamas would convert the PA forces into a Hamas army. The position enumerated by Bahr appeared to be in the solid mainstream of the movement Mahmoud Zahar, head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, told Hizbullah's Al Manar television on January 25th, and that his movement would continue to attack and refuse to recognize Israel and replace the Jewish state with a Muslim entity. "We will not give up the resistance in the sense of Jihad," Zahar said. "Palestine means Palestine in its entirety -- from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River, from Ras Al Naqura to Rafah. We cannot give up a single inch of it." Zahar envisioned a Palestinian educational system that would instruct children to killJews. He said the Culture Ministry would idolize suicide bombers. "Our Culture Ministry will teach them how the martyr is turned into prose, literature, and poetry, and how a woman, who used to cook and do the laundry, becomes one of the heroes of Palestine," Zahar said. Hamas has been presenting positions to Arab and Islamic leaders and on February 7th, Masha'al led a Hamas delegation to Cairo to meet Egyptian leaders. The delegation was sent to visit the Gulf Arab states and would seek audiences in the European Union as well. The delegation consisted of Hamas parliamentarians Said Sayam and Mohammed Shama. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Hamas would appeal for support for the Palestinian people. He also said Hamas has been in touch governments in the EU and the United States. Stay tuned for more in the War on Terror as the "peace process" continues. David Bedein is Bureau Chief, Israel Resource News Agency. (http://Israelbehindthenews.com) and President, Center for Near East Policy Research. Contact him at media@actcom.co.il or visit www.ibtn.co.il This article appeared in Front Page Magazine (http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21254) February 13, 2006. |
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POLICE RAID ITAMAR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, February 16, 2006. |
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How much shame can Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's sociopathic police thugs heap upon a nation where Police and Army were once the most admired people in the nation. Now, these warped thugs roam the Jewish nation like cruel storm-troopers, where even 6 year old children can become victims of their pathology. But, it all comes from the door of Olmert who wants to be seen as a "strong man", instead of the wimp who bites his nails and was always in the back of the line. This was written by Hillel Fendel. Education Ministry officials will convene to discuss recent complaints of police behavior in Jewish Shomron schools -- such as 20 Yassamniks causing panic in an elementary school this past Sunday. Some 20 special-unit Yassam policemen and another 10 regular policemen descended upon an elementary school in Itamar, in the Shomron, on Sunday. They threatened children by loudspeaker, caused children to cry, entered a classroom and took pictures, and kept students closed up in their classrooms for a half-hour -- because of a rock allegedly thrown at a police jeep earlier in the day. The principal of the school, Rabbi Nitzan Yamin, described to Arutz-7 the chain of events: "A police jeep drove down a road here in Itamar, which has elementary school classes on one side and a yeshiva high school on the other. I asked what they were doing, and they said that someone with a black shirt had thrown a rock at them. We agreed that I would go and check and return in a few minutes. They didn't wait for me, however; they left -- and came back ten minutes later with four jeeps and another van, with a total of about 20 Yassamniks and 10 other policemen. "They started running up and down and into the classrooms and in between the rooms and into the school yard, scaring all the children and yelling at them. They also went into the 7th grade and took pictures of the children. There were kids 6 and 7 years old, crying and scared. Some kids started to run away, and the police yelled over a megaphone that they would break their heads. None of them were wearing name tags... "They came here to scare the children, and they succeeded. I told all the children to return to their classes, and told the children to lock their doors. I told the police I would make sure that everyone stayed in their rooms -- but the police remained there for a full half-hour to make sure that no one left. Then they finally left themselves." Rabbi Yamin also said that MK Nissim Ze'ev (Shas) had mentioned it in his Knesset speech yesterday. "Ze'ev was speaking about the Constitution, and asked rhetorically whether a constitution could stop such breaches of civil rights as were in Itamar the other day, and he described it in a sentence or two." At Arutz-7's request for comment on the issue, police spokesman Shlomo Sagi issued the following statement: "Rocks were thrown at a jeep, and the police ran after boys who ran towards a school. The commander arrived and talked with the principal, and after a discussion it was decided that the principal would try to find the boy who threw the rocks. Rock-throwing is a crime that allows the police to enter yards, and therefore the police work was appropriate for this incident." Sagi said he had "no information regarding photographing or other complaints, and that aggrieved parties are free to complain to the Department for Complaints Against Policemen." Emanuel Winston saw more than a hundred youths severely beaten, many with multiple head wounds, as police went on a rampage. Mounted police charged peaceful demonstrators and clubbed them, too (Winston Mid East Analysis, 2/1). Law and order or fascism? |