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A RARE LOOK AT SECRETIVE BROTHERHOOD IN AMERICA
Posted by Tsila, January 31, 2006.

This article was written by Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Sam Roe and Laurie Cohen, Tribune staff reporters and was published September 19, 2004 (www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi- 0409190261sep19,1,3910166.story?page=7&coll=chi-newsspecials-hed).

Tribune foreign correspondent Evan Osnos, staff reporter Stephen Franklin and Hossam el-Hamalawy contributed to this report.

[Editor's note: The Yusif Qaradawi discussed below is the same Yusif Qaradawi who founded Islam Online.net, which said about the furious reaction of Muslims to some Danish cartoons of Mohammad -- to view them click here. -- that "... while it is unreasonable to expect Europeans to overlook the cultural experiences of several centuries, it is equally unreasonable to expect one billion Muslims to take it for granted that free speech affords others a right to ridicule their religion, while staunchly protecting another religion from the same treatment." I wonder if the Muslim trashing of Joseph's tomb and their eradicating Jewish archeological finds from the Temple Mount are examples of the Muslim regard for other people's religion. (Note that the quote from Islam Online comes from Jeff Morley's column on world opinions on the topic of the day --
blogs.washingtonpost.com/worldopinionroundup/2006/01/ cartoons_that_o.html.]

 

A group aiming to create Islamic states worldwide has established roots here, in large part under the guidance of Egypt-born Ahmed Elkadi

Over the last 40 years, small groups of devout Muslim men have gathered in homes in U.S. cities to pray, memorize the Koran and discuss events of the day.

But they also addressed their ultimate goal, one so controversial that it is a key reason they have operated in secrecy: to create Muslim states overseas and, they hope, someday in America as well.

These men are part of an underground U.S. chapter of the international Muslim Brotherhood, the world's most influential Islamic fundamentalist group and an organization with a violent past in the Middle East. But fearing persecution, they rarely identify themselves as Brotherhood members and have operated largely behind the scenes, unbeknown even to many Muslims.

Still, the U.S. Brotherhood has had a significant and ongoing impact on Islam in America, helping establish mosques, Islamic schools, summer youth camps and prominent Muslim organizations. It is a major factor, Islamic scholars say, in why many Muslim institutions in the nation have become more conservative in recent decades.

Leading the U.S. Brotherhood during much of this period was Ahmed Elkadi, an Egyptian-born surgeon and a former personal physician to Saudi Arabia's King Faisal. He headed the group from 1984 to 1994 but abruptly lost his leadership position. Now he is discussing his life and the U.S. Brotherhood for the first time.

His story, combined with details from documents and interviews, offers an unprecedented look at the Brotherhood in America: how the group recruited members, how it cloaked itself in secrecy and how it alienated many moderate Muslims.

Indeed, because of its hard-line beliefs, the U.S. Brotherhood has been an increasingly divisive force within Islam in America, fueling the often bitter struggle between moderate and conservative Muslims.

Many Muslims believe that the Brotherhood is a noble international movement that supports the true teachings of Islam and unwaveringly defends Muslims who have come under attack around the world, from Chechens to Palestinians to Iraqis. But others view it as an extreme organization that breeds intolerance and militancy.

"They have this idea that Muslims come first, not that humans come first," says Mustafa Saied, 32, a Floridian who left the U.S. Brotherhood in 1998.

While separation of church and state is a bedrock principle of American democracy, the international Brotherhood preaches that religion and politics cannot be separated and that governments eventually should be Islamic. The group also champions martyrdom and jihad, or holy war, as a means of self-defense and has provided the philosophical underpinnings for Muslim militants worldwide.

Many moderate Muslims in America are uncomfortable with the views preached at mosques influenced by the Brotherhood, scholars say. Those experts point to a 2001 study sponsored by four Muslim advocacy and religious groups that found that only a third of U.S. Muslims attend mosques.

In suburban Bridgeview, Ill., some moderates say they quit attending the Mosque Foundation because the leadership became too conservative and dominated by Brotherhood members.

Documents obtained by the Tribune and translated from Arabic show that the U.S. Brotherhood has been careful to obscure its beliefs from outsiders. One document tells leaders to be cautious when screening potential recruits. If the recruit asks whether the leader is a Brotherhood member, the leader should respond, "You may deduce the answer to that with your own intelligence."

Islamic state a long-term goal

Brotherhood members emphasize that they follow the laws of the nations in which they operate. They stress that they do not believe in overthrowing the U.S. government, but rather that they want as many people as possible to convert to Islam so that one day--perhaps generations from now--a majority of Americans will support a society governed by Islamic law. Muslims make up less than 3 percent of the U.S. population, but estimates of their number vary widely from 2 million to 7 million.

Federal authorities say they have scrutinized the U.S. Brotherhood for years. Agents currently are investigating whether people with ties to the group have raised and laundered money to finance terrorism abroad. No terrorism-related charges have been filed.

Former leader Elkadi, who has been questioned at length by federal authorities about the inner workings of the Brotherhood, says the group has served Muslims in the United States well. He personally helped establish an Islamic community in the Florida Panhandle, with a mosque, school and health clinic. And though he eventually lost it all--even his medical license--some Muslims still view him as a great Islamic leader.

"Islam is for everyone," he says. "It's good for America, good for Muslims too. . . . It's good knowledge, and good knowledge should be available to everyone."

Mohammed Mahdi Akef, head of the international Muslim Brotherhood, based in Egypt, lauds Elkadi and the activities of the U.S. Brotherhood.

"They have succeeded in saving the younger generations from melting into the American lifestyle without faith," he says. "They have saved their children."

Once one of America's most influential Muslims, Elkadi now spends most of his days in front of the TV in his two-bedroom condominium in Sterling, Va., across the Potomac River from Washington.

Earlier this year he was diagnosed with a neurological disorder that affects motor skills, speech and memory. He often has difficulty expressing himself and seldom speaks more than two sentences at a time. Sometimes, he says, he smiles for no reason other than to try to remain cheerful.

But on many days his memory is clear, and his statements about the major events of the U.S. Brotherhood have been confirmed by others associated with the group.

Elkadi, a 64-year-old with a closely trimmed white beard, says he is willing to speak about the Brotherhood because he believes he has nothing to hide. Both he and his wife, Iman, 60, say they have devoted much of their lives to the Brotherhood, and Elkadi says the reason for that is simple: "It's genetic."

Both of their fathers were early Brotherhood leaders in Egypt, where the group began in 1928 as an opposition movement to the British-backed Egyptian monarchy. Its founder and leader was schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna, who advocated a return to fundamental Islam as a way to reform Muslim societies and expel Western troops.

The Brotherhood slogan became "Allah is our goal; the Messenger is our model; the Koran is our constitution; jihad is our means; and martyrdom in the way of Allah is our aspiration."

When Egypt imprisoned and executed some Muslim Brothers in the 1950s, many members fled the country and helped spread the philosophy throughout the Arab world. The group's ideological voice became philosopher Sayyid Qutb, who abhorred Western values and believed the Koran justified violence to overthrow un-Islamic governments.

Over time, the Brotherhood gained notoriety for repeatedly attempting to overthrow the Egyptian and Syrian governments and for spawning violent groups, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian group Hamas.

Today the Brotherhood remains based in Egypt, where it officially is banned but is tolerated. The group has renounced violence and now largely organizes political protests, runs professional unions and operates charities, providing social services that the government does not. Brotherhood supporters hold 15 of the 445 seats in the Egyptian parliament.

And while Brotherhood activities vary from country to country, and chapters are officially independent, international leaders in Egypt say that all chapters are united in their beliefs and that the Egyptian office gives them advice.

In recent months Akef, the international Brotherhood leader, repeatedly has praised Palestinian and Iraqi suicide bombers, called for the destruction of Israel and asserted that the United States has no proof that Al Qaeda was to blame for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Iman Elkadi's father, Mahmoud Abu Saud, was particularly involved in the Brotherhood's beginnings in Egypt and remains well-known in the Arab world. An accomplished economist, he is widely regarded as a pioneer in Islamic banking, which requires that interest not be charged for loans.

He also was jailed repeatedly for his Brotherhood activities.

"My grandfather would tell me that if my dad didn't come home for dinner, he would send someone to check the jails," Iman Elkadi recalls.

The Elkadi and Abu Saud families were linked in marriage in 1963 after Ahmed Elkadi, then a 22-year-old preparing to go into the Egyptian military, ran into his future father-in-law at a mutual friend's office. When the young Elkadi learned that Abu Saud had an unmarried daughter, he inquired about her. The father, familiar with the young man's family and its devotion to the Brotherhood, invited him to their home.

Soon after, the families arranged for Ahmed and Iman to marry. The wedding was held in Cairo, in a grandparent's garden. Only relatives were invited, though others were keenly interested: Soon afterward, Egyptian intelligence officials called the couple in for questioning.

Iman Elkadi says, "They asked my husband, `Couldn't you find anybody else to marry except Mahmoud Abu Saud's daughter?'"

A mission in U.S.

The Elkadis arrived in the United States in 1967, settling in the small Louisiana city of Monroe, where Ahmed Elkadi continued his medical training at a local hospital. By then the Muslim Brotherhood already was operating in the United States, though secretly.

A U.S. chapter of the Brotherhood, documents and interviews show, was formed in the early 1960s after hundreds of young Muslims came to the U.S. to study, particularly at large Midwestern universities, such as Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. Some belonged to the Brotherhood in their homelands and wanted to spread its ideology here.

But to protect themselves and their relatives back home from possible persecution, they publicly called themselves the Cultural Society and not the Brotherhood.

Many young Muslim professionals joined, including Elkadi. One of his daughters, Mona, recalls that when she was a teen, she often fielded phone calls from women who did not know that their husbands were in the Brotherhood and wondered where they were on a given night.

She says the husbands "put the fear of God in me about keeping this a secret. I'd get lectures from some of the men about how I was going to expose them."

Not anyone could join the Brotherhood. The group had a carefully detailed strategy on how to find and evaluate potential members, according to a Brotherhood instructional booklet for recruiters.

Leaders would scout mosques, Islamic classes and Muslim organizations for those with orthodox religious beliefs consistent with Brotherhood views, the booklet says. The leaders then would invite them to join a small prayer group, or usra, Arabic for "family." The prayer groups were a defining feature of the Brotherhood and one created by al-Banna in Egypt.

But leaders initially would not reveal the purpose of the prayer groups, and recruits were asked not to tell anyone about the meetings. If recruits asked about a particular meeting to which they were not invited, they should respond, "Make it a habit not to meddle in that which does not concern you."

Leaders were told that during prayer meetings they should focus on fundamentals, including "the primary goal of the Brotherhood: setting up the rule of God upon the Earth."

After assessing the recruits' "commitment, loyalty and obedience" to Brotherhood ideals, the leaders would invite suitable candidates to join. New members, according to the booklet, would be told that they now were part of the worldwide Brotherhood and that membership "is not a personal honor but a charge to sacrifice all that one has for the sake of raising the banner of Islam."

Mustafa Saied, the Floridian who left the Brotherhood six years ago, recalls how he was recruited in 1994 while a junior at the University of Tennessee. After Saied attended numerous prayer sessions, a fellow Muslim student took him to a quiet corner of a campus cafeteria and asked him to join.

"It was a dream, because that's what you're conditioned to do--to really love the Ikhwan," Saied says, using the Arabic term for Brothers or Brotherhood.

After he joined, he learned the names of other local members.

"I was shocked," he says. "These people had really hid the fact that they were Brotherhood."

He says he found out that the U.S. Brotherhood had a plan for achieving Islamic rule in America: It would convert Americans to Islam and elect like-minded Muslims to political office.

"They're very smart. Everyone else is gullible," Saied says. "If the Brotherhood puts up somebody for an election, Muslims would vote for him not knowing he was with the Brotherhood."

Saied says he left the group after several years because he disliked its anti-American sentiments and its support for violence in the Middle East.

"With the extreme element," he says, "you never know when that ticking time bomb will go off."

By the 1970s, Elkadi had moved to Missouri and, he says, become treasurer of the U.S. Brotherhood, collecting money from members from across the country. His wife was the unofficial bookkeeper, tracking who was behind on dues.

Members were required to pay 3 percent of their income per year, with the money going to travel, books and annual conferences, the Elkadis say. The conferences were held under the Cultural Society name, usually in large hotels and always on Memorial Day weekend. They were invitation-only, with word spread through the prayer groups. Some years, up to 1,000 people attended; every other year, elections were held.

While the U.S. Brotherhood was influential from its beginning--in 1963 it helped establish the Muslim Students Association, one of the first national Islamic groups in the U.S.--Elkadi thought the group could expand its reach.

And when he was elected president in 1984, he vowed to do just that.

Executing his strategy

Elkadi had a strategy to make America more Islamic that reflected a long-standing Brotherhood belief: First you change the person, then the family, then the community, then the nation.

By 1990, U.S. Brotherhood members had made headway on that plan by helping establish many mosques and Islamic organizations. Some of those efforts were backed financially by the ultraconservative Saudi Arabian government, which shared some of the Brotherhood's fundamentalist goals.

Elkadi himself helped create several noted Islamic organizations, including the Muslim Youth of North America, which attempted to draw thousands of high school students to Islam by sponsoring soccer teams, providing scholarships and offering a line of clothing. He served as president of the North American Islamic Trust, a group that helped build and preserve mosques.

Some of those organizations eventually would distance themselves from the Brotherhood. The Islamic Society of North America, the umbrella group for the Muslim Youth of North America and the Muslim Students Association, says Brotherhood members helped form those groups but that their overall influence has been limited.

Groups that the Brotherhood helped form printed Islamic books, many of which were distributed at mosques and on college campuses. They included Sayyid Qutb's "In the Shade of the Koran" and "Milestones," which urge jihad, martyrdom and the creation of Islamic states. Scholars came to view his writings as manifestos for Islamic militants.

"These books had questionable paradigms, especially a dichotomous division between `us' and `them,'" says Umar Faruq Abdallah, a noted Islamic scholar who heads a Muslim educational group in suburban Chicago. "It was very harmful. It helped to create a countercultural attitude in our community."

Inamul Haq, professor of religion at Benedictine University in Lisle, Ill., says the U.S. Brotherhood pushed Islam in a conservative direction. "They were in a position to define American Islam. Since they were well-connected in the Middle East, they were able to bring money to build various institutions."

Without the Brotherhood, he says, "We would have seen a more American Islamic culture rather than a foreign community living in the United States."

In his own community, Elkadi practiced what he preached. After moving to Panama City, Fla., in 1979, he borrowed $2.4 million from a Luxembourg bank managed by his father-in-law, Abu Saud, the early Brotherhood leader, and built a large Islamic medical center just outside of town, real estate records show.

Called the Akbar Clinic, the two-story brick building had a surgery center, an emergency room and dental, psychiatry, nutrition and acupuncture services.

Inside the clinic, Elkadi set up a small mosque and an Islamic school. The school occupied several rooms on the second floor until the students became too loud and classes had to be moved to a trailer on clinic grounds.

In many eyes, Elkadi was a true Muslim leader.

"Everyone flocked to him whenever there was a problem," says Aly Shaaban, a Muslim leader in Panama City. "He was a father figure. He had this magnetism. You see his face and you just want to kiss his face."

A life's work in ruins

But things were beginning to unravel for Elkadi. By 1995 he had lost virtually everything he had worked for: his clinic, the school, his medical license and the presidency of the U.S. Brotherhood.

First to go was the clinic. Elkadi had fallen behind on the bills, and by 1988 creditors had won thousands of dollars in judgments against him. To prevent a sheriff's sale, the Islamic bank in Luxembourg took over the property, and eventually it was sold to a drug rehabilitation clinic.

But Elkadi faced an even more serious professional problem: Florida regulators started disciplinary action against him for performing unnecessary surgeries at a Panama City hospital and for doing major operations, including a mastectomy, at his clinic without proper precautions, such as an adequate blood supply.

Regulators determined that Elkadi had performed unneeded stomach surgery on nine patients. The Florida Board of Medicine concluded that Elkadi "exhibited a total lack of judgment" and was "not a competent physician." The board revoked his license in 1992.

At the time, Elkadi adamantly denied the allegations and accused Florida regulators of being "grossly unfair," according to filings with the state.

By the mid-1990s, his problems deepened. Not only was he forced to close his now-overcrowded and dilapidated school because of financial difficulties, he learned that Brotherhood leaders wanted him out as president.

It remains unclear why he lost his position. Current and former Brotherhood members say they do not know or that Elkadi simply was voted out of office. Elkadi and his wife say he was removed because he was not conservative enough. They say he had been pushing for women and other Islamic groups to be more involved in the Brotherhood, and some members did not like that.

"For some members, it's a very ingrown type of mentality," Iman Elkadi says. "You work only among Muslims, don't contact non-Muslims, so that your work is limited to a small circle." She says the Elkadis believed that "the message of Islam is for everybody."

Elkadi's daughter says he took this and other rejections hard. Elkadi now says he is not angry about his ouster and still loves the organization and its members. "They are good people because they follow Islam," he says.

A change of face

In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation's major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members.

Some wanted the Brotherhood to remain underground, while others thought a more public face would make the group more influential. Members from across the country drove to regional meeting sites to discuss the issue.

Former member Mustafa Saied recalls how he gathered with 40 others at a Days Inn on the Alabama-Tennessee border. Many members, he says, preferred secrecy, particularly in case U.S. authorities cracked down on Hamas supporters, including many Brotherhood members.

"They were looking at doomsday scenarios," he says.

When the leaders voted, it was decided that Brotherhood members would call themselves the Muslim American Society, or MAS, according to documents and interviews.

They agreed not to refer to themselves as the Brotherhood but to be more publicly active. They eventually created a Web site and for the first time invited the public to some conferences, which also were used to raise money. The incorporation papers would list Elkadi--just months away from his ouster--as a director.

Elkadi and Mohammed Mahdi Akef, a Brotherhood leader in Egypt and now the international head, had pushed for more openness. In fact, Akef says he helped found MAS by lobbying for the change during trips to the U.S.

"We have a religion, message, morals and principals that we want to carry to the people as God ordered us," he says. "So why should we work in secrecy?"

But U.S. members would remain guarded about their identity and beliefs.

An undated internal memo instructed MAS leaders on how to deal with inquiries about the new organization. If asked, "Are you the Muslim Brothers?" leaders should respond that they are an independent group called the Muslim American Society. "It is a self-explanatory name that does not need further explanation."

And if the topic of terrorism were raised, leaders were told to say that they were against terrorism but that jihad was among a Muslim's "divine legal rights" to be used to defend himself and his people and to spread Islam.

But MAS leaders say those documents and others obtained by the Tribune are either outdated or do not accurately reflect the views of the group's leaders.

MAS describes itself as a "charitable, religious, social, cultural and educational not-for-profit organization." It has headquarters in Alexandria, Va., and 53 chapters nationwide, including one in Bridgeview, across the street from the mosque there.

Shaker Elsayed, a top MAS official, says the organization was founded by Brotherhood members but has evolved to include Muslims from various backgrounds and ideologies.

"Ikhwan [Brotherhood] members founded MAS, but MAS went way beyond that point of conception," he says.

Now, he says, his group has no connection with the Brotherhood and disagrees with the international organization on many issues.

But he says that MAS, like the Brotherhood, believes in the teachings of Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, which are "the closest reflection of how Islam should be in this life."

"I understand that some of our members may say, `Yes, we are Ikhwan,'" Elsayed says. But, he says, MAS is not administered from Egypt. He adds, "We are not your typical Ikhwan."

MAS says it has about 10,000 members and that any Muslim can join by paying $10 a month in dues.

But to be an "active" member--the highest membership class--one must complete five years of Muslim community service and education, which includes studying writings by Brotherhood ideologues al-Banna and Qutb.

There are about 1,500 active members, including many women. Elsayed says about 45 percent of those members belong to the Brotherhood.

MAS' precise connection to the Brotherhood is a sensitive issue, says Mohamed Habib, a high-ranking Brotherhood official in Cairo.

"I don't want to say MAS is an Ikhwan entity," he says. "This causes some security inconveniences for them in a post-Sept. 11 world."

Preserving Muslim identity

Elsayed says MAS does not believe in creating an Islamic state in America but supports the establishment of Islamic governments in Muslim lands. The group's goal in the United States, he says, "is to serve and develop the Muslim community and help Muslims to be the best citizens they can be of this country." That includes preserving the Muslim identity, particularly among youths.

MAS collected $2.8 million in dues and donations in 2003--more than 10 times the amount in 1997, according to Internal Revenue Service filings.

Spending often is aimed at schools, teachers and children, the filings show. The group has conducted teacher training programs, issued curriculum guides and established youth centers. It also set up Islamic American University, largely a correspondence school with an office in suburban Detroit, to train teachers and preachers.

Until 18 months ago, the university's chairman was Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a prominent cleric in Qatar and a spiritual figure of the Brotherhood who has angered many in the West by praising suicide bombers in Israel and Iraq. The U.S. government has barred him from entering the country since late 1999. He says that action was taken after he praised Palestinian militants.

In the Chicago area, MAS has sponsored summer camps for teenagers. Shahzeen Karim, 19, says a camp in Bridgeview inspired her to resume covering her hair in the Islamic tradition.

"We were praying five times a day," Karim says. "It was like a proper Islamic environment. It brought me back to Islam."

At a summer camp last year in Wisconsin run by the Chicago chapter of MAS, teens received a 2-inch-thick packet of material that included a discussion of the Brotherhood's philosophy and detailed instructions on how to win converts.

Part of the Chicago chapter's Web site is devoted to teens. It includes reading materials that say Muslims have a duty to help form Islamic governments worldwide and should be prepared to take up arms to do so.

One passage states that "until the nations of the world have functionally Islamic governments, every individual who is careless or lazy in working for Islam is sinful." Another one says that Western secularism and materialism are evil and that Muslims should "pursue this evil force to its own lands" and "invade its Western heartland."

In suburban Rosemont, Ill., several thousand people attended MAS' annual conference in 2002 at the village's convention center. One speaker said, "We may all feel emotionally attached to the goal of an Islamic state" in America, but it would have to wait because of the modest Muslim population. "We mustn't cross hurdles we can't jump yet."

Federal authorities say they are scrutinizing the Brotherhood but acknowledge that they have been slow to understand the group.

In 2002, customs agents stopped Elkadi at Washington Dulles International Airport and questioned him for four hours. They wanted to know who was in the Brotherhood, where it gets its money and how the Elkadis invested their money. A month later, agents came to Elkadi's home with similar questions. He recalls that he answered every one.

Elkadi remains highly regarded in some Muslim circles. An article in 2000 in the MAS magazine praised him as a great Muslim in the ranks of al-Banna and Qutb.

He and his wife say they hope the Brotherhood succeeds. After all, they say, everyone in the Brotherhood agrees on the main issue.

"Everyone's goal is the same--to educate everyone about Islam and to follow the teachings of Islam with the hope of establishing an Islamic state," Iman Elkadi says. "Who knows whether it will happen or not, but we still have to strive for it."

Brotherhood has grown in influence

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt more than seven decades ago, is among the most powerful political forces in the Islamic world today.

1928: The Muslim Brotherhood is formed in Egypt by Hassan al-Banna to promote a return to fundamental Islamic beliefs and practices and to fight Western colonialism in the Islamic world.

Late 1930s: The Brotherhood starts forming affiliated chapters in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria.

1948: The Brotherhood is implicated in the assassination of Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmud Nuqrashi, who had banned the group. Al-Banna denies involvement.

1949: The Egyptian government retaliates for Nuqrashi's assassination by killing al-Banna.

1954: A Brotherhood member tries to assassinate Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and fails. Nasser executes several of the group's leaders and incarcerates thousands of its followers.

1962: The Cultural Society is created as the first Brotherhood organization in the United States. Society members help establish numerous Islamic organizations, mosques and schools.

1966: Sayyid Qutb, a Brotherhood ideologue who urged Muslims to take up arms against non-Islamic governments, is executed by Nasser's regime.

1982: In Hamah, Syria, at least 10,000 people are killed by government troops suppressing an uprising by the Brotherhood.

1993: The Muslim American Society, initially based in Illinois and now in Virginia, is created to be a more public face of the Brotherhood in the U.S.

2001: The U.S. names Brotherhood member Youssef Nada and his Swissbased investment network, allegedly established with backing from the Brotherhood, as terrorist financiers. Nada denies any terrorist links.

2002: Tens of thousands of Brotherhood supporters fill the streets of Cairo during a funeral for group leader Mustafa Mashhour on Nov. 15.

2003: U.S. authorities investigating alleged terrorism funding describe Virginia businessman Soliman Biheiri as the Brotherhood's "financial toehold" in the U.S. Biheiri denies any terrorist links.

2004: The Egyptian government rounds up dozens of Brotherhood supporters, freezes members' assets and ousts one of its backers from parliament.

Contact Tsila at tsilagroup@yahoo.com

To Go To Top

A SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS OR WHAT NEXT?
Posted by Walter Bingham, January 31, 2006.

The result of the election for the leadership in the Palestinian Authority's administered areas brought into sharp focus the defence of Israel as a priority that requires to be addressed urgently. The victory of Hamas should serve as a wake-up call for those who are currently conducting the political affairs of this country and the question arises, whether the present defence Minister Shaul Mofaz if fit to hold this important position in the face of the lies which he has repeatedly uttered recently on a number of important matters. In mid December, just two days after he said that he would not do so, Shaul Mofaz joined the Kadima Party and his resignation from Likud came just a few days after he said that politicians who switch from Party to Party:"... show a lack of stability and a lack of leadership" and after he criticised Kadima by saying:"...I don't think Kadima will show the proper determination to stand up for Israel's critical needs".

And the defence of Israel is in the hands of this man.

According to a report on Israel National News, Mofaz gave orders against actions such as buttressing towns adjacent to Gaza following the expulsion, so as not to lead to a perception that the disengagement might worsen Israeli security, which the former Chief of Staff predicted and which has indeed materialised.

And the defence of Israel is in the hands of this man.

There's more. MK's, Members of Knesset from across the political spectrum accused Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz of deceiving a Knesset agreement regarding a purported agreement between Israel and the P.A. the Palestinian Authority to run the Rafiah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, a border notorious for weapons and drug smuggling. At a session of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, no less, Chairman Yuval Steinitz accused Defence Minister Mofaz, who has deserted Likud for Kadima, of lying to the committee in regard of the purported agreement to operate the Rafiah crossing. Mofaz told the Committee, that Israel had worked out a written agreement with the Palestinian Authority on operating the terminal. That agreement, brokered by the United States was reportedly designed to protect Israel's security interests at the terminal, without actually having an Israeli presence there. Now it appears that no such agreement has been signed. "The Rafiah agreement never existed" said the Chairman. "This is the most serious case ever of deception of the Knesset" he said.

And the defence of Israel is in the hands of this man.

In any other democratic country, such a liar would have been booted out long ago from a senior ministerial post; in fact from any government position.

Anywhere else, a man of character would have resigned, but apparently not in Israel where integrity and honesty and sticking to the election promises are not in our current politicians' vocabulary.

It is high time, for a change in the electoral system to bring about a representative parliamentary democracy, where prospective parliamentary candidates stand in a constituency for election by the people of that constituency and if they don't perform according to their election promises, they are out next time. Their job in the Knesset should depend on what they do - and not whom they know.

The Knesset that was just dissolved, 'though known as the 16th, was in fact the 30th parliament since the founding of the State of Israel 60 years ago. That averages at 2 years per Parliament.

Such a transient body is only the custodian of the country's landmass and wealth - for the period of its short tenure. It is in my view therefore a criminal act to dispose of any land, against the express wishes of a large percentage of the population if not the majority, - quite apart from the Torah perspective.

I am certain, that former Prime Minister Sharon believed he was doing the best for the country; after all he was a brave soldier too. But his judgement was seriously clouded. We now know why; - and those reasons were kept from the people. A policy based on the promises of Mahmoud Abbas, the founder of Fatah, and the right hand of Arafat could only be instituted by a person whose capacity to reason clearly is affected, even if only slightly. Furthermore, the almost total submission to American pressure to serve her own purposes and not those of the sovereign State of Israel would have been resisted by anyone with pure and not corrupt intentions.

As for the acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, it seems that he has few ideas of his own and is continuing the dangerous policies of Sharon.

Yet, as I already said, any government is only a transient body for a short period of time, an acting caretaker of the affairs of our country, and therefore not entitled to dispose of tracts of our holy land. Its task is to manage it. But there are two more reasons why Ehud Olmert is acting totally undemocratically and against all principles of morality. Firstly, he became a temporary 1st Minister after and not before a General Election has been called, which does not allow him to change the country's status quo in the interim. Secondly, and more importantly, the party that he now represents has no legal right to govern, since it was not the one chosen by the people at the last General Election. It was Likud that was elected and during the latter part of Likud's term of office the party reconstituted itself at the whim of the Prime Minister to emerge in a totally different form as Kadima. It emerged after that metamorphosis - with different policies from those for which Likud was elected and it took power by what can only be described as a bloodless coup. A dirty trick; creeping in through the back door. The way I read it, as Olmert and those who changed to Kadima left Likud, then it should be Binyamin Nethanyahu the senior Likud member who should lead the interim government. But then logic, morals, a code of ethics and principled beliefs are not the hallmark of turncoats like those who change parties for the sake of gaining a better chance of a ministerial post.

The policy of appeasement, which this government under Sharon and now Olmert are pursuing is leading to disaster. To hand over more territories and force more of our kith and Kin out of their homes to make a present to the Palestinian Arabs for having perpetrated terrorism against our population, that policy will invite more of the same because, - and forgive me for repeating what has been said a hundred times before, because such action will only be interpreted as a success for terrorism.

I am old enough to remember when in 1939 the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from a meeting in Munich with the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. At the foot of the steps of his airplane he waved a piece of paper, bearing Hitler's signature and he declared proudly: 'Peace in our Time'.

When Hitler was challenged for wanting to occupy the Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia, he promised that if he is given it - he has no more territorial demands. He got it and soon afterwards took the rest of Czechoslovakia followed by the same false promises. Then he marched into Poland.

The world was prepared to sacrifice the area of the Saar adjacent to France, Austria and Czechoslovakia, thinking they gave land for peace, despite the fact that it was not their land to give.

Neither is it anybody's right today, to want Israel to trade its soil to placate the Muslim world - in the mistaken belief that if the Israeli Palestinian conflict is solved, terrorism in the world will vanish. Do they not realise, that this conflict is only an excuse not the raison d'etre for world terrorism.

The people of Israel are not prepared to be the sacrificial lamb for the glory of any World leader. We shall stand steadfastly together to prevent this disastrous plan of setting Jew against his brother and sister.

It may well be, that the government is under serious pressure from the US and certainly from the European Union, but we are a sovereign power, autonomous and well capable to withstand the foreign leaders, who each seek to outdo the other - to go down in history as having brought peace to the Middle East. Where were they when Israel faced attacking Arab nations on three occasions? Did they send us help? And the one time when they did, in 1956, the Americans - sneezed and the British and French caught a cold.

Today's actions against Israel by the European leaders are driven by their necessity to placate the Cocoo they have themselves invited into their nest. It is their desperate attempt to prevent a hostile takeover of their countries, - for it has been predicted that in less than 100 years time, Europe will be largely Muslim.

On the one hand, I fear what sort of plan Olmert is hatching next, but on the other, I believe that a man who is weak enough to reverse his sincerely held and publicly declared conviction - within a year or two under foreign pressure, can be made to change again under the pressure of his own people.

We in Israel must be vigilant and prevent a man-made erosion of our land.

Fellow Jews and our Christian friends, in the Diaspora, G-d fearing or secular, must make their voices heard and impress on this and the next Governments, that Israel can't, - won't - and never will surrender its soil to anyone.

One can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.

Walter Bingham is a veteran journalist and broadcaster from London who made aliyah and now lives in Jerusalem. His weekly radio programme, Walter's World, can be heard on Israel National Radio.com. Contact him by email at walter@IsraelNationalNews.com

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OLMERT AND LIVNI -- RUNNING FOR COVER
Posted by Avraham Weissman, January 31, 2006.

Dear Friends

The following charges (read the article below by Emanuel Winston) have been and are still being made - against Ariel Sharon and the inheritors of his policies - Ehud Olmert and the Kadima Party, its associates and allies.

I know that at least - some of what has been reported below has also been reported by Israeli intelligence and Israeli news sources, for example that tons of new improved weapons, including longer range rockets have been brought into the Gaza Strip from Egypt, placing large areas of Israel within their range.

There is also no doubt that the Hamas win throughout Palestinian Authority controlled areas is also a result of the retreat from the Gaza Strip ordered by Ariel Sharon and his associates in the LIkud Party and their allies in the Labor Party. - It is certainly a very serious (but was also a foreseeable) development.

Democracy works when people are educated to respect their fellow human beings and their rights - including those that differ with them! It doesn't work when those who go to the polls have been educated to believe in "jihad" or holy war and violence against those who differ with their religious beliefs and customs, and who believe that their religion has the innate right to force itself on all others, and that they -- and only they -- have sovereignty rights in all of the Middle East.

The US and Europe are and will continue to be the "big losers" in this latest development in so called Arab "Palestine," not just Israel. The US "make nice" policy toward the Palestinians and other jihadi Arabs has failed as "appeasement" of crime and criminal activity always does. How they empathized with the so callled "poor and suffering" Palestinian refugees, whose suffering were caused by Moslem Arabs themselves - and the Arab World in general..

US policy has too long been controlled by a policy of naive "expedience" (read "short term good" for some - at the price of "long term harm" toward freedom and free societies, ) expedience - toward Arab - Muslim "oil" power. Now there are those in the "free world" that are calling for US disengagement from Iraq and the Mid East - who are advocating the same thing "Chamberlain" advocated toward Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany in the 1930's. If they win, freedom and the free world will lose even more and the existential threat to the free world will grow! "Eternal vigilance" is only the initial "down payment" for living in freedom, the full price includes the willingness to defend it with all it takes!

I hope the leadership in the free world learns from this latest development and reacts appropriately and soon, before oil power and its ensuing pollution damage the natural environment and the free world irreparably.

This was written by Emanuel A. Winston. Emanuel A. Winston is member of the Advisory Board and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies.
 

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has appointed Tzipi Livni as Foreign Minister. Olmert has assigned her the task of issuing cover-up statistics for "Kadima" on the Gaza/Hamas blunder. Livni issued a statement to the effect that "Israel (Sharon) opened the door of peace by abandoning Gaza and the Muslim Arab Palestinians slammed it shut."

Perhaps, since Livni is not experienced in propaganda and disinformation, the pro-Arab State Department speech writers gave her a hand. After Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was incapacitated with a major stroke, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert had to scramble to make the Gush Katif/Gaza withdrawal look like a wise decision, and that it wasn't their fault or that of their new Party "Kadima" that the Palestinians' election voted an overwhelming landslide for Hamas (the most violent of the Palestinian Terrorist organizations). Hamas got 74 seats, Fatah got 45 out of 132 seats. First, Olmert played a strong role in advising Sharon to abandon Gaza.

Next, Sharon was advised repeatedly by Generals at the top of his Military and Intelligence staffs that leaving Gaza was a bad move and the Muslim Terrorists from all over the world would use the area as a staging base for attacks against Israel and the West.

It became common knowledge on the streets of Israel that Sharon needed a substantial diversion from the Attorney General's numerous charges against him and his sons for illegal financial deals. So many illegal activities were surfacing, including a major exposé of a $3 million loan uncovered by the police that Sharon and all around him grew increasingly panicked. The sensationalistic drama of the Gaza withdrawal was a necessary diversion, merely for him to stay in office in order to keep his sons out of jail.

Everything predicted by Sharon's military advisors and the different Intelligence Services has come true. Now Olmert and Livni, heirs to the Sharon cover-up and monumental blunders, needed to change the world's perception of history and their role in the blunders.

As Gaza fills up with all the Muslim Arab Terrorist organizations, there is not even the pretense by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (nom de guerre Abu Mazen) that his Fatah can maintain control. Now Hamas will achieve full control of the Arab Muslim Palestinian government and put Hamas operatives on the payroll. These operatives have been well trained and armed - for Terror, not for Government.

That may be short-lived, given that Abu Mazen has spent Fatah (his inner Terror organization) and the PA into bankruptcy. He paid out all the incoming monies from Israel (who still 'pay' the PA millions of dollars a month) America and Europe - the donor countries, to his own Police 'cum' Terrorists, lest they turn on him. As a result of Hamas winning a huge majority, the Fatah Police cum Terrorists have indeed turned against him as was seen on TV internationally when they rioted in Gaza and elsewhere after the election.

Sharon's gamble didn't pay off as the area of Gaza has now become, as predicted, a mini-Terrorist state, armed to the teeth. Mountains of arms and terrorists flowed into Gaza from where they were stocked in the Egyptian Sinai Desert within days of Sharon evicting 10,000 Jewish men, women and children. This is the legacy of Sharon to the country and to Kadima, his one man party. Now that he is incapacitated (perhaps dead but kept alive on life support systems in a 'coma'), his whole house of cards has collapsed.

Tzipi Livni, as Foreign Minister, under orders from Ehud Olmert, is now as busy as a cat trying to cover up its dropping on a tin roof. It just can't be hidden but, they are trying anyway. When Ehud Olmert, at the behest of the U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, allowed Hamas to be on the ballot, he displayed his weakness as a leader - in addition to his lack of knowledge of what was boiling over in the Palestinian communities.Being uninformed and wobbly on decision making, indicates both he and his Kadima Party are totally without substance.

As is said, all the chickens have yet to come back to roost in Gaza. What Tzipi Livni is trying to cover up is the strength of the combined forces of the Muslim Terrorists now uniting under Hamas radical leadership.

The Israeli people have yet to grasp what Sharon's "Disengagement" Plan has done to them. While Hamas has won and angered Fatah loyalists, they will soon coalesce into one mightier force. The Hamas leadership, speaking from Iran and Syria, has already proposed that the Hamas forces will be 'folded' into the Fatah forces to create one cohesive Army of Terrorists. All will operate under the umbrella of Islamic Jihad. Believe it, the sum will be greater than the sum of its parts.

The Charters of both the Fatah (PLO) and Hamas will be merged into one document of purpose. Hamas has a Charter pledged to the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel. Fatah has its Charter which was never (I repeat: NEVER) been cancelled - which also pledges the destruction of Israel. And Fatah has its own fighting force called the Al-Aq'sa Martyrs Brigades. (Note! Both of the Charters are similar and can be read over the Internet.)

The weapons, both in volume and quality, poured into Gaza in unimaginable tonnage when Sharon surrendered by retreating the soldiers and the Land made green by the 9,000 settlers. Here we find the assistance of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt who acted the enabler to supply weapons and explosive material which came from Iran and Syria and were stored in the Sinai Desert under Egypt's protection. The low-tech Kassem Rockets made in Gaza with a 5 kilometer range are being replaced with missiles of 17-27 kilometer range (11-16 miles) - which can reach most of Israel's dense population centers up to Tel Aviv.

The vacuum created by Sharon by evacuating 500-600 Jews from the four communities in the Samarian mountains, also gives the Terrorists free access to battle bases and munitions storage depots from which to attack the center and north of the country.

Even as the Hamas Palestinians pledge to destroy Israel as per the terms of their Charter, Olmert (Kadima), Amir Peretz (Labor) are promising more unilateral withdrawals from Judea and Samaria with Hebron on the immediate list and dividing Jerusalem - in effect, repeating the blunders of Oslo and Gaza. Israel will be truncated to an indefensible sliver - no longer a military asset to America - with her people put at great risk.

Meanwhile, as Tzipi Livni is trying to cover up the Gaza abandonment and Hamas election blunders, Sec. Rice is doing the same thing in Washington. Here the coverup of a naive blunder is the belief that one can introduce American-style Democracy into Muslim Theocracies of the Arab/Muslim culture. President George W. Bush with the now incapacitated Sharon, unleashed the collective power of Global Terror in Gaza. The Terrorists simply voted themselves into power. Therefore, IF they voted, it is a democracy. Right?!

In Egypt, at the insistence of Bush and Rice, the vote brought the Islamic Brotherhood, one of the oldest Islamic Terrorist Organizations one step closer to controlling Egypt and converting it into an Islamic-driven nation run by radical theocrats, holding the largest arsenal which was supplied by America with the gift of more than $60 Billion in annual aid over the years since Camp David. These American tax-payers' dollars bought those weapons, the best in America's high tech.

America even assisted in developing Egyptian factories to build some of those most powerful weapons. To wit, then Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger gave Egypt a "turn-key" factory to produce America's top Heavy Battle Tank, the M1A1 Abrams. America supplied the parts, the money and the technicians to put them together. Try to imagine how much that money would do for America in jobs and money resources IF it was spent in American manufacturing.

Who can forget the peanut farmer Jimmy Carter who with delusions of democracy dancing in his head, brought the Ayatollah Khomeini out of his exile in France back to Iran, toppling the Shah of Iran and losing the tons of weapons America had supplied to the Shah in his good days?

Let us not forget Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres who brought Yassir Arafat and his Terrorists back from Tunisia, where they lived in ignominy, where they had been driven during the 1982 War in Lebanon - forgotten until Rabin, Peres and President Clinton resurrected Arafat, the Master Islamic Terrorist of our times.

In all three cases, stupidity doesn't even begin to describe the results of not understanding the sub-culture of the Islam and Arabic civilization. No question that there will soon be a very massive war aimed at the Judeo-Christian civilization in the Free West. The only question is: Will the fighting start along the outer edges of Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley or will it be as Olmert and Peres have predetermined it, fighting with our backs to the Sea, shooting from the windows of the Shalom and Arieli Towers in Tel Aviv?

It is a bad time for Israel to have naive Leftist leaders whose first methods of defense is retreat. Where are the strong leaders who make Israel's strength into our best deterrent?

Contact Avraham Weissman at avna@bezeqint.net.

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HAMAS VICTORY IS GOOD NEWS
Posted by Deb Kotz, January 31, 2006.

I like Jacoby's column very much, but I'm still a pessimist at heart when it comes to the Mideast peace process. I'm afraid the world will accept Hamas after the shock of the election wears off, under the delusion that there's no other option. I say this because we all thought that the world would finally wake up when Arafat walked away from Barak's offer of more than 90% of the land. Instead, the world continued to blame Israel for the Palestinian plight and found justification for the PA terrorist war that followed. I hope, I hope, I hope to be proven wrong. I hope the world FINALLY sees the Palestinians for who they are: hell bent on the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people and completely unfit, at this point in time, to establish a democratic nation. I'd like to go back to being an optimist. Pessimism isn't in my nature.

Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for the Boston Globe. Contact him at jacoby@globe.com This article appeared January 29, 2006 at www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/ 2006/01/08/bringing_faith_into_contempt/

WESTERN reactions to the outcome of the Palestinian election last week came in two varieties: highly negative and decidedly undecided.

In the first category was Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who moaned that the Hamas defeat of Fatah was a "very, very, very bad result." In New York, the Anti-Defamation League pronounced the results "a tremendous setback."

Others insisted that the significance of the election couldn't be known until Hamas decides whether or not to abandon its foremost objective: the liquidation of Israel. In the words of FBI Director Robert Mueller, "Hamas has a choice to make." It was a line echoed everywhere, from the British Foreign Office to the New York Times editorial page.

Well, put me in a third camp: I think the sweeping Hamas victory is by far the best result that could have been hoped for.

I say that not because Hamas is anything other than a blood-drenched terrorist group, but because its lopsided win is an unambiguous reality check into the nature of Palestinian society. And if there is one thing that the West badly needs, it is more realism and less delusion about the Palestinians.

Some of that delusion was on display at the White House on Thursday, when President Bush painted the Palestinian election as a "healthy" exercise in civic reform:

"Obviously, people were not happy with the status quo," Bush explained. "The people are demanding honest government. The people want services. They want to be able to raise their children in an environment in which they can get a decent education and they can find healthcare. And so the elections should open the eyes of the old guard there in the Palestinian territories. ... There's something healthy about a system that does that."

Spare us, Mr. President. If a slate of neo-Nazi skinheads swept to power in a European election, would you say that the voters were seeking "honest government" and "services"? Palestinians are not stupid, and it insults their intelligence to pretend that when they vote to empower a genocidal organization with a platform straight out of "Mein Kampf," what they're really after is better healthcare. Islamist extremism isn't needed to fix Palestinian hospitals any more than fascism was needed to make Italian trains run on time in the 1920s. If Palestinians turned out en masse to elect a party that unapologetically stands for hatred and mass murder, it's a safe bet that hatred and mass murder had something to do with the turnout.

By the same token, Hamas's new duties are not going to turn it into a moderate group of diligent civil servants. When violent Islamists win political power, their brutality and zealotry do not diminish. (See Khomeini, Ayatollah and Taliban, Afghan). The notion that Hamas now has "a choice to make" is just another example of the delusional thinking that is so pervasive when it comes to the Palestinian Authority.

In his remarks on Thursday, Bush went on to say that he didn't "see how you can be a partner in peace if you advocate the destruction of a country as part of your platform" or "if your party has got an armed wing" and that Hamas is therefore "a party with which we will not deal." If that means that the Bush administration will shun the new Hamas government as it once shunned Yasser Arafat, well and good. But why was Mahmoud Abbas treated any differently? Like Hamas, Fatah -- the PLO faction Abbas and Arafat co-founded 45 years ago -- advocates Israel's destruction in its basic charter. Like Hamas, Fatah has an "armed wing" -- the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -- that is guilty of horrific terror attacks. Fatah's emblem shows crossed rifles against a map of "Palestine" that depicts all of Israel; on the Hamas emblem, the map is the same, but the crossed weapons are swords. The only important difference between the ousted Fatah party and the incoming Hamas leadership is that for PR purposes the former sometimes pretended to accept Israel's right to exist, while the latter is openly and unabashedly committed to Israel's elimination.

Yet that is why the Hamas landslide is good news. It will now be much harder to wish away the unpleasant fact that after a dozen years of PLO misrule, Palestinian society is deeply dysfunctional, steeped in hatred and violence. All but the willfully blind can now see that the Palestinian Authority is no "partner in peace." Until it is decisively defeated and thoroughly detoxified, the Palestinian people will never enjoy the blessings of liberty and decent governance. Ironically, the ascendancy of Hamas may have brought that day a little closer.

Deb Kotz is an active member of the Brandeis Chapter of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and maintains an email list to distribute articles of interest to the local community. She can be reached at DebKotz@aol.com

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HEBRON, POLLARD AND JEWISH ANTI-SEMITISM
Posted by Women in Green, January 31, 2006.

This was written by Moshe Feiglin.

Jews have a peculiar habit of attempting to escape their Divine mission. The Jew tries to imitate the non-Jews, to blur his identity and to flee the entire burden of being Jewish. But then anti-Semitism comes and brings the mirror close up to his face. No costume will help. You are a Jew. This creates a strange chain reaction. Non-Jews hate Israel because it is the state of the Jews. Israel refuses to recognize the fact that it did not mange to escape its Judaism. Instead of negating anti-Semitism, it simply joins in the fray in a futile attempt to deflect the hatred down the line to the religious Jews and the settlers.

Last week in Israel we witnessed two blatant anti-Semitism issues that were entirely homegrown. In a virulent attack on Hebron's Jewish community, Israel's politicians and media unleashed the anti-Semitic specter against the firmly Jewish community reclaiming its heritage and property rights in the second-holiest city to Judaism. Tens of thousands of illegally built Arab homes do not threaten the "rule of law" in Israel. But when Jews with sidelocks and beards return to Jewish property in Hebron that was robbed from them after Arabs murdered the Jews there in 1929, it "threatens the very foundations of the State". Anti-Semitism has been a potent political weapon for centuries. If you want to prove that you are a strong leader, batter the Jews. Olmert learned this lesson well. Zero tolerance for the settlers! We'll teach them who is boss here! Batter the Jews and transform yourself into the beloved father figure, just like Sharon. Jumping on the anti-Semitic bandwagon, Police Chief Karadi prepared the public for the eventuality that the police will shoot at the settlers. The anti-Semitic winds are blowing harder in Israel than anywhere else in the world.

A Prisoner of Zion in America?

Jonathon Pollard has been in a cruel American prison for 21 years. Israel recruited him to spy in the US and to access vital information that our "great friend" chose to withhold from us. Among other things, this information pertained to plans to destroy Israel. It is possible that Pollard saved us all from evaporating in an Iraqi atomic mushroom cloud.

The US was hostile enough to Israel to warrant Israel's activating a spy there to retrieve information vital to its survival. But the US is not hostile enough for the Israeli Supreme Court to recognize that after 21 years in prison, Jonathon Pollard is a Prisoner of Zion. Pollard made a naive decision. He sacrificed his liberty for his brothers in Israel in a country that just happens to be the ultimate Israeli dream. If we recognize the fact that Pollard is a Prisoner of Zion, we will be accusing America of being an enemy of sorts. We can do that with the USSR without getting confused. But if we even hint that America is adversarial toward Israel, what will we be left with? If America is our enemy, then who are we? Jews?

So, the anti-Semitic reasoning goes, let Pollard rot another 20 years in prison and leave us alone...

In Moshe Feilgin's new book, "The War of Dreams," he writes:

"Two people fled from the FBI to the security of the Israeli embassy. One of them was an Israeli -- Brigadier General Aviem Selah, a high-ranking officer in the Israeli Air Force and Pollard's handler. The second was a Jew -- Jonathon Pollard. The Americans demanded that both be turned over to them. Israel extricated the Israeli despite heavy American pressure. But it threw the Jew outside the embassy gates. That is the whole story. Pollard is in jail because he is a Jew."

Israel prefers that Pollard remain in jail because he holds us before an impossible mirror image. When push came to shove, a Jew saved Israel from the Americans. Only an Israeli can understand the destructive significance of this fact to the universal Western consciousness that the Israelis attempt to create for themselves.

The last thing that the anti-Jewish Jews need is for Pollard to get to Israel and to start to talk. He must be swept under the rug -- deep inside the walls of the North Carolina penitentiary.

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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DRY UP THE FUNDING
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 31, 2006.

There is no one or cadre of nations that formally declares war on the civilized world through state sponsored acts of sadistic terrorism, yet several Islamic fundamentalist regimes such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Sudan substantially finance fanatics worldwide who perform such acts. Hence, such underwriters of homicidal/suicidal behavior that now imperil the health and safety of planetary populations must forthwith be put out of business despite the industrial world's obsessive desire to avail itself of the vicious viscous black gold reservoirs they possess. A Faustian covenant written in blood that allows these despotic criminals to prevail as long as their spindly talons loosen about fossil fuel faucets, continuously satisfying the energy needs of Earthly addicts, must be declared null and void. Organized armies of extorted aggrieved nations including but not limited to the U.S., Israel, Britain, and Spain, whose citizens having born the consequences of heinous barbaric homicidal acts, are ever justified in invading and confiscating the properties above and below ground of criminal governments as just compensation for such suffering. Furthermore, all monetary assets of such crime-controlled entities located outside their boundaries should be frozen without delay.

Abetting criminally extreme acts including crimes against humanity can no longer be tolerated. Severing the primary sources of funding ever needed by perpetrators of destruction will no doubt impact heavily on their ability to function. Hand wringing pundits who for one denounce Israel yet unceasingly have slathered praise over poor bereaved presumably occupied Palestinian waifs will angrily oppose such a logical initiative. Of course ivory tower observers, impaired by skewed thinking, have not likely born proximate witness to deranged mesmerized Muslim militants shrouded in explosives. Such neophytes to the real world deserve no serious response, not comprehending the potential devastation wrought by but one crazed blown-to-bits-cadaver-in-progress strapped to a nuke. Dry up the monetary life-blood of these creeps now before metaphorical and actual human life-blood flows more copiously then all the black poison gurgling beneath the swollen buttocks of robed grim reapers raping the planet of its dignity and sanity.

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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ARAB "OUTREACH"STUDIES GUIDE OMITS ISRAEL HISTORY
Posted by Avodah 15, January 31, 2006.

This was written by Ted Siefer and appeared in The Jewish Advocate (http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/this_weeks_issue/news/?content_id=812) January 30, 2006.

A Harvard-affiliated center in Cambridge that provides seminars on the Middle East to Massachusetts public school teachers and students recommends materials that promote a stridently anti-Israel point of view, an Advocate investigation revealed this week

Among the materials used by Harvard's Middle East Studies Outreach Center is the Arab World Studies Notebook, a 500-page binder of curriculum materials produced by the Middle East Policy Council and Arab World and Islamic Resources. MEPC receives direct funding from the government of Saudi Arabia, and AWAIR receives funding from Aramco, the Saudi state oil company.

Critics of the notebook, including the American Jewish Committee, charge that it is riddled with inaccuracies and falsehoods. The notebook "appears largely designed to advance the anti-Israel and propagandistic view of the Notebook's sponsors," AJC said in a statement last year.

Some of the problematic passages in the book cited by the notebook's critics include:

  • In a chapter on American policy in the Middle East, one of the book's contributors writes: "The questions of Jewish lobbying and its impact on Truman's decision with regard to American recognition [of Israel in 1948] -- and indeed the whole question of defining American interests and concerns -- is well worth exploring."

  • In a chapter called "The Question of Palestine," the book asserts that before the start of the 1948 war, "armed Jewish groups had driven much of the Palestinian population from their homes, thus capturing most of the Palestinians' land through acts of sheer terror and intimidation."

  • In the section on Arab culture, one chapter is devoted to Jerusalem, described as an "Arab city" surrounded by high rises "built for Israeli settlers to strengthen Israeli control over the holy city."

  • Israel is missing from a map of the Middle East; a map of Palestine encompasses the pre-1948 boundaries.

Harvard's outreach center has used the notebook in department of education-sponsored teacher training institutes. The center is one of 18 Middle East centers around the country that receive federal funding under title VI of the 1958 Higher Education Act; each center receives about $500,000 a year, according to a report by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2005.

The department of education stopped contracting with the Harvard center after 2002; however, the center still recommends the notebook as a resource for teachers and it is used in seminars it conducts in Massachusetts schools.

Center director Barbara Petzen told the Advocate that the notebook is one of a "multitude" of sources it uses in teaching about the Middle East, and that it is not used in teaching about the Arab-Israeli conflict.

But, Petzen stressed, almost any material on the Arab-Israeli conflict is bound to anger one side or the other. "As with any conflict in history, as historians our job is to look at multiple perspectives. I'm not an activist; I'm trying to understand the place we are at and how we got there," she said.

Sandra Stotsky, a former commissioner with the Massachusetts department of education, wrote about the notebook and teacher training institutes put on by faculty from the Harvard center in a 2003 report titled "Stealth Curriculum: Manipulating America's History Teachers."

For her, the lack of scholarly rigor in the notebook goes beyond a "slanted" version of the Arab-Israeli conflict. "This is not just a Jewish issue," Stotsky said. "It's a Christian and an American issue," she said, stressing that the notebook's editor, Audrey Shabbas, has also been taken to task by members of the Algonquin Indian tribe over a passage from the materials that claims Arabs had arrived in North America before Europeans and intermarried with members of the tribe.

Shabbas, whom the Harvard center's Web site describes as a "respected educator," taught a teacher-education course on Islamic art at the center last year.

Stotsky said that it's not hard to understand the allure of the notebook, which only costs $15 when schools also participate in a free workshop, funded by the MEPC. On its Web site, the council claims to have given workshops in 175 cities in 43 states.

"Teachers figure, 'We've got to have professional development, this is a free workshop, so let's bring in Audrey Shabbas and the Arab Studies Notebook. There's no problem with it because it's clearly been vetted by Islamic scholars,'" Stotsky said.

Another local organization that specializes in providing curricular materials and training to history and social studies teachers is Primary Source, a Watertown-based nonprofit that has put on workshops in more than 30 school districts around the state.

Primary Source's Middle East studies program is closely linked to the Harvard center. It lists Barbara Petzen as a faculty member, and this fall the two organizations put on a series of adult education seminars together, including one titled "Palestine."

The Arab Studies notebook is one of the resources available in the center's library of resources.

Primary Source's Middle East studies program coordinator did not return calls for comment.

Contact the poster at avodah15@aol.com

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TU BSHVAT IS COMING. PLANT A FRUIT TREE IN ISRAEL
Posted by Manhigut Yehudit, January 31, 2006.

Show your love for Israel on Tu B'Shvat (February 13th) by planting a fruit tree!

From the comfort of your computer, join with thousands of Israelis as they plant fruit trees on this traditional day.

Zo Artzeinu --"This is our Land" -- is once again spearheading its annual drive to plant fruit trees all across YESHA (Judea and Samaria) -- 7,000 fruit trees already planted!

Order by clicking here.

Connect to the Land

Provide a livelihood for the Jewish families who work the fields

Perform a mitzvah; "When you enter the Land, you shall plant all types of food trees" (Leviticus 19:23)

Personalized, full color certificate mailed to all participants!

Click here to plant. It's that simple.

We can run a program for your school or organization! Many Yeshivot already participate. Call (516) 295-3222

Click here to watch a short video clip on tree planting in the Holy Land of Israel.

Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) is a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. Moshe Feiglin, its cofounder, has emphatically said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. The Manhigut Yehudit website address is http://www.manhigut.org.

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PA FISCAL CRISIS DUE TO TERRORISM AND ARAFAT
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 31, 2006.

Here is a letter that I sent to a bunch of newspapers. The one below to the Wall Street Journal compliements the author for noting in the article that the crisis is due to PA mishandling. So I can add the issues of terrorism and Arafat's graft.

The same letter can be sent to newspapers that do not put this bit of info (PA has only itself to blame), but then you need an opening like " XXX's article omits a very important fact from the treatment of this issue:...."

I encourage all of you to write to your local and national newspapers. they should get thousands of letters on this issue, especially if their article did NOT mention the graft and corruption and arafat's greed and the terrorism.

david ml To the Editors, (238 words)

Special thanks to Karby Leggett for "Hamas faces Crisis if Funding dries up" (WSJ, 1/31/06).

The Palestinian people are in desperate need of foreign aid. BUT?

The Palestinian Authority (PA) payroll is bloated, with 170,000 employees: an average of one government worker to every 18 Palestinians!

The PA gave raises of up to 40% to its employees last year, prompted in part by armed terrorist employees shooting up government offices to punctuate their demands!

The finance minister notes that there will be a very serious crisis if wages are not paid. Certainly! Because the terrorist employees will then shoot up more offices, and maybe shoot some officials.

Most damning, from 1994 to 2004 Arab countries poured over $5,000,000,000 into the PA. The EU gave half of its total foreign aid to the PA every year. The USA gave c. $400,000,000 per year, but gave over $900,000,000 in 2005. Over the past decade, about 20% (c. $3,000,000,000!) went to Arafat's private accounts. Most of the rest went to fund his terror war against Israel. Almost none reached the Palestinian people.

The PA's fiscal crisis is entirely of its own making.

Last year Secretary Rice used the metaphor of the USA "birthing" the Palestinian State. Now we, its parents, don't like its behavior. What does the responsible parent do when the wastrel child behaves badly, squanders his allowance, and then comes whining for more?

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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PARODY TRUE TO LIFE
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 31, 2006.

First we had eulogies for Sharon, for committing treason, which they called adherence to the Road Map for peace. Now the NY Times feeds its readers a ridiculous slant on the Hamas victory. I was about to speculate that it would not be long before the same people who got thousands of Jews wounded in the name of a phony peace process with Fatah, would find an excuse for doing the same with Hamas. Lo and behold, that same day, January 27, an Op-Ed essay proposed just that. Too bad! The Hamas victory would have been a blessing, if it were deemed unacceptable. Alas, the West will deal with the devil!

Let us start with the 1/27 editorial. It called the Hamas victory a "step backward." As usual, it partly faulted Israel. It blamed Israeli "hardliners" for not having strengthened Abbas' political party by making concessions. How unfair, false, and misleading!

First, it calls "hardliners" Israelis who retain some safety measures against the terrorism that Abbas supported.

Second, Israel did make concessions, though often under US pressure. It did: (1) Shut down many checkpoints; (2) Withhold most retaliation and certainly did not methodically dismantle P.A. terrorism; (3) Continue paying funds into P.A. coffers; and (4) Allow thousands of P.A. residents to work in Israel. Thus the claim is false. Problem with the Times is that it is so biased against Israel, that in its eyes, Israel can never do enough for the Arabs and the Arabs never have to do anything for Israel. The Times is filled with excuses for the criminal Arabs and with recrimination for the excusable Israelis.

The result of Israelis' restraint has been their murder by Arabs. It therefore is unfair and callous of the Times to expect one-sided Israeli concessions to Arabs who have broken all their peace agreements. The Times' continued faith in the redemption of those genocidal Arabs isn't so much unintelligent as part of its record of anti-Zionist bias.

How misleading to claim the election is a step backwards, a blow to the "peace process." There is no peace process. There is a process of continual Israeli concessions to the Arabs, engaged in jihad against the Jews. Fatah is about as evil that way as Hamas.

The Op-Ed, one of whose authors is from Harvard, rationalizes that Hamas fielded professionals as candidates and is "disciplined, pragmatic and surprisingly flexible." Although its charter and campaign demand the destruction of Israel, its campaign manifesto did not. It does not reject "useful" negotiations with Israel. Besides, this is the will of P.A. voters, democratic. Therefore, the West should deal with a Hamas government. Cutting off aid to it might bankrupt it, "further destabilizing the region."

Qualities of political skill are not positive in a genocidal Party. Sure Hamas might negotiate, if it thought it could gain eventual domination. Islamists destabilize, so bankrupting them would help stabilize the region. Diminishing the Arab presence and increasing the Israeli presence in the Territories would reduce the force of jihad. That would be the Western goal, if the West could cease its appeasement and antisemitism.

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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TIFERET, ASAF, AND YISRAEL HY"D
Posted by Shifra Shomron, January 31, 2006.

The names "Tiferet, Asaf, Yisrael HY"D" jump boldly out of a large sign fastened to a prefab shul here in the Nitzan Caravilla site. The thick white letters stare down at me from the depths of their engravement.

I didn't even have to think twice. After all, Tiferet Tretner, Asaf Tzafira and Yisrael Lutati are not only engraved in a cold metal sign high up on a prefab shul in temporary Nitzan; they are also engraved deeply in our beating hearts. How can I forget those three vibrant youths severed from our midst so cruelly?

Tiferet was killed by a mortar that smashed through the roof of the house; its sharp shrapnel pieces piercing her soft flesh. It was on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holy day when G-d puts the seal on our verdicts, and our government had once again committed the unforgivable sin of standing idly by their brothers' blood.

Asaf was shot to death by the Arab workers near the hothouses of Rafiah Yam. In the midst of all the vegetation, a budding Jewish sapling was hewn down.

Yisrael was a soldier, "killed in the line of duty". What a blank description that is of a handsome young man shot while protecting a Jewish community from enemy infiltration!

We, the Gush Katif family, honored our fallen -- our heroes! Our youth built a wooden shul in their names. And they planted beautiful flowers around it. And they made a path that led from Neve Dekalim to the 'Tiferet Yisrael' shul.

And these wonderful Gush Katif youths found themselves, for the first time in their young lives, confronting Jewish soldiers. Staying up all night -- so that the army wouldn't destroy this 'illegal outpost'. It was a rude awakening for the Gush Katif youth who had spent the winter baking cakes and serving soup to the soldiers. Yes, a rude awakening. And also a taste of what they would have to digest in the summer.

Did we digest it? It was forced down our throats.

And once again a shul carries the names of Tiferet, Asaf and Yisrael.

Tiferet means glory.
Asaf means gathered.
Yisrael means the Jewish nation.

May Hashem return the glory that has been gathered from the Jewish nation.
And may their blood be avenged.

Shifra Shomron is a young writer who was among the Jews expelled from Gaza. She now lives with her familly in temporary quarters.

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EU BOLSTERS SYRIA; HAARETZ EXPOSED; SAUDIS TOWARDS EUROPEANS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 31, 2006.

EXPULSIONS CONTINUE

S. Arabia and the P.A. are subsidizing a rash of illegal Arab building. They hope to influence the Israeli Supreme Court to move the security fence so as to allot more land to the Arabs, lest the fence inconvenience them. (This would reward Arab illegality.)

Meanwhile, the government of Israel is demolishing what it calls "illegal" outposts by Jews. The outposts are houses on land bought by Jews before the State was established. They lie in what supposedly is one of the major settlement blocs that Sharon claimed he would preserve by virtue of abandoning other areas.

Israeli Police and troops are treating non-violent Israeli opponents with their usual brutality against Jews (Arutz-7, 1/11). Israel has a statist notion of illegality that serves partisan purposes and not Jewish ethics.

Sharon's Cabinet now is whittling away at the areas he only pretended to be preserving by sacrificing other areas. Israelis never should have believed him, but Israeli politicians and US Presidents find them gullible.

E.U. POLICY TOWARD SYRIA

Syria main trading partner is the E.U., which subsidizes it. The E.U. has not declared Hizbullah a terrorist organization (Sen. Bill Frist, NY Sun, 1/26, Op. Ed.).

Most of my friends are critical of Pres. Bush, and urge him to coordinate his policy with W. Europe. W. Europe does not understand the Islamist menace. Unfortunately, Bush seems to be altering his policy to match Europe's.

ELECTION OBSERVERS

The EU sent hundreds of election observers to the P.A.. It declared its continued support for the P.A., because Abbas pledged peace (IMRA, 1/21).

What is the point of assuring that the P.A. did not interfere in its election? Whoever won, the result is intolerance and war. How dangerous is the EU's pretense that because Abbas, who lauds terrorism, pledged peace, he isn't making war! Bet it wished he defrauded the election.

AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE ON EVANGELISTS

"Rabbi David Rosen, Israeli-based director of the American Jewish Committee's Inter-religious Affairs Department (and a founder of Rabbis for Human Rights) told Israel Radio that the Christian Evangelists were bad basically because they oppose Israeli withdrawals." (IMRA, 1/11). "Inter-religious?" He condemns a powerful pro-Israeli sect over a political difference.

WHAT KIND OF A NEWSPAPER IS HAARETZ?

"Israel's leftist daily Haaretz is in fact not a newspaper at all, but rather a propaganda advocacy sheet. It is the main Palestinian (pro-Arab) newspaper published in Hebrew. Its editorial positions resemble those of Israel's communist party in all matters except economics. (A bit strangely and inconsistently, it tends to be pro-market.) It reprints anti-Israel articles from all over the globe. It seeks out ways to bash Israel and delegitimize it. It has a 6% market share in Israel."

"Haaretz's anti-Israel pieces are picked up all over the world, and international media like to proclaim it the 'Israeli New York Times'. Given the bias against Israel in both newspapers, there is something to the comparison but not what the people making the comparison have in mind."

"The very worst Haaretz writers are Amira Hass, Gideon Levy, and Akiva Eldar, who have yet to hear about a mass murder of Jews about which they wish to express disapproval. The first two are openly on record favoring the dismantlement of Israel altogether as a Jewish state. Hass has been convicted in court of fabricating false libels against Israeli settlers. Hass, who does not speak Arabic, lives in Ramallah and is in the eyes of herself an expert on Palestinians and what they think, although (she) has never heard a single Palestinian cheer suicide bombings."

"All three of these write anti-Israel columns for the pro-terror leftwing neo-Nazi web magazine Counterpunch."

"Once every two weeks Haaretz allows a token non-leftist point of view to be expressed in the paper, roughly at the rate of one non-leftist article for every 150 anti-Israel leftist pieces. This is the Haaretz notion of pluralism." (essay by Prof. Stephen Plaut, 1/12).

THE CLUE TO BUSH'S POLICY TOWARDS ISRAEL

The main formulator of US policy towards Israel, and a key advisor to Pres. Bush, is the pro-Arab Under-Secretary Nicholas Burns. Sec. Burns thinks that all the problems of the Mideast derive from the Arab-Israel conflict. He is responsible for the US adoption of the EU policy of dialogue with Iran instead of striving for regime-change there and in Syria, of waiving sanctions against Muslim countries for human rights violations, of currying favor with the Arabs by pressuring Israel (Winston Mid East Analysis, 1/12).

The Arabist State Dept. almost always prevails, to the detriment of the US. It is turning Bush into a Kerry. It must be cleaned out.

SAUDIS TOWARD EUROPEANS

Saudi TV frequently features Islamic law professor Sheikh Abd Al-Aziz Fawzan Al-Fawzan. He advised Muslims they are obliged to hate Christians (IMRA, 1/11).

Contrast the Islamic way with this story from Brooklyn. A very poor Irish family lived near some Hasidim. The Catholic woman used to assist them on the Sabbath. One Christmas was particularly bleak for the Irish family, having no means to celebrate. The Hasidic family came over with gifts, so that the Christian neighbors could celebrate their most important religious holiday.

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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NEVER MISS THAT OPPORTUNITY....TO MISS THE OPPORTUNITY
Posted by Arlene Peck, January 31, 2006.

I recall an old song that goes "What Can I say, after I say I'm sorry".

Well, folks, I have been humming that tune a lot of late but it keeps coming out, "except I told you so!" For more years than I care to remember, I have been writing endless columns about the 'Big Lie' and the fact that what is trumpeted loudly, in every quarter, as 'the plight of the Poor Palestinians' was, in fact, a travesty caused by their own Arab brothers. I seem to recall I have also said once or twice that Israel is the prime candidate to take the fall.

Frankly, I am neither unhappy nor even surprised at the state of affairs we have arrived at with the Hamas election victory. It's also no surprise to see these dysfunctional, macho savages, parading around Gaza, firing their guns aimlessly and pointlessly into the air, or at anyone unfortunate enough to cross their paths. Who can be surprised, seeing them begin the entirely predictable pattern of destroying themselves from within? The old adage concerning them, "The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity", could not be more true. You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear!

For years, I have been told that Palestinians are an educated people. Pardon me if I remain unconvinced. Intelligent and articulate people of good will do not rampage through the streets, rioting and shouting, "Jihad, Jihad!", and "Death to Jews".

I have been to Gaza a few times. If it were in the hands of anyone with a little sense, or an IQ higher than an eggplant, something could be made of it; something resembling an economic lifeline, like the most beautiful of resorts, for just one example. The sea and beachfront areas are superb. Except, even then, all the Palestinians excelled at was throwing stones at passing cars, burning tires and, oh yes, smoking that laughing water out of funny looking vases.

But, when given the opportunity to demonstrate their sense of civic duty and pride, what do they do? How do they go about rectifying all those years of corruption Arafat and company blessed them with? Why, they vote in a known and violent terrorist organization, a group of people who, from their inception, embraced hatred, death and destruction as their only way of life. Their nursery schools and kindergartens, even their version of Sesame Street, carefully teaches their children, systematically, how to embrace death, so that, when they are old enough to grow up and murder innocent Jews, they can become martyrs. Having looked into Palestinian "schooling", I know this is the highest aspiration a child of this misfit and evil culture can aspire to. Their parents "harvest" children so that they can grow up and blow up. Now that some of them have grown up and come into political power, what happens now? Let's not beat about the bush! The future of Palestine has been laid out in its past. There is no hope coming from that quarter!

For years, I have been making the point, wherever I can, that our government and the general population, just don't "get it". President Bush expounds endlessly about how these people just need "the vote". Democracy will bring out their true nature and there will be a miracle. Yeah, right! Well, they got it! - And now that the Palestinian Terrorist Party has won the elections, are they happy campers?

I wonder if the Hollywood crowd which surrounds me, with their secular, leftist and very politically correct lifestyles, where a 'hug' and a crusade in the name of 'social justice' fixes every ill, are actually watching the debacle unfolding nightly on our televisions? Would it ever occur to them that this wanton, wholesale destruction was inevitable? And, this time, they can't even blame Israel. Hell, most of them couldn't even find Israel on the map.

The level of some people's incomprehension - or is it duplicity?- is breathtaking, condoning and accepting the utterly evil premise of organisations like Hamas, something that even the worst anti-Semites in our State Dept and the United Nations have difficulty doing. Hamas is an international terrorist organization, a militant offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which in itself is another terrorist organization that calls for the total destruction of the State of Israel.

There, that's simple, isn't it? It gets even easier when descriptions of Hamas, like this, are common currency: "Hamas militantly opposes all peace proposals that include a two-state solution and escalates its terrorist activities when peace negotiations make headway. Hamas denies the right of any Arab country or even of all the world's Kings and presidents to give up even a part of Palestine." So much for the planned hug-in the United States, the European Union and the United Nations have been attempting to foist onto the Jewish state, these past few years! Ah, no thanks guys, democratically speaking, we'll pass, thanks all the same!

Hamas is not a newly emergent 'solution'. It is not a democratic party. It has simply usurped the democratic process for its own ends. They have been feverishly working, the past decade or so, towards TWO goals only, the total Islamization of Palestinian society and the total destruction of Israel. This is not a political party that has come into power, nor are they interested in political solutions. Neither do they harbour intentions compatible with any westernised understanding of democratic process. In short, using the word democracy in association with Hamas is a joke! Palestine, under Hamas, is a religious "nation", which lives for and by hatred, mass casualty suicide bomb attacks, and the murder of as many Israelis as they can manage. They have no other agenda. No Economic Policy was promoted pre-election. The entire 'dialogue', if you can call it that, was about power. That is all that interests Hamas.

Their philosophy will make Iran look like a pussycat, when they implement their changes. The Sharia law, which is going to be enforced, will prohibit normal male/female interaction; music is going to be banned. G-d help you if you are homosexual, as they especially like to behead them. I cannot yet shake the memory of 'honour killings' brothers or fathers perpetrated on daughters they suspect of dishonouring them. This is about to become the norm, under Hamas, even the law of the land.

They have managed to murder or chase out most of the Christian minority, but those who are still left may find themselves paying the dhimmi tax, yet another benefit for "unbelievers" in Islam. What right will we have to criticize them over these coming human rights abuses, when we endorse the authority that will bring all this about? None. In addition, that will be another "I told you so", far too late. 'Missing The Opportunity ' might not be confined solely to Palestinians, after all.

Yet, despite all of this, despite the fact they have proudly declared themselves the enemies of Jews, of America and of civilized values, the Palestinians have declared with their 'votes' that they want no peace. Aid? That's another story.

Jimmy Carter, who was the worst governor of my home state of Georgia before he inflicted himself upon the world stage, obviously believes that they are going to need our help. Lovely. This is a group of people who have wasted billions and billions of American taxpayers' money. Yet Carter has never changed his tune. He still hasn't found a terror group active against the Jewish state that he couldn't love! Unbelievably, he is on record, declaring, "We must continue funding PA President Mahmud Abbas." Ummm, why? It is sad when the senile cannot be stopped from shooting off their mouths. And, that goes for Peres also.

It is going to turn interesting now. Bush is also on record, warning of a cut in funding. Yet, rumour has it that the State Department, with President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have found a way to approve funds to funnel American tax dollars into the Palestinian pockets. In the past, despite the will of Congress, they funnelled money through International Charities and Non-Governmental Organizations located in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. Shame some of that money couldn't find it way into Israel for the benefit of the victims of Arab terrorism.

Several things about all this amaze me, not the least being that, once again, it is the "usual suspects" who are expected to kick the can: the USA, the European Union and the United Nations. What is it that makes them feel responsible? I don't, not for a long time. Probably because I added up the amounts given to Arafat over the years, and wasn't surprised to be told it was approaching 20 billion dollars. Maybe Suha Arafat could go to the secret vaults and take out some of the billions she is reported to have stashed away in her Paris shopping bag.

I am also amazed that the Arabs, who have all the money in the world, especially now that oil is again at high levels, don't do anything to help their "Arab brothers", but sit back smugly, happy that the burden of aid falls on everyone else, except them! Amazing, that Saudi sheiks have seemingly unlimited funds to set up "Muslim Chairs" at American Universities, and are buying American real estate at the speed of light, but are too cash-strapped to help build the schools and hospitals 'Palestine' is going to need. And need them they will, because, if it were up to me, I'd make sure that Israel turned off the water, electricity, medical options, etc., and make sure they didn't get one damn thing more from her good heart.

Hamas made no promises or statements to the Palestinian people about financial management and responsibility, so surely the responsibility is on us to exercise some! They are already pleading that they are on the edge of bankruptcy and cannot 'function' without more international funds. Since they have no export except terrorism, no infrastructure, and no industry to speak of, they're not going to be able to meet the payrolls of their 130,000 PA employees, mostly terrorists of one kind or another, let alone promote a better fiscal future for their 'nation'. Good! Maybe they might notice that their leadership is a present day Nazi party and the rest of the world might think twice about funding another Reich. Or Caliphate. It's already come back to bite them in the tush in Paris and a dozen other countries which once befriended them.

And, let there be no mistake about it. Now that fanatical Islamic fundamentalists have won so overwhelmingly in Iraq, by their curious use of the "democracy vote?, and Palestinians have sold their soul to the world's primary terrorist group, we are all on the road to hell.

Hamas has won convincingly in Gaza, on the West Bank and in many other locales in the so-called Palestine Authority. Now they have their hands out, demanding aid from the world to build their new state, and all their friends are waiting in the wings, expectantly. I have no doubt that their savage cohorts in Morocco, Iran, Tunisia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, etc., are waiting with bated breath to see how the lunatic left feels about pushing through aid and congratulations, because they are now "one of us" in democracy. This is a terrorist state in the making. This is high stakes blackmail. Pay us, or we will continue to murder. It's that simple. It's that obvious. Palestine has always had all the elements of a terrorist state, only lacking in validation. Now that validation has come. Nothing will change because of this vote, but the character of that "nation" will now come increasingly to the forefront. These people cannot be negotiated with. Aid cannot, must not, be forthcoming and the only thing that can be done to them is to make certain of their destruction in the name of civilized society. That, folks, is something they understand. Hugs don't work with this group of 1.4 billion people. Power, yes, that they can comprehend and they must - now!

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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THROW THEM OUT
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 31, 2006.

Why are the people in the area allowing these saboteurs [the Yesha Council] to speak for them? Unless the residents clearly and unequivocally denounce them as outsiders who do not represent the people of the area in any way, these lackeys of the Junta will once again destroy any chance of success.

Earlier we heard all sorts of grandiose rhetoric about Maccabees and not allowing their home to be destroyed. Now we are hearing the usual claptrap of the saboteurs about how THEY are trying to reach a compromise but the Junta isn't interested. So of course this means that the people whose home are about to be destroy must capitulate. Right? Does this all sound familiar? Isn't this what they did in Gush Katif?

If the fact that the Junta is unwilling to abandon its venomous hatred of Jews is a reason for loyal Jews to capitulate seems a non sequitur to you, welcome back to reality.

This comes from today's Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com - http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=97637 and is called "Yesha Council: No Compromise, But Not Because We Don't Want One."

(IsraelNN.com) The self-declared leadership of the struggle for Amona and the Yesha Council announced Tuesday afternoon that no agreement had been reached with the governmern regarding the permanent houses slated for demolition in the next 24 hours.

"We would be happy if the other side was interested in arriving at a compromise, which is completely within its power to reach," a statement from the Yesha Council stated. "[Acting Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert wants a struggle and will receive one."

Members of the council met with Olmert Monday evening in an attempt to reach a compromise with the new prime minister, who took office following Ariel Sharon's second stroke and the coma which followed.

"We are repeating our call for all who care about the Land of Israel and who the State of Israel is dear to them to come, en masse, to Amona using any possible way."

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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US STATE DEPARTMENT AND POLITICIZED NGOS
Posted by Dov Rabinowitz, January 31, 2006.

NGO Monitor is urging the US State Department to stop relying on politicized NGOs for its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. NGO Monitor's detailed reports on these NGOs show that they promote a political agenda -- including efforts to impose academic boycotts, and divestment -- at the expense of accurate analysis.

NGO Monitor analyses of the NGOs quoted in previous editions of the "Israel and the Occupied Territories" section of the report show that these NGOs display a consistent anti-Israel political bias.

The State Department report refers to its NGO sources as "reputable international organizations" and "credible NGOs." However, according to NGO Monitor, these NGOs have no independent research capabilities, provide insufficient documentation for independent verification, accept anecdotal claims from politically motivated groups or individuals, and discriminate between sources based on political agendas.

In a letter to Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, NGO Monitor urged the State Department to refrain from repeating unverified allegations of politicized NGOs in future reports. The next report is scheduled for publication within the month.

"Many of these NGOs are active participants in incitement," said Professor Gerald Steinberg, Editor of NGO Monitor. "They demonize Israel through false allegations of human rights abuses and selective citations of international law."

Highly politicized NGOs found in the State Department Report include the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, B'tselem, Adalah, Christian Peacemaker Teams, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch.

For the text of the NGO Monitor letter to the State department go to:
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/

Dov Rabinowitz is Communications Director of NGO Monitor. Contact him at communications@ngo-monitor.org

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END THE OCCUPATION!
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 31, 2006.

Iran is openly calling for Israel to be destroyed, claiming that Israel is an alien "colony" that "occupies" land that belongs to the Palestinians. And when was the last time that the lands of Israel formed a Palestinian Arab state? Well, never.

On the other hand, there is another country under the illegal occupation of a foreign entity. I am referring of course to Iran. Iran is under the illegal temporary occupation of Iranians but it clearly should be restored to its legitimate Mongolian rulers! After all, if "Palestine" is eternally Arab because some Arab armies conquered it in the Dark Ages, why should not Iran remain permanently Mongolian after the Mongolians conquered it in the Dark Ages?

Just to refresh your memory, the younger brother of Kublai Khan, Hulaku, captured Bagdad, on 5 Feb., 1258; and the Khalif, Al-Mustansir Billah, surrendered to the Mongol chief on 10 February. Hulaku was thus the founder of the dynasty of the Ilkhans of Iran, which included the following princes: Hulaku, until 1265; Abaka (1265-81); Nikudar Ahmed (1281-84); Argh.n (1284-91); Gaikhatu (1291.); Ba.du (1295); Ghazan Mahmud (1295-1304); Ghivas eddin Oljaitu Khudabendeh Mohammed (1304-16); Abusa.d Bahadur (1316-35); Mo.zz ed-dunia we'd-din Arpa (1335-36); Musa (1336); Mohammed (1336-38); Toogha Timur (1338-39); Izz ed-din Djehan-Timur (1339); Satibeg (1339); Suleimen (1339-44); Adil Anushirwan (1344-53). They were all destroyed by Timur (Tamerlane) or his successors.

So after we in the West bomb the bejeebers out of the Iranian nuclear facilities, let us destroy the Iranian colonialist state and restore Iran to its legitimate rulers!Oljaitu

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. Contact him by email at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il

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STRIP THE STRIPES?
Posted by Batya Medad, January 31, 2006.

Things are getting stranger and stranger, or is the truth just coming closer to the surface?

The Arab terrorist Hamas Party leader announced:

The several conditions Zahar named included a demand that Israel change its flag.

"Israel must remove the two blue stripes from its national flag," said Zahar. "The stripes on the flag are symbols of occupation. They signify Israel's borders stretching from the Euphrates River to the Nile River."

Now, most of us just thought that they were like the stripes on the " Tallit."[1] (Thanks, Judith)

This makes me wonder. The American flag has lots of stripes, actually thirteen to represent the original thirteen colonies/states. Six are white, and seven are red.

Now, just to take this further according to Hamas leadership. The Israeli flag has only two blue stripes. If the stripes connote or symbolize "occupation," then America with 650% more stripes than Israel must be considered six and a half times more an occupier, or imperialist nation, than little Israel.

And if we want to talk symbols, let's look at the colors. The Israeli flag is sky blue and white, while the American one has a dark, midnight blue and bright red with white. Israeli stripes are blue, the color symbolizing freedom, vigilance, perseverance, justice, prosperity, peace, and/or patriotism. But the American flag has red stripes, the color of war and violence.

Let's put this all together according to the statement of Hamas leader, Zahar, just a little logic, please. Israel's flag, with a dominance of blue on white symbolizes a peaceful, just country, and that's even when if finds itself as an "occupier." While the United States has a flag with seven bright red stripes, which symbolize a violently aggressive imperialist society.

I didn't say it; I just took Zahar's demand a little further...

Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il This is archived at shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2006/01/ strip-stripes.html

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AN OPEN LETTER TO EACH MEMBER OF THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT AND MEDIA: THE WORLD IS WATCHING
Posted by Paul Rotenberg, January 31, 2006.

An Open Letter to Each Member of the Israeli Government and Media

As we in the Diaspora are listening closely to the difficult political decisions of how Israel will respond to the Hamas political victory, we are puzzled and troubled by the inexplicable priorities of the Israeli government. By your actions the Jewish families who are residing in the Avraham Avinu neighbourhood market of Hebron and nine families in the Amona neighbourhood on the edge of Ofra seem to be your most dangerous military threat.

In the context of geopolitics, we are alarmed that the Israeli government is planning to deploy thousands of soldiers and police to Hebron and Amona. You are determined to evict these Jews families from their legally owned land. The families in Hebron live on land owned by the Jewish community of Hebron for over one hundred years before the massacre of 1929 and re-inhabited in 1975. The nine families of Amona also have legal deeds to their land and the government itself encouraged the residents to build their homes in Amona, and connected them to the electric and water infrastructures. They have been there since August 1995. Ten years ago when Arab-initiated violence in Hebron was at its high, the Israeli army decided to remove the Arabs squatters from the marketplace. Commander-in-Chief of the IDF, Maj. Gen. Ehud Barak supported this action. Several years later after 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass was shot to death by terrorists, the Jewish inhabitants of Hebron decided to re-inhabit the empty market that the Jewish community of Hebron owned outright, and began renovating the stores, turning them into livable apartments.

The Jewish communities of Hebron and Amona have rigidly adhered to the rules, rules of property ownership, and applied for permits for their construction. May I bring to your attention that over 40,000 of the 120,000 Arabs who live in and around Hebron are squatters. There are thousands more in the Judean and Samarian Hills. They erected their homes with no legal purchase, no consent of the government, and aren't even required to pay property taxes. Nevertheless, they have remained in their illegally built homes with no consequences. There are to date, more than 7,380 court-ordered eviction notices against illegal Palestinian homes in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), but the Israeli government has never acted on them. In East Jerusalem alone, there are over 20,000 Arab buildings illegally constructed, and instead of moving to remove these structures acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has discussed, with the PA, legalizing that construction. This is an unacceptable double standard.

Why are Jews who legally own their property and homes not allowed to stay while Arabs who have no title to land left alone? The Israeli government seems to have lost sight of its mandate. Do you, the government ministers, intend to expel the 100,000 plus illegal Arab residents of structures that have been built in your midst?

We have heard that some of the Jewish property owners have no title to their land. In fact, these lands have all been legally bought and legally inhabited. We know that the plans were submitted and a good portion of the work that has been completed, has been finished with the help of the Israeli government and army. Only the last stages of the permits were withheld so that, on a technicality, the government can now say they are illegal. The residents have made every effort to fulfill all legalities.

We turn to you to uphold the truth and to leave these residents where they are by finishing the last stage of permits so that they may live in peace and stability, in their homes, within the land of Israel.

Paul Rotenberg
Toronto, Canada

Contact Paul Rotenberg by email at pdr@rogers.com

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KIBBUTZ MEMBERS IN SUPPORT OF SETTLERS
Posted by Women in Green, January 30, 2006.

This is a news item from www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3207626,00.html

Kibbutz member: "These are pioneers of Hebron, just like the Kibbutz movement had pioneers; there's no difference between us"
-- Miri Chason, YNet

On the eve of plans to carry out the evacuation of the Amona outposts and settlers from the Hebron market, a surprising show of support has emerged for the embattled settlers: Kibbutz members and moshav residents, usually identified with the Left's wish to leave the territories, have aligned themselves with Hebron settlers slated for evacuation. They have organized a conference of support, to be held in Hebron on Tuesday.

"At a time when they are trying to expel Jews from their legal land, there are 700,000 Jews and Arabs in the country who live in illegal homes and nobody cares. Why are they singling out the wonderful pioneers who live in Hebron." This sentence was said not by a right-wing person or senior official in Yesha, but by Tzafrir Ronen, one of the organizers of the conference of support and identification with the settlers by Kibbutz members, under the banner: The working communities and citizens of Israel are with the community of Hebron."

"These are pioneers of Hebron just like the Kibbutz movement had pioneers," said Ronen. "There's no difference between us."

Meanwhile, IDF Central Command Chief Yair Naveh signed restraining orders against 21 right-wing activists following suspicions that they will attempt to harm security forces and Palestinians during the course of the evacuation of the Amona outpost and the Hebron market.

The IDF and police are preparing to carry out the clearance this week. They are expected to work along similar lines to the way the disengagement from Gaza was implemented.

'We won't abandon pioneers of Jewish Hebron'

"These are wonderful people who are loyal to the country, but the media has turned them into animals," Ronen added. "The people who set up Kiryat-Arba and Gush Katif were members of the Labor party. The same is true of the settlements of the Jordan Valley, and communities in the Golan Heights. The youths don't know this, and they are ensuring that the youths remain ignorant of this. The first group of pioneers in Netzarim, for example, was from the Hashomer Hatzair (Zionist left-wing youth movement). I myself have seen how the police create provocation and the media just takes pictures. There's no way around it -- the media is political," he said.

Organizers of the conference have announced that officers, academics, and religious leaders from various kibbutzim and moshav communities will attend.

"We won't leave our friends, the pioneers of Jewish Hebron, alone against the malicious war launched against them," an advertisement for the conference said. "We'll strengthen them and be with them during the difficult hour because their struggle is our struggle."

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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PROPOSED LEGISLATION REGAARDING THE TRANSFER OF FUNDS TO THE HAMAS-LED PA
Posted by Buddy Macy, January 30, 2006.

To All Americans Against Terrorism:

I urge you to support the drafting of the following proposed legislation:

A new bill is being formulated in the U.S. Congress, in the wake of Hamas' election victory, that will make the transfer of funds to the Palestinians, both directly and indirectly, much more difficult.

Should the proposed bill become law, it will enable the U.S. to place the Palestinians on a list of terror-supporting countries, resulting in severe sanctions on trade with the PA and major restrictions regarding the transfer of funds to it.

Since the first reports of the Hamas victory surfaced in the U.S., senior Congressional members have expressed unequivocal views on the subject of the transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Florida and Chairwoman of the Congressional Subcommittee on the Middle East, is leading the legislation effort in an attempt to make it more difficult for the Bush administration to offer aid to the Palestinians, and, to make it easier to isolate a Hamas-led government. Ros-Lehtinen said the U.S. must ensure that American taxpayers' funds are not transferred directly or indirectly to those who have carried out terror attacks.

Republican Eric Cantor said the Palestinians would not receive a penny. Senators from both parties said during television appearances, that aid to the Palestinians must cease.

The proposed bill is also intended to demand the closing of consulates and to reduce diplomatic contacts with the Palestinians; and, to prevent the entry of Hamas leaders into the United States.

In accordance with current law, the U.S. cannot transfer funds directly to the PA without the President's signature, for reasons of "American national security."

Thank you, in advance, for writing and speaking out in favor of the drafting of this vital piece of anti-terrorism legislation.

Most sincerely,
Buddy Macy

Contact Buddy Macy by email at vegibud@aol.com

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DOUMANI'S "BLAME ISRAEL FIRST/LAST/ALWAYS" BACKFIRES
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 30, 2006.

Beshara Doumani's "Israel can blame itself for Hamas' win" (SJMN, 1/30/06) is a ludicrous attempt to reverse reality. But in the face of the undeniable evidence of that realty....it fails.

Doumani is right that Israelis have said: "we have no partner for peace". But not because it was ever "...an ironclad...Israeli policy". Rather, because every attempt by Israel, the UN, the UK, and the USA to create a Palestinian state alongside of Israel (15 such attempts since 1937) has been met by Arab violence, terrorism, murder, and war. For the past 70 years destroying Israel has been far more important to Palestinian leadership than creating a Palestinian state. No state alongside of Israel....only instead of Israel.

His assertion that "...the Israeli government...engineered the failure of the peace process..." is so outre that it is risible. On the very same day that he signed the Oslo Accords, Arafat publicly announced his intentions, in Arabic to his followers, to ignore his Oslo commitments and start his jihad. Within weeks he was overseeing and coordinating the terror war that he would later ratchet up to the 2nd Intifada. And Israel, desperately trying to keep the peace process going, at first registered its complaints to Arafat. Then, when it became clear that Arafat was orchestrating the violence, Israel complained to the UN and to the USA while the terrorists launched as many as 24 terror attacks daily.

Only after 9 years of post-Oslo terrorism, almost 20,000 terror attacks, more than 1,000 dead and thousands more injured or maimed for life, did Israel RE-occupy the West Bank to stop the terrorists.

As for "...the daily life of Palestinians ...deteriorated to almost subhuman levels...": Professor Doumani should be aware of the World Bank statistics that show the West Bank and Gaza Strip enjoying an average annual GDP of 13% between 1967 and 1993. Roads, electricity, sewerage, water sources, water purification, telephones, television, radio, 7 new universities, modern medical facilities....all were brought up to 20th century standards for the Palestinians by Israel. During Israel's 27-year rule, the Arab population tripled, infant mortality plummeted, tourism sky-rocketed.

And Arafat torched it all when he took over in 1994. By 2003 the West Bank GDP was literally one-tenth of what it was in 1994. The galactic venality of his graft and corruption, the embezzlement of billions to his personal accounts, and the siphoning off of c. 80% of foreign aid to fund his terror war....these are what reduced the Palestinians' lives to brutal, grinding poverty.

Factual errors of such magnitude regarding the Arab-Israel conflict indicate that either professor Doumani is abysmally ignorant (but wait!! He is a History professor), or he simply hopes that your readers are.

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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JEWS TO BE EVICTED FROM AMONA TOMORROW
Posted by Lee Caplan, January 30, 2006.

Photo Essay: Inside Amona, In the Shadow of Destruction

The community of Amona, built with help from the World Zionist Organization and Israeli government, is seeking to prevent the destruction of nine new homes built there. Arutz-7 offers a look inside. http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=97567

"Olmert Rejects Call to Postpone Amona Eviction" Jan 30, '06/1 Shevat 5766

(IsraelNN.com) Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday rejected a request from Yesha leaders seeking a two-month delay in the planne! d eviction of residents from Amona.

Mr. Olmert stated he would not grant any extension and plans to implement the eviction on Tuesday night after receiving a green light from the Supreme Court on Monday, which rejected a petition seeking a restraining order to block the eviction.

'IDF Prevents Buses From Reaching Amonazzzz'
Jan 30,'06/1 Shevat 5766

(IsraelNN.com) Tens of buses carrying Amona supporters have been stopped at checkpoints entering Samaria. The military is not permitting non-residents into the area, seeking to prevent opponents to the eviction to reach Amona. Many travelers got off of buses earlier, attempting to reach Amona on foot.

Urgent Action Alert on this coming Tuesday's Amona Expulsion.

Please know the Facts:

There are 20,000 Arab buildings in East Jerusalem illegally constructed without permits, and Olmert has discussed with the PA legalizing that construction.

There are more than 30,444 illegal buildings in which Arabs are squatting in Israel.

There are more than 7,380 court-ordered eviction notices against Illegal Palestinian homes in Judea and Samaria ( West Bank ), but the Israeli government has never acted on them and has no plans to.

Yet, this Tuesday, the Olmert interim unelected government is going to send hundreds of IDF troops and Police to evict Jewish families in the Israeli-controlled area of Amona, for no reason whatsoever.

This Tuesday, tens of thousands of armed Hamas and Fatah terrorist murderers will be free as usual to roam Hebron and the West Bank shooting automatic rifles into the air.

EXPULSION ORDERED BY OLMERT

On Tuesday, Jewish citizens will once again be expelled from their homes in the State of Israel, for no logical reason whatsoever, by the Radical unelected Leftists running the government like their personal property- Olmert, Weisglass, Peres, Beilin, Omri, Mazuz, Mofaz, etc, at the behest of Peace Now, ISM, the EU, the Quartet, Hamas, the PA, the UN, for secret deals that only they know about and that only they benefit from.

The forces will be deployed in three rings: the first ring will be made up of 1,500 policemen trained to deal with violent protests and will also include mounted forces. The second rings will consist of several hundred Border Policemen and the third ring will be made up of four infantry regiments.

Policemen will be responsible for direct conformation with the settlers, while the IDF will close off the area to incoming protesters.

Security Minister Shaul Mofaz has declared that a policy of "zero tolerance" would be employed against settler violence, and IDF officers said that in this evacuation, they will "demonstrate only determination, without sensitivity."

Settlers are planning a major solidarity conference Tuesday against the evacuation. Politicians, rabbis and academics are among those expected to attend the gathering.

Representatives of five parties - Eli Yishai (Shas), Zevulun Orlev (NRP), Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu), Zvi Hendel (National Union), and Meir Porush (Agudath Israel) - sent a letter to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over the weekend urging him to postpone the evacuation of Amona and Hebron until after the elections, in line with the general principle that major, non-urgent decisions should not be made prior to an election.

Phone &fax numbers:

President Moshe Katsav;
Tel: 972-2-6707211
Fax: 972-2-5610037

State Comptroller's office:
tel: 972-2-666-5000
fax: 972-2-666-5204 and fax the department responsible for the
police: 972-2-530-9999

Prime Min spokesman:
Assaf Sharif 972-2-5666920 (dir.)
fax: 972-2-5669245
cell: 972-50-7724881

Olmert's spokeswoman: Chaya Peri
tel 972-2-666-2301
fax 972-2-666-44-00

Defense Min. spokesman
Eli Kamir tel. 972-3-6975546
fax: 972-3-6916940
cell: 972-50-6298005

Foreign Affairs
Mark Regev tel. 972-2-5303343/555
972-2-5303408 (fax)
cell 972-50-6203264

Justice Min spokesman:
Shai Ben-Maor (Adviser) 972-2-6285438 (fax)
cell: 972-50-6247138

Ministry of internal police
tel 972-2-5308500
fax 972-2-530-80-39

Chief of Police, Mr Aharonishky:
tel 972-2-5308100
fax 972-2-5308118

Hebron police: (those directly responsible for brutalizing Deli landau)
tel 972-2-9969-444 or 972-2-9969-473/86/96/62

Shalom Court (address faxes to Judge Eilata Sziskind
who put Deli under house arrest at her parents, away from her children,
BEFORE TRIAL even started!!!
fax 972-2-624-34-24

Prosecutor's office
fax 972-2-646-700-1

Justice ministry
fax 972-5602246

Chief Rabbinate:
Rabbi Shlomo Amar
fax 972-2-537-1305

Rabbi Yonah Metzger
fax 972-2-5377872

The Rishon Lezion Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Shlita
fax 972-2-653-6842

In addition copy and paste onto an email to these press and Knesset members:

wolf@cnn.com; ombud@globe.com; suggestions@lauraingraham.com; atc@npr.org; jdvorkin@npr.org; countdown@msnbc.com; opinion@msnbc.com; beltway@foxnews.com; foxreport@foxnews.com; oreilly@foxnews.com; info@creators.com; comments@foxnews.com; foxnewsonline@foxnews.com; askfox@foxinc.com; viewerservices@foxnews.com; hannity@foxnews.com; special@foxnews.com; afterhours@foxnews.com; colmes@foxnews.com; atlarge@foxnews.com; bullsandbears@foxnews.com; cash@foxnews.com; friends@foxnews.com; feedback@foxnews.com; newswatch@foxnews.com; lateedition@cnn.com; cjr@columbia.edu; onthemedia@wnyc.org; newswatch@foxnews.com; reliable@cnn.com; abramsreport@msnbc.com; kurtzh@washpost.com; hardball@msnbc.com; joe@msnbc.com; letter@globe.com; editors@interactive.wsj.com; nightline@abcnews.com; al-alwada-news@yahoogroups.com; jsmith@globe.com; kwadington@suntimes.com; alipinski@tribune.com; cmcmahon@tribune.com; dclifton@plaind.com; cnn@cnn.com; cjr@columbia.edu; editorial@jewishledger.com; mconnolly@newstimes.com; rush@eibnet.com; letters@star-telegram.com; comments@foxnews.com; special@foxnews.com; bret@jpost.com; caroline@jpost.com; letters@courant.com; cbglick@zahav.net.il; john.carroll@latimes.com; marjorie.miller@latimes.com; worldnews@herald.com; cday@middletownpress.com; editor@newbritainherald.com; letters@nhregister.com; editor@theday.com; editors@newsweek.com; atc@npr.org; bdrake@npr.org; newsdesk@nysun.com; editor@nysun.com; jgershman@nysun.com; crosett@nysun.com; elake@nysun.com; bavni@nysun.com; foreign@nytimes.com; public@nytimes.com; editor@orlandosentinel.com; editor@phillynews.com; foreign@phillynews.com; nragen@netmedia.net.il; janetlehr@mindspring.com; msill@newsobserver.com; oquarles@newsobserver.com; letters@sun-sentinel.com; david.smith@uniontrib.com; readerrep@sfchronicle.com; eletters@starledger.com; editor@think-israel.org; james_kelly@timemagazine.com; etinsley@usatoday.com; letters@usnews.com; foreign@washpost.com; westhartfordnews@ctcentral.com; onthemedia@wnyc.org; alankeyes@renewamerica.us; alison.sharman@bbc.co.uk; vaadharabbonim@yahoo.com; americanredcross@processrequest.com; amnestyis@amnesty.org; ai-news@amnesty.org; admin-us@aiusa.org; info@prescon.org; mailing@norpac.net; andrew.steele@bbc.co.uk; barry.langridge@bbc.co.uk; public.info@consilium.eu.int; christopher.patten@cec.eu.int; info@cre.gov.uk; sg-plaintes@cec.eu.int; letters@haaretz.co.il; maariv@newmail.net; editor@maariv.co.il; releases@jewishpress.com; focus@yetioth.co.il; hannity@foxnews.com; Speakout@foxnews.com; Viewerservices@foxnews.com; live@foxnews.com; mac@haaretz.co.il; mail@thelikud.org; editlett@jewishaz.com; editor@reuters.com; media@actcom.co.il; yvaknin@knesset.gov.il; nzeev@knesset.gov.il; eyishay@knesset.gov.il; egavrieli@knesset.gov.il; ggamliel@knesset.gov.il; mgafni@knesset.gov.il; gezra@knesset.gov.il; gerdan@knesset.gov.il; meitan@knesset.gov.il; zaevb@knesset.gov.il; efye@knesset.gov.il; yedri@knesset.gov.il; yedelstein@knesset.gov.il; ndahan@knesset.gov.il; izchakec@knesset.gov.il; amncohen@knesset.gov.il; eaflalo@knesset.gov.il; uria@knesset.gov.il; ravraham@knesset.gov.il; dazulay@knesset.gov.il; rbaron@knesset.gov.il; slomob@knesset.gov.il; nblumentl@knesset.gov.il; dbenlulu@knesset.gov.il; belon@knesset.gov.il; gfinkelshtein@knesset.gov.il; mgorlovski@knesset.gov.il; ysteinitz@knesset.gov.il; davidt@knesset.gov.il; sshalom@knesset.gov.il; nslomianski@knesset.gov.il; avrahamsh@knesset.gov.il; oritn@knesset.gov.il; ylitzman@knesset.gov.il; hkatz@knesset.gov.il; akara@knesset.gov.il; iherzog@knesset.gov.il; ndahan@knesset.gov.il; izchakec@knesset.gov.il; rbrison@knesset.gov.il; avilan@knesset.gov.il; mnahari@knesset.gov.il; yhazan@knesset.gov.il; eichler@knesset.gov.il; egavrieli@knesset.gov.il; zhanegbi@knesset.gov.il; yiskatz@knesset.gov.il; llivnat@knesset.gov.il; dnaveh@knesset.gov.il; bnetanyahoo@knesset.gov.il; ndoron@knesset.gov.il; iyasinov@knesset.gov.il; vbrailovsky@knesset.gov.il; ulandau@knesset.gov.il; natan@aliya.org.il; uria@KNESSET.GOV.IL; sar@moag.gov.il; pm_eng@pmo.gov.il; mkatsav@knesset.gov.il; sar@mof.gov.il; sar@mfa.gov.il; sar@molsa.gov.il; sar@moch.gov.il; sar@tourism.gov.il; sar@mops.gov.il; minister@most.gov.il; sar@moag.gov.il; sar@moia.gov.il; sar@education.gov.il; sar@mot.gov.il; sar@mod.gov.il; sar@matat.health.gov.il; sars@int.gov.il; marens@knesset.gov.il

Contact Lee Caplan by email at leescaplan@yahoo.com

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HAMAS DEMANDS ALL, CEDES NOTHING
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 30, 2006.

Josef Federman's "Israel says Hamas still off-limits" (SF Chron, 1.30.06) gives a summary of the current post-election impasse, but misses a few important aspects of this tired dynamic.

Israel will not negotiate with Hamas until Hamas abandons its commitment to Israel's destruction.

Hamas will not stop its terrorism against Israel until Israel withdraws to the '49 armistice lines, releases 7000 terrorists in Israeli prisons, stops pre-emptive prevention of terror attacks, and bisects itself to make a geographic link between the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

So, Hamas refuses even a symbolic and tentative concession (agree to no more war) which could be easily reversed, but demands from Israel very concrete and costly and difficult concessions which are not easily reversed and which would greatly enhance Hamas' ability to fulfill the core goal of its Charter: the destruction of Israel and the genocide of its Jews...a Charter which it refuses to amend.

Why would any country agree to help its enemies destroy it?

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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AZ-ZAHAR TELLS IT LIKE IT IS: NO RECOGNITION, NO NEGOTIATIONS, NO PEACE
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 30, 2006.

This recent CNN interview with Hamas' top official in the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud ez-Zahar, gives us some helpful insight into what Hamas will do with its new-found power and why Israel is right to refuse negotiations until Hamas revises its Covenant, agrees to stop terrorism, and agrees to recognize Israel and negotiate a peaceful resolution:

a.) Hamas' demands are still of the traditional Arafat/PLO/Arat states' genre:

The Arab sides offer symbolic and tentative concessions (which are easily reversed) in exchange for Israel's very concrete and costly and difficult concessions which are not easily reversed and may be impossible to reverse.

Thus, in this scenario below, Hamas will countenance the POSSIBILITY of a LONG-TERM TRUCE (not make peace, not make a truce of indefinite extention, but only ackowledge the possibility of a truce, and one with a time limit: one year? five years? ten years? so what happens after the time is up? and what has Hamas done during this time of truce to improve its military position?). But, it will consider this possible truce only if israel is ready to actually WITHDRAW to the pre-67 borders (NB!!: he does not say that Hamas will make a truce, only that it is possible that hamas will do so).

b.) All agreements must be made in the absence of negotiations. Israel must simply agree to do what the Arabs demand, and hope that the Arabs will do what they say they will do.

Ez-Zahar rejects any possibilty of negotiations. So Israel must simply accept the Hamas demand, no discussion, and retreat to the pre-67 borders, dismantle all communities (c. 200,000 people), recreate the "Auschwitz borders", ...and then hope that Hamas will keep its word and consider the possibility of a truce (not peace).....and then hope that Hamas decides that the possibility is reality, and that the truce turns into peace in some magical way.

c.) Hamas makes demands to which it knows that Israel will not agree:

Release of prisoners has been a constant monotone demand since Israel first began imprisoning Hamas leaders. Hamas knows that decapitation works....but only once you have c. 15%-25%of leaders out of commission (dead or in jail). Because of Israel's successful decapitation of Hamas, Hamas as a fighting force was on the ropes until last week's election, in large part due to the inaccessibility of its jailed leaders.

Israel cannot consider the release of these prisoners because they will immediately re-enter the Hamas ranks and swell them and retake their places in the leadership cadre....thus making Hamas a far more formidable military force. In the absence of a peace treaty and actionable evidence that Hamas wants a peaceful resolution to the conflict, Israel would be committing suicide if it released Hamas prisonerse.

Same with "stop the aggression". It is almost standard procedure that terror groups attack Israel even as committees from both sides meet to discuss ways of creating a meeting of higher level committees which will discuss ways of starting a peace talk (or a truce talk) process with still higher level leaders. So what does "stop the aggression" mean? Would any nation allow its enemy to continue perpetrating lethal attacks during negotiations? And Hamas is refusing to negotiate. So what this demand really means is that Israel should do nothing to stop terrorist attacks while Hamas mulls over the possibility of a truce....and since Hamas and other terror groups have perpetrated 1990 terror attacks in 2005 during a so-called 'truce', it is not reasonable to assume that Hamas will maintain its side of the truce, or that Hamas will refrain from outsourcing terror attacks to terror groups not covered in the truce ("islamic jihad did it. not hamas. we have no control over them").

And note too the demand to bisect Israel with geogrpahic connections between the west bank and gaza strip. So Israel should agree to be bisected? Recall the fuss made about ma'aleh adumim which (incorrectly) pro-Arab spokespersons said would bisect the west bank. If the West Bank cannot be bisected (which it would not be, anyway, by Ma'aleh adumim), then why can Israel be bisected?

CONCLUSION

It should be patently obvious that Hamas' offer is not an offer for a resolution of the conflict. It is a ploy to gain diplomatic ground ("See, western countries and especially the USA!! We are offering a truce and Israel is rejecting it!").

Hamas knows that Israel will not go along with the charade; but it counts on the participation of the UN, EU, and some forces in the UK and USA to support it and say "So, Israel, what have you done to reciprocate Hamas' offer?"

ADDENDUM: HOMOPHOBIA Note also ez-Zahar's uninhibited homophobia in "... secular system allows homosexuality, allows corruption, allows the spread of the loss of natural immunity like AIDS,". He is indirectly telling the world what a Hamas Islamic state will look like....no room for western-style human rights (inter alia, freedom of sexual preference).

David ml


YNet. Internet news (Israel). 1/30/06
"Hamas: Ceasefire for return to 1967 border"

Top Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar tells CNN "long-term truce" possible if Israel withdraws to pre-1967 borders, releases Palestinian prisoners; as to possibility Hamas would renounce terror, Zahar says, "Israel is killing people and children and removing our agricultural system - this is terrorism" -- Yitzhak Benhorin

WASHINGTON - Top Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar told CNN that a "long-term hudna or long-term truce" is possible. He would not commit to negotiating with Israel and would not say whether recognizing Israel's existence is a long-term possibility.

The conditions included Israel's retreating to its pre-1967 borders and releasing Palestinian prisoners.

Zahar told CNN if Israel "is ready to give us the national demand to withdraw from the occupied area (in) '67; to release our detainees; to stop their aggression; to make geographic link between Gaza Strip and West Bank, at that time, with assurance from other sides, we are going to accept to establish our independent state at that time, and give us one or two, 10, 15 years time in order to see what is the real intention of Israel after that."

"We can accept to establish our independent state on the area occupied (in) '67," he said. Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza in the Six-Day War of 1967.

Key conditions could allow Palestinians to give a "long-term hudna or long-term truce," and "after that, let time heal," he said.

But when asked about Hamas' call for Israel's destruction, Zahar would not say whether that remains the goal. "We are not speaking about the future, we are speaking now," he said.

Zahar argued that Israel has no true intention of accepting a Palestinian state, despite international agreements including the Road Map for Middle East peace.

'We are not taking money from Iran'

Until Israel says what its final borders will be, Hamas will not say whether it will ever recognize Israel, Zahar said. "If Israel is ready to tell the people what is the official border, after that we are going to answer this question."

Asked by CNN whether Hamas would renounce terrorism, Zahar argued the definition of terrorism is unfair.

Israel is "killing people and children and removing our agricultural system -- this is terrorism," he said. "When the Americans (are) attacking the Arabic and Islamic world whether in Afghanistan and Iraq and they are playing a dirty game in Lebanon, this is terrorism."

"Negotiation is not our aim. Negotiation is a method," he said.

Zahar said the government will use international donations to do reconstruction and build needed institutions. "We are looking for this money, but this money should not be conditioned," he said.

Zahar added, "We are not taking money from Iran," denying suggestions by Israeli and U.S. officials that there are growing ties between Hamas and Tehran. Iran's president has called for Israel's destruction.

According to CNN, news reports have said Hamas plans to establish separate schools for boys and girls in the Palestinian territories and implement stricter Islamic law.

'We're going to review all of our assistance programs'

When asked whether he plans a theocracy instead of a secular government, Zahar responded, "Do you think the secular system is ... serving any nation?"

A secular system "allows homosexuality, allows corruption, allows the spread of the loss of natural immunity like AIDS," he said. "We are here living under Islamic control. Nothing will change ... If you are going to give a hint that Islamic society will be against the modern life, I think it's incorrect."

Defense Minster Shaul Mofaz said Sunday the principle according to which Israel will not hold talks with Hamas as a terror group will be maintained, stating that only the annulment of the charter calling for Israel's destruction, recognition of Israel's right to exist, the disarmament of all terror groups and the recognition of all the agreements reached with Israel so far would pave the way for dialogue.

"The chances that Hamas will carry out all of these conditions in the near future seem quite slim."

"We are not intervening in what goes on in the Palestinian Authority; we have already seen tension between Hamas and Fatah, which can be referred to as an 'aftershock' from the election results.

'No help for government that wants to destroy our friend'

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is expected to meet E.U. foreign ministers in London on Monday in an effort to formulate a unified position on a Palestinian government consisting of Hamas members, said, "The United States is not prepared to fund an organization that advocates the destruction of Israel, that advocates violence."

Should Hamas acts against Israel, Mofaz threatened to "use all the means available to us (against the group), including targeted killings," adding that the activity against Islamic Jihad would continue, especially in light of the fact that intelligence information indicates the organization is planning suicide attacks against Israel.

"We're going to review all of our assistance programs, but the bedrock principle here is we can't have funding for an organization that holds those views just because it is in government," Rice added.

United States provided a total of USD 403 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority in 2005, according to U.S. officials.

International Support

[Merkel: Hamas must recognize Israel / Ronny Sofer: German leader lands in Israel, says Europe would not fund Hamas-controlled PA unless group renounces violence, recognizes Israel; visit marks first time Acting PM Olmert hosts leader of major western country]

President George Bush said Sunday that the United States will not give aid to a government led by a violent Hamas party.

"We won't give help to a government that wants to destroy our friend and ally," Bush told CBS News.

"I don't see how you can be a partner in peace if you don't give up violent intentions," Bush said.

Hanan Greenberg contributed to the report.

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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THE HAMAS ELECTORAL VICTORY
Posted by David Bedein, January 30, 2006.

OPEN ENDORSEMENT OF MURDER

During their successful election campaign, Hamas leaders who mow sit in jail for murder were allowed by Israeli security officials to meet with the media.

In their interviews, Hamas leaders openly said that they expect to be free very soon, that they expect to resume their "operations", that they have no regrets for their actions, and that their purpose is to overthrow the State of Israel and to replace it with an "Islamic State of Palestine".

These Hamas leaders spoke calmly, with self-confidence, and were pleased to pose for the cameras after each interview.

CULMINATING HISTORY OF PLO-HAMAS COOPERATION

And now Hamas has won the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council, following an 18 year process of official cooperation between Hamas and the PLO's Fateh organization, which had been the dominant party in the nascent Palestinian Authority.

Hamas, founded in 1987, and the PLO, founded in 1964, operate with the same funding source: Saudi Arabia, one of the Arab nations that had attacked Israel in 1948 to destroy the news Jewish state. Saudi Arabia has never signed a peace treaty (like Jordan and Egypt) and has never even signed an armistice (like Syria and Lebanon)

The PLO nurtured Hamas for leadership in a Palestinian state -- something that any reporter would know by covering the PLO cooperation with Hamas's popular movement which was conducted in the open, yet hardly reported.

When Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, Israeli Foreign Minister Peres and PLO leader Yassir Arafat all got a joint Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in December 1994, I asked Rabin and Peres if Arafat would crush Hamas and cancel the PLO covenant calling for Israel's destruction. Peres and Rabin held their own press conference and assured the media that they had ironclad commitment from Arafat to crush Hamas and to cancel the PLO covenant which calls for Israel's gradual destruction.

However, when I asked Arafat the same questions, he laughed at the idea that he was supposed to "crush the Hamas" and instead described Hamas as "my brothers" and denied any assurance that he would cancel the PLO covenant.

250 news agencies heard Arafat's answer. Not one reported it.

Four months later, in April, 1995, after intense negotiations between the PLO and Hamas, Arafat committed himself to licensing and distributing weapons for the Hamas. At the time, the Voice of Israel Radio had reported that Arafat was "confiscating the weapons" from the Hamas, as did the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Yet on May 9th, 1995, The PA held a ceremony in which it formally distributed weapons to Hamas in an event was reported on the Voice of Palestine radio, and picked up by the New York Times.

Yet the story was relegated to the back pages of Israeli newspapers and, to this day, most people to this day do not know that Hamas is armed by the Palestinian Authority.

In December, 1995. the PA and Hamas reached a cooperative agreement in Cairo to absorb Hamas into the framework of the Palestinian Authority, after which the PA ceded the all important position of "minister of communications" to an Hamas official.

However, the PLO--HAMAS Cairo agreement was carried out in the weeks that followed the assassination of Rabin, and the impact on public opinion was not really felt. The Cairo Agreement was also relegated to the back pages of the media.

After the breakdown of Israeli-Palestinian Camp David negotiations in the summer of 2000, two key PLO members and officials of the PA -- Muhammad Dahlan and Marwan Barghouti -- established a "joint military command" with the Hamas -- in a cooperative agreement to carry out murder activities in a coordinated fashion, with no pretense of a "good cop" for the Fatah and "bad cop" for the Hamas.

And on the last day of last week's election campaign, one of the founders of the Fateh, PA foreign minister Nabil Shaath, promised that he would "never disarm the Hamas".

PA STATE CONSTITUTION: COMPATIBLE WITH HAMAS

Meanwhile, the PA state constitution, adopted by the Palestinian Legislative Council, a full three years before the Hamas electoral victory this week, mandates that a future Palestinian State will be based on Sharia Islamic law, modeled on Saudi Arabia and Iran, in which there is no juridical status for Jews.

Our agency obtained the official POA constitution from the Vatican's Ambassador, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, after he presented it to a US congressional delegation in May l, 2003.

Yet the Israeli government and the US government vehemently denied that such a constitution exists, yet PA spokespeople acknowledged its veracity, without any hesitancy.

In other words, the PA constitution is quite compatible with the Hamas Charter.

ABBAS'S POST ELECTIONS SPEECH: EXUDING CONFIDENCE

Meanwhile, as reported in 48, an online new service of the PA, "PA President Mahmoud Abbas declared on Thursday that he would begin the necessary consultations to form the new Palestinian government as soon as the new PLC is inaugurated". In his words,

"Dear sisters and brothers. [...] Today, I received the official results of our PLC elections that were conducted with transparency and honesty... I congratulate our people for this great democratic achievement That is a great example that the whole world respects. I shall start immediately the necessary consultations to begin the formation of the new Palestinian government as soon as the new PLC is inaugurated."

What most people have missed is that the Palestinian State constitution mandates that security services remain in the hands of the PA President, while matters of social services and education are in the hands of the PA legislative body, now in the hands of the Hamas.

That means that Hamas will be able to change the curriculum in schools: by adding formal Islamic studies and emphasizing even more rejection of Israel than now exists in the Palestinian school system.

The current Palestinian school books, translated at www.edume.org, already teach non-recognition of Israel and no connection of the Jews to the land of Israel. Now these schools will get an Islamic stamp of hatred.

FAULTY INTELLIGENCE

Director of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin instructed the director of his control department to examine military intelligence assessments concerning the results of the Palestinian parliament elections and the landslide victory won by Hamas.

On October 27th. 2005, I met with senior Israeli intelligence officials to ask them why they thought that the Abbas regime was moving Palestinian society in a moderate direction. Their answer was that they simply "relied on Abbas", and that official PA incitement had lessened. When I pointed out to them that the virulent anti-semitism had continued in the PA media and PA school books, and that Moslem clerics employed by the PA media continued to preach hatred of Israel on official PA TV, the response of senior Israeli intelligence officials was that this was not what they considered to be "incitement", and that their definition of incitement was only when and if the PA media called directly for murder of Jews.

MOFAZ'S STRANGE ASSURANCE

Meanwhile, only hours after the Israeli government decision of January 29th to institute a boycott of the Palestinian Authority if Hamas would take part in the PA government, Israel Minister of Defence Shaul Mofaz told the Israeli media that "the Hamas is presently acting with total responsibility."

At the moment of Mofaz's statement that Hamas was behaving with "total responsibility," journalists Dr. Michael Widlanski and Dr. Aaron Lerner asked Hamas spokesman Musheer al-Masri if the Hamas charter calling for Israel's destruction would be changed. The answer that they received, on tape, was that "The Hamas charter will never be changed."

Mofaz was asked how the Hamas statement jives with his statement that "Hamas is presently acting with total responsibility." Mofaz would not comment.

PA WITH HAMAS LEGISLATURE WILL MANAGE ON THEIR OWN

At the same time, Palestine Monetary Authority Governor, George T'Abed, responded to threats from the US, Israel and the EU that they might stop funding by issuing press statement that -- Israel could block the transfer of funds to the PA from Iran or other Arab countries via the banking system in the West Bank and Gaza Strip." Saudi Arabia also announced that it would contribute its part to increasing its funds to the PA, if the US, Israel and the EU would withdraw funds to the Hamas-dominated PA.

The conclusion: The Palestinian Authority, having elected the Hamas as the dominant factor in its legislative council, will be able to go it alone, without funding from Israel or from the west.

David Bedein is bureau chief of the Israel Resource News Agency (www.IsrtaelBehindTheNews.com) in Jerusalem.

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REMEMBER WHAT I AM TELLING YOU TODAY
Posted by Nurit Greenger, January 30, 2006.

In "Transit Premier" Mr. Ehud Olmert and Israel's leadership:

Dear Madams/Sirs,

Now that Hamas in the Palestinians ruling party and leadership, you MUST stop allocating and dividing Israel to area A (completely under the control of Palestinian Authority and their thugs) and area B (under the security control of the Israeli army). If you do so, Jews of Jerusalem and other parts of the country are going to have to move. And so, this is how we turn Jerusalem and other growing community into a Hamas stronghold.

Now, you are making a big show of force on nine families in Hebron living in JEWISH OWNED PROPERTY THAT WAS EXPROPRIATED by the Arabs during the massacres in Hebron.

And so the perfidy begins, with, as usual, no one to even understand how it is happening. It creeps along slowly, and gently, without much fanfare.

Remember what I am telling you today, because in the future, don't say you didn't know about it. We are very tired of fighting the people who are running Israel into the ground. We are tired of one wrong decision following another at a disastrous pace and no one ever paying the price for it.

Now that everything that opponents of the disengagement said has come true, where are those responsible for this? I'll tell you where. They are making the decisions for the next disaster in the making. What I'm wondering though, is how many bad decisions can we make and still survive?! Interesting question?!

Mr. Olmert, you have no vision, the Israeli "leadership" has no vision, you are skating in the direction Mr. Sharon pulled you, without the sense to reevaluate and go back. Stop it or Israel will be NO MORE!

Though residing outside Israel, our heart is there each day of the week and we want to help to make things RIGHT for all JEWS.

Contact Nurit Greenger at aloritusa@hotmail.com

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HEBRON AND AMONA
Posted by Ethel Shwartz Bock, January 30, 2006.

STOP THE DISGUSTING, DISGRACEFUL AND UNLAWFUL ACTIONS AGAINST THE JEWS OF HEBRON AND AMONA.

I am a New York Jew who loves Israel passionately and find the actions of Olmert and his ilk as anti-semitic and anti-Israel as any actions taken by Palestinian terrorists. These politicians have joined forces with Hamas and Fatah against the Jewish people.

Contact Ethel S. Bock at esbock@worldnet.att.net

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THREATENED EVICTION OF JEWISH FAMILIES FROM JEWISH-OWNED LAND IN HEBRON
Posted by Robin Stone Einbinder, January 30, 2006.

I am an American lawyer, a conservative, a Jew, and a frequent visitor to the City of Hebron whenever my family is able to visit Israel. I am appalled by the proposed intentions of the Israeli Defense Forces to evict nine peaceful, law abiding Jewish families from their homes in JEWISH OWNED PROPERTY, which they occupy with the FULL CONSENT OF THE LEGAL OWNERS OF THE PROPERTY. The Israeli government speaks of maintaining Jerusalem, but forgets, or chooses to ignore, that Hebron is also one of the four holiest cities in Judaism and one which the Bible expressly states was purchased by our forefather, Abraham. I am especially disturbed since this action is being taken by an unelected caretaker government headed by Acting PM Olmert. The Supreme Court of Israel has ACKNOWLEDGED that the property at issue is Jewish-owned, notwithstanding false media claims to the contrary, and I understand that the legal owners would gladly execute leases to the residents if the government would permit them to do so. Surely, some compromise to keep these families in their homes should be possible.

The proposed evictions are especially difficult to understand given estimates of approximately 20,000 illegal Arab buildings in the eastern section of Jerusalem, more than 30,000 illegal Arab buildings throughout Israel, and MORE THAN 7,000 COURT-ORDERED EVICTION NOTICES AGAINST ILLEGAL ARAB BUILDINGS IN JUDEA AND SAMARIA (the so-called West Bank), which have NEVER been carried out. What purpose is accomplished by evicting nine peaceful families from their homes? Israel has not even found homes for those they evicted last summer from Gaza. Must more Jews become homeless?

The eviction of families from Gaza did not bring peace or any benefits. To the contrary, the eviction was clearly viewed as weakness by the local Arab population, which promptly voted for Hamas, an avowed terrorist organization, to become its government and continue its path of "resistance," i.e., murder and terrorism, with the clearly stated goal of destroying Israel. The eviction of families from Jewish-owned land in Hebron will send a similarly incorrect message and encourage further terrorism. Indeed, evicting Jews from Hebron will indicate that unlike the Arab population, which closely adheres to the Koran, the Jewish community speaks of its Bible but ignores the truths contained therein. If Israel evacuates Hebron, which our forefather purchased, and to which the Jewish people have, among others, both a historical and a legal claim (based on thousands of years of continuous residence in this holy city, except when barred by the British from entering, etc.), then what claim can Israel make to any other city or section of the country?

The people of Hebron have endured a campaign of intentional demonization as well as numerous terrorist attacks, and they deserve our praise and admiration. The families living in these homes (converted shops) are harming no one and neither evicted Arab families nor interfered with their livelihoods. All moral people of truth and good will should protest and object to the proposed eviction of these families.

Contact Robin Stone Einbinder by email at kareinlaw@yahoo.com

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APPLY LESSON FROM ISRAEL TO BUSH; REASON ARABS FAVORED HAMAS; SHARON'S LEGACY; DEADLY NAIVETE
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 30, 2006.

LEARN FROM ISRAEL TO WATCH BUSH

A current American controversy is whether Pres. Bush exceeded his powers and acted illegally in spying on Americans without court authorization. Some newspapers report each side's assertions but not the facts. Few of us know enough to offer a definitive opinion. I can state a principle to use in evaluating this issue.

The Bush Administration claims it has authority for such spying on the basis of a Congressional mandate to defend the country from terrorism. Members of Congress point out that the means the Administration used violates legal restrictions. Logically it is clear that specific restrictions modify general mandates for defense. Otherwise, the specific restrictions would be meaningless. Therefore, the President's argument is poor.

An instructive lesson about the abuse of power comes from Israel. Emergency measures authorized against terrorism are being applied to peaceable Jewish patriots. These include administrative detention and keeping people incarcerated until their trials, months later. Often these people are indicted for minor matters, such as attempting to "harm" police by throwing raw eggs at them or by scratching them. Actually, the police are savagely beating them for standing in the way of surrendering territory to the Arabs, who use such territory for making war on Israel. In this case, the government is not defending the country from terrorism but conducting it. It lays the country open to terrorist attack and undermines Jewish title to the country, itself. Thus a law supposed to be applied to only one element gets applied to others.

While the police beat up Jews for petty or fabricated charges, Arabs are rioting in the north of Israel. The Arabs threw rocks at police and civilians. No arrests reported and certainly no beatings. Why do Israeli police beat Jews and not Arabs (not that they should beat up either)? Afraid of the Arabs, or fascistic and antagonistic towards Jews?

A separate issue is the resentment one is entitled to feel at President Bush's having lied to the people by denying he had ordered the spying. His deceit bolsters critics who accuse this Administration of dissembling as a general policy and of a tendency towards fascism.. I don't believe the accusations that Bush lied about the need for the war in Iraq, but he does lie about environmental matters.

REASON FOR FAVORING HAMAS

P.A. voters express bitterness over P.A. corruption and not working in Israel. They are taking it out on the regime by favoring Hamas. Hamas, however, would keep up the war and keep Israeli jobs out of reach. The US is trying, with only partial success, to pressure Israel to let the P.A. Arabs come in and work (and help finance the war on Israel).

Neither the US, nor Israel, nor the P.A. acts in behalf of its own people. Hamas wouldn't, either. It is aggressive; war is not in the people's interest.

SAUDI SERMON AGAINST U.S.

A Saudi imam told his audience that excesses by a few souls is the pretext for a campaign defaming Islam. He did not specify the US but implied it in language clear to Muslims. He also made the perennially but never realized accusation that Israel seeks to destroy al-Aqsa mosque.

"While the Imam's sermon repeated the insistence that only a very few Muslims are involved in terrorism, much of the Muslim public favors such activity and denunciation is rare, except when committed against home countries. Furthermore, it is standard that ultimate causal blame is assigned to non-Muslim forces." (IMRA, 1/11.) Bush praised Islam more than deserved.

A Saudi doctoral dissertation gained public notice recently. It accuses a couple of hundred modern Arab intellectuals of heresy. The Islamic punishment for heresy is death. Threats, too, are a form of terrorism.

Not so few are involved in terrorism, when one considers the armies at war, the infrastructure of terrorist missions, and the support mechanism, including subsidizers, schools, media, and contributors to terrorist fronts posing as charities.

WHEN ACCUSERS FALL SILENT

The Left has been accusing settlers of chopping down olive trees belonging to Arabs. No settler has been convicted (though the leftist prosecutors would dearly love to do so.) There is no evidence for the accusation. Most settlers are religious, and cherish trees.

Other explanations about the trees have been have been proved, including Arab destruction of trees for insurance compensation. Arabs cut down trees in Israel for fuel, thanks to the high price of oil, or they set forest fires in Israel. The media and the accusers ignores this true vandalism in favor of false allegations against Jews.

The environmentalists and humanitarians also ignore the Arab cutting down of Jews (Prof. Steven Plaut, 1/11).

So much antisemitic hypocrisy by "progressives"!

ISRAELI GOVERNMENT COMPENSATION

The Sharon regime did not offer the successful farmers who pioneered agriculture in Gaza, and whom it expelled from Gaza, land or funds sufficient to replace their farms. Thousands of middle-aged people without other working skills are ruined (David Bedein of Israel News Resource Agency, 1/10).

The government had promised to take care of the people it was giving no choice but to abandon their businesses and property. If the government instead had admitted that it was going to ruin them, would its plan have passed? Such is Sharon's legacy.

DEADLY NAIVETE IN ISRAEL & U.S.

Some Israeli intellectuals suggest: (1) Israel can induce Iran not to develop nuclear weapons, by dismantling its own; or (2) Israel can live with a nuclear-armed Iran, just as the US did with the nuclear-armed Soviets (Prof. Steven Plaut, 1/10). Pres. Bush endorsed a Russian plan to let Iran partially enrich uranium and then sell it to Russia. During the months needed for negotiating the plan in detail, Iran could pursue its clandestine weapons development. The plan would enable Iran to gain nuclear knowhow afterwards. The plan is not economical, and the produce is inferior to what Russia produces, so there is some question whether Russia will buy it (NY Times, 1/27, A3).

The basic fallacy of the Israelis' suggestions is their assumption that Iran is reasonable.

Iran is fanatical. Its rulers' faith glorifies death and destruction, including self-destruction. Its President observed that Iran is so big that it can survive an Israeli nuclear retaliation, so it plans to wipe Israel out when it can. During Iran's war with Iraq, Iran sacrificed its own children to test for mine fields and masses of its own troops to charge into machinegun fire. Israel had better take his threat seriously. These intellectuals should study jihad, rather than make uninformed suggestions.

The Soviets, although totalitarian, too, were cautious. Besides, they could not survive a retaliation by the US, with its thousands of a-bombs and numerous means of launching them. No, Israel cannot live with a nuclear-armed Iran. There is a question whether Europe or the US can. They are being threatened, too. This threat is more as a deterrent against other Iranian aggression. I think that, too, is unacceptable.

The fanatics governing Iran would not be impressed by Israeli unilateral disarmament. (Israel's unilateral abandonment of Gaza won little friendship from the P.A..) Rather, it would encourage Iran and the Arabs, whose forces are greater than Israel's, to attack Israel with whatever it has, including weapons of mass-destruction.

The Arabs are striving for nuclear weapons. They would love nothing better than for their hitherto strong prey voluntarily to give up its chief deterrent to being overrun.

Why call ignorant morons "intellectuals" and authorize them to guide college youth?

As for Bush, he should know better than to trust Russia to monitor its chief customer, Iran. The deal is called face-saving for him, because he can pretend there's no need to bomb Iran. But it's just a pretense. Wonder if Russia would like Iran to bomb the US.

WHY LAMENT THE PASSING OF FATAH RULE?

Abbas let Hamas set up its own TV station in the P.A. (IMRA, 1/10). It's not just that he can't disarm Hamas, it's that he cooperates with Hamas.

Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com.

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NO TO THE HEBRON EXPULSIONS
Posted by Erik Boet, January 30, 2006.

NO, to rewarding terrorists,
NO, to negotiating with terrorists,
NO, to appeasing terrorists,fraud
NO, to giving away hard obtained land that was Jewish anyway (paid for twice!),
NO, to pleasing an anti-semitic world,
NO, to the destruction in Israel, --even if it's 'only' piece by pece,
NO, to the costs of the result this operation, --more human lives--
NO, to disbelieving God's promises,
NO, to the devil's peace,
NO, to the roadmap for Israel's annihilation,
NO, to consenting with the killing of Jews,
NO, to 'forbidden for Jews',
NO, to tyrannie,

may God grant you the prudence to choose for your own blessing,
the people of Israel and eventually that of the world.

Erik Boet,
(Christian)
The Netherlands

Contact Erik Boet at e.r.boet@planet.nl

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HANDING JERUSALEM TO HAMAS
Posted by Naomi Ragen, January 30, 2006.

I have an Arab village a five minute walk across a wadi from my home, which is a ten minute drive from the heart of Jerusalem. This village is called Beit Iksa. During the Six Day War, the villagers fled. Moshe Dayan begged them to come back, and promised no harm would come to them. They did. It is now situated between two Jewish neighborhoods, Ramot and Mevasseret, that have about 50,000 or more Jews living in each one. It is also near one of Jerusalem's major highways, the number one road. While it was well known that villagers were involved in hundreds of break-ins and thefts in both Ramot and Mevasseret, our police did nothing. During the Intifada, villagers regularly walk across the wadi and up the steps past my home to work in construction jobs in Ramot and elsewhere. This, even after terrorists were found with suicide belts in Ramot, and admitted they were planning to blow up a synagogue and a public bus.

The police never checked these workers. No one ever stops them, despite repeated phone calls and warnings. During the Oslo days, when we were marking villages as area A (completely under the control of Palestinian Authority and their thugs) and area B (under the security control of the Israeli army), Beit Iksa became a "B". Yesterday, a newspaper article in Haaretz revealed the security fence around Jerusalem is slated to be between Ramot and Beit Iksa. What this means, is that instead of fencing off Beit Iksa from terrorist infiltrations, they have made Ramot (and probably Mevasseret) the new border with the Hamas, now slated to move into Beit Iksa. In a tour of the area yesterday, Benjamin Netanyahu said it was outrageous. When he entered Beit Iksa, there were already armed Palestinian guards waiting for him there. Ehud Olmert, who is now making the decisions, even though no one elected him to be the head of the government after his failed stint as the corrupt Jerusalem Mayor, said clearly yesterday: "We are not changing the fence." And so, area B, now becomes Area A, without discussion or protest, and two peaceful communities of thousands of Jews are now sitting with Hamas on their doorstep. And for those of you who have hopes that our good relations with Beit Iksa will prevent this, I have some other news: In the elections, Beit Iksa voted one-hundred percent for Hamas.

Please understand what I am telling you. If Mr.. Olmert gets in, we Jews of Jerusalem are going to have to move. And so the perfidy begins, with no one to even understand how it is happening. It creeps along slowly, and gently,without much fanfare. Remember what I am telling you today, because in the future, don't say you didn't know about it. I am going to make an effort to organize my community against this. But I'm just one person, and frankly I'm tired. I'm tired of fighting the people who are running this country into the ground. I'm tired of one wrong decision following another at a disastrous pace and no one ever paying the price for it. Now that everything that opponents of the disengagement said has come true, where are those responsible? I'll tell you. They are making the decisions for the next disaster in the making. What I'm wondering though, is how many bad decisions can we make and still survive. Interesting question.

For those of you outside the country, if you'd like to discuss this with the Israeli government, such as it is, I have no doubt you can Google some addresses. I wish I had the heart to do it for you, but you know what, I just don't feel up to it today.

And so, this is how we turn Jerusalem into a Hamas stronghold,

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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THE JAR OF LIFE
Posted by Aish HaTorah, January 30, 2006.
Click here to see Aish.com's new 90 second movie. You'll be glad you did.

Aish HaTorah is a non-profit, apolitical network of Jewish educational centers, with 25 branches on 5 continents. Aish provides opportunities for Jews of all backgrounds to discover the beauty and meaning of their heritage in an atmosphere of open inquiry and mutual respect.

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A POTENTIAL HUMAN RIGHTS DISASTER IN HEBRON AND AMONA, ISRAEL
Posted by Buddy Macy, January 30, 2006.

Dear People of Conscience:

Please speak out against the imminent physical removal of nine Jewish families from Jewish-owned property in the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron. On Tuesday, thousands of police and Israeli Defense Forces will move in on the tiny community in Hebron, to expel the Jewish families from their homes. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is intent on carrying out the expulsions (as a political weapon), even though t he Supreme Court of Israel has acknowledged that the buildings in question are Jewish-owned property (contrary to false reports in the media that they are "Palestinian" shops.)

The Jewish leadership in Hebron tried to obtain leases for new tenants from the Israeli government, as a compromise, but the Olmert government rejected this plan, and it refuses to grant leases to any Jews on this Jewish-owned property in Israeli-controlled Hebron. Last August, Ariel Sharon expelled 9000 Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria. The U.S. Government was a major supporter of the "disengagement." This has proven to be a horrendous mistake, as it has caused misery amongst the Jewish children, adults and elderly forced to leave, and it has given Hamas tremendous confidence in its publicly announced quest to destroy the Jewish State. The withdrawals from Gaza and northern Samaria were viewed by the Palestinian people as a demonstration of significant weakness by the Israeli Government and military, and were the main reason for Hamas' victory in last week's elections.

As the expulsions take place on Tuesday, tens of thousands of armed Hamas and Fatah terrorists will continue to call for the destruction of Israel. There is still time to prevent this devastation. Let the world know that Israeli citizens have the right to live on Jewish-owned land, and that terrorism will not defeat democracy and a civilized society.

HEBRON EXPULSION ORDERED BY OLMERT

This Tuesday, the tiny Jewish property in Hebron will be cleared of all Jewish citizens, for no logical reason, whatsoever. The forces will be deployed in three rings: the first ring will be made up of 1,500 policemen trained to deal with violent protests, and it will also include mounted forces. The second rings will consist of several hundred Border Policemen, and the third ring will be made up of four infantry regiments.

Policemen will be responsible for direct conformation with the settlers, while the IDF will close off the area to incoming protesters.

The IDF issued a warrant Sunday declaring the Jewish section of Hebron a closed military area, and Jews who are not residents of the area will not be allowed entrance.

Security Minister Shaul Mofaz has declared that a policy of "zero tolerance" would be employed against settler violence, and IDF officers said that in this evacuation, they will "demonstrate only determination, without sensitivity." This represents a potential human rights disaster.

Settlers are planning a major solidarity conference Tuesday against the evacuation. Politicians, rabbis and academics are among those expected to attend the gathering.

The religious Jewish Chabad Movement is embarking on an "uncompromising struggle to prevent the expulsion of the Jews of Hebron." Chabad representatives paid a solidarity visit to Hebron Sunday.

Representatives of five Israeli political parties - Eli Yishai (Shas), Zevulun Orlev (NRP), Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu), Zvi Hendel (National Union), and Meir Porush (Agudath Israel) - sent a letter to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over the weekend urging him to postpone the evacuation of Amona and Hebron until after the elections, in line with the general principle that major, non-urgent decisions should not be made prior to an election.

In your capacity as one whose voice is listened to and respected by a large group of people, please speak out and write about the terrible injustice that is about to take place. Hopefully, the volume of our collective voices will prevent the needless suffering of more innocent Israeli citizens.

Thank you so much for your consideration of this extremely serious, human rights matter.

Most sincerely,
Buddy Macy

Contact Buddy May by email at vegibud@aol.com

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ROTARIANS ARE ENEMIES OF HUMANITY -- SO SAYS HAMAS!
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 29, 2006.

It seems odd that no journalist or editor, in any of the plethora of articles about Hamas since the recent Palestinian elections, has seen fit to educate readers as to the content of the "Hamas Covenant": the founding document and defining guide of what the State Department calls "the A Team of terrorists".

The prologue insists that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it". "Others before it?" Well, yes. Let's recall that for 1,300 years, from Spain to India, Islamic warriors ruthlessly destroyed four civilizations, killing tens of millions and enslaving millions more, obliterating their cultures, languages, and religions, replacing them with Islam -- at the point of a sword.

Then the Covenant Introduction states: "Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious." Notice that the enemy is JEWS, not Israelis; and note below, section 7.

In section 6 we learn that "The Islamic Resistance Movement... strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine". Not much room for Israel there.

In section 7 we learn that Mohammed has said: "The Day of Judgment will not come until Moslems fight the Jews, killing the Jews. When the Jews will hide behind stones and trees, the stones and trees will say 'O Moslems... there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him'" (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem: the two most accurate and reliable of the four main compilations of Mohammed's extra-Qur'anic teachings).

So now we must understand that Hamas' goal is not just the conquest of "Palestine". Hamas also has an end-of-days scenario that requires the destruction of all Jews everywhere (remember the Introduction!). So Hamas is now the only democratically elected political power in the world whose foundation agenda includes the genocide of the world's Jews, and whose sole defining paradigm is terrorism.

In section 11 we learn that "... the same goes for any land the Moslems have conquered by force." This is important. Spain, Greece, Sicily, Albania, Hungary, part of Rumania, the Balkan states... these countries too are all in Hamas' cross-hairs. I wonder how these countries feel about coming under Moslem rule again.

In section 13 we learn that "There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors." So how is Israel supposed to negotiate with Hamas?

And just in case the authors of this document might have left anyone out, they tell us that Freemasons and Rotary Clubs are also numbered among the enemy: "...(the Zionists) lackeys...are infiltrated through Zionist organizations under various names and shapes, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, espionage groups and others...The day Islam is in control of guiding the affairs of life, these organizations, hostile to humanity and Islam, will be obliterated."

Rotarians, did you know that you are hostile to humanity and Islam? Well, now you have been warned!

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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PREPARE!
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 29, 2006.

A worldwide addiction to processed prehistoric carbon atoms as the energy generator of choice imperils the long-term well being of Israel. Alas, if push comes to shove, the oil-bereft beleaguered Jewish democracy's best interests will be trumped by the proclivities of its sworn Arab and Persian enemies whose spindly talons grip the fossil fuel faucets affixed to the vicious viscous stuff that directly or indirectly energizes most Earthly mechanisms. The threat of global warming does not move the true movers and shakers of this planet, in fact policy decisions are made to scuttle compelling scientific data and dire consequential pronouncements. Big oil and its politico sycophants rule, concerned only with profit oriented bottom lines, not at all concerned with any planetary bottom line. Israel, of course, does not rate a sympathetic blip on such a radar screen whose best interests would likely be the butt of some anti-Semitic joke in any OPEC influenced corporate boardroom. What then does the mistreated stepchild of nations do?

Prepare! When the natural forces of this mistreated third stone from its sun push, Israel's peril will be no greater than those oblivious first, second, or third world collective populations who naively allow corporate and political predators to blithely ravage their one home in the universe. Already buried within a less than desirable desiccated region of the world, Israel has perhaps less to lose than say the continent of Europe, blessed with a relatively warm climate with respect to global latitude, wholly dependent on Dame Fortune's continuing smile manifest in the 'Atlantic Conveyor' flow a/k/a the 'Atlantic meridional overturning current', the Atlantic Ocean's heretofore perpetual heating channel between the tropics and cold northern waters. Alas, the journal Nature's recently published data suggests a weakening of this current by approximately 30 percent between 1957 and 2004, a direct result of glacier melt from global warming. Egad, does this imply Europe's half billion or so dwellers will need to adjust to comparably sized Canada's hearty climate, comfortably sustaining roughly 33 million souls? This could make the invasion of fundamentalist Islam a comparable walk in the park.

No doubt, other ill prepared regions of our imperiled planet will feel the heat (or perhaps cold) in a few decades or so, and not be able to get out of their metaphorical kitchens. By then the lion's share of fossil fuel reserves will have truly gone the way of the dinosaur; having done in Earth's climate while fueling houses, industries, and S.U.V.s of a thoughtless species; concurrently creating a staggering planet wide energy/economic crisis. Israeli scientists and planners, funded by prescient leaders, have little time to waste amidst the background noise created by hostile neighbors who have no clue. A cheap efficient energy alternative, for one, will be needed to replace dwindling oil supplies. Most importantly, strategies must be developed to cope with the worldwide adverse impacts of global warming. Israel could very well be a beacon in a sea of darkness, wrought by mankind's disregard for his only home in the universe. It would be wise to prepare for that role now.

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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HAMAS ELECTION CARTOONS
Posted by Simon Pilczer, January 29, 2006.

The first was created by Mike Luckovich, Atlantic Journal-Constitution; the second by D.T. Devareaux; the third by Cox and Forkum (www.coxandforkum.com).

Contact Simon Pilczer at pilczer@aol.com

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THEN AND NOW: TWO NOTES ON THE MANDATE
Posted by Professor Eugene Narrett, January 29, 2006.

Events in the Middle East during the past 50 years and more, events centering on Israel show that although America fought a war of Independence against Great Britain, and succeeded in establishing an accountable, dignified Constitutional Republic, in the Modern Era America's diplomatic establishment and then its media, and then its people (through taxation and its armed forces) have been co-opted by the British establishment and serve the interests it has pursued since 1919 -20.

In this regard America and Americans are NOT free and independent: we are dis-informed dependents used by the British elites to accomplish their goals of world dominion.

We have examined this subject often (e.g. "Endtime Curiosities," I & II). Today let us look briefly at two passages in Samuel Katz's invaluable study, Battleground (3rd edition, 1983, re-printed 2002, Taylor books) that emphasize the strangling continuity of Mandate policies and attitudes

Consider this first person account of a soldier in a batalion guarding against an Arab uprising aided, abetted, even ignited by the soldier's own leaders:

"At night, when we are guiding the line against the Arabs who come to blow it up, we often see them at work but are forbidden to fire at them. We may only fire into the air and they, upon hearing the [rifles'] report, mae their escape. But do you think we can give chase? Why, we must instead go on our hands and knees and fine every]spent cartridge-case which must be handed in or woe betide us." (chapter 3, page 74, "The Origin of the Dispute").

Some readers may already have recognized the similarity, the near identity to the situation of IDF soldiers since the Oslo process began: forbidden to fire at the would-be murderers of their people and families, and the destroyers of their state. Instead, for every warning shot [!] they fire, being forced to retrieve the spent cartridges so their compliance with the surrender policy can be monitored and they can be disciplined if necessary.

IDF soldiers have been threatened, dispirited and de-sensitized this way since the days of Labor's havlaga (against Arabs) in the 1930s and in the suicidally flaccid response to Arab violence since. It is not only America, from the elites to the grunts, who servilely follow British policy, but Israel to, from the willing, high-placed 'buttons' to the poor grunts in the field who often pay with life or limb for the "restraint" of their masters.

But when it comes to expelling or ghettoizing Jews the pent-up frustration and ferocity are unleashed..... just as they were against Jabotinsky & his original Haganah in the 1920s and against Etzel and Lehi in the 1940s and subsequently against Begin, until, and even after he toed the "Palestinian people" line at Camp David.

The remarks of the British soldier cited above were first printed in the London Journal, New Statesman and Nation, September 20, 1936.

Item two is the pan-Arab dream hatched in Whitehall (place of the British Foreign Ministry), or more specifically, in the Cairo offices of Britain's diplomatic establishment that eventually won control for its agenda of the entire Ministry and British media outlets and British government policy. That geo-strategic grand plan was for a nominally independent Arab world functionally dependent on Britain and its allies for money, technology, food, strategic direction and apologias. Thus Britain chopped up the Ottoman Empire's holdings in the Middle East into numerous quasi independent Arab led nations (filled for millennia with non-Arab peoples) that could be held together by one obsession only: hatred of Jews and of the idea of an independent Jewish state.

"The Palestine" [sic] issue was the instrument to bring about such a policy... it became an understood fact of British policy that the Arab states [it had created] had a right to intervene in the affairs of Palestine." Thus, Britiain "invited the Arab rulers to the 'Round Table Conference' of 1939 where they refused to meet the Jewish leaders, an attitude enshrined in the White Paper that immediately followed," the White Paper ofo 1939 being a British government executive decision to severely restrict Jewish emigration (15,000/year maximum) and that number only if the Arabs agreed: they did not.

And thus Britain's policy was a major cause of the near - extinction of European Jewry as it earlier had been in severing the Gilead, etc ["Transjordan"] from the Jewish State and in creating a Pan - Arab bloc unified by a British-enflamed hatred of Jews. Thus the Arab League, "first mentioned by Anthony Eden in 1941 and created in 1945" became and remains the public sign of all efforts to destroy the Jewish state by a combination of diplomatic schemes, media vilification, and the relentless, Western-supplied and financed Arab war of attrition against Israel (Battleground, 78-9).

Today, with the invaluable help of American pressure, threats and suasion, Britain again nears its goal, a unified semi-dependent, but volatile Islamic state stretching from Mosul and Basra to the Mediterranean. If their Arab tools had been pliable, in 1937 they would have had this done. The fact that their tool turns in their hand and wounds them so often (eg. the pro-Nazi coup in "Iraq" in 1940; and 7/07/05) and yet they have never discarded it shows how intensely they are committed to their anti-Jewish geo-strategic goal. The fact that America's diplomatic establishment has been committed, with slightly varying degrees of fervor or hesitation to this goal since the Evian conference of 1938, indicates the forces arrayed against Jewish Israel.

But the Anglo-American powers pushing this end game do not have solid backing from their publics for it, especially not in America. If Israel had governments that cared about Jews and Jewish land, the scheme would halt or at least suffer major impairments and delays. However, the opposite is the case. Historical review thus makes clear that Israel must have regime change if it is to extricate itself from the lethal game long being played against it.

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HISTORICAL FACTS ON ISRAEL-PALESTINE ISSUE
Posted by Iran Political Club, January 29, 2006.

This is archived as http://iranpoliticsclub.net/club/viewtopic.php?t=559

Comrades:

History has been often twisted & obscured. Pro Palestinian Rights (So Called) Activists, have been feeding stories with no historical values to the public. Amazingly, public often grasps these stories & believes them, simply because not many people are historians nor familiar with historical facts. Now, I would like to talk about my stands, yet with historical evidence. I am a man of science & history. Logical reasoning is my game & I do not fall for hypes which influences the emotional feelings of the public!

Let's do a historical analysis & take a journey to the roots of the problem & let me respond to all, about my stands & why do I take this stand on this issue.

Let's for once & for all, get this situation sorted out in IPC & beyond, can we?

Specifically for the Liberal Faction of IPC who believes that Israelis occupied Palestine & kicked them out of their lands into exile & they are wondering how come I take sides with Israel, even though I am an Atheist, yet both Palestinians & Israelis are religious fanatics (so said) & believe that the land is their God given right!

Let me clarify this once & for all.

First,

Palestine was never ever an independent nation since the beginning of history! This is not fiction, this is a fact. There was never ever an independent nation called Palestine which was made up of Palestinian Arabs residing in the region of what we call Israel now. Therefore, Israel could have never taken over the land which has never actually belonged to Palestinians & kick them out of their own land! Furthermore, Israeli's according to historical facts have been creating an independent Jewish Nation since 1000 - 923 BC which was The Kingdom of David. Let's go back in history since the beginning & check out what has been happening in the land of Israel or Palestine from beginning until now:

History of Israel-Palestine:

3000-1468 BC:
Canaanites
Palestine is known as "Land of Canaan" settled by the Canaanites, mainly along the coastline.

1468-1200 BC:
Egyptian Control
Egypt conquers the Canaanites in 1468 BC at the battle of Armageddon in Magiddo. Egyptian control of Canaan continues until 1200 BC.

1200-975 BC:
The Philistines (Cretian Greeks)
The Sea People, thought to have come from the island of Crete, attack Canaan under the Egyptians and destroy Canaanite cities. A large number of the Sea People (later known as the Philistines) settle in Palestine and rebuild the coastal towns of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashqal, Ekron, and Gath.

1000-923 BC:
The Kingdom of David
David becomes king of the Jews. He unites the Israelites, builds a strong army and captures Jerusalem from the Jebusites (Canaanites in origin).

923-722 BC:
The Southern Kingdom of Judea, The Northern Kingdom of Israel
The Canaanite Phoenicians lose major parts of their land to the Israelites. At this time, the kingdom of Judah was poor and cut off from trade with the kingdom of Israel to the North, by Trans-Jordan to the East, by the Philistines to the West and by the desert to the South.

925-700 BC:
The Phoenicians
Building their naval trade sea power in Mediterranean, also controlled the present land called Israel.

700-612 BC:
The Assyrian Empire
The Assyrians defeat and destroy Samaria leading to the collapse of the kingdom of Israel.

586-539 BC:
Babylonian Empire
The Babylonians, from Iraq, invade the Assyrian City of Neynava, defeating the Assyrians. Babylonian King Nebuchadnezar II conquers the Philistines and Phoenicians and appoints a puppet king, Zedekiah, in Jerusalem. They destroy Jerusalem and burn down Solomon's Temple. So basically by this time, Jewish Kingdoms of Israel & Judea had been destroyed by Assyrian & Babylonian Empires.

539-332 BC:
Persian Empire
The Persian forces invade and destroy Babylonian power, occupying the areas under Babylonian control. Free Babylon from Tyranny but leave them to pray to their religion & Gods. Persians freed Jews from slavery & relocated them back to Jerusalem. Cyrus The Great declared the first Human Rights document in the world called The Cyrus Cylinder. Cyrus freed over 42,000 Jews from Slavery of Babylon.

332-63 BC:
Macedonian Greeks
Soon after crushing the revolt in Palestine, the Persian army was attacked by Macedonian Greeks under the leadership of Alexander the Great Drunken Homosexual Pervert.

63 BC-636 AD:
Roman Empire
The Roman general, Pompeii the Great, invades Palestine. After civil war, the emperor Caesar maintains control over the districts of Judea, Samaria and Galilee.

636-1260 AD:
The Arabo_Islamic Empire
Palestine becomes an integral part of the Arab world.

1099-1291 AD:
The Crusaders
The Crusaders, for five weeks, surround and attack the city wall of Jerusalem, and later spread their control over the entire area of Palestine.

1187-1253 AD:
The Ayubid Arabs
At the famous battle of Hitin in 1187 AD, Salah el Din al Ayubi defeats the Crusader army in Palestine.

1253-1516 AD:
The Mamluks
The Turkish Mamluks expel the last of the Crusaders from Palestine in 1291.

1516-1918:
The Ottoman Turks Rule
The Ottoman army invades Palestine after decimating the Mamluk cavalry. The Turks rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. Ottomans ruled the whole or most of the Near East @ times, from North Africa to Middle East during this era.

1831-1840:
The Egyptian Rule
Egypt invades Palestine in 1831, lifting Palestine out of its depression.

1917-1948:
The British Mandate/Protectorate
After World War I, Great Britain defeat Turkish Ottoman troops and enter Palestine. British occupation continues until Britain loses control over the situation and leaves. In this era, Palestine was basically under Anglo control of the region or known as a Protectorate of UK.

1948:
The creation of the State of Israel
During and after the 1948 war, 800,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their homes and villages. 418 villages were depopulated and demolished. High price of creating a Jewish State but somebody had to pay it!

1967-1993:
Israeli occupation of Gaza, West Bank, Golan Heights, and Sinai Israel occupies the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, Sinai, and Golan Heights during the war of 1967.

1993-present:
Israeli occupation and the Palestinian National Authority This time is characterized by the signing of the Declaration of Principles which established limited Palestinian self-rule. Settlement building and expansion continues despite the peace process. Arafat did not accept the best offer that he would have ever receive from Israel. Arafat betrayed Palestine by not accepting this agreement (Oslo Agreement).

Second,

So as you see there was never ever an independent Palestinian nation in the history of the world! But there was a Jewish independent nation as far back as 1000-923 BC: The Kingdom of David! So as far as who had the right to the deed first, it is obvious that Jews had it. Not many people know this fact, simply because not many people are historians!

Huge Palestinian propaganda going on & on about how the land was theirs & the Jewish oppressors took their land & kicked them out & bla bla bla......will not let the public opinion to actually study the history & think for themselves, but they follow Palestinian Arab propaganda & they take it for granted that it is the undisputed fact! If Arabs made to move from the land after 1948, so were Jews that been mass murdered & forced to be moved from a variety of Arab lands from Mecca all the way to Jerusalem & Palestine, throughout the history & since the very first episode in which Muhammad The Prophet personally massacred them in Mecca (Early Islamic Massacre of Jewish Tribes)!

Third,

Have in mind that on 925-700 BC: The Phoenicians control, had occurred. The Phoenicians even though not Palestinians, yet back then occupied the land, colonized it & add it to their territory. They were basically from the land that we call Lebanon today. So if by a slim chance, Arabs want to consider Phoenicians as fellow Arab Hemites & ancestors to present Palestinians, then still we must have in mind that they appeared about 925 BC to take absolute control & way after the Jews which have appeared in 1000 BC!

Fourth,

Israelis practically settled in the land just like they been doing for thousands of years, just like Palestinians been doing the same thing.

Fifth,

Now this is crucial & very important, so please pay attention, during Barak's time, Palestinians & Arafat could get the best deal possible from Israel. Israeli Government had put an offer on the table to give about:

95% of the absolute control of the West Bank & Gaza Strip & 1/2 of Jerusalem to Palestinian New Government so they can create their own country for the first time in the history of the world. Corrupted thief Arafat & his lap dog spokes woman, that ugly Arab woman Dr. Hannan Ashrawi did not accept this! It is like,

you give them a toe, they want a foot
you give them a foot, they want the whole leg!

He wanted a better deal! Well, now, Arafat & Ashrawi can chew on Sharon's Schlong! The poor Palestinian people are victims of Arafat's Greed, Corruption & Treason!

So eventually Israel said the fandango with them! And now the situation is where it is today! Groups like Hamas do not even want the existence of government of Israel, they want to throw the Jews in Mediterranean Sea!

Sixth,

Now let's pay attention here about my stand:
This is not true that I take sides here behind the Jews & against the Arabs! This is also not true here that I take sides with Zionists against Palestinians!

But I simply support Israel against Palestinian Terrorist Groups.

Why?

1. Except these 24 years of IRI, Israel was & is the natural ally to Iran. Israel & Iran are two major non Arab powers of the region drowned in the sea of Arabs in the Near East. It is only logical for them to have close ties to survive.

2. There are about 100,000 Persians living in Israel as citizens, residents, visitors, etc. Persian Jews are a major economical factor in Israel, a link between our two culture.

3. Cyrus freed over 42,000 Jews from slavery of Babylon. Cyrus has been called the Great Rescuer & savior of The Jews. This is in history, in Bible, in Torat & every other historical document. 4. Every known Palestinian political group as of now, including PLO, Hamas, Jihad, etc. are Terrorist Organizations receiving finance, military training, support from Islamic Republic of Iran.

5. Palestinian Guerillas/PLO have been a great factor in:

a) training Iranian Islamic Guerillas in Palestine & pre 1979
b) directly participating in Islamic Revolution of Iran @ 1979
c) indirectly supporting the Islamic Revolution of Iran @ 1979

6. Arafat personally danced in the victory party of Imam Khomeini in Tehran, kissed his hands & cheered.

7. Since 1979, until this day, there has been a great number of Palestinian Pasdars (Revolutionary Guards) working as Mercenaries in Iran & their numbers are getting larger every year, specially in times of riots by Iranian Students/Freedom Fighters to overthrow the Islamic Regime. These Mercenaries come handy to crush all freedom movements in Iran. Many of Iranian Pasdars have been refusing to open fire on Iranian people or crack Iranian people's heads, but Palestinian PLO or Lebanese Hezbollah members of Sepahe Pasdaran gladly do these tasks. Iranian Mullahs can absolutely rely on Palestinian Pasdars & Foreign Legion of Sepah Pasdaran to crack Iranian Stuent's & Freedom Fighter's Heads.

8. PLO has been officially having close ties with IRI. The Islamic Regime has a yearly salary for Arafat & PLO & every other Palestinian Group in Palestine to support Terrorism.

9. Arafat has no intention of creating a peaceful Palestinian nation to co exist with Israel as it's neighbor. Arafat & other Palestinian Leaders love to create yet another terrorist nation next to Israel, just like Syria, Libya or Ex Baathi Iraq (Saddom Era).

10. Until there is not a legal, elected democratic government system elected by Palestinians as their leaders & until they give their word of honor to create a peaceful nation in West Bank/Gaza next to Israel, then Israel must continue retaliating with extreme measures against the Arabo_Muslim Terrorists of Palestinian kind!

11. Arabo-Muslim Terrorism is the present enemy of civilization & civilized world. Palestinian Groups like PLO, Al Jihad (both Egyptian & Palestinian branch), Al Hamas, Hezbollah of Lebanon & others are nothing but little miserable terrorist groups as tentacles of the Mother Octopus Terrorist Bank "Islamic Republic of Iran". By all means I support the destruction of IRI & all it's satellites from Bosnia to Palestinian Puppet Terrorist Organizations.

12. State of Israel is the only Democracy in the Near East.

13. All of my reasons to take side here are political, for world's security, for civilized World, for Benefits of Iran & Persians, & on logical bases. I am an Atheist & do not care for Judaism or Zionism. However, I strongly believe that Islam is not just another religion, yet it is a dangerous political ideology.

14. We are @ war here with Global Terrorism & Palestinian Muslim Terrorist Groups are part of the problem just like Al Qaeda.

Conclusion:

Clear as a whistle it is! I am a Freedom Fighter to free Iran from IRI but my higher duty is that I am a Freedom Fighter fighting against global Tyranny of Islamic Terrorism to save the Civilized World! Do you need any other reasons that why I support the state of Israel & why I take a stand against all Palestinian Terrorist Groups?! I believe by now I have responded to many questions on my stands coming from outside of IPC & even inside of IPC or from Comrades such as Queen, Zen James, & others.

Now I have a question for you guys:

Give me one good reason that I should not take Israel's side in this conflict & take the side of Palestinian Terrorist Groups on this issue?!

I hope I clarified myself.

Fighting for The Civilized World against Nomadic Barbarianism,

AX

Contact The Iran Political Club at IranPoliticsClub@aol.com. "Iran Politics Club supports the fight to establish Freedom, Secularism, Federalism, Human Rights and Democracy in Iran."

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THE MISSING CHAPTERS FROM THE BOOK OF JOSHUA
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 29, 2006.

We have discovered that there were actually several chapters in the Biblical book of Joshua that were lost for millennia and only recently rediscovered. We bring them to you here for the first time:

And after conquering many of the lands of the Canaanites, Joshua came to speak with the Lord and said unto him, Oh Lord we seem to be having failure to communicate with the Children of Israel."

And the Lord asked, "Tell Me, My son, what seems to be the problem?"

And Joshua said to the Lord, "Well things were going just fine at first. We were kicking Canaanite butt right and left and they were everywhere in flight. Victory was in sight. But then the Israelites sent a delegation to them with a proposal for a change in plans. 'We wish to reach a compromise with the Canaanites,' they told me.

"Yep, I know it is hard to believe, but these Children of Israel demanded that we stop the campaign to conquer our promised land and instead seek a compromise by splitting the Land of Israel fifty-fifty with the savages. Never mind that THEY aleady own all the land from the Atlantic to Central Asia! The Israelite dimwits are demanding that we offer the Canaanites half of the country, including the territories holding most of the holy sites and shrines from the period of the Patriarchs."

"You are not just yanking My chain here, Joshua?" asks the Lord.

"I am serious, oh Lord. But it gets worse! These people are suggesting that we let the Canaanites organize their own militias and army, right here in Jericho, Shechem and Hebron. They claim these militias will be used to suppress Canaanite radicals and terrorists. They then want the Levites to collect a tithe of 10% of the income and property of the Israelites and hand it over to the Canaanites. They claim they want to try to swap land for peace with the pagans. And they even want to let the Canaanites set up altars of their own in Jerusalem after we conquer it!"

"Now hold on to your heifers here, Joshua! I thought we had an understanding?

"I thought Moses had made it clear to these people that their job is to impose their sovereignty over the entire area I promised them! They have no right to 'compromise' with My Land. They have no permission or mandate to trade My land for peace.

"Their job is to exercise the military option and to achieve unchallenged victory. The only compromise they are authorized to offer the Canaanites is to demand their unconditional surrender and maybe allow them to hold commuting day jobs as cutters of wood and drawers of water."

"Hey, I am on Your side, your Lordness," answers Joshua. "But what can I do? The tribesmen claim we held an election and the 'peace camp' won."

"We will see about that," says the Lord. "If these stiff-necked dingbats refuse to see reason, if they refuse to take the initiative and impose their sovereignty over the entire territories and lands that have been granted by Me to them, then We will have to take measures that leave them with no choice but to declare war on the savages! We will have to create the conditions under which they have no choice but to attack the Canaanites, to use military force, and to achieve victory."

"You're the Boss," says Joshua. "You show the way!"

And the days pass and the Canaanites begin to snipe at the passing Israelites with blowguns and crossbows.

"Ah, You clever One," says Joshua to the Lord. Surely, this will bring them to their senses. Surely now they will realize there can be no territorial compromise with the pagans and that the only way to deal with them is through military initiative and conquest."

But lo, more days go by and the tribal chiefs simply expand their dialogue and talks with the Canaanite terrorist leaders. "It is not working, oh Lord," says Joshua.

"We will see about THAT," responds the Almighty.

In the coming days the Canaanites escalate their conflict. They start sending epistle bombs, consisting of parchment wrapped around explosives, to homes of the Israelites. They invade several villages of Israelites and burn down their homes. They fire catapults randomly into Israelite civilian homes.

"Any progress yet, Joshua?", asks the Lord.

"Alas," answers Joshua, "they are responding to these new atrocities by demanding that we turn over even more territory to the savages and give them more chariots and weapons, as well.

"Time to turn up the heat some more," says the Lord. "This will surely put the fight into them and fire in their bellies."

In the coming days the Canaanites send out gangs of assassins to roam the roads and fields of the Israelites and to murder them.

"But," Joshua explains, "EVEN THIS is not producing the needed change. The Israelites suggest that we just give up their our flags and psalms, and instead adopt those that are less offensive to Canaanite sensitivities. They want to teach Canaanite poetry and philosophy in their schools. Israelite universities teach about the tragedy that has befallen the Canaanites from the Israelite migration across the Jordan, and several teachers in Israelite universities erect Canaanite flags and banners with images of Baal and Moloch on them."

"You don't seriously mean to tell Me that the morons are still trying to make peace with the murdering barbarians?" the Lord asks Joshua. "Maybe You should have given them some more common sense and IQ points back at Mount Sinai instead of so many commandments?" suggests Joshua.

"No more Mister Nice Guy," answers the Almighty.

The Canaanites escalate further. They place large bombs aboard the public transit chariots of the Israelites. They murder Israelite children. They blow up Israelite universities and nightclubs. They murder Israelites engaged in the Passover sacrifice. They scream that they will annihilate all the Israelites. They demand that pagan armies from all over the world come join in the campaign of annihilation. They dress up their own people, including their children, with explosives beneath their cloaks and place camel bombs in the Israelite marketplaces.

The campaign of atrocities makes the Plagues against Egypt seem like children's games. The carnage continues, all as part of the Divine program to force the Israelites to take up arms, to impose their will on the savages, to defeat them militarily and to exercise sovereignty.

The lands of Israel became the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The Divine re-education of the Israelites proceeds with no rest.

"They will be goaded into military victory over the Canaanites or My name is not Oh You Know What," comes a voice from the sky.

"There is no alternative," declares the voice from the sky to Joshua. "I was hoping I would not have to do THIS. But these dullards give Me no choice. Since nothing else will work, I will eliminate all choice for them.

The Canaanite heathens will hold an election and I will ensure that the Amalekite Hamasniks win the election, and then the morons will stop with the games and realize that they just have no choice! That they have to stop make-pretend peace process games and - instead - take up their weapons and GO TO WAR!. I regret I had to use this, but what choice did they leave Me?"

Months go by and turn into years. The carnage toll skyrockets. Not a single family of Israelites remains untouched. And when things could not possibly go on even a single day longer, the Israelite tribe leaders at last come up with a plan of action and present it to Joshua. "Ok, Son of Nun," they tell Joshua, "we give up. We are ready to do what must be done.

"We have decided on a unilateral cease-fire combined with goodwill measures towards the Canaanites, plus an offer to recognize an independent Amalekite Hamas Canaanite state with Mount Moriah as its Capital, plus talks at the White Pyramid overseas, and in the meantime we will allow the Canaanites to operate their diplomatic altars in Jerusalem, while we disarm ourselves further to show we seek peace and we will issue an apology for any Canaanites that might have been killed by our troops while shooting back at attacking Amalekite hordes."

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. Contact him by email at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il

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THE COVENANT OF THE HAMAS: MAIN POINTS
Posted by IsrAlert, January 29, 2006.

This is from www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/1980_1989/ THE+COVENANT+OF+THE+HAMAS+-+MAIN+POINTS+-+18-Aug-8.htm

The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement was issued on August 18, 1988. The Islamic Resistance Movement, also known as the HAMAS, is an extremist fundamentalist Islamic organization operating in the territories under Israeli control. Its Covenant is a comprehensive manifesto comprised of 36 separate articles, all of which promote the basic HAMAS goal of destroying the State of Israel through Jihad (Islamic Holy War). The following are excerpts of the HAMAS Covenant:

Goals of the HAMAS:

"The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine." (Article 6)

On the destruction of Israel:

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." (Preamble)

The exclusive Moslem nature of the area:

"The land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Holy Possession] consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day. No one can renounce it or any part, or abandon it or any part of it." (Article 11)

"Palestine is an Islamic land... Since this is the case, the Liberation of Palestine is an individual duty for every Moslem wherever he may be." (Article 13)

The call to jihad:

"The day the enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In the face of the Jews' usurpation, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised." (Article 15)

"Ranks will close, fighters joining other fighters, and masses everywhere in the Islamic world will come forward in response to the call of duty, loudly proclaiming: 'Hail to Jihad!'. This cry will reach the heavens and will go on being resounded until liberation is achieved, the invaders vanquished and Allah's victory comes about." (Article 33)

Rejection of a negotiated peace settlement:

"[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement... Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam... There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility." (Article 13)

Condemnation of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty:

"Egypt was, to a great extent, removed from the circle of struggle [against Zionism] through the treacherous Camp David Agreement. The Zionists are trying to draw other Arab countries into similar agreements in order to bring them outside the circle of struggle. ...Leaving the circle of struggle against Zionism is high treason, and cursed be he who perpetrates such an act." (Article 32)

Anti-Semitic incitement:

The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him." (Article 7)

"The enemies have been scheming for a long time ... and have accumulated huge and influential material wealth. With their money, they took control of the world media... With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the globe... They stood behind the French Revolution, the Communist Revolution and most of the revolutions we hear about... With their money they formed secret organizations - such as the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs and the Lions - which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests... They stood behind World War I ... and formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains... There is no war going on anywhere without them having their finger in it." (Article 22)

"Zionism scheming has no end, and after Palestine, they will covet expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates River. When they have finished digesting the area on which they have laid their hand, they will look forward to more expansion. Their scheme has been laid out in the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion'." (Article 32)

"The HAMAS regards itself the spearhead and the vanguard of the circle of struggle against World Zionism... Islamic groups all over the Arab world should also do the same, since they are best equipped for their future role in the fight against the warmongering Jews." (Article 32)

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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HAMAS PLEDGES TO FORM ARMY, PROMISES TO CONTINUE TERROR ATTACKS
Posted by Hillel Fendel, January 29, 2006.

The Hamas terrorist group, days after winning a landslide victory in the PA elections, is calling for the creation of an army even larger than the current 60,000-man force.

"We will form an army like every other country," Hamas chief Khaled Meshal said Saturday at a press conference in Syria. "This army will defend our people against aggression." Explaining what he meant by defending against aggression, Meshal said that Hamas would continue to carry out attacks on Israeli civilians. "Our presence in the legislature will strengthen the resistance," he said.

Hamas, which popularized the tactic of suicide bombing to the Middle East, won 76 of the 132 seats last week in elections to the Palestinian Authority (PA) parliament.

Meshal said that Hamas would honor commitments made by the PA to Israel, provided that those commitments "serve Palestinian interests." Meshal had been asked about the possibility of ammending the Hamas charter, which calls for the annihilation of the Jewish state and its replacement with a state run according to Islamic law.

The Hamas spokesman also expressed what is being lauded in the world media as a hint of moderation. "We are realistic and we know things are done gradually," Meshal said. "Being against the occupation does not mean that I can eliminate Israel in mere seconds."

He invited Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group to join a Hamas-led government. "We believe it is in everybody's interest to ride the Hamas train, because this train will reach its destination," he said. "We extend our hand to everyone. We need each other."

Meanwhile, hundreds of Fatah members marched in Ramallah on the grave of Fatah- founder Yasser Arafat, protesting the group's poor showing under Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). Abbas's security prevented the armed group from reaching the Fatah chairman's office. Earlier Saturday, armed Fatah members took over the parliament buildings in Judea and Gaza, shooting in the air. Cars and tires were also burned outside the building in Gaza.

Some demanded the resignation of Fatah politicians, while Al Aksa Brigades terrorists declared publicly that they would kill Fatah members who joined a Hamas government.

Attacks between the two terrorist groups spiked over the weekend. Hamas and Fatah terrorists exchanged fire in Gaza Saturday morning after two Fatah members working as PA police officers were wounded by a Hamas attack in Khan Younis. Another attack took place on Friday night. An earlier brawl injured three Friday afternoon.

Amid international threats to cut aid to a Hamas-led PA, Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh said that alternative funding would be found. "This aid must not be a sword held over the heads of the Palestinian people and will not be allowed to blackmail our people, Hamas and the resistance."

Haniyeh made his statement after the US threatened to eliminate the funds it gives each year to the PA.

Meshal attacked international governments for criticizing the democratic choice of the Arabs of the PA. "The world should respect the results of democracy," Meshal said. "If you want to punish the Palestinian people for practicing democracy then the Americans should be punished for choosing President Bush."

Meanwhile, Shimon Peres said Friday that Israel would engage in talks with Hamas if the party "abandoned terrorism." It is unclear whether statements to that effect or a temporary cease-fire would suffice. "Israel will have to see where [Hamas] are going," Peres told the BBC, "back to the road of violence and terror, or ahead to the route of peace. They didn't take yet a decision. They weren't prepared for this victory."

Oslo architect and Meretz Party leader Yossi Beilin told Israel Radio that Israel was to blame for the Hamas victory. "Israel played a large role in weakening the Palestinian Authority and strengthening Hamas," Beilin said. "The unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, not as a part of an agreement with Abu Mazen, greatly strengthened Hamas," he said.

This was written by Hillel Fendel and appeared in today's Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews.com).

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OVER 300,000 AT FUNERAL OF WORLD'S SENIOR KABBALIST RABBI
Posted by Mordechai Ben-Mordechai, January 29, 2006.

This was written by Hillel Fendel and appeared in today's Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews.com).

Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri, known as the "Senior Kabbalist Elder," passed away last night in Jerusalem. Over 300,000 people participated in his funeral. Rabbi Kaduri, who commemorated his 105th birthday several months ago, had been in serious condition for the last two weeks in Bikur Cholim Hospital, where he was cared for by his personal physician.

Police closed off Jerusalem streets for the Sunday afternoon funeral, which became one of the largest ever in a city known for large funerals. The funeral began at noon at Yeshivat Nachalat Yitzchak, in the Bucharim neighborhood, between Geulah and Shmuel HaNavi. Rabbis Ovadiah Yosef and Mordechai Eliyahu eulogized him, as did President Moshe Katzav. Rabbi Kaduri was buried in the Mt. Menuchot cemetery.

Students of the righteous rabbi say that the blessing of the Ben Ish Chai (considered the leading rabbi of Sephardic Jewry, d. 1904) and that of the Lubavitcher Rebbe - both of whom blessed him that he might live to see the Final Redeemer - came true. The rabbi's closest followers say that Rabbi Kaduri told them he met the Messiah on Cheshvan 9, 5764 (Nov. 4, 2003). He reportedly said that the Messiah is not promoting himself, and that a study of his [Rabbi Kaduri's] words in recent months would provide hints of his identity.

"He is not saying, 'I am the Mashiach, give me the leadership.' Rather the nation is pushing him to lead them, after they find [in my words] signs showing that he has the status of Mashiach." So said Rabbi Kaduri to one of his close relatives.

Rabbi Kaduri was also quoted of late as saying that the imminent arrival of the Mashiach will "save Jerusalem from Islam and Christianity that wish to take Jerusalem from the Jewish Nation - but they will not succeed, and they will fight each other."

This past Yom Kippur, shortly after Hurricane Katrina, Rabbi Kaduri said, "Jews must come to the land of Israel to receive our righteous Mashiach, who has begun his influence and will reveal himself in the future."

Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, spiritual leader of much of Sephardic Jewry in Israel today, announced, "We are in mourning over the Elder of the Kabbalists, a remnant of the Great Assembly, Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri."

Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger expressed his great sorrow "over the taking of the great righteous Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri, of blessed memory. He was a great and humble tzaddik [righteous person]. In his greatness, he dedicated his days and nights to blessing Jews, to pray for Israel, and he felt the pain of those who turned to him for all their troubles. Rabbis from around the country and the world admired him and asked for his blessing."

A statement released by President Moshe Katzav's office said the president "is pained by the death of the important and accomplished rabbi whose reputation is world-renowned. Rabbi Kaduri, one of the great rabbis of the Jewish People, was noted for his love of Israel and in his second-to-none expertise in Kabbalah, contributed to Jewish unity, and was a source of inspiration for the Jewish People in Israel and around the world."

Rabbi Kaduri came to the Holy Land in 1923, where he learned in Yeshivat Porat Yosef in Jerusalem. He studied Kabbalah under the tutelage of Rabbi Ephraim Cohen and Rabbi Salman Eliyahu (father of former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu).

Rabbi Kaduri's son said there were only 60 Kabbalists in the Holy Land at the time, and that only one who prayed for 15 years with "Rashash intentions" was accorded that status.

When the Old City of Jerusalem was captured by the Jordanians in 1948, the Yeshiva was evacuated to the Bucharim Quarter. Rabbi Kaduri studied Kabbalah there until 1970, when such study was stopped in Yeshivat Porat Yosef. He also studied for many years in Yeshivat Beit El on Rashi St. in Jerusalem, and then moved with his students to found a new institution called Yeshivat Nachalat Yitzchak.

Rabbi Kaduri engaged in bookbinding. He perused all the books he bound, including many old manuscripts which he "photographed" in his memory. Graced with a phenomenal memory, he was said to have known the entire Babylonian Talmud by heart.

"In one instance," a source close to him relates, "in disagreement with a leading Halakhic authority of today, Rabbi Kaduri smiled in his inimitable manner, lifted his hand to the bookshelf and immediately opened to the right page, proving his point. The [other] rabbi was astonished at his familiarity with the [non-Kabbalistic] sources."

Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org

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DANIEL PINNER FOUND GUILTY
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 29, 2006.
The Israeli UnJustice system in action. And the Kangaroos keep hopping.

Daniel Pinner, who shot in the air when attacked by a rock-throwing Arab mob, was found guilty by the Be'er Sheva District Court of causing willful and malicious injury. He faces a 3-year sentence.

Pinner, who made Aliyah from England and lives in Kfar Tapuach, has been in prison for over seven months. He was arrested on June 22 for allegedly firing at and injuring an Arab on the Gush Katif beach. Pinner has maintained that he shot in the air in self-defense when a mob of some 50 Arabs threw rocks at him; Arab witnesses and participants admitted in court that they were throwing rocks.

Pinner, 38, an unmarried teacher and licensed electrician, was in Gush Katif at the time to volunteer his services in the refurbishing of the Palm Beach Hotel for new families. Four days after the incident, he was arrested at home, with the police first claiming that he had shot an Arab in the chest, and then later in the leg. Even after months in jail, Pinner did not lose his sense of humor, describing his court hearings in the following manner:

"...It was Wednesday 28 September, and I was up for the second hearing of my trial... Justice was proceeding at its usual sedate, calm pace, undisturbed by such concepts as presumption of innocence, factual evidence, or the right to a speedy trial. The hearing itself was comparatively brief - about an hour or so, in which two police officers in charge of the interrogation testified that: ...

  • yes, they found a spent cartridge from my Uzi;

  • no, they had not bothered to check the range or angle of fire to see if that could possibly have been the bullet which allegedly hit Nasser Wafi;

  • no, they had not been able to run an identity parade to ask the Arab eye-witnesses if I was the shooter;

  • no, they could not explain why it was impossible to do an identity parade;

  • no, they could not explain why the police did not think of photographing me in order to run a photographic identity parade."

Atty. Baruch Ben-Yosef expressed disgust at the ruling, saying it "simply ignored all of our legal claims, such as the expert who said that it was impossible to ascertain whether the wound was even caused by a bullet... The judge believed the Arab witnesses, despite the discrepancies in their testimony."

The ruling was handed down Sunday morning by Justice Rachel Barkai of the Be'er Sheva District Court.

Ben-Yosef believes there are strong grounds to appeal to the Supreme Court, and Pinner is likely to do so. In the meanwhile, however, sentencing hearings are currently scheduled for March 8. A probation report must also be prepared for this purpose. He faces a possible three-year prison sentence.


This is the article that Daniel Pinner wrote in Arutz-Sheva January 23, 2006. It is archived at www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=5959. It is called "How to Be a Menace to Society."

Daniel Pinner is a veteran immigrant from England, a teacher and an electrician by profession; a Torah scholar who has been active in causes promoting Eretz Israel and Torat Israel. His website address is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DanielPinner/

Very well, I confess: when about 50 Arabs attacked me with rocks, I fired a few warning shots in the air, in order to cover my retreat. I saw my life was in clear and present danger, and in pure instinctive self-defense, I fired those shots.

Many people (in particular, judges and other assorted intellectuals whose lives center around the genteel suburbs of north Tel Aviv, Ramat Hasharon and Tzahala) will argue that rocks are not dangerous to life.

Other people who have seen rock-throwing Arabs, can testify that rocks are dangerous to life. Unfortunately, those who know this fact can no longer testify.

Come to that, the court itself recognizes that rocks are dangerous to life. As I write these lines, my friend Shimshon Cytryn is under house arrest, and faces a charge of attempted murder -- for allegedly throwing a rock at an Arab.

Apparently, a rock thrown by an Arab is harmless, while a rock thrown by a Jew is lethal.

In my case, I was accused of shooting an Arab named Nasser Wafi, who alleged that he was hit in the thigh by my bullet. In addition to the testimony of Nasser Wafi, several Arab "eye-witnesses" disposed of almost everything alleged by the government: how many people were holding firearms; how many shots were fired; what the alleged shooter looked like; what time Nasser Wafi was shot; the range at which he was shot; which leg he was wounded in.

However, the only thing these witnesses all agreed upon was that before any shots were fired, they (the Arabs) were throwing rocks at Jews.

But I digress.

The Court decreed, months ago, that I would be held in jail until the end of proceedings (to date, 6 1/2 months). When I appealed this decision, Her Honour Sarah Dovrat decided:

"The actions of the respondent [Daniel Pinner] are dangerous, regardless of the political background [i.e. the Disengagement]. A person who carries a weapon and uses it, testifies to the menace inherent in him, and is not a result of political tension.... Under these circumstances, the end of the Disengagement does not neutralize the respondent's menace." (Decision of the Be'er Sheva District Court, Case # B.Sh. 021515/03, given on 24th Tishrei 5766 - 27th October 2005)

If Her Honour happens to read this essay, I want her to know that I never imagined that by defending my life, and carefully not endangering the life of anyone else (not even the Arabs who would have happily taken my life), I thereby became a menace to society. I have legally held a firearm for about five years, and have used it precisely once -- when I judged my life to be in danger. Even the prosecution did not claim that I am a serial shooter, or that I would be likely to shoot for no reason. Through my lawyer, Baruch Ben-Yosef, I appealed the 24th Tishrei decision to the Supreme Court. We lost. Then, as the case for the prosecution grew steadily weaker, we made another attempt to get house arrest. The same court, the same judge, a different date; the same decision: "The circumstances have not changed in any way, nor has any new fact been shown me, which can neutralize the respondent's menace." (Decision of the Be'er Sheva District Court, Case # B.Sh. 021515/03, given on 7th Kislev 5766 - 8th December 2005)

I have a couple of questions for Her Honour, Sarah Dovrat:

If the Court eventually acquits me, then should I nevertheless be held in jail indefinitely as a "menace to society"?

And if the Court convicts me, then should I be held in jail for the rest of my life, on the grounds that even after serving time, I might still be a "menace to society"?

On Monday, 4th Kislev (5th December 2005), a suicide terrorist detonated himself in a shopping mall in Netanya. Five Israelis were murdered, dozens injured. In a radio interview, a security guard stated that even though he recognized the suicide terrorist for what he was, he chose not to shoot for fear of what would happen to him if he did. Countless other security guards have made identical comments; they know that if they shoot terrorists, then they -- the security guards -- are likely to be arrested and held for months in jail, even if they are eventually acquitted. It is simply less hassle to shout a warning, let the terrorist detonate and hope that as few Jews as possible will be killed.

So, my final question to Her Honour Sarah Dovrat is: Which one of us (you or me) is the real menace to society?


Addendum, January 30, 2006, from Dina Moskowitz:

Daniel's bills and expenses still go on, while he has no capacity to earn money to pay them. He needs your help now more than ever. There are utility bills to pay on his home in Tapuach, the care and feeding of his dog, the rent on his house, phone cards so that he can call people from jail, and other outstanding bills on personal expenses. Once again, due to the fact that Daniel is facing a lengthy time in incarceration, I am appealing to the generosity of your heart and soul to bring Daniel peace of mind and hope that when he is finally released, he has something to go back to. Daniel has temporarily lost his physical freedom due to a thoroughly corrupy legal system - but let's make sure he doesn't lose what he has in his life outside of jail! Your support - which Daniel has been so grateful for up to now, and for which he thanks all donors from the bottom of his heart - is more vital than ever. Help ease the burden of his family and friends who have been shouldering the load now for the 7 months since Daniel has been incarcerated.

For all of those living outside of Israel: Please send checks made out in my name - Dina Moskowitz - in any foreign currency, to my address: P.O. Box 6355, Jerusalem 91062. I will then turn the currency into shekels and deposit the money into Daniel's post office bank account.

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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SO WHAT'S THE FUSS ALL ABOUT?
Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, January 29, 2006.

In December 2005, I wrote that Hamas needed to be on the slate for the recent Palestinian Arab elections.

In "Time To Put Up Or Shut Up" (http://www.muslimworldtoday.com/shutup.htm), I emphasized that there was basically no difference between Abbas' Fatah and the Hamas/Islamic Jihad crew. The former was simply more willing to sing a tune more acceptable to a much too willingly gullible West to gain its support. Blown buses bring bad press and such, so let's destroy Israel but by 'more acceptable' means became the strategy...at least some times. What the West--the American State Department included--likes to ignore is that the terror and attempts at terror continued, and Fatah's own affiliates and members were often the perpetrators.

The Fatah "good cops"--terrorists through and through--now blame Hamas' victory in the polls on Israel. If Israel, after all, didn't hold the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority responsible for the continuing terror under its watch and simply allowed Jews to be maimed and killed by Arabs with no retaliation, Fatah's Abbas, & Co. would be stronger today.

I believe that Prime Minister Golda Meir, of blessed memory, once said something to the effect that it's not what Gentiles think but what the Jews will do that ultimately will determine Israel's fate. She was right.

Nothing's changed for Israel of substance with Hamas' victory.

If anything, things are better off now than before.

Israel was slowly but surely being shrunk back to its suicidal, 1949, U.N.-imposed, 9-mile wide, armistice line existence while Fatah's well known destruction in phases scenario was playing out to perfection with the help of even Israel's closest friends.

Indeed, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was the latest leading the pack, squeezing Israel to forsake such things as even the safety of its main airport while America itself claimed the right to act thousands of miles away from home for its own national security interests. The promise of 1967's U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 to replace the absurd 1949 armistice lines with secure and recognized borders was being sacrificed by those dedicated to the birth of the Arabs' 22nd state...regardless of what effects it would have on the sole, microscopic state of the Jews.

My main argument in that earlier article mentioned above was that with the Fatah wolf in sheep's clothing PA in power, terror by Hamas and such could be blamed on the other guy, the "bad cops."

But, with the people themselves being able to choose in an election whom they wanted to call the shots (both figuratively and literally), terror would gain--via the people themselves--an official address that could not be denied afterwards.

Indeed, the Arab voters have now willingly become the accomplices of the next atrocities.

So, the next bus, restaurant, shopping mall, or whatever/whomever that gets blown up by Arabs from Arab-controlled territory will have been victimized as a matter of the official policy of a democratically-elected Hamas-run state which openly calls for the death of Israel and the murder of its citizens.

What happens next is up to Israel.

What would any other country do under such circumstances?

The United States' own Powell Doctrine calls for the use of massive force against its enemies.

The time of Israel limiting its options to mere targeted killings is fast drawing to a close.

Hamas must at last be held accountable as it's never been before.

President Bush has said that those who harbor terrorists will share in their fate.

Israel must get itself leaders who will know how to draw the line and do so in a way in which Israel's security needs can be best addressed--regardless of the pressures that will be brought to bear on it.

While Israel can be expected to give up still more of the disputed territories for the sake of true peace (not a hudna), a meaningful territorial compromise must be worked out. Again, this was built into the final draft of Resolution 242 by its architects in the aftermath of the 1967 Six Day War. A reading of Eugene Rostow, one of those architects, is essential for this subject. Lately, Benjamin Netanyahu has been saying the right things in this regard, but only time will tell.

Not only have the Arabs of would-be "Palestine" (the second, not first, Arab state to be formed within the original 1920 borders the Palestine Mandate--Jordan emerging on 80% of the entire territory after 1922) harbored terrorists, they've repeatedly elected them--starting with Arafat and his successor close associates dressed in suits, Abbas, Qurei', and so forth. The PA/ PLO's Charter calling for Israel's destruction was never really amended--despite all the claims otherwise. Hamas and Fatah's goals remain one and the same.

And now the Arab Street has spoken, once again, and brought an organization to power which is at least honest about its murderous intentions towards both Jews and the Jew of the Nations. When the next Jew is murdered, Arabs won't be able to claim any disconnection. Arab voters decided on this course of action collectively themselves.

So, Israel is actually now left in a potentially better position than it was before.

No reasonable nation can tell another that it can't defend itself from murderous neighbors whose official policy is the destruction of its state as well as its citizens.

While the double standard has been used repeatedly against Israel before in these regards, it now becomes much harder to apply it with these new circumstances.

While Abbas' official policy--despite the whitewashing of the American State Department and others--was also the destruction of a Jewish Israel, and his fellow "moderates" repeatedly called all dealings with the Jews merely a Trojan Horse, he could hide behind talk of a hudna (temporary ceasefire) and the facade constructed for him by others allowing him--with Condi and others tightening the screws--to sweet talk unilateral concessions out of the Jews.

With Hamas now elected, the facade is gone, the curtains are lifted, and the Arabs must--at long last--be held accountable.

After the next act of barbarism occurs, Israel must issue an ultimatum...the same way other countries would do.

When that ultimatum is predictably ignored and the United Nations predictably does nothing--or blames the Jews themselves--Israel must unleash massive retaliation...not the tit-for-tat variety.

Using expensive missiles and such to take out one terrorist is not cost effective. Taking out fifty to a hundred at a time makes the point much better. They have their rallying places. Israel needs to pay them some visits when the time comes.

There is no talking with a neighbor which openly admits that your death is its goal and acts accordingly. What would America--3,000 miles wide--do with such a neighbor? Or anyone else?

The war that must be fought will be better fought sooner rather than later. Later, Hamas' buddy, Iran, may have nukes.

As American bombers have targeted terror strongholds in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hamasstan must get at least this and more.

And when the Arab's launch their next revenge attacks, Israel must strike back each time exponentially harder than before.

If peace ever comes between Arabs--who elected a government dedicated to Israel's destruction--and Jews, it won't be because of any "acceptance" on the part of the Arabs. The latter are convinced that, despite the presence of scores of millions of non-Arabs in the region, only Arabs have political rights in what they see as purely Arab patrimony. Just ask the Copts, Kurds, Berbers, Black African Sudanese, Assyrians, one half of Israel's Jews whose families fled the Dar ul-Islam, and so forth if you have any doubts about this.

If peace ever comes, it will be because the Arabs realized the terrible price their attempts at Israel's destruction caused them. That's what brought the late president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, to Jerusalem three decades ago. I wish there was another way, but I seriously doubt it.

Taking out a like number of murderers for innocent Jews slaughtered won't do the trick. There comes a time when the body of the snake must be addressed along with its head.

Arab civilians who die in Israel's retaliation will die because their elected Hamas heroes hide behind and among them. Furthermore, those civilians will be virtual accomplices to the terror masters themselves...i.e. not exactly "innocent," and not the same as the Jewish kid coming home from school on the bus that gets blown apart.

As always, Israel must make clear its desire to be a good neighbor. Countries around the world have benefited tremendously via their association with Israel.

But Israel must also make unmistakably clear that it will no longer allow Arabs to dictate how the game will be played. And it must be willing to take a cut in American aid and such if it comes to that.

If Hamasstan does as is expected, Israel must fight to win--despite demands from elsewhere that it still fight with one hand virtually tied behind its back.

Israel won't make any new enemies that it doesn't already have. But it will eliminate many others that already exist.

Only afterwards, when the dust settles (as in other wars elsewhere), will there then be a chance for some kind of peace.

Gerald A. Honigman, a Florida educator, has created and conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly debated Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been published in both the print media and on websites. Contact him at honigman6@msn.com or go to his website: http://geraldahonigman.com/blog.php

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DRIVERS WOUNDED, WIVES TAKEN AS HOSTAGE
Posted by SMCCDI, January 29, 2006.

This is archived as daneshjoo.org/publishers/currentnews/article_3630.shtml, January 28, 2006.

Tens of Tehran's Collective Bus drivers, technicians and workers have been wounded by brutal militiamen who have attacked the strikers gathered in some of the terminals. The strikers were refusing to allow Bassij para-military members to take the wheels of their vehicles.

Wives of at least 3 strikers have been arrested at their homes and brought to an unknown destination in order to be use as tool of pressure against their husbands. Threats have been made about their fate if the strike doesn't come to an end and that the drivers and other employees of Tehran's Collective Bus Company don't start work on Sunday morning.

But despite all repressive methods used by the Islamic republic regime, many of the employees have stayed home by forcing the Islamic regime to deploy its plain clothes security agents in the streets of the Capital and behind the wheels of the buses.

The un-experienced appointed drivers have a hard time to insure the service and many users are refusing to take the buses in sign of solidarity with the strikers.

Many workers, students and governmental employees, such as teachers, are using the transport problem for not showing up at their works or classes. Tracts have been distributed in the Capital by underground social or workers groups declaring solidarity with the strikers.

Many cab drivers have put their head lights on and are using their horns in show of solidarity and many residents are showing the 'V' (Victory) sign. The move is very noticeable in the Enghelab and Azadi squares. Militiamen are looking very worry and are arresting the residents.

The strike has created serious problems in the transport despite the fact that hundreds of regular drivers and the Greater Tehran's Collective Bus employees have been arrested or threatened.

Many of the arrests took place, yesterday evening, at the homes of those suspected to be part of the strike and the Islamic judiciary is intending to trial many of them for conspiracy. False charges, such as, "Drug trafficking", "Having Prohibited Arms" or "Endangering the National Security" are expected to be use against the arrested employees. Threats have been made against the family members of many employees and militiamen have been deployed in the terminals in order to control the situation. The Islamic regime has also transferred many militiamen of the Bassij Force's logistic to fill the shifts of the arrested employees.

The regime's leadership was hoping to limit the impact of the action by resorting to its usual repressive actions.

The Greater Tehran has appreciatively 12 millions of inhabitants and many Tehranis, who are using this cheaper way of transportation, are supportive of the strikers. The move is expected to plunge the Iranian Capital into a relative chaos, as it did during the last two collective actions.

Users showed, on December 23, 2005, an extreme sign of patience and their support of the strikers. Many refused to take the buses which were drove by militiamen and the domino effect created more complication for the regime, as, many governmental or industrial employees didn't show up at their posts or works while being able to justify their absenteeism.

The same trend was followed on January 7, 2006, when hundreds of drivers made a symbolic action on a very symbolic day, resulting in fear among all factions of the Islamic regime. Hardliners and Islamist 'reformists'. Partial strikes were made and most drivers put their head lights, in the middle of the day, for showing their exasperation. The move coincided with the anniversary the "Iranian Emancipation Law" adopted by the former Iranian regime, in 1935, and banned by the Islamic republic in 1979. Of course, this action had fewer echoes as the so-called "reformist" faction of the regime and most ultra Marxist groups preferred to pass it under silence. Never less many Tehranis, especially among females, were seen considering the bus drivers' move as a hidden support for the message of modernism, equality and secularism of the banned law. Many were seen showing the "V" (Victory) sign (well known in Iran) to each other and to the maverick drivers.

The today's move is putting more pressure on the Islamic republic regime, at a time that it's facing more international pressure. The strike, if extended due to the free world's support, might lead to the apparition of a worker movement, such as, the 1980's Solidarnosc (meaning Solidarity and which was the independent Polish Shipyards' Workers Union formed in Gdansk and lead by Lech Walesa) which was able to rally other cities drivers and various economic sectors behind it and to create the possibility of radical political changes.

Most National-Secularist groups, such as, the SMCCDI and the INSP (Iran's National-Secular Party) are supportive of the strikers and in general of any clean and clear move for a genuine democratic and secularist change in Iran. The two movements' members and supporters have been asked to help the families of the drivers. The expression of this support and calls on the population to protect the strikers have been made, at several occasion, on the waves of abroad based Iranian radio and satellite TV networks broadcasting for Iran.

The strikers' move and legitimate aspirations are not only limited to internal Iranian debate and in this line, several western workers' unions, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and influent politicians, such as, the U.S. Senator Rick Santorum have already declared their support of the "Tehran Collective Bus drivers".

In a letter dated, January 6, 2006, Santorum requested from the U.S. Secretary of State to intervene on behalf of the arrested Tehran's Bus drivers and the repressed Iranian People. Slamming the Islamic regime for the persistent human rights abuses and the brutal attack of the strikers, the Pennsylvanian Senator stated in part of his letter: "I ask that you and other senior leaders of the US Government make a concerted effort to reach out to groups of individuals, such as unions and students, to let them know the People of America stand with them in their fight for greater freedoms and liberties".

Without doubt, the continuation of such public declarations and a real financial support for the strikers can plunge the Islamic regime into an abyss from which it can not escape. The result would no more lead to just obtaining some greater freedoms or liberties, but to a total liberation of Iran due to a secular and democratic revolution without any need to any kind of military intervention. The trend has become so noticeable, as especially the absolute majority of Iranians have well taken their distances from the regime's "reformists from within" and some of their docile so-called student associations, such as, the "Office of Consolidation Unity" (OCU).

Contact SMCCDI, The Student Movement for Democracy in Iran, at peyk@daneshjoo.org. Or go to their website: http://www.daneshjoo.org/

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COMMENTS FROM BANGLADESH BLITZ
Posted by Salah Choudhury, January 29, 2006.

Dear Friends:

Greetings!

Don't you think that voice of Bangladeshi press is rather very much biased towards mega-terrorist organizations like Hamas? This is the world where we are living in and still continuing our battle against the radicals through our voice as well through Blitz. Very steadily, Blitz has already become number one periodicals in Bangladesh.

You must have read the editorial comments in Dhaka's English press, by now. We can only tell you, the voice of vernacular press are even worst. Unfortunately, our media here are busy in spreading the message of hatred instead of spreading the message of peace, which Blitz is certainly continuing to do, with all our commitments and courage. In past four months, we did not get even a single inch advertisement, just because of our unique editorial policy; but it is not the matter which would stop us at all. We shall continue our battle against radicals, extremists and against the culture of hatred, without looking into any other issues, except that of our mission and commitment. Although in our Blitz project, we are alone, but in our mission and the message Blitz is publishing, we have all of you with us, giving us the opportunity to be a GREAT TEAM.

Please coninue reading Blitz and let us always be blessed with your suggestions, opinion, criticism or your write ups.

Shalom Uvracha...

The writer is a journalist, columnist, author, and editor of "Weekly Blitz". Email him at salahuddinshoaibchoudhury@yahoo.com

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PLEASE CALL TO SAVE JEWISH HEBRON
Posted by Marlene Young, January 28, 2006.

Urgent Action Alert on Tuesday's Hebron Expulsion

Please know the Facts:

There are 20,000 Arab buildings in East Jerusalem illegally constructed without permits, and Olmert has discussed with the PA legalizing that construction.

There are more than 30,444 illegal buildings in which Arabs are squatting in Israel.

There are more than 7,380 court-ordered eviction notices against Illegal Palestinian homes in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), but the Israeli government has never acted on them and has no plans to.

Yet, this Tuesday, the Olmert interim unelected government is going to send hundreds of IDF troops and Police to evict 9 Jewish families from Jewish-owned property in the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron, for no reason whatsoever.

The High Court of Israel has acknowledged that this is Jewish-owned property, despite false reports in the media that these are "Palestinian" shops.

The Jewish leadership in Hebron tried to obtain leases for new tenants from the Israeli government as a compromise, but the Olmert government rejected the compromise, and refuses to grant any leases to any Jews on this Jewish-owned property in Israeli-controlled Hebron.

This Tuesday, tens of thousands of armed Hamas and Fatah terrorist murderers will be free as usual to roam Hebron and the West Bank shooting automatic rifles into the air.

On Tuesday, this tiny Jewish property will be cleared of all Jewish citizens, for no logical reason whatsoever, by the Radical unelected Leftists running the government like their personal property- Olmert, Weisglass, Peres, Beilin, Omri, Mazuz, Mofaz, etc, at the behest of Peace Now, ISM, the EU, the Quartet, Hamas, the PA, the UN, for secret deals that only they know about and that only they benefit from.

The forces will be deployed in three rings: the first ring will be made up of 1,500 policemen trained to deal with violent protests and will also include mounted forces. The second rings will consist of several hundred Border Policemen and the third ring will be made up of four infantry regiments.

Policemen will be responsible for direct conformation with the settlers, while the IDF will close off the area to incoming protesters.

The IDF issued a warrant Sunday declaring the Jewish section of Hebron a closed military area, and Jews who are not residents of the area won't be allowed entrance.

Security Minister Shaul Mofaz has declared that a policy of "zero tolerance" would be employed against settler violence, and IDF officers said that in this evacuation, they will "demonstrate only determination, without sensitivity."

Settlers are planning a major solidarity conference Tuesday against the evacuation. Politicians, rabbis and academics are among those expected to attend the gathering.

The Chabad Movement, at an annual conference for Chabad emissaries in Zichron Ya'akov on Saturday, also decided to embark on an "uncompromising struggle to prevent the expulsion of the Jews of Hebron." Chabad representatives will pay a solidarity visit to Hebron Sunday.

Representatives of five parties - Eli Yishai (Shas), Zevulun Orlev (NRP), Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu), Zvi Hendel (National Union), and Meir Porush (Agudath Israel) - sent a letter to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over the weekend urging him to postpone the evacuation of Amona and Hebron until after the elections, in line with the general principle that major, non-urgent decisions should not be made prior to an election.

Phone & fax numbers:

President Moshe Katsav;
Tel: 972-2-6707211
Fax: 972-2-5610037

State Comptroller's office:
tel: 972-2-666-5000
fax: 972-2-666-5204 and fax the department responsible for the
police: 972-2-530-9999

Prime Min spokesman:
Assaf Sharif 972-2-5666920 (dir.)
fax: 972-2-5669245
cell: 972-50-7724881

Olmert's spokeswoman: Chaya Peri
tel 972-2-666-2301
fax 972-2-666-44-00

Defense Min. spokesman
Eli Kamir tel. 972-3-6975546
fax: 972-3-6916940
cell: 972-50-6298005

Foreign Affairs
Mark Regev tel. 972-2-5303343/555
972-2-5303408 (fax)
cell 972-50-6203264

Justice Min spokesman:
Shai Ben-Maor (Adviser) 972-2-6285438 (fax)
cell: 972-50-6247138

Ministry of internal police
tel 972-2-5308500
fax 972-2-530-80-39

Chief of Police, Mr Aharonishky:
tel 972-2-5308100
fax 972-2-5308118

Hebron police: (those directly responsible for brutalizing Deli landau)
tel 972-2-9969-444 or 972-2-9969-473/86/96/62

Shalom Court
(address faxes to Judge Eilata Sziskind who put Deli under house arrest at her parents, away from her children,
BEFORE TRIAL even started!!!
fax 972-2-624-34-24

Prosecutor's office
fax 972-2-646-700-1

Justice ministry
fax 972-5602246

Chief Rabbinate:
Rabbi Shlomo Amar
fax 972-2-537-1305

Rabbi Yonah Metzger
fax 972-2-5377872

The Rishon Lezion Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Shlita
fax 972-2-653-6842

Phone and Fax numbers from Women in Green.
Sources:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/675859.html
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/676051.html

Contact Marlene Young at marleneyoung1@yahoo.com

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CHURCHILL AND OLMERT
Posted by Ken Heller, January 28, 2006.

This comes from David Hornik and from Naomi Ragen.

"We shall not flag nor fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills. We shall never surrender and even if, which I do not for the moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, will carry on the struggle until in God's good time the New World with all its power and might, sets forth to the liberation and rescue of the Old."
-- Winston Churchill, June 4, 1940, speech before the House of Commons

"We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies, we want that we will be able to live in an entirely different environment of relations with our enemies."
-- Ehud Olmert, June 9, 2005, speech to Israel Policy Forum in New York.

Ken Heller is a pro-Israel activist and a member of the Philadelphia Chapter of Americans For A Safe Israel. He can be reached at kayjayphilly@yahoo.com

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THE 1944 SAISON - THE 2006 SAISON
Posted by Nadia Matar, January 28, 2006.

Now it's official. After the statements by Olmert last week and by Inspector-General Karadi this week [Editor's note: see below], there no longer can be any doubts: the Saison, the "hunting season" against the Jews in the Land of Israel, is evident to all. As Yehudah Lapidot tells us in his book The Saison: the Hunting Down of Brothers: "the appellation Saison (hunting season in French) was applied to the attempt by the Haganah in [19]44-45 to eliminate IZL [Irgun Zevai Le'umi also known as Etzel].

In order to realize the goals of the Saison, the Haganah used almost every means at its disposal, that included kidnappings and protracted interrogations (of Etzel members and supporters), that at times were accompanied by extreme torture; expulsion from places of employment and schools; taking Jews forcibly from apartments, and more. The most drastic step, however, that aroused stormy controversies in the Yishuv (the pre-State Jewish community in Land of Israel), was the surrendering to the British CID (plainclothes detective branch) of those suspected of belonging to the Revisionist movement in general and to Etzel in particular.

The persecution of members and supporters of the Revisionist movement reached its peak shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel, when Ben-Gurion ordered the sinking of the Altalena, and gave the order to shoot at the Jews on the ship. Sixteen Jews on the sinking Altalena and who were swimming towards the Tel Aviv shore were murdered in cold blood. Their only "crime" was belonging to the movement of Menachem Begin. Ben-Gurion gave the order; Yitzhak Rabin was happy to carry it out. The "holy cannon" was the name given by Ben-Gurion's people to the weapon that they used to sink the Altalena in their implementation of this despicable political murder.

Ben-Gurion never ceased to regard the Etzel as a political rival that must be eliminated. In collaboration with the British, he initiated a campaign to persecute the Etzel's members and supporters. The Saison and the Altalena episode silenced the Revisionists for many years. At present, the entire Jewish-national camp, headed by the public of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, constitutes a threat to the rule of the left. Demographically, the left, with an average of one child, or a maximum of two children, has no successor generation. These children receive a shoddy, spoiled education, without Judaism or Zionism, that turns them into Hebrew-speaking non-Jews: without roots, without knowing what it is to be a Jew, without an understanding of what they are doing here in Israel. In contrast, the many children (God bless them) of the Jewish camp (both the religious and the traditional) are educated to love of the Torah, the people, and the Land, and, before we know it, with God's help, they will be the majority here.

The left is panic-stricken. It still controls the key positions in the country: the media, the State Attorney's Office, the High Court of Justice, and the Knesset - but its days in power are numbered. It needs to silence the Jewish-national camp, once and for all. Flooding the country with hundreds of thousands of non-Jews from the USSR was the first attempt to block the demographic revolution of the Jewish camp. But, a miracle occurred, the majority of those from the USSR, both Jews and non-Jews, who know what Bolshevism is, and who instinctively understand just who the Arabs are and what they want, voted for the right! The first scheme to preserve leftist rule was unrealized.

The Oslo accords were the second attempt in this direction, when the Oslo architects gave cities of refuge in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza to Arafat and his band of murderers, along with weapons and ammunition. The Oslo criminals hoped that the members of the PLO and Hamas would only use these weapons against the settlers in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, turn their lives into hell on earth, and thereby force the Jews to leave Judea, Samaria, and Gaza of their own free will and return to within the 1967 lines. In this manner Shimon Peres and Ben-Gurion's other successors hoped to crush the settlers in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and, through them, the entire Jewish camp. This would have been a cheap and easy solution for the problem of the Jews of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza and their supporters. But, once again, things went wrong: the PLO and the Hamas couldn't restrain themselves, and instead of heeding the advice of the extreme leftists in Israel and murdering only Jews within Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, those stupid Arabs also began to blow themselves up within little Israel and murder Israelis! Thus the Arabs let everyone understand that they do not draw any distinction between the "settler" from Tel Aviv and the "settler" from Ofra. Moreover, the Jews of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza were not deterred. Like the Children of Israel in Egypt, "the more they were oppressed, the more they increased" and were strengthened. In their settlements in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza - the right gained power, this time under the leadership of Israeli war hero Ariel Sharon.

The left no longer knows what to do with itself. It's really losing it. The years pass, but they haven't succeeded in neutralizing the Jewish camp. To the contrary! The people is increasingly convinced that it is the policy of the national camp that is correct. This is the reason why Sharon was elected, and not Mitzna. What did the left do? It used Ariel Sharon to implement the mission of neutralizing the Jewish camp. It threatened Sharon that if he would not realize the policy of the left, his sons would go to prison. Ariel Sharon, a totally corrupt and egotistical person, did not hesitate to cooperate with them. Overnight, people like Peres, Sharon, Beilin, Olmert, Livni, Mofaz and others coalesced into a one-dimensional monster, a Party called "Forward [Kadima]. With determination but without sensitivity, it would quickly crush the national camp, and support the continued rule of the Left". Of course, they still don't openly proclaim this as their aim, they sell the public all kinds of stories, as if "the disengagement is essential to stop the "Arab demographic problem". But anyone who uses a bit of his intelligence knows that the truth is different, and that this is a contemptible plan to curb the Jewish demographic problem.

First, the Sharon-Peres monster decides to disconnect the Jews from their oxygen: the settlements of Gush Katif and northern Samaria. The mission is carried out with humiliating and intolerable ease. The mamlakhti (state-oriented) and naive Jewish victim dances and embraces the hangman. Color returns to the cheeks of the left. "Just look, at long last, we finally moderated our bitter rival", they think to themselves. "We beat the "right" with a knockout. Now we can easily toss him out of all the settlements of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza". We will disperse them, defeated and beaten, throughout little Israel - without assistance, without support, without compensation, without any possibility of rising again. Once and for all, this will take care of our problem with the Jews. Now we can return to the 1949 lines and establish a bi-national state. "At long last, the nations of the world will love us. Without Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and without the annoying Jewish camp."

It appears, however, that the left's rejoicing was premature. The Jewish victim is still breathing! And its youth even kicks! In the attempt to destroy the home in Neveh Daniel and the distribution of the evacuation orders in Hebron, the youth did not act as in Gush Katif. They did not dance or embrace, but dared to raise their head and declare: "Another expulsion of Jews from Israel? Never again! This time we won't let them! Our eyes have been opened. We understand that they want to eliminate us, as the first phase in the elimination of the entire Jewish state. No! Here's where we draw the line!"

The Sharon-Peres-Olmert-Livni monster is losing its cool. This can't go on! How dare the Jews continue to be faithful to their principles? How dare they speak about Greater Israel? Now, the Olmert-Livni-Mazuz-Diskin-Halutz-Karadi gang takes off the gloves and broadcasts to all: Any Jew who is unwilling to commit suicide with dances and hugs - we will crush him, we will trample him, we will persecute him, we will spray him with tear gas and pepper spray, and even shoot him, if necessary.

Although Ben-Gurion had wanted, for a long time, to get rid of Herut and Lehi (the fighters for Israel), the official excuse for initiating the Saison was the assassination of Lord Moyne in Cairo. Moyne had been appointed by the British as Minister of State for the Middle East, and from his headquarters in Cairo he was responsible for the implementation of the White Paper policy. Lehi regarded him as responsible for the expulsion of the "illegal" immigrants' ships, decided to kill him. But, as we said, this was just an excuse to begin the Saison. If there had been no assassination, Ben-Gurion would have found some other pretext. The same holds true for us today. Olmert's official reason for his public and grandiose declaration of war against the settlers of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza as a whole is the "violence of the lawbreakers in Hebron." Anyone with eyes in his head, however, realizes that this is merely a pretext, and this is actually a continuation of the Saison that began in 1944: the left's organized and ongoing persecution of the national camp.

Olmert's speech last week with his demand for forceful action against the "Jewish lawbreakers" took us back 62 years, to 1944, when, in a Histadrut convention, Ben-Gurion called for the elimination of the Herut movement, for which he gave operative orders.

To quote him:

"We have been requested by the supreme bodies - the Zionist Executive and the Va'ad Le'umi - to vomit them [the supporters and members of the IZL] from our midst, and I want to translate this demand into the language of reality and action. If a young man, a member of these gangs or a supporter of them, works in any factory or office, the workers and the other office employees are required to expel him..... I intentionally chose this harsh example, everyone who is connected to these gangs, everyone who supports them - not necessarily if he uses a pistol or throws a bomb, but anyone who disseminates their literature and pastes their announcements - he must be removed from his place of work [...] The same holds true if he studies in a secondary school or other [school] - and not only if he himself participates in acts of murder and robbery, but even if he brings the terrorists' unclean literature to youth, and disseminates it among them. He must be expelled from the school, so that he will know, and his siblings will know, and his parents will know, that the public rises up against these crimes, that endanger, not only the individual, but the nation as a whole.

"The second thing that is required of us: not to give them refuge and shelter. We must tell every Jew in Israel to withhold shelter and refuge from all the members of the gangs and from all their supporters. It is forbidden to give refuge to these criminals who endanger our future. And the third thing: Not to surrender to their threats! We must create such a regime in the nation that they will not be able to threaten anyone. Every boy and girl will be instructed by the school in which they study that if these gangs come to his father and mother to demand money - the proper place is to be immediately informed; if he does not know of any address - he is to go to the police."

As regards collaboration with the British, Ben-Gurion said: "To the extent that the British authorities and the police are interested in the destruction of terror [let there be no misunderstanding, (Ben-Gurion did not speak of the Arab terror, he referred to the IZL as the "terror" gangs - N.M.), "I repeat, our interest in the elimination of terror is greater and more vital that of the British government."

Compare Ben-Gurion's speech with the statements by Olmert, the head of the General Security Service Yuval Diskin, and the Chief of the General Staff Dan Halutz in a special meeting of the security-legal leadership before the evacuations in Hebron, in Amona, and in the other outpost settlements. "The Jewish lawbreakers" threaten the existence of the state; they declared. They engage in a "dangerous ideological criminal activity". They called for stiffer enforcement measures against these Jewish "rioters"; announced that they would increase the use of expulsion orders and administrative detention; and said that they would enlarge the police force in Judea and Samaria - not in order to stop the Arab terrorists who continue to fire Kasam rockets at Israel and murder Jews on the roads, but to smite, to persecute, and to repress these "idealistic" Jews. Add to this Karadi's statement about the possibility of shooting at settlers demonstrating for the territorial integrity of Israel, and we have a return to the time of the Saison in 1944.

This frontal attack on the settlers of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza seems daunting. Every newscast, every radio program, and press which attacks and besmirches Jews loyal to Israel, would not shame the anti-Semitic authors of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. We can really identity with what Yaakov Shavit wrote in his book The Hunting Season: "In practice, the organized public opinion turned the IZL into a group that was isolated, shunned, and mercilessly persecuted". The IZL was described as "insane Jewish fascism" that would lead to the suicide of the Yishuv and "therefore it deserves an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!" This is the attitude of the ruling leftist elite today, against the loyalists of Israel.

Accordingly, in light of the renewed Saison, it is important for us to remind ourselves and our wonderful youth that such things already happened, and that we have nothing to fear. We should tell everyone that, in the end, the Saison of 1944 did not succeed, and this time, as well, we will not allow them to succeed. Despite the informing, the arrests, the torture, and the surrendering of underground members to the British authorities; despite the Altalena; and despite the paralysis of the national camp, in the long run Ben-Gurion and his band failed to eliminate the IZL. Actually, the opposite is the case. The British eventually left Israel, thanks to the activities of the IZL and the Lehi. Today we - the camp of Israel loyalists - comprise a tremendous camp that continues to realize the idea and vision: that all of the Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel according to the Torah of Israel, and no one has the right to hand it over to foreigners.

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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PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR OPINION
Posted by Salah Choudhury, January 28, 2006.

HAMAS got massive mandate in Palestinian election, which leaves a dangerous sign to world peace. Many of the political analysts and experts on Middle East are terming this victory as emergence of the mega terrorist organization as the legal entity in Palestine now, which will probably use state machinery in PA for its ugly and cruel anti-humanity actions.

We in Blitz are also closely monitoring the Palestine issue and are extremely worried to know that HAMAS now emerges as an elected force in the troubled territory of Palestine. As we all know, for decades, Palestine Authority had been one of the world's most corrupt entity, now with the mega terrorist HAMAS in power, possibly Palestine will now emerge as one of the most potential threats to the Global peace.

There is mixed reaction in the Muslim world on the victory of the mega terrorist organization in Palestinian election. It also proves that, people of Palestine might have now opted for putting a dangerous organization like HAMAS in power to show its nasty fangs to Israel and the world.

We want to publish comments and op-eds from the valued contributors and readers of Blitz on this issue. ! Please send us your write ups (minimum 500 words) in MS Word Format at the earliest convenience and oblige. Please cover any or all of the following points:

1. General view on HAMAS
2. Terrorist activities and strength of this organization
3. Death of innocent people in the hands of HAMAS men
4. Why Palestinians voted for HAMAS
5. Threat to the Middle East Peace and World Peace
6. What should be the reaction of international community

Editorial: "US-ISRAEL-UK axis re-defining democracy"
Bangladesh Today

The Hamas has won victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections. Immediately following the announcement of the result, Israel has said it will not deal with a Palestinian Authority which includes the Hamas. US president Bush has already declared he would not deal with the Hamas. UK Foreign Secretary, as expected, echoed more or less the same stuff.

Who are the US, UK, and ISRAEL to determine the future of Palestine? Where is the United Nations? If it has died, why is it not wrapped up in a coffin and laid to eternal rest? The world does not need to carry on with a carcass.

The verdict of the people is the litmus test of democrac! y. If the people of Palestine have chosen the Hamas to lead them, who are others to declare their acceptance or refusal of that verdict? Anyone wishing to deal with matters relating to Palestine, must now speak with the Hamas. The electoral victory of a nation does not require ratification or endorsement from anybody except its' own people. Will nations of the world await the approval of these fascistic democracies before they announce their election results?

We expect the entire world to accept the peoples' mandate in the Palestinian election and ask the UN to play its' role or declare 'de jure' ( which is the actual 'de facto' reality ) that USA has supplanted the UN.

The writer is a journalist, columnist, author, and editor of "Weekly Blitz". Email him at salahuddinshoaibchoudhury@yahoo.com

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HAMAS KICKS ABBAS' BUTT. WHAT'S IN IT FOR ISRAEL
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 27, 2006.

Erstwhile U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson once suggested he would rather have then F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover in his tent urinating out then outside his tent urinating in. After a perhaps stunning so-called Palestinian election upset, the radical Islamic Israel/Jew/Infidel despising Hamas has been swept by popular demand into the "big tent" (some might say circus tent), however, unlike Johnson Arafat understudy Abbas and his "gang that couldn't govern straight" Fatah has been for all intents swept outside that tent not unlike the leavings of the circus animals they resembled in the eyes of their population of angry able-bodied unemployed Muslim men and bitter women. Most importantly, how might this affect Israel?

No doubt, Hamas did not exactly expect to win this election, thus become directly responsible for the lack of jobs, broken infrastructure, and every pressing needs of its chaotic constituency. Furthermore, might the fulminating fanatics realize the camel's share of such constituents voted to boot out Arafat's legacy of corruption and incompetence, not exactly a resounding endorsement for Hamas' brand of fundamentalist Islam including a sharia code that is down right nasty to the rights of females? Israel, if it presciently plays the hand perhaps serendipitously dealt, can rightly refuse to deal with a cadre obsessed with the Jewish state's destruction, thus not stupidly cede further land justifiably secured in 1967 as a consequence of vanquishing Arabs likewise obsessed with the Jewish state's destruction. Indeed, in lieu of a U.S. brokered Road Map strewn with the metaphorical road kill of Israel's future generations; in effect less land, less security, still no peace; now a wiser Knesset can justifiably order a higher wider wall between Israel and the soon-to-be dysfunctional terrorist enclave of Gaza and other Hamas infected Islamic ghettos, maintain sovereignty over all the rest of its land, without very many boulders cast from self-righteous popinjays worldwide. In fact, now that former Palestinian potentate Prime Manipulator Ahmad Queria is unemployed, Israel can let bygones be bygones hiring his family's cement company to build the security wall, putting a few extra shekels into his pocket. Wouldn't that be a magnanimous gesture?

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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THOUGHTS ON 1937 AND ENEMIES OF THE JEWS
Posted by Professor Eugene Narrett, January 27, 2006.

Middle brows whose brains are filled with the congealant of Newspeak (see Orwell's "1984," chapters 1-6, passim) are flustered by the predictable victory of Hamas, yet another of Hashem's acts of grace and honesty for His people, the Jews, and the world. Those whose brains are de/formed by attention to the mass media (the NYTimes and CNN are worse than comic books), "liberal" people who believe that there cannot be peace unless Jews are expelled from Israel, etc., are like a herd without their bell cow, like a dog whose master has forgotten the commands. Their code is messed up: the pod people are screaming!

But it ain't no 'scream' for us humans.

1. As many observers of the matzav have indicated many times, the silver lining of the black cloud of Ishmael is that mostly they refuse to behave as anything other than Jew-hating, homicidal maniacs, thieves and rapists. Their 'religion' is a cult of sex and violence, a rather colorless form of death worship and world domination that makes them perfect objects of Hollywood's perverse love and sanitizing.

"Rape, murder, it's just a [script] away," re-tooled for soccer-moms, hunks, geeks & babes.

2. Hamas asserted its claim as one of the leading groups in global jihad by reiterating its intention of wiping Israel off the map. Of course, its leaders, per instructions of the Koran, will agree to "negotiate" periodically when it suits their ultimate goal. This already has been seized upon by the mucky mucks in Foggy Bottom and picked up by media from Al Jazeera II (CNN) to FOX. Their Israeli puppets would go along but they've got an election coming up also, and while the Jewish people are numbed by decades of socialist betrayals, newspeak, and grief, they still know a hawk from a handsaw... mostly.

2a. The danger is that refusal to negotiate with Hamas, conditioned upon its refusal to recognize "Israel's right to exist" will be blathered about till an 'asset' like Olmert or Mufaz is elected. Then the next stage of processing-Israel-in-the-blender-of-diplomacy will ensue. The inheritance of the Jewish people will fill up further with violence and desolation; the Jew-hating Israelis of Herzliya, Caesarea, Ramat HaSharon, etc, will increase their death grip on the nation.

These and the Kangaroo Court that gives the "color of law" to the desturction of Israel are the main enemy of the Jewish people in their land. They are the reason the "piece by piece process" was able to get traction and still proceeds its horrible way, grinding and crushing.

Jews need to remember the words of Shimon Peress after his defeat in 1996 when he severed his camp explicitly from the Jewish people saying "we -- Israelis" lost and "they, the Jews won." If only that had been true.

An example of this hatred, this sinat hinam is playing out in Hebron, indeed, has been playing out in Hebron, Jerusalem, and the entire land since June 14, 1967 when the goyishe leaders of Israel openly took on the role of Esau and "spurned their birthright." And spent the rest of their time afflicting all Jews who sought to claim and nurture it. Afflicting the Jews of Hebron is a special pass time for them for they sense the centrality of its Jewish root.

2b. The Histadrut - Labor and its affiliates have been waging war on Jews, on Jewish national integrity, pride and survival almost continuously since the late 1920s, and very emphatically since the "hunting season" of the 1940s. The anti-Jewish left's collaboration with the anti-Jewish powers of the world had an early climax with the sinking of the Altalena in June 1948. And hence Jerusalem remain divided to this day, and the Temple Mount not sovereign for and accessible to Jews.

(The fullest account in English of the matter of the Altalena is in Samuel Katz's "Days of Rage," 1968, appoximately pages 196-252). Read it, and keep the implications in mind).

Here's a contemporary correlative: with the land filled with Hamas, with Arab missiles and rockets falling for six years INSIDE the pre-June 1967 borders of Israel (that's called war, fellas), the political Generals, uniformed representatives of Shimon Peress and his alien pals, busy themselves with destroying a guard dog training program that gives life-saving protection to some Jews in the Jewish heartland and with declaring war, including threats of live ammo against Jews living in the tiny amount of Hebron where the Israeli government allows Jews to live (and the Jews had to fight, and work, and bleed for every inch of it, again).

3. The enemies within empower the enemies without. Labor - Kadima - Likud are the real Trojan Horse. In their churning belly are the death-to-Jewish Israel process and its agents.

With Bibi already anointed by "conservative," ostensibly pro-West (sometimes this includes Israel) American insiders, look for the Likud to continue what Begin and Sharon began, a horrific example being displayed last August.

Unless Hamas, true to itself, sounds an alarm too loud to be ignored, the talking hairstyles and opinion-shapers will have their new mantra and wo/man in place soon. "This way to the gas, ladies and gentlemen." Except this time it will be a major bombing, perhaps 'accidental' collateral damage from America 'protecting' Israel whose rulers refused to pre-empt the clear and present danger to their people.

4. Get a map of the partition plan proposed in 1937 by the Peel Commission on "Palestine" (a copy is on page 258 in chapter 10 of the 3rd and re-printed edition of Samuel Katz's "Battleground"). There you will see the Jewish state toward which the Anglo-American elites have been marching, with the Arabs they fund in the role of heavies, since 1922 and the creation of "Transjordan."

Notice, right in the middle, the separate section, "British Mandate, Jerusalem" which in recent decades has been termed the "cor separatum," the heart cut out of Judah and ruled by internationalist forces. At its widest, around Jerusalem, about 5 miles across, the steadily narrowing corridor reaches the sea at Jaffa-Tel Aviv. (Herzliya's been left inside, so it can destroy, the tiny Jewish state in the Galilee and around the Kinneret.

That's what Israel is heading for if it doesn't effect regime change that recognizes Hamas, Fatah, Egypt, Syria, and their handlers for what they are:mortal enemies of the Jewish people. The IDF, what's left of it, will become an appendage of the international armed force that will 'manage the peace' and freedom process west of the Jordan; manage, too, it's long-planned integration with Iraq. The pieces are in place in plain view...

Of course it won't last or even hold up; it's not meant to. It's meant to destroy what's been built of a Jewish state and to alienate Jews once more from their holiest sites and entire inheritance. The gods of this world cannot abide competition when it comes to authority and to determining right and wrong, what is required and forbidden.

Review the Peel partition map, look at a map (available from Carta) of Yesha including the partition (ghetto) fences, and for alternative perspective on the issue, consult Joel 3, Zechariah 12 - 14, Ezekiel 37-8, or just use your mind a bit. Do you want another terror state where Israel is, or would you prefer a genuine Jewish state, making the entire Promised Land flourish and exporting good produce and good news throughout the world?

If you're in America, contact your congressman and let them know you're very angry and worried about what the Bush regime is doing to Israel. As for the Israeli regime, it's Humpty - Dumpty: let's just hope it doesn't take the whole state, and all Jews, down with it. A great fall is coming.

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.

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BAKSHEESH; ISRAEL SUPPORTS NEGOTIATIONS WITH HAMAS; STAYING POWER
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 27, 2006.

BAKSHEESH

In English "Baksheesh" translates into "bribery". In the Arab world it is simply the way of life. The Hamas leaders accurately claim that Fatah was riddled with corruptions which meant that all those receiving donor money from America and Europe were feeding at the public trough of Baksheesh. But, Hamas was not given space to feed on the Free West's donor monies also.

Now it is their turn to gorge on the monies that come in from America, Europe, UNRWA (UN) and whatever they can squeeze out of the very rich Arab oil countries. Actually, the Arab oil money is also the income from the West for the oil to which we are addicted. (Note! The Rich Arab countries always pledge but rarely deliver because, having their own system of Baksheesh, they know where the money is really going - into the personal pockets of the Muslim Arab Terrorist leaders.) They depend upon the donor countries of the West to keep shoveling out the dollars (courtesy of their own tax-payers) in the $Billions to the Muslim Arab Palestinian Mafias and they don't have to.

While Hamas was currying favor with the Palestinian Muslim Arabs by providing services which Fatah was not, they won the hearts and minds of the people. In addition, they were simultaneously carrying out the Jihad against Israel with suicide/homicide bombings, launching Kassam and Katyusha rockets (while claiming a "pretend" or "ersatz" cease-fire or truce which has lasted a year according to the International Media).

Since Hamas, like Arafat, talks truce while continuing Terror and the Media parrot the claim of a cease fire - knowing it is false. I just heard former President Jimmy Carter hold forth on how we must continue funding PA President Mahmoud Abbas (nom de guerre) Abu Mazen, Fatah and the Palestinians.

Having already wasted $Billions of America tax-payers' money, I wonder what goes through the mind of the peanut farmer who, when he was in office, literally put Ayatollah Khomeini into power in Iran. Clearly, Carter is still part of the "Baksheesh" crowd who never found a Terror group he couldn't find a reason not to fund.

Let us see if the State Department, with President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice find a way to approve funds to funnel American tax-dollars into the Palestinian pockets. It has been reported that, due to Congressional cut-offs, the Bush-Rice team is working its way around the will of Congress by funneling money through International Charities and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) located in Gaza, Judea and Samaria.

Gee. If you can't trust your President and the pro-Arab American State Department to honor the will of the American People, who can you trust?

ISRAEL SUPPORTS NEGOTIATIONS WITH HAMAS

We are told that 50% of the Israeli people support negotiation with the major Terrorist organization in the Palestinian Authority: Hamas. Would these be the same 50% who also supported Oslo 1 and then Oslo 2 - even as they not only failed but also led to a substantial killing of Jews. I am never too surprised or impressed with the abject stupidity of Leftist Jews, bleating for "peace" even as the Muslim Palestinians cheer every successful Terrorist act within Israel.

The furor is escalating in Gaza and other areas controlled by the Fatah PA, courtesy of the Clinton-Rabin Oslo 1 and 2. The Fatah realize that they are going to lose their padded jobs and perks as they are replaced by Hamas. They may get around to lynching Abu Mazen whom they blame for losing the January 25th elections to Hamas in a landslide or tsunami - as the New York Times reported. Clearly, the fraud, corruption and "baksheesh" managed by Fatah will now be replaced by the fraud, corruption and "baksheesh" of Hamas. Actually, Fatah and Hamas should get along quite well, given the terms in each of their Charters as virtually the same, namely, erasing the Jewish State from the map.

STAYING POWER

For years I have followed a tactic used by Muslim Jihadists to hold off defeat. No doubt, there is an Arabic word for the tactic, like Hudna (temporary truce) which allows the Jihadists to rebuild their military forces and attaack again.

There are other such tactics embodied in Arabic such as the phrases "Dar Islam" (house or world controlled by Islamic law) and "Dar al Harb" (house or world of war - those areas NOT controlled by Islam and therefore subjected to attack by Jihad - the sword - until victory.)

Presently, we observe that Hamas, a Muslim Terrorist organization, needs a period of silence in order to consolidate their hold on the Palestinian Government before they can continue their pledge to destroy Israel. They are looking to the Leftists of Israel to plead for peace by giving up more territory. Olmert of the "Kadima" Party and Amir Peretz of the Labor Party seems ready to accommodate Hamas. Pledging a Hudna is SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) and it always works because its victims have No Staying Power.

It is perfectly understandable that civilized nations and their people always yearn for the elusive "peace". But, when your enemy proves intractable, as are the Muslims, there is no choice. The Muslims all declare that they intend to wipe Israel off the map - as they have in the school textbooks, TV logos, symbols on uniforms, stationary, etc. They always seem to have their picture taken with visiting Western VIPs in front of the Golden Dome which sits on top of the Jewish Temple Mount.

When you are finished counting the years of aggression, when you have totaled up the dead Jews from this aggression, when you see every gesture you offer used as their opportunity to the so-called "peace partner" to continue their killing - then you must cease further gestures of any kind. If you do NOT, you then fit the homiliy: "Dumb is curable, but stupid is forever".

In Israel, a segment of the population loosely referred to as "the Left" or the "Left-Liberal" who fit another axiomatic condition known as the Lemmings: referring to those small rodents who, for inexplicable reasons, choose to hurl themselves over a cliff and thereby to die en masse.

Here we find such titles as: Labor Zionists, Shalom Achshav (Peace Now), Gush Shalom etc., where they gather under one banner in preparation to hurl themselves (and regrettably all other Jews) over the cliff - like Lemmings.

While the fanatical Jihadists send their young to commit ritual suicide - at least in their delusions, they believe they will get something out of their sacrifice. Not so with the Leftists. They are prepared to commit suicide for absolutely nothing although some believe the world will hate them less.

Presently, we see Acting PM Ehud Olmert and his Kadima Lemmings, saying that their response to Terror is to withdraw from territory so the Terrorists can fill the vacuum and to be even closer to Israel's population centers.

Clearly, in the minds of the Kadimites that will teach the Terrorists 'cum' Muslim Palestinians a severe lesson. Not to be outdone by the "Kadimites", the leaders of the Labor Party, Amir Peretz pledges to even outdo the "Kadimites" by abandoning even more and more Jewish Land.

Not to be left behind, Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu (now head of the Likud Party) picks up the Sharon mantra that he, too, will make "painful concessions".

In the meantime, the Hamas - linked to all other Terror groups, plainly say that they will help the "Kadimites", the Laborites and the Likudniks to fulfill their desire to commit national suicide.

Where is the Nuremberg Tribunal and those hanging platforms just when they are needed most?

In closing, CNN and FOX NEWS both show Fatah rioting in Gaza, the violent men shocked and furious that they have lost the election. Primarily, they have lost their cash flow. Let us next watch a build-up to a Civil War as they fight over the donor monies.

In the meantime, President Bush is trying to explain why his push for Democracy in Arab lands has turned out to be the greatest gift he could have ever given to Terrorist groups, driven by Islamic dreams of world conquest.

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at gwinston@interaccess.com

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IS DEMOCRACY THE ANSWER TO ISLAMIST TERRORISM?
Posted by Avodah 15, January 27, 2006.

This was written by Anton LaGuardia and appeared in UK Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid= CTVP1RB03TFFVQFIQMFCFGGAVCBQYIV0?xml=/opinion/2006/01/27/ do2702.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2006/01/27/ixop.html).

For the past two years, America has pursued the idea that democracy is the answer to Islamist terrorism. Now the Palestinian people have spoken clearly - and they have voted for the terrorists.

Other elections have yielded worrying results: the Muslim Brotherhood, the forebear of all radical Sunni movements, did well in Egypt and would have done much better had it not been for the government's crude suppression; a Shia Islamist group with strong ties to Iran is in the driving seat in Iraq; and, in Iran, a radical president with an alarmingly apocalyptic tone has placed his country on a collision course with the West over its nuclear program. If the Syrian regime collapses, it may well be replaced by Islamist radicals. In Saudi Arabia, the alternative to the House of Saud is not Western liberalism but something more akin to the Taliban.

Arab leaders - and not a few Europeans - will be muttering to the Americans: "We told you so. Allowing the ordinary Muslims to vote freely is a bad idea." Yet this would be the wrong lesson to draw. The popularity of political Islam reflects the bankruptcy of the political order that has gone before. When the state fails, as it has done across the Middle East since the end of the colonial era, then Muslims instinctively turn to the mosque.

Palestinian leaders have turned weakness into a diplomatic art-form, telling Israel and the West they needed more concessions in order to have the authority to take on Hamas. With the terrorists in office, there should be no such ambiguity. When the suicide bombs go off, the address for protests will be the office of the Palestinian prime minister.

Contact Avodah 15 at avodah15aol.com

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"ARMED WING" MISCONCEPTION; WHAT DOES THE STATE DEPT THINK IT'S DOING?; SHARON'S JUDGMENT
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 27, 2006.

THE "ARMED WING" MISCONCEPTION

The NY Times reported that Hamas refuses to give up its "armed wing." The assumption is that terrorist organizations have two, separate wings and purposes, one military, the other civilian. This is a misconception.

The purpose of Hamas is jihad. That is military and religious, there being no separation of the two in Islam. Its civilian services support jihad by providing terrorist families with insurance and by gaining popular support for its totalitarian program.

It is difficult to believe that the Times does not know this. I think that the paper deliberately is misleading readers. It wants them to believe, contrary to experience, that peace can be negotiated with a non-military wing of a terrorist organization. Through negotiations, Israel can be divested of territory, in accordance with the Times decades-old anti-Zionism.

Years ago, I explained the source of that anti-Zionism as the Jewish owners' answer to their fear of being accused of dual loyalty. If they opposed Jewish sovereignty, they thought, gentiles would not accuse them of singular loyalty to their Jewish people. In recent years, however, the family converted to Christianity. The original motivation for its anti-Zionism is gone, but the policy has become embedded in the paper's solidarity with the State Dept.. Pity.

WHAT DOES THE STATE DEPT. THINK IT'S DOING?

The State Dept demands that the P.A. election go forward. It insists that Israel permit Arabs who live in eastern Jerusalem to vote in this election.

Has that election some value? No, it is a contest between two groups of terrorists over who should conduct the war on Israel and who is in charge of the budget. Why the US insistence?

First, the State Dept. has no compunction against interfering in the sovereign affairs of Israel, which cannot hit back at State. Second, the vote is part of a pretense that an election, any election with competing parties, reflects US support for democracy. The election, however, does not produce a free press, minority and female rights, non-conformist parties, or any other feature of democracy. Third, letting Arabs in eastern Jerusalem vote in the P.A. elections is another nail in the coffin of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem.

In its eagerness to deflate Israeli sovereignty, the State Dept. strengthens anti-American terrorism. The State Dept. is an adjunct for anti-Americanism.

ISRAEL VS. POLLARD

The editor of Globes wrote an impassioned and ethical rebuke to the government of Israel for, in effect, murdering Jonathan Pollard. As everybody knows by now, the government admitted that Pollard was its agent. Nevertheless, the government helps keep him in a life sentence, in effect, condemning him to death in prison. It does so by opposing in court his petition for recognition as a "prisoner of Zion." He had sought to protect the Jewish state as much as anyone else imprisoned for protecting the Jewish state. Chief Justice Shamgar easily could have ruled that way instead of the reverse. Opposing him in court undermines Israel's efforts to get the US to release him, for if Israel won't recognize him, why should the US? (IMRA, 1/20.)

It was a decent article but exhibited surprising ignorance about Israel's stance towards Pollard. The government, i.e., the Cabinet, conspicuously has done nothing to attain Pollard's release under clemency. It claims to have, but the prisoner's wife refuted those claims. When PM Sharon visits Pres. Bush, carrying a petition for clemency from the Knesset, but does not present it to him, Bush realizes that Sharon does not want Pollard out. The editor should have criticized the government for this implied condemnation.

Why has Sharon acted this way? Is he appeasing the US? Perhaps. Probably more important is his complicity in the spying and in the abandoning of Pollard. He would not want Pollard free to inform Israelis of Sharon's guilt.

THE QUESTION ABOUT SHARON'S JUDGMENT

Sharon reversed his policy, when he turned on the settlers with vicious and deceitful tactics that aided the Arabs. The earlier theories to explain this inconsistency were pressure by the US and by leftist Israeli prosecutors. Another reason may have operated in tandem with those earlier ones. It is Alzheimer's disease.

In explaining the use of certain medicine, Sharon's doctors mentioned an earlier onset of that mental disease. They did not state how serious it became.

This diagnosis raises further questions. Did his entourage keep this news from the public, rather than incline him to resign? Did the US exploit Sharon's failing judgment to foist its policy, harmful to Israel, upon Israel (Winston Mideast Analysis, 1/11)

What rights does the public have in such cases? Has it a right to know?

DEMOCRACY THWARTED IN ISRAEL

The Central Committee helps run Likud. Many Committee members sympathize with Sharon's Party, but have not resigned from Likud. They continue to wield influence in their rival, Likud (IMRA, 1/11). We know politics isn't always fair, but this is too much.

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 VICTORY:COMPLETING THE PROCESS OF PLO/HAMAS COOPERATION
Posted by David Bedein, January 27, 2006.

Over the past month, our news agency has been facilitating a documentary film on the subject of the Hamas, in which our colleagues interviewed Hamas leaders who serve prison sentences prison for dispatching people to commit acts of murder, in which their victims -- men, women and children of all ages -- were killed in cold blood in shopping centers, schools, coffee shops, open air markets, or in their living room at home.

Each of these Hamas leaders openly said that they expect to be free very soon, that they expect to resume their "operations", that they have no regrets for their actions, and that their purpose is to overthrow the State of Israel and to replace it with an "Islamic State of Palestine".

These Hamas leaders spoke calmly, with self-confidence, and were pleased to pose for the cameras after each interview.

And now these very Hamas leaders have won the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council, to complete an 18 year process of cooperation between the Hamas and the PLO, which had been the dominant party in the nascent Palestinian Authority.

The Hamas, founded in 1987, and the PLO, founded much earlier, in 1964, work with the same funding source: Saudi Arabia, one of the Arab nations that had attacked Israel in 1948 to destroy the news Jewish state. Saudi Arabia has never signed a peace treaty (like Jordan and Egypt) and has never even signed an armistice (like Syria and Lebanon)

Meanwhile, the PLO has nurtured the Hamas for leadership in a Palestinian state.

As the Oslo process gathered momentum, the PLO cooperation with the Hamas's popular movement was conducted in the open, yet hardly reported.

When Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, Israeli Foreign Minister Peres and PLO leader Yassir Arafat all got a joint Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in December 1994, I asked Rabin and Peres if Arafat would crush the Hamas and cancel the PLO covenant calling for Israel's destruction. Peres and Rabin held their own press conference and assured the media that they had ironclad commitment from Arafat to crush the Hamas and to cancel the PLO covenant which calls for Israel's gradual destruction.

However, when I asked Arafat the same questions, he laughed at the idea that he was supposed to "crush the Hamas" and instead described the Hamas as "my brothers" and denied any assurance that he would cancel the PLO covenant. 250 news agencies heard Arafat's answer. Not one reported it.

Four months later, in April, 1995, after intense negotiations between the PLO and the Hamas, Arafat committed himself to licensing and distributing weapons for the Hamas. At the time, the Voice of Israel Radio had reported that Arafat was "confiscating the weapons" from the Hamas, as did the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Yet on May 9th, 1995, The PA held a ceremony in which it formally distributed weapons to Hamas in an event was reported on the Voice of Palestine radio, and picked up by the New York Times.

Yet the story was relegated to the back pages of Israeli newspapers and, to this day, most people to this day that the Hamas is armed by the Palestinian Authority.

In December, 1995. the PA and the Hamas reached a cooperative agreement in Cairo to absorb the Hamas into the framework of the Palestinian Authority, after which the PA ceded the all important position of "minister of communications" to a Hamas official.

However, the PLO-HAMAS Cairo agreement was carried out in the weeks that followed the assassination of Rabin, and the impact on public opinion was not really felt. The Cairo Agreement was also relegated to the back pages of the media.

After the breakdown of Israeli-Palestinian Camp David negotiations in the summer of 2000, two key PLO members and officials of the PA -- Muhammad Dahlan and Marwan Bargouhti -- established a "joint military command:" with the Hamas -- in a cooperative agreement to carry out murder activities in a coordinated fashion, with no pretense of "good cop" for the Fateh and "bad cop" for the Hamas.

And over this past week, on the last day of the PA political campaign, one of the founders of the PLO, PA foreign minister Nabil Shaath made a solid campaign promise that he would "never disarm the Hamas."

Meanwhile, the PA state constitution, adopted by the Palestinian Legislative Council, a full three years before the Hamas electoral victory this week, mandates that a future Palestinian State will be based on Sharia Islamic law, modeled on Saudi Arabia and Iran, in which there is no juridical status for Jews.

In other words, the PA constitution is quite compatible with the Hamas Charter, and the cooperation between the PLO and the Hamas will continue unabated.

On the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the first entity since the Third Reich has been established to sanction the cold blooded murder of Jews.

David Bedein is bureau chief of the Israel Resource News Agency (www.IsrtaelBehindTheNews.com) in Jerusalem.

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ISRAELI POLICY PAYS OF AT LAST -- WITH A HAMAS NAZI STATE
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 27, 2006.

There is something smugly satisfying when watching the end of a long dramatic movie, when all of the strands come together, where the audience can at long last see how all the seemingly unrelated pieces lead logically to the single ending, where all the suspense and mystery have been resolved.

The emergence of a Hamas nazi state in the suburbs of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is the inevitable and predetermined result of the past 14 years of the Oslo "Peace Process". There is a single unbreakable strand that leads from the secret illegal Oslo "negotiations" of a handful of Israeli leftist pseudo-academics in the late 1980s, through the Peres-Rabin initiative in 1992, through the 1993 White House ceremony announcing the first Oslo Accord (with Arafat dressed in military fatigues), to the emergence of the Hamas nazi state today with the overwhelming majority vote in the Palestinian "election".

Everything that the Israeli political establishment did over the past 13 years led directly and unwaveringly to the Hamas nazi state. The Labor Party and the Likud are equally to blame.

The campaign of national self-abasement; the demonization of the anti-Oslo dissidents; the anti-speech McCarthyism after the Rabin assassination by Yigal Amir; the self-recruitment by the Israeli media -- under the near-hegemony of the Far Left -- on behalf of endless appeasement of the Palestinians, the Peace Now campaigns; the Tel Aviv "peace" rallies with their numbers inflated manifold by the media; the conversion of the Israeli universities into Petri dishes of Post-Zionism; the propaganda and indoctrination in the public school curriculum; the "We have a Partner in Negotiations" campaign; the make-pretend cooperation with the Palestinian Authority; the suppression of much of the news of the daily atrocities by the PLO and its affiliates; the campaign to get international recognition of the PLO; the Israeli funding of the Palestinian Authority; the arms sent by Israel to the PLO; the campaign to grant the PLO representation and legitimacy in international forums; the turning of a blind eye when Israel was flooded with international "solidarity" protester thugs assisting the terrorists and attacking Israeli soldiers and police; the persecution of Jewish settlers when they defended themselves; the fabrication of the "settlers vandalizing trees" and "settlers attacking Palestinians" canards; the turning a blind eye to the open treason of some Israeli Arab politicians; the turning of a blind eye to the enormous growth in Islamofascism among Israeli Arabs; the insistence by the Israeli political elite that the nazi propaganda coming out of the Palestinian Authority was "just talk" and "letting off steam"; the "controlled carnage" agreements with the Hizbollah and the PLO; the release of hundreds of murderers to appease the Hizbollah after it murdered three captive Israeli officers; the turning of the other cheek when hundreds of Kassams landed; the refusal to retaliate when Jerusalem neighborhoods were targets of PLO gunfire; the cowardly abandonment of Sderot to the shelling and rockets; the "Really Really Hard" empty threats after each PLO atrocity; the hectoring of the public by the politicians about how "we really need to make painful sacrifices"; the acquiescence to a policy of "Israel makes peace while the Palestinians continue to make war"; the promotion of the doctrine that peace can best be achieved by pretending that war does not exist; the lecturing of Israelis by their leaders about how they are selfish and unwilling to share; the campaign to purge all symbols of Judaism from the state and all Jewish content from the school curriculum; the promotion by Israeli leftist leaders and professors of "Naqba Day, in which Israel mourns its own creation; the continued employment of traitors and anti-Semites as university faculty members; the celebration of leftist "army service refusers" and mutineers as moral heroes; the refusal to prosecute Arab and Jewish extremists for treason; the indictment and investigation of Rabbis; the expulsion of the heroes of Gush Katif, and the ethnic cleansing of the Jews of Gaza; the labeling of all anti-Oslo dissidents as "inciters"; the campaign to accuse all anti-Oslo dissidents of collective guilt in the death of Rabin; the abandonment of any attempt to stop the smuggling of explosives into Gaza from Egypt; the countless make-pretend "projects of cooperation" with the Palestinian Authority; ignoring the open endorsements of suicide bombing and terrorism by Israeli Arab and Jewish extremists; the failure to indict Yossi Beilin and Ami Ayalon for their "initiatives"; the proposals to purge the Israeli flag of the Star of David and to expunge references to Jewish yearnings from the national anthem; the Israeli offers to abandon half of Jerusalem.

At the end of the film Casablanca, all the strands come to their denouement, their inevitable end. Will the emergence of the Hamas nazi state in the suburbs of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem at last wake Israelis up? If so, then -- like Bogie walking off with Claude Rains -- we will at last have the start of a beautiful friendship.

2. Over the past few days Barry Chamish, the inventor of the world's most infantile conspians for a Safe Israel are backing him and endorsing his "theories". This claim is as truthful as everything else Chamish writes.

In fact, Chamish's followers behave exactly like a cult and a handful of Chamishites infiltrated a chat list nominally associated with the AFSI on Yahoo as moles. The list was hijacked by the Chamishites, who posted endorsements of Chamish's "theories", even including his "theories" about UFOs. Cults commonly infiltrate chat lists as moles -- it is a common tactic of the LaRouchians and Newmanites, to name but two. The Chamishite cult seems to have a few dozen members.

The AFSI has now purged all the Chamishite moles from its list and issued a statement denouncing Chamish and Chamishism. Chamish has invented brain-numbing theories about how Israel is crawling with giant space aliens, how Natan Sharansky is a KGB spy, how Shimon Peres gave Ofra Haza AIDS to silence her and how Peres knocked down JFK Jr's plane and murdered a US Congressman, how the head of the Bank of Israel is a spy, and how the publishers of Foreign Affairs magazine really knocked down the WTC on 911 by planting bombs inside. Chamish is now an official columnist on the neonazi Holocaust Denier web site RENSE.com, which promotes the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and runs numerous Holocaust Denial articles, such as "Auschwitz is a Myth", in addition to the familiar conspiracism nonsense. Chamish chooses to publish his conspiracist trash with RENSE.com, and also with several other neonazi web sites, including that run by the Adelaide Institute Nazis in Australia (they have run over 40 Chamish articles). Chamish's main detective techniques in uncovering conspiracies seem to be the decoder ring and disappearing ink he got from the back of a comic book. Chamish is on record as saying that Labor Zionist leaders planned the Holocaust. Chamish's "theory" of the Rabin assassination is as truthful and credible as all the other Chamish fabrications.

The AFSI has unambiguously denounced Chamish and the Chamish cult.

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. Contact him by email at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il

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HAMASTAN: WHAT TO DO NOW?
Posted by Dovid Ben Chaim, January 26, 2006.

The "Palestinians" have spoken: they want a Islamist government that will destroy Israel. Smart people, decent people, honest people must now seize this clarifying moment to begin thinking and formulating a way to ensure a new proposition enters the MAINSTREAM for serious consideration.

To wit: After 60 years on the table, quite obviously the "two-state" solution has proved to be a dead-end and a chimera. Israel and her true friends now need to reconsider the idea of a "one-state" solution; Israeli sovereignty from the Jordan to the Sea, with the status of Arabs living therein determined by the will of the Israeli people.

Anyone willing to look history in the eye knows there is simply no other way, no other alternative. Everything else means succumbing to more illusions, delaying the inevitable and needlessly killing more Jews (and others) in the process.

Contact the author at dovidbenchaim@myway.com

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ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE FAILURE ON HAMAS' ELECTION WIN
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 26, 2006.

Reminiscent of the infamous failure of Israel Intelligence to anticipate the Yom Kippur War in September 1973 and the fumbling of decisions by the Golda Meir Government, the Israeli Intelligence fumbled again on Hamas on January 26th.

It is known that Israeli Intelligence assured Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that Fatah, under President Mahmoud Abbas (nom de guerre) Abu Mazen would win the elections. As is now apparent, Hamas won in a landslide and, therefore, controls the Palestinian Government (such as it is).

The question arises, why with all the on-ground Humint (Human Intelligence) scattered throughout Gaza and the cities controlled by the Palestinian Authority, did Israeli Intelligence miss the assessment by such a wide margin? Several answers come to mind: First, the Israel Intelligence has become so politicized that their level of competence has dropped to a very low level. Second: Because the agencies have been so loaded with PCs (Politically-Correct Leftists) that realistic assessments are no longer possible.

So, the information given to Olmert was consistent with what Olmert wanted to hear. Keep in mind that, in terms of Intelligence Operations or the Military, Olmert is not the brightest bulb. Olmert made the decision not to interfere with Hamas and its electioneering.

Presumably, if we look a little past Olmert, we would see the ever present Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice giving instructions.

The Intelligence failure was dramatic -- given the results. Apparently, on the streets of Gaza City, Nablus, Ram'Allah, Bethlehem, Jenin, Qalqilya and Jericho the Muslim Arab people were not hiding their tilt to Hamas. So, how could Israeli Intelligence miss by so wide a margin? As for Olmert and his Kadima crowd, none of them are too swift in being able to make probing assessments of incoming Intelligence. Raw intelligence is like an onion. You must peel it back, layer by layer, until you think you have arrived at the correct level of evaluation. Olmert and his crew are just not capable. Without Arik Sharon's military experience, Ehud Olmert is merely an empty shell.

Clearly, there should be an inquiry by the Intelligence and Defense arm of the Knesset. Something is dreadfully wrong with the various Intelligence services. If they have been emasculated by the politicians and loaded with political appointments, then they desperately need a shakeout or a shakeup. I would add that goes for the military which has far too many officers who owe their appointments to the political establishment.

If ever there was a need for such an inquiry, it is now. There was such an inquiry regarding the Yom Kippur Intelligence failure and heads did roll.

It is time for another inquiry before -- not after -- the next war.

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at gwinston@interaccess.com

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ISRAEL, JEWS AND THE PRESS
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 26, 2006.

This comes from the Fred On Everything (FOE) blog.

Years back, when I was writing a military column for Universal Press Syndicate, I heard of a book on women in the armed services called The Kinder, Gentler Military (the title as it turned out was ironic) by Stephanie Gutmann, a Jewish woman out of Manhattan. The latter didn't sound like a recommendation. I expected a feminist tirade. However my friend Catherine Aspy spoke well of it. Kate had graduated from Harvard in 1992 and, setting a historic record for wild improbability, enlisted in the US Army. She knew the military. She had seen what Gutmann was writing about, and liked the book. So I read it.

To my surprise, Gutmann knew what she was talking about. She wasn't political, just reportorial, and described perfectly the fraud and double standards used to make women look successful in the army. Much of it would be hard to credit, except that I had seen it from outside as Kate had from the inside. In the course of events I met Steph a couple of times, chatted on the phone, and lost contact with her. The book got few and bad reviews because it was not what the media wanted to hear. It was a fine book. (Amazon has it.)

A couple of months ago, I ran across a blurb about another book that she recently wrote, The Other War, described as arguing that Israel takes an unfair beating in the press, which is skilfully manipulared by the Palestinians. If Alan Dershowitz had written it, I'd have dismissed it as propaganda -- but then, I have read Dershowitz. Instead I ordered the book.

The subject interested me for various reasons, one being an odd contradiction I had noticed. I get considerable mail from the anti-Jewish backchannels on the net telling me that the Jews control the American media. Often these are accompanied by lists, usually accurate enough, of important positions in the media held by Jews. My correspondents then assert that because of this control we hear only good things about Israel.

Well and good -- except that for perhaps fifteen years I had never heard anything good about Israel from the media. The Israelis were always deliberately shooting little Palestinian children, bulldozing houses from sheer vindictiveness, reducing Palestinians to poverty, murdering Palestinian leaders, torturing all within reach, and intimidating the press. The Palestinians were noble freedom fighters, just like Davy Crockett, or hapless victims.

Hmmm, I wondered. If Jews control the press and only tell us good things about Israel, how come I never hear anything from the press about Israel except bad things?

I was also interested because I'd had considerable if scattered experience in Israel, and indeed cut my journalistic baby-teeth there. In 1967 on recuperative leave from Bethesda Naval Hospital I had gone to Europe with a shot-up squid off of PBRs in Asia, gotten bored, and gone to Israel. We hippied about, had the usual adventures, got mortared in Eilat. (The hippies didn't understand why we were suddenly on the floor. We knew what "ka-chung" meant.)

In '73 I went to Israel as a greenhorn war correspondent for the Fredericksburg, Virginia, Free-Lance Star. I was pig-ignorant of the news racket, looked like Mehitabel the Cat's degenerate brother, and must have astonished the Israelis, but my credentials checked out and the info people were pretty decent. I got to the Golan, the Sinai, and so on. I was there for the doings of the early 80s.

Anyway, Stephanie's book arrived. In it she makes a (well documented, example-filled) case that the mainstream media are relentlessly hostile to Israel. Yes, I know. This is so contrary to what we are told daily that to doubt it feels a bit like doubting gravitation. And don't important papers and networks all agree? When you are told something often enough you begin to believe that you know it. And since I hadn't been to Israel in twenty-five years, I couldn't speak from recent personal experience.

But something stank. The news from the region was too pat, too homogeneous. Her description of the behavior of the press in Israel, with which she is intimately familiar, was exactly what I had seen in countless other places -- ignorant, herd-like, egomaniacal, adversarial; unremmittingly partisan, moralizing, all snottily in agreement, with much clawing over each other to make a name. Of this I knew a great deal.

With today's media, taking sides instead of reporting is usual. Most of us I think know this from daily observation. For example, if whites murder a black for reasons of racial hostility, it is news for weeks, but should the crime go in the other direction, the story will be downplayed and then suppressed. One is as bad as the other -- but that is not how it is reported. Should a man suggest that men are better than women at mathematics, the press will not regard it as a question to be investigated but as a crime to be punished. "Political correctness" is nothing but herdwired advocacy journalism.

If the press couldn't get anything else right, I thought, why should I trust them on Israel?

I have seen endless inaccuracy and untruthfulness. I was in Phnom Penh for the final siege.

The papers in the States spoke of "barrages" of rockets "pounding" the city. Actually, there were scattered rockets, six or eight a day, and probably not one reporter in fifty knew what "barrage" meant. When Americans were reading about the "starving" city, I was stepping over pigs, quite chubby, tied on sidewalks. One of the newsweeklies, I forget which, ran a cover of Cambodians running in terror with the city in flames behind. I was there. No flames. It was a file photo from who knows when.

For years in Washington I covered the military in the company of reporters for allegedly meritorious publications -- the Washington Post, the New York Times, the networks. There was the same preachy witless partisanship. Everyone has heard about the $600 toilet seat and the $17 dollar bolts bought by the Pentagon, no? I covered these stories. They were nonsense. The reporters easily could have determined that they were nonsense. In those days the entire press corps (the pack effect) insisted that American weapons didn't work, were too complex, broke constantly. Not even close. On and on.

When a woman I know to be a fine reporter tells me that the press in Israel behaves exactly as I have know it to behave everywhere else, I'm inclined to take her seriously.

My objection to the behavior of the press in general, and I think hers to its behavior in Israel, is not to its political positions but to dishonest reporting. The view that, say, Israel should get out of the West Bank is a political one, legitimate in a column. The Palestinians are part of the story too and should be covered fairly. But sloppy reporting according to a heavily-agendaed double standard is just lousy journalism. When Guttman writes about reporters hanging around the press bar in Jerusalem and writing I-was-there stories when they weren't, or about photographers looking for the Pulitzer photo without knowing or caring what was going on, or about craftedly dishonest writing to support a political position, she is describing something I have seen over and over elsewhere. It's just how the business works.

A curious fact, though she doesn't mention it, is that many of the reporters she cites as most hostile to Israel are Jewish. For example, Ted Koppel. I assume that Suzanne Goldenberg and Rick Kaplan are Jewish, though I grant that they may be Chinese Protestants with Jewish names. She cites the New York Times, Jewish owned, as particularly hostile. Jews whom I know say the same thing: It isn't caricature anti-Semites but the liberal press. Explain it as you will, but I have noticed the same thing. It doesn't add up to Israeli control of the press.

If the Middle East interests you, I recommend The Other War. Judge it as you will. But read it.

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HAMAS HIRES SPIN DOCTOR
Posted by Israel Resource News Agency, January 26, 2006.
This was written by Chris McGreal, Middle East Correspondent, and it appeared January 21, 2006 in the Guardian.

Hamas is paying a spin doctor $180,000 to persuade Europeans and Americans that it is not a group of religious fanatics who relish suicide bombings and hate Jews.

The organisation, also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, has hired a media consultant, Nashat Aqtash, to improve its image at home and abroad because it expects to emerge from next week's Palestinian general election as a major political force, and wants recognition and acceptance by the US and EU.

"Hamas has an image problem. The Israelis were able to create a very bad image of the Palestinians in general and particularly Muslims and Hamas. My contract is to project the right image," said Mr Aqtash, who also teaches media at Birzeit University in Ramallah.

"We don't need the international community to accept Hamas ideology, we need it to accept the facts on the ground. We are not killing people because we love to kill. People view Hamas as loving sending people to die. We don't love death, we like life."

Mr Aqtash, who describes himself as opposed to violence and "believing in the Gandhi route", has advised Hamas leaders to change their image by explaining that they do not hate Israelis because they are Jews. And he is attempting to persuade influential foreigners that Hamas is essentially a peaceful organisation that was forced to fight, but is now committed to pressing its cause through politics, not violence.

"Hamas does not believe in terrorism or killing civilians. But Ariel Sharon pressed buttons to make people angry. Sometimes we are innocent enough to react in a way that the Israelis use the reaction against us," he said.

Next week Mr Aqtash says he will address the former US president Jimmy Carter and former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, and other prominent foreigners monitoring the election. But he admits he and his small team working from an office in Ramallah have their work cut out. Hamas is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, killing and maiming hundreds of civilians (many of them children), although not for yesterday's attack in Tel Aviv.

Hamas's founding charter calls for the destruction of Israel and it wants to impose an Islamic state on all Palestinian territory.

Mr Aqtash, who says he is not a member of Hamas and does not know where it got the money to pay him but frequently refers to the group as "we", says he has told the leadership it has to change its rhetoric. He says Hamas has not helped itself by celebrating suicide bombings; he advises against celebration. And he has told Hamas leaders not to talk about destroying Israel.

"Abdel Aziz Rantisi [the former Hamas leader killed by Israel two years ago] was on television saying things that foreigners cannot accept, like we will remove Israel from the map. He should have talked about Palestinian suffering. He should have said we need this occupation ended. Foreigners will accept this," he said.

Mr Aqtash has also advised Hamas leaders to emphasise that they are not anti-semitic or against Israelis because they are Jews. Hamas has taken the message on board. In an interview earlier this week, Muhammad Abu Tir, who is second on the Hamas election list, twice (and unprompted) offered an assurance that he is not a Jew hater.

"Loving others is part of our religion. We are not against Jews as Jews, we are against oppression," he said.

Mr Aqtash also told Mr Abu Tir to rid himself of a red beard, coloured by henna, because it makes people laugh.

The PR man wriggles away from questions about whether Hamas has more than an image problem when it sends bombers on buses and into cafes.

"I'm personally against killing. All civilians should not be killed. Killing Israeli civilians is not accepted by the international community. They think it is a terrorist act," he said.

"But Sharon was responsible for killing civilians too. During this intifada Hamas killed a thousand Israelis, some of them civilians, some of them soldiers. But the Israelis killed 4,000 Palestinians. It's a war. The Israelis use F16s; Hamas uses people. Anyway, Hamas hasn't sent a suicide bomber in a year."

Hamas is also attempting to soften its image at home with the launch of a television station in Gaza that includes a children's show presented by "Uncle Hazim" and men in furry animal suits. [Editor's note: see below.] The station, named Al Aqsa Television after Islam's third holiest site, says it intends to put across the group's message "but without getting into the tanks, the guns, the killing and the blood". It will instead focus on religious readings, discussion programmes and a talent show.

Mr Aqtash, however, is not entirely confident in his powers of persuasion.

"How did I do?" he asked as the interview ended. "Did I make you think differently about Hamas?"

Helpful hints The advice Nashat Aqtash gave to Hamas:

  • Say you are not against Israelis as Jews

  • Don't talk about destroying Israel

  • Do talk about Palestinian suffering

  • Don't celebrate killing people

  • Change beard colour (if red)

The Israel Resource News Agency (http://Israelbehindthenews.com), is based in Jerusalem. David Bedein is Bureau Chief.

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SODOM AND GOMORRAH
Posted by David Wilder, January 26, 2006.

In 1983 Deli Landau, then 19 years old, left London to live in Israel. A few years later she married Menachem, and for over twenty years the couple has lived in Hebron. Menachem is the principal of the Kiryat Arba Religious Junior High School for boys. Deli, in her words, specializes in mops and diapers, while taking care of her eleven children. She is also a professional medic who frequently journeys in Hebron's ambulance to Jerusalem, accompanying, among others, women on their way to give birth. She also cares very much for where she lives, for her land and for her people. Not a bashful woman, Deli makes her opinion known, not only with words, but also with actions.

Last week, on her way into Kiryat Arba from Hebron, was stopped at the gate by a police officer, who asked her if she was from Hebron. When she responded positively, he demanded to see her ID card. Her response: "if you only demand IDs of Hebron residents, your motives are political." With that she put her foot on the gas and drove into Kiryat Arba. Moments later a police van pulled up behind her and, speaking through a loud speaker, yelled at her to stop. She suddenly heard the policeman screaming that she had tried to run him down. An officer, peering into her car, demanded that several others hand over their Israeli IDs. When they refused, they were arrested. Deli was ordered to follow the police to the local police headquarters. There she was charged with attacking a police officer, (as opposed to attempting to run him down).

However, the primary charge against Deli Landau revolves around the issuance of expulsion orders to Hebron residents of the Mitzpe Shalhevet neighborhood a couple of weeks ago. Two uniformed officers of the Israeli "Civil Administration" arrived in the neighborhood at about 10:00 in the morning, accompanied by dozens of police, the riot squad, soldiers, and journalists. When the expulsion forces met, face to face with Hebron residents and supporters, a volcano erupted.

During the ensuing fracas, Deli, whose apartment borders the homes of the endangered Mitzpe Shalhevet apartments, stood on a porch and poured a pitcher of water onto people standing under her, in the road. Her goal was several police, but her aim was off, and the water splashed a few yeshiva students who got in the way.

As a result of her attempt to waste water on Israeli expulsion forces, Deli was charged with attacking police officers and rioting.

Last week, following her arrest, Deli and her 15 month old son spent the night at the Neve Tirza woman's prison. The next day, during a court hearing, the judge agreed to allow her to spend Shabbat at her parent's home in Jerusalem, under house arrest, until a second hearing. The prosecutor's office was demanding that she be remanded in prison until conclusion of all proceedings against her.

This morning, at the Jerusalem Shalom Court, judge Ilta Ziskind rendered the following decision:

* Deli must remain in house arrest at her parent's home in Jerusalem, until conclusion of expulsion from the Mitzpe Shalhevet neighborhood.

* Following conclusion of the expulsion, the police will be notified and Deli will be allowed to return to her home in Hebron.

* Deli is forbidden from being anywhere else in Judea and Samaria for a year.

* She must deposit 5,000 shekels cash and sign a bail bond for another 20,000 shekels, which will be collected should she violate the court decision, or not appear at trial.

During the hearing, the 'honorable judge' lectured Deli: 'As the mother of eleven children, you should be more responsible and refrain from rioting and attacking police. Your children are liable to learn from you actions, and this is one of the reasons you must not be allowed home, to prevent your children from learning from your deeds.'

What can we determine from this court decision?

1. The judge has already decided that there will be an expulsion in Hebron. (I asked Deli what will happen if, for some reason, the 'expulsion' is delayed or postponed. Her response: "Wow -- I'll really be stuck."

2. Judges know better than mothers how to educate their children

3. Israeli courts may punish citizens, despite the fact that they haven't been tried or convicted. (Exile from all of Judea and Samaria for a year!) (I asked Deli if she was allowed to enter Kiryat Arba, to go to the doctor, post office, grocery store, etc. She didn't know).

4. Most importantly: pouring water on a policeman is a horrific crime, to be equated with 'physically attacking police.'

Deli isn't the first person to lately be so oppressed by Israeli 'justice.' A 15 year old Hebron youth was 'distanced from Hebron (where his family lives) for two months. He is under 'yeshiva arrest,' i.e., he cannot leave the yeshiva where he studies, except for Shabbat, when he is allowed home.

Why? What did he do? The police have a photograph of a male with his face covered by a stocking hat, whose jacket is similar to the Hebron boy's jacket. So, of course, that is proof enough to determine final identification and justify preemptive punishment and exile from his home.

Other examples: A 15 year old girl, with no criminal record, was charged with rioting, disturbing a policeman who was fulfilling his duty, and entering a 'closed military zone' because she attempted to leave Kiryat Arba to Hebron, despite a military order declaring the area a 'closed military zone.' She was not charged with any violent activity, but the prosecution demanded that she be held in prison until conclusion of all proceedings against her. The court ruled that she be held in house arrest until conclusion of the expulsion from Mitzpe Shalhevet. Only then will she be allowed to return to her studies at the Kiryat Arba religious girls High School.

A 15 year old girl, without any past criminal record, was arrested because of 'unbecoming behavior' (chuztpa). She resisted arrest and scratched an army officer. The same officer provided 'an eyewitness account' that he had seen her rioting several days earlier. As a result of this single witness, the judge ordered that the girl be held until conclusion of all proceedings against her. She is incarcerated in the Russian compound in Jerusalem, in very harsh conditions.

A 16 year old boy, from a family of terror victims, was arrested when a policeman argued that he could identify him as having 'pushed police' with his head covered by a stocking hat. As a result of this testimony, the boy has been in jail for over a week and the prosecution is demanding that he be remanded until conclusion of all proceedings against him.

Attorney Naftali Wertzberger noted the following trends presently utilized by the Israeli prosecution and courts:

* Demands to imprison until conclusion of proceedings, even when dealing with minors, breast-feeding mothers, and people without any criminal record.

* Usage of 'house-arrest' punishment on minors, causing them to miss school 'until conclusion of the expulsion from the 'shuk' in Hebron.'

* Very frequent visits by police to 'check' those under house arrest -- up to 5 to 6 times a day.

* Demands to deposit 5,000 shekels cash to the court. In addition, it has been learned that the director of special tasks in the prosecutor's office, Attorney Shi Nitzan, is taking a personal interest in the present cases, is following them and has issued instructions forbidding police prosecutors from reaching any kind of agreement or compromise with the 'suspects.' Any such agreement must have his personal stamp of approval.

Tomorrow Deli Landau's attorney will file an appeal with the Jerusalem municipal appeals court. However, no one has any illusions as to the outcome of the case. It is quite clear that prosecutor's office and the courts have joined together, not to seek justice, but rather to seek repression of basic human rights, punishing prior to trial and conviction, while oppressing Israelis attempting to protest a most dastardly crime: eviction and expulsion from Jewish homes, presently in Hebron, and likely also in Amona and other communities throughout Judea and Samaria, following in the footsteps of Gush Katif and the northern Shomron.

We are living a replay of Sodom and Gomorrah, when justice and hospitality were an anathema and evil was the name of the game.

And we all know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah.

Phone & fax numbers:

President Moshe Katsav;
tel: 972-2-670-72-11 or 5611033
fax: 972-2-567-13-14

State Comptroller's office:
tel: 972-2-666-5000
fax: 972-2-666-5204 and fax the department responsible for the police:
972-2-530-9999

Prime Min spokesman:
Assaf Sharif 972-2-5666920 (dir.)
fax: 972-2-5669245
cell: 972-50-7724881

$ID

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ISRAEL AT 57
Posted by Gary S., January 26, 2006.

This is from the Jerusalem Post "Here are some of the reasons I love Israel, in no particular order:

1. The clock radio rouses me with "Shema Yisrael," the Jewish pledge of allegiance, and the weather is nearly always fine.

2. On Memorial Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day, the act of remembering halts traffic.

3. The Israel Prize recognizes lifetime achievement for actresses and rabbis, scientists and singers.

4. Mother's Day is celebrated on the yahrzeit of Henrietta Szold, who organized Youth Aliya with Recha but who had no children of her own.

5. All citizens have health care, and the fight is on to get coverage for foreign residents.

6. If my car overheats, even men in designer suits will leap to help me.

7. 25% of Israelis have been close enough to hear a bombing, yet two million of us were out vacationing on Pessah. That's resilience.

8. An evening of singing is still a popular grown-up pastime.

9. Entire families show up for military graduations and bring enough food to feed an army.

10. A circumcision ceremony, brit mila, is important enough to take an hour off from work.

11. Israelis give out their cell phone numbers -- the difference between our private and professional lives isn't neatly delineated.

12. Supermarkets deliver.

13. We have more In-Vitro Fertilization per capita than anywhere because we love children.

14. Our beggars are courageous -- they solicit on even the highest-risk street corners.

15. Nearly every family story includes persecution, battle experience, and the upheaval of uprooting -- yet Israelis are optimists

16. Street musicians are good enough to play in chamber orchestras

17. Despite the stress, creativity flourishes: Israel has more start-up companies than any country outside the US.

18. We're talkative -- both the cell phone and voice mail were invented here

19. We get excited about cyclamens, almond blossoms, and drive far to see budding Lupins (tormosim).

20. On Friday, religious or not, everyone is hurrying towards Shabbat. Check out the bakery lines

21. Aliyah stories can make the evening news

22. We celebrate Independence Day by holding a Bible contest.

23. The fastest food is still falafel with its incomparable aroma.

24. Blue and white flags fly from cars and buildings.

25. "Where were your grandparents from?" is a common question. Where else would anyone care about my grandparents

26. You don't have to be best friends or kin to be invited to a wedding.

27. You don't have to be best friends or kin to attend a funeral.

28. By the number of scientific papers published (more per capita than any other country), you'd think researchers were in ivory towers. Most do hands-on works, and many serve reserve duty

29. First graders read the Bible in the original Hebrew, and celebrate when they get their personal copies

30. Humus is ubiquitous.

31. Political discussions never stop, not even in the swimming pool

32. We follow the level of the Kinneret more faithfully than we do our stock portfolios.

33. Even soldiers carrying heavy M-16's will stop to help a parent with a stroller. Note: M-16's are light. Otherwise, this is still true.

34. Streets bear names of prophets and medieval poets

35. Calendars change on Rosh Hashanah because that's our real New Year.

36. Malls have kosher food-courts.

37. Airplanes have sky marshals, just in case.

38. We have more museums per capita than Italy.

39. We raise cows in the desert with yields like those in Holland.

40. Before Pesach, cleaning products are the lead supermarket items.

41. Even in our prisons, Pesach -- the holiday of freedom -- is celebrated with a Seder.

42. We have only one Seder.

43. Purim, our dress-up holiday, lasts three days.

44. In Jerusalem, it's hard to tell who's in costume and who isn't

45. A new garment or a new haircut elicits a salutation, something between "wear it well" and "enjoy its newness."

46. Israel is the first to offer help and send rescue teams to countries coping with disaster.

47. Israel sent medical staff to care for our people after the terror attack in Mombasa and then Israeli fighter jets escorted the plane home.

48. For all the talk about the greening of the planet, we're the only country in the world that started the 21st century with a net gain of trees. (Thank you, Keren Kayemet!)

49. Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies except for Silicon Valley, and also the most yeshivot (Day Schools).

50. After a calamity, police have trouble keeping bystanders who want to help, away.

51. The question "What would you like to drink?" instead of "Would you like a drink?" is a measure of hospitality.

52. Waiting in the supermarket check-out line, strangers share cheesecake recipes.

53. Plain folk know the most obscure languages.

54. Tel Aviv rose from a sand dune and looks glorious.

55. The time of the Saturday evening news is adjusted to suit Shabbat observers.

56. My children and grandchildren can be born in the land of my ancestors.

57. The army serves kosher meals.

HAPPY 57TH ANNIVERSARY, ISRAEL!!!!

Contact Gary S. at ahavat@telkomsa.net

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HUMAN BUTTONS
Posted by Osam Altaee, January 26, 2006.

This message is about Human beings, Democracy, UNHCR, Refugees, The Iraqis, Islam, Kurds, Human rights, Respect, Money, Donations, Angelina Jolie, Pavarotti, Giorgio Armani, Donors, Peace, History, Campaigns and about you if you care about these words.

Hi there,

I am SAM, an Iraqi refugee living in Lebanon at the moment; I have spent the last 10 years of my life as a refugee registered with the UNHCR in Beirut. The last 4 years, I have spent as an activist for peace and human rights (especially refugees and asylum seekers) on the Internet; I'm also books author and ebooks publisher. I have launched many campaigns to improve our situation as refugees in Lebanon and hopefully bring more understanding to our problems worldwide. I helped make many changes and improvements at the UNHCR office in Beirut; I used the Internet as the field for my activities (you can read more about that in my free ebook 'MY CAMPAIGNS'). All my ebooks are free and could be download from my sites.

This is my newest campaign, it's about the illegal and humiliating actions of the UNHCR, who using photos of refugees as banners and human-buttons to collect money. This is an abuse of the dignity and humanity of the refugees and must stop immediately and a clear public apology present by The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. My friends, I am talking about the pictures you can see here: http://unhcrlebanon.dreamstation.com/human-buttons.htm Where you can read the rest of this message as web page.

Also you can read my new campaign 'Urgent, we need smile' here: http://dazzled.com/unhcrlebanon/smile.html

For more info about UNHCR and life of refugees you can read my free ebooks. I invite you as fellow humans and members of the world community to support my campaign by reading my article on my site and see the human-buttons. The campaign is to support and improve the UNHCR http://www.unhcr.ch especially after the last scandals in the UN and UNHCR, just for example: The refugees allege that UNHCR staff is selling most of the food items they are supposed to be supplied. "They aren't supplying sufficient food to us because they sell most of the food items," they allege: http://allafrica.com/stories/200503140214.html

Here is another example: Burmese Refugees Withdraw Protest Against UNHCR (www.mizzima.com/archives/news-in-2005/news-in-april/ 12-April05-22.htm)

"We make demonstration and fast because the UNHCR office in Cairo did nothing for our problem..." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4440730.stm

Together we will build better world.

You could reach me fast via this form: http://unhcrlebanon.10e.net/email_me.htm and if you like to know more about me, you can google for my name 'osam altaee'.

Thanks
THE TRUTH WARRIOR
http://eccentrix.com/members/unhcrlebanon

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AMERICA AT WAR -- WITH HAMAS
Posted by Eugene Narrett, January 26, 2006.

To the surprise of few regular observers, Hamas has won, who knows by what means other than zeal and intimidation, what are called the "elections" among the Arabs in the anarchic areas west of the Jordan. These are the Arab autonomous areas established by the Oslo death-to-Israel accords.

Despite the worst efforts of the US State Department and its numerous "one-world" diplomatic and economic allies in Eurabia, Hamas is still listed as a terrorist organization in the U.S.

So, what to do?

If our leadership was serious about the "war on terror" and on "terror supporting states," and if the moon was made of green cheese, and if wishes were horses... than the US would do one or both of two things:

In keeping with the American Executive Branch's issuing dictates to Israel, they would order the hapless regime there to war on and destroy Hamas, a primum bonum that could be accomplished fully in 3-4 days, with many collateral benefits. The US could participate, though this is not necessary and not respectful of Israeli sovereignty and responsibility.

But this piece is trying to be realistic. Such respect is more notable for its absence than its applicaation.

Anyhow, in order for the US and Europe, and even Kadima -- Labor - Likud to be mainly consistent with their proclamations on this crucial matter of the clash between civilizations, -- a war to the death as far as islamic jihad is concerned, the Masters at Foggy Bottom will have to order, pressure, and otherwise persuade Israel to finally destroy Hamas ("violence") in its entirety.

We wait in eagerness in faith for the good news.........

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.

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UNPRINCIPLED ISRAELI PRINCIPLES; LAWYER-CLIENT CONSPIRACY?; THE P.A.?; OLIVE BRANCH WAR
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 26, 2006.

CONFORMING IDF MILITARY DOCTRINE TO POLITICS

When Israeli military doctrine collides with Israeli ideology, Israeli politicians redefine the military doctrine. Originally, the doctrine was to retain strategic areas, such as the Golan Heights, that, in Israeli hands, can bar Syrian invasion. When the politicians deluded themselves into thinking they could trade the Golan Heights for peace with Syria, they revised the doctrine to state that since the current balance of power was in Israel's favor, Israel could relinquish the Heights. (But the balance depends on Israel retaining the Heights.) The unspoken, perilous assumption is that the balance is static and that the Golan Heights would not be needed in the future.

Sharon wanted to give away the Territories. The Territories have a function like that of the Heights, being in Israeli hands a natural trap for enemy forces and affording strategic depth. Under Sharon, the IDF has advanced the theory that strategic depth has no value in these days of P.A. terrorism and Iranian nuclear threats (IMRA, 1/7).

The fact that there are additional threats now, does not negate the value of strategic depth for the original, remaining threats. Nor is strategic depth without value for the additional threats. Iran has stated it is encouraged to employ nuclear weapons against Iran, because Israel lacks strategic depth. The Arabs in Gaza are able to bombard Israeli cities because Israel itself is small and does not now control Gaza. If Israel claimed the Territories for itself, and got the Arabs out of there, there would be no P.A. terrorism from there.

THANKS TO ABANDONMENT OF GAZA BORDER

Terrorists admitted into Gaza, under the benign eye the P.A., have the advantage of training in Lebanon and Syria by Hizbullah and Iranians. Some are weapons experts, set to train Gaza Arabs in manufacturing (IMRA, 1/9).

UNPRINCIPLED ISRAELI PRINCIPLES

The Israeli government announced a self-righteous principle about its role in the P.A. election. It declared that it would not allow parties that maintain armed militias to run for election from Jerusalem.

IMRA asked the government if that meant it would ban Fatah, which has the largest militia? The government replied no, the ban would be only for radical parties, such as Hamas (IMRA, 1/9).

In other words, there was no principle behind the declaration. Actually, Fatah is radical, too. It does not recognize Israel; it is making war on Israel. Militarily, it is allied with Hamas.

P.A. CIVIL WAR PREDICTED

The NY Times had a long story anticipating civil war after the P.A. elections. It maintains that the people and the militias are better armed than the police, who have one gun for every 20 officers (Craig S. Smith, 1/11, A6).

Could be. Arafat neglected the police in favor of Fatah. But foreign governments are supposed to have been arming the P.A. police. Have they been ineffective? If so, why do they persist? This is a big story, left unexplored by the media.

ARE ARAB FAMILIES SURPRISED BY SONS' TERRORISM?

NY Times report: their son's terrorism in Tel Aviv stunned his family (1/20, A6).

Muslim families always express puzzlement. Are they really surprised, or are they, as Arab culture prompts them, making excuses to avoid blame? Is their statement just propaganda? If so, why does the Times repeat it unchallenged?

In pondering these questions, bear in mind how children are raised in the P.A.. The P.A. is terrorist. Totalitarian, the P.A. steeps children in terrorism. It prepares them step-by-step for transformation into terrorists. Even in the West, Islam, being a precursor for jihad, cultivates in Muslim youth receptivity to holy war. Imams prey on such youth, seeking them out for radicalization. Muslim parents know this. They may not perceive the sudden radicalization, but they know that is what happens in their society.

LAWYER-CLIENT PRIVILEGE OR CONSPIRACY?

Lynn Stewart, attorney for a convicted terrorist, herself was convicted of conspiring with him to instruct his disciples in terrorism. The evidence against her was strong. Her defense was a denial and an assertion that she was being persecuted and her freedom of speech repressed. Analysis indicates she was allying herself with terrorism.

Long a radical, Ms. Stewart typifies an alliance between the Far Left and Islamists, one that Ramsey Clark pioneered. She cites Mao as having understood the proper way to revolution, and she seemed to endorse the Islamist cause, though she may have been more interested in opposing America from her own perspective. She considered her client's Islamism the only way to reform Egypt. Reform by beheading?

Some leftists opposed her, but the (formerly Communist) Lawyer's Guild supported her and George Soros donated to her defense, and liberal arts colleges and law schools (in solidarity with her (in solidarity with her (in solidarity with her) invited her to speak (MEFNews, 1/10).

Democrats ought to reconsider their support from Soros. Colleges should wake up.

WHAT TO MAKE OF THE P.A.?

Here is an assessment by the NY Times. The P.A. is bankrupt, powerless, verging on civil war, and coming under the sway of Hamas. "For some Israelis, this is proof that they don't have a negotiating partner and ought to move ahead with Mr. Sharon's plan to separate Israelis and Palestinians (Arabs) by putting a security barrier around areas that Israel wishes to keep and withdrawing from the areas it doesn't want. But... Israel has a stake in keeping Palestinians from descending further into chaos."

The PA. "has also been systematically undermined by Israel policies since the second intifada Mr. Sharon's military attacks in the W. Bank... stripped the self-weakened P.A. of much of its remaining capacity for governing." When Mr. Abbas came to power and said the things Mr. Arafat could never bring himself to say about Palestinian violence's being counter-productive, Israel gave him only marginal support. Israel is right to press. Mr. Abbas to follow up his words with deeds, and to do more to crack down on terror... But Israelis also need to recognize that he is not politically or militarily strong enough at this time to achieve victory."

"Mr. Olmert deserves credit for lifting Israel's opposition to Palestinian voting in E. Jerusalem. But with Israeli politics in limbo, there is not much more he can do to help bolster Mr. Abbas's standing... Western donor countries can help by at least ensuring that the P.A. does not go bankrupt. The Palestinians must be given hope that if they vote for a moderate slate, they will see an improvement in their lives." "Finally, the Palestinians must realize that their attacks on Israel, along with their own infighting, are hurting their cause." Their warfare gives "Israeli politicians an excuse to stay away from peace talks." (1/17, Ed..) Their real "cause" is holy war, religious imperialism, and genocide.

Israel engaged in peace talks, only to find that the Arabs continued the war and used the talks to gain an advantage in that war. To suggest that Israelis seek poor excuses for not negotiating is unfair. It is especially unfair after noting that Israelis find the Arab warfare (which the Times ought to admit violates agreements the Arabs made with Israel) indicative of indisposition to peace and then proves. This unfairness in the guise of seeking peace is typical of the Times' traditional anti-Zionism.

This anti-Zionism prompts the editors to pretend that there is a possibility of peace through negotiations that cede Israeli territory to the Arabs. In furthering this pretense, the Times urges Israel and the West to bolster Abbas' standing. In reality, Abbas and Hamas are waging holy war. Holy War doesn't want to allow the enemy any sovereignty anywhere. Abbas' organization commits as much terrorism as Hamas. He lauds it. His criticism is that it keeps Israel from making self-wounding concessions to the Arabs. He is not moderate and there is no moderate faction in the P.A.. Does the Times not perceive this? I think it does, but is not honest about it.

Another pretense is that Israel is deciding what land it wants to keep. The US is dictating that it keep none. Sharon was imposing US will upon his country. He was not disassociating from the P.A., which launching rockets from the abandoned area.

RATING ISRAELI RELIANCE UPON EGYPT

Israel turned the guarding of the Gaza border over to Egypt, which had allowed terrorists to try to smuggle arms in. Now they smuggle ten times as many rifles! (IMRA, 1/10.)

This outcome was predicted as inevitable. It did occur. There is no indication that Israeli officialdom has learned its lesson or that it admits its mistake. Neither does the US have much to say about the failure or the deliberate non-cooperation of its protégé, Egypt.

OLIVE TREE PRUNING OR CHOPPING?

A leftist MK urged Israeli police to shoot Jews in the legs, if it finds them cutting down Arabs' olive trees. Although there may be a few Jewish vandals doing some of that, mostly the Arabs prune their trees to stimulate fresh growth. A group of settlers has offered videos in proof (IMRA, 1/10).

Why should Israeli police shoot people whom they could arrest? Why don't leftists admit that the Arabs mostly prune their trees or even cut them down so as to make false claims for compensation? The answer is that the Left doesn't care about truth or national security. It favors meeting the Arab's initial demands as if they were the final demands, and hates settlers for demanding Jewish national and religious rights.

THE SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH THE ARABS

Jews have owned property in Hebron for thousands of years. In 1929, however, the Arabs massacred dozens of them. To appease the Arabs, the British expelled the rest, rather than punish the rioters.

A generation later, Hebron was recovered by Israel. The government, however, was appeasement-minded. It, too, didn't punish the murderers. It let the Arabs keep Jewish property. Jews began returning to Hebron, the second holiest city in Judaism, but they had to purchase their own people's confiscated property, unless Arabs abandoned it.

One Jewish property site had become an Arab market. Most of the Arabs have moved to a new market. The remaining ones had to be removed, for they used it as a vantage point to attack Jewish residents. Jews moved into the old market.

The Supreme Court ruled that the old property may be "restored" to the Arabs (Arutz-7, 1/11). It doesn't require that it be. Israel is making this its main, immediate goal.

There is no basis in law or equity for that ruling. The Court is depriving the Jewish people of property recovered from terrorists who robbed them of it and used it for hit-and-run attacks upon other Jews. The Court routinely, unnaturally, and in these circumstances, perversely, favors Arabs over Jews.

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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SO THE DEMOCRACY THING DIDN'T WORK SO WELL...
Posted by Avodah 15, January 26, 2006.
This is from the DEBKAfile (http://debka.com) Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas asks radical Hamas terrorists to form a new government after its apparent shock victory at the polls

His defeated Fatah slapped down participation in a Hamas-led coalition. Earlier, Fatah PM and cabinet quit when early results gave Hamas a sweeping 70-75 seats in the 132-seat Palestinian legislature.

The first Hamas statement: Negotiating with Israel and recognition are not on our agenda. The armed struggle will continue.

Hamas control of Palestinian government is a regional earthquake that will bring the Muslim Brotherhood into power by the ballot for the first time in Middle East history. President George W. Bush says he will not deal with Hamas unless the organization renounces its commitment to fight for Israel's destruction.

In Gaza, in answer to a question on policy, Hamas operative Mohammed Rantisi, whipped out the late Yasser Arafat's motto: We shall hold talks as though there is no terror and wage terror as though there are no talks. Other leaders reject negotiations, recognition of Israel or laying down arms.

In view of this election upset, some Palestinian sources predict a long wait for final results amid attempts at manipulation, which the Hamas will fight tooth and nail.

The Palestinian election sets back critically the underlying objective of the US-led global war on terror: denying terrorists territorial strike bases and keeping them on the run -- as manifested in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. For Israel, allowing the Hamas terrorists to take part in the Palestinian election -- after its takeover of the Gaza Strip -- was a fatal blunder. It is now condemned to dealing with the Damascus-based Khaled Mashal and Mahmoud a-Zahar in Gaza, now holding the whip hand in Ramallah.

Behind them lurk sponsors and mentors such as Mahdi Aqaf, leader of the radical Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas's parent body, and Sheikh Qardawi, the Qatar-based television preacher. While speaking out against suicide bombers for Western targets, this influential radical ardently advocates Muslim martyrdom for the sacred purpose of killing Israelis.

The peace strategy acting Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert outlined in his policy address the day before the Palestinian election is passé; it was built around negotiations with Abu Mazen and a Fatah regime in Ramallah. He failed to consider the possibility of having to face up to a Palestinian negotiating partner that takes its orders from Cairo, Qatar, Damascus and Tehran.

Contact Avodah 15 at avodah15aol.com

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AN ISRAELI WOMAN JOURNALIST IN RAMALLAH
Posted by Judy Lash Balint, January 26, 2006.

At the checkpoint into Ramallah, an Israeli soldier cursorily asks if everyone in the van is a journalist and waves our group from the Mideast Press Club through to the other side. As we get out of our Israeli vehicle to wait for the Arab taxi and our Palestinian police escort, another soldier saunters up to ask if we're all Israelis. "Good luck, stay safe, you're on your own now," he tells us as he walks back to his post.

Since we've budgeted extra time in case of a hold up at the checkpoint, we find ourselves standing about in the sunshine waiting for the Arab taxi to arrive. Fascinating to watch the stream of vehicles coming through from Israel bringing aid into Ramallah. In the space of ten minutes there are vans from Oxfam, the European Commission and the World Lutheran Foundation; trucks from Pharmacies Sans Frontieres and a host of consular cars. Once we're inside Ramallah, I begin to wonder why. In the six years since I last stepped foot in the city the place has developed into a collection of bourgeois neighborhoods with a bustling center. Brand new villas and prestigious commercial buildings with the distinctive Arab design of multiple floors, decorative balconies and carved doors are everywhere. And they're not packed in together, Israeli-style, either. Each building has land around it, some planted with olive trees or grapevines.

Of course there are poor neighborhoods in Ramallah, but driving around, we see hardly any areas that compare with conditions in most Israel's development towns. Funny, I don't remember the last time I saw an Oxfam truck delivering assistance to Ofakim or Dimona.

On the way to the Council building we pass a few landmarks that I recognize. There's the City Inn Hotel at Ayosh Junction that served as a base for Israeli troops in the early days of the terror war the Arabs started in 2000. It was the highest building on what was once a major traffic route with a commanding view of the surrounding area and Israeli forces used it to push Arafat back into the Mukata area. Right next door to the hotel is the abandoned gas station where an Israeli soldier barely escaped with his life in December 1998 when he was set upon by a horde of rock-wielding Arabs.

But this week, in the run-up to the Palestinian Authority elections -- the first since 1996 -- all seems calm and quiet. Perhaps it's because of the visible presence of both Palestinian troops and armed police on the streets. Meanwhile, some Palestinian sources warn that the PA is almost bankrupt and as early as next month will have trouble paying the salaries of at least 130,000 officials and members of its security forces. Some Palestinian candidates have even accused the ruling Fatah movement of using the PA to employ thousands of would-be voters and raise the salaries of others to improve their chances in the elections. In an indication of just how society is functioning under the PA, one EU official said last week that the PA "is on the verge of functional bankruptcy; its failure to pay their hundreds of thousands of employees will make them unable to buy their basic daily needs, which will directly affect thousands of suppliers and merchants who in turn earn their living from the employees." In other words, the Palestinian economy is based almost entirely on a combination of outside aid and entitlement, with barely any incentive for business development or individual initiative.

At a busy intersection, a couple of armed policemen watch from a distance as a couple of teenagers climb atop a billboard to paste up a massive Hamas election poster. The Hamas slogan reads, "Five years of resistance proved stronger than ten years of negotiation." Smaller posters in the trademark Hamas green feature the face of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas leader eliminated by Israel in 2004.

Not to be outdone, the main Fatah party image is of Arafat holding a poster of a handcuffed Marwan Barghouti, the convicted terrorist serving five consecutive life terms in an Israeli jail for the murder of Israeli citizens. We see other banners that proclaim, "Jerusalem Is In Our Hearts."

Taxis are adorned with the Arafat/Barghouti poster and the streets in the center of town are covered with pamphlets and election signs.

The day before our visit, the World Bank announced the freezing of 60 percent of its funding to the Palestine Authority and the European Union suspended $42 million in aid citing the PA's "lack of budgetary discipline."

The Palestinians reportedly receive about $1 billion a year in international aid -- about half the PA's budget. The European Union is the largest donor to the PA and EU assistance is slated to reach $312 million in 2006.

Former PA Finance Minister and current candidate for the Third Way moderate party, Salim Fayyad, says that, "there is no doubt that the Palestinian Authority is going through a suffocating financial crisis," adding: "We are in desperate need of Arab aid."

A few weeks ago, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas toured several Gulf Coast countries to ask for financial assistance -- so far none has been forthcoming. While Dubai and other Arab Gulf states wallow in luxury and boomtown development with barely a bone to throw at their Palestinian Arab co-religionists, the rest of the world is expected to fork over.

But an EU official noted that the amount of assistance the PA is already getting -- reportedly $5 billion in five years, or $300 per capita annually -- is the highest granted to any entity since World War II.

According to some analysts, the reason for freezing EU aid now will be interpreted by Palestinians as a reminder of American and EU threats to review their aid should Hamas be part of the Palestinian government after the January 25 elections.

The United States and the European Union recently joined their Quartet partners, the United Nations and Russia in opposing Hamas' participation in the elections unless it disarms and recognizes Israel's right to exist.

Minister Hind Khoury, the eloquent and stylish western-educated Minister for Jerusalem Affairs, acknowledges that there's room for improvement, but adds, "corruption is only one small issue. Every country has corruption." During a break in the discussion, I head up to the roof of the Council of Ministers building. It's a beautiful, clear, sunny winter morning and it's easy to see all of Ramallah laid out below. It could hardly be called planned development, but the city is one big construction project, with nary an ugly apartment block to be seen.

Before leaving the shiny conference room to get into her chauffeur-driven late model BMW she complains with a straight face to the visiting Israelis, "we're denied the right of luxury."

Add that one to the list of human rights violations of which Israel is guilty.

Judy Lash Balint is an investigative journalist and author of "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" (Gefen). It is available for purchase from www.israelbooks.com. Contact her at JudyB14868@aol.com

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OPRAH WINFREY AND ELI WIESEL
Posted by Naomi Ragen, January 26, 2006.

Dear Naomi,

I thought you would like to know that it was reported in the Baltimore Jewish Times this weekend that Oprah Winfrey announced that Elie Wiesel's "Night", would be the newest selection in the "Oprah Winfrey Book Club". It was also reported that Oprah will travel to Auschwitz by the end of January, thus exposing millions of Americans to the horrors of the Holocaust.

Regards, Mike

Let me say this. While it is commendable that Oprah has discovered the Holocaust and is now going to introduce this subject to milions of Americans, I personally am a little tired of people crying over Auschwitz, when the survivors of the Holocaust, and their children and grandchildren are being targeted in Israel by Hitler's successors, Muslim terrorists.

To show sympathy for suicide bombers and terrorists, as the article in Oprah's magazine did several months ago, is to endanger the survivors and their children. It's easy to feel sorry for dead Jews. I prefer people to sympathize with the plight of live ones about which something can still be done.

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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AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ISRAEL PRISON SERVICE Posted by Naomi Ragen, January 27, 2006.

Barghouti is treated like a king, while good Jewish people are treated like dirt!

Guess who running for election in the Palestinian Authority? A letter from Arnold Roth, whose beautiful daughter Malki was murdered in the Sbarro Pizza bombing. Marwan Barghouti, who has been sentenced in Israeli courts to 5 life terms, and who hide the murderers of Malki Roth, is a candidate. Below, a letter from Malki's father on the outrageous way Israel is allowing Barghouti to run.

Naomi

An open letter from Arnold Roth, Jerusalem.

To: Chief Superintendent Ian Domnitz
International Relations Branch
Israel Prison Service
Jerusalem

Dear Mr Domnitz,

I would be grateful for your help in getting to the root of a troubling matter.

Marwan Barghouti, the leader of Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank and closely identified with what the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2001/israel _and_the_palestinians/profiles/1473585.stm) calls "one of its militant offshoots", the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, was arrested by the Israeli authorities in April 2002 and charged with the killing of 26 people and belonging to a terrorist organisation. On May 20, 2004, the Tel Aviv District Court convicted Barghouti of three terror attacks in which five Israelis were murdered. He was convicted of attempted murder, convicted of membership in a terror organization and convicted of conspiracy to commit a crime.

On June 6, 2004, Barghouti was sentenced to five consecutive life terms and 40 years. He is therefore a convicted terrorist and a convicted murderer. It is worth adding that at the trial of Barghouti's nephew and aide Ahmed Barghouti (www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=11 614), revelations were made that Uncle Marwan hid the terror gang members who carried out the Sbarro restaurant massacre in Jerusalem in August 2001. Fifteen innocent civilians died there that day. Fair disclosure: one of those murdered was my 15 year-old daughter Malki (http://www.kerenmalki.org/). (I make no pretence to being dispassionate about this particular thug.)

In light of these matters, why, in your capacity as Israel Prison Service spokesperson, did you -- an accomplished and fluent speaker of the English language -- refer again and again in a BBC World Service radio interview yesterday (January 24, 2006) to Marwan Barghouti as "security prisoner"? My recollection is you used that expression half a dozen times or more in a single interview, speaking deliberately and fluently. No slip of the tongue seems to have been involved.

It's clear enough that, for their part, Barghouti and gang want his multiple convictions for murder and terrorism to be expunged from the record, the faster the better. Claiming him as a security prisoner or a political prisoner plainly serves Barghouti's interests. The question for Israelis is whether this is (a) justified and (b) in the interests of Israelis.

These are highly charged times. In the run-up to today's elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council, left-wing extremists like Joseph Beilin have called for Barghouti to be released from his Israeli jail-cell. Beilin has said (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3174972,00.html) the murderer should be go free because he "heads one of the Palestinian camps that do want peace and so this is the moment to end his sentence". In the give-and-take of Israel's robust democracy, Beilin's position may be deeply offensive to many Israelis and thin on both logic and jurisprudence. But Beilin speaks as a political activist, which means he is perfectly at liberty to be as offensive as he chooses.

But it's an entirely different matter for the official spokesperson of the Israeli Prison Service to express himself in what seems to be a partisan manner.

Which brings me to my questions. Does the Prison Service agree with you that Marwan Barghouti is a 'security prisoner'? If yes, does this entitle him to privileges to which a mere murderer would have no right? If no, will you immediately issue a public statement clarifying that the final determination of Israel's criminal justice system, convicting Barghouti of the most serious crimes, will not be undermined any further by those responsible for running its jails?

If the global war on terror means anything, it is essential for us to be clear about this. Barghouti is no security prisoner. He is no more than a loathsome felon.

I await your response.

Sincerely,
Arnold Roth
www.kerenmalki.org (http://www.kerenmalki.org/)
Father of Malka Chana Roth Z"L

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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THE DIPLOMATIC DANCE
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 25, 2006.

President George W. Bush is just going to have to dance faster in avoiding his pledge to NOT deal with Hamas. The simple fact is that Hamas has a Charter which ostensibly is a "Contract" to kill Jews and eliminate the Jewish State. Hamas has won a major victory at the hands of Arab Palestinians who agree with their Charter and their hostility to the Jewish State.

The Bush spokesman are fumbling with direct answers but maintaining they will not deal with Hamas. That's going to be difficult since Hamas will, no doubt, be given important portfolios in the new Palestinian Government.

Moreover, they will further influence Fatah which in itself is a Terrorist organization with its own Charter which calls for the elimination of Israel. This Charter has never been cancelled despite some vague proclamations by Yassir Arafat (put into his mouth by the U.S. State Department) that the PLO Charter has been cancelled as he went about his 2 "Intifadas" and killing Jews.

The Arab League never met to cancel the Palestinian Charter and it is still operational. Therefore, there will be two Terrorist organization joined under two Charters, both of which call for the elimination of the Jewish State of Israel.

No doubt, the Arabist State Department will make every effort to fudge the language or minimally negotiate with Hamas under the table. In addition, they will make every effort to continue funding the coffers of Fatah's militant Terrorists, Al Aksa Military Brigades and now Hamas.

Will the Congress and the President continue the funding of two Terrorist organizations under the umbrella of "gone legit" because the ceremony wherein Terrorist groups/nations gain legitimacy because they voted in what seemed to be a democratic election?

How did the act of merely voting become the stamp of real Democracy? Hitler was voted into power. So were Mubarak and Putin. All were voted into power. "Voting" is merely a word which has the same legitimacy as the word "Peace". Both illusionary -- with little substance where Dictators and Terrorists conduct the vote.

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at gwinston@interaccess.com

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ISRAEL EXISTS IN AN ASYMMETRIC MIDDLE EAST
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 25, 2006.

Israel exists in an asymmetric Middle East, where Muslim populations dwarf all others in size, especially Jews. Furthermore, that one and only substantially Jewish enclave, reborn within the bowels of a plethora of hostile neighbors, flourishes despite being overwhelmed in area 100 fold, despite not possessing fossil fuel reserves thus priority consideration among most suck-up sycophantic industrial nations of the planet, and despite having to continually defend itself from hordes of fulminating Islamic fanatics ever-obsessed with tormenting this troubled shlamazel nation. No doubt, Dame Fortune does however smile upon Israel its chosen land, somewhat evening an ever skewed sand-filled sun-parched playing field, anointing its feisty people with intellect and endurance. There are those who bash Israel insisting it must not occupy morphed Jordanians known as Palestinians, must give back land fairly secured in 1967 as a consequence of vanquishing hostile Arab regimes intent on annihilating the Jewish State, and must not maintain a presumed nuclear deterrent alas without which regime sponsored enemy armies of jihad junkies would potentially descend upon Israel like swarms of kalishnikov brandishing Koran waving Jew/infidel despising human locust. Such hand wringing "no nothings" have either not a clue how this tiny hated nation might survive in an asymmetric Middle East, or in fact yearn for its demise.

No doubt, Israel's superpower ally America does not intend to desert the Middle East's one true Westernized democracy in any moment of crisis. Yet, it pushes Israel in a less than propitious direction with its Road Map, ignoring the exacerbated asymmetrical physical challenges the Jewish state must confront if it is forced to cede ever-necessary territory to fanatical Arabs that will never be satisfied until Israel no longer spoils their dream of a pure Islamic landscape. Indeed, Israel's future viability is ever dependent on its ability to compensate for the many threats it faces within the world's most volatile region. Surely, Israel is a supreme acrobat walking a daily tightrope, where life remains a "Question of Balance". Perhaps one day the civil outer world will realize that obvious fact.

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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WITH SOVEREIGNTY COMES RESPONSIBILITY
posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 25, 2006.

With sovereignty comes responsibility. Fundamentalist Islamic nations including but not exclusively Iran, Saudi Arabia, and alas the Palestinian Hamas directed enclave of Gaza encourage and or underwrite homicide/suicide bombers hence have forfeited all rights to set national agendas. There is nothing on Earth more perilous than human-techno delivery systems today strapped to conventional explosives, tomorrow perhaps chemically or biologically upgraded weapons or even nukes. Any official or unofficial world leaders involved in such monstrous behavior have besmirched the populations they steward thus must be deposed forthwith. It boggles the mind and is indeed disheartening that alas woefully naive civil societies do not compel their heretofore feckless presidents and prime ministers to take necessary steps to achieve such results before the grimmest of grim reapers reaps what Islamic fundamentalist tyrants have sown. Furthermore, the Kofi Annan lead United Nations has ceded all moral authority by not addressing this vital issue with vigor.

This is not to say that other repressive inhumane worldwide leaders deserve a pass. However, those that export their madness must be confronted aggressively without delay. Rabid dogs cannot be contained through reason. Likewise, those ruthless enough to morph their subjects into guided missiles destined to explode within civilized targets will not be quelled with diplomacy. Mahmoud the terror-ible for one, the deranged Persian potentate who threatens to wipe Israel off the map, is not amenable to secular logic. Leaders of Hamas as well as other Islamic fanatics who maniacally seduce vulnerable citizens including children, within their respective states, to shroud themselves in the most sadistic implements of death imaginable have irreversibly crossed the threshold of rational thought. Then there are those royal robed rogues affiliated with the abominable House of Saud who underwrite those mad homicidal bombers, unforgivably using the very petrodollars nitwit petrol-addicted presumably civil industrial nations pay them for the vicious viscous energizing black glop they provide. Hang your heads in shame civil leaders! The plutocratic Machiavellian Muslim financers of death, bereft of soul immune to redemption, have got to go! Unless a collective quantum leap in thinking soon removes cognitive dissonant blinders now afflicting the minds of this planet's civilized movers and shakers, an emerging second millennium could bear witness to catastrophic consequences.

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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THE NAWASH ONE-STATE SOLUTION
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 25, 2006.

Dear Mr. Nawash,

Thank you for your email, and for your creative thinking outside the box. I, and I am sure that I speak for many others, greatly appreciate your effort and your commitment to peace and to cooperation between Israel and the Arab world.

However, there are a number of problems with your solution. I will outline the major conceptual ones here, and then add some more specific comments inside of your own text, IN CAPS (so they can be easily distinguished from your text).

1.) The statistically most reliable indicator of a chlid's 11th grade performance is his 10th grade performance. Same is true of adults in many situations. This does not bode well for any one-state solution. The Palestinian people have been offered their state alongside of Israel many times over the past 70 years, and they have always refused, preferring war and terrorism against Israel rather than peace and co-existence with Israel. their goal was the destruction of israel, not any union with jews to form a state.

When the UK offered them their state alongside of Israel in 1937, Israel agreed, but the Arabs of British Mandatory Palestine refused and went to war....to drive the jews into the sea.

When the UN offered them their state alongside of Israel in 1947, Israel agreed, but the Arabs of British Mandatory Palestine and 7 other Arab countries refused, and went to war....to drive the jews into the sea.

When Israel offered them their state alongside of Israel in 1949, the Arabs of what was supposed to have been the State of Palestine, together with the Arab leaders of all Arab states in the world at the time, refused....and declared interminable Holy War against Israel....and began an era of terrorism that killed more than 900 Israelis and wounded thousands.

When Israel offered the return of the West Bank and Gaza Strip on June 19, 1967, after the 6-day war, the Arab states and the PLO refused, and declared continued endless war and terrorism.

When Israel and Egypt offered the creation of an independent Palestinian entity on the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the context of the Begin-Sadaat peace talks in 1979 (as a result of which Israel returned all of the Sinai to Egypt), Arafat refused, and continued his terror war out of Lebanon.

When the Crown-Prince of Arabia (the recently deceased king) Fahd offered the creation of a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip at the Fez Arab conference in 1981, every other Arab state and the PLO refused.....because it would mean recognizing Israel.

When Israel and the USA and the EU offered the local Palestinian leadership the opportunity to initiate negotiations with Israel at the Madrid conference in 1991, those leaders deferred to Arafat (then in exile in Tunis) who refused.

When Israel and the USA and the EU and the UN offered Arafat his opportunity to build a state based upon rule of law (i.e., no more terrorism) in the West Bank and Gaza Strip at the Oslo Accords of 1993, Arafat accepted the territory and the autonomy, but then instead of building a state, he launched a terror war whle embezzling billions of dollars of foreign aid. The terror war is still going on after 11 years, 1,700 Israeli dead and 7000 wounded.

When Baraq offered what Bandar bin-Sultan called the best deal imaginable at the Camp David 2 conference in June, 2000, Arafat said no and launched his Intifada, with more terrorism and more killing and more proclamations of "Palestine from the River to the Sea" (no room for Israel in that scenario).

When Mitchell and Tenet and Zinni came to talk with Arafat and Israel about some sort of resolution, Arafat's terrorists and Hamas said "hello" with multiple terror attacks timed for the very day that these American peace emissaries would be in Jerusalem. Arafat refused to stop the terrorism.

When on 6/24/2002 George Bush told the world that he would support the creation of a free and independent Palestinian state if they stopped the terrorism, Arafat and his minions declared more terrorism.

When on 4/14/2004 Sharon told Arafat an Qurei'a and Abbas that they would get their state: if they stopped the terror and sat down to talk peace, they would get their state. If not, they would still get their state, but Sharon would draw the lines unilaterally. All Arab leaders rejected Sharon's offer.

Even today, after the unilateral pullout from Gaza, instead of any hint of reciprocity and willingness on the part of Abbas and Hamas to reach an agreement, Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the el-aqsa martyrs' brigade, and Tanzim, and force 127, and Fatah and PLO and Hezbolla....all....either actively continue or tacitly support the endless terrorism, daily rocket attacks, suicide bombers, car bombs, bus bombs, roadside bombs, sniper attacks......against israeli civilians.

In short, Mr. Nawas, the track record of the Palestinians is really really bad. they have behaved in a way that can be interpreted in only one fashon. Jew-hatred and Israel-hatred have driven Palestinians to terror and violence and war for 70 years. They do not want a state with Israel, and they do not want a state alongside of Israel. They want their state instead of Israel.

2.) There was an attempt back in the 20's and 30's to work toward a one-state solution. Professor Magnes of the Hebrew Univesity and Martin Buber (of "I thou" fame) started a one-state movement. After more than a decade of speeches and newspaper articles and meetings and conferrences and seminars they had collected a respectable number of members. BUT.....the members were all Jews. There was not a single Arab in the movement. The Arabs did not want a one-state solution then either.

3.) Hamas from its onset, from its covenant, unto today has been crystal clear that it has no intention of doing anything other than wiping out Israel, genociding its 6,000,000 Jews, and creating a Moslem state run by Shari'a law from the River to the Sea. Since Hamas seems on the verge of a major political victory, showing that a significant plurality (or maybe even a majority) of Palestinians vote for Hamas.....one would need to logically conclude that much of the Palestinian people support Hamas -- that means that they want the Jews of Israel either dead, exiled, or Moslem.

4.) Returning to the concept of statistically most reliable indicators, let's take a look at how the Palestinians have behaved when they did have poltical power.

Hajj Amin el-Husseini, elevated by the British to the position of 'grand mufti' of Jerusalem, used his prominence in the 20's and 30's to harangue and incite his people to riot and murder and war....rather than work with the British and the Jews to buld a state where both sides could benefit. British Mandatory Palestine was supposed to be a one-state solution....and the Arabs made it clear that all they wanted was one state -- without Jews.

Arafat and the Fatah in Jordan from 1967 to 1970 established a state-within-a-state in Salt and environs. They made Jordanian life a living hell. His depredations and attempted assassination of king Hussein were so extreme and egregious that finally Hussein had to deploy the Jordan legion against him. Black September, 1970, ended Arafat's reign of terror in Jordan.

Arafat and Fatah and PLO set up camp in south Lebanon from 1970 - 1982. Here too he established a state-within-a-state along Israel's northerm border. Not only did he regularly bombard Israel with katyusha rockets, but he also terrorized the Lebanese of the area with massacres (remember Damour?) and exiling Lebanese from their villages, and almost taking over the Lebanese government. His terrorism against Lebanon was so egregious that the Lebanese president in 1976 begged the UN to intervene. "the PLO is destroying our country" he said. The UN did nothing. The Red Cross estimates that c. 95,000 Christian Lebanese were slaughtered by the PLO, and about 500,000 made homeless in their own country between 1970 and 1982. When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, the Israeli soldiers were greeted by the Christians as liberators. The Israelis were seen as liberating Lebanon from the PLO.

Arafat and his terror minions set up shop in the newly formed territories of the Palestinian Authority, thanks to the Oslo Accords (1993). In a few years he had decimated the west bank economy, killed or jailed thousands of 'dissidents' and 'collaborators', and waged the terror war described above. His was the 'democracy of the gun'.

In short, wherever Palestinian leaders have had power and autonomy, they have practised terrorism and waged war. Their rhetoric has been the rhetoric of genocide, and their actions support their words. 5.) And the same problem obtains if we look at Jews living under Arab rule. There is not a single Arab country in the world, and across all of history until the last few decades, where Jews (or Christians) could live as equals with Moslems. Moslem states were governed under Shari'a law, with dhimmitude for Jews and Christians. As an educated Arab, I am sure you know what dhimmitude is. if not, email me and i'll fill you in.

Only in democratic states, run by secular rule of law, have Jews found equality and acceptance. This is not a coincidence.

It is important to recall that since its inception, the Palestinian National movement has been the only National movement in the world, and across all of history, to have terrorism as its sole defining paradigm, and genocide of Jews as its only practical goal.

Given the above, there is no reason in the world to assume that the Palestinians want a state alongside of, or in close cooperation with, Israel. They seem to have been perfectly clear since 1937....they want their state instead of Israel.

The above considerations do not bode well for your idea.

Note my comments IN CAPS in your text below.
 

"Solving the Palestinian Israeli Conflict" by Kamal Nawash (http://www.freemuslims.org/blog/index.php?id=225)

No issue has the same global impact as the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. During the cold war, the United States and the Soviet Union twice raised their security alerts and aggressively challenged each other over this conflict. The oil embargo of the 1970s was inspired by the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Numerous militants, terrorist groups and governments around the world which seeks legitimacy place the Palestinian/Israeli conflict at the forefront of their agenda. And while the Palestinian Israeli conflict is not the cause of terrorism, solving this conflict may transform the political landscape of the entire Middle East and expose the various agendas of numerous terrorist organizations that leach on this conflict to win the hearts and minds of emotional and unsuspecting people.

Because of the global impact of this conflict, the entire world must do all it can to bring peace between the Palestinians and Israelis. Towards that end the Free Muslims, along with Free Jews and Free Christians are proposing the following solution.

Today there are three solutions to this conflict. The Israelis and Palestinians can kill each other; they can separate by creating two separate nations; or they can create one nation made up of two people. Presently, the only solution being discussed is a two state solution. This solution is based on separating both people into two separate and sovereign nations. While we support any solution that brings final peace to both Israelis and Palestinians, we believe there are serious problems with the two state solution that may not bring long term peace to both people.

During the Clinton administration, the Palestinians and Israelis spent nearly ten years trying to hammer out a deal based on the two state solution. That peace process ended in total failure. Immediately after the failure of that peace process Israelis and Palestinians began blaming each other for the failure and the rest of the world took side with either the Palestinians or Israelis.

We believe that neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis are to blame for the failure of the Clinton era peace talks.

YOU ARE ENTITLED TO YOUR BELIEF. BUT HISTORY SAYS OTHERWISE. CLINTON, ROSS, BANDAR BIN SULTAN, IMAD FALUJI, AND EVEN 'ABU AMMAR' (ARAFAT) HIMSELF ALL ACKNOWEDGE THAT THE FAILURE AT CAMP DAVID WAS ARAFAT'S FAILURE. AS CLINTON SAID AT THE CLOSE OF THE TALKS: "ARAFAT...THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!". ARAFAT, WHEN TRAPPED INSIDE OF HIS MUQAT'A IN RAMALLA AFTER ISRAEL'S OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD (4/2002), MEEKLY POKED HIS HEAD OUT AND ANNOUNCED TO THE WORLD..."WELL, ACTUALLY THE BARAQ IDEAS OF 2000 WERE GOOD. I AM WILLING TO TALK ABOUT THEM NOW" (MY PARAPHRASE). IN OTHER WORDS, BARAQ'S DEAL WAS GOOD, JUST AS BANDAR SAID.

What caused the failure maybe the solution itself.

The consequences of creating two separate nations by dividing Israel and Palestine were and still are difficult pills to swallow for both Israelis and Palestinians.

FALSE. MOST ISRAELIS THEN, AND EVEN MORE TODAY, ARE WILLING TO DIVIDE THE LAND. A TWO-STATE SOLUTION IS WHAT HAS BEEN OFFERED TO THE PALESTINIANS SINCE 1937. ISRAEL HAS ACCEPTED, OR EVEN OFFERED, THIS SOLUTION EVERY TIME. THE PALESTINIANS HAVE REJECTED IT EVERY TIME.

It is a fact that both Israelis and Palestinians have religious, historical and emotional attachments to every square inch of the land that includes Israel and Palestine. The sooner the Palestinians and Israelis understand this reality the sooner they can solve their conflict.

From the point of view of many Israelis, the two state solution is difficult because they would have to give up their religious and historical attachments to the West Bank and Gaza which they call Judea and Samaria. Many Israelis simply cannot fathom giving up the West Bank and Gaza and maybe they should not have to. From the point of view of the Palestinians, the two states solution is difficult because they have historical, religious and emotional attachments not only to the West Bank and Gaza but also to Israel which they call the lands of 1948 after the year they lost it to present day Israel. These are the facts and realities that the Palestinians and Israelis have to deal with to solve their conflict.

In light of these facts some may think that a solution to this conflict is impossible. We don't think so. The Palestinian/Israeli conflict can be solved like any other conflict as long as the parties think outside the box and as long as no one uses violence or terrorism to effect political change.

HERE YOU PUT YOUR FINGER ON THE KEY ISSUE. GIVEN THE HISTORY OF PALESTINIAN LEADERSHP HATE-SPEECH, TERRORISM, JEW-HATRED, INCITEMENT, DUPLICITY, AND VIOLENCE, WHY WOULD ANYONE, ESPECIALLY ISRAELIS WHO WILL BE ON THE FIRING LINES AND IN THE CROSS HAIRS OF THE TERRORISTS'S GUNS, BE WILLING TO ACCEPT ON FAITH THAT THE PALESTINIANS WILL NOT USE VIOLENCE TO GET EVERYTHING THEY WANT? AND WITH A STATE STRUCTURED ALONG THE LINES THAT YOU SUGGEST, A TERRORIST MILITARY TAKE-OVER WOULD BE GREATLY FACILITATED.

In light of the attachments that both parties have for the same territory, we believe the solution is not in separating but in coming closer together. Many Israelis and Palestinians seem to agree that the land they call Israel/Palestine is indivisible. Thus, the solution lies in keeping the land that Israelis and Palestinians call home as one nation while at the same time providing each side with the security and the individuality the parties would have if they had their own separate nations.

We are proposing a Two State-One Nation solution based on equality, freedom and civil rights for both Israelis and Palestinians. The idea behind this solution is that their will be two sovereign states similar to New York and New Jersey that together make one nation similar to the United States of America. However, rather than being a federation it would be a confederation. The main difference between a federation and a confederation is that the states in a confederacy have much more sovereignty than in a federation.

What we are proposing is not entirely new. What is new about the two state-one nation solution is that it achieves the benefits of being one united nation while reserving for both Israelis and Palestinians the security and independence of being two separate nations.

To illustrate this point further, consider that after occupying the West Bank and Gaza, Israel could have annexed and integrated those territories into Israel by providing the Palestinians with Israelis citizenship. However, Israel did not do this and instead chose to treat the West Bank and Gaza as if they were part of Israel physically without providing the Palestinians in those territories with citizenship, political rights or civilian rule.

INCORRECT. ISRAEL DID ANNEX THE WEST BANK OR GAZA STRIP BOTH BECAUSE OF DEMOGRAPHIC CONSIDERATIONS (PER YOUR COMMENTS BELOW) AND BECAUSE THEY OFFERED TO GIVE THESE TERRITORIES BACK TO THE ARAB STATES IN EXCHANGE FOR PEACE. AFTER THE INITIAL REJECTION (THE KHARTOUM CONFERENCE OF 8/1967), ISRAEL HOPED THAT THE ARABS WOULD CHANGE THEIR MINDS. SO THE AREAS WERE NOT ANNEXED.

PALESTINIANS IN EAST JERUSALEM WERE OFFERED CITIZENSHIP. SOME TOOK IT, SOME DID NOT. OTHER PALESTINIANS IN THE WEST BANK RETAINED THEIR JORDANIAN CITIZENSHIP UNTIL 1994 WHEN THEY BECAME CITIZENS OF THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY. IN BOTH THE PRE-OSLO AND OSLO PERIODS, THE PALESTINIANS OF THE WEST BANK HAD CITIZENSHIP IN AN ARAB POLITICAL ENTITY, POLITICAL RIGHTS OFFERED BY THOSE ENTITIES. IN NEITHER PERIOD DID THEY HAVE CIVILIAN RULE, JUST AS THEY DID NOT HAVE IT UNDER JORDANIAN RULE BEFORE 1967.

The reason Israel did not integrate the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza into Israel is because they were afraid of a demographic problem. The Israelis feared that if they gave the Palestinians equality, political and civil rights that the Palestinians may one day out number the Israelis and vote Israel out of existence. While we understand this concern by Israelis, those Israelis who fear giving the Palestinians equality and civil rights assume that they cannot give the Palestinians equality and at the same time have a state for the Jews. This is a false assumption. The territory that includes Israel and Palestine can be one nation where the Palestinians have equality, political and civil rights and at the same time be a safe heaven (HAVEN?) and a state for the Jews. SEE ABOVE, #5. ARABS IN POSITIONS OF POWER HAVE NEVER BEEN WILLING TO OFFER JEWS EQUALITY AND POLITICAL RIGHTS. WHY SHOULD ANYONE TRUST THEM TO DO SO NOW?

This can be done by creating a confederation of two states united by a federal type government with limited powers. The country can be called the United States of Israel and Palestine. While both states may have the right to limit immigration and migration, the principals of the nation should be based on the free movement of labor and people. To the extent that Israelis move to Palestine and Palestinians to Israel, we can avoid the demographic consequences of the migration by having their vote count in their respective state regardless of where they live. This approach will totally avoid the demographic fear that Israelis have by making certain that migration of people does not dilute the political power of Jews or Palestinians in their local and state politics.

As to the national government, we propose that Israel and Palestine each contribute 50% to the national parliament regardless of their populations. With this solution the Israelis do not have to fear political dilution from potential demographic changes and the Palestinians do not have to fear political dilution from the Israelis.

As to the President or Prime Minister of the national government of the United States of Israel and Palestine, she should be elected by the national parliament. Being that the parliament is divided 50/50 no Palestinian or Israeli can win without being supported by parliamentarians of the other side. This will guarantee that no Palestinian or Israeli extremist can become president of that nation.

JUST AS THIS FAILED IN LEBANON IN THE 50s AND 60s...SO TOO IS IT LIKELY TO FAIL IN YOUR HYPOTHETICAL STATE.

Initially the national government should have limited powers similar to the United States government in the early days of the Union. As time progresses and both Israelis and Palestinians feel more comfortable with each other, they may chose to give the confederation more authority. In essence the early days of the national government of the United States of Israel and Palestine shall resemble an entity more like the European Union than the U.S. federal government or some thing in between.

As to economic matters, the two states shall act as one nation with no exceptions. They shall have the same currency, no tariffs and complete free trade. The early days of the national government or confederation shall be to bring jobs and economic prosperity to both Israelis and Palestinians. This should be an easy task. A peaceful Israel and Palestine acting as one nation would be a gold mine the likes of which the world has never seen. A nation that is the birth place of western civilization and immensely revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims, tourism alone will guarantee a healthy economy in perpetuity.

However, the economy will have more than tourism to secure its prosperity. A nation of Palestinians and Israelis at peace with their neighbors shall have unlimited opportunities. The technical know-how of Israel, the available capital in the Arab world and a geography that is at the intersection of three continents can produce an economic power house that is second to none on a per capita basis. Moreover, a peaceful nation made up of Palestine and Israel at peace with their neighbors will not only bring economic prosperity to that nation but also to the entire Middle East.

What we have outlined may not be perfect and the parties will certainly seek to tweak the details and that is just fine. But it may be the only solution that will give both parties most of what they want while at the same time allows both people to keep their individual identity and live as one nation. Moreover, with this solution, Jerusalem becomes a non-issue and borders become less relevant. This solution will basically take us back to the time before the first intifada (uprising) began in 1987 with the only difference being that the Palestinians will have rights and equality that they never had under the occupation. As proof that this solution can work is the fact that Israel has one million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and they are not demonstrating, throwing rocks or blowing themselves up. Why is this? The only difference between Palestinians who are citizens of Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza is that one group has freedom, political and civil rights while the other had nothing. Israel did not recognize the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza as citizens. They were put under military rule, and they were segregated in everyway.

To summarize, the Free Muslims Coalition is reaching out to our Israeli partners and say the following:

We understand why the state of Israel is important to you. We are fully aware of the persecution that Jews suffered throughout history and the necessity of having a safe heaven for Jews. We also understand that Jews have historical and religious ties to Israel/Palestine. We believe that every Jew shall have the right to move to Israel and become a citizen immediately. We also welcome Jews to move to the West Bank and Gaza. We want the Palestinians and Israelis to live together as neighbors, friends and countrymen. In return, what we want is freedom, liberty and equality for the Palestinians. Will you meet us half way?

NO, MR NAWASH. WE WILL NOT.

IF THERE WERE ANY REASON AT ALL TO BELIEVE THAT YOU SPEAK FOR THE PALESTINIANS, AND YOUR KIND AND THOUGHTFUL WORDS REPRESENTED THE TRUE EMOTIONS AND SENTIMENTS OF HAMAS AND ISLAMIC JIHAD AND THE PFLP AND THE DFLP AND THE PFLP-GC AND HEZBOLLA AND EL-QAEDA....AND ALL THE ARABS AND NON-ARAB MOSLEMS WHO ARE THRILLED WITH THE SUCCESSES THAT THESE ORGANIZATIONS HAVE ACHIEVED IN THEIR TERROR WARS.....THEN WE WOULD HAVE SOME COMMON GROUND UPON WHICH TO START OUR DIALOGUE.

BUT WHILE WE CANNOT KNOW WHAT IS IN THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE, WE CAN KNOW WHAT THEIR LEADERS HAVE DONE FOR 70 YEARS, AND WHAT KIND OF A MASSIVE AND CONSISTENT FOLLOWING AND SUPPORT THESE LEADERS' DEEDS HAVE GARNERED FROM THE RANK AND FILE.

WE UNDERSTAND, AS PERHAPS YOU DO NOT, THAT THERE ARE NO LEADERS WITHOUT FOLLOWERS.

WE JEWS AND ISRAELIS HAVE NO REASON TO TRUST THAT YOUR GENEROUS AND KIND WORDS AND BROADLY HUMANITARIAN IDEALS WILL BE THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THE COALITION OF PLO AND HAMAS AND ISLAMIC JIHAD IN THE PALESTINIAN 50% PARLIAMENT.

WE HAVE EVERY REASON TO THINK THE EXACT OPPOSITE.

SORRY. A ONE-STATE SOLUTION SUCH AS YOURS MEANS DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL.....PERHAPS MORE SLOWLY THAN HAMAS WOULD LIKE....BUT STILL, DESTRUCTION.

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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A NEW SHIMON SAYS
Posted by Boris Celser, January 25, 2006.

Peres, again and again.

Take a look at http://www.afsi.org/SHIMON/shimon.htm

You may have seen the 1996 report in the past. If not, look at it. But don't miss the 2001 report. Please read everything, including the excellent introduction. It's tragicomic. More tragic than comic, from the madman responsible for so many dead Jews.

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GAMING ABOUT IRAN
Posted by Dr. Eugene Narrett, January 25, 2006.

The situation denoted in the above title has three subsets: Diplomatic 'Grand' -- Gaming which includes lots of blather, denial, and waiting [the waiting game] for the hammer to drop on you know who; War Gaming which should already be completed and ready to apply -- no more games; and last but not least, the BLAME GAME.

Let's start with the last game first because it really is both the first and last game of the 'world community,' of Edom and Ishmael. Israel will be blamed and will suffer most, whether this means in terms of absorbing a first or other strike, or from increased diplomatic pressure (blame) to withdraw from more and yet more of the tiny amounts of Jewish land already settled by Jews.

Israel will be blamed, first by the diplomats and the mass media, nearly all of which they by now control, for being intransigent, for irritating muslims, "criticized and condemned just for being alive" as a great jongleur wrote and sang. Sadly, more and more 'ordinary people' in the world will be affected and even persuaded but the relentless barrage of "blame Israel" pseudo history coming from diplomatic and media channels.

Short of thorough regime change that responds pro-actively, with courage and pride to the dangers faced by Israel, even when /if Iran is taken down, Israel will be pushed off the cliff known as "the Road Map." When it crashes on the bottom of the gulch, none of Judaism's holiest sites will remain under Jewish control. (Even now, only two do, mostly, and one of them, the most ancient, is being pushed hard).

As to the GRAND GAME (a.k.a. diplomacy): the fact that the American Executive Branch is yet again engaging in "ententes," consultations, multi-lateral contacts, etc, with France, Germany, even dragging the so called "United Nations" (united only against Israel) into the run-up to D-day with Iran shows one of two things. 1) this is a multi-faceted and strategically clever ruse to distract the enemies (within and without) about America's true intentions and plans, 2) it demonstrates that President George Dubya Bush and his inner circle are under enormous pressure from, and greatly constrained in their actions (as alll post WW II Presidents have been) by the State Department and National Security Council that tell the President what they want him to know and that work relentlessly for a world government; from other power centers in the media and overseas, powers that include manipulating America'[s economy, that State and NSC can apply on him to do their will, not his own.

That's right: it is not only Israel that experiences intense pressures from its enemies within and without. The American president and pro-American forces, the constitutional republic that has blessed the world, are under relentless pressures from within and without to "hurry up with the destruction and clean up" of American constitutionalism and government accountability to the governed. This phrase did not apply only to the Jews of Gush Katif; they were just the most visible 'canary in the mine' a role now taken by the Jews of Hebron and Israel in general.

That leaves us with what should be first and last, one and only: the WAR GAME which is also the only genuine PEACE & SECURITY plan. Like the others, the War Game requires contingency planning. More than them, for it truly is concerned with survival of the culture involved, it requires changes in the way the games are played. For example, the West should stop supplying jihadist nations with food and technology. Indeed, since Russia and China (and perhaps france and germany) probably would continue to supply it, America can and should impose an embargo. It might not be complete, but it would have a major impact.

There are other sources of oil in the world; without food or technology from America, Canada, Australia, and Europe, the land of jihad will starve and plunge back into the dark ages which are their natural habitat. End of Jihad; end of most terrorism and slave-taking; end of war: we win.

As to the active part of the war, America in concert with its only true ally, Israel, should decide the most effective means to destroy Iran's nuclear and war-making capabilities and do so before they used against American targets or against the Jews. As Frank Gaffney has pointed out, again, Iran or any nation could cripple communications and America's electric grid, thus gravely affecting the entire world's communications and commerce, by a high-altitude nuclear explosion. As for Israel, its a holocaust waiting to happen so long as the Iranian regime, its puppet Hezbollah, and its pals in Hamas and other Jihad groups are in the field. The Shulchan Aruch codifies the common sense survival principle that a stitch in time saves nine, that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure; that if others are gathering to attack you, "kill them first."

As for the oil in Mesopotamia, it belongs to the western nations that found it, built and deployed the technology to extract, ship, and refine it. The locals should be satisfied with a tenth and with all the blood America's spilled to rid them of a maniacal tyrant, the usual form of government in Mesopotamia for 3900 years..

So that's a review of the games. With energy independence and swift pre-emption of declared enemies, America, Israel and the world can get on not with the game but with the reality of life good and abundant.

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.

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SHARON SAVED LABOR, KEPT ISRAEL IN PAIN
Posted by Dr. Eugene Narrett, January 25, 2006.

The above title is also a chapter title in my book Israel Awakened: A Chonicle of the Oslo War (2001). The "awakened" in the title refers to the people of Israel that voted with a great majority for the man expected to respond with massive military might to the Arabs and decisively crush the Oslo War and Eurabian desires to destroy Israel.

Many of the early chapters in the book discuss news from Israel early in 2001 that Sharon, having won the vote, was to the amazement of some, apparently engaged in damage control and retrieval of status of the totally discredited Labor Party, In this he largely succeeded, at least in maintaining their strangelehold on the nation and its continuing crises. He did, as a corollary, and as some anonymous Likudniks feared that spring, succeed in painting his own party into a corner.

I wrote, as Prof. Eidelberg does today, that Sharon had made himself into the surrogate PM of Labor, with Ben Eliezer and Peress as his "inner cabinet" decisors.

The results are present today: the blob of Kadima, ruling without a mandate from anyone to impose the "Road Map" ghettoization of Jews in Israel, all Jews, whatever sides of the various maze of fences into which the ghetto is being divided. So now there is an expel- the-Jews government that pretty much let's Arabs build where they wish.

The book, Israel Awakened will interest some as an analysis and predictor of the problems visible then and to the fact that Israelis must awake to the need for a radically different government, court system, and set of leaders. Without substantive regime change, the prospects for the Jewish people in the land of Israel look bleak.

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.

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ARIEL SHARON ON THE CENTRAL IMPORTANCE OF HEBRON
Posted by Dr. Menachem Kovacs, January 25, 2006.

Dear Friend,

In the campaign to save the Mitzpeh Shalhevet (Shuk) area of Hebron, the following important quote from Ariel Sharon appears on P. 58 in the current (January 23 - 30) issue of the New Yorker Magazine titled "The General" by Ari Shavit of Ha'aretz

"Ben-Gurion called Hebron Jerusalem's elder sister. If we were a normal nation, when a visitor arrived here we would take him not to Yad VaShem but, rather, to Hebron. We'd take him to the place where our roots are. No other people has a monument like the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where Abraham and Sarah are buried. And Isaac and Rebecca. And Jacob and Leah. There isn't anything like it. Therefore, under any agreement Jews will live in Hebron."

"We put too much stress on the security issues," he went on. "That was a mistake. My mistake, too. The element of the cradle of the Jewish people is critucal for us to be able to live here. Indeed, there is a constant questioning of our right. We have to talk about the continuum of Jewish life that has been here. Even in order to live in Tel Aviv, we need a root in Hebron."

Please use these powerful quotes in the campaign to save the Shuk and indeed Eretz Yisrael.

Rabbi Menachem Kovacs is Director of the Jewish Roots Center of Baltimore, an education and research center on Torah and social science topics. He is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Montgomery College in Maryland.

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PALESTINIANS' VOTE WILL NOT BRING THEM FREEDOM
Posted by Dr. Yaron Brook, January 25, 2006.

Whichever group of dictators wins the Palestinian elections, be it the secular Fatah or the theocratic Hamas, Palestinians will soon discover that voting alone will not bring them freedom, but enslavement under some mob-approved despot.

What Palestinians need is not elections; they need a total cultural reversal--from a society that worships violence and suicide bombers to one that values life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Dr. Yaron Brook is President of 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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RACHEL CORRIE: NEVER AGAIN
Posted by Shaul and Aviva Ceder, January 25, 2006.

This article was written by Bill Levinson. Contact him at lel815@yahoo.com. It was posted on Israpundit (http://www.israpundit.com) January 23, 2006.

Justice for peace activist Rachel Corrie will come when her family looks Tom Dale, Joe Smith, and the other International Solidarity Movement activists who were present at her death in their eyes and demands, "Give Rachel back to us, you manipulative liars." Meanwhile, we can get at least a little justice by assuring the shutdown of the Palestine Solidarity Movement conference at Georgetown University in mid-February and, more importantly, make sure Rachel Corrie is the last idealistic college student to become a "martyr" for Palestine.

The Corrie family currently blames Israel and Caterpillar Corporation for their daughter's death in bulldozer to which her own misguided actions contributed. Rachel knelt in front of a bulldozer that was demolishing arms smuggling tunnels (the ISM told her and the media that they were protecting Palestinian houses) in an attempt to get it to stop. She unfortunately did not realize that the driver could not see her and the ISM's own alleged photograph shows quite clearly that the bulldozer blade would easily obstruct the driver's view of a kneeling person. (The picture actually looks like a photomanipulated fraud, which speaks for itself of ISM/PSM's character and integrity but, if we accept it as truth, it proves that the driver could not have seen a kneeling person in front of the blade.)

Suppose that a group of men in their twenties encourage a young woman with more idealism than good sense (as was probably characteristic of most of us at that age) to stand in the middle of a superhighway, where she is then struck and killed by a Chevrolet. Boycotting or suing Caterpillar over Rachel Corrie's death makes as much sense as suing General Motors in the case I just described. While the Chevy's driver certainly has an obligation to avoid hitting even a reckless pedestrian-- if he sees her-- the pedestrian's own conduct is of course the primary contributor to the accident and plenty can also be said of the "friends" who encouraged her to play chicken with moving automobiles.

The testimony of the ISM members involved shows almost a callous disregard for the life and safety of a young woman who considered them her friends and trusted them. Per "Making of a Martyr" by Sandra Jordan, Guardian Newspapers,

The activists said the driver saw Corrie. 'As the mound grew higher she climbed up, getting to eye level with the driver. He saw her in her fluorescent orange jacket. But he kept on going,' Smith said. A traumatised Smith raised his camera and took photographs: Rachel standing in front of the bulldozer; then her bloodied body being pulled from the freshly turned soil; being cradled in the arms of her friends.

'If only they'd had a video camera,' one Palestinian journalist lamented. 'A film of the Israelis killing an American in cold blood would have ended the intifada.'

Pay very close attention to the second paragraph. When Smith saw Rachel standing in front of a bulldozer that was clearly not going to stop, his first priority was not to yell a warning or to try to pull her out of the way, but to raise his camera and take pictures-- none of which seem to have been published anywhere on the Internet. The Palestinian journalist's first reaction was to wish the ISM activists had had a videocamera, as opposed to wishing that one had pulled Rachel out of the slowly-moving bulldozer's path.

Her British friend and fellow activist, Tom Dale, 18, from Lichfield in Staffordshire, said he saw her die. First, he said, there was fear on her face as she realised that her defiant gesture was going wrong. Joe Smith, 21, who went to college with Corrie, said that, although they acknowledged the danger, they saw death as a 'small, unlikely, potential risk'. Dale testified that he was standing only ten meters away, a distance that an able-bodied adult male ought to be able to cover in less than three seconds, that the bulldozer was moving "slowly," and that he could see the fear on her face. Yet neither he nor any other ISM member even claims to have tried to pull her out of the bulldozer's path. Is "coward" a word that might fit each one of them, perchance? That is what a pusillanimous yellow coward does: he encourages a young woman to perform a very dangerous action, and then he stands there with his arms at his side or reaches for a camera when something goes wrong.

Don't worry, it gets even worse. ISM director George Rishmawi and a Hamas terrorist state openly a motive for wanting Rachel to be killed.

Recently, the Director of the Solidarity Movement, George Rishmawi, explained to the San Francisco Chronicle that the recruitment of American student volunteers is useful to the Palestinian Movement because "if some of these foreign volunteers get shot or even killed, then the international media will sit up and take notice." A Hamas terrorist said openly that Rachel was worth more dead than alive. "'Her death serves me more than it served her,' said one activist at a Hamas funeral yesterday. '...Her death will bring more attention than the other 2,000 martyrs.'" Making of a Martyr by Sandra Jordan, Guardian Newspapers

When you are more useful to your friends dead than you are alive, it is time to find new friends-- quickly. It is too bad that Rachel Corrie did not live long enough to realize this but what we can do in her memory is to make sure she is the last American college student the Palestine Solidarity Movement will EVER stand in front of a bulldozer.

Here is what you can do to help. The ISM/PSM's advocacy and facilitation of terroristic violence is well known and we can make our views clear to the administration of Georgetown University as well as The Hoya, Georgetown's student newspaper. Don't let ISM/PSM recruit more "martyrs" at Georgetown University. One Rachel Corrie was one too many; let us make sure there is never another. Contact Shaul and Aviva Ceder at ceder@netvision.net.il

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DORE GOLD: HAMAS IS WORLD-JIHAD MOTIVATED
Posted by Hillel Fendel, January 25, 2006.

Dr. Dore Gold, Israel's former ambassador to the UN, says that if Israel does not get the message out about Hamas' connections and identification with world jihad, no one will.

Dr. Gold, the President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, appeared on Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine this afternoon. Host Amatzia HaEitan asked him whether the expected ascent of Hamas following the Palestinian Authority elections will hurt the PA in the international arena.

Gold responded:

"There will be a great struggle of media spins and public relations in the coming days. Hamas and its parent organization, the Islamic Brotherhood, are viewed differently in various Middle Eastern countries. In Jordan, the Brotherhood is legal, while in Eygpt, it's outlawed. The question is whether Hamas will be perceived as part of the world jihad -- or as an organization that can become moderate...

"Israel's position helps mold the world's reaction; the Americans and Europeans first read what is written on the Israeli sites, and then they make their decision. The world certainly won't be more stringent than Israel."

The Hamas terror organization is committed to the destruction of Israel, and has murdered hundreds of Israelis over the past five years.

"It is important to say," Dr. Gold emphasized, "that Hamas is an organization that identifies with the goals of world jihad. [Hamas leader] Mahmoud A-Zahar has said that Hamas victories are supposed to strengthen the mujahidin i [Islamic terrorists] in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Hamas sheikhs provide inspiration for Al-Qaeda...

"Israel [can affect] world considerations, depending on what information it publicizes... For instance, one Israeli site, intelligence.org, shows important information on Hamas, such as the fact that Hamas sees itself as connected with Osama Bin-Laden and the rebels in Chechnya; the world must know this."

Q. "How then must Israel relate to a situation in which Hamas becomes an integral part of the Palestinian Authority? We see that Israel continues to give in in this area."

Gold: "Israel has already dealt with a similar question in the past, and there are strict standards [for contacts with terror organizations]. Even though we allowed the PLO and Arafat in the past to be part of the diplomatic process without giving up terrorism, the standards still exist. The charters calling for Israel's destruction must be changed, and they must give up and condemn the use of terrorism. I don't see Hamas fulfilling these conditions, but Israel must insist on it. Otherwise, there will be those who will try to explain to us that Hamas can become more moderate."

Gold provided a specific example of the tendency to see potential moderation in Hamas:

"In late September 2005, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice appeared in Princeton University and tried to compare Hamas to the IRA in northern Ireland. She said that just like the IRA became more moderate after entering the political process, the same could happen with Hamas.

"In my opinion, this comparison is not at all accurate, since the IRA wanted only to banish the British from Ireland, and did not want to destroy London -- while Hamas has a clear agenda for an Islamic contiguity from Egypt to Iraq... Recent statements by Hamas leaders show that it has not given up its principle goal of destroying the State of Israel."

Gold told CNN of Israeli concern that if Hamas gains power, it could "form the basis for a militant Islamic threat against Israel that we have never known before... It simply doesn't work when you have a committed ideological movement like Hamas, which in addition has religious motivation. They can't be tamed by garbage collection."

Hillel Fendel is Senior News Editor at Arutz-Sheva.

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HELP THE REFUGEES FROM CANADA; ARAB PROPAGANDA AND THE NYTIMES
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 25, 2006.

Well, the Canadian elections are over and the new Prime Minister is Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper. Harper has downright neoconservative views. He is a free-market economist by training. He opposes gay marriage and abortions. He also wants to enhance Canada's missile shield, move beyond the Kyoto debate, and provide $5 billion more to overhaul Canada's military. University of Toronto political scientist Nelson Wiseman said Harper's victory would provide "symbolic support" for the Bush administration.

Now I know what you are thinking, and that is that the time has come for the United States to grant asylum to all those Canadian leftists who will now seek to escape Right-wing Canada and migrate to a more enlightened liberal country. Since Canada was so hospitable in taking in the American moonbats after the last electoral victory by George W. Bush, can the United States now be any less sensitive in assisting and taking in the tired, the poor, the humble Canadian yuppies yearning to be free?

So here is what I propose.

According to informed sources, the election of Harper as PM has prompted the exodus among left-leaning Canadians who fear they'll soon be required to hunt, pray, and agree with Bill O'Reilly. The flood of Canadian liberals sneaking across the border into the USA will intensify over the next few weeks. This is already sparking calls in the House Judiciary Committee for increased INS patrols to stop the illegal immigration. The Minutemen are enjoying unprecedented support and getting lots of new recruits.

Canadian border farmers say its not uncommon to see dozens of Toronto sociology professors, animal rights activists, and New Socialists crossing their fields at night seeking the US border fence.

"I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Vancouver film producer huddled in the barn," said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota. The producer was cold, exhausted and hungry.

"He asked me if I could spare a latte and some free-range chicken. When I said I didn't have any, he left. Didn't even get a chance to show him my screenplay, eh?"

In an effort to stop the illegal aliens, Greenfield erected higher fences but the Canadian liberals scaled them. So he tried installing speakers that blare Rush Limbaugh across the fields.

"Not real effective," he said. The liberals still got through, and Rush annoyed the cows so much they wouldn't give milk."

Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals near the Canadian border, pack them into Volvo turbo station wagons, drive them across the US border, and then leave them to fend for themselves.

"A lot of these people are not prepared for rugged conditions," an INS border patrolman in Tacoma told us. "I found one carload without a drop of drinking water. They did have a nice little Napa Valley cabernet, though."

Some Canadian liberals have taken to posing as senior citizens on bus trips headed to USA where they can cut the queues and get medical care unavailable to Canadians. After catching a half-dozen young vegans disguised in powdered wigs, INS authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed Canadian senior-citizen passengers coming into the US to play bingo.

"If they can't identify the accordion player on The Lawrence Welk Show, we get suspicious about their age," an official said.

Canadian liberals have complained that out migration is creating an organic-broccoli surplus and no one is renting all the good Susan Sarandon movies.

"I feel sorry for Canadian liberals, but the California economy just can't support them," a Berkeley resident said. "How many art-history majors does one country need?" 2. "Arab Propaganda and the New York Times" by Sharon Lapkin

The New York Times published a photograph of a young Pakistani boy recently standing with an old man next to an ancient, unfired artillery shell. It placed a caption under it that read: "Pakistani men with the remains of a missile fired at a house in the Bajur tribal zone near the Afghan border."

A short time later, the newspaper changed the caption to: "Correction: A picture caption on Saturday with an article about a U.S. airstrike on a village in Pakistan misidentified an unexploded ordinance. It was not the remains of a missile fired at a house."

The photograph -- it appears -- was a fake. A propaganda stunt set up by the Pakastanis to fool the Western media. It worked.

And, when Danish Muslim leaders recently toured the Islamic world with a 43-page report protesting 12 cartoons published by the newspaper Iyllands-Posten last October, they inserted an extra three into the Report for good measure. The Brussells Journal reported that the extra cartoons depicted Mohamed as a pedophile and a pigsnout, with a third, portraying a praying Muslim being raped by a dog.

Akhmad Akkari, spokesperson for the Muslim organizations involved in the tour, told The Brussels Journal that the three extra cartoons had been added to "give an insight in how hateful the atmosphere in Denmark is towards Muslims. The truth -- it appears -- was considered insufficient by the 21 Danish Muslim organizations protesting the publication of pictures of their prophet, Mohamed.

The propensity to manufacture propaganda in the Arab world is traditionally accepted as a method to safeguard honor and status and to avoid shame. It is not, as David Pryce-Jones explained in The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs, a matter of morality or malice. "If honor so demands," he said, "lies and cheating may become absolute imperatives." In fact, exploiting every possibility for converting shame to honor is considered a noble skill. Shia practice recognizes this predicament and permits taqyia, or "precautionary dissimulation" where Muslims can lie and cheat with religious sanctity."

Back in 2002, Palestinian media reported that Israel had committed the "massacre of the 21st century." The refugee camp in Jenin, it claimed, was the burial ground of "hundreds of martyrs." The Weekly Standard reported that Palestinian UN representative, Nasser al-Kidwa told CNN:

There's almost a massacre now taking place in Jenin. Helicopter gun ships are throwing missiles at one square kilometer packed with almost 15,000 people in a refugee camp. ...Just look at the TV and watch, watch what the -- what the Israel forces are doing... This is a war crime, clear war crime, witnessed by the whole world, preventing ambulances, preventing people from being buried. I mean this is an all-out assault against the whole population.

After the United Nations called emergency meetings and the world's press published first-hand accounts of Israeli atrocities -- they reluctantly discovered that the whole thing was an elaborate hoax. Arafat had called for "a million martyrs to march to Jerusalem" and inventing a massacre had provided a world stage for his propaganda machine. But, truth was the real massacre as the West climbed upon Arafat's stage and danced his mountebank waltz.

When the Hollywood Foreign Press Association celebrated the morally repugnant subject of suicide bombing and rewarded its adaptation to a Hollywood template by presenting Paradise Now with a Golden Globe, the truth was in jeopardy again. Studded with historical inaccuracies and romanticized terrorists, the film attempts to normalize everyday mass murder by portraying murderers as misunderstood victims who kill innocents to create justice

The film's producers couldn't have known when they inserted historical inaccuracies into the script that the Hollywood entertainment industry would grant them "precautionary dissimulation" and then put gold in their pockets to reward them for their dishonesty.

And when the wannabe suicide bomber, Khaled, announced in the film that "the Palestinians have exhausted every political means" to achieving "a two-state solution", the Hollywood Foreign Press Association forgot about 1937, 1947, 1967 and 2001, when the Jews accepted the partition of Palestine/Israel, but the Arabs rejected a two-state compromise. They chose instead, to adhere to the film's representation where their newfound favourite actors could safely remain victims.

Hollywood gave Golden Globe winner, Hany Abu-Assad, the world stage and several million people to listen to his claim that the award was "a recognition that the Palestinians deserve their liberty and equality unconditionally." They didn't ask him why they'd already knocked it back four times and Hollywood didn't appear concerned with the real historical details.

So, while it is clear that Arabs exercise taqyia to promote honor and prestige, it is unclear why the West is continually drawn into this charade. Recognizing trickery and deciphering propaganda have become essential modern day skills in the interpretation of Arab behaviour. David Pryce-Jones noted that for Arabs "Information control, which may or may not include lying, is the only effective strategy for arbitrating between honor and shame..."

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. Contact him by email at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il

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GHETTOS THEN & NOW; HEBRON AND THE 'HABIRU'
Posted by Professor Eugene Narrett, January 24, 2006.

Studying a wonderful discussion of archaeology and history, James Long's, "The Riddle of the Exodus" is a bracing way to buttress the foundations of Israel's place in the world (and the way this long-established place is buried by political, media and educational institutions).

Among the many 19th century archaeological finds that should definitively show the historicity and grandeur of Israel are the El Amarna letters discovered in the 1880s. These approximately 400 inscribed clay tablets from the era of Pharaoh Amenophis III and his son disclose many facts relevant to the history of Israel, not least, "Hebron, land of the Hebrews" as Joseph the righteous termed it in parsha Mikeitz (see my earlier essay, "Hebron land of the Hebrews" for Ramban's discussion of the sources for the term).

In several of the tablets, an Egyptian garrison commander/ trespasser in the southern Judean hills area wrote to the Pharaoh complaining about and demanding assistance against "the warlike tribe of Habiru." Israel's always been tough when fighting its foreign foes. Several of the letters, interestingly, seem to be from King Shaul to Pharaoh, hopefully not inviting a piece process.

Now Hebron is besieged by a warlike tribe led by servants of the Pharaoh who makes his/her seats above the river named "river" (Potomac). The Land of the Hebrews needs another true king and patriarch to claim and settle its own....

Another interesting find in this paginated trove is an inscription in the tomb of Unas, last Pharaoh of the 5th Dynasty who when young may have heard the following prophecy from an elderly Joseph: "Unas will judge with Him-Whose-Name-is Hidden on the day of the slaying of the eldest."

And so it came to pass, as we will be studying during these next few weeks when the deeds of the fathers form the pattern for their sons.

Ghettos: during his discussion of evidence in Egyptian inscriptions complementing the Torah's listing of place names in and around Goshen, Long adduces several sources indicating that the Egyptians lured the Hebrews to building projects in the name of Egypt's own national defense, then left the Jews to wall themselves in, thus "creating the first concentration camps" and the first ghettos in history.

This is precisely the method of the Saudi-American 'map' for the "security fence" for which Jews are paying dearly in money, pride, deterrence and genuine defensibility, defacing and alienating their inheritance. Cherished and essential parts of the entirely foundational heartland of Israel are being pinched inside walls and double walls behind which Jews killers will take cover and shoot. The frantic zig zags of the wall itself show it to be indefensible and perhaps not meant to be seriously defended.

These "security fences" at Pi-thoum and Rameses are suicidal traps, the flip side of the aggression threatened against Hebron, Amona, and scores of other Jewish towns and farms.

The Chief of Staff, who oversaw the deportation of the Jews of Gush Gatif, admits that Israel is beset with terrorism on all sides, that it is increasing (no kidding) but the police and army's wrath remains focused on Jews while Hamas and Fatach vie openly to lead the extinction of Israel.

It's time to leave Egypt and apply the force on the enemies of the Jews.

Note: Also see David Rohl's Pharaoh's and Kings and Miriam Lichtman's Ancient Egyptian Literature.

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.

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WHO IS THE OCCUPIER?; ILLEGAL ARAB BUILDINGS; A DIALOGUE ON REVOLUTION
Posted by Steven Shamrak, January 24, 2006.

Quote of the Week:

"I wish and pray that the Jewish people fully regain, and retain, their holy land, and may truth and justice always prevail. I firmly believe that when Israel was strongly defending itself against attacks, the nation was respected. But when appeasement, withdrawals, disengagement etc started, the country suffered more attacks, and continues to face problems. Unite, be strong, defend aggressively, and win." -- by Yatindra Bhatnagar (Message from an Indian friend of Jewish people.)

Who is the occupier?

It has become very common and 'trendy' to say and write that Israel is an occupier of Arab land. Unfortunately, true Zionists got tired of challenging this baseless Arab and anti-Israel propaganda rhetoric. Therefore, even many Jews start to believe in this lie!

I prefer to rely on facts not emotional or politicly motivated fantasies. I would say, and historical facts do support it, that Arabs are occupiers of Jewish land.

As part of Palestine mandate: Trans-Jordan, Golans, Judea, Samaria and Gaza were allocated for creation of the Jewish state. British government was appointed as a custodian of the mandate. After Jews started to return to their homeland in 1880's and created agriculture and industries in the desolated land of Palestine, economic migration of Arabs followed. Later, with the British help and facilitation, the politicly motivated migration of Arabs/Muslims to Jewish land was encouraged. Jews were not allowed to live in Trans-Jordan, but Arabs were allowed to move and live on the West Bank of river Jordan. In 1922 British illegally separated Trans-Jordan from mandate in exchange for control of Sinai and gave Golan Heights to France. The League of Nations, which was controlled by UK and France, rubberstamped the 'deal'. So, I would like to ask you now -- Who is the real occupier? We must stop believing in the lies of enemies of Jewish people! We must set our own goals and regain the rightful ownership of the Jewish land! Jewish people and Israel have all spiritual, historical, moral and legal rights to the all Jewish land! We must ignore the 'legal' illegality imposed on Jews by, generally, anti-Semitic and oil dependent International community.

War on Israel -- Sadly, the New Beginning.

- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, said in an audio tape on the Internet that rockets had been fired at Israel from Lebanon last month "on the instructions" of Osama bin Laden.

- Arab weapons experts who have undergone training in Lebanon, Syria, and possibly Iran have recently infiltrated the Gaza Strip.

- Sources in the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said that there has been a significant increase in attempts by Iran to infiltrate Israel and link up with Arab Palestinian terror groups.

Food for Thought

"U.S. supports PA's demand for free passages through Israel, but there is no dilemma with absence of "free passages" for Jews: Jews are risking their lives daily in Israel -- shopping, taking a bus to work or school"

1967 borders is a Temporary solution.

Ismail Haniya, the top candidate on the Hamas list for the PA parliamentary elections, said Sunday that Hamas supports only as a temporary solution the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders and with Jerusalem as its capital. He emphasized that there is no chance that Hamas would voluntarily disarm as long as Israel exists. (At the same time Israel's zealous new foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, is pushing ahead her Kadima Party's agenda of giving away the Jewish ancestral lands to the enemy.)

Soup Kitchen Reality.

The number of Israelis living under the poverty line has risen to an unprecedented 1.6 million, including 738,000 children and youths. President Moshe Katsav stated, "the reliance on soup kitchens and charitable institutions is a catastrophe and the state may not shun its responsibility." (Israeli leaders are not interested in the future of the Jews. The photo opportunities and fat pockets are their priority! Billions are wasted on the fake Peace process: The Partition wall and the Deportation!)

"Every single one of us has the power to make changes.

Just as a small drop of water can make an indentation in a rock, each of our (small as they may be) efforts, can make great changes." -- Chaya, a subscriber of my letter.

Gov't Silent about Illegal Arab Buildings.

There are 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. (As the Israeli government declares "war" on unauthorized Jewish communities, Arabs' illegal buildings, funded by the PA, are unhindered.)

U.S. Backing Down from Opposition to Hamas.

Bush Administration officials have made clear, over the past weeks, their displeasure with Hamas and its participation in the election, but always stopped short of demanding that the PA ban Hamas from taking part. (The meaningless posturing was so predictable. And, as an obedient puppy, Israel will follow.)

Jews to be banned from Israeli highway?

In what some here regard as a sign Israel (Kadima) is contemplating a future large-scale withdrawal from the West Bank, the military is reportedly debating closing to Jewish traffic the main highway that stretches across the territory, forcing Jewish motorists to use more dangerous routes.

Comments on Comments:

"The Muslim Brothers do not recognise Israel... 70 million Egyptians, 300m citizens in the Arab world and 1.5 billion Muslims across the world do not recognise Israel," -- Mohammed Mehdi Akef, leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. -- It is time for Jews to recognize their own rights and aspirations! No one else will.

Threatens to Cut UN Funds.

US Ambassador John Bolton filed a complaint with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan about the organization's use of a map that replaces all of Israel with 'Palestine.' "It was entirely inappropriate for this map to be used," Bolton wrote. "It can be misconstrued to suggest that the United Nations tacitly supports the abolition of the state of Israel." (Almost a third of all UN resolutions are dedicated to and against Israel, the country with less than 0.1% of the world population! The UN -- Useless Nothing -- has not changed a bit!)

"A Dialogue on Revolution." by Prof. Paul Eidelberg.

American: You Israelis never cease to amaze me. Since Oslo you have suffered more than 10,000 casualties -- Jewish men, women, and children killed, wounded and maimed for life. Yet you do nothing. If this were not bad enough, your government plans to expel countless Jews from their homes in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza and turn this land over to your enemies. Why haven't you people rebelled and thrown the rascals out?

Israeli: Just a minute. We like to believe Israel is a democracy; so if the public is not happy with the government's policies, we need only wait for the next election and change the prime minister or party in power.

American: But don't you see it makes no difference which party or party leader is in power: you are still retreating toward your indefensible 1949 borders. Americans would never tolerate this state of affairs. Certain Mexican nationalists are now making territorial claims on Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California -- once Mexican territory. If the American government yielded any part of this land to Mexico, rest assured there'd be a revolution.

Israeli: But you forget we are Jews, and for a Jew to shed the life of another Jew is simply out of the question. Look at what happened after Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. This was a national trauma from which we are still suffering.

American: Trauma? Tens of thousands of Jewish children are suffering the trauma of suicide bombings. But let me go back to my Mexican example. Suppose year after year a few hundred square kilometers of the increasingly Mexicanized southwest were returned to Mexico, and that thousands of Anglo-Saxon Americans were expelled from their homes each month. We Americans would be up in arms, animated by the revolutionary zeal of those who signed our Declaration of Independence. Let me quote a few passages from that document:

The bottom line -- The Withdrawal end plan is creating two states on one land. A dozen of unrealistic conditions he had mentioned. He even admitted that most likely it will fail. Still, he vigorously promoted this stupidity. So, much for ideologically motivated experts! (Toss the Jews to "the sea" is still the goal of our enemies! The Iranian president clearly reiterated it recently.)

Steven Shamrak was born in the former Soviet Union (USSR) and participated in the Moscow Zionist "refusenik" movement. He publishes 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@gmail.com

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BARGHOUTI -- JUST BEFORE THE ELECTION
Posted by David Bedein, January 24, 2006.

On this page last week, Yossi Beilin posited that convicted murderer Marwan Barghouti is the one Palestinian leader ready and able to fight Hamas ("Free Marwan Barghouti To Counter Power of Hamas," December 2). Barghouti, however, would seem an unlikely candidate to take on that militant Islamist group.

On January 22, 1995, after Hamas massacred 19 Israelis at a bus stop in Beit Lid -- a village near the coastal city of Netanya located within the 1967 lines -- Barghouti declared on the Saudi-owned MBC television network that "we cannot condemn such an attack, since this is an area that we have not yet liberated." The video clip of that statement is readily available at our office at the Beit Agron Press Center in Jerusalem.

It was also Barghouti who from 1995 until his imprisonment in 2002 and even since he was incarcerated who has been hammering out cooperative agreements in Cairo between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, according to the semi-official Egyptian daily Al Ahram. And according to Israeli intelligence sources and in the indictment issued against him, it was Barghouti who, upon the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000, became the head of a joint coordinating body of all Palestinian organizations in the West Bank -- including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, all three of which are listed by both the American and Israeli governments as terrorist groups.

As for Beilin's argument that Barghouti was only "indirectly" responsible for the murder of innocent people, it is surprising that a former Israeli justice minister only saw fit to mention in passing that Barghouti was convicted of the first degree murder in May 2002 of the cold-blooded murder of five civilians -- in cases where the Israeli Justice Ministry provided incontrovertible documentation that Barghouti made direct payments to commission killers to commit wanton acts of murder.

The Marwan Barghouti who Beilin suggest should be released from prison so he can lead the Palestinian people is responsible for the murders of: Salim Barakat, 33, from the Druze village of Yarka in the Galilee, who survived by his wife, daughter, parents and seven brothers and sisters; Eli Dahan, 53, of Lod, who is survived by his mother Sarah, wife, Ilana, two daughters, two sons and three grandchildren; Yosef Habi, 52, of Herzliya, who is survived by his wife, son and daughter; Father Georgios Tsibouktzakis, 34, a Greek Orthodox monk from St. George's Monastery in Wadi Kelt near Jericho; and Yoela Chen, 45, of Givat Ze'ev, who is survived by her husband and two children.

Nor are they Barghouti's only victims.

At his trial, people who were maimed as a result of Barghouti-sponsored attacks appeared as witnesses to the pain he caused them, pain they will experience for the rest of their lives.

Chicago-born Alan Bauer and his seven-year-old son Jonathon were among those witnesses. They were five minutes from their home in Jerusalem when a Barghouti-funded suicide bomber blew himself up three feet away from them on March 21, 2002. Two arteries in Bauer's arm were severed. A screw went all the way through little Jonathon's head. To this day, Jonathan walks with a limp.

According to the court protocols, Barghouti proudly admitted that he directed terrorist attacks in which scores of Israelis were killed and revealed how he directly allocated funds needed by terrorist cells to operate and purchase necessary weapons, and stated that Yasser Arafat personally authorized this funding for Tanzim activities, knowing that this money would be used to finance murderous attacks. Furthermore, protocols of interrogations of P.A. officials before the trial showed how the process worked: Names of Tanzim killers were submitted to Barghouti, who would routinely take them to Arafat for approval.

Why, Beilin implicitly asks, should Barghouti be kept in jail? The law would seem to be clear on this point: There is more than a slight possibility of recidivism -- of Barghouti choosing to not abandon the path of violence if he were to be set free. He has shown no remorse for his commitment to liberate all of Palestine, nor has he revealed any second thoughts about his efforts to unite all Palestinian factions for that purpose.

The question for Yossi Beilin, who seems to ignore Barghouti's direct responsibility for his indiscriminate murder of Israeli citizens, is how he would feel if Barghouti had bragged in an open court of law that he had murdered a member of Beilin's family in the course of one of his terrorist actions "to liberate Palestine."

Beilin is correct in writing that peace treaties are made between enemies, after the war has been concluded. Beilin is misguided in believing that Barghouti has shown any signs of leading a movement to stop the Palestinian militants' war against the State of Israel.

David Bedein is bureau chief of the Israel Resource News Agency in Jerusalem.

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WILL THE FENCE KEEP GUSH ETZION SECURE?
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 24, 2006.

When you hear absolute unqualified guarantees about Land, not (I repeat) NOT TO BE TRANSFERRED previously from Sharon, then Olmert or later Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz -- be assured that's exactly what they are planning. Sharon had stated plainly that the Gush Etzion Bloc will never be transferred or abandoned to the Arab Muslim Palestinians. The well-planned tactic was to use the Sharon Fence/Wall under the guise of protecting Jewish citizens to divide and conquer.

If one bothers to track the route of this Ghettoizing Wall in the Gush area, one can see it's meant to divide this area into small segments. When the time comes, Sharon intended -- under the rubric of the now infamous Road Map, to once again send in troops to evacuate each separated piece more easily. This scurrilous plan will, no doubt, be now implemented by the "Kadima Jumpers".

Similar to what the Czars and Stalin managed to accomplish with the shtetle Jews in small villages. They generally call this a pogrom. The absurd fence follows a twisty route often bringing the Fence/Wall and the Muslim Arab Palestinian Terrorists behind it within a few meters of Jewish homes. This, of course, is an accommodation of Chief Justice Aharon Barak of the radical Left Supreme Court. Working hand-in-hand with then Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert, Shimon Peres which allows every few acres of what Arabs claim is their field to be a guide for the Fence.

Clearly, notwithstanding the prior denials of Sharon, Olmert, Peres, it seems that Sharon was ready to move on dissecting the nation to accommodate a Road Map which was a dream/nightmare put together by the State Department, James Baker III, the European Union and put into the mouth of President Bush.

Sharon put together a crowd of amoral people under the slogan of "Kadima" (Forward) born without conscience with little connection to being Jews and little love for the Land. Nothing is as important as maintaining power, generating money for themselves and those followers who would sell themselves to keep the seats of power.

Trustfully, the people of Gush Etzion Bloc will not fall for the propaganda that Sharon (now Olmert) will not sell out Gush Eztion and with it the rest of Judea and Samaria. Hopefully, one day the people of Israel will tire of corruption with both major political parties and form a Peoples' Court to bring Justice to a nation buried in corruption.

In the meantime a new Council should be formed to handle the affairs of Gush Etzion. The old YESHA (Yehuda, Shomron and Aza) administration while, no doubt, well-meaning is clearly too soft, too accommodating to protect the area from a government whose promises mean absolutely nothing when the Jewish State has to stand up against a predatory world. Those predators are the Arab Muslim world, the Quartet which included the anti-Semitic E.U. (European Union, anti-Israel U.N. (United Nations) and anti-Jewish Russia.

Please make it a rule that whatever and whenever the left-overs of the Sharon Mafia make a commitment, assume the reverse is their intent. Good people go to sleep without plots and conspiracies on their minds while the corrupt wait until you are fast asleep to begin plotting. Only the following morning do decent people discover the political mafia have stolen their homes and made common cause with the enemy.

I refer you to the article below which was in the Jerusalem Post October 13, 2005 by Caroline Glick who toured the Fence route and saw what Sharon was up to!

Our suggestion: CHANGE THE FENCE ROUTE TO SECURE ALL OF GUSH ETZION!

When the Sharon government decided to expel all Jews from Gaza, their communities' physical isolation and the fact that they were fenced-in and thus geographically limited, eased the work of the evacuation forces both during the planning and implementation of their mass expulsion.

Today for residents of Judea and Samaria as well as for those on the Left who seek their uprooting, the successful expulsion of Gazan Jews has raised a number of questions regarding the government's plans for erecting the security fence around communities in the areas. On the one hand, residents of settlements not included in the fence route contend with the fact that from the perspective of the political Left -- including the Sharon-Peres government and the Supreme Court -- Israel is less than likely to demand the inclusion of their communities within the borders of sovereign Israel in any future peace deal with the Palestinians. For those whose communities are included in the fence route, the question becomes what the route of the planned fence says about the government's intention to enable their growth and prosperity and to guarantee their security.

When addressing non-leftist audiences, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon loudly extols his commitment to the preservation of what he refers to as "settlement blocs" in Judea and Samaria. Sharon ostentatiously points to the letter he received from US President George W. Bush in April 2004 where the subject of Israel's final borders is vaguely discussed. The letter is presented as a sort of trophy meant to prove Sharon's Zionist bona fides to the majority of Israelis who categorically reject the return to Israel's indefensible frontiers along the 1949 armistice lines. Yet beyond his evocations of non-existent American guarantees and vague declarations of fealty to Israel's right to our ancestral lands in Judea and Samaria, Sharon has never specifically delineated what he means when he refers to settlement blocs.

Given Sharon's silence on the subject, the best way to test his intentions is to visit the proposed route of the security fence in Gush Etzion -- one of the settlement blocs that Sharon insists will always remain part of Israel. Work on the security fence around Gush Etzion, located just south of Jerusalem, is scheduled to begin immediately after the High Holy Days.

Three disturbing conclusions arise from a survey of the proposed route. First, in spite of Sharon's protestations to the contrary, the route of the fence shows that he has no intention of preserving the entire settlement bloc. Many of the communities inside of the Gush Etzion Regional Council -- like Karmei Tzur in the south and Nokdim and Tekoa in the east -- are excluded from the fence route. Aside from that, the route gives priority to Arab property rights over both Jewish property rights and the security needs of the 50,000 Israelis who live in the area. The following examples illustrate this disturbing truth.

The community of Bat Ayin does not have a security fence. Distinct from the other communities in Gush Etzion, Bat Ayin was conceived and developed along the view that its best guarantee of security and prosperity is for its land to be settled sparsely along the wide expanse of the Judean hills rather than densely and in a limited geographical area.

This view has enabled the community to grow and secure itself rather well. Yet, the route of the security fence will artificially wreck Bat Ayin's ability to protect itself. The planned route places the fence no more than a couple of dozen meters outside the houses of the community's residents on the incline separating their homes from the wadi below. The route excludes the hilltop immediately across the valley from Bat Ayin and so puts the homes of the residents within assault rifle range of terrorists. Fenced into their community, the residents will have no ability to deter attackers or to pursue those who shoot from outside the fence.

Aside from that, the land that is set to be placed on "the Arab side" of the fence includes 400 dunams of privately owned Jewish land bought for Gush Etzion by the JNF in the early 1940s. As well, thousands of dunams of state land, cultivated by the JNF, is set to be transferred to "the Arab side." The effective mass seizure of these lands is justified by the government as a way of ensuring that the residents of the small Arab village of Jabah (which is controlled by Hamas), will be able to cultivate a few dozen dunams of olive groves.

Today Gush Etzion is connected to sovereign Israel by Route 367 which connects it to the center of the country, and by Highway 60 which connects it to Jerusalem. Route 367 today runs south of Jabah.

The plans for the security fence involve investing some NIS 100 million in order to move Route 367 to Jabah's north. This is to be accomplished in order to connect Jabah to the Arab village Beit Tzurif (which is also controlled by Hamas), and to leave both villages out of the fence route. The new road will be located on a narrow mountain ridge beneath Jabah and all motorists traveling along the road will immediately be exposed targets for any terrorist wishing to shoot a Jew from the village.

As to Highway 60, across from the northern entrance to Efrat is a hilltop that controls the highway. The route of the security fence is set to transfer control over the top of this hill to the Palestinians. As a result, anyone entering Efrat from Highway 60 will be exposed to attack.

Last month Gush Etzion's Regional Council sent a letter to the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria laying out the residents' concerns regarding the proposed route of the fence. The response they received in a letter dated September 20 from the Civil Administration's legal adviser was as revealing as it was alarming.

"The goal of the security fence is to prevent penetration into these communities, and is not being designed to prevent shooting at the communities," the legal adviser noted. But the sad truth is that the current route does not simply prevent shooting attacks, it invites them.

When residents of Kibbutz Kfar Etzion -- the original community in Gush Etzion, which was built in the 1930s, destroyed by the Jordanian Legion in the War of Independence and then rebuilt in 1967 -- were given the details of the proposed route of the fence, they published a declaration on September 24 where they stated, "The proposed route of the separation fence around the communities of Gush Etzion is a terrible solution that harms both Jews and Arabs. As a result we are relinquishing it and ask to substitute it with alternative security methods that are being planned for communities in Judea and Samaria."

Following Kfar Etzion's declaration, the heads of the regional and local councils of Gush Etzion, Beitar Illit and Efrat met this week and published their own statement. There they announced they are "demanding that the Minister of Defense not conduct any work on the route of the security fence until the debate between the area residents and the security establishment has been completed."

In addition to the government's approved fence route, the ultra-leftist Council for Peace and Security, which is financed by the European Union and the New Israel Fund and headed by Major Gen. (res.) Danny Rothschild, has its own proposed route for the security fence around Gush Etzion.

The council's route is relevant because on several occasions in the past, the council has petitioned the Supreme Court and demanded changes in the government's route. Its past petitions have been warmly received by the politicized court that has adopted its routes in spite the IDF's strenuous assertions that they endanger Israel's security. The court has defended its decisions by adopting the council's view that Palestinian property rights should be given priority over Israel's security and Jewish property rights.

In the council's proposed route, the security fence would surround Efrat on the east and west effectively turning it into a ghetto. Indeed, the route would ghettoize all the Jewish communities in the region and connect them to one another by narrow corridors, transferring all the outlying areas to Arab control. In spite of the vast differences in geography and topography, the council's route would effectively transform Gush Etzion, on the southern border of Jerusalem, into a second Gush Katif -- fenced-in communities with no ability to expand.

Shaul Goldstein, the head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, believes that the residents must try to cooperate with the IDF and the government in an effort to change the proposed route of the fence. In his view, if Gush Etzion follows the line set out by residents of Kfar Etzion and rejects the fence completely, the result will be to dry up industry, investment and tourism in the region. Goldstein also fears that in the absence of the fence, prospective new residents will opt not to move to the area and current residents will opt to move away out of fear that the area will be uprooted in the future.

At the same time, Goldstein believes that if the government does not change the proposed route of the fence, Gush Etzion will have no choice other than to reject the fence in its entirety because of the security threats that emanate from the current route. In such a scenario, the residents of Gush Etzion will be forced to fight a political battle against the widespread assumption that all areas not located within the route of the fence will eventually be transferred -- Judenrein -- to Palestinian control.

Whatever happens in the coming weeks and months, the dispute over Gush Etzion's fence will have long-term significance for the future of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria as well as in east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. As the battle unfolds three things will become clear. First, the Sharon-Peres government's attitude towards the fence route will clarify what the government's actual intentions are in terms of preserving and enabling the security and prosperity for Sharon's so-called "settlement blocs" in Judea and Samaria.

Second, the IDF's stance regarding the fence route and its willingness, as the statutory body responsible for ensuring Israel's security, to stand up to the Supreme Court in defense of Israel's right to defensible borders (which necessarily must be beyond the indefensible 1949 armistice lines), will establish a precedent for the long-term dispute over all Israeli claims to sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.

Finally, in the wake of the complete failure of the leadership of the Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza to prevent the destruction of the communities in Gaza and northern Samaria this summer, the political strength of these leaders vis-a-vis the government and state on the one hand and the public on the other is again about to be tested. No matter how the battle pans out, its results will form the basis for all future battles regarding Israel's sovereign borders.

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at gwinston@interaccess.com

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HAMAS THE WAY THE LA TIMES WISHES IT WERE
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 24, 2006.

To the Editors,

Ken Ellingwood's "Hamas shows a New face" (LA Times, 1.24.06) makes two statements that reflect more of his (and perhaps his informants') desire to live in the world the way he wishes it were, than any real-world assessment of the situation in the Middle East:

1.) "...Some moderates in the group have suggested that Hamas might one day negotiate with Israel, a possibility raised again Monday by senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, who said talks could be held through a third party."

Odd that today (Tuesday) in a televized debate with Mohammed Dahlan (on Lebanese television, taped by MEMRI) Mr. az-Zahar again declared in no uncertain terms "...."We consider Israel to be an enemy, not an ally. Israel is not a partner, and we will not maintain security cooperation with it....We will not cooperate with it economically or in any other way....We will not negotiate with Israel."

To the interviewer's question: "How do you intend to improve the situation, if you don't intend to negotiate with Israel?", Mr. az-Zahar had no answer.

What should we believe? What they say to us in English or what they say to each other in Arabic?

2.) "In seeking to hold legislative seats and weapons at the same time, Hamas could come to resemble Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that has a parliamentary presence and a militia along the border with Israel. But many analysts say that by joining mainstream Palestinian politics, Hamas is bound to moderate its views, and already has to some degree."

More wishful thinking.

Membership in the UN did not moderate the PLO. Quite the opposite, it emboldened the PLO and enhanced the PLO's ability to function as a terrorist organization thanks to the legitimacy that UN membership gave it.

Politicization of the PLO when the Oslo Accords morphed it into the PA (Palestinian Authority) did not moderate Arafat or the various PLO terror factions. Quite the opposite, it emboldened Arafat and Fatah and the PLO, and gave them the freedom to function unencumbered by Israeli oversight. Only because of that politicization and legitimation could Arafat mount and launch his post-Oslo terrror war.

Politicization of Hezbollah in Lebanon has not moderated it. Quite the opposite, as Ellington notes in the section quoted above, it has further emboldened it and given it the platform it needs to run its terrorist agenda at the same time that it gains power via its political agenda.

Why then would anyone think that politicizing Hamas will moderate it? Especially when its leaders tell their constituents the exact opposite!

David Meir-Levi


"Hamas Shows a New Face in Campaign"
By Ken Ellingwood, Times Staff Writer
January 24, 2006
The Los Angeles Times (www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/ la-fg-hamas24jan24,0,3993402.story?track=tothtml,0,5608332.story? track=tothtml)

GAZA CITY -- The masked fighters, with their weatherworn Kalashnikovs, didn't appear at this Hamas rally. No effigies were torched. And the climax wasn't a fiery call for Israel's destruction, but a lighthearted skit about how to vote.

The militant Islamic group displayed the keen organization and grass-roots appeal that have made it a surprisingly formidable contender in its first run in a Palestinian parliamentary election.

One speaker made sure to call out the name of each of the area's residents imprisoned by Israel. A group of boys paraded about carrying the green Hamas flag and a giant number 6 -- the ballot designation of the Hamas slate -- as a recorded song blared, "We want to work for Hamas 24 hours!"

"Ha-ah-MAS!" roared the crowd of about 500 men and boys seated on tidy rows of plastic chairs on the mud-caked street.

The group best known for its military wing's suicide bombings and other attacks against Israelis has emerged as the strongest challenger to the dominant Fatah movement once run by Yasser Arafat. Hamas is expected to capture a significant share of the parliament's 132 seats, if not win outright, in Wednesday's vote.

Israel has said it will not negotiate with Hamas, and the U.S. Congress and European Union officials have threatened to withhold funding for the Palestinians if Hamas joins the government without disavowing violence. The United States classifies Hamas as a terrorist organization and refuses to have dealings with the group.

The electoral venture marks a new stage for Hamas, which has won the loyalty of many Palestinians through its network of charities and schools, its militant stance toward Israel and a reputation of relative honesty that contrasts sharply with Fatah's corruption-tainted record.

Hamas was founded in December 1987, at the beginning of the first Palestinian uprising, by Sheik Ahmed Yassin, whom Israel assassinated in 2004. The group refused to take part in past Palestinian elections but is now seeking a public endorsement, while remaining vague about specific policies it would pursue if it wins.

Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza City, said Hamas' goal could be summed up in one word: legitimacy.

"Hamas needs that legitimacy by its own people. The way is through the ballot box," Sourani said. "Ultimately, any democrat knows that if you are elected, then you are legitimate."

In search of votes, Hamas has tempered some of its rhetoric, even though leaders say they have no plans to disarm or to recognize Israel after the elections. The group has been noncommittal about whether it would helm government ministries -- in effect, joining the Palestinian Authority after years of rejecting it as an outgrowth of unacceptable peace agreements with Israel.

Hamas leaders say they want to improve relations with foreign governments, including the United States. Some moderates in the group have suggested that Hamas might one day negotiate with Israel, a possibility raised again Monday by senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, who said talks could be held through a third party.

In seeking to hold legislative seats and weapons at the same time, Hamas could come to resemble Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that has a parliamentary presence and a militia along the border with Israel. But many analysts say that by joining mainstream Palestinian politics, Hamas is bound to moderate its views, and already has to some degree.

Hamas operates with strict discipline, and its fighters have largely adhered to a nearly yearlong cease-fire with Israel.

Despite its relative inexperience, the group has also proved politically canny and pragmatic. Its campaign manifesto does not talk of destroying Israel, as its founding charter does, and calls by some of its leaders for creating a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital sound a lot like Fatah's stance.

Although Hamas supports establishing an Islamic state, candidates have avoided taking stands on cultural and moral issues, such as banning alcohol, that might alienate secular Palestinian voters already wary of the group.

Hamas may give voters a way to vent anger over years of mismanagement and graft under Fatah, which has run the government since the Palestinian Authority's creation in 1994.

"People are really, really happy that there is going to be a strong opposition," said Daoud Kuttab, a Palestinian commentator who directs the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "People think and feel that Hamas will keep Fatah a bit more honest and accountable than they were before."

The Hamas slate is called "Change and Reform." Its candidates ran under the same name during municipal elections last year that put Hamas in control of some of the largest Palestinian communities, often in alliance with independents and Christians.

In those elections and in the current campaign, Hamas has chosen candidates from a variety of backgrounds -- business executives, professors, physicians and engineers -- who are well regarded in their communities. Its national slate of 59 candidates includes 13 women.

Hamas recently launched a TV station in the Gaza Strip that has provided a showcase for the group's candidates in time for the election. But a longer-term goal for the station is to improve the group's image, activists say.

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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THE NEBICH LINE
Posted by Batya Medad, January 24, 2006.

A couple of hours ago, on my way home from work, I heard a radio "interview." The "Galei Tzahal" reporter was interrogating the head of the Amona neighborhood of Ofra. She was more aggressive than the toughest TV cop trying to get a confession out of a serial child molester.

"Your settlement's illegal, right!"
"Prove that you're not breaking the law!"
"Can you show that every piece of land there is 100% legally yours, above board?!"

...and similar accusations and demands.

The poor guy just didn't have the answers. He spoke very calmly and politely, pointing out that...

"...the forty families in Amona are simple law-abiding citizens, professionals, businessmen and civil servants. The neighborhood is ten years old. It has been supported and recognized by all of the government bodies including Bezek (phones), Mekorot (water) and the electric company. Nothing was ever done without approval."

She didn't listen and kept hounding at him, accusing them of breaking the law.

Then he tried a different tack.

"You know, we're part of the national religious sector. Just a few months ago we suffered a major trauma. We're still licking our wounds. It's not nice to hit us when we're down."

"So, will it be OK to remove you in a few months?"

"We're going to the Supreme Court to argue our case. Just give us more time. Olmert shouldn't be threatening us right before elections. It's bad timing."

"So, he should remove you after the elections?"

ad nauseum

I'm not exaggerating. I found it embarrassing. I found it depressing. He must have had been coached by Moetzet YESHA.

* Where is the vision?
* Where is the confidence?
* Where are the historical and national importance of settling our Land?

Nebich! Why don't we have leaders? Our people are rudderless. Even in Judea and Samaria people in power have no idea why we're here. And they have no idea how to defend themselves. Why are we constantly on the defensive?

I feel so powerless, not against my enemies, but against my friends, the public officials who should be leading us, helping us, defending us. But they seem to be our greatest problems.

G-d willing, very, very soon,
Geula Shleimah, Bimhairah Biyameinu! -- Complete Redemption, Quickly in Our Time

Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il This is archived at shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2006/01/ nebich-line.html

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FORMER IDF CHIEF YAALON: GAZA NOW HAMASTAN, AL-QAEDASTAN
Posted by Avodah 15, January 24, 2006.
This news item is by Ronny Sofer and it appeared in Ynet News, www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3205056,00.html.

"As long as there is no acceptance of our right to exist, the Israeli leadership should assume any determined border will be challenged by violent acts, unless there is deterrence. The more vulnerable we appear, the bigger the temptation is to attack us."
-- Former IDF Chief Yaalon.

  • Former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon told the Herzliya Conference on Israel's National Security on Monday that Gaza has turned into "Hamastan, Hizballahstan, and al-Qaedastan" following Israel's withdrawal from the area last summer.

  • "The Arabs' refusal to recognize Israel is the source of all the violence directed against it from the dawn of Zionism to this day," he added. "As long as this does not change, Israel will be prone to violence."

  • "The 1967 borders do not provide an answer to the threat of rocket and suicide bombing attacks, nor do they provide an answer to the threat of conventional attacks."

  • Yaalon said the Palestinian Authority has breached every agreement with Israel. "The Palestinians do not recognize our right to live within the 1967 borders. Their decision to wage war in September 2000 was aimed at dodging the need to recognize Israel as a sovereign state."

  • "All of these are warning signs ahead of determining the country?s permanent borders -- either by way of agreement or unilaterally. As long as there is no acceptance of our right to exist, the Israeli leadership should assume any determined border will be challenged by violent acts, unless there is deterrence. The more vulnerable we appear, the bigger the temptation is to attack us."

Contact Avodah 15 at avodah15@aol.com

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PARTICIPATE IN THE FEBRUARY 1 RALLIES AGAINST ISLAMO-FASCISM
Posted by SMCCDI, January 24, 2006.

Dear Iranians, Dear Americans, Dear Iranian-Americans, Dear Freedom Lovers,

Most Middle-Easterners and Iranians have been long among the first victims of Islamo-Fachism.

Iranians for their part have shown their deep rejection of the Islamic republic regime, at many occasions, by boycotting successive sham elections or by demonstrating, striking or some even resorting to violence at the price of their lives and due to total exasperation. Iranians in their vast majority have turned their backs to the totality of the theocratic regime and the degree of popular rejection is to the point that even some absconded former officials, living now in exile, are not trusted by the masses.

No one, except a few demagogues located mainly abroad, can claim anymore that the Islamic republic regime has any kind of popularity or legitimacy. The main reasons that this antiquated system of governance is still standing in power is due to the use of force, a lack of real commitment from the world to support Iranians for the choice of a clean and clear secular political frame, and the lack of a trusted unified opposition abroad.

Americans and Europeans who were standing idle in front of the rise of Islamo-faschism have started to realize its real dangers and threats posed to the world. This awareness of the western world came to fruition as a result of an increase of the Islamist terrorism in the world, beginning with the tragedy of September 11, 2000, and attacks made in Bali, Madrid, London and elsewhere.

Europeans who were known for their apathy due to closing their eyes and making deals with tyrannical and terrorist regime's, such as the Islamic republic, are now suddenly waking up and understanding Mao-Tse-Toung's maybe only valid claim that "Colonial Powers would sell the cord which can be use to hang themselves".

The latest comments made by Jacques Chirac, the French President, on the "readiness of France to use any type of conventional or non-conventional arms against states sponsoring terrorism" can be qualified as an example of such sudden awakening and as part of its roots. It should be noted that Chirac himself was involved, in early 90s, in freeing terrorists in exchange for the Islamic Republic's juicy oil and industrial contracts. His new stance can be qualified as a positive step while Iranians will always remember how Chirac's Administration freed the Islamist terrorists who were involved in the murder of the late Dr. Shahpoor Bakhtiar and several other dissidents.

The US for its part has been a relatively more trusted ally of the Iranian people and less involved in deal-making with the Islamic Republic. However, lobbyist groups and infamous apologists of the clerical regime (such as Hooshang Amir-Ahmadi and Mehranguiz Kar of the self called "American Iranian Council" (AIC), Titra Parsi of the self proclaimed "National Iranian American Council" (NIAC), and the worst of all, Shirin Ebadi who is the opportunist Noble Peace Prize recipient) are looking to legitimize the Islamic regime by calling for the establishment of relations between Washington and Tehran.

Helped by some so-called American Liberal circles and part of the media, they're intending to resume what was left of their immoral agenda with the victory of the Bush Administration in 2000. The possibility of sanctions against the regime has even boosted their activities and forced them to show their true intentions of trying to save the Islamic Republic.

It's in reaction to such an immoral and illegitimate agenda that we must all mobilize as it is this agenda which is trying to put a lid on the real aspiration of Iranians for total democratic regime change in Iran and an end to the life of the Islamic regime via the careful use of the current open window of international attention.

We must use any possible occasion to echo the outcry of Iranian people and all those rejecting Islamo-Faschism by calling for an end of theocratic rule in Iran!!! Any option, other than military, must be supported and used for freeing Iran and Iranians from the yoke of tyranny and terror!

In that line we must participate in any American or European groups' actions which are targeting the root of our misery, no matter what other internal or additional agenda these groups might have!!

Our agenda is clear!!!

We want an end to the totality of the Islamic regime by staying on our principle that such a change should be only for bringing down the Islamic Republic regime by the hands of Iranians only and without endorsing any military action!!!

This can be achieved by boycotting the Islamic regime's oil, by freezing Iran's assets and those of the regime's leaders which were looted on the back of Iranians, and by helping genuine and trusted Iranian opponents (not the usual mistrusted old horses and opportunists) to step in and create a unified, trusted platform that can respond to the aspirations of this huge mass which is the younger generation of Iran.

Dear Iranians, Dear Americans, Dear Iranian-Americans, Dear Freedom Lovers,

The time has come that we must move forward and use all our power and every open window of opportunity while staying true to our principles!

A group named "United American Committee" (UAC) has scheduled a major and nationwide rally in the USA. http://www.unitedamericancommittee.org/ The major motif of the action is to "Protest against Islamo-Facshism" and it is to take place on "February 1, 2006", in some major American cities. The group's charter is stating that UAC's goal is "to promote awareness of threats which face America from within its very own borders, primarily focusing on Islamic extremism in America." It is adding that the movement is intended "to promote citizen involvement in national security issues, and to awaken Washington on the issue of Islamic extremism."

While the UAC's stated goal might seem to some as having the purpose of an internal American debate or some right-wing agenda, in reality, no one can claim that Islamo-Faschism is not a real threat and source of tyranny and terror. That's why we're calling on each of you to seize the occasion and participate in some of the following UAC's demonstrations of "February 1st" that we do co-sponsor hereby.

These co-sponsored rallies, where we'll be also present, are as follows:

1) CALIFORNIA:
Los Angeles, In front of the federal Building, located at 11000 Wilshire Boulevard; Time: 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM

2) NEW YORK:
New York City, at the World Trade Center -- Ground Zero; Time: 1:00 PM

3) TEXAS:
-- Dallas (Addison), at the Intersection of Beltline and Addison; Time: 4:30PM
-- Houston, at the Tranquility Park located between Walker and Rusk Sts; Time: 12:00 PM

Remember that your participation would't mean the acceptance of any group's total agenda, but it would be a clear show of support for the call to oppose Islamo-faschism and the Iranians' aspiration for the peaceful liberation of Iran!!

In that line, the SMCCDI, the INSP (Iran's National Secular Party), and the "Alliance of Iranians" (Texas) are participating in some of the February 1st rallies against Islamo-Faschism. Our members and supporters will also be carrying placards stating "End the Islamic Republic in Iran!", "No to Theocracy, Yes to Secular Democracy!", "Democratic Regime Change in Iran!", "Respect Iran's Territorial Integrity", "Down with Islamo-Faschism".

We will also carry Iran's only legitimate flag which is the "Lion & Sun", which has been banned by the clerical regime!! http://daneshjoo.org/article/publish/article_2376.shtml May it be raised again on the Damavand pick, in all Iran's current provinces and on all the Iranian islands of the eternal Persian Gulf!

We're looking to shake the hand of each of you, on February 1st, and are calling on those in Europe to seize the occasion and organize the same type of action in the cities of their residence!!

Please spread this message and ask your friends, relatives and co-workers to participate as well!

United we stand!
Divided we fall!

Contact SMCCDI, The Student Movement for Democracy in Iran, at peyk@daneshjoo.org. Or go to their website: http://www.daneshjoo.org/

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PRIVATIZED DIPLOMACY? OSAMA'S PEN PAL
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 24, 2006.

1. Psychiatric Theories of the Conspiracism Mental Illness: http://antiprotester.blogspot.com/2006/01/psychiatric-theories-of-conspiracism.html

(Conspiracist Mantra:

roses are red
violets are blue
i'm schizophrenic
and so am i)

2. Over the past two decades, Israel's Left has been preaching the merits of "private diplomatic initiatives". This meant the early illegal leftist courtship of the PLO leading up to the first Oslo "Accord", and later the private diplomatic initiatives by Yossi Beilin and his friends, the "Geneva Misunderstandings", and the parallel initiative by Ami Ayalon.

Meanwhile, in recent years, an annual conference on Israeli strategy, called the Herzliya Conference, has been held, featuring leading strategic thinkers, mainly NOT of the Far Left. It debates Israel's choices and strategic policies.

But because the Herzliya Conference is NOT a leftist propaganda bash, the Left has just launched a juhad against it and "privatized diplomacy". You see, the Left considers privatazation a curse word, something that all civilized people understand must be suppressed at all cost, like Bird Flu. The campaign against "Privatized Diplomacy" is being run by the same Haaretz daily that has always cheered the Beilin and Ayalon attempts to conduct a privatized Munich capitulation. And the leading jihadnik against "privatized diplomcy" is the Bimbo in Chief of the Labor Party. In her address to the Herzliya Conference, to which she was invited, Labor candidate for Knesset Shelly Yachimovitch attacked the essence of the symposium, saying it subverted democracy by giving political leverage to the wealthy businessmen who fund it.

See http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=shelly&itemNo=673808 Haaretz runs other letters and pieces attacking teh conference as well. 3."Osama's Pen Pal"
by Daniel Pipes FrontPageMagazine.com, January 24, 2006

William Blum, a Washington, D.C. writer, responded delightedly last Thursday on learning that Osama bin Laden had cited his book in an audiotape. Blum called the mention of Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower "almost as good as being an Oprah book," a reference to the popular American television host whose endorsement routinely makes a book a bestseller.

Asked if he was queasy about bin Laden's urging listeners to read his book, Blum replied: "I'm not repulsed, and I'm not going to pretend I am." Quite the contrary, he said: "I'm glad.It's good publicity for my book." And, indeed, it was: Thanks to bin Laden's promotion, Rogue State ascended from 205,763 to 26 on Amazon.com's ranking of most-ordered books.

Blum explained his response by saying he found bin Laden no worse than the U.S. government: "I would not say that bin Laden has been any less moral than Washington has been." He even refused to distance himself from bin Laden's views: "If he shares with me a deep dislike for certain aspects of U.S. foreign policy, then I'm not going to spurn any endorsement of the book by him. I think it's good that he shares those views."

Blum describes his life mission as "slowing down the American Empire -- injuring the beast." Not surprisingly, Noam Chomsky, Oliver Stone, Gore Vidal, and their ilk have lavished praise on his work.

What attracted bin Laden to Blum? This passage (which actually comes from another of Blum's books, titled Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire). "If I were the [U.S.] president, I could stop terrorist attacks against the United States in a few days. Permanently. I would first apologize -- very publicly and very sincerely -- to all the widows and orphans, the impoverished and the tortured, and all the many millions of other victims of American imperialism."

Until his sudden catapult into the public eye, Blum, 72, had lived the quiet life of a second-string America-hater. The child of Polish Jewish immigrants, he grew up in Brooklyn, studied accounting in college, and, as an anti-Communist with aspirations to become a foreign service officer, he went to work at a computer-related position in the U.S. Department of State in the mid-1960s. The Vietnam War radicalized him, and he resigned from State in 1967 to pursue a career of far-Left advocacy and sabotage. (He claims to have revealed the names and addresses of over two hundred CIA operatives.) For nearly forty years, Blum has written op-eds, after articles, after books pursuing his hobbyhorse to prove the alleged evil of the U.S. government officials, whom he has compared to "chainsaw baby killers."

He goes so far as to state the existence of an American-sponsored "holocaust" since 1945 that has caused the death of a few million people and condemned many more millions to "lives of misery and torture." David Horowitz, a foremost analyst of the Left, sums up this line of thought in his excellent study, Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left (Regnery): for Blum, "America is worse than Nazi Germany." Horowitz also notes that "there is no discernible difference" between Blum's view of the U.S. role in the Cold War and the crudest Communist caricature manufactured in the Kremlin.

Although Blum was childishly delighted by his sudden celebrity and riches, his comrades on the far-Left reacted more warily to bin Laden's endorsement, aware how it reveals that, as Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media puts it, "bin Laden is counting on a [leftist] fifth column in the U.S. to undermine the war on terrorism and hand him a victory on the battlefield."

Such exposure so worries some on the far-Left that they have gone so far as to portray the bin Laden audiotape to be "an obvious fake. concocted by neo-conservatives in the U.S. government." But elaborate conspiracy theories cannot undo the fact that the Islamist-leftist alliance, burgeoning for years, has now reached the point that the far-Left constitutes al-Qaeda's new mujahideen.

After having failed to mount a massive terrorist operation in the United States in over four years, bin Laden's early but very public Valentine to the far-Left suggests that he sees it as a critical ally. And he is entirely correct to do so.

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. Contact him by email at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il

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ALL HAIL GRANDCHILDREN #10 AND #11
Posted by Moshe Saperstein, January 24, 2006.

[Editor's note: Things are looking up. We haven't heard from Moshe for far too long.]

This morning at 8:45 Dafna called from Shaare Tzedek to say "Today's the day!"

Dafna was due to give birth a week from today. A week ago Thursday she was brought to Shaare Tzedek complaining of sharp pains. Various infections were considered and discarded. After the weekend, feeling slightly better, she was sent home.

This past Thursday the pains increased and she returned to the hospital. More tests showing nothing amiss. After much consideration, an x-ray. Turns out she has a broken rib.

It is rare, but not unknown, that when the mother-to-be is very slender and she is carrying more than one, one of the feotii/feotuses/footsies kicks or butts sufficiently hard within the limited space to break a rib. That's what happened here.

On Sunday, yesterday, it was decided she would remain in the hospital until she gave birth. In the afternoon we arranged for a tv set to be set up over her bed. Both she and I are movie fanatics and when we get together and movies are the subject, the air sizzles. Yesterday we took turns destroying "Bruce Almighty" and "Groundhog Day", and I, who haven't watched television since the expulsion, was looking forward to a whole week of watching and kvetching. Alas, "twas not to be."

Before calling us to say that the doctor had decided the grand opening was imminent, Dafna called her husband Chanan. She wanted Chanan in the operating/delivery room, and Shaarei Tzedek was one of the few places that had agreed. But today is Chanan's day at the Wingate Institute north of Tel Aviv where he, an accomplished horseman and trainer, is taking a course on teaching horseback riding. On getting the call Chanan, who was in the middle of a test, yelled "My wife is giving birth!" and left for Jerusalem.

Dafna was very upset. She wanted Chanan with her but he was an hour away, and the doctor was insisting they get cracking immediately. "So your husband isn't here," said the doctor, "so your mother can be in the room with you." Gorgeous Grandma Rachel, ever game, immediately said "Of course I'll do it" but she turned white. As to the look on Dafna's face, I haven't the words to describe it.

But we got lucky. The operating room was occupied -- probably some woman getting a lube job -- and just as they were starting to wheel Dafna in, Chanan, in true cowboy hero fashion, came charging in. To Rachel's very great relief.

They put a hospital gown on him then I noticed he was still wearing these huge spurs. Which he removed and gave me for safekeeping. We went outside to wait and it wasn't long before our daughter-in-law Efrat, the Shaarei Tzedek ultrasound technician who has been monitoring Dafna every week, called to say the babies are out and all is well. "From their crying they'll both be opera singers" she said. She told us where to wait to see the infants being wheeled out to their incubators.

As we waited the anesthetist came out. "Mazal tov!" he said heartily. "Twins. A girl and a boy."

We were stunned. "She's supposed to be having two girls," I said.

"Well," he replied, walking away. "what do I know?"

Our confusion didn't last long. Efrat came out, confirming the birth of two girls.

While Dafna was taken down to the recovery room we got to see the babies. Because they were delivered by caesarian the faces don't have the crunched look most newborn have. They are simply gorgeous. The larger of the two weighed 2.6 kilos, the smaller 1.7.

For months now Dafna and Chanan have been considering different names. Tiffany and Brittney were longtime favorites. Then, to satisfy their French sefardi neighbors, Chantal and Georgette were considered. Dafna, who shares my perverse humor, even suggested Kwaneesha and Moeesha.

In any case, the names chosen made two old men very happy. The smaller is Ida, after Chanan's grandmother, which brought tears to Chanan's father's eyes. The larger, Alma, because they like the name, but I am delighted as Alma was Gustave Mahler's wife.

Through all of this, the months of pain and waiting, Dafna has maintained an exhausted radiance, something only people who are beautiful and know they are beautiful can carry off.

"Now" as Chanan says, "the fun begins."

Moshe is a Jerusalem Diarist, one of the group of Israelis who are recording their experiences living in Israel. He lost an arm while fighting in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He was again wounded in a February 2002 incident when he drove his car into a terrorist who had just shot and killed a young mother traveling in the car in front of him.

He and his wife Rachel lived in Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif, Gaza. They are now in temporary residence in a hotel in Jerusalem, still waiting for their next temporary home -- a trailer -- to be made habitable.

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PARSHAS VAAIRA -- ANOTHER LESSON OR TWO
Posted by Avodah 15, January 24, 2006.
This comes from winston@torah.org

Moshe told it to the Children of Israel, but they did not listen to Moshe because their spirit was broken, and because of the hardness of their work. (Shemos 6:9)

I apologize for staying with the concept of anti-Semitism a while longer. Understandably, it is not a popular topic for us Jews. We are at a critical point in history: anti-Semitism is on the rise, so many Jews seem to be oblivious, and the past speaks for itself. Now that it is late in history, and for believers in Tanach, the War of Gog and Magog looms on the horizon.

One of the greatest dangers a Jew faces is denial. If you were to input Jewish history into a computer and ask it, "Are Jews vulnerable anywhere they live in the world?", the output data would read "Yes." After all, everywhere Jews have gone, anti-Semitism has followed us. And, everywhere we went, we always thought that we would be spared "over here" of the effects of what we knew was happening "over there."

Today, "over there" is Eretz Yisroel, and "over here" is as far as one can get from the Middle-East. If there is going to be a major conflict directly involving the Jews, perhaps even against them, G-d forbid, then it is likely, many people living in the Diaspora reason, to be staged in and around Eretz Yisroel. Therefore, logic would dictate that safety lies in lands distant from the Holy Land where a Jew can hunker down until the worst is over. True, the War of Gog and Magog may affect every Jew in the world, but it's got to affect the Israeli Jews the most, the prevailing wisdom assumes.

An answer to this question comes from an unlikely source: Noach's Flood. Where did the Flood take place, on low ground where floods always occur, or on high ground? It took place up in the mountains. Indeed, that was one of the reasons why Noach had such a tough time selling the idea of teshuvah to his generation. "What?" they mocked Noach, "A flood up here in the mountains? Huh! Unlikely."

So the water came up to them. It rose fifteen amos above the highest mountain, the gematria of Yud-Heh, to make it clear that it was G-d, not Nature doing it.

"At least 3.5 million Americans are of Arab descent. Arab Americans live in all 50 states, but two thirds reside in 10 states; one third of the total live in California, New York, and Michigan. About 94% live in metropolitan areas. Los Angeles, Detroit, New York/New Jersey, Chicago and Washington, D.C., are the top five metro areas of Arab American concentration."

"But," you will tell me, "there are three HUNDRED million Arabs surrounding tiny Eretz Yisroel. Surely, if we're talking about an Islamic threat, there is a much greater one to Jews living on Jewish soil!" In terms of sheer numbers, you'd be right. But, which would you prefer, to stand in front of a weaponless bully, or a small bandit carrying a gun?

Towards the end of World War II, just as the tide of the war was finally turning against the Germans, Rommel and his troops were poised to enter Eretz Yisroel from the south (via Egypt), in a coordinated attack with the Arab world from the east. European Jewry, at the time, was being decimated, and the Jewish Agency in Israel had already begun the process of shipping all documentation outside the country.

In the meantime, Rabbi Kahanaman laid the foundation cornerstone of the planned new Ponovez Yeshivah in B'nei Brak. Onlookers were shocked. "Does the rabbi not know of the imminent attack of the Nazis -- Arabs?", the venerable rabbi was asked. "Is it not futile to raise that which will shortly be destroyed?"

Without skipping a beat, Rabbi Kahanaman answered, "The Holy One, Blessed be He, will not allow the enemy to enter His holy land."

Amazingly, he had been right. Rommel was called back to Germany, the Afrika Corps were defeated by the British at the eleventh hour, and the Arab world was left hanging. Ponovez Yeshivah went up, and remains to be a centerpiece of Torah learning in Eretz Yisroel.

Let's face it: 350,000,000 Arabs surround Eretz Yisroel, and something is keeping them at bay. It is not world pressure, and is certainly not the Israeli army, as talented as they may be. Only G-d can do that, and continues to do that, because Eretz Yisroel is His favorite land and gift to the Jewish people, unlike America, Canada, England, or South Africa.

Deny denial, and wonder aloud if the "flood waters" aren't, in fact, rising to places that we hope are safe.

Contact Avodah 15 at avodah15@aol.com

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A TRIBUTE TO ARCHBISHOP PIETRO SAMBI, REASSIGNED FROM JERUSALEM TO WASHINGTON
Posted by David Bedein, January 24, 2006.

This week, a special farewell ceremony was held in Jerusalem for Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the Pope's ambassador in Israel, formally known as the Papal Nuncio.

Archbishop Pietro Sambi has been reassigned as the Papal Nuncio to the USA, and he will be based in Washington.

I know this man. During his tenure in Jerusalem, since 1998, the Papal Nuncio proved his sensitivity to anti-semitism.

Archbishop Pietro Sambi is open to reviewing information that comes to his attention and is not afraid to take a stand which may make him enemies in some circles.

During the summer of 2000, our news agency purchased five sets of the new Palestinian Authority school books from the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education.

This was the first time that the PA issued their own school books. the content of the books would indicate their disposition towards peace and reconciliation with Israel.

I personally travelled every day for the better part of a week during August 2000 to purchase the books, and met with PA Deputy Minister Naim Abu Humous, who asked that the books get wide publicity. I assured him of such. When Arabic speaking colleagues took a first glance at the books, they were shocked to see that the books represented a new tool of indoctrination for war against Israel. The translations of the books are now posted at ww.edume.org

I brought a set of the books to the Dr. Shlomo Ben Ami, the Israel Minister of Foreign Affairs and showed him the books, and the new maps that deleted Israel for every PA school child to see. He shrugged his shoulders. It was if he was looking at the Manhattan telephone book.

As I left the minister's his office, Archbishop Pietro Sambi called me on my cell phone with a request: Could I bring the PA school books to him immediately. -- "the Pope wants to see them". The honorary chairman of the ADL in Israel, Mr. Jack Padwa, had informed the Archbishop that I had purchased these books

Having never received a Papal request on my cell phone before, I took a taxi to the Archbishop's office on the Mount of Olives and delivered the books to the archbishop -- the set that the Israel Minister of Foreign Affairs did not want to look at.

Archbishop Sambi brought the books with him to Rome, and initiated a study of the PA textbooks, which the Vatican determined to be anti-semitic in nature. And at the recommendation of Archbishop Sambi, the Italian government pulled its money out of the Palestinian Ministry of Education's PA text book project.

Archbishop Sambi later told me with his wry sense of humor that before calling my cell phone, he had called my home and my office where my children and my secretary thought that this was a prank, and that I could not possibly have been receiving a personal call from the Vatican's ambassador.

This was not the only time that Archbishop Sambi stuck his neck out to attack PA antisemitism.

I covered a talk given by the Vatican ambassador for an American congressional delegation, during which he excoriated the US officials for US AID funding of the Palestinian State constitution, which the Archbishop described as denying any juridical status to Judaism, anywhere in Palestine, which he viewed as an "outrage". The status of Christianity is not much better in their new constitution, according to the Archbishop. And over the past few years, the archbishop has let his voice be heard concerning the persecution of Christians in the PA.

Archbishop Sambi often asked to be briefed concerning reports of official anti-semitism from the PA media, and from the PA mosques, and he expressed his displeasure of such with Arafat and now with Abbas -- this, at a time when Israel's official anti-incitement committee in the Israel Foreign Ministry has not met for a year.

And when the PA spokespeople announced in August that they would burn the synagogues in Gush Katif, Archbishop Sambi personally intervened. After all, Archbishop Sambi noted, if the Moslem authorities had guarded the ancient synagogue in the center of Gaza from desecration, why could they not do so again with the Jewish holy sites that would now be abandoned. However, his voice was not heard.

Archbishop Pietro Sambi now flies to Washington, to the nation that sponsors the Middle East peace process.

This man will convey a formula of middle east peace to Washington that will transcend any ceremony on any White House lawn.

David Bedein is Bureau Chief of the Israel Resource News Agency, which is based in Jerusalem.

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THE PA AND THE UN ARE ALLOWING HAMAS TO FACILITATE A TV STATION IN GAZA
Posted by David Bedein, January 24, 2006.

Almost every media outlet covered the Palestinian elections this week in terms of the rivalry between the Hamas Islamic terror organization and the Fateh, which is also defined by Israeli and American law as a terrorist organization, even if both nations have placed a waiver on the enforcement of the law against the Fateh, ever since the genesis of the Oslo process.

Yet ever since last year's ascension of Mahmoud Abbas to the helm of both the Palestinian Authority, as its president, and to the leadership of the Fateh, as its chairman, both the PA and the Fateh have allowed Hamas to expand its media in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with in far greater latitude given to Hamas than was ever given by Yassir Arafat

On January 8, 2006. on the day that marked exactly one year since the election of Abbas as PA president, the PA allowed Hamas to launch its new television station in the Gaza Strip.

That television station is called Al Aqsa and now broadcasts from Gaza.

The Hamas TV station is land-based and broadcasts from the Gaza Strip with the frequency UHF62.

Palestinian news agencies report that it is located in one of the mosques in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UINRWA) Jabaliya refugee camp,located in the northern Gaza Strip.

At the entrance to the UNRWA Jabiliya refugee camp, there is a sign; WELCOME TO NAJID.

Most people do not know that Najid is the Arab village which stood in what is now the city of Sderot, which is under constant artillery bombardment from Gaza -- in a war that is portrayed by UNRWA camp residents as an integral part of their struggle for the "right of return" to the Arab villages that they left during and after the 1948 war.

Another media initiative launched from a media center in the UNRWA camp in Jabailyia is the "right of return" campaign, pioneered under a web site known as www.PalestineRemembered.com, which is designed to allow Palestinian refugee and their descendents to locate the precise location of their village, in order to ease the process of their "return" to their village.

Over the past year, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas also allowed Hamas to operate a radio station, also termed Al Aqsa.

The new Hamas TV station broadcasts news, commentary and religious programming.

Under Abbas's rule, Hamas has also expanded its print media. The movement's weekly Al Risala announced that it would begin publishing twice a week. Al Risala has been regarded as the leading opposition publication in the PA territories and over the last few weeks has been used to promote Hamas candidates for Palestinian Legislative Elections, scheduled on January 25.

A source in Israeli intelligence observed that "Hamas places great importance on its war to capture the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people and other target audiences in the Middle East and all over the globe".

What is most newsworthy, from a pan-Arab global point of view, is that Hamas's entire communications network is directed by the organization's leadership in Damascus.

Until this election campaign, Hamas lacked a television station.

The Hamas TV station is modeled on Al-Manar TV, the Hezbollah TV station in Lebanon.

A senior Hamas operative stated that it would aspire to the same standards as Al-Manar TV and like Al-Manar, to disseminate Hamas's messages to the Palestinian people and the world at large (AP from Gaza, January 9).

To operate the station a staff of photographers, technicians, show hosts and commentators was assembled (most of whom are Hamas members or supporters). Some of the staff received professional training abroad, chiefly in Egypt and at Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV.

Al-Aqsa TV intends to employ women once a women's department has been established. The plan is for experimental programs to be broadcast for a period of between one and three months. At first there will be only a limited number of broadcasts and they will include news, programs about social issues, health and Islam.

In coordination with the PA, Hamas also plans eventually to launch a satellite station which will be able to reach target audiences all over the globe. According to a PA publication (Al-Hayat, January 9) the Hamas station might broadcast from a communications center located in Dubai.

Hamas's radio and TV stations operate under the aegis of a company called Al-Ribat Communications and Artistic Production. Chairman of the board of directors is Ahmad Muhammad Fathi Hamad, a senior Hamas operative in the Gaza Strip.

Fathi Ahmad Muhammad Hamad, head of Al-Ribat Communications and Artistic Productions, which operates Al-Aqsa TV, is a Hamas candidate for the Palestinian Legislative council.

Hamad has been involved in terrorist operations and during the 1990s was imprisoned by both the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority.

In a speech given during a Hamas parade after Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip and broadcast by Radio Al-Aqsa (August 26, 2005), he said: "... we of Hamas emphasize by means of the Izzedine al-Qassam Battalions that we will continue the jihad until Palestine has been liberated [sic], from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea. Nothing will stop us, [for] we used the Qassams to liberate Gaza. When the rockets undermine the Jewish entity no one will be able to stand in our way..."

The fact that Hamas operates such a "media operation" in a UN facility should be cause for concern among UN member states ... especially since Hamas controls the UNRWA trade workers union in the UNRWA camps.

David Bedein is Bureau Chief of the Israel Resource News Agency, which is based in Jerusalem.

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MORE CONCESSIONS PROMISED
Posted by Unity Coalition for Israel, Januuary 24, 2006.
Chris Meyers is with Unity Coalition for Israel. This was written by Chris Meyers of Unity Coalition for Israel.

In fact, the Palestinian charter still calls for the annihilation of the state of Israel, something that was supposed to have been removed from their charter when Netanyahu was Prime Minister of Israel. Why doesn't the press or the State Department talk about this? It seems a simple enough concession for the Palestinians to make, yet they haven't done it. Why? Because they still want to wipe Israel off the map. Why does the world continue to ignore this very plain and obvious fact? It shouldn't be too difficult to understand that it would be an incredibly stupid move on the part of Israel to make concessions to a group of people whose express purpose is the destruction of Israel and it?s people.

Yet the media and world leaders continue to pressure Israel to make more concessions, demanding she give up more land and make herself even more vulnerable to terrorist attack. How can we claim to be fighting a war against terror and at the same time push for the creation of a state controlled by terrorists? It doesn't make any sense. If we are really to fight a war against terror, we are obligated to support those on the front lines of that war. Israel is in the forefront of this war, sandwiched in the heart of arguably the worst terrorist activity on the planet. The Palestinians are the same people who jubilantly celebrated the attacks on September 11th.

Why then do we push to give them a state of their own? Are we trying to lose this war? It sure looks like it. One must remember the purpose of terrorism. The terrorists only want to wear us down, because they know that if break our resolve, the people will be willing to give up their freedom in exchange for the promise of peace and safety.

It is time for us to take a stand before the terrorists are able to easily blow themselves up in our restaurants and bus stations. We must support the Israelis and not pressure them to make concessions. Otherwise, the country will not survive and the terrorists will set their sights on the United States. The full force of our global terrorist enemy will once again reach our shores.

Who We Are: Unity Coalition for Israel

Founded in 1991, we are 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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CORRECTING ROSENBERG'S NY TIMES OPINION COLUMN
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 23, 2006.

Dear Christian leaders.

Churches for Middle East Peace has issued a bulletin about the elections in the West Bank and Gaza. It is entitled "Elections and Jerusalem." The text is available at www.cmep.org/Alerts/2006Jan20.htm on the web.

Below are my commentary and corrections to Mr. Rosenberg's letter.

I urge all of you to circulate the letter and my comments. It is tragic that there is so much mis-information current in Christian circles about the Arab-Israel conflict. More mis-information does a terrible disservice to your constituency. Note that my comments are in caps. david meir-levi

The House is wrestling with leadership issues and still in recess while the Senate is focused on the Alito hearings. Meanwhile, the President prepares for the State of the Union address on February 2. He is sure to comment on the results of the January 25th Palestinian legislative elections with an eye to the March 28 elections in Israel. Among the many commentaries on the Israeli and Palestinian elections, I bring your attention to the following by M.J. Rosenberg, who spoke at the 2005 Ecumenical Advocacy Days conference.

As you know, CMEP has recently been advocating in support of the political rights of Palestinians in East Jerusalem as part of our broad and longstanding focus on Jerusalem-related issues.

"What if Hamas Wins?'
IPF Friday
M.J. Rosenberg's Weekly Opinion Column
Washington, DC, January 20, 2006
Issue #258

According to comprehensive polls of the Palestinian and Israeli populations, the two peoples are moving closer on the key issues that have divided them in the past. If the polls translate into votes in the January 25 Palestinian election and the March 28 Israeli election, progress toward resolution of the conflict would seem to be inevitable.

Unfortunately, only the Israeli electorate appears likely to vote in accordance with the polls' findings. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party holds a commanding lead (he actually is running more strongly than Prime Minister Ariel Sharon did in earlier polls). And Olmert is running as a centrist, ready for compromise with the Palestinian Authority and for confrontation with the settlers in the illegal outposts and their fanatical brethren in Hebron. (These clowns are now not only attacking the IDF but calling for an ultra-Orthodox settler state called Judea.) Former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, campaigning as the settlers' champion and opponent of the diplomatic process, is running very poorly.

It is on the Palestinian side where the attitudes reflected in the polls seem not to be translating into votes. Hamas continues to gain strength in the legislative elections (the Presidential election took place last year and President Mahmoud Abbas remains in the office no matter what the result this month) while Abbas's Fatah continues to lose it. It is even possible that Hamas will win the election, an eventuality that few would have considered a few months ago.

What's going on?

The Israeli situation is easier to assess. According to a poll conducted in December by the Harry S Truman Research Center at the Hebrew University 64 per cent of Israelis support the so-called Clinton parameters for a settlement.

The Clinton parameters, presented by President Bill Clinton to Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at the White House in December 2000 and at Israel Policy Forum a few days later include the following.

For the Palestinians:

* Control over a sovereign, contiguous, viable state (94-96% of the West Bank) recognized by the international community.

* Sovereignty over Al Haram al-Sharif (the Temple Mount) in Jerusalem.

* Control over the Arab sections of Jerusalem, which would serve as the capital of a Palestinian state.

* A comprehensive settlement plan for refugees that offered them several options: return to the new state of Palestine; return to the state of Israel (with restrictions); resettlement in a third country; and/or compensation.

For the Israelis:

* The right for 80 percent of the West Bank settlers, most of whom live near the 1967 borders, to stay put.

* Control over the Jewish sections of Jerusalem, which would be internationally recognized as the capital of Israel.

* Control over and access to Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem, including sections of the Temple Mount.

As noted above, 64% of Israelis support those terms. It is therefore not surprising that Kadima is running so strongly in the pre-election polls. Israelis have given up on the idea of Greater Israel, and are resigned to a West Bank/Gaza Palestinian state and the dismantling of settlements. Barring some unforeseen event, they appear ready to vote accordingly.

A significant new poll of Palestinian attitudes points in the same direction. The poll, conducted by Palestinian pollster Dr. Khalil Shikaki for the United States Institute of Peace's Project on Arab-Israeli Futures, finds that "for the first time since the start of the peace process, a majority of Palestinians support a compromise settlement that is acceptable to a majority of Israelis."

According to the USIP-sponsored poll "a majority of Palestinians are willing to accept the two-state solution by which 'Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people' and Palestine [the West Bank and Gaza] 'as the state of the Palestinian people.' In June 2003, 52 percent supported and 46 percent opposed this formula, and by September 2005 support rose to 63 percent and opposition dropped to 35 percent."

The USIP poll goes behind the numbers to uncover the variables which affect the percentages of Palestinians supporting accommodation with Israel as opposed to violence. Tracking support for accommodation over the years, the poll finds that Palestinians shift toward moderation at times of hope and toward violence when they feel hopeless.

"The Netanyahu period witnessed serious deterioration in the peace process, with little implementation of existing agreements on Israeli redeployment of forces out of Palestinian territories. The opening in September 1996 of a tunnel along parts of the Western Wall of al-Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount), which was followed by several days of Palestinian-Israeli armed confrontations, heightened threat perceptions, raised questions about the value of diplomacy, and increased Palestinian support for violence."

THE WRITER MAKES AN UNDERSTANDABLE ERROR IN THIS PARAGRAPH. THERE NEVER WAS A 'PEACE PROCESS', AND THE 'TUNNEL INTIFADA WAS ENGINEERED BY ARAFAT TO STAVE OFF HIS OWN PNC (PALESTINIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL) PRESSURE TO IMPLEMENT DEMOCRATIC REFORM SHORTLY AFTER HIS ELECTION TO OFFICE OF 'RAIS' IN JANUARY OF 1996.

ONE MUST CAREFULLY STUDY THE SEQUENCE OF ADVANCES IN NEGOTIATIONS AND SUBSEQUENT (SOMETIMES ALMOST IMMEDIATE) OUTBREAKS OF TERROR ATTACKS TO FIND THE PATTERN. IT BECOMES CLEAR THAT ARAFAT USED TERROR ATTACKS AS A WAY TO GET OUT FROM UNDER THE PRESSURE FROM EITHER:

A.) THE ISRAELIS AND AMERICANS AS THEY WERE PUSHING HIM TO MAKE CONCESSIONS IN RECIPROCITY TO ISRAELI CONCESSIONS, OR

D.) FROM HIS OWN PEOPLE (PNC, OR PLC -- PALESTINIAN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL) AS THEY WERE PUSHING HIM TO RELINQUISH SOME POWER TO THE REPRESENTATIVE ORGANIZATIONS AND BE MORE TRANSPARENT IN FISCAL POLICY AND DECONSTRUCT THE COMPLEX SET OF TERRROR FIGHTING GROUPS HE CREATED.

ONE MUST CAREFULLY READ THE DETAILED STUDY OF MODERN PALESTINIAN POLITICAL HISTORY BY PROFESSOR NATHAN BROWN, PALESTINIAN POLITICS, AND TRACK THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS THROUGH TEXT AND COPIOUS FOOTNOTES, TO GET THE PATTERN.

AS BECAME OBVIOUS FROM THE 24,000 DOCUMENTS THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT TOOK FROM ARAFAT'S MUQATA (COMPOUND/BASE OF OPERATIONS) IN RAMALLAH, ARAFAT HAD BEEN WORKING TOGETHER WITH HAMAS AND A DOZEN OTHER TERROR GROUPS TO MAINTAIN A CONSTANT TERROR WAR AGAINST ISRAEL FROM THE FALL OF 1993 (EVEN BEFORE THE INK WAS DRY ON THE OSLO ACCORDS PAPERS)....EVEN AS HE TALKED ABOUT PEACE AND HAGGLED AND WIGGLED AND MANEUVERED WITH ISRAEL AND THE UN AND THE USA AND THE EU PRETENDING TO BE INTERESTED IN RESOLVING THE PROBLEMS.

IT IS CLEAR THAT THE TUNNEL INTIFADA OF 1996 WAS THE WAY THAT HE GOT OUT FROM UNDER THE PNC AND PLC PRESSURE ON HIM TO END WHAT HE CALLED THE 'DEMOCRACY OF THE GUN' AND IMPLEMENT THE DEMOCRATIC REFORMS THAT OSLO DEMANDED, WHEN 9 MONTHS AFTER HIS ELECTION TO OFFICE HE WAS STILL RUNNING THE COUNTRY AS HIS PERSONAL FIEFDOM AND USING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS INTENDED FOR THE PALESTINIAN ECONOMY TO FUND HIS TERROR GROUPS. HIS REPLY TO THE PRESSURE WAS "WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU, DON'T YOU SEE THAT OUR PEOPLE ARE DYING IN THE STREETS. I CAN'T WORRY ABOUT REFORMS NOW. I HAVE A WAR TO FIGHT."

THE SAME IS TRUE OF THE 2ND INTIFADA IN 9/2000. HIS FIVE YEAR TERM OF OFFICE WAS ABOUT TO END (1/2001) AND HE HAD NO INTENTION OF ORGANIZING ELECTIONS, SO 9/2000 WAS THE PERFECT TIME TO PULL ANOTHER MASSIVE TERROR ACTION TO DEFUSE THE PRESSURE FROM CLINTON TO MAKE CONCESSIONS TO BARAQ, AND FROM HIS OWN PNC AND PLC TO START PLANNING ELECTIONS.

BOTH PLOYS WORKED.

BOTTOM LINE: THE TUNNEL INTIFADA AND ITS VIOLENCE HAD ALMOST NOTHING TO DO WITH NETANYAHU.

"The failure of the Camp David summit and the eruption of the second intifada were followed by an increase in support for violence. This increase is correlated with greater threat perception on the part of Palestinians. The Israeli use of military force, including tanks, helicopter gun ships, and F-16 bombers, against Palestinians inside populated areas, the Israeli imposition of collective punishment measures (such as closures, checkpoints, and restrictions on movement), the continued buildup of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, and the building of the separation barrier of concrete walls and barbed-wire fences inside the West Bank are examples of threats the Palestinians had to endure during the years of the second intifada. The anger generated by these measures led people to demand revenge and to support all types of violence against Israelis, including suicide attacks against civilians inside Israel," the USIP reports.

THIS IS INCORRECT. THE CORRELATIONS ARE FALSE. PER ABOVE, THE 2ND INTIFADA WAS PLANNED BY ARAFAT AND HIS MINIONS AS A WAY TO DEFUSE PRESSURE FOR ELECTIONS AND TO TELL CLINTON AND BARAQ VERY GRAPHICALLY TO "GO TO HELL" (QUOTE FROM ARAFAT'S SPEECH IN GAZA AFTER HIS RETURN FROM CAMP DAVID 2).

THE BUILD UP OF ISRAELI PRESSURE ON THE POPULATION WAS A FUNCTION SOLELY OF ISRAEL'S NEED TO STOP THE TERROR ATTACKS.

THE WRITER ALSO FAILS TO NOTE (AND INDEED MAY NOT BE AWARE) THAT THERE WAS MUCH HATRED TOWARD ARAFAT AND THE PLO/PA WHICH BEGAN TO SURFACE IN THE MID 1990'S AS THE KLEPTOCRACY AND THUGOCRACY OF THE PLO/PA BECAME TRANSPARENT, AND AS ARAFAT SQUANDERED EACH AND EVERY OPPORTUNITY FOR PEACE AND FOR A PALESTINIAN STATE.

In other words, the idea that Palestinians can be beaten into submission is precisely wrong and not just morally. The more painful and onerous the occupation feels, the more Palestinians move toward support for terrorism and opposition to the kind of approach represented by Mahmoud Abbas and others like him.

THIS IS A FALSE STATEMENT. ISRAEL HAS NEVER TRIED TO 'BEAT INTO SUBMISSION' THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE. ISRAEL'S 'MINI MARSHALL PLAN' OF THE LATE 1960'S TO THE 1980'S SHOWS THE EXACT OPPOSITE. I'VE MENTIONED THE MINI MARSHALL PLAN IN PREVIOUS EMAILS. IF YOU NEED A REMINDER, LET ME KNOW.

EVEN AFTER THE INTIFADA BEGAN, ISRAEL CONTINUED TO WORK WITH THE PALESETINIAN PEOPLE AND ASSIST THEM IN MEDICAL AND ENGINEERING AND COMERCIAL PROJECTS. NOT WELL PUBLICIZED IN THE WESTERN MEDIA WAS ONE HORRIFIC TERROR ATTACK ON AN ISRAELI MEDICAL CLINIC IN THE WEST BANK, STAFFED BY ARABIC SPEAKING ISRAELI DOCTORS AND NURSES. ALMOST ALL OF THE VICTIMS WERE THE PALESTINIANS (MANY PREGNANT WOMEN) WHO WERE FREQUENTING THE CLINIC BECAUSE IT GAVE SUPERIOR MEDICAL CARE. THE MESSAGE FROM ISLAMIC JIHAS WAS: DON'T SOCIALIZE WITH THE ISRAELIS.

ISRAEL DID, HOWEVER, BEAT INTO SUBMISSION BOTH THE FATAH AND HAMAS TERROR GANGS. ISRAEL'S POLICY OF DECAPITATION WORKED. IT DID NOT HELP TO TAKE OUT ONE OR TWO LEADERS. BUT ONCE ~25% OF THE LEADERS WERE DEAD OR IN JAIL, THE TERROR GROUPS LOST THEIR POWER AND RETREATED INTO HIDING AND PERPETRATED FAR FAR FEWER TERROR ATTACKS. TODAY C 7,000 HAMAS TERRORISTS ARE IN ISRAELI JAILS, AND HAMAS HAS PULLED OFF ALMOST NO SUCCESSFUL TERROR ATTACKS OTHER THAN QASSAM ROCKETS. THIS LACK OF SUCCESS OF NOT BEAUSE OF NO ATTEMPTS. THERE HAVE BEEN MANY. BUT WITH MAJOR PLANNERS AND LEADERS AND STRATEGISTS DEAD OR IN JAIL, THE ISRAELI ARMY HAS HAD A MUCH EASIER TIME STOPPING THE ATTACKS BEFORE THEY REACH THEIR TARGETS. THAT IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY HAMAS IS INTERESTED IN ENTERING PLO/PA POLITICS....FRONTAL ASSAULT DID NOT WORK....FURTHER TERRORISM IS HARD....SO MOVE TO THE POLITICAL ARENA.

The current high-levels of support for the two-state solution is primarily a product of the cease-fire and reduction in overall violence that has taken hold since the death of Yasir Arafat.

ALSO FALSE. THE REDUCTION IN VIOLENCE IS NOT BECAUSE OF THE CEASE FIRE. SEE THE PARAGRAPH ABOVE, AND NOTE TOO THAT THERE HAVE BEEN ALMOST 2000 ATTACKS OVER THE 2005 YEAR. ALMOST 3/DAY. ALMOST ALL HAVE FAILED BECAUSE THE IDF HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN CATCHING THE TERRORISTS BEFORE THEY REACH THEIR TARGETS.

The only fly in this ointment is the strong possibility that Hamas will run strongly in next week's election. If Palestinians support accommodation with Israel, why would they vote for a party that doesn't?

The answer is that a vote for Hamas is not necessarily a vote for Hamas's stance on Israel. Virtually every observer of the Palestinian scene and the polls as well, show that Hamas's main appeal is its apparent incorruptibility. Most Palestinians view the Palestinian Authority (and the Fatah party which controls it) as hopeless corrupt, inefficient and dominated by cronyism. Arafat is gone but the kind of governance he represented is thriving. Mahmoud Abbas has simply not been able to clean house.

INCORRECT. HAMAS HAS MADE NO ATTEMPT TO CONCEAL ITS CONTINUED COMMITTMENT TO DESTORY ISRAEL. IT HAS MADE A FEW COMMENTS LATELY ABOUT PERHAPS CONSIDERING THE POSSIBILITY OF SOME SORT OF TRUCE FOR UP TO TEN YEARS. NOT EXACTLY PEACE...BY ANY MEASURE. BUT EVEN THE MOST ILLITERATE OF PALESTINIAN FELLAH KNOWS FULL WELL THAT HAMAS INTENDS TO DESTORY ISRAEL AND GENOCIDE ITS JEWS. WHEN THEY VOTE FOR HAMAS THEY VOTE FOR CONTINUED JIHAD AGAINST ISRAEL.

Hamas promises that it will. It plays down its views on peacemaking. TRUE. IT PROMISES THAT IT WILL CLEAN HOUSE. IT PROMISES TO CONTINUE THE WAR AGAINST ISRAEL. AND IT ALSO PROMISES TO CREATE AN EXTREMIST ISLAMIC STATE IN THE WEST BANK (THERE ALREADY IS ONE IN GAZA) SUCH THAT ALL CHRISTIANS IN THE WEST BANK WILL BE DHIMMI (IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS, LET ME KNOW). THAT'S WHY CHRISTIANS ARE FLEEING THE WEST BANK TO THE SAFETY AND FREEDOM OF ISRAEL.

Today's Economist writes; "What makes Hamas's appeal so great is that it does not just rest on its past performance -- social programs leading the intifada's violence against Israel, and a reputation for honesty -- but on a canny, forward-looking campaign...It stresses domestic issues: education, welfare, law and order. The thornier questions of whether to continue its lull in attacks on Israel, declared last year, and what stance it might take on possible peace talks, are in the background."

It will be important to bear this point in mind as the votes come in next week. A Hamas triumph would be a sow's ear, one that only the truly naïve would even try to call a silk purse.

But it may not mean that Palestinians are giving up on the two-state idea. The Shikaki poll shows that the very opposite is the case which means that Hamas will have no mandate to reignite the intifada.

We may not like the results of the Palestinian election but if they are designated "free and fair" by the US National Democratic Institute and the other international observers, we will have to figure out some way to come to terms with them.

And here's the good news. A Hamas in power will itself have to come to terms with a Palestinian populace that supports its social programs and lack of corruption but opposes its stance on Israel.

THIS IS A BRIGHT-EYED AND BUSHY-TAILED ANALYSIS. A PROGNOSIS WORTHY OF THE MOST OPTIMISTIC. BUT...IT DOES NOT HOLD UP TO HISTORICAL ANALYSIS. JUST AS ARAFAT DID NOT NEED TO COME TO TERMS WITH A POPULATION THAT BY AND LARGE WANTED PEACE AND A STATE; AND INSTEAD IMPLEMENTED HIS 'DEMOCRACY OF THE GUN' TO TERRORIZE THE POPULACE (SOME ESTIMATES CONTEND THAT HE KILLED MORE PALESTINIANS THAN DID ISRAEL)....SO TOO A HAMAS TERRORIST GOVERNMENT BENT ON IMPLEMENTING ALLAH'S SHARI'A (ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS JURISPRUDENCE) ON ALL PALESTINIANS NO MATTER WHAT THEIR RELIGIONI, AND POSSESSED OF C 12,000 ARMED TERRORISTS WHOM THEY CAN DEPLOY THROGHOUT THE WEST BANK....MEANS QUITE SIMPLEY THAT THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE IS LARGELY IRRELEVANT. HAMAS COMING TO TERMS WITH PALESTINIAN POPULAR DEMANDS MEANS MORE TERROR AGAINST PALESTINIANS, WHICH WILL PROBABLY BE AS SUCCESSFUL AS IT WAS WHEN ARAFAT WAS IN POWER.

That is why the diplomatic process will survive next Wednesday's Palestinian election (and certainly Israel's on March 28). Public opinion matters in democracies which is why a democratic Palestinian election is a step in the right direction even if we don't like the guys who win.

THIS MAY BE TRUE. THAT IS WHY ISRAEL HAS PROMISED TO NEGOTIATE WITH THE NEXT GOVERNMENT, AS LONG AS IT STOPS THE TERRORISM, STOPS THE INCITEMENT, AND AGREES TO NEGOTIATE PEACEFULLY. HAMAS HAS REFUSED ALL OF THESE DEMANDS.

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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NO NEUTRAL GROUND IN WORLD WAR IV
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 23, 2006.
Dear Mr. President, In case Mr. Zuckerman's editorial failed to reach your desk, I'm enclosing it below. Do you remember your courageous and visionary doctrine formulated after September 11, 2001? Either they are with us, or against us. There is no middle ground. You got a lot of flack for that, because usually there is a middle ground. Some people, some states, can usually be sincerely neutral or uninvolved. But you are right....no middle ground, not in World War 4. The stakes are too high.

In bin-Laden's 2002 letter to the West, he told us his three demands:

1. The West must accept Islam.

If all the Christians and Jews of Europe and the Americas either become Moslem or submit to dhimmitude under the religious totalitarianism of the new Islamic Caliphate (which he is in the process of creating, with its capitol in Baghdad), then he will cease his war. First and foremost, his war is a war against what he calls "global unbelief". So perhaps we could end this war by mass conversion to Islam.

Of course, that would mean the end of Western Civilization as we know it, and a return to a culture akin to the 8th century Early Middle Ages.

2. The West, and especially the USA, must cease aggression against Moslems and Islam.

If the West were engaged in an aggressive war against Moslems, this might make sense. But since our war is with terrorists, almost all of whom are Moslems, and these mostly Moslem terrorists launched their war against us in November of 1979, and we refrained from a counter-attack until their terrorism was too brutal to ignore, it is difficult to see just what Osama has in mind when he talks about the West's war against Islam.

In fact, our belated counter-attack has been accompanied by numerous disclaimers, some from you personally, to the effect that we in the USA do NOT see Islam as an enemy, nor are we out to get Moslems. In fact, in Gulf War 1, we saved two traditional Moslem states from the aggression of another Moslem state. In the Balkans we saved Moslems from European Christians. In Afghanistan and Iraq we freed Moslems from the totalitarian control of other Moslems and set them up to create Moslem democracies. And in addition to that, the USA alone has given billions and billions of foreign aid dollars to Moslem states (some of which now provide support for the Moslem terrorists who are attacking us); and the USA single handedly saved millions of Egyptian Moslems from starvation in the 1950's (thanks to Eisenhower's free transfer of tons of American grain to a starving Egypt).

Our war is not with Islam. We simply want the terror attacks to cease. The fact is that almost all terrorists in the world today are Moslems; so our counter-attack does indeed look like a war against Moslems. But that is much more Osama's doing than ours.

So, if we could get him to enunciate more clearly just what our aggression has been (and let's recall in this context that Moslem attacks against us began 22 years before 9/11/2001, and our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were after 9/11/2001), then maybe we could end this war.....by pulling back our troops from wherever he says we should.

Of course, that would then give him complete freedom to launch even more attacks, be victorious in this war, and end our civilization as we know it.

3. There must be an equality of suffering.

Bin-Laden estimates that the West, and primarily the USA, killed c. 4,000,000 Moslems over the past decade or so. Between Afghanistan, Iraq, USA support for Israel, the sanctions against Iraq prior to Gulf War 2.....all add up to about 4,000,000. So he says that he will not be satisfied until he has killed 4,000,000 of us. 9/11 was only the very first and smallest initial salvo in his war against the "global unbelief" of the vast non-Moslem world.

Now this calculus is a bit odd. Aside from the arithmetic itself (there is no way to validate his 4,000,000 number, and they do seem awefully high), Osama ignores the obvious fact that during the 2nd half of the 20th century Moslem leaders have killed far more Moslems than anyone else anywhere in the world and across all of history. Between the PLO vs. Druze and Lebanese Shi'ites (c. 250,000); the post-Numeiri government in Khartoum vs. the black African Moslems of southern Sudan and Darfur (c. 2,000,000); Sadam Hussein's wars against the Kurds (c. 200,000), the Iranians (c. 400,000), his own casualties in the war against Iran (c. 450,000), and his own Shi'ite citizens (c. 250,000); the Saudi royal family's aggression against its own Shi'ite citizens (c. 400,000), Egypt's wars against Yemen (c. 100,000), and Algeria's Moslem government war against their own extremist Moslem citizens (c. 200,000).....we are getting pretty close to that same 4,000,000 dead Moslems.

But these dead Moslems do not concern Osama. The aggressors were not 'kufar'.

But even beyond the oddness of Osama's calculations, just how are we to deal with this last demand? Could we negotiate him down to only 2,000,000? You know, like, each side split the difference and both go away happy? Or maybe if he saw that we were really serious about negotiating a peaceful and mutually acceptable end to the conflict, he would settle for only one million?

Would that be an OK way to resolve the conflict and make Osama happy?

In short, as Commander in Chief of the USA's Armed Forces, you are leading the free world in a fight for its very existence against a massive terrorist force, probably in possession of WMDs, with whom there is no rational way to negotiate, whose demands are tantamount to a strategy of deceit to more effectively advance his victory over us, and whose vision of victory is "Islam uber alles".

So....given these stakes and the character of this war, there is no middle ground. Every nation that helps the terrorists drives a nail in our coffin. Every nation that remains neutral undermines our global efforts to put an end to the terrorist threat. That is why Russia is a threat to us, because it provides Iran with nuclear capabilities. Iran is a threat to us because it itself seeks to engage Israel and the West in a nuclear war, and because it arms and trains and funds and deploys Hezbollah and Hamas. And Hezbollah and Hamas are a threat to us because, in addition to waging a relentless and brutal terror war against our only ally in the Middle East, both they and other terrorist groups have declared that their war is against America too.

Therefore, you cannot remain silent as Russia aids Iran. You cannot stand idly by as Iran funds and deploys Hezbollah. You cannot ignore the depravity of the EU supporting Hamas. And you cannot compromise Israel's ability to defend itself in its defensive war against the same terrorist forces that threaten us and all of Western Civilization.

David Meir-Levi


"Moscow's Mad Gamble"
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

U.S. News and World Report

Iran today is the mother of Islamic terrorism. Tehran openly provides funding, training, and weapons to the world's worst terrorists, including Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and it has a cozy relationship with al-Qaeda. It has given sanctuary to major al-Qaeda terrorists, including senior military commander Saif al-Adel, three of Osama bin Laden's sons, and al-Qaeda spokesman Suleiman Abu Ghaith.

It supports many of the barbaric terrorists in Iraq who are murdering innocent civilians, flooding Iraq with money and fighters. It is infiltrating troublemakers into Afghanistan, supporting terrorism against Turkey, sustaining Syria, and had a hand in the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia.

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is a revolutionary firebrand who has directly threatened the West. In his own words, "We are in the process of an historical war between the World of Arrogance [i.e., the West] and the Islamic world." He casts himself as Hitler reincarnated, calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map." Who can think that Iran poses no threat to world peace? History tells us that when madmen call for genocide, they usually mean it.

And Russia has made the threat more real. It sold the nuclear power plant at Bushehr to Iran and contracted to sell even more to bring cash into its nuclear industry. Russia provided critical assistance in the development of Iran's Shihab missile, which has an ever expanding delivery range and can carry a warhead designed for a nuclear charge. Within a very few years, in all likelihood, Iran will be able to launch nuclear missiles.

We must urgently find a way to persuade Moscow to reinforce the civilized world rather than subvert it.

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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ALLAH FORBID PEACE WITH ISRAEL
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 23, 2006.

The surreal stench of unemployed angry able-bodied men, scarred by putrefying poverty, wafts over dysfunctional Jew-bereft slum-ridden chaotic Gaza morphed to a Palestinian enclave, replete with dysfunctional denizens branded by the scarlet R, signifying a self-esteem debilitating chronic refugee status deemed proper by a hand-wringing apologetic world. Oy Vay! Now, those "got rocks" European Union and USA benefactors are wavering, less inclined to hand out hand outs, euphemistically called foreign aid, to so-called Palestinians in Gaza as well as Judea and Sumeria, as those fulminating Jew/infidel despising boys from Hamas brandish kalishnakovs and missiles, salivate to rule the impoverished Islamic roost, yearn to evict Arafat understudy Abbas the feckless smoothie and overseer of corruption from his political pulpit, perhaps faster than one "God is great" utterance after the "voice of the people" speaks on election day.

Meanwhile, where are the robed rogue rulers of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, The Emirates, Dubai, Kuwait, Qatar, and erstwhile Persia, weighed down by bloated bank accounts, compliments of fossil fuel addicted industrial nations ever-willing to cash in their children's futures for $60 plus barrels of the prehistoric black glop possessed by these well-heeled chic sheik extortionists? Might a few such desert tycoons dole out a dinar or two to those hapless ever-needy kindred spirit Jew/infidel despising Palestinian waifs, now that crusader E.U. and Uncle Satan threaten to tighten their purse strings over a case of the Hamas blues? Of course not! Why should these filthy rich Muslims buy their brethren bootstraps, Allah forbid the so-called Palestinians pull themselves out of the murk and mire of their own creation, stop tossing mortar shells and their own exploding bodies at the Israelis, and begin traveling the road of a mench; then Israel would no longer be a shlamazel diversion occupying the mesmerized muddled minds of the robed rogues' own exploited subjects.

Egad, if employed so-called Palestinians were at peace with Israel, too busy to spew or fight while earning their own dinars; thus providing lamb, falafel, and perhaps imported Calvin Klein apparel for their families; how indeed might the Middle Eastern upper crust point to Israel as the bane of Arab existence, hence vent their own hovel dwelling hoi polloi's seething frustration and rancor? Quite a conundrum without the perceived Jewish occupier to occupy the darkest thoughts of the Muslim masses! Surely, it makes no sense for Arabs and Persians of means to distribute some wealth for say start up businesses in Gaza, they would only be sealing their own fate on the home front. Now, purchasing arms for Hamas to stir up trouble, that is an entirely different matter.

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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MEMORIES FROM FASSOUTA
Posted by Rachel Kapen, January 23, 2006.

When I read recently of the regrettable spy story* of a resident of the Arab-Catholic village of Fassouta situated in Upper Galilee near the Lebanese border, I inevitably was reminded of my visit in the village some 20 years ago.

I first met Nawal and her elderly father a year prior to the visit when both participated in a delegation of Arab-Catholics from the Galilee who came to Rome to meet the Pope at the Vatican in commemoration of the Holy Year. We happen to stay in the same hotel. For my husband and I Rome was the last leg of an Italian journey which began in an international sleep conference in the city of Bologna.

Actually it was Nawal who first approached me after hearing me speak in Hebrew with my husband, Shelly. She asked me if I was from Israel and when I responded that indeed I am an Israeli living in the United States she introduced herself as an Israeli-Arab from the village of Fassouta in Upper Galilee, not quite sure what my attitude would be, However, when I smiled and extended my hand in friendship, she smiled as well and asked to please come to the lobby later in the evening to I can meet the other people in the delegation, including the bishop.

I did as Nawal requested and came down to meet the other members of the delegation, including her elderly father, the bishop and the village priest -- the latter were speaking Hebrew who were extremely excited after the meeting with the Pope and Nawal was proud to show me the picture taken with him and a banner saying that this is a delegation from the Holy Land.

Later in the evening we invited Nawal and her father to join us in a café in elegant Via Veneto where we talked about our children -- we discovered that we both have 4 -- and our land which we both love. At the end of the most interesting meeting, Nawal translated for us her father's kind invitation to visit them in their village the next time in Israel and I promised to do just that.

As fate had it, I managed to keep my promise the following summer. Nawal, her brother Shuki, then the mayor of the village, and her husband, picked me up on Friday morning from my mother's apartment in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv. The four of us sat in the car, Nawal and I in the back, Her brother, an extremely handsome man, and her husband in front. All the while the radio played Arab music but the conversation was mostly in Hebrew un deference to me.

On the way we made a few stops, among them at the home of family friends in the City of Haifa who, despite the fact that they were up to their ears in preparation for a bar mitzvah, talked us into sitting down to eat some of the delicacies, something hard to resist. I was much taken by the affection between the Arab and the Jewish families, something not unusual in Haifa yet almost unheard of in Tel Aviv where I was born and raised. The second stop was at the Naharia Hospital where the mayor visited some of the village people who were hospitalized there at the time and after another short stop at the home of another mayor from a Jewish village, we headed to their home way up in Upper Galilee.

I failed to mention that the reason that Nawal wanted me to come this particular Shabbat was that there was a wedding and she thought that this would be of interest to me and of course she was right. The wedding started on Friday night and continued all through the following day with a huge outside hafla (party in Arabic) till the wee hours of the morning.

Nawal sitting, her father next to me with two entertainers from Nazareth.

On Sunday, early in the morning I left my very kind hosts despite their pleadings that I should stay longer. I'd promised my elderly and worried mother that I will return Sunday morning and didn't want to worry her.

All during the visit my hosts and all the other villagers whom I met treated me with the warmth and friendship which are etched in my memory till this very day and I wonder if after the two intifadas and reading about the extremism which took hold in the Israeli Arab sector this friendship towards Israeli Jews is still there. I hope that the deplorable spying incident is an aberration and doesn't reflect on a change in attitude as the current mayor said.

* [Editor's Note: December 12, 2005: Jeries Jeries, 57, the former head of Fassouta village council in the Galilee, was arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran. The prosecution office reported Jirias had been in contact on a number of occasions with Hani Abdullah Mitwally, an Iranian intelligence agent known for his efforts to recruit Israeli and Palestinian agents on behalf of Tehran. According to the report, Mitwally is believed to have put Jirias in touch with Iranian intelligence officials, who instructed Jeries to get involved in politics in order to gather information on Israeli society and government.]

Contact Rachel Kapen by email at skapen285466mi@comcast.net

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THE INVASION AND THE STRUGGLE FOR HEBRON
Posted by Shlomo Wollins, January 23, 2006.

This is the second time this year that I am criminally refusing the military order that all evacuate Chevron who are not residents, and by great divine providence, I have for the last three days been living in one of the shuk apartment loft homes that is subject to a forceful evacuation order that commenced Jan. 15th at midnite and extends to Feb. 15th. There is simply no way to describe in words the faith and strength one acquires when you actively resist injustice and defend your people, with all your energy, skills, and body. I go to sleep each night, knowing full well that the army could without notice break down your door, and forcefully drag you out, and arrest you...

Go to my site (http://www.IsraelReporter.com) for Stream videos of the History of Hebron and the Threats to the Hebron Community. Photos are also available.

Proof Of Jewish Ownership Of Chevron Shuk & Shuk Property Timeline

These are uncontested documents that establish legal ownership of the Chevron shuk property from 1807. Israeli courts have recently confirmed the legal validity of these contracts, a fact which has been duly ignored by the forceful expulsion order for the Jewish residents of the shuk by February 15th, although widely-expected to be completed by January 31st. Below left is the original contract and below right is the letter in modern Hebrew (click either picture for a larger version). Below the pictures we present a history of the Chevron shuk that details the purchase for the Jewish community and events that have transpired in the last few years culminating in the expulsion orders and announced intention to use 1,500 officers/soldiers and any necessary violence (up to and including live ammunition against children protestors) to expel the families.

Background: The Shalhavet Neighborhood

In 1807, Haim Bajaio purchased on behalf of the Hebron Jewish community, a five-dunam plot of land adjacent to the centuries-old Jewish Quarter, for 1,200 grushim. The deal was witnessed and signed by no fewer than 22 Hebron Arab notables. This property served Hebron's Jews and later accommodated the home and synagogue of its chief rabbi, Eliahu Manni. Following the Jordanian takeover of Hebron in 1948, the entire Jewish Quarter -- founded by Spanish-Jewish exiles in 1540 -- was razed to the ground. Among the structures destroyed was the ancient Avraham Aveinu Synagogue.

In the early 1960s, an Arab fruit and vegetable market was constructed on the property bought by the Hebron community in 1807. Following the liberation of Hebron during the 1967 Six Day War, these structures continued to function, having been rented to the Hebron Arab municipality by the Israeli government. The property contracts for these buildings expired in the 1990s, and the site was gradually closed over a period of several years, due to security concerns. The market was finally shut down following an attempted terrorist attack: Arabs placed a booby-trapped teddy bear in a plastic bag in the market near the entrance to the Jewish neighborhood, hoping a Jewish child, finding it, would play with it and be killed in the ensuing explosion. Despite numerous requests by our community to rent the structures, the site had been left vacant.

On March 26, 2001, an Arab sniper shot and killed 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass. Following the murder, Hebron children began utilizing the abandoned Arab market place as a place to play and take cover during shooting attacks from the overlooking Abu Sneneh Hills. Over a period of time, the Hebron community invested tens of thousands of dollars to convert the former fruit and vegetable stalls into livable apartments. Presently, the former market, renamed the Mitzpe Shalhevet neighborhood, houses Hebron families and a Torah study hall opened in Shalhevet's memory. Mitzpe Shalhevet is presently on the brink of obliteration, not by Arabs, but by the government.

Four years ago, in response to an Arab demand to reopen the market, the Attorney-General's office notified the Supreme Court that: (1) the Arabs no longer had any legal rights to the market and (2) that Israeli "trespassers" should be evicted from the site. The Supreme Court, however, never ruled that the former market's Jewish population should be expelled from their homes.

Following issuance of an eviction order, Hebron's Jewish community appealed to the courts, claiming private Jewish ownership of the property. An appeals committee of three judges ruled 2-1 that the land did legally belong to a private Jewish organization, but that the buildings legally fell within the jurisdiction of the Israeli government. Concurrently, two of the three judges ruled that the optimal solution to the problem was to lease the structures to Hebron's Jewish community. The defense minister delayed executing the eviction order for over two years, due to security issues and other concerns.

However, recently, following the successful expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif and northern Samaria, the Attorney-General's Office has exerted tremendous pressure on Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to execute the eviction orders and remove Hebron's families from the Mitzpe Shalhevet neighborhood, under the impression that the Supreme Court ruled that the structures must be evacuated.

Shlomo Wollins is publisher of www.IsraelReporter.com He was one of the first to come to Gush Katif when it was threatened and he stayed to the end. Contact him at shlomo@israelreporter.com

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SOME IDEAS FOR NEW HOLLYWOOD SENSITIZING FILMS
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 23, 2006.

Stevie Spielberg, the fella who has yet to make a movie for grownups, has now made a movie showing the human side of Palestinian mass murdering terrorists, so that viewers can maintain a neutral unemotional impartiality when it comes to Islamofascist terrorists and their victims.

Meanwhile, the Hollywood Left out on the Left Coast has decided to grant a Golden Globe award to a film celebrating suicide bombers. The film, Paradise Now, depicts 48 hours in the lives of two young terrorists recruited to kill innocent Jews in Tel Aviv by blowing themselves up for the glory of Islam. Paradise Now portrays what terrorists have to endure to prepare for a bombing: getting military haircuts, eating a last meal, videotaping their last words, and strapping their bodies with explosives. The film also presents the terrorists' emotional anguish brought on in part by lingering doubts about the reward promised to martyrs in the afterlife. The main characters blame Israel..s presence in Judea and Samaria and Shechem, the area..s largest city, for their motivation to carry out the attack. Daniel Pipes, a commentator on Middle East affairs, called the movie "propagandistic," saying it "whitewashes Palestinian suicide bombing." Here are Debbie Schlussel's comments on this filth.

Now, since the Hollywankers are celebrating terrorism and calling for neutral impartiality when it comes to terrorists and their victims, we have several ideas for new ideas for new films that can be screened as part of the Hollywood sensitizing campaign. Stevie Spielberg is invited to produce some :

1. A film on the human side and the emotional struggles of the Klansmen who lynched civil rights workers and black folks in the 60s in Mississippi.

2. A film on the emotional traumas and secret dreams of a better world among white slave holders as they whip slaves, where the fictional slave is named Kunta Kinte, who gets horse whipped to death while his sister is raped.

3. A film on the joys of mistreating and vivisectioning live animals in a college lab in which new cosmetics are being tested by sensitive lab technicians who respect their mothers while gulping down uncooked meat.

4. A film about the enlightening experiences of troubled motor cycle gangsters who beat up transgendered persons with chains and lead pipes, but always recycle.

5. A film about heroic police agents who infiltrate and beat striking farm workers in the Central Valley, with a fictional scene in which the cops kick John Steinbeck's ass.

6. A film about the sensitive idealistic teams of police rounding up Japanese civilians in California after Pearl Harbor and shipping them off to internment camps.

7. The education and dreams of abortion clinic bombers.

8. The sensitive side of group rapists.

9. Heroic Rush Limbaugh listeners who read sensitive books and write poetry, but then buy automatic weapons and shoot up an antiwar demonstration before going to church.

10. The joys of species extinction -- our heroes are airplane pilots who spray chemicals in the rain forest to annihilate butterflies, and then goes on a crusade to annihilate whales from all the seas.

Post your ideas for other movie scripts!

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. Contact him by email at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il

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NOTHING'S SACRED
Posted by Women in Green, January 23, 2006.

This article was written by Sarah Honig, and it appeared in The Jerusalem Post Jan. 19, 2006.

Surprised by Olmert's green light for PLO/Hamas politicking in Jerusalem? Nobody should be. Whenever caving in is an option, our higher-ups won't resist the path of least resistance. If Israel is pressured to yield, its honchos will dutifully oblige. This is true no matter what's at stake -- from Israel's most basic existential interests to "mere" matters of principle that are significant symbolically but aren't actual catalysts for international coercion - like the recent deal rescuing Magen David Adom from lowly observer status vis-a-vis the International Red Cross/Red Crescent Federation.

The MDA deal -- precisely because it wasn't geopolitically momentous -- constituted no less than a pivotal touchstone case, again lamentably accentuating that critical flaw which disturbingly warps the Jewish mind.

Even clinical psychology's sharpest diagnostic tools cannot explain why Jews -- no matter how wronged -- feel it's they who bear the onus to make amends and make concessions in order to win some measure of seeming acceptance from outright enemies, or from the friends of outright enemies. Only Jews must pay and forfeit that which to all others is natural and inalienable.

Jewish head cases need atone for overcoming dastardly attacks and thwarting their own mass-murder or ethnic cleansing. They're driven to hand over territory to implacable assailants in the hope of dampening their would-be annihilators' genocidal zeal. No other nation -- especially one so aggressed against -- has ever voluntarily ceded strategic assets to still-viable or undefeated foes.

Anything that is ours which could be perceived as meaningful or hallowed to Jews, is a candidate for disparagement -- from homeland to creed, culture or history. Nothing is sacred -- providing of course it's Jewish. Jews alone have no right to anything inviolable.

THAT'S WHY Israel heartily endorsed the Red Cross's novel ploy for ending its 56-year boycott of the Star of David: pretending it doesn't exist and replacing it with a "neutral" red diamond shape euphemistically named a "crystal." Within it, the red star may feature unofficially, yet from the federation's perspective that offensive Jewish symbol will be invisible.

Without the objectionable outward manifestation, at least overseas, of the Jewish emblem, MDA can luxuriate in long-coveted formal affiliation. How truly emblematic.

This was the face-saving solution to which Israel's government and MDA agreed. But it only saves the federation's face, allowing it to escape eminently deserved accusations of anti-Jewish bias while doing nothing to actually remove said bias. This very arrangement, though, spits at the Jewish face. To welcome a facade that facilitates the ongoing rejection of the venerable old Jewish symbol is obsequiousness we hoped had forever disappeared from the Jewish psyche.

We'd be better off without whatever benefits Red Cross membership accrues rather than gain membership under shameful conditions. We managed quite nicely outside the Red Cross. We could carry on as well without it.

When Israel first applied for membership in 1949 it was instructed to adopt either the cross or Muslim crescent to qualify for admission. An incomparably more vulnerable and impoverished newborn Israel mustered the pluck to insist that the Jewish state's first-aid services wouldn't operate under emblems historically or currently inimical to Jews. Yesteryear's beleaguered Jewish state, literally fighting for its life, likewise had willpower and resolve to make Jerusalem its capital.

Today's Israel, stronger and thriving, vacillates on Jerusalem and collaborates in the categorization of the Jewish star as a pariah symbol which must be camouflaged or imprisoned within an ignominious "crystal." It'd be no indignity were the cross and crescent similarly confined, but Christians and Muslims are entitled to their own symbols. Only Jews -- monotheism's progenitors -- aren't. Until 1980's advent of Iran's ayatollah regime, the Red Cross even found no fault with the shah's Red Lion and Sun.

Israel needs its head examined for colluding to demote its emblem to second-best (or tainted) status in its fawning quest to be counted among the nations nearly six decades after winning independence. There's no ignominy in not belonging to a federation that accords full membership to such benefactors of humanity as North Korea, Iran, Syria and Sudan.

The Red Cross is the last outfit by which Israel should be humiliated, or for which Jews should sacrifice the minutest token of self-respect. This after all is the organization that steadfastly remained aloof to Jewish bloodletting throughout the Holocaust. International Committee of the Red Cross Archives director George Willemin delivered WWII documents to Yad Vashem in 1997 and declared: "The ICRC admits that it kept silent... this is the heart of its moral failure." Swiss historian Jean-Claude Favez argues in his book A Mission Impossible? that had the Red Cross decried the extermination of Jews, the Allies couldn't as easily have rejected repeated anguished entreaties to bomb rail tracks leading to the death camps.

Primarily, he maintains, the Red Cross served Swiss policy. Switzerland grew fat while Jews perished. Already prior to WWII, Switzerland proposed the Nazis stamp German Jews' passports with glaring red Js so they could be more expeditiously denied asylum.

The newfangled "crystal" -- the latest made-in-Switzerland Jew-segregating symbol -- embodies continuing ostracism. Adding insult to injury, it underscores the fact that Jewish identity remains non grata. It blatantly betrays animus. In 2000 ICRC then-president Cornelio Sommaruga exclaimed: "if we accept the Shield of David, why not the swastika?"

Israeli officialdom's meek acquiescence to the disgraceful substitution and its alacrity to broker deals at any cost -- even jeopardizing Jerusalem -- isn't pragmatism. Compromise without honor isn't necessarily prudent. It merely broadcasts to the world that we have no pride, that we're sick in the head.

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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AHMADINEJAD -- LIAR, HYPOCRITE AND/OR ARABS' STOOGE?
Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, January 22, 2006.

Upon the death of Islam's Prophet, Muhammad, in the early 7th century C.E., the armies of his caliphal successors burst out of the Arabian Peninsula and spread out in all directions.

Over the next centuries--and continuing to this very day--Arab colonialism and imperial conquests would either directly or indirectly forcibly Arabize millions of native non-Arab peoples.

As just a few examples of this lingering ordeal, in Syria, Kurdish children are currently forced to sing songs praising their "Arab" identity; millions of Black Africans (not only Sudanese) have been killed, enslaved, and so forth in the name of the Arab nation; prominent Copts in Egypt have advised Israel to consent to the same Arabization they have been forced to undergo in order to "be accepted"; Berbers have been slaughtered for asserting their own cultural identity; etc. and so forth. Get the picture?

But before we leave this thought, keep one other key example in mind...

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has recently called on Europe to make a place for Israel's Jews. He, like Arab and other Iranian leaders, calls for Israel's destruction and actively participates--via supplying arms and support to Arab terror organizations and states--in trying to accomplish this even before Iran becomes nuclear.

It seems that the Iranians--who at least partially jumped on the Arab bandwagon centuries ago--have also bought into the Arab delusion...at least when it fits their own needs.

So, Ahmadinejad simply ignores one half of Israel's 6 million Jews who know nothing of "Europe" as a home. They are from Jewish refugee families who fled what Arabs refer to as "purely Arab patrimony" where, despite Arab claims of tolerance, they were commonly known as kilab yahud--Jew dogs--and treated as such. Over a million more of these Jews who fled Arab murder and subjugation live in France, the Americas, and elsewhere as well.

Iran itself, Muslim but not Arab, was the home of over 6,000 Jews who now live in New York. Thousands of other Iranian Jews fled elsewhere.

Iran's Jewish community dates back over 2,500 years--at least since the days when Cyrus liberated them from Babylonian captivity. The Jewish holiday of Purim, recorded in the Bible's Book of Esther, is about this allegedly "European" Jewish community.

Iran supported Judaea's fight for independence against Rome, and on the eve of the Arab conquest itself in the 7th century C.E., an army of tens of thousands of Jews was recorded to have allied themselves to Persian armies fighting the hated Byzantines.

Today, with Jews intimidated, tried as spies for Israel, and the like, there are only some 20,000 Jews remaining in Iran itself. Most of the 100,000 present earlier last century are now in Israel. Indeed, Israel's president, Moshe Katsav, was born in Iran.

Lots more could be elaborated upon here on this subject. Suffice it to say that Ahmadinejad and Iran have simply used the Arab (and others') ploy of denial to further their own national interests. So, he sees no Jews native to the region in his midst. They're all simply European transplants. The Tunisian Jewish professor, the Sorbonne's Albert Memmi, is an important source for all of this. His book, Jews and Arabs, is must reading for anyone wanting to get a sense of balance here. But I've jumped ahead a bit, so let's return now to how this lie has been perpetuated...

In the wake of their own imperial conquests and colonialism of the region, the very definition of "Arab" appears to have been deliberately muddied so to allow for the Arabs to claim the whole region as "purely Arab patrimony." So, the children of Arab fathers, all Arabic speakers, and any who simply wish for convenience sake--i.e. among other things, to escape taxation and subjugation--to identify as such are as "Arab" as the Arabs who conquered and colonized them in the first place from the Arabian Peninsula.

We thus currently speak of twenty-one "Arab " states--where this identity is professed in constitutions and so forth--allowing Arabs to live their lie and delusion. The 22nd (and second, not first, within the original borders of the Palestinian Mandate as Great Britain received it on April 25, 1920...Jordan emerging on some 80% of it after 1922) expects to be born soon...and on the ashes of the Jews' sole, microscopic state--not as its neighbor.

Before the age of nationalism, where one empire after the other (including the Arabs' own caliphal varieties) absorbed numerous different peoples, this had an imperfect unifying effect.

So, with Islam as its main unifying and driving force, Arabs could get non-Arabs like the great Kurdish leader, Salah al-Din, to jump on their bandwagon in furthering the Dar ul-Islam. Recall that these are the people whom Arabs would later massacre, gas, culturally subjugate, and so forth--now, fellow Muslims, mind you--for daring to assert their own identities and demand rights as such. Before Saddam's gassings in "Arab" Iraq, the Kurdish nationalist, Ismet Cherif Vanly, wrote The Syrian (Arab) 'Mein Kampf' Against The Kurds (Amsterdam 1968). The title of the book says it all.

With the 19th century reawakening of dormant ethnic/national identities accompanying the beginning of the collapse of major empires, Arabs saw themselves as sole heirs to most of a region ruled largely by the Turks for the previous five centuries. While diplomats would soon speak of Arabia for the Arabians, Judea for the Jews, Armenia for Armenians, and Kurdistan for Kurds, in Arab eyes, there could be no division of "their" pie. There was no justice in the region other than Arab. And in relation to our discussion about Iran and Israel, it had all started this way...

The Arabian general, Khaled ibn al-Walid, conquered the land of Israel in 634 C.E. from the Byzantines, and not long afterwards, Abu Musa al-Ash'ari led the invasion of Iran from Basra via its current, oil-rich, southwestern Khuzestan province.

By Roman times, the land of Israel had been renamed Judaea. After the first major revolt of the Jews for independence against their mighty conquerors, Rome issued Iudaea Capta coins, found in museums all over the world today. After the second revolt in 133-135 C.E., Hadrian got fed up with the Jews' persistence (and Roman losses) and tried to stamp out their hopes for freedom once and for all. He renamed the land itself after the Jews' historic enemies, the Aegean or eastern Mediterranean, non-Semitic Philistines--Syria Palaestina.

Like vultures wanting their share of the kill, some neighboring Arabs joined the Romans in their assault on the Jews.

Arabs like to claim that they were the aboriginals in the land. In reality, while the coastal region was sometimes identified by the Greeks with Philistine invaders, there was no country or nation known as "Palestine"...ever.

The land was known as Judaea and its inhabitants were Judaeans... Jews.

Tacitus and Dio Cassius were famous Roman historians who wrote extensively about Judaea's attempt to remain free. They lived and wrote during, or not long after, the two major revolts of the Jews mentioned above and make no mention of the land being called "Palestine" or its people "Palestinians." And as can be seen below, they knew the differences between Jews and Arabs as well.

Listen to this quote from Vol. II, Book V, The Works of Tacitus:

Titus was appointed by his father to complete the subjugation of Judaea... he commanded three legions in Judaea itself... To these he added the twelfth from Syria and the third and twenty-second from Alexandria... amongst his allies were a band of Arabs, formidable in themselves and harboring towards the Jews the bitter animosity usually subsisting between neighboring nations.

So much for Arab "aboriginals"...And remember that it was Ahmadinejad's Iran which was the chief ally of the Jews in their fight for freedom against Rome.

Back to the future...

As we have seen, along with the Arab colonialization of Judaea/"Palestine" (along with many other places), Arabs spread into Iran as well. For Arabs, imperialism and colonialism are only nasty when they themselves aren't doing such things.

While Khuzestan traded back and forth between Arab and Iranian rule, it became basically linked to Iran despite repeated Arab invasions over the centuries from southern Iraq. But, despite this link, Khuzestan, according to the Encyclopedia Iranica (p.216), became "extensively Arabized" to the point that in Safavid times (16th-18th centuries C.E.) the province was known as Arabistan.

The Arabs have long remembered this, and Iraqi Arabs under Saddam's banner launched the long Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s that was largely fought over this oil-rich and strategically important area.

Earlier, to deal with this problem, Iran ruthlessly suppressed any manifestations of Arab nationalism. By the early 20th century, a proposal had been put forward to even outlaw the Arabic language.

Now think about this a minute...

Like in Iran, Arabs entered the land of Israel/Judaea/Palestine as settlers, imperial conquerors, and colonizers. While this fact of life is true for others as well, Arabs only see in others what they themselves have truly perfected as they conquered and forcibly Arabized over six million square miles of mostly other, non-Arab peoples' lands.

As for their claim to "Palestine," when the United Nations Relief Works Agency--UNRWA--was set up to assist Arab refugees (after a half dozen Arab states invaded a nascent Israel in 1948 to nip it in the bud and their attempt backfired), the very word refugee had to be redefined to assist those allegedly "native" people.

So many Arabs were recent arrivals themselves into the Palestinian Mandate that UNRWA had to adjust the very definition of "refugee" from its prior meaning of persons normally and traditionally resident to those who lived in the Mandate for a minimum of only two years prior to 1948.

Earlier, the League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission documented scores of thousands of Arabs pouring into the land from surrounding countries to take advantage of the economic development going on because of the influx of Jewish capital. Many more entered under cover of darkness and were simply never recorded. And many others had entered just a bit earlier than that with the conquests of Egypt's Muhammad Ali and Ibrahim Pasha in the latter 19th century.

Arab settlers and colonizers...

Now, we're all familiar with the Arab take on this, but how do Iranians like Ahmadinejad see the picture?

Well, at any hint of unrest in Khuzestan/Arabistan, Iran is quick to act in its own national interests--as it should.

So, for example, when Khuzestani Arabs of the Nahda (Renaissance) movement bombed Iranian targets not long ago in Ahwaz and elsewhere, Iran arrested thousands of Arabs and set out to "fix" the problem by any means necessary.

While this is still going on as I write, keep in mind that Iranians are doing likewise to Kurds, Baluchis, and others as well who dare to assert their own political rights. Thousands have been killed as a result over the years in the name of Iranian nationalism.

So, this all begs the question...

Why, in Ahmadinejad's eyes, is Israel supposed to consent to national suicide so Arab colonizers can have their 22nd state and second one in Palestine at the expense of the Jews' one, but Arabistan should not gain independence from Iran as well?

What's good for the goose is good for the gander...no?

Moving on to another related issue, with Iran's continuously blatant threats to Israel's very existence, t he reality is that Iran is indeed playing with fire in its baiting of the Jews.

Ahmadinejad & Co. may calculate that Iran can absorb what might be coming and which they are indeed asking for by threatening the Jew of the Nations.

But all peoples must take such threats seriously. And, in light of frequent past experiences over the millennia(Iran's and other Holocaust-deniers notwithstanding), especially Jews.

A few words of advice, however...

If Israel is forced to act, this cannot be done half way. Tit for tat won't work. The location of the Iranian nuclear facilities and its massive armed forces are just part of the problem.

Iran's Hizbullah proxies in southern Lebanon--armed to the teeth with tens of thousands of rockets and such courtesy of Iran and Syria--must be hit massively and simultaneously a la June 5th, 1967 when Israel took out multiple Arab air forces and such. The murderous, rejectionist leadership must be targeted there as well.

If this is not done, at the very least all of northern Israel will pay an unacceptable price.

None of this should be taken lightly...and it isn't, I'm sure.

One could hope that saner minds in Iran will take control of the situation.

Not that long ago, after all, during the days of the late Shah, Jews had it much better. This was true for much of Iran's history after the spread of Islam...ups and downs, often according to whether the mullahs or the shahs were calling the shots.

While Israel's close relationship with the Pahlavis may have complicated matters (but why shouldn't Israel had sought friends in the region...the Shah was no more despotic than anything the Arabs or Iran's own mullahs have to offer?), there still might be hope for a better tomorrow considering the Jews' millennial relationship with the Iranian people.

Yet Israel can't simply wait for "hope" to materialize into something better.

In the meantime, while Ahmadinejad and others try to cover their own rejectionist hatred with lame excuses, please remember them for the liars, hypocrites, and/or Arab stooges that they are.

And when you hear Iranians speak of "Palestine," answer them with Arabistan.

Gerald A. Honigman, a Florida educator, has created and conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly debated Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been published in both the print media and on websites. Contact him at honigman6@msn.com or go to his website: http://geraldahonigman.com/blog.php

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JEWS, GO AWAY
Posted by Israel Zwick, January 22, 2006.

"Jews, go away! You don't belong here. Go live somewhere else." One would expect statements like this to come from the most virulent antisemites: the white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, or Hamas and Hizbollah. But no, these statements didn't come from the traditional Jew-haters. They came from other Jews -- from Jews living in Israel, in Europe, and in the United States. They were directed at those evil, sinister, vicious "Jewish religious fundamentalists" who had the chutzpah to want to live in the environs of Gaza, Hebron, and Jerusalem. Their crime was to establish residence in, or close to, ancestral Jewish lands, which are now occupied by a high density of Palestinian Arabs.

"Get out of there. You're just causing more friction. You're impeding the peace process. You're endangering our soldiers. You're causing an economic burden on all of us. You're violating the human rights of the Palestinian people." Those are the diatribes being thrown against small groups of Jewish families whose only offense was to live in lands replete with Jewish culture and history. They were young, ambitious, and idealistic. They wanted only to walk in the shadows of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, and the other Biblical heroes who serve as their role models. They wanted to build a life on small specks of land where they could wake up in the morning, gaze with wonder at the clear blue sky, and proclaim proudly, "Yesterday we were tormented and persecuted. Today we are free in our own land. This land is now ours, to develop, to nourish, and to cherish forever."

Then came that dreaded week in August -- The Disengagement. Up until the last moment, supporters of the Jewish communities in Gaza begged and pleaded with the government, "Please don't do it. There's no reason to evict small communities of peaceful, productive Jewish families. You can still rescind your decision." But it was to no avail. The evictions were quickly concluded with the military precision that Israel is renowned for. The disengagement not only shattered the lives of 1700 innocent Jewish families, it shattered the belief that Jews had finally achieved the status of other ethnic groups, to be able to live anywhere in freedom and dignity, without persecution.

Now that the precedent has been set, the process is being repeated. "Why should a handful of Jews live in Hebron among 120,000 hostile Arabs? It only causes more religious friction. Why do Jews need to live near the Temple Mount? It's a major center for Muslim worship. Why do Jews need to live in the Judean Hills? It will only cause friction with the poor Palestinian olive growers." One Jewish writer was even critical of the Jews who were buying Arab homes in the Old City for above-market prices. After all, it isn't fair to the Arabs who can't afford those prices. Ostensibly, it would be fairer if Jews wouldn't be permitted to buy homes in Jerusalem's Old City.

What if a small group of Black Hebrews from Dimona wanted to settle in Hebron, and were told that they didn't have a right to live there? Would Kofi Annan, Condoleeza Rice, and Jesse Jackson say that they should be evicted? What if the Jewish settlers from Judea got fed up with being tormented in Israel and bought a small parcel of land in Montana. Then the local ranchers told them, "We don't want your kind here." Would the liberal Jewish Americans support the ranchers and tell the Jews to live elsewhere to avoid causing friction? Most likely, the same Jews who are denying the rights of Jews to live in Hebron would support their right to live in Montana. Something similar to that actually happened in Billings, Montana in 1993. A small group of white supremacists were harassing and vandalizing the homes of Jews who displayed their Chanuka menorahs. This time, it was the Christians who came to the rescue by placing photos of menorahs in their windows to support their Jewish neighbors. Eventually, the hoodlums got the message that racism and bigotry are not welcome in Billings, Montana. Why aren't Jews doing that? Perhaps all Jews should be wearing orange to support the Jews of Gaza, Hebron, and Judea. Then perhaps the Arabs will get the message that intolerance, hatred, and violence are not welcome anywhere in the Holy Land.

Before our small Jewish community tears itself apart with sinas chinom, baseless hatred towards our own community, we should recall the inspiring lyrics to the theme from the film Exodus. The words were written by a Gentile, Pat Boone, and recorded by the immortal Richard Tucker.

This land is mine
G-d gave this land to me,
This brave and ancient land to me.
And when the morning sun
Reveals the hills and plain
Then I see a land where children can run free.

So take my hand
And walk this land with me
And walk this golden land with me.
Though I am just a man
When you are by my side,
With the help of G-d,
I know I can be strong.

To make this land our home,
If I must fight, I'll fight
To make this land our own.
Until I die, this land is mine.

Contact Israel Zwick at israel.zwick@earthlink.net

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THE ORIGINS OF THE GREAT WAR OF 2007 -- AND HOW IT COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED
Posted by IsrAlert, January 22, 2006.

This was written by Niall Ferguson and appeared in The Telegraph, January 15, 2006. This is from http://www.mideasttruth.com. Niall Ferguson is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University www.niallferguson.org

Are we living through the origins of the next world war? Certainly, it is easy to imagine how a future historian might deal with the next phase of events in the Middle East:

With every passing year after the turn of the century, the instability of the Gulf region grew. By the beginning of 2006, nearly all the combustible ingredients for a conflict -- far bigger in its scale and scope than the wars of 1991 or 2003 -- were in place.

The first underlying cause of the war was the increase in the region's relative importance as a source of petroleum. On the one hand, the rest of the world's oil reserves were being rapidly exhausted. On the other, the breakneck growth of the Asian economies had caused a huge surge in global demand for energy. It is hard to believe today, but for most of the 1990s the price of oil had averaged less than $20 a barrel.

A second precondition of war was demographic. While European fertility had fallen below the natural replacement rate in the 1970s, the decline in the Islamic world had been much slower. By the late 1990s the fertility rate in the eight Muslim countries to the south and east of the European Union was two and half times higher than the European figure.

This tendency was especially pronounced in Iran, where the social conservatism of the 1979 Revolution -- which had lowered the age of marriage and prohibited contraception -- combined with the high mortality of the Iran-Iraq War and the subsequent baby boom to produce, by the first decade of the new century, a quite extraordinary surplus of young men. More than two fifths of the population of Iran in 1995 had been aged 14 or younger. This was the generation that was ready to fight in 2007.

This not only gave Islamic societies a youthful energy that contrasted markedly with the slothful senescence of Europe. It also signified a profound shift in the balance of world population. In 1950, there had three times as many people in Britain as in Iran. By 1995, the population of Iran had overtaken that of Britain and was forecast to be 50 per cent higher by 2050.

Yet people in the West struggled to grasp the implications of this shift. Subliminally, they still thought of the Middle East as a region they could lord it over, as they had in the mid-20th century.

The third and perhaps most important precondition for war was cultural. Since 1979, not just Iran but the greater part of the Muslim world had been swept by a wave of religious fervour, the very opposite of the process of secularisation that was emptying Europe's churches.

Although few countries followed Iran down the road to full-blown theocracy, there was a transformation in politics everywhere. From Morocco to Pakistan, the feudal dynasties or military strongmen who had dominated Islamic politics since the 1950s came under intense pressure from religious radicals.

The ideological cocktail that produced 'Islamism' was as potent as either of the extreme ideologies the West had produced in the previous century, communism and fascism. Islamism was anti-Western, anti-capitalist and anti-Semitic. A seminal moment was the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's intemperate attack on Israel in December 2005, when he called the Holocaust a 'myth'. The state of Israel was a 'disgraceful blot', he had previously declared, to be wiped 'off the map'.

Prior to 2007, the Islamists had seen no alternative but to wage war against their enemies by means of terrorism. >From the Gaza to Manhattan, the hero of 2001 was the suicide bomber. Yet Ahmadinejad, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War, craved a more serious weapon than strapped-on explosives. His decision to accelerate Iran's nuclear weapons programme was intended to give Iran the kind of power North Korea already wielded in East Asia: the power to defy the United States; the power to obliterate America's closest regional ally.

Under different circumstances, it would not have been difficult to thwart Ahmadinejad's ambitions. The Israelis had shown themselves capable of pre-emptive air strikes against Iraq's nuclear facilities in 1981. Similar strikes against Iran's were urged on President Bush by neo-conservative commentators throughout 2006. The United States, they argued, was perfectly placed to carry out such strikes. It had the bases in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan. It had the intelligence proving Iran's contravention of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

But the President was advised by his Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, to opt instead for diplomacy. Not just European opinion but American opinion was strongly opposed to an attack on Iran. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 had been discredited by the failure to find the weapons of mass destruction Saddam Hussein had supposedly possessed and by the failure of the US-led coalition to quell a bloody insurgency.

Americans did not want to increase their military commitments overseas; they wanted to reduce them. Europeans did not want to hear that Iran was about to build its own WMD. Even if Ahmad-inejad had broadcast a nuclear test live on CNN, liberals would have said it was a CIA con-trick.

So history repeated itself. As in the 1930s, an anti-Semitic demagogue broke his country's treaty obligations and armed for war. Having first tried appeasement, offering the Iranians economic incentives to desist, the West appealed to international agencies -- the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Security Council. Thanks to China's veto, however, the UN produced nothing but empty resolutions and ineffectual sanctions, like the exclusion of Iran from the 2006 World Cup finals.

Only one man might have stiffened President Bush's resolve in the crisis: not Tony Blair, he had wrecked his domestic credibility over Iraq and was in any case on the point of retirement -- Ariel Sharon. Yet he had been struck down by a stroke as the Iranian crisis came to a head. With Israel leaderless, Ahmadinejad had a free hand.

As in the 1930s, too, the West fell back on wishful thinking. Perhaps, some said, Ahmadinejad was only sabre-rattling because his domestic position was so weak. Perhaps his political rivals in the Iranian clergy were on the point of getting rid of him. In that case, the last thing the West should do was to take a tough line; that would only bolster Ahmadinejad by inflaming Iranian popular feeling. So in Washington and in London people crossed their fingers, hoping for the deus ex machina of a home-grown regime change in Teheran.

This gave the Iranians all the time they needed to produce weapons-grade enriched uranium at Natanz. The dream of nuclear non-proliferation, already interrupted by Israel, Pakistan and India, was definitively shattered. Now Teheran had a nuclear missile pointed at Tel-Aviv. And the new Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu had a missile pointed right back at Teheran.

The optimists argued that the Cuban Missile Crisis would replay itself in the Middle East. Both sides would threaten war -- and then both sides would blink. That was Secretary Rice's hope -- indeed, her prayer -- as she shuttled between the capitals. But it was not to be.

The devastating nuclear exchange of August 2007 represented not only the failure of diplomacy, it marked the end of the oil age. Some even said it marked the twilight of the West. Certainly, that was one way of interpreting the subsequent spread of the conflict as Iraq's Shi'ite population overran the remaining American bases in their country and the Chinese threatened to intervene on the side of Teheran.

Yet the historian is bound to ask whether or not the true significance of the 2007-2011 war was to vindicate the Bush administration's original principle of pre-emption. For, if that principle had been adhered to in 2006, Iran's nuclear bid might have been thwarted at minimal cost. And the Great Gulf War might never have happened.

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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WHAT NEXT?
Posted by Batya Medad, January 22, 2006.

What next?

There was a time when we thought of our politicians as leaders, as moral and patriotic standard bearers. Now, gevalt, is about the nicest I can think of. I was never one for cursing.

A shockingly large percentage of Israeli Knesset Members are criminals, and I'm not referring to the "founding fathers" who were considered "rebels" and "terrorists" by the British sixty years ago. I'm referring to bribery and all sorts of financial crimes. Of course the really big ones seem immune from punishment, but many societies seem to think that there are different laws for the powerful.

Today while riding home to Shiloh from Jerusalem I was amazed at the fantastically gorgeous, enormous mansions being built by the Arabs. They're allowed to expand their settlements without anybody showing concern or threatening them with expulsion. There are no UN resolutions or statements by Bush and Rice calling them obstacles to peace. They can build and plant to their hearts' desire, and not only doesn't anyone think it's bad, they're encouraged. People come from all over the world, even Jews, to help them. Today I spoke to an old friend who said that a Jewish relative of theirs came to help the Arabs pick olives, to make up for the "crimes" the Israelis have done. Duh? What crimes? We're the victims here!

A short distance from the Arab mansions we passed Givat Asaf, a small Jewish community of young Jewish families living in old decrepit caravans, mobile homes. They're at the junction that leads to Beit El. It's the spot where Asaf Hershkowitz, of Ofra, was murdered by Arab terrorists, just a couple of months after the terrorists murdered his father nearby. This is one of the neighborhoods being threatened by Sharon and now Olmert, even though the land isn't owned by Arabs. The only land owners in the area are Jewish.

It has finally been revealed that anti-Disengagement demonstrators did not throw acid onto the police. Here we are a half a year later, and really do you think that the police and the media will apologize for depicting the young, teenage demonstrators as willfully injuring and endangering the big burly police?

Israel's recent Nobel Prize winner for Economics, Prof. Yisrael Aumann of Hebrew University, spoke at the opening of the 6th Annual Herzliya Conference, calling the treatment of the Disengagement evictees, "a national disgrace." He spoke well, but I'm afraid to hear what great announcement Olmert is planning.

I can't forget that Sharon announced his Disengagement Plan to expel thousands of peaceful Jews from their homes in Gush Katif and Northern Samaria two years ago at the 4th Herzliya Conference. Olmert seems to be in a hyper rush to make his mark and mutilate our Land as fast as he can.

We failed in our attempt to stop Disengagement, and now more and more Jews, thousands more are in danger. Olmert is planning on making our main road Judenrein. That's the road we take to Jerusalem. That's the road to Ofra, where my daughter lives with her husband and children. That's the road I travel to get to work. That is the central access road for most people in Shiloh, Eli, Maale Levona, Shvut Rachel and many in the Shomron.

Our basic civil rights are in danger.

If he, G-d forbid, succeeds in closing the road:

* we will not be able to get to work
* we will not be able to visit family and friends
* we will be deprived of our regular commercial and cultural connections

Where are all the "peace loving" "human rights" activists?

Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il This is archived at shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2006/01/ what-next.html

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WHY SHOULDN'T JEWS LIVE IN HEBRON?
Posted by Juday Tzoref, January 22, 2006.

This was written in response to an email from David Frankenthal of Join the Boycott (jointheboycott@mailcity.com) entitled "Why shouldn't Jews live in Hebron?", which said:

Friends,

The LA Times doesn't think Jews ("settlers") belong in Hebron! (Editorial 1/20/06, p. B12). http://www.unitedjerusalem.org/index2.asp?id=689858

If you want to do something to help Hebron, please write to the LA Times or your local anti-Israel media (NY Times, Washington Post, NPR etc.) and ask them the simple question -- why shouldn't Jews live in Hebron?

There is only one reason. Racism.

Thanks and best wishes. David.

Blaming LA Times -- The Easy Way Out/

Who else but the State of Israel -- which transmits the international message that Jews are uprootable, displaceable and relocateable -- is to be blamed for such stances as that expressed in LA Times.

Where is the righteous American Jewry, that supported the so-called Disengagement which is just a cheap euphemism for a pilot project to experiment the ethnic cleansing of Jews... successful as it turned out to be, beyond all expectations... so, why not more... Hebron for instance, and more and everywhere... final solution for the sake of "peace"... a Judenrein Palestine (once the episode of the State of Israel).

Time and again we manifest the convenient inclination to blame others for our own misdoings. If Israel brandishes a professed intention to adopt the systematic policy of ethnically cleanse its Jewish citizens, why should LA Times be more saint than the Jews themselves...

Dr. Judah (Yehuda) Tzoref is a scientist, trained at the Technion in Haifa and Oxford University in England. His expertise is in physics and energy engineering. He is a grass-roots activist on behalf of Israel. He lives in Rehovot.

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GUSH KATIF'S OFFICIAL WEBSITE IN THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Posted by Moti Sender, January 22, 2006.

Dear friends,

Five months have now passed since we were forced against our will to abandon our homes, greenhouses, businesses, landscapes and synagogues in our beloved Gush Katif. Everything is gone, except for our faith and our hope in a better future; these give us the strength to persevere and plan for a new life.

More than half of the refugees from Gush Katif now live in temporary housing estates around the country; many others are still in hotels, in kibbutzim and in tent camps, with no housing solution in sight.

Gush Katif used to be a cohesive community; everyone knew everyone else, we studied at the same schools, grew the same crops, knew good and bad times together. Now suddenly all this is gone; we are scattered and dispersed in all parts of Israel.

Is there any meaning any more to our website? We have given a lot of thought to this question. Some people told us: "Listen, Gush Katif is gone now; there's no need for a website any more." But after a lot of consideration, and professional consultation, we realized that it was important to maintain a site that would provide a virtual meeting place for the communities of Gush Katif in the past, present and future, a site that would commemorate and document the stories and pictures of Gush Katif.

This site is special because here at katif.net we provide everyone with the chance to log in whenever he or she wants, and say what they want; this is not a site that tries to do something in their stead.

The new site already operates in Hebrew, and we would like very much to launch an English counterpart as well.

The costs of maintaining the site are considerable. That is why together with you we operate our shop, GKOS (Gush Katif Online Store).

All the revenues from the store go towards the maintenance and further development of katif.net.

In the past week we introduced new products which we are certain will interest you and your friends everywhere.

Remember, shopping at GKOS helps us continue operating our site.

We invite you to look into the following links:

1. Be partners of katif.net: http://www.katif.net/~shop/index.php?cPath=37 -- here you can make a contribution so that katif.net will be able to continue its work, and so that we will be able to provide an English-language version of the site.

2. Breathtaking photo albums: http://www.katif.net/~shop/index.php?cPath=41 -- here you can purchase beautiful photo albums, a memento of everyday life at Gush Katif. It is an appropriate item for both children and adults, and for all who wish to know what Gush Katif was like.

3. Magnificent posters: http://www.katif.net/~shop/index.php?cPath=41 -- here you can see and purchase a number of different posters with unique pictures of Gush Katif.

4. New mementos from Gush Katif:

http://www.katif.net/~shop/index.php?cPath=44 -- this URL provides entrance to our shop, where you can find, among other items, new mementos from post-expulsion Gush Katif: pendants, pins, medallions, in different materials: pure silver, silver plate and copper plate.

5. The Lights of Katif: http://www.katif.net/~shop/index.php?cPath=45 -- here you can watch and purchase a special edition of The Lights of Katif, a series of Sabbath and Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremonies.

We invite you to enter our Gush Katif internet shop GKOS (http://shop.katif.net) from time to time to see what's new, what you already purchased and what you don't have yet, when you last contributed to the site. Or maybe today is the right time to begin?

Sincerely yours,

Moti Sender,
katif.net

Contact Moti Sender at mailing@katif.net or go to the website: http://www.katif.net

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UNCLE HAZIM
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 22, 2006.

Uncle Hazim, soon to be that Hamas host with the most, ala a maniacal Islamic Captain Kangaroo, is about to launch a kiddie television show in the Gaza strip intended to mesmerize Muslim children, priming them to someday launch missiles at Israel, or for those at the head of their class to don de rigueur explosive belts morphing in due course themselves to flesh and blood martyring missiles. Uncle Hazim a/k/a Hazim Sharawi, a quiet unassuming young man with that sick sanguinary agenda, will prance around his stage with warm and fuzzy costumed men wearing larger-than-life animal suits sans kalishnikovs reciting twisted Koranic verse, thus titillating while indoctrinating his next generation of Islamic netherworld terrorists, someday unlike their erstwhile nurturing fantasy friends proud owners of kalishnikovs, to torment neighboring Israel and all civilized infidel states on our unstable third stone from its sun. Indeed, parents of these vulnerable youngsters, tuned into this charismatic creep, can watch their soon-to-be dysfunctional darlings absorb the basics of Jew/infidel despising militant martyr-driven Palestinian politics like sadomasochistic sponges; thus morph into future jihad junkies rather than perhaps doctors, scientists, lawyers, engineers, or teachers; and be ever so proud of their deviant child-rearing judgment allowing the creation of yet another lost generation of muddled Muslim souls. There is something especially insidious inherent to this strategy of seduction, targeting innocents that never really have a chance to see the secular world in unbiased terms. Such child abuse meted out by teaching aids consisting of perceived soft cuddly creatures savages futures perhaps more efficiently than glorified tanks and mortar shells, more readily seducing gullible parents into allowing their children's malleable minds to partake of the metaphorical magic mushrooms potentially expanding into an ominous nuclear mushroom cloud as a consequence of one such child one day being strapped to a nuke.

How might Gaza evolve into a worthy civil society when its future citizens are so weaned on hatred and violence? Gush Katif's erstwhile state of the art century twenty-one hydroponic greenhouses alas no longer grace this barbarically transformed Mediterranean enclave, likely to soon be replaced by state of the art homicidal/suicidal weapon caches reminiscent in philosophy of the dark ages. No doubt, the contemptible warped and fuzzy Arab Captain Kangaroo with Koran will play no small part in crafting this mutation of a nation, an abomination to the evolving scientific secular spirit of intelligent mankind. His Frankenstein creation of a Muslim monster in the clever guise of pooh bears and birds that pray will metastasize through the bowels of an exponentially expanding fulminating fundamentalist Islam preying on wide-eyed boys and girls. Could there be anything more harmful and shameful?

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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KARADI'S COOKOO BEHAVIOR CONTINUES
Posted by Voice of Judea, January 22, 2006.

This was written by Mosh Kleinman

If Israel's Chief of police Moshe Karadi's comments about exploring the option to use live fire to evict Jews from Hebron was not enough to gain him condemnation across the political spectrum of the religious and right wing leaders in Israel, his new decision to extend the closure of a Jerusalem Interent Cafe' because the owners are right wing Jewish "terrorists" is sure to turn him into one of the more hated Israeli police chief's ever.

Karadi justified his unprecedented action on what he called suspicion that the store housed activities on behalf of the Gedud HaIvri, a volunteer group that offers security for Israel by raising special defense dogs that help detect Arab terrorists. Karadi explained in his letter to Naftali Worzberger, the attorney for the Gedud HaIvri, that he considers the Gedud HaIvri to be a terrorist organ and that his proof is the fact that he found Kahane writings, pictures and books among the material confiscated from the store. He also sited the fact that some workers in the store are believed to have been active in the outlawed Kahane Chai group.

Yekutiel Ben Yakov, Director of the Jewish Legion, who also worked part time in the store said that Karadee needs to be committed and not necessarily to a cause, however, there is a sense of logic; albeit twisted logic, that could explain his insane behavior. It stands to reason that a man who considers shooting at Jews in Hebron and who is part of a system that gives weapons to Arab terrorists, would fight against law-abiding Jewish defenders who contribute to Israeli security. What would Karadi like me to do? If I am not allowed to raise dogs for Israel's security and if I am not allowed to work in a private internet cafe', what am I allowed to do?"

Subscribe to Voice of Judea emails by sending an email request to jsid@dorsai.org

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DETECTION SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFYING EVIL
Posted by Gary S., January 22, 2006.

This article was written by Andrew Klavan January 14, 2006 and it appeared in the Los Angeles Times (www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-klavan14jan14,1,9258) January 15, 2006.

THERE IS ONE good thing about anti-Semitism: It lets you know who the bad guys are. Right, left, black, white, freak or straight, the minute someone starts rattling on about the evil Jews, you know your train just pulled into Slimeball Station.

All bigotry is wrong, of course, but there's something about this particular form of prejudice that is weirdly reliable as a sign of deeper wickedness. Perhaps it's because the Jews contributed so much to humanity's moral code that to hate them as a race is to despise the restraints of morality itself

Whatever the reason, true, virulent anti-Semitism is such a good indicator of the presence of evil that I'm tempted to believe that when God made the Jews his chosen people, this is what he chose them for: to be a sort of Villainy Early Detection System for everyone else.

Unfortunately, in his infinite love for his creation, I suspect the Big Guy may have overestimated our intelligence. Maybe he thought that after Hitler we'd just, you know, like, get it. Instead, we still see apparently intelligent people appeasing, making excuses for and even embracing the sorts of stinkers who ought to set off the Big Alarm.

That's why I think the system could use more bells and whistles -- a loud honking noise perhaps, or even closed captioning for the morally impaired. Thus, when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the Holocaust is a "myth" or that Israel "must be wiped off the map," you would hear a loud honk and words would appear in the air below his face: "Hello. I am an evil madman. Please stop negotiating with me now and proceed to cripple my nuclear capability by any means necessary."

Or how about when Venezuelan leader -- and anti-American Iran ally -- Hugo Chavez warns that "descendants of those who crucified Christ S have grabbed all the world's riches for themselves"? Honk. His subtitle: "Hi. I know you lefties are still enamored of the idea of socialism -- fine. But personally, I'm a jerk and a friend of tyranny. "

Now, I understand the situation in the Middle East is morally and politically complex, as is the situation in South America. I know that honorable people can hold conflicting opinions about the issues in these places. But when the entrenched misery of an area nearly as large as the United States is consistently blamed on 5 million people in a country the size of a shoebox, or when the ills of the world are loaded onto less than 1% of its population, I begin to become suspicious.

If it were only a matter of hating Jews, we could say: "Feel free, hate everyone, knock yourself out." The trouble is the suffering, the slaughter of innocents and indeed the destruction of entire nations that seems inevitably to follow when anti-Semitism is allowed to spread beyond the cesspool of the mind that contains it. History is too full of lowlifes who thought all their problems would be solved if they could just kill enough Jews for us not to realize that their Final Solutions aren't final and are no solution. They are often the first, and sometimes the last, road sign pointing the way to an earthly hell.

So here's a plan. The next time you express an opinion on what's wrong with the world, take a look around to see who's nodding in agreement. If it's some clown who thinks the Jewish state should be pushed into the sea, or that the Jews killed Christ or are conspiring to subvert the world economy or the government or the media, I beg you to consider that you might be wrong. There is no shame in changing your opinion. Falling into step with wicked fools -- that's shameful, and it's dangerous too. God gave you an early detection system. Use it.

Contact Gary S. at ahavat@telkomsa.net

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CAPITULATION TO VIOLENCE
Posted by Professor Eugene Narrett, January 22, 2006.

"If there is one thing worse than the use of violence it is capitulation to violence," Israel's Chief of Police, Moshe Karadi reportedly asserted today in Herzliya. Mr. Karadi is right but of course, like his employers, his application of this sound principle is totally perverse.

Everyday Israel capitulates to a greater or lesser degree to Arab violence and threats of violencce. Everyday thousands of illegally built Arab structures in Yesha stand unthreatened while Jews, Israeli citizens are beaten, incarcerated without charges, and their houses razed.

with a few very brief glorious exceptions, Israel's policy since its inception has been capitualation to Islamic violence and the threats of violence. Nearly every response is belated and partial, and the Islamic violence resumes quickly.

It has been the policy of the Histadrut and its political arm, Labor and its affilliates and offshoots (including the post-Camp David Likud) to capitulate to Arab violence and the threats of violence, including threats of violence from Europe and Washington DC.

There are many reasons why all officials involved in these repeated, obsessive, recidivist capitulations to violence should resign and be charged and treated the way Karadi and his button-pushers want to treat the Jews of Hebron. If there is anything that distinguishes communists and leftists (p.c.) generally these past 160 years it is their enormous, monstrous hypocrisy. They are the most violent, hate-filled, intolerant pack of destroyers a culture can produce. The Jews of Israel must "spit them out" or be spit out by them.

We hear so much about "incitement" and laws against "incitement" in Israel, and about Jews being incarcerated for it or for suspicions of it, etc. Moshe Karadi and Olmert, like others before them, are blatantly guilty of blatant, homicidal incitement against the Jews of Yesha and Hebron. Where are all the lawyers in Israel? Israel, which to its shame has the highest per capita rate of lawyers in the world. Where are they to sue these officials and their media mouthpieces guilty of homicidal incitement against Jews?

The Jews of Hebron are the apple orchard of Israel, the garlands of the chariot and throne here below. The entire Jewish people owes them debts of identity, memory, personhood, prayer, and land. Attorneys, media, citizens must rise to defend them and to make the inciters against them defend themselves.

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.

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ENDTIME CURIOSITIES AND COMPLEXITIES, II: TEXTS, PERSONALITIES, EVENTS, SCHEMES
Posted by Professor Eugene Narrett, January 22, 2006.
ENDTIME CURIOSITIES & COMPLEXITIES, II: Texts, Personalites, Events, Schemes... 22 January 2006, 22 -28 Tevet 5766, E. Narrett

"It will be on that day that Hashem will thresh from the surging Euphrates to the brook of Egypt and gather in all His scattered ones. And a great shofar will be sounded; and those who are servants in Happy Land, and those who contaiminated from the land of bondage shall come to celebrate before Hashem on His holy mountain..." (Isaiah 28, Haftara parsha Va'eira, Exodus 6:3 -- 9)

We are come to a momentous season, a time when the keywords of existence unlock and interpret events rushing toward us at accelerating speeds. Public events and the speech that 'describes' them spin mists that hide their layers of design. Holy texts in season penetrate the veils. Lies are being exposed to be broken...

The foremost Kabbalist in Israel, Rav Yitzhak Kaduri, about the age of Joseph the righteous when his neshama ascended, has gone to hospital saying, "the redemption is coming." The neshama of the righteous pull the nefesh and ruach to the spice meadows and, gathering a crown from the King, descend with their healing fragrance to the depths of Hebron where the throne and chariot are completed and the camp of Israel united. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their spouses, Adam and Eve and David, whose 70 years, a part of Adam's portion, a tenth of them, a shemittah cycle is in Hebron, are established, calling in the covenant obligations God promised His beloved Jewish people. For "the holy kingdom could not be fully established without attaching itself to the patriarchs in Hebron" (Zohar, Va'eira, 31a-b).

And in these days the servants of Edom and of the perverse masters that make Happy Land ("Eretz Ashur") so sad are attempting to destroy the garden of redemption by uprooting His Community, the "cup of consolations" from Hebron.

Below, we will talk of events as the world speaks, for there are many complexities, to our eyes, of the playing out the last few spaces on the board; many ways for us to reach the end. Who is Pharaoh today? Who is being broken in ten great strokes, and will be annihilated after the end, in the postscript to history, since the deeds of the fathers are a pattern to the sons? Who is master of that mighty nation that retricts and contaminates the Jewish people? They who are the "handiwork" of Yah, "the people I have created to declare My praise," He states.

Upon those who have scattered, discarded and contaminated Israel, and who are restricting and staining them now, the Zohar states that Yah God will hurl upon them the Arav, the confusion, horde of beasts and disorder from which creation was called by Yah's tapestry of Hebrew speech (Genesis 1). Fighting oveor God's covenanted land, Greece and Persia, the winged goat and the bear created a vaccuum into which, for the first time in history, the Arav swept. Their disorder, their entropy can go no further. The vermin, the epidemic, and the utter confusion will be cast, measure for measure upon those who worshipped "hybrid and perverse" beasts, and humans with beast-heads, as the Egptians did. As the Zohar indicates, this is the Vatican that through organizations as seemingly disparate as the "Paving the Way" foundation, headed by a "Jewish -- Catholic" doctor, clawing at Mt. Zion. It will be for Rome as for ancient Egypt. "The same punishment is destined to be meted out by the Holy One, blessed be He, to Rome, the great Metropolis," to Europe as it is written, "Who is this coming from Edom His garments sullied with blood...a great slaughter in the land of Batzrah" (Zohar 30b -- 31a, 32a; cf. Isaiah 63 -4).

Events are rushing toward them......

Those who control the major media of the world, those who set the parameters of permissible 'debate' and forge its mind-cramping vocabulary of lies have decided to inform the public that there is a danger of Nuclear Armageddon from Iran, known from ancient until recent times as Persia, "the Bear." Iran has been developing its ballistic missiles, the Shuhab series (now in its third, intercontinental stage) and warhead technology for at least ten years ith assistance from Russia and others via North Korea. Its nuclear technology is courtesy of Russia, Germany and France. For several years it has had missiles than can blanket Israel, and has rarely ceased insisting it will the "apple of God's eye." Now its Shuhab III can reach central Europe and steadily, quickly the world is being alerted that there is a serious threat that even the UN and the leftist parties will have to acknowledge. The crisis, having been created, is now going to be solved, the power think, in their way.

This remains to be seen. In-fighting among the interlocking interests in "the West" may protract the outcome into the spring, until the Bear strikes first. It is written that "in the end of days, Edom will attack Ishmael, Ishmael will enflame Persia, and Persia will attack the entire world. Israel will run back and forth, crying, 'where shall I go? What shall I do.'" That certainly sounds like Labor-Kadima-Likud that colludes with "those that say, 'come, let us blot them out from nationhood, that Israel's name not be remembered anymore." And with the name and memory of Israel, the Name, nature and knowledge of Yah God, Hashem, the Master and Maker of the universe they mean to blot out and replace with their "other gods."

We will see.

In Mesopotamia, in the British-minted state of 'Iraq' (b. 1923, a vassal of the house of Saud -Arabi, the horde) there are complexites and confusion, schemes within schemes. It is not only that making of Mesopotomia's disparate groups a single nation there, much less one capable of "democracy," is a thing of smoke and mirrors, a deceit and delusion. It is that: the British Foreign Ministry, which began dominating the British media in the 1930s and then integrated itself with the American State Department and American media has succeeded, it would appear, in having American governments and American soldiers prop up and discipline its rogue Arab puppet state in Mesopotamia, securing not only the oil from Mosul and Basra, but its control of the middle east, and thus of world commerce and most importantly, ideologies. And making, they fact, "Iraq" a settled fact.

But the non-war conflict, operation 'democracy in Iraq' [sic] also serves as fly paper, drawing the plague of Arob into the area, murdering each other, lamentably, at a sad cost in American lives and in establishing in blood the fiction of a nation of "Iraq." (Note that the Islamic world recognizes no such nation; there are only dar al Islam, dar al sulh [nations that buy temporary truce by concessions and tribute]; and dar al Harb, the realm of war). But this bloody and sad police action does keep many hostiles pre-occupied and far from certain shores, which in many ways, for many people is a blessing, even if it is a nasty way of buying time.

In the belated crisis regarding the ballistic missiles and nuclear capability of Persia, and the messianic, apocalypse-minded leaders there, "Iraq's" a-historical, imposed boundaries will dissolve in blood and storm. Ahmedenijab sees himself as the 12th Shi'ite Imam whose return, expected since 941 CE will usher in global war and the global rule of Shi'a Islam.

Ahmedenijab has made speeches asserting that only Shi'ites are human. So an attack on his regime will free the Islamic world, especially the Saudi -- Wahhabis of their main rival and enemy. Those who frame the issue as one of Iran v. Israel are low and middlebrows of the usual blame-the-Jews crowd. There is a strong case that regime change in Iran and a taking down of its military capabilities helps Saudi -- Wahhabi near and long term goals and interests as much or more than those of Israel. Certainly there is precedent for the house of Bush working extensively with that of Saud, but this matter should not be personalized. The State Department and Foreign Ministry of Britain are the main players here; their agenda is only inflected, not changed by the pez dispenser at the top of the ticket, though some dispensers (e.g. Bush Senior) do help cook the pez....

So powers in the uttermost west are buying time in order to, 1) apply pressure to their Israeli puppets to uproot the alternative and ultimate source of sanctity, authority, wisdom and power; 2) marshal at least tepid support from their own 'opposition' and from Edom in order to minimize damage to their interests and their control of the pez; 3) continuing to keep the Arav from surging over the world too much; 4) fine tuning the assessment of how much damage will be tolerated and who will suffer it; 5) doing Israel a "favor" while continuing to destroy the Jewish content of the state, and perhaps the state itself. Thanks.

These schemes are not pretty; allies and friends get help only on the terms of the powers. Remember our (and Israel's) ally the Shah of Iran? How the French unleashed Khomeini from Paris into Persia and how the sick Shah was bundled on an American plane that flew around and around and around until he died? At the roof of the world there are no pretty schemes and no allies, except perhaps Britain, is safe from Gog's designs.

Another interesting distraction in the media weather has been talk about the impossibility of Israel's air force reaching Iran and doing for the world what it did in 1981 at Osirak. We hear about the logisitical differences: many widely diffused sites, the far greater distances; we hear of supposed American refusal to allow Israeli overflight of Mesopotamia. But after all, given the heart of the Jonathan Pollard case, the withholding from Israel by a few highly placed officials of American intelligence on "Iraqi" and Libyan weapons of mass destruction targeting Israel, this potential refusal is only too possible.

These scenarios overlook some facts: Israel might be persuaded, even ordered to strike, or assist in a strike, even while the official word shuts it out, as it has been shut out of direct participation in both of the Anglo-American wars in Mesopotamia (1991; 2003 -- ongoing). While it is difficult to imagine a near-term scenario, save one, in which Israel does not lose its pariah status, there is one truth not mentioned publicly: Israel has about a half dozen nuclear submarines that could be positioned to accomplish most or all of the destruction of Iran's missiles (America has many more). American, British, and Israeli air power, if allowed, could finish the job and then the Anglo-American establishment would proceed to the next step of their crisis creation -- crisis management game.

From a Jewish perspective, the fact that we are at this point, although fitting the historical and millenarian perspectives, is preposterous. The Shulchan Aruch of Rav Yosef Karo makes very clear that when an enemy or enemies gather to attack Israel, even the edge of its outermost boundaries, it is mandatory upon Jews to "kill them first." But the galut and the hellenists still rule in Israel. Thus the nightmare, the sorrow and the pity drag on.

Israel is at or very near to its nadir, that is clear, with black-shirted police beating women and children in Hebron next to the cave of the patriarchs, and preparing for more of this horor throughout Judea and Samaria. This also may well be the "dar al sulh" tribute paid by Washington to Saud; it also is the burying of that other Authority the new world order intends at all costs to supplant, but gradually, so as still to be profitable, like turning Mt. Zion into a center for Catholic tourism, Truly, the nations are drunk, and not with wine...

With Israel at its nadir, the time is ripe for a decisive reversal. There are many many signs of degeneracy, vicious scheming, and radical reversal near at hand. We have been taught since Hashem made the covenant of the parts with Avraham, since Moshe taught us in parsha Tochacha (Deuteronomy 28), since the song, "Ha'Azinu" he sang to Israel on the last full day of his life (Deut. 32) that "redemption and the Moshiach will not come till everyone despairs" from what they see. We are told that the end of days, "will be a generation of perverts; children will not respect parents, wives will not respect husbands, the wise man will be esteemed a fool, the virtuous will be scorned and exiled while scoffers and sluts will be adored." And so "today we praise wanton sinners," as Malachi said. All this we see: the shadow rulers of America relentlessly betray and undermine Israel, empower and often apologize for global jihad, and the plagues of immorality and the deification of the state proceed. The Europeans demand the division of Jerusalem and Eurabia demands that EU troops police the Jewish heartland.

The day of judgment seems to be at hand.

Jews are taught that the deeds of the fathers (the earliest generations of the Jews) are a pattern for their descendants. It was about 3320 years ago that ten of the twelve scouts that Moshe sent to spy out the Promised Land returned, on Tisha B'Av with "evil reports" claiming that the Jewish people could not conquer it (Numbers 14). Instead of entering Israel directly after completing the Ark and its Tabernacle a year after the revelation at Sinai; instead of the month of Av, the month of the Father, being the triumph it should have been, that generation had to wander another 38 years and 8 months, till its entire military host died out because of its disengagement from its heritage.

In June 1967, following the miracle victory of that June, the Labor leaders of Israel repeated this betrayal, refusing to follow up and secure Israel's promised boundaries and instead, as in a nightmare, in a trance, offering to give away the heartland for which Jews had fought, worked, bled, and yearned for millenia. Thus has followed 38 years of "[Jewish] land for [worthless American and Eurabian promises of] peace" schemes. This February, around Tu B'Shvat, the New Year of Trees, it will be 38 years and 8 months since that horrible repetition of the sin of the spies.

Is Israel ready to become itself? Is it ready to shine, to rise up like a lion and conquer with joy? To make the entire land blossom and "dwell secure, solitary in the likeness of Jacob: even its heavens will drip with dew." For it is a people that shall dwell apart, an example and light to the nations, not be counted among them.

The Torah portions that Israel is studying and singing from now until the latter part of February are those that deal with Pharaoh's defiance of the Holy One, blessed be He, and the steady and devastating revelation of His sovereignty and His relation to Israel, His "first born son" (Exodus 4:22). This week the world is reminded that the Master and Maker of all worlds is "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. This is My Name forever," He states, "and this is My rememberance through all generations!"

In the following weeks we will read of the hammer blows it took for Pharaoh, Egypt, and, in a foretaste, Babylon, Happy Land (Ashur), and Edom to learn this lesson. Portions Vayeira, Bo, Beshallach, this last in which is described the Holy One's splitting of the Sea, Pharaoh's furious pursuit of Israel into it and the destruction of Egypt, the pattern for Edom, as the Zohar states (above). That following monday, February 13, is Tu B'Shevat, the 15th of Shevat, the month alluding to the tribes -- branches of Israel, and to the tithes that Israel takes from its literal branches to bring before the King Hashem in Jerusalem.

The apple orchards will be in full blossom, and the lioness will gather her cubs. The high holy ones will raise their arms in supplication, and Hashem will thresh from the surging Euphrates to the river of Egypt...

"Nations are in turmoil; kingdoms totter. He has raised His voice, the earth dissolves... a fortress for Israel is the God of Jacob, selah!"

And on the last folio page of the Zohar's commentary on Torah portion Va'eira, it speaks of these battles and this glorious reversal, joy of all on earth who have eyes to see. "Ishmael is destined to rule over the land for a long time, so long as it is empty..." And so they did, until the land became "astonishing bare and desolate," just as the Eternal One had said through Moshe. "And they will prevent Israel from returning to their land until their [Ishmael's] merit is exhausted," as it was by the end of the 19th century CE. And so it came to pass...

And more: "and the sons of Ishmael will fight mighty battles in the world, and the sons of Edom will gather against them and make war on them on land and on sea, some close to Jerusalem" as we see in our days, bringing indelible sins on themselves by dividing up the land the Almighty raised His hand in a covenant to give forever to the Jewish people.

"Fear not, My servant Jacob, and Israel, My chosen One, for I have fashioned you: I clasp your right hand..." The Zohar continues on this week's portion as we approach the crippling of the bear and a radical tikkun of the world: "but the Holy Land will not be delivered to the sons of Edom. Then a nation from the furthest ends of the earth will rise against WICKED ROME and many nations will gather there and fall into the hands of that people," who else is this but America whose foundational principles and inspiration were drawn from the scriptures and history of the Jewish people.

"Then all the sons of Edom will congregate against her from all the ends of the earth" as is stated by Ezekiel, Zechariah, Daniel and other of the great prophets: "it will come in the end of days that all the nations of the world will gather against Jerusalem..." And then "the Holy One will rise against them as it says: "A slaughter in Batzrah and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. He will take hold of the ends of the earth that the wicked will be shaken out of it (Job 38:13). He will wipe out the children of Ishmael from the Holy Land and crush all the powers and principalities of the nations and only one power will remain above to rule over the nations, namely the divine power representing Israel," joy of all the world. And the Ancient of Days will give victory to the high holy ones [Israel] and their kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, as He promised. And "then I will turn the peoples to a pure language [Hebrew] that they may call upon the name of the Lord to serve Him with one consent" and "on that day, the Hashem will be One, and His Name, One" (Zohar 32a, citing Haggai 3, Daniel 7, Zephaniah, Zechariah 14).

With Jews being beaten by Israeli thugs in Hebron, amidst the very fragance of Eden that grieves and supplicates and calls forth redemption from above, the darkness approaches dawn. In every Jew embracing Hebron, David and Caleb live.

The schemes of the powers have many complexities and goals, but Yah Who sits above holds them in derision. The iron rod is descending and the only real and beautiful world order is about to be established. Amen.

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.

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ANTI-SEMITISM'S PRESENTABLE COUSIN
Posted by Gary S., January 21, 2006.

This was written by George Jonas and appeared yesterday in the Canada National Post (www.canada.com/nationalpost/columnists/story.html? id=b5af97b7-2ae0-49d0-9992-d255eb3dbdfd

A few months ago, UCLA Professor Judea Pearl suggested an interesting formula to fight racism on campus. Instead of regarding anti-Zionism as a flimsy cover for anti-Semitism, as we usually do, we should go further and view anti-Zionism itself as racist. "Framing anti-Zionism as racism is precisely the weapon that our students need for survival on campus," he argued on the pages of The Jewish Journal Of Greater Los Angeles.

Dr. Pearl, whose academic field is artificial intelligence, is the father of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter abducted and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan. It happened four years ago, almost to the day. Last night, I talked with the late foreign correspondent's father on the phone.

Like his son, Dr. Pearl believes in dialogue. He runs the Daniel Pearl Foundation with the aim of carrying on his son's legacy, defined as "using music and words to help people better understand one another." This may sound a bit like the credo of a bleeding-heart liberal, but only until one realizes that for Dr. Pearl "dialogue" isn't a code word for displaying the white flag. For the UCLA scholar, "dialogue" means words of firm purpose, fighting words if necessary, not words as substitute for surrender.

"Anti-Zionism is racism" is more than a neat reversal of the infamous (and eventually rescinded) United Nations formula of "Zionism is racism." To quip that one opposes anti-Semitism because it may lead to anti-Zionism would merely be clever, akin to saying that Baptists oppose sex because it may lead to dancing. But Dr. Pearl is offering a thesis, not a bon mot. As he explains it, "Anti-Zionism earns its racist character from denying the Jewish people what it grants to other collectives (e.g. Spanish, Palestinians), namely, the right to nationhood and self-determination."

Dr. Pearl's words ring familiar. They echo words I heard more than 60 years ago, inside a Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Budapest, during heated debates between my Zionist uncle and my non-Zionist father.

The year was 1944. Israel did not yet exist. European Jews were facing Hitler's "final solution," that is, extermination. A homeland for Jews seemed like a lifeboat for people drowning at sea. Yet my father opposed Zionism. A liberal internationalist, he considered any form of nationalism a disease, including Jewish nationalism. This outraged my Zionist uncle.

"Explain to me why," he demanded. "Why isn't it a disease for Frenchmen to live together in a country called France? Why isn't it a disease for the Dutch to live together in a country called Holland? And if it's not a disease for them, why is it a disease for Jews to live together in a country called Israel?"

My father, of course, considered nationalism a disease for the French and the Dutch no less than for the Jews -- or, if not exactly a disease, an outmoded form of social organization that would soon be as obsolete as the horse and buggy. He saw no reason for Jews to start building, through Zionism, a type of edifice for themselves that was about to be abandoned by everybody else.

As we now know, my father turned out to be wrong in this view, or at least premature. Nation-states are thriving in the 21st century -- and they're also considered to be legitimate forms of social organizations for groups to aspire to, attain, or preserve.

All groups, that is, except the Jews, according to anti- or post-Zionists. Which is why Dr. Pearl has a point. Anti-Zionism, whatever it may have been 60 years ago, does have a racist tinge today. The current climate considers all national aspirations legitimate, except that of the Jews.

This being so, one is tempted to agree with Dr. Pearl that anti-Zionism is worse than anti-Semitism. First, it's more dire in its potential consequences. "As a form of racism," Pearl writes, "it targets the most vulnerable part of the Jewish people, namely, the people of Israel, who rely on the sovereignty of their state for physical safety, national identity and personal dignity."

Next, anti-Zionism may have a greater chance of acculturation than anti-Semitism. "While people of conscience reject anti-Semitism, anti-Zionist rhetoric has become a mark of academic sophistication and social acceptance in Europe and in some U.S. campuses," Pearl observes.

Indeed, people who would feel traumatized if accused of anti-Semitism, might shrug off a charge of anti-Zionism, or even embrace it with pride.

UCLA's professor of artificial intelligence offers his formula as anti-Zionism=racism. To me it seems to compute.

Contact Gary S. at ahavat@telkomsa.net

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U.S. HOLOCAUST MUSEUM COMES UNDER FIRE FOR FAILING TO ADDRESS ARAB ANTI-SEMITISM
Posted by Unity Coalition for Israel, January 20, 2006.

This was written by Meghan Clyne and appeared yesterday in The New York Sun.

WASHINGTON -- Amid pledges from Iran to "wipe Israel off the map" and to hold a conference examining whether the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews is a "myth," America's Holocaust Museum is under fire for its silence about Arab assistance to the Nazis during World War II, and about the intensifying hatred of Jews in the Arab Middle East today.

Leading the charge is Holocaust Museum Watch, a national organization formed 18 months ago to spur the museum toward meaningful acknowledgment of Arab anti-Semitism. A forum at the National Synagogue here last night -- headlined by Rep. Eliot Engel, a Democrat of New York; the author of "IBM and the Holocaust," Edwin Black; the president of the Amcha Coalition for Jewish Concerns, Rabbi Avi Weiss, and other Jewish leaders -- marked Holocaust Museum Watch's inaugural public event.

In particular, Holocaust Museum Watch charges that the federally chartered and federally funded United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is failing to meet the obligations set forth in its government-approved founding documents. The congressional legislation that approved the museum in 1980 was based on a 1979 report issued by the President's Commission on the Holocaust, established by President Carter and chaired by Elie Wiesel. Among other responsibilities, the commission tasked the museum with maintaining a Committee on Conscience, charged with monitoring potential genocidal situations and issuing an "'institutional scream' to alert the conscience of the world and spark public outcry" at the earliest signs of genocidal intent.

But while calls for destroying the Jewish state have been the mainstay of the Arab Middle East for decades, critics say, the Holocaust Museum has not issued any "institutional scream," or even included exhibits or materials about Arab anti-Semitism in the museum's facilities. It has also declined repeated requests to hold conferences or events addressing the issue.

"There is anti-Semitism emanating from parts of the Muslim world, and this is not a problem which should escape the concern of the Holocaust Museum," Mr. Engel said in a statement to The New York Sun. "I think it is time that the museum consider intensifying its focus on this continuing concern."

"It's unbelievable," the rabbi of the National Synagogue, Shmuel Herzfeld, told the Sun yesterday. "They won't talk about Egypt, about Syria, about Saudi Arabia -- it's like the big elephant in the room."

Arab anti-Semitism, the rabbi added, is a widely recognized phenomenon; earlier this week, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld likened remarks by President Ahmadinejad of Iran to the early writings of Hitler. The museum's leaders, Rabbi Herzfeld said, "are the last ones in the world to admit that there's such a thing as Arab anti-Semitism."

Rabbi Herzfeld and other critics argued that the museum's silence on Arab anti-Semitism was likely the result of its political burdens. Two-thirds of the museum's operating budget is taxpayer-funded, and its leaders are presidential appointees. This has, in the past, placed museum officials in tricky spots regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict, and Rabbi Weiss cited as an example the Clinton administration's insistence that the former head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat, be given a guided personal tour of the museum. The then-director of the museum, Walter Reich, refused and promptly was fired.

"They are not talking about the major issues because they upset certain political niceties in Washington," Rabbi Herzfeld said. "That's fine if you're the State Department, but if you're tasked with preserving the memory of the Shoah, and you deal with it in a callous political fashion, that's deeply offensive."

According to Rabbi Weiss, the museum, which has had more than 22.8 million visitors since it opened in 1993, is also failing in its instructional capacity.

"Everyone looks to the museum for direction relative to Shoah memory," the rabbi said. Their silence on Arab anti-Semitism, he said, "has contributed to it now moving to a next step, and that is the step of Arab leadership denying the Shoah openly."

A spokesman for the museum, Arthur Berger, declined to comment on specific criticisms from Holocaust Museum Watch, and stressed: "We are principally a historical and educational institution on the history of the Holocaust. Our mandate is 1933 to 1945."

Moreover, Mr. Berger said, the museum's Web site highlights a statement denouncing Mr. Ahmadinejad's remarks, and links to organizations, including the Middle East Media Research Institute, that monitor Arab anti-Semitism. Mr. Berger said he was not aware of any exhibits or conferences addressing Arab anti-Semitism as an independent issue.

"We are not able to do everything that is even in our mandate," Mr. Berger said. "We don't have the staff, and we don't have the money for it."

The museum's operating budget for fiscal year 2006 is $66.6 million, $42.6 million of which is provided through federal appropriations.

To the founder and one of the board members of Holocaust Museum Watch, Carol Greenwald, the museum's failure to comply with its mandate represents an unacceptable lack of accountability for taxpayer dollars.

Ms. Greenwald, a financial-investment analyst who sits on the boards of several pro-Israel organizations, was also critical of the museum's contents.

One example of misplaced focus, Ms. Greenwald said, is a video documentary about Christianity's role in the Holocaust, addressing historic episodes such as anti-Semitic violence after medieval passion plays and the writings of Martin Luther. "Given that they don't have any hesitation about having a movie like that," Ms. Greenwald said, "they should have a movie or an exhibit that talks about the role extremist Islam is playing in spreading religious and racial hatred."

The museum's unresponsiveness to such criticism, Ms. Greenwald, drove her to establish Holocaust Museum Watch. Her inability to get the museum to include some mention of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, who conspired with Hitler to liquidate the Jewish population of British Palestine, was particularly irksome, Ms. Greenwald said.

Last night's forum, she added, is just a first step toward bringing accountability and a renewed sense of focus to the museum.

"I'm not going away," she pledged. "We're not going away."

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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FORMER GAZA FAMILY DETERMINED TO REBUILD THEIR LIVES
Posted by Bryna Berch, January 20, 2006.

Anita Tucker is one remarkable lady. Tough, resilent, and strongly determined to thrive in Israel and make Israel thrive. Now why can't any of the political parties nominate her for Prime Minister?

This was written by Jerry D. Barach and it appeared in the Cleveland Jewish News (CJN). (www.clevelandjewishnews.com/articles/2006/01/19/news/ israel/nfamily0120.txt).

Jerry D. Barach, former editor of the CJN, made aliyah with his family 26 years ago.

Jerusalem: After all that Anita and Stuart Tucker, formerly of Netzer Hazani in Gush Katif, Gaza have been through for the past several months, one would think their spirits would be broken and they would be ready to call it quits.

Yes, they do have plenty of criticism and bitter feelings about how they and others like them have been treated by the government, both during, and especially after, last summer's disengagement from Gaza and northern Samaria.

But in the lectures given by Anita, who has long served as a popular, if unofficial, spokesperson for the Gush Katif population n and in conversation with Stuart, one also gets a feeling of a strong determination to carry on and to rebuild. One might even call it a kind of defiance against the odds or just plain old Israeli chutzpah.

The Tuckers lost their home and their town and also a profitable greenhouse vegetable-farming operation in Netzer Hazani. Moreover, neither of them is at an age where starting over is easy even for those who haven't been displaced. Stuart is 63, and Anita has just turned 60.

A pleasant, soft-spoken man, Stuart was born in Cleveland. He grew up there and in Cleveland Heights. He graduated from The Hebrew Academy and from Telshe Yeshiva High School before going on to earn a master's degree and rabbinical ordination at Yeshiva University in New York. He and Anita, a New Yorker, wed in the U.S. and came on aliyah in 1969. In 1976, they became one of the first couples to settle in Gush Katif, then consisting only of barren sand dunes.

Warned that nothing could grow there, these "city folk" defied the odds and, like dozens of others, developed a "going" greenhouse business, growing various kinds of vegetables, some of them organic, for the local market and for export. Stuart, whose degree was in biology, found work teaching in his field. Later, he taught English until his recent retirement. Over the years, the couple raised five childen, all born in Israel, and they have 12 grandchildren. Two of their sons were also farmers in Gush Katif.

"I had a home; I had a big, successful business, a little piece of the land of Israel and all that was stolen from me," says Anita. But what couldn't be stolen, according to both Anita and Stuart, was their spirit.

Netzer Hazani, like many of the 22 communities that existed in Gush Katif, is making an effort, at least in part, to stay together and rebuild. Although currently divided into two separate temporary residential arrangements n one at a religious kibbutz northeast of Ashkelon and the other in the Golan Heights, about 60 of the original 80 Netzer Hazani families are hoping to start over on agricultural land in a central location in Israel.

"We've passed the stages of trauma and post-trauma, and we're now in the stage of rebuilding," says Stuart. But in saying that, he reminds his listener that there are still hundreds of former Gush Katif families living in hotels and in other conditions that are not conducive to the resumption of normal life. Not only lack of proper housing, but also unemployment is a very serious problem, aggravated by the slow rate of financial compensation promised to the evacuees.

Helping the people from Gush Katif keep afloat have been "so many wonderful people," says Anita. "There have been endless examples of people who care, in Israel and abroad, Jews and Christians."

Most worrisome for both the Tuckers is the long-term impact of the disengagement on the young people who were disillusioned by the process. "Our youth were educated to love the land of Israel," she says, "and in the end, they were really angry."

"It was very hard for the youth to see their parents forced out of their homes," adds Stuart.

"Our main goal has to be to rebuild," says Anita. "In order to do that, we have to be strong." Despite being at a stage of life when most people start to think of retirement, she does not rule out going back into farming again, perhaps with one or more of her sons. "We have to take control of our lives, to keep our heads up high. We do not want to be charity cases. We want to be givers, not takers," she states firmly.

Stuart speaks about possible development of a broad-based investment fund for the future, when actual resettlement efforts are more concrete. Another possibility is exploring rural tourism, a field that has burgeoned in Israel in the last 10 to 15 years. Rural tourism attracts city families who want to get away to a verdant setting for a few days.

Currently, the Tuckers are on a trip to the U.S., where the affable and well-spoken Anita is appearing before various audiences in a number of cities in order to tell the "tale of Gush Katif." Among their stops is Cleveland, where there will be no public appearances, but where Stuart will be able to visit his few remaining relatives and some acquaintances and to personally thank The Hebrew Academy, where the children raised funds for assistance to the people of Gush Katif.

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MR PRESIDENT, THANKS FOR SUPPORTING ISRAEL, BUT WHY THE DOUBLE STANDARD?
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 20, 2006.

Dear Mr. President,

You seem to have a double standard about Israel and the Middle East vs. the West's war against Terrorist Islam.

By inviting Ehud Olmert to Washington ahead of the general elections, you made it clear that you want to see him form the next Israeli government. By pressuring Israel to allow Arab residents of its capital city to vote in the Palestinian elections next week --- notwithstanding Hamas's participation in the elections and a Fatah slate dominated by terrorists and led by convicted murderer Marwan Barghouti --- you made it clear that you support maximalist Palestinian territorial demands regarding Jerusalem and back a Palestinian proto-state governed dominated by active terrorist gropups. Thus, no matter how the Palestinian elections turn out, you will have assisted Palestinian terrorist leadership to establish operational bases on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.

So I must ask you, what American interest is served by the exacerbation of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the establishment of operational bases for international terrorism in the Middle East?

Is appeasement of terrorists (PA or Hamas) really the best way to advance the US interest of ending the Arab world's conflict with Israel?

What recent history has shown is that the opposite is the case. As the rise of Hamas and the fragmentation of Fatah into warring terrorist gangs in the wake of Israel's retreat from Gaza and northern Samaria --- like the enhanced popularity of Hizbullah in Lebanon since the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000 --- shows, Israeli appeasement of Palestinians and other Arab terror groups strengthens the Arab view that it is possible to destroy Israel.

Thus the US policy of supporting Israeli appeasement and pressuring for further Israeli land handovers to the Palestinians stands in complete contradiction to your own courageously stated policy for waging the US-led war on international terrorism, which --- in every place except Israel --- works to deny bases to terrorists and undermine regimes that sponsor and support terrorism."

Can you please give immediate thought to this self-contradictory and potentially lethal double standard, and take the steps necessary to support Israel in its fight against terrorism just as you are fighting terrorism against our own homeland.

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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SAVE HEVRON
Posted by Lee Caplan, January 20, 2006.

This message comes from Rabbi Danny Cohen of Hebron, who urges you to join the worldwide fax campaign now underway to save the Jewish community of Hevron.

With Hevron in headline news, I have been getting a lot of calls from concerned individuals all over the world who want to know is happening in Hevron and what they can do to help.

The situation in Hevron is very tense. The current struggle involves two strips of homes which are literally across the street from Avraham Avinu neighborhood, where I live with my family.

The area in question is owned by Jews who were forced to abandon their property in 1929 when Jews were massacred and the survivors were forcibly expelled by the British. Arabs stole the land and built a market place on it. In 1967, when Hevron was liberated, the land was not given back to the rightful owners; instead the Arabs were allowed to continue using it.

Today only a very small percentage of the Jewish owned land in Hevron has been resettled by Jews. The Rebbe cried about this, "they kill and then they inherit!"

In the last ten years the army evacuated this Arab market for security reasons, but still did not grant permission for the rightful owners to reclaim their property. In 2001, Arab snipers murdered 10 month old Shalhevet in her carriage in the playground of Avraham Avinu. In response to that terrorist attack, the Jewish community in Hevron settled the property. The legal owners "Kollelot HaSefaradim Eretz Yisroel" endorsed this action.

Young Jewish families with support from abroad began to renovate the shabby, dilapidated storefronts of the market and with their own hands, created lovely living quarters for themselves.

The absurdity of the matter is that both the government and the courts recognize that the homes are on Jewish property. Furthermore, throughout Hevron you can see Arabs building grand structures, all without permits and still no penalty from the government. Only Jews renovating the inside of existing structures on Jewish property are harassed and are prevented from getting proper permits.

The residents of Hevron are known to be uncompromising and strong. The entire Jewish world benefits because of it. Thanks to these committed Yidden Baalei Mesirus Nefesh, we have access to Maaras HaMachpela, and to the resting place of Rebbitzen Menucha Rochel.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe spoke many times about how important it is to have settlements in Yehuda and Shomron. Of all the settlements, Hevron is seen as the pinnacle of strength. When Hevron holds onto its property, the other settlers are encouraged that it can be done. If Hevron would fall, G-d forbid -- even one neighborhood in Hevron -- the other settlements could be discouraged. We cannot let that happen.

Escalating the events that occurred in the past week, hundreds of youth came to protest in Hevron. These youth were in Gush Katif and are still hurting from witnessing its destruction.

Besides the fact that the "riots" were blown out of proportion in the media I personally may not agree with everything that went on this week in Hevron, but I still think it is important for history to know, that in one city in Eretz Yisroel, when they came to expel Jews from their land, the Jews went crazy.

There is a convenient and quick way that you all can help. The leaders of Hevron think this campaign will be effective and make a change for the better.

In the past year, Chabad of Hevron has had two incidents at the Tziun of Rebbitzin Menucha Rochel which were resolved thanks to dozens of faxes sent to the right places. Being that this situation goes beyond our local authorities, we need hundreds, even thousands of faxes, from as many places as possible, Stationery coming in from all over the globe is very influential in Ertez Yisroel.

The evacuation decree threatening Hevron is not a government decision. It is an order from the Justice Department and therefore it can be changed Bederech Hateva! Your role is to have local leaders, rabbis, organizations, businessmen, and of course yourselves write a short letter in your words and fax it in! This is something that can be done from abroad and without the interference of expenses.

PLEASE FAX THE PRIME MINISTER, THE PRESIDENT, THE MINISTER OF DEFENSE (NUMBERS BELOW) AND THE EMBASSY CLOSEST TO YOU.

Faxes on stationary of an organization are most effective. We need faxes from as many locations as possible, as well as many faxes from each location. Unique wording is more effective than a pre-written form letter. You can use Hebrew or English or the language of your country. A brief, clear message is what is needed.

Let them know that you expect the conflict in Hevron to be settled peacefully to the benefit of Klal Yisroel. We want cooperation not confrontation.

Jews all over the world depend on the community of Hevron as the guardians of the holy Jewish site of Maaras HaMachpela which is undisputedly a Jewish site. They are the guarantee that what happened at Kever Yosef will not happen to the Kever of Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov, Sara, Rivka, Leah and Menucha Rochel.

Let them know you find it despicable that Jews living on Jewish owned land in the Jewish homeland are subjected to being expelled by Jewish soldiers.

Here are the fax numbers you will need:

President Moshe Katzav: 02-5631932
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert: 02-6705361 02-5664838 02-5638693
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz: 972-36976218

Please send me a copy of your faxes, my fax number is 972-29605770

Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com

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THE SELF DESTRUCT DOUBLE STANDARD
Posted by Yoram Ettinger, January 20, 2006.

Over 1,000 illegal houses are built annually -- by Jerusalem Arabs -- since 1997. Only 30-40 are demolished by the authorities.

About 10,000 illegal houses are built, annually, by "Green Line" Arabs in the Galilee, Negev, "Triangle", Lod and Ramleh. About 100 are demolished.

Since 1967, there has been more Arab residential (largely illegal) construction in Jerusalem than Jewish construction in the capital of the Jewish State.

But, Israel is enforcing the law in an iron-fist manner when it comes to a few scores of Jewish houses throughout Judea & Samaria and Hebron (built on a Jewish-registered property, which was ravaged by Arabs in 1929).

Legal and governance impotence have characterized Israel 's battle against illegal Arab construction, which threatens Israel 's sovereignty and the rule of law in Jerusalem and all over the country. Palestinian documents, found at the PLO's "Orient House", highlight illegal construction as a key instrument in the campaign to erode the Jewish character of Jerusalem. According to the documents, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has enticed illegal construction in Jerusalem 's Arab neighborhoods of Shoafat, Beit Haninah and A-Zaim, in order to prevent continuity between the Jewish neighborhoods of French Hill and Pisgat Ze'ev, and to avert the unification of Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adoumim. Illegal construction is raging along Highway 443, the critical road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, with the aim to transform it into an Arab road, threatening the security of Jewish transportation. While a 1999 Palestinian document anticipated that Israel was determined "to demolish 400-500 illegal houses in Beit Haninah and Shoafat", a 2000 document notified the PA that "no need to worry", since Israel would only demolish a few houses, and illegal construction could proceed with full speed ahead. But, Israel is determined to enforce the law in an iron-fist manner when it comes to a few scores of Jewish houses in Hebron and throughout Judea & Samaria.

Illegal Arab construction has become a norm, led by the Palestinian Authority (many PA officials reside in illegal homes), bankrolled by Saudi petrodollars and observed by the wide-closed eyes of Israel.

Illegal construction has become an effective means to challenge Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem, to undermine major infrastructure and housing projects in the Negev and Galilee, to limit the freedom/security of Jewish movement along major transportation arteries, to facilitate terrorism and to exacerbate crime.

For instance, illegal construction in the Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Silwan has been a platform for intensified terrorism and felony. Forging real estate titles has proliferated in the Arab sector, robbing state-owned land as well as privately owned Arab land, fueling extortion, protection, gang-wars and the importation of illegal Arab residents from Hebron and other towns to Jerusalem -- a fertile ground for terrorism. But, Israel is determined to enforce the law in an iron-fist manner when it comes to scores of Jewish houses in Hebron and throughout Judea & Samaria.

Legal and administrative proceedings, to uproot the imminent and present danger of illegal construction, have been extremely cumbersome. In fact, they have encouraged disregard and violation of the law. For example, a demolition order may be attained only if a construction permit cannot be obtained -- by the offender - retroactively! A demolition order would be authorized by the courts only if the illegal structure were built on a state-owned-land zoned for public purposes, for road construction, for a "green area", etc. A demolition permit for an occupied/populated house would be issued if construction were completed less than 30 days before filing complaint (less than 60 days for unoccupied house). In addition, the ultra permissive appeal process, available for construction offenders, has transformed the law into a "Swiss Cheese". Apparently, concern for civil rights of criminals, who deliberately violate the law and undermine Israel 's national security -- rather than the battle against the plague of illegal Arab construction -- has preoccupied the concern of Israel 's judiciary. But, Israel is determined to enforce the law in an iron-fist manner when it comes to scores of Jewish houses in Hebron and throughout Judea & Samaria.

Ambassador Yoram Ettinger is a consultant on US-Israel relations as well as the Chairman of Special Projects at the Ariel Center for Policy Research. Formerly the Minister for Congressional Affairs to Israel's Embassy in Washington, DC, Ettinger also served as Consul General of Israel to the Southwestern US. He is a former editor of Contemporary Mideast Backgrounder, and is the author of the Jerusalem Cloakroom series of reports. Contact him at yoramtex@netvision.net.il

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IRAN -- SUPPORT HOPE FIGHTERS WITHIN & WITHOUT
Posted by SMCCDI, January 19, 2006.

This was written by J. Grant Swank, Jr. and appeared today in The MichNews. It is archived at www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_11338.shtml

Since 1979, Iran has declared war on the USA. It's not a recent comeupon. Iran's goal has always been Islam world rule, particularly overtaking the USA. Iranian Islamic fanatics never give up.

At present, Iran is run by a maniacal demonic messiah forerunner. He and scores of other Allah loyalists believe that when chaos envelopes the world, then Islam's messiah will appear. He as president of the legalistic killing cult will help usher in that reign.

Therefore, the egocentric, eccentric president listens to no one but the Koran's Allah. No UN Security Council. No European / American delegation. No one but Islam's deity. And that deity is laced in blood, murder and maiming.

Further, that chaos could involve dropping bombs here and there-particularly America and Israel, hence the build up of nuclear power in Iran.

Iran then will make and drop the bomb. It is in the will of Allah. Chaos must come to the planet. Only then can the messiah appear. Allah's will does not change, no matter the diplomatic discussions offered Iran. Iran goes to a higher power-Allah's declarations in the "holy book."

Iranian murder cultic leadership does not care at all about the UN, sanctions, or board room dialogue. Further, Iran is fourth in oil producers. Iran threatens that if free world leaders push Iran over the patience line, Iran will cut off the oil. Prices will soar through the free world roof.

Consequently, the rest of the world politic is wrestling with a murdering cult, not a politic. That is not realized by most free country leaders. They still think they are dealing with a politic, hence UN Security Council, sanctions, talks, etc. Not so, as well as not so in New Iraq. Likewise there the Islamic hellish theology will rule from Parliament to the grassroots; indeed New Iraq could develop into another Iran.

Is there any hope?

Yes. It is the God of the Bible. He has intervened to rescue His planet before-both in biblical literature and in the secular history books. He can do that again any time He so wisely desires. "The battle is the Lord's," the Bible states. Consequently, believers must intercede constantly to heaven's throne on behalf of the planet's safety and freedom's existence.

Yes, hope also is in mobilizing the freedom fighters within Iran and those in exile. There are those who are waiting desperately for the free world to realize their existence. Take for instance the "Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran".

(Visit this site: STUDENT MOVEMENT COORDINATION COMMITTEE FOR DEMOCRACY IN IRAN (SMCCDI): www.daneshjoo.org )

The purpose of that organization is set forth as follows:

"It's to note that the members of our Movement consist of students inside and outside of Iran, as well as Iranian professionals who share the students' vision of a free, independent, democratic, secular and industrialized Iran.

"Although we have differing views for a post-theocracy Iran, we are united based on our shared beliefs in nonviolent resistance, secularism, peace, democracy and free markets.

"We believe the common objectives that unite those of us who oppose the theocracy are far greater than what divides us. Yet, we have allowed our differences to dictate our actions, permitting the theocracy to take advantage of our lack of unity.

"We need to come together and unite behind a set of principles and ideals, not an individual. No more individual worship. That time has long faded. How many times must we set up ourselves for disappointment by putting all of our hopes behind an individual?

"We need to look forward to the future and create a better life for our children, not waste time placing blame for past mistakes or constantly criticizing one another.

"We need a tangible, constructive and positive action plan. Let us unite behind implementing peace, democracy, free markets and a bill of rights in Iran, while trusting the Iranian people to decide as to which government or individual suits them best."

There are other organizations such as Regime Change in Iran. Its web site provides a daily briefing on Iranian happenings. The site also provides blogs for "a real democracy in Iran." (Visit: REGIME CHANGE IN IRAN: www.regimechangeiran.com )

In order to get out the message of freedom fighters within and outside of Iran, "A Few Simple Shots" movie will premiere this week. It is a "first look into the untold stories of Iranian political prisoners," according to the producers.

The promoters state: "Three years in the making, acclaimed Iranian Director Joseph Akrami presents a documentary on the untold stories of Iranian political prisoners. "A FEW SIMPLE SHOTS takes the audience on a behind the scenes look of the corrupt Iranian government with stories told from past political prisoners, United Nations Officials and human rights organizers.

"Through his movie, Akrami presents a world of unfair and restrictive laws that is oppressing a nation that is left with no voice.

The movie will be shown to a select audience at the Wehlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI, 1150 Seventeenth Street, NW, Washington DC on Friday, January 20 at 7 PM. Registration is at 4:45 PM. Discussants will hold forth at 5 PM, featuring Joseph Akrami, Independent filmmaker. Guests will include Nina Shea, Center for Religious Freedom. Email: VRodman@aei.org or phone 202-862-4871.

Yes, there is hope. But it is limited. However, with God there is no limitation.

Contact SMCCDI, The Student Movement for Democracy in Iran, at peyk@daneshjoo.org. Or go to their website: http://www.daneshjoo.org/

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THE ROLLING COUP D'TAT OF ISRAEL
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 19, 2006.

Some 'coups' are over in days, even hours, while others take years. The plotters of any 'coup d'etat' seek to overthrow their current government in either a bloody coup or a bloodless coup -- depending on their motives and their means.

Israel has been suffering a 'rolling coup d'etat' for years since the 1993 Oslo Accords and no one seems to notice or care. The roll-out of this 'coup' started out merely as an arrangement between the political leaders of the Left, using the (IDF) Israel Defense Force as the incubator with the graduates, the high ranking officers who, in retirement, were to become leading contenders for political office. Outstanding candidates were Moshe Dayan, Ezer Weizman, Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak, Amram Mitzna, and many, many others -- whom, you may notice, were all representatives of the Leftist ideology.

The one maverick, Ariel Sharon came last, at least as Prime Minister but, in the end, he adopted (or at least demonstrated) his deeper philosophy of the Left.

What began as a clever scheme to use the excellent and admired (IDF) Israel Defense Forces as a conduit to put Leftist politicians into the highest office of Israeli Government proved so successful that the next step of co-opting the Army, was irresistible.

What followed was the process whereby the Military and Police Forces were slowly, politically subverted at the officer level so that when the propitious time arrived, the ruling levels of Generals and other officers would respond as ordered and eliminate any semblance of bi-partisan civilian control. Only the Left would hold power and the 'rolling coup d'etat' would be finalized. That process is almost complete -- although slightly set back by the incapacity of Ariel Sharon but, it is moving forward under current Interim PM Ehud Olmert.

As for lower ranking troops who object or refuse to go along, they face military justice meted out by Leftist officers of the Court.

In closing the loop, civilians who protest governmental excess are pursued on orders from a Leftist-dominated government, using the power of a Leftist-dominated Army, Police, Media and Judicial system. Always present was the supporting media who, like the aforementioned, were the propaganda arm of the Left to insure the public was kept in a sea of disinformation. Controlling how the public thinks is a vital part of gaining and keeping power.

Control of the military through the officer echelon is always the method of choice in a bloodless 'coup d'etat' when a supposedly benevolent dictatorship is to be established. The quiet 'coup' changed radically when Sharon decided to adopt an apparent strategy and abandon Gush Katif/Gaza and use the Army/Police to forcibly remove 10,000 men, women and children civilian settlers with a massive 50,000 force of arms. Now the years of cultivating highest echelon of the officer corps was put into action and, for the first time, against Jewish civilians. There were, of course, officers -- not in the inner circle but they would follow whatever orders came from the top echelon, although some did refuse as a matter of principal.

As the 'coup' moved through Gaza, only then the flaws in that blunder started to show. The Muslim Arab Terrorists moved in (as predicted by the former top Heads of the Army and Intelligence). They either cooperated with each other or fought for their piece of the street. When they were not doing that, they were firing missiles at Israeli cities. Even the Israeli 'coup' leaders couldn't tolerate that so there were some limited assassinations of Terrorists and targeting of some of their Arab Muslim leaders and launchers. However, they primarily fired at empty fields and empty buildings in a gesture to pacify angry Israeli citizens. Sharon did NOT admit the blunder and the Leftist Media protected him -- even as the 'Judenrein' Gaza District began to fill up with the most dedicated Global Terrorist organizations.

Then, just when the next phase of the 'coup' was supposed to get under way, stroke one and then stroke two put Sharon out of the equation. Sharon was to roll out the 'Kadima' Party and according to plan, literally take over control of the nation well beyond their authority as elected officials.

Once in power, the forced evacuation was to proceed in Judea and Samaria -- starting with Hebron, one of the four ancient holy Jewish cities. This was in synch with the Bush plan to 'pacify' the Middle East by creating a Muslim Arab Palestinian State which has proved dysfunctional in the extreme.

With Sharon in a vegetative state, Olmert was pushed into a power position to carry forward the planned evacuation of Judea and Samaria, giving up the Jordan Valley, the Golan Heights and dividing Israel's Eternal Capital, Jerusalem. He, along with the Generals and Peres, chose to start the first fires in Hebron as a safe and politically acceptable target. This would accomplish a number of things.

First, Olmert could act as a military man which, of course, he never was.

Then, he could unleash into Hebron first the Yassam thugs who were so carefully selected for their psychological profile as cruel, dispassionate, aggressors usually weeded out of authority as police in normal democratic countries. But, here in Israel they are to be used as Shock troops against the civilian population.

The 'coup' was now well on its way, using Hevron as the match and then going on to the rest of the Judean and Samarian cities, towns, and villages. They had no fear of a civil war because they had subverted the chain of command at the officers' level so they had their own private army. The foot soldiers thought they were still under normal command -- not knowing that the Army now belonged to the movers and shakers of the Left.

The carefully recruited and nurtured Leftist officers were in positions of control and so, the 'coup' was virtually bloodless, except for the civilians who would be killed, either by the Army for resisting or by the Muslim Arab Terrorists, now up close and personal in those areas forcibly vacated by the Left. This then is the "Rolling Coup D'etat", planned and carried out by the Left.

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at gwinston@interaccess.com

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RALLY AGAINST ISLAMOFASCISM FEBRUARY 1, 2006
Posted by AFSI, January 19, 2006.

Dear Friends,

ASI wants to invite all AFSI members and friends to join with Jesse Petrilla and United American Committee in their upcoming national rally against Islofascism. The rally has received media attention in places such as Frontpagemag.com. Jesse has extended his personal invitation to all of AFSI's members (see below).

Greetings to the members of Americans For a Safe Israel. We stand with you in your message of keeping the world safe from a global threat of terrorism. I invite you to attend local rallies on February 1st in the first National Rally Against Islamofascism Day sponsored by the United American Committee. There are 17 Rally locations nationwide on Feb. 1st, with the main East Coast rally at Ground Zero in New York, and the main West Coast rally being in front of the Federal Building in Los Angeles at 11000 Wilshire Boulevard. Please see the below press release for more information and rally locations and times. Thank you very much,

Jesse Petrilla
United American Committee
Founder & Chair
http://www.UnitedAmericanCommittee.org
jesse@unitedamericancommittee.org

PRESS RELEASE:

UAC Rally Against Islamofascism Strides Forward

Los Angeles, CA (UACWIRE) January 17, 2006 -- The United American Committee announced today that with only two weeks remaining before the National Rally Against Islamofascism Day (R.A.I.D.) to be held on February 1st that many more groups have added their support to the event that is to be held at various locations worldwide.

At various hours during the day on February 1st, and at different locations across America, a consortium of Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups will all join the United American Committee in sending a clear message across the nation against extremism and terrorism by showing their support for the U.S. military, our Coast Guard and Border Patrol, the FBI, Homeland Security and all other government agencies that protect us in the War on Terror. In addition, the rallies will also be to oppose Saudi Arabian influence in our government and at our universities at this time when the Saudis are actively involved in funding terrorism and furthering extremist ideologies. The UAC goal is to show a united front of the majority of Americans to tell congress to take action.

Attendees also hope to call attention and cite their opposition to political groups in the United States that claim to represent mainstream American Muslims yet support militant Islam by lending tacit support to terrorism under the guise of being "civil rights" groups. The UAC's position is that such groups need to do more to actively denounce terrorism in support of our government and to cooperate with law enforcement.

New affiliates of the UAC are forming as far away as Canada, Germany and Australia that will also participate in the event.

The primary locations and times for the R.A.I.D. rally across the US (also available at www.unitedamricancommittee.org ) are scheduled as follows:

ARKANSAS:
-- Harrison, AR.
Town Square at 10Am.
Contact Ron arkansas@unitedamericancommittee.org

CALIFORNIA:
Southern CA:
-- West Los Angeles, In front of the federal Building (MAIN WEST COAST
RALLY)
11000 Wilshire Boulevard, Time: 5:00 PM

-- Los Angeles -- San Fernando Valley
Corner of Victory Blvd. & Topanga Cyn. Blvd., Time 4:00 PM

-- Malibu, California
Corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Webb Way. downtown near the
entrance of the Ralphs Shopping Center, Time 4:00 PM
Contact Bruce: brucekentmalibu@charter.net

Northern CA:
-- Auburn, CA
Grass Valley HWY (HWY 49) & Elm Ave.
Park in Grocery Outlet/Rite Aid Parking Lot, Time: 1:00 PM

-- Hayward, CA
Mission and Jackson/Foothill in front of flag display east of the
intersection. 3pm
Contact: mhdennis1@comcast.net

-- Modesto, CA
street corners of Standiford and Sisk, Time: 12:00 Noon
Contact Greg: j802@sbcglobal.net please use the word 'Rally' in the
subject line of the e-mail

FLORIDA:
-- Orlando
Intersection of State Road 436th (Semoran Blvd.) & Aloma Ave.
Winter Park, FL
Time 4:30-6:00
Contact florida@unitedamericancommittee.org

- Tampa/Clearwater
Courtney Campbell causeway boat ramp
Time: 7:00 am
With flags
Contact: kaosktrl@gmail.com

GEORGIA:
-- Gwinnett county
(HWY 124 and Hamilton Mill Parkway) Time TBA:
Contact Brad georgia@unitedamericancommittee.org

MASSACHUSETTS:
-- Boston
At the Capitol Steps/Boston Common
Time: 12:00 Noon

MISSOURI:
-- Columbia, MO
One block south of Broadway on Providence Road in front of Bloomers
Florists from 4:15 TO 5:45p.
Contact Tom: ltw03y@hotmail.com

- Jefferson City, MO
South side of Capitol building, across High Street from Federal
Courthouse and Post Office from 12 noon to 1pm. Contact Tom:
ltw03y@hotmail.com

NEW YORK:
-- New York City (MAIN EAST COAST RALLY)
World Trade Center -- Ground Zero, Time: 1 PM

TEXAS:
-- Dallas
Intersection of Beltline and Addison in Addison, TX.
Time: 4:00PM

UTAH:
-- Salt Lake City
west side of the Salt Lake City library right by the intersection. The
address is 210 East. 400 South.
Time: 1-2:30 p.m

Attendees are encouraged to dress in red, white and blue and bring American flags and yellow ribbons to cheer on US troops.

What is Islamo-fascism?

Fascism in definition is (from Webster's dictionary) is "A political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition." Militant Islamic extremists wish for Islam to be an all encompassing lifestyle and governmental law, which fits quite well with Webster's definition of fascism, and is therefore...Islamofascism, a growing threat against democracy and the American way of life. The UAC seeks to send a strong message against totalitarian ideals being imported to our shores. As a unifying force among all Americans of all ethnic and religious backgrounds, The United American Committee seeks to awaken Americans to oppose increasing support at home by groups that lobby and promote Isalmo-fascism not only overseas but here at home in our libraries, our schools and in the media. UAC asks all those willing to attend to invite as many fellow Americans to join them as possible to show support for America and our troops and to help wake up America to the present danger.

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DURING THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY "TRUCE" WITH ISRAEL
Posted by Jerome S. Kaufman, January 19, 2006.

This was written by Margot Dudkevitch and it appeared in the Jewish Press, January 6, 2005.

JERUSALEM -- As Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committee and Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade announced an end to their self-declared truce of January 2005 under which they pledged to refrain from attacking Israeli targets, an annual summary of terror activities for 2005 released by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) on Sunday revealed that a total of 2,990 terror attacks were launched against Israeli targets in 2005.

The attacks occurred after the truce was announced, the report stated. According to the report, motivation among all the terror groups to attack Israel remains high, with the number of monthly terror alerts averaging 57. There was a significant increase in Kassam rocket attacks on Israel, with 377 recorded, compared with 309 in the previous year. At the same time there was a decrease in mortar shelling with 848 launched in 2005 compared with 1231 in 2004. There was a drastic drop in terror attacks launched from the Gaza Strip last year, with 1,205 attacks carried out in 2005 compared with 2,637 in 2004.

With the IDF pullout from the Gaza Strip in September 2005 -- and especially after Israeli troops no longer maintained a presence on the Philadelphi corridor between Egypt and Rafah -- terror groups succeeded in smuggling vast quantities of explosives and weaponry into Gaza from Egypt, the report noted. The 200 anti-tank grenades, 350 anti-tank rockets, and a number of antiaircraft missiles were among the arms smuggled from Egypt to terror groups in Gaza during September 12-18 alone.

Terror groups operating in the Gaza Strip continued to strengthen their capabilities in preparation for the renewal of violence. Despite assurances by Palestinian security personnel that they were preventing the smuggling of weapons into Gaza, many instances members of the Palestinian security forces received bribes in order to "turn a blind eye," the Security Agency said.

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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EHUD OLMERT'S POLITICAL MOTIVES FOR HIS ATTACK AGAINST JEWISH HEBRON
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 19, 2006.

Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, with malice and political savvy, understood that provoking a small war with the observant Jews of Hebron would buy him secular and Leftist votes in the coming elections scheduled for March 28th. Olmert, always the quintessential politician, chooses every move as to what it will do for him first.

The selection of Hebron by Olmert was not capricious. He choose what he considered a a "weakened Jewish city" to make his first entry into combat, by posing as a decisive, military minded PM. Olmert never served as a soldier in the IDF but as a PR staff person. As they say in America, he had to "make his bones" to prove he could be a Commander-in-Chief of the embattled Jewish State. Hebron has been weakened by giving control of 80% to the Palestinian Authority. And, the political Leftists do NOT value this Holy Jewish city because they are trying to rid themselves of their 'Jewishness'. They are following David Ben Gurion's pattern to de-Judaize the Jewish State.

That Olmert sent (as reported) 500-1000 hardened combat troops and Yassam, special forces riot police against teen-age girls and boys throwing eggs, confirmed the fact that Olmert is not only weak but also a fool. By attacking the Jews of Hebron, Olmert wanted to establish his credentials beyond his advisory role (out of sight) to Sharon on forcing the Jews out of Gush Katif/Gaza. Olmert needed what in business is called 'borrowed equity' -- namely, attaching your own name to something already popular and thereby borrowing popularity as if it were your own.

No judicial order has ever been handed down forcing an expulsion of Jews from their homes in Hebron. As reported by David Wilder of Hebron, "Most people don't realize this, but the fact is that the initiative to throw out families [from their homes] came from Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and the government, and NOT from the Supreme Court. How can people be thrown out without an opportunity to have their day in court?" asked Wilder. (1)

Ariel Sharon's attack against the 10,000 Jews of Gush Katif/Gaza and Northern Samaria settlements was immensely popular with the secularists of the Left who viscerally hated settlers and observant Jews, blaming them for Muslim Arab Palestinian Terror. They never let facts get in their way in their desperate need to blame someone, anyone for the unremitting Terror attacks by the Muslim Arab Palestinians. Did they notice that the suicide bombing of January 19th at the old Tel Aviv Bus Station was in Tel Aviv?

Olmert had to be more than a shadow advisor and a trial balloonist to Sharon. He craved his own piece of Sharon's popularity as a person who was now wholly known as a Leftist committed to the Oslo/Gush Katif abandonment doctrine. He wanted voters from the entire Left of center to swing in behind him.

He then proceeded to use what Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist, described as "blaming the victim for what you, the aggressor, plan to do to them, thereby justifying your attacks". So with malice aforethought, acting PM Ehud Olmert sent a large number (500-1000) Yassamnikim (special forces Police) to force evacuation and initiate provocations for the Media to spread the canard that Jews are violent, illegal, etc.

The attack against the observant Jews who choose to live in Hebron near the burial Cave of the Patriarchs (Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah) was a crass but clever move, worthy of a twisty politician.

Like Sharon, Olmert employed the special attack squads called "Yassam" to create a front page conflict. The original mandate for the Yassam goon squad, was started under Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. They were specially profiled men and women who, under normal circumstances, would be considered undesirable for law enforcement positions, given certain pathological flaws. Their profiles included personalities which gravitate toward positions of authority, often as compensation for their own feelings of inadequacy. In normal, non-dictatorial nations such aberrant personalities are weeded out before they are able to attack the public. Even in America, some slip through and sometimes they are caught on video surveillance cameras, savagely beating a victim. But, when they are deliberately selected for their lack of pity or a streak of cruelty, one ends up with a police or army squad of aberrant personalities, anxiously awaiting an opportunity to be turned loose -- even on their own people.

Keep in mind that it takes leaders who share this pathologically cruel streak to plan and develop a corps of savage police. The Rabin-Peres corps of Yassam eventually morphed into the Sharon Yassam and are now the Olmert Yassam. These squads of sick, twisted personalities are rapidly poisoning the Israeli Police Force and Army who see the Yassam forces beating the protesting civilians on orders from the PM and protected by the Leftist Courts.

Attacking the observant Jews of Hebron to remove them from proximity to the Tomb of the Patriarchs (Ma'arat HaMachpelah) is consistent with a doctrine of the Left since the time of David Ben Gurion. The objective was to remove every holy site around which observant Jews rallied, thus giving them cohesive political strength. We saw Moshe Dayan, with Ben Gurion's approval immediately giving up the keys to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to the Arab Muslim Waqf after its re-capture in June 1967.

Joseph's Tomb was similarly abandoned, even leaving one wounded Israeli soldier there to bleed to death rather than sending in troops to re-capture the Tomb in Schechem (Nablus). The Muslim Arab Palestinians desecrated and burned down the Jewish holy tomb immediately.

Rachel's Tomb is certainly at risk for the same reasons.

We observed then PM Binyamin Netanyahu foolishly give up 80% of Hebron and control over significant parts of the Tomb of the Patriarchs both to please Washington and to continue with the Israeli Leftists' policy of abandoning Jewish holy sites, lest the observant Jews hold a rallying point of inspiration. Observant Jews were not to be allowed to gather under the flag of their Jewishness and thereby to become more of a political power than they already are.

Olmert's attack plan against Hebron on this week of January 15th was a continuation of Sharon's doctrine to de-Judaize the nation and gain politically from the Left's approval.

Olmert/Kadima needs to consolidate a voters' base by drawing from the Left, although they are calling themselves a 'centrist' party. Divesting Israel of territory, uses the misleading word: "Disengagement" which, as demonstrated in the Gush Katif/Gaza fiasco, actually brings the enemy closer to Israel's main population centers. (Note! Please see the article entitled "Why are the Words: "Separation" & "Disengagement" Misnomers'" dated January 17, 2006).

The attack by Olmert using Yassam against the Jews of Hebron, even with the attendant orders to use live ammunition and tear gas against Jewish children and women, is Olmert at this ugliest.

We always expected the dictators of the Muslim Arab nations to use secret police and cruel troops to keep their own people under control via fear of beatings, imprisonment and worse. We always expected the courts of the Arab Muslim Palestinians to reflect their government's dictatorial policies of suppression.

Olmert, using his temporary position as PM has ordered Chief of Staff Gen. Dan Halutz through Defense Minister (Gen. Ret.) Shaul Mofaz to draw up plans to attack and evacuate what he calls "unauthorized outposts" in Judea and Samaria (West Bank). Gen. Halutz, like other Generals of the Left (Rabin, Barak, Mitzna, et al) stated that the State was "paying the price for her former indulgence and tolerance of the settlers and settlements established by prior (all prior) governments both Left and Right."(2) Halutz should be summarily fired for exposing his personal bias against the settlers, the settlements and the political Right. Such a politically biased General cannot serve the nation IF he hates part of the people.

ORDERS TO SHOOT JEWS

I am certain that the American Congress and all religious communities will be appalled that PM Olmert has unleashed the Israeli Police and Army to use live fire and tear gas (as reported) on Jewish youngsters defying his orders to start the purge of Jews from their homes on Jewish owned land in Hebron.

As mentioned earlier, one can only be reminded of Moshe Dayan who anxiously gave away the Holy of Holies when the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) liberated the Temple of Solomon ruins in Jerusalem in June 1967. Besides load their weapons with live ammunition capable of shooting Jews, will PM Olmert and DM Shaul Mofaz take bulldozers to demolish the Cave of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, the Ma'arat HaMachpelah so as to totally remove the lure of another holy place which might serve as a rallying point for all Jews who believe in the word of G-d?

We are just beginning to see the ugliness of Ehud Olmert and the 'Kadima' Party that President Bush is so anxious to fund and support. Is this then the continuation of the Bush mission to incrementally slice up parts of Israel -- with the eager assistance of the Left who wish to de-Judaize Israel?

Slowly, first at the behest of Sharon, the Army and Police -- once the pride of the Jewish people -- have been turned into street thugs and Jew haters. And the Media is helping. They cast the Jews who have been living peacefully in Hebron as 'illegal', the teenagers as 'violent' for coming to defend their own brethren when Olmert ordered the Police and Army to evacuate the Jews from their homes.

The Arabs are stoning the Jews but, the media calls the Jews violent. Then the Police and Army attack and beat the men and women, girls and boys. The riots in Hebron are the result of provocation and use of unreasonable force by the soldiers and police officers. But, the Leftist media and Knesset members call the peaceful Jewish settlers in Hebron "hooligans". The male soldiers and police are man-handling the girls which is forbidden by Jewish law...but, these police and soldiers are being taught NOT to believe in and NOT to follow Jewish law.

Is this then the legacy of Ariel Sharon -- to be carried forward by Ehud Olmert -- urged on by Bush and Rice? The world has always long remembered Stalin's KGB, Hitler's Gestapo, Iran's Islamo-fascist secret police, the East German Stasi......etc. Who would have ever thought that the Jewish State would recruit the lowest level of people to perform their jobs as Police and Army like the lowest of street thugs and promised shooters of Jews?

If you are a Jew or a Christian please contact your Congressmen and the President. Protest that this administration is benignly accepting, if not provoking a wildness on the part of the Israeli authorities so their re-partition can pick up speed.

Ask as many people as possible to call today on behalf of whatever media they read and see. Ask for Police Foreign Press Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld 05-062-7580; FAX: 02-530-9666 and reach Justice Minister Advisor: Shai Ben-Maor (Advisor) FAX: 02-628-5438; Beeper:03-610-666 #21205; Cell:050-624-7138. Demand a comment on the statement from the Shai (Shomron and Yehudah) Division of Police which says they stand ready to "take the Jews out of Hevron" (as quoted on Ynet and on Israel National News). Ask tough questions -- Don't give opinions. Follow up by e-mail and FAX. Call back for a response. The Government of Israel respects and fears one thing: the Media. Send us any and all the responses to gwinston@interaccess.com and to David Bedein at media@actcom.co.il who is organizing a "Rapid Media Response Team".

Acting PM Ehud Olmert can stop on a dime IF he received one call from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to cease and desist uprooting, evicting, evacuating and destroying the homes and lives of Jewish men, women and children.

We did NOT think that a people, loosely called Jewish, would rise up in Israel to reflect a similar Muslim dictatorship who viscerally hated the observant Jewish people.

They have indeed grasped power and now have their hands on the throat of the State.

Note! Please see a follow-on article entitled: "The Rolling coup d'etat of Israel" (see above).

###

1. "Hevron: Expulsion Pushed Off, Arrests Continue" by Hillel Fendel & "Acting PM Olmert: War Against Unauthorized Jewish Communities" by Ezra HaLevi Arutz7 www.IsraelNationalNews Jan.19, 2006

2. "Interim PM Ehud Olmert orders Defense Minister Mofaz to draw up a detailed plan for the evacuation of unauthorized West Bank outposts" DEBKAfile Jan. 18, 2006

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm).

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ABBAS GROUP RESPONSIBLE FOR TEL AVIV BOMBING
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 19, 2006.

This was written by Aaron Klein of World Net Daily's Jerusalem Bureau. It is archived at www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48415

TEL AVIV -- The suicide bombing that wounded at least 22 here in Tel Aviv today was coordinated by the military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, despite a claim of responsibility by another group, WorldNetDaily has learned.

The Abbas-linked group warned more bombings will be carried out in Israel within the next 60 days ahead of the country's March 28 elections.

Suicide bomber Sami Antar, 20, a resident of the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, blew himself up in a small restaurant in the southern section of the city near the main Tel Aviv bus station. Most of the injured were diners eating outdoors at the shop's sidewalk seating area.


Rescue workers collect body parts at site of suicide bombing in Tel Aviv today (Photo: WND)

Security officials on the scene told WND the bomber exploded his suicide belt in the bathroom and may have been preparing the device for an attack at another location when it detonated prematurely.

The street outside the restaurant at the time of the explosion was crowded with shoppers and commuters. The front end of the shop was completely blown out. Neighboring stores were left largely intact. Body parts, believed to be from the suicide bomber, were being collected along with debris by rescue workers at the scene. The wounded were evacuated to area hospitals. Two injured reportedly are in critical condition.

Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the blast.

Jihad spokesman Khaled Al-Batch, speaking on his cell phone from the Gaza Strip, told WND "this attack was revenge for Israeli aggression against our people and for recent operations in Jenin. The Israeli enemy now sees we are easily able to infiltrate their cities and kill their people."

Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for each of the six suicide bombings in Israel since a truce was signed between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last February. Today's attack was the first suicide attack in Tel Aviv since the bombing of a seafront nightclub carried out in February, two weeks after the truce was signed.

Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat told WND he condemns today's blast, calling it an act of "sabotage" against Palestinian legislative elections scheduled for next week.

"This bombing was carried out by the enemies of peace to sabotage the elections and the attempt to return the region back to the peace process," said Erekat.

But senior terror leaders from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Abbas' Fatah party, told WND they largely were responsible for coordinating the attack.

Abu Jihad, the Al Asqa chief for the northern West Bank told WND in an exclusive interview to be released in full tomorrow, "We were behind this attack. We coordinate often with Islamic Jihad. In today's case, Al Aqsa supplied the bomber with a martyrdom belt and we backed it in many other ways I can't speak of."

Al Aqsa is the most active Palestinian terror group in the Balata camp.

"Islamic Jihad is not very active like we are [in Balata]," Abu Jihad said.

Other senior members of the Al Aqsa cell stating they were involved in today's attack previously told WND during in-person interviews they regularly receive funding from the Syrian and Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.

The Al Aqsa leaders, some speaking on condition their names be withheld, warned their group, along with Islamic Jihad, will attempt more suicide bombings in the next few weeks ahead of Israeli elections.

Islamic Jihad's Al-Batch did not deny Abbas' group was involved in today's bombing.

"Yes, we do work with other groups. Whichever resistance organization the attacker came from doesn't matter. It only matters that the Palestinian resistance was able to carry out a successful operation today in Tel Aviv," Al-Batch told WND.

Any Al Aqsa involvement in Thursday's attack would be a significant embarrassment for Abbas, who is facing elections next week and has pledged to fight terrorism and disarm the various Palestinian terror groups.

Al Aqsa leaders previously have admitted they were involved in attacks claimed by other groups.

Abu Carmel, a West Bank Al Aqsa leader, told WND last month: "We coordinate and collaborate [with Islamic Jihad] very often. It is true that we have excellent relations with our brothers in the Islamic Jihad. We felicitate our brothers in their heroic attacks, and we promise not to leave them alone in the campaign that Israel is leading against them."

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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CAL THOMAS NEEDS YOUR HELP. FREE SPEECH NEEDS YOUR HELP
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 19, 2006.

Remember al-walid bin-tallal and his now legendary phone call to Rupert Murdoch? (if you don't, just email me and i'll refresh your memory).

Now we have CAIR trying to intimidate a major newspaper and a major news commentator.

CAIR has routinely pressured radio and tv stations about news relating to Islam, Arab terrorism, and Israesl. CAIR was successful getting Michael Graham fired (if you don't know about this stuff, email me).

Now they are working on Cal Thomas.

And Norm Finkelstein still believes that old anti-semitic canard that the Jews run the media!

Cal Thomas alerts us to the danger of the infiltratrion of Moslem jihadists into our western society, and notes the NAZI characteristics of Terrorist Islam.

Help Cal Thomas. Stop CAIR. Take action as suggested below.

These are two articles. The first was written by Binyamin L. Jolkovsky, Editor-in-Chief of the Jewish World Review (jwr_editor_in_chief@jewishworldreview.com). The second is by Cal Thomas and was published in www.JewishWorldReview.com.

1. Binyamin L. Jolkovsky, "Cair On The Attack -- Again!"

A source close to the Sun-Sentinel in Florida has informed us that a "controversial" Islamic group -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) -- is trying to get one of the most pro-Israel columnists writing today, Cal Thomas, booted from the paper's editorial page.

At the very least -- and I'm NOT making this up! -- they want Cal moved to the religion page, we're told.

In other words, A BELIEVING CHRISTIAN WHO TAKES STRONG MORAL STANDS doesn't deserve to have a loud voice in South Florida's fastest-growing major daily newspaper.

KINGSLEY GUY is the editorial page editor. A phone call -- which given today's rates should be only a few cents -- will likely have a stronger impact. He can be reached at (954) 356-4616

We also have an e-mail form at: http://jewishworldreview.com/0106/thomas011706.php3

In either case, PLEASE BE POLITE! Rudeness accomplishes NOTHING! PS: PLEASE post and forward this note to as many folks as you can!


2. Cal Thomas, "Infiltration by the book.

Beginning with the Revolutionary War when British agents and sympathizers attempted to derail independence, there have been people who have tried to infiltrate the United States for the purpose of undermining and destroying it. In modern times, communism and fascism have sent agents among us, but we discovered their plans and defeated them here and abroad.

Now comes what may be the greatest threat: radical Islam, whose "agents" may have established a base more solid and more dangerous than anything we've encountered before. The good news is they speak openly of their intentions. The bad news is that many of us are not taking them seriously.

Last week at the beginning of the London trial of radical imam Abu Hamza al-Masri, evidence was presented detailing how he encouraged his followers at the Finsbury Park mosque to kill non-Muslims.

In lectures, recordings and writings, the imam said Adolf Hitler had been sent into the world to punish the Jews. Repeatedly, said the prosecutor, Abu Hamza told his followers they must fight for Allah and such fighting involves a religious mandate to murder Jews, kuffars (nonbelievers in Islam) and "apostates," such as leaders of Arab nations like Egypt. Abu Hamza has pleaded innocent to all 15 charges, including nine counts of solicitation of murder, four counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior intended to incite racial hatred and two counts related to the possession of offensive sound recordings and possession of a copy of the Encyclopedia of the Afghani Jihad.

The talks and written materials are not only about war. Abu Hamza also delivers diatribes about Britain's licensing laws, the use of additives in food, adultery, the role of women and the "evils" of democracy.

Abu Hamza repeatedly defines "jihad" as an avenue for establishing a caliphate, or Islamic state, which would be governed by the most radical interpretation of Sharian religious law.

Prosecutors introduced as evidence a 10-volume "blueprint for terrorism" they say was discovered in Abu Hamza's house. Among the targets for "causing disturbance but not loss of life" are Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty. Chapter headings include "The need to study the principles of war," and "The duty of assassination and kidnap."

Other subheadings offer advice on reconnaissance, infiltration, ambush and how to manufacture explosive devices, open locks and train assassins. One section details plans to hit buildings with large populations, including museums, ports and archaeological sites and to attack VIPs. David Perry, prosecuting counsel, told the court, "This is a manual, a blueprint for terrorism."

Perry said the document's "execution section" recommends that Islamic agents be sent to any country intended as a target at least 10 years before jihad begins. This was the profile of terrorists depicted in last season's "24" series on Fox. In this fictional story, terrorist cells were established in a middle-class American neighborhood where they remained dormant and appeared peaceful until a signal was given to conduct mayhem.

On one tape, Abu Hamza discusses the killing of tourists in Egypt in November 1997, describing them as satanic. He says the tourist industry should be "Islamicised" and added that while children should not be deliberately killed, their killing is permitted if they are in the target area. Suicide bombings are "martyrdom," he says. They are permitted "if the only way to hurt the enemies of Islam is by taking your own life."

Among the many problems with this twisted religiosity is that the West does not know how many share it. Instead, political leaders repeat the bromide that Islam is a "peaceful religion" and radicals are trying to hijack it. Are we being infiltrated by people who, on the outside, pretend to be peaceful and tolerant, but inside wish to undermine and overthrow our government?

One clue may be found on a Canadian Muslim Web page (http://muslim- canada.org/muslimstats.html). In a discussion on Muslim population statistics, which includes a chart projecting that the world Muslim population will outgrow the Christian population by 2025, it is noted that Islam is growing nearly 3 percent per year, faster than the total growth in world population. While the ratio of older to younger people is weighted to the older in the West, the reverse is true among Muslims. In what some might consider an ominous conclusion, the Canadian-Islamic Web page states, "An aging population tends to be introspective and sluggish, whereas a young population is more likely to be vibrant and energetic. This may or may not bode well for many countries and that will depend on whether their political structure is fragile or not."

We have been warned.

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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SHOULD PAT ROBERTSON HAVE APOLOGIZED?
Posted by Ruth Matar, January 19, 2006.

Dear Friends,

I was devastated when Pat Robertson apologized to the Israeli Government and the Sharon family for quoting the Bible, Joel 3:2. Robertson suggested on his television show "The 700 Club" that Ariel Sharon's stroke was due to going against the word of G-d when he pulled the Jews out of the Land of Israel, to wit: from Gaza.

I do, however, realize the enormous pressure put upon Pat Robertson. The whole news media world, both conservative and liberal, went completely nuts. Even the White House, got into the act. The presidential spokesman for President Bush, Trent Duffy said: "Those comments are wholly inappropriate and offensive, and really don't have a place in this or any other debate."

Basically, President Bush was stating through his spokesman that the Bible should not be considered when discussing Gaza, or any other issue.

CNN went as far as having a poll over Robertson's statement. Before asking their viewers to vote concerning Robertson's comments, CNN Show Biz Tonight ran video clips of the reactions of prominent people who disagreed with Robertson, including the President. Then the anchor of Show Biz Tonight, A.J. Hammer, said of Robertson, "Shame on him!"

The CNN Poll was as follows:

Pat Robertson: Should he apologize for saying G-d is punishing Ariel Sharon?

YES -- 88% -- 6242 votes
NO -- 12% -- 877 votes
Total: 7119 votes

According to the CNN Poll, at least 88% of the people surveyed took time out to deny that G-d was punishing Ariel Sharon.

On the contrary, I do believe that many people think the expulsion of the Jews from Gaza is a direct violation of the Bible. My gut reaction to the CNN Poll was that it was not at all representative of public opinion, and I therefore decided to do my own polling. Unfortunately, I don't have worldwide Television Stations and all the other financial resources of CNN, but I do, I believe, have an intelligent group of readers of my weekly Letter from Jerusalem. My questions in the Opinion Poll, as set forth in last week's Letter from Jerusalem (January 12, 2006) "Does the Bible Have Relevance In Our Day?" were as follows:

1. Is Pat Robertson justified in quoting Joel 3:2, in connection with Sharon dividing G-d's Land?
2. Is Pat Robertson's behavior outrageous and inappropriate?
3. Should the Bible be part of political discussions?
4. Is the Bible relevant to political discussions?
5. Other?

The number of e-mail replies was gratifyingly overwhelming. The responses are still coming in. I spent all day yesterday tabulating them. As many of my correspondents combined questions 1 and 4, I did the same in my tabulation.

Also, many of my correspondents combined 2 and 3. I likewise combined these answers.

After many hours of reading your letters (I very much appreciate that many of you wrote long analytical answers) I am able to give you the following results:

341 replies supported Robertson and the relevance of the Bible, though some of these correspondents apologized for expressing their true feelings as long as Sharon was lying comatose.

16 replies were anti-Robertson, (some virulently so!) Often these letters stated that the Bible is not relevant for political discussions in these modern times.

Quite a few of my readers asked me how I personally feel about the Robertson controversy. They asked if I find it in my heart to pray for Sharon. I answered, in all honesty, that I could not!

I pray for the innocent Jews who were forcibly dragged out of their homes, who lost everything, their farms, their businesses and their way of making a living for their families. I pray that G-d console the families of those who died of heart attacks after the violent expulsion. I pray for the families in Hebron, and Judea and Samaria, who unfortunately may face the same fate as the Gush Katif people. Ehud Olmert, the heir apparent of Sharon, plans to continue the former prime minister's policies. Olmert wishes to make the Holy City of Hebron and the rest of Judea and Samaria, judenrein, all for a non-existent "peace"!

I pray that G-d finds us worthy of His performing still another miracle -- saving the Land of Israel and the Jewish People.

Finally, I don't think that Pat Robertson should have apologized. So many people wrote me of their admiration for Pat Robertson, who was unafraid to "say it like it is", even in this age of political correctness.

The depth and breadth of the abuse that Robertson has received for having quoted Scripture, and for condemning that which the Bible condemns, goes to show how far and wide contempt for G-d's Word is prevalent in today's world.

With Blessings and Love for Israel,

Ruth Matar

P.S. Please pass this article on to Pat Robertson, President Bush, your Senator and your Congressman.

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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GAZA BORDER UNGUARDED; THOMAS FRIEDMAN'S CHARACTER
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 19, 2006.

WHAT MONITORING AT GAZA BORDER?

The P.A. has let dozens of wanted terrorists through. European monitors may ask the P.A. to bar certain individuals, but may not delay their entry for more than six hours. Then the P.A. has the power to admit them.

Israel may ask the P.A. to bar certain individuals (with the same futility), but has not. However, the P.A. delays transmission of the videos of entrants. By the time Israel gets the videos, the terrorists have come in (IMRA, 1/1/06). Monitoring without guarding.

What a farce the border arrangement is! It was negotiated by the much lauded, "Mr. Security," Sharon, and the much respected Sec. of State Rice. Why lauded and why respected cannot be explained rationally by the results of their policies. Why did Sharon agree to the farce? Because he is a puppet of the US. Israelis are getting killed by the arms that farce enabled terrorists to smuggle in.

SEC. RICE'S FAILED VISION

Now that Sharon is in the hospital, Sec. Rice called his successor to assert, "the US supports the two-state vision of two states living side-by-side in peace and security." (NY Sun, 1/11, p.4.)

Why? The Arabs aren't entitled to it -- Israel is entitled to the territory. The Arabs don't deserve it -- they are aggressors. The US doesn't gain from it -- these Arabs hate the US. There can't be security for Israel -- Arabs get the strategic highlands and depth Israel needs for secure borders. The vision of peace by giving statehood to genocidal fanatics, whose Covenants pledge that they would use any territory they get from Israel, to make war for conquering Israel, is ludicrous. This "vision," which Pres. Bush share, is ludicrous not so much because it is naïve, which it is, but because it is pro-Arab while the US is at war with Arabs of the same ideology as the ones in the P.A.

The US should favor Israel retaining those provinces of its homeland, and getting the Arabs out of them. Then there would be more security for Israel, less of a chance for war, and a victory against jihad.

BASIS FOR KADIMA PARTY POPULARITY

Polls show that most Israelis preferred Sharon as Prime Minister to his rivals, but overwhelmingly oppose his policy of unilateral withdrawal. Dr. Aaron Lerner reconciles that seeming self-contradiction. His explanation: they anticipate that Sharon could handle an emergency better than the others (IMRA, 1/5).

Sharon fans among US journalists described the popular support for Sharon as support for his withdrawal policies. If Dr. Lerner is right, the journalists were dissembling.

EUROPEAN DONORS FREEZE AID TO P.A.

The P.A. did not make the economic reforms that the EU demanded as a condition for aid. Chief reform was to rein in the P.A. budget. The P.A. keeps hiring people for an already bloated bureaucracy. The aid is wasted. The EU has frozen it (IMRA, 1/5).

P.A. gunmen besiege P.A. offices, demanding that they be hired. That wastes aid.

Why doesn?t the EU withhold economic aid until the P.A. ends its aggression against Israel and its incitement against Christians and the West? Imagine if the P.A. utilized the aid to build an income-producing economy that could finance more terrorism perhaps extended to Europe!

THOMAS FRIEDMAN?S CHARACTER

Mr. Friedman wrote an Op-Ed piece, ?Wanted: An Arab Sharon.? He seeks an Arab leader who would reverse Arab bellicosity, the way Sharon reversed his own policies towards the Arabs. Fair enough.

The title turned out to be as a hook for denigrating Sharon?s earlier phase, with epithets such as ?brutal? and ?hard line? and for denouncing his policies, such as making war in Lebanon (in defense against terrorist attacks that Friedman does not mention). There was little about the search for an Arab Sharon and why it was needed (NY Times, 1/11).

Many Friedman articles are excuses for diatribes against Israeli assertion of national security rights against Arab aggression, which aggression he hardly acknowledges. For all his cleverness and being forward-looking, he does not appear to understand the nature of the Arab-Israel conflict. He depicts it as a matter of Israeli withdrawal, but it is jihad.

Friedman was an anti-Zionist campus radical. He still is virulently anti-Zionist.

EVALUATING THE WITHDRAWAL, BASED ON EXPERIENCE

"The abandoned Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip are the closest points from which the PLO can fire rockets at Negev towns. The Israeli heavy artillery has been moved to prevent the PLO and its HAMAS affiliates from entering those abandoned settlements in order to set up and fire rockets at the Negev. If Israel's whole purpose is to make it hard for the PLO and Hamas to move into the areas of the abandoned Gaza Jewish settlements to shoot rockets, then WHY THE HELL DID ISRAEL EXPEL THE JEWISH SETTLERS IN THE FIRST PLACE?" (Prof. Steven Plaut, 1/5).

Yes, the stated purpose was a lie. The real purpose was anti-Zionist and an illusion of land-for-peace.

SAUDIS PLAN MILITARY INDUSTRY

They want to be independent of foreign suppliers (IMRA, 1/4/06). The US is losing its biggest income producing industries.

THE RULES OF SHARON'S PARTY: Under His Thumb

The Rules of the Kadima Party leave it up to the Party head, i.e., Ariel Sharon, to nominate all the candidates for Knesset. The Executive Committee may meet only if the Party head, i.e., Sharon, is present (IMRA, 1/6). Did he tie it up?

OUTPOURING OF GRIEF BY JOURNALISTS

Journalists write of an outpouring of grief for Sharon and prayers for his full recovery. They say that dozens of people are praying for him at the Western Wall. Dozens are not hundreds or thousands. The photographs show few people grieving. It is a non-event (Barry Chamish, 1/11). Must politicians spin everything?

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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A THANK YOU FROM GUSH KATIF EXPELLEES
Posted by Sara Shomron, January 19, 2006.

There was a knock on the door a few minutes ago. Yoram -- from Efrat introduced himself as the representative of an anonymous donor from the U.S. The donor, in memory of Golda bat Rachel and Nachum, generously wanted to financially help the expellees from Gush Katif who have lost their communities, homes, and in many cases employment. How does one explain such tzedaka?

The vacuum left by the Israeli government's cruel expulsion has been, at least partially, filled by tremendous thoughtfulness of private individuals and organizations. This is one positive aspect to the "Disengagement Plan" and the complete story has yet to be told.

Here in Nitzan, religious and non-religious volunteers from L'maan Achinu and Lev Echad have cleaned "caravillas" for newcomers, created activities for children and youth and organized seminars on finding employment. Rav Yehoshua -- and his wife, from the Golan, helped set up religious services before synagogues existed in Nitzan. Youth from Ulpanas and Yeshivas continue to help with babysitting, washing floors, and tutoring. The One Israel Fund which is supported by thousands of anonymous donors gave scholarships for continuing education for university students from Gush Katif. Then there's Anna -- from Short Hills, NJ who is raising money as a Bat Mitzva project towards supplying the Nitzan community center with needed equipment. This is but a small fraction of precious individuals and organizations helping victims of the government's expulsion from Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron. These efforts are a true Kiddush HaShem.

Perhaps the "Disengagement Plan" was part of a test or trial from Hakodesh Baruch Hu -- not so much how the evil decree was fought but rather how Am Yisrael responded after the fact. Am Yisrael Chai!

By Yossi and Sara Layah Shomron
Nitzan Caravilla site

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TZIPPY
Posted by Nadia Matar, January 19, 2006.

A short time ago -- around 2:15 p.m. -- Hebron policemen came to Tzippi Shlissel, resident of Mitzpe Shalhevet in Hevron, daughther of Rabbi Ra'anan HY"D, who was murdered by an Arab terrorist.

The policemen asked to see Tzippi's I.D.

Tzippi said she did not have her I.D. on her. The policemen beat her up brutally, arrested her and took her to the Hebron police station -- without permitting her to take along her two month old nursing baby.

Luckily a neighbor was witness to the brutal police attack and took care of the baby.

Tzippy Shlissel went to court on Wednesday, January 18, in Bet Shemesh, to ask the court not to kick her out of her home -- it seems that the authorities felt she needed to be punished for thinking she can bother the courts.

This Bolshevik persecution of Jews is UNACCEPTABLE.

Every day the situation gets worse.

We MUST protest:

Please call and demand they IMMEDIATELY RELEASE TZIPPY SHLISSEL

You can speak in English.

Keep this list of phone numbers -- no doubt we will need them again.

The following numbers are a good start.

Remember: They plan on doing to us what they do to the Hebron residents -- if they do not see that we get upset, they will feel free to continue their abuse and persecution.

Phone calls from friends of Israel abroad will be very influential too -- to call from abroad dial 972 and then the number below without the zero please spread this message to other lists

Hebron Police :
Telephone: 02-996-9444
02-996-9473/86/96/62

Chaya Peri -- Olmert's spokeswoman :
Telephone: 02-666-2301
Fax: 02-666-4400
Cell Phone: 050-623-0333
Beeper: 03-6106666 #24404

Ministry of internal police :
Telephone: 02-530-8500
02-530-9980 Fax: 02-530-8039

Mafkal Aharonishky :
Telephone: 02-530-8100
Fax: 02-530-8118

Shabbat Shalom from Liberated Efrat,
Mrs. Nadia Matar

Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org

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CIVIL WAR AS A PR STUNT
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 19, 2006.

Olmert (pronounced all-merde) has never been known as the sharpest tool in the political shed. So it is not at all beyond the realm of possibility that he actually believes that fermenting a civil war that will inevitably lead to counter attacks on Government forces and institutions is a perfectly legitimate gimmick.

Historically, cretins like Olmert (pronounced all-merde) are what usually follow the unplanned demise of dictators. Dictators maintain power first and foremost by neutralizing anyone who has the capacity to challenge them. As a result they are always surrounded by third rate flunkeys. When the Great and Fearless Leader is suddenly removed from the picture, it is initially one of these flunkeys that takes over. Eventually another Great and Fearless Leader replaces the flunkey but that can take a bit of time especially when you have to go through the charade of elections.

This article is called "Right-wing politicians slam acting prime minister over plans to remove all West Bank outposts" and was written by Efrat Weiss, and appeared in YNET, 18 January 2006," www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3202522,00.html

It can be obtained from IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis) (email: imra@netvision.net.il, mail: POB 982 Kfar Sava). It is archived at http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=28211 Note that text in [] is an IMRA gloss.

[IMRA: Some wonder if Mr. Olmert's media advisors have suggested that he make up the gap in his stature regarding security matters by showing that he is strong against settlers. Ater all, he can thump on the desk as the cameras roll and demand action against settlers and be confident that Israeli security forces can "deliver the [photographable] goods" -- something he cannot do with regard to stopping Palestinian rockets. He can even be photographed studying maps of outposts being uprooted with IDF officers. The move against settlers also serves to reassure retreat supporters that he won't have any problems uprooting settlements in the next round of retreats after the elections.] "Rightists: Olmert stirring up civil war" [If you can't fight Kassams, fight Jews.]

Right-wing politicians on Wednesday questioned acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's drive to evict Jewish settlers from a Hebron neighborhood, accusing the former Jerusalem mayor of political maneuvering ahead of the March 28 general elections.

"Olmert is instigating a civil war. There is room for a legal compromise but the acting prime minister prefers to ignore it in order to be the Left's leader in the upcoming elections," MK Arieh Eldad of the National Union said.

Olmert ordered the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Police to prepare for the evacuation of an illegal Jewish enclave in Hebron's old market and the demolition of illegal homes in the West Bank outpost of Amona.

Security forces were also given the green light to draft a plan for the evacuation of all illegal outposts set up by settlers in the West Bank.

"We suggest Olmert learn about the complicated subject of outposts before he launches his attack and decides on a war," representatives of the Yesha Council said.

Yehsa accused Olmert's advisors of conspiring against the settlers by giving the acting prime minister false facts about West Bank outposts. Right-wing activist Baruch Marzel said: "We need to evacuate Olmert

from government. He is a provocateur and an inciter seeking to spill Jewish blood in Hebron. The public will do a good job should it decide to overthrow him as soon as possible." Notional Union MK Zvi Hendel said Olmert is being handled by media advisors like a puppet and has been recently manipulated to show firmness.

'Preparing for tough struggle'

The High Court of Justice ruled Wednesday that orders to demolish the Amona

homes will go into effect in a week. Two months ago Peace Now successfully petitioned the High Court to have Amona settlers evacuated. The settlers plan to appeal the ruling in the coming week before the IDF goes ahead with the demolitions.

As the settlers brace for a confrontation, the government seems determined to go ahead with the evacuations.

"This reality of breaching the law and defying the State might permeate the Green Line and hit Israel proper," Olmert warned, adding that public employees who took part in violence against security forces ought to be punished.

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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ISRAEL'S HIDDEN CRISIS
Posted by Ahavas Cheset, January 19, 2006.

While the world reads about politics and terrorist attacks, over 700,000
children in Israel are quietly struggling to grow up in crushing poverty!

Visit Ahavas Chesed to learn the facts about Israel's Poverty Crisis and how you can do something meaningful to help turn the tide:
Latest poverty report issued by National Insurance Institute reveals -- "Over 1.5 million Israelis live below the poverty level."
Israel now leads the Western World in child poverty!
714,000 children in Israel lack the basic essentials we all take for granted... food, clothing, decent housing, medicine and all the rest.
Families are being evicted, elderly women rummage in garbage bins, work can't be found!
Benefits have been slashed for the poorest and most helpless in Israeli society...single parents, abused children, the disabled and the elderly.
Children growing up in such poverty develop a lack of self-esteem, behavioral and learning problems. Their future is at stake!
Ahavas Chesed brings direct financial assistance to some of the poorest families in Israel...discretely and privately. No one feels the shame of standing in public lines to receive food or goods. And, most important, the children never suffer the humiliation of being known to their friends as "charity cases".

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JDL TO JOIN PROTEST AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
Posted by Robert Turk, January 18, 2006.

Volunteers Needed

The State of Disarray at Georgetown University

On February 17-19, 2006, a conference will be held on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The agenda of the conference reads as follows:

Palestine Solidarity Movement Announcement

Fifth Annual Divestment Conference ("Fifth Annual National Student Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement")

The motives for this conference are to plan a systematic divestment from Israel.

The organizers of this conference, The Palestine Solidarity Movement have held other conferences at the following major universities over the last fours years, UC Berkeley, U of Michigan, Ohio State and Duke University. The planned speakers will use the usual rhetoric, "The occupation is the cause of the problems," and "The Jews need to leave occupied Palestine." Then even more hate will rise from their speakers such as, "The Jews died in the desert, none survived," as per the work of Arthur Koestler a regularly quoted denier and fabricator of history. Then, maybe the speakers will quote from that old time favorite, David Irving, or even better from Adolph Hitler or "Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

Here are the facts:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan." -- Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member, Zahir Muhsein said back o March 31, 1977.

It is incumbent on every Zionist to attend this conference and support the Holy land. The Jewish Defense League will at Georgetown University in full force; however, we need donations to defray the costs of transportation and housing for volunteers. Please donate generously to ensure Israel's future.

Kol Tuv and Toda Raba

The Jewish Defense League is an activist organization dedicated to the protection and defense of the Jewish people in the Diaspora. To that end, there will be no sanctuary for those who threaten or attack Jewish individuals or institutions. Never Again!

Many of our members cannot be directly involved in the daily aspects of running this organization. All members are an integral part of the Jewish Defense League and those who cannot volunteer their time on a continual basis can help in another way. Since we feel everyone should benefit from our various projects, news alerts, and events; we would ask that you donate to keep our operating costs to a minimum. Klal Yisrael needs a helping hand and we are the first line of defense fighting Anti-Semitism in the Diaspora.

Website: http://www.jdl.org.il/

JEWISH DEFENSE LEAGUE
Ian Sigel
Chairman
email: jdlnews@jdl.org.il

Robert Turk is with the Jewish Defense League (JDL). Contact him at jdlnews@jdl.org.il

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CALL THE IDF SPOKESMAN
Posted by David Bedein, January 18, 2006.
Concerning the latest expression of the IDF Commander in Chief that "he has lost all patience with the settlers", our agency placed a call to the IDF Spokesman's Unit, and they were very nervous receiving a call from someone who might make them look bad abroad. Therefore, call them as much as possible, say that you are writing for a paper outside of Israel, and ask them one question:
Why does not the IDF Commander in Chief not "lose his patience" when the Arabs build 6000 homes illegally in Jerusalem, or when the Bedouins built on hundreds of dunams that are not theirs in the Negev? IS the IDF going to be engaged in demolitions in the Negev and in Jerusalem, of homes belonging to Bedouins and Arabs respectively? Why does the IDF single out one ethnic group alone?

You can mention that the figure of 6000 illegal homes comes from the study produced on that subject by the JCPA, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, directed by Dr. Dore Gold. The study was written by Dr. Justus Weiner.

The IDF Spokesman's tel: 03 608 0234. Operates 24/7. Call with a question, NOT with an opinion. Not one screamer.

The more calls, the better. Keep them on their toes. They will probably ask for the question in writing. So e-mail them or fax them to whatever number they give you, and call back to see if they got it. And then wait five hours for a response.

David Bedein is Bureau Chief of the Israel Resource News Agency, which is based in Jerusalem.

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MEET KADIMA
Posted by Batya Medad, January 18, 2006.

The mask is off! The guy in charge wasn't that old, rolly, polly grandpa type with the big smile and ready laugh. OK, until he announced he was throwing thousands of Jews out of their homes, destroying synagogues, schools and businesses just to give it all to the Arabs, he couldn't have won a popularity contest anywhere in the world, except YESHA--Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

It was only when Ariel Sharon turned on his friends that the Israeli media, the "tzfonim," (Israeli elite,) the UN and international movers and shakers decided that he was Santa without the red hat. And now, when he's in that "living death" in Hadassa Hospital, we see that the disengaged from Jewish values, tradition and Land policies are continuing with Ehud Olmert, as Prime Minister.

Actually, it's becoming very clear that Ehud Olmert was directing things all along. Now, even though he's technically just a "substitute" Prime Minister, he's making real policy, dangerous policy. He has "declared war" on what he terms "illegal Jewish settlements," even neighborhoods that have gotten government support. He has been sending dozens of riot police to terrorize Jewish families living in Chevron. Any complaint by Arabs against Jews is taken more than seriously, while Jews are punished for defending themselves against Arab aggression.

The transition between Sharon and Olmert is too smooth for Sharon to have had been calling the shots.

Tonight I made a point of watching some news on TV. I had been away for a week and needed to get a handle of what was really going on, the "mood" of the country and all that.

I was surprised to see an unusually animated Tzachi Hanegbi explaining how Kadima's internal structure, where a small elite, even one person, will choose the list of Kenesset candidates, is perfectly fine.

"In actuality, the people don't really care if it's a committee of a few dozen, hundred, thousands or just one."

He went on voicing a cynicism that saddened me for two reasons. One is that it's still hard for me to see Geula Cohen's son as a cold, unprincipled cynic and also, because it's probably true. It really hurts that so many Israelis support what Sharon did in Disengagement.

Why are people attracted to bullies? Is it related to the Stockholm Syndrome? That's the phenomena in which victims become emotionally attached to the abuser, even defending him and being fearful of leaving him.

I was just in New York for a week, and I couldn't get over the concern for Sharon's health. People keep hoping that he'll recover. I keep seeing the Disengagement victims before my eyes, and I'm more concerned about them. But it was rare to hear anybody voicing concern over the people Arik Sharon "disengaged" from their homes.

Now I'm back, and see that Ehud Olmert is very comfortable in the role of Prime Minister. Tzachi was trying to paint a picture of a lovely "supermarket of opinions," within the leadership of Kadima. He considers it one of the strong points of his new party. Olmert to the left and him to the right; that's what he's selling. But remember, you had the same spread in the Likud. It just had a different reputation. It was considered "right wing."

But Kadima's modern, up-to-date. Within a couple of days of opening membership, thousands signed up by internet. I can't answer "why?" None of it attracts me. I want a political party with ideals and faith.

Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il This is archived at shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2006/01/ meet-kadima.html

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NUTCASE WITH NUKES
Posted by Gary S., January 18, 2006.
This was created by Matt Davies, The Journal News, January 13, 2006 (wwn.lohud.com).
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IS THE WORLD MOVING TOWARD ISRAEL'S SIDE?
Posted by Barry Rubin, January 18, 2006.

This column has predicted that the West is undergoing a big rethinking of its views on the Arab-Israeli conflict. The idea that the only problem is Israel's oppression of the Palestinians is fast-fading given the Palestinian movement's collapse, Hamas's rise, the Arab debate over democracy, and the aftermath of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Instead, the extremism, terrorism, and disorganization of the Palestinian side is seen as being the cause of the conflict and the impossibility of solving it for many years.

Evidence for this thesis is snowballing. Take the British media as an example. "Where is the Arab Sharon?" asks Tim Hames in The Times on January 9. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1070-1976381,00.html).

Hames writes: "The dilemma for Israel and the peace process is not that Mr Sharon cannot continue to serve as Prime Minister. It is that there is no equivalent to Mr Sharon in the Arab world. There is no one willing to acknowledge publicly that the Palestinians cannot have all that they might want, just as Israelis cannot have everything they might desire."

He continues, "There is no one willing to declare openly that not only do those who surround Israel have to recognize its right to exist, but that their societies will thrive only when they begin to emulate the democratic values, economic ingenuity and cultural diversity that explain why Israel's gross domestic product exceeds that of its vastly more populous neighbors combined."

Or how about Patrick Bishop in the Telegraph, January 10: "I have always been reluctant to accept the Israeli statesman Abba Eban's observation that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Arriving in Gaza yesterday, it had to be admitted that the man had a point." He then described the family blood feuds which, even aside from the political infighting or corruption, are tearing the place apart. "The security forces are no help. Their rivalries are the cause of much of the bloodshed." Bishop, a veteran journalist and former foreign editor of the paper, has been known for writing passionate anti-Israel articles Many other examples in different countries could be cited. Why, in addition to the above-mentioned points, is this happening now? For one thing, Palestinians are breaking with the usual everything-is-Israel's-fault line because they are genuinely more scared of their own people.

Even those who will not admit the truth about the past cannot avoid the realities of the present. "The densely populated, heavily armed territory is taut with frustration from decades of political injustices, restricted freedoms, stunted economic development and the violent culture of its militias and their suicide bombers," writes Craig Smith in the January 11 New York Times." Such excuses aside, though, "Gaza threatens to turn on itself now that Israel has withdrawn."

Fareed Zakaria explains in his Newsweek column, "The great obstacle to progress in the Middle East is no longer Israeli intentions but rather Palestinian capabilities. The big story that no one wants to admit yet is that the Palestinian Authority has collapsed, Gaza has turned into a failed state and there is no single Palestinian political organization that could create order in the territories and negotiate with Israel. Palestinian dysfunction is now the main limiting factor on any progress in the peace process."

There are other events also contributing to this rethinking, notably the open anti-Semitism and threats of genocide by Iran's president is a reminder of the real agenda held in much of the Middle East. Iran could hardly be more provocative, tearing up one deal with the West on nuclear controls after another. Perhaps, too, the specter of endless Western concessions and apologetics is also forcing many to wake up. After September 11, 2001, set off alarms, lots of people pressed the snooze button. But the extremists keep pushing, refusing to let people get away with appeasing them.

What is sustaining the remnants of nonsense? A major factor here is deliberate lying, making a radical statement in Arabic or Persian to one's real constituents and another expression in English to soothe the suckers.

Palestinian Media Watch, in a January 11 report, puts side by side two statements by Fatah leader Qadura Faras, who has been active in the Geneva peace initiative with Israelis. He said on that group's website, "I am telling you with full sincerity, we are ready to reach an inclusive agreement with you.... The question is: Are you ready for this?"

Yet when speaking to his own people, as reported in the January 5 al-Hayat al-Jadida, he praised Palestinian terrorists who had murdered Israelis, he proclaimed, 'We are all going [their] way_until the fulfillment of the goal for which he became a [martyr]." Suicide bombers are not seeking a two-state solution.

My personal favorite is the new Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Turki al-Faisal, in a December 16 Washington Post interview. He explained that his country accepted the Holocaust as historical fact and is ready to accept Israel's existence. In fact, all institutions in Saudi Arabia say the exact opposite. Dr. Ali Alyami of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, noted, "There is a blatant contradiction in what the Saudi princes say when meeting with US officials and media editors and what their autocratic institutions instill in their citizenry in the highly censored Saudi society." Recently, a Saudi teacher who merely stated that Jews were not innately bad people was sentenced to a flogging.

But the wonderful thing about the truth is that it has a way of bursting out. That's what is tending to happen in the Middle East right now.

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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BOOBERY -- THE LABOR PARTY'S SLATE; BRANDEIS PROFESSOR'S TIES TO ISLAMIC JIHAD
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 18, 2006.

1. The Labor Party primaries took place yesterday and most of the count is in. The Labor Party will be attempting to use the exact same electoral strategy that it followed for the past two decades.

It will fill the electoral slate up with incompetent leftwing generals in the hope that the voter will be persuaded to support the party's platform of appeasement and economic bolshevism. while ignoring the existential threats to Israel in the party's "vision" -- all thanks to the presence of those generals. This round, Peretz will have no fewer than five ex-generals. They include the Friend of the Hamas and Jihad, Ami Ayalon, the guy who has been promoting his own version of a citizen-initiated "deal" with the PLO and its friends through complete Israeli capitulation. Ayalon launched his initiative because Beilin's Geneva Initiative was not pro-Palestinian enough. The Ayalon "initiative" is a product of a team in which Ayalon and Sari Nusseibah represented the Palestinians and no one represented the Jews.

Then there is Efraim Sneh, son of the guy who ran Israel's communist party for many years. Sneh junior was an army general; and later on an incompetent Minister of Health.

Then there is Danny Yatom, who has been trying to give military brass buttons to the capitulationist instincts of the Labor Party (see http://israelnn.com/news.php3?id=95376 and http://israelnn.com/news.php3?id=95912). The slow-moving and slow-thinking Binyamin Ben-Eliezer is another ex-general, presumably there to try to get the votes of people who like voting for beer bellies that remind them of Ariel Sharon.

Finally there is Matan Vilnay, ex-general, who seems to believe in nothing.

Among the leftists bedecking the Labor Party slate are the pseudo-academic Avishay Braverman, the guy who turned Ben Gurion University into the Bir Zeit of teh Negev, in 4th place. Ultra-bimbo TV talking head Shelly Yechimovich (the correct spelling by the way), late of the communist party, will be in 9th place. Michael Melchior, a Tikkunesque Orthodox Rabbi, will be the token kipa on the list in 10th place. Ophir Pines-Paz, the worst anti-free-speech activist and McCarthyist in the Labor Party, will be number 3. In a surprise, Yitzchak Herzog, son of once President Chaim Herzog, is in second place. Several slots were reserved for women, and one is manned by ultra-bimba leftist Collete Avital. (The other is for Tuli Tamir).

In short, truly a list for which a Palestinian or someone dreaming of a Soviet system of central planning could support with enthusiasm.
 

2. Remember when Brandeis was considered by some to be a Jewish university? This is called "Concern Mounts Over Brandeis Professor's Ties to Islamic Jihad" and is by Meghan Clyne, Staff Reporter of the Sun, January 17, 2006 (http://www.nysun.com/article/25980).

WASHINGTON -- Concern is mounting about the possible connections between a prominent Palestinian Arab scholar, Khalil Shikaki, and leading members of the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Government wiretaps introduced at the trial of a Florida professor accused of operating the American wing of PIJ, Sami Al-Arian, show Mr. Shikaki distributed money in the West Bank for Al-Arian associates allegedly tied to PIJ -- conversations the federal government argues may represent terrorist activity.

Mr. Shikaki is, among many scholarly affiliations, the founder and director of a prominent polling institute, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, and last year was named a scholar at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. Among Palestinian Islamic Jihad's more notorious acts was an April 1995 bombing in Israel that killed a Brandeis student, Alisa Flatow.

He is also the brother of the assassinated founder of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fathi Shikaki, and a former director of the Florida-based World & Islam Studies Enterprise. WISE was founded by Mr. Al-Arian and connected to several other figures involved in the recent PIJ terrorism trials in Tampa, Fla., during which Mr. Al-Arian and three co-defendants were acquitted.

Mr. Shikaki has not been indicted on any criminal charges in America, and has repeatedly denied any connection to his brother's terrorist operation; any knowledge of the connections between WISE and the Islamic Committee for Palestine -- both alleged by the government to be front groups for Islamic Jihad -- and PIJ, and any knowledge that top figures in the organization with whom he had associated, including its current leader, Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, and an Al-Arian associate affiliated with WISE, Sameeh Hammoudeh, were at all involved in PIJ. Mr. Hammoudeh was one of the co-defendants in the Al-Arian case, and was acquitted on all counts.

Wiretaps of conversations between Messrs. Shikaki, Shallah, and Hammoudeh introduced as evidence at the Al-Arian trial, however, suggest that Mr. Shikaki distributed money in the West Bank for Al-Arian associates, who raised the funds in America, and then stopped the money transfers in January 1995, shortly after PIJ was declared a blocked terrorist organization by President Clinton.

In a government wiretap dated January 15, 1995, in a conversation between Messrs. Shikaki and Hammoudeh, Mr. Hammoudeh says to Mr. Shikaki: "If you please, do us a favor. There is an amount of money for orphans in Nablus." In the case against Mr. Al-Arian, the government argued and introduced evidence indicating that "orphans" was a code for Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Mr. Shikaki replies: "Um ... Eah. [Pause.] [Sighs.] Okay, when you want to give it to them."

In a wiretap from January 28, 1995, Mr. Hammoudeh calls Mr. Shikaki again from Florida to inquire about the money distribution, and Mr. Shikaki refuses -- five days after Mr. Clinton signed an executive order prohibiting financial transactions with terrorist organizations threatening the Middle East peace process, including PIJ.

"What have you done for us regarding the subject," Mr. Hammoudeh asks. "Ehh ... I did not do anything for you yet, by God, Sameeh," Mr. Shikaki replies. "If you have another way to give them money, a way other than my way ..."

Mr. Hammoudeh then says: "By God... I mean I can send them a check through the mail. But I thought this way is better, more secure."

Another wiretap entered into evidence, from February 15, 1995, suggests that Mr. Shikaki's sudden refusal after the Clinton order terminated an established pattern of his distributing money for ICP- and PIJ-connected figures. In the February wiretap, a leading member of ICP and WISE who was arrested and deported from America in 2001 for his connections to terrorism, and Mr. Al-Arian's brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar, converses with another Al-Arian associate, Bashir Nafi.

"Do you know what our problem with the Orphan Sponsorship Project is now?" Mr. Al-Najjar says. "... We cannot find someone to receive the money and distribute it," adding later, "Khalil refused to receive ... In the past we were depositing it in Khalil's account here," Mr. Al-Najjar says, referring to Mr. Shikaki's personal account in Florida, which bank records introduced as evidence at the Al-Arian trial showed to have received deposits from Al-Arian associates.

The wiretaps showing Mr. Shikaki's involvement in distributing money from alleged PIJ-affiliated institutions in Tampa to interests in the West Bank call into question the degree to which Mr. Shikaki, now a prominent academic figure in America and the Middle East, should continue receiving affiliations, invitations, and accolades from Jewish and academic organizations, Steven Emerson, the director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, said.

Mr. Shikaki is, for example, scheduled to headline a forum on the Palestinian elections at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy here Thursday.

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. Contact him by email at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il

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HOLLYWOOD NOW DICTATING US FOREIGN POLICY -- FOR THE PLO
Posted by David Frankenthal, January 18, 2006.

Please send letters of protest to info@hfpa.org, office@hfpa.org and CC to jointheboycott@mailcity.com

Or mail a letter to HFPA, 646 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069.

Their telephone is 310 657 1731 and their fax is 301 657 5576.

2005-2006 Officers:

Board of Directors:
Lorenzo Soria (Chairman)
Yani Begakis
Yoram Kahana
Mira Panajotovic
Noemia Young
Silvia Bizio (Alternate)

President: Philip Berk
Vice President: Mahfouz Doss
Executive Secretary: Meher Tatna
Treasurer: Jorge Camara
Managing Director: Chantal Dinnage

To the Hollywood Free Press Association (HFPA):

I think it was inappropriate to award the PLO propaganda film "Paradise Now" the Golden Globe for the best foreign language film. The film attempts to explain, i.e. justify, suicide bombings, which are crimes against humanity. It is even more inappropriate that on your website, you classify the film's country of origin as "Palestine".

There is no country called "Palestine" according to the US Government. I don't think it is within your rights or your province to dictate to the rest of us that we recognize what amounts to a pseudo-nation that currently practices terrorism.

David Frankenthal is with Join the Boycott. Write him at jointheboycott@lycos.com. He lives in Los Angeles, CA

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WEEKLY BLITZ EDITORIAL
Posted by Salah Choudhury, January 17, 2006.

Weekly Blitz issue 15 is just published! Kindly log in to www.weeklyblitz.net to read any or all of the following reports and articles:

01. Beware of kindergarten madrassas! Front Page
02. Shahta: Exit of a dirty diplomat Front Page
03. Indian PM to attend AJC's 100 year celebration Front Page
04. World prepares for Post Sharon era ... Back Page
05. Why diplomacy with Iran had to fail Back Page
06. Right Islam Vs Wrong Islam Post Editorial
07. Thai terrorists target resorts Inner Page
08. Saudi Doctorate encounters the murders of ... Inner Page
09. Jerusalem will be forever the capital of Israel ... Back Page
10. Transforming the common image ... Inner Page
11. IEA and the way to peace ... Inner Page
12. Shaorn's illness upsets the Israeli-Palestinian chessboard
And Many more important articles, poem and reports.

This is the editorial.

This year's Eid Ul Azha was some way a bit exception in Bangladesh. Firstly, because it was the last Eid during the present tenure of ruling BNP-Coalition government and secondly because of appreciable security measures taken by the government to ensure proper protection of the people in the country. There was also sufficient security arrangements visible in all the cattle markets to keep the extortionists away. State Minister for Home Affairs personally visited all the cattle markets to give moral courage to the traders and the buyers. No doubt, the home ministry showed appreciable performance in becoming successful in ensuring a smooth and uninterrupted Eid to the people of this country. Generally cattle markets become the prime target of notorious extortionists, as they target this occasion as one of the best opportunities for them to cash handsome amount. This year to, those elements took their preparations, but Rapid Action Battalion and members of country's law enforcing agencies stood as massive obstacle to their illegal grievance. This is a good example. But, on the other hand, very unfortunately, prices of essentials are on wild hike causing tremendous suffering to the people, especially to the lower middle class in the society. Although there had been series of promises from the government to control such tendency, practically there was no visible result as the minister in charge of Commerce Ministry still continues in the cabinet, although he had already been marked as Mr. Failed. Business community is extremely unhappy over the extreme poor performance of the Commerce Minister as well the Advisor in the same ministry. It is commonly told that the Advisor in the Commerce Ministry is rather busy in making quick cash by doing almost everything, right and wrong; rather mostly wrong. His name also comes as one of the black spotted figures in the present cabinet, who could finally be termed as Mr. Corrupt. But, possibly the government is little reluctant in paying proper attention to this ministry, although, performance or failure of this ministry is certainly going to leave important impact on the ruling alliance during the General Election of 2007. Many of the ministers in the present cabinet are also extremely unhappy on Altaf Chowdhury and Barkatulla Bulu, Minister and Advisor respectively in the Commerce Ministry, for their lack of responsibility, and gross irregularities and corruption. But, there is still a big question mark to the entire nation on country's Chief Executive's softer attitudes towards these two stooges. It is although certain that not only these two figures, but many of the members of the huge cabinet of the ruling government are either worthless or they are involved in various questionable activities. State Minister for Religious Affairs, State Minister for Cultural Affairs, Prime Minister's Women Affairs Advisor, State Minister for Housing & Public Works, State Minister for Water Resources, Deputy Minister for LGRD and some others are already identified as either worthless or are engaged in questionable activities, including financial corruptions. Especially after the official endorsement of the notorious activities of Jamiatul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) and its leaders Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai, it has become a big question to the entire nation as to whether the government is going to expel those figures from the cabinet who played nasty role and even extended open support to Bangla Bhai and JMB during the early hour of its emergence.

After the present operations began against JMB outfits, the Chief Executive of the country repeatedly said that actions will be taken against these Islamist Extremists as well their patrons. But, in reality, there is no such action at all. Top three pro-JMB figures are still continuing in the cabinet and it is almost certain that the Chief Executive of the country is still not considering the issue of seizing their minister ship, for reason unknown. It is the demand of time to immediately expel the three most controversial ministers from the cabinet for their pro-JMB role. Bangladesh should revive its reputation as a moderate democratic Muslim country. Because of series blasts by JMB activists in the country during last year, such good image of the country was already questioned. International community is already seeing Bangladesh through confused eyes, if not doubtful eyes. This is certainly not any good news for a country, which is greatly dependant on export earnings. Moreover, if Bangladesh government will fail to restore country's image as a moderate democratic and Muslim nation, it will ultimately bring nightmare for expatriate Bangladeshis in a number of countries.

The writer is a journalist, columnist, author, and editor of "Weekly Blitz". Email him at salahuddinshoaibchoudhury@yahoo.com

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THERE'S AN ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
Posted by Arlene Peck, January 17, 2006.

Do you think it is possible to really see clearly anymore? Do we still have the capacity to detect the face of evil?

I ask this because, every time I open up a newspaper and see rampaging masses of Muslims in black ski-masks, fists upraised, armed to the teeth, shouting, "Jihad! Jihad!", I am not only repelled by what I see but convinced I have seen the very Devil unmasked. However, I don't think that most people have that reaction when they click on the news. Possibly it's because I was reared in the south and remember the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) marching in those stupid white sheets and dunce hats that those old feelings of revulsion lie just below the surface and are easily re-awakened? I don't know.

Maybe we have it so good over here that we have become like the proverbial frog in the pot of water. As the heat was applied, he felt warmer and warmer until suddenly the pot was boiling over, with catastrophic consequences for the frog! Is that us now? The nightly terrorist attacks in Iraq no longer seem capable of scaring us. Who really notices when our President tells us that we are winning the war on terrorism? Who feels committed to the task, or that this is their war? Does anyone really believe that we're all going into the sunset holding hands with the Muslim community in the Middle East, or anywhere else for that matter, if they get the gift of democracy? Democracy is also their enemy. Ask the Iranians. In fact, look how Iraq is handling it. As I write this they are "protesting" in the only way they know how because the price of gas has gone from 5 cents a gallon to sixty-five cents, with violence and bloodshed.

We are dealing with a mentality that is innately incapable of grasping the basic, simplified Democratic concepts; that whoever gets the most votes ... rules. And there is no need for us to wonder why this is so. It is fundamental to their religion, inherent in every "truth" they practice. Theirs is a religion based on submission, not representation and difference, where shame and "honour" supplant decency and compassion.

Somehow, the democratizing of Iraq has gotten mixed up with the success of the war on terror. To my way of thinking, this has only muddied the waters and, as usual, has inevitable and disastrous consequences for Jews and Israel. We are in a World War and just like in pre-War Germany nobody seems to want to acknowledge it. Apparently there is no elephant in the room! Just to illustrate the point, recently Jerusalem Bureau Chief Aaron Klein was denied entry into Syria simply because he was a Jew. However his non-Jewish colleagues, travelling with him, were welcomed. As far as I know, not one news agency considered this newsworthy enough to report. I wonder? Would they have noticed had he been required to wear a yellow Star of David on his sleeve? There was no worldwide outrage. It was received with the same ho-hummery accorded Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, when he went on camera to ridicule the Holocaust and repeat how Israel should be blown off the map. Hello people! Nuclear threats from a certifiable madman, not retracted or repudiated... but repeated, just so no-one would be left in doubt as to the intention. Nuclear destruction of a sovereign nation!

It has gotten to the point where not even leftist Jews think it is deplorable that Muslims continue to repeat their mantra - no Jews should be permitted to live in the Middle East. How obvious does it have to be before there is outrage, International OR Israeli, over Palestine's refusal to back away from their stated goal of Israeli annihilation and replacement by "Palestinian" hordes?

Repeat THIS mantra. In the history of the world, there has never been a Palestinian people (other than the Jews), a Palestinian king, a Palestinian state, a distinct Palestinian language or culture. It never existed! And, it should not now.

But, why should I be surprised? For years, I've been writing on the subject of the International Federation of the Red Cross and the deliberate attempts of its 182 members to block the admission of Israel's Magen David Adom (MDA). Why is this an issue at all? Isn't the motivation of all these Associations to give aid, to whoever, wherever, not bicker like school-children over a flag?

But no, Arab nations, insulted by the Jewish Star, have used their 22 votes, in concert with many non-Muslims lands, to block Israel 's entry.

They're insulted? Insulted? When is the world going to become insulted by the manner in which one culture has changed the world in ways too horrible to comprehend? Maybe that's why we stay so hung up on "political correctness" and denial, refusing the politically incorrect notion that, in fact, that the Jews are the "good guys" in this war of culture. Our culture deniers seem more eager to have their "acceptable rules of behaviour" defined by a barbaric and evil culture where "Death to All!" rules. Let the double standard prevail... rather than face the Devil and what they represent! There is another mantra we should all remember: "All Muslims are not terrorists, but, ALL TERRORISTS HAVE BEEN MUSLIMS."

So, instead of a Jewish Star, Israel has been forced to accept a Red Crystal, a supposedly, "simple diamond shape", thanks to another inane suggestion by South Africa. Apparently, the "diamond" originally proposed had connotations of slavery so, in the face of this compelling and vital issue, the MDA and Israel have caved in. Instead, eager to gain the world's acceptance, they will use an empty crystal with their real symbol, the red Star of David to be allowed only in Israel, unless more is heard from this conference of anti-Semites. By the way, virtually every major Jewish organization in the US, with rare exception, applauded this appalling flim-flam rather than resist the rejection of the historical symbol of Judaism. So, the Christians get to keep their cross, the Muslims keep the Red Crescent and the Jews get the shaft.

Israel, in her stupidity, or maybe because she is so used to grovelling for crumbs at the United Nations, accepted this and Israel's Foreign Minister, Sylvan Shalom, actually said, "The vote reflects Israel's improved international standing. This is yet another achievement for Israel's diplomacy and paves the way for Israel to join international rescue missions." So, once again, Israel openly admits that she is not worthy of the same status as the cross and crescent and we are privy to seeing the double standard applied yet again.

Examples such as these are small potatoes, in an overall world context. My gripe is that the cumulative effect of 50 plus years of this irrational behaviour towards Israel has seeped into not only World consciousness but also Israel's own perceptions of herself. It's ok to behave immaturely and appallingly, it's only Israel!

I am disgusted at the lack of outcry, from any quarter, over the savagery we have allowed ourselves to become accustomed to. The world has to realize that Israel is not a banana republic and Israel has to learn a little more of "Just say no!" Personally speaking, I want to regain some of that pride I used to feel. But, why stop with the press, governments and the Red Cross, who could care less and, for the most part, are hostile to Jews and every Israeli position presented, seemingly by default.

Why should I be any less surprised by the actions of Israel-hating Jewish leftists - who are actively doing everything they can to destroy their very heritage, pointedly ignoring Jewish welfare and interests, yet proudly and publicly marching for the dolphins - when I am surrounded by the Spielberg's of this world, denying our history, circulating false claims or outright lies in movies concerning things Jews have not done or endorse. Anything goes, in the name of political correctness.

I wrote a column a few years ago about the Jewish Federations, where bloated salaries prevail and dollars are wasted on causes which never promote Israel and are rarely pro-Jewish, where the very idea of affordable Jewish education is discouraged.

I am disturbed to read that the FBI refuses to hire Arabic-speaking Jews, but shouldn't be. Is this another insult to CAIR or maybe the ACLU? Maybe it's considered racial profiling?

One of the many things that was so special about our Jewish heritage was the way we always took care of each other. In fact, that almost defined us! Not so today, where Jews are discriminated against, by Jews, especially the elderly in the inner cities who face poverty and illness. Where is their support? Hell, where is the support for the settlers from Gaza, who are now homeless, having been evicted by their own government?

Why should I be surprised? I called into the Israeli Consulate a couple of weeks ago and offered to do a program for them on my weekly television show. I told them it would run like a commercial for them and be great Public Relations. I'm still waiting for them to respond. Are they scared of me? Frightened I might talk about Israel positively, as though she has rights?

I know it's an effort to attend meetings, write letters to government officials and attend marches. We've grown weary complaining about the biased newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times. However, one person CAN make a difference. I write these columns and people do respond. I'm invited to speak at Universities; Radio and Television shows contact me, asking me to speak. I am encouraged, often, when I receive letters from all over the world from people who tell me how they are now doing their part to wake up the catatonic to the dangers facing us on a world-wide basis, but we all need to be doing this, and often! I know I am not the only Jew who has intimate knowledge of what happened to our people once before, not that long ago. The threat of Islamic Fundamentalism is marching over the hill... every hill. If we are going to survive, we have to turn back the tide! NOW!

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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MUSLIM AGGRESSION ON THE MOUNT; IRAN'S SHOPPING SPREE; SHARON OVER-PRAISE
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 17, 2006.
Muslim Aggression On the Mount; Iran's Shopping Spree; Sharon Over-Praise

WORLD BANK MISCHIEF

Like other donors, the World Bank donates to P.A. NGOs that engage in the political war against Israel. Some such NGOs are "PCHR, Al Haq, the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights and ARIJ; and... Al Mezan" These organizations are exploiting the World Bank's resources for external attacks against Israel, (including the use of terms such as apartheid) rather than focusing on internal development objectives." (IMRA, 1/3.)

Do you suppose that the World Bank is unaware that it is developing an arm of the war against Israel and not the economy of the P.A.? Is the World Bank part of the war against the Jews?

IDF FORFEITS DEFENSE OUT OF HUMANENESS

Unimpeded by the IDF, Terrorists fired a rocket that almost struck a gas station. IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz explained to a Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting today that the IDF is not able to actually attack Qasssam shooters in action when they fire rockets towards Sderot because they fire them from populated areas? (IMRA, 1/3).

This means that Israel lets terrorists get away with firing upon populated areas and that may wreak terrible damage, lest Israeli self-defense mean firing back where terrorists operate amid a population eager for terrorism against Israel. Israel lets the inhumane attack the humane, lest the humane kill the inhumane. Is that humane?

SIGNIFICANCE OF SHARON CORRUPTION

Israeli police have evidence that Sharon or his son accepted $3 million from an Austrian, mostly to repay an illegal loan. The Austrian is a principal owner of the P.A. casino. Up to at least then, Israeli voters did not care about their leaders' corruption (IMRA, 12/3).

Would the voters care if they coupled the new allegation with the facts that: (1) Sharon's negotiator with the P.A. also has the P.A. shareholders of the casino as clients; and (2) Sharon's planned withdrawal from the P.A.? Withdrawal would clear the way for the casino in Jericho to reopen and for one to be built in Gaza, to milk Israelis of their money. One doesn't suppose that the Austrian gave Sharon $3 million just for being charming. What did Sharon sell for it. Sharon appears to have been selling not only his soul but the nation.

3-WAY MUSLIM AGGRESSION ON TEMPLE MOUNT

The Waqf: (1) illegally builds another mosque below ground; (2) Discards valuable ancient Jewish artifacts in the debris, while claiming there was no evidence of an ancient Jewish temple or development on the Mount and therefore no Jewish entitlement to it; and (3) Accuses the Jews of surreptitiously building a synagogue beneath the mosque, in order to undermine the mosque (Arutz-7, 1/3). Jewish entitlement is to the whole country.

Israel isn't building there; instead it is cowardly deferring to the Muslims. Since Israel has a right to build there, why would it do so, surreptitiously? If it wanted to undermine the mosque, why would it build something that, when the mosque collapsed, would collapse under the weight of the mosque? The accusations make no sense. The Muslims have been making a similar slander against the Jews for about three-fourths of a century. Never have such accusations been found true. Time to reject them out of hand. Lying is part of the Islamic method of warfare. Disbelieving Muslims should become part of the Western defense. So far, the media has not realized it needs to be skeptical of the Arabs.

IS THE U.S. IMPERIALIST?

People call the US an imperialist power, intervening where it can to take over countries for its own use. No examples given. Egypt, guarding its presumed prerogative as a regional power, does nothing, but insists that outside powers not intervene in Sudan. The next head of the African Union, which is supposed to be protecting Sudanese blacks, is the head of Sudan! The Arab League and the African Union plan to hold their next annual meetings in Khartoum. That reassures Sudan that they have no qualms about Sudanese genocide. The plight of Sudanese blacks may be getting worse (IMRA, 1/3).

The US asked the Security Council to act against the genocide, but China vetoes relief. Russia, Algeria, and Egypt work against that, too.

The US has not acquired any territory since WWII, but it did relinquish some -- Okinawa and the Panama Canal Zone. In Afghanistan and Iraq, the US is laying out a fortune of its own money for reconstruction of countries devastated or neglected by its own rulers more than damaged by the war with the US. Few other countries are so benevolent.

Some of our foreign aid, however, is not benign. It buys national policy, as it does from Israel, or it supports dictators, as it does for Egypt and the P.A.. Other countries do give foreign aid, but some of it assists the jihad against Israel. Most of it is wasted. There was an old saying, "Trade, not aid." It still makes a lot of sense.

A VILLAGE STRADDLING ISRAEL & LEBANON

PM Sharon may have been considering ceding to Lebanon the Israeli half of the village of Rajar. The problem with retaining it is that members of Hizbullah too easily can enter the Lebanese half, go to the Israeli half, and then emerge in Israel. That presents a security problem.

Some Israelis thought that this cession would enable Israel to demand other territory, in exchange (IMRA, 12/3).

Israel should demand what makes sense and whatever it is entitled to, not need a pretext. It should not expect reciprocity in land deals. Jihad doesn't trade; it takes. The US seeks only to oust Israel from areas. Ours is not a friendly, rational world. Israelis above all should realize that most countries are governed by greed, appeasement, and bias.

IRAN'S SHOPPING SPREE

"... The assessment declares that Iran has developed an extensive web of front companies, official bodies, academic institutes and middlemen dedicated to obtaining -- in western Europe and in the former Soviet Union -- the expertise, training, and equipment for nuclear programs, missile development, and biological and chemical weapons arsenals" (IMRA, 12/4). Not for peace!

"ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DOLLAR?"

"Another day, another dollar," would represent a wage increase for Moroccan children. The kingdom has about 600,000 child laborers. They work long hours for about 70 cents a day. The tens of thousands who work as domestics may spend a hundred hours a week subjected to physical and sexual abuse, seldom go out or see their families, and remain uneducated. So imbued is the practice, that when Moroccans come to the US, they abuse other Moroccans here, even their own relatives (IMRA, 1/5). They bring trouble to US.

PRAISE HEAPED ON SHARON

Walter Reich described PM Sharon as having protected the Israelis. Since he couldn't find a responsible governing body in the P.A. with whom to make peace, and he didn't want to incorporate its Arabs into Israel, he acted unilaterally. Hillel Halkin claims that Israelis liked Sharon's boldness and self-confidence, regardless of his corruption and ill health, believing that he had found a way out of the Oslo dead end, and would continue to led them from it (NY Sun, 1/10, Op.-Eds.).

As a tactician, he was cleverer than most Israelis, but that isn't difficult. He sees ahead, they believe what they hear on the news. He changes his position, but they go by his past reputation. They value his boldness, but fail to ask whom it serves. They think they are above caring about his corruption, but his crime is to sell them out.

When he does fight the Arabs, it is only for appearance's sake and only as long as the US permits. When there is a lull in fighting, or what the media falsely reports as a lull, Israelis think he is protecting him. But he put the Arabs into a position that enables them to fight better. The path he has been taking is not out of Oslo, it is the implementation unilaterally of the worst features of Oslo. That is, he was withdrawing from strategic territory and permitting a terrorist buildup. The war does not end that way, it gets worse.

For all the praise he gets for separating from the Arabs and saving Israel from being overwhelmed demographically, the Arabs continue coming in to Israel by permit and by stealth, temporarily and as illegal aliens, and the rockets increasingly land in Israel. He could have separated Israel from the P.A. by ending subsidies and permits for its residents to work in Israel, and by annexing areas not populated by Arabs and contiguous with Israel. Eventually, Arabs would drift out instead of in. Problem solved. It is the kind of solution that does not occur to Halkin and Reich.

EVEN THE EGYPTIANS DON'T CONTROL GAZA ARABS

Armed Arabs from Gaza burst through the border with Egypt, killing two Egyptian soldiers and wounding a score more. The Gazans forced 3,000 Egyptian troops to pull back -- for lack of orders to shoot. Israel threatened to resume border control there (IMRA, 1/4/06). What poor planning!

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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URGENT -- JUST SAY NO TO A PALESTINIAN TERRORIST STATE
Posted by Unity Coalition for Israel, January 17, 2006.

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.

Israel must not create a new state to become another breeding ground for terrorism. Gaza, as a mini-Palestinian state since the disengagement, is a microcosm of what a greater Palestinian state can aspire to become.

Gaza has established a precedent. If exported to Judea and Samaria such a PA state would become another new, emboldened terrorist enclave. Just like Gaza, after the Israeli IDF and settlers' restraining presence has been removed, it would become victim to bloody terrorist rivalries. In a few short months, like Gaza, it would disintegrate into an area of instability and chaos, dominated by hatred of Israel and increased violence.

Weapon smuggling from Iran and Egypt has increased and Kassam rocket attacks have multiplied. Gaza has become a mecca for terrorists and terrorist organization rivalries, including al Quaeda. It is an area where even the costly greenhouses left by the Israelis intended to jump-start the Palestinian economy have been wantonly destroyed.

Gaza provides proof positive that creating a state in response to violence will only lead to more violence. Radical Islamic terrorists are causing Israel to take military action in self-defense.

And now we await the outcome of a Palestinian election next Wednesday, January 25th when Hamas, on the US terrorist list, is expected to win against Abbas and gain control of the Palestinian Authority government .

We must insist on political and educational reform.
We must say NO to a new TERRORIST STATE.
We must learn from the lesson of Gaza.

Signed,

The Unity Coalition for Israel (http://www.israelunitycoalition.org) is "the largest worldwide coalition of Jewish and Christian organizations, with more than 200 groups representing millions of people dedicated to Israel. Though we have many different backgrounds, we have one common goal: A Safe and Secure Israel."

"Israel is not just a Jewish issue. Millions of Christians resolutely endorse the principle of peace with security for the state of Israel. Because we work closely together and speak with a united voice, our message is being heard!"

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A LIGHT UNTO THE NATIONS...HA!
Posted by Irwin N. Graulich, January 17, 2006.

Unlike many people today who will never criticize one of their own, whether it be Democrat, Republican, Black, Gay, Christian, Jew, Muslim, etc., I hate jingoism! Here is my latest piece which proves I can be critical of anyone and everyone, if I believe they are wrong!

I am cashing in all my Israel bonds.

Jews have excelled in medicine, accounting, law (unfortunately), and business. Yet, when it comes to running a country, I am beginning to understand the incredible wisdom of my Jewish mother who always said, "Jews should never touch electricity or politics. Leave that to the goyim (non Jews), who are much better at it."

Just look at what is going on in Israel today. Who the hell ever heard of "unilateral withdrawal," after winning a war decisively. "Unilateral" means that we are such good guys, we will independently decide to give you something of ours which you do not deserve, even though you continue to blow us up and not even recognize our existence.

Only idiotic Jews can get the "great old general," who lost many of his men in wars to win this land, to surrender it in exchange for nothing except Kassam rockets being fired from this territory. It sounds surreal. Imagine giving a thief a brand new Cadillac every time he is caught breaking into a car, in order to stop his criminal actions. Welcome to the Twilight Zone of the Middle East.

You think that is strange. How about this--Israel just refused to do any business with one of its greatest friends and supporters in the world--Pat Robertson. All because he quoted an actual biblical verse which implied that there was divine intervention in Sharon's recent health problems because he incorrectly gave Israeli territiory to non Jews.

Now, unless those stupid Jews in Israel have come to accept Christ, why do they even care about the Christian interpretation of that particular verse? And furthermore, why are those moronic Jews in Israel upset with a statement that says all the land belongs to the Jews? This is truly beyond belief.

To further support the "idiotic Jew concept," the spokesman for Israel's tourism ministry, Avi Hartuv, went on the record to say, "We cannot accept this kind of statement (from Robertson)...We will not do business with him." Hartuv and his foolish department are such an embarrassment, that this incident only proves the point that Jews are not smarter, but actually dumber than other groups. Osama, the president of Iran and Nazis worldwide are cheering these statements coming out of the Israeli Twilight Zone.

Wait. It gets more bizarre. Abbas al-Sayad, who headed Hamas' military wing in Tul Karem and was the chief planner, initiator and point man in the Passover suicide bombing which claimed 30 Israeli lives in Netanya, was given 35 life sentences and a 50 year prison term. This is an outright mockery of justice. Why not give him 1000 life sentences. What does that mean anyway?

Had the anti-religious socialists of Israel followed the Bible like the great Christian leaders in America, capital punishment would have been instituted. The only compassionate solution for the victims, their families and society is the death penalty. It is ironic that capital punishment for murder is the only law mentioned in each of the 5 books of Moses (the Torah).

The concept of God commanding capital punishment is absolutely brilliant because it shows such a deep understanding of the human being's psychology, 3350 years before Freud. There is a tendency for the mind and heart to be extra compassionate, especially towards evil doers, because the brain starts to believe that a thinking individual is especially decent if he can somehow understand and show compassion for a murderer, rapist, or even a terrorist. After all, an ability to show compassion for the most cruel people like a Charles Manson, must mean that this ultra compassionate individual is especially kind and good.

In truth, most decent human beings do not want capital punishment practiced at all. It is inherent in the human spirit. That is why we need religion to tell us it is ok. Thank God!

Throughout history, evil groups around the world have always crafted a strategy which successfully hid their horrendous acts. By calling the most moral, decent people bad and continuously repeating vicious lies about them, the "brilliant" propaganda machine forced masses to believe that it was the evildoers who were the nice guys. Quite simply, it was Madison Avenue marketing before television, although it continues today with even more professional expertise.

In fact, this is truly what is being done to America today when the most despicable people and nations, from al Qaeda, to Iran, to the totalitarians running Venezuela and Cuba, to socialists in France, severely criticize the United States--the most moral country by far in the history of the world. We now have an American blood libel in Iraq and we must understand its root causes.

Whether it was Nazi propaganda about the Jews, or the horrible blood libel about Jews putting Christian children's blood into Passover matzohs, there is an important lesson to be learned from these vicious lies. A group starts to believe the criticisms that others perpetrate upon them, just like some members of Congress, elite college professors, and people such as Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover, who have fallen for the big lie and think America is the bad guy.

Yet, it was the blood libel that awoke Jews from this horrible accusation because eating/drinking blood is such a forbidden act in Judaism. This unbelievable indictment gave Jews the ability to realize that the rest of the world can indeed be wrong, even an absolute majority of nations or people. Americans must remember that fact, even if every UN member votes against us. Do you hear that Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean and Barbara Boxer?

Politicians in America today are almost apologetic if they are in favor of capital punishment. Anyone who understands and upholds this biblical view supports a concept that is one of the noblest acts a human can carry out. It is without a doubt one of the reasons that America remains a moral beacon for the world.

At a debate on this issue, I was asked whether I could personally pull the switch and watch the individual die. My response was that, "I most certainly could pull the switch and watch the monster who raped and murdered an eleven year old girl (as was the case in Florida recently), all while I was eating a slice of pizza!"

Banning capital punishment was Israel's first step toward becoming secular France or Germany, except that the hookers now speak Hebrew. No wonder much of western civilization does not take Israel seriously anymore. Unless biblical values remain a basis for law in society like America has practiced, the filament in this Jewish light may burn out.

It is America that has now assumed the role of "Light Unto The Nations," by making the business of America morality, as well as business. It is a both light and a dollar bill, which are both reasons why America is in Iraq. Of course. Israel better make up its mind if it wants to continue to partner with America in this great biblical message to the world.

Irwin N. Graulich is a motivational speaker on morality, ethics, religion and politics. He is also President and CEO of a leading marketing, branding and communications company in New York City. He can be reached at irwin.graulich@verizon.net

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POISONING THE WELL?
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 17, 2006.

This is a news item from today's Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com. It is archived at www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=96831 It is called "Halutz: A Small Number of Extremists are Creating a Situation."

Really? In any other country this would be call a national salvation effort. But I do agree with him that there are only a small number who are poisoning the well. After all how many generals can there be altogether?

It is education to learn that the Junta is so nervous about the idea of a State of Judea. I have argued for years now that a serious independence movement in Yeshah is the most powerful pressure that could be placed on Israel to annex Yeshah. I have also asserted that the primary function of the so called Yeshah Council is to prevent such a movement.

(IsraelNN.com) IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz on Tuesday stated settlers working towards the establishment of the State of Judea involve only a "small number who are poisoning the well."

"Closing our eyes may lead us to places we do not want to go. In other countries, this would be labeled 'anarchy'", stated the military commander in an address to a Haifa audience.

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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TO THE NY TIMES: I APPLAUD YOUR CONSISTENCY
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 17, 2006.

Here is my most recent letter to the NYTimes. The editorial to which it is addressed is below my letter. My letter is too long to be printed as a letter-to-editor, and the TIMES does not publish critiques of their own editorials. So this letter will never see the light of day.

BUT....I will produce a much shorter one, dealing with only one or a few of the points I expound upon below.

You can too.

Just pick one of my points and turn it into a 200 word letter and send it to letters@nytimes.com

david ml

ps. remember, if they get a thousand letters, they will know that there are lots of people out there who are very upset with their mendacity and revisionist history. If they do not get those letters, they will see themselves as having carte blanche for more of the same.

To the editor,

I cannot but applaud the consistency of your editorial ideology, which your "Disarray among the Palestinians" (NY Times, 1/17/06) most beautifully exemplifies: no matter how egregious the Palestinian crime, how horrific the Arab terrorism, how blatant the PLO thugocracy, how unfailingly retrograde the PA governance....you are compelled, by forces as yet unidentified, to find a way to blame Israel....even if it means ignoring history, distorting data, and telling your readers transparent lies.

You assert that "...(Arafat and the Palestinian Authority have been)...systematically undermined by Israeli policies since the second intifada began." Odd assertion. I guess you don't read your own newspaper. Numerous accounts since 1993 demonstrate the extremes to which the Israeli government went to support Arafat, even knowing that he was behind many of the terror attacks about which he claimed ignorance. Prisoners released, IDF evacuations from terrorist camps, IDF relaxation of road blocks even knowing that such past relaxations resulted in spikes of terrorist attacks, speeches and interviews and articles by Israeli politicians praising Arafat as a partner in the "peace process"; not to mention the Oslo agreements themselves which catapulted Arafat from exile and near bankruptcy in Tunis to kingship in Ramallah; and the re-iteration of those agreements at Oslo 2, Cairo, and Sharm esh-Sheikh despite the terror war that Arafat unleashed in 1994. Are you ignorant of this history, or do you just hope that your readers are?

You then assert that "...Mr. Sharon's military attacks in the West Bank and the isolation of Yasir Arafat stripped the self-weakened Palestinian Authority of much of its remaining capacity for governing." Lord have mercy! You go from bad to worse. Israel's attacks on the West Bank and eventual isolation of Arafat were in response to the worst terrorism Israel had ever experienced since its pre-state days. Four times more terror attacks in the five years after Oslo than in the total of 20 years before Oslo! And it got worse after that. What would you want your government to do in the face of such carnage? You cannot be ignorant of the fact that Israel's responses to Arafat's war were initially defensive, re-active, and restrained (1994-2002). Only after the Netanya Passover Massacre (3.27.2002) did the IDF go on a pro-active offensive and re-occupy the West Bank in order to stop the terror attacks at their source. You cannot not know this. But you ignore it, and you hide it from your readers.

But the worst of your jaw-droppingly extreme obfuscations is: "...when Mr. Abbas came to power and said the things Mr. Arafat could never bring himself to say about Palestinian violence's being counterproductive, Israel gave him only marginal support." Now let's see, "...could never bring himself to say..." means that poor Mr. Arafat was such a delicate soul, so torn internally, that although he WANTED to say that his terror war had failed; and WANTED to acknowledge that all those deaths on both sides were in vain; and WANTED to come to grips with the truly devastating reality that the terrorist war to which he had devoted his entire life, the war to destroy Israel and create a "Palestine" from the river to the sea on the corpses of 6,000,000 Jews, all had been completely ineffective and had in fact been counter-productive....well, poor guy, he just could not get the words out.

I suppose you have some secret stash of pages from Arafat's private diary attesting to these conflicting emotions and delicate sensibilities; since every word that Arafat ever uttered publicly tells the world the exact opposite.

And you then suggest that "...Israel gave him (Abbas) only marginal support." Your own newspaper published accounts of Abbas' promises never to use force against the terrorists, never to disarm Hamas, never to risk civiil war in order to stop the terrorism; not to mention Abbas' overt wooing of Hamas in to his government, hiring Hamas terrorists into his police force, praising Hamas suicide bombers as 'martyrs', vowing undying loyalty to Arafat's vision, and turning a blind eye to his own fatah and el-aqsa martyrs' brigade terrorism which rivaled that of Hamas. And all of this despite Abbas' agreement to abide by the Road Map, in which the first words of the first line of the first sentence of the first paragraph of Part I of Section I says: "the Palestinian Authority will IMMEDIATELY and UNCONDITIONALLY stop the terrorism and incitement". Not only did he not stop it, he actually encouraged it vociferously and gave it his unconditional support.

In light of the above, would you be kind enough to define "marginal"? Just what support would you expect your government to give to a terrorist neighbor promising your destruction?

And just when one might think that you have said just about as many stupid or mendacious things as one can possibly say about the Palestinian Authority, you go on to say: "...Western donor countries can help by at least ensuring that the Palestinian Authority does not go bankrupt."

Hmmm. Let's see. Why is the Palestinian Authority on the verge of bankruptcy? Is it because donor countries have been ungenerous? Half of the EU's foreign aid every year since 1996 has been given to the PA. Five billion dollars came in from Arab countries between 1995 and 2000. America and the UK and the UN have given hundreds of millions of dollars annualy to the PA. And where has that money gone? Well, by their own accounting, the PA admits that c. 20% went to Arafat's private accounts. The PA financial folk are still looking for it. Paris is an expensive city, but still, how much of that $1,100,000,000 (that's right, more than one billion $$) could Suha have spent in the last few years?

And the rest? ...almost all went to Arafat's terror war, and almost none to his people. Just read the UN Human Development program of 2005 report on how the PA misused aid money to the tune of billions of dollars; and how giving more money was actually helping the terrorists. And you think that western States should keep on giving...keep on helping the terrorists?

Are you just a blind-eyed optimist (oh, don't worry, the thugocracy will reform. Surely the kleptocracy will go straight and do the right thing with the money)....or do you just hope that no one notices the unconscionable, almost criminal implications of your plaintive call that the west continue to give money to terrorists hell-bent on genocide.

But you save the best for last. "...their attacks on Israel...are hurting their cause. Palestinians will not get anywhere.... if they continue to give hard-line Israeli politicians an excuse to stay away from peace talks."

So blowing up innocent children, burning alive bus passengers, bombing Passover seders and billiard halls and pizza parlors and restaurants, and other various and sundry lethal attacks such as car bombs, sniper attacks, drive-by shootings, knifings, kidnappings, and incessant rocket and mortar barrages.....well, they are all just counter-productive and hurt the cause. You apparently see no moral or ethical or legal issues here; no problem with the endless and relentless use of extreme violence when the opportunity for peaceful resolution has been offered many times...nah....just counter-productive.

And all this violence gives "hard-line Israeli politicians an excuse to stay away from peace talks". Ahh...so that's the problem...the ornery Israeli government is jsut looking for excuses to stay away from peace talks.

You cannot be unaware of the 15 times in the past 70 years that Israel has agreed to the creation of a Palestinian state (only to have Palestinians go to war instead of to the negotiating tables), and all the times that Israel offered peace after its military victories (only to have the Arab states say they prefer endless war), and all the times that Israel supported Clinton and Bush in their public calls for negotiations and peace (only to have Arafat betray them), and the extreme and far-reaching offers Israel made at Madrid and Oslo 1 and Oslo 2 and Cairo and Sharm esh-Sheikh and Camp David 2, and President Bush's offer of statehood on 6/24/02, and Sharon's offer of unconditional statehood on 4/14/04, and Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, and Israel's unilateral dismantling of 4 settlemenets in the West Bank....all that counts for nothing, since in your eyes those ornery Israeli politicians are just looking for excuses not to negotiate.

And then, following your logic, if it is actually the Palestinian leaders who want negotiations and who are swimming upstream against the recalcitrance of the Israeli politicians, why in the world have they been waging a brutal, barbaric, relentless, senseless terror war which just keeps on giving the Israelis the excuse those nasty 'hard line" Israeli politicians need in order to avoid negotiations? Are these peace-loving Palestinian leaders just plain stupid? Or are there powerful forces in Palestinian leadership which see "terrorism until martyrdom" as a consumate good, and which (as Hamas leaders have often said) see no value to negotiations since their endless terror war will ultimately bring victory, the destruction of Israel and genocide of its Jews, and a state of "Palestine" from the river to the sea.

Your editorial could have been written by Abbas' spin-meisters. You are regurgitating Arab propaganda and Moslem terrorist diatribe. and you are presenting it to your readers as though it were the reasoned analysis of your editorial experts.

In short, you are intentionally helping the terrorists. Do you want them to win? David Meir-Levi


New York Times January 17, 2006 Editorial
"Disarray Among the Palestinians"

One critical question lost in the hubbub over who will succeed Ariel Sharon is whether there will be any valid authority left among the Palestinians when the Israelis sort out their politics. A report last week by Steven Erlanger of The New York Times paints an alarming picture of a bankrupt, powerless and divided Palestinian Authority.

Fatah, the late Yasir Arafat's movement, is split, while the militant and political group Hamas is gaining strength by the day. The teeming Gaza Strip, recently evacuated by Israeli settlers, is on the verge of civil war. For some Israelis, this is proof that they don't have a negotiating partner and ought to move ahead with Mr. Sharon's plan to separate Israelis and Palestinians by putting a security barrier around areas that Israel wishes to keep and withdrawing from the areas it doesn't want. But reality isn't that simple. Israel has a stake in keeping Palestinians from descending further into chaos.

So far the only reaction from Israel has been the same refrain, this time issued by the acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who says that the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, must do more to crack down on terrorism. Mr. Abbas has not been a very effective leader, and the Palestinian Authority has been riddled with corruption and incompetence. But it has also been systematically undermined by Israeli policies since the second intifada began. Mr. Sharon's military attacks in the West Bank and the isolation of Yasir Arafat stripped the self-weakened Palestinian Authority of much of its remaining capacity for governing.

Any elected government stands or falls on its ability to deliver security and jobs, and the authority was left unable to provide either. When Mr. Abbas came to power and said the things Mr. Arafat could never bring himself to say about Palestinian violence's being counterproductive, Israel gave him only marginal support. Israel is right to press Mr. Abbas to follow up his words with deeds, and to do more to crack down on terror, starting with his own Fatah movement. But Israelis also need to recognize that he is not politically or militarily strong enough at this time to achieve victory.

Mr. Olmert deserves credit for lifting Israel's opposition to Palestinian voting in East Jerusalem. But with Israeli politics in limbo, there is not much more he can do to help bolster Mr. Abbas's standing before the vote on Jan. 25. Western donor countries can help by at least ensuring that the Palestinian Authority does not go bankrupt. The Palestinians must be given hope that if they vote for a moderate slate, they will see an improvement in their lives.

Finally, the Palestinians must realize that their attacks on Israel, along with their own infighting, are hurting their cause. Palestinians will not get anywhere close to a road map showing the way toward their own state if they continue to give hard-line Israeli politicians an excuse to stay away from peace talks.

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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HEBRON DECLARED "CLOSED MILITARY ZONE" -- PART TWO
Posted by Hebron Jewish Community, January 17, 2006.

See photos taken today at http://www.hebron.com/news/part3-invasion.htm

Late this morning Hebron-stationed police officers arrived outside the Mitzpe Shalhevet neighborhood with signed military orders and maps, declaring the entire Hebron community a 'closed military zone.' After presenting the papers to Noam Arnon, officer Uri Yuran began a ritual to be repeated a number of times over the next hour: "The Hebron Jewish Community has been declared off-limits to anyone not a resident of the community and to anyone not possessing a specially-issued permit, allowing them to be present. All those not leaving within the next fifteen minutes will be forcibly removed." This message was repeated numerous times in the different Hebron neighborhoods.


Children from Hebron evicted from the neighborhood because police can't identify them

A little while later the troops moved in. Police, riot squad and border police began scouring the neighborhoods, searching for 'illegals.' and most notibly, children. Several Hebron children were detained and taken to the Hebron police station because the police and detectives did not recognize them. Being children, they are not required to carry official Israeli ID cards, meaning that they had no way to identify themselves. A Brooklyn man who arrived in Hebron about a month ago because he heard that Hebron Jews were in danger of expulsion, was carried away.


A Brooklyn boy, here to help, is carried away

The troops continued searching the neighborhoods, illegally crashing into the Hebron administrative offices and breaking the lock on the door of a meeting room. Being that most of the visiting youth had already left Hebron, there weren't too many people to round up.

Later in the evening, hundreds of Kiryat Arba residents, attempting to reach Ma'arat HaMachpela for a special prayer service for Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri were forced to break through a police blockade, aimed at preventing them from reaching Hebron. All people leaving Kiryat Arba for Hebron are being checked and their ID cards examined.

A Hebron spokesman issued the following statement:

Today's events, as yesterday's, are totally incomprehensible. Hebron community leadership made tremendous efforts to calm the situation and prevent any and all violence in the city. Most of the youth which had arrived to help support Hebron already left. Despite this, decisions have been taken to continue an offensive against Hebron's community, and rather than reduce tension levels, they have only risen.

Today's act of declaring Hebron a 'closed military zone' is reminiscent of Arab-British cooperation in 1929 and 1936, when Jews were expelled from the city. Now, in 2006, seventy years later, again Jews are being expelled from Hebron. However, this time Jews are expelling Jews. It is difficult to believe that the Israeli government is following in the footsteps of Mufti Nazi Jew-hater Amin el-Husseini and the British occupier. But this is exactly what they are doing. Very, very sad.

We demand that these orders be immediately rescinded and that Jews again be able to freely walk the streets of the first Jewish city in Israel, the city of of our Forefathers, Hebron.

You can contribute directly to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB10, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il, 972-2-9965333 or write to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, hebronfund@aol.com

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A WALK IN THE SHUK
Posted by Naomi Ragen, January 17, 2006.

It's been a while since I've wandered through the Mahane Yehuda shuk in downtown Jerusalem. The fast pace of our lives makes it difficult to find time to shop in a place with no underground parking and shopping carts. But today I happened to be in the neighborhood so I wandered in. Well, wandered isn't exactly the right word. Since the Intifada, when the shuk was a prime target of terrorists who attacked innocent shoppers and stall owners again and again, security has been tightened, and little wandering permitted. Soldiers with uzi machine guns guard the entrance. Bomb-sniffing dogs patrol the bus stops.

But once inside, we Israelis tend to forget about all that. What greets you in the shuk is the smell of fresh baked pita bread sprinkled with zatar. Fresh cheese Danishes hot from the oven. I wander through the aisles no longer worried about an attack, the payoff for all the security, and concentrate on the vegetables and fruits, the spices, the cheeses, the fish. I stop by the venders selling organic strawberries, a new product in Israel, and marvel. Here in the dead of winter, on a cold rainy January, are stalls overflowing with large, ripe, luscious strawberries that are sold not by the stingy little box, but by the pound. I marvel at the genius of my people who have figured out a way to grow strawberries without pesticide so successfully that even the poorest person in Israel can afford to buy strawberries by the pound, shoveled into large plastic bags, over two pounds of organic strawberries in winter costing ten shekel (two dollars? Less?)

I remembered that little fruit store I went to in Paris, with its snooty owner who wouldn't let you choose your fruits, measuring them out like diamonds, and how they cost almost as much. And the pale expensive produce in Boston. And I thought about the show I saw today about some obese British children, and how their diets were so lacking in fruits and vegetables.

And then I looked at the startling green lettuce, the wonderful tomatoes, still attached to the vine, dozens of them that cost me pennies, grown by nearby Jewish farmers in the soil of our country that once was a desert land.

I stopped by the fish store, and there was fresh Denise and salmon and carp and bass, all available in abundance. An oriental worker picked out three large fish and paid for them, and I thought of the feast he and his hardworking friends would have that night. It took me a while to get the attention of the fish man. He was in his mid-thirties, not a very handsome fellow, and he stood there mesmerized by two very, very pretty blonde girls who had chosen to stand in front of his stall to have a cell phone conversation.

"Yoo hoo?" I finally said, waving to get his attention. "I know I'm not as pretty as they are, but I, after all, want to buy fish and they don't."

He smiled at me. "I want to get married," he shrugged, his face suddenly going serious. "Maybe you have someone at home for me?"

I took that as a compliment, but had to confess all my daughters were married. He took it philosophically, shifting his gaze longingly back to the blondes, but not before he cut me four wonderful slices of fresh salmon.

My husband and I had two slices for dinner tonight, with warm pita bread and those lovely tomatoes, and fresh green lettuce, and couscous. I cut open a fragrant lemon and squeezed out the juice over it all. And for desert I had the freshest, sweetest strawberries in the world.

Think about this, the next time you feel sorry for Israelis.

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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THE POPE AND THE INTERPRETATION OF THE KORAN
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 17, 2006.

Contrary to the Pope, and to many modern Islamic theologians and religio-terrorist leaders, Daniel Pipes says that Islam is not 'stuck'. It can change, it can modernize, it can accomodate the sensibiliities of modern civilization, if pushed hard enough.

Unfortunately, he does not suggest exactly what such a "push" would be, or how such a "push" could be applied...or by whom, or against whom.

It would be useful to figure out what kind of a "push" the west could apply to Osama (or, if dead, Zawahiri, or, if dead, to Zarqawi and Qaradhawi, and Mash'al and Nusrallah and az-Zahar, and much of the Saudi royal family, inter alia)...other than military responses to Terrorist Islam's attacks.

It would also be useful to figure out what kind of 'push' to use against the non-militant but cheerleading c. 130,000,000 Moslems (State Department estimate) world-wide who support Terrorist Islam but are not themselves active in terrorism.

Presumably the remaining 1,170,000,000 Moslems who are quiet, peaceful people, wanting nothing more than to live normal lives, raise crops and a family.....they do not need a push. They, in fact (per Pipes' earlier essays), may be the ones that need to do the pushing. But they are not doing anything. So how do we push them to push Osama?

Any ideas out there?

This article was published by Daniel Pipes in the New York Sun today. It is archived at http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3281

Islam and Muslims are expected to be a priority for Pope Benedict XVI, but he has been publicly quite muted on these topics during his first nine months in office. One report, however, provides important clues to his current thinking.

Father Joseph D. Fessio, SJ, recounted on the Hugh Hewitt Show the details of a seminar he attended with the pope in September 2005 on Islam. Participants heard about the ideas of a Pakistani-born liberal theologian, Fazlur Rahman (1919-88), who held that if Muslims thoroughly reinterpret the Koran, Islam can modernize. He urged a focus on the principles behind Koranic legislation such as jihad, cutting off thieves' hands, or permitting polygyny, in order to modify these customs to fit today's needs. When Muslims do this, he concluded, they can prosper and live harmoniously with non-Muslims.

Pope Benedict reacted strongly to this argument. He has been leading such annual seminars since 1977 but always lets others speak first, waiting until the end to comment. But hearing about Fazlur Rahman's analysis, Father Fessio recalled with surprise, the pope could not contain himself:

This is the first time I recall where he made an immediate statement. And I'm still struck by it, how powerful it was. ... the Holy Father, in his beautiful calm but clear way, said well, there's a fundamental problem with that [analysis] because, he said, in the Islamic tradition, God has given His word to Muhammad, but it's an eternal word. It's not Muhammad's word. It's there for eternity the way it is. There's no possibility of adapting it or interpreting it.

This basic difference, Pope Benedict continued, makes Islam unlike Christianity and Judaism. In the latter two religions, "God has worked through His creatures. And so, it is not just the word of God, it's the word of Isaiah, not just the word of God, but the word of Mark. He's used His human creatures, and inspired them to speak His word to the world." Jews and Christians "can take what's good" in their traditions and mold it. There is, in other words, "an inner logic to the Christian Bible, which permits it and requires it to be adapted and applied to new situations."

Whereas the Bible is, for Benedict, the "word of God that comes through a human community," he understands the Koran as "something dropped out of Heaven, which cannot be adapted or applied." This immutability has vast consequences: it means "Islam is stuck. It's stuck with a text that cannot be adapted."

Father Fessio's striking account prompts two reactions. First, these comments were made at a private seminar with former students, not in public. As "Spengler" of Asia Times points out, even the pope "must whisper" when discussing Islam. It's a sign of the times.

Second, I must register my respectful disagreement. The Koran indeed can be interpreted. Indeed, Muslims interpret the Koran no less than Jews and Christians interpret the Bible, and those interpretations have changed no less over time. The Koran, like the Bible, has a history.

For one indication of this, note the original thinking of the Sudanese theologian Mahmud Muhammad Taha (1909-85). Taha built his interpretation on the conventional division of the Koran into two. The initial verses came down when Muhammad was a powerless prophet living in Mecca, and tend to be cosmological. Later verses came down when Muhammad was the ruler of Medina, and include many specific rulings. These commands eventually served as the basis for the Shari'a, or Islamic law.

Taha argued that specific Koranic rulings applied only to Medina, not to other times and places. He hoped modern-day Muslims would set these aside and live by the general principles delivered at Mecca. Were Taha's ideas accepted, most of the Shari'a would disappear, including outdated provisions concerning warfare, theft, and women. Muslims could then more readily modernize.

Even without accepting a grand schema such as Taha proposed, Muslims are already making small moves in the same direction. Islamic courts in reactionary Iran, for example, have broken with Islamic tradition and now permit women the right to sue for divorce and grant a murdered Christian equal recompense with that of a murdered Muslim.

As this suggests, Islam is not stuck. But huge efforts are needed to get it moving again.

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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WILL YITZHAK RABIN'S "BLOODY SHIRT" DEFEAT SHIMON PERES AGAIN?
Posted by David Ben-Ariel, January 17, 2006.

Is history about to repeat itself? Will the upcoming Israeli elections manage to escape from the clutches of Shimon Peres' again? Can lightning strike twice? Remember, Shimon Peres incredibly lost the race to become the leader of the Labor Party to Amir Peretz due, in large part, to growing concerns and legitimate questions about his involvement in the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the subsequent government cover-up.

As duly noted by Reuven A. Kossover at Blog Critics and at Jewish Indianapolis, and widely distributed by the highly respectable Jerusalem-based Root and Branch Association's Information Services:

"Around the time of the primaries, the Labor hacks waved the bloody shirt of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995. News started to leak that the man convicted of the crime, Yigal Amir, actually had shot blanks at Rabin and that the murder had been the work of the General Security Service (Sherutei Bitachon Klali -- Shabak) agents -- who were in the pay of Peres, a Rabin rival. The news was just enough to defeat Peres in the election, and Peretz, a fellow familiar for his continual strikes to protect Histadrut control over pension funds, was now leader of the Labor Party."

As the political stakes are raised and the heat is on, will the "bloody shirt" of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin get laundered in public again? Will the Kempler video (kemplervideo.blogspot.com) become an international hit? Will those who are engaged in the historic campaign seeking justice for Rabin agitate enough national and international attention to insure that the real killers get brought to trial? (1500 posters have been strategically placed throughout Jerusalem and Tel Aviv airing these grievances - http://www.davidrutstein.com ).

And shouldn't reporters question why the Labor informers who leaked the news before the Labor primary (that stooge Yigal Amir shot blanks from a sterile area and Shimon Peres was part of the staged event) didn't follow through with any demands for a new investigation and failed to insist Israel must reopen the Rabin File? Could this dereliction of duty, this possible criminal neglect to pursue the matter backfire on those who would indict "the man who would be king?" (especially since it's believed the Vatican promises Peres a place in the "New Jerusalem" under "international control").

The Israeli political atmosphere is definitely charged and short fuses are sure to be blown, as is the cover of many who have gotten away with murder for too long. Rabin's blood cries out for justice! If indeed Shimon Peres came to power over Rabin's dead body, as publicly charged by David Rutstein and Barry Chamish ( www.barrychamish.com ) without getting sued, it's past time for Israel to clean up their act and let Zion be redeemed with justice.

David Ben-Ariel is author of "Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall." Contact him at http://www.pushhamburger.com/david.htm

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ISRAELI TROOPS PREPARE TO KICK OUT JEWS
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 17, 2006.

This was written by Aaron Klein of World Net Daily's Jerusalem Bureau. It is archived at www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48375

Hundreds of soldiers amassing to forcibly remove 11 Hebron families


Hebron marketplace slated for evacuation (photo: WND)

HEBRON, Israel -- In what some believe is the beginning of a series of withdrawals from the West Bank, large numbers of Israeli forces yesterday continued amassing in the biblical city of Hebron to evict 11 families from their homes here in the oldest Jewish community in the world.

The Israeli Defense Forces declared Hebron a closed military zone, saying the move was a bid to stem the flow of protesters to the area ahead of the eviction of the families, who are living in a converted marketplace at the entrance to the Jewish section of the city.

IDF soldiers, snipers and police took over several buildings that surround the marketplace, while the residents inside were busy preparing food for the dozens of protesters stationed near the structure in hopes of preventing the evictions.

Military leaders say they will begin removing the protesters within the next 24 hours, and then they may proceed to carry out the evacuation of the structure's residents.

The market, now converted to small, two-story apartments, was built in 1929 after Arab riots temporarily forced Jews from the area. For a period of over 30 years, a sign was posted on the market boasting in Arabic the structure was built on stolen Jewish property.

Arab merchants set up shop at the market but were asked to leave by the IDF after a series of clashes broke out in the mid-1990s. Then in 2001, Jewish families took up occupancy to strengthen Jewish ties to the area following the murder yards away from the market of an infant by a Palestinian sniper.

The market is integrated within the Hebron Jewish community and is directly adjacent to several apartments and Jewish municipal buildings. It is not located in an Arab neighborhood.

Even though the original owners of the property recently signed over the market to Hebron's Jewish community and Israel's Supreme Court ruled the structure was Jewish-owned, the government considers the current occupancy of the marketplace illegal since the families living inside did not negotiate their arrival with the IDF.


Girls in marketplace apartment prepping food for protesters. Photo: WND

Israel last month announced it will remove the 11 families living in the market. Hebron residents believe the evacuation is imminent -- families had until yesterday to leave on their own accord or they may be forcibly removed, according to the eviction notices obtained by WND. The notices were worded similarly to eviction documents distributed to Jews living in the Gaza Strip just before their withdrawal from the area last year.

Most of the 11 families told WND they plan to resist any eviction attempts.

"I am not leaving," marketplace resident Miriam Grubowski told WND. "This isn't just about a market, it's about our country. After [the evacuation this past summer of the Gaza Strip] we see the government has the capacity to throw Jews from their homes. If they can evacuate us here and now, they can evacuate the rest of Hebron, the [entire West Bank] and even Jerusalem."

Hebron spokesman David Wilder, whose daughter and son-in-law live in the marketplace, said he expects strong resistance against the soldiers.

"We will put up a fight. We are not going to greet the soldiers with songs like you saw in Gush Katif (Gaza's former slate of Jewish communities)."

Many of the families are armed, but, Wilder said, "there are no plans whatsoever on the part of the residents to use weapons. This is not what we're about. Still, there will be strong resistance."

Wilder called the arrival of a massive number of troops to evict 11 families living in a structure within the Hebron Jewish community "a show of force to demonstrate this area [and all of the West Bank] is on the chopping block and might be given up by Israel. This is not about the market itself."

Several senior Hebron Jewish leaders told WND they have been in negotiations with the military about the possibility of avoiding the evictions, but so far the talks have been unfruitful, they said.

"This whole thing can be worked out easily," said a Hebron leader. "We can arrange to lease the land if that is what it takes. But the government wants a conflict. They want a media circus so the public understands that more withdrawals are on the way."

Indeed, yesterday throngs of correspondents from international media outlets including CNN and Reuters were posted in the city.

Jews lived in 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. There are accounts of the trials of the city's Jewish community throughout the Byzantine, Arab, Mameluke and Ottoman periods.

In 1929, as a result of an Arab pogrom in which 67 Jews were murdered, the entire Jewish community fled the city, with Hebron becoming temporarily devoid of Jews.

The Jews re-established their presence in Hebron after the West Bank was recaptured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, with some prime ministers allowing Jewish construction in the city, and others calling it off.

Hebron is not the only Jewish city facing evictions in the next few weeks. In what some commentators here are calling the start of a larger withdrawal from the West Bank, Israel has announced several other area communities now face evacuation, including nine homes in the Binyamin community of Amona, a home in the large Gush Etzion block, and three hilltop outposts in northern Samaria.

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced he is leaving the ruling Likud Party he helped found to start his own "centrist" party, Kadima, prompting new elections that will be held in March. The new party was widely regarded as a bid to carry out further Israeli withdrawals after Sharon drew the ire of senior Likud figures for his decision to evacuate Jews from Gaza.

Multiple Kadima members have stated the new party is looking to change Israel's borders.

Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is filling in for Sharon as head-of-state following the Israeli leader's massive stroke two weeks ago, has expressed approval of West Bank withdrawals and has made statements to reporters about the possibility of vacating some parts of Jerusalem.

Olmert, currently leading in a series of national polls for the figure most likely to win in the upcoming elections, was the first Sharon deputy to go public with the Gaza-withdrawal plan.

Meanwhile, a group of prominent Israeli rabbis has sent a letter to Olmert warning him to cancel the Hebron evictions to avoid a "personal catastrophe" akin to the massive stroke Sharon suffered several months after the Gaza withdrawal.

"We follow with concern the reports from Hebron on clashes between the people of Israel and IDF soldiers. These acts are a continuation of the eviction and destruction brought about by Sharon," the rabbis wrote.

"It is out of sheer concern that we offer you, Mr. Olmert, not to walk down the path of your predecessors who brought disasters on the people of Israel. All those who harm the land of Israel declare war on God and his commands, and face the consequences. Don't make the hasty move of abandoning the land of Israel, and don't bring catastrophe upon the people of Israel and yourself."

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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THERE'S ONLY TWO TRIBES IN ISRAEL
Posted by Marcel Cousineau, January 17, 2006.

Israel used to have twelve tribes.

Now it's down to two, the goat tribe and the sheep tribe.

The goat tribe which rules over Israel and controls the media stand for nothing and believe in nothing and so have chosen to appease the nations and do whatever they demand of Israel.

The goats will stop at nothing to weaken and destroy Israel for their fellow goats among the nations.

The sheep tribe, much smaller in number look to their God and now ask Him to intervene, as Only He can save Israel from the goat tribes suicidal and destructive agenda for Israel.

The goats surrender land to terrorists and opress the sheep tribe because they follow and obey Hashem.The goats continue to surrender to evil forces even after the attacks continue and no real peace is to be found with them.

The sheep tribe see's the evil that the goat's do and their blasphemy against the God of Israel. The lines of division between the two tribes has widened considerably and only one group will remain.

The seperation is complete.

The days of the goat tribe of Israel are numbered.

Contact Marcel Cousineau by email at up2zionsg8@yahoo.com or go to his website http://averyheavystone.blogspot.com

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GAZA ARABS DON'T GET IT
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 16, 2006.

Morphed Jordanians a/k/a Palestinians in Gaza don't get it. Israel is not the bogeyman responsible for their woeful way of life; Hamas is the culprit. Why does their Jewish neighbor erect a security barrier, bar them from most employment in Israel, and maintain military checkpoints on Gaza's Israeli border? It's all about protecting Israeli citizens from fulminating Hamas fanatics and their supporters. If not for armed Islamic creeps who only wish to annihilate Israel as well as murder the "Jewish infidel" wherever he or she may dwell, peace would reign and jobs would be plentiful for distressed mostly apolitical by nature Arabs residing in their Gaza ghetto. The many Muslims who observed, perhaps worked, in erstwhile Gush Katif and other Gaza Israeli towns before eviction notices sealed the fates of all Jewish residents, must comprehend what it is like to live the "good life", thus rue their own fate.

For decades debauched politico Arafat, the billionaire conniver, convinced his muddled Muslim multitudes jihad/intifada was the way to a Palestinian promised land, and all they got in return was Islamic tsuris manifest in poverty, secular illiteracy, and a ravaged self-esteem befitting chronic under and unemployed exploited human beings. If labeled refugee long enough, the scarlet R is forged into the depths of one's cerebrum, and one's spirit evaporates over the slums he or she must contend with on a daily basis. Such a collection of disillusioned beaten down Arabs groveling within the innards of that barren culture not surprisingly will be wary of Arafat's many decade understudy Abbas, current head honcho who promises a lamb in every pot, hence desperately turn to an Hamas alternative. Yet, Hamas is so much worse! The contemptible cadre of Hamas leaders, fanatically obsessed with destroying Israel, will only continue to exacerbate the dysfunction Gaza's Arab citizens experience, refusing to comprehend Israel's dilemma, underestimating the Jewish State's survival instinct. Alas, so-called Palestinians don't get it, thus are likely destined to nurture another lost generation within the emerging wilderness of their impoverished sovereign urban enclave abutting the Mediterranean Sea.

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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A LETTER FROM HELEN FREEDMAN
Posted by Helen Freedman, January 16, 2006.

Helen Freedman is Herut's candidate on slate #2

Dear concerned lovers of Israel,

Our votes in the upcoming World Zionist Organization 35th Congress, scheduled to meet in Jerusalem this spring, gives us a unique opportunity to address some of the critical questions facing Israel today. Will Israel be a Jewish state? What will be its boundaries? Will withdrawal, appeasement and deception continue to be the "road map" which the leaders will follow, lying to the people, and possibly even themselves, about the possibilities of peace?

Moshe Feiglin and Shmuel Sackett first came to the attention of Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI when they were leading Zo Artzeinu, "This is Our Land". AFSI was one of the first American organizations that supported them, ideologically and substantively. As Zo Artzeinu grew into Manhigut Yehudit, AFSI realized that our ideals and platform for a WHOLE Israel were identical and we continued to work together. In March 2004, Manhigut Yehudit honored me, Helen Freedman, then Executive Director of AFSI, with the "Eyshet Chayil Award" at their annual dinner in New York. This past spring of 2005, when a Coalition to save Gush Katif/Gaza was formed, with me as its chairman, a rift was created when one prominent organization in the Coalition refused to work with Manhigut Yehudit, finding it too extreme in its positions. I withdrew AFSI from the Coalition in protest, claiming that Manhigut Yehudit, the leader in civil disobedience, working tirelessly in Israel to preserve Gush Katif and the N. Shomron communities, had more entitlement than any other group to be involved. AFSI and Manhigut Yehudit continued on their own, doing everything possible to stop the cruel and senseless expulsion plans.

In August of 2005, Moshe Feiglin was in Shirat Hayam, living in a tent beside the sea, joining the residents of the Gush Katif community and protestors who had come to strengthen the resistance. I was in Nevei Dekalim, the largest of the Gush Katif communities, having moved in with my good friends Dror and Keren Vanunu, to help them in whatever way possible. I met Moshe there that Shabbat, Erev Tisha B'Av, and as we greeted each other, with tears flowing from my eyes at the tragedy unfolding in front of us, we acknowledged the bond that held us together.

Today we are asking you to help us strengthen that bond. YOUR vote in the World Zionist Congress election gives YOU the opportunity to vote for delegates to this convention. YOU have the opportunity to cancel out some of the impossible policies of the Israeli judicial system and the political pandering. YOU can send delegates to the convention that will represent the ideals of Manhigut Yehudit and Americans For a Safe Israel. HERUT, #2 on the slate, proudly bears the Jabotinsky banner, with Michael Kleiner as its chairman. It is the only party pledged to preserve all of Israel, to keep Jerusalem whole, and to keep Israel a Jewish state.

In order to vote you must register. On-line registration concludes on Feb. 15. Simply go to the www.azm.org website and follow the prompts. After registering, you will be entitled to vote for the delegates you wish to represent you. If you choose HERUT, #2, I will be one of those delegates, along with other AFSI members devoted to our causes. The deadline for voting online is Feb. 28, so time is of the essence. PLEASE, as you finish reading this letter, go to the website and register immediately. This may be the single most important thing you can do for Israel at this time.

Thank you for your kind attention to this letter. I hope to represent you in Jerusalem at the 35th World Zionist Congress.

Sincerely,

Helen Freedman
Ambassador at Large/AFSI

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.

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HEBRON DECLARED "CLOSED MILITARY ZONE"; HEBRON FAMILY PETITIONS COURT
Posted by Hebron Jewish Community, January 16, 2006.

Pictures of the military in action in Hebron are available at http://www.hebron.com/news/invasion.htm

1. Hebron declared "closed military zone"

Israeli central command General Yair Nave tonight declared all of Hebron to be a 'closed military zone.' According to this military order, only residents of Hebron will be allowed into the city. All others will have to request 'special permission' from the "Judea' regional brigade." The order is due to be in effect until January 22.

A Hebron spokesman issued the following statement: The latest decree declared against Hebron's Jewish community represents the evil personified by various forces and officials in the State of Israel. Hebron, the first Jewish city in Eretz Yisrael, the roots of the Jewish people, site of Ma'arat HaMachpela, the Caves of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, was closed to the Jewish people for 19 years, between 1948 and 1967, when under Jordanian occupation following the War of Independence. Entrance to Ma'arat HaMachpela was off-limits to Jews for 700 years, from 1267, following the Mameluk victory over the Crusaders, until the Six-Day War in 1967.

Now, the State of Israel, impersonating the Mameluks and the Jordanians, is again closing Ma'arat HaMachpela to Jews. True, not all Jews -- only those few million not yet living in Hebron. What could be more dastardly than placing the 2nd holiest site to the Jewish people in all the world, again, off-limits? It could be worse -- the Wall could be closed to all Jews not living in the Old City. And it wouldn't surprise us if this too happens one day. Any regime that is capable of attempting to place Hebron off-limits is capable of anything.

The total responsibility for all events having occurred in Hebron over the past week lies with the Israeli government, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, Defense Minister Shaul Mufaz, and the military personnel willing to carry out expulsion orders. The best way to restore 'law and order" in Hebron, is not by forbidding Jews to enter the city; rather it is to rescind expulsion notices and allow Jews to continue to live and expand in the City of the Forefathers.

2. Hebron family goes to court

Rabbi Yisrael and Mrs. Tzippy Shlissel today petitioned the "Shalom" court in Beit Shemsh, requested an injunction preventing expulsion from their home in the Mitzpe Shalhevet neighborhood.

Rabbi Shlissel is the dean of the Ohr Shlomo Torah Study Center in the Admot Ishai (Tel Rumeida) neighborhood of Hebron. The center is named after his father-in-law Rabbi Shlomo Ra'anan, the 63 year old grandson of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook, killed by terrorists over 7 years ago at his home in that neighborhood. Parents of 10 children, the Shlissels moved to Hebron following the murder in order to be closer to Tzippy's mother, Chaya.


Bitya Shlissel interviewed by Israeli TV

The main points of the Shissel's claim:

1. We were never issued an eviction notice and were not included in any legal proceeding dealing with our home.

2. A special judicial committee recommended by majority vote to rent the property under discussion to the Jewish community of Hebron. This would allow us to remain living in our home.

3. We have proven (in this claim) that the military has already told the Supreme Court that they intend rent the property to the Jewish Community of Hebron and they have agreed to rent the property.

4. We have proven that legally, the Jewish Community of Hebron must provide us with alternative housing should we be expelled from our home and that they will be responsible for any damages caused by the expulsion.

In light of these claims, we request that the court issue an injunction preventing expulsion until another decision is reached.

You can contribute directly to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB10, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il, 972-2-9965333 or write to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, hebronfund@aol.com

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2020 VISION-A FANTASY?
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 16, 2006.

It is the year 2020. Israel, indeed, has achieved the status of superpower. Let us review the past decade and one half.

The early part of this century will be referred to as The Awakening. This tiny Jewish democracy opened its eyes, developed insight, and began to observe its surroundings with 2020 vision. Initially however, most Israelis became so smitten with the logic of their Kadima party and the desire for peace at any price, they accepted Roadmap III (aptly named Road kill III by a minority of prescient Israelis), a complete withdrawal of its citizens from Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem much like Ariel Sharon's strategically challenged Gaza retreat. Alas, by the year 2012, before the January dual signing ceremony at Washington D.C. and The Hague, the entire security wall had come down and the Gaza Egyptian trench had been filled in. Qureia Contractors Inc., demolition and back-fill experts, secured the bid to accomplish that momentous (some might suggest immoral) mission. The world smiled.

Mostly complacent Israeli citizens revisited reality in 2014 when the second Yom Kippur war suddenly arrived. Lead by Hamas, Hezbollah and a host of other Islamic Jew hating jihad warriors, brandishing state of the art weapons and vehicles of French, German, and Russian origin, Arab troops invaded Israel from all sides. Simultaneously, chemical laden missiles were launched from the muscle flexing emerging state of Palestine. Yet, Dame fortune did smile that day and the civilized Jewish state did not collapse. The Mossad along with U.S. and Kurdish agents were well aware of the insidious plan early on. The first Edward's administration already had troops based in Poland, India, and Sudan on high alert. In a relative instant, the incursion was smashed by a mighty U.S. military counter attack, while Israeli and Kurdish air forces concurrently strafed strategic sites in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sistanistan, and Sadrstan. Fundamentalist Muslim leaders throughout Europe were outraged as Middle Eastern capitals ceded to Western armies in a fortnight. The United Nations, now located in Paris, deployed their envoys in an attempt to effectuate a truce and subsequent pull back of these surging secular allied forces. Military commanders meeting in Tel Aviv responded to this oozing with the distinct directive "Drop Dead in a Ditch."

This unprovoked attack amazingly instigated an epiphany for liberal minded anti-Israeli pundits, some of whom were even closet anti-Semites. The revered philosopher Michael Moore admitted that his views on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict were skewed by incorrect assumptions. Cataracts removed, Moore then led a successful movement to relocate the nascent Palestinian state within the boundaries of a chastened Jordan, allowing Israel to justly reclaim its proper territories of Gaza, Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem.

On 06/21/ 2019 the Haifi Institute of Advanced Studies was opened to commemorate a joint research effort between Israeli and American scientists leading to an inexpensive and efficient fusion powered vehicle that would revolutionize transportation. Fossil fuel no longer held the planet hostage. Additionally, the European continent's big chill that began several years past due to predictable effects of global warming demonstrated hopeful signs of subsiding at the behest of implemented oceanographic advances counteracting the submergence of warm ocean currents.

Fundamental Islam relegated to irrelevance, Middle Eastern nations began emerging from their self-imposed era of darkness. The European Union, no longer intimidated by radical Islam, offered Israel membership. The Knesset indicated it would query its citizens concerning this matter, but having 2020 foresight maintained serious reservations about merging with an economically challenged region. One might convincingly argue that the extreme Islamic revolution allowed by an astigmatic Europe was indeed instrumental in causing that region's devolved economy.

More importantly Israel, now a dominant force in world affairs, will readily refer to the past when crafting present and future policies. It will never again allow itself to be overwhelmed by a pathological seductive self-destructive cognitive dissonance manifesting in that perilous perfidious concept of land for peace.

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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ISRAELI ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION? ARBITRARY ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW IN ISRAEL?
Posted by David Bedein, January 16, 2006.

Over the years, Israel has coped with homes and neighborhoods that were established without proper authorization or legal permits.

In 1984, the Israel Ministry of Housing issued a report that over 10,000 homes were illegally constructed by Israeli Arab residents on the Acre-Tzfat road.

1984 was an election year in Israel. Ezer Weitzman, running with Benyamin Ben Eliezer on the Yachad Party ticket, campaigned in the Arab sector and promised to legalize these homes if elected.

After the July 1984 election, in which Labor and Likud were essentially tied in the number of seats, the YACHAD Party, with its three seats, entered the coalition on the condition that the 10,000 homes be legalized.

And that is what happened.

In early 2003, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, headed by former UN Ambassador Dore Gold, issued a position paper which documented are more than 6,000 illegal and unauthorized homes built in Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem. That study, authored by human rights lawyer Justus Reid Weiner, a scholar-in-residence at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, can be located at: http://www.jcpa.org/jlmbldg.htm

Ever since the publication of the JCPA study, the question has been raised as to whether the government of Israel will order the demolition of these 6,000 homes.

As this is being written, the government of Israel, during yet another election campaign, has issued demolition orders against Jewish communities that have not received legal authorization.

The question remains: Will the government of Israel only demolish Jewish neighborhoods that have been constructed without proper permits? Is that not arbitrary enforcement of the law against only one ethnic group, while another ethnic group is allowed to flaunt the law?

This article was written by David Bedein and appeared in Israel behind the news (www.israelbehindthenews.com).

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DEMOCKRACY IN ACTION
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 16, 2006.

This comes from Arutz-Sheva (www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=96752) and is called "Avri Ran Acquitted and Freed After Months in Jail."

"Father of the Hilltops" Avri Ran, together with three of the workers at his organic farm in the Shomron, was found innocent Monday of all allegations that they attacked local Arabs.

Ran was arrested last March at his Gvaot Olam farm, near Itamar in the Shomron, after Arabs from a neighboring village, accompanied by left-wing activists, brought a tractor onto his farmland and began plowing over his crops. Police were waiting nearby, and when volunteers from the farm damaged the tractor, they appeared and arrested Ran together with his workers.

Judge Nava Bechor delivered her verdict at the Kfar Saba Magistrate's Court Monday afternoon, finding the four not guilty due to lack of evidence. A fifth man had made a plea bargain in order to be released from prison during the lengthy trial process.

Ran's brother Nir told Channel 2 TV that justice had finally been served, albeit way too late, and at the expense of a dedicated Israeli patriot's freedom.

Last April, High Court Justice Edna Arbel had ordered Ran placed under house arrest far away from his farm until the end of proceedings against him. The decision was widely seen as an organized sting operation aimed at keeping Ran out of Judea, Samaria and Gaza during the period leading up to the Disengagement from Gaza and northern Samaria last summer. At the time, Ran said: "In the Supreme Court, I understood that the legal system is willing to take views and a political situation and to manipulate them to advance processes that suit its own interests. I understand that what I am saying is terrible. There is a civil war going on here. But it isn't a war between brothers and it isn't being fought by both sides."

Ran left his brother's house, where he was being confined, and went into hiding at the various communities which he helped found until the week before his first court date. Knowing that he would be imprisoned, he went on vacation with his family near Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), where he was swiftly arrested and jailed until "the end of proceedings."

Holding Ran in jail for several months has created a situation in which he was found innocent, but spent months in prison under harsh conditions, regardless. The practice of keeping prisoners in jail until the end of proceedings has been used increasingly against ideological prisoners arrested opposing government withdrawals in the past year.

According to his lawyer, the defense succeeded in proving that all the events transpired due to provocations created by the leftist Ta'ayush extremist group, in addition to members of the Rabbis for Human Rights, funded by the American Reform Movement and the European Union. During the trial, the defense aired an interview with one of the Arabs from the village who testified that the whole episode was initiated by members of the Ta'ayush.

Many of the most ideological communities in Judea and Samaria, including the recently-targeted community of Sde Boaz and the three hilltops in Samaria slated for demolition by Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz, were started by people who volunteered at Ran's Gvaot Olam farm and decided to create similar communities.

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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LONG LIVE THE YOUTH OF ISRAEL!
Posted by David Wilder, January 16, 2006.
The Jewish Community of Hebron has come under invasion by the Israeli police and other security forces. This morning, for the 2nd time in two days, dozens and dozens of police, border police and riot squad members invaded the Avraham Avinu neighborhood in Hebron .

The background: History -- (See http://www.hebron.com/articles/murderedtwice.htm )

At the present:

Two weeks ago an expulsion order ultimatum was issued: Be out of the homes in the Mitzpe Shalhevet neighborhood voluntarily by the 15th of January, or face forced expulsion, no later than the 15th of February. Hebron families refused to even consider evicting themselves from their homes.

Last week several hundred youth from all over Israel started coming into Hebron in order to show support and provide assistance to the community and the families threatened by expulsion. Being aware that the 15th of January was quickly approaching, and without any idea as to when the expulsion might be implemented, the Hebron community welcomed the youth with open arms. All help would be needed if the forces moved in. It is expected that thousands of police, soldiers and other special security forces will participate in the expulsion attempt, should it actually occur (G-d forbid.)

On Shabbat, the 14th of January, tensions ran high. The next day, Sunday, was the deadline. That next night could be D-Day. During the day several clashes were reported, between Israelis and Hebron Arabs, who started pelting people with rocks, and between Israelis and some of the security forces. During this incident an Israeli officer was hit and slightly wounded by a rock thrown by an Arab. This despite reports in the Israeli media that a Jew intentionally hit the officer with the rock. A weekly Shabbat tour of the Kasba was canceled at the last minute, with over 100 people waiting to participate. Some people started runing through the Kasba in reaction to the cancellation and this caused a brief confrontation with some of the security forces.

Saturday night: Some kids start a fire in an abandoned store. Hebron youth put the fire out.

Sunday: January 15 -- tension filled the air. Would nine families find themselves without homes the next day. Late Sunday morning: a group of youth, walking through Hebron, passing Beit Hadassah in the direction of the Tel Rumeida neighborhood find the road blocked by Israeli soldiers, who refuse to let them pass. Among the security forces: Hebron military commander, Col. Motti Baruch. A discussion quickly becomes heated, voices are raised, push comes to shove. The kids want to know: why can't they keep walking? The pushing and shoving between the two sides gets rough. And then, suddenly, Col. Motti Baruch load his M-16 rifle, in the direction of the youth. All hell br eaks loose.

Hebron leaders arrive at the scene and separate the two sides, pushing the youth away from the soldiers. Hebron police arrive and close off the street in both directions, declaring the gathering of youth 'illegal,' and threaten to start arresting people. The kids disappear and after a while the police leave. But the tension is so high you can cut it with a knife.

Sunday afternoon: Word filters out -- the troops are on their way. A group of over 100 security forces, accompanied by horse-bound police march from Ma'arat HaMachpela to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood. Marching in, they immediately take to the roofs of adjacent buildings and take down make-shift tents pitched in the neighborhood. They start chasing after some of the kids, snatching them, here and there. Several are arrested and dragged away. After a little while the action stops but the troops remain. It turns into a stand-off: the troops watching the kids on rooftops and the kids staring at the police. Every once in a while an egg lands close to one of the police. When some of the youth threaten to throw rocks, Hebron leaders call on them to stop. That's the way things remain for a few hours, until the police leave.

During the night: again, tense, but quiet.

Monday morning: January 16: calm and quiet blanket the Avraham Avinu neighborhood, site of the previous day's action. Some of the youth express a desire to head home.

Then, suddenly, late in the morning, again, word gets out: they're on their way again. The troops, the water cannon, the horses! This time over 150 people invade the neighborhood, making their way quickly into the courtyard. Riot squad members, running, break into the Beitar Guest House, and climb up to the roof. Other police line the walls of the neighborhood. Still others climb up other stairs, stationing themselves on people's porches and roofs. A chain of police line up on stairs leading to the Avraham Avinu synagogue and Beit Nachum v'Yehuda, preventing people from reaching them. After a short time the small neighborhood is full of uniformed invaders, who, after having taken up positions, do nothing else.

Why have they arrived? One of the commanders tells his troops: "we are here to show 'strength.'" When Noam Arnon asks an officer, 'what are you doing here -- everything is quiet and under control?" he is ignored. When he demands to see a search warrant from police chief Ali Zammir, allowing him to break into the Beitar Guest House, which is private property, Zammir's response: "if you have a complaint, put it in writing and send it to me." The police break the locks on door's leading to building rooftops in order to take up positions. Who will pay for the damage? The police don't care.

For hours the police stand at their positions, doing nothing. Several arrests are reported, including that of a 12 year old girl who is dragged into a police van screaming for someone to stay with her, to no avail.

Finally, after hours of a second day of standoff, the security forces leave the neighborhood. Many riot squad members go down the road to Beit Hadassah and there too, stand outside, in a display of 'strength.' Eventually they too, leave.

It is clear that the primary reason for the day's police show is overtly provocative: The police, arriving en masse, hope to 'be attacked' by the 'violent hoodlums' thereby providing an excuse to beat and arrest them. However, the kids are too smart to fall into the trap. The police experience only cold and boredom.

Early Evening: Most of the youth have decided to leave. The expulsion is still pending. According to sources within the government, it will not be implemented for at least a couple of more weeks. The kids can take a break and come back again in a week or so, if they are still needed.

Many journalists asked: how can you put up with such 'violent hooligan's,' in their words. The answer is very simple. These youth are neither hoodlums or hooligans. Rather, they are some of the most ideologically motivated people in Israel today. These kids are true lovers of their land, of Eretz Yisrael. These youngsters are still crying the pain of expulsion from Gush Katif and the northern Shomron. Their hearts are still bleeding the wounds of our land being abandoned to our enemies. They hurt the hurt of thousands of homeless Jews, who committed no crime but to live in Gush Katif.

These youth want to prevent more expulsions, here in Hebron, and in Amona, and in other places throughout Judea and Samaria . Enough is enough! No more expulsions, no more homeless, no more abandoned Jewish property. Eretz Yisrael belongs to Am Yisrael, the Jewish people and no one, but no one, has the right to evict and expel Jews from their land.

And what about the excessiveness, the seeming violence?

Sixteen year-olds don't react the same way as fifty year olds. Sometimes the reactions are exaggerated, but then again, remember what they are fighting for. In contrast, how many youth have been stabbed at Israeli nightclubs, due to 'love' or drugs or alcohol, or all three of the above? Dozens and dozens. Almost every weekend, another act of real violence, due to... a desire for what? For the good of our land, of our people, of our Torah?

When was the last time 'the troops were sent in' to prevent another stabbing, another murder? How many 'troops have been called in' to stop another terror attack, leaving more orphans and widows? How many troops are called up to prevent another Kasam missile from falling in Sderot?

Our youth, having witnessed people singing and dancing, hugging and kissing their expellers this summer in Gush Katif scream out: "NO MORE! We will not sing and dance with people who want to throw us out of our homes, off our land. They are the real criminals, not us!" And how right they are!

We should be proud that we have such youth, whose motivation stems, not from personal desire or gain, but from a true love and yearning for their land, a G-d given gift to our people.

Long live the youth of Israel!

David Wilder is spokesman of The Jewish Community of Hebron. You can contribute directly to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB10, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il, 972-2-9965333 or write to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, hebronfund@aol.com

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AFSI PROTESTS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED EXPULSIONS IN ISRAEL
Posted by AFSI, January 16, 2006.

AFSI notes that the Israeli security force's planned evacuation of families living in Mitzpe Shalhevet in Hebron taking place on the eve of the March 28th elections is a cynical manipulation ahead of the elections.

He further notes that this new wave of capitulation to terror and international pressure is happening despite the fact that Gaza, immediately after the expulsion of Jewish residents, disintegrated into chaos and became a launching ground for rocket attacks against Israeli towns. "Gaza has become a magnet for terrorists and arms for terrorists, creating the foremost center for international terrorism, and it is clear that any further evacuations will lead to similar dangerous results."

Zweibon added, "It is in the best interest of Israel to call a moratorium on all negotiations with the PA, and to halt all plans for withdrawal."

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.

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THE STORM IS UPON US
Posted by Eugene Narrett, January 16, 2006.

The "peace process," the malicious, super-hyped delusion that Israel will dwell secure by alienating its land and expelling Jews in place of Arab Jew-killers, is likened by the prophet Isaiah to "a pact of lies... a covenant of death" sweeping over Israel like the "surging staff" of a gulch in winter flood. The nation is collapsing like a sand castle at high tide.

This is the inevitable, horrible conclusion to the Labor - Communist basis of the re-born state. Those who care above all for power and for whom the heritage and history of Israel, much less the omnipresent fact and providence of Gd are at most matters of sentiment and, more often, opponents to be mocked and degraded, made the institutions of the state in their image and now are strangling the life out of it. Their emblem is the yassamnikim, the shaven-headed thugs who scarcely seem human, much less Jewish.

The pitiless, emotion-suppressing brutality of this state and its minions, and white collar, cold-blooded dictates of its elites, their vilification of the simplest, purest, most accepting of Israelis shouts out a warning that a line has been crossed beyond which the nation's life will not continue. Labor, Meretz, Kadima, the courts, the state media, cringe beneath the threats and leap for the bribes (of approval or perks or money) dangled by Europe, America, and all the world gathered against Jerusalem. They are the undertakers of Jewish Israel.

The magnitude of their hostility is clear when one considers the conditions to which, decade-after-decade they subject Jews struggling to restore our heritage in Hebron; this is the ultimate brutality, injustice and madness. Violence heaped upon fraud. Similarly, for five years they exposed the Jews of Gush Katif to unrelenting attacks from the tents of Kedar and then, when they would not break and run, so great was their faith, good will, energy and honor, they surrounded and expelled them as efficiently as any army of gentiles ever has done.

Clearly they want war; they want to kill and blame the victims for their own deaths. And they are in a hurry; that too is clear, as if they sense the future rushing at them, like a storm, like a flood of retribution. Perhaps they have been promised asylum in Russia, Spain or Austria. Perhaps they do not care.

If there is any Jewish leadership in Judah and Samaria, "the attractive land" (Sanhedrin 94b), it must quickly coalesce and call all Jews to it, to settle, to fill the land and proliferate like fish within it, blessed and double blessing. They must declare their autonomy and independence, Judea after all is one of the most ancient kingdoms on earth, and invite the puppets of the State Department and EU to decamp to the coastal strip marked out for them by the Peel Commission (1937) and UN (1947).

When you and your neighbors are being expelled from your homes, beaten, your belongings destroyed and scattered you know you are dealing with conscienceless enemies.

Flock to the hills; raise your eyes to the mountains whence comes the strength of Israel, of the great nation of the Jews. Raise a banner to which all men and women of good faith can repair. The storm is upon us.

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.

This article is archived at www.freeman.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/ 193-THE-STORM-SURGES-OVER-THE-LAND.html

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P.A. OLD GUARD FLEEING; OVERDOING IT AGAINST ISLAMISTS; BUSH-SHARON RELATIONS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 16, 2006.

REACTION TO ROCKETS p>Residents of Israeli cities increasingly subjected to rocket bombardment reacted with outrage against their government for not protecting them. The government has unveiled a tactic for stopping the rockets -- a free-fire zone -- but it is not working.

Foreign governments reacted against the plan for its inconvenience to the Arabs. "Sources in the IDF said that certain foreign governments have been pressuring Israel to halt the operation, claiming that it limits PA control over territory ceded to it by Israel under the disengagement plan." (Arutz-7, 12/2.)

The temerity of the foreign governments, demanding that Israel let the Arabs continue to attack them, so as not to inconvenience the Arabs! Usually Israel reacts to temerity with timidity instead of with a tirade.

The cession has no legal status. Since the foreign governments have expressed no genuine concern for Israelis being murdered by the Arabs, Israel should tell those governments to mind their own business or learn ethics and international law. The law of the nations is that a government has the duty and right to protect its citizens from aggression. It is not ethical instead to protect the aggressors.

NOT SEEING THE FOREST FOR THE TREES

Arabs are claiming that settlers chop down their olive trees. Their leftist Jewish allies complain that the police, who sometimes escort Arab olive harvesters, are too biased in favor of the settlers to take the complaints seriously. Meretz MK Vilon contends that if it were Arabs who damaged Jews' crops, the police would be thorough. A Jewish youth recently acquitted of such charges is considering suing police for faulty investigation because of bias in favor of Arabs, false arrest, and beating while under arrest. Leftists complain that the acquittal indicates prosecutorial bias.

One witness, a leftist activist professor, gave contradictory testimony. Among them, leftwing witnesses gave four differing testimonies. An IDF officer called as a prosecution witness testified instead that the leftists were lying. Police refused to have Arab complainants pick the suspect out of a lineup.

"Jewish farmers in Gush Etzion and Samaria say, however, that they have had hundreds of fruit trees uprooted and acres of wheat burned by local Arabs, but police, to date, have never carried out serious investigations into the vandalism."

Police investigators have found that Arabs who pruned their trees accused the Jews of having chopped them down. Due to media bias, the Arab claim was taken seriously. Police noticed the anomaly of the trees on the Arab village side of the grove being cut, with the claim that Jews cut them. Investigators also found that Arabs are not above chopping down their own trees, in order to get cash compensation for it. So these cases go (Arutz-7, 1/2/06). When will Israelis learn not to take Arab claims seriously? Those claims are part of their warfare or avarice.

WHICH WAY IS THE WIND BLOWING, IN THE P.A.?

Abbas tries to smooth over the rivalry between the old guard whom Arafat brought from Tunis, and the young guard that staffs the militias paid by the P.A.. The gunmen keep clashing with P.A. police, however. Many of the old guard have fled to foreign havens (IMRA, 12/2 from Jer. Post).

GAZA ADMISSION POLICY

P.A. officials don't hold people's politics against them, when they wish to return to Gaza. That is their excuse for readmitting several dozen terrorists wanted by Israel, and who had fled to avoid arrest (IMRA, 12/2).

The fugitives' politics is no worse than those of many Israeli Arabs, whom Israel does not arrest. Arabs are not wanted by Israeli police for their political views. Israeli police pick only on Jews for political views. The Arab fugitives are wanted for terrorist acts. It is the Arab way to try to excuse criminal ways by pretending it is just politics. The Israeli way is to pretend that Jewish politics is criminal. In any case, the return of deported terrorists is another fruit of Sharon's abandonment of Gaza.

THE WEST DEALS WITH ISLAMISTS

A fifth of the Muslims in Germany deem the German Constitution incompatible with the Koran and therefore invalid. Two German states have adopted strict policies towards Islamist immigrants. Baden-Wurtenberg administers a 30-topic loyalty test for citizenship. It enquires whether the applicant approves of Germany's democratic and tolerant ethos rather than the Islamist jihad, sexist, antisemitic ethos. Personal interviews may follow up. Subsequent findings that the applicant does not behave as sworn would forfeit citizenship. In Ireland, male applicants must forswear polygamy.

The Interior Minister of Lower Saxony is considering putting electronic foot tags on the 3,000 hate-preachers and trained terrorists, to monitor their movements. The significance of monitoring the preachers is that they don't, themselves commit violence but radicalize others to do so. Daniel Pipes approvingly suggests extending the monitoring to all Islamists, because they potentially are violent. The Minister wouldn't expel them, because they might be tortured in their home countries. Britain has used tags on ten Islamists for almost a year. Australia now authorizes the same.

Mr. Pipes looks forward to: "With due allowance for personal privacy, their speech could be recorded, their actions videoed, their mail and electronic communications monitored. This would require a definition of Islamism and an explanation of how nonviolent Islamists are the enemy as well as the violent ones. These German leaders understand Islamist culture and how to defend Western culture." (NY Sun, 1/3, p.5).

How Orwellian! What "due allowance for personal privacy"? Do those German leaders understand Western culture? They consider themselves humanitarian because they don't expel the Islamists to countries where they would be tortured, but they would treat them so humiliatingly and in a way that threatens the civil liberties of all? If Europe weren't a haven and a welfare state, Islamists wouldn't flock in and stay in so readily. Better to send them and all other Muslims back, and not devote society's resources to big brotherism.

ISRAEL DEVELOPS ROOF ARMOR AGAINST ROCKETS

Israel military industry developed an attractive looking armor to put on Israeli roofs, to resist Kassem rockets (IMRA, 12/2).

How attractive! But it is foolish, too. The offense always innovates a way through the defense. Perhaps more powerful rockets will be built. As the range of terrorist rockets increases, Israel will have to spend itself into bankruptcy to armor more towns. Highways, malls, beaches, and infrastructure would remain vulnerable.

The only answer is to root out the terrorism. That means economic blockade, among other means, and consequent rooting out of Arabs. Will Israelis still worry about being called "racist" for getting rid of the fanatics trying to murder them?

DANGEROUS SENTIMENTALITY ABOUT SHARON

An editorial asserts that Sharon has a close relationship with Bush, whom he can trust. Sharon says so. Sharon gave Bush, years ago, an insight into the need for strategic depth, which dovetails with Bush's Biblical understanding of Jewish rights to the Territories. Recently, Sharon warned Bush he would not let Israel be treated as was Czechoslovakia in 1938, when its mountainous barrier against German expansionism was turned over to Nazi Germany. As a result, the Administration never urged Israel to appease the Palestinian Arabs in order for the US to gain credit with Muslims in its war on terrorism. The two regimes realize they are fighting the same war on terrorism. Bush has a Zionistic understanding of Israel (NY Sun, 1/6, Ed.).

How absurdly false! What is true? Bush is an anti-Zionist type of Evangelist, an oilman sacrificing Israel to appease S. Arabia. In accordance with traditional State Dept. anti-Zionism, he is demanding that Israel cede its strategic depth and its core historical and religious area. Israel would become indefensible, just as did Czechoslovakia. It would be a big gain for terrorism. Unfortunately, the US succors Palestinian Arab terrorism, instead of treating Israeli self-defense as part of the same war on terrorism.

Neither man is trustworthy. Sharon has broken one promise after another to his people, and betrayed his people to the enemy. He lies about his plans even while making them. It is not that he trusts Bush, but that he follows Bush's orders: Take down checkpoints, don't bombard terrorist areas, let more Arabs into Israel, don't guard the Gaza border, withdraw from P.A. cities, withdraw from the Territories, don't claim Jerusalem, give money to the P.A.. The US usually betrays Israel. Bush gave Sharon a letter deliberately worded ambiguously so Sharon could lie to his people and claim Bush recognized Israeli entitlement to settlement blocs, while Bush assured the Arabs it didn't. The relationship between Bush and Sharon is that of master and dog. Why did the editorial totally lie? Just to be sentimental? It must be to defend Bush, because he is a fellow Republican but it is dangerously misleading. That betrays America as well as Israel.

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US AND PAKISTAN: ALLIES OR NOT ALLIES IS THE QUESTION
Posted by Whalid Phares, January 16, 2006.

The Predator's strike inside Pakistan's border area, aiming at al-Zawahri's possible stay in a village may have (or not) missed its target. But the missile attack triggered a series of political explosions in the region. In short, the issues are out. I addressed them in a series of interviews over the weekend: Here is a summary. The stories are on the counter terrorism website (see below.)

1. The Pakistani official position

The Government's immediate reaction was "to condemn the strike," to the surprise of many Americans and still the dislike of the Jihadists. Why did Islamabad "lodge a complaint" with the US embassy in Pakistan? In an interview with MSNBC I argued that "Had the US strike been successful, Pakistan would have taken credit. But since, (till proven otherwise) the strike wasn't, Pakistan's politics comes first: It is a fact that areas close to the border with Afghanistan are dominated by pro-Taliban forces. It is another fact that Pakistan's Salafist parties have a significant influence in the country.

2. Is al-Zawahri dead or not?

Strangely, it was an Arab network, al Arabiya, which informed the world, that according to its "sources," the number two of al Qaida wasn't killed and is still "around" -- an interesting indicator of the vast resources of many Arab TV networks in establishing contacts with sources able to inform them about the "state" of al Qaida.

3. Jihadi reaction to the strike

In an interview with MSNBC's Contessa Brewer, I argued that the main goal of the Jihadist movements inside Pakistan, in reaction to the strike, was to drive a wedge between Islamabad and Washington: Take advantage of the attack, especially its failure (unless reported otherwise), to blame the Musharraf Government for "opening" the country to US control.

4. Why the US strikes inside Pakistan?

This question is important, especially in light of the "incitement" unleashed by the Jihadists as a result of the attack. Why is the US using drones to target terrorist objectives inside Pakistan? For a very simple reason: Pakistan's isn't doing it, or can't do it for an array of reasons. As I told MSNBC Saturday, "Had Pakistani intelligence and the 80,000 troops been able to find and remove al Qaida from these areas, the wouldn't have had to perform these operations. But civilian casualties are always bad and unacceptable, whatever their identification is."

5. The alliance is being tested now

In an interview Sunday on MSNBC, I noted that the alliance between the US and Pakistan against al Qaida is up and running. The organization attempted to assassinate Musharref and wages operations against many countries. But the alliance is being tested now. As far as possible scenarios (till proven otherwise), one can establish two: either the US learned about al-Zawahri's movement, but the latter discovered the matter; or the possibility that sympathizers of al Qaida may have circulated the information to draw a US response.

6. The Jihadist propaganda counter-strike

The strike and the Pakistani reaction opened the path for a vast debate in the Arab media on what was dubbed by the Jihadist machine as "American attack on a Pakistani Muslim village." In a panel on al Jazeera on Saturday, along with the former director of Pakistan's intelligence M. Ghoul and an official of Islamist organizations in the border areas, I exchanged several arguments with the panelists. The anchor of the show, "Ma Wara' al khabar" (Behind the News) raised the issue of US "aggression" on Pakistan, endorsed by the two other panelists. Both guests defined it as an "American shelling of a Pakistani Muslim village." I noted that the strike was aimed at an al Qaida target "inside" the village, not a "shelling of" the village. I explained that the US operates on the assumption that there is an alliance with Pakistan against al Qaida, "unless this has changed lately." I asked the panelists, without getting an answer, if al Qaida is or isn't an enemy in Pakistan. Responding to statements that "Al-Zawahri was never there, nor is al Qaida present in these areas," I argued that it is not likely that al-Zawahri is going to inform all the neighborhood that he is attending a dinner party in the area nor is it likely that al Qaida signals its open presence in the border areas. The conclusion, in my sense was clear: Either Pakistan considers al Qaida as an enemy or it doesn't: Either it consider the US an ally or not in this war. If these two parameters are clarified, both Governments have to establish a clear modus operandi in their campaign against terrorists.

Contact Whalid Phares at phareswire@aol.com. Or go to the Counterterrorism Blog (http://counterterror.typepad.com), "serving as a gateway to the community for policymakers and serious researchers. Designed to provide realtime information about terrorism cases and policy developments."

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IN HEVRON
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 16, 2006.

The war against the Jews is being brought to new levels of violence and viciousness. The policy of passive aggression towards Jewish communities in Yeshah was first initiated by Rabin when he was Minister of Defence. It consisted then of delaying approval of new infrastructure, refusal to repair roads and dozens of other petty harassments intended to make life uncomfortable for Jews in Yeshah. It obviously did not work.

What the effect of such a major and open provocation will have is hard to know. One of the likely and no doubt intended outcomes will be an increase of terrorist murder of Jews forced to travel through Arab held territories.

This was written by Aaoron Klein, World Net Daily (WND) Jerusalem bureau chief. It appeared today in WND and is archived at ww.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48389 It is called "Israel withdrawal from West Bank. Many regard planned eviction of Jews as start of massive future evacuation."

HEBRON, Israel -- In what some here are calling the beginning of a possible large-scale withdrawal from the West Bank, Israeli forces are currently preparing to evict Jews from their homes in select area neighborhoods including the biblical city of Hebron, considered the oldest Jewish community in the world.

Clashes broke out here yesterday between Jewish protesters and hundreds of policemen and Israeli Defense Forces soldiers deployed in Hebron ahead of the announced eviction of eleven families from a marketplace near the entrance to the city.

The skirmishes began after a protest organized by community leaders was at the last minute declared illegal by Israel's Police Authority. Rioters reportedly threw eggs and paint at security forces and yelled anti-withdrawal slogans. There were some reports of soldiers using excessive force against the protesters.

Protest leaders last week had obtained the necessary permits to hold the rally, but yesterday afternoon, after hundreds of Israelis had already amassed, police told the crowd the gathering had to be called off.

"People came to express their rights and protest," said Mikey Rosenfeld, a Jerusalem resident who attended the gathering. "It was irresponsible of the authorities to call off the rally right as it was beginning. They knew the atmosphere was explosive, and they basically ignited it themselves with the last minute declaration."

Israelq earlier this month issued eviction notices to the resident's of Hebron's Mitspe Shalhevet, a marketplace built in 1929 after Arab riots temporarily forced Jews from the area. For a period of over 30 years, a sign was posted on the market boasting in Arabic the structure was built on stolen Jewish property.

Arab families had moved into the market but were asked to leave by the IDF after a series of clashes broke out in the mid-1990s. Then in 2001, Jewish families took up occupancy in the market to strengthen Jewish ties to the area after a Palestinian sniper murdered a Jewish infant nearby.

Even though the original owners of the property recently signed over the market to Hebron's Jewish community, Israel considers the structure, in which eleven families currently reside, an illegal outpost.

Jews lived in 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. There are accounts of the trials of the city's Jewish community throughout the Byzantine, Arab, Mameluke and Ottoman periods.

In 1929, as a result of an Arab pogrom in which 67 Jews were murdered, the entire Jewish community fled the city, with Hebron becoming temporarily devoid of Jews.

The Jews re-established their presence in Hebron after the West Bank was recaptured in the 1967 Six Day War, with some prime ministers allowing Jewish construction in the city, and others calling it off.

Hebron residents believe evacuation of the marketplace is imminent. The 11 families had until yesterday to leave on their own accord or they may be forcibly removed, according to the eviction notices obtained by WND, which were worded similarly to eviction documents distributed to Jews living in the Gaza Strip just before their withdrawal from the area.

Hebron is not the only Jewish city facing evacuations. In what some commentators here are calling the start of a larger withdrawal from the West Bank, Israel has announced several other area communities now face evacuation, including nine homes in the Binyamin community of Amona, a home in the large Gush Etzion block, and three hilltop outposts in northern Samaria.

Also, Israel is now debating closing off the main Jewish highway in the West Bank to Jewish traffic, rerouting the major commuter artery for the area's roughly 200,000 Jews to a series of roads that run dozens of miles away from West Bank Jewish communities. The highway was constructed in the early 1990s to ease traffic for Arab and Jewish commuters, and to make it safer for Jews to travel throughout the West Bank by bypassing major Arab cities from which snipers had fired on Jewish vehicles.

Moshe Jacobs, a West Bank doctor who commutes during the week to his office in Jerusalem, told WND, "Now I am going to have to drive over 15 miles out of the way closer to major Arab cities to get to work. There is no reason in the world for this road to close. The only thing it will accomplish is make our lives uncomfortable and more dangerous."

Sara Frankel, a resident of the West Bank town of Eli, said, "Before Israel evacuated Gaza, it took steps just like this to make life harder and conditions unsafe for the Gaza Jews by closing roads and taking away protection. If they close the highway it would be a clear step in the direction of a future forced evacuation."

Indeed, just prior to the Gaza withdrawal, the Israeli army rerouted Jewish traffic, closed several roads and began removing army outposts from Jewish communities.

Several years before the withdrawal, residents of an entire Gaza Jewish community, Nitzarim, were banned from driving their vehicles on the only access road that led to their town. Instead, Nitzarim residents had to take hourly shuttles into their community provided by the IDF.

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced he is leaving the ruling Likud Party he helped found to start his own "centrist" party, Kadima, prompting new elections that will be held in March. The new party was widely regarded as a bid to carry out further Israeli withdrawals after Sharon drew the ire of senior Likud figures for his decision to evacuate Jews from Gaza.

Multiple Kadima members have stated the new party is looking to change Israel's borders. Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is filling in for Sharon as head-of-state following the Israeli leader's massive stroke two weeks ago, has expressed approval of West Bank withdrawals and has made statements to reporters about the possibility of vacating some parts of Jerusalem.

Olmert, currently leading in a series of national polls for the figure most likely to win in the upcoming elections, was the first Sharon deputy to go public with the Gaza-withdrawal plan.

The West Bank is considered landlocked territory not officially recognized as part of any country. Israel calls the land "disputed." The United Nations claims the West Bank is "occupied" by Israel, which maintains overall control of most of the area while the Palestinian Authority has jurisdiction in about 40 percent. The Palestinians claim a population of roughly 2.4 million, but new demographic studies show the numbers are likely inflated. The actual Palestinian population could be up to 1 million less.

The territory remained under Jordanian rule from 1948 until Israel captured the West Bank 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.

The West Bank borders most of Israel's major cities, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Military strategists have long estimated Israel must maintain the West Bank to defend its borders from any ground invasion.

Many villages in the West Bank, which Israelis commonly reefer to as the "biblical heartland," are mentioned throughout the Old Testament.

The Book of Genesis says Abraham entered Israel at Shechem (Nablus) and received God's promise of land for his offspring. He was later 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 Shilo, 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.

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STRANGE WORDS FROM IDF CHIEF-OF-STAFF ON HEBRON
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 16, 2006.

This is a truly strange statement. In brief he is saying that nothing short of total and absolute capitulation to the Junta will be acceptable to them. Any form of protest or resistance will be dealt with by maximum force. In short he is telling the defenders of Hevron, and by implication all the other communities he and his thugs plan to destroy, they have nothing to gain by showing restrain and nothing to lose by fighting to the maximum.

I guess we will soon see what sort of men live in those communities by how they respond to this challenge. The way they respond will no doubt directly effect the willingness of others to come and help. It is not likely after the Gush Katif Pogrom that there is much interest to once again make the sacrifices needed to defend an area that its inhabitants themselves refuse to defend and have surrendered to the Arabs.

This is a news item Arutz Sheva -- IsraelNationalNews.com called "IDF Chief Orders Stiff Penalties on Jewish Residents in Hebron" (www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=96706).

(IsraelNN.com) IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz has ordered his legal staff to impose stiff penalties on Jewish residents in Hebron who participate in demonstrations against efforts to evict them from a reclaimed former-Arab market area built on Jewish property.

Halutz has accused the residents of attempting to inflict harm on IDF troops and police forces in Hebron to evict them.

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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A FEW GOOD MEN AND THE ARMY
Posted by Eugene Narrett, January 15, 2006.

Should religious and patriotic Jews avoid the Israeli army? Consider these Torah passages for context.

We have been studying Torah portion Vayechi prominently featuring Jacob's last talks with his beloved Joseph, his 'adoption' of Joseph's sons, Menashe and Ephraim as his own, thus making each of them the heads of tribes and tribal territories; his adjuration of Joseph to bury him with in Machpelah Cave facing Mamre in Hebron; and, of main concern in this note, his bestowing on Joseph the double portion of the first-born.

"Then Israel said to Joseph: "Behold, I am about to die. God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers. As for me, I have given you one portion more than your brothers, which I will take* from the Amorites with my sword and with my bow." (48: 21-2)

This pledge is at the end of the third aliya, immediately before Jacob assembles his sons and enunciates their character and status during the conquest of the land and in the era of messiah.

Like many sages, Ramban discusses how the conquest of Shechem by Israel may be understood both in the literal past tense (the conquest by Jacob's sons described in Vayishlach [Genesis 34] in avenging the rape of Dina, "I took from the Amorite...") and in the future, "I will take" referring to Israel's conquest of the land under Joshua, the descendant of Joseph through Ephraim.

Ramban explicitly emphasizes the use of "the sword and the bow," that is, military means to acquire the birthright of Israel: "the explanation of 'with my sword and with my bow' is that the Land would not be conquered [by Jacob's descendants] except by the sword and the bow," that is, in war and battles. Ramban then mentions several passages of Tanakh supporting this reading (e.g. "for it was from Hashem to harden their hearts to battle against Israel") and explains that Jacob took the merit of victory in these battles to himself. In doing so he related the radiant truth in his countenance (the angelic radiance of the human-faced chayot in Ezekiel 1, Chullin 91b) to his phsycial deeds and the symbolic, formative power of the physical acts of men of great stature.

Thus Ramban continues, "it seems likely to me further that Jacob did as many of the prophets, -- he stretched out his hand with a sword toward the land of the Amorites [centering on Shechem] and he shot arrows there, so that it would be conquered by his descendants." Ramban cites the later example of Elisha "who placed his hands on the hands of the king and said, "shoot! " and he shot, 'it is an arrow of salvation from Hahem and an arrow of salvation against Aram!' [2 Kings 13:16-17]. Ramban uses this precdent of a symbolic physical action preparing its subsequent fulfillment to explain the multi-faceted points made by Jacob with the past tense. "It is possible that this is the explanation of his saying 'I took' for it was from then [with his symbolic drawing of the bow and wielding of the sword toward Aram and Shechem] that the Land became 'taken' before him" so he could truly and fully give it to Joseph.

Ramban takes pains to explain that Jacob could give to Joseph and his descendants only land that Jacob already had taken, "the portion that was his to give" and that "they would take possession of what was theirs when they conquered the land with sword and with bow and with warfare."

Although he does not press the following source as heavily, Ramban also reviews the emphasis on possession by battle in his extensive discussion of the war of Jacob's sons on Shechem. In dialog with the Rambam and many others, he reviews the complexities of what kind of revenge for Dina could be based on the standards of the Noahide laws. One point that is clear is that the brothers and Jacob all were involved in the initial strategy that included the judgment / vengeance and the eventual possession of the land. Ramban then reviews the account in Sefer HaYashar (the Book of the Upright), in the section, "Wars of Jacob's Sons" noting that "the neighbors of Shechem gathered together and fought three great battles against them [Israel] and if not that their father [Jacob] also girded his battle gear and fought, they would have been in great peril ... as Rashi writes. But Scripture is brief about this [battle and victory] because it was neis nistar, ki anashim giburim... ["a hidden miracle of heroic men] for Jacob's sons were mighty men."

The lack of detail, he indicates, is so as not to glorify the human aspects of waging war but rather the divine right and faith and courage in the face of overwhelming odds, "just as the incident of Abraham in the furnace of the Chaldeans." And Ramban continues, underscoring that the battle was salutary and embodied in the text, "there fell a Godly terror over the cities that were around them so that they did not all assemble and pursue Jacob's sons... because of the [Jewish] might that they saw in war..."

Yes, it is providence divine that Israel settle and possess the entire "land that I will show you" including the inhreitance of Ephraim and Shechem where the tribal portions were allotted and where Joseph rests and "still lives," an immortality also rooted in his father's words. And yes Gd requires that the land be conquered with battle, a war that is like a hidden miracle.

And so indeed it seems it will have to be, from the Machpela Cave in Mamre -- Hebron, to Shechem and throughout the Land Hashem promised to the descendants of Jacob -- Israel, especially the areas most sanctified by Jewish settlement, practice, history and monuments.

It is unlikely that this land can or should be conquered without the army of Israel, the armies of the Gd of Israel, as David said to that Goliath. That emerges clearly from Tanakh and the discussions of the sages. It also seems clear that the initiation and pattern of the entire conquest and settlement and possession requires the judicious actions of a few good men, anashim giburim, "for Jacob's sons were mighty men" even if the complexities and extent of the tactics remain open to discussion which can continue most properly when all the inheritance is secured, "settled, inhabited..."

As Israel continues to struggle to be reborn, to sustain its renewed national life, it is vital that the army include the energy, faith and power of its heroic archetypes. The religious and all lovers of Zion should be in the national host to perfect it as the inheritance of the Jewish people. Salvation from the threatening and cajoling foreign elements can only come through planning and sudden action by the brothers. Although they are few in number, their character will shape the power and desire of the national host, as when "Jacob stretched out his hand with a sword toward the land of the Amorites, and he shot arrows there so the land would be conquered by his descendants..."

* Quotation from Ramban et al are from the Artscroll "Ramban -- Nachmanides Commentary on the Torah, Volume 2, Genesis part 2" (Mesorah 2005).

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.

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READING, WRITING AND JIHAD! JIHAD! JIHAD!
Posted by Arlene Peck, January 15, 2006.

I grew up in the South. We learned the "three r's"... readin, 'ritin and 'rithmatic, and our "delicate" ears were shielded from all talk that might leave bad impressions on our youthful minds. We answered "Yes sir, no Sir" when a "grown-up" spoke to us. Old America, where a child chewing gum or caught running in the halls was reason enough to be sent to "the office". If it was true, back then, that we were babes in the woods, today Muslims babies are being trained to become youths in ambush. Witness what they are being taught in Arab schools. Hate-filled garbage, delivered unfiltered and specifically designed to warp the minds of children! We grew up going to summer camp. These people send their kids to camp also, terrorist camps, where they learn how to grow up and blow up.

Check out www.pmw.org (Palestine Media Watch) and educate yourself about what these cultish fanatics are up to. Gawd! What else could future gene rations of Arab Muslim children be, other than virulently anti-infidel fanatics, whose lives will emphasise the dehumanization of Jews, Christians, and any other thing that breathes -- but is not Islamic? Inhumane? Of course it is. Insane? Who can doubt it? Child abuse? Don't ask the ACLU, UN or any of our leftist agitators who remain silent as this travesty unfolds, but scream like stuck pigs when Israel protects herself from them! Women's rights? Yeah, right. They treat their farm animals better than their women.

Don't fall for thinking they have no understanding of what they do or that they are not masters of this "education". For a start, they are clever enough to realize they have to begin with the very young, if they are to accomplish their goals. They also know they need to create an accepting international atmosphere, if they are not to be discarded as fringe lunatics. And we are falling right into their well thought-out plans. Are you aware that many school districts in the US, the UK and elsewhere are teaching Islam in their classrooms, polluting young minds under the guise of political correctness and multicultural sensitivity? Do you know that any mention of Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism is strictly off-limits? The beliefs of Islam are cultural, and so are not only protected but also actively promoted, while ours are religious and therefore cannot be taught.

However, it gets worse. Many of our publicschools, which prohibit Christian students from reading the Bible or displaying the Ten Commandments, are headed toward prohibiting even mention of the word "G-d". Somehow, CAIR and the ACLU have managed to see to it that students in California, and elsewhere, are indoctrinated into the wonderful culture of Islam. I wonder, why isn't the ACLU now protesting this abomination?

Growing up in the very heart of the Bible belt, I have had questions, even misgivings, about the motives and purposes of those who always knew the word of "the Lord" when it came to merging Church and State. I remember being singled out as the only Jewish kid in the class and rebuked for not singing the Christmas 'Christ is King' songs. Yet, I never felt any discomfort about the word G-d being used in daily life.

However, that is not what is happening today. Our parents reared us to believe that there is good in all people and to respect everybody. However, that ideology has come back to bite us in the tush, in much the same way as I see it biting Spielberg, who might have begun his movie "Munich" with good intentions but sadly crossed over and glorified the savage Palestinians who slaughtered the Israeli athletes.

The multi-headed monster attacking our youth is not limiting itself to prohibiting G-d in the classroom either. Our schools, in their efforts to be 'politically correct' by their insistence on the words "militant" and "freedom fighter" instead of "murderer", as the press regularly does, have distorted the message of education. As difficult as this may be to believe, Excelsior Elementary School in Byron, California, as part of their seventh-grade curriculum, ran a three-week course where students assumed Islamic names, recited prayers in class, memorized and recited verses from the Quran. They even had the children pretending that they were "sharing in Ramadan" fasting by going without something for a day. Their final exam required a paper assessing Muslim culture. When researching this unbelievable event, I didn't notice whether they included beheading and rape classes for these impressionable minds. Perhaps that comes after Graduation. Or is it just a natural extension of Koranic principle? I do know that they played "jihad games". This adorable and oh-so-American program had students imagining they were Islamic soldiers and Muslims on a Mecc a pilgrimage. All the while chanting "Allah Akbar," Arabic for "God is great." I wonder by what logic the ACLU can knowingly turn a blind eye to this sort of brain-washing indoctrination, yet continue with their demands that our courthouses remove the Ten Commandments and that our children stop saying the Lord's Prayer in schools?

In case you think I'm exaggerating, check out Hugh Fitzgerald

(www.jihadwatch.org) commenting on www.dawanet.com, where Muslim parents are given precise guidelines on how to 'win over' teachers and principals. It even covers the optimum timing for inviting the teachers and administrators home to have a "delicious meal of chic ken and pita". Man, they have it down to a fine art, calculated to ensure that whatever demands they make on a school, from setting aside prayer rooms, to letting students out for such prayer, is agreed (which could never happen for other faiths). When it comes to permitting Muslims essentially to conduct propaganda -- da'wa -- freely in the schools, under one guise or another, ("Sharing Ramadan" Outreach, promoted by CAIR, is granted happily), they know their wishes will be quickly honored. At this rate, they'll soon offer, "Trample you classmates 101"

Maybe I ought to go over and teach them that this particular group are not now nor ever will be "soldiers". In Beirut, June of 1982, I personally witnessed thousands of these cowards running, with hands in the air, to surrender to the Israel soldiers, before the first bullet was fired. It wouldn't matter. These are terrorists and will never qualify for the honourable name, soldier. It's their cultures preferred model, to bomb and cause indiscriminate mayhem anywhere they settle.

Unfortunately, too many of our student and even Jewish organizations seem to be unaware of the real plans behind all of the "chairs for Islamic culture" which are popping up at an alarming rate in our universities. Their curriculum is aimed primarily at educating university students how best to destroy Israel. It is frightening how many students belong to the "International Solidarity Movement", founded by a Canadian Moslem which even sends Jewish (in name only)students to Israel on Birthright. Some are even joining Hillel.

The Muslim tentacles of influence are deeply attached to the heart of our universities. Recently, Georgetown and Harvard universities acc epted twenty million dollars in 'blood money' from Prince Alwaleed Ben Talal, a member of the Saudi royal family, for a chair to promote the study of Islam and the Muslim world. A further $15 million was given to establish the first two centres for American studies in the Middle East, at universities in Beirut and Cairo to "teach the Arab world about the American situation." Of course these are supposedly part of "philanthropic efforts to promote interfaith understanding." In reality, they will be teaching their version of the 'situation' to these impressionable minds. I wonder? Will terrorist camps be available for the really good students? I wonder what the barometer for excellence in the Islamic world is? As yet, the world has seen nothing from them that hasn't been soaked in blood and suffering.

In a display worthy of a true sycophant, Georgetown President John J. DeGioia gushed how "deeply honored he was by Prince Alwaleed's gene rosity". President DeGioia breathlessly informed us that their "plan is to endow three faculty chairs, expand programs, and academic outreach, provide scholarships for students and expand library facilities." I find it chilling how they are now able to foment their hate-speech and shape our youths minds, under the guise of 'charity'. The Prince said, "Now we can run workshops and conferences on the subject of, "What is the actual relationship between the West and the Muslim world" Is Islam compatible with modernization?" and a lot more!

This money is going to be used to expand the activities of the University's Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding..., in other words to anyone with half a brain that means a pro-Islam and even pro-terrorist viewpoint (along with being anti-American, anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli). Maybe they could hire Tony Kushner, who was Spielberg's mentor and writer on "Munich", to decorate? Where is Rudolph W. Giuliani when we need him? The Giulliani who threw back this same Prince's tarnished money when he tried to donate ten million after 9/11. John Esposito obviously has no problem accepting the $20 million 'donation' to Georgetown ; like me, do you wonder how much went in other pockets? This is not isolated either. Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers is also waiting, with eager, outstretched hands for his 'donations'.

Inerestingly enough, I'm writing this on the same day that the front page of the LA Times has a headline, "U.S.Faults Saudi Efforts on Terrorism". It seems someone in the Bush Administration is finally comp laining how "militants are pouring into Iraq from the Saudi kingdom and money is still flowing to Al Qaeda, officials say." On one hand, it's fine to acc ept their millions for our schools to mould impressionable minds and receive "campaign funds" to ease the way, but, on the other, it's not a good thing for the Saudis to give money to militants to destroy us on the battleground?

I thought we had laws that dealt with funds associated with terrorism? Is this how we fight The War on Terror? If you can't beat them, join them?

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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SIGNIFICANCE OF ROCKET ATTACKS; FRUSTRATION; DON'T BELIEVE IT ABOUT SHARON
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 15, 2006.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ROCKET ATTACKS

Arab rocket attacks on Israel affect Israel psychologically and militarily. The media fails to understand the significance of the attacks. I think I do, because I was brought up during WWI, which was depicted by maps giving a visual impression of the situation and showing the trend.

There is a trend in the rocket attacks that escapes public notice, though the Right warns about it. That trend is for the rockets to start closer to Israel, fly longer, and gain accuracy. The more Israel withdraws from its own homeland in a vain attempt to appease the Arabs and their foreign appeasers, the closer the rockets can start and the less Israel can interfere with their manufacture and crews.

Even a cheaply designed rocket, if fired close from the target city, can hit that city. It would be like the proverbial hitting the broad side of a barn from close up. Can't miss! Since the target is a city, the area is built up. People and buildings are likely to be struck. So are industrial facilities and vital infrastructure, some of which store inflammable gas. Casualties are low now, during the rocket development stage. Defenders of the current do-nothing policy, which IMRA describes as firing back but at empty fields, cite the low casualties as if evidence that nothing more need be done. When the Arabs have imported or developed the rockets, or if Israel follows Sharon's path of further withdrawals, casualties would soar.

Can't people see that coming? Or are they afraid to admit it, lest they feel constrained to make difficult decisions to act now and become criticized for it now? Postponed decisions mount in difficulty. Israel has to learn that whatever it does in its own behalf will be criticized, and that its critics deserve the criticism.

A FRUIT OF PRISONER-RELEASE

Judea-Samaria Arabs have less advanced rockets than Gaza Arabs, and seek to improve theirs. "The technology required to produce the rockets is transferred in various ways, namely by phone, through the Internet, and by taking advantage of prisoners released from Israeli jails after learning how to produce the rockets in prison." (IMRA, 1/2/06.)

CHANGE IN LEVEL OF TERRORISM AGAINST ISRAEL

Israeli Chief of Staff Halutz said, "The level of terror has gone down significantly." "Pay attention to how many attacks there were [before the expulsion?] and how many there are now."

What are the statistics? For aerial bombardment, "The number of rockets and mortar shells on Israeli targets has sharply increased since the expulsion, with 130 attacks from January through July, the eve of the expulsion, and 179 since then." There were two suicide bombings before expulsion, and four after it (Arutz-7, 12/2). The bombing figures are not statistically significant. However, terrorists constantly try to get through, and now are flocking into the P.A. for the kill. The expulsion, however, destroyed more than they ever could!

CUTTING OFF THEIR NOSES TO SPITE THEIR FACES

Whether Islamist or Islamic, Arab terrorists in Iraq and in the P.A. kidnap and assault foreigners, including humanitarians who care for their people and UNO agencies that provide services to their people. They are fanatics, not caring about anybody else, including their own people and sympathizers. They care only about their version of their religion.

FRUSTRATION

I estimate that the media is 60% liberal, 39% conservative, and 1% pro-Zionist. The liberals sympathize with the Islamo-fascists and consider themselves "progressive." The conservatives favor land-for-peace, which also would get Israel destroyed, but slower. The genuine supporters of Jewish nationalism and justice cite law and logic, but other journalists are blind, the politicians are bought off or bemused, and few people notice.

Well-meaning people who read the NY Times are fed a skimpy and false diet of news. They resist the truth and reality when I confront them with it. They not only don't understand the issues, they don't think straight about them. Hence they repeat rationalizations for Sharon's abandonment plan, without realizing there was nothing to back up the asserted justifications and no sense to them.

My cousin is a good guy. He told me that every Jew should see Munich. He asked if I had. I said I wouldn't. "Why?" I replied that it puts the Israeli enforcers of justice on the same low level as the Arab terrorists. He replied, "Absolutely not!" Then, "Oh, you're right." How many other decent Jews emerged from the theater duped into supposing that the Israelis are no better than the Arabs? How many read the book on the pursuit of the Munich terrorists, years ago, and know that the movie's qualms and equivalency is a concoction of the anti-Zionist screenwriter and Spielberg?

Under international law, the whole world is supposed to be capturing terrorists. Mostly it is not. Then let Israel pursue and liquidate them! It was doing the right thing about the Munich terrorists. Israel should have rotated the members of the pursuit team, so they would keep their nerves steady and make fewer mistakes.

Frustration with political life is matched by frustration with modern life in general. Ads show happy consumers. When a consumer has to open the package and sometimes assemble the item, the trouble begins. Many packages resist opening. Products often don't work well. I needed to buy a few items, and found that all were only from China, which I would prefer to boycott, but had no choice. I had to replace my bath brush, because the handle separated from the brush, and could not be re-glued a second time. That one had natural bristles. The new one has artificial bristles that hold little soap and scrape the skin. Its handle is slippery. On the second day, the hook-cord undid itself. My mother used to call these poor quality products ersatz.

DON'T BELIEVE WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT SHARON

Oslo is called a dead end, because there is no authority in charge of the P.A. with which to arrange a final peace agreement. The pre-eulogies for Sharon assert that he was taking Israel out of Oslo. Was he?

The assertions are the usual mixed up assessment. If Sharon found Oslo and, by the same logic, the Road Map, unworkable, why did he not annul them for not being feasible and for Arab violation? Why did he still leave Israel seemingly bound to them, with all their disadvantages to Israel and slights upon Jewish rights? I think the answer is that he was not leading Israel out of it but deeper into it. He was fulfilling Israel's portion according to the dictates of the State Dept.. That is, the State Dept. was getting Israel to cede the most and getting for Israel the least. No amount of pro-Sharon propaganda can overcome the fact of his having a Quisling policy.

The notion that Sharon is setting boundaries unilaterally in behalf of Israel is ludicrous. He has forfeited certain areas but taken none. Some of the areas in Gaza adjoined Israel. Why didn't he annex them? There are Jewish towns in Judea-Samaria adjoining Israel and which in Arab hands would become a portal for attacking Israel's capital. Why didn't he annex them? I think the answer is that he yields some land, claims to be preserving some; then yields more, while claiming to be preserving some, until there is none.

Oslo didn't suddenly become a dead end. Its end was to leave Israel half dead. It was a cover for appeasing the Arabs and weakening Israel. The thought that it could solve the Arab-Israel conflict was mistaken from the start, even when there was an authority in the P.A. which could speak for it. The P.A. never wanted peace. The P.A. exists to manage jihad. Jihad doesn't come to terms, it pursues holy war any way it can, as long as it can.

Israelis are said to have trust in that Prime Minister who betrayed them. Their trust in leaders gotten many of them killed since the 1920s. Why can't they think of the things in this analysis? They probably can. They just don't. Not their custom.

NAÏVE YOUTH

A certain two Jewish brothers whom I know are fine youths. They harbor no hatred and are curious. The younger one plans to visit Israel on Operation Birthright. The older one is invited to some project in Jordan.

Their parents wish the older one would direct his energy elsewhere. The younger one doesn't take seriously his group leaders' urging not to go through the Arab Quarter of the Old City alone. I tried to tell him that it is wartime and the people there may well want to kill him. Unlike most people, he understood that the Arab-Israel conflict is religious, not territorial. He thinks he might learn something by observation. But they dissemble.

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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EVACUATING HEBRON
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 15, 2006.

The earlier Rabin-Peres Plan was slicker but, they couldn't quite carry it off. The earlier plan to force the Jews out of Hebron was to wait for the Arab Muslims to raise sufficient hell (all pre-arranged, of course) and then the Israeli military or police would come to the rescue and gallantly force the Jews out "for their own good".

But, that proved difficult so now it's up to Olmert and the special police thugs picked and trained to attack Jews with no restraint. We saw some of this in Gaza.

Rav Levinger giving Torash lesson to girls

Imagine Jews planning to rob Hebron away from the Jewish people. The burial place of Abraham and Sara, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah, the Cave of the Patriarchs. Presumably, this sudden dash to Hebron would be in line with Sharon's extended Plan to comply with the Bush Plan to clear the Jews out of the "west bank" which includes such holy rallying points as the Ma'arat HaMachpelah (Cave of the Patriarchs).

Sharon's unexpected demise (considered brain-dead the day after his stroke by Hadassah, the Police and the Shabak), has put a rush on things. Ehud Olmert, acting PM until the March 28th elections, and his miscellaneous co-conspirators must accomplish the game plan of evacuation on a tighter time schedule.

As temporary but acting PM, Olmert and his collaborators in Kadima must accomplish a great deal while he is in his temporary but powerful position as PM. Who knows if he will be elected on March 28th, unless of course President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice knows.

Well, let's watch the next episode and see how their plan unravels. Oh, Yes! In case you were wondering, look just behind Olmert in the shadows you will see the always friendly spook, Shimon Peres. With Sharon gone and Olmert in the driver's seat, Peres had to be appointed Number 2, just to keep Olmert on track and to the Labor Party on the side of the Kadima Party.

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Israel has decided to use its top counter-insurgency units in the effort to destroy a tiny neighborhood in the West Bank.

Please Note the following article from the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies, archived at http://mailman.io.com/mailman/listinfor/freemanlist. It's called "Jews in Hevron March on Casbah in Response to Threats," and appeared today in www.IsraelNationalNews.com.

No more being "nice Jewish boys" who finish last and lose their Land, homes and jobs. The time for talk is long past. Action only.

The struggle for Hevron's Shalhevet neighborhood has begun, as residents, instead of waiting for the expulsion attempt, respond to the threat by trying to expand the Jewish presence in the city.

Several hundred residents attempted to enter the city's Casbah market Saturday afternoon after a day of increasing tension between residents and the growing presence of Yassam riot police. The special police squads and soldiers posted to the city are preparing to evict a dozen Jewish families from the Shalhevet neighborhood, located in the old wholesale market.

Hundreds of police and IDF forces were called into the area. An IDF officer of the Paratroops brigade was injured lightly when a stone was thrown at him. He said later that he was standing next to Arabs at the time, and "I would like to believe that the rock was not meant for me." Hevron spokesman Noam Arnon said that no one meant to injure Israeli soldiers.

On Thursday, a building opposite entrances number four and five of Hevron's Tomb of the Patriarchs was burned. The Arab family living in the building had abandoned it four days earlier. Four youths were seen leaving the area, police say.

A vehicle belonging to one of the Yassam units brought into Hevron was damaged by rocks thrown by local children near the city's Gross Square. A ten-year-old was arrested at the scene, but was released shortly later due to his age. Paint was also thrown at a Border Police jeep and tires slashed.

The marketplace was built on top of Jewish-owned land after the Jews of Hevron were massacred and expelled in the 1929 Arab riots in the city. For years, a large billboard hung above the marketexplaining that it was built atop stolen Jewish land. After the murder of 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass by an Arab sniper, several Jewish families moved into the marketplace, which was no longer used by local Arabs due to a military order. Meanwhile, the holders of the original title to the property had turned it over to the Jewish community of Hevron.

The government has announced half a dozen targets for demolition in the coming weeks, including nine permanent homes in the Binyamin community of Amona, three hilltop communities in Samaria and a house in Gush Etzion. At the destruction of the house in the Gush Etzion community of Sde Boaz, just north of Neve Daniel, police used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse protesters, yet still took an entire day to demolish the structure successfully, and were blocked from reaching the foundation of a second, larger structure.

Political commentators in the weekend edition of B'Sheva newspaper suggest that acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, concerned about the negative effects of Ariel Sharon's declining health on their political future, are trying to provoke the residents of Judea and Samaria into actions that will lead to a further drop in support for the settlement enterprise, and an improvement in the Kadima Party's standing.

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm).

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DIVIDING JERUSALEM -- THE ALTERNATE PLAN
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 15, 2006.

Another legacy from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to be passed on through Ehud Olmert and the prematurely born and newly hatched Kadima Party, at the behest of the Bush Road Map, is to use a clever trick to divide Jerusalem. The new plan is to expand Jerusalem West-ward, in preparation to the transfer of East Jerusalem to the Arab Muslim Palestinians. (1)

The original plan was to expand East-ward, connecting the large community of Ma'ale Adumim with Jerusalem. But, that didn't fit the goals of the Bush family in their efforts to appease the Arabs and especially the Palestinians who have been, as they themselves so declare, the enemy of Israel.

None of this means anything to President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, or former Sec. State James Baker, III, as they foist on us the "idea" that Arab elections are an injection of democracy. By that token the elections of Hitler, Stalin, Hafez al Assad, Saddam Hussein's successors and Hosni Mubarak are a guarantee that "Democracy" will flourish because there was an election.

Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, now under direct orders of Rice, must push forward a housing development into the green belt of forests West of Jerusalem, land that is Jewish Fund/Keren Kayemet nature reserve land. While all the building plans are moved forward, it is presumed that "gifting" East Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (nom de geurre *** Abu Mazen) or to Hamas will not be noticed in the hub-bub and excitement of massive building.

Everyone is supposed to think that this is merely a planned expansion of Jerusalem, with the focus of building housing and, possibly, expanding its industrial base. But, this is merely a political magician's trick as one hand is waved about while the other hand is picking our pockets.

Jerusalem was scheduled over a year ago to expand Eastward, encompassing Ma'ale Adumim and its 32,000 Jewish men, women and children. It was also imperative that Jerusalem had a thickened belt of Jewish homes to insure the Muslim Arab Terrorists would not be able to endanger the City, the Eternal, Golden Capital of the Jewish people forever.

Olmert, Peres, Kadima are to divide Jerusalem as mandated by Bush and Rice, their denials notwithstanding.

Note! This has a strong bearing on the promises by Sharon and now Olmert, etc. to the PA that Arab Muslims living in East Jerusalem can vote in the upcoming elections. This includes Hamas running as independents as cover with Bush-Olmert approval. These promises were made because of pressure from Bush and Rice. The fiction of elections in Arab nations bringing Democracy is a desperate grab by Bush to establish his legacy -- no matter how illusory.

As for Arab Muslim Palestinians living in Israel voting for the PA President Mahmoud Abbas whose nom de geurre *** Abu Mazen's Fatah, aka PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization dedicated to eliminating the Jewish State of Israel) then it is clear as day they are NOT Israeli citizens but, they belong to the mix of Arabs from many Arab Muslim countries, who call themselves "Palestinians" for political propaganda.

Do I think that there will be retribution for trying to divide Jerusalem? Indeed, I do!

###

*** nom de guerre war name, a pseudonym. Since the American flagship paper used it for one of the other Muslim Arabs, we figured it was more proper to use it than "aka")

1. "Study: J'lem Must Expand East, Not West" by Etgar Lefkovits JEWISH PRESS 12/30/05

2. "U.S. Backs Calls for East Jerusalem Vote" Israel & Global News by Murray Kahl

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm).

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SINGH SINGS THE WRONG SONG
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 15, 2006.
To the editors,

Jagjit Singh's "Ariel Sharon" in Saturday's Palo Alto Daily News (1.14.2006) does a great disservice to your readers. As we have seen from numerous other of Mr. Singh's missives, he does not seem to know the difference between propaganda and fact, revisionism and history.

There has never been a "ruthless crusade" against Palestinians. The only ruthless actions in the history of the Arab-Israel conflict have been those perpetrated by heartless Arab leaders who have mounted an endless terror war against Israel, punctuated periodically with full-scale armed invasions. And Mr. Sharon has devoted his life to defending his country against this ruthless, relentless hate-filled terror war.

Singh's version of Qibya is merely a mindless regurgitation of the Arab propaganda. He neglects to mention that the village was the base for Arab terrorists who routinely crossed from the West Bank into Israel to kill innocent civilians in the early 1950s, and that the Red Cross verified the Israeli version that the IDF gave warning before it began to destroy the homes where terrorists hid. Dead Arabs were either the armed terrorists who died while shooting at the Israelis, or Arab civilians who hid in the houses, unbeknownced to the Israelis, and disregarded the Israeli warning.

He waxes almost poetic in his complaint about the IDF cutting off water and food to Beirut in 1982, but neglects to note that Arafat had literally taken over Southern Lebanon in 1970, and used it as a terror base for 12 years of almost daily attacks against Israeli civilians. During that same time, the PLO (Arafat's terror group) waged almost constant war against the Christian Lebanese whose homes they razed. The Red Cross estimates that more than 95,000 Christian Lebanese were killed in the 12-year reign of terror imposed upon Lebanon by Arafat, and nearly 500,000 made homeless. The Christian Lebanese greeted the IDF as liberators, not as invadors.

Even such a clear-cut and indisputable issue as Sabra and Shatilla gets mangled in Singh's faux history. The Israeli army never facilitated the massacres there. The Phalangist Christian army needed no facilitation. The Lebanese Christians had suffered a score of massacres at the hands of the PLO between 1970 and 1982....the most horrific at Damour, where 25,000 innocent civilian Christian Lebanese were slaughtered, some hacked to pieces by ax-wielding Palestinians. Children were the target of choice for the bloodthirsty brutal Palestinian murderers. Sharon's indirect responsibility was in that he did not forsee that the Phalangists would use Sabra and Shatilla as an opportunity to even the score.

In his litany of complaints about the sad fate of the Palestinians, Singh seems unaware of the undeniable historical fact that between the offers made by the UN, the UK, the USA and Israel, the Palestinian leadership has had fifteen (15!!) opportunities since 1937 to create their own state peacefully alongside of Israel. Israel has accepted every one of these offers, and the Palestinian leadership have rejected every one with war, terrorism, violence, murder, or some combination of these.

The Palestinian people are suffering today only because of the obdurate hate-driven Arab refusal to make peace with Israel, and because their psychotic leaders are committed to "terrorism until victory or martyrdom"....no room for negotiation there.

All of the suffering that Singh decries would disappear if the terrorists would lay down their arms, and the Palestinian leaders would make peace.

If the terrorists laid down their arms, there would be no more violence. If Israel laid down its arms, there would be no more Israel.

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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MORE POGROM ACTIVITIES
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 15, 2006.

Colonel Baruch would be better advised to chamber a bit of common sense and common decency into his brain. Is this how he fulfills his duty to defend Israel? Is this why tens of thousands of Jewish Shekels were spent on his military training? Was it so he can attack unarmed Jews and drive them from their homes?

Instead of participating in such disgusting activities, he should resign from the IDF. It is long past time for our soldiers to show some real courage and not hide behind the Nazi whine of "I am just following orders."

Our Torah is very clear on the subject. AIN SHALIACH LEDAVAR AVAIRAH. There is no such thing as just be the representative of an evil act. If someone is sent to do evil, he can not say I was doing it for someone else. He is personally responsible for his actions.

All those who have participated in the Pogroms against Jews in Israel will be judged. Those who are fortunate, very fortunate, will be judged by a human court and punished for their betrayal by humanly inflicted punishment. The truly unfortunate one are those who will be judged by the heavenly court. The punishment they will endure is horrific.

This is a news item from Arutz Sheva -- IsraelNationalNews.com. It is archived at www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=96650 It is called "More Skirmishes Between Residents & IDF in Hevron."

(IsraelNN.com) IDF Colonel Motti Baruch reports there were additional confrontations near Beit Hadassah between Jewish residents and soldiers on Sunday afternoon.

Baruch reportedly was forced to chamber a bullet of his weapon as some 200 residents confronted soldiers, some throwing objects at them. Riot control adjuncts were deployed against the unruly residents.

Hevron officials accuse troops of using unjustifiable force against residents. Hevron community leaders released a sharp statement criticizing Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who warned he will not tolerate anyone lifting a finger against security forces.

Hevron leaders explain that Olmert is waging a media war to discredit Hevron's residents ahead of a planned expulsion, seeking to discredit them for legitimately opposing plans to evict them from their homes.

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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LEGACY OF JIHAD EDITED BY ANDREW G. BOSTON
Posted by Naomi Ragen, January 15, 2006.

Friends,

For all those who think that Islam is a peaceful religion that is being led astray by extremists, a new book actually gives the interested reader the information necessary to make an intelligent decision. "The Legacy of Jihad. Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims," edited by Andrew G. Bostom, foreword by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, New York, 2005, makes it clear that Jihad has been going on since the beginning of the founding of Islam as a religion, and it doesn't mean an intellectual striving or any of the other interpretations "scholars" of Islam who wish to pretend the world was a different place love to provide. Jihad, and the fate of those who do not oppose the Muslim invaders who view every other religion as a threat that must be destroyed, is something the West insists on ignoring. It does so at its peril.

Below, part of a review by Sandro Magister, that appeared in Vatican Reporter. Excellent background material for the serious scholar.

The book: "The Legacy of Jihad. Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims," edited by Andrew G. Bostom, foreword by Ibn Warraq, Prometheus Books, New York, 2005, pp. 762.

The book that lifts the veil on the Islamic holy war is entitled "The Legacy of Jihad," and is edited by Andrew G. Bostom.

The book is essentially made up of documents, many of which have been translated for the first time from Arabic or Farsi, or have been reproduced from books of oriental studies that would be difficult for the general public to find.

The documents range from Mohammed in the seventh century, to the twentieth century. And they include the classic texts on the topic of jihad by Muslim theologians and jurists, accounts of war from ancient and modern witnesses, and analyses of jihad by scholars of varying outlooks.

The book also contains islamic miniatures depicting moments of jihad throughout history, and maps that document the military expansion of Islam century after century, from the seventh to the eleventh century. Each map is accompanied by a summary listing the acts of war in each region.

For example, in the ninth century, during which Rome was assaulted and Sicily was conquered, the Muslim armies occupied Bari and Brindisi in Italy for thirty years; Taranto for forty; Benevento for ten; they attacked Naples, Capua, Calabria, and Sardinia several times; they put the abbey of Montecassino to fire and the sword; they even made skirmishes in northern Italy, arriving from Spain and crossing over the Alps.

One fact emerges clearly from the documentation compiled by Bostom: jihad is not just one of the forms by which the expansion of Islam took place in particular places and times, but it is an institution inherent to the Islamic system itself; it is a permanent religious obligation.

One astonishing thing is that it was not a specialist who published this documentation in the West. Bostom is an epidemiologist living in Providence, Rhode Island. But perhaps this very distance from the academic world of the oriental and Islamic studies scholars leaves him more free from the taboos that gag many of these.

Biting criticisms of the pro-Islamic sentiment of much of Western culture have been written by, among others, Jacques Ellul, Oriana Fallaci, and Bat Ye'or. The latter of these is a leading specialist in the condition of subordination systematically imposed by Islam upon the non-Muslim subjects of conquered countries. She is also the author of an essay published in 2005, carrying the eloquent title "Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis."

One of the central theses of the three authors cited is that Islam is an organic whole and cannot be reformed in its essential elements, and that personal freedom and rights cannot be incorporated into it.

But even another author who does not share this thesis, and is indeed one of the most decisive proponents of the idea that Islam and democracy are compatible -- Bernard Lewis, one of the most authoritative Islamic studies experts alive, professor at Princeton University -- has severely criticized the pro-Islamic tendencies in vogue among Western intellectuals and politicians, even among Jewish ones.

In an essay entitled "The Pro-Islamic Jews," Lewis explains how the idea of an early Islamic Spain tolerant of Christians and Jews -- evoked by many today as a golden age - is a romantic myth of the nineteenth century, created by Jews themselves in their intellectual conflict with Christians.

And modern Turkey's aligning itself with the Western world and its support for the state of Israel have also induced a widespread unwillingness to speak about the massacres it carried out last century against the Armenian Christians.

Other factors encouraging the general silence over the holy wars of yesterday and today -- and also over slavery, which is still practiced by Muslims in some regions, over assaults on churches and the killing of Christians -- are the effort to establish a good relationship with the increasing numbers of Muslim immigrants in Europe, fear of terrorist attacks, and the desire to create distance from the outlook of the "clash of civilizations."

But the Muslim victims of this reticence and silence on the part of the West are precisely those who are courageously fighting to reform the Islamic faith and reconcile it with democracy and modernity.

It's a good thing that, with books like the one by Andrew G. Bostom, they aren't being left entirely alone.

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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MUNICH
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 15, 2006.

Steven Spielberg's Munich is what it is, a psychologically intense story loosely based on events mainly concerning a cadre of Israelis immersed in an assassination mission initiated by Golda Meir, the erstwhile "Iron Lady" Prime Minister of a devastated nation, to retaliate for the butchering of Israeli Olympic athletes by warped morphed Jordanians a/k/a Palestinians to an uniformed world. The film sadly remains incomplete, in need of an essential sequel, as it does not educate audiences about the truly perilous nature of modern day jihad. Indeed, Spielberg has the wealth and talent to direct a blockbuster movie, perhaps entitled Jihad, that would impact immensely on somnambulistic civilized planetary denizens. There is absolutely no more lethal act on Earth, having nuclear Armageddon potential, than the jihadist's abomination of choice homicide/suicide bombing, perpetrated by jihad junkie cerebrally mutated muddled mesmerized male Muslim martyrs, overriding the survival instinct in a delusional quest to achieve Allahland paradise via the fast track, agog with the learned fantasy of sexual trysts with heavenly submissive female virgins simply by blowing secular body parts asunder including those of proximate "infidel" victims. There would be no need to embellish such subhuman scenarios, they also are what they are, manufactured human-techno hybrids shrouded in powerful explosives, packed with sharp metal objects, thus maximizing impacts upon detonation. No doubt, the underwriting House of Saud as well as the Pakistani bomb factories themselves, euphemistically named madrassas, must be explored in detail to achieve a full picture.

Carnage, wrought by jihadist madmen, portrayed by the scorched interiors of buses, hotels, markets, malls, restaurants, discos all sadistically strewn with body parts, writhing burning living humans, dead decapitated humans, engulfed by flaming red rivers and blood-curdling horrifically deafening screams of agony mixed with blaring ambulance sirens would forge epiphany creating impressions within the collective gray matter of gasping audiences. Spielberg's genius indeed could craft a picture worth thousands of Israeli words, successfully combating the hand-wringing propaganda of thousands of Palestinian apologists. The despicable Munich murders must not be forgotten or forgiven as they repeat themselves in terms of brutality again and again. Yet, skewed Islam, most importantly vindicates homicidal/suicidal martyrdom. This perilous practice must not be ignored for the sake of civil life as we know it, alas, observers of the movie Munich, bereft of such abominations, are not impressed by that quantum leap in regressive cultural mutation. It is in fact Spielberg's responsibility, having directed a presumed semi-authoritative glimpse into a portion of the so-called Israeli Palestinian conflict, to not suggest that his film conveys the essence of that continuing confrontation. The sequel Jihad, as proposed, would shatter any such illusions as well as engender earned respect from more knowledgeable observers of today's dysfunctional Middle East.

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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ISRAEL TO USE COMMANDOS AGAINST HEBRON JEWS
Posted by Aryeg Zelasko, January 15, 2006.

It would be in keeping with the nature and personality of the acting Crime Minister Olmert (pronounced all-merde) to order the murder of Jews in Hevron. As Mayor of Jerusalem he showed the most arrogant contempt for religious Jews as well as Jewish values and institutions. Under his tenure he made every effort to destroy the delicate balance in the city between its religious and secular citizens by constant provocations. It would seem that now that he has the opportunity to vent his obvious hatred for Jews on a larger scale and with the endorsement of the "international community" he will not allow it to pass by unused.

This is a Middle East News Line Investigative Report (israelvisit.co.il/cgi-bin/friendly.pl?url=Jan-14-06!lawandorder1).

Israel has decided to use its top counter-insurgency units in the effort to destroy a tiny Jewish neighborhood in the West Bank.

Security sources said acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has approved a proposal for the deployment of army and police commandos to expel and dismantle an unauthorized Jewish neighborhood in Hebron. The sources said the commandos would be employed to overcome what was expected to be fierce Jewish resistance.

"The decision reflected the priority of the government over the next two weeks," a security source said. "The government has based its credibility on the destruction of this illegal outpost."

The disputed Jewish neighborhood in Hebron has been comprised of apartments and storefronts abandoned by Palestinians. Eight Jewish families live in the storefronts at the edge of Arab market in the West Bank city.

Israel's Supreme Court has accepted the claim that the storefronts were purchased by Jews before the British expulsion of the Hebron Jewish community in 1929. But the court, citing the absence of Israeli government permission, insisted that the Jewish residents leave until the issue could be resolved.

The sources said several Israeli elite units have been recruited to evict the Jewish residents. One police unit was identified as Yamam, the Hebrew acronym for Special Operations Unit and usually reserved for counter-insurgency and hostage rescue missions.

The elite units were mobilized amid increasing Jewish unrest in Hebron. Officials said Jewish youngsters have hurled rocks and paint toward Israeli police cars and torched Arab apartments to protest the evacuation order, which takes effect on Sunday.

On Saturday, several hundred Jews clashed with police and soldiers throughout Hebron. There were reports of arrests and injuries.

In a related development, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has ordered the dismantling of three unauthorized Jewish outposts around the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Mofaz said the outposts were involved in the uprooting of olive trees in nearby Palestinian orchards. No arrests have been reported.

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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OFFICIAL MUSLIM SITE FOR SUBVERTING AMERICA
Posted by Roger Johnson, January 14, 2006.

To my friends and family:

http://www.dawanet.com is the official Muslim website that is teaching the Muslims how to subvert our systems, especially our school system. Click on Dawa Methods and see what they are doing in the public schools. This website must be exposed for what it is. The "good Muslim" is a terrorist, because he/she simply obeys the 193 commands in the Koran to convert or kill Christians and Jews first and then the rest of the infidels (everybody who is not a Muslim). The "poor Muslim" does not obey the Koran, and that's the only reason they can get along in our society.

If you think I am being paranoid, then prove it for yourself. Surf this website and learn exactly what the Muslims are up to. They will push and push until every one of us is either converted to Islam or killed.

Roger Johnson

Contact Roger Johnson at hiouchi@centurytel.net

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ISRAELI ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION? ARBITRARY ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW IN ISRAEL?
Posted by David Bedein, January 14, 2006.

Over the years, Israel has coped with homes and neighborhoods that were established without proper authorization or legal permits.

In 1984, the Israel Ministry of Housing issued a report that over 10,000 homes were illegally constructed by Israeli Arab residents on the Acre-Tzfat road.

1984 was an election year in Israel. Ezer Weitzman, running with Benyamin Ben Eliezer on the Yachad Party ticket, campaigned in the Arab sector and promised to legalize these homes if elected.

After the July 1984 election, in which Labor and Likud were essentially tied in the number of seats, the YACHAD Party, with its three seats, entered the coalition on the condition that the 10,000 homes be legalized. And that is what happened.

In early 2003, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, headed by former UN Ambassador Dore Gold, issued a position paper which documented are more than 6,000 illegal and unauthorized homes built in Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem. That study, authored by human rights lawyer Justus Reid Weiner, a scholar-in-residence at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, can be located at: http://www.jcpa.org/jlmbldg.htm

Ever since the publication of the JCPA study, the question has been raised as to whether the government of Israel will order the demolition of these 6,000 homes.

As this is being written, the government of Israel, during yet another election campaign, has issued demolition orders against Jewish communities that have not received legal authorization.

The question remains: Will the government of Israel only demolish Jewish neighborhoods that have been constructed without proper permits? Is that not arbitrary enforcement of the law against only one ethnic group, while another ethnic group is allowed to flaunt the law?

This article was written by David Bedein and appeared today in Israel behind the news (www.israelbehindthenews.com/#lawandorder).

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PERILOUS MAHMOUD
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 14, 2006.

Somnambulistic world stupor powers dither while Persian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad makes the Islamic rounds boasting "The Superpowers who build tens of nuclear power plants annually are trying to deprive Iran of its own legal rights". Who among planetary pundits is so dense they might discount the fact the same "mistreated mouthpiece" breaks falafel with Islamic fulminating fundamentalists and threatens to wipe Israel off the map? Egad, Ahmedinejad's mobile human-techno hybrid nuclear delivery systems already are in place, constructed in Saudi financed Pakistani jihad junkie madrassas offering compulsory courses in homicide/suicide bombing 101, while fossil fuel addicted sycophantic industrial nitwits in Armani suits bizarrely pay but lip service to an Armageddon in the making. Does any prescient civilized politico believe that "Mahmoud the terrorible" would hesitate deploying a "virgin in paradise" besot martyring Muslim terrorist or two, willing to shroud secular body in Iranian fissile matter; directing the muddled maniac towards Tel Aviv, maybe Paris, London, Madrid, Rome, Amsterdam, or even New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles to perform the subhuman dastardly deed; then claim no connection to the Islamic cerebrally impaired grimly reaping sicko whatsoever? Radioactive fallout tells no tales. "Zionist plot" might even ooze from Mahmoud's mouth, that notion having anti-Semite/Israeli as well as mesmerized Muslim mass appeal, such logic-challenged debilitated denizens ever-salivating to mindlessly consume Jew-devil origins for any worldwide literal or metaphorical poison mushroom clouds.

So who will energize the civil first world's factories, shopping malls, and SUVs if its movers and shakers opt to sanction Allahfather Ahmedinejad and/or his robed rogue filthy rich "mobsters in the shadows" House of Saud underwriters of Nuke Delivery Inc? We note U.S. President "war on terror" G. W. Bush and German Chancellor A. Merkel promising to turn up the heat at least on the ranting Iranian at Kofi's digs a/k/a the U.N. "oil for food scandalized" Security Council. However, the swaggering Texan declined to elaborate on the nature of any presumed sanctions when queried by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Hmmm! Maybe Mahmoud still monopolizes at least one "get out of jail free" card, being high on the pecking order of a "no sanction for you" OPEC. Still, such feckless rhetoric is quantum leaps above that of eel like suck-up industrial Big Kahunas China, France, Russia, and Japan ever so reluctant to ruffle the robes of a madman whose spindly talons grip fossil fuel faucets affixed to 10 percent of our wobbly orb's oil reserves as well as Earth's second largest reservoir of natural gas. Indeed the Wal-Mart shelf stocking Oriental Dragon is most likely to Shanghai any meaningful penalty to this potential nuclear menace as it imports 300,000 barrels of crude Mahmoud's crude per day. Furthermore, Japan imports over 500,000 barrels of Iran's vicious viscous substance daily, while a Japan-led group has a yen to invest an equivalent two billion greenbacks developing erstwhile Persia's immense Azadegan oilfield. Seems like such Eastern heavy weights are in no mood to punish Mahmoud; you might say he has them over a barrel. To pour more gravy over the perilous Persian President's gravy train Russia intends to proceed with a one billion dollar deal selling short-range missiles to Iran. Lovely! When the power flexing Shiites of erstwhile Persia expand their sphere of influence westward into a neighborly emerging Shiite dominated Iraq, compliments of a U.S. preemptive foray promoting freedom and democracy, Israel's security will be dealt another blow now in the more proximate crosshairs of Putin's missiles modified into weapons of mullah destruction.

All this guarantees the beleaguered disrespected Jewish democracy obvious tsuris, and the rest of the planet's "infidel" nations justified angst if they would but wash the prehistoric black goo from their myopically focused spectacles. Perhaps six months more of waffling and Iran's centrifuge coordinating skills could be sufficient to spin a critical mass of diabolical fissile threads, available to the most insane Islamic Wahhabi obsessed bidders, or for home use in missile warheads compliments of Ruskie capitalists. First world nations must renounce all Faustian fossil fuel covenants forthwith! They must unite, strategize, and subdue the Middle East beast with alacrity; an ominous midnight approaches. One detonated nuke alas and life as we know it is gone.

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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OLEG CARTOON: OLMERT IN SHARON'S SHOE
Posted by Women in Green, January 14, 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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GAZA ABANDONMENT A BLUNDER; ESTIMATING THE LEVEL OF TERRORISM; PA POLICE COOPERATE WITH TERRORISTS
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 14, 2006.

I call leaving Gaza "abandonment," for that is what it is. It abandoned Jewish homeland and Jewish communities. Israel did not disengage from the Arabs, in that the war is raging all the harder, now.

The people didn't wish a stroke upon Sharon. But I wished he were tried for treason via corruption and prosecutor's intimidation. He cheated justice.

There is no chance of peace with the Arabs. There is only the opportunity to drive the Palestinian Arabs out and fend off the others. Therefore, a lull in jihad depends not on the Arabs but on Israel and its being independent of the US. Notions of "peace partner not only are absurd but imply that Israel should sacrifice still more territory besides Transjordan.

The world thought abandonment would let the Arabs show what they could do in Gaza, and that they then descended further into chaos and mob rule, but wrong to think the prerequisite for that was that Israel demolish Jewish communities and end its patrols in Gaza and northern Samaria. That is pro-Arab propaganda. Israel did not interfere with Arab government, Arafat never set one up. It was a combination kleptocracy and war room.

WHO KILLS THE MOST P.A. ARABS?

The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group laments that 51% of the P.A. Arabs slain by gunfire in 2005 were killed by fellow Arabs. Anarchy led to this ten-fold increase. The Monitoring Group calls on the P.A. to end the anarchy (IMRA, 12/30). Israeli restraint also raised the proportion of Arabs kiolled by Arabs.

Much of this strife is by Fatah men disgruntled over unemployment. I think that the more they kidnap and raid offices, the greater the chance their party will lose the election.

P.A. CONDEMNATION OF TERRORISM

Palestinian official Saeb Erekat condemned the bombing and called on all groups to honor the cease-fire. "The Palestinian Authority is committed to the cessation of violence," he said. [IMRA: But does nothing.] (Then how is it committed?)

Israel is doing something to defend from Gaza terrorism. It declared the area from which most rockets were launched no-man's land. The P.A. condemned the Israeli reaction as likely to widen the war. IMRA asked, is Israel supposed to sit still and be bombed (IMRA, 12/30)?

How could an Israeli reaction widen the war by terrorists fighting as much as they can?

ESTIMATING LEVEL OF TERRORISM

The IDF explained that for every terrorist who succeeds in his mission, dozens are caught. Nevertheless, they keep coming while some people claim that terrorism is diminishing. IMRA points out that when estimating the level of terrorism, Israel counts only the attacks that succeed in killing (or wounding) Israelis (IMRA, 12/30).

WHAT RELATIONSHIP CAN ISRAEL EXPECT WITH P.A?

The hostile P.A. is sliding into anarchy. Rather than anticipating a rapprochement with the P.A., there will be "separation and slowly subsiding tensions marked by a gradual decrease in violence, which will take many years to disappear and will flare up periodically in the meantime." This is the approach taken for Israel by Ariel Sharon, in his unilateral withdrawals "to borders determined by itself." By demonstrating with their unremitting violence that negotiations with them are futile, the P.A. Arabs are the best campaigners for Sharon (Hillel Halkin, NY Sun, 1/3, Op. Ed.). I agree that negotiations are futile. Indeed, they are worse, for they bolster the Arab aggressors.

If Sharon is separating Israel from the P.A., why is he paying it to remove debris from Gaza, remitting excise taxes to it, sending forces in to intercept terrorist missions, allowing tens of thousands of its people to work in Israel, and agreeing to its having corridors running through Israel? Why doesn't Mr. Halkin suggest specific disassociation?

Why would violence decline, when the Arab fanatics still are brainwashing their people, building better rockets, and tunneling into Israel? How does P.A. violence from Gaza help elect Sharon, whose withdrawal led to its predicted increase? The borders are being determined by the appeasement-minded State Dept., Israeli Supreme Court, and prosecutors who could indict Sharon. They are not in Israel's interest. Halkin made dubious assertions without factual backing. They seem more like political campaigning than analysis. REALIZING GAZA WITHDRAWAL MISTAKEN

Here is a well considered debunking of assumptions about the withdrawal from Gaza that proved false. Their significance lays in its authorship by Haaretz's star military analyst, Zeev Schiff. Since Haaretz generally is appeasement-minded, this listing strikes Dr. Aaron Lerner as a swing of the pendulum back to national defense. (It shows up Sharon.)

1. The government predicted that the withdrawal would reduce the number of rocket attacks. The number of attacks, however, has increased (and potentially will become disastrous). Israel mistakenly assumed that the P.A. police would stop the rocket attacks. The P.A. police don't. Egypt has 10 colonels there, and they don't stop it, either, though Egypt promised to. The withdrawal enabled Gaza to better arm against Israel

2. Another false assumption is that public opinion in the P.A. would stop the attacks. However, the organization doing most of the firing does not depend on public opinion, but is financed from abroad. (Worse, most P.A. Arabs believe in terrorist attacks.)

3. Trying to locate and destroy rocket workshops in Gaza from sites in Israel, rather than being able to search for them in Gaza, has proved too difficult for Israel (as predicted).

4. The IDF has said that with technical means, it would be able to stop Arab rockets. It has not been able to stop them. Neither has it deterred the Arabs.

5. As former general Almog warned, Israel should not withdraw totally from Gaza while at war there. For one thing, the Arabs would fire rockets at Ashkelon. They do.

6. The government argued that if Israel didn't withdraw, totally, the Arabs would use that as an excuse to keep fighting. The Arab grievance is not over Gaza, however, but over Israel, itself -- they would keep fighting. Besides, Israel's declaration of a no-man's land in Gaza nullifies the notion of full withdrawal ((IMRA, 12/31). The Arabs make up pretexts for jihad, anyway. For example, the UNO certified that Israel no longer occupies part of Lebanon, but Hizbullah disregards the finding and claims that it does.)

Schiff goes easy on the Sharon regime blunder. He fails to explain why most pundits went even easier on Sharon when he was proposing it and dissembling about it. I suppose it is because most journalists are ideological propagandists and don't think big.

P.A. POLICE COOPERATE WITH TERRORISTS

Israeli forces traced several wanted Islamic Jihad terrorists to the Jenin headquarters of P.A. military intelligence. They had fled before the IDF arrived. The headquarters commander admitted having helped the wanted men. The IDF released the commander, but "views with severity" P.A. officials who knowingly assist those attacking Israel (IMRA, 12/31). Not with sufficient severity to punish him.

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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ROCKETS AND WALLS
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 14, 2006.

This was written by Aaron Klein of World Net Daily and it is archived at www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48334 It is called "'Israeli fences don't stop rockets'. Terror leader warns of onslaught against major Jewish cities."

Following is a WorldNetDaily exclusive interview with Abu Oudai, a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group responsible for coordinating the organization's rocket network in the West Bank.

The Brigades is the military wing of the ruling Fatah party and is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip. The group is particularly active in the West Bank, where Israel fears Palestinian terror organizations are stockpiling rockets with plans to shoot the deadly weapons at major Israeli cities in the near future.

With Arabic-English translation by Ali Waked.

WND: Hundreds of rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip the past few years by Palestinian terror groups, aimed at nearby Jewish farming communities. After Israel carried out its Gaza withdrawal this past summer, there has been information the Palestinian groups are now stockpiling rockets in the West Bank, which is within reach of Israel's major population centers, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, in addition to the 200,000 or so Jews who live within the West Bank. Israel says a primitive rocket -- the first ever from the West Bank -- was launched by your group in Jenin three weeks ago. What kind of rocket capabilities do you currently have in the West Bank?

OUDAI: First I want to say that three weeks ago was not the first time we shot rockets from Jenin to the settlements of the Israeli enemy. It is the enemy who for the first time admitted that these rockets exist in the West Bank and that they were shot against Israeli targets. Israel published about that rocket after they realized the shooting of rockets is taking place repeatedly in the West Bank.

We believe that for the moment our capacities are very good and are permanently improving. We can reach any point inside Israel, but I will not mention what are the regions we are ready to shoot from.

WND: How many rockets has your group launched so far from the West Bank? And what are your plans in the near future as far as the regularity of launching.

OUDAI: We have launched six times and with the help of Allah we will launch these rockets regularly. There will be no calm, no ceasefire until the occupation leaves our land. I don't need to tell you that the aerial distance from Jenin to Netanya, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities is not big without telling you what are all our plans concerning other parts of the West Bank.

WND: Are the rockets manufactured inside the West Bank or smuggled over from Gaza? Israel says most are made in the area and not smuggled after the Gaza withdrawal.

OUDAI: The rockets were transported from outside the West Bank. I am not surprised that the Israeli army claims differently because it is not the first time that it denies the real capacity of the Palestinian resistance. Do not forget that their arrival is a new failure of the Israeli army. With the help of Allah we succeeded to bring these rockets inside the West Bank. But it is true that we are working also on producing these rockets inside the West Bank.

Concerning what the Israeli army said about the rockets being primitive, the very near future will prove their capacity to kill and destroy and to beat the Israelis in the West Bank exactly like we did with these rockets in the Gaza Strip.

WND: Which West Bank towns can you currently strike with your rockets? Right now, can you reach Jerusalem or Tel Aviv?

OUDAI: We will reach every point where there is Israeli occupation on our land. We will shoot these rockets as long as Israeli tanks and aircraft are killing our people and yes this includes Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, but don't ask me where we shall shoot from next.

WND: When you talk about "our land," are you referring to the West Bank, or do you mean you will try to drive the Jews from all of Israel with your rockets?

OUDAI: Of course the whole thing [all of what you call Israel] is part of Palestine and we'll never give it up.

WND: Are your West Bank rockets the same as the Qassam rockets in Gaza that can go about three miles? I have heard about a new rocket, the Jenin-1.

OUDAI: For security reasons and for the safety of this process of transferring rockets from outside and the process of producing them I cannot give details. I can say that for the moment we have two series of rockets -- Jenin and 2 and Arafat-1 and 2. The Jenin distance is 3.5 kilometers to 5 kilometers; Jenin 2 is 6 kilometers.

As for our Arafat rockets, I cannot give at this moment much details. All I can say is they will be very much improved in comparison with any other rocket of the Palestinian resistance. The Arafat rockets will prove two things: First, that they can reach every goal we want all over the enemy state. Secondly, it will prove to the Israelis that Arafat's spirit is still alive and that he is continuing to fight the Israelis and to hit them even after his disappearing.

WND: Your group and other terror organizations have credited Israel's security fence with frustrating your ability to carry out suicide bombings, basically because now you cannot get in to carry out the bombings. I assume the fence has no impact whatsoever on your ability to launch rockets.

OUDAI: Correct. An important goal of the rockets is to tell the Israelis that you have built a huge wall on which you spent billions of dollars but still we are hitting you with our rockets and reaching every target we want. This wall will not defend you from our rockets which have defeated your wall and all the security measures you have taken to prevent our attacks.

WND: Will the rockets replace suicide bombings, as some of Hamas' own published studies have predicted?

OUDAI: No, not at all. But the rockets give the Palestinian resistance more options in its struggle.

WND: Israel has threatened an unprecedented military response to rocket launchings from the West Bank. Do you take this threat into consideration?

OUDAI: So far Israel has used all its tools, tanks, aircraft, assassinations, everything it can use and we are still here and still fighting. We do not get excited from these Israeli threats. What can be this unprecedented reaction? They have already tried everything.

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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RELIGION GONE AWRY
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 13, 2006.

Egad, murderous muddled misogynist Muslim martyrs have been diabolically duped by misinterpreted Koranic verses suggesting white grapes to be virgins! Their gospel spews martyrs going to heaven will get "hur" (not her), translated by early commentators in Arabic to mean "virgins". Thus, this entire convoluted version of pornographic prattle promises 72 chaste women waiting and willing to be chased and known by any daring delusional Islamic stud so inclined to perpetrate the most perverted homicidal/suicidal act on his secular planet. However, recent evidence supports the notion that much Koranic verse was of Syriac or Aramaic origin. Alas, in Aramaic hur means "white" commonly used to connote "white grapes". Not to say that such sexually seduced susceptible stooges are averse to small succulent organic edible orbs, but a virginal tryst to them would be so much more divine than any fruit of the vine.

Lest we debate this astounding scholarly discovery with moderate Muslims, fundamentalist philosophers of Jew bashing Wahhabi filth would zealously accuse us of heretical Zionistic propaganda and threaten all who would listen with eternal ignominious damnation (No voluptuous virgins for you!). These literal Islamic minds loathe respectful reasonable enlightened erudite exchanges that do refute the rancorous rot placing an imagined paradise far above secular reality. Earthly females, to them, are but soiled chattel purified only in a posthumous state. Indeed, twisted deluded Koranic images of sensual submissive women in paradise more accurately morphed to grapes would invoke sufficient wrath to figuratively explode their literal perverse Islamic pates asunder, an action metaphorically aligned to the contemptible carnage committed by malevolent martyring Muslim youth fully mesmerized by those ever-preserved virulent virginal verses.

Civilized humankind cannot long tolerate such devolved cerebral function fomented by a hijacked faith, where suggestive female after-life fantasies supersede the innate survival instincts of susceptible souls. Moderate Muslims must vigorously disavow the bizarre blasphemous orthodoxy metastasizing through the bowels of their besieged culture. All females and supporting males need to figuratively and literally lift their veils and denounce the denigrating Wahhabi dogma that besmirches an entire gender as well as threatens the perceived omnipresent infidel. Civil leaders of all lands cannot remain passive when robed rogues ridicule rational existence with the rancid raving born of religion gone awry.

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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PALLBEARERS TO ISRAEL'S GRAVEYARD
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 13, 2006.

Nations and great civilizations have been brought to their knees and finally extinguished by a certain aberrant faction of their citizens. There is a certain defeatist element in all nations who can be identified as those who led the way to the graveyard of nations. Throughout history we see them deliberately undercut their own nation's "defensability" as they convince their fellow citizens that defying adversaries who would conquer and occupy, was a useless effort. They usually start by absorbing the message of their enemies and then take that message, using the local language, to erase away its hostile intent while convincing their fellow citizens that the demands of their adversaries were entirely reasonable.

Like termites, they quietly bore within the pillars that support the nation leaving a thin and solid looking veneer on the surface while the core is eaten away, awaiting collapse.

As I write this article I know today (January 10th) is the day that Jerusalem was breached by her Roman enemies in 70 C.E. with the help of aberrant Jews who fought internally against those Jews who wished to continue defending the City.

Also on this day (January 10th) temporary PM Ehud Olmert, in agreement with the Kadima Party Jumpers, agreed to allow the Arab Muslim Palestinians living in east Jerusalem the right to join the other Arab Muslim Palestinian adversaries the right to vote as if they already had taken over Jerusalem. Once again, Jerusalem is breached and defiled with the assistance of the aberrant Left and Washington. On Sunday night January 8th, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed the forthcoming Palestinian elections on the phone with PA Chairman Abu Mazen. Jerusalem was NOT briefed. However, please note the full DEBKAfile article "Bush Forces Hamas Down Israel's Throat in Jerusalem. Olmert Government is stunned" below. (We do not think Olmert was stunned but, rather that he was a willing collaborator with the Rice-Bush mandate.)

While Olmert, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, among others in Kadima, said they would NOT allow the Terrorist Organizations to campaign in Jerusalem -- in the end, they did. Hamas, the largest of the Muslim Arab Terrorist organization, made its first demonstration inside of Jerusalem while Israeli Police stood by -- mute. Clearly, the supporting pillars of the nation have been deeply bored into by the dovish Left and are thoroughly rotten, now in an advanced state of imminent collapse. One cannot help but be reminded of PM Neville Chamberlain as he subverted the defenses of Britain and Europe as he defended Hitler's territorial demands, and then claimed he had achieved: "Peace in Our Time".

These pall-bearers of nations have been called by many names. The names change but they are always the same defeatist pallbearers of the nation they live in and subvert.

In Israel, they can be seen as the radical Left, sometimes called Peace Now but the names don't matter. These people hate the restraint of Jewish laws and work diligently to weaken the nation's moral fabric while making common cause with hostile Palestinians. The Ten Commandments are mocked and viewed as poison in their daily affairs.

As one indicator, homosexuality -- because its expressly forbidden in Torah Law -- is accepted as a normative way of life, reminiscent of the decadence of Greece and Rome before their collapse. Has Israel grown so accustomed to crooked leaders as role models that voting them back into power is a given? That question can only be answered with a firm "YES!"

Leftist liberal Rabbis in America think nothing of marrying man and man or woman to woman -- despite Torah injunctions that such practices are abominations.

The termites of the Left eat their way up the supporting pillars of the nation's affairs, destroying its institutions even reaching the top leaders. After that, even the most outrageous demands of their most dedicated enemies are cast as "reasonable".

These dedicated enemies tell us, just open the gates of the City (our City) and we will share the peace with you. No need to defend yourselves because all we want is a bit of your Land and we will treat you as brothers. Here the Leftists say, "See! We told you that there can be peace -- so let us open the gates of the City. Let us forget about all the prior wars of pledged annihilation. Let us forget the failed Oslo. Left us forget all the Terror where the children were blown up at pizza restaurants, buses, malls, Pesach Seders, etc...."

"That's all in the past", they say. "Let us ignore the Kassem and Katyusha rockets now being fired from Gaza into Israel because that's only a few bad Palestinian Terrorists. Only a "few" Jews have been killed. We have assurances from Abu Mazen and Condoleezza Rice that, soon they will come to their senses and cease terror."

Peace Now, Shimon Peres, the Left have had secret meetings (as in the past) wherein they had coffee with the most virulent of Terrorists who assured them that This Time they will really deliver peace. Thus Oslo was born and now will be repeated by the "Kadima" jumpers..

But first, Bush and Rice insists that Israel must make a few more gestures to build confidence. Israel must create a Palestinian State to include all the West Bank. Their capital must be East Jerusalem (or as some say, all of Jerusalem). Israel must open up all of her borders to give jobs to the Palestinians and ignore the Terrorists who come in with the workers. Israel must continue to supply water, electricity and allow the Palestinians to have an unrestricted airport and seaport -- also with no security inspections. Rice demands that Israel allow convoys of buses, trucks and cars to flow uninspected from Gaza weapons' supply depots through Israel to Hebron, Ramallah, Tulkarem, Bethlehem, Jenin, Qalqilya, with weapons and Terrorists.

The rotting brain of the Left, carried forward by Peace Now, says these are "small things" to give up for peace -- or the illusion of Peace.

Israel is being carried toward the graveyard of nations in a coffin built by the Left and Peace Now, among others of that ilk, all who have volunteered to be the pallbearers. Their hatred of their own people, the Jews, coupled with their own self-loathing that, even thought they know that they too will go down to the grave they have dug for the nation, it just doesn't matter.

Besides, they have the satisfying accolades of other hostile nations who tell them what a noble sacrifice they are making by pacifying the Arab Muslims -- all for the greater good. Like the Judenrat who were treated a little better, until it was their turn to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Can you imagine the Global Parade grounds, with the nations of the world lined up to form a vast corridor -- as the Leftist pallbearers proudly carry Israel's coffin for permanent interment.

The Europeans (E.U.), the body of nations (U.N.), the American State Department in full regalia along with the French, Germans, the Russians and, of course, the world's Muslims in flowing robes -- all there to honor the mass burial.

Then there is the roll of drums and trumpets as the aberrant Leftist Jewish pallbearers begin to carry the coffin of Israel between the "distinguished" witnesses toward their final resting place. How proud those Jewish pallbearers are, knowing that they alone accomplished what the nations could not over the centuries. They finally reach the burial pit and lower the coffin of Israel into its depths. Then the honor guard of all the attending nations puts a complimentary bullet of honor into the heads of the Leftist pallbearers who tumbled into the pit. Each of the attending leaders of the nations shovels one shovel of dirt over the bodies and the grave is closed.

After, all will retire to drink wine, celebrate and discuss how this now extinct people had served so well and be honored in museums as having made such a noble sacrifice for the "greater good of all". Israel is not the only nation to have its contingent of Leftist defeatists. It's just that Israel seems to have more of the aberrant characters. Perhaps it is because Israel started earlier as Moses allowed the trash of Egypt to join the Exodus of Jews from Egypt, resulting in their quickly reverting to pagan ritual as the Left danced around the Golden Calf. This human trash is, regrettably, still with us.

Conclusion: For those who would regard these conclusions as excessively morbid, I would remind you again of George Santayana's famous quote: "Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it." Therefore, if you realistically look back through the lens of History, you would find that Jewish History is fraught with betrayal by enemies, friends of our enemies and perfidy within our own Jewish people. In every century, we have been attacked, displaced, raped, property confiscated, used by nations to barter our very lives for their profit.

This ubiquitous treatment by other nations and other religions has been so consistent that we cannot afford to trust in the assurances of anyone as to our future safety and sovereignty. We are, at this very moment, repeating the horrible lessons of History, as we rely upon our self-serving friends to usher us through the doors of another slaughter house -- because it benefits them.

IF "Never Again" is happening again through our own choice, then we deserve whatever our enemies intend for us.

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm).

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THE METAMORPHOSIS OF EHUD OLMERT
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 13, 2006.

Clearly, it is time to take a closer look at Ehud Olmert's finances and business deals, particularly those where the names of Dov Weissglas, Prime Minister Sharon and sons appear and cut out deals arranged by the State Department. (The term "cut-out" is a trade-craft (spy) description of using second or third parties to keep your name and identity from public scrutiny.)

George Herbert Walker Bush, Sr. former CIA director could tell you all about it.

A question now is: Has Olmert been bought and paid to switch from Hawk to Dove?

Let us remember that the matter of former PM Ehud Barak accepting illegal money, along with attorney Yitzhak Herzog, has not been resolved. Then, the investigation of the illegal Greek Island Affair where PM Sharon and his son Gilad were involved. Next, consider the illegal front companies set up by Sharon's other son, Omri, who accepted the guilt, saying that his father PM Sharon knew nothing about it. Wednesday January 9th (the day before Sharon's massive stroke) the story broke about a $3 million dollar loan, given to Sharon which may have involved Weissglas with other high ranking Israelis. So let us take a closer look to see if Olmert's hands are in any of these or other such deals.

This article was written by David Bedein and appeared in Arutz Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews.com) January 13, 2006. It is archived at www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=5935

In the early 1990s, Ehud Olmert was the quintessential supporter of hard-line Likud politics.

In 1990, when he was the Minister of Health, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir trotted him out at every possible occasion to defend the Likud and to join forces in standing up to American pressure to conduct unilateral withdrawals. During the debate on the Oslo agreements in the Knesset in 1993, while he was also serving in his first term as the mayor of Jerusalem, Olmert became one of the most articulate orators against the accords with the PLO.

In October 1994, when President Bill Clinton came to Jerusalem, Olmert caused an international incident when he insisted that he accompany Clinton to the Old City of Jerusalem, even though the USA did not recognize Israel's sovereignty there. Olmert stood firm and Clinton had to cancel that visit.

Later on, with the advent of the second Intifada, Olmert supported a hard line of military action against the PLO, and wrote a seminal piece against any appeasement of terror, which was published in the Wall Street Journal on June 2nd, 2002. In that article, Olmert called on the government of Israel to stand up to the American mediators who were trying to force negotiations with the PLO. Olmert went so far as to demand that Israel kill off Yasser Arafat and Muhammad Dahlan.

Less than four years later, a new Ehud Olmert has taken the reigns of power in Israel.

The change in Olmert began to surface shortly before he left his position of mayor of Jerusalem in late 2002, when he was running again for the Knesset. At the time, it was discovered that the Palestinian Authority schoolbooks -- containing a curriculum that inculcates Palestinian schoolchildren with the conviction that Israel has no right to exist (see www.edume.org) -- had been incorporated into the Jerusalem municipal school system.

I asked Olmert about it at a small press conference for the foreign media. His comment: "They can teach what they want, and we will teach what we want." He raised no objection to anti-Semitic teaching in the sovereign school system of the state of Israel.

Assuming a key leadership position under Ariel Sharon in Sharon's second term of office, in March 2003, Olmert became a passionate supporter of the American-sponsored "Road Map" and of Sharon's plan for unilateral withdrawal from Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

Speaking at the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations last February, Olmert explained his sudden support for Sharon's plan as based on what he learned from Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon. Pounding his fist on the podium, Olmert declared that there had been no attacks from Lebanon since Israel pulled its troops out of Lebanon.

As a father of a young combat soldier who was on active duty on Israel's northern border between 2001 and 2004, Olmert's statement surprised me. There were times when my son reported three to five attacks a day on the northern frontier.

I dispatched my assistant to show Olmert the IDF reports, which documented hundreds of attacks from Lebanon since Israel's withdrawal, with 28 people killed as a result of these attacks. Olmert brushed aside the report and repeated his statement that there had been no attacks from the northern border since Israel's withdrawal.

Either Olmert doesn't make shiv'a (condolence) calls or he assumes that no one knows that Israel has been under constant attack since its pullout from Lebanon.

In terms of Olmert's negotiations with the PA, he has been seen meeting with almost every level of the Palestinian Authority, from Mahmoud Abbas to Muhammad Dahlan, acting in the friendliest of manner.

Olmert has not answered questions about the Wall Street Journal article in which he called on the government of Israel to kill off the leadership of the PLO, including Dahlan, whom he then described as a "master terrorist". When I ran into Olmert in the Knesset last year, I asked him if his position on Dahlan is the same as it was when he wrote the article in the Journal. He responded affirmatively and walked on.

This week, Olmert authorized the PA to conduct elections in Jerusalem, and authorized members of the Fatah organization to campaign in Jerusalem, even though the Fatah is defined by Israeli law as an "illegal terrorist organization". And even though Hamas is running in the PA elections, Olmert is allowing these elections to take place in the capital.

One of the leaders of the Likud, Member of Knesset Gideon Saar, spoke on Voice of Israel radio on January 10th and questioned Olmert's judgment, saying, "Olmert's decision to allow the PA to conduct elections in Jerusalem would weaken Israel's claim for sovereignty in Jerusalem and weaken Israel's stance against the legalization of Hamas in other nations."

Olmert does not answer anyone as to why he has made his metamorphosis.

Now, he is running the state of Israel as the caretaker prime minister at the head of Kadima, a political party whose members are from Labor and Likud, but all of whom supported the unilateral withdrawal policies of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. No one knows whether the support for Kadima will fade after Sharon's passing, nor if Olmert will inherit the support that Sharon had until his most recent stroke.

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm).

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SYRIA REVISES REPORT BUT NOT AGGRESSIVE INTENT; ISLAMIST REGRESSION; SELF-CRITICISM, ARAB-STYLE
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 13, 2006.

SYRIA REVISES REPORT BUT NOT AGGRESSIVE INTENT

IMRA asked an official of the Syrian News Agency why its report described Nazareth as in "the occupied W. Bank," when the city is in the original State of Israel. As a result, the agency changed its description to "occupied by Israel in 1948" (IMRA, 12/31).

Since the Arabs consider all of Israel "occupied," Israelis who think they can trade land for peace with the Arabs, and who try to appease them by going along with the incorrect notion that Judea-Samaria are occupied, are deceiving themselves and others. The Arabs are in a jihad, which means taking all sovereignty away from non-believers. They will not make genuine or lasting peace, but will fight-and-talk until one side prevails.

ISLAMIST REGRESSION

Some of the discriminatory and brutal practices of Islam had mostly petered out. The Islamists wish to return to them. Two such practices are slavery (still practiced in some parts) and the special tax on non-believers. Hamas is looking forward to imposing upon Christians and other infidels this punitive tax that signifies second-class citizenship. In Malaysia, the imposition of second-class citizenship keeps non-believers from testifying against court action taken against them. Imagine the consternation of the Hindu family that had to watch helplessly as a relative was buried as a Muslim, because some fellow officers of the deceased claimed he had converted to Islam! (Pipes #634, 12/30.)

In their drive to revert to 7th century ways, the Muslims would undo much of mankind's social progress. The tax could complete the ouster of Christians from the Mideast. It is bad enough that Islamists want to live in a benighted way, but worse that they insist on dragging everyone else down. They call this a religion, making it semi-respectable. Its evils, such as slavery and misogyny, make it the enemy of mankind, including Muslims.

U.S. CONSULATES IN JERUSALEM

The US consulate in western Jerusalem has ample parking places but does not offer regular consular services. The US consulate in eastern Jerusalem does offer regular consular services, but has almost no parking spaces. Neither does it allow strollers, although most of the tens of thousands of Americans there are religious Jews with large families. Almost the entire staff that serves the Jews are Arabs, including the security guards. The only reading matter in the waiting area is in Arabic. The wanted posters of terrorists, all Arab, are kept out of sight of most visitors. The political prejudice of the consulate is apparent (Op. Cit.). Is there job discrimination, too?

Presidential policy is not to recognize Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, western or eastern parts. Contrary to US law, the US Embassy stays in Tel Aviv, which is not the capital of the country. The US calls itself a government of law, but in this matter, the President is held above the law. Would a suit to enforce this law win?

PRESCRIPTION FOR REFORMING ISLAM

The Islamists must be defeated militarily, before moderate Muslims can reform Muslim society and religion. "Islamic democracy" is a euphemism for non-democracy. Ethnic power-sharing is of secondary importance. What is needed is modernizing Islam and Islamic law and its reach and jihad (Pipes #634, 12/30).

Good for Mr. Pipes, identifying the Muslim euphemism for what pretends to be a form of democracy. The Muslim pretense would get short shrift from an honest and alert media, if the West had one. Our government ought to consult Pipes rather than the succession of Assistant Secretaries of State, who don't understand the issues.

How to defeat the Islamists militarily? The US lacks a plan, at least publicly, and its coddling of Palestinian Arab Islamists undermines the goal of one.

Mankind is adrift. China is scheming cleverly for its old imperialism, which it doesn't need for prosperity. The West is dissolving in secularist hedonism. The Muslim world finds Western ways but not materiel unattractive, so is anchoring itself in basic Islam, from which it had begun emancipating itself and with which it seeks to enslave mankind.

ARAB SELF-CRITICISM

Among the Arabs, there is much soul-searching. "Arab News" has this, among other notes: -- Religious leaders are not immune from the virus of hypocrisy. Many call for jihad but won't go or send their own kids to fight in Iraq; collect money for charities but won't pay themselves; preach modesty while their egos are over inflated and supersensitive, and criticize corruption and bite off more than they can chew.?

"The rich and powerful are politicians by nature. For them, perception is more important than reality. Beware when they preach social duties and responsibilities. What they really mean and care about is what their country and society can do to make them more rich and powerful. ..." (IMRA, 1/1.)

Don't be beguiled by that reformer. What he seeks is unity in behalf of a more dedicated and powerful jihad, the better to kill us.

HOW TO STOP ROCKET ATTACKS

These are the ways to stop rocket attacks from the P.A.: (1) Invasion by ground forces; (2) Heavy artillery barrage, including the civilian areas in which the terrorists cynically emplace some rocket launchers; and/or (3) Economic blockade or withdrawal, which would inflict pain sufficient to deter. Israel has no obligation to be "nice" to Arabs trying to destroy it, but is reluctant to do any of those (IMRA, 1,1), because its own Quislings and foreign gentiles, who don't care what happens to Israel, would object. Being at war, economic withdrawal is long overdue. It is stupid to pay P.A. workers. Leftists think that prosperity makes peace, but actually it strengthens war-making.

FREE SPEECH FUROR

The editor of Denmark's main newspaper heard that Danish cartoonists were afraid to illustrate a children's book about Muhammad. Seeking to break this new mold of self-censorship in a country famous for free speech, he displayed a cartoon of the Prophet with a bomb in his turban. Muslims protested all over the world, and issued death threats against the artists. The ones in Denmark claimed that he was radicalizing their youth, some of whom attend radical mosques and were arrested for plotting terrorism to be committed in Bosnia. The UNO condemned the cartoon as a provocation, but the editor claimed it fell within the bounds of freedom of speech and was not insulting. Police protection did not suffice, and then he had to flee the country (IMRA, 1/1). Minority rule?

Has the UNO condemned the many imams and Arab broadcasters calling for murder?

Muhammad was a leader both in declaiming the faith and in leading military forces in its behalf. It therefore merely recognizes his military prowess and inclination, to depict him as a jihadist -- he invented jihad. The Muslims, however, decry factual description of their program as a provocation, insult, or blasphemy. Denunciation is their way of argumentation and of undermining self-defense against them. They pretend to be mistreated in a bigoted way, because the West can be manipulated by accusations of bigotry or racism. Is it not bigoted of the their sermons to call Jews "sons of apes and pigs," urge annihilation of Christians, and call Muslims who don't wish to go so far, blasphemers? If the cartoon were libel, let them sue, not threaten murder!

Whom do you think radicalizes Danish Muslims: the editor or the imam? I think that first comes the Muslim culture, then its radicalization, as by the mosque financed by Libya, then an understandable native reaction to it, then the unfair Islamist reaction.

FUTILE EXPECTATION OF P.A.

PM Sharon decided that nothing can be done with the P.A., so he would make unilateral territorial decisions. (Unfortunately, to him, "unilateral" means solely by himself. When a leader makes all the decisions himself, people usually call it a dictatorship. I would call it egotistical folly.)

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights is busy these days complaining about criminal anarchy, asserting that it holds the P.A. accountable, and demanding that the P.A. marshal its forces to stop the kidnapping and assaults. Unlike Sharon, it has not given up on the P.A. It should have. The P.A. does not control its own forces. Outside agencies must have spent millions "reforming" P.A. security forces, without apparent result. What does the PCHR think it is accomplishing?

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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WHOSE FAULT?
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 13, 2006.

It should be remembered that irrespective of all the cultural, historical and religious ties and similarities between Israel and America or Europe, their economic and military interests are better served by cooperating with the Arabs. True, hatred of Jews play a significant role in their pro-Arab orientation but that is not the whole picture nor necessarily the most significant one.

Nations and especially empires have their needs and interests. While America has a certain emotional and ideological preference towards "fellow democracies" and free market economy countries, this has not stopped its abandonment of Taiwan in favor of Communist China, its support for authoritarian regimes around the world nor its now open abandonment of Israel in favor of the Arabs.

While it is certainly true that American pressure to advance American interests has played a pivotal and destructive role to Israeli interests, it has been Israel's ruling elite that has agreed to and often initiated that pressure. They have done so because it was in their own perceived, best interests, if not necessarily in the best interest of their fellow Israelis. The willingness and often enthusiasm that the elites here have shown in advancing American and Arab interests over the years has been nothing short of treasonous.

Unlike the Americans or Europeans in which hatred of Jews is mixed together with their various economic, political and military needs, Israel's elite has been motivated purely by its hatred of Jews and anything Jewish. Even the most greedy or Quisling of America's puppet regimes has never requested or encouraged the arming of its enemies, the destruction of its historical or cultural shrines or willingly relinquished sovereignty over its own historical territory.

The true villains are in Israel not America.

Below is IMRA's Weekly Commentary for January 12, 2006: Bush's support for Sharon was mostly rhetoric," http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=28138

It was written by Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis) (email: imra@netvision.net.il, mail: POB 982 Kfar Sava). It is called "Clarification to IMRA: Armed Fatah can campaign in Jerusalem." It is archived at http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=28138

U.S. President Bush is certainly trying to tell the Israeli public to vote for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Kadima Party, but the Bush team's actions have been anything but supportive.

Ask the families of Israelis who have literally "died to please Bush" as time and again the Sharon team reduced vital Israeli security measures at the insistence of the White House.

The Bush team's rhetoric has been anti-Palestinian terror, but the Bush team supports the Palestinian Authority's (PA) proposal to put even the most radical and dangerous Palestinian terror cells on the PA's payroll. President Bush may talk about disarming the terrorists, but in the very same breath he praises plans to train and arm them as cops.

The Bush team's rhetoric has been to respect and support Israel's vital interests, but the Bush team pressed Israel to agree to the precedent setting arrangement at Rafah that gives the Palestinians the right to not only grant free passages to terrorists but also the final say on the movement of weapons and explosives across the border. If the Palestinian inspectors insist that the anti-aircraft missile in a box is an umbrella, and PA officials back the claim, then under the Bush team brokered deal, the missile goes through as an umbrella.

Yes, the Bush team has at times "allowed" Israel to drag its feet on the implementation of various commitments that it has imposed on Israel, from delineating a final stranglehold on the settlement blocs that the Sharon team claims Washington accepts to irreversibly removing vital security arrangements. But at each step of the way these commitments have been carefully recorded -- leaving it up to Washington to decide when and where to call these debts.

The Bush team's rhetoric has been for a strong Israel, but its arms policy has been to dangerously strengthen Israel's neighbors as it intentionally handicaps Israel defense industries in order to give a leg up for their American competitors.

The Bush and Sharon teams hope that Israeli voters will be impressed by the photo-ops and ignore the substance.

For Israel's sake, let's hope they are wrong.

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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THE CORPSE PRIME MINISTER
Posted by Shmuel Neumann, Ph.D., January 13, 2006.

A Corpse Bride, an animated farcical horror flick, illustrates how many a truth is said in jest. Ariel Sharon was first reported dead and then placed on life support. In Orwellian newspeak, the doctors consistently repeat Sharon's condition remains unchanged, critical but stable. In the bizarre police state of Israel one Prime Minister was assassinated by his secret service, and now another Prime Minister 'only' clinically dead just refuses to give up the fiefdom. In fact, he continues to dominate the media and the government although he is dead, but doesn't know it.

A pliable sort-of-dead Sharon is the answer to everyone's dream, especially those that pressured him to give up Gaza and northern Shomron under threat of jailing his two sons. He gave them what they wanted but they wanted more, the whole Judea and Samaria. With his two sons going to jail despite his concessions, and Sharon himself facing jail time, as Kern gave additional information to the police while visiting Israel, Sharon finally exploded, or at least his brain did. While his body is kept functioning, he is dead but not buried for political reasons He is a Corpse Prime Minister whose malevolent intentions are perpetuated.

Now the Corpse Prime Minister has already reversed himself on the issue of Palestinian elections in Jerusalem. He now not only allows it, but will permit Hamas to campaign in Jerusalem. He is prepared to bury the hatchet.

The Corpse Prime Minister has also reversed himself on further unilateral disengagements. Killing time, he ordered the disengagement of a neighborhood in Hebron, and neighborhoods of Ofra, Yitzhar, Baracha, Elon Moreh and Nevei Daniel.

The Corpse Prime Minister has gotten tough on settlers who obstruct demolition of Jewish homes and ordered using tear gas and pepper gas on Jewish youth. And I thought only Germans were authorized to gas Jews!

The Corpse Prime Minister is dead set against Jews who want to live on land legally purchased. In his haste to escalate the disengagement from Judea, he ordered his Yassam animals to smash heads, particularly of youth who dare demonstrate against this insanity. After all, why should he be alone in suffering a coma?

The Corpse Prime Minister, under a shroud of secrecy, is actively campaigning and has garnered the number one slot of the Kadima party although he did not sign the papers before he was unable to. That technicality is no deterrent to the Corpse Prime Minister.

The Corpse Prime Minister has gotten tough on tree abusers. To make an example of someone who may some day abuse a tree, the Corpse Bride ordered all the dogs removed from the Kfar Tappuach kennel. After all, there are insufficient fire hydrants in Shomron and the dogs may heaven forbid "fertilize" a tree.

The Corpse Prime Minister expects to close a deal with the elected Palestinian officials right after the January elections. It makes no difference if Hamas wins. After all you make Peace with your enemies. By switching hats they remain enemies and continue to get painful concessions as all previous agreements were dead ends.

The Corpse Prime Minister had a brainstorm and now recognizes that 2,000 Iraqi shells laden with Anthrax and Sarin are stored in underground facilities in the Beka Valley give Israel no choice, but to surrender the Golan and part of the Kinerret. He has gotten down to earth.

The Corpse Prime Minister will finally succeed in foreign relations as he no longer can be humiliated by foreign statesmen. He will now take a funereal approach in considering their demands as he is immune to their threats. After dead, what could be worse?

The Corpse Prime Minister will finally lead by example. From now on, everyone injured by a terrorist attack will be brought to the decomposing dictator and will feel grateful to be alive although forever disfigured, maimed and disabled.

The Corpse Prime Minister finally put a stop to those whining homeless Jews he threw out of Gaza and Northern Samaria. Sure they are still homeless, but are not in as bad a shape as he is.

The Corpse Prime Minister has nothing to lose, so next time there is a war it is a fight to the death. He informed his aides "Any further negotiations will be over my dead body."

I hear that he is organizing a Corpse Party.

Deadweights from every political party are welcome.

No undertaking is too low.

Apply to Box Number.

I hear everybody is dying to join.

So.

Kadima.

Contact Shmuel Neumann, Ph.D. at samuelfm@netvision.net.il See also www.pachad.homestead.com and www.sheretz.homestead.com

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THE MONSTROUS INVERSION
Posted by Gary S., January 13, 2006.

This is from South African Zionist Federation, "Hasbarah Update," Vol 1, Number 4: 12 January 2006, http://www.sazionfed.co.za. It is an excerpt from Leo McKinstry's article, London Daily Express (6 Jan 2006)

In a remarkable inversion of reality, Israel has become a pariah state because of its determination to defend itself. A grotesque double standard now operates, where murderous Arab terrorists are hailed as "freedom fighters," yet Israeli security forces are treated as fascistic thugs. No nation has been more demonised than Israel. One recent survey across Europe revealed that Israel is now regarded as "the greatest threat" to world peace, an utter absurdity given that Israel is actually the only democratic, free society in the Middle East. But such a finding reflects the strength of the hysterical anti-Israeli propaganda that fills the airwaves of Europe. No matter how much this anti Israeli feeling is dressed up as support for Palestine, it is in fact profoundly anti-Semitic. Questioning the right of the Jewish people to their own homeland, muttering about the influence of the "Zionist lobby" on US foreign policy or cheering on the vicious terror group Hamas amounts to racial prejudice against Jews.

The tragedy is that antisemitism masquerading as "anti-Zionism" is poisoning the civic culture of Britain and Europe. Earlier this week, the Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks spoke of "a tsunami of hate" sweeping through the continent, with synagogues attacked and Jewish schools burnt to the ground. In Britain alone, the number of antisemitic attacks recorded by the police in 2004 rose to 532, compared to 260 in 1999. Because of the obsession with the supposed iniquities of Israel, casual antisemitism is tolerated in British public life in a way that would apply to no other ethnic minority.

So, in the field of education, university professors organise a boycott of Israeli academics. BBC cultural critic Tom Paulin publicly calls for American Jewish settlers on the West Bank to be shot dead yet is allowed to carry on working at the corporation, while former presenter Robert Kilroy-Silk loses his programme for making far less inflammatory comments about Arabs.

Traditionally, antisemitism in Britain was a feature of the far-Right, most notoriously in the British Union of Fascists. But because of the modern hatred of Israel, it is now driven by an unholy alliance of leftwingers and Muslims. The Left may make a fetish of antiracism in Africa but abandons all such concerns where the Jewish state is involved. Even more disturbing has been the malign influence of Islamic extremism and the ingrained Arab hatred of Israel that has been imported into Britain through mass immigration. Disgracefully, so-called Muslim moderates have refused to join in Holocaust Day ceremonies because they say they find the event "offensive" since it only recognises Jewish victims of Nazi oppression.

Our political system has also been tainted by this obscene kind of racism. In the 2005 general election, the bullying leftwinger George Galloway won Bethnal Green from the black Labour MP Oona King, who was attacked by many local Muslim residents not only for her support for the Iraq war but also her Jewish parentage. Similarly, in Rochdale, the sitting Labour MP Lorna Fitzsimmons was thrown out after a local Muslim group circulated a leaflet that stated, wrongly, that she was "Jewish." Her defeat represented a shameful triumph for naked sectarianism. Muslims have undoubtedly been behind the rise in violent attacks on Jews, yet, because of political correctness, this has remained hidden. In 2003 the EU suppressed a German report which showed that Arab gangs across Europe were largely responsible for the surge in antisemitic violence. That finding did not fit with the EU's political agenda, which pretends that only whites are capable of racial prejudice.

The great irony is that the governments of Europe have this problem because of our obsession with so-called racial tolerance. As a consequence of the institutional fixation with race, inspired by the terror of any repeat of Nazism in Europe, there has been a reluctance to challenge Muslim mass immigration. So, in the name of antiracism, we now have in our midst a vast Islamic culture which possesses an instinctive hostility to Judaism. We cannot go on denying this because that road will only lead to more suffering and oppression.

But Britain is indeed denying precisely this.

Contact the poster at ahavat@telkomsa.net

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TWO ARTICLES THAT EXPLAIN MUCH
Posted by Max Yas, January 12, 2006.

Two articles that speak for themselves.

Both present an answer as to what infidels (non-Muslims) may expect if the radical, fundamentalist Muslims attain their goal of a world-wide caliphate.

It also poses this question: Why is there no in-depth factual coverage of Muslim acts of terror against Christians in Western and Muslim countries? Is it because confronting the reality of these acts would force us to think, to reflect and to act with more courage than we have shown so far as a human collectivity?

The first is called "The Epidemic of Ethnic Rape," by Sharon Lapkin, which appeared on Front Page Magazine.com December 27, 2005. It can read by clicking here.

This is the second one. It is called "US Archbishop Candid About Islamic Persecution Of Christians," and is by Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST Ministries.

WASHINGTON, DC (ANS) -- Archbishop Charles Chaput, of the diocese of Denver, broke free from politically correct restrictions to speak openly about growing Moslem persecution of Christians, in an address to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, of which he is a member. So wrote Gudrun Schultz in a recent story carried on LifeSiteNews.com.

In his story, Schultz quoted Archbishop Chaput as saying, Anti-Christian discrimination and violence seem to be growing throughout the Islamic world. In the past several years, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and even Moslem-controlled areas of the heavily Catholic Philippines have all seen extraordinary acts of bloodshed against Christians.

He went on to say, The Archbishop expressed his concern over consistent lack of media attention given to acts of violence against Christians.

Schultz quoted the Archbishop as saying, Three things distinguish anti-Christian persecution and discrimination around the world. First, its ugly. Second, its growing. And third, the mass media generally ignore or downplay its gravity.

Archbishop Chaput referred to media coverage of recent bloody persecution in Indonesia of the Christian minority, by Moslem extremists, as an example of media inaccuracy and neglect. News reports tend to describe Indonesia's violence as generically sectarian, as if Moslem and Christian extremists were mutually responsible.

This is troubling and flatly false, said Archbishop Chaput. The bloodshed is overwhelmingly provoked and carried out by Islamic militants against the Christian minority. Over the past decade, hundreds of thousands of persons have been displaced and thousands killed in this anti-Christian campaign of violence.

Schultz then said, The attacks referred to by the Archbishop included the beheading of three Christian teen-age girls in late October by Moslem extremists, on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia.

The Archbishop ended his address with a warning that localized acts of violence against Christians by extremists threaten relationships between Christians and Muslims worldwide, something neither community of faith can afford.

Contact Max Yas at maxyas@victoria.tc.ca

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COURAGE UNDER FIRE: PAT ROBERTSON ISN'T PLAYING SOME PERNICIOUS POLITICAL GAME
Posted by Marcel Cousineau, January 12, 2006.

This was written by Stan Goodenough of Jerusalem Newswire, www.jnewswire.com/library/article.php?articleid=942

"Instructive" is a good word for describing the reaction to Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) President Pat Robertson's remarks about the stroke that incapacitated Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last week.

Certainly it took immense courage of conviction for an influential man like the former candidate for the American presidency to say something he knew would enrage many people and put ammunition into the hands of his avowed enemies, and to nonetheless say it because he believes it is true, and because his conscience directs him to do so.

He had something of a trial run a few months ago when he came out in support of the idea that the USA assassinate Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez.

But when Robertson expressed his views about Sharon just that this past week, hell itself seemed to unleash its fury against him.

Speaking on his flagship program, "The 700 Club," Robertson said that God had removed Sharon from power because of the prime minister's expressed determination to redraw Israel's borders and give away great chunks of the nation's historic homeland.

Sharon had been dividing God's land, Robertson said. "And I would say woe unto any Prime Minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the EU, the United Nations, or the United States of America. God says 'this land belongs to me. You'd better leave it alone.'"

Interestingly, godless people often judge the motives of God-fearing men and women in a negative light; presuming that they revel in the suffering or discomfort of those who do not believe.

Thus, while nothing in Robertson's demeanor, expression or tone of voice suggested that he felt anything but compassion and concern for Sharon, his words triggered a tsunami of outrage that has yet to subside.

A columnist in The Jerusalem Post (January 11, 2006) declared that Robertson had been "gloating over Sharon's collapse."

The same edition of the Post labeled Robertson a "PM Basher" and reported that the Israeli Tourism Ministry had, in reaction to the comments, cancelled a multi-million dollar joint tourism project for which CBN was to be one of the chief fundraisers.

CBS News described Robertson's remarks as "stinging."

The self-styled People for the American Way -- a group that denies the Christian origins of the United States and champions that country's surrender to secularism -- lashed out at Robertson's "insensitivity and arrogance."

Ynetnews' "Christian" Arab commentator Ray Hanania called Robertson an "American racist," a "demagogue" who was "worse than Islamic extremists."

Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention told the Los Angeles Times he was "appalled that Pat Robertson would make such statements... he arrogance of the statement shocks me almost as much as the insensitivity of it."

The executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Reverend Barry Lynn, accused Robertson of "making callous political points while a man is struggling for his life."

The Anti Defamation League's Abraham Foxman said Robertson's remarks were "un-Christian and a perversion of religion."

Even the White House was embarrassed, calling Robertson's statements: "wholly inappropriate and offensive" and saying they "really don't have a place in this or any other debate."

We strongly differ with the Bush administration on that one. How the Almighty feels about the international effort to steal Israel's land has a very definite place in the debate. It's a major topic in His Word.

A friend of mine says that, to know what is important to God, just look at where the devil is directing his attacks; to know what Satan fears and loathes, identify the focal point of his hatred and rage.

All this anger is being aimed at Robertson for one primary reason: He told the truth (and yes, he told it in love), and the truth hurt.

Robertson's words were not an attack on Sharon. He was not kicking an already injured man. He was not wishing for the prime minister's death or saying the stroke "served him right."

The Christian broadcaster was alerting any future Israeli leader, and any American leader too, to the divinely-ordained consequences of dividing up the land of Israel.

And he was expressing the conviction held by many Christians, as well as by many Jews in Israel.

But what about the timing of Robertson's remarks?

Among those who agree that God did intervene to stop Sharon from implementing his policies, some have opined that Robertson should not have spoken out so soon after the stroke. For a variety of reasons they would have preferred it if he had perhaps waited for a little while before saying anything.

One wonders how successful Moses would have been in winning freedom for his people if he had waited for injured bodies and raw emotions to heal before appealing yet again to Pharaoh to let his people go.

Had Moses waited respectfully for the mourning and burial of Egypt's first born to be over before demanding the Israelites' release, they would never have been set free. As it was, within hours of burying his own son, Pharaoh was in hot, vengeful pursuit of the just-emancipated slaves.

Sometimes it is important and most effective to strike while the iron is still hot.

Putting a hand to the division of the Land of Israel is not some irrelevant political action that could be forgotten or re-addressed in a few weeks or months.

It is a potentially deadly business that demands a quick and forthright response.

Why deadly? Because those committed to creating "two states for two people" out of the Jewish people's patrimony are actively (and in some cases it can be strongly argued, purposefully) pushing the nation of Israel down the road to destruction.

Whether being driven by US President George W. Bush or Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, ancient and recent history solidly attest to the fact that this vision endangers the very existence of Israel's Jews, who themselves comprise the remnant of those who, within living memory, were mass-murdered on the European continent.

God will not sit still while this continues. He is furious with the nations, and has resolved to deal with those who so threaten His own.

Every good citizen of God's Kingdom should proclaim this truth from the rooftops, echoing Robertson when he said:

"Woe to any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the EU, the United Nations, or the United States of America."

Thanks to the wide reach of CBN, and the incensed response to what Robertson said, this warning has now been proclaimed around the globe.

Whoever wants to hear it will hear it. None who reject it will be able to say: "We were not warned; we did not know."

May God honor Pat Robertson, who has kept his vow never to turn his back on Israel or to abandon her.

Identifying the diplomatic process that means to establish an enemy Arab state on Israel's land, he spoke out of love for the Jewish people and out of concern for their wellbeing.

To have done anything less would have been a betrayal of his beliefs. Any true friend of Israel's should see this, applaud it, and emulate it.

Contact Marcel Cousineau by email at up2zionsg8@yahoo.com or go to his website http://averyheavystone.blogspot.com

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POLITICAL RIGHTS
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 12, 2006.

This comes from Manhigut Yehudit and is entitled "Allow Jerusalem Arabs to Vote in PA Elections."

They make a good point but will there be a follow through? The "Left" is notorious for its selective morality and ethics. The only consistent principle they have is that if it is bad for the Jews, they favor it.

At first glance, the above headline might strike our readers as being out of line with Manhigut's goals. But when we put the Arab's demand to vote in the PA elections in the proper perspective, we understand that it is actually a concept shattering solution to a quandary that has been plaguing Israel for years.

The demands of the Left and the Arabs to allow Jerusalem Arabs to vote for the parliament in Gaza generated a knee-jerk reaction from the Right, asserting that allowing Jerusalem's Arabs to vote further compromises Israel's sovereignty in the capitol. This Right wing reflex is based on the simple and generally correct logic that if the Left demands something, it is going to be bad for the Jews. But this time, the Left has unwittingly revealed a weak point in its decades old argument against declaring sovereignty on Judea, Samaria and Azzah.

The reasoning behind the Left's demands to allow Jerusalem's Arabs to vote for the Palestinian parliament is essentially an admission of the legitimacy of separation of human rights from political rights. The Left has always argued that although Jerusalem's Arabs hold Israeli citizenship they are not allowed to vote for the Knesset. As a result, they now demand that they be allowed to actualize their political rights -- if not in Israel, then within an alternative political framework.

Israel has not annexed the territories it liberated in the Six Day War for only one reason: It was considered a fact that annexation would require granting the Arabs of Judea, Samaria and Azzah the right to vote in Israeli elections. Separation between human rights and political rights seemed then to be undemocratic and illegitimate.

The fact that Jerusalem's Arabs will be allowed to vote in the Palestinian elections makes this argument irrelevant. Extending Israeli sovereignty over a given area does not imply the automatic right to vote in Israeli elections. It is legitimate and democratic that the Arabs who live in these areas will actualize their political rights in the Palestinian parliament, or in any other Arab parliament.

This is a breakthrough precedent that even the Left supports. The ideological factor that prevents the annexation of the liberated areas of the Land of Israel no longer exists.

Instead of capitalizing on this precedent, the Right is reacting with the same old, narrow cliches, stating that allowing the Arabs to vote compromises Israel's sovereignty in Jerusalem. Our sovereignty in Jerusalem is not compromised as a result of elections that come once in ten years. We surrendered our sovereignty in Jerusalem just four hours after we liberated the Temple Mount and removed the Israeli flag from the top of the Dome of the Rock. We surrender our sovereignty in Jerusalem to the Moslem waqf at every moment of every day, even prohibiting Jewish prayer on the site most holy to Judaism. Facing these facts will be an important step toward truly restoring Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem.

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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VENEZUELA AND IRAN: PORTAL TO TERROR ATTACKS ON THE USA
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 12, 2006.

Dear Mr. President,

The President of the Venezuelan Cultural Legation in Iran tells us, in no uncertain terms, that Venezuela is violating the Monroe Doctrine.

By offering Venezuela as the "...portal through which Iran can enter Latin America", he has quite literally invited the USA's most dangerous (and soon to be nuclear) enemy onto our very doorstep.

Such an invitation could not be made except with the complete support of another of our very dangerous enemies: Hugo Chavez.

With tens of thousands of Arab and Iranian terrorists already in Venezuela and the tri-border region, and with hundreds of these terrorists entering our country monthly via our pourous Mexican border, future expanded cooperation between Venezuela and Iran can mean only one thing: facilitated and expanded terror infiltration into the USA and attacks against the USA from within or from our Latin American neighbors.

With Iran's plans to expand its quest for nuclear capacities in the very near future, the Venezuelan cooperation to serve as Iran's base of operations for action against the USA poses a very serious threat...perhaps even a nuclear threat.

What do you plan do to about this?

http://www.irna.ir/es/news/view/menu-300/0601125241002544.htm

Presidente de Legado Cultural: "Venezuela es el portal para que Irán entre en América Latina"

Teherán, Irán. IRNA. 11 de enero de 2006 Nacional. Política.

El vicepresidente del Gobierno y presidente de la Organización de Legado Cultural y Turismo de Irn, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, se ha entrevistado con el viceministro de Exteriores venezolano, Alcides Rondón, a quien ha dicho que "Venezuela es la puerta de entrada de Irán en América Latina y que ambos países tienen la intención de impulsar sus relaciones bilaterales al máximo."

[dml transl: The (Iranian) government's vice-president and president of the Organization of the cultural and tourist delegation of Iran, Isfandiar Rahim Mashai, has been interviewed (on Iranian TV) with the Venezuelan vice-minister of the Exterior, Alcides Rondon, to whom he said: "Venezuela is the port of entry for Iran into Latin America" and "both countries have the intention of expanding to the maximum their bilateral relations". ]

Rahim Mashai calificó de "lógicas, correctas y hacia la perfección" las políticas de Teherán y Caracas y declaró: "Las presiones ilógicas y prepotentes no tendrán en el futuro ninguna influencia en ningún país, como por ejemplo sobre Venezuela e Irán, ya que la retórica que se basa en intenciones imperialistas no tendrán ningún lugar en el futuro."

[dml transl: Rahim Mashai described as "logical, correct, and moving toward perfection" the politics of Teheran and Caracas, and he declared: "the illogical and arrogant pressures (I wonder whose illogical and arrogant pressures he is talking about? dml rhetorical question) will not, in the future, have any influence in any country...such as for example in Venezuela and in Iran, and (that) the rhetoric which is based upon imperialistic intentions will have no place in the future" (I wonder whose putative 'imperialistic' intentions he is referring to? dml rhetorical question)].

Rahim Mashai hizo referencia a la cooperación de los dos países en los sectores de la tecnología, la economía y la política, y señaló que "en los campos del turismo, cine y otros sectores culturales y artísticos, Irán y Venezuela tienen que ampliar su cooperación."

[dml transl: Rahim Mashai made referrence to the two countries' cooperation in the sectors of technology, economics and politics, and (he) indicated that "in the arenas of tourism, film, and other cultural and artistic sectors, Iran and Venezuela need to amplify their cooperation".]

Rondón está participando como invitado especial en las actividades culturales de la ciudad de Isfahán, que ha sido elegida como capital cultural del mundo musulmán 2006.

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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SEND CONDOLENCES TO RUSSIAN VICTIMS OF TERROR
Posted by Naomi Ragen, January 12, 2006.
Friends,

Below a letter from an eyewitness to the atrocity in Moscow, where a hate-filled, drunk anti-Semite stabbed worshippers in the Chabad Synagogue in Moscow. If you'd like to send your condolences and best wishes to the community, send to berkowitz@fjc.ru

Naomi

Dear Friends,

Yesterday an anti-Semitic man forced his way into the Chabad Bolshaya Bronnaya Synagogue in the center of Moscow and mercilessly stabbed eight people with the intention to kill them simply because they are Jews.

I was present at the horrible scene of blood and carnage, but what I want to remember is the site of the bravery and courage of Yosef Kogan, the 18-year old son of the Synagogue's Rabbi Yitzchak Kogan, who wrestled the knife-wielding attacker to the ground and held him there until police detained him. As a result, Yosef saved many lives. Thank G-d that all of the victims are now receiving treatment in local hospitals and we continue to pray for their full recovery.

I want to thank many of you who took the time to call and write e-mails to show your concern and solidarity. It means very much to us that people of good will around the world and in Russia are united with us in combating the scourge of anti-Semitism.

Today I am very sad because of what happened, but it has strengthened our resolve to continue our efforts in providing a life support to the reviving Jewish Community of Russia and beyond.

We keep the images of over 200,000 Jews across the FSU celebrating Chanukah with us just two weeks ago as a guidepost for the freedoms we must work so hard to protect. We will work together with civil society, law enforcement agencies, the Russian government and concerned citizens to never allow such manifestations of evil to ever occur again.

Sincerely,

Avraham Berkowitz
Executive Director
Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS If you would like to follow the developments of this story visit www.fjc.ru
(http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=aazo9rbab.0.faf67zaab.y5debzaab.302 0&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fjc.ru)

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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A MOST REMARKABLE PHOTO
Posted by Zalmi Unsdorfer, January 12, 2006.

Lt. Laurie Zimmet, serving for the US Navy Intelligence in Baghdad, Iraq, organized a Chanukah Festival and Menorah Kindling inside the Al Faw Palace, the former palace of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. Zimmet is a member of Chabad of the Conejo. In a facility built by an evil man of an evil regime, the light of Chanukah shined bright. "A victory for the light of goodness over darkness", said Rabbi Moshe Bryski, Laurie's Rabbi. "We are all so proud of her."

Contact the poster at Zalmi@zalmi.net or go to his website: http://zalmi.blogspot.com

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US INTERVENES IN ISRAELI ELECTIONS: ADMINISTRATION BACKS OLMERT
Posted by Hillel Fendel, January 12, 2006.

Acting PM Olmert has been invited to visit Washington next month, and a PA newspaper reports that the U.S. has asked the PA and Arab countries to make Olmert-supporting gestures.

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has replaced Ariel Sharon as the Kadima Party's prime ministerial candidate, is to visit Washington in February, just a month before Israel's national elections. Visits of this type invariably add to the invitee's stature in the perception of Israel's domestic public, and this will therefore help Olmert as the elections approach.

Olmert is also expected to become Israel's Prime Minister in the coming days, when Attorney General Menachem Mazuz declares that Sharon has become permanently incapacitated.

In addition, the U.S. has informed the PA and Arab countries that Olmert's stature must be strengthened as the elections approach in order that he "continue the process that Sharon started." So reports the PA's Arabic-language Al-Manar newspaper.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice issued a statement last night, commending Olmert on his apparent decision to permit eastern Jerusalem Arabs to participate in the PA elections later this month.

Most reports do not note that the Israeli decision stipulates that Hamas ballots will not be allowed into the Jerusalem post offices in which the voting will take place. Olmert informed Rice of this on Tuesday. In any event, the Israeli decision must be finalized at Sunday's Cabinet meeting.

Rice, in her statement praising Olmert's decision, stated the United States' view that there is no place in the political process for groups or individuals who espouse violence and reject Israel's right to exist. "To participate in a peace process of Israelis and Palestinians," she said, " the Palestinian partner must at least accept Israel's right to exist. To implement agreements on movement and access for the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian partner must be committed to preventing violence."

The Al-Manar newspaper reported that the U.S. is conducting secret contacts with the Palestinian Authority and Arab countries in an effort to have them help strengthen Olmert's stature. The U.S. informed them that it is interested in having Olmert head Kadima and "continue the process that Sharon began to solve the Palestinian-Israel conflict." The paper further reports that the Americans feel that Olmert is a "smart leader who will be able, with his advisors, to lead the peace process and rebuff the political machinations against him."

The U.S. even informed Olmert, according to the paper, that it would like him to keep Sharon's advisors on his team, especially Dov Weisglass and Shimon Peres.

Hillel Fendel is Senior News Editor at Arutz-Sheva.

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THREE EX TERRORISTS FIRST MAIN STREAM TV INTERVIEW TOGETHER
Posted by Boris Celser, January 12, 2006.

Why did Israel allow the creation of a terrorist Mecca in Gaza?

Please watch the video by clicking here.

This is the most powerful piece of television in exposing the threat of Islamic terror. Walid Shoebat, Zak Anani and Ibrahim Abdallah, former Islamic terrorists who explain with chilling bravery the real problem. This is not politically correct but who they are can make their message "politically correct" and can literally help save Western civilization.

This was aired on a main stream TV program, CN8, the Comcast network.

With the right resources we can do this on all major networks. It is all about creating controversial events with Arabs who wish to speak up with the real truth and the real problem, and getting the media to follow the story.

16 minutes that the world needs to know, that can win public opinion so our world political leaders can act fast to use the right words in the public forum, as well as diplomatic pressure so we will not need to use the military option which WILL BE THE REAL DISASTER not only for us but for ordinary Muslims in the Middle East.

Click the link below, for vital viewing. PLEASE take the 16 minutes out of your busy schedules to watch the link in its entirety. I would also love to hear from you.

Click here.

Keith Davies
Director of Walid Shoebat Foundation

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT SO WE CAN DELIVER MORE MESSAGES LIKE THIS. THIS IS A LIFE AND DEATH ISSUE. PRO ACTIVE MESSAGES THAT PUT THE ENEMY OF FREEDOM ON THE DEFENSE. THE BEST FORM OF DEFENSE IS ATTACK.

Contact Boris Celser at celser@telusplanet.net.

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STOP "RABBI" BELIAK!
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 12, 2006.

America's worst Jewish asslibs (assimilationist liberals) have set up a new far-leftist organization, as if there are not enough already, called "Jews on First", supposedly to defend the First Amendment from attacks by Christians and conservatives. Among other banner causes for these people is "Sex Education is a Mitzvah", and of course gay marriage and abortion. It is JewsOnFirst.org.

They are run by rabbi in the Tikkun's Michael Lerner sense of the term, Haim Dov Beliak, a favorite speaker of American Muslims Standing up for Freedom and Security (www.unitedforpeace.org/calendar.php?calid=615&printsafe=1) sponsored by the pro-terror Muslim Public Affairs Council (for background on MPAC, see http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6177 and http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16606). Beliak is a rabbi in roughly the same sense that Ward Churchill is an Indian.

Until now this "rabbi" ran "Stop Moscowitz" at http://www.stopmoskowitz.org/, a smear group that attacks the family of Irving Moskowitz, a California developer who has been a constructing housing in Jerusalem neighbors on the correct side of the Green Line (that is, outside the 1967 borders). Beliak is a foul basher of Israel, who has campaigned for divestment from Israel (see www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.forums&mode=display&ArticleID= 9671&issue=soj0508&article=050841b and www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&mode=printer_friendly& issue=soj0508&article=050841b).

He opposes the US campaign against Islamofascist terror as a "war machine" (http://www.coc.org/resources/articles/display.html?ID=164) and wants to defend the al-Qaeda detainees in Gitmo. Beliak is a close associate of pro-terror anti-Semite Ramsey Clark (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/692936/posts).

Beliak is part of the anti-Israel "Progressive Jewish Alliance", so anti-Israel that even Tikkun.s Michael Lerner will not join it (http://www.pjalliance.org/ContactUs.html). Beliak is the LA rep for the loony, drug-touting "Shalom Center" run by "Rabbi" Arthur Waskow, who has spent time recently promoting the idea that polygamy is the highest Jewish value. Waskow's "Center" is ferociously anti-Israel and anti-American. Beliak also is nominally associated with the "Rabbis for Human Rights", the group in Israel that fabricates the stories about settlers chopping down Arab trees. He is "rabbi" at the Temple Beth Shalom of Whittier, CA. You can contact the "rabbi" at bbeliak@earthlink.net.

If you want to tell Jews on First what you think of them, they are at catcher@JewsOnFirst.org.

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. Contact him by email at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il

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ARABS PROPAGANDIZE RELENTLESSLY, PREFER FALSE; GAZA WITHDRAWAL ILLOGICAL; ANTICIPATE EXTENT OF TERRORISM
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 12, 2006.

WHY LISTEN TO FALSE RADIO?

There was a time when Western radio was listened to by captive nationalities respecting its reliability. Muslims prefer Islamic broadcasts, despite their unreliability.

Israelis are known for turning on the radio or TV news broadcasts religiously and frequently. What for? The government and its leftist sympathizers control the stations and most of the dailies. The Sharon regime used a pretext to close down the only independent radio station, which opposed his policies.

TENDENTIOUS ARGUMENT

When I used to do a systems analysis, I put at the end of my proposal a section on rejected solutions. That section described alternatives and why they were less feasible. Journalism would do well to follow that method, especially since political proposals have a greater dose of ideology than of feasibility.

One of the greatest journalistic polemicists is Norman Podhoretz. Nevertheless, he omits some opposing arguments. In the year-end Commentary, he evaluates the war on Iraq. His strong point is that most of the media deliberately omit news about US progress in the war. Focus is on attacks and problems. He counters the omission by citing indications of progress, such as a widening circle of security and prosperity. It is a telling point -- my own daily, the NY Sun, itself has omitted specific indications, even while its own opinion-pieces assert that there is such progress. Why that dichotomy? The Sun gets much of its foreign news from Associated Press. Perhaps the A.P. is as biased against the US as it is against Israel.

Podhoretz ignored the biggest problem with the war. I think there was time for him to add a paragraph about it, before press time. That problem is that the touted election has put Islamists on top. All our effort may yet turn Iraq into another Iran, and make Iran impregnable. Then we will have fought in vain.

ARABS CONSTANTLY PROPAGANDIZE AGGRESSIVELY

P.A. officials constantly declare that a just peace depends on their getting eastern Jerusalem, Jerusalem, or all the territory Israel acquired in 1967. By contrast, Israeli officials constantly declare that they would give up this or that. The Arabs always present their case, whereas the Israelis weaken their own.

The P.A. proposal would not bring a just peace or any peace. The territory is part of the Jewish patrimony; it should not be inherited by genocidal fanatics. There is no reason to give the Arabs the land up to the 1967 line, because that was an armistice line, lacking significance. The Arabs make such demands as part of jihad. Considering the general public ignorance, the Arabs are smart to do this.

ISRAEL RAIDS LEBANON

Israeli planes destroyed a couple of buildings in Lebanon used by Palestinian Arab terrorists. The planes avoided striking residential areas. Some residents were pleased that those terrorists are being kept in check, as they also are, now, by the Lebanese Army, striving to keep them from acquiring more arms. One Lebanese warned that nevertheless Lebanese should be wary of Israel, as it is "treacherous." IMRA notes the inconsistency between that (Islamic) suspicion and Israel's actual humanitarianism in sparing residential areas (IMRA, 12/29). Arabs don't spare residential areas, they target them. Who, then, is treacherous?

The raid was described elsewhere as retaliation for a bombardment by Hizbullah. Why didn't Israel retaliate against Hizbullah? Is it because the abandonment of the security zone in Lebanon allowed Hizbullah to point 14,000 missiles at Israel, and Israel is afraid to bomb a few, lest the rest be shot off?

IMPROMPTU ROADBLOCK

Having been warned of a terrorist attack being planned against a populated area, the IDF set up impromptu roadblocks. The terrorist realized he would not get through, so he set off his bomb where he was. There were casualties, but far fewer than if there were no roadblocks. More Arabs were killed and wounded than Jews (Arutz-7, 12/29). The Muslims rationalize the killing of their own, express no remorse, and take no care to avoid it.

sraeli roadblocks are against US policy. I think US policy is intrusive and vicious.

ILLOGIC OF GAZA WITHDRAWAL

Referring to northern Gaza, -- "The three communities there - Dugit, Nisanit and Elei Sinai -- were destroyed [in the disengagement] with no logic whatsoever. Even [former Shabak head] Ami Ayalon said he didn't understand why they were taken down. It was an area without Arabs, close to the Green Line, with a fence, and with state-owned lands. There was no logic to the uprooting there." (Arutz-7, 12/29.)

There was logic to it, but the logic does not support the official reasons. The official reasons are unsupported and insupportable assertions about better defending Israel and not being surrounded by Arabs and having to worry about defending settlers. Those rationalizations do not apply to northern Gaza. The loss of those communities further imperils Israeli communities, now become front-line towns.

The logic that does apply is that any rationalization is merely a cover for the real policy, which is that of the State Dept. and Israeli anti-Zionists. The real policy is to cede whatever the Arabs claim. The anti-Zionists fail to explain to Zionist voters what would happen when the Territories all are evacuated and other areas yielded, and then the media concentrates on Arab claims that Israel, itself, is "occupied"? The war would continue, but Israel would be much weaker, with its strongest and most patriotic sector ruined. Israel may lose.

ANTICIPATING THE EXTENT OF TERRORISM

Israel withdrew from Gaza anticipating that it would control the Gaza border with Egypt and that it would deter terrorism from Gaza by threatening heavy bombardment. The US, however, got it to relinquish border control and not bombard Gaza heavily.

Results are that Terrorists have been: (1) Smuggling in large quantities of better arms; (2) Developing better rockets; (3) Learning how to dig tunnels from Gaza into Israel; and (4) Pouring into Gaza and preparing for a heavy onslaught.

Former head of intelligence, Avi Dichter, spent all his life warning against such menaces to Israeli national security. He knows that the withdrawal gravely undermines Israeli security. Now that he is being considered for a Cabinet post under the Sharon regime, he has changed his line to coincide with Sharon's. He claims that there are fewer terrorist attacks, now, so the withdrawal was successful. You wait another couple of months, and the terrorist attacks will accelerate (Dr. Aaron Lerner, IMRA, 12/29).

In testing rockets, the Arabs have brought within range many more towns than Israelis anticipated and have begun reaching Israeli power plants and fuel depots. Mass-destruction of a city is inevitable, unless Israel outgrows its servility towards the US.

Israel constantly makes decisions with confidence that it might fall back on certain remedies, only to find that the US demands it not. Don't Israeli politicians know that when they start? Do they over-estimate their ability to resist US pressure?

DEFINITION OF ISRAELI "AGGRESSION"

An IDF attempt to get to a terrorist before he can reach Israeli lines and set off an explosion (IMRA, 12/29).

PALESTINIAN CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (PCHR)

For the eighth time within a short period, Arabs kidnapped foreigners in the P.A.. Although the perpetrators' identities are known, they are not prosecuted. PCHR holds the P.A. responsible. The Center objects to the kidnapping of foreign aid personnel, because it: (1) Detracts from the Arabs' "just cause"; (2) Prompted aid workers and people who support that cause to evacuate; and (3) Bolstered Israel's "efforts" to keep out witnesses to its "crimes." (IMRA, 12/29.)

The Arabs don't object to crimes ethically nor to the violation of the foreigners' rights, just to the bad effect upon jihad. That is a telling defect in Muslim Arab culture. Jihad hardly is a "just cause." What "Israeli efforts" to keep out witnesses? Does PCHR means efforts to keep out terrorist auxiliaries? What Israeli "crimes"?

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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CONDI DEFERS TO BURNS, BUT UNDERSECRETARY DOES NOT SHARE BUSH'S WORLDVIEW
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 12, 2006.

When you read the following, please add to your own evaluation the fact that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has taken on the role of the infamous Delilah who served the interests of the pagan priest cults by shearing the hair of the Jew, Samson, of his hair which represented his strength. Moreover, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns has long ago adopted the role of an Arabist and is extremely hostile to Israel.

Look a little further and you will see the shadow of James Baker III in close proximity to Burns in a campaign to shear the strength of Israel -- as was done with and to Samson.

This insidious group out of the bowels of "Foggy Bottom" (aka the State Department) is working on the mind of President George W. Bush to turn him against Israel. Recall that Samson's strength returned (when he was blind) and he pulled down the pagan temple on his adversaries (as well as himself).

This was a news item in Insight Magazine January 9, 2006 (www.insightmag.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid= 5D3B38F8A2584DB5A77BA05660C6045C&nm= Free+Access&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid= 8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id= 208DF82B352B42E68917D34EF8D165D9).

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, a State Department Arabist and a critic of Israel, has emerged as the leading foreign policy official in the Bush administration.

Mr. Burns has by default become the most powerful figure in the State Department and responsible for day-to-day management of U.S. foreign policy. Officials said Mr. Burns was authorized by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in late 2005 to become the leading foreign policy administrator amid a sharp decline in support for President Bush.

"Nick Burns has everything Condi doesn't have -- a firm sense of purpose, a political fighter and an Arab expert," an official said. "What Burns doesn't share with Condi is the President's agenda."

Officials said Ms. Rice has been preoccupied with recruiting domestic support for the Bush administration. They said she has spent much of her time at the White House advising the president and often serving as a buffer to senior members of the administration.

As a result, Mr. Burns, formally No. 3 in the State Department, has become the de facto director of U.S. foreign policy. Officials said his access to the president has sharply increased over the last four months and Mr. Burns has become a leading adviser to Mr. Bush on Europe and the Middle East.

Mr. Burns was U.S. ambassador to Greece, as well as to NATO in Belgium. He helped end the virtual U.S. boycott of France in 2004. The undersecretary also persuaded the president to adopt the European Union's policy of dialogue with Iran to end its uranium enrichment program.

"The United States and Europe are natural allies -- not identical twins," Mr. Burns told the European Institute last month. "You're more statist -- we're more free market. You think of the EU first -- we think NATO. We're convinced that the U.S. can win the World Cup -- you probably think England or the Czech Republic or Spain will win."

Still, Mr. Burns' agenda is said to sharply differ from that of Mr. Bush's first term. Officials said Mr. Burns has managed to sideline the president's policy to introduce democracy and reform in the Middle East. The undersecretary persuaded Mr. Bush to waive human rights sanctions on a range of Arab and Islamic countries, including Indonesia, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

"Condi has very little interest in the Middle East and regards her meetings with some leaders in the area with disdain," an official said. "In contrast, Burns relishes his contacts with Arab leaders."

Mr. Burns has also encouraged Mr. Bush to increase pressure on Israel in an effort to win Arab support for U.S. policy in the Middle East. Officials said the undersecretary has also helped reduce the president's ardor to enact regime change in Iran and Syria.

The ascent of Mr. Burns has come at the expense of the National Security Council, officials said. They said Deputy National Security Advisor Elliot Abrams has lost virtually all of his influence over U.S. policy. Mr. Abrams, who has been linked to the Bush family, has been an ardent supporter of Middle East democracy and Israel. He has urged an aggressive U.S. policy against Iran.

"The major theme that runs through briefings given by Burns is that virtually every conflict in the Middle East is either caused or exacerbated by the Arab-Israeli conflict," the official said. "Not surprisingly, the message to the president is that U.S. support for Israel causes problems for the administration."

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm).

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PEOPLE POURING INTO HEBRON -- PRAYER RALLY
Posted by Hebron Jewish Community, January 12, 2006.

Israelis from around the country began pouring into Hebron today, in preparation for a possible attempt to expel families from their homes in the Mitzpe Shalhevet neighborhood next week. All those arriving were given a place to sleep and meals at a highly subsidized price. Large tents have been pitched around the threatened housing to protect those arriving from the cold, rainy wintry weather.As a result of the large influx of people into the Jewish neighborhoods, an increased police and security-forces presence can be felt throughout the community.[http://www.hebron.com/news/gettingready.com]

This morning Nadia Matar led a group of Women in Green to visit Hebron, including the wife of Prisoner of Zion Jonathan Pollard, Mrs. Esther Pollard. Esther Pollard conveyed her husband's support for Hebron's Jewish community and told community leaders to 'stay strong.' They, in turn, voiced their hope that very soon community residents would be able to greet both Jonathan and Esther Pollard together in Hebron, celebrating his release from imprisonment and his aliyah to Israel.

Yesterday, an emergency prayer rally was conducted outside the Rinat Shalhevet Kollel Torah study center, in the Mitzpe Shalhevet neighborhood. [http://www.hebron.com/news/tentevet.htm] Speaking were Rabbis Dov Lior and Moshe Levinger. Also appearing was a special guest: Sheikh Professor Abdul Hadi Palazzi, the director of the Italian Muslim Association. An Imam, Sheikh Palazzi is no stranger to Hebron; he visited and toured the Jewish community five years ago. Accompanied by the founder and director of the Root and Branch Association, Aryeh Gallin, Sheikh Palazzi visited Hebron-Kiryat Arba Chief Rabbi Dov Lior at his Kiryat Arba home. Later, introducing the Sheikh to the listening audience in Hebron, Rabbi Lior praised his honesty, courage and sense of justice. [http://www.hebron.com/news/ahpalazzi.htm]

Sheikh Palazzi, well-known for his "Pro-Israel-Zionist" opinions, said he came to Hebron due to the situation the community is now facing. He said that following the catastrophic expulsion from Gush Katif this past summer, which he opposed, he is very worried that the Israeli government will attempt to continue to expel Jews from their homeland. For this reason, he came to show support for a continued Jewish presence in Hebron, and at present, especially in the Mitzpe Shalhevet neighborhood.

Hebron residents and guests applauded Sheikh Palazzi's speech, and many people approached him to shake his hand and express their thanks for his remarks.

Sheikh Palazzi warned ISRAEL, UNITED STATES and the "Quartet" "Road Map" Nations (EUROPEAN UNION, RUSSIA, UNITED NATIONS) on Impending HEBRON Jewish Expulsion:

Lift at once your American Apparatchiki Ghetto Judenrat Polizei Kapo Korps Self-Proclaimed "Show of 'Strength'" Siege and Blockade of King David's first Capital City, HEBRON

Pull another "GUSH KATIF" in Jewish HEBRON and draw down devastating Divine Wrath on your peoples far more terrible than that already wreaked upon You since your "Guns of August" GAZA Jewish Expulsion

Your "Quartet" "Road Map" Coaltion marching against JERUSALEM locked on Collision Course with your Creator leading to global Gog and Magog Catastrophe

Stand Down while Time still given You to do so

Since Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Strokes and Tsunamis do not impress You, prepare yourselves for G-d's Celestial Birds of Prey, His RAPIDLY mutating (for human-to-human transmission) Avian Bird Flu Armies, against which your G-d given (and G-d withdrawing) Modern Medical Science and Technology will be TOTALLY Defenseless

Have You learned NOTHING from the returning Plagues of Egypt beginning to befall You?

Following dinner at Hebron resident's home, the Sheikh toured the Tel Rumeida neighborhood and viewed the fascinating archaeological excavations at the site, before leaving back to Jerusalem.

You can contribute directly to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB10, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il, 972-2-9965333 or write to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, hebronfund@aol.com

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THE KADIMA MINISTERS SHOULD RESIGN IMMEDIATELY
Posted by Benjamin Svetitsky, January 12, 2006.

Professors for a Strong Israel Call on The Kadima ministers to resign immediately

The condition of the Prime Minister is being used to create an unprecedented cult of personality around Ariel Sharon and his deputy, Ehud Olmert. Professors for a Strong Israel calls on the media to halt this relentless propaganda offensive, which is essentially the Kadima election campaign.

Moreover, we note that the voters elected the Likud, not Kadima, to be the ruling party, and thus the Kadima ministers have no legal or moral right to rule the country. They, and not the Likud ministers, should resign immediately.

Contact Professor Svetitsky at bqs@julian.tau.ac.il or call 050 551 8940

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WE DON'T KNOW HOW TO WIN
Posted by Herbert B Sunshine, January 11, 2006.
To Defense Minister Mofaz
sar@mod.gov.il

Mr. Minister:

To refuse to defeat the enemy in time of war is simply treasonous.

To sacrifice the lives of your own people by failing to protect them is criminal. Maimonides calls loving one's enemy "the mercy of fools."

Is this country being governed by cowards, fools, criminals and traitors?

With love of Israel and with fear for its future,

Herbert B. Sunshine

Herbert B. Sunshine is an attorney. He and his wife made aliyah and live in Jerusalem. Contact him at sunshine.h@012.net.il

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3000 RIFLES AND EXPLOSIVES COME INTO GAZA A MONTH
Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, January 11, 2006.

This is by Scott Shiloh and comes from Arutz-Sheva.

Yuval Diskin, head of Israel's clandestine security agency, presented a sobering appraisal of Israeli's post-disengagement security situation to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Since the disengagement last August, Israel's security in relation to the Palestinian Authority, in particular the Gaza district, has been disintegrating.

"The smuggling of weapons and explosives into Gaza has jumped by hundreds of percent in comparison to the period before the disengagement," Diskin told the committee. "If before the disengagement, 200-300 rifles were smuggled in per month, now, we're talking about 3000" per month.

Terrorist attacks and attempts to carry out such attacks are also on the rise since the disengagement. Diskin said that in October there were 48 such incidents, as compared to 277 in December.

Diskin said that the terrorists were utilizing the relative quiet of the past few months to rebuild their military infrastructure and expand the range of Kassam rockets.

Currently, the terrorists' rockets have range of 10-40 kilometers, enough to hit Ashkelon on the southern coastal plain, Sderot, and other Israeli towns in the western Negev. These communities have in fact been hit a number of times since the Gaza withdrawal, causing only minor damage thus far.

But with some technological assistance from the outside, Diskin said, the terrorists could, within a few months, significantly improve the rockets' range. He added that the terrorists are attempting to independently manufacture weapons in Judea and Samaria, including Kassams.

(Kassams fired from Judea and Samaria with a 10-40 kilometer range could strike at Israel's heavily populated coastal plain. Among the targets in that range is Ben Gurion Airport).

The PA Elections

Regarding the parliamentary elections scheduled to take place on January 25 in the Palestinian Authority, Diskin said the ruling Fatah party will likely win the elections by a margin of 10%. But he expects the Hamas to make a very strong showing in certain localities.

Diskin said the Hamas will resume terror attacks after the PA election. He emphasized that the Shin Bet opposed Hamas participation in the PA election. "The State of Israel must forcefully demand that the terrorist organizations be dismantled," he said, "and if this doesn't happen, the Shin Bet recommends not to carry out a dialogue or continue contacts with the (Palestinian) Authority."

"It's like a time bomb, if they get to keep their weapons," he added.

Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org

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W. MUSLIM ALIENATION; SOURCE OF SMUGGLED ARMS; A GENERAL, NO LESS, SAID THIS!
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 11, 2006.

MUSLIM ALIENATION

The US is giving up some of its efforts to influence the Muslim world by means of a magazine if not also by broadcasting. Broadcasting behind the Iron Curtain had been successful. Muslims, however, prefer news beamed from their co-religionists. Even in the West, Muslims fluent in the native language shun domestic broadcasts in favor of ones from foreign Muslims. Islamic stations are expanding their reach westward.

One of the problems with Islamic media is that for any grievance it thinks it has with the government of Israel, it assigns collective responsibility for it to the whole people and authorizes terrorism against any Israeli citizen and any Jew anywhere, as if that Jew ran the government of Israel. (Why isn't this prejudice condemned?)

What do the Arabs do with such facts as they get? They distort them into a conspiracy theory and propose totalitarian solutions. They do not understand what makes the West thrive (Pipes #633, 12/27).

This news implies that Muslim immigrants do not want to assimilate. A people that won't assimilate should be let out, not in.

A LEFTIST'S PRESCRIPTION FOR ISRAEL

Amnon Rubinstein, formerly an MK from Meretz, assesses Israel's relationship to the Territories. He sees the Arabs there becoming obsessed with fighting, regardless of whether Israel withdraws or not. He admits this but fails to express regret for having spent years advocating withdrawal as a way of ending the fighting.

On the other hand, he believes that Israel cannot hold on to the territory without fighting and without eventually becoming submerged under Arab population growth. (It has not been growing half as much as thought.) He proposes a defense treaty with the US or membership in NATO plus withdrawal in favor of a UN trusteeship by Egypt and Jordan.

IMRA points out the fallacy in supposing that just because those Arab states have treaties with Israel, they would protect Israel or would stay stable, themselves (IMRA, 12/27).

Egypt traditionally and still supports terrorism against Israel and opposes it in other ways. So does Jordan, though it blocks terrorists from entering Israel. Both are becoming more Islamist. Nor is the US a reliable friend of Israel or faithful to its agreements with Israel.

Mr. Rubinstein fails to consider the only just and genuine solution. That is for Israel to annex all the sparsely or Jewishly settled parts of the Territories and let poverty drive the Arabs out of the rest. No Arabs, no terrorism. Israel would gain secure borders.

QUARTET ON P.A. ELECTIONS

The Quartet has a goal for the P.A. elections. It suggests they be unrestricted and that the Cabinet exclude anyone who does not want peace with the Jewish state (IMRA, 12/27).

What it means is that Fatah should not restrict Hamas from running for office, but should restrict Hamas from serving in the Cabinet. That is not democratic, not pragmatic, and is based on false premises. One wonders who devised that formula for saying a lot but meaning nothing. Was it Sec. Annan or Sec. Rice?

What does it matter whether one terrorist group bars the other from running for office? The real, useful opportunity for democracy would require entry by a party that believes in democracy, peace, and tolerance. The masses of the P.A. cannot muster a party for peace. Practically the whole population favors war on Israel. If the Quartet had any integrity, it would stop subsidizing the P.A..

Isn't it silly to suggest that after Hamas wins about half the seats in the legislature, it be barred from places in the Cabinet? Who would bar it, Fatah, that is allied with it against the common enemy and is its rival for the spoils of power, but that has been afraid or unwilling to repress Hamas?

The false premise is that members of Fatah should not be barred from places in the Cabinet. They, too, are making war on Israel despite the PLO agreement not to.

SOURCE OF SMUGGLED ARMS

The arms smuggled through Egypt into Gaza for use against Israel come from the Darfur region of Sudan. The Sudanese don't charge much. The arms move through the Suez Canal and into the Sinai (IMRA, 12/28).

Darfur is the site of genocide, too. The original evil not stopped, it spread. The genocide should have been stopped years ago, but the UNO blocks action. The UNO should have been stopped years, ago, too. The US ignores Egypt's guilt in allowing the arms' passage, and even subsidizes Egypt's military. The US shares the guilt in murder.

IDF STILL TARGETING 'ACCESS ROUTES'

The IDF still reports bombing and shelling access routes through which rocket crews pass to launch rockets against Israel (IMRA, 12/28).

Still unreported is any survey of the effect of this bombing and shelling. The number of rocket attacks is not diminishing. Israel has not discovered any disincentives for the attacks, at least none to which the US does not object. Israel should confiscate the sums it sends the P.A. for excise taxes, to reimburse its people for damages from terrorism.

A RESERVE GENERAL SAID THIS

Abbas would not disarm Hamas even if he wins the election. "Hamas should take part in the elections, and then Israel can condition its dealing with a united Palestinian government on eliminating all the uncontrolled weapons and disavowing the idea of destroying Israel." So writes reserve Gen. Shalom Harari for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. IMRA notes that Israel usually does not insist on the conditions it sets for the Arabs (IMRA, 12/29).

Israel has been dealing with P.A. terrorists all along. From where would come the moral strength to stop doing so? Inasmuch as Abbas won't disarm Hamas, why would a half-Hamas regime do so? Is the general deceiving himself or proposing a ruse. Instead of making conditions for ceding to the Arabs, Israelis should be asserting Jewish rights.

LABELS AS PROPAGANDA: more

More examples of the lack of truth in labeling in politics appear in an Associated Press report by Mark Lavie: (1) Headline is "Kadima Calls For Two-State Solution." (2) That party is "centrist." (3) It proposes allowing Jerusalem Arabs to vote "in their parliamentary election," meaning the P.A. election; (4) The reporter states as if factual that the government announcement of "new Israeli settlement construction in the W. Bank" in areas "that Israel plans to retain after final peace settlement with the Palestinian Arabs" is "not moderate." These would "violate Israel's commitments under the American-backed 'road-map' peace plan." (NY Sun, 12/27, p.5.)

"Two-state solution" is a euphemism for giving terrorists the legitimacy of sovereignty over Jewish territory, from which to make war on Israel and have Israel declared an aggressor if it pursued the terrorists over the border. Strengthening terrorism and war is neither "centrist" nor a solution. The Kadima Party is more appeasement-minded than were Labor and the notoriously extremist Meretz Party. Labels such as "centrist" and "moderate" are used by ignorant people and enemies of Israel to praise weak Jews who would risk survival in surrendering their rights to antisemites. The media uses labels propagandistically, not descriptively, to mould opinion.

Why should Arabs in Jerusalem, under Israeli sovereignty, be allowed to vote in elections in the P.A., which does not govern them? If they are to be considered citizens of the P.A., why not exchange their Jerusalem residency permits for P.A. residency? The answer is that this is another aspect of the anti-nationalist and anti-Jewish extremism, by which the Kadima Party is impugning the Jewish state's sovereignty over its own capital, including the Jewish people's holiest site, the Temple Mount. This policy accords with the traditionally anti-Zionist State Dept. policy against Israeli retention of sovereignty in Jerusalem. That city never was an Arab capital.

Why does the reporter note what would violate Israel's commitment to the Road Map, but not that the US violates Israel's reservations to the Map and that the Arabs violate all aspects of the Map: persisting in terrorism, preaching hatred, not cooperating with Israel, building illegally and extensively? The inconsistency demonstrates that such statements about legality are not based on concern for law or justice. Quislings on the Left and appeasers in the State Dept. make one-sided agreements, such as Oslo and the Map. Yes, the US backs for such plans -- because they are pro-Arab.

Presumptuous of the reporter to refer to those areas as planned by Israel to retain after a final peace agreement. Jihadists don't make final peace agreements with infidels. Israel constantly gives in to its enemies, hence plans don't count. Sharon lies about what he would hold on to, anyway.

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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DIRTY, ROTTEN LIARS: PORTRAIT OF A "PEACE PARTNER"
Posted by Naomi Ragen, January 11, 2006.

Below, nothing new. But it's just so blatant. Compare what Qadura Faras, prominent supporter of the "Geneva Initiative," Yossi Beilin's (darling of the EU and great recipient of its cash handouts) peace initiative says to Westerners about peace, and what he says to Palestinians. I remember Beilin rounded up as many Israeli writers as he could when he went to Geneva. They even left a message on my machine. As if!

This report on Faras comes from Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook of the Palestine Media Watch (PMW). It is called "Pa Duplicity: Talk Peace To Israelis And Terror To Palestinians."

Palestinian Media Watch has for years documented the duplicity of the Palestinian Authority leadership, which sends a peaceful message to the world media and hate and terror message to its own people in Arabic.

A new example was documented this week, involving Palestinian Legislative Council member Qadura Faras. Faras has been a prominent supporter of the "Geneva Initiative," an unofficial peace proposal drafted in 2003 by a group of leftist Israelis led by Yossi Beilin and Palestinians, and appears on the Geneva Initiative website, conveying a message of peace to Israelis.

However, when Faras recently addressed Palestinians, he used his speech to honor and praise a terrorist who murdered 10 Israelis. He further spoke in memory of one he called a Shahid [martyr for Allah], a term that places blame for his death on Israel -- even though he had died of cancer in an Israeli prison. Finally, he pledged to continue in the path of these terrorists. This is a totally different Qadura Faras than the one promoting peace on the "Geneva Initiative" web site.

The following are the transcripts of these two irreconcilable messages -- the first to Palestinians, and the second to Israelis.

Faras addressing Palestinians:

"[Palestinian] Legislative Council Member Qadura Fares ... spoke on behalf of the Fatah Movement. He emphasized the continuation of the struggle until the freeing of all of the Palestinian territories from the filth of the occupation, and establishing the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Fares blessed the prisoners behind bars, and in particular mentioned the imprisoned fighter, "The Sniper" Tha'ir Hamed, who carried out the ... operation that led to the killing and injuring of several of the occupation soldiers. [In fact, three Israeli civilians and seven soldiers were murdered in the terrorist attack -- Ed.]

"Fares mentioned the good traits of the shahids [Martyrs for Allah, which in PA usage includes suicide terrorists], while clarifying their role in defending the homeland, fending off the aggression, and resisting the occupation. Faras said, 'We are all going in the way of Ziad Hamed, the Shahid of Silwad, until the fulfillment of the goal for which he became a shahid... [Hamed died of cancer while in an Israeli prison -- Ed.]." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, January 5, 2006]

Faras addressing Israelis [Geneva Initiative website]:

"It is always asked, do you [Israelis] have a partner on the other side. I am telling you with full sincerity, we are ready to reach an inclusive agreement with you, which will promise us freedom and liberty and statehood, and will promise you the thing we know you are sensitive to, which is your full right to live in peace and security. The question is: Are you ready for this?" [Geneva Initiative web site, http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ClipMediaID=80675&ak=null]

Please feel free to forward this bulletin, crediting Palestinian Media Watch

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.

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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AL QAEDA VIDEO IS 'GREEN LIGHT' FOR ATTACK, ANALYST WARNS
Posted by Eliezar Edwards, January 11, 2006.
This was written by Sherrie Gossett, a CNSNews.com Staff Writer. It is archived at www.cnsnews.com/ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page= \SpecialReports\archive\200601\SPE20060111a.html

(CNSNews.com) -- The recently released video message from al Qaeda's number two leader is part of a pattern that signals a countdown to a major terrorist attack within the next 30 days, warns a Washington D.C.-based analyst.

The new video was aired by the Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite network on Jan. 6. In it Ayman al-Zawahiri portrays U.S. government discussion of troop withdrawal from Iraq as a victory for Islam.

"If your forces with all its aircraft, missiles, tanks and fleets are moaning, bleeding and looking for an escape from Iraq, then will the hypocrites, conspirators, infidels (the Iraqi government) resist what the 'greatest power in the world' has failed to resist?" al-Zawahiri asked.

But it is not the content of the video that is a sign of a possible imminent strike, said terrorism expert Christopher L. Brown. Instead, it is the timing of the video that is consistent with previous patterns. Brown, a researcher with a Washington think tank, has briefed members of Congress and senior administration officials on key threats, and he has prepared testimony and briefing materials for officials at the Department of Defense, State Department, CIA, National Security Council and the White House.

The pattern Brown observed is that each Zawahiri video appears to be part of a pair, with the second video followed by a significant attack within 30 days, outside of the major combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The videos released on Sept. 9 and Nov. 9, 2004, were the first "set" and were followed by the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, bombings on Dec. 6, 2004. The second "set" of videos was released Feb. 20 and June 26, 2005, followed by the July 7 London bombings. A third set of videos was released Aug. 4 and Sept 1, 2005, followed by the bombings in Bali, Indonesia, on Oct. 1, 2005.

A Cybercast News Service exclusive report on Sept. 8 of last year detailed Brown's warning regarding an impending October attack.

The fourth set of videos, according to Brown's theory was released on Oct. 23, 2005 and last week -- Jan. 6.

"This pattern has held for at least three of al Qaeda's last large-scale attacks," said Brown, "This most recent video is likely a signal that a large-scale operation is about to be launched within the next 30 days. The question is where."

A clue may be found in the Internet postings of the enigmatic Abu-Hafs al-Masri Brigades, said Brown. The brigades appear to be 'green-lighting' coming attacks prior to the release of the second video of each pair, Brown said.

The video that preceded the London bombings was itself preceded by a post by the "European division" of the brigades under the title, "Letter to mujahedeen in Europe." The posting stated in part, "We now call on the mujahedeen around the world to launch the expected attack." The message appeared on an al Qaeda-linked Internet forum.

Brown believes the larger pattern of two videos sandwiching an Internet posting by the Abu-Hafs al-Masri Brigades was repeated when a November web message declared that the upcoming attack would occur in the "land of the Romans," widely seen as a reference to Italy.

The Internet posting, under the name of al Qaeda's reputed military commander Saif al-Adel, mentioned future attacks involving unidentified poisonous substances and surface-to-air missiles procured from Chechnya. Brown notes that the Abu-Hafs Al-Masri Brigades are overseen by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the top al Qaeda terrorist in Iraq who is also known to have ties to Chechnya.

"It is even more interesting to note that Western intelligence officials believe that al Qaeda has had some of the most advanced Russian man-portable surface-to-air missile systems (the SA-18) within Europe for at least one year."

On Oct. 29, 2005, the London Telegraph reported that Abu Atiya, an al Qaeda operative close to al-Zawahiri, revealed to French authorities that a group called the "Chechen network" entered France with the missiles and chemical and biological agents such as botulin, ricin and cyanide. The missiles were reportedly purchased in 2002 and eventually smuggled through Georgia and Turkey to be used in a planned attack against French airliners in 2004.

Following the London bombings the brigades posted a communique on the Internet, stating: "We are in Italy, and not one of you is safe as long as you refuse [Osama bin Laden's] offer. Get rid of the incompetent (Prime Minister Silvio) Berlusconi or we will truly burn Italy."

A July 19, 2005, story in Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper indicated that Italian intelligence feared the statement was a coded message activating known cells in Italy, which had previously been providing only logistical support.

Three more messages from the Abu-Hafs al-Masri Brigades were posted in July, promising to "burn Italy down.

"We will raze the cities of Europe to the ground and you will be the first, Berlusconi!" one of the messages declared. On July 31, the brigades claimed to be "calling up all our cells in Rome and other Italian cities for this war ..." Another Internet message followed in August.

However, the November reference to the "land of the Romans" could be misdirection Brown said, since al Qaeda is known to use coded language in many of its communications. The Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) has indicated that al Qaeda intentionally labeled Italy as its target, prior to the London bombings.

If the "land of the Romans" doesn't refer to Rome, what might it refer to? Dan Darling of the Manhattan Institute believes it could be a reference to the United States. "It could just as easily apply to the U.S. -- America as the new Rome," said Darling.

Brown also believes the al Qaeda threat could apply to the U.S. and that America is the likelier target.

The "land of the Romans" could be a symbolic reference to the "countless examples of Romanesque architecture in Washington, D.C.," said Brown.

The missiles reportedly obtained from Chechnya have not been located and Brown believes it is possible that some of the weapons have been smuggled into North America since individuals involved in the "Chechen network" who procured the missiles were allegedly involved in the 1999 conspiracy to bomb Los Angeles International Airport.

About Brown's theory of a timing pattern and imminent strike, Dan Darling said "I definitely think there's something behind this theory. One of my earliest observations about al Qaeda is that when people look for patterns they tend to forget to include events in places like Kashmir, Chechnya, Iraq. "

Darling also noted that analysts often fail to take into account thwarted attacks. "Italy has arrested several members of GSPC cells intent on attacking Italy or U.S.-related installations," said Darling. The GSPC is also known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, an Algerian group linked to al Qaeda. Italian officials announced on Dec. 23 that the suspected terrorists had plans to carry out attacks against the U.S. that would have surpassed 9/11.

Terrorism expert B. Raman told Cybercast News Service that Brown's theory is "fascinating" but that he was not in a position to agree or disagree with it.

"I personally feel that while the London explosions were externally inspired from Pakistan, the timing and the modus operandi used were decided locally. I would have difficulty in connecting it to Zawahiri's second message," said Raman. He also believes that Zawahiri's importance as an operational head tends to be over-estimated by many Western analysts.

"I also feel on the basis of my reading of the situation that there is a very high probability of a terrorist strike against Italian lives and interests this year," said Raman.

"In Europe, Al Qaeda's next targets in the order of probability are Italy (its Prime Minister is closely identified with Bush), France (ban on head scarves, its interior minister is hated in the Islamic world) and Germany (its role in Afghanistan)."

Raman is the former head of the counter-terrorism division of the Research & Analysis Wing in India's external intelligence agency and director or the Institute of Topical Studies, Chennai, India.

Italy has been bracing for possible attacks targeting the February Winter Olympics in Turin or the April 9 general elections. Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu told media last month, "The global resonance of the Games, and the coincidence with the election campaign could be of great interest to terrorist organizations, which carry out major attacks in order to rock public opinion and influence political stances."

The CIA has declined to comment on Brown's theory. "We don't comment on our own analysis. And we can't comment on Mr. Brown's theory either," said the spokesman.

Regarding the video release pattern, "once can be an interesting anomaly, twice could be a coincidence, but three times is a pattern," Brown said, indicating "that in all likelihood al Qaeda will launch a major attack sometime in the next month."

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END OF FREE SPEECH ON THE INTERNET
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 11, 2006.
The article below is by Declan McCullagh and is called "Create an e-annoyance, go to jail." It appeared on C/Net (http://news.com.com/Create+an+e-annoyance%2C+go+to+jail/ 2010-1028_3-6022491.html)

You can be sure that the various, well funded Arab groups are already compiling lists of people who are annoying them. The same will no doubt be true of all the various sexual perverts who will take umbrage at any suggestion that they are degenerates. In the end everyone will be annoyed at everyone.

In short, this is a stupid law that hopefully the Americans will either repeal or declare unconstitutional. If not, the Internet will cease to be a forum for the free exchange of ideas and information. I suspect that is the true aim of this law.

Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.

It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess.

This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison.

"The use of the word 'annoy' is particularly problematic," says Marv Johnson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "What's annoying to one person may not be annoying to someone else."

It's illegal to annoy A new federal law states that when you annoy someone on the Internet, you must disclose your identity. Here's the relevant language.

"Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

Buried deep in the new law is Sec. 113, an innocuously titled bit called "Preventing Cyberstalking." It rewrites existing telephone harassment law to prohibit anyone from using the Internet "without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy."

To grease the rails for this idea, Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, and the section's other sponsors slipped it into an unrelated, must-pass bill to fund the Department of Justice. The plan: to make it politically infeasible for politicians to oppose the measure.

The tactic worked. The bill cleared the House of Representatives by voice vote, and the Senate unanimously approved it Dec. 16.

There's an interesting side note. An earlier version that the House approved in September had radically different wording. It was reasonable by comparison, and criminalized only using an "interactive computer service" to cause someone "substantial emotional harm."

That kind of prohibition might make sense. But why should merely annoying someone be illegal?

There are perfectly legitimate reasons to set up a Web site or write something incendiary without telling everyone exactly who you are.

Think about it: A woman fired by a manager who demanded sexual favors wants to blog about it without divulging her full name. An aspiring pundit hopes to set up the next Suck.com. A frustrated citizen wants to send e-mail describing corruption in local government without worrying about reprisals.

In each of those three cases, someone's probably going to be annoyed. That's enough to make the action a crime. (The Justice Department won't file charges in every case, of course, but trusting prosecutorial discretion is hardly reassuring.)

Clinton Fein, a San Francisco resident who runs the Annoy.com site, says a feature permitting visitors to send obnoxious and profane postcards through e-mail could be imperiled.

"Who decides what's annoying? That's the ultimate question," Fein said. He added: "If you send an annoying message via the United States Post Office, do you have to reveal your identity?"

Fein once sued to overturn part of the Communications Decency Act that outlawed transmitting indecent material "with intent to annoy." But the courts ruled the law applied only to obscene material, so Annoy.com didn't have to worry.

"I'm certainly not going to close the site down," Fein said on Friday. "I would fight it on First Amendment grounds."

He's right. Our esteemed politicians can't seem to grasp this simple point, but the First Amendment protects our right to write something that annoys someone else.

It even shields our right to do it anonymously. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas defended this principle magnificently in a 1995 case involving an Ohio woman who was punished for distributing anonymous political pamphlets.

If President Bush truly believed in the principle of limited government (it is in his official bio), he'd realize that the law he signed cannot be squared with the Constitution he swore to uphold.

And then he'd repeat what President Clinton did a decade ago when he felt compelled to sign a massive telecommunications law. Clinton realized that the section of the law punishing abortion-related material on the Internet was unconstitutional, and he directed the Justice Department not to enforce it.

Bush has the chance to show his respect for what he calls Americans' personal freedoms. Now we'll see if the president rises to the occasion.

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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CHRISTIAN JOURNALISTS' TRIP TO ISRAEL
Posted by Simon McIlwaine, January 11, 2006.

This article is to be published in the UK 'Catholic Times' was written by Peter Kearney, who is Director of the Scottish Catholic Press and Media Office. He was a member of a group of Christian journalists that the British Israel Group were asked to meet, and our members, Israel and Pauline Ziderman graciously hosted them to a Shabbat Dinner, which was greatly enjoyed by the visitors. Peter here gives his impressions of that trip.

Visit to Israel -- December 2005

I arrived in Tel Aviv with the shibboleths of the liberal Western chattering classes running through my head. The wall is "a disgrace", the Palestinians are universally "persecuted, repressed and dispossessed", Israel is "territorially aggressive." Variations on these themes appear with monotonous regularity in the European media, usually presented as unquestionable orthodoxy. If measured by supportive column inches in the Western press, Israel is losing the PR war.

Visiting Israel for the first time at the end of 2005 I left more sure than ever that the reality was far more complex than these simplistic sound bites could ever allow. I've always considered portrayals of Israel as an imperialist Zionist war machine, swallowing up the terrain of passive, indigenous Palestinians in relentless and ruthless land grabs a grotesque caricature. Never more so than when Shimon Peres shared the Nobel peace prize with Yasser Arafat. It's a take on the Middle East that taps into a deep seam of post-colonial British guilt and sometimes visceral anti-Americanism. Having perfected colonial oppression across the globe many in Britain now blithely set standards for others that their own state conspicuously failed to achieve.

As a Catholic I grew up with an awareness of the ever-present liturgical and scriptural references, which comprise the Jewish backdrop to our faith. As schoolchildren, we knew what Passover, Sanhedrin and Rabbi meant, since to understand our own faith we had first to know something of the history and tradition of the Jewish people. Our shared scripture created a religious bridge into Judaism, which was simply not present for other faiths. A reality restated forcefully in 2000, when Pope John Paul II referred to the Jewish people as " our elder brothers in faith." When the opportunity to join a group of journalists visiting Christian communities in the Holy Land came up last month, I seized it, hoping to learn as much as I could of this fascinating region. Visiting Jerusalem it is difficult not to feel awed. Walking through the old city one is keenly aware that for European Christians coming here is like coming home. So much of our religious identity and heritage is woven into the twisting stone streets, the pillars, the archways, the gates and passageways that they have a familiar feel, even to the first time visitor. To spend time here is to realise how inadequate our traditional Eurocentric view of the Middle East and the three great monotheistic faiths that began here really is.

In the words of Daniel Rossing, of the Jerusalem Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations, the city is a place of "betweens". Between heaven and earth, between past and future, between minority and majority. While Americans deal in decades, Europeans in centuries, in Jerusalem people relate to millennia, said Rossing, pointing out that many groups even live in a past they attempt to project into the future! To the secular western mind this is a problem, an irrational attachment to a specific creed, which impedes and prevents agreement and progress. Yet to people like Daniel Rossing infused with a love for this magnificent sacred city and a deep respect for all its religious traditions it is only when everyone lives their own faith and allows others to do the same that harmonious coexistence will emerge. This he believes is a real possibility. His is an optimistic and compelling prognosis, it clearly informs and underpins his work, building inter-faith bridges and acting as 'honest broker' in potentially incendiary religious disputes.

Surprisingly optimism is not in short supply among the senior Christian figures I met. Many were hopeful that recent political realignments in Israel were a good sign. Though the likely future exclusion of Ariel Sharon from the body politic may cause some to reassess the prospects for progress. Referring to the security barrier, one pragmatic observer noted; "sadly, the wall has worked", while another described it as "the fence that Arafat built". I detected a private willingness among Christians to accept the Israeli view that security concerns should be pre-eminent and in turn set the tone for all political and territorial developments. Some even acknowledged the discrimination and difficulties suffered by Christians at the hands of Muslims as the Islamisation of the Palestinian Territories continued. Such observations are rarely made in public by Israeli Christians the vast majority of whom are of Arab origin. Rarer still is the mention of such concerns in the Western media.

Ultimately whether the barrier is described as a wall or a fence, it is having the effect of turning the attention of the Palestinians to the issue of their own internal governance. This can only be a good thing if political pluralism and a lasting attachment to representative democracy is the result. In the course of a Shabbat dinner in Jerusalem I spoke to Dr Ben Mollov of the Conflict Management and Negotiation Programme at Bar-Ilan University, he had high hopes that a pluralistic politics was emerging among Palestinians. He recounted the experience of a former Palestinian student who recently stood for election as the Deputy Mayor of a mid-sized Palestinian town on an Independent ticket. He won, by promising good government and improved local services a platform, which found favour with voters rejecting the corruption and cronyism of Fattah and the unequivocal extremism of Hamas. While one swallow does not make a Spring it is tempting to hope that in time, the Palestinian people will turn to politics for answers to their problems and reject the blood-soaked fundamentalist terror which has so singularly failed to advance their cause to date. While most observers predict gains for Hamas in this month's Palestinian elections, they also point out their success is as much a rejection of the endemic corruption fostered by the Arafat generation than a willing embrace of extreme anti-Israeli politics.

According to Bishop Boulos Marcuzzo, the Catholic Bishop of Nazareth the key to building a culture of peaceful coexistence and democracy lies in support for education. Pointing to the educational achievements of Israel's Catholic schools he believes greater investment in them can provide a means of fostering encounter and engagement across religious boundaries. He argues that where common ground exists it must be used as a foundation for deeper association and exchange, claiming "we have a commonality of religious views with the Jews, while with the Muslims the connections are linguistic and cultural." He was adamant however that everyone must first destroy "the walls of separation" in their hearts. The quotation is from Ephesians 2:14, and forms his Episcopal motto.

It is this impetus to break down barriers that drives all those who work in the Arab Jewish Community Centre in Jaffa. Supported with private and state funding, this facility aims to promote cultural exchange and interaction, among Jews and Muslims. It is a heartening example of coexistence in action. The centre offers courses in art, music, drama and even gymnastics for all age groups. "We have no choice but to learn to live together," Hiba Najdi one of the centre's teenage assistants tells us. An Israeli Muslim charged with optimism and hope, she is involved in a weekly exchange group where fifteen Jewish and fifteen Muslim teenagers get together to talk and listen. "Change will be slow" she says but the dialogue must continue if endemic hatreds are to be defeated. Her words echo Bishop Marcuzzo's motto, which expresses a sentiment I heard many times in Israel. Fences, walls and barriers across the land are merely the physical manifestations of barriers, which exist within. The tangible divisions will not be overcome and removed until the "walls of separation" are first removed from our hearts and our minds.

It was trumpets that brought down the walls of Jericho, in Jaffa barriers may well be destroyed by violins. Leaving the Arab Jewish Community Centre on the last day of our visit, we paused to look into a classroom. A violin lesson was in progress. The teacher, a émigré Russian Jew, newly arrived in Israel, the pupil a ten year old Muslim girl. "She is a wonderful pupil" smiled the maestro, a professor of music and former symphony orchestra member while his charge played with unbroken focus. Their disparate linguistic, cultural and religious traditions were transcended as they communicated in the universal language of music. I walked out into the sunshine, hoping the music wouldn't stop.

Contact Simon McIlwaine at Simon.McIlwaine@ormerods.co.uk or visit the website at: www.anglicansforisrael.com

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A DERELICTION OF DUTY
Posted by Michael Freund, January 11, 2006.

With the eyes of the nation turned toward Jerusalem, where our prime minister struggles to recover from a debilitating stroke, it is not surprising that otherwise important developments might escape our attention.

A recent remark by a senior Israeli military officer is particularly worthy of note, if only because of its terrifying significance for the future of the nation's campaign against Palestinian terror.

In a briefing to journalists late on Monday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz addressed the issue of ongoing Palestinian Kassam rocket attacks against Israeli towns and cities.

In the past week alone, Palestinian rockets have hit the western Negev, Kibbutz Nir Am, Kibbutz Nahal Oz, and Highway 34 near Sderot, and the terrorists are said to be perfecting missiles with an even longer range.

"In order to deal with the Kassams," Halutz said, "we would need to breach various constraints that we have imposed upon ourselves, moral constraints and others, that we do not wish to breach, and I do not recommend that we do so." The chief of staff later explained that he was referring to more aggressive counterterror operations designed to stop the rocket launchings against Israel, as these would inevitably harm innocent Palestinian civilians.

At first glance there would appear to be something eminently admirable in Halutz's approach. After all, Israel has long prided itself on its efforts to minimize harm to innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, and it is doubtful that any other country in the world would go to such lengths while under rocket attack from a neighbor.

AND YET, however humane and noble such sentiments might be, they are woefully misplaced. The morality of avoiding Palestinian civilian casualties may be unquestionable, but the failure to protect Israel's citizens is downright unconscionable.

What Halutz is saying, in effect, is that Israel has the means and the ability to stop Palestinian rocket attacks which threaten innocent Israelis, but that it prefers not to do so for fear of harming innocent Palestinians.

This moral calculus is as twisted as it is ineffective, because it essentially places a higher value on the lives of Palestinian civilians than on those of Israeli civilians. Forced to choose between whom to endanger, the chief of staff has chosen the latter even though he is sworn to protect the former.

This is not only a dereliction of duty but a recipe for disaster, inviting our enemies to continue to attack us even as the army fights with one hand tied behind its back. The IDF has sharply limited the extent of its operations against the burgeoning rocket threat, contenting itself with half-hearted and largely unsuccessful efforts.

As Israel's leading military analyst, Zeev Schiff, recently noted, the continuation of the Palestinian rocket attacks "testifies to a failure of Israeli deterrence."

He continued, "In the Gaza Strip the security forces have also not succeeded in locating the workshops that produce the Kassams, and most of the metal shops and rocket developers have not been hit."

What Halutz seems to have forgotten is that the military's primary responsibility is to ensure the safety and security of the nation and its citizens. That is its paramount obligation; it overrides all others.

By imposing his dubious brand of morality on Israel's defense policy, Halutz has transformed Israel into the equivalent of a neighborhood high-school wimp who meekly avoids confronting those who torment him.

THE TIME has come for Israel to bring about an end to the Kassam rocket attacks once and for all. The outskirts of Ashkelon have already come under fire, and it is only a matter of time before the vital port city of Ashdod does as well.

On January 1 the army confirmed that a Palestinian Kassam fired from Samaria three weeks previously had landed near Afula. Should the terrorists succeed in manufacturing or smuggling additional Kassams into Judea and Samaria, it would place Israel's entire central region at risk.

Pinpoint aerial operations and the use of IDF artillery have thus far failed to do the job. If the deployment of ground forces is necessary to halt the attacks, Israel simply has no choice but to do so.

As US President Theodore Roosevelt said a century ago, "Do not hit at all if it can be avoided, but never hit softly." Dan Halutz should heed those astute words and start remembering who signs his paycheck.

The people of Israel have a right to expect that their army will look out not only for innocent Palestinians, but for Israelis too.

Michael Freund served as an adviser to former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. He founded and currently directs Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org), which reaches out and assists "lost and crypto Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people.

This article appeared in the Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1136361054177&pagename= JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull). To comment, write letters@jpost.com or msfreund@netvision.net.il

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THE REAL OLMERT
Posted by Steven Shamrak, January 10, 2006.

The Real Olmert.

Tax on Poor. Acting Prime Minister and Finance Minister Ehud Olmert demanded last month that taxes be paid on charity items recently donated to help Israel's needy population prepare for winter. Olmert made the decision to enforce an old, outdated law demanding a 28.5% tax and an additional airfare tax on U.S. charitable donations to Israels poor. The donations included medical supplies, clothing and toys. (Kadima is the party with no decency. It is created by the political thugs in order to stay in power. The party has no regards for people and the Jewish National future!)

PA Voting in Jerusalem. Reversing a previous ban on PA political activity in the city, Israeli police said that PA parliamentary elections would be allowed to campaign in Jerusalem. The is the first political test of former Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert. (And he failed it miserably! Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish state! Why is democracy and national pride ignored in making such an important decision?)

The Ugly face of our 'Friend'.

Sovereignty of Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday the United States had assured him that voting in the January 25 legislative poll would be allowed in East Jerusalem, despite Israel's objection to Hamas participating. (What right does U.S. have to give such assurance? It is clear violation of the sovereignty of the state of Israel! If we apply the modern legal duplicity, USA must return Texas and California to Mexico. But, Arabs have no legal and historical standing and rights to Jewish land!) http://www.debka.com/headline_print.php?hid=1613

While Sharon is still alive. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has cancelled a trip to Australia and Indonesia because of 'concerns' over Sharon's condition. (The fact that Sharon still is alive, gross 'inconvenience' for Dr. Rice and the other International 'vultures', who are already planning the big 'Get together'! Sensitivity is still not applicable to Jews!)

Food for Thought.

"Anyone has a democratic right to believe in anything they want. I choose to believe in the right of the Jewish people to live in peace on their ancestral land. The facts support my belief! It is sad to see some Jews behind the lies of our enemies!"

Prayer at Joshua's Tomb. Hundreds of Breslov hassidim announced that they would recite special Psalms and prayers on behalf of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Tomb is located in Kafr Haris near Ariel. IDF was providing protection for worshipers entering into the Arab village to reach the tomb. (Jews need protection to pray on the Jewish land, which Sharon planned to give away!)

Haj -- Chant of Hate. Tens of thousands of Haj pilgrims chanted anti-US and anti-Zionist slogans during the `disavowal of pagans' ceremony. "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" were among the slogans chanted by the masses in unison as they gathered for a day of prayer and meditation. (And, some still call Islam a religion of peace! It was not a fluke. The prayer was conducted under the supervision of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.)

Business as Usual. New armour that will protect roofs against Kassam rockets has been approved for use in buildings located within the ever-growing range of Kassam rockets. (What about lives of children playing on the school yards or people walking on the streets? The Alternative: Only by transferring Arabs from Gaza can stop Kassam rockets and save Jewish lives!)

Democracy -- PA Style. Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades members ordered international observers overseeing this month's Palestinian election to leave the Jenin area of the northern West Bank "as soon as possible."

Spirit of Zion Lives. Despite the disengagement, record numbers of Jews are moving into new homes in Judea and Samaria. The Jewish population living across the post 1967 lines (excluding Jerusalem) now tops 253,000. (Jews have an unstoppable desire to live on the land of their ancestors.)

Israeli security services have arrested Jirias Jirias, 58 of Fasuta, a Christian Arab village in the western Galilee, who is suspected of working for Iranian intelligence. He joined the left wing Meretz-Yahad party and and expressed interest in becoming a member of Knesset. Despite Jirias's overt anti-Israel activity, Israeli authorities allowed him into the country in 1996, three years after signing the Oslo accords. (It seems that not only Muslim Arabs hate Israel, but all of them.)

Hiding the Truth. The State Comptroller has withheld a report critical of PM Sharon's handling of the disengagement process, due to the prime minister's deteriorating medical condition. But Sharon condition did not stop Olmert and Kadima from conducting an election campaign, as though nothing happened. (Will the Israeli voters realise the importance of the next election?)

Egypt Denouncement. Two Egyptian soldiers were killed and more others injured after Arab Palestinian terrorists opened fire on the Gaza Egypt borders. Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit strongly denounced the attack. (Surprise! Egypt immediately condemned this attack by Arab Palestinian thugs, but not when they kill Jews!)

Political Control of Israeli Justice. After three years of troubles, imprisonment and thousands of shekels in court fees, Avraham Binyamin of Yitzhar was acquitted of charges after Left-Wing/Arab Claims that he attacked Arab olive-pickers is rejected. (This is how the politicly controlled Israeli justice system works: Intimidation and Humiliation. No wonder that apathy and indifference became the main characteristics of Israeli society now!)

Quartet: Future PA govt Must Accept Israel. The United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations on 28.12.05 said that a future PA cabinet should be committed to Israels right to exist and exclude armed militants. (So many years after Oslo agreement, the Quartet is still begging the PA about pivotal point of the agreement -- The right of Israel to exist. This is a clear admission of the uselessness of the Oslo and Road Map ideas! Why must Israel participate in this sham?)

Reality of the 'Peace process'. Israel is considering moving the airport in the southern resort city of Eilat because of security threats from al-Qaeda. The city is close to the Jordanian port of Aqaba and to Saudi Arabia. Several months ago a rocket fired in Aqaba exploded in Eilat.

State of Jordan -- Illegal Betrayal of Jews.

In 1922, King Hussein* allowed Gr. Britain to take the Sinai Peninsula from his kingdom and make it part of Egypt, in order to secure Britain's financial interests in the Suez Canal. That gesture led to Britain giving Hussein's son, Abdullah the land east of the Jordan river that had been part of the Jewish Palestine promised in the Balfour Declaration, that had been agreed to in 1919 by another of Hussein's sons, Feisal who signed an agreement with Dr. Chaim Weizmann and confirmed by letter from Felix Frankfurter to King Hussein. Feisal was then given, by the British, the Vilayets of Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, which he renamed his green kingdom of Iraq.

All of them, Arabs, British and French, had benefited from the betrayal of the Jewish people. We must not allow the continuation of this International hypocrisy any more!

* It was in 1926 that Ibn Saud with the help from Wahabbis ** sect, deposed Hussein [formerly the Sharif of Mecca and then king of Hejz and Nejd], and renamed the kingdom, Saudi Arabia.

** Wahabism -- Is Muslim sect [official religion of Saudi Arabia], which believes in expansion and world domination of Islam. Currently, Saudi Arabia is supporting radical religious schools and building of the mosques in many countries.

Steven Shamrak was born in the former Soviet Union (USSR) and participated in the Moscow Zionist "refusenik" movement. He publishes 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@gmail.com

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TALE OF TWO THREATENED NEIGHBORHOODS
Posted by Hillel Fendel, January 10, 2006.

Two Jewish neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria are threatened with evacuation and destruction in the coming days -- and are reacting differently. The two are in Hevron and in Ofrah.

The Hevron Jewish Community leadership is calling upon Jews all over the country to flock to the city in order to protect the Mitzpe Shalhevet neighborhood from destruction. The people of Amonah, overlooking Ofrah in the Binyamin region, on the other hand, are taking a "wait and see" approach for the meanwhile.

The Hevron neighborhood is located on land owned by Jews for over 500 years, but was populated by Jordanian Arabs after Israel's War of Independence. Israel's Supreme Court recently decreed that the land be "restored" to the Arabs, and local Jews say the IDF is preparing to carry out the order within the coming days.

Signs of the struggle the residents say can be expected in the event of an attempted expulsion were seen a week ago, when dozens of special-unit "Yassam" policemen and soldiers attempted to distribute expulsion orders to the 11 Jewish families living in the Jewish Quarter neighborhood. Both civilians and soldiers were lightly hurt in the ensuing fracas.

A prayer rally will be held this afternoon, on the fast of the 10th of Tevet, beginning with the recitation of Psalms at 3:30 PM. In between the Mincha and Maariv prayer services, words of encouragement will be offered by Hevron Rabbis Dov Lior and Moshe Levinger.

Beginning tomorrow, Hevron residents are hoping that hundreds of people will arrive in the city "in preparation for the possible attempt to expel Hevron families from their homes in Mitzpe Shalhevet." Large tents and subsidized meals will be available, but private tents, sleeping bags, warm clothing and a strong spirit are also recommended. Study programs and other activities will be available.

The Hevron Jewish Community reports that Israel's security forces have begun mobilizing in preparation for the planned expulsion. A camera has been placed atop an army post tower on the Abu Sneineh hills, facing the Mitzpe Shalhevet neighborhood. It was from those hills in 2001 that an Arab sniper placed 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass in his gun sights and fired a fatal bullet into her brain.

In addition, Hevron sources report, a Riot Squad member was seen entering another guard tower located at Gross Square, also equipped with cameras.

Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi of Rome, head of the Cultural Institute of the Italian Muslim Association, will be present. A vocal critic of Saudi Wahhabism (militant Islam) and an ardent supporter of Israel, Sheikh Palazzi is currently visiting Israel and will speak on Wednesday at the OU Israel Center on "Wahhabi World War III: How the West can Win."

About an hour's drive to the north, nine houses in Amona are also scheduled for destruction -- and residents say it could happen any day. The Supreme Court ruled this past summer, in response to a petition by the extremist left-wing Peace Now organization, that the structures built there illegal and must be destroyed.

Peace Now maintained that the houses were built on land registered in the name of a private Arab citizen -- but residents say this man has never shown up to claim the land. The government said at the time that because of "political sensitivity," it would rather wait until after the retreat from Gaza before beginning to act against Jews in Judea and Samaria. It is now feared that the decision might be implemented as early as next week.

Peace Now demands that the army demolish illegal structures. Illegal Arab construction in Judea, Samaria, and the Negev, however, dwarfs the extent of unauthorized Jewish building. A spokesman for the Negev District Police said recently that the Arabs have erected over 35,000 illegal structures in that region. Few if any of these structures are ever demolished.

Some three dozen families live in Amona, but none of them live in the structures to be demolished. Instead, they live in two-room caravans (mobile homes without wheels). "For a young couple to live in a caravan with one or two children is not impossible," one young mother who lives in Amona said, "but with four children, it's simply impossible." At least one family has moved out of Amona [and is now living in another Yesha town] because of the poor prospects that they will be able to move into a real house.

As in Hevron, the residents have made a call for concerned Jews to come and help them resist the army bulldozers -- but have put it on hold in light of the uncertain government situation and intimations that the army might postpone the action.

But if and when the time comes, the residents hope that Jews will come to help them. "If these buildings are destroyed," one man said, "it means the beginning of the end for all of Judea and Samaria."

Hillel Fendel is Senior News Editor at Arutz-Sheva. This article appeared today

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THE GROWING AL-QAEDA THREAT TO ISRAEL
Posted by Michael Freund, January 10, 2006.

If Osama Bin-Laden's official representative in Iraq is to be believed, Al-Qaeda has now officially turned its sights on the Jewish state.

In an audio tape posted on an Islamist website, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed that 4 Katyusha rockets fired from southern Lebanon into northern Israel on December 27 were the work of the terrorist group and came at the instructions of its chieftain, bin Laden.

"The rocket firing at the ancestors of monkeys and pigs from the south of Lebanon was only the start of a blessed in-depth strike against the Zionist enemy", al-Zarqawi declared, adding that "All that was on the instructions of the sheikh of the mujahedeen, Osama bin Laden".

This comes just a few short weeks after UPI reported (December 7) that Al-Qaeda had forged an alliance with Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon to coordinate anti-Israel attacks.

The presence of Al-Qaeda in Lebanon is extremely significant, because it now means that the terror group has operatives in nearly all the countries surrounding Israel. Don't forget that Al-Qaeda has carried out bombings in Amman, Jordan (in November 2004), and in the Egyptian-controlled Sinai (in October 2004) at Western and Israeli targets.

Hence, as ominous as it sounds, Al-Qaeda has the ability to target Israel from the west, the east and the north. And, as Israel's head of Military Intelligence confirmed at the end of September, Osama bin-Laden's thugs established a presence in Gaza as well in the wake of the Israeli retreat, giving them still another launching pad for attacks against the Jewish state.

All this underlines just how much Israel is on the front-lines of the global war on terror -- and how essential it is that we stand firm and confront it. For some time now, I have been reporting on this blog about the growing threat posed by Al-Qaeda to Israel, particularly in light of the Gaza withdrawal and the vacuum it created in the area. It is crucial that we raise awareness about this issue, both in Israel and the West, and that we inform our communities, elected representatives and leaders about it.

I don't want to sound like an alarmist, but Al-Qaeda's increased presence in the region clearly does not bode well for the future. It is time for Israel's decision-makers to take this threat seriously, and to start taking concrete action to forestall a Middle Eastern 9/11 -- before it is too late.

Michael Freund served as an adviser to former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. He founded and currently directs Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org), which reaches out and assists "lost and crypto Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people This article appeared today in Arutz Sheva and is archived at www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=5925

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A RATIONAL GAME PLAN FOR GAZA
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 10, 2006.

It is high time to abandon the nonsense of political correctness and tell it like it is. Twenty first century nations that still metaphorically or literally urinate in their drinking water, justify the denigration of women by adhering to verses of muddled belief systems, and in general sap strength and vitality from their young, stultifying them with secularly ignorant philosophies ripe for exploitation by criminals bedecked in robes as well as Armani suits, need collective check ups from the neck up or in cruder terms brain enemas.

Location, location, location screams the potential Mediterranean "tourist Mecca." Gaza, which could be rivaling the "fun in the sun" French Riviera, Italian Riviera, USA Miami Beach, and USA Jersey Shore", instead languishes in corruption, violence, and woeful unemployment. Falsely named Palestinian citizens now inhabiting and presumably running that show need to toss their "I am a poor refugee" attitude into the Sea, cease spewing venom at their potential next door westernized role model, get off their collective butts, and construct "The Strip" a la the aforementioned tourist attractions or perhaps a family-oriented USA/Middle Eastern Vegas, or even a Mediterranean Disney-by-the-Sea theme park complex with a Middle Eastern flavor. That sure beats the self-defeating past time of primal screaming in Arabic, brandishing machine guns, and firing mortar shells at innocent Israelis.

Wait! Doesn't this all need financing? Hmmm! What about the proximate "got rocks" Arab oil barons frothing to invest ever-expanding fortunes in Western Civilization's assets? Impeccably clad white robed business tycoons counting grimy fossil fuel-drenched stash of some day "Gulf Dinars" residing in Kuwait, Dubai, Qatar, the Emirates, even the chic sheiks of that "dry me a date" House of Saud are prime candidates for such a venture. Methinks an Israeli entrepreneur or two as well would feel no guilt investing gelt in such a civilized enterprise.

Alas, civil is the operative term. Thus, the current dysfunctional anti-Jew/infidel state of affairs would never do. The serene charm of an erstwhile Gush Katif economy, immersed in state of the art hydroponic science, belongs to a wondrous bygone era belonging to nine or so thousand stout hearted Israelis, but would not feed the mouths of 1.4 million morphed Jordanian citizens. If politico Mahmoud "the smoothie" has any concern whatsoever for the mostly unemployed populace he seemingly serves, he will hone policies not just promising but yielding jobs in construction and service industries; planning, erecting, and paving highway infrastructure, planning and constructing as well as staffing five star hotels, perhaps casinos, perhaps theme parks, entertainment facilities, more essentially planning and building decent housing for his waifs in hovels, as well as impressive shopping malls, restaurants, supermarkets, parks, and so forth for their utilization, and most essentially secularly bent schools equipped to furnish second millennium educations, hospitals, perhaps light industrial complexes and all necessary accouterments befitting a sane civilized society.

Hamas central cannot compete with an energized central government sans corruption centralizing its focus on central concerns of heretofore befuddled exploited citizens weaned on the imperatives of a stagnant culture. Jobs, jobs, jobs that put lamb and falafel on the table for heretofore deprived and angry families are three such concerns. Butter in lieu of guns sure makes sense as we might say in the West.

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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TERRORIST GETS JAIL -- FOR A WHILE, ANYWAYS
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 10, 2006.

This comes from today's Arutz-Sheva and is called "35 Life Sentences for Passover Massacre Mastermind." It is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=96379

What this sentence really means is that he will be living in semi-luxury at Jewish expense until the next prisoner release. All sentences of Arab murderers are conditional and until the Big Boss in Washington needs to pacify or bribe the Arabs (usually the Saudis) for some reason. Then whoever is the American stooge in office begins to sing the song of painful concession and sacrifices for peace. Not much fun being a Banana Boat Republic, is it?

(IsraelNN.com) The Tel Aviv District Court today handed down 35 life sentences, along with an additional 50 years in prison, for the mastermind of two suicide bombings in Netanya.

One of the attacks was the infamous April 2002 Passover Massacre at the Park Hotel, in which 30 people were murdered, and over one hundred injured, in the midst of a communal Passover Seder (traditional meal). That attack was the trigger for Israel's Operation Defensive Shield, a wide-ranging counter-terrorist effort in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The second attack occurred in May 2001, when a suicide bomber killed five people and injured dozens at Netanya's HaSharon Mall.

The terrorist, Abbas Al-Sayyed, who was the head of Hamas in Tul Karem, was found guilty of the murders of 35 Israelis in the attacks, of the injuring of dozens of others and of membership in a terrorist organization. Al-Sayyed was responsible for sending the suicide bombers and was involved in preparing the explosives.

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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RESTRAIN EULOGY, NOT DEFENSE; "MODERATE" ARAB VIEW OF ISRAL; WHAT DO P.A. ARABS WANT?
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 10, 2006.

STANDARD, PREDICTABLE, MISTAKEN EULOGY

The eulogy everyone expects to hear about PM Sharon, they did, but it is misguided. "Ariel Sharon's outsized personality, security credentials and centrist political base will be extremely hard to replace if Israel's ailing leader passes from the scene at a time of maximum uncertainty in the Middle East." What is wrong with that and why do people get it wrong?

His personality led him to be called the "bulldozer." He steam-rolled over opponents. That was bad during his youth, when he clubbed right-wing dissidents to the ground. It was good for the country decades ago, when he systematically cleared terrorists out of Gaza (but he didn't in recent years) and when he boldly crossed the Suez Canal to catch Egyptian aggressors by surprise. When he turned against his country, however, and acted as an agent of the State Dept. and of the leftist prosecutors who had much evidence against him for corruption, and ruthlessly and recklessly cleared Jews out of Gaza, giving terrorists a free hand against Israel, he was bad for the country. He was "outsized" in undemocratic highhandedness and in corruption.

What good are "security credentials" in a person who turns that talent against his own people? He committed treason but is cheating justice. The eulogy bases its praise upon what he knew, rather than upon what he did to his country. The reign of Sharon became the rain of rockets.

Calling his new party "centrist" is a common error. It first assigns an incorrect label to someone or to some philosophy, perhaps based upon past reputation, and then relyies upon the false label, laudatory or pejorative, instead of reviewing current action.

Hillel Halkin's NY Sun eulogy: "Mr. Sharon will go down as one of the best prime ministers in Israel's history, one who won a war against terror that was deemed unwinable and restored a sense of direction to a people that had lost it." As is his wont, Mr. Halkin fails to back up his claims with fact or explanation. This eulogy seems hallucinatory. What war against terrorism does he mean? Sharon was in process of losing the current one. He destroyed the settler and Army bulwark against terrorism. Result: Kassem rockets from the former settlements regularly strike further and harder into Israel. Sharon was in process of abandoning other bulwarks and core historical and religious areas that give purpose and sanction to the return of the Jewish people. He would have shrunk Israel into too small a state for its air and ground forces to properly maneuver and assemble in, it without secure borders but under assault. Running away from Arabs and beating up Jews is the direction he gave to his people.

"RESTRAINT"

Whereas it is healthy to eat in moderation, it is unhealthy to war in moderation. War is a matter of life and death. When the enemy is fanatical and bent on genocide, as are Israel's Islamic enemies, a blow to Muslims that one would consider a deterrent against further attack, they consider just a setback. One leaves standing such truculent enemy forces at the risk of one's survival. It therefore assists fanatical aggressors, to urge "restraint by both sides."

Although the Vatican has imperialist interests religiously and territorially in the Holy Land, a Pope is presumed to be acting in his capacity as a moral leader when urging such restraint. One wonders. By exhorting to restrain defense against aggression and punishment of it, he supports the immoral side. The State Dept. exhorts likewise but for its own usual biases and miscalculations. For a Department so often leading the US into folly, it leads a charmed life, avoiding being investigated by Congress even after its 9/11 debacle, which was blamed on the investigative agencies and not at all on the Department that let in the terrorists without scrutiny because they were from a hostile country the Department favors.

"MODERATE" ARAB VIEW OF ISRAEL

Pres. Sari Nusseibeh of Al-Kuds U. declares the abandonment of Gaza and northern Samaria a ruse for giving up part of what Israel "stole" from the Arabs, in order to get the world's acquiescence in stealing the rest. He also accuses Israel of provoking the P.A. Arabs into extremism, so that Hamas should triumph in the elections, after which the US would not press Israel to withdraw further, not in favor of Hamas (IMRA, 12/27).

The Arabs are the imperialists, keeping down indigenous populations and refusing to let Jews live in their own homeland. First they got the great powers to renege on the Mandate recognizing Israel's historical, national, and religious ties to the Land of Israel, including the Territories. They kept attacking Israel from the Territories, until, in self-defense, Israel gained control over them. Under international law, Israel is entitled to annex such territory for security from further aggression. Israel, however, was willing to compromise for peace. The Arabs signed an agreement to make peace. If the Arabs hadn't violated the agreement, they most likely would have been given the Territories, not that those Arabs are a separate nationality entitled to them. The Arabs brought their troubles upon themselves, and then seek sympathy when their victims fight back. The world would treat the Arabs with contempt for that, if the Arabs didn't have oil and the Jews hadn't become an international scapegoat for mankind's neuroses.

Still not taking jihad seriously, the Quartet does not acquiesce in leaving Israel substantial portions of the Territories, as a compromise for Israel having withdrawn from substantial portions. Nusseibeh must know that. He knows that PM Sharon has made such a claim, and quoted in behalf of that interpretation from a Bush letter obviously left ambiguous for just such purpose, and that the State Dept. subsequently repudiated Sharon's claim. It is the usual US tactic: make Israel an ambiguous promise, get Israel to commit itself, perhaps with reservations, and then withdraw the promise or ignore the reservations.

Nusseibeh also must know that Sharon has been preparing for further and extensive abandonment. The location of the fence reflects and stimulates future abandonment, partly because the fence leaves Jewish communities behind and partly because even where it doesn't, in some places it leaves them unprotected.

Knowing all that, Nusseibeh is pursuing the Arab policy of always feigning a grievance and always denouncing Israel for non-existent machinations against the Arabs when the government's machinations are against the Jews.

Israel make the P.A. more extremist? How? Nusseibeh fails to explain. The Arabs always duck responsibility for their own evil. Although they complain mightily about P.A. corruption and non-governance, they overlook its impoverishing effect, when they blame Israel for their people's poverty for turning to Hamas. They accuse the Israeli Army of impoverishing them, but they started and instigate the war that otherwise Israel would not prosecute. Although Fatah was extremist from the start, Israel thinks Hamas worse, and would not want Hamas to take over. Nusseibeh accuses it of wanting it to, as if Israel were as obsessed with jihad and grabbing Jewish territory as are the Arabs.

ARABS THREATEN ISRAEL

Israel has been firing missiles at a border "buffer zone" in Gaza, from which terrorist groups fire most of their rockets at Israel. To head off the Israeli reaction, the terrorists threatened to fire their rockets at Israel. They claim to have longer-range Russian-made ones, now. The rockets are reaching further. Their increased range renders obsolete attempts to fortify Israeli towns against missile attack. One can pay to reinforce walls in a few towns, but not in the whole country (Arutz-7, 12/27).

The Arab threat is like the bully's: "If you don't let me hit you, I'll hit you." Not logical.

Who sold the Arab organizations Russian-made missiles, used for terrorism?

The IDF again announced that in this buffer zone, it struck a bridge, rocket launching sites, and buildings used by Fatah (which does not fire rockets much). There were no announcements of Arab casualties. This may be more of Israel's bloodless attacks, which merely inconvenience the Arabs. Israel largely has been fighting a phony war. In this war, it suffers the infamy and expense of war, without gaining from its prosecution. The media solemnly reports to the people that the government is exerting itself in their defense. Most IDF announcements of the attacks assert its willingness to do what it takes to defend the country. But the government restrains the IDF from meaningful defense. What has this restraint done for the country?

The government would reply that restraint has won praise from the rest of the world. Sometimes it does. What good is praise for letting genocidists attack you? This praise is like any praise the Nazis may have given Judenrats that cooperated in rounding up fellow Jews for deportation to "work camps." The praise is epeheral, as are the victims' lives.

Civil defense does not work. The government should opt for military assault. It won't. This is a case in which civilian control over the military is worse than the reverse.

WHAT DO THE P.A. PEOPLE WANT?

A Norwegian organization polled the P.A., to see if Israel's abandonment of Gaza and northern Samaria had ameliorated Arab opinion about Israel. Hadn't. It also found that 65% of the people in the P.A. approve of Al-Qaeda attacks on the EU and US, the biggest donors to the P.A.. Almost 80% want the P.A. to observe Islamic religious law. Apparently the indoctrination in hatred has been thorough (Arutz-7, 12/27).

Theories about most of those Arabs wanting peace, that giving them a say would improve international relations, that Israeli concessions would bring Arab goodwill, and that foreign donations accomplish something never made sense and are disproved. The West is building an Islamist state in the P.A.. Instead of Bush erroneously being praised for supporting Israel, he should be rebuked for supporting our Islamist enemies.

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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ARAB MK: SHARON "SWIMMING IN PALESTINIAN BLOOD"
Posted by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, January 10, 2006.

As Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lies unconscious after a massive stroke, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament, Abd' Al-Malik Dehamshe, maligned Sharon, as the "butcher of the Palestinian people," "a criminal" and a man "swimming in Palestinian blood."

The statements came as part of a 'question and answer' session on Internet portal Islam Online. The session was entitled 'Middle East future without Sharon?' based on the widely held belief that Sharon's political career is at an end.

Reproduced below is the transcript of the first question. [Islam Online, January 6, 2005, www.islamonline.net/livedialogue/english/ Browse.asp?hGuestID=a5N0NN]

It is interesting to note that in another question, a participant from Egypt alluded to a century-old Zionist conspiracy, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, long considered a blatant libel in the West. The question is noteworthy in that it shows the general acceptance of these lies as a result of constant incitement and propaganda.

Question:

"First of all the end of Sharon should not concern the Muslims. He was a butcher and part of a state which will not exist within the next 50 years. Partly due to the increasing Muslim population who have Israeli passports. If Israel is a true democracy then demographically the Muslims will outnumber the Jews and could vote out the zionist [sic] regime. My question is as the Muslim population within Israel increases will the Knesset experience a shift in its views?"

MK Abd' Al-Malik Dehamshe, Arab member and Deputy Speaker of the Knesset:

"I was honored by the United Arab List to enter the Knesset since 1996 [sic]. And since that time I have established a mosque inside the Knesset for me and other Muslims and named it the Mosque of Right. My first word in the Knesset was "By the Name of Allah." And I spoke in Arabic and I make sure that I speak in Arabic at least once a week. Of course this wasn't welcomed by many of the Jewish members of the Knesset. They wanted the Knesset without a mosque and without the Arabic language as it was tens of years ago before I represented the Islamic Movement in the Knesset, implementing in reality its slogan that "we are more capable to serve our people, this Palestinian national minority living in their towns and cities in the Palestinian Territories which is now part of Israel after it was establish in 1948. Who should be worried about Sharon's death? Yes, Sharon died, and became history even if he wasn't buried. Sharon spends his last days on earth, and he will have not effective political role after his sickness, as doctors keep him in vegetative situation living on machine's support [sic].

"I was one of the most hostile parliament members against Sharon in the Parliament and I was never afraid to describe him as the butcher of the Palestinian people, and that he is a criminal who killed hundreds of Palestinians and Arabs, specifically the Egyptian prisoners and Sabra and Shateela [sic]. I told him in person one day, when he said he is [sic] not going to release Palestinian prisoners because their hands are stained with blood, I told how dare you say this while you have been swimming in the [sic] Palestinian blood and here you are the Prime Minister. I also advised him to go to hell and leave his responsibilities for somebody else if he doesn't end the bloodshed and give the two people the chance to get out of the circle of violence...

"And when Sharon came to the Parliament and he wanted to withdraw from Gaza and dismantle its settlements and some of those in northern West Bank, I declared my position and the positions of United Arab List that we will not raise our hands against any withdrawal. This was when other Arab parties in the Parliament opposed the disengagement plan, ... I told my Arab colleagues, that this historical event, and destruction of settlements by Sharon himself, who's the only one capable of this, and all of this will happen within specific timetable...

"Who should be worried from losing [sic] Sharon? It's the Israeli people and the Israeli politics [sic] that seemed to be as children who lost their father. For the Palestinian people, I am not concerned about the presence or the absence of Sharon, what worries me, the chaos across the Palestinian Territories. The Palestinians have struggled for many years, during two intifadas, and throughout this time they have maintained their national unity, destroying Sharon's dreams, the Israeli hero which Israel overwhelmingly agreed that he is the only one who's capable of maintaining the security for Israel and like the other Israeli leaders. Because Sharon won many wars he convinced his people that he can provide them with security. He asked for 100 days to secure Israel he was given much more time, and eventually came to the Knesset saying that the conflict with Palestinians cannot be solved only by the military machine but also with other tools...

"Because of the steadfastness and tolerance of the Palestinian people, they have absorbed the Sharonist violence throughout many years in which Sharon has practiced unlimited violence against the innocent people and their leaders. He has destructed [sic] cities and uprooted trees while whole world [sic] witnessing this with silence of Washington and most the European and even the Arab countries who stopped even condemning the Sharonist war crimes against Palestinians...

"For the Palestinian people it's better for be [sic] unified against the outside threats. We should rebuild ourselves from the inside and we shouldn't be worried of what may come from the outside ... because if we are strong from the inside we will be able to face any sort of danger."

[Islam Online, January 6, 2005, http://www.islamonline.net/livedialogue/english/Browse.asp?hGuestID=a5N0NN]

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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FARMERS FORCIBLY UNEMPLOYED
Posted by David Bedein, January 10, 2006.

Over the past month, the Israeli government has run an ad campaign to encourage farmers were expelled last summer from Katif to come to an "Employment Tent" in the new mobile home city at Nitzan,

However, evicted farmers who came to the "employment tent" last week discovered that they were not offered alternative lands for farming.

Nachi Eyal, the director of the Israel Legal Forum, which has been providing pro bono legal services for the evacuees, said that: "The government did not prepare alternate property for the expelled farmers, and therefore, their life's work is going down the drain. Today, we see the consequences which we feared and about which we warned. People ages 45-60, who,until the expulsion supported themselves respectably and paid taxes to the government, may have to remain unemployed forcibly for the rest of their lives."

Meanwhile, the director of the Agriculture Ministry, Yossi Shai, noted in the presence of Israel's President at a meeting held two weeks ago with the farmers of Gush Katif, that the Expulsion-Compensation Law did not consider agriculture a "Life's Work", and therefore the rate of compensation given does not allow the farmers to rebuild their farms. Likewise, the lands that the government is offering are enough for only thirty families, and are far from the places that they live.

In the words of Yoram Mosabi, the chairman of Moshav Bdolach and an experienced farmer, "more than 350 families in Gush Katif made a living directly from agriculture,and an identical number earned their livings indirectly from agriculture. In other words, 30% of Gush Katif residents worked in agriculture for thirty years. An average farmer, who owned between 10 and 15 dunams,had anaverage yearly turnover of 600,000 NIS.A sophisticated farm, which raised house flowers, peppers and cherry tomatoes for export, reached a yearly turnover of 2,000,000 NIS. The farmers of Gush Katif together exported in the range of 60,000,000 dollars annually, not including business on the local market. And TODAY WE ARE UNEMPLOYED!"

David Bedein is Bureau Chief of The Israel Resource News Agency (http://Israelbehindthenews.com), which is based in Jerusalem.

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OLMERT RENOUNCING ISRAELI SOVEREIGNTY IN EAST JERUSALEM
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 10, 2006.

In what has become an all too familiar event, Bush has ordered his puppet regime in Jerusalem to abandon East Jerusalem to the PLO gunmen. By once again allowing armed Arab terrorist to freely roam Jerusalem, we are seeing the preparation of first East Jerusalem and then the rest of the city given over to either Arab or international rule. It is no longer a question of if Olmert and his Kadima Krud would divide Jerusalem if elected, they already have done so

Here are two items.

The first was written by Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis) (email: imra@netvision.net.il, mail POB 982 Kfar Sava). It is called "Clarification to IMRA: Armed Fatah can campaign in Jerusalem." It is archived at http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=28100

The second is from a DEBKAfile exclusive, January 9, 2005. "Bush forces Hamas down Israel's throat in Jerusalem. Olmert government is stunned," http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=1613.

1.   Minister of Internal Security Gideon Ezra told Israel Radio in a live interview broadcast this morning on Israel Radio that "Israel will not permit parties that still bear weapons to campaign in eastern Jerusalem for the PLC elections."

IMRA submitted the following question to the minister's spokesperson:

Since Fatah is known to have the largest armed militia of all the Palestinian groups running in the PLC elections, will Israel permit Fatah to campaign in eastern Jerusalem?

Spokesperson Yehuda Maman, after checking, explained to IMRA that Israel will bar radical parties that bear weapons, such as Hamas, from campaigning in eastern Jerusalem but will allow Fatah, that has an armed militia, to campaign in eastern Jerusalem.

It should be noted that when Minister Ezra was interviewed again in a live interview on Israel Radio's noon newsmagazine he dropped the reference to barring parties that had weapons and instead said that the requirement is that the parties accept the road map.


2.   Sunday night Jan 8, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice discussed the forthcoming Palestinian elections to the legislative council on the telephone with Palestinian Authority chairman Abu Mazen. Jerusalem was not briefed, DEBKAfile's political sources report.

Twelve hours later, the US consul in Jerusalem Jacob Walles visited Abu Mazen's office in Ramallah with an oral message from President George W. Bush. According to our sources, it was a presidential guarantee that all the Palestinian parties running for election on Jan 25 would be allowed to campaign openly in East Jerusalem, eligible voters in the city would be permitted to cast their votes through local post offices, and the voter slips of all Palestinian parties without exception would be available in the balloting booths.

The Israeli government was not informed of the extraordinary step taken by Bush over its head and in respect of Israeli sovereign territory.

The step has some disturbing implications:

1. The Bush administration took advantage of Ehud Olmert's having been less than a week in the job of acting prime minister and treated his reluctance to undertake firm decisions -- as long as prime minister Ariel Sharon's condition was uncertain -as a leadership vacuum in Jerusalem. Without a word, administration officials marked down the goings-on around Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem and Olmert's slowness to rise to the challenge.

2. Olmert's failure to come down decisively on the Jerusalem issue has a serious consequence: Washington's intercession enables the terrorist Hamas group to fly its green flags and hold rallies on Temple Mount with its standard calls for jihad against Israel, as well as piling its voter slips at Israeli government post offices as an option for the Palestinian voter. By this device, the backhanded recognition of a Palestinian terrorist organization sworn to destroy the Jewish state has been thrust down the interim government's throat.

3. The Bush administration showed no consideration for Olmert's efforts to find his feet as head of government, bid for the leadership of Kadima party and fight a tough election.

Governing circles in Jerusalem were stunned by the White House action. They asked if Bush wanted Binyamin Netanyahu and Likud to win the March election having awarded him the edge on the Jerusalem issue. Part of the shock derived from the Israeli ministers' mistaken conviction that Abu Mazen would postpone the election to prevent the Hamas beating his ruling Fatah. DEBKAfile's sources repeatedly reported that the White House would insist on the Palestinian vote taking place on schedule -- even at the price of a Hamas win and regardless of Sharon's indisposition and a transitional administration very much at sea in Jerusalem.

There are still hopes in Israeli government circles that the two US officials David

Welch and Elliot Abrams due this week will help moderate some of the particulars of the Bush pledge to the Palestinian leader. But the chances of this are slim.

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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RACHEL CORRIE'S PARENTS
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 10, 2006.

Just recently, Palestinian terrorists failed to kidnap the parents of Rachel Corrie in the Gaza Strip. They tried, but backed off when they learned the identity of their would-be victims.

The Corrie parents were in the Gaza Strip as part of their global campaign to get the world to commemorate their daughter's death by destroying Israel. They are also trying to get terror lovers from around the world to boycott the Caterpiller company for the crime of selling bulldozers to Israel, some of which are used to fight terror.

You will recall that Rachel Corrie inadvertently committed suicide by challenging an Israeli military bulldozer to a game of chicken as part of her attempt to prevent it from destroying houses hiding a smuggling tunnel, through which Palestinian terrorists were bringing in explosives to murder Jewish civilians. Corrie died after being taken away for care in a Palestinian medical facility. The Israeli bulldozer driver insisted he had not seen Corrie at all, who was hidden from his line of sight, and otherwise hewould have stopped the machine. Corrie had been dispatched to Gaza and to her suicide death by the pro-terror International Solidarity Movement. (ISM, which really stands for "I Support Murderers".) Corrie has since become the martyr saint for the pro-terror lobby and is even celebrated by David Duke. p>Her parents were touring the area when the people their daughter died for tried to kidnap them, as well. According to the news report:

Palestinian gunmen burst into a Rafah house early Wednesday and tried to kidnap the parents of Rachel Corrie, who was killed in 2003 as she protested the impending demolition of a house in the southern Gaza town, according to a witness.

The five gunmen appeared to be affiliated with the Fatah movement, according to Samir Nasrallah, the Corries' host. The gunmen eventually relented after being told who their targets were, he said.

Corrie, of Olympia, Wash., was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 as she tried to stop it from demolishing Nasrallah's house. Her parents, Craig and Cindy, have repeatedly visited Nasrallah since their daughter's death. They left Gaza safely after the attempted kidnapping, Nasrallah said.

All this comes just a few days after a British "peace activist," in Gaza to help the terrorists, was kidnapped together with her parents but then released, as was an Italian leftist. Seems that Palestinian terrorists are having trouble separating theWesterners who are in town to assist terrorism from other Western infidels.

This should have been a marvelous opportunity for the Corrie parents to learn first hand just what Palestinian terrorism is all about and just why Israel needs to fight terrorism with a variety of means at its disposal, including bulldozers.

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. Contact him by email at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il

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ARAFAT IS BACK
Posted by Zelasko, Aryeh, January 10, 2006.

This article was written by Aaron Klein, World Net Daily's Jerusalem bureau chief, and published today (www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48267).

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian terror groups have a new rocket named after late PLO leader Yasser Arafat that is capable of reaching Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, a senior terror leader involved in rocket-making told WorldNetDaily, warning his group's missiles will be launched regularly from Judea and Samaria into major Israeli cities.

"Our new rocket, called Arafat 1, will prove to the Israelis that Arafat's spirit is still alive and that he is continuing to fight them and hit them even after his disappearing," said Abu Oudai, a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades responsible for coordinating the group's rocket network in Judea and Samaria.

Judea and Samaria are referred to by some as the West Bank, the name coined for the area by Jordan after it annexed the territories in 1948.

The Al Aqsa Brigades was founded in 2000 as the military wing of Arafat's Fatah party and has carried out scores of suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks from Gaza.

Palestinian terror groups have launched hundreds of Qassam rockets from Gaza into nearby Jewish communities the past few years but largely have refrained from firing rockets in Judea and Samaria, which are within range of Israel's major cities. Also roughly 200,000 Jews live within Judea and Samaria.

Qassams are improvised rockets that can travel approximately three miles. Some have traveled further. Israeli officials repeatedly have warned a rocket attack from Judea and Samaria would be met with a large-scale military response.

Israel last week announced a rocket was fired from northern Samaria, claiming it was the first-ever launching from the area. It said the weapon was a Jenin-1, a less advanced rocket that can travel about one mile. Israeli Defense Forces military censors had delayed publication of the incident for three weeks. The IDF did not carry out a large-scale retaliatory raid in response to the rocket firing.

Oudai told WND his group already has fired six rockets -- not one -- from northern Samaria.

"[The rocket in the news last week] was not the first time we shot rockets from Jenin to the settlements of the enemy inside the green line. It is the enemy who for the first time has admitted that these rockets exist in [Judea and Samaria] and that they were shot against Israeli targets. We have launched six times and with the help of Allah we will launch these rockets regularly and there will no calm, no cease fire until the occupation leaves our land."

Israeli security officials confirmed to WND at least three rockets so far have been launched from northern Samaria.

Oudai said his group's new Arafat-1 rocket is stockpiled in Judea and Samaria for future use and is the most advanced Palestinian rocket yet, warning it can hit Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

"The Arafat can reach every goal we want all over the enemy state. ... I don't need to tell you that the aerial distance from Jenin to Netania, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities is not big without telling what are all our plans concerning hitting Israeli settlements [in Judea and Samaria]. We can reach any point inside Israel, but I will not mention what are the regions we are ready to shoot from."

Israel has warned terrorists are attempting to transfer rockets from Gaza to Judea and Samaria. It has arrested several Palestinians attempting to infiltrate northern Samaria with rockets, sparking fears the rockets will become the new strategic weapon for Palestinian terror groups, frustrated over their admitted difficulty in carrying out suicide bombings due to Israel's uncompleted security fence.

The IDF has not been able to stop the rockets regularly fired from Gaza into nearby Israeli Negev towns. It previously responded with surgical missile strikes and artillery fire at areas it says are used to launch rockets. Last month, Israel set up a buffer zone in sections of Gaza occasionally used to fire rockets into Israel, but the Palestinian terrorists shifted their launching sites to other areas and have continued the attacks.

Asked if he fears Israel's threatened massive military response to his planned rocket firings, Oudai told WND, "Israel already has used all its tools. Tanks, aircrafts, assassinations and everything it could use. But we are still here and still fighting. We do not get excited from the Israeli threats. What can be this unprecedented reaction? They have already tried everything."

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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BUT HE'S NOT DEAD YET, OR IS HE?
Posted by Batya Medad, January 9, 2006.

The big, famous international Newsweek Magazine has decided to consider Arik Sharon dead, for editorial purposes, and you can read a slew of obituaries. It's so ironic. For decades he was an international pariah. Actually, here, in Israel, too, he was constantly condemned and hated. He was considered the Israeli who had no chance of ever being elected Prime Minister.

They hated him for supporting settlement in the Land of Israel. They hated him for being the bulldozer who cleaned terrrorists out of Gaza, the City of Gaza. They hated him for his role in defeating Egypt in the Yom Kippur War.

Then he was elected Prime Minister, and the still hated him.

But then he announced that for absolutely no reason, without Israel's getting anything in return, he wa! s going to throw good, hardworking innocent Jews out of their homes in Gush Katif and Northern Shomron, and suddenly, they--the "world" and Israel's media and left-wing forgot all the past and loved him.

Did he do it for that love? I don't know. Could be. At the same time, it was discovered that he and his sons were involved with all sorts of "shady dealings," bribes[1] and the like.

It makes you wonder.

1.  BBC News, "Police find 'Sharon bribe clues'," news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4579156.stm

Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il This is archived at shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2006/01/ is-sun-really-shining

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ISRAEL MUST CLAIM VICTORY OVER PALESTINE
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 9, 2006.

This was written by Amir Taheri, an Iranian, who is author of 10 books on the Middle East and Islam. He is a member of benador associates. The article appeared in The Australian (www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,17763837,00.html) today.

AS Ariel Sharon fights for his life, his sudden removal from centre stage has already had the effect of a political earthquake in the Middle East. It is not only Israel that ponders the post-Sharon era with apprehension. Judging by the coverage of the Arab media in recent days, the broader Middle East is also concerned about the imponderables of a post-Sharon era.

While the al-Jazeera satellite channel was airing the jubilant utterances of radical Arabs over Sharon's stroke, more moderate Arabs appearing on the rival channel al-Arabiyah acknowledged that the Israeli leader had become the Palestinians' "most serious partner for peace".

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak has described Sharon as "a man of peace", echoing his Tunisian counterpart Zin El Abidine Ben Ali's "esteem and admiration" for the Israeli leader. Sharon also has a surprising number of friends in other Arab countries, from Oman to Mauritania, Qatar, Jordan and Morocco. In the wider Muslim world, Sharon has fostered a "working dialogue" with leaders in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan, with a view to establishing diplomatic ties.

Things were different even a year ago, as far as Sharon's image in Arab and Islamic countries was concerned. At that time the former general was seen by many as the quintessential "Zionist enemy", as portrayed by years of propaganda.

What changed that was what Israel's interim prime minister Ehud Olmert describes as "the Gaza magic". This was the first time that an Israeli leader had made a unilateral withdrawal from disputed Arab territory without being subjected to internal or external pressures. At the same time, Sharon proceeded with the construction of his "security fence", and insisted there would be no further unilateral withdrawals.

All that gave Sharon a new image, one that resembles a holograph.

Seen from one angle, Sharon appeared as the man of peace that a majority of Israelis have longed for since the 1980s. The fact that he promised that there would be no more withdrawals did not bother the "peace-now" Israelis, who were more convinced by what they saw in Gaza than what they heard from Sharon.

Seen from another angle, the Sharon holograph presented a leader who had given up Gaza in a tactical move to be better able to hang on to the West Bank. That image appealed not only to Likudniks, Sharon's former party colleagues, but also to the more enthusiastic partisans of Greater Israel. They preferred to ignore what they saw in Gaza and focus on what Sharon said about his determination not to make any more unilateral concessions.

The holograph earned Sharon a place that no previous Israeli leader had enjoyed in public opinion. According to most recent polls, almost two-thirds of all Israelis believed that Sharon was the man to lead the country at this moment. That would almost certainly not have been translated into Knesset seats for Kadima, Sharon's new party, in March's election. But enough of that support would have come in the form of votes to give Sharon a lead to reclaim the premiership.

Was the Sharon holograph an illusion or, worse still, a political conjuror's trick to mislead friends and confuse enemies? No. Sharonism, to coin a phrase, reflects the complex realities of the Israel-Palestine solution.

Sharon is an instinctual politician, an increasingly rare breed, in the sense that he can cut through the metapolitical stuff that renders political decision-making difficult or, at times, impossible.

As a professional soldier, Sharon saw that Israel had won all its wars with the Arabs in military terms but failed to translate those victories into lasting political gains. At some point he must have wondered why.

For a war to be won it is not enough for one side to claim victory, although that is essential. It is also necessary for one side to admit defeat. The problem in the case of the Arab-Israeli wars, however, was that the side that had won every time was not allowed to claim victory while the side that had lost was prevented from admitting defeat.

This was a novel situation in history, throughout which the victor and the vanquished had always acknowledged their respective positions and moved beyond it in accordance with a peace imposed by the victor.

In the Israeli-Arab case this had not been done because each time the UN had intervened to put the victor and the vanquished on an equal basis and lock them into a problematic situation in the name of a mythical quest for an impossible peace.

In this novel situation, bizarre new concepts were invented to prevent the normal mechanisms of war and peace from functioning. These include such concepts as land for peace and peace with justice.

There is, however, not a single instance in history in which the winner of a war has given the loser any land in exchange for peace. Nor is there a single instance in which justice and peace have gone together as Siamese twins. In every case the winner wins the land and gives the loser peace. In every case the peace that is imposed is unjust to the loser and just to the winner.

Without going far back into history, it is sufficient to glance at some of the dozens of wars in Europe, Asia and Africa in recent decades to see that they all ended with a peace designed, if not dictated, by the winner. Thus for more than 50 years Israel and the Arabs have been asked to achieve what no other warring parties have ever achieved.

Israel-Palestine became the only conflict to defy a resolution. Successive Israeli governments preferred to wait until there was a Palestinian partner that would accept the kind of peace Israel could offer. This was mirrored by the Palestinians, who were asked by their Arab brothers and others in the UN to wait until Israel offered a peace they would like.

Sharon understood that if such a formula remained in force there would never be peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It was necessary for the victor to claim victory, regardless of what anyone else said. It was also necessary for the victor to take unilateral action by imposing the peace it could live with.

Paradoxically, many Palestinians say, even in public, that they would rather see Sharonist unilateralism at work than a prolongation of the stalemate that has lasted since 1948. It was clear that Sharon, his denials notwithstanding, was planning to claim victory for Israel and impose an Israeli peace.

That Israeli peace would see Gaza and perhaps up to 90 per cent of the West Bank allocated to a putative Palestinian state, while Israel would demarcate its permanent border on the ground, part of which would run along the security fence.

That would not be the kind of land-for-peace deal that UN resolutions have called for since 1968, nor would it satisfy the radical Arabs, who would not see any peace as just without the elimination of Israel.

Sharon may never return to the helm. But Sharonism need not fade away. It is still possible for Israel to create on the ground the kind of peace it can live with and then let the Palestinians decide whether or not they, too, can live with it. My guess is that they will.

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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HOMICIDE/SUICIDE BOMBING RAGES OUT OF CONTROL IN IRAQ
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 9, 2006.

Embedded within the emerging dysfunctional enclave of Iraq a perilous potential pandemic of Armageddon proportions rages out of control. On a daily basis, homicidal/suicidal muddled Muslim martyring maniacs shrouded in explosives, mesmerized by visions of aroused vestal virgins in Allah heaven, detonate body and soul murdering scores of nearby victims, deluded into believing this heinous act will assure them a piece of that action in paradise. Could anything that so overrides the secular survival instinct be more bizarre? Could such a cerebrally twisted abomination be anything other than an infectious disease, sadomasochistically brewed and disseminated by ranting raving savagely satanic maniacal mullahs in House of Saud financed hybrid techno-human bomb factories euphemistically named madrassas, mostly festering within the poisonously porous boundaries of a morally impoverished Pakistan? Indeed, even the drug-induced macabre imagination of Edgar Allan Poe would be hard-pressed to ooze out a blood-curdling subhuman scenario to match this blighted reality.

Yet, relatively short shrift is given to this mutated behavior by a what-me-worry world, more adept at doling out extortion money to those fossil fuel providing Jew/infidel despising Wahhabi underwriting robed Saudi rogues, than close up shop on the deadly financial dealings perpetrated by the Sauds ironically to keep their own fulminating fanatical extortionists from insurrecting the debauched kingdom they tenuously control. (What a world!) Furthermore, pusillanimous planetary pundits let politico smoothie Pakistani President Pervez Musharaff walk his own treacherous tightrope, hence "round up the usual suspects" ala Casablanca's Inspector Louie, in lieu of truly blowing away the insidious bomb factories metastasized throughout the lethal landscape he cynically stewards.

Do mostly men entrusted with the well being of this wobbly orb not comprehend the significance of that tell tale human mind-mutation from hell currently ravaging Iraq, previously rearing its psychopathic hydra head many times in places like Israel as well as America, London, Madrid, Indonesia, in effect not limited to any one spot on our one troubled home in the universe? Each instance of homicidal/suicidal madness should be marquee news yet it is not. Mankind cannot afford the luxury of ignorance! One such lunatic strapped to a nuke alas "life as we know it" is done for. The Knesset must forthwith invite worldwide political, business, scientific, academic, and religious leaders to the Israeli capital Jerusalem, conveying in earnest the dire emergency our species faces, and begin crafting a cogent policy countering the scourge that imperils our very existence. Decades of experience in this matter delegates the onus of this momentous task to the till now disrespected Jewish democracy. I reiterate, we have not a moment to lose!

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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EUPHEMISMS; WILL & IF THE P.A. SPLITS; ISRAEL PURSUES ITS OWN DISSOLUTION, WHY?
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 9, 2006.
WILL P.A. SPLIT, & WHAT THEN?

There is speculation that the P.A. will split into two components. One would be the Gaza Strip, ruled by Hamas. The other would be Judea-Samaria, ruled by Fatah. Is this likely? If it occurs, what are the consequences?

It is less likely now than half a year ago. Fatah is disintegrating even in Judea-Samaria. It may not be able to hold out long against Hamas, because it is holding on to its corruption and inter-generational rivalry, increasing its street violence, and leaving Hamas to provide social services.

If, nevertheless, the two parts disassociate from each other, there would be no occasion to demand a corridor between them and through Israel. That would reduce the risk of terrorism against Israel.

As Hamas takes over Gaza, and as it accelerates its bombardment of Israel, will Israelis still think that Sharon's abandonment of Gaza to Hamas was good for Israeli security?

ISRAELI POLICE USE BRUTALITY MORE THAN ARRESTS

No. 13891 shows that Israeli police use gratuitous brutality when they should arrest people or leave them alone because the police orders are illegal. Police harass dissidents by falsely arresting them and by vandalizing and often not returning their property.

Police do not treat riotous Arabs like that, not that I recommend they do. Prosecutors do not indict leftist politicians, but they have "investigated" some rightist ones to keep them from office.

The political thrust of this activity means that Israeli police are used to punish, intimidate, and repress dissent. The Right does not understand what is wrong with police brutality, The Left prides itself on concern for Arab human rights while those same Arabs are denying Jews human rights and Israeli police are violating Jews? human rights.

EUPHEMISMS

Brent Scowcroft reportedly asserted in the ?New Yorker? magazine that until the current Bush regime, there were 50 years of peace. The Vietnam War started about 1962, or 44 years ago, and lasted several years. Has he forgotten the inflammable Cold War? The Balkans had one war, Saddam had 2-3, Israel had at least 4, but Africa suffered many. Perhaps Mr. Scowcroft simply is 50 years behind in newspaper reading. What does he call his unrealistic "Realism"!

The Bush regime has an interesting term for Afghanistan and Iraq, the one turning to warlords and the other to Islamism: ?nascent democracies.? Equally amusingly blind.

ISRAEL PURSUES OWN DISSOLUTION. WHY?

Israel pursues its own dissolution by means of the following: (1) Keeps power undemocratically in the hands of an increasingly anti-Zionist, antisemitic, and corrupt leftist elite; (2) Fails to give a strong Jewish and Zionist education; (3) Leaves itself psychologically dependent upon gentiles, especially US, good will, for which it curbs its foreign policy and its arms industry; (4) Anticipates peace from treaties and negotiations with fanatical Arabs; (5) Makes concessions even on border security and secure borders to Arabs bent on conquering it and cedes portions of the national patrimony; (6) Lets its own Arab fifth column stay and grow; (7) Brings in masses of antisemitic Russians fraudulently passing as Jews; (8) Constantly rules against Judaism but not other religions; (9) Fails to assert Jewish rights on the Temple Mount; (10) Maintains a statist economy that prevents Israel from gaining economic independence; (11) Retains a stifling bureaucracy that over the decades has caused an exodus perhaps half as great as its immigration. Shame on Israeli leaders for making such difficulties in living there, that half the immigrants flee! You can see that some of the reasons reinforce others. p>The leftist elite runs the country almost like a Communist state, without an independent media, constituency elections, checks and balances, balance of powers, bill of rights, and by police brutality, arbitrary arrests, framing of dissidents, etc.. The government is almost all-powerful. It runs most industry (into the ground) and regulates much of the rest, hampering its growth, but pays itself well. On the other hand, the government allows foreign donations not only to its election campaigns, but also to NGOs that undermine national independence and the Jewish particularity of the State. The media misleads the people, who naively believed promises successively by Rabin, Netanyahu, Barak, and Sharon that they would defend the people. Hence it is difficult for the people to realize there is an institutional problem and they must revolt.

How can the people get themselves out of a problem they are indoctrinated against perceiving? They are trained to defame dissenters. They think that if they support a small nationalist party, they are wasting their vote, so they choose among Labor, Kadima, and Likud. Whoever wins, the people lose.

I had explained all that in terms of a neurosis that afflicts my Jewish people. My brethren are blinded and stupid. They don?t know how to extricate themselves from this situation, if they even realize they ought to. A reader offers a different explanation, with some plausible arguments. She says this self-destruction is deliberate.

She belongs to the one sector that cannot be manipulated by the government. That sector is the ultra-Orthodox. The ultra-Orthodox don?t bother with the leftist media. For that, the Left hates the ultra-Orthodox.

(The Left hates Judaism, in general. I don?t know the full explanation for that. I have to ask leftist friends what they mean, when, as the House of Israel is crumbling, they ridiculously assert that the threat to Israel is the religious. Are they worried that they would be restricted to kosher food, non-civil marriage, and partial Sabbath observance? Perhaps they are ashamed that their people increasingly adhere to traditions they consider they have advanced beyond? They have advanced beyond religion to self-absorption instead of to divine devotion, but also to greater concern for enemies than to their own people, loyalty, to drugs instead of to study, to violence instead of to cooperation, etc.. Secularism is a failure. The secular schools are a disgrace; parents are switching to religious schools. Have some secularist Jews acquired a traditional Christian-type animosity towards their people?s religion -- they hate observant Jews for tweaking their consciences by setting an example of fealty to a higher power?)

The ultra-Orthodox sector multiplies fast, and the Orthodox grows somewhat, but the leftist sector declines. The Left realizes that inevitably it would lose power to the observant. It hates the prospect. It would prefer seeing gentiles take over, than religious Jews. It brought in hundreds of thousands of Russian Christians in the guise of Jews, to dilute the Orthodox vote, and resisted bringing in Ethiopian Jews, who are Orthodox.

(Perhaps there also were other factors, in addition. First, Israel drew up the Law of Return with loopholes. That is what legislators produce -- loopholes. The Knesset, like Congress, is replete with hacks. Second, the aliyah agents did not maintain strict standards, the better to seem to be successful. Third, Russians committed fraud. On the other hand, the media and government ignored the problem for a long time and resisted Jewish efforts to deal with antisemitic immigration. Part of their reluctance, however, may have been due to the usual problem-avoidance and responsibility-eschewing and to foreign pressure.)

My reader?s thesis goes on to suggest that Israel?s leaders have turned to the Arabs. If they can?t rule Israel indefinitely, as they would feel is their divine right if they believed in the divinity, then they won?t let the religious replace them. They?d let the Arabs take over. Hence they are selling out Israel piecemeal, and we mean selling -- some for money and some for pats on the head. They resisted Jewish settlement of the Territories, encourage and subsidize Arab settlement of them, and try to turn over the Territories, part of Jerusalem, and who knows what else to the Arabs. They would leave Israel indefensible, and they are not so stupid as not to know it.

(I agree that there is the terrible corruption and psychological dependency upon gentiles by these deracinated Jews. There also IS a philosophy among these left-wing secularists against Zionism. However, that philosophy may be traced back to Hebrew University before statehood. Judah P. Magnes and Martin Buber had a na?ve belief in bi-nationalism and appeasement that no Arab rebuff discouraged. The University quietly nurtured a generation of false scholars who came to influence the wider society. Buber wrung his hands over the prospect of the Jewish people exercising sovereign power, which could be abused. He would leave that power to the Arabs, who would use it to wring his people?s necks. Not wise, was he! His "intellectual" descendants in the university social sciences increasingly take the Arab side and encourage terrorism. The movement started and grew well before the demographic potential of the ultra-Orthodox was perceived.)

I think that all these explanations are correct, culminating in the reader?s contribution.

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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POLICE RAID HEADQUARTERS OF ISRAEL-SECESSION GROUP
Posted by Zelasko, Aryeh, January 9, 2006.

This article is by Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily's Jerusalem bureau chief, whose past interview subjects have included Yasser Arafat, Ehud Barak, Mahmoud al-Zahar and leaders of the Taliban. It is archived at www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48253.

Hundreds of cops sweep into settlement ahead of call to create own sovereignty

JERUSALEM -- A Jewish group's headquarters were raided today by hundreds of security officials just days before the movement, led by residents of Judea and Samaria, was to present a plan calling for Jews of the area to secede from Israel and create their own autonomous Jewish entity.

The massive police raid came after a WorldNetDaily article this weekend broke the story regarding the Judea Initiative, which is seeking to gather signatures from Judea and Samaria's nearly 200,000 Jews for a manifesto declaring the creation of a sovereign Jewish authority that would govern itself independently according to Jewish law and would provide its own security.

Security officials involved in today's raid say the WND article was "read very closely."

At the order of the Israeli Defense Forces, a joint taskforce consisting of 200-300 officers from the Israeli Police Authority and Shin Bet security services swooped down on the Kfar Tapuach settlement in northern Samaria and raided the offices of the initiative's leader, northern Samaria resident Yekutel Ben Yaacov. Computers and documents were confiscated and a kennel started by Ben Yaacov several years ago to train dogs to protect area settlements was closed down.

Simultaneously, Jerusalem police and Shin Bet agents raided a Jerusalem Internet café and a nearby apartment owned by Ben Yaacov. Four computers and stacks of documents were confiscated and four café employees were taken in for questioning.

Ben Yaacov was not arrested in the raid.

On Wednesday, Ben Yaacov is set to deliver his Initiative at a conference in Jerusalem's Old City. The plan aims to create the new Jewish authority in any part of Judea and Samaria, even a small settlement, in hopes of eventually ruling the entire territory, Ben Yaacov said.

Judea and Samaria are referred to by some as the West Bank, the name coined for the area by Jordan after it annexed the territories in 1948.

Ben Yaacov's group, the Jewish Legion, was founded in 2001 to foster self-protection for Judea and Samaria communities plagued by terror attacks. His Judea Initiative is a new movement of the Legion not yet officially made public.

"We have been around for four years. Suddenly, they raid my offices three days before the conference to announce our initiative? The authorities are hysterical. They want to stop this initiative, but now they have succeeded in giving it a lot of publicity, so the conference, which doesn't violate any law, will go on and probably draw even bigger crowds," Ben Yaacov told WND.

Mikey Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Israeli Police Authority, had no comment about whether the raid was in response to the initiative conference.

A high-level source close to the raid told WND, "The raid was in the works for several weeks. It is the result of the movement's activities and planned activities."

The source said WND's article breaking the story about Ben Yaacov's plans to call for Jews to secede from Israel "was read very carefully and with interest."

Ben Yaacov told WND in the article his initiative was prompted by talks of Israeli withdrawals from Judea and Samaria.

"We can't sit around and wait until Israel sends the bulldozers to take down Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria before attempting to counter the next Israeli withdrawal. We are acting now so we can retain our rightful biblical heritage," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdrew Israel's Jewish communities from the Gaza Strip last summer in spite of fierce opposition from members of his own Likud party. He recently announced he was leaving Likud to start his own "centrist" party, Kadima, prompting new elections currently scheduled for March. Since then, multiple Kadima members have told reporters the new party is looking to change Israel's borders with possible withdrawals from Judea and Samaria. There have been talks of disengagements from parts of Jerusalem as well.

It's unclear as yet how Sharon's massive stroke this week and his inability to govern will affect the future politics of Israel.

Currently, Judea and Samaria is considered landlocked territory not officially recognized as part of any country. Israel calls the land "disputed." The United Nations claims Judea and Samaria is "occupied" by Israel, which maintains overall control of most of the area while the Palestinian Authority has jurisdiction in about 40 percent. The Palestinians claim a population of roughly 2.4 million, but new demographic studies show the numbers are likely inflated. The actual Palestinian population could be up to 1 million less.

Judea and Samaria remained under Jordanian rule from 1948 until Israel captured the territory 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.

Ben Yaacov says his Judea Initiative takes advantage of Judea and Samaria's murky legal status to argue for independent Jewish sovereignty.

"Legally it's a no-man's land. The Palestinians used that status to create their own authority, so there is absolutely no reason the Jews can't do the same thing. The area is the site of a lot of the Bible and has had a Jewish population for centuries. We will not allow the Israeli government to kick us out."

Many villages in the Judea and Samaria area, which Israelis commonly reefer to as the "biblical heartland," are mentioned throughout the Old Testament.

The Book of Genesis says Abraham entered Israel at Shechem (Nablus) and received God's promise of land for his offspring.

The nearby town of Beit El, anciently called Bethel meaning "house of God," is where Scripture says 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 Shilo, which is believed to be the first area the ancient Israelites settled after fleeing Egypt.

Ben Yaacov said his new Jewish authority would be "governed by Jewish law. Non-Jews, including Palestinians, are more than welcome to live there as long as they accept Jewish sovereign and agree to abide by the Seven Noahide laws, the most basic of biblical dictates."

He said the annexed territory would provide for its own security.

"A large contingent of Judea and Samaria residents served in the Israeli army. They currently defend their own settlements to a large extent. We would base ours on the same concept as Israeli security. Immediately after Israel was founded, it was attacked on all sides and it won every war because of the help of God and because of the same people we have with us."

The initiative states there are three primary reasons to form a Jewish authority in Judea and Samaria:

* "The new Jewish authority will protect Israel from terror and enhance Israeli security. It is more advantageous to have Jewish autonomy in Judea and Samaria in place of complete Palestinian autonomy, which will give the Palestinian terrorist groups more land from which to fire Qassams and launch attacks. The Jews who remain in the area will be accepting a certain level of self-sacrifice by putting themselves in harms way."

* "The creation of a Jewish authority will relieve tension and prevent bloodshed between Jew and fellow Jew by halting an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. There are hundreds of thousands of Jews in the area, some of whom may use violent resistance in the face of any withdrawal. It will also alleviate some of the tension and rifts that would be created in Israeli society by any withdrawal."

* "The new Jewish authority will offer appropriate self-determination to fulfil the national aspirations of many religious Jews in Israel. The area will be ruled by Torah law as opposed to the current anti-religious government."

Ben Yaacov's Judea Initiative is not the first major push for Jews to secede from Israel. In 1989, the late author and Knesset member Rabbi Meir Kahane, a mentor of Ben Yaacov, attempted to found the State of Judea, a Jewish state in Judea and Samaria. That effort eventually fell through.

"Ours is different in that we are starting small," explained Ben Yaacov. "We are not talking about our own state, just an entity or authority, however small or large it will be."

Reacting to the news of calls for Jews to create their own authority, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told WorldNetDaily, "This is the chaos and lawlessness [the Palestinian Authority] has warned about. If the Israeli government does not get its act together concerning the settlers, who by the way are armed to the teeth and acting like a parallel authority, the price will be paid in Palestinian blood."

Israeli government spokesmen Raanan Gissin and David Baker refused to comment on the issue.

Said Ben Yaacov, "There may be resistance at first, but eventually people will come to understand a lot of Jews in Judea and Samaria will not go along with any further withdrawals. Now those Jews will have a solution."

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AT TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY, ZIONISM IS NAZISM
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 9, 2006.
The student union at Tel Aviv University is quite active and openly seeks to promote political diversity on campus, in contrast to TAU President Itamar Rabinovich, who believes in free speech for leftists only and has tried to suppress free expression for those who criticize the operation of leftist indoctrination courses at Tel Aviv University. A course entitled "The Psychology of the 'Occupation'" is now taught in the psychology department at TAU with Rabinovich's blessings, taught by a far left "Post-Zionist" (anti-Zionist) professor. When I publicized this story, Rabinovich wrote to the heads of my own university and demanded that they silence me and punish me for the crime of revealing correct information about TAU. TThe Haifa University chiefs just laughed his letter off. For details, see http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20411.

The student union at TAU now sponsors a student-run course called "A course on the Science of Occupation", which is a leftist advocacy course ( http://www.student.co.il/DesktopDefault.aspx ). This is perfectly fine, because the student union also runs student "courses" from other points of view. But the student union has run into trouble on the leftist campus when it ran a "course" entitled "The Faculty for Zionism", taught by one Liron Zeidun (http://arutz7.co.il/news.php?id=134903 ), a non-religious Zionist student who was once active in leftist Meretz and who was running for office in the student union.

When the "Faculty for Zionism" course started operating, Tel Aviv Universitycampus was blanketed with posters against the operation of such a course, with a photo of Zeidun alongside a photo of Hitler and a swastika. You can see the poster here: http://arutz7.co.il/news.php?id=134901. Alongside Zeidun-as-Hitler is the slogan, "Don't allow history to repeat itself," meaning I guess that Zeidun will invade Poland if elected. The posters featured orange banners declaring "Highway Blockers on the Way," that is, implying that Zeidun is involved in blocking traffic as part of the protests on behalf of the expelled Gush Katif "settlers". The campus Left had also attacked Zeidun earlier when he proposed letting the Jews expelled from Gush Katif use the dorms on TAU campus, which are largely empty in the summer. The Left back then demanded that Zeidun be expelled and one leftist professor who has NOT been fired for this called Zeidun a nazi.

The swastika-cum-Hitler posters were printed up and distributed by the local Meretz chapter on TAU campus.

Neither President Rabinovich nor his foul-mouthed Marxist campus spokesman, Danny Shapiro, a senior official in Marxist Hashomer Hatzair, have spoken out against the atrocious misbehavior of leftist students and faculty in this campaign of painting a student activist as a nazi for being a Zionist.

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. Contact him by email at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il

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IS THE SUN REALLY SHINING?
Posted by Batya Medad, January 9, 2006.

Is the sun really shining?

That's what I just asked my neighbor as he jogged past my merpesset, terrace or balcony in Hebrew.

Just a few minutes before I had carefully checked the view through my small western kitchen window. That's where rain clouds gather and warn me of impending storms. All I saw was blue, lovely sky blue, called, "techelet," in Hebrew. So I closed the clothes dryer door, buttoned my bathrobe, put the wet laundry into a basket and went out the door to the merpesset. Boy, was I surprised at the wetness of it, like the rain had been falling until just a second before. The floor and chairs were dripping. So, too, were the tree branches.

Which signs should I be trusting? The cloudless sky to the west or the clouds on the east or the dripping wet surfaces all around?

I decided to take the risk and hang out the wash.

Yesterday, the electrician was over for a few minor repairs after a major one on Friday. Actually, I had asked him to do the minor ones before Friday's emergency. As usual I told him to use the best stuff, whenever there's a choice, and as usual we talked politics. I asked him if, taking into account the politicians' predictions that we'll be "disengaged" from our homes, should I have him use shoddy products that will cost me less and won't last as long.

Olmert's "We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies." policy is bad news for the Jewish People and the State of Israel.

Listening to Olmert is like following the grey-black clouds in the sky, when I have laundry to dry. We have to remember that the sun is actually in its proper place, shining brightly, even when the black clouds are accompanied by thunder and lightening. If G-d sends rain on my laundry, I have to perceive it as free "laundry softener." Today, during our Israeli winter, the 9th of the Hebrew month of Tevet, it should be raining. And the rain is a bracha, a blessing.

Ehud Olmert may be the Prime Minister, call him "acting," "temporary," "lame duck" or whatever. He also may get the position after the results of the March 28th elections. But neither he, nor any other politician, is G-d.

It's G-d who put the sun and the clouds and the moon and the stars in the sky. It's G-d who causes the rain to fall and the flowers to whither from drought.

And it's to G-d, whom we must answer when we leave this world.

And yes. The sun is really shining, even if my laundry gets wetter outside, hanging on the clothesline.

Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il This is archived at shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2006/01/ is-sun-really-shining

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STATE DEPT & HAMAS MESSAGE TO JEWS: 'GET OUT OR GET KILLED'
Posted by Eugene Narrett, January 8, 2006.

If it is a given that one has enemies, especially mortal enemies, it is helpful if they are consistent. This should help the 'read' and response of those they hate.

Many decades of evidence, of events & pronouncements large and small, of varying degrees of disingenuity and frankness, have demonstated the lethal hatred that jihadists, at one end of the spectrum, and their enablers and apologists, the US State Department at the other end direct at the Jewish people in Israel.

For such consistency of hatred to be helpful not only those who read (all paying attention) but those with the power to respond quickly, directly, and publicly must want to resist the enemy. The tragedy of our times, of the 58th century, is that those with the most power to respond have been bought off by or are ideologically complements to the sources of the anti-Jewish hatred. And so the slide toward apocalypse continues...

Because this situation is a constant of the reborn state (and pre-state Israel) we have discussed it structure and particulars many times. Its strcuture was declared at the Evian and Bermuda conferences convened by FDR in 1938 and 1943. At both of them it was decided that there was no place in the world for the Jews of Europe (see David S. Wyman, "The Abandonment of the Jews," 1998 revised edition). This demonstrated that on the issue at the nexus of the post-modern world, American foreign policy would be aligned with that of Great Britain's shadow government which was frighteningly complementary to the competing but similar agenda of the Rome-Berlin and Paris -- Rome axes.

Alas for the Jewish people if they do not have leaders of Jewish honor, identity, and clear-sightedness in such a situation. Alas that since the late 1920s, the main efforts of Labor 'Zionism' has been directed against such Jews, against any Jews who would resist its authoritarian application of "party discipline," so useful to the British and in recent decades, "the world community." The extremes to which this "hatred of one's own grace" could go among other instances in the attack on and sinking of the Altalena (June 1948) and the related sequelae that left Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem unsettled and fissionable to this day; in the use of the murder of Yitzhak Rabin to demonize the most patriotic and self-sacrificing Jews of Israel; in the unremitting media-political and legal attacks on Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon until they carried out major aspects of the Left's policy of alienation of the heartland and expulsion of Jews.

The horror; the horror.....

Three current incidents indicate the continuing presence of these tendencies and the extreme degree to which they have proceeded because Israel lacks leaders who honor and respect Judaism, the Jewish people, Jewish history and the centrality of Jewish land in all these matters of life and death; lacks leaders who will respond to the clear and present dangers and hatred of implacable foes of superficially different types but allied in fact.

1) The bad faith and malice of the forces that direct America's diplomatic establishment is writ large in the entire "land for peace" project of almost four decades running (this is effectively an extension of the policy of the British Mandate). During the past two years, despite the fact that Hamas is at war with western civilization and with America especially, the US State Department has led diplomatic -- media initiatives to sanitize and mis-represent the Hamas program of destroying Israel and replacing it with an Islamic state. In recent months, as State pressed Sharon with increasing vehemence to expel the Jews of Gush Katif and to destroy their homes, it simultaneously pressed for removal of Hamas from its own official list of terrorist groups, groups with which America ostensibly is at war and which very definitely at war with us, murdering and plotting to murder Americans every day.

As State presses to sanitize Hamas and spread its big lie about Islam as a religion of peace rather than Jihad, Israel's Minister of Defense, Shaul Mofaz, of the brand new Kadima party whose ideological shapelessness signals its subservience to foreign dictates, has compliantly announced that he could work with Hamas.

2) Hardly was this servility vented than hundreds of IDF and Border police descended upon Tapuach in the central Shomron to shut down the canine training facilities of the Jewish Legion (Gedud Ha'Ivri) whose purpose was to train patrol, guard and track-attack dogs to protect Jewish civilians in the heartland of Israel. Civilians need to fund and do this life-saving work because successive Israeli governments will not do it. Indeed (see above) they have in many ways encouraged those who hate Jews to try to murder them, thus getting Jews out of what the world and the left calls, "the occupied territories."

Look at this in simple terms: the dogs are trained to protect the lives of Jewish civilians; American diplomats want to help the Brits, briefly placate the Arabs, and keep the crisis simmering (the better for them to manage it) by getting the Jews out. The most politically 'colorable' (acceptable) way to get them out is by, 1) failing to protect them, and 2) preventing them from defending themselves. Thus the shutting down of Gedud HaIvri.

3) Iran has been threatening to blot Israel off the earth for twenty-five years. Anyone paying attention has read and watched during the past decade as they have progressed (with plenty of help from Russia and from the US (via China, thanks Mr. Clinton) into their third generation of nuclear capable missiles. It is obvious that the smaller Israel is, the more vulnerable it is to an assault by N,B, or C weapons. Yet during this same time Mr. Peres, who now, lo and behold, finds himself a kingpin in Labor Party II (Kadima) has maneuvered and called on Israel to give up or at least open up its nuclear weapons to enemy intelligence if not to the scrap heap. No Israeli politicians in positions of power have acted to destroy this looming national disaster as Menachem Begin did with a similar but lesser threat.

Indeed, American and other diplomats have played a pre-emptive game of "secret," spreading "intelligence" gossip that Israel was in fact planning to pre-empt Iranian genocide. These whispers serve only to bring pressure before-the-fact upon Israel and to nullify any kind of tactical surprise Israel might achieve.

If the American political establishment truly was a friend and ally of Israel, instead of ordering it to destroy Jewish communities and Jewish self-defense for civilian organizations (even guard dogs, for pete's sake!) it would order it to take out Iran's entire nuclear enterprises and the ayatollah's regime. The American Defense -- Diplomatic echelons would invite and assist the IAF overflight of Mesopotamia rather than suggesting it is an insuperable obstacle to Israel's pre-emption of the next holocaust. It appears American soldiers are getting murdered in Mesopotamia to destroy America's will and, maybe, to clean house in Iran AFTER the ayatollah's obliterate Israel, reducing the rubble-remnant to utter vassalage to America and vulnerability to any gangs of savages that pass through, as it was for Jews there twelve or fifteen hundred years ago.

It has been made painfully clear, rhetorically and practically in many ways that Israel is "not with us" to quote the president in whatever this "war on terror" thing is. Even more painfully, events show that, in fact and effect, Israel is "against us," at least in so far as "us" means the State Department and most of the Executive Branch of government. All the more reason that the bitter consistency of the enemies of the Jewish people, from the silk suits to the kaffiyehs, find opposing them Jewish leaders who respond to affirm the sovereignty and ensure the safety from attack of the Jewish people.

Israel will have regime change and victory or the remnant of the Jews will endure the sight of the nations erecting yet another holocaust museum/memorial and shedding crocodile tears having striven again to solve what they see as their "problem."

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ISRAEL AND THE PETRODOLLAR
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 8, 2006.

Might Israel's well-being be contingent on the perpetuation of petrodollars? It would be naïve not to suggest that a major consideration for the United States occupation of Iraq was concern over both Iraq and OPEC's primary oil trading currency. Sadist Hussein had switched from dollars to euros prior to the American lead invasion. OPEC chose a safer hence wiser course staying with greenbacks. Noting however the precarious state of the dollar relative to other world currencies perhaps the Islamic oil cartel was not so astute in a strictly business sense.

The planet's primary reserve currency continues to be the dollar. Indeed, Richard Nixon's decision in 1971 to remove his nation from the shackles of the gold standard allowed the U.S. Federal Reserve to order the U.S. Treasury Department to print dollars by fiat (I refer not to the auto but to the policy of manufacturing money on demand) enabling America to become the planet's super economic power through both industrial and dollar output. The omnipresent dollar today lubricates the world's economic engine and is substantially held in the reserve accounts of many nations. Japanese banks in fact hold over TWO TRILLION dollars in such an account. Alas, perhaps due to the luxury of this formidable monetary tool, a less than prescient America has let itself morph from primarily a manufacturing to a service economy over the last several decades, thus becoming the world's largest debtor nation. Its imbalance of trade perilously expands even though the dollar continues to drop in relative value i.e. the U.S. still imports many more products than it exports despite offering ever-cheaper prices due to a continuing reduction in the worth of its currency. No doubt, if OPEC reversed its decision to maintain petrodollars as its currency of choice opting say for petroeuros (maybe in the future petroyuans) despite America's military presence in that region, it would certainly wreck havoc on the value of the dollar hence economy of the planet's one superpower as well as the economies of many other nations. The worth of dollars would drop precipitously as panic stricken investment entities including governments would likely shed their leprous greenbacks with all due haste.

What would Israel's staunch friend and ally do to prevent such a catastrophe? If OPEC demanded that President Bush accept a Palestinian right of return for the sake of petrodollars, would he and his administration be forced to abandon the interests of the tiny besieged Jewish democracy? Would a troop-depleted America risk its economic health to preserve Israel's future Jewish identity? Could President Bush even consider an aggressive response to such extortion, or be willing to endure the wrath of his constituency? I suggest contemplating this bleak worst-case scenario, as Israel must consider all possible events to survive in its geographically hostile region of the planet. The Knesset should craft contingency plans with alacrity. Israel must not allow its fate to be governed by outcomes beyond its control.

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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PALESTINIAN POLITICALLY CORRECT ANTI-SEMITISM
Posted by David Bedein, January 8, 2006.

This is a Backgrounder on Anti-Semitism in the Palestinian Authority

Before delving into the difficult content of tonight's presentation, let us recall two seminal statements by two beacons of the last century who understood anti-semitism in its new form of anti-Zionism.

From Martin Luther King, Jr. in a speech at Harvard shortly before his assassination in 1968, from "The Socialism of Fools: The Left, the Jews and Israel" by Seymour Martin Lipset; in Encounter, (December 1969), p. 24.

"There is the 'new' anti-Semitism: anti-Zionism. It is an attack on the right of the Jewish people to self-determination and on the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state. This is not legitimate criticism of Israel, as claimed, but goes way beyond. When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews, You are talking anti-Semitism."

And from the eloquent Abba Eban, writing in the pages of The New York Times, on November 3, 1975 at the time that the UN adopted the "Zionism is Racism" resolution:

"There is no difference whatever between anti-Semitism and the denial of Israel's statehood. Classical anti-Semitism denies the equal right of Jews as citizens within society. Anti-Zionism denies the equal rights of the Jewish people its lawful sovereignty within the community of nations. The common principle in the two cases is discrimination... Israel is the only sovereign state whose legitimacy and right to exist are called into question regularly"


Exactly one year ago today, a new leader assumed power as the chairman of the PLO and as the president of the Palestinian Authority: Machmud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen. Upon his election, our news agency and research center established ABU MAZEN WATCH, to see if he would perform differently than his mentor, Yassir Arafat. This would be an appropriate time to examine the Abbas regime, in terms of one factor: the official Palestinian Authority promulgation of anti-semitism, as we look at what the PA conveys in the Arabic language, in the official organs of the PA.

Over the course of the past year. our agency and research center arranged for five ABU MAZEN WATCH briefings for staffers on Capital Hill, and four ABU MAZEN WATCH briefings in the Knesset.

The consistent message that emanated throughout the past year from the PA controlled Mosques was one of vitriolic hatred of Jews. To rub salt in the wound, the PA arranged for the official PA TV, using air waves lent to the PA from Israel in 1993, to telecast each week's sermon.

Here are excerpts from official Friday sermon on Palestinian Authority (PA) TV from the week of May 17, 2005. The preacher is Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris, a paid official of the PA. To view the sermon visit: memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=669

"Allah has tormented us with 'the people most hostile to the believers' -- the Jews. 'Thou shalt find that the people most hostile to the believers to be the Jews and the polytheists.' Allah warned His beloved Prophet Muhammad about the Jews, who had killed their prophets, forged their Torah, and sowed corruption throughout their history.

"With the establishment of the state of Israel, the entire Islamic nation was lost, because Israel is a cancer spreading through the body of the Islamic nation, and because the Jews are a virus resembling AIDS, from which the entire world suffers.

"You will find that the Jews were behind all the civil strife in this world. The Jews are behind the suffering of the nations.

"Ask Britain what it did to the Jews in the early sixth century. What did they do to the Jews? They expelled them, tortured them, and prevented them from entering Britain for more than 300 years. All this was because of what the Jews did in Britain. Ask France what it did to the Jews. They tortured them, expelled them, and burned their Talmud, because of the civil strife the Jews wanted to spark in France, in the days of Louis XIX. Ask Portugal what it did to the Jews. Ask Czarist Russia, which welcomed the Jews, who plotted to kill the Czar -- so he massacred them. But don't ask Germany what it did to the Jews. It was the Jews who provoked Nazism to wage war against the entire world, when the Jews, using the Zionist movement, got other countries to wage an economic war on Germany and to boycott German merchandise. They provoked Russia, Britain, France, and Italy. This enraged the Germans toward the Jews, leading to the events of those days, which the Jews commemorate today. memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=antisemitism&ID=SP90805


Itamar Marcus, who runs PMW, Palestine Media Watch, cited in Jewish Political Studies Review, Fall 2005, provides the following systematic analysis:

"The Palestinian religious, academic, and political elites teach an ideology of virulent hatred of Jews. The killing of Jews is presented both as a religious obligation and as necessary self-defense for all humankind.

"Palestinian Authority elites have built a three-stage case against Jewish existence, much as a prosecutor might build a case demanding a death sentence. As their expert witness, they bring Allah Himself, Who is said to have sent a message through the Prophet Muhammad that killing Jews is a necessary step to bring Resurrection.

Stage 1 is characterized by collective labeling of Jews as the enemies of Allah, possessing an inherently evil nature.

Stage 2 teaches that because of their immutable traits, Jews represent an existential danger to all humanity.

Stage 3 presents the necessary solution predetermined by Allah: the annihilation of Jews as legitimate self-defense and a service to God and man."

In a PA historical educational TV program, "The Prophets of Allah," shown April 21, 2005 on PBC TV and earlier, also on PBC TV, February 10, 2005. a "common religious indictment" was voiced:

"The Jews in Medina had forsaken the commandments of Moses and returned to worshiping gold ... The Jewish scholars would make business of the Torah: they hid [selected] pages of it, attached pages, falsified pages, and went on to become rich."

Accompanying this are portrayals of Jews as animals; in three instances, the Koran tells of Muhammad turning people into monkeys and/or pigs.

On the subject of education under Abbas, The Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (www.edume.org) has reviewed all of the new textbooks produced by the Palestinian Authority.

Of the most recent set of textbooks, CMIP says the following: "For the first time in the history of PA textbook publishing, the infamous "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" are mentioned in the text as an authentic part of Zionist history. "There is a group of confidential resolutions adopted by the [Zionist] Congress and known by the name `The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' the goal of which was world domination."- History of the Modern and Contemporary World, Grade 10

From a previous CMIP textbook review: "One must beware of the Jews, for they are treacherous and disloyal." Islamic Education for Ninth Grade

"It is mentioned in the Talmud: "We [the Jews] are God's people on earth...[God] forced upon the human animal and upon all the nations and the races that they serve us, and He spread us through the world to ride on them and hold their reigns. We must marry our beautiful daughters with kings, ministers and lords and enter our sons into the various religions, thus, we will have the final word in managing the countries. We should cheat them [the non-Jews] and arouse quarrels among them, then they fight each other? Non Jews are pigs who God created in the shape of man in order that they be fit for service for the Jews, and God created the world for them [the Jews]." -- The Contemporary History of the Arabs and the World

"The Jews claim that this is one of the places belonging to them and call it "The Western Wall", but this is not so." Reader and Literary Texts for Eighth Grade #578

"In many cases these Jews acted according to their known cunning and deceit, and they incite wars [between Arab tribes]?" -Islamic Education for Ninth Grade

"I learn from this lesson: I believe that the Jews are the enemies of the Prophets and the believers." Islamic Education, Part Two for Fourth Grade "Another reason for the hatred towards them [the Jews] was their taking over the economy?" The Contemporary History of the Arabs and the World

After our agency shared these text books with staffers and members of the US Congress last May, shortly before Abbas's visit to Capital Hill, 34 members of Congress petitioned Abbas to remove such blatant anti-semitism from the official text books of the PA.

Abbas met with Congressman Brad Sherman (D-Californian) and told him that he simply would not do so. As a result, the US Congress, without any prodding from the government of Israel or AIPAC, refused to allocate any direct funds to the PA.

Meanwhile, The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies www.wymaninstitute.org (located on the campus of Gratz College, near Philadelphia), in its annual report for 2005 ("Holocaust Denial: A Global Survey -- 2005") named the Palestinian Authority as one of the regimes that promotes Holocaust denial.

It is instructive to note that Abbas has never denounced his own PHD thesis which denies the holocaust and posits the specious connection between Zionism and Nazism.

At the same time, denial of the Jewish historic connection to the land remains part of the anti-Semitism in Palestinian Authority under Abbas.

On December 13, 2005, we read on the official PA International Press Center site:

In presenting fabrications about construction Israel is planning (allegedly digging under the Al Aksa Mosque), this site says the construction includes "a heritage centre -- dedicated to show a fabricated heritage that might will help them to deceive the foreign visitors into believing Jerusalem as a historical place of the Jews." www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=12400

And only last week. The official PA News Agency site known as WAFA, claimed on January 3, 2006, came a similar charge, that Israel had built a synagogue under the Al Aksa Mosque, the Mufti of Jerusalem, a paid official of the PA, is cited as saying,

"constructing such a synagogue proves that the Israelis did not find any sign for the Temple, that is why they made up some rooms to vaguely narrate their religious history." english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=5054

Palestinian Media Watch reported a TV show on official PBC TV which ran in December 2005 which transforms ancient Canaanites into Arabs, which remains a huge historical inaccuracy.

"The Arab Canaanites established ports on the coast of the Land of Canaan, known today as Palestine. The ports were Acre, Haifa, ... Caesarea, ... Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza and Jaffa ...

In other words, this new Palestinian culture claims that Joshua committed the first crimes of transfer and genocide of a Palestinian Arab population.

It gets worse, with Abbas's official Palestinian Authority media making blood libel accusations against Jews:

Just five days after Abbas's ascent to power, an official Palestinian Authority information office made the following claim:

"...Anyone who lived among the Jews knows that they actually prepare a certain and special sacrifice which is holy for them, not only without the others knowing about this, but also after taking out the children and women and shutting the windows and doors in the room where they prepare the sacrifice, and mostly in the night, the night of the Passover holiday. The Jewish 'Hasidic' sect puts Christian blood -- if they manage to get hold of it -- in this sacrifice. Some of the Jews' defenders try to adopt the thought that they do actually need blood for this sacrifice, but they don't get hold of it necessarily through the crime of murder; what is important is to get hold of the blood in any way. Yet this view is not correct, for the secret in this crazy ceremony demands the blood of an innocent Christian child who is a martyr? Likewise, the fanatic Jews in the holiday of Purim? kill one of the Christians, and prepare flat triangular breads after mixing them with blood, and then they distribute these breads to the Jews everywhere?" Al-Watanvoice (A Palestinian Internet Daily newspaper from Gaza), January 13 2005) www.alwatanvoice.com/pulpit.php?go=articles&id=15669

Earlier this year, an Arabic translation of the entire "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" was posted on the official PA State Information Service website. It was removed on May 18, after an official ADL protest. www.adl.org/PresRele/IslME_62/4716_62.htm

However, "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" remained in the new PA text books, despite the aforementioned appeal of 34 Members of the US Congress for its removal.

And then there is the PA allegation that Israel is spreading biological warfare in the PA population.

In an interview published in June 2005 in the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Shark al-Awsat, Yousef Abu Safieh, the Palestinian Minister of Environment, claimed that Israel is deliberately "dispersing cancerous materials to kill Palestinians". http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/5812.htm


And only last month, we see statements calling for Israel's annihilation, such as the one cited by Palestinian Media Watch in December 2005, describing a show on PA TV: "It is time for you [Israelis] to be gone. Live wherever you like, but don't live among us. It is time for you to be gone. Die wherever you like, but don't die among us. We have the past here. We have the present, the present and the future. So leave our country, our land, our sea, our wheat, our salt, our wounds. Everything. And leave the memories."

And only last month, MEMRI released a transcript of an interview that ran on Palestinian TV on December 21, 2005. This is an interview with Umm Nidal, Palestinian Legislative Council Candidate and the mother of three Hamas terrorists who were killed while taking part in "martyrdom" operations.

Among the things she says: "All the Palestinians share the same view. They are not divided. The only ones who disagree and think otherwise are, of course, the foreigners, who have no sympathy for us or for our cause, and who know nothing about us. They are the ones who think that this man has come to kill innocent people. This is what they think. But we, as Muslims, think differently. We are familiar with the Koranic verse: 'One who attacks you, attack him in like manner.'

"These are war necessities. How can we win otherwise? It's true we carry out operations against the military and its soldiers, but [killing civilians] is a war necessity. They are all occupiers to begin with. Whoever comes from abroad and lives on the land of Palestine is considered an occupier, even if they are women or old people. They are all occupiers.

" ... You know this land belongs to someone else, so how can you come and live on it? Therefore, all Israelis are considered occupiers of our land. There is no difference between men and women ... They are all occupiers, and we must fight them by any legitimate means... All means are legitimate as long as the occupation continues. There is no difference [between soldiers and civilians]. This is Islamic religious law. I don't invent anything. I follow Islamic religious law in this. A Muslim is very careful not to kill an innocent person, because he knows he would be destined to eternal Hell. So the issue is not at all simple. We rely on Islamic religious law when we say there is no prohibition on killing these people.

"The word 'peace' does not mean the kind of peace we are experiencing. This peace is, in fact, surrender and a shameful disgrace. Peace means the liberation of all of Palestine, from the [Jordan] to the [Mediterranean] Sea. When this is accomplished -- if they want peace, we will be ready. They may live under the banner of the Islamic state. That is the future of Palestine that we are striving towards. "...We do not expect them to accept this. These people are occupiers, and we want to banish them from our land."

In conclusion, when Palestinian statements about `settlements' and `occupation' are examined closely, it becomes clear that they refer to all of Israel, within the pre-1967 Green Line.

Just look at the new PA school books. Israel is not on their new maps.

And look at the January, 2006 edition of The Palestinian Ministry of Tourism's monthly publication, known as THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE.

Tel Aviv is defined as an Israeli built up area in Palestine. The entity known as Israel does not exist.

All this is in keeping with the" raison d'etre" of the The PLO, which was established by the Arab League, whose sole purpose remains Israel's annihilation, remains at war with the state and people of Israel, and never agreed to any cessation of violence (the Declaration of Principles was not ratified by the PLO on October 6th 1993) and has never agreed to canceling its covenant of war with Israel (Covenant was not cancelled by the PLO -- not on April 24th 1996 nor on December 14th 1998).

The only change ever adopted by the PLO was the 1974 a.m.endment proposed by Abbas, which mandated that Israel could be destroyed in stages, and that PLO sovereignty should be established on any area taken back, until all of Palestine could be "liberated"

The government of Israel has not recently made the official PA anti-semitism into an issue at this time.

The Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman said on January 8th, 2006 that the Israel's anti-incitement committee has not been convened for over a year.

Moreover, when I met with top officials of Israeli intelligence on October 27th, 2005, to ask about their assertion that PA incitement had lessoned, they responded by saying that they do not define anti-semitism as incitement, and that their only definition of incitement would be a direct call to kill Jews.

Yet throughout Jewish history, what preceded calls to kill Jews were the systematic demonization of the Jew, to reduce the Jew to a less than human status, and that is what Abbas's regime has accomplished in one year in power.

After all, the PA remains the first entity since the Third Reich to endorse the cold blooded murder of Jews.

Yet no Israeli governmental institution and no Jewish organization whose task it is to monitor anti-semitism has demanded that the PLO or its administrative outlet, the PA to cease and desist from anti-semitic incitement

Under Abbas, every official Palestinian Authority avenue of communication conveys a clear message of anti-semitism, which would not be tolerated anywhere else in the world.

The question remains: When will someone galvanize a new effort to challenge what could be described as a new form of "Palestinian politically correct anti-semitism"?

David Bedein is Bureau Chief of The Israel Resource News Agency (http://Israelbehindthenews.com), which is based in Jerusalem.

Scheduled to be delivered as a paper in the seminar series at the Fuchsberg Center for Conservative Judaism, 4 Agron Street, Jerusalem, Israel, on January 9th, 2006.

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SO WE WAIT
Posted by Rachel Saperstein, January 8, 2006.

We are almost five months into our expulsion. Families have taken up residency in the trailer camps of Nitzan and Yad Binyamin. Those families going to the Ein Tzurim camp are still here in the hotels waiting for the infrastructure to be completed so their trailers can be put in place. And so they wait.

Moshe and I wait for the call from SELAH, the Expulsion Authority, that the damage to our trailer is repaired and we can get THE KEY. Time is of the essence for us as we are awaiting the imminent birth of twin grandchildren. Once our youngest daughter gives birth I will be going into grandmother mode for the first month. Certainly a move at the same time will be most difficult. And so we wait.

The media has returned after a five month hiatus. The fate of 10,000 displaced Jews doesn't interest them. The destruction of our homes, our farms and synagogues in flames, doesn't interest them. Traumatized Jews in hotels, hostels and tent cities doesn't interest them. Children without schools doesn't interest them. Adults without jobs doesn't interest them.

What does interest them?

"How do you feel as Ariel Sharon moves closer to death?" the CBS tv presenter asked me.

My answer: "Ariel Sharon was a great general. For Ariel Sharon the general I weep. For Ariel Sharon, who used the Knesset, the army and the police to wipe Gush Katif off the face of the earth, I cannot weep. For Prime Minister Ariel Sharon I do not weep."

There is no joy nor are there tears at the fate of Ariel Sharon. We have cried copious tears at our fate. We have none left for the Prime Minister.

A very fine woman comes with her daughter and grandchild to our hotel twice a week to give a crafts lesson to our women. Today each woman prepared a charming picture to decorate her home. "When I first came no one wanted to create something to decorate her home. They had just lost their homes and could not relate to any crafts that reminded them of home. And so we made jewelry. Today they are joyfully into home decorating. They see a future -- a wall to decorate."

And so we wait. While others wait for news about the Prime Minister we wait for a call to start a home. A trailer, perhaps, but we will make it into a home.


OPERATION DIGNITY is now an Amuta, or Non-Profit Organization. OPERATION DIGNITY is the umbrella organization to which "The Band Aid Fund" belongs. We are continuing to give packets of money to each family from Neve Dekalim. "The Simcha Fund" helps families with brits, bar- and bat-mitzvahs and weddings. "The Seed Fund" helps families settle into Nitzan and other communities. Send a contribution to

Central Fund for Israel
Rehov Hagoel 13
Efrat 90435
Israel
Earmarked: Band-Aid Fund

OR

Central Fund for Israel
attention: Arthur Marcus
Marcus Bros. Textiles
980 Sixth Avenue
New York, NY 10018 USA
Earmarked: Band-Aid Fund

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REBUTTING KRAUTHAMMER'S ARTICLE ON SHARON
Posted by Evelyn Hayes, January 8, 2006.
This comes from Shmuel HaLevi of Radio Free Israel. Respond to schmooze@jewishworldreview.com

I would like to address Mr. Krauthammer's article regarding the purported loss to the Nation as general Sharon succumbed to multiple brain hemorrhages after a life long affliction with a heart defect.

It remains to be ferreted out how come with a huge hole on his heart, quite possibly causing life long brain irrigation limitations, he was allowed to control military forces and even reaching other functions. That on its own is a fascinating idea.

Be that as it may I also contact you as a resident of the State of Israel, a father of two soldiers and a decorated soldier myself. A husband, father, grandfather, teacher, senior engineer formerly with US Military Avionics Program system, a patent holder and writer and above all, a JEW.

A LIKUD Central Committee veteran member, a National Security & Foreign Relations former Committee Member, since 1998 or so, an Invited Consultant to the Ministry of Defense. A veteran Graduation Officer on behalf of the Ministry of Education as well. Also a former Chairman for the election of General Sharon. I was also a US Democratic Party Member.

There is no such loss Mr. Krauthammer.

We do not wish for Sharon's death. But his passing, should it come, cannot be any more timely.

On the contrary to your rather out of place analysis, we propose that the individual's passing from power can only serve for the good of the Nation and to help us emerge from a nightmare of self hatred, if Mr. Peres also retires and with him the criminals in the "kadima" aggregate created by Miss. Rice and the local unJews. Mr. Peres is the most virulent anti Jewish person ever to be in positions of power here by art of machinations reaching into outright criminality. Never elected but yet up there as a death mask over all of us.

I know the Sharons in person and there are not many families so twisted as that one.

We, many of us, observed that gang's activities during Sharon's Campaign and quickly left that nest.

I would advise you to get your compass back to order and seek real information before you commit more harm to us all.

As far as Olmert is concerned. Having been posted at No. 33 in the LIKUD list, represented our 3000 core of very sound electors view of his worth then and even more now. Details about that person's nefarious history abound if you wish them.

We wish Sharon, his sons and everyone in the "kadima" cesspool a long life, away, far away from any connection with our National destiny and with them anyone aligned with that trash. Omri is a convicted criminal on his father's behalf. And Sharon himself is heavily suspected of even bigger crimes.

By the way.

Mr. Ezrah was with me in Karmiel in November and I as well as others let him know, one on one, what a South American Junta goon was like and compared his psychopaths with those of Pinochet. He sat with his very nice wife next to him and did not react to the plain truth. Ezrah attended my daughter's Leah wedding a few years back and we remained in touch. Until he joined the Sharon's groups.

Also with darling Hanegbi and adorable Livni. ... ...

Mr. Bar On was also here several times, before, during and after the Bar On -- Hebron affair.

Of course we are quite aware about Mr. Ramon and Miss Itzik's connections as well.

You will have to believe me that due to his condition I very much had preferred not to have to perform my duty in this fashion, but you simple must be brought to understand that ANYONE that attacks any of my fellow Jews, and Sharon did that repeatedly since Yamit through Gush Katif, will have rigid responses, as harsh as we can manage them to be.

Mr. Sharon was one of the most corrupt, untrustworthy, treacherous, bribe-riddled individuals ever to raise to power anywhere and so are his sons and most of his associates. Please check the post Sabra & Shatilla High Court Judge led Commission conclusions about that individual.

Refrain from selling snake oil Mr. Krauthammer and accept the facts as they really are, be that as unpleasant to US resident Jews as it may be.

Evelyn Hayes is author of "The Eleventh Plague, Twins, because their hearts were softened to accept the unacceptable" and "The Twelfth Plague, Generations, because the lion wears stripes." Contact her at haze@rcn.com.

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ISRAEL'S NAPOLEON
Posted by Marcel Cousineau, January 8, 2006.

Olmert -- Business as Usual

Instead of closing down Hamas, Israel's replacement moron goes after any seemingly strong Jewish groups who pose a possible threat to their surrender and appeasement policies of Israel under the Bush Road Map.

The high crime of Jews having dogs is not tolerated while they release Islamic terrorists from Israeli prisons to make room for these Jews. This is called "IDF closes radical organization in West Bank settlement of Tapuah" -- that's a Jewish group, of course. It's from Haaretz (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/667605.html)

The Israel Defense Forces GOC Central Command General Yair Naveh on Sunday ordered the closure of the offices and storage facilities of the radical right-wing organization "The Hebrew Battalion" in the West Bank settlement of Tapuah.

About 200 officers participated in the operation.

The organization was shut down after military intelligence showed it was associated with the illegal Kach movement, the extreme right-wing political movement founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kach was outlawed in 1994 after member Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Muslims in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

The intelligence information on the Hebrew Battalion raised suspicions of extremist activity, police spokesman Shlomi Sagi said.

police confiscated equipment from the group's meeting room and cafeteria, plus six dogs that organization members had trained to help them on "patrols" Police confiscated equipment from the group's of the West Bank and to attack Palestinians.

General Naveh issued the order to close the organization with the approval of Attorney General Menahem Mazuz.

Police also raided a Jerusalem Internet cafe near the central bus station that was allegedly used by "The Hebrew Battalion" and a Jerusalem apartment where inhabited by suspected activists in the right-wing organization.

One comment on the Haaretz article said:

These are volunteers standing guard in settlements. "These Jews should be comended and not attacked. If this is the extent the government will go to fight terror then it is a very sad state of affairs. Patrolling a settlement with dogs is a crime now. The fence will leave about 70,000 Jews unprotected. What should they do? It is only normal to have some type of civilion patrol. Again the government is using the settlers as pawns to be killed in cold blood unprotected."

Another wrote:
"Once more our brave I.D.F. are called into "combat" After forcibly expelling the "enemy" Jews from Gaza and Shomron they are now expelling vicious dogs and extreme settlers from Tapuach. All this while scores of Kassam rockets are being fired from now unoccupied Gaza.

What a brave army!!

P.S Kach was outlawed long before Baruch Goldstein H"yd

A third comment:

"My libertarian streak is aroused and wanting more information as to what crime or suspicion of crime brought this about? There is no word of anyone being charged with a crime. Just the government shutting down organizations and confiscating material. What does "associated" mean and what is the crime, if not being a member of an outlawed organization? "Suspicions of extremist activity"? We saw that nonviolent protest against the disengagement was judged by courts to be extremist. If the Hebrew Battalion is not an illegal organization, then why would being associated with it be a crime?

"Just because you`re paranoid, doesn`t mean they`re NOT out to get you!"

And from the Voice of Judea

Yekutiel Ben Yaakov, director of the canine unit said that he will continue to save Jewish lives in Israel and to raise security dogs and that if temporarily the name Gedud HaIvri can't be used then all of the activities and those involved will act in the name of Jews with Dogs for Israel. "What will they do? Outlaw the Jews and the Judeans?", asked Ben Yakov. In the meantime, Ben Yaakov is appealing to all friends of this life-saving endeavor to send their donations to "Dogs to Defend Israel," Kfar Tapuach D.N Efrayim Israel 44829 so that the individuals who have come to Israel to be dog handlers and to prevent terrorist attacks can continue with this vital life saving work.

Ben Yaakov will be a featured speaker at the Judea Conference in Yeshivat Hakotel, this coming Wednesday at 4:00 PM. Please come and show your solidarity.

While the enemy grows stronger and brings in more deadly weapons the suicidal leaders of Israel continue down their insane path. Hamas roams free and is legitimized by these same Israel leaders who target their own.

This article is by David Basch, who is an architect and city planner in New York as well as the Freeman Center's political philosopher. Basch is also an expert on Shakespeare and the author of "The Hidden Shakespeare" and "Shakespeare's Judaica And Devices."

We all wish Ariel Sharon well. About that there is no disagreement. About what there is disagreement is his policy of creating a new Arab state on Israel's territory. It is the equivalent of creating a fox den within a hen house. So astoundingly stupid does such an idea seem, that it needed a rooster with charisma and unusual leadership quality to make the hens follow along with it. And this is what happened in Israel.

Just because you get such a leader with hypnotic powers over the people -- the Germans had such a leader in Hitler -- does not mean that this leader knows what he is doing.

Consider the realities against Sharon's policies.

To begin with, the Arabs that would be benefited by this policy are dedicated to Israel's destruction, both in terms of national fervor and religious zeal. It happens to be against Islam for Muslim-Arabs to support peace with Israel, "a non Muslim interloper into their region." So the new Arab state that Sharon's policy would establish would be irredentist in trying to get all of what is now Israel and it would be at war with Israel from the first moment of its existence.

Another factor to consider is that the Arabs are not just some powerless minority but constitute a mass numbering more than 200 million people. Israel's 5.5 million Jews constitute a speck as compared to this. The only way that Israel could survive against such a horde is to enjoy a strong hold on its land along with geographic conditions that make it ruinous for the enemy to attack and thereby discourages this. Sharon's policy of reducing geographic space for maneuver is not very helpful in this.

Not only does Israel need to have this robust physical integrity but it needs also to strengthen itself internally and spiritually through the dynamic of its Judaic culture that made Israel's existence possible in the first place. To renounce and gut the Judaic claim to its lands and the culture which undergirds it is self defeating. Yet this is what Sharon's policies are based on, not holding back and routing the Arab hordes that make war on Israel.

Look at it this way, if the values that Israel stands for are nothing more than liberalistic democracy, this life style can be attained by living in L.A., Florida, or New York. What need is there for an Israel in the first place to be located in a dangerous area of the world? The point here is that the Birobidzhan that Sharon and the Leftists wish to transform Israel into will have no staying power and will cultivate a population whose highest ethos and aspiration is to emigrate to the U.S. fleshpots.

But how is it possible that super Sharon, the great general could be wrong about his policy of surrender to the Arab enemy? After all, doesn't he know what military strength is and what Israel needs to do to stand against the enemy since he has been such a great war hero? Sure, that was true in the past but that does not mean that when Sharon gets away from military battles he knows what is a proper strategic policy for Israel the nation.

Consider an even greater general, Napoleon.

Whatever you can say about Sharon as a general and a leader, you can septuple for Napoleon. When Napoleon decided to mobilize 600,000 French troops in an invasion against Russia, who could have stood up to him in criticizing his policy? What fool could say he knew more than Napoleon? Yet his Russian policy turned out to be a disaster. He lost almost 600,000 French soldiers in that debacle. The only difference between Napoleon and Sharon is that, while even after Napoleon sacrificed hundreds of thousands of his soldiers, he did not jeopardize the existence of France, but Sharon's failure would lead not merely to the destruction of Israel's soldiers but to the destruction of the Israeli nation as well.

And so when someone tells me that General Sharon should be followed blindly the way the German people followed their Fuehrer and the French followed Napoleon, I will demure since even those supposedly great leaders were capable of making grave mistakes.

We already see that Sharon's surrender of Gaza at the cost of billions to the Israeli people has swiftly led to the creation of a dangerous Arab base in Southern Israel that offers a platform for Arab rocketry deep into Israel. Israeli cities that once considered themselves to be safely within Israel are now under the shadow of Arab rockets.

This does not auger well for Sharon's policies.

So where are the vaunted Jewish smarts that I had been raised to think was the fact? It is indeed uncomfortable when I find around me wildly enthusiastic supporters of "Sharon the mighty" who have no patience to consider in detail what is actually happening and what is the downside of what is going on in Israel.

Don't these hero worshipers know that at least half the generals lose their wars? A leader with that kind of odds for a nation is not much to cheer about.

Contact Marcel Cousineau by email at up2zionsg8@yahoo.com or go to his website http://averyheavystone.blogspot.com

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ISRAEL'S NEW ERA
Posted by Women in Green, January 8, 2006.

This was written by Caroline Glick, and appeared in the Jerusalem Post January 5, 2006.

Wednesday night ushered in a new era in Israel's political history. As we watch and worry as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dangles between life and death, one thing is absolutely clear. Sharon's massive cerebral hemorrhage on Wednesday night spelled the end of his political career. Sharon will never return to lead the State of Israel. He will never make a full recovery.

Whatever one's views of Sharon's policies and the quality of his leadership, no Israeli can feel anything but sorrow at Sharon's abrupt demise. A nation's sudden and dramatic separation from its leader is never a good thing. It is all the more debilitating when the leader in question is as popular and powerful as Sharon.

There will come a proper time to inquire into the reports we received about Sharon's health in the three weeks that passed since the premier suffered his initial stroke. Those questions will no doubt focus on statements by his spin doctors attesting to his good health and on the media's refusal to ask hard questions about Sharon's ability to continue in office after that first stroke. But now, as we enter the post-Sharon era, those questions are beside the point. The task that now besets our political leadership and the Israeli people as a whole is to focus on the country's present challenges -- for they suffer no delay.

Without a doubt, the greatest challenge facing the State of Israel today is Iran's nuclear weapons program.

Until Wednesday night, the rumor-mill running between Jerusalem, Washington and the capital cities of Europe was full of reports that Sharon planned to order an Israeli attack against Iran's nuclear installations just before our general elections at the end of March. There was nothing new in these rumors. Similar ones have been making the rounds for over a year now. In autumn 2004 for instance, it was whispered that Sharon would order such an attack on the day of the US presidential elections in November 2004. This past spring it was claimed that Sharon would give the order during the IDF's withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria. And now, for the past two months or so, rumors have circulated that Sharon was planning a strike to destroy Iran's nuclear installations just ahead of the elections on March 28.

There can be no room for doubt. The need to conduct a military strike against Iran's nuclear program increases with each passing day. The threat that Iran's nuclear weapons program constitutes for Israel is the most egregious example since the Holocaust of what happens when states and societies where anti-Semitism is of a genocidal nature are allowed to acquire the means to attack the Jews.

Israel's experience, like the experience of the Jewish people throughout its history, has taught that such anti-Semites seek out opportunities to use their acquired means to kill Jews. And now, against the increasingly tangible threat that Iran will soon acquire nuclear capabilities, Israel finds itself in an election season marked by political uncertainty and instability.

Even in the absence of domestic political chaos, any Israeli plan to attack Iran's nuclear facilities is today hampered by two things. First, the anti-Semitism that is endemic in the Iranian regime is equally endemic throughout the entire Muslim and Arab world. Were Iran to carry out tomorrow President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's promise to complete Hitler's work, such an act would no doubt be met with glee throughout the Arab and Muslim world.

As well, Iran has been able to advance its nuclear weapons program in large part due to the vast increase in anti-Semitic sentiments throughout the Western world. Over the past five years, the notion that there is something acceptable about murdering Jews and seeking to destroy Israel has met with increasing acceptance among large swathes of European society and the ranks of the international Left. Today, as Israel enters the post-Sharon era, it is hindered by unprecedented diplomatic weakness, largely as a result of the prevalence of Western anti-Semitism and its concomitant demand that Israel do all it can to appease its enemies.

For Israel to be capable of carrying out an attack against Iran's nuclear installations it will need to receive US and NATO backing for the move. The majority of international security analysts agree that Israeli fighter bombers en route to Iran will need to fly over Iraqi airspace and may even need to refuel in Iraq. Turkish bases may also be necessary. Given this, Israel is today in dire need of leadership capable of handling some of the most sensitive and monumental diplomacy in its history -- even if such leadership were only able to convince others to carry out the attacks in our place.

The genocidal anti-Semitism that lies at the root of Iran's quest to destroy Israel with nuclear weapons is also the source of Palestinian-led terror war against Israel. Yet, unlike the case of Iran, whose wherewithal to match its desire to destroy Israel with actual military capabilities has been uninfluenced by Israeli actions, the Palestinians' terror capabilities have been vastly expanded as a direct result of Israeli policies.

Today, as the Palestinian Authority has ceased to operate in any coherent manner; as the Egyptian border with Gaza has been open for terror traffic for three months; and as Hamas has emerged as the most prevalent force in Palestinian politics and society, it is impossible to deny that Sharon's decision to withdraw Israeli forces from Gaza and northern Samaria has vastly empowered Palestinian terrorists. Today the Gaza Strip has become one of the most active and dangerous bases for jihadi terrorism in the world.

And yet, the rapid transformation of Gaza into the most active terror base in the Arab world has not led to calls by the international community, led by Washington for Israel to take the military measures necessary to destroy the emerging threat. To the contrary: The international community, led by the Bush Administration, has greeted Gaza's mutation into what Palestinians refer to as a new Somalia, and what for Israelis and Westerners in general is more comparable to Taliban ruled Afghanistan, with ever more strident demands for continued Israeli appeasement of Palestinian terrorists. The latest testimony to Israel's unprecedented diplomatic weakness in Washington came with President George W. Bush's demand this week that Israel allow Arab residents of Jerusalem to vote in the upcoming Palestinian elections -- elections in which Hamas is expected to receive a plurality, if not a majority of votes.

Amid the threat now constituted by Gaza and the rising chaos in Palestinian society generally, three weeks before the Palestinian elections Israel's defense and diplomatic establishments have no answers to give. Israel has no coherent policy to speak of for dealing with the acquisition of Strella anti-aircraft missiles or Katyusha missiles by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza. It has no policy for contending with the fact that Al Qaida has now become an actor in the Palestinian areas and in south Lebanon. It has no effective policy for dealing with the repeated attacks against its vital infrastructures in Ashkelon or with assumption that the Palestinians will soon transfer their newfound capabilities from Gaza to Judea and Samaria. Israel's security brass has no policy for contending with the manifest links between the Iranian regime and Palestinian terror groups.

Our leadership's befuddlement was perhaps most sharply manifested on Wednesday by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who in a public statement laid out Israel's conditions for opening a dialogue with Hamas.

Mofaz's statement was not merely ill-advised. It was completely irrational. Hamas, like the Iranian ayatollahs, is a terror group totally committed to the eradication of Israel. This fact was brought home clearly in an Egyptian television interview given by Mariam Farahat, aka Umm Nidal, the mother of three dead Hamas terrorists on December 21. Farahat is considered a moderate Hamas member and is a Hamas candidate in the Palestinian elections.

In a transcript published by MEMRI, Farahat, who justified the murder of all Israelis everywhere as a legitimate means of jihad, spelled out what "peace" with the Jews means for Hamas. For her, "Peace means the liberation of all of Palestine, from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] Sea. When this is accomplished -- if they want peace, we will be ready. They may live under the banner of the Islamic state. That is the future of Palestine that we are striving towards."

This is Israel's current reality. Our main security challenge on all fronts is to destroy our enemies' ability to match their genocidal anti-Semitism with the means to kill us. And the carrying out of this task can only be accomplished by a leadership that truly understands that we are not to blame for our enemies' hatred and that we can do nothing to mitigate it.

The fact that Arab and Islamic anti-Semitism is met by and large by indifference from the West, which itself is suffering from a milder yet increasingly widespread form of Jew hatred, makes clear the third challenge facing Israel today: ensuring our economic independence. In the history of nations, there has scarcely been a case where the side with the weaker economy prevailed over its enemy in a war of attrition. Israel must ensure its economic vitality and independence in order to guarantee that our defense industries can continue to operate and that our military forces are properly equipped and trained. As well, in light of the rampant anti-Semitism in Western Europe, Israel must be capable of absorbing waves of Jewish immigration from Europe.

Today Israel is in the midst of a painful but successful process of economic liberalization and growth. The political instability that Sharon's departure has induced can threaten this process which is so vital to the future of the country.

In light of the critical challenges that Israel faces today, our current political instability places us in a difficult position. The fact of the matter is that Sharon's Kadima party without Sharon is nothing more than a patchwork of politicians who diverge on so many issues it is impossible to see it fashioning coherent policies. This is a cause for alarm. As well, the fractiousness of the nationalist camp that has been manifested by the Likud ministers' unjustifiable opposition to Binyamin Netanyahu's party leadership, is an additional cause for Israeli weakness at this critical juncture.

One of Sharon's greatest strengths was his ability to form coalitions of people from disparate backgrounds and political camps and move them forward to achieve goals that appeared impossible to attain. Now, with Sharon no longer leading the country, our political leaders must find a way to act in a similar manner. The future of the state depends on their success.

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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LETTER WRITTEN BY CHRISTIAN PASTOR JIM VINEYARD TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
Posted by Women in Green, January 8, 2006.

Dear Mr. Bush:

First, Mr. President, let me congratulate you on the Texas Longhorns winning the NATIONAL TITLE. Vince Young is really a tremendous athlete as a quarterback, And the rest of the Texas Football team is a fine group of young athletes backing him up.

However, Mr. President, what I am addressing in this letter is our War against Islamic Terror. I realize, Sir, that I am not your teacher or master; however, there are observations this "hell-deserving sinner saved by the Grace of God" can make relative to our present positions in this war.

The Council on Foreign Relations and the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count shows from May 1, 2003, to December 31, 2003, 21 suicide (and other) attacks upon US forces and Iraqi allies with 655 wounded and 330 dead. The year 2004 recorded 230 attacks with 3,009 wounded and 2,950 dead. The year 2005 records 528 attacks with 5,064 wounded and 5,089 dead. So far this year, just in the first 6 days, there have been 7 attacks with 218 wounded and 161 dead.

Mr. President, to us common, ordinary, tax-paying voters, there is much to be concerned about. Academia, the Democrats, and mainline News Media will, in time, make a big "to do" about these mounting casualty figures which will, again, in time, seriously hamper the will or resolve of the American people to back the Islamic Terrorist War. Militarily, the Islamists know they can never defeat us on the field of battle, but what they are out to defeat is our "will and resolve."

Now, Mr. President, from the little nation of Israel this week, I have read that Condi, the State Department, and the Bush administration have taken the gloves off vis-a-vis Israel and their battle against Islamic Terrorism telling them, "Do it our way, or we will cut off your supply of jet fuel and spare parts; we will cancel contracts -- both ours and any international contracts you have for your technology and industry."

Mr. President, to say the least, that bit of news is very disturbing and discouraging, seeing that we "born-again Christian" backers of yourself see the war in Israel and Iraq and Afghanistan as "ONE AND THE SAME."

Further news from Israel shows your administration favors Hamas' bid for election (in the upcoming PLO vote) as a means of bolstering Mahmoud Abbas and his team in power at the head of the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas "openly vows to destroy Israel" and "never recognize or negotiate" with the Hebrew State. The news is that your Administration expectS Hamas (the terror Organization) to be keen on using Abbas as a middleman who would represent Hamas' interests in dealing with Washington and Jerusalem.

More news from Israel shows that Al Qaeda is smuggling the 30 km range Grad 122 mm surface missiles into the Gaza Strip through the "Rice-enforced Rafah crossing" right under the noses of the Israelis, who, through the "Rice mandate," are powerless to stop them.

The Grad 122 is a standard artillery weapon common in use in the World armies who have been supplied by the Soviets or Chinese. It is a formidable weapon! The ports of Ashdod and Ashkelon, as well as the Israeli towns of Kiryat Gat and Gedera, are now in range of the Al Qaeda Grad 122mm's.

In addition, for your information, Mr. President, the 82nd Airborne Division troops at Sharm al-Sheikh Base are also within reach of Al Qaeda's strongholds in central Sinai.

Up in Southern Lebanon is a Palestinian Militia calling itself Osbat al-Ansar, or Jund al-Shem (Army of the Levant), which is headed by Palestinian Abu Yusuf Sharqiya. Sharqiya has devoted ten years to training Terrorists, who are now in Al Qaeda's ranks.

Not all the troops of the Army of Levant are Palestinians. There is a group of extremist Muslim Lebanese Kurds, whose chief is Abu Remez al Sahmarani. The present commander Army of the Levant is Imad Yasin, who took over when his predecessor, Abu Muhjin, went to fight with Zarqawi's terrorists against US Forces in Iraq.

Muhjin, whose real name is Abdul Karim Saadi, set up the connection between the Army of the Levant and Zarqawi's Al Qaeda in Iraq. This "Army of the Levant" is so tightly intermeshed with Al Qaeda by now that it maintains a special officer to liaise with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, like the global organization's European, North African, and Indian-Pakistani branches.

The Army of the Levant gets most of its weapons -- AK 47's, an assortment of rockets, .82 mm mortars, and lately, the Grad missiles -- through Syria.

Mr. President, in the days of late December 2005 and early January 2006, the Palestinian Security Services (in Gaza) saw their "desertion rate" shoot up 40%.

They then hire out, using the AK 47's (the USA has furnished them), to get a regular paycheck with bonuses, mostly to the al Aqsa Brigades, which traces its cash back to Al Qaeda through HizBallah and Iran.

What is happening right before our very eyes, Sir, is a breakdown of established groups into lawless armed gangs being exploited by Al Qaeda, who buys their way into the disintegrating Palestinian terrorist movement.

A group, Sir, that made its appearance in the Gaza Strip on January 3rd calls itself the "Storm Riders," a name taken from Zarqawi's networks, or the "'IBN AL WALID BATTALION," for the Muslim General who defeated the Byzantine armies at Hittin in the 7th Century.

And now, Sir, Al Qaeda's operatives are streaming into the Gaza Strip from Sinai.

Mr. President, I pay no attention to the Vietnam Syndrome; however, what we are doing relative to Israel is the same. We are handcuffing the Hebrews "with their hands behind their backs" just as the Politicians did to the brave American servicemen in Vietnam.

We allowed the NVA sanctuaries all over the place. If American servicemen saw NVA, they could not shoot while the NVA were in the sanctuaries. And, another idiot rule was the "you can't shoot until you are shot at"!

Mr. President, the Islamists in Iraq and Afghanistan are exactly the same enemy the Hebrews face in Gaza and South Lebanon. We Americans best watch that we do not anger THE LORD GOD OF THE HEBREWS in how we treat the Sons and Daughters of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and King David.

Mr. President, stop listening to your Politically Correct advisers and start making concrete decisions, which will allow the Hebrews in Israel to fight our common enemy, just as we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Your Friend and Servant,

Jim Vineyard, Pastor,
Windsor Baptist Church

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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DOCTORS ORDERED TO KEEP SHARON IN COMA
Posted by Israel Resource News Agency, January 8, 2006.

This Report Is From Middle East News Line, Http://Www.Menewsline.Com, A Reliable Montreal-Based News Agency

JERUSALEM [MENL] -- The family of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has ordered doctors to keep him in a coma.

Sharon was to have been removed from a medically-induced coma on Jan. 6, government sources said. But Sharon's family and aides objected and ordered that the prime minister remain comatose for as long as possible in the hope that he would survive a massive stroke.

"He's on life-support systems and he's in a deep coma," a government source said. "If he was anybody else, the plug would have been pulled and he would have been declared dead."

On Sunday, physicians at Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital planned to again seek permission from Sharon's two sons to end the coma. The physicians said this could determine whether three brain operations in as many days succeeded in saving the prime minister's life.

"If there is no response, that would be bad news," Hadassah director Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef said.

On Jan. 6, Israeli authorities were informed that Sharon was dead and placed on alert for the removal of his body. But the sources said Sharon's family insisted that he remain on life-support systems despite quiet contacts with the United States over funeral arrangements.

The sources said Sharon's chief aide, Dov Weisglass, has sought the attendance of President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for the prime minister's funeral. On Jan. 6, Ms. Rice canceled a trip to Asia to prepare for the prospect of Sharon's death.

"It is very important for Bush to attend the funeral and later meet with [Vice Premier] Ehud Olmert," a source said. "It would be a sign of Bush's friendship and respect for Sharon and his path."

Sharon's elder son, Omri, was said to have played the key role in determining medical treatment for his father. The sources said Omri, regarded as the second most powerful politician in Israel, ordered physicians to operate on his father when he was rushed to the hospital with a massive cerebral hemorrhage on Jan. 4. The prime minister had been scheduled to undergo heart surgery the following day.

On Dec. 18, Sharon, 77, sustained a minor stroke, which resulted in a two-day hospital stay. Several days later, the prime minister, running for reelection, returned to work in an attempt to quell concerns over his health.

"Sharon was allowed to do things that very few people in his medical situation would have gotten away with," a physician familiar with the treatment the prime minister received said. "He was allowed to leave the hospital and return to work within days of his stroke, even though the chance of recurrence was high."

The physician said Sharon was given an excessive dosage of blood thinner, which he said exacerbated the second stroke. He said the prime minister's chance of recovery was nil.

"Sharon's doctors were the best in the world and the treatment was the best," the physician said. "But there were major mistakes made, particularly after the first stroke."

The Israel Resource News Agency (http://Israelbehindthenews.com) is based in Jerusalem. David Bedein is Bureau Chief.

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BRINGING FAITH INTO CONTEMPT
Posted by Jeff Jacoby, January 8, 2006.

By his own admission, Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff is a crook. But that isn't the worst that can be said about him.

He defrauded his clients of millions of dollars, bribed public officials, cheated on his tax returns, and deceived lenders to qualify for a loan. But that isn't the worst that can be said about him, either.

He made himself at home in and contributed to the swamp of corruption that fills Washington with its stench. His e-mails to cronies, with messages like "Can you smell money?!?!?!" and "I'd love us to get our mitts on that moolah!!", oozed greed and boorishness. Behind their backs, he crudely mocked those who hired him, calling them "morons," "monkeys," "troglodytes," and "the stupidest idiots in the land." He played fast and loose with what were supposed to be charitable funds. But not even that is the worst that can be said about him.

The worst is that Abramoff is a Jew. Not only a Jew, but an Orthodox Jew -- someone who claims to be committed to strictly observing Jewish law and faithfully adhering to the Torah's ethical standards. But instead of upholding those ethical standards Abramoff trampled on them, and a "religious" Jew who behaves so corruptly disgraces not only himself but all religious Jews. He brings his faith into contempt. He is guilty of what Jewish tradition calls, with disgust, *chillul ha-Shem* -- a desecration of God's name.

For me -- also an observant Jew -- that is the worst thing of all.

Honesty in financial dealings is not optional in Judaism; it is mandatory. The Talmud teaches that when a person is brought to judgment in the world-to-come, the first question the heavenly tribunal puts to him is: "Did you conduct your business affairs in good faith?" A Jew who takes the values of his religion seriously must be scrupulous in his transactions with others. To be sure, even the saintliest people -- not to mention the rest of us -- sometimes fall short of the values they profess. But Abramoff's criminal deeds and sleazy manner are a lot worse than mere lapses in judgment. One who behaves so unethically and illegally drags more than his own reputation through the mud. He is an embarrassment to his religion and his community, and that comes close to being unforgivable.

Far from disguising his Orthodox Jewish identification, Abramoff paraded it publicly, as if that would cleanse his unkosher activities. He produced a violent, expletive-filled movie (1989's "Red Scorpion"), then turned around and created something called the Committee for Traditional Jewish Values in Entertainment. He fired off gross and insulting e-mails, but fastidiously rendered "God" as "G-d." ("This is a Jewish tradition," he explained to a reporter for The New York Times, "to not write out God's name in something that might be destroyed.") As the legal stormclouds gathered over his head, he cloaked himself in piety. His "political activities, like everything in his life, were informed by his religious beliefs," his spokesman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "While he did not always meet the standard of his faith, he certainly aspired to do so."

For his appearance in the US District Court in Washington last Tuesday, Abramoff made a point of wearing a black fedora -- an element of attire that is de rigeur for men in certain Orthodox Jewish circles. But his show of devoutness was lost on those who looked at that black hat, and the black trench coat he also wore, and saw something considerably more sinister.

"He looks like if he would open that raincoat, he's got half a dozen machine guns inside," Newsweek's Howard Fineman commented on MSNBC.

"He looks," replied Chris Matthews, "like the guy in 'Godfather II' going after Hyman Roth."

Within the Jewish community whose values he so dishonored, there is little sympathy for Abramoff, who is likely to receive a prison sentence of 10 or 11 years. But Jewish tradition also teaches that it is never too late to repent, and that God's hand is always extended to the wrongdoer who is genuinely contrite.

"For all of my remaining days, I will feel tremendous sadness and regret for my conduct and for what I have done," Abramoff told US District Judge Ellen Huvelle last week. "I only hope that I can merit forgiveness from the Almighty and from those I have wronged or caused to suffer."

By themselves, those words will not undo the damage Jack Abramoff has done. But they make a good start. Right now, that that may be the best that can be said about him. Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for the Boston Globe. This appeared today at www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/ 2006/01/08/bringing_faith_into_contempt/

To subscribe to Jeff Jacoby's mailing list, please visit http://www.JeffJacoby.com. To see a month's worth of his recent columns, go to www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/jacoby/.

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SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST SUGGESTS ISRAEL MUST CEDE NO MORE LAND
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 8, 2006.

It is unwise to wallow for long in delusional wishful thinking stimulated by oh so fleeting phantasmagoric snapshots of spacetime. Israel must coldly and intelligently assess its situation in a world where mankind's technological achievements, especially in the science of weaponry, has far outpaced any enhancement to his maturity level. To reiterate an extended refrain haunting the fiber of my being, the besieged Jewish democracy"s geography has made it a useful pariah and scapegoat for the robed rogues that rule autocratic Islamic regimes. Allah forbid olive branches should replace Kassam rockets, trading peace for perpetual conflict between two exploited peoples, in the minds of such Machiavellian despots. The perceived despised occupier of poor bedraggled Palestinian waifs is no doubt a perfect patsy to absorb the rancor and frustration of Arab populations throughout the region, a necessary diversion to allow bejeweled Muslim rulers to maintain unchallenged control over their subjects.

Hence, trading land in quest of sane tranquility is futile as well as perilous. Israel should immediately reassess any further pullouts from land justly secured in 1967 in the course of defending itself from Arabs intent upon the Jewish state"s destruction. Those who truly manipulate Muslim culture are obsessed by personal power and wealth and respect only aggressive behavior. Currently, America remains mired in an ill-conceived Iraqi war that attracts fanatical Islamic insurgents from all corners of the hemisphere. Israel, not now being the primary focus of Islam"s rage, has an opportunity to declare full sovereignty over all of Israel (alas sans Gaza); including Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights, and the entire city of Jerusalem. Furthermore, all dwellers within these regions should be mandated to declare unconditional allegiance to Israel"s constitution and laws or leave. Under such circumstances, many Jordanians morphed to Palestinians might very well choose to inhabit their true homeland in lieu of Israeli rule, partially easing the state"s noble burden of maintaining its Jewish identity. The Knesset must assert strength and resolve forthwith consistent with this planet"s primary principle survival of the fittest.

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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THE LEFT'S TURNABOUT ON SHARON; TWO PECULIAR "PROFESSORS"
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 8, 2006.

1. Have you noticed that for years the Israeli Left and its overseas media amen chorus screamed that Ariel Sharon single-handed caused the Intifada pogroms by daring to take a stroll on the Temple Mount, an act almost as controverial as would have been a walk in the Vatican by an Italian politicians? But now that Sharon has become an Osloid, imposing the agenda of the Left on Israel anti-democratically, he is the darling of the Left and the world media, who are now wringing their hands -- how can we be sure Israel will be returned to its 1949 borders with darling Arik gone?

2. Dear Editor:

I am a bit confused as to why the Jerusalem Post would see fit to print an article supposedly on ethics co-written by Peter Singer, a professor at Princeton, a Jew from Australia who has made a career out of equating eating of meat to the Holocaust of Jews (http://www.mofed.org/Who%20is%20Peter%20Singer.htm ). After all, Purim is still far away.

For many years Singer has been the laughingstock of American academia due to his passionate promotion of euthanasia of humans combined with "animal rights" (http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1533705,00.html ). "All animals are equal," declares Singer (http://deborahdanielski.faithweb.com/professo.htm ), who insists that human interests should never come before those of cockroaches or fruit flies (http://www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-m/singer02.htm ). No doubt the genocide of stretococci by antibiotics must be stopped!

Singer is a crusader against "speciesism" -- a prejudice against beings that are not members of one's own species. He wants all critters and bugs to have equal rights with humans. He thinks people who eat meat are murderers. He advocates inter-species sex, that is, sex with animals (http://www.nationalreview.com/nr_comment/nr_comment030501a.shtml and http://www.slate.com/id/103801 ). Really!

"Surely there will be some nonhuman animals whose lives, by any standards, are more valuable than the lives of some humans." -Peter Singer, Animal Liberation: A New Ethic for Our Treatment of Animals, 2nd edition, 1990. (http://www.beyondmass.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=6935 )

"An animal experiment cannot be justifiable unless the experiment is so important that the use of a brain-damaged human would be justifiable." -Peter Singer, Animal Liberation: A New Ethic for Our Treatment of Animals, 2nd. edition, 1990.

"[S]ince a woman's reasons for having an abortion are invariably far more serious than the reasons most people in developed countries have for eating fish rather than tofu, and there is no reason to think that a fish suffers less when dying in a net than a fetus suffers during an abortion, the argument for not eating fish is much stronger than the argument against abortion," Singer wrote.

The Jerusalem Post saw fit to publish rantings by Singer devoted to the theme that belief in God is the root of all evil. Actually, once one examines Singer's own "ideas" and "values", one sees that Singer is in fact a walking advertisement against the folly and lunacy of radical secularist atheism.

3. Will he be hired by Ben Gurion University? U.S.-Based Saudi Professor & Former U.N. Fellow in an Interview with Iranian State Media: "I Agree Wholeheartedly with President Ahmadinejad. There was No Such Thing as the Holocaust; The Americans are Digging Their Own Grave and Eventually Will Collapse Just as the Soviet Union Collapsed."

To view this Special Dispatch in HTML, visit http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD106506

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. Contact him by email at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il

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THE YEAR OF THE STROKE
Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, January 7, 2006.

It's been barely a week since the clock struck 2006, and yet the world has already received enough ominous strokes from the finger of G-d, and man-made wallops, to fill an entire edition of Time Magazine's Year in Pictures.

The Reverend Pat Robertson may claim to understand the specifics of the Almighty's plans according to the gospel, but based on the type of devastation felt in America's Bible-belt last week, perhaps he best stick to prayer. Mankind makes a lot of mistakes and we know that G-d gets angry, but none of us are especially privy to the who's, why's, what's and where's of His next target.

Week one of the new year showed itself to be a universal, inter-faith kind of apocalypse -- where both the G-d fearing and the godless were, together, thrown into some very miserable waters. Texas towns went up in flames and folks were buried alive as structures collapsed in West Virginia, Bavaria and Mecca. Record-breaking floods hit America's Northwest, while devastating landslides and rivers of mud swept hundreds of lives away in Southeast Asia.

Across the violence-saturated Middle East, last week saw much more than the usual quota of carnage, kidnappings, and chaos. With 130 Iraqis and 11 American soldiers killed in one day alone, democracy in the region does seem to be exacting a toll. And Hamas, drunk with new-found liberty, continues to terrorize the streets of Gaza while maintaining a healthy showing in the polls. One has to wonder what would happen if President Bush and Dr. Rice would take some of that emphasis off of the emancipating effects of the ballot box and would recall that the region is thirsting for a touch of law, order, justice and morality.

Unlike the previous few years when media correspondents were scrambling to find 101 creative ways to say terror and terrorist -- without actually using those terms -- this year's journalistic challenge may very well be how to best describe the level of upheaval that's ensuing in this world without tiring the readership with an overuse of the words unprecedented, unparalleled, record-breaking, history-making, earthshaking, unpredictable, unforeseeable, and unexpected.

CNN correspondent Guy Raz did his very best to analyze the lunacy. In a piece called, "Gaza spirals into lawlessness", he inserts the telling sentence, "Gaza was not supposed to turn out this way." http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/01/02/btsc.raz/archives/oldindex.html

Yes it was, Guy. It really was supposed to turn out this way. And this kind of chaos was predicted and predictable, as was last week's firing of Kassam rockets towards the power plant, fuel depot and population centers of the Israeli city of Ashkelon, as well as other towns in Israel's Southern Negev. And yes, it was also expected that Palestinian Arab terrorists would be launching their rockets and other attacks from their newly formed bases in the ravaged and pillaged communities of what were, up until five months ago, thriving Jewish towns and agricultural centers.

It was also foreseeable that the forced expulsion of 8000 Israelis from their homes in Gaza would result in gross mismanagement and create a humanitarian crisis which would be largely ignored by the Israeli government, media, and Diaspora Jewish leadership.

And long before last week's resignation from the Israeli parliament of Omri Sharon, due to an indictment for fraudulent financing of his father's 1999 campaign for Likud Party Chairmanship, many already knew that that Ariel Sharon had quite possibly accepted millions of dollars in bribes from the Austrian owners of a casino in Palestinian-controlled Jericho.

All this and more was known and reported by the those who are contemptuously referred to as Israel's "extreme right".

That we were extremely right (as in correct) about the dangers of local terrorism and global Jihad, the failings of the Oslo Accords, Road Map and Unilateral Disengagement, and that we warned of flagrant government corruption, is nothing to gloat about -- but we will continue to get sick over it as this region, our people and the rest of the world continues to hemorrhage. This is the stuff strokes are made of.

And so the day Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was scheduled for minor surgery to repair a congenital hole in his heart -- a day after banner headlines screamed $3 million worth of bribe-taking allegations,and just hours after Palestinian terrorists hijacked a bulldozer and plowed through the Israeli-erected wall on the Egytian/Gaza border of Rafiah in a seemingly unstoppable rampage -- Israel's very own bulldozer, Arik Sharon, was halted in his tracks.

There are many who are reciting prayers for the health of our Prime Minister and/or our nation at this time. Some are familiar with the following sentence which is a portion of a larger prayer recited before reading psalms:

May You not take us from This World before our time, before completion of our years, (among them are seventy years) so that we can rectify anything that we have ruined.

That's a very human prayer, because it assumes that in our lifetime we will make mistakes and cause destruction in the process. It's also a hopeful prayer, because it implies that we will want to strive to live responsible, long lives in order to repair the damage that we've done.

I'm quite sure that, at least in a figurative sense, we all have holes in our hearts and stains on our brains. We just don't know how and when they will manifest themselves. They may become evident through our waistlines (or lack thereof), Diagnostic MRI, mental breakdown, abusive behavior, or in the metaphysical realms. But, eventually, those defects will put in an appearance -- trust me.

And I guess that's why the revelry surrounding the onset of January 1st has always disturbed me. While a good part of the western world opts for champagne, balloons, fireworks and fatalism, the aura of anticipation and hope prior to the Jewish New Year is replete with a sense of awe and trembling before G-d.

The strokes we receive personally, nationally, and universally are sometimes inexplicable and, more often than not, deemed as unexpected occurrences. It's the ones that were foreseeable and preventable that might be worth exploring.

Ellen Horowitz lives in the Golan Heights, Israel with her husband and six children. She is the author of the The Oslo Years: a mother's journal. The book is available through retailers listed at http://osloyears.com/retail.htm. Contact her at ellenwrite@bezeqint.net

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LIKUD DOESN'T INFLAME THE ARABS; ARAB TERRORISTS INFLAME ISRAEL
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 7, 2006.

To the Editors of the New York Times,

In your editorial, "Life After Ariel Sharon" in yesterday's NY Times (1/6/06) you made some rather odd comments.

"... Likud way: inflaming Palestinian tensions through war and continuing settlements...": So it seems to you that the Likkud inflames Palestinian tensions?

But how can that be? You must know that these tensions were manifest half-a-century before Likkud was founded. These tensions, which the more honest among us call "terrorism", began decades before Israel became a state. No disrespect, Mr. Editor, but do you not know the relationship between cause and effect? Cause must come before effect. The terror attacks came first, decades before the state of Israel was born.

As to "settlements". Here too you seem unaware of the fact that Arafat in 1964 declared that his sole purpose of the PLO was the destruction of Israel's settlements. That was 3 years before there were any "settlements" in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. Do you not know which "settlements" he was talking about? Tel-Aviv, and Haifa and Hadera and Afula.

The obvious errors in your mis-representation of the current conflict can only mean that you do not read your own newspaper. Can you be so abysmally ignorant of the most basic history of the Middle East?

Or are you just hoping that your readers are?

(My response was to the following editorial in the New York Times entitled "Life After Ariel Sharon". It appeared January 6, 2006.)

When Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced two months ago that he was leaving the right-wing Likud Party, which he had embodied for three decades, one thing seemed certain: his new centrist party, Kadima, would be far more about one man -- himself -- than any one idea.

It's possible that this could even have worked for a time. Mr. Sharon struck such a powerful chord with the Israelis' craving for security and stability that he might well have been able to bulldoze his people into the future as he saw it. But Mr. Sharon's massive second stroke means that both Kadima and what passes for the Israeli political center must now find a political vision that revolves around more than just Ariel Sharon.

With Mr. Sharon not expected to return to the helm, the Israeli people could still have three clear choices. Mr. Sharon's old Likud Party, now headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, represents the same old Likud way: inflaming Palestinian tensions through war and continuing settlements on Palestinian land in the West Bank.

The Labor Party, with its new leader, Amir Peretz, represents the Labor way: negotiations with the Palestinians. Unfortunately, the failure of the Oslo accords and the Palestinians' own inability to rein in their self-defeating attacks on Israel have understandably left many Israelis with little appetite for more talk. The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, and his ruling Fatah Party seem ill equipped even to hold proper local elections, let alone negotiate a peace deal.

But what, then, is the third way that Kadima could theoretically represent? The vision pushed forward by Mr. Sharon for the past year has been built around the central tenet of separation: the idea that the Israelis can't live with the Palestinians, so they will separate from the Palestinians and build a wall to make the separation visible and permanent. Mr. Sharon looked at the demographics of his country and came to the conclusion that the only way to keep Israel a Jewish state was to detach it physically, wherever possible, from the Palestinians. Toward that end, he faced down the relatively small number of Israeli settlers in Gaza and carried out the country's first unilateral withdrawal from land that Palestinians claimed for their future state.

That Sharon approach, for which the combative prime minister won the enthusiastic backing of President Bush, called for less confrontation than the one offered by Likud, and less talk than proposed by Labor. It didn't depend much on whether the Palestinians ever got their act together -- something they appear bent on proving themselves incapable of doing.

It is possible that Kadima, with Mr. Sharon's deputy, Ehud Olmert, likely to be at the helm, can cast itself as a new centrist alternative to Labor and Likud. But Mr. Olmert, while a respected politician who helped formulate the Sharon doctrine of unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, has neither the stature nor the popularity of Ariel Sharon. So while Mr. Sharon would probably have been able to carry Israel on the back of his own charisma and appeal, Mr. Olmert is likely to have to rely instead on the appeal of Kadima's vision.

That vision cannot be one that relies solely on unilateral separation. For a centrist way to work, there has to be a vision that also encompasses the steps necessary to eventually end the seemingly never-ending conflict with the Palestinians, including a complete enough withdrawal from the West Bank to give the Palestinians a workable state. It would secure Mr. Sharon's place in history if the centrist party he founded somehow managed to turn his vision of separation into one of a just and lasting peace.

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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GREETING FROM SALAH CHOUDHURY
Posted by Salah Choudhury, January 7, 2006.

Let the mankind embrace peace and reject hatred

Let there be ever lasting smile in the faces of the people

Let the Holy Land remain safe and peaceful

Let religious radicals be defeated

Let us all share the happiness of Eid

The writer is a journalist, columnist, author, and editor of "Weekly Blitz". Email him at salahuddinshoaibchoudhury@yahoo.com

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IN THE GUSH KATIF STORE, WE HAVE SOME NEW INTERESTING PRODUCTS
Posted by Alex Grobman, January 7, 2006.

This comes from the new Gush Katif store.

Now after 5 month we come up with the new site in Hebrew -- Gush Katif store (Hebrew).

Or go to the English site -- Gush Katif store (English).

We have also come up with new interesting products:

tee shirts, medallions and medals, calenders, posters (including one showing the magnificant synagogue in the shape of a Magen David that was destroyed), candles, bookmarks, stamps and dog tags ("we won't forget")

We would like to make a small request. We would be very happy if you would decide to enter our internet shop once a month and buy something, whether a single item or more, whatever you can afford. Anything you buy helps us to continue operate the site. To you the sum involved may be small, but to us, to the site, if everyone of you bought something small, it would mean a lot. Tell your neighbors, your friends, your communities, or contact other internet sites you know and ask them to encourage supporters of Gush Katif to visit our store.

Moti Sender
Website: http://www.katif.net
Email: info@katif.net

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 called "Zionism=Racism: The New War Against The Jews".

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IRANIAN WOMEN GREET ANNIVERSARY OF "EMANCIPATION LAW"
Posted by SMCCDI, January 7, 2006.

This article appeared on the SMCCDI website: http://daneshjoo.org/publishers/currentnews/article_3109.shtml

Millions of Iranian Women greeted, today, the seventieth anniversary of the "Women's Emancipation Law". This measure, seeking to establish the gender equality, was adopted in 1935 and remained in full force, till its abolishment by the Islamist clergy who took the power in 1979 and instated the current "Gender Apartheid Policy".

Many Iranian women and especially young girls were seen speaking about the then revolutionary law and cherished its modernist legacy. Many were openly comparing their actual dark status with the enlighted conditions which were prevailing three decades ago, when women were equal to men and were able to enjoy of almost the same rights and degree of freedom.

Many especially among female students were openly mocking the clerics and were promising to bring them down from power.

Others were sharply criticizing controversial individuals, such as, Shirin Ebadi and Mehranguiz Kar who are currently promoted by some foreign circles as women's rights' defenders. Indeed, many Iranians remember them as the accomplices of Ayatollah Khomeini and as those who fueled the instauration of the "Gender Apartheid Policy".

Ebadi and Kar, a then judge and a then lawyer, are well known for having pushed the limit, in their opposition to the former Iranian regime, till endorsing openly the veil by covering their heads with scarves in support of the dogmatic clerical revolution. They did such a shameful act, by end 1978, at a time that thousands of Iranian women, aware of what was going to happen if clerics would come to take the power, marched in Tehran's streets by shouting the famous slogan "Na Roossari, Na Too-Sari" (No to Veil, No to Submission).

For many it was Ebadi and Kar alikes who gave a kind of justification to Islamists for attacking women who were opposed to the Mandatory Veil and the gender discrimination.

Others were condemning some leftist groups which are still refusing to mention the name of such a memorable Iranian day and its unprecedented legacy for Iranian women. These groups are well known for only focusing on "March 8" which is the "International Women's Day" while keeping the silence, or worst, by even condemning the "Iranian women's Emancipation Law". Such controversial take of position has its root in these groups' blind opposition to Iran's former regime and the fact that most of them are in reality political shops which are capitalizing on Iranian women rather than genuinely trying to defend them.

Several female students were heard stating: "These leftist or so-called feminist groups and their activists are not genuine women defenders... They avoid mentioning and cherish such a genuine Iranian day... They're more attached to imported symbols, such as, Rosa Luxembourg as the Islamists are attached to Hussein or Ali (Shias Imams)..."

Others were blasting opportunist individuals, such as, Christian Amanpoor -- the CNN Anchor of Iranian origin -- who was heard justifying in her way the repression, of Iranian women, by stating that "the situation of Iranian women is not bad in general as for example and in contrary to Saudi Arabia, they have the right to drive car".

Amanpoor omitted to mention, in that 2002 San Francisco meeting, the fact that Iranian women's status and history were totally different than their Saudi Arabian sisters. In addition, it's a well known fact that the Islamic republic restituted Amanpoor's paternal properties around the same time that she was making favorable reports for the Khatami's administration.

Many were seen happy to read or hear the take of position of the former Iranian Queen who issued, today, a communiqué in remembrance of this key date and at the occasion of its seventieth anniversary. In parts of her message of hope which was widely distributed and was seen changing hand from hand, Farah Pahlavi-Diba reminded the legacy of the "Emancipation Law" and condemned the current women's status.

In another part of her statement and after calling for "women's unity around their common aspiration for emancipation", Pahlavi-Diba was correctly pointed to the fact that "It's the struggle of Iranian women which has lead to the mullahs' confusion and misery." In the closing part of this statement, the one known as the Shahbanoo predicted that "soon, Iranian women would greet the sun again...!"

The latter who benefits of an important degree of trust and popularity among Iranian masses, as a symbol of modernism and gender equality, had tried to stay afar from politic till now. But it seems that the degradation of Iran's social and political conditions have brought her to break the silence. Even, many republicans believe that Pahlavi-Diba can play a major role as a Catalyst for change in Iran.

On January 7, 1935, Reza Shah Pahlavi, founder of the former Iranian regime, shook the backwarded religious, social and political foundations which were existing since the Islamist invasion of Iran made fourteen centuries earlier. He gave back to Iranian women their past natural rights and forced the then backwarded Iranian society to accept the existence of women without the veil and as an equal partner of men in the society. The measure, unprecedented in a then Muslim country, paved the ground for Iranian women to access all social, professional and political spheres. Women who were considered till then as half of a human being were soon able to become teacher, doctor, researcher, engineer, architect, artist, lawyer, judge, ambassadress, ministry of state, soldier, sailor and even fighter pilot.

Iranian women's "right to vote" followed in 1963, meaning a year earlier than some western countries, such as, Switzerland. This law raised the Islamists anger against Mohamad-Reza Shah Pahlavi and became a key element in Khomeini's march toward political power which was gained sixteen years later.

The result of Khomeini's accession to power and the dramatic situation of Iranian women are well known. Women were banned from many jobs or studies. The lost the right of divorce, keeping their children in case of conjugal separation. Polygamy's "right" was re-instated for men and females can be forced to marry passed the age of fourteen. Women's share of inheritance or decision has been reduced to half of a man and women are considered as a source of temptation by Islamists.

It was only due to the legacy of the "Emancipation Law" and its four decades of governmental promoted and protected application, that clerics were later unable to force Iranian women to stay at home as they intended to pass a law in that line. It's due to the very same law and its ramifications that Iranian women have, in ourdays, such as noticeable aspiration toward modernity and secularism.

Many believe that the Iranian women are the ultimate force who will bring down the Islamic republic regime, if a well trusted and respected feminist and modernist symbol would actively work in order to unify them.

For a better understanding of Iranian Women's struggle and the roots of the current challenges, read: http://daneshjoo.org/article/publish/article_2007.shtml

Contact SMCCDI, The Student Movement for Democracy in Iran, at peyk@daneshjoo.org. Or go to their website: http://www.daneshjoo.org/

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ISRAELI ARABS AGAINST ISRAEL
Posted by Jewish Club Maoz, January 6, 2006.

This was written by Myles Kantor. Myles Kantor is a columnist for FrontPageMagazine.com and editor-at-large for Pureplay Press, which publishes books about Cuban history and culture. His e-mail address is MylesColumn@aol.com. It appeared in The Autonomist website, (http://antiprotester.blogspot.com/2005/12/ israeli-arabs-against-israel.html), December 29, 2005.

I wrote an article in 2002 titled "Israel's Coming War Within"[1] about Israel's Arab population of almost 20%. Reading these recent remarks in Ha'aretz[2] by a prominent Israeli Arab comedian reminds me how central this issue is: "I don't see myself as part of Israeli society. Not as an artist, not as an individual, not as a citizen. I was born here, and I don't have any other passport, that's true, but when I'm abroad I'm not Israeli, I'm Palestinian."

For an idea of Israeli Arab legislators' views, consider this recent statement[3] by Knesset member Azmi Bishara in Lebanon: "Israel's is the 20th Century's greatest robbery, perpetrated in broad daylight."

The Jerusalem Post recently noted[4] anti-Israel incitement among Israeli Arab students:

"A quasi-autonomous alternative [Israeli Arab educational] system is gaining clout under the formal auspices of our own Education Ministry, demanding budgets while thumbing its nose at its guidelines and values. That system has become, certainly not overnight but with increasing openness, hostile to notions as basic as the legitimacy of Israel's national existence. Alongside ostensibly welcome news about increasing numbers of Arab students electing to participate in programs about the Holocaust, it is becoming evident that these sometimes become jumping-off points for likening the decimation of European Jewry to the plight of Israel's Arabs or to the 'Nakba'--the 'catastrophe' of Israel's creation."

No surprise, most Israeli Arabs support[5] a "right of return." (A sympathetic study of Palestinians refers to this as "the fundamental building block of Palestinism.")

It won't matter if Israel ends all terrorism from Gaza and the West Bank if it's de-Zionized internally. Consider if Israeli Arabs achieve Knesset numbers proportional to their (increasing) population. Now consider if just 20% of Israeli Jews in the Knesset are leftists. That's 40% of the Israeli government now hostile to Israel, and that's a formula for very bad things.

Footnotes

1. Myles Kantor, "Israel's Coming War Within," www.FrontPageMagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=1213/, April 17, 2002.

2. Yoav Stern, "Arab comedians tickle community funny bone," http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/658089.html/, January 1, 2006.

3."Bishara's blast," www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1134309618537&pagename= JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull/, December 21, 2005.

4."Stop hate education," www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1134309604090&pagename= JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull/ Dec. 19, 2005.

5."Israeli Arabs back 'right of return'" jta.org/page_view_breaking_story.asp?intid=558.

To subscribe to Jewish Club Maoz, send an email to JewishClubMaoz-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

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LOS ANGELES TIMES FAILS TO FISK FISK
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 6, 2006.
To the editors of the Lost Angeles Times,

Are you familiar with the concept "fisking"?

To fisk: to tear apart a mendacious and misleading essay, so full of innacuracies and mis-statements that one must literally critique every line: as in "fisking" a news article to highlight and correct its errors

Etymology: verb coined by bloggers and other news analysts who found that Robert Fisk, more than any other Middle East journalist, filled his articles with so many errors growing out of tendentious reasoning, decontextualizations, mis-quotes, a one-sided selectivity that resulted in massive ommisions of those obvious facts that undermined his thesis, and a willingness to accept uncritically anything fed to him by Arab propaganda sources, with the result that his statements regarding Jews, Israel and the Middle East conflict were far more than unreliable....they were actually misleading and sometimes reflected the very opposite of reality.

And Robert Fisk's "Jewish Media Control Must End" (LA Times, 1.5.06) shows us yet again why the verb "to fisk" has come into common parlance.

Mr. Fisk thinks that the West Bank and Gaza Strip are 'occupied territories' and not 'disputed territories'. He is apparently unfamiliar with the reasoned legal arguments adumbrated by such world-class jurists as Eugene Rostow, Stephen Schwebel, Julius Stone, the UK's Lord Carandon, and Arthur Goldberg, all of whom are clear that according to international law these are indeed 'disputed territories'. Is Mr. Fisk a superior legal mind?

Mr. Fisk insists that Israel's defensive barrier is a wall, a "...massive concrete obstruction....(but)...we are told, it is not a wall at all -- so we cannot call it a "wall,". Odd. I guess Mr. Fisk has not actually seen this barrier. If he had, he would have noted that indeed it is not a wall at all. It is a chain link fence. It is a wall only in about 5% of its 470 mile lenth. Hence it makes very good sense to call it a fence or a barrier, and not a wall.

Why, one might ask, is it fence in 95% and "massive concrete obstruction" in the remaining 5%? Because, as Mr. Fisk also fails to note, it is a wall where the high ground on the Palestinian side is exploited by snipers to shoot randomly at Israelis on the other side. The high thick wall prevents the snipers from killing Jews. Is Mr. Fisk really ignorant of this obvious reality, or does he just hope that his audience is?

Mr. Fisk asserts that the Jews control the media. I guess he never read about that now-well-known conversation between al-Walid bin-Tallal and Rupert Murdoch. The Murdock media outlets were describing the French riots of October and November, 2005, as "Moslem riots". bin-Talal did not like that. So he called Rupert and told him that these were not "Moslem riots" they were riots "about poverty". Rupert said "Yes Sir!" and within 30 minutes all the Murdoch outlets were referring to the riots as "civil riots". Bin-Talal was so proud of himself that he described this phone conversation to a large audience of Moslems and journalists at a conference in Indonesia.

And Mr. Fisk thinks that the Jews control the media!

But, back to my original question. Are you unaware of how utterly unreliable, biased, bigotted, and misleading Fisk's articles are? Or do you just hope that your readers are?

This is by Robert Fisk, a Middle East correspondent for the London Independent and the author, most recently, of "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East," published last month by Knopf. It is called "Jewish media control must end," (www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/ la-oe-fisk27dec27,0,6099761.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions). Reply to comm-122850229@craigslist.org

I FIRST REALIZED the enormous pressures on American journalists in the Middle East when I went some years ago to say goodbye to a colleague from the Boston Globe. I expressed my sorrow that he was leaving a region where he had obviously enjoyed reporting. I could save my sorrows for someone else, he said. One of the joys of leaving was that he would no longer have to alter the truth to suit his paper's more vociferous readers.

"I used to call the Israeli Likud Party 'right wing,' " he said. "But recently, my editors have been telling me not to use the phrase. A lot of our readers objected." And so now, I asked? "We just don't call it 'right wing' anymore."

Ouch. I knew at once that these "readers" were viewed at his newspaper as Israel's friends, but I also knew that the Likud under Benjamin Netanyahu was as right wing as it had ever been.

This is only the tip of the semantic iceberg that has crashed into American journalism in the Middle East. Illegal Jewish settlements for Jews and Jews only on Arab land are clearly "colonies," and we used to call them that. I cannot trace the moment when we started using the word "settlements." But I can remember the moment around two years ago when the word "settlements" was replaced by "Jewish neighborhoods" -- or even, in some cases, "outposts."

Similarly, "occupied" Palestinian land was softened in many American media reports into "disputed" Palestinian land -- just after then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, in 2001, instructed U.S. embassies in the Middle East to refer to the West Bank as "disputed" rather than "occupied" territory.

Then there is the "wall," the massive concrete obstruction whose purpose, according to the Israeli authorities, is to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from killing innocent Israelis. In this, it seems to have had some success. But it does not follow the line of Israel's 1967 border and cuts deeply into Arab land. And all too often these days, journalists call it a "fence" rather than a "wall." Or a "security barrier," which is what Israel prefers them to say. For some of its length, we are told, it is not a wall at all -- so we cannot call it a "wall," even though the vast snake of concrete and steel that runs east of Jerusalem is higher than the old Berlin Wall.

The semantic effect of this journalistic obfuscation is clear. If Palestinian land is not occupied but merely part of a legal dispute that might be resolved in law courts or discussions over tea, then a Palestinian child who throws a stone at an Israeli soldier in this territory is clearly acting insanely.

If a Jewish colony built illegally on Arab land is simply a nice friendly "neighborhood," then any Palestinian who attacks it must be carrying out a mindless terrorist act.

And surely there is no reason to protest a "fence" or a "security barrier" -- words that conjure up the fence around a garden or the gate arm at the entrance to a private housing complex.

For Palestinians to object violently to any of these phenomena thus marks them as a generically vicious people. By our use of language, we condemn them.

We follow these unwritten rules elsewhere in the region. American journalists frequently used the words of U.S. officials in the early days of the Iraqi insurgency -- referring to those who attacked American troops as "rebels" or "terrorists" or "remnants" of the former regime. The language of the second U.S. pro-consul in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, was taken up obediently -- and grotesquely -- by American journalists.

American television, meanwhile, continues to present war as a bloodless sandpit in which the horrors of conflict -- the mutilated bodies of the victims of aerial bombing, torn apart in the desert by wild dogs -- are kept off the screen. Editors in New York and London make sure that viewers' "sensitivities" don't suffer, that we don't indulge in the "pornography" of death (which is exactly what war is) or "dishonor" the dead whom we have just killed.

Our prudish video coverage makes war easier to support, and journalists long ago became complicit with governments in making conflict and death more acceptable to viewers. Television journalism has thus become a lethal adjunct to war.

Back in the old days, we used to believe -- did we not? -- that journalists should "tell it how it is." Read the great journalism of World War II and you'll see what I mean. The Ed Murrows and Richard Dimblebys, the Howard K. Smiths and Alan Moorheads didn't mince their words or change their descriptions or run mealy-mouthed from the truth because listeners or readers didn't want to know or preferred a different version.

So let's call a colony a colony, let's call occupation what it is, let's call a wall a wall. And maybe express the reality of war by showing that it represents not, primarily, victory or defeat, but the total failure of the human spirit.

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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IN THE YEAR 2050 -- A FANTASY?
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 6, 2006.

Israel's galactic class Starship the David Ben-Gurion returned from its maiden voyage in grand style on 01/01/2050 to throngs of Hatikvah singing well-wishing New Year's revelers raising goblet's of Kedem champagne from their V.I.P. like vantage points inside the recently refurbished spectacularly spacious Golda Meier Space Observatory located on an aesthetically sublime environmentally pristine expanse of the Golan Heights. Such a momentous occasion deserved planetary kudos considering the fuel cells powering that journey were the most advanced on the planet and products of Hebrew University ingenuity. The Jewish Constitutional Republic, of course, had become a technological vanguard, allowing its citizens to maximize their intellectual potential rising above the world's latest devastating decade long depression by establishing a superior macroeconomic system free of currency crashes. Other national economies had been dependent on dinosaur logic inherent to manipulative banking systems and debt creation. Dame fortune however smiled upon Israel when economic engineers at J.I.T. (Jerusalem Institute of Technology) developed a macroeconomic model lifting their precocious state out of the quagmire of worldwide stagnation and chaos caused by manmade monetary incompetence.

Additionally, prescient denizens of this formerly disrespected nation were little reliant upon hence not so traumatized when Earth's fossil fuel reserves, with less than ample warning, themselves became extinct. Israel had weaned itself off the prehistoric vicious viscous substance before that energy Armageddon further contributed to the virtual collapse of many so-called elite industrial nations as well as ruthless raw material extorting Islamic theocracies. Furthermore, a propitious geography allowed the Jewish sovereignty to avoid catastrophic coastal inundations experienced by continents exposed to ill-fated impacts of climatically induced Arctic ice melts. Unceasing tsunamis detonated by mankind's environmentally unsound behavior indeed packed the second punch of a one two combination. No doubt the first fifty years of an emerging century twenty-one furiously battered the planet's precariously evolving intelligentsia ever enslaved by predatory vestiges of a savage past, yet flowed considerably kinder for the erstwhile beleaguered state of Israel. Perhaps all regions of this third rock from the sun will fare as well as this tumultuous century closes. We can only hope so.

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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COMMON ENEMY OF OUR SPECIES
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 6, 2006.

Contemplate a time when liberal and conservative, pious and atheist, dark skinned and pale skinned, even Jew and Arab meld hearts and minds comprehending the true meaning of life as a single synergistic humanoid. Egad, how might one ponder such a Pollyanna prospect on a surreal planet where palaces abut impoverished hovels, children displaying distended bellies writhe in pain while the more fortunate feast, unfettered genocidal maniacs mercilessly slaughter hapless victims, and barriers must be built between populations for protection against homicidal hatred? Indeed, there is one way albeit a dire scenario, alas born of a common enemy of perilous potential. If the Arctic ice cap should soon melt, raging tides and growing sea levels could alter Earth in a geologic instant. Such doom and gloom, global warming's catastrophic consequence, would be a terrible tribute to S.U.V. me-generation conspicuously consuming clueless carnivores as well as a smattering of heedless heartless headless hunter-gatherers morphed to century twenty-one smokestack belching industrial polluteocrats. Only then in one momentous mind-altering agonizing epiphany, might a collective survival instinct coalesce a species alas after the blood-curdling stroke of this malevolent midnight.

A preemptive imperative to the global grim reaper's advance however awaits a prescient state, perhaps Israel. No prehistoric pools of polluting substance imbue the sands of her Negev. The vicious villain of vested interest does not vitiate her sensible cerebrum. Hence, the Knesset should forthwith instruct an intellectual Israeli academia to integrate its resources and develop an efficient inexpensive alternate energy source to supersede the environmentally cancerous carbon based substance that imperils the very existence of mankind. Furthermore, a conscious awareness of fossil fuel's ignominious impact on a vulnerable planet must penetrate populations currently impervious to their common enemy. Personal animosities must be relegated to insignificance, dwarfed by recognition of the deadly devastating unavoidable denouement in perpetuating an arrogant course of recklessly consuming prehistoric molecules and releasing heat-entrapping products into this precious overburdened atmosphere.

Judaism and all moral faiths teach us to love and respect our gift of life. We approach a crucial crossroad in the evolution of Earth. The one species with its gift of superior intelligence must quickly mature and comprehend the common bond that binds each member with all others. The common enemy I speak of is a vestige of a violent past, where the competitive wit to survive has morphed to greed and disrespect of wondrous nature. Indeed the aura of dysfunction that basks humanity's soul is surely the common enemy and must be overcome. Israel, a tiny democracy besieged by belligerent regimes needs to rise above the chaos and contempt of those neurotic neighbors, recognize its role on this life-sustaining orb, and find a way alter the mindset of beings bereft of their senses. Who else will?

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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GEORGETOWN'S CAPITULATION TO RADICAL ISLAM
Posted by Joe Kaufman and Jeffrey Epstein, January 6, 2006.

Georgetown University was built with a Catholic and Jesuit identity. This bit of information is proudly displayed on the school's website. But like Bethlehem in Israel, that identity is quickly being lost to a radical strain of Islam, as a counter-terror symposium has been abandoned and a pro-terror conference has been confirmed. Indeed, one of America's most prestigious universities appears to be under siege.

Fearing violent reprisal from militant Muslim members of their student body, the school's conference center rejected an educational symposium being hosted by America's Truth Forum (formerly the People's Truth Forum), a non-partisan, fact-based organization whose sole mission is to educate the American people on topics of national security. In this case, the subject matter to be discussed involved the "Underlying Roots of Terrorism: The Radical Islamist Threat to World Peace and National Security."

The official statement from the General Manager of the Georgetown University Conference Center (a.k.a. Marriott Georgetown) was as follows: "Your event is too controversial to be held on the property. This decision is based upon business considerations, as the event would call for heightened security since protestors might be attracted from both the student body and off campus. I'm concerned that these protestors might block the main hotel entrance, leading to confrontations with hotel guests and/or room cancellations."

While the counter-terror symposium was shunned, an organization associated with violence has been awarded a forum. From February 17 -- 19, the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM), an activist group that has expressed its willingness to work with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, will be holding its "Fifth Annual Divestment Conference" on Georgetown University's campus. At past events, shouts of "Kill the Jews" and "Death to Israel" could be heard amongst the crowd. And according to a news report, during PSM's last conference, when a resolution to condemn terrorism was voted down, "the delegates erupted in cheers."

When PSM announced its event, it's interesting to see who they sent a press release to. A site that devotes a page to the release, Palestine Monitor, is said by one source to be a "PRO-TERRORIST SITE." This is easy to understand, as the website contains numerous pages glorifying the Intifada (uprising) against Israel. Another location that prominently displays the press release is Ramallah Online, a hate site that equates the Jewish Star (Star of David) with the Nazi Swastika.

Not wanting to anger its on-campus insurgency, the university has remained hush about the event. The consideration of a small matter of money may also be on Georgetown's mind. The PSM conference is coming on the heels of a $20 million donation to the school, given by a fairly effluent Saudi sheikh, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. This is the same sheikh who had previously donated $27 million to a telethon that raised money for the families of suicide bombers.

In an article in Georgetown's newspaper, The Hoya, Saad Omar, the Vice President of the Muslim Students Association, stated that "any demonstration that might result from the conference would be restrained and unlikely to turn into rioting" and that he has "not seen a tendency toward rioting in the student body."

If this is so -- that rioting is unlikely -- why would Georgetown's conference center deny America's Truth Forum from holding its event, whilst stating otherwise (heightened security, confrontations with hotel guests)? Could it be that the university is only concerned with the group's stance against radical Islam?

Either Georgetown is suffering from an identity crises or it has completely capitulated to the enemy by replacing Old Glory's stars and stripes with a green crescent and a sword. The infiltration of radical Islam into Georgetown University is a tremendous blow to this once great educational institution. Unfortunately, Georgetown is not alone in this respect, as many universities across America are falling into the radical trap. As this trend continues, much can be said about the potential of losing the war on the home front.

We are looking at a near future, when our country will have to worry less about the danger from terrorists abroad and more about imploding (or exploding) from within.

America's Truth Forum

Like most well-intentioned and critical grassroots endeavors, America's Truth Forum has met with resistance from those who are devoid of the facts and those ignorant to the immediacy of the situation. Fortunately, the organization has persevered against "formidable" odds and has amassed tremendous support.

America's Truth Forum has taken on the task of educating the American people on the threat posed by radical Islamofascism -- a wickedness which not only threatens our national security but our very existence. The organization is neither political nor agenda-driven. It is not an opportunistic special interest group. Its sole mission is to provide solid, fact-based, first-source information to the American people.

America's Truth Forum has assembled a panel of globally recognized, counter-terrorism experts to speak at its event. Each of the panel members has appeared as a counter-terrorism authority on the many news channel talk shows, and each has been published on the subject, some of them numerous times. Their areas of expertise range from having provided counter-terrorism training for our government agencies to having seen the horrors of radical Islamist terror first hand. Also slated to join the panel is a former Palestinian terrorist, who will provide his first-hand knowledge of radical Islam's terrorist jihad. Many of these speakers have indicated that nothing like this has ever been attempted before and have expressed enthusiasm for the project.

The symposium has been scheduled for April 29, 2006 in the greater Washington area. A forthcoming press release will identify participants and detail registration procedures.

This article appeared on www.FrontPageMagazine.com January 6, 2006.

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MOSLEMS BOYCOTT HOLOCAUST DAY ... WHY?
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 6, 2006.

Moslems in England are boycotting Holocaust day.

Of course they are boycotting it.

why shouldn't they?

Many of their leaders tell them that it never happened, that is is a Zionist lie, a Jewish hoax, and that the purpose of this hoax is to provide Jews with a moral lever with which the Jewish international organizations that rule the world can bully Europe and the USA into support for Israel.

Of course, these leaders also tell them that it is too bad that Hitler did not finish the job, and that Hitler was a great man for tryinig to do the job, and that the European states tried to finish the job by sending all their Jews to Israel. hmmmm....didn't happen...but good that it happened....

But never mind, as I have pointed out in an earlier email, many in the Arab and Moslem world are perfectly comfortable entertaining as real and actionable two completely contradictory assertions....something against which the western mind rebels.

But, the other really far more important reason why they must boycott Holocaust day and perpetrate the lie that the Holocaust never happend.... is because the Holocaust provides moral foundation for the existence of Israel.

This is called "Muslims boycott Holocaust Day." This was written by Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor, UK Telegraph, January 1, 2006.

The Muslim Council of Britain is to boycott the National Holocaust Day for the second year running, the organisation said last night.

A spokesman said it would not participate in the event on Jan 26 because it was not sufficiently inclusive.

"The MCB would be honoured to participate in a national memorial day providing that it clearly affirmed that the lives of all people, regardless of race or religion, are to be valued equally," he said. "This is why the Muslim Council has consistently called for a genocide memorial day."

The council, which is considered to be the main representative body for Muslims, caused controversy when it declined to take part in last year's national event which marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Stephen Smith, the chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, said: "Holocaust Memorial Day has always been an inclusive event. That is why, from its first year, survivors from Bosnia, Rwanda and the Holocaust have come together: Jews, Muslims and Christians, as well as non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust -- gay and disabled people and Roma communities."

He added: "Holocaust Memorial Day is an opportunity for all communities and faiths to learn from a salutary past and expose all forms of racism -- including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism - xenophobia, discrimination and bigotry."

It is the second controversy triggered by the council in the past few days. Earlier this week, gay activists criticised comments by Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the head of the council, in which he condemned civil partnerships and describing homosexuality as immoral.

Interviewed on BBC, in which he called for "tolerance" of Muslim values, Sir Iqbal was asked whether he was tolerant of civil partnerships and homosexuality. He said the so-called gay marriages did "not augur well" for building the foundations of society.

Peter Tatchell, a spokesman for OutRage, the gay rights group, said: "It is tragic for one minority to attack another minority."

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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THE JEWISH NATIONAL GOAL
Posted by Steven Shamrak, January 6, 2006.

Many Jewish groups, organizations and individuals are actively involved in signing petitions, writing letters and monitoring anti-Semitism worldwide. These are very important activities, but they all are missing a direction.

Jews must unite behind the most important objective -- the Jewish National goal: "Jewish people have the right to live in peace on the all Jewish ancestral land". Only by uniting behind the National goal, Jews have the chance to survive the modern, internationally orchestrated, anti-Jewish onslaught!

This is the only goal that is worthwhile to pursue. It has nothing to do with: party politics, Arab intentions to destroy Israel or even with anti-Semitism and the Holocaust! It is the National right that Jewish people dreamed about for 2000 years! Therefore, regardless of the political affiliation of any Jewish group, political party or individual: Communist or Capitalists; Orthodox, Secular or Atheist -- all of them can support and be united behind this goal. And, it would not contradict their ideology.

It is imposable to achieve anything without setting an objective. We need to revive, re-ignite and be clear about the Jewish National goal and aspirations. We cant afford to waste time anymore. Our enemies declared their intention clearly, recently and in the past. Our ambiguity is just inflaming their hate!

The useless internal political bickering has to be stopped. The Jewish National Goal must be the main priority and motivation for all Israeli politicians, Jewish people and organizations around the world. The personal ego has to be put aside. This idea is the only one that can unite Jewish people.

History is full of examples of a great number of people who became idealistic and enthusiastic when they were lead to the achievement of, seemingly, unattainable goals. They were unstoppable and pursued the worthwhile goals with zeal.

Jews have this goal imbedded in the Jewish soul. It would be more natural and easier for Jews to support the creation of the Jewish state on all Jewish land. On the contrary, it is unnatural and self-destructive to impose on Israel the agenda of our enemies and the duplicity of their supporters!

Note: Please, let me know if you would like to participate in this endeavor.

As this letter is being written, PM Sharon's health condition has deteriorated significantly: I would like to pay tribute to a great Jewish soldier, but who lost his way as a politician!

Quote of the Week:

"Israel is in a war for it's survival, but it's doing everything possible to lose." -- Marcel Cousineau.

"There have been many periods in history when the nation did not identify the dangers in time. It's not enough to be strong; we must see the danger and act sensibly." -- Binyamin Netanyahu.

"Food for Thought" by Steven Shamrak

Chinese believe that a Disaster is an opening for an Opportunity. Jews say: "G-D moves in mysterious ways". I just hope that both ideas are right!

Vatican muscling in on Jerusalem. The Vatican's legal advisor in Israel, David Jaeger, told an international conference in Haifa Tuesday that Jerusalem was too important a city to leave in the hands of either 'Palestinians' or Jews. Between 1949 and 1967, when the Arab kingdom of Jordan occupied the eastern part of the city, the rights of Jews and Christians to visit their holy places was restricted and denied. The Jewish Quarter of the Old City was left to rot, its synagogues sacked and burned. (The Vatican was silent then! This is another show of anti-Semitism by the Church. It has never gone!)

Armed Arabs Storm Rafiah Border. Anarchy in the Palestinian Authority (PA) spread to the Rafiah border crossing. The compound was stormed, the EU's observers stationed at the crossing quickly fled the scene in panic. The gunmen who stormed the compound belong to the ruling Fatah party of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas. (This is a protection and commitment that Israel receives from the International community - Panic! And, this is the ugly face of Jewish neighbours.)

Israeli Drone in Action. An Israeli drone killed the two Arab terrorists, including an Islamic Jihad official, and injured two others as they were travelling by car in northern Gaza. They were targeted after growing violence in Gaza, including the rocket attacks against Israeli targets. (Well done! With the advance of technology, drones are safer and cost-effective.)

Israel death toll lowest in years Forty-five Israelis were killed by Arab Palestinian terrorists in 2005. A further 406 Israelis were wounded in attacks. This is the lowest since the start of the Intifada in 2000. However, Arab terrorists have smuggled a number of anti-aircraft missiles into Gaza. Terrorist groups formally ended their truce on Sunday. (Some hypocrites still call killing of 45 and wounding 406 Jews by Arab terrorists the Peace process.)

Jewish Land for American Compensation. The Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv reports that Kadima party is planning, despite any deterioration in Israel's security situation, on replacing the U.S. backed road map peace proposal with a new plan that would uproot Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria in exchange for American compensation. (A psychiatric assessment is urgently needed for all Israeli politicians!)

Attack on UN in Gaza. Masked Arab Palestinian terrorists briefly kidnapped an Italian peace activist, who defended his kidnapers later, in the Gaza Strip and blew up a United Nations club. (Arab terrorists do not even respect the hand that feeds their people! Anti-Semitic peace activists just hate Jews no matter what!)

900% Increase in Smuggling. The General Security Services has released its 2005 year-end report. The report said "a small number" of anti-aircraft missiles, these weapons could threaten civilian aircraft in Israel, had been smuggled into Gaza along with 200 anti-tank rocket launchers, 300 anti-tank rockets, five tons of explosives, 5,000 automatic rifles and handguns, and more than a million bullets since the pullout. In spite of this, the United States is pressuring Israel to allow convoys of Arab Palestinians to travel from Gaza to the West Bank. (This is how 'Disengagement' has made Israel 'safe'. This is how the 'friend' supports Israel!)

Security Zone in N. Gaza. The IDF began enforcing a security zone in northern Gaza, shelling targets in the region as part of "Operation Blue Skies". The operation is aimed at ending rocket attacks on western Negev communities and the Ashkelon industrial area, including the strategic power plant. Towns such as Sderot, though, remain exposed to rocket attacks. (Sharon had promised that 'Disengagement' would improve security and save money. It didnt! But, it created the opportunity for an easy population transfer of all Arabs from Gaza. Sinai Peninsula is in need of population boost!)

Comments on Comments:

"We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies." -- Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. -- This coward has become an acting Prime Minister of Israel. Over 2 years ago he called for withdrawal from most of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Now we can see the result of his 'vision'. This traitor is in charge of Israel now!

Islamic Nuclear Threat.

Syria is close to a full fledged nuclear fuel cycle program. Stolen enriched uranium in Sweden was the last piece of the puzzle and SAM engines destined to Iraq from Belarus are in Syria.

The UN nuclear watchdog is investigating undeclared nuclear work in Egypt that could have been linked to an atomic weapons program. Egypt had admitted January 27 to failing to signal a "number of research experiments" to the IAEA, after the agency was investigating an Egyptian lab that could be used to make plutonium, a nuclear weapons material.

"Iran is determined to pursue all legal areas of nuclear technology, including (uranium) enrichment, exclusively for peaceful purposes," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told a United Nations conference.

(By now, Iran has admitted the desire to develop a Nuclear weapon, as well as long range missiles. We all know that Muslim countries are considering Israel as the enemy number one. After Jerusalem -- Washington and London are the next!)

Steven Shamrak was born in the former Soviet Union (USSR) and participated in the Moscow Zionist "refusenik" movement. He publishes 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_E@gmail2world.com

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COUNTERING ANTISEMITISM
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 6, 2006.

COUNTERING ANTISEMITISM;

Two canards about Jews have been circulating. One, which demagogues cite to exploit the credulous, is that the war on Iraq was started at the bidding of Israel. The other, which demagogues cite to exploit the ignorant, is that "the Jews" were dominant in the slave trade.

Jews had a negligible role in slaveholding and trading. American blacks did about the same, but black African rulers rounded up many souls for the slavers. They played a major role. So did Arabs, with a racist attitude, first to organize the trade and still at it. Singling out the hardly involved Jews is the usual antisemitic tactic of blaming the world's ills on the Jewish people. Ills don't get cured when their cause is falsified.

The current exhibit on slavery at the New York Historical Society shows a history of slavery in the city that largely had been glossed over. (It occurred before the great Jewish immigration.) I wish the curator had added a statement that Jews were very minor factors in this. It might have done some good with the blacks who flocked in.

The other canard, that Israel made the US war on Iraq, is more than ignorant, it is ridiculous. It is based on the hoary fantasy that Jews are entrenched in bastions of wealth and power, and manipulate the rest of the world. It was recently stated by a conservative intellectual who was desperate for a reason for opposing the war. He claimed that this war is part of the US service to alleged Israeli "expansionism."

Let's disengage from fantasy and consider the relative positions of Israel, the state against which almost the whole UN votes, and the US, which is a superpower. Some Jews might have some power, but they often don't advance a Jewish agenda. Many Jews are poor.

There is an expansionism nowadays that threatens the entire world. It is Islamic expansionism. That is what our leaders should be warning against. One wing of jihad seeks to swallow the Jewish state. In the common defense, the world powers should help Israel resist and should welcome Israeli help in blocking the Islamic assault on them.

"Israeli expansionism," what an oxymoron! When the Palestine Mandate for a Jewish national home first was defined after the breakup of the Turkish Empire, it included Israel, Jordan, and the Territories. The Golan Heights, now incorporated into Israel, were included as well. Within months, the Britain deprived the Jewish people of the Golan Heights. Before Israel declared independence, Britain took Jordan away from the Jewish people. When the General Assembly proposed a Jewish state, it omitted the Territories and other areas.

The Arabs committed aggression against Israel several times. As a result, Israel controlled the Sinai, the Territories, all of Jerusalem, the Golan, and the original state declared in 1948. The US exerted its influence to get Israel to withdraw from the Sinai.

Israel incorporated the Old City of Jerusalem and some vacant land in the path of its growth. After further Arab aggression, Israel incorporated the Golan Heights. Those were small additions to the tiny state nearly surrounded by a vast Arab-controlled territory. US Presidents go so far as to violate US law by refusing to recognize Israeli sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem through establishing the US Embassy there.

As for the Territories, there is a movement to settle them with Israelis, but much stronger is the movement to cede the area when the Arabs seem to make peace with Israel. So much for Jewish expansionism! The US got Israel to withdraw from Gaza (but not the Arabs to stop attacking Israel from Gaza) and northern Samaria. Israel should have annexed northern Samaria, for few Arabs lived there, and it is part of the traditional Jewish homeland and would have provided some strategic depth and security of borders.

Instead of encouraging that, the US is pressing for Israel to withdraw from the rest of the Territories and give the Territories a corridor through Israel. The Arabs already are demanding parts of Israel. Israel's problem is "contractionism."

Thus we see that the canard is false. How can its falsity be exposed, when most of the media is part of the mindless or ill-intentioned campaign to whittle Israel down? The American Jewish organizations could try. They claim to be on good terms with Pres. Bush. They should ask him to explain to the public the absurdity of the notion of "the Jews" dictating to the superpower; that Jewish officials in the federal government serve the federal government and not the reverse; and that he sets foreign policy. He might point out that he has asked Israel to retreat from the Territories, and that other Presidents asked Israel not to make pre-emptive strikes nor to strike back at Iraq when it bombarded Israel with Scud missiles, and Israel complied at great sacrifice.

Let him declare that antisemites do the US a double disservice, first in impugning the loyalty of its Jewish citizens, and second in using the false tactic of antisemitism against US policy. The US made the war on Iraq in what it considered the US interest. Americans should debate it on that basis, leaving Israel out of it. If US political parties could and would be able to differentiate the American national interest from some narrow and temporary corporate interest and from prejudice, US policy would be consistently pro-Israel. The contradiction between our supporting half the Arabs involved in jihad and hampering Israeli defense, on the one hand, and fighting international Islamism, on the other hand, has not registered in the consciousness of the American people.

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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MAJOR TERROR PLOT AGAINST U.S. IGNORED
Posted by David Nathan, January 6, 2006.

The mainstream U.S. media outlets have failed to report a major terrorist plot against the U.S. -- because it would tend to support President Bush's use of NSA domestic surveillance, according to media watchdog groups.

News of a planned attack masterminded by three Algerians operating out of Italy was widely reported outside the U.S., but went virtually unreported in the American media.

Italian authorities recently announced that they had used wiretaps to uncover the conspiracy to conduct a series of major attacks inside the U.S.

Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the planned attacks would have targeted stadiums, ships and railway stations, and the terrorists' goal, he said, was to exceed the devastation caused by 9/11.

Italian authorities stepped up their internal surveillance programs after July's terrorist bombings in London. Their domestic wiretaps picked up phone conversations by Algerian Yamine Bouhrama that discussed terrorist attacks in Italy and abroad.

Italian authorities arrested Bouhrama on November 15 and he remains in prison. Authorities later arrested two other men, Achour Rabah and Tartaq Sami, who are believed to be Bouhrama's chief aides in planning the attacks.

The arrests were a major coup for Italian anti-terror forces, and the story was carried in most major newspapers from Europe to China.

"U.S. terror attacks foiled," read the headline in England's Sunday Times. In France, a headline from Agence France Presse proclaimed, "Three Algerians arrested in Italy over plot targeting U.S."

Curiously, what was deemed worthy of a worldwide media blitz abroad was virtually ignored by the U.S. media, and conservative media watchdog groups are saying that is no accident.

"My impression is that the major media want to use the NSA story to try and impeach the president," says Cliff Kincaid, editor of the Accuracy in Media Report published by the grassroots Accuracy in Media organization.

"If you remind people that terrorists actually are planning to kill us, that tends to support the case made by President Bush. They will ignore any issue that shows that this kind of [wiretapping] tactic can work in the war on terror."

"The mainstream media have framed the story as one of the nefarious President Bush 'spying on U.S. citizens,' where the average American is a victim not a beneficiary," commented Brent Baker, vice president of the Media Research Center, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to encouraging balanced news coverage, "so journalists have little interest in any evidence that the program has helped save lives by uncovering terrorist plans."

The Associated Press version of the story did not disclose that the men planned to target the U.S. Nor did it report that the evidence against the suspects was gathered via a wiretapping surveillance operation.

Furthermore, only one American newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, is known to have published the story that the AP distributed. It ran on page A-6 under the headline "Italy Charges 3 Algerians." The Inquirer report also made no mention of the plot to target the U.S. - although foreign publications included this information in the headlines and lead sentences of their stories. Nor did it advise readers that domestic wiretaps played a key role in nabbing the suspected terrorists.

One obvious question media critics are now raising: Did the American media intentionally ignore an important story because it didn't fit into their agenda of attacking President George Bush for using wiretapping to spy on potential terrorists in the U.S.?

"It's clear to me," says AIM's Kincaid, "that they're trying their best to make this NSA program to be an impeachable offense, saying it is directed at ordinary Americans. That's why they keep referring to this as a 'program of spying on Americans' -- whereas the president keeps pointing out it's a program designed to uncover al-Qaida operations on American soil."

Contact David Nathan at davenathan@aol.com

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OLMERT TAXES DONATIONS TO GUSH KATIF VICTIMS
Posted by Batya Medad, January 6, 2006.

Just a couple of months ago, Daryl Tempkin, of California, had a wonderful idea how to help the Disengagement victims. He heard that not only didn't most of them have their possessions, but that it would cost them money to go through their storage containers. Winter weather meant that they wouldn't have warm clothes, and most are in climates much colder than Gush Katif. Buying new clothes, when unemployed and homeless, would be foolish.

So, Darryl mentioned his idea to send the refugees some warm clothes, and the project mushroomed. Tons of clothes and other needed items were donated. El Al was generous about the shipping. Everything was going great until the donated items arrived in Israel and Ehud Olmert's taxmen got started!

Olmert wants so much tax, that it is impossible to release the items.

Due to the unresolved crisis, more than 30 tons of donated clothing, toys, and medical supplies intended for Israel's needy have been stranded for three weeks in warehouses at Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport.

The American Jewish community that is trying to help the refugees are livid! When I heard about it I contacted Daryl, to make sure this unbelievable situation is really true. And he confirmed it. Olmert's ministry and government are demanding tens of thousands of dollars above the shipping fee for these donations. And due to the delays, thousands of dollars of storage fees. This is unheard of for humanitarian donations anyplace in the world.

In the meantime, it's winter, and the clothes, medicine and other items haven't arrived.

Haven't those loyal, hardworking Israeli citizens suffered enough? Now, even when some sort of help is on its way, the government, led by Ehud Olmert is preventing to donations to get to the victims.

Ehud Olmert is now Prime Minister, subbing for the ailing, if not already dead, Arik Sharon. He has the power to release the tons of donations, so that the Disengagement victims and other needy Israelis canbenefitt from them.

It's time to protest.

Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il This is archived at samizdatblogfree.blogspot.com/2006/01/ olmert-taxes-donations-to-gush-katif.html

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ARIEL SHARON: DEAD OR CLINICALLY DEAD?
Posted by David Bedein, January 6, 2006.

Israel Resource News Agency confirms that at about noon on January 5th, Israel time, doctors at Hadassah Hospital and security officials at the Israel Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv were simultaneously informed that Prime Minister Sharon had died during surgery shortly before 11:00 a.m.

Israel Resource News Agency spoke again with officials from both Hadassah and the Israel Ministry of Defence who were officially informed at noon of Sharon's death.

That begs the question: why does the government of Israel not convey reports of Sharon's death?

There are two possible explanations.

One is that, for whatever reason, the government is withholding the report.

The other explanation is that Sharon has been placed on a life support system, and that Sharon is "only" clinically dead.

David Bedein is Bureau Chief, Israel Resource News Agency. (http://Israelbehindthenews.com). His article appeared today in Front Page Magazine (www.frontpagemagazine.com). Contact him at media@actcom.co.il

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PLANNING FOR AFTER THE FALL
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 6, 2006.

If the world really believes that in order to meet Arab nationalistic needs it is justified to create yet another Arab, terror State in the Middle East, they should have no problem with the creation of one more Jewish State as well. However, we all know that the great, big, humanitarian world doesn't care a month old falafel's worth for Arab nationalism. What they really want is to obliterate the Jews from the world and see the Arabs as the best chance they have.

I have argued on and off for years that the attempt to create a second Jewish State (or maybe more correctly the first Jewish State) is the best tactic to force annexation of Yeshah to Israel. It is only the idolatrous worship of the State of Israel by so many of the Yeshah people that has blinded them to the potency of this approach.

The slogan I have suggested for this effort is: Yeshah Annexation or Independence! It is a simple, straight forward idea. It is also a total rejection of the Leftist/EREV RAV game plan. No land for peace. No Fascistic claims of the supremacy of the State over the individual. No Arab rights over Jewish rights. If the "Israelis" don't want Yeshah, the Jews will take it.

The best solution would have been for the annexation of Yeshah, including Gaza and the expulsion of all hostile elements. However, since the State of Israel is now on the verge of collapse, it is vitally important to consider what to do after it has fallen apart. Now is the time to plan how to reconstruct the nation and the State. Rational people do not wait until there is total chaos. Maybe this initiative will help.

This is called "Jewish groups urge: Secede from Israel New effort seeks 'biblical heartland' to break away for own sovereignty" and was written by Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily's Jerusalem bureau chief. It appeared in World Net Daily today.

JERUSALEM -- A new movement is set to be presented next week by residents of Judea and Samaria calling for Jews there to secede from Israel and create their own autonomous Jewish entity in part to head off the possibility of further unilateral Israeli withdrawals from the area, WND has learned.

The Judea Initiative, led by northern Samaria resident Yekutel Ben Yaacov, is seeking to gather signatures from Judea and Samaria's nearly 200,000 Jews for a manifesto declaring the creation of a sovereign Jewish authority that would govern itself independently according to Jewish law and would provide its own security.

Judea and Samaria are referred to by some as the West Bank, the name coined for the area after Jordan annexed it in 1948.

The initiative aims to create the new Jewish authority in any part of Judea and Samaria, even a small settlement, in hopes of eventually ruling the entire territory, Ben Yaacov said, explaining his initiative was prompted by talks of possible Israeli withdrawals from the area.

"We can't sit around and wait until Israel sends the bulldozers to take down Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria before attempting to counter the next Israeli withdrawal. We are acting now so we can retain our rightful biblical heritage," Ben Yaacov told WND.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdrew Israel's Jewish communities from the Gaza Strip last summer in spite of fierce opposition from members of his own Likud party. He recently announced he was leaving Likud to start his own "centrist" party, Kadima, prompting new elections currently scheduled for March. Since then, multiple Kadima members have told reporters the new party is looking to change Israel's borders with possible withdrawals from Judea and Samaria. There have been talks of disengagements from parts of Jerusalem as well.

It's unclear as yet how Sharon's massive stroke this week and his inability to govern will affect the future politics of Israel.

Currently, Judea and Samaria, inhabited by about 2.4 million Palestinians, is considered landlocked territory not officially recognized as part of any country. Israel calls the land "disputed." The United Nations claims Judea and Samaria is "occupied" by Israel, which maintains overall control of most of the area while the Palestinian Authority has jurisdiction in about 40 percent.

Judea and Samaria remained under Jordanian rule from 1948 until Israel captured the territory 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.

Ben Yaacov says his Judea Initiative takes advantage of Judea and Samaria's murky legal status to argue for independent Jewish sovereignty.

"Legally it's a no-man's land. The Palestinians used that status to create their own authority, so there is absolutely no reason the Jews can't do the same thing."

Ben Yaacov's group, Mishalot Israel, is holding a conference next week in Jerusalem's Old City to present the Judea Initiative. It will then begin petitioning both private citizens and entire communities to join.

He says already he has garnered interest from local residents and some town leaders.

"The plan hasn't even been announced or presented and already I am getting a lot of phone calls from people and at least one town that wants to sign on. They are hearing about it by word of mouth," Ben Yaacov said. "The area is the site of a lot of the Bible and has had a Jewish population for centuries. We will not allow the Israeli government to kick us out."

Many villages in the Judea and Samaria area, which Israelis commonly reefer to as the "biblical heartland," are mentioned throughout the Old Testament.

The Book of Genesis says Abraham entered Israel at Shechem (Nablus) and received God's promise of land for his offspring.

The nearby town of Beit El, anciently called Bethel meaning "house of God," is where Scripture says 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 Shilo, which is believed to be the first area the ancient Israelites settled after fleeing Egypt.

Ben Yaacov said his new Jewish authority would be "governed by Jewish law. Non-Jews, including Palestinians, are more than welcome to live there as long as they accept Jewish sovereign and agree to abide by the Seven Noahide laws, the most basic of biblical dictates."

He said the annexed territory would provide for its own security.

"A large contingent of Judea and Samaria residents served in the Israeli army. They currently defend their own settlements to a large extent. We would base ours on the same concept as Israeli security. Immediately after Israel was founded, it was attacked on all sides and it won every war because of the help of God and because of the same people we have with us."

The initiative states there are three primary reasons to form a Jewish authority in Judea and Samaria:

"The new Jewish authority will protect Israel from terror and enhance Israeli security. It is more advantageous to have Jewish autonomy in Judea and Samaria in place of complete Palestinian autonomy, which will give the Palestinian terrorist groups more land from which to fire Qassams and launch attacks. The Jews who remain in the area will be accepting a certain level of self-sacrifice by putting themselves in harms way."

"The creation of a Jewish authority will relieve tension and prevent bloodshed between Jew and fellow Jew by halting an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. There are hundreds of thousands of Jews in the area, some of whom may use violent resistance in the face of any withdrawal. It will also alleviate some of the tension and rifts that would be created in Israeli society by any withdrawal."

"The new Jewish authority will offer appropriate self-determination to fulfil the national aspirations of many religious Jews in Israel. The area will be ruled by Torah law as opposed to the current anti-religious government."

Ben Yaacov's Judea Initiative is not the first major push for Jews to secede from Israel. In 1989, the late author and Knesset member Rabbi Meir Kahane, a mentor of Ben Yaacov, attempted to found the State of Judea, a Jewish state in Judea and Samaria. That effort eventually fell through.

"Ours is different in that we are starting small," explained Ben Yaacov. "We are not talking about our own state, just an entity or authority, however small or large it will be."

Reacting to the news of calls for Jews to create their own authority, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told WorldNetDaily, "This is the chaos and lawlessness [the Palestinian Authority] has warned about. If the Israeli government does not get its act together concerning the settlers, who by the way are armed to the teeth and acting like a parallel authority, the price will be paid in Palestinian blood."

Israeli government spokesmen Raanan Gissin and David Baker refused to comment on the issue.

Said Ben Yaacov, "There may be resistance at first, but eventually people will come to understand a lot of Jews in Judea and Samaria will not go along with any further withdrawals. Now those Jews will have a solution."

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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KURDS AND ISRAELIS HAVE MUCH IN COMMON
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 5, 2006.

The Kurdish quest for respect on this planet mirrors Israel's similar pursuit. Both cultures engender little support from the majority of nations worldwide while being unjustly abused by hostile neighbors. The most powerful United States, however, has been a formidable friend and presumably would reliably act in their best interests when necessary. Yet, although the Kurds have demonstrated considerably more skill than other Iraqi tribes in developing their sector and maintaining security, America discourages them from conquering and controlling oil rich Kirkuk thus enhancing their economic and military strength while maintaining a de facto sovereign enclave. Kurds collectively form a secular democratic ambitious intelligent Western thinking culture yearning for an independent Kurdistan. They are in so many ways the antithesis of juxtaposed Shiite and Sunni Arabs, yet America opposes any effort by the Kurds to truly attain a cherished independence. The best interests of that foremost ally alas seem to supersede the best interests of Kurdish culture.

Will America react similarly when and if it attempts to negotiate an Israeli Palestinian peace accord consistent with its Road Map? Will President Bush, apparently infatuated with the smoothie Mahmoud Abbas, forsake the interests of the besieged Jewish Democracy for the sake of consequential kudos and perhaps more lucrative oil contracts from Israeli bashers worldwide? Will substantial expanses of Israeli land including Jerusalem be put on the table along with an outrageous right of Palestinian return without even a quelling of violence against Israeli citizens? Will the Road Map morph to Israeli Road Kill? Israel's Prime Minister and the Knesset might observe America's treatment of Israel's soul mate Kurds and legitimately express concern.

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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A DISGRACE: OLMERT WANTS TO TAX CLOTHING DONATED TO GUSH KATIF
Posted by Ken Heller, January 5, 2006.

Dear Friends,

With the events of Sharon's medical situation and Ehud Olmert's rise to the office of Prime Minister, there will likely be little accomplished on this struggle to stop Israeli taxing of relief shipments. For those who don't know, since December 2, 2005, our relief airlift shipment has been sitting at Ben Gurion Airport, entrapped in high taxes and not being allowed to reach all the people in need. As the Israeli winter cold sets in, this American relief effort is being prevented from being distributed to the poor and needy of the Jewish State. This absurd situation is in Ehud Olmert's office, the Finance Ministry, and is bound to be placed on the back burner in the face of the political transition. There are people in Ehud Olmert's office who have been reviewing our issue for the past two weeks. We need to keep attention on this issue and get the tons of warm clothing distributed to the many people in Israel who have been anxiously awaiting this most important relief.

Just to put things in perspective, we paid $8,500 to El Al for sending 2.5 tons of clothes. On this donated humanitarian relief effort, the Israeli Financy Ministry is requiring us to pay custom and Value Added Tax and storage fees that may be as high as $40,000. We are also being taxed by the Finance Ministry on the $8,500 paid to El Al in America. In addition, we have a ZIM shipment of clothes which weighs 30,000 pounds. We paid ZIM $3,500 to send the cargo. Now, we are told that there will be a minimum of $5,000 charged to release the relief shipment from the port. Additional fees will likely add another $5,000 charge and then there will be storage fees added. Suddenly, our relief effort for our own people which started at $12,000 in shipping fees is now looking at what could be an additonal $50,000 in taxes and increasing by $750 -- $1,500 a day in storage fees. We don't know the exact dollar amounts but we are told to prepare for the worst. This tax is unacceptable and immoral in all respects. This tax will not be paid and we are not going to be raising money from our community for this purpose. We started this process because we were told that the relief shipment would come into the country with a minimal entrance fee. The bottom line is that there should be no entrance fee for a humanitarian relief effort. If our humanitarian relief effort can change the rules in Israel, then that will be an important contribution to the country. If Ehud Olmert's office does not rule on this issue in a favorable manner, we will need to expose this policy and it will be embarrassing and shameful. Everyday that passes without this bureaucratic absurdity being corrected, we have to live with the poor and the needy being left in the cold as 17 tons of relief winter clothes sits locked in storage. Let's help Israel and its citizens and get this sad situation rectified.

Thank you all for your support and your suggestions are welcomed.

Sincerely,
Daryl Temkin, Ph.D.
Director
American-Israel Airlift
Israel Education Institute


"Olmert Demands Taxes On Donated Items For Israel's Needy"
Arutz Sheva News Report -- www.IsraelNationalNews.com

Acting Prime Minister and Finance Minister Ehud Olmert demanded last month that taxes be paid on charity items recently donated by American Jews to help Israel's needy population prepare for winter.

Olmert's act has raised a storm of angry criticism from Israeli and U.S. Jewish leaders and has also created an unusually tense diplomatic climate sparking claims that trade treaties between Israel and America have been breached.

According to a report in the L.A. Times, Olmert made the decision to enforce an old, outdated law demanding a 28.5% tax and an additional airfare tax on U.S. charitable donations to Israel's poor. The donations which include medical supplies, clothing and toys are the result of a charity drive in Jewish communities across the U.S. aimed at delivering the contributions to Israel in time for the holiday of Hanukkah. While Olmert's staff refused to grant any reduction in taxes to allow the release of the charity items, Olmert himself took part in a press interview at a Tel Aviv soup kitchen, in an apparent move to publicize his concern for Israel's poor and needy.

A spokesperson at Olmert's office in the Ministry of Finance claimed the decision was made to protect Israel's second hand garment industry; stating, "The law is explicit and has been in effect for decades. It is designed to protect the Israeli second hand garment industry. If American donors want to assist Israel's poor, they should send money and have clothing purchased in Israel for donations. The Ministry has looked into the matter at the very highest level of the Office of the Minister himself. The law to tax charitable donations is explicit, and no reduction of any kind can be considered. The American donors should have considered this consequence prior to engaging in so ambitious an undertaking."

Israel Textile Union Chairman, Ramsi Gabai denied any connection between the taxation on charity items and the defense of the Israeli garment industry. "There has not even been a second hand garment industry in Israel for thirty years. It is an absurdity to suggest that taxing American charity in any way defends the Israeli garment industry, or that such protection is at all desired by the Israeli textile industry. There is a Free Trade Agreement with the United States on all garments, which certainly covers charity if it covers items sold for profit. We ourselves at the Textile Union have a very large and successful program for the member firms to donate excess clothing inventory to charity. Are we to be taxed on our charity to the poor and needy next," asked Gabai.

A spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy expressed frustration at the audacity of being taxed on charitable donations. "There is no exemption from the Free Trade Agreement ratified with the State of Israel that would permit taxation of American citizens donating charity. The contention seems more bizarre than weak. The United States need not specifically include in its Free Trade treaties the self evident inclusion of charitable donations for emergency relief in addition to commercially sold goods for profit. Did the Indonesians charge taxes on American charitable relief from the tsunami? Did India tax American charity donated after the killer monsoons? Did the Chileans tax American donations after the earthquake?" stated the U.S. embassy official.

Due to the unresolved crisis, more than 30 tons of donated clothing, toys, and medical supplies intended for Israel's needy have been stranded for three weeks in warehouses at Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport. The California-based donors who organized the charitable drive are not willing to pay the heavy tax imposed by Ehud Olmert.

Labor party Economic Advisor Avishai Braverman, attacked Olmert's decision and the entire Sharon Administration for its continued "callous and heartless" policies. "We have become a truly heartless people during the Sharon Administration, to my deep regret. How blatant can the present government be in its mistreatment of the poorest citizens? It is an absolute scandal that we can be so callous and heartless a people. This is much more than simple stupidity; it is a basic lack of humanity. The time has come for all Israelis to look in the mirror and admit our failing as a Western nation and particularly as Jews. It is tragic that our American Jewish brothers need publicly criticize us before we can confront these distasteful realities of Israel today," said Braverman.

MK Effie Eitam attempted to reassure American supporters of Israel that the Knesset would never allow Olmert's decision to stand. "There has never been a Knesset -- Likud or Labor, right or left, capitalist or communist, that has ever contemplated taxing American charity to Israel's neediest. There never will be such a Knesset. Please do not let this temporary madness stop your wonderful efforts in assisting our neediest citizens. They should not be left to suffer for the stupidity of the present administration," Eitam said.

Many American Jewish leaders, who have traditionally been among Israel's greatest supporters, voiced their anger at the situation; including Rabbi Norman Lamm, Chancellor Emeritus of Yeshiva University and Rabbi Pesach Lerner executive vice-president, National Council of Young Israel Synagogues.

"It is the obligation of the American Jewish community not to remain silent to this outrage but to openly confront the Israeli government with the loud message: this is completely unacceptable. It is unacceptable in terms of all common decency. It is unacceptable in terms of all Western culture, and it is particularly unacceptable in its violation of every tenet of Judaism," Rabbi Lamm stated.

"It is unheard of that donations of anything, especially clothing for children and adults who need such clothing to keep warm, should be held up by a government for customs taxes when that government and its agencies should themselves be supplying such assistance. The Jewish people are known for their concern for others. This government action is shameful," stated Rabbi Lerner.

Ken Heller is a pro-Israel activist and a member of the Philadelphia Chapter of Americans For A Safe Israel. He can be reached at kayjayphilly@yahoo.com

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THE PULSE OF THE NATION
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 5, 2006.

For a refuah schleima -- prayer for complete recovery: Ariel ben Devorah

The Pulse or Heartbeat of the Nation does not stop when her leader can no longer carry on. Israel's Prime Minister Ariel (Arik) Sharon has had a second cerebral incident (stroke/hemorrhage) and seems unlikely to be able to carry on. For his past contribution to the Jewish nation, let him go back to his farm and stay there in peace and think about his last years as PM.

The Jewish country must move on. Sharon's deputy PM Ehud Olmert will take temporary charge -- which is not encouraging. Most people think of Olmert as a lightweight and Sharon's 'trial balloon' floater. Olmert is unlikely to unify Sharon's new Party, Kadima. In fact, there seems to be no one in the ranks who could possibly be viewed as a leader in these critical times.

Even the perennial loser of elections, Shimon Peres cannot become Sharon. He too is an aged 82 years, with no military experience. Like the other Party Jumpers, Peres does not inspire much confidence.

Defense Minister General Shaul Mofaz has shown himself as a weak opportunist, flip-flopping and hoping to be named Sharon's Chief of Staff.

Each of the Kadima Jumpers are merely lightweights, hoping to ride Sharon's coat-tails as if they were the magic carpet of fame and fortune.

Regrettably, Israel has no competing leader worthy of serving as Prime Minister. It is likely that Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu may end up filling the slot of Prime Minister. The problem is: Has Bib matured sufficiently so that his entire focus will be on preserving the nation?

Will he be merely another pawn for U.S. 'arrangements'? Will he cut under-the-table deals like some of his predecessors because he just wants the money? Can a man-child grasp the reins of a nation and grow up in an instant? This could happen because, besides having a thinking mind and an articulate mouth, there is a small spark in Bibi that could come alive -- but, somehow, I'd have to see it to believe it.

But, perhaps we'll all be surprised and maturation will strike Bibi.

Perhaps he will rise above being a smart articulate politician with nothing to show for his life other than some cash flow and expensive cigars. Bibi, you could have been a contender but, instead you wasted your smarts on running small time political hustles.

So, let's say you, Bibi, become PM and the political sycophants come running to kiss your ass, the foreign hustlers will come too, certain they can manipulate you. But, in the end, will you be a stand-up guy who we can all respect? You could make a difference, but will you? Bibi, this time you could become a great leader for the Jewish nation or just another repeat performance of Hebron, Wye, et al.


Material appended January 9, 2005

At the moment, there is a great effort to fill the empty shell of Sharon's creation, the "Kadima" party, with a man who has faded from contention. We look at the temporary Prime Minister, the former Deputy Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert who just recently displayed his spiteful personality and lack of character as he tried to put a 25% tax on the donated clothing for winter from America that was collected and sent for the poor and the homeless settlers whom Sharon evicted from Gush Katif/Gaza and Northern Samaria. This precious charitable gift sits at the airport, tied up by orders of Ehud Olmert. It seems only a small thing but, it speaks to the petty character of the man who would be the PM of Israel.

Perhaps we will never know the state of Sharon's mind before his first, public stroke. Perhaps those fateful decisions to empty Gush Katif and North Samaria of 10,000 Jewish men, women and children only (as predicted) for it to be filled by Islamo-facist Terrorists from all over the world were the result of a malfunctioning mind, made to look reasonable, as a former great warrior seeking to make peace.

We all saw what happened when a sick and pliable Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave away half of Europe to Joseph Stalin at Yalta.

We all watched the once mighty warrior Sharon cave to the pressures of the Bush Administration and the pro-Arab U.S. State Department whose vested interests lay with the Arab Muslim oil nations. In a moment of clarity several years ago Sharon said: "We shall not be like Czechoslovakia whose Sudetenland was sold by the European nations to Hitler." In the end, Sharon did accept the sale of Israel's heartland in a deal to begin the re-partition the Jewish nation.

The intervention of Sharon's stroke was the only thing that kept him from relinquishing Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights and the Jordan Valley and, finally, the eastern parts of Jerusalem with all her sacred holy sites.

Was this the mark of a mind of clarity? I think not.

We already fully grasp the ramifications of his abandonment of Jewish land and his folly as the Kassem rockets strike near the Power Plant and the fuel depots of Ashkelon. One solid strike would send a toxic black cloud of burning fuel over Tel Aviv and beyond.

Is this then the legacy of a once great warrior statesman and a broken mind?

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm).

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COMMENTARY ON PASTOR NEELEY'S LETTER TO THE OREGONIAN
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 5, 2006.

Sh'lom y'all,

Pastor Kathleen Neeley of St. Luke Lutheran Church in Portland, Ore., wrote an editorial for The Oregonian newspaper which was published Dec. 27, 2005. Pastor Neeley returned recently from a short visit to the Holy Land. It is important to note that her opinion piece did not arrive at the newspaper out of the blue. She and others from the Portland area have undertaken a series of meetings with the editorial board and writers at The Oregonian. Here is the link to Pastor Neeley's editorial, and the text is provided below. (www.oregonlive.com/commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/ editorial/1135380302275920.xml&coll=7)

The home page for The Oregonian is www.oregonlive.com on the web. Search the name Neeley to find the editorial.

Her article below is entitled "Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Removing barriers to peace in the Mideast" My commentary is in CAPS.

I encourage you to write your own letter to The Oregonian in response to hers.

My thanks to Ann Hafften for forwarding Pastsor Neeley's letter to me.

david ml

There is an aspect to the Israel/Palestine story that we seldom see or read about. It is the human and social story of the everyday reality for those who call Palestine home.

I am a Lutheran pastor serving in Southwest Portland. I have long listened with sympathy to Israel's struggle against terrorism and recognize it as the evil it is. Like most reasonable people, I also know there is more I need to learn. In November, three members of my congregation and I left for the Holy Land. Our mission was to listen, watch, learn and build relationships that support peace. Unlike some of the ecumenical trips we have read about, we thought it important to understand the issue from the other side of the wall. So we spent eight days in the Bethlehem district.

Standing on the hills or walking the streets of the Bethlehem district, you cannot miss the cause of the discontent in Palestine. A 400-mile system of wall and settlement highways snake their way across the landscape, consuming green spaces, farms and olive groves, choking off any potential for growth or economic development. Whole communities are devastated, severed by the ominous 26-foot wall, with its observation towers every 218 yards, that splits them in pieces, sealing people into what feels very much like an open-air prison. Buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Whole neighborhoods have been laid to waste, and business and economy destroyed. Unemployment exceeds 70 percent.

"the cause of the discontent in Palestine": PASTOR NEELEY, NO DISRESPECT, GOD FORBID, BUT ARE YOU NOT AWARE THAT THE 'DISCONTENT' HAS BEEN EXPRESSING ITSELF FOR MORE THAN 85 YEARS IN THE FORM OF TERRORIST ATTACKS BY ARABS AGAINST JEWS....DECADES BEFORE THE EXISTENCE OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL AND MORE THAN 80 YEARS BEFORE THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE DEFENSIVE BARRIER?

CAUSE AND EFFECT, PASTOR NEELEY. CAUSE MUST COME BEFORE EFFECT. HOW CAN THE BARRIER BE A CAUSE OF DISCONTENT WHEN THE DISCONTENT PREDATES IT BY MORE THAN 80 YEARS.? CONSIDERING THAT THERE WAS NO BARRIER BEFORE ARAFAT'S TERROR WAR, IT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS TO ANYONE THAT THE TERRORISM IS THE CAUSE OF THE BARRIER.

"business and economy destroyed. Unemployment exceeds 70 percent.": PASTOR NEELEY, ARE YOU NOT AWARE OF THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL'S SOVEREIGNTY OVER THE WEST BANK, AND IGNORANT OF ARAFAT'S REIGN OF TERROR AS WELL?

UNDER ISRAELI CONTROL FROM 1967 TO 1994, THE ECONOMY OF THE WEST BANK (AND GAZA STRIP) BLOSSOMED.

IN THE HOPE THAT YOU ARE OPEN TO SOME DATA THAT STRONGLY UNDERMINE THE MESSAGE YOU GIVE THE OREGONIAN, HERE IS AN EXCERPT FROM A SOON TO BE PUBLISHED ARTICLE ON THE TOPIC OF THE ECONOMY AND EMPLOYMENT OF THE WEST BANK

Shortly after the war, Israel began what is sometimes called it "mini-Marshall plan." Israel invested hundreds of millions of dollars (and in those days that was money) over the years shortly after the 6-day-War to bring both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in to the 20th century with regard to its infrastructure, roads, sewerage, electricity, phones, radio and TV broadcasting, water purification and supply. World bank records indicate that the GDP of the West Bank grew at the fantastic rate of 13% per year on average between 1967 and 1994 (if we in the USA achieve 7% we are thrilled). Tourism skyrocketed, unemployment almost disappeared as hundreds of thousands of Arabs worked in Israel's economy earning far more than their counterparts in other Arab countries. Seven universities grew up in place of the three teachers training schools that existed before 1967.

And, perhaps most telling of all, free and unencumbered access to Israel's medical infrastructure resulted in a rapidly plummeting infant mortality and a rise in longevity. The infant mortality rate was reduced from 60 per 1,000 [live births in 1968] to 15 per 1,000 in 2000. Under a systematic program of inoculation, childhood diseases such as polio, whooping cough, tetanus, and measles were eradicated. During the two decades preceding the First Intifada, the number of schoolchildren in the territories grew by 102%, and the number of classes by 99%, though the population itself had grown by 28%. Illiteracy rates dropped to 14% of adults over age 15 (compared with 61% in Egypt, 45% in Tunisia, and 44% in Syria).

The rapid growth in population due to access to Israeli medicine, plus Arab immigration into the territories from "Diaspora Palestinians" all over the Arab world, resulted in a tripling of the Arab population from c.950,000 in 1967 to more than 3,000,000 in 1994. A significant plurality of West Bank and Gaza Strip Arabs owe their very lives today to the benefits of Israel's sovereignty between 1967 and 1994. And Israel implemented these improvements because it was Israel's belief that as the Arab population saw the benefits of peace and cooperation, they would become advocates for peace with Israel to the wider Arab world (for details see bibliography of West Bank economy).

All of this came to a grinding halt when Arafat took over in 1993.

The Oslo Accords created what would turn out to be the last best offer of statehood and peaceful co-existence alongside of Israel. As with every other opportunity since 1937, Israel accepted the agreements, recognized and supported the concept of Palestinian statehood, and fulfilled its obligations under the Oslo Accords. Arafat, before the ink was even dry, was preaching Jihad and rejecting every one of his Oslo commitments. By early 1994 he had begun a "low intensity" terror war, in conjunction with Hamas and other terror gangs operating in Israel and in Lebanon.

When he rejected what Bandar bin-Sultan describes as the very best offer that the Palestinian people could possibly hope for, at Camp David 2 (6.2000), he squandered what proved to be his people's last chance at a negotiated settlement that would have led to statehood and to peace. His reply to Baraq's offer was the 2nd Intifada (9/29/2000), his terror war now ratcheted up to a high intensity conflict. He used terror against Israel to torpedo any movement toward resolution, and against his own to eviscerate their efforts to pressure him into fulfilling the promises of democratic process and rule of law that were inherent in the Oslo Accords (See Meir-Levi, David, article missing pieces of missing peace; and Walsh)

Knowing now what we do of Arafat's reign of terror, it is clear, beyond rational argument, that Arafat created a massive thugocracy to oppress and terrify his own people in order to maintain his power. He embezzled billions of dollars from the aid money pouring in from Arab states, the EU, the UN, the UK and the USA to line his own pockets and fund his terror war. He thoroughly exploited the freedom and the base of operations that the Oslo Accords gave him tocreate massive graft and corruption in his crony-government, and to attack, intimidate, arrest torture and kill anyone of his own who objected.

IN SHORT, FROM 1994 TO HIS DEATH IN 2004, ARAFAT QUITE LITERALLY DESTROYED THE THRIVING ECONOMY THAT THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE HAD ENJOYED UNDER ISRAELI SOVEREIGNTY. IN 2004 THE GDP OF THE WEST BANK WAS LITERALLY ONE-TENTH OF WHAT IT WAS IN 1994. THE POPULATION HAD DROPPED DUE TO THE FLIGHT OF TENS OF THOUSANDS OF CHRISTIANS FROM THE WEST BANK INTO ISRAEL AND EUROPE, DUE TO THE INTIMIDATION AND THREATS AND OPPRESSION OF THE MOSLEM ARAB PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS. AND THE SOARING UNEMPLOYMENT WAS A FUNCTION OF BOTH ARAFAT'S KLEPTOCRACY AND ISRAEL'S NEED TO CREATE DEFENSES (ROAD BLOCKS, CURFEWS, LOCKDOWNS, AND THE DEFENSIVE BARRIER) AGAINST THE ONSLAUGHT OF ARAFAT'S TERRORISM. 28,000 ATTACKS SINCE 1994, WITH 1,700 DEAD AND ALMOST 7000 WOUNDED.

THE DEVASTATION THAT YOU DESCRIBE IS A PRODUCT SOLELY OF ARAFAT'S DECISION TO SQUANDER HIS PEOPLE'S OPPORTUNITY FOR STATEHOOD AND DIVERT THE FREEDOM AND RESOURCES GIVEN TO HIM FOR THAT PURPOSE TO HIS TERROR WAR.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE, I WILL BE HAPPY TO PROVIDE BIBLIOGRAPHY TO SUBSTANTIATE THE ABOVE QUOTES.

One would have expected to see demoralized and hate-filled people, venting anger and frustration with vitriolic fervor. Instead, we found ordinary people -- parents with their children, educators, business people and religious leaders both Christian and Muslim living and working together.

CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS LIVING AND WORKING TOGETHER: ARE YOU UNAWARE OF THE ENDLESS PRESSURES AND THREATS AND CRIMES PERPETRATED BY THE MOSLEMS AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS OF THE WEST BANK?

THE CHRISTIANS IN THE GAZA STRIP FLED LONG AGO, AND THE WEST BANK CHRISTIAN POPULATION IS DWINDLING DAILY. THE MOSLEM TERRORISTS HAVE A LITTLE CHANT WITH WHICH THEY TAUNT THE CHRISTIANS: TODAY IS SATURDAY,BUT TOMORROW IS SUNDAY (we are fighting the Jews now, but when we are done we will fight the Christians).

Rejecting violence as an answer to their frustration, they hold peace celebrations. Unwilling to be defined by extremism or suffering, they work to build avenues of hope and dignity.

REJECTING VIOLENCE: PASTOR NEELEY, ARE YOU UNAWARE OF THE ALMOST 12 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS TERRORIST ATTACKS THAT HAVE BEEN LAUNCHED BY ARAFAT'S TERROR ARMIES SINCE 1994? HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE REJECT VIOLENCE WHEN THEY RUN CHEERING IN TO THE STREETS GIVING OUT SWEETS AND FIRING GUNS IN THE AIR WHEN THEY LEARN OF ANOTHER SUICIDE BOMBER BLOWING HIM OR HERSELF UP AND TAKING A DOZEN INNOCENT ISRAELIS (JEWISH, CHRISTIAN AND MOSLEM, MEN, WOMEN, CHILDREN, ELDERLY, CRIPPLED, INFANTS) WITH THEM?

THE PALESETINIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT IS THE ONLY MOVEMENT OF ITS KIND IN ALL OF HISTORY AND IN ALL OF THE WORLD THAT HAS TERORRISM AS ITS SOLE DEFINING PARADIGM, AND THE GENOCIDE OF ISRAEL'S JEWS AS ITS SOLE RAISON D'ETRE.

Hope is the greatest protection for their children against the carnage of extremism and hate. So when bulldozers and tanks destroy, they rebuild. When olive orchards are uprooted, they plant for the sake of the future. Their dream: life with dignity and peaceful coexistence with their neighbors in Israel.

HERE YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT TRACK, BUT YOU HAVE REALITY REVERSED. HAVE YOU LISTENED TO THE HATE-PREACH OF THE PALESTINIAN IMAMS IN THEIR MOSQUES? HAVE YOU READ THE SCHOOL BOOKS THAT DEMONIZE ISRAEL AND JEWS AND CHRISTIANS? HAVE YOU LISTENED TO THE SPEECHES OF ARAFAT AND OTHER TERROR LEADERS? HATE, HATE, HATE, KILL THE JEWS, DESTROY ISRAEL, THEN MOVE ON TO THE CHRISTIANS. THAT IS THE MESSAGE THAT BOMBARDS THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE DAILY FROM THEIR MOSQUES AND SCHOOLS AND RADIOS AND TV AND NEWSPAPERS.

I SINCERELY BELIEVE THAT THE MAJORITY OF PALESETINIANS WANT NOTHING MORE THAN TO HAVE THEIR LIVES BACK, TO RAISE CROPS AND A FAMILY. BUT THEIR LEADERSHIP HAS LED THEM IN TO HATRED AND VIOLENCE AND MURDER AND TERRORISM AND WAR FOR 85 YEARS. AND THEY HAVE FOLLOWED.

The seeds of hate are fertilized by hopelessness and despair. As a world community committed to end the tyranny of terror, we must work together to remove barriers to peace and to build bridges of hope.

THE SEEDS OF HATE, PASTOR NEELEY, ARE FERTILIZED BY THE SONGS OF HATRED THAT ARE TAUGHT TO 5-YEAR OLDS: "WE BUY PARADISE WITH JEWISH BLOOD." "WE KNOCK ON THE DOORS OF HEAVEN WITH THE SKULLS OF JEWS". THESE SEEDS ARE NURTURED BY THE PREACHERS WHO TELL THEIR FLOCK THAT ALLAH WANTS ALL JEWS DEAD, AND THAT THE REDEMPTION OF THE WORLD WILL COME ONLY WHEN MOSLEMS HAVE KILLED ALL THE JEWS IN THE WORLD. THESE SEEDS BLOSSOM IN TO VIOLENCE AND MURDER AND TERRORISM AND SUICIDE BOMBINGS WHEN THE YOUNG PEOPLE ARE TOLD THAT IF THEY KILL THEMSELVES BUT TAKE AT LEAST ONE JEW WITH THEM, THEY ARE GUARANTEED AN ETERNITY IN HEAVEN WITH 72 VIRGINS TO SATISFY THEIR SEXUAL DESIRES FOREVER....AND THEY BELIEVE IT (ALTHOUGH I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE WOMEN SUICIDE BOMBERS ARE PROMISED).

Let us call upon our government to use its full influence with Israel, accepting no compromise in the full implementation of the Roadmap to Peace, by ceasing settlement construction and home demolitions, relocating the wall to the internationally recognized borders, redirecting settler roads to minimize land loss, restoring confiscated lands and working with the people of Palestine to build an economically and psychologically viable society.

YES. FINALLY YOU GET SOMETHING RIGHT. THE ROADMAP SHOULD BE IMPLEMENTED IN ITS FULLEST. BUT DO YOU RECALL THE FIRST CLAUSE IN THE FIRST SENTENCE OF THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OF PART ONE OF SECTION ONE OF THE ROAD MAP?

"THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY WILL IMMEDIATELY AND UNCONDITIONALLY PUT A STOP TO THE TERRORISM AND TO THE INCITEMENT".

NOT ONLY HAS THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY NOT DONE THIS...THEY HAVE DONE THE OPPOSITE, AND TODAY, QUITE CONTRARY TO THE ROAD MAP, BUT IN CONSORT WITH THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY, HAMAS AND ISLAMIC JIHAD AND THE EL AQSA MARTYRS BRIGADE AND FORCE 17 AND TANZIM AND THE PFLP AND THE DFLP AND THE PFLP-GC AND SAYYIF ALLAH (ALLAH'S SWORD) AND JAYYISH EL-JIHAD (ARMY OF JIHAD) AND HEZBOLLAH AND EL-QAEDA ALL BOMBARD ISRAEL DAILY WITH ATTACKS AND ATTEMPTED ATTACKS (MOST OF WHICH THE ISRAELI ARMY STOPS BEFORE DAMAGE IS DONE).

YES INDEED. IMPLEMENT THE ROAD MAP. STOP THE TERRORISM. STOP THE INCITEMENT. AND THEN, JUST AS THERE WAS NO WALL, NO FENCE, NO BARRIER UNTIL THERE WAS AN ENDLESS RELENTLESS TERROR WAR, THEN WHEN THERE IS NO LONGER A TERROR WAR THE WALL/FENCE/BARRIER CAN COME DOWN.

YES, INDEED, PASTOR NEELEY. TELL YOUR FLOCK TO TELL OUR PRESIDENT THAT HE SHOULD PRESSURE THE TERRORISTS TO STOP THE TERROR....JUST AS THE ROADMAP DEMANDS.

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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ALIVE -- DEAD -- OR IN BETWEEN?
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 5, 2006.

For those who wish to give a prayer for his recovery, his refuah schleima, Ariel Sharon's Hebrew name is "Ariel ben Devorah".

An early report stated that Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is dead after suffering a massive stroke -- a brain hemorrhage which resulted in a 7 hour brain surgery. Then his doctors put him into an "induced coma", that is, totally sedated with anesthetic -- with machines maintaining his bodily functions. Later reports insisted that he was alive.

There is a state of 'in-between' wherein the machinery available to us through modern science can keep the human body alive while the brain is dead. There is no question that, between heart/lung machines and other devices a comatose person can lay tranquilly in a bed, all pink and seemingly alive.

That is not the most important question.

The question I would have is: What is the political benefit to the new Kadima Party to the daily reports of Sharon's medical condition? In effect, he would still be running for office while in a vegetative state.

When the Head of the Hadassah-Ein Kerem Hospital says Sharon is alive, he is 'technically' correct. If PM Sharon is brain-dead then the truth is being stretched for political reasons.

I just read an article in the Mishpachah Magazine (December 2005/Kislev 27, 5766) (1)

which spoke of past American Presidents having a series of strokes which were kept secret from the public. Woodrow Wilson was one who was losing his mental faculties due to strokes which caused him to make wild decisions. In 1893 President Grover Cleveland was diagnosed as having cancer of the mouth which was kept secret from the public due (they say) to an economic depression at the time. This article describes how Syrian President Hafez al Assad was secretly diagnosed as having diabetes and congestive heart failure, discovered by Israeli Intelligence. During his time PM Ehud Barak was desperate to turn over the Golan Heights to Syria but Assad died before Barak could complete this transfer.

Then Sharon displaced Barak as PM only himself to flip-flop on all of his campaign promises, concluding with his divestment 10,000 Jewish men, women and children from Gush Katif/Gaza and 4 communities in North Samaria. Now he 'promises' to abandon the rest of Judea and Samaria, plus the Golan, the Jordan Valley, half of Jerusalem, etc.

Keeping a brain-dead Sharon semi-alive but in a vegetative state so his new Kadima Party could still claim him as an asset, is a possibility that is not beyond consideration.

Ask the question of the hospital staff and attending neurologist: IS Sharon brain-dead? Have his two sons been asked if it is their desire to keep their father's body alive? Was this a decision of Ehud Olmert and others currently now in power?

The really tough questions have not been asked and the media are going along with press handouts and live press conferences.

###

1. "The Doctor Knows Best & He's Not Telling" by Binyamin Rose, Mishpachah Magazine, December 2005/Kislev 27, 5766

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm).

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OPEN MESSAGE TO ANY JEWS ACTIVE IN SWP-NION-WRL-RCP-PLP-SPARTS-ANSWER
Posted by Gary S., January 5, 2006.

Over the years many Jews were attracted to the above anti-Zionist groups. The belief that you can oppose the existence of the State of Israel and still not hate Jews was a seed planted in their minds that has sprouted some dangerous fruits. Now their hatred for Israel has turned to hostility to Jews. What started out with a scripted pat answer in which you would rant and rave against the "evils of Zionism" and the "we are against Israel, not Jews" has proven like everything else you "religiously" believe in to be a lie.

Now, that this Hitler imitator in Iraq has made clear as Hamas and PLO have a thousand times before, that this hatred of Israel is indeed a Nazi style hatred of the Jews. Your lying and self-serving denial to the contrary (i.e. they told me they " only" want to wipe Israel out) didn't work this time, Mr Jew, and now with these Islamic Nazi outfits not only denying the Holocaust ever happened, as a way to make it (Heaven Forbid) even easier to make one in the future. Now, with small time Hitler DAVID DUKE last week invited to Syria for a joint rally against the Jews, Israel and the War should speak for itself. Nazi pig Duke also used the words "down with Zionism" which this Nazi filth sees as an enemy to his Jew-Killing cause. Now that the President in the Islamic Republic actually spoke out for neo-nazis recently arrested in Europe ( like Nazi pig David Irving) for giving speeches denying the Holocaust.

Remember this JDO quote about JDO going after neo-nazi Revisionist Holocaust deniers; "those who deny the Holocaust happened in the past, want to make a Holocaust against Jews in the future!" Now, this again proves, and should prove to any Jew with the slightest feeling for his people, the Jewish People that is, that those who hate Israel indeed hate Jews. It should prove to any Jew that can think for himself that your "comrades" and mind controllers with names lie Avakian, Stewart, and a slew of others want you to completely give up your Jewish identity, and never battle anti-Semitism. That is why they try to rewire your mind with all kinds of nonsense all to deny you are a Jew. You will notice they never tell Blacks that belong to these outfits to "deny they are Black" or ignore the Klan or pretend racism does not exist.

With all their political differences over which particular guru they mindlessly follow, there is one thing they have in common. They, especially with the Jews, demand "religion" style obedience, and a re-wrapping you as a new recruit into a new identify. That new identity for the "new religion" you literally believe and have " faith" in requires the Jew like yourself overcome many hurdles on the way to joining the new sect becoming a member of the "proletariat" or working class. It requires that the Jew rise up stick in hand ready, willing and able to help destroy Israel.

It requires a twisted faith in the lies of the screed you publish weekly that the mob of Sharpton and Carson led rioters butchering innocent Jews in the streets of Crown Heights was not only not a pogrom but a "legitimate uprising against the Jews." It must take immense faith to rationalize away numerous calls by Islamic terror groups from France to the US to "kill the Jews a race of monkeys and pigs" and then try to ignore or deny and deceive others and yourself about the role Jew-Hater Lynn Stewart played in getting that Fatwa (Islamic religious decree) to blow up and shoot Jews all across America smuggled out from Sheik Rahman and Satar.

Do we need to remind you that after the Holocaust had already started, and after England was already at war but not the US, there was an anti-war movement that had unfortunately a fair number of Jews. They even had a pledge of resistance, and chants like "No War Against Hitler" and "The Yanks Are Not Coming". Meanwhile it was that Jewish Militant and unapologetic Zionist Zev Jabotinsky, founder of the Jewish Self-Defense Organization that warned the Jews of Europe to leave for pre-state Israel, and in the meantime get guns, and set up defense units to form a Jewish Army to fight the Nazis right on their home grounds. Well at the time not only did 3 outfits opposed any war. Jabotinsky supported America going to war to stop Hitler's planned murder of the Jews.

Meanwhile the ideological canary of the CPUSA writer and trained liar Mike Gold wrote a book that anti-Semitism was no threat to the Jews in the world.

The 3 different groups that opposed WW 2? The Communists (CP USA), Socialists (Socialist Party), and the Pacifists, like the War Resistors League. They had huge rallies and many took pledges they would never fight in that "Imperialist War Against Hitler."

But, then like now there was a fourth group that was against the war; the Nazi groups like the German American Bund, the Silver Shirts and the American First Committee who pulled together to have huge rallies against the war. Then it was Nazis opposing the war with names like Fritz Kuehn, and Hitler admirer, Charles Lindberg, who at one such rally said, "there are 2 groups which clamor for war against Germany, the Jews and the British." Now today the modern day Hitler followers, with names like Duke, actually send their followers to anti-war rallies sponsored by the very outfits Jews like yourself belong to. Why?

It is obvious Duke wants the Islamic terror groqups he is so fond of meeting with to win against the Jews. Duke does not want his fellow Jew-Hater Israel-Hater Arab Nazis like Saddam to get wiped out so that they get stopped from trying to ever make a Holocaust against the Jews. Nazi Duke knows only too well how Hitler invited the Mufti to Berlin during the war to actually broadcast in Arabic to Moslems to back the Nazis. He also formed 2 SS Divisions of Moslems to help Hitler in his war against the Jews. The Mufti is the hero whose anti-Jewish riots in pre-state Israel make him the spiritual father to the PLO and Hamas. At one meeting with top Nazi officials this is what Arab Hitler the Mufti had to say: "We hope you will wipe out the Jews the common enemy of both Germany and Arab people's". This should speak reams full of what kind of Jews must or even dared to oppose WW 2 that could have helped rescue Jews. Those anti-war Jews of the 1930's in America were loud, and vociferous, and today none of them dare to discuss their national act of treason to the Jewish People, who were being gassed to the tune of 12,000 a day in Auschwitz. A large number after the Holocaust quit the left, and became staunch Zionist. However a huge number instead stayed loyal to their "religion" called communism or socialism, and whenever the topic of their pre-WW2 anti-war treason is brought up, they change the topic.

The lesson is simple: self-respecting Jews should quit these groups whose mission in life is the destruction of his or her people. No self-respecting Jew can belong to a group that wants you to aid in Israel's destruction, and the attempt to do terror against Jews worldwide. You should have never joined in the first place, but have the Jewish dignity to know that all Jews are on the same boat even is if some Jews like you have tried to run off that boat. Know that the lesson of the Holocaust is when all is said and done no one will fight for the Jews, except other Jews. No more hanging out with those who are truly providing aid and comfort to those whose declared goal is to finish off what Hitler started.

JEW, WE NEED YOU TO FIGHT THOSE THAT WANT TO MAKE A NUCLEAR WAR (HEAVEN FORBID) ON THE JEWISH PEOPLE!

Isn't it time you came home to your Jewish People under anti-Semitic attack.

Now, that you are going to quit the self-hatred Brigade where can you go?

Well, JDO is out there fighting the good fight. Come to a meeting, and find out what we are doing to prevent a Holocaust from ever happening to us again. How can you reach us? Call 212-252-3383 or http://jdo.org

6 MILLLION JEWS!

NEVER AGAIN!!!

Contact Gary S. at ahavat@telkomsa.net

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HOW TO STOP THE KASSAMS -- MOVE THE JEWS BACK INTO GAZA
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 5, 2006.

1. When Sharon dies, one of the biggest questions will be whether the Israeli police and prosecution will be indicting everyone in Israel who says "Good riddance" -- for "incitement" of course, just like after Rabin's death. Will the police arrest ONLY "right-wingers" from the Gush Katif movement or also the leftists who will be saying that. And if the cops do NOT arrest the leftists saying it, it will because the Israeli establishment only prosecutes "Right-wingers" for poor taste, and never Left-wingers for treason, and THAT is in many ways a major part of the Sharon legacy.

2. While Sharon is out of action, the government and Sharon's new Kadima party will be headed by Ehud Olmert. For those of you unfamiliar with him, Olmert sounds very much like "All-Merde".

Olmert is the Likud's amswer to Yossi Beilin and Uri Avnery. An epitome-Likudnik who believes in absolutely nothing and who vies with Tzahi Hanegbi as the most corrupt (ex-) Likudnik alive.

3. It must come as a total and complete surprise for anyone who has not been reading these postings here that the expulsion of the Jewish population of the Gaza Strip by Sharon (his OTHER legacy) has now resulted in escalating daily Kassam rocket bombardments of the Jewish towns of southern Israel.

As you recall, the entire political establishment and media in Israel had insisted all along that the expulsion would result in tranquility, just like the imaginary tranquility on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, since -- after all -- what possible reason would the PLO and its affiliates have to shoot rockets out of Gaza at the Jews? After all, Israel had given them EVERYTHING they wanted, including a Judenrein Gaza Strip, so clearly they would have no reason to engage in violence and shooting AFTER the expulsion!

In contrast, we predicted here that the expulsion would result in massive escalation in violence and in Kassam and mortar fire that would eventually make an ever-widening circle inside Israel and around Gaza as unlivable, and that the range on Kassams would eventually allow them to hit Tel Aviv. Well, we are clearly well on our way to fulfillment of that prediction.

Kassams fired from Gaza now land in Israel every day. Israel responds only when they land "too close" to power plants and similar installations, and -- even then -- by bombing empty PLO buildings after warning the PLO.

Now the latest attempt by the Israeli government to control the damage of the Gush Katif capitulation and expulsion is to move tanks and artillery up to the Gaza fence in order to prevent the Kassam shooters from using the abandoned Jewish settlements as sites for shooting. When the terrorhoids are setting up missiles, Israel tries to shoot at them. Gosh, we wonder why THAT will not work!

You with me here? The abandoned Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip are the closest points from which the PLO can fire rockets at Negev towns. The Israeli heavy artillery has been moved to prevent the PLO and its HAMAS affiliates from entering those abandoned settlements in order to set up and fire rockets at the Negev.

Now here is a thought. If Israel's whole purpose is to make it hard for the PLO and Hamas to move into the areas of the abandoned Gaza Jewish settlements to shoot rockets, then WHY THE HELL DID ISRAEL EXPEL THE JEWISH SETTLERS IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Leaving the Jewish settlers there would have been the most effective way to prevent the PLO and Hamas from settling up rocket shooters inside the territories of those settlements!

And so instead of moving tanks and heavy artillery up to the Gaza fence to shoot at PLO and HAMAS terrorists when they try to enter the territories of those abandoned Jewish settlements to shhot at the Negev, wouldn't it be so much simpler and cheaper just to move all the expelled Jewish settlers back to their homes in the Gaza Strip?

4. It is with deep sadness that I must report that Palestinian terrorists FAILED to kidnap the parents of Rachel Corrie yesterday. They tried, but failed. The Corrie parents were in Rafiah yesterday as part of their global campaign to get the world to commemorate their daughter's death by destroying Israel.

Here is the news report:

In other chaos, Palestinian gunmen burst into a Rafah house early Wednesday and tried to kidnap the parents of Rachel Corrie, who was killed in 2003 as she protested the impending demolition of a house in the southern Gaza town, according to a witness.

The five gunmen appeared to be affiliated with the ruling Fatah movement, according to Samir Nasrallah, the Corries' host, though it was not clear if they were from the same group that blockaded the border. The gunmen eventually relented after being told who their targets were, he said.

Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 as she tried to stop it from demolishing Nasrallah's house. Her parents, Craig and Cindy, have repeatedly visited Nasrallah since their daughter's death. They left Gaza safely after the attempted kidnapping, Nasrallah said.

However, according the ISM Media Group in the name of the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project, "news reports stating that the parents of slain American human rights activist Rachel Corrie were the intended targets of an attempted kidnapping Wednesday in Gaza are incorrect. According to Craig and Cindy Corrie, contrary to news reports, the Corries were never threatened with kidnapping, nor did gunmen burst into the house where the Corries were staying." (Sure, we really believe whatever the ISM terrorists tell us!)

The parents of the bulldozered activist issued a statement blaming Israel: "the continued Israeli occupation undermines the ability of Palestinians to have a free society," they said.

5. Web site that should be on your favorites list: http://amkha.blogspot.com/

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. Contact him by email at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il

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PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON'S STROKE -- A CAUTIONARY TALE
Posted by Lewis Lipkin, January 5, 2006.

While strenuously campaigning for adoption of the Treaty of Versailles, Woodrow Wilson's exhaustion forced the return of his special train to Washington. Three days later, his wife, Edith, found him unconscious in his bathroom. He had suffered a massive "stroke" (which on the basis of his previous medical history was most probably due to an intra-cerebral hemorrhage).

It is clear that within minutes of her discovery, Mrs Wilson was determined to keep the president's condition secret. In this she was aided by the the President's physician, Admiral Grayson, who helped her suppress the negative findings of several consulting neurologists. At that time (October, 1919) neurosurgical intervention to remove an intracerebral clot was unthinkable, and there were no clinically recognized anti-clotting agents.

The unconcious Wilson was paralyzed over the left side of his body. He remained comatose for a week or more (we can't be sure since the Grayson and Edith Wilson accounts differ in significant details). The single member of the large White House staff, permitted to see the President was the valet-porter, Ike Hoover, who repeatedly made note of Wilson's near death appearance during the first two weeks

Later, when he had recovered his speech, Edith agreed to the visit of two senators. The audience was carefully stage-managed with subdued lighting and draping of the propped up President's body to conceal his paralysis.

The political situation in immediate post-WWI United States was extremely troubled. By foolishly electing to attend the Paris peace talks, Wilson had been subjected to repeated humiliations and defeats by LLoyd George and Clemanceau. His idealistic determination to include a League of Nations, embodying his 14 points in the Versailles treaty, was used against him by those wordly wise politians to extract concessions to British and French hunger for reparations, colonies and an end of German political as well as military power. He was maneuvered into effective support of the secret treaties drawm by the European Allies which he had verbally opposed. In the process, he lost the allegience of supporters such as Colonel House (his long time advisor and alternate at the conference), Secretary of State Lansing and William Bullit (dispatched fraom the conference to head his mission to Bolshevik Russia) By the time of his final return to the United States he was embroiled in a controversy over details of the Versailles treaty; the oposition led by the republican Henry Cabot Lodge. It was in this context that Wilson was driven to undertake the disasterous campaign that preceded his nearly fatal stroke.

Instead of assuming the role prescribed by the Constitution, Vice President Marshall only made repeated efforts to see the President. Here he was totally blocked by Mrs. Wilson with the connivance of Admiral Grayson. The leaders of Congress (both houses were controlled by the Republican opposition) were perhaps more concerned with damaging the Democratic party than with the potential damage to the country. They remained above the issue of the president's competence.

For the remaining 18 months of Wilson's term of office, Edith Wilson was in effect the acting President of the United States. There were probably few if any in all of Washington who were less qualified for the job. While Wilson was in a deep depression following the death of his first wife, he was introduced to Edith Galt by his physician, Cary Grayson. The president was quickly enamored and quickly married to this rather stupid, ill-educated woman. He proceded to allow her access to the most highly classified documents passing to and from the Oval office. Grayson became an admiral, and Wilson continued to pointedly ignore the advice of his Secy of State, leaning alternatively on Edith and Col. House. Mrs. Wilson, as might be expected, developed an antagonism to the Colonel.

Edith's "reign" was scarcely beneficial for the country or for the Democratic Party. Her obstructionism (everything that she opposed she declared an excessive burden on the admittedly ill but supposedly competent president) even extended to foreign affairs. For example, throughout the visit of Vicount Grey, a special emmissary of the British cabinet, she refused him an audience with Wilson. Her reason here was said to be the fact that the Vicount's equerry had told off-color tales about the Wilson-Galt courtship. Vicount Grey was eventually to return to England without ever having seen Wilson. His very reasonable plan to minimally modify the Peace treaty was never even presented to the President.

She helped promote the resignation of Lansing as Secretary of State. Among his offenses were the many cabinet meetings he had chaired in the absence of the President. Supposedly, Wilson had written a letter of condemnation. When Willliam Bullit testified before the Senate about the events of the Peace conference, he was compelled to declare his belief that Lansing as well as Wilson's other associates were opposed to the treaty that Wilson had touted as one of mankind's greatest achievements. At that point Lansing felt compelled to resign and then to condem the Wilson treaty in public.

Hunger for power, even a power without apparent specific objectives, is difficult to satiate. Edith Wilson was determined to continue in a Wilson White House. In 1920, in the run-up to the Democratic convention, she went as far as pre-concocting an interview with Louis Seibold. This newspaperman who was to be the first to interview the President was urged to present Wilson as willing and able to seek a 3rd term. She ordered that Siebold report that Wilson was functioning even better than before his stroke. The lies of Siebold were well rewarded. He won a Pulitzer Prize for the interview.

Throughout, Edith Galt played on the residual backing of a decreasing number of Americans, who liked and respected Wilson despite his bizzare betrayals of people and principles. Wilson's opinions even after the Democratic defeat in 1920, some of them echoed by Edith, were disseminated to the party by respectful visitors who visited him in his retirement.

One must wonder how many of the unpricipled, unpredictable reversals of policy exhibted by the president from even before the Peace conference to his death in 1924 were conditioned by less obvious, minor cerebral incidents. How often have subsequent overstressed leaders been subject to the benign barriers errected by intimates. The next Democratic president, Franklin Roosevelt, was another example of a declining leader increasingly "protected" by his intimates as his powere failed

The unreasoned giving away of precious assets is hard to accept as the act of a mentally intact leader, of any nation, large or small. Excuses and supposed external pressures then and now should be suspect. We as the people who are almost helplessly subject to the consequences of their decisions should be allowed to call their entire careers into review. The presumption of a leader's total mental competence is a necessity for the people's acceptance of a leader and his party.

Lewis Lipkin is a member of the Think-Israel staff.

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A GUARDIAN ARTICLE AND JO MCCORMICK'S RESPONSE
Posted by Yoram Shifftan, January 4, 2006.

This was written by Jo McCormick; and it concerns an article that appeared in the Guardian and her response (to which she never got a response). Both are enclosed below.

The Guardian Article

"Arafat the obstacle has been exposed as a myth" by Karma Nabulsi, Tuesday November 15, 2005, in The Guardian. Karma Nabulsi (karmanabulsi@hotmail.com) is a politics fellow at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and a former PLO representative

The Palestinian leader's portrayal by the west and Israel has been a barrier both to understanding the conflict and to peace

One year after Yasser Arafat's death, and he has passed into silent myth and legend. As with all great historical figures, the myth is both powerful and pervasive. Yet in Arafat's case, it possesses a peculiar driving force that frames the manner in which we see the present. Indeed, everything about the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel is shaped by this myth. In the west it is entirely a negative myth, cultivated by the press and parroted by political elites, diplomats and intellectuals. It is obvious why Israel would portray its enemy in such a bad light, but why did this negative myth take hold outside Israel with such strength and persuasion?

Myths have a function - they are both practical and convenient. They help to justify reasons to do things and they justify reasons not to do things. The myth of Arafat as the obstacle to peace gave Clinton his reasons after Camp David; to maintain the myth of himself as international peacemaker, he needed a scapegoat to blame for the collapse of the talks. Clinton underwrote the then Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak's portrayal of Arafat as a terrorist and an obstacle to peace, in order that Barak could be re-elected. The myth instead gave rise to Ariel Sharon, as the Israeli public felt only a Sharon could deal with that mythical monster Arafat. It gave the neoconservative hawks in the US administration the opportunity to redesign the Middle East in harmony with the views of their ally Israel, and for the British government to absolve themselves from doing anything whatsoever. Instead they watched, some cheering, while a democratically elected leader was imprisoned for years and slowly killed, without apparently feeling any moral queasiness or shame. This myth made all that possible. Arafat the obstacle.

A year after his death, the claim that his removal would positively alter the political landscape and give the chance to Israel, the Palestinians and the international community to negotiate a settlement has proved false. And being false, it allowed an even more destructive reality to take hold. Sharon, without serious protest and much encouragement, has in the past year turned Gaza into the largest prison on earth, moved tens of thousands of settlers into the West Bank, and built an illegal wall across Palestinian land which encircles and starves Palestinian cities and farms. In fragmenting the land, he has further fragmented the Palestinian people who belong to it, both those under occupation and those in enforced exile as refugees. This was his aim all along. He saw Arafat as an obstacle to this ambition. With Arafat gone, he has indeed managed to achieve it. But he couldn't have done this without the negative myth's magnetic hold in the west.

What of the alternative myth of Arafat - the one that will eventually triumph in the history books? The one that will include just a fraction of the epic stories about him that most Palestinians grew up with? Arafat, for all his flaws and mistakes, stood for a just peace, based on a historic compromise. He believed in international law, in a two-state solution based on implementing UN resolution 242, and for a just settlement for refugees, the main victims of this conflict. His legitimacy came from more than the fact that he was democratically elected: he performed a historic purpose in the life of Palestinians, a purpose as yet unfulfilled. By representing his people's general will and collective spirit, he symbolised the absent state's sovereign institutions.

What he represented was the reason he was removed: that Palestinians are one people, whether living under military occupation or in refugee camps. They have a right to self-determination, and they have fought hard for their liberty for generations, which is also a right. For a people to negotiate their way out of an occupation by diplomatic means alone, when the occupier is determined to hold on to their land, has no successful precedent. On the other hand, examples of successful negotiations once the occupier has accepted he must relinquish another's country are legion. Arafat's own much-used example was De Gaulle's 1958 call for "la paix des braves" with the Algerian armed liberation movement, the FLN. Arafat represented an important reality - peace will come when freedom is achieved for the Palestinians, and not one minute before.

The negative myth of Arafat prevents any understanding of the conflict or how to resolve it. This is not a conflict healed by providing economic recovery to Palestinians, since their impoverishment is entirely due to an entrenched and permanent military occupation. It is not a holy war against Palestinian terrorists who seek the destruction of the Israeli state, nor excited speculation on the role a new Israeli Labour party leader might play. This is a battle over the right to call this conflict a conflict between two peoples: one that is oppressed, and the other that is denying them their right to be free. Recovering the true myth of the old man is the key to understanding who the Palestinians are, and how they will achieve their freedom.

A Response by Jo. McCormick

Sir,

With respect to your article, entitled: "Arafat the obstacle has been exposed as a myth." Indeed!

In the first instance, when discussing Arafat and his "myths," of which there were many, we should perhaps start at the beginning as this will allow us to also take up his end, whilst commenting (profoundly) on all that passed in between. For despite Arafat being in the public spotlight for more than four decades, his life was enveloped by mysteries, inaccuracies and myths churned out by the man himself. Take Arafat's dying wish for example. To be buried where he was born. Jerusalem (?)

The "myth" here of course is that Arafat was most certainly not born in Jerusalem but in Egypt.

Despite massive corruption within his PLO, and later his more user friendly PA, the "myth" of personal integrity continued.

The closest the many journalists who followed this man so sycophantically for forty years ever got to showing any personal corruption was in reluctantly acknowledging his wife, Suha lived in unexplained luxury in Paris. (?) And still does. (??) That his daughter was born in Paris. (Not the gutted 'territories" for his child). So a mere suggestion, then, that Arafat was perhaps a man for the people, but not necessarily 'of the people." Yes, we have come to accept such things from elites. And not to ask too many questions. After all, we are talking about an oppressed leader of an oppressed people here, are we not.

You mention curiously the western intellects, diplomats and elites, but not those who have been sired by the Islamic world and their own great contribution to our present position. You are suggesting that The West is responsible for the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. Indeed, how very grandiose of these people who did not automatically jump to Arafat's, and now, it would seem, Abbas's tune. Though they bend over backwards to accommodate! What can I say, you will get the odd dissenting voice in The West..democracy! Sometimes even elites have to listen to the will of their peoples.

So, Western politicos and media, et al. are to blame for everything which does not please you and, indeed, your co religionists, world wide. Whether it be in The Middle East..or Africa..or Asia, because these are just some of the locations your co religionists are "fighting oppression".

Despite disgusting amounts of money being thrown at Arafat and the Palestinians -- and now Abbas and the palestinians -- by these same Western Elites, there is simply no settlement in sight. But I see endless cascades of Mercedes and new villas for the maligned (?) oppressed representatives of the oppressed people you speak of. And still, WE, not YOU, are to blame.

The endless amount of money making its way to Abbas now supposedly coming with safeguards (against rampant corruption which, ofcourse Abbas just as Arafat before him, takes no responsibility for) and still, the lot of the Palestinians does not improve and so, of course, the problem then must ultimately lie with Israel.

May I ask, at what point do you, as an Arab consider the possibility that you may have to look beyond the myths and subterfuge, much of which is courtesy of your own leaders as any in The West or Israel, you might wish to blame. Will you consider the possibility that Arafat and now Abbas must bear some responsibility for what has happened to the Palestinian people, and indeed the people, themselves. You, even? Because here I am sitting in my own country being told that I can be blown to pieces because your co religionists don't like my government's foreign policy. I will let you in on something...I don't like my government's foreign policy. I don't much like its domestic policy. But in a democracy, we vote for change and don't suicide bomb busses and tube stations. We, as Westerners, are targets because your co religionists do not like our foreign policies -- and yet, you and they reject the same standards applied to yourselves? Invasion, occupation, suicide bombers, flying planes into buildings...From where I am sitting, I see little difference. It is the application of force to change policy. Is it not?

So, let me get this right. If we in the west change our foreign policy (all of it or just in places)? And if Israel was wiped off the map. Would we be safe from suicide bombers then?

It is just that, after foreign policy, what we wish for ourselves may not suit your coreligionists either. Not those in Gaza, or Tehran any more than those residing in Dewberry, After all -- it is not only invasions of muslims countries which bring about terrorism and threats of carnage about our heads. No, it can be a book, an author, a film maker. Even the wrapper on a beefburger!

The muslim world has its very own ideologues, and through political expedience and down right cowardice of the western Media, hard questions remain unasked and unanswered. And a creeping ideology not our own is allowed a free ride.

I read your article several times. And ultimately, I believe this. That of the two sides -- Those Neo Cons, you mentioned and Fundamentalist Islamic groups, for these are striking opposites. One wonders now, if the latter did not create the former mentioned. There is responsibility to be had. I suggest you take some. And before you apportion further responsibility to me or mine, take some more for your own.

Muslims are poor because they are, for the most part, backward. Explain to me why India leaps forward whilst Pakistan is stagnant? The Arabs export oil and opium. The muslim worlds largest export -- apart from muslim people of course. Why are they leaving and what is the source of their discontent when they arrive at their destination? Why for instance do brilliant Hindus and Sikhs do so much better? Why will you not even consider self appraisal rather than bitter criticism of all else?

I can see why you mention Western intellectuals. Where are yours? I will tell you. Muslim intellectuals who speak freely risk the same fate as Van Gogh in Holland. They are not safe even in The West any longer. So many stay silent and go along with the "myths". It is left to the brave and beautiful Irshad Manji to speak out. (now a recipient of a fatwa on her life).

And this is the crux of the matter. It is not whether Arafat was a defender or a corrupt dictator. It is business as usual anyway, in Gaza, is it not? It is about the desire of many muslims to destroy a technologically advanced people and sovereign state, Israel, and have the rest of us dancing giddily round the bonfire of genocide.

Because they are told, they are poor because Israelis are rich. They are backward because Israelis are advanced.

Such forces want to destroy Israel and want us, non jewish and European to accept that we have a choice. Comply or muslims will be "forced" to murder people going about their business in London, New York, Paris, or some such chosen target.

And yet, if we consider this very open threat dispassionately for but one moment. What exactly do you, your co religionists world wide, bring to the global table apart from oil (which you did not create nor invent)? Where are your great democracies? Where are your great leaders who offer their own people a destiny of their own making. Those women in Iraq and Afghanistan who dip their fingers into ink on their way to vote, for the first time in their lives, courtesy of British and American boys blood spilt in Basra and Kabul. This is not down to you and yours, is it? And again, I have to admit, I would never have committed our troops to Iraq nor Afghanistan. And so, these muslim women would not be voting for the first time in their lives, a most basic freedom, if I had my way and you had yours. Odd, that you encourage me to consider these Neo cons in America with more generosity than I did previously.

Because those Neo Cons -- mostly American Jews, (come now, lets not be coy) -- gave muslim women the right and ability to vote.

And yes the West had cosy relations with Saddam, but so did your Arafat!

You see, I am happy to discuss Western hypocrisy, but I want to discuss everyone else's dirty hands also!

If we, The West, are wrong, then so are you and yours, at very least, equally so.

Arafat's myth kept a people in check. Just as so many of his co religionists keep their own peoples in check. Really, if you have any true camaraderie to muslim men and women, serve them better than making us and the Israelis their scapegoats.

I would not give one British life to 'democratise" your co religionists. I believe rich or poor. Your evolution is your own affair. I wish you well. But I will not keep quiet whilst propagandists, such as yourself, try to create a new subversion in my increasing creepy politically correct country, thanks in part to the western media you speak of and yet through!

Now, lets consider Israel. She pays her way. She invents. She creates. She pushes new boundaries in both science and new technologies. She saves the lives of new born babies the other side of the planet. And yet she is built by a people more oppressed than any other and for longer than any other. By a people more scorned and harangued by propagandists and elites and diplomats than any other. Of course, the Jewish State is educated and enlightened therefore she cannot claim victim status. The Jews, let's be frank, this is, I think what you mean. The Jews have the means to protect themselves and most undiplomatically, are prepared to do just that. Irrespective of the power of muslim oil and western expedience.

It is a clash of two peoples. But it is not muslim and jew...it is people like you and the rest of us. Revisionists who wish to undo old "myths" whilst replacing them with new ones, such as: Arafat, what a great guy!! The evil west! It is all Israel's fault! Blame anyone and everyone but ourselves!

And those of us who have our hard won freedoms and are increasingly questioning just what such "revisionists" are hell bent on bringing about, not only in their own lands..but to the secular world. From India to Australia to Europe...

Israel is, very clearly, but one item on a wish list. She is a gateway. One which must be defended. And, for the sake of people who do enjoy freedom, and those who do not but desire it. Be they christian, jew, hindu, animist, muslim, secular atheist. For the sake of all of us. The entire free world must tell those who wish to destroy Israel, NO.

Yours faithfully
Jo. McCormick

Dr. Yoram Shifftan has published many articles on Israeli hasbara, in publications such as Ha'aretz, Ma'ariv, Hatzofeh, Hamodia and Ha'Uma, Think-Israel and Jewish Internet Association. See his articles on the validity of Israeli claims to Palestine in the September-October 2006 Think-Israel issue.

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PRIME MINISTER SHARON SUFFERS A MASSIVE STROKE
Posted by Guysen Israel News, January 4, 2006.

: The Prime Minister was in his Negev ranch when he began feeling chest pressure and pain.

Wednesday night at around 10 p.m., Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a second stroke, which caused severe cerebral hemorrhaging. He was feeling chest pressure and pain, and was feeling weak.

He was rushed to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem.

5:50 am: The 7-hour operation that the PM was undergoing is over.

Guysen Israel News (http://www.guysen.com/) is in French but they email out a daily set of news items in English.

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MODERN MIRACLES IN AND FROM ISRAEL
Posted by Bruce Tuchman, January 4, 2006.

Modern Miracles... all this, against odds that NO country has ever had to face, and in all of history collectively, no people has ever had to face...

The Middle East has been growing date palms for centuries. The average tree is about 18-20 feet tall and yields about 38 pounds of dates a year. Israeli date trees are now yielding 400 pounds/year and are short enough to be harvested from the ground or a short ladder.

Israel the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can lay claim to the following:

The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.

Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.

The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel.

Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel. The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel.

Voice mail technology was developed in Israel. Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.

The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.

Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world (after the U.S, Russia and China). In addition to a large variety of other aircraft, Israel's air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16's. This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the U. S.

Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.

Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.

According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. US officials now look (finally) to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.

Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world. Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin -- 109 per 10,000 people --as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.

In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the U.S. (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).

With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world -- apart from the Silicon Valley, U.S.

Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the U.S.

Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.

Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.

On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech startups.

Twenty-four per cent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland and 12 per cent hold advanced degrees.

Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.

In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews (Operation Solomon) at Risk in Ethiopia, to safety in Israel.

When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times.

When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day -- and saved three victims from the rubble.

Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship -- and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 -- in the world.

Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. (Hundreds of thousands from the former Soviet Union)

Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free."

Israel has the world's second highest per capita of new books.

Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert.

Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.

Medicine... Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.

An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.

Israel's Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside for cancer and digestive disorders.

Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the camera helps doctors diagnose the heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.

Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U. S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places first in this category as well.

A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the Clear Light device, produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct -- all without damaging surrounding skin or tissue.

An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in southern California's Mojave desert.

All the above while engaged in regular wars with an implacable enemy that seeks its destruction, and an economy continuously under strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other county on earth.

... AND THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR IN ENGLAND SAYS: "ISRAEL IS NOTHING BUT A SHITTY LITTLE COUNTRY"

Contact Bruce Tuchman at http://www.nycat.org/ or go to http://www.nycat.org/join-nycat to sign up for his daily email.

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IS THE U.N. GUILTY OF APARTHEID?
Posted by Max Yas, January 4, 2006.

The U.N. Security Council passed the PARTITION RESOLUTION FOR PALESTINE in 1947 with the required majority of at least 2/3rds of the votes, despite strong opposition from the Arab member-states. For example: Egypt's delegate addressed the General Assembly: " The lives of one million Jews in Muslim countries would be jeopardized by partition." Many Arabs, mostly the wealthy, escaped to avoid he threat of war by the Arab states surrounding the areas allocated to Jews for the establishment of their state.

When seven Arab armies declared war on the new-born state, many more Arabs left, some after a call by Arab leaders to get out of the way. A small number were expelled, but many more fled to avoid being caught in the cross-fire.

The Arabs claimed that about one million Arabs were displaced in 1947-8. A report by the UN mediator set the number at 472,000.

At the same time Jews were forced to leave Arab and Muslim countries with little more than the clothes on their backs. Of these 586,000 were resettled in Israel, an event scarcely reported by the world media, since they were quickly absorbed and integrated with the Israeli population. Israel also absorbed many Jewish survivors of the Holocaust.

By contrast the Arab refugees were not interested in resettlement. The UN then segregated Palestinian Arab refugees from the over one hundred million other displaced persons and set up a special agency, the United Nation Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). In the 1950 resolution at the UN, the objective was the "reintegration of the refugees into the economic life of the Mid-East" at an expected expenditure of $250 Million Dollars over a period of three years.. To-date the number of these refugees has grown to millions and the expenditures to billions. Most of them were settled by UNWRA in refugee camps and now, 55 years later, still under UNWRA supervision, function as bases for terrorists and their school teach hatred from kindergarten to graduation.

This is the only group or refugees in the world whose children inherit the status and privileges of "refugee" and pass it on to their children, from generation to generation, without any time limit. This may explain why the reason why these people

From the very beginning Israel was ready to enter into negotiations on the refugee problem, but insists on a linkage between Arab refugees who fled from Israel and Jewish refugee forced to leave the Arab countries where their ancestors lived for two thousand years.

It is interesting to note that of the 100+ resolutions at the UN on this subject, all referred to PALESTINIAN REFUGEES -- not even one mentions JEWISH REFUGEES nor PALESTINIAN JEWISH refuges who were expelled by Jordan from the West Bank and by Egypt from the Gaza Strip.

[Editor's Note: Nor did they mention the Jewish refugees expelled from the homes and farms in Gaza.]

Contact Max Yas at maxyas@victoria.tc.ca

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b>SPIELBERG'S MUNICH AND ME
Posted by Rachel Neuwirth, January 4, 2006.

Boycott this movie, I saw the movie for free!

I had deep misgivings about seeing Spielberg's Munich. The tragedy was too close to my heart.

I was supposed to be with the 1972 Israeli Olympiads as a member of the Israeli women's basketball team. At the last minute, the International Olympic Committee decided against including a women's basketball event. (It did not become a regular event until the 1976 Olympics.)

I didn't go to Munich, but I spent years training with the athletes who did go. We developed a close camaraderie, as people do at training camps where tensions and hopes are high. I knew each one of them personally. They were my friends. I watched in horror as the massacre unfolded on TV. I, too, could have been slaughtered by the killers linked to Yasser Arafat.

Instead, I watched them slaughter my friends and saw how callously the world responded. The games went on even as my friends' bodies were flown home draped not in medals but in burial shrouds.

I feared how Hollywood, even if it was Stephen Spielberg, would depict this tragedy but I finally went to see the film. Munich was worse than I had feared. It left me appalled and enraged. I felt violated. The film debased the memory of my friends. It exploited a horrifying atrocity. It slandered the brave Israeli volunteers who were ready to sacrifice their lives to seek justice and to risk orphaning their children in this dangerous but necessary assignment. Terrorists had to learn they could not murder Israelis abroad with impunity and that the perpetrators of this atrocity would not live to plot another one.

Americans, including Spielberg, have never had to live intimately with war and terrorism in a tiny country surrounded and outnumbered by intractable enemies. My Olympiad friends had. I had. I was born in Israel and have lived my whole life with Islamic terrorism. It began long before the so-called occupation, and has continued without cease. Its goal is to destroy Israel and expel or exterminate all Jews. Most young women like me did military service to defend our country in its never-ending war for survival. We accept this obligation with stoicism and without compromising our ethics or our humanity. That is what reality and our ideals demand of us.

But this film is not about reality or about presenting a truthful account of the aftermath of Munich. It is about Steven Spielberg -- his spin on history, his ego, and his arrogance in thinking that he has special wisdom and insights about how to bring peace. He may believe that the ends justify the means so he has license to twist the truth to promote peace. But "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Some in the mainstream liberal media are praising this movie lavishly and, unfortunately, many people with limited historical knowledge may accept readily Spielberg's twisted version of events and, worse, his political propagandizing (or "morality").

Spielberg didn't search for the moral or factual truths. He didn't spend time in Israel or meet with both Jewish and Arab victims of Islamist terror. Instead, he used the fraudulent book Vengeance. Its author, George Jonas, was exposed years ago as having lied about his contacts with Israel's Mossad. The book's title, Vengeance, is inherently biased and pejorative. Israel did not go after the terrorists out of vengeance, but rather as part of its ongoing war against terrorism.

Spielberg's screenwriter, Tony Kushner, was no better an influence than Jonas. A political ultra leftist, Kushner co-authored the vehemently anti-Israel volume Wrestling with Zion, and is infamous for his comment that "I wish modern Israel hadn't been born."

In addition, two of Spielberg's consultants for the movie were Bill Clinton and his obedient Middle-East negotiator, Dennis Ross -- both of whom had their own agendas and both of whom failed to secure peace when they were in power. Spielberg's reliance on these sources for such an important film is ethically irresponsible. The bare-bones, non-technical term for Spielberg's spin is lying. Spielberg exploits the respect and betrays the trust of audiences who believe in him.

Spielberg plays fast and loose with history most clearly when he brazenly substitutes his own political voice for Golda Meir's documented statements. On September 12, 1972, she told the Knesset:

"We have no choice but to strike at the terrorist organizations wherever we can reach them. That is our obligation -- to ourselves and to peace. We shall fulfil that obligation undauntedly."

Golda Meir's unwavering commitment and sense of duty are moral universes away from the equivocating words Spielberg puts in her mouth:

"...every civilization finds it necessary to negotiate comprises with its own values."

Meir did not see counter-terrorism as a compromise of Jewish values but rather as submitting to those values. There is nothing in Judaism that requires Jews to "turn the other cheek" to murderers of our people. True, Meir did not want to send Israelis to risk their lives. Nor did she want Israelis to have to kill. It was she who said to Israel's enemies,

"We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children but we cannot forgive them for forcing our children to kill their children."

We Israelis do not celebrate when we kill our enemies though our enemies celebrate when they kill us. Instead, it is a grim duty imposed on us by relentless racism and hate. Meir knew this.

The manufactured quotation is sheer moral relativism and parrots the Left's favorite theme that "violence begets violence." It is also the key message of Spielberg's turgid movie. Munich also contains graphic violence, tasteless gratuitous sex scenes, and frequent profanity that numb the mind and serve no constructive purpose. A central theme is to make the audience believe that retributions against savage and barbaric slaughter do not deter terrorism. This concept is part of Leftist anti-war appeasement and a defeatist philosophy that blames victims of aggression.

But he offers no proof that this is true. The West made a major mistake in Munich when it appeased Hitler and failed to stop him before he became more powerful. We do not hear Spielberg argue for post-9/11 negotiations with Osama bin Laden. Spielberg, typical of so many "progressive" liberals, would like Israel to adopt his appeasement philosophy while he sits safely and comfortably thousands miles away in his Pacific Palisade mansion, far from danger.

Spielberg told Time magazine that Munich is "a prayer for peace." But if he is truly seeking prayers for peace, he need look no further than the Jewish liturgy and the Hebrew Bible for both wisdom and balance. America's Founding Fathers said: Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God. There is also the truism: "He Who is Compassionate to the Cruel Will Ultimately Become Cruel to the Compassionate."

I was particularly upset when Spielberg's Israeli agent said that he cares only about Jewish blood and not about Arab blood. Anti-Semites often put such a comment in the mouth of a Jewish character, which, by association, defames all Jews. This grossly misrepresents Israeli morality and values. Spielberg contradicts this image himself when he shows Avner, the leader of the Israeli hit-team, horrified that the innocent daughter of one the targets is present and he quickly acts to stop the attack until she is safely gone. This is just one example of the lack of coherence, morality, and clarity that pervades this movie.

The opening movie credits informs us that Munich was "inspired by real events." One of the last scenes of the movie shows Avner making love to his wife as he envisions the spectre of dead Israeli athletes lying on a bloodstained Munich runway. This obscene perversion of the truth and decency could only have come from a sick mind that egregiously twists facts and has the chutzpah to promote his movie as "inspired by real events."

In the last 45 minutes of the movie, Spielberg depicts Avner as haunted by paranoia and guilt. In truth, those who sought out and terminated the Palestinian terrorists were determined and resolute Israelis who proudly defended their country against those who had ruthlessly slaughtered innocent civilians.

To further his pacifist political message, Spielberg invents a scene where the Arab terrorist and the Israeli agent encounter each other by accident in a safe house in Greece. In this contrived scene, each side argues their own perspective as Spielberg attempts to insinuate a degree of moral equivalence on both sides. This does justice to neither side, nor to the truth. It serves only to misinform the public. The Middle East has a long and complex history, and movie-goers with little knowledge of that history will drift even further into Hollywood fantasy than they did when they sat through E.T.

Spielberg's terrorist character, Ali, said: "You are a Jew sympathizer! All you Germans...you are too soft on Israel. Sure you give money because you feel guilty about Hitler and the Jews exploit that thing. My father didn't gas any Jews. " Spielberg's failure is in not having Avner provide a proper response. Avner should have said: This land was Jewish 3000 years ago from the time of Moses and king David. That was 1600 years before the Arabs invaded and stole the land from the Jews. Regarding holocaust "exploitation" by Jews, it should be remembered that the Arab Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was a guest of Hitler in Berlin during W.W. II where he urged Hitler to exterminate all Jews. More recently, Hitler's Mien Kampf, in Arabic, has become a best seller in Arab countries. Some Arabs including Mahmoud Abbas denied that the Holocaust ever happened.

The moral equivalence message is illustrated by a statement made by the Council of American-Islamic Relations, (CAIR), an anti-Israel organization which asserts moral equivalence between victims and terrorists. In a 12/26/05 FoxNews interview, CAIR spokesman, Ahmed Bedeir, had this to say:

"The viewers who see this movie will find that both sides are seeking and fighting for the same thing and have the same desires " which is a homeland. Ironically [they both have] similar motives and desires... The only difference between what these so-called Mossad-sponsored assassins and other terrorists -- they both use a similar means -- they make bombs and they blow up people and they kill innocent civilians and, in the meantime, violence begets violence. The policy has not worked, and I'm glad people like Steven Spielberg have produced a movie to raise questions about these certain policies of killing individuals, especially without due process [or] without providing the evidence and many of the assassins that were in this movie question the legitimacy of these targets."

Hussam Ayloush, Southern California's executive director of CAIR praised the film saying,

"This film moves the issue closer to a more neutral stance. It shows the Palestinians are not fighting Israel because they hate Jews or because they are intrinsically violent."

Sadly, the average movie-goer will never know where fact ends and fantasy takes over. As a result, many will no doubt come away confused about the moral issues involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict, seeing diminished difference between the barbarity of Arab terrorists and the justice meted out by the Israeli agents who pursued them.

Spielberg is a movie director and a great storyteller. But he is not a historian, a political scientist, or a statesman. If he wishes to meddle in high-stakes international politics, he should first remember that "fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

Whatever good intentions Spielberg may have had, his "docudrama" serves only the dangerous Islamist propaganda machine and may even inflame Jew-hatred.

Rachel Neuwirth is a Los Angeles-based analyst on the board of directors of the West Coast Region of the American Jewish Congress and the chairperson of the organization's Middle East committee. Contact her by email at rachterry@sbcglobal.net

This article appeared in http://www.americanthinker.com/articles_print.php?article_id=5122 yesterday.

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FRUITS OF THE DISENGAGEMENT. UNFORTUNATELY VERY BITTER
Posted by Lee Caplan, January 4, 2006.

"Gush Katif Families Charge Gov't with 'Election Propaganda'"
Arutz-Sheva
Jan 04, 2006

(IsraelNN.com) The Committee of Gush Katif residents charged on Wednesday that the Disengagement Authority is distributing untrue "election propaganda" by claiming the families are receiving compensation payments.
At least half of the families have not received initial installments and full compensation has been paid only to 10 percent of the families, the committee said. It called on the office of the Prime Minister "to publish exact figures and not sell stories" which have no basis. Many of the families still are in hotel rooms or student dormitories, unemployment is rampant and the government is charging people $450 a month for 60 square meter sheetrock houses which have been built in the Nitzan area, north of Ashkelon.


"Kassam Rocket Attack on Sderot, None Injured"
Arutz Sheva
Jan 04, 2006

(IsraelNN.com) Sderot Wednesday afternoon continued to come under attack by Arab terrorists, who shot two Kassam rockets at the Negev town in the past hour. There were no reports of injuries although one rocket exploded on a main highway. The attacks have continued in the face of the IDF strategy to maintain an air patrol over northern Gaza and target terrorists attempting to launch rocket and mortar shells.

The government and the IDF have resisted suggestions to launch a ground offensive. A Knesset committee this week sharply criticized IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz for not preventing rocket attacks on Sderot. Halutz said in an interview last week that he expects to reduce the rocket attacks but does not anticipate the IDF will stop them completely.


"Western Embassies, U.N. Order Personnel Out of Gaza"
Jan 04, 2006

The United Nations and western countries have ordered most relief and non-governmental workers out of the Gaza region, according to the Mideast Newsline agency. The U.N. has only three international workers in the area, and they are not allowed to stay overnight. The news agency quoted a diplomatic source, "The only Westerners left in Gaza are peace activists who believe that the Palestinian factions will defend them. Instead, they have become the target of some of these factions." Terrorists last week abducted a volunteer and her visiting parents for two days before releasing them. She said she has returned to the area because the abduction increased her fondness for the local Arabs.


"Egyptian Soldiers Fire at PA Protestors"
Arutz Shevah
Jan 04, 2006

(IsraelNN.com) Egyptian soldiers a short time ago fired in the air to restrain Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorists from crossing the Gaza border. Members of the Brigades, a military branch of the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s ruling Fatah party, had bulldozed an opening in the barrier on the border. Dozens of Arabs stormed into the area as terrorists fired in the air toward the Egyptian side of the border.

No injuries have been reported in the unrest, which came as a protest to the PA's arrest of an Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist suspected of kidnapping a foreign volunteer and her parents last week.


"Anarchy Continues in the PA"
Arutz-Sheva
Jan 04, 2006

(IsraelNN.com) Armed gunmen in Palestinian Authority (PA) controlled Gaza have taken over an Interior Ministry office sources in the PA reported.
Elsewhere in Gaza, Fatah al-Aqsa Brigade terrorists detonated a car bomb near the Gaza/Egyptian border in Rafiah in response to PA forces arresting a suspect in connection to last week's abduction of a British humanitarian worker by terrorists in Gaza.


"Shelling Attacks Continue"
Arutz-Sheva
Jan 04, 2006

(IsraelNN.com) At least one Kassam rocket was fired at southern pre-1967 Green Line Israel during the night. No injuries were reported. IDF artillery fired into northern Gaza late Tuesday night following an attack in the Sderot area.


"Kassams Fired at Sderot and Ashkelon, Just Miss Gas Station"
By Ezra HaLevi
Arutz-Sheva
Jan 04, 2006

Five Kassam rockets struck Sderot and two landed near Ashkelon, injuring two on Wednesday evening, despite the creation of a security zone on the site of destroyed Jewish towns in northern Gaza.

The Kassams that struck Sderot fell very close to a gas station on Road #34. Police say a direct hit could have detonated underground gas storage tanks and would have been devastating. Three rockets were also fired Tuesday night, one of them impacting near the same gas station.

Sderot residents ran for cover as the Red Dawn early warning system sounded its sirens several times throughout the night Tuesday and again Wednesday evening, alerting residents of an incoming missile and giving them less than a minute to find cover.

Dozens of rockets have been fired as Sderot in the past week. IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz told the Knesset Defense Committee Tuesday that the security zone created in northern Gaza was only designed to protect Ashkelon's power station, and not the residents of Sderot and the western Negev.

In southern Gaza, armed terrorists used a bulldozer to knock down the concrete walls along the Gaza-Egypt border, opening the previously guarded passage to throngs of local Arabs from both sides that began crossing back and forth unchecked. The border has previously been the site of intense IDF anti-smuggling efforts. Since Israel's unilateral withdrawal, however, the transport of heavy weaponry and drugs over the border goes unhindered.


"Netanyahu: "Pre-Disengagement Warnings are Coming True"
By Hillel Fendel
Jan 04, 2006

The IDF bombed 8 access routes to rocket launch sites in Gaza, in response to the firing of several Kassam rockets towards Sderot over night. Netanyahu says rockets must be fought methodically.

No one was hurt by the Arab rocket attacks, though one of the rockets landed dangerously near a city gas station.

The IDF announced this morning that as a result of the continuing Kassam attacks, it aerially attacked eight access routes in the northern Gaza Strip. The objective was to prevent the passage of terrorists to the areas from which they fire rockets at Israel, and to disrupt their rocket activities in general.

News of one of the rocket attacks reached the Mayor of Sderot, Eli Moyal, as he was listening to Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu tell an audience of party activists how to fight Kassams. Speaking at a gathering of Likud activists in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said, "There are a thousand ways to deal with Kassam rockets."

"We cannot fight rockets with a 'bang-bang-and-it's-over' approach," Netanyahu told the Likud supporters in the Knesset Tower Hotel. "We have to fight terrorism methodically. If [Sderot Mayor] Eli Moyal is unable to sleep at night [because of the rockets], then neither will the residents of Gaza be able to sleep."

The gathering was organized by Likud Knesset candidate Shmuel Slavin, a former Director-General of the Ministries of Labor and Finance. MK Ehud Yatom was also in attendance.

"We see how the warnings that were talked about before the disengagement are coming true," Netanyahu said. "It encouraged terrorism, the Kassams are reaching Ashkelon, the Hamas is getting stronger, Abu Mazen is getting weaker, and the Philadelphi Route [between Gaza and Egypt] is full of holes. The nation must choose between blindness and waking up."

The former Prime Minister also said, "There have been many periods in history when the nation did not identify the dangers in time. It's not enough to be strong; we must see the danger and act sensibly. Common sense dictates that you fight terrorism and not give in to it. The attempt to appease terrorism and to respond to some of its demands merely encourages more terrorism."

Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com

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NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION
Posted by IsrAlert, January 4, 2006.

This was written by Andrea Simantov and appeared on http://www.ocjewishlife.com

Almost twenty years to the day that I stood beneath a flower-decorated chuppah on Eastern Long Island, I left my marriage home with a toothbrush and a "Shabbos blouse" hastily stuffed into my oversized pocketbook. I wore a one-size-fits-all black skirt and pretty lavender sweater, covering an "I love Jerusalem" T-shirt. At the time I left, I didn't realize that it would be another fourteen months before I could afford to replace the skirt or that I'd be spending most of the next few weeks sitting in an empty, cold-water flat wearing the absent-owner's terry-cloth bathrobe in order not to soil my one outfit. With no immediate source of income and the Pesach holiday looming, I found work cleaning houses for the upcoming holiday in the city's Rehavia neighborhood: two homes for $100 apiece.

We were invited out for the first night to the home of my friend's parents. These people didn't know us but treated my brood and me with dignity and visible delight. The gracious, elderly hosts ignored my discomfort over my "turn of circumstances" and, instead, we were made to feel as though this was the only place in the world for a frightened, divorcing mother and her six confused children.

The following year found us happily (!) ensconced in my bachelorette pad and we, the warring parties, had a "holiday agreement" ironed out. Finding myself childfree for the holiday, I attended a fabulously A-List Seder, gourmet catered at a five-star hotel. I lucked upon this invite via loving New York friends. Again, I was treated with dignity but on a personal level, I felt uncomfortable. Newly single, it was hard not to feel peculiar in a couples' world. After all, for twenty years I had played hostess, basking in the admiration of friends and family.

My third, fourth, and fifth "alone" Pesachs have been spent with the Kaplans. Last year, trudging up the steep hill to their beautiful home, I suddenly began crying uncontrollably, hugging the gift bag of wine and macaroons to my chest. In addition to feeling sorry for myself, I was overtaken with an indescribable feeling of guilt. In all of my twenty years of marriage, I had never given an ounce of thought to single people. Never took a Donna Reed moment -- in-between poring over recipe books, selecting festive fabric napkins, and finding poignant, Torah-inspired works to better enhance our reading of the Haggadah -- to wonder where the single woman in the fourth row (right side) of the women's section is at the moment my youngest child recites the four questions. Where the quiet man, childless and widowed, renting my neighbor's basement apartment, is eating his Shabbos supper. This sense of overwhelming shame was compounded by an even harsher truth: the reason I didn't think of them was because I didn't, in fact, see them. In my marital struggle for conformity, it was easier to put on blinders and save my compassion for the more visibly needy among us: the poor, the physically disabled, the displaced.

But now I could feel the isolation of another human being. Because on some days I was so lonely that I thought my heart would break upon seeing an elderly couple sitting together on a park bench or a young man waiting, with a baby in a stroller, beaming as his pregnant young wife exited the pharmacy.

When I was married, I'd occasionally come across a single man or woman who I knew was good for somebody. Somebody I'd already met. Somebody who was recently divorced. Available. Whatever. But I could never remember just who that somebody was, because I hadn't written it down. I'd say to the respective person, "Oh, when I remember, I HAVE to make this shidduch!" And even though it mattered to me that I be thought a considerate person, it hadn't mattered enough for me to truly take in that the person to whom I was speaking was desperate for a date, a chance, the opportunity to become an "us".

I've met several still-unmarried people in my age group who have shared with me idyllic versions of what they think marriage is. Nowhere in their "made for Hollywood" versions are financial disagreements, sexual dysfunction, angry stepchildren, or spiritual disharmony. Wedded life is a lasting, companionship-filled date.

This naiveté reminds me of the Torah narrative of Jacob and Leah. It is told that Jacob loved Rachel but was tricked on his wedding night by being "given" a veiled Leah.

After a night of unbridled passion, he discovers the ruse and demands his rightful bride. The tragedy of the story isn't that Leah spends the rest of her years as an unloved wife -- certainly heartbreaking enough. No, the pity of the tale is that she spends the rest of her life knowing what she is missing, having tasted love. Even if only for a brief, delicious moment.

Recently I had cause to spend Shabbos in town and found myself at the synagogue I attended during those terrible first months after leaving my home. I can't say why I chose to worship there, as there is no shortage of "prayer stations" in the holy city of Jerusalem! Nevertheless, I humbly sat in the back, breathing in familiar smells and enjoying the plumage of the elegant, older women who make up the majority of the membership. I recognized two single women among the congregants, women whom I'd casually befriended four years earlier. They were both older than me but not by much, and I was struck at how much they'd aged in the interim.

Their uncovered heads didn't mask the graying hair, and their visible aloneness created heaviness in the air that surrounded them. Immediately after the service I observed both women scooting home toward their respective abodes. They certainly could have stayed for the kiddush but chose not to. I, too, could have stayed for the kiddush but, knowing no one and feeling awkward, I also opted to leave.

Among the holiest of our people are those who try to make matches between men and women. And just as there are disreputable people in many fields, I'm fairly certain that the shidduch industry has its own roster of charlatans. All the same, I'm awed by the professionalism and compassion among the many I've met.

Professionals aside, it behooves me to ask, why aren't we all matchmakers? Why isn't each and every one of us keeping a little memo pad in our back pockets or pocketbooks in order to catalog a roster of the singles we meet? Why aren't we pulling out that same notebook/palm pilot/business card folio and comparing our lists with the other men/women at the gym/book club/nail salon?

I have begun to do just that: to want and pray for another that which I want and pray for myself. Without a trace of the old shyness, I now ask, aloud, "Does anyone know of a man who might be suitable for this woman?" It is my fervent hope that at another table, elsewhere, someone is asking the same question on my behalf.

Walking up that hill last Pesach I made a promise, one that I'm determined to fulfill. Should I be blessed by God to merit another marriage, I will make it my business to remember this time, to truly hold onto this aching loneliness in order to include singles in my world. To never, again, grow smug in my own life-station.

After all, you cannot help those you cannot see ...

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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VATICAN SHENANIGANS AGAIN? SAMBI IS COMING TO TOWN
Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, January 4, 2006.

The Committee to Save Mt. Zion is issuing this update because there has been a marked and visible increase in the Vatican's calculated efforts to exert pressure upon Israel via the United States and through other diplomatic (and not-so-diplomatic) channels. The following issues are at stake:

a) The status of Jerusalem, holy sites and other properties in Eretz Yisrael.

b) The efforts on the part of the Catholic church to evade their tax obligations to the State of Israel, and to assume extra-territorial status.

c) Blatant interference by the Catholic church in Israel's security concerns.

d) A concerted effort by the Catholic Church to proselytize in Eretz Yisrael.

Now that Archbishop Pietro Sambi (formerly the Vatican's representative to Israel and the PA) has been appointed by the Pope as the new U.S. Papal Nuncio, we ask that Diaspora Jewry pay particular attention to developments and that they take a pro-active stance on protecting Jerusalem and ensuring that the Land of Israel and her holy sites remain in Jewish hands. We hope this summary will bring you up to date. (For additional background information on this issue go to: http://isfsp.org/zion.html http://isfsp.org/updates.html)

A SUMMARY OF EVENTS:

OCTOBER 12 -- Mid NOVEMBER: The Vatican, the London Times, and other international news services report an imminent deal involving the relinquishing of Israel's control, to the Vatican, of the Cenacle Shrine (Last Supper Room), which is housed in the same Mt. Zion building as King David's Tomb and the Diaspora Yeshiva.

NOVEMBER 2005 ISSUE OF THE MAGAZINE "INSIDE THE VATICAN" FEATURES COVER STORY: DESOLATE CENACLE -- The Cradle of the Eucharist: Will this Room of the Last Supper in Jerusalem soon be Given Back to the Pope? Please see attached jpeg of the magazine cover or go to http://www.insidethevatican.com/images/issue-nov 05-lg.jpg

NOVEMBER 2nd and 9th: President Katsav's office officially issues denials of any deal after an outpouring of public protest and publicity via phone calls, fax, email, blogsites, radio and Israeli press reports.

NOVEMBER 16: the question of a possible deal is brought before the Knesset and denied by Minister Meir Sheetrit.

NOVEMBER 16: President Katsav meets with the Pope in Rome and discusses unresolved property and tax issues.

NOVEMBER 17: Haaretz article outlines American intervention and the pressure placed upon Israel to complete negotiations with the Vatican. Father David Jaeger reportedly feels that, " ... the Israeli government only wakes up when it comes under pressure from the Americans." (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/ PrintArticle/En.jhtml?itemNo=646778)

DECEMBER 19: In what appears to be a calculated move to pressure Israel via Washington, Pope Benedict XVI appoints Archbishop Pietro Sambi as the new U.S. Papal Nuncio. Sambi served as the Vatican's representative to Israel and Palestine.

Israeli Franciscan Father David Jaeger, a longtime participant in Vatican-Israeli talks, said he thought Archbishop Sambi would be an "extremely effective nuncio in the United States...I'm sure he will take the capital by storm," Father Jaeger said...

...During his years in Israel, Archbishop Sambi was involved in talks or negotiations on a wide variety of controversial issues with the government of Israel and representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization...

...Archbishop Sambi has negotiated with Israel to reach an agreement on taxation and financial issues regarding church institutions in the Holy Land. To date, those talks have not born fruit. http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0507214.htm

DECEMBER 22-23: REPORT: CHURCHES OWE MILLIONS TO JERUSALEM - VATICAN GREATEST OFFENDER: Churches owe more than $65 million to the city of Jerusalem in overdue property taxes... Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY -- Dec 23, 2005 http://jta.org/page_view_breaking_story.asp?intid=620 Jerusalem Post, Israel -- Dec 22, 2005 (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1134309633370&pagename= JPost%2FJP/Article%2FShowFull ) Catholic World News -- Dec 23, 2005 http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=41423

DECEMBER 24: Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michael Sabbah says, the barrier -- which Israel says it erected to curb suicide bombings and Palestinians say is a land grab -- has turned the town into an "immense prison"... "Nobody needs checkpoints in the Holy Land." (http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/MSN/world/national/2005/12/24/ bethlehem051224.html)

DECEMBER 30: The Jerusalem Post reports that the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michael Sabbah and President Moshe Katsav exchanged sharp words at the annual New Year's reception at Beit Hannasi.

JANUARY 3: VATICAN SAYS JERUSALEM "ISSUE" IS TOO IMPORTANT TO LEAVE TO ISRAEL, PA (IsraelNN.com) The legal counsel of the Vatican in Israel, the priest David Jaeger, said today that Jerusalem is too important of an "issue" to be left to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Jaeger further expressed criticism of Israeli policy regarding holy sites in the country.

"The issue of Jerusalem," the representative of the Roman Catholic Church said, "is to important to leave in the hands of the Israelis and the Palestinians."

The Catholic Church has been making efforts to obtain historical sites in Jerusalem of late, but without public successes. http://israelnn.com/news.php3?id=95967

SUGGESTED, IMPORTANT AND STRANGE READING:

ON CATHOLIC PROSELYTIZING EFFORTS: The Vatican Explores Israel, and Discovers Its Own Faithful The number of Jewish Christians in Israel is growing constantly, and the Holy See is adapting. The new Custodian of the Holy Land speaks Hebrew. And in the Cenacle, soon to be returned to the Church, the mass will again be celebrated http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=7043&eng=y

CHRISTIAN PLANS FOR MT. ZION: Since 1948, Mt. Zion has been part of Israel. The government's Department of Religious Affairs now administers both floors of the building. The pseudo-tomb of David is used as a Jewish synagogue and the upper room is left open for Christian visitors... Perhaps one day it will be excavated more thoroughly. In the meantime, we may venerate it as Christendom's most ancient shrine: The mother of all churches. http://www.centuryone.org/apostles.html

BIZARRE ALLIANCE BETWEEN PAPAL KNIGHT/PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL AND EVANGELICAL MESSIANIC MISSIONARY "RABBI": In the midst of celebrating the Chanukah festival, prominent Rabbi Eddie Chumney of Ohio has agreed to serve as an advisor to Daniel Imperato's 2008 run at the White House..."I'm more than happy to help Dan and his mission to change our country," commented Chumney, who has been heading up the HHMI (Hebraic Heritage Ministries International) for the past 10 years (www.hebroots.org).

Recently a 150 year old Christian denomination of about 700 churches agreed to switch their entire denomination in 2006 to the "Hebraic roots of Christianity" expression and be trained in the HHMI discipleship program... http://openpr.com/news/2350.html

For more on "Rabbi Eddie" go to: http://www.rickross.com/reference/general/general776.html

or get smart and support the efforts of anti-missionary organizations like http://www.outreachjudaism.org/ http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/

Ellen Horowitz lives in the Golan Heights, Israel with her husband and six children. She is a painter and columnist for Israelnationalnews.com. email: ellen@artfromzion.com

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FIVE YEAR OLD STELLA LINIADO NEEDS YOUR BLOOD & PLATELET DONATION
Posted by Al Liniado, January 4, 2006.

Stella Liniado needs your help.

Stella is currently a patient at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and her treatment requires frequent blood and platelet transfusions.

Stella and her parents, Albert and Mary, would deeply appreciate your donation of blood and/or platelets and hope you will ask others you know to donate also.

Donations designated for Stella must be made at Memorial Hospital in Manhattan and appointments are required.

Please visit www.mskcc.org/blooddonations for complete information about donor eligibility and the donation process.

To get answers to questions and schedule a convenient appointment that also ensures Stella will have the blood and platelets when she needs them, call Marion Novack, 212-639-8177.

The Donor Room Is Open Every Day
Fri Sat Sun Mon 8:30am -- 3:00pm
Tues Wed Th 8:30am -- 7:00pm
1250 First Avenue (between 67th/68th Streets) NYC -- Schwartz Building lobby

Free parking is available for donors at the hospital garage on 66th Street (between York & First Avenues).

The process for donating whole blood takes approximately 1 hour and the process for platelet donation takes about 2+ hours.

All blood types are acceptable. Contact Al Liniado at Al_Liniado@symall.com

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ILLUSIONS AND DELUSIONS
Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, January 4, 2006.

This was written by Moshe Arens and appeared in Haaretz today www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=665922

Only the guilt feelings prevalent among some victims of violence can explain the delusion of those Israelis who blame Israel for acts of aggression committed against Israel.

For them, acts of violence by Hizbollah or Palestinian terrorist groups against Israel seem no more than legitimate reactions to injuries inflicted on them by Israel, and the appropriate response, as far as they are concerned, is to give in to at least some of the demands of the perpetrators of violence, in the expectation that such concessions would put an end to their intentions to commit further acts of violence against Israel.

That presumably was the logic of those demonstrating for a withdrawal of the IDF from the southern Lebanon security zone. Despite Hizbollah's virulent declarations against Israel, they preferred to view Hizbollah as Lebanese patriots whose sole objective was to free Lebanese territory from Israeli occupation, whose attacks against Israel would cease as soon as the IDF withdrew from Lebanon, turning the Hizbollah into just another Lebanese political party.

This simpleminded logic was partially adopted by Ehud Barak as prime minister, when he decided on the withdrawal of the IDF from the south Lebanon security zone and the abandonment of the South Lebanese Army, Israel's long-time ally.

To this illusion he added a delusion: now that Israel had withdrawn behind the internationally recognized Israel- Lebanese border, Israel would be free to impose on Lebanon the harshest retribution if there were to be any further acts of violence against Israel coming from Lebanon. This threat was to serve as an adequate deterrent and bring peace to our northern border. As if Israel had not been fully justified to respond to Hizbollah attacks against Israeli towns and villages while the IDF and SLA were deployed in the south Lebanon security zone, as if Israel had not been fully justified in holding the Lebanese government responsible for these attacks and attacking targets in Lebanon in order to get the Lebanese army to rein in the Hizbollah.

Reality turned out to be different. The Hizbollah militia did not disband and continued its attacks against Israel, the Lebanese army was not deployed along the Israeli border, international pressure was not applied on Lebanon to put a stop to Hizbollah's activities, and Israel did not respond forcefully to Hizbollah attacks along the northern border, not even after the kidnapping of three Israel soldiers there.

The Hizbollah claim that the Shaba area was Lebanese territory that had remained under Israeli control, and that they were therefore justified in continuing their attacks against Israel even led some Israelis to conclude that the IDF should withdraw from there as well. But that delusion was going a little too far. When Katyushas fell on Kiryat Shmona and Shlomi the other week, the illusions that led to the abandonment of the security zone were suddenly dispelled.

In the meantime, a clone of the Lebanese illusion had taken hold of Ariel Sharon. If Israel were to dismantle the Israeli settlement blocs in Gush Katif and south of Ashkalon, this presumably was likely to assuage at least some Palestinian ambitions and put an end to Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel. But in case they were to continue, Israel would now be justified in responding in full force to put an end to them. As if there had not been sufficient justification for Israel's battle against Palestinian terrorism prior to the disengagement.

But this illusion was quickly shattered. Kassam attacks against Israeli towns and villages that occurred before the disengagement continued after the disengagement. The withdrawal from Nisanit, Elei Sinai, and Dugit now put the southern outskirts of Ashkalon into Kassam range, and Kassams began falling in that area. The Chelm-like Israeli response now to attempt to prevent the entry of Palestinians into the area from which the Israeli settlers had been evacuated is not likely to solve the problem.

The decision to dismantle the Israeli settlements in that area served no useful purpose, while it endangered the inhabitants of Ashkalon, and was a most serious error of judgment by those responsible for Israel's defense policy. That was followed by another error, when it was decided that Israel's response to the Katyusha attacks from Lebanon would be no more than symbolic. It was reminiscent of Sharon's vacuous slogan that "restraint is strength" in the first months of the second intifada, when Israel failed to respond to Palestinian suicide attacks. That, plus the scandalous decision for a massive release of Palestinian terrorists -- some of whom quickly returned to their terrorist vocation -as part of the Tennenbaum exchange raises doubts regarding the judgment of Sharon and Mofaz presently at the helm of Israel's defense establishment, who are seeking the approval of the Israeli electorate in the next election.

Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org

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CONVICTING TERRORISTS; "CRIMINAL ELEMENTS"; ARAB NOTION OF DOUBLE STANDARD
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 4, 2006.

ISRAEL PAYING THE P.A.

Clearing and recycling the debris from the demolished Jewish towns in Gaza will cost almost $25 million. Israel is paying the P.A. to do it and with Arab labor. This will help reduce soaring P.A. poverty (IMRA, 12/22) a little.

The donation would help increase the high Israeli poverty. Nor is it just. What obligation has Israel to reduce its enemies' poverty? This is more like reparations. But the Arabs are the aggressors and the territory legitimately was used by Israel.

The Arabs use the former Jewish communities as launching sites for attacks. The donation to their regime is like injury and insult added to injury. The original injury was to abandon thriving communities in the Jewish homeland to an enemy whose Covenant states that any land from which Israel were to withdraw would be used to attack Israel. Sharon failed to quote the PLO Covenant when he proposed abandonment as a means of augmenting Israeli security. But the Arabs were faithful to their Covenant, and exploited abandonment to degrade Israeli security.

The Israeli government acts so much against its national interest, but its people seem unaware of, or helpless to deal with, their entrenched Quislings.

CONVICTING TERRORISTS

"Dutch Struggle to Prevent Terror and Protect Rights." So wrote Elaine Scolino of the NY Times. Since jihad burst upon the scene, police and prosecutors have had to learn how to gather evidence convincing for juries. Initially, their efforts were inadequate. The activities of the indicted Islamists showed intent but did not, themselves, constitute terrorism, as the law initially required for conviction. Later, the country outlawed membership in an Islamist organization and made other changes (12/25, A3). I found the piece thoughtful.

Not all terrorists belong to a terrorist organization. They may be recruited by one without joining it, or they act on their own, with the help of websites. I don't think criminal law suffices. The pool of millions of Muslims in the West, most of whom hate their society and sympathize with terrorism, and whom the largely radical preachers agitate, is too great for prosecution to dry up. Too much protection of their rights and not of ours! I think that deportation on the basis of membership or belief not just in terrorism but in Islam is the answer. They must stay in their own countries, and not come to free and tolerant Western countries to make intolerant and unfree.

ARABS HAVE THEIR CAKE & EAT IT, TOO

Although S. Arabia has joined the World Trade Organization, dedicated to free trade, it is retaining its direct, though not the indirect, boycott of Israel (IMRA, 12/23).

"CRIMINAL ELEMENTS"

Moshe Feiglin leads a small nationalist element in Likud that opposes relinquishing Jewish territory to the Arabs. Those who propose relinquishing this territory to the Arab enemy call him and not themselves "extremist" and "criminal." They are campaigning against the Likud Party as being extremist because of his presence in it, though he does not rule it. That is unfair to the Party. However, it is effective. Israelis are over-sensitive to political correctness.

He's criminal? Israel is particularly corrupt. Its industries mostly are monopolies. Peres makes money from his "peace process" and his inactive peace institute. Sharon avoids prison only because of his position and his yielding to anti-Zionist demands by those in a position to prosecute. The Knesset is filled with time-servers who let the government sell out the country and let terrorists murder the people, so long as those Members of Knesset can retain their lucrative positions. Nevertheless, the Labor Party and others demand that Likud purge itself of its "extremist" and "criminal elements."

Feiglin was convicted of non-violent road-blocking. He had hoped to stop Oslo, which he correctly foresaw would lead to the murders of thousands of Jews.. Because of his dissidence, his patriotic misdemeanor was turned into a felony. It was a stain on the Israeli justice system. This ad hominem punishment is proved by the system's condoning of Labor Party head Peretz' road-blocking for union demands, as well as his illegal strikes. In Israel, actions are criminal only if political and right wing. Peretz is left wing.

The demands upon Likud have rattled the head of Likud, Benjamin Netanyahu. He is yielding to those charges particularly because he is trying to salvage his party from the desertions to Sharon's Party. He replied that he will purge the Party of its "criminal element." He asked the help of his chief rival, Foreign Min. Shalom, another leader of appeasement. For his own past appeasement, Netanyahu deserves a criminal record.

Dr. Aaron Lerner made most of those points, though more mildly, and suggests not a purge but a loyalty test of Party principles. The principle to which members would have to pledge loyalty is no territorial concessions without eradication of terrorism. It is a test that Feiglin could not pass.

Clever but insinuates a dangerous principle: if the jihadists had the inclination and self-discipline to desist from terrorism long enough for the Left to proclaim it ended, they would get their immediate territorial demands. That would be unjust enough to the Jewish people. Then the Arabs could renew the armed struggle. That would be more unjust.

It also lays a trap for Israel. Who determines that terrorism has ended? The outside world generally rules in favor of the Arabs and against Israel. The appeasement-minded Israeli leaders call terrorism "quiet" as if it ended when it merely is thwarted or causes less notorious casualties.

BEHAVIOR OF ISRAELI ARAB MEMBERS OF KNESSET

Egypt freed Azzam Azzam, an Israeli Druse, from its prisons a year ago. It had imprisoned the businessman for eight years, on charges of spying. Mr. Azzam tells lecture audiences that Israeli Arab MKs asked Egypt to keep him in prison until it could get Israel to release PLO prisoners in exchange for him (IMRA, 12/23).

What does that tell you about the loyalty of Israeli Arab MKs? Should they be allowed to shape the country's laws, even stay in the country?

ARABS PERCEIVE DOUBLE STANDARDS

The Jordan Times sees a double standard. On the one hand, the US and EU denounce Hamas participation in P.A. elections, and Israel wants to bar it. On the other hand, a Likud Minister suggested bombarding Gaza, which would be a form of ethnic cleansing, but nobody suggests barring Likud from Israeli elections.

IMRA points out that the Minister did not have government sanction for his statement and the government did not fulfill his demand, whereas Hamas actually bombards Israel and strives for ethnic cleansing. What the Minister suggested just would be retaliation. The Arab claim of a double standard is pathetic logic (IMRA, 12/23).

would add that the double standard lies in the West demanding Israeli adherence to Oslo and Map, while the P.A. violates it by making war and allowing Hamas to run instead of having liquidated it.

It is one thing for Arab propaganda to make false equations to Westerners. That could be seen as trying to deceive them. It is another thing when the Arab editors believe their own poor logic, and pass it on to their own people. That may mean that the Arabs have a problem with logic.

SCOFFLAW CHURCHES IN JERUSALEM

Jerusalem exempts from real estate taxes property used for worship. (The US also exempts church property that serves other church purposes other than private, profit-making business.) Various churches, however, are major landowners there, but have not been paying the taxes levied. The total amount due is about $80 million.

The major offender is the Vatican. It is negotiating with the government of Israel. The Vatican is said to be willing to pay only a symbolic fee for the services it receives (IMRA, 12/23). But it recently asked Israel to turn over to it a treasured religious site.

The reason for past non-payment was not given. One cannot evaluate the matter without knowing the circumstances. The Vatican, however, does plot against Israel's survival.

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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POLICE SAY THERE'S EVIDENCE LINKING SHARON TO $3 MILLION BRIBE
Posted by Hillel Fendel, January 4, 2006.

The police say they know of evidence linking PM Ariel Sharon to the receipt of a $3 million bribe. So reported Channel 10 Tuesday night, causing a storm of reaction and calls for Sharon to resign.

The investigation of the money trail to Sharon has been underway for over three years, and in fact was first publicized before the last national election, in 2003. The case is known as the Cyril Kern affair, named for the South African friend of Sharon who served as a conduit for the money. The source of the cash, however, has long been suspected to be Austrian millionaire and Jericho casino owner Martin Schlaff. The police say the money was used partially to help Sharon pay back campaign contributions that he had received illegally in 1999, and partly for the Sharon family's private use.

Because of the suspicions hanging over him, Schlaff has refrained from visiting Israel of late. His brother James, however, came for a visit two weeks ago -- and the police jumped at the opportunity. They raided his parents' home in Israel, and confiscated documents and two laptop computers. However, the police were not permitted to extricate the information on the computers without James' permission -- which he refused to give.

Schlaff's refusal aroused the suspicion of the police, which turned urgently to the courts and said that the computer files will show that the $3 million was in fact passed as a bribe to Ariel Sharon or his sons. The police therefore say that it is imperative for them to be allowed to enter the computers in order to extricate vital evidence in the Kern-Sharon affair.

Aware of the developments, James Schlaff has since given his permission for the police to peruse his computer files.

The Schlaffs' lawyer, Atty. Navot Tel-Tzur, said there was actually nothing new in the case "except for the fact that there is a small computer involved." He expressed anger at the leak. Kadima party officials similarly downplayed the news.

The senior Austrian judicial investigator in the case feels that Sharon had likely been bribed. Israel asked Austria in August 2004 for assistance in the investigation of what was thought to be a loan, which originated in the Vienna-based BAWAG bank. The prosecutor, Gerhard Jarosch, said there was "no plausible reason, other than bribery, that so much money should go to the Sharon family. The reasons given by the Sharons were meager and insufficient."

Martin Schlaff is a major shareholder in the Oasis Casino in Jericho. Police suspect that he gave Sharon the money in the hope that the casino would be re-opened. The casino was closed in late 2000 following the outbreak of the Oslo War. It had often reported a daily turnover of close to a million dollars.

With national elections only 12 weeks away, the news against Sharon -- founder of the front-running Kadima Party -- takes on particular public urgency. Outgoing MK Yossi Sarid (Meretz) said, "Ariel Sharon is the big apple. When he becomes rotten, there goes the whole crate." He called on Sharon to resign.

Labor MK Yuli Tamir: "If the reports are true, the Prime Minister must suspend himself. It's time to detach the bonds between political power and money."

Likud MK Michael Eitan: "The Prime Minister must stand before the public and either deny the charges, or clarify how he received the money."

Kadima MK Roni Bar-on stood steadfastly behind Sharon: "This is merely a last-ditch effort to revive a dying investigation."

National Religious Party leader MK Zevulun Orlev said, "We can't hold an election campaign when such a heavy cloud of bribery is hovering over the Prime Minister's head... The Attorney General must decide without delay whether to indict Sharon or not."

Likud MK Ayoub Kara attacked the corruption of the Sharon family, and said, "The public demands total transparency from the Prime Minister -- and not just regarding his physical health."

Hillel Fendel is Senior News Editor at Arutz-Sheva.

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JUSTICE MUST BE DONE
Posted by Stand With Us, January 4, 2006.

This was written by Judea Peal, father of Daniel Pearl. It appeared in the L.A. Times January 1, 2006. Judea Pearl is a professor at UCLA and president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation (www.danielpearl.org).

Spielberg's "Munich" falls victim to today's moral relativism, which ignores the absolute evil of killing innocents.

WHEN STEVEN Spielberg talks about his film "Munich," he uses words such as "violence," "empathy," "revenge" and "doubt." But one word is missing from his comments, and from the film itself: "Justice."

Nearly four years ago, when the world reacted with shock and indignation to the murder of our son, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, my family and I had hoped the civilized nations would mobilize to protect themselves, not merely against the practice of targeting the innocent to transmit political messages but more pointedly against the ideologies that license such moral deformity.

Unfortunately, brutal and videotaped killings of innocents has since become part of the cultural scene of the 21st century, steadily instilling contempt toward the lives of others. More alarming, the very notion of terrorism as a universal moral taboo has been the subject of a relentless intellectual assault that relativizes and blurs it. The mantra "one man's 'terrorist' is another's 'freedom fighter' " subverts judgments of right and wrong.

Regrettably, Spielberg's "Munich" now adds a Hollywood-styled confusion to the moral relativism on terrorism. The story follows an Israeli agent -- assigned to assassinate the Palestinians responsible for murdering 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich -- who stops before completing his task as his moral doubts grow.

But shaping the story in this way blurs the distinction between the murder of innocents and bringing killers to justice.

Our son could have predicted the development of this moral confusion as early as October 2001, three months before his abduction in Pakistan. While interviewing the influential Qatari cleric Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, then considered a moderate, Danny asked him about suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.

The learned sheik replied with a novel twist of logic. "Israeli society in general is armed," he said, implying that Israeli civilians -- including women and children, doctors and journalists -- are legitimate targets. Three months later, Danny would fall victim to the same brand of twisted logic.

After Danny's murder, the most common reaction we heard from Pakistanis was, "The murderers are unIslamic. However, thousands of Muslims are being killed in Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq, so why all the fuss about one American journalist?" This misses the distinction between those who boast of killing innocents and those who labor to prevent civilian casualties -- the litmus test separating terrorists from counterterrorists.

"Munich" falls into this same trap of moral relativism. It does not explicitly justify terrorism, but it leans in that direction by assigning a palatable yet unchallenged rationale to the Palestinian terrorists, and by having the Israeli hero suffer a crisis of conscience. The idea that taking an innocent life is wrong regardless of the rationale never enters the discussion.

Further missing from the script is the most important theme of all: justice.

When people ask me whether I seek revenge, I answer: The killers do not interest me. I would rather seek effective ways of lessening the hatred that took Danny's life. We should care less about fanatics on the run and more about the ideological fuel that sustains them, such as clerics like Qaradawi, and Al Jazeera, which amplifies their voices.

However, when asked whether I wish to see the mastermind of Danny's abduction, Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, brought to justice, my answer is an unqualified yes.

I can imagine Danny's son Adam (whom Danny never lived to see) one day asking what happened to those who killed his father. I hope not to have to reply: "The hearing of his appeal has been postponed for the 32nd time," (which, to the shame of Pakistan's justice system, is the answer at the moment).

Bringing criminals to justice reaffirms the civilized world's commitment to live by principles and breeds secure and responsible citizens; failure to do so breeds morally confused criminals. "Munich" is about the complexity of bringing evildoers to justice in a world where those entrusted with the job often lack the will to do so. With that in mind, the film can still be enjoyed. But the message we should take away is that two of the terrorists are still at large and must be brought to justice.

Stand With Us (www.standwithus.com) is a pro-Israel advocacy organization that advocates for a secure future for Israel

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IDF STRATEGY AGAINST THE KASSAMS
Posted by Marcel Cousineau, January 4, 2006.

This is Israel's strategy to defeat the terrorists.

A plan that reveals Israel's impotent and weak leadership,a leadership in retreat and surrender mode.

The fearful cowards are afraid and unable to stand up against biased world opinion that ties Israel's hands and singles it out for special treatment while protecting the Islamic terrorists who threaten Israel daily.

Only fools would play this losing game.

The fools keep getting elected in Israel. The victorious IDF defeats the sand & the roads. The IDF responded by firing artillery rounds across the frontier with Gaza and the Israel Air Force struck 8 access roads leading to Qassam launch sites. Palestinian security sources said the shells landed close to the suburbs of Gaza City, but caused no injury or damage.

Contact Marcel Cousineau by email at up2zionsg8@yahoo.com or go to his website http://averyheavystone.blogspot.com

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MAYHAM IN GAZA AND THE FUTURE OF PALESTINE. WARNING SHOTS
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 4, 2006.

This appeared in the New Republic Online yesterday. It was written by Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of TNR. It is archived at http://www.tnr.com/user/nregi.mhtml?i=w060102&s=peretz010306

The only thing that's going to solve this," Steven Spielberg told Time magazine, "is rational minds, a lot of sitting and talking until you're blue in the gills." This, I suppose, is what goes for heavy thinking in Hollywood. Imagine Dreamworks negotiating with Paramount if the latter were continually shooting up the former. So maybe before the Israelis and Palestinians sit down with each other--as they've done innumerable times over the years, at Camp David and Oslo and secret hideouts for very long periods, even producing hopes that many credulous folk took for real--the Palestinians should sit down just with one another and decide whether they truly are a nation and what that nation promises its people. And if my grandmother had wheels, she'd have been a pushcart. The fact is that, as no-nonsense Golda said many years ago, the Arabs of Palestine don't behave like a nation. No, this doesn't mean they shouldn't have a state. All kinds of rumps have states, and just about every one of these states is represented at the United Nations--where many of them cover for each other over the mortal crimes they inflict on their own populations, like Libya for Sudan, or, for that matter, China for virtually every violator of human rights on the planet. Actually, a fictive Palestine has already been counted as a virtual member state for decades, and this has given first Arafat and now his successors the standing to hijack the proceedings of the General Assembly so that much of its business has been devoted to how awfully the Jews treat the Arabs. And, in any case, haven't the Palestinians already declared their independence at least twice?

Now, it's not as if the Palestinians agree as to who represents them, not by a long shot. A significant percentage believes there is nothing to talk about anyway, except possibly the practical details of Israel's dissolution. Of course, the Israeli government negotiates with the Palestinian Authority, mostly under the auspices of Washington, although for some reason Russia, the European Union, and even the United Nations are occasionally made to feel that they are also playing hostess. But the P.A. has very little authority, and it seems sometimes to revel in its helplessness, likely as an explanation of why it can't enforce the few arrangements to which it has agreed. It's not surprising that, in such a circumstance, the peace-process interlopers are always looking for someone else to jump start the process. For years, the liberal professoriat in America had anointed Edward Said in the role. But he turned out to be a yarn spinner: His much retailed personal history of exile was intricately fabricated. Then there was Hanan Ashrawi who has plumb disappeared, more or less, with the death of Peter Jennings and the disappearance of Ted Koppel.

All through this period, there was also the truly upright personage of Sari Nusseibeh, made to compete with these two unguent-incendiaries. Nusseibeh is, after all, a serious intellectual (B.A. from Christ Church, Oxford; PhD from Harvard) and a genuinely moderate man. He shows up at whatever meeting is convened to advance the peace process with Israel. Alas, he carries little weight among his own. He knows this himself, the point having been amply made when he was beaten up at his own Bir Zeit University during the first intifada. So, in the year when the Palestinians were finally sorting out what happens after Yasir Arafat, Nusseibeh was my neighbor in Cambridge crafting a memoir with some trusted scribe at the Radcliffe Institute. His alleged sins are not all his own. His family was widely respected through the ages, which is why its members have been custodians of the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre since the twelfth century. They were especially trusted by the British and the Jordanians, in itself transgressions according to the other dominant locals, especially the Husseinis--from which tree both Arafat and Haj Amin, the notorious Hitler ally installed by the Crown's ever-accommodating Jewish High Commissioner as the first "Grand" Mufti of Jerusalem, hailed. The Husseinis still carry enormous weight among the clans and tribes of Palestine, sort of capo de capo.

You don't hear much about these bewildering social formations until a long-festering inter-family (or intra-family) feud suddenly erupts and blood is shed, as it has recently with special regularity in Gaza. Journalists and academics somehow think it patronizing to recognize these antiquarian kinship groups with their raw emotions as political actors when their rhetoric strains so pompously to modernity. It would be especially insulting since their Jewish antagonists are the quintessential carriers of progress in the Middle East, those damned Zionists with their advanced science-based economy, independent judiciary, free press, hi-tech military in which individual soldiers still take responsibility and command respect, and promotion in the ranks by competence and ingenuity in the defense activities of the state. But political allegiances among the Palestinians are cemented by just those more primitive--which is to say, primal--ties. God only knows why you can talk about these with regard to Sicily but not when it comes to Palestine. In any case, the truth is that Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al Aqsa, the Popular Resistance Committee, and other armed gangs and ganglets of the national movement, such as it is, are each defined partly by ideology, partly by bloodlines. A whole village may vote for the headman's pick, which until he tells you is anyone's guess.

The withdrawal from Gaza by Israel was supposed to be a test. OK, not of everything but of something. Take your pick. That the hudna (ceasefire) would hold. It didn't. Islamic Jihad hadn't even signed on to the contract. It carried out several successful terrorist attacks and day in, day out launched rockets from Gaza deeper and deeper into pre-1967 Israel. But, in a way, even more serious is the fact that the most protracted war by Qassam projectiles was waged by armed elements of Fatah, the P.A. president's own political party. What about security undertakings with regard to Gaza's border with Egypt? Again a failure. Weapons and terrorists have surged, not seeped, through the frontier that is also "guaranteed" by various European well-wishers. Is there elemental public order on the streets? Not at all. What about the assumption that there would be sufficient pressure from the Palestinian public for the P.A. to feel obliged to take control of the streets? Not enough pressure or not enough will to take control. The P.A. is still the most heavily armed force in Gaza. No matter: Militias battle police, police battle other police, gangs brawl with other gangs; there are revenge killings, aimless killings, kidnappings, bombings, clubbings, mutilations, some pointless, some unmistakably pointed. Chaos rules in Gaza, utter mayhem. "It appears as if Gaza has degenerated into anarchy," explains CNN. There has been a steady outflow of pro-Palestinian NGO personnel from the Strip, some out of panic, some from a realization that the Palestinian revolution, so called, is animated by bloodlust. According to The Times of London, one British aid worker who was recently held hostage by gunmen for three days told her kidnappers, "I came to work with these people and I feel like I've been stabbed in the back." Is this the future of Palestine?

The present P.A. seems desperately to want to find an excuse for postponing parliamentary elections in Gaza and the West Bank. It may have found a pretext in Israel's stated refusal to allow voting to take place in Jerusalem since Hamas, which fundamentally rejects the existence of Israel, would be on the ballot. But the real reason is that the Abbas crowd fears that it will be utterly upended by Hamas. Another reason is that, even if Fatah wins, the habitually corrupt present leadership will be demoted by the younger (not so young, actually) cadres who forced their way on to the party's slate by threatening to run their own if they were not given favored spots. At the head of their list is Marwan Barghouti, serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for as many acts of mass murder.

How has all this registered in Israel? The fact is that almost no one any longer believes in a negotiated peace with the Palestinians. Not because sensible and humane Israelis can't imagine a fair divide of the land between the river and the sea. But because Gaza has truly shown them that there are--let's be perfectly frank--no Palestinians with whom to treat. Oh, Israel will bargain on this point and that, so far as George Bush insists and pushes Jerusalem. So, even when Palestinian rockets slam into Israeli towns and villages and army bases, the Sharon government will agree to some formula for Palestinian travel between Gaza and the West Bank, as it is about to do. But the government knows that, whatever security assurances are given for this unprecedented passage, they will not hold--as not a single security assurance from the Palestinians has ever held. There is no dispute: This is the record.

The unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza was a wager on the sanity of the Palestinian polity. The betters lost. I still believe that it was a wise move, but for purely Israeli reasons. Still, Israel may find that its forces will have to re-enter Gaza to deliver punishing blows to the Palestinians who cannot win but hold their own population hostage to their bellicosity. It even may be that Israel will decide to pit the local inhabitants against their captors, which it could do by turning off--for an hour or many hours a day--the electricity it has continued to provide to Gaza despite unrelenting provocation. It is remarkable that Israel has resisted so long taking what must be a very tempting step.

All this has consequences for the West Bank. Sooner or later, and particularly if there is a withdrawal from the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, rockets and missiles will be as common there as they are in Gaza and Lebanon. Already, Al Qaeda has claimed (and Israeli intelligence has confirmed) that it was responsible for at least one rocket attack on Israel proper. The Hezbollah tie to Iran, with its imminent nuclear designs and delirious president, only exacerbates a very precarious situation. In any case, those who casually promote the notion that Israel should disengage from here, there, nearly everywhere close to the 1949 lines are proposing that the Jewish state commit suicide. Virtually the entire country, including Ben Gurion Airport, would be vulnerable to even simple weaponry. I'm afraid that sitting and talking until you're blue in the gills won't quite do. Fortunately, the Israeli population is as undeceived as its present government--and its future one, too.

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. Contact him by email at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il

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WHAT "JEWS' WAR?"; SHARON: WHY POPULAR; WHY HE SHOULDN'T BE; DE-CHRISTIANIZING THE HOLY LAND
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 4, 2006.

WHOLE MIDEAST HOSTILE TO WESTERNERS

The State Dept. has taken the unusual step of warning American travelers to avoid the entire Mideast. It suspects that terrorists and robbers are reconnoitering places owned or frequented by Westerners, including civilian places (Pipes Weblog #631).

This kind of war crime by jihadists is prejudicial, extra-judicial, even genocidal. It is getting difficult for the West to persist in appeasement, that does not protect them and to desist from fighting back against global jihad, as if a world war doesn't exist.

WHAT JEWS' WAR?

From the Right, Patrick Buchanan, and from the Left, the Nation, accuse the Jews of having prompted the US war in Iraq. It's the old, false story of claiming that that the Jews dominate the world and of blaming the Jews for its ills. Actually, Israel was not particularly interested in a war against Iraq. It considered Iran the far greater danger to it. The US did not move against Iran.

Most of American Jewry, being liberal, opposed the war against Iraq. So much for the reliability of the far Left and the far Right and for the notion that Jews pursue their own interests. The Reform Movement instead pursues liberal ideology. The antisemites pursue fantasy (Prof. Steven Plaut, 12/23).

In many Western countries, Jews fear standing out and being accused of dual loyalty. That motivated the head of the NY Times to found an anti-Zionist organization and got half the Jewish leadership in the US and Britain to be anti-Zionist.

GRATUITOUS POLICE VIOLENCE, BUT YOUTHS BLAMED

Hundreds of idealistic Jewish youth attempted to build four new neighborhoods in existing communities in Judea-Samaria. Police stopped them. Near Kedumim, the police were particularly brutal about it when not observed. They threw girls down and dragged them on rocky ground by the leg or hair, choked or punched people in the ribs and face, even ones who were leaving. The media published the reverse. Taking the media at face value, and failing to check the story, the youths' rabbis and MKs hastened to criticism their alleged violence. The youth have gathered films that prove their contention (Arutz-7, 12/23).

It works every time. Jews believe enemy slander and rush to apologize. This attitude helped defeat opposition to abandonment and sour the once admired settlers' reputation.

THE BASES FOR SHARON'S POPULARITY

Sharon has a party of unpopular fugitives from other parties. Since he engages in one-man rule, they don't count. Their corruption and his does not faze the public. He is too popular.

He is popular because: (1) He gets done what he sets out to do; and (2) He seems to enjoy good relations with the US government, a situation that Israel over-emphasizes. That popularity, however, rests on false premises.

"This week Ma'ariv reported that IDF commanders are becoming increasingly disturbed by the Bush administration's meddling in the minutiae of the operation of Israel's passages with Gaza. The State Department consistently brushes off Israel's growing security concerns and intervenes on the Palestinians' (P.A.) behalf. This American interference not only constitutes a political blow to Israel's sovereignty, it also manifests a military blow to Israel's national security."

"But there is nothing new here. Since taking office five years ago, Sharon has received Washington's support -- such as it is -- by abandoning Israel's national interests every time that they are challenged by the institutionally anti-Israel State Department. In every single dispute that has arisen over the past five years -- from the Mitchell Report in 2001 to the road map in 2003 to the passages agreement Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rammed down our throats last month -- Sharon has abandoned Israel's national security interests at every turn in exchange for public declarations of support for him personally by central Bush administration figures." It is the support of a master for a pliant slave. It signifies Israeli weakness, however strong Sharon is towards his hapless people.

"Sharon's success in basing his political fortunes on consolidating his image as a strongman has made it impossible for anyone to impugn his withdrawal from Gaza in spite of the fact that it has been a colossal disaster for Israel's national security. The Kassam missiles that now fall on Ashkelon meet with what can effectively be considered no Israeli response. The seeding of al-Qaida cells in Gaza has been strenuously ignored. And the Hamas takeover of key Palestinian institutions has been greeted by yawns all around." "Israel's international standing has sunk to previously unknown depths.

From a tactical threat at the beginning of Sharon's premiership, in the aftermath of the withdrawal from Gaza, Palestinian terror has morphed into an existential challenge for Israel. Sharon's strategy is defeatism, and he has spread a defeatist mood." The article goes on to advise Likud how to exploit this. (IMRA, 12/23).

Yes, Sharon gets done what he sets out to do. It isn't what he claimed to be doing and it isn't worth doing, but he gets it done. What a poor criterion that is for favoring him!

If Likud wins, its leader, Netanyahu would regain power. Last time he used it to weaken Israel's strategic position via appeasement. There is no indication he has learned and gained character.

HOW "DECISIVE SHARON" MAKES DECISIONS

[National Security Council (NSC) chairman Giora] Eiland has an interesting perspective on the Israeli leadership. "The decision-makers here prefer the bottom line to a proper process of preparation for negotiations -- including examining the basic assumptions, defining your interests and mapping out those of the rival parties, formulating minimal objectives and determining the negotiation tactics."

"Halevy (Eiland's predecessor) singles out two far-reaching decisions made during Sharon's term of office. One is an offhand change made in the historic position that Israel does not place its security in the hands of foreigners -- especially not in the hands of Europeans and, more particularly, in those of the Arabs (other than in the framework of peace arrangements and interim accords such as those concerning the multinational force in the Sinai and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon."

"And here, says Halevy, almost overnight, the prime minister has changed his policy of obstinately refusing to give Egypt any task relating to Israel's security. At Israel's request, the Egyptians are not just serving as a buffer force, but have the everyday job of assuring a certain layer of Israel's security, and European monitors have been given the authority to decide who enters Gaza." This was decided casually at the top level, without study and consultation. (IMRA, 12/24).

Study isn't needed when one is appeasement-minded and accepts US dictation. Nor is study needed when one is a bull-headed know-it-all.

WHITHER EGYPT

The US has spent $50 billion building up Egypt's military, in anticipation of it becoming a strategic ally of the US. Israel has re-invited Egyptian armor back into the Sinai and has relinquished a major security role over the P.A. to Egypt, which it sabotages.

Islamists have just won 20% of Egypt's parliamentary seats. They plan to take over in due course, for the Egyptian regime does not give the people the leadership they crave. The head of the Islamists is pleased with the positioning of Egyptian troops alongside Israel -- he predicts the end of Jewish statehood soon (IMRA, 12/24).

How foolish are our leaders! The premature attempt at democracy that the US touts is the ladder Islamists mount to absolute power.

THE DE-CHRISTIANIZATION OF THE HOLY LAND

Tens of thousands have fled Muslim persecution in the P.A.. The P.A. follows Islamic precepts, i.e., to persecute. Muslims have forced Christian women to follow the Islamic dress code. Muslim men attempt to rape Christian women [and unescorted Muslim women]. If Christian men attempt to intercede, they may be arrested, but rapists rarely get arrested, for they have connections with terrorist organizations. They even may marry their victims, whom society shuns as if fallen women. "... the Qur'an (Islam's holy book) is rife with gender and religious discrimination. Thus, for example, Muhammad taught that women are inferior to men, their testimony in court carries less weight, and their inheritance rights are halved. Marriage (or sexual relations) between Christian men and Muslim women is prohibited, and punishable by death. But a Muslim man is allowed to marry a Christian woman, even if he has abducted and raped her. Moreover, their offspring would be forced to accept Islam, and the woman would have no say if her husband engaged in polygamy by marring up to three additional wives. Historically Christian women taken captive by Muslims in warfare have been enslaved or worse. And even when there is no conflict, legally speaking it is virtually impossible to convict a Muslim man of raping a Christian woman. This follows from the fact that testimony of non-Muslim witnesses inadmissible in Muslim courts."

The church organizations have abandoned the faithful in favor to curry favor with the Muslims. The media, foreign governments, and humanitarian organizations ignore the native Christians, too. Where is Pres. Bush's democracy movement? Bush doesn't want to upset Muslim persecutors, regardless of his frequently professed Christianity. Why doesn't the UNO help? It doesn't want to jeopardize its attempt to be a factor in the "peace process.: Justus Reid Weiner, who made those points, says that his new book explains why the Christian world had abandoned its people behind the Muslim curtain.

Let it at least instruct that raped women are not "fallen," the rapists are! It must not forfeit this opportunity to teach the faithful right from wrong and succor the wronged.

One can foresee a Christian-less Holy Land (IMRA, 12/25 from Frontpage Magazine).

Obviously the Muslims are committing jihad, or war. They are not in a peace process.

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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TEFLON TEST
Posted by Batya Medad, January 4 2006.

Teflon's not just for cooking fat free. Ever since left-wing America, clueless to Ronnie Reagan's scratch-proof popularity, dubbed him "the Teflon President," the term has been used by many to describe people who manage to emerge unscathed from suspicion and scandals. Even I used it to describe the Teflon Terrorism, whom otherwise "peace-loving" people adore.

Israeli politicians, especially those who have fled veteran parties and joined Kadima are in special need for strong Teflon coats. It seems that considering their varied political backgrounds, the one thing they have in common is corruption charges, not very attractive to some Israelis, but according to the polls, they're doing very well.

There are daily revelations of Prime Minister Sharon's dirty dealings. The latest is a three million dollar bribe.

A year and a half ago, I accompanied my parents to the Israeli Supreme Court to watch my daughter in action as a lawyer with the Israel Movement for Quality in Government. They were petitioning against the court's ignoring bribery charges against Sharon and son, Gilad.

I had the challenging task of translating hours of Hebrew legalese and double-talk into basic English. Simply, the court decided that Mazuz's excuse that he had "secret reasons" was sufficient. That's Israeli justice. They definitely use special tools to keep the Teflon scratch free. The Supreme Court President Justice Aharon Barak has an agenda, as he calls it. It's promoting his vision of what Israel should be, and he unabashadly makes his court decisions to suit. No, this isn't "government" as I learned it in America.

The big question is: Does the Israeli public fry its eggs on Teflon? I don't. I don't trust that it's healthy. We're going to have to clean out all of the corruption. Let's get out the steel wool and start scrubbing.

Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il This is archived at http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2006/01/teflon-test.html The original has live links to additional material.

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IMPORTANT BOOKS ABOUT ISLAM, ISLAM AND USA, ISRAEL AND ITS CONFLICTS
Posted by Ray Marshall, January 3, 2006.

Please pass on and share titles of books that will expedite learning about Islam and its agenda in the USA, Israel and elsewhere in the world.

1. Why I Am Not A Muslim by Ibn Warraq

2. The Unfinished Battle, Islam and the Jews by Mark A. Gabriel

3. Why I Left Jihad by Walid Shoebat

4. Onward Muslim Soldiers by Robert Spencer

5. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam by Robert Spencer

6. The Myth of Islamic Tolerance by Robert Spencer

7. EURABIA, The Euro-Arab Axis by Bat Ye'or

8. Islam and Dhimmitudde by Bat Ye'or

9. The Sword of the Prophet by S & S Trifkovic

10. The Clash of Civilizations and the Great Caliphate by Larry Abraham

11 Militant Islam Reaches America by Daniel Pipes

12. The New Jackals by Simon Reeve

13. Dying to Win by Robert Pape

14. Islam and the West by Bernard Lewis

15. What the Quran Really Says by Ibn Warraq

16. Jihad: the origins of holy war in Islam by Reuven Firestone

17. Hatreds Kingdom by Dore Gold

About Islam and the USA

1. Infiltration by Paul Sperry

2. Target America by Yossef Bodansky & Bill McCollum

3. Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left by David Horowitz

About Israel and its conflicts: (from slightly different view points)

1. From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters

2. The Revolt by Menachem Begin

3. The Arab Israel Wars by Chaim Herzog

4. The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz

5. The Oslo Syndrome: delusions of a people under siege by Kenneth Levine

Those armed with knowledge shall have a chance to overcome the onslaught of political, economic and religious loathing of Israel. Media and educational distortions against Israel, that are planned or paid for and which are growing and virtually ubiquitous, must be challenged and remedied. It is ironic that, in the face of increasing European Union, United Nations and Islamic hatred directed against Israel, in a myriad of forms which include their accepting of blowing up Israeli citizens as a proper form of political resistance while rewarding the perpetrators, it is various Jews, in Israel and in the diaspora, who most conspicuously embrace the calumnies of the haters and join the ranks of their supporters and fellow Israel condemners.

There is an imperative destiny for those who are not broken by the relentless siege and who are willing to be armed against revisionist history designed to denigrate Israel with its dominant religion and its democratic expressions.

By nurturing education and upbringing against breaking or surrender, their task is to not only become resistors of the onslaught but to become educators and coaches. Alternatives, however disguised in claims of morality or higher principle, is an ignoble capitulation to murderous bigotry which serves only to advance the world-diminishing campaign for hatred's victory and of Israel's annihilation.

Learn, teach, lead.
Yours,
Ray Marshall

Contact Ray Marshall at readmad@yahoo.com

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ISRAEL MUST VERBALLY SKEWER ITS ENEMIES
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 3, 2006.

The heretofore despicably disrespected State of Israel must forthwith declare that it does not recognize the right of Hamas to exist. Furthermore, the Jewish democracy must flex sinew declaring that it intends to wipe the Jew/Israel bashing government of Iran's cerebrally impoverished President Ahmadinejad off the map. No doubt, Israel's technologically advanced military might could hammer Hamas into the scorpion-infested desert it so infects and reduce the ranting Persian psychopathetic potentate's Revolutionary Guard to rubble. The aforementioned reciprocal rejoinders would dispel any unwarranted notions such Islamic fulminating fanatics might possess that their sworn enemy will continue to tolerate the intolerable.

Fundamentalist belligerent Cro-Magnon mindsets only heel to aggressive responses by those targeted to endure their venom. Israel has signed no Faustian economic covenants with Muslim regimes worldwide nor is its ingenuity dependent on the Islamic fossil fuel fixes sycophantic industrial nations must ingest on a daily basis, thus it can exercise its right to verbally retaliate against sworn enemies having nothing at all to lose and everything to gain. Indeed, many of these rabid so-called revolutionaries rationalize their barbarism with a sadistically skewed interpretation of the Koran, hence believe it is justified to not only dominate but murder their women with impunity if perceived to be soiled by voluntary or involuntary extra-marital sexual encounters, wrap their own children in explosives so they might martyr themselves while murdering the perceived infidel, and in fact denigrate the very soul of mankind by their subhuman behavior. The time has come for Israel to stand up to these terrorists. No lesser response will do!

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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BUILD A MORAL UNITED NATIONS IN JERUSALEM
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 3, 2006.

Products, services, and the monetary lubricant of exchange ever-flow along the multi-national tributaries of this third stone from its sun nimbly nourishing human consumers and producers. Such synergistic symbiosis cannot for long be thwarted by those attempting to erect artificial barriers to this motion. Economic isolationism indeed is unsustainable as our species evolves technologically on its precarious perhaps perilous journey through space/time. Militarily, there are those commanders of that planet's one super-power who insist that their aggressive policies need no endorsement from other geographic regions. However, an economic admixture ergo dependency between all nations necessitates a reevaluation of such thought if long-term stability thus tranquility is to be established. Surely, in due course, slighted sovereign entities will retaliate by withholding trade and investment hence attacking the liquidity dependent deficit driven domestic anatomy of the ego inflated giant.

There is one inescapable solution to the current economic/military conundrum afflicting global governments. There must be a single mediator and protector with authority, an honorable institution above reproach that will monitor world events and always attempt to do the right thing. Alas, no such bastion of integrity exists today. The present so-called United Nations and its spiritually annexed agent that International Court of Justice at The Hague are stewarded by piously prejudiced pusillanimous patrons of pro Palestinian policies even unwillingly to militarily react against a bloodthirsty genocidal amalgam of militant Jangaweed Arab maniacs murdering, torturing, and raping hapless Black Africans of Dafur, lest Earth's aforementioned paragon of jurisimprudence antagonize Sudan's sadistic Islamic regime coincidently awash in fossil fuel.

Do not condemn the concept of an economically militarily unified planet morally governed by an ethical equitable body merely based on that counterfeit cadre of corrupt awful officials now besmirching the very essence of dignified unity. Let the beleaguered democracy of Israel, that chronic victim of virulently unjust rulings, construct an edifice in Israel's capital Jerusalem to replace the putrid impostor. Civilized citizens of this planet can elect moral ambassadors to honorably craft and steer an institution truly dedicated to planetary peace and fairness. In time, we can but hope that its capabilities will be strengthened and authority recognized and obeyed. Our orbiting abode wobbles perilously with no center.That condition must be remedied forthwith for the sake of its intelligent life forms.

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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HEVRON JEWS REFUSE EXPULSION ORDERS
Posted by Lee Caplan, January 3, 2006.
This appeared today in Arutz-Sheva. It was written by Hillel Fendel.

Dozens of Yassam policemen and soldiers arrived in the Jewish Quarter in Hevron, but failed in their mission of distributing expulsion orders to 11 Jewish families.

Kol Rina News Agency reports that the police employed strong violence against civilians, including women and children, who came to protest the expulsion of the Jews from the Jewish-owned land. The police say they were pelted with eggs and paint.

The area in question was emptied of its Jews during the Hevron massacre of 1929, when Arab mobs slaughtered 67 Jews in their homes and synagogues.

Hevron Jewish Community Spokesman David Wilder said, "They sent in the storm-troopers today. Dozens of police and soldiers came, and their goal was to hand out expulsion orders -- and they failed. People refused to open the doors, and the forces were not even able to tape them to the doors. They got close to the doors, but they were pushed back, and they did not succeed in giving official notice of an impending evacuation. I heard that 6-7 people were arrested. People are very upset at the government's intention, and it appears that this was just a little taste of what the reaction will be if the government continues to try to throw them out. They showed that Hevron is not Gush Katif, and we have no intention of hugging and kissing the forces who come to throw us out of our homes."

One policeman was injured in the fracas, as was resident Baruch Marzel.

Spokesman Noam Arnon said, "This government, unsurprisingly, is clearly capable of carrying out the desires of those who murdered the dozens of Jews in Hevron in 1929, and throwing out Jews from Jewish land. It was exactly in this area, among others, that the Jews were killed... We merited to see Jews return to their land, but now the government wants to throw them out once again."

Hevron is considered Judaism's second-holiest city. It is home to the Machpelah Cave, in which are buried the Patriarchs and Matriarchs Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah.

For almost 400 years, until 1929, Jews lived on a large plot of land in Hevron, commonly known as the Jewish Quarter. In August of that year, however, Arab residents massacred their Jewish neighbors, cruelly murdering 67 Jews in their homes. The survivors were hurriedly evacuated from the area, thus putting an end to the Jewish presence in the holy city for nearly four decades. The Jewish property, including houses and synagogues, was abandoned and left uninhabited.

In 1953, Jordanian troops assisted Hevron's Arab population in devastating the remains of the Jewish Quarter. The beautiful Avraham Avinu Synagogue was razed and turned into a goat sty, and apartment buildings were destroyed. Virtually nothing remained of the Quarter's earlier splendor, and the Jordanians built an outdoor food market on part of the land. The market continued to operate even after the Jews returned with the IDF's liberation of the city during the Six Day War in 1967.

Just over a decade ago, when Arab-initiated violence in Hevron was at one of its highs, the army decided to clear out the Arab store-owners in the marketplace. "The sole purpose for the closing," Wilder wrote at the time, "was to provide security for the Jews in Hevron, [which had been] jeopardized by the hundreds of Arabs who frequented the market every day." Then-IDF Chief of Staff Maj-Gen. Ehud Barak supported the decision.

Several years later, after 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass was shot to death by terrorists with a bullet to her head, Jews decided to renew their title to the land. They began renovating the stores, turning them into inhabitable apartments, and moving families in. Eleven families currently live there.

However, Arabs sued in Israel's Supreme Court against what they called the "infiltration" of the Jews to the stores in the Hevron market, and in fact, in 2003, the State committed itself to evict the Jews.

Hevron spokesman Noam Arnon said at the time, "The Supreme Court recently decided that the land should be given to the Arabs, even though it is clearly Jewish land that was robbed from us... The Court simply ignored the fact that this is Jewish land."

Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com

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ISRAELI WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE RESUMES
Posted by Richard H. Shulman, January 3, 2006.

What for Israelis is a matter of life or death -- terminology -- they think is minor. They envision an innocent one-way flow, from thoughts to words. But words help shape thoughts. Westerners are careless about the terminology of their conflicts. The consequence is worse than poor public relations. It makes policy failure. It is one way by which Israeli victories turn into defeats.

Foreign languages get translated into synonyms and idioms. Inevitably, concepts are distorted. Nor do Western concepts apply well to the way Arabs think and operate. They have their own ways, but describe them by wording that misleadingly reassures Westerners. Since most Westerners do not study Arab culture, they readily are deceived. Self-deception leads to failure.

"DEMOCRACY" MISCONCEIVED, SUCCESS MISPERCEIVED

The main concept that now occasions confusion is "democracy." In discussing its application to the Mideast, Westerners tend to compress into a single term, "free elections," what should take paragraphs to define. Non-free societies conduct elections, many that are not free, but Western optimists certify that they are democratic and even free. Diplomats laud Western success in engendering the supposed democracy.

The Saudi ruse is to set up of non-elected or powerless consultative assemblies, so Western optimists and the Arab-sympathizing NY Times applaud the "step towards democracy." Lots of "steps," little progress!

MISLABELED WAR MAKES DELUSION OF PEACE

Another Western concept, "war," also is misapplied to the Muslims. The inaccurate label, "Arab-Israel Conflict," implies to Westerners the wrong cause for the war. Not recognizing what causes it, the West assumes wrongly what would resolve it. The consequences are deadly.

"Arab-Israel conflict" is not as erroneous as the new term, "Israel-Palestinian Conflict." The new one truncates its scope, as if Israel weren't invaded and isn't threatened by foreign Arabs. Seeing it with blinders on, Westerners tend to diagnose it mistakenly as: (1) A dispute over national territory; and (2) By a sub-set of the Arab nation pretending it is a separate nation in order to claim national territory. The new term, like NY Times practice, mentions Israel before the Arab aggressors, giving Israel a negative connotation.

Indeed, the notion of aggressors and victims is receding from the media, as the media takes on an odd combination, sometimes following moral equivalency and sometimes wrongly blaming Israel. That is, when the Arabs are at fault, the media doesn't find fault; it treats both sides as equivalent. When it engages in certain one-sided reporting, however, it does find fault; then it wrongly blames Israel. The Times does so cleverly, by quoting Arab complainants. It almost never finds an articulate and patriotic Israeli to answer the complaint. One can't accuse the journal itself of lodging the false complaint, but isn't the constant quoting of emotional Arab lies at length, opposed only occasionally and by terse, dry, and often tepid Israeli responses, a form of editorializing?

What would be a more definitive term? Such a term would be identify conflict as: "Jihad against Jewish homeland sovereignty." Made shorter, "Jihad against Israel" would do. These accurate labels have consequences, too.

The concept of jihad is different from the Western concept of war. Jihad has a primarily religious, not national and territorial cause. Among the Arabs, there are additional, lesser causes for this war. The Arabs presume self-superiority. Hence they seek to dominate other nationalities, including other Muslim nationalities in their midst, such as Kurds and Berbers. The Arabs, and especially the Bedouin, have a tradition of war for loot.

The other difference implied by the accurate label, jihad, is that the war is interminable. Jihad does not end until one side conquers. Otherwise, the Muslims keep at the war, though when their enemy waxes, the Arabs suspend military operations. Muslim strategy for difficult times is to stave off defeat by calling a truce. When making a truce, which they tell their enemies is peace, they use the time to build up their military strength. When ready, they renew the armed struggle. Arafat explained that to his people in typical coded and flowery language that the newspapers sometimes quoted without audience comprehension other than by scholars and right-wingers denied access to write back. Readers don't recognize the declaration of eventual renewal of war.

Starting from its incorrect label and basing its logic upon that false basis, the West divides what really is a jihad of major and minor campaigns into distinct wars. Against the Jewish state's reconstitution, there was: (1) The Arab terrorism of the 1920s and beyond; (2) The War for Independence, started by the local or Palestinian Arabs in 1947, with some Syrian help, but commonly and mistakenly thought to have started only by Arab invasion in 1948; (3) The Sinai Campaign; (4) Six Day War; (5) Yom Kippur War; (6) the War in Lebanon; and (7) the Oslo Wars, a.k.a. Intifada. In between some of these campaigns, Arab states fought Israel by means of proxies or with their own forces. Raids from Gaza by Egyptian sponsored terrorists prompted the Sinai Campaign. Syrian bombardment of an Israeli valley -- an example of the state-sponsored terrorism that the Arabs slanderously accuse Israeli counter-terrorism of being -- preceded the Six Day War.

In short, the war goes on. Truces with Syria didn't hold. The treaty with Egypt didn't stop Egypt from leading the diplomatic effort to delegitimize Israel and letting arms pass into Gaza. The treaty with Jordan did not normalize relations with Israel nor stop Islamist ideology from spreading. Recognition of Israel has not gotten the State Dept., Vatican, EU, and UNO to cease their machinations at whittling Israel down into an easily conquered rump, as if synchronized with Arafat's plan for the conquest of Israel in phases. Neither have the conquered Arabs within Israel given up. They are renewing the War For Independence that they started almost 60 years ago. Arabs think long-range.

Not realizing that the jihad persists through the series of campaigns, people assume that the Arab danger is over or would be over if Israel makes concessions that are their immediate demands of the Arabs

ISRAELI CIVIL WAR RESUMES

For decades preceding independence, the Zionist pioneers tried to work out a modus viviendi with the Arabs in the Mandate. Couldn't do it. The Arabs are intolerant and exclusivist. Predominantly Muslim, they expect other groups to submit to them, not they to a majority vote. According to Islamic ideology, once an area is taken over by Muslims, the ousted owners never legitimately may reclaim it. That is why Zionism, which the League of Nations ratified as simple justice -- the restoration of the Jewish people to their homeland -- is seen by Islam as an affront.

When the UNO proposed Jewish statehood, the Arabs inside and outside rose up against the Jews, even though only a small portion of the Jewish homeland in the original Mandate for a Jewish national home was proposed for the Jewish state. Israel defeated the local Arabs, most of whom fled. That flight started before the war, both in fear of the coming war and of the Arab terrorists, who picked on them as well as on Jews. About 420,000 fled, and about 140,000 remained, according to Shmuel Katz' Battleground.

Afterwards, Arab propagandists found it advantageous to claim they were expelled by force, though only a few were, from border or other strategic places. Expelled? At the time, Zionist leaders had pled with the Arabs to remain. It was an example of the foolish idealism that fails to recognize the enemy as evil and irredeemable. The Arab enemy, after all, made clear that its objective was genocide.

Faced with extermination again, the Zionists should have learned from the Holocaust that genocidal enemies cannot be negotiated or compromised with. The answer is to be ruthless. Israel should have expelled the 140,000. (No room here to cite examples of life-saving population exchanges and legal expulsions, starting with the American Revolution, or to explain a fifth column's likelihood and potential.) It let them stay.

The Israeli leaders thought they could integrate those Arabs into Israeli society, but the Arabs lived apart. Relatives asked to come back in to be with their families. The humanitarian Israelis agreed, instead of letting family reunification take place outside of Israel. Other Arabs asked entre in order to marry Israeli Arabs. The tender-hearted Israelis agreed. Israel allowed the Bedouin to continue their polygamy, and even subsidized their progeny. Nor did Israel bar radical imams from preaching in Israeli mosques and stirring up the faithful against the State.

The result was that the small Arab remnant has multiplied into a million hostiles. Worse for preservation of the Jewish state, the Arabs bear a higher proportion of the country's children. In time, they will take over. This demographic problem is overlooked by those who would weaken Israeli borders by conceding the Territories, most of which has no Arabs, and who feel that that would prevent being overtaken demographically.

The right wing refuses to face the demographic problem within Israel, because the logical answer is to find ways to reduce and remove the Arab population. That logic is shunned, because it is subject to name-calling. With righteous indignation, people will call anyone who advocates a life-saving solution "racist." Israel has enacted laws against racism that are not enforced against the Arabs or left-wing Jewish professors who exhort to murder Jews. I think the law was introduced to protect the real racists and prevent democratic considerations of serious alternatives. That law in place, proponents of appeasement of the Arabs and foreign gentiles argue by challenging, "What's the alternative?" The question is illogical not only because it is artificially restricted, but also because non-appeasement of vengeful fanatics is a superior alternative to appeasement. Appeasement brings certain defeat. Non-appeasement may retain struggle, but does not guarantee defeat.

What have the Arabs done with their critical mass? They resumed the struggle. Not immediate armed conflict. Struggle. Surprised? That is what jihad is. Jihad employs different means under different circumstances, to advance the Muslims' standing. Gradually the Muslims gain domination.

At first, the Israeli Arabs were silent. Zionists presumed that they were content. Israeli leaders boasted that their Arabs were loyal. They weren't loyal, they were sullen. They exhibited the "quiet" that Israelis mistake for peace. (Israelis, too, use vague English that misleads Americans if not themselves.) Then they started to achieve critical mass in some areas. Assisted by secular and foreign "civil libertarians" unfriendly towards Jewish sovereignty, Israeli government is inhibited from pursuing the national interest.

Israeli Arabs evaded taxes, squatted on public land, and built without applying for permits and paying fees. The government did not enforce the law, because the Arabs threatened mass-riots. The government had no taste for putting down riots and no ability to explain to the hostile and ignorant outside world why it had to do so. The outside world, including many of my fellow American Jews, has little conception of the situation in Israel and the sort of people the Arabs are -- violent and not recognizing infidel authority as duly constituted. While Israelis called the Arabs mostly loyal citizens, those citizens held marches chanting "death to the Jews." Can't say the Arabs didn't unmask their intentions and give due warning.

The situation has deteriorated so much that Israel investigated police self-defense rather than Arab mobs threatening the officers' lives and also pulling Jewish motorists out of their cars and beating them up. The misplaced indignation indicates that this supposed democracy is ruled by political correctness. Political correctness has its head in the sand.

Gradually the Arabs have renewed the struggle to dominate the country from within. Finding themselves unhindered and even encouraged by foreign "humanitarian" criticism of any resistance to them, they have accelerated their illegal entry, illegal seizure of land, and illegal building. Foreign Arabs finance housing for them in Jerusalem. They demand the land used as training grounds by the IDF. They got the sympathetic Supreme Court to invalidate town ordinances barring Arabs from settling there, although when they do, they make life unpleasant for Jews and Jews wouldn't dare settle in Arab towns. They are getting the Jewish National Fund, charged with administering lands bought collectively by the Jewish people for the Jewish people, to start treating those lands same as lands in the towns, i.e., open to Arabs. The P.A. Arabs have announced that they now are going to come into Israel and settle on land in the Negev, Galilee, and elsewhere, until they are a majority and take over. Then, they say, there will be peace.

Peace? They intend to dispossess millions of Jews who have nowhere else to go. Their culture increasingly preaches mass-murder of Jews. It would be the peace of the grave, for the Jews. Is that humanitarian? Is political correctness worth that?

NO SOLUTION WITHOUT DISILLUSION

Arab jihadists are not entitled to anything, but if the Jews don't defend their society, the Arabs will seize it. What to do? Israelis need to become independent of the State Dept., before they can retain independence from the Arabs. They need to regain national pride.

How can they do that, when the Left holds all the levers of power?

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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TWO GERMANS VERSUS ISLAMISM
Posted by Daniel Pipes, January 3, 2006.

The interior ministers of two German states have recently advanced important measures for containing radical Islam. They bear close attention across the West.

In Baden-Wurtenberg, Heribert Rech of the ruling Christian Democratic Union party has overseen the administering of a 30-topic loyalty test for applicants to become naturalized citizens. Following an intensive and sophisticated study by the Baden-Wurtenberg government of Muslim life, it developed a manual for the naturalization authorities explaining that applicants for citizenship must concur with the "free, democratic, constitutional structure" of Germany.

Because survey research finds that 21% of Muslims living in Germany believe the German constitution irreconcilable with the Koran, the written yes-no questions of yesteryear are history for Muslim applicants for citizenship. As of January 1, 2006, immigration officers who suspect Islamist leanings are instructed to probe further. Personal interviews will now last an hour or two and will be given to an estimated half of naturalization applicants.

The questions amount to a summary of Western values. What do you think of democracy, political parties, and religious freedom? What would you do if you learned about a terrorist operation underway? Views of the attacks of September 11, 2001, are a "key issue," the director of the alien registration office in Stuttgart, Dieter Biller, said: Were Jews responsible for it? Were the 19 hijackers terrorists or freedom fighters? Finally, nearly two thirds of the questions concern gender issues, such as women's rights, husbands beating wives, "honor killings," female attire, arranged marriages, polygyny, and homosexuality.

Responding to critics, the Interior Ministry denies discrimination against Muslims, insisting on the need to find out whether the applicants' expressed views on the German constitution correspond to their real views. Applicants who pass the test and are granted citizenship could later lose that citizenship if they act inconsistently with their "correct" answers.

Adding extra requirements of Muslim applicants for citizenship is not unique to Germany; in Ireland, for example, male candidates are made to swear they will not marry more than one wife.

The second initiative originates in Lower Saxony, where the interior minister, Uwe Schünemann, also a CDU member, has stated he would consider making radical Islamists wear electronic foot tags. Doing so, he says, would allow the authorities "to monitor the approximately 3,000 violence-prone Islamists in Germany, the hate preachers [i.e., Islamist imams], and the fighters trained in foreign terrorist camps." Electronic tags, he suggested, are practical "for violence-prone Islamists who can't be expelled to their home countries because of the threat of torture" there.

The electronic tagging of terror suspects is also not unprecedented. In Britain, the method has been used since March 2005 and, other than a glitch-plagued start, it has been applied to ten suspects with reasonable success. In Australia, counterterrorism measures implemented last month permit tagging for up to a year.

But Mr. Schuuml;nemann's proposal goes well beyond these applications, tagging not just potential terrorists, but also "hate preachers" who break the law not by personally engaging in violence but by articulating beliefs that encourage others to terrorism. Tagging them breaks new conceptual ground by aggressively going to the ideological source of violence.

It has potentially large implications. If hate preachers are tagged, why not the many other non-violent Islamists who also help create an environment promoting terrorism? Their ranks would include activists, artists, computer gamers, couriers, funders, intellectuals, journalists, lawyers, lobbyists, organizers, researchers, shopkeepers, and teachers. In short, Mr. Schünemann's initiative could lead ultimately to the electronic tagging of all Islamists.

But electronic tags reveal only a person's geographic location, not his words or actions, which matter more when dealing with imams and other non-violent cadres. With due allowances for personal privacy, their speech could be recorded, their actions videoed, their mail and electronic communications monitored. Such controls could be done discreetly or overtly. If overt, the tagging would serve as a modern scarlet letter, shaming the wearer and alerting potential dupes.

The Schünemann proposal points to the urgent need to develop a working definition of Islamism and Islamists, plus the imperative for the authorities to explain how even non-violent Islamists are the enemy.

Messrs. Rech and Schünemann have presented two bold tactics for the defense of the West, premised in each case on an understanding that culture and ideas are the real battleground. I salute their creativity and courage. Who will next adapt and adopt these initiatives?

Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum (www.meforum.org), "a think tank that "works to define and promote American interests in the Middle East." He is author of "Miniatures" (Transaction Publishers). Contact him at his website: http://www.DanielPipes.org

This article appeared in the New York Sun today. It is archived at http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3242. The original has live links to additional material.

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WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH ALL OF YOU?
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 3, 2006.

I have two questions about this.

* Did they really expect anything else would happen?
* Where are their men?

Quite frankly I am sick of reading and hearing of teenage girls and young mothers being dragged off by psychopaths in the employment of the Junta. Where are their fathers and husbands hiding!!

Have you no shame? Have you no self respect? How do you allow your wives and daughters to go out and fight for you? Why do you not defend them? Why are you not the ones taking the brunt of these attack? After all that has happened did you seriously expect something else?

I have never seen a demonstration of Haredim that involved women. In any situation that confrontation was expected, it was ALWAYS men who confronted the police. Many times they were brutally beaten but they never endangered their women.

What is the matter with all of you! This is called "Heavy Police Violence Reported in Hevron Against Women and Children Protestors," and appeared in today's Arutz-Sheva, www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=95928

(IsraelNN.com) Dozens of Yassam riot police have arrived alongside IDF soldiers in Hevron in order to distribute expulsion orders to the Jews living in the Hevron marketplace, informing them that they have 18 days to leave their homes before being forcibly removed.

Confrontations have ensued, with Kol Rina news agency reporting that Yassam police have begun "ruthlessly beating women and children protesting the expulsion of Jews from their property and the handing of a prize to their murderers."

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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DEPAUL UNIVERSITY'S WAR AGAINST AMERIKA AND AGAINST ACADEMIC STANDARDS
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 3, 2006.

Q: How do you know when America has crossed the line into an oppressive, occupational empire?

A: When DePaul University begins studying it.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at DePaul and its Dean, one Chuck Suchar (a sociologist), have officially announced a "College Theme Series" entitled "Confronting Empire" for the 2005-6 academic year. This is a DePaul faculty initiative involving the participation of various departments and programs throughout the college. The organizers call themselves the "Empire Committee," sounding like something out of Star Wars. Naturally, the evil empire under examination is the United States.

The "Empire Committee" has invited a Who's Who of radical anti-Americanism to campus for the series. The roster includes pro-terror communist Tariq Ali, who thinks that 9/11 was caused by American fundamentalism; Bill Goodman from the so-called "Center for Constitutional Rights," which devotes most of its time to defending the terrorists in Gitmo; and Seungsook Moon from the Department of Sociology at Vassar, who will speak on "Politics of Gender and Sexuality in the Global U.S. Military Empire." The DePaul "Anti-Empirists" are also featuring an evening of "anti-nationalist" poetry and readings, and an evening of "theater" featuring the play "Guantanamo," based upon the writings of Gitmo terrorist detainees.

According to the Dean, DePaul hopes through the "Theme Series" to achieve the following objectives:

to engage in a College wide (and broader) conversation about the current state of and developing trends in the global order, not only for the purpose of advancing a theme of great interest to faculty and students but also to significantly enhance the community of intellect and engagement in the University;

to promote a wide range of views and participants in this conversation about empire and opposition in its contemporary and historical dimensions utilizing the increasingly global interests of our faculty and students;

to question the nature of the American role and the role of other nations and interests in the emerging order and consider the forms of appropriate action, engagement and scholarship in light of that assessment.

In other words, it is to be a one-sided campaign of on-campus brainwashing designed to turn DePaul students into Manchurian candidates of radical political correctness. According to one dissident DePaul professor with whom we spoke:

It still amazes me that someone can call a series "Confronting Empire" and believe that it has any pretense of objectivity. The special horror of DePaul is that it is so completely unashamed of its substitution of advocacy for education. I have spent a good deal of time in the last ten years trying to convince my colleagues that they needed to remember that we are a school and not a Marxist sect, a pacifist group, the latest identity fad or what have you. But this is what happens when you have people who are mediocre intellects who think their "correct" political views more than makes up for their intellectual deficiencies. It's very depressing.

DePaul's pseudo-academic loopiness is of course not restricted to its jihad against the Amerikkkan "Empire." DePaul has been at the forefront of the movement to ban military recruiters from campus. DePaul sponsors a group called Cuba Coalition/Junta de Accion Latina, a front for the Communist Party. On August 5, 2004, DePaul sponsored a "Conference on Globalization," organized by assorted extremist organizations. The "International Studies Program" at DePaul regularly sponsors conferences devoted to Marxism and America-bashing. You would have to look very hard through its departmental webpage to find any course not filled with political indoctrination.

Among those at DePaul building a career on rants against the American "empire" is one Deena Weinstein, Professor of Sociology at DePaul University. Her "specialization" is the sociology of heavy metal rock music. She also is a promoter of Pulp Marxism. She ranted:

The call to empire has come up only because world capitalism has met with opposition from Islamic revolution on the right and the counter-globalization movement on the left. America is at best a would-be empire that is being contested on all sides and could have its pretensions rudely dashed by a deep recession, failures in post-war "nation building," a pandemic and/or new coalitions of rising military powers. American empire is a very problematic work in progress.

Her course in the sociology department is "SOC 282- ROCK JOURNALISM." According to the DePaul website, "This course explores the wide variety of rock writings, from album and concert reviews to interviews with musicians. The functions served by the rock press will also be considered as part of the hype machine of the rock industry, as critical information for an audience whose knowledge of rock does not come from formal education."

Aminah Beverly McCloud, the Director of the Islamic World Studies Program (IWSP) at DePaul, is an apologist for and follower of Louis Farrakhan. Her courses feature anti-American propaganda texts. She was a signatory to a document denouncing the Patriot Act and imploring U.S. authorities to grant Tariq Ramadan permission to enter the country.

Another professor who teaches in the Islamic World Studies Program is Khaled Keshk, who resorts to using biased texts that blithely portray Palestinian terrorism as a justified reaction to Israeli atrocities. Readings in his course on Israel are taken from the late notorious anti-Semite Israel Shahak (who claimed "The Jews worship Satan").

In the DePaul course Political Science 242, Patrick Callahan tells his students that the entire course is devoted to one single question: "Should the United States adopt the world role of imperial power?" We suspect we can guess Callahan's answer to that. The course claims to analyze whether the United States is |constitutionally well fitted for acting as an empire." Another course "Revolution and Terrorism," taught by Richard P. Farkas at DePaul, features such objective lectures as "Revolution in the 21st Century." The DePaul Religious Studies department is full of PC indoctrination courses in "liberation theology," feminism, and "post-modernism." Political Science offers "Contemporary Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Politics."

The extremism permeates the entire campus. The DePaul campus library features a large special collection, purchased with campus funds, called the "Venceremos Brigade Research Collection." It is a mass of pro-Castro propaganda, including many of Fidel Castro's mind-numbing speeches. The list of materials in this collection alone stretches more than 29 pages.

Another large collection at the library consists of masses of political propaganda produced by Daniel Berrigan, who was once (with his brother) on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. (Berrigan was a close comrade of Howard Zinn. J. Edgar Hoover went so far as to publicly call Berrigan a "traitor.") DePaul was one of the campuses mentioned by name at a conference sponsored by the American Congress for Truth as guilty of classroom indoctrination in hate.

A few months ago, a speaker of honor hosted at DePaul was none other than Ward Churchill, speaking with open endorsement and support from the DePaul administration. In fact, the administration prohibited the holding of a protest against the Churchill visit by DePaul students. Jonathan Cohen, a math professor at DePaul, described the event in an article for "American Thinker." Among other notable moments at that event:

The talk turned to his (Churchill's) favorite bottom line for evil, Adolph Eichmann. He pointed out that even in Israel they were never able to convict him of personally killing anyone...He was a desk murderer. For Churchill the people who were bond traders in the Twin Towers were not innocent because they participated in the corporate system that is responsible for the vast majority of slaughter in the world. Presumably they were desk killers too....

Then the Vice President for Student Affairs, Jim Doyle, got up and made a few comments...Looking over the audience he recounted observing the body language of the audience and noted that it was obvious that some people approved of what Churchill was saying while others did not. Turning his attention to those of us who had not stood or applauded the talk, he admonished us in a scolding manner that we needed to consider seriously the things that Churchill was saying, especially about human rights. Somehow, equating anything Churchill said as advancing the cause of human rights seemed ridiculous, since Churchill had effectively justified the killings at the World Trade Center.

While such wackiness has come to symbolize DePaul's politicized campus and low academic standards, nothing attests so clearly to the fact that DePaul should not be regarded as a bona fide academic institution than the employment of Norman Finkelstein as an assistant professor of political science. Finkelstein is a pseudo-scholar with an empty academic publication record. His entire career has been devoted to turning out propaganda screeds in the form of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel books and web rants. His books have been dismissed as collections of fraudulent pseudo-research and thinly-disguised Jew-baiting propaganda by nearly every serious historian who has reviewed them. In addition, Alan Dershowitz from Harvard has devoted considerable energies in exposing Finkelstein as a fraud.

DePaul likes to justify Finkelstein's presence on its faculty as proof of its devotion to academic freedom, protected even for extremist crackpots just as long as they are doing serious academic work. (Never mind that the firing of Thomas Klocek makes a mockery out of such a claim.) But the truth of the matter is that Finkelstein was NOT hired and retained by DePaul because of any "academic research" that he does. Finkelstein does not do any academic research at all. There can be no doubt that Finkelstein was hired precisely because he is an extremist and anti-Semite with no serious academic credentials, one tied to neo-Nazi and far-leftist anti-American hate groups. In short, Finkelstein's retention at DePaul shows that DePaul has junked all attempts at pretending to maintain academic standards, in its quest to battle the American "empire" and its Israeli ally.

DePaul University hired Finkelstein a few years back to teach courses on the Middle East. A course he teaches in Political Science consists almost entirely of anti-Israel political propaganda written by Bash-Israel radicals and Marxists. (In another course, writings by Noam Chomsky form much of the required readings.) Finkelstein was recruited by DePaul after he had been fired from several colleges in New York, following controversy over his support of holocaust denier David Irving and his abusive attacks against individual Holocaust survivors. While it is possible to find a few other people as openly anti-Semitic as Finkelstein in North American academia, in most cases they have bona fide academic records or were hired before the campus chiefs became aware of their extremist hate activities. Neither was the case with DePaul and Finkelstein.

By the way, when Finkelstein was fired from those New York colleges, it was not because of his political views. He was fired because he has an empty academic publications record. Although a graduate of Princeton (much to the embarrassment of all other graduates of Princeton), Finkelstein has never published any academic research and never engaged in any scholarly inquiry. Not a single paper of Finkelstein's has been published in a refereed academic journal. Instead, he devotes himself full time to his anti-Semitic propaganda. His curriculum vitae may be viewed here.

The closest Finkelstein ever got to a journal publication was with a couple of propaganda pieces in New Politics, a "socialist" non-academic magazine of far-leftist agitprop, sponsored by -- among others -- Noam Chomsky. This "journal" states that it "stands in opposition to all forms of imperialism, and is uncompromising in its defense of feminism and affirmative action." Neutral, scholarly, and objective?

Finkelstein also turns out articles for Palestinian propaganda "journals," which are less objective yet.

Alan Dershowitz has issued a series of devastating denunciations of Finkelstein, the most recent in response to Finkelstein's newest anti-Jewish book, Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History. The title is a backhanded slap at Alan Dershowitz's Chutzpah. Finkelstein's basic theme there and in his other writings is that just because someone hates Jews and wants to see Jews killed by terrorists and other murderers is no reason to accuse that person of being an anti-Semite. Finkelstein's screeds appear on every Holocaust Denial and neo-Nazi web site on earth. Neo-Nazis adore him, proclaiming him the heroic Jew who proves that there was never a Holocaust. He also appears regularly on anti-Israel and anti-Jewish websites from the Left, like Counterpunch.

Dershowitz wrote the following about Finkelstein:

Finkelstein has said that he "can't imagine why Israel's apologists would be offended by a comparison with the Gestapo"[1] and asserted that Israel's human rights record is "interchangeable with Iraq's" when it was ruled by Saddam Hussein. He has said that most alleged Holocaust survivors -- including Elie Wiesel -- have fabricated their past, are "bogus," and that those seeking reparations (from Germany) are "cheats" and "greedy." Because of my support of Israel, he has compared me to "Adolf Eichman [sic]," and accused me of expressing "Nazi moral judgments." When challenged to defend his frequent comparison between Jews and Nazis, he has responded, "Nazis never like to hear they're being Nazis." He is a popular speaker among German neo-Nazis; one, Ingrid Rimland, whose husband, the notorious Ernst Zundel, wrote The Hitler We Loved And Why, even referred to him admiringly as the "Jewish David Irving" ("Jüdischer David Irving") -- a reference to the British Holocaust denier an Hitler admirer. The comparison is apt because Finkelstein has reportedly praised the Holocaust-denying Irving as "a good historian!" and as having "made an indispensable" contribution to our knowledge of World War II.

Commentary Magazine's editor Gabriel Schoenfeld has labeled Finkelstein's views as "crackpot ideas, some of them mirrored almost verbatim in the propaganda put out by neo-Nazis around the world." Finkelstein has been endorsed by anti-Semites of all stripes.

The Anti-Defamation League considers Finkelstein to be a Holocaust Denier and a neo-Nazi. The Washington Post described him as "a writer celebrated by neo-Nazi groups for his Holocaust revisionism and comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany." Leon Wieseltier from the New Republic wrote, "He's poison, a disgusting self-hating Jew, something you find under a rock." Omer Bartov, a noted historian at Brown University, compared Finkelstein's book to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The eminent historian Daniel Jonah Goldhagen has dismissed Finkelstein as an anti-Semitic crackpot, as a pseudo-scholar, and as an apologist for the Hamas terrorists. While Finkelstein likes to defend his own anti-Semitic ravings by claiming his parents are themselves Holocaust survivors, Dershowitz recently revealed that Finkelstein's mother was in fact a collaborator with German Nazis during the war.

Finkelstein has been dismissed as a fraud and an anti-Semite by nearly every serious historian on the planet, even by some far-leftists inside Israel like Professor Benny Morris. Finkelstein's sources, according to Morris, are "dubious," and Finkelstein "fails to marshal sources or materials from elsewhere." The NY Times'  reviewer described Finkelstein as "juvenile," "arrogant," and "stupid" (Aug. 6, 2000).

While born to Jewish parents, Finkelstein routinely compares Israelis with Nazis. He is an open cheerleader for the Hezbollah and Hamas terrorists. He appeared on the official Hezbollah television station al-Manar, because, he said, "If I'm willing to appear on CNN -- the main propaganda organ for America's terrorist wars -- why shouldn't I appear on al-Manar?" Earlier this year DePaul students heard a speech by Finkelstein, in which he stated unequivocally that the 1948 Arab/Israeli war was an "ethnic cleansing" of the "Palestinians" by the newly created Jewish state. The fact that the destruction of Israel and the eviction of the Jews was the publicly proclaimed goal of the surrounding Arab armies and states that attacked Israel was never mentioned. Jewish community leaders have been increasingly forthright in speaking out against the situation in DePaul, especially regarding Finkelstein.

Finkelstein is coming up for tenure at DePaul within the next few months. The fact that DePaul would even dream of considering him for a permanent academic position there raises serious questions concerning academic standards at DePaul.

DePaul has some bizarre notions about free speech. Its President, Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, publicly defends the employment of Finkelstein as a professor, and defends the operation on campus of a Bash-Israel propaganda show dressed up as an art exhibit. Holtschneider has also publicly celebrated the performance on this Catholic university campus of the "Vagina Monologues." While pretending that it hired Finkelstein because of his "academic credentials," which turn out to be non-existent, DePaul administrators revealed their real agenda of on-campus political indoctrination and extremism in the now-famous Thomas Klocek Affair.

Thomas Klocek was an instructor at DePaul who was fired when he was found guilty of expressing support for Israel in a chat outside the classroom. (The proliferation of in-classroom indoctrination by the Left at DePaul has already been noted.) Klocek's courses have ranged from Critical Thinking, to College Writing, to Languages and Cultures of the World. By all accounts, he was a popular teacher and his classes were always full. After 14 years of continuous employment at the Chicago-based college, Klocek was suspended without due process last September, and then stayed suspended -- without pay -- after that. Klocek was guilty of nothing more than expressing pro-Israel views in the face of extremist Palestinian propagandists on DePaul's campus, including students and non-students proliferating the usual lies and canards about Israel and Rachel Corrie.

Despite having an unblemished record during that span, DePaul summarily dismissed Klocek from his duties after the school claimed that he had "insulted" and "demeaned" several Muslim students at a campus fair for extracurricular groups. Klocek had publicly expressed his belief that "strictly speaking, right now there is no such place as Palestine on the map. The Palestinian people were simply Arabs who lived in the West Bank and Gaza." For our part, we seem to recall that Galileo was also persecuted by Church institutions for daring to tell the truth. (Klocek, by the way, is Roman Catholic).

The university contends that Klocek's case "is not a case of academic freedom, but a situation of inappropriate behavior outside the classroom by a university employee," according to Denise Mattson, the university spokesperson. Sure, while another DePaul professor has made a career out of insulting Holocaust survivors, promoting and cheering Holocaust deniers, and serving as the darling of neo-Nazi web sites. The "behavior" of Norman Finkelstein, the most openly anti-Semitic Jew on the planet, does not disturb these same DePaul Inquisitors.

DePaul has a large Muslim student population, as noted by the American Thinker. Klocek's crime was to answer back to outrageous statements being made on campus by a radical Moslem. Klocek responded that there was a "qualitative difference between the Israel Army targeting known terrorists who have killed their own people...and suicide bombers targeting beaches, cafes, and even Seder dinners, killing indiscriminately Israelis, both Jew and Arab alike." The suspended professor himself gives an excellent summary of the "Klocek Incident" here.

Since that time, Klocek's firing has become the foremost symbol of the attempt by DePaul to limit free speech on campus and restrict it only to anti-American and anti-Semitic radicals. Klocek's plight has become a cause celebre for those seeking to defend free speech and pluralism on American college campuses. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has repeatedly denounced DePaul's behavior in the Klocek Affair. FIRE has given DePaul University a speech code rating of "Red," the worst rating possible. (You can read more about this institution's speech code ratings on this page.) Even some leftists have come out to protest the Klocek firing.

Meanwhile, DePaul University is getting sued by Thomas Klocek. Probably the best weblog that follows and documents the political shenanigans at DePaul is Marathon Pundit at http://marathonpundit.blogspot.com/. (Check for updates on the suit.)

DePaul is an excellent illustration of everything that is wrong in American institutions of higher education in general, and in some church-affiliated schools in particular. In pursuing its crusade to instill campus indoctrination and leftist Newthink, DePaul has abandoned any pretense of protecting academic freedom, while at the same time abandoning any pretense of maintaining standards of academic excellence and scholarship.

If you would like to tell DePaul's President Holtschneider what YOU think of all this, his email address is president@DePaul.edu. The names and emails of the other officials are here.

ENDNOTES

[1] Jerusalem Post, Aug 28, 2000

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. Contact him by email at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il

This article appeared in FrontPageMagazine today. It is archived at www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20729

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HE WHO BEGINS A MITZVAH AND THE JOHN DEMJANJUK CASE
Posted by Rachel Kapen, January 3, 2006.

Our sages of old admonished that: He who begins a mitzvah, he is told to complete it. However, sometimes circumstances become such that someone else completes it and the John Demjanjuk story is a prime example.

The Ukraine-born John Demjanjuk immigrated to the United State in 1951 and became a naturalized citizen in 1958. He lived a quite, uneventful life with his family in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was employed by the automobile industry while no one around him knew of a dark side of his past, his being a guard in a Nazi death camp. But his idyll life started to fall apart when little by little information of his death-camp involvement started to reach the Justice Department, claiming that John Demjanjuk is the infamous "Ivan the Terrible" an especially sadistic guard who terrorized inmates of the Treblinka death-camp. And although the United States doesn't have the authority to try people accused of crimes against humanity, it revoked his citizenship in 1977 for not disclosing his death-camp involvement-something he vehemently denied- in his application fir immigration. And when the State of Israel asked fir his extradition in 1983 under its own law of bringing to justice Nazis and their collaborators, the United States obliged and in June, 1986 he was extradited to Israel/

He was accused of being Ivan the Terrible and his rather eventful and tumultuous trial began in February 1987 and in April 1988 he was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. It is worth noting that Israel does not have the death penalty except for Nazis and their collaborators and the last person who was executed under that law was Adolph Eichmann. The main key to John Demanjuk's trial was a membership card given him when he participated in the Trawniki training camp for guards for the notorious Sobibor death-camp. The membership card was supplied by the then Soviet Union via the famous American industrialist Armand Hammer, the camp where Ivan the Terrible, according to numerous eyewitnesses perpetrated his heinous crimes. However, his case was appealed by his dedicated defense team which included the Israeli attorney Yoram Sheftel, and brought before the Israeli Supreme Court which concluded in July 29, 1993, that there isn't sufficient evidence that John Demjanjuk is indeed the infamous Ivan the Tewrrible so he was released from prison and allowed to return to the United States. Since his return unrelenting efforts were made to rescind the revocation of his citizenship but recently these efforts reached a dead end when the Justice Department announced that John Denjanjuk is to be deported to his native Ukraine. Yet, his defense team still doesn't give up and now is contending that if he is to be deported to the Ukraine he would be subjected to inhumane treatment, something which is highly unlikely.

Considering John Demjanjuk's relatively advanced age-he is 85- it is likely that he will pass away before being deported. However, the tenet of Justice, justice thou shalt pursue which is a moving force behind both Israel's and the United States justice systems, was fulfilled both by the State of Israel which began it and the United States which pursued it relentlessly to the end and completed the mitzvah.

Contact Rachel Kapen by email at skapen285466mi@comcast.net

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COMMUNIST INDOCTRINATION AT BEN GURION UNIVERSITY
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 3, 2006.

You will all be happy to learn that Ben Gurion University is now officially sponsoring a conference in communist indoctrination.

The conference is to be called:

Contemporary Capitalism:
USA, Europe and the Middle East in the Beginning of the 21st Century
International Workshop * January 9-10, 2006
Ben Gurion University
In Cooperation with the Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

From its contents, it is clear that this is to be nothing more than a session in Marxist brainwashing. No pro-capitalists are welcome.

The conference was organized by fanatic anti-Israel "post-Zionist" New Historian Uri Ram from BGU (a lecturer in sociology). For background on comrade Ram, see http://www.meforum.org/article/87 )

Among the memorable moments at this Bash-Capitalism conference are:

Opening remarks by Far-Leftist Tikkun Magazine columnist and member of Tikkun Board Prof. David Newman, a "political geographer" (whatever that is) at Ben Gurion University

09:45 -- 11:30 First Session: Capitalism, Class & Politics
Chair: Prof. Fred Lazin (Ben Gurion University. Leftist political scientist)
Speakers:
Prof. Stanley Aronowitz (far leftist Marxist moonbat and candidate for Governor of NY from the rabidly anti-Israel Green Party, thoroughly exposed as a laughingstock at http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14533 -- from sociology at City University of New York, which was once a university before open admissions): Aspects of the Global Class Divide. Aronowitz is most famous for being the dupe who fell victim to "Sokal's Hoax." (See above article for details)

Dr. Dani Filc (Far Leftist anti-Israel Leftist who supports insurrection and mutiny by Israeli soldiers -- see www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=2101&CategoryId=18 lecturer in Political Science -- Ben Gurion University): Popular Sovereignty and Populism: The Political Logic of Neoliberal Globalization. (Meaning - Marxist brainwashing)

11:45 -- 13:30 Second Session: Capitalism, the State & Politics
Chair: Dr. Daniel De-Malach (Sapir College. never heard of him)
Speakers:
Dr. Daniel Maman (Leftist -- Ben Gurion University) & Dr. Zeev Rosenhek (Leftist -- The Open University):
The Transformation of the Capitalist State and Central Bank Independence.
Dr. Dov Khenin (lawyer -- leader in the Israeli Communist Party, see http://www.maki.org.il/english/english.html and http://www.cpa.org.au/garchve03/1136prisoners.html ): Bringing the Left Back to Politics -- Bringing Politics Back into the Left. (Need we add a comment?)

14:30 -- 16:15 Third Session: Capitalism and Identity
Chair: Dr Iris Agmon (feminist leftist -- Ben Gurion University)
Speakers:
Prof. Alev Cinar (Bilkent University): Local Imaginations of the Global: Changing Modes of Modernity in Turkey. (In other words -- Marxist brainwashing)
Dr. Joern Lamla (Justus-Liebig Universit.t Giessen): The Problem of Authenticity in Contemporary Capitalism. (In other words -- Marxist brainwashing)

16:15 -- 16:30 Coffee Break

16:30 -- 18:15 Fourth Session:
Panel on Capitalism, Occupation and Resistance in Israel and Palestine
Chair: Dr. Yoram Meital (Ben Gurion University)
Speaker:
Dr. Neve Gordon (Ben Gurion University -- groupie of Holocaust Denier Norman Finkelstein, arrested for serving as human shield to defend terrorists)): Israel's Occupation: Tracing the Technologies of Control
Panelists: Fatme Kassem (Ben Gurion University. student), Dr. Pnina Motsafi-Haller (Ben Gurion University -- Sephardic Nationalism Leftist), Prof. Adi Ophir (Tel Aviv University -- Peace Now Far Leftist post-Zionist, signs all the anti-Israel petitions)

Tuesday, January 10, 2006 (Rector Hall, Senate Building, BGU)
09:00 -- 10:45 Fifth Session: Capitalism and Theory
Chair: Dr. Gulie Ne'eman Arad (Ben Gurion University) Speakers:
Prof. Sylvia Walby (Lancaster University): Globalization, Inequalities and Complexity Theory. (Marxist brainwashing)
Dr. Hartmut Rosa (Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena): Capitalism Unbound: Towards A Critical Theory of Social Acceleration. Marxist Brainwashing. "Critical" in academic Newspeak means Marxist)
Dr. Uri Ram (Ben Gurion University): When Marx-ism Meets Post-ism. (Israel needs to be eliminated to promote Marxist utopia)

11:00 -- 12:45 Sixth Session: Capitalism and Globalization Speakers:
Dr. Shlomo Swirski (Adva Center -- lobby group for income redistribution and for affirmative action): Some Political-Economic Aspects of Being a Regional Power.
Dr. Sarit Helman (Ben Gurion University -- on board of editors of Marxist journal
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/journal.asp?issn=1473-5784&linktype=5 ; signs anti-Israel petitions, Ben Gurion University): Flexibility and Obstruction: Globalization and Israel's Citizenship Regime. (Marxist brainwash)
Prof. Avishai Ehrlich (Tel Aviv Academic College): Globalization and Total War: International Law, Human Rights and Privatization. (Marxist brainwash)

14:00 -- 15:45 Seventh Session: Capitalism and Civil Society Chair: Dr. Erez Tzfadia (Ben Gurion University = Oren Yiftachel's leftist mini-me)
Speakers:
Dr. Ilan Gur-Zeev (Haifa University -- claims his own university is a big phallus symbol; celebrates school violence -- see http://www.meforum.org/article/87 ): Education Facing Global Capitalism: Sport and Counter-Education.

Dr. Guy Ben Porath (Ben Gurion University): The Neoconservative Revolution. (Gosh, what should we expect here?)
Dr. Ahmed Saadi (Ben Gurion University): Capitalism in the Eye of the Beholder. (or the eye of the Marxist?)

16:00 -- 17:45 Eighth Session:
Panel on Capitalism, Colonialism & Empire in Israel and Palestine (in other words, Israel is imperialist)
Chair: Dr. Rebecca Kook (Ben Gurion University -- The Palestinian struggle is like Martin Luther King and US civil rights struggle)
Speaker: Prof. Yoav Peled (Tel Aviv University. communist, anti-Zionist, invited PLO rep to speak at funeral of his niece killed in bus bombing and blamed the bombing on Netanyahu): One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Sharonism and the Future of Israel/Palestine
Panelists: Prof. Oren Yiftachel (Ben Gurion University -- Israel is apartheid entity, radical anti-Zionist); Dr. Guy Ben Porath (Ben Gurion University -- unknown).

17:45 -- 18:15 Concluding Discussion: Contemporary Capitalism and Contemporary Marxism
Chairs: Dr. Dani Filc (Ben Gurion University see above)
Organizers: Dr. Uri Ram & Dr. Dani Filc (not yet representing Palestinian Authority). The Workshop is conducted in English

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THE RED LINE
Posted by Batya Medad, January 3, 2006.

The weather in Israel can be considered the barometer of our spiritual level. According to Chazal, our sages, it depends on how well we observe the "mitzvot," the commandments G-d gave us. Israel is presently suffering a drought. No surprise!

This winter has been pretty dry, and there's no rain on the horizon. For a few weeks, the rabbis had ordered us to add a special prayer, traditionally said during droughts, but after one nice rainfall, it was cancelled, and then the drought resumed.

Last night, the second of January and the very end of Chanukah, we were at a wedding. The "chupah," ceremony was out of doors under a clear and starry sky. It was so "pleasant," that I didn't even put on my gloves, and we were in Jerusalem. It made a nice wedding, especially for the visitors from the southern hemisphere, but what price will we be paying for this consistently warm, dry weather?

I've been in Israel thirty-five years, and during years like this, we'd be hearing how the water level of the Kineret, Sea of Galilee, has dropped below the red line. We'd be advised to save water and other practical measures. This year, the "red line" is rarely mentioned, and saving water never is. Cleaning with high powered hoses is common, so are water-guzzling lawns and flower gardens.

I'm scared. This "lovely weather" isn't a blessing; it's a curse, a punishment from G-d. At some point we will have to pay for it, and the price will be very heavy, very high and unpleasant.

As of today, January 3, 2006, according to the Israel Meteorological Service the Kineret, Sea of Galilee is minus 211.66 meters, and we're in the middle of the winter. In recent years, the Israeli policy has been to just lower what it calls the "red line." That way there's no need to panic and take precautions. As long as the government says there's plenty of water, most people happily go on wasting water. Why should they skimp and suffer, if there's government approval for all the excess? A couple of years ago there were plans of importing tanks of water from Turkey. It just costs money, and the voters reject politicians that make them face reality.

The Jewish religion is agricultural; the early, non-observant Zionist pioneers accurately took advantage of this fact, making up new ceremonies to suit their lives. Traditional Jews pray for rain at the end of the fall Succot holiday and then continue with a phrase asking for a quantity of precipitation that would be a blessing each time we say the "Amida," or "Shmoneh Esreh" prayer.

The Bible clearly states in Deuteronomy 11:13-17 that the quantity of rain is a direct punishment or reward according to how we obey G-d.

Deut 11:13-15

13 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today-- to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul--

14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil.

15 I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.(NIV)

Israel was restored in 1948 after a long difficult war, not only against the Arab countries, but also against Great Britain which didn't want to give up the Mandate and allow us independence. I strongly suspect that many of the countries of the United Nations which voted in favor of an independent Jewish State only did so, because they were certain that we wouldn't succeed and would have to either call in international help or even be wiped out. Don't act so shocked! Remember that during the Holocaust, when six million Jews were being murdered, not a single solitary country attacked the Nazis to save the Jews.

Less than twenty years later, in 1967, there was a miraculous Israeli victory over the Arab aggressors, resulting in Israel liberating its Biblical, Historic Homeland. Nobody could have predicted it. It was a total act of G-d. While that was still fresh in our minds, and we were over-confident, the Arabs attacked us again, on our holiest day, Yom Kippur, 1973. It looked like Israel was finished; but again, a great miracle and we were victorious. And now, what has Israel done to thank G-d?

We have rejected, wasted and destroyed G-d's gifts to us. No People has ever been luckier, more blessed, and no People has ever been so foolish, no let's use the real word, suicidal.

Since Menachem Begin's election as Israeli Prime Minister in 1977, and his announcement that he would "make peace" and give Egypt a gift of the Sinai and destroy all Jewish communities there, we have been weakening and destroying our country. That was followed by Shamir's Madrid Conference, the Rabin-Peres Oslo Accords, Bibi's Wye and Sharon's Disengagement. Each one chipped away more and more of our security, sovereignty and Precious Land; this resulted in the successful use of "salami tactics" in order to gradually weaken and destroy us, G-d forbid.

Considering all, I'm not at all surprised that there's a drought this year. We deserve punishment from G-d. We crossed the red line.

And now we must gathers our forces and sincerely repent.

This is Musing #156. Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il This is archived at http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2006/01/156-red-line.html

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OSAMA IS HERO FOR 9/11 BUT ISRAEL DID IT TO MAKE ARABS LOOK bad
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 2, 2006.

Why all the fuss about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad contradicting himself regarding the Holocaust?

If:

1. much of the moslem world can say: Osama bin-Laden is the greatest Moslem hero of the 21st century because he perpeatrated 9/11.....

....and then say: But really the Israelis did it to make Arabs look bad!

and:

2. Mahmoud Abbas can say: the Qassam rockets raining down on Israeli communities from the Gaza Strip are not a problem for me, they are Israel's problem. The Palestinian Authority will take no actioin. Israel will need to come up with a solution....

....and then say: Israel's solution to the problem of Qassam rockets from Gaza (creating a no-go zone around the Gaza Border) is illegal and unacceptable and irrational and unhelpful and war-like and terrorist-like and is the same as if Israel were re-occupying Gaza!

and:

3. Many Arab propagandists (including Anwar es-Sadat back in the 60s) can say: There was never a Holocaust, it is a Zionist invention to trick the world into supporting the creation of a State of Israel....

....and then say: But Hitler is the world's greatest hero of the 20th century because of what he did to the Jews!

and:

4. Many Arab propagandists can say: There was never a Holocaust, it is a Zionist trick to get Europe to support the creation of the Jewish State....

...and then say: But it is too bad that Hitler did not finish the job!

Then.....why can't President Ahmadi-Nejad say: There never was a Holocaust, it is a Zionist hoax...

...and then say: the Europeans sought to complete the Holocaust by sending Jews to Palestine to create a Jewish State in the middle of the Moslem World!

????

Really, why can't he?

He is in excellent company; and he is doing nothing more than using the same logic that has prevailed in most of the Arab and much of the Moslem world for decades.

So what is all the fuss?

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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DANIEL PINNER STILL NEEDS OUR HELP!
Posted by Lee Caplan, January 2, 2006.

This comes from Dina Moskowitz. Dear Friends,

I am writing to once again appeal to your hearts and souls to contribute as generously as you can to defray Daniel Pinner's living expenses while he is still imprisoned, with no end to his imprisonment in sight.

These expenses are ongoing and must be paid on time. Thanks to the generosity of previous donors and thanks to friends and relatives who have been paying out of their own pockets for the never-ending bills, including rent on Daniel's home in Kfar Tapuach, care of his dog, utility bills, and future legal fees, these expenses are being handled. However, Daniel's next hearing is not for approximately another month, and after numerous hearings, for reasons known only to them, the judges still refuse to release him under house arrest, even though there is no proof of his having shot an Arab, but that he only shot in the air in self-defense against the Arabs who attacked him. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Daniel's family and friends to keep carrying the load. All of these dear souls have families and expenses of their own to pay for.

So, won't you find it in your hearts to help ease the burden of Daniel's friends and relatives, as well as to ease Daniel's mind so that he can know that he is not at risk of losing everything, as he sits in jail unfairly and indefinitely?

Baruch Hashem, Daniel calls me from time to time from jail, and his spirits are still high. YOU can help keep him in high spirits, and at the same time earn a huge mitzvah:

DONATIONS

Shekel deposits can be made to any branch of "Bank HaDoar" (the Postal Bank) in Israel, to account number 4682626 (under the name "Daniel Pinner"). Dollar checks from donors living in Israel can be converted to shekels at any "Changepoint"-type business and then deposited directly into Daniel's account.

Send US Dollar or any other currency donations in check form (FROM OUTSIDE OF ISRAEL ONLY) to:
Dina Moskowitz
P.O. Box 6355
Jerusalem
Israel 91062

Please put "Dina Moskowitz" in the "pay to the order of" line.

Foreign currency donations from abroad will be converted to shekels and deposited into Daniel's account.

Other ways you can help Daniel:

1. Call his home phone number at 03-9068079 (from outside of Israel: 972-3-9068079) and leave him a message of encouragement, hope and love (he does listen to his messages from the public telephone in the jail).

2. Write to him (in Hebrew or English) at:
Daniel Pinner
Masiyahu Prison
Torah Section
POB 13
Ramle 72100, Israel

3. Visiting hours at Masiyahu Prison are CURRENTLY from Friday through Sunday from 9:30 -- 15:30 (subject to change without notice). Daniel is allowed only 3 visitors PER WEEK. Visits MUST be coordinated in advance, BEFORE going to the prison. Please contact me if you are interested in visiting Daniel.

4. To read some great articles Daniel wrote while in jail, and to keep updated on his situation, join the Daniel Pinner Research Institute newsgroup. Write to: DanielPinner-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. To post a message on this newsgroup, write: DanielPinner@yahoogroups.com.

Kol Tuv, and many thanks in advance for your generosity and caring,
Dina Moskowitz
Yeshivat HaRa'ayon HaYehudi

Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com [Editor's Note: For more about Daniel Pinner, who has been falsely accused of shooting an Arab by a vindicative government, which is "getting even" with Expulsion Dissidents, see Michelle Nevada essay.]

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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL GOES LIBERAL ON THE MIDDLE EAST
Posted by Cinnamon Stillwell, January 2, 2006.

A UCLA political scientist conducted a recent study on media bias and came to the conclusion that many of us reached a long time ago. [Editor's note: see Media Bias is Real.] The media tilts left. But the study did produce some unexpected results.

It turns out that PBS' NewsHour With Jim Lehrer is the most "centrist outlet," while the Drudge Report "leans left." Most readers find the Wall Street Journal's editorial page to be conservative (with the exception of their stance on illegal immigration, which mirrors that of the far left), but the UCLA study found that the news pages are "even more liberal than The New York Times."

If the Wall Street Journal's Middle East news coverage is any indication, UCLA knows what it's talking about. A front page article in the news section of the December 28th issue demonstrates all the usual biases and blind spots of the liberal media when it comes to the Middle East.

Written by Karby Leggett and titled, "Latest Answer To Mideast Crisis: Fix the Economy,"(subscribers only) the article follows the trials and tribulations of former World Bank Chief James Wolfensohn. [http://online.usj.com/article/SB113573238290232603.html] It seems that Wolfensohn has been tasked with the unenviable job of trying to help the "beleaguered Palestinian economy." Or in other words, trying to get the Palestinians to be productive instead of destructive for a change.

Wolfensohn was appointed special envoy to the Quartet (United States, Russia, European Union, and United Nations) and has been scrambling to get the Gaza Strip -- recently vacated by Israelis via the Disengagement Plan -- in order ever since. For according to the entire thrust of the article, if it weren't for the incalcitrance of those pesky security-minded Israelis, the Palestinians would have created a mini-Manhattan by now.

All throughout Leggett's article are references to the many barriers to Palestinian mobility and hence an improved economy, but nowhere does he reach the obvious conclusion. If not for Palestinian terrorism, these security measures wouldn't exist. The "20-foot high digital scanning system to check shipments for weapons and explosives" that Wolfensohn urged the Israelis to install at the Karni border checkpoint between Gaza and Israel might not be necessary if Palestinian "farmers" didn't insist on trying to sneak bombs in with their vegetables. Leggett simply concedes that, "In many ways, Israel's desire for tight security is in conflict with Gaza's economic requirements." Gee, I wonder why?

Leggett touts another one of Wolfensohn's brilliant plans -- raising money from private donors such as Mortimer B. Zuckerman in order to purchase the vacated Gaza greenhouses for the Palestinians. Of course, we all know how that turned out. The few greenhouses that weren't destroyed in the orgy of destruction following the disengagement were apparently too complex for the Palestinians to operate properly and now they re trying to hire back the Jewish farmers they replaced. It would seem that the above information would be pertinent to the article, but alas, Leggett omits any mention whatsoever.

But apparently some of Wolfensohn's hard work has paid off. As Leggett cheerily tell us, "Palestinians can now travel to Egypt without passing Israeli checkpoints for the first time in nearly four decades." So now Palestinians can smuggle in weapons directly from Egypt rather than having to use those annoying tunnels underneath their homes. This may explain why Gaza is being flooded with weapons as we speak, not to mention the al-Qaeda terrorists that have shown up for the party.

Even European Union "observers" got a glimpse of the growing anarchy when fighting broke out between Fatah gunmen and Palestinian Authority policemen at the Rafiah border crossing today. Needless to say, they went running straight for the nearest Israeli military base.

Instead of promoting the naïve "Wolfensohn Agenda," the Wall Street Journal might want to address the stumbling block of Palestinian terrorism. After all, which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Cinnamon Stillwell is a Bay Area-based columnist for SFGate.com and Israel National News. She can be reached at stillcinn@yahoo.com.

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WHO RUNS THE MEDIA?
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 2, 2006.

For those who were shocked (shocked, I tell you, shocked!!) at the influence wielded by al-Walid bin-Talal over Rupert Murdoch...

.....(quick reminder for those unperspecatious enough to not memorize all my emails: -- with one phone call and a 2-minute conversation, bin-Talal tells Murdoch to jump and Murdoch says 'how high?': " they are not MOSLEM riots, Murdoch, they are riots about POVERTY."..."Yes sir.....sorry sir,....quite right sir....so how about if we call them CIVIL riots...very good sir....thank you sir....will do.." Then Murdoch sends priority memo to staff: these are not MOSLEM riots, they are CIVIL riots...and then 30 minutes later all Murdoch news outlets are describing the riots in the 'banlieux' of Paris as civil riots)....(and they say that the Jews run the media....ha!)

....it is worthwhile to note who leads the list of UN media organizations. The roster of the newly elected leadership of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) leadership is dominated by rigidly anti-American "news" organs, including three from Saudi or Saudi-financed publications.

Near the top is Laura Angela Bagnetto of the Saudi Press Agency. Further down the roster are the Saudi-financed Al Hayat and Asharq-al-Awsat (both london based Arab-language papers).

Alongside Bagnetto in the top leadership are Beirut's L'Orient Le Jour and the Maghreb Arab News.

The new "third vice president" is Evelyn Leopold of the Reuters "news agency." In May, Leopold leaped to the defense of chief UN propagandist Shashi Tharoor, when it was revealed that Tharoor had given a forum to the notorious Jewish/Israeli anti-Semite Israel Shamir (all from mediacrity.org).

And they say that Jews run the media! ha!

david ml

ps. if you ran the media, and you didn't want the world to notice that you ran the media, what better way to cover your tracks (i.e., your bootprints on the backs and necks of the media professionals) than to accuse some other easy target of running the media?

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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HEADLINE DISTORTS REALITY
Posted by David Meir-Levi, January 2, 2006.

Laura King of the Los Angeles Times wrote a news item called "4 killed in suicide bombing aimed at Hanukkah pageant" on December 30, 2005 in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Jerusalem -- A Palestinian suicide bomber reportedly intent on attacking a crowded Hanukkah gathering detonated his payload of explosives when Israeli troops stopped him at a West Bank checkpoint Thursday. An army lieutenant and two Palestinians were killed along with the bomber.

The powerful explosion at an impromptu roadblock near the town of Tulkarem injured nine other people, six of them soldiers and three of them Palestinian bystanders, Israeli authorities said. One of the wounded soldiers was in grave condition, the military said in a statement.

Israeli and Palestinian officials condemned the attack. Israel called it proof that the country risks lethal consequences if it eases tight military restrictions on Palestinians' movement in the West Bank.

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad was responsible for the bombing, according to Arabic-language media reports and an official of the group in the Gaza Strip. But West Bank leaders of Islamic Jihad, who are targeted for arrest and assassination by Israeli forces, were uncharacteristically silent on the attack.

Islamic Jihad has been responsible for most of the suicide bombings this year, having spurned an informal cease-fire that rival groups such as Hamas have largely respected for months now.

The Israeli military identified the Palestinians who were killed as the driver of the bomber's taxi and a passenger. The men's possible role in the bombing was being investigated, the army said.

Israeli security forces had received specific warnings that a bomber was en route to an attack, most likely in the Tel Aviv area, and if possible at a crowded holiday gathering. Israelis are having pageants and parties this week to celebrate the eight-day Jewish feast of Hanukkah.

"A major disaster was averted," said Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim, who accused Islamic Jihad's leadership in Syria of orchestrating the attack.

In the wake of the bombing, Israeli troops sealed off Tulkarem and searched house to house.

Incidents such as this one illustrate the dilemmas faced by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who met with representatives of several militant groups this week, trying unsuccessfully to win an agreement to extend an informal truce.

As a rule, Israel blames Abbas' government whenever militant groups mount any attack, and the Palestinian leader's standing among his own people tends to plummet when Israel retaliates. Usually, the beneficiary of the popular resentment is Hamas, which is expected to make a strong showing in parliamentary elections next month.

Israeli forces continued to enforce a "no go" zone Thursday in the northern Gaza Strip, set up a day earlier in response to rocket fire by Palestinian militants. Israeli troops have been firing artillery rounds into the mainly uninhabited land at Gaza's northernmost tip and have dropped leaflets ordering residents to stay out of the area.

Palestinians called the creation of the buffer zone tantamount to a reoccupation of the seaside territory, from which Israel withdrew troops and Jewish settlers over the summer.

In Gaza, where the Palestinian leadership has been unable to assert meaningful authority in the wake of Israel's pullout, a British human rights activist and her parents were still missing Thursday, a day after their abduction by armed men in the southern town of Rafah.

The headline -- "4 killed in suicide bombing aimed at Hanukkah pageant" -- reverses reality.

The story is not about four people who were killed in a suicide bombing.

The story is about a brutal attempt by Palestinian Arab terrorists to perpetrate a suicide bombing attack against innocent Jewish children, and how this attack was thwarted by the Israeli army at the cost of both Israeli and Palestinian lives.

So why did you not use a headline that would more accurately frame the story, such as:

"Israeli soldier dies preventing Palestinian terrorist slaughter of Jewish innocents", or

"Israeli children saved from Palestinian terrorist murderer thanks to selfless Israeli soldier", or

"Palestinian terrorist 'Hanuka massacre' prevented by Israeli security",

"Hanuka massacre thwarted by Israeli soldier: but Palestinian Arab terrorist bomber kills self and soldier and 2 Arab bystanders", or

"Islamic Jihad attempts terror attack to massacre Israeli children", or

"Islamic Jihad terror attack against Israeli children's Hanuka party stopped by alert soldier: solder, bomber and two Palestinians die", or

"Why road blocks are necessary: impromptu check point thwarts terrorist attack on Israeli chlidren, saves the lives of dozens though soldier and bomber and two others are killed".

It seems as though your headline seeks to subordinate reality to some other scheme wherein Arab terrorists and Palestinian suicide bombers cannot be called by their real names.

Now why would the headline editor want to do that?

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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CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR
Posted by Rachel and Moshe Saperstein, January 2, 2006.

Careful what you wish for. We got our key today. Almost. Sort of.

We drove down to Nitzan this morning as I had some Operation Dignity business to attend to. We visited the house we have been assigned, but which we cannot yet enter because some document or other has yet to find its way into our file. Walking around the house we talked with neighbors already living there. Rather, we listened to them as they enlightened us about one problem after another in the physical structure of the caravillas.

From our own observation we found three potentially dangerous problems. First, a raised water pipe and water meter has been placed alongside our front door. Only with great care do you avoid tripping over it. And at night, in the dark, you won't be able to avoid it. Second, an air-conditioner rests on the ground next to a side wall. Placed directly in front of it is a sprinkler, part of the system for watering the lawn. When the sprinkler goes off it will flood the air conditioner. Third, whole sections of the lawn are settling or sinking. In places it looks like a landscape for trench warfare. As both Moshe and I are already a little unsteady, you can imagine how terrifying this is.

"Let's go over to the Expulsion Authority office and harass them about the key," I said. "Just for the fun of it."

Approaching the office we saw two large tents and hundreds of people milling about. We had come on a day when a job fair was being held. Over eighty percent of our people are unemployed, so to fend off criticism the Expulsion Authority set up a fair with booths from employers who have no jobs to offer. The unemployed have to attend even though they know it is a waste of time because if they don't attend they lose their unemployment benefits. Almost as numerous as the unemployed are the Expulsion Authority officials looking as comfortable in suits and ties as gorillas in tuxedos. Television cameras are everywhere, as are reporters and photographers. It is a charade, and everybody knows it is a charade, but at least we get to see many old friends. When some of them ask what we are doing at a job fair Moshe says he is looking for work as a concert pianist.

We enter the Expulsion Authority office and a smiling clerk tells us we can get our keys. Today. We are tempted to remind her there are still documents missing, but keep quiet. Different emotions touch us; surprise that we can get the key, relief that the uncertainty is over, anxiety over leaving the cocoon of the hotel and setting up anew in this glorified shantytown, annoyance at the arbitrary behavior of the Expulsion Authority.

We sign paper after paper after paper, then are passed to another clerk and sign even more papers. The clerk, a pleasant and talkative woman, then accompanies us back to our house. As she takes out the keys to open the door I point out the danger of the raised water pipe. "Oh, that's not serious," she says, and proceeds to trip over it. "Maybe that should be taken care of," she says, and writes in a notebook.

She then turns the key in the door but it won't turn all the way. She pushes and pries. Then Moshe tries, also without success. She phones for a maintenance man. While waiting for him Moshe shows her the sprinkler/air-conditioner. "They must be crazy," she mutters and writes some more in the notebook.

The maintenance man arrives and forces the door open. More writing in the notebook. Though it is a warm, sunny day two sections of the ceiling have water damage, and water droplets hang from light bulbs. The notebook is filling up.

Sliding doors are opened but won't close all the way, and Moshe finds that both toilet doors are so warped they have to be kicked open, then cannot be closed. There is almost no space left in the notebook.

"I can't give you the keys until all of these things are fixed," the clerk finally says. "I'll hold them for you. I'll call you when everything is ready." No condemned person ever felt a greater sense of relief at hearing a pardon was granted.

On the ride back to Jerusalem we don't know whether to laugh or cry. We laugh.


OPERATION DIGNITY is now an Amuta, or Non-Profit Organization. OPERATION DIGNITY is the umbrella organization to which "The Band Aid Fund" belongs. We are continuing to give packets of money to each family from Neve Dekalim. "The Simcha Fund" helps families with brits, bar- and bat-mitzvahs and weddings. "The Seed Fund" helps families settle into Nitzan and other communities. Send a contribution to

Central Fund for Israel
Rehov Hagoel 13
Efrat 90435
Israel
Earmarked: Band-Aid Fund

OR

Central Fund for Israel
attention: Arthur Marcus
Marcus Bros. Textiles
980 Sixth Avenue
New York, NY 10018 USA
Earmarked: Band-Aid Fund

Rachel and Moshe Saperstein lived in Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif, Gaza, Israel, where she was a teacher at the Neve Dekalim ulpana and a spokeswoman for the Katif Regional Council. Her recent book, "Eviction: A Gush Katif Viewpoint", with photos by Moti Sender can be ordered from www.pavilionpress.com. Victims of the Gaza expulsion, they now live in temporary quarters at the Jerusalem Gold Hotel. Moshe is a Jerusalem Diarist, one of the group of Israelis who are recording their experiences living in Israel.

He lost an arm while fighting in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He was again wounded in a February 2002 incident when he drove his car into a terrorist who had just shot and killed a young mother traveling in the car in front of him. He writes frequently of his physical and emotional struggles.

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TERMINOLOGY IN A JEWISH DICTIONARY
Posted by Steven Shamrack, January 2, 2006.

Quite often the Israel-bashers are throwing some accusations and use a terminology without any interest for the facts. It is done deliberately, in order to create a perception of impropriety committed by the Jewish state.

At the same time, they knowingly ignore: the obvious human right violations, abuse of the women, slavery etc& that are committed by the Palestinian Authority and by many Muslim countries. These issues are not questioned or scrutinised by the International press and Jew-haters.

Here are some examples of obscure terminology those hypocrites have been using to muddy the issues of Arab-Israel conflict. I hope that the 'Jewish dictionary' clarifications will bring better understanding of the obscure terminology:

Confiscation of Arab land -- This is the Jewish land. The government of Israel in its right to appropriate the land in the interest of National security or to accommodate need for development.

House demolition -- 1. Arabs have been building thousands of illegal houses in Israel and territories. They must not be exempted from construction and property laws. 2. Many countries have been using demolition as a common practice of deterrent or punishment also.

Targeted killings -- Arab terrorists want to be rewarded by 72 virgins and by sitting next to Mohamed at the table in Heaven facing Allah. The Israeli army just facilitates their desire. It is better to target and kill terrorists than let innocent people die!

Building Jewish settlement -- It is the right of Jewish people to live on the Jewish land of their ancestors! For the moment, at least on paper, Israel is still an independent state.

Administrative detention -- It would be preferable to transfer the Arab terrorists and their extended families to Arab states as an anti-terror deterrent. But 'the world' made too much noise when Israel did it!

Torture -- If it is done, it would be for the sake of saving lives, when the time factor is imperative. Israeli security prevents 9 out of 10 terrorist attacks, including random drive-by shootings, kidnappings and suicide bombings! But, Arab terrorists behead and kill people for pleasure!

Relative calm -- It is used as a sinister attempt to cover up the daily terror attacks and barrage of shells and rockets from the Gaza, West Bank and Lebanon. There is no "Peace Process" in Israel. There is a preparation for another war by Arabs!

Please, for better understanding of Arab-Israel conflict change your vocabulary and use the Jewish dictionary!


"Food for Thought," by Steven Shamrak

Why is the desire of Jewish people to return to the land of their ancestors "Racist ideology", but denying and obstructing the achievement of this dream is not? Get real! Drop the empty rhetoric and give up self-hate. Jews have done nothing to be ashamed about!

Some anti-Israel activists started to play a new game by asking if the next generation of Arab Palestinians will make Peace with Israel? My answer is: Who cares! Why do Jews have to wait and depend on the will of others? Jews must make the peace among themselves first. After that, there will be peace in Israel and we'll be able get rid of our enemies and to reclaim the all Jewish land.

More of PA Conditions. Ahmed Qorei warned that January parliamentary elections could only go ahead as planned certain minimum conditions are met. "Voting in Jerusalem is an essential condition for the holding of elections," he said. (Just another posturing. Jerusalem is part of Israel.)

Political prisoners in PA jails. The Palestinian Independent Commission for Civil Rights said it had "recently recorded an increase in the number of prisoners being held arbitrarily as a result of their political opinions". (Where are the voices of Amnesty International and UN Human Right Commission?)

Russia Does it Again. Hizballah has been using Russian-made RPG rockets purchased by Syria to target Israel. "The Russians...sell weapons with a commitment not to pass them on, yet those weapons are used against us in a blatant manner," said IDF Intelligence Chief Aharon Zeevi-Farkash.

Long-range Missiles Threat. The Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, claimed it possessed, Soviet made, Grad missiles with a range of 25 km, may have been smuggled from Egypt after 'Disengagement' and threatened to use them against Israel. (Is this for Jews were deported from Gaza? What a 'wonderful' Peace process!)

Sudanese Killed by Egyptian Police. Thousands of riot police using water cannons and attacking with truncheons cleared a ramshackle Sudanese refugee camp. Sudaniese leaders said 26 were killed. Hundreds of Sudanese have been living in the park since September to protest the U.N. refugee agency's refusal to consider them for refugee status. (Where is the International outcry? Why are billions available to foster fake Palestinian refugees, but not for real refugees created by the Islamic regime of Sudan?)


Quote of the Week:

Militant Islamists resented the West for pushing back the triumphant march of Islam into the heart of Europe many centuries ago. Its adherents, believing in the innate supremacy of Islam... militant Islam do not hate the West because of Israel, they hate Israel because of the West -- because they see it is an island of Western democratic values in a Muslim-Arab sea of despotism. -- the former prime minister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu.

Al-Qaida claims responsibility. Al-Qaida organization in Iraq claimed responsibility over an attack by Katusha missiles last Tuesday at north Israel, the first of its kind from South Lebanon. (PLO, Hizbullah, Hamas -- now Al-Qaida. Whatever Israel does for peace, it will never be enough for Arabs! What a 'wonderful' feeling of peace!)

Arab Palestinians Applaud Terror Attacks on US and Europe. A poll carried out in the Palestinian Authority shows 65% support for Al Qaeda terror attacks on the United States and European countries -- the biggest donors to the PA. A whopping 79.9% of Palestinians would like the PA to follow Shari'a -- Islamic religious law. (They are not against Israel. They just hate anything non-Muslim!)

Churches Owe Millions to Jerusalem. Churches owe more than $65 million to the city of Jerusalem in overdue property taxes. The churches owe the money for properties that are not used as houses of worship, which are exempt from tax. (Church is an owner of the Knesset land. Why not expropriate it as a debt payment?)


Comments on Comments:

"The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is not a demographic dispute, but a national one. It's not the problem of 1.2 million Palestinians living in Israel. They are like all Arabs, only with Israeli citizenship forced upon them... Return Palestine to us and take your democracy with you. We Arabs are not interested in it," - Arab Israeli Knesset Member Azmi Bishara, addressing an Arab audience in Lebanon. Israeli Arabs are welcome to decline citizenship of Jewish state! There are 60 Muslim countries. They can return to their brothers and sisters!


"Racism or Religious Hate in Australia," by Steven Shamrak

Before accusing Australians of racism, which is partially true, we must look at the facts and background of the violence in Sydney.

For many years Muslim youth, particularly Lebanese, continuously perpetrated the acts of hate toward the non-Muslim community, including the gang rape of several Australian girls. Prior to the outbreak of violence on Cronulla beach, three life-guards were abused and assaulted by Muslim youth. It was the last straw for some Australians.

The indiscriminate riots of hate, that followed, are not justifiable by any racial tension. Innocent people were injured. Cars and businesses were destroyed. It was an act of religious hatred performed by Australian Muslim radicals. The same ugly acts of hate were performed by Muslim rioters in France, Belgium and Denmark not long ago.

This is not racism but the global religious conflict inspired by radical Islam -- Wahabism -- ideology that propagates hate toward all Infidels: Christians, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus. All heart-broken liberals and good-doers are on this hate list too! The time of inept political correctness has passed. The sooner we face the truth, the faster the problem can be resolved.

Steven Shamrak was born in the former Soviet Union (USSR) and participated in the Moscow Zionist "refusenik" movement. He publishes 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_E@gmail2world.com

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GSS: 900% INCREASE IN TERRORIST SMUGGLING IN FOUR MONTHS
Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, January 2, 2006.

Does anyone really believe that Egypt, one of the world's harshest police states, is "ignorant" of this "smuggling"? That would seem to be some of the most profound naivety even for the Middle East.

This was writen by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz and appeared in Arutz-Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews)

The General Security Services (GSS) has released its 2005 year-end report, which reveals a dramatic increase in weapons brought into Gaza by Arab terrorists since Israel's evacuation of the region.

According to the report, released Monday, there has been a 900% increase in the number of anti-tank missile launchers Arab terrorists have brought into Gaza from Egypt since Israel's unilateral withdrawal in August as compared with the preceding seven months. Approximately 350 anti-tank missiles were brought across the border in the same post-Disengagement period, representing a 600% increase since the Palestinian Authority took over Gaza.

In addition, the GSS reported that an estimated five tons of explosives have made their way into Gaza since August, as well as 5,000 rifles and handguns, and more than a million bullets.

The GSS report states that the PA, which holds jurisdiction over Gaza since the Israeli withdrawal, is doing nothing to halt the flow of weapons into terrorist hands. Therefore, the report concludes, the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip has become an easy, safe passage for the importation of weapons and other supplies for various Arab terrorist groups. In this regard, the GSS sees the abandonment by Israel of the Philadelphi Route, bordering Egypt, as a turning point in the threat Israel faces from Gaza.

Security services say the beefed-up arsenal has provided the terrorists with greater capability and incentive to start firing Kassam rockets into central Israel from Judea and Samaria, as well.

While noting an increase in certain types of terrorist attacks in 2005, the GSS report notes a decrease in the overall number of victims of such attacks. During the year just concluded, there were 2,990 terrorist attacks of all types against Israeli targets, with an increase in rocket attacks (377) over 2004 (309). There were 45 Israelis murdered by terrorists in 2005, down from 117 in 2004. Of those killed, half were victims of seven suicide bombings carried out over the last year, four of which took place subsequent to Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria.

The GSS report clarifies that the drop in the number of victims is primarily the result of Israeli measures preventing, disrupting or intercepting terrorist organizations attempting to carry out attacks. The report further specifies that during 2005, the GSS arrested 160 suicide bombers in Judea and Samaria.

Despite declarations of "calm" by terrorist organizations during 2005, the GSS reported that the number of security alerts remained fairly consistent all year. In fact, there was an increase in attacks in the Judea area during the terrorist- declared "calm" as compared to an equivalent period before the declaration. Only in the Gaza region was there a significant decrease in enemy attacks during the period of "calm", but still representing 1,205 attacks (as opposed to 2,637 attacks during an equivalent period beforehand).

Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org

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ISRAEL EMERGENCY FUND: THE MORE THE UJC EXPLAINS, THE WORSE IT GETS
Posted by Naomi Ragen, January 2, 2006.

Friends,

Since I sent out my e-mail concerning the ISRAEL EMERGENCY FUND, a campaign launched by the UJC together with the Jewish Agency two weeks after the Passover Massacre, and in direct response to the horrors of the terror campaign against Israel, the UJC and the Jewish Agency have been trying to explain how out of $300 million dollars raised for terror victims, about 5% (or less) went to them. The more they try to explain, the worse it gets.

Below, an explanation from the UJC that is supposed to put our minds at rest. I'm afraid all it does is confirm my worst fears. Monies raised for victims of terror went into after school programs, Argentinian olim, summer camps and many other very worthy causes, none of which donors intended. People saw the pictures from the Passover Massacre. They gave to help the victims. I'd like to tell you just a tiny story. Because I was at the PARK Hotel, I have kept in touch with the victims. One of them, a young bride, wasn't physically injured. But she was psychologically devastated. She went to a social worker, who put her in touch with psychologists. These psychologists were wonderful and helped her tremendously. They told her not to worry about paying them. That there was a fund for terror victims. That she should go to National Insurance and fill out the forms and that they would cover her care.

The young couple has been getting bills to pay for this care for the last three years.

Many other victims were too ill for the runaround. They couldn't go to the police. Couldn't wait on line in National Insurance for some overworked clerk to tell them to fill out forms, or to judge if they did or didn't have it coming to them. In Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem Foundation didn't send victims to the police or National Insurance, as the Jewish Agency did. They tracked down every terror victim and came to the house to see what they needed, and gave it them as best they could.

This is the way it should have been handled all over the country in my humble opinion. That is not to say that the Jewish Agency's Jeff Kaye and his staff didn't do wonderful things. But the method was wrong, and many victims got left out as a result, including many,many victims like the young bride who wasn't physically injured and didn't go to the police. I never went either to the police or to National Insurance. And neither did my aged in-laws. But if someone had shown up at their door ready to help, it would have been a different story. There weren't millions of victims. It would certainly have been possible to find them had people been hired to do nothing but that full- time. And with $300 million dollars, there was certainly enough money, if it had been allocated to those that donors intended it to reach.

What can be done now? Well, according to the UJC more than $364 million was pledged. They have accounted for $278 million (only $7 of which went to victims of terror!!) I suggest that the remaining funds go to terror victims and their families, to be tracked down one by one. Open up a fund called Survivors of Terror, my friend Sheila Raviv suggested, now that you've shut down the Victims of Terror Fund because you claim there is no more money... Below, the breakdown sent out by the UJC on how the Emergency Fund for Israel allocated donations. You decide if they acted responsibly and honestly with your donations. If not, there is information on who to contact. If you agree with my suggestion, please let them know.

Let's all hope it's not too late.

Naomi

Israel Emergency Campaign -- UJC Work Group's Proposals

As of Nov. 30, 2005

Name of Project//Projected Actual Cost

Keeping Children Safe

Summer Camps 2002 JDC
25,000,000

Summer Camps 2003 JDC + JAFI
10,000,000

Summer Program for High Risk 2004 JDC
2,000,000

After-school Programs (2002-03) JDC
16,000,000

After-school Programs (2004-05) JDC
3,270,000

School Safety (guards) 2002 JAFI
5,000,000

School Safety (guards) 2003 JAFI
8,000,000

School Safety (guards) 2004 JAFI
3,000,000

TOTAL KEEPING CHILDREN SAFE
72,270,000

Supporting Victims of Terror

Fund for Victims of Terror JAFI
7,000,000

Hospitals JAFI
17,446,707

Magen David Adom JAFI
1,859,365

Trauma Support JDC
4,000,000

TOTAL VICTIMS OF TERROR
30,306,072

Safety Elements in Communities

The Civil Guard JAFI
4,334,428

Safety Elements in Communities JAFI
7,275,044

Sealed Rooms JDC+JAFI
1,000,020

Pups for Peace JAFI
500,000

Sderot and Surrounding Communities JDC+JAFI
2,000,000

TOTAL SAFETY ELEMENTS 15,109,492

Vulnerable Population

Social Welfare JDC
-

Lone Soldiers/Students JAFI
5,000,000

Reserve for future Lone Soldier/Student JAFI
-

TOTAL VULNERABLE POPULATIONS 5,000,000

Hasbarah

UJC/JCPA Initiative
2,738,580

Argentina Aliyah

Argentina Aliyah 2002 JAFI
35,000,000

Argentina Aliyah 2003 JAFI
7,500,000

TOTAL ARGENTINA ALIYAH 42,500,000

TOTAL -- ALL WORKGROUP PROGRAMS
167,924,144

Designated Allocations by Federations JDC & JAFI
108,400,000

Allocation to religious streams JAFI
1,800,000

TOTAL ALLOCATIONS
$278,124,144

_____

Since the outbreak of the last Palestinian intifada, the United Jewish Communities/Federations of North America have helped meet Israel's pressing humanitarian, social and economic needs and responded to terrorism through the Israel Emergency Campaign (IEC).

In that time, North American Jewry and friends of Israel pledged $364 million for the IEC. To date, UJC has collected $279.9 million, with other funds flowing from communities directly to programs. Of the funds UJC has overseen, communities designated $108.4 million to specific initiatives, while an IEC Work Group earmarked another $169.7 million, for a total of $278.1 million. No administrative costs were subtracted from IEC funds.

Support for IEC programs included unrestricted funds from federation annual campaigns and targeted allocations from federations and foundations. The IEC Work Group, comprised of lay leaders and professionals representing a broad range of federations, provided oversight and accountability by consistently reviewing allocations, determining needs and reporting on spending to the field. UJC's overseas partners, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), consulted on IEC needs as well.

Among IEC allocations from UJC was $13 million for JAFI's Fund for the Victims of Terror, which provides grants for those directly affected by terror attacks; as well as summer programs for children in areas at high risk of terrorism; summer camps for children in Sderot, which lies near the Gaza Strip and remains a frequent target of rocket attacks; after-school programs providing safe environments for children; school safety measures such as increased security guards; community safety initiatives such as bullet-proofing homes and public buildings, armored ambulances, buses and civil-patrol cars, and training of bomb-sniffing dogs; aid for new immigrant soldiers and students whose parents do not live in Israel; construction of first-aid facilities and trauma intervention.

The JAFI fund for terror victims raised $19 million in total, including the UJC support, plus $3 million from foundations and other North American donations and $3 million from Keren Hayesod. The fund distributed all of the money, helping 3,200 families, or more than 14,000 people, through efforts such as providing tuition aid for students; aid for families to purchase or renovate homes; Shabbat getaways at hotels; and savings plans for orphans.

The IEC also helped support a rise in aliyah of Argentine Jews, who were immigrating to Israel at the height of what had come to be known as the matzav ("situation") in part because of Argentina's economic crisis.

For a full breakdown of IEC allocations, go to jim.lodge@ujc.org.

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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BEAT THE GREEKS
Posted by Gary S., January 2, 2006.
This was written by Gad Erlanger. It is from his book, "Sign of the Times -- The Zodiac in Jewish Tradition." (Published by Feldheim -- www.feldheim.com). It appeared in the December 2005 issue of Internet Magazine (http://innernet.org.il).

Until the time of the destruction of the First Temple, the world did not recognize systems of thought based upon isolated observable data. Aristotle claimed, however, that observable data were, in fact, the only basis for arriving at correct conclusions -- he "denied everything other than what could be perceived by him" (Nachmanides on Leviticus 16:8). The timing of this conclusion was most unfortunate. For as long as perpetual miracles had transpired in the Temple in Jerusalem, the senses themselves had borne witness to their own fallibility. But now this Temple no longer stood. The Second Temple lacked this Divine clarity. Those visible miracles did not take place there.

Aristotle posited the existence of an active intellect moved by factual data in the material world. Man can arrive at reasonable and true conclusions only by activating the intellect through a consistent application of the rules of logic to cause and effect. These ideas had a far-ranging impact on metaphysics.

Unlike his predecessors, Aristotle succeeded in redefining systematic thought itself, using logic alone to formulate, through deduction and induction, conclusions about reality. According to Nachmanides, he claimed that whatever was not comprehensible to his own thinking, was not true! Therefore, in addition to what was defined by him as logical reality which gives a clear and true picture of what existence is all about, logic set out to determine what was false. In effect, Aristotle had freed the mind from further concerning itself with the spiritual knowledge still widely known at that time among the nations.

The reign of Alexander, Aristotle's disciple, granted full legitimacy to this disregard for the existence of spiritual worlds and the responsibilities which they entail. The mechanistic paradigm of Western thought owes its origins to Aristotle. The results are akin to a gleaming office tower reaching to great heights but without any foundation. For who needs a foundation if it cannot be seen?

...In sport, Greece was able to idolize beauty in terms of the physical form. The physical was acclaimed for its own sake, without reference to the inner real needs. Politically, Greece gave us democracy, with its belief that physical presence in itself gives a person inalienable political rights, without ascribing any particular weight to inner wisdom. Reality proceeded along a new line based on numbers, the "rule of the majority."

Culture War

Once Alexander had established his empire, the world view of his mentor Aristotle held sway without restraint. Matter was seen as reflecting only itself. The demand that man forego some worldly material pleasures for the sake of developing inner qualities was largely irrelevant to this system.

The traditions of the Jewish People, based upon giving the physical world a Divine form, were offensive to it. The Greeks took four fundamental tenets of Judaism -- Sabbath observance, circumcision, family purity, and the sanctification of the new moon (in the Land of Israel) -- and rigorously forbade their observance.

Observing the Sabbath attests to the fact that the world does not function automatically, on its own. The Creator activates it, and depending on His will, this activity can be curtailed or resumed. The very word "automatic" stems from the Greek automos, meaning self-activating. It denotes activity that occurs by chance, without intent, dry and self-activated. According to the Greeks, the world always existed in this form, and so it would remain. Thus, Sabbath observance was outlawed because of its inherent acknowledgment of God as Creator of the world.

Circumcision, the physical manifestation on their very flesh of God's covenant with Israel, was also to be forbidden. For the Greeks, circumcision was interpreted as a blemish to the body, which they glorified. Thus, circumcision was outlawed.

The observance of the laws of family purity was deemed to run contrary to reason. According to the world view of the Greeks, physical pleasure should always be experienced on its own terms without regard to a spiritual dimension -- so this observance was outlawed.

The setting of the festival times by the beis din (court) in Jerusalem according to its determination of the new moon was forbidden by its very nature. Any such accord between the timing of a holy festival and the timing of a material heavenly body was incompatible with Greek thought altogether. Thus, sanctification of the new month was outlawed as well.

In all these cases, it is clear that the Greek approach negated the Torah outlook on the material world. The Torah demands the inclusion of the spiritual, of Divine wisdom, into matter. This raises the corporeal to the level of a vessel for Divine service. But the Greek approach accepted the given facts at face value. It invalidated all manipulation or modification of material reality. To the Greeks, according the corporeal world a spiritual dimension was pointless. This perspective led them to ban Torah study altogether, as Torah, especially the Oral Law, teaches the significance of the spiritual, and its implementation, in the world of the material. The Greeks hoped to reduce this concept to a footnote in history...

Miracle of Oil

The Temple in Jerusalem was one of the principal targets of Greek forces. Although outstanding in its beauty, its external magnificence was not fashioned for its own sake, as an end in itself. The Torah commands us to infuse the performance of mitzvot with beauty. Thus, the mantle which covers the Torah scroll and, even more so, the places of worship should all be beautifully designed. In the Temple, the menorah, the altar, and the table were all made of pure gold -- and were regarded by the Greeks as works of art.

In accordance with their philosophy, the Temple's vessels had to be preserved because of their artistic value. But before preserving them, they wanted to desecrate them in the eyes of the Jews by slightly damaging them. Their collaborators, the Jewish Hellenists, suggested that at least they should be touched by a ritually impure person, thus disqualifying them for use in the Divine service of the Temple.

At the end of the war, the Maccabees learned that the Temple had been defiled, and they proceeded to make preparations to re-sanctify it. The rekindling of the menorah was one aspect of this process. This service required pure olive oil extracted for this particular purpose.

The Sages of that generation saw a distinct sign from Heaven in the miracle of the oil. Once again it was obvious on the empirical level that matter is not the master. He Who determines a rate of combustion so that one cruse of oil burns for only one night, can also will it to burn for eight. Materia has its Divine potential which became clearly reflected, in parallel to the authentic ritual loyalty of the victorious Maccabees. The Sages saw in this the full realization of the victory of the world of the spirit over the world of matter.

To ensure that the lesson be remembered, they established a permanent practice of rejoicing and thanking God each year during these eight days. On eight-branched menorahs, Jews in every land would light one additional candle each evening at nightfall, after returning from work, placing the menorah in a window overlooking a public domain or at the opening of their house, to publicize this miracle of the spirit.

The main theme of the festival of Chanukah (which means "dedication") is the publicizing of this miracle in the rededication of the Temple. In the prayers, additional stanzas of gratitude and acknowledgment are added, the most well-known being Hallel (Psalms 112-118), which is recited only on festivals.

Contact the poster at ahavat@telkomsa.net

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ISRAELI RESPONSE TO TERROR
Posted by John Randall Peacher, January 2, 2006.

In Israel's ever expanding effort to appease Western governments, the United States and Britain in particular, a more measured response to terror may result in more favorable position. When only two or three Israeli civilians are murdered, a fly over by an F-16 is acceptable. If more than a half dozen are murdered an emergency meeting with the Palestinian Authority would be in order, with representatives from the United States and Britain in attendance to ensure that complaints by Israeli government officials are not too strong or demanding. If rockets are fired from Palestinian territory and land over five feet from a school house full of children, no action is required. If several windows are blown out and children are injured, maybe a cut arm, legs or face and an eye or two missing, a meeting may be necessary.

As long as Jews are murdered three or four at a time by disadvantaged, militant, not terrorist, Palestinians, or by members of any number of terrorist entities that have determined that Israel must be destroyed, no emergency meeting is required. If Jews are killed, maimed, or murdered in mass, something like another Holocaust, the issue will be on the agenda at the United Nations for the coming fiscal year.

This, I believe, is the measured response from Israel that the world is seeking.

John Randall Peacher lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia and can be contacted at jabb0kjp@aol.com

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YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY
Posted by Batya Medad, January 2, 2006.

"A lie told often enough becomes the truth." -- Lenin, Russian Communist politician & revolutionary (1870 -- 1924)

And according to Mark Twain: "The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal." -- Mark Twain (1835 -- 1910), Advice to Youth

You know what they say about telling lies, tell them often enough, and people will believe them. Does that make them "true"?

The entire "Palestinian people" is a legend. There's no historical proof. It was invented in the 20th century.

And the Israeli insistance that terror decreases after each territorial withdrawl is another lie. Pre-Oslo Israel was a safer place. The same about Disengagement, though they want us to believe otherwise. The truth is that Israel is in more danger than it was before.

Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il This is archived at http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2006/01/you-know-what-they-say.html

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NO SOLUTION TO TERRORISM?
Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, January 2, 2006.

Our Israeli politicos go to great efforts to imitate their American counterparts in many of their lower forms of culture. You know like stealing public funds, lying to the people and exploiting public office for private gain. Too bad they can't imitate them in some of their more positive ways.

The next time some one tells you there is no solution to crime, terrorism or urban decay, tell them to check out New York. There does seem to be an answer.

This article is called "New York murders lowest since 1963" and it is by Harry Mount in today's News Telegraph (news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml= /news/2006/01/02/wmurder02.xml)

The crime rate in New York has dropped for the 17th consecutive year, with the fewest number of recorded murders in the city since 1963.

Over the past year, there have been 537 murders, down from 566 in 2004, and a peak of 2,245 in 1990. Rape, assault, burglary and car theft have all tumbled, with subway crime down by five per cent, according to New York Police Department statistics.

New York is now the safest big city in America, while other major cities, including Boston, Houston and Philadelphia, are witnessing soaring crime rates.

Vast areas of the city that were once no-go areas are now no-murder areas. In 2005, eight precincts recorded no murders, including Central Park, which was once infamous for night-time killings.

The fall in crime began under former mayor Rudolph Giuliani in the mid-1990s, when he introduced his "zero tolerance" policies, whereby police clamped down hard on all crimes, from subway fare dodging to illegal gun possession.

Mr Giuliani flooded crime-ridden areas with policemen, increasing patrols and getting officers out from behind their desks.

Crime dropped 57 per cent under Mr Giuliani, and has fallen a further 20 per cent in the past four years under Michael Bloomberg, the media billionaire who began his second term yesterday.

Mr Bloomberg has increased police numbers and his police commissioner, Ray Kelly, has introduced "Hercules" teams -- heavily armed, black-clad special forces-type units -- into crime blackspots.

Problem areas have been flooded with police academy recruits, accompanied by more experienced officers. The number involved in this operation will be doubled to 1,200 next month.

Mr Bloomberg said: "Every year, experts say we can't drive crime down any further, but happily the NYPD proves them wrong and breaks another record."

Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright

Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel.

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JEWISH YISRAEL
Posted by Ya'aqov Ben-Yehudah, January 2, 2006.

This was written by Andras Bereny. Contact him at bereny@tin.it.

In order to resolve the conflict between Jews and Arabs first we should resolve the REAL conflict, that is to say the one between those who want an atheist Israel, Jewish only by denomination but democratic in substance, and those Jews who think democracy can only hurt the Jewish People and want Israel to be Jewish.

We shall consider that democracy is a Greek word that stands for an ancient law-making method, based on people's power, "demos" meaning people and "cratos" power. By the way, democracy also mistakes quantity for quality, making laws of the "more" as opposed to the "better".

The positive values we comonly attribute to democracy today, like the respect for the other and helping the weak, are actually Jewish values. In reality democracy is the dictatorship of a few tax- consumers over the majority of the tax-payers.

Over and above the age-old problem of corruption (the "people's representatives" tend to represent themselves and their tax-consumer client's interests' rather than that of their elector's), for the Jews there is a much bigger problem.

Should the "people's representatives" decide that a Golden Calf is necessary, the government would be obliged to respect this "law" and build one. The Golden Calf episode actually warns us against people's power, against democracy! Democracy may be good for the nations, but the Jews were clearly warned not to adopt it.

Israel today is run by these democratic, Golden Calf building Jews. Not only. In the Knesset there are olso Arab legislators to determine the present and the future of the Jewish People.

Jews know only too well what Hellenism is all about, what it means for them and remember well their victory over it, every year, at Hanukah!

It should also be said that Judaism is much older than democracy and stands for an altogether different principle. Jews believe that the Law is given by G-d, certainly not by some elected individuals.

In substance: Man should not take into his own hands the legislative function! This belongs to Hasem, may His Name be blessed.

These are just some of the reasons why we are for our G-d Given Law on our G-d Given Land or, to put it in simple words, for a Jewish Yisrael.

We want Israel to be a modern theocratic kingdom.

Please don't misunderstand this statement: I'm not talking about individual observance -- it is a private and religius matter. What I'm talking about is the institutional setup we shall give to our Country, on our Promised Land, in Eretz Yisrael.

We can have no trust in an atheist and democratic power-structure that has nothing to do with Judaism. That is why it constantly negotiates our very presence on our Land.

Let's stand up for Jewish Yisrael! After all there are many democratic countries in the world today whereas there is only one Israel!

Some people say that it is simplistic to "pit" democracy against Judaism because the current regime practices neither.

Well, I agree with them. The current regime practices neither democracy nor Judaism. I also agree in saying that it is simplistic to "pit" democracy against Judaism: I am a simple man and want simple answers.

The "simple" fact however is that democracy assigns sovereignty to the people whereas this role the Torah assigns to G-d. Now, this doesn't seem to me a little, insignificant difference.

I also and "simply" think that we should do everything in our power to adequate the institutional model of Israel to the model of institutions we pray for every day.

"Now, that is ideology" -- you might say. I think it's just a question of being Jewish, marching in Hasem's way. There are other important arguments against democracy. Think, the whole demographic issue is a byproduct of democracy and without democracy the arab birth rate becomes irrelevant. Furthermore, with no democracy you cut out a whole corrupt class of "leaders" that act against the Torah.

The Torah does provide us with detailed definition of our Land and the institutions we need to govern it -- and we know it!

There is just one more thing I'd like to mention. I'm no fool and I understand perfectly well that what I'm saying is irrealistic. It is irreailistic to propose to end the so called democratic regime today in Israel or anywhere else for that matter. Now, that does not mean that saying it loud and clear is not useful.

The fact is that "extremisms" serve not only to realize their declaired program. They also contribute to determine where the center stands. An example? Today we take it for granted that our very territory is challenged. Why? Because palestinists are shouting this extremism into our and the world's ears for years. With other words we are loosing out also because we always pretend to be "impartial" and "just", forgetting that we are part of the dispute and fighting for our very survival against a deadly enemy. In this way we allowed the center to slide down on the palestinists side.

So, what we need now is to reposition the center -- to the center. And the way to do this is to put up a Jewish -- "extremism". This will do the trick and resolve many real and serious problems.

* Please feel free to forward this text to your contacts, print it out and display it in your shul, ask your rav to read it out loud: There are great things to accomplish and we have a long way to go.

Contact Ya'aqov Ben-Yehudah at yaaqov.ben.yehudah@gmail.com.

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WHEN WEAKNESS IS NOT A VIRTUE
Posted by Gerald Steinberg, January 1, 2006.

The victory of the Maccabees which took place 22 centuries ago was a triumph of the "few against the many" and the weak against the strong. Similarly, in the dramas of Moses facing Pharaoh, David against Goliath, and -- in 1948 and 1967 -- tiny Israel versus the onslaught of the combined Arab armies, the success of the underdog is a frequent theme in Jewish history.

After so many generations of struggle against powerful persecutors, it is not surprising that we generally view ourselves as the perennial targets of neighborhood and regional bullies.

But weakness is not inherently a virtue, underdogs do not always behave morally, and not every revolution is righteous. (The Maccabees and the Hasmonean dynasty had their own moral issues, particularly later in their history). Being identified as "the few" does not guarantee ethical behavior; by the same token, being more powerful than an opponent is not equivalent to immorality.

Jewish tradition views the early monarchy under King David and Solomon as a Golden Age, in spite of the military strength that they possessed. And on Hanukka, we highlight the righteous behavior that is the key to military victory, and not the other way around.

This fundamental distinction between ethical behavior and victimhood has been lost on many of the world's pundits and intellectuals, who have made a virtual religion of automatically associating power with malevolence, and weakness with morality.

A simple weighing of power provides an easy way to avoid dealing with moral complexities -- it is much easier to elevate victims and refugees, regardless of the responsibility they may have for their plight.

In this twisted world, America and Israel are automatically labeled as "immoral" because they are viewed as strong, while terrorists of various stripes are venerated for challenging this power. Although both the US and Israel make mistakes in defending their citizens against attack, the disproportionate condemnations they get reflect an obsession that goes far beyond rational criticism. And by the same token, the adoration in which violent leaders such as Che Guevara, Yasser Arafat, and Osama bin-Laden are held is a reflection of a simple-minded distortion of moral principles.

THE HIGH priests of this "religion" include academics in Europe and North America, such as Noam Chomsky (a linguist by training), as well as his followers in Israel. The same malady afflicts many pundits, masquerading as journalists, who write in The Guardian, Independent and Haaretz, or preach on the BBC. In the age of mass media, they have access to powerful platforms to promote an ideology that condemns power.

The replacement of morality with victimization (as is often seen in the campaigns that support the Palestinian cause) is also highlighted in international frameworks.

During a recent visit, a prominent British MP repeated this cliche, almost word for word. When Israel was young, he declared, and Jews had their backs to the wall, he was filled with admiration. But now that Israel is powerful, and it is the Palestinians who are suffering, we have lost his sympathy. And the UN Human Rights Commission has long since stopped caring about morality, and focuses most of its resources on attacks against the powerful democracies.

Similarly, non-governmental organizations that justify their campaigns on the basis of moral claims have adopted this false morality. Amnesty International, which was founded during the Cold War to press tyrannical regimes to release political prisoners, has lost its way entirely. This political organization now devotes a major portion of its annual budget of over $43 million to attacks against the anti-terror policies of the US and Israel. Amnesty's agenda is not based on relative assessments of immoral and unethical behavior, but on an emotional opposition to military means without regard to whether it is used for aggression or defense.

Human Rights Watch (Amnesty's New York-based sibling) seems to worship Palestinian victimization and obsessively condemns Israeli responses to terror. Both HRW and Amnesty have devoted far fewer resources to the human rights violations in Sudan than to Israel-bashing, in part because the perpetrators as well as victims in Darfur are both defined as global "victims," and no major power is involved.

In contrast, as generations of rabbis have taught, the victory of the "few against the many" was the necessary basis for the triumph of morality and righteousness over evil.

The Maccabees squandered their success on the battlefield, and we must continue to learn from their mistakes. In contrast, Israel's military power is not an end in itself, but rather the foundation for a "light unto the nations."

The writer is the director of the Program on Conflict Management at Bar-Ilan University and the editor of NGO Monitor.

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LOOKING REALLY VERY GOOD
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 1, 2006.

Clearly, once again Jews are at risk of dying in large numbers - simply because Israel has a confused aged leader and a large Leftist population who cannot grasp the idea that Arab Muslims are pledged to eliminate the nation. [Note! Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's threat to "wipe Israel off the map" & for Iran to achieve nuclear capability within 3 or more months.]

The Jews of Europe proved that they could not and would not recognize the "rolling horizon" of death coming for them and they died. The Leftist Jews of Israel and elsewhere are once again in a state of denial that the Arab Muslims will kill them when the opportunity presents itself.

Once again, the world seems to be saying that "Jews must sacrifice themselves in large numbers in order to appease a hostile world who has been gathering for some time to complete Adolph Hitler's mission to eliminate all Jewry in "the Final Solution to the [their] Jewish Problem".

This was written by Sarah Honig and it appeared in The Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1135696359998&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull) December 29, 2005.

To put the manipulative clean bill of health issued to Ariel Sharon into proper perspective, it'd help to keep in mind the timeless observation of that eminent American philosopher Red Skelton: "The three ages of man are youth, middle age and 'you're looking good -- very, very good -- really good.'"

When the medicos announced that in their professional eyes Sharon looked good, they firmly placed him in Skelton's final category. As if we didn't know.

Neither did we need their omniscience to figure that Sharon's recent minor stroke hadn't harmed his mental faculties. The great mind-altering trauma transpired way earlier. That drama was played out well away from cameramen thronging the entrance to Hadassah's emergency room. The truly significant event was never reported.

Indirectly the PM's Johnny-come-lately boosters implied the occurrence of a critical cerebral episode when portraying the damage it wrought as a miracle cure for what they previously diagnosed as Sharon's chronic personality disorder.

They were aghast on October 4, 2001, after Sharon spoke sense and challenged "the Western democracies, first and foremost the leader of the free world, the US: don't repeat the dreadful mistake of 1938, when enlightened Europe sacrificed Czechoslovakia for the sake of a temporary, convenient solution. Don't try to appease the Arabs at our expense. We will not accept this. Israel will not be Czechoslovakia. Israel will fight terrorism."

Sharon's numerous then-detractors were shocked to the core by his effrontery. But what they came to expect of Arik in his then-normal state was soon to change. Presumably after Bush's staffers took the trouble to explain to the president Sharon's reference to Czechoslovakia and what happened to it in 1938, he took umbrage and termed the analogy "unacceptable."

Mutual "unacceptables" marked the lowest point in the Bush-Sharon relationship. Thereafter a perfect meeting of the minds blossomed. Since Bush didn't change his own mind, we can only assume that something very drastic affected Sharon's psyche.

The once-troublesome and independent Sharon rapidly grew docile and obedient, acquiescing to any and all appeasement-oriented directives from Washington. As a result, 25 Israeli communities were uprooted and their folk scattered in the name of disengaging from an enemy who wouldn't let go.

SYMPTOMATICALLY, Sharon cowers before Condoleezza's commands. Consequently terrorist reinforcements and weaponry can be imported unimpeded via uncontrolled passage between Gaza and Egypt. Before long, Israel -- again at Condi's imperious insistence -- will be effectively severed to enable Gazans to traverse its sovereign territory en route to Judea.

Israel's sovereignty in the Negev is already construed as quasi-illegitimate, while Arab demands to intersect it are perceived as an inborn right that villainous Israel usurps from its virtuous implacable foes.

Such violation of Israel's integral domain was nonexistent prior to the Six Day War. Washington, therefore, leads Sharon not back to any status quo ante but to something infinitely worse.

Is the Sharon who facilitates this of sound mind? Or has the citizenry that allows these threatening travesties taken leave of its senses?

Only a mega-denial syndrome can produce assertions that disengagement works, or indeed that we at all disengaged.

The very suggestion by Sharon's cronies that electricity to Gaza be occasionally switched off proves we haven't disengaged, only carried out an awful vendetta against those the Left can't countenance. We still bear Gaza's burden. We provide its power, water, to say nothing of employment opportunities and trade. The number of permits for Gazan workers and merchants to enter Israel was just recently increased.

If Gaza's border with Egypt were de-facto opened, why shouldn't Cairo supply the Strip's electricity, water, jobs and business? That would truly return us to pre-1967 idylls, not just the "Judenrein" aspect of Gaza's halcyon days.

But Washington's appeasement never ruled out rendering Israel's predicament worse than what it was on June 4, 1967. Hence the restraint expected from Israel towards terrorist rocket strikes against its super-sensitive Ashkelon-area targets -- like the power station (which also supplies Gaza), the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline and huge fuel depots -- to say nothing of population centers long ago considered legal prey by international double standards.

Sharon not only turned Israel into Czechoslovakia, but into so reviled a replica thereof that it appears to deserve whatever it gets. Not unlike the 1938 original. Before Czechoslovakia was sold out, Europe's perfidious democracies took great pains to defame it. Britain's Neville Chamberlain and France's Edouard Daladier avidly echoed Hitler's harangues accusing Prague of atrocities against Sudeten Germans. Outrageous slander was propagandized as fact.

Sounds familiar?

The Czechs were demonized as warmongers, and enlightened opinion sympathized with Hitler's rationale for seeking to liberate oppressed Germans from the Czech yoke.

Even more familiar to Israelis should be the contention that by ditching Sudetenland and its ethnic Germans, Czechoslovakia would do its Slavic demography a great favor. Those Czechs narrow-minded enough to focus on the perils of divesting themselves of strategic assets were assured that territory is of no import in an age of peace and, besides, reliable democracies would guarantee Czechoslovakia's inviolable security.

Sharon knows what ensued. Territorial concessions didn't satisfy Hitler's appetite and he overran the country betrayed by its allies. That's what Sharon alluded to while his then-unimpaired analytical capacity was still manifest.

Can implementing the reverse of what he prudently warned against betoken judicious level-headedness? About as much as convincing ourselves that Sharon "looks good" so we can celebrate his rejuvenation, stop worrying about the competence of his deductive reasoning and deposit our fate in his trusty hands with no pesky qualms.

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm).

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PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE IS NOT NOW IN THE CARDS
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 1, 2006.

How might two cultures coexist in peace while extremists entrenched within one, nurture despicable obsessions demanding complete annihilation of the other' Israel's separation barrier, a bane to civilized coexistence, is not constructed out of disdain for Arab neighbors, but out of desperation, a last resort to protect citizens from fanatical Islamic homicidal lunatics shrouded in explosives that Islamic authorities are too weak or perhaps too unwilling to subdue. Nevertheless, rhetorical anguish afflicts the pens of pedagogic Palestinian apologists, themselves far removed from those mesmerized muddled murderous martyrs; yearning to infiltrate and detonate within Israeli arenas, buildings, schools, clubs, theaters, shopping malls, town squares, indeed any places citizens of the beleaguered state might gather; and no doubt would but for the protection of a "Wall of Life". Furthermore, any such cerebrally challenged pundit challenging Israel's right to construct that wall would likely not hesitate in constructing his own security barrier; no expense spared, no height or thickness too great; if his own child was at risk. In fact, such a sanctimonious Israeli basher would likely demand any such threatening enclave of fulminating fanatics be removed by eviction or perhaps extermination, if the exploding shoe was on his own fragile foot.

Israel maintains the capacity to obliterate its Arab enemies with high tech weaponry, but chooses not to do so for the sake of its own humanity. However, fundamentalist fanatics would not hesitate for a moment to obliterate Israel if they were so technologically equipped. With such diverse proclivities, it is incumbent upon the one high tech civilized humane culture to defend itself effectively from the low tech out of control atavistic aggressive culture, infected with a prehistoric perceptual deviance that encourages susceptible members to override their survival instinct while exploding and inflicting maximum damage to neighboring victims. Peaceful coexistence is impossible under these conditions. Unless and until the outer world forces Arab states to rein in their fanatical homicidal fringe elements, Israel must build its separation barrier ever higher and wider. Any other policy would be bereft of sanity.

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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DON'T TELL A SOUL!
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 1, 2006.

When Israel's Prime Minister Ariel (Arik) Sharon was kicking Jewish families out of their homes in Gush Katif/Gaza and Northern Samaria, the area was flooded with the world Media, virtually drooling at the aspect of a clash between the hard-working settlers and Sharon's Army. Newsmen, TV camera crews and anchorpersons, journalists and photographers were all relying on the axiom: "If it bleeds, it leads." Meaning -- if Sharon's specially costumed and psychologically brainwashed Army and Police thugs could be urged on to crack heads, it would create a sensational story and, therefore, make their day.

Sharon's name popped up hourly in local and foreign Media. Sharon, previously the hated barbarian of the Media was suddenly their darling for creating good news stories. Sharon was attacking those "hated" Jews who irritated the Muslim Arab Palestinians of Gaza. How the Media savaged those Jewish farmers who greened the formerly sandy, barren land. But, Sharon was now doing what the Left wanted, what the Osloids wanted, what the Arabists State Department and the Bush Administration wanted and always what the Saudis wanted.

How sure they all were that the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) and the Arab Muslim Palestinians would cease their terror -- much as they believed in Oslo.

So, the 10,000 peaceful Jewish men, women and children of Gush Katif/Gaza were driven out of their homes, schools, farms, factories, synagogues and even their cemeteries for the Sharon-Bush "Peace Dividend". They waited and waited and waited but -- no peace! -- only increased Terror. The slippery slugs like James Wolfensohn pledged money to the Gush Katif farmers for their innovative, remarkable greenhouses and bug-free produce. The farmers never got the money promised them and the Palestinians descended on those high tech greenhouses like vicious locusts, plundering, looting, destroying.

Now they cannot produce what the Jews had produced and Jewish farmers are being asked (secretly) for technical advice.

Suddenly, where Sharon's name was mentioned in every column, every TV news report, his name began to disappear when Muslim Arab Palestinians shoot Rockets into Israel. To mention his name now was to link him to the failure of his retreat from Gush Katif/Gaza. The Leftist Media still needed Sharon to evacuate the center of the country -- the heartland of Judea and Samaria. The failure of his uprooting Jews from Gush Katif must never be mentioned in the same breath as the results of his botched up operation in Gaza.

Sharon was advised time and again by the Chief of Staff, Head of Shabak, Head of the Air Force, Head of Army Intelligence, Head of Southern Command, etc. that if he created a vacuum in Gaza, it would fill up with Terrorists from all over the world, and become an operational firebase for Global Terror operations. All the projections and prognostications of the Right, the Top Generals, the leaders of Intelligence have all come true but, not for the Media. Sharon is their 'deity', as long as he and his "Kadima" Party collaborators pledge to savage the Jewish settlers of Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights and the Jordan Valley, and inevitably, that part of Jerusalem controlled and desecrated by Jordan for 19 years from 1948 to 1967.

When Kassem Rockets are launched from Gaza at Israeli cities, the strikes are not reported as the fault of Arik Sharon, the single person most responsible for the ongoing fiasco. He is to be protected from his own extravagant stupidity and hubris. Or, was it an aged brain with hardened arteries and his balloon like figure -- which will be the escape clause for Sharon and the Media.

Longer range Kassem Rockets have struck close to Israel's vital power plant and near the fuel depots in Ashkelon but, still these dangerous incidents are never connected to Sharon's responsibility for the blunder that allows the Terrorists an easy base of operations.

I hope one day to see Sharon in chains, along with the Leftist Hebrew Media, facing their Nuremberg Tribunal.

In the meantime, Gaza has become a battlefield of Muslim Arab Terrorists, each attacking the other over the spoils when they are not attacking Israeli cities. Abu Mazen, the 'pet' on display for the American President George W. Bush is failing dramatically and become an embarrassment for Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the "Shadow" Government driven by the oil magnates/maggots.

Sharon, their 'inside' collaborator, is doing his best to keep Abu Mazen afloat but has to make an election showing that he is also really protecting the Jewish nation as the Rockets fall in increasing numbers and potency. So, Sharon shoots empty buildings and empty fields and tells everyone he is making a "Security Zone" in Northern Gaza -- exactly where the now demolished 3 Israeli settlements were positioned as a real buffer security zone.

Sharon is trying to push the Kassem firing teams back a bit with his buffer zone (or more truthfully called "Sharon's bluffer zone"). When the settlers and Army were there, the Terrorists could not get close to Israel's cities. But -- now they can and it is all Sharon's doing.

Clearly, if Sharon is not able to hide behind the excuse and faulty judgement of an elderly sick man, then he must be brought to trial as a co-conspirator to commit treason against the Jewish Nation. But, keep an eye on the Media as they absolve Sharon and delete his name from each disaster emanating from the epicenter of Gaza.

There are those in the Hebrew/Jewish Media who follow the thinking of the anti-Semitic Julius Streicher, editor of the Nazi "Der Steurmer" who ended his days on the gallows after the Judgement at Nuremberg. Sometimes even Justice has its day.

Let us not forget the publishers, editors, journalists, news anchors who (like Streicher) hated the observant Jewish people -- especially the settlers -- and worked hard for their elimination. There will come a day when they will be hunted down and brought to justice.

So Don't Tell a Soul that everything that is happening in Gaza and into Israel is Sharon's doing. If Israel's Media refuses to mention Sharon in the collapse of Gaza and his grand plan, I guess we shouldn't tell anyone either.

###

Note! The article we just sent out by Ze'ev Schiff: "Escalation is Inevitable" substantiates this article. See below.

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm).

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ESCALATION IS INEVITABLE
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 1, 2006.

This was written by Ze'ev Schiff and appeared in Ha'aretz.

Ze'ev Schiff well known as an excellent reporter, especially on military matters, makes as egregious mistake in the following article. He keeps referring to the "Government" making wrong assumptions.

There is no "Government". There is one man, Prime Minister Ariel (Arik) Sharon who has made all those assumptions, resulting in what the Generals and the Intelligence heads predicted. The disaster is upon us and the fault is entirely Sharon's as Kassem rockets reach deeper into Israel. Sharon's reputation as a thinking military man has been proven to be not only wrong but a raging catastrophe for the Jewish nation.

Sharon's linkage to President George W. Bush, a sophomoric kid in a position of ultimate power, is another indication of Sharon's inability to judge either people or geo-strategic situations.

Sharon has wasted our military in firing on empty fields and empty buildings in order to maintain the fiction of a "Road Map" imposed on this addled old man as the judgements at Yalta to divide Europe were imposed on a sick President Roosevelt by Joseph Stalin.

Sharon's withdrawal/retreat from Gush Katif in Gaza proved to the Arab Muslim Terrorists that, even the old warrior Sharon, could be made to run like a terrified rabbit. Nothing can erase the flights, first of PM Ehud Barak from Lebanon and now Sharon from Gush Katif/Northern Samaria -- with pledges to retreat even further if he is once again allowed to be a government of himself -- aka a military dictatorship.

###

"Escalation is inevitable," by Ze'ev Schiff in Ha'Aretz 30/12/2005. (/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=664152)

The firing of the Katyushas on Kiryat Shmona this week, as the launching of Qassams on Ashkelon and the Negev continues, testifies to a failure of Israeli deterrence. Many months ago, the brass of the Israel Defense Forces said that the day was near when technological means would be developed that would decrease the threat of the rockets. This promise has not been kept.

In the Gaza Strip, the security forces have also not succeeded in locating the workshops that produce the Qassams, and most of the metal shops and rocket developers have not been hit. Major General Gadi Eisencott was right when he said that the war on terror is much more difficult when conducted from a distance, without control of the ground and the population.

In the war against the rockets, a number of other assessments have been proven wrong. The assumption that following the disengagement and the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip the firing of Qassams would stop or be reduced to a minimum has been proven wrong. In 2004, 309 rockets were fired on Israel, whereas in 2005, 366 Qassams were fired. Former GOC Southern Command Doron Almog warned that if the withdrawal included the northern Gaza Strip, the Qassams would hit Ashkelon. Almog argues that the disengagement was not an end to the conflict, and a 100 percent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip should not be carried out while the fighting continues. It is best not to set a precedent like this for the West Bank.

The government's reply was that keeping the northern Gaza Strip in Israel's hands would be a Sheba Farm for the Palestinians, an excuse to continue the fighting, even if it is clear that those who are launching the Qassams see all of Israel as one big Sheba Farm. In retrospect, the creation of a circumscribing strip in northern Gaza as a no-man's-land in effect cancels out part of the withdrawal.

Also proven wrong is the assumption that the Palestinian Authority would take action on the ground against the launching of the Qassams. There are thousands of armed people in the security organizations in the Gaza Strip, and they do not want, or are unable, to stop a few cells of the Islamic Jihad. Egypt already has about 300 security people in the Gaza Strip, among them more than 10 colonels. The Egyptians, too, promised to take action against the Qassams, a promise that has not been kept.

As of now, another assumption that has been proven wrong is that pressure from the Palestinian public would bring about an end to the firing of the Qassams. The reason for this, apparently, is that Islamic Jihad has no commitment to the public, while Hamas does -- unlike Hamas, Islamic Jihad has no public welfare institutions, and it does not care whether Palestinian workers work in Israel and whether they have difficulties, as the result of terror, at the crossing points between Gaza and the West Bank. The aid from Iran and Syria is more important to them.

In Israel, there are those who say the pressure from the Palestinian public has been too light. However, there are also those who are appealing to the High Court of Justice demanding that it order the cessation of the flights over the Gaza Strip because they cause sonic booms. The operational level has been consulting experts on international law -- to the point of exaggeration -- about what is permissible and what is prohibited in the operational context, like the proposal to turn off the electricity in the Gaza Strip every time the Palestinians fire on the power station in Ashkelon.

The forecast on the matter of the Qassams is not good. Sooner or later the Palestinians will improve their range, or will succeed in smuggling long-range Katyushas from Sinai. At that point we will see that Ashdod, too, is within the range of the rockets. There is also the possibility that they will succeed in smuggling similar weapons into the West Bank territories. In such a situation, escalation will be inevitable. The way of dealing with it will not be another unilateral withdrawal. In the unilateral move Israel in effect caused the elimination of the disarmament by agreement of the Gaza Strip.

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm).

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TWO FACES OF AN OLD BULLY
Posted by Women in Green, January 7, 2006.

This was written by Shmuel Katz, and it appeared in The Jerusalem Post, Dec. 29, 2005. Shmuel Katz co-founded the Herut Party with Menachem Begin, and was a member of the first Knesset. He is a biographer and essayist.

This period of political chaos in Israel calls to mind a popular tale from the days of the Soviets. An election to the Supreme Soviet is in progress, and Dmitri Pavlov, a peasant from a village near Moscow, arrives at the polling station to cast his vote. He takes his place in the queue and finally reaches the table of the secretariat. His name is checked on the voters' list.

The chairman draws a slip from a pile on the table, and puts it into an envelope from a second pile. He is about to slide the envelope into the slotted ballot box nearby when Pavlov calls out: "Hey, comrade, let me see whom I am voting for!" The chairman gives the peasant a shocked look. "Don't you know, Comrade Petrov" he says "that in a democracy, the ballot is secret!"

The 20,000-odd Israeli citizens who rushed to join Ariel Sharon's new Kadima Party are still singularly uninformed about what the party's policy is going to be. Already named Kadima, it does not give the new member a clue as to which way is forward. Nor are they enlightened by the news that some politicians have reportedly been promised ministerial posts in the new party in return for cutting their previous political associations.

They seem to be guessing that Ariel Sharon aims to be centrist -- a cozy term which suggests "moderate." But moderate is not a fixed point in a political universe. It depends, as Sharon himself would say, "whether you are looking from there, or from here."

Some years ago, as reported in an American news journal, an American politician, newly returned from a visit to an Arab state, was singing the praises of its ruler when one of his listeners called out: "What about them cutting off the hands of convicted thieves?" "No, no, no," replied the politician. "He is a moderate. In his country they only cut off the fingers."

SHARON'S CONVERSION to moderation took place, of course, after he had been elected. It was then that he expressed the opinion that the Palestinians were entitled to a state of their own. His official endorsement of the idea came with the infamous road map the next year. Quite irrelevant to its contents, the road map should never have been accepted by Israel. It should have been sent back as "unacceptable." It was compiled by, or in cooperation with, parties demonstratively hostile to Israel -- the United Nations and the European Union -- and even sworn enemies of Israel who had tried by war to prevent its birth and subsequently launched repeated wars aimed at its annihilation.

Saudi Arabia is mentioned as an adviser in the document, as well as the Arab League. Its stated objective was to set up a Palestinian state. Why should the government of a self-respecting sovereign nation accept a diktat -- whose genesis, incidentally, was an almost exact replica of the way the Munich Pact was handed to a hapless, betrayed Czechoslovakia in 1938? The road map was shoved at Israel as though it was a defeated enemy.

Yet Sharon swallowed the insult, and tried to make it acceptable to the people of Israel by compiling 14 amendments. No sooner was it announced that Israel proposed amendments to the map than US secretary of state Colin Powell proclaimed that no amendments would be accepted.

Nevertheless Sharon persuaded his cabinet to accept it. Its implementation was supposed to start with the ending of terror and the disarming of the terrorists. The terrorist groups, however, had no intention of giving up their arms and Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, proclaimed he had no intention of trying to force them to do so.

The road map thus encountered a critical snag. But Sharon, who had insisted that disarmament had to be effected before Israel did anything further, suddenly took the opposite course. He announced his unilateral "disengagement" plan, giving up Gaza (and expelling its Jewish inhabitants).

When his own party decisively rejected the plan he did not resign. With parliamentary democracy thrown to the winds, he dismissed recalcitrant ministers, added Labor opposition members to the government and, employing the army and the police, expelled the thriving, compact Jewish communities of Gush Katif.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was delighted. This, she said, was part of the road map. It seems she saw in this an American diplomatic achievement. Nobody talks, however, about insisting on ending the terror. Indeed, the surrender of Gaza has only whetted the appetite of all -- Arabs, the American establishment and Europe alike - for more surrenders of territory. To this end they are all now waiting for Sharon to come out as victor of Israel's general election in March 2006.

Civic courage and social courtesy surely require that Sharon apologize for ruining the lives of the Katif community, explain why it was essential for the national health and why it was an urgent measure. He should moreover have stressed his thanks and admiration for the steadfast bravery of the community over the years of Arab terror directed against them. He never came to them. What he did do was to abuse them verbally and to have those who chose to resist being driven from their homes, including youngsters of 14, treated as criminals.

Yet the consequences of his reckless policy are already being felt. Hamas, heartened by its success in believing that it drove Israel out of Gaza, is still observing a truce pending its participation -- fully armed -- as a political party in the Palestinian national election in January. There it expects to achieve a great -- if not decisive - success. On the other hand, their comrades-in-arms, Islamic Jihad, are moving their front lines forward into northern Gaza, toward Israel's southern heartland around Tel Aviv. Some of their rockets have now reached Ashkelon.

NOW THE bold and daring expeller of 8,000 Jews turns out once again to be a mild lamb in foreign relations. Thus he has given a foothold (albeit small) to Egyptian troops monitoring the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt. He has also brought in representatives of the openly hostile European Union to oversee the Rafah crossing. He froze the long-discussed operation of closing the gap between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim (E1) to the southeast of the city. Military observers moreover are pointing to the "restraint" displayed by Israel in responding to the ever continuing terror. Of course, the explanation offered by the obedient media is that we must help strengthen Abu Mazen in his contest with the Hamas terrorists.

Remember how, after Oslo, Israel was asked to give Arafat rifles so that he could suppress the terrorists?

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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REPETITION: "DON'T YOU DARE KILL OUR KILLERS!"
Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, January 1, 2006.

It has been suggested to me that my articles often contain a certain amount of rehashing or repetition. This is quite true simply because the same people are doing the same dangerous things with minimal variations.

The Muslim Arab Terrorists continue to kill Jews, followed by the rationale that they are only responding when one their own has been assassinated. Of course, they leave out the fact that the Terrorist has already been engaged in killing. In other words, "Don't you dare kill our Killers!"

I often write about the regime of Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. I admit to reminding my readers that Sharon has betrayed the nation, lied and engaged in crookery that would or should have put him before a Peoples' Court (if there was one).

Because people usually forget unpleasant information within a few days or weeks, particularly years, they continue to return back into power these same unethical politicians who feed on their own people like parasites. The people have been so trained to obey that they assume their leaders have their best interests at heart. (Regrettably, Israel's leaders of today come first before their peoples' needs and interests.)

Yes, I am repetitious simply because the Muslim Terrorists continue to Terrorize and Israel's leaders continue their perfidious selfishness. Once in power, the only promises they keep are those which threaten the safety of those whom they pledged to protect.

I recall being on the Executive Board of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. Then, as a free-lance journalist and commentator, I wrote a hard biting article about Ezer Weizman which spoke about certain of his nefarious activities. Some may recall the financial deals wherein Weizman received considerable illegal donations for his personal pocket. Weizman was furious and complained to my good friend Maj. Gen. Aharon (Arelah) Yariv, z'l who was the Head of the Jaffee Center. Naturally, Arelah interceded and asked me not to write those kind of things. It wasn't good for the Jaffee Center's image:

Ezer Weizman, like Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, Arik Sharon and a lot of other men were all part of the ole boy's club and therefore untouchable playing on the principal: "You watch my back and I'll watch yours." In the meantime, all had their noses in the public treasury. Any dirty side deal was winked at.

I admit to repeating myself because things have not gotten better -- only worse.

Many of these leaders were field generals. All had enumerable chances to perform heroically and some performed well to remarkably well. However, don't confuse battlefield talent with ethics. In fact, some of the best generals had a wide streak of dishonesty in their character which allowed them to better understand their enemies. Somehow they were better generals because they thought like their enemies -- even though they fought each other to the death.

They deserved the honors they received for their military exploits but, as civilians they also thought the nation was theirs for the plucking. They used the law of the land like their own personal garbage can. Regrettably, the Courts went along with their schemes -- rarely bringing any to trail, let alone prison.

I have been advised that bad-mouthing the leadership makes Israel look bad and could therefore, be forced out of power. Well, if they let these scavengers feed on the people, then they should look bad. We have all watched Sharon savage the good people of Gush Katif/Gaza and northern Samaria in order to cover-up the Sharon family's crooked financial dealings. It is no secret that Sharon has kept the Gush Katif evacuees shuttling from one shabby hotel to another when they had been hard-working, self-sustaining patriotic citizens of the Jewish State. With his disgusting ability to plan well, he insured that these evacuees would be kept far apart and in misery to insure that they could not gather and effectively protest his policies.

Everyone thinks it was merely poor planning and the appointment of incompetent party hacks who insured that no housing is available when 10,000 men, women and children were uprooted and evicted from the homes they had created and built over 3 generations.

Indeed, it is all of that but, mainly Sharon and his gaggle of slippery advisors who could not afford to have the Jews of Gush Katif awakening the rest of the nation to his next stages of evacuation. In brief, it was not poor planning but deliberate, pre-meditated planning to keep the evacuees unsettled, on the move and out of the public's eye.

For these and many more reasons, I remind the Jews of the corruption that has unfortunately become endemic at the highest levels of Israel's so-called leadership, I will add that I feel the same about much of America's Jewish leadership who simply "go along".

Did you think that it was only primitive people, ruled by tribal chiefs who adapted to a slave mentality? I submit that most population of the so-called higher intellect are merely slaves to what they have been trained to do. Granted the tyrants and dictators who rise to lead seem to have more purpose or, at least, they are more ruthless in persuading us what to do. But, we are not mindless zombies subject to those who would-be masters...at least some of us. It is understandable that many do not wish to be reminded with frequency that crooks are running our lives and we must move against them.

So, I accept the responsibility to continue as the proverbial gad-fly and to sting the crooks as well as their half-asleep victims. It took the French a long time to say "Enough!" and implement their Revolution with the guillotine. Perhaps, if politicians knew that there was a price to be paid for their banditry, they may not be so quick to misuse the good will of the people.

I cannot help but wonder if the people were left under the spell of dictators and tyrants, would they end up acting like the Iraqis who cheered and loved Saddam Hussein even as Saddam's son Uday was feeding those Iraqi citizens who displeased him into mass graves which are still being discovered today.

Israel, too, is being shredded by the policy called "Disengagement". But that "Disengagement" actually morphed out of Oslo which itself had its genesis in the earliest de-Judification of the State.

One does not have to be Nostradamus or a Biblical Prophet to see what will happen to Israel under its current system of government where Sharon can literally pick one-third of the next Knesset members by selecting those 120 political players to be on his "Kadima" Party election list. Nor does one have to be a Gadol to see where Israel is headed as Sharon continues to dismember and undermine the strength and deterrent capability that a whole Israel, "Israel Schleima" or Greater Israel holds as a strategic asset in the Middle East for America and the rest of the Free World.

In closing, the latest news is the result of the Sharon-Bush blunder in emptying Gaza/Gush Katif of Jews. The Kassem Rockets are increasing in volume and distance. The sluggards of Leftist Media call them "Home Made Rockets" as if they were merely non-explosive toys intended only to make noise (like fireworks) and not kill.

Sharon, our elderly Prime Minister in his dash for re-election, has sent aircraft to bomb the areas where the launching of these Rockets occurs (all areas previously settled by Jews and now available to the Terrorists thanks to Sharon's withdrawal.) Sharon's propagandists are telling the Israeli people that because the attacks continue, he will make Northern Gaza a "No-Go" area for Muslim Arab Palestinians.

That's reminiscent of the Lebanon "No-Go" area which then Prime Minister Ehud Barak abandoned in the middle of the night and left as a vacuum which was quickly filled by Hebz'Allah (Party of G-d) Terrorists (supported by Syria and funded by Iran) who possess some 12,000 missiles (many with chemical warheads).

So the great General Sharon, in his addled state of mind, is creating a barrier over land he abandoned which is now filled with Arab Muslim Terror Organizations such as Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades and others. If ever a bumbling incompetent should be driven from office as a clear and present danger to the nation, Sharon is that man and now is that time.

The other Bumbler who encouraged the Gaza Evacuation (President George Bush) has shut his mouth and, for the moment, is allowing Sharon to create a fake display of bravado against those incoming Muslim Arab radical Islamists from Global Terror organizations who are shelling Israel daily.

All the lives and all the money Sharon pledged to save by his stupid and cruel "Disengagement" (Eviction/Deportation) is now -- as predicted -- five times and growing what it cost to keep Israeli Army patrols and checkpoints in Gaza.

Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm).

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A MODERN CHANUKAH MIRACLE TO BE?
Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, January 1, 2006.

Another Chanukah flows by with but a whisper of its monumental message. How might a few magnificent Maccabees smite a mighty Hellenic army hell-bent on suppressing Israel's natural right to express its Judaic identity? Furthermore, how might a one-day supply of fossil fuel furnish eight fold its presumed yield of flickering flames to emphatically emanate from the opening of a holy oil lamp located within the sacred space of the day's foremost Jewish temple, tempting minds to transcend rational boundaries and muse over miracles.

Beyond such musings, the holiday of lights teaches the collective Jewish cerebrum that size is dwarfed by spirit. The tiny besieged but feisty Israeli democracy indeed survives despite the despicable intentions of the many surrounding immensely larger malevolent Muslim regimes yearning for its annihilation. Angry Jew hating Arab armies attempted but failed to squash Israel in 1967, unable to vanquish spirited exponentially more competent intrepid troops not only protecting but expanding Jewish territory to the chagrin of the losers and their sympathetic sanctimonious supporters.

At present, a pandering planet placates Jordanians morphed to Palestinians by supporting their demands for pieces of Israel's conquest in payment for a patronizing promise of peace. Stewards of Eretz Israel must hold ground paying homage to Chanukah's prescient parable. Ceding Gaza alas has brought tsuris not peace.

A spirited newly formed sagacious counteroffer could emerge from an awakened Knesset, skewering the overwhelming dominant mesmerizing mindset of world bodies. Propose that a sovereign Palestinian enclave be carved from its proper homeland Jordan. America, for one, can successfully broker such an arrangement by offering the Jordanian kingdom economic incentives and compensation, well worth ensuing accolades from grateful civil nations worldwide. Indeed, Diaspora Jewry might also contribute monetarily to this "think outside the box" real estate transaction. A well-constructed concept much like a powerful seedling when planted can take root and spread enlightening the leading nations of this orb. A dollop of the right oil can miraculously ignite lasting flames of peace to extend over an expansive Middle East and all of mankind.

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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TWO-THIRDS OF PA ARABS SUPPORT AL QAEDA ATTACKS
Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, January 1, 2006.

This is from Arutz-Sheva

A Norwegian poll reveals that two-thirds of Palestinian Authority Arabs support Al Qaeda terrorist attacks, and 50 percent back suicide bombings.

The poll, which was originally not reported in Israel, was carried out by Fafo, an independent Norwegian research foundation that receives donations for Norway's trade union and Norwegian corporations.

Fafo headlined its press release by stating, "Palestinians support the cease-fire, but actions against Israel [are] still seen as legitimate."

However, the survey results buried toward the bottom of the release state, "Sixty-nine percent of Palestinians see violent action as a legitimate means in the current political situation and half of them believe that suicide attacks are necessary to force Israel to make political concessions."

The last survey figure shows that 65 percent of the respondents support Al Qaeda terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States, both of which recently have increased financial aid to the PA.

The respondents, while supporting the terrorist attacks, contradicted themselves, with 57 percent believing the Intifada should stop. In addition, 83 percent stated it is in their best interest to keep the "ceasefire" decided upon earlier this year. According to the pact, the PA was to stop incitement and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure, while Israel promised to withdraw from Arab urban centers and release 900 prisoners, including jailed terrorists.

Shortly after the agreement, the Sharon government released the prisoners on provision that they do not engage in terrorist activities, but several have since been involved in terrorist attacks. The IDF has withdrawn from Jericho, east of Jerusalem, and in Tul Karem, in Samaria, where it has returned several times following suicide bombings and terrorist attacks. Incitement in the PA has reached record highs instead of coming to a halt.

Another result of the Fafo survey reveals that only 35 percent of Arabs in Judea and Samaria feel more secure following the IDF withdrawal from the Gaza and northern Samaria regions, which followed the expulsion of Jewish residents in the areas and the destruction of their homes. Only 42 percent reported an improvement in their economic situation. Results from the Gaza area were the opposite.

Contradictions also were evident in opinions of the PA, with a majority thinking their government is doing a good job, but with less than one quarter expressing confidence in the PA.

An overwhelming majority wants the legislative elections to take place as scheduled on January 25, with 38 percent saying they will vote for Fatah and only 17 percent for Hamas. Other opinion polls have showed far higher support of Hamas, which recently swept several municipal elections in Samaria.

Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org

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CHANNUKA: THE EIGHTH CANDLE
Posted by Rachel Saperstein, January 1, 2006.

Tonight we will light the last candle of Channuka. It is over four months since our removal from our home in Neve Dekalim. We live in our small hotel room, we eat in the dining room. We meet our friends in the hotel lobby, we light our Channuka candles on the windowsill of an enclosed balcony along with the other families. It gets a bit crowded. Someone used our menorah so we've moved on to another one. They are not ours. They were gifts from a political party. They all pretty much look alike so we understand the mistake.

Families gather around the menorahs and say the blessings and sing the songs. The children are subdued, embarrassed to show too much enthusiasm in front of strangers -- hotel guests checked in for a day or two.

We sing of the miracles of the brave Maccabbees winning the fight against a corrupt Greek paganism. Today the Jews of Gush Katif, dispersed throughout the land of Israel, have taken up the mantle of bringing the beauty and bravery of religious belief to our people corrupted by the glitter of Western culture.

The hotel staff sets out the platters of donuts and "latkes", fried potato pancakes. No grating, no frying, no flour, no misshapen latka, no smells of home. There is a Hebrew sign in the window: "These Are the Candles Lit by the Expelled Jews of Gush Katif." Those who pass by remember us: Brave Jews of the present expelled from our homes but still commemorating our brave Jews of the past.

Nearby in the lobby of the Jerusalem Gate Hotel stands a menorah -- the menorah of Neve Dekalim -- the Mortar Menorah. The gold tinted menorah, made of the tail fins of exploded mortar shells, a star of David with the word Chai (life) in its center, kept our spirits alive during our last Channuka in Neve Dekalim. It resided in the home of one of our residents. When carried out to the moving truck the massive construction broke in half. Soldered, once again it shines today and will move again and again until it finds its place in a new community of Gush Katif, or perhaps it will return to the site of Gush Katif in Gaza where it truly belongs.

Last night, the 7th candle, I went to a birthday party for Sylvia Mandelbaum, the oldest resident of Gush Katif. Sylvia turned 90. Surrounded by children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren she displayed the charm and fortitude that characterized her life in Gush Katif. We hugged and kissed and talked of the spaghetti parties she threw for the kids on her birthday in her spacious house. Today she lives in one-and one-half rooms in Jerusalem. She has received no compensation for her lovely home and garden, now reduced to rubble.

Channuka, the eighth candle. A time for remembrance of a life that has passed. Don't think back, we are warned, look forward. But Jews always look to the past because the past is our present and the past is our future. If not, how do we explain Channuka and our adherence to Judaism despite all attempts to eradicate it. How do we explain love for the land of Israel despite all attempts to destroy it from within and without. And how do we explain our endless quest to be a light unto the nations despite all attempts to extinguish it.


We are pleased to report that OPERATION DIGNITY is now an official Amuta, or Non-Profit Organization. OPERATION DIGNITY is the umbrella organization to which "The Band Aid Fund" is included. We are continuing to give packets of money to each family from Neve Dekalim. "The Simcha Fund" helps families with brits, bar-mitzvahs and weddings. "The Seed Fund" helps families settle into Nitzan or other communities. Please say HAPPY CHANNUKA to the families. Send a contribution to

Central Fund for Israel
Rehov Hagoel 13
Efrat 90435
Israel
Earmarked: Band-Aid Fund

OR

Central Fund for Israel
attention: Arthur Marcus
Marcus Bros. Textiles
980 Sixth Avenue
New York, NY 10018 USA
Earmarked: Band-Aid Fund

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JWV DENOUNCES GERMANY'S RELEASE OF HIZBALLAH TERRORIST
Posted by JDL News, January 1, 2006.

The Jewish War Veterans of the USA (JWV) strongly condemns Germany's double dealing in their release of Mohammad Ali Hammadi, a convicted Hizballah terrorist. Hammadi was serving a life sentence for hijacking a TWA flight to Beirut and murdering an American Navy SEAL diver. Germany, in a blatant _expression of its moral cowardice, complied with the demands of Iraqi terrorist insurgents who had kidnapped German archaeologist Susanne Osthoff.

Her kidnappers released her after Hammadi was flown to Beirut. Germany ignored its commitment to extradite Hammadi to the United States in the event of his release. The JWV is pleased that Susanne Osthoff has been released, but believes that Germany and the world paid too great of a ransom. Mohammad Ali Hammadi is now free to continue his terrorist acts against America and its allies.

Germany's actions have endangered all Americans, and especially our troops overseas. Apparently American lives are of little to no value to our German "friends," who only know how to take without moral consideration. This deal will only encourage Iraqi terrorist insurgents to take more hostages, now that they know Germany is willing to negotiate the lives of non-Germans. Germany's hostage-for-terrorist swap marks the first time since 9/11 that a senior European ally has intentionally, and contrary to agreed policy, submitted to the demands of hostage takers by releasing a convicted terrorist. The United States must demand that NATO unconditionally condemn Germany for its subversiveness in the face of the world's enemies.

The Jewish Defense League promotes Jewish identity and Jewish rights. An activist organization, it was founded in 1968 by Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY"D. It continues to confront the all too real dangers presented by the white supremacy, neo-nazi and Islamic fascists. Contact them at jdlnews@jdl.org.il Or go to their website -- http://jdldotorg.blogspot.com/

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INDICT THIS WAR CRIMINAL FOR ORDERING TARGETED ASSASSINATIONS
Posted by Steven Plaut, January 1, 2006.

The press in Israel is covering a story about revelations that Winston Churchill, no relation to pseudo-Indian Ward, had ordered that Hitler be summarily executed if captured, without a trial. See http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/664536.html Not just the Rais Hitler either, by the way, but all the senior nazi party leaders.

You realize what this means? Israeli leftist professors will now be organizing a petition to have Churchill tried as a war criminal! After all, we know that it is a war crime to assassinate or summarily execute terrorists and mass murderers! The Israeli tenured Left have been telling us this for years.

How long will it take now for Israeli leftists to get their friends in Europe to indict Winston Churchill as a genocidal war criminal for that order before the International Court of Justice in teh Hague or similar kangaroo courts.

American campus leftists can join the struggle. Indict Winston Churchill and all British conservatives as war criminals collectively guilty of this order to commit human rights abuses!

But Churchill's war crimes go beyond that! The press article above reveals that Churchill was insensitive to the hunger pangs of striking Mahatma Ghandi! The cad!

It seems that papers released today show that Churchill favored letting the Indian peace campaigner Mahatma Gandhi die if he went on strike while interned during World War II.

Britain was unwilling to allow Gandhi to campaign against the war and the British government while India, a key colony, was under threat of invasion by the Japanese.

Gandhi was held in the Aga Khan's palace in August 1942 after speaking out against India's involvement in the fight against Nazi Germany and demanding civil disobedience.

After much discussion, British ministers decided in January 1943 that although they could not publicly give in to a hunger strike, they would be willing to release Gandhi on compassionate grounds if he seemed likely to die.

SO let us now have a competition among Ben Gurion University, the University of Haifa, Tel Aviv University, and the Hebrew University to see which institution can sign up MORE professors and lecturers on a statement demanding that Winston Churchill be indicted for the war crime of ordering targeted assassination of German nazi leaders.

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. Contact him by email at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il

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