DESTRUCTION OF THE HAZON DAVID SYNAGOGUE Posted by Hebron Press Office, March 31, 2004.

At about 4:00 this morning hundreds of police, soldiers and other security forces arrived at the Hazon David Synagogue outside Kiryat Arba. The gates to Kiryat Arba were locked and the road leading to Hebron was closed. At the time there were about 50 Hebron-Kiryat Arba youth at the site. It took only about 15 minutes until all of them had been forcibly evicted from the area. The security forces then emptied the synagogue of its books, Torah scroll and furniture. At about 5:00 AM an army D9 tractor began destroying the tent, which served as a synagogue for the past three years. (article: www.hebron.com/news/neverlosehope.htm) - (pictures before destruction: www.hebron.com/news/hazondavid.htm) (pictures of destruction: www.hebron.com/news/hdavid.htm) Within an hour the synagogue was gone. A short time later, after the gates were opened, furious Kiryat Arba - Hebron residents began rebuilding the synagogue, placing stone upon stone. Security forces attempted to stop the crowd, but failed. A group of men began worshiping morning prayers, and were surrounded by soldiers. However, the prayer service continued. Synagogue director, Rabbi Ya'akov Eichenstein, speaking to the crowd, promised that the synagogue would be rebuilt, bigger and stronger than the original tent. Hebron leader Noam Arnon, addressing remarks to the security forces who participated in eradicating the shul, asked, "what will you tell your children on Passover eve when they ask, Daddy, how could you destroy a synagogue? How will you explain the meaing of the Exodus from Egypt, allowing us to be a free people, when you are expelling Jews from their land?" You can contribute directly to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB10, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il, 972-2-9965333 or write to The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, hebronfund@aol.com To Go To Top

BUILD A MONUMENT TO THE INQUISITION Posted by Michael Freund, March 31, 2004.

Today marks the anniversary of one of the most important events in Jewish history in the past one thousand years. It is an episode that forever altered the destiny of the Jewish people, as well as that of European civilization, giving rise to seismic shifts in spheres as varied as cartography, commerce and mysticism. Scholars are still grappling with its consequences, centuries after it occurred, tracing the effects that it had on the fate of empires and the relations among the world's three great monotheistic religions. And yet, for all of the turmoil it created and the far-reaching changes that came in its wake, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 does not receive the commemoration that it deserves. Jewish history, of course, is awash in tragedy, and if we were to mull over each and every disaster that befell us throughout the millennia, there would be little time left for anything else. But the deportation of the Jews from Spain was so cataclysmic, and its impact throughout the ages so great, that it cannot, and should not, be forgotten. It was over five hundred years ago, on March 31, 1492, that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella signed the infamous edict, giving the Jews of Castile and Aragon several months to make a dire choice: convert or leave. Most of Spain's Jews chose the latter. American historian Howard Morley Sachar has estimated the number of Spain's Jewish exiles at around 100,000, while Hebrew University's Haim Beinart has put the total at 200,000. Others have spoken of even more. The exiles left for Italy, North Africa, and elsewhere, creating illustrious Sephardic communities in places such as Salonika and the Ottoman Empire, with some even reaching the Land of Israel. They and their descendants left their mark on Jewish law and lore, producing some of the greatest codifiers of Judaism, whose rulings are studied and followed until today. Andres Bernaldez, a priest who lived at the time of the expulsion, wrote of the sorrowful manner in which the Jews were forced to leave. "They went out from the lands of their birth, boys and adults, old men and children, on foot and riding on donkeys and other beasts, and in wagons." "They went by the roads and fields," he wrote, "with much labor and misfortune, some collapsing, others getting up, some dying, others giving birth, and others falling ill... and so they went out of Castile." In the popular imagination, the expulsion from Spain is inevitably intertwined, and often confused, with the Spanish Inquisition, even though the latter began before 1492 and continued long afterwards. The Inquisitors, of course, were hunting down "secret Jews", those who clung to their Jewish faith in private even as they professed Catholicism in public. According to the late historian Cecil Roth, the Inquisition's henchmen murdered over 30,000 "secret Jews". Some were burned alive at the stake in front of cheering crowds, while countless others were condemned for heroically preserving Jewish practices. Their descendants now live throughout the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, with many still clinging to memories of a distant Jewish past. The events of the expulsion and the Inquisition were seared into the Jewish people's national consciousness, and yet they receive hardly any notice today. To a certain extent, that is hardly surprising, given the fact that we are living in the aftermath of the Holocaust. It is, perhaps, only natural that previous calamities, from the Crusades to the Chmielnicki massacres, would be overshadowed as a result. And yet, that in no way excuses us from our responsibility to recall the sufferings of our ancestors, and to pass the lessons on to future generations. Israel should build a national monument to the victims of the Inquisition and the Expulsion, one that would memorialize the agony they endured while celebrating their contributions to Jewish culture and tradition. The courage displayed by many of them in clinging to their faith, even under the most difficult and trying of circumstances, is a lesson that young people in this country would surely benefit from learning. It would also serve as an important reminder of the magnitude of the Sephardic contribution to Judaism, both past and present, providing young Israelis with a glimpse of the golden age of Spanish and Portuguese Jewry. And what better way to underline the importance of having a Jewish state, a place of refuge for Jews all over, than to recall the events of 1492? It was precisely because there was no State of Israel back then that the persecution of the Jews could be carried out so effortlessly. At a time of rising anti-Semitism abroad, and political turmoil at home, it might seem incongruous to be focusing on the events of so long ago. But much of our current predicament is the result of the fact that we have for too long ignored, or chosen to overlook, what history has to teach us. Erecting a monument to the victims of 1492, then, would be an act of historical justice not only towards Spain and Portugal's once-thriving Jews, but, ultimately, to ourselves as well. The writer serves as Director of Amishav, a Jerusalem-based group which reaches out and assists "lost Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people To Go To Top

CONFESSIONS OF AN ANTI-SEMITE Posted by Marion D.S. Dreyfus, March 31, 2004.

Just struck me that wow - after a decade or so of embarrassed women feeling sheepish that someone famous told women it would be easier to get hit by a terrorist than to get married over 40, it is suddenly very clear that with all the despicable stuff going on in the world courtesy these slime, it is now easier to get married after the cutoff than to get hit by the sh**heels who plague us all day and night. Take that, Gloria. This article was written by Amotz Asa-El and appeared in the Jerusalem Post, March 25, 2004. There was a time when the Jews, while greedy, manipulative, conniving, and stiff necked as ever, at least understood what we wanted from them. Yes, when we fingered them for rejecting our faith, they argued, and when we charged them with killing our savior they denied, but when--to make ourselves better understood--we drew our swords, they mumbled Shema, submitted their necks, and departed from this world to the next. When it came to what mattered--they did as they were told. Thus, when we slaughtered them by the thousands, whether as Crusaders, Cossacks, pogromchicks or Nazis, all the Jews did was pray, cry, and die. Otherwise--they did as they were told. And when we expelled them from places where they had lived for centuries, they might have done their usual numbers--... lobbying, begging, bribing--but at the end... they did as they were told, hastily collecting what belongings they could before moving on with their ringing coins and wretched lives until they would find yet another set of fools who would put up with their usury, blood sucking, and well poisoning. And why would they do otherwise? After all, that was also how they reacted when we enlisted that mother of all Jewish values--law--as a major weapon in our war against the Jews. When the newly Christian Roman Empire actually etched in stone the Jews' inferiority and discrimination... the Jews didn't even lobby, beg, or bribe; instead, they shrugged, said something like shoyn, humbly accepted their role as living proof of another religion's victory over theirs; and did as they were told? [T]here was a time when all this went without saying. Did Germany's Jews ever think of protesting the Nuremberg Laws, not to mention resort to violence as they were being squarely told what was and wasn't legal for them to do? Of course not. They did as they were told. Set against this backdrop, it is truly mind boggling that we, of all good people in the last 2,000 years, have to be the ones born into an era when the Jews suddenly refuse to accept their fate and be blamed, besieged, attacked, and generally do as they are told. How dare they not listen, even when told expressly that their killing of a fine man whose only crime was to kill Jewish kids, mothers, and geriatrics like himself--is "unlawful?" Clearly, the Jews we face are different. What crosses their minds when they ignore pontifications, reprimands, and instructions like those unleashed at them this week by?everyone, from the UN's secretary-general to Her Majesty's foreign secretary? Do they perhaps recall at such a moment how Britain helped trap the Jews in wartime Europe? Clearly, this era's Jews are different. In this era, if you produce a feature film about their betrayal of Jesus,?if you just whisper something against the Jews, a chorus of Abe Foxman types hollers at you from a plethora of Jewish-controlled media. And when you take the Jews to court for daring to raise a wall between them and the bullets everyone knows they deserve, they have the audacity to play melodramatic tricks aimed at stealing the judges' show. At first, when I saw the trial in the Hague I recalled how in 1348, when our ancestors were burying the Black Plague's victims, they put the Jews on trial for having carried out their rabbis' orders to poison our wells. Though the pope of the time protested that accusation, he was fortunately ignored and it did its thing: the mobs blamed, attacked, and slaughtered the Jews. The Jews, for their part, did as they were told. Wait a second: the plague! that's it! They tell us the Madrid Massacre was but the first of many, that terror will soon plague the entire world, that who knows how many more thousands it will kill in train stations, subways, malls, stadiums, airports, skyscrapers, and airplanes, that it will debilitate international traffic, trade, and sports, and that - just as in the 14th century - people will be at a loss to find the causes and cures for their misery. This is it. As they flee terror's knives, bullets and bombs in confusion, panic and despair, we'll pit the masses against the Jews, blaming it all on them, their ancestors, their faith, and their race. This--the people will buy. And once they do, even these stubborn, tricky, arrogant, arms-bearing New Jews, will finally do as they are told. Marion D. S. Dreyfus is a journalist, currently living in Wuchan, China, where she teaches at the University and does a radio talk show. To Go To Top

SAUDI ARABIA AND IRAN DECLARE ECONOMIC WAR ON BUSH ADMINISTRATION Posted by Leo Rennert, March 31, 2004.

What are we to make of OPEC's decision today to go ahead with a 1-million-barrel cut in daily crude production? Oil "experts" are guessing that it may not have much of an impact on motorists in the U.S. because some OPEC members are bound to cheat. But whatever the economic ripple effects of this OPEC move, politically and psychologically it aims a direct hit at the Bush White House. As a starter, take into account that oil prices already are at record peaks and moving higher. If OPEC were interested in stabilizing the oil market (its usual rationale when prices are low) or doing Bush a favor, it would open the spigots to attenuate or roll back price rises that are giving Bush's reelection campaign increasing heartburn. Saudi Arabia and Iran (the two OPEC behemoths) know very well the likely political fallout in the U.S. of their decision to constrict supplies. It's their way of sending a check to the Kerry campaign, which sniffs a big political dividend from skyrocketing gas prices. Since Bush has certified Iran as a member of the axis of evil and is a bit less chummy with the Saudis than previous presidents, they in turn apparently have made a political calculation that "regime change" in Washington is in their interest. So it matters less what OPEC's move will do to oil markets and prices; what matters more is the political intent behind OPEC's decision. They know that Bush's war on terrorism, support of Israel and push for democratic reforms throughout the Middle East threaten their authoritarian hold on power. So since he's not doing them any favors, why should they? Far better to deal themselves in as players in November's election. To Go To Top

ESTABLISHING A EUROPEAN COALITION FOR ISRAEL (ECI) TO COMBAT ANTI-SEMITISM AND SUPPORT ISRAEL Posted by Unity Coalition For Israel, March 31, 2004.

Brussels - Christian organizations are preparing to meet the challenge of increased anti-Semitism abroad. Clarence Wagner spoke as liaison from the newly-formed European Coalition for Israel (ECI) to the U.S-based Unity Coalition for Israel. He stated, "It should not be up to the Jewish communities to defend themselves against the recent rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. After centuries of atrocities against the Jews in Europe, Christians should know better." After the recent wave of anti-Semitic violence and anti-Israel propaganda in Europe, leading Christian organizations have decided to coordinate their efforts on a European level. The new Christian initiative to support Israel was launched in Brussels in mid-march and is called ECI - European Coalition for Israel. Behind the new Coalition are the main Christian pro-Israel organizations with activities in Europe, among them Bridges for Peace, Christians for Israel, Christian Friends of Israel and International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. The new European Coalition will partner with the long-established National Unity Coalition for Israel, that combines these leading organizations with more than 200 other pro-Israel Christian and Jewish groups in the United States. Esther Levens, president and founder of the 13-year-old American based Unity Coalition, praised "this new Christian undertaking in Europe" and extended a warm welcome to "ECI, our new European counterpart in supporting Israel and defending Jews against reemerging Muslim inspired hatred. We look forward to continuing to work with all of the organizations involved and with Clarence Wagner, International Director of Bridges for Peace, who will now serve as coordinator between our two coalitions." "The time has come to work together," says the chairman of the new Coalition, Reverend Willem Glashouwer from Christians for Israel International. Last week the Coalition had its official launch in Brussels in connection with a conference organized together with the European Parliament and the European Jewish Congress. The initiative has been well received in Israel and in Jewish communities across Europe. Member of Knesset, Yuri Shtern, (National Union Party) believes "the new coalition could help change the political atmosphere in Europe." He came all the way from Jerusalem to be part of the official launch in Brussels where he was one of the main speakers. Shtern is the co-chairman of the newly formed Knesset Christian Allies Caucus with the same aim of working with Christian groups around the world, including Europe. As the Israeli Caucus started their work, they believed that they would first have to find all the right partner organizations; but to their su! ! rprise the Christians in Europe had already organized. Some would call this purely coincidence, but those who are people of faith would believe something else, says Caucus Director, Josh Reinstein, in Jerusalem. During the two-day conference in Brussels, the participants had the opportunity to watch video clips from the state-controlled Palestinian TV where incitement and hate speech against Jews flourish like never before. After the atrocities of the Holocaust became known to the greater public people seemed shocked as they assured that "they had no idea what had been going on behind their backs." Today we have no excuse. We have read our newspapers and we have seen the video clips where we are again hearing the all too familiar calls to "kill the Jews." This is not a time to keep silent but to speak out, says Glashouwer, making reference to the fact that last week marked the Feast of Purim commemorating the life of Queen Esther as she was called to take a stand with the Jewish people. The new Coalition will primarily work with informing the decision makers in Brussels about the complex realities of the conflict in the Middle East and the situation for the Jewish communities in Europe. A monthly newsletter has been sent out to all members of European Parliament since May of last year. After the newly elected Parliament is in place (elections to the European Parliament are held in June ), the Coalition plans to open up an office and have a full time representative in Brussels. When they do not listen to us anymore, your voice can still be heard, says Deputy Head of Mission Alon Roth-Shir from the Israeli Mission to the European Communities. The new coalition will work together with like-minded groups across Europe, but emphasises that the initiative is genuinely Christian. "No one ever asked us for any favour. We simply do this because we feel we have a moral and spiritual obligation to speak up when we see history repeating itself," says Tomas Sandell, Director of the Coalition. "We don't consider this a political initiative. We are neither rightwing nor leftwing but simply trying to be true to our Bible where we are called to bless the Jewish people and inform others to do the same. There should be no place for anti-Semitism in Europe." "For too long, the Church has remained silent. For too long the Jewish community has had to fight its battles alone. It is time Christian individuals and congregations speak up for the people who gave us the Bible," said Clarence Wagner, International Chairman of Bridges for Peace and Coalition board member. "The Christians of Europe are a sleeping giant who need to be awakened and rise up as a combined positive force for spiritual and moral change in Europe. That includes Europe's stand for Israel and the Jewish people and against anti-Semitism." The National Unity Coalition for Israel was 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! To Go To Top

A NEW LOW FOR U.N. COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Posted by Leo Rennert, March 31, 2004.

This was Ambassador Yaakov Levy's statement On the Question of a Special Sitting concerning Ahmed Yassin, 60th Session of the Commission on Human Rights, March 23, 2004. Mr. Chairperson, distinguished delegates, If you vote to hold this special sitting, it will be the first time in the history of the United Nations that a session is dedicated to lauding, supporting, glorifying a major leader of a terrorist organization. A new low, the worst ever. Every man and woman of conscience, any objective follower of this debate will cringe in horror, recoil in disgust that a UN body devoted to upholding human rights would, in effect, support the terrible wrongs the Hamas, under sheik Yassin, has committed. When Maria Tagilchev, a 14 year old from Netanya, was assassinated by the orders of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the head of the Hamas, in the Dolphinarium bombing in Tel Aviv, 1 June 2001, together with 20 other young people, this Commission did not dedicate a special sitting to debate, resolve or denounce the slaughter of 21 innocent Israeli children. When Perla Hermele, a 79 year old woman from Sweden, was murdered together with 29 other innocent civilians and 140 were wounded while celebrating the religious Passover, seder feast, at the Park Hotel in Netanya on 27 March 2002, on the direct orders of Ahmed Yassin, the OIC did not move for a special sitting. When 11-year-old Galila Bugala was murdered, along with 18 other Israelis, while riding a bus in Jerusalem on 18 June 2002, again on the orders of Ahmed Yassin, the Arab League did not consider it worthy of a special sitting. When 30-year-old Maurice Tubul was blown to pieces along with 9 others in a double suicide bombing at the Ashdod port on 14 March 2004, no one called for a special sitting. When the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was assassinated, along with 17 others, by suicide bombers in Baghdad on 19 August 2003, member delegates in this hall did not clamour for a special sitting. When more than 140 people were killed during in sectarian attacks in Iraq on 2 March 2004, A'shura, the holiest day on the Shia calendar, no Arab delegation raised its voice and called for a special sitting of the Commission. The bias and distorted standards manifested in this Commission year after year, and in an increasing manner since the beginning of it deliberations last Friday, once again express themselves in a request for the third consecutive special sitting or session on human rights related to Israel since October 2000. Even though in this time span we have witnessed ghastly acts of brutal terrorism and indiscriminate attacks in which hundreds and thousands of innocents, not necessarily in our region, were slaughtered by terrorists, at no time did the OIC lobby for a special sitting. Distinguished delegates, I ask you to ponder the reason why is a special sitting demanded only in the case when some parties here, most of which are renowned for human rights violations, who can command a majority, constantly desire to place Israel in the dock under one pretext or another? Ahmed Yassin founded the Hamas and led this terrorist radical organization, a central element in the fabric of global terrorism, whose primary defined goal and ideological credo call for a violent Jihad for the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of an Islamic Palestine "from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River" through violence, i.e. the elimination of the State of Israel. Yesterday, a Palestinian observer misquoted me as saying that the Palestinian goal was the destruction of Israel. I said nothing of the sort. Others did - like Ahmed Yassin. But why go outside this hall for evidence or take my word for it? Trust your own eyes. Just take a look at the heading on which the Palestinian observer's statement is printed and at the map of "Palestine". The map takes up all the land between Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. There is no place for Israel on a map distributed in this very hall. Yassin, this leading perpetrator of terrorist activity maintains a complex organizational, financial, and operational infrastructure as well as a military apparatus deployed not just in Gaza but throughout the world, supported financially and otherwise by two governments present in this hall, Iran and Syria. Ahmed Yassin personally approved dozens of major suicide bombings within the context of his personal responsibility for Hamas strategies-wholesale suicide terrorism in which hundreds of Israelis were killed, thousands injured. When Hamas, under the leadership of Ahmed Yassin recruited and trained women and young children, armed with suicide belts to be detonated either through their own will or through remote control, this body did not demand a special sitting to condemn the abuse of women and young children by their own people, nor the virulent incitement to hatred and death by Hamas leaders during sermons in mosques, and in children's schools and summer-camps. When Yassin and other leaders of the Hamas sent other children - other children, not their own children of course, and not members of their family - to commit suicide bombings, I didn't see a clamour in this hall to hold a special sitting. Hamas and Yassin produced and launched, sometimes on a daily basis, Kassam rockets against Israeli villages and towns. Nobody condemned them and asked for a special sitting. So Mr. Chairperson, distinguished delegates, When a prominent practitioner of international terrorism like Yassin, a chilling example of a cynical manipulator of the lives of his followers under the guise of a so-called "spiritual leader" distorts lofty religious principles in order to recruit suicide bombers including women and children to embark on so-called "holy war" missions and murder as many Israelis as possible, why is this the only occasion for asking for a special sitting? Distinguished delegates, I strongly urge you to vote against the holding of such a biased special sitting that only serves as another occasion for distorted standards, wild accusations, and inflammatory speech. Do not lend your voice and hand to further reducing and degradation of the credibility of this Commission and the UN as a whole. Thank you. To Go To Top

BETRAYAL IN EGYPT Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 31, 2004.

We are informed by DEBKAfile that, last month the U.S. delivered a packet of documents to Egypt which the U.S. army had seized in Iraq. These documents expose Saddam's deep penetration of Egypt's military by Egyptian traitors at the highest levels. (See (1) below.) This startling information can only be compared to Soviet penetration of West Germany and NATO, exposing all or most of American planning to defend Europe. This is more than damaging to Egypt, given that it also penetrates American communications and technology transferred over the years to Egypt. Keep in mind that the U.S. has furnished Egypt with America's most advanced weapons which would include frequency codes and methods which could defeat U.S. systems all over the globe. I have never believed in or trusted Egypt, no matter what the agreement she signed. I know that Egypt has been gifted $60 Billion in virtually free American military equipment. I have always opined the U.S. State Department looked to Egypt to replace the Shah of Iran and to protect U.S. interests in Saudi Arabia. Meaning that one day they would invade Saudi Arabia, take over the Saudi oil fields - supposedly in America's best interests. That was assuming that Egypt would not swing over to radical Islamic influence which it seems to be doing. The DEBKAfile report (attached) speaks of high ranking Egyptian generals and diplomats on Saddam's payroll. Extend that to mean that whatever Saddam knew, the Russians knew and perhaps the Chinese, North Koreans as well as well as the terrorist organizations he supported. Media people were also on his payroll which means that, not only the Egyptians but the French, Germans, English and even American journalists who would carry the Saddam propaganda line. (This starts to explain the Leftist Media tilt which will be a scandal of a separate nature when their names start to trickle out.) We are told that one Mrs. Abu Zayad handed to the Iraqis the Egyptian Ministry's secret computer codes which could then be downloaded by Iraqi Intel. That would include whatever Egypt knew about America's plans to invade Iraq. America ran war games called "Operation Bright Star" with the Egyptian military annually. Operation Bright Star (which opened the book on U.S. tactics, weapons and codes) was transferred to Saddam and onward to all the terrorist organizations. The attached DEBKAfile report is revealing but it, of course, only touches on the documents, the first set of which was transferred to Egypt - with more on the way. The documents speak of "trusted" Egyptian generals, diplomats, engineers sent to America where the secret doors were virtually opened to them by the State Department and the U.S. military. This also has grave implications for Israel, given that U.S. sources would have been informed about Israel's capabilities (plus or minus) and that information would have been leaked to Saddam. From Saddam it could have easily gone over to the Russians, Iran, Syria, and all the many terrorist groups who Saddam funded, armed, informed and lead. The Arab world is no place where a secret lasts too long. Egypt has been virtually stripped of her secrets and, unfortunately, many of those secrets were American in origin. Suddenly, we see all sorts of those secrets hemorrhaging out into the world. We find Iran is building nuclear weapons, denials notwithstanding. North Korea admits it is building nuclear weapons. Pakistan has admitted that their chief scientist proliferated nuclear technology to Libya, North Korea, Iran and probably to Egypt, Syria and elsewhere. Libya is discovered, based on Kadaffi's own admission that it had all three WMD (Weapons of Mass Death) including NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) warfare projects in development and no one seemed to know - not even the Israelis. We find the U.N. with its Chairman, Kofi Anan, mired in a scandal during the years of oil for food amounting to Billions upon Billions of dollars in kickbacks, involving the U.N. staff, Saddam, Russia, France, etc. - all cheating, all embezzling, all crooked. Only now is the Media even beginning to give it the attention this horrific scandal deserves. Is this the time when, as in Noah's era, G-d decides that all mankind is too corrupt to live? The penetration of Egypt by Saddam is a breaking story of huge import, given today's arsenals. Given today's Media where lady news anchors knees and thighs seem aimed for centerfold notoriety, I hope they start getting serious about critical news reportage. In any case, there is more to follow (as I think) through the ripple affect of Egypt's hemorrhaging American secrets. If Egypt turns out to be a wide conduit of American secrets, imagine what Saudi Arabia has passed on to the terrorists it has funded. Is William Safire the last of the world's news breakers? Let's hear it from CNN, FOX NEWS, NBC, ABC, BBC, NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, WASHINGTON TIMES, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, et al. They have the funds to set investigative journalism back on its feet, so gents and ladies, let's get at it. ### "Clearing the Decks for Jimmy FROM DEBKA-Net-Weekly 150 Updated by DEBKAfile March 26, 2004, 3:55 PM (http://www.debka.com/doc/weekly.php}. The process of selecting Gemal Jimmy Mubarak to succeed his 76-year old father as Egyptian president is nearly over, notwithstanding Mubarak Sr.'s denials. A book just out in Cairo, "Gemal Mubarak - Revival of National Liberalism," performs an excellent PR job on the incoming president. The book, clearly written to order by Gahad Awda, a member of the ruling party's central committee, introduces young Mubarak's political agenda and his vision for the future of his country. Much less glossy reading matter was handed to President Hosni Mubarak earlier this month. It was put in his hands, gift-wrapped as a special package, ahead of his trip to Washington next month. On May 19, revealed its contents: a large stack of Iraqi intelligence documents that US forces seized in Baghdad and which expose the deep penetration of the Mubarak regime achieved by the deposed Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein. After opening his gift, Mubarak called an emergency session in the presidential palace of his key advisers, intelligence chiefs led by General Omar Suleiman and top military and police commanders. The documents spelled out in detail how Farhan Hassan, Iraq's deputy ambassador to the Arab League in Cairo, turned his office into a center of espionage and recruiting post for Iraqi agents in Egypt, the United States and the Gulf. At the end of the meeting, according to DEBKA-Net-Weekly's intelligence sources, Mubarak ordered his security forces to start rounding up all the Egyptians listed in the documents as agents of Hassan's Iraqi network. Some 120 people were picked in the first wave. The package also contained Hassan's reports to Baghdad. Under the codename "Number 3" attested to his ranking in the Iraqi hierarchy, he filed directly to Saddam Hussein. Number 3 described in detail how he bought the loyalty of "several prominent Egyptian journalists", among them popular columnist Sayid Nasser, who were willing to publish articles shooting Saddam's propaganda line. One report outlined Hassan's steps for the recruitment of Shuwaike Abu Zayad, the wife of one of Egypt's top diplomats. She passed to Number 3 all the Egyptian foreign ministry's top-secret cables and documents. As expectations of a US invasion of Iraq mounted in 2002, Mrs. Abu Zayad handed the Iraqis the ministry's secret computer codes. Iraqi intelligence then tapped in from Baghdad and downloaded document after document, including the secrets of US-Egyptian military cooperation and transcripts of conversations between Mubarak and the past and present US defense secretaries, William Cohen and Donald Rumsfeld. The Iraqis also read all the secret reports and documents pertaining to the annual US-Egyptian "Bright Star" military maneuvers. Number 3 was particular fond of boasting to Saddam that he had recruited about 20 Egyptian generals who had been transferred to the reserves and farmed out to administrative jobs in Egypt's military industries. They positively gushed with information on their former units and new jobs. Hassan also enlisted engineers, industrialists and doctors, some of them personal physicians to Egypt's senior military officers and political leaders. Saddam placed extremely high value on information on the health of top Egyptians. Number 3 performed many more services for his master in Baghdad. They included: 1. Thwarting special operations mounted by the Iraqi opposition in Washington and London. In the US capital, according to one of the documents, Hassan recruited Najib Salhi, an Iraqi general and former commander of Iraq's 4th Division who defected to the United States. The general's people collected information in Washington on the activities of Iraqi opposition figures, including Mohammed Chalabi, now a senior member of the Iraqi Governing Council. 2. Using Iraq's Arab League office in Cairo to recruit agents from Eastern Europe. The documents are chock full of the names of Russian and Czech diplomats who served Iraqi intelligence. Number 3 was able to pass along to Baghdad volumes of secret cables and military reports that Moscow sent to or received from its embassies in the Middle East and Gulf. 3. Running a large number of import-export companies registered in Cairo. They were used as fronts for information, goods and money sought by Iraq. 4. Overseeing operations at the Qatar-based al-Jazeera, the biggest and most influential Arab satellite television in the world. Hassan got first look at intelligence gathered by the station and paid its staffers to tout the Iraqi line. This operation was a great success. Hassan's people managed to enlist the services of Faisal al-Qassam, one of the station's best-known broadcasters. Qassam, a Syrian, edits and moderates al Jazeera's popular daily phone-in show, "Counterpoint". Only a few of the dozens of callers who telephone from across the Arab world to discuss current events get on the air. But before every show, Number 3 or one of his minions decided with Qassam on the issue to be discussed and handed him a list of viewers who would call in with the questions they would ask. Those viewers were, of course, Iraqi intelligence agents from across the Arab world who read out the questions dictated from Baghdad. The Egyptian regime therefore has its hands full rolling up Hassan's pro-Saddam network. It is waiting for a second stack of secret Iraqi files to come in from Washington. The president will then be able to finish a thorough clearing-out in time to hand a sparkling clean administration over to his successor. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm) To Go To Top

GOLDEN CALVES Posted by David Wilder, March 31, 2004.

Last night, after a full night at the Hazon David Synagogue, I was unsure as to whether I should spend another night there. We knew it was only a matter of time until the troops showed up to evict us and obliterate the synagogue, but the exact time and date were still a question mark. I decided to sleep at home. At 4:30 in the morning the phone started ringing and I knew the time had come. Quickly dressing, I made my way downstairs to drive to the site, five minutes away. I met my neighbor, who is also an ambulance driver. Knowing the necessity for emergency medical crews and ambulances at such events, his presence was a necessity. I decided to accompany him, rather than drive myself. However, the road between Hebron and Kiryat Arba had been closed, with the synagogue site being blocked off by an army jeep, parked horizontally in the middle of the street. They wouldn't even let the ambulance through. So, I walked a couple of minutes to the site and arrived just in time to witness the huge army D9 bulldozer start to demolish the tent which housed the synagogue. The fifty or so youth spending the night at the synagogue had been expelled easily at about four o'clock, being forcibly and violently removed. They were taken to Kiryat Arba (across the street - maybe 50 meters away) and locked in. In other words, the gates to Kiryat Arba were closed and locked. The contents of the synagogue, the books, Torah Scroll and furniture, were removed. Then the D9 began its ugly work. And it didn't take too long. Within a few minutes the synagogue was plowed into the ground. A while later, when the gates to Kiryat Arba were opened, and others from Hebron were able to reach the site, everyone immediately started "rebuilding" the synagogue. Rocks which had formed the foundation of the structure were gathered and piled one on top of the other, the beginnings of a low wall, encompassing the area of the synagogue. This was too much for the security forces, which again went to work, attempting to finish what they had started. The goal: destroy the wall! The site was declared a "closed military zone" and all people were ordered to leave, or else? Of course, no one left. Everyone sat down where they were, and a group of men began early morning prayers. The security forces, police, and border police tried to move people out, without success. And then, off and on, for a good part of the day, violence would erupt when the police decided that enough was enough - the "rebuilding" had gone too far. As of this writing, at about 4:00 in the afternoon, the atmosphere has somewhat relaxed. The police know that they are not going to be able to evict everyone - people will just keep coming back, while the Hebron-Kiryat Arba residents know that they will not be able to totally restore the synagogue today, immediately. So, for the time being, everyone is sitting around, waiting to see what the "other side" plans to do. This is one of the sickest situations I have ever witnessed since coming to Israel some 30 years ago. If, in any other country in the world, a government decision brought about the violent annihilation of a synagogue, newspaper headlines would scream "Anti-Semitism" and "Racism." International Jewish organizations would demand immediate restoration and harsh measures to be brought against the perpetrators. Only in the State of Israel, under Ariel Sharon, can a synagogue, built in memory of two Jews murdered by terrorists in the midst of a war, be "justifiably" wiped off the face of the earth, having been declared an "illegal outpost." It is unfathomable. Despite the horror of today's actions, it is incumbent upon us to realize what is actually happening. Only hours ago the IDF Chief of Staff announced that other "illegal outposts" would be uprooted. The army is ready to "carry out what it's required to do." What does this mean? Understand - this does not just refer to "outposts," be they "legal" or "illegal." Ariel Sharon intends to implement such actions throughout all of Gaza and most of Judea and Samaria. He intends to give the orders and expects the army and other security forces to "carry out what it's required to do." To evict people from their homes. To bulldoze entire communities into the ground. To abandon Eretz Yisrael to our enemies - our blood- thirsty next-door neighbors whose only desire is the destruction of the state of Israel. Soldiers are supposed to obey orders. That's what "soldiering" is all about. This morning I saw different kinds of soldiers. I saw officers who were very unhappy with what they had been commanded to do, but had no alternative to carrying out their orders. Then, there were others, who showed little emotion, one way or the other. But there were those who were happy - they smiled, laughed, and enjoyed their evil deed - evicting men, women and children from their synagogue, a place of worship, and their land. They could joke about it, they could make fun of the women, weeping, trying to explain why they could not abandon the synagogue. "Don't you have a synagogue in your neighborhood," one of the women cried out to the soldiers who were dragging her away. These are the ones that really bother me. It is written, that while Moses was still on Mt. Sinai, after having received the Ten Commandments, the Jews far below began worshiping a golden calf. G-d ordered Moses to leave the mount and deal with the people. As Moses reached the bottom of Mt Sinai, he became furious. Not so much due to the fact that the people had built a golden calf and were using it for idol worship. Rather, because there were those who were joyously singing and dancing around the calf. To commit such a crime, that is one thing, but to be happy about it - that is unthinkable. Some commentators explain that this is the reason why Moses threw down and broke the first tablets of the law, because of the merriment expressed by some of the people. Such it is here too. The legitimacy of this morning's actions might be debated. It is a complicated political issue, to which there are different opinions. But to be happy about it? That is, in my opinion, equivalent to dancing around the golden calf. But in this case, there may be many more than one calf. There may be many golden calves. And if there are those who enjoy forcibly evicting people from their homes, we are in a very sad state. I hope and pray that the golden calves will be quickly melted down, and that all people will recognize the right of the Jewish people to their land - to Eretz Yisrael - to ALL of Eretz Yisrael. Then we will all have reason to be joyous - singing and dancing together, not around a golden calf, but in honor of our golden G-d-given land. With blessings from Hebron. David Wilder is spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron (http://www.hebron.org.il). To subscribe to the Hebron list, simply email: hebron_today-subscribe@hebron.org.il You can donate to the Jewish Community of Hebron on the internet: http://www.hebron.org.il/contrib.htm or to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB 105, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il or directly to the The Hebron Fund 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230 hebronfund@aol.com 718-677-6886 To Go To Top

PRESIDENT BUSH PROMOTES TOLERANCE OR WEAKNESS? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 31, 2004.

The smoke had not yet cleared from the World Trade Center, when Pres. Bush flattered the Islamic Center in Washington, "Islam is a religion of peace." That is one of his themes. He "stresses the sanctity of Muslim lives and property and the innocence of the Muslim masses." He celebrates an Islamic holiday in the White House and quotes from the Qur'an. For another Muslim holiday, he sent greeting cards asserting that Islam promotes "justice, compassion, and personal responsibility." The networks work towards the same end, having kept off the air films of the P.A. Arabs celebrating the World Trade Center bombing spontaneously. On TV, academics implore us to see ourselves as "others" do (David Warren, Commentary, 4/2004, p.21). Corrections: (1) Religion of peace? The founder of Islam led the faithful in a series of wars; mosques all over the Arab world preach holy war; and Arafat's Arabs celebrated US casualties. (2) "Innocence of the Muslim masses?" Polls and demonstrations indicated that most Muslims were pleased with the bombing. (3) Compassion? Not for the victims of suicide bombing that the mosques call for. (4) Personal responsibility? Perhaps the religion does, but the Arabs are fatalistic, and avoid the shame of being wrong by blaming all their problems on others. (5) See ourselves as other do? The Muslims see the US as a society to destroy or seize. Pres. Bush has no business serving as a proselytizer for Islam. He lowers our guard against Islamism. All he should have done is warn Americans not to take out their anger for the World Trade Center attacks and other Arab terrorism on any Arab they see; they must not take the law into their own hands. He should have studied the subject, not misstated it. Hamas perpetrated 38 of the 51 murderers of Americans in Israel and Territories, since Oslo. The P.A. harbors the murderers, names streets after them, and calls them heroes and martyrs. When Israel liquidated the head of Hamas, that, the P.A. condemned! Conclusion: the P.A. considers Hamas as allies (Morton Klein of ZOA, NY Sun, 3/25, letter). Though the alliance has been proved before, it cannot logically be induced from these facts. The P.A. feels it has to express solidarity as against outsiders. It probably also feels it must not oppose Hamas when Hamas has popular support. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

WINNIE MANDELA ON THE KILLING OF SHEIKH YASSIN Posted by Israel Ben-Ami, March 31, 2004.

'Apartheid Israel can be defeated', says Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Mail Guardian, Johannesburg, South Africa, March 26, 2004. Apartheid Israel can be defeated, just as apartheid in South Africa was defeated," Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, former president of the African National Congress Women's League, said on Thursday. Madikizela-Mandela was addressing a meeting arranged by the Palestine Solidarity organisation in Lenasia, Johannesburg, to protest the recent assassination by the Israeli state of the leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. She described the killing of Yassin -- who inspired a campaign of suicide bombings in Israel -- as a "cowardly act that took the life of a brave hero". Madikizela-Mandela said the United States government's response to the killing was "wishy washy," and she criticised the US for not describing Israel as a terrorist state. The Palestinian ambassador to South Africa, Salman Eiherfi, greeted the crowd with a shout of "Viva, Palestine, viva!" Eiherfi said: "They kill our sons, but they will never kill the spirit of our people. Although they have killed Yassin other Yassins have been born." He said the security wall being built by Israel was aimed at "killing the spirit of the Palestinian people, and hope for an independent Palestinian state." He said the first prime minister of Israel, David Ben Gurion, once described Ariel Sharon, the current prime minister who ordered the assassination of Yassin, as "thirsty for blood". Among the posters that were displayed read: "Ariel Sharon is a mass murderer", "Zionism equals to nazism", "Apartheid Israel has weapons of mass destruction", "What's wrong with the single state solution?" and "Expel Israel from South Africa". Palestine Solidarity chairperson Naazim Adam said the organisation strongly condemned the killing of Yassin. He urged the South African government to show more support for the Palestinians. He said many South African Muslims expected the government to understand the plight of the Palestinians because there were many similarities between apartheid and the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. He said Sharon had turned the Middle East issue into a religious one, but that it was about land. Ebrahim Fakude of Palestine Solidarity described Yassin as a humble man, who internationalised the struggle of the Palestine people. He told the crowd that those who belonged to Hamas did not need to be ashamed as the movement was not terrorist. "We need to be careful not to label Muslims organisations as terrorist because the United States has declared them terrorists." Palestine Solidarity will hold a vigil at the US consulate in Killarney, Johannesburg from noon to 11pm on Friday. - Sapa To Go To Top

THERE IS NEVER AN EXCUSE FOR TERRORISM Posted by Dafna Yee, March 31, 2004.

This is an excerpt from an article written by Patrick Chisholm that appeared in the Christian Science Monitor (www.csmonitor.com/2004/0323/p25s01-coop.html) and Front Page Magazine (FrontPageMag.com), March 24, 2004. It is entitled "An Anti-Semitic Left Hook". One finds pockets of anti-Semitism at anti-globalization rallies, and plenty of it at pro-Palestinian rallies... Palestinian hatred of Israelis, I suspect, is based on more than just land disputes and the policies of Israel. Much of it likely derives from envy. Jews as a whole are among the most able, hard-working, and intelligent people ever to inhabit the earth. Wherever they go they succeed. They turned Israel into an economic powerhouse for its size, and "made the desert bloom." Success breeds envy. Envy breeds hatred. Terrorism is the end result. (Christian Science Monitor) Frankly, this article is perpetrating stereotypes about Jews and "reasons" for anti-Semitism while appearing to be against that very thing. I'm sure the writer thought that he was being very pro-Jewish when he wrote this but that only points out how insidious this line of argument is. (However, let me make it clear that I am not accusing the writer of being an anti-Semite.) The fact is that the terror tactics that are being used against Israelis have nothing to do with either Jewish ethnic qualities (which don't really exist anyway!) or about Israel policies and land disputes. This "stereotype theory" has always been a useful excuse for propaganda but, regardless of whether you are using good or bad qualities, it is still untrue. This concept is also a dangerous argument because if you can believe that all, or even most, Jews share good qualities because of their ethnicity then you can believe with equal fervor that they all share the stereotypical bad ones -- greed, lying, vulgarity ... you name it. It is not an accident that the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" pamphlet has been used so successfully in the Arab countries in their hate campaign along with the "Blood Libel"; they are using the bad stereotypes to specify the targets for terror. But, that doesn't make the bad stereotypes the cause of terror, either. In addition, if the writer's analysis of the cause of terror had merit, why didn't he (or anyone else) try to find ethnic qualities or use poverty/failure as a reason to explain the terror used to kill Spaniards in the train explosion two weeks ago? Or apply the same reasoning to the train explosion in Japan last December if what happened was really the expression of envy leading to hatred leading to terror? People are using terror tactics against the Israelis (and now others as well) because the world has demonstrated very clearly that such tactics bring political dividends! Period! Also, the writer, like so many other people, in attempting to understand the motives of the terrorists, is condoning their use of terror, albeit unwittingly. There is NEVER a reasonable excuse for the use of terror. When you explain and find plausible reasons for terror, you help to perpetrate its use. The use of terror by Arabs (and now copycat groups) is directly related to the Muslim culture's goal of "conquest for Allah by any means at all" and the fact that their mentality has never left the 14th century when the Ottoman Empire was expanding. Modern democracy and concepts of international law are simply words; they have no reality in the feudal theocracies that exist in the Arab countries of the Middle East. The Arabs use anti-Semitic stereotypes (both their own and others -- Hitler's regime has supplied much of them) to gain supporters and to excuse their terror tactics because that has proved successful for aggressors over the centuries, but their hatred of Israel is not due to anything that the Israelis have done or not done. The Arabs want to destroy Israel because they can't rule it as a Muslim country. Very dog-in-the-mangerish ... They didn't want the land but they don't want the Jews to have it even if only the Jews made any good use of it. Use of terror tactics in their attempts to destroy Israel is the first step in their plan for world domination and Christians the world over would be wise not to dismiss it as merely the result of Jew-envy. The Arabs used terror originally because it fit their philosophy and they have escalated its use because they weren't stopped. The only ties that terror has to anti-Semitism in any form is that the world excuses (and too often supports) the use of terror against Jews. (Remember the FBI didn't even classify the explosion at LAX as a terror, just as a "possible hate or work crime" nor did they name the perpetrator a terrorist for nine months)! The same is true for other countries' "investigations" into barbaric acts that cause universal outrage when perpetrated against anyone other than Jews. Much of the money that is supposed to go for "peace" helps to finance terror because people are duped into believing the lie that the Arabs are acting this way because they are "oppressed by the wicked Jews". (In a similar way, many people who were against Fascist Spain supported Communist organizations whose propaganda line also talked about "globalization" and "human rights" to cover up their true political aims.) If terror was the end result of poverty and envy, then why does this explanation only get used in the case when Jews are being targeted? When the Blacks were rioting in the '60s, they did not blow themselves up along with as many White people as possible. (They also did not use their children as human bombs.) Where were the revolts of Black slaves against their White masters if poverty and envy caused people to adopt terror tactics? In South Africa, the most common crime during apartheid was arson and it was always used by the Whites against the Blacks, not the other way around. So, where did "envy and poverty" come in? The Irish have been fighting each other and the British for centuries and neither side ever deliberately targeted innocent civilians. There is not a single instance in history, other than this terror directed against Israel/Jews, where "envy" (or "humiliation") caused this cult atmosphere of hatred to the extent where the perpetrators taught their children that the greatest goal is to be a "martyr" by killing themselves and as many Jews as possible. And there is certainly no instance where so many people accept so many excuses for barbarism. Poverty and oppression do not cause people to revolt (though they are the most common excuse) and they are definitely not the reason that people adopt terror tactics. They are the explanations used by educated, often wealthy people who do not fight themselves, to convince people to fight for a "cause". Ironically, if poverty were the reason for terror, then the Arabs who live in Israel would have less reason for using terror than any others because their standard of living was the highest in the Middle East prior to the Oslo debacle! Claiming that terror comes from envy of the Jews because of their innate "superiority" is just another way of using stererotypes to blame the victim for being victimized. And that is always wrong, no matter how nicely it is phrased. Dafna Yee is director of JWD - Jewish Watch Dog - http://jwd-jewishwatchdog.home.comcast.net To Go To Top

NO SUBSTITUTE FOR STRATEGY Posted by Ruth and Nadia Matar, March 31, 2004.

This was written by Daniel Doron, president of The Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress, an independent pro-market policy think tank (www.icsep.org.il). Despite its brilliant tactical victories, Israel has never truly won a war against the Arabs. In fact, Israel has habitually snatched diplomatic defeats out of the jaws of military victory. In part this was due to the lack of an overall strategy, as none of Israel's leaders defined goals for war or the means to achieve them, or to consistently pursue them. A similar fate may befall our present war against terrorism. Despite some great tactical achievements, Israel is not winning this war because it is failing - yet again - to articulate a winning strategy. Israel, with its powerful fighting forces, finds itself at the mercy of even relatively small groups such as Hizbullah, allowing them to seize the initiative and to dictate the terms of engagement. Even against Palestinian terrorism, Israel acts mostly in a haphazard manner, and from a defensive position. The lack of a determined and cohesive military strategy that would seriously damage terrorist organizations by eliminating most of their leadership in one fell swoop (rather than in dribs and drabs - as in the case of Ahmed Yassin and others - inviting continual condemnations and reaction) is hardly surprising. Lack of concerted action, acting only in response to near catastrophes is the typical modus operandi of all Israeli governments in all spheres of their activity. More than in most countries, most of the energies of Israeli politicians are devoted to jostling for power and for the considerable spoils offered by an extremely centralized, government-controlled economy. Little energy remains for what is supposed to be the business of government - the provision of security and other public good. In the case of the military, the problem is confounded not only by the innate difficulties of all huge bureaucratic organizations to quickly adapt to changing circumstances but also by a no-win ethos. Like other institutions, the IDF was subjected to a high degree of politicization stemming back to its Hagana days. Many army leaders, like many in the elite generally, are left of center. They have embraced the utopian assumptions of the peace camp. Many Israeli generals are convinced that terrorism cannot be vanquished by force. They do not bother to explain, to themselves or to others, what is the justification for the enormous outlays Israel spends on its military if it cannot solve military problems, or how their ideological position squares with the many instances where terrorist groups - from the 11th-century Assassins to the armed bands of the 1936-9 Great Arab Revolt - were totally vanquished by military force alone. ISRAEL'S FAILURE to curb terrorism is what makes an exhausted Israeli public grasp at any straw offered by its confused leadership, which believes that a defensive tactic, a wall, is a solution to terrorism. Walls have been and will continue to be breached. So while a wall may significantly reduce the number of terrorist incidents, it cannot prevent - as its supporters readily admit - all terrorist attacks. Worse, it cannot ensure against mega-attacks causing enormous damage and many casualties.Thus strategically, the security fence has very limited usefulness. More disturbingly, it may come at great cost and some unforeseeable consequences, and it might actually reduce Israel's ability to fight terrorism effectively. For the wall to function, it must not only be expensively constructed with sophisticated monitoring devices, but it must also be maintained, even defended, by mobile quick-response units - again, a costly proposition. Perhaps instead of investing heavily in a wall, it would be cheaper and more effective to construct a light fence and invest the savings in more mobile response units, probably achieving better results. A temporary fence would also reduce the objections raised against the wall that can be seen as a precursor of a permanent border. Walls have a tendency to produce a Maginot Line mentality. The Bar-Lev Line was first conceived as a series of outposts meant to serve as trip wires along the Suez Canal, alerting mobile units to repel an Egyptian crossing. Heavy Egyptian shelling forced the Israelis to turn them into heavily fortified strongholds whose protection required the creation of a line and a defensive strategy, which soon overshadowed the concept of mobile defense. This was an important factor in the disastrous beginning of the Yom Kippur War. But the greatest drawback is that the wall punishes the innocent along with the guilty. This is counterproductive. The wall will exacerbate the miserable conditions upon which terrorist organizations thrive. It will assign the Palestinian Arab population to the mercy of a corrupt irredentist leadership that has already proven its ability to transform the desperation it creates into terrorist acts against Israel. Extolling unilateral withdrawal and the separation wall, the writer A. B. Yehoshua explained, "From the moment we withdraw, I don't want to know their names. I do not want any personal relations with them I am not going to perpetrate war crimes for their own sake, but I will use all my force against them (if they attack us)." Apparently even this great liberal does not understand that you cannot lock terrorism behind a wall, threaten brutal responses, and expect quiet. Peace will only come when a new Palestinian leadership, emerging from a civil society, will replace the criminal Palestinian Authority and its terrorist leadership imposed by Oslo. Only then will the Palestinians be able to make some concessions for peace the way Israel is ready to do. Meanwhile, Israel's failure to systematically eliminate terrorism by destroying its organizations and its leadership is, paradoxically, a major obstacle to peace. It causes unnecessary massive loss of life and suffering, not only for Israelis but for the Palestinian Arabs too. Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

CNN'S WHITEWASH OF HATE INDOCTRINATION Posted by CAMERA, March 30, 2004.

When Hussam Abdo, a young Palestinian teenager, was caught at an Israeli checkpoint with a suicide belt hidden under his sweater, the efforts of Israeli soldiers to help him safely cut off the belt were broadcast around the world, thanks to the chance presence of an AP cameraman. The New York Times published on its front page a five photo sequence taken from the video, and many other papers gave the story and photos similar prominence. CNN also covered the breaking story, and a few days later returned to the incident with a "spotlight" report ( http://tinyurl.com/2fgr5 ) on Palestinian "children as weapons of war," (Mar. 27, 2004), seeking to understand, as anchor Carol Lin put it, "... what convinces these children that they should strap a belt of explosives to themselves and risk their lives for whatever cause." (After clicking on the link, scroll down most of the way through the transcript to find the segment.) Unfortunately, the segment, reported by CNN's Cairo Bureau Chief, Ben Wedeman, succeeded only in obscuring the issue by never once mentioning the sustained campaign of hatred and incitement against Jews and Israelis that has been a staple of Palestinian newspapers, television, radio, mosques, summer camps and classrooms. Instead of exploring for viewers the horrifically effective Palestinian brainwashing campaign that has convinced so many Palestinians to kill and be killed, CNN in effect blamed Israel for the suicide bombings. Wedeman accomplished this by interviewing only one "expert" on the subject, Palestinian psychiatrist Eyad Sarraj, who has made a specialty of claiming that Palestinian suicide bombers had been "traumatized" by Israeli occupation. According to Sarraj, who never mentions Palestinian hate indoctrination, the primary reason that children are drawn into suicide bombings is that: "... some of the children are so defiant of their own family because the father figure as a symbol of power, has been destroyed over the last few years, because he could not protect his children. " This, of course, makes it seem that Palestinian parents oppose suicide bombings, and that the bombers defy their parents. But the opposite is often true. For example, the mother of one teenage terrorist was recorded on film personally urging her son to "wage Jihad and come back only as a martyr." (MEMRI, Special Dispatch No. 673, Mar. 4, 2004 http://tinyurl.com/33xo3 ) With his mother's encouragement ringing in his ears, Mohammed Farhat attacked a Jewish seminary, killing five young students before he received his desired "martyrdom" at the hands of Israeli soldiers. His mother later stated in an interview that she "always longed to be the mother of a shahid (martyr) ... let all my sons be shahids." And, as The New York Times reported in covering the Abdo story, this is not an unusual sentiment: "Many Palestinian parents have praised their sons and daughters for carrying out suicide attacks, hailing them as heroes and martyrs." ( Mar. 25, 2004) In addition, Sarraj and CNN also ignore the fact that the prime "father figure" in Palestinian society, Yasir Arafat, extols "shahids," and that the Palestinian media and schools that he directly controls places such terrorists on a pedestal, as the ones "closest to Allah." In an interview on Palestinian television, for example, Arafat glorified child martyrs: "... this child who is grasping the stone, facing the tank, is it not the greatest message to the world when that hero becomes a shahid? We are proud of them ..." (PATV, Jan. 15, 2002 cited in Ask for Death, Palestinian Media Watch http://tinyurl.com/2ne3n ) Rather than examining why and how the Palestinian Authority has succeeded in brainwashing parents and kids to hate Jews and Israelis, and to revel in a cult of death, CNN instead fed its viewers Palestinian propaganda, such as Carol Lin's claim that "There is a backlash going on now ... the family of this ... boy are coming out and telling the terrorists to let our children alone." Well, not quite. The boy's mother actually said that he was slightly too young; had those who sent him just waited a few years, everything would have been OK: "Mrs. Abdo, in a view echoed by many others, made clear that she opposed only those suicide attacks carried out by under age bombers. 'Maybe if he is 20, then perhaps I could understand,' she said of her own son. 'At that age, they know what they are doing, they are fighting for their homeland.' " (New York Times, Mar. 26, 2004) CNN does no one any favors by covering up the hate campaign that has so permeated and debased Palestinian society. By making excuses for Palestinian terrorism, CNN only prolongs the suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis. The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) monitors the news media for fairness in reporting news about Israel. Their website address is http://www.camera.org To Go To Top

HOPE VERSUS DESPAIR Posted by Judy Lash Balint, March 30, 2004.

According to Israeli journalist Doron Rosenblum, Israel has plunged "into the depths of despair, bereavement and failure." We have, according to the Haaretz writer, deteriorated "willingly and with full awareness, down the slopes of the sewage (sic) of history." Further, he states, Israel is now "one of the most hated, most isolated and most miserable places to be on the planet." (Haaretz Magazine, March 26, 2004) Another prominent Israeli, Labor MK Avram Burg, decided to air his pique in the London Sunday Telegraph (March 28, 2004) in an op ed entitled The Zionist Dream is Doomed. Here, Burg, a former speaker of the Knesset, reiterates a theme he sounded first, last September in the International Herald Tribune. In his London piece, Burg writes: "The countdown to the end of Israeli society has begun." Incredibly, this member of Israel's elite goes on to justify homicide bombers by explaining to the Brits that, "They [Arabs] consign themselves to Allah in our places of recreation, because their own lives are torture. They spill their own blood in our restaurants, because they have children and parents at home who are hungry and humiliated." Burg's late father, Yosef -- a long-serving Israeli Cabinet minister -- was my mother's teacher in Leipzig during the 1930s. Life for Jews there was indeed "torture," and our parents were "hungry and humiliated." No Jew resorted to blowing themselves up in restaurants or night clubs, did they Avram? The sheer ignorance and wilfull self delusion displayed by this member of our ruling elite is daunting. Even a cursory examination of some of the more notable bombers illustrates the fallacy of his claims. At least eight suicide bombers of the past three years were students at Al- Najah university in Nablus. Izzadin Masri, the 23-year-old who murdered 15 people at Jerusalem's Sbarro restaurant in 2002 was the son of a prosperous restaurant owner. Ayat Akhras, 18, a straight-A student, months away from graduation and then marriage killed two Israelis outside a supermarket in Kiryat Yovel. The two terrorists from upper middle class British backgrounds who killed three people at the Mike's Place disco on Tel Aviv's beachfront, had never even stepped foot in Israel before -- how could they have felt Israeli "oppression?" As Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism specialist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland categorically states: "You hear people say that these are all desperate people, or poor people whose families need the money. This is nonsense." "These are rational people, not necessarily uneducated or impoverished," adds retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Todd Stewart, director of the Program for International and Homeland Security at Ohio State University in Columbus. "These operatives, typically men in their early 20s, came from diverse social, economic and work backgrounds. They have at least as much education as the general population where they grew up, and usually more. They are seldom fatherless, friendless, jobless or hopeless." Why does Burg have such trouble accepting the fact that the murderers are motivated by hatred, not humiliation? How have we arrived at the point where some leaders of Israeli society have bought into the propaganda of the enemy? It's a complex cocktail of pyschological and emotional factors on both the individual and national level. Still there's at least one group of Israelis who are actively fighting the culture of despair disseminated by the Burg and Rosenblum crowd. Some long-time immigrants from English-speaking countries are expressing optimism and even gratitude for being in the country. Caroline Glick, an American immigrant and columnist for The Jerusalem Post who served in the Israeli Army during her early years in the country, told a packed and attentive Jerusalem audience recently that there is cause for optimism about the future. Citing positive changes in the region -- from the overthrow and capture of Saddam Hussein to the US's new attitude toward Syria -- an upswing in the local Israeli economy and a history of astonishing achievement building a country in 55 years, Glick's prognosis was diamterically opposed to that of her Israeli journalist colleague. Barbara Scher, another veteran American immigrant and CEO of the Docustar Company, organized an upbeat event in Raanana, just north of Tel Aviv last week Celebrating Life in Israel. Along with the music and food, several immigrants rose to explain why they came and why they are still here. Miserable Rosenblum and despairing Burg should have been there. Judy Lash Balint is author of "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" (Gefen), which is available for purchase from www.israelbooks.com To Go To Top

ALLAH IS NOT GOD Posted by Jan Willem van der Hoeven, March 30, 2004.

Now we have the proof, and we should be thankful for Dr. Rantisi, Hamas new leader's clarity: that Allah - many times wrongly translated as 'God' - is not the God of the Bible, nor the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Allah is another deity, one who drinks blood as water, who loves jihad and terror, and promises virgins in his so-called paradise to those who kill Jews - the more the better. This Allah has nothing, nothing to do with the God of the Bible. And no matter how many times the muezzins shout out that Allah hu ahbar - 'our Allah is greater' - the God of Israel remains infinitely greater and is the only true and living God and Creator, a God of love to be worshiped as the Creator of us all. So Dr. Rantisi's declaration that Allah (not God!) has declared war on President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon, and thus on the U.S. and on Israel, is strangely revealing. Every intelligent believer already knows that this evil bloodthirsty 'god' has, like Amalek, a war for generations against the only true God and His chosen and elected people. What's new? But let no one, and I repeat - no one - from henceforth translate Allah into God. It's pure nonsense. Allah is the god of terrorists; Hizb'allah, the party of this god. So, if Allah were the same as the only true God, then He would be fighting His own people, the Jews who, in accordance with His eternal promise, He has brought back to His own land as He promised again and again in His word to do. Allah, if he was the only true God, is making war against a President who begins his day with prayer and the reading of the Bible, and who believes in and loves God. How ridiculous can one be? So now President Bush and the whole enlightened and believing western world knows. Allah and his jihad-centered and terrorist-championing religion has declared war on Israel and the U.S. In this fallen and decadent world, these nations are the last strongholds of the Judeo-Christian values inspired by the only true and living God. And these are the strongholds that need to be terrorized into submission to the teaching of ISLAM by the will of this bloodthirsty deity, Allah! When Christians earnestly prayed in England and elsewhere to be delivered during the second world war from the terrible scourge of Nazism - God used the U.S. led Allied forces to bring victory on the Continent over this beastly power. So too, now, we as believers need to earnestly pray that God will again deliver us from this equally dangerous power, and cause leaders to arise, especially in the West, who like Churchill and Roosevelt, will vanquish this Evil Force! May the true God - the God of Israel - have mercy upon us! Jan Willem van der Hoeven id director of the International Christian Zionist Center in Jerusalem. To Go To Top

PLEADING FOR MY LAND Posted by Communaute-Juive-France, March 30, 2004.

Herbet Pagani was a French/Italian poet and singer who was very popular in the 70's. He was communist and Jewish. He eventually became an enthusiastic Zionist and wrote the text below. He read this on November 11th, 1975 on the French radio station Europe 1, after the UN passed a resolution equating Zionism to Racism. I feel this text is as strong as it was in 1975 - Israel's right to exist is still denied and the same liberal left that abandoned Israel in the 70's is doing the same today. - appoline06@yahoo.fr Last Night, I was in the subway when I heard two ladies say: "Did you see these Jews with their stories at the U.N.? What jerks! " It's true. We are jerks. For centuries we have been the world's jerks. It's in our nature, what can you do? Abraham with his single God, Moses with his 10 Commandments, Jesus with his second cheek always available for a second slap, then Freud, Marx, Einstein, all were intruders, revolutionaries, enemies of the Order. Why? Because no order, whatever the century, could satisfy them - since they were always excluded. To call everything in question, to see further, changing the world to change their destiny, such was the destiny of my Ancestors. This is why the defenders of all established orders hate them. *  The anti-Semite of the right blames the Jews for having executed the Bolshevik revolution. It's true: there were many of them, in 1917. *  The anti-Semite of the left blames the Jews for owning Manhattan. It's true: there are many Jewish capitalists. The reason is simple: religion, culture, and the revolutionary ideal on the one hand, stocks and banks on the other, are the only transportable values, the only possible country for those that do not have a country. And now that there is a country, Anti-Semitism reappears from its ashes... - Sorry! From OUR ashes - and it's called anti-Zionism! It used to be applied only to individuals; it is now applied to a country. Israel is a ghetto - Jerusalem is Warsaw... The Nazis who besiege us speak Arabic! And if their crescent is sometimes disguised in a sickle, that's simply for better trapping the liberal leftists of the world. I, who am a Jew of the left, I don't care about a certain left that wants to free all men of the world at the expense of some of them - because I am precisely one of these! I support class struggle, but I also support the right to be different. If the left wants to count me among its members, it cannot exclude my problem. And my problem is that since the Roman deportations of the 1st century after Jesus-Christ, everywhere we went we were expelled, dishonoured, banished, tracked, denounced, crushed, burned and converted by force! Why? Because our religion - i.e. our culture was dangerous. Some examples: *  Judaism was the first to create the Shabbat, the day of God, i.e. the day of weekly mandatory rest. You imagine the joy of the Pharoes, always late in building the next pyramid. *  Judaism prohibits slavery. You can imagine the sympathy of the Romans, the most significant wholesalers of free labour of the Antiquity. * It is said in the Bible: "The earth does not belong to man, but to God." From this sentence a law is created, the automatic handing- over of real-estate every 49 years. You imagine the effect of such a law on the Popes of the Middle Ages and the builders of empires during the Renaissance. It was imperative that the people do not learn the truth. They started by banishing the Bible, then were the libels: walls of defamation that became walls of stone that were called ghettos. Then it was the Inquisition, the flames and later the yellow stars. Auschwitz is only an industrial example of genocide, but there were thousands of hand-made genocides. It would take me three days only to name all the pogroms of Spain, Russia, Poland and North Africa. By continuing to flee and to move, the Jew went everywhere. One extrapolates: he ends up being from nowhere. We are among the people like the welfare child. I don't want to be adopted any more. I don't want for my life to depend on my owners' mood any more. I don't want to be a "citizen-renter" any more. I have enough of knocking at History's doors and waiting until I'm told: "Enter". I enter and I yell! I am at home on earth and on earth I have my land: she was promised to me, she will be mine! What is Zionism? It's reduced to a simple sentence: "Next year in Jerusalem." No, it's not a slogan of the Club Med. It's written in the Bible, the book that has sold more copies and has been misunderstood more than any other book in the world. And this prayer became a roar, a roar that is over 2000 years old, and the fathers of Columbus, Kafka, Proust, Chagall, Marx, Einstein, and even Mr. Kissinger, repeated this sentence, this roar, at least once a year, on Passover. Then, is Zionism equal to Racism? Don't make me laugh! Is "Soft France, dear country of my childhood" ("Douce France, cher pays de mon enfance") a racist anthem? Zionism is the name of a struggle for freedom! In the world, everybody has its Jews. The French have theirs: they are the Breton, Occitans, Corsicans, and the immigrant workers. The Italians have Sicilians; the Americans have their Blacks; the Spaniards their Basques. We, we are EVERYBODY'S Jews. To those that tell me: "And the Palestinians?", I answer: "I am a 2000 year-old Palestinian. I am the oldest oppressed man in the world." I will negotiate with them, but I will not yield my place to them. There's enough space there for two people and two nations. The borders are to be determined together. But the existence of one country cannot in any case exclude the existence of the other. And the political options of a government never called into question the existence of a nation, whatever the nation. Then why Israel? When Israel is out of danger, I will choose among Jews and my Arab neighbours, those who are my brothers by ideas. Today, I must be united with all of my people, even those whom I hate, in the name of this insurmountable enemy: RACISM. Descartes was wrong: "I think, therefore I am" doesn't mean anything. We have been thinking for 5000 years, and we still don't exist! I defend myself, therefore I am! This was distributed by the Jewish Community of France (Communaute-Juive-France-owner@yahoogroupes.fr). Their website address is http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/Communaute-Juive-France/ To Go To Top

NEVER LOSE HOPE Posted by David Wilder, March 30, 2004.

A few days ago, journalist David Bedin put out a press release that says as follows: "According to reliable sources, Sharon is preparing to announce in Washington his willingness to remain in three 'settlement blocks' only: Gush Etzion, the Ariel block, and Ma'ale Adumim. The significance of this is that Israel will abandon the rest of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, including the southern Hebron hills communities and Hebron." Yesterday Sharon declared that if his disengagement proposal should not pass a cabinet vote, he would reshuffle his government, forming an alternative government within one day. Today's Ma'ariv daily newspaper headline heralded, "Arbel (Prosecutor) leak torpedoed national unity government: PM reached agreement with Labor on a national unity government but talks were frozen when Arbel recommended indicting Sharon." The story (http://www.maarivinternational.com) revealed that Sharon offered Labor six ministerial posts, including the foreign ministry, (for Shimon Peres). Tonight, at the Likud convention, Sharon proposed a public referendum to determine the fate of his "disengagement plan," with the participants being 200,000 Likud members in Israel. In the meantime, preparations for the April 14 Bush-Sharon meeting in Washington continue. This week three top American diplomats, Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs William Burns, Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, and Eliot Abrams, a senior director of National Security Council who is responsible for Middle East affairs, are scheduled to arrive in Israel for top-level meetings concerning Sharon's proposals and continued "progress" of the "roadmap." Ariel Sharon is preparing them a hearty welcome. How better a way to greet them than by handing them the ruins of a destroyed "illegal outpost" on a silver platter. That is precisely what Sharon is planning on doing. On the outskirts of Kiryat Arba, just outside the west gate, which leads down into the city of Hebron, is a 20 square meter tent. This tent was pitched almost three years ago, following the murder of two men, David Cohen and Hezi Mualem. Cohen was killed while sitting in his car, next to the Kiryat Arba gate. That evening, the Kiryat Arba town council held a spontaneous demonstration not far from the site of the murder. Terrorists opened fire on the group, killing Mualem and injuring another man. Thus the name, Hazon David (which literally means "David's vision") - Hazon for Hezi Mualem and David for David Cohen. Since its inception the tent has served as a synagogue, a place of worship, and a place of Torah study. Classes are frequently conducted for youth and adults, in Hebrew and Russian. The tent is small, and bothers no one. Well, almost no one. No one, except the Americans and Ariel Sharon. Hazon David was declared to be "an illegal outpost" and orders were issued for its destruction. Over the past few months, numerous appeals to Israeli courts delayed execution of the decree. Recently Deputy Defense Minister Ze'ev Baum visited the site. Worshipers and others penned letters to various government ministers, including Defense minister Shaul Mufaz and the Prime Minister. Seemingly to no avail. Last week Supreme Court judge Moshe Heshin rejected a request for a second Supreme Court hearing before an extended panel. That ruling paved the way for implementation of Sharon's orders: Destroy the synagogue! Last night, following a farewell party for the Nahal Brigade officers and soldiers, who have served in Hebron for the past seven months, word leaked out that tonight's the night - the forces are on their way to demolish the tent synagogue. Emergency calls went out to Kiryat Arba-Hebron residents, and within a short time hundreds of people, adults and youth, were swarming towards Hazon David. There, they met some of the same officers they had only minutes before honored and thanked, at the farewell gathering. The long night-the long wait, began. Officers and soldiers, police and other security forces came and left. But the civilians didn't budge. "We are staying," they announced. "We will not abandon our synagogue, we will not abandon our city, we will not abandon our land." "And be well aware, even if you should succeed in knocking down this tent which has served us for the past three years, we will pitch it again, and next time it will be bigger and stronger. You will not defeat us!" Senior officers at the site were surprised. They obviously weren't prepared for such massive resistance, expecting to be able to tear down the tent without any effort. As a result of the hundreds of demonstrators, they backed down, and the eviction was postponed. For how long, we still don't know. People spent the entire night at the synagogue, and after a couple of hours sleep, returned to the site in the late morning. Rumors of impending expulsion brought hundreds out again, in the early afternoon. Most people will probably spend the night there tonight, and for as long as necessary, until Sharon announces an end to the madness. This is the beginning of the price Ariel Sharon is willing to pay. The question is, for what. According to most sources, George W. Bush opposes the unilateral disengagement from Gaza and several Samaria communities. Most probably Ariel Sharon is hoping that continued implementation of left-wing policies will delay his indictment for accepting bribes and other alleged crimes he is accused of. However, this will not help him. The decision to press charges against him, now in the hands of the new Israeli attorney general, is only weeks away. Ariel Sharon, the politician, will then be an item of the past. Hebron-Kiryat Arba residents are determined to stick it out, as long as it takes, to prevent destruction of the memorial synagogue, in memory of David Cohen and Hezi Mualem. Destruction of the site will be a victory for terror and the very opposite of "David's vision" the victory of Zionism, the triumph of good over evil. And should the worst come to pass, we will not give up. The synagogue will be rebuilt, an eternal remembrance to two brave men who were cut down there by Arab terrorists. We will never lose hope. With blessings from Hebron for a happy Passover. David Wilder is spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron (http://www.hebron.org.il). To subscribe to the Hebron list, simply email: hebron_today-subscribe@hebron.org.il You can donate to the Jewish Community of Hebron on the internet: http://www.hebron.org.il/contrib.htm or to The Jewish Community of Hebron, POB 105, Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100, hebron@hebron.org.il or directly to the The Hebron Fund 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230 hebronfund@aol.com 718-677-6886 To Go To Top

AZA, AZA, LET-US STAY Posted by Evelyn Hayes, March 30, 2004.

Written as I watched the youth of Aza arrive at PM's residence in Jerusalem, having marched from Aza, joined by ten thousand. Aza, Aza, in Judah's domain, a Jewish settled coastal plain where King Solomon reigned, Aza, Aza, attacked by Macedonians, palestinified by Romans, Imperialized by Hadrian, Napoleon, the British the Husseinis, The Egyptians including Egyptian Arafat al-Husseini. Aza, Aza, recaptured by Yochanan, rebuilt. Aza, Aza, largest Jewish community before Muslim invasion. Aza, Aza, largest producer of geraniums, tomatoes, cucumbers, pansies, mums, Azas tzaddiks enriched Jewish hearts and minds: Kol Ribbon Olem; Heshed L'Abraham. Aza, Aza, the palestinians were just passing through. We still sing your songs, Kol Ribbon Olem. We still study your midos, Heshed l'Abraham We still keep abandoned Yamit within a Magen David shaped house of prayer that marks the place- Jewish! Jewish Aza has survived swords and artillery; Jewish Azans have survived passing armies. Terrorist rockets miss their mark. Will Aza survive Jews who deny themselves and that there were Jews in Aza before there were Romans in Rome, Mohammed in Medina. Napoleon in France, Britain unilaterally dividing Balfour's Mandate for the Jews into another Arab state? Will Sharon unilaterally destroy what has survived because he has destroyed himself? Will the self-destruction destroy the Jewish state, the democratic state, morality, kindness, the Jews again? Aza, Aza, Eretz HaChodesh blessed with sunshine, sea breeze, a new fertility, an earnest utility where peace is in the plowshares, greenhouses, the barefoot smiling children. No more palestinians, invaders, Egyptians, Romans, war. A promised land restored and restoring. Lettuce, spinach, eggplants, onions, mushrooms. Aza. Aza, Jewish children at their play; Farmers at their work. Balmy sea. A southern boundary. Bedouins in their tents bent on staying safe in Aza, Israel. Let pan-jihad go away. The Azan Jews choose plowshares and would war no more. Spear the Gazan terrorists who war by tunnel, rocketing land, air and sea. Aza. Aza. So full of Jewish history; So replete with Jewish morality. In Aza, they know not a fear. Yet, the fearful liberal Jew would sacrifice their fate to fiends, disregarding that friendship with those who hate them has been deadly in Haifa and Tel Aviv, Afula and Rishon L'Tzion. . If you've been to Jewish Aza, you would know that there are cities, shopping centers, pizza shops, Alpha Romeros parked beside the IDF transports, a promising future that has survived the age old wraths of rampaging hordes. Without Aza, the jihad tunnels will reach Yad Mordechai, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheva, Tel Aviv. Spear the warlords. Spare Jewish Aza. It would be against the wisdom of Solomon and the best interests of Israel to chase Jews away again. It would unbounty beauty and feed the beast. Let our people stay. Evelyn Hayes is author of "The Eleventh Plague, TWINS, us, because their hearts were softened for more." and just released sequel, "The Twelfth Plague, GENERATIONS, because the lion wears stripes." To Go To Top

DIVERTING THE BLAME FOR 9/11 Posted by Onkar Ghate, March 30, 2004.

The squabbling and finger-pointing surrounding the 9/11 commission only serve to obscure the fundamental lesson of that horrific day. Whatever errors or incompetence on the part of a particular individual or intelligence agency, what made September 11 possible was a failure of policy. Our government, whether controlled by Democrat or Republican, had for decades conducted an accommodating, range-of-the-moment, unprincipled foreign policy. September 11 was not the first time America was attacked by Islamic fundamentalists engaged in "holy war" against us. In 1979 theocratic Iran--which has spearheaded the "Islamic Revolution"--stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 54 Americans hostage for over a year. In 1983 the Syrian- and Iranian-backed group Hezbollah bombed a U.S. marine barracks in Lebanon, killing 241 servicemen while they slept; the explosives came from Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. In 1998 al-Qaeda blew up the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 individuals. In 2000 al-Qaeda bombed the USS Cole in Yemen, killing 17 sailors. So we already knew that al-Qaeda was actively engaged in attacking Americans. We even had evidence that agents connected to al-Qaeda had been responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. And we knew in 1996 that bin Laden had made an overt declaration of war against the "Satan" America. But how did America react? Did our government adopt a principled approach and identify the fact that we were faced with a deadly threat from an ideological foe? Did we launch systematic counterattacks to wipe out such enemy organizations as al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Fatah? Did we seek to eliminate enemy states like Iran? No--our responses were short-sighted and self-contradictory. To cite only a few of depressingly many examples: we initially expelled Iranian diplomats--but later sought an appeasing rapprochement with that ayatollah-led government. We intermittently cut off trade with Iran--but secretly negotiated weapons-for-hostages deals. When Israel had the courage to enter Lebanon in 1982 to destroy the PLO, we refused to uncompromisingly support our ally and instead brokered the killers' release. And with respect to al-Qaeda, we dropped a perfunctory bomb or two on one of its suspected camps, while our compliant diplomats waited for al-Qaeda's terrorist attacks to fade from the headlines. At home we treated our attackers as if they were isolated criminals rather than soldiers engaged in battle against us. In 1941 we did not attempt to indict the Japanese pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor--we declared war on the source. Yet we spent millions trying to indict specific terrorists--while we ignored their masters. Despite emphatic pronouncements from Islamic leaders about a "jihad" against America, our political leaders failed to grasp the ideology that seeks our destruction. This left them unable to target that enemy's armed combatants--in Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia--and the governments that assist them. Is it any wonder then that, although our intelligence agencies prevented many planned attacks, they could not prevent them all? Tragically, little has changed since September 11. Our government's actions remain hopelessly unprincipled. Despite the Bush administration's rhetoric about ending states that sponsor terrorism, President Bush has left the most dangerous of these--Iran--untouched, while his officials periodically seek "rapprochement" and work with Iranian officials to foster "religious values" at U.N. conferences. The attack on Iraq, though capable of justification, was hardly a priority in our war against militant Islam. And because the war was waged with no view to the long term, Iraq is in danger of slipping into the hands of Shiite clerics and other militant Islamic leaders--and thus of becoming even more of a threat than it was. Moreover, when Bush does strike at a militant Islamic regime, he does so only haltingly. He stresses that the conflict is not ideological and, morally unsure of his right to protect American lives by force, cowers before any sign of world disapproval over civilian casualties. The result was that he reined in the military forces in Afghanistan and allowed numerous Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters to escape. Elsewhere in the Mideast, Bush continues to play by a double standard. His administration scolds Israel for killing its own bin Laden, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, while Bush pretends that the Palestinians and Islamic militants attacking Israel--and who have attacked Americans in the past and will no doubt try again in the future--are, somehow, different from al-Qaeda and deserving of a "peace" plan. And now, both Republicans and Democrats wage a domestic war, senselessly and desperately trying to find a fall guy for September 11. Thus, too unprincipled to identify the enemy and wage all-out war, but not yet completely blind to their own ineffectualness, leaders from both parties resignedly admit that we're in for a "long war" and that there will be more terrorists attacks on U.S. soil. The lesson to learn from September 11 is this. We must root out the amoral, pragmatic expediency that dominates our government's foreign policy and replace it with the principles of self-interest. Onkar Ghate, Ph.D. in philosophy, is a senior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute (www.aynrand.org) in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead." Send comments to reaction@aynrand.org To Go To Top

THOMAS FRIEDMAN AND THE SIN OF HUMILIATION Posted by Naomi Ragen, March 30, 2004.

I wish I'd written the piece below, but I didn't. But it is certainly time someone pierced the incredibly bloated and undeserved reputation of this journalist who is respected despite his having been proved totally wrong in almost everything he's written and predicted. This was written by Samuel Z. Anvil. Thomas Friedman, one of the resident always-politically-correct pundits at the New York Times, has been chanting the mantra of "terrorism is a result of our humiliation of the Islamic world" for so long that it's become yet another of those liberal "truths" that are so convincing only until you actually think about them. The gist of Friedman's chant is this: we Westerners have been beating the Moslems at everything for these last centuries, and now we've left them to wallow in their utterly failed backward poverty-stricken dictatorships, seething in humiliation - is it any wonder they're crashing airliners into skyscrapers and blowing themselves (and us!) up in buses and trains? Wouldn't you do the same? Poor fellows. It's all our fault, you see, according to the sage from 42nd Street. We've embarrassed them by not being losers like they are, and now we're getting what we deserve. Well, there are two subtle points about humiliation that Thomas has missed. First, failure doesn't have to lead to humiliation. Take Thomas himself as an example. For years he's been analyzing the Middle East and the world situation, as respected liberal columnists tend to do, and he hasn't gotten anything right, ever. Remember that Saudi peace plan he more or less invented and waved around the world in 2001, assuring everybody that here, finally, his good friend Prince whatever-his-name-is had finally come to terms with the Jews' right to breathe the same air as everybody else? Do you remember too what happened next, on the very day of the Arab summit that was supposed to adopt that wonderful made-in-Manhattan peace plan? The Passover Seder Massacre, that's what happened. Some peace plan. And all of Tom's deep incisive commentary and analysis about the quagmire of Iraq, and the fighting spirit of the Taliban? And all of his reasoned, learned advice about how to wean North Korea and Iran from their nuclear toys? All nonsense, every column, every word. Events proved him wrong about everything, every time. And yet, despite being a total failure as an analyst, Thomas isn't feeling the least bit humiliated. No, he's still pounding away at his word processor, still going to cocktail parties and proudly pontificating to the wide-eyed cute little wannabe journalists and the oh-so sophisticated "cycle of violence" groupies. And second, did Thomas ever notice that the word "humiliation" is closely related to the world "humility?" That's what humiliation really means, the humiliated party humbly figures out that maybe he's not God's gift to humanity after all. Maybe he's just a pathetic little screw-up who should get his act together and start behaving like a human being. By that meaning, Moslems aren't humiliated at all. What they are is mad. Mad that their societies are still spinning their wheels in the third world mud. Mad that young men have nothing to look forward to except emigration. Mad that young women have nothing to look forward to but a life somewhere between a camel's and a donkey's. Mad that everybody else knows the truth. If there was any shred of humiliation among them, they would have the humility to admit that their societies' problems are of their own making and that they alone, Moslems, had better get cracking to fix what they themselves have screwed up. But they're not being at all humble. Instead, they're waving their swords over their heads, straight out of an Indiana Jones movie, pounding their chests like King Kong, making all sorts of awful noises and wild threats, demanding martyrdom for us all. And their cheerleaders, Thomas Friedman and his friends at CNN and BBC and Reuters, are dancing on the sidelines and waving the "Noble Savage" flag, urging them on and finding excuses for every atrocity they commit. Well, I for one have faith that one day they're going to run out of oil, and then there will be no more money to buy expensive cars and cheap journalists. Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist and columnist, who has lived in Jerusalem since 1971. Her website address is http://www.NaomiRagen.com To Go To Top

JEWS WHO FLED ARAB LANDS NOW PRESS THEIR CAUSE Posted by CAMERA, March 29, 2004.

"In its zeal and need to address the plight of Palestinians, the world allowed the plight of the Jewish refugees to fall by the wayside," Stanley A. Urman of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries recently explained. "Jews who fled Arab lands now press their cause; Refugees' advocates link issue to Palestinians' claims on Israel" by San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Jack Epstein, highlights the much overlooked plight of Jewish refugees from Arab lands. Regina Bublil Waldman, a Libya-born Jew, still recalls the minute details of the day 37 years ago when her homeland turned against her. The ordeal began in June of 1967, after the then-19-year-old translator for a British engineering firm in Tripoli received a phone call at work from her frantic mother. "Don't come home. There's a mob outside the house," Waldman's mother told her. "Find a place to hide." Waldman, who now lives in San Rafael, is a Mizrahi Jew, one of nearly 856, 000 Jews who fled Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen in an exodus that began after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and ended about 1970. Today, only an estimated 5,000 Jews remain in Arab lands, most of them in Morocco. In recent months, independent Jewish groups have begun a concerted effort on behalf of these "forgotten refugees," who they say were ignored by the global community after being absorbed by other countries -- mostly Israel -- while Palestinian refugees captured worldwide sympathy for living in squalid camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip. According to the United Nations, 726,000 Palestinians were forced out or voluntarily left the new state of Israel. "In its zeal and need to address the plight of Palestinians, the world allowed the plight of the Jewish refugees to fall by the wayside," said Stanley A. Urman, executive director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, a New York-based coalition of 27 Jewish organizations. The campaign for justice for the Mizrahi Jews has strong support in Congress. On Monday, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., is scheduled to introduce a resolution that would instruct U.S. envoys to raise the Jewish refugee issue every time the Palestinian refugee issue is raised as "an integral part of any comprehensive peace." "The senator believes it's important to move forward in the peace negotiations by considering all refugees, whether Christian, Jewish or Palestinian," said Robert Traynham, Santorum's communications director. Last year, House Resolution 311 called on the international community to recognize Jewish refugees who "fled Arab countries because they faced a campaign of ethnic cleansing and were forced to leave behind land, private homes, personal effects, businesses, community assets and thousands of years of their Jewish heritage and history." The World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries, a group affiliated with Urman's coalition, estimates the value of the confiscated property at more than $100 billion. The attacks against Waldman's family -- her father's warehouse, where he sold equipment to oil companies, was torched -- and on Libya's estimated 3,750 to 6,000 Jews began soon after the opening salvo of what is known as the Six Day War in Israel and "the setback" in the Arab world. Synagogues, homes and businesses were looted and burned, and more than 100 Jews were killed. Waldman hid out for a month at her employer's home while her father maneuvered to get the family out of Libya -- tricky business for people without passports. Most Libyan Jews had been denied citizenship even though many could trace their descendants back to the third century B.C. A month later, the entire Jewish community -- including Waldman, her parents, grandparents, an uncle and a brother -- was expelled by King Idris I. After a harrowing ride to the Tripoli airport -- her British boss rescued the family when the bus driver tried to burn the vehicle -- the family flew to Italy, where most still live today. "We lost all our property," said Waldman, a longtime Bay Area human rights activist and member of Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa (JIMENA), a San Francisco group that sends speakers throughout the United States to speak about the plight of Jews from Arab countries. "My father fell into a deep depression from not being the family breadwinner in Italy. He became suicidal." Both Waldman and Urman insist that the campaign for Jewish refugees is not about diminishing Palestinians' claim for redress, but about raising awareness that Arab governments drove them out of their homelands. Jews were stripped of their citizenship in Egypt, Iraq, Algeria and Libya; detained or arrested in Algeria, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Iraq and Egypt; deprived of employment by government decrees in Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Algeria, and had their property confiscated in all of the Arab lands except Morocco, according to Justice for Jews from Arab Countries. Anti-Jewish riots were widespread. Emily Gottreich, vice chair of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley, considers the 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors the "turning point" in sparking anti-Jewish sentiment, not the creation of Israel 19 years previously. "There was so much emotion at that time in the Arab world," she said. "That's when things became very untenable for Jews in the Middle East." Gottreich also argues that hostility toward Jews was a product of the community's close relationships to the region's then-colonial powers. "It's not an Arab-Jewish thing as much as what happened after the settling of the dust once the European powers left," she said. "In Algeria, for example, most Jews left en masse when the French pulled out." But Yitzhak Santis, director of Middle East Affairs of the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council, disagrees. He says there is proof of premeditated collusion among Arab governments to force Jews out of their countries once Israel was created. "We found minutes of a meeting of the political committee of the Arab League in 1948 where they discussed what to do with their Jewish populations if Israel was formed," Santis said. But like most historical events in the Middle East, there are divergent interpretations. "There is no evidence that there was a master plan on the part of Arab governments to expel Jews. There are no archives. Arab governments were all tyrannies that were closed," said Asad Abukalil, a Lebanon-born professor of political science at California State University at Stanislaus. "Hostility (against Jews) varied from state to state. In Morocco they could stay. In Iraq, they were stripped of their citizenship en masse. In Lebanon, where I grew up, there was no government program against Jews." While the debate rages, advocates for Jewish refugees are trying to push the issue on the agenda of a final Mideast peace agreement "as a matter of law and equity," said Urman, a former Canadian reporter. Some Palestinian activists find this troubling. "There should be no linkage of one refugee problem with another," said Jess Khanem, a member of the executive committee of the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition and president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in San Francisco. "It's not a Palestinian problem or issue. If any person feels wrongfully displaced, that needs to be addressed with their home country." Meanwhile, most Middle East observers agree that the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the recent transformation of Libya's Moammar Khadafy have boosted the cause of Jews from Arab countries. The U.S. occupation of Iraq led to an interim constitution this month that calls for the Iraqi government to make restitution to those who lost citizenship and property for "political, racial or sectarian reasons." Khadafy, who wants to restore diplomatic relations with the United States, sent emissaries to Vienna in January to discuss with Israeli officials the possibility of visits by Jews of Libyan descent, according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. Al-Siyasa, a Kuwaiti daily, reported that Khadafy is also considering compensation for Libyan Jews whose properties were confiscated. "After years of stonewalling, to have two Muslim countries say it is right to compensate is a tremendous change," said Urman. In Iraq, the estimated 135,000-member Jewish community was once one of the largest in the Arab world. But after the creation of Israel in 1948, government edicts removed Jews from public service, and barred them from entering universities, traveling abroad or buying and selling property. Such harsh laws caused more than 100,000 Jews to emigrate to Israel in 1951 in an airlift known as Operation Ezra and Nehemiah. That same year, the Iraqi parliament passed the Deprivation of Stateless Jews of Their Property Law aimed at Jews who had renounced their citizenship, a pre-condition for emigration. A series of bombings of Jewish institutions and more laws that limited their freedom persuaded the remaining 6,000 Iraqi Jews to leave in the early 1950s. As a result, an estimated 300,000 Iraqi Jews and their descendants now live in Israel and 40,000 elsewhere. One is Emeryville attorney Semha Alwaya, who left Baghdad with her parents in 1951 when she was just 6 months old. She is a member of a prominent Iraqi family -- her great-uncle was the finance minister, and her grandfather served as director of Bedouin affairs under the British mandate (1917 to 1932). After leaving Iraq, her family lived in transit camps in Israel for two years before moving to Iran for 12 years, where Alwaya's father sold insurance and her younger brother Albert was born. The family later settled in Israel. "We lost our home and our bank accounts and were sent out with just 20 dinars and the clothes on our back," said Alwaya, who is also a JIMENA member. Alwaya, who has taught Arabic at UC Berkeley and Stanford, says she has no plan to reclaim her family home in Iraq. "We are not interested in economics, but justice -- you can't put a price on that," she said. However, Iraqi Jews who do want to reclaim their properties may have a difficult time. In July, Ayatollah Kadim al-Haeri, a Shiite cleric who lives in Iran, issued a fatwa demanding death for Jews who buy property in Iraq. In Baghdad and Fallujah, reporters have seen signs that warn Iraqis not to "stab your fellow Iraqis in the heart" by selling land to "al Yahud" - "the Jews." "Credible or not, there has been a lot of press in the Arab world of Iraqi Jews returning on American tanks to buy up property," said Abukalil. "If they are seen as an appendage of the American occupation, it will hurt their cause." Perhaps that explains the language in the interim constitution that requires the Iraqi government to "restore residents to their homes and property, or, where this is unfeasible, provide just compensation (for) the injustice caused by the previous regime's practice." Jewish groups hope the wording isn't a device for limiting restitution to abuses committed only under Saddam Hussein. In Baghdad, Ibrahim Jaffari, one of nine rotating presidents of the 25-member Iraqi Governing Council, tried to assuage those fears: "Religion does not matter in the new Iraq. Iraq now allows all people of Iraqi origin to return, be they Muslims, Jews or Christians." Hamid al-Kifaey, a spokesman for the Governing Council, insisted that future Iraqi governments will not amend the constitution to discriminate against Jews once U.S. occupation ends. "Whether or not (U.S. administrator of Iraq Paul) Bremer goes, this law will stand," he said. "We'll give them (Jews) their rights." Meanwhile, Waldman and Alwaya are waiting for other Arab governments to acknowledge that they too were human rights violators. "The Japanese apologized for the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Germans apologized for World War II, and Pope John Paul II apologized for Catholics who attacked Jews for murdering Jesus," said Alwaya. "It's time for Arab countries to acknowledge that Jews in the Middle East were kicked out of their homelands." Chronicle Foreign Service correspondent Borzou Daragahi contributed to this report from Baghdad. E-mail Jack Epstein at jepstein@sfchronicle.com. Jewish population in Arab countries* 1948-2001 1948 856,000 1958 475,050 1968 72,600 1976 32,190 2001 7,800 *Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen Source: American Sephardi Federation Chronicle Graphic The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) monitors the news media for fairness in reporting news about Israel. To Go To Top

OPERATION: JERUSALEM Posted by Mike Evans, March 29, 2004.

Twenty-five years ago, President Jimmy Carter smiled for the cameras as he proclaimed to the entire Middle East that peace had come. The Muslim world was well-aware that Mr. Carter's goals were much more ambitious than peace between Israel and Egypt. The date was March 26th. Just four days later on the 30th, an ayatollah by the name of Khomeini united 90 percent of the population of Iran - the Shiites - and birthed an Islamic state. Khomeini made his announcement on April 1 - April Fools' Day. He called it, "The first day of God's government." With Mr. Carter's support, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat addressed the European Common Market in Luxemburg, which had issued declarations to the effect that the PLO should be recognized in the negotiations with Israel, and the Palestinians right to self-determination was as valid as Israel's right to exist. From Luxemburg, Sadat moved to France, which agreed - in principal - to sell Egypt its first nuclear power reactor. Instead of Sadat realizing his goal of establishing a democratic nation in Egypt, he incurred the wrath of Khomeini-type Islamic fanatics, the Muslim Brotherhood. They were responsible for Sadat's assassination. To this day, the majority of the secular media report that an agreement between Mr. Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (thanks to President Jimmy Carter) was the basis for agreeing to a Palestinian state, the recognition of the PLO, and relinquishing Judea and Samaria. In a private meeting shortly after the Camp David Accords were signed, I asked Prime Minister Begin to speak to these media-promoted misconceptions. He responded, "We were in the Cabinet Room, and President Carter asked me a question. In that question, he made a statement that was very negative. He said that the settlements were illegal. I had prepared a counter-question I wanted to pose to him. It was a 'prepared improvisation'." Mr. Begin continued, "I asked our Israeli Embassy in Washington to prepare a list of American cities that were named after cities in the Bible, i.e., Bethlehem, Hebron, Shiloh, Bethel. I showed President Carter my very long list. The American people love the Bible, and I asked him if he could imagine the governor of Pennsylvania proclaiming that anyone could live in the city of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, except Jews. President Carter agreed that if a man did such a thing, he would be guilty of racism. Why? Because Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is in the U.S., and the U.S. is a free country. So, I pointed out that I was the governor of a state in which the original Bethlehem, Jericho and Shiloh were located." "'Do you expect me," Mr. Begin asked, "to say that everyone could live in those cities except Jews?' Of course, he didn't; it would be absurd. Jews must have the right to settle in these places as much as anyone else. We have a right to Judea and Samaria, and we will live there. That does not mean we want to evict even one Arab from his village or town. Without Jewish settlements in those hills, the PLO could easily hide in them, and descend into the plain to kill our people, wherever they like. The Arabs have 21 states, why should they have 22, and the Jews have none?" Prime Minister Begin related, "President Carter told me he was opposed to a Palestinian state, but some European countries are so thirsty for oil and petro-dollars, they would rather surrender. It would not be the first time they surrendered to pressure. It happened in the '30's, and brought disaster to the world. Do we want to repeat that disaster? A Palestinian state is a moral danger to Israel, and a great peril to the free world. We never agreed to a Palestinian state at Camp David. We agreed to autonomy as a way to solve the problem of the Palestinian Arabs. Under no circumstances did we agree that the PLO could ever participate in the peace process or reside in Judea and Samaria. It is out of the question! If it happened, peace would be murdered, and there would be permanent bloodshed." Mr. Begin said, "When I came to Camp David, Jimmy Carter told me the government of the United States does not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. I had to answer, 'Whether you do or don't, Jerusalem is still the capital of Israel.' On the 17th of March at Camp David, I wrote a letter to President Carter stating this fact: Since 1967, Jerusalem is one city, indivisible, the capital of Israel. I told him that if Jerusalem was not our capital, where is it?" On April 1, 1980, the Egyptian Peoples' Assembly (their parliament) issued a statement determining that "East Jerusalem was sovereign Arab territory, and that it was an integral part of the West Bank, which had been occupied by armed forces." All the steps that had been taken by Israel since the Six-day War were proclaimed "illegal, null and void, and non-binding." The Egyptian parliament called for an establishment of Jerusalem as the seat of the Palestinian autonomous authority. The fact is, no country in the world could fail to react in the strongest terms to such provocative interventions in its affairs. Israel was compelled to rise to the challenge, and to act to protect and clarify its rights. This is the reason for the Knesset's basic law of Jerusalem, which originated as a private members' bill submitted to the House for the first time on May 14, 1980. This was in the wake of, and as its reaction to, the anti-Jerusalem campaign that had been mounted in the preceding months. While Mr. Carter's passionate commitment to the Middle East peace process helped to surmount some roadblocks, he was liable for numerous problems. The lack of experience in the Carter White House created an air of hostility between Mr. Carter and Mr. Begin that resulted in a strained relationship, and could have resulted in complete failure. President Carter's inexperience in dealing with the demands of the PLO allowed him to think, erroneously, that he could be a major player in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. His naivete led him to speak openly of a Palestinian "homeland", and to press on this issue throughout the negotiations between Sadat and Begin. Sadly, Mr. Carter failed to understand Prime Minister Begin. He tried, rather simplistically, to compare his U.S. civil rights experiences with those of the Middle East Arab-Israeli struggles. Carter stressed what he defined as, "the deprivation of Palestinian rights, which was contrary to the basic moral and ethical principles of both our countries." Mr. Carter carried the comparison even further by viewing the key to peace as a form of civil rights for the Palestinians. This included, "the right to assembly and to debate the issues that affected their lives..." Based on Jimmy Carter's deep religious conviction, Prime Minister Begin assumed he would immediately comprehend the vulnerability of Israel, and the moral justice of her responses. Mr. Begin was convinced that Mr. Carter should be focused not on the Palestinian question, but rather on the suffering of the Jewish people in Israel. Palestinian self-determination under the leadership of the PLO and Yasser Arafat, in Mr. Begin's view, was equivalent to opening the door for the destruction of Israel's sovereignty, and the annihilation of the Jewish people. Mr. Begin tried time and again to explain to Mr. Carter that the Arab-Israeli conflict could never be compared to the U.S. civil rights movement, and the attempt to create comparisons was deceptive and morally wrong. Michael D. Evans is the founder of America's largest Christian coalition praying for the peace of Jerusalem, the www.JerusalemPrayerTeam.org. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller "Beyond Iraq: The Next Move." 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GIVE THE WAR ON TERRORISM A CHANCE Posted by Morris J. Amitay, March 29, 2004.

The completely justified surgical strike which took the miserable life of a self-proclaimed terrorist leader raises fundamental questions about how to conduct the "war on terrorism". If Israel and the United States are indeed at war, what should be the rules? If the widespread European condemnation of Israel's action is an indication of how its leaders view the threat of Islamic extremism, they had better start teaching the Koran in their own school systems. The official U.S. reaction which found Yassin's sudden demise "deeply troubling" was mitigated by our veto of yet another completely one-sided UN resolution. But can we really have it both ways? Why wouldn't the U.S. welcome the elimination of someone it listed in August 2003 as one of six Specially Designated Global Terrorists? One has to wonder if our own intelligence (and accuracy) was as precise as our Israeli friends, and resulted in sending Osama bin Laden to paradise, whether our government would also find it "deeply troubling?" But hypocrisy and a double standard applied to Israel aside, the question remains how serious is the United States in defeating this new kind of enemy. If the death of a terrorist mastermind, (a.k.a. a "spiritual leader") could cause such angst, imagine how much worse it would have been for Israel if it had leveled the Gaza soccer stadium where thousands gathered to mourn Yassin and shout demands for Israel's destruction. The number of casualties (all able-bodied males, incidentally) would have represented only a small fraction of the civilian lives taken in Dresden, much less Hiroshima, during World War II. Alas, however, the world has become a kinder and gentler place, even for Islamic terrorists. In the "good old days" of WWII, the Cold War and Vietnam, our foes could be identified as representing a sovereign power within defined boundaries. Today, our deadly adversaries are more amorphous, and defined more by ideology then geography. And while they are assisted in varying degrees by two nations, Iran and Saudi Arabia, these regimes operate on the assumption we will continue to play their diplomatic games. But being in a new ball game does not necessarily mean that we have to abandon all of the older rules. We must not only do much better in understanding the true nature of the threat, but act more forcefully to neutralize it. This means setting aside exaggerated concerns about international legality, forsaking criminal prosecutions as a deterrent, and acknowledging that we are, indeed, engaged in a fundamental clash of civilizations. The Islamic jihadists are fond of proclaiming - you ("the West") love life - but we love death. This is certainly demonstrated by their increasing use of suicide operations against the infidels, or non-believers. Their ultimate goal, of course, is the conversion of the entire world to their own extremist brand of Islam. And while they make no bones about it, too many gullible westerners repeat the mantra of Islam as a religion of peace. Unfortunately, not all Muslims adhere to this. In the Palestinian-controlled territories a whole generation of schoolchildren are taught to embrace death as shahids - martyrs. And this is not only within Yassin's Hamas, but also practiced by Arafat's so-called "Al-Aqsa Brigades". Reacting to criticism over the use of children suicide bombers, its leader humanely proclaimed "we don't use children under the age of 17". And displaying her deep maternal instincts, the mother of the diminutive 16-year old would-be suicide bomber apprehended at a roadblock, was quoted as stating "If he was over 18? I might even encourage him to do it." What compassion! It has been said that "for every human problem there is a solution which is neat, simple - and wrong". But in dealing with the phenomenon of the suicide bombers, their trainers, inciters, and funders, the desirability of a simple solution should be evident. On September 20th 2001, President Bush, addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress, stated that the war on terror "will not end until every terrorist group - has been found, stopped and defeated". While not necessarily being enamored with the smell of cordite, the only sure way to "stop" and "defeat" terrorists who seek martyrdom is to grant them their wish as quickly as possible. If we are indeed in the midst of a war you don't "do nuance". And you don't have the time to be overly concerned about eliminating the "root causes". Attributing the terrorists' acts to poverty, humiliation and frustration only serves as a means of ignoring the real source - the preaching of blind hatred and death in the name of religion. Ahmed al-Rantisi, the new head of Hamas, put it succinctly "God declared war against America, Bush and Sharon." Israel faces Jew-hatred and the U.S. faces hatred of our values and civilization. We do not have the time to redeem a generation whose "hearts and minds" have already been poisoned. In this regard one recalls President Lyndon Johnson's solution on how to win over your enemies. "If you've got them by the ____s (i.e. two particularly sensitive parts), their hearts and minds are sure to follow." What also follows from the Johnson dictum is that we are in a situation where the application of deadly force to terrorists is one answer, and the threat of armed force against nations aiding and abetting these terrorists is the other. At this juncture we must not hesitate to give war a chance. Our peace terms should be unconditional surrender. You simply cannot negotiate meaningfully with those who want you dead. You cannot pursue a "peace process" with those who want you to disappear. Unless both we and our Israeli friends are willing to face up to this harsh reality and act accordingly, the future we all face will be bleak indeed. Morrie Amitay is a former Executive Director of AIPAC and founder of the pro-Israel Washington PAC (www.washingtonpac.com). To Go To Top

FORD FOUNDATION'S GRANTEE - MIFTAH.ORG - PROMOTES INTIFADA Posted by Lise Rubin, March 29, 2004.

These are some recent grants given to Miftah by the Ford Foundation. Miftah: The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy - For public debates, media-related activities, and workshops and to enhance the information dissemination capacity of its Web site. EAST JERUSALEM Peace and Social Justice Human Rights International Cooperation, $200,000 - 2002. Miftah: The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy - Support for developing effective media response and articulating Palestinian views on the crisis situation, including online press briefings and opinion pieces. EAST JERUSALEM Peace and Social Justice Governance and Civil Society, $100,000 - 2001. Miftah: The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy - SUPPORT FOR CONVENING WORKSHOPS, PUBLISHING BRIEFING MATERIALS, AND DEVELOPING THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY UNIT TO ENHANCE THE INSTITUTE'S OUTREACH PROGRAM. EAST JERUSALEM Peace and Social Justice Governance and Civil Society Governance, $250,000 - 2000. This was a statement made by Miftah, March 27, 2004: "Enough Assassination, Enough of the Occupation, Stop the Bloodshed" by Palestinians from political, intellectual and social institutions (www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=3387&CategoryId=2). We, the undersigned, Palestinians from various political, intellectual and social institutions, united in our endurance and struggle for freedom, emphatically condemn and denounce Israel's blatant aggression on our people. The cold-blooded murder of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and his faithful companions by Sharon and his right-wing extremist government two days ago epitomizes Israel's criminal and insidious behavior. While we assert our people's rights, guaranteed by all international covenants, to defend themselves by all means available and despite the enormity of our pain at this horrific tragedy and its impact, we nevertheless call upon our people throughout Palestine, guided by the imperatives of national interest and the removal of the initiative from the hands of the criminal occupation gang, to repress their rage and rise once again in a widespread, popular and peaceful Intifada, based on clear objectives and forthright discourse, with the fate of our people steered by the masses. Such an Intifada would be conducted by our valiant people as a proactive approach to deny Sharon the pretext to continue escalating his aggression on our people and holy sites and would prevent him from finalizing his "security" plot. We call for this unified Intifada as a step towards the resurrection of constructive and disciplined popular action, with clear objectives as well as a binding program and political return. We reaffirm our commitment to our just and legal demands and to our people's inalienable rights. We call for uniting ranks on grounds of national unity and a unified leadership that can effectively resist the occupation. Ibrahim al-Hafi, Ibrahim Musalam, Ahmad Jubara (Abu al-Sukkar), Ahmad Haless (Abu Maher), Ahmad Fares, As'ad Odeh, Amin Maqboul, Buthayna Duqmaq, Jad Ishaq, Jamal Dar'awi, Jamal Zaqout, Jamil Rushdi, Jihad Abu Zuneid, George Hazboun, Hassan Dweik, Hanan Ashrawi, Hakam Taleb Thiab, Haidar Awadallah, Khader Ayesh, Khalil al-Ateeri, Dimitri Dilyani, Rihab al-Isawi, Radwan al-Sameri, Riyad al-Malki, Zahirah Kamal, Ziad Hamouri, Suri Nuseibeh, Said Zidani, Salman Jadallah, Sameer Shihadah, Siham Thabet, Suhail Salim Abdel Fatah Salman, Shaher Sa'd, Shafiq Zeidieh, Shukri al-Radaydeh, Salah Hikmat al-Masri, Abbas Zaki, Aballah Hijazi, Abdallah al-Kiwani, Abdallah al-Atiri, Abdel Fatah Hamayel, Abdel Qader Faisal al-Huseini, Arafat al-Hidmi, Azzam al-Ahmad, Izat al-Rasini, Ikrama Tabet, Imad Abu Kishk, Imad Awad, Ali Hasasneh, Anan Atiri, Ghazi Hananiah, Ghassan al-Harami, Ghassan Hananiah, Fathi Salim Yassin Abu Zeid, Fadel Tahboub, Fahed Abu al-Haj, Cairo Arafat, Lusi Nuseibeh, Lily Feidy, Muhammd al-Rimawi, Muhammad al-Sha'bi, Mahmoud al-Aloul, Mahmoud al-labadi, Nasser Yunis, Nayef Sweitat, Nur Eldin Ibrahim Shehadeh, Hashem Abu Lafi, Yasser Abed Rabbo, Yusef Harb, Yusef Aref. IMRA (Independent Media Review Analysis) notes that "the 'peaceful Intifada' that the signers wish to return to means mob attacks with firebombs and rocks. IMRA's website address is http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=20235 To Go To Top

CERTIFIABLY ANTI-SEMITISM FREE Posted by Lori Lowenthal Marcus, March 29, 2004.

You've seen notices on food packages certifying a product "100% fat free." Perhaps you have also noticed another kind of certification. This one, issued by Jews, labels an act or entity "anti-Semitism free." This certification assures the world that something other Jews claim is anti-Semitic is not. The attacked action is pronounced "certifiably" anti-Semitism free. This pronouncement also implies claims to the contrary are driven by super-sensitivity and lack of proportionality. Here's how it works. Jews are trotted out to the public by organizations needing to rebut claims of anti-Semitism. The documented claims are erased by the rebuttal issued by a Jew. The organization then brandishes its anti-Semitism free certification, and the Jewish certifier becomes ever more valuable to the organization. The individual Jew or Jewish group issuing the certification is assuredly entitled to his or her or its opinion. The problem arises when that opinion is raised as a shield to thwart off legitimate claims of anti-Semitism directed towards the larger entity. Do the Jewish certifiers realize how much their value as a spokesperson is enhanced by their religion? And do those hearing the certifications realize the labels stick unless other authorities peel them off? The Philadelphia Free Library, a municipally funded institution, recently housed in its enormous lobby an editorial cartoon exhibit attacking the "US Patriot Act." The exhibit was cleverly promoted as "US Patriot Art." Most of the cartoons in the exhibit predictably depicted President Bush and his pals eviscerating the Bill of Rights and all good things American - but one cartoon stood out. In this cartoon, a grinning Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says to President Bush: "You don't know how much we rejoice when we fire a missile on Palestine and children die." Put aside its viciousness and total baselessness, what does this cartoon have to do with the US Patriot Act? Sharon is the only foreign leader portrayed in any of the exhibit cartoons. When asked why the Free Library chose to exhibit such a cartoon, the question was referred to a board member, Herman Mattleman. No surprise here, Mattleman is a Jewish lawyer. Mattleman agreed the cartoon was offensive, agreed that Sharon was the only foreign leader depicted in the exhibit, admitted that the cartoon had nothing to do with the Patriot Act, and admitted that it was displayed in the Free Library lobby, where schoolchildren and other patrons gather for extended periods. But his bottom line was, "who cares?" Mattleman was sneeringly unimpressed. He said, "Jews shouldn't waste their time on minor offenses." In other words, unless the trains are rattling down the tracks, it's a waste to sound the alarm. So, a vicious and patently false portrayal of the Israeli Prime Minister is not worth more than an annoyed snort. And behind that snort hides the Jewishly-christened squeaky clean players who made the grotesque decision to house the cartoon in its lobby. On to an example on a national level. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency recently exposed the Ford Foundation as the source of multimillions of dollars provided to non-governmental organizations that launched the foulest attacks on Israel and Jewry in recent history. Those NGOs relentlessly excoriated Israel as an apartheid, genocidal, colonialist monster during the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. Shortly after the exposes ran in the JTA, the Ford Foundation awarded a grant of $20 million to the New Israel Fund (sounds good, sounds Jewish), thereby building on what Ford called "the Ford Foundation's long term commitment to funding in Israel." The New Israel Fund Board Chair Peter Edelman announced that the grant would "ensure continuity for Ford's long-standing commitment in [Israel]." About those many millions of dollars lavished on the Durban hate-festers screaming for the destruction of the Israel apartheid state? Nary a word. Maybe the New Israel Fund thought it was chosen because Ford just realized virtually none of the hundreds of millions of Foundation dollars pumped into the Middle East over the past several years had gone to Jewish or Israeli ventures. On an international level, close your eyes and conjure up those touching pictures of Adam Shapiro, holed up in the Mukata with his buddy the long-suffering Yasser Arafat. On video and in pictures shown around the world, Shapiro cuddled up with what Israel claims is a thieving, murdering, corrupt and heartless bastard. But the microphone and the cameras were placed in front of Adam, and his anti-Semitism-free certification bestowed upon Arafat the Imperial Margarine Crown of innocence and virtue. No surprise that the International Solidarity Movement placed front and center that Brooklyn-born boychick with the name of unmistakable origins. Mattleman, the New Israel Fund and Shapiro are entitled to their views and public positions. But why is it that Jews who support Israel are so loathe to publicly air their views? Why are we ashamed to stand up for ourselves, when so many of our own have no problem hoisting the microphone and wielding it against us? Anti-Semitism free or shame-free: It's our choice. Lori Lowenthal Marcus is President, Zionist Organization of America, Greater Philadelphia District, (Eastern PA, Southern NJ, Del.) To Go To Top

AN URGENT APPEAL TO SAVE OUR MOMMY'S LIFE Posted by Joel Silverberg, March 29, 2004.

Our mother is in desperate need of new lungs. She is 42 years old. We are five children, ages four through fourteen. She is being kept alive on a respirator in an intensive care unit. Her doctors tell us that she can not live without an immediate transplant. That would leave us without a mother! Do you know anyone with an irreversible injury or illness, whose lungs still function? If you do, please reach us through our friends at 1-800-SAVE -A -LIFE , 1- 800- 728-3254. E-mail: SaveMyMommysLife@aol.com Please Say Tehillim For: Naava bas Fruma Leah To Go To Top

WHY DID ISRAEL KILL YASSIN NOW? Posted by , March , 2004.

A vote of no-confidence was coming up. Opposition to PM Sharon's withdrawal scheme was strong. Many Israelis think it no coincidence that he chose this time to assassinate Yassin. Upon hearing of the assassination, Sharon's opponents thought it important to show solidarity with him in fighting terrorism. Sharon won the vote. Of course, the liquidation of Yassin does not compensate for the proposed liquidation of Zionism in Gaza and part of Judea-Samaria. It was just a cover for Sharon's long-range surrender to terrorism by means of withdrawals (Voice of Judea, 3/2). Many Israelis feel this way. They have some logic on their side. Ariel Sharon seems to operate as cynically as they fear. They may be right, but they don't know. Don't know, don't insist. There is a kind of simple-mindedness to alleging that coincidences are deliberate. On 3/24, the same kind of an allegation was answered on NPR by former US counter-terrorism chief Richard Clark. The Bush Administration had accused him of coming out with a book accusing Pres. Bush of having ignored the Al Qaeda threat, just when Sen. Kerry is running against Bush and has a friend of Clark's high on Kerry' s staff. The Administration supposes that Clark wants a job with a Kerry Administration. Don't know, don't assert. Clark points out that he finished drafting the book some time ago. He then let the White House review it for security breaches. That review took three months. If the review had been expedited, the book would have been published before Kerry became the apparent nominee. Clark asserts that he would refuse an offer from Kerry. Sometimes coincidences are coincidences. Terrorists take advantage of such coincidences to claim that certain terrorist acts, actually planned months or weeks earlier, were arranged in vengeance for some Israeli action of a few days earlier. The media accepts the terrorists' claim. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

THE MAN WITH THE COFFEE CUP Posted by Reuven A. Kossover, March 29, 2004.

In this country, you deal with people and you never really know who it is you deal with. In the Geula neighbourhood of Jerusalem, on Mea Shearim Street just a couple of meters from Kikar Shabbat [Sabbath Square], there sits a man with a coffee cup. He sits on a low stool with a long black coat and a kippa [yarmulka] on his head -- on cold days he covers his head with a thick hood. He has a thick beard and thin hair on his head. His eyes are always alert, but he is never intrusive in his attempts to obtain agorot and shekels from passers-by. He spends a good part of the day sitting on his stool on Mea Shearim Street gently shaking a coffee cup with small coins in it. In a city like St. Paul in the U.S., a cop with a snarl for a face would tell this man: "Move on, buddy!" Every bum, beggar and drunk is "buddy" to the cops in that city. But in Jerusalem, where it is a mitzvah (both a commandment and a good deed) to give charity to the needy, this almost never happens. So the man sits undisturbed on his stool on Mea Shearim Street. But he doesn't spend the entire day sitting on his stool. In the mornings, he attends Shacharit (dawn) prayers. And around 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon, every day from Sunday to Thursday, he leaves his stool and walks to an alleyway, turns left and turns left again into a bagel shop. "Aaron!" he roars in a booming voice as he sits down at a table in the bagel shop. Soon enough another bearded man with grey hair and a New York accent appears, grousing "what do you want this time?" The two banter back and forth in the near empty restaurant, feigning a hostility that neither of them feels or means. The man with the coffee cup does not hustle Aaron for money or for a bagel. Eventually, after enough banter back and forth, he asks Aaron how business has been that day and how can he help him. Aaron opens up the cash register and looks at the fellow with the coffee cup. "How are you doing on five shekel pieces?" "Eh, I'll see". He unzips the outer portion of his black bag and pulls out a bunch of five shekel coins and starts counting. When he has reached sixteen he stops "Do you have four twenties?" Aaron pulls out the twenties and walks over to the table with them. "You're lucky," he says. "By this time of the day, I'm usually out of twenties altogether. "You mean you're lucky", counters the man with the coffee cup. "I'm here to give you five shekel coins. Here I do a public service and I get no gratitude at all. What about one shekel coins?" "How many do you have?" asks Aaron. "Do you have a fifty shekel bill?" asks the man with the coffee cup. Aaron nods. "Go ahead, count it up, before someone comes in and I have to give it out in change". The man with the coffee cup counts up the fifty one-shekel coins. "Nu?" he says loudly. Aaron produces the fifty shekel note. "What about my half shekel coins and ten agorot pieces?" asks the man with the coffee cup with mock impatience. "I should have to walk around with small change all day? At my age, I'll get a hernia!" "Listen, don't start with me. Count 'em up already! You think I have all day for this nonsense?" Aaron says, checking what he has in the register. After all is said and done, the man with the coffee cup sells 180 shekels worth of small change to the bagel shop, pocketing paper money in the process. "So, what will it be today?" asks Aaron after all the money has been exchanged. "Give me some tea", says the man with the coffee cup. After he zips up the outer section of his bag, he looks at Aaron. "Did you know that the Herut (Freedom) Party used some of my material?" "Really", answers Aaron. His face glazes over just a bit. Politics is not Aaron's favorite subject. But the man with the coffee cup exploits the opening aggressively. He opens up the main section of his bag and pulls out some neatly typed sheets. Then he starts to read in Hebrew the party positions of the Herut Party, explaining as he goes along how he wants to stick it to the National Religious Party and the Agud?, two larger parties which compete for the same voters in Israeli politics. Aaron brings him his tea and sits down with him, looking over the typed Hebrew. "Not bad", he says after a few minutes. Looking over at a tall dark-skinned man sipping coffee a table away, he asks, "Yehuda, what do you think?" Yehuda, whose brother manages the Jerusalem campaign of the National Union Party, yet another party competing for the very same voters, just shrugs. "It sounds okay. But what is Herut going to do with only one seat in the Knesset?" The man with the coffee cup looks up at Yehuda angrily. "If all the people who say they like Herut vote Herut, there'll be more than one seat in the Knesset". Yehuda just shrugs again. "Good luck with the piece. Why don't you consider writing for a living?" The man with the coffee cup finishes up his tea. "I don't think so. That would mean work. Aaron, thank you. It was a pleasure doing business with you". He puts his papers back in his bag and zips it up. "Nu, I've got to get going. I have to make it to Mincha (afternoon prayers) and get back to schnorring (begging)". He gets up, picks up his bag and goes out into the street. I follow him down the alley and look up at the sky. Dark clouds rush in from the north, driven by a strong wind. The man with the coffee cup stops near his stool and puts his hand out for money. I drop a shekel into it and hurry on to the bus stop. I want to catch the bus before it rains. Shavua Tov (Happy New Week), Chodesh Tov (Happy New Month) and Chag Sameach (Happy Passover) from Liberated Yerushaliyim, This was distributed by the Root and Branch Information Services (www.rb.org.il). To Go To Top

A MAJOR VICTORY FOR FREE SPEECH IN ISRAEL Posted by Steven Plaut, March 29, 2004.

Israel's Hebrew University of Jerusalem has long been a bastion for leftist anti-Zionism, tenured treason, support for mutiny and insubordination by Israeli soldiers, support for "New History" (meaning Israel-bashing pseudo-history), and leftist extremism. Among the radical leftists at the Hebrew University, arguably the most extremist of all may be Moshe Zimmerman. Zimmerman is a Professor of German History and may be best known for his pronunciations that the children of Israeli Jewish settlers are "Hitlerjugend" (The Jerusalem Post April 30, 1995) and for repeatedly comparing Israeli soldiers and settlers to Nazis (http://israelvisit.co.il/cgi-bin/friendly.pl?url=Jan-17-03!gevalt5). When Benjamin Netanyahu ran for re-election on the campaign slogan, "A strong leader for a strong people," Zimmerman wrote in the Jerusalem Post that Israeli political candidates who use terms such as "strong leader" or "strong people" are employing language reminiscent of the Nazis (http://www.netaxs.com/home/q/afsi/OUTPOST/99MAR/mar12.htm). During Operation Defensive Wall, Zimmerman made the headlines when he decided to grant exemptions from exams and assignments to all students in jail for refusing to follow orders or serve in the military, but all students called up to serve in the reserves, to serve their country, would enjoy no such special consideration. He has been repeatedly accused of using his classroom as a bully pulpit to coerce his students to accept his extremist anti-Israel views (see below, from http://www.haaretzdaily.com) and is now even being investigated for this by the Ministry of Education, which funds most of the budgets for all Israeli universities. Zimmerman is so extreme that he sometimes shocks even the other ordinary leftist anti-Zionists on Israeli campuses with his radicalism. One of the more amusing distractions of recent months was the SLAPP suit Zimmerman filed against Haaretz and one of its writers. SLAPP refers to Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation and a SLAPP suit is a frivolous anti-democratic libel suit designed to harass one's critics for purposes of denying them free speech and silencing them. The very same Zimmerman filed a frivolous SLAPP suit against Anat Peri, a writer at Haaretz (and an ex-PHD student of Zimmerman's) and against Haaretz itself for writing there that Zimmerman regularly compares Israel to Nazi Germany at the same time that the German government has been financing his own research. Zimmerman decided to pull a Neve Gordon and tried to suppress his critic by filing a SLAPP suit. It is part of the current wave of SLAPP suits in Israel by leftist extremists trying to use the courts to suppress free speech for non-leftists. A few days ago Zimmerman lost his SLAPP suit and was ordered to pay a cool 75,000 shekels in court expenses. The judge went out of her way to express her disgust at Zimmerman's hubris and arrogance in the courtroom. She expressed astonishment that a professor, who is also a public figure who writes controversial things in the media, should attempt to silence his own critics using such a "libel" suit. Zimmerman himself was protected in the past from people trying to sue HIM for libel, on grounds of free speech, yet here he was trying to conscript the courts as bludgeons to silence his own critics, noted the judge. The judge also accepted as reasonable the assertion that Zimmerman was granted German government funding thanks to his own political opinions (Haaretz Mar 28). As you know, I am the target of a very similar harassment SLAPP suit by Ben Gurion extremist political science lecturer Neve Gordon. The similarities between the two trials are astounding. Like Zimmerman, Gordon publicly endorses mutiny and insubordination by Israeli soldiers who refuse to do service as long as Israel is not following the policies advocated by the country's most extremist leftists. Like Zimmerman, Gordon has enjoyed funding for his anti-Israel "research" from sources wishing to assist him in promoting his own political agenda. In Gordon's case, the source was the Kroc Institute, a "center" so radical that it also finances (according to the NY Sun) the activities of a Moslem French anti-Semite with ties to al-Qaida, and which financed a "research paper" by Gordon and a friend of his that "proved" that Israel is a terrorist state. Like Zimmerman, Gordon is trying to use the court as a bludgeon to silence his critic (me), because I dared criticize some of his political columns - and especially his columns prasing Holocaust Denier Norman Finkelstein and which compared Finkelstein ethically to the Prohpets in the Bible - and also because I publicly criticized the fact that Gordon entered Ramallah illegally in the middle of Operation Defensive Wall to show his solidarity with Arafat - exactly at the same time that Arafat was hiding the two murderers of an Israeli cabinet minister as well as other wanted terrorists in the same offices where Gordon affectionately clasped arms in solidarity with Arafat. Gordon is determined to try the same failed harassment tactic as Zimmerman and now has yet another legal precedent working against him. As you will see in the article below which singles out Zimmerman and also Ben Gurion University, the Minister of Education is starting to pressure Israeli universities to take action when faculty members engage in treason, use their classrooms to force their extremist views on their students, and otherwise use their positions for the purpose of battling against their own country. You will notice from the article how prominently Ben Gurion University figures in such activities. Please contact the Minister and encourage her to take serious action in this matter: Education, Culture & Sport: Limor Livnat, Tel 02-560-2330, Fax 02-560-2246, Email sar@education.gov.il Then please read the two important items below. After reading these, if you would like to express your opinion about the radicalization and extremist anti-Israel activities so common at Ben Gurion University, I suggest you make your opinions known to Officials at Ben Gurion University: Professor Avishay Braverman President, Ben-Gurion University Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer--Sheva 84105, Israel Fax: 972-8-647-2937 avishay@bgumail.bgu.ac.il Professor Jimmy Weinblatt Rector, Ben-Gurion University Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer--Sheva 84105, Israel Tel. 972-7-6461105 Fax: 972-7-6472945 weinb@bgumail.bgu.ac.il Professor Avishai Henik Dean of Social Sciences henik@bgumail.bgu.ac.il 972-8-6472945 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, P.O.B. 653 Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Be'er-Sheva 84105, Israel. and also American Associates of Ben Gurion University: 1430 Broadway 8th Floor New York, NY 10018 phone 212-687-7721 fax 212-302-6443 email info@aabgu.org Lis Gaines President Vivien K. Marion Executive Vice President If you have already told them what you think of leftist extremism at Ben Gurion University, why not tell them again? 2. Haaretz is suddenly alarmed at "threats" to free speech: "Clipping the (lunatic) fringes of academic freedom" by Dalia Shehori, in Haaretz. A member of the Hebrew University's Law Faculty believes the dangers facing academic freedom are more serious today than ever before, 'due to the addition of trying events that are continuing longer than they ever have in the past.' Last March, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor lodged a complaint against his colleague, Prof. Moshe Zimmerman for venturing a remark in the classroom in support of Israel Defense Force soldiers who refuse to serve in the territories. A demand for disciplinary action against Zimmerman was reviewed - even after it was established that the complaint was factually unfounded - and that it would not have warranted censure even if true. At Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, lecturers demonstrated against conferring an honorary doctorate on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Others protested when Yossi Beilin was invited to lecture on campus. In recent months, Education Minister Limor Livnat has complained to University of Haifa Rector Prof. Aharon Ben-Ze'ev about political statements Prof. Avraham Oz from the theater department made in class. Livnat has also complained to Ben-Gurion University President Prof. Avishai Braverman over comments in an article published by the head of the university's Institute for Social Research, Prof. Lev Grinberg (Grinberg writes sometimes in Tikkun -- SP) and Livnat protested to the Hebrew University's President, Prof. Menachem Magidor about Zimmerman's statement. Responding to reports of Zimmerman's remarks, and also to a petition signed by some 40 Hebrew University lecturers (the document was later signed by 250 university teaching staff members) which expressed support for "students who refuse to serve in the conquered territories," Livnat knocked on the door of government attorney general Elyakim Rubinstein. She asked for his opinion as to how she should "act against lecturers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, since their activities encourage infraction of the law, and perhaps also sedition." Livnat's turn to Rubinstein set the stage for a Knesset Education and Culture Committee hearing on academic freedom sponsored by Zahava Gal-On, MK (Meretz). To her chagrin, Gal-On found that at the end of this meeting she was in a minority - most Knesset committee members supported Livnat's approach on the issue. It's worth mentioning that the Education and Culture Committee asked Prof. Magidor to submit as evidence the petition that dozens of Hebrew University staff members had signed. The Hebrew University President refused to cooperate with this request, even though he personally opposes refusal to serve in the territories. "I don't supervise what faculty members say and what they disseminate," Magidor told Ha'aretz. He insists that just as such matters are not for University administrators to monitor and censor, the Knesset Committee has no business dealing with it. Nonplussed, Livnat pushed on. She informed the Knesset Committee that she intends to turn to the University of Haifa Rector about another political statement made by Prof. Vered Krauss, during a lecture on statistics. Do the events outlined here pose a threat to academic freedom in Israel? According to Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer, a member of the Hebrew University's Law Faculty, dangers facing academic freedom are more serious today than ever before. "This is due to the addition of trying events that are continuing longer than they ever have in the past. The events of the times have created an atmosphere of impatience toward ideas that are not part of the consensus. Worthy political leaders should have made a major effort to stem this wave [of intolerance], and send a message of openness and tolerance toward unorthodox opinions. I think that the leadership is doing the exact opposite." Prof. Shlomo Avineri, an expert on political thought from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, agrees that the mix of war-like events and grave social polarization creates circumstances that endanger academic freedom. "Without making any comparison, McCarthyism came to the fore in the U.S. at the peak of the Cold War." Avineri calls attention to efforts made in America after September 11, 2001 to curb the scope of academic freedom, at least with respect to the expression of criticism toward U.S. policy. Current circumstances in Israel, Avineri reflects, "enjoin great responsibility and restraint on the part of members of the academic community, and also considerable restraint on the part of state authorities." It appears the attorney general concurs. In a written response to Livnat, Rubinstein wrote that Zimmerman's statement and the petition "are an irresponsible outrage. However, demands involving criminal prosecution in a sphere outside of the IDF, in the public realm, have to be forwarded with extreme caution." The State Prosecutor's Office has "discussed the possibility of initiating criminal steps with respect to calls for refusal to serve; but in the end it was decided not to proceed with [these steps], not at this time," Rubinstein wrote. He added that when legal authorities consider taking action against the expression of opinions, "considerable weight is given to the crucial centrality of the principle of freedom of speech." Rubinstein notified Livnat that complaints about concrete statements made by lecturers will continue to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. In Avineri's view, "anyone who calls on soldiers to refuse to serve in the territories undoubtedly puts himself under fire; in moral terms, his action is an abomination." Nonetheless, the prestigious Hebrew University political scientist, says "I don't think that it's the business of the Education Minister to intervene" in Zimmerman's case. Surely, Livnat can state her view on any matter in cabinet meetings, Avineri says, "but as Education Minister, she lacks status and authority to deal with the enforcement of the universities' laws." Kremnitzer regrets that "instead of standing up for freedom of speech, which is currently endangered by a general public atmosphere of intolerance, [Livnat] is acting in the opposite direction, operating as a quasi-policewoman by monitoring statements made by academics. My expectation is that the Education Minister should uphold academic freedom rather than acting to curb it, and to intimidate the academic community." Kremnitzer points out that the petition did not include an explicit, illegal endorsement of refusal to serve. The letter, he says, was formulated in a "careful manner which approaches the legal limit, without transgressing it." He too opposes refusal to serve in the territories, but believes that public discussion of the subject is important. Prof. Magidor, who also chairs the committee of Israeli universities, says that whenever provocative statements are made nowadays on campus or in an academic context, "an atmosphere of hysteria" develops. He stresses that all the nation's universities, certainly the Hebrew University, "uphold the principle that any view which is not tantamount to incitement, and does not endorse violence or any reprehensible act, can be articulated." The root of the problem is apparently the lack of clarity inherent in the concept "academic freedom." Everyone agrees that freedom of expression, a staple element of civil liberties, applies to each citizen so long as he or she does not break the law and academic freedom is subsumed within this principle of free expression. But, beyond these basic precepts, there remain a number of questions. The answers to them are far from obvious. Does the principle of academic freedom apply to political statements made by university lecturers? If the answer to this question is "yes," does the principle also protect the expression of a lecturer's personal opinion in class? If the answer here is "no," what rules of conduct apply to an academic who teaches political science, history, sociology, philosophy or other subjects in which handling of current events is sometimes unavoidable? Testifying to the Knesset Education and Culture Committee, Livnat offered the following definition of academic freedom - the right is not unlimited, and it does not protect "any reprehensible" comment, and matters which do not pertain to research and professional treatment of a particular academic discipline. The Knesset Committee's majority decided that Livnat's appeal to the attorney general was "legitimate, and did not represent infringement of academic freedom." Livnat's definition and the Committee's decision are supported by Dr. Ron Breiman, chairman of the Professors for a Strong Israel (PSI) group who took part in the Knesset panel's meeting PSI has about 500 members, most of them academics from fields of sciences and medicine. Dr. Breiman, from Tel Aviv University, acknowledges that there is less occasion and prompting for a lecturer in the sciences to express a political opinion in class. Breiman views refusal to serve as an illegal form of "desertion." Encouragement of refusal to serve is also illegal, he believes. Such infractions are not protected by the rule of academic freedom, the PSI chairman maintains; they are subject to rule of law norms which govern freedom of speech. Anyone who advocates "desertion" should face criminal prosecution. Academic freedom, Breiman explains, has limits. A lecturer has no right to express his or her own opinion in class, he says, since such statements pressure students, since they are afraid to express a contrary view, wary that doing so might hurt their grades, or chances of advancement. He also believes that discussion of the extreme right in a class must also be balanced by treatment of the extreme left; otherwise, a lecture is tendentious, and illegitimate. Should the idea of the transfer of Arabs come up in a class, Breiman says (he himself opposes transfer), the transfer of Jews should be opposed in a manner analogous to the condemnation of the transfer of Arabs. Breiman says that it's hard to precisely demarcate the borders of the rule of academic freedom. Statements made by academics must be plausible and prudent; it is best, Breiman says, to leave these standards of prudence and good taste to the discretion of the lecturer. Prof. Zimmerman violated these standards, Breiman believes, but he does not argue that Zimmerman should face trial. The best course of action is for the academic community as a whole to prohibit such wrongful statements of personal opinion. Kremnitzer upholds a different conception of the essence of academic freedom. It is clear, he says, that academic freedom does not protect racist comments or remarks which can humiliate and flagrantly insult persons, and statements that incite violence have no place in academia. But racist or inciting expressions are banned by law. The specific meaning of academic freedom as part of the principle of free speech is that "persons from the academic community are allowed in in academic institutions to pursue thoughts to the fullest extent. That is the ethos of academic freedom." Academics are expected to examine consensus ideas critically, and not to accept them passively. An academic's vocation is to be critical and skeptical. In order to protect this role, "the rule of academic freedom has to be protected to the fullest extent permissible," Kremnitzer concludes. The principle of academic freedom is anchored in the law. Section 15 of the higher education law maintains that "a recognized [academic] institution is free to administer its academic matters under its budgetary framework as it sees fit." Yet a review of specific university regulations which hold sway at the Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, the University of Haifa, Ben-Gurion University and Bar-Ilan University indicates that the concept of academic freedom is not detailed. It appears that this absence of a definition is no academic. Kremnitzer explains that academic freedom is a complex concept, and "I am not sure that any specific formulation can describe it in a full, satisfactory fashion. So it's best to leave this as a matter of the general ethos." Avineri says that were attempts made to define academic freedom, each university would define the idea differently, and not standard, accepted formula would be reached. However, Avineri adds, this fact is not problematic. "The state enables universities to function economically, and it does not intervene in terms of the contents of what is taught in them; on the other hand, it upholds academic freedom in the sense that it allows academic to enforce its own limits." He adds: "The academic community and its members must relate to academic freedom as a cornerstone to be protected." The basic question remains: what is a lecturer allowed to say in class? Prof. Zimmerman represents the extreme approach. As a historian, he says: "History ends in the present. Thus, all these subjects, including refusal to serve or Israeli behavior in the conquered territories, or problems with Israel's political regime, are just as pertinent as any other historical topic." Avineri, in contrast, does not believe that "it is the role of a university lecturer to express his political view in class." A professor should "be cautious, and not digress toward current events, so as not to transform university study into a derivative model of a current events talk show." As to Zimmerman's contention that history ends in the present, Avineri replies: "That is the position of someone who wants to transform the universities from responsible research institutions into schools for political activity. That would be the end of the universities as we know them." Kremnitzer rejects the contention that a lecturer's expression of his or her personal view imposes pressure on students. For the same lecturer can write an article in a newspaper, and his or her views are known in public in any case. Students, Kremnitzer says, are not children, and a lecturer's views have no special influence upon them. He thinks it is acceptable if Prof. Zimmerman makes a comparative reference to current events during a lecture on the history of Germany - such current event comparisons are legitimate so long as students have the right to express contrasting views. Such current event references "make learning more challenging and real," says Kremnitzer. In any case, academics tend to prefer persons who disagree with their own views rather than ones who blindly agree with what they say. "It just isn't interesting when somebody duplicates [my views]," he says. "I'm looking for someone who will argue with me." Prof. Moshe Zimmerman teaches a course for first years students at the Hebrew University entitled "Introduction to the late modern period." Some 200 students were enrolled in the course this year. These included a group of 40 students who are officers from the IDF's Tactical Command Academy. In March, half an hour before the first class of the second semester, Zimmerman was notified that this group would not make it to the lecture since its members were deployed at roadblocks. Zimmerman related to this development at the start of his lecture. A review conducted by the Hebrew University in response to a complaint lodged about the incident established that Zimmerman said the following: "There is a group of students which cannot come today due to the excuse that its members are guarding at checkpoints, and the like. Such an excuse is not acceptable to me. Were they to be missing because they were serving in jail due to a refusal to serve in the territories, that would be satisfactory to me." Prof. Menahem Kahana, from the Hebrew University's Talmud Department, lodged the complaint against Zimmerman, based on a report of the incident in the Makor Rishon newspaper. Kahana noted that the report suggested that Zimmerman would discriminate against students who were absent from the university due to reserve service, and that he would give preferential treatment to those who refused to serve. Kahana withdrew his complaint after the University's review established what Zimmerman actually said - had he been aware of the precise contents of the remarks, he would not have lodged the complaint, even if Zimmerman's statement was unworthy, the Talmud scholar explains. In parallel, the head of the Tactical Command College, Colonel Danny Davidi, along with Brigadier General Yaakov Zigdon from the IDF's Command and Staff College, sent a harsh letter to the Hebrew University's Rector, Prof. Haim Rabinowitch. "The statements made by the professor are more damaging and dangerous than the sale of weapons and ammunition to the Palestinians," the letter declared. Zimmerman's comments, the two IDF officers objected, would furnish an unlimited supply of propaganda ammunition to the Palestinians. The letter's authors claimed that Zimmerman used a history lecture as a platform for his own views, and imposed his opinion about the officers on the class. The officers' anger continues to simmer. Recently they worked out an agreement with the Hebrew University's Dean of Humanities, Prof. Gabriel Motzkin by which the introduction to modern history course will be given to officers from the Tactical Command college in summer school, by a different lecturer. The IDF Spokesman and the Hebrew University Spokesman deny that this agreement constitutes a dictate imposed by the army, and that the university surrendered to IDF pressure. Both spokesmen present a number of specific, professional arguments to support the change in arrangements for the course. Prof. Kremnitzer says: "Had Zimmerman announced that `I will give bonus points to persons who refuse to serve,' I would say that his remark is unacceptable, and that it ought to be denounced. But if someone says, as a personal opinion, `the refuser is closer to my heart than one who serves,' I don't regard it an unacceptable remark." Kremnitzer also responded to the harsh language in the officers' castigation of Zimmerman: "The comparison drawn between Zimmerman's comments and the sale of guns to the enemy is insidious. To put him in the category of persons who commit clear acts of treason ... is the way of the witch hunt." WITCH HUNT: Officers said Prof. Zimmerman's support for refuseniks was "more dangerous than selling weapons to the enemy." (Rafi Kutz, Kol Ha'ir) 3. Subject: Maariv Takes on a Ben Gurion University anti-Israel Extremist, Oren Yiftahel. "Enemies of the 'Zionist enterprise': A response to Prof. Oren Yiftahel" by Ben Dror Yemini in Maariv. (www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=5276) A week ago I was subject to a hail of invective by Prof. Oren Yiftahel, after critiquing Yiftahel's political commentary, in the guise of academic analysis. I could answer Yiftahel line by line, and point out that despite the fact that we are talking about a senior member of Israeli academia, he suffers, I fear, from serious difficulties with reading comprehension. After all, I have published my views - in favor of a return to the '67 borders, against the settler enterprise, against the occupation and all its miseries, countless times. And if despite all that, I am still one who "spreads the neo-conservative right wing party line", then any further response on my part would be superfluous. Such that I will not waste time settling scores with Yiftahel, I will just get right to the point. Yiftahel fumes principally over the fact that I dare to criticize "important great thinkers" on the basis of their "attitude towards Zionism". Well, actually he's right, but let me be precise: I blame a group of several dozen of members of academia who spread lies and libels against Israel, while indirectly encouraging anti-Semitism. I blame this group of disregarding, even purposefully, the basic facts which contradict the demonic narrative that they try to lay on Israel. Most of the members of this group are ecstatic fans of the saint Edward Said, now deceased. Said is the father of the paradigm that blames the west and Zionism for all of the misfortunes and maladies of the Arab world. How so? The Arab world vacillates between two different approaches. In one approach: the oft-repeated chorus of how the Zionists are to blame, the west is to blame. In the other, arising from the reformist's camp, which says hating the west is simply self-deception, and that the key to change is to be found in the processes of democratization and secularization of the greater Arab nations. Said is the crown prince of the first approach. Despite paying lip service to criticism of Arab rulers, his greatest project is to place the blame on the west, and on Zionism. Said succeeded. The reformist camp, who despises this self-deception, has been left in the minority. The Arab world is now paying a terrible price for Said's success: Two reports issued over the past few years by Arab intellectuals indicate that social gaps are widening, and that a culture of oppression reigns. And enough already of always hearing about how it is because of Bush and the Americans and Zionism. In countries where there is no American influence, such as Sudan and Syria for example, oppression is far greater than anywhere else. Said's ignorant adherents disseminate their rabbi's bible wherever they can. For example, they circulate to the world the libel that "the Zionist enterprise" (Yiftahel's terminology) is the root of all evil. Al Qaida then claps its hands. Not that there are no injustices committed against the Palestinians, and not that there is no room for criticism of Israel. But they ignore, almost completely, the historical Arab refusal to accept any sort of arrangement, starting from the time of the British Mandate, continuing on to the offer of dividing up the territories between Jews and Arabs, and on to the famous "three No's" of Khartoum, and of course - rejecting Clinton's exaggerated offer, which would enable the end of the occupation and the rise of a Palestinian state. They ignore the fact that Arafat does not want a Palestinian state, nor does he want an end to the occupation. He wants the destruction of Israel. On the Saturday that Yiftahel published his diatribe against me, a program was broadcast on the official Palestinian Authority television channel asserting that Jews are the descendants of apes and pigs. And here's another official statement: Arafat's closest advisors have clearly said that as far as they are concerned, "the right of return for Palestinians is the key element to successfully bringing about the annihilation of Israel." But just as in the rest of the Arab world, there is a pragmatic element in the Palestinian camp. 135,000 people have already signed the Ayalon-Nusseibeh document, which includes renouncing the demand for the right of return. That's one of the realistic keys to a final arrangement. Rather than encouraging them, Yiftahel and his ilk publish articles against the "Zionist enterprise", and support, in one way or another, the Palestinian right of return. Some of them, like Said, and like the extreme right wing among us, support the idea of one big country here, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Some of them do pay lip service to the desired solution of two states, but only under certain conditions. According to Yiftahel, a Palestinian state will be free of all Jews, but the other state, must under no circumstances be a state with a Jewish national identity, rather it should be a state for all of its citizens. The hypocrisy of Yiftahel and his group reaches astounding new levels: The Palestinians will have the right of return, but the Jewish right of return will have to be nullified. So how exactly should a pragmatic Palestinian feel, one who wants to sign the Ayalon-Nusseibeh document, which subjects him not only to incitement against him from his own people, but also to Yiftahel's theses as well, who recommends the annihilation of the  Zionist enterprise?  This is how Yiftahel and his group ruin any chances of an agreement. This is how Yiftahel and his group encourage the insane demands of the Palestinians. This is how they help preserve the occupation. People like Yiftahel have good intentions. They want a better world. But that doesn't release them from their responsibilities. They aren't willing to let facts confuse them, they are blind to them. And so that is how a dangerous coalition is born: made up of the Hamas, Arafat, the extreme right and the extreme left. It's a coalition of delayers of the only realistic solution that is both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian: A democratic Jewish state alongside a Palestinian one. And one more thing: according to the "forces of progress", America and the "Zionist enterprise" are the root of all evils. In the Ayatollah version they are referred to as "the Great Satan" (America), and "the Small Satan" (Israel). But despite all this, contrary to Yiftahel's claims, I never tried to shut these people's mouths up. I?m not so certain that history will be as forgiving of them. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

IN SUPPORT OF GUSH KATIF Posted by Dror Vanunu, March 29, 2004.

PLEASE SEND THIS MESSAGE ON TO YOUR ADDRESS LIST, JCC'S, SYNAGOGUES, ETC. Dear friends, For over three and a half years the villages of the Katif region have been subjected to an unprecedented terror offensive. More than 11,000 terror attacks have been launched in the region, including unending shooting on the villages and the army bases which defend them, attacks on the travel routes, the planting of bombs, attempts at infiltration and the shooting of thousands of Kassam missiles and mortar shells. Despite the pain and anguish that has been our lot during these years, the firm stand of the people of the Katif region is an outstanding example for the rest of the country.That firm stand of the residents of Gush Katif is now being tested in the face of another ordeal, this time coming from our own government. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's announcement about the disengagement plan, in which the 8000 Jewish residents in the twenty-one communities of Gush Katif (as well as an unspecified number of settlements in Judea and Samaria) will be expelled from their homes which will be turned over to Arab terrorists is a sign of defeatism and shortsightedness of the present leadership. This dangerous plan to give our enemies parts of the Holy Land undermines our right to the land, endangers our state and rewards terror, as we can well see by now. In the face of such weakness we have begun a great campaign, under the banner "UPROOTING SETTLEMENTS - A PRIZE TO TERROR" which will include the bringing of many people to Gush Katif from all over the country, and explaining the Biblical, historical, agricultural, financial, moral and cultural importance of Gush Katif through the distribution of hundreds of thousands of CD?s, flyers and stickers, initiating parlor meetings, and advertising in the press, radio, television, on billboards and more. We are determined to stay in our homes, on the land of our ancestors! We are sure that Sharon's plan will lead to a disaster for the entire country and we intend to prevent it from happening. In order to launch a campaign preventing the implementation of Sharon's transfer plan we need funds that presently are not available to us. Now more than ever we are calling on you to take part in the struggle for the Katif Region and for the unity of Eretz Israel. We ask you to participate in the efforts to prevent this dangerous plan, rather than to be forced later to deal with the dreadful consequence. :A detailed breakdown of the immediate needs for the first phase of the campaign. Production of a film on Gush Katif (with an English version): $36,000 Production and distribution of 150,000 CD-Roms, (30,000 in English): $130,000 Promotional material, stickers, signs for cities and crossroads: $70,000 Promotional material for television: $200,000 Package of radio broadcasts: $35,000 Newspaper advertisements: $55,000 Subsidized buses for the first 500 buses to visit Gush Katif: $72,000 Administration: Most of the work is done by volunteers but we have office and travel expenses, and salary for 2 supervisors: $42,000 Total: $635,000 You can help us by sending a tax deductible contribution, made out to Friends of Gush Katif, to Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI, 1623 Third Ave.,Suite 205, New York, N.Y. Sincerely, Dror Vanunu Dror Vanunu is Director of the Katif Region Development Fund. He can be reached in Israel at 972(67)775662 or write him at gkatif@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

ISLAM PLAYS FOR KEEPS Posted by Rachel Neuwirth, March 29, 2004.

President George W. Bush said: "We will bring freedom to others, and we will prevail." Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld suggested that terrorists are being created faster than we can arrest or kill them. One might wonder if they're fighting different wars. Bush suggests "reprogramming" his enemy; Rumsfeld wants to wipe them out. Daniel Pipes, a scholar specializing in militant Islam puts it correctly: "Ending terrorism requires more than targeting terrorists, their leaders, or their organizations. It requires recognizing and defeating the body of ideas known as militant Islam or Islamism. The war cannot be won until politicians and others focus on this ideology (taught in the madrassas, Islamic schools) rather than [just] on terrorism, which is merely its manifestation." (http://danielpipes.org/article/1624) Bush and Rumsfeld are indeed fighting the same war. Rumsfeld suggests the need to use invasive therapy to root out that enemy; Bush wants to "inoculate" Iraqi society with a healthy dose of preventative medicine: democracy. This two-pronged "war-and-peace" plan will not be easy to pull off. The medicine has had unexpected and unwelcome side-effects. The patient has not responded as we had hoped. One of the problems is that the patient did not request our services. Sure, he feels better now, but he still doesn't trust us. Also, the source of his illness is still there. That source is radical Islam. Specifically, Wahabbi Islam. Wahabbism embraces an inflexible doctrine responsible for sowing intolerance, sedition, violence, hatred and "holy" war in the Muslim world and elsewhere. This doctrine feeds radical Islamism. According to Daniel Pipes, ten to fifteen percent of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims adhere to militant Islam. That 10-15% translates into an "army" of 120-180 million... and some feel that Pipes' figures are an understatement. The West preaches freedom and equality - two notions in very short supply in Arab/Muslim culture - and this is why Islamists see the West as their enemy. Islamists have declared war on America, Israel, Spain and, indeed, the entire West. The West was never their enemy, but now we must recognize that radical Islamic fundamentalists are our enemy. Attempts to coddle them in the hope that they will finally "get it" and cut themselves free of Middle Age barbarism are naive. Instead of waiting for them to "get it", it is time to "give it to them". We must unapologetically take steps to counter the rise of the belligerent and ruthless juggernaut of radical Islamism. No efforts should be spared to "encourage" Arab/Muslim leaders to reduce significantly or totally remove the hostility toward the non-Muslim world expressed overtly in their nations' schoolbooks, in their mosques and in their government-controlled media. Target Israel (The Little Satan): Epicenter of Arab/Muslim Intolerance Some might argue that things are getting better vis-a-vis the Arab-Islamic world and Israel. Egypt and the Kingdom of Jordan have both signed peace treaties with Israel. Maybe other Arab states will follow. Is this a realistic expectation or simplistic naivete? Let's take a look at how these "moderates" relate to the "Great Satan's evil child", Israel. Here are some of the "calls for peace" coming from these sought-after "moderate" Arab voices: Saudi Sermon: "Time for Christians and Jews to convert to Islam." (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia TV1 in Arabic, official television station of the Saudi Government; carried on February 27, 2004 at 0945 GMT a live sermon from the mosque in Mecca) Another Saudi sermon: "Jewish paws"; "defeat the usurper Jews." (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia TV2 in Arabic, official television station of the Saudi Government, on February 6, 2004 at 0950 GMT carried a 22-minute live sermon from the mosque in Medina) Jordanian sermon: "O God, destroy your enemies, the Jewish and crusader enemies of Islam." (Amman, Jordan Television Channel 1 in Arabic, official television station of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on March 5, 2004 at 1002 GMT carried a 17-minute live sermon from Martyr King Abdallah mosque in Amman) Palestinian Authority-supervised sermon: "Palestine [including all of Israel] is an Islamic land that must not be relinquished." (West Bank, Ramallah, Voice of Palestine, official radio station of the Palestinian Authority, on February 6, 2004 at 1000 GMT carried a 24-minute live sermon from Al-Aqsa Mosque) PA-supervised sermon: "Jews, the sons of apes and pigs." (Gaza, Palestine Satellite TV Channel in Arabic, official television station of the Palestinian Authority, carried on March 13, 2004 at 0958 GMT, a live sermon from Zayid Bin-Sultan Mosque in Gaza) Yemeni sermon: "O God, destroy the aggressive Zionists and the tyrant Americans." (Sanaa, Republic of Yemen Television in Arabic, official television station of the Republic of Yemen, on February 6, 2004 at 0926 GMT carried a 21-minute live sermon from the Grand Mosque in Sanaa) Qatar sermon: "aggressor Jews and their wicked Crusader allies." (Doha, Qatar Television Service in Arabic, official television station of the State of Qatar, on 20 February 2004 at 0858 GMT carried a live 60-minute sermon from Umar Bin-Al-Khattab Mosque in Doha) Syrian sermon: "O God, deal with the criminal Zionists and those with them and behind them." (Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic radio in Arabic, official station of the Syrian Government, carried on February 27, 2004 at 1010 GMT, a live sermon from Al-Uthman Mosque in Damascus) So much for waiting for the Arab-Islamic leopard to change its spots. What Israel really needs is for that leopard to change into a totally different animal - one that is not such an aggressive carnivore. Fast-Forward to America: "The Great Satan" The Bush Administration is in "hot pursuit" of Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network. America is also trying to create a stable post-Saddam Iraq even as it continues to neutralize both indigenous Arab-Muslim terrorism and terrorism imported from "Greater Arabia." Sadly, yet predictably, America is beginning to feel the utter frustration that Israel has felt for years: full-throttle Arab violence, fueled by an Islamic engine that never quits. There is also some hypocrisy here. While America aggressively fights terrorists, she denies Israel the right to fight her own war against these same savages. This sends a message to the Arab-Islamic terrorists that America's war on terror is not completely sincere, nor is her heart totally in it. For if America were truly committed to "root out terrorists," she would turn the Israel Defense Forces loose on Yasser Arafat and his so-called Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Al-Aqsa Brigades, Hizbullah, Tanzim, PFLP, etc. And if Israel were unable or unwilling to do this, then America would do it for Israel. So why is there a double standard vis-a-vis Israel in the war on terrorism? President Bush should be asking (perhaps demanding) that Prime Minister Sharon launch an all-out attack on the terrorist organizations surrounding Israel. These areas are the breeding grounds that fuel anti-Western sentiment and send jihadists against Israel and against American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. These killers of Jews in Israel are indistinguishable from killers of Americans in Iraq, Afghanistan and downtown New York City. Israel's enemies are America's enemies, and Israel's enemies are also enemies of the shrinking civilized world. Are you listening, Spain? France? Germany? Italy? England? Sweden? One should never dialogue with terrorists. When the bombs went off in Madrid on March 11, the Spanish electorate indeed decided not to dialogue with the Arab-Muslim murderers who perpetrated the act. They simply took the cowardly route of appeasement. The Spanish matador took a goring and the crowd yelled, "Ole!" That same Arab-Islamic bull is on the loose elsewhere. How will others react to setbacks in our war against these savages? Stay tuned. If the Madrid response is any indication, you ain't seen nothing yet. 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. To Go To Top

LET MY PEOPLE STAY! Posted by Ruth and Nadia Matar, March 29, 2004.

Passover is with us again. Only this time we are in the Land of our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and are not slaves in the Land of Egypt. We are in the Promised Land. The Land of Milk and Honey. The Land which the Lord of the Universe Himself promised in the Bible to our ancestors thousands of years ago. We literally have come from the four corners of this earth, back to our Holy Land. A true miracle for all to see, and ponder. A clear proof that life has purpose, meaning and fulfillment. There is an awesome message in this turn of events. Despite Arab and Moslem terror, the Jews have come home, and are here to stay. Despite the vicissitudes, and imponderables, there is a clear message coming out of Israel, whereas, heretofore the message of freedom called out to Egypt to: Let my People Go!, the message for our generation is: Let My People Stay! There may be skeptics, and those who wish to rewrite history, but one thing is crystal clear, the Jews are proof positive that there is an Almighty. Their miraculous survival throughout the ages, and their return from whence they originated almost two thousand years, raises the spirits and provides hope to all of the downtrodden of this earth. For if the Jews can make wastelands in Israel bloom, and make their barren land fertile once again, they have a vital and inspiring message for everyone. Moreover, the sanctification of life, should be the important concept rather than the Moslem emphasis on death and sexual rewards in the hereafter. Furthermore, we must concentrate on the eradication of Arab terror from the Holy Land. Terror is an unacceptable solution for solving societal problems. However, what the world craves desperately is a spiritual center. Jerusalem, and particularly the Temple Mount, fulfills this need. Out of Zion will come forth the law, and the word of G-d from Jerusalem, is no idle phrase. It can and should become our moral guide for a richer and more meaningful life. Above all else, this Passover should mark the beginning of a new era with regard to Israel. Let the Jewish People Stay and flourish in all of the Land of Israel, should become the catchwords for all freedom loving peoples. May it be His Will, that the upcoming Passover, be special for the People of Israel; that their Land be blessed with peace and prosperity; and that Arab terror be finally eradicated from the Holy Land forever. Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

MUSLIM CULTURE HAS CONTRIBUTED LITTLE FOR CENTURIES, SAYS CAREY Posted by Leo Rennert, March 28, 2004.

This was a news item in the Telegraph in England. It is by Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent, and is is archived at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main. jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/26/narch26.xml It was written by Jonathan Petre, their Religious Correspondent. Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, launched a trenchant attack on Islamic culture last night, saying it was ls authoritarian, inflexible and under-achieving. In a speech that will upset sensitive relations between the faiths, he denounced moderate Muslims for failing unequivocally to condemn the "evil" of suicide bombers. Dr Carey acknowledged most Muslims are peaceful people He attacked the "glaring absence" of democracy in Muslim countries, suggested that they had contributed little of major significance to world culture for centuries and criticised the Islamic faith. Dr Carey's comments, in a lecture in Rome, are the most forthright by a senior Church leader. He was speaking on the eve of a seminar of Christian and Muslim scholars in New York, led by his successor as archbishop, Dr Rowan Williams. He acknowledged that most Muslims were peaceful people who should not be demonised. But he said that terrorist acts such as the September 11 attacks on America and the Madrid bombings raised difficult questions. Contrasting western democracy with Islamic societies, he said: "Throughout the Middle East and North Africa we find authoritarian regimes with deeply entrenched leadership, some of which rose to power at the point of a gun and are retained in power by massive investment in security forces. "Whether they are military dictatorships or traditional sovereignties, each ruler seems committed to retaining power and privilege." Dr Carey said he was not convinced by arguments that Islam and democracy were incompatible, citing the example of Turkey. He urged Europeans and Americans to resist claims that Islamic states were morally, spiritually and culturally superior. "Although we owe much to Islam handing on to the West many of the treasures of Greek thought, the beginnings of calculus, Aristotelian thought during the period known in the West as the dark ages, it is sad to relate that no great invention has come for many hundred years from Muslim countries," he said. "This is a puzzle, because Muslim peoples are not bereft of brilliant minds. They have much to contribute to the human family and we look forward to the close co-operation that might make this possible. "Yes, the West has still much to be proud of and we should say so strongly. We should also encourage Muslims living in the West to be proud of it and say so to their brothers and sisters living elsewhere." Dr Carey said that, while Christianity and Judaism had a long history of often painful critical scholarship, Islamic theology was only now being challenged to become more open to examination. "In the case of Islam, Mohammed, acknowledged by all in spite of his religious greatness to be an illiterate man, is said to have received God's word direct, word by word from angels, and scribes recorded them later. "Thus believers are told, because they have come direct from Allah, they are not to be questioned or revised. "In the first few centuries of the Islamic era, Islamic theologians sought to meet the challenge this implied, but during the past 500 years critical scholarship has declined, leading to strong resistance to modernity." Dr Carey said that moderate Muslims must "resist strongly" the taking over of Islam by radical activists "and to express strongly, on behalf of the many millions of their co-religionists, their abhorrence of violence done in the name of Allah". He said: "We look to them to condemn suicide bombers and terrorists who use Islam as a weapon to destabilise and destroy innocent lives. Sadly, apart from a few courageous examples, very few Muslim leaders condemn clearly and unconditionally the evil of suicide bombers who kill innocent people. "We need to hear outright condemnation of theologies that state that suicide bombers are martyrs and enter a martyr's reward." Christians, who shared many values with Muslims, such as respect for the family, must speak out against the persecution they often encountered in Muslim countries. "During my time as archbishop, this was my constant refrain: that the welcome we have given to Muslims in the West, with the accompanying freedom to worship freely and build their mosques, should be reciprocated in Muslim lands," he said. Dr Carey, who initiated several top-level meetings between Christian and Islamic leaders during his time at Lambeth Palace, urged the West to tackle the Palestinian problem and other inequalities in the Muslim world. "It will do us little good if the West simply believes that the answer is to put an end to Osama bin Laden. Rather, we must put an end to conditions, distortions and misinformation that create him and his many emulators." Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that Dr Carey's comments "saddened" him. "He should be well aware that mainstream Muslim organisations have consistently condemned terrorist acts but their statements are often ignored by the media," he said. "Dr Carey is trampling on a very sensitive area by referring to the Koran and the traditions of the Prophet." To Go To Top

DON'T WORRY AMERICA, HAMAS IS AT WAR WITH ISRAEL TOO Posted by Ariel Natan Pasko, March 28, 2004.

Admittedly, Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi - the new head of Hamas - has a gripe. Israel has tried twice to kill him, and just after the recent "targeted killing" of his boss, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin by Israel, Israeli officials announced that Rantisi was still on their "hit" list. Of course, when you think about what Rantisi has said in the past, "We will continue with our holy war and resistance until every last criminal Zionist is evicted from this land. By G-D we will not leave one Jew alive in Palestine. We will fight them with all the strength we have. This is our land, not the Jews." You can understand why Israel would want to eliminate the terrorist leader. Immediately after the Israeli missile strike that killed Sheikh Yassin, Rantisi and other Hamas leaders threatened to retaliate against America, blaming it for supporting Israel. But a few days later, Rantisi backed down from the threat, saying Hamas would only be active in the West Bank - Judea and Samaria - the Gaza Strip, and Israel. Now he's decided to enlarge the war. It's not good enough to wipe out Israel; he's after America too. In a recent speech at the Islamic University in Gaza City, Rantisi said he was not surprised that the US had vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel's assassination of Hamas "spiritual leader" Sheikh Yassin. "Bush is an enemy of God, an enemy of Islam, an enemy of Muslims," Rantisi explained. "America has announced a war against Allah, Sharon has announced a war against Allah. Allah announces a war against America, Bush and Sharon," he told the crowd of more than 5,000. The rally was the first public appearance by Rantisi, since the end of a three-day official mourning period for Yassin. Rantisi seems to be following the line developed by his "spiritual leader" Yassin, who in the weeks and months before Israel's assassination of him, had increasingly begun speaking publicly about the "Global Jihad" in Bin Laden and al-Qaeda type terms. Although this wasn't new to Yassin, who back in February 2002 - before the war in Iraq - called on the international Islamic community to combat "American influence" on their countries via "Jihad". "The war of God goes on against them and I see the beginning of victory starting from here in Palestine in the hands of the Izzedin al-Kassam Brigades - Hamas's military wing - and the Hamas movement," Rantisi said. In the past, after a previous attempt on his life, Rantisi threatened that, "Now no one is immune, Hamas will target every man, woman, and child in Israel." As if they weren't already trying to kill everyone, with their indiscriminant suicide bombings? Now he's adding America to his list. Dr. Rantisi also suggested the Arab world is letting down the Palestinians. "I want to tell the Arab leaders, you will be asked by God...about the blood of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin," he said. Rantisi told the Arab states, "The blood of Sheikh Yassin calls on you to close the [Israeli] embassies, the consulates, commercial offices. Boycott them, commercially, diplomatically and culturally and in security [contacts], and stop meeting killers like Sharon," he said. Rantisi said they only looked weak following the weekend postponement of an Arab League summit in a dispute over democratic reform proposals. "The time has come to be strong in facing America and the Zionists," Rantisi demanded. The crowds, mostly dressed in the green colors of Hamas, cheered Rantisi's every word and pledged their support for him. Let's not forget that Dr. Rantisi first came to public attention in December 1992, when then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin "exiled" 400 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists to Marj az-Zuhour in Southern Lebanon. The international media at the time, portrayed their daily struggles, trying to drum up sympathy for their plight - combating the grueling cold, stranded with not sufficient food or medical supplies, etc - when in fact, they had gotten hold of cell phones, and made contact with Hezbollah operatives. For almost a year they got continuous Jihadist indoctrination, bomb making lessons, and practice in guerrilla warfare techniques - don't forget the unreported vacations to Beirut - thanks to Hezbollah. Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi - then political head of Hamas - gained international prominence at that time, as the group's spokesman. So, no one can doubt Rantisi's "Jihadist credentials". Hezbollah - sponsored by Iran and Syria - has been involved in attacks worldwide against Jewish and Israeli targets. I might add, that they bombed the US Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, and have sent many fighters to Iraq, as well. Then you have the more recent case - in October 2003 - of three American security personnel killed in an American diplomatic convoy in Gaza. Anonymous callers to the media at the time claimed that an unknown group - the Popular Resistance Committees - was behind the attack. But, Israeli intelligence sources have discounted the calls and placed the blame on members of Arafat's Fatah. Though the Palestinian Authority officially condemned the attack, the Palestine Satellite TV Channel - an official television station of the Palestinian Authority - carried a weekly live sermon from Sheikh Zaid Bin-Sultan Al Nuhayyan Mosque in Gaza. The imam told his audience, "The world will never enjoy security unless our children enjoy it here in Palestine. We hear statements by the little US President. We hear unfair and tyrannical statements in which he says Israel has the right to defend itself. These statements carry destruction for the United States itself. From here, we warn the American people that this President is dragging them to the abyss." He concluded, "O Lord, take vengeance on the Jews and their supporters. O Lord, take vengeance on the Jews and their allies..." The Palestinian Authority hasn't yet adequately investigated the bombing. And if you thought it was only Hamas who promotes anti-American Jihadist rhetoric, think again. The Palestinian Authority's highly controlled official media persistently incites hatred and violence against America and the West, besides Israel. They tell the Palestinian public, that several of the conflicts around the world - that involve Muslims and Arabs - are part of a war between civilizations, that the western world led by the United States is fighting against the Arab world and Islam. They inflame their people to support terror, because America "runs a dirty war against all that is Arab and Muslim." The Palestinians are repeatedly told they must lead the war against the West. The official PA newspaper al-Hayyat al-Jadida, echoing Bin Laden terminology, insists there exists an "American-European-Russian alliance," pursuing Muslim/Arab subjugation. The Palestinians are at the forefront of the war that will, "shake the earth under the feet of the blood and oil sucking neo-imperialists, the thieves of natural resources, murderers of nations." US President Bush, in this "Global Jihad," is depicted not only as a leader of the "enemy United States," but also as the enemy of all civilization, the "Fuhrer of the globalization era." He's called a greater danger than Hitler, leading the world to destruction. "The new Fuhrer [Bush] will return the world to the Stone Age," while Hitler only left "tens of millions of dead." So there you have it, the true "Axis of Evil": Iran, Syria, "Palestine", Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Arafat, Rantisi and Hamas. With the Palestinian Authority housing several terror gangs, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Arafat's own Fatah sponsored al-Aksa Brigades and Tanzim, the DFLP, the PFLP, and others, "Palestine" has become another Afghanistan. Imagine what full Palestinian independence would mean for the world? But, don't worry America, Hamas is at war with Israel too... Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst and consultant. He has a Master's Degree in International Relations and Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites, in newspapers, and can be read at: www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko To Go To Top

POWER, PERVERSION, PASSION AND PALESTINIANISM Posted by Evelyn Hayes, March 28, 2004.

They ask why an adolescent "palestinian" boy can blow himself up and why he didn't. They say he did not accept the perverse semantics that proposes that when you die your passion is satisfied. They say he was too slow, therefore, had time to think, even at a limited capacity and realize he wanted to live. He also gave the world time to stop and think, perhaps something very wrong is going on with palestinianism, as if they didn't have time and reminders again, such as, Twin Buddhas and Twin Towers and Twin Attacks killing innocents worldwide How wrong is palestinianism and who is taking the evil by the horns? Power is the passion of evil. Power killed J.C. This was the power of the Roman invaders. They were the first palestinians. Yes, they named Israel, the land of the Biblical Jews, "Palestine" and they named Jerusalem Aitola Capitolina. They did it to pervert the identity of the Jews, to disassociate them from their holy land. As they infused passion and herd mentality into their subjects, "pan-demon-ianism" was the rule. Perversion is replacing identity. Palestianism associates all Arabs, Muslims, Black Muslim, converts and sympathizers with an agenda against the Jews. Palestinianism would associate all against the Jews for their cause which is against all dhimmis. Palestinianism ignores that it was the Jews who suffered from the Philistines, Goliath, the Babylonians, the Inquisition, the diaspora, the pogroms and the Holocaust. It was the Jew for 2000 years who dreamed of Jerusalem, Palestine, Israel, the Jewish homeland. Rich benefactors throughout time supported Torah learning in the cities of Gaza, Acco, Tiberias, Safed, Hebron, Jerusalem, more. Rich benefactors bought land from the Ottoman Empire and started new self supporting settlements in the Galilee, Judea, Gaza, Jerusalem and enticed Jews to come from behind the walls and use their hands instead of hand-outs. Israel started to bloom and Arabs fled their homelands and warlords to work for the Jews. The power of the warlords was reduced, their extortion money dwindled. The warlords of Egypt and Syria began to invade Israel. According to British Occupation documents, 30,000 Syrians tried to flee back to Syria because they thought they would be punished because they massacred Jews in 1936. Perversion is using lies to excite passionate and prime-evil responses to rally herds for warlords. Arab neighbors killed their Jewish friends and pharmicists when the Temple Mount blood libel spread from the mosques to Musrawa to Hebron and throughout Israel in 1929. Humans became beasts, disembowling their neighbors and their neighbors babies as the mosques blasted hate against the Jews. Mass pogroms in Israel began when a perverted leader used lies to ignite the savage passions of normal men, intellectual as well as illiterate. Few were brave enough and honest enough to stand back. But there were heroes, The heroes who chose not to follow the perversions of Hitler in his power war against the Jews and mankind were not faithful to Aryanism, a semantics of creating a people against individuals and the basics of civilization. How the hordes thirsted for the incinerated Jews' gold teeth and household belongings. How murder and theft and brutality was the other face of the German kind to his own children. How the imported PA walk past Jewish built houses and ancient settlements and have a passion to unselttle more to reap the rewards that the peaceful Jews will throw to them to sedate their passion ignoring the reality that abusers abuse more when their tirades are rewarded. Thank G-d that sanity survived the brutality of the power-monger and his immorality. Thank G-d the Enron Immorality is over. However, the suffering of the victims continues. Further embezzlements by the powermongers are curtailed by a less healthy backlash. The power of pocketing whats not yours doesn't care if hardship and death of others is an outcome. The power of pocketing whats not yours doesn't care if hardship and death of others is an outcome. Once guilty, the guilty pervert on, covering up their evil by inducing passion into the pathways of herds who want what appears to be the rewards of the respectable but in reality is bankruptcy. Who is the scapegoat to keep judge off the war lord? Scapegoating the Jews keeps the media and the judges occupied. How precise was the Aryan army? What castles have the palestinian warlords? Who dares dismantle the perversion of palestinianism? Who dares connect the dots of their Forbes status and their subjects' woes? Who dares confront the passion of the killer who condems his victim, portraying as his own the victims sympathy traits and disqualifying the victim by portraying his immorality as theirs. How many believe that the Egyptian Arafat al-Husseini is a palestinian without association to the mufti who supported Hitler in his genocidal imperialism in World War II? Who supports pan-palestinianism in its suicidal war against the crusaders: Jews, the West, Buddhists, Hindus, black Africans, Christians, Coptics, and anyone else who would hinder their power thrusts? Stop. When the power is in the Creator's hands, all men are equal. When there are supernatural gods controlling the word, man is still not on the pedestal. Stop, when man is warlord, men are their suicide serfs. Who endangers the world? Remember the statues of Hadrian, the blow-ups of Stalin and Hitler, the all- hovering Arafat, Saddam Hussein? The enslaved of the Taliban rejoiced when America intervened. The abused of Saddam Hussein were emancipated when his statue fell. Who will take down the remnants of Arafasician a la Haj al-Husseini who has perverted Arab reality, religion, morality and created a suicide race? Arafascism is Nazism is Roman palestinianism, is imperialism, not to rule but to ruthlessly rob. It is not liberating to be a liberal who sees the side of the warlord with a face of the victim, who cries for the heartless and heartwrenching and not the heartbroken. Perverted power-lords have substituted normalcy with lusting passion in the hearts and heads of their subjects with a Mein Kampf semantics. The Diapora Jew, with only 14 million survivors controls the world? How do they control Saudi Arabia when they were dispossessed from Medina after they accepted Mohammed's Big Lie 1400 years ago and are not welcome at all? How do they control Europe when they are a remnant of aged survivors? How do they control the media when it's Arab oil money that buys into all corporations and gets plusses when they minus? Power has perverted the senses of free men too passionate to use their minds and microfilm, too political to be individuals, too socialistic to be sociable, too liberal to be accepting of freedom for Jews in Judea. Palestinianism has been imperialism since the Goliath (not a Jew) was against the Jews, since Hellenism would disorder the world for its own select order, since Rome invaded Israel and called it Palestine, since Hitler worked with the mufti to solve the Jewish problem that included Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Rumania, Poland, Russia, Africa, since jihad is spreading across the globe and revolutioninzing peace into slavery. President Franklin Roosevelt said, "There is nothing to fear but fear itself." I believe it is fearful to accept the fierce and be passive, appeasing, self-denying and accepting evil as morally equivalent. The greatest thing to fear is power, perverion, passion and pan-palestinianism. Let's substitute the Durban hatefest with a unity of individuals for truth, justice and freedom for all, even the endangered species of just 14 million Jews who walked away from slavery with the help of the Holy One Blessed Be He. Let's not forget the Bible of the Jews because it is truly the master guide to disempower evil, to rectify perversion, to control passion, to end all tyranny, imperialism, slavery. Big Lies make truth little. The truth is the palestinian boy was man enough to say no. Saying no to power, perversion, passion and palestinianism is saying yes to truth and life. Am Yisrael Chai. Evelyn Hayes is author of "The Eleventh Plague, TWINS, because their hearts are softened to accept the unacceptable" and "The Twelfth Plague, GENERATIONS, because the lion wears stripes." To Go To Top

ALABAMA SUPPORTS ISRAEL Posted by Mordechai Ben Menachem, March 28, 2004.

This is a news item from today's Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com) Alabama State Representative Jim Carns (Republican from Birmingham) sponsored the following joint resolution (House and Senate of Alabama) expressing solidarity with Israel in its fight against terrorism. Rep. Carns has thus followed in the footsteps of the 1943 joint resolution, adopted by both chambers in Alabama, in support of the establishment of a Jewish State. Local pro-Israel activists note that Jim and Judy Carns have been committed to the enhancement of Alabama-Israel ties in the areas of commerce and industry. The resolution states, in part: "WHEREAS, Palestinian organizations are engaging in an organized, systematic, and deliberate campaign of terror aimed at inflicting as many casualties as possible on the Israeli population, including through the use of homicide terrorist attacks; and "WHEREAS, Israel has lost nearly 700 innocent lives, which as a percentage of population is commensurate with America losing over 30,000 lives in the terrorist attacks on New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington on September 11, 2001; and "WHEREAS, the continued terrorism and incitement committed, supported, and coordinated by official arms of the Palestinian Authority are a direct violation of [prior commitments]... "[The] State of Alabama: (1) Stands in solidarity with Israel as it takes necessary steps to provide security to its people by dismantling the terrorist infrastructure in the Palestinian areas. (2) Remains committed to Israel's right to self-defense and supports additional United States assistance to help Israel defend itself. (3) Condemns Palestinian homicide bombings. (4) Condemns the ongoing support and coordination of terror by Yasser Arafat and other members of the Palestinian leadership. (5) Demands that the Palestinian Authority at last fulfill its commitment to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in the Palestinian areas, including any such infrastructure associated with PLO and Palestinian Authority entities tied directly to Yasser Arafat. (6) Is gravely concerned that Arafat's actions are not those of a viable partner for peace. (7) Urges all Arab states to declare their unqualified opposition to all forms of terrorism, particularly homicide bombing. (8) Commends the President for his leadership in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly the efforts of the administration to engage countries throughout the region to condemn and prevent terrorism and to prevent a widening of the conflict. (9) Urges all parties in the region to pursue vigorously efforts to establish a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace in the Middle East. (10) Declares that it will work as an elected body to promote tourism, economic trade, and cultural exchange with the State of Israel, keeping relations healthy now and into the future for the benefit of the State of Alabama and Israel." To Go To Top

RABIN'S FORGOTTEN PROGRAM: NO PALESTINIAN STATE, NO SETTLEMENT FREEZE, GUSH KATIF AS MODEL Posted by IsrAlert, March 28, 2004.

These are excerpts from Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin speech: Ratification of the Israel-Palestinian Interim Agreement The Knesset, October 5, 1995 (www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/1990_1999/1995/10/ PM%20Rabin%20in%20Knesset- %20Ratification%20of%20Interim%20Agree). * No Palestinian State: "We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority." * No return to '67 borders: "The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines." * Control of Jordan Valley: "The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term." * Gush Katif as model: "The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif." * All settlements remain intact dring interim period: "I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth." * (During interim period) "The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands." Read PM Rabin's complete presentation to the Knesset at: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/1990_1999/1995/10/PM% 20Rabin%20in%20Knesset- %20Ratification%20of%20Interim%20Agree IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

HAMAS PLOTS KNOCKOUT BLOW WITH 800 SUICIDE BOMBERS Posted by Ken Heller, March 28, 2004.

This is a DEBKAfile Special Report. This wouldn't have been able to be achieved had Israel "taken out" all the mourners at Yassin's "funeral" with helicopter gunships! No sooner had the tens of thousands of mourners dispersed after the ceremonies and demonstrations of strength marking the death of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin last Tuesday, March 22, in an Israeli missile attack, when a thousand Hamas top and middle-ranking activists dived underground. This is reported by DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources. Since then, known Hamas operatives have maintained perfect telephone silence, their relatives are in the dark about their whereabouts and contacts are maintained only through trusted couriers. This situation presented the Hamas command center in Damascus with the problem of communicating urgent instructions to the men on the ground in the Gaza Strip - urgent for two reasons: 1. Although Adel Aziz Rantisi made a show of bending the knee to Khaled Mashaal, head of the Hamas Damascus command center, Mashaal knows he must assert his authority without delay and set the pace of coming in events in the Gaza Strip before the local leadership grabs the initiative. 2. Hamas, Hizballah and al Qaeda agents maintain day-to-day exchanges based on a delicately balanced intelligence and logistical give and take. Mashaal and company will not allow anyone in the Hamas Gaza command to upset the balance of this relationship. A way therefore had to be found for Hamas, Damascus, to impose its will on Hamas, Gaza. The method finally hit on was to take to the airwaves. Friday, March 26, therefore, the Hamas liaison man in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, who managed the Mishaal-Rantisi compromise, was interviewed on Hizballah Radio Nur. On the assumption that the Gaza contingent in hiding were listening in case of coded messages, Hamdan addressed the Hamas "military" wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qasseem Brigades, directly - not in code but in plain language. DEBKAfile monitored his statement, as follows: "The lone suicide martyr method has scored great achievements, but now, as we stand at the threshold of a decisive stage, we must resort to a tactic that brings us the desired results. Ideally, we would round up 70,000 to 80,000 martyrs and have them blow themselves up simultaneously in the enemy's urban centers and so finally vanquish him. But that is not realistic. One tenth or even one hundredth part of that number should suffice to inflict a shock on a strategic scale. I therefore tell you not to hurry to exact revenge. We have to be sure our assault is concerted and perfectly orchestrated. Don't waste resources and manpower on small operations. No one is pushing you. Take all the time you need and then pick a date and hour that are most advantageous to our project." Hamdan's words freely translated are a directive from Damascus HQ to Muhammed Deif, commander of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, to muster an army of several hundred suicide killers to reach the hubs of Israeli cities and blow themselves up at the same moment. The Damascus Hamas command reckons that, even if not all the massacres come off, Israel will not be able to withstand a shock and casualties of the magnitude projected This escalation fits in well with the intelligence gathered by Americans and Israelis on the spreading base of anti-Israeli terror from the double suicide attack carried out in Ashdod shortly before the assassination of Sheikh Yassin which caused the deaths of 10 Israeli port workers. Their experts conclude the attack was the work of Hizballah aided and abetted by al Qaeda. A senior US intelligence official is quoted as saying: "The soldiers were members of Hamas. But the overall planning, the way the ship's container was prepared, the weapons used and the level of advance intelligence invested in the attack all bear the marks of the two Islamic terrorist groups. We can expect many more combined terrorist assaults of this kind in the future." The Ashdod attack posed a grave challenge to the Sharon government's security and counter-terror policies. Last December, before handing over a large number of prisoners in an uneven swap deal with Hizballah, Israel issued a sharp public warning to the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group against further aggression. Less than three months later, the Hizballah, not satisfied with the Ashdod operation, battered IDF for nearly three hours last Sunday, March 21, its missiles and mortars hitting road junctions on the Golan and coming close to the town of Kiryat Shmoneh inside the Green Line. Israel's response, confined to an air-artillery raid on Hizballah firing positions, bespoke diluted deterrence, a signal certainly picked up by Hizballah and al Qaeda as well as the Hamas and its fellow Palestinian terrorist organizations. Many Israelis, including some at decision-making levels, prefer not to see the international terrorist coalition functioning in Palestinian-controlled territory - and even among Israeli Arabs in the form of Al Qaeda sleeper cells. The phenomenon is not even new. Al Qaeda shoe bomber Richard Reid who failed to blow up an American airliner on December 22, 2001, learned how to pack explosives in his shoes while visiting Hamas activist Nabil Aqal at his home in the Jebaliya refugee camp of the Gaza Strip. This fact was not brought out in the US court that sentenced him to life imprisonment. Israel too kept quiet about this connection, mainly so as not to embarrass Mohammed Dahlan, then head of the Palestinian Gaza Strip preventive security apparatus, who could not have avoided knowing about the al Qaeda visitor. He was not the last, the two British Muslim bombers, Assif Muhammad Hanif and Omar Khan Sharif, who bombed Mike's Place on the Tel Aviv promenade on April 30, 2003, also spent time with Hamas hosts in the Gaza Strip prior to their hit. Their real assignment was to bomb the US embassy a few doors away from the bar but they found it too well protected. American, British and Israeli security forces have conspired to keep this quiet. But, unlike the Israelis, who bury their heads in the sand, the British heeded the Tel Aviv attack as a danger signal warning them that al Qaeda had planted cells in Briton s large Muslim population. Since the Madrid train attacks, London's top security and police officials have reiterated that an al Qaeda strike in the British capital is inevitable. To Go To Top

MUSLIM SHEIKH SHARES ANTI-TERRORIST VIEWS Posted by Root and Branch Association, March 28, 2004.

This article was written by Ms Arlene Fine of the Cleveland Jewish News and appeared March 10, 2004. It is archived at http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/articles/ 2004/03/10/features/profile/muslim0305.txt "It is well-known that members of the Saudi royal family are funding worldwide terrorism, but because of fear of economic reprisals, the United States and its allies look the other way", says the Italian-born sheikh, Professor Abdul Hadi Palazzi. In an hour long address at the Mandel Jewish Community Center recently, Palazzi touched on the Oslo Accords, Islam, the Middle East and the current Arab-Israeli conflict. The sheikh's talk was sponsored by the Alvin, Lottie & Rachel Gray Center for Jewish Life and Learning, The American Jewish Committee, Zionist Organization of America, Betar and Cleveland Hillel. Palazzi, who is an imam and secretary-general of the Italian Muslim Association, has long been outspoken in his criticism of Muslim political extremists including the P.L.O., Yasir Arafat and the Al Aqsa Brigade. For the past few years, he has been a keynote speaker at interfaith dialogues and conferences around the world. Tracing the current conflict between the Arabs and Israelis to events that occurred right after World War I, Palazzi says, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, there were no Islamic states. The British allowed the Wahabi, a strict fundamentalist Muslim sect which profoundly influenced the Taliban of Afghanistan, to set up a kingdom that later became Saudi Arabia. Members of the Saudi royal family were part of the Wahabi and over the years "systematically exported their views of Islam in a convincing and often lethal manner". Many Saudi leaders were also members of the Wahabi-influenced Muslim Brotherhood, which was "behind most of the terror in the world", says Palazzi. "They found a kindred spirit with Yasir Arafat and a dangerous partnership was established". According to Palazzi, the Muslim Brotherhood has had a worldwide influence far in excess of their small numbers owing to their financial clout. Beginning in the mid-'60s, the Brotherhood made a concerted effort to fund all the Islamic mosques in the U.S., says Palazzi. "By controlling 99% of these Islamic religious centers they claim to represent millions of Muslims, which is not true. Meanwhile, this clever arrangement allows them to fund terror through religious means and charities. A representative for an Islamic charity could very easily be a Hamas member". The Brotherhood's current method of promoting anti-Israel sentiment is to flood their schools and mosques with classic European anti-semitic literature, explains the sheikh. This includes the Russian forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Nazi-fascist literature, and books by revisionist authors like Roger Garaudy or David Irving. Palazzi says he is not alone in his feelings. "There are many good Muslims who value life on earth and the sanctity of their families. Israel should make every effort to support the growth of a pro-Israel movement among these Muslims". Sadly, says Palazzi, the Muslims who live in Israel and want to be considered Israelis were emotionally and morally defeated by the Oslo Accords. "They felt that Israel was selling them out to Arafat. They need to be supported and encouraged to speak out in defense of Israel without fear of being assassinated by the P.L.O. or Hamas". But the damaging effects of Oslo still reverberate, says Palazzi. "Oslo signaled to many of us that Israel was ready to accept peace at any price, and make incredible concessions to ruthless criminals". Calling the U.S.-sponsored road map to peace a very bad move, Palazzi believes the more you give in to terrorists' demands, the more they will ask. "The Palestinians will never be happy until they have the whole state of Israel under their rule". Further, he adds, a Palestinian state "will not be a democracy, but rather a haven for terrorist rule; and that defies all logic". Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi is resident Professor of Middle East Studies at the Research Institute for Anthropological Sciences in Rome, Italy as well as a commentator on the Middle East for Italy's public television station. He has written numerous articles on Muslim-Jewish relations and has denounced the P.L.O., Yasir Arafat and Hamas as perverting authentic, traditional Islam. To Go To Top

FIND THE DIFFERENCES: PA and Hamas Ideology Converge Posted by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, March 28, 2004.

The Western world sees Hamas as a terrorist organization seeking Israel's destruction, but treats the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a peace partner, either actual or potential, for Israel. The fact that Israel continues to seek contact with PA leaders heightens the clear distinction made between the PA and Hamas. But the distance between Hamas and the PA has been shrinking for years. And the way the PA has responded to the killing of Yassin shows just how close the two groups actually are. The PA has gone far beyond its expected level of condemnation of the killing, and has eulogized Yassin as a leader representing all the Palestinian Authority. PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, for example, told PA TV that just as "Yassin united the Palestinians in his life he united them again in his death." Yasser Arafat's official daily, Al Hayat Al Jadida, published a cartoon of a wheelchair shaped as a map of what the PA calls "Palestine" (which erases all of Israel) thereby stating graphically that Yassin and "Palestine" are one and the same. In an unprecedented move, PA television ceased all regular programming for days, and except for brief news reports broadcast only slides of the Koran sung to mournful tunes. In the Arab world, this Koran broadcasting is usually reserved for the deaths of heads of state, as was done on Syrian TV after the death of Hafez Assad. That PA TV treated Yassin in this fashion demonstrates his elevated stature among PA leadership and PA society. Anyone listening to PA leaders' pronouncements in Arabic over the years has recognized that there never was a meaningful ideological divide between the PA and Hamas. It is well understood, for example, that Hamas believes Islam demands Israel's destruction. As the Hamas charter states, "Palestine is an Islamic Wakf the liberation of Palestine is an individual duty binding on all Muslims everywhere." Less noted is that PA religious leaders have repeatedly made identical rulings. Even when the Oslo Accord appeared to be in its heyday, Yousuf Abu Sneinah, preacher of Al-Aksa Mosque, issued this ruling on PA TV: "The land of Palestine is a Wakf for all The liberation of Palestine is an obligation for the entire Islamic nation " (April 30, 1999). The perception is that a difference between Hamas and the PA is that the latter, at least in principle, had given up using violence to reach its political goals. Yet it was Arafat who said in 1999, literally anticipating the current terror war: "The agreements won't liberate the land. Every centimeter needs struggle, and the land needs blood" (Al Hayat Al Jadida, January 25, 1999). When Hamas started using suicide terrorists to kill Israelis in 1996, the PA condemned the killings in English. But in Arabic, PA leaders made it clear that there was no difference in attitude, only a division of labor. Muhammad Dahlan, then head of Preventive Security in Gaza, said that the presence of Hamas "is important and essential in the cooperation in the building." Hani Alhasan, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, explained the role of Hamas: "Unity is in the nature of construction, and it is incumbent upon us to divide the work among the builders." (Al Ayyam, August 31, 1997). As long ago as 1997, after the bombing at Tel Aviv's Apropos cafe, a member of the PA Legislative Council expressed his condolences to the family of the suicide bomber during a session of the Legislature, and "his words were interrupted by the applause of the members of the [PA Legislative] Council" (Al Hayat Al Jadida March 27, 1997). It should be stressed that all this cooperation was openly expressed in PA society long before the current terror war began in October 2000. After starting the terror war, the PA completely erased any differences between the "builders" by creating its own suicide terror unit, the "Aksa Martyrs Brigade," which has committed numerous suicide terror attacks identical to those of Hamas. IF THERE is any difference today between Hamas and the PA, it's in their attitudes toward temporary agreements with Israel. While the Hamas charter states, "There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by jihad," the PA has argued that temporary agreements can be used to gain strategic territory from which to fight more easily for Israel's destruction. Then PA minister Abdel Aziz Shahin explained this just months before the PA started the terror war: "The Oslo agreements [were] a foothold and not a permanent settlement, since war and struggle on the land is more efficient than a struggle from a distant land... The Palestinian people will continue the revolution until they achieve the goals of the '65 revolution..." that is, the destruction of Israel (Al-Ayyam, May 30 2000). Faisal Husseini called the Oslo Accords a "Trojan Horse... the Oslo agreement, or any other agreement, is just a temporary procedure... according to the higher strategy [Palestine is] 'from the river to the sea.'" (Al-Arabi Egypt, June 24, 2001). Today, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas both embrace the use of terror to fight Israel. The only meaningful difference between them is the acceptance or rejection of political process as a vehicle to destroy Israel. Itamar Marcus is director of PMW -Palestinian Media Watch - (http://www.pmw.org.il). Barbara Crook, a writer and university lecturer based in Ottawa, Canada, is PMW's North American representative. This article appeared as a Op-Ed piece in the Jerusalem Post today. To subscribe to PMW's reports, send an empty e-mail to reports-subscribe@pmw.org.il To Go To Top

WHY ARE JEWS LENDING LEGITIMACY TO DANGEROUS MUSLIM GROUPS? WILL WE NEVER LEARN? Posted by IsrAlert, March 27, 2004.

This article was written by Joel Mowbray. It appeared in Jewish World Review (http://www.jewishworldreview.com). Sometimes, partnering with ostensibly moderate Muslim organizations in holding interfaith events can lead to a lot of trouble and controversy if proper homework isn't done in advance. Just ask two Jewish groups in New Jersey. The UJA Federation of Bergen County and North Hudson and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of New Jersey had both signed on to co-sponsor an interfaith brunch scheduled for this Sunday, March 28th, which was organized by the various members of a longstanding interfaith coalition. When a large number of members of the two Jewish groups complained, the interfaith coalition uninvited the American Muslim Union (AMU), which was one of two Muslim co-sponsors and jointly listed along with the Dar-ul-Islah Islamic Center as the event's only two hosts. But appearances can be deceiving. According to officials at both the mosque and AMU, AMU is very still very much a part of the interfaith brunch. Both organizations, in fact, maintain that their respective levels of participation remain exactly the same as before. And the featured speaker, who was selected by the two groups (and has her own set of problems relating to radicalism), has not changed either. Given the histories of people involved with AMU and Dar-ul-Islah Islamic Center, it's not difficult to see why so many in the local Jewish community were concerned. Though the American Muslim Union appears moderate in its official literature - saying it is "dedicated to serving the American Muslim community and its unique needs" - the organization has interlocking leadership with a group that has allegedly raised funds for Hamas and hosted as a guest speaker last year an alleged Hamas member. Four current and former AMU directors and executives have held or currently hold leadership positions with the Islamic Center of Passaic County (ICPC), a mosque located in Paterson, New Jersey. ICPC was founded in 1989 by, among others, Mohamed el-Mezain, who was the Chairman of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLFRD), which the Treasury Department designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in December 2001. According to a November 2001 FBI report that served as a basis for Treasury's decision to shut down HLFRD, a "reliable" FBI informant "reported that during a speech at the Islamic Center of Passaic County (ICPC) in November, 1994, Mohammad El-Mezain... admitted that some of the money collected by the ICPC and the HLFRD goes to HAMAS or HAMAS activities in Israel. El-Mezain also defended HAMAS and the activities carried out by HAMAS." Just last February, ICPC hosted a speech by Abdelhaleem Ashqar (http://www.icpc.com/icpcv2/lectures/ lectures.icpc?directory=Friday_Lectures), who is identified by several FBI informants cited in the memo as a prominent Hamas member. Ashqar was jailed for two months last fall for his refusal to testify before a federal grand jury probing Hamas. Although the ties to Hamas are allegations - El-Mezain nor anyone else affiliated with AMU or ICPC has been arrested - AMU has co-sponsored several rallies that any genuinely moderate groups would not associate themselves with. Chief among these rallies is one held in Times Square in April 2002, which called for, among other things, an end to the Israeli "massacres" of Palestinians. The headline of a flyer promoting the event says "Stop Palestinian Genocide" and the poster features an obviously forged photo of a baby lying in a pool of blood in a hospital bed. There may be many legitimate debates among reasonable, moderate people about Israel's treatment of Palestinians, but there are no widespread "massacres," nor is there any "genocide" of Palestinians. It is wildly false to claim either. (See http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0304/amu_flyer.jpg to see the poster.) So when UJA issued a four-paragraph statement, which was read to this columnist over the phone by a UJA official, announcing that AMU was no longer a co-sponsor of the interfaith brunch, many members were relieved and considered the matter closed. What Bergen County's interfaith coalition did, according to UJA's statement, was that it "determined that in the spirit of brotherhood, the faith communities rather than any organization will be the official sponsors of the Brunch." In other words, since AMU couldn't be called a co-sponsor, nobody else could either. To put it another way: Nothing's changed, other than the elimination of the label "co-sponsor." Although a UJA official angrily denied that AMU had ever been involved with the interfaith brunch - this person declared that an invitation listing AMU was a "mistake" - officials from both AMU and Dar-ul-Islah Islamic Center maintain that neither group's role in the event has changed. On the dais, in fact, will be the chairman of AMU's Bergen County chapter, Waheed Khalid, who was the co-founder of Dar-ul-Islah and was, until recently, its president. A UJA official brusquely dismissed this as inconsequential, but it appears that Khalid will be the only Muslim on the dais and will be the one introducing the featured speaker, Dr. Ingrid Mattson, the vice-president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Several people at the mosque labeled Khalid - it seems correctly - as the event's emcee. UJA's four-paragraph statement noted that it "will not participate in any organization whose members advocate... anti-Semitism in any form" or express a "reluctance to condemn terrorism without qualification," yet Khalid himself has defended Hamas and has called a miniseries based on the virulently anti-Semitic "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" both "interesting" and "news." When asked by the Bergen County Record in May 1998 about Hamas' terrorist attacks, Khalid responded, "They are trying to get the occupiers out of their home." And in November 2002, Khalid made a startling comment to the New Jersey Jewish Standard about Egyptian television's 40-part miniseries based on the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a book first published by Russia in 1897 that purports to show a Jewish conspiracy for world domination. Apparently without a hint of irony, Khalid told the paper, "I think it is news and it is quite interesting to know what it says." Several officials at UJA acknowledge that they know about Khalid's comments. Yet he remains the sole Muslim on the dais, making him the de facto representative of the Muslim community at the event. But even if neither AMU nor Dar-ul-Islah were participants in the interfaith brunch, the event would still be problematic because of the featured speaker, who was selected by the two Muslim groups. Though Dr. Ingrid Mattson appears moderate, she is insidious precisely because she maintains that facade while steadfastly refusing to criticize radical Islamists, claiming that there is no such thing as Wahhabism and that the term "Islamic terrorism" should not be used in the media. Most shocking of all, though, is how little concern she expressed about suicide bombings in an essay she wrote shortly after 9/11. At a CNN-sponsored "town hall" forum in October 2001, Mattson - with a straight face - claimed that the radical, Saudi-sponsored form of Islam known as Wahhabism was akin to the Protestant movement in Christianity. Wahhabism "really was analogous to the European protestant reformation," she explained. This wasn't an isolated use of the analogy. At a November 2003 roundtable sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies Conference, Mattson said the Wahhabist movement in Islam is "a very old struggle... between the more theologically austere Muslims who like Protestant Christianity believe that there should be no saints there should be no intervention between you and G-d." Mattson takes a similar "see no evil" approach to the idea of Islamic terrorism. Mattson was one of several Muslim "scholars" quoted in a Washington Times article shortly after 9/11 who claimed that the media should not use the term "Islamic terrorism." Mattson took this stance despite the fact, as the Times paraphrased her, that "Islamic terrorists themselves use this term." The reason Mattson is able to pass herself off as a moderate is probably because she clears the low bar set for most Muslims: the ability to explicitly condemn suicide bombings. But she hasn't done so for very long. In a remarkably revealing essay Mattson penned for Beliefnet.com in October 2001, she wrote that, until then, Palestinian suicide bombings "simply did not cross my mind as a priority among the many issues I felt needed to be addressed." She stated it as matter-of-factly and inconsequentially as someone who apologizes for forgetting to pick up the dry cleaning because it "simply did not cross my mind as a priority." There seems little doubt that Mattson's statements would violate UJA's own standard of refusing to participate in an event with someone who expresses a "reluctance to condemn terrorism without qualification." But still she remains the featured speaker of this weekend's interfaith brunch. It's true that no one connected with either the American Muslim Union or the Dar-ul-Islah Islamic Center has been arrested, let alone convicted. And in America, everyone is - and should be - free to hold any belief, no matter how repugnant. But have we set the standard for "moderate" Islam so low that organizations like AMU and Dar-ul-Islah can gain much-needed legitimacy by hosting interfaith events endorsed by Jewish groups? Because whenever AMU or Dar-ul-Islah is attacked in the future for espousing unseemly propaganda - and given their histories, it will happen - they can point to events like this Sunday's interfaith brunch and say, "If Jewish groups are able to accepts us, why can't you?" It's understandable that the two Jewish groups in Bergen County don't want to disrupt an interfaith coalition that's been around since the 1980's, but shouldn't they be more concerned about the cover they're providing to groups that clearly don't deserve it? To Go To Top

SENATORS, JEWISH LEADERS DEDICATE TORAH SCROLL TO VICTIMS Posted by Menachem Kovacs, March 27, 2004.

FYI: Mayer and I participated in last Thursday's OU Advocacy Day in Washington. In the morning OU people from Baltimore's Shomrei Emunah and from around the country were briefed at the Justice Department on pending legislation to better protect Jews in the US and abroad. We then attended a luncheon in the Senate Office Building where we heard speeches by a number of Jewish Senators (Coleman of Minnesota, Lautenberg of New Jersey, Spector of Pennsylvania) who stressed their Jewish identity, roots and commitments and others like Hillary and impressive Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennslvania. Mayer and I both posed questions to the Senators. Mine was on the importance of US efforts to save the Jewish communities in Gush Katif and Mayer's was about the importance of the US Government getting on the same page as Israel in fighting the common enemy. Mayer then proceeded to lobbying Rep. Ben Cardin and he attended the Congressional Sefer Torah dedication described below. We found it very interesting. This article was written by Melissa Radler and was a news item today in the Jerusalem Post Online. When it comes to Israel's war on terrorism, concern over Iranian nuclear capabilities, and support for the Syria Accountability Act, Israel enjoys broad-based, bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said Thursday after meetings with more than 40 senators in Washington. In a series of meetings that culminated in the dedication of a Torah scroll in memory of Jewish victims of Palestinian terrorism and those who perished in the September 11 attacks in the US, senators from dozens of states reiterated their support on issues of concern to Israel and the Jewish community. "The Republicans and Democrats, despite all the political differences and some of the election year innuendo, the fact is they share an agenda," said the Presidents Conference's executive vice chairman, Malcolm Hoenlein. He noted senators on both sides voiced support for the killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Israel's right to build the security fence. In a meeting with Senate Republicans, Rick Santorum (R-PA), chairman of the meeting, announced plans to introduce legislation requiring US officials to mention Jewish refugees from Arab lands whenever Palestinian refugees are mentioned in a diplomatic context, while George Voinovich (R-Ohio) said he will propose a bill that would require the State Department to issue a report on anti-Semitism, a Presidents Conference official noted. Senate Democrats, whose meeting was chaired by Hillary Clinton (D-NY), discussed the need to implement the Syrian Accountability Act, exert pressure on the Saudis to shut down charities that support terrorism, and address growing European anti-Semitism. Clinton noted her support for the High-Risk Non-Profit Security Enhancement Act of 2004, a bill providing federal assistance to high-risk non-profits, including those benefiting the Jewish community. The legislation is cosponsored by Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD). Following the meetings, a ceremony marking the completion of a Torah scroll memorializing American and Israeli victims of terrorism was held in an unprecedented gathering in the Capitol Building. The Torah, the brainchild of four young Brooklynites - Carolyn Roiter, Simon Jacobson, and Esther and Leibel Montal - who raised funds through private donations, includes the names of more than 1,000 Jewish victims of terrorism in Israel embroidered in gold thread on a red velvet cover, and a breastplate dedicated to the victims of the September 11 attacks. "We felt we had to do something, we felt we had to make a statement and not just let these people turn into numbers," said Roiter before the ceremony. "When you see how many names are on this cover, it's overwhelming, but the only way to give each individual the memory each deserves is by memorializing them for eternity," she said. During the ceremony, elected officials were invited to have a letter inscribed in the scroll on their behalf as they watched, and according to Hoenlein, the line was an hour long. In the coming weeks, the scroll will be sent to Jerusalem, where it will be housed permanently at the Western Wall, said Roiter. 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. To Go To Top

TREASON Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, March 27, 2004.

Notice: Anyone who is politically correct and/or suicidal Jews better not read this any further. Hear that Yossi Beilin? Shimon? Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines treason as "...the violation of the allegiance owed to one's sovereign or state; betrayal of one's country" and, specifically in the United States, "...consisting only in levying war against the U.S. or in giving aid and comfort to its enemies." Recently, Arab students attending Hebrew University demonstrated against the visit of Prime Minister Sharon, screaming - among other things - "we are all Ahmed Yassins." This was nothing new. The late Rabbi Meir Kahane reported of such things decades ago and was branded a racist for coming to the subsequent logical conclusions...if truth be told. But why worry about that? Let's pretend that one fifth of Israel's growing Arab population - with a higher birth rate than that of the Jews - are all loyal citizens...Ostriches with heads in the sand. Look, Israel must realize that most of the world will always have a double standard when it comes to Israel. Call it looking through Jew-colored lenses or whatever. So Israel must do what needs to be done and not wait to act, on matters of vital interest in particular, until obtaining the world's approval. I will be named the next pope before that occurs. Arab legislators in the Knesset typically behave as the above-mentioned students do. Let's get something straight here. We're not talking about American students at Kent State protesting the war in Viet Nam. We're talking about Arabs calling for the destruction of the very state in which they live. In any Arab country, anyone engaging in such activity would not long be of this world. Indeed, in any other nation - including America - jail would likely be the minimum fate. It's time for Israel to act in its own crucial interests the way all other nations would act. Those Arabs who display such treachery must be, preferably, expelled from the country. Jail time only costs Israeli taxpayers money that there's much less of in Israel these days due to Arab rejectionist actions and attitudes - on both sides of the Green Line. Arabs could have had their 23rd state long ago if that's all that they wanted. Any fair assessment of the facts would show this. There's no need to rehash all the proposals yet again. The reality is that Arabs want their second state in mandatory "Palestine" (Jordan created in 1922 on 80% of the original territory mandated to Britain on April 25, 1920) to exist in place of - not along side of - Israel. A visit to the PA or Hamas websites, textbooks, etc. quickly confirms this as does a look at the polls which show that even if Israel withdrew to its pre-'67, nine-mile wide, UN-imposed armistice line existence, Arabs would still reject its right to exist. Kick those who articulate and exhibit such behaviors out of the country. And tell the protesting hypocrites that Israel, like all nations, must have its lines in the sand which cannot be crossed in terms of acceptable behavior by those wishing to live within its borders. Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has done extensive doctoral studies in Middle Eastern Affairs. He has created and conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been published in dozens of newspapers, magazines, academic journals and websites all around the world. To Go To Top

WILL WE SAY 'NEVER AGAIN' YET AGAIN? Posted by Mordechai ben-Menachem, March 27, 2004.

This article was written by Nicholas D. Kristof and appeared in the New York Times today. ALONG THE CHAD-SUDAN BORDER - For decades, whenever the topic of genocide has come up, the refrain has been, "Never again." Yet right now, the government of Sudan is engaging in genocide against three large African tribes in its Darfur region here. Some 1,000 people are being killed a week, tribeswomen are being systematically raped, 700,000 people have been driven from their homes, and Sudan's Army is even bombing the survivors. And the world yawns. So what do we tell refugees like Muhammad Yakob Hussein, who lives in the open desert here because his home was burned and his family members killed in Sudan? He now risks being shot whenever he goes to a well to fetch water. Do we advise such refugees that "never again" meant nothing more than that a Fuhrer named Hitler will never again construct death camps in Germany? Interviews with refugees like Mr. Hussein - as well as with aid workers and U.N. officials - leave no doubt that attacks in Darfur are not simply random atrocities. Rather, as a senior U.N. official, Mukesh Kapila, put it, "It is an organized attempt to do away with a group of people." "All I have left is this jalabiya," or cloak, said Mr. Hussein, who claimed to be 70 but looked younger (ages here tend to be vague aspirations, and they usually emerge in multiples of 10). Mr. Hussein said he'd fled three days earlier after an attack in which his three brothers were killed and all his livestock stolen: "Everything is lost. They burned everything." Another man, Khamis Muhammad Issa, a strapping 21-year-old, was left with something more than his clothes - a bullet in the back. He showed me the bulge of the bullet under the skin. The bullet wiggled under my touch. "They came in the night and burned my village," he said. "I was running away and they fired. I fell, and they thought I was dead." In my last column, I called these actions "ethnic cleansing." But let's be blunt: Sudan's behavior also easily meets the definition of genocide in Article 2 of the 1948 convention against genocide. That convention not only authorizes but also obligates the nations ratifying it - including the U.S. - to stand up to genocide. The killings are being orchestrated by the Arab-dominated Sudanese government, partly through the Janjaweed militia, made up of Arab raiders armed by the government. The victims are non-Arabs: blacks in the Zaghawa, Massaliet and Fur tribes. "The Arabs want to get rid of anyone with black skin," Youssef Yakob Abdullah said. In the area of Darfur that he fled, "there are no blacks left," he said. In Darfur, the fighting is not over religion, for the victims as well as the killers are Muslims. It is more ethnic and racial, reflecting some of the ancient tension between herdsmen (the Arabs in Darfur) and farmers (the black Africans, although they herd as well). The Arabs and non-Arabs compete for water and forage, made scarce by environmental degradation and the spread of the desert. In her superb book on the history of genocide, "A Problem from Hell," Samantha Power focuses on the astonishing fact that U.S. leaders always denounce massacres in the abstract or after they are over - but, until Kosovo, never intervened in the 20th century to stop genocide and "rarely even made a point of condemning it as it occurred." The U.S. excuses now are the same ones we used when Armenians were killed in 1915 and Bosnians and Rwandans died in the 1990's: the bloodshed is in a remote area; we have other priorities; standing up for the victims may compromise other foreign policy interests. I'm not arguing that we should invade Sudan. But one of the lessons of history is that very modest efforts can save large numbers of lives. Nothing is so effective in curbing ethnic cleansing as calling attention to it. President Bush could mention Darfur or meet a refugee. The deputy secretary of state could visit the border areas here in Chad. We could raise the issue before the U.N. And the onus is not just on the U.S.: it's shameful that African and Muslim countries don't offer at least a whisper of protest at the slaughter of fellow Africans and Muslims. Are the world's pledges of "never again" really going to ring hollow one more time? To Go To Top

FACE SMASH; BACKLASH Posted by Evelyn Hayes, March 26, 2004.

History keeps repeating itself and nobody gets it. In March 2003, senior Hamas terrorist Ibrahim Makadme was eliminated following a week of terrorist attacks; 15 were incinerated aboard a Haifa Bus; husband, wife and soldier were killed in Kiryat Arba. Dead Chai. There was a feared escalation of the war! In March 2004, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was eliminated There is feared escalation of the war. History keeps repeating itself and nobody gets it, while Richard Clarke blames those who don't get it and not those who ignore it, placing the blame on the victim not the victimizer, the innocent, not the lawless, attacking the attacked and wondering why there wasn't enough effort fighting terrorism. In 1993, Oslo was initiated to make friends with enemies. Gaza and Jericho were to be first "tests". Terrorism failed the test! Haj al-Husseini also failed Sir Herbert Samuels. Thus, pan-palestinianism/"We Are All Herzb'allah" became an international magnet for warlords and their partners in the wealth of spoiling security worldwide. Jihad warlords have made a fortune in stopping humanity and spreading humanicide Jihad friends like Shimon Peres and Kojo Annan have cashed in. Who supported Richard Clarke's book and will it cash in, too? Since 1995, all the handshakes have led to breaks without brake in killing Jews and blaming them, in robbing them of life, cash, human rights and land. Since the Armada, breaking the Jewish stake in Oslo II and trashing the Tomb of Joseph, over 1000 Jews have been eliminated by pre-meditated mass murder and 10,000 injured not including the victims who endure the loss of loved ones. So, as we question, in 2004, and Sharon suggests "More Gaza for More Terrorists, Less Jews", and would unilaterally deny Jews the right of their vote and to remain where Jews were relocated after Yamit, where they have returned, plow and plant, feed the nation, stabilize the GNP, pray, love and where there are separate secluded beaches for men and women. In Oslo II, the solution was Arab self-rule, and the backlash was Arab unruliness to the beats of even killing themselves. In General Sharon's solution, Jewish dissolution follows from face smash, incineration and self-discrimination to backlash. Mr. Sharon, the Jews have suffered enough, only merit respect when they respect themselves. Hitting Israel when it's being attacked is smacking the smacked. No More Juddenrid, even if it would be by Jews. Don't you get it? Each redeployment released evil. Another evacuation of Jews will release double evil and validate the Big Lie. It will reward the attack on Bus #19, Bus #14 and on Ashdod Port. Aren't you worried that Ashdod was Palestine before David killed Goliath? Rewarding a worse Goliath, the suicide warrior who hates Jews more than he loves himself, is suicide, too. Get rid of all the Jihad Goliaths and keep the kingdom of David, the Jewish Estate willed by The L-rd, Blessed Be He. Don't you get it; David is not Goliath and the beast Goliath won't stop jihad unless he is stopped not by appeasement alone but by Jews reclaiming their rights, Bible, Balfour, Beit Hamigdash and beauty. Jews planting in Gaza is beautiful. It's time the Arabs think suicide war is ugly and accept their neighbors. Remember, Gaza was a Jewish city before Tel Aviv. Jewish Gaza survived Hadrian, Mohammed, the French, the British, the Arab/Egyptian wars. Let the Jews not dash themselves out of Gaza because their enemies have not won. Let Lebanon trashed not be Aza Jews self-bashed. Remember most Jews had fled from Lebanon. Let the re-Jewvenation of Gaza support the re-Jewvenation of all Eretz HaChodesh. And let the enemies see Israel's might and depart from their history of hate to accept the light of Torah and civilization. Wake up, Sharon, if you would have kept that second Shabbos after the first your kept for Chaya, orphaned by Sbarro Attack in 2001, so many Jewish lives may have been saved. The Torah is a Book of Life and Love. Let our people stay in Gaza, all Yesha. No more appeasement. It's time to recoup and end the Oslo Wars, not reward warlords and spread the plagues. History keeps repeating itself; As Israel gets it face smashed with lies and hate, stones and blood the backlash is by accepting their lies and being mistaken for Goliath the Philistine. Tell the truth: Arafat al Husseini is an Egyptian of the infamous mufti Husseini clan connected to Saddam Hussein who supported Hitler in the Final Solution against the Jews and world in WWII. Israel has a right to exist in Israel. Jews have rights to Jew-dea. Palestine was a Roman invention re-invented by an Egyptian terrorist imported from exile in Tunisia for another dissolution of Jews again. Let Israel be. Let our people stay. Zachor. Evelyn Hayes is author of "The Eleventh Plague, TWINS, us, because their hearts were softened for more." and just released sequel, "The Twelfth Plague, GENERATIONS, because the lion wears stripes." To Go To Top

UNACCEPTABLE. UNJUST Posted by Daniel Gordis, March 26, 2004.

A couple of years ago, our office started using a new driver. The previous one, it turns out, couldn't make a living when the tourists abandoned the country, and left for the States. My secretary told me about Shlomo, the new driver, right before I was to get picked up for a drive to a meeting, and I didn't think much of the news. I got in the cab, sat in the back, introduced myself to Shlomo (who appeared to be in his mid-fifties) and told him where I was going. We set out on our way, and as we made our way across the city, I noticed a photograph on the dashboard. A young woman, probably in her twenties. An informal photo, in a Plexiglas frame glued to the dashboard. You don't often see things glued to the dashboards of luxury Mercedes cars, so I was curious. I leaned forward a little, and read the words at the bottom of the frame. "Limor, HYD." Limor -- May God Avenge Her Blood. Now I was even more curious. This was clearly going to be a sensitive subject, but this is Israel, and subtlety has never been a strong suit of this society. So I just asked. "Is that your daughter?" "Limor. She was twenty-seven. And beautiful." "I'm sorry." "She was killed at Moment Cafe." I had no idea what to say. So for a moment, I said nothing, and then he continued. "You know, they keep telling me that it will get easier with time. I'm still waiting." He turned up the volume on the classical music station a bit, maybe to drown out the rest of the world. I don't know. He stared out the windshield, and I stared out the window, certain that anything I said would be absurdly trite. And, of course, I'd only met him a few minutes earlier. Even had I had anything to say, this probably wasn't the time. We still have the same driver. Sometimes it's Shlomo who picks me up, but usually, it's Nir, his son, probably in his mid-twenties, too. Between the two of them, they keep the cab running almost 24 hours a day, or so it seems. Because most of my trips to the airport are late at night, it's Nir I usually see. It's Nir who picks me up from the airport, too. And each time we wind our way back into Jerusalem, he takes the same route to my house. A left at the Wolfson towers, up into the middle of Rechavia, following the narrow roads until the car is alongside Moment Cafe, now rebuilt, opened, better guarded, and full. There are sometimes faster ways to get to Bakk'a, days when the traffic in Rechavia is ridiculous. But he never varies his route. We always go by Moment. He never says anything, and I don't ask. Limor's picture is there, looking out at both of us, almost as if to remind us that we're really not in a hurry. So what if the traffic is a little thicker in Rechavia? The five minute difference isn't that significant, compared with everything he lives with and thinks about each time he looks at his dashboard. It was Nir that I thought of when I first woke up on Monday morning. The radio had gone off at 6:15, and the news was prattling on. Helicopter. Missile. Killed. Sounded like a regular morning newscast. Until I was awake enough to get the name. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Strange, but I thought of Nir. Before anyone else. And I wondered if he'd heard yet. I wondered how he'd feel knowing that we got the guy who killed his sister. I wonder if this provides any comfort whatsoever. I doubt it. Certain things we don't have to wonder about. Like whether Yassin deserved to die. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw can lecture us about the killing being "unacceptable, unjust." I don't mind. For when I think about the British, I still think about the shores of Palestine closed to Jewish refugees from the Nazis, desperate and starving human beings being turned away, sometimes forced to return to the Europe from which they'd fled, sometimes sent to worse fates. As a Brit, Straw should, indeed, know a thing or two about "unacceptable, unjust." "Unacceptable," I think, is a mild way of describing Yassin's resume. Yassin was crystal clear. This conflict is not about the territories. It's about the whole thing. There can be no "Zionist" entity in the Middle East, which is a Muslim part of the world. There can be no compromise, no negotiation. The Jews must go. Got to give him credit for clarity. And for persistence. Under Yassin, Hamas was responsible, in the last few years, for 425 bombings, resulting in 377 deaths, and 2076 injured. "Unjust"? The Sbarro Pizza parlor. The Dolphinarium, packed with teenagers. The Moment Cafe. The #37 bus. Cafe Hillel. The #19 bus. Many, many others. And now, the port at Ashdod, a strategic target that ultimately resulted in the cabinet decision to get rid of him and let Hamas know that we've had enough. And that we have no intention of leaving. Very few Israelis that I know are terribly worried about the "justice" of the decision to kill him. If he didn't deserve to die, no one does. And some people do deserve to die. No one I know shed any tears that he's gone. But no one I know went out into the street to fire assault rifles into the air in celebration. Or gave candy to children to mark the joy of the event. That, most of us know, would be "unacceptable." Was killing Yassin smart? That's the only question. The morality of the killing is, to my mind, not an issue. And for the wisdom, who knows? Whether it ultimately weakens Hamas and makes it possible for the Palestinian Authority to take over when we pull out, as Sharon says he plans to, remains to be seen. What we've got in the meantime, is a stalemate of dread. On their side, the Hamas leadership has gone underground. Abdel Aziz Rantisi, Yassin's successor in the Gaza strip, is threatening unprecedented reprisals and ultimate "liberation of the homeland." The IDF, undoubtedly, is now aiming for him. One assumes that Rantisi knows there's not much point in his buying green bananas. But Rantisi's threats have not gone unheeded in Israel's cities. People here believe him. There are security checkpoints virtually everywhere, and now, they're really checking. I had breakfast yesterday at Cafe Hillel, another reminder of Yassin. My secretary, actually, asked me to change the location. "Don't eat there this week," she pleaded. "It's not a good idea." But the point is that we're not leaving. That's exactly why Yassin had to go. So I didn't change the venue and went to Cafe Hillel. The cafe, like Moment, is completely rebuilt, and is usually packed. It can be hard to find a table at breakfast. Not yesterday. There were six of us in the whole restaurant, plus the waitress, and the very alert guard outside the door. On the way to the cafe, walking to the cafe, I looked into the buses making their way down Emek Refa'im. Almost empty. Five or ten people on a bus, in rush hour. When I finally got to the office, a colleague told me that on the way home on Wednesday, he was driving past one of the open air markets of Jerusalem, when an elderly women knocked on the window of his car. She had sacks of food from the market, she showed him, and she lived a few blocks away, too far for her to walk. But she was afraid to get on the bus. Would he drive her home? A couple of days ago, the Editorial Page of HaAretz carried its daily political cartoon, this one of a Domino's Pizza guy (yup, Dominos and Office Depot have made it here) on a motorcycle, delivering a pizza to a family. Only the family is behind sandbags, barely willing to stretch out an arm to take the pizza. That pretty much summed it up. But the cartoon missed one thing -- why we're in this mess. Yes, for the moment, things are a bit edgy, but we've been here before. What Israelis need to remember, and what the rest of the world needs to understand is why Yassin hated us. Simply because we're here. And why we had to get rid of him. Because he had pledged to keep killing us until we left. But we're not leaving. Where would we possibly go? Even if we agreed to go, where would we go? As if Europe wants us back. Or as if it worked out very well last time we were there. Or as if the French have learned very much since 1943. Last Sunday night, Elisheva and I went to a lecture by Aharon Applefeld, one of Israeli's preeminent novelists. Tali and Avi were out, so we left Micha by himself. He was lying on the living room coach, reading some enormous 700+ page book that he was determined to finish, and was fairly oblivious to our imminent departure. We told him that we had our cell phones if he needed us, and he should go to bed by 8:30. He barely looked up, but muttered, "OK." We knew he wouldn't go to bed on time, but we also couldn't exactly complain that a fifth grader wanted to stay up late because he was busy reading a novel. Applefeld told his story. Of an idyllic eight years in a completely assimilated, wealthy, Jewish European home. Of his mother being shot by the Germans. Of him and his father being taken to a slave labor camp. And of his decision to flee the camp, because he knew he wouldn't survive it. And so, at the age of eight and a half, he found himself alone, in the forests of Europe, masquerading as a Christian, struggling to survive. He worked in the home of a prostitute, buying her groceries and cleaning her house, until one of her drunken clients called him a Jew. He fled. He worked for horse thieves, who would have him drop into the stables from the skylight, land in whatever he landed in and then open the door to the stable so they could steal the horses. He told of the nights he slept alone on the forest floor, of the days when he ate the moss off of trees. At the age of ten. And I thought about Micha, exactly that age now. I wondered. If he were alone in the forest tomorrow, would he know to do that? Would he have the presence of mind to work for a prostitute, for horse thieves? Would he figure out that he could eat moss off of trees if he was starving? I doubted it. Which means we can't let that happen to him. In the days since Yassin's death, since the palpable sense of dread has pervaded every nook and cranny of life here, I've thought of Applefeld at ten. Of Micha at ten. And then I thought of Abdallah Quran, the ten year old boy from the Balata refugee camp who was given, apparently unbeknownst to him, a bomb to carry across a checkpoint. A ten year old who tries to make a living for his family after school by transporting packages across the checkpoint, he had no idea who put the bag on his cart. The explosive had a remote control apparatus. Someone who gave him the bomb was going to use a cell phone to set it off. And presumably blow Abdallah to high heaven, too. And people compare the two sides of this conflict? That incident didn't make it to much of the international press. But when Hussam Abdo, the sixteen year old who tried to walk an explosive belt through a checkpoint two days ago, got caught by soldiers, there happened to be a camera crew on hand. And the whole thing was filmed. Turns out, Hussam was given 100 shekel to carry the explosive and blow it up. He was also promised 70 virgins in heaven, he said. The good news, I first thought, was that the Palestinian community was outraged. Tamam Abdo, his mother, said to the press, "It is forbidden to send him to fight. He is young, he is small, he should be in school. Someone pressured him." Finally. But then, I read the rest of the interview. "If he was over 18, I wouldn't feel so angry ... then it is his decision,'' she said. Ah, another beautiful humanist sentiment. Or her neighbor, Sadia Abdel Rahman -- "We have to carry out serious attacks. This is not a children's game. This is an embarrassment." I guess we all get embarrassed by different things. When Israel sent an F-16 in July 2002 to drop a one ton bomb on the home of Salah Shehadeh, then the military chief of Hamas in Gaza, we got him. Israelis were pleased about that. But a one ton bomb is an enormously powerful weapon, and in killing Shehadeh, we killed fourteen other people, including nine children. Israelis were outraged, and mortified. Shehadeh, like Yassin, deserved to die. But Israeli society was in an uproar. Not like that, people said, on the left and on the right. We can't begin to be like them. That's the whole idea of living here; that's an important part of having a country to call our own. If we're not going to be different, even better, what's the point? Eventually, the government apologized. And the IDF changed its policy. So last September 6, when the IDF decided to get Yassin, we sent an F-16 again, but this time, with a quarter-ton bomb. The bomb worked perfectly, and the pilot hit his target. But the building was only damaged, and Yassin was scarcely wounded. And what was the reaction of the typical Israeli? Satisfaction. We'd learned something. We missed, true, but at least we were different. I'm struck by the fact that very little coverage of the killing of Yassin has made any mention of the missed attempt on his life in September. It's because, I think, the reason that we missed reveals a dimension of this conflict that most of the world doesn't want to see. It upends the moral equivalence that the international press broadcasts. It suggests that some people in this conflict still do think about what's "acceptable" and "just." It reminds the world that there's more than one people in this region that has needed to be liberated. We're just days away from Passover. Already the stores are filling with Passover products. Israelis are cleaning. Buying. Inviting. And remembering. Remembering Pesach two years ago, and the bloodbath called the Park Hotel. And remembering that Hamas, and Yassin, did that one, too. Will this Pesach be quieter? Hard to know. One hopes so. Prays, in fact. But no matter what happens, there will be a certain satisfaction, even if a sad one, in knowing that people who blow up our Seder can't do so with impunity. That's the difference between life now and life when Aharon Applefeld foraged for his food in the forest. Appelfeld grew up in the world in which people could shoot his mother and send him to die, and there was no one to fend for him. That's what's changed. That's the bottom line. I can't imagine a decent human being feeling joy at the death of another. Not joy, no. But satisfaction? Yes. Because there has to be a price to pay for the wholesale murder of Jews. There simply must be. Anything else, Mr. Straw needs to understand, is what's truly "unacceptable." Rabbi Gordis writes Dispatches to an email list. You can subscribe to the list at www.danielgordis.org (see the box on the top left of the screen) or at www.topica.com/lists/gordis. You can also subscribe by sending a BLANK email to: gordis-subscribe@topica.com. To Go To Top

ISRAEL GIVES THE APPEARANCE OF LOYALTY TO POLLARD Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 26, 2004.

Jonathan Pollard drafted a bill to lead to his release. The politicians rewrote it so as NOT to help him. The revision would provide a slush fund so they could get credit for efforts seemingly in his behalf but that would not get him released. The bill would substitute public "activities" for effective government action. The Pollards oppose that bill. Mr. Pollard counter-proposes: (1) Formalizing a clear government policy in his behalf as its agent; (2) Formalizing his captivity status; and (3) Then having the Israeli Ambassador visit him, to show that the government's new policy is not mere formality. Israel never has asserted a policy of freeing him, as it does for Azzam Azzam. The government never takes up his case. It doesn't want him free. It has something to hide or US officials to fear. By formalizing his captive status, the government could demand urgently needed medical care and humane conditions. Legal and financial assistance to its agent would be rendered. Israel did give such assistance for that confessed criminal, Tennenbaum, who was not an Israeli agent. It even financially supported not only his legal family but his mistress and their child (IMRA, 3/21). People unfairly criticize the ethics of Israel over its treatment of the Arab enemy, which is too benign for national security. They should be criticizing the ethics of Israel over its mistreatment of loyal citizens, which is too malign for national security. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

REVENGE Posted by Steven Plaut, March 26, 2004.

One of the stranger semantic twists in recent days concern use of the term "revenge" in the media. As in: "The Hamas is now going to "avenge" the fact that Israel recycled the Sheikh Yassin." Such a use of the word "revenge" may be one of the most Orwellian of the distortions by the Anti-Semantites who operate the Western media. Many of them are also anti-Semites by the way. So in order to show you how to express yourself in terms of this Orwellian use of "revenge" we thought we would add some other examples of the politically correct use of the term: 1. Germany is considering taking revenge on Czechoslovakia for the 1939 invasion of its lands. 2. Japan is threatening to take revenge against the United States for Pearl Harbor. 3. France is thinking of taking revenge against Russia for its having allowed Napoleon to invade its territory. 4. Lee Harvey Oswald is thinking of taking revenge against John F. Kennedy, and Sirhan Sirhan against Bobby Kennedy. 5. Saddam Hussein is threatening to take revenge against Kuwait for the 1991 invasion of its territory. 6. George W. Bush is threatening to take revenge against Al Gore for having won the 2000 election and wants a recount. 7. Osama bin Ladan wants revenge against the aggressors who were inside the World Trade Center in 2001 attacking his people. 8. The bulldozer demands revenge against Rachel Corrie. 9. Abu Abbas's people want compensation from Leon Klinghoffer's family or else they want revenge. 10. The hijackers of the plane to Entebbe want Israel to compensate them for the wasted fuel or else they want revenge. 11. Tim Veigh wants Oklahoma City to pay for his fertilizer costs or else he wants revenge against them for the crime against him. You get the idea.... Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

ARABS RUNNING SCARED Posted by Voice of Judea, March 26, 2004.

1. ARABS RUNNING SCARED According to headlines in today's Maariv, the Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Yassin has Arafat and other terrorist leaders running scared. Maariv claims that U.S. officials refused to guarantee Arafat's safety, after frightened PLO leaders requested of the Americans that they hold Israel back from launching a potential attack against Arafat. Arafat has reportedly taken unprecedented security precautions, after the Yassin assassination. Halad Mishal the Director of the Foreign desk of the Hamas has reaffirmed his organization's commitment not to strike at Jewish targets outside of Israel. Military pundits believe that Mishal is also running scared and wishes to send a message to Israel, that it is in Israel's interest to refrain from liquidating him. Israel was caught off-guard by the lack of Arab response to the assassinations. The Arabs did not even fully observe the 3 day mourning strike. Voice of Judea Commentary: The message is loud and clear. Israel need not refrain from taking necessary action. There is no reason to be scared. The Arabs are very brave when Israel allows them to kill Jews with impunity. Whenever Israel finally decides to fight back, they win decisive victories. If Israel would stop going half way and finish the job, they would restore peace and security to the land. Israel might suffer U.N. or U.S. condemnation. But better to live than to be loved. And Israeli restraint will never buy love anyhow. Israel must show faith in G-d and unleash their full military might to crush the enemy. The terrorists need to live in fear and crawl back into their holes. This could only be achieved by Israel keeping the battle in the backyards of the Hamas and PLO and out of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Jewish towns. The only way to achieve this is by declaring war on the terrorists and everyone that supports them. It is not enough to kill one terrorist leader. 2. ISRAELI DIPLOMATS LIVE IN FEAR ABROAD Yediot Achronot reports on heightened alerts in Israeli embassies and consulates around the world. Voice of Judea Commentary It is definitely recommended for Jews to consider coming back to Israel. Eventually, the Hamas and Hizbullah will attack at Israel's soft spot, namely Jewish targets abroad. That coupled by existing Jew hatred by white and black haters will make America the same living hell Europe has become for Jews. In Israel, as bad as it gets, Israel will eventually drive the enemy population out. Also, there are a million Jewish policemen, guards and soldiers on hand to protect Jews in Israel. Who will protect the vulnerable Jews abroad. 3. PRESIDENT KAZAV SHOCKED BY ARAB ISRAELI HATRED According to today's Yediot Achronot, President Kazav told a group of Arab Israeli correspondents that he was in shock after viewing Arab Israelis who protested wearing and holding Hamas symbols and flags. Voice of Judea Commentary: We are shocked that the president of Israel is shocked to see Arab Israeli hatred. Good morning Mr. President! Why do Israelis continue to live in a dream world of illusions and delusions? Arab Israelis are caught daily plotting to kill Jews. They are not loyal to the Jews. Why should they be more loyal to the Jews than to their brothers and sisters? Why should they celebrate their defeat and support the Jews, who "stole their land." 4. FIRST PIG ENLISTED TO GEDUD HAIVRI The Gedud HaIvri, a voluntary guard association that deploys volunteer guards in Israeli yishuvim has bought their first pig that is presently being trained in the Negev to bomb-sniff and attack terrorists, according to an article that appeared in Maariv last week. The Gedud HaIvri will be holding a special course to train regular guards to help man observation posts in yishuvim throughout the Pesach break. Yeshiva students and others who are interested in receiving the free training and in volunteering over the Pesach vacation, can call 054 876 749 or from the states 718 874 2057. Visit www.defendIsrael.net The website address of Voice of Judea is http://www.voiceofjudea.com. Subscribe by writing listmaster@voiceofjudea.net To Go To Top

WHAT DID LILLY SHARON MEAN? Posted by Ruth and Nadia Matar, March 26, 2004.

First, let us congratulate the soldiers of the IDF for the splendid action against Ahmed Yassin, a lethal foe of the Jews. We pray that IDF soldiers will soon receive orders to eliminate another arch-murderer Yasser Arafat, and the band of murderers of Jews he harbors in Ramallah, and other leaders and personnel of terrorist organizations. A serious question remains. If Ariel Sharon sought to protect the Jewish People, why hadn't he eliminated Ahmed Yassin long ago? And why hasn't he added Yasser Arafat and other murderers of Jews to the elimination list. If Ariel Sharon truly desires to break the spirit of the enemy and eliminate, once and for all, the Hamas movement and the other Arab terrorist organizations, he would take these actions: 1. He would eliminate - every day - key individuals in these terrorist organizations. The daily elimination of such commanders and leaders would quickly squash the existing Arab intifada, and smash the Arab will to continue terrorism. 2. He would permanently put the IDF back in the Gaza Strip, clean up the area once and for all and rid it of the terror nests. That means: the elimination of every armed individual and the expulsion of their families, and restore Jewish control over all of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. It has already been proven that the only way to fight terror is when Israel controls the area. The moment that the IDF abandons the field - terror flourishes and develops. Since these steps were not taken by Sharon, and apparently will not be taken, we must ask: What is Ariel Sharon really doing? What is he striving to achieve? We might possibly receive the answer to this question from what Ariel Sharon's late wife, Lilly, of blessed memory, told an unimpeachable source in the Golan many years ago. A woman, G., who knew Lilly well, told me the following: A few years ago, when Rabin was in power, and when the sword of destruction hung over the Golan, Ariel Sharon and his wife came to Neveh Ativ for a solidarity visit. After a talk with the residents, the men went and talked with Sharon. Lilly remained with G. for a talk among women. G. told Lilly that she so greatly wanted Ariel Sharon to be Prime Minister. She even volunteered to act on his behalf and to bring others to act as well. When Lilly Sharon asked her why she so strongly wanted Ariel Sharon to be elected Prime Minister, G. replied that she was certain that he would know how to be a true and proud Jewish leader. Lilly Sharon asked the woman: "Do you know the parable of Jotham?" G. was not familiar with that parable, but Lilly did not attempt to further explain. The parable of Jotham appears in the ninth chapter of the book of Judges. After the death of Gideon, the Israelites enthroned his son Abimelech as their king - the same Abimelech who murdered seventy of his brothers, in order to ensure that only he would rule as king. One brother was not killed by Abimelech. This was Jotham, who managed to hide during the slaughter. When Jotham heard that the Israelites had proclaimed the wicked Abimelech king, he went to the top of Mount Gerizim and related the following parable, in order to warn the Israelites of the terrible mistake that they were making: "Once the trees went to anoint a king over themselves. They said to the olive tree, 'Reign over us.' But the olive tree replied, 'Have I, through whom God and men are honored, stopped yielding my rich oil, that I should go and wave above the trees?' So the trees said to the fig tree, 'You come and reign over us.' But the fig tree replied, 'Have I stopped yielding my sweetness, my delicious fruit, that I should go and wave above the trees?' So the trees said to the vine, 'You come and reign over us.' But the vine replied, 'Have I stopped yielding my new wine, which gladdens God and men, that I should go and wave above the trees?' Then all the trees said to the thornbush, 'You come and reign over us.' And the thornbush said to the trees, 'If you are acting honorably in anointing me king over you, come and take shelter in my shade; but if not, may fire issue from the thorn bush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!'" This is how Jotham ended his parable, warning that the encrowning of Abimelech would bring only fire and trouble. Lilly Sharon is not with us today to explain what she said. One thing, however, is clear. Lilly wanted to caution G. against the idea of Sharon as Prime Minister, just as Jotham had warned the Israelites. Indeed, a thorn bush can cause fires - not only among the enemy, but also among its own people, for all that interests it is its own survival and remaining in power. Yes, the elimination of Yassin is a blow to the Arab enemy. But we cannot deceive ourselves. To the same degree that Sharon delivered a blow to the enemy, Ariel Sharon is also capable - and apparently intends, as well - to unleash a "strange fire" against his own people, and even more forcefully promote the disengagement plan for the destruction of the settlement enterprise in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. It is within our power to stop the "strange fire" of Ariel Sharon. We, the national camp, also possess a fire, the perpetual fire of which we shall read in the Torah portions of the coming weeks. As Dr. Yisrael Eldad writes in Contemplations of the Bible: "The first fire in the Bible is that of the Covenant between the Pieces". This fire, the first that came down from heaven, sanctified the covenant of Abraham's offspring with this land. This is the fire of the great love that rivers shall not wash away, not the River of Egypt, not the Euphrates River, and not the mighty waters of the entire world. This fire shall not be extinguished. It shall not be consumed. An eternal flame, From the Covenant between the Pieces" to the burning bush, from the burning bush to the altar of the kohanim [priests], from the altar of the kohanim to the lips of the prophets, an eternal flame. The same fire. Eldad notes that in all generations foreigners have attempted to extinguish the eternal Jewish flame, but without success. The most dangerous, however, are specifically individuals such as Nadab and Abihu, who come from within our midst, who pretend to be "one of ours," but who hold in their hands a destructive "strange fire". We must be warier of them than of anyone else. Ariel Sharon pretends to be a leader who is "one of ours." He built the settlement enterprise in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. He embodies "security." He eliminated Ahmed Yassin. But he holds in his hands strange fire, the fire of the disengagement plan, the fire of the plan of destruction and expulsion of Jews. We must ensure that our positive fire, the fire of Judaism, the fire of love and loyalty to the people of Israel, the Torah of Israel, and all the Land of Israel, shall extinguish the strange and destructive fire of Ariel Sharon. Who knows, perhaps this is what Lilly Sharon meant by her laconic statement. Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

POLICY PAPER OPPOSING A PALESTINIAN STATE Posted by Unity Coalition For Israel, March 26, 2004.

The Unity Coalition for Israel has isued a new Position Paper opposing a Palestinian state and the unilateral abandonment of Jewish communities in Gaza/Judea and Samaria. If you agree with our Position Paper opposing unilateral retreat in Gaza, Judea and Samaria leading to a Palestinian state, PLEASE CLICK HERE TO REGISTER YOUR AGREEMENT ON THIS CRITICAL ISSUE. It will be automatically forwarded to President Bush, PM Sharon and their Cabinet Members. You will be helping to send a strong message of US opposition to Israeli retreat in the face of Palestinian terrorism. As the International community continues to be engaged in a global effort against rising terror, our strategic ally, Israel, stands in the midst of this threat. Common sense and morality dictate that we side with the victims of terror. We must not reward the terrorists. We urge the Israeli government and the US Administration to adhere to President Bush's requirement to disarm and completely dismantle the Arab terrorist organizations in the Palestinian territories before any negotiations or territorial concessions take place. Concessions only embolden terrorists to continue their murderous policies and lead, inevitably, to further terrorism. When terrorism succeeds the results can have global consequences, such as the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq as a direct consequence of the Madrid terrorist massacre. On June 24, 2002, President Bush presented clear guidelines establishing pre-conditions to implementation of the "Road Map to Peace". The President said: "I call on the Palestinian people to... * elect new leaders... * build a practicing democracy, based on tolerance and liberty... * [establish] a new constitution which separates the powers of government... * [establish] a system of reliable justice to punish those who prey on the innocent... * [oppose] terrorism... * end incitement to violence in official media, and publicly denounce homicide bombings... * block the shipment of Iranian supplies to ...(Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah), and oppose regimes that promote terror, like Iraq... "Leaders who want to be included in the peace process must show by their deeds an undivided support for peace. And as we move toward a peaceful solution, Arab states will be expected to build closer ties of diplomacy and commerce with Israel, leading to full normalization of relations between Israel and the entire Arab world." "Israel," the President noted, "has a right to a normal life, a right to security" and this is an opportunity "to show who is serious about peace and who is not". As part of America's "war on terror", the U.S. cannot submit to politically motivated murderous attacks, whether they be carried out at the World Trade Center, in Iraq, in Bali or in Israel. Until the Palestinians eradicate radical Islamic terrorism, dismantle their terrorist organizations and comply with all of President Bush's other demands, there must be no discussion of a 23rd Arab state west of the Jordan River. Israel must not succumb to terrorism by retreating from Gaza or Judea and Samaria. We applaud President Bush's latest statement on March 19, 2004, the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq: "The war on terror is not a figure of speech. It is an inescapable calling of our generation. The terrorists are offended not merely by our policies - they are offended by our existence as free nations. No concession will appease their hatred. No accommodation will satisfy their endless demands. Their ultimate ambitions are to control the peoples of the Middle East, and to blackmail the rest of the world with weapons of mass terror. There can be no separate peace with the terrorist enemy. Any sign of weakness or retreat simply validates terrorist violence, and invites more violence for all nations. The only certain way to protect our people is by early, united, and decisive action." We urge the Israelis to take these words of President Bush to heart and stand strong in defense of freedom - against terrorism. Unilateral retreat from the disputed territories, displacing Israeli communities, means abandonment of justice and morality as the basis for democratic government. We urge the Israelis, who have long been in the front lines of the threat from radical Islam, to continue to stand firm against this danger to the entire free world. Only by declaring all-out "war on Palestinian terror" can the infrastructures of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigade, Tanzim 17 and the PLO be defeated. To bestow upon these terrorist organizations the legitimacy of statehood by providing them with a broader base for the total destruction of the nation of Israel is a betrayal of future generations. Not just Israel, but all of Western Civilization, is at stake. The National Unity Coalition for Israel was 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! To Go To Top

MR. TENET IN THE DOCK Posted by JINSA, March 25, 2004.

This is JINSA report #400. Richard Clarke, former NSC staffer to President Clinton (and disgruntled former Bush Administration Employee) offered a startling insight in his book: "Time was running out on the Clinton administration. There was going to be one last major national-security initiative and it was going to be a final try to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. I would like to have tried both, Camp David and blowing up the al Qaeda camps." By Mr. Clarke's logic, Mr. Clinton couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time - he had to choose between military pursuit of the enemy that had blown up a U.S. navy ship in Yemen, killing and wounding scores of American sailors, and the chimera of "Middle East peace." He chose badly, but not surprisingly. Israel-Palestinian "peace" is a periodic obsession of presidents and the Clinton people spent an inordinate amount of time currying favor with Yasser Arafat (the most often received foreign "leader" in the White House. And we'll never forget the sight of Dr. Albright chasing Yasser down the driveway of the U.S. embassy in Paris in high heels). Only after the failure at Camp David and the opening of the PA war against Israel in October 2000 did President Clinton acknowledge that Arafat didn't want peace at all. That may be historically interesting, but why bring it up now? Because NOW is when the Washington illuminati are dissecting who knew what when as regards both September 11, 2001 and the al-Qaeda threats that preceded it, and because Clarke is not the only holdover employee. George Tenet has been CIA Director since 1995, and during a crucial period in the Clinton Administration, was supervising the creation of a PLO army under the terms of the Wye River agreement, and later pursuing the "Tenet Plan" for peace in our time. We complained then that the job was political and the CIA should not arbitrate Israeli-PA differences. We didn't want the CIA training PA "police" at all because it was clear that they were involved in attacks on Israelis. We believed the political guidance the CIA would get would be to avoid finding problems that couldn't be resolved. We said: "The CIA's job is to gather and assess intelligence information. That's all. They are supposed to pass information along to the political authorities that make political policy for the U.S. - DOD, the President, the Congress. But the CIA doesn't even do that limited job all that well - this is the same CIA, after all, that was surprised by the Indian nuclear explosion in May and said of the three-stage North Korean ballistic missile shot over the Japanese mainland in August, "We didn't know they could do a third stage!'" We would now add that the CIA was then and remained - and maybe still remains - unable to coordinate disparate threads of information to make a clear picture of the al-Qaeda threat the U.S. faced right up to September 11th. Mr. Tenet has a great deal to answer for, both in what he did and what he failed to do. The JINSA Reports are published by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (http://www.jinsa.org). To subscribe, email info@jinsa.org To Go To Top

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY LIBEL: Israel encourages PA child terror for PR gain Posted by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, March 25, 2004.

The standard policy of the official Palestinian Authority (PA) daily Al Hayat Al Jadida is to twist and distort news stories in order to portray the Palestinians as victims, regardless of the facts. Now, with the world's increased awareness of the role of Palestinian children in suicide terror, the PA has created a libel against Israel that again attempts to turn Palestinians into victims. Today's official daily described as a "lie" Israel's report on yesterday's suicide terror attempt by a 14 year old. The Israeli report, documented on TV and broadcast around the world, shows a young Palestinian boy wearing an explosive belt. Israeli soldiers guide the boy to safely remove the bomb belt. Last week Israeli soldiers stopped a 10 year old who carried a suicide belt planted by Palestinian terrorists without his knowledge. That, too, was called a lie by the PA daily. Most interesting, though, is the reason the Palestinian Authority has given for the Israeli "lie". According to the PA, Israel creates lies about PA child terror in order to encourage other Palestinian children to be involved in terror, which in turn helps Israeli PR. The following is the PA explanation of "Israel's lie" as it appeared in the PA daily: "The occupation, [Israel] in this situation and with this lie, is playing with its own blood, and it is like they are encouraging children to go from stone throwing to use of explosives, and involvement in actions which are beyond them. Israel's focusing accusations about children [in suicide terror] is in fact an open invitation to other children to imitate the accusations, because it is characteristic of children to blindly imitate. The occupation's [Israel's] public relations gain through this false accusation may come back as a boomerang, but it is clear in this case that the occupation is striving to plan public relations lies." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida March 18, 2004] In this way the PA is once again misrepresenting itself as victim instead of perpetrator. Itamar Marcus is director of PMW -Palestinian Media Watch - (http://www.pmw.org.il). Barbara Crook, a writer and university lecturer based in Ottawa, Canada, is PMW's North American representative. To subscribe to PMW's reports, send an empty e-mail to reports-subscribe@pmw.org.il To Go To Top

KILL THE SHEIKH TO SAVE THE PRIME MINISTER Posted by Herb and Mikimia Sunshine, March 25, 2004.

A friend, who regretted voting for Mr. Sharon, sought to save face by seeking letters of support to Sharon for his execution of Sheikh Yassin. Ariel Sharon did not order the execution of the Sheikh in furtherance of victory in the War against Militant Islam. The cowardly lion ordered the execution because: 1. The timing averted the motion of no-confidence against him scheduled for that time. 2. Many Israelis, including my friend, re-found their mistaken belief that the sheep was still a lion. 3. The execution frightened the Arab murderers into thinking (for about an hour) that Israel was fleeing Gaza from strength not weakness. 4. It was an attempt to convince Sharon's American handlers that there would not be chaos in Gaza after the flight of the Jews. 5. It calmed with soothing oil the passions of those who otherwise might have considered active opposition to forcible transfer of Jews from their homes. 6. It threw up chaff, confounding the plans to indict Sharon for bribery and nepotism. The once Great General has not lost his cunning; only his direction. He has outfoxed the enemy, the enemy being the Jews of Israel, some of whom may now believe that surrender is victory. May we be spared from our (mis)leaders. With love of Israel. To Go To Top

AMERICAN BOARD OF RABBIS CALLS FOR THE ELIMINATION OF ALL TERRORIST HEADS Posted by Ken Heller, March 25, 2004.

New York (PRWEB) March 25, 2004 - Citing a Talmudic passage from Avoda Zora 18a, Rabbi Mordechai Friedman reads "Whoever has the ability to rebuke evil and does not rebuke evil will be punished," and takes it to heart. In a dramatic and unanimous vote of the American Board of Rabbis, the New York-based Rabbinic association agreed on a statement urging Israel and the United States to "Eliminate all Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and terrorist leaders immediately, including Sheik Hassan Nasrallah (Hezbollah), Ramadan Salah (Islamic Jihad), Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi (Hamas) and PLO's master terrorist Yassir Arafat, heads." The strong statement comes on the wake of Israel's killing of Hamas founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. In the United Nations Tuesday, the United States rejected a council statement condemning the killing. The statement had been put forward by Algeria, the lone Arab member of the 15-nation Council, at the request of the Palestinians. Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, named as Hamas" new chief for the Gaza Strip, vowed that the Hamas terrorists group would take every opportunity to attack Israeli interests, local and abroad. In response, the US State Department issued a worldwide advisory to Americans overseas of increasing threats from terrorist organizations such as Hamas and al-Qaida. "We dare not tolerate the murder of Jewish children, women and men," states Rabbi Friedman. "Since the Holocaust, Jews have not been murdered as these terrorist Islamic factions are doing now." According to the Israeli government, Yassin's Hamas terrorists have carried out 425 attacks in Israel, including 52 suicide bombings, over the last three and a half years, killing 377 Israelis and wounding 2,076. Even US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, commented "Let's remember that Hamas is a terrorist organization and that Sheik Yassin has himself, personally, we believe, been involved in terrorist planning." Additionally, the American Board of Rabbis endorses "the relocation of all Arab occupiers out of the Jewish biblical territories, and the annexation of all liberated territories given by G-d to the Jewish people back into Israel." In the first book of the Bible, Genesis 15:18, it states "G-d made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'To your descendants I have given this land, from the Egyptian River as far as the great river, the Euphrates.'" "Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza all fall within these boundaries," declares Rabbi Friedman. Contact: Rabbi Mordechai Friedman (646) 996-4040 American Board of Rabbis 292 5th Avenue - 4th Floor New York, New York 10001 Tel (212) 714-3598 vaadharabbonim@yahoo.com To Go To Top

ISRAEL MUST NOT SURRENDER TO TERROR Posted by Paula Kaufman, March 25, 2004.

This article was written by Arieh Eldad and appeared on the World Net Daily website. It is archived at http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37740 The proposed unilateral Israeli withdrawal of from the Gaza Strip is the newest (and arguably the most promising) victory awaiting the masters of terror. The fundamental tenet of the West's almost 3-year-old War on Terror is moral clarity - the courage of consistency. Such manifest principles shudder in humiliation by the anticipated Israeli pullout from Gaza. Once the sole battlefront in the Terror War, Israel has sorrowfully become only one of the many new war zones of this gruesome conflict. The Jewish state continues to suffer as no other - however, a number of nations have come to experience the horrors of indiscriminate murder, the fear of sudden and unreserved violence and the mourning of fallen innocents. Yet with no true examination, no attempt to look beyond the myth of rhetoric, the West continues to encourage Israeli capitulation to terror. This must end for, if no other reason, than the defense of democracies throughout the world. Sadly, Israel's greatest ally and the victim of one of the most depraved acts of terror, also seeks to have Israel give in to the terrorists in exchange for dreamy, tired and ill-conceived "peace plans" with the radicalized Arab-Islamic enemy. The "Bush Doctrine" defines capitulation to terror as a defeat, that those who aid the terrorists are as responsible and therefore as guilty as the terrorists. With this faultless cognition, moral clarity demands that Israel be forbidden to capitulate to terror. And, with the unanticipated outcome of the Spanish elections and the conceivable loss of a staunch U.S. coalition partner, President Bush stated unequivocally: "Any sign or weakness or retreat is a victory for the terrorists." The partnership of nations who seek to do battle against terror must re-evaluate their automatic, and frankly, illogical, reactions to the Israeli-Arab conflict and understand that in the face of the bombing in Madrid, their future many hinge upon yet another terrorist victory. Gaza In 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israel captured the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. That war broke out after Egypt had poured large military forces into the Sinai, closed the Tiran Straits to Israeli shipping and concluded a joint plan, with Syria, for an attack on Israel. Twenty-two years later, as part of the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt and following the Camp David talks between Prime Minister Begin and President Sadat under the auspices of President Carter, Israel returned the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. However, Egypt declined to re-assume control of the Gaza Strip, which remained in Israel's possession. After ruling Gaza for 37 years, Israel, in the wake of the 1993 Oslo Accords, handed over most of the area of the Strip to the Palestinian Authority. With all agreements signed, Israel held on to 20 flourishing communities in a small section of Gaza. Until recently, it was Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who took the position that Israel must continue to maintain and develop these Jewish communities under Israeli rule in perpetuity. More importantly, the prime minister frequently expressed the view that the very existence of these Israeli communities in Gaza was essential to the prevention of a takeover of Gaza by extremist terrorist groups and the resultant creation there of the biggest terrorist base in the world. The Roadmap: Conditions unmet The "Roadmap," based on President Bush's vision requires, first and primarily, the cessation of terror. The plan was never implemented, very simply because the terror not only continued, but increased. The leadership of the Palestinian Authority was fleeting and Yasser Arafat remained the Authority's strongman who, to this day, continues to rule the PA as a terrorist organization. Israel rightfully continued to maintain that, unless and until there is a cessation to terror, the thought of territorial concessions was, in fact, out of the question and that action would be seen as a reward for violence. In all, nearly 1,000 Israelis have been killed in terror attacks over the past three years. Suicide-killers have indiscriminately taken the lives of women and children in the streets of Israeli towns and cities. Against this background of ongoing and ever increasing terror, came an astounding turnabout in the long-standing policy of Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon. In what is clearly an act of desperation, Mr. Sharon decided that Israel would unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip, and possibly from areas in Judea and Samaria. The prime minister's proposal has all the signs of a man brought to the brink, frustrated by the outrageous behavior of the Palestinian Authority, its blatant flaunting of all civilized norms, its disregard of any legal agreements and the refusal of the world community to disqualify the PA as an entity with any standing. The prime minister would capitulate to the terrorists through despair and fatigue, uprooting dozens of Jewish communities, transferring their inhabitants in the thousands and redeploying to a new and dangerous line of defense. Such matters should not be left to the tired and depressed. The lesson of Lebanon It was Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the extremist Lebanese Muslim terror organization Hezbollah, who described Israel as "a spider-web state." A few years ago, when Israel was fighting in Lebanon, Nasrallah believed that if he just kept up Hezbollah's terrorist strikes against the Jewish state, it would eventually break and retreat. This, indeed, is what happened and, in the year 2000, Israel withdrew from Lebanese territory. That retreat, and the hastiness in which it was carried out, represented a tremendous victory for the Hezbollah, and gave living proof of the truth of Nasrallah's theory - the theory of terror. The Palestinian Authority learned that lesson well Ariel Sharon's announcement of his intention to leave Gaza unilaterally in order to improve Israel's position and establish a new line of defense is decisive proof that terror pays. Such a move would indicate that Israel - at one time the very symbol of consistent refusal to surrender to terror and, in this sense, an example and model for the entire free world - was now signaling to all the terrorist organizations that terror pays. Israel, moreover, would become living proof that it is possible to overcome even a country enjoying overwhelming military superiority - if one simply persists in the mass killing of that country's citizens. Should the terrorists' victory in Spain be topped off with the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the methodology will be set in stone. The threat to the lives of American and British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will increase substantially, because Islamic terror will then have incontrovertible proof that all it need do is redouble its efforts and step up the slaughter in order to defeat the Western democracies. Such a victory for the terrorists in Gaza would be the opening signal for a worldwide terrorist offensive of unprecedented proportions. The extremists will take over It may be safely assumed that if the Israel Defense Forces evacuate Gaza, the most extreme terrorist groups will seize control of the area. Hamas, and perhaps Hezbollah as well, will gain sharply in strength, which will be understood in one way only: that they have succeeded in driving the Israelis out. A shot in the arm of this kind for the extremist organizations will, in effect, put an end to any prospect that a moderate Arab regime would ever take hold, carry out reforms, fight terror and realize President Bush's vision and the Roadmap. Moreover, an Israeli surrender to terror, in the form of a unilateral retreat from the Gaza Strip, would deal a severe blow to the courageous American resolve to fight terror everywhere. The United States would be compelled to invest billions of dollars, and possibly send tens of thousands of additional armed forces to the Middle East, to avert defeat in the War on Terror. The bold and noble effort to recreate the Middle East based on a democratic Iraq will forever be damaged. If the U.S. experiment is able to survive the proposed terror victory, countless years will be added to the task, not to mention the added blood and treasure of the already put-upon American people. A new dimension has been added to the strategic alliance between Israel and the United States. In the world of fundamentalist Islam, Israel is called "the small Satan." In Muslim eyes, the small Satan's surrender to terror would surely pave the way for victory over "the great Satan" - the United States. For this reason, if for no other, the United States must to strengthen Israel's resolve and urge its leaders to stand firm against terror. The level heads in Washington must expose the defeatist policy proposed by Prime Minister Sharon as the ill-conceived byproduct of desperation and fatigue. Professor Arieh Eldad, a brigadier-general (Reserves), has served in the past as chief medical officer of the Israel Defense Forces, and is a member of Israel's Knesset. His party, the National Union, is part of the coalition making up the Sharon government. To Go To Top

ASSESSING THE IRAQ WAR Posted by Barry Rubin, March 25, 2004.

Nothing shows the complexity of international affairs' decisions than does the Iraq war. Most analysis tries to "prove" the war was an outstanding success or terrible failure. But what would be a balanced assessment? Any serious look at the issue must begin by understanding that U.S. leaders acted in good faith in accord with what they perceived to be the best interests of the United States. This does not necessarily mean they were right but does mean they are not the imperialist buffoons which are caricatured in much of the Arab world, Europe, and American "intellectual" circles. So what were their motives? - A new assessment. Crises continually flowed from the Middle East. U.S. attempts at appeasement, ignoring, and peace-making had failed. Seeking a new approach, they concluded that the real roadblock were the Arab world's dictatorial regimes using extremist ideologies to retain power. The September 11 events made strong action necessary to prevent it from happening again. - A new assumption. Arguing that Arabs and Muslims were like other people, they thought that challenging the dictatorships while offering democracy, higher living standards, and human/civil rights would appeal to them. They hoped this strategy would cut the roots of anti-Americanism, extremism, and terrorism. This is all classical liberal doctrine. Now, here's an irony which no one has ever noticed. Don't these concepts hold a striking familiarity to those motivating the Oslo agreements?) If the Bush administration had been Democratic and liberal, these ideas would have been hailed as tremendously progressive and beneficial Having this policy, it should be noted, did not necessitate attacking Iraq. That came about because of several Iraq-specific ideas in addition to this general assessment: - A new prescription. Just voicing such policies, they believed, would have little practical effect. Regimes would merely use force and demagoguery to retain power. In Iraq, at least, then, the regime must be removed in order to unleash moderation and democracy. - The threat assessment. As long as Saddam Hussein stayed in power, he would become a bigger danger to everyone, especially by developing Weapons of Mass Destruction. - Timing: The administration mistakenly believed that Saddam was on the verge of getting Weapons of Mass Destruction and getting itself into a position where it would lose credibility if it did not go to war, it argued that immediate action was necessary. - Pessimism about allies: Precisely because the U.S. government doubted the will of its allies, it assumed that sanctions on Iraq would steadily dwindle and Saddam would soon be free to do as he liked. Here is where the Europeans who opposed the war had a big responsibility in making it happen. Thus, the war had multiple causes: to transform the Middle East, reduce the threat to the region and America, and defeat terrorism and anti-Americanism at its roots. What was wrong with this assessment? As I wrote in my study of U.S.-Iran relations twenty-five years ago, the road to Hell is often paved with good intentions. The administration ignored serious problems in its analysis. Briefly: - The level of opposition in America and Europe was so high that this in itself became a factor. - While the Arab world will eventually be ready for democracy, the difficulty and time span for such a development was seriously underestimated. - Equally underestimated was the power of nationalism, Islamism, and ethnic conflict to shape reactions in Iraq and the region. The war's supporters were too quick to adapt the idea that Middle Eastern politicians would be rational actors and the masses would follow their material interests. - Intelligence failures about Weapons of Mass Destruction. - Poor planning after the fighting, especially dismantling the Iraqi army, slowness in sending relief supplies, and constant changes of strategy. So was the war a mistake or a triumph? That question can only be answered for Bush and his colleagues by the U.S. election, and for the situation as a whole in a year or two when Iraq's future course becomes clearer. At present, a very brief summary looks like this: Positive side: radical states intimidated; Saddam gone; Iraqis are freed from horrible repression. Negative side: terrorist forces revitalized by a new cause; violence in Iraq; deep split in U.S.-Europe relations. Either side can argue just these and other points showing the war was good or bad but the result is quite mixed. The ultimate issues that will determine everything remain: - Will Iraq be better off for the war's having happened or will it dissolve into violence and even civil war? - Will Iraq be the kind of state inspiring others to struggle for democracy or one more proof that this road leads to chaos, justifying the status quo in the Arab world? - Will Bush's general approach be vindicated or so totally delegitimized as to lead to new Western policies that repeat all the older mistakes? Professor Barry Rubin is the Director of The Global Research in International Affairs Center (GLORIA) and Editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal (MERIA) and Editor of Turkish Studies. To Go To Top

WE TRIED APPEASEMENT ONCE BEFORE Posted by IsrAlert, March 25, 2004.

This was written by Mark Steyn and appeared March 23, 2004 as an Opinion piece in the Daily Telegraph ( &sSheet=/opinion/2004/03/23/ixopinion.html) A neighbour of mine refuses to let her boy play with "militaristic" toys. So when a friend gave the l'il tyke a plastic sword and shield, mom mulled it over and then took away the former and allowed him to keep the latter. And for a while, on my drive down to town, I'd pass Junior in the yard playing with his shield, mastering the art of cowering more effectively against unseen blows. That's how the "peace" crowd thinks the West should fight terrorism: eschew the sword, but keep the shield if you absolutely have to. Yesterday, The Telegraph reported that two Greenpeace activists had climbed up to Big Ben to protest at the Iraq war. Don't ask me why Greenpeace is opposed to the liberation of Iraq. It's been marvellous for the eco-system: the marshlands of southern Iraq are now being restored after decades of Saddamite devastation. Nevertheless, the Greenpeace guys shinned up St Stephen's Tower, just as a couple of months before that a Mirror reporter blagged his way into a servants' gig at Buckingham Palace just in time for the Bush visit, and a couple of months before that an Osama lookalike gatecrashed Prince William's party. History repeats itself: farce, farce, farce, but sooner or later tragedy is bound to kick in. The inability of the state to secure even the three highest-profile targets in the realm - the Queen, her heir, her Parliament - should remind us that a defensive war against terrorism will ensure terrorism. Tony Blair understands that. Few other European leaders do. For more than a week now, American friends have asked me why 3/11 wasn't 9/11. I think it comes down to those two words you find on Holocaust memorials all over Europe: "Never again." Fine-sounding, but claptrap. The never-again scenario comes round again every year. This very minute in North Korea there are entire families interned in concentration camps. Concentration camps with gas chambers. Think Kim Jong-Il's worried that the civilised world might mean something by those two words? Ha-ha. How did a pledge to the memory of the dead decay into hollow moral preening? When an American Jew stands at the gates of a former concentration camp and sees the inscription "Never again", he assumes it's a commitment never again to tolerate genocide. Alain Finkielkraut, a French thinker, says that those two words to a European mean this: never again the fuhrers and duces who enabled such genocide. "Never again power politics. Never again nationalism. Never again Auschwitz" - a slightly different set of priorities. And over the years a revulsion against any kind of "power politics" has come to trump whatever revulsion post-Auschwitz Europe might feel about mass murder. That's why the EU let hundreds of thousands of Bosnians and Croats die on its borders until the Americans were permitted to step in. That's why the fact that thousands of Iraqis are no longer being murdered by their government is trivial when weighed against the use of Anglo-American military force required to effect their freedom. "Never again" has evolved to mean precisely the kind of passivity that enabled the Holocaust first time round. "Neville again" would be a better slogan. Among all the foolish apologists for the murderers of Madrid, it was the Reverend Mark Beach who happened to catch my eye. Preaching at St Andrew's Church, Rugby, nine days ago, Mr Beach said: "The people of Madrid are reaping the fruits of our intolerance towards those of different races and religions. The war in Iraq was never going to solve the problems of that region but instead inflamed Arab people all over the world to new heights of anger towards the West." God Almighty. The sooner the Potemkin Church of England is sold for scrap the better. Almost every word of Mr Beach's is false; there are mosques in the English Midlands, but no Christian churches in Saudi Arabia. Its official tourism commission lists among prohibited categories of visitor "Jewish persons". It is precisely because the West is so open to different races that Islamist bombers can blend in on Madrid commuter trains, and the Tube and the Paris Metro, in a way that, say, a team of blond, blue-eyed Aryan bombers certainly couldn't in Damascus. The war in Iraq has actually solved quite a few problems in that region, and Arab people all over the world aren't inflamed - the allegedly seething Arab street is as somnolent as ever. In 2002 and 2003, I took a couple of two-legged, mini fact-finding trips - first to western Europe, then on to the Middle East. And both times I was struck by the way the Muslims of Araby were far less inflamed than those in the alienated immigrant ghettoes around Paris and Amsterdam. Life in the West, exposure to the self-loathing platitudes of Anglican clerics, these are the sort of things that seem to inflame Muslims. Many of the wackiest Islamists from Richard Reid to Zacarias Moussaoui to Metin Kaplan are products of the enervated Europe symbolised by the Rev Mark Beach. A century ago, in The Riddle Of The Sands, the first great English spy novel, Erskine Childers has his yachtsman, Davies, try to persuade the Foreign Office wallah Carruthers to take seriously the possibility of German naval marauders in the Fresian Islands: "Follow the parallel of a war on land. People your mountains with a daring and resourceful race, who possess an intimate knowledge of every track and bridlepath, who operate in small bands, travel light, and move rapidly. See what an immense advantage such guerrillas possess over an enemy which clings to beaten tracks, moves in large bodies, slowly, and does not 'know the country'." Davies wants Carruthers to apply the old principles to new forms of warfare. The Islamists are doing that. Their most effective guerrillas aren't in the Hindu Kush, where it is the work of moments to drop a daisycutter on the mighty Pashtun warrior. They're travelling light on the bridle-paths of Europe - the small cells that operate in the nooks and crannies of a free society, while politicians cling to the beaten tracks - old ideas, multicultural pieties and a general hope that things will turn out for the best. That's the drawback of sticking with the "Neville again" routine: appeasement is even less effective when the faraway country of which you know little is your own. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

HISTORY IS WATCHING Posted by Boris Celser, March 25, 2004.

This was written by Jack Engelhard, author of the novel "Indecent Proposal" and the award-winning memoir "Escape From Mount Moriah". His novel "The Days of the Bitter End" is being prepared for movie production. This article appeared yesterday in Arutz-Sheva and is archived at(http://www.IsraelNN.com/author.php?id=18) They were on the wrong side of history, and today, and forever, their names live in infamy - Hitler, Goebbels, Mengele, Eichmann, and thousands, even millions more like them. You can run, but you can't hide, as per Joe Louis. Everything (to borrow a line from Pirke Avos) is recorded in a Book. Today, your words and deeds are also recorded by the memory of the Internet and television. If you are a believer, then say this: God is watching. If you are something otherwise, then say this: History is watching. Those who support and champion murderers are murderers themselves, and they will be recorded and remembered as such. The Book of History is being written for Kofi Annan, who runs the most (food for oil, anyone?) corrupt organization in the world, otherwise known as the United Nations. Kofi, who never met a Palestinian Arab terrorist he didn't like, was quick to condemn the very lawful and very justified assassination of Yassin, a mass murderer second only to Yasser (yes, sir, that's Kofi's baby) Arafat. History is watching the Human Stain, better known as the European Union, which came quickly out of the gate to bash Israel for Israel's first sign of a pulse. Here's Javier Solana, EU's foreign policy chief: "These types of actions do not contribute to dialogue and peace in the region. The actions of today are bad news for the peace process." Peace process, Mr. Solana? What rock have you been hiding under? Bad news? Sit down one day and I'll tell you bad news, beginning with (the gratefully dead) Yassin's thugs packing a 10-year-old kid, Abdullah Koran, with explosives to carry the world's daily dose of 9/11 into Israel. Canada, of dubious moral weight when it comes to the Jews and thus to Israel, has now spoken up against Israel's action. And here's a country that's been remembered in a book by Canadian authors Irving Abella and Harold Troper titled None Is Too Many. Where did that phrase come from? From a high Canadian official who was responding to this question: How many Jews fleeing Hitler will Canada accept? This was his answer: "None is too many." Previously, Prime Minister MacKenzie King spoke of Hitler as being "sweet" and perhaps "a savior of the world." This, too, is one for the books. As is the U.S. State Department, which is "troubled". But the U.S. State Department has always been so "troubled" by Israel that its "troubles" fill volumes, entire libraries. Perhaps, and this is just a guess, Israel had a right to be "troubled" by the man who invented suicide bombing, the most depraved form of warfare in the history of what we laughingly call Civilization. The Book of History has already recorded France, which handed over 72,000 Jews for Nazi extermination. But here's a new page, written by France's Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin: "France condemns the action against Sheik Yassin. Such acts only fuel the cycle of violence." Yes, Dominique, just like the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a cycle of violence, and just like a knock on the door by a gendarme was a cycle of violence back in the 1940s. Those tens of thousands rioting in the streets of Gaza City may be Men With No Names to us, but Someone is watching and recording their four-year orgy of bloodshed. (Don't these people have jobs?) History is watching Egypt, whose leader, Hosni Mubarak, has called off "peace efforts" due to Israel's chutzpah in taking out Mr. Killing Field. Those Gaza tunnels that keep feeding Jihad bombs from out of Egypt to the likes of the still-in-business Yasser Arafat and the out-of-business Ahmed Yassin - is that what we mean these days by "peace efforts", Mr. Mubarak? Hanan Ashrawi is already in the books for her support of mass murder, as is her fellow traveler Abdul Rahman, so there isn't much more to add. Their deeds and actions are recorded for posterity alongside Haman's. But TV keeps coming up with new Talking Heads to fill the empty pages of history. Here's one of those new ones, and a young one at that, whose total ignorance is jaw-dropping. She goes by the name Randi Rhodes and here she is on CNN explaining to the world that all of terrorism, here, there, and everywhere, stems from Israel. It's Israel's fault. Young Ms. Rhodes is a talk show host for an up-and-coming "liberal" program. Enough said about Ms. Rhodes and the New Liberals, whose script is bypassing the Book and heading straight for TV movie-of-the-week under the title "Dumb and Dumber Part Two". In the aftermath, virtually all of our commentators had the same thought and the same fear. Will Arafat be next? From the mouth of (Yul Brynner's) Pharaoh: So let it be written, so let it be done. To Go To Top

THE ABUSE OF INNOCENCE Posted by David Frankfurter, March 25, 2004.

The use of children in the Arafat war of terror has reached an all time low. It would seem that a 14 year old, a little "slow" in his thinking and not well accepted by his peers, was so impressed by his teacher's description of the virgins awaiting him in heaven and the NIS 100 (about $US 22) that would be given to his mother, that he agreed to don a suicide belt and attempt to kill some Israelis. Alert soldiers managed to prevent a disaster. The actual arrest was broadcast on Israeli television. It was heart-wrenching to see the boy cut the suicide belt off himself with scissors that the soldiers sent him using a small robot. It was pathetic seeing how afraid he was that he would actually be killed. It was infuriating to think of the callous exploitation. This case comes hot on the heels of an attempt to use an 11 year old, who earned a living as a porter, helping the elderly and infirm carry parcels through a checkpoint, to carry a bomb past the guards. And when he was discovered, the brave terrorists tried to blow him and the surrounding soldiers up from their hiding place, using the cellular telphone they had attached to the bomb. This callous use of children is not new. The idea of using children as 'publicity suicide' can be traced directly to Arafat. When he urges children to "Jihad, Jihad" he holds up the ideal of a young Palestinian Arab poster boy killed while threatening Israeli troops with a sling-shot. Terrorists have been frequently photographed firing from a position surrounded by children. When the Israelis return fire, and children are killed, this helps the Palestinian Arab propaganda machine. Terrorists hide out and put their weapons factories in residential areas. Children have been sent on suicide missions, attempting to infiltrate Israeli settlements, throwing pipe-bombs...the list is as long as it is sad. For a short while there was a respite. During Abu Mazen's short Prime-Ministerial stint, he issued orders to stop using children in this way - and it stopped. Arafat continued the incitement, but in the field the wishes of the Prime Minister were honoured. Abu Mazen had long criticised the use of children in this callous manner. He complained in the Arab press (www.idf.il/english/announcements/2002/june/mazen.stm) - citing 40 cases of children having their arms blown off trying to throw pipe-bombs at Jewish targets - in exchange for $1. Nor is this phenomenon unique to the Palestinian Arabs. Last April, the Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml? xml=/news/2003/04/13/wbomb13.xml) reported of suicide belts being found in a Baghdad classroom. Sadly, human rights organisations are so busy focusing on the one and only world evil - Israel - that these basic abuses of human rights go unnoticed. And when the epithet of 'international law' is bandied around, no-one thinks of the Geneva conventions which protect civilians by demanding that combatants wear uniforms and keep the battle away from children and civilians. In fact, a joint statement by Physicians for Human Rights - Israel and Defence for Children International (Palestinian Section) and the Gaza Community Mental Health Program decried the use of children in the conflict... and then went on to focus on the breach of the child's rights perpetrated by the IDF and Israeli media in publishing details of the child who was used to smuggle bombs through the checkpoint. An interesting set of priorities. Given that nothing to date has shocked the world into forcing the Palestinian Arabs to keep children out of the conflict, wouldn't one expect them to encourage the only thing which seems to have prompted a reaction? I urge you to turn to human rights organisations, and ask them to stop blindly demonizing Israel, and start to focus on the rights of children - both Jewish and Arab - to grow up in an environment free from fear of the next terrorist attack, and free from the hate indoctrination that is prolonging this conflict. David Frankfurter is a writer on the Middle East conflict. He sends "Letters from Israel" emails to subscribers. Contact him at David.Frankfurter@iname.com To Go To Top

JOE MCCAIN ON JEWS Posted by Israel Ben-Ami, March 25, 2004.

The following is an essay written for a Jewish women's organizatiion by Joe McCain, brother of Senator John McCain. Senator John There is a lot of worry popping up in the media just now - "Can Israel Survive?" Don't worry about it. It relates to something that Palestinians, the Arabs, and perhaps most Americans don't realize - the Jews are never going quietly again. Never. And if the world doesn't come to understand that, then millions of Arabs are going to die. It's as simple as that. Throughout the history of the world, the most abused, kicked-around race of people have been the Jews. Not just during the holocaust of World War II, but for thousands of years. They have truly been "The Chosen People" in a terrible and tragic sense. The Bible story of Egypt's enslavement of the Jews is not just a story, it is history, if festooned with theological legend and heroic epics. In 70 A.D. the Romans, which had for a long time tolerated the Jews - even admired them as 'superior' to other vassals - tired of their truculent demands for independence and decided on an early "Solution" to the Jewish problem. Jerusalem was sacked and reduced to near rubble, Jewish resistance was pursued and crushed by the implacable Roman War Machine - see'Masada'. And thus began The Diaspora, the dispersal of Jews throughout the rest of the world. Their homeland destroyed, their culture crushed, they looked desperately for the few niches in a hostile world where they could be safe. That safety was fragile, and often subject to the whims of moody hosts. The words 'pogrom', 'ghetto', and 'anti-Semitism' come from this treatment of the first mono-theistic people. Throughout Europe, changing times meant sometimes tolerance, sometimes even warmth for the Jews, but eventually it meant hostility, then malevolence. There is not a country in Europe or Western Asia that at one time or another has not decided to lash out against the children of Moses, sometimes by whim, sometimes by manipulation. Winston Churchill calls Edward I one of England's very greatest kings. It was under his rule in the late 1200's that Wales and Cornwall were hammered into the British crown, and Scotland and Ireland were invaded and occupied. He was also the first European monarch to set up a really effective administrative bureaucracy, surveyed and censused his kingdom, established laws and political divisions. But he also embraced the Jews. Actually Edward didn't embrace Jews so much as he embraced their money. For the English Jews had acquired wealth - understandable, because this people that could not own land or office, could not join most of the trades and professions, soon found out that money was a very good thing to accumulate. Much harder to take away than land or a store, was a hidden sock of gold and silver coins. Ever resourceful, Edward found a way - he borrowed money from the Jews to finance imperial ambitions in Europe, especially France. The loans were almost certainly not made gladly, but how do you refuse your King? Especially when he is 'Edward the Hammer'. Then, rather than pay back the debt, Edward simply expelled the Jews. Edward was especially inventive - he did this twice. After a time, he invited the Jews back to their English homeland, borrowed more money, then expelled them again. Most people do not know that Spain was one of the early entrants into The Renaissance. People from all over the world came to Spain in the late medieval period. All were welcome - Arabs, Jews, other Europeans. The University of Salamanca was one of the great centers of learning in the world - scholars of all nations, all fields came to Salamanca to share their knowledge and their ideas. But in 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella, having driven the last of Moors from the Spanish Shield, were persuaded by the righteous fundamentalists of the time to announce "The Act of Purification". A series of steps were taken in which all Jews and Arabs and other non-Christians were expelled from the country, or would face the tools and the torches of The Inquisition. From this 'cleansing' come the Sephardic Jews - as opposed to the Ashkenazis of Eastern Europe. In Eastern Europe, the sporadic violence and brutality against Jews are common knowledge. 'Fiddler' without the music and the folksy humor. At times of fury, no accommodation by the Jew was good enough, no profile low enough, no village poor enough or distant enough. From these come the near-steady flow of Jews to the United States. And despite the disdain of the Jews by most 'American' Americans, they came to grab the American Dream with both hands, and contributed everything from new ideas of enterprise in retail and entertainment to becoming some of our finest physicians and lawyers. The modern United States, in spite of itself, IS The United States in part because of its Jewish blood. Then the Nazi Holocaust - the corralling, sorting, orderly eradication of millions of the people of Moses. Not something that other realms in other times didn't try to do, by the way, the Germans were just more organized and had better murder technology. I stood in the center of Dachau for an entire day, about 15 years ago, trying to comprehend how this could have happened. I had gone there on a side trip from Munich, vaguely curious about this Dachau. I soon became engulfed in the enormity of what had occurred there nestled in this middle and working class neighborhood. How could human beings do this to other human beings, hear their cries, their pleas, their terror, their pain, and continue without apparently even wincing? I no longer wonder. At some times, some places, ANY sect of the human race is capable of horrors against their fellow man, whether a member of the Waffen SS, a Serbian sniper, a Turkish policeman in 1920's Armenia, a Mississippi Klansman. Because even in the United States not all was a Rose Garden. For a long time Jews had quotas in our universities and graduate schools. Only so many Jews could be in a medical or law school at one time. Jews were disparaged widely. I remember as a kid Jewish jokes told without a wince - "Why do Jews have such big noses?" Well, now the Jews have a homeland again. A place that is theirs. And that's the point. It doesn't matter how many times the United States and European powers try to rein in Israel, if it comes down to survival of its nation, its people, they will fight like no lioness has ever fought to save her cubs. They will fight with a ferocity, a determination, and a skill, that will astound us. And many will die, mostly their attackers, I believe. If there were a macabre historical betting parlor, my money would be on the Israelis to be standing at the end. As we killed the kamikazes and the Wehrmacht soldaten of World War II, so will the Israelis kill their suicidal attackers, until there are not enough to torment them. The irony goes unnoticed - while we are hammering away to punish those who brought the horrors of last September here, we restrain the Israelis from the same retaliation. Not the same thing, of course - We are We, They are They. While we mourn and seethe at September 11th, we don't notice that Israel has a September 11th sometimes every day. We may not notice, but it doesn't make any difference. And it doesn't make any difference whether you are pro-Israeli or you think Israel is the bully of the Middle East. If it comes to where a new holocaust looms - with or without the concurrence of the United States and Europe - Israel will lash out without pause or restraint at those who would try to annihilate their country. The Jews will not go quietly again. To Go To Top

WHEN IS THE RIGHT  TIME TO KILL TERRORIST LEADERS? Posted by Steven Plaut, March 25, 2004.

The UN Human Rights Commission, which has never condemned the Palestinian nazis for their mass murders and suicide bombing atrocities, including when they mass murder children, has now taken a courageous decision and has condemned Israel for human rights violations because it assassinated the genocidal Sheikh Yassin with the blood of hundres of Israeli civilians on his paws. The usual apologists for terrorists and the anti-Israel mob are bellowing that even if killing the Nazi sheikh was ok, NOW was the wrong time to do so. WHy? Well, every time Israel actually uses its army half-heartedly against the nazis, the Left and the Bash-Israel mob insists that the Arab world was just on the brink of making peace with Israel but that Israel's armed action messed things up. I cannot recall a single case where Israel used armed might where the response was not the same. We were almost there, just on the brink of peace breaking out, but Israeli trigger-happy violence messed things up. Well, here is a nice piece. Its point is that there is NEVER a WRONG time to kill nazi terrorists: It was written by Michael Freund who served as Deputy Director of Communications and Policy Planning in the Prime Minister's Office under former premier Binyamin Netanyahu. It is entitled "The Long Sword of Jewish Justice" and it appeared yesterday in the Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com). The world was made a whole lot safer this past Monday, when Israeli helicopters eliminated Hamas arch-terrorist Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in a pre-dawn strike in Gaza. The removal of this villain, whose warped ideology brought about the deaths of hundreds of innocents, was a heroic and just act, one that should be celebrated as an important milestone in the global war on terror. Despite his innocent demeanor, Yassin was a monster, an evil man hell-bent on sowing death and destruction. As head of Hamas, he spent the past decade disseminating hate, dispatching suicide bombers and targeting innocent Israeli men, women and children. Don't fall prey to the media's attempts to label him a "spiritual leader". There is nothing spiritual about a mass murderer of Jews and there is nothing holy about someone who sent Palestinian children to detonate themselves as human bombs. Yassin was a menace both to Israel and the West. Under his tutelage, Hamas carried out some 425 terror attacks in just the past three and a half years, killing 377 Israelis and injuring over 2,000 others. He brazenly declared that "all Israeli people are targets" (The Washington Times, June 12, 2003), and insisted that, "All of Israel, Tel Aviv included, is occupied Palestine. So we're not actually targeting civilians" (St. Petersburg Times, August 11, 2001). Yassin rejected Israel's right to exist and repeatedly called for the destruction of the Jewish state. Just three months ago, in a December 2003 interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, he denied the possibility of co-existence, telling his interviewer that if the Jews insisted on having a country of their own, "They could set up a state in Europe". Less than two years ago, shortly after Palestinian terrorists carried out a bomb attack at the Hebrew University, Yassin told the Italian daily Corriere Della Sera that, "Israel was born in violence and it will die in violence. The Jews have no right to the land of Palestine". Yassin was an equal-opportunity hater, directing his venom not only at Israel, but also at the West. Last year, after the US invasion of Iraq had begun, he repeatedly called on the Iraqi people to carry out suicide attacks against British and American forces. At a March 28, 2003 rally in Gaza, Yassin urged Iraqis to "continue their jihad, and to use all possible means to achieve victory against the British and American enemies". Though they would never admit it, the Palestinians themselves will also benefit from Yassin's demise, if only because he can no longer spread his poisonous and lethal philosophy among them. But despite his horrific record, much of the world was quick to condemn the killing of Yassin, with everyone from UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to Kofi Annan to the Japanese government coming down hard on Israel for having the nerve to defend itself. But let them say what they wish, because it matters not one whit. The fact is that we can all take pride in this bold demonstration of sovereign Jewish power, in the ability of the State of Israel to hunt down and punish those who would follow in Hitler's footsteps. Israel's critics must finally realize that the era of pogroms is over, that the Jew will no longer cower in fear from his adversaries, or seek protection from others. We have returned to the world stage, we have every right to defend ourselves, and that is what we shall do. The long arm of Jewish justice took care of Sheikh Yassin, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon deserves nothing but praise for having the courage and the good sense to do so. The elimination of Sheikh Yassin is on par with the capture of Saddam Hussein and the removal of Taliban leader Mullah Omar from power. It marks a turning point in the war on terror, the purging of yet another fanatical chieftain from the world stage. And it also signifies Israel's determination, like that of Washington, to confront its enemies and take the war to their own backyards, if need be. Let the cynics and naysayers grumble all they wish. There is never a "wrong" time to eliminate a killer of Jews, or to strike a forceful blow against terrorist thugs. Whatever the diplomatic or security fallout might be, Israel has done the right thing, at the right time, and to the right person. On Monday morning, shortly after Yassin was killed, his associate Ismail Haniyeh confirmed his death, telling reporters that he had always hoped to die as a "martyr". "This is the moment Sheikh Yassin dreamed about", he said. This is one case, at least, where we can all be grateful that the Hamas leader's dream has finally come true, courtesy of the IDF. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

EMERGENCY HELP FOR THE ARBEL FAMILY Posted by Moshe Feiglin, March 25, 2004.

Dear Friends, Pesach is rapidly approaching and families are busy cleaning and preparing for the holiday. Although this is a difficult task, MOST families do it with joy and anticipation since a WONDERFUL holiday is headed their way. I emphasize the word "MOST" since SOME families cannot experience this happiness. One of those families lives in the beautiful Israeli town called, Talmon. Their name is Arbel. On January 13th (the 20th of Tevet) - a little over 2 months ago - Ro'ee Arbel was brutally murdered by followers of Yassir Arafat and Sheikh Yassin. He was just 5 minutes from home... Ro'ee was a man of Torah and practice. He graduated a Hesder Yeshiva, was an IDF combat officer and had a B.S. degree in Engineering. Two months before his murder, his lovely wife Hagit (may she live to 120) gave birth to TRIPLETS (2 girls and a boy)! This was in addition to 2 children they already had. The triplets were born prematurely and have been watched carefully by doctors. Recently, the girls went home and thank G-d, Tal and Emunah are doing fine. The boy, named after his father - Chananel Ro'ee - is suffering from a medical problem in his digestive system and is scheduled to undergo a complex surgery very soon. Ro'ee's parents, David and Nechama, live in Kedumim and have been active in the "settlement" movement for 28 years! What a tragedy that BUILDERS of the land had to become BURIERS. Ro'ee was buried close to Talmon in the cemetery of Dolev. Every year, Manhigut Yehudit decides on ONE family to help before Pesach. Unfortunately, there are MANY horrific stories and SCORES of people that need assistance and we hope and pray that Hashem will help each and every one of them. Nevertheless, it has become our "custom" to find ONE family that we can directly impact with some serious assistance. Last year, we helped Livnat Ozeri whose husband, Nati, was brutally murdered on Tu B'Shevat and whose home on "Hilltop 26" was subsequently destroyed by the Sharon-Netanyahu government. This year we would very much like to help Hagit Arbel and her 5 children. Please mail your tax deductible checks ASAP to: Manhigut Yehudit PO Box 241 Cedarhurst, NY 11516-0241 IMPORTANT: Please write "ARBEL" in the check's memo section or on a note in the envelope. We don't want the money mixed up with anything else. Thank you. With love of Israel, Moshe Feiglin Shmuel Sackett Michael Fuah Motti Karpel and the entire Manhigut Yehudit team Moshe Feiglin established Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership), a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. Feiglin has emphatically said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. The Manhigut Yehudit website address is http://www.manhigut.org. To Go To Top

TERRORISM TO BE FOUGHT OR ENCOURAGED? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 25, 2004.

The Israeli assassination of Sheikh Yassin has brought out all the phony cliches: "revenge," "moderate" Arabs, "peace process," and "oh but we all oppose terrorism." It is not that the pundits who reiterate these stock phrases are mentally incapable of realizing their falsity, but that these phrases are a convenient to lull the drive for survival in my fellow Jews, many of whom fail to realize their falsity. A country cannot proclaim itself a guardian of civilization while simultaneously appeasing the enemies of civilization. France considers itself the standard-bearer of civilization and the upholder of international political morality. It declares its opposition to terrorism. It also opposes Israeli counter-terrorism. What a contradiction! One cannot logically oppose both terrorism, which is the deliberate attacking of civilians, and simultaneously oppose counter-terrorism, which is the liquidating of terrorists such as Yassin, whose hunting down is a requirement of international law. French officials offer an ostensibly practical reason for opposing that Sheikh's assassination. They claim it hampers the "peace process." The theory of this "peace process" is that peace can be attained by a diplomatic agreement made during a temporary armistice by terrorists, after which, as the Arabs have vowed, the armed struggle would resume. The agreement would be for the Jews to give up their strong claims to Yesha, the heart of the Jewish homeland, and for the Arabs, to be granted their weak claims to Yesha. Since the Arabs claim the whole area, including Israel, a rational and honest person would not consider such diplomacy the end of the conflict but its stimulation. It would stimulate conflict by making the Arab aggressors stronger and the Israeli object of that aggression weaker. Should that be so difficult to understand that almost the whole world cannot fathom its logic? Are we to suppose that that terrorist chieftain and his two hundred thousand mourners are part of a peace process? Are we to suppose that his allies in the PLO and the millions of Palestinian Arabs who endorse his goals are part of a peace process? Who among them stands for peace? That is, which of them recognizes the Jewish people's right to keep their own state and to deny Islamic rule over it? None has ever come forward to make that proposition and lived to repeat it. It is difficult to imagine what France means by a peace process, while the Arabs are making war and conducting diplomatic efforts to deprive Israel of the strategic territory needed to resist this war. Is Israel supposed not to defend itself in this war, while the US defends itself in a similar war? Perhaps the real object of opposition to Israeli counter-terrorism is to appease the Arabs regardless of how many Jews are killed as a result. Alternatively, the real objective is to get Jews killed, their sovereignty destroyed, and their voice that may shame the moral pretensions of Europeans and the US, stilled. "Peace process" is a synonym for antisemitism. In order to pretend that there is a peace process, the West makes believe that there are "moderate" Arab states, by which is meant Arabs who believe in peaceful co-existence. Older readers may remember the Soviet profession of "peaceful co-existence." By that the Soviet aggressors meant to give the impression of being what they called themselves, "peace loving." "Peaceful co-existence" was a code phrase for getting the West to allow itself to be whittled down by diplomacy and revolution. The Soviets taught that trick to the Arabs. Egypt and Jordan are called "moderate" Arab states. Moderate? Egypt allows arms smuggling to Gaza. Both use diplomacy and UN membership to champion the terrorists against Israel. They don't want Israel to last. Their people hate Israel and the Jewish people. Government-controlled media and curriculum and the mosques see to that. Some commentators try to dissuade Israel from liquidating terrorist leaders by suggesting that Israel gets no safer from doing so. They cite Arab statements about taking "revenge." Their logic is that if terrorists get away with genocidal attacks, they may drop that successful method. That is not the way of the world. A corollary is that reducing the numbers of trained and organized terrorists would spur more attacks than those fulltime terrorists have already plotted. One would have thought that fewer trained terrorists and reduced infrastructure support would mean less terrorism. The concept of "revenge" is misrepresented. Every time the Arab aggressors suffer casualties, they threaten revenge. It is possible that some more freelancers might be propelled into attempting probably unsuccessful terrorism, motivated by the publicity that the media gave to the sheikh's execution. We need to hold the media accountable for encouraging radicalism. The impression is bruited that if not for the assassination, Hamas and its allies would not strive to murder Israelis. Nonsense, again! The terrorists constantly plot murder. That is what professional terrorists do. Hamas and Fatah constantly build weapons and attack. Few in the media made that clear. Journalism does not enlighten audiences. There is some sentiment for sparing terrorist leaders such as Yassin, because they are the leaders. The logic of that is that some immunity should be given to a mastermind of terrorism. Does a murderer's rise in a hierarchy of evil deserve a privilege from the victims? In the US, criminal lackeys my gain some immunity if they turn in their masterminds. The greater the font of evil, the less privileged it should be. Since Yassin was both skilled and inspiring in his plotting, he above all was a primary target. Terrorist leaders should have to spend more time hiding than conniving. The way for Israel (and the US) to become safer is to liquidate first all competent terrorist leaders and then liquidate or imprison for life all other terrorists. Israel should have executed Yassin when it had captured him long ago, certainly not released him, and at least have assassinated him a few years ago. There is speculation that Arafat is next. Good idea. It would bring some justice to this world. Let us call Arafat "an obstacle to peace." Hundreds of armed followers of Yassin marched in Gaza. They made a legitimate target. Could Israeli jets have strafed them? Those mourners complained about his death, but he lived by the sword. The Islamists can "dish it out but they can't take it." Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

FIGHTING TERROR: DO'S AND DON'TS FOR A SUPERPOWER Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 25, 2004.

This essay is Chapter III. of Ralph Peters' new book, "When Devils Walk the Earth." It is a must-read. 1. Be feared! 2. Identify the type of terrorists you face, and know your enemy as well as you possibly can. Although tactics may be similar, strategies for dealing with practical vs. apocalyptic terrorists can differ widely. Practical terrorists may have legitimate grievances that deserve consideration, although their methods cannot be tolerated. Apocalyptic terrorists, no matter their rhetoric, seek your destruction and must be killed to the last man. The apt metaphor is cancer: you cannot hope for success if you only cut out part of the tumor. For the apocalyptic terrorist, evading your efforts can easily be turned into a public triumph. Our bloodiest successes will create far fewer terrorists and sympathizers than our failures. 3. Do not be afraid to be powerful. Cold War-era gambits of proportionate response and dialog may have some utility in dealing with practical terrorists, but they are counter-productive in dealing with apocalyptic terrorists. Our great strengths are wealth and raw power. When we fail to bring those strengths to bear, we contribute to our own defeat. For a superpower to think small, which has been our habit across the last decade, at least, is self-defeating folly. Our responses to terrorist acts should make the world gasp! 4. Speak bluntly. Euphemisms are interpreted as weakness by our enemies and mislead the American people. Speak of killing terrorists and destroying their organizations. Timid speech leads to timid actions. Explain when necessary, but do not apologize. Expressions of regret are never seen as a mark of decency by terrorists or their supporters, but only as a sign that our will is faltering. Blame the terrorists as the root cause whenever operations have unintended negative consequences. Never go on the rhetorical defensive. 5. Concentrate on winning the propaganda war where it is winnable. Focus on keeping or enhancing the support from allies and well-disposed clients, but do not waste an inordinate amount of effort trying to win unwinnable hearts and minds. Convince hostile populations through victory. 6. Do not be drawn into a public dialog with terrorists, especially not with apocalyptic terrorists. You cannot win. You legitimize the terrorists by addressing them even through a third medium, and their extravagant claims will resound more successfully on their own home ground than anything you can say. Ignore absurd accusations, and never let the enemy's claims slow or sidetrack you. The terrorist wants you to react, and your best means of unbalancing him and his plan is to ignore his accusations. 7. Avoid planning creep. Within our vast bureaucratic system, too many voices compete for attention and innumerable agendas, often selfish and personal - intrude on any attempt to act decisively. Focus on the basic mission: the destruction of the terrorists with all the moral, intellectual and practical rigor you can bring to bear. All other issues, from future nation building, to alliance consensus, to humanitarian concerns are secondary. 8. Maintain resolve. Especially in the Middle East and Central Asia, experts and diplomats will always present you with a multitude of good reasons for doing nothing, or for doing too little (or for doing exactly the wrong thing). Fight as hard as you can within the system to prevent diplomats from gaining influence over the strategic campaign. Although their intentions are often good, our diplomats and their obsolete strategic views are the terrorist's unwitting allies and diplomats are extremely jealous of military success and military authority in their region (where their expertise is never as deep or subtle as they believe it to be). Beyond the problem with our diplomats, the broader forces of bureaucratic entropy are an internal threat. The counter-terrorist campaign must be not only resolute, but constantly self-rejuvenating in ideas, techniques, military and inter-agency combinations, and sheer energy. Old hands must be stimulated constantly by new ideas. 9. When in doubt, hit harder than you think necessary. Success will be forgiven. Even the best-intentioned failure will not. When military force is used against terrorist networks, it should be used with such power that it stuns even our allies. We must get over our cowardice in means. While small-scale raids and other knife point operations are useful against individual targets, broader operations should be overwhelming. Of course, targeting limitations may inhibit some efforts but whenever possible, maximum force should be used in simultaneous operations at the very beginning of a campaign. Do not hesitate to supplement initial target lists with extensive bombing attacks on nothing if they can increase the initial psychological impact. Demonstrate power whenever you can. Show; don't tell! 10. Whenever legal conditions permit, kill terrorists on the spot (do not give them a chance to surrender, if you can help it). Contrary to academic wisdom, the surest way to make a martyr of a terrorist is to capture, convict and imprison him, leading to endless efforts by sympathizers to stage kidnappings, hijacking and other events intended to liberate the imprisoned terrorist(s). This is war, not law enforcement. 11. Never listen to those who warn that ferocity on our part reduces us to the level of the terrorists. That is the argument of the campus, not of the battlefield, and it insults America's service members and the American people. Historically, we have proven, time after time, that we can do a tough, dirty job for our country without any damage to our nation's moral fabric (Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not interfere with American democracy, values or behavior). 12. Spare and protect innocent civilians whenever possible, but: do not let the prospect of civilian casualties interfere with ultimate mission accomplishment. This is a fight to protect the American people, and we must do so whatever the cost, or the price in American lives may be devastating. In a choice between them, and us the choice is always us. 13. Do not allow the terrorists to hide behind religion. Apocalyptic terrorists cite religion as a justification for attacking us; in turn, we cannot let them hide behind religious holidays, taboos, strictures or even sacred terrain. We must establish a consistent reputation for relentless pursuit and destruction of those who kill our citizens. Until we do this, our hesitation will continue to strengthen our enemy's ranks and his resolve. 14. Do not allow third parties to broker a peace, a truce, or any pause in operations. One of the most difficult challenges in fighting terrorism on a global scale is the drag produced by nervous allies. We must be single-minded. The best thing we can do for our allies in the long-term is to be so resolute and so strong that they value their alliance with us all the more. We must recognize the innate strength of our position and stop allowing regional leaders with counterproductive local agendas to subdue or dilute our efforts. 15. Don't flinch. If an operation goes awry and friendly casualties are unexpectedly high, immediately bolster morale and the military's image by striking back swiftly in a manner that inflicts the maximum possible number of casualties on the enemy and his supporters. Hit back as graphically as possible, to impress upon the local and regional players that you weren't badly hurt or deterred in the least. 16. Do not worry about alienating already-hostile populations. - (Added by EAW: "or anti-war senators aspiring to become president of ourq great nation.") 17. Whenever possible, humiliate your enemy in the eyes of his own people. Do not try to use reasonable arguments against him. Shame him publicly, in any way you can. Create doubt where you cannot excite support. Most apocalyptic terrorists, especially, come from cultures of male vanity. Disgrace them at every opportunity. Done successfully, this both degrades them in the eyes of their followers and supporters, and provokes the terrorist to respond, increasing his vulnerability. 18. If the terrorists hide, strike what they hold dear, using clandestine means and, whenever possible, foreign agents to provoke them to break cover and react. Do not be squeamish. Your enemy is not. Subtlety is not superpower strength but the raw power to do that, which is necessary, is our great advantage. We forget that, while the world may happily chide or accuse us-or complain of our inhumanity-no one can stop us if we maintain our strength of will. Much of the world will complain no matter what we do. Hatred of America is the default position of failed individuals and failing states around the world, in every civilization, and there is nothing we can do to change their minds. We refuse to understand how much of humanity will find excuses for evil, so long as the evil strikes those who are more successful than the apologists themselves. This is as true of American academics, whose eagerness to declare our military efforts a failure is unflagging, or European clerics, who still cannot forgive America's magnanimity at the end of World War II, as it is of unemployed Egyptians or Pakistanis. The psychologically marginalized are at least as dangerous as the physically deprived. 19. Do not allow the terrorists sanctuary in any country, at any time, under any circumstances. Counter-terrorist operations must, above all, be relentless. This does not necessarily mean that military operations will be constantly underway sometimes it will be surveillance efforts, or deception plans, or operations by other agencies. But the overall effort must never pause for breath. We must be faster, more resolute, more resourceful and, ultimately, even more uncompromising than our enemies. 20. Never declare victory. Announce successes and milestones. But never give the terrorists a chance to embarrass you after a public pronouncement that the war is over. 21. Impress upon the minds of terrorists and potential terrorists everywhere, and upon the populations and governments inclined to support them, that American retaliation will be powerful and uncompromising. You will never deter fanatics, but you can frighten those who might support, harbor or attempt to use terrorists for their own ends. Our basic task in the world today is to restore a sense of American power, capabilities and resolve. We must be hard, or we will be struck wherever we are soft. It is folly for charity to precede victory. First win, then unclench your fist. 22. Do everything possible to make terrorists and their active supporters live in terror themselves. Turn the tide psychologically and practically. While this will not deter hard-core apocalyptic terrorists, it will dissipate their energies as they try to defend themselves and fear will deter many less-committed supporters of terror. Do not be distracted by the baggage of the term assassination. This is a war. The enemy, whether a hijacker or a financier, violates the laws of war by his refusal to wear a uniform and by purposely targeting civilians. He is by definition a war criminal. On our soil, he is either a spy or a saboteur, and not entitled to the protections of the U.S. Constitution. Those who abet terrorists must grow afraid to turn out the lights to go to sleep. 23. Never accept the consensus of the Washington intelligentsia, which looks backward to past failures, not forward to future successes. 24. In dealing with Islamic apocalyptic terrorists, remember that their most cherished symbols are fewer and far more vulnerable than are the West's. Ultimately, no potential target can be regarded as off-limits when the United States is threatened with mass casualties. Worry less about offending foreign sensibilities and more about protecting Americans. 25. Do not look for answers in recent history, which is still unclear and subject to personal emotion. Begin with the study of the classical world, specifically Rome, which is the nearest model to the present-day United States. Mild with subject peoples, to whom they brought the rule of ethical law, the Romans in their rise and at their apogee were implacable with their enemies. The utter destruction of Carthage brought centuries of local peace, while the later empire's attempts to appease barbarians consistently failed! To Go To Top

DEAR HONORABLE MINISTER GRAHAM Posted by Edmond Silber, March 24, 2004.

This letter was sent to the Minister of foreigner affairs of Canada by an Israeli, following his statement concerning the elimination by Israel of the notorious terrorist leader and founder of Hamas, the sheik Ahmed Yassine. Dear Honourable Minister Graham, Perhaps if you lived in a country where your children have to worry when they go on busses, visit cafes and go on field trips and you pray that they will not be attacked, you might begin to understand what we live with on a daily basis. Yassin is no different than Bin Laden and everyone would admit that they want him killed. The difference is that we here in Israel are condemned for trying to protect ourselves. I am very, very disappointed that in my native country of Canada, that our right to exist and live in peace is being criticized and denied. I am wondering how you could possibly be against killing a terrorist who has taken the lives of well over 400 people and wounded thousands of others. We are a very civilized country and if for one minute we thought that we could seriously negotiate with a terrorist and our right to exist would be accepted and the horrific bombings would end, I can promise you, we would not have resorted to killing Yessin. However, that is not the case and if you lived with the daily bloodshed that we have lived with for 3 1/2 years, perhaps you too would have the opinion of those of us that live here. We have shown restraint long enough. When G-d forbid, the enemy comes into your home, I ask you Minister Graham would you truly show restraint? Tell me Minister Graham if he had been on your daughter's bus and in your son's bedroom and stood there with an explosive belt watching while your wife sat drinking a cup of coffee, would you still be able to look me in the eye and your wife in the eye and say, I think we should invite him to sit down and talk. I am ashamed to admit that my government does not for one minute understand the ravages of terrorism. Mr. Graham, I am a licensed clinical psychologist practicing here in Israel and previously in Canada. I invite you to sit down with me in my office where I work daily with those who have dealt with your friend Mr Yessin's friendly little games. May you never have to face what these people have faced. May you never know what we face here every day of the year. Until you walk in my shoes, Mr. Graham, you do not have the right to condemn a country for protecting itself in any way it has to. With the tremendous rise in anti-Semitism in Canada, terrorism will also be on your doorstep. It is just a matter of time. I am the author of the feature story in this week's Nova Scotia's Coast paper. I include the link and suggest strongly that you read it - http://www.thecoast.ns.ca/flash_archives/oldindex.html Perhaps you will be able to see that I am a very moderate individual. Perhaps you will also be able to see that you have made a grave mistake. Mr. Graham. There is a time for restraint, but this was not it. Dr. Batya L. Ludman Israel To Go To Top

YASSIN WAS OLD AND PARALYZED BUT NOT INNOCENT Posted by David Ben-Ariel, March 24, 2004.

This was written by Jo-ana D'Balcazar and was on Jewish Indy (http://www.jewishindy.com) yesterday. Was Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, as reported by most news, really a poor, old, and paralyzed victim killed by Israelis? Well, Yassin might have been old and paralyzed, but this does not mean he was innocent, because his brain was functioning just fine, and from his wheelchair was a terrorist mastermind and actively planning and giving orders for suicide bombers to attack. What about the innocent Israeli women and children who die almost daily on buses, Pizza parlors, restaurants and markets, blown up by suicide bombers sent by this "old and paralyzed man"? So, it is okay for terrorists to openly kill innocents everywhere but not to kill the killers? For instance, is it okay for Bin Laden to order the killing of innocent victims but not kill him as the leader of the terrorist group of Al-Qaeda? Nevertheless, Yassin being in a wheelchair since age 12 due to a sporting accident, that did not impede him to found the terrorist group of HAMAS in 1987, this openly pursues the destruction of Israel and the killing of all Jews. Was Israel supposed to stay still and waited for its final extermination? Whose idea was to promise these genocide bombers with 80 virgins? Moreover, whose evil idea was to load those bombs with nails and rat poison? Yassin's? Curiously, Yassin never sent his sons to commit genocide bombings; just as many terrorist leaders neither send their own kids. HAMAS has continually stated, including in its own chapter that their goal is the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state in all of what is now known as Palestine. HAMAS struggles "for the liberation of all of Palestine" as a personal religious duty incumbent upon every Muslim. Yet, historically, there has never been a Palestinian state, neither a Palestinian culture nor a Palestinian language. Palestine was a political Roman invention from the 2nd century to eradicate Jewish identity. Nevertheless, Romans continued to refer to Jews as Palestinians, as the term alluded to Philistines, Israel's enemy. Certainly, Arab-Palestinians cry Yassin's death. The reason, mainly, is that although Yassin supported homicide bombings to exterminate Israel, he also provided Arab-Palestinians with basic assistance to ease their suffering, a duty supposedly, to be done with the billions of dollars received by the Palestinian Authority. Now, Yassin, is seen as a shahid, a martyr, as he declared many times, including on July 26, 1998 in Al-Quds, "the day in which I will die as a shahid will be the happiest day of my life." Therefore, it is likely that terrorist attacks may increase temporarily. However, Yassin's death also might eventually weaken HAMAS' leadership and their genocide bombings policy. Hence, it is not time for the International Community to stop cheering the shameful killing by genocide bombers of innocent Israelis, and unite to stop this open genocide by effectively fighting against terrorism and its leaders? The problem with the International Community, mainly Europe, and the inconsistency of U.S. Policy, stems from the fact that though the U.S considers HAMAS as a terrorist group, the EU simply divided HAMAS in two groups, the military and political wing. The EU, just as Syria, purposely calls them just "militants," and recognizes only the military wing as a terrorist group not the political wing, while Israel and the U.S. consider them responsible for many terrorist attacks in Israel as they proudly claim responsibility. Therefore, some of the EU citizens might consider Yassin a poor, old, and paralyzed victim. The question is how they consider the hundreds killed and thousands injured by Yassin's orders? Then, one can argue whether the International Community takes pleasure to see the brutal, vicious and continuing cycle of terrorism against Israelis, just as the Romans in ancient times watched many innocents viciously killed at the Coliseum for their own pleasure. How can the International Community protest when Israel or any other democratic country counterattacks terrorism? This silent attitude has only strengthened terrorist validating their philosophy that "genocide bombings" are their effective policy, since the world, including the UN does not even dare to call homicide bombings as criminal acts and punish them as such. On the contrary, instead of taking a united decision against these despicable acts, it condemns Israel for defending its citizens. Is not enough just to verbally condemn these attacks, or to hold vain diplomatic conferences, but to take effective actions. Will France, UK, Germany, or any other European country tolerate genocide bombings in their countries without retaliating? Truth is that freedom and terrorism can never coexist. It has to either be one or the other. The point is that diplomacy in the Arab world is not interpreted in the same way as in the West. For instance, it is not enough to have the signatures of Israelis and Arab-Palestinians leaders on a paper to think they are actually working towards peace. Do you remember last year infamous "Truce Trio" when Hamas and Islamic Jihad agreed to a three-month temporary cease fire after a long list of demands, while Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an off-shoot of Al-Fatah, agreed separately to a longer truce? Did this work? No. Just as I wrote in previous articles, it was only a period to rearm and plan new strategies. Violence and genocide bombings continued. Point blank is that Israel now learned its lesson. Last year "temporary peace period," by HAMAS, Islamic Jihad, and Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade was not a benevolent proposal but a suicidal pact. HAMAS demanded Israel to stop all targeted killings of Hamas members and the release of all terrorists from jail. But HAMAS never stopped genocide bombings? No. It was a major blow for the eradication of terrorism and a weakness for Israel's security. Israel fell into the terrorist trap, and under that false peace period it allowed HAMAS time to organize more attacks. Terrorism does not accept peace negotiations, many peace plans might come, and as they come they will disappear just as the Oslo Accords and the defunct Roadmap. Now, Israel is constrained to construct the "Security Fence" against terrorism coming from Judea and Samaria. The problem is that HAMAS not only openly calls for genocide bombings, but also takes public responsibility. Incredibly, some still consider Yassin, HAMAS's leader and founder, as a poor, old and innocent paralyzed man. Something is wrong. Are not Hamas leaders considered terrorists for their open declaration to destroy Israel by any means? Yet, in the past, Mihail Wehbe, Syrian ambassador to the UN, was influential for the passing of some Security Council resolutions that have condemned Israelis actions, as "war crimes, massacres or atrocities." Nevertheless, genocide bombings, the leading cause for Israeli reactions are not labeled as "war crimes, massacres or atrocities." Why not the UN, and the so-called International Community, then refer to Yassin's death as Israel's retaliation towards the terrorist leader who was commanding genocide bombings. If Hamas did not send genocide bombers, Israel would not retaliate. The Western world, including Israel, need to understand how most Arabs see and perceive the final settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Fact is that policies requiring Israel to make more concessions should be avoided until real actions from Arab-Palestinians are taken to stop promoting terrorism and teaching hatred towards Israel. This will include the immediate dismantling of the PA, HAMAS, Islamic Jihad, and all terrorist infrastructures in the disputed lands of Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. Moreover, it is no secret that most Arab-Palestinians envision only one state with no Israel, as seen in their geography school books, where Israel does not exist, neither in HAMAS nor the Palestinian Authority official website. The question is whether the International Community and the Arab-Palestinians expect Israel to stand still and wait to be completely exterminated. Facts speak louder than words. Diplomacy is not always the right tool to settle peace with Arabs-Palestinians since it is not in their historical traditions. On March 22, the UN, gave a terse and strong condemnation of Israel for the attack on the Hamas leader. That is fine. However, we cannot find a single instance when the UN or the EU has ever sent this kind of strong condemnation of any Hamas or Hizbollah's brutal terrorist suicide attack, but only bluff diplomatic talk for public opinion. Fact is that the growing violence and the unleashing of homicide bombings indicate that terrorism is gaining momentum and legitimacy, while the U.S. and the West are losing momentum as effective peace negotiators. So, Yassin, as has proved throughout his acts, cannot be considered a poor man only because he was paralyzed, but as the mastermind leader of a terrorist group, who far from being a spiritual leader calling for peace, called for genocide bombings as a Muslim religious duty. Now, it is your turn to answer. Is it okay for the killers to openly kill innocents everywhere but not to kill the killers and become the untouchables? What do you think? Jo-anna D'Balcazar is an M.A. oolitical analyst in International Relations specializing in the Middle East crisis and the European Union. Send comments to: politics2see@hotmail.com. To Go To Top

PALESTINIAN BOY, 14, CAPTURED WEARING EXPLOSIVES VEST Posted by Leo Rennert, March 24, 2004.

This was written by Margot Dudkevitch and is archived at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ ShowFull&cid=1080108195675 The quick thinking of paratroopers at the Hawara checkpoint near Nablus prevented Husam Abdu, 14, who was wearing a belt of explosives, from blowing himself up on Wednesday. "He was fully aware of what he was to do and told us he received NIS 100 and was instructed to blow himself up near soldiers," battalion commander Lt.-Col. Guy told The Jerusalem Post. "The soldiers' quick action not only saved their lives but those of 200 Palestinian men, women, and children who were at the roadblock." The belt contained eight kilograms of explosives, plus bolts and screws. It was later blown up by sappers. "I wouldn't be surprised if the terrorists attempt to dispatch a pregnant woman wearing explosives next," Guy said. "It is hard to believe how low the terrorists are willing to stoop. They have no morals." "Someone forced him to do this," said Khalil Abdu, the boy's uncle in an interview with Channel 1. "They brainwashed him," he added. Asked whether Husam's actions were a result of incitement and martyrdom ideology taught to Palestinian children at West Bank schools, Khalil said: "No, they don't teach them that it is good to kill Israelis and become Shahids. If my hands fall on those who sent him, I swear to God I will kill them." "Husam is a normal boy. He went to school in the morning and didn't return home." Khalil added. It was the second time in 10 days the Fatah Tanzim in Nablus attempted to turn children into human bombs. On March 15, Abdullah Kuran, 11, was asked to carry several bags through the roadblock and hand them to a woman waiting on the other side for NIS 5. Unaware that one of the bags contained a 10-kilo bomb, he was stopped by soldiers who discovered it during a routine inspection. When Kuran's dispatchers saw he had been stopped, they attempted to detonate the bomb by cellphone, but failed. The following day security forces discovered a 10-kilo bomb hidden in a truckload of merchandise at a roadblock on the other side of Nablus. It had been buried among rolls of cloth, sweets, and other goods. "My soldiers spotted Abdu as he pushed through the line of Palestinians waiting to undergo inspection and began racing toward them," said Guy. "He was four or five meters from them. "Noticing that his shirt was padded, they called out to him to halt. They took cover, aimed their weapons at him, and told him to raise his hands. Then they asked him to lift his shirt and saw the belt of explosives. Seeing the soldiers' weapons, he became frightened and told the soldiers he was scared." Soldiers also moved the Palestinians at the roadblock away. Abdu stood in isolation with his hands raised until sappers dispatched a robot carrying scissors to him and instructed him to cut the shoulder straps holding up the belt and to slip it off. He was then told to strip to insure that no additional explosives were strapped to him. He cut off part of it and struggled with the rest. "I don't how to get this off," he said. "It is sad and tragic," said Guy. "He was fully aware of his actions and wanted to blow up, as he was promised 72 virgins in heaven and NIS 100," Guy said. Abdu, who lives in Nablus, told interrogators he was jeered at by his friends who made fun of him, and decided to take advantage of the offer. "Blowing myself up is the only chance I've got to have sex with 72 virgins in the Garden of Eden," Abdu said his handlers had told him. Security officials have not ruled out the possibility that the same cell is responsible for dispatching both would-be bombers and that Hizbullah instructed it to launch the attacks. Officials noted that terrorist organizations are encountering difficulties in launching attacks from the city and are using children, who they believe will be less likely to be inspected. Guy said that following the capture of Kuran, officials studied ways of enhancing security at roadblocks around the city, taking into account that terrorists might again attempt to use children. Thirty-one suicide bombers have been younger than 18, and more than 40 minors who were actively involved in planning suicide bombings have been arrested. Since May 2001, 22 shootings and bombings were perpetrated by minors. Israeli officials expressed shock at the second use of a young boy as a suicide bomber. "No matter how many times Israel learns of the use of children for suicide bombings, it is shocking on each occasion," said Dore Gold, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "Israelis do not understand how Palestinians are willing to sacrifice their own children in order to kill ours." Physicians for Human Rights also condemned the use of children, calling it "illegal and immoral." Abdu's family said the teenager was not affiliated with any group, but went to rallies and identified with whichever group had carried out the latest attack. They said he acted strangely Tuesday, giving out candy to his family and neighbors and refusing to explain why. He got his hair cut in the style his mother, Tamam, likes and told her he would do anything she wants. "You never are like this," she said "What happened?" "I just want you to be happy with me," he responded. He left his house Wednesday morning saying he was going to school, but never arrived there. Hosni Abdu said he was furious with whomever persuaded his brother to become a suicide bomber. "The ones who sent him are stupid, because the army will give him two slaps and he will tell them who sent him," he said. To Go To Top

ISRAEL, DON'T LISTEN TO THE CHIRPING HYPOCRITES Posted by Ariel Natan Pasko, March 24, 2004.

When one listens to the chorus of hypocrites condemning Israel for killing Hamas top terrorist Sheikh Ahmed Yassin; one can fully understand the prophecy of Bilam about the Jewish People (Numbers 23:9), "Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be counted among the nations." Which can also be rendered from the Hebrew, "It is a unique [in their history] people living apart, that doesn't consider [the opinions] of the nations." After listening to the hypocrisy of the nations lately, who can blame Israel for ignoring their criticism? Let's see, immediately or soon thereof, the Vatican condemned killing Yassin, saying that lasting peace can never be reached by a show of force. Very Christian...Now we know why the Vatican didn't forcefully oppose the Nazis in World War II. The European Union issued a statement condemning Israel's "extra-judicial" assassination of Yassin, and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned Israel's assassination of Sheikh Yassin, as against "International Law". So did the French Foreign Ministry who condemning Israel's violation of International Law said, "Violence is never the answer," in a statement from Paris. I didn't know that Yassin's terrorist behavior was law-abiding and legally protected. UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Israel was "not entitled going for this kind of unlawful killing." He called Israel's action "unjustified" and "very unlikely to achieve its objectives," a comment echoed by several other leading EU officials who gathered for a meeting of EU foreign ministers, to deal with the problem of terror in the post-Spanish train-bombing era. "I don't believe Israel will benefit from the fact that this morning an 80-year-old [he was 68] in a wheelchair was the target of their assassination," Straw said. Notice Straw nicely sidesteps the issue that Yassin was the head of a terrorist group. Straw spoke to reporters about "Israel's paramount need to defend itself" against terrorists but if it wants to have "the full support of the international community, it needs to do so within the boundaries set by international law." Doesn't International Law give a country the "Right to Self-Defense"? The Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said the EU has long opposed "extra-judicial killings." He said that reviving the peace process wouldn't be any "easier when you have killings like that going on in Gaza." Equating Israeli self-defense to Hamas' activities he continued, "Terror and violence is not the way ahead." The German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer said he was "deeply concerned" about the possible repercussions of Yassin's assassination. I wish he would have been so concerned about the "repercussions" of 425 terrorist attacks Hamas carried out that killed at least 377 Israelis and wounded 2,076 in the last three and a half years, all of which were overseen by Sheikh Yassin. Poland's Foreign Minister, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz - whose country will join the EU on May 1 - said he recognizes Israel's right to defend itself, but that this is not the way to do it. "I understand that Israel defends its own country. However the picture of a wheelchair-bound person who was killed with a rocket is probably not the best way of promoting Israeli security." Again the nations are ignoring the fact that this "wheelchair-bound person" was the leader of a bloody terrorist group. Brazil and Chile jumped at the opportunity to condemn Israel for the assassination of Yassin. So did New Zealand, who called it counterproductive to Middle East peace efforts. Japan condemned Israel's "reckless act" of killing Yassin, saying it "cannot be justified". And finally, Malaysia - home of the infamous Dr. Mahathir - said that Yassin's killing is Israeli "state terrorism" that will "only escalate further the cycle of deadly violence." Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid-Reza Asefi, condemned the attack, agreeing with Malaysia, that Israel engaged in "state terrorism." Asefi said the assassination, "would unveil the ugly and unpleasant face of them - the Israelis - before all the world's people." Our Arab "peace partners" Egypt and Jordan didn't miss the chance to condemn us either. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in reaction to the assassination of Yassin, directed his country's representatives not to take part in activities in Israel, that the Knesset and Foreign Ministry planned, to mark 25 years since the signing of the peace agreement with Egypt. While the Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher equated Israel with a "terror organization". And, Jordanian Prime Minister Faisal Al Fayez said this "is another crime that is added to the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, and forms a flagrant violation of all charters and norms." "We in the government," Al Fayez was quoted as saying, "condemn this ugly crime and affirm that such behavior would increase the cycle of violence and instability in the region, lead to more bloodshed and undermine the opportunities of achieving just and comprehensive peace that the region's peoples seek to achieve." So much for "peace" with our "partners". The Speaker of Kuwait's National Assembly, Jassem Al-Kharafi said, "the Arab and Islamic people would never forget the principles of struggle that Sheikh Yassin ingrained within the Palestinian ranks." Sheikh Yassin was a true Arab hero. Immediately after the killing, even the White House said it was "deeply troubled" by Israel's assassination of Yassin. But later, in US President George Bush's first public response to the assassination of Yassin, backtracking he said, "Israel has the right to defend herself from terror, and, as she does so, I hope she keeps consequences in mind." Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon justified the "targeted killing" of Sheikh Yassin. Yassin's ideology according to Sharon - speaking to the Likud Party parliamentary caucus - "was killing and murdering Jews, wherever they were, and the destruction of the State of Israel." Putting Yassin's assassination into a global context, Sharon said, "The war against terror has not ended and will continue day after day, everywhere. This is a difficult struggle that all the countries of the enlightened world must participate in. It is the natural right of the Jewish people, like that of all nations in the world that love life, to hunt down those who rise to destroy it." So, when the 15-member United Nations Security Council met to debate the killing of Yassin - Arab ambassadors and the United States failed to agree on a statement criticizing Israel - Israel's UN ambassador Danny Gillerman - whose disgust at the world's hypocrisy was palpable - said in a speech to the council, "Not one resolution, not one presidential statement has been adopted by this Council to specifically denounce the deliberate massacre of our innocent civilians." Gillerman said the council was coming to the defense of "a godfather of terrorism...it is the ultimate hypocrisy." He waved a 187-page dossier in exasperation, outlining the suicide bombings carried out by Hamas since September 2000. "These are not just pieces of paper. These are filled with names of real people, whose lives were cut short and extinguished by Sheikh Yassin and the followers of his murderous ideology," Gillerman said. While the UN Security Council couldn't come to an agreement about criticizing Israel, the United National Human Rights Commission did. Approved by 31 votes in favor, 2 against (United States and Australia) and with 18 abstentions (including most nations of the European Union), a resolution condemning the assassination of Sheikh Yassin was passed. The Organization of the Islamic Conference and Zimbabwe - a group of human rights abusers - presented the draft resolution. In the text, the resolution firmly condemned, "the continuous human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian Territories" and in particular "the assassination of the Sheikh Ahmad Yassin," "in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention." The document, which line after line assumes a level of Israeli violence, that lead western nations to abstain, also criticises "the liquidation and assassination of politicians by the Israeli occupation forces in occupied Palestinian territories." Israel, which is not part of the commission, criticized the special meeting, claiming through its Ambassador Yaakov Levy that for the first time in the history of the UN, a meeting was dedicated to the support and glorification of a leader of a terrorist organization. And, if you thought that Yassin's "targeted killing" was an exclusively Israeli-Palestinian issue, think again. An Islamist website - the al-Ansar forum - published a statement claiming to come from an al-Qaeda-linked group - the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade - vowing revenge on the United States and its allies over Israel's assassination of the Hamas leader. "We tell Palestinians that Sheikh Yassin's blood was not spilt in vain and call on all legions of Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades to avenge him by attacking the tyrant of the age, America, and its allies," said the statement. The group, which aligns itself to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, claimed responsibility for the recent train bombings in Spain. That recent bombing sent all those condemnatory European Foreign Ministers into a tailspin, rushing to discuss how they can better protect their countries. Yet they deny the "right of self-defense" to Israel. I understand that if the Spanish government would have known who was planning the train attack, but wasn't able to arrest the leaders, they wouldn't have "taken them out" as Israel has been doing in it's "targeted killings" of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist leaders? Hypocrites...Hypocrites...Hypocrites... And, on the Pakistani-Indian border, Kashmiri Muslim terrorists belonging to the Lashkar e-Taiba - the Army of the Pure - reacted to the news of Yassin's assassination by threatening to attack Indians. The Lashkar e-Taiba communique explained, "It is known Jews and Hindus are two sides of the same coin." I guess they're referring to Israel's warming relations with India. Lashkar e-Taiba, part of the Markaz Dawa Wal-Irshad, is a Wahabbi organization based in Pakistan. The Indian government claims the Lashkar terrorists are responsible for a series of massacres, including August 1-2, 2000 attacks, in which more than 100 people, mostly unarmed civilians, were murdered. So, Jihadist elements worldwide are looking for excuses to attack their perceived enemies. They are using Israel's killing of Yassin to justify their war against the world. More hypocrisy... The hypocrites have made much - in the past - of how Dr. Baruch Goldstein "gunned down" 29 worshippers in a "mosque" - the Cave of Machpela - in Hebron. And now, many Arabs and Muslims complained that Israel hit Sheikh Yassin, as he was leaving his mosque after morning prayers. Yet not long after the assassination, a rocket from Hamas landed near the N’vei Dekalim Synagogue in Gaza. Although there were no injuries, the synagogue was full of community residents attending their afternoon prayer service. The "Palestinian" hypocrites have no problem trying to kill Jews in synagogue while praying. And what about the recent bombing of a synagogue in Turkey, during the Sabbath prayers, by Muslim terrorists, or, the ongoing Arab attacks against synagogues and Jewish community centers in France? Arab and Muslim hypocrites have no compunction in attacking Jewish houses of worship worldwide; there are too many examples to list. The day after the assassination, a poll - which included Israeli Arabs - conducted by Maariv newspaper and "The New Wave" polling service, found that 61% of Israelis support the killing of Yassin. Also, 43% believe Israel should assassinate the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat. But I think, a description of Gazan streets after news of the assassination hit reveals the true nature of the struggle between Israel and the "Palestinians". Cars drove through the streets blaring calls for revenge over loudspeakers. Some played recordings of Sheikh Yassin saying, "We chose this road, and will end with martyrdom or victory." During the funeral for Yassin, many chanted replies to a question. "What is your movement? Hamas. Who is your leader? Yassin. What is your aim? To be killed." I for one, pray, that they receive their wish as Yassin did, of "martyrdom". Israel hurry up and finish the job... Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst and consultant. He has a Master's Degree in International Relations and Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites, in newspapers, and can be read at: www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko To Go To Top

ISLAM PLAYS FOR KEEPS Posted by Rachel Neuwirth, March 24, 2004.

This appeared in Arutz-Sheva and is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=3481 President George W. Bush said: "We will bring freedom to others, and we will prevail." Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld suggested that terrorists are being created faster than we can arrest or kill them. One might wonder if they're fighting different wars. Bush suggests "reprogramming" his enemy; Rumsfeld wants to wipe them out. Daniel Pipes, a scholar specializing in militant Islam puts it correctly: "Ending terrorism requires more than targeting terrorists, their leaders, or their organizations. It requires recognizing and defeating the body of ideas known as militant Islam or Islamism. The war cannot be won until politicians and others focus on this ideology (taught in the madrassas, Islamic schools) rather than [just] on terrorism, which is merely its manifestation." (http://danielpipes.org/article/1624) Bush and Rumsfeld are indeed fighting the same war. Rumsfeld suggests the need to use invasive therapy to root out that enemy; Bush wants to "inoculate" Iraqi society with a healthy dose of preventative medicine: democracy. This two-pronged "war-and-peace" plan will not be easy to pull off. The medicine has had unexpected and unwelcome side-effects. The patient has not responded as we had hoped. One of the problems is that the patient did not request our services. Sure, he feels better now, but he still doesn't trust us. Also, the source of his illness is still there. That source is radical Islam. Specifically, Wahabbi Islam. Wahabbism embraces an inflexible doctrine responsible for sowing intolerance, sedition, violence, hatred and "holy" war in the Muslim world and elsewhere. This doctrine feeds radical Islamism. According to Daniel Pipes, ten to fifteen percent of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims adhere to militant Islam. That 10-15% translates into an "army" of 120-180 million... and some feel that Pipes' figures are an understatement. The West preaches freedom and equality - two notions in very short supply in Arab/Muslim culture - and this is why Islamists see the West as their enemy. Islamists have declared war on America, Israel, Spain and, indeed, the entire West. The West was never their enemy, but now we must recognize that radical Islamic fundamentalists are our enemy. Attempts to coddle them in the hope that they will finally "get it" and cut themselves free of Middle Age barbarism are naive. Instead of waiting for them to "get it", it is time to "give it to them". We must unapologetically take steps to counter the rise of the belligerent and ruthless juggernaut of radical Islamism. No efforts should be spared to "encourage" Arab/Muslim leaders to reduce significantly or totally remove the hostility toward the non-Muslim world expressed overtly in their nations' schoolbooks, in their mosques and in their government-controlled media. Target Israel (The Little Satan): Epicenter of Arab/Muslim Intolerance Some might argue that things are getting better vis-a-vis the Arab-Islamic world and Israel. Egypt and the Kingdom of Jordan have both signed peace treaties with Israel. Maybe other Arab states will follow. Is this a realistic expectation or simplistic naivete? Let's take a look at how these "moderates" relate to the "Great Satan's evil child", Israel. Here are some of the "calls for peace" coming from these sought-after "moderate" Arab voices: Saudi Sermon: "Time for Christians and Jews to convert to Islam." (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia TV1 in Arabic, official television station of the Saudi Government; carried on February 27, 2004 at 0945 GMT a live sermon from the mosque in Mecca) Another Saudi sermon: "Jewish paws"; "defeat the usurper Jews." (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia TV2 in Arabic, official television station of the Saudi Government, on February 6, 2004 at 0950 GMT carried a 22-minute live sermon from the mosque in Medina) Jordanian sermon: "O God, destroy your enemies, the Jewish and crusader enemies of Islam." (Amman, Jordan Television Channel 1 in Arabic, official television station of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on March 5, 2004 at 1002 GMT carried a 17-minute live sermon from Martyr King Abdallah mosque in Amman) Palestinian Authority-supervised sermon: "Palestine [including all of Israel] is an Islamic land that must not be relinquished." (West Bank, Ramallah, Voice of Palestine, official radio station of the Palestinian Authority, on February 6, 2004 at 1000 GMT carried a 24-minute live sermon from Al-Aqsa Mosque) PA-supervised sermon: "Jews, the sons of apes and pigs." (Gaza, Palestine Satellite TV Channel in Arabic, official television station of the Palestinian Authority, carried on March 13, 2004 at 0958 GMT, a live sermon from Zayid Bin-Sultan Mosque in Gaza) Yemeni sermon: "O God, destroy the aggressive Zionists and the tyrant Americans." (Sanaa, Republic of Yemen Television in Arabic, official television station of the Republic of Yemen, on February 6, 2004 at 0926 GMT carried a 21-minute live sermon from the Grand Mosque in Sanaa) Qatar sermon: "aggressor Jews and their wicked Crusader allies." (Doha, Qatar Television Service in Arabic, official television station of the State of Qatar, on 20 February 2004 at 0858 GMT carried a live 60-minute sermon from Umar Bin-Al-Khattab Mosque in Doha) Syrian sermon: "O God, deal with the criminal Zionists and those with them and behind them." (Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic radio in Arabic, official station of the Syrian Government, carried on February 27, 2004 at 1010 GMT, a live sermon from Al-Uthman Mosque in Damascus) So much for waiting for the Arab-Islamic leopard to change its spots. What Israel really needs is for that leopard to change into a totally different animal - one that is not such an aggressive carnivore. Fast-Forward to America: "The Great Satan" The Bush Administration is in "hot pursuit" of Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network. America is also trying to create a stable post-Saddam Iraq even as it continues to neutralize both indigenous Arab-Muslim terrorism and terrorism imported from "Greater Arabia." Sadly, yet predictably, America is beginning to feel the utter frustration that Israel has felt for years: full-throttle Arab violence, fueled by an Islamic engine that never quits. There is also some hypocrisy here. While America aggressively fights terrorists, she denies Israel the right to fight her own war against these same savages. This sends a message to the Arab-Islamic terrorists that America's war on terror is not completely sincere, nor is her heart totally in it. For if America were truly committed to "root out terrorists," she would turn the Israel Defense Forces loose on Yasser Arafat and his so-called Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Al-Aqsa Brigades, Hizbullah, Tanzim, PFLP, etc. And if Israel were unable or unwilling to do this, then America would do it for Israel. So why is there a double standard vis-a-vis Israel in the war on terrorism? President Bush should be asking (perhaps demanding) that Prime Minister Sharon launch an all-out attack on the terrorist organizations surrounding Israel. These areas are the breeding grounds that fuel anti-Western sentiment and send jihadists against Israel and against American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. These killers of Jews in Israel are indistinguishable from killers of Americans in Iraq, Afghanistan and downtown New York City. Israel's enemies are America's enemies, and Israel's enemies are also enemies of the shrinking civilized world. Are you listening, Spain? France? Germany? Italy? England? Sweden? One should never dialogue with terrorists. When the bombs went off in Madrid on March 11, the Spanish electorate indeed decided not to dialogue with the Arab-Muslim murderers who perpetrated the act. They simply took the cowardly route of appeasement. The Spanish matador took a goring and the crowd yelled, "Ole!" That same Arab-Islamic bull is on the loose elsewhere. How will others react to setbacks in our war against these savages? Stay tuned. If the Madrid response is any indication, you ain't seen nothing yet. 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. To Go To Top

THE ASSASSINATION OF SHEIKH AHMED YASSIN: REPRISE Posted by David Ha'ivri, March 24, 2004.

This article was written by Daniel Pinner and it was distributed by the Jewish Community of France (Communaute-Juive-France-owner@yahoogroupes.fr). Their website address is http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/Communaute-Juive-France/ Mi-shenichnas Adar, marbin be-simcha ("when the month of Adar begins, we increase our joy"), say the rabbis. "The death of the wicked is pleasant for them and pleasant for the world", says the Talmud. On the final day of Adar, the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin gave us all one more reason for rejoicing. - Well, not all of us. The ritual denunciations from Britain, France, the US State Department came in rapid-fire fashion. And, as could only be expected, Shimon Peres condemned the assassination. His opposition was due to his fear of the Arabs, of their reaction, of the world's reaction. Shimon Peres, with the rest of the Israeli left, is already laying the groundwork for blaming Israel - yet again! - for future Arab terrorism. The next terrorist attack that (chas ve-shalom) happens, the Israeli left will blame on this assassination, just as, for years, they blamed every suicide bombing on Baruch Goldstein. Let us define something here: the intifada, terrorism, suicide bombings, murders - these did not start after Baruch Goldstein was murdered. And the next terrorist attack (chas ve-shalom) will not be because of the assassination of Yassin. It will be because terrorism is what Arabs do. The Arab "street" supports terrorists as actively as possible. Yesterday's funeral procession saw over half a million Arabs actively identify with Yassin and the Hamas. No one forced them to attend (as their leftist apologists would have us believe); they went, because that is what they deeply, sincerely believe in. A few Vulcan missiles in the funeral procession would have lowered the number of active terrorists by a considerable amount. It would be hard to argue that there were any "innocent civilians" there: every single one was there because he actively identified with this most vicious terrorist. Yasser Arafat, speaking from the Muqata (governmental building) in Ramallah, condemned the "crime against the Palestinian people". He declined to leave the building, fearing that he might be the next in line. Unlikely - but we can live in hope. But if the IDF really is beginning to assassinate all of its enemies, including even the political leaders - well, maybe now we can understand why Shimon Peres opposed this action? To Go To Top

STOP SAUDI ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALIST SCHOOLS IN US Posted by Jules Hetzner, March 24, 2004.

It is vitally important that you sign the "Stop Saudi Islamic fundamentalist Madrassas in the US" petition to send our representatives in Congress a clear message that Islamic hate education must be stopped in America. WRITE TO JULES HETZNER at w3atn@juno.com FOR A COPY TO SIGN. We the people of the United States of America request that you, our elected officials, put an immediate stop to the Saudi Madrassas in the United States. The Saudi education is based on the teachings of Sheik Muhammad Ibn Abd-al-Wahhab. The cornerstone of education in Saudi Arabia consists of the most pervasive themes in Islam. The book, published by the Saudi Cultural Mission to the U.S., quotes a document published by the Higher Committee for Educational policy which contains 236 principles that explain how students should promote loyalty to Islam by denouncing any system or theory that conflicts with Islamic law. The students are also taught to understand Islam in a correct manner, how to plant and spread Islam throughout the world, and how "to fight spiritually and physically for the sake of Allah", with emphasis on early Islamic glories. HERE'S A SAMPLE FROM 8TH, AND 9TH GRADE BOOKS: Sharh Kitab Eltawhid, 8th grade, published 2001, PG 43, Jews and Christians - Cursed by Allah and Turned into Apes and Pigs- a textbook explains why Jews and Christians were cursed by Allah and turned into apes and pigs. Quoting Surat Al-Maida, verse 60, the lesson explains that Jews and Christians have sinned by accepting polytheism and therefore incurred Allah's wrath. To punish them, Allah has turned them into apes and pigs. Book of Abed, 9th grade, PG 123, A schoolbook for the 9th grade on Hadith introduces a famous narration known by the name, "The Promise of the Stone and the tree." It tells a story about Abu Hurayra, one of the Prophet's companions who quoted the Prophet as saying: "The hour (the day of Judgement) will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and Kill them. A Jew will hide behind a rock or a tree, and the rock or tree will call upon the Muslim: "O Muslim, O slave of Allah! There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!-except for the gharqad tree, for it is one of the trees of the Jews". The Hadith is accompanied by a number of statements: 1. "It is Allah's wisdom that the struggle between Muslims and Jews shall continue until the Day of Judgment." 2. "The Hadith brings forth the glad tidings about the ultimate victory, with Allah's help, of Muslims over Jews." 3. "The Jews and the Christians are the enemies of the believers. They will not be favorably disposed toward Muslims and it is necessary to be cautious (in dealing with them)." The book offers these questions for class discussion: 1. "Who will be victorious in the day of Judgement?" 2. " With what types of weapons should Muslims arm themselves against the Jews?" 3. "Name four factors leading to the victory of Muslims over their enemies." This is just a small example of what is being taught. We the people of the United States request an immediate stop to Saudi Wahhabi hateful education especially post 911 tragedy where 15 out of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and taught and raised on such education. WRITE TO JULES HETNER AT w3atn@juno.com FOR A COPY OF THE PETITION. PLEASE ASK YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO SIGN. It will be presented to our representatives in Congress. To Go To Top

OF WHEELCHAIRS AND TWISTED MINDS Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, March 24, 2004.

Based on the feedback I received from Jew and Gentile alike to my article, "Responses to Terror", alcohol consumption was up on Monday in reaction to the news that there is one less angel of death in this world. However, there were some rather nasty responses. Below is an example. (Use your imagination and fill in the blanks . Hint: the blank word is one of Hollywood's favorite and starts with a letter that falls between E and G)... Hi Ellen, So you cried from joy when you heard that Ahmmad yaseen had been killed? ______ you and ______ your husband. i hope the palestinians will kill you and your family you ____ing whore. he is an old disabled man. how dare you feel joy by killing an old man. I see why arabs hate you. you are damn blood suckers you damn jews. ---- To be honest, I do get my share of email with liberal sprinklings of the "F" word. That's not what bothers me (bless the inventor of the delete key). It's the disabled old man part that got to me. As always, the media bears an enormous responsibility for portraying the freak sheik as a victim. Note the following headlines from the BBC: Sheikh Yassin: Spiritual Figurehead Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, was a frail quadriplegic who could barely see. His voice was thin and quavering. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2001/ israel_and_the_palestinians/profiles/1695470.stm I received the abusive email, at about the same time that the body of Abu Abbas was on its way to Syria for burial. You remember Abbas? He was the terrorist responsible for shooting and dumping 69-year old wheelchair bound Leon Klinghoffer off a cruise ship off the coast of Egypt in 1985. It seems Abbas was caught in Iraq and died a rather mysterious death in U.S. custody. The body of Abbas was greeted with an entourage of Arabs carrying portraits of the very dead Sheik Yassin. Does anyone else see the wheelchairs of justice spinning here? I've got a distressing picture in my upcoming book of a twisted wheelchair among the devastation in the Park Hotel Passover massacre. We've all seen the aftermath of bombings with the tangled mess of bloodied baby strollers and baby dolls too. How many twisted bodies are coming to terms with their wheelchairs thanks to the Sheikh? Gruesome pictures of the mangled remains of Yassin and his exposed, twisted brains were circulated on the Internet this week. Seems that "what goes around, comes around." Let's put a PC spin on this shall we? Yassin was not disabled, he was physically challenged and rather than rise to the occasion, he sunk to incredible depths of depravity. If the post 9/11 world fears an upsurge in terror because Israel made a decision to defend herself then there is clearly something very wrong with the way in which the wheels of justice and the world is turning. We Jews in Israel are not required to lay down and die for the sins of mankind. On that note, I think it's worth noting that this week "The Passion" was replaced as America's number one box office hit with "Dawn of the Dead". It's a horror flick about a bunch of people holed-up in shopping mall which is plagued with flesh-eating zombies. Western culture's appetite for the hideous knows no bounds and what's appearing on screens across the modern world is indicative of the problem. Long ago, the Western world made oil and consumerism their top priorities. Security concerns, basic morality and America's best ally took the back seat. As a result, the entire "free" world is now, pardon the expression, being f----- by the Arab/Islamic world. This means that a lot of us are virtual slaves and not the free human beings that we thought we were. If European and American interests are being targeted, one can react in two ways. Either a) blame it on Israel and the Jews or b) get your priorities straight. My advice is that we all choose B. The mother of my Italian-American roommate in college also doled out some words of advice as she drove me to the airport when I decided to follow a dream and move to Israel. I would like to pass those words of wisdom onto the current leaders of America and Europe. She said, "You make your bed, you sleep in it." Thanks, Mrs Russillo. Regardless of what the future may bring, I'm so glad that I make my bed here in Israel (as disheveled as it may be). Ellen lives in the Golan Heights, Israel with her husband and six children. She is a painter, columnist for Israelnationalnews,com and co-founder of helpingisrael.com. She can be contacted through her website http://www.artfromzion.com To Go To Top

FEEDING THE CROCODILE Posted by Jock L. Falkson, March 24, 2004.

While Yogi's short article on terrorism was written with the American situation in mind, it's compelling logic applies equally to our own position in Israel. It appeared in Trentino's Magazine (http://www.atrentino.cim) a few days before Israel delivered a well deserved coup de grace to the late and unlamented Yassir Yassin. Having obtained permission to distribute it, here it is for you. "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile - hoping it will eat him last." - Winston Churchill Until the bombings in Madrid on 3/11, I felt reasonably sure that the likelihood of a terror attack in the United States was fairly remote. It seemed reasonable to assume the terrorists believed such an incident would galvanize support for President Bush and in no way improve their circumstances. I am no longer confident in that assessment. The Spanish voters - in "sending a message" to the current government - sent a message that warmed the hearts of terrorists everywhere. Namely that terrorism works. Not just works, but works exceeding well. Not only did it bring a country to its knees, it influenced - no, make that changed - the outcome of a national election. A question often posed in the drug induced rhetoric of the 60's "make love not war" culture was, "Suppose they gave a war and nobody came?" If they can manage to rouse themselves from their LSD flashbacks for a moment; the answer has arrived. That terrorism has grown to the menace it currently is, is the answer to that question. World War III began years before the events of 9/11, and nobody came. Our reluctance to confront it then fostered its growth. The world's divisiveness in confronting it now, insures its survival. Still, in some amazing feat of logic, a majority of Spaniards have concluded the message the terrorists sent to them was their support of the United States in the Iraqi invasion was the reason they were targeted. But, the real and unstated message is - and always has been - oppose us and die. Be certain of one thing, if you live in a country that is not a pure Islamic one, you are on their list. It is only a matter of time. Spain may buy herself a little time through appeasement. But, in the process she has pushed others to the head of the line to feed the crocodile. Every free nation has a responsibility to stand united against terrorism as a method of waging war. There is no cause on God's green earth that can justify it. Spain has failed in her responsibility to her own people and to the world. While world leaders offered their sympathies to Spain in terms of condemnation and outrage, Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso summed it up best. "Terrorism is an absolute evil and before it there can only be one response: absolute determination, without doubts or hesitation." I am fully aware that the terms "absolute" and "evil" are an anathema to the Left; doubt and hesitation a way of life. But, they had better soon come to the realization that this is a fight to the death. Declining the invitation is not an option. The worst result of a terrorist attack is not the immediate loss of life and the grievous injuries to so many, bad they are. The worst result arises out of clinging to the irrational belief that safety may be found in surrender. Jock Falkson is an Israeli writer and translator. He can be reached by email at falkson@barak-online.net. To Go To Top

THE KILLING OF YASSIN - JUSTICE VERSUS PRAGMATISM Posted by Moshe Feiglin, March 24, 2004.

The great controversy surrounding the elimination of this vile person centered around the issue of whether it was worthwhile. Would the execution prevent or intensify the terror? Naturally the Left was opposed to the operation while the Right justified it, but both sides relied on the same criterion - whether it was of value. Although the arguments of the Right are more successful and logical than those of the Left, and even if reality repeatedly demonstrates their correctness, in this controversy the Right is bound to lose because it accepts the basic assumption of the Left as an axiom. The Left does not recognize the concept of justice. There is no such thing as right and wrong. Everything is subjective and the aspiration is only that "despair will be more comfortable". (Chava Alberstein, "Traveling to London"). The spokesmen of the Right who explain that Yassin's death will lead to a reduction of terror are right, but without noticing it they are voluntarily entering the Leftist cage of awareness. The idea that we could impose our existence on the Arabs by force alone, without roots of Jewish justice, was expressed best by Moshe Dayan after the Six Day War: "Sharm a-Sheikh without peace is better than peace without Sharm a-Sheikh". With these words he sowed the seeds of the destruction of Yamit, because basing the policy of the Jewish State on pragmatic considerations only is a two-edge sward. The Yom Kippur War destroyed the myth of Israeli invincibility, and the pragmatism in whose name we held on to Sinai (to force the Arabs to come to terms with us) now led to its being given to Egypt (for that same objective). The killing of Ahmed Yassin was necessary simply because it was just. Since Oslo, Israel has lost its most important weapon - justice. The slogan that in the last decade has led the citizens of Israel to unceasing blood-letting is: "Don't be right - be clever". We have been clever, we have abandoned justice, and we are paying the price every day. Just like nature, morality abhors a vacuum. The Hamas entered the space of justice that we abandoned. Justice is a tremendously powerful weapon, and when the Jews handed it over to "righteous" people such as Yassin and Arafat, the final result was the use of children as living bombs. Suicide bombers who blew themselves up next to a civilian population were unknown before Oslo. This is a crazy kind of motivation that burst out of the irresponsible experiment performed in the laboratory of the Left. These irresponsible Jews did not only seal their own fate, but also that of the Free World. The WTC twin towers would still be standing if the Islam Shuhada had not burst out of the test tubes. Yassin's execution is a breath of fresh air in the wilderness of justice in which we have found ourselves. If the execution is the first sign, and if considerations of justice continue to guide Israel's policy, we can be sure that the terror will be defeated. The person in the right wins, and pays the lowest price in the end. However, we know that this isn't Sharon's intention. The Sharon government will rapidly nullify this moral achievement by a series of concessions that will restore the enemy's confidence that he is in the right. Despite this, a just action has value in itself and deserves commendation. Moshe Feiglin established Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership), a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. Feiglin has emphatically said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. The Manhigut Yehudit website address is http://www.manhigut.org. To Go To Top

THE LEFT HAS ALWAYS HATED JEWS Posted by Steven Plaut, March 24, 2004.

So let me see if I have this straight. The US is holding hearing this week and the Western media is using this as an occasion to attack the US administration for NOT using military force to kill the arch-terrorist and the "spiritual leader" of the Islamofascist terror organization that had killed many of its civilians, claiming the US had not pursued him with enough determination and deadly force (e.g., http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0304/borowitz.html). And in the very same breath the very same media are attacking Israel because it DID use military force to kill the arch-terrorist and the "spiritual leader" of the Islamoofascist terror organization that had killed many of its civilians, claiming Israel had illegally pursued him and had used excessive deadly force. Is that clear now? This article was written by Patrick Chisholm and appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, March 24, 2004. It is archived at http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=12713 Anti-Semitism traditionally has been associated with the extreme right. Now, it is becoming more common among the extreme left. Leftist president Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe huffed that "Jews in South Africa, working in cahoots with their colleagues here, want our textile and clothing factories to close down." Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who is no right-winger, lashed out against Jews who "rule the world by proxy." One finds pockets of anti-Semitism at anti-globalization rallies, and plenty of it at pro-Palestinian rallies. And in recent years anti-capitalist campaigners have been networking with radical Islamists and neo-Nazi groups via their websites, according to a draft report by the Technical University of Berlin's Center for Research on Anti-Semitism. (This was the same report commissioned by the European Union, which decided for who-knows-what-reason not to officially release it.) Contrary to what one would think, left- and right-wing extremists are, in major respects, ideological soul mates. Don't be fooled by labels; applying the simplistic terms of "right" and "left" to complex political realities naturally begets confusion. While ultra-rightists are generally thought of as racist and ultra-leftists as nonracist, the latter are by no means immune to such decrepitude. And both camps share these core attitudes: a readiness to buy into conspiracy theories, hatred of the rich, contempt for speculators and financiers, a deep suspicion of large corporate enterprises, and a conviction that the privileged few oppress the masses. These notions manifest themselves in the party platforms of radical groups. Here are excerpts from one such platform (courtesy of Australian writer John J. Ray): We demand that all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from work, be abolished. We demand the nationalization of businesses which have been organized into cartels. We demand the creation and maintenance of a healthy middle-class, the immediate communalization of department stores which will be rented cheaply to small businessmen.... We demand a land reform in accordance with our national requirements, and the enactment of a law to confiscate from the owners without compensation any land needed for the common purpose. The abolition of ground rents, and the prohibition of all speculation in land. And here is a quote from one such leader: "We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions." Karl Marx? No. Vladimir Lenin? No. Ho Chi Min? No. Adolf Hitler. And the above platform positions were those of his National Socialist party. Note the formal name of that party: the National Socialist German Workers Party. The far left scapegoats rich people for causing the world's ills. But what if you live in a society where most rich people happen to be members of a different religion or skin color? That makes them particularly easy to recognize and identify. In the popular psyche, the wealthy class becomes synonymous with members of that minority group. So if you're an envy-laden, paranoid conspiracy theorist, there's hardly a distinction between scapegoating the rich and scapegoating the minority group. That's how the Nazis viewed the Jews. It's how Stalinist Russia viewed the Jews. It's how Islamic militants view the Jews. And it's how many among today's far left view the Jews. Jews are by no means the only (relatively) affluent minority group that has suffered mass slaughter. The same has been true of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey), Tutsis in Rwanda, Tamils in Sri Lanka, ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, and many others. Palestinian hatred of Israelis, I suspect, is based on more than just land disputes and the policies of the state of Israel. Much of it likely derives from envy. Jews as a whole are among the most able, hard-working, and intelligent people ever to inhabit the earth. Wherever they go they succeed. They turned Israel into an economic powerhouse for its size, and "made the desert bloom." Success breeds envy. Envy breeds hatred. Terrorism is the end result. So is an envy-driven economic philosophy best described as hard-left or socialist: Islamic radicals generally advocate government ownership of most sectors of the economy. They detest "middlemen" and the rich. They loathe "foreign exploiters." They're disgusted with materialism and consumerism. And they desire complete economic equality among all citizens (which, in practice, translates into everyone being equally poor). Obviously, a mutual dislike for Israel's policies is not the only thing that binds Islamic radicals and ultra-leftists together. Leftism is generally tolerant of different races and religions. But not always. Extremists are not going to let Jews off the hook just because they happen to be a different religion. When it comes to envy versus tolerance, envy very often wins out. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

WHY DOESN'T THE PA REFORM? WHY DOESN'T DENNIS ROSS? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 23, 2004.

Dennis Ross does not hold the P.A. responsible for failing to reform. He blames Israeli "control." He asserts that such control angers the Arabs, thereby inhibiting the P.A. reform movement. He demands that Israel stop intruding on the Arabs' lives. Actually, Israel is out of their lives, in that they rule themselves except for foreign policy. There is no P.A. reform movement. Arab anger largely is from P.A. indoctrination in hatred and violence. This violence leads to Arab aggression, which he equates morally to Israeli self-defense. He ought to have a sufficient sense of justice to realize that aggression is improper and defense is a right. Ross' prescription, Israeli withdrawal, ignores the P.A. refusal to accept the legitimacy of Israel, which it wants to conquer. Although the Road Map requires P.A. anti-terrorism before Israeli withdrawal, Ross would not. After the P.A. has proved that donations to it do not encourage peace, Ross suggests giving more money to that corrupt society. That would throw good money after bad (IMRA, 3/7 from ZOA). It usually makes less sense to repeat a mistake than to originate one. To be fair, there is some partial Israeli control over the P.A., via roadblocks and curfews. Whenever Israel relaxes those measures, however, terrorists take advantage of it. Therefore the fault for such control is the terrorist P.A. regime's, not Israel's. Nobody has yet made the PLO/P.A. reform or meet its anti-terrorism commitments. Under Ross's concept of first Israel withdrawing, then P.A. reforming, the P.A. whose ideology is devoted to terrorist jihad, would have no incentive to reform. (I am arguing against Ross' logic. I do not contend that Israel should withdraw if the Arabs did reform. I think the Arabs should withdraw. Let the Arabs get out of Israeli lives!) Since foreign donations to the P.A. are largely stolen or diverted to war, the suggestion that more be donated to it indicates a misunderstanding of the conflict and an abuse of charitable resources. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

WE MUST SAVE THE THREATENED JEWS OF GAZA Posted by Ken Heller, March 23, 2004.

As you undoubtedly know Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced that he will be unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza, forcing 8,000 Jews out of their homes, farms, synagogues and schools. There is no logical explanation for this handover to the terrorists, who would use Gaza as a staging ground to attack all of Israel more efficiently..which would result in more Jewish bloodshed. The twenty-one communities that make up Gush Katif have joined together to launch a campaign preventing the implementation of the Sharon transfer plan. They need funds in order to pay for free buses to bring Israelis to Gush Katif, so they can see for themselves the beauty and development of the area. The funds will pay for booklets that will be mailed to every Israeli home, pleading the cause of the Gaza Jews. A film, celebrating the beauty and Jewish life in Gush Katif is being made, to be distributed as widely as possible. You can help by sending a tax deductible contribution, made out to: "Friends of Gush Katif" To: Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI 1623 Third Ave., Suite 205 New York, N.Y. 10128. 1-800-235-3658 The need is urgent. The campaign must be launched immediately. It cannot succeed without the help of Jews who want to be certain that "Never Again" will be the reality. Thank you for your genuine caring and concern ...and support!! Americans For A Safe Israel Ken Heller heads the Philadelphia Chapter of Americans For A Safe Israel To Go To Top

RELIABLY UNRELIABLE Posted by Eric Rozenman, March 23, 2004.

Every three or four weeks The Baltimore Sun publishes an editorial on Arab-Israeli news. Predictable as they are wrong, these editorials virtually always deny if not ignore facts and sacrifice logic to prejudged opinion. "Unanswered questions" (March 22) fits the pattern and also typifies The Sun's single-minded focus on Palestinian grievances. The editorial questions Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's proposed unilateral withdrawal in the Gaza Strip. The Sun appears to be wholly concerned with how the potential withdrawal will affect the Palestinians, and not at all concerned with any potential repercussions for the Israelis. Since the unilateral withdrawal idea is also opposed by a significant number of Israelis, it's instructive that The Sun doesn't ask a single question related to their concerns about potentially rewarding terrorism or allowing weapons smuggling to go unfettered. Confused The Sun refers to "Israel's war with Palestinian militants." Clear thinking would have phrased it the "Palestinian terrorists' war against Israel's existence." The editorial mentions "Israel's occupation of lands intended for a Palestinian state." No lands have been so designated. Israel legally occupies the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a result of self-defense in the 1967 Six-Day and 1973 Yom Kippur wars. The territories are disputed, their status to be resolved in accordance with U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 - the bases of, among other things, the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords and last year's U.S. "road map." Sun editorials routinely ignore those parts of the diplomatic record - from the "road map" and Oslo back to Great Britain's League of Nations Mandate for Palestine - that recognize Israel's right to make claims in the territories. The Sun worries about "the Palestinian leadership" and the possibility that unilateral Israeli withdrawal could "further erode any authority Palestinian leaders hold there." The paper asks no questions about the "waiting for Godot" exercise Israel and the United States endured while Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority sabotaged the Oslo process and refused to begin implementing the diplomatic "road map" for peace. Instead of questioning the Palestinians, this editorial follows the Sun's habit of urging U.S. pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The editorial refers to Arafat's "paltry" security force. Early in the current violence, Arafat oversaw 40,000-plus authorized "police" (organized into numerous paramilitary "security" agencies) and tens of thousands more armed men in illegal militias -- not counting those in Hamas and Islamic Jihad. This gave the PA a high ratio of "police" to civilians. It's not that the forces available to Arafat were paltry, but rather that he used them to continue his shoot-talk-shoot strategy. Hence U.S. consideration of potential unilateral Israeli action. Confusion Compounded The Sun claims Israel's unilateral withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000 "saved lives on both sides of the border and removed the primary reason for the Islamic military group Hezbollah's attacks." In fact, many Israeli and Palestinian commentators and officials agree that Israel's precipitous evacuation from Lebanon helped inspire Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade to emulate Hezbollah in the current Palestinian terror war. Any Lebanese lives saved have been offset many times by deaths among Israelis and Palestinian Arabs. Hezbollah is not, as The Sun writes, a "militant group" but a terrorist organization, so listed by the U.S. government. An Iranian-backed Syrian proxy, it seeks the destruction of Israel and to prolong Syria's illegal occupation of Lebanon. And even after a full withdrawal by Israel from the security zone in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah still insists that Israel is occupying part of Lebanon (the Shebaa Farms, which was actually part of Syria, not Lebanon) and continues to intermittently kill Israeli soldiers who patrol the border. About this, the editorial asks no questions. The Sun opines that "If the Bush administration supports the Sharon plan, that will radically shift U.S. policy ... which has operated on the premise of a negotiated settlement ...." Israeli and American policy long has operated on the assumption of a negotiated settlement. But -- and here Sun logic fails again -- negotiations require good-faith partners. The Palestinian Arabs have given no signs of being such partners, despite repeated opportunities. The editorial does not ask why, and so avoids the illumination an answer might give. Uninformed Questions The paper asks other already answered questions as well, including: 1) If Israelis leave Gaza and "Hamas and the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade continue to send suicide bombers" how will Israel respond? Probably with active counter-terrorism, including hot pursuit, as it has in Gaza and the West Bank. 2) "Where would Israel relocate the estimated 7,000 Jewish settlers living in Gaza? Would Sharon bar them from further populating the West Bank settlements? Why should Israelis relocated from Gaza not move to Jewish communities in the disputed West Bank, even to areas that might eventually be part of an Arab state? Does The Sun question the presence of Arab towns in Israel? 3) "Would Israel continue to permit Gaza residents to work in Israel?" Less than two weeks after the terrorist bombings in Ashdod, Israel announced that Arabs from Gaza will be able to return to Israel for work. No doubt, if relative calm returns after the killing of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin in Gaza, the crossings will be reopened. Eric Rozenman is Washington Director of CAMERA, an organization that monitors the news media for fairness in reporting news about Israel. To Go To Top

THE ONE, TEN PUNCH Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, March 23, 2004.

So they finally took out the murderous imp...hundreds of buried and thousands of maimed Jews too late. I know... He was a "militant" and not really a terrorist...meaning his victims were Jews not Gentiles. You know what's really sickening about all of this? Most of the world's reporting... Not only of Israel's assassination of Hamas' Yassin, but of its continuous coverage regarding the organization itself. Journalists simply can't be that stupid...which means that they deliberately engage in misleading journalism. Think about how many times you've heard a reporter or read an account about Hamas blowing up Jews on buses, in restaurants, or in teen nightclubs only to hear or read, along with it, that this was done to "end Israeli occupation." Like it's difficult to access the Hamas websites (or for that matter those of the supposedly "moderate" Palestinian Authority's as well with virtually the same messages) to see what they really mean by "occupation." Or to get a copy of its charter calling for Israel's total destruction. And like the media doesn't know that Israel offered to end that occupation years ago, and was told by the Arabs that that was still not enough. No brainers, Dudes...Yet you'd never know this via the media accounts...at least most of them. Now that Israel has taken the first major step, it needs to follow through. Its enemies mean business, and it's time for the Jews to take off the gloves the way any other people would have done hundreds of dead loved ones earlier. There's something to the saying, "actions speak louder than words." Israeli spokesmen need to review that one a bit. There's no need to telegraph your punch on matters like this, regardless of whatever perceived good it will do. Instead of announcing its war on Hamas' leaders and blowing a lot of hot air, what's needed is a dose of the old time Israeli pizzaz. Taking and targeting many of the top brass out almost simultaneously, for example. There's nothing to lose here. If America threatens to cut aid, Israel must take it on the chin. And it must tell its best friend that these are matters of survival. Hamas is dedicated to the obliteration of Israel and the slaughter of Jews. The world's hypocrites and anti-Semites are not the ones to take guidance from in these regards. The time for fighting with one hand tied behind the back should have been over a long time ago. America wasn't afraid to use its B-52s, B-1s, cruise missiles, bunker busters, etc. when it got hit...and America is a huge nation, the most powerful on Earth... not a country that one needs a magnifying glass to find on a map of the world. It was predictable that thousands of Yassin's fellow plotters and disembowelers of Jewish babes and grandmas would take to the street upon his death, warning of hellish revenge. Israel knew this. So why did it blow another chance to do what really needs to be done? Besides the need to cut off the other heads of the snake, Israel must be ready to take out Hamas killers en masse. If hundreds of Jewish civilians can be deliberately and wantonly slaughtered, then what's wrong with payback for the actual and potential murderers? President Bush has warned America's enemies that those who harbor and collaborate with terrorists will share in their fate. Why is this proper for America but not for the tiny nation which has been the most victimized by Arab rejectionist barbarity? Most Arabs have said that they would reject any Israel, regardless of size, borders, etc. The "moderates" have called Oslo, the so-called "peace negotiations," etc. nothing more than "Trojan Horses." At least Hamas has been honest... So, if Israel wants to weaken its deadly enemy, it must consider the numbers game a bit more. A surprise from above must await the next Arab demonstrations...one that will take them out by the hundreds. And the hell with world opinion...those who fire bombed Dresden, annexed entire nations, nuked Japan, etc, when their own lives and interests were on the line. The Israeli response must be exponential. Each time another Jew is slaughtered, the punishment must be increasingly overwhelming. Nice guys definitely finish last in this game...especially when your real and potential enemies vastly outnumber you. Israel gained no acceptance by trying to do this the "right" and "moral" way. While going house-to-house and the like, deliberately putting its sons in greater harms way in going after the rats in their dens, it was accused of massacres and such anyway. It even got taken to court for building a fence designed to protect its kids from Arab butchers. The Geneva Conventions specifically state that combatants cannot use their civilian populations as human shields...something Arabs do all the time. And those Conventions also state that the presence of civilians does not eliminate such areas as legitimate military targets. So Israel must do what it must do...and in high gear, full speed ahead. Arabs must fear Israel once again. They don't now. That's what works in this region...sad, but true. After dishing out a few rounds like this...again, where each Arab assault is followed by using an Israeli version of America's own "Powell Doctrine'' (i.e. unleashing overwhelming force upon the enemy)...then Israel can step back and let the dust settle a bit. And up the ante further as need be. The very cold "peace" Israel now has with Egypt came about only after President Sadat realized that the price of Israel's destruction would be so great that it would result, at most, only in a Pyrrhic victory. The "Palestinian" Arabs--many, if not most, of whom were newcomers themselves into "Palestine" from elsewhere in the region, including Hamas' "patron saint," Sheikh Izzedin al-Qassam, from Aleppo, Syria (as recorded by the League of Nations Permanent Mandates commission, etc.)--have evidently still not learned this lesson. Until they do, Israel, unfortunately, has to become a more effective teacher. Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has done extensive doctoral studies in Middle Eastern Affairs. He has created and conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been published in dozens of newspapers, magazines, academic journals and websites all around the world. To Go To Top

ILLOGICS I: Europe distances itself from America as Jihad Attacks the Crusades Posted by Evelyn Hayes, March 23, 2004.

Acccording to Webster' dictionary, the Crusades were a series of military expeditions by the Christians of Western Europe which includes Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, to recover Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the Mohammedans from 1096 through the late 1200s. Europe, distancing itself from America is ignoring the attempted attack with poison on London, the promise of attack on France, the actual attack on the railroads of Spain. Europe is ignoring the fact that they are considered infidels. Furthermore, there was no America at the time of the Crusades. Big Lies have strange believers. Malcolm Hoenlein was explaining the terrorism of Yassin the assassinated and the outrage that a murderer was murdered. However, he is not upset that Israel wants to give away Gaza twice because Hamas is killer and killed. Remember Gaza First was a test of Oslo. It failed. Jewish Aza where Jews returned after the Egytian occupation was never contested. Jihad attacks because each rampage forward gets a freed range, first leaving room for another first to feed the unending thirst of those who once felt that no two religions could live in the same Saudi Arabia and now feel no religions can co-exist in the same world. Funny, the Mohammedan religion that supposedly is based on one G-d ignores the Commandments of that G-d and acts like the savages from whom Abraham walked away. Global Democracy is an oxymoron that the democrats would use to further liberalize themselves. Everyone is a crusader, only the America that came after the crusades, is solely guilty because it was attacked and is fighting back, because in one world order how can Peres be a Jew and John Kerry be a crusader? Watch them stage a "We-In" like Spain when they will never be accepted in the Jihad order. A dhimmi is a dummy when he thinks he's part of the Muslim brotherhood that even slaughters its brothers. In reality Global Democracy is sponsored by a Theocracy that is really a reverse crusades against anyone who isn't into jihad and wants to live as an individual in a free country under one G-d with liberty and justice for all including Jews and Christians, Hindus and Buddhists and individuals. As Israel builds fences and Germany lets its walls down, there is no blockage against the subtle infiltrations of the minds of the intellectuals who are too lazy to think. Without individualism, mind manipulation is the largest corporation. Seems oil is more than expensive; it is a derivitive in the substraction of civilization into prime-evil. Europe has suffered the Aryans and now the Palestinians. Two Big Lies confuse a union of nations that lets a non-nation reverse religion and its Commandments and Greater Morality into warlordism and its demands and horrific depravity. As Europe distances itself from America, the distinction between madmen decreases. As Israel welcomes jihad, redeployment by redeployment even though it's unilateral, Israel is less welcome. No thank you, jihad can grow into a world holocaust if all dhimmis are dummies and think their enemies are their friends or just think befriending their enemies will make them safer. Failing Logics I is a left bank with nothing right. Not passing over the illogistics of Big Lies is failing in the course of life, liberty and love. The punishment for being guilty of not thinking is to reverse Descartes' hypothesis, 'I don't think, therefore, I am not going to be.' Think. Think. Evelyn Hayes is author of "The Eleventh Plague, TWINS, us, because their hearts were softened for more." and just released sequel, "The Twelfth Plague, GENERATIONS, because the lion wears stripes." To Go To Top

THE FEAR FACTOR Posted by Ian Fletcher, March 23, 2004.

This article was written by Bret Stephens, editor in chief of the Jerusalem Post. It appeared today on the Editorial Page in the Wall Street Journal. JERUSALEM--Are Palestinians weeds? It would seem many people think they are. Following Israel's assassination early yesterday morning of Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of Hamas,the gist of international reaction was that the strike would bring new converts to the Islamist cause and incite a fresh wave of terrorist violence against Israel. In other words, Palestinians are weeds: Mowing them down, as it were, only has the effect of making them grow back stronger and faster. There are moments (Monday morning was one of them) when I find myself tempted by the metaphor. As I write, my TV screen is filled with images of Palestinian mourners thronging the streets of Gaza, praising Yassin as a martyr and vowing deadly vengeance. This looks like the reaction of an emboldened people, not a frightened one. So what's the sense, in purely utilitarian terms, of further Israeli attacks? Alternatively, what's the sense of showing any restraint at all? If the weed metaphor is right, either Israel should sue for peace on whatever terms the Palestinians extend or it should resort to extreme measures like population transfer. Anything else just fruitlessly prolongs a cycle of violence. But of course Palestinians aren't weeds. They're human. They think in terms of costs and benefits, they calculate the odds, they respond more or less rationally to incentives and disincentives. And what makes us afraid can also make them afraid. This is a trite observation, but it's one Palestinians would rather have us forget. Over 42 months of conflict, their strategy has been to persuade Israelis that they, the Palestinians, are made of different stuff. Why else the suicide bombers? Not because of their proven capacity to kill civilians in greater numbers than any other weapon currently in the Palestinian arsenal. That's only a second-order effect. The deep logic of suicide bombing lies in the act of suicide itself. People who will readily die for their cause are, by definition, beyond deterrence. By showing that Israel's tanks and fighter jets are just so much scrap metal in the face of the Palestinians' superhuman determination, they aim to disarm Israel itself. How does one respond to such a logic? It helps not to be fooled by it. Again, allow me to make the trite observation that Palestinians love their children too. To date, there has not been a single instance in which a Hamas leader sent one of his own sons or daughters on a suicide mission. I once interviewed a Hamas leader, since deceased, as he bounced his one-year-old girl on his knee. Contrary to myth, this was not a man who was afraid of nothing. Unsparing as he was with the lives of others, he was circumspect when it came to the lives of his own. Indeed, when one looks closely at just who the suicide bombers are (or were), often they turn out to be society's outcasts. Take Reem Salah al-Rahashi, a mother of two, who in January murdered four Israeli soldiers at the Erez checkpoint on the Gaza-Israel border. In a prerecorded video, Rahashi said becoming a shaheed was her lifelong dream. Later it emerged she'd been caught in an extramarital affair, and that her husband and lover had arranged her "martyrdom operation" as an honorable way to settle the matter. It is with such people, not with themselves, that Palestinian leaders attempt to demonstrate their own fearlessness. In the early months of the intifada, this macho pretense was sustained by the Israeli government's tacit decision not to target terrorist ringleaders, for fear such attacks would inspire massive retaliation. Yassin and his closest associates considered themselves immune from Israeli reprisals and operated in the open. What followed was the bloodiest terrorist onslaught in Israeli history, climaxing in a massacre at Netanya in March 2002. After that, Israel invaded the West Bank and began to target terrorist leaders more aggressively. The results, in terms of lives saved, were dramatic. In 2003, the number of Israeli terrorist fatalities declined by more than 50% from the previous year, to 213 from 451. The overall number of attacks also declined, to 3,823 in 2003 from 5,301 in 2002, a drop of 30%. In the spring of 2003, Israel stepped up its campaign of targeted assassinations, including a failed attempt on Yassin's deputy, Abdel Aziz Rantisi. Wise heads said Israel had done nothing except incite the Palestinians to greater violence. Instead, Hamas and other Islamic terrorist groups agreed unilaterally to a cease-fire. In this context, it bears notice that between 2002 and 2003 the number of Palestinian fatalities also declined significantly, from 1,000 to about 700. The reason here is obvious: As the leaders of Palestinian terror groups were picked off and their operations were disrupted, they were unable to carry out the kind of frequent, large-scale attacks that had provoked Israel's large-scale reprisals. Terrorism is a top-down business, not vice versa. Targeted assassinations not only got rid of the most guilty but diminished the risk of open combat between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian foot soldiers. Now a few words about Yassin, the international reaction to his killing, and the likely result for Israel. It may be recalled that Israel released the good sheikh in 1997, after having sentenced him to life in prison, with the promise that he would never again promote terrorism. This was during the Oslo years, when serious people actually thought that such conciliatory gestures served the interests of peace. Today, that is beyond comprehension. At any rate, Yassin didn't keep his promise. Meanwhile, assorted foreign ministers are in full throat against Israel. "All of us understand Israel's need to protect itself--and it is fully entitled to do that - against the terrorism that affects it, within international law," says British Foreign Minister Jack Straw. "But it is not entitled to go in for this kind of unlawful killing." It would be interesting to know exactly what, according to Mr. Straw, Israel is lawfully allowed to do in self-defense. Perhaps it would be as well if the minister also reminded the Palestinian Authority of its obligations, under the Road Map, to "undertake visible efforts... to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning attacks on Israelis." But if Mr. Straw and his colleagues do not do so, it is not from an excess of respect for the Palestinians, but rather its lack. They will, after all, be viewing them merely as weeds, not as humans capable of acting in their own best interests. To Go To Top

ISRAEL KILLS HER TORMENTER Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 23, 2004.

Israel kills her tormenter and the world, even some Jews, say: "For Shame!" When President George Bush said: "You are either with us against the terrorists or you are with the terrorists", I'm sure he would include those planning terror attacks and sending young people out to blow themselves and Jews up on the streets of Israel. So, IF Israel doesn't eliminate the terrorists in her midst then she is NOT fighting the Global War against Terror - which President George Bush has rightly declared is necessary. This has become correctly known as "The Bush Doctrine" and Bush may be the first leader to acknowledge that terror is a global problem to be attacked by all. For years an evil old man sent out missions of killers, even children, with bombs in their backpacks or strapped to their bodies to kill and maim Jews in the most horrible ways possible. [Note a brief rap sheet of crimes attributable to Sheikh Yassin at the end of this article.] This old man created Hamas (which means "zeal" in Arabic) long recognized by those who now condemn Israel, as a terrorist organization. It can be expected when men such as Kofi Annan, Hosni Mubarak, Jack Straw, DeVillapin, et al condemn the killing of Yassin as illegal, unjust, against the rule of International Law because they have shown their opinion of Jews for years. These same complainers had ignored the incubation of Terror, mostly in the Middle East, because the Arab nations represented oil and obscene profits. International Law requires and accepts deadly response to terrorists' attacks - except for Israel who must bow to laws of appeasement. Expected too is the comment by the non-Jewish Jew, Shimon Peres, when he said: "Terror can be liquidated by liquidating the reasons for terror, not the leaders." If we use the Peres formula, Israel's existence, according to Peres, is the reason for terrorists and thus it follows that Israel would have to be liquidated in order to appease the terrorists. As for the world leaders who condemn Israel for finally responding after years of vain restraint demanded of her by these same world leaders, well, Hell isn't big enough or hot enough for all of them. All recognized that Muslim Terrorism has been incubating for the last 30 years. The world not only recognized this phenomenon but sold them the weapons to eventually castrate these decadent world leaders. Oh, you didn't know that one of the practices of Muslim Terrorist warfare is to castrate their enemy and stuff their parts into these enemies mouth as a final insult to their manhood? This practice is a psychological act for suspicions of their own manhood. Pride and Shame are two of the pillars of Islam and woe to the enemy who defeats them. They believe that it is their right to win. Whenever one of Yassin's or Arafat's killers managed to kill a few or many Israelis, the world's leaders would issue a pro-forma condemnation of both the killers and Israel's victims equally as if they were the same. They had reams of pre-printed condemnation letters which only needed a signature which was only for a disingenuous comment - as if they really cared. The Europeans told the Israelis not to respond or retaliate for the most heinous bloody terror acts while they were sending millions in Euros to the terrorists. They thought (as decadent Europeans) that they could bribe the mix of terrorists to kill elsewhere and NOT on their soil. Kill Israelis and we will keep paying, only don't kill us good Europeans. See, we hate the Jews as much as you do. Haven't we, as Christians, proven that over the centuries. We are your partners; we are your friends. Just keep on selling us your oil and you can kill as many Jews as you like. Well, Spain got her answer. Who's next? Many Arab leaders and their spokesman are babbling about the start of another Jihad (Islamic Holy War). Since 1948 these leaders and radical Mullahs have issued Fatwas declaring Jihad against the Jews and the Jewish State. The Jihad against the Jews never stopped, notwithstanding speeches by Arafat about continuing the fake "peace process" to trick the gullible West. The majority of Media Pundits take on a somber visage and repeat the babblings of Muslims who foam at the mouth (Arafat really does) in rage because for over 55 years they have not been able to crush the Jewish State of Israel. The War by Islam against the West has been there even before 1948 because these Islamists hate everyone in the non-Muslim world. Jews, Christians - even Muslims of sects different from their own. Even the European bribers are targets for take-over as Muslims move to become a majority in France, the Netherlands, England and wherever else they are allowed a foothold. Does anyone believe that this decadent scum who refuse to face down terror in their own nations would ever try to rescue Israel should she begin to look like she was losing a war? Hopefully, Israel will continue to take out the senders of Muslim terrorists such as Arafat, Rantisi, Dahlan, Nasrallah and the others. Let them take out the terrorists and forget about collateral damage give that their "collaterals" love and idolize their terrorists and cheer the exploits of the homicide martyrs. America does just that because it's necessary to target terrorists who use the crowds, the children and youths as camouflage. I spoke about decadent Europeans but, there are many Americans and would-be Presidents who are annoyed at the Bush War against Global Terrorism. In America we have hundreds of thousands of Muslims who secretly cheer when Americans are killed in Iraq or Afghanistan - or when Israel takes a vicious hit by homicide bombers. When, NOT IF, America suffers another 9/11, perhaps these whiners will change their tiny minds or simply slink off in silence. The uncivilized world of Islam is at war with the civilized, democratic Free West. Through the centuries they have risen up at different times to show their true character of savagery. Ignore all this blabber about Islam being a kind, peaceful religion. (If only.) But, let's be realistic. We are seeing true Islam in all nations where they manage to become a critical mass. There they attack their generous host governments and intimidate the population by their aggressive behavior. As for Israel, she will never have a day of peace until all Muslim Arabs live across the Jordan River, or go back to the nations they came from. Clearly, the mere sight or existence of a free, thriving, sovereign Jewish State send them into hysterical rioting mobs who swarm like locusts or flies. Not so strangely, it was G-d's instruction in Tanach (the Hebrew Bible) that the Jews "rid yourselves of the idol worshipers and pagan tribes in the Land of Israel, Eretz Yisrael, lest they plague you all your lives." Not bad advise! The Arab Muslims have proven themselves to be an evil, war-like people who can tolerate no one but their own kind. Even then they kill each other unless held down by brutal leaders who understand their own people. Perhaps this is why they aim their killers out to the others, the Jews, the Westerners, the Americans, the Christians. Remember what George Bush said: "Either you're with us in the War against Global Terror or you are with the Terrorists." Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm) To Go To Top

PASSOVER SUPPLIES SENT TO INDIA Posted by Michael Freund, March 23, 2004.

The Bnei Menashe, a group claiming descent from a lost tribe of Israel, will enjoy a kosher for Passover festival this year thanks to provisions being sent from Jerusalem. The Amishav organization, which reaches out and assists "lost Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people, has arranged for the dispatch of hundreds of kilograms of matza and dozens of bottles of kosher for Passover wine to the Bnei Menashe, who reside in the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur. "Passover is full of symbolic and religious meaning for the Bnei Menashe," said Michael Freund, Amishav's Director and an Arutz-7 radio and television host. "They are anxious to observe its rituals to the fullest extent possible, so we have sent them the supplies they need in order to do so.  An Amishav emissary will conduct a traditional Seder at the group's Hebrew Center, located in Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram. Local government ministers, as well as some 350 members of the Bnei Menashe, are expected to attend. Freund noted that up until the arrival of British missionaries in northeastern India a century ago, the Bnei Menashe had celebrated an annual springtime festival known as "Chapchar Khut", corresponding to Passover. As part of the ritual, he added, a village priest would sacrifice an animal, and then spread it on the doorposts of his home, just as the Jewish people had done in Egypt at the time of the Exodus. The priest would then separate the meat from the bones of the animal's carcass with particular care, as even one broken bone would invalidate it for use in the sacrifice. "This, of course, mirrors the law of the korban Pesach (the Passover sacrifice), where the Torah says that not one bone of it may be broken," Freund said. Then, while offering the animal on an altar to G-d, the priest would recite a series of ancient chants, one of which read as follows: "We had to cross the Red Sea, our enemies were coming after us with chariots, the Sea swallowed them all as if they were meat. We were led by the cloud during the day, and by fire at night. Take those birds for the food, and drink water coming out from the rock." The Bnei Menashe claim descent from the tribe of Manasseh, one of the ten tribes exiled from the Land of Israel by the Assyrians more than 2700 years ago. In the past decade, Amishav has brought more than 800 Bnei Menashe to Israel, where they undergo a formal return to Judaism via conversion by the Chief Rabbinate. Approximately 6,000 Bnei Menashe remain in India, all of whom wish to make aliyah. Since June of last year, however, Interior Minister Avraham Poraz of Shinui has refused to allow them to come. This appeared in Arutz-Sheva and is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=59955 To Go To Top

THEY KILL ONLY JEWS Posted by Arlene Peck, March 23, 2004.

Someone sent me a joke in the e-mail today, where Osama Bin-Laden calls Yasser Arafat and says, -"Listen, Yassi, there is something that I don't understand. We are both terrorists, we both killed thousands of innocent people, but all the world is hunting only me, and at the same time you are the honorable Nobel-Prize for Peace Winner! What is your secret?" " Oh, it is very simple, Osammame. I kill only Jews!" Now, saying that, we have a problem. The double standard is alive and well and functioning all over the world. Logically, the Jewish state would be well aware of this troubling fact and, act accordingly. They are in a war. Not a "conflict" with "militants" and "activists" but, with a barbaric and savage, dysfunctional culture that wants to kill them... dead! In fact, these are the same enemies that we, in the United States and all those folks who voted for terrorism in Spain and the rest of the world, are facing. It has recently become apparent that the raging Muslims over the hill now have their sights set on the Sunday crowd also. We, under the sporadic leadership of George Bush, are facing unbelievable problems at the moment that have no end in sight. The influx from America's borders, are like a leaking ship. The sea of illegal immigrants, are bringing our very civil structure down. Or economy is going down the tubes because of them and fighting their damn terrorism is beginning to make our Social Security look like a thing of the past. Hey, I'm so old I remember when we had a state called Florida and a wonderful vacation spot named Miami Beach. Ah, but that was before Jimmy Carter and his "open door" policy and thousands and thousands of Haitians and Cubans were encouraged by him to flee the oppression of their countries. Fidel Castro gladly acceded to his wishes and opened up all of his jails and mental institutions and sent them on the boats to the new life in the United States. President Bush is in the process of doing the same thing to California and a few neighboring states because of his great friendship with Mexican President Fox. Thousands of illegal Mexicans cross our borders daily and immediately go on our tax and social service rolls. Jobs are being lost at an alarming rate. It's almost impossible to call for airline reservations or get technical help with any of the major companies and not get someone from India or the Philippines helping you. I don't even want to think about how many Islamic terrorists are also crossing these open borders with Canada and Mexico. The reason I mention this, is because, we, in the United States are making blunders incredibly often in both domestic and foreign affairs. Yet, this is a government that the present Israeli leaders seem to be taking their orders from. Bush and our State Dept. turn the screws a little tighter and Israel caves in faster than Spain after their latest 9/11. Somewhere along the way, Isreal began to do what those in Spain did by capitulating to the terrorists. Our war on drugs was defined by the quote, "Just say No". Why is it impossible for both the United States AND Israelis leaders to remember that Israel is a sovereign country? It's time to remind them that the Jewish State is not a Banana republic which must take orders from the Americans, EU, United Nations and especially the Arab dictatorships. A good part of this group would love to see the demise of every Jew in the area. It's illogical to try and negotiate with a culture which for the large part have become "killing machines." And, at the very least believe in the creed of evil and death. These are people who happily live in tunnels and caves if the light at the end of the tunnel is a school or bus to bomb. All they understand is force. It's very basic. Sharon seems to finally "getting it". Now that the cruel leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, has been eliminated the flame of terrorism is going to burn higher. I hope that Isreal isn't alone in fighting this resulting battle between good and evil. Britain, has already come out in condemnation along with the EU, UN, and Israel's good friend, Hosni Mubarak who of course never stopped the flow of arms from his tunnels. It's too bad that they don't remember what Churchill had to say when he said, "The appeaser is the one who hopes the crocodile will eat you last." I hope Sharon will not be forced into appeasement and continues to believe that when you are dealing with savage barbarians, you can't let their evil seduce you. Nor, can you reason with people who not only want to kill you but everyone who differs them and their sick ideology. The world deplores the terrorists when terrible things happen around the globe. Except of course, when they happen in Isreal. Then, they are incidents caused by "militants" or activists. Our President repeats the mantra... "The war on terrorism" at every opportunity. Great! I'm all for it! I've said it before but it bears repeating. The terrorism isn't about land. Never has been. It's about the very existence of the Jewish State. It's down to Them vs. Us. This war can be won and quickly. But not if they decide to talk it to death. The time for apologies are over! Maybe it's time for Israel and its leaders to start repeating the words they seem to forgotten, Never Again! Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess. She can be reached at: bestredhead@earthlink.net and www.arlenepeck.com To Go To Top

THE U.S. INSTITUTE OF PEACE STUMBLES Posted by IsrAlert, March 23, 2004.

Isralert's source for this item: Isralert contributing commentator Daniel Pipes http://www.danielpipes.org/article/1659 http://daily.nysun.com/standard/ShowStoryTemplate.asp?Path=NYS/ 2004/03/23&ID=Ar00701&Section=Foreign. Thia article appeared in the New York Sun, March 23, 2004. The author is Daniel Pipes, an expert on the Middle East, who was, despite Muslim opposition, appointed to the Institute of Peace board. His webiste address is http://www.DanielPipes.org. Daniel Pipes sends out a mailing of his writings 2-3 times a week.)Sign up for related (but non-duplicating) e-mail services: Middle East Forum (media alerts, event reports, MEQ articles): http://www.meforum.org/subscribe.php Campus Watch (research, news items, press releases): http://www.campus-watch.org/subscribe.php Middle East Intelligence Bulletin (monthly publication): http://meib.org/maillist_survey.htm Last week, I became a whistleblower. (According to Merriam-Webster, a whistleblower is someone "who reveals wrongdoing within an organization to the public or to those in positions of authority.") This is not a role I expected or sought, but I felt compelled to go public when the U.S. Institute of Peace, in Washington, D.C., the taxpayer-funded organization to whose board President Bush appointed me, insisted on co-hosting an event with a group closely associated with radical Islam. That group is the Washington-based Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy; the event was a workshop that took place - over my strenuous objections - on March 19. Most of CSID's Muslim personnel are radicals. I brought one such person in particular, Kamran Bokhari, to the attention of USIP's leadership. Mr. Bokhari is a fellow at CSID; as such, he is someone CSID's board of directors deems an expert "with high integrity and a good reputation." As a fellow, Mr. Bokhari may participate in the election of CSID's board of directors. He is, in short, integral to the CSID. Mr. Bokhari also happens to have served for years as the North American spokesman for Al-Muhajiroun, perhaps the most extreme Islamist group operating in the West. For example, it celebrated the first anniversary of 9/11 with a conference titled," Towering Day in History." It celebrated the second anniversary by hailing "The Magnificent 19." Its Web site currently features a picture of the U.S. Capitol building exploding. Nor is Al-Muhajiroun's evil restricted to words and pictures. Its London-based leader, Omar bin Bakri Muhammad, has acknowledged recruiting jihadists to fight in such hotspots as Kashmir, Afghanistan, and Chechnya. At least one Al-Muhajiroun member went to Israel to engage in suicide terrorism. Al-Muhajiroun appears to be connected to one of the 9/11 hijackers, Hani Hanjour. USIP's indirect association with Al-Muhajiroun has many pernicious consequences. Perhaps the most consequential of these is the legitimacy USIP inadvertently confers on Mr. Bokhari and CSID, permitting radicals to pass themselves off as moderates. That legitimation follows an assumption that USIP carefully vetted CSID before working with it. But USIP did nothing of the sort. When its leadership insisted on working with CSID, it explained its reasons: "The CSID is assessed by relevant government organizations and credible NGOs supported by the Administration to be an appropriate organization for involvement in publicly funded projects organized by both the government and NGOs, including the Institute." Translated from bureaucratese, this says: "Others have worked with CSID, so why not us?" But such buck-passing means that in fact no one does due diligence - each organization relies on those that came before. Once in the door, a disreputable organization like CSID acquires a mainstream aura. Or it does until its true identity becomes clear. Over and over again, branches of the American government have been embarrassed by their blindness to jihadist Islam. Ask the presidential candidate who had himself photographed smiling side-by-side with an Islamist who soon after was imprisoned for terrorist activities. Ask the U.S. military, which has arrested or convicted at least seven Islamists for criminal activity connected to jihad. Ask the New York State prison system, which recently awoke up to the fact that one of its chaplains announced that God had inflicted 9/11 as punishment on the wicked - and the victims got what they deserved. Ask the mayor of Boston who had city land sold to the Islamic Society of Boston for less than 10% of market value, only to learn later that the organization is closely associated with one jihadi extremist banned from entering America, another sitting in federal prison, and a third who welcomes suicide bombings against Israelis as "glad tidings." In all these cases, no one was minding the store. The lesson is simple but burdensome: each governmental institution must do its own research. In the war on terror, it is not enough to deploy the police and the military; it is just as necessary to recognize and reject those who develop the ideas that eventually lead to violence. The American government needs to wake up to those elements in its midst whose allegiance in the war on terror is on the other side. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

APPEASEMENT OF TERROR, NOT ITS ELIMINATION, IS DANGEROUS Posted by Americans For A Safe Israel, March 23, 2004.

Herbert Zweibon, Chairman of Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI, applauds the elimination by the IDF of Hamas leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin. He states, "The removal of the arch Hamas terrorist leader was something that should have been done a long time ago. His Hamas organization is responsible for over 50 "major" terrorist attacks against Israel since the infamous Oslo agreement was signed in 1993, claiming hundreds of lives and wounding many hundreds more." Zweibon continued, "The August 19,2003 bus bombing in Jerusalem killed 22 people and wounded 135, the March 27, 2002 bombing at the Park Hotel in Netanya, murdered 22 and wounded 140, and the June 1, 2001 massacre at the Dolphinarium Disco in Tel Aviv took 21 young lives, wounding 120. These are only three of the ghastly attacks perpetrated by Hamas in the last three years. "The victims included citizens of Israel, the U.S., the former Soviet Union, Ethiopia, Romania, Thailand, Norway, and South Africa. They were primarily innocent family members, babies, toddlers, teenagers, students, parents and grandparents. They were murdered on their way to school and work, celebrating the Passover holiday, and enjoying a night out after completing their exams. Any compassion felt towards Hamas and its murderous leader is sorely misplaced." In conclusion, Zweibon quotes a top Israeli army officer about the problem of terror. The officer said, "The army has the capability to eliminate the terrorists in Gaza in less than a week." Zweibon asserts. "The appeasement of the enemy all these years, urged by the major countries of the world, has led us to this dangerous point in history, where Hamas, joined by other terrorist organizations, now threatens America and the western world. The elimination of terror, not its appeasement, is what is necessary. Israel is engaged in a war of survival requiring decisive military action to achieve victory. It needs courageous leadership to wage this war successfully." Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI) is an activist organization. It was in the forefront of opposition to the Oslo Accords and its subsequent clones. It can be contacted by mail at: 1623 Third Ave., Rm. 205, New York, N.Y. 10128; Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717; afsi@rcn.com; http://www.asfsi.org To Go To Top

MACHIAVELLI'S ADVICE ABOUT MIDDLE EAST PEACE Posted by Leo Rennert, March 23, 2004.

I wrote this to David Ignatius of the Washinton Post. I read with keen interest your Post column of March 23 in which you question whether Israel might not be better off ignoring Machiavelli's famous advice -- "It is much safer to be feared than loved." In the aftermath of Sheik Yassin's assassination, you suggest that "sometimes it may actually be safer to be loved than feared. An Israel that took risks for peace might find unexpected rewards." What you overlook, however, is that Israel, since its founding, repeatedly took risks for peace only to reap "unexpected rewards" in the form of Arab and Palestinian hostility, war, violence and terrorism. Look back on Israel's "love" strategy in 1947-48 when it accepted the U.N. partition plan, then after 1967 with the Allon Plan, in the 1990s with staged withdrawals from Palestinian population centers under Oslo, and in 2000-2001 at Camp David and Taba when Israel offered Yasir Arafat a viable, contiguous Palestinian state in 96 percent of the West Bank (with land swaps to make it 100 percent), all of the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the lion's share of Jerusalem's Old City. Each time, as in the Peanuts comic strip, Lucy yanked the football away. Arab armies sought to obliterate the Jewish state. Israel was rewarded with two intifadas. Even before Yassin's assassination, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Arafat were committed to Israel's eventual destruction. If there's one more big dose of Israeli "love," will you be ready to help man lifeboats for escaping Israelis off Haifa and Tel Aviv? To Go To Top

DEATH KNELL TO SECULAR LEADERSHIP Posted by Ruth and Nadia Matar, March 23, 2004.

One has to search in vain among our present Jewish Leadership for someone who believes and is faithful to what is written in the Bible. The latest pronouncement of Netanyahu is very typical of secular leadership and its thinking. He has set conditions before he would approve of Sharon's plan to uproot Jews from the Promised Land. Netanyahu does not take seriously the words of the Prophet Ezekiel that no Jewish Leader is permitted to relinquish the inheritance of the entire Jewish People (Ezekiel 46:18). The inheritance of the Jewish People is not Sharon's or Netanyahu's to give away. Every Inch of this Promised Land, belongs to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that is the entire Jewish People, whether living in Israel or outside of the Holy Land. Sharon can decide to give his farm that he has acquired during his lifetime, to both or either of his sons, or to anyone else. But he cannot decide to give up the Land promised to the Jewish People by the Almighty. That Promise is an integral aspect of Jewish Law, and is an eternal inheritance. No generation, and no Jewish Government in a Jewish State has the right, or the authority to bind present or future generations of the Jewish People with regard to parting with any portion of this inheritance. Ben Gurion stated these crucial facts back in 1933 to an International Zionist gathering in Basel. Sadly, he later was pressured to change this view. Unfortunately, that occurs when secular leaders lack knowledge of what is required of them by the Torah. Ben Gurion was a serious student of the Bible, but he was not religious, nor did he possess the necessary faith in the Lord's Promises. Subsequent leaders of the Jewish People in Israel have also been secular. When pressured, they fully succumbed. They did not possess the strength and belief in Jewish Law, which is part and parcel of every religious and Bible-believing Jew. No matter what the pressure, or the source of such pressure, no matter what is demanded of him, a believing Jew will not go against Jewish Law, nor defy the Will of G-d. Believing in the Bible, and the Lord's repeated Promises to the Jewish People, he will never waiver. Their faith and belief in G-d has preserved the Jewish People down through the ages. They had a related belief, a belief in Jewish Destiny. Secularization has worked havoc with these fundamental values. Trust in G-d's Will, has always been characteristic of the Jewish People. Even the disastrous Holocaust, followed as it was by the rebirth of Israel, carried with it an important message for religious Jews: Zion was being reborn out of the ashes of Auschwitz. With the miraculous return to Zion, Jewish Destiny was being fulfilled. Those who objectively witnessed this awesome event, saw that the Hand of G-d was directly involved. The Jewish People desperately need to cast off the yoke of secular leadership, and return to their basic faith and belief in the One G-d of this Universe. Their faith in the Promised Land as a Holy Land must be restored. The glory and pride in being Jewish, that once existed for the Jewish People during the days of the Psalmist King David, can and must reign in the reborn Land of Israel. We first must rid ourselves from secular leadership, and restore G-d and His Prophets to their rightful place in our everyday life. Amen. Selah! Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

OPEN LETTER TO THE FOGGY FOLKS Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, March 23, 2004.

I continue to read of your State Department's criticism of Israel regarding the fate of the disputed territories. It seems, unfortunately, that President Bush has bought into your positions as well. As a proud American who knows his own nation's history reasonably well, I find this a bit perplexing...to say the least. But more on this later... You, who bucked President Truman's recognition of a newly-reborn Israel in the first place in 1948, don't like Israel's security fence, especially it's possible route. I know...You claim that you are only acting "in America's best interests," and those of us who disagree with you are therefore disloyal. Malarky! Using this same reasoning, you're now doing the same number on some 30 million stateless Kurds today -- while insisting on a 23rd Arab state -- that you tried to do to post-Holocaust stateless Jews. You, who rejected bombing the railroad tracks leading to Auschwitz (while our bombers were flying over the town itself), and gave orders to the U.S. Navy to chase the German liner S.S. Saint Louis away from the Florida shoreline so its Jews wound up in Nazi ovens instead, now also insist that Jews cave in to all Arab demands regarding the disputed -- not "occupied" -- territories. There was no sovereign power legally in control of Judea and Samaria, the "West Bank," when Israel took control of these lands from Jordan in a war that the latter helped start by joining Egypt's Nasser in his adventures designed to eradicate Israel in May of 1967. The Hashemites had earlier seized those unapportioned parts of the Mandate -- open to settlement by all peoples -- in their earlier attempt, along with other Arab states, to nip a reborn Israel in the bud in 1948. Only Great Britain -- whose officers led the Transjordanian Arab Legion -- and Pakistan recognized this acquistion. Disputed...not occupied. You claim that Israel must stick to the "Green Line" of its 9-mile wide, armistice line-existence. I'll bet you folks drive further than that just to get to work. And let's not mention the territories our own nation came to possess, control, or manipulate -- some thousands of miles away -- in the name of our own national security interests. Does the name Manuel Noriega and dozens of others ring a bell? And what's Guam and Guantanimo Bay all about? No one else really had any choice in these matters -- and hundreds others like them -- did they? I'm not arguing that we didn't have our reasons...but we're the most powerful nation on Earth, and our borders extend three thousand miles from coast to coast. Is not a little empathy for our tiny, embattled ally -- Israel -- in order here in these same regards? You seem unable to figure out that Israel's 9-mile wide, artificially-imposed existence was a travesty of justice in desperate need of rectification. The post-'48 armistice lines were never meant to be final borders. I realize that you folks don't want the second Arab state that is to be created within the original borders of Palestine as Britain received it on April 25, 1920 (Jordan emerging in 1922 on some 80% of the whole) to be a "bantustan," but whatever the size, shape, etc. that proposed 23rd Arab state might eventually be, justice demands that it must not come at the expense of security of the sole, miniscule, resurrected state of the Jews. But, then again, your colleagues opposed that resurrection in the first place. And, once again, I don't see them supporting a "roadmap" for some thirty million stateless Kurds either. It seems that justice for Arabs takes precedence over justice for everyone else with you guys. So understand the concerns that many of us have. You parrot the Arab call for Israel to return to those pre-Six Day War suicidal lines. Yet you know full well that the very architects of the final version of UN Resolution # 242 -- Eugene Rostow, Arthur Goldberg, etc. -- had no such plans in mind...despite what Arabs claim today. And they've written extensively about this, as have legal experts such as William O'Brien and others on related issues. While they did not envision Israel holding on to large amounts of territory, they also did not expect a return to the status quo ante given the fact that Israel had just fought a defensive war after being blockaded -- a casus belli -- at the Straits of Tiran and other hostile acts. And they stressed that any withdrawal must be linked to a total cessation of hostilities (not Arafat's temporary "Peace of the Quraysh" designed, in the Arabs' own words, as a "Trojan Horse") and the creation of secure and recognized borders to replace those fragile lines that you now insist Israel retreat to. Please don't offer the advice that Israel is prejudicing the outcome of negotiations. You know full well that Arabs still want all of Israel proper (take a look at their maps, websites, etc.)...so don't think that we're all stupid and expect them to agree to a permanent compromise over the disputed territories. Disputed...not "Palestinian" Arab lands. One more time. This must sink in...though I know it won't. As leading experts have explained, those lands were non-apportioned parts of the Mandate, and all residents of the Mandate had the right to settle there. Indeed, as recorded by the League of Nations' Permanent Mandates Commission and others as well, scores--if not hundreds--of thousands of Arabs poured into these areas and Israel proper from surrounding Arab states -- i.e. Arab settlers setting up Arab settlements -- because of Jewish capital developing the land. Why do you consider Arabs in these areas "legal" but Judeans -- Jews -- in Judea not? I'm sure that you're quite aware that most of Israel's population and industry lies in that narrow waist area bordering Judea and Samaria, the "West Bank." Those lands were not called by that latter name until British imperialism entered the scene in the early 20th century and Transjordan later seized the west bank of the Jordan River in 1948. Jews lived and owned land there until they were massacred by Arabs. Arabs would have never even known of Abraham's tomb in Hebron without the scriptures of the Jews they disembowel and despise. If Judea must become Judenrein, then should Israel become Arabrein? Think about that a bit. I can, unfortunately, build a better case for the latter than you can for the former. Israel has suffered, proportionally, many times over our 9/11. Yet, when tragedy hit our own home, you unleashed your leader's famous "Powell Doctrine"...massive retaliation against our enemies. B-52s, B-1s, Stealth bombers, cruise missiles, and such along with daisy cutter and bunker-buster bombs did our negotiating for us. And we insisted in toppling the regimes that were responsible and targeted their leaders. When we thought we knew where Saddam was dining, we leveled the place -- innocent civilians and all. In short, despite your claims of differences, the hypocrisy and double standards stink...and many red-blooded Americans are among those who smell the stench. Asking Israel to return to the Green Line when you know full well that Arabs have continuously responded that even a total Israeli withdrawal would still not make it "acceptable" is sickening. You're fully aware of the Arabs' "destruction in phases" strategy that they've spoken about since post-'67. Many of us were hoping--despite the continuous influence of Big Oil and other multinational corporations -- that the historical anti-Semitic, let alone anti-Zionist, stance of your Department could finally be moderated. Your current unfair demands of a beleaguered ally do not bode well for this. Your position is nothing short of a disgrace on the honor of our great nation. Hopefully the Administration will come to its senses. Israel, the sole State of the Jews, should not be expected to sacrifice itself on the petroleum-greased altar of international hypocrisy so that Arabs can have their 23rd. Now I know this will tick you off, but, like it or not, many see an analogy to pre-World War II Czechoslovakia and the Sudetenland here. You really don't want to buy "peace for all time " in Judea and Samaria today the way Mr. Chamberlain sacrificed his Czech "friends" to Hitler at Munich, do you? Demanding microscopic Israel to forsake necessary minor adjustments -- i.e. extending its width from nine to perhaps fifteen or twenty miles -- in light of the nature of the rejectionist enemy it faces is unfair, plain and simple. Other nations, including our own, have changed their borders and acquired territories for far less. Gerald A. Honigman is a contributing writer for Jewish Xpress magazine (http://www.jewishxpress.com), a monthly publication based in southern Florida. His background is in Middle Eastern Affairs. His articles and op-eds have been published in dozens of newspapers, magazines, academic journals and websites all around the world. To Go To Top

VOICE OF JUDEA COMMENTARY Posted by Voice of Judea, March 23, 2004.

1. Egypt pulls out of peace celebrations Egypt is pulling out of celebrations of the Camp David peace accords in protest over the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin. "What peace? The world's on fire," Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Monday after Israeli helicopters killed Yassin, Hamas' founder, in Gaza. Friday marks 25 years since Egypt became the first Arab nation to make peace with Israel. Voice of Judea Commentary: Indeed, what peace? 2. Federman Rally - Dov Shurin Freedom Concert Jews from throughout Israel are expected to fill Zion Square in Jerusalem, Today at 6:00 PM in a demonstration demanding the release of Noam Federman, a resident of Hebron and former Kach activist who has been placed in jail, under administrative detention, without trial. Federman has been in jail for the past 6 months. Shaul Moufaz has recently signed for an additional six month administrative order. Federman is the only Jew under administrative detention in all of Israel. Many fear that the Israeli government will launch additional arrests to silence legal opposition to Sharon. At Tuesday's rally, Dov Shurin will be holding a free "Freedom Concert". 3. Anti-Semitism in Toronto More episodes of anti-Semitic vandalism took place in Toronto. Unknown perpetrators broke seven stained-glass windows at the Pride of Israel Synagogue and spray-painted swastikas and anti-Semitic messages at various locations along Bathurst Street. Also, United Jewish Appeals signs in the city were defaced and swastikas were painted on a clothing donation box. The damage was discovered Saturday morning. In a separate incident discovered early Sunday, 22 cemetery tombstones were toppled in the nearby Bathurst-Lawn Jewish Cemetery. The incidents took place only days after vandals spray-painted swastikas and hateful messages in a Jewish neighborhood in the Toronto suburb of Thornhill. Voice of Judea Commentary: 10 Good Reasons To Come Home To Israel: 1- It's Jewish law to live in Eretz Israel. 2- For the spiritual sake of our children. 3- Anti-Semitism is rampant in the Exile. 4- Movies like the "Passion" fuel old passions? 5- Moslem inspired violence and hatred is spreading. 6- White Nazis and racists. 7- Black haters and haters. 8- Economic uncertainty and the Jewish scapegoat that always emerges. 9- Jews and Israel will be blamed for Islamic terrorists attacking U.S. targets, just as Spanish voters punished their government for the recent terror attacks. 10- There is no future for the Jew outside of Israel. 4- Why did Sharon kill Yasin now? According to all of the major political commentators in Israel, the timing of the Yassin assassination was in no way coincidental. All agree that Sharon timed the assassination with yesterday's no confidence motions, to neutralize right-wing opposition to his plans to soon surrender Jewish Gaza. Yasin's role in orchestrating massacres against Jews is nothing new to the Israeli security community. Israel intends on leaving Gaza proudly and not with their tail between their legs, as was the case when they left Lebanon under fire. Israel intends on hitting the Hamas hard until the withdrawal so as to diminish the feeling of victory on the part of the Arab terrorists. Voice of Judea Commentary: 1- In reality, Yasin is a reflection of general Arab sentiment in Gaza. The majority of Arabs support homicidal suicidal terrorist attacks against Jews. A recent Maariv poll showed that 25 percent of Arab children dream of killing themselves and Jews in a "Martyr's death". Yasin is not the problem. Just as Arafat is not the problem. We have a problem with a society that supports the annihilation of every Jew and the entire state of Israel. 2- There is nothing Israel can do that can turn their surrendering Gaza into a victory. Yes, Sharon can enjoy a short lived political victory among Jews, silencing his right wing opposition. But no Arab will consider the surrender of Gaza to be a victory for the Jews. The Jews are experts at creating a feeling of hope in the hearts of their enemies. Jews inspire the Arabs to kill more Jews by showing that they can achieve their goals through terror. The two most dangerous components are hate and hope. There is nothing we can do to get the Arabs to love us. But there is much that can be done to instill fear in their hearts and to shatter their belief that they are winning. Israel continues to build Arab hopes, aspirations and expectations with every additional concession. Every Israeli surrender strengthens the Arab resolve to intensify the fight against the Jews. Every surrender is interpreted as weakness by the Arabs. Everybody knows that Sharon is fighting a losing battle of! delusions and illusions by hitting at isolated Arab terrorist targets. Killing Yassin is a good thing. But killing Yassin and trying to convince us that this will in some way change the loss of Gaza into a victory is an exercise in futility. Killing Yassin takes on new meaning only if Israel decides to wipe out the Hamas and the PLO and to drive the hostile Arabs out of Gaza entirely. Then, it is a stepping stone in the right direction. Now it is being done with the opposite intention. Yassin was killed to facilitate the expulsion of the Jews and the surrender of Gaza, by neutralizing credible right wing opposition. The Arabs understand that Israel has one foot out of Gaza. Sharon may be fooling his pseudo right wing coalition but he is not fooling the Arabs. The Arabs know that Sharon has not declared war but that he is running away and trying to score political points at home, looking tough, to be able to carry out his surrender. Nobody on the right will bring Sharon down "while he is fighting a war against terrorism." Some people fight wars to win wars and save the lives of their citizens. It is not strange in military tactics to trap your enemy and fake defeat, or to sacrifice one battle to win the overall war. General Sharon is brilliant at tactics. Sharon is doing the exact opposite - he is staging a victory to be able to deliver surrender and defeat, in the end. Sharon has effectively crushed his right wing opposition as he marches on to surrender Gaza and parts of Judea and Samaria. Sharon is a dangerous man. He is dangerous to the people he marks as his enemy. In 1973 the Egyptians were his enemy. Now, after he has entered politics, his biggest enemies are the political forces that conspire against him. He has marked the Yesha enterprise as his new enemy and he will do whatever it takes to crush his political rivals. Don't be fooled by his renewed fighting spirit. However, things may spiral out of control, forcing Sharon out of office or forcing him to commence a real war against the Arabs. The website address of Voice of Judea is http://www.voiceofjudea.com. Subscribe by writing listmaster@voiceofjudea.net To Go To Top

FATAH CALLS ISRAEL "OCCUPIED" Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 22, 2004.

When Fatah owned up to having lunched the fatal attack in Ashdod, in the State of Israel, it called that municipality "occupied territory." (IMRA, 3/14.) Fatah is under the control of Arafat, who also controls the P.A.. Thus we find that the Arabs use the term "occupied," loosely. To the Arabs, "occupied" territory is land they once had seized. They use the term without regard to its established meaning. They use it as a pejorative, to manipulate politically correct people. Like Pavlov's dogs, politically correct people act on cue when they hear certain loaded terms. Since the P.A. calls Israel occupied, it would all the more easily attack Israel again if it had sovereignty over Yesha, which it currently is seeking. Many leftists cannot see beyond the Arabs' immediate demands for land. The leftists mistakenly assume, contrary to Arab doctrine, with which they studiously are unfamiliar, that if the Arabs' immediate demands were met, their thirst for land would be quenched. In assisting the Arabs' to meet their immediate demands, however, Israeli leftists take a self-defeating step in assisting the Arabs to meet their further demands. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

SUBVERSION IN THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 22, 2004.

[We excluding those genuine unbiased hard-working diplomats.] Some officials and bureaucrats in the U.S. State Department have friends in high places that have never been investigated for their personal advocacy of nations hostile to the U.S. Often it appears that segments of the State Department has become a magnet, a refuge and an operational base for individuals who have their own agenda with loyalties to foreign and business interests inconsistent with the best interests of the American people. During WWII several well-researched books demonstrate that the State Department officials had become fellow travelers with certain German interests. (1) This includes banking, industry, saving SS Generals and, above all, protecting industrialists who engaged in slave labor during WWII. Thus, the State Department joined in de facto and de jure maneuvers with Hitler's planned "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". There is little doubt that the State Department has been and remains virulently anti-Semitic with policies that conflict with those of the American public. No organization worked as hard to defeat the partitioning of Israel into a homeland for the Jews than the State Department - in deference to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, etc. When they lost that battle in 1948, they dedicated themselves to pro-Arab/anti-Israel manipulations both in Washington and through the Embassies or Consulates of the 22 Arab and/or Muslim countries. Add to that the Embassies and Consulates in those European countries who not only had a bias against Jews but were tight with the Arab Muslim nations who wanted Israel destroyed. Do the expressions come to mind such as: "Crimes Against Humanity", "War Crimes" or "Genocide"? The State Department's Middle East desk knew very well that the Saudis taught hatred of America as well as hatred of Jews and Christians. Their "madrassas" (Islamic schools that teach radical fundamentalist Islam) were not hidden but, the State Department bureaucrats closed their eyes in deference to the special linkage to both Saudi Arabia and the American oil companies who had enormous influence at the Sate Department. Then, of course, there are those diplomats who, having collaborated with their host government while employed by America, leave their post and go to work privately in Washington for very high salaries to lobby Congress, the Administration and continue to "unofficially" work with these old pals at State. Even today, with the exposure of the Saudis financing world Islamic Terror, there has not been a call by Congress or the President to investigate the Saudi connection to Global Terror or 9/11. Three thousand Americans (and others) were snuffed out in a few minutes by 15 Saudis and 4 Egyptians, with the State Department scurrying about to control the damage to these nations. One would think that the State Department is independent of the United States presidential administrations and, in many aspects, you would be correct. The media have remained silent lest they lose their connection at State and not slipped those tips State wants leaked. After 9/11, in the belly of the beast, the phone wires were burning up with calls to journalists, editors, publishers, TV news anchors to downplay or, at least, to soften the impression to the American people. After all, it was the Saudis and Egyptians who had to be shielded from the rage of the American people. According to State, 'somehow' the Saudi government and/or the Egyptian government were not really anti-American and the State Department rolled over. Today, based upon required reports to the Congress about Palestinian compliance with their Oslo obligations, the State Department is the key to $200 million taxpayers' dollars going to Arab and the Palestinian Authority every year. It was the legal requirement by Congressional rule that the State Department was to be the gatekeeper in terms of a yearly report of PA compliance. Every year the pro-Arab, anti-Semitic State Department falsified its report to the Congress that, indeed, Arafat and the P.A. had complied with the requirement of No Terror. Normally, for such continuous fraud on the Congress through falsified reports, one would think there would be an investigation. Perhaps even a few of these scoundrels should be spending some years in the Federal Penitentiary but, no. They were protected by friends in high places or possibly they had certain knowledge against Presidents and Congressmen of deeds that they were complicit in what amounted to old-fashioned blackmail "J. Edgar Hoover" style through secret file. (I wonder where Hoover's blackmail files finally ended up?) The State Department was shielded for its years of acting as enablers to allow potentially dangerous Islamists free immigration - totally safe from investigation. They browbeat the FBI and CIA so that even the most egregious acts by Arabs Muslims against American interests were not to be investigated. Should one of the 'sleeper cells' of radical Islamo-facism manage to hit any of our cities again, you might thank the U.S. State Department for their assistance in opening the gates for Arab/Muslim immigration from even the rogue Terrorist nations to allow them entry without carful screening. Did Congress call for an inquiry into the State Department's assistance to Arab nations - resulting in those 'sleeper cells' or into the universities loaded with Muslim extremists, many enrolled in classes for Nuclear Physics, Biology and Chemistry? The Blame Game centered on the FBI who, indeed, failed its mandate but not because they personally chose to ignore Islamists and Muslims raising money for Terror via organizations with 'Charity-sounding' names. The FBI was a convenient fall guy to protect the State Department who quashed any investigations of Arabs or Muslims lest their Arab-friendly nations be offended. Any diligent FBI or CIA agent knew very well that investigating Arabs and/or Muslims before 9/11 could bring down the wrath of the State Department so due diligence wasn't a good career move. It was very strange that they knew who the hijacking bombers were by 9/12. That information was in the 'inbox' of the various surveillance agencies but they had not read it yet or they had no Arab speakers to interpret it. This is still a major failing derived from the "hear no evil, speak no evil" attitude at State descending down to the FBI and CIA. It would appear that the State Department has a dark, subversive side as indicated from its protection of war criminals during and after the German Nazi period, through their Arabist period, through 9/11 Terrorist period and onward. Unlike presidents who can serve only up to 8 years or Congressmen and women who can serve until voted out of office, the U.S. State Department is a perpetual motion machine. Its staff can stay until they either retire or die. Which means that this institution which pretends to adhere to Presidential or Congressional policy when, in fact, they do pretty much as they please. Governments come and go but, State is there forever. Like many corporations that do not clean house periodically, you have lots of dead wood and mouse droppings in dusty corners at State. (No wonder they call it "Foggy Bottom".) There is no real oversight by Congress so those with special connections to special interests never get ferreted out. Congress has no idea how many Aldrich Ames, Hansens or Walker brothers (spies finally discovered in the CIA), or other moles are embedded at State who owe their loyalty to European nations, Arab oil dictatorships or multi-national oil and energy corporations. No investigations, no audits, no probing, no accountability for false reports to the Congress or to the nation. This institution who all assume is harnessed to American interests and the voice of the people is more like a giant computer who unplugged itself long ago and no one noticed that it was running on its own power and for its own power. (Like "Hal" in the 2001 Space Odyssey?) As I said earlier, perhaps State has the dirt on many politicians who fear to get tough on this "unholy" mechanism. It would appear that the State Department's tail is indeed wagging the dog of American foreign policy. This a dangerous condition for a democratic nation which should be challenged and changed. Let us demand that the investigative media start digging underground, Woodward & Bernstein style to force a reluctant Congress to clean up the State Department's house. Bounce the subversives with allegiance to other interests. Put the bit back in the teeth of this runaway animal. We have had our first 9/11 with others to follow. We do not need an institution who feels that it must protect terrorist nations based upon commerce or diplomats who find pricy employment after they leave State. Let's have at it! Send this to your local and national media and to the Congress, demanding a real investigation as opposed to those phony constituted pleasing hearings where a few Congressman look good but do absolutely nothing. ### Short List of Key References "The Splendid Blond Beast: Money, Law & Genocide in the 20th Century" by Christopher Simpson Grove Press NY 1993 "The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People - 1920-1992" by John Loftus & Mark Aarons St. Martin's Press 1994 "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans & the Holocaust" by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen Alfred A. Knopf New York 1996 "Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq" by Alan Friedman Bantam Books New York 1993 "The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq" by Kenneth Timmerman Houghton Mifflin New York 1991 "The American House of Saud: the Secret Petro-dollar Connection" by Steven Emerson Franklin Watts New York 1985 "The High Cost of Peace: How Washington's Middle East Policy Left America Vulnerable to Terrorism" by Yossef Bodansky by Prima Publishing of Random House California 2002 "Betrayal: The Story of Aldrich Ames, An American Spy" by Tim Weiner, David Johnston & Neil A. Lewis Random House New York 1995 Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm) To Go To Top

PRESIDENT BUSH - SANCTION SYRIA Posted by Jerusalem Prayer Team, March 22, 2004.

The Bush administration is facing a deadline set by the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act, and must soon determine what sanctions to institute against the government of Bashar al-Asad. Why are these sanctions necessary? 1. Syria continues to provide an open pipeline for Islamic terrorists (or as they are called in Syria, "resistance volunteers") to ply their deadly trade against the U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, and against the Iraqi people. # Despite a promise to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Asad has provided Hizballah with 220-millimeter rockets capable of threatening Israeli cities. The Syrian secret police have taken up residence in Lebanon to maintain control over the Lebanese people, and to keep open another pipeline for Hizballah terrorists to gain access to Israel. (Syria made a show of reigning in Hizballah only after Israel struck a terrorist training camp near Damascus in October 2003.) # Syria provided night-vision goggles, antitank weapons, aircraft parts and ammunition to Hussein's forces. # A State Department spokesperson stated last May: "They [Syria] have allowed al-Qaeda personnel to come in and virtually settle in Syria with Asad's knowledge and support." # Terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad continue to operate in Syria, apparently with Asad's blessing. Because of unrest in Syria in the form of unprecedented demonstrations in support of President Bush, Washington faces the challenge of being able to use this internal discontent as leverage for encouraging changes in the Asad regime's behavior. It is time for the Bush administration to implement the Syrian Accountability Act set forth in May 2003. Sign our letter to President Bush asking him to Stop Syria! The purpose of that document is: To halt Syrian support for terrorism, end its occupation of Lebanon, stop its development of weapons of mass destruction, cease its illegal importation of Iraqi oil, and hold Syria accountable for its role in the Middle East, and for other purposes. In spite of the fact that Israel has totally complied with UN Resolution 425 (total withdrawal of all troops from Lebanon) Syria permits attacks on civilian targets in Israel. The Israeli-Lebanese border and much of southern Lebanon are under the control of Hizballah, which continues to attack Israeli positions and allows Iranian Revolutionary Guards and other militant groups to operate freely in the area, destabilizing the entire region. Sign the letter to President Bush today asking him to impose the necessary sanctions on Syria to halt the infiltration of terrorists from Syria into Iraq. The lives of American service men and women are at stake. A democratic government in Iraq is at stake. The ability to halt future attacks inside the borders of Israel is at stake. The Jerusalem Prayer Team is a prayer movement of people, whose members include some 300 prominent Christian leaders. Its website address is http://www.jerusalemprayerteam.org To Go To Top

THE WORLD'S DOUBLE STANDARD IN CONDEMNING ISRAEL Posted by Leo Rennert, March 22, 2004.

Since the turn of the century, under the "spiritual" direction of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, Hamas launched 425 terrorist attacks against Israel that killed 377 people and wounded more than 2,000. On a per-capita comparison scale, these atrocities dwarf the 9/11 toll by a factor of more than six times. Yet world leaders who now condemn Israel raised no protest when President Bush, in the aftermath of 9/11, approved plans to hunt down and eliminate leaders of al Qaeda and the Taliban. Battered by more than three years of Hamas atrocities, Israel adopted the same strategy and caught up with the perpetrator-in-chief. If Osama Bin Laden, al Qaeda's "spiritual leader," suffered the same fate, would Israel's critics also shed tears? To Go To Top

AMERICAN BAPTIST MINISTERS VISIT GUSH KATIF, GAZA Posted by Dror Vanunu, March 22, 2004.

Forty-five Baptist ministers and a USArmy reserves general visited Gush Katif on Friday. The ministers, from States as diverse as Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma, Maryland, Texas, Illinois and Washington. The group visited Kfar Darom, met with soldiers, visited the hothouses of Anita Tucker in Nezer Hazani, and heard talks by Ami Shaked and Moshe Saperstein in Neve Dekalim. The ministers expressed their support for the brave residents of Gush Katif, and their strong opposition to PM Sharon's disengagement plan. The sole diplomatic initiative they support would be the annexation by Israel of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. They promised that immediately upon return to the US they would lobby the Bush administration to stop Sharon's plan. To Go To Top

THE BASIS BY WHICH GOVERNMENTS STAND: Building An Alliance Among its Allied Peoples Posted by Yocheved Golani and Moshe Kerr, March 22, 2004.

Israel's Domestic Dilemma The Jewish nation is terribly divided against itself (a fact evidenced by emigration statistics, spats between secularists and religious Jews and between various groups of religious Jews, six economically crippling Histadrut strikes in the past eighteen months). As a body, it is threatened by the lack of a solution to the lingering and explosive Genocidal War on Israeli Jews and an international boycott. Pressures upon Israel's governing body and military from the World Court, the UN, and international boycotts are further deteriorating the direction of the Knesset and the military and thus local morale. Our multicultural people, who vary widely in their worldviews, are presently confused as to the role of Israel's government, and the government seems rather unstable given the five and counting no-confidence votes of March 2004. Israel is haunted by the need for a defense from hostile, genocidal residents and hostile, genocidal neighboring countries, international censure, an ongoing debate regarding a Jewishly versus secularly accented body of law, etc. Israel needs to reengineer itself, to be reborn as a functional, healthy society. As former Chief Rabbi Meir Lau announced at the March 15-17 2004 Jerusalem conference and at a Labor party meeting three years ago, "... After 55 years, the Knesset has not, to this day, found the time to take five days and discuss what exactly this Jewish State we have created is meant to be. The words 'Jewish State' are mentioned 22 times in Israel's Declaration of Independence - not "State of the Jews" but rather "Jewish State" - and yet the Knesset has never found time to define just what that means." Future Stability for Israel Depends on Capable Leadership and a Productive Internal Alliance Given all that, future stability for our State depends upon capable leadership and the alliance that it must develop among Israel's citizens. Statecraft of this nature for the tiny Jewish homeland requires an intra-Jewish diplomacy of dialogue rather than the baffling, counterproductive behind-closed-doors policies that apparently reign today (Prime Minister Sharon's hotly contested Unilateral Withdrawal Plan is but one example of such policies). Israelis want to stand up for themselves, and perhaps they would if they could only determine who they are and what they want as a body politic. Open communication channels would require that the citizens of the Jewish State assume upon themselves the obligations of sharing an alliance with all inhabitants of the land: defense from hostile, genocidal residents and hostile, genocidal neighboring countries, international censure, a Jewishly versus secularly accented body of law, etc. Peoples not willing to accept the responsibilities of this alliance would consequently lose political or economic rights. It thus would not be in the interests of disagreeable or murderous foreigners to stay or to live in Israel for long. Israel would retaliate against internal and external dissent in order to protect the majority members of its consensual society. An illustration of this principle is to think of how unwise it is to commit mass murder and mayhem on the US and its allies. The US and her allies track the whereabouts of resident enemies, limiting access to sensitive locations and information, and imprisoning, deporting or executing malcontents who threaten the safety and freedoms of law-abiding citizens. Alliances Determine a Society's Agenda and its Domestic Ethical Containment Force The first task of any new, democratic government is to form an alliance with the diverse, possibly dispersed peoples it will govern. Then the "led" members of that society will be able to understand and to approve of the government's agenda. The consensus can also give rise to understandings that will be protected on the formative, defining and public documents of the society and to its desired domestic accomplishments. As the alliance between the governing body and the governed public develops, a moral code or domestic ethical containment force is inevitably and simultaneously established (within those protective documents). The moral borders of an established society would naturally and simultaneously rest on the cultural alliance(s) of the people within that society. With the alliance thus accomplished and the issues settled, statecraft can commence. It would make a good case scenario for beleaguered Israel. Statecraft Commences and Endure Statecraft requires great wisdom on behalf of political leaders and political advisors so that a society's alliance endures. In Israel's case, political leaders must consider, then resolve several pressing issues such as "How Israel will build its people and lands in the face of ethnic differences," "What measurements Israeli leaders will employ in order to ascertain Israel's success and failure?" (e.g., Economic wealth? Military supremacy over hostile regional states? Moral Imperatives to which other entities must acquiesce?). Open Dialogue as a Primary Function within Allied Israel Once the primary function of an institutionalized, allied Israeli government became established (those open channels of dialog among its allied peoples during crises of heated dispute), less pressing matters, whatever they prove to be, would become secondary issues. A strong economy would certainly become a strong candidate for a secondary issue. For Israel, a strong economy can perhaps be more easily attained than popularly believed. According to Globus' year 2001 report, Israel's Gross Domestic Product stood at $13,330.00. Syria ranked $3,280.00, Egypt $3,520 and Turkey $5,890.00. According to NASDAQ, Israel is technologically poised to dominate the debuting WI-FI industry in 2004. Israel's Automatically Unifying Force Before Israel becomes an economic force to be reckoned with, it has to make sure that the country doesn't collapse of its own cultural weight. Israel's multitude of Jews hails from different parts of the world, with vastly different world-views and cultural experiences. Therefore, Israel's unification must lie with a common denominator that overrides uncontrollably varied experiences unique to former localities and ways of life. A unified Israel's definition of desired domestic accomplishments also must speak in a language broad enough so that her diverse peoples can build trust-based, working relationships with one another, relationships that imply mutually agreed-upon terms of responsibility and liability. Quite naturally, the language of such a social contract must rest on a common value system and knowledge base. That's simple to say, complex but necessary to achieve. Luckily for Israel, a 2,500-year old solution exists in the Torah, Judaism's sacred text of history and nascent law. It is what Rabbi Lau alluded to in his recent remarks. Jewish leadership can guide and direct its peoples with the historically enduring tool of Toraitic laws of adjudication, a thread binding our peoples because it is woven through the fabric of our common history and common exile among the nations. A Divine Authority leads the Torah's laws of self-determining statehood. Those laws encompass economic enterprise and economic policies that demand nominal charitable contributions and courts of law. These laws have always been applicable to all Jews, regardless of individual adherence to Toraitic law, and to non-Jewish residents in Israel. This reality exists because the Torah's form of government does not stand upon religious faith but upon Justice. The commitment to ensure the sanctity of Toraitic law requires tremendous moral strength. The issues, then, become 1) Who is morally suitable to apply these laws on a judicial basis and 2) How do they develop a government whose sole purpose rests upon establishing dialog among its allied peoples? Political Science Reality and Torah-true Israel Torah-true leadership places constitutional limits (these exist in the body of halacha, Jewish law) upon public servants by limiting how legislation can be imposed upon its governed populations. Any government institution or political party with an agenda that establishes laws not based upon interpreting the intent of the Torah/Constitution constitutes as an illegal seizure of power and a revolution against the constitutional authority of the Torah. Historic precedent proves this to be true: When King Saul became the government rather than an agent of the government, his kingship deteriorated. A Jewish king does not constitute the head of government. The institutional body that interprets the intent of the Constitution is the head of State and the king functions as an agent of the State. The king's function is to enforce the laws that a judicial legislature interprets. A law has no legal mandate if it lacks precedent, a logical basis with the Constitution (Toraitic and otherwise). Achieving Priorities This rigorous discipline of interpreting the Constitution (based on Toraitic Law in Israel's case) enables the judicial legislature to employ the same logical techniques for applying diplomacy among Israel's allied heterogeneous population. The goal of that Toraitic constitution is for disparate groups among our allied peoples to enjoy equal opportunities to talk with, rather than at, one another. Once a stable Israeli government supplies a forum in which heterogeneous populations can communicate and understand the intents and/or perspective of differing and opposing populations, we can then focus upon other secondary issues such as foreign policy If You Can't Comply with the State of Israel, You Will Not Benefit from it As a nation among the Community of Nations, Israel possesses a mandate that determines the parameters of the Jewish State. Arabs and any other non-Jews who desire to live within the borders of the State and enjoy the benefits of Israeli citizenship must accept the obligation of also making a solemn alliance with the constitutional authority of the state (resident alien, or Ger Toshav in Hebrew). That alliance is known as the Seven Noachide Commandments (Shivat Mitzvot B'nai Noach). Refusal to accept the Noachide obligations of the Israel's government instructs the king to remove these illegal populations from the lands of Israel. Arabs and other non-Jews who accept the alliance of Noach with the Zionist state may volunteer to serve in the army, and enjoy the benefits of citizenship. Private beliefs cannot be legislated away, and a Toraitic allowance is made for such differences. Outside the Muslim or any other non-Jewish home in Israel, the only legitimate non-Jewish lifestyle is compliance with Shivat Mitzvot B'nai Noach. Zionism does not recognize the principal of separation of State and religion. Zionism does not deny the existence belief in foreign gods among the nations and therefore isn't occupied with validating or denying other belief systems. However, the Creator has a sworn covenant with His people, the Jews to, establish justice in our lands. Torah law is not a merely a belief system. Our covenant/brit with the Creator does not depend on our personal beliefs in the event that we lose our awareness of Him. It depends on the commandment He gave for acquiescence to Torah law, whether or not we like it, whether or not we want to comply. The obligation and the measure of Zionist statecraft therefore rest upon establishing Justice/Diplomacy among our allied peoples, the measure of Israel's wisdom. By this measure alone shall Israel stand among the community of nations. Other forms of statecraft fall in the category of non-Jewish political philosophy. Allied Israel Chai! Psalm 105:8-15 specifies that G-D deeds Israel to the Jews. For anyone who unquestioningly accepted King David's premise and poetry, who never had it expunged from their liturgy, it's a hypocritical development after two thousand of years of singing Psalms in church to suddenly dispute Jewish claims to The Land of Israel. It is unconscionable to support Israel's detractors as she strives to protect her borders. An allied Israel working with the consensus of its disparate residents will not be threatened with annihilation from within or without. An allied Israel will be able to defend its integrity swiftly and rationally. As King David sang in Psalm 129:4-5, (G-D will cut the ropes of the wicked/Let them be ashamed and turn back, all who hate Zion). As Israel considers the outcomes of the raging genocide upon Israel's Jews, the recent B'Sheva Conference and the candidacy of Moshe Feiglin, an Allied Israel is a matter of increasing urgency. Sidebar: The forum through which the government enables disparate allied groups currently in dispute over particular issues is not a building in which representatives of the divergent allied parties may come and talk together. Rather, it is diplomats sent by the government to gather and to compile opinions, statements and views of each disparate party, employing the same logical tools used by the judicial legislature that interprets the Torah as the constitution of the State. By those same means the judicial legislature may judge the intent of parties in dispute and by means of diplomats convey how they interpret the intent of all parties involved in the particular dispute to all parties. If the disputing parties still fail to resolve their dispute the party/ies may ask the judicial legislature to rule on the case and empower the king to enforce their ruling. The end result would be for Israel's multifaceted population to be at odds with itself, a reality illustrated by the present debate over withdrawal and several subsequent no-confidence votes within the Knesset. Israel has thus been distracted from minding more fundamental issues, such as shoring up an economy reeling from the international boycott related to the genocide, and to a dismal educational system that is more patchwork than pedagogy. The country is in dire need of a solution in order to thrive. To Go To Top

HAMAS SAYS: "YOU CAN'T KILL OUR KILLERS!" Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 22, 2004.

It's instructive to observe Arab terrorists claim the right to plan terror, murder innocent civilians but, when their leaders are attacked, they cry "unfair". Israel's pin-point bomb killed the Palestinian counterpart of Osama Bin Laden, the Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder and spiritual leader of the prime terrorist organization of Hamas on Monday morning March 22. Arab Muslims are threatening bloody revenge - which would ironic if the facts of their unremitting terror were not irrefutable facts. Hamas in their hysterical frustration, screams it will take revenge against Israel and America. Here again, terror speaks as they use any excuse to kill any non-Muslims who oppose them. It is true that America, like Israel, is fighting terror. But the Terrorists want a one-way street, that is - to kill but not to be killed. Sheik Yassin was in every way the Arab Palestinian twin of Osama Bin Laden in terms of his responsibility for planning and promoting more deaths than any other terror group. Sheik Yassin cynically used the religion of Islam to send women and children (as well as boys and men) to blow themselves up in order to kill hundreds and maim thousands of Israelis. Hamas means "zeal" in Arabic and is responsible for more homicide bombing deaths than any other terrorist groups. Some of the news pundits are trying to soften his image with an appeal for sympathy by portraying him as a quadriplegic in a wheel chair. Do they believe him less of a terrorist because he had debilities from a childhood accident? Besides hundreds of dead Israelis (as well as Americans, Arabs and Christians) hundreds more will live in wheelchairs for the rest of their lives and many have nails in their bodies from the bombs Yassin sent. It is true that America is trying to kill Osama Bin Laden and his second-in-command Ayman al-Zawaziri for planning and enabling terror, especially as 9/11. This is what the nations must do to fight terror. Hamas, echoed by Fatah, called for vengeance against Israeli and Jewish targets overseas, because their typical Muslim killer was himself responsible for hundreds of killings and wounding of thousands more. Hamas called on Muslims the owrld over to join battle against Israel. So, why isn't it 'OK' for Israel to seek vengeance on their killers or to pre-emptively prevent more violent terrorist attacks? Not so - according to Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak who says killing Yassin was a "cowardly act". This is the word from Mubarak who has personally allowed Arab Palestinian smuggling tunnels to include terrorists transiting Egypt into Gaza unimpeded. Yassin said publically in a FOX NEWS interview with Jennifer Griffin: "All Israel from the Jordan to the Mediterranean is Islamic land. I issued a "Fatwa" (Islamic religious edict) to resist Americans in Iraq. Legal and right to fight the Americans". (Taped earlier, rebroadcast March 22) Muslim terrorist leaders are saying this is an attack on Islam. Perhaps these Muslims have forgotten that it was Yassin who issued "Fatwas" for Islam to war on Israel and America. This was followed by homicide bombings and suicide attacks, further proving that Islam was at war - not only against Israel and America but, the entire non-Muslim West. For a brief moment we have seen the old warrior, Arik Sharon, emerge to protect his people. Will he continue? No one knows. Israel has rid the world of a terrorist murderer. American should be proud if she can do the same. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm) To Go To Top

RESPONSES TO TERROR Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, March 22, 2004.

So yesterday morning I was lamenting to my husband that even if we in Israel saw Arafat's head served-up on a silver platter tomorrow, how could we celebrate the event or even laugh after so much damage, trauma and grief etc...etc...etc... But by last night I was laughing as the news broke about twins being born to 54 year old Margaret Kikis. Two years ago, the Kikis's son, Beni -a medic in the IDF, was killed in a terror attack. But that family wasted no time in reaffirming their commitment to life. As the new mom said, "It's not an exchange. It's a completion. It's a continuation." What a brilliant response to terror!! So, it was a little out of character, but I poured myself a glass of white wine and said a private Mazal Tov and L'Chaim to the Kikis family. And at 6:30AM this morning I saw the news reports coming off of the Internet about the demise of Yassin and company, and I cried for joy. My husband, who had returned from early minyan with one of my sons, burst in the door and asked if it was true. In a highly uncommon response, he pulled a bottle of vodka down from the shelf and made a L'Chaim. On the last day of Adar, our joy was increased and we had a second taste of Purim. I can now look forward to the miracles of Nissan. Is it too early to celebrate? Am I being reckless? Shouldn't I be quaking and waiting for the Arab's fury to be unleashed? Well, I am apprehensive about what will be, but Sharon's response (as delayed as it was) was obligatory, and a continued and unrelenting military response is required of us. The worst thing we could do at this time would be to listen to the messages coming out of the White House and show "restraint". We have a long overdue job to perform and we must not hesitate! I noticed that Jack Straw was one of the first European voices to respond. He said Israel was not entitled to carry out "this kind of unlawful killing, which we condemn." Well, my response to British Foreign Secretary Straw can be taken directly from Obadia 1:18. I won't quote it here for fear of being accused of incitement. We Jews have not kicked off World War III, but the groundwork may have been laid on the White House lawn just over a decade ago. The only Anti-Semitic response I'm really concerned about is the one that could come from all the good people of this world who have been waiting for a proper response to terror on the part of Israel. They want to know why we we've spent so much time listening to the voices of the world who plan our demise rather than taking care of the snakes that have been allowed to propagate in our backyard. In addition to a decisive military reaction, prayer on the part of all of us would be a good response. So, may all of the extreme anger and rage that has been generated by Yassin's death fall upon those who mourn for him. Ellen Horowitz lives in the Golan Heights, Israel with her husband and six children. She is a painter, columnist for Israelnationalnews,com and co-founder of helpingisrael.com. She can be contacted through her website http://www.artfromzion.com To Go To Top

SHEIKH YASSIN'S 'HAPPIEST DAY' Posted by Honest Reporting, March 22, 2004.

Early Monday morning, the IDF struck and killed Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the founder and leader of Hamas. Since early media reports misrepresented the IDF strike in a number of fundamental ways, HonestReporting encourages subscribers to be on the lookout for these four myths, and to respond appropriately with the facts: MYTH 1: The Yassin strike will escalate the violence Nearly all news reports claimed within the first two sentences that the IDF strike is "likely to escalate violence," and constitutes "an enormous gamble by Sharon" that "risks triggering a dramatic escalation in bloodshed." (Associated Press) This claim - which belongs on the editorial page, not in the same breath as the actual news report of the event - was so widespread that one almost forgets that it represents only the Palestinian position: The official PA statement characterized the Israeli strike as inviting "more violence and further escalation." The absent Israeli position: Though terrorist efforts may increase temporarily, in the long run the elimination of Yassin will upset Hamas' leadership and violent capabilities, and serve as an essential deterrent to ongoing Palestinian terror. As Israeli spokesman Avi Pazner said: His elimination will serve peace in the long run. He is personally responsible for all the most dreadful attacks in Israel. He was a dangerous extremist Islamic ideologist. He was danger to the entire region. By eliminating this threat to peace we will improve chances for a better Middle East. Responsible news reports should either convey both positions, or neither. MYTH 2: Yassin was an impotent old man BBC profiled Yassin as "a frail man who could barely see. His voice was thin and quavering." The Evening Standard prominently quoted the UK Foreign Secretary, who said "he did not believe that Israel would benefit from the killing of an old man in a wheelchair." Actually, Yassin was in a wheelchair since age 12, when a sporting accident left him paralyzed. It's self-evident, therefore, that being wheelchair-bound never hampered Yassin's ability to orchestrate unprecedented terror - he founded Hamas in 1987 and proved perfectly capable of building the organization to its current strength from a sitting position. Moreover, Yassin has had enough wherewithal in the recent years to direct dozens of heinous terrorist attacks, leaving Yassin's hands drenched in Israeli blood. HonestReporting encourages readers to check that articles present this essential information on Yassin's terror record. AP completely omitted any reference to Yassin's connection to terrorism until the final sentence of their report, and then only referred to Israel "blaming" Yassin for "inspiring" Hamas bombers. MYTH 3: Yassin was a 'spiritual leader' who deserved immunity AFP, like most agencies, described Yassin as "the Islamist movement's spiritual guide," which suggests to a western audience that Yassin operated in a peaceful, contemplative realm aside from the violence, and was therefore unfairly targeted by the IDF. BBC went so far to say Yassin was "a powerful inspiration for young Palestinians disillusioned with the collapse of peace hopes." CNN calls Yassin a spiritual leader (unquoted), but then puts scare quotes around Israel's reference to him as a "terrorist." Actually, Yassin's brand of 'spirituality' is the very ideological and emotional fuel that drives Palestinian (and worldwide Islamic) terrorism, the plague of our age. Yassin continually called for suicide terrorism as a religious obligation, and even said about himself that "the day in which I will die as a shahid [martyr] will be the happiest day of my life." (Al-Quds, July 26, 1998) As Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Sofer said: [Yassin] was not a spiritual leader. This term does injustice to the term 'spiritual leader' and an insult to real spiritual leaders. He was a terrorist mastermind. MYTH 4: Israel's strike creates a western threat of Islamic terror After Hamas released a statement that threatened radical Islamic retaliation beyond Israel's borders, AP called this an 'unprecedented' threat, triggered by Israel: For the first time, Hamas also threatened the United States, saying America's backing of Israel made the assassination possible...In the past, Hamas leaders have insisted their struggle is against Israel and that they would not get involved in causes by militant Muslims in other parts of the world. Today's statement suggested that Hamas might seek outside help in carrying out revenge attacks, since its capabilities have been limited by Israeli military strikes. This is simply untrue - Yassin himself had long called upon world Islamic terrorists to join with Hamas in global jihad. MEMRI reported in March, 2003 that on the Hamas website, "Sheikh Ahmad Yassin called on the Islamic nation 'to strike at Western interests everywhere if Iraq is conquered.'" And just two weeks ago, Hamas announced its commitment to "the global level of the Islamic world" as the reason for its choosing British suicide bombers to murder Israelis at Tel Aviv's Mike's Place in 2003. Honest Reporting monitors the media for inaccuracy and unfairness in how they report the news about ISrael. Ther website address is http://www.honestreporting.com To Go To Top

LET THEM CATERWAUL - IT IS TIME TO CELEBRATE Posted by Steven Plaut, March 22, 2004.

It does not Matter what the Israel Bashers Now Say And it does not matter that it is much too little and much too late. It does not matter that the anti-Semitic scum of the world is already whining that the assassination of the Bloody Sheikh, the genocidal Yassin, was "illegal" and an "obstacle" to peace. Any peace for which the killing of Yassin is an "obstacle" is one that should be prevented at all costs. It does not matter that Israeli leftists, including Avraham Poraz from the Shinui party, are already denouncing the killing of the sheikh and would no doubt also denounce a targeted assassination of Hitler had they been alive in 1943, or the targeted assassination of Haman. It does not matter that the Sharon people are already trying to offset the international heat by expounding the new "goodwill gestures" they hope to make to appease Arafat and his stormtroopers. Gaza was the Biblical military center of the Philistines, and Sharon is officially pledged to recreating a center for Philistine barbarism there. It does not matter that all those do-gooders and bleeding hearts now caterwauling about Israel's "provocation" have long forgotten that under Oslo it was the legal obligation of the PLO itself to assassinate Sheikh Yassin, and that it was only in exchange for such an obligation that Yossi Beilin and his sandbox crew promised to turn the West Bank and Gaza over to the PLO in the first place. It does not matter that even as Arafat is screaming his love for the genocidal sheikh and proclaiming official PLO support for this his beloved comrade in arms and for Yassin's program of genocide, the Left is denouncing Israel's "act of terrorism". It does not matter that Ariel Sharon showed cowardice in not also mowing down the Hamas "mourners" marching in the Bloody Sheikh's funeral procession. It does not matter that the same people screaming how inhumane it was for Israel to kill the mass murderer who happened to be confined to a wheelchair never had anything to say about the Palestinian terrorists tossing Leon Klinghoffer overboard. It does not matter that the British Foreign Minister thinks assassinating the nazi sheikh was an awful provocation, but cheered to the skies when the sons of Saddam Hussein were dispatched and their photos splashed on the network screens. It does not matter that the media will quickly revert to its position that Israel must be prevented from undertaking any action against terrorism besides total capitulation. It does not matter that this was the first act in well over a decade by Israel that gave some credence to the slogan of "Never Again", a decade otherwise characterized by craven cowardice and appeasement. It does not matter that the same Bush administration and US media who spent the weekend cheering because they thought the number two al-Qaida leader had been killed in Pakistan are now suddenly all squeamish about the killing of Arab Islamofascist terrorist leaders. It does not matter that the Israeli political establishment is maintaining a blind eye to the open identification with the Hamas and its leaders by so many Israeli Arabs. It does not even matter that Israeli super-comic Eli Yatzpen, well known for his impression of the nazi sheikh, will now need to come up with some new material. It does not matter that Israel's Tenured Traitors are already turning out their Op-Eds for the world newspapers who lease their services in order to denounce Israel's "crime". It does not matter that Yassin should have been killed decades ago and that he would have been vaporized last year had not Ariel Sharon feared using a heavy-enough bomb, one that might have produced "collateral damages". It does not matter that some Israeli Far Leftists were already endorsing "negotiations" with the Hamas and so will now declare that Israel has lost a golden opportunity to make peace. Gaza is where the injured Samson took his revenge on the barbarians. The world politicians and the media may be bewailing this uncharacteristic manifestation of Israeli courage. Let them. For, you see, the very best commentary on the effects of the assassination of this nazi sheikh is not on the BBC nor on CNN nor in the NY Times. The best commentary is Chapter 15 of Exodus: The Nations have heard of it and are enraged, Panic and shuddering have seized the denizens of Philistine Gaza, The leaders of Edom are frightened, while the champions of Moab tremble, And the courage of the pagan Canaanites melts away. Fear and Panic have fallen upon them. For Your might arm crushes them like a stone, while Your people proceed ahead. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

IN-FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT Posted by David Frankfurter, March 22, 2004.

A little outside my usual theme - but when a friend of mine, Cara Bereck Levy, told me of her experiences on a trans-atlantic flight, I asked her to jot it down so that I could share it with you. I recently witnessed a small group of traditionally dressed religious Jews provide unwitting, in-flight entertainment. The flight was on March 8th, 2004, from New York to London, two international icons of Western culture. The overwhelming majority of passengers appeared to be middle-class, white British and American citizens. There was a sprinkling of other nationalities on the plane; native Africans, Sikhs, Pakastanis, and a few Rastafarians. There were also four Hasidic Jews. They were the focal point of general comment, conversation, disgust, and derision throughout the flight--behind their backs. I am a middle-aged white woman. My ethnicity is not apparent; I am a Jew who does not wear traditional dress. That is why I was invited to join in the fun. One well-dressed Englishwoman caught my eye, jerked her head toward the Hasids, then rolled her eyes while circling her fingers next to her ears to mock the Jew's sidecurls. When I walked down the aisle towards the restrooms, I heard several references to 'those bloody Jews'. As I waited in line, a man smiled at me, gestured towards the Jews, and began to mimick their espressive Yiddish and the hand gestures the Hadisim used as they spoke to each other. During the flight, I also overheard references to 'those bloody Israelis'. What chilled my blood was the fact that many of the passengers, who apparently did not know each other, were unified by this single factor - their negative feelings towards 'those bloody Jews'. What disgusted me was the fact that they felt their feelings were socially acceptable - to the point that these passengers, not identifying me as one of 'them', expected me to share their feelings and take part in their display. None of the other ethnic groups were singled out, not the turban-wearing Sikhs, not the dark Pakistanis, not the Rastafarians with waist-length dreadlocks. Only the Jews, with their hats, sidecurls, and dark clothing. All I did I was to sarcastically reply to those who approached me how pleased I was to see how open-minded and cultured they were. In reply, I received blank looks. I was afraid to say more. We live in a world where, if you are identified as a Jew, you may be at risk. The rabbis of France advise Jews to forgo wearing those symbols that identify them. The disease spreads. Anti-Semitism is not geographically isolated. David Frankfurter is a writer on the Middle East conflict. He sends "Letters from Israel" emails to subscribers. Contact him at David.Frankfurter@iname.com To Go To Top

THE DEATH OF YASSIN - A BOTCHED JOB Posted by Reuven Kossover, March 22, 2004.

Today's strike against the terrorist Hamas leader Yassin, killing him at long last, was a botched job. Yes the scum is not merely dead; he's truly and sincerely dead. Thank G-d! That part of the job was done well. Sharon still can plan an execution. A man responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Jews is at last dispatched to his reward. One can only hope that Hashem has provided a fiery hell for him to go to, so that he should eternally feel justified in his beliefs in one. But it was a botched job. Shortly after the execution, mobs of Arabs gathered to scream and howl demanding Jewish blood. This was the point that Israeli gunships should have gone in and struck, leaving hundreds dead. The same killing should have taken place at the funeral of the dog, Yassin. Arabs screaming for Jewish blood are not innocent souls, they have the souls of murderers They should have been treated that way. Arafat should have been dispatched to the same hell that Yassin has been sent to. When Arab prisoners at a prison in the Negev refused to eat, they should have been sent to their cells, with the message that they would have nothing but water for a week to allow them to help mourn. Why such cold blooded brutality? Why crack down with an iron fist? Because it is long past due. The message of hundreds of funerals and starving prisoners sent the Arabs would have been clear. If they wanted war, they were getting war. If they screamed for Jewish blood, they would drown in their own. After drowning in enough of their own blood, they would figure out the choices they had to make. Most people want to live, and adjust their belief systems to that desire. They could afford shahada (suicide) terrorism against the hated Jew (and they hate us - their preachers and teachers see to that) secure in the knowledge that entire villages would not die as a result, that they and not we would choose the time of battle, that the hated Jew was restrained in his acts against them. Unrestrained violence is terrifying. Ask any woman who has had to endure the violence of a man's unrestrained temper. The worst thing that can happen to parents - even Arab parents - is the loss of their children. If they have been talked into the virtues of shahada for one or two children, that's one thing. But if Israelis come and kill their children unbidden, that is very different. That is loss. That is truly loss. That breaks the spirit. And that is what we must do to the Arabs - break their spirit. Otherwise, they will succeed - scratch that - they are succeeding in breaking ours. In short, the actions that Israel takes in dealing with the Arabs must be aimed at breaking their spirit, and encouraging them to do the logical thing if they want to live - flee Israel. This need not have been done in October of 2000. Had a firm and determined stand been taken against the Arabs then, thousands of lives would have been saved. But cowardice ruled the day. Israel thought it had the choice between honor and war on the one hand, or dishonor and peace on the other. It has chosen dishonor and has gotten war. Now, war is at hand, not peace. The leader the Israeli people elected to fight that war refuses to bite the bullet and fight. The "lion of Judah" acts like an angered rabbit, getting in a bite here and there like killing the dog, Yassin. This is not sufficient. In the end, a dog will overcome a rabbit. But no dog will ever overcome a lion. It's time to move in on the kill. To Go To Top

ANOTHER TACK: AIR JORDAN Posted by Women In Green, March 22, 2004.

This was written by Sarah Honig and appeared in the Jerusalem Post, March 18,2004 Lucky for the Jebusites that the Hebrews were the People of the Book. Otherwise these Jerusalem-area Canaanites would have never made their very fleeting appearance on the pages of history or on Jordan TV. For those who may have anyway forgotten the brief biblical references, the Jebusites were the folks from whom King David conquered a wee hamlet he later turned into his capital. The books of Judges and Ezra indicate that they intermarried and assimilated amongst the Israelites. But that latter bit of scholarship escaped the notice of Jordanian historiography. An unforgettable JTV documentary on Jerusalem not too many years back magically transformed Jebusites into "Palestinian Arabs" to establish an Arab claim to Zion. The Jebusites' contribution to mankind was concomitantly magnified to a proportion that would have doubtlessly amazed them. JTV even treated us to recipes from the Jebusite kitchen. These would have altogether floored the long-lost Jebusites, as it appears that their favorite ingredients included tomatoes and chili peppers, which, alas, only reached the Old World 2,500 years later, when Spaniards brought them back from America (unless the enterprising Jebusites beat Columbus there, thereby establishing an Arab claim to the Western Hemisphere). The past obviously isn't safe from retroactive repairs. Take last week's Jordanian demand that Ariel Sharon apologize for having, in his less-confounding days, insisted that Jordan is Palestine. Now the Jordanians are after a public retraction of the truth. They maintain that Sharon's cronies promised that this would pose no problem. Considering Sharon's incredible flip-flops of late, it indeed shouldn't. Sharon once labored hard to expose the deception the Arabs managed to market so successfully to a world so eager to be deceived - i.e., the artificially concocted Jordanian and Palestinian ethnicities, along with the notion that these recent-vintage nationalities were distinct from each other and deserved self-determination in separate homelands - Jordan and Palestine. THIS FABRICATION begat the image of the stateless Palestinians, aggrieved indigenous inhabitants of the land, striving desperately to throw off the yoke of foreign (Jewish) occupation. Yet until 1948, "Palestine" was used synonymously with the Hebrew "Eretz Yisrael." Those called Palestinians were generally Jews. Local Arabs preferred allegiance to Greater Syria (or Iraq). Golda Meir used to quip: "I am a Palestinian but don't like the name. Palestine is a name the Romans gave Eretz Yisrael with the express purpose of infuriating Jews Why should we use a spiteful name meant to humiliate us? "Christendom inherited the name from Rome, and the British chose to call the land they mandated Palestine. The Arabs picked it up as their nation's supposed ancient name, though they couldn't even pronounce it correctly, and turned it into Falastin, a fictional entity." That entity never had an independent existence, unique identity, language, or culture to distinguish it from the surrounding Arab milieu. Moreover, the British Mandate in Palestine extended over both banks of the Jordan. In 1921, some 77% of what was designated as the national home of the Jewish people was ripped off and given as a gift to Abdullah, son of Mecca's Hashemite chieftain who lost the battle for control of Islam's holiest city and surrounding Hejaz to a rival clan, the Saudis. Had he won, we'd be speaking today of Hashemite Arabia. Instead, we're saddled with Jordan. Abdullah sought the title of Emir of Palestine, but the Brits made him settle for Transjordan. No Transjordanian nation appears in human chronicles. It was conceived on Palestinian soil by perfidious Albion. That was the first division of Palestine. In 1953, Transjordan annexed the "West Bank" and became Jordan. Its leaders, including the late King Hussein, stressed over and over in numerous pronouncements that Jordan and Palestine are one and the same. So did Palestinian leaders, including Arafat. The Palestinian covenant, in fact, covets all of Jordan, precisely because it's Palestine. Since then it became expedient, PR-wise, to claim that Palestine exists exclusively west of the mini-river, justifying the campaign for a second Palestinian Arab state. Fearing that his Palestinian subjects would collude with the PLO to topple their imported Hashemite rulers, Hussein kicked the PLO out in Black September, 1970. Too bad. Had he failed, Arafat would be running Amman and no one would dispute that Palestine is divided among Jews and Arabs, with the Arabs owning nearly four-fifths thereof. Sharon may consider such division no longer feasible. That's his prerogative. But he wasn't entrusted with the right to rewrite history. Any assertion that Jordan isn't Palestine is just as unimpeachable as that memorable JTV documentary, which expunged Jews from Jerusalem's annals, save for one abrupt but indispensable appearance in the Judenrein city. Villainous Jews arrived suddenly out of nowhere and stayed just long enough to crucify Jesus, described as "a Palestinian Arab prophet." Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green) is an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

ISRAEL SHOULD SUPPORT THE KURDS AGAINST SYRIA Posted by Ariel Natan Pasko, March 22, 2004.

In 1982, the Syrian government carried out mass murder against it's own citizens, killing over 20,000 people in the Syrian city of Hama. Since 1976, Syria has occupied its neighbor to the west, Lebanon, viciously suppressing any sparks of freedom. Now Syria has carried out a new massacre, murdering almost 100 Kurds and arresting thousands. Israel should speak out loudly about these Syrian atrocities, and support the Kurdish minority against Syrian Arab violence. It all started as riots between Arabs and Kurds at a soccer game in Qamishli - in the northern Kurdish region of Syria or what Kurds call Western Kurdistan - but quickly spread to several northern cities. Pro-Assad, Baath Party loyalists responded by murdering Kurds in several towns. It's been reported that Syrian security services conducted mass arrests. Kurdish sources claim that some 2000 people have been detained in Damascus and Aleppo, and that in Damascus, almost every male Kurd over the age of 16 has been arrested. The Kurds in Syria, Iran and in Turkey are severely repressed. In Turkey, even their identity as Kurds is still denied; they are called Mountain Turks. In Syria, they are denied most civil and political rights. About 2 million Kurds live in Syria. But the seething anger that exploded in Qamishli is generated most, by the fact that almost 200,000 Kurds are denied citizenship outright. They cannot vote, own property, go to state schools or get government jobs. Kurds in Iran live under similar repressive conditions. With the rise of an autonomous region in a post-Saddam federated Iraq, the question of Kurdish rights in other parts of the region looms large. As the discussion of "democratization" of the Middle East continues, an important point that must be made time and time again, is the importance in building structures that liberate the minorities of the region from oppression. Non-Arab and Non-Muslim minorities live throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Contrary to the propaganda that the region is Arab/Muslim, these minorities are remnants of the indigenous peoples, before the great Arab imperialist wars of the 7th century, and "Islamicization process" that followed. Non-Arab Muslims like the Kurds in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran; the Berbers - known as Amazighes - in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, have all resisted "Arabization" for over 1,000 years. Non-Muslims like the Assyrian Christians in Iraq - who argue that they are not Arabs - the Copts in Egypt, Christian Lebanese - many who claim not to be Arab but Phoenician - the Christians in Sudan, and other Christians throughout the region, have been persecuted minorities, since the rise of Islam. Others like the Druze and Jews have also been persecuted by Arab/Muslim regimes throughout history. And we can now see, from the recent Sunni terror attacks on Shiites in Iraq - and Bin Laden's recent statements that Shiites are heretics - that even some Muslims - Shiites and other non-Sunnis - are persecuted minorities in parts of the Middle East. Only Israel, the Jewish State, has fully liberated itself - in the political sense - from this Arab/Muslim oppression, although it still suffers from physical violence against her people. Israel should take the lead - in it's foreign policy - to support "democratization" and "regime change" throughout the region. Israel shouldn't wait until countries of the region "reform," but should pro-actively support the legitimate aspirations of the oppressed minorities of North Africa and the Middle East, and build alliances with them. Kurds were brutally suppressed by Saddam's Baathist regime through his "Arabization" program, expelling Kurds from their traditional areas and replacing them with Arab settlers. It's no secret that close relations existed between Israel and the Kurds throughout most of the sixties and into the seventies, until the collapse of the Kurdish revolt in Iraq, in 1975. Reflective of this, and that Moledet Party founder and former leader Rechavam Ze'evi was involved in Israeli-Kurdish relations, the 1996 Moledet Party Platform, Chapter 9: Foreign Policy, paragraph 17, states "Israel will act against the oppression of peoples like the Kurds..." Ze'evi - as a military officer - had been to Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani had even been to Israel. With this in mind, Israel should actively revive the former policy of support for the Kurdish people. The idea of reviving this relationship hasn't been missed by Kurds themselves, as Kawa Bradosti wrote - in Kurdish Media - back in Sept. 2003, "...the potential is there for Israel and the Kurds to have a much closer relationship especially when considering the often hostile attitude of the neighboring countries in the region both to Israel and to the Kurds. It would be good common sense for the two nations to support each other and to forge an alliance together." Some might ask about Israel's relationship with Turkey, and how will active support for the Kurds, be seen in Ankara - since Turkey also oppresses upwards of 15 million Kurds. I believe that Israel's relationship with Turkey is mature enough to weather the storm. I don't see Turkey throwing tantrums at the US for its role in Iraq, helping the Kurds there. Turkey, I believe in the long run, will come to see the benefits of a re-structured Middle East, where the threat of Islamic radicalism and terror - also directed at Turkey - is greatly reduced. Turkey also has its problems with Syria. If the Kurds, Israelis, and Turks (along with a democratic Iraq?), could come together, Syria - the bad boy of the neighborhood - could be put in her place for good. For a while now, I've written about Syria's oppression of the Lebanese (see my article, "Lebanon's Real Economic Woes Are Syrian Induced"). I've written about Syria's help for the former Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq (see my article, "Syria, UN resolution 520, and the Security Council"). I've written about how Syria has pushed drugs, supported terror, and needs to be forced back to its "natural" size and influence in the region (see my articles, "Free Lebanon Now" and "Israel, Don't Hit Hizbollah, Hit Syria!"). And in a recent article, I've called on the Israeli government to say ("It's time for Syria to get out of Lebanon"). Now we need to turn a magnifying glass onto their behavior towards their Kurdish minority. In the past I've written a survey article, "Democracy in the Middle East," about the oppression of minorities in the region. Now I'm calling on the Israeli government to make a policy decision to actively support the Kurds and other minority groups, to build a non-Arab and non-Muslim regional alliance for change. Till now, I haven't mentioned the so-called "Palestinians," and I won't beyond saying, that they are part of the problem, not part of the solution. Aren't they an oppressed minority? No, as Arabs, they are part of the greater Arab Nation who since the 7th century has conquered, oppressed, and occupied everyone else in the Middle East and North Africa. As radical Muslims, everyone can see that Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the other terror groups are continuing down the same path as Bin Laden. In fact, recently Hamas "spiritual leader" Sheikh Yassin, has begun speaking about the "Global Jihad" in Bin Laden and al-Qaeda type terms. Hezbollah has also been working in the "Palestinian" administered territories for a while already, as evidenced by Israel's recent capture of a Hezbollah cell in Gaza. So, they are part of the regional oppression network, not the future liberty and freedom alliance that Israel should work to build with other minorities in the area. Israel's Foreign Policy toward Syria should be built on the demands that it leave Lebanon unconditionally, end it's support for Hezbollah and "Palestinian" terror groups, dismantle it's Weapons of Mass Destruction, and keep it's hands off the Kurds. Israel's greater regional policy should be based on supporting the rights of minorities in the area. Only that way, based on democratization, liberation from oppressive regimes, and encouraging freedom, will the Middle East and North Africa be transformed into a region worthy its millennia old history. A pre-Arab and pre-Muslim history I might add! Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst and consultant. He has a Master's Degree in International Relations and Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites, in newspapers, and can be read at: www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko To Go To Top

URGENT! SEND OUT A CONDOLENCE NOTE TO A JEWISH LEFTIST! Posted by Shimon Malkiel, March 22, 2004.

Now that the Bloody Sheikh has been turned into toast, we have something constructive to suggest. We would like to suggest that you send a condolence message to the Jewish leftist anti-Semites of your choice. The message should read something like this: We would like to extend to you my deepest condolences for your loss. We know that Sheikh Yassin represented everything you believe in and everything you support. We know you must feel empty and alone, now that the one person most clearly embodying your ideas is gone from us. You are not alone in your grief. We hope you will somehow find a way to get over this horrific tragedy and blow to your agenda. Among the many people to whom you could send this message are: Baruch Kimmerling at mskimmer@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il Colman Altman at phraltm@techunix.technion.ac.il Jacob Katriel at jkatriel@tx.technion.ac.il Tamar Katriel at tamark@construct.haifa.ac.il Oren Yiftachel at yiftach@bgumail.bgu.ac.il Emanuel Farjoun at forjoun@math.huji.ac.il Dan Bar-On at danbaron@bgumail.bgu.ac.il Aharon Eviatar at arkee@frodo.tau.ac.il and arkee@post.tau.ac.il Moshe Zimmerman at mszimm@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il Hanna Herzog at hherzog@post.tau.ac.il Uri Hadar at uri-h@freud.tau.ac.il Tanya Reinhart at reinhart@post.tau.ac.il Linda Ben-Zvi at lindabz@post.tau.ac.il Ilan Pappe at pappe@poli.haifa.ac.il Avraham Oz at avitaloz@research.haifa.ac.il Amiram Goldblum at amiram@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL Micah Leshem at micahl@psy.haifa.ac.il Zalman Amit at amit@csbn.concordia.ca Anat Biletzki at anatbi@post.tau.ac.il Ran Greenstein at rangreen@sn.apc.org Yehudith Harel at ye_harel@netvision.net.il Ran HaCohen at hacohen@post.tau.ac.il Gila Svirsky at gsvirsky@netvision.net.il almas at almas@bezeqint.net Yigal Arens at arens@ISI.EDU David Bartram at d.bartram@reading.ac.uk Oded Schechter at oschecht@midway.uchicago.edu pnina feiler at pnina-f@inter.net.il Shmuel Amir at amir_h_s@netvision.net.il Shraga Elam at elams@dplanet.ch Adam Keller at otherisr@actcom.co.il Anat Matar at matar@post.tau.ac.il Michael ardon at ardon@ vms.huji.ac.il tirtza tauber at trn1@zahav.net.il Lev Grinberg at lev@bgumail.bgu.ac.il Bilha Golan at bilhagolan@bezeqint.net Neve Gordon at ngordon@bgumail.bgu.ac.il Yuval Yonay at rsso231@soc.haifa.ac.il Mikey Lerner at rabbilerner@aol.com Arthur Waskow at awaskow@aol.com Noam Chomsky at chomsky@mit.edu To Go To Top

AHMED YASSIN Posted by Israel Ben-Ami, March 22, 2004.

Some politicians are regretting the action of Zahal in "taking out" Ahmed this historic morning.They should be informed that their reticence and regret are misguided and will cost them popularity amng the Israeli voters. Ahmed Yassin was no moderate and his ultimate aim was the destruction of the Jewish State including Tel-Aviv.He was given many opportunities of mending his ways and declined. He was indeed our Osama BIN-LADEN,AND THE SAME FATE AWAITS HIS SCARED SUCCESSORS. Britain having ruthlessly eliminated sundry Irish patriots would be wise to not condemn our action. America will not follow Britain. To Go To Top

THE COUNTERFEIT HUMAN RIGHTS INDUSTRY Posted by Jewish Community of France, March 22, 2004.

This was written by Amnon Rubinstein and is archived at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/406813.html Shortly before the terror attack in Madrid there was an international conference of victims of terrorism. Nobel Peace Laureate David Trimble, head of the Unionist Party in Ulster, Northern Ireland, who spoke at the conference, said: "One of the great curses of this world is the human rights industry. They justify terrorist acts and end up being complicit in the murder of innocent victims." The conference ended with a call on human rights groups "to defend the rights of the victims of terror, without blurring the distinction between the murderer and their victim." Human Rights Watch, the human rights group, issued a condemnation of that. The concept of human rights has gone through a revolution, apparent in three aspects: the recognition that formal democratic procedures are not enough to protect human rights; the principle that no regime can deny any person "natural" rights, meaning those granted to them by virtue of being human (or in Judaism, by virtue of being in God's image); and the perception that civil rights are not the domestic considerations of a state but can be supervised by international law, and their violation gives other states the right to intervene in a state's affairs. Jews have a special interest in that aspect, since they are the main victims of the precept that civil rights are domestic matters for countries. It is no accident that Jews were key activists in formulating the language of treaties about human rights. Nowadays, however, we can see two contradictory phenomena. One is supremely expressed in genuine defense of human rights by European institutions. The other is nothing but a broad industry, seemingly of human rights, resulting in a counterfeit product. That is the difference between the court in Strasbourg, peopled by professional justices from democratic states, and the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, headed by a representative of Libya, and member countries that belong on the bench of those accused of violating human rights. There's also a huge ideological gulf between the original and the forgery. Human rights laws set grades of rights and the very top level is the right to life and personal safety. In other words, the law recognizes the relativity of rights: The right to life is more important, for example, than the right to privacy. The law is not the same for a state that murders its citizens, as Sudan did for nearly 20 years, and a state that suspends jury trials during periods of emergency to fight terrorism, as England did in Northern Ireland. The human rights industry is made up of various organizations, academics, and media people who do the exact opposite: all rights are equal. Censorship is the equivalent of genocide. Detention without trial in Guantanamo is the equivalent of murderous terror. While the original concept of human rights graduated rights according to their level of importance, there is no relativity in the approach taken by those who violate those rights. All the criminals should be judged according to the same criteria. On the other hand, if a Western country were to perpetrate only one- hundredth of the crimes conducted by Saudi Arabia against its residents, there would be an enormous outcry from Geneva to Berkeley. But despite the permanent protests by the human rights groups, few know how many people are executed in Saudi Arabia (in 1999 alone there were 301). But in Oslo, human rights devotees demonstrate against Israel. Nobody protests against the fence that Saudi Arabia is building on its border with Yemen - against international agreements and harming thousands of shepherds whose flocks graze on the lands were the fence is going up, but there is no organization that does not protest against Israel. That said, the fence route is indeed unjustified and causes injustice. Thus the tables have been turned. What was relative in the original has become absolute in the counterfeiting industry and what was absolute has become conditional on political correctness. This email was distributed by Communaute-Juive-France-owner@yahoogroupes.fr Their website address is http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/Communaute-Juive-France/ To Go To Top

REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS OF ATZMONA Posted by Herb and Mikimia Sunshine, March 22, 2004.

This was written by Joshua M. Rolnick. It appeared in Arutz Sheva (http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com). It has also been published in The Jewish Herald Voice and by The Freeman Center for Strategic Studies. It is archived at http://www.israelnn.com/article.php3?id=3470 As students, we sit at our desks in our constant quest for academic excellence. We thirst to gain greater knowledge as we study and benefit from the wisdom of our teachers. Imagine the following scenario. You are studying late one night when suddenly you hear a loud bang. Soon after, chaos breaks loose. At first you are bewildered. You run to the door to see what is going on. To your horror, you are in the line of fire of a terrorist's machine gun. Providentially for you, you are protected by a concrete doorpost. Many others are not as lucky. There are no weapons in the study hall; therefore, you are unable to stop the terrorist from massacring your fellow students. The terrorist throws grenades into the room. You quickly run to a corner and pray to G-d that all of you will survive. Moments later, you see a grenade land five feet from you. You stare at it for what seems like hours, not knowing when it will explode and end your life. Fearing the inevitability of disaster, you cover your head and pray once again. Abruptly, it blows up. Sharp pain spreads throughout your body. Suddenly, you are soaring through the air. When the helicopter arrives at Tel Hashomer Hospital you are rushed into the emergency room. Your chest and your arms are in horrible pain. The doctors explain to you that you had been sprayed with shrapnel. You suffered hearing loss in both ears and nerve damage to the left side of your body. Your arms took most of the damage, but one piece had hit the center of your chest. No exit wound was found. The doctors said that there was no shrapnel in your chest. They tell you that miraculously it bounced off your sternum. This conceivably sounds like a nightmare that could never transpire. My friend, Netanel Bluth, would probably have said the same thing. Unfortunately, it happened to him. On March 7, 2002, a terrorist penetrated the community of Atzmona in Gush Katif. This hate-filled individual waited for four hours, until the study hall was filled with students. He then went to the study hall, kicked down the door, threw at least five grenades and started firing his automatic assault rifle. Twenty-three students were injured. Five were killed. They sadly joined the 1,288 Jews brutally murdered because of the Oslo appeasement process. On the anniversary of this act of terror, my thoughts turned to my friend's suffering. I thank the Almighty for the miraculous recovery of Netanel. Concurrently, my prayers turned to those who were not as fortunate. I understand that I will never truly comprehend the loss that terror victims' and their families endure. I will, however, remember the five students murdered that evening, the 24th of Adar. They were: Asher Marcus; Tal Kurtzvail; Eran Picard; Arik Robiak; and Ariel Zana, zichronam l'bracha. May their memories help me understand the horror generated by the appeasement of terrorists. At the same time, may I truly appreciate the enormity of the Jewish sacrifice for our holy land. It has been too precious for us to allow the abandonment of Gush Katif. To Go To Top

ISRAELI PREEMPTIVE STRIKES - Essential and Justified Posted by Jock L. Falkson, March 22, 2004.

Israel's self-interest demands that the government protect its inhabitants from the murderous attacks of Palestinian suicide terrorists and other forms of assault. There is now also the fear, both here and abroad, of mega attacks aimed at killing and maiming fearful numbers. We have an absolute right to expect our security and defense forces to protect us from such barbarous intent. We must have this protection before Palestinian murder and mayhem envelopes us. This moral guideline was valid even when the number of killed and wounded was relatively small, as in bus attacks. The threat of mega terrorism increases this justification a thousand fold or more. Retaliation after the event is a necessary deterrent. But retaliation cannot restore the lives of innocents. Coming after the event it neither revives the dead nor returns lost quality of life to the living. Life will never be the same for bereaved and destroyed families, nor for the traumatized and disabled. Preemption Is A Given That is why preemption must be an absolute given for which Israel has no need to apologize. If anything, Israel should apologize to the bereaved and hurt for not having prevented murder-obsessed Palestinian terrorists from carrying out their cruel savagery. It is true that from time to time persons other than those specifically targeted may be hurt or even lose their lives during our operations. Israel invariably expresses regret even though these individuals were often in their company, as aiders and abettors, or living shields, of those on Israel's most wanted terrorist list. Nevertheless it is also true that Israel does its best to avoid so called civilian casualties. Whereas Palestinian terrorists deliberately aim for the greatest number of civilian casualties. Mass death is their unambiguous objective. The fact that Palestinian terrorists seldom if ever wear uniform in shootouts does not make them civilians. Those who harbor and succor terrorists, their planners, handlers and financiers, are equally guilty. The greater the bloodletting of Israeli civilians, young and old, the more intensive Arab rejoicing. Mobs whoop and dance in the streets and fire guns in the air. There's no restraining their glee, no hiding their bloodthirsty joy . . . while Israelis mourn their bereaved and endure the pain of their wounded. Who Incites Race Hatred? You may find it hard to credit - but the think tank behind the Road Map found it necessary to require both the Palestinian Authority and Israel to stop continued incitement - at the outset of Phase 1. I quote: *  "All official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel." *  "All official Israeli institutions end incitement against Palestinians." Incitement and hatred are inseparable because incitement is both the cause and result of hatred. That the Palestinian Terrorist Authority officially institutes anti-Jewish incitement and race hatred is not in doubt. The sources of hatred and incitement are embedded in the Koran for all to read. More specifically: * Their educational books from kindergarten to university are explicit promote Jew hatred. Israeli educational texts do not incite Jews to terrorism; do not teach hatred of Arabs. * Their maps never show the Jewish State - it has seemingly, already been eliminated. Israeli cartography is accurate. * Their official publications are replete with contempt, race hatred and anti-Jewish incitement. The converse does not apply to Israel. * Islamic institutions are funded and officially supported by the Palestinian Terrorist Authority. Imans routinely preach sermons of intense anti-Israel incitement. Rabbis do nothing of the sort. * Their radio and TV broadcasts propagandize the Palestinian Terrorist Authority's anti-Jewish mission without let up. Israeli TV and radio provide unequalled opportunities for Arab viewpoints. * Their newspapers, supported by official advertising, grants and favors (not to overlook intimidatory discipline) cause them to follow the Palestinian Terrorist Authority's line without deviation. Israeli media are independent and often fiercely critical. * The not unexpected effect of unbridled Arab race hatred and incitement is such that any Jew who blunders into any Arab town will almost certainly and horribly be dispatched by blood hungry, angry mobs. (As has happened on each such occasion.) * The converse does not apply to Israel. Arabs work and shop in Israel. None has ever been lynched. Road Map To Nowhere The attempt by the drafters of the Road Map [the United States, European Union, United Nations, and Russia] to establish moral equivalence between the Palestinian Terrorist Authority and Israel is shameful and dishonest. Because the fundamental cause of incitement is entrenched in the Koran. Thus there can be no practical solution. So much for the future of Phase 1 of the Road Map. Jock Falkson is an Israeli writer and translator. He can be reached by email at falkson@barak-online.net. To Go To Top

PEACE NOW WEIGHS IN Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 21, 2004.

Peace Now suggests abandoning all the Israeli settlements in Yesha and using the armed forces near them to protect Israel's resulting boundary. After suicide bombers got by the Gaza fence, many Gaza areas celebrated the terrorists' success in murdering Israelis. In Jenin, the Arabs gave out candy. Since Peace Now expects the Army to have to protect Israel from the P.A. after Israel would have abandoned Yesha, then Peace Now knows that the P.A. wants to conquer Israel, not just take over Yesha. In that case, what does Israel get out of withdrawal, but an empowered enemy, able under the resulting sovereignty to import heavy weapons? That means worse war. Change "Peace Now" to "War Soon." Even to compromise with such vicious enemies is foolhardy. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

WHAT WOULD YOSL SAY? Posted by Judy Lash Balint, March 21, 2004.

A few months ago, storyteller Yosl Birstein passed away in Jerusalem. A diminutive man, with colossal charisma and talent for spinning yarns about everyday life, first in Yiddish and later in Hebrew, Birstein was the embodiment of secular Jewish culture. Born in Poland, he fled the country for Australia in 1937. After a four year stint serving in the Australian army, Yosl met and married another Jewish refugee, Margaret Weisberg from Frankfurt. They stayed in Australia for several more years, and Yosl started writing his stories in Yiddish, for the audience of survivors who were rebuilding their lives down under. Zionism kept nagging at the Birsteins, and eventually they made their way to Israel and settled on Kibbutz Gvat, in accordance with their socialistic ideals. Yosl continued to write, while earning his kibbutz keep as a shepherd, and his books and stories soon became popular reading amongst Israelis of European background. The Birsteins raised two talented Israeli daughters, and moved to Jerusalem in their later years. Margaret began translating Yosl's work into English. Next week, several renowned authors will appear at an evening of remembrances and readings in honor of Yosl Birstein. How do I know all this? Jerusalem is really just a little Jewish shtetl...on Friday I noticed the announcement of the memorial evening on a bulletin board in the neighborhood. On Shabbat I met Margaret Birstein for the first time, and realized that she lives just around the corner from me. We were both hosted by the inimically hospitable Cohn family, whose Shabbat table is routinely graced with a minimum of 10 guests. Ruth Cohn struck up a conversation with Margaret in our local supermarket, and promptly invited her for lunch. Across the table from Margaret sat another neighbor and author, Moshe Aumann, an expert on Jewish-Christian relations. Moshe and Margaret, who had also never met before, traded stories of schooldays in their native Frankfurt. Jerusalem is a place where time, people and events have a tendency to coincide and resonate with meaning. Shabbat was the Shabbat before Rosh Hodesh (the New Moon) where we recite prayers for God to grant us a month of fulfillment and blessing. Then we add, "May He who performed miracles for our forefathers, and took them from slavery to freedom, speedily redeem us and gather in our people from the four corners of the earth so that all Israel will be together in friendship." The rabbi had just welcomed a group of young olim (immigrants) from Montreal spending their first Shabbat in Israel. This Shabbat also marked the first anniversary of the shul, which has fast outgrown the small rented building. Plastic chairs are lined up in the courtyard as the windows are thrown open, to accomodate all those who are drawn to the warmth, passion and friendliness of the community. Walking home on Shabbat is another of those small, Jerusalem pleasures. The March sunshine, still a long way from the apex of it's summer intensity, brightens the flower-lined back streets. Dozens of people strolling in the middle of the street, on their way home or to visit friends with only a stray vehicle or two disturbing the quiet; children enjoying the small playgrounds scattered around; and the occasional stranger who will bid passers-by a "Shabbat shalom." But, the Shabbat peace was disturbed by a tragic event that brings into sharp relief the murderous hatred of our enemies. A 20 year old Hebrew University student was shot and killed on Friday night in the French Hill neighborhood. George Khoury went out for a run, and never returned home. The Al Aksa Brigade branch of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement quickly claimed responsibility - but "apologized" when Elias Khoury, George's well-known Christian Arab father, claimed the body. Oh, we thought he was a Jew... In what should have been a damning act confirming his culpability for terror, Arafat himself called Khoury, the bereaved father, twice on Saturday to apologize for the mistake, and assure him that his son would be considered a martyr. Like many Israeli families, Elias Khoury, now counts two members dead at the hands of Arab terrorists. His father, Daoud was one of 14 killed on Jaffa Road in 1975 when an explosive device went off in an abandoned refrigerator. The other chilling aspect of this latest attack is that it shatters the assumptions of many Israelis who until now assumed that terror only strikes at crowded public places. Now the blood-lust has apparently heightened to the point where they're ready to pick us off one by one. What's next, an armed personal security guard for every citizen? Other terror news in today's Yediot daily paper - warnings for Israelis traveling for the Pesach holiday. Over 45,000 Israelis are expected to leave the country during the Pesach break. One anti-terror organization issued a sharp warning for Israelis not to travel to two favorite destinations - Istanbul and the Sinai. Lesser alerts are posted for Thailand, India and the Philippines. But Foreign Ministry spokesmen say the panic is unwarranted and they have received no specific threats against Israelis. Finally, in typical Israeli fashion - today, some six weeks after the 5.3 earthquake shook the country, we received a nice color booklet from the Electric Company on how to prepare for an earthquake. We're told that the big one may come "tomorrow, in a month or 50 years from now.." It's the kind of thing that Yosl Birstein would have made into a great story. Judy Lash Balint is author of "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" (Gefen). It is available for purchase from www.israelbooks.com. To Go To Top

SUNDAY 3/21 OMBUDSMAN COMMENTS ON USE OF WORD TERRORISM Posted by Deb Kotz, March 21, 2004.

I sent this letter to the Washington Post ombudsman. Dear Mr. Getler: I appreciate your comments on readers' letters to you complaining about the hypocrisy of using the words "terrorist attack" to describe the Madrid bombings but not the suicide bombings in Israel. I also appreciate the continuing time and energy that you've put forth over the past few years to resolve this issue. I, myself, am a journalist, so I can sympathize with the need for balanced reporting. Whenever I report on a new medical procedure, "wonder drug" or piece of research, I always put the finding into perspective. Often I consult my Webster's Collegiate dictionary to guide me on word choices. According to Webster's, the word terrorism means the systematic use of terror as a means of coercion. Terrorize means to fill with terror and anxiety. These definitions are clear cut and don't leave room for your weak reply that terrorism is "like other things that you know when you see". In your column, you compare Israel's targeted killings, house demolitions (of suicide bombers' abodes) and civilian casualties - which are not intended to terrorize the population at large but to halt the terrorists themselves - with Palestinian suicide bomber attacks meant to kill the most innocent people possible in order to scare the most cilivians possible. This is simply outrageous. Saying that you are balanced by avoiding the word "terrorism" because the Palestinians and certain human rights groups view Israel as a terrorist nation makes no sense. You would then have to avoid the word terrorism to describe the Spanish attacks since Al Queda views Spain's participation in the Iraq war as terrorist. Al Queda views itself in a war against what-it-calls terrorist nations the same as the Palestinian suicide bombers view themselves in a war against Israel. Yes, I would have to agree with you that the word "terrorist" has been grossly overused in the past several years to describe anyone engaged in an act of war - or sometimes even a petty crime. I would even agree that Palestinians who target and kill Israel soldiers - though heinous - are not terrorists. But those who blow up buses and cafes in Jerusalem? Who target babies, old men and pregnant women walking the streets of Netanya? Who want Israelis to fear for their lives everytime their enter a supermarket or mall? Mr. Getler, check your dictionary. These are, indeed, terrorists. No other word would be fitting to describe them. Deb Kotz is an active member of the Brandeis Chapter of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and maintains an email list to distribute articles of interest to the local community. She can be reached at DebKotz@aol.com To Go To Top

THE POST'S KABUKI DANCE ABOUT "TERRORISM" Posted by Leo Rennert, March 21, 2004.

I sent this to people at the Washington Post about the Post's indefensible defense of refusing to label Hamas or Islamic Jihad as terrorist groups. Trying to square the circle is an exercise that usually ends in failure. So does your attempt to once again defend the indefensible - the Post's double standard in using "terrorism" to describe lethal attacks by fanatical Islamists on the United States or Spain but not against Israel. Your March 21 column, responding to complaints about the Post's descriptions of the Madrid bombings as "terrorist" attacks but the Ashadod bombings as something else, leaves you and the Post again tied up in semantic knots. You start out by saying that you and Post editors agree that the attacks in Spain or a bus bombing in Israel are "terrorist acts." Fine. But why not follow that simple precept. "Terrorism" is a perfectly proper and accurate word to describe deliberate attacks and murders of innocent civilians in pursuit of a political agenda. As you acknowledge, it fits the Madrid carnage as well as Palestinian suicide bombings. But - and of course you need a "but" to wiggle out of your first sentence - you add that Post editors consider such "labels" not helpful compared with "factual reporting." Why not helpful? After all, terrorism is a precise word and if it fits the occasion, it should be used instead of some politically correct euphemism which implicitly suggest a measure of legitimacy on the part of the perpetrators. The Post had no problem in using this "label" about Madrid. Yet, when it comes to Israel, Hamas regularly has been described as a "militant" group, a term which doesn't do Hamas or Israel justice. More recently, Hamas isn't labeled at all but referred to as "the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas." Some readers might conclude on the basis of that description that these are fine fellows. Well, since you're obviously on weak terrain, you feel a need to try something else. But you end up digging yourself an even deeper hole by asserting that the "context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is different, as is the conflict in Iraq, in which suicide bombings and other attacks are described rather than labeled." Do you mean to say that there was no excuse for Madrid or the World Trade Center, but there can be some rationale or mitigation for terrorist attacks in Iraq or Tel Aviv? What is different? Again, whether in Iraq or Israel, if the target is a bunch of civilians, that's terrorism. On the other hand, if the targets are U.S. or IDF troops, that's NOT terrorism because the target is a military one. It's easy to distinguish between the two. Pearl Harbor was NOT an act of terrorism, it was an act of war. So was the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon which, unlike the airliner hijackings and the World Trade Center attacks, was an act of war. 9/11 thus was both an act of terrorism and an act of war. What's so difficult in making this distinction? Words still have some meaning. But since the argument about different places, different words also gets you nowhere, you try still another tack - the Post doesn't want to take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Or, as you put it, "Israelis, of course, describe such acts as terrorism. But to adopt the language of one side in what essentially is a bitter war carried out daily over many years by gunmen and suicide bombers one one side and an army on the other is not something that the Post, is going to do." Well, let's examine this a bit more closely. Are you saying that because Israel calls something "terrorism," given the conflict with the Palestinians, the Post would be taking sides by calling terrorism "terrorism"? Or are you postulating equivalence in the methods of both sides since you suggest that each is conducting a "bitter war" against the other? But if that's the case, the people you called terrorists in your first sentence aren't terrorists at all, they are warriors. Is that better "factual reporting" of Hamas and Islamic Jihad? Yet, that's where you seem to end up because to buttress your argument, you note that Palestinians view Israeli actions like "collective punishment, targeted killings, civilian casualties, house demolitions" also as as "terrorism" as "do some human rights groups." But factual journalism shouldn't be based on the perceptions or claims of either side, or those of some unnamed human-rights groups. It's the job of Post editors and reporters to come up with what you hail as "factual reporting." If an Israeli like Baruch Goldstein guns down Islamic worshippers in Hebron, he's a terrorist. If an Israeli fanatic tries to plant bombs in an Arab schoolyard, he's a terrorist. Again, "terrorism" as properly used should be applied without fear or favor. The only things that should count are the targets and the motives. When Israelis use targeted killings to eliminate a Hamas leader, that's not "terrorism" because the attack is not aimed at civilians. When Israelis demolish the houses of terrorists, that's not "terrorism" because it's not a murder spree against innocent civilians. Israelis ensure that demolished houses were empty precisely to avoid a terrorist rampage. As for Palestinian "civilian casualties," if civilians are intended targets, that would be terrorism; but if they're unintended casualties during a raid on a terrorist cell, that is not "terrorism." When Iraqi civilians are killed in the process of a U.S. military attack on suspected insurgents, guerrillas or terrorists, the Post doesn't report that as terrorism. Finally, as you end your dubious meanderings, you seem to get back to your initial premise when you suggest that terrorism does in fact exist. "Terrorism," you conclude, "is like other things that you know when you see, and The Post should not shy away from that word when it is useful for the general reader." But that assertion, while perhaps well intentioned, throws you quickly into another semantic swamp. The first half of the sentence suggests a paraphrase of the old dictum by a Supreme Court justice that when it comes to obscenity "I know it when I see it." But terrorism is not as rubbery a term as obscenity. The latter can vary with different perceptions by different viewers, although the author of "I know it when I see it" obviously thought that everybody would share his perceptions. However, terrorism is defined by objective measurements. If civilians are deliberately killed and the perpetrators are intent on using this tactic to "terrorize" entire populations in pursuit of political goals, that's terrorism pure and simple - wherever it rears its ugly head. If you think you've done the Post or its readers a service with your clumsy defense of the indefensible, please think again. To Go To Top

CHILD SACRIFICE Posted by Linda Olmert, March 21, 2004.

Of all the things that I have read and sent out in the last months, this leaves me in utter dispair. How can we ever hope to find any common terms of reference with beings that sacrifice their children. I was about to use the word animals, but I know of no animals who would do such a thing. This article was an opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post Online, March 16, 2004. It is archived as http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid =1079410302969&p=1006953079865 Israel was shaken Monday. It wasn't because of a terrorist atrocity actually perpetrated, but because of one thankfully preempted. Front pages were dominated by the story of 11-year-old Abdullah Quran, who carried a powerful bomb in his schoolbag, replete with a load of metal pellets and other assorted bits of hardware calculated to rip through human flesh. When they opened the bag, soldiers found, alongside the explosives, the boy's Spiderman doll. Abdullah wasn't merely a courier. He was, unknowingly, a guided missile. A cellphone connected to the 10-kilo bomb he lugged was primed to detonate the bomb by remote control, if his dispatcher considered it expedient. The boy told the border policewoman whose suspicions he aroused that someone promised him "lots of money" if he took the heavy backpack through the IDF checkpoint outside of Nablus. Had the precocious smuggler succeeded, the contraband would have been set off in an Israeli bus or similar crowded civilian target. However, the plan called for detonating the charge on the boy, if he were stopped. Indeed, as sappers handled his bag's contents, someone dialed the cellphone trigger. A technical failure prevented the death of the child and many of those around. This is not "just" child abuse, but child sacrifice. It is almost as if Palestinian terrorists are trying to reach new depths of war crimes, matched only by previous uses of ambulances and pregnant women to carry out terrorist attacks. Bombs have been transported in Palestinian ambulances, at times under stretchers bearing children apparently writhing in pain or women ostensibly in labor. Only recently did a weeping Gaza woman, claiming to have a prosthetic leg, blow herself up, killing the very soldiers who helped her when her bomb set off a metal detector. Incredibly, Abdullah's misadventure went largely unreported by the world's media, further underscoring the double standard against Israel. One might think the story of this child would evoke a modicum of human interest from a world that claims to care about Palestinian children. Is no one interested when Palestinian children are systematically indoctrinated by official media into a cult of suicide and murder, and if that doesn't work, they are employed as unknowing cannon fodder? Such indifference seems somewhat selective. When Muhammad al-Dura was shot in October 2000, he was immediately transformed into an icon of Israeli inhumanity. Subsequent credible studies proving that the child was killed by Palestinian fire, such as that of James Fallows in The Atlantic, were largely ignored. By contrast, the Palestinian manipulation of children is as pervasive and transparent as Hitler's "Children's Army" at the end of World War II. It's a flagrant violation of Article 38 of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which censures "the recruitment and involvement of children under 15 in hostilities and armed conflicts." Yet it's an entrenched Arab practice in this country. Already back in the 19th century, women and children were frequently deployed in the front-lines of disturbances and riots. They functioned as human shields and generated particular volatility. This tradition has been monstrously upgraded with the advent of suicide bombings. In the past three years, 29 suicide-bombings were perpetrated by youths under 18. Another 22 were killed while attacking Israelis. Forty other teens were arrested while trying to do likewise. Ascribing these statistics to occupation-engendered despair is intellectually indolent or demagogic. Palestinian youngsters are incessantly subjected to brainwashing in the media and classroom. Hate is inculcated in them. Even preschoolers are taught to aspire to martyr status. They grow in a culture that, rather than consecrating life, glorifies violent "sacrificial" death. The PA's Jerusalem mufti, Ikram Sabri, once said in a newspaper interview that "the younger the shahid [martyr], the more he's admired... That's why mothers cry with joy upon hearing of his death... The shahid is envied, because the angels in heaven usher him to his wedding." Journalist Huda al-Hussein, asked in the London-based Sharq al-Awsat already three years ago: "What kind of independence is built on the blood of children, while the leaders, including their own kids and grandkids, remain safe?" Good question. To Go To Top

JACK KELLEY: HEVRON'S SPOKESMAN UNCOVERED HIM LONG AGO Posted by Bryna Berch, March 21, 2004.

This was an item in today's Arutz-Sheva (http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com). The news that USA Today's ex-star foreign correspondent Jack Kelley apparently fabricated substantial portions of several of his major articles over the past ten years is a vindication of sorts for the Hevron Jewish Community. USA Today, the largest-circulation newspaper in the U.S., announced officially that Kelley had engaged in deceptions around the globe, including, apparently, an alleged face-to-face encounter with a suicide terrorist in Jerusalem, participation in a high-speed hunt for Osama bin Laden, and the departure of six Cuban refugees who later supposedly drowned. On Sept. 4, 2001, Kelley wrote an article in USA Today entitled, "Israeli extremists take revenge on Palestinians." Hevron spokesman David Wilder, in a letter at the time to USA Today publishers and editors, called the article "anti-Israel, anti-Semitic propaganda [that] is so full of lies and is so inaccurate..." Wilder wrote afterwards that he never received a response to his letter. Kelley's article began: "After a quick prayer, Avi Shapiro and 12 other Jewish settlers put on their religious skullcaps and headed toward Highway 60. There, they pushed boulders, stretched barbed wire and set tires afire to form a barricade that, they said, would stop even the biggest of Palestinian taxis... Shapiro, the leader of the group, gave the settlers orders: Surround any taxi, "open fire" and kill as many of the "blood-sucking Arab" passengers as possible. "We are doing what [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon promised but has failed to do: drive these sons of Arab whores from the land of Israel," said Shapiro, 42, who moved here with his wife and four children three years ago from Brooklyn. "If he won't get rid of the Muslim filth, then we will." Wilder wrote, after checking for several hours, "There is no one with the name Avi Shapiro who lives in Hebron, Kiryat Arba, Gush Etzion or Efrat... To the best of my knowledge, [he] does not really exist..." Wilder acknowledged that local Jews participated in roadblocks during times when "scores of Jews were being murdered by Arab terrorists in drive-by shootings... There was an attempt made to hinder Arab traffic, so as to save Jewish lives. However, at no time were any 'orders' ever given to 'open fire and kill...'" Wilder also noted several factual errors in Kelley's report, such as writing that "at least 119 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli civilians in the West Bank and Gaza, according to B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group" - when in fact B'Tselem reported that only "eleven Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli civilians." For another example, Wilder notes Kelley's outright "lie" that "in July, Jewish vigilantes killed three Palestinians, including a 3-month-old boy, in Nablus." Even more telling, in light of the ongoing investigation against Kelley, Wilder notes that Kelley's audio and written reports contradict themselves: "In his audio report, Kelley accuses 'settler teenagers, many of whom are from Brooklyn' of beating [a certain] man and then setting him on fire. In this written report, Kelley says that the man was beaten and set ablaze by Israeli soldiers. Why does Kelley contradict himself in the two reports? How does he know that the supposed 'attackers' are from Brooklyn?" "In conclusion," wrote David Wilder over two and a half years ago, "we expect that Kelley's tenure with the newspaper will be terminated immediately and that USA Today will not only publish this rebuttal, but will also print an apology for slandering our community." To Go To Top

THE ASSOCIATION FOR CIVIL RIGHTS IN ISRAEL ... ISN'T Posted by Steven Plaut, March 21, 2004.

The ACRI = Association for Civil Rights in Israel is an anti-democratic extremist group that does NOT endorse free speech! The ACRI, like Betselem, the Physicians for Human Rights, and many other assorted splinter far Left anti-Israel pro-PLO groups in Israel, pretends it is nothing more than a neutral human rights watchdog. This is an Orwellian lie. The ACRI is an extremist anti-Israel group who only cares about "human rights" when "defending them" is part of delegitimizing Israel, such as in http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/= JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1079770576867&p=1078027574097 It has never heard of a human right for Jews it wishes to defend, such as their right not to be murdered by terrorists. Think I am exaggerating? A few months back I approached the ACRI and offered them an opportunity to defend free speech in Israel and prove they support human rights for all, even for those who might disagree with their leftist extremist ideology. As you know, I am being sued in a harassment SLAPP "libel suit" by a leftist extremist lecturer at Ben Gurion University because I dared to criticize his political opinions and his public political behavior, such as his serving as human shield for Arafat while Arafat was hiding in his offices the murderers of an Israeli cabinet minister and other terrorists, all this to illegally interfere with an Israeli military operation. This suit is clearly nothing more than an anti-democratic assault on free speech by a leftist extremist who thinks it is a crime to criticize him. SLAPP stands for strategic lawsuit against public participation and SLAPP suits are anti-democratic libel suits designed to suppress the free speech of one's critics. SO I contacted the ACRI and asked them to take up my case and denounce the Ben Gurion extremists's tactic of trying to use SLAPP litigation as a bludgeon to supress free speech for non-leftists. There can be no clearer opportunity for those who value free speech as a human right to denounce such misuse of the courts as this case. I invited the ACRI to help defeat this cynical move by the leftist extremist in question, Neve Gordon from political science at Ben Gurion University. In response I got a peremptory refusal from a spokesperson for the ACRI. So when exactly does the ACRI protect free speech? Well, I will tell you when. This past November saw a quiet but significant victory in Israel over the treasonous Far Left. Some Israeli extremists were operating an Israeli branch of the "Indymedia" web network, which is a network of dozens of Marxist-anarchist web sites all over the world who devote their days to the singing of praises of communism, terrorism, the International Solidarity Movement of Saint Pancake, violence, and anti-Semitism. The one operating out of Israel was famous for its posting messages praising suicide bombers, denying the Holocaust, posting messages mocking Judaism and the Bible and otherwise anti-Semitic harangues, not mere anti-Israel pieces. Its managers claimed they did not pick the pieces and that it is open web publishing where anyone can post trash, but the fact of the matter is that they regularly censored anything on the site that was PRO-Israel and deleted it, leaving up the nazi screeds, this at www.indymedia.org.il. In November they ran, alongside their other filth, a cartoon showing Ariel Sharon French kissing Hitler. Some people were outraged and filed a petition with thr Attorney General to shut the site down. It has been successfully shut down ever since, evidently thanks to a court order, although recently a new substitute site just opened at israel.indymedia.org (you might want to stop in to post some pro-Israel material there to annoy them). For months, ever since the original Israel Indymedia web site was shut down, its URL carried a message in English and Hebrew from this same ACRI protesting the shutting down of this suicide-bombing-cheerleader web site. I guess the ACRI supports free speech only for leftist traitors... Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

PRESIDENT BUSH AND THE TERRORISTS Posted by Israel Ben-Ami, March 21, 2004.

Here in Israel the vast majority admire the President and his action against the terrorists, be it in Afghanistan,Iraq and indeed the entire world.The result of America's actions are there for everyone to see. 1]Afghanistan and Iraq are embarked on the road to fairer government for their citizens. 2]Oppressed women are beginning to see hope for rights and freedom. 3]A higher standard of living for Moslem citizens is around the corner and anticipated. 4]Potential terrorist states,such as Lybia and Syria are expressing a desire to 'toe the line' 5]Israel has been convinced to agree to a Palestinian State. Insofar as item 5 is concerned, the terrorist elements both in Gaza and the West Bank will have to be eliminated prior to a modus-vivendi between Israel and the Palestinians, and this should preferably be by a joint effort of both Jews and Arabs. The crazy, noisy Minority demonstrating against Bush and Blair should listen to the ghosts of the Kurds Iranians and Iraqis massacred by weapons of mass destruction and realise that Sadam Hussein would in the future have alligned himself with world-wide terrorism. Bush and Blair should be re-elected-in order to beat the terrorists world-wide. To Go To Top

MANHIGUT UPDATE Posted by Moshe Feiglin, March 21, 2004.

The desire to destroy the settlements, and the declarations about the approaching implementation of this, led as could have been expected to a new wave of terror. The separation fence in Gaza again proved its worth when two terrorists from the Gaza Strip who had planned to smother Ashdod in a cloud of poisonous gas were forced to make do with the murder of port workers. It seems that Sharon has chosen the lethal path of adopting and implementing all the worst possible options. What will be the next idea to germinate in the minds of Weissglass and Omri Sharon, after the disengagement plan smashes into pieces, with G-d's help, on the rocks of reality? I spent the last week in the US in order to participate in the annual Manhigut Yehudit dinner. I followed the reports in the American press regarding the disengagement issue. The US administration no longer believes that Sharon himself knows what he wants. Bush realizes that Sharon has no strategic aim and is very dangerous, and therefore keeps his distance from him. "So what has happened to Sharon?", everyone is asking. "'Restraint is strength', 'they deserve a state', Tannenbaum, the destruction of the Gush Katif settlements - has Sharon simply gone mad?" Sharon has not gone mad. We predicted his behavior, and published articles on the subject in Lechatchila several years ago. Sharon is behaving like a bird that finds itself trapped, and beats itself to death against the walls of its cage. It is not simply that Sharon is trying to sacrifice the settlers in the hope that this will delay the efforts of the Left to prove the charges brought against him. A far deeper issue is involved. All the leaders of the Right who attempted to face reality using classical Zionist awareness found themselves in a hopeless situation. It is impossible to understand the reality we are facing, or to navigate our path in it, without a Jewish Road Map. Israel does not want to admit it, but the world sees it as the representative of the Jewish people and of divine justice. When Israel surrenders to Moslem terror and says in effect that it is based on justice, it actually confirms the anti-Semitic claims made by both Christianity and Islam. This process leads inevitably to the waves of anti-Semitism sweeping the Western world. Manhigut Yehudit is emerging out of this great confusion. More and more people are realizing this, whether joyfully or from fear. But in the end the State of Israel will have Jewish leadership. Simply because there is no other way for it to survive. Premiere of the Manhigut Yehudit film: "If You Wish It" The most amazing reactions to the short film we have produced came from people on the Left who viewed it. It is quite clear to them that the futuristic story of Manhigut Yehudit's rise to power is not at all imaginary, and is only a question of time. We shall discuss this next Sunday. At 19:00 on Sunday the Premiere of the Film will be held in Heichal Hasimcha, 27 Yerimayahu St., Jerusalem (near Zol Poh). For the first screening we have invited our Central Committee members and major Manhigut Yehudit activists. No invitations have been sent by mail. Regular activists are invited to come and hear the latest news. The film will be screened to a wider audience in the future. Political Update This week we have engaged in judicial activities. On Monday the Likud Court was convened to deal with a large number of appeals. It should be kept in mind that the very convening of the Conference on Tuesday, Nissan 8 (30.3.04) was an achievement by itself, since this was the very last thing that the Prime Minister and his aides want. The effect of brave Sharon facing a corrupt Central Committee has already worn off, and now every time a session of the Conference fails to make significant decisions the feelings of frustration and discontent amongst Central Committee members increase, directed at the way the party is being run by its leader. During this legal session the issue was debated of the proper way to conclude the Conference and permit the election of party institutions, elections for the World Likud Organization, and the special voting for amendment 19c to the constitution (an MK or minister who votes contrary to Central Committee decisions will not be able to be a candidate in the next elections) and amendment 156 (the prime minister will have to submit for approval by the Central Committee a list of ministers and the guidelines of the government he wishes to form). If these two amendments are passed Sharon will find it very difficult to get his disengagement proposal adopted by the government, and he will also be unable to get the Labor Party to join the government if the Rightist ministers resign. Our demand that these amendments be put to the vote in the coming session is based on the clause in the Likud constitution that states that 20% of the members of each body can demand that a specific subject be placed on the agenda, in which case the body must address it within 30 days. Together with the Forum for Preservation of Likud Values, we submitted the signatures of more than 600 Central Committee members for these two amendments some time ago. On the eve of the session we were given a surprise: We received the response of the Likud's legal advisor, Haberman, in which he stated that we had only submitted 386 signatures for amendment 19c. This claim was backed by a letter sent six weeks ago by the Likud Secretary General's senior aide, Mrs. Ronit Rubin, to the president of the conference, Agriculture Minister Israel Katz, in which she informed him of this. What could we do? Obviously the claim was untrue, but how could we convince the Court of this without being involved in further delay? Clarifications of the issue on Monday morning reversed the situation, leaving Haberman himself surprised. After querying the matter with Israel Katz and his office, the minister confirmed that the letter and its contents had not been brought to his knowledge. Since the letter itself did not contain the Likud logo and was not even signed, the obvious conclusion was that the letter must be a forgery. It therefore seems that Sharon's confidants are so worried by the proposed amendments, that they are prepared to go to the lengths of making false claims to the Court in order to stop them. With G-d's aid this was exposed in Court, but the president of the Court still requires a lot of courage to withstand the pressure being applied by the party machine orchestrated by Sharon. At this stage we don't know how the Court will decide and we are trying to cover all contingencies. We believe that the Almighty will cause a good decision to be made. Lobbying Activities in the Knesset We can now reveal that joint action by Moshe Shomron and members of other parties in the Knesset led to the signing of an order prohibiting the unrestricted supply of "services" of erotic conversations. At the end of Tamuz an order signed by Minister Olmert will come into force, which will obligate the cellular phone companies to completely block any sex-based calls. Only persons more than 18 years old who request that this block be removed may participate in this "service". It is important to emphasize the contribution of MKs Gila Gamliel and Danny Ben Lulu and their aides, together with the mediation of Moshe Shomron, who promoted the issue and led to its successful conclusion. We should like to thank them and hope that this cooperation will continue in the future in other matters of importance to the Jewish people. For the last four months a demonstration against the administrative arrest of Noam Federman has been held every Saturday night from 21:00 to 22:00, opposite Shikma Jail (where Noam is being held), near the main entrance to Ashkelon. Immediately afterwards the demonstration moves to a new location opposite the home of Avi Dichter, in Ashkelon, until 23:00. This demonstration is growing in size. Last Saturday night about 100 people, residents of Ashkelon, Kiryat Malachi, Gush Katif, and Hebron, participated in it. Our aim: To perfect the world in the kingdom of the Almighty. Moshe Feiglin established Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership), a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. Feiglin has emphatically said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. The Manhigut Yehudit website address is http://www.manhigut.org. To Go To Top

THE USUAL SUSPECTS Posted by IsrAlert, March 20, 2004.

Isralert's source for this item: Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs This article was written by Ronald S. Lauder, a former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the president of the Jewish National Fund. At a number of recent public forums dealing with American foreign policy in New York, the question-and-answer sessions were marked by the following challenges: Individuals stood up and asked if the speakers would comment on the "neo-cons like Perle, Kristol, and Krauthammer who control the Pentagon." They really meant Jews. In an underhanded and deceitful manner, these disingenuous questioners were using code words to say what is not politically correct to utter in polite society. They are hardly original. Back in the 1930s, Gerald L.K. Smith and the Reverend Charles Coughlin preached vociferously about a cabal of "international bankers" and the "money changers" who controlled and manipulated the world's economy in evil ways. Everyone knew who they were really talking about. They meant Jews. Now, when people who talk about the latest "cabals of neo-conservatives" and only mention the Jewish names in the group, it's just the latest way of talking about you-know-who. And when they fail to mention the many non-Jews who feel the same way, and they believe that only Jews have the secret power to manipulate the minds of such softies as Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, Vice President Cheney, and President Bush, they are practicing a time-honored and despicable tradition. They are the political heirs to bigots like Smith and Coughlin. It seems that the Holocaust produced a half-life of tolerance of just about six decades. Now enough time seems to have passed to allow the whispering campaign to begin again. We see it throughout Europe, we read the medievalist writings from the Muslim world, and we even hear it right here in New York. So the next time you are at a dinner party or on a bus or at a public forum and you hear someone talk about those "neo-cons" and only mention the usual suspects while conveniently forgetting names like Fred Barnes, Christopher Caldwell, and Brit Hume, challenge them. Ask them what they really mean. And then walk away. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

JUDAISM NEEDS AN ENTRY STRATEGY Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, March 20, 2004.

Here is an article to ponder. It was written by Kerry M. Olitzky and Paul Golin. The road to growth runs through intermarried households American Jewry needs a revolution. Jewish life needs to become extroverted rather than inward looking because we refuse to resign ourselves to a shrinking US Jewish community. In its current incarnation, Jewish life in North America is simply incapable of addressing the dual trends of zero population growth and a below-40 percent affiliation rate. The last revolution occurred 35 years ago, prompted by student protests at the annual General Assembly of the Conference of Jewish Federations (now the United Jewish Communities). That 1969 upheaval was a turning point - from helping immigrant Jews become more American to helping Americanized Jews become more Jewish. On the whole, that revolution succeeded in transforming our institutions. Those that had been ardently secular - like Jewish community centers - are now infused with Jewish education. Religious institutions - like synagogues in the more liberal movements - now incorporate many more traditional elements of Jewish prayer and ritual. The problem is that most of these same institutions are incapable of attracting large numbers of newcomers. The exit doors - out of Jewish life and into the American mainstream - have been flung wide open, but we have barely cracked any corresponding entry doors back in. Instead, our strategy has been to try to shut the exit doors. Three decades of national Jewish population studies (NJPS) tells us that this strategy has failed. To begin opening more entry doors into Jewish life, our institutions need to recognize the barriers they create, and then lower them. How expensive is it to affiliate? How much Hebrew is someone initially expected to understand? How long a time commitment do our programs ask for? There are very few entry-level programs to be found anywhere in our community. Even most programs of so-called outreach expect participants to walk into high-barrier institutions like synagogues on their own initiative. This isn't happening in nearly the numbers we need it to. That's why we at the Jewish Outreach Institute offer a new definition of outreach: to take Judaism to where people are, both physically and metaphysically, rather than waiting for them to come to us. The Jewish community must move out of its own four walls, to become extroverted rather than inward looking. That is the next institutional revolution. There are small signs that this movement is beginning. For example, 20 years ago San Francisco hosted the only Jewish film festival. Today, there are hundreds of such festivals throughout North America. And the organizers have found that when films are shown in secular movie theaters, they often attract Jews who are not synagogue or JCC members. So film festivals are one way for the organized community to connect with unaffiliated Jews. We need many more such points of initial contact, and then we need trained professionals who can gently steward newcomers into deeper engagement. This stewardship, what we call "outreach methodology," will require a corps of specially trained professionals. Just as the last revolution placed a Jewish educator in almost every JCC, now we need an outreach coordinator in every JCC. And because there is no magic-bullet solution to the complex issues of disaffiliation, this new revolution will require our institutions to actually listen to what unaffiliated Jews need, and then meet those needs with programs of meaning. To do so, institutions must genuinely want to serve the unengaged. Serving the unengaged means losing our preconceived notions of what a Jew looks like because the population we've disenfranchised includes Jews of color, it includes gay and lesbian Jews, and most of all it includes intermarried Jews. IN THE past, Jewish outreach has more often than not been used to define a population - the intermarried. We consider outreach to be a methodology and believe that programs of welcoming and meaning will find relevance among all segments of the unaffiliated, including intermarried families, without necessarily being tailored to one target in particular. That said, any institutional attempts at outreach that are not welcoming to intermarried families are doomed to fail because not only do the intermarried make up the largest part of unaffiliated Jewry, but they also represent the community's best hope for growth. The fact that nearly half of all marrying American Jews are intermarrying is well known. What is little understood about this statistic is that the better way to describe it is not with the word "half" but with the word "double." The number of intermarried households created is nearly double the number of in-married households created. That's because for every two Jews marrying each other to create one in-married household, there are two Jews marrying non-Jews to create two intermarried households. The result is that sometime within the next few decades, the number of intermarried households will surpass the number of in-married households. This "coming majority" is in some ways already here: the recent NJPS shows that among Jews age 18-25, a minority of 48 percent have two parents who were born Jewish. (It's noteworthy that the other half of that age range, with only one parent born Jewish, nevertheless identified themselves as Jews to the survey takers.) There are currently more than a million intermarried households, making up more than one-third of all married households containing a Jew. If we really want to ensure the Jewish future in America, the road to growth runs through intermarried households. That's because intermarriage itself does not end Jewish continuity - not raising Jewish children does. If we can encourage more than half of intermarried families to raise their children Jewish, it will offset our lower-than-average birthrate and actually grow our numbers. This is not an impossible task. The NJPS found that one-third of intermarried households are already raising their children Jewish. Increasing that percentage should be the single most important goal of the Jewish community. The target audience is there: almost half of intermarried families say they are raising their children as "both" or "nothing." We know from our work that behind those words is a wide spectrum of meaning, and that for many of those families the door is still open to the Jewish community and to raising exclusively Jewish children. We need a massive effort to bring tens of thousands of new Jews into the US Jewish community - a kind of internal immigration - by creating many more entry-level programs to function alongside our programs of deeper commitment. And we need to open all our programs, and our hearts, to any family interested in raising Jewish children. Just get them in, teach them, and welcome them. It will take a revolution within our institutions to get us to that point. But we know that revolutions have happened before. Rabbi Olitzky is executive director of the Jewish Outreach Institute, the only independent, transdenominational organization welcoming intermarried families into the community. He is author of Introducing My Faith and Community. Paul Golin, assistant executive director of JOI, is author of the report "The Coming Majority: Suggested Action on Intermarried Households for the Organized Jewish Community." This article appeared in the Jerusalem Post Online (http://www.jpost.com) March 18, 2004. To Go To Top

AN ANTI-TANK ROCKET HITS A HOME IN GUSH KATIF Posted by Dror Vanunu, March 20, 2004.

At 7:20 Monday morning, March 16th, an anti-tank rocket hit the roof of the Shunam-Levi home causing extensive damage. Miraculously no one was hurt. The rocket exploded in the room of a daughter who had left at 5am for a class trip. This was the 78th home damaged in the past three years, and the second time this home was hit. Local brigade commander General Dan Harel was quickly on the scene and talked with homeowner Arlette Shunam-Levy. She described how she and her late husband and their children built the house several years. "This is my home" she said, "and I won't move from here." General Harel assured the family that all would be well... An extraordinary miracle occured on Sunday, March 15th, when a bus crowded with women, children and soldiers was hit by a Rocket Propelled Grenade near Netzarim. Though the bus was armored the projectile penetrated the vehicle and exited without injuring a single passenger. The time has come for the Prime Minister to recognize that buses in Jerusalem and Netzarim, the port in Ashdod and homes in Neve Dekalim are all the same target. Terrorism must be defeated, now! Dror Vanunu is is Director of the Katif Region Development Fund. To Go To Top

COLUMBIA'S EDWARD SAID CHAIR DONOR LIST RELEASED. SHOCKING Posted by IsrAlert, March 20, 2004.

This is from Campus Watch, March 19, 2004. It is archived at http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/1076 March 19, 2004 - The recently established Edward Said Chair at Columbia has caused much controversy, in part because it is held by former PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi and in part because the donors of the chair's estimated $4 million endowment have until now been kept secret. As Campus Watch has reported, it is highly irregular for the identity of academic chair donors to be concealed. It is all the more alarming that a university, naming a chair for one political activist and then awarding it to another political activist, would then prevent the public from knowing who had funded the chair. Columbia University continued to refuse disclosure. On Friday, March 12, 2004, Columbia's Office of Public Affairs finally released in print (not on its website) the full list of donors: Yusef Abu Khadra Abdel Muhsen Al-Qattan Ramzi A. Dalloul Richard and Barbara Debs Richard B. Fisher Gordon Gray, Jr. Daoud Hanania Rita E. Hauser Walid H. Kattan Said T. Khory Munib R. Masri Morgan Capital & Energy Olayan Charitable Trust Hasib Sabbagh Kamal A. Shair Abdul Shakashir Abdul Majeed Shoman Jean Stein United Arab Emirates With the list now public, it is clear why Columbia University preferred not to disclose the donors' identities. Columbia is already known for the lack of balance in Middle East studies. The list of donors to the Edward Said chair only confirms the problem. Particularly worrisome is the presence of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) among the donors. As Martin Kramer has pointed out, the incumbent of the Said Chair has also been named the director of Columbia's Middle East Institute, a federally-subsidized National Resource Center for the Middle East, and as such administers over $1 million in U.S. government subsidies intended to improve national security. The conflict of interest is obvious. Jonathan Calt Harris, managing editor of Campus Watch points out, "In brief, at Columbia right now, a political activist professor, paid in part by an Arab state, currently administers funds from the U.S. taxpayer, in part for the purpose of 'outreach' to the public. Both Columbia alumni and taxpayers should find this shocking." A previous UAE government donation to an American university has come under fire - the gift of $2.5 million in 2000 from Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan for a professorship at Harvard Divinity School (HDS). Rachel Fish, then a student at the Harvard Divinity School, showed the antisemitic activities of the UAE's Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-Up. HDS President William Graham has promised an investigation. Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum, addresses five problems in Middle East studies: analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students. Middle East Forum, a 501(c) 3 organization, works to define and promote American interests in the region and to shape the intellectual climate in which U.S. policy is made. To Go To Top

ARIEL SHARON POSITIONS HIMSELF AT THE BECK AND CALL OF THE U.S. STATE DEPT Posted by David Bedein, March 20, 2004.

For the past decade, U.S. demands for Israel to dismantle Jewish communities in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights and the Gaza strip were sweetened with talk of a " peace process" and economic benefits that would accrue for the Israeli people from such a move. Now, gone are any such promises of peace when the U.S. calls for Israel to dismantle Jewish communities. Undersecretary of State David Satterfield recently told the media at the State Department that the U.S. simply demanded that Israel dismantle its Jewish communities in areas that Israel acquired in a defensive war in 1967. Period. As a matter of policy, Israel had offered to trade some of these areas for bona fide peace agreements, and that is precisely what Israel did in 1982, when Israel handed over the Sinai and dismantled 16 Northern Sinai Jewish communities as a part of the formal peace agreement between Israel and Egypt brokered by the U.S. This is not the first time that the State Department brought pressure to bear against Israel. On September 1, 1982, President Reagan issued a plan that also mandated unilateral Israeli withdrawal from vast areas that Israel had acquired after the 1967 war. Yet nothing happened at the time. In February 1993, I interviewed the man who was Israel's Prime Minister back in 1982, Yitzhak Shamir. I asked him how it was that the U.S. made demands and nothing happened? Shamir's answer was that "we said no, and they understood the we meant it, and they backed off." Today, however, the State Department pressure seems to be working. That is not because Israel has any peace partner or any peace agreement in the offing. It is because the U.S. has new leverage on Israel, which has asked the U.S. for billions of dollars of loans to enable the Jewish state to cope with the loss of foreign investment during the four year guerrilla war of attrition that has wreaked economic havoc. Ariel Sharon, Israel's current Prime Minister, has announced that he will succumb to State Department policy dictates and dismember the Jewish communities in the Katif district of Gaza. The question, however, is whether the U.S. and the sycophantic Israeli Prime Minister will now transform a democratic ally like Israel into a banana republic. Israel is often referred to as the only democracy in the Middle East. Let us hope and pray that it stays that way. After all, it is surrounded by hostile dictatorships where totalitarian rule is the norm and that constantly seek Israel's destruction. With a system of proportional representative democracy, much like the United Kingdom, the Israeli Knesset parliamentary elections can often produce as many as twenty political parties out of only 120 seats. The Israeli Prime Minister therefore always presides over a coalition government that consists of a diverse amount of political parties to which he is accountable. Those parties are also accountable to the Israeli Prime Minister. That is Israel's system of checks and balances which has kept Israel's democracy working through the continual state of war that the Jewish state has coped with since its inception in 1948. Yet on March 9, 2004, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ignored Israel's parliamentary system of democracy and behaved like a dictator. On that day, our news agency learned that the Israeli Prime Minister had unilaterally informed officials of U.S. intelligence that he would begin to dismantle the 21 thriving Israeli farming communities and evict 1200 Israeli families of the Katif district of Gaza as early as May 1, 2004. Prior to his Pentagon leak, Sharon held no cabinet discussion or decision, no Knesset parliamentary discussion or decision and no Israel National Security Council discussion or decision. He acted alone. And only last week, a member of the Knesset revealed yet another secret plan documented by Sharon to brutally evacuate the Jewish communities of Katif by ordering the cutoff of all their water, electricity and police or military protection. Sharon's foreign press spokesman would not deny the veracity of that document. This is not the first time that Sharon has ignored the decision-making process of Israel's democracy. After trying an earlier unilateral move on his own, Sharon in May, 2003, was forced to deal with the Israeli cabinet that ultimately approved the "The Road Map" prepared by the "quartet" - the U.S., the UN, the EU and Russia - all of them foreign powers. The cabinet added fourteen clear reservations, designed to protect Israel's absolute autonomy and security, which include reasonable demands that "The Palestine Authority (PA) dismantle all terror organizations," and that the "end of the process will lead to the end of all claims and end the conflict." The U.S., however, has ignored Israel's reservations, and Sharon has followed suit by making it a policy of saying and reiterating that "Israel accepts the Road Map," as if it does so without any qualms. Following Sharon's meeting with three top U.S. officials on Thursday, I asked Sharon's official spokesman if the Prime Minister had brought up Israel's reservations to the Road Map. The spokesman whispered "yes". I then asked if the reservations would be mentioned in the press release following the meeting. The PM spokesman said, "no", giving "space consideration" as the reason, and saying that the press release would be very short. Sharon has therefore formally relinquished Israel's independence, placing it instead under the thumb of outside powers and financial interests that may not have Israel's best interests in mind. In the words of Dr. Uzi Arad, the head of the Herzlia Interdisciplinary Center of Strategic Studies, "It was predictable that the concept of a 'unilateral' withdrawal would never work . . . The result is that Israel has fallen prey to strange bedfellows." Indeed, the French and British governments, the European Union and the government of Egypt have all been discussing the possibility of deploying troops to Gaza to fill the void that would be created by a pullout of Israeli communities from the area. Hence, the comparison to a banana republic. The question has been asked: Can Sharon implement such a radical policy without the approval of the Israeli Government, Knesset or Israel National Security Council? Remember he is a democratically elected leader of a robust democracy on par with the United States and Great Britain. The answer is that he just might be able to get away with it: Both the Arabs and the Jews of Gaza still live under military rule. Thus it would be no problem to make life so uncomfortable for the Jews in Katif that they could not survive there for one day. At this point, that means that Ariel Sharon challenges Israel's democratic system, for only in a totalitarian country would we normally witness a regime that would force its citizens out of land and homes that they have lawfully bought and farmed. Katif's 21 Jewish farming communities represent one of the most prosperous and productive contributions to Israel's free market economy. These competitive farming communities often beat out the Israel Labor Party's socialist Kibbutz collective farms for produce contracts for export abroad. Indeed, 65 percent of Israel's tomatoes for export abroad emanate from Katif. Within domestic Israeli society, a conflict of interest exists for farming concerns within Israel's 1948 green line who stand to benefit from such a removal. Most Americans and Europeans are unaware of this. The Israel Labor Party, instead of fulfilling its responsibility as the leading opposition party to the imperious way in which Sharon is handling his role as Prime Minister, is waiting in the wings to join the new government if and when the National Religious Party and National Union Party decide to leave his control. Those parties are not where he normally draws his support. A survey of Sharons's ruling Likud party shows that a majority of the 41 Likud Party members now oppose Sharon's policy. Thus the only effective option against Sharon's plan centers on his own Likud party members and cabinet ministers opposing him. And only when Likud members and their staffers are literally swamped with telephone calls to their cell phones and their Knesset offices or forced to stand in line at the post office to sign for hundreds of registered letters each day can things be turned around. The Free World can and should make its voice heard. Katif should be understood by the entire free world community as being under the threat and the black cloud of eradication as a sop to the Arab world. At a time when the Prime Minister of a democracy has announced his intention to oppress some of his own citizens, those citizens need to know that the free world has not forgotten them. Katif is no different than the Sudetenland of Czechoslavakia at the start of World War Two that was given away by Neville Chamberlain. History is repeating itself in the War On Terror. Members of Israel's Knesset can be reached by writing the name of the Knesset member c/o Knesset, Jerusalem, Israel. All members of the Knesset are listed at www.knesset.gov.il. David Bedein is Bureau Chief, Israel Resource News Agency and Research Fellow at The Center For Near East Policy Research in Wellesley, Massachusetts. This article appeared in Israel Behind the News (israelbehindTheNews.com) March 15, 2004. To Go To Top

WE MUST SAVE THE THREATENED JEWS OF GAZA Posted by Ken Heller, March 19, 2004.

When Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced that he would unilaterally withdraw from Gaza, forcing 8,000 Jews to be transferred out of their homes, he showed his true perfidious side. Sharon has placed the Jews of Gaza in the threatened position of being moved out of their homes, farms, synagogues, schools, hot houses, dairies, and the beautiful Mediterranean seashore. All of this would be done to capitulate to Arafat, his PA and PLO, and his terrorist cohorts, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, etc. There is no logical explanation for this handover to the terrorists, who would use Gaza as a staging ground to attack all of Israel more efficiently. The underground tunnels from Egypt would work more successfully, and any military plans Egypt had to go against Israel would be facilitated by removing the front line, the Jewish population, from Gaza. The end result would be a de-stabilization of the entire Middle East. The twenty-one communities that make up Gush Katif have banded together to launch a campaign preventing the implementation of the Sharon transfer plan. They need funds in order to pay for free buses to bring Israelis to Gush Katif, so they can see for themselves the beauty and development of the area. The funds will pay for booklets that will be mailed to every Israeli home, pleading the cause of the Gaza Jews. A film, celebrating the beauty and Jewish life in Gush Katif is being made, to be distributed as widely as possible. You can help by sending a tax deductible contribution, made out to: "Friends of Gush Katif" Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI 1623 Third Ave., Suite 205 New York, N.Y. 10128. The need is urgent. The campaign must be launched immediately. It cannot succeed without the help of Jews who want to be certain that "Never Again" will be the reality. Thank you for your genuine caring and concern... and support!! Ken Heller is a pro-Israel activist. He can be reached at kjhnha@aol.com. To Go To Top

AFSI AND CIPAC ON CAPITOL HILL ASKING FOR U.S. MORAL CLARITY Posted by Helen Freedman, March 19, 2004.

AMERICANS FOR A SAFE ISRAEL/AFSI, led by Chairman Herbert Zweibon, and CHRISTIANS' ISRAEL PUBLIC ACTION CAMPAIGN/CIPAC, chaired by Richard Hellman, joined forces on March 15, 16 to visit over fifty offices in the Senate and House of Representatives, speaking on issues concerning Israel and America's policy in the Middle East. A sampling of those visits follows: Senator Sam Brownback, Rep. Frank LoBiondo, Senator James Inhofe, Senator Zell Miller, Senator George Allen, Senator Norman Coleman, Senator Jim Talent, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Rep. Tim Johnson, Rep. Jim Ryun, Senator Richard Durbin, Senator Peter Fitzgerald, Rep. Dan Burton, Senator Jeff Sessions, Rep. Jim Saxton, Rep. Pete Sessions, Rep. Mike Pence, Rep. Eliot Engel, Rep. Steve Israel, Rep. Chris Smith, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, Rep. Henry Hyde, Rep. Steve Rothman, Rep. Jack Kingston, Rep. Ike Skelton, Sen. Pat Roberts, and Rep. Ander Crenshaw. Talking points were distributed beginning with a STATEMENT OF BELIEF: "It is not in America's best interests to weaken its only democratic ally in the Middle East while it is striving to create stability and democracy in that region. Instead of urging Israel to give up its land, transfer its people, and create a terrorist "Palestinian" state inside Israel's tiny country, the U.S. should be encouraging Israel to strengthen itself in every way possible. The "Road Map" should be replaced by the biblical road map. Israel should be given the green light to wage an all-out fight against terrorism. Only with a strong Israel as its ally can the U.S. hope to achieve its goals in the Middle East." We addressed America's desire for stability in the Middle East, pointing out that threatening Israel's qualitative military edge by continuing to give billions of dollars in military aid to Egypt is counter-productive, while Egypt continues its alliance with Hamas and the PA. Congressman Anthony Weiner was thanked for introducing the Egyptian Counterterrorism and Political Reform Act - HR 3725, which details the countless violations of President Mubarak and the Egyptian government. MK Dr. Yuval Steinitz's article, "When the Palestinian Army Invades the Heart of Israel" (Commentary-Dec. 1999) served as the focus of our arguments about the terrorist nature of Arafat's army and their goal of destroying all of Israel. We reminded the Congressmen that it was Yasser Arafat who introduced homicide bombing and the use of children as shields. We argued that it would be a victory for terrorism if there was any withdrawal from any part of Israel in response to the reign of terror which has claimed 1000 Israeli lives and thousands of injured since Sept. 2000. We thanked Senators Arlen Specter and Charles Schumer for their sponsorship of the Senate's Saudi Arabian Accountability Act, S 1888, and Congressmen Anthony Weiner, Jerrold Nadler, Peter Deutsch, and Carolyn Maloney for the House version, HR 3643. The Act seeks "to halt Saudi support for institutions that fund, train, incite, encourage, or in any other way aid and abet terrorism, and to secure full Saudi cooperation in the investigation of terrorist incidents." We urged the cut -off of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, to whom the U.S. is the key military supplier, since Saudi Arabia supplies at least 50% of Hamas' budget of $20 million, and its donations increased after Sept. 11, 2001. The Syrian Accountability Act, HR 1828, spearheaded in the House by Congressman Eliot Engel, and the Senate Act, S. 982, introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer and Senator Rick Santorum, also received our attention. We visited these Congress people, thanking them for their efforts to halt Syrian support for terrorism, the end of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, the stopping of the development of WMD, and the cessation of Syria's illegal importation of Iraqi oil. Finally, in our intensive meetings, we spoke about democracy, America's goal in the Middle East. We stressed that Israel is America's only reliable democratic ally. Countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia have voiced their objections to America's suggestions for political and economic reforms, and accountability on human rights issues, declaring them an "imposition of foreign ideas and interference in their internal affairs." We expressed the belief that pressure on Israel to relinquish its sovereignty threatens the democratic institutions of Israel. It sends a message to Arab regimes that they should reject U.S. leadership in adopting democracy, since it might push them into the same weakened position that Israel finds itself in today. The two day visit to Washington concluded with a gala reception for the Senators and Congressmen who are supportive of Israel. CIPAC's "Friend of Israel" award was presented to Congressmen Eliot Engel, Anthony Weiner, Jim Saxton, Jim Ryun, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Joe Crowley, Mike Pence, Todd Tiahrt, Ernest Istook, Trent Franks, Joe Wilson, and Cliff Stearns. A surprise visit by Israel's Minister of Housing, Effie Eitam, capped the event. Minister Eitam spoke about the warmth he felt at this union of Christians and Jews, united on behalf of a whole Israel. He related a story about his Entebbe rescue experience where G-d's presence was the crucial ingredient in achieving success. Objecting to PM Sharon's unilateral withdrawal plan from Gush Katif/Gaza, he stressed that we must continue to work together to ensure that there are no give-aways of Israeli land as a reward for terrorism. In evaluating our talks with the Congress, it was agreed that we had met with a great deal of support and understanding. The breakdown seems to be with the U.S. State Department and the Sharon government. They must proceed with the moral clarity necessary to honestly deal with the terror that is threatening the entire world. Israel has proven to be the test tube for world terror. If the Israeli government proceeds with its plans to evacuate the 8,000 Jews of Gush Katif/Gaza, and turn over the farms, homes, hot houses, synagogues, schools and factories to the terrorists, there will be celebration in the militant Islamic world. The drive will then be to accomplish the same thing in Judea and Samaria, and all of Israel. With that success, homicide bombers will spread throughout Europe, the U.S., and indeed the entire world, emboldened by each victory for terrorism, while the rest of the world cringes in fear. The message we delivered was clear. Victory for terrorism will turn the entire western world into victims. We must uproot the evil at its core. Helen Freedman is the Executive Director of Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI (http://www.afsi.org). To Go To Top

FINALLY, THE G-D'S HONEST TRUTH OF THE AMERICAN/ISRAELI RELATIONSHIP Posted by Jerome S. Kaufman, March 19, 2004.

This is based on a speech given at the Jerusalem Conference by Dr. Rand Fishbein, former staff member U.S. Senate Defense Appropriations subcommittee on March 17, 2004. "Israel can just say no!" Dr. Rand Fishbein, former Professional Staff Member of the U.S. Senate Defense Appropriations and Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittees, told participants of the three-day Jerusalem Conference. "The democratically elected leaders of the State of Israel are under no obligation to reflexively bow to State Department pressure - you can say no!" Dr. Rand Fishbein told the Jerusalem Conference today (Wednesday, March 17, 2004) The conference was organized by B'Sheva newspaper and is on its final day. Dr. Fishbein's comments were made during a panel discussion on Israel's relations with the United States. "American policy in the Middle East today is driven by "flawed notions," said Fishbein who went on to give several examples of such faulty assumptions. "That democratization and political reform are possible in the Arab world in our lifetimes, that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be contained and Arab sensibilities appeased by continual Israeli concessions, and that threats to Israel"s security are manageable and do not constitute existential dangers." The ex-congressional staffer outlined what he saw as "disturbing signs of trouble in the U.S. - Israel relationship," warning that Israel must not be na've regarding America's stated commitment to the Jewish state's security. "There is the discriminatory way in which export licenses often are denied Israeli companies while approvals are granted almost effortlessly by Washington to companies operating in non-democratic countries like China and Saudi Arabia," said Fishbein. "There are regular denunciations of Israel by the State Department for its use of pre-emption to stop imminent attacks on its population, yet the doctrine of pre-emption is what now guides the U.S. military in the war on terrorism." Dr. Fishbein also mentioned that Israel was the only one of America's allies in the war with Iraq explicitly barred from bidding on prime contracts - despite the fact that "Israel contributed mightily to the U.S. victory in Iraq by providing extensive intelligence and logistical support to American forces." Even more sinister, according to Fishbein, is the fact that there has been an "exponential rise in the quality and quantity of high-tech weapons provided to Arab countries." Fishbein chose Egypt as an example delineating the, "extraordinary array of state-of-the-art offensive weaponry" approved by the U.S. for sale to Cairo. The long lists includes over 200 M1 Abrams tanks, extended-range missile launch systems, Harpoon anti-ship missiles (which can also be used as cruise missiles), 24 F16 aircraft, Blackhawk and Apache helicopters, Stinger missile launchers and missile boats. Fishbein also pointed out the discrepancy in American policy regarding loan guarantees given to Israel versus other nations, such as Egypt. America docked $289.5 million from Israel's loan guarantee package on account of policies that the U.S. administration objected to. Egypt on the other hand continues to receive its entire $2.3 billion in U.S. foreign assistance, despite Egypt's opposition to Saddam Hussein's removal. The U.S. administration has also turned a blind eye as Egypt, "aids and abets the smuggling of weapons from the Sinai to terrorist groups in Gaza", acquired 24 No-Dong missiles from North Korea capable of striking Israel anywhere within its borders with weapons of mass destruction, as well as resuming defense ties with Iran after a nearly 25-year hiatus. However Fishbein did not lay the blame with America but rather called upon Israel's leaders to take responsibility for their "plans of retreat". Fishbein also made clear that Israeli leaders have hid from criticism from the Israeli public by insinuating that America is dictating such policies as "unilateral withdrawal". Fishbein dismissed the assumption that Israel's withdrawal from parts of Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) would lead to increased support by the Bush administration - calling it "rubbish". "The planned Gaza retreat has undercut Israel's strongest supporters in the Congress who believe that any retreat in the face of terrorism only encourages more terrorism," lamented Fishbein. "I would remind Israel's leaders that they have no greater friend than the U.S. Congress." "Israel must continue to stand tall and resolute - commanding the forumespect of the world through its tenacious defiance of its enemies," concluded Fishbein. "This must be the guiding precept for Israel and America as they chart their future together - for nothing less than their mutual survival is at stake." Jerome S. Kaufman hosts Israel Commentary (http://www.israel-commentary.org), a website of news and analyses. To Go To Top

A HATIKVAH EMERGENCY MEETING: To Be a Free Nation in Our Own Land Posted by Americans For A Secure Israel, March 19, 2004.

THIS PASSOVER - OUR FIGHT FOR FREEDOM IS TO LET OUR PEOPLE STAY SAVE THE 8,000 JEWS OF GUSH KATIF/GAZA IF GAZA GOES, OUR WORLD WILL TOPPLE WITH IT What would be your reaction if: Terrorists tossed Molotov cocktails at a synagogue killing or injuring local Jews and the U.S. government reacted by making the area Judenrein? Or if Jews in NYC were attacked by Jew haters and the New York City police decided to evacuate the Jews? Or if the French government forced Jews to leave Paris in response to terrorist attacks on them? You would be outraged that the victims were being punished and terrorists rewarded. That is what PM Sharon is doing in his plan to remove Jews from Gush Katif, Judea, Samaria, and... ATTEND A PUBLIC FORUM WEDNESDAY. MARCH 31, 7:30 PM WEST SIDE INSTITUTIONAL SYNAGOGUE 120 W. 76th St., between Columbus & Amsterdam Aves. In New York City SPEAKERS - FROM ISRAEL - MK DR. ARIEH ELDAD, YOSSIE BEN AHARON, former Director General of the PM's office, and Gush Katif residents, DROR VANUNU and MOSHE SAPERSTEIN. ADDITIONAL SPEAKERS - Rabbi Rafael Grossman of the West Side Institutional Synagogue, Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis of Hineni, Mort Klein of ZOA, Rabbi Allen Schwartz of Ohab Zedek, Herbert Zweibon of Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI, and more. No fee - Bring your friends and neighbors - A voluntary tax-deductible contribution to "FRIENDS OF GUSH KATIF" would be greatly appreciated. AND PLAN TO JOIN AFSI ON ITS CHIZUK SOLIDARITY MISSION TO ISRAEL - MAY 16-24 - WITH TWO DAYS IN GUSH KATIF/GAZA Contact: Helen Freedman, Executive Director, Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI; 1623 Third Ave., Rm. 205, New York, N.Y. 10128; Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717; afsi@rcn.com; http://www.asfsi.org To Go To Top

WHY I AM NOT A MUSLIM Posted by Ray Marshall, March 19, 2004.

For the evolving understanding of Islam, Mohammed and their advocates, it is crucial that the educated read a well researched and documented work titled "Why I am Not a Muslim" by Ibn Warraq. Ibn Warraq captures the essential research of many historians and religious writings into a comprehensive text that seems to strip away much of the religious-political spin found in many current books, articles and speeches. Knowledge gained from this book is culturally, politically and religiously instructive while enabling understanding of some thought processes and behaviors exhibited by believers of Islam. Ibn Warraq provides a comprehensive direct and indirect analysis of what it means to have shared values with Islam or rather to what extent shared values are possible between Muslims and non Muslims. Moreover, Ibn Warraq analyzes the Koran and so makes it a simple matter to recognize why, from an Islamic perspective, it is virtuous to commit acts considered amoral or barbaric by the overwhelming majority of people while simultaneously accusing others, especially Jews, of perpetrating or being the reason for those acts. Why I am Not a Muslim provides substantive indications as to why Egyptian TV and other government controlled media are continuing to air "Horsemen Without A Horse" (a redo of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion); why the U.S. is a Great Satan; why Israel is a colonial occupier; why Muslims do not generally criticize Islamic co-religionists when their words or actions are heinous but which conform to Koranic pronouncements, why historical revisionism is appropriate deception, why making peace with Jews yet alone Israel is contrary to various Suras, etc. It is likely fatal to assume that followers of Islam have the same assumptions for friendship, peace and tranquility as Jews, Christians, and others. Read, learn and teach! To Go To Top

SHARON TOUTS PLAN, PRESENTS NONE, GETS VOTE ON IT Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 19, 2004.

Before addressing the Knesset about his plan for withdrawal, he cited only alleged advantages: 1. Improve long-term security; 2. Prevent a national cleavage; 3. Enlist international support; 4. Maintain the P.A. obligations to the Road Map; 5. Compel the P.A. to feel it lost something by not reaching an agreement with Israel; 6. Reduce impression of Israeli retreat under fire; 7. Keep long-term cost reasonable; 8. Avoid Arab excuse to keep fighting for part of Gaza, as Hizbullah did in Lebanon, because the pullout there would be complete (Arutz-7, 3/11). At the Knesset, he discussed the plan without presenting it and without showing it would enhance security. Although his speech was empty, as cynics predicted, he called for a vote on his announcement. The vote barely passed, though more MKs opposed withdrawal than support it (IMRA, 3/15). All 8 points are incorrect or misleading: 1. Withdrawing from parts of the Land of Israel in favor of a terrorist state impairs security. 2. It may precipitate a national cleavage but not prevent one. The Left is not satisfied with the plan except as a first step. Thus the same agitation for Israeli withdrawal would continue. 3. No Israeli leader should delude himself that in this Arab-appeasing, Jew-hating world, foreign states would support Israel except for withdrawals that weaken it. Indeed Sharon's plan is gathering international support, but only as a first step and with criticism for not planning more steps (that Sharon may be planning secretly). Foreign countries very likely would call it a precedent for further withdrawals that PM Sharon claims he doesn't want. It may lead to foreign troops alongside Israel, protecting the terrorist entity from Israeli retaliation. 4. Nothing Israel does maintains Arab obligations. The Arabs sign agreements, but deceitfully. They do not meet their obligations. The West does not make them. For example, after a decade of Oslo, the West still subsidizes the P.A. despite its being in complete violation of the Accords. 5. The P.A. won't feel it has lost anything by not reaching an agreement with Israel. To the contrary, its terrorism will have brought it a rollback of some Zionist development of the Jewish homeland and a PLO state without Arab obligation. According to Arafat's phased plan for the conquest of Israel, the PLO would use that state as a base for conquering Israel. 6. Retreating from terrorism is retreat under fire. During the Israeli retreat, the Arabs would fire. 7. Allowing PLO sovereignty leaves terrorism stronger. That will cost plenty. 8. The Arabs of Gaza would use the excuse that they are fighting for Judea-Samaria. Besides, being deceitful, the Arabs never run out of pretexts or causes. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

AN INTERVIEW WITH BERNARD LEWIS Posted by CAMERA, March 19, 2004.

In an interview with Fiamma Nirenstein in the March 11 Jerusalem Post, the renowned Middle East historian Bernard Lewis shares his knowledge and insight about several issues that are commonly reported on, but usually without sufficient context. It was entitled "Avoid the Algerian precedent." Princeton scholar Bernard Lewis, universally accepted as the world's leading expert on the history of the Middle East and author among other works of The Crisis of Islam and, most recently, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East, discussed with the Post developments in Iraq and Israel, during a visit to Tel Aviv early this month. This was translated from the Italian by Rachel Donadio. Are you in favor of immediate elections in Iraq? I don't want us to repeat what happened in Algeria, where elections quickly devolved into a massacre. We need to tread very carefully. Elections have to stabilize Iraq, not upset it. Otherwise, countries like Iran and other Middle Eastern dictatorships have an interest in seeing to it that democracy never takes root. Much of the funding and organizational support for terrorist groups comes from Iran. Can the US really take on countries directly responsible for terrorism? I don't think that there's a need anymore for other wars. If the opposition isn't blocked, Iran is poised for a democratic revolution. As for the other countries involved in funding terrorism, I can imagine the collapse of corrupt minority regimes in crisis, ones which persecute and impoverish their citizens. Do you have faith that, in spite of everything, democracy will prevail? Saddam Hussein, a Ba'athist-minority dictator, was nourished by Nazism first and then by communism, both European totalitarian ideologies. If anything, the risk of not succeeding in dismantling these fragile Middle Eastern dictatorships today lies more in the history of the rapport between the Muslim and the Western worlds than it does in Muslim roots. Islam, which has been weak for two centuries, has always sought backing to help it fight the enemy - Western democracy. First it supported the Axis against the Allies, then the communists against the US: two disasters. Today it is seeking the protection of Europe against the US, which it sees as its principal enemy. And Europe is facing a difficult debate between those who want to accept that role and those who don't. Please, I have no intention of comparing Europe to Nazi Germany or the USSR, I'm only talking about the position in which the Arab world is trying to put the old continent. How has America's war on terror affected the terrorists? The war, which has set the entire Middle East in motion, threatens terrorism, and so it contributes to the terrorists' activating their defenses. You see, Iraq today could become a democracy in the middle of the Middle East. In the papers we may only read about terrorist attacks, but in reality Iraq is bustling with all kinds of movement - new newspapers, new local forms of self-government, young people signing up to be in the police or the army. Things are incomparably better than they were under Saddam. And we can proceed with caution, without rushing to carry out elections that would require local electoral lists, laws and structures that still need to be defined. How will the trial in the Hague affect the Middle East peace process? What's happening in the Hague is absurd. It's a matter of common sense. Everyone knows it's not a legal question, but rather a political one, one which can only be resolved when the two sides have decided to treat it as such: politically. The world has always been tormented by border issues. Alsace and Lorraine spent hundreds of years establishing their borders and only now, just maybe, have they succeeded. The UN may pose the question in legalistic terms - and in a minute I'll explain why I mean legalistic, not legal - but this is really not about what the UN says it's about. My impression is that the UN has taken up a debate from the Palestinian side, so we can't be sure whether the discussion concerns the dimensions of Israel, its behavior, or its existence. Is Israel violating international law in its building of the fence? The only Armistice Agreement that deals with borders is the one signed in Rhodes on January 6, 1949. The second part of article five says that the cease-fire lines are "not to be interpreted as political or territorial borders and their delineation in no way affects the rights, demands or positions of any of the parties to the cease-fire agreements regarding the final disposition of the Palestine question." The subsequent UN resolutions are built on this one document, and defer to a political structure not yet established. But what if the fence were built on the Green Line? It wouldn't make any difference. The Palestinians have been offered borders in which to establish their state many times: In 1936 by the Peel Commission, then by the UN itself in 1947, then in many Israeli offers, the most recent one at Camp David in 2000 with Arafat, [Ehud] Barak and Bill Clinton. History teaches us that Palestinian policy is informed by an implicit refusal to accept the State of Israel. They won't change their tune this time either. Israel says it's putting up the fence to defend against terrorism. It's a very serious direct measure, and one that makes one think that terrorism in general is not on the wane - not in this area, not in Iraq, where there are terrorist attacks every day, and not in the rest of the world, which is in a constant state of alert. There are two kinds of terrorism, but, mind you, they're not in conflict and are often unified in their actions. The first kind is always armed with highly ideological means and is aimed at preserving existing tyrannies. The second, al-Qaida kind, is aimed at subjugating the entire Western world. What do you make of the UN's transition from creator to prosecutor of the Jewish State? Let's look at the facts. First of all, Palestinian rhetoric hasn't changed since 1947. It still continues to reject the existence of a country it considers an enemy, a stranger in the region. Its schools, radio and television continue to teach incitement. Now let's consider another Palestinian issue in which the UN is also involved: the refugee problem. In pushing for the right of return, the Palestinians are essentially proposing the elimination of the Jewish state. And the UN has never proven that it differs from the Palestinians on the refugee question. History is very clear. In the last century, millions of refugees moved between war-torn countries. The most important migration was between India and Pakistan in 1947, which involved at least seven million people. In 1945 millions of people moved between Poland and East Germany, and all were resettled. With the partition [and creation of the State of Israel], 725,000 Arab refugees were relocated, and the UN immediately created a fixed institution, [the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East], which has literally prevented the Palestinians from resettling. In 1929, Jews were killed or forced out of Hebron, and in 1948 others were killed or forced out of Jerusalem, but have you ever heard them referred to as refugees, protected by the UN? What about the 800,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries? The UN never bothered with them. I'd like to add that when on December 17, 1947 the Arab League rejected the resolution that established the partition - within the confines of international law, I might add - the UN didn't make a sound. Nor did it say a word when the Arab countries forbade Israelis of any religion from entering its borders - preventing even Muslims from making their obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca - and closed its borders to Jews regardless of their citizenship. Nor did the UN speak out when Jordan in 1954 offered citizenship to any inhabitant of Palestine, except Jews. The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) monitors the news media for fairness in reporting news about Israel. To Go To Top

JEWISH RUNNING MATE SAYS LE PEN WILL FIGHT ANTI-SEMITISM Posted by Jewish Community of France, March 19, 2004.

This was written by Adar Primor and appeared in Ha'Aretz. "Our region needs something better. Our religion does too!" reads the opening line of a letter distributed in recent weeks among the Jewish community in Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, one of the largest and most important regions in France. Behind the letter is Sonia Arrouas, a 42-year-old Jewish woman, and No. 4 on the regional list of Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front party. On Sunday, French citizens go to the polls in regional elections that are viewed as a significant test of the balance of power and the National Front's position in the country. Arrouas has been working full tilt for her candidate, Le Pen - the only person, in her opinion, who can solve France's problems, the only one who "can put an end to the authorities' incompetence in the face of anti- Semitic aggression." Arrouas's letter continues: "Has France become an anti-Semitic state? No, but anti-Semitism is dangerously on the rise in a number of regions, including our region. We must not err in identifying the source of the evil: Those responsible for the anti-Semitic incidents, for the most part, come from the Maghreb countries. These worrisome people must not be allowed to harm our community. The Jews' faith [in the authorities] has cracked. Therefore, I decided to fight with you for our region, for our security and for our religion. Therefore, I decided to stand as a candidate in the elections alongside Jean-Marie Le Pen. Let's stop the disinformation!!!  Come and sign up." Arrouas, a jurist, businesswoman and a mother of three, was born in Paris to a traditional Jewish family from Tunisia and Algeria. She tries to come to Israel often to visit her relatives. She says she supports Le Pen because she grew up "in a patriotic family for which law and order was our daily lot;" because for her, September 11 was "very traumatic;" because the Muslim girls' headscarves affair "intensified my fears;" and because she has no intention "of being left at the mercy of the radical Muslims." Arrouas says she became "an anti-fundamentalist and was naturally drawn to the figure who refuses to allow the radical Muslims in France to get stronger. Had they listened to Le Pen, there wouldn't be so many extremists like these in France. One must not show tolerance for those who have no tolerance." Arrouas sees Le Pen as a repentant man who has changed his anti- Semitic views thanks to, among other things, his 1991 marriage to his second wife, Jany, "some of whose best friends, including myself, are Jews." Arrouas says she is very proud of "Le Pen's admiration for the State of Israel," adding: "He has always identified with Israel's policy of defense in the face of the aggression of the Arab world." Arrouas, who serves as Le Pen's unofficial adviser on Jewish issues, is not afraid to be labeled "the Jewess of," noting: "I am not alone. More and more Jews identify with me and will therefore give him their vote. Many recognize that he expresses out loud what they feel in their hearts." Jean Marie Le Pen's daughter, Marine, who is running for leadership of the Ile de France region, also speaks of increasing Jewish support for the National Front. "The Jews have started to take an interest in our manifesto. They perceive us differently. The misunderstandings of the past are fading," she told Haaretz. Marine Le Pen says she doesn't have numbers to support this claim, but notes that from talks she has held with friends in the Jewish community, it is clear to her that "they understand that the real danger for them lies in the [Arab] immigration. The Jews are being forced to take the aggression and racism of the immigrants twice - once for being French, and again for being Jews." Marine Le Pen calls on the Jews of France "to fight here with us against the intensifying immigration problem," and to withstand the pressure they are under to immigrate to Israel. "The Jews have understood who is truly responsible for anti- Semitism," Jean-Marie Le Pen said in an interview with Haaretz published last week. "Some of them, therefore, are happy about the existence of the National Front, which they perceive as [a party] that can protect them." Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut says the French Jews' support for the National Front stems from their fear of what he terms "the Islamic-extreme left-wing alliance," which is responsible today for the spread of anti-Semitism in France. The fact that Tarak Ben Ammar, a Muslim film producer, took on the task of distributing Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," Finkielkraut says, illustrates the problem: "It wasn't someone from the extreme right, from the Catholic-fundamentalist school, who became the film's distributor, but a Muslim." Pascal Perrineau, a scholar of the extreme right and author of "Le Symptome - Le Pen," has conducted surveys in cities such as Paris and Strasbourg, which are home to large Jewish communities. "In all of those places," he says, "voting for the National Front was very low." Perrineau also points out a difference between the voting patterns of the Sephardi Jewish community, whose "anti-Arab feelings are stronger," and the Ashkenazi community. Nevertheless, he stresses, the National Front's Jewish voters are few and far between. France's Jewish leaders do not accept the existence of a "Jewish- fascist" vote in the country. Henri Hajdenberg, former president of the Representative Council of the Jewish Organizations of France (CRIF), believes that no more than 5 percent of French Jews give their vote to Le Pen. "Even those don't really identify with the National Front and its values, but wish to voice a protest against the hatred and violence of the immigrants," he stresses. Hajdenberg does admit, however, that the phenomenon, considered taboo in the past, is indeed a matter of concern for the leaders of the Jewish community. Echoing Hajdenberg's sentiments is an editorial written recently by Elizabeth Schemla, editor of the Proche-orient.info Web site, which deals with issues relating to France's Jewish community and the Middle East. In her article, Schemla blasts "the many Jews who are falling into the National Front's trap" and issues a warning to them not to be misled, saying: "Le Pen and the National Front are racists, xenophobes and first and foremost anti-Semites. To forge a tactical alliance with them is tantamount to collaborating with the most dangerous of the anti-Semites." This email was distributed by Communaute-Juive-France-owner@yahoogroupes.fr Their website address is http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/Communaute-Juive-France/ To Go To Top

SCANDAL AT THE U.N. Posted by Jewish Community of France, March 19, 2004.

This was written by William Safire in the New York Times, March 17, 2004. The cover-up in the office of the U.N. secretary general of a multibillion-dollar financial fraud known as the Iraqi oil-for-food program is beginning to come apart. The scandal has been brewing for years. The first I learned of it was in a New York Times Op-Ed article last April by the journalist Claudia Rosett charging that the U.N.'s secretive oversight of more than $100 billion in Iraqi oil exports and supposed humanitarian imports was "an invitation to kickbacks, political back-scratching and smuggling done under cover of relief operations." After checking with Kurdish sources in Iraq, I reported that half the money allocated to their people had been blocked by Saddam "conspiring with bureaucrats in the U.N. Plaza." Kofi Annan's right-hand man, Benon Sevan, had been named by the secretary general to head the oil-for-food program and report directly to him. Though he could not deny a favored French banking connection, Sevan branded as "inaccuracies" charges by Ms. Rosett and me of secrecy, citing a hundred audits in five years. But he refused to make public what companies in what countries got Saddam's largess. Now, thanks to evidence of systematic thievery on a huge scale, discovered by free Iraqis in Baghdad, the whole rotten mess of 10 percent kickbacks on billions in contracts is coming to light. In detailed accounts, Susan Sachs in The Times, Therese Raphael in The Wall Street Journal, and Charles Laurence and Inigo Gilmore of London's Daily Telegraph have flipped over the flat rock of corruption. Assistant Secretary General Sevan, now on an extended vacation until his retirement next month, denied through a spokesman "that I had received oil or oil monies from the former Iraqi regime" and demanded that his doubters produce documentary evidence. The Journal then produced a document in Arabic that suggests Sevan received an allocation of 1.8 million barrels of oil. Under the U.N. bureaucracy's nose - and I suspect, in some cases, with its collusion - nearly three-quarters of the suppliers jacked up their prices to pay the 10 percent kickback. These included European manufacturers, Arab trade brokers, Russian factories and Chinese state-owned companies. Corruption's take - out of the mouths of hungry Iraqi children - was estimated by Sachs of The Times at $2.3 billion. Hired by the U.N. to monitor these imports was a Swiss-based firm, Cotecna, which was paid out of the exorbitant fee the U.N. charged for overhead. Ms. Rosett, writing in National Review last week, notes that Kojo Annan, the secretary general's son, was once on staff and later a consultant to that tight-lipped company. In denying to The Telegraph in 1999 that he worked on the U.N. oil-for- food account, Kojo Annan said, "The decision is made by the contracts committee, not by Kofi Annan." About that "661 compliance committee," on which the U.S. has a seat and to which the secretary general now wants to pass the buck: a U.S. official familiar with its operation tells me that "its purpose was formally to approve what the U.N. staff recommended. Only the U.S. and the U.K. experts ever put a hold on a contract, and that about items that had dual use in weaponry. Few U.S. firms got contracts, and those that did worked through middlemen to avoid the General Accounting Office." Annan's office kept blaming the 661 committee and stonewalling the press until an irate Iraqi Governing Council hired the accountants KPMG and a law firm to investigate what its advisers told Annan was "one of the world's most disgraceful scams." Under mounting pressure, this week the U.N. let it be known that its laughably titled Office of Internal Oversight Services would look into the matter. An internal whitewash? Not nearly good enough. Will the Security Council appoint an independent counsel to clean house in an inept or corrupt Secretariat? No, because France and Russia had their hands in the kickback till. But free Iraq, backed up by the U.S., is not helpless. Our Congress supplies 22 percent of the U.N. budget, and we have a right to an accounting. Chairman Henry Hyde, of House International Relations, calls this "an outrage" and will arrange for a G.A.O. briefing this week, to be followed by open hearings in April. The U.N. can redeem its sullied reputation by helping to shape Iraq's future. To take up that challenge, it must have clean hands. To Go To Top

HAMAS WEBSITE HOSTED IN SWEDEN Posted by Martin Lindeskog, March 19, 2004. /font>

A website linked to the terrorist organization Hamas has been hosted in Sweden. It has moved to a host in Russia. The security police has had this site on its radar for a long time, but hasn't done anything about it... Instead it was the Internet provider TeliaSonera that shut down the site after receiving complaints from e.g., the Jewish Community in Gothenburg. The website (http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/ekot/artikel.asp?artikel=385524) ran The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, fatwas, and stories by suicide bombers. I wonder who the guy is on the right side of the Hamas leader Abd al-Aziz al-Rantissi. The web host company has received about $2650 per month from a group of Palestinian students in Lebanon. Ousama Al-Mardini has most of his customers in the Middle East. UPDATE 03/20/04: Here is a quote by Magnus Norell, an expert on terrorism at the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI): "In my opinion, the connection is very evident, not least the detailed information about operations that Hamas has conducted and how quickly they are published on the site. It tallies with what Hamas has done before. Everything indicates there is a total connection between Hamas and the web site." (Jerusalem Post, 03/18/04.) Other blog-eds by Martin Lindeskog are on his website: http://www.egoist.blogspot.com To Go To Top

THE BLAME GAME OF THE IGNORANT Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 18, 2004.

A new era is blossoming in Terror with its victims casting about for someone to blame other than the terrorists themselves. As a result of the Madrid bombing by Al Qaeda, the Spanish people tangentially blamed President George Bush's war against Iraq for their pain and they voted in the opposition Socialist government. The emerging fact that the Terrorists were mostly a Moroccan branch of Al Qaeda who had targeted others including Spain, in the past, did NOT deter them from playing the "Blame Game of the Ignorant". In the New York Times of March 17 there is a Survey (taken before the 4 bombs in Madrid) by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press of numerous European and Muslim countries with regard to their opinion of the United States and Terrorism. Within a mixture of opinions there is a high percentage who blame the U.S., presumably in panic over the increase in terror. *(I recommend that your read it yourself to get the statistics and flavor of world opinion.) What is wrong is that there is a negative opinion at all among informed people, given the facts and circumstances. Let us examine the cascading facts about Global Terror insofar as U.S. response. The U.S., to its discredit, virtually ignored or restrained itself from investigating local and Global Terror prior to 9/11 under the Clinton regime and before that the Bush/Baker regime. America reluctantly rescued Kuwait under the watch of the first Bush, James Baker and the pro-Arab State Department, Colin Powell (then General as Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) - ending the war too soon and leaving Saddam in power with his Republican Guard. Then it waited 12 years for the U.N. to do something about the most savage regime of repression on the planet whose mass graves we are still being uncovered of Saddam Hussein's victims. After 17 resolutions by the U.N. NOT complied with by Saddam, George W. Bush, the son, righted his father's wrong, rescued the Iraqi people - despite the useless U.N. and such appeasement-oriented countries as France, Germany, Russia who only wanted to lift sanctions so they could 'do business' with Saddam to recover past debt from Saddam's weapons-for-credit purchases. All during those years we now learn that the U.N. program of Iraqi Food-for-Oil administrated by Kofi Annan was lining the pockets of U.N. Administrators while Saddam was also bribing political officials across Europe with gift shiploads of crude oil which they could sell for personal gain. That's only the thinnist of background of corruption that preceded the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq. Strangely, Israel played a low key but crucial role in providing Intelligence on Iraq, in addition to training U.S. troops on how to fight Terrorism in an urban setting. (More on this later.) The Terrorists had been building a global network for decades before the U.S. invasion of Iraq which was known and deliberately ignored by the Europeans and the U.S. State Department because it would have focused on Arab Muslim countries with its financial epicenter being Saudi Arabia. BRIEF HISTORY OF ARAB/MUSLIM TERRORISM & ASSASSINATION (1) The world has forgotten the centuries of Terror which was brought to a high state of the art in the Middle East long before Nasser, Arafat, the Iranian Ayatollahs, Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda. Even the word "assassin" dates back to 1090 C.E. of a sect dedicated to murder who knew they would die in the act. It was believed they drugged themselves with hashish for courage and thus were called "Hashishin" - later distorted into Assassin. Arab Muslim fanatical killers didn't start with Arafat's suicide bombers or those blowing up Americans on 9/11. The assassins of the 10th Century eventually came to be hated by the Arab world which, no doubt, will happen to the Terrorists now blowing up their brethren in Iraq and Globally. Terrorism was being developed in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Morocco, Yemen with later connections in Indonesia, Chechnya, Bosnia, the Philippines, many nations of Africa, and others. Unfortunately, the U.S. trained the "mujahadin" (Islamic jihad fighters) in Afghanistan (including Osama Bin Laden) to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. These "mujahadin" came in as Muslims from much of the Arab/Muslim world and then returned to their own nations (and others) well-trained by the U.S. as efficient terrorists. America helped drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan but, the ultimate product of that necessary effort was to seed trained terrorists around the world. There they incubated, hitting smaller targets to gain experience, connecting up to each other and thereby creating what we now face as a Global Threat of Terror which can only be fought with the most brutal retaliatory methods. Oh, Yes! I did forget to insert the fact that these Muslim terrorists were mostly driven by religious radicalism which would have continued no matter what appeasements were offered. We are talking of the Islamists' goal of World Conquest in order to institute Sharia law (extreme form of Wahabbi Islam) across the planet. We are also talking about Koranic mandate for Muslims to recover any land previously conquered by Islam, such as Spain and half of France in the 7th Century, which must be re-conquered. Thus, the "Blame Game of the Ignorant" is being played out in some desperation, hoping that appeasement of terrorists will solve this growing problem. (It won't.) Let us jump to another, more complex Blame Game, this time NOT of the Ignorant but of the Malicious. BLAMING ISRAEL & THE JEWS FOR GLOBAL TERROR Background: Hitler used Church-taught hatred of the Jews to recruit his victim nations of Europe to join him in his "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". Every nation in Europe, in one way or another, assisted him in eliminating their Jews, 6 million, including 1.5 million children. A remnant of Jews escaped the graveyards of Europe and made it to Eretz Yisrael (called "Palestine" by the Romans for 2000 years). The U.N. in a moment of global embarrassment for those nations who collectively participated in Genocide of a of Europe's Jewish population, voted to partition a tiny (15-20%) portion of the designated Homeland for the world's Jews. This portion of "Palestine" was an irregular and indefensible minuscule slice of what Mark Twain saw as a desolate land but, nevertheless, accepted by Jews desperate for a homeland and out of the clutches of the Europeans who had proven their deep anti-Semitic willingness and ability to destroy the Jewish people. Surrounding Arab nations, themselves gifted with their partitioned land by the Allies after WWI of the Ottoman Empire lands formerly held for 400 years by Turkey, rejected Israel's partition. Seven Arab nations launched a brutal war against the newly born State of Israel, recreated after 1950 years of exile. Naturally, neither the Europeans, the U.N. nor the U.S. offered to interfere with the Arabs' assault. The assumption was that the Jews would be eliminated by the Arab armies and all political problems would be solved. But, the Arabs lost, the Jews won the first and five more wars. 6,000 Jews out of a population of 600,000 were killed during the 1948 War of Independence. The Arab Muslims attacked and gambled away the land they held. Israel, the Jews begged for peace each time they won, even offered to give up land they won but, the Arab Muslims refused peace. Despite the fact that the Arabs provoked each war, losing land in an aggressive war, they and the Europeans (though the U.N.), demanded that Israel must give up the land they had won when they were attacked. In 1964, Egypt created the Yassir Arafat's PLO, Palestine Liberation Organization, terrorists who between each war, launched terror attacks against the Jews. The Arab nations and their proxy terrorists always spoke of peace to the Anglo world but, in Arabic, only spoke of terror and conquest of any non-Muslims, including both Jews and Christians. The Arab Muslims say: "First the Saturday people; then the Sunday people." WHEN THERE IS NO ANSWER, BLAME THE JEWS It always seems that the Muslim believe that 'somehow' Christians and Jews have joined to act as Crusaders against Islam. There are 5 million Jews in Israel and perhaps a total of 16 million Jews throughout the world in comparison to at least 1.3 Billion (I said Billion) Muslims in the world today. That tells the story of who is the victim. Would that we Jews had the influence attributed to us by the Muslims to explain their poverty, backward civilization and the fact that they are the epicenter for Terror throughout the world. When they cannot explain why they do what they do - they invariably reach for the Jews as their excuse. Every failure of the Arab or Muslim world is always the fault of someone else. Moreover, they believe their own distortion of the facts and history. Meanwhile, the European nations who were Hitler's proxies to kill the Jews during WW2, now joined the Arabs in the "Blame Game of the Malicious". They knew that the Muslim Arab world would never cease their terror and their plans to conquer the Jews of Israel, to regain the land they claimed was an organic part of Islam. But, they played the Game of Blaming Israel for the Terror launched against her as if Israel could truly appease the Arab Muslims and "Jihadists". The European Media, the Liberal Media of America invariably slants their stories about Terror against Israel - as if her mere existence was the correct reason for or roots of Arab Muslim Terrorism. When Israel responds to horrific attacks against her citizens, the Leftist Media goes ballistic and twists itself into verbal knots to explain that, were it not for Israel's response to Terror, Terror would cease. Many of the shallow, self-styled intellectual pundits have now launched the theme that, 'somehow' Global Terror would cease or, at least, modify its attacks if the so-called Israel-Palestinian problem would be resolved - as if the two components were equal or had anything to do with their plans to create one Global Nation enslaved to Allah and Islam. Surely, Al Qaeda would cease its Global attacks and no longer consider America its prime target for a Super Hit, if Israel capitulates. Surely, Saudi Arabia will cease funding its "madrassas" (schools all over the world for teaching children the radical form of Islam) and will also cease teaching "Wahabbi" laws that speak of world domination by Islam as the "Great Umah" if the Palestinians were give another Arab Muslim state of their own. No one speaks of the hatred the Muslim Arabs have for the Arab Muslim Palestinians or the reason why none of the Arab countries will accept them as their citizens. The Media and the pundits have forgotten why Kuwait and Saudi Arabia transferred those 750,000 Arab Palestinians who lived for years in their countries out - to Jordan - as they were considered untrustworthy and a risk to their governments. Surely, if the Arab Palestinians are pacified, Iran will cease building nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and will cease penetrating its Taliban-like teachings into every Muslim and non-Muslim nation to accept Sharia laws, etc. But, yet intellectual pundits like Arnaud de Bourgrave (on FOX NEWS March 17th) or Tom Friedman will continue spouting a partial truth that terror cells have, indeed, incubated all over the planet but - the main problem is Arab Palestinian discontent. America is now getting her unfair share of wrongful blame because, like Israel, she is really fighting Global Terror. The Europeans hate America and Israel, each for different reasons but, the "Blame Game" is being directed at both. Therefore America and Israel are natural allies. They must each strengthen the other and ensure that the smaller Jewish State is not weakened to become vulnerable to Arab Muslim takeover. We are entering an era of not 5 or 10 years of ongoing terror but, perhaps 50 or more years. Here I agree with Arnaud de Bourgrave. After a few more 9/11s or Madrid catastrophes, perhaps we will begin fighting terror with no holds barred and abandon the "Blame Game". Hopefully, America will cease trying to stop our natural allies, especially Israel, from fighting terror in the way it should be fought - To Win! Appeasing Terror by sacrificing their intended victims will not buy us the their friendship nor take America off their list of targeted nations. Perhaps we ought to tell the decadent Europeans that this time we will not sacrifice American soldiers as we have in the past to rescue or assist them when Terror stalks their cities. 1 "The History of the Assassins" by Amin Maalouf (from book "The Crusades Through Arab Eyes" pp. 98-105 by al-Saqi Books. http://www.sunnahonline.com/ilm/seera/0056.htm Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm) To Go To Top

THE RISE OF "EURABIA" Posted by IsrAlert, March 18, 2004.

This was written by Robert Spencer and it appeared on Front Page Magazine (http://www.frontpagemagazine.com) today. Robert Spencer is the director of "Jihad Watch" and the author of "Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West" (Regnery Publishing), and "Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World's Fastest Growing Faith" (Encounter Books). Now that Spain has rejected its pro-American government in the wake of the Madrid bombings and Osama bin Laden has effectively become the Spanish Foreign Minister, the question is not so much "Why did this happen?" but "What took so long?" What is really surprising is not Spain's spectacular act of appeasement but the fact that the anti-terror Aznar government bucked Europe's prevailing winds in the first place. For over thirty years, Europe - including Spain - has been preparing for this moment: doing everything possible to transform itself into the newest homeland of a resurgent political Islam. The renowned historian Bat Ye'or explains that the European Union has since 1973 been constructing "a whole infrastructure of alliances and economic, industrial, media, cultural, financial bonds with the countries of the Arab League." This new Euro-Muslim entity - which she has dubbed "Eurabia" - has been consciously intended to become "a counterweight to American power" on the world stage, "whose aim was to separate and weaken the two continents by an incitement to hostility and the permanent denigration of American policy in the Middle East." Eurabia is a political and economic entity. Through a succession of international agreements, Europe agreed to support the Islamic world's political aims - particularly its anti-Israel stance - in exchange for favored treatment in Arab world markets. Observes Bat Ye'or: "From the outset the [Euro-Arab Dialogue] was considered as a vast transaction: the EC agreed to support the Arab anti-Israeli policy in exchange for wide commercial agreements." The fallout has been cultural and demographic as well, as Bat Ye'or details in her forthcoming book, Eurabia. In exchange for the opening of Arab markets, Europeans encouraged Muslim immigration into Europe, discouraged assimilation of these immigrant populations, and fostered the dissemination in Europe of Islamic perspectives on history and contemporary politics. Meanwhile European foreign policies were brought into harmony with the aims and goals of the Islamic world. This "shifting of Europe into the Arab-Islamic sphere of influence," Bat Ye'or explains, was intended to break the "traditional trans-Atlantic solidarity." To deflate American power and assure themselves a steady supply of oil, European leaders accepted "the traditional cultural baggage of Arab societies, with its anti-Christian and anti-Jewish prejudices and its hostility against Israel and the West." In exchange for markets in the Islamic world, Europe turned its back on its Judeo-Christian heritage and set the stage for its own Islamization. At the highest political level, Europe, including Spain, has been selling its soul for decades now - giving up, in effect, its blood for oil (not to mention the blood of countless Iraqis and others who had to suffer under the heel of tyrants with whom Europe happily did business.) Ironically, incoming Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero declared: "We're aligning ourselves with Kerry. Our alliance will be for peace, against war, no more deaths for oil." Yet Zapatero and his new government, not the existing order, represent the Europe that has been giving up her life for oil for thirty years now. After all, according to United Press International, it was Spain's European Union colleague, France, that accepted bribes from the Iraqi oil ministry in exchange for opposition to the American invasion of Iraq. Zapatero is trying to convince the world to see his election not for what it is - the biggest radical Muslim victory since 9/11, or even the Khomeini revolution in Iran - but simply as a referendum on Iraq. He has castigated Bush and Blair for their "lies." However, in the caves and highlands of Afghanistan, the Al-Qaeda leadership is not interested in the niceties of legality, disclosure and intelligence that are currently swirling in the West around the Iraq invasion. They see the war in Iraq as a jihad - indeed, as one segment of a global jihad - and they will not see Spain's withdrawal from Iraq as anything but a victory for jihad and confirmation that terror works. This fact remains quite aside from all questions of the validity of the Iraq invasion. Osama bin Laden, if he is alive, and other radical Muslim terrorists will see it the same way they saw Bill Clinton's withdrawal from Somalia in the 1990s: as proof that the West is weak, unwilling to fight, and ripe for the plucking. Now that Al-Qaeda has adjusted Spain's foreign policy with a bombing, will they not be justified in thinking they can adjust her domestic policies - and religion, and culture - with a few more bombings? The greatest glories of fabled Al-Andalus may yet lie in the future. To Go To Top

MILLIONS IN AID FOR PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY, BUT WHERE HAS IT GONE? Posted by David Frankfurter, March 18, 2004.

The attached OpEd appears in today's Scotsman and is archived at http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=315932004 THE European Union has poured an astonishing 4 billion into Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority (PA) since 1993. Together with contributions from the UK, the US and other individual countries, this, according to a leading World Bank official, is the largest per capita transfer of aid funds ever. But while evidence of high-level corruption within the PA is clearer than ever before, Brussels persists in claiming that it sees reform; its efforts to change the PA are "paying off". Any serious analysis of the money reaching the PA necessarily begins with Chris Patten. As EU Commissioner for External Relations, he has spearheaded a policy of far-reaching tolerance towards his Palestinian beneficiaries. "We have done more to reform the PA than anybody else ... reinforced transparency in finances - and the adoption of the Law on the Judiciary", Patten has claimed. The true picture is deeply depressing. While the average Palestinian wallows in poverty, and violence created by the Palestinians shows no sign of let-up, their leadership shows few visible signs of financial distress. Where has the investment gone? Mohammed Dahlan, one of the inner circle of PA powerbrokers, throws some light on the question: "Those who are surrounding Arafat are blocking internal reforms," he explained last month. Hardly surprising? It is no secret that the PLO was established in the 1960s under KGB guidelines. Four decades later, the same leadership remains in power, enjoying the fruits of a much richer economic climate. Consider: 1. Nabil Shaath, the PA's current foreign minister, was cited back in 1997 for financial mismanagement. Today, he owns a super-luxury villa in the middle of Gaza. 2. Mrs Arafat lives in ostentatious luxury in Paris with her mother and staff, funded from EU-provided budgets. 3. Arafat's hand-picked prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, came under investigation as the owner of a cement company that supplies Israel with material for building settlements and its reviled security fence. 4. The IMF, in a September 2003 report, revealed that hundreds of millions have been misappropriated and pointed to major structural deficiencies within the PA's Ministry of Finance. Then there's the lawlessness. The mayor of Nablus, Ghassan Shakaa, resigned last month in protest at the absence of progress in dealing with unsolved rapes and unpunished crime. In some towns, rival militias, such as Arafat's Al-Aksa Brigades, compete for control of the streets. As for democracy, Palestinians have often reasoned that elections could not be held since 2000 because of Israel's reaction to the Intifada. In fact, Fatah's Revolutionary Council was elected into office more than 15 years ago. It's not hard to understand why the EU officials repeatedly raise the flag of reform. It spares them from having to face up to the minimal return on their huge investment. New villas in Ramallah and Gaza are the few visible signs of donor money having passed through town. The European Commission money managers must be seeing this. Otherwise, how do we explain their recently revised strategy of channelling aid into Palestinian NGOs instead of directly to the PA? Yet most Palestinian NGOs are connected to the PA leadership. Some have been caught engaging in corrupt practices or working outside their stated charters. Consider LAW - a Palestinian human rights agency. Only after some $2m of European taxpayers' money ended up in private bank accounts, was an investigation started. Or the Palestinian Red Crescent Society - severely criticised by the International Red Cross for using ambulances to ferry weapons. The Negotiation Support Unit runs activities that directly contradict UK national policy. European money plays a very significant role in the events affecting the Palestinians. The taxpayer deserves to see a better use of the money. The average Palestinian needs to see it arriving. David Frankfurter is a writer on the Middle East conflict. To Go To Top

THE JEWS OF GAZA NEED YOUR HELP Posted by Dror Vanunu, March 18, 2004.

For over three and a half years the villages of the Katif region have been subjected to an unprecedented terror offensive. More than 11,000 terror attacks have been launched in the region, including unending shooting on the villages and the army bases which defend them, attacks on the travel routes, the planting of bomb explosives, attempts at infiltration and the shooting of thousands of Kassam missiles and mortar shells. Despite the pain and anguish that has been our lot during these years, the firm stand of the people of the Katif region is an outstanding example for the rest of the country.That firm stand of the residents of Gush Katif is now being tested in the face of another ordeal, this time coming from our own government. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's announcement about the disengagement plan, is a sign of defeatism and shortsightedness of the present leadership. This dangerous plan to give our enemies parts of the Holy Land undermines our right to the land, endangers our state and rewards the terror, as we can well see by now. In the face of such weakness, we are working hard to initiatea campaign that will include the bringing of many people to Gush Katif from all over the country, distribution of hundreds of thousands of CD's, initiating parlor meetings in Israel, 'face to face' operation, advertising in the press, on billboards and more. We are determined to stay in our homes, on the land of our ancestors! We are sure that Sharon's plan will lead us to a disaster for the entire country and we intend to prevent it from happening. In order to launch a campaign preventing the implementation of Sharon's transfer plan we need funds that unfortunately are not available to us. Dear friends, Now more than ever we are calling on you to take part in the struggle for the Katif Region and for the unity of Eretz Israel. We ask you now to participate in the efforts to prevent this dangerous plan, rather than to be forced later to deal with the dreadful consequence. Dror Vanunu is Director of the Katif Region Development Fund. To Go To Top

I BELIEVE ARAFAT Posted by Dr. Mordechai Kedar, March 18, 2004.

This was first published in June, 2002. It remains true. On May 15, 2002, Yasir Arafat addressed the Palestinian Legislative Council in Ramalla. The occasion was the 54th anniversary of the Nakba ("the disaster" of Palestine, i.e., the establishment of the State of Israel on May 15, 1948). In his speech Arafat referred to the suicide attacks against Israeli citizens, stating that these attacks "do not serve our cause, but rather subject us to angry criticism on the part of the international community". Arafat called upon the Council to deal with this problem (which has aroused serious discussions among Palestinians and Arabs in general) from the vantage point of the "Hudaybiyya Conciliation Accord, out of our concern for the patriotic and national interest of our [Palestinian] people and [Arab] nation, in order to strengthen worldwide solidarity with the Palestinian people and its cause". What is behind this reference to Hudaybiyya? It conveys the following twin messages. 1. "The Hudaybiyya Conciliation Accord" was an agreement which the Prophet Muhammad signed in the year 628 A.D. with the infidels of his tribe, the Kuraysh. He did so upon their refusal to join the community of Islam, when he realized that he could not defeat them militarily. Two years later, having consolidated his power, he attacked Holy Mecca, slaughtered the men of his own tribe and torched all the symbols of their heathen culture. Islam regards the actions of the prophet as religiously sanctioned models for the behavior of the faithful. In fact, the authorized collections (Hadith) of Muhammad's acts and pronouncements are among the important sources for the Islamic authorities of every generation in deciding questions of religious law. Thus, the prophet's way of treating his agreement with the Kuraysh is perceived as the ideal procedure for Muslims when dealing with non-believers: When Muslims cannot impose their will for expanding the rule of Islam by force, they are permitted to sign temporary agreements with the non-believers. Such agreements are to be kept until Allah grants a sufficient increase in Muslim power. At that point the faithful are allowed (or obliged) to break the agreements and to impose Islamic terms on the infidels. Why else would Allah have granted them the power to prevail? In referring to Hudaybiyya, Arafat meant exactly this: Any agreement with Israel is - in his eyes - no more than a Hudaybiyya Conciliation Accord. This is eminently clear to anyone who reads the Islamic sources, preferably in Arabic. (Internet sites in English tend to portray a rather conciliatory picture of Islam, for Western consumption, by rephrasing Islamic messages.) 2. The proof for this is inherent in the second message of the quotation from Arafat's speech. Suicide attacks at this juncture are not condemned as vile inhuman acts but are held in abeyance because they are presently incapable of advancing Palestinian goals. At present, the Palestinian cause can best be served by avoiding international condemnation and by promoting the encouragement and sympathy of the world community. What does Arafat mean? That suicide attacks are evil and should be removed from now on from the arsenal of legitimate weapons in the struggle against Israel? Not at all. If anything, recruitment and training of shahids is accelerating. What he advocates for the near term is a change in the modus operandi. Does he promise not to use suicide attacks again? By no means. Does his most recent call to desist from attacks upon civilians remind us of his record of broken promises made to Rabin (1993), Netanyahu (1996) and in many public declarations between 1993 and 2000? They do indeed. As a student of Arab politics and as a Zionist with personal past involvement with efforts to promote peace and understanding between Israelis and Arabs, I do indeed believe Arafat's message: he does wish to come to an agreement with the Israelis, but, as he points out to his followers, any agreement with non-Muslims, such as a commitment to stop suicide attacks, is simply a modern version of Hudaybiyya. As such, in accordance with Islamic principles which form the basis of the political culture in the Arab sphere, such a commitment may (or must) be broken at the right time. Clearly, before long, when in Arafat's judgment suicide attacks will again be helpful to the Palestinian cause, he will once again call upon his followers to go out and sacrifice their lives in Israel's streets ('millions of shahids marching to Jerusalem'). Great tragedies have occurred in international affairs when governments try to understand potential enemies in terms of their own political culture. The events of September 11 can serve as one recent example. Israeli ignorance of Islamic traditions and Arab culture have brought about many serious political and military setbacks, from the surprise attack which started the Yom Kippur War (October 6, 1973) to our lack of realism all through the Oslo process, 1993-2000. We shall continue to disregard the Islamic tradition only on pain of more naive dreams, by Israeli and Western leaders, dreams which are totally detached from the Middle Eastern reality, a reality which is becoming increasingly colored by the Islamic brush. Dr. Mordechai Kedar is in the Department of Arabic of Bar-Ilan University and  is a research associate of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. To Go To Top

THE CNN-BCC-LA TIMES-WASH POST HANDBOOK FOR HOW TO BE AN "ACTIVIST" Posted by Steven Plaut, March 18, 2004.

1. Murdering people makes you a killer or a terrorist. But if those murdered are Jews then you are an activist. You might also be a militant. 2. Crashing jet planes into buildings makes you a terrorist. But attempting to shoot down civilian planes landing in Israel makes you an activist. 3. Placing large bombs on trains in Madrid makes you a terrorist, but placing bombs on Israeli buses full of children makes you an activist. 4. Blowing up a nightclub in Indonesia full of Australians makes you a terrorist. But mass murdering Israeli children makes you an activist. 5. Snipers shooting innocent people in Virginia are terrorists. Snipers shooting Jews in the West Bank are activists. 6. People trying to ram soldiers with trucks and cars are generally terrorists unless the soldiers in question are Jews. 7. Throwing rocks at civilians makes you a criminal and maybe even a terrorist, and if you do so off a California overpass you will get jailed. But throwing the same rocks at Jews in Israel makes you an activist and maybe even a professor at Columbia University. 8. Denying the Holocaust makes you a racist and a fascist bigot, unless you are an Arab, in which case it makes you a moderate, at least if you deny the Holocaust in grammatically correct English. 9. Hiding behind children when you shoot weapons at soldiers makes you a coward and a villain, unless you are a Palestinian or an Iraqi Baathist. 10. Murdering children makes you a fiend and maybe a nazi unless the children are Jews, in which case you are an activist with legitimate grievances. 11. 9-11 and 3-11 terrorism has no underlying causes or root grievances, but Middle East activism in which Israelis get mass murdered does - because of Israeli insensitivity and because Palestinians feel occupied. 12. When Bosnians or Albanians in Kosova get mass murdered, that is a war crime. When Jews get mass murdered, this is their comeuppance for their insensitivity, and of course it is reactive activism. 13. When Americans assassinate al-Qaida or Taliban leaders anywhere they find them, this is part of the war against global terrorism. When Israel shoots terrorist leaders, it is an obstacle to peace and is unjustifiably deactivating activism. 14. When the US jails hundreds of terrorists in Guantanamo Bay without trial, this is because the jailed are terrorists. When Israel jails people who have mass murdered Jews, this is undermining the peace process and antagonizing activists. 15. Firing mortars and rockets into civilian areas in the Balkans makes you a war criminal. Firing them from Gaza into Jewish homes makes you a militant. Protesting wearing of fur also makes you a militant, or maybe an activist. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

PLANS AND PLANS Posted by Gary M. Cooperberg, March 18, 2004.

Clearly a great many people are very upset with Sharon's plan to uproot Jewish people from their homes. It is ironic that, from June of 1967 onward, nearly every Israeli government has sought to give away that which was miraculously handed to us by our G-d. And, at long last, when we finally got a Prime Minister who was, deemed by most observers to be, the most right-wing militant leader we could hope for, he does an about face and suggests the most leftist policy ever dreamed up! No wonder many people are losing hope in our future. Threats to our existence are nothing new to the Jewish people. What we must continue to keep, first and foremost, in our minds is the knowledge that Israel and the Jewish People are part of a Divine Plan which no human power can alter. Of course it would be a lot better if we, the Jewish People, could pull ourselves together and act with faith in G-d and true self-confidence in the certainty of our destiny. By failing to do this we are the prime cause of our own needless suffering. While we can examine mistakes we have made over the centuries and identify how G-d has rescued us so many times, even though we may not have been worthy of His mercy, let us just take a brief look at recent Jewish history. Theodore Herzl, the founding father of modern "secular Zionism", was certainly not a religious man. His dream of a Jewish State was not that of his fathers. As a result of the Dreyfus trial in France he came to the conclusion that the world hates Jews so much that it could easily destroy them physically. His concern was not to save Judaism, rather to save Jewish lives. He did not see the connection between antisemitism and Judaism. All he saw was irrational hatred of the Jew. Antisemitism did not discriminate between observant and non-observant Jews. The fact is that all Jews have an equal obligation to serve our G-d and bring redemption to Mankind. That many Jews choose to ignore their obligation as Jews does not remove the fact that they still have that obligation. The holocaust, which was probably the most brutal and horrible expression of antisemitism in history, clearly revealed that no Jew can escape from his destiny. Many thought that they could abandon Judaism and thus escape antisemitism only to find themselves hunted down equally with observant Jews. The reason we Jews were not permanently accepted by any nation is because it was our destiny to remain a people apart from all the nations of the world. Had we been accepted and become a part of the nations of our exile we would have disappeared centuries ago. Today, after thousands of years of wandering from nation to nation, in spite of our desire to become a part of those nations, it is nothing less than a miracle that we still are recognizable as a people! Yes, we have made plans to make new lives in so many different places, only to have those plans disintegrate before our eyes. For two hundred years we lived in Spain and considered it home ... until the Spanish Inquisition forced us out. Jews living in Germany considered themselves Germans first and Jews second, failing to believe Hitler even when he clearly expressed his hatred for the Jews. It was no coincidence that the reborn Jewish State came into existence right after the holocaust. Clearly the most horrible desecration of G-d, the wholesale murder of millions of His people, brought with it Divine reaction. Were G-d not to intervene for the sake of His Holy Name, the nations would have destroyed the Jewish people completely. Thus Divine Redemption was pushed forward. While Herzl would have settled for a state in far off Uganda, it was not Hertzl's plan that was being implemented. He was merely an unwitting tool in the Divine Plan. His efforts set into motion the events which eventually led to the modern state of Israel. It is also interesting to note that most of the leaders of the Jewish Agency were opposed to the concept of Jewish independence. They would have preferred to remain a protectorate of Great Britain for fear that a Jewish State would not have the ability to defend itself, and thus would be better off depending on a strong foreign power to protect it. Thus it was clearly another miracle that Ben Gurion had the courage to declare independence in the face of overwhelming odds, both from within and without, which threatened the viability of such a state. We Jews have been trying to compromise with our enemies from the moment of our re-emergence as a sovereign entity. Consistently those efforts have brought nothing but war and strife. Never have we gained any advantage as a result of our attempts to appease our enemies. The only times we had any respite from our enemies were in response to inflicting decisive victories against them. Yet, in spite of this observable fact, we have consistently undone those victories by voluntarily surrendering to the losers! Sharon is correct in assuming that we have no partners with whom to make peace. We have only ourselves and thus must resort to making unilateral decisions for our future. How strange and incredible that he would think to make unilateral expressions of surrender rather than decisively destroy our enemies! Yet his thinking is consistent with that of most Jewish leaders of our recent past. The one element which sets us apart from the nations and gives us our unique, unbeatable strength, is completely ignored! England was never our protector. The government to which Jewish leaders had wanted to trust our security turned out to be an enemy of the Jewish people! Had we trusted our future to the British the Jewish homeland would likely have become another Arab State. Anyone who thinks that today our only hope for survival lies with the United States of America is making the same mistake. America is not an evil country. It is not our enemy. But should we fail to recognize the reality that we are dependent only upon the Living G-d of Israel, and seek to exchange Him for a burnt out Bush, it may well be that the USA will become our enemy in order to force us to turn to the Fountain of Living Waters rather than depend upon more broken cisterns. What we must all take to heart during these days of apparent despair and road maps to hell is that Jewish destiny will override both the plans of our enemies, and that of our own leaders. Project Shofar (http://www.projectshofar.org) is dedicated to spreading these truths wherever it is possible to do so. It is sounding the alarm, to Jew and Gentile alike, to open our eyes to the G-dly process that is presently underway, and work to support it. We dare not stand idly on the sidelines. Project Shofar is dedicated to spreading these truths wherever it is possible to do so. It is sounding the alarm, to Jew and Gentile alike, to open our eyes to the G-dly process that is currently underway, and work to support it. We dare not stand idly on the sidelines. If you want to support the concepts espoused by the Voice from Hebron, and the physical work of Project Shofar, you can send a tax deductible contribution to: Project Shofar, Inc., P.O. Box 181191, Casselberry, FL 32718. Those who are in a position to invite Gary Cooperberg to speak to their local groups may contact him directly at gary@projectshofar.org. He makes regular speaking tours to the states and strives to reach out to all who express an interest in the ongoing process of Zionist Redemption, Jew and Gentile alike. To Go To Top

MUSLIM SERMONS AND TOLEDO MUSLIMS Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, March 18, 2004.

If you ever wondered what Muslim religious leaders say in their sermons, here is one example of many. My question to you is simple, do Muslims everywhere, including those in Toledo, Ohio, sympathize with the bigotry expressed in this sermon? Is a request by the Toledo Muslims that a tiny (table size) Israeli flag must be removed from a Jewish display in an Interfaith Meeting designed to bridge between the religious communities in this town, an indication of their support of such sermons? Does the fact that Toledo Muslims erase Israel from their maps tell you something? Let us hear from their leaders directly. Some of them are on this email list. This is Special Dispatch #683, issued by the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), It is archived at http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD68304 Memri writes: The Friday sermon [1] of March 12, 2004 in the Sheikh 'Ijlin Mosque in Gaza was delivered by Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris, an employee of the Awqaf (Religious Affairs) ministry of the Palestinian Authority. The following are excerpts from the sermon:[2] The Battle of Truth & Falsehood "... Ever since Allah created this life, it is a conflict between Truth and Falsehood, a continuous battle between good and evil, and a constant struggle between those who are good and those who are evil. On this holy land, we witness one of the chapters of this holy battle, the battle between Truth and Falsehood. We are the good, people of Truth, who defend it with our blood and souls. We defend our rights, we defend our land, and our holy places. On the other hand, our enemies are evil, people of Falsehood who fight using the sword of Falsehood. We will beat them, because victory will be that of Truth, Allah willing." Jews Had to be Destroyed "Oh servants of Allah, history repeats itself. When the Prophet [Muhammad] entered Al-Madina, he entered it in order to establish the Islamic state. But he found serpents there, disseminating their venom among the Arabian tribes, in order to destroy their kinship and spark war between the Arabs and the brothers [i.e. The Muslims]. "When the Prophet saw the situation of the Arabs, he found that they were not capable of establishing the Islamic state... He looked around and saw the flame of civil strife raging through the Arabian tribes. Brother fighting brother, and tribe fighting tribe. "When he investigated the cause of these civil wars, he found that the Jews were behind them. The most grave thing the Prophet saw was the war raging between the Aws and Khazraj tribes. When he investigated the cause of this great war between the two largest tribes, he found a Jew behind it. A Jew named Shas sparked the fire of civil strife between the Aws and Khazraj. "The prophet had to have a good plan in order to establish his Islamic state. He based his plan on two elements. The first of them was to make peace between the Arabs and brotherhood among the Muslims... The second element the Prophet had to deal with was the Jewish existence in Al-Madina, with which no Islamic state could ever be established. "The Prophet received an instruction from the Lord of heaven and earth, Who knows the nature of the Jews, who forever live off the fire of civil strife and disseminating their venom among the brothers, Muslims, and friends. Allah ordered him to forge his plan to take care of the Jewish existence in Al-Madina. "The prophet could not fight the Jews immediately following his emigration to Al-Madina, because his security, military, political, and economic situation did not permit him to wage war against the Jews, at that time. "The Prophet had three stages in taking care of the Jewish existence: The first was political. One should deal with the Jews politically to defend oneself from their evil. The Prophet dealt with them politically and signed pacts with them, even though he knew they treat the Muslims ruthlessly, but this was an unavoidable stage. Oh Allah's servants, it was an unavoidable political stage in order to strengthen the Muslims, because wars weaken the Muslims if they are not strong enough to begin with. The second stage was harder for the Muslims: The stage of tolerating the damage caused by the Jews, who again, began violating the pacts and spreading their poison among the Muslims? "Then came the great battle of Badr, where the Muslims grew stronger. This brought the third stage of dealing with the Jewish existence in Al-Madina. We have tolerated you for a long time - you offspring of apes and pigs! We have tolerated you for a long time. After the battle of Badr verses came down, ordering the Prophet to fight the Jews... The Jews lived in fortresses and in various tribes. The Prophet said: 'By Allah, I fear the Qaynuq'a tribe.' Meaning, 'I fear the civil strife they spark.' We must first teach the Qaynuq'a tribe a lesson that will deter those behind them... "Mixing with the Arabs gave the Jews an Arab trait - courage. Praise Allah. Imagine - the Qaynuq'a Jews were the bravest Jews in Al-Madina because they mixed with the Arabs. They won this courage from their neighboring Arabs. Thus, there was no choice but to begin with the strongest among the Jews so they will serve as a lesson to those who follow them - the Jews of Khaybar, the [Banu] Nadhir tribe, and the rest of the Al-Madina Jews." The Jews' Evil Deeds Led to Their Downfall "Then an incident took place that was a turning point regarding the Jewish existence in Al-Madina. They started! And they bear the responsibility for their bad deeds and for the venom they spread in the heart of Al-Madina. A Muslim woman went to the Qaynuq'a tribe to sell something. They asked her to uncover her face but she refused. The Muslim woman refused to uncover her face in front of Jews. When finished with the sale, she sat down next to a Jewish jeweler, and this jeweler tied the edge of her garment in the back, so when she rose up, some say her face and others say her legs were revealed. She screamed and cried for help. Then, a noble Muslim came, who could not bear the humiliation of this woman. He rose to defend the Muslim woman's honor, drew his sword and struck that Jew, the lowly jeweler. He struck and killed him. The Qaynuq'a tribe turned against this Muslim and killed him. They killed this Muslim who defended a Muslim woman's honor. "[The Prophet] prepared his army and went to the Qaynuq'a [tribe]. He laid siege to them for 15 days until they came out and surrendered. The Prophet rejected [their surrender] unless all their men were killed, and only the women and children be allowed to leave Al-Madina. "Hypocrisy also played a role. Abdallah bin Ubai, Allah's curse upon him, asked to spare their lives. The Prophet did not want civil strife in the ranks of the Muslims and said, 'I accept, provided they leave Al-Madina.' The Prophet expelled them from Al-Madina, so they would serve as a lesson to those who follow. This was the first lesson of the Jews of Al-Madina. Later, there were many other lessons. "Time does not permit us to discuss the rest of the Jewish tribes. But we must learn the lesson of the Prophet with regard to the Jews of Al-Madina, whom he expelled. His strategic choice was: 'Fight them, Allah will torture them [at your hands]' and also, 'Make ready against them [all] the force and horsemen that you can.'" Jews Seek to Conquer Saudi Arabia "The Jews today - there is no doubt - are avenging their ancient forefathers, the sons of apes and pigs. Some of the extremist Jews are demanding today their property in Al-Madina. There are even those who have requested to be buried at the southern edge of Palestine. When the one-eyed Dayan was on his deathbed, he instructed that he be buried at the southern edge of Palestine. When asked why, he said, 'So that I will be close to Al-Madina.' This is the extremist tendency of the Jews. They are the extremists, they are the terrorists. They deserve death, and we deserve life, because we are the people of Truth. "They avenge their forefathers, they take revenge on us, the Muslims, by taking our holy places and by taking our lands by force. Only last week, this bloody week, they killed from among the sons of our people, children and women, some 40 Palestinians, in front of the entire world, and no one lifted a finger." Arab States are Abandoning the Struggle "In light of these massacres, I tell you, I congratulate our people and brothers in Jordan, and bless them for the ties they are establishing with the Jews, and for laying the cornerstone - on the day of the massacre, at the time the massacre was being carried out on the land of Palestine, in Bureij, Nusseirat, Rafah, and Jenin. At these moments, they lay the cornerstone and inaugurate a science institute in order to normalize relations between Jordanian and Jewish students. Blessings to you, the people of Jordan, blessings for the American supervision of this successful project, and blessings to our people in Libya and blessings to all the Arab peoples, as we are slaughtered here on the land of Palestine." We will Fight the Jewish Cancer "... We will fight them with Allah's help. The Jews are the ones of whom Allah, who knows them best, said: 'You strike more fear into their hearts than Allah does.' Oh Muslims, it is Allah who tells you this. And this is what we see and know well. But the Arabs and Muslims must know that this is a Qur'anic truth. We strike more fear into their hearts than their Maker. Who stated this fact? The Lord of heaven and earth. Allah is the one who created them and knows their nature well. "Allah knows that they love life: 'None preserves life more than them' - life, no matter what kind of life. Even if it is a life of humiliation, disgrace, and submission, they preserve it. "This preservation of life roots miserliness and cowardice in them. The Jews are disseminating their venom, and history repeats itself. They disseminate their venom in the Arab countries, because they cannot live in the Middle East like a cancer, spreading in this land, unless they spark the fire of civil strife and war among the Arabs and the Muslims. And indeed, they spark this fire. "Furthermore, they incite the world superpowers against the Arab countries. Israel incites the U.S. against Syria. Syria will face great, heavy pressure and we say to them: Be patient and Allah will be with you. Our people in Syria, our brothers in our struggle and our Jihad against this cancer on this land... Our brothers in Lebanon, in Jordan, in Egypt, in all countries of the world, we will never desert them, as long as they fight this cancer. "We reach our hand out in peace, as the Prophet reached his hand out in peace, but they act ruthlessly towards the Muslims." The Palestinian Mother Wishes to Receive Her Son as a Corpse, but Not Butchered "We, the people of Truth, reach out our hand in peace. But they accuse us of being terrorists. Terrorists, because when the Palestinian mother welcomes her martyred son, she wishes to receive him as a corpse. She does not want him to be alive. But she does not want this corpse butchered. The wish of the Palestinian mother is to see the body of her son the martyr. "Are we terrorists? We, terrorists?! We face burning rockets that leave the martyr no flesh, bone, head, or foot. When the news of the death of her son reached the martyr's mother, she said to the youths: 'I want to see my son.' They were patient with her and took him to the cemetery to be buried. She learnt of this, and went there, asking: 'Where is my son?' Her son is a pile of flesh in a container, in a small sack. She watched while they buried him, and she said: 'If only a foot remained, I would kiss it.' Allah Akbar, is she a terrorist?! A terrorist, this woman who wants to find the foot of her son so she can kiss it before he is buried?! With these statements, Umm Muhammad broke the hearts of those present. "Where are the hearts of the world?! Where are the hearts of the Arabs? Where are the hearts of the Muslims in light of these sights? By Allah, if they didn't see them, we would say, 'Never mind.' But the entire world saw how our martyrs are burned in their cars on the road. Our children - their heads are cut off. Despite all this, we will be patient, because we are a people that deserves triumph, Allah willing." [1] For a comprehensive report on Friday sermons in PA mosques shown on PA TV, please see MEMRI Special Report No. 24, December 26, 2003, 'Palestinian Authority Sermons 2000-2003.' For MEMRI video page, which includes clips of Friday sermons, see http://memri.org/video. [2] PA Television, March 12, 2004. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is located in Washington, DC. Its website address is http://www.memri.org. To Go To Top

FREE NOAM FEDERMAN Posted by David Ben-Ariel, March 18, 2004.

Dear Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, Quit making Israel look like a petty dictatorship by refusing to charge Noam Federman or RELEASE HIM! The whole world is watching you and you're a big embarassment for Israel and the Jewish people. Turn this around and do something noble for once: FREE NOAM FEDERMAN, especially with Passover our Festival of Freedom approaching. Sincerely, David Ben-Ariel News Item, Arutz-7, March 18,2004: FEDERMAN TO STAY IN JAIL; STILL NO CHARGES OR TRIAL The 12-year-old daughter of administrative detainee Noam Federman told Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Wednesday, "I am embarrassed by this government, which is imprisoning my father." This after Mofaz signed an order extending Federman's incarceration by half a year. Federman is being held under the 1979 Emergency Powers Detention Law. The law, based on the British Mandatory Emergency Regulations, empowers the Minister of Defense to incarcerate a person for up to six months without trial, charges, or due process of law. The law has been traditionally used by the defense authorities in Israel as a last resort against Arab terrorists who were considered a threat to public security. Federman's daughter Yiska called the Defense Ministry minutes after Mofaz extended the detention order and requested to speak to Mofaz himself but was turned down. The teenage girl left the following message: "I am embarrassed to live under a government that holds my father in administrative detention without a trial or charges. I miss my father very much, as does my mother and all my brothers and sister. I know that you want to do everything in order to break my father, but know this - my six siblings and I are continuing in the way of our father and in the end, you [DM Mofaz] will be the one who will be thrown out of power." Chairman of the Rabbinic Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, Rabbi Dov Lior said with regard to Federman's imprisonment, "It is shocking that in these difficult days, the Defense Minister chooses, along with the Shabak (GSS), to shut the mouths of precious Jews who oppose the fraudulent 'peace initiatives' - using legal methods of a third-world country to do so." The Defense Minister's office claims that the extension of Noam Federman's administrative detention came after, "unmistakable proof was shown demonstrating Federman's involvement in causing, engineering and encouraging acts of terror [against Arabs]." "As a matter if fact," claimed a spokesperson for the Defense Minister's office, "in the past half-year there have not been any acts of terror from his circles - without him the attacks don't happen." Defense spokesmen further explained that, "the decision to extend his detention was not easy; we consulted all the security bodies, but the decision of the Defense Minister and members of the Shabak was that terrorism had been prevented ever since Federman was arrested." "Various legal considerations have delayed a guilty verdict against him, but we are working constantly to formulate a guilty verdict in his case," said Mofaz. "This is intentional abuse," said Orit Struk, spokesperson for the Jewish Community of Hevron, where Federman lives. "Noam lives opposite my home and I know he went under house arrest for many months. How did he organize terrorism from his house? How did he coordinate terror from his jail cell? I don't understand these deceptions," said Struk. Last December, Meretz Knesset member Zehava Gal'on called for Federman's immediate release if charges were not brought against him. "If the police have evidence against him, then let them file charges; otherwise, he must be let go," Gal'on said, adding, "It is disgraceful that I, as chairperson of the Meretz faction, have to demand Federman's release.  Activists are working on behalf of Federman from all sides of the political spectrum. They are calling upon the public to send letters of protest to Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz at: mailto:sar@mod.gov.il . David Ben-Ariel is the author of "Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall" (http://www.benariel.com). To Go To Top

TEL AVIV PROFESSOR: NO SUCH THING AS OCCUPATION Posted by Mordechai ben-Menachem, March 18, 2004.

This was a news item in today's Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNatonalNews.com). "Judea, Samaria and Gaza are not 'occupied territories' according to international law due to the fact that they were not taken from any foreign sovereign," says Law Professor Talia Einhorn, a senior member of the research faculty at Tel Aviv University and a Law professor at the Shaarei Mishpat College in Hod HaSharon. Einhorn delivered her statements at a session entitled "U.S.-Israel Relations" at the Jerusalem Conference which concluded Wednesday. She declared: "It is important to remember and mention daily what Israel has already said for years - not only the government, but judicial experts - that Yesha [Judea, Samaria and Gaza], according to international law is not occupied territory." Einhorn explained that when Israel won the Six-Day War, no foreign country had recognized sovereignty over the land that was liberated. Egypt claimed no sovereignty over Gaza, and when Jordan tried to assert sovereignty over Judea and Samaria in 1950, the only countries to recognize it were England and Pakistan - with England limiting its recognition to eastern Jerusalem, but not the expanses of land extending north and south of it. "Their biggest opponents were in fact the Arab countries," said Einhorn. She went on to say that the 1967 demarcation lines are in fact, according to international agreements, simply cease-fire lines that should never be considered political demarcations or national borders. In the Encyclopedia of International Law, it is written that Israel was established without international borders. Israel's only internationally recognized borders are with Jordan and Egypt, as a result of the peace agreements that were signed. Calling Israel 'Colonialist' with the intention of deligitimization is very severe, Einhorn said, especially considering how specious the argument is. "The Land of Israel is our land. No other nation ever made Israel into its country." Einhorn reminded the attendees at the Jerusalem Conference that the biblical curse according to which Israel will remain desolate when controlled by foreigners unfolded throughout history as a reality. Einhorn pointed out that it is largely for this reason that no other nation ever claimed it, and "we must remember this." To Go To Top

THE GLOBALIZATION OF ANTISEMITISM Posted by Deb Kotz, March 18, 2004.

This is a good essay by Daniel J. Goldhagen, author of "Ordinary Men," a book about how ordinary Germans signed on to kill the Jews during the Holocaust. He presented this paper at the Montreal International Conference on Global Antisemitism, March 14-16, 2004. Other recent examples of global antisemitism: Iran and Spain both refused Israel's help in their recent tragedies. Israel offered to help dig out Iranians trapped in the earthquake rubble, some of whom survived for days. And Israel offered to help Spain deal with its terrorist train attack. By refusing this aid, both countries made a statement that they'd rather have their citizen's die than accept Israel's help. Also, Sweden has started putting labels on all things imported from Israel (not just from the West Bank) to alert consumers not to buy those products. Antisemitism is evolving. After a period of remission owing to the horror of the Holocaust, the ancient prejudice has recently been reactivated, catalyzed by the Arab-Israeli conflict. It has become particularly acute in the context of the Iraq war, with even respectable people among the political and journalistic elites of western countries suddenly leveling fantastical antisemitic charges. Tam Dalyell's wild notion that George Bush, Tony Blair, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and Donald Rumsfeld, the hard bitten practitioners of domestic and international Realpolitik, are puppets of a "Jewish cabal," and that this cabal has "taken over the government of the United States," can be put forward only by someone in the grip of a fantastical image of Jews and their alleged maleficent power, or who, wishing to tap into and inflame popular antisemitic sentiments, cynically seeks political advantage. Dalyell's adoption of the malignant conspiracy trope from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, whether unwitting or witting, is symptomatic of the changed nature of today's antisemitism. As Dalyell's comments reflect, antisemitism has entered a new era in which its main focus has shifted from the domestic to the international. The tempest around Dalyell's antisemitic outburst will pass, but the new antisemitism is a growing menace that needs to be understood and exposed for what it is. Always protean in quality, always changing to take on the idiom of its day, antisemitism has been globalized. Antisemitism has always had domestic and international components. During the long era of Christian antisemitism, the transnational institution of the Catholic Church spread the belief that Jews as Christ-killers were a cosmic force for evil. But the principal target of anti-Jewish prejudice was local, the Jews of one's town, region and country who allegedly harmed their Christian neighbors. In its second era during the 19th and 20th centuries, antisemitism took on a secular and more racist cast, in which an international conspiracy of Jews worked against humanity. Still, most of the antisemitic fire was aimed locally - by Germans at German Jews, by French at French Jews - for the harm that they allegedly inflicted on their countrymen. The "Jewish Problem" - one of the most burning political issues of the day - was overwhelmingly about what Germans, French, Poles and others should do with the Jews within their countries. Globalized antisemitism is a new constellation of features grafted onto old ones. Varied and complex, it is oriented to the global stage. In most of Europe, and certainly in the West, the domestic "Jewish Problem" is all but dead. Only fringe elements in Germany, France and elsewhere believe that local Jews are causing great harm - financial, professional, moral - to their non-Jewish neighbors, and that a radical response is necessary. The focus of the animus against Jews has shifted overwhelmingly to Jews of other countries - of Israel and the United States - as the alleged central moral and material culprits of the international arena. Zionism has become, for many, a mythical entity, a destructive agent in the world, and anti-Zionism has become interwoven with anti-Americanism to the point where Russian nationalist politicians can express their fear of American domination by saying that Russia is in danger of being "Zionized." The center of antisemitism and directions of its transmission are also new. In the previous eras of antisemitism, the demonology about Jews flowed first from the Christian, and then the European, center to the periphery. Today, there are many antisemitic centers and multidirectional flows from Europe, to the Middle East and elsewhere, and back. Essentially, Europe had exported its classical racist and Nazi antisemitism to Arab countries, which they applied to Israel and Jews in general, suffusing it with the real and imagined features of the intensive local conflict. Then the Arab countries re-exported the new hybrid demonology back to Europe and, using the United Nations and other international institutions, to other countries around the world. In Germany, France, Great Britain and elsewhere, today's intensive antisemitic expression and agitation uses old tropes once applied to local Jews - charges of sowing disorder, wanting to subjugate others - with new content overwhelmingly directed at Jews outside their countries and their continent. The imagery characterizing globalized antisemitism is new. Rambo Jew has largely supplanted Shylock in the antisemitic imagination. The sly and stealth corrupting Jew of the first two eras of antisemitism, now armed with his new military and political power, has become the subjugating, brutalizing and killing Jew, either doing the dirty work himself, as in Israel, or employing others to do it for him, as the Jews, fantastically, are said to do with the Bush administration and the "East Coast" establishment is purported to do with the United States generally. An emblematic image of globalized antisemitism is of Donald Rumsfeld wearing a yellow star inscribed with "sheriff," followed by a cudgel wielding Ariel Sharon who is flanked by a golden calf. That this scene, expressing the putative globalized nature and predations of the Jews, was created for an anti-globalization demonstration in Davos is no mere coincidence. Globalized antisemitism has other important and new features, including its instantaneous, global transmission through the Internet and by television's biased stories and inflammatory images of Palestinian suffering, which are incorporated into the antisemitic narrative; its unification of elements of the European left and right, and its semi-concealing cloak of anti-Zionism. Perhaps most distinctive, though, is the unmooring of antisemitism from its original sources. It is detached from Christianity, even if there are still powerful Christian sources of antisemitism. It is detached from its 19th-century European sources of nation building, reactions against modernity and pseudo-scientific notions of race and social Darwinism, even if that era's demonology is still potent in somewhat transposed form. Globalized antisemitism has become part of the substructure of prejudice of the world. It is free-floating, located in many countries, subcultures and nodes, available in many variations, and to anyone who dislikes international influences, globalization or the United States. It is relentlessly international in its focus on Israel at the center of the most conflict-ridden region today, and on the United States as the world's omnipresent power. It is self-reinforcing, with its fantastical constructions of Jews and Zionism - which are divorced from the fair criticisms that can be made of Israel's policies - and by being located totally outside people's countries and experience. And it is only a few clicks of a mouse away. After the Holocaust and after Vatican II, it seemed that antisemitism had diminished and might eventually atrophy. It had indeed declined, and in most European countries, including Germany, the publics' conception of their domestic Jews was de-demonized. Many people in Europe and elsewhere today also reject the new antisemitic fantasies. Yet the reawakening of antisemitism in its new globalized form meant that antisemitism succeeded again in metamorphosing and in extending its reach - even to Africa and Asia. So far the new globalized antisemitism has not proven to be as dangerous as earlier forms, except in the Middle East, but its disquieting features suggest that it has the potential. A genuine settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict would take some of the wind out of this new antisemitism. But antisemitism's deep roots in the ever more globalizing consciousness, and its proven tenacity and plasticity, make its dissipation unlikely. It must be combated by all people - especially by non-Jews - who do not subscribe to this threatening demonology, so that it becomes unmistakable to all public figures that it and its propagators have no place in the public life and politics of civilized nations. Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, of Harvard University's Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, is the author of "A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair." To Go To Top

ISRAELI PUBLIC OPINION NOW REALISTIC Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 18, 2004.

The people of Israel learned the hard way that the Oslo process is appeasement and appeasement does not work. Public opinion wants heavier fighting against the Arabs. Government officials have not caught up to the public. The Left has an almost totalitarian control over the media, hampering popular opposition to continued government appeasement. The media distorts polls by misconstruing opposition to Beilin's appeasement as being anti-peace. The leftist Steinmetz Center for Peace at Tel Aviv uses its "peace index" to inflate the percentages supporting its position. Nevertheless, it admitted that 84% of Israeli Jews approve of the security fence, and few wish it to hew to the Green Line. Some of the other Jews disapprove of it as a pale substitute for rooting out the terrorists. Most of those who endorse the fence think that other means of fighting against terrorism remain necessary. 70% of Israelis approve of assassinating terrorist leaders even if "innocent" bystanders may be injured. The Israeli media disapproves, calling it a war crime (which, factually, it definitely is not). The media is divorced from reality. Most Israelis don't care if the security fence makes hardships for the enemy population, but half of them would prefer trying to avoid making hardships. On the other hand, following PM Sharon, most Israelis would be willing for him to remove all the Jewish communities from Gaza and some from Judea-Samaria (Prof. Steven Plaut, 3/9, e-mail). Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

BABES IN JIHADLAND Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, March 18, 2004.

"We have seen the enemy... and he's in the fourth grade." Arab fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, university students and professionals - male and female alike- are doing it. So two days after two eighteen-year old terrorists from Gaza blew themselves and 10 Israelis to death, was anyone really surprised that death can also come in the form of a 10-year old Arab boy carrying a bomb-laden bag? Luckily, the explosives were discovered in time. The seemingly innocent child was sent back to school and lived to tell about the episode (see more on the story at http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=59502). What will the enemy think of next - Semtex Pampers? Come on, this 10-year old kid isn't even ripe enough to take advantage of the 72 virgin bonus in paradise (talk about purgatory...). Where will all of those maidens come from anyway? Will Hamas recruit multitudes of young school girls to don explosive-packed chastity belts in order to satisfy the glut of martyrs in paradise? The exploitation of children has been in the picture for a long time and we've all seen the images. The international media has been hard-pressed to present the Arab inhabitants of Judea, Samaria and Gaza in a humanitarian light. Usually the only way to achieve this has been by denigrating the Israeli soldiers and settlers, thereby leveling the playing field. But every once in awhile a photojournalist neglects to crop his photo before exposing it to the world- and the truth is inadvertently exposed. Last month http://www.MidEastTruth.com sent a communique with an incriminating photograph - compliments of Reuters - of a terrorist firing from amidst a group of children. Whether the terrorists deliberately set-up shop and fire from areas swarming with children, or whether the children are allowed and encouraged to enter the firing zone makes no difference. Under the circumstances, it's something of a miracle that more Arab children are not killed in the line of fire. This is obviously due to the scrupulous policies of the IDF. However, this must be frustrating for the terrorist organizations, as they would resort to anything in order to recreate the media extravaganza that produced the poster child of the year 2000. Mohammed al-Dura was caught in the crossfire and the twelve-year old's dramatic death was captured on screen. That the fatal shots were likely fired from Arab guns made no difference. Al-Dura's death became an enduring symbol for the international community and an endearing moment of glory for the Arab world. The real tragedy is if al-Dura were alive today, it's very possible that he would be armed, dangerous and an up-and-coming member of one or more of the following 'youth groups': Fatah, Tanzim, Force 17, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizballah, DFLP, PFLP or Al-Aska Brigades. There are no innocents and subsequently no virgins in the Arab-occupied portions of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The young generation has been raped and indoctrinated by their parents, clerics, educators, political leaders and society at large, in an orgy of self-induced violence and rage. It is a society which simultaneously thrives on and consumes itself with hatred. I reject the assumption that a tendency towards evil stems from oppression, occupation, or poverty. Rather, I believe that destructive traits are revealed in individuals and groups which are lacking in a heritage that is based on sound ethical and moral foundations. It's this perception that causes me to question the validity of the Palestinian Arab claims to legitimacy. A good portion of the Arab inhabitants from Judea, Samaria and Gaza have chosen to answer their challenges and trials with terror and destruction, rather than search for creative and productive solutions. The Jewish people as well as other nationalities and ethnic groups have managed to adhere to basic ethical principles and moral behavior even when repeatedly confronted with persecution, upheaval, and unspeakable anguish. A quest for order and the desire to create when faced with chaos is the miracle of the the human spirit, and ultimate test of humanity. As human beings we have every right and are obligated to investigate and question the purpose, goals and origins of a purported people who consistently destroy the life and hopes of its progeny to the point where their children dream and aspire to death -their own as well as that of others. We also reserve the very human right to remove those who aim to destroy us from our midst -regardless of their age. Ellen Horowitz lives in the Golan Heights, Israel with her husband and six children. She is a painter, columnist for Israelnationalnews,com and co-founder of helpingisrael.com. She can be contacted through her website http://www.artfromzion.com To Go To Top

CONTAINERIZED TROJAN HORSES Posted by Bryna Berch, March 17, 2004.

You gotta give these Arabs credit. They may contribute zilch to civilization, science, medicine, art or sanitation. But when it comes to figuring out new delivery systems so they can kill people, they are the tops. Read this news item from today's Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com). THE TERRORISTS CAME BY CONTAINER? The mystery of how the two suicide terrorists entered the Ashdod port on Sunday to murder ten Israelis may finally have been solved. Several possibilities had been entertained, including that they arrived via the sea, via an underground tunnel, or over the port's perimeter fence. However, the discovery today of weapons, a mattress, and food remnants in a container stored in the port - a container that arrived there only a half-hour before the attack - points in a different direction. It now appears that the terrorists arrived inside the container, which arrived from Arab Gaza via the Karni Crossing to Ashdod, and jumped out at an opportune moment inside or near the port entrance. Five fragmentation grenades and other weapons were among the items found in the container today when it passed through a state-of-the-art detection system. The grenades were hidden inside a bag within the double wall of the container. The container, filled with marble slabs, was to be loaded onto a ship leaving for abroad, but remained in the port after the order was canceled. Following today's find, the port is currently closed, and cargoes are not being loaded or unloaded. To Go To Top

"AFTER VICTORY, COMPROMISE" Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 17, 2004.

"After victory, we can compromise with the Arabs," is a line one hears from Israelis. What victory, and what compromise? And if one wins, why compromise? Before PM Sharon announced his new policy of at least partial (if not an insidious, perpetual) surrender, it was not one of pursuing victory. It was pursuit of stalemate. Israel mostly has sought to tread water in the Territories, until it could negotiate them away. Now it finds the Arabs will not negotiate an end to their war on Israel. Israel could decide to achieve victory, by thoroughly clearing the terrorists out of Yesha and annexing the non-Arab-populated areas it wants. Even better would be to multiply the Arabs' hardships and they would have to depart. Compromise is not possible with jihadists. They do not compromise. They make an armistice. During it, they rebuild their forces. On its termination, they resume the offensive. Actually, "compromises" were tried. The bulk of the Jewish homeland was closed to Jewish national development and ultimately turned into Jordan and Syrian Golan. Israel yielded the Sinai, which did not cause Egyptian enmity to abate. It made a peace agreement with Jordan and gave it scarce water, but the Jordanian people hate Israel more than ever. It withdrew from parts of Yesha, only to find the PLO/P.A. using autonomy for expediting terrorism against Israel. Those were not real compromises. Those were Israeli retreats for nothing in return. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

WHEN THE POST CAN'T OR WON'T IDENTIFY OBVIOUS TERRORISTS Posted by Leo Rennert, March 17, 2004.

I sent this to Washington Post personnel. The Post, after more than 3 years of the intifada, still can't get it right. I refer you to the Wednesday, March 17, article by John Ward Anderson about Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. When two Palestinians were killed in a missile attack on an Islamic Jihad building, the Post identified them as "two Palestinian men" balancing Israel's version that they belonged to Islamic Jihad against claims by neighbors that they were "bystanders." But you didn't have to accept either version or engage in a semantic kabuki dance between the two. Islamic Jihad itself identified "two Palestinian men" as members of the terrorist group. Contrast your article with the New York Times', which headlined its account "Israel Kills 2 Islamic Militants As It Steps Up Raids in Gaza" The Times attributed its report to a spokesman for Islamic Jihad. But let's not just take the word of your main national competitor. Haaretz, the most pro-Palestinian newspaper in Israel and a more vociferous critic of Sharon than either the Post or the Times, also reported that the two men who were killed were members of Islamic Jihad. So how come that when prominent media that are about as enamored of Sharon's counter-terrorism strategy as the Times and the Post are of George W. Bush nevertheless still manage to get it right, the Post can't - or won't - inform its readers that Israel did indeed kill terrorist targets? In the same Anderson story, the Post also inserts its usual misleading summary of intifada fatalities - 950 Israelis against 2,800 Palestinians - and leaves it at that. But as you well know, Palestinian fatalities are mainly combatants or would-be bombers who blow themselves up prematurely or Palestinians killed by Palestinians, whereas the great preponderance of Israeli fatalities are innocent civilians. So why not report the following: From Sept 27, 2000, until March 17, 2004, there were 2,716 Palestinians killed, including 960 non-combatants or 35 percent. On the Israeli side, there were 916 killed, including 714 non-combatants or 78 percent. Put another way, for every 3 Palestinians killed, one was a non-combatant. But for every 4 Israelis killed, more than 3 were non-combatants. By showing such a glaring difference between the methods used by both sides, your readers might have a better understanding that Palestinian terrorists are interested mainly in killing "bystanders," while Israel goes to great lengths to zero in on terrorist groups, although the number or percentage of accidentally killed Palestinian "bystanders" is by no means negligible. The statistics are from the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism. You can check its web site at www.ict.org.il. The Post is well acquainted with its findings, but in ignoring them, has yet to show any bias or flaws in its research. Its methodology is there for anyone who'd seriously like to check it out and its chief researcher, Don Radlauer, is available for quizzing by any reporter. Incidentally, to remind David, Radlauer does not get all his figures from the IDF. It's the other way around: the IDF consults the institute to put together its figures. Also, the institute has been criticised for tilting toward the Palestinian side, since it makes ample use of Palestinian media and other sources and, whenever there's a bit of a gray area, tends to give the benefit of the doubt to the Palestinian side. Yours for responsible journalism. To Go To Top

PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON AS WARRIOR Posted by Samson Krupnick, March 17, 2004.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was elected twice by an overwhelming majority. He was deemed the right military man to deal with mounting Arab mass murder ("terror") in Israel and "Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded Wahhabi mass murder worldwide. Sharon - hero of the Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement] War in 1973 - was assigned the task of dealing with a very difficult battle situation wherein the Arab and "Saudi" Arabian Wahhabi enemy used every illegal and inhuman means of mass murder, including women and children throwing stones and fire bombs, as well as suicide slaughterers. This was not a "major" war where Israeli troops battle Arab enemy troops, but rather a very painful series of Arab enemy operations concentrating upon murdering civilians in busses, malls and cafes. New techniques were adopted, including two deterrents designed to discourage Arab mass murder operations: The destruction of the homes of Arab suicide slaughterers; and targeted attacks upon planners, suppliers and transporters of mass murderers (which we advised through Labor Minister Zevulun Orlev to the Prime Minister some two years ago). The construction of a fence helped somewhat in delaying would-be Arab suicide slaughterers, many of whom were captured alive. The Arab mass murder war continued. The American Road Map was non-existent, simply because the "Palestine" "Authority" could not and would not undertake the task of disarming ("Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded Wahhabi) Hamas and ("Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded Wahhabi) Islamic Jihad mass murderers. The last two Arab mass murder attacks and the Ashdod port double Arab suicide slaughters murdering 10 and wounding 16 were a combination of ("Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded Wahhabi) Hamas, ("Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded Wahhabi) Islamic Jihad and Fatah with el Aksa Martyrs Brigade. Fatah and el Aksa are under the direct control of The Egyptian from Alexandria (current alias "Yasser Arafat", previous alias "Abdul Rauf el-Codbi el-Husseini"). There is no Arab partner for "peace" negotiations and no Road Map - U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer so stated at a recent conference of Conservative Rabbis. Israeli military operations continue. The Israel Defense Forces (I.D.F.), with excellent intelligence, makes continued attacks on Arab mass murder bases and Arab mass murder leaders with remarkable success. It would appear that Arab mass murder leaders prefer to live rather than join their suicide slaughterers in paradise with 70 virgins. This continues to be an expensive condition with losses of lives and of increased numbers of soldiers and equipment, which the Israel economy must bear. With this background and American pressure, successful Prime Minister Ariel Sharon the Warrior attempts to become Sharon the Peace Maker. To the amazement of his coalition Government, Sharon decided personally upon a "disengagement plan" whereby the Gaza Strip Jewish Pioneering Communities ("settlements"), including Kfar Darom - there since its recapture from the Egyptians in 1949 - would be abandoned. The population of these Jewish Pioneering Communities, about 10,000, would be moved to Jewish Pioneering Communities in Judea and Samaria ("West Bank") or where ever else they chose. This plan was opposed immediately by most Knesset Members, by the Ministers and particularly by Sharon's party the Likud, the Religious National Party, and the Unity Party. I.D.F. Chief of Staff, Lt. General Moshe Ya'alon, opposed the plan for obvious military reasons. It would be a reward for Arab mass murder operations and would encourage more Arab mass murder. Moreover, Gaza the seaport would receive unlimited quantities of arms. The (Iranian funded Shiite) Hizbullah could enter at will with Iranian assistance. Egypt refused Israel's request for Egyptians (!) to guard the Gaza border. Israeli Minister for Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom opposed this "disengagement" plan as politically undesirable and impractical. Retired Israeli Admiral and former Shin Bet (General Security Services) Director Ami Ayalon advised strongly, "Keep the gloves on in Gaza at all costs. Target leaders and avoid skirmish with armed and masked terrorists surrounded by schoolchildren", a new technique of ("Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded Wahhabi) Hamas and ("Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded Wahhabi) Islamic Jihad. Israeli Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, meeting with an American Delegation comprised of U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Adler, U.S. National Security Council Middle East expert Elliott Abrams, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, stated that, "This unilateral disengagement could be extremely problematic and could even make of the abandoned Gaza Strip a base for international terrorism". It was also announced that the United States would not foot the bills for such a unilateral "disengagement". The opposition is gaining strength and the plan could be delayed indefinitely for a later date when conditions would be more favorable. Prime Minister Sharon gave an explanation for his "disengagement" plan. He said bluntly, "I have been a warrior for many years and I saw well many casualties. There seems to be no one among the Palestinians who seeks peace, so I would attempt unilaterally with the approval of the United States to make a sincere effort for peace until such time as a viable partner can be found". We would advise our Prime Minister as follows: 1) In an election year you should not rock the boat with any new ideas, especially one that is highly provocative. 2) You were elected as the successful warrior, not as a politician who gives up land. Continue as the warrior who will destroy Arab mass murder in Israel as an example to the rest of the world. Also, in your coming visit with U.S. President George W. Bush, please ask him how to dispose of arch mass murderer "Yasser Arafat" who controls and directs four mass murder organizations. We need some precise answers and a practical solution. Shabbat Shalom from Liberated Yerushaliyim, Samuel Krupnick is Board Member and Treasurer, Root & Branch Association, Ltd.; Israel Chairman, Jerusalem Embassy Initiative, Root & Branch Association, Ltd.; Yakir Yerushaliyim (Jerusalem Prize) Award Winner, 2001; Board Chairman, Encyclopedia Talmudica; Former Board Chairman, Shaare Zedek Hospital; and Columnist, National Jewish Post and Opinion (www.jewishpostopinion.com). To Go To Top

THE LESSONS OF THE ASHDOD BOMBING Posted by Michael Freund, March 17, 2004.

This is an article of mine from today's Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com) about the link between the recent Palestinian suicide-bombing in Ashdod and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to retreat from Gaza. It didn't take long after Sunday's suicide bombing in Ashdod for the Israeli media to begin looking for someone to blame. Even as the wounded were still being evacuated to local hospitals, the police and the port's administrators were busy giving interviews, ducking responsibility and pointing fingers at each other for the lapse in security that enabled terrorists to hit the site. Unnamed police sources said they had warned the port's management that security was lax, while port officials asserted they had done everything the police had asked. It was, quite frankly, a sorry sight to behold, as so much energy and effort was being devoted to covering, rather than saving, people's behinds. The Hebrew papers, of course, had a field day, devoting page after page to the question of who fouled up and why. Did the police really take the threat of a "strategic attack" seriously, they wondered. And why was the port protected by a simple metal fence, rather than an electronic one, they demanded to know. But for all the attention which Israel's media devoted to the matter, they nevertheless failed to identify the gravest blunder of all - namely that of the government itself, which not only has allowed the terrorists to operate with impunity, but which now dangles before them the prize of a withdrawal from Gaza. Indeed, in recent weeks, nearly the entire military and security establishment has made clear that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's talk of a unilateral retreat would embolden the terror organizations and invite further attacks. As Maj.-Gen. Aharon Ze'evi, the head of Military Intelligence, recently said, groups such as Hamas and Fatah will do their utmost to ensure that an Israeli withdrawal be perceived as a retreat under fire, hence they would surely try to intensify their attacks as a result of Sharon's plan. And so, we have a situation where the experts were all but unanimous, with everyone from the IDF Chief of Staff to the head of the General Security Services saying that a unilateral pullback would buoy the terrorists and increase their motivation to kill Jews. And that is precisely what occurred. Ten innocent Israelis lost their lives in Sunday's attack, the first victims of the Prime Minister's dubious plan. Their deaths were effectively foretold in advance, but Sharon refused to listen. The warnings and admonitions, the advice and the counsel, all of it was brushed aside and ignored by an arrogant and tired premier, one unwilling even to listen to his own generals. Even in the aftermath of the attack, Sharon has not learned his lesson. Less than 24 hours later, he stood before the podium in the Knesset, insisting that Israel had no choice but to move forward by moving backward and fleeing Gaza for good. But running away from a problem is no way to solve it. If anything, Sunday's attack should serve as a compelling, if unpleasant, reminder of precisely what Israel is up against. Just meters away from where the terrorists detonated themselves in Ashdod's port were storage tanks containing dangerous chemicals, such as bromide, ammonia and fuel. Had one of the containers caught fire and exploded, it might very well have caused hundreds, or possibly even thousands, of casualties in the nearby area. This was, quite simply, a Palestinian attempt at mass murder on a scale equivalent to that of America's September 11, and Spain's March 11, with the only difference being that Fatah and Hamas aren't as "proficient" as their Al-Qaeda colleagues. This is not the first time that the Palestinians have attempted to carry out such a "mega-attack". In April 2002, Israel thwarted a planned assault by Palestinian terrorists against the Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv, which they had hoped to bring down along the lines of the World Trade Center. One month later, terrorists set off an explosive device hidden under a truck at the Pi Glilot fuel depot outside of Tel Aviv. Miraculously, the complex did not go up in flames, which could have endangered untold thousands of people. Such attacks have nothing to do with a Jewish presence in Gaza, but they have everything to do with a Jewish presence in the Middle East. By attempting to carry out a mass attack that could have murdered thousands of Jews, the Palestinians have made clear that they are willing to resort to genocidal tactics to achieve their goals. Sadly, if it is a battle for survival which the Palestinians are after, then Israel has no choice but to fight it. But in order to prevail, the government must first recognize that no amount of wishful thinking, or shortsighted withdrawals, will appease a foe bent on our destruction. Building fences and uprooting Jews from their homes is hardly the way to fight such terror. Only by reasserting complete and permanent military control over the territories, and by dismantling the Palestinian Authority and the terrorist infrastructure, can Israel hope to achieve a modicum of security for its citizens. There is simply no alternative to the IDF being there physically, militarily, and running the show. The fact of the matter is that the only way to eliminate terrorism is to eliminate the terrorists, and not to run away when the going gets tough. Israel did not start this war, nor did we ask for it. But we sure know how to end it. And after the Ashdod attack, that is what Ariel Sharon must finally now do. The writer served as Deputy Director of Communications & Policy Planning in the Prime Minister's Office under former premier Binyamin Netanyahu. To Go To Top

ANOTHER TACK: SLEEP NO MORE Posted by Women in Green, March 16, 2004.

This was written by Sarah Honig and appeared in the Jerusalem Post March 11, 2004. It came to me while trying to avoid decking myself out in a full-blown Purim costume for a party we were invited to. Why not go as a replica of myself, my own impostor? So I drew and cut out a giant lapel-label in the shape of a seedpod and imprinted a bold "snatched body" inscription across it. My humble homage to the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a sci-fi cult classic about human doubles hatched from mysterious pods, became an unexpected attention-grabber and conversation-sparker. In no time, the chitchat gravitated to current affairs and speculation about which leading politico's body may have been replaced. By the end of the evening there was unanimity among the merrymakers. Though Ariel Sharon may look, sound, and move like his old self, he's no Arik. We hypothesized elaborate scenarios about his alien abduction, takeover by a mind-controlling physical look-alike, eventual altering of his life-force, and erasure of all emotions and ideals that had moved him previously. Then someone quipped that "it's as good an explanation as any" for Sharon's bizarre behavior and disquieting surprises, which no longer shock the desensitized population. Why indeed search for an elusive psychoanalytical diagnosis to account for the settlement champion's out-of-the-blue resort to the term "occupation"? Why construct fanciful concoctions to account for the "constriction minister's" submission to an outsider's road-map-to-ruin? Why burrow for clues to account for the super-hawk's sudden penchant for cowering behind a fence with very mutable lines? Why beat our tired brains trying to account for the quintessential warrior's quizzical propensity for retreat? We don't need to conjure undying devotion between the PM and his erstwhile produce marketer, who was also the erstwhile father-in-law of Elhanan Tannenbaum, to account for the hardliner's suddenly turning soft on Hizbullah and submitting to its extortionist ransom demands. THE BODY-SNATCHING theory is as valid as any convoluted cerebral contortion to make sense of the strange goings-on around the national control-board. In fact, it probably makes better sense. The bottom line is that the Sharon currently in the prime minister's office isn't the Arik we once loved or feared, each according to his/her political predilection. Someone inhabiting Arik's exact likeness is behaving in ways diametrically opposed to Arik's. Thus the very notion that Sharon today can regret Begin's refusal to allow the Egyptian army into Sinai boggles the mind. The whole idea was to make the Sinai vastness a buffer, military movement into which would tip Israel off in time to counter any offensive. The basic logic was to keep the still-menacing Egyptian military machine away from Gaza, the historic highway for numerous invasions of Eretz Yisrael. The rationale was to prevent a re-enactment of 1948, when attacking Egyptian forces endangered Tel Aviv. Equally mind-blowing is the notion of these chillingly unfriendly Egyptians curtailing weapons smuggling into Gaza. Who's Arik kidding? These are the very Egyptians who at present aid and abet such illicit arms-supplies. They honestly caution that they've no intention of becoming our guardians, so why should we delude ourselves otherwise and not take their word for it? We already tried to entrust our fragile defense into enemy hands (the Oslo fiasco), and see where that brilliant stroke got us. Who's to guarantee that the latest gamble would pay off, while its predecessor literally keeps exploding in our faces? How do we know we can now trust Sharon's professed omniscient wisdom any more than we could safely swallow his assurances on the eve of the swap that brought Tannenbaum back? That deal, which only risked returning terrorists to their training bases, was finally exposed as a folly at best. Sharon's grander schemes could risk lots more. Even his words erode our position. Only the concessions remain, none of the compensations. In the Tannenbaum affair, we didn't rescue a tortured compatriot. Israel's 14 road-map reservations are forgotten. The security fence's beyond-the-Green-Line bulges are fast disappearing, and the mooted annexations in return for a Gaza withdrawal are ephemeral red herrings. Only dupes would put their trust in anything Sharon advocates or extraterrestrial duplicates. Maybe Sharon isn't the only leading Likud light snatched. That would explain not only his increasing strangeness but also the lack of resistance from his party's cabinet contingent. Perhaps the Likud ministers too aren't who they claim to be. Their reactions also appear eerily modified. They don't seem to be themselves. That's what comes of prevaricating, acquiescing, letting one's guard down, shutting the eyes. Indeed, in the relentlessly haunting flick, zombie-like aliens propagate only when folks sleep, when they aren't vigilant. The dormant victim is replaced by an emotionless drone. Eventually the entire town is possessed by pod changelings, and everything is threatened. The B-picture's original name was Sleep No More. A message for us? Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green) is an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

CALL KNESSET MEMBERS Posted by Elias Yrachmiel, March 16, 2004.

YOU CAN PREVENT THE DESTRUCTION OF GUSH KATIF Is this retreat not a reward for terrorism? Is it not a violation of human rights to force people out of the homes? How can a Jewish government act as an oppressor of Jews? People to call: CALL AS MANY AS YOU CAN! CONSIDER STARTING FROM THE ENTIRE LIST AND PLEASE DISREGARD ANY PREVIOUS NOTICE TO START AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LIST! Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz. Spokesperson: Shiri Eden 056-298005 Ministry of Finance Netanyahu. Spokesman Uri Ginnosar 051-410 410 Ministry of Health Danny Naveh Spokes Tal Sandroni 056-242 221 Minstry of Education LIMOR LIVNAT AYALA BAR 050-466 466 MIN of Public Security HANEGBI YEHOSHUA BAUER 053-309 276 MIN OF Absorption ZIPPI LIVNI ARIK FODER 056-214 660 SPECIAL MIN of Dinance. MEIR SHITRIT OFIR AKUNES 056-207025 MIN Without Portfolio. SCHARANSKY IRIS GOLDMAN 056-286501 LIKUD MK RONNY BARON. ASSTS: OREN:053-430049; DONNA 053-768270; RAUT 056-233693 GAVRIELA INBAL. ASSTS: MEITAL 067-7032225; AMIT O64-635 558 MICHAEL GORLOVSKY. ASSTS: EFRAT 052 824265; NATALIA 051-389851 GILA GAMLIEL. ASSISTANT: NIR 054-740740 AVRAHAM HIRSECHENSEN. ASSTS: SARA 050 561962; ROBBY 051-282 166 RUHAMA AVRAHAM. ASSTS: NIR 051 295800; ADI 058-502075 DEPUTY MINISTER YAAKOV EDRI. ASST:ORLY 056-272090 MICHAEL EITAN. ASSTS: YOSSI: 053 210848; RONNY 050-456429 GILAD ARDEN. ASSTS: OREN 054 540547; SARIT 067-399275 ZEV BOIM. DEPUTY MINISTER OF DEFENSE 03-6977155 MICHAEL RATZON. DEPUTY MIN OF TRADE 02-666 2700 EHUD YATOM. ASSTS: BOAZ 053-702766; ORR 055-459971 GIDON SAAR. ASSTS: RONEN 052-668826; DONNA 051-476476 Thank you for your participation   Netzah Yisrael Lo Yeshaqer     action@netzahyisrael.org To Go To Top

ABSOLUTELY OPPOSED TO UNILATERAL WITHDRAWAL Posted by Bryna Berch, March 16, 2004.

News items from Arutz-7 (http://www.think-israel.org). ABSOLUTELY OPPOSED TO UNILATERAL WITHDRAWAL In a Jerusalem Conference session last night that asked whether PM Sharon's disengagement plan is a legitimate diplomatic process, Labor MK Yuli Tamir surprised some listeners by expressing her opposition to the plan. She said that though she is pleased that the "Green Line" has once again become the international standard by which to judge whether Israel is withdrawing "sufficiently," she is against the unilateral nature of Sharon's planned pullout. "We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged along by the Americans," she said, "but must rather determine what is good for us - and this plan does not serve our interests. We must sit and talk with the Palestinians." Likud MK Gila Gamliel bemoaned the fact that Israel of late spends too much time going back to "old questions should have been settled long ago, such as the illegitimacy of a Palestinian state, instead of taking positive steps forward to fortify our security and presence." She said that no majority exists in the Knesset to pass the withdrawal plan. National Union MK Aryeh Eldad was sharply critical of Prime Minister Sharon: "In some American and European circles, it is being seriously considered whether Sharon has gone crazy... There is no logic to his disengagement plan - which is an advantage, because when a plan is insane, no one expects it to have any logic... Even if Sharon were to be deposed tomorrow morning, or be forced to resign by having an indictment served against him - the damage that he has already done is irreversible... Even if he changes his mind and builds another 100 Jewish towns in Yesha - I am finished with Sharon." Eldad said he is not sure that MK Gamliel is correct in her prediction that the Knesset would not vote in favor of the withdrawal plan: "Sharon has met with three relatively minor American emissaries to present the plan - though he has not yet done this with the government or the Knesset. Once he is able to say that he already 'promised' President Bush, some of the MKs who are currently wavering or 'rebelling' will not be able to withstand such a situation, and will not vote against it... Sharon is destroying Zionism." Atty. Elyakim HaEtzni of Kiryat Arba said, "Violating any order or law to uproot us from our homes is a Torah commandment. Courts in the future will determine that we fulfilled the law. By showing that this law has the 'black flag of illegality waving over it,' we will be the ones fulfilling democracy and the rule of law... Even if the Knesset will decide by majority vote or plebiscite to remove me from my house, this is not only a crime, but firstly a blow to democracy. No democratic tool can remove me from my house." Hevron spokesman Noam Arnon said that ever since the Oslo process began, "Islamic terrorism has intensified and has become the international agenda-setter - and it's all because of Oslo. The Oslo process gave Islamic terrorism a victory, money and power that it never had before. By running away from Gaza and continuing this process, we will bring a catastrophe of inconceivable proportions - not only for us, but for the entire world." Arnon also said that the disengagement process is a "crime against the Jewish Nation. Sharon is leading an illegal plan, a national crime." JERUSALEM CONFERENCE, DAY 2: NATIONAL STRENGTH - OK; ISRAELI PRESS - MISLEADING The second day of the Jerusalem Conference began this morning with a discussion of how well Israel is standing up to the ongoing conflict, and whether the press accurately reflects the situation. The Conference, a project of Arutz-7-s B'Sheva newspaper designed to set Israel's national agenda, is being held in Jerusalem's Hyatt Regency Hotel. One of this morning's speakers was MK Uri Ariel of the National Union, whose political career is intricately bound up with the hotel; he became a Knesset Member as a replacement for Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, who was murdered in late 2001 by Palestinian terrorists in the Hyatt. MK Ariel said that in general, the "graph of accomplishments of the Jewish People is always increasing - whether in Torah study, hi-tech, literature, building the Land, economics, etc. This is so even during the current war, even if slightly less so." Earlier, Dr. Reuven Gal - Deputy Chief of the National Security Council and responsible for its Policy, Society, and Infrastructures Wing - backed up this impression with facts and figures. Gal said that the national morale is constantly rising and dropping, in accordance with the level of terrorist attacks - "but the overall trend, which measures national strength, is constantly and gradually rising." MK Ariel said that we must not look at the current conflict "as a three-year old war, but rather as part of the 140-year struggle for Zionism, or even, if you will, as part of all of Jewish history... The question is, however, if the Jewish People are always advancing, why is it that the leadership always sees the graph as if it is always dropping?" He explained that the population of Yesha - Judea, Samaria and Gaza - "lives a life of meaning. There is a goal, a finish line, a will to accomplish and influence. I was in northern Shomron two days ago, in Kadim and Ganim [two communities often mentioned as prime candidates for demolition - ed. note] - and the residents there told me - contrary to public perception - that no one is talking of leaving. Those who were weak, left a while ago - but now there are those who want to return. The process of unifying, of finding the inner strength, has begun... It's remarkable: What motivates a young unarmed mother to travel with her little children on these 'dangerous' roads? The answer is that the Yesha communities have initiated a new form of community - called a 'communal settlement' - and it has proven itself. People can travel on these roads with the subconscious knowledge that if the worst happens, there is a caring and loving community that will be able to take over. It's a system that works." Ariel continued to express his confidence in the situation, saying that he does not totally agree with the common perception that 'we have settled in the hilltops, but not in the hearts [of the nation]': "In general, there is much admiration among Israelis for the Yesha population and the Yesha enterprise - but it's hard for this to manifest itself when the Prime Minister, whoever he is, takes a different approach... Our leadership is weak - it doesn't meet the goals it itself set, and then blames the public for its own weaknesses... It's partly true that the media are to blame for some of our problems, but we must first of all look inward to see what we ourselves can improve." Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman decried the lack of an organized manner for making government decisions, and said that what most concerns him is the growing rift between those living in Tel Aviv and those in Yesha: "I have a cousin in a thriving Israeli city who would not let his daughter visit me in Nokdim, in Gush Etzion, but allows her to go traipsing in Colombia and the rest of South America - which is not exactly the pinnacle of stability... We have to talk less about Yesha, and more about the growing threat to Tel Aviv. I agree with arch-terrorist Muhammed Def, who said that after Netzarim comes Tel Aviv. People don't realize that there will soon be Kassam rockets in Kalkilye, only 200 meters from Kfar Saba... It must be clear: There is no chance of reaching peace, and whoever says that he will provide us with peace and security is misleading you. The most we can attain is security." Possibly the most interesting talk of all was delivered by journalist Caroline Glick, who served in the 1990's on the Israeli-PA negotiating team and later as a diplomatic advisor to then-Prime Minister Netanyahu. Now an editor at The Jerusalem Post, Glick said that Israelis are not being told the complete story about what goes on in the United States: "Israeli correspondents in the United States have no background in American society, politics, etc., but are chosen for the assignment based only on whose turn it is or the like. How are people like economic reporter Gil Tamari or political analyst Yaron Dekel supposed to turn into American experts overnight?" She noted, as well, that the political leanings of the reporters also affect their coverage. As an example of the mistaken impressions received by Israeli readers, Glick said that Prime Minister Netanyahu managed to obtain a letter written by some 90 Senators warning then-President Clinton against forcing Israel to compromise its ability to protect itself. "This was an amazing accomplishment, which had great ramifications on an already-weak President - yet what did the Israeli readers read? That Clinton was angry at Netanyahu for using AIPAC to pressure the Senate against him. This is a pure distortion of what happened, and an example of how we sabotage our ability to affect public opinion abroad." Glick also emphasized that when Israeli correspondents abroad report about State Department pressures on Israel, they mislead their readers by not explaining that the State Department is traditionally more pro-Arab than other branches of the government, and that these latter often offset its influence. "Thomas Friedman and The New York Times are no more representative of the American public than is FoxNews... These errors cause us not to understand the full extent of our power to influence public opinion abroad. We do have the ability to do so, though Israeli press reports often give the opposite impression." As a final example, Glick noted that the IDF press office made a very foolish mistake following Operation Defensive Shield two years ago: "Papers were discovered proving Arafat's connections with the murderous terrorism - and the IDF Spokesperson gave this scoop to The New York Times, which promptly buried it in a small inside story. Instead, this story should have been given to all the media, and in bits and pieces, so that it would be constantly featured on the front pages." To Go To Top

THE CANCER OF ANTI-SEMITISM IN EUROPE Posted by Communaute-Juive-France@yahoogroupes.fr, March 16, 2004.

This article was written by Jeff Jacoby and appeared in the Boston Globe March 14,2004. It is archived at http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004 /03/14/the_cancer_of_anti_semitism_in_europe/ I HAVE BEEN meaning to write about the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe, a topic to which I last devoted a column in April 2002. Jews, I wrote then, "are the canary in the coal mine of civilization. When they become the objects of savagery and hate, it means the air has been poisoned and an explosion is soon to come." At the time, much of official Europe resented the attention being paid to the return of anti-Jewish hatred to the continent where 6 million Jews were murdered between 1938 and 1945. "Stop saying that there is anti-Semitism in France," the French president, Jacques Chirac, admonished a Jewish editor. "There is no anti-Semitism in France." Official Europe takes the attacks on Jews, most of which are the work of Muslim immigrants from the Middle East, more seriously now. At a conference in Brussels last month, Romano Prodi, the European Commission president, acknowledged that there are "vestiges of the historical anti-Semitism" in Europe today. "Attacking a Jew," French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has said, "is tantamount to attacking the French republic." Chirac told the president of Israel during a state visit that he would be "uncompromising" in rooting out anti-Semitism. And yet the hatred spreads. At the University of Geneva, a Jewish researcher wearing a small Star of David necklace was attacked in a campus elevator by Arab students. When she reported the attack, she was told not to wear the necklace in public. In Hasselt, Belgium, Muslim fans at a soccer match between the Israeli and Belgian national teams waved Hamas and Hezbollah banners, and chanted: "Jews to the gas chambers!" and "Strangle the Jews!" The British Political Cartoon Society awarded first prize in its annual competition to a cartoon depicting a gigantic, naked Ariel Sharon biting off the head of an Arab baby. "What's wrong," reads the caption, "you've never seen a politician kissing a baby?" In Germany, scores of Jewish graves and Holocaust memorials have been defaced. At the cemetery in Beeskow, for example, "Heil Hitler" and "Crap on the six million lie" were painted on gravestones. At Langenstein-Zwieberge, a sub-camp of the notorious Buchenwald concentration camp, vandals plastered the walls with copies of anti- Semitic Third Reich newspapers. According to a poll conducted by the European Union last fall, 59 percent of EU citizens identify Israel as the world's greatest threat to peace - ahead of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. In December, millions of Europeans with satellite TV reception were able to watch "Al-Shatat," a Syrian film that portrayed Jews as blood-drinking monsters who conspire to rule the world. In a leading Greek newspaper, a journalist wrote that the Jews "have vindicated the persecutions of the Nazis... They deserved such an executioner [as Hitler] since they proved to be murderers themselves." At a televised reception to mark the publication of his memoirs, Mikis Theodorakis, the composer of "Zorba the Greek," denounced Jews. "These little people are the root of evil," he told an audience that included two Cabinet members - neither of whom reacted to his anti-Semitic outburst. The hatred has been most palpable in France. There have been so many attacks on Jews in recent months that the chief rabbi has urged religious boys and men to wear baseball caps instead of yarmulkes outside their homes. In November, a newly built wing of the Merkaz Hatorah school outside Paris was gutted by arson. Last week, in a newspaper column headlined "Jewish children are in danger," six French scientists described recent episodes of anti-Semitic violence in Parisian schools. In one of them, a girl was thrown to the ground and beaten by 20 students, who were yelling, "Dirty Jew! Dirty Jew!" As of late Friday afternoon, about 36 hours after the massive bombing that tore apart Madrid's commuter-rail network, the death toll reached 199. Another 1,500 victims have been wounded, many severely. The Arabic newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi says it has received a statement of responsibility purportedly issued in the name of Al Qaeda. The statement describes the bombing as "part of settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader, and America's ally in its war against Islam." Spanish police have found a van with seven detonators and an Arabic tape of verses from the Koran. Whether this massacre, like those in Istanbul and Bali and at the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, was the work of radical Islamists, the world will know soon enough. What the world should already know but so often forgets is that Jews are the canary in the coal mine of civilization. Anti-Semitism is like cancer; unchecked, it can metastasize and sicken the entire body. When civilized nations fail to rise up against the Jew-haters in their midst, it is often just a matter of time before the Jew-haters in their midst rise up against them. This was distributed to the Communaute-Juive-France. Their website address is http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/Communaute-Jeuve-France To Go To Top

THE NEW FACE OF ANTI-SEMITISM Posted by Communaute-Juive-France@yahoogroupes.fr, March 16, 2004.

This article was written by Robert Wistrich, who is director of the Vidal Sassoon International Centre for the Study of AntiSemitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It appeared in the Montreal Gazette, March 14, 2004. It is archived at http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/columnists/story.asp? id=4EE8A536-DA05-46CB-B823-3FE4877BACAB Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism were initially two distinct ideologies that over time (especially since 1967) have tended to converge. The more radical forms of anti-Zionism that have emerged with renewed force in recent years display some striking analogies to fascist and racist anti-Semitism preceding the Holocaust. There is, for example, the call for a scientific, cultural and economic boycott of Israel, which arouses grim associations and memories among Jews of the Nazi boycott that began in 1933. To this, we might add the ways in which Zionism and the Jewish people have been demonized in recent years that are virtually identical to the methods, arguments and techniques of Nazi anti- Semitism. Even though the current banner might be "anti-racist" and the defamation is being carried out in the name of human rights, the same desire to stigmatize and defame the Jewish collectivity is in evidence. "Anti-Zionists" who insist on comparing Zionism and the Jews with Hitler and the Third Reich, are de-facto anti-Semites, even if they vehemently deny the fact. For if Zionists are Nazis and Sharon really is Hitler, then it becomes a moral obligation to eliminate Israel. That is the bottom line of much contemporary anti-Zionism. The exhibit in Stockholm in which an Islamic Jihad bomber is idealized as Snow White sailing on a pool of blood has nothing to do with "preventing genocide." It is an invitation to perpetrate another massacre of Jews, whatever the artist might claim. Israel is the only state on the face of this planet that such a large number of disparate nations, political groups and individuals (including self-hating Jews) wish to see disappear - a chilling reminder of Nazi propaganda in the 1930s. The most virulent expressions of this exterminationist anti-Zionism come from the Arab-Muslim world, the historical heir of earlier 20th century forms of totalitarian antiSemitism in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It is echoed even by "moderate" Muslim statesmen like Mahathir Mohammad who publicly repeat the classic anti-Semitic myth that "Jews rule the world" without eliciting any objections in the Islamic world. The more radical Islamists from Al-Qa'ida to the Palestinian Hamas fuse indiscriminate terror, suicide bombings and a Protocols-of-Zion- style of anti-Semitism with the ideology of jihad. They embrace a total demonization of the "Jewish other" as the "enemy of mankind." The same demonizing stereotypes can be found in "moderate, pro- Western" Egypt (home to the anti-Semitic soap opera Rider without a Horse) secular Baathist Syria, conservative Wahhabite Saudi Arabia and Shiite fundamentalist Iran. This is an ideological anti-Zionism that seeks both the annihilation of Israel and a world "liberated from the Jews" - the ultimate final solution. The danger has become especially grave because such annihilationalist anti-Zionism is spreading under the mask of anti- Israelism and hatred of Ariel Sharon to Western Europe, America and parts of the Third World. It has found grassroots support in the Muslim diaspora among radicalized youth and strong echoes among anti- globalists, Trotskyists, and far-right groups not to mention parts of the mainstream Western media. The mobilizing power of anti-Zionism derives primarily from its link to the Palestinian cause. Since the 1960s, the PLO has worked hard to delegitimize Zionism and this policy has largely succeeded. Palestinian anti-Zionism involves a negation of Jewish nationhood and any legitimate Jewish sovereignty in Eretz Israel; a denial of any historic link between Judaism and Zion, or of the very existence of two Jewish temples in Jerusalem. No wonder Israel has never existed on any Palestinian maps even during the Oslo peace process. Nor should it be forgotten that the Palestinian Authority has frequently combined anti-Semitic motifs - including Holocaust denial, updated blood libels and Jewish conspiracy themes - with a more general incitement to jihadist violence. Palestinian anti-Zionism has helped to infect Europe with an old- new version of anti-Semitism in which Jews are turned into rapacious, blood sucking colonialists. They are depicted as alien, rootless and imperialist invaders who conquered Palestine by brute force. Zionists are modern crusaders with no legitimate rights to the soil - an alien transplant in the region, which cleverly manipulated Britain and then America to achieve its goals. This is an Arab anti-Semitic narrative of which Hitler might have approved. The popularity of the Protocols is one of the most telling symptoms in the Middle East of the complete merger between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Zionism is also vilified in some mainstream Western media as being criminal in essence as well as in its behaviour - another classic anti-Semitic stereotype. This flows from the left- wing mantra branding Zionism as a racist, colonialist and imperialist movement - the only empire in history whose waistline is about 10 miles wide. Israel's military actions offer Europeans the tantalizing temptation of saying that "the victims of yesterday have become the Nazi perpetrators of today," and the opportunity to present Zionism as heir to the darkest pages of Western colonial history - i.e. Algeria, Vietnam, South Africa. Such comparisons are not always anti-Semitic in intention however false they are in practice. But through endless repetition they become an ideological rationalization for dismantling Israel. This is a major aim of "progressive" anti-Zionism that insists on its moral purity yet turns a blind eye to so-called suicide bombings that are literally crimes against humanity. Such anti-Zionism is fundamentally discriminatory in negating even the possibility of a legitimate Jewish nationalism while idealizing the violent nihilism of the Palestinian national movement. The anti- globalist crusaders against Zion regularly justify the terrorism, jihadism and anti-Jewish stereotypes to be found in Islamic fundamentalism. For most of the Western left, Palestinians can only be victims. Hamas bombers are militants engaged in legitimate resistance. They are never perpetrators of any crimes or responsible for their actions. Only Israel is to blame. On the far left as well as the far right, contemporary anti-Zionism freely exploits stereotypes about the "Jewish/Zionist lobby, Jewish criminality and Israeli warmongering" that are deeply anti-Semitic. This world-view has penetrated the mainstream debate to the point where 60 per cent of Europeans regard tiny Israel as the greatest threat today to world peace. Anti-Zionism is not only the historic heir of earlier forms of anti- Semitism. It is also the lowest common denominator between anti- thetical political trends in Europe and the Middle East - the only point on which they can agree. It is a bridge between the left, the right and the militant Muslims; between the elites, including the media, and the masses; between the church and the mosque; between an increasingly anti-American Europe and an endemically anti-Western Arab-Muslim Middle East; a point of convergence between right-wing conservatives and left-wing radicals and a connecting link between the generations. Anti-Zionism is no longer an exotic collection of radical chic slogans that somehow survived the debacle of late 1960s counter- culture. It has become an exterminationist, pseudo-redemptive ideology in the Middle East which has been re-exported to Europe with devastating effect. This was distributed to the Communaute-Juive-France. Their website address is http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/Communaute-Jeuve-France To Go To Top

BACK-PEDDLING FROM TERROR WON'T STOP IT Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 16, 2004.

The Europeans give every indication that they are increasing their speed of back-peddling from terror. The Europeans are not known for their bravado but are infamous for throwing raw meat to pursuing predators to slow them down. Too often, this "raw meat" has been their live Jews. Most of Europe pandered to Hitler's insatiable appetite for live Jews. It really didn't slow Hitler down, he merely cannibalized them as he moved forward. Now we see Europe re-emerging with that same mind-set - only now they think they will feed their Jews to the Islamo-fascists in the hope that these terrorists will not make the Vatican "ground zero" in Italy or the Eiffel Tower in France. Neal Cavuto of FOX NEWS spoke about the cell-phones ringing on the covered bodies of the dead Spaniards in their bombed commuter train stations. He made the point that this will continue as terrorists will do what terrorists do. The Europeans have tried time and again to literally bribe terrorists with unimpeded access to their nations - as long as things blew up somewhere else. We see a certain desperation as the Europeans reach for Israel as their next human sacrifice to the Arab Muslim Palestinians in the hope that Arab terrorists will cease and desist targeting them. The problem is that each of the Arab nations were cultivating terror against Jews returning to their ancient homeland before Israel was partitioned and the State was born in 1948. Saudi Arabia was teaching Wahhabi Islam (radical fundamentalist Islam) to her children before 1948 which included hatred for those Christian Crusaders of Europe. Syria, Iran and Iraq were hotbeds of radical Islamic terror and of course, continue to be so. Add Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser, from 1963 onward, committing heinous crimes against humanity by using poison gas, namely mustard gas, phosgene asphyxiant during his 5 year war in Yemen. Egypt spearheaded the research, development and testing on live humans of Chemical Warfare and missiles to deliver it. Egypt shared this knowledge with Syria and Iraq, creating 3 countries in the Middle East, with fanatic Islamic terrorists who would have access to and who would use WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction). But, for the anti-Semitic Europeans, the opportunity to pass their terrorist troubles over to the Jewish State of Israel is merely what Europeans do. Throwing "raw meat" to tracking adversaries and hope they will gorge themselves on those bits of flesh and forget about terrorizing Europe. Whether it is the BBC, the NEW YORK TIMES, Tom Friedman, Jack Straw of Britain, Jacques Chirac of France, the extremely pro-Arab, anti-Israel State Department, their prevailing notion is that, if they shove another Palestinian State down Israel's throat, the terrorists will be satisfied. (I don't think so.) But, since Vichy France really never went away - since Germany is still working its way past the guilt but starting to spout about "those Jews" again - since the so-called "Elite" of Britain quip about that "shitty little country" (Israel) - not much has changed in the past 60 years. Well, something has changed. The Jews are no longer in their hands. They have their own State. Also, the Jews are now armed and should those good Europeans attempt to forcibly try to hand the Jews over to the Arabs, the Jews will fight back - hopefully in time. A NEW ERA OF GLOBAL TERROR Fighting Global Terror is a full time job and the faint of heart fall by the wayside. We have watched the people of Spain as they tried to bribe the terrorists to leave them out of their sights. General opinion is that the Spanish people, voted a Socialist government into power on the assumption that Spain would now withdraw their 1300 peacekeeping troops from Iraq. The Terrorists succeeded in terrorizing Spain with 3 train bombs, 201 dead and 1500 injured, 3 days before their election, bringing to power an appeasement oriented government. Therefore, it is now expected that they will move on to targets in Britain, Italy, France and elsewhere in Europe. Americans should not be visiting Spain and should consider closing our military bases in that nation. Spain's weakness is merely another symptom of Europe's weakness and decadence. "Warnings of al Qaeda's continuing threat came Tuesday, February 24th from Washington and London, as well as from George Tenet, Director of the CIA to the Senate Intelligence Committee. He spoke about the spread of Al Qaeda's radical agenda to local groups who now threaten America and are capable of 9/11 scale attacks. "According to French counter-intelligence, al Qaeda has recruited in France alone between 35,000 and 45,000 men and is organizing them into military style units. In Germany, Al Qaeda has recruited 25,000 to 30,000 men. The British domestic intelligence agency M15 estimates 10,000 faithful have joined up in Britain. Al Qaeda doesn't need an important foothold in Italy because it maintains a thriving presence next door in Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia. Unknown numbers are enlisting in Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Sweden and Norway. Native Europeans - freshly converted to Islam are targeted for recruitment, called: "the while recruitment drive". " (2) In my previous article "Mankind Against Islamic Terror" of March 14, I pointed out that President Bush had exposed the swarms of Islamic Terrorists who had been breeding sleeper cells in secret nests for years. Now we face them - if we have the guts - or they bomb us. The Terror is coming to Europe despite all the E.U.'s attempts at appeasing the Arab Muslims by throwing them a weakened and vulnerable Jewish State of Israel. Remember Muslims are mandated by Koranic teaching to re-take all lands ever controlled by Islam. If you go to Europe, watch your surroundings, the people and the "things" they leave around. If you live in Europe, strengthen your country's moral stance toward Israel and military attitude toward fighting Terror and the Terrorists. In closing, be assured that the Europeans will never admit the shame of their cowardly weakness. Instead, they will try to shift the blame for Global Terrorism onto the Jewish State of Israel and the Jewish people in a pitiful attempt to appease the "Jihadists". ### 1. "Chemical & Biological Weapons in Egypt" By Dany Shoham (researcher for the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Israel) The Nonproliferation Review Spring/Summer 1998 http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/npr/vol05/53/shoham53.pdf I strongly recommend that you click up this article. You may be astonished at Egypt's successful efforts to develop the most hideous of CW (Chemical Warfare) weapons with the assistance of European and American companies. In following articles, I will discuss the issue of Egypt, like Libya, Iran, North Korea and other hidden recipients of Pakistan's nuclear technology. A summary is at "Chemical Weapons Program" on http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/egypt.cw/ 2. "Al Qaeda Builds a Euro Army" from DEBKA-Net Weekly, Feb. 20 - updated by DEBKAfile Feb. 25. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm) To Go To Top

PA MEDIA'S "NEW SHARON": WEAK AND DEFEATED Posted by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, March 16, 2004.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) media has dramatically changed its portrayal of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon since he announced his plan to unilaterally leave the Gaza Strip. The PA media had always depicted Sharon as the cruel and inhuman killer of Palestinians, from Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon, until today. Now he is depicted as "Sharon the defeated" and "Sharon the weak," who is extremely vulnerable. This change in image can be seen vividly in this week's political cartoons, which are already showing a new, beaten Sharon. In four political cartoons from the official PA daily, two published before his retreat plan and two published this week, demonstrate Sharon's changed image: Before the proposed plan: Sharon the cruel and inhuman, who eats Palestinians alive. After the proposed plan: Sharon the weak and defeated, is eaten alive. Itamar Marcus is director of PMW -Palestinian Media Watch - (http://www.pmw.org.il). Barbara Crook, a writer and university lecturer based in Ottawa, Canada, is PMW's North American representative. To subscribe to PMW's reports, send an empty e-mail to reports-subscribe@pmw.org.il To Go To Top

TIME TO GO HOME? Posted by Yashiko Sagamori, March 16, 2004.

In the aftermath of the recent devastating earthquake in Iran, news media reported "a miracle": a man, extracted from the rubble and thought to be dead, stirred on the way to the mass grave. At least two other similar cases were reported. When I read it, my first thought was: In the rush to bury the victims in order to avoid an epidemic, how many people failed to stir in time and were buried alive - for the second time within hours or, at most, days? How many of those would have been alive today had Iran not rejected Israel's offer of help? If proof was still needed that hatred of Jews prevails over any other interest of the Islamic Republic, its government has presented it, loud and clear. Since no one in Iran uttered a word of objection to that policy, the population must support it wholeheartedly. Iranians would rather be buried alive than rescued by Jews. That's anti-Semitism. Not a single country, not a single international organization, not a single defender of human rights protested against it. Not even the United States of America. That constitutes universal acceptance of anti-Semitism, which is just another form of anti-Semitism itself. In the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Madrid, Spain followed in the footsteps of the ayatollahs and rejected Israel's help. It is safer not to be associated with the Jews. That's anti-Semitism. The United States has been afflicted with political correctness to a degree far beyond the loss of touch with reality. American Indians, who, in all the millennia preceding the arrival of evil white people, literally failed to invent the wheel, are being portrayed in American movies as carriers of elusive ancient wisdom. The police are not allowed to rely on statistics of violent crimes lest it offends African American sensitivities. Security personnel at airports are warned against "profiling" Muslims, despite the commonly known fact that Islam is the main source of terrorism against this country. And yet a movie whose message is most accurately described in three simple words, Jews killed Jesus, has raised no objections from the politically correct crowd: Jews are not subject to the same considerations. ! That's anti-Semitism. Many good Christians who enjoyed Mad Mel's production would tell you that some of their best friends are Jewish. Never mind their best friends; it is still anti-Semitism. I used to think that World War II had cured Christians of anti-Semitism, leaving it to the most backward people on the face of the planet, Muslim Arabs. I was wrong. Worse than that, I was ridiculously wrong. Evil that has flourished for 2,000 years does not go away because of a war - not as long as there are both Jews and gentiles among survivors. I used to think that the endorsement of the Jewish State by the UN was an implicit admission by the civilized nations of this planet that they were unable to guarantee the same safety for their Jewish citizens as was afforded to everyone else; therefore, the restoration of Israel was necessary for the survival of the Jewish people. Now I believe I was wrong. Now I believe that it was an attempt to gather all Jews in one place and leave it to the Arabs to render this planet judenrein. We were dreaming of coming home; they were dreaming of the biggest ever death camp for us. That's anti-Semitism. The best of us came home and built a country. The price has been enormous. Every square inch of Eretz Yisroel is fertilized with Jewish blood. Since 1948, Israel has not seen a single day of peace. When, instead of a super death camp, a prosperous country emerged, our enemies invented the myth of a "Palestinian people". No such people has ever existed. The myth itself is as much an anti-Semitic libel as the story of goyische blood in the matzo dough. But can you name at least one government that doesn't support that myth today? I don't think so. That's anti-Semitism. The name Palestine was a Roman invention, a part of their attempt to erase Israel from the map. That was anti-Semitism, plain and simple. I don't know who invented the term West Bank. What I do know, it is as much a lie as Palestine. The purpose of that lie is the same: to alter both history and geography, to erase evidence of Jewish presence in the Jewish land, to steal our land from us again. That's anti-Semitism. How many news agencies, how many governments ever refer to Judea and Samaria by their proper names? None. That's anti-Semitism. Not a single legal document entitles Arabs to an inch of Gaza, Judea, or Samaria. But a unanimous consensus of the international community declares it "Palestinian territory". Well, let me tell you something about consensus. When everyone present, except for the victim, gives his consent to a rape, it makes the rape neither legal, nor acceptable, nor does it turn it into an exercise in democracy. It turns it into a gang rape. Democracy or not, the only one whose opinion counts is the intended victim. And when the UN gang-rapes Israel, that's anti-Semitism. Every year, the EU, US, UN, and every other government and international organization that happens to have a few extra million of dollars or euros in their coffers, provides what they call "humanitarian assistance" to what they call "Palestinians". Everyone with an IQ above that of an average stone-thrower in Ramallah understands that it means directly financing mass murder of Jews. That's anti-Semitism. At every appropriate occasion, the United States calls itself an ally and supporter of Israel. The price Israel has to pay for the US support borders on the loss of sovereignty and leads to its gradual surrender to Arab enemies. As a result, today, Israel's survival is more questionable than ever before since the Yom Kippur War. Arabs alone, without US pressure on Israel, would have never been able to achieve such a victory. That's anti-Semitism. When the United States declared its War on Terrorism, everyone was invited to participate, even countries like Iran and Syria that have been sponsoring terrorism for decades, even countries like Pakistan, whose people hate the United States openly and with passion. Israel has been the main victim of Islamic terrorism. It would make a natural, resourceful ally in that war. The United States excluded Israel from participation in its war as firmly as Spain rejected Israel's help in the aftermath of the recent terrorist attack in Madrid, and, basically, for the same reason. That's anti-Semitism. When the terrorist organization that specializes in murdering Israelis, was, by means of the "road map", not only declared immune to prosecution, but was practically granted statehood, it was anti-Semitism, pure and simple. When, after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the US government was awarding contracts in Iraq, even the staunchest opponents of the war got a chance to participate. Israel was unceremoniously pushed aside. That's anti-Semitism. On February 28, the New York Times; reported that the Iraqi Governing Council had been pondering a dramatic question: whether to allow Iraqi Jews to return. Jewish communities (should we say, settlements?) had existed in Iraq since at least the 16th century B.C.E. The state of Iraq was mandated by the League of Nations in 1921 C.E., 25 centuries later. Most Iraqi Jews left the country in modern times escaping persecution. The Council decided the Jews should stay out for now. That's anti-Semitism. Moreover, it's an example of the United States government accepting and sponsoring Arab anti-Semitism. That's anti-Semitism as well. Javier Marias, a Spanish novelist, assuming that the attack in Madrid was perpetrated by Basque extremists, complained in his op-ed article in the New York Times on March 12: [T]here's been no oppression in the Basque region for more than 25 years (beyond, of course, what the ETA itself exercises). There is an autonomous government and a parliament with a broad jurisdiction, and even a Basque police force, which, from time to time, the ETA attacks. The group is no different than the Mafia. Its members and sympathizers know that if they stop killing, they'll be nobodies in their towns and cities, they'll no longer be "respectable" - that is, fearsome and opportunistic. Sounds familiar? Unfortunately, to find any commonality between the two situations, one almost inevitably has to be a Jew. One absolutely has to be a Jew to remember that while the Basque people are not the ETA, the "Palestinians people" are really nothing but Arafat's terrorist organization. That's anti-Semitism. Christian anti-Semitism has been with us since ancient times, through the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the two World Wars. It is with us today. Today, Christianity enjoys unprecedented enlightment. Most Christians would be offended by an accusation of anti-Semitism. They will draw a line between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel. But what exactly is it about Israel that causes your criticism? If you criticize Israeli leaders for failing to claim what's rightfully Israel's and allowing what used to be a minor problem to grow into a real threat to Israel's existence, I am with you; however, when you criticize Israel for not surrendering to those who do not even consider it necessary to hide their intentions to wipe the country, along with its entire Jewish population, off the face of the earth, that's anti-Semitism. The inordinate number of Holocaust museums all over the world where people pay tribute to six million dead Jews appears to be evidence against my assertions. But dead Jews don't bother anyone. They no longer rule the world, even by proxy. Live Jews are a different matter. The International Court of Justice has been desperately seeking a legal basis for condemning Israel's attempt to defend itself against Arab terror. At the same time, not a single international organization seriously condemns terrorists as long as they choose their victims within Israel's borders. You call that justice? That's anti-Semitism. Israel has never attacked or occupied another country. Nevertheless, according to the now famous poll, 59% of the Europeans sincerely believe that Israel is the main threat to world peace today. Most Europeans sincerely believe that Israel was built in place of a country called Palestine and scattered its people. That's ignorance, which breeds anti-Semitism. Let's not forget attacks against Jews, Jewish institutions and property that have grown to a degree that makes it no longer possible for the European governments to sweep it under the rug. That's also anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is nothing new. We've been living with it for 2,000 years. When it grew unbearable in one place, we went elsewhere and stayed there as long as there were no pogroms. Our entire history since the destruction of our Second Temple consists mostly of going from one place to another. This time however it's different. The current wave of anti-Semitism coincided with globalization. This time, when the life of a Jew in England, France, or Spain becomes unbearable, he won't take his family to France, Spain, or England, because such a migration would make as much sense as moving from Munich to Nuremberg in the 1930's. The United States lags behind Europe when it comes to anti-Semitism. So far, this country has been good to us. History tells us however that no country in the world has been good to us forever. Are you willing to bet your life on the USA being the first one? A quiet Muslim invasion of the United States is going on steadily. Within a few years, Muslim votes will be more important to American politicians that Jewish ones. The economy, no matter what the propaganda says, is going through a deep crisis also caused, to a large degree, by globalization. How much longer are we going to feel at home in this country? How long before our neighbors begin blaming us for everything that goes wrong? Nobody knows. We do know however that until Hitler came to power, Jews felt safer in Germany than probably anywhere else in the world. Which reminds me: if John Kerry loses this year, Hillary Clinton moves into the White House on January 21, 2009. Next year in Jerusalem? Yes, if the Diaspora survives that long. Yashiko Sagamori is a New York-based Information Technology consultant. To read other articles by the author, go to http://www.middleeastfacts.com/yashiko/ To Go To Top

SELF-PITY AND "SELF-DETERMINATION" Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 16, 2004.

One P.A. rallying cry is "self-determination." Another is to slay Jews, Christians, and Americans. Statehood would magnify that terrorist entity's power. P.A. self-determination means extermination. That is not in the US interest, but the biased State Dept. promotes it anyway. Do people who propose giving the P.A. sovereignty have no compunction about empowering the most murderous living group? Is there no question in their minds whether that group is worthy? There might be a question of that group's eligibility, if the media raised the notion of qualifications for self-determination. The group asking for the right to determine its future must be a separate group from the surrounding people. Otherwise, why give it a separate sovereignty? The P.A. Arabs are not a separate group. To reterate previous explanations of that, Arafat's people are of the Arab nationality. They demand statehood solely as part of their effort to destroy Israel. What is more, they have admitted it. If discontented, they should go elsewhere. The Arabs constantly complain about their plight. They who are pitiless towards infidels solicit the pity of infidels. Barbarians seeking world conquest do not deserve compassion over the hardships of their quest. Their lying whining about Israeli retaliation is contemptible. The Nazis had a similar trait. The Germans, an aggressor in the exhausting WWI, complained that fellow Germans had betrayed them by surrendering. They started WWII and supported it until they began losing. When defeated, they pretended not to have known of the many and unique atrocities their side committed. Now they are trying to raise a theory that they are victims of that war. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

TARGETED KILLINGS CAN SAVE LIVES Posted by Steven Plaut, March 16, 2004.

This was written by Tuvia Blumenthal, a professor of economics at Ben-Gurion University. It appeared today in Haaretz. Instead of addressing the question of how Israeli soldiers should deal with terrorism, the critics of Professor Asa Kasher, whom they disparage as "the court philosopher," charge that the answer to every question is to put an end to the occupation - despite the fact that they, too, know that the occupation will not be ending tomorrow. But what should be done until then? Should the war on terror be stopped? And once Israel evacuates all of the territories, as they demand, would we find peace at last? Can they promise us that Hamas will not gain control of the territories that are evacuated and continue its attempts to wipe out the State of Israel? Will the Israel Defense Forces be superfluous, and no longer need an ethical code? The aim of Kasher's commendable enterprise is to establish norms of behavior for Israeli soldiers for as long as terror continues to harm us, be it before or after the end of the occupation. At this point, the question of the targeted assassinations and their moral justification is raised. In this context, Kasher poses two arguments: First, when a military action is scrutinized, in order to determine whether it is moral or not, not only the results of the action should be examined, but also the implications of avoiding the action. The targeted assassination of a terrorist, in the course of which ten innocent Palestinians are killed, is no less moral than a decision not to act, as a result of which the terrorist succeeds in carrying out a terrorist attack in which ten innocent Israelis are killed. The justification for a targeted assassination should be judged not only by the direct result deriving from it, but also by the indirect result, of lives saved as a result of the targeted assassination. Therefore, the test of an action in which ten innocent Palestinians were killed does not stop there; one must also weigh the number of innocent Israelis remaining alive as a result of the action. Second, a terrorist attack is not only the result of a suicide terrorist, who may be the direct cause of it, but of an entire chain of command, which includes the commander of the action, the person who prepares the explosive belt and the driver who brings the terrorist to the bombing site. If there is moral justification for preventing the terrorist attack, it is not limited to striking at the suicide terrorist when he is 20 meters away from the objective. Rather, it applies to the entire terrorist cell, the entire chain of command. Added to this argument is the fact that striking at the suicide bomber will prevent one attack, while striking at an "arch-terrorist" can prevent numerous attacks. It should be borne in mind that a decision to carry out a targeted assassination is not reached in conditions of utter certainty as to the results of the action, either in terms of the chances of liquidating the target or in terms of the chances of harming innocent persons. It may happen, for instance, that after an operation is conducted, it emerges in retrospect that there was no justification for it - for instance, that numerous innocent Palestinians were hurt because of it. It is also possible not to carry out the action and to retroactively discover that there was justification for carrying it out - for instance, because the failure to act led to a terrorist attack with numerous Israeli casualties, who are also innocent. This means that mistakes are possible, and that it is certainly possible to make a moral decision that leads to an unwanted outcome. There is an understandable aversion to taking a stand on the ethical code of an army when as a result of that army's actions persons on both sides are being killed or injured. One could claim that any action in which innocents are killed is immoral, without any relation to the question of how many other lives have been saved as a result of that action. Yet when the subject is the ethical code of an army, and in particular an army that is waging a prolonged war against terror, it is not possible to evade cold calculations and considerations, not when there are dead and wounded on both sides of the equation. For instance, is there moral justification for preventing a terrorist attack if there is a 70 percent probability that if it occurs, 20 Israelis will be killed, but there is a 90 percent probability of 10 innocent Palestinians being killed if it is prevented through the targeted assassination of the terrorist? As a philosopher engaged in the field of ethics, Asa Kasher bravely grapples with questions such as these, while his critics try to dodge them. To Go To Top

SPANISH DEMOCRACY Posted by Leo Rennert, March 16, 2004.

This was an Opinion Piece yesterday from the Jerusalem Post Online (http://www.jpost.com). As recently as a generation ago, an event like Thursday's Madrid terror attacks would have prompted the Spanish government of the day to declare martial law. Or it might have provoked a military coup. Instead, on Sunday Spaniards went to the polls in greater-than-expected numbers to hand Socialist candidate Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero an upset victory over his conservative opponent Mariano Rajoy. This is excellent news, proof of the resiliency of Spain's still-young democracy. So why are we disappointed by Sunday's result? Not because we have a view, one way or another, as to who is most fit to govern Spain, although the Popular Party under Jose Maria Aznar accumulated an impressive record of economic success during its eight years in power (recently celebrated in a Time magazine cover story). Rather, it's because the election's outcome is precisely what the perpetrators of the attack - whether it was the Basque ETA group or, what appears more likely, al-Qaida - intended. It creates the worrisome precedent that terrorist groups may attempt to influence the result of other elections with well-timed mega-attacks. Israelis are no strangers to this phenomenon. In 1996, a Hamas terror campaign, orchestrated in collusion with Iran, helped turn the Shimon Peres-Binyamin Netanyahu contest in the latter's favor. Throughout the seven-year peace process, the Palestinian Authority made every effort to manipulate Israeli politics to suit its convenience, sometimes resorting to violence as with the 1996 "Tunnel War." But these examples are as nothing next to what has happened in Spain. In their manifesto, the self-declared perpetrators, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades of al-Qaida, cast the Madrid attack as punishment for Spain's participation in the "Crusader coalition" in Iraq. "The peoples of America's allies must pressure their government to withdraw immediately from their alliance with America...," the group declared. "And if you renounce [fighting us], we too will stop fighting you." (Translation by Memri.) This manifesto was released March 12, before Sunday's election. It would, of course, be unfair to accuse Spaniards of casting their ballots to accommodate al-Qaida's threats. But there is no doubt this is the way the perpetrators of the attacks will interpret the result. Zapatero campaigned to withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq by June, a pledge he renewed Sunday night, and he has been vocal in his criticism of US President George W. Bush and of Aznar's close relationship with him. True, Zapatero also said he would make the struggle on terrorism his chief priority. But what does this really mean, if not standing fast with the US? Defensible arguments were made prior to the Iraq war that it was a distraction from the war on terror. Today, for good or ill, Iraq has become the prime battleground in that war. Spain's announced withdrawal will now likely increase popular pressure on other pro-US governments to withdraw their troops, particularly Poland, Japan, Britain, and Italy. The danger does not stop there. Countries that opposed the Iraq war and have so far escaped al-Qaida's terrorism may be lulled into thinking that they can purchase peace by taking an anti-US stance, or at least an anti-Israel one. This is a fallacy in its own right, reminiscent of Winston Churchill's famous adage about feeding the crocodile in the hopes of being eaten last. It also helps divide the West when a united approach to terrorism and terror-sponsoring states is badly needed. Finally, there is the threat to democracy itself. The al-Qaida manifesto spoke menacingly of a "Winds of Black Death" operation against the US, which it said was 90 percent complete. This may or may not be a bluff. What's certain is that if terrorist groups believe they can alter the outcome of Spain's election, why not attempt to alter the outcome of America's? In the immediate aftermath of Thursday's bombing, the first question on everyone's mind was "Who did it?" Then the question became "Why?" If people in democratic nations persuade themselves that the answer is the war in Iraq - and, more broadly, the American-led war on terror - they will have handed al-Qaida the very thing it seeks. To Go To Top

THE LITTLE SHAHID Posted by David Wilder, March 16, 2004.

Shalom. What does the name Abdallah Koran mean to you? Anything? If not, it should. Abdallah Koran should be a banner-sized headline in all news publications around the world, hard-copy and internet. Why? Abdallah Koran is about 10 years old. His exact age is not 100% clear. Yesterday afternoon Abdallah, before making his way through an IDF checkpoint near Shechem, in Samaria, was made a tantalizing offer. Approached by some 'older people,' Abdallah was promised a great sum of money if he would do them a small favor. [Ed note: eports put it R five shekels ($1.10).] They requested that Abdallah act as a messenger and take with him, along with his school books, a backpack for some people waiting on the other side of the checkpoint. Of course, little Abdallah agreed. Why pass up a chance to make some good money so easily. At the checkpoint a border policewoman, examining all those crossing over, became very suspicious. The backpack was big and heavy, much heavier than would normally be used by a ten year old. The youngster was quickly questioned - "What is in this backpace?" Never having been questioned by uniformed Israelis before, Abdaallah was frightened. "It's not mine. Someone gave it to me to take across the checkpoint, as a messenger." The backpack was carefully removed to an isolated area, where an army sapper examined it and proceeded to explode it. Inside the backpack was a 6-10 kilo (about 15 lbs) bomb belt, hooked up to a cellular telephone. It seems that the terrorists who provided the bomb to little Abdallah had planned on blowing him up, together with the Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint, at the time of its examination. But the plan failed. The bomb didn't go off. Had he managed to get it through the checkpoint undetected, it is most likely, according to Israeli intelligence-security forces, that the bomb would have been detonated on a bus packed with people, murdering Abdallah and the others on the bus. As I wrote, you should know this already because this story should be headlining all news programs, radio, t.v., newspapers and internet. But, it's not. As of this writing, this story does not appear on the homepage of CNN, Fox, or MSNBC. Let's, for a minute, play one of my favorite games: Make Believe. Make believe, for a moment, that a ten year old from, let's say, Hebron, was found carrying a bomb on his back, attempting to kill some Arabs in Hebron. Or, maybe a little boy or girl from Yitzhar, who was trying to kill some Arabs somewhere in Samaria. Or, or or ... Can you imagine the headlines. I mean, after all, one of the pictures of the year, a few years ago, was a photograph of a Hebron child pulling off an Arab woman's headscarf. That was a major international crime which made blazing headlines. But, a 10 year old with a bomb, who was not only to be the killer, but also the target?! Why should anyone pick up the story? A 10 year old Arab with a bomb - that's everyday stuff. What's it worth? Only a couple of days ago 10 Israelis were killed in cold blood by two terrorists who managed to bypass the infamous 'wall' or 'fence' or call it whatever you wish - the magical barrier which would prevent any such infiltrations from Gaza into "Israel proper," in this case, the Ashdod port. That terror attack was billed as an "almost Mega-attack," due to the proximity of the terrorists to poisonous bromide tanks, which, upon explosion, could cause the deaths of thousands of people. But, here again, the terrorist detonated himself too fast, for one reason or another, and the "big tragedy" was averted. This time. But, according to most news broadcasters, commentators and everyone else, it will (G-d forbid) happen. It's just a question of time. The Spanish attacks will seem like child's play in comparison. In my opinion, mega-terror cannot be strictly measure by the number of people killed. Of course, numbers do mean a lot. But each and every individual person is just that, a person. And every loss is just that, a loss. To the families of victims, it is little consolation that their loved one was 'one of many.' When Mom or Dad, Brother or Sister, Son or Daughter is gone - they're gone and it makes no difference how many went with them. In my opinion, the attempted use of Abdallah Koran, an Arab 10 year old child, is Mega-terror. The vile, immoral, depraved use of a child to kill others, this is mega terror. Perhaps not in the quantitative sense, but certainly qualitatively. Only the brilliant alertness of a young border policewoman saved many lives - lives of Israelis and the life of little Abdullah. Otherwise Abdullah Koran would have been labeled, for the rest of eternity, 'the little Shahid' - the little martyr, who killed and died for his people, without his even knowing it, against his will. With blessings from Hebron. David Wilder is spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron (http://www.hebron.org.il). You can contribute funds to help the Community by going to http://www.hebron.org.il/contrib.htm. Or contact The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, hebronfund@aol.com, 718-677-6886. To Go To Top

THE STATE DEPARTMENT KEEPS DIALOGUING INTO THE WIND Posted by Morris J. Amitay, March 15, 2004.

The word circulating here in Washington is that Secretary of State Colin Powell already has "one foot out the door". His gradual disengagement from decision making at the State Department is not great surprise since it is widely assumed that this American icon will not be serving in a second Bush administration. Should "W" be re-elected in November, (despite his current low poll numbers which really mean nothing) this might create the opportunity to begin making much needed changes in the culture of our diplomatic establishment. While the watchwords of our State Department are "dialogue" and "engagement", by now it should be abundantly clear that there are certain rulers and regimes that no amount of speaking to can produce meaningful results. Cases in point abound - Khomenei, Arafat, Assad, and Kim-il-Jong readily come to mind. In too many instances the line between engagement and appeasement has become blurred. But for State Department officials and Foreign Services officers serving abroad, a primary goal invariably seems to be maintaining the status quo. You could say it takes one to know one! As a newly-minted Foreign Service officer in the 1960's, I was constantly reminded to not "rock the boat", to "keep a low profile", and always to show "proper punctilio" towards my superiors! But after three rapid promotions and three plum assignments in seven years, I called it quits. Besides wanting to put down roots for my growing family, I deeply resented having to get along, by going along with the prevalent culture. One particular episode is illustrative of the length to which our diplomats would go not to ruffle the feathers of a host government. It was 1967 in Verwoerd's apartheid South Africa when a much publicized visit to Cape Town of the U.S. aircraft carrier Franklin Roosevelt was scheduled. This was to come after years of avoiding showing public U.S. support to the regime. I was an Afrikaans-speaking political officer at our embassy. At the staff meeting in preparation for the event, the subject of shore leave for the ship's crew came up. The naval attache mentioned, almost casually, that there would be segregated shore leave for the American sailors - in keeping with local tradition. The ambassador, a veteran career appointee and a former Assistant Secretary of State, nodded approvingly. Obviously being more aware of the potential domestic ramifications of this arrangement in the U.S., I spoke up and inquired - "wouldn't segregating the black and white American sailors provoke a reaction back home?" The ambassador, in his most supercilious tone replied - "Mr. Amitay, I am sure the Navy is quite capable of handling this issue." Case closed - hardly! Predictably, when the word got out of the Navy's segregation plans, there was an uproar in the U.S. Congress. Sen. Hubert Humphrey led the charge - and all plans for shore leave were abruptly cancelled creating both unhappy sailors and a mini-crisis in US-South Africa relations. This same disregard for American values when dealing with autocratic regimes and protecting the rights of U.S. citizens can still be seen today. The State Department regularly sends its top lawyers to intervene in our courts against the claims U.S. victims of terrorism seeking redress from terrorist-sponsoring states. Whether it is shielding Saudi financing of terrorists or Iranian complicity in the murder of U.S. soldiers, State is there to protect the assets of the guilty nations. This is indicative of the State Department's trumping justice with diplomatic niceties, and how out of touch with our own country's values our diplomats have become. Admittedly, any bearer of bad news to a host government risks wearing out his, or (in Amb. April Glaspie's celebrated meeting with Saddam before the first Gulf War) her welcome at the presidential palace. But having ready access to a dictator or his minions should never be as important as having the guts to deliver a tough message, or in diplomatic parlance, holding a "frank" discussion. Unfortunately, the State Department's culture of moral relativism and resistance to change continues to permeate most of the denizens of Foggy Bottom. Until this changes, State will continue to undermine more muscular Administration policies towards tyrants and dictators. One can demonstrate understanding and sensitivity to local religions, customs and culture without becoming an apologist for the excesses and evils of the country in which you serve. Until adherence to our own values and democratic principles is reflected in the statements and actions of our diplomats, the State Department will not deliver the right message and continue to undermine a President who "doesn't do nuance." A current case in point is our relations with Iran. Deservedly included by the President in the "axis of evil", is it really credible to believe that we can talk the ruling mullahcracy in Tehran out of developing nuclear weapons or convince them to respect human rights? Here, a policy of "engagement" or "dialogue" with a regime openly bent on our eventual destruction is not only the height of folly, but deservedly earns us the contempt of our adversaries. The growing threat of Islamist terrorism and ensuing world disorder requires our diplomats to strive to be better than the classic definition of "gentlemen sent abroad to lie for their country". Instead, we need men and women who go abroad and are not afraid to tell the truth and reflect American values. Morrie Amitay is a former Executive Director of AIPAC and founder of the pro-Israel Washington PAC (www.washingtonpac.com). To Go To Top

THE HAGGADA OF THE JEWISH IDEA Posted by David Ha'ivri, March 16, 2004.

THE HAGGADA OF THE JEWISH IDEA Reviewed by Rochelle Caviness February 10, 2004 The Haggada of the Jewish Idea is a Pesach (Passover) Haggada that can be used not only at the Seder table, but also as a study text on both the teachings of the Pesach story and on the concept of the "Jewish Idea" as expounded upon by Rabbi Meir Kahane zt"l in his two-volume work, Ohr ha-Ra'ayon (The Jewish Idea). This Haggada includes an extensive commentary based upon Rabbi Kahane's teachings, which was written by his son, Binyamin Zev Kahane hy'd. The text of the Haggada, itself, is presented in Hebrew with an English translation on the facing page. The text is clear, dark, and well organized for use during the Pesach Seder. Instructions are provided, as needed, on how to conduct the seder. The commentaries, which are in English, are differentiated from the main text by being printed with a greyish background. Illustrations are scattered throughout the text, and a glossary, that includes biographical information about many of the luminaries mentioned, can be found at the end of the book. Rav Kahane's commentaries are eloquent and enthralling and he examines the Pesach story in exquisite detail. He not only explains the basic foundations of Judaism and the teachings inherent in the Pesach story, but he also elucidates his father's teaching about the "Jewish Idea" and the importance of every Jew in the galut (diaspora) returning to Israel - immediately. He examines the belief, held by many, that there is no halachic (religious law) compelling them to move to Israel, and the belief held by still others that the State of Israel can only come into existence after the arrival fo the Moshiach. Rav Kahane explains why both of these contentions are wrong, and why it is vital, as a means of hastening the Redemption, that every Jew must return to the Land of Israel. Throughout, Rav Kahane's commentaries are interwoven with excerpts from the Torah, Talmud, and other religious texts, as well as quotes from renowned scholars ranging from Rambam and Sifri to the Vilna Ga'on and Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook zt"l. The commentaries that accompany this Haggada emphasize the true meaning of the events surrounding the Exodus from Egypt and the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. The lessons that can be learned from this historic event are important, both in relationship to how we can incorporate the teachings of Pesach into our day-to-day lives and what it means in terms of the coming Redemption. Now is the time to order the English edition of Rabbi Binyamin Zev Kahane's. Price $23 including Postage and Handling. This Haggada can be ordered online at: www.kahanebooks.com Mail order address: HaMeir L'David P.O. Box 960121 143 Doughty Blvd. Inwood NY 11096 USA or HaMeir L'David P.O. Box 4005 Ariel 44837 Israel To Go To Top

PRESIDENT BUSH, STOP SYRIA! Posted by Mike Evans, March 15, 2004.

At least 10 people were killed and 20 wounded Sunday during a double suicide bombing at the Israeli port of Ashdod. The blast occurred as day workers were heading home at the end of their shift. Reports from those at the scene indicate that one of the Palestinian terrorists asked for water. When the water was handed to him, he blew himself up. Hamas and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (part of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction) claimed joint responsibility for the attack. The bombers, aged 17 and 18, were from Gaza's Jabalya refugee camp. Thousands joined marches in the Gaza Strip to celebrate the attack. Syria has been involved in state-supported terrorism against Israel and American troops in Iraq, according to a U. S. State Department official. Is it time for the Bush administration to implement the Syrian Accountability Act set forth in May 2003? Sign our letter to President Bush asking him to Stop Syria! The purpose of that document is: To halt Syrian support for terrorism, end its occupation of Lebanon, stop its development of weapons of mass destruction, cease its illegal importation of Iraqi oil, and hold Syria accountable for its role in the Middle East, and for other purposes. In spite of the fact that Israel has totally complied with UN Resolution 425 (total withdrawal of all troops from Lebanon) Syria permits attacks on civilian targets in Israel. The Israeli-Lebanese border and much of southern Lebanon is under the control of Hezobollah, which continues to attack Israeli positions and allows Iranian Revolutionary Guards and other militant groups to operate freely in the area, destabilizing the entire region. Syria has once again been charged with blatantly sponsoring terrorism and failing to secure the border between Syria and Iraq, and is, in fact, allowing anti-American mercenaries and terrorists to travel through Syria. The Bush administration is being called upon to impose, at the very least, economic and diplomatic penalties - including barring US businesses from investing in Syria, restricting travel by Syrian diplomats, and banning exports of US products to Syria (except for food and medicine.) In November, Congress sent legislation to President Bush asking him to impose the sanctions. The legislation calls for certification that Syria is not supporting terrorist groups, has withdrawn from Lebanon, has secured the border with Iraq, and is not engaged in developing weapons of mass destruction. There is mounting evidence that at least some of Saddam Hussein's missing weapons of mass destruction are in Syria, smuggled there by the Iraqi dictator for safekeeping before the beginning of the war. Part of the stockpile the coalition forces have so far failed to find in Iraq was probably destroyed; part is likely still hidden. But a massively lethal amount of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons is stored alongside Syria's own stockpiles of WMDs. A Syrian journalist who recently defected to France, said in a letter to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that chemical and biological weapons were smuggled from Iraq into Syria before the war began, when Saddam realized he would be attacked by the US. He claimed to know the three sites where Iraq's WMDs are kept. Sign the letter to President Bush today asking him to impose the necessary sanctions on Syria to halt the infiltration of terrorists from Syria into Iraq. The lives of American service men and women are at stake. A democratic government in Iraq is at stake. The ability to halt future attacks inside the borders of Israel is at stake. Mike Evans heads the Jerusalem Prayer Team, a group whose members include some 300 prominent Christian leaders. Their website address is http://www.jerusalemprayerteam.org To Go To Top

SPAIN'S ELECTIONS SHOW WHY RADICAL ISLAM CAN WIN Posted by IsrAlert, March 15, 2004.

Isralert's source for this item: Isralert contributing subscriber Posey McMillan, Texas This article appeared in the Asia Times Online Front Page (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FC16Aa01.html). Radical Islam has scored its first unambiguous victory against the West, and it should have been visible at a long distance (Why radical Islam might defeat the West, July 8, 2003). Winston Churchill's quip that the appeaser hopes the crocodile will eat him last does not apply when the prospective victim expects to be in another world before the crocodile comes around. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist Party crushed Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party in Spanish elections on Sunday. US commentators expressed consternation that Spanish voters would reject America's ally in the Iraq war after al-Qaeda's apparent act of retaliation last Thursday, March 11. Spain's death-knell sounded long before the train bombings in Madrid, however. No country in the world is more determined to disappear. The country's fertility rate of 1.12 live births per female is the lowest in the world. As recently as 1975, at the death of strongman Francisco Franco, the fertility rate stood at 3 births per female in 1976. By 2050 Spain will have lost a quarter of its population. Germany and Italy, whose fertility rates fell earlier than Spain's, will lose a third, according to economist Anthony Scholefield. Half a millennium after the Reconquista, when Spanish Catholicism expelled the country's Muslims and Jews, Spain has no choice but to ask the Muslims to return and take possession of its land by stages. Every Spanish worker in 2050 will support one pensioner, which is to say that the pension system will be bankrupt. According to one academic study, 5 million additional immmigrants must be working in Spain in 2050 to save the pension system, out of a projected population of 37 million - and that assumes an immediate recovery in the fertility rate to 1.5. At this point, it hardly matters what future fertility rate Spanish demographers might project. The demographic catastrophe of the past 30 years puts the pension system on a crash course toward bankruptcy, unless Spain attracts an army of immigrants. Except for a trickle of immigrants from Latin America, North Africa provides most of Spain's immigrants at present. Two hundred thousand Muslims now reside in Spain, and they have built 100 new mosques in the past 10 years. Unless Spain were, most improbably, to attempt a recolonization from Latin America, it cannot do without more Muslims. Socialist voters may not have worked out the arithmetic; Jose Zapatero's supporter in the street simply does not want to be burdened with America's distant wars, especially if they draw fire at home. It all amounts to the same thing. Countries too lazy to produce their next generation will not fight. Who will lay down his life for future generations when the future generations simply will not be there? Like other former strongholds of Catholicism, Spain has made an abrupt and terrible shift away from traditional family life toward egregious hedonism. Alone among Europe's great powers, Spain nipped Protestantism in the bud, avoiding the terrible religious wars that ravaged France during the 16th century, and killed off perhaps half the German population during the 17th century. By expelling its Jews, its Inquisition cut off access to the Hebrew language and Bible translation. By burning several thousand heretics in public, it offered a terrible object lesson to prospective dissenters. Not until 1936, when Catholic generals rose to overthrow the communist-tinged republic, did Spain finally have its religious war, with half a million deaths, of which one-quarter were from executions. The victorious General Francisco Franco kept Spain firmly in the Catholic fold until his death in 1975, after which Catholicism shriveled in Spain like a vampire exposed to the light of day. Along with church attendance, the birthrate fell from one of the highest to one of the lowest in the world. That already has been the fate of other Catholic strongholds, such as Canada's province of Quebec. There the fertility rate dropped from 4.95 children per woman in 1961 to 1.57 in 1996. Old Europe's people, religion, culture and fighting mettle have imploded together. The Europeans are not so much defeatist as resigned to extinction. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

THE SPANISH LESSON, 03-04 Posted by Marco Delmar, March 15, 2004.

Leadership With all due respect to Mr. Aznar's firm stand on Iraq, his way of 'doing things' was not at all firm. One would think that a firm right hand vs Jihad is bound to fail? The Spaniards' Blood is shed, the Spaniards Cry, the world Condemns, the Pro -Iraq-Operation are Ousted at election Who's 'happy' besides the Jihadi Islamo Arab Qaeda and 'moderate' sympathizers? Ultra liberals couldn't be happier, the organizers of the so-called 'Anti War' movement quickly dried off the fresh warm blood of the massacred innocents and are busy clapping about the "fruits" of "victory." 'I told you so...,' they'll shout. Between the masses and the 'anti War' organizers Of course it is easier to convince people to 'not go to any war,' than otherwise, but this is not the only way to convince those not involved in current affairs - the majority of people that 'just want to live their lives'. What people see It is what people see in their leaders behavior. It's 'How' they do things that ultimately determines the public opinion. In other words; It is not only What you do, but How you do it, how you do that important Right thing. And Spain? Mr. Aznar, being on the right side, was on the wrong side of doing things, right from the start. We saw his OPEN, or failed-to-hide show of fear from Al Qeada's political success following their atrocity. What did Spaniards see? They saw an evasive leader that is afraid, very afraid. Would he have come on like President Bush, and stand chin up, with full force, full volume, and speak with both cheeks on 'not giving in', would he have come out as a morale booster rather than a political geek, things would be different, very different. The Underlying Psychology Why is he afraid? What's his motive for caving in, which Spaniards saw in his stubbornness in refusing to blame it on Al Qaeda? Is he afraid of a shift more towards the 'anti-war-warriors' camp? If so - thought the Spaniards - it means there's a big fear of this possibility, because you Mr. Aznar are crumbling. It is YOU who's broadcasting to us via your vibes that many have that 'leftism' in them waiting to get out, just about to explode. Even more, it means there's a cowardly fear on your part of Jihadi Terrorists as a whole, you our leader! What People Follow People follow what they see as firmness, not just what you stand for, but how you back it up. They follow foundation; they follow what they see as a base. That's exactly why John Kerry is success - most people see a leader, not in what he says, but in the assurance and resilience with which he backs it up. Listen up liberals, especially those of you that are against Jihad, but go about it the wrong way, you should at least agree with me that the outcome in Spain is disastrous. It's Jihad's Victory over freedom and Democracy. So hold your horses and your trumpets! Most importantly, quit seeing these "successes" as 'evidence' that you are right. Don't tell us that this is 'what people want', for you are dead wrong on both accounts. The translation of this Spanish lesson is available in all languages! To Go To Top

DON'T TAKE ORDERS, TAKE CHARGE Posted by Ted Belman, March 15, 2004.

In exchange for the disengagement, Israel is seeking to get a compensation package from the US whereby the US agrees to the annexation of the major settlement blocks including Ariel, the US guarantees there will be no right of return and underwrites the cost of resettlement. Not only are the Americans saying "no" to the package, they are making demands. According to Israel National News, the US has set five conditions for the Gaza retreat, 1) The plan must not replace the US Road Map plan; 2) The US will not bear the costs of evacuating and resettling the nearly 8,000 residents; 3) The expelled residents must not be relocated in Judea and Samaria; 4) The evacuation must be not only of civilians but of all military residents; and 5) Israel must not annex any areas of Judea and Samaria. The Americans have also asked that the withdrawal be carried out only after the US elections almost eight months from now. They also concluded that it is important to the Bush Administration that the planned withdrawal not appear as a surrender to terrorism. Furthermore the US is demanding that the fence stay close to the armistice lines and that it not circle the airport preferring to expose Israelis to terrorism rather than Palestinians to inconvenience. To make matters worse, Prime Minister Sharon says he won't disengage without America's blessing and for that matter he won't hardly do anything without its blessing. Where does leave Israel? Nowhere. America's position couldn't be clearer. It is protecting the Palestinians at Israel's expense. America believes that it can better calm the Middle East if it forces Israel back to the '67 armistice lines rather than forces the Palestinians to accept major territorial adjustments. America is entitled to try to protect its interests but so is Israel. Israel accepted the Roadmap subject to fourteen conditions that the US agreed to give consideration to. These included 1. The absolute cessation of terror and incitement before anything is required of Israel. 2. "The future settlement will be reached through agreement and direct negotiations between the two parties, in accordance with the vision outlined by President Bush in his 24 June address." 3. "The removal of references other than 242 and 338 (1397, the Saudi Initiative and the Arab Initiative adopted in Beirut). A settlement based upon the Roadmap will be an autonomous settlement that derives its validity there from. The only possible reference should be to Resolutions 242 and 338, and then only as an outline for the conduct of future negotiations on a permanent settlement." These redlines are being ignored by both Israel and the US. The Roadmap itself is very clear on what the Palestinians and the Arab countries must do in the first stage and nobody is demanding full compliance of the Roadmap let alone the conditions. In theory, all issues are to be freely negotiated, yet Israel is constantly told what it can and cannot do. Res 242 requires agreement on secure borders, yet the world wants to impose Holocaust borders on Israel and ignores the requirement that they be secure. We hear about American and Arab demands but never about Israeli demands. We hear from Bush and Sharon that they will never jeopardize Israel's security but we never hear from either about Israel's right to the land or Jerusalem or any other right. We hear from both of them that the Roadmap (see http://www.un.org/media/main/roadmap122002.html) is still the way to go. I urge you to reread this roadmap if you can stomach it. It is extremely oppressive to Israel. Nothing has been done pursuant to the plan by any Arab country or by the Palestinians to stop the violence. In effect, all Arabs have rejected it by their actions and even by their words. Nevertheless, Bush blindly enshrines it as the way to go and Sharon dutifully agrees. Israel has no choice but to get off the Road and end the peace process. Everyone agrees that Israel has no partner in the peace process so in effect there is no peace process. It is time for unilateral moves by Israel not only in relation to the Palestinians but also in relation to the US. Israel cannot retreat from Gaza without an agreement with someone who will enforce security. But whom can Israel trust to prevent arms build up through smuggling via tunnels or ships or the manufacture of weapons, other than itself. So Israel should forget about the pipe dream of bettering its position by retreating from Gaza. There is no upside. Even if an acceptable security arrangement is negotiated, Israel should not withdraw from all of Gaza. It should keep certain settlements in Gaza in order to set a precedent for the rest of Yesha. It is not enough for Bush to stress that the evacuation shouldn't appear as "a surrender to terrorism", he should insist that terror cost the perpetrator. What better way then for Israel to keep some of the settlements. When Sharon argued that it is not worth keeping some of Gaza because it would provoke the Arabs to further violence just as keeping Shaaba farm did, I was horrified. If that's not appeasement, what is? Israel should formerly declare an end to the Roadmap. In deference to Bush it can wait until after the elections. At such time as the Palestinians get their act together and form a responsible government, negotiations can start without preconditions. Israel doesn't need a roadmap to negotiate a deal. Nor does it need Oslo or Resolution 242. Nor does it need the involvement of the Quartet including the US, especially if the US doesn't want Israel to do a "land grab" or if it doesn't want to underwrite the cost of the evacuation. Just think, no evacuation, no cost. If the Palestinians should choose instead, to continue in the path of violence, Israel should invite them "to bring it on" and deal with them accordingly. Meanwhile the Middle East is not standing still. American pressure is mounting on Syria and Saudi Arabia to change and Iraq is being stabilized. This will continue regardless of what is happening in Israel. Israel should not allow the payment for such developments to be Israeli blood or land. As for the fence, Israel should build it where it wants to build it, not where America dictates. If America wants to go so far as to allow a mandatory resolution to be passed by the UN, Israel can always negotiate a deal afterwards. But what are chances of the US government actually doing so? Nil. As for fighting terror, forget about world opinion and do what is necessary. Hold the Palestinian people collectively responsible for what the PA permits. There are no innocent Palestinians. They have a government that they elected and continue to support. They also support terrorism to achieve their ends. They must be held accountable and I mean the people and not just the leaders. Now that Israel has regained the upper hand she should press her advantage rather then to make a stupid deal as she did when she had the advantage prior to Oslo. It is not too late to take control of the situation. Don't take orders. Take charge. Ted Belman is a major contributor to the Israpundit website. This article is archived at http://israpundit.com/archives/005270.html#more To Go To Top

CHIRAC'S TURNABOUT: A Welcome Bright Spot Posted by Samson Krupnick, March 15, 2004.

Responding to a series of ("Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded Wahhabi) Hamas attacks and as a preventive measure, seeking out mass murderer ("terrorist") cells, the Israel Defense Forces (I.D.F.) engaged a strong well equipped ("Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded Wahhabi) Hamas mass murder force in the Gaza area. For some four hours the I.D.F. faced very fierce opposition with scores of anti-tank rockets, light weapons fire together with grenades and bombs. Some 15 Arab mass murderers were killed and 65 were wounded. The dead included a number of ("Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded Wahhabi) Hamas leaders, including Abu Shella, who was involved in the attack murdering members of a U.S. diplomatic convoy last October. ("Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded Wahhabi) Hamas and ("Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded Wahhabi) Islamic Jihad are now affiliated together with the international ("Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded Wahhabi) mass murder organization al Qaeda, which cooperates with (Iranian funded Shiite) Hizbollah. To fire for four hours requires a large quantity of arms and ammunition. The I.D.F. had located and destroyed 44 tunnels to Egypt. Iranian supplies through Syria flow constantly. Financing is apparently no problem. The U.N. Security Council had passed a resolution authorizing sanctions against Syria, but to date no sanctions have been applied. Against this background, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, annoyed by an Israeli police inquiry, declared a "sensational" decision to exercise a unilateral withdrawal from 17 Gaza Strip "settlements" (Jewish pioneering kibbutzim, moshavim and towns), some of which were overrun by Egypt in the War of Independence in 1948, and later recovered. Some 10,000 Jews, including 500 new families, live in Gaza and do not want to be "relocated" to Judea and Samaria ("West Bank") or elsewhere. Logically, in view of the intense Arab mass murder attacks emanating from Gaza, it is vital to have an alert presence in the area, instead of turning it over to ("Saudi" Arabian petro-dollar profit funded Wahhabi) Hamas, or to the "Palestine" "Authority". Jibril Rajoub, The Egyptian from Alexandria's (current alias "Yasser Arafat", previous alias "Abdul Rauf el Codbi el Husseini") assistant, is ready to take over Gaza as a deposit towards more "Arab land" to come. From all sources there was a loud cry of opposition to turn over any Israeli land. Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opposed any unilateral withdrawal, unless there is worthwhile reciprocity. I.D.F. O.C. Intelligence Major General Aharon Ze'evi opposed the withdrawal strongly, insisting that, "The evacuation of the Gaza Strip would be considered as a victory for terrorist groups and encourage more attacks in the West Bank". Residents of the Gaza Strip accompanied by many other Jews protested in Jerusalem at the home of the Prime Minister. Some 250 rabbis from all of Israel, including former Chief Rabbis Avraham Shapira and Mordechai Eliyahu, gathered at the Jerusalem Renaissance Hotel and signed a petition to prevent withdrawal. Rabbi Shapira declared, "Historical reality proved that any one who hurt the Land of Israel, lost both his seat and his rule". The rabbis headed a huge crowd "of all of Israel" assembled at the Kotel (Western Wall) for a mass prayer against the decree. A delegation from Washington is coming to discuss the matter. All of this maneuvering is worthless as long as arch mass murderer The Egyptian from Alexandria ("Arafat") sits in Ramallah in control of his four mass murder organizations. We will continue to battle mass murder in every way possible. This is part of the War on Mass Murder ("Terror") worldwide. On the occasion of completing the first year of the Sharon administration, the opposition has the right to question the Prime Minister. Instead of questioning, opposition leader Shimon Peres accused the Prime Minister of failing to achieve peace as promised. This chutzpa (arrogance) from a villain - Peres - who is responsible for the Oslo disaster and for bringing The Egyptian from Alexandria ("Arafat") illegally into power, is unbearable. Peres should be prosecuted by Attorney General Menahem Mazuz. The atmosphere here in Israel is on a rather sad level due to many hardships involved in an ongoing war. We pray for Heavenly assistance to overcome these difficulties. As if in answer to our prayers we enjoyed a very welcome bright spot. Our President Moshe Katsav was invited by French President Jacques Chirac for a four day state visit to France. President Katsav was accompanied by staff and aides as well as business executives. President Chirac was extremely friendly. He vowed that France shall always support Israel and its right of existence in peace and security. He insisted that any Jew-hatred ("anti-Semitism") in France is a blot of dishonor and would be dealt with constantly. President Katsav explained, "We cannot achieve peace no matter how ardently we desire it. We cannot negotiate with extremists who talk about destroying Israel". President Chirac expressed sympathy "for the heavy and cruel price inflicted by the terrorists". President Chirac hosted an elaborate state dinner. The menu was strictly kosher. President Katsav, the first Israeli President to visit France in 16 years, met with the various ministers and business leaders on economic projects. This royal reception followed visits by Chinese President Ju Initao and English Queen Elizabeth. President Katsav was honored by the French Jews. Over 4,000 crowded into the Palais des Congress for a unity rally. The President received an honorary doctorate in philosophy from the Sorbonne University in Paris in an elaborate ceremony. University President Jean Robert Pitte stated, "No Israeli child should have to live in the uncertainty about security that currently exists". This turnabout of France may be of great service to Israel's position in Europe and worldwide. Samuel Krupnick is Board Member and Treasurer, Root & Branch Association, Ltd.; Israel Chairman, Jerusalem Embassy Initiative, Root & Branch Association, Ltd.; Yakir Yerushaliyim (Jerusalem Prize) Award Winner, 2001; Board Chairman, Encyclopedia Talmudica; Former Board Chairman, Shaare Zedek Hospital; and Columnist, National Jewish Post and Opinion (www.jewishpostopinion.com). To Go To Top

THE WRONG WAY TO CONDUCT WAR IN IRAQ Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 15, 2004.

The US failed to distinguish between its friends and enemies in Iraq. Instead, it supposes, as the US had in Vietnam, that its humanitarian and economic aid would reduce terrorism. (The terrorists were organized by totalitarians. Totalitaians do not care that humanitarian and economic aid would be good for their people.) The US treated the P.A. and S Arabia as friends and helped some of them against our friend, Israel. Those Arabs and Syria continued to support terrorism against us. The US does not realize there are evil ideologies and regimes. It pretends still that there is a significant difference to us between the PLO and Hamas. US forces are involved in Colombia (whose anti-drug war was re-named a war on terrorism), Yemen, Liberia, and the Philippines, without being able to conclude the war on terrorism. (S. Arabia and Iran and Muslim immigrants to the West largely finance terrorism; the West let it.) We cannot win in Iraq not only because we let S. Arabia and others keep the flow of terrorists coming. We didn't take steps to kill off the enemy in Iraq. (We also let them loot the armories.) We left intact the couple of thousand cadres who carried out the anti-American policies. The US did not know who was attacking it. Those cadres had enemies in Iraq, who did know, and who wanted to wipe them out. W failed to empower the enemies of the Baathists, lest they conduct massacres. Hence we disarmed all Iraqis we could, friends as well as foes. As a result, Iraqis who were pro-American might be assassinated, but Iraqis who were anti-American had nothing to fear. Pres. Bush squanders our resources abroad and much non-productively on the Homeland Security Dept.. He is delegating it too much discretionary power. The government doesn't trust Americans. It disarmed ordinary passengers, although armed passengers have foiled armed hijackers before. It forbids passengers from disobeying hijackers. It built up SWAT teams that can't tell friend from foe, so they keep people from running over to help wounded people and they push around everyone as if suspects. When there are terrorist attacks or anthrax scares, the government hypothesizes that it is from right-wing organizations, rather than make the politically incorrect guess than it might be from Islamist ones. We are spending billions of dollars without getting safer (Angelo M. Codevilla, Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2003, p.45). Those are the type of sensible sounding arguments that require debate, lest they oversimplify the situation. The war cannot be won until politicians and others focus on the enemy ideology rather than on terrorism, which merely is its manifestation (Daniel Pipes, NY sun, 3/9, p.7). Mr. Pipes correctly holds that terrorism is a tactic, a sort of weapon. So long as there are societies believing in terrorism, they will generate people who use that tactic. Think of terrorism as a tapeworm whose head, S. Arabia, Iran, and the totalitarian Islamist ideology grow a long tail of terrorists. One may cut off the tail, but so long as the head gets fed, it grows a tail. Pipes ought not stop at expanding the identification of our enemy from terrorists to those who uphold their Islamist ideology. Non-Islamist N. Korea is a menace, too, because of its aggressive totalitarianism that believes that the ends justify the means. It, too, is part of the evil axis. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

AFTER ASHDOD BOMBING, MINISTERS STILL SIT ON THE FENCE Posted by Bryna Berch, March 15, 2004.

The peacenikers blandly ignore reality. The Likud ministers say the right things but don't do anything to stop Sharon's crazy plan to walk away from Gaza, leaving it to the Arabs. And Sharon? As the last paragraph of these news items from today's Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com) indicates, Sharon talks one way and acts exactly the opposite. Weird. SHINUI MK AFTER GUSH KATIF VISIT: NO ALTERNATIVE Shinui MK Ehud Ratzabi spoke with Arutz-7's Emanuel Shilo about his visit with his party colleague Reshef Chen to Jewish Gaza yesterday. "We visited Kfar Darom, Shirat HaYam, and other communities - it was the first time I was ever there. For me, it was like seeing the beginning of Zionism as I imagined it: the farmers, the people who get up and do things... the beautiful homes of N'vei Dekalim - a simply wondrous thing. I saw people with vision, and despite the rumors of disengagement, they continue to invest their time and resources, even though one can see the uncertainty... The visit didn't change my mind, however: I still support, for lack of choice, the unilateral withdrawal. We have no partner on the other side [the Arabs], and so we must take action. I do demand that the government make a decision as quickly as possible, because it's not fair to leave the residents hanging this way." Arutz-7:  "In light of yesterday's attack, which originated in Gaza despite the fence that surrounds the whole area, and which could have caused hundreds of deaths - are you not concerned with what is liable to happen in Gaza if the IDF leaves, with the terrorists doing whatever they want and manufacturing as many weapons as they please?" Ratzabi:  "No, the opposite is true: Even though we're saying that it will be unilateral, it will not stand on its own. There are [Israeli] contacts with Egypt and the U.S., and we will take the better people [in the PA] who can take control of the area - people like Muhammed Dahlan -" A-7:  "You want to rely on Dahlan? We haven't exactly had great experience with him fighting Hamas, or even the Al Aqsa Brigades..." Ratzabi:  "I believe in reality. If Dahlan wants to take control, as he says - not for peace but because he wants to be in charge - then he won't want to let Hamas disturb him." A-7:  "This is the same reasoning we heard when they wanted to sell us Oslo - that Arafat wants to rule and that he'll fight Hamas, etc. The fact is that they don't want civil war, so why do you think that Dahlan will act any differently?" Ratzabi:  "Because he wants to rule." A-7:  "Arafat also wanted to rule." Ratzabi:  "OK, he wants... don't forget that they come from different generations; Dahlan is younger, more ambitious, and possibly more educated. What other alternative do we have? I don't see any other alternative. We can't continue sitting there 'on the sword.' The Jewish residents are comfortable there because they're used to it, but we also have lots of army there, and children who might be in danger... I see no reason to stay there. Judea and Samaria might be a different story - it's the Land of our Fathers, and 1,000 other reasons. But not this area... A-7:  "Doesn't the State of Israel have obligations to the residents it sent to live there over the years?" Ratzabi:  "It certainly does, and I wanted to say this at the beginning: It must make a decision quickly, and must find them alternative housing that is worthy - not just compensation or money, but entire communities - and that's why I don't see this happening so quickly. A-7:  "It won't be so easy for 50- and 60-year-olds to start a new community at this stage in their lives." Ratzabi:  "They have no choice. What, should we just leave them there? The reality is stronger than everything." A-7:  "So from your standpoint, retreat is the answer." Ratzabi:  "I don't see it as retreat, but as evacuation." A-7:  "From your standpoint, can we also solve in this manner the problem of Arab towns that are located inconveniently?" Ratzabi:  "If you're talking about transfer of population - let's not talk about this, I don't see this happening, if not by agreement... YESHA COUNCIL TO LIKUD MINISTERS: WAKE UP ALREADY! In the wake of the murderous terrorist attack in Ashdod yesterday (ten killed; see next story), the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha Council) has expressed a sharp protest against the Likud Party ministers still straddling the fence regarding Sharon's unilateral withdrawal plan. "Every child in N'vei Dekalim has already learned the plan by heart and has formed an opinion," reads the statement, "while the ministers seem to have learning difficulties... It's all in the newspapers: Sharon has decided to retreat under fire from Gaza, plans to uproot dozens of communities in Yesha and expel thousands of residents from their homes - all with nothing at all in return." The Council calls upon the Likud ministers to come out openly against the plan: "The Chief of Staff and the head of the GSS have found ways to show their opposition to the plan... The only way to get Sharon to give up this idea is if everything is stated openly - which will prevent an acute governmental crisis and a bitter split within the Likud. The time has come to end the 'silence of the sheep.' Don't let Weisglass continue dragging Sharon into the abyss. For G-d's sake, say something!" The ministers in question - some of whom have expressed guarded opposition to the plan - include: Ezra, Livnat, Livni, Katz, Naveh, Netanyahu, Shalom, and Sheetrit. Sharon, Mofaz, and Olmert are outspokenly in favor of the withdrawal/expulsion. The phone and fax numbers of all MKs appear at "http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/telephones_eng.asp". OTHER REACTIONS: Minister Uzi Landau (Likud): "The more talk we hear of a unilateral retreat and other Israeli concessions, the more the terrorists are motivated to respond with larger attacks. We must respond with strength against terrorism. During wartime, there must be no talk of evacuation and retreat. Only after a victory can there be talk of possible compromise." Likud MK Ehud Yatom said that the brazenness of the terrorists in planning to attack such a strategic target as the Ashdod port "is a result of the tailwind the withdrawal plan has given to the sails of terrorism. Talk of withdrawal must be stopped, and the all-out war against terrorism must be enhanced." Tourism Minister Benny Elon said that the Ashdod attack "proves that talk of uprooting communities encourages terrorism. Whoever thinks that he can run away from Gaza, will be pursued by Gaza into the heart of Israel. The Government of Israel must keep its promise to the public to uproot terrorism in Gaza and everywhere else." The extreme left-wing Peace Now organization feels differently: "There are no magical solutions to terrorism. The only way to get out of the mud is by a diplomatic arrangement... and uprooting the settlements, and using the armed forces that are freed up to protect Israel's new borders." LIKUD BILL TO DEMAND KNESSET MAJORITY FOR YESHA EVACUATIONS The Likud Knesset faction continues to show opposition to Prime Minister Sharon's plans to destroy Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Thanks to MKs of the Likud and the National Union, the Knesset's House Committee approved yesterday the speeding up of a pro-Yesha bill. The law in question, proposed by the Likud's Yesha representative MK Yechiel Chazan, stipulates that the destruction of a Jewish community may not be carried out unless an absolute majority of MKs - 61 - approves it. In general, a bill must "cool off" for 45 days before being tabled for a Knesset vote, but the House Committee decision of yesterday waived that requirement for this bill. For this reason, the bill will be brought for a Knesset vote as early as this Wednesday. Though the law will make life difficult for his father, the Prime Minister, committee member MK Omri Sharon (Likud) abstained in the vote. "The purpose of the bill," MK Chazan said, "is to curb the government, such that any Cabinet decision to evacuate Jewish communities must also receive Knesset approval. We are talking about decisions that touch on the very existence of our Jewish state." Chazan, who heads the Yesha lobby in the Knesset, said that the forum would "fight bitterly against the Prime Minister's disengagement plan, because it stands in the face of Israel's continued secure existence." EX-GSS OFFICIAL AGAINST WITHDRAWAL Menachem Landau, a former senior GSS official, told Arutz-7 today, "I am personally against the unilateral withdrawal plan, and especially its unilateral nature. You can't just leave a territory and abandon it to no one; that's a pure recipe for disaster. They will make weapons, and terrorism will increase, and we will certainly have to pay a high price. Just look at what happened in the areas from which we withdrew in the years of Oslo - when we returned in Operation Defensive Shield, we found giant arsenals of weapons." Asked if Sharon and Mofaz don't realize this, Landau said, "I have no idea what's going on in their heads, but I am sure they are aware of these dangers." Shlomo Ben-Ami - who served as Foreign Minister under Ehud Barak and who is known for his extreme left-wing views - also agrees that to leave Gaza with no one in charge is unthinkable: "A Hamas state will arise that will declare victory and form a Taliban-like society... What has to be done is to get a multi-national force to come in and take over..." PRIME MINISTER SHARON AT YESTERDAY'S CABINET MEETING "This terror attack [in Madrid] teaches us something, which we in Israel have known for many years: that there is no compromise with terror and there can be no situation which allows for such compromise. We must fight terror without restraint; this is Israel's position and I hope that the world is waking up and understands that we must all act together to fight terror." To Go To Top

FINALLY! THE NATIONAL NEWS PRINTS THE NEWS! Posted by Arlene Peck, March 15, 2004.

Wow!! The Los Angeles Times amazingly printed an article in their paper about the Palestinians and all about how "Law and Order breaks down in Nablus and amazingly enough, they didn't show the usual file photos of little Palestinians urchins throwing stones at the big bad Israeli tanks. In fact, for once they covered a story that the mayor of Nablus was quoted about how the once-thriving Palestinian business hub has been turned into a gun-crazy den of lawlessness. Gee! What a surprise! Gaza? Mubarak is already disavowing any connection and who could blame him? I was in El Arish during the Camp David settlement and Sadat wouldn't take take it back when everything was up for grabs. Even then he was calling Gaza a den of snakes and Israel was offering prime real estate and oil wells? According to this bastion of Arab "Political correctness - the Los Angeles Times " Gangs rule the streets of Nablus, the West Bank's largest city, shooting rivals, strong arming merchants and carrying out beatings and kidnappings. Residents have no faith in the toothless police force, which shows little stomach for stopping the disorder. The courts are a joke." Hmm, sounds as though the Palestinian security authority is once again turning guns against its own people, as it has so often in the past. I was violently against the arming of these dangerous men when Shimon Peres and the rest of those foolish men supplied the arms and gave Arafat and his thugs an army in the first place. Interesting, a year ago I met with Dr. Daniel Pipes () and he told me that we were winning the war. I didn't believe him then, but I do now. The Palestinian Authority has lost control. The next step is Civil War between different terrorists factions for the spoils of power. As the internal struggles increase in power throughout the West Bank and Gaza, it's only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose and the Palestinians realize that their violence is counterproductive. That evil old man, Arafat may be fading away but his damage has been done. When I traveled into Gaza years ago I saw what a cesspool it was then but, nothing to what it has become. I traveled throughout the maze of humanity in the Casbah of the old city section and thought then it should razed and the terrorist who filled it should be moved out. Otherwise, the future was clear. There are too many people with nothing to do but look for new ways to kill. Thugs walk through the shops, steal what they want and order the merchants to close during the funerals of their fellow terrorists. There is no one to stop them. Order is a thing of the past. Fatah is thriving, and it's obvious that a pull-out would leave terrorists groups like Hamas, Hizullah and Arafat's favorite, Al Aqusa martyr' brigade in charge Yet, with all of this, Sharon seems to be plunging ahead listening to dignitaries who have never had the good will of Israel in their sights. According to the L.A.Times, when speaking of the U.S. officials who are working with Sharon, "They want to ensure that Israel coordinates any moves with the Palestinians Authority." And, I feel ever so much safer now that Yasser Arafat was quoted as saying, "Any withdrawal should result from face-to-face talks under the peace plan, which has stalled in recent months." He continued, "The Palestinian Authority will maintain law and order in areas that Israel vacates." Gawd! Don't you feel ever so much better about Israel's security? I find it especially ironic in light of the most recent bombing in Ashdod where Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, militants with links to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah party, claimed joint responsibility for the attack. I notice though, the evening news is getting a little more strident concerning the plans of the Islamic fundamentalist. The realization is beginning to sink in that the end of Europe as we know it, seems to be on the horizon. It has been caused by the fundamental transformation in the political and economic institutions of the European Union and might have something to do with the feelings that are beginning to surface. France has been totally taken over and the character of their country will be probably be gone within the next decade. Couldn't have happened to nicer people but, are these the ones the United States or Israel should be listening to? Our public doesn't seem to be so concerned with the "plight of the poor Palestinians" after watching the carnage left over from commuter trains in Spain and the likes which has been done by their savage cousins,who think killing are the answers for everything. People finally, are just beginning to realize to realize that they are not immune. The Islamic Fundamentalist plan is in place and the Arab promise to come after the Sunday "infidentals" is already in progress. There is an element of world anger beginning to voice their concern and support and there are many 'good Christians' out there who have joined the fight. We are becoming united in our grief and anger. The time is coming for Israel to make its move. As usual, it has been easy for the world to be benevolent when it was only the Jews who were being slaughtered. People had a tendency to be far more politically correct. However, the new reality of terrorism has finally hit and hit hard. The millions in Spain who marched in a blinding rainstorm knew that they too now had their "Ground Zero" because of the same savage Islamic fundamentalist. It's time to do something. I'll wager that their open door policies and political correct mantras might be slamming shut. Although their recent vote caving into the Moslem friendly terrorist and voting the government which supported them into power makes me wonder if their march wasn't to protest the USA and it's policies instead. Not too many, I believe, are taking our President Bush too seriously when he rambles on about what a peaceful culture Israel's neighbors are. Especially since you can count on a handful out of the 1.3 billion they represent, who have come out to dispute these evil goals in their dysfunctional culture. It is becoming more obvious; I believe that to win the war on terror drastic measures must be taken. We Americans are idiots if we, in the United States continue to keep our borders open and be the welcoming beacon of light for these forces of dark. The European Union tried that and they are in serious trouble. Our President and those in the EU are 'concerned' with the security fence? They continue to push for the "Roadmap to Hell"? Who cares? Israel must do what it has to do. Although it's been at great cost to its citizens, Israel is winning the war of public opinion by continuing to systematically target the terrorists wherever they find them. Our country ought to be doing more of that instead of pandering to the oil interest that supports these terrorists. Building fences and closing our borders is something that the United States should emulate instead of criticizing the strong response that Israel must take. Transfer is a word that must be considered! It's not about land. Never has been. The Palestinians have a state. It's called Jordan. Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess. She can be reached at: bestredhead@earthlink.net and www.arlenepeck.com To Go To Top

MANKIND AGAINST ISLAMIC TERROR Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 15, 2004.

President George W. Bush, both by intent and happenstance may have very well saved the world by giving her a fighting chance against global terror - in real time. After 9/11 America was awakened to the fact that she was no longer invulnerable to terror. We discovered that we have been methodically penetrated by Muslim enemies both from outside and within. Bush concluded that we were in a war. The terrorists had brought the terror war to our shores - dramatically. Granted, it was a different kind of war but a vicious war nonetheless. America invaded Afghanistan, the country from which the Saudi, Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda headquartered, broke the choke-hold of the fanatical Taliban from the throat of the Afghan people and disrupted Bin Laden's terror organization. Then President Bush sent another contingent of American forces into Iraq to dethrone the tyrant Saddam Hussein and this too was accomplished. America experienced painful losses but nothing compare to dozens of predictable 9/11s in the future had Bush not ignore the U.N., the E.U., and the conglomerate of Arab nations. In searching for the person, Osama bin Laden who set 9/11 in motion, President Bush stated plainly that he, in the name of America, had declared war against Global Terrorism. At the time he made that commitment, he based his plan on Intelligence from the CIA and a number of other Intel Agencies in some friendly countries. Regrettably, we had been warned before previous to 9/11 and yet, we ignored those warnings. What was eventually discovered or rather acknowledged was that the matrix of Terror and their organization(s) was spread far wider and much deeper that our Intel understood or at least cared to acknowledge. Although I started penning this overview several weeks before the Madrid atrocity, it coincides with an established Global Terror network. The Al Qaeda claimed it attacked Spain because it supported the war and freeing the people of Iraq but, there is more. Al Qaeda had been nesting in Spain for several years before 9/11 - establishing contacts, safe houses, accumulating explosives. There is little doubt Al Qaeda attempted to co-opt ETA, a Basque Separation group but a smaller terror operation. This is the M.O. (Modus Operandi) across all of Europe where Al Qaeda cross-links with local Terrorists and eventually absorbs them all - or at the very least, establishes working relations. However, the Terror attacks in Spain, killing at least 200 commuters, injuring 1500 holds a deeper meaning - which the Europeans have yet to grasp. According to Koranic law, any land that was once - ever - occupied by Muslims or their armies must be re-occupied as it is considered Holy Muslim Land. Spain had been conquered by Islam in 711 CE - as had half of France up to 732 CE. The march of conquering Muslims was stopped by the Battle at Tour (or Portier), France in 732 CE. (If Charles Martel had lost, then the Muslims could have easily conquered Europe.) France, like Spain, is therefore high on the agenda for Islamic conquest, regardless of its modest participation in supporting the war against Saddam. Spain was an important European center for Al Qaeda before 9/11. Spain, along with Germany were both important staging areas for the 9/11 hijackers. The email received by Al-Quds al-Arabi (Jerusalem in Arabic) claimed that the "Al Qaeda Brigade had penetrated one of the pillars of the crusade alliance, Spain, and carried out "Operation Death Trains". This is part of settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader, and America's ally in its war against Islam", the claim said. Please remember that 500,000 of Spain's 42 million people are Muslims. Neighboring France has an estimated 5 million Muslims. (1) And please note that the word: crusader is a code-word for Christian and the earlier Crusaders. In writing about events in the Middle East, I had frequently connected the dots tying a host of terrorist organizations into a close operational industry. I was correct but, underestimated the massive terrorist industry and their operational connections with each other and their penetration into government institutions all over the world. BUSH KICKED OVER THE ANT-HILL OF WORLD TERROR President Bush had kicked over a giant ant-hill of mostly underground terrorists and they began to scurry about either in attack mode or burrowing deeper underground. Terrorists, like Ants or locusts, can breed underground and out of sight for years. They build nests and send sentries and queens to other spots to breed and spread further. The world terrorists were doing this but, they surfaced in only a few areas in their earlier stages of development. Israel was and is one of those hot spots. The Israelis knew that the terrorists had not only attacked them but had operational bases in Europe, America, Africa - in brief - Globally. Their message of alert was received but not really heard or believed. Also ignored were the nations who sponsored their Terrorist proxies - such as Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, and, of course, Iraq. President Bush kicked them into prematurely revealing themselves after 9/11/01. Fortunately, these terrorist bases and underground networks had not reached the stage where they were fully operational. Bush, whether by accident or intent, pushed them into exposing their presence before they were sufficiently operational to threaten the world with WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction). Even here, American Intel fell short - as Pakistan, North Korea, China and Russia shipped components and pre-cursor or technology for these area-wide weapons. 9/11 proved to be more than a mistake for the terrorist organizations because it "awakened a sleeping giant" (as a Japanese Naval commander once foretold after Pearl Harbor). This sleeping and reluctant giant thought herself invulnerable to the kind of attacks which countries like Israel were experiencing on a daily basis. The reluctance to face the threat of terror was America's Achilles heel which flowed from her financial connection to Arab nations who either supplied oil or their alliance with other terrorist Arab nations and factions. Some pundits now and then (in 1991) say we should not have attacked Saddam when he invaded Kuwait to re-coup his debt of approximately $70-80 Billion from his 8 year war with Iran. The full story may never be told of Sec. of State Jim Baker's instructions to American Ambassador April Glaspie to tell Saddam "we have no interest in your border disputes" [with Kuwait]. This was the 'green light' for Saddam to invade Kuwait and loot Kuwait's banks and leaders for gold, money and jewels (with the aid of Arab Palestinians in Kuwait leading Saddam's forces to this loot). Today others - such as Senator Kerry, are attacking Bush because we engaged in another war with the same Saddam who, given time, would have been a nuclear threat, in addition to his chemical and biological weapons. We are experiencing the threat of a nuclear-ized North Korea because President Clinton though he could buy North Korea off with aid. The North Koreans broke every agreement and lied with impunity - much the same as Iran has done and continues to do as they buy time to complete their nuclear-ization. (I wonder if we can trust Libya') Numerous American Presidents and the U.S. State Department knew but closed their eyes to Pakistan's nuclear development. President Bush may very well have saved the world from a fully operational, global terrorist organization. We see the effects of their presence in violent acts around the world. Here again, while their bombings and assassinations are brutally damaging, they are relatively sporadic as compared to what they could have accomplished with a few more years of preparation. For instance, Israel - where the terror is a daily story, has approximately 50 terror alerts daily and is able to thwart most of them. But, Israel is a small country in size and population. There Terror is very up close and personal. Everyone knows some family member or friend who has been affected by Terror. If you multiply the casualties in Israel by 55, you will realized the proportionate ratio if that attack had hit America. For example, 10 Israelis were murdered, 30 injured in today's double homicide bombing at the Ashdod port. Multiplied by 55, that would be the equivalent of 550 Americans murdered, plus 1650 injured. How would we in America feel? Yet, despite mandated restraint, Israel through frequency of incursion has, up to now, kept the Terrorists from being fully operational. But, that may change abruptly when Sharon accommodates Bush by withdrawing from Gaza, giving Egypt power once more on her border, and then he will be forced to withdraw from Judea and Samaria to the "Auschwitz borders". Regrettably, Bush and his spokespersons do not have the common touch which allows them to speak to the people in a simple convincing way. Sen. Kerry convincingly tells the crowds that 'Bush blundered' into a difficult war. What Kerry calls a blunder should have happened long before 9/11 which made us pay a very painful price for a wake-up call. While Arab oil is, no doubt, important and American Muslim votes are desirable, the simple fact is that the Terrorist Arab nations and their terrorist proxies were there to uncover IF we had only looked. But, greed, politics and cash flow got in the way and successfully closed many eyes. In spite of the stumbling, Bush interrupted a full maturation of the terrorists and their organizations globally and their supporters in the Arab nations and Europe. Bush, through the U.S. Patriot Act also disrupted Muslim sleeper cells in America along with their fund-raising organizations. Another regret is that we restrained Israel from fully wiping out Terrorism in their neighborhood because it wasn't 'politically correct' for our Arab 'friends' - given American politics and the upcoming elections. Moreover, Israel could have brought some sense out of the insanity from Arafat's 'intifada' (or Rosh Hashanah 2001 war) IF she had been allowed to do what American troops were encouraged to do when they went into Iraq on a full war footing. America fought to win but isn't and never has allowed Israel to do so. Hopefully, President Bush will re-set his ethical and moral compass and ignore U.S. State Department anti-Israel, pro-Arab planning. Regardless of what happens next, Pesident Bush exposed the nests of Terror, saving us all from having to face a fully operational global terrorist network. Hopefully, the Bush staff will learn how to state the case in language "we, the people" will understand. As it is, we can see terrorists blowing up everything they can reach. In Iraq, Indonesia, the Philippines, America, Spain - with more expected as warned by Al Qaeda (which is still only one of the global terrorist organizations). On Thursday March 11th, in Spain, Al Qaeda claimed it blew up 4 commuter trains in Madrid with at least 200 dead and 1500 injured so far. This was on 3/11 - a direct play on the anniversary of 9/11. Muslims often play their terrorist acts on anniversaries they consider significant. While most of the world's terrorism is committed by Muslims, the cross linkage to all other terrorist groups is blatantly plain. By linking to other terrorist groups, each becomes a 'force multiplier' which is what Bush correctly calls Global Terror. All of this was in its last stages of arming and planning, activities which were ignored by Europe, America and all other nations. Bush kicked open this ant-hill of Terror and now we need the 'Orkin Man' (the Pest Exterminator) to eliminate what has been breeding underground for 30 plus years. America cannot accomplish this task alone. Europe has exhibited little political will and may, once again, close its eyes to the Muslim Terror that is close upon it. As they hoped to appease Hitler, now again they strive to appease Terrorist nations and Muslim Terrorist proxies for the promise of oil and the hope that Terror will strike elsewhere. Since I am not a personal confidant to President George W. Bush, I will rely upon those of you who do have access to forward this advisory to him directly. The message is: "Don't Stop Now!" Teach the rest of the world to take the Terrorists seriously and to press the war into their backyards, not ours or yours." Especially, encourage President Bush to please allow Israel to fully attack the terrorists who kill her citizens. Don't tell her not to finish them off. Peace will come sooner if Israel is freed from America's restraints and orders to give up more land to a people who have shown their commitment to take over ALL of Israel with ALL of Jerusalem as their capital. ### "Spain a Center for al-Qaida activity" by John Leicester, AP http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2004/03/12/pf-379926.html Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm) To Go To Top

JUST LIKE GAZA Posted by Steven Plaut, March 15, 2004.

In recent months the slogan of the Left in Israel has been "Just Like Gaza". The Left spent most of the past two years demanding that Israel solve all its problems of terrorism by building a security fence around the West Bank "just like the one around Gaza". The fence, assured us the Left, would keep the terrorists inside and away from the Jews. Then when Ariel Sharon actually decided to build the fence and follow the advice of the Left, the Left had an inversion and reversal of opinion and came out AGAINST the Fence. That is because Sharon was not building it exactly along the lines of the pre-1967 Green Line. The Left's position was that if only Israel returns to the Green Line, there will be peace and prosperity and - after all - when has the Israeli Left ever been wrong about anything.... The Left's new position is that only if Israel builds its fence exactly along the pre-1967 Green Line around Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), "just like Gaza", only THEN will the savages stop the terrorism. But if the fence is even a meter INSIDE what the Left calls "Palestinian lands", there will be endless slaughter and barbarism. The Security Fence around Gaza has long been the Left's Mojo, its "good luck charm", the model upon which leftist "thinking" (I use that term very loosely here) in Israel is based. Just copy the fine example of Gaza! Ariel Sharon and his apologists have partially adopted the Left's approach, and are proposing an ethnic cleansing of the Jews of Gaza to appease the Palestinian nazis, and they presume things in Gaza will then be tranquil and that the Mediterranean will turn into lemonade. Even Yuval Steinetz, the Likud's token literate parliamentarian and intellectual, a guy I once thought might be an exception to the rule of herd stupidity in the Likud, endorses Sharon's boondoggle, arguing that relinquishing Gaza will take all the pressure off of Israel concerning the West Bank. One does not know whether to laugh or cry at this. When did Israeli concessions ever take the heat off Israel to make more concessions? When were Israeli concessions seen as something other than proofs of weakness, demonstrations of the fact that the Jews are on the run? But the "Just Like Gaza" school ran into a slight difficulty yesterday. Two terrorists left Gaza, security fence and all, made it to the main Israeli seaport of Ashdod, got inside the port area somehow with high explosives strapped on, tried to blow up some chemical tanks - which if successful would have made the Madrid events this week look like a picnic, then blew themselves up near some Israeli civilians, murdering 10 and wounding dozens of others. The security fence around Gaza did not stop the murderers. Sharon's goodwill gestures and offer to drive out the Jews from the Gaza Strip did not stop the murderers (and probably just encouraged them to murder). The Sharon policy of allowing lots of day workers from the West Bank and Gaza to enter Israel for day jobs has once again proved how mega-stupid is the Israeli government. The Israeli policy of playing games with the PLO nazis instead of annihilating them has once again been proved a spectacular failure. The two murderers were from the Fat'h, the terrorist organization under the direct personal command and control of Arafat himself, although the atrocity was also coordinated with the Hamas. So if the Left - which at this stage includes Ariel Sharon - has its way, and if the West Bank is also placed behind a nice security fence just like Gaza, then Ashdod and Madrid are merely the tip of the iceberg and indicators of things to come. Just like Gaza. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

ISRAEL MUST DISENFRANCHISE THE ARABS FROM VOTING Posted by Ruth and Nadia Matar, March 15, 2004.

The suicide bombings in Ashdod, point up the futility of abandoning Gaza to the Arabs. Arab terror will continue, and be supported by the majority of Arabs, until the Jews themselves take firm necessary measures. Prime Minister Sharon has no answer to the Jewish People, or to anyone else, for a solution to the Arab problem. He simply ignores it, hoping that it will somehow go away. But it won't! There are hard and difficult decisions that seem to conflict with democratic principles, but nevertheless have to be made. The very survival of the Jewish People is at stake. Arafat and Arab propaganda, and Palestinian Authority education, have so poisoned the minds of Arabs and Arab children, that for many generations it will be impossible for them to divorce themselves from the hatred against Jews that was taught to them. The whole Bush and U.S. State Department concept that there will be a Palestinian State within Biblical Israel, living side by side peacefully with a Jewish State, is pure fantasy, and totally unrealistic. Both the Palestinian Authority, and the PLO, are so constituted that it is impossible to achieve a peaceful relationship with the Jewish State of Israel. Just as the L-rd hardened the heart of Pharaoh in the Bible, so he has created within the Arab mentality an unwillingness by certain Arabs to live in peaceful coexistence with the Jewish People, in a Jewish State The decisive measures the Jews of Israel must realistically take are as follows: 1. The Arabs must be disenfranchised from voting. Arabs can be permitted to live in all parts of Israel, so long as they are prepared to live in peace with the Jewish population. As a condition for their living in Israel, each Arab would be required to sign an affidavit consenting to his disenfranchisement from voting, and renouncing violence in any form. In that affidavit he would recognize, as well, the right of the Jewish People to have their own Jewish State. 2. All of the Biblical Land of Israel, east of the Jordan River, should be incorporated into the State of Israel. Thus, the State of Israel would be from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and from the Gulf of Eilat to its border with Lebanon. The cardinal principle that must be recognized is that this Holy Land was Promised to the Jewish People by the L-rd of the Universe, and not to anyone else. All the details that follow from this Promise, can and will be worked out by the creative Jewish mind. The sooner reality is dealt with however, less Jewish lives will be lost to Arab terror. Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

A SMALL TOWN IN HOLLAND Posted by Linda Olmert, March 15, 2004.

"...there's no possible argument in favor of terror - and everything is justified in stopping it." "No one in Israel pretends the security fence is a perfect guarantee against terrorism. To paraphrase Churchill on democracy, the fence is the worst form of protection - except for those others that have already been tried." This was written by Arnold Roth and was originally posted at the Balkan-Jews newsgroup. Court proceedings fascinate me. Nearly forty years ago as a teenager on holidays in an Australian country town, I sat spellbound through the first day of a murder trial, the first I had ever seen. I walked out convinced of the need to become a lawyer. From my home in Jerusalem, I traveled to the Netherlands last week to take part in a hearing of a different kind. The two decades I spent practicing law left me considerably less awestruck this time by what I saw. Israel is building a long and expensive security fence. The UN General Assembly voted to ask the International Court of Justice in The Hague to consider the legal implications of "illegal Israeli actions". I wondered, when I first read these words in the court papers, how some of those UN delegates managed to vote without giggling. Malki, my daughter, was murdered in a Palestinian Arab terror attack in August 2001. She was fifteen. Since then, my wife Frimet and I have grown more and more involved in writing and speaking publicly. I joined a group of Israelis who, like us, are experiencing murder by terrorism (the use of the present-continuous tense is appropriate) and went to The Hague, not to participate in the ICJ hearings but to speak to the media gathered there. Even before our El Al flight rolls to its gate on the Amsterdam tarmac, the ritual pulling of Israeli mobile phones from pockets is in process. Everyone on board knows within seconds of still more Egged bus passengers incinerated and shrapnelled to death in Jerusalem while we have been crossing the Mediterranean. Our children are safe and well, thank heavens, but eight passengers on that bus will never reach any destination again. A teenage girl who lived on our street until her family moved to one of the newer Jerusalem neighborhoods is among the injured. For Israelis, it's always close. There is no time to unpack or wash up. We go straight to the communications center set up for the week by one of the Dutch pro- Israel organizations, located in the centre of The Hague a few minutes walk from the elaborate structure that will host the next day's hearing. A quick huddle of the eighteen members of our group as we prepare to get off the bus, and I'm appointed the group spokesperson to tell the press why we're here. We walk into the hall - and encounter a show-stopper. A vast montage of photographic portraits has been fixed to the wall. The faces of 927 Israelis murdered in the thirty-some months of this ghastly Arafat war are arranged in no apparent sequence, a tremendous number of them teenagers, children and infants. Every one of us climbs onto the dais and begins searching for a child, a wife, a brother, sister, boyfriend. For some of our group, this takes a little longer since they need to locate every member of what had once been a living, loving family. Avi finds his two little sons and their mother, killed at point-blank range by a machine-gun- toting `activist' who broke into their kibbutz home. Rachel takes longer; her husband's picture is at one end of the display; those of her only two sons are at the other. Meir needs to find his father, his mother, his two sisters and his baby brother. This takes some minutes. Someone adds eight fresh blank squares to the display. None of us needs to hear the explanation. A few minutes later, the ambassador, taking a cell phone call, looks shaken as he announces to us that his commercial attache's brother-in-law was killed on that Egged bus. If you set aside what binds us - the murder of people we loved - our group is diverse. Most are Jewish, but we include Druze and Christians. We speak French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Arabic, Italian, Russian and English. We include managers, professionals, shop- keepers, students, unemployed and a retired senior IDF officer (he happens to be a Druze). I don't know about our politics because we don't discuss it among ourselves. We rarely speak about the security fence or our ideas for how peace can happen. Basically, we're your idiosyncratic Israeli cross-section, in The Hague to speak about terrorism and little else. We are united around the idea that no matter how you try to justify it, there's no possible argument in favor of terror - and everything is justified in stopping it. The media are present in large numbers over the next two days. Most of us have multiple opportunities to stand in front of cameras and reporters and say what we came to say. The questions we're asked by BBC, New York Times, Associated Press, Al-Jazeera, tend to be superficial and repetitive. It's hard to keep track of how many. I lost count after my twenty-fifth interview. All the members of our delegation give testimony to a silent, overcrowded hall - an `alternative hearing' of three hours, the answer of Israel's friends to the proceedings across the way in the Peace Palace. The demands of being on the front line of the media's attention meant we didn't come to cry in public. But there were intense and difficult private moments when the tears forced their way through. I shared breakfast with a woman whose only child, a beautiful teenager slightly older than my Malki, was blown apart in a discotheque. Even with her non-native English, her quiet dignity and understated manner made her a more eloquent and powerful speaker than the politicians elbowing their way onto Dutch television and into the papers. While there's a consensus today among Israelis that the security fence is, on balance, a necessary thing, criticisms are not hard to find. The internal debate in Israel, as on most issues, is a vigorous one. I found it constructive to mention to journalists that Israeli society at all its levels is sensitive to the problems created by the new construction. The ongoing flexibility and accommodation shown by Israel's official arms, including its military and the courts, are not well known or understood outside of Israel. They gain Israel very few points in the battle for public opinion. This hurts. Israelis, it seems, are again being held to a standard that's neither fair nor logical. In the week before The Hague hearings, I was interviewed twice by television journalists at the security fence. I was taken to Jerusalem's Abu Dis neighborhood close to where a wailing Palestinian Arab woman had been widely photographed a few days before, arms reaching skywards, despair evident in her body language. Standing there myself, I could see that the wall comes to a complete stop some meters away. It's not finished. It locks no one in. You can walk around it. The locations of gates and cross-overs are still being determined; the path has been moved and will be moved again. The Israeli courts are busy hearing objections and appeals. We have a legal system that provides real recourse for Palestinians and Israelis. It's not easy to learn these things from media reports and published images. No one in Israel pretends the security fence is a perfect guarantee against terrorism. To paraphrase Churchill on democracy, the fence is the worst form of protection - except for those others that have already been tried. These ICJ proceedings will produce neither an answer to terror nor an end to the deaths of children. No solution to the conflict between Israel and its neighbors is going to be found in The Hague. But for the first time in a long while, the voices of the Israeli victims are being heard. To Go To Top

END THE SPANISH CONQUEST Posted by the Jewish Community of Hebron, March 15, 2004.

This was written by Noam Arnon. For many years the Spanish people did not understand the symbolism of the name "Cordova," the name of hundreds of Arab schools. Amongst them is an Arab girl's school which is, for some reason, opposite Beit Hadassah in Hebron. The Spanish also believed that generous funding of the PLO and the PA would buy them quiet. It seems that they were mistaken. The history of the Arabs in Spain is ancient: It continued for almost 800 years. It's now clear that it has not yet concluded. Spain was the banner of the massive Moslem conquests, which commenced in the Arab peninsula with the goal of conquering the Christian world. Within the vast Islamic empire, Cordova was the crown jewel. The largest and most beautiful Spanish mosque was built there in the 10th century and was the glory of the Islamic faith. But it should be known that the Christians, for some reason, did not accept the Spanish conquest, and despite the hundreds of years that passed, they decided to fight against the Arabs and expel them. For hundreds of years there was constant warfare between the Moslems and Christians, but only in the 15th century did the Christians regain control of Spain. This was called the "Reconquest." (By the way, this has not occurred in Eretz Yisrael where the Moslems are still rulers over large parts of the land. It will be interesting to see when the Jews will succeed in their own "Reconquest," expelling the Arab conquerors and returning the land back to its rightful Jewish owners.) The huge mosque in Cordova was transformed into a beautiful church and the Christians thought that the story was finished. However, they were mistaken. The Arabs did not accept their expulsion from Spain. They still dreamt of Cordova. Hundreds of institutions and schools in the Arab world were named after the capital of the Muslim Spain, in the hope that one day they would see the half crescent flying above the Iberian Peninsula. An example, a constant reminder is the name given to the Arab girl's school in Hebron, opposite Beit Hadassah, which, every morning, provocatively blasts the PA anthem over powerful loudspeakers. The European observers in Hebron escort, each morning, girls to this school, protecting them from the "evil Jews," while totally and intentionally ignoring the name of the school and its implications. The Spanish government accomplished great things: they thought to buy the Arab heart with money and funneled millions of dollars to the PLO and the PA. Much of this money was invested in building projects in Hebron, allowing Arab enemy forces to surround Jewish neighborhoods in the city. The PA took over and now controls abandoned ruins, providing homes to previously jailed terrorists and other "good Arabs," allowing them to form a ring around the Jewish community, threatening to strangle it. Whoever walks through the alleyways of the newly constructed Hebron Kasba will find many buildings with signs at the entrance: "Built with assistance of the Spanish government." In this way the Spanish government literally rebuilt abandoned ruins of Hebron. Not, of course, because they love the Arabs. Rather, this was a scheme the Spanish used, attempting to bribe the Arab terror organizations, hoping that the Arabs would forget the unforgettable: that Spain was part of the Islamic empire, and therefore the Spanish must be expelled. But, there are things which cannot be bought for money. As you know, where there is conquest, there is terror. We witnessed the results last week. Therefore, if this cycle of bloodshed is to finally be concluded, reducing motivation for further terror attacks, the Spanish conquest must be brought to an end. Spain must be returned to its Arab masters within the framework of a workable agreement, as soon as possible, and then, finally, Cordova will be redeemed. And then we will all say, "Amen"! The website address of the Jewish Community of Hebron is http://www.hebron.org.il. You can contribute funds to help the Community by going to http://www.hebron.org.il/contrib.htm. Or contact The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, hebronfund@aol.com, 718-677-6886. To Go To Top

IT SHOULD ONLY TAKE 3 YEARS Posted by David Frankfurter, March 15, 2004.

The Lebanese Daily Star reports that Richard Cook, who has been promoted from his Gaza posting to be the new Director of UNRWA in Lebanon, has declared that UNRWA is not reducing its services - it just appears to be the case because its budget is being stretched over an increasing refugee population. His boss, Peter Hansen, has gone on record saying that the UNRWA budget is being reduced and squeezed by a donor unwillingness to 'step up to the plate'. There is some speculation that this lack of willingness to assist UNRWA is because of lack of controls over its funds, or because of the hate agenda that is taught in UNRWA schools and teachers' colleges, or the illegal and immoral use of civilian UNRWA refugee camps as bases for militant terrorist activity against Israel - in contravention of its own charter and the Geneva conventions. It really doesn't matter. The best reason for lack of enthusiasm is that UNRWA is a self-confessed failure. Just consider what the new UNRWA Lebanon Director said. The number of refugees are growing. While every other refugee welfare agency's goal is to integrate refugees into society so that within a generation they are no longer refugees, but active vibrant members of the host society, UNRWA has actively supported the Arab strategy of maintaining Palestinian Arabs as refugees in order to exacerbate the world's problems. One is reminded of the work of the UNRRA. "The What?" you rightly ask. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. This was the organisation set up after the Second World War to solve the (largely Jewish) refugee problem created in Europe and the Far East by those times. And why have you not heard of it? Because it did its job successfully in a short six years - and was then disbanded in a glow of success. One wonders if this is the fear of UNRWA's employees. Maybe they need to be very careful not to do their jobs - so that they get to keep them. It's a tactic that has worked pretty well for the last 50 years. The issue comes into focus when considering the current debate as to who will be allowed to return to Iraq. Will the Iraqi people allow Jews who were chased out return? Iraqi (and indeed all) Jews seem almost indifferent. The debate is no more than an intellectual curiosity. Seems strange for a people who were chased out after building a home and a culture after thousands of years living in Iraq, no? Not when you think about it. About the same number of Jews were chased penniless out of Arab countries as the number of Palestinian Arabs who fled modern Israel to make way for the invading Arab armies, who promised to push the Jews into the sea. The Jewish refugees have made their homes around the world - largely in Israel - and have become productive, settled citizens. The Palestinian Arabs have remained refugees. It can be argued that UNRWA is not to blame - its the Arab countries that refused to absorb them. One wonders. Here Jordan is an interesting counter-point. Jordan gave full citizenship to Palestinians who crossed into her territory. What is interesting is a 1997 report by the Norwegian Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies. They compared the situation of the 13% of Palestinian Arabs in Jordan who were being catered for by UNRWA to the 87% who were not. The Palestinian Arabs being looked after by UNRWA lived in abject poverty, while the others lived at a similar economic level to their fellow Jordanian citizens. One can only wonder about the return on investment on taxpayers money which was channeled to UNRWA. Would it have been better given directly to the Jordanian government for a fixed period, to help them complete the process for the other 13%? Next June, the Swiss Government and UNRWA are hosting a conference to help restore its image in the international community and raise funds. What is interesting is that one of its activities will be a live hook-up with an UNRWA school in Jordan, to illustrate the work that UNRWA does and the need. If I was a donor, I would wonder what UNRWA was doing running a school for Jordanian citizens at all - especially when the Jordanian government seems to do it so much better. Of course, the $300m per year of international aid money spent by UNRWA is only a drop in the bucket of what the World Bank described as "the largest amount of money per capita in the history of foreign aid." One can only wonder at the world's willingness to invest more taxpayer's money, without a concrete plan to integrate the Palestinian Arab refugees into their host countries. After all, this is what UNRWA was expected to do. After the UNRRA success from 1943 - 1949, It seemed logical that UNRWA, dealing with such a numerical smaller problem, was set up with a three year mandate. Of course, Cook of UNRWA in Lebanon sees it differently: "So as far as UNRWA is concerned we have a mandate, it's a mandate that is renewed on a regular basis every three years and we have no reason to believe it won't continue to be renewed in the present circumstances." David Frankfurter sends "Letters from Israel" emails to subscribers. Contact him at David.Frankfurter@iname.com To Go To Top

TERRORISTS ATTACK IN SPAIN AND ISRAEL Posted by Leo Rennert, March 15, 2004.

This was written as a Letter To The Editor, the Washington Post. Terrorists hit Madrid's rail system and the Israeli port of Ashdod. In both instances, their aim is to kill as many innocent civilians as possible in pursuit of a political agenda. In the case of Spain, where Al Qaeda is a prime suspect, the terrorists want to eliminate all Western presence in the Middle East and eventually reconquer southern Spain for Islam. In Ashdod, their objective is to eliminate Israel entirely. Yet, while the Post accurately sprinkles its Madrid reports with repeated references to "terrorists" and "terrorism," such terms are nowhere to be found in its coverage of the attacks in Ashdod. Instead, Palestinian terrorists are transmuted into "bombers" - a milder euphemism. "Bombers" may be an improvement over the paper's discredited "militants" label. Nevertheless, one still waits for the day when the Post will weigh all manifestations of terrorism on the same scale. To Go To Top

LET US NOT BEHAVE LIKE EUROPEANS Posted by Steven Plaut, March 14, 2004.

For the past few years the EU has been financing generously the activities of the PLO, including its overseas PR public relations activities. It has also pumped huge amounts into the Israeli treasonous Left, the radicals working for the destruction of their own country. Let us NOT behave like the Europeans. Let us NOT now pump money into the terrorist groups who have targeted Madrid and the EU. Let us not pay for their ads and publicity campaigns. Let us NOT issue statements endorsing the goals of the bombers and "understanding" their grievances. Let us NOT refer to the bombers as activists and militants. Let us NOT send money to the treasonous extremist leftists organizations in the EU who will cheer the bombings. Let us NOT seek sanctions and boycotts against Spain. Let us NOT seek to have Spain indicted in the Hague. Let us NOT grant the ETA observer status in the UN. Let us NOT issue demands that al-Qaida and the government of Spain conduct negotiations. Let us NOT finance a mission by Spanish leftists to Geneva where they will meet with al-Qaida. Let us NOT denounce Spaniardism as a form of racism. Let us NOT indict the Prime Minister of Spain in Brussels as a war criminal. Let us NOT denounce the illegal Spanish "occupations". Let us NOT refer to the Spanish residents of Seville and Granada and Malaga as "settlers". Let us NOT represent treasonous Spanish leftists as representative of their country and invite them to appear with al-Qaida terrorists at symposiums to create political balance. Let us NOT behave like Europeans. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

SPAIN'S ELECTIONS: GOOD NEWS FOR OSAMA; BAD NEWS FOR U.S.A Posted by Leo Rennert, March 14, 2004.

The victory of Spain's opposition Socialist Party 72 hours after the bombings in Madrid is a major triumph for Al Qaeda because it will be interpreted by Osama & Co. as clear evidence that European politicians who side with the U.S. can be dethroned by well-timed, large-scale terrorist attacks. It turns out that the millions of Spaniards who took to the streets on Friday did so more to show solidarity with the victims and less so with to demonstrate Churchillian firmness against terrorists and their "evil" patrons. Osama had warned Spain that it would be on his hit list. When it appeared that his crowd had a hand in the Madrid carnage, Spanish voters raised the white flag. Unlike the outgoing government which stood foursquare with the U.S. in the war against Saddam Hussein and wouldn't blink, the Socialist opposition said before the election that it would remove Spanish troops serving in Iraq this summer unless the U.N. in the meantime authorized their presence. Fat chance of that happening. The victory of the Socialists will strengthen the hand of France and Germany (one can almost hear champagne corks popping at the Quai d'Orsay) They will feel vindicated in their campaign to distance Europe from the U.S. It will have a chilling effect on "new Europe" leaders like Berlusconi in Italy and the Polish Government who now are bound to feel greater pressures from their constituents. To say nothing of Tony Blair, who can prepare himself for an avalanche of we-told-you-so blasts from the British "peace" camp. There will be arguments on both sides of the Atlantic that Spanish voters did not desert the war on terrorism, but simply resigned from George Bush's adventurism. But that won't wash. Saddam and Osama may or may not have been active partners before 9/11, but when the U.S.-coalition moved against Saddam, Al Qaeda rushed to his rescue and widened it terror war against the West to target anyone who dared take on the tyrant of Baghdad. For sure, Chirac and Schroeder will profess their continued commitment to fighting terror - but on their terms, not on Bush's. So expect a great clamor from Paris and Bonn that the war on terror now must be more nuanced, must put greater emphasis on diplomatic efforts, and less on carrying a big stick. A big dividend for the nuke-seeking ayatollahs in Iran. Europe has just taken another big step away from Washington. Perceptions are 90 percent of the game and the election returns in Spain also are bound to bring comfort to Arab rulers who have paid largely lip service as partners in the war against terror but really don't want to disturb the status quo, including turning a blind eye to terrorist threats. In turn, this should cheer folks in Ramallah but certainly not in Jerusalem. A U.S. ally with less leverage on the world stage is not in Israel's interest. Any post-mostem of the Spanish election must take into account major bungling by the outgoing government after Thursday's bombings. Spanish authorities gave the opposition an opening once they rushed to judgment that it was ETA's doing. In turn, this allowed the Socialists to cry foul - that the government was not telling all it knew or was not pursuing all possible leads or was afraid that voters might turn against it if it turned out that Islamic radicals had exacted vengeance for Spain's alliance with the U.S. in Iraq. Once some scattered clues popped up pointing away from ETA and toward Al Qaeda, the Socialists switched from mourning the dead to furious we-told-you-so attacks against the government, which seemed politically paralyzed. But the bottom line remains: After trailing in the polls a week ago, the Socialists were handed a big victory by the bombings. The lights should burn late tonight in the White House West Wing. To Go To Top

THE ATTACKS IN SPAIN Posted by Sergio HaDaR Tezza, March 14, 2004.

As leaders of the free world, I think it is important to point out to you that the Spanish cycle of violence is being caused because: 1. Spain is historically an Arab-ruled land; and 2. It is currently illegally occupied by non-Muslims. As such, although we are sorry about the loss of life, both sides must be made to exercise restraint. There must be a just solution in which the historic wrongs are righted and Spain, as the stronger party, must be prepared to make major concessions in the cause of peace. To Go To Top

PERSPECTIVES Posted by Judy Lash Balint, March 14, 2004.

After being away for a couple of weeks, you pay attention to subtle changes that would have escaped notice if you had experienced them in the day to day routine. Simple things assault the senses, like the blooming of Israel's extraordinary crop of spring wildflowers that hadn't yet emerged when I left two weeks ago, and disturbing things such as the wilting wreaths and worn-looking, blue metal memorial candle holders piled up at the site of the #14 bus bomb across the road from my gas station. Someone has pasted up pictures of the eight smiling people whose lives abruptly ended on that bus three weeks ago, and I relive the memory of seeing their corpses laid out in a row on stretchers, about to be covered with white plastic body bags. As the day wears on, I go about various errands in the city and catch up with friends who uniformly have one thing on their mind - Arik Sharon's unilateral withdrawal plans. The speculation and analysis runs the gamut, but it's just after the 5 p.m news that yet again, our attention is diverted by another homicide bomb attack. This time it's not a busload of commuting senior citizens and high school kids that's the target of two killers, but the supposedly secure, impenetrable port of Ashdod, just south of Tel Aviv. Ten more dead Jews, and another miracle that prevents the flammable liquids and gases at the port from being ignited. But, unlike in Madrid, there will be no million people out in the streets of Ashdod or Jerusalem tonight. Israelis have grown accustomed to the rising death toll and the all too familiar routine of the terror attack aftermath. The dreary acknowledgement that demonstrations no longer appear to make any impact on Israel's leaders is another deterrent. Instead, in Jerusalem, social and cultural events go on as usual. The opportunity to meet and listen to a panoply of Jewish intellectual and cultural figures, without paying huge entrance fees, battling subways or spending hours on a highway is part of what makes living in Jerusalem fulfilling. Most evenings there are lectures or classes given by any number of leading contemporary Jewish thinkers. It's author Aharon Appelfeld who's addressing an English-speaking audience tonight, three hours after the Ashdod tragedy. No one mentions it. Appelfeld, 72, author of forty books, is a quietly compelling speaker. His talk does not have a title, and while he holds a sheaf of papers in his hand, he doesn't refer once to his notes as he recounts the astonishing story of his early life. Now bald with a remnant of white hair and thick, rimless glasses, Appelfeld takes us back to his idyllic and assimilated early childhood in Czernowitz. The only child of cultured, wealthy parents, Appelfeld reminisces about the largely Jewish university town, that was then part of Romania. (Today it belongs to Ukraine.) "But we never mingled with Jews... we never used the word 'Jew,' " he says. All that changed in 1940 when Nazis occupied the region and along with their Romanian collaborators, rampaged from house to house murdering as many Jews as possible. Appelfeld's mother and grandmother were included, and soon, the eight year old and his father were driven from their spacious home into a room in the ghetto they shared with twenty others. The inevitable ghetto liquidation took place, and father and son joined one of the death marches toward a concentration camp. Of the 2,000 Jews who started out, only 200 survived, recounts Appelfeld. Separated from his father in the camp, the young Appelfeld decides he's going to die anyway, so he might as well escape. Having just completed first grade, Appelfeld manages to fend for himself over the next three years by attaching himself to various marginal characters living on the peripheries of peasant villages. Horse thief and prostitute's errand boy are just two of the jobs he finds in his quest to survive. A stint as kitchen boy with the Russian Army takes him to Yugoslavia and then Italy, where he meets members of the Jewish Brigade who encourage him to leave Europe behind and head for Palestine. Appelfeld arrives in the country as a thirteen year old in 1946. Completely alone, the lad who has already observed and absorbed so many facets of human behavior in his young life, ends up on kibbutz where he studies Hebrew and works for his keep. It's here, as a deeply disoriented immigrant that Appelfeld finds his writer's voice. At the end of every lonely day, he transcribes onto paper a few sentences in Hebrew about his feelings and questions about his existence. "The papers became my friends," he recalls. "They became my happiness every day - and still to this day," he chuckles. Perhaps those experiences explain the spare prose of his writing. At the end of the war, Appelfeld says, he was mute. He had avoided speaking with people for six years, because of the danger of his true identity being discovered. No matter, Appelfeld, recounts, "the unsaid in art is more important than that which is said." In Palestine, "I came with my experiences and a small, meaningless, strange story - and here was this heroic country," he continues. "I repressed my memories and tried to build a new personality." Ultimately, Appelfeld realizes that if you repress your memories "you live a superficial life, not a real life." "You can't hide and be a writer," he says. Someone in the audience asks his opinion of Jerzy Kersinski, the eccentric Polish-born writer and photographer, author of The Painted Bird, which describes a story of a childhood similar to Appelfeld's. Kersinski never publicly acknowledged his Jewishness - as a result, Appelfeld says, he became a mediocre writer. Appelfeld makes an intriguing observation about Israeli literature. The common Israeli experience, Appelfeld claims, is the immigrant experience. Even today, one out of every two Israelis is not native born. It's that disorienting experience that we all share, says Appelfeld, "feelings are not absorbed in a proper way." Yet, because of the difficulty of immigrants to express themselves in Hebrew, even for those in the country many years, literature is almost exclusively in the hands of sabras. "But the real experience of Israel is the immigrant - he is the main hero," Appelfeld asserts. Appelfeld considers himself fortunate that he writes in Hebrew. "It means you're directly bound to the common Jewish soul," he explains. Still, Appelfeld considers himself a Jewish writer, not an Israeli writer. "I write about all kinds of Jews - they're all dear to me, and about hundreds of years of Jewish loneliness," he says. "I feel myself a religious person," he notes, "but I'm not speaking of God as a central figure." His observance of Jewish tradition is based on the idea that what was good enough for so many generations of Jews "is good enough for me." The only time he feels pious is when he writes about pious people. "Then, I'm totally immersed and feel totally pious," he explains. Describing many of the characters in his books, Appelfeld asserts that he likes human weakness. "All the orphans, all the ill, all the insane came to Israel," he says with a smile. In a final comment about the writing process, Appelfeld, who may be seen every day writing longhand in a Jerusalem cafe, tells his audience that "writing has nothing to do with ideas. It's the senses that lead to something. " Just like music and art rely completely on hearing and sight, literature "begins and ends with the senses." He describes his one return visit to Czernovitz, three years ago. The town is delapidated and neglected, it's Central European identity almost obliterated. "What can you learn from it - nothing," states Appelfeld. "We learn from things inside, not from the external. I coudn't find my parents there, but my longing for them, that's important. " "It never starts with an idea - I have to trust my senses," he concludes. Judy Lash Balint is a Jerusalem based writer and author of Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times. www.jerusalemdiaries.com To Go To Top

WHAT ARE THEY PREACHING IN THE MOSQUES THESE DAYS? Posted by IsrAlert, March 14, 2004.

Isralert's source for this item: www.mideastweb.org/mewnews1.htm Saudi Sermon: "Time for Christians and Jews to Convert to Islam" [FBIS (US Government service) Translated Excerpt] [With thanks to www.mideastweb.org/mewnews1.htm ] Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia TV1 in Arabic, official television station of the Saudi Government, carries on February 27, 2004 at 0945 GMT a live sermon from the holy mosque in Mecca. Yemani sermon: "O God, destroy the aggressive Zionists and the tyrant Americans" [FBIS (US Government service) Translated Excerpt] [With thanks to www.mideastweb.org/mewnews1.htm ] Syrian Sermon: "O God, deal with the criminal Zionists and those with them and behind them" [FBIS (US Government service) Translated Excerpt] [With thanks to www.mideastweb.org/mewnews1.htm ] Saudi sermon: "Jewish paws", "defeat the usurper Jews" [FBIS (US Government service) Translated Excerpt] [With thanks to www.mideastweb.org/mewnews1.htm ] Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabic TV2 in Arabic, official television station of the Saudi Government, on 6 February 2004 at 0950 GMT carries a 22-minute live sermon from the holy mosque in Medina. Qatar Sermon:"Aggressor Jews and their wicked Crusader allies" [FBIS (US Government service) Translated Excerpt] [With thanks to www.mideastweb.org/mewnews1.htm ] Doha Qatar Television Service in Arabic, official television station of the State of Qatar, on 20 February 2004 at 0858 GMT carries a live 60-minute sermon from Umar Bin-al-Khattab Mosque in Doha. ( "Moderate") Jordanian Sermon:"O God, destroy your enemies, the Jewish and crusader enemies of Islam" [FBIS (US Government service) Translated Excerpt] [With thanks to www.mideastweb.org/mewnews1.htm ] Amman Jordan Television Channel 1 in Arabic, official television station of the Hahemite Kingdom of Jordan, on 5 March 2004 at 1002 GMT carries a 17-minute live sermon from martyr King Abdallah mosque in Amman. PA Supervised Sermon: "Palestine [including inside Green Line] is an Islamic land, which must not be relinquished" [FBIS (US Government service) Translated Excerpt] [With thanks to www.mideastweb.org/mewnews1.htm ] WEST BANK & Ramallah Voice of Palestine, official radio station of the Palestinian Authority, on February 6, 2004 at 1000 GMT carries a 24-minute live sermon from Al-Aqsa Mosque. Shaykh Yusuf Abu-Sunaynah delivers the sermon. After praising God, the messenger, and his companions, he calls on "the servants of God" to worship and obey God and to help one another, reminding Muslims of the Hereafter and God's punishment. Turning to the Palestine question, the imam discusses the Saudi peace initiative, which, he says, was based on two main points for putting an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. He says: "The first point calls for Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories to beyond the 4 June 1967 borders. The second point calls for recognizing the State of Israel, establishing diplomatic relations with it, and normalizing political, economic, tourism, and scientific relations with it. The Saudi ideas for resolving the crisis are not new. The kingdom presented them about six months ago but Israel rejected them at that time. The initiative includes ideas contributing to the cancellation of the repatriation right of more than 2 million Palestinians in the diaspora. It also calls for settling 1.5 million Palestinians in Saudi Arabia and Iraq and granting Palestinians in Jordan the Jordanian citizenship. There are many question marks on that initiative. Can this initiative see light amid the changes which have resulted from the occupation of Iraq and the Libyan regime's abandonment of its nuclear armament program? Moreover, the Arab countries hold secret negotiations with Israel in order to normalize relations with it. Peace treaties also exist between Israel on the one hand and Egypt and Jordan on the other. Therefore, the Arab climate is prepared for that initiative. Can the United States pressure Israel into accepting that initiative as a comprehensive, face saving solution in front of the world, which is now aware of US allegations and lies about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Before responding to these questions, we have to explain the Islamic viewpoint. It is Islam that distinguished between good and bad. This initiative, like the Oslo, Madrid, and other accords between Palestinians and Israelis, violates the Islamic law. The land of Palestine is an Islamic land, which must not be relinquished. The previous agreements have produced destruction, disaster, and suffering for our steadfast, patient Muslim people on their land because they are based on ideas and principles conflicting with the Islamic law. From the political viewpoint, this initiative indicates our nation's weakness and the Arab regime's failure to foil their enemies' schemes. The initiative cancels the repatriation right. Israel has declined to react to this initiative because it is preoccupied with its unilateral plans, including the construction of the racial wall and drawing a borderline that will provide it with security and stability. The Israeli prime minister has announced the possibility of handing over the triangle area, which is inhabited by a majority of Arab Muslims, to the Palestinian Authority because the spread of Islam in this area troubles the Israeli side. The United States has not pressed the Israeli Government to accept the Saudi initiative because the US Administration is in dire need of Jewish votes in the US presidential elections at the end of this year. O steadfast Muslims, the solution is in our hands. The solution is in the Koran and the messenger's traditions." The imam then urges the Islamic countries' leaders to learn a lesson from the messenger's companions in order to regain their rights. In conclusion, the imam prays to God: "O God, help Muslims improve their situation and defeat Your enemy and their enemy. O God, destroy the Muslims' enemies." IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

PA SAID TO RELEASE 4 GAZANS SUSPECTED OF BOMBING USA CONVEY Posted by Leo Rennert, March 14, 2004.

This was written by Arnon Regular, Correspondent for Haaretz and the Associated Press. The Palestinian Authority has released four Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who were suspected of carrying out a deadly bombing of a United States diplomatic convoy, Palestinian sources said Sunday. Three American security guards were killed in the October 15 attack, which took place near the Erez crossing. The sources said the suspects were released because there was not sufficient evidence to hold them. The four - Naim Abu Alful, 43; Bashir Abu Laven, 42; Muhammed Asleeya, 22; and Ahmed A-Safi, 24 - are all residents of the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and members of the Popular Resistance Committees. The four had been arrested by Palestinian security forces several weeks ago and charged with manslaughter for planting bombs aimed at Israeli tanks that might also have hit the convoy. The U.S. had asked the PA after the attack to bring the perpetrators to justice. However, U.S. diplomats and even Palestinian security sources questioned whether the men were the real culprits or convenient scapegoats. There had been some expectation that their arrest would deflect U.S. pressure on Palestinian investigators. Some Palestinian officials said the real perpetrators of the October attack could be linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's own Fatah organization, or even to the security forces. Palestinians security sources said the four arrested men appeared before a Palestinian judge Sunday who said there was not enough evidence to hold them and ordered them freed. Soon after, dozens of relatives, friends and some militants gathered outside the prison to await their release. "I am so excited. I can't wait to see him coming out," said Safia Abu Laden, mother of one of the prisoners. "I give thanks to God that he answered my prayers to keep him safe and free him for his children." The attack on the convoy was the first attack on a U.S. target in more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. In response, U.S. officials threatened to cut back aid and diplomatic travel to the Palestinian areas until the bombers are caught. A day after the attack, Palestinian security forces in Gaza arrested seven members of the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella network of militant groups that have used powerful roadside bombs against Israeli tanks. Other members were arrested over time, but most of the suspects were subsequently released. Some members of the militant group were waiting outside the jail for the release of the men. The U.S. has offered a $5 million reward for information about the attackers. Palestinian security officials say no one has claimed the bounty. To Go To Top

UNILATERAL WITHDRAWAL - GRAVEYARD HUMOR Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 14, 2004.

What makes you think that PM Sharon is acting unilaterally in his decision to withdraw from Gaza. Given that Sharon has put the fate of Israel into the hands of President George W. Bush and the Arabist U.S. State Department, the idea that he was acting 'unilaterally' is laughable. In AIPAC's Near East Report of March 8, 2004, they report that on February 24th, Henry Kissinger, Dennis Ross and Martin Indyk all expressed strong support for PM Sharon's Gaza withdrawal. They all appeared before the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. Clearly, the approval of PM Sharon's "Unilateral Withdrawal" by these political twisters who have always recommended Israel's withdrawal to deadly borders, indicates that Sharon's decision was a 'collective' decision by Bush, his administration and of Jim Baker's once and future Jew Boys - including Daniel Kurtzer, current American Ambassador to Israel. All know that Gaza will quickly fill u p with a mix of terrorists - just as is happening in Iraq and Europe. Sharon has lost his last shred of independence - as can be defined as nothing more than a court Jew dancing attendance for Bush prior to his election. There is a little more that Israelis can do but cut the leash Bush has on the thick neck of Sharon and let Sharon simply fade away. A new leader must be put in place that has not been drugged with dependence on America's largess. The absolute bottom red line is that Israel cannot move one more inch to appease the unappeasable Arab Muslims. Any further capitulations will merely accelerate and elevate their expectations for an Israeli collapse. Sharon has become Israel's greatest disappointment, erasing all of his achievements as a once resolute General. Clearly, he is merely now an overweight politician, looking to carve out his place in history. No doubt, he will be remembered as a leader who betrayed the Jewish nation and Jews world-wide. Unfortunately, Jews have a poor sense of danger or else they would have revolted against one corrupt government after another. Before Sharon completes his mission by ordering the Jewish Army to attack the Jews of Gaza followed by attacking the Jews of YESHA, he must be torn from the seat of Prime Minister. Sharon was handed a noose by others and slipped it around the neck of the State of Israel and all Israelis within it as well as those Jews in the Diaspora. Sharon can only be likened to King Saul who disobeyed G-d and had the cloak of government ripped from his shoulders by the Prophet Samuel. As Saul, Sharon is a ruler in name only. It is time for him, his vacillating Cabinet to be retired from office. Granted, he is maneuvering to bring in the infamous Shimon Peres and the Oslo gang. Regardless, this government of 'Judenraats' must be brought down. As the criminals of Oslo brought years of death upon the Jewish people, so too has Sharon become a national extension of the Oslo gang. Sharon's graveyard of dead Jews is expanding daily and will soon exceed that of Rabin and Peres who devised the failed Oslo peace plan. As in Koheleth, there is a time for war, a time for rage and that time has surely come. One can only be reminded of the 'appropos' story of two Jews about to be executed by a firing squad. The commander asks if they want a blindfold to which one of the Jews says: "Go to Hell!" The other Jew turns to him and says, "Shut up, do you want to make them mad?!" So the question is which Jew is Sharon - or is he the Commander-in-Chief who will blindfold the Jews so they can?t see the rifles raised and the bullets coming. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm) To Go To Top

GOOSE-STEPPING AMERICANS? Posted by National Unity Coalition For Israel, March 13, 2004.

The following article by Elwood McQuaid brings clarity to the recent farce at the Hague involving the "fence". The latest emerging "neo-anti-Semitic" rhetoric is one more attempt to focus attention on matters sympathetic to the Arab cause. An awakening to the true Arab goals is beginning. The alternative, says McQuaid, is a chilling resurgence of the "Fuhrer principle." "The European Union and Israel fear the same threat - 'fanatical Islam.' The fundamentalists do not hate the world because of Israel, but because they hate the world." -- Benjamin Netanyahu The world the former Israeli prime minister referred to is the realm of the Western democracies. The Jewish State of Israel is an extension of the West, with all of its unfettered freedom, boundless resourcefulness, and optimism about what the future could hold if peace were achieved. For these reasons and more, fanatical Islamists, now on a crusade to destroy Israel and globalize their repressive interpretation of Allah's will, are determined to have it all - at any cost. Without fear of serious contradiction, one can delineate the general strategy for reaching this goal. First are Israel and the Middle East. Phase I is to destroy every vestige of Western presence and influence there. Phase II is the conquest of Europe where, until recently, Islamists have chalked up an impressive score. Then, of course, comes the United States - the Goliath-like "Great Satan" - enabler of every evil deed perpetrated on the planet. In the mix, although hardly noticed by liberal, North American and European movers and shakers, is the long-standing, often-voiced Islamic commitment to crush the "Saturday people" first and then deal with the "Sunday people." If many didn't believe it then, they had better believe it now. Israel Under the Gun An in-your-face example of just how determined the Muslim and Palestinian worlds are to set the stage for a Jewish exodus out of the Middle East is the recent charade at the International Court of Justice in the Hague over Israel's security fence. The Israeli government refused to be hauled before the tribunal, convinced that the court had no jurisdiction to initiate hearings on the fence. To their credit, the United States, all of Europe, Russia, Japan, and China refused to participate. Nevertheless, the Palestine Liberation Organization, along with Israel-hating, Arab-Muslim nations, was allowed to vent in an exhibition that was nothing less than a show of racist venom, as is so often the case in the environs of the United Nations and its institutions. Missing, of course, was the fundamental issue of WHY the 200-mile security fence is being built - an issue Islamists and their cadres of suicide bombers avoid at all cost. The day before the hearing began in the Netherlands, a bus was bombed in Jerusalem. Eight innocent people died, while more than sixty were wounded. Barely three weeks earlier, another suicide attack took eleven lives and injured more than seventy. And those tragedies do not begin to tell the story of how many such attacks Israeli authorities thwart on a daily basis. Europe on the Brink An awakening of sorts has come to the statehouses of Europe. The cost of allowing an influx of millions of Muslim immigrants is beginning to be tallied. For starters, radical Islamists are fomenting a disturbing anti-Semitic atmosphere that many say has brought Europe back to the terrible days of the 1930s. According to a 2002 report by the World Jewish Congress, the Muslim population in the European Union ranges from twelve million to twenty million - which means there are more Muslims in Europe than there are Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Greeks, Czechs, and Hungarians. In Great Britain Muslims now outnumber Roman Catholics and constitute the second largest religious community in the nation. In France the Muslim population numbers some six to eight million. France reportedly has twelve hundred mosques, funded almost without exception by foreign money and led by imams imported from other countries. All too often they teach and preach the virulent, anti-Jewish, rabidly radical, Wahhabi brand of Islamist fundamentalism. The Netherlands, with a population of sixteen million, is currently home to one million Muslim immigrants. Dutch legislators now want the government to investigate activities in the mosques, which often incite anti-western sentiment and violence: There is a strong current in Muslim society in Europe that balks at the idea of any genuine integration into the surrounding society. Quite the contrary, in the European Muslim community a definite and very worrying rise in religious fundamentalism can be observed - one that precludes Muslims from becoming full-fledged members of the societies in which they live. This is not a question of resistance toward adopting a different life-style or adherence to age-old ritual, but rather a conscience and often militant antipathy to the dominant host culture. [1] For some European leaders the event in the Hague over Israel's security fence was a catalyst: Some of them... understood that what they were witnessing was not a trial, but an invasion, an invasion of barbarians from juridical moonscapes such as Cuba, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia who landed in the heart of Europe in order to collapse Western ideals and institutions - in this case the independent judiciary. And those Europeans who get all this are the same ones who are finally beginning to understand that theirs is a choice between regressing to the past's anti-Semitism or confronting the future's Islamism. [2] America's 'Fuhrer' To depict evil and spread the notion that an individual represents the demonic dregs, the worst the world has to offer, a comparison to Adolf Hitler often serves the purpose. With increasing fervor and frequency, Islamic leaders make this horrific association. A chilling example is seen in an article published February 16 in the Arabic paper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida: The world stands today at the edge of a dangerous slope which threatens the destiny of all humanity... President Bush will be juicy material for tens of psychology books, for he has many characteristics of historical figures that left a negative impact on [the] course of global history lead by the Fuhrer of Germany, Adolf Hitler, and his Nazi and racist proclamations. The Cuban President, Fidel Castro who has deep knowledge of President Bush's history already called him "Fuhrer of the globalization era or the new world order."... And while the German Fuhrer's adventure ended with tens of millions of dead and wounded, and partial destruction of several countries, this adventure of the new Fuhrer [Bush] will return the world to the Stone Age.[3] It is of no little interest that there are frequent references to the Cuban Communist dictator Fidel Castro and America-haters in the Muslim world. America's tenacious desire to free oppressed people and spread democracy is a galling contradiction to every principle these masters of fear and deprivation understand. The same can be said of the tyrannical leaders of North Korea'a Communist ghetto-state that has made it a national obsession to take from the poor and give to the military to enhance its ability to make war and enrich its stockpile of horrific instruments of destruction. As in Palestinian Authority classrooms, North Korean children are psychologically brutalized by xenophobic lessons in how to hate. A CBS 60 Minutes segment in February documented the journey of a Dutch reporter who received permission to visit classrooms and interview North Korean children. Her purpose was to assess their response to The Diary of Anne Frank, Holland's most famous book. It was written by Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager and Holocaust victim who, with her family, spent two years in hiding in Amsterdam, Holland, before being betrayed and taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where she died. Her diaries have been printed in more than a hundred languages and have brought hope and inspiration to countless millions. Her message reveals the triumph of personal courage and love in the face of overwhelming odds. The message being transmitted from her work to the children of North Korea, however, is vastly different. President George Bush is the vile imperialist warmonger, a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler; and Americans are his goose-stepping minions on a mission to brutalize and slaughter the innocent masses. To witness the mutilation of all that Anne Frank's memory represents and to see the hatred etched in the faces of these young people was extremely disturbing. But beyond that was the question, "Will these millions of boys and girls in the world of remnant Communist societies and crusading Islamic countries ever be reclaimed from the debilitating brainwashing they receive in their irretrievable, formative years?" Is America the New Germany? The answer to this question is demonstrated every day in the conduct of the majority of American citizens, leaders, soldiers, and in the immeasurable amount of humanitarian efforts and resources being spent to bring aid and comfort to a world awash in privation and suffering. The same can be said of many of America's Western allies and, most certainly, of Israel, which gives terrorists the same medical care in the same hospital wards as their victims. These very principles are why our enemies refer to us as refurbished Nazis, Big Satan, Little Satan, malignant aggressors. They accept our benevolence and watch our people go halfway around the world to dig their families from the rubble of devastating earthquakes and similar catastrophes. Yet these good deeds make us the enemy and fuel a conflict that will go on for years to come. In all of this, we must remember two things: (1) For all of America's faults, we have nothing to apologize for. Not to these people who, in the words of Benjamin Netanyahu, "do not hate the world because of Israel, but because they hate the world." (2) Despite a strident chorus of denial rising from within the ranks, we have been forged in the furnace of our Judeo-Christian heritage; and as long as the Bible is the driving force behind a significant segment of our population, we will always stand true to the mission of love and mercy that we have been taught. And whether or not our enemies, or even some of our friends, like to admit it, they need us. During that ignominious hearing in the Hague on Israel's security fence, a group of Jewish people from many countries gathered to stand beside the bombed wreckage of the bus where a suicide bomber committed a senseless act of mass murder. And standing with them were at least two thousand Dutch Christians. Despite the neo-anti-Semitism plaguing that little nation today, the presence of these Christians represented the best of what the Dutch have personified over the years. They assembled beside the Jewish people in the strength and spirit of the Corrie ten Booms and the sturdy band of Dutch heroes who defied the Nazis and now have their names graced in plaques along the Street of Righteous Gentiles at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. A few days ago, I listened enthralled by the clarity and eloquence of an elderly black minister for whom I have great respect. In his closing words to his congregants, he said, "When you come to the place where your life is wracked by tribulation, turmoil, trouble, and confusion, it's time to look for the God factor." Let that be a word for us all, as well as our call to our leaders and the nations of the world - it's time to look for the God factor. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD (Ps. 33:12). Endnotes 1. World Jewish Congress Policy Dispatch No. 83, Radical Islam in Europe: A united continent faces a burgeoning threat to its stability, September 2002, http://wjc.org.il/publications/policy_dispatches/pub_dis83.html. 2. Amotz Asa-El, Middle Israel: My trauma is bigger than yours, Jerusalem Post Internet Edition, February 26, 2004, www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/= ShowFull&cid=1077768891249&p=1006953079897. 3. Quoted in Relentless PA Hate Incitement against the US and the West, February 27, 2004, http://www.pmw.org.il/new/Latest%20bulletin.html. Founded in 1991, the National Unity Coalition is "the largest worldwide coalition of Jewish and Christian organizations, with more than 200 groups representing millions of people dedicated to Israel. Though we have many different backgrounds, we have one common goal: A Safe and Secure Israel." "Israel is not just a Jewish issue. Millions of Christians resolutely endorse the principle of peace with security for the state of Israel. Because we work closely together and speak with a united voice, our message is being heard!" To Go To Top

THE ARAB DEBATE OVER TERRORISM Posted by Barry Rubin, March 13, 2004.

Is the dominant Arab policy of resistance, defiance and confrontation toward the world, asked the distinguished Egyptian liberal writer, Tarek Heggy, a means to an end or an end in itself? If permanent struggle is a means to achieve goals, does it have a chance of success? If it is an end in itself are the costs worth it? This is the critical question around the tactic known in the West - but rarely in the Arab world - as terrorism. The underlying assumption conditioning this debate is whether certain categories of people - Westerners, Americans, Israelis, secular or liberal Arabs - are so evil that they merit destruction and deserve death, that they are so aggressive toward the Arabs and Islam that killing them is self-defense. Thus, the use of terrorism, whatever the details, is justified, a valid means in itself. A strategy of terrorism also rests on the belief that such an approach can succeed in defeating demonic-like forces which can be dealt with in no other way, certainly not through dialogue or compromise, much less as being seen not as enemies. It is also based on the knowledge that a large enough constituency for such behavior exists in the Arab world that such behavior will bring popularity and mobilize support. The problem is that the mainstream Arab political world view is based on the premise that both the West and Israel are enemies responsible for all Arab problems. Their misdeeds are exaggerated or fabricated. The atmosphere is one in which the doors of compromise are closed; dissent is treason; foreigners are villains; liberalism is heresy; and conspiracies are everywhere. As a result, some support terrorism; others decry certain aspects of the tactic, especially its use as a domestic revolutionary tool, but feel satisfaction when attacks succeed. The great majority of intellectuals are at least ready to characterize the victims as receiving the wages of their sins. How was the Arab attitude toward terrorism affected by the dramatic events of recent years: a Palestinian war based on terrorism against Israel; the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States; the U.S. overthrow of regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq; American support for democratic reform; and a renewal of radical Islamist terror attacks within the Arab world? It should be stressed that real self-criticism and soul-searching on these events was restricted to a minority. These issues were mainly interpreted within the dominant world view. Many cheered the attacks on the United States or, in this same basic context, justified them as a misguided tactic within a justified battle for self-defense, or claimed that Arabs were not responsible. The U.S. military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq were heavily criticized - especially by non-Iraqi Arabs - as imperialistic. American backing for democracy was portrayed as hypocritical and subversive. While at first glance it might seem that domestic terrorism within the Arab world would inevitably promote empathy and moderation in opposition to it, the fact remains that the first round of Islamist revolutionary terrorism in the 1990s did not have such an effect. On one hand, many regimes - especially Saudi Arabia - tried to export and buy off Islamist extremists, increasing terrorism in the West and Asia. On the other hand, in such countries as Egypt and Algeria, the violence made liberals feel it more necessary to support the regime as the preferable alternative. And when the Jihadist Islamist campaign against U.S. and other targets reached its peak, the experience of such violence at home did not inhibit enthusiasm about similar measures directed by the same people against foreigners. Rather than see terrorism as a symptom of problems in their own society, the mainstream view claimed it was a foreign import or response to the victimization of the Arabs. Instead of viewing it as a phenomenon to be rejected entirely, many regimes manipulated the issue to justify dictatorship at home while trying to deflect - or even sponsor - terrorism against foreign targets. Regimes wanted to convince potential supporters of domestic terrorism that the governments were on their side, defending Islam and Arab causes against the American, Israeli, Western, and secular threats. One way of doing this was to distinguish between "legitimate" anti-Western or anti-Israel violence and "criminal" revolutionary terrorism to overthrow governments. In contrast, a liberal minority argued that terrorism showed that internal reform was a necessity. They justified generally the U.S. war on terrorism as helping Muslims fight their own enemy, a radical Islam that distorted their religion and damaged their image. Liberals viewed such extremism as a response to the stagnation and repression of dictatorships which left only Islam as an area of free expression. Liberals urged a thoroughgoing reform of education, a tough stand against radical Islamists, an increase in democracy and citizen rights, and a campaign to increase tolerance toward foreign cultures and peoples. Liberals suggested the region faced a choice between reform or a radical Islamist terrorist victory. Thus, after a May 2003 suicide bomb attack in Morocco - aimed against Jews but causing mainly Muslim casualties - a Moroccan liberal editor, Aboubakr Jamal, wrote in the New York Times that the violence, "endangered Morocco's future as a democracy." The threat came not only from the terrorist themselves but also from the government which also used tough anti-terrorist legislation against peaceful dissidents. But "to fight terrorism," Jamal warned, "Morocco needs more democracy, not less." Yet he also admitted that even most liberals disagree with him and support the government having dictatorial powers to crush the greater threat of radical Islamism. They feel that "we have to delay democracy in order to save it from those who would use it to kill it. We rely on the enlightened despot to preserve our future." Professor Barry Rubin is the Director of The Global Research in International Affairs Center (GLORIA) and Editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal (MERIA) and Editor of Turkish Studies. To Go To Top

HISTORY POINTS FINGER AT REVENGE FOR LOST MOOR KINGDOM Posted by Leo Rennert, March 13, 2004.

This appeared in today in the Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk). It was written by Isambard Wilkinson and filed in Madrid. New forensic evidence on the bombings has raised an uncomfortable question for Spaniards. Is Osama bin Laden dreaming of exacting revenge for the loss of Al-Andalus, the ancient Moorish kingdom in Iberia? A group close to bin Laden's al-Qa'eda network, the Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri, sent a message to a London-based Arabic newspaper explaining the reasons for attacking Spain. "This is part of settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader and America's ally in its war against Islam," the statement said. While the authentiticy of the message is open to doubt, there is no question that it reflects the thinking of Islamists, who hold that any land which has once been part of the Muslim community should forever remain under Muslim rule. At the beginning of the 11th century, three quarters of Spain's population was Muslim but, as soon as the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella completed the reconquest of the country for Christianity, the Muslims were ordered out. The humiliation has never been forgotten in the Arab world. The sense of hurt has grown since Spain, for decades a friend of the Arab world, backed the US-led war on Iraq, despite vast domestic opposition. A dozen al-Qa'eda-linked suspected terrorists have been arrested in Spain from among its burgeoning community from North Africa. Bin Laden has identified Spain as a worthy target, and the "settling of old accounts" will send a tingle down many an old Spaniard's spine. Bin Laden gave warning that Spain would be singled out for attack in a taped message released last October through al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite channel. He said Spain would be among six nations considered "special" targets for its role in the Iraq war. Bin Laden has also spoken of Al-Andalus, regarded with nostalgia by Islamists as the halcyon age of Muslim power and artistic achievement. The tale of the "Moor's last sigh" is recounted to epitomise the loss of one of the Islamic world's great jewels. When King Boabdil fled the city of Granada, the last bastion of Moorish rule, he looked back and wept. His mother chided him with words that have sent a painful message down through the ages to Muslims: "Do not weep like a woman for what you could not defend like a man." Moorish armies from North Africa conquered the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th century and transformed the region into an integral part of the Muslim umma, or nation. The year 1492, when Granada was ceded to Ferdinand and Isabella, is a talismanic date for some Islamist scholars who consider it as the beginning of the decline of the Muslim world which continues to this day. Most Europeans see the years of Islamic rule in Spain as a period of scholarship, leisured lifestyle and inspired architecture, though Islamists would focus on the vibrancy of the faith which allowed the Muslim armies to force their way deep into Christendom. The jewels of Islamic Cordoba and Granada are still claimed by some who resent the expulsion of the Muslims from the peninsula. None of this proves that bin Laden was behind the bomb attacks on Thursday. An emotional attachment to a place does not automatically mean readiness to blow up innocent commuters. If there is an Islamic connection, it may owe more to the availability of active cells and explosives. But there is no doubt that the mere suggestion of an Islamist connection has sent a shudder through Spaniards. Last year after a wait of more than 500 years, Spanish Muslims succeeded in building a mosque in the shadow of the Alhambra, once the symbol of Islamic power in Europe. Perhaps Thursday's attacks were another return to the past, in this case a revival of Spain's ancient animosities. To Go To Top

I USED TO BE AN ISRAELI LEFTIST Posted by Steven Plaut, March 13, 2004.

This was written by Amnon Lord. He is the author of "The Israeli Left, from Socialism to Nihilism" and a columnist with Makor Rishon. This article appeared in the Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com) March 11, 2004. I felt forced to make a choice between my social milieu and my country In the mid-1990s, after the wave of massacres began, I understood that the path I believed in for many years as a leftist was wrong and led to the opposite results of what is called "peace." Dozens of mangled bodies on Dizengoff Boulevard were not my idea of historic reconciliation and peace. Standing in line with friends to donate blood after mass terror attacks contradicted the many pictures of ceremonies of the days of Oslo I and II. I expected the Left to respond to those events of the Rabin and Peres era with critical thinking about the various moves. Of course, that didn't happen. Then, ahead of the May 1996 elections, I felt I had to make a choice: between loyalty to my immediate social milieu and the political organizations to which I felt a blind affinity, and loyalty to Israeli society and the existential interests of the State of Israel and democracy. Word got around that I was going to vote for Binyamin Netanyahu and the Likud. This shocked the people who knew me as a foot soldier at Peace Now rallies or as an editor and reporter at the Hadashot newspaper during the 1980s and early 1990s. Ha'ir sent Aviv Lavie to interview me. Until that interview I could toy with the idea of voting however I wanted without making a big deal about it. I decided to cooperate with the interview because I thought the 1996 elections were critical and that maybe if I said I was going with the Right and voting no-confidence in Shimon Peres's leadership, it would help. Peres seemed dangerous to me at the time. I remember telling Aviv Lavie that actually leaving the Left was not so much a matter of choice: I felt suffocated as if I were inside an intellectual gas chamber, I told him, and I just ran for my life. I couldn't survive inside. WHAT MADE things worse for me was that Netanyahu won. A childhood friend from my kibbutz left a strange letter with my mother: First of all, why did you go get interviewed by Aviv Lavie?! It's one thing if you want to vote for Netanyahu. Go ahead. But why talk about it? The atmosphere on the Left towards such a move was documented in the huge collection of letters sent to the Haaretz supplement after the long and sympathetic piece by Ari Shavit when Netanyahu was in office for one year. He called it "the year of hatred." The very fact that Shavit described certain aspects of Netanyahu in a positive light were enough to define him as a "defector" and "traitor." In leftist parlor talk, the phenomenon was called "the Amnon Lord syndrome." That is, anyone doubting the all-embracing totality of leftist rectitude. After I started studying the nature of the Israeli "Left," its roots, its history, its patterns of action and its ideology, I concluded that a leftist's loyalty is almost completely to a political organization, to a movement. It has been said about European social-democratic parties that they do not recognize the sovereignty of the state, only the sovereignty of the party. That is true of the Israeli Left, too. The word "treason" is unsuitable in the context of various figures on the Left and their actions. It is an issue of an entire elite class turning its back on its nation and country. Yossi Beilin and his people's Geneva agreement expresses that moral collapse in the most poignant way. It includes a willingness to collaborate with PLO propaganda against Israel, a surrender of matters of principle such as Jerusalem and refugees, and especially a waiving of Jewish sovereignty in Israel along with a waiver of our ability to defend ourselves. Anyone who remembers how in the years after losing the 1977 elections the Labor Party's economic leaders, headed by Ya'acov Levinson, tried to transfer large parts of the Histadrut's financial and business assets abroad, should not be surprised by today's moral capitulation. Since then, the Left has cultivated the myth of the collective murder of Yitzhak Rabin, of which the whole Right is to blame. The Right is the enemy, and if the Right happens to be the Israeli people, then too bad, but there is no choice. There is no doubt that a person like Yossi Beilin is closer to Yasser Abed Rabbo or Joschka Fischer than he is even to his party colleague Ran Cohen. This process, signs of which were seen throughout the 1990s, was incredibly and most surprisingly accelerated, particularly in the last three and a half years of terrorist warfare. In the first year of the Palestinian terror campaign I had the feeling that many on the Left were reaching the conclusion I had reached five or six years earlier. But today it is clear that not only did the Left undergo a process of radicalization and emotional and political separation from the people, but it also managed to recapture the public agenda. The Israeli public is assaulted not only by exploding terrorists but also by a demoralizing media that depresses the public's spirit. The Palestinians must not be called "the enemy"; the enemy is the IDF, the air force, and the settlers. We have reached the point where anyone identified in any way with the "Right" cannot participate in a public debate. The very definition of his person or position as "rightist" automatically puts his arguments outside the limits of public discourse. A strange situation in a country where just a year and a half ago the rightist parties won an overwhelming majority such as they had never seen before. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

MINISTER HENDEL ON PRIME MINISTER SHARON Posted by Bryna Berch, March 12, 2004.

This is from Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com) today. Deputy Education Minister Tzvi Hendel, who coined the phrase, "the depth of the withdrawal is proportionate to the depth of the investigation [against Sharon]," continues to insist that Sharon's disengagement plan is only a cover for the Greek Island and Cyril Kern scandals currently embroiling Sharon. Yaakov (Ketzaleh) Katz, who served in 1990-92 as top aide to then-Housing Minister Ariel Sharon, says it's clear that Sharon is doing everything he can to deflect attention from his personal problems: "Even the Tenenbaum issue - why did he spend so many hours convincing his ministers to vote for what was so clearly a lopsided deal against Israel? It was only to distract the public's attention from his personal-legal problems. And the same is true with this withdrawal plan. Bush's aides see this, and advise their boss not to get involved in this 'mess' and not to invite Sharon." In addition, Israelis' confidence in Sharon is on the downswing; a Maariv-Dahaf poll taken last week shows that 53% of the public feels that "in light of the affairs tied to the Prime Minister and his family," he should resign - while a similar proportion said in a previous poll that Sharon was "involved in the corruption." "Why should Bush take chances?" some commentators ask. To Go To Top

CENTER FOR MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 12, 2004.

Prof. John L. Esposito, director of the Center, at Georgetown U., was a State Dept. analyst. His latest book is "What Everybody Needs to Know About Islam." It describes massacres of Christians in Pakistan as "sporadic conflicts between Muslims and Christians." The wording implies that both sides attack each other. No examples are given of Christian religious murders of Muslims. (The jihad is one-way, there. Esposito needs to know that about Islam.) The book advises ending a "spiral of fear, hatred, and violence, spawned by ignorance." This implies a spiral of combat that the US is not in. Ignorance is not a factor in al-Qaeda, many of whose activists studied at Western universities. Knowing us quite well, they hate us for having different values from them. (Western higher education does not indoctrinate in Western values.) A collaborator of Esposito, NYU Prof. Noah Feldman, was sent to Iraq to draft its constitution. Author of "After Jihad," Prof. Feldman suggests allowing Islamists to run in elections. If they win, they will like the US and be less violent and less anti-American. ('Make nice' to the Arab fascists, and they won't bite you? Trouble is, fascists don't follow kindergarten psychology.) Although he deplores brutality against women and others in Islamist systems, he accepts it as their way. (Custom is no excuse for evil.) Iran is held up as an indication of an Islamic country tending towards democracy. But Iranians have no rights! How can that be democratic? (Most power is in the hands of non-elected clerics.) Robert Spencer takes the opposite tack in "Islam Unveiled." He argues that violence and repression are integral to Islam. He finds them taught in the Koran and "hadith." One might retort that Jewish and Christian Bibles seem to support slavery and adultery, too. Their religions, however, do not. The Bibles developed over centuries, during which, their religions reformed. Muslims consider the Koran complete, and severely restrict reinterpretations. They nevertheless can reinterpret Islam - they considered Greek philosophy in the 9th century and Sufis reinterpret mystic and spiritual thought, today. (I think the answer lies in between. Islam, as Muslims currently understand it, encourages violence. Our hope lies in its being reinterpreted.) Stephen Schwartz, a Muslim, criticizes S. Arabia's Wahhabi sect as fascistic. It finances the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American Muslim Council (which get invited to the White House). Dore Gold charges that the State Dept. compromised years of intelligence efforts to combat Islamist terrorism fomented by S. Arabia, in order to maintain business deals with that state. Ann Mayer's "Islam & Human Rights" reveals the differences between the English and Arabic versions of Islamic human rights documents. These documents stoutly guarantee human rights, but then subordinate those rights to "a usually undefined Islamic law" (that is repressive). The thesis of Barry and Judith Colp Rubin's "Anti-American terrorism in the Middle East" is that the Islamist ideology is not based just on recent US policy in the Mideast. It stems from the traditional nature of Islam and its intrinsic opposition to Western constitutional democracy. Most Islamist terrorism does not target Americans and does not occur in the Middle East. Reviewer Paul Marshall concludes, "Contemporary Islam will not be reformed quickly or easily, and so America must be prepared at least for several decades to maintain and enhance its military capabilities to combat terrorism and violence in the Muslim world. We also need to avoid the naive wishful thinking that treats Islamist terrorism as simply rooted in ignorance or poverty or US policy in the Middle East." We also should encourage moderates (Claremont Review of Books, fall 2003, p.34). Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

PA: BLAMING ISRAEL US FOR ARAB ERROR Posted by Itamar Marcus, March 12, 2004.

Blaming Israel and the West for all the defects in Palestinian and Arab societies is a standard practice of the Palestinian elite, who try to deflect responsibility for the difficult conditions they have inflicted on their people. In addition to blaming Israel for hardships in general, they accuse Israel of being responsible for acts of terror, corruption, killings, drug abuse, etc., for which they themselves are culpable. This week saw a series of blatant libels in the Palestinian Authority-controlled news media that fit into this continuing pattern. On the social level, the "imprisonment" of Palestinian women was blamed on Israel. On the terror front, two terror attacks by Arabs killing Arabs in Israel and Iraq were blamed on Israel and the US. Women in the PA Last week PMW reported on the widespread acceptance of discrimination against women in PA society, as documented by a Palestinian poll of school children. If anything, Israel had a positive influence on the conditions of women in Gaza and the West Bank in the years before the Oslo Accords. Yet the cartoon published in the official daily Al Hayat Al Jadida [above] marking "International Women's Day" libels Israel as the one imprisoning Palestinian women by having the women trapped by chains made of the Star of David. Blame Israel and the US for Arab Terror Arab Terror Attacks blamed on Israel and the US: Two terror attacks in which Arabs killed Arabs were blamed on Israel and the US. A Palestinian suicide terrorist exploded prematurely at a Palestinian checkpoint last week killing two Palestinian policemen. PA TV news reported the incident as follows: "Yesterday two members of the Palestinian National Security were killed during a bombing by the occupying forces near the Bet Hanoun crossing." [PATV news, Mar. 7, 2004] A few days earlier, more than 150 Shiites were killed in Iraq in a series of bombings by Sunni Muslims. But the PA said this attack was the work of the US: "The USA does not miss any chance to ignite the ethnic fire in Iraq... Iraq, for them, is a theater for terrorist acts and experiments through which [they] can spread religious wars among the Islamic countries from the Atlantic Ocean and to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Indonesia, or what Washington considers the Big Middle East. The massacres of Karbala and Kazemiya are none but the beginning of more and larger massacres, which will reach every Arab and Muslim country in this Big East, if America will succeed in committing this devil's plan." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Mar. 7, 2004] As stated, the PA's accusing Israel of terror committed by Arabs follows a pattern of blaming Israel and the West for every act of terror whenever possible. This includes terror bombings committed by the PA factions in Israeli cities in 1998, continuing right through to terror attacks in recent months in Turkey and Paris. And as was reported, the PA media published reports blaming Israel and the US for the September 2001 World Trade Center bombings. The following are examples of these earlier libelous accusations: PA blames Israel for PA string of bombings 1998 "..An Israeli intelligence officer periodically visited the house of one of the bombers from Jerusalem, Yousuf A-Saghir... [and] one of the Israeli [intelligence] agencies is responsible for the explosion, as occurred in the throwing of two hand grenades at a bus stop in Be'er Sheva several weeks ago... The Palestinian security agencies have several indications of the existence of an external party behind the last action and the series of actions that occurred lately that have a political goal to embarrass the Palestinian Authority... [After] the latest military action [suicide attack] by the "Islamic Jihad"... Ibrahim Al Halabi who recruited the two bombers and planed the attack, [Halabi] confirmed that he works for the Israeli Intelligence and that he planed the attack at their request..." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 8, 1998] Blame Israel for Arab Bombings in Turkey November 2003 "The "Mossad" is among us... I think that there is the smallest chance that these attacks [series of bombings in Turkey] were planed by "Hizbullah" (of Turkey) or "Alqaida..." Right after the [earlier] bombing in the two Synagogues, without going through the check points in Ataturk airport,... team members of ZAKA [Israel's disaster victim identification organization] arrived... Does anyone here know the contents of their suitcases? Several days later, we lost 12 Martyrs in Eastern Turkey." [Al-Ayyam, Nov. 30, 2003] Blame Israel for Arab Bombings in Paris January 2004 "Hidden Zionists hands are still acting in France in the same way they used to act in Arab countries- Iraq, Egypt and Morocco, blowing up and attacking Jews and Jewish synagogues in order to force them [the Jews] to immigrate [to Israel]. Lately there was an attack on a synagogue, so the Israeli ambassador in France called for the Jews in France to immigrate [to Israel]. There are Israeli or Zionist hands that carry out attacks against the Jews to force them to immigrate [to Israel] since Israel suffers from emigration." [Hafez Barghouty, editor of PA daily on PA TV, January 5, 2004] Itamar Marcus is director of PMW -Palestinian Media Watch - (http://www.pmw.org.il). To subscribe to PMW's reports, send an empty e-mail to reports-subscribe@pmw.org.il To Go To Top

THE PARALLEL UNIVERSE Posted by Steven Plaut, March 12, 2004.

It was like a parallel universe, not the one we are familiar with. The "activists" and "militants" were suddenly referred to as "terrorists". Even CNN and the BBC discovered the "T" word. The governments of Europe, which ordinarily spend their days insisting that Israel deal with terrorists through capitulation, were suddenly enraged, expressing their disgust. It was suddenly not a legitimate form of protest against occupation to mass murder civilians. The newspapers did not not issue special editions documenting the abuses of human rights by Spain, nor bemoan the "grievances" of those angry at Spain. Not a single Euro-politician made a speech denouncing the illegal Spanish occupations of Ceuta and Mellila. The World Court in the Hague did not begin an indictment of Spain for the conditions of its occupation of the Basques region, Galicia, and Catalonia. Museum and convention hall exhibits were not opened documenting the social and economic inequalities that prevail in Spain, which obviously are what really drive the bombers. And the world did not demand that the Spanish re-examine their own behaviro, to discover which manifestation of their arrogance provoked the Al-Qaida savages. The networks were not full of messages about how Moslems regard Andalusia as their own holy lands and that only their liberation can bring peace. For almost a full day, no politicians declared Islam the religion of peace. The US did not dock from aid to Spain the costs of security fences the Spanish were considering building. No one declared that the walls around Ceuta and Melilla made Spain an apartheid country and were forcing North Africans into Warsaw Ghettos because the walls are on Magreb soil. The European parliament did not send millions of Euros to fund politicial organizations in Spain devoted to encouraging Spanish soldiers to refuse orders and to desert and refure to serve in the army. There were no protests against Spanish plans to implement "profiling" at its airports and train stations. The Scandinavians did not demand that the Spanish open up dialogue with the bombers, and Spanish leftists did not lecture their countrymen about how there are no police nor military problems to the challenges of terrorism. Human rights groups did not demand that any captured terrorists be treated as prisoners of war with full Geneva Convention privileges and good lawyers. And unlike Israel, Spanish leftist professors did not march in solidarity with the bombers and demand that the world establish a boycott of Spain and Spanish universities. Spanish poets did not sing the praises of the bombers. Students on Spanish campuses did not march with al-Qaida banners and posters of Saddam, nor did they chant, "In Blood and Fire we will redeem thee Andalusia." Spanish schools did not begin teaching the poetry composed by al-Qaida poets, nor did the Opposition in the Spanish and EU parliaments demand that the Spanish national anthem change its words to make Moslems feel more welcome and less alienated in Spain. Spanish citizens who engage in espionage for al-Qaida are not declared candidates for a Nobel Peace Price, nor have their posters carried in peace marches. The State Department in Washington did not threaten trade sanctions against Spain if it took military action against the bombers. No one demanded that Toledo and Granada be restored to their rightful Moslem owners. Not a single newscast referred to Cordoba as a settlement. The Spanish Left did not send reps to Geneva and Oslo to negotiate secretly with the bombers. French politicians did not puff themselves up and lecture the Spanish about their cruelty and insensitivity. Kofi Annan did not demand that talks begin. The International Solidarity Movement failed to send crews to protect al-Qaida facilities in Syria and in North Africa. Spanish churches were not torched around the world. Yale students did not announce a campaign to divest from Spain. Tikkun magazine did not devote a special issue to the suffering and pain of the bombers. Special teach-ins on human rights abuses by Spain were not held at Berkeley, nor did the students re-enact street theater in which cruel Spanish policemen bully poor Arab passengers getting on to trains with large suitcases. The press did not count the Taliban and al-Qaida members killed the same week in Afghanistan as part of this week's Spanish death toll. Jimmy Carter did not offer to serve as liaison between the government of Madrid and the bombers. We will know when the world reverts to normality when it discovers that the Madrid bombings were all somehow the fault of the Jews. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

83 YEARS LATER Posted by Ken Heller, March 12, 2004.

May 1st, 1921: Arabs rioted in Yaffo killing 40 Jews and wounding 200. Riots spread to Tel Aviv, Petah Tikvah, Kfar Saba, Hadera, and Rehovot. The British decided to appease the Arabs and "redefine" the borders of the Balfour Declaration. May 1st, 2004 (83 years later): The Prime Minister of Israel is about to also appease the Arabs by sacrificing 8,000 Jews of Gaza and who knows how many in Judea and Samaria by egregiously forcing the Jews from their homes and "resettling" them elsewhere. Incomprehensible! The last time I recall the term "resettling" being used was during the Holocaust. Now a Jewish Prime Minister of the Jewish State who has already used the Jewish Army and the Jewish Police to knock down a Jewish synagogue in a Jewish community is going to show his traitorous, perfidious behavior once again on May 1st. If he succeeds, this must become a fast day in the Jewish calendar! 83 years and the only thing that has changed is that its now Jewish "leaders" hurting Jews on a broad scale. Sharon Hachutza! We are truly a deranged people! To Go To Top

IS ISRAEL HALTING ALIYAH? Posted by Michael Freund, March 12, 2004.

This was written by Avraham Shmuel Lewin, Jewish Press Israel Correspondent. It appeared in the Jewish Press today. It's entitled: "CHARGE: INTERIOR MINISTRY BARRING IMMIGRATION FROM THREE COUNTRIES." It is archived at http://www.thejewishpress.com/news_article.asp?article=3486 TEL AVIV - Israeli Interior Minister Avraham Poraz, a member of the secularist Shinui party, has reportedly said that immigration to Israel from Ethiopia, India and Peru will be frozen because immigrants from those countries undergo only Orthodox conversions and many choose to live in Judea and Samaria. Poraz made the statement to leaders of Amishav, a group founded in 1975 to reach out to people of Jewish ancestry who are interested in returning to the Jewish fold. Amishav director Michael Freund told The Jewish Press that there are currently 7,000 to 8,000 individuals of the Bnei Menashe group in northeastern India who claim they are descendants of the tribe of Menashe. "In the past decade we have brought more than 800 of this group to Israel. Most of them live in Gush Katif, Kiryat Arba or Sheve Shomron," he said. "We are an Orthodox organization - everything is done according to Jewish law in full coordination with the Israeli chief rabbinate," Freund added. He said that when they arrive in Israel, the immigrants undergo a full conversion by the chief rabbinate. The vast majority - 98 to 99 percent - remain religious and serve in the army. Two members of the Bnei Menashe community have received rabbinical ordination. The late Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook urged the founding of Amishav, according to Freund. In 1975 Rabbi Kook heard Rabbi Eliyahu Avichayil of Jerusalem lecturing about the Ten Lost Tribes, and he called him over and told him to go find them. "I must admit," says Freund, "that at first I was very skeptical about this whole thing of lost tribes, and approached it as a matter of helping true converts. "However, after I visited their community in India myself over two years ago and studied their customs and spoke with them, I am convinced that they do have a historical connection to Am Yisrael." Freund told The Jewish Press that Amishav had arranged for a meeting between the Bnei Menashe leaders and Minister Poraz, and that Poraz made it clear that he was not happy with the fact that they all undergo Orthodox conversion. He would like to see them undergo a Reform or Conservative conversion, Freund said. Poraz, he added, is also unhappy with the fact that most live in settlements in Judea, Samaria or Gaza. "So because of those two issues he has frozen this aliyah - and this is something we are fighting to change. My goal is that by the end of this decade all of those 7,000-8,000 people will be living in Israel as Jews. "And we will achieve it regardless of what Poraz says." Attempts to obtain a statement from the Interior Ministry were unsuccessful. Amishav also works with other population groups, including descendants of marranos in Spain and Portugal. Asked how he knows their claims are legitimate, Freund said, "In some cases there are people who have an old tradition in their family who were told that every Friday afternoon their grandmother would go into the basement and light candles in secret. In other cases there are people who did genealogical searches, who went to the archives of the Inquisition of Madrid and Barcelona. "The Inquistion, much like the Nazis, were very meticulous at keeping records of everything they did. And these people researched their families and can show you with documents that their ancestors were Jews. Many of them are brought up as Christians, and when they discover that they are Jews they go through an identity crisis." Freund said that rabbis sent by Amishav to Spain and Portugal receive calls and letters every day from Spaniards who say, "We might be descended from Jews. What do we do? Where do I get more information?" This doesn't mean they are all interested in becoming Jews. It can be plain genealogy or intellectual curiosity, he said. "I feel that we the Jewish people, have a historical, moral and religious responsibility towards these people because their ancestors were kidnapped and torn away from us against their will by the Catholic Church. Now their descendants are grappling and trying to understand what it means that their ancestors were once Jews. "We owe them to at least send them the information. What they choose to do with it is their decision," Freund said. Michael Freund served as Deputy Director of Communications & Policy Planning in the Prime Minister's Office under former premier Binyamin Netanyahu. He is currently Director of Amishav, which reaches out and assists "lost Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people. To Go To Top

AL MANAR, THE VOICE OF HEZBOLLAH, ON AMERICAN AIRWAVES Posted by Diana Muir, March 11, 2004.

Al Manar is broadcasting in the U.S. I believe that public access stations nationwide are broadcasting a program that is illegal under Treasury Department rules governing commerce with a listed terrorist organization (Hezbollah) and with a proscribed nation (Iran.) The program is available nationwide via Dish TV and Direct TV Satellite services, and over many PEG (public access cable) stations, including http://www.mnn.org (Manhattan), http://www.NewTV.org (Newton, MA) and others. The cable television program, "Mosaic: World News from the Middle East", is editing, and broadcasting clips from Al Manar Television (the official voice of Hezbollah) and translating from Farsi, editing and broadcasting clips from Iranian National Television, along with other stations in the Middle East. They are broadcast as part of a daily half-hour "mosaic" of news clips over many public access (PEG) television channels. The Mosaic schedule is on World Link TV (http://www.worldlinktv.org/mosaic/index.php3), a network with a leftwing political agenda. The Treasury Dept. has ruled that it is forbidden to enhance, edit, translate, or market material from listed terrorist organizations and proscribed nations. (see rulings below) If the rules can be extrapolated from printed matter to television programs, I believe that what Mosaic is doing may be prohibited. Mosaic translates some Iranian material from Farsi and probably can be said to "enhance" and "edit" the material as it selects and fits the sundry clips into a 29 minute format. There is also a prohibition on marketing material from banned countries and listed terrorist organizations, and the producers of Mosaic actively promote their program on radical list-servers and in the Arab-American media.... I live in Newton, Massachusetts, where an individual with extreme political views, Arthur Obermayer, has recently arranged for Mosaic to be carried on our Public Access cable channel. Our City Attorney believes that if it inquires into the legality of broadcasting Al Manar that the City will violate the civil rights of the individual who requested that the program be screened on our PEG channel. I am therefore writing to you in the hope that you will explore the question of whether the broadcast of Al Manar by the Mosaic program is against the law. And, I hope, spur the Treasure Department to look into the matter. The relevant Department is Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Treasury Annex, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. Washington, DC 20220 Sincerely yours, Diana Appelbaum ADDITIONAL MATERIAL (1) These are excerpts from an article in the New York Times, February 28, 2004, entitled Treasury Department Is Warning Publishers of the Perils of Criminal Editing of the Enemy, written by Adam Liptak. New York Times. The complete article is archived at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/28/national/28PUBL.html "Writers often grumble about the criminal things editors do to their prose. The federal government has recently weighed in on the same issue - literally. It has warned publishers they may face grave legal consequences for editing manuscripts from Iran and other disfavored nations, on the ground that such tinkering amounts to trading with the enemy." "Tara Bradshaw, a Treasury Department spokeswoman, confirmed the restrictions on manuscripts from Iran in a statement. Banned activities include, she wrote, 'collaboration on and editing of the manuscripts, the selection of reviewers, and facilitation of a review resulting in substantive enhancements or alterations to the manuscripts.' " (2) The Treasury Department ruled in the case of an American company wishing to post the WEB pages of its Iranian customers on its WEB site: "as long as the U.S. company does not provide any marketing services to customers in Iran or substantively enhance information provided by Iranian customers." This is an excerpt from the Treasury Department ruling: Similarly, the exemption for information and informational materials does not authorize the provision of marketing or business consulting services, including without limitation services to market, produce or co-produce, create, or assist in the creation of information or informational materials. Inherent in the publication of a book are marketing, distribution, artistic, advertising and other services not exempt from the prohibitions of ## 560.201, 560.204, and 560.206. Thus, you may not publish books in the United States on behalf of a person in Iran, nor may a person in Iran publish books on your behalf. A summary of the ITR is enclosed. If you have any additional questions about the economic sanctions programs administered by OFAC, you may refer to our web site at www.treas.gov/ofac or call our office at (202)622-2480. The ruling can be found at (http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/eotffc/ofac/rulings/ia121603.pdf). Diana Muir is author of "Reflections in Bullough's Pond: Economy and Ecosystem in New England." To Go To Top

GIBSON'S MOVIE Posted by Leo Rennert, March 11, 2004.

This came to me from a cousin in Israel. Regarding Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ." Do you know what is completely missing from the movie? Palestinians, that's what! Not one time in the entire movie do you see one single Palestinian anywhere. Romans and Jews... that's about it. No Palestinians. And do you know why there are no Palestinians in the movie? Do you know why it's just Romans and Jews? Because that's pretty much all you had in those parts in those days. Romans and Jews. No Palestinians. The Palestinians didn't arrive on the scene until after 1967. To Go To Top

VOTE ON UNILATERAL WITHDRAWAL Posted by Susie Dym, March 11, 2004.

On Monday there is a vote on unilateral withdrawal. The official report on withdrawal by General Eiland warns specifically that the unilateral withdrawal will cause a rise in terrrorism and more rockets. It will also cut in half the distance between hostile Africa and vulnerable Tel-Aviv. Please send emails to ALL the Chavrei Knesset - click on the addresses below - saying in the Subject Line simply: VOTE AGAINST SHARON'S HITNATKUT ON MONDAY!!! Even better (altho slower) is to fax and best of all is to telephone. Faxes can be sent any time, telephone calls are on Monday only - the MKs are not there on Fridays or Sundays. The vote will be at about 4 o'clock. MANY THANX FOR YOUR HELP - please let me know by hitting the reply button what you managed to get done just so we'll have some vague idea... SUSIE DYM (MATTOT ARIM) Here is a link to telephone and fax numbers: http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/heb/telephones.asp Here are the email addresses: Netanyahu:sar@mof.gov.il; Silvan Shalom: sar@mfa.gov.il; Mafdal - Orlev: sar@molsa.gov.il; Mafdal - Eitam: sar@moch.gov.il; National Union - Elon: sar@tourism.gov.il; Likud - Hanegbi: sar@mops.gov.il; Shinui - Zandberg: sar@most.gov.il; Likud - Y. Katz: sar@moag.gov.il; Likud - Z. Livni: sar@moia.gov.il; Likud - Limor Livnat: sar@education.gov.il; National Union - Avigdor Liberman: sar@mot.gov.il Likud - Mofaz: sar@mod.gov.il; Likud - Naveh: sar@matat.gov.il; Likud - Gidon Ezra: gezra@knesset.gov.il; Sharansky: sars@int.gov.il; Likud MKs: nblumenthal@knesset.gov.il; ggamliel@knesset.gov.il; yshteinitz@knesset.gov.il; mikieitn@knesset.gov.il; david-levi@knesset.gov.il; ravraham@knesest.gov.il; gsaar@knesset.gov.il dbenlulu@knesset.gov.il mwahaba@knesset.gov.il; eyatom@knesset.gov.il eaflalo@knesset.gov.il mcachlon@knesset.gov.il mgorlovsky@knesset.gov.il gerdan@knesset.gov.il rbaron@knesset.gov.il egavrieli@knesset.gov.il yhazan@knesset.gov.il ahirshzon@knesset.gov.il lnes@knesset.gov.il rrivlin@knesset.gov.il hkatz@knesset.gov.il akara@knesset.gov.il yedelstein@knesset.gov.il msolodkin@knesset.gov.il yedri@kensset.gov.il zaevb@knesset.gov.il mratzon@knesset.gov.il Ichud Leumi - National Union MKs: yshtern@knesset.gov.il nudelman@knesset.gov.il uria@knesset.gov.il aeldad@knesset.gov.il elicohen@knesset.gov.il zhendel@knesset.gov.il Mafdal MKs: syahalom@knesset.gov.il gfinkelshtein@knesset.gov.il nslominski@knesset.gov.il Shas: eyishay@knesset.gov.il slomob@knesset.gov.il ndahan@knesset.gov.il amncohen@knesset.gov.il izchakec@knesset.gov.il dazulay@knesset.gov.il mnahari@knesset.gov.il yvaknin@knesset.gov.il yperetz@knesset.gov.il nzeev@knesset.gov.il ymargi@knesset.gov.il davidt@knesset.gov.il Yahadut haTorah: ylitzman@knesset.gov.il ravitz@knesset.gov.il mporush@knesset.gov.il mgafni@knesset.gov.il eichler@knesset.gov.il Shinui: vbrailovsky@knesset.gov.il hdoron@knesset.gov.il iyasinov@Knesset.gov.il To Go To Top

BOMBS AND "ROOT CAUSES" Posted by JINSA, March 11, 2004.

This is JINSA Report #394. More than 200 Shi'ite Moslems were killed in three separate bombings in mosques in Iraq and Pakistan on a Shi'ite holy day as the CPA was coming close to finalizing a provisional constitution. More than 170 Spaniards were killed in bombings of commuter lines and rail stations days before the Spanish general election. More than 900 Israelis have been killed since the start of the current Palestinian war in 2000, many in bombings of buses, hotels and cafes. This begs for a discussion of "root causes." The attacks in Iraq and Pakistan were generally attributed to terrorists wanting to foment war between Shi'ites and Sunnis, or to provoke Shi'ite counterattacks. The goal would be turmoil to keep Iraq from moving toward a peaceful, representative government. There are two early views on the Spanish bombings. Some blame Basque separatist terrorists wanting to disrupt the election (bombings are not unknown to the ETA). The Basques deny it and say "Arab resistance elements" were responsible, i.e., al-Qaeda, many members of which have been arrested in Spain by a government that strongly supported the war in Iraq. In neither case has anyone suggested, nor will they, that Spain or the Shi'ites brought the carnage upon themselves and that perhaps they should consider the unhappiness of people who could be driven to such extremes by Spanish or Shi'ite behavior. And don't wait for sympathetic stories about oppressed Basques, or sad Ba'athists, with a plea for an end to the "cycle of violence." [Gen. John Abizaid, Commander of the US Central Command, bizarrely was asked after the mosque bombings whether there was a civil war going on in Iraq. Since one side was blowing things up and the other side was dying, Gen. Abizaid wisely rejected the notion.] In the case of Israel, of course, things are different. So how do we find a root cause? The root is not in the perceived injustice perpetrated upon the terrorist by a nasty power - that holds only for Israel. The root is in the belief that terror works. This has been enhanced by large-scale indifference to Jewish victims, and worse, by the apparent belief that the bomber must have had a point. This surely made other potential bombers think they would get sympathetic treatment or at least cowardly acquiescence in their demands from the "international community." The Court at The Hague is, after all, judging Israel, not those who blew up commuters on a bus or teenagers in a disco or a bride the night before her wedding. All bombs, all bombers, all causes promoted by bombing are illegitimate - including bombs aimed at Jews. The war against terrorists and the states that harbor and support them is the same war both materially and ideologically - for Jews, for Spaniards, for Americans, for Iraqis. Only when the world gets to that point will we have begun to destroy the root causes of international terrorism. The JINSA Reports are published by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (http://www.jinsa.org). To subscribe, email info@jinsa.org To Go To Top

SPREADING RADICAL ISLAM Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 11, 2004.

Most Indonesians were Muslim but few were militant. The moderates rejected US warnings that Islamists were active and plotting. It took the Bali bombings to convince them. Moderate Muslims could contain their radicals by showing a compatibility of Islam with pluralism and democracy. Defeating Islamism there requires a two-prong approach: (1) Demonstrating terrorism's menace to Muslim civilization, ordinary Muslims, and the world order; and (2) Investing in the economy, education, women's welfare and taking a public role, legal institutions, and private business. Such investment would produce a middle class anxious to preserve the conditions of tolerance that let it arise. Unfortunately Indonesia's economy is stagnant (Robert W. Hefner, American Jewish Congress Monthly, 11/2003, p.3). The theory is well-stated. Where are the empirical evidence and examples of a successful Muslim consensus for moderation? If the theory has validity, it still would be insufficient. What matter the economic and social conditions, if the country allows free entry of Islamists or Saudi funding for madrassas, mosques, and imams to nurture a radical movement? Europe, whose economies and social conditions far surpass those from which its Muslims immigrated, is in danger of being submerged by radical Islam. Movement of enemies and their funds must be controlled. Rep. Peter King asserted that 85% of US mosques foster extremist views. Muslim groups denounced the claim as fanning anti-Muslim sentiment in order to sell books about the subject (NY Sun, 3/8, p.2). Although S. Arabia subsidizes some US Muslim groups and many mosques, and although those groups defend terrorism, they denounce EVERY criticism of radical Islam as incitement against ALL of Islam. They do not rebut criticism factually. One would think from the statements of those groups that, despite the many Islamist crimes, from attacks to fundraising for terrorism here, there are no Islamists in the US. They are exploiting the politically correct irrationality that takes seriously every charge of prejudice. If one criticizes radical, bigoted Islam, one gets denounced as prejudiced. The denouncers, however, fail to denounce as bigoted by radical Islam, which murders large numbers of people with whom it disagrees. The challenge to Americans is to outgrow political correctness and not be swayed by charges of prejudice. We must not be manipulated to let down our defenses against Islamism. Right now, Americans approach the war on terrorism in two ways. "The liberal, in which an absurd understanding of cause and effect, the habit of capitulation to foreign influence, a mild and perpetual anti-Americanism, reflexive allergies to military spending, and a theological aversion to self-defense all lead to policies that are hard to differentiate from surrender. And the conservative, in which everything must be all right as long as a self-declared conservative is in the White House - no matter how badly the war is run; no matter that a Republican administration in electoral fear leans left and breaks its promise to restore the military; and no matter that because the Sec. of Defense decided that he need not be able to fight two wars at once, an adequate reserve does not exist to deal with, for example, N. Korea." A key problem with US policy is reluctance to identify the enemy. If unnamed, then un-gauged. Terrorists conceal their links to Islamic states, so as to shields those states from counter-attack. Our enemy, however, is not the terrorist, alone, but the intelligence service that smoothes his path, the country that harbors his training camps and finances him, the media that turns him into a model, and the people who celebrate his slaughter of us. We should deny his country the privilege of being shielded. The Arab countries in particular must be given an ultimatum to stop supporting terrorism or cease to exist as states. Islamism has advantages in: patience in working for results, willingness for martyrdom, international solidarity, a coherent ideology, and a strategy of advancing Islamic destiny. For this they are fighting now in the Philippines, Indonesia, Sinkiang, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Chechnya, Iraq, Land of Israel, Macedonia, Algeria, Sudan, sub-Saharan Africa, and terrorism elsewhere without limits or humane restraint. We must not let them demoralize us. Islamism has disadvantages in subjective thinking, schisms, absolutism, inefficiency, and technological backwardness. They can be fatalistic about defeat. Therefore, the US should overawe them with our might, not dispatch small expeditions to fight on the cheap (Mark Helprin, Claremont Review of books, Fall 2003, p.6). There were other ideas that see Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

DISENGAGEMENT PROPOSAL Posted by Eliezar Edwards, March 11, 2004.

This very excellent writeup was in today's Arutz-7 (http://www.israelnationalnews.html). 1. DISENGAGEMENT PROPOSAL: RAZE JEWISH GAZA AND 4 SHOMRON TOWNS NOW, MORE LATER More than two months after Prime Minister Sharon first announced his plan to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza, Maariv reports its details today. The main points: All of the Jewish residents in Gaza are to be expelled, except those living in the three northern communities; another 15-20 communities in Judea and Samaria will be destroyed, if certain conditions are fulfilled; and the Philadelphi route along the Sinai-Gaza border will remain under Israeli control and will even be expanded. Maariv's report was based on a document drawn up, at Prime Minister Sharon's request, by National Security Advisor Giora Eiland, with recommendations for the implementation of the disengagement plan. Sharon first outlined what he saw as the goals of the plan, including the following: * a long-term improvement of the security situation * prevention of a split in the nation * enlisting of international support * maintaining the PA's obligation to fulfill its Road Map obligations * causing the PA leadership to feel that it had lost something by not reaching an agreement * reduction of the impression that Israel had retreated under fire * reasonable long-term economic cost * and more. Regarding Gaza, the Eiland team recommended leaving only the towns of Nisanit, Dugit, and Elei Sinai, which are territorially adjacent to the Ashkelon-Yad Mordechai area. No IDF forces are to remain in Gaza - except for the Philadelphi route - and the homes in the Jewish towns should not be destroyed. The Philadelphi route is the Israeli-Egyptian border, running south from the Mediterranean Sea through the city of Rafiach, where the terrorists dig their arms-smuggling tunnels; Eiland recommends that this area be retained by Israel and even expanded. The report takes into account that strong and possibly violent opposition should be expected on the part of the "settlers." The Eiland report lists the dangers to result from the implementation of the withdrawal: * escalation of terrorism as a result of increased terrorist motivation * the destabilization of the PA leadership - which, the report notes, could also be an advantage * a takeover of Gaza by Hamas * improved Kassam rocket capabilities * a humanitarian crisis in the PA areas, into which Israel could be dragged * harm to Israeli intelligence-gathering capabilities. The report recommends taking the "large but not complete" step of uprooting 15-20 more communities in order to create the possibility of an independent PA state, though not yet a final-status arrangement. This can be accomplished, according to the Eiland report, only if the Americans and the international community agree to the following: a) that such a move is sufficient to create the possibility of a PA state, and b) to demand of the PA leadership that it fight terrorism. A withdrawal from most of Yesha and the destruction of the communities there - what the report calls the "complete move" - is possible only if the Americans agree that this will create Israel's final and recognized borders. As noted, the recommendation is to "present the Americans with the 'large but not complete' alternative as the goal, and to conduct negotiations to achieve formal international support for this move, with a commitment that there will be no further diplomatic demands on Israel until the PA state to be established implements the first stage of the Bush vision and the Road Map." Possibly most important are the unanswered questions, some of which are listed towards the end of the report. These include: * With whom do we talk in Gaza, and about what? * What about the PA airport and seaport in Gaza [that Israel has long believed will be used to bring in hoards of weapons]? * How will the plan affect Israeli-Arabs [and their suspected dual loyalties]? * How will Arabs get from Gaza to Judea/Samaria? * What of the tens of thousands of Gazan Arabs who work in Israel? 2. THE PHILADELPHI ROUTE Contrary to the Eiland recommendations, Prime Minister Sharon is said to favor a full-scale withdrawal from all of Gaza, including the Philadelphi route. It is widely understood that this is because the Prime Minister does not wish to enter into another "Shaba Farms" situation, as exists on the Lebanese border. The Hizbullah terrorists use the Shaba Farms as an excuse to continue their violence against Israel, claiming that Israel's remainder in even one small part of contested territory is tantamount to remaining in all of it. (Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah has also said, however, that "even if Israel withdraws from Lebanon and the Golan, we will not lay down our arms. We will continue to fight until all of Palestine is liberated." [Der Spiegel, Oct. 1997]) Contrary to the above position, security experts warn that giving up the Philadelphi route in Gaza will enable terrorists to freely smuggle weapons into Gaza. "Already today," Col. (res.) Moshe Hager told Arutz-7, "Ashkelon, Netivot and even the outskirts of Be'er Sheva are in katyusha range from Gaza. Withdrawing from Gaza will turn southwestern Israel into a front line just as the north is today - but it will be worse. Because in the north, we face terrorists sponsored by Iran and Syria, but in the south we will be dealing with an enemy sponsored by the European Union, which won't allow Israel to respond... Gaza will turn into a large-scale arsenal of bombs and weapons... There is no way to fight terrorism except by attacking it, and this is why we must remain in Gaza. We must fight it consistently and obstinately, in order that we not turn into a hostage of Hamas, as we are a hostage of Hizbullah in the north." To Go To Top

DEMOCRATIC PROCESS IN THE ONLY DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST Posted by Elias Yrachmiel, March 11, 2004.

Peres and entourage were in Gush Katif during the election campaign in 1996. An aide expressed astonishment that the Jewish population had increased by 15% since the signing of Oslo: "We thought after Oslo they (The Jews) would leave." Peres replied, "Never mind. A few good massacres and they will leave." "Only last week did a member of the Knesset reveal a secret Sharon plan to brutally evacuate the Jewish communities of Katif, by ordering the cutoff of their water, electricity and protection. Sharon's foreign press spokesman would not deny the veracity of that document." (See below.) This is from David Bedein, Bureau Chief, Israel Resource News Agency and Research Fellow at The Center For Near East Policy Research in Wellesley, Massachusetts. On March 9, 1629, England's King Charles I dissolved Parliament; he did not call it back for 11 years. On March 9, 2004, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ignored Israel's Parliament and informed officials of US intelligence that he would begin to dismantle 17 Israeli farming communities and 1200 Israeli families of the Gaza district as of May 1, 2004, despite the fact that there has been no Israeli cabinet discussion or decision, no Knesset parliamentary discussion or decision and no Israel National Security Council discussion or decision on the matter. Sharon did not bother to inform anyone in Israel of his time table. Only last week did a member of the Knesset reveal a secret Sharon plan to brutally evacuate the Jewish communities of Katif, by ordering the cutoff of their water, electricity and protection. Sharon's foreign press spokesman would not deny the veracity of that document. This is not the first time that Sharon has ignored the decision-making process of Israel's democracy. In May, 2003, the Israeli cabinet approved the "road map" prepared by the quartet - the US, the UN, the EU and Russia. However, the cabinet added fourteen clear constraints, designed to protect Israel's absolute autonomy and security. Yet Sharon has made it a policy of saying and reiterating that "Israel accepts the road map", as if it does so without any qualms. The question has been asked: Can Sharon implement such a radical policy without Israeli Government, Knesset or Israel National Security Council approval? The answer is yes. Even without government approval, with Gaza still under military rule, it would be no problem to make life so uncomfortable for the Jews in Katif that they could not survive there for one day. At this point, Israel's democratic system is being challenged. Only in a totalitarian regime would we witness a regime that would force its citizens out of land and homes that they have lawfully bought and farmed. The Israel Labor Party, instead of fulfilling its responsibility as the leading opposition party to the imperious way in which Sharon is handling his role as Prime Minister. Instead, the Labor Party is waiting in the wings to join the government, if and when the National Religious Party and National Union Party decide to leave the government. However, National Union Party leader Avigdor Lieberman conducted a press conference this week and claimed that that the majority of the 41 Likud Party members now oppose Sharon's policy. The option for activism seems to focus on the Likud party members and the Likud cabinet ministers. This week, the Likud grew to 41 members, with the addition of MK David Tal, formerly with the Shas Party, elected to the last Knesset with the now defunct AM ECHAD party, which has joined forces with the Likud. Only when Likud members and their staffers are literally swamped with telephone calls to their cell phones and their Knesset offices, registered letters that will force their staffers to stand in the post office to sign for hundreds of registered letters each day, hundreds of visits to their offices at the Knesset, and vigils outside of their homes. Diaspora Jewry can also make its voice heard. The Jewish communities of Katif should be viewed by the Diaspora as Jewish communities under the threat and the black cloud of eradication. Diaspora communities can "twin" with the 21 Jewish farming communities of Katif, and become honorary citizens of Katif, which can export its produce and its plea for survival to every community in the world. The most important thing: At a time when the current prime minister of Israel has announced his intention to abandon some of Israel's citizens, these Israeli citizens need to know that they are not alone. Professor Ya'akov Golbert and Yrachmiel ben Menachem Mendel Elias, Co-directors of Netzah Yisrael Lo Yeshaqer. To Go To Top

TAXPAYER-FINANCED JIHAD AT NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Poisoning the American Mind Posted by Steven Plaut, March 11, 2004.

This was written by Daniel Doran, who is president of The Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress, an independent pro-market policy think tank. It was an opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post Online yesterday. My February 12th column ("NPR'S anti-Israel bias") demonstrated how National Public Radio repeatedly promoted the Arab propaganda line by distorting or ignoring facts. This drew many responses. Most felt that a warning about NPR's success in defaming Israel, especially among inexperienced, idealistic university students, was long overdue. But even more instructive, perhaps, were the few angry responses I received from avid NPR listeners who identify strongly with the station's message and are convinced that NPR's stance against Israel is justified. One of these listeners suggested a comparison between Israel's occupation of the Arabs and Nazi oppression. And indeed it is easy to see how NPR listeners would jump to such a conclusion. NPR regularly presents Israelis as brutal oppressors, and Israel as a gratuitous and arbitrary occupying power. NPR does not explain how the conflict came about as a result of habitual violence by Arab leadership bent on Israel's destruction and how six million Israelis are still threatened by an Arab world with more than 100 million people in 22 militant dictatorships; how Israel is constantly battered by terrorism. Israel is actually acting with great restraint. No other country would allow its citizens to be murdered and let the murderers operate openly and survive. But let's look at a sample letter and see what anti-Israeli frame of mind NPR promotes. A listener, Dr. Phil Brewer, writes: Let's see, how many illegal Jewish settlements are there in Gaza and the West Bank? How many more illegal settlements and settlers are there than 10 years ago? Five years ago? One year ago? ... How many homes a month is the Israeli army demolishing this year? Are you not ashamed to write about the "constantly repeated falsehood of Arab propagandists and their many media advocates that Israel is guilty of stealing Palestinian lands?" The only falsehood I see is your denial of the reality of the situation. Oh, I get it. The Palestinians aren't really human beings. They don't have the right to anything. They've only been living on "your" land for several centuries. Now you're back, it's time for them to go. Funny, another group of people was saying the same thing about 60 years ago. It's certainly better to be the oppressor than the oppressed. Or is it? Okay, okay, maybe I misunderstood. Fine. Just tell me this: When someone goes to a farm that a family has owned for countless generations, bulldozes the house, the olive trees, the vineyard, makes the inhabitants leave, then builds a new house, a road, and a security perimeter for another family, just what is that called? In my language it's called theft. What language do you speak? HERE IS my response to Dr. Brewer: I am not surprised that as a NPR listener you are probably not aware of certain facts. The Arab-Israeli conflict is not about territory or occupation, it is about racist jingoistic Arab dictators not wanting any Jews living in what they consider holy Muslim territory anywhere in the Middle East. You have appointed yourself prosecutor, judge, and executioner, but this does not make your statement about the illegality of settlements truthful. I invite you to study the history of the Versailles peace conference, where a deal was struck whereby the Arabs received 99% of former Ottoman territories with the understanding that 1% will become a national Jewish home. The Arabs took the 99% and then reneged on the deal. After Jordan was torn from what was to be a Jewish national home by the British in the 1920's, the Palestinians were offered a second independent state in 1948 and in 1999. Twice their leadership refused to accept a state, preferring to wage a war with the express aim of destroying "the Zionist entity" and throwing its Jewish inhabitants into the sea. Palestinians waged a terror war against Israel, before Jordan lost the West Bank, which it forcibly annexed in 1948, and after the 1993 Oslo Accords freed most of them from Israeli occupation. Hamas, as well as other Arab radicals, say openly that even if Israel withdrew to the 1967 lines, they would still continue to attack it until the whole land of Palestine was free of Jews. You make severe accusations about Israelis going to Arab farms, destroying them and taking them over. I hope you can cite one concrete instance where this has happened. But spare us the lies of Arab propagandists (remember the fabricated charges about the Jenin "massacre"). Just cite facts. Where did it happen and when? The fact is that to this day, 93% of the land mass west of the Jordan is empty and government owned. There is plenty of room for many more people there, Arabs and Jews. All Israeli settlements, which occupy less than three percent of "the West Bank," were constructed on such empty lands. They displaced few Arabs. Could you tell me what is wrong with Israelis living in disputed areas of the West bank, while more than one million Arabs are living among the Jews in land that belongs to Israel? Only bigots cannot tolerate others among them. I leave you to deal with your own conscience regarding the not so subtle allusion you made to what happened 60 years ago, trying to draw a really dastardly comparison between one of the most horrendous atrocities in history and the Palestinian predicament, mostly self-inflicted. I invite you to consider the proposition that there is a better way to deal with the true tragedy of the Palestinian people than by supporting dictatorships, the terrorists and criminals who call themselves the Palestinian Authority, people who have inflicted infinitely more harm and suffering on the Palestinians than anyone else ever would or could, though this is apparently not reported by NPR. To Go To Top

EMPTY WORDS TO JUSTIFY RETREAT? Posted by Aaron Lerner, March 11, 2004.

It would appear that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has little to be concerned about regarding the vote that will follow his Knesset address on his retreat plan next Monday. It was no secret that Sharon was obligated to make the presentation after MK Zahava Gal-On (Meretz) collected the signatures of 40 MKs on a letter demanding that he address the Knesset on his plan, but the media, and in turn, to my regret, the political leadership in the national camp, essentially ignored the story. So when Sharon meets with the politicians in the hours before the vote when the event is within their collective attention spans, he will probably be able to convince them that since the speech makes clear that nothing has been decided yet that they do not have to vote against the speech but at most either abstain or leave the room. I fear, however, that whatever assurances Mr. Sharon may give his colleagues before the address won't mean a thing afterwards as his team spins the vote into a preliminary endorsement of the plan that Sharon can take with him to Washington. It is becoming increasingly clear that Sharon will not have any truly tangible "achievements" that could come close to justifying the incredibly dangerous retreats he is so determined to implement. What then can he show to the Israeli public to justify the retreat? It would appear that Prime Minister Sharon's team is developing an exchange of letters with U.S. President Bush that Sharon that it plans to spin as major American commitments that not only justify a retreat but make it possible to market the retreat to the Israeli public as a quid pro quo for new American commitments. It is believed that Sharon's team would like to present two key "achievements" to the Israeli public: #1 An American commitment to support Israeli military action, if future conditions require, in the areas Israel leaves. #2 Some kind of American commitment that could be interpreted as a revolutionary change in America's consistent stand against any settlement activity in the territories. The first "achievement" could be readily provided by America with wording similar to the Memorandum of Agreement between the Governments of the United States of America and the State of Israel March 26, 1979 that accompanied the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty: "The United States will provide support it deems appropriate for proper actions taken by Israel in its exercise of its sovereign right to self defense." [In the 1979 Memorandum: "The United States will provide support it deems appropriate for proper actions taken by Israel in response to such demonstrated violations of the Treaty of Peace."] The significance of the two loopholes: "it deems appropriate" and "proper actions" will be beyond the comprehension of the Israeli public - as was the case when the original Memorandum was presented to Israelis as part of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty "package". The second "achievement" could be provided by an American letter taking note of an Israeli letter explaining that while the Government of Israel will not organize the relocation of settlers from the Gaza Strip (and the 10 West Bank settlements in the first retreat) to other settlements in the West Bank that Israel has no control on how settlers use the monetary compensation that they receive for their homes. Israel could then reiterate its interpretation of the settlement construction "freeze" as prohibiting the expansion of settlements beyond their current building lines - emphasizing that Israel reiterates its commitment to the Road Map and that none of the aforesaid construction will in any way limit negotiations on the final arrangements with the Palestinians. The American note, under such a scheme, would also reiterate the American position regarding settlement construction and note that no American funds can be used in such activity. The fact that America "noted" Israel's position could be marketed as acceptance regardless of the wording of the remainder of the letter. If the Bush team is willing to throw a huge bone in Sharon's direction it could even cite a quote from an American official in the past that UN Security Council Resolution 242 does not require a complete withdrawal to the Green Line (the word "all" was intentionally left out of "[W]ithdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories" in 242), offsetting the quote with an interpretation of the significance of the phrase "recognized boundaries" in the 242 line on the " right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries" that would imply that the Arabs have a veto on the location of the border. It should be noted that since the documents in such a scheme would be in English and also longer that two sentences that Sharon's team could assume, based on past experience, that the overwhelming majority of Israelis - and Israeli politicians - will never actually read the text by themselves but instead will rely on whatever interpretation is given to the text by the media. Dr. Aaron Lerner is Director of IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis) (http://www.imra.org.il). To Go To Top

AN OPEN LETTER TO ALAN DERSHOWITZ Posted by IsrAlert, March 11, 2004.

This was written by Isaac Kohn and appeared in Arutz Sheva yesterday. It takes Alan Dershowitz to task for continuing to espouse peaceful coexistence when the Arabs have made this impossible. (See Dershowitz' article "Bigotry Outside Faneuil Hall", a blog-ed for March 10, 2000 below.) It is archived at the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies Maccabean Online (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Dear Mr. Dershowitz, I read your article ("Bigotry Outside Faneuil Hall") describing the unbridled hatred you faced the other day. The sheer ecstasy exhibited by the virulent anti-Semitic human roaches shook your sensibilities. After all, in your own words, the political path you walk envisions a Palestinian State alongside that of Israel, dismantling of most settlements and the 'end of Israel's occupation.' How dare they! You voiced your outrage and consternation. How dare they attempt - and succeed - in silencing a voice of political reason and compromise? How dare they, indeed? Mr. Dershowitz: I will not attempt to joust with you. Your reputation precedes you as an eloquent writer, speaker and a 'no-nonsense-fighter' for equality. 'Truth and Justice' is the two-pronged saber you wield in your defense of the socially 'downtrodden.' Who am I to attempt to compete in the war of words with a champion of the written expression? Yet, my intestines are rebelling against the seething bitterness as the innards threaten to heave. I must therefore respond in form to what I conceive is stupidity spiced with an equal dosage of assumed ignorance. Please accept my apology in advance if you find my response offensive. But I can think of no other way to do so. Mr. Dershowitz: I am sure that your reading talents are at least as proficient as your writing skills. I suggest, therefore, that you begin to read - thoroughly, I may suggest - some of the written truths that you and other blind, liberal mannequins are so apt at pretending do not exist. Read about Arab threats to eradicate any and every Jew in every inch of what they have coined "Palestine". Read, Mr. Dershowitz, read their schoolbooks, their indoctrination of their youth, the mission of the terror organizations. Tell me, Mr. Dershowitz, have you read even one line suggesting 'peaceful coexistence' with the State of Israel? Tell me, Mr. Dershowitz, when they vow to throw us into the sea, what exactly does that mean? How do you, liberal equality seeker, interpret the anti-Semitic speeches we hear thundering in mosques across the world? Is there something wrong with your liberal comprehension or have you turned on the selective-hearing mechanism? Which part of "kill the Jews" don't you understand? How long will you pretend that what you hear is not what is really meant? Wake up, Mr. Dershowitz. Wake up and smell the coffee. Your liberalism offends my sensibilities because it assumes that everyone else on the other side of the political road is infected with gullibility; whereas, it is a sickness inherent to the Left. And gullibility does not become your persona. With the nurtured concept that hiding one's head in the sand of ignorance will eliminate the problem, your sense of liberalism insists that the rest march to the beat you set. But pretense can not replace truth. Welcome to the world of reality, Mr. Dershowitz. Perhaps it's time to acknowledge that the over-toasted liberalism is destructive. My political feelings and leanings are the exact opposite of yours. I do not believe in compromising on our land. I do not believe in giving up an inch of our G-d-given territories. I resent and reject the idea of Jews being transferred against their will. I believe in the slogan 'Never Again.' And I do not consider it an 'occupation', but rather the 'liberation' of our ancestral inheritance. Yet, they hate you, Mr. Dershowitz, as much as they hate me, because creating another terrorist state is not the issue. Neither are the settlements or the supposed 'occupation.' The issue, Mr. Dershowitz, is the mere fact that we, Jews, exist. The unfortunate fact that we have survived the Holocaust must be corrected, and the 'Final Solution' must come to its final conclusion. Anything less, Mr. Dershowitz, is seen as an affront to the Islamofacism of today. The Jew must be eradicated in order that Allah be properly sanctified. Perhaps the concept is new to you, but they kill us because we are Jews, Mr. Dershowitz, not because of settlements, fences or presumed and imagined atrocities. Perhaps it's time to register for a refresher course, to be aptly titled, 'Reality and Facts for Dreamers,' a course designed to awaken those slumbering in self-induced sleep. The benefits derived from said course may become the catalysts needed in reviving Jewish self-worth and preservation. Historical facts coming unhinged in an attempt to rewrite the past do not change these certainties. And one of those certainties, Mr. Dershowitz, is the confirmation of the deeds to these lands, which are G-d-granted, signed, sealed and delivered. Any talk of abandoning any of these lands is blasphemy, sacrilegious and criminal. And uprooting the settlers, Mr. Dershowitz, in the lexicon of the well-read, is called 'transfer' or 'ethnic cleansing' - phraseology you abhor in the context of presumed Palestinian rights. But how can one compare the transfer of Jews to the uprooting of members of the non-existent Palestinian people? We, Jews, after all, are quite experienced in the business of being transferred and uprooted. The world, in collusion with yellow-striped self-hating so-called 'liberal Jews' will understand and fully accept the expulsion of Jews. In fact, I can clearly envision the worldwide joy as the images of Jews being forcibly uprooted from their homes are beamed across TV screens. You saw it, Mr. Dershowitz. You wrote how grateful you were that the police officer escorted you away lest a physical confrontation would have ensued. They refused to let you speak! You, an eloquent speaker for the rights of the Palestinians, were confronted with inexplicable hate. Your attempts to 'explain' your views were met with sarcasm and a solid wall of cynicism. The near-riot reminded you of the Nazi rallies seventy years ago in Berlin. No kidding? Isn't it fabulous when the hot-air balloon of apparent imbecility is burst by the dagger of malevolence allowing all of the accumulated misconceptions to evaporate into thin air? Why doesn't it surprise those of us who have not been 'educated' in the art of self deception? Why are we not surprised, Mr. Dershowitz, that Jewish retreat in the face of adversity is understood for what it is, namely, cowardice? How is it that pompous, stuffed-suited liberals are surprised by what we, uneducated, unread 'radicals' take for granted? Has it anything to do, perhaps, with a mind so infected with self-importance that it refuses to see the in-coming storm? Mr. Dershowitz: Islamofascism is nothing new, but with time it grew and sprouted. Before 1948, there were no 'occupied territories', no 'settlements', no 'unwarranted hardships against the Palestinian population'. But I doubt the need to refresh your memory. I'm sure that the historical facts are deeply ingrained in your educated memory. Our enemies hate us because? I guess we can fill in the gap with quite a few reasons. But the only one that makes real sense and is as old as Judaism itself, is the simple fact that one is a Jew. Everything else is simply another wrapping to disguise the truth beneath. Yet, I do not fear my enemies. They will not succeed. What I fear most, Mr. Dershowitz, is the illusion being built by wayward liberals amongst us. The smokescreen you create in order to blind the rest of us from seeing the bitter truth is far more dangerous than the ovens in Dachau. They, our enemies, are tampering with the physical. The liberals, on the other hand, are playing with our minds and lulling us into a stupor of illusory well-being. Many of us, perhaps, are fools, Mr. Dershowitz, to accept the picture of future tranquillity the liberals are painting. But G-d, in his infinite wisdom, sends us a somber reminder. Purim was one. Perhaps Faneuil Hall was just another. To Go To Top

BIGOTRY OUTSIDE FANEUIL HALL Posted by Steven Plaut, March 10, 2004.

This appeared on IsraelInsider (http://www.israelinsider.com) yesterday. It was written by Alan M. Dershowitz, who has written a recent book "The Case For Israel." defending Israel's right to exist and refuting venomous myths and lies about Israel. The other day, I experienced violent anti-Semitism for the first time in my adult life. It took place in front of Faneuil Hall, the birthplace of American independence and liberty. I was receiving a justice award from the Jewish Council on Public Affairs and delivering a talk on "Civil Liberties in the Age of Terrorism" from the podium of that historic hall. When I left, award in hand, I was accosted by a group of screaming, angry young men and women carrying virulently anti-Israel signs. The protest was denominated a peace event and was sponsored by a group calling themselves by the vague name ACT-MA. Their website describes them as promoting peace and justice and associated with larger solidarity organizations, but there was nothing peaceful or just about this protest. Although the signs they were carrying were not anti-Semitic, the sign carriers were shouting epithets at me that crossed the line from civility to bigotry. "Dershowitz and Hitler, just the same, the only difference is the name." The sin that, in the opinion of the screamers, warranted this comparison between me and the man who murdered dozens of my family members was my support for Israel. It was irrelevant to these chanters that I also support a Palestinian state, the end of the Israeli occupation and the dismantling of most of the settlements. They also shouted "Dershowitz and Gibbels [sic], just the same, the only difference is the name" - not even knowing how to pronounce the name of the anti-Semitic Nazi propagandist. One sign carrier shouted that Jews who support Israel are worse than Nazis. Another demanded that I be tortured and killed. It wasn't only their words; it was the hatred in their eyes. If a dozen Boston police were not protecting me, I have little doubt I would have been physically attacked. Their eyes were ablaze with fanatical zeal. The feminist writer Phyllis Chesler aptly described the hatred often directed against Israel and supporters of the Jewish state by some young people as eroticized. That is what I saw: passionate hatred, ecstatic hatred, orgasmic hatred. It was beyond mere differences of opinion. When I looked into their faces, I could imagine young Nazis in the 1930s in Hitler's Germany. They had no doubt that they were right and that I was pure evil for my support of the Jewish state, despite my public disagreement with some of Israel's policies and despite my support for Palestinian statehood. There was no place for nuance here. It was black and white, good versus evil, and any Jew who supported Israel was pure evil, deserving of torture, violence, and whatever fate Hitler and Goebbels deserved. I do not believe that criticism of Israel, or even of Zionism, is tantamount to anti-Semitism and I have so written over the years. But what happened in front of Faneuil Hall went beyond criticism. To be sure, it was constitutionally protected speech, just as the Nazi march through Skokie was constitutionally protected speech. But the shouting was plainly calculated to intimidate. An aura of violence was in the air, and had the police not been there, I would not have been able to express any views counter to theirs. As it turned out, I was not actually able to express any of my opinions, even in response to their outrageous mischaracterization of my views or their comparisons of me to the most evil men in the world. When I turned to answer one of the bigoted chants, the police officer in charge gently but firmly insisted that I walk directly to my car and not engage them. It was an order, reasonably calculated to assure my safety, and it was right. The officer got into my car with me and only got out a few blocks away. The intimidation had succeeded. I was silenced, and their horrible message went unanswered in the plaza near Faneuil Hall. That is not the way the marketplace of ideas is supposed to work. It is not the conception of liberty for which Sam and John Adams spoke so eloquently and controversially in and around Faneuil Hall more than two hundred years ago. It was far more reminiscent of rallies conducted by Nazi thugs in Berlin seventy years ago. I will not be silenced nor intimidated. The shouters know that. Their goal is to silence and intimidate others, who do not get police protection and do not have access to the media. Let the debate about Israel and the Palestinians continue unabated. Let all views be heard. The shouters in front of Faneuil Hall wanted no views but their own to be seen and heard. They succeeded that day in front of Faneuil Hall, as they have on some university campuses, but the marketplace of ideas is far too vibrant to be shut down by a bunch of self-righteous thugs shouting ugly and bigoted epithets. To Go To Top

JEWISH TERROR ON THE MARCH Posted by Ariel Natan Pasko, March 10, 2004.

A new "Jewish Terror Underground" has been caught recently in Israel. Not a bunch of "settlers" or "religious fanatics," but secular Jews living in "Red" Haifa - traditionally left-wing dominated - and a Russian immigrant in Ashdod. What will the Israeli Left and anti-religious forces say now? Back in 1987, I began working on a story about the future in Israel. It was to be a political novel set in 1996. In it, most of Labor and Likud - the two largest political parties in Israel - had merged into the National Unity Party. Under the influence of political reform and raising the vote threshold to enter the Knesset -Israel's Parliament - the left of Labor and the right of Likud had separated, and merged with further-left and further-right parties. Rabbi Meir Kahane - of the far-right Kach Party - a rising threat to many, in 1987, was no longer on the political scene. Arafat had a Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza. And, just as the novel opens, King Hussein of Jordan dies. Arafat then leads a movement to unite, Palestine and Jordan, while Israel's own fifth columnists, leftist politicians Shulamit Aloni, Yossi Sarid, and others, call for full civil rights and equality for the Israeli Arabs or autonomy. They themselves - the Israeli Arabs - in the mean time call for secession from Israel, and attachment to Palestine. Within this setting, terrorism against Jews has risen to atrocity proportions. Just as things begin to really explode, the main character, a former "Peace Now" leader, enters center stage as a reconstituted right-wing extremist AKA "Jewish Terrorist," who organizes a movement to suppress the enemies of the Jews. Let's fast forward to 2004 and do a scorecard thing... Well, Likud and Labor haven't merged yet, but with Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's behavior lately, there's less and less difference between "Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee," they've "settled" into the middle of the political spectrum. The Left and Right have pegged out contrarian positions that are irreconcilable. Rabbi Kahane is no longer with us, though his ideas continue to hold an audience. Old Yasser is "Rais - El Presidente" of the Palestinian Authority, we call him the "Chairman". And good old latrine building - with Jewish gravestones when he controlled the Old City of Jerusalem - King Hussein, is dead as a doornail. Israel's own Leftist goof-ups, have in fact apologetically "explained away" how a member of Israel's own parliament - Arab MK Azmi Bishara - could travel to Syria and give encouragement to Hezbollah. I guess it's not far from their own travels to El-Presidente Arafat in the Ramallah Hilton - i.e. Mukatah Prison - to give him encouragement to stay the cours Funny, they haven't been arrested and tried either. Israeli Arabs, well they haven't really decided yet. Some - with increasing frequency - are helping Palestinian terrorist groups to kill Jews, yet when Sharon recently suggested that maybe some Arab cities in the north - near the West Bank - might be transferred to Palestinian Authority - not thrown out of their homes as some dis-informationists in the media portrayed it as - just a change of citizenship, in the final agreement for peace - they started ranting how they like being Israelis. Go know! Now we get to the main character, well maybe not a "Peace Now" leader, but in 2004, Israel has it's own "Hiloni" - i.e. secular - terrorist, and his name is Eliran Golan. At 22 he's been busy planting bombs against Arabs in the Haifa area for the last few years. He admitted to planting a bomb a few months ago under the car of Arab Member of Knesset, Issam Mahoul, which exploded as his wife pulled out of their driveway, no one was hurt. According to the police, under interrogation, Golan indicated he planned to carry out terror attacks against MK Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash), MK Ahmed Tibi (Hadash), and MK Azmi Bishara (Balad-National Democratic Alliance). He was caught with about 40 bombs in various stages of being built, police also found hand grenades, homemade pistols, and a homemade mortar in his basement. Eliran has been quoted as saying, "I hate Arabs." His father, Meir, a civilian employee of the military, and a Russian immigrant, Yevgeny Grossman - who Eliran knew from a Security Guard course - have also been arrested on suspicion of being involved in the new "Jewish Underground". Eliran Golan called it, "Mador Ahad," or "Section One". A few months ago, addressing the Herzliya Conference on Israeli security and strength, Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter, said that "Jewish terrorists" killed seven Arabs and wounded 19, in the first two years of the Oslo war. Eliran and his "group" were more active earlier in the war, and just recently re-activated before being caught. Who knows if those attacks Dichter referred to, were carried out by Eliran's group? But, contrast that with the more than 900 murdered, and over 6,000 injured, by Arab terror against Jews since the outbreak of the Oslo War in September 2000. While I was reading the articles about Eliran Golan on the net, I realized there's a pattern here. In 1984, there was the so-called "Jewish Underground". In 1994, there was Dr. Baruch Goldstein and his Hebron thing, and now this. It seems to take Jews ten years to get fed up with being killed, waiting for the government to stop Arab terror, before responding. What is it, the "Jewish Ten Year Itch"??? But all jokes aside, for most of recorded time, Israelis on the Left of the political spectrum - and predominantly secular - have relished persecuting the Right, especially the Religious Right - i.e. "settlers" - blaming them for all the political violence in Israel. Most of the previous "Jewish Terrorists" we know of - compared to Hamas they aren't even beginners - were religious Jews, and the Israeli media never misses a chance to remind us. Well now, they have one of their own. All greasy haired, in his "punk" spiked hair cut. Let's just see how much the media plays with this one... P.S. I can tell you, they've already started playing it down. At first they were calling it a "Jewish Underground," but now they're whitewashing it, and it's a "Hate Crime". But wait, if they can find a religious connection or even better, a "settler" connection, you'll hear about it big time. The Israel Police blamed it on "pure hatred of Arabs," and MK Roman Bromfman - of the far-left Yahad Party - said, "See what hate can do?" Gee, I wish they concerned themselves more, with the suicidal-genocidal hate-bombs directed against Jews. I think it's up to over 1,400 Jews murdered now, since "peace" broke out in 1993. See what hate can do? Don't get me wrong, I don't support people going out and taking the law into their own hands, the right to direct self-defense being an exception. I believe the government should fight wars - see my articles, "The Call of the Israeli Apache" and "There is Only a Military Solution" for example. For what other reason does government exist, but to defend it's citizens? But I can understand people's frustration with the Israeli government, in not doing enough to put an end to Arab Terror. In fact, as I see it, that's why the 1984 and 1994 attacks occurred also, to pre-empt or stop, Arab attacks on Jews. Why else would Jews hurt Arabs? Even Rabbi Kahane used to say, "I don't hate Arabs, I love Jews," and he didn't want to kill them, just pay them to leave Israel, so they would stop hurting Jews. By the way, "Jewish Terrorists" in the past twenty years, haven't killed as many Arabs, as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the al-Aksa Brigades, the Tanzim, the PFLP and the DFLP, kill Jews in a month or two. After the latest round of "Jewish Terrorists" were caught a few months ago, the so-called "Bat Ayin Gang" and a few others, the Israeli media quickly reminded us ad nauseum, all were "settlers" and religious Jews. Well, now it's spread to the more secular elements of Israeli society, even those living inside the "Green Line," i.e. pre-1967 Israel. I sure hope the Israeli government gets it, that Jews won't tolerate being killed ruthlessly forever. The Israeli government better step up heavy-handed actions against the enemies of the Jewish People, or face a growing willingness on the part of Israeli Jews - religious or secular - to take the law into their own hands. Eliran Golan has already admitted the attacks. He's broken the barrier. Secular Jews and the Left in Israel can no longer claim only "settlers" and religious Jews are terrorists. "Jewish Terrorism" has become an equal opportunity project... Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst & consultant. He has a Master's Degree in International Relations and Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites, in newspapers, and can be read at: www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko To Go To Top

MOST WANTED TERRORIST, MOHAMMED DIEF: Israel's End Is Near Posted by IsrAlert, March 10, 2004.

This was written by Ellis Shuman and appeared on Israel Insider (http://web.israelinsider.com) yesterday. Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas's military wing Izz a-Din al-Kassam, has topped Israel's most wanted list for years. (Islam Online.net) Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, the master terrorist who tops Israel's most wanted list, issued an Al Qaida-like audiotape yesterday in which he declared that an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip would be a huge victory. Hamas officials vowed to continue their attacks after an Israeli withdrawal "to liberate the rest of Palestine." Hamas claimed responsibility for last year's suicide bombing attack at the Mike's Place bar in Tel Aviv. Deif is apparently fully recovered from moderate wounds suffered in an IAF helicopter strike at a car in Gaza City on September 26, 2002, media sources reported. Israeli officials first stated with "99% certainty" that Deif had been killed, but later backed away from their claims. Palestinian officials admitted that Deif had been wounded and was in hiding. A videotape showed a dazed and bleeding Deif being dragged away from the car wreckage. In a tape played last night on Channel Two television, Deif could be heard saying, "The criminal [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon, who always refused peaceful solutions and viewed them as treason against Israel, and who came to eliminate the resistance within 100 days - his campaign slogan being 'Netzarim is like Tel Aviv' - this same Sharon has now decided on a total evacuation and full withdrawal from Gaza, with nothing in return. That is one of the biggest signs of victory." "Israel's fall is near, with Allah's help, and it is closer than they imagine. We will see victory with our very own eyes. Martyrdom is the ultimate desire of Palestine's elderly, young, and female young " Deif said. Deif declared that Hamas engineers are hard at work perfecting explosive devices and rockets. He said that Hamas receives hundreds of volunteer suicide-bombers, including entire families, and that the number of joint operations with other Palestinian groups will increase. Deif added that Hamas had seriously considered a hudna (temporary ceasefire) with Israel last year, but the IDF's pressure on his organization in the Gaza Strip led to its "collapse." "Here we are seeing tens of thousands of people dying around us in earthquakes, fires, disasters, and many other unnatural deaths. With Allah's aid, we will die as shahids (martyrs)," he said. Meanwhile, Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official in Lebanon, said his organization would continue its attacks on Israel even after the planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in order to "liberate the rest of Palestine." Hamdan denied media reports that Hamas planned to take over the Gaza Strip after an Israeli withdrawal, saying that they were aimed at driving a wedge between his movement and the Palestinian Authority. Another Hamas official strongly denied a Maariv report according to which Hamas is setting up a new military wing called the "popular army," the Jerusalem Post reported. "We have only one armed wing, and that's the Izz-a-Din al-Kassam Brigades," the official noted. "The report about a so-called popular army is completely untrue." Hamas claims responsibility for Mike's Place bombing Hamas claimed yesterday, for the first time, responsibility for the terror attack at Tel Aviv's Mike's Place pub on April 30, 2003. Three people - Yanai Weiss, 46, Ran Baron, 24, and Caroline Dominique Hess, 29 - died in the bombing. British citizens Omar Khan Sharif and Asif Mohammed Hanif, who entered Israel from the Gaza Strip disguised as "peace activists," perpetrated the suicide bombing. Hanif blew himself up when a security guard prevented him from entering the pub. Sharif was also wearing an explosive belt that malfunctioned; he scuffled with bystanders and fled the scene. His body was later discovered floating in the Mediterranean off the Tel Aviv coast. A leaflet issued by Hamas's military wing yesterday noted that the attack was carried out in retaliation for the targeted killing on March 8, 2003, of Izz a-Din al-Kassam cofounder Ibrahim Maqadma. The leaflet also noted: "This is a clear message to the Zionists: The al-Kassam Brigades will continue to fight Israel as long as the massacre of the Palestinian people continues." On a videotape released by Hamas, Hanif is seen stating in English: "What can I say? The real terrorists are the Israelis. They are really insane, killing Muslims every day. I would be honored to kill Jews." Sharif, who is holding a Kalashnikov rifle, is seen saying: "We wanted to offer our souls to Allah and take revenge against the Jews and the Crusaders." For the first time, Hamas presented one of its actions as part of a global Islamic struggle and for the first time, it used non-Palestinian suicide bombers, Arnon Regular wrote in Haaretz today. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

A MALICIOUS TARNISHING CAMPAIGN IN A "BENEVOLENT" UN MASK Posted by Marco Delmar, March 10, 2004.

Underlining their "warning/accusations", they hint Israel is the "bad guy". And in the same breath, they demand ever more from a "good guy" Israel! This is a news item by Cynthia Johnston: GAZA, March 10 (Reuters) - A senior U.N. official appealed to Israel not to carry out a scorched-earth policy if it pulls out of Gaza and urged it to build economic ties to help Palestinians instead. Peter Hansen, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said that if Jewish settlements in Gaza were left intact rather than bulldozed, it would be an immediate benefit to suffering Palestinians. "If all the Palestinians would find on their land after Israeli withdrawal would be smouldering ruins in the settlements, I don't think they would be particularly enamoured by that," Hansen told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. Under a unilateral separation plan to be carried out if peace talks fail, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he plans to uproot 7,500 Israelis living in Gaza settlements scattered among 1.3 million Palestinians. My first reaction is anger at the article, at the plan: I think: TOUGH. LET THEM BUILD THEIR OWN SETTLEMENTS...THEY WHO BLEW UP ISRAELI HOMES DON'T NEED HOUSING PROVIDED BY ISRAEL. WHERE'S UN FUNDING WHEN IT COMES TO ARAB NON TERROR 'PROJECTS'? But then I examine the news item. There is a perenial bad guy, but it isn't Israel. (1) Meet Peter Hansen: Is 'Peter Hansen' an "honest" UN worker? Not in the slightest. He has a long bloody record of twisting around facts. This is what the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies (CSS) (http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/default.htm) writes: UNRWA... despite its affiliation to the United Nations, conducts a distinctly anti-Israeli policy, strongly biased in favor of the Palestinian side. UNRWA persistently closes its eyes as far as murderous terrorist activities against Israel are concerned, and harshly criticizes Israel, counter to the rules of neutrality and impartiality as befit an organization affiliated to the United Nations. This attitude was clearly reflected in the reports released by UNRWA and the statements issued by its Commissioner- General Peter Hansen during Operation "Defensive Shield", as published on the Agency's website (www.un.org/unrwa). The following are some excerpts of the criticism voiced against the Israeli military operations, including gross distortions of the events that took place in this area: * "...Israel needs to end this pitiless assault on civilian refugee camps." (Note: the Israeli attack targeted terrorists who had established their bases inside the refugee camps, and not the camps themselves!); 'We are getting reports of pure horror.'" (Note: the Israeli Defense Forces are guided by the strictest humanitarian standards, and did not perform any acts of horror.) (Statement by Peter Hansen, 7 April 2002). * "I had hoped that the horror stories of Jenin were exaggerated... but I am afraid these were not exaggerated and that Jenin camp residents lived through a human catastrophe that have few parallels in recent history [sic]" (Statement by Peter Hansen, 18 April 2002). [Ed note: When the Arab bombast had died down, it turned out there was no massacre. In fact, Israel had foolishly used an attack strategy that minimized damage to the Arabs but put their own soldiers at risk - many soldiers died, unnecessarily.] (http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/bu/dec/htm/dec_07.htm). (2)The issue of "evacuating" The Israeli Govt. announces it will itself evacuate its historic indigenous places for peace sake. The U.N doesn't complain about the ethnic cleansing of Jews from their land. They just push for more. (3)Subject: "Humanitarism" Of course the UN representative would not utter a word about the real daily humanitarian efforts of the IDF for the very (murdererous) population that seeks to ethnic cleanse all NON Arab Muslims. (http://www.israelnewsagency.com/idfhumanitarianisrael1007.html). The UN recognizes that Israel is the good guy; it has shown more restrained than any other country would have. That's exactly why the UN have the 'guts' and nerve to demand more and more from Israel. It isn't enough for them that Sharon plans to give up Israel's historical areas plus its buffer zones, which are of life-saving importance. To Go To Top

HOW TO DEAL WITH THE WESTERN PALESTINIAN ARABS Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 10, 2004.

Mideastern savagery is called part of a "clash of civilizations." No, it is a war by barbarism against all civilization. The fighting in the Oslo war is called a "cycle of violence" by both sides. No, it is unremitting Arab atrocity and overly measured Israeli pursuit of terrorists. A falsely alleged Israeli "occupation" is blamed for the violence. Israeli withdrawal from the area in which 95% of Arafat's Arabs live allowed the P.A. to mount the violence. Since gaining control over that area in return for vowing non-violence, the PLO and affiliates have murdered 1300 Israelis, mostly civilians. Another false notion is that the terrorism is inflicted by independent terrorist organizations. No, most of it comes from Arafat's gangs, whose members are the same type of people and sometimes the same individuals as in the non-PLO gangs. It is na've to believe that Arafat is trying to prevent terrorism (or may come to try to prevent it). Arafat is an old hand at committing terrorism and denying involvement in it. Palestinian Arab barbarity keeps getting worse. They use ambulances to transport weapons and terrorists, then complain that Israel is inhumane when it searches P.A. ambulances at checkpoints. The world expects those ambulances to be waved through for free Israeli medical service. (Why free? Why does Israel allow any through! Israel suffers from misplaced humanitarianism. Israel: when the cobra is coiled to strike, don't be an environmentalist.) The P.A. has been attempting to shoot down civilian airliners landing at Ben-Gurion airport. It Israel withdrew from the areas that the US suggests, the airliners would be sitting ducks over P.A. territory! Israel needs the territory, for without it, it is narrower at its waist than the length of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Judea, Samaria and Gaza, that people think would make most of a country, is about the size of Queens, NY. Now the P.A. deploys teenagers and mothers in suicide bombings. Many parents express pride in those crimes (and get paid off for them). "Israel has been too cowardly to execute or even expel these family members as deterrent to future murderers." The Arabs publicly celebrate the atrocities. P.A. children march with explosive belts on. P.A. media broadcasts Nazi-like propaganda against Jews, and exhorts Arabs to murder Jewish civilians. The P.A. is trying to escalate the violence into an existential threat to Israel. The PLO is seeking chemical weapons of mass destruction. The PLO has a military-industrial complex, producing rockets. When Israel demolishes the arms smuggling tunnels, it is accused of being inhuman. The State Dept. does not condemn the tunnels from Egypt. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

PURIM Posted by Moshe Saperstein, March 10, 2004.

1 March 2004 It's 3a.m and I am too exhausted to sleep. La Passionara seems little better off. She wakes every few minutes, groans about how exhausted she is, then dozes off again. A beautiful starry night, but I can't enjoy it without a cigar and I've been smoking so heavily that an automatic defense mechanism is in play, ie, just putting a cigar to my lips makes me gag. If we hadn't both been so physically and mentally exhausted Shabbat would have been lovely. Oshri and Tamar were fine and Ohr and Hadar, the Wrecking Crew, were their normally rambunctious selves. Tracking sand into the house, leaving little handprints on both sides of the picture windows, spreading soiled diapers detectable only by their scent, all the things that normally amuse but now just irritated. Perhaps it was the shooting, almost constant, that had us on edge. The house damaged Friday morning, just a hefty hand grenade's throw from here, set the tone. So many people came to offer assistance that announcements were made in all the shuls Friday night asking visitors to stay away. These weren't gawkers, simply people wanting to help. And if that doesn't tell you about our community, the following should: Rachel went over there shortly after the explosion and was taken aside by the lady of the house. Amid debris and general chaos, the lady informed Rachel that her daughter had begun keeping company with a young man from Jerusalem, and Rachel had been given as a character reference by the young man's family. Imagine the scene. Billowing smoke. Army, police, firemen, neighbors. The house a shambles. And this woman was concerned about who her daughter was seeing. Rachel suggested there might be a more appropriate time to talk but the lady said "Material things are immaterial. The house will be rebuilt. Tell me about the boy's family." Talk about people having their heads screwed on straight? The shooting intensified with the end of Shabbat and we hustled the kids out of here. I think they were a bit put out but we hardly cared. As we surveyed the cleaning and the laundry - a floor to ceiling pyramid of bedclothes and dirty towels - it is fortunate that we were too exhausted to cry. We agreed, very uncharacteristic for Rachel, not to tackle the mess until Sunday. At which point the phone rang and we were told a group is coming Sunday afternoon. At which point we cried. I began doing laundry at 4:30am and had six loads done, dried and put away by 11am thanks to unseasonably hot weather. Tiny handprints had disappeared by noon, the floors were washed, and our sniffers were in overdrive trying to detect loaded diapers. We even managed an hour or two of rest by the time our visitors appeared. A friendly, `hometown' group led by Rachel's close friend Helen Freedman of Americans For a Safe Israel and half a dozen supporters. The questions they asked were probing, sometimes difficult, but the absence of hostility allowed us to enjoy ourselves. As they left the phone rang. "Yes? yes? yes?" Rachel said then turned to me. "A Dutch reporter, tomorrow, 11am." He left a little while ago. Pleasant fellow, more knowledgeable than most. Lucky we don't read Dutch. 3.3.04 We were supposed to have been interviewed by "officials from the German Embassy" but we cancelled as we had to meet a plane at Ben Gurion Airport. Too bad. I had been practicing my goose step, learned from watching John Cleese as Basil Fawlty. Alas I'm no longer equipped for the Zieg Heil salute. We were going to discuss concepts like judenrein und untermenschen and Rachel was going to offer then a special brew, Zyklon-B-Tea. Rachel's niece Jeryl was arriving with two of her three kids, Donny and Shevi, for the bat-mitzvah of Ari and Efrat's eldest, Doriah. Though they aren't coming to us until Friday Rachel wanted to greet them. Dafna and Gur, who live relatively close to the airport, also turned up to welcome them. Oshri, who was taking them to his home, arrived late in his army jeep. He stopped in a No Parking area and tried to run into the terminal. Because he was wearing a sidearm and carrying an M-16 the security guards refused him entry. So he called me on my mobile phone and I came outside, took his weapons and stood next to the jeep while he ran inside. No sooner was he inside when a security guard comes up to me: "Move this jeep!" he barked. I held up my stump and claw. He muttered under his breath and went off to harass someone else. 4.3.04 It is The Fast of Esther and we should be in somber mood, especially as there is an Evil Decree hanging over us that we pray the Almighty will annul. But Rachel and I are still on a high from last night in Jerusalem and have hardly slept since arriving home shortly before 1am. The bat-mitzvah was supposed to start at 7pm but didn't get under way until 8:30. Of course nothing starts on time in Israel, but there were extra-cultural reasons this time. Specifically, fifty "hot reports" on terrorist attacks about to happen, many of them centered on the area of Jerusalem. I had nagged Rachel into leaving early and we arrived at 6:45. There had been heavy traffic but no undue delays. Fifteen minutes later police roadblocks were set up on every road entering the city, plus roadblocks on main arteries in the city. Delays of 45 to 60 minutes were common. Police cars, sirens wailing and lights flashing, were everywhere. Helicopters hovered overhead. "Do you think this was arranged so we should feel at home?" Rachel asked after getting yet another call from a guest stuck at a roadblock. However long the delay, our wait was well rewarded. The bat-mitzvah was a dream. Tasteful without ostentation, emotional without kitsch, warmth without embarrassment. That most difficult of critics, La Passionara, antennae tuned to detect the unaesthetic, was agog with joy. "I'm so proud of them!" she kept repeating all evening. And I was proud of her. She delivered a wonderful speech which I can recite in my sleep as she was practicing at home for the past week Tonight she made it sound fresh and unrehearsed. The personal highlight for me came when Doriah gave small gifts to each of her grandparents. Each gift was preceded by a short spoken appreciation. With mine - a box of cigars - Doriah thanked me for her peculiar sense of humor and mentioned several incidents that left most listeners confused but had us in hysterics. One example: "Grandma Rachel taught me how to decorate food. You taught me to use food as decoration." A reference to my `shtick' of putting carrot sticks, celery, etc, in my nose and ears at the table. Embarrassing to adults, hilarious to the kids. An extraordinary evening. Being surrounded by friends and relatives, particularly children and grandchildren, makes up for a lot of pain. Unseasonably hot weather has made the Fast very difficult. And it has brought out the flies and ants in huge numbers. At 5am I turned the light on in the kitchen to see walls and floor covered by flying ants. Rachel is tense enough as it is, so I had to work quickly and quietly. Two cans of Raid and a solid scrubbing later, things were back to normal. Speaking of flies and ants, an Israel TV crew is wandering around and everyone has been asked not to cooperate with them. The reporter is Haim Yavin, a well-known television personality, and he is accompanied by a producer who is a founder of the pro-Arab Women in Black and a scriptwriter who is salaried by Peace Now. They will be looking for anyone willing to say "Give me some money and I'll get out of here." Why should we assist them in blackening our name? The weekend and all of next week are shaping up to be very busy. Jeryl and kids will be with us for Shabbat, then all the children and grandchildren are scheduled to arrive for the Sunday afternoon Purim Feast. On Tuesday a crew from ABC is coming. When I pointed out that Peter Jennings, he of the Palestinian wife, is openly hostile, I was told the producer promises us a fair hearing. We'll see. Wednesday the Voice of America is here, I can't imagine why, and on Thursday we are to receive a busload of thirty [30!] reporters from who-knows-where. We keep telling ourselves that this is war and we are soldiers doing our duty. But, however much our delivery improves with each performance, physically and emotionally we have been running on empty for some time and I don't know how much longer we can keep going. 5.4 Early this morning I went to the French patisserie to pick up chalot, rugelach, and a variety of frog delicacies. At this hour the streets are generally near empty but today they were filled with happy kids in costumes and adults trying to shop early. If the hugs I exchanged with adults were stronger than usual, that was the sole indication that our situation is affecting us. The people here are not superhuman. That's what makes their bravery and determination so special. They give us the strength to go on. Jeryl and Co. are due about two pm. Jeryl promised her husband that she and the kids would only come here in an armored vehicle, and depart the same way. Rachel has arranged for an armored van and will be meeting them at the Kissufim check post. We are praying for a quiet Shabbat. 7.4 Thick clouds and the threat of rain. We'll be eighteen people in a few hours when the children and grandchildren arrive. The prospect of the kids being unable to cavort on the lawn is too awful to contemplate. Jeryl & Co. are not only perfect house guests but they have been helping La P decorate the place with crepe paper and balloons. One aspect of their visit has been embarrassing: they appear to remember everything I've written and keep making references to events I have long forgotten. This does nothing for my credibility. Donny has been complaining that it's too quiet here. After all our letters he was psyched up for mortars, flares, shooting. And there has been nothing, much to our relief and his disappointment. May it stay this way all day. I'm really too old for riotous megilla readings. After last night I'm determined to enjoy Purim in an old age home next year. This morning I took Donny to the 6a.m minyan, filled with misanthropes like myself, for a quick megilla reading. The sole noteworthy Haman-induced noise came from cellphones, which issued bleeps, whistles, sirens and snippets of classical music on command. I regret to say the novelty wore off quickly. early evening: The house is blessedly, eerily quiet. Rachel is with Jeryl & Co. on the armored van to Kissufim, with Ari, Oshri and Dafna following. At Kissufim, Jeryl & Co. will switch to Dafna's car for the trip to Jerusalem, while the van returns Rachel here. It was a wonderful afternoon. The kids get along, their kids get along, Jeryl and kids blended in perfectly. Some highlights: The food was great, as was to be expected from Rachel, and the weather improved so Oshri played soccer with some of the children on the lawn. During the soccer game - Oshri and Aluma (9) vs. Donny (15) and Akiva (7 tomorrow) - Akiva, who didn't mind when Oshri scored on him had a fit when his sister Aluma scored and bit her on the arm. After some consultation it was decided that no tetanus shot would be necessary. The game, however, was over, much to the relief of the lawn. Nature took a beating in other ways. Hadar (2) wreaked havoc on the snail population, Yehuda (3.5) displayed a budding talent for construction/destruction by leveling a sand dune with two small plastic buckets, whose contents were then deposited on our porch.. Ohr (4) buried a row of flowers, explaining that this will help them grow. Gur (4), whacking a Cedar of Lebanon with a broomstick, explained that the tree had attacked him and he was only defending himself. This gave me tremendous pleasure as Dafna brags that he goes to a Reform/humanist pre-kindergarten where he is taught to love all living things. Interestingly the cats, who balance curiosity and caution when there are visitors and watch from a careful distance, were totally terrorized by the quantity of newcomers and nowhere to be seen. A pogrom was carried out against the ceramic animals. The large turtle was decapitated, a turkey was reduced to dust and a chicken had an eye poked out. Best of all, Shevi (11), and our bat-mitzvah girl Doriah were having the time of their lives giving Grandma Rachel a facial and doing grandma's nails. Though Shevi speaks little Hebrew and Doriah even less English they were clearly working well together. But their pleasure was as nothing compared to that of Grandma Rachel. As I stand here surveying the clean-up job facing La P and myself, I can only express apologies to the Wrecking Crew for ascribing to them special powers of destruction. It must be a family trait. 8.4 I was so hyper that I couldn't sleep and spent much of the night sweeping and washing the floors and doing laundry. Quite therapeutic. Coming home from shul at 6:40 this morning I heard two loud explosions followed by machinegun fire and an announcement for everyone to stay indoors. I don't think I'll tell Donny about this. He wouldn't believe it in any case. Can the BBC be fair? Can the Pope practice birth control? The answer to both questions is, theoretically yes, practically no. Rachel answered a call from a young woman representing the BBC who claimed she wanted to do "a sympathetic piece on the Jewish settlers in Gaza." When Rachel expressed skepticism Mz. BBC attempted to establish her bona fides by saying she was recommended by a friend of Rachel's. Whom Rachel later called for verification and learned the friend hadn't the foggiest notion who Mz. BBC was. Rachel later learned that other native English-speakers here had received similar calls, with similar bogus references. When the Messiah comes the Balestine Broadcasting Corporation will do favorable stories about us. Not before. 9.4 We are as wrung out as dishrags. ABC left a few hours ago and we have been trying to get some rest. The reporter was John Yang who showed up with his British producer and Australian cameraman. They were pleasant, Rachel was at her passionate best, and I was - how shall I put it? - very shmucky. In the two hours we were performing I did all the moronic `shtick' that draw embarrassed laughter from adults, ie, giving them `the bird' with my sewn-back-on finger and walking around with a cigar up one nostril. When they left Rachel had a fit. We had learned that ours was only one of several interviews they were doing here. All would be edited into two separate segments, one lasting two minutes, the second lasting seven minutes. If we are lucky, Rachel pointed out, we might get 45 seconds of air time. So why, when we could have done our job in fifteen minutes, did I have to do my whole repertoire of nonsense and drag the proceedings out for two exhausting hours? Of course she is right. And I have no explanation other than that I am a [kosher] ham. There was one aspect that was unique to this interview. After an argument that kept us up half the night on whether or not to do it, we greeted the journalists wearing yellow Stars of David with the word `Jude'. Rachel made them of crepe paper left over from Purim. The reasoning was that as our ancestors had to wear the stars before being driven from their homes, so would we. The idea was not ours, and has been bandied about from time to time. But we certainly were the first here to do it. What effect it had on our visitors is unknown. They didn't seem fazed in the least. It certainly had a confusing effect on me. I was at once uncomfortable and embarrassed, and exhilarated and liberated. Instead of being reasonable and well-behaved Jews we were `in your face' Jews. This must be what it is like - please don't make any unwarranted inferences - to `come out of the closet'. If any of you see us on ABC's World News Tonight please let us know. 10.4 Rachel has just pointed out that I have been remiss in not mentioning the Purim sholeach manot or "shuluch munus" as we called it in the old country. From the crack of dawn through early afternoon little costumed figures appeared at the door with plastic or cardboard plates laden with goodies including bottles of wine and home-baked cookies and cakes. They would leave with a small plate of store-bought sweets. We have just never been into the "shuluch munus" scene, and actually dread it. One year in Jerusalem we tried an experiment. We prepared a single plate of goodies and forty cards saying `happy Purim from the Sapersteins'. The first person to arrive with a plate got our plate in return. We then removed the sender's card and replaced it with our own. Which process we repeated throughout the day, successfully getting through an entire Purim on a single plate. We might have made this our regular practice, but Rachel got cold feet after several calls from people complimenting her on her baking, including one who said "Your baking is just like mine." A few minutes ago we were informed that the Voice of America won't be coming today. A day off. Thank you, Merciful God! Moshe Saperstein lost an arm while fighting in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. A resident of Neve Dekalim in the Gush Katif area of the Gaza Strip, Moshe was 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. His wife, Rachel (aka. La Passionara, La P.) published a booklet last year for families dealing with terror victims. He is one of a group of diarists who are recording their experiences living in today's Israel. Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times by Judy Lash Balint (Gefen) is available for purchase from www.israelbooks.com To Go To Top

VANUNU, TENNENBOIM AND FEDERMAN Posted by Herbert B. Sunshine, March 10, 2004.

This is an article by David Wilder, who is spokesman for the Hebron Jewish community. It was published in Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com) The confinement of a patriotic Jew under adminstrative arrest is pure fascism. Freeing a traitor (Vanunu) and a criminal (Tennenboim) is madness. Participating in such folly is criminal negligence. The government of Israel is (at present) the enemy of the religious, zionist Jew. This is unpardonable. In a few weeks, atomic weapons spy Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli equivalent of the American Rosenberg couple, is due to be released from prison after serving an eighteen-year sentence. Vanunu, it might be recalled, was convicted of publicizing Israel's nuclear secrets, having been employed at the atomic power plant in Dimona. Vanunu's statements and secretly-photographed pictures caused Israel irreparable security damage. Yet, he will not be left in prison to rot for the rest of his life. Shortly, he will be set free. This, despite Vanunu's overt threats to continue revealing state secrets. During a high-level meeting concerning Vanunu a couple of weeks ago, a meeting which included Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, it was decided not to keep Vanunu in jail via an administrative detention order. According to media reports, Sharon himself made this decision. We are told that Vanunu will have a "permanent shadow" and at the first "slip of the tongue" he will be immediately incarcerated. But, until then, the traitor will be a free man. Another big-time criminal has also been making headlines: Elhanan Tennenbaum. According to a Knesset subcommittee for security and defense, the Tennenbaum case is one of the most damaging affairs Israel has ever known. It is still unclear whether Tennenbaum's escapades were strictly criminal, i.e., drug marketing, leading to his abduction by Hezbollah, or whether his original intent was to sell state secrets to our enemies. However, Tennenbaum, whose freedom from captivity cost Israel the release of dozens of terrorists, was offered, and signed, a plea-bargain deal allowing him to escape further punishment. The only condition is that his initiated activities were not security- related. It makes no difference whether or not Tennenbaum's criminal offences were, or were not security-connected. The fact is that the State of Israel is willing to allow a first-class gangster to walk freely on the streets, despite the damage he inflicted on his people. Conversely, one Israeli citizen has been rotting in an Israeli prison for almost six months, without having been indicted, without having been tried, and without having been convicted. He is the only Israeli in jail due to an administrative detention order, signed by Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz. He has been stripped of all legal due process. His wife and seven children remain virtually fatherless. His name is Noam Federman. This is not the first time I've written about Hebron resident Noam Federman. At least twice before ("Free Federman" - Oct. 5, 2003 and "Federman's Twilight Zone" - July 22, 2002) I have posted articles concerning Federman's appalling case. First, an update. Noam Federman was placed under house arrest in the summer of 2002, for ostensibly belonging to the "Bat Ayin" group, three of whom were convicted and jailed. The difference between Federman and the others was that Noam was not put on trial. He was told that his trial would commence only after the trials of the others were concluded. Six months ago, in the middle of an appeal to the Supreme Court, he was arrested while presenting his petition to the judges. The police appeared in the courtroom, handcuffed Federman, and led him away. He was placed in one of the highest security jails in Israel, in a solitary confinement cell, in the same wing with Arab criminals and others, such as Lebanese terrorists Mustapha Dirani and Sheikh Obeid (who were freed in return for Tennenbaum and the three murdered Israeli soldiers). He was denied kosher food, minimal conditions to allow normal prayer, etc. Following a lengthy hunger strike lasting months, and due to a tremendous public outcry, which included MKs and others, Federman was moved to a jail in Ashkelon and promised better conditions. Presently, he is incarcerated in a wing with Israeli criminals who have no respect for religious Judaism, he cannot properly maintain Shabbat observances or eat normal hot food on that sacred day, and is allowed to see his family only 45 minutes a week, with a guard sitting next to them to record everything said. Other prisoners in the same jail are also allowed a three-day vacation at their home every month, which Noam is denied. In addition, on the first of every "new month", other prisoners are allowed a three hour family visit. This too is forbidden to Federman. In short, without having been charged with any crime, Federman's conditions are abysmal, especially compared to others in the same prison. In a few weeks, the six month detention order will expire. In order to keep Noam Federman in jail, another order must be issued. People in Israel and around the world, Jews and gentiles alike, are working to bring about Federman's release from prison. There are several avenues open to public action: An internet petition calling for Civil Rights for Noam Federman [http://www.petitiononline.com/federman/petition.html] contains some 2,000 signatures. It will be presented to Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz in a couple of weeks, a short time before the detention order expires. Organizers have expressed a desire to see that petition reach 5,000 signatures. If you haven't signed already, please do so, today. And pass the petition link to all your friends and family, requesting that they do the same. View the new movie about Noam Federman (in Hebrew) and watch the web for other activities. (http://www.noamfederman.org and www.hebron.com/news/noamfederman.htm) Read Noam Federman's pamphlet: Know Your Legal Rights ! A guide to protecting Jewish civil liberties in the land of Israel (http://www.hebron.com/news/knowyourrights.htm). It is suspected that Noam's authoring of this booklet was one of the primary reasons for his arrest!) Bombard ministers with faxes, emails, and phone calls calling for full civil rights for Noam Federman and his release from administrative detention. * Minister of Communications Ehud Olmert - fax 02-666.2909 * Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - 02-566.4838 02-531.7697 Also call the Prime Minister (direct tel. - 02-670.5527) and the Defense Minister 03-697.5750. Demand that Federman be immediately freed from jail. Ask them: Why do Vanunu and Tennenbaum deserve legal consideration, while Noam Federman is denied even the most basic civil rights? Try to understand why Vanunu and Tennenbaum, yes; and Noam Federman, no. Herbert B. Sunshine is a retired U.S Professor of Law. He lives in Jerusalem. To Go To Top

HOW ABOUT SOME JEWISH "PASSION"? Posted by Michael Freund, March 10, 2004.

This is an article of mine from the Jerusalem Post about the reaction of American Jewish organizations to Mel Gibson's film "The Passion" and what the best response ideally should be. It turns out that Mel Gibson isn't the only one likely to make a bundle from his latest movie, The Passion. The other big beneficiary, ironically enough, will almost surely be American Jewry's so-called defense organizations, for whom Gibson's film is, pardon the pun, nothing less than a gift from heaven. After all, this is quite a story, combining controversy, celebrity, and fears of anti-Semitism. Indeed, it is exactly the kind of scenario that American Jewry's self-appointed leaders so desperately crave, offering them an opportunity to demonstrate to their donor base just how 'essential' a role they can play. More tellingly, though, the furor over The Passion provides a classic example of how the narrow interests of mainstream Jewish organizations don't always match those of the Jews whom they claim to represent. Consider, for example, that for months, even prior to The Passion's release, organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) were doing a better job of publicizing Gibson's movie than his own marketing experts could ever possibly have hoped to achieve. By engaging in a prolonged, and ultimately fruitless, campaign against the film, groups such as the ADL provided it with reams of free publicity, creating a sense of suspense and build-up that is every Hollywood producer's dream come true. Not surprisingly, just about anyone who read the papers or followed the news found his curiosity being piqued by this impending clash between American Jewish leaders and movie star Mel Gibson. Is it any wonder, then, that the film sold $127 million worth of tickets in less than two weeks? But here is where it gets interesting. Surely, the people at the ADL were savvy enough to know that by raising a ruckus, they would in effect be promoting a film they themselves considered to be anti-Semitic. As London's Sunday Telegraph noted this week, "As the controversy rages, the money pours in." Moreover, they were surely aware that efforts by Christian groups to protest The Last Temptation of Christ, a previous film deemed offensive to Christians, had in fact backfired, drawing in large crowds of movie-goers curious to see what all the fuss was about. So why, then, would they do it? Why engage in a counter-intuitive, counter-productive campaign almost certain to fail? Sadly, the answer is as simple as it is straightforward: what is good for the ADL is not necessarily good for the Jewish people. Because while The Passion was getting all that free publicity, so too was the ADL, sharing the limelight with Mel Gibson and co-starring along with him at your local neighborhood news outlet. ADL leaders were giving interviews, being quoted by national news organizations, and raising the profile of their organization. And that, apparently, is far more important than the larger interests of the Jewish community. But the story does not end there. It actually gets worse. Fighting anti-Semitism, after all, is good business. According to its 2001 annual report, the ADL's total operating expenses were $51,535,000. And that is just for one year alone. Then there is the American Jewish Committee (AJC), which is currently running a "Centennial Campaign" that seeks to raise $100 million by 2006. According to the campaign's promotional literature: "Since 1989, AJC's net assets have grown steadily to more than $65 million." And there are other American Jewish groups as well, such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the American Jewish Congress, all of whom claim to be on the forefront in the battle against anti-Semitism, and all of whom are vying for their part of the shrinking pie of Jewish philanthropy. Pouncing all over an issue such as a Mel Gibson flick, and getting your name in the paper nearly every day, is one sure-fire way to attract more donors and outdo competing organizations. It may not actually help the Jewish people, but it sure does help the bottom line. It is time for American Jewry to do a re-think, and to consider whether having several defense organizations is really worth the investment. This is not to say that combating anti-Semitism isn't important. It's just that with so much duplication of effort going on, and so many groups doing essentially the same thing, it is absurd to be wasting so much precious communal money. Instead of pouring $50 million into the ADL this year, what if American Jewry were to divert those funds to, say, creating a Hollywood film that promoted Judaism? How about a professional epic that told the heroic story of Purim or Hanukkah, or the founding of the State of Israel and its struggle for survival? Imagine the impact it might have, at a time when American Jews are intermarrying at record rates, and young Jews are leaving the fold. Rather than directing our passions at someone else's Passion, we should be marshalling our resources, and deploying them more effectively to keep the spark of Judaism alive. Mel Gibson took his faith and put it on film for all the world to see. It's about time that we as Jews did the same. The writer served as Deputy Director of Communications & Policy Planning in the Prime Minister?s Office under former premier Binyamin Netanyahu. To Go To Top

HAMAS AND GAZA Posted by Voice of Judea, March 10, 2004.

1. HAMAS DEFENSE FORCES? In anticipation of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Hamas has begun forming its standing army by recruiting, training and arming hundreds of anxious volunteers. (Arutz7 quoting Maariv) Voice of Judea Commentary: We see clearly today how with every retreat the Arabs become bolder. With each conciliatory act the Arabs become more rabid in their attempts to slaughter Jews. No longer will Hamas have to rely on risky terror attacks. Now they are building an army, ready to wipe out the small, vulnerable Jewish villages on the border of Gaza, G-d forbid. Such towns are sitting ducks, unable to repel the kind of attacks a Hamas army could launch. What will happen to the thousands of Jews in Shilo, Beit El, Kfar Tapuah, Yitzhar, Itamar, and the dozens of other communities which lie surrounded by ruthless Fatah and Islamic Jihad-affiliated Arab villages? When the IDF leaves, will the Jews have their own defense group to rely on, or will they be swept away like Jewish towns in the past? Let us not allow the massacre of Kfar Etzion to happen again. We must build our own defense force to guard our brothers in Judea and Samaria. There is no alternative, we cannot retreat. Help the Gedud HaIvri prevent the massacres which are hanging over the heads of every Jew in Yesha. We must not be led to believe that we can hide behind fences. The daily rocket attacks and terrorist penetrations are proof that the wall, as well as the Gaza security fence, are unable to subdue Arab attacks. It is ironic that the same now, just as Sharon discusses hiding behind the fence around Gaza, Hamas claims responsibility for the Mike's Place terror attack. This attack, which occurred nearly a year ago, was perpetrated by a bomber who penetrated into Israel directly from Gaza. Hamas is thumbing its nose at Israel. What a pathetic state Israel finds itself in where barbaric terrorist groups can gloat over their successful penetrations of the fence, yet the prime minister continues in this mad campaign. VISIT http://www.defendisrael.net and learn what you can do to help prevent terror attacks 2.ISRAELI AUTHORITIES TRYING TO BREAK SPIRITS The Israeli police were out in force this Purim, but not to just to avert terror attacks. Several Jews were arrested in Hevron over the weekend for possessing Kahanist flags and shirts, as well as for distributing 'inciteful' song sheets. More Jews were arrested in Jerusalem, including two Haredi men in the Shmuel HaNavi area who were accused of damaging an Arab taxi. Others were taken into custody in the old city, including nine-year-old Efraim Zilberman, who was arrested for wearing a shirt saying "we continue on Rabbi Kahane's path" in Hebrew. It should be noted that 'democratic' Israel does not permit the release of such individual's names, and we are violating Israeli censorship by publishing the boy's name. 3. SHARON PLAN BECOMING LESS POPULAR A plan to evacuate Gaza Strip settlements has lost some support among Israelis, a poll says. The 60 percent support seen in the Tel Aviv University survey released Wednesday followed 80 percent support when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon first announced his 'disengagement plan' in December. Experts said the drop was due to Israeli fears that the move could bolster terrorist groups in Gaza. Twenty-eight percent of respondents opposed the plan and the rest were undecided. According to the poll, most Israelis also support the West Bank security fence and want some West Bank settlement blocs to remain under Israeli control. The website address of Voice of Judea is http://www.voiceofjudea.com. Subscribe by writing listmaster@voiceofjudea.net To Go To Top

THE ISSUE OF THE TEMPLE MOUNT Posted by David BenAriel, March 10, 2004.

This is the Introduction of an excellent article that appeared in the Winter 1996, edition of "B'tzedek, The Journal of Responsible Jewish Commentary". It was written Rabbi Levi Zipperstein. The full article can read on my website: http://benariel.port5.com/HTML%20Articles/Temple%20issue.htm The common knowledge of our time is that the vast majority of Rabbis of this generation have prohibited the Jewish people from entering the Temple Mount (Har HaBayit), the holiest site in Judaism. The Temple Mount is the site of where the Beit HaMikdash (the Jewish Temple) once stood and the place where the Moslems have erected one mosque, the al-Aqsa and a site of pilgrimage, the Dome of the Rock. The supposed restriction of Jewish entrance imposed by the rabbis has been proclaimed because under usual circumstances, when the Temple is standing, a level of holiness must be attained before permission is granted to a Jew to enter the area. There are greater and lesser restrictions according to the place one seeks to go on the Temple Mount. The Rabbis state that since the actual location of the Temple structure is not known for certain, it is unclear where a Jew may go without first attaining the most extreme level of purification (mandated by Jewish Law when entering the confines of certain areas of the Mount and when the areas are either under the sovereignty of the Jewish people or the Temple is standing). Therefore, a rabbis have pronounced the prohibition that a Jew must not walk on the entire area of the Temple Mount. The assumed conclusion regarding the Temple Mount is that no Jew should shoulder the risk of incurring the punishment of Kareit. Kareit is the divine punishment of cutting off of one's soul from the World to come and is imposed upon a Jew entering the confines of certain areas of the Temple Mount in an impure state. These laws apply during normal circumstances. Let it be clear that normal circumstances in Jewish law assumes the existence of the Temple and the practices that accompany it. It is the purpose of this article to analyze the issues and sources concerning entering the Temple Mount. Upon reading the following pages the reader will, with G-d's help, understand the position of the Rabbis of our generation and compare them to the positions of the Rabbis of previous generations. The issues are not complicated for the halakha (Jewish law) is clear regarding the entrance of a Jew on the Temple Mount. The intellectually honest reader will discover that the issue of the Temple Mount plays a central role in the modern Jewish problem in relation to traditional Jewish thought. Additionally, it is hoped that the conclusions reached in this most important analysis will foster the needed courage required to make that which is wrong, right and that which is a desecration, a sanctification. David BenAriel is author of "Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall." To Go To Top

GENEVA ACCORD AND 'RIGHT OF RETURN' Posted by Leo Rennert, March 10, 2004.

This letter was sent to the New York Times about "A Glimmer of Peace" by David Horovitz, Editor of the "Jerusalem Report. It appeared as an op-ed today. To the Editor: It is perfectly understandable that people on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide are hungry for peace. But Mr. Horovitz, in faulting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, would have President Bush take a different path based only on wishful thinking and ignoring current realities such as Yasir Arafat's continuing sway over Palestinian affairs. Under the Horovitz proposal, President Bush would persuade Arab leaders to endorse the Geneva Accords, a blueprint promoted by a few prominent Israeli and Palestinian would-be peacemakers. Assuming Arab leaders would go along - a tall order indeed - the Geneva Accords are fatally flawed because they fudge the critical issue of a Palestinian "right of return" - a deal-breaker for Israel's survival. Mr. Horovitz tries to get around the problem by stating that the accords "appear to give Israel discretion over how many refugees from the 1948 and 1967 wars it would absorb." "Appear" is the key word here. Because the accords, in a circle-squaring stretch, contain clauses that could be - and certainly would be - interpreted differently by each side. Israel would cite a provision that suggests it would have a veto over numbers of returning Palestinian refugees. Palestinians would cite a different provision that empowers an international panel to set parameters for repatriation. It's doubtful that President Bush would base his Mideast policies on such semantic quicksand. To Go To Top

ARIEL SHARON AND THE BEILINIZATION OF THE LIKUD Posted by Steven Plaut, March 9, 2004.

Zephaniah Ch. 2; verses 4-7 (addressed to the nations in the Land of Israel): 4. For Gaza shall be forsaken [Hebrew pun: aza... azuvah], and Ashkelon a desolation; they shall drive out Ashdod at the noonday, and Ekron shall be rooted up [Hebrew pun: Ekron... tei'aker]. 5. Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea-coast, the nation of the Cherethites [Hebrew Pun: Kreitim; part of the Philistine nation; from the word to cut off, tear away]! the word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, the land of the Philistines; I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant. 6. And the sea-coast shall be pastures, even meadows for shepherds, and folds for flocks. 7. And it shall be a portion for the remnant of the house of Judah, whereon they shall feed; in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening; for the Lord their God will remember them, and turn their captivity. There are three main schools of thought when it comes to Ariel Sharon. One is that he is simply being bullied and extorted by the U.S. State Department and the Bush administration. According to this view, Sharon is unable or unwilling to stand up to Bush and Powell, who are twisting his arm mercilessly and coercing him to act like the-other-Shimon-Peres. This school of thought believes that Sharon knows better, understands perfectly well that driving the Jewish settlers out of the Gaza Strip will escalate violence and not bring tranquility, and that the whole set of "goodwill gestures" and "painful concessions" his government regularly rains down upon Palestinian Arab gunmen will only be seen as proofs of Israeli weakness and as catalysts for far worse Arab terrorism. The second school of thought holds that Sharon is simply exhausted or senile. This school argues that Sharon truly has come to believe in the fantasies of the "New Middle East", the mindless pursuit of Xanadu initiated by Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin, based on denial of all reality. Or, maybe worse still, if he does not, he is simply so old and worn-out that he no longer has the stomach to resist the forces of Israeli self-annihilation. In part, this school believes, his throwing up his hands in surrender is due to his being targeted in a national corruption investigation, directed at him and his family. He has himself largely to blame, both because of the sleaze of his campaign finances and his having left the Left's Dream Team to operate the Attorney General's offices. The slogan that best sums up this school of thought is the one running around the Likud these days, regarding Sharon's new Gaza "policy": Is this a Program for a Statesman or a Statesman under Interrogation? To appreciate the deliciousness of the slogan though, you have to say it in Hebrew, where "program" and "interrogation" have the same Hebrew roots and resemble one another. There is a third school of thought that argues that Sharon is a wily strategist who knows exactly what he is doing, that he will take the heat off Israel on other issues and especially Judea and Samaria if he preemptively surrenders in Gaza, removing all Israeli settlements. Uri Dan, a veteran Israeli journalist and close confidant of Sharon, may be the leading exponent of this point of view (see, for example, the New York Post of February 3 and the Jerusalem Post of February 5). But the Wily Coyote School for explaining Sharon's behavior suffers from numerous problems, apart from the fact that Wily generally gets stomped and out-maneuvered by the Road Runner he chases. Every set of concessions by Israel has resulted in escalated demands for new concessions, as well as renewed accusations that Israel is obstinately blocking peace. The Wily Coyote axiom that Israel can take the pressure off itself by making concessions is belied by all of modern history. Every set of concessions by Israel has resulted in escalated demands for new concessions, as well as renewed accusations that Israel is obstinately blocking peace. Ehud Barak's suicidal offer to the PLO at Camp David II resulted not in congratulatory telegrams for Israel's demonstration of generosity but only triggered new demonizations of Israel, new assaults on Israeli legitimacy, and new outbreaks of anti-Semitism all over the planet. Israeli demonstrations of generosity are nothing more than precedents for even more acts of open-ended generosity and appeasement. They never trigger quid pro quos from the Arabs and they never defuse the pressures on Israel. They simply fuel greater pressures and escalated demands. When the Likud government of Yitzhak Shamir generously agreed to grant the Palestinian Arabs autonomy, within years it was taken as a foregone conclusion that Israel would be willing to grant them a state. And when Israel was signalling it might grant them a state, it was taken as obvious that this state should control East Jerusalem and the Old City and the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. In my opinion, there is a fourth explanation that is far more appropriate, namely that the Likud is now and always has been simply the Other Labor Party. The Likud has never been a true political party with its own vision and agenda. Until 1978, the Likud - and its previous reincarnations Herut, the Liberal Party, and Gahal - was nothing more than a debating society on the back benches of the Knesset, rhetorically challenging the leaders of Israel's One-Party Mapai-controlled state. Only after the debacle of the Yom Kippur War did the Likud find itself astonished and unprepared to wake up one morning as the governing party. An analysis of the party platforms of the Likud before its gaining power and after holding power is instructive. From the party of Zionist militancy and free markets while in the permafrost of opposition, the Likud morphed overnight into the Me-Too-Labor-Party. It spent the next few years implementing the same policies that had been advocated by the Labor Party. The "free market" rhetoric of the early Likud was manifested in dirigiste state control and planning, the suppression of competition and markets, and the wholesale printing of money, which characterized the Begin reign. Netanyahu converted Oslo from a failed program of clueless leftists into an unchallengeable national consensus. The Shamir governments were often in fact national unity governments, ruling together with the Labor Party. They were also characterized not only by even worse socialist kibitzing in the economy than under Labor, but also by growing manifestations of Likud cowardice and appeasement. The Shamir government released 1100 terrorist murderers in the infamous "Jibril Deal," setting the precedent for Sharon's capitulation recently to Hezbollah. When the violence of the first "Intifada" broke out, the government responded with cowardice and "restraint." Had 50 rioters been eliminated in its first days, many thousands of people would still be alive today and Israel would not be tottering on the brink of self-destruction. And when Shamir's Labor Party coalition partners began illegal "negotiations" with the PLO behind Shamir's back, he responded by turning his other cheek - and ours as well. Netanyahu was even more desperate to be the Other Shimon Peres. Elected by the Israeli voter for the sole purpose of ending Oslo, Netanyahu quickly morphed into the Wye's Man of Chelm, turning Hebron over to the barbarians, and converting Oslo from a failed program of clueless leftists into an unchallengeable national consensus. Sharon took over as a result of Netanyahu shooting himself in his electoral foot by falling into the trap Ehud Barak laid for him. (Netanyahu vowed to run only if there were elections for both the Knesset and Prime Minister and, when Barak called for elections only for Prime Minister, was forced out of the running.) But by this time, Sharon was no longer the Sharon of 1973, the dashing, courageous hero of the Suez Canal. He was the overweight, aging Sharon, slow of mind, cowardly of ways. No sooner did he trounce the Labor Party's Amram Mitzna than he began mumbling about the "painful sacrifices" Israel would have to soon make to the PLO's mini-fuhrer. With buses exploding, Sharon at first resisted the calls to build a security wall. Then under pressure to do something, even if only a symbolic act, he acquiesced. But the security wall cannot provide security. What exactly does Sharon think the PLO will be doing behind any security wall he builds? Taking up quilting? Sharon does not have the stomach to do what really needs to be done to stamp out PLO terrorism, and that is to re-establish the tightest military control over Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, open-ended and with no timetable to remove it, together with expulsion or execution of the PLO "leadership," combined with a wide-ranging program of de-Nazification. Of course such a program would anger the Americans, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that, unless Israel is prepared, when necessary, to defy the Americans, it will not survive. What ever happened to "Just Say No"? Israel should normally go out of its way to cooperate with and assist the United States, but there are certain existential matters where Israel simply has to say "No." Appeasing the PLO any further is one such area. Sharon's new Gaza Plan is no better than the juvenile self-indulgences and Spanky-and-Alfalfa "Peace Plans" of Yossi Beilin. What does Sharon think the PLO will do in Gaza after Sharon expels all the Jewish settlers and delivers to Arafat a Judenrein Gaza Strip, this as the "first stage" in the Sharon Doctrine? Will the PLO engage in peaceful nation-building and economic development? Or will it rain rockets and mortars down on the nearby Jewish towns inside the pre-1967 "Green Line," sending out suicide bombers in boats and ladders, who dig under the "Wall," run around it, and shoot over it? The PLO has been allowed to import unlimited tons of explosives from Egypt through the Rafiah tunnels Egypt operates, even when Israel's army was supposed to be on the ground and in control in Gaza! (And have you noticed that the same Powell, who wants to deduct from U.S. aid to Israel any money Israel expends on its security fence, has never suggested that Egypt be penalized for these tunnels and munitions?) So what will happen once the settlers are driven out? In the last Israeli elections, Labor's Amram Mitzna ran for prime minister on a platform of unilateral Israeli withdrawals from the "occupied territories" with no quid pro quo from the PLO in any form. Mitzna was beaten by Sharon in the largest election landslide in Israeli history. Or was he? In fact, Amram Mitzna won that election. Ariel Sharon's proposals for unilateral withdrawal/surrender in the Gaza Strip show that Amram Mitzna may have lost the election but he was victorious in imposing his suicidal policies on Israel through Ariel Sharon. Sharon's tenacity was further on display when he agreed to reward Hezbollah for murdering three Israeli POWs in cold blood, by releasing 450 murderers, all in order to "buy" back their corpses and to release one Israeli whom Hezbollah had been holding. Sharon's government has signaled every Israeli soldier that, should he be captured and murdered, the Beilinized government of Israel will not avenge him but rather will reward his murderers. Sharon has shown the world that the "Never Again" slogan thought to be the raison d'etre of Israel has been replaced by defeatist appeasement of Islamist terrorists and Arab fascists. Bullied or cowardly? Victim or exhausted? I think the problem is that Sharon and the Likud leadership believe in nothing except staying in power as long as possible. Even those once thought to be people of courage and principle, like Ehud Olmert (ex-mayor of Jerusalem), have undergone Beilinization. Those very few in the party who still seem to believe in something are too small in number to mount a leadership challenge, other than Moshe Feiglin's heroic but quixotic attempts. And given the track record of the Likud, there is always the fear that even they could morph into born-again Peresites if they ever got the chance. Most of Jewish history consisted of long periods of desperation and hopelessness. Today the Israeli government seems determined to help us identify emotionally with those millennia of Jewish history. Steven Plaut teaches economics at the University of Haifa. To Go To Top

SAVE THE THREATENED JEWS OF GAZA Posted by Helen Freedman, March 10, 2004.

The 21 communities that make up Gush Katif have banded together to launch a campaign to prevent the implementation of the Sharon transfer plan. THEY NEED FUNDS. You can help by sending a tax deductible contribution, made out to: Friends of Gush Katif send it to: Americans For a Safe Israel 1623 Third Ave, Suite 205, New York, NY 10128 Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717 THEIR NEED IS URGENT. Helen Freedman is Executive Director of AFSI To Go To Top

A LIGHTHEARTED LOOK AT ISRAEL Posted by Israel Ben-Ami, March 10, 2004.

This was writen by Efraim Kishon. This is the only country where the unemployed strike. This is the only country where the 'cross country' road ends before it reaches its half way, "Airport City 2000" is still closed in 2004, the water import begins on the rainiest year ever, and Pee GLILOT (where they produce gas) is being dismantled for over 8 years and still exists. This is the only country that has two Treasury Ministers and neither of them has a dime, a 101 year old rabbi establishes a political party, the prime-minister is not allowed to be the minister of Defense in accordance with a state committee resolution, the opposition forgot to elect a candidate for the capital city and the MPs who chose the right to be silent don't shut their mouths. This is the only country where a corporal's mother has the commander's telephone no., (so he should watch it). This is the only country that has a communication satellite, but nobody let you finish a sentence. This is the only country where missiles from Iraq have exploded, katiushas from Lebanon, suicide bombers from Gaza and rockets from Syria, and still a 3 room apartment costs more than in Paris. This is the only country where female porn stars are being asked "what does your mother say about it", soccer players come to the field with their daddy to shout at the coach, and on Friday night when going to the parents, you sit on exactly the same chair you've been sitting on when you were 5. This is the only country where an Israeli meal is made from an Arab salad, Romanian Kebab, Iraqi pita, bread and Bavarian mousse (which is a state in Germany). We must like eating anti-Semitics. This is the only country where the guy with the open shirt and stain on it is the honorable minister and the guy beside him with the suit and tie is his driver. This is the only country where the phrase "I didn't interfere" means that I want to interfere. This is the only country where Muslims sell sacred souvenirs to Christians, in exchange for bills that have the RAMBAM's face on them. This is the only country where at age 18 you leave home and at 24 you still live in it. This is the only country where people who come to visit you for the first time ask you if it's O.K. to "take something from the fridge". This is the only country where you can tell what the security situation is from the songs that are being played on the radio. This is the only country where the rich are on the socialist left, the poor are on the capitalistic right and the bourgeois pay for everything. This is the only country where it's no problem to get software that launches a space shuttle, but you have to wait for a week for your washing machine to be fixed. And only here (if we're touching the subject) there's a time unit called "I'll come sometime between eleven and six". This is the only country where on the first date you ask a girl where she served in the army. And this is the only country where she was probably in a more militant job than you. This is the only country where between the happiest day and the saddest day there are exactly 60 seconds (Memorial Day and Independence Day). This is the only country where most people can't explain why they live in it but they have loads of reasons why they can't live elsewhere. This is the only country where if you hate politicians, hate clerks, hate the situation, hate the taxes, hate the quality of service and hate the weather, it must mean that you like it (the country). This is the only country I could live in. It's my country. To Go To Top

THE TAKE-A-PEN ORGANIZATION Posted by Jack De Lowe, March 9, 2004.

If you are unhappy (and perhaps frustrated) with the way the media deals with Israel, you will find take-a-pen.org, an excellent website that not only advises you of the current issues, but also provides you with the answers and sample letters. You will also find a variety of Israeli addresses, UN and international organization addresses, and those of international media. Everything you need at one location and all available in 11 languages. We have now passed 6,000 on my list and we can make a difference. Take 15 minutes once a week to write and send copies of your message to everyone on your list. Also let others on your list know of this website. http://www.take-a-pen.org/english/archives/oldindex.html Jack De Lowe is editor of take-a-pen-organization. He can be reached at editor@take-a-pen.org To Go To Top

ISRAEL IS BUYING WELFARE CADDIES FOR TERRORISTS (NO SPOOF) Posted by Steven Plaut, March 9, 2004.

Remember how Lenin said the capitalist democratic world was so dumb they'd sell the commies the very rope to be used to hang the capitalists? If only this were a Purim spoof. It turns out that a large number of PLO terrorist leaders are receiving monthly stipends from the Israeli National Insurance Institute (essentially Israel's social security administration), paid for by the Israeli taxpayer. Yes, as revealed by the Israeli Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, Israeli taxpayers are ponying up money to keep the terror leaders in comfort. Among those receiving monthly NII stipends are arch-terrorist Jibril Rajoub, who serves as head of Arafat's own bodyguards and head of the Tanzim terror squads, and the Madame DeFarge of the PLO, Holocaust-Denier Hanan Ashrawi. There are also 12,000 Palestinian women on the Israeli dole, and 200,000 children of women illegally in Israel. Full story (in Hebrew) at http://nfc.msn.co.il/archive/001-D-41909-00.html?tag=15-38-46 or in @English see http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/402910.html What could be a more dramatic illustration of the mega-stupidity of "Oslo" than the fact that Israel is buying Welfare Caddies for the very same fascist murderers sending out the suicide bombers? Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

ARAB JOURNALIST EXPLAINS THE OFFICIAL SYRIAN MEDIA VOCABULARY Posted by Leo Rennert, March 9, 2004.

Orwell is alive and lives in Syria. This is MEMRI Special Dispatch #677. MEMRI: Ibrahim Hamidi, head of the Syrian desk of the London Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat, recently published a "Lexicon of the Official Syrian Media." Top Syrian media officials and journalists told Hamidi about the obligatory terminology used by the Syrian government media and about how terminology decisions are made. The following is the article:(1) Only One Way To Bring In Information: The Syrian Arab News Agency, SANA "There is only one way of bringing in information from the outside world and re-marketing it locally, and that is through the Syrian Arab News Agency, SANA. Information from [Syrian] government institutions and authorities are sent to SANA, which classifies it for publication in the press or for broadcast on television and then passes it to the media. "[Renowned intellectual] Sadeq Jalal Al-Azm said: 'In a country where the press is under government control, the reader develops special skills for deciphering clues [within the text]: Was this particular word or term used [or not]? In order to understand what is happening, we are forced to decipher clues and draw conclusions from the use or non-use [of particular words], or from how they are used, as their use is not innocent.' "The former director of the Syrian [Arab] News Agency [SANA] and of the General Syrian Authority for Radio and Television, Dr. Fayez Al-Sayigh, clarified: 'President Bashar Al-Assad does not like the pompous [style], and [prefers] the neo-realistic language that is appropriate for the Syrian renewal, without the pomposity that has characterized Syrian journalists' writing in the past.' "Editor-in-chief of the ruling Ba'ath party daily Al-Ba'ath Mahdi Dakhlallah said: 'There is no political guidance in the day-to-day handling of news items. It is subject to the editor's judgment... These matters are examined when the editor is appointed, and so there is no need for guidelines, supervision, or direct intervention in his work.'" Obligatory Terminology in Political Discourse "Every political period brings with it its own media and political concepts. The appearance of these concepts in the media, and the frequency [with which they appear], indicate a particular political stance. Thus, in recent years the terms 'imperialism,' 'reaction,' and 'vassalage,' have disappeared, to be replaced by 'hegemony' and 'globalization'... 'Civil society' has replaced the term 'the society of progress and socialism.' After Bashar Al-Assad's election as president and his speech on 'opinion and counter-opinion,' the concepts of 'political, economic, and administrative change' and 'reform' infiltrated into the media. "The Editor in Chief of the [government] daily Teshreen, Khalaf Al-Jarrad, hinted that there was 'a verbal instruction' not to use the term 'reform and renewal program' too frequently, so that its use will remain realistic and logical. 'I see the term 'change' as problematic because of its unclear limits - what do we change and what not?' "The director of the Syrian [Arab] News Agency, Ghazi Deeb, said: 'We use this term ['change'] in a controlled manner, so that it won't arise every time we want to indicate the building of modern Syria.' "In the past three years, the opposition has raised the term 'civil society' in the Arab press outside Syria, but the official Syrian press has taken care not to use it. Khalaf Al-Jarrad responds: 'I have nothing against using this term as in any other country, but I am against [its abuse] by the [Syrian] opposition.' "The rest of the newspaper editors agreed with him, except for the late editor of Al-Thawra, Muhammad Salameh, who, four years ago, opened the doors of his daily to members of the opposition. "The internal political lexicon [of the Syrian media] does not include ethnic references. Al-Jarrad refuses to refer to any 'ethnic terminology' and clarifies: 'This is not due to official guidelines, but because this is how we were educated... I try to focus on national unity because of the unceasing pressures on Syria.'" Terminology for the Arab-Israeli Conflict "In previous decades, the use of the name 'Israel' in the political discourse was considered treason, and the terms 'the Zionist entity,' 'the Zionist gangs,' or 'the Zionist enemy' were used instead. When the Madrid conference was convened in 1991, terms became more realistic. The official media used the slogan 'a just and comprehensive peace,' omitting the word 'lasting.' "During the mid-'90s, the media discourse changed. Official [Syrian] television began showing Israeli officials and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin smiling. The streets of Syria were filled with billboards [with statements] such as: 'Peace is Syria's strategic choice,' 'Fighting with honor, negotiating with honor, making peace with honor,' 'We want a just and comprehensive peace,' and 'Assad - hero of war and peace.' "But today the media picture is different. Ghazi Deeb: 'How can we prepare our people for something that is not acceptable at all, because the rulers of Israel are not interested in peace at all?' "The concept 'peace of the brave,' which arose [in the Syrian media] in the early 1990s, faded away because it was adopted by Yasser Arafat after signing the Oslo accords - which in the eyes of the Syrians included 'far-reaching concessions.' The official Syrian media called it 'a settlement,' not a 'peace accord.' And the same thing happened regarding later peace plans: Tenet's, Mitchell's, and the Road Map, which was called a 'paper' or a 'plan.' "After the rise of Ariel Sharon to the premiership, [the term] 'state terrorism' [came into use]. The word 'Mr.' was not appended to his name or to the names of his ministers. The Israeli 'defense minister' was called the 'war minister,' and Israel was called 'the enemy' because it still occupies the Syrian Golan. "In the past decade, the word 'negotiations' has replaced the word 'conflict' and the word 'peace' has replaced the word 'war'... The term 'resistance' has replaced the term 'armed struggle.' 'The Islamic Resistance Movement' (Hamas) is presented as 'the Hamas movement' or as 'the national resistance,' without the word 'Islamic,' and the same goes for the 'Islamic Jihad,' because, according to Ghazi Deeb, the 'struggle is between all Arabs and Israel.' "Mahdi Dakhlallah, the Al-Ba'ath editor, said: 'It is inconceivable for us to say 'suicide operations.' We say 'martyrdom' or 'heroism.' Deeb prefers the term 'martyrdom' because 'those who carry out these operations do it out of religious motivation and think that they will reach Paradise and that they are martyrs, while the term 'heroism operation' is secular.'" Israel's 'Linguistic' Defeat "Former SANA director Fayez Al-Sayigh said: 'The official Syrian information [effort] has succeeded in introducing terms in the international and Arab media. The Syrian media succeeded in establishing [the use of] the terms 'Rabin's deposit,' 'the June 4, 1967 line,' and 'the basis of the Madrid conference.' The official [Syrian] information [effort] has defeated hostile concepts such as 'concessions,' 'surrender,' and 'retreat,' which were replaced by 'flexibility' and 'initiative.' "Does this include linguistic recognition of Israel's existence? Dakhlallah says: 'We use the word 'Israel' in the framework of negotiations under international auspices, but we say 'the Zionist entity' and 'state terrorism' when we speak of Israel's actions.' [In another context, he said:] 'Damascus recognized the former U.S.S.R. states, even though we had relations with them, only after Moscow itself [recognized them].' "The computers in the editorial department of the Teshreen daily are programmed to put 'Israel' in quotation marks automatically. Editor Al-Jarrad: 'I see Israel as a plundering entity existing on the land of the Palestinian people. I do not agree to the free use [of words] that include any normalization or cooperation with Israel.' "Al-Sayigh notes that the use of the term 'settler' [mustawtinoun] indicates that they live on land that is the homeland [watan] of others. At the same time, he advises the [Syrian] government media to go back to using the term 'imperialistic settlers' [musta'miroun], which was used during the 1950s and 1960s. "Al-Jarrad forbids the use of the term 'redeployment' [regarding Israeli withdrawal]... 'We call this 'moving forces,' because it occurs in the framework [of] the occupation. Deeb bans the use of the terms 'bilateral violence' and 'ceasefire between the Israelis and the Palestinians,' as 'there are no two sides.' "All the media agree on the term 'racist separation fence,' because it separates the Palestinian people from the Israeli people. Al-Jarrad: 'We say 'the Zionist people,' as Zionism is [only] an ideology...' The Syrian media do not say 'Israeli Arabs' but '1948 Arabs,' or '1948 Palestinians,' because they do not belong to Israel. "The official Syrian media does not report on Syrian intervention in domestic Lebanese affairs, but notes the 'fraternal relations' between the two countries following the signing of the 1991 'cooperation, fraternity, and coordination agreement.' Similarly, 'national unity,' 'the Lebanese agreement,' and 'the Arab role of Lebanon' are emphasized. The Hizbullah organization is not mentioned by name, but for the most part by the name 'the national Lebanese resistance.'" Iraq Terminology "Many observers have noted the confusion of the official media following the fall of Baghdad in April 2003. [That day], official television broadcast at length pictures of Syrian tourism sites accompanied by classical music. Teshreen wrote on 'anarchy and obfuscation [in Baghdad],' even though Baghdad had already fallen that morning. A top Syrian media official says: 'This stemmed from the fact that the media in Syria did not know what was happening, and from the fact that all the Arabs were surprised at how quickly Baghdad fell. We, as media personnel, discussed how to respond. It was agreed that we would quote the news agencies and not express an opinion.' "Deeb: 'SANA has a document of suggestions on how to refer to Iraq, [for example] the suggestion to deal with the matter objectively and to convey the news in accordance with the international legal system. Are we headed towards war with the Americans? If so, then our media narrative is correct. But if not, why are we mobilizing the people towards this goal?' "The [Syrian media] lexicon emphasizes 'the unity of the land and people of Iraq' and 'the independence and sovereignty of Iraq,' and reiterates 'the end of the occupation' and 'the Iraqi resistance' without classifying it ethnically. "Dakhlallah: 'We do not note the concepts 'Shiites,' 'Kurds,' and 'Sunnis,' rather, we present Iraqi national unity.' Deeb: 'SANA, and in its wake the rest of the media, do not see a problem in using the word 'Kurds' when speaking of figures in northern Iraq. In the south, we speak of 'clerics' without noting their affiliation [with the Shi'a].' With regard to the U.S., Al-Jarrad says: 'There is nothing wrong with the concept 'occupation forces,' because [even] the Security Council resolutions see the coalition forces as 'occupation.'" Terminology Do's and Don'ts in the Syrian Media "Hamidi adds to his article SANA's current guidelines regarding which terms are permitted and which are banned in the Syrian media: Wrong Right disturbances of the peace Intifada Palestinians the Palestinian People detention of Palestinians detention of Palestinian citizens the territories the occupied Palestinian lands Judea, Samaria, and Gaza Strip the occupied Palestinian lands Israeli Arabs The Palestinians in the occupied lands of 1948 excessive use of force Israeli military escalation closure siege riots demonstrations violent/terror operations resistance security threat citizents rising up against the occupation forces collaborators agents Karni crossing Al-Muntar crossing Netzarim junction Al-Shuhada junction Erez crossing Beit Hannoun crossing Har Dov Occupied Lebanese Shab'a Farms Wailing Wall Al-Buraq Wall Har Homa Mount Abu Ghneim Ben Gurion Airport Lod Airport East Jerusalem Occupied Jerusalem Jerusalem municipality the so-called Jerusalem municipality the Temple Mount the Holy Al-Haram Al-Qudsi The Jewish Quarter, Jerusalem Harat Al-Sharaf the neighborhood of Gilo the settlement of Gilo the Machpela Cave the Holy Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi Rachel's Tomb The Bilal Mosque Endnote: (1) Al-Hayat (London), March 1, 2004. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East. To Go To Top

NOT SO QUIET ON THE WEST BANK Posted by IsrAlert, March 9, 2004.

This was writen by Dena Rashed for Al-Ahram and is archived at http://www.worldpress.org/link.cfm?http://weekly.ahram.org.eg:80/2004/679/fr1.htm More evidence of the world's double standard : If Egypt can destroy private homes built on its West Bank of the Luxor why can't Israel do the same with the many illegal homes built by Arabs occupying the land of Judea, Samaria and Gaza? BTW, have you even heard a whisper of this story ANYWHERE? Imagine the worldwide outcry if this was happening in Israel? Is Yesha any less an archeological site than the banks of the Luxor? A few days after the demolition forces knocked down a number of houses in the Al-Boa'irat area in the West Bank of Luxor, George Abadir sat surrounded by torn down fences, worrying over the fate of his own two-storey building. Abadir is one of the people whose house may soon be demolished though he has lived there for years. In Al-Boa'irat area on the West Bank of the Nile River, land grabbing was the means most commonly used to build on government-owned grounds. However the situation in the West Bank has grown increasingly tense for the past few days, as the government's demolition forces have started to tear down houses without giving prior notice to the residents. Most of the houses in the area are two-storey buildings or villas with a view to the Nile. The spot gained its importance due to its location in a tourist area from which sightseers begin their felouka Nile cruises. In order to prove that he has won several court cases legitimising the construction of his home and the fence surrounding it, Abadir pulled out the documents resulting from the hearings. His papers seem to have provided him with no defence, however. "I was out when the demolition forces arrived, so I thought it would be best if I stay at home until I figure out whether there are plans to demolish my house too," Abadir told Al-Ahram Weekly. Arguing that he has been paying for electricity consumption for the past year, for him this signifies that the government acknowledges his ownership of the house. A small demonstration was organised last Sunday by the local and foreign residents who share the land and businesses of the West Bank. The protest managed, however momentarily, to put a stop to the bulldozers destroying the houses, according to Jim Scout, a British citizen who owns and lives in a house in Al-Boa'irat. He told the Weekly that "all the people who bought land or houses here know it is a land owned by the government. But it has become an established village with houses, supermarkets, a mosque, two hotels and a number of restaurants. I bought the house a year ago when it was only a one-storey building, and I then built two other floors." Scout contends that in fact the government implicitly gave its consent for the construction to take place. "The present situation was allowed to happen, and it has been going on for years now - since the 1980s," he said. "Besides it has attracted many foreigners to invest their money and come and live here by the Nile." Scout added that the current situation is unbearable, adding that "there is some kind of a list of houses that are going to be demolished very soon, and I can't leave the house and go anywhere because that could mean I won't find it when I come back". Further into the West Bank stand the remnants of one of the houses demolished last week. The residents have been sitting in front of their destroyed house since then. "It was made of mud bricks; then we started rebuilding it with bricks," said Hussein Tayie. "We inherited this house and the land from our ancestors but now I have nowhere to live." Many other residents in the West Bank fear a similar fate to Tayie's. "If they had wanted to forbid the construction, why didn't they do it from the beginning? Besides they provided us with water and electricity and we pay the administrative fees every year," said resident Abul-Hagag Omar. A similar situation was faced by residents nearer the river, where a villa's fence was demolished by the city council. "It is the second time they demolish the fence, even though I have been paying for water consumption for the past year," said the owner of the house, Khelawy Hassan. Voicing feelings of dismay and defiance was Shahenaz, a British woman married to an Egyptian, who lives in a big house by the Nile. "I have all the legal papers that prove my ownership of the house, and I won't let them demolish it. I have invested a lot of money in my house," she told the Weekly. She too plans to stay in the area fearing that her house will be demolished if she is not present. While many of the residents are unsure about the fate of their buildings, the authorities apparently have the law on their side. As the head of Ancient Egyptian Antiquities at the Supreme Council of Antiquities Sabry Abdel- Aziz told the Weekly, in 1981 Presidential Decree number 267 pronounced the area of the West Bank in Luxor an archeological protectorate. The area as Abdel-Aziz defines it stretches from the bridge of Luxor in the south to Al-Seninia area in the north, and from the Nile in the east to the mountain in the west. "There are a lot of violations in the area of the West Bank of the Nile, and due to the complex situation, Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni has asked the head of Luxor City Council to quickly eradicate all these violations," he said. In a small village like Al-Boa'irat stories and rumours spread quickly. Gossip has offered up a variety of interpretations of the demolition orders. One possible explanation relates to local political interests in the West Bank. Another more commonly used interpretation claims that it is the area's businessmen who are keen to have the houses demolished. "An owner of one of the hotels in the East Bank of the Nile also owned about 15 feddans in the West Bank. However a local resident's house stood in the way of his land and so he pushed for the removal of all [illegally constructed] houses on the West Bank," a resident claimed. Some other locals added that the owners of the hotels on the East Bank argue that the panoramic view onto the West Bank is ruined by the houses. A West Bank owner Medhat El-Rezeili countered this argument by pointing out that "there are a number of houses on the east side of the Nile that are only few metres away from the river; some hotels have even land filled parts of the river in order to build swimming pools". In order to further support their argument that the panoramic view is not being blocked by their homes, a number of residents of the Al-Boa'irat area organised a felouka trip. "Hotel residents on the East Bank have a clear view of the West Bank and of the mountain: we don't block their view as some people were saying," said El-Rezeili. Another resident meanwhile pointed at the five-star hotels on the East Bank of the Nile and reiterated that most of them have encroached on the river- bed. "We have not encroached on the water of the Nile and our houses are not as close to the river as the hotels of the eastern side, so the law should be applied equally," said El-Rezeili. It seems odd that the government should be accusing the residents of the West Bank of jeopardising the local tourism industry when most people, tour operator Mohamed Kinawi said, are well educated and not as poor as they are pictured. "Tourism is our sole business, so we wouldn't build houses that could affect the view. This is a tourist area that requires the presence of locals to manage the businesses," he added. The loss of investments in the area is not a problem that the locals face alone for foreigners also share part of the problem. Frederiek Wendsefelder, a partner in a small hotel, believes that the money she has invested in the business cannot be compensated. "I brought all my money to invest in this area, and when we were building the hotel no one complained, so we just went ahead," she told the Weekly. With an angry tone, she demanded that the city council provide her with prior notification as to "which houses are going to be demolished. We have the right to know what the government is planning to do". Similarly Joanna Tidy, a British national married to an Egyptian, came to Luxor and invested with her husband in a two-storey building located on a side road in the West bank. "When I first came, all the lawyers we consulted told us that there is a nonverbal agreement that allows people to build in this area, and since the city provided us with electricity and water, we assumed that there was no problem," Tidy said. Information was only provided later on, when the issue had already become problematic. For Arnfinn Sorensen, who came all the way from Norway to settle in Luxor, leaving the West Bank is no longer an option. "I am diabetic and I have a heart problem, and the dry climate of Luxor is the most suitable for my poor health," said Sorensen. With shaking hands, he pointed to the nearby houses. "We should all have been all notified, but they just went ahead with their demolition plans," he told the Weekly. Hassan Mohamed, a resident and a lawyer for some of the residents of the area, believes that at this point the main problem is how to provide housing for those who live in the city. "It is not just about the demolition orders, but about where to stay afterwards. No housing is permitted in the mountain because of the presence of monuments. As some of the land belongs to the government and other parts are agricultural, the people here assumed it was okay," Mohamed said. He insisted that residents need to be provided with alternative shelter if their homes are demolished. For now it is clear that he city council will not provide the residents of Al-Boa'irat with any solace. "It is forbidden to construct any buildings in the West Bank, and all those who reside there were aware of this in the first place but they just went ahead with their construction plans," El-Dessouki El-Banna, the head of the city council told the Weekly. Still, El-Banna said that although residence in the area is illegal, the council will seek to handle the social dimension of the issue with care. "Previously we provided houses for the residents of Al- Gourna - a village in the mountain built on the archeological tombs - and this time we will certainly provide housing for those whose houses are demolished," he said. However El-Banna added that most of the people living in this area are wealthy and own several houses elsewhere, "so many of them already have other shelters, and for them it is not as bad as it seems". Said Farag, a member of the Luxor local council, proposed that people pay fines for their violations in order to avoid the demolition of their homes. He also submitted requests to the city council demanding the halt of all demolitions and at the same time asked it to halt any new construction in the area. However, in response to such requests, El-Banna replied that "the law has to be executed". Further, although many residents have been pushing for their right to know whether their homes will be demolished, El-Banna said that all the houses were all illegally built so the owners need not know which ones will be demolished. "They don't have that right as they all know their housing in the West Bank is illegal in the first place."The time frame for the demolition plan is not yet known, as El-Banna added. What is known however, is that the orders have been planned to be executed in three phases. The illegal houses in Al-Boa'irat area were counted and put into three categories. The first includes the inhabited houses with access to public utilities - as in water and electricity - while the second category accounts for inhabited houses with no public utilities. The third category includes the houses which are uninhabited and under construction; these will probably be demolished first. Some of the demolition orders have already been executed in Al-Boa'irat. El-Banna said 23 houses have already been destroyed. El-Banna did, however, admit that it is contradictory that the residents should have had to pay an administrative fee to the government despite their housing being illegal. "The Central Auditing Agency contradicts us and demands the collection of the administrative fees for all those using public property whether legally or illegally," he added. Nevertheless, he explained that many of the residents signed statements granting their houses access to water and electricity on the condition that the city council could decide at any point to cut off the utilities. "The city council still has the right to stop the utilities from reaching the houses, for they are all shanty houses," said El-Banna. "We will abide by the law and keep the West Bank an archeological protectorate." IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

PM SHARON: DECISION VERSUS EXCUSE Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 9, 2004.

With one exception, the entire Israeli General Staff opposes a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. They advised PM Sharon that without an Israeli presence, arms smuggling from Egypt would accelerate. Attacks from Gaza would grow in number and severity. Too many Arabs in the Strip rely upon smuggling for their livelihoods (IMRA, 3/3). What a bandit people! PM Sharon has not consulted with his Cabinet, the Knesset, or his Party about his withdrawal plan. A week and-a-half after having presented the plan to the head of the Labor Party, Sharon claimed that he has not decided upon any plan,. He told Shimon Peres that he decided upon a full withdrawal from Gaza and, for now, from some Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria. MK Peres offered his Party's support but asked Sharon to state his plan publicly. Sharon said he couldn't, first having to visit Washington, DC, then to hold a referendum, and finally to ask Cabinet and Knesset for approval. Was Sharon's mind made up? The heads of Israeli security found their warnings to him unheeded, as if his meeting with them were a formality (IMRA, 3/1). Who believes that Sharon, expert in political maneuvering, has no plan! Confused? Yes. Ill-considered notions? Yes. But lacking a scheme? No. His rationalization is that he has no plan until he presents it publicly. Egotistical Israeli Prime Ministers do not let their proposals be democratically discussed and shown up for the folly they are. They overlook the plans' fallacious assumptions and difficulties of implementation. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

TWO ESSAYS: OPINIONS AND WORDS Posted by Steven Plaut, March 9, 2004.

1. ISRAELS SUPPORT WHACKING TERRORIST Israel has a serious problem - namely the detachment of its political elite from public opinion. By and large, public opinion has been sensible about the stupidity of the Oslo peace process and about the non-effectiveness of appeasement, and public opinion wants more, not less, use of arms against the Palestinian savages. SO you can see the problem. The detachment of the Israeli media, under near-totalitarian hegemony of the Far Left, is even more dramatic. As one indication of this detachment, consider the poll reported in today's Haaretz. To put it into perspective, it is a poll collecetd by the leftist Steinmetz Center for Peace at Tel Aviv university, a biased outfit that ordinarily prints a "peace index" based on such things as how much of the public endorses Beilin's program. Those who oppose Beilinism are anti-peace, according to them. SO clearly they have no motivation to exaggerate how militantly anti-appeasement Israelis are, and Haaretz, which prints their "index surveys", has even less so. In today's poll, 84% of Israeli Jews endorse erection of Israel's security fence, and not necessarily along the pre-1967 "Green Line" border. 13% oppose it (but they include those who oppose it because they want a military re-occupation and denazification instead), and 3% undecided. Only 16% think however that the Fence will "work" and will prevent terror, implying they think other means are also necessary to use against the terrorists. For those who think all Israelis are in denial and live in a Peres-Beilin cartoon world, take notice! Fully two thirds of Israeli Jews think the fence shgould follow lines set based on strategic considerations, while less than 20% think it should follow the Green Line, meaning more than three to one have common sense. Only Meretz voters (maybe 5% of the voting public) think by a majority that the fence should trace the Green Line. 70% of Israelis endorse the Israeli policy of whacking terrorists and terrorist leaders EVEN when innocent bystanders are injured. I repeat, 70%. The number who support the hits when bystanders are NOT hit must be even larger, approaching consensus. This, at the same time that there is near consensus in the Israeli media that all such hits are war crimes and no assassinations of terrorists should ever take place. Talk about detachment! 64% of Israelis say it does not matter in the least if the security fence causes any "suffering" for Palestinians, although 31% would like such suffering and inconvenience taken into account (although not necessarily vetoing the Fence in principle). 88% of Meretz voters think Israel should worry about Palestinian "suffering" because of the Wall, not surprising, but it is surprising that 12% of Meretz lemmings disagree. The vast majority of Israelis, 71%, say they support the right of protesters to oppose erection of the fence as long as they do not break the law. 26% oppose the protests EVEN when they are legal. 4% do not know. 92% say they denounce violent anti-fence protesters. 6% - the Meretz and communist voters? - endorse the hooligans. Steinmetz Center sees this as reflecting weak support for peace among Israelis. Meretz voters are the only ones who oppose whacking terrorists by a majority. It is not all good news though. Probably thanks to the recent Beilinization of Sharon, 60% say they would support removal of all the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip plus a few from the West Bank. 62% support Sharon's unilateral withdrawal plan from Gaza - the Likud's Mitzna Program. Remember that the Steinmetz Center is biased, so actual public opinion is even better than these numbers show. 2. WORDS THAT DON'T MATTER: The New Buzz Vocabulary of Anti-Americanism   by Victor Davis Hanson. From the National Review Online (http://www.nro.com), February 27, 2004. It is archived at http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/2284 "Preemption" is supposed to be the new slur. Its use now conjures up all sorts of Dr. Strangelove images to denigrate the present "trigger-happy" Bush administration. Partly the hysteria is due to the invasion of Iraq. Or perhaps the venom of the Left comes from recent disclosures that, in the post-9/11 era, the United States has publicly proclaimed it may strike terrorists and their sponsors - or indeed rogue nations who have the history, capability, and desire to obtain frightening weapons - before they strike us. But instead of a rational discussion about the wisdom and feasibility of that logical policy, we have had two years now of national frenzy over a purported new "dangerous departure" in American foreign policy, one that "threatens" to "destabilize" the world order. Rubbish. Preemption is a concept as old as the Greeks. It perhaps was first articulated in the fourth book of Thucydides's history. There the veteran Theban general Pagondas explained why his Boeotians should hit the Athenians at the border near Delium, even though they were already retreating and posed no immediate threat. The Boeotians did, and won - and were never attacked by the Athenians again. On a more immediate level, preemption was how many of us stayed alive in a rather tough grade school: Confront the bully first, openly, and in daylight - our Texan principal warned us - before he could jump you as planned in the dark on the way home. Despite the current vogue of questionable and therapeutic ideas like "zero tolerance" and "moral equivalence" that punish all who use force whether in kindergarten or in the Middle East - striking first is a morally neutral concept. It takes on its ethical character from the landscape in which it takes place the Israelis bombing the Iraqi reactor to avoid being blackmailed by a soon-to-be nuclear Saddam Hussein, or the French going into the Ivory Coast last year, despite the fact that that chaotic country posed no immediate danger to Paris. The thing to keep in mind is that the real aggressor, by his past acts, has already invited war and will do so again - should he be allowed to choose his own time and place of assault. Hitler was ruthless in starting a war against Poland. Yet he could have been stopped far earlier in 1936 or so - had the democracies preempted him. Indeed, a failure to preempt is often far worse than the act itself. Serbia posed no "imminent" threat to the United States in 1998; but President Clinton - with no U.N. sanction, no U.S. Congress resolution - finally decided to act and end that cancer before it spread beyond the Balkans. Nor has the United States established "a dangerous precedent" in hitting Saddam Hussein before he could add any more corpses to his three-decade-long record of carnage. Turkey did not jump back into Cyprus. We did not move on to hit Havana. Pakistan and India are now talking - not in smoke amid cinders. Neither was emboldened by the three-week war - as shrill critics in the United States promised - to strike the other first. No front-line Arab state saw the March 2003 attacks as an invitation to bomb Israel, now convinced that the United States has sanctified first-strike strategy. Nor is preemption always even a sign of strength. Italy regretted its 1940 surprise invasion of Greece. Argentina tried it in the Falklands and a paid a high price; so did Syria in 1973, and al Qaeda and the Taliban on September 11. Up until now, when democratic states took preemptory action against fascists and succeeded, the doctrine was largely ignored in silent satisfaction. Yet when autocracies have invaded other democratic states, or democratic states have failed in their anticipatory efforts, then it was roundly condemned as a flawed concept. The wisdom of preemption was determined relatively; having a good cause and achieving success, it seems, made it worthwhile. What is new is the absolutist, blanket condemnation of the strategy altogether. In short, preemption is now a politicized, debased word. It is part of the anti-Bush lexicon and has lost any real meaning for the foreseeable future of its usage. The same may be true of "multilateralism" and "unilateralism." Perhaps the greatest example of "multilateral" military action was the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Think of the vast multilateral coalition! Germans, Austrians, Romanians, Czechs, Finns, Spaniards, Bulgarians, and Italians all united together to attack Communist Russia, which in turn had no other combatants on its front but unilaterally-minded Russians. In 1939 Great Britain was a unilateral power, threatened by a broad multilateral axis and without any real ally. The 1956 Suez Crisis was a multilateral enterprise - an undertaking by France, Great Britain, and Israel. It was stopped unilaterally by the Eisenhower administration. Israel in 1973 reacted unilaterally to a preemptive strike from a multilateral coalition involving Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. The only real constant was not preemption/multilateralism/unilateralism, but simply that a democratic state was fighting those who were not. Allies themselves are not always wonderful assets: Dozens of coalition members helped Hitler butcher thousands of Ukrainians and enabled the Soviets to spread worldwide terror. Too many allies were largely the reason that we did not go to Baghdad in 1991 and take out Saddam Hussein when it would have been far easier - and would have spared the lives of thousands long since dead. The European Union had gads of countries in a truly multilateral coalition, only to watch a quarter-million Bosnians and Kosovars die until a unilateral United States intervened. Of course, today multilateralism is deemed "good," while unilateralism is "bad" because, in the unipolar, post-Cold War era, the United States has a military monopoly unparalleled in civilization's history. For good or evil it alone can alter political situations rather rapidly through use of its military power, while friends and enemies alike flock publicly to the U.N. to object - or flock privately to us to ask for help. The Left's problem is not our embrace of the concept of "unilateralism" per se - or it would have attacked Clinton's U.N.-be-damned use of force in Iraq, Kosovo, and Haiti. No, the rub is something altogether different. A Christian, southern-accented, conservative Republican president, coming off a disputed election, has chosen to preempt. And when you hit first in a therapeutic America, you are at least supposed to bite your lip and squeeze Hillary's hand on national television. You do not dare say, "Bring 'em on" and "Smoke 'em out" - much less fly a jet out to an aircraft carrier. If the embrace of multilateralism is meant to imply the desirability of U.N. sanction, then it is just as dubious a moral concept. Ask the Cambodians, Rwandans, Bosnians, or Kosovars whether they were encouraged by "multilateral" U.N. resolutions of "concern." In the last 40 years almost half the U.N.'s resolutions have been aimed at Israel - in an era when that body watched silently as tens of millions were butchered around the globe. Only a unilateral United States organized vetoes against Yasser Arafat's array of "Zionism is racism" resolutions. Usually the singular action of one democracy is worth more than all the majority votes of dozens of autocracies. So like preemption, in today's super-charged political climate, unilateralism and multilateralism no longer convey any meaning. Those words too have now become little more than coded nomenclature to denigrate the present American administration's efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is perhaps a rule of American politics that Democrats can preempt and intervene pretty much wherever they want and be called "sober" and "reluctant" - given their protestations of pacifism and lip-service to "multilateral frameworks." And to be fair, Republicans can raise deficits that would tar liberals as "tax-and-spend" and "big-government" naifs - and get away with it as purported advocates of "supply side" and "growth." But whereas President Bush is receiving criticism from both left and right for his fiscal policies, he is not getting praise for his courageous attempt at ending the political and cultural climate that led to September 11. The present bastardization of our language proves it. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

A PALESTINIAN STATE - A U.S. BLUNDER Posted by IsrAlert, March 8, 2004.

Source: Yoram 'Tex' Ettinger This is #149 "Straight From The Jerusalem Cloakroom" (http://www.acpr.org.il). 1. The Palestinian Authority (PA) and the PLO have been systematic allies of Bin-Laden (whose mentor was the Palestinian Abdullah Naji of Jenin), Taliban, Saddam, Khomeini and his successors, No. Korea and other rogue regimes. The ideological mentors of the PA/PLO were allies of the Nazis (e.g. Haj Amin Al-Husseini). Arafat, Abu-Mazin, Inc. were trained by the KGB and forged intimate ties with the ruthless Communist regimes in Moscow and E. Europe. The PA/PLO have constituted the role-model of international terrorism, narco-terrorism, hijacking, car-bombing, homicide-bombing, hate-education, inter-Arab treachery, corruption and oppression of Christian Arabs (who have fled Bethlehem, Beit-Jallah and Ramallah). 2. The PA/PLO TRACK RECORD reveals the nature of the proposed Palestinian State: * In the late 1950s, Arafat, Abu-Mazen and Abu-Ala' fled Egypt for subversion; * In 1966 they fled Syria for subversion; *In 1970 the PLO fled Jordan, following a violent attempt to topple the Hashemite regime; * In 1975 the PLO tried to violently topple the Lebanese regime, triggering a multi-year civil war, which doomed the Christian domination of Lebanon; * During 1978-1981 the PLO plundered and raped South Lebanon; * In 1990 the PLO spearheaded Saddam's invasion of Kuwait (while the Bush-Baker Administration was brutally pressuring Israel to recognize the PLO!); * Aware of PLO's subversive track record, Arabs do not allow the PLO to bear arms on their soil; * Since (Oslo) 1993 - when the PLO was snatched out of oblivion, imported to the heartland of Israel and provided with weaponry - the PA/PLO have been consistent with their inter-Arab track record. They have introduced an unprecedented hope-driven terrorism, systematically and violently violating all agreements. They instituted a hate-education system (K-12), which has featured a production line of heralded homicide bombers for the next two generations. 3. LEOPARDS DO NOT CHANGE SPOTS, ONLY TACTICS. 4. A Palestinian State would undermine U.S. VALUES AND INTERESTS. The 1976 Entebbe Operation and the 1981 bombing of Iraq's Ozirak Nuclear Reactor dealt a blow to global terrorism. The establishment of a Palestinian State would be perceived as a reward to the role model of terrorism, dealing a blow to the US war on global terrorism. It would condemn Jordan's Hashemite regime to oblivion, would recharge Saddam's and Taliban's allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, would bolster Iran and Syria and would facilitate the re-entry of Russia to the Mideast. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

HOW THE EU FUNDS PA TERROR Posted by David Frankfurter, March 8, 2004.

European funding of the Palestinians sticks closely to the "don't confuse me with the facts" approach. But as the evidence of corruption and incompetence mounts, Christopher Patten and his eurocrats come in for increasing criticism. The attached article, which appears in The Front Page Magazine (http://www.frontpagemagazine.com), questions when enough evidence will be enough? Whatever his other failings, European Commission for External Relations, Mr. Christopher Patten cannot be accused of beating around the bush. He evidently means what he says. Take the stance he adopted on the repeated allegations of financial impropriety, relating to European funding of the Palestinians. On June 19, 2002, Patten stated: "I repeat. The documents presented to us by Israel do not prove that EU funds have been misused (nor) has financed terrorism." Things look much less clear today. Officials from the EUs anti-fraud OLAF office were in Jerusalem recently, reviewing evidence. Has EU financial aid for the Palestinian Authority (PA) been diverted? However, OLAF is not the only inquiry in progress. French authorities have announced an investigation into mysterious transfers to Mrs. Arafat's personal bank balance. This might account for some 9 million. Where is the rest? The scale of the alleged fraud is immense. Brussels has handed around 4 billion to the PA since 1993, directly and via non-government organisations like UNRWA. This excludes significant contributions from individual European countries, from the USA, Canada, and from Arab League states. In 2003, EU transfers reached 245m. Some suggest that total foreign aid to the PA has finally exceeded the level of funding provided to Israel by the United States. It's an open secret that the flow of money to the Palestinians has often lacked appropriate controls. This inherent weakness in the EU's budget structure is waiting to be tapped by the unscrupulous. At least some of that cash has funded terrorists and gunrunning, even through the misuse of ambulances. Sadly, the victims of misplaced investment of this kind include citizens of the EU like Marianne Zaoui, murdered by Palestinian activists. The weight of evidence confirms that much of the EU money paid to the PA has disappeared, with no benefit to the man on the street. Instead of investigating its own channels and procedures, the EC continues to wave an accusatory finger in every other direction. As Europe's chief civil servant for foreign affairs, Mr. Patten is in the firing line over these allegations. Fair-minded people are entitled to ask whether the charges against Patten stand up to scrutiny. Patten himself has long complained that it's not easy tracking money transfers to the PA. In that 2002 speech, he compared the situation to a previous career posting in Northern Ireland, where he feared that money was also being diverted. An interesting career record. In his defence, Patten has argued for years that the IMF monitored the distribution of EU funding to the Palestinians. The IMF's own website did clarify that point, way back in 2002 - unfortunately not by backing the Commissioner but by contradicting him:" ... the IMF does not and cannot control downstream spending by the various Palestinian agencies. This matter remains between the PA and the donors." Patten's distinguished team of advisors includes Mr. Alan Seatter, the Head of Division for the Near East Region. In evidence to a UK Parliamentary committee last September, Mr. Seatter gave assurances about the "improved" procedures by the PA's Ministry of Finance, largely on the basis that the new Palestinian finance minister has introduced proper controls. Sadly, the minister, Mr. Salam Fayyad, an internationally respected economist, has also spoken clearly. He has repeatedly reported that the PA's finances remain under a cloud of suspicion. Three short months after Seatter's conjectures, Fayyad stated: "Unfortunately, the documents related to the revenues from oil products - or how the money was used - can't be found. They have disappeared from the ministry." Fayyad knows that these revenues, rightfully a resource of the Palestinian Authority, were deposited in a bank account under Chairman Arafat's personal name and sole control. Meanwhile, Seatter was openly stating the case in London for the PA and how it prefers to request general budget support rather than aid for specific infrastructure projects. What causes Patten's staff to ignore facts like these? But there's more. Last year, Patten and others publicly praised on the management improvements proposed by Arafat's handpicked prime minister, Abu Mazen. Abu Mazen, another clear speaker, complained at length in his resignation speech of illegal tamperings with Palestinian civil servants' salaries, a payroll largely funded from contributions by the EU taxpayer. He abhorred the way that tens of millions were siphoned off annually from Palestinian monopolies. All this and more was simply a ""cover for theft." The EC's response to the speech: utter silence. Abu Mazen's statement came some weeks before Seatter's testimony. At least, the EC is being consistent. It has just released a statement, sponsored by EC chief Romano Prodi, committing "to review its block on 40m EUR in aid to the PA following concerted reform efforts." Should we expect better? Patten's workload is immense. So, it's understandable that he apparently did not manage to review fully the IMF findings published in September 2003. Had he done so, he would have seen that $900m was "diverted" (using the IMF's term) from PA tax revenues. He would also have noticed that these same "diverters" manage the EU-funded PA budgets - which, the IMF says, suffer from a long list of control flaws. And Patten's officials have been up to their eyeballs with Afghanistan and Iraq. Does this explain their failure to appreciate the severity of the evidentiary material previously shown to them by the Israelis, very probably the same documents proffered to the OLAF officials? And as for checking out the myriad of reports available documenting the theft of UNRWA contributions and misappropriation of European donated hospital equipment by PA officials - well, how many hours are there in a day? Let us not even ask about the EU millions sent to the PA to cover the budgetary gap, stemming from Israel suspending tax transfers collected on behalf of the PA. When the Israelis cleared the backlog and resumed the payments, several members of EU Foreign Affairs committees complained that no attempt was made to recover those EU loans. Some now assert that the Parliament had not actually approved the payments in the first place. Are Parliamentarians trying to shift the blame to Patten, now that the money seems irrecoverable? Let's be clear. Hundreds of millions of Euros have gone missing, but it's unfair to blame it all on Patten. But let's ask this: How in the name of everything decent in Europe is it that a veritable library of verbal, written and circumstantial evidence, all pointing to the same conclusion - massive misappropriation of vast amounts of money intended for the Palestinian Arab people - has been ignored and denied for years? Some plain answers are urgently needed. Patten's office no longer seems the place to go. Maybe the EC is just hoping the issue will be filibustered until the summer elections. As Patten always explained, they were all just following the orders of the EU Parliament. Weren't they? David Frankfurter sends "Letters from Israel" emails to subscribers. Contact him at David.Frankfurter@iname.com To Go To Top

THE CURSE OF JIHAD: Saul Singer's Common Sense Antidote Posted by IsrAlert, March 8, 2004.

This article was written by Mackubin Thomas Owens for the National Review Online. Owens is an NRO contributing editor and a professor of strategy and force planning at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. Most Americans don't really understand how ubiquitous and pervasive the threat of terrorism is in Israel. Israelis have lived under the specter of terrorism for years, but especially so since the outbreak of the "Oslo War" in the fall of 2000. They have come to terms with security measures that most Americans would find restrictive at best. For instance, an American cannot help but be struck by the sight of armed security guards everywhere in Jerusalem from the entrance of shopping malls to cafes and restaurants. But many Americans have convinced themselves that the terrorism Israelis face on a day-to-day basis is somehow qualitatively different from that which struck the United States on 9/11. The latter is "global" terrorism while the former is "regional" or "local," stemming from the particular circumstances of the Palestinian problem, and, according to the conventional wisdom, pits Israeli security against Palestinian "rights." Indeed, this understanding seems to pervade U.S. policy toward Israel: The Bush administration, certainly the most pro-Israel one in a generation, still insists on a level of restraint by the Israelis when it comes to Palestinian terrorists that it would never agree to in its own dealings with al Qaeda. In fact, 9/11 and terrorist attacks against Israel form a seamless garment, both being motivated by the same hatred. No one has done a better job of demonstrating this point than Saul Singer, the editor of the Jerusalem Post's editorial page and a columnist for the paper. Many of his columns and unsigned editorials have now been collected in >Confronting Jihad: Israel's Struggle and the World After 9/11. Americans who wish to understand the reality of Israel's war against terrorism and its connection to our own struggle should read this fine collection of essays. The pieces that appear in Confronting Jihad cover the period from 1997 until the summer of 2003. The selections are outstanding examples of political commentary and the editorialist's art. Those who possess the ability to provide penetrating analysis in a thousand words or less are a rare breed indeed. Singer is one of them and his columns exemplify both common sense and moral clarity. As Bill Kristol says in his forward to Confronting Jihad, Singer's "character, as well as his mind, are visible in these essays." Singer was one of the first Israeli commentators to criticize the Oslo "peace process." To see how right he was and how wrong its advocates were, it helps to remember that when the Accords were signed in 1993, the Palestinian Intifada was exhausted and Yasser Arafat's power had reached its nadir. He was shunned by the Arab world owing to his support for Saddam Hussein in 1991 and was on the verge of being kicked out of Tunis. The world had not yet heard of suicide bombers. Oslo rehabilitated Arafat, thereby sowing the seeds of its own destruction. The failure of Oslo should have become apparent to all when Arafat, first, rejected the best deal the Palestinian Arabs are ever likely to get the offer by former Prime Minister Barak of some 97 percent of the disputed territories in the West Bank and Gaza, and control of East Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital and secondly, relaunched the Intifada, now built around the suicide attacks that have rocked Israel for several years now. Why Americans and Israelis of all stripes continue to push the "peace process" as Jewish corpses continue to pile up is beyond me. The central recurring theme of Confronting Jihad is that Israel and the United States are fighting the same war, and that it doesn't make sense for the latter to criticize the former when it takes steps to enhance its own security. Perspective is important. For instance, in response to four coordinated attacks that killed some 3,000 Americans, the U.S. has pursued terrorists, attacked them in their sanctuaries, and overthrown two regimes supported terror attacks against the West. So why does the U.S. insist that Israel show "restraint" in response to the more than 100 attacks over a three-year period that have killed nearly a thousand Israelis, proportionately the equivalent of 20,000 Americans? As Singer observes, Israel's 9/11 began at Rosh Hashana in 2000, a full year before our own. Since then, Israel has been under a constant and pervasive threat of terrorism unlike any other the world has ever known. The Clinton administration sought to apply "evenhandedness" to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. Israel was admonished to refrain from the "excessive use of force" lest such a response feed the "cycle of violence." The way to achieve "peace" was to respect Palestinian "rights." But Israeli restraint sent the message to Arafat that he could negotiate by means of terror, that Israel could be bled into withdrawing from territory. Since Arafat had already rejected Barak's deal, the message seemed clear to anyone but the ideologically blind: Arafat and the Palestinian Arabs did not seek a peaceful settlement with the State of Israel but rather, sought its extermination and the creation of a Judenrein Palestine. Singer argues that 9/11 made it clear that "Israel and America are both on the receiving end of what is essentially the same jihad: an expansionist war by militant Islamists who cannot tolerate any form of non-Islamic power." President Bush seemed to recognize this state of affairs in the wake of 9/11. As he stated in his speech of 20 September, 2001, "We must unite in opposing all terrorists, not just some of them. There is no such thing as a good terrorist." But in practice, the U.S. all too often continues to distinguish between the terrorism that it faces and that confronting Israel. For instance, senior U.S. envoys recently told the Sharon government that Washington would back a unilateral Israeli pullout from Gaza only if it could be ensured that former Gaza security chief Muhammad Dahlan would take charge of the area. Dahlan is a terrorist. Why is he treated as a "good terrorist"? The same holds true with Israel's security fence. Administration officials have criticized the fence for creating potential hardship for Palestinians. While there are many good reasons to oppose the fence, it is a step necessitated by the failure of the Palestinian Authority to curb terrorist attacks against Israel. Finally, there is the latest State Department Human Rights Report. This "balanced" report finds both Israel and the Palestinian Authority guilty of countless human-rights abuses. But its evenhandedness smacks of moral equivalency: It counts as an human-rights abuse every action Israel has taken to combat terrorism, thereby equating actions aimed at protecting Israeli citizens with terrorist acts executed to kill them. Such steps fly in the face of common sense. As Singer notes, "September 11 should have destroyed the supposed dichotomy between local and global terror. Before September 11, one might have argued, however cynically, that 'local' terror would never spread, and would stay 'local' if the West did not oppose it too vigorously. Now it should be clear that if 'local' terror is a successful and quasi-legitimate way to address local grievances, there is nothing stopping the use of terror in the war for the ultimate grievance, that of Islamists against the West." If the Bush administration does not see this, who will? John Kerry and the Democrats who still treat the problem of terrorism as an issue of law enforcement? The United Nations and the European Union? The International Court of Justice in The Hague, which is seriously considering a Palestinian challenge to Israel's security fence? "If Israel disappeared, the U.S. withdrew all its troops from the [Middle East], and all Arab regimes were replaced by Taliban clones, the [Islamists'] conflict with the West would not end it would just be getting rolling. The 'karffirs' [infidels] would be ripe for the plucking." Singer's column for the Jerusalem Post is called "Interesting Times," as in the Chinese curse, may you live in interesting times. The times are indeed interesting when otherwise moral people cannot see the difference between terrorism and self-defense, and between regimes that threaten human rights and those that seek to protect and expand them. Times are interesting when people in the government of the United States see the steps that Israel takes to defend itself as part of the problem rather than as part of the solution. The essays in Saul Singer's Confronting Jihad provide something of an antidote for interesting times, at least for those with a will to embrace common sense and a moral approach to international affairs. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

WHEN GENERALS GROW OLD Posted by Ruth and Nadia Matar, March 8, 2004.

Victor Hugo was extremely disappointed in Napoleon in the latter's later years. So it is with Ariel Sharon who recently marked his 76th birthday. Gone is the love and devotion which Sharon showed towards Israel as a military commander in his earlier years. The secular orientation in which Sharon was raised is still with him today. However, he now finds himself as a leader of a Jewish Nation, despite the fact that he has never observed nor practiced his People's ancient traditions. He knows little about the meaning or experiencing his People's Holy Sabbath, nor has he ever observed its dietary laws, nor are its beautiful holidays and traditions any relevance for him. He has no real appreciation, nor understanding of the magnificence of Jewish culture, and the depth and breadth of its ancient traditions of religious learning. He rarely makes mention of the moral values which the Prophets of Israel contributed to Western Civilization, nor is he a spokesman for those moral values, nor does he take pride in them. The promises that the Lord made to the Jewish People in their Bible he does not believe in. For him the Promised Land is not to be taken seriously. He can thus propose that there be a Palestinian State in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, which are part and parcel of the ancient historical Biblical homeland of the Jewish People. He can talk of uprooting entire Jewish communities in ancient Gaza, which has never had any historical connection whatsoever with the Arab people. A great majority of these Arabs have recently come into the Land of Israel from neighboring Arab countries, to seek labor and better living conditions than they formerly had in their previous Arab homelands. The anomaly of having an agnostic and secular Jew being a leader of a Jewish Nation is sadly not new in Israel. From the inception of the rebirth of this nation, we have had Jewish leaders who do not share the religious traditions of the Jewish People worldwide. Nor even when living in Israel, do they observe or practice their people's fundamental religious beliefs. We have a situation in our Holy Land, where there are Jews who share the views of their present Prime Minister. Particularly, is this true of those who dominate the media in Israel, and help to perpetuate Israel's secular orientation. The famous lines of the poet Browning, "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be" will never be actualized in Israel. Unlike his ancestors, this aged general has not the faith, nor the moral and spiritual message to convey to Jews in Israel, or elsewhere. Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

SAUDI OFFICIAL RATIONALIZES TERRORISM Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 8, 2004.

Shoura Council Chairman Dr. Salih bin Abdullah bin Homaid urges us to distinguish "between the legitimate struggle against occupation and terrorist acts targeting the peaceful people of non-occupiers." (IMRA, 3/1.) He is asserting that the warlike Arab world is "peaceful." When the Arabs claim territory in other people's homeland, then the other people are occupiers. It is ethical to murder the women and children in the states from which those "occupiers" come. Those cases are not murder, because the Arabs believe in their right to murder their enemies. On the other hand, the Arabs consider it murder and call it terrorism when Arab civilians are attacked. This is both circular reasoning and a double standard. It is the usual totalitarian rationalization for their evil ways. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

ARAB KIDS FORCE TANKS TO RETREAT? Posted by Voice of Judea, March 8, 2004.

In an article appearing in Yediot Achronot Monday, March 8th, 2004, titled "Gaza trap, the dilemma of the tankists," "yesterday in the battle near Netzarim the soldiers entered into a difficult dilemma. As the column of I.D.F. tanks slowly retreated from the "Palestinian" territory tens of Arab children pelted stones at them as they tried to jump onto the Merkava tanks." The Israeli soldiers refrained from shooting into the crowd in spite of the fact that behind the children, from the crowd, adult terrorists threw hand-grenades that exploded on the tanks. The above description was given by Lt. Col. Ofer who added "so as not to injure the children, we were forced to retreat backwards - back into the 'Palestinian' territory and to chase after them. As the bigger children ran away the smaller ones who could not keep up were left behind. They raised their hands, frightened that they would be injured, something that of course never entered our mind." Voice of Judea Commentary: I just want to ask Commander Ofer one simple question, one easy enough even for him. What message does this event send to the Arabs? If sending in kids as human shields can defeat the Israeli army during crucial military operations intended to safe Jewish lives, then in the eyes of the Arabs, Israel is a weak state on the verge of collapse, a belief which merely accelerates the barbaric tactics of the Arab terrorists. Way to go Ofer!!! Let it be known we Jews will never shoot at children even if adult terrorists stand right behind them lobbing grenades onto our heads. Israel, with one of the greatest and mightiest armies in the world, with the most advanced and sophisticated Merkava tank will soon be unable to drive their tanks into Gaza, as the Arabs grow more brazen by the day. There is nothing moral about allowing our soldiers to be endangered or killed because we have mercy on the enemy Arab population who allow themselves to willfully be used as weapons and shields as they murder Jews. This is nothing more than the "mercy of fools" the term coined by the Ramban, the famous biblical commentator. We all know the history of Purim. Our sages teach us that Haman, the wicked character in the Book of Esther, who convinced Ahashvarosh, the king of Persia, to support his decree to annihilate all Jews, was a direct descendant of Amaleki King Agag. Our Rabbis teach us that King Saul committed a grave crime when he was hesitant to wipe out the men, women and children of Amalek. Not only did his misplaced compassion cause his downfall as king but it also lead to the future decree made by Haman, who was a direct descendant of Agag. Let us hope that Israel will not make the same mistake again. The website address of Voice of Judea is http://www.voiceofjudea.net. Subscribe by writing listmaster@voiceofjudea.net To Go To Top

IDF CHIEF OF STAFF: RETREAT WILL NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM Posted by Bryna Berch, March 8, 2004.

These are 3 news items from today's Arutz-7 (http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com). What sort of madness is it to uproot Jewish families from Biblical Israel? It will create chaos transferring them. And the local Arabs will not settle down to peaceful pursuits - they will just have an easier time manufacturing weapons of war and getting them from Egypt. More and more of the IDF will need to be deployed in warding off attacks by the local Arabs. And the Arabs will continue to use their children as shields, because most of time, the Jews won't shoot. And if they do, the Arabs don't mind - it's good PR for them. What if Israel's Arab neighbors judge this time of confusion to be an excellent time to try another strike on Israel? Why would the Prime Minister want Israel to mortally wound itself? RESCUES AND OFFENSIVES Early yesterday morning, large IDF forces entered the refugee slum of El Bureij in Gaza in a counter-terrorism operation. The target: terrorist cells involved in firing mortar and anti-tank shells against Israeli towns in and out of Gaza, and cells specializing in placing roadside bombs. The battle began as soon as the dozens of Israeli vehicles, backed up by two Apache helicopters, entered the area and called on loudspeakers for the armed terrorists to give themselves up. Instead, the terrorists responded with dozens of anti-tank missiles, automatic fire, grenades and other explosive devices towards IDF forces. Fourteen Arabs, most of them terrorists, were killed, while no Israelis were hurt. The operation was a continuation of the army's regular offensives against terrorism, according to IDF sources, and was not a response to the attempted joint Islamic Jihad-Hamas-Fatah multi-attack of the day before. Hamas sources promised once again to avenge the attack, saying that Ariel Sharon would be forced to run away from Gaza in defeat. PA spokesmen said that Sharon was trying to "destroy" Gaza, in an attempt to ensure that Israel does not appear as retreating from Gaza under fire. A suicide terrorist was stopped only shortly before he was to carry out an intended murderous attack in Jerusalem on Saturday night. IDF forces entered Ramallah, just north of the capital, and stopped the would-be murderer in time. Security forces continue to remain on high alert across the country, and intelligence officials are reporting some 50 terror warnings. Also on Saturday night, IDF soldiers discovered a Palestinian terrorist explosives lab in the northern Shomron, including mortar shells, pipes for pipe bombs, a cellular phone attached to wires, and more. The lab was safely detonated... Arab gunmen fired at an IDF force near Shechem; no one was hurt, and IDF soldiers returned fire... A Kassam rocket landed this morning in a Western Negev town, and two mortar shells were fired towards N'vei Dekalim. No one was hurt... There was shooting yesterday and today at soldiers on the Karni-Netzarim route in Gaza... TERRORISTS USING CHILDREN AS SHIELDS Among the 14 Arabs killed in yesterday's IDF counter-terrorism operation in Gaza were one child and a youth. IDF sources said that the two were placed in the line of fire, with the terrorists hiding behind them. Lt.-Col. Ofer, commander of the Givati Brigade Patrol Battalion, told Yediot Acharonot, "The other side has a culture of using children as a human shield. We have several times seen armed Palestinians with children in their hands. They make sure to lift the children in the air [so that we can see them], assuming that we will then not shoot. Yesterday [on Shabbat], the children approached within a few meters of the tanks. Behind them, grenades were thrown - and exploded - at the tanks..." Reports from the scene of yesterday's battle indicate that local Arabs use loudspeakers to encourage children to come out to the scene of the battle. IDF CHIEF OF STAFF: RETREAT WILL NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon continues to object to Prime Minister Sharon's unilateral withdrawal plan. "Retreat under fire is no solution," he said last night. He made similar remarks the night before at the Erez Crossing, several hours after the thwarted multi-attack, noting that he cannot rule out the possibility that the current increase in terrorism is "connected with the disengagement plan." MK Tzvi Hendel said, "It's too bad that this simple truth stated by the Chief of Staff is not understood by the Prime Minister." "This is not an intifada, a popular uprising," said Gen. Yaalon, "but rather a planned attack set by the leadership of the Palestinian Authority. It reflects their lack of recognition in the State of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. It will remain with us for a very long while." Correspondent Haggai Huberman reports that the situation in Gaza is "war in the full sense of the word, even though this has not yet trickled down to the public consciousness." Writing for Katif.net today, Huberman notes that the IDF Southern Command has found that the number of roadside bombs that exploded in the Gaza Strip in 2003 is equal to the number that exploded throughout the 18 years of warfare in Lebanon: "The bombs are improving, as are the anti-tank shells that the terrorists manufacture themselves. There were 128 such attacks in 2002 - and 80% more in 2003! Half of these are on the Philadelphi route on the southern tip of Gaza, where there is full-scale war because of the fight over the arms-smuggling tunnels there. Despite this, the army is still arguing over whether to retreat from this area or not... "The public seems to think that the operations in that area are like an afternoon stroll. But those in the know realize that these are very dangerous missions... Even the top IDF brass in the Gaza Strip say that the most rational explanation for the lack of casualties on our side is Divine Providence... "Just as in the case of Lebanon, it is taking a long time for the public to understand that a real war is going on in Gaza. A unilateral retreat as planned by Sharon is not just 'retreat under fire' - it's actually 'deserting the battlefield in the height of battle.' "If the Prime Minister listens to the top IDF officers, including those serving in Gaza, he has heard them count off the negative consequences of his planned retreat: loss of depth of vision of terrorists approaching the Gaza fence; lack of ability to operate in the cities of Gaza; and the need for larger - not smaller - forces to prevent increased terrorism after a retreat." To Go To Top

ARAB GROUP: CHANGE DICTIONARY ENTRY ON ANTI-SEMITISM Posted by Paula Kaufman, March 8, 2004.

This was written by Ori Nir and appeared today in The Forward. It is archived as http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=5119 Washington - An Arab-American organization is demanding that the Merriam Webster company drop references to "opposition to Zionism" and "sympathy for the opponents of Israel" from its definition of anti-Semitism. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the leading Arab civil rights organization, yesterday sent a letter to Merriam Webster demanding that the changes be made to the "Third New International Dictionary - Un-abridged." The Arab group asked that Merriam Webster publicly repudiate the definition, send errata sheets to correct the dictionaries in libraries and rephrase the definition in future editions. The current entry on anti-Semitism reads as follows: "1. hostility toward Jews as a religious or racial minority group, often accompanied by social, political or economic discrimination 2. opposition to Zionism 3. sympathy for the opponents of Israel." In correspondence with Dan Walsh, a Maryland graphics artist who has recently launched a public campaign to differentiate between anti-Semitism and expressions of opposition to Israel, Merriam Webster stated that the latter part of the definition is a "relic" and "will most probably disappear from the next edition of the International" dictionary. The publication house refused, however, to issue a public clarification or a correction. The Arab group's communications director, Hussein Ibish, wrote a letter to Merriam Webster's senior editor, Steve Perrault, arguing that the dictionary "conflates the first sense of the definition with two spurious ones, thereby diminishing and even trivializing the very concept of anti-Semitism...Smears and impugns the motives of all those who support the human and political rights of Palestinians, undermines the efforts of Arabs and Jewish groups working for Middle East peace and stigmatizes legitimate political opinions and activities." Perrault said that the letter was passed along to the president of Merriam Webster. A spokesman for the company, Arthur Bicknell, told the Forward on March 4 that a new edition of the dictionary, with an updated entry, is expected by the end of this decade. He said that sending errata sheets to libraries as a temporary fix is beyond the capacity of a small publishing house such as Merriam Webster. To Go To Top

LEGAL RIGHTS AND TITLE OF SOVEREIGNTY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL AND PALESTINE UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW Posted by Eliezar Edwards, March 7, 2004.

This is Policy Paper #147 of the Ariel Center for Policy Research (ACPR). It is also the Executive Summary of what promises to be a lucid and remarkable book. It was written by Howard Grief, who is the founder and director of the Office for Israeli Constitutional Law as well as a licensed attorney and notary based in Jerusalem. This policy paper is the introduction of a forthcoming book to be published on the legal rights and title of sovereignty of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and Palestine under international law. These rights were recognized as inhering in the Jewish people when the highest representatives of the Great Powers that had defeated Germany and Turkey in World War I met at the Paris and San Remo Peace Conferences in 1919 and 1920. Their purpose was to design a global political and legal settlement to dispose of the conquered territories that formerly belonged to the dissolved German and Turkish Empires. Under this settlement, the whole of Palestine on both sides of the Jordan was reserved exclusively for the Jewish people as the Jewish National Home, in recognition of their historical connection with that country, dating from the Patriarchal Period. Its boundaries were to be delineated in accordance with the historical and biblical formula "from Dan to Beersheba" which denoted the entire Land of Israel. The Arabs were accorded national rights in Syria, Mesopotamia and Arabia, but not in Palestine. The British Government as Mandatory, Trustee and Tutor was charged with the obligation to create an eventual independent Jewish state in Palestine, and for this purpose only it could exercise the attributes of sovereignty vested in the Jewish people. The Palestine aspect of the global settlement was recorded in three basic documents that led to the founding of the modern State of Israel: the San Remo Resolution of April 25, 1920, combining the Balfour Declaration with the general provisions of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations; the Mandate for Palestine confirmed on July 24, 1922 and the Franco-British Boundary Convention of December 23, 1920, supplemented by the Anglo-American Convention of December 3, 1924 respecting the Mandate for Palestine. The British Government repudiated the solemn obligation it undertook to develop Palestine gradually into an independent Jewish state. This began with the Churchill White Paper of June 3, 1922, and culminated with the MacDonald White Paper of May 17, 1939. The US aided and abetted the British betrayal of the Jewish people by its abject failure to act decisively against the 1939 White Paper despite its own legal obligation to do so under the 1924 treaty. The UN Partition Resolution of November 29, 1947 illegally recommended the restriction of Jewish legal rights to a truncated part of Palestine. Astonishingly, the State of Israel has contributed to the denial of Jewish legal rights to the entire country by illegally transferring substantial areas of Judea, Samaria and Gaza to the PLO representing a mythical Arabic-speaking Gentile nation called "Palestinians" who falsely pretend to hold the real title of sovereignty over the country. Despite all the subversive actions to smother and destroy Jewish legal rights and title of sovereignty to the entire Land of Israel, they still remain in full force by virtue of the Principle of Acquired Rights and the Doctrine of Estoppel that apply in all legal systems of the democratic world. To Go To Top

THE MEDIA MAFIA OF ISRAEL Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 7, 2004.

During the outstanding international conference "The Jerusalem Summit" October 12-14, 2003 the Hebrew Media Mafia predictably ignored the impressive roster of world renown speakers and what they had to say. It did not require a stroke of genius to recognize that this Leftist Media would ignore their profound and varied messages because this was not a Leftist Symposium. I have often recommended that a law be passed which would require the Media to be fair and balanced. That for every anti-Right/Nationalistic article or editorial, a provision would be legislated that would allow the opposition to purchase space at a price indexed at the Media's base cost, plus 5%. The base cost would be established by a panel of forensic accounts lest publishing costs be inflated. Presently, the three major newspapers in the (Hebrew Press) operate as a Mafia and in lock-step with the Leftist Labor Party. This denies the Israeli citizenry the right to hear the news in an unbiased manner with no political spin implanted to misguide the reader. Another impressive conference is scheduled for March 15-17, 2004. I must assume, as before, the owners, publishers, editors and journalists have already evolved a plan with the Labor Party to insure minimum fair reportage (even from their own staff who will be speaking). I will repeat a recommendation which I have made numerous time: Gather your people and make life Hell for these biased Media outlets, much the same as they have made Hell for you. March against these newspapers. Call every publisher, editor, journalist, director, broadcaster and the owners of the various Media night and day. They are in the business of news gathering and so should be grateful for your fair and courteous opinions. Send Emails, Faxes, Letters to their offices and, if legal, to their homes. Engage the delivery truck drivers in conversations and ask them not to deliver inaccurate news. Send delegation to the offices of the Executives who set policy and demand fair and equal treatment and exposure. Lobby the Knesset for a "Truth in Publishing:" Law. Include the recognition that the Hebrew Media are not an independent news outlets but, a financially contributing ally of the Labor Party Left. Each time they print a hostile article, that page has a financial value which equals a political contribution to the Labor Party - making their newspapers, radio and TV a direct extension of a political party. Printing or broadcasting false and misleading articles is like putting illegal dollars into the pockets of the Leftist politicians. Make them pay for manipulating and weakening of the State of Israel by supporting withdrawals on every front, abandoning of Jewish citizens' homes, farms, factories and businesses. Every withdrawal only further emboldens the terrorists that their crimes do pay. The people of Israel and the Jews of the Diaspora have a right to the truth and not a version of Pravda or Al Ahram or other media outlets who filter the news for dictators. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm) To Go To Top

"AFTER ALL, YOU KNOW ME," SHARON EXPLAINED Posted by Moshe Feiglin, March 7, 2004.

"After all, you know me", Sharon explained the other day. "Do you really think that I made the Tennenbaum deal not for national reasons?" We have in fact gotten to know Sharon very well in recent years. We have known a new version of Sharon who has declared that we have stolen our country from others, and that it is a conquered land. We have seen how Sharon has acted cruelly against lovers of Eretz Israel and has displayed militant restraint against the worst of our enemies. We have got to know the Sharon who has sent the special police unit to cruelly evict a widow and her children, in the middle of a cold night, from their home on Hill 26. We have seen how Sharon set Israeli soldiers on settlers in Havat Gilad and in the hilltops. We have gotten to know the Sharon who destroyed a synagogue on an exposed hill in Tapuah, the Sharon who sent Noam Federman to jail without a trial, the Sharon who suddenly decided to destroy an entire settlement region as a media spin and in order to appease the Left. We have got to know Sharon very well. To the question, 'is Sharon capable of releasing 400 terrorists and bringing the State of Israel to its knees before Nasralla for murky personal reasons', the answer is - 'yes'. We in Manhigut Yehudit have NOT BEEN surprised by Sharon's steps. We predicted them precisely and we gave explicit warning of them in issues of Lechatchilla (our bi-monthly magazine) four years ago. We did not merely give warning. Ever since we interpreted reality we have acted in what we consider to be the best way to confront it. The construction of a belief-based alternative is not just a solution for coming generations, but affects the present and creates a very powerful tool for influencing the current reality. We support and encourage any protest activity that exposes the terrible injustices, demonstrates our loyalty to our country, and will make it difficult for Sharon to carry out his destructive plans. However, Manhigut Yehudit must concentrate on the objective it has set itself. Are Olmert and Mofaz preferable to Sharon? Sharon as prime minister was the sweet dream of every Rightist. There is no longer any point in replacing one leader by another of the same stamp. Moshe Feiglin established Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership), a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. Feiglin has emphatically said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. The Manhigut Yehudit website address is http://www.manhigut.org. To Go To Top

THE STATE OF PALESTINIAN SOCIETY Posted by Edmond Silber, March 7, 2004.

Enclosed, a copy of letter I have just sent. I know, you already receive tons of e-mails but disinformation has to worry you just as much as me, even if that happens in Canada or in your country of residence. It is important to remain vigilant and not to let lie circulate with impunity. Write at least a letter a week. Unfortunately it is not the occasions that are missing. Build up files. The Israel detractors will not be able to continue to lie indefinitely. This letter was sent to CBC NewsWorld, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation about their program yesterday which featured "democratic" activist Mustafa Barghouthi. Dear Mr. Stuart, Instead of always blaming someone else, Mr. Barghouthi should have looked a little more on the east side of the control check points. He should recall why those check points are in place. Of course the Palestinian Arabs are entitled to get all the medical attention needed, as any Canadian citizens do, here in our country. And at the same time, as Canada would have done in a similar case, Israel is taking all means to secure its population from suicide bomber terrorists. Instead of blaming Israelis for the Palestinian Arab children's anxiety, Mr.Barghouthi should have told us a little more about the curriculum in force in the Arabs Palestinian schools system and how they glorify the martyrdom killing system. Mr. Barghouthi should have told us about those ambulances, which were caught with hidden dynamite belts for suicide bombers. That would help your viewers to understand a little more why there's so much precautions at the check points. Why did Mr.Barghouthi not talk about the medical system put in place by Israel after 1967? It was the best in the region, and was in place until Arafat's arrival. He was so proud of the level of education of his own people, he could have told us what Israel has done after 1967 to help build all these schools and universities. As today in Canada, where no one is afraid to denounce the scandal of Chretien's Federal sponsorship program, and as well in Israel where the prime minister Sharon is presently under investigation on allege corruption involving his son, Mr.Barghouthi should have denounced the way how all the money sent by the International community is diverted by Arafat from its original destination, namely, the welfare of the Palestinian Arab population. All that money was not meant to buy dynamite for suicide bombers. The state of the Palestinian Arab population was much better off with the Israelis than with Arafat today. The economy was booming, Palestinian Arabs where buying houses, there was work for everybody and there was no need for fences or check points. Mr.Barghouthi's way of describing the present situation is called in French "La politique de l'autruche." Mr.Barghouthi is using your tribune to cover up his own back yard and chooses Israel as a scapegoat for all self-inflicted hardships. Mr.Barghouthi said "Suffering and humiliation" Yes Palestinian Arabs are suffering a lot as do Israeli citizens. But I think that Arabs Palestinians greatest humiliation is that Israel is not bending the neck and that Israel will never give up to terrorism. Israel is suffering a lot - around 900 dead since the beginning of the most recent Arafat's war on Israel. If transposed percentage-wise into Canadian figures, 4500 dead. Jews do not glorify death. "L'HAYIM" in Hebrew, means "TO LIFE". Jews glorifies life and will never dance in the street to celebrate someone else death. I'm sure that I don't have to convince you to affirm that the Middle East is a very sensitive subject today. Mr.Barghouthi is seen as a moderate? But in a well-spoken manner, he still incriminates the other side for all his own internal problems and suffering. The CBC is here to inform the Canadian population the most fair way possible. To avoid looking partial, please next time try to have someone representing de views of the other side's (Israel) majority. Edmond Silber is on the National Board of Directors of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research (http://www.isranet.org), "a unique, independent academic think-tank devoted to bringing objective, up-to-date data on, and analysis of, Israel and Middle East-related issues to our university campuses, to the media, and to the Jewish and non-Jewish communities at large." To Go To Top

SUICIDE BOMBERS AND AMALEK Posted by Steven Plaut, March 7, 2004.

Well, you might consider this a bit off the wall, the Western Wall that is, but I am always amazed about how so often the best commentary on current events is that which appears in the Bible, rather than in the media. This is being written while Purim is about to be wrapped up. Purim is the day in which we celebrate the killing of anti-Semites by armed Jews in the Persian empire. If you thought it was only a holiday to celebrate Jews being rescued from Haman's peace plan, you are wrong. Haman's peace plan was neutralized nine months BEFORE the date of Purim. So why is Purim on the 14th and 15th of Adar in teh Jewish religious calender? NOT because Hamas had plans to kill all the Jews on the 13th, and not because Hamas was dispatched to the peace conference of the after-world, all of which unravelled nine months earlier in Sivan, but rather because the Jews were killing the anti-Semites. Some 76,000 in the Persian Empire according the the Bible. Yes, that is correct, Purim is a holiday first and foremost in which we celebrate Jews killing anti-Semites. But the Purim rescue and revenge are themselves very closely associated in Jewish tradition with Amalekites. Amalek is the nation of evil-doers, who first assault the Jews, even before they get a chance to catch their breath as they are leaving Egypt. Jews are commanded to annihilate Amalek, and they remind themselves of this every year, shortly before Purim, in the synagogue. No peace dialogues and negotiations, but annihilation. Hamas is a descendent of AGAG the King of the Amalekites. There is one interpretation of the role of Amalek in the world worth noting. Amalek were the world's first suicide bombers. There is a Rabbinic interpretation that holds that Amalek KNEW they would be ordered by God to be annihilated for attacking the Jews, but their hatred was so intense that they wished to do so anyway, willing to sacrifice themselves. They sought to be the world's true first anti-Semites (even Pharaoh was not exactly an anti-Semite as such, just reluctant to emancipate his slave property, a bit understandably, and there are no long-term eternal curses in the Torah on Egypt, which is indeed remembered always with a bit of gratitude for having taken in hungry Israel in the first place). Amalek wished to make things safer for those who would follow, like a soldier lying on a grenade so that his colleagues may advance. Amalek as suicide bomber. So, clearly today's Palestinian suicide bombers are the descendents of Amalek and the terrorism and Palestinian fascism must be annihilated, just as must Amalek. But why did Amalek hate the Jews so? When Amalek attacked the Jews, it was NOT because the Jews were occupying anyone's land. They were just wandering in the Sinai wilderness. They did not take anyone's property (well, except Pharaoh's). There was no material gievance anyone could have held against the Jews. And THAT is precisely the point. THAT indeed is why we are commanded to remember Amalek and what it did. Amalek hated the Jews for NO reason. The point of the commandment to remember Amalek is to remind ourselves of how there is NO underlying grievance that explains anti-Semitism, and so it cannot be ended through appeasement and dialogue. It is pointless asking WHY anti-Semites hate Jews. There are never rational reasons. Hence, anti-Semitism can only be fought, through use of force and arms, not understood nor appeased. The only way to deal with Amalek and similar anti-Jewish suicide bombers and their commanders is the way the Prophet Samuel dealt with Agag, ancestor of Haman, king of the suicide bombers, when the old man Samuel slit his throat and berated King Saul for showing mercy towards the terrorist. Saul was stripped of his kingdom for engaging in Oslo negotiations with him. What a great political precedent! If only the Olso Cult in the 90s had learned the lesson of Samuel and dealt with the current king of the suicide bombers in Ramallah the same Prophetic way, rather than trying to appease him into peaceful coexistence. And speaking of King Saul, the Book of Samuel is very clear about the cowardice that initially greets the use of arms when Jews use it against anti-Semites. When Saul took to the war path against the Philistines, there were outcries from the bleeding hearts. Demands for Peace Now. War is not the answer, they bellowed. You are upsetting the apple cart, whined the appeasers among the tribes of Israel. We have a modus vivendi with them. We pay them tribute and are subservient to them. We respect their dainty sensitivities. You will get the whole world MAD at us if we assassinate their leaders and the Philistine terrorists? They will indict King Saul at the Hague! Sound familiar? Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG? Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, March 7, 2004.

It's become routine by now. Jewish civilians get deliberately blown up by Arabs on buses or in restaurants, and this next becomes morally equated with Arab non-combatants who die because their heroes used them as human shields. And we're then told that all of this starts in the first place because of Israeli "oppression"... aka measures Jews take to try to stop Arabs from butchering their kids. Consider the following sequence of events: A while back, Molly Moore of the Washington Post reported on progress in talks between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the PA's Mahmoud Abbas. In the passing, she quoted from Hamas spokesman, Abdul Aziz Rantisi, who held out the possibility of halting terror against Israelis. This, "of course," was contingent on Israel first stopping all actions it has been forced to take to stop the murder itself. A few days earlier we had heard that certain U.S. "officials" (translate as State Department) pondered that in acknowledging Israeli concerns regarding the Road map, new disputes with the Arabs would surface. This is true. Consider the current debate and pressure being exerted upon Israel over the course of its security fence as just one example. Arabs think they're going to shove the pre-'67 Auschwitz/armistice lines down Israel's throat again. Among other things, Israel was made a mere 9-miles wide by those U.N.-imposed lines. The latter simply marked the point where hostilities ended after the Arab invasion of a newly-reborn Israel in 1948. As Eugene Rostow and other leading international legal scholars have pointed out, those armistice lines, especially in Judea and Samaria - the "West Bank" - were never meant to be permanent borders. Indeed, some Texas driveways are reputed to be longer than that...and most of Israel's population and industry lies within that narrow waistband. Palestinian Arabs and their European, Russian, United Nations, and other supporters (including friends in Foggy Bottom) are looking for a virtual resurrection of the Oslo debacle. In Oslo I, the more Israel tangibly gave, the more it bled. Without President Bush's assurances that this will not again be the case, Sharon - or any other Israeli leader - could not accept this so-called new plan for peace. Indeed, the road map now appears dead in its tracks because the Arabs have refused to do the one thing that could breathe life into it...stop the slaughter of Jews. Let's get something straight right from the start. The problems that both Abbas and Rantisi had earlier cited - Israeli incursions, assaults, checkpoints, travel restrictions, and other measures which admittedly cause inconvenience, frustration, and problems for Arabs - were eggs laid and hatched as a result of Arab rejectionist hens raised on both of their farms. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas have simply been playing a game of good cop/bad cop with the Jews to win as many one-sided concessions as possible. "Moderate" PA spokesmen have described Oslo as a "Trojan Horse." Camp David 2000 and Taba clearly showed that occupation and settlements were not the problem. While it's been said many times, it must be repeated yet again... Israel indeed offered Arafat over 97% of the disputed territories along with half of Jerusalem, etc. Ambassador Dennis Ross was there and confirmed the offer for a contiguous state...not "disconnected cantons" as anti-Israel attack dogs now claim. The sticky point both then and now was/is the existence of a viable Israel, regardless of size. Arabs continue to kill not to "end occupation" - unless one understands that to mean Tel Aviv as well as Hebron - but to end Israel. A mere look at either gentleman's websites quickly illustrates this. There is no Israel present in either's maps, and "Palestine" exists in place of Israel, not along side of it. Arabs blow up Jewish innocents on buses, in pizza parlors, teen night clubs, etc. because, in too many Arab eyes, no Jew living in a Jewish state is innocent. How dare Israeli Jews, half of whom were refugees themselves from "Arab " lands (where they were known as kelbi yahudi - "Jew Dogs"), want in one miniscule state what Arabs have conquered and forcibly Arabized for themselves in twenty-two others. Arabs reject an independent Kurdish state, Berber state, Black African Sudanese state, etc. for the same reasons - a belief that only they have the right to rule lands where many different peoples have historically lived and live. Regardless of the chants of the popular anti-Israel chorus, there is no moral equivalency between those who murder and those who try to prevent their loved ones from being murdered. And that's what Israel's reservations over the roadmap are basically all about and why Israel is building its costly security fence. After 9/11, the United States didn't negotiate with al-Qaida or the Taliban. It sent in B-52 and B-1 bombers to do the "negotiating." Yet the world expects Israel to constantly watch its people get blown to bits. Al-Qaida had its gripes with America too, but that didn't lead us to seek "accommodation" with those who butchered our own people. So, a piece of advice...The next time you read some columnist complaining about checkpoints, or see another picture about those long lines, consider the following: Before anything can be done to ease up on the measures and restrictions Israel has been forced to take to try to limit Arab terrorism, the Arabs themselves must control those who deliberately disembowel, maim, and incinerate Jews. What other nation would demand less? In this case, there's no mistaking which came first. As long as Arab hens continue their deadly business as usual, misery for their own people will also hatch from the eggs that are laid. Gerald A. Honigman is a contributing writer for Jewish Xpress magazine (http://www.jewishxpress.com), a monthly publication based in southern Florida. His background is in Middle Eastern Affairs. His articles and op-eds have been published in dozens of newspapers, magazines, academic journals and websites all around the world. This is a revision of an article that appeared on the Blog-Ed page of Think-Israel in August, 2003. To Go To Top

LESSONS OF THE LATEST DEBACLE Posted by Bryna Berch, March 6, 2004.

This was written by Caroline Glick and published in the Jerusalem Post, March 5, 2004, and is archived at www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1078397704651 and at IMRA (Independent Media Review and Analysis). at http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=20011 Imagine the following scenario: In response to threats last summer by Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah to kidnap additional Israelis, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the IDF to strike at Hizbullah rocket launchers along the border, command and control assets in the Bekaa Valley and kill Hizbullah leaders. After the initial strikes, Sharon announced that the campaign would continue until Nasrallah returned the bodies of murdered IDF soldiers Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawayid and kidnapped Israeli drug dealer Elhanan Tannenbaum. The IDF continued its operations, killing Hizbullah terrorists and destroying its bases while overflying Syrian military installations in Lebanon and Western Syria and besieging Nasrallah. Seeing that Israel was pursuing a plan to destroy his organization, Nasrallah returned the bodies and Tannenbaum through German mediators. In the aftermath of the successful campaign, it was revealed that Sharon had a past relationship with Tannenbaum's father-in-law. Would anyone care? The furor over Ma'ariv's revelation Wednesday that Sharon had business dealings with Shimon Cohen, Tannenbaum's father-in-law, 30 years ago has little to do with the fact of the matter. Rather, the reason the story resonates with the public is that it is a metaphor for how ill-conceived Sharon's decision to release more than 400 terrorists in exchange for a criminal was. The story of the Sharon-Tannenbaum connection, which has dominated the public debate since Wednesday morning, does however serve a practical purpose. It illustrates two central problems with Israeli policymaking. In the first instance, it demonstrates the vacuousness of the decision-making processes Sharon has adopted since taking office in 2001. These decisions, taken far away from government or public scrutiny, are made by Sharon and a few handpicked advisers without political or public critique and presented to us as a fait accompli. Secondly, the Sharon-Tannenbaum affair lays bare the media's failure to foster public debate on either Sharon's policymaking mechanisms or the policies themselves before they are adopted. In the case of Sharon's insistence on releasing more than 400 terrorists in exchange for Tannenbaum, for instance, it is the security of all Israelis, not the prime minister's political career, that is the principal casualty of the deal. Yet the media debate before the prisoner swap was approved by the cabinet was superficial at best. Its loudest criticism related to the deal's impact on securing information on missing IAF navigator Ron Arad. The question of how the deal would impact the security of Israeli citizens writ large was largely ignored. Today, there are three government policies that are equally if not more vital than the prisoner swap to our national security that are also being carried out in the backrooms with little to no public debate. If we are to take any lessons from the Tannenbaum affair, it is to these issues that they should be applied. First we have Sharon's intention to deploy Egyptian forces in the Gaza Strip after an IDF withdrawal. According to news reports, Sharon has proposed to Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak that the Camp David Accord's security limitations on Egyptian forces along the border with Israel be significantly amended. Today, the treaty provisions limit Egyptian forces to the western Sinai Peninsula and its forces are barred from deploying near the border with Israel. Sharon now is pushing a plan under which Egypt would deploy thousands of security forces along the border and inside the Gaza Strip. The plan was presented to Mubarak last week by Labor Party leader Shimon Peres. Speaking this week before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, CGS Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon told lawmakers that the IDF's General Staff is totally opposed to the notion of amending the Camp David Accord in this manner. Ya'alon explained that deploying Egyptian forces in the so-called Philadelphia corridor along the divided city of Rafah would enable Katyusha rockets to be smuggled into Gaza and Katyusha strikes on Ashkelon would force the IDF to launch large-scale ground operations in Gaza. Of Egypt's gestures toward curbing weapon smuggling along the Rafah border to date, Ya'alon said, "I am not satisfied with the Egyptian action." The plan to deploy the Egyptian military in Gaza represents a total renunciation of Israeli security doctrine for the past 48 years. Since the 1956 Sinai Campaign, it has been Israel's policy to keep Egyptian forces away from the border. Israel went to war with Egypt in 1956 after Egypt failed to prevent and indeed sponsored terrorist attacks against Israel from the Gaza Strip. In 1967, it was the Egyptian military mobilization on the border that fomented regional war. The entire rationale behind the separation-of-forces sections of the Camp David Accord was to prevent the eruption of war between Israel and Egypt by keeping Egyptian forces away from Gaza and Israeli population centers. There has been no government discussion whatsoever of this radical proposal. Apparently the brainchild of Sharon, Peres and Sharon's chief of staff Dov Weisglass, the policy was announced through leaks to the media. Sharon has yet to say anything about this proposal to the public although he is already negotiating it with the US and the Egyptians. And indeed, there has been no public debate of the issue. All three television channels were granted interviews with Sharon on Wednesday night and not one of them asked him about this stunning departure from a military doctrine he himself was instrumental in shaping. Will we only have a debate on this after Katyusha rockets rain down on Tel Aviv from Gaza or Egyptian troop movements again precipitate a war? Then there is the issue of Iran's nuclear-weapons program. Just this past weekend, Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani threatened Israel again after signing military pacts with the Syrian and Lebanese governments. Speaking in Beirut, Shamkhani said that if Israel strikes Iranian nuclear sites, "I can promise you that Ariel Sharon, assuming he stays alive, will appear on television screens and announce that he regrets this folly. He will suffer and scream out in pain." Israel's options regarding the Iranian nuclear weapons program are all bad. With the EU busy appeasing Teheran and the Bush administration divided between those advocating military strikes and those advocating adopting the European line, Israel stands more or less alone before the specter of nuclear holocaust. The Iranian leadership has said outright that it does not see its nuclear arsenal as a deterrent force, but rather intends to use it to annihilate Israel. Israel can either preemptively strike Iran's nuclear facilities; pressure the US to take action against them from its forward bases in Iraq and Afghanistan; or do nothing. Today it would seem that Israel has chosen the third option. No doubt discussion of this existential threat to the Jewish state should be conducted in secret. But has the cabinet been engaged? Have ministers demanded a presentation on the matter by the air force, military intelligence and the Mossad? Is the Knesset holding hearings on this subject? And while our leaders should make their decisions in private, where are the newspapers and the TV channels and Israel Radio in all of this? Where is a national debate on the threat of physical annihilation? Isn't it better to have this discussion now than after Teheran tests its first nuclear bomb? Lastly, we have the US plan to democratize the Arab and Muslim world. In recent weeks, the Bush administration has begun to implement its Greater Middle East Initiative. The US has launched its Arabic satellite news station Al-Hurra and Radio Free Syria radio station in a bid to bring freedom and democracy to our Arab neighbors for the first time in their history. What is happening is no less than a revolution, albeit a tentative one, in the way the US views its Middle East policy. If in the past, consecutive US administrations have swallowed the Arab propaganda line that no reforms of their dictatorships were possible until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was resolved, today the Bush administration is rejecting this lie. Speaking in Cairo this week, Undersecretary of State Mark Grossman said, "The effort for reform in Arab countries does not have to wait until there is a full peace." And what is Israel doing in the face of this welcome and courageous American policy? Our government is rejecting it, by deed if not by word. By courting Mubarak while he leads the charge against the US initiative to bring freedom to the Arab world we are strengthening Mubarak and his authoritarian government that has made Egypt the epicenter of Arab anti-Semitism and the gravest conventional threat to Israeli security. Sharon's newest adviser Peres was the first to work to scuttle Bush's June 24, 2002, call for democracy in Palestinian society when as foreign minister he created the fiction that a prime minister hand-picked by Arafat would mark the completion of regime change and democratization. Minister Natan Sharansky, who was instrumental in convincing the Bush administration to view democratization of the Arab world as a central aim of its Middle East policy, has been shut out of Sharon's foreign policy debate. And where is the Israeli media? Aside from laconic reports of the American initiative, buried in the back pages of the newspapers and at the tail ends of news broadcasts, never to be repeated, there has been no media discussion of the strategic ramifications of the American initiative. Rather than support Palestinian journalists who are taking to the streets in droves to protest physical assaults against their colleagues by PA security forces, our journalists went to Ramallah two weeks ago to eat lamb chops with Jibril Rajoub - the man who spearheaded the PA's campaign against freedom in the Palestinian press by torching newspapers and torturing journalists since 1994. As the US launches the one policy that has a chance of bringing us long-term peace, our policymakers and media elites placate these dictators and woo their henchmen. There is no doubt that the deal with Hizbullah that brought us Tannenbaum the drug dealer in exchange for 400 terrorists was a mistake. But the best way to rectify the situation is to learn our lessons. We have three tests before us. Our ministers and our media outlets must be called to order. It is time that they do their jobs. To Go To Top

THE JEWS RETURNED TO JERUSALEM AND THE LAND OF ISRAEL FOREVER Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 6, 2004.

The Arabs and the non-people who adopted the name "Palestinian" claim that the ancient Jewish people are usurpers and it is they, the Arab Palestinians, who are the rightful owners of the land of Israel - Eretz Yisrael. This spurious claim by Muslim Arabs and nothing else is the 'root cause' of the Arab/Israeli conflict. Who, other than Muslims believe that the stories and claims of the Saudis and the so-called recently self-proclaimed Arab "Palestinians". At least the Syrians, the Iraqis and even the Egyptians have clearly identifiable lineage. All of these nations and these people have been conquered, displaced, divided in their loyalties so many times that only an imaginative anthropologist could accurately distinguish one people from another. At no time in recorded history has there ever been an Arab Palestinian people. Jews were called Palestinians by the British during their Mandate since 1917. The Jews' English newspaper, The Jerusalem Post was called The Palestine Post before 1948 - among other institutions. Most important, the Jews can track their unbroken lineage back to Abraham, Moses through the Prophets and the Kings of Israel. They can track their claim to the land back to G-d who promised it to the Jewish people and, therefore, have nothing to prove. You remember G-d? That's the spirit force from which the Christians hark back through a Jewish man they call their lord and whom they believed was the son of the Hebrew G-d. So, too the Muslims hark back to Ishmael, out of Abraham - but, it was Isaac, Abraham's son through Sarah, who inherited what was to be the final Covenant between the Jewish Hebrew tribes and G-d. Ishmael became a pagan and rejected the religion of Abraham. There was no religion of a One G-d called "Islam" until Mohammed had his 'vision' and created it in the 7th century. The pagan desert tribes were mostly warriors and thieves when there was an available victim. Any other tribe was ready prey and there was no nobility to their brethren in this desert scum. But, they did have a panoply of gods with each tribe possessing its own set of idols. Especially important to them was the moon god of the desert tribes called 'Zin' who eventually became Allah for Islam. Mohammed conquered the Arabian Peninsula and drove out the Jewish tribes, thus claiming to own the land by conquest. In the years that followed, the terror that was Mohammed's and Islam spread across the land by the sword like a plague. As with all other conquerors, Jerusalem was overrun but, somehow the conquerors could only grasp the bricks and mortar of the City. They could never conquer and take hold of the Jewish G-d, HaShem - or as pagan conquerors are wont to do, they merely added the conquered G-d to their mix of pagan gods. Many have come to conquer Jerusalem. Romans, Arabs, Crusaders and more but no one could take hold of the spirit of Jerusalem. Eventually all left and their mighty empires crumbled. Only the Jews remain connected to the land, even when we were forcibly exiled. Then, miraculously, the Jews have returned to our ancestral homeland, the well-spring of our souls. But, as always, our detractors claim that the Land is theirs. Above all, they claim the Temple built by King Solomon, son of King David, at the instructions of G-d. Like all conquerors who bring their pagan gods to prove that they are real and dominant, they built their temples over the ruins of their victims. Sixty years after the death of Mohammed in 632 C.E., Caliph El Malik in Damascus built what today is called the Golden Dome on the Temple Mount of Solomon. Twenty years later, El Malik's son built what is now called Al Aksa Mosque, named after the dream/folk-tale that Mohammed had one night wherein he allegedly flew to Al Aksa (meaning the 'farthest place') - thought to be Allah's Courtyards. Later in the 12th Century, Salah-a-Din, the Muslim Kurdish warrior, anxious to justify his attack on the Christian Crusaders in Jerusalem, proclaimed that Mohammed had flown Barak, his giant winged white horse with the breasts and face of a woman and the tail of a peacock to the al Aksa Mosque built on top of the Jews Holy Temple. (There was an al Aksa (the farthest) Mosque in Medina which is probably the source of this wonderful story.) Not surprisingly, the pagan world was filled with flying 'holy' deities, including animals and most of them had wings. Not only would Salah-a-Din defeat the Christians but, would now claim Al Aksa in Jerusalem as not merely a mosque but Islam's third holiest site. Capturing and building one's temple to their gods over the Temple of the conquered was always the way of pagan tribes. The primitives believed they could absorb the strength of their enemies, thereby demonstrating their superiority. Today, the Jewish State of Israel is not an occupying force that has no right to the land - as claimed by Yassir Arafat and other Arab revisonists. Israel's claim goes back thousands of years, before Christianity, before Islam, all the way to the Covenant of G-d promised to the Jewish people. All those nations who were or will be, who have challenged the Judgement of G-d - have already become extinct or will sooner or later disappear. Everyone who has tried to conquer Jerusalem has met their end and only exists in the dusty books of history. I wonder what will happen to the Arabs of today? How will the Europeans excuse themselves when they are so anxious to destroy the Jewish nation of Israel? What curse will the Bush family, the operatives in the U.S. State Department and their oil allies bring upon the American people for their perfidy? The final judgement may take time, clocked in G-d's Own reckoning of days but, it is coming. So who would contest with G-d for the Land which only He owns and occasionally loans to men? The Jewish Tribes were gifted the Land of Israel as a Holy Place for G-d's Temple in Jerusalem where we Jews would face our G-d and listen to His instructions, His Words in the Torah. Who would dare to now tell the Jews to leave because the Land must be gifted to pagans? Is this the mission that President George W. Bush has taken upon himself in the name of the American people? Or Not? Do the Christian people wish to confront or deny the Word of the G-d from whom they believe came their salvation? Will the American people allow their President, in their name, to attempt to cancel the Covenant that G-d made with Abraham for the Jewish people to inherit the Land of Israel? Surely, if there is a Devil and a Hell, then they must recognized as the Islamic forces of Islam rolling across the Planet Earth like an evil plague. Perhaps it is time that Christians who believe in G-d gather their forces to take the field next to the Jews of the Covenant. There is a choice to be made. Stand with the pagan armies of Islam or stand with the Jewish people of G-d. There is no middle ground and the battle is now. Your absence in the final war between good and evil will no doubt be noted by G-d. Think well! Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm) To Go To Top

PHONE CALL Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, March 6, 2004.

Osamma Bin-Laden calls Yasser Arafat: "Listen, Yassi, there is something that I don't understand. We are both terrorists, we both killed thousands of innocent people, but all the world is hunting only me, and at the same time you are the honorable Nobel Prize for Peace winner! What is your secret?" " Oh, it is very simple", Osamma, "I kill only Jews!" Yuval Zaliouk write the Truth Provider essays. To subscribe, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

WHAT PREVENTS CHANGE IN THE MIDDLE EAST? Posted by Barry Rubin, March 6, 2004.

The United States plans to present a major plan on democratization of the Middle East to a summit of industrialized states in June. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab countries have rejected the proposal before they read it. The reasoning here tells us a great deal about how the contemporary Middle East works. In a meeting between Egyptian President Husni Mubarak and Saudi Arabia's rulers, these leaders' joint statement affirmed, of course, that they want to "proceed on the path of development, modernization and reform in keeping with their people's interests and values" but only if it is compatible with "their specificities and Arab identity." This stance would, of course, be quite understandable if it were not a complete and total lie. Now it is not hard to understand why the leaders of dictatorial regimes in which power and wealth is monopolized by a small group do not want to give up their privileges. This is the way dictatorships have always worked throughout the world. But these are not the rationales used by the regimes and their supporting bureaucrats, intellectuals, or media to justify their refusal to fight corruption, permit civil liberties, allow free speech, stop repressing moderate dissidents, and the many other ways they stay in power. In the Middle East, though, a great deal of sand is thrown into the air which succeeds in obscuring these simple facts. Precisely because they are able to persuade their people on these points - partly due to endless repetition of their arguments and discrediting or silencing all alternative viewpoints - the Middle East has remained a zone of dictatorships while other regions have proved far more flexible toward change. What are the main excuses used to reject not just the U.S. plan but all serious efforts to bring about change? These are the four horseman of the Middle Eastern apocalypse which help account for the region's chronic disaster: - The Arab-Israeli conflict paradox. Nothing can change unless this issue is resolved but Arab states ensure that it is not solved by refusing compromise, backing terrorism, and letting Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat sabotage any chance for progress. Thus, even the moderate Egyptian intellectual Muhammad Sid-Ahmed said in al-Ahram that under the U.S. plan, "The Palestinian cause would lose its specific character and central position" and leave the "region prisoner to interminable violence." Yet what possible real connection does this issue really have with a better educational system, fair elections, freer speech, and less corruption in the Arab world? - America and state-sponsored xenophobia. The pretense here is that the United States wants to impose a detailed program of specific changes on the Arab world. This is rejected as unwarranted (read "imperialistic") interference in sovereign states by a country with a record that makes it unworthy as a sponsor for democracy. Former Arab League Secretary Esmat Abdel Meguid told the United States, "How can you speak about democracy when you have these things that are happening in Palestine, and in Iraq? This is something that is very surprising to us," he said. "If [President Bush] would like to see democracy, that means equality, liberty, respect for others, then this should be applied to what is happening in Palestine." Again, this is just what is called in American slang, "blowing smoke." Are Arab regimes doing the United States a favor if they consider treating their own people better? Moreover, as Secretary of State Colin Powell said in response to Arab criticisms of the U.S. plan, "We're not looking for something to impose on the region, we're looking for things we can work with the region on." Powell told a new, U.S.-funded Arabic television channel: "I agree with the Egyptians and the Saudis: (reform) can't be imposed from outside. It has to be accepted from the inside." The leaks about the contents of the plan indicate that this is what it is, a series of mild, do-good programs to help civil society, train parliamentarians, and other such things that would lay a long-term foundation for progress toward democracy. Whether or not it is a good program, there's certainly nothing extreme or demanding in it. - Arab and Islamic "specificity." When it suits them, mainstream Arab intellectuals and journalists rage that the West talks about them as if they are "different." But at other times, the nationalists claim that the requirements of the Arab identity and Islamic religion require a different system of government and society. For example, the Egyptian academic and editor Osama el-Ghazali Harb, who takes some liberal positions, protests that the United States long supported traditionalists against reformers against the "long-term interests of the Middle East's peopleto further U.S. interests in fighting communism, protecting the oil supply, and defending Israel's security." This was done on the basis of stability being more important than democracy as well as under cover of "deference to the 'traditions and local traits' of traditional societies. But which is it? Is the problem that the United States supports the regimes, which makes it an imperialist boss, or that it challenges them, which makes it an imperialist aggressor? - Iraq. The Saudi-Egyptian statement demands the withdrawal of U.S.-led occupation forces as soon as possible and a greater role for the UN. Again, though, is this an issue which should delay any change or even serious examination of the well-known shortcomings of Arab states and societies? Is reform doing America a favor for which some price should be extracted? The truly important issue is not what U.S. policy should be on promoting democratization but rather what is the policy of the Arab rulers. On this point, Powell is right: change must come from the inside and that is exactly why there isn't going to be any for a long time. Professor Barry Rubin is the Director of The Global Research in International Affairs Center (GLORIA) and Editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal (MERIA) and Editor of Turkish Studies. To Go To Top

BUSH CLOSE TO IMPOSING SANCTIONS ON SYRIA Posted by Isralert, March 6, 2004.

This was writen by Adam Entous and appeared yesterday as a Reuters news item. CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - The Bush administration plans to impose some sanctions on Syria within weeks for its support of terrorist groups and for failing to stop guerrillas entering Iraq, congressional officials and other sources familiar with the matter said on Friday. Though the White House insists no final decisions have been made, senior administration officials on Friday informed Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a senior member of the House International Relations Committee, that a decision was "imminent," said her spokesman, Alex Cruz. Several sources said the administration was leaning toward imposing economic rather than diplomatic sanctions under legislation signed into law by Bush in December. Washington accuses Syria of sponsoring terrorism, occupying Lebanon and failing to secure its border with Iraq while allowing anti-American fighters to cross into the country. The administration's move against Syria would stand in stark contrast to President Bush's decision to ease sanctions on Libya as a reward for scrapping its nuclear arms programs. Bush has seized on Libya's pledge to abandon weapons programs as an example for other countries, including Syria. The Syria Accountability Act bars trade in items that could be used in weapons programs until the administration certifies that Syria is not supporting terrorist groups, has withdrawn personnel from Lebanon, is not developing unconventional weapons and has secured its border with Iraq. The law also authorizes Bush to impose at least two other sanctions from a menu that includes barring U.S. businesses from investing in Syria, restricting travel in the United States by Syrian diplomats, and banning exports of U.S. products other than food and medicine to Syria. The legislation allows the White House to waive the sanctions, but a senior administration official said, "We will implement the Syrian Accountability Act." The official declined to say which sanctions would be put in place and when. Several sources said the announcement was likely to be made next week or the week after that. The White House informed Ros-Lehtinen that the announcement was imminent in response to her letter urging Bush to expedite implementation of the sanctions. The congresswoman heads a House of Representatives subcommittee on the Middle East. "They're ready to go," another source said of the sanctions, calling it "a serious signal to the Syrians that it needs to throw out terrorist groups." Syria says its support for the Palestinian and Lebanese groups it calls freedom fighters is merely political and their only activity in Syria is speaking to media. Allegations from Washington during the Iraq war that Damascus was helping aides of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein flee raised concern in the Arab world that Syria could be the next target of what the U.S. calls its "war on terror." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld complained last month that Syria was not doing enough to stop guerrillas entering Iraq. With trade between the two countries a modest $300 million or less annually, the sanctions would have more political than economic effects. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

WHO CALLS THE SHOTS? Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, March 6, 2004.

If you ever had any doubts who calls the shots in Israel, this should settle the question. A question of Israel's internal security is determined by the timing of the American election. This was written by Mark Lavie of the Associated Press for the Washington Times and is archived at http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040305-100455-1799r.htm It is entitled "Troop withdrawal put off in Gaza." JERUSALEM - Israel will wait until after the U.S. presidential election in November to withdraw troops from the Gaza Strip, a security official said yesterday, while soldiers sealed the West Bank and Gaza Strip amid new warnings of attacks by Palestinian militants. The moves came as an Israeli newspaper released a poll that put Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's approval rating at its lowest since he took office in 2001. For the first time, a majority of Israelis said he should resign, the poll said. The poll in the Yediot Ahronot daily said 57 percent of Israelis believed Mr. Sharon was not trustworthy. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz decided not to withdraw troops from the Gaza Strip before U.S. presidential elections in November and will brief U.S. officials on his position during a trip to Washington next week, a security official said on the condition of anonymity. Israel has said it would withdraw from much of Gaza and parts of the West Bank if peace talks remain frozen in coming months. The United States has not rejected the plan outright, but has expressed reservations about unilateral actions. The U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan calls for a negotiated agreement. Earlier this week, Dov Weisglass, a senior Sharon aide, discussed the proposed withdrawal with top U.S. officials. The Ma'ariv daily said yesterday that U.S. officials pressed Mr. Weisglass for the delay, fearing the pullout could spark chaos at a time when the Bush administration wants to avoid further upheaval in the Middle East. However, Shar on adviser Assaf Shariv said yesterday that no dates for a withdrawal were raised during the meetings with U.S. officials. The closure on the West Bank and Gaza was imposed for the duration of the Jewish holiday of Purim, which ends Monday. Such closures, routine during holidays, idle thousands of Palestinian laborers who have jobs in Israel. In central Israel, police put up roadblocks yesterday. On one highway, officers searched each car amid heightened warnings of plans by militants to carry out attacks. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have threatened revenge for recent Israeli air strikes. Yesterday, a homemade rocket fired from Gaza hit a parking lot outside a supermarket in the Israeli border town of Sderot. In the Dahaf poll in Yediot, 57 percent of 501 respondents said Mr. Sharon was not a trustworthy prime minister, up from 51 percent in a February poll. The survey h ad a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. For the first time, a majority of respondents - 53 percent - also said Mr. Sharon should resign as prime minister, while 43 percent said he should stay on. Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel. To Go To Top

THE GAZA FOLLIES Posted by Bryna Berch, March 5, 2004.

A friend says one of the following must account for Sharon's plan to uproot the communities of Biblical Israel, starting with Gaza: He has been stolen by the body snatchers. They left a bloated replica. He is meshigah (crazy - like a bipolar on crack). He has been promised immunity from the Tennenbaum scandal by Marxists in the Judiciary. (Sharon let 450 terrorists out of jail to get back a drug dealer.) He is meshigah and wants to be Israel's last Prime Minister. His sons have been promised immunity from the David Appel scandal by Marxists in the Judiciary. (Sharon was to use his influence with the Greeks to let Appel build a casino.) He is meshigah and thinks Simon Peres is the voice of God. His sons has been promisted immunity from the Cyril Kern scandal by Marxists in the Judiciary. (Kern bankrolled Sharon's campaign in return for future benefits.) He suffered an undiagnosed concussion from stones thrown at him by Arabs when he visited the Temple Mount. He thinks he is God. What do you think? These news items were in yesterday's Arutz Sheva (http://www.israelnationalnews.com). 1. BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS NOT ACCEPTED SHARON'S WITHDRAWAL PLAN The Bush administration is not enthusiastic about Ariel Sharon's unilateral-withdrawal plan. In high-level meetings earlier this week, the Americans asked their Israeli counterparts to hold off on implementing the plan until at least November, when the American presidential elections are held. In fact, the Americans asked Israel not to take any unilateral steps at all without coordinating them with the Palestinian Authority, and possibly with Egypt as well. US Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer even hinted at the lack of support within the Knesset for the plan; he told reporters that the US has not yet taken an official position on the plan "because we knew that Prime Minister Sharon has yet to present it before the Knesset for approval." On the other hand, Gen. Giora Eiland, who is responsible for planning the withdrawal, ran a first-of-its-kind meeting today dealing with some of the practical aspects. Issues such as finding alternative locations for the nearly 8,000 residents to live were to be discussed. Housing Ministry Director-General Avi Maoz did not participate, at the behest of Housing Minister Effie Eitam (National Religious Party); Eitam says that the plan must first be approved - or rejected - by the Cabinet. 2. MK HENDEL: WITHDRAWAL TALK IS VERY HARMFUL MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union), one of the Knesset's most stalwart opponents of the Sharon unilateral-withdrawal plan, spoke with Arutz-7 yesterday about the Americans' "rejection" of the plan: "I saw an article saying that the Americans have set all sorts of conditions, such as the date, where we can re-settle the residents, an internal discussion in the Likud, etc., etc. This is a total humiliation for the State of Israel; maybe we should hold US elections here as well? This type of situation, where we invite the Americans to be so totally involved in what we do, never existed under any of the left-wing governments. But we, the right-wing, are foolish enough to do this... "After all, what's going on here? Sharon knows that this unilateral withdrawal business is totally insane, and brings absolutely no benefit to Israel. So what does he do? Because some Likud ministers [such as Binyamin Netanyahu - ed. note] asked, 'What will we get for it in return?', he therefore runs to the Americans, and all over the world, to find some kind of something that we can get out of this. He knows that we won't get peace and an end to terrorism out of this, so he goes begging to the Americans, 'Please, give me something that I can present as having received in exchange - maybe I can annex another Yesha town, or maybe some money instead, or maybe some strategic alliance...' - we're just groveling. "The Americans are looking out for their interests, but we're not looking out for ours - which are very clear: a total erasure of the terrorist infrastructure and the Palestinian Authority, and not the expulsion of Jews from their homes." MK Hendel is adamant that the nationalist parties must work to end Prime Minister Sharon's term in office: "He must resign, period! This is because of the continued talking about this catastrophic plan and the working groups and the like - little by little it trickles down and does tremendous damage, to the army and to the officers and to the national consciousness. "I know, with absolute certainty, what his motivations are for this plan to expel Jews from their land and their homes - and he must therefore not remain Prime Minister! It could very well be that all these accusations against him regarding the Greek island and Cyril Kern, etc., are really groundless - but I know that this is the sole motivation - there is no other motivation - for him to make this plan to expel Jews. "We - the Nation Union faction in the Knesset, all the MKs - met with Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz this week, and we were astonished to hear that so many details of the plan have not yet been formulated. On every question we asked, he would say, 'We haven't yet discussed it' and the like. So we said to him, 'Don't you realize that the Prime Minister shot an arrow, and now all of you are running around trying to draw a target around it?'" "In conclusion," Hendel said, "I want to just tell the listeners of Arutz-7: The People of Israel are strong, even if their Prime Minister is weak, and these evil plans will not stand! Gush Katif will remain in Jewish hands forever." To Go To Top

$16,000,000 Posted by Tamar Rush, March 5, 2004.

This was written by Mike Levine. Sixteen million US dollars. This is the amount of money which Israel pays in UN dues each year. In rough numbers this means that during the years of its membership Israel has laid out more than $800,000,000 dollars. That's almost a billion dollars. More than has been paid by most oil-rich Arab states. More than most East European countries. More than many nations with fifty times Israel's population. And what has Israel received for its money? Hundreds of resolutions blaming Israel for damn near every ill in the world! More negative resolutions than any other nation on earth, plus refusal to include Israel on committees concerning human rights, while extending honored positions to human rights luminaries Libya and Syria. Groucho Marx in one of his zany movies said of an exclusive country club, "I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member!" Well I for one would not belong to any organization whose members singled me out for ill treatment, who bashed my family and me at every turn, who lied about me, who showed in every way possible their hatred for me. Do you have any idea what Israel could do with an additional $16,000,000 dollars a year? The biggest growth industry in Israel today is soup kitchens! Yes, trying to keep up with the rapidly growing number of people falling under the poverty line is becoming a major industry! A hundred thousand Jewish kids don't get even one hot meal most days. There are now dozens of private non-profit groups roaming the earth looking for donations with which to feed poor families in Israel. One such group, with which I am very familiar, estimates the cost of a freshly cooked, hot, four course balanced meal at $3. If my math is any good that means they could serve 5 million additional hot meals a year for what we pay to stay in the UN. Because of shrinking national budgets old age pensions have been cut, single mother assistance reduced, people with severe disabilities often have to make a choice - food or medication. Sixteen million US dollars (approximately 72 million Israeli shekel) would help to restore some of these social services budget cuts. And this sixteen million does not include the cost to Israel of maintaining its representatives in the UN, of housing and feeding them, providing cars and expenses. It is high time to say goodbye to one of the world's most anti-Semitic organizations - the UN - a group whose membership is dominated by Arab and third world nations dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state, and use the money we pay in dues to see to it that no child in Israel ever again goes to bed hungry. To Go To Top

PURIM WITHOUT KOBY Posted by Isralert, March 5, 2004.

This was written by Sherri Mandell, whose son was murdered by Arabs while he and his friend were out hiking. Isralert's source for this item: http://www.kosherspirit.com/Article.asp?Issue=4&Article=48 I was asked to write an article entitled "Purim Without Koby." But I can't write about Purim without Koby because even though Koby is dead, I don't celebrate Purim, or anything else, without Koby. In an article in The New York Times, Steven Flatow said that even though his daughter Aliza was killed by terrorists, he was still her parent. I am still Koby's mother. I will never not be his mother. Trying to explain my relationship with Koby is like trying to translate blindness to a sighted person. I speak a different language now. It is like being a haunted house, or a hallowed one. There are times when I feel horrible pain, and I feel that I will always be haunted. I see how people look at me sometimes and remember the haunted house I used to pass on my way into town when I was a kid. Unlike our modern, shingled house, it was old, dark brick with spires and round windows. Now perhaps, I would look at the house as curious, interesting, maybe even beautiful. For what is haunted can also be hallowed, sanctified by loss into something grander, more attached to G-d. It depends on how you translate your experience. Purim tells us that this world is one where meaning is hidden. The name Esther, the heroine of the Purim story, is related to the Hebrew world for hiddenness. And in the Purim Megillah, G-d is never mentioned by name, though he is not absent from the story. To encounter G-d, we have to move from our position of pride to a position of humility, enhancing our own hiddenness. Only then can we emulate Esther, who could have stayed in the palace, where she lived in luxury, massaged and oiled and groomed, but chose instead to feel the suffering of the people. Esther did not let her elevated status go to her head. That may be our job in this world: to connect more with other people, to feel their pain and their problems, to act as one with them. Perhaps that is what we should celebrate: our ability to help each other move toward healing; to move from our limited sense of self to feeling one with the people around us. Such unity can lead to healing. Less than a year after our son was killed, my husband and I marked our wedding anniversary by going out to dinner. I can't say we celebrated, because we were too sad. When we walked into the restaurant, the smiling waitress with her shiny, black hair had a spirit and effervescence I could only admire. I thought to myself, "She has no idea of the pain I am living with, the weight of what I carry." As my husband and I ate our meal, we realized that the restaurant was a perfect place to commemorate what would be Koby's upcoming fifteenth birthday. We wanted to take fifteen poor or disadvantaged people out to dinner to mark Koby's birthday - to remember the dead by bringing joy to the living. We spoke to the manager about our plans. He said that he volunteered at a nearby center that helped teens from poor, broken families, and he thought that the teenagers would appreciate going out with us. The idea was taking form almost on its own. We hadn't thought about taking teenagers out for a meal, but it made sense. Koby was a teen when he was killed. We thanked the manager for his suggestion. Before he walked away, my husband said: "Do you know the Goodman family? They live around here. They lost their 16-year-old son, Tani, this year in an accident - we went to the shiva - and I wanted to know how they are doing." "You can ask them yourself. Your waitress is their daughter.  I looked at her, at her beauty and her spirit, and I thought, "You never know what's going on inside a person." I had misjudged her. When she came over to the table, we told her of our loss, and she shared her own. As we spoke, I realized how much of life is hidden. We don't see what's inside of people. As we shared our feelings, my husband and I felt less isolated. The pain lifted for a moment. Healing may occur when we reveal what's hidden inside of us. Then the pain doesn't haunt us but brings us closer to others. If we can't even see what's inside of other people, imagine how difficult it is to see G-d in the world. But Purim tells us that even when we can't see G-d, he is with us. Even when it seems otherwise, G-d does not abandon us in our pain. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

JEWISH AVENGERS BACK IN STYLE? Posted by Voice of Judea, March 5, 2004.

1. JEWISH AVENGERS BACK IN STYLE? Sixty two years ago several popular songs were written in tribute to Shlomo Ben Yosef. Ben Yosef was hung by the British in Palestine June 29th 1938 for the crime of carrying out a retaliatory "terrorist attack" against Arabs in Northern Israel. Many years have past since Jews would glorify heroes such as Ben Yosef who launched an indiscriminate act of revenge against Arabs? In spite of draconian laws against "incitement" of this nature, more and more Jews from mainstream Israeli society are coming out of the closet and publicly identifying with modern day Jewish "Freedom Fighters". In fact, the very same song, the "song of the revolt" written by Shlomo Skolesky, paying tribute to Shlomo Ben Yosef, has now been modified with several additional stanzas interchanging Shlomo Ben Yosef's name with that of Dr. Boruch Goldstein. According to an article appearing in today's Kol Hair (March 5th 2004) "whole internet sites have been dedicated to Goldstein's honor, books praising him and new song books praising his deed are being circulated. Synagogues affiliated with the NRP and SHAS light memorial candles in his memory. From southern Israel, cities such as Netivot, hundreds of busses bring thousands who come to pay respects and to ask the "righteous" to intercede on their behalf (in the heavenly court). Tens of children throughout Israel have been named after Boruch Goldstein." 'Kol Hair' quotes mothers who claim that they were unable to have children until they visited the site of the "Tzadik" and asked for his intervention. Today's headlines in Israel reveals information of the alleged one man underground in Haifa, who was suspected in perpetrating nine attacks against Arab Knesset members and other Arab targets. Eliran Golan, 22, allegedly told police "I simply hate Arabs". Eliran Golan does not fit the typical stereotype of a modern day Jewish underground character. Over recent years the Jewish division within the Shin Bet, have succeeded in demonizing the "settlers" by claiming to have found "settler undergrounds". Most of these attempts have failed. Most of these alleged Jewish terrorists have been released, with the Shin Bet suffering huge blows to their credibility. The mere existence of an Eliran Golan, a secular unknown "Jewish terrorist" from the red (associated usually with the left) city of Haifa, is significant. It is no less significant to examine the spontaneous responses to this story on the various internet forums, representing a true cross section of Israeli society. Approximately 30 percent of the thousands of comments we have read on the many Israeli news sites, in some way attempt to justify the action alleged to Eliran Golan. Voice of Judea Commentary: Considering the fact that there have been approximately 20 attacks against Arabs, most unsuccessful, over recent years, in contrast to tens of thousands of attacks launched by Arabs against Jews it is indeed a major story when the cops finally find a Jewish avenger. Allow us to put things in perspective. Over a thousand Jews have been murdered by Arab terrorists over the past few years. These terrorists enjoy the popular support of the majority of Arabs according to any survey that has ever been published on the subject. Thus the Arabs are conceived as the enemy of Israel. (Such a simple assertion may sound simple to objective Gentile onlookers, yet is so complex for some perplexed Israelis). Most Jews in Israel live under fear of constant attack. Most Jews think twice before boarding busses or entering into crowded streets and markets. Most Jews have been directly affected by Arab terrorism. There is hardly a Jew in the land of Israel who is not related to or that does not have a friend who has suffered by Arab terror. It is rather impressive that the best the Jews can do is to "boast" of, a one man Jewish underground. In a recent interview Yakov Perry the ultra left wing former director of the Shin Bet said, that if he was currently the head of the shin bet he would focus his energies and resources in strengthening and expanding the Jewish division of the Shin Bet. Perry and his comrades have made the obvious deduction: As Arab terrorism intensifies and more and more Jews are massacred it stands to reason that Jews will rise up to do that which the Government is unable or unwilling to do - to protect Jewish lives and to instill fear in the hearts of the enemy population. Unfortunately for Mr. Perry and his friends they will have great difficulty solving acts of Jewish revenge against Arabs because they will continue to focus their investigations on their known political rivals within the "settlement" movement. The real threat is not the law abiding citizens in Yesha. It is the grassroots "AMCHA" ordinary Jew living in Haifa like Golan or in the upscale town of Herzilya, like Yigal Amir who are not only unknown but the real wild cards. I have a much better plan for the Shin Bet. If they really wish to prevent the handful of Jewish avengers from becoming a widespread phenomenon in Israel then they must expel the Arab threat and crush Arab terrorism. By doing so they will save thousands of Jewish lives (not that this is of primary interest to Mr. Perry), and they will effectively do away with Jewish avengers. If the Arabs are not killing Jews by the thousands then there will be no frustrated Jews, taking the law into their own hands to take revenge. 2. MOUFAZ: WE WILL SURRENDER GAZA AFTER THE AMERICAN ELECTIONS According to Maariv March 5, 2004, the Israeli government is making a formal commitment to the Americans not to implement Sharon's unilateral disengagement / surrender plans until after U.S. elections in 2005. The first step of the Israeli land surrender will include the destruction of Jewish towns in Gaza as well as at least 4 Jewish towns in Northern Shomron. It has yet to be decided where the displaced Jewish refugees will be transferred to. The reason being given for Israel's postponement is fear in Washington that these unilateral actions may lead to a vacuum in the surrendered territories that can lead to anarchy and upset the delicate balance in the Middle East, leading to intensification of the conflict. Bush has enough problems on his head right now. The last thing he needs is chaos in the Middle East spreading to the Gulf States or to American interests around the world, before elections. Voice of Judea commentary: You read the Israeli press and you listen to Israeli politicians and you must learn to understand the ramifications. One can begin to appreciate just how low Israeli politicians have sunk by listening to their own words that flow so freely out of their mouths. While Israeli leaders usually speak out of both sides of their mouthes, on the issue of the direct influence of America on Israeli foreign and security policy, there is zero room for interpretation. It has become so acceptable to hear the Defense Minister or Prime Minister speak candidly about implementing and formulating policy based solely around pleasing the incumbent American administration. They do not speak of taking action to save Jews. Everything they do is centered around a policy of appeasement to the Americans and the Arabs. Even when Israel finally decides to take clear self destructive action to please America, such as, Sharon's new unilateral surrender /disengagement plan, this too is subject to deferral so! as not to upset or interfere with Bush electoral issues, however remote, indirect and insignificant the impact might be. SHARON BLAMES YESHA FOR TANNENBAUM SCANDAL An angry Sharon blasted his political rivals on the Israeli right for leaking information about his alleged ties with Tannenbaum. Sharon promised the "settlers" and his right wing opponents that nothing would stop him from carrying out his plans to tear down "settlements". Sharon said that he expected to be the victim of the intensification of the immoral battle against him. Sharon also said that he felt that the recent politically motivated campaign against him is worse than the campaign spearheaded by the Israeli left during the war in Lebanon, in 1982. Voice of Judea Commentary: The Sharon of today truly feels that he is a bigger enemy to the left than to the right. This is no surprise considering his evolution into a clone of Shimone Peres. How sad that the man perceived as the great friend of the "settlement" movement, who helped build so many of the Jewish towns in Yesha has now turned into the biggest enemy of the "settlement" movement. Sharon is not only the enemy of the "settlement" movement. He has become anathema to so many in his own Likud party. The average Joe Schmo on the street, who voted Sharon, views him as a man who has betrayed his ideals so as to please leftwing prosecutors and judges. Poor Sharon! He has betrayed his party, his constituents and the Land that he fought for. Poor Sharon! He will not be remembered for his great military courage but for his cowardice in standing up to U.S. pressure and to domestic left-wing sentiments. How pathetic to hear him speak so "courageously" about not capitulating to "settler" pressure. Wow!!! ! Tough guy!!! It is really tough to stand up to the weak pareve, passive resistance of the "settlers", who vow never to lift a finger against those who will come to expel them from their homes. Wow, Sharon will valiantly and courageously destroy the Jewish homes in Yesha, knowing in advance that the "settlers" will never raise a finger against fellow Jews. Sharon has turned into a pathetic old man, who has turned his sword against his brothers to save his sons from prosecution and to save himself from angering the Americans. Our brave General has turned into a real warrior to oversee the crusade against the loyal Jews of Israel. The website address of Voice of Judea is http://www.voiceofjudea.com Subscribe by writing listmaster@voiceofjudea.com To Go To Top

A NOBEL SUGGESTION Posted by David Frankfurter, March 5, 2004.

Enjoy the following "News in Brief" from this month's (Brussell's) Sprout (http://www.thesprout.net) Happy Purim, Former Norwegian PM, Thorbjoern Jagland has nominated the EU for a Nobel peace prize, linking it to that other noble advocate of peace - Yasser Arafat. It is of course important that the Nobel committee is made aware of the EU's efforts toward peace. And the EU also really needs the $1.35 million prize money, as it would help fund the EU anti-fraud unit's junket to the Middle East to personally check that Yasser properly applied EU taxpayer's money to his elusive but determined quest for peace. After all, photocopies of his signature authorising payments to terrorists from EU funded budgets, personal interviews by terrorist groups thanking the EU for their generosity and policemen on the EU payroll blowing themselves up on Jerusalem busses can't be properly assessed by the Commission - unless OLAF also make the pilgrimage to Ramallah. Hopefully, the prize money would also stretch to a short side-trip so that OLAF officials can stay with Suha in her Paris hotel for a bit. A cocktail with her may help find out whether the $100,000 a month she gets from the EU-funded Palestinian budget is adequate. This paltry amount, after all, has to include child (and mother) support. David Frankfurter sends "Letters from Israel" emails to subscribers. Contact him at David.Frankfurter@iname.com To Go To Top

THE NEW IRAQI CONSTITUTION Posted by David Holcberg, March 5, 2004.

The United States should demand that the new Iraqi constitution include an explicit separation of state and Islam. The threat posed by a new regime in which Islamic fundamentalism has political power is unacceptable. It makes no sense to have gone to war to overthrow a secular tyranny only to replace it with a religious one that is potentially far more dangerous to America. But to make such a demand would require the current administration to identify Islamic fundamentalism as our ideological enemy and to recognize that the separation of state and religion is a crucial requirement of freedom not only in Iraq, but here in America as well. David Holcberg is a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) of Irvine, California (http://www.aynrand.org). To Go To Top

HYPOCRISY MARS PM CONFERENCE ON TOURISM Posted by Helen Freedman, March 5, 2004.

I was in Jerusalem on Sunday, Feb. 22, when another bus was blown up on the streets of the capital city, murdering eight and wounding scores of innocent travelers on their way to school and work. That same week, a young couple was brutally gunned down as they drove on the Hebron-Beersheba road, and the Tzadok family, in Neve Dekalim, had half their home destroyed by a mortar, one of 4,000 that have landed in Gush Katif in the last three years. At the Prime Minister's Conference for Tourism to Israel, which I was attending, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was the first speaker. He paid tribute to the dead and wounded in the Feb. 22 terror attack, and repeated the mantra that "life must go on? in Israel. He was speaking to a group gathered to promote tourism, but never spoke the truth that tourism cannot flourish in Israel while terrorism reigns. He does not or will not see that terrorism will grow stronger as long as there are Israeli leaders who capitulate, and negotiate with terror, and do not have the courage or moral clarity to confront the enemy and defeat it. Instead, ideas such as building a fence to divide Israel, and transferring 8,000 Jews out of Gaza, are presented as a unilateral gift offering to Arafat's terrorists, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and all the other terrorist groups that operate in Israel. In the "Program & Abstracts" publication distributed to the participants at the Conference, the first page contains the Prime Minister's Greeting, entitled, The Bible, your Guide to the Land of Israel. Within the text, he writes, "Above all, Israel is the Land of the Bible. It is the only place in the world where the Bible functions as an authentic tourist guide - a place where the original Hebrew names of locations have been preserved for thousands of years." I read these words, and listened to the Prime Minister repeat this message in his speech to the assemblage, and I was shocked at the hypocrisy. This is the man who is ready to give away Gaza. Does he know its biblical history? Gaza is the place where our forefathers, Abraham and Isaac were active, where the story of Samson took place, where the Hasmoneans lived in Gaza city and led a vibrant life during the Second Temple period, and where Jewish settlement continued almost without interruption for two thousand years. Sunday, Feb. 29, a group of us made arrangements through Dror Vanunu, the representative for Gush Katif, to visit the community of 1500 families, comprising 8,000 people spread out over twenty-one settlements along the Gaza Strip. We saw life, growth, synagogues, schools, playgrounds, lush green fields, hot houses, and dairy barns. The holy soil of the biblical desert land has been transformed into a garden. And this is what Sharon - who calls the Bible his guide - will give away as a reward to terrorism. And this same man, who quotes the Bible, is also planning to give away much of the biblical heart and soul of Israel in Judea and Samaria. This is the same man who permits an ugly concrete wall to divide the holy land and Jerusalem, the holy city. This, despite his quoting from the Bible, "Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, have I posted guardians." "Today, we still see ourselves as the guardians of Jerusalem." It is clear that the Ariel Sharon, acting without Cabinet or Knesset support, and flying in the face of Israel Defense and Military Intelligence reports, has failed in his leadership of Israel. It is clear that a new, authentic Jewish leadership is necessary. All of this is especially heartbreaking because the Israel we saw as part of the Tourism Conference is such a vibrant, exciting country. The Jerusalem International Convention Center was bursting with approximately 700 tour organizers from all over the world. The variety of languages spoken was dizzying. The many important speakers were all upbeat about the prospects of growth for the Israeli economy and the upswing in tourism and the dollars that generates. The tours of Jerusalem which included a visit to the newly renovated and expanded Yad Vashem, the Western Wall tunnel complex, and the Davidson Center, reinforced the majesty and mystery of Israel's golden capital city. I had already breathed in the special qualities of Yerushalayim by spending the previous Shabbat there, praying at the Kotel, and enjoying some magnificent home hospitality. We were treated to a day in Tel-Aviv at the 10th International Mediterranean Tourism Market where hundreds of booths were set up, dispensing information about attractions in Israel, and indeed throughout the world. And then the optional tours were offered. I chose the one through the glorious Galilee, where the spring flowers were showing themselves off in fields of yellow, purple and red, and waterfalls were carrying the waters from the Hermon into the Kinneret. In all the kibbutzim and guest houses that we visited, the warmth and hospitality was extraordinary. Surely, all the participants in the Prime Minister's Conference on Tourism had to be impressed with the good food, good hotels, and the beauty of the country. From my perspective, it was like being in two different worlds. The Israel that I usually visit on my AFSI Chizuk missions to Israel, which take place twice a year, (the next one scheduled for May 16-May 23) was never mentioned in the Conference. The extraordinary, biblical communities of Judea and Samaria, the reclaimed areas of Jewish east Jerusalem, the Jewish communities of the Gaza strip, didn't exist at the Conference. The Prime Minister had the audacity to talk about Israel as the Land of the Bible, but he and the organizers never mentioned Gaza, Hebron, Shilo, Efrat, Elon Moreh, Beit-El, Bethlehem, Shechem, Betar, Tekoa, Be'er Sheva, or Jericho. Of course, some of these places are now off-limits to Jews because they are under the control of the PA, but there was a time when we were able to visit the ancient synagogue in Jericho, and Joseph's tomb in Shechem. Fortunately, with army escort, we are still able to visit Rachel's tomb in Bethlehem. It is apparent that official Israel is not interested in promoting biblical Israel. Official Israel is not ready to admit that tourism, which it is eager to develop, cannot and will not prosper while terrorism continues. And official Israel asks its people to continue with "life as usual" under the daily threat of terrorism, when it should be attacking it at its core and eliminating the enemy. Instead, we see Jews placed in prison, Jews threatened with transfer from their homes and livelihood, and Jews treated as the hated "Jews" by their own people. I believe it is up to each person, Jew and non-Jew, Israeli and American, to demonstrate actively against this policy. The Jews of Gaza need our help. They must not be transferred. If we allow this to happen, the "Never Again" that was chanted so bravely after the Holocaust will become a mockery. The time is now. Call AFSI - 212-828-2424, or write to afsi@rcn.com, to learn how you can help. We want Gaza to become one of the garden spot visiting sites on the next program of the Conference on Tourism. Helen Freedman is Executive Director of Americans for a Safe Israel/AFSI To Go To Top

THE HEZBOLLAH WITHIN US Posted by Isralert, March 5, 2004.

Isralert's source for this item:Maariv International http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=printArticle&articleID=4106 The article was written by Amit Cohen and appeared on Maarive International today. The last time that Shadi Abdu from Nablus visited Jordan, he received a very attractive gift, a new Sony PlayStation. However, Shadi's present, generously purchased by the Hezbollah, was not intended for playing games. Truthfully, nothing could have farther from his mind. A digital memory card, which could be removed and installed in any home computer, was concealed inside the popular game. The card came from a Hezbollah laboratory and contained clear, detailed diagrams that showed precisely how to manufacture explosives, explosive vests and roadside charges. That's the way Hezbollah operates. It has initiative. It is innovative. It challenges the Israeli security services, every single day. After the Israeli Navy succeeded in catching the ship of Abu Hassan at sea last May and confiscated the training material on-board, Hezbollah started to look for new ways to smuggle their death courses. If they can't smuggle large quantities of arms, like they tried to do on the Karine A, they would find other, more sophisticated and harder to detect, methods. For three years, the Lebanese organization (with full support from Iran) has been trying to tighten its hold on the Palestinian terrorist cells. On the Israel Security Service's maps, names of the Palestinian cells and terrorists, with Hezbollah connections, can be found in every city in Judea and Samaria, from Jenin in the north to Hebron in the south. The Gaza Strip, too, has not been forgotten. The Hezbollah's take-over of Judea, Samaria and parts of the Gaza Strip began gradually, developed and gathered strength. When the flow of money from the Palestinian Authority and its security organizations ceased, Hezbollah representatives arrived with full pockets that caused the Tanzim to become addicted to Lebanese money. A friend introduces a friend and additional cells began to receive instructions from abroad. Today, almost 100% of the Fatah's operations under the name "Al-Aqsa Brigades" are financed and directed by the Shiite organization and Iran. "Hezbollah has become an employment agency for the Tanzim", explained a source from the security services. Although the process was gradual, Israeli sources say that neither coincidence nor luck were involved. Rather, it was an official Iranian decision that Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and his cohort translated into policy. Iran and the Hezbollah established an entire organization for this purpose and invest millions of dollars annually. Recently, it appears that Hezbollah is not content with only the Tanzim and is continuing in other directions. The more they eat, the hungrier they get. The new trend is to the take-over Islamic Jihad cells and to control them directly. Ahmed Sari Hussein, a senior terrorist from Tul Karm, who received money and instructions from Lebanon without reporting it to the Jihad offices in Damascus, is a good example. The Islamic Jihad is considered a close ally of Iran and its leader Ramadan Shallah was appointed as a result of Iranian pressure. The fact that the Hezbollah is stealing Jihad activists could be a sign that Iran is pleased with the system they used with the Tanzim and wants to expand its influence in the Palestinian sector. Haled Shawish, a terrorist from Force 17, is accused of a series of attacks against Israeli targets. One of the most wanted terrorists, he was hiding in the Muqata (Arafat's headquarters) in Ramallah until a few days ago. He, too, is suspected of ties to Hezbollah. Speaking to Maariv, he denied any connection between Hezbollah and Iran and accused the GSS of spreading rumors against the Palestinian organizations. "We have our own leadership. Abu-Amar (Yasser Arafat) is commander-in-chief. No one else," he said and stressed that he is not involved in any military activity sponsored by Hezbollah. Shawish claimed that his only connection to Hezbollah was with the Al-Manar station before the prisoner exchange, when he tried to get his brother, who an Israeli court sentenced to four life sentences, included in the list of Palestinian prisoners to be released. However, he does admit that the Hezbollah is trying to take over the Palestinian organizations. "The organization has an interest in laying its hands on every Palestinian fighter", Shawish said and added that Hezbollah wants to see the Palestinian Authority fail. Two Iranian organizations are at the top of the command hierarchy that controls Palestinian terrorism: the Intelligence Ministry and the Revolutionary Guard. Beneath them are Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and Imad Mughnieh, his deputy for the military affairs. Mughnieh heads a special group, "The Organization for Internal Operations" that is responsible for all activities in Israel and the territories. The entire complex operation is managed from a small office that employs only a few people. Hezbollah assigned the task to a small group of veterans who were responsible for the military operations against the IDF in southern Lebanon. They have killed Israelis themselves and understand the needs of terrorists in the field and know how to get it to them. Now they are taking advantage of their knowledge and combat experience to operate the Palestinians by remote control. Israel is still trying to map out how the organization works. It is involved in the finest details of terror attacks including training, finances and sending the bombers to their targets. The developing portrait reveals that Hezbollah has allocated several operators to guide the terrorist activities in the territories. One of these is Kais Obeid, the Israeli Arab from Taibeh who was involved in kidnapping Elhanan Tennenbaum. Israeli intelligence officials claim that Obeid is very valuable to Hezbollah because he can connect them directly to the field, using e-mail, ordinary and cellular telephones and every other possible means of communication. The curfews and closures on Palestinian cities and the focus on building the anti-terrorism barrier make it hard for terror cells from different cities to cooperate. This has created an absurd situation; only someone in Lebanon can see the whole picture and connect the suicide bomber in Jenin with the explosive vest in Nablus. In the middle of last year Kais Obeid was able to recruit Firas Halaileh, an explosives expert from Nablus. Halaileh began to receive payments from Hezbollah, through messengers from abroad, in order to carry out attacks and recruit members for the Shiite organization. He took a central role in the Hezbollah's operations in Samaria and began to supply weapons and explosives throughout Judea and Samaria. By the time he was arrested in October, he was able to connect Obeid to Bethlehem and Hebron where Hezbollah still has infrastructure. In addition to controlling existing cells, Hezbollah is trying to establish independent cells that will have no other loyalties. Shadi Abu-Hussein, a pharmacist from Gaza, organized one of these, until he was arrested last month. For three years, he was in constant contact with Lebanon, receiving instructions and money. He sent messengers to Lebanon who returned with expertise in explosives. They tried to build rockets, shoulder-launched missiles and sophisticated explosives. Shortly before the cell was uncovered, they were in the advanced stages of producing an explosive model airplane. They built the airplane, installed the motor and had added the explosive device. They had even conducted an unsuccessful experiment. The plane took off but landed immediately. Security officials believe it was intended for use against settlements or IDF posts in the Gaza Strip. The Hezbollah operation is highly departmentalized. The leaders make every effort to conceal their identities from the heads of Palestinian cells. For example, Ali Hussein Salah was a Hezbollah terrorist who operated cells in the Gaza Strip. In August, a mysterious explosion killed him in his car. Even though the incident received broad media coverage, his operatives did not connect the story to their contact in Lebanon. Only two weeks later did rumors spreading by word-of-mouth, lead them to understand that someone had settled accounts with their Lebanese supervisor. Hezbollah invests great efforts in smuggling sophisticated weapons into Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. The maritime attempts failed but that hasn't stopped them from continuing intensive efforts via the tunnel under Rafah. Therefore, they have greatly expanded their operations in Sinai. Locals, usually Bedouin do the actual smuggling, but the instructions and money come from Lebanon. Some of the weapons are purchased in Egypt; other are smuggled from Lebanon to Egypt and from there to the Gaza Strip. Most of the smuggled materiel is light weapons, like Kalashnikov rifles, but the security services have also captured heavier arms, including rockets and advanced missiles. However, the assumption is that if any of these had gotten through to terrorists in the Gaza Strip, they would have used them against Israel by now. In addition to familiar methods of smuggling, Hezbollah is trying to develop new channels. Investigation of Arab Israelis who were recruited by Hezbollah and arrested by the GSS, revealed plans to smuggle weapons directly into Israel, concealed as imported electronic appliances. Their assumption was that not every container entering Israel is inspected. Since smuggling weapons isn't easy, especially in Judea and Samaria, experts in explosives and other technologies from Hezbollah and Iran searched for ways to improve the Palestinian's engineering skills. The memory card concealed in the PlayStation is only one example. They also use the Internet. Knowledge trickles down to the field, especially in the Gaza Strip. Israeli security sources estimate that several of the sophisticated devices captured in the Gaza Strip were based on Lebanese-Iranian technology. There are training films that teach how to produce R-D-X, an especially strong explosive, and how to use it to build a catapult-like device that can propel metal balls over a distance of several dozen meters. Another shows how to build a thin explosive vest that is hard to detect. Later in the film, it shows exactly where in the bus should a suicide bomber stand so the maximum effect would be achieved. Unlike written instructions for building explosive devices, which can be found on many Internet sites, the films come with clear, visual explanations. This is a serious, professional production that demonstrates, step-by-step, how to build deathly devices. Israeli experts in the field who have seen the films estimate that even someone without any previous background could build an explosive vest after viewing them. The Palestinian Authority is aware of Hezbollah's activities on its home court but is doing nothing to change the situation. Arafat, either unwilling or unable to act, watches from the side as Nasrallah steals his former loyalists. The last time Arafat felt his leadership challenged, during the prisoner exchange, he did nothing. Nasrallah has won a place in Palestinian hearts - paying the Tanzim and releasing prisoners - but the PA does nothing to disconnect the lines between Lebanon and the Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. "In Israel, you love to give the public security and intelligence information", says Shawish from his hiding place in Ramallah. "But your intelligence distorts many details in an attempt to tell the Israeli people that the Palestinian resilience is connected to Hezbollah. Its not true." He also had a request for the GSS, "Don't spread rumors to keep the Palestinians down and strengthen the Sharon government/" However, the security forces have difficulty understanding why the international community, and maybe Israel, too, doesn't take the intensive Hezbollah activity in its backyard more seriously. They claim that Lebanese involvement in Palestinian terrorism is much more extensive than the terrorist activity on the northern border. In the last year, Tanzim cells, directed and financed by Hezbollah, carried out 16 serious attacks in which 32 Israelis and one foreign worker were killed. Despite this, Hezbollah is still considered a threat on the northern border. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

ARAB MARKET Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, March 5, 2004.

In the year 2000, all delegations present in Camp David were about to agree to the Clinton/Barak peace proposal. During the entire very lengthy negotiations it was understood by all that the question of the return to Israel of millions of Arab refugees was off limit. Literally hours before all were ready to sign the historic agreement that would give Arafat and the PA an independent country with half Jerusalem as its capital, Arafat walked off the negotiations on the refugees issue. The rest is history. Now folks, please do a time forward to this morning in Baghdad: An interim constitution is agreed upon by all, the table is ready for the signing ceremony, and in the last minute some Arabs walk away from what they had already agreed. My dear Friends, The Arabs have used these market tactics forever. It is endemic. Blackmail and last minute reversals are their ingrained method. Even signed agreements are not worth the paper on which the Arabs sign. Do you know that Egypt does not have an ambassador in Israel despite the peace treaty she signed with Israel? This, after Israel returned every centimeter of tangible territory to the Egyptians. Yuval Zaliouk write the Truth Provider essays. To subscribe, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

STRAIGHT TALK Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 5, 2004.

SHARON INVITES A WAR HE DOESN'T WANT Ariel Sharon won an election that amounted to a referendum over whether to treat the P.A. firmly or make concessions of withdrawals. Now he is proposing the withdrawals that he was elected to prevent. He does not take a stand on anything in Israel's behalf, if the US opposes it. Growing increasingly radical, he now proposes that instead of trying to keep the Gaza Strip demilitarized, he would bring the Egyptian Army into it, although it adjoins Israel. He also proposes to withdraw from much of Judea-Samaria, although the P.A. is developing rockets there. (A withdrawal would enable them to come closer and aim better, and would prevent Israeli troops from intercepting launchers in advance. Some people think Israel would experience the relative quiet they do from Lebanon after the IDF abandoned it. They are too hasty. Hizbullah may simply be biding its time. Actually, it does fire upon Israel, and Israel is afraid to fire back except at empty buildings. It is afraid because of the numerous rockets that Hizbullah positioned on the border and could blanket northern Israel with. That is a bad example for Sharon to follow with Judea-Samaria and Gaza, considering that the P.A. is developing rockets, too (Dr. Aaron Lerner, IMRA, 2/26). EGYPTIAN GUARANTEES Labor Party head Shimon Peres met with the President of Egypt, found the talks positive, praised Egypt's "important role" in "advancing peace," and emerged believing that Egypt could (and would) guarantee security for the border with Gaza, if Israel withdrew from Gaza, as Sharon proposes. IMRA notes the irony that Israel may rely on Egypt to stop the flow of weapons from Egypt to Gaza, although Egypt is allowing it now (IMRA, 2/27). Egypt probably is sponsoring it. Peres and Sharon are quite a pair of naive doves. Israel entered Gaza in the first place, because Egypt violated its armistice with Israel in order to commit aggression against Israel. Egypt has been building up for war with Israel. Inviting its army to come closer to Israel is particularly foolish. Advancing peace? Egypt stiffens Arafat's diplomatic position, so he will hold out for more concessions that weaken Israel militarily. This is in accordance with Egyptian strategic doctrine. Peres has no use for history, but he might try reading about that doctrine in Israeli sources. PERES SEES NO EVIL Peres is unwilling to see evil in Arafat. He calls Arafat a man of peace, despite proof that Arafat directs P.A. terrorism (and started the Oslo war). He does not admit to his grave mistake in initiating the Oslo process that caused hundreds of deaths before the war, too. He persists in promoting the failed process. Since history has no meaning for Peres, he erroneously states that Israel has no moral claim to the territories, though they are a vital part of Jewish history, religion, and tradition (as recognized by the Palestine Mandate for a Jewish national home there). By meeting with US officials and contradicting Israeli policy, his behavior is divisive and tantamount to disloyalty when unity is required (Women In Green, 2/27, e-mail). P.A. HATRED DIRECTED AGAINST THE U.S. The P.A. media depicts the US as waging a dirty war against Islam and the Arab world. It envisages an American-European-Russian alliance for conquest. We are "blood and oil sucking neo-imperialists, the thieves of natural resources and murderers of nations." Pres. Bush is the enemy of all civilization, "a greater danger than Hitler." The P.A. maintains that America was founding by killing Indian children and stealing their land. (No Americans alive now did that.) Meanwhile, the US aids the P.A. politically and financially (IMRA, 2/27). The oil-bearing areas of Iraq and Sudan really belong to the Kurds and blacks, but the Arabs stole their natural resource. Does the US subjugate the Arabs when it arms them? Does the US subjugate Muslims by saving the Bosnians and Kosovars? Isn?t Europe being taken over by Arab immigrants? Are the Arabs novices at murder? HOW NOT TO FIGHT A WAR Last year, an Israeli jeep patrol heard that certain terrorists planned to bring a car bomb into Israel. The patrol entered the village, where Arabs threw rocks at them. The patrol announced a curfew, but the mob was not daunted. The officer fired at a distant building, mortally wounding a youth who had been encouraging the assailants. An Israeli court ruled the officer negligent for not using less severe means. He will be sentenced to up to three years in prison (Arutz-7, 3/1). During WWII, the Axis was barbaric but the Allies committed some atrocities, too. Bombing not being accurate then, factories were targeted but houses were flattened. Now the US and Israel fight more humanely and accurately. We instituted standards for avoiding unnecessary civilian casualties. Israel goes too far. It inhibits its soldiers from taking proper military measures. It gives priority to sparing the enemy over sparing its own troops and its own people. There are many examples of this. Humanitarianism goes too far when it protects terrorists and their supporters from the consequences of their genocidal aggression. The irony is that the enemy is particularly brutal, callous about its own casualties, and too numerous to be defeated in a war of attrition in which foreign aid restores their losses. In my opinion, Israel should be inflicting heavy casualties, not to mention sweeping the whole terrorist regime out, rounding up all the terrorists, and giving them a life sentence or a death sentence. Excessive humaneness has become inhumane, by conferring a great military advantage upon evil forces that simply must be destroyed. ISRAELI GOVERNMENT DENIES IT National Union MK Hendel revealed alleged secret plans to shut off electricity, telephone, cellular phones, and radio in Israeli communities being evacuated in Gaza, to keep residents from coordinating with each other. As each building is evacuated, it would be destroyed at once. The troops will be ordered to act forcefully against the expelled Jews. (It is not clear whether this means with the brutality that police previously used against dissidents). The troops are supposed to avoid clashing with Arabs celebrating at the gates to the community. However, Hamas intends to show the world that the Arabs have forced the Israelis out by firing at the departing vehicles. The Prime Minister's Office denied the plan (Arutz-7, 3/1). AS THE P.A. WEBSITE REPORTS IT Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli soldiers broke into the yards of al-Aqsa mosque shortly after the Friday prayer, and wounded at least 24 people. The Chief Muslim cleric called the attack pre-planned to discourage Muslims from coming back to the mosque. IMRA finds that the typical P.A. half story. Actually, first Arab teenagers threw stones at police. Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall (at a lower elevation) were evacuated briefly (IMRA, 2/28). The P.A. writes the story as if the IDF were the aggressor. If the IDF were the aggressor, it must have pre-planned the attack. Why would it attack Muslim worshippers? To drive them away. That is how the Arabs conceive of such attacks. Since the Arabs conceive of such attacks as attempting to drive the enemy away, and since the Arabs really were the aggressors, then the sermons that incited the Arab teenagers to violence must have been pre-planned to discourage Jews from coming back to the Wall and the Temple Mount. Such violent bigotry would be condemned internationally, if the world were at all fair and sincere. TERRORISTS TUNNEL IN NEW AREA Israel formed "industrial zones" straddling the junction of Israel and the P.A., so tens of thousands of Arab workers could have jobs for mutual benefit, uncomplicated by security threats. One such zone, Erez is at the northern part of the Gaza Strip. The area of strife between Gaza and Israel has been in the southern part, in Rafiah, half of which is in the Egyptian Sinai. The IDF discovered a tunnel in Erez, apparently used by the pair of terrorists who emerged to kill an Israeli soldier (IMRA, 2/29). It would be in the Arab workers' interest for the terrorists, who are directed by the P.A., not to endanger their livelihoods by rendering industrial zones unfeasible. The P.A., however, is operating jihad, not a government in behalf of its people. The P.A. does not use its foreign aid to set up industrial zones to benefit its workers. Instead, the P.A. exploits Israeli measures undertaken in behalf of the Arabs, in order to harm Israel. I think that Israel should stop trying to assist the Arabs, and should devote its military resources to rooting out the P.A. terrorist regime. It also should not make it easier for Arabs to stay in Yesha. One does not fight for one's country by making life easier for the enemy. So-called humanitarians who argue otherwise are not humanitarian towards Israeli casualties and the survival of the Jews in their Jewish state. Heed them not! STATE DEPT. CRITICIZES ISRAEL FOR KILLING RACHEL CORRIE The annual human rights report described Corrie as a human rights monitor whose work Israeli soldiers interrupted, and who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer driver probably carelessly. State has it wrong. She interrupted Israeli soldiers fighting terrorist arms smuggling. Her office sheltered terrorists (James Taranto, NY Sun, 3/1, p.6). The annual report is propagandist. Actually, the State Dept. presented both sides. However, to present the Arab side, which is totalitarian and falsely propagandistic, is not fair. It is an excuse for questioning Israel. WHERE NO ATTACKS OCCURRED, DON'T BUILD FENCE Residents of Mevaseret Zion, west of Jerusalem, have experienced few threats to their immediate security. They conclude that they do not need a security fence there. They have joined nearby Arabs in a court suit against erection of the fence (Arutz-7, 2/29). The Israeli plaintiffs assume that their good fortune will hold indefinitely. Life is not like that. Terrorists are likeliest to attack where they can most readily succeed. The more areas fenced off, the more likely they would attack unfenced areas, until they have perfected weaponry that renders the fence obsolete. Then the fence would have become a billion-dollars boondoggle. It is, anyway - overthrow the P.A., and it is not needed. HENRY SIEGMAN SOLICITOUS OF "PALESTINIAN NATIONAL EXISTENCE" Although the notion of Palestinian (Arab) nationalism is a deliberately foisted myth, Henry Siegman of the Council on Foreign Relations is solicitous of it. He proposes an arrangement of P.A. statehood to avoid "the disastrous result of ending either Jewish or Palestinian national existence." The ending of the Jewish state obviously would be disastrous for the Jewish people. What would be disastrous for Arafat's Arabs to melt back into the Arab nation that they never actually left? (Op. Cit..) Not only would it not be a disaster, it would end one of the main excuses for Arab attacks on Israel and a major source of international support for ending Israeli existence. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

PA MINISTER SAEB EREKAT'S DUPLICITY: Glorify Suicide Terrorism in Arabic, Condemn it in English Posted by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, March 5, 2004.

The Palestinian Authority's (PA) chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, is the latest PA official to demonstrate that PA leaders send one message to their people in Arabic and an entirely different message to the world media in English. This week's news includes a striking example of this duplicity. Upon hearing that three Palestinian children, aged 13, 14 and 16, were caught by Israel on the way to a suicide mission, Erekat was quick to create the impression for the English media that the PA opposes such actions. "That's absolutely unacceptable," Erekat told the Associated Press. "Our children should have hope and a future and should not be suicide bombers. We want them to be doctors and engineers." The great hypocrisy of Erekat's statement is that he and the PA leadership have been the driving force indoctrinating PA children to aspire to Shahada - Death for Allah. As PMW has reported, it was only a few months ago that Erekat and other top PA leaders, including Yasser Arafat, sponsored a soccer tournament honoring 24 Shahids ("Islamic Martyrs"), including such arch-terrorists as Yechya Ayash, the first Hamas suicide-bomb maker, who masterminded the Palestinian suicide bombings; Adin Al Kassam, the name of the suicide terrorist wing of the Hamas; Raid Carmi, a regional head of a suicide terrorist unit; Jamal Mansour of Hamas; and Salah Drowza of Hamas. As a sponsor, Saeb Erekat was present at the tournament honoring the terrorists, and personally distributed the trophies. [Al Ayyam, Sept. 21, 2003, Al Quds, Sept. 29, 2003] The coverage by the PA media of the foiled suicide mission is also telling. Although all three PA dailies - Al Hayat Al Jadida, Al Ayyam and Al Quds - covered the capture of the teenagers, there were no reports in these papers or in other PA Arabic media of any comments by Erekat opposing the idea of teenagers as suicide bombers. So while in English, Erekat's diversion for the media is, "We want them to be doctors and engineers," in their real world, Palestinian children see suicide terrorists as the role models created for them by Erekat and the PA leadership. We have yet to read that Erekat or the PA has sponsored a tournament named for doctors and engineers. Finally, two additional PA reactions to the capture of the three teenagers are noteworthy: 1. "The Prisoner's Club called on all the legal institutions to act to stop [Israel's] policy of arresting children and minors... which is a violation of all conventions and international humanitarian agreements." [Al Ayyam March 3, 2004] 2. The parents of the three "called for legal and humanitarian organizations to intervene for their release so that they could continue their education." [Al Ayyam March 3, 2004] Instead of focusing on why the teenagers were arrested, they present these would-be assassins as victims - just as Palestinian society, at the same time that it promotes and glorifies terror, continues to present itself as the victim. Itamar Marcus is director of PMW -Palestinian Media Watch - (http://www.pmw.org.il). Barbara Crook, a writer and university lecturer based in Ottawa, Canada, is PMW's North American representative. To subscribe to PMW's reports, send an empty e-mail to reports-subscribe@pmw.org.il To Go To Top

A NEW NUTSHELL PRESENTATION FROM CONCEPTWIZARD Posted by Udi Ohana, March 5, 2004.

We are delighted to invite you to view our latest offerings, all of which can be accessed from our info page at: http://www.conceptwizard.com/info.html It has been some time since we wrote a personal letter - somewhere between the time we had 500 people to write to and today, when we have around 5,500 names of people who have written to us as a result of our work (out of an estimated 2 million unique visitors to our presentations). We respond to as many people as we are able and we will continue to do so, but please remember that there are just the two of us. There are an enormous number of Israel advocacy sites on the web now, or sites that will pass your money on to the needy, or to victims of terror in Israel, etc. Some are better than others, most say they are not-for-profit - all of them started out with the idea of doing good. Things have changed a lot since we sent Imagine out as a PowerPoint presentation by e-mail, almost three years ago. We were just about the only kids on the block then. Today we still stick to our principles, and we do not carry advertisements or the horrible pop-ups. We gave up the search for a "sponsor" after we realized that sponsorship comes with a political or commercial price tag. We prefer to remain independent, so that we can deliver our message without any political influence or agenda. Our presentations are free for all to view on our info page, but the more donations we receive and the more of our CDs you buy, the more will we be able to create additional presentations and non-English language versions of our existing presentations to combat the flow of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda on the Internet. Although we are not a not-for-profit organization (nor do we claim to be one), our work and follow-up on these presentations is done voluntarily. To help defray our costs in maintaining the server, work-hours for researching new presentations, and hiring professional help to create the non-English language versions of our presentations, we have made two CD-ROMs available, for a minimum donation of US$ 25 for each CD (this also covers our production and postage costs). Details about the CDs and all of our on-line presentations, as well as a lot of other relevant material, can be accessed on our info page, at: http://www.conceptwizard.com/info.html If you have already purchased one of our CDs, we thank you for your support, and want you to know that it is your donations that have enabled us to create our new presentation. We believe our mission to be as crucially important as ever. If you haven't yet bought one of our presentations, please do so. After giving up on the big Jewish organizations (who don't seem to think enough of our work to support it - or who have commitments in other, more important directions), the only support we receive is from good people like yourselves, who care about the image of the Jewish people and about the distorted way Israel is generally presented by the media. Whatever you may feel about Israel's security barrier (and there is no shortage of discussion on the subject on the Internet), there is no denying the fact that every sovereign nation has the right to self-defense. We do not believe that Israel's security barrier is the main issue. We believe that the Muslim nations at the ICJ exploited their objections to the security barrier as a smokescreen for a concentrated attack on Israel. We deplore the suffering of the Palestinian Arab people, which has been caused mainly by the duplicity and dishonesty of their leaders. If there were no terror, there would be no need for such a barrier. As we await the decision of the ICJ's judges, it would be well to remember that such security barriers have been built by many other countries, including India, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Spain, South Korea and, of course, the United States, for the purpose of protecting their citizens. Our newest presentation, called Nutshell on "The Trial", shows a different side of Israel. No situation is black or white of course, but Israel has so much to offer the world, and particularly to its neighbors. It can only be the fear of democracy, of modernization, of being a part of the global community that leads the Muslim world to hate Israel as it does, and to deny Israel the right to exist. We hope that you will make use of our new Nutshell, to show your friends - and perhaps especially those who are not your friends - a different face of Israel. To Go To Top

JERUSALEM IS ISRAEL'S CAPITAL Posted by Jacob Gurewich, March 5, 2004.

"In 1950, the Israeli Government issued a proclamation naming as its capital - as it had been for 3000 years despite desecration by the Arabs. "Ironically, the U.S. Government, dependent upon the Arabs for their cheap petroleum, has refused to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. Therefore, the time has come for the Israeli Government to uproot its embassy from Washington, DC. "Remember: the embassy sits on the land that was brutally seized from Native Americans over only 200 years ago, so that the United States could declare it as the capital of their newly formed nation." Excerpted from The Enemy Within by Jacob Gurewich (2nd Edition), ISBN: 0966639820, Library of Congress Control Number: 200309954 To Go To Top

THE RIGHTS OF PALESTINIANS - A DIFFERENT APPROACH Posted by The Prism Group, March 4, 2004.

The Rights of Palestinians - A Different Approach In the past few weeks there have been reports of increasing tension within the Palestinian Authority (PA). Demands for financial, political and social reform have been met with resistance from the old guard, who continue to reap the rewards of the Intifada. Meanwhile, it is the average Palestinian who is left behind. Below are five different kinds of denigration, often ignored by the western media. a) Financial Mismanagement It was recently reported that Chairman Arafat hastily exited from a meeting, where Prime Minister Mohammed Querei had remarked that the European Union has joined demands that PA police salaries must be paid by bank deposit rather than in cash. It seems that the Palestinian leader may eventually compromise here, thus limiting the amount of money that can be skimmed off to pay for other expenses. In the words of Mr. Christopher Patten, the European Commissioner for External Affairs, "EU Direct Budgetary Assistance" serve to finance the PA public expenditures in general... As it is donor money which makes up the bulk of payments to the PA police, the EU must be very relieved that at least some of its contributions can be better accounted for at last. While the EU sends approximately 20 million euros to the PA and sister organizations every month to support education and other social needs, a recent BBC investigation stated that the PA is using some of the money to pay members of a Palestinian militant organization, which has been responsible for carrying out homicide attacks. According to the newspaper Scotland on Sunday, Feb. 29th, The World Bank has now issued an ultimatum to the PA: Put an end to rampant corruption or lose hundreds of millions of pounds of vital foreign aid. The Bank's top official in the region, Nigel Roberts, confirmed that the Palestinians were receiving the largest amount of money per capita in the history of foreign aid. b) Deliberate Social Deprivation by 'Friends' On February 27, 2004, Reuters reported that people living in PA controlled areas are becoming increasingly critical of their leaders. This supports previous comments from the AP, late last year, that the Arab world is manipulating the Palestinian cause to the detriment of the people themselves. Reported again in the LA Times, on January 4, the article states that most Arab countries have denied citizenship, jobs and education to anyone claiming Palestinian ancestry. The article quotes 35-year-old Mohmoud Zahar: "We can't own a house, land or get a loan from the bank, despite the fact that I was born here (in Egypt) and have no idea what is Palestine. A Cairo-based Palestinian writer, speaking in the same article says: "The language of the (Arab) governments and media is in one direction and the real practices on the ground are totally the opposite." Hisham Youssef, spokesman for the 22-nation Arab League, acknowledged that Palestinians live "in very bad conditions," but he said the policy is meant "to preserve their Palestinian identity." "If every Palestinian who sought refuge in a certain country was integrated and accommodated into that country, there won't be any reason for them to return to Palestine," AP reported. Jordan would be a clear exception to this pan-Arab policy, where Palestinians are granted full citizenship and rights. As a result, except the 13% living in UNRWA camps, Palestinians are being progressively integrated into Jordanian society without international welfare subsidies. c) Denial of Basic Political Rights Late in January 2004, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy organized a two-day conference. The PISD is calling for the implementation of political and economic reforms in the PA, criticizing how the PA was handling negotiations with Israel. Some members lashed out at corruption and demanded major reforms in Fatah and the PA. Speakers included legislators, university teachers, political analysts, human rights activists and even Fatah leaders. d) Coping with the Israeli Army In Israel, a military tribunal has found an army officer guilty of negligence in the October 2002, as a result of which a Palestinian teenager died. According to Reuters, a statement from the military spokesman's office explaining the decision blamed the officer in the death of Ali Zaid, 16, of Nizlat Zaid, a village near the West Bank city of Jenin. It said that the officer, identified by the Israeli media as a captain, had fired at a wall to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators and that the bullet went through a window, hitting Zaid. He later died of his injuries. The court found "clear negligence," in the officer's behavior, the statement said. e) A Breakdown of Society On February 28, 2004, the BBC reported that the Mayor of Nablus has resigned in protest at a rise in lawlessness. "Ghassan Shakaa accused the Palestinian Authority of failing to take action to stem rising violence in the city." Mr Shakaa, who is considered an ally of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, complained he was frustrated at watching Nablus descend into chaos. Shakaa said that his resignation was a "warning bell" to the PA because they are not doing anything for the city. In Nablus, the police have become ineffective and the streets are not safe from the increasing strength of local gangs. Shakaa's remarks may have been a harbinger. On March 1st, Reuters reported from Gaza that gunmen had killed  a prominent adviser to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. According to witnesses, unknown assailants gunned down Khalil al-Zebin, 59, a veteran journalist who advised Arafat on human rights and media issues. Palestinian journalists have recently staged protests demanding that the Palestinian Authority investigate a recent series of attacks against them in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It is clear that Palestinian suffering is not merely a result of Israeli action, as is so often crudely and simplistically reported in the media. The Palestinians deserve a democratic leadership, which will be responsive to the needs of its electorate and outline the way to reform. Freedom of the Press Attitudes toward the press seem to have taken a turn for the better in Egypt, reports the BBC News, Feb. 23, 2004. President Mubarak has been quoted as saying that he will rescind the law that allows journalists to be imprisoned for libel, defamation or insults. In a speech to participants at a journalists' conference, which was read by the Information Minister, the Egyptian president reiterated his support of press freedom but also criticized foreign demands for reforms in the Middle East. Egypt, along with other Arab countries, is under increasing pressure from the US to take steps to improve their human rights records. Women's Rights in the Middle East Emboldened by the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraqi women are pushing for political freedoms many of them have never enjoyed. But as they do, a rising tide of religious zeal threatens even the small victories they have won. Yet new religious activism in Iraq has aggravated traditional attitudes about women's roles. The 18-member committee drafting the new constitution does not include any women, according to members of the Iraqi Governing Council. The council recently passed a nonbinding resolution calling for Shariah, or Islamic law, to govern family issues, which Iraq's justice minister said would damage the rights of Iraqi women. This tale of events fits in with recent academic research. Forty years ago, write professors Phyllis Chesler and Donna Hughes in FrontPageMagazine.com (Feb. 24), American women launched a liberation movement for freedom and equality. "Today, women's economic and social participation is considered a standard requirement for a nation's healthy democratic development." However, according to these eminent professors, today Islamic fundamentalism threatens women all over the world. "Wherever they have gained power, Islamists have denied women their essential humanity and dignity." They cite the exponential growth of the global sex trade as an example. In another article on the same subject, Professor Hughes says: "A measure of Islamic fundamentalists' success in controlling society is the depth and totality with which they suppress the freedom and rights of women. In Iran for 25 years, the ruling mullahs have enforced humiliating and sadistic rules and punishments on women and girls. Joining a global trend, the fundamentalists have added another way to dehumanize women and girls: buying and selling them for prostitution. According to the head of the Tehran province judiciary, traffickers target girls between 13 and 17, although there are reports of some girls as young as 8 and 10, being sent to Arab countries. The Prism Group focuses on human rights issues in the Middle East. Their website address is www.theprismgroup.org. They can be contacted at info@theprismgroup.org. To Go To Top

PUTTING IT IN PERSPECTIVE Posted by Lee Underwood, March 4, 2004.

Although there are many wars and much devastation and destruction taking place all over the earth, the nations seem to be concerned the most with the tiny nation of Israel. A brief glimpse of the daily headlines shows numerous conflicts and trouble areas: "Haitian city surrounded by rebels"; "Roadside bomb kills 2 soldiers, one Iraqi", "A national disaster has been declared in Swaziland as a result of ravaging drought and the spread of HIV/Aids"; "Rwanda to free genocide killers"; "Emergency talks on Thai violence"; "309 confirmed dead in Iran train blast"; "Taliban regrouping in southern Afghanistan", "Yemeni tribes threaten war over Sauder border wall". Yet, Israel continues to be in the forefront of the concerns of the nations of the world. Israel has tried, through numerous treaties and agreements, to make peace with its neighbors. Yet it seems that no matter what Israel does or gives up, the nations always want more. And, for the most part, the majority of these nations are not located anywhere near Israel. In yet another effort to appease the nations of the world, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recently put forth a plan to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip of all Jews. The cornerstone of that plan is Sharon's intention to uproot 17 Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip, and forcibly relocate their 7,500 Jewish residents. Most of the nations seem to think this is a good idea. However, they do not want these Jews to be relocated to Judea or Samaria (a.k.a. "the West Bank"). So now, once again, the government of Israel is trying to do all it can to appease the nations, many of whom are declared enemies of the State. And still, it is not enough. But how does the expulsion of 7,500 Jews in Israel really measure up to a world which has almost six billion inhabitants? That ends up being .000125% of the world's entire population. How can this really make a difference (aside from all the other implications) in bringing peace to all the world? In order to understand the full magnitude of this proposed cleansing it is necessary to look at it in proportion to other areas in the world. In order to do that a few simple mathematical calculations will enable us to put it in its proper perspective. First, let's look at England. The population of England is 59 million (all population figures are estimates). That is approximately ten times larger than Israel (population: 6 million). We then multiply the number of Jews to be expelled (7,500) by the proportional size of England (10) and we can see that it would be equivalent to 75,000 people being removed from their homes in England (7,500 x 10 = 75,000). That is approximately 1.1% of the population of London (7 million). That might not seem "too bad". But let's look at some other comparisons. Russia (population: 144,500,00) is 24 times the size of Israel. That means that the expulsion of 7,500 Jews in Israel would be equal to the expulsion of 180,000 Russians (7,500 x 24), which is approximately 2.2% of the population of Moscow (8,500,000). In India (population: 1,100,000,000) it would be equivalent to the expulsion of 1,372,500 Indians, or the entire city of Vadodara. In China (1,300,000,000), it would be equivalent to the expulsion of 1,627,500 Chinese, or the entire city of Dalian. In Syria (17,600,000), it would mean the expulsion of 22,500 people. That is about the number of people murdered by Syrian president Hafez in 1972 in Hama, Syria. It really gets interesting when we compare the expulsion of 7,500 Jews in Israel with the population in the United States, the initiator and one of the sponsors of the Road Map to Peace plan. The U.S. (population: 290,000,000) is 50 times larger than Israel. That would mean the expulsion of 7,500 Jews in Israel is equal to the expulsion of 375,000 Americans from their homes. For starters, it would mean the entire evacuation of any one of the following U.S. cities: Miami, FL; St. Louis, MO; Wichita, KS; Arlington, TX; Anaheim, CA; Pittsburgh, PA; Cincinnati, OH; Toledo, OH; Tampa, FL; Buffalo, NY. It would also mean the evacuation of the entire cities in the following combinations: Dayton, OH and Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Kansas City, KS and Chattanooga, TN; Green Bay, WI, Ann Arbor, MI, and South Bend, IN. To get a broader picture of the impact in the U.S., the expulsion of 7,500 Jews in Israel is equal to the evacuation of the entire population of all of the following U.S. cities combined: Sarasota, FL, Greenville, NC, Daytona Beach, FL, Scranton, PA, and Charleston, SC. Is the United States, or any other nation, ready to evacuate hundreds of thousands (even millions) of their own population in order to appease their enemies? Would U.S. President Bush heed the demands of al Queida to remove all the residents from the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania? Or Miami, Florida? Would he have responded positively to a demand from Saddam Hussein to evacuate Buffalo, New York? Of course not. And rightly so. The residents of these cities are citizens of the United States and they have a right to expect to be protected by their government and live in peace on their own land. Why not Israel? Lee Underwood is on the staff of Tzemach News Service, a ministry of the Tzemach Institute for Biblical Studies To Go To Top

MAKOS, KRISTOF, AND BIKE WEEK Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, March 4, 2004.

I guess this piece had to be written. Not that I'm superstitious or anything. But what I am about to tell you would have had to have been one heck of a coincidence. I hope I do it justice. We were driving in the miserable Daytona Beach traffic during "Bike Week", when scores - if not hundreds - of thousands of Harleys converge on our beachside community from all over the United States and elsewhere. We had just dropped our youngest off at the movies with her friends and were heading out to meet one of our other kids at her new job. We stopped to pick her up a sandwich, and while my wife went in to the shop, I decided to read the day's paper. Big mistake. There's no rest for the weary - at least those of us who care. There was Nicholas Kristof's op-ed piece, "A Question Of Double Standards", staring at me while I was supposedly taking a break. Now, I know a bit about double standards myself - real ones, not Kristof's figments. One of my own articles on the subject has made it into dozens of publications under a few different titles, as major op-ed pieces in newspapers, in Nobel Laureate-sponsored academic journals on reference lists of leading universities around the world, etc. So I think I'm somewhat qualified to respond. Why is it, for example, that journalists like Nicholas Kristof, Thomas Friedman, David Ignatius, Richard Cohen, and others are obsessed with the creation of a 23rd Arab state - a second Arab one within the original borders of the Palestinian Mandate as Britain received it on April 25, 1920, before Colonial Secretary Churchill chopped off 80% in 1922 and awarded it to Arab allies in the creation of Transjordan - but are deaf, dumb and blind (or worse) regarding the plight of some thirty million stateless Kurds? In the September 16, 2003, Washington Post, for example, Ignatius could only address Kurds as terrorists or rebels - while never dreaming of using the "T" word for Arab disembowelers of Jewish babes and grandmas. In Thomas Friedman's earlier March 26th article in the New York Times, he advised that the Kurds should be told point blank, "What part of 'no' don't you understand? ... You Kurds are not breaking away." And the media's sickening hypocrisy is mirrored by the crew that has hijacked Middle Eastern Studies on far too many campuses, and too often in our own Government as well, especially at Foggy Bottom. But I've digressed. Back to Bike Week... We resumed our drive in bumper to bumper traffic and I got to thinking about the Kristof travesty. He simply bought right into the standard Arab propaganda lines - Jews taking "Arab" lands, Israel giving poor Arabs "no alternatives", etc. I haven't been doing enough fishing lately and hardly ever get my late Dad's little boat out anymore. Still, I was considering how great it would be if by simply saying over and over again that the 25-foot Mako sport fishing boat of my daydreams was mine, I could make it so. The Arabs have done this, and many buy into their lies. Now, you're not going to believe what happened next. I turned off the main road and up a side street to try to escape some of the traffic. Guess what was sitting there, a little ways up the road? My 25 footer! So I had to write this. Understand? Back to Kristof... Don't get me wrong, for his stripe of journalist, this piece was actually an attempt at some kind of fair play. He actually brought up the "Hama Solution" - where Syrian Arabs slaughtered more than ten times the number of their own "problems" in less than a month than died in over two years of Arabs fighting Israel in an intifada that they themselves started after rejecting an offer of a 23rd state on over 97% of the disputed territories, with a capital in Jerusalem. Ambassador Dennis Ross was present at the Camp David 2000 and Taba negotiations and spelled out that the offer was for a contiguous state, not disconnected "cantons", as Arafat's spin doctors claim, and that over $30 billion dollars was offered, as well, to seal the deal. What was that line by Kristof in the rant about Arabs not being offered any alternatives? The reality that the Kristof Krew refuses to deal with is that nothing short of Israel's consent to suicide will be enough for the Arafat/Hamas, good cop/bad cop team. They've been caught repeatedly admitting this, calling the Oslo peace process fiasco - where the more Israel gave, the more it bled - a "Trojan Horse." And this from so-called "moderate" Arab spokesmen. Whatever fairness Kristof attempted in his latest op-ed was completely shattered by his closing punch line about Israel's security fence on "Palestinian" land. So, for Nick's sake, I'll try again. Here goes... Just who is a "settler" in the Middle East? Of course, Arabs and their mouthpieces point to Jews. And the latter "illegally stole purely Arab land." Kristof made a variation of this same claim in his article. Therefore, unless the "West Bank" is ethnically cleansed of the Jewish presence, as the fiction goes - and those like Kristof buy into - there will be no chance for peace. Israel's fence, if tolerated at all, must therefore cling to the Auschwitz/armistice lines of 1949, which made the Jewish state, among other things, a mere 9-miles wide at its vulnerable waist. The press constantly supports this position. Countless editorials and columns have appeared spouting such wisdom. During the Mandatory period, following the break up of empires after World War I, the League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission recorded scores of thousands of Arabs pouring into a largely depopulated Palestine from surrounding countries to take advantage of the economic development going on because of the Jews. Many more entered under cover of darkness and were never listed. All of these folks were preceded in the 19th century by many thousands of Egyptians who came with Muhammad Ali's invading armies and never left; i.e., more Arab settlers in Palestine setting up Arab settlements. Arafat himself was one of them, coming from Cairo, Egypt. So was Hamas' "patron saint", Izzedin Al-Qassam, coming from Aleppo, Syria. These folks later became known as "native Palestinians." While this is not to say that there were no native Arabs living in Palestine, it is to say that many, if not most, of these folks were also newcomers - settlers - themselves. Again, many of the villages set up in the West Bank and elsewhere were settlements established by Arab settlers. And there were Jews whose families never left Israel/Judea/Palestine, as well, over the centuries, despite the tragedies of the Roman Wars, forced conversions of the Byzantines, the Diaspora, Crusades, etc. In the wake of the '67 War started by Egypt's blockade of Israel at the Straits of Tiran and other hostile acts (a causus belli), UN Resolution #242 did not demand that Israel return to the suicidal armistice lines of 1949. It called, instead, for the creation of "secure and recognized" borders to replace those lines. Furthermore, those lands where much of the compromising would have to be done after Israel already withdrew from the Sinai - i.e., Judea and Samaria/the "West Bank" - were not "Arab" lands, as Kristof claims, but unapportioned territories of the Mandate, open to settlement by both Jews and Arabs. Leading international legal scholars such as Eugene Rostow, William O'Brien, and others have written extensively about this. The current demand that those lands, where Jews (Judea... Judeans... Jews) have thousands of years of connecting history, now become Judenrein is thus totally unwarranted. The route of the security fence that Arafat and Hamas constructed must also take all of this into consideration. There must be a reasonable compromise regarding those disputed territories - not a unilateral withdrawal forced upon the Jews by the ignorant, the anti-Semites, and 21st century Chamberlains in the pockets of Arab oil sheikhs. Gerald A. Honigman is a contributing writer for Jewish Xpress magazine (http://www.jewishxpress.com), a monthly publication based in southern Florida. His background is in Middle Eastern Affairs. His articles and op-eds have been published in dozens of newspapers, magazines, academic journals and websites all around the world. To Go To Top

THIS PURIM, WE MUST SAVE THE THREATENED JEWS OF GAZA Posted by Americans For A Safe Israel (AFSI), March 4, 2004.

Ariel Sharon announced that he would unilaterally withdraw from Gaza, forcing 8,000 Jews to be transferred out of their homes, he put himself in the position of a modern day Haman. Putting the lie to the pronouncement, "NEVER AGAIN", Sharon has placed the Jews of Gaza in the threatened position of being moved out of their homes, farms, synagogues, schools, hot houses, dairies, and the beautiful Mediterranean seashore. All of this would be done to capitulate to Arafat, his PA and PLO, and his terrorist cohorts, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, etc. There is no logical explanation for this handover to the terrorists, who would use Gaza as a staging ground to attack all of Israel more efficiently. The underground tunnels from Egypt would work more successfully, and any military plans Egypt had to go against Israel would be facilitated by removing the front line, the Jewish population, from Gaza. The end result would be a de-stabilization of the entire Middle East. The twenty-one communities that make up Gush Katif have banded together to launch a campaign preventing the implementation of the Sharon transfer plan. They need funds in order to pay for free buses to bring Israelis to Gush Katif, so they can see for themselves the beauty and development of the area. The funds will pay for booklets that will be mailed to every Israeli home, pleading the cause of the Gaza Jews. A film, celebrating the beauty and Jewish life in Gush Katif is being made, to be distributed as widely as possible. More plans are in the offing to bring the critical reality of the Gaza situation to the general public. You can help by sending a tax deductible contribution. Make it out to: Friends of Gush Katif Send it to: Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI, 1623 Third Ave., Suite 205, New York, N.Y. The need is urgent. The campaign must be launched immediately. It cannot succeed without the help of Jews who want to be certain that "Never Again" will be the reality. "Americans For a Safe Israel was founded in 1971 by concerned Americans convinced a peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israel conflict would only occur when the Arabs realized once and for all that Israel could not be defeated militarily or in any other way. The founders were convinced that Israel must retain possession and control of Judea, Samaria, Gaza and the Golan. To abandon territory won in wars forced on it would make it vulnerable once again to renewed subversion and attack, not only by hostile Arabs in Judea and Samaria but unstable Arab regimes. AFSI is unique in its proud and outspoken advocacy of Judea, Samaria, Gaza and the Golan as integral parts of Israel. AFSI believes that a strong Israel is essential to U.S. security and that the Jewish towns in these areas are the best guarantee against strategic vulnerability. Most importantly, the pioneering efforts of the residents in these areas have the potential of rejuvenating a dormant Zionism and igniting a second Zionist revolution." To Go To Top

ANNOUNCEMENTS Posted by Judy Lash Balint, March 4, 2004.

A few announcements - first of all, a freylichen Purim to all: Chag Purim Sameach... Next: I am being sued for libel by Radhika Sainath, an American participant in the International Solidarity Movement. Ms. Sainath claims that an article I wrote for my website about her and her ISM activities "consists of blatantly false accusations," so she's suing for $20,000. Ms. Sainath is represented by attorney Shamai Leibowitz, whose most infamous client is Al Aksa Brigade leader Marwan Barghouti, accused of murdering tens of Israelis and injuring hundreds in numerous terrorist attacks. I have the privilege of being represented by Nitsana Darshan Leitner, director of the Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center. Shurat HaDin has filed lawsuits in Israeli and American courts against Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the European Union on behalf of terror victims. Ms. Darshan-Leitner has filed petitions in Israel's High Court of Justice concerning terrorist leader Marwan Barghouti, Abu Abbas and Israel's targeted killings policy. (See http://www.israellawcenter.org) If you would like to help defray our legal expenses in fighting the libel action of the ISM we would welcome your tax-deductible donations: Please make your tax- deductible check payable in the US to: PEF - Israel Endowment Fund and mail to: Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center, Balint Defense Fund c/o PEF - Israel Endowment Fund 317 Madison Avenue, Suite 607 New York, New York 10017 (Telephone: 212-591-0073) To donate outside the United States or in Israel, please make your check payable to: Shurat Hadin - Israel Law Center and mail to: Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center, Balint Defense Fund, 11 Havatikim St. Petach Tikva, 49389 Israel (Telephone: 972-8-973-3336) Thank you, Judy Lash Balint www.jerusalemdiaries.com 2. THE ISRAELIS: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land by Donna Rosenthal has 30 excellent reviews both in the US and Israel. (Near East Report AIPAC; Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Weekly Standard, Hadassah magazine, Publishers Weekly, Hillel, NY Jewish Week, etc.) For info/reviews/bio see: http:www.The.Israelis.Net But despite rave reviews, the publisher says sales are too modest and in days will decide whether or not to publish a paperback. A number of professors and high school teachers want it... but only can afford paperback. 'The Israelis' needs a sales boost. Orders can make the difference. At Amazon.com The Israelis is 30% off with free shipping, no tax. Or at barnesandnoble.com, 20% off, Or order at your bookstore. (Part of the proceeds are donated to the Israel Organ Donor Society) The Jerusalem Post review on the book appeared November 20, 2003 and was written by Hyam Corney, who was deputy editor of the London-based Jewish Chronicle. It is called "Beyond The Prickly Sabra". Having been one for little more than a year, I found I had much to learn from this book. One what? An Israeli, an ordinary person living in an extraordinary land. The subtitle of this informative, well-researched book says it all. But it could also have been subtitled: "Everything you always wanted to know about Israel and the Israelis but were afraid to ask." Donna Rosenthal, an award-winning journalist born in El Paso, Texas, of mixed Ashkenazi-Sephardi background, spent four years on the project, which she began before the current violence began and has brought right up to date; the only major incident which missed the deadline was the bombing of Maxim's restaurant in Haifa in October. She has taken almost every aspect of life in Israel - religion, army, social mores, ethnic groups, and many others - and explained them objectively, in each case through the eyes of the "ordinary Israeli" of the subtitle and not, refreshingly, from the viewpoint of politicians or sociologists. Her training and skill as a journalist are put to excellent use as she asks the questions which let her interviewees give revealing answers. Take, for example, the dramatic opening chapter, recalling the suicide bombing of June 18, 2002, on bus 32A in Jerusalem. The driver, who was a soccer fan, had failed to persuade his boss to let him take an earlier bus so he could get home in time to watch a World Cup match. He was killed. A 27-year-old mother missed the bus, but her mother drove her to the next stop so she wouldn't be late for work. She, too, was killed. The personal stories of other passengers are also described. There could be no more moving and graphic way of explaining to foreigners what living with daily terrorism is like, and the same technique is used in every chapter. When it comes to explaining the ethnic backgrounds of Jewish Israelis Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Ethiopians, Russians - the author takes the opportunity to provide a potted history, thus helping readers understand where these people come from - literally and metaphorically - and what their needs are. In the chapter on the army, she explains its importance in integrating immigrants into Israeli society. Serving in the army, she writes, "is a crash course on becoming Israeli. It's where an Ethiopian-born soldier confides to his Brazilian-born and Druse tent mates about his family's financial problems, and fears about his immortality." We Israelis knew about the army's role already, and also know how we "thrive on confrontation and solving problems by argument," aggressive driving, obsessive use of cellphones, queue-jumping, and religious intolerance among Jews. So perhaps those chapters are more useful for the foreigner. But how much do we know about Israeli Arabs and Druse, Christians and Muslims, their way of life, their history, their feelings toward the Jewish state in which they live? One Muslim, deploring racist Israeli reaction on the Internet to a terrorist incident, explains: "When times are good I feel Israeli, but when I read these ugly messages, I feel more Palestinian. It's an ongoing identity crisis." Haifa lawyer Suhad Hammoud, described as part of the new Arab generation - modern, well-educated, not religious, not fanatical - says: "Israel for me is a country that took our land and gave us passports. Israel is my home, but I didn't choose to be Israeli. I am a Palestinian and my parents are Palestinian. Do we want to move to a Palestinian state? Of course not. Our roots are here." Rosenthal has succeeded in presenting an accurate picture of daily life in Israel for its variety of citizens. While clearly setting out to be objective, she nevertheless is sympathetic. At some time in our lives, we have all probably had to explain to non-Israelis - and especially to non-Jews - what this country and its people are all about. That task will be considerably easier as a result of this book, which should be required reading for every diplomat and journalist about to be posted here. It should also be purchased in bulk by the Jewish Agency for distribution to its aliya offices worldwide, and given to every potential immigrant. It may discourage some from coming, but at least those who do come will know what to expect in much greater detail than by listening to a biased emissary. 3. While we're on the subject of books, only a few copies remain of Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times, by your moderator, Judy Lash Balint. Chances are this book will not be reprinted - another edition with updated material is in the works..Jerusalem Diaries may be purchased from www.jerusalemdiaries.com or www.israelbooks.com. To Go To Top

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WAR ON TERRORISM? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 4, 2004.

After overthrowing the regimes in two terrorist states, the US stopped tackling terrorist regimes. It did not increase the number of troops available to conduct such wars. What happened to the war on terrorism? It stalled. Perhaps what was done is all the Pres. Bush intended to do. Perhaps his critics, so indignant over his saving us from eventual attack by Saddam, intimidated him from extending the war to Iran and S. Arabia. Those two countries train many of the terrorists who come after us. AS THE ARABS PUT IT The Arabs depict their enemies as cunningly plotting against them, whereas the Arabs are cunningly plotting against the others. The Arabs make their enemies seem sinister by using the adverb, "systematically," to emphasize the enemies' action as well organized. Thus the P.A. accuses PM Sharon of "systematically destroying the possibility of a future Palestinian state." Actually, PM Sharon is promoting a future PLO state and having Israelis withdraw from territory needed to constitute one. He is undermining the possibility of the Jewish state lasting long into the future. He has no system. He responds to short-term public relations demands. The Arab plot against their enemies is spelled out on the P.A. website. It has planned many public activities for 2004, to mobilize public opinion behind it. These activities challenge governmental agreements with Israel "as long as Israel continues its violations against Palestinian (Arab) human rights." By Arab "human rights," the P.A. means the Arabs' "right" to attack Israelis without being impeded by Israeli defense. Since the P.A. is among the world's worst violators of Arab and Jewish rights, its stated concern for human rights is propaganda. A major P.A. activity would be to organize intellectuals and artists, especially from the West. That should be simple, because Western intellectuals and artists these days are most easily duped, and are positioned to dupe others. The P.A. intends to coordinate more with the Israeli "peace movement." Since the P.A. goal is to take over Israel by armed struggle and all other means, any movement that cooperates with it is not a peace movement. The word, "peace," is misused by P.A. propagandists, just as did the Communists and Nazis, and just as the P.A. misuses the words, "human rights." The Israeli movement confuses peace with appeasement. In taking the side of the enemy at war with its own country, the Israeli "peace movement" is subversive if not treasonous. People, even those who consider themselves intellectual, reformers, and "progressive," are so confused as to be ignorant, unthinking, and regressive. They follow ideological trends and emotional positions. Once they take sides, they support that side on every issue, right or wrong and without reviewing new evidence that shows their side's faults. They are not honest about this. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com.

AMPHIBIANS Posted by Steven Plaut, March 4, 2004.

Now if you are like me, you must be terribly upset, now that France itself is suddenly the apparent target of a terrorist campaign. Yes, this week the nation of capitulations and good perfume, the nation where people invented the bidet because they are too lazy to take WHOLE baths, found its rail lines being equipped with their own booby traps and explosive bombs, and a mysterious group named AZF is taking credit for it. Naturally, none of the establishment French newspapers is suggesting that these bombs have anything at all to do with the fact that France just passed an official law making it illegal for students to come to classes with anything on their heads besides little sissy berets. There is of course no reason to believe that AZF stands for Allied Zionists against Frenchies. Actually, my first thought was that maybe it stands for Ole Ze Froggiez. SO what will the Gallic Amphibians now do? As they search for the perps, I am reminded of the poem from the Scarlet Pimpernel: They seek him here, they seek him there Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven or is he in hell? That damned elusive Pimpernel. Now I know that your first thoughts about this mysterious modern-pumpernickel bomber is that we should seek to assist our Gallic brethren with good advice, just like they have always sought to assist us with our OWN war against terrorism and Islamofascism. So, yes, they must deal with this AZF terror through negotiations and offering to turn half of Paris and all of Rouen over to these activists and militants, whose cause must be just or else why on earth would they be engaging in terror! And their suffering must be extreme if it drove the AZF to such acts of violence. The AZF are victims of French occupation. Freedom for Corsica now. Tear down the security fence around Monte Carlo! There are no police solutions to the problems of terror. In any case, I thought the time ripe to re-post this earlier piece of mine on making peace in France through Land for Peace. Land for Peace: The French Solution by Steven Plaut (http://www.meforum.org/article/62) On a recent trip to Israel, French prime minister Lionel Jospin urged Israel to make concessions for peace. More interesting yet, in documents relating to his visit, Jerusalem was called the "capital of the Palestinian Authority." And what does he consider the capital of Israel? Tel Aviv, of course.[1] This trip followed by a few years one made by President Jacques Chirac, who used the occasion of his visit in 1996 to announce that "Syria has a moral right to demand return of the Golan Heights."[2] These French politicians may be on to something important. Never one to back down from a challenge, I have prepared a set of proposals for consideration by the French people, so they too can achieve a full, lasting, and just peace with their historic opponents. First, we all agree that territory must not be annexed by force. Therefore, we can also agree that Germany has a moral right to demand the return of Alsace-Lorraine, for the French aggression in 1945 and its consequent occupation must not be rewarded. "A full withdrawal for full peace" should operate here. Further, France must agree to the return and rehabilitation of all ethnic Germans expelled from Alsace-Lorraine after World Wars I and II, as well as all those they define as their descendents. But this, of course, is just the first step toward a solution, as no aggression can be rewardedand France has much other stolen territory to return. It took Corsica from Genoa, Nice and Savoy from Piedmont; as the successor state, Italy must get back all these lands. By similar token, territories grabbed from the Habsburgs go back to Austria, including Franche-Comte, Artois, and historic Burgundy. The Roussillon area (along the Pyrenees) must be returned to Spain, its rightful owner. And Normandy, Anjou, Aquitaine, and Gascony must be returned to their rightful owners, the British royal family. Not even this not enough for the sake of peace. Brittany and Languedoc must be granted autonomy at once, recognizing the Breton and Occitan Liberation organizations as their legal rulers. This leaves the French government in control over the le de France (the area around Paris). That, however, still does not solve the problem of the Holy City of Paris, sacred to artists, gourmets, and adulterers. The Corsicans obviously have a historic claim to the Tomb of the Emperor Napoleon, their famed son, as well as the Invalides complex and beyond. For the sake of peace, is it not too much to ask that Paris be the capital for two peoples? The French authorities must agree to prevent French Parisians from even entering the sacred tomb area, lest this upset the Corsicans. The Saint Chapelle and the Church of Notre Dame of course will be internationalized, under joint Vatican-art historical auspices. Indeed, the French should consider it a compliment of the highest order that so many people see Paris as an international city. The French have nothing to complain of. They will enjoy the benefits of peace and retain control of the Champs Elysee. Actually, come to think of it, even the Champs Elysee may be too much. Recalling the French position that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel, perhaps the true French capital is not Paris at all, but Vichy. 1 The Jerusalem Post, Feb. 24, 2000. 2 The Jerusalem Post, Oct. 23, 1996 Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments - both seriously and satirically - on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. To Go To Top

OKLAHOMA'S CITY'S MIDEAST CONNECTION Posted by Tamar Rush, March 4, 2004.

This article was written by William F. Jasper, September 14, 1998, and is archived as http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1998/vo14no19/vo14no19_mideast.htm Over the years, the New American has published articles on the Oklahoma City bombing (http://www.thenewamerican.com/focus/okc/index.htm) and on terrorism (http://www.thenewamerican.com/focus/terrorism/index.htm) The scenes of death and carnage emanating from the two bomb-ravaged U.S. embassies in Africa were wearily familiar. In the news coverage and analysis of the simultaneous August 7th terrorist attacks on the embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, there were the inevitable comparisons to past lethal attacks: the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon (1983 & 1984); the Israeli Embassy and Jewish cultural center in Argentina (1992 & 1994); the World Trade Center in New York (1993); the U.S. Embassy and Air Force barracks in Saudi Arabia (1995 & 1996). And, of course, to the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. However, we were repeatedly reminded, the Oklahoma bombing was "a domestic terrorist act," carried out by a couple of anti-government ex-Army misfits, while the others had been the work of Middle Eastern terrorist organizations. This is the conventional wisdom concerning Oklahoma City that seems to have gained almost universal acceptance. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, the conventional wisdom is dead wrong. Readers of The New American are by now familiar with the overwhelming evidence we have published over the past three and one-half years establishing beyond doubt that demolition charges were planted on the columns inside the Murrah Building, in addition to the Ryder truck bomb outside the building. (See our most recent article "Proof of Bombs and Cover-up," in our July 20th issue.) This compelling evidence alone renders absurd the Timothy McVeigh "lone bomber" scenario posited by the federal government. But those who have seen this magazine's extensive investigation into the bombing are also aware of the superabundance of evidence - in the form of government documents, government informants, and numerous eyewitnesses - concerning other vehicles and individuals associated with McVeigh in Kansas in the days prior to the bombing, and in Oklahoma City minutes before the blast. Much of our investigation has focused on the evidence which strongly implicates in the bomb plot members of the White Aryan Resistance and other neo-Nazi groups operating out of a "Christian Identity" compound known as Elohim City, in eastern Oklahoma. (See "Undercover: The Howe Revelations" in our September 15, 1997 issue.) However, over the past two years The New American has carried out a parallel investigation into equally compelling evidence which indicates that McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and their Elohim co-conspirators were subcontractors, and perhaps planned fall guys, for Middle Eastern terrorist organizations with operational cells throughout the U.S. - including in Oklahoma City. Incredibly, many of these organizational structures are still intact and operating hand-in-hand with supposedly legitimate Muslim organizations. Even more incredible, many of these "legitimate" organizations continue to support violent and virulently anti-American terrorist groups and terror regimes throughout the world - while federal authorities charged with protecting this country continue to look the other way. This cannot be allowed to continue or the evil acts like those recently carried out in Kenya and Tanzania will again be brought home to the streets of America - with even more devastating impact and more catastrophic loss of life. Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Libya are all aggressively developing chemical and biological weapons, with generous assistance from Russia and China. With the aid of Moscow and Beijing, they are also rapidly developing the missile systems that may soon be capable of delivering these weapons of mass destruction to American soil. But these regimes already have in place within the U.S. terrorist apparatus capable of delivering these unimaginably lethal weapons by more pedestrian means, with the potential for causing tens of thousands - or even hundreds of thousands - of American deaths. Thus, these avowed enemies - who regard America as "the great Satan" - have the opportunity and the means to inflict incalculable damage on this country. And with the protracted U.S. involvement in Bosnia, our ongoing conflict with Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and the continued U.S. intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian embroglio, we are guaranteeing a burning motive to every radical Islamic regime or terrorist group: revenge. Motive, opportunity, and means. Is America suicidally bent on providing all of these to our deadly foes? Apparently so, if we continue our misguided foreign policies and blindly ignore the staggering evidence concerning the Oklahoma City bombing. Consider these facts: An FBI All Points Bulletin was issued shortly after the blast for all law enforcement to be on the lookout for a late model Chevrolet pickup "occupied by Middle Eastern subjects" seen fleeing the blast area "at a high rate of speed." At least four witnesses have attested to seeing young men of apparent Middle Eastern appearance in front of, or in the immediate vicinity of, the Murrah Building before and right after the explosion acting in a suspicious manner. A confidential informant for the federal government, who was on record prior to the bombing warning of a conspiracy - of which he was a member - involving Middle Eastern and domestic terrorists to blow up federal buildings, has provided important, detailed information about the OKC attack. On April 19, 1995, the head of Saudi Arabia's Intelligence Service called the CIA's former chief of Counterterrorism Operations to report that Saddam Hussein had hired seven Pakistani terrorists (Ramzi Yousef, convicted in the World Trade Center bombing, is Pakistani) to bomb targets in the U.S., one of which was the Murrah Building. Prior to the Oklahoma bombing, there was no record of any domestic terrorists detonating an explosive of the size ascribed to the Ryder truck bomb, but many foreign and domestic experts on terrorism have noted the Mideast "signature" of the truck bomb. There is a superabundance of evidence of neo-Nazi operatives in Europe and the U.S. collaborating with Arab and other Middle Eastern terrorists, or acting under the direction of the Soviet KGB and its surrogate services in Eastern Europe. Before being cowed into silence, elected officials and terrorist experts had pointed out that militant leaders of the terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad had addressed a radical Islamic conference in Oklahoma City, and that the militants' statements had been recorded in a PBS documentary. Early in the Oklahoma bombing investigation, The New American obtained a copy of the sworn affidavit of FBI Special Agent Henry C. Gibbons (dated April 20, 1995) relaying the testimony of an eyewitness near the scene of the explosion who "saw two individuals running from the area of the Federal Building toward a brown Chevrolet truck prior to the explosion." "The individuals," says the FBI affidavit, "were described as males, of possible Middle Eastern descent, approximately 6 feet tall, with athletic builds. One of the persons was further described as approximately 25-26 years old, having dark hair and a beard. The second person was described as approximately 35-38 years old, with dark hair and a dark beard with gray in it. The second person was further described as wearing blue jogging pants, a black shirt and a black jogging jacket. A third person, not further identified, was believed to be in the brown Chevrolet truck." The eyewitness testimony used for Agent Gibbons' affidavit, together with testimony on April 19th from other eyewitnesses, provided the basis for the FBI's All Points Bulletin which was picked up and played by local radio and television stations. That APB stated: Be on the lookout for a late model, almost new, Chevrolet, full-size pickup. It will be brown in color with tinted windows, smoke-colored bug deflector on the front of pickup - middle eastern male, 25 to 28 years of age, six feet tall, athletic build, dark hair and a beard.... driver of the vehicle was not identified. Subjects were last seen heading north on Walker at a high rate of speed.... Authorization FBI. A follow-up APB printout that this writer obtained from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol was issued at 2:28 p.m. on April 19th. It stated: Attempt to locate possible suspects and vehicle involved in bombing Oklahoma City 04/19/95 0900 hrs.... Use extreme caution... Stop and check all vehicles matching the following description: Blue small to medium size GM product possible Chevrolet Cavalier or Blazer. Vehicle may be a rental car from National Car Rental Systems DFW [Dallas-Fort Worth] Texas. Possible tag of PTF54F Texas. Suspect information: Occupied by Middle Eastern male subject or subjects.... But without explanation (then, or to this day), the FBI pulled the Mideast APB on the afternoon of April 19th. The Dallas Morning News reported on April 21st that federal agents had searched a Dallas apartment just before midnight on the 19th, seized several duffel bags, and taken several boxes from the building. It reported further that three men of Middle Eastern descent were questioned in Dallas and Oklahoma City in connection with the apartment search. The men, it said, were riding in a Chevy Blazer or Suburban, but the license plate of their vehicle was traced instead to a Chevrolet Cavalier that had been rented at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport by one of the men, a resident of New York City who was from Lahore, Pakistan. Nothing more was ever reported concerning the men, the search, or the vehicles. But on the following day, April 20th, Special Agent Gibbons' affidavit on the Middle East suspects was sworn before U.S. Judge Ronald L. Howland seeking a warrant to detain one Abraham Ahmad, who had left Oklahoma City for Amman, Jordan less than two hours after the bombing. "At approximately 10:43 a.m. on April 19, 1995, an American Airlines flight left Oklahoma City en route to Chicago, Illinois," says the Gibbons affidavit. "Aboard that flight was Abraham Abdallah Ahmed [sic]. Ahmed was scheduled to fly from Chicago to Rome, Italy and finally to Jordan." However, American Airlines personnel in Oklahoma City thought that Ahmad was "acting nervous" and called the airline's national security office. Ahmad was interviewed by the FBI in Chicago, while his luggage continued on a connecting flight to Rome, where it was searched by Italian officials. They discovered, said the FBI affidavit, "a) multiple car radios; b) a substantial quantity of shielded and unshielded wire; c) a small tool kit and other tools, consistent with use for both explosive devices and normal electronic repair or installation; d) blue jogging pants...." Agent Gibbons' affidavit, remember, described the suspects as wearing blue jogging pants. But before the Italian search had been conducted, Ahmad had concluded his FBI interview in Chicago and had booked a new flight to London. British authorities determined that Ahmad was ineligible for transit through England and returned him to the U.S. Upon his return and subsequent questioning by the FBI, Ahmad claimed to have been terribly traumatized by the entire ordeal and, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government seeking $1.9 million in damages. The New York Times, the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the American Muslim Council, and other Islamic organizations and media voices joined in condemning Ahmad's "treatment" and the tendency immediately after the explosion to suspect that the perpetrators had been somehow connected to Islam or the Middle East. In The New American's first article on the bombing ("Every American's Tragedy," May 15, 1995), this writer had castigated the many media "experts," news commentators, and public officials who had prematurely declared the bombing to be an "Arab," "Islamic fundamentalist," or "Middle East terrorist" attack. However, the abrupt reversal by all of these same forces within 48 hours after the bombing, and their refusal ever since to even consider the steadily mounting evidence of a "Middle East" connection, is astounding. To begin with, there was more than ample reason to suspect (not to proclaim or assert as fact, but to strongly suspect) a Mideast angle to the bombing. With Saddam Hussein having repeatedly sworn vengeance, and with the additional incentives provided by the recently concluded World Trade Center bombing trial and the extradition of Ramzi Yousef from Pakistan (to name a few), there was plenty of "cause" for retaliation from interested parties in those quarters. There was good cause for suspecting Mr. Ahmad. His departure from Oklahoma immediately after the bombing and his destination fit a pattern that had been used in many previous bombings. In the World Trade Center bombing, for example, the putative mastermind, Ramzi Yousef, flew out of New York City on February 26, 1993 - a couple hours after the explosion. One of his co-conspirators, Abdul Rahman Yasin, escaped back to Iraq. Eyad Ismoil, a Palestinian who drove the truck bomb to the trade center, flew from Kennedy to Amman, Jordan, while Yousef was winging his way to Pakistan. Other members of their bombing conspiracy - both legal and illegal residents - stayed behind in the United States. In addition to the eyewitness cited by Agent Gibbons' affidavit, there were others who apparently saw the same "Middle East" individuals. One of those is Daina Bradley, a survivor of the blast. At 8:55 a.m., seven minutes before the detonation, she was on the ground floor of the Murrah Building with her mother, two children and sister, waiting for the Social Security office to open. In an interview with Oklahoma City's NBC-TV affiliate, KFOR, she said she saw, through the window, a man who resembled the famous John Doe No. 2 sketch get out of the Ryder truck and walk just 10 to 12 feet from her, headed hurriedly toward the northeast side of the Murrah Building, where two more witnesses say a brown pickup was parked - a pickup which matches the description of the FBI-police APB issued after the explosion. Bradley described the man as "olive complected" with "black curly hair." "He was wearing the baseball cap but his curls were sticking out of his head," she said. "It was short in the back but you could still see the curls in his hair. He was foreign. You can tell by his skin, his face, the way his face was." Many people, unfortunately, dismiss as unreliable the testimony Mrs. Bradley gave in the 1995 television interview, because of her disjointed testimony during the McVeigh trial in 1997. But considering her physical and mental state at the time of the trial, her courtroom performance should not be judged too harshly. She was, after all, still suffering continued physical pain (from her many injuries, including an amputated leg) and continued emotional trauma from the explosion's effects, not the least of which included the deaths of her mother and two children. In addition, she was heavily medicated and was being subjected to the incredible courtroom pressures of this high-profile case, and who knows what pressures behind the scenes from federal prosecutors who had already made it clear that they didn't want John Doe No. 2 or any other suspects, especially Middle Easterners, messing up their neatly wrapped "lone bomber" case. But there are additional witnesses. Not more than a minute after the explosion, another witness was nearly run over by a brown pickup truck speeding away from the vicinity of the Murrah Building. The witness, who gives every indication of being reliable, told The New American (and the FBI) that she was just six feet away from the truck when she and the driver made eye contact: "The driver - I made eye contact with him; he looked like he was in his late 20s, [he] had an angry look on his face. I'll never forget the look on his face. It was full of hate and anger...." In a shadow interview with reporter Jayna Davis of KFOR, and in a separate interview with this reporter, the witness positively identified the driver of the brown pickup as the same Iraqi whom the television station had been surveilling as a "possible John Doe No. 2 suspect." Acting on tips from witnesses, the station had surreptitiously videotaped the individual and had run several news stories with his face digitally blurred to protect his identity. On August 24, 1995, Oklahoma City resident Al-Hussaini Hussain filed a defamation lawsuit in Oklahoma County District Court against KFOR-TV and Jayna Davis, charging that the news station had falsely accused him of being John Doe No. 2. However, in its broadcasts the station had emphasized that the unnamed individual (whose identity and address they protected) was only a "possible" John Doe No. 2 suspect. The station had interviewed witnesses who said they had seen KFOR's suspect (Al-Hussaini Hussain) with Timothy McVeigh or in connection with the brown "getaway" pickup. Following the example of Abraham Ahmad (who, it turns out, is a friend of Mr. Hussain), Hussain held a press conference at which he postured as the aggrieved victim of racist attacks. However, after filing his suit - which has chilled any further coverage of his story - and scoring some sympathetic media victories, Hussain took off to Texas. Facing a likely dismissal of his suit by the court because of his excessive delays, Hussain dropped the suit on April 17, 1997. However, two days after Mrs. Davis testified before the Oklahoma County grand jury, attorneys for Hussain refiled his libel suit against Davis and KFOR. This time around the resolution of Hussain's case is again experiencing multiple delays. He has not returned to Oklahoma for depositions, claiming disabilities due to psychological trauma related to the case. But Judge Timothy Leonard has apparently had enough of his dilatory tactics and has ordered him to appear for deposition. One possible reason for Hussain's reluctance to return is an outstanding arrest warrant for a 1995 D.U.I. charge. That citation had blown one of his alibis. A witness interviewed by KFOR claimed to have served beer to Hussain and McVeigh, who, she alleged, had come to the bar together. Nonsense, retorted Hussain, who claimed never to have been in the bar. Besides, he pointed out, as a devout Muslim he does not consume alcoholic beverages. But the crime report by the Oklahoma City Police Department claims that the supposedly abstemious Muslim was found passed out over the wheel of his car - which was still running - with an open container of malt liquor in the vehicle. A test administered by Officer R. Pierce "resulted in a .21 blood alcohol concentration." Very drunk. Even worse for Mr. Hussain, the place he chose to pass out was just 500 feet from a bar where witnesses claim to have seen McVeigh drinking. Another problem for Hussain was his alibi for April 19th. He had originally stated that he was working on renovation of a property at the time of the explosion, and he produced a time card to verify his claim. But co-workers interviewed by KFOR refuted that claim, and, according to the company secretary, the time card was bogus. In an interview with the Oklahoma Gazette, Al-Hussaini Hussain admitted to having been a member of Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard before emigrating to the U.S. in 1992. The New American was unsuccessful in contacting Hussain through his attorney, former employer, former roommate, and friends. Throughout most of his residency in Oklahoma City, Hussain had worked for and rented an apartment from Dr. Samir Khalil, who owns a considerable amount of real estate in the Oklahoma City area. According to court records, Dr. Khalil, a convicted felon, had been investigated years ago as a possible operative for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Khalil insisted that he knew very little about Hussain's background, but introduced this writer to Hussain's former roommate, Ali Al-Siidi. Mr. Al-Siidi confirmed that he had served in the Iraqi army with Al-Hussaini Hussain during Desert Storm. He said he frequently sees Hussain, who works as a busboy at a restaurant in Dallas. All of the above raise some very serious questions. Near the top of the list are questions concerning how Hussain and his fellow former Iraqi soldiers got into the country and what kind of security investigations, if any, were conducted. During 1993 and 1994, President Clinton brought several thousand "former" Iraqi soldiers to America for "resettlement." Under angry prodding from the American Legion and the VFW, Congress expressed feeble "outrage" and called on the President to halt the program. The Administration never provided Congress with the information it had requested on the "resettlement." It may be, of course, that Mr. Hussain and his comrades are perfectly innocent immigrants seeking asylum from Saddam Hussein's evil clutches, as they claim. But it should be remembered that when "master bomber" Ramzi Yousef entered the U.S. on an Iraqi passport in 1992 he also claimed to be seeking asylum and claimed to be a member of a Kuwaiti resistance group fighting Saddam Hussein. And he was not the first. Many intelligence reports had cited the aggressive effort by Saddam to infiltrate his agents into the U.S. during and after the Gulf War. In fact, the Washington Post reported on January 28, 1991 that, according to "highly classified U.S. intelligence reports," Saddam Hussein had "dispatched more than 100 terrorists, both experienced and novice, to try to infiltrate the United States." What would be the political fallout if it were discovered that Mr. Clinton's Iraqi "defectors" had a hand in the OKC bombing? But there are additional, more important reasons for bringing Mr. Yousef into the picture other than as an evil exemplar. According to a couple of his notorious terrorist comrades, Yousef's group was directly responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing. So says Abdul Hakim Murad, who, along with Ramzi Yousef and Wali Khan, was convicted on September 8, 1996 in New York City for conspiring to blow up 12 U.S. airliners. If that plot had been carried out successfully, as many as 4,000 passengers - or more - might have been killed. On April 19, 1995, Murad was in his New York jail cell when he received news of the bombing in Oklahoma. According to his prison guard, as reflected in an FBI report, Murad stated that the Liberation Army, of which he was a member, was responsible for the bombing. Edwin Angeles, the military strategist for the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group, was arrested in 1996 and is now in the custody of Philippine authorities. Interviewed in his Philippine prison by McVeigh defense team members, Angeles said that Murad was referring to the Palestine Liberation Army and/or the Islamic Jihad. Angeles also stated that the Oklahoma City bomb plot had been hatched at a meeting he had attended in Davao, Philippines. With him at that meeting, he said, were Yousef, Murad, Khan, and an American who "introduced himself as a farmer." That "farmer," he says, was Terry Nichols. Nichols, remember, married a Filipino "mail order" bride, then renounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to the Philippines. Even after moving back to the U.S., he made a number of trips to the Philippines that have raised many troubling and unanswered questions. According to sources who have seen the FBI's reports on its OKC-Philippines investigation, Nichols' landlord in the Philippines reported that Nichols did have a book on bomb making. And Nichols was in the Philippines during the same time periods that Ramzi Yousef and his terrorist network were operating there. There may be other ties binding Oklahoma City to the Trade Center bombing. A very strong connection is provided by a memo from the U.S. Marshals Service shortly before the Oklahoma attack. On March 22nd, a little more than three weeks before the Oklahoma bombing, the Newark, New Jersey Star-Ledger reported that "U.S. law enforcement authorities have obtained information that Islamic terrorists may be planning suicide attacks against federal courthouses and government installations in the United States. The attacks, it is feared, would be designed to attract worldwide press attention through the murder of innocent victims." The story, by Star-Ledger correspondent Robert Rudolph, continued: The Star-Ledger has learned that U.S. law enforcement officials have received a warning that a "fatwa," a religious ruling similar to the death sentence targeting author Salman Rushdie, has been issued against federal authorities as a result of an incident during the trial last year of four persons in the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. The disclosure was made in the confidential memorandum issued by the U.S. Marshals Service in Washington calling for stepped-up security at federal facilities throughout the nation.... The incident that allegedly triggered the fatwa occurred after the bombing defendants Mahmud Abouhalima, Nidal Ayyad, Mohammad Salameh, and Ahmad Ajaj had been declared guilty. The defendants and their supporters erupted in fury, cursing the jury, the court, and the United States, and then began chanting "Allah Akhbar" (God is great). New York Newsday reporters Dyer, Kocieniewski, Murphy, and Tyre report in their book, Two Seconds Under the World, what happened next: The marshals interrupted the chanting by handcuffing the prisoners and dragging them out of the courtroom. In the holding cells, where they could not be seen, the marshals trampled a copy of the Koran that had fallen on the floor in the tussle. "Where is your God now?" they asked the bombers, who cursed them in Arabic. An even more pointed and compelling warning had been delivered to the U.S. Justice Department offices in Denver less that two weeks before the Oklahoma bombing. U.S. Attorney Henry Solano confirmed that his Denver office granted immunity in September 1994 to an informant who claimed to have information about a plot by apparent Middle Eastern terrorists and U.S. citizens to bomb a number of federal buildings. This same informant, Cary James Gagan, delivered a letter to the Justice Department on April 6, 1995 reporting that he had "specific information that within two weeks" a federal building was to be bombed. After the April 19th bombing, spokesmen for the Justice Department stated that they had not - and still do not - deem the informant to be credible. But just a few months before they had deemed him credible enough to grant him immunity. That is not a prize which federal prosecutors dispense frivolously to every "informant" who walks through the door. Try as they might, however, Gagan's detractors cannot explain away his April 6th letter, which proved to be terribly prescient. Investigative reporters for The New American have spent many hours interviewing Gagan and checking his stories, sources, and documentation. We have interviewed the taxi driver who took Cary Gagan to the Denver Federal Building on April 6, 1995 and hand delivered the warning letter to the Marshals Service for Gagan. And we obtained from the cabbie a signed, sworn affidavit to that effect. Gagan has evidence to corroborate much of his story concerning the bombing conspiracy. Much of that evidence is beyond the power and resources of our news organization to verify. We have visited Washington DC on several occasions and provided this evidence and information to members of Congress, congressional committees, the FBI, the Secret Service, and other authorities, and have made much of it available to the grand jury in Oklahoma City. There was much premature finger pointing and assigning of blame in the aftermath of the bombing, but even more irresponsible has been the craven backtracking and silence on the part of many knowledgeable authorities since the Clinton-Reno Justice Department laid down the official line that the Oklahoma bombing was a purely domestic terrorist act. Oliver Revell, former FBI Assistant Director in Charge of Investigation and Counterterrorism, was quoted in news accounts as saying, "I think it's most likely a Middle East terrorist. I think the modus operandi is similar. They have used this approach." According to court documents filed in the McVeigh trial, an FBI communique on the day of the bombing suggested the attack may have been in retaliation for the prosecution of the World Trade Center bombers, and said, "We are currently inclined to suspect the Islamic Jihad as the likely group." William Northrup, who holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship and has longstanding ties to Israeli intelligence, says he is more than "inclined to suspect" Islamic Jihad. His investigation, he told this reporter, directly ties suspects from the Oklahoma City bombing to an Islamic Jihad cell in Tampa, Florida. (See page 29.) The Florida cell, he believes, is tied into the network of Osama bin Laden, who was the target of the U.S. attacks on August 20th in Sudan and Afghanistan. Bin Laden is also a backer of the Ramzi Yousef group in the Philippines. Northrup, who was indicted along with Israeli General Avraham Bar-Am and nine others in the Iran-Contra investigation (charges were dropped against all 11), is, like most intelligence operatives, reluctant to discuss official "business." However, he has stated that it is "his understanding" that U.S. officials received specific prior warning of the bomb plot, i.e. naming Oklahoma City and the approximate date, from three foreign intelligence services: Israeli, West German, and Saudi Arabian. And although he does not say that he was directly involved in passing on that warning, he does state that he was "sent" to Oklahoma City several days before the bombing. This, of course, coincides with much of the information that our investigation has uncovered. It also agrees with a report that appeared in the Tel Aviv newspaper Yediot Arhonot on April 20, 1995, that stated: "Yesterday, it was made known that over the last few days, US law enforcement agencies had received intelligence information originating in the Middle East warning of a large Islamic terrorist attack on US soil. No alert was sounded as a result of this information." Terrorist expert Neil C. Livingstone was quoted in The Globe on May 16, 1995 with this observation: "There is a remarkable similarity between the methods used by Islamic terrorists in the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, the attack on the World Trade Center, and the bombing in Oklahoma. The truckload of explosives is almost a signature or calling card and it is the weapon of choice among these groups." Livingstone, the author of several books on terrorism, continued: "Very typically, these terrorists have found homegrown radicals to use as dupes in the actual bombings. They have supplied the money and the technical expertise and highly skilled operatives to guide a project and then get out of town before they can be apprehended. This is exactly what happened in the World Trade Center assault, and now they are furious that we have apprehended one of their team leaders [Yousef] and brought him back here for trial." Similarly, in April 1995 Vincent Cannistrero, former Chief of Counterterrorism for the CIA, authored an article for the Boston Globe, in which he noted the similarities between the New York and Oklahoma bombings. In addition to Cannistrero's stature as one of the world's foremost counterterrorist experts, he had specific information to lend authority to his evaluation. He had received a call on the day of the bombing from one of the highest placed sources in the Middle East, the head of Saudi Arabia's Intelligence Service, who also happens to be King Fahd's son. According to documents filed in the Oklahoma bombing trial, Cannistrero was told that Saddam Hussein had hired seven Pakistani terrorists (Yousef is Pakistani) to bomb targets in the U.S., one of which was the Murrah Building. Cannistrero then called one of the FBI's top terrorist investigators, Special Agent Kevin Foust, to pass on the information. Then there is former Congressman David McCurdy of Oklahoma, who made some particularly relevant comments when interviewed on the day of the bombing by CNN. "Well, my first reaction when I heard of the explosion," said the ultra-liberal ex-congressman, "was that there could be a very real connection to some of the Islamic fundamentalist groups that have, actually, been operating out of Oklahoma City. They've had recent meetings - even a convention - where terrorists from the Middle East that were connected directly to Hamas and Hezbollah participated...." McCurdy, who was formerly the chairman of the House Committee on Intelligence, mentioned that many of these radical conferences had been captured on film in a PBS documentary by Steven Emerson, entitled Jihad in America. But like the other experts cited above, as the evidence developed to support their earlier observations, he has remained silent. To Go To Top

NEVER AGAIN? Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, March 4, 2004.

For those of you who fantasize that "it" could never happen in America, think again. "It" is already happening. Long before Jews were beaten in the streets of Germany, boycotted or banned, the German Universities harassed and expelled them and anyone else not of their liking. The German Universities were bastions of totalitarianism long before it became the mode of Government. They were the ones in fact that created the concepts of anti-Semitism, the leadership principle, i.e. dictatorship, racial superiority, leiben room, and the superman. What is happening in American Universities today and over the past years parallels what happened in Germany. Also, just as in Germany this established a legitimacy to Jew hatred and extremism so too today in America and Europe. This news item appeared in today's Arutz Sheva and is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=58988 More Attempted Intimidation Charged in Prof. Gil-White Firing Case As reported last month by Arutz-7, Professor Francisco Gil-White of the University of Pennsylvania charged his department heads with attempting to have him fired because of his pro-Israel and pro-Serbian views. This week saw a new type of intimidation at U. Penn. In an interview with Jared Israel of Emperor's New Clothes website, Prof. Gil-White reports he received a call from his department chairman, Psychology Prof. Robert J. DeRubeis, on March 3. Gil-White: Prof. DeRubeis said he believed I'd seen the confidential files with student comments on my reappointment. He said he was going to call the students from whom letters of evaluation concerning my teaching record had been solicited and - these are his words - warn them that, and I quote, I might 'take retaliatory action against them,' unquote. He actually said he was going to make such phone calls! Now first of all, this is a kind of slander because I'd never punish students, give them bad grades or anything, for speaking their mind. Students have made this very point in supporting me against the University's attempt to silence me. Just read the comments at the bottom of the story about the attempted firing at the Daily Pennsylvanian. But in addition, this totally unprofessional threat to make slanderous phone calls is an escalation of the attempted intimidation that's been going on for two years." Israel: Have you seen the reappointment files? Gil-White: I don't know why he thinks that, but even if I had, the point is, I've got no problem with students. I've charged, and this was picked up by Israel National News, that Prof. Ian Lustick, who's a US intelligence strategist, has pressed to get me out because he doesn't want my views on Israel and Serbia expressed at the Solomon Asch Center. Whatever I have seen, Prof. DeRubeis has certainly seen everything that's in those files. Is he scared I might see it because there's stuff in there that confirms what I've said about Lustick? Jared Israel then called Prof. Robert DeRubeis the evening of March 3: Jared Israel: Good evening, this is Jared Israel reporting for Emperor's Clothes and possibly Israel National News. I just got off the phone with Prof. Gil-White. He told me you called today and told him you thought that he had seen some confidential personnel files. DeRubeis: I don't have anything, I don't have anything to say to you. Israel: Did you have that conversation about the per- DeRubeis: I don't, I don't know who you are, I don't know why I [need to?] talk to you. Israel: OK. Emperor's Clothes - DeRubeis: Yeah. Israel: That's the website that- DeRubeis: I don't have any comment about this - I don't know why - Israel: You haven't told him that you were going to tell students who'd written letters for files that he was going to quote "take some retaliatory action" unquote - ? DeRubeis: I have no comment on this - this is absurd - At which point Prof. DeRubeis hung up on Israel. Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel. To Go To Top

NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO TOUCH ERETZ ISREAL Posted by Dror Vanunu, March 4, 2004.

Ariel Sharon, who just a year ago won a resounding electoral victory, is rapidly losing the public's trust. His inability or unwillingness to crush the terror that has ravaged our country these past three years, his direct and indirect connection with various well-publicized cases of bribery and corruption, and the revelation that he has financial ties with the family of the drug-dealer for whose return from Lebanon he released over 400 once-and-future Arab murderers, have resulted in calls from the entire political spectrum for his resignation. It is clear once again that the holy Land of Israel is unforgiving to those who refuse to protect its territorial integrity. MA'ARIV SPECIAL EDITION. REVEALED! THE BUSINESS CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE SHARON FAMILY AND THE FAMILY OF TENNENBAUM. FOR MONTHS THE COUNTRY HAS WONDERED WHY THE PRIME MINISTER FOUGHT SO HARD TO RELEASE TERRORIST MURDERERS IN EXCHANGE FOR THREE DEAD BODIES AND ONE LIVINING Several hundred rabbis paid a solidarity visit to Gush Katif in the Gaza area of southern Israel yesterday. The members of the Union of Rabbis for the Nation and Land of Israel, under the leadership of former Chief Rabbis Avraham Shapira and Mordechai Eliyahu, visited the towns of Kfar Darom and N'vei Dekalim. The rabbis' concluding statement notes that the recent diplomatic agreements are null and void, and that "Gush Katif is a tremendous Torah center and economic focal point, blessed with great educational centers - school, yeshivot, kollels, pre-military academies, high schools [and more]... The very thought of running away from Gush Katif, expelling its residents and giving its lands to our enemy, is contrary to Torah and to morality, and is a dangerous political mistake that will lead the entire southern region to increased terrorism... Uprooting the Gush Katif communities will split the nation even more... We say to the residents of Gush Katif and those of Judea and Samaria: Do not fear, and continue with greater strength your tremendous work. Dror Vanunu is from Gush Katif To Go To Top

TANNENBAUM-SHARON SCANDAL AND OTHER HEADLINES Posted by Voice of Judea, March 4, 2004.

1. TANNENBAUM-SHARON SCANDAL GETTING MESSY An hour does not pass without news breaking headlines leaking out through the Israeli media further deepening suspicions against Tannenbaum and adding more unanswered questions concerning the huge concessions made by the Sharon government to free Tannenbaum, in exchange for 400 murderous Hizbullah terrorists. Calls for PM Sharon's resignation are being made from all sides of the Israeli political spectrum, in wake of an exclusive headline story that appeared in today's Maariv, linking Sharon very strongly to the Tannenbaum family. An angry Sharon blasted the allegations, commenting that he did not realize the family connections between Tannenbaum's wife's family and Tannenbaum. MK Miki Eitan, from Sharon's own Likud party called upon the Prime Minister to immediately disclose all of the facts, or "we will not be able to work with you any longer." Voice of Judea Commentary: Sharon will not be able to last much longer. He is going into this new battle very weak and wounded politically. He already suffered tremendous blows to his credibility, with the mounting incriminating evidence being presented in the Sharon family bribery cases being launched against his sons. He has eroded much of his internal support within the Likud Central Committee, after presenting his new born views on a "Palestinian State" as well as his new brainstorm proposal to surrender Gaza and more Jewish land in Judea and Samaria. Most Likud members are not particularly pleased with Sharon's extreme turn to the left, and betrayal of the most basic Likud ideals. Few will mourn the political demise of the immoral and corrupt Sharon-Lapid government. What is sad is the fact that he will most likely fall due to the unprecedented corruption scandals that are constantly surfacing. Most of the allegations against Sharon's corruption, have yet to be proven. However, his clear national crimes of betrayal against his own party's platform, and against the Torah of Israel should have caused the collapse of his shaky government long ago. G-d will judge the nation of Israel for tolerating Sharon's treasonous behavior. Sharon should grasp his last days of political life reversing his evil plot to surrender Jewish land and expel the Jewish residents of those areas. Instead, he is speeding up plans to tear down more Jewish hills. Sharon would obviously like to impress the leftist judges who will need to make their recommendations about indictments and national commissions of inquiry against him and his sons. What Sharon does not understand is that the Almighty shall sit in judgment over him and over the mortal judges and politicians who judge him. His appeasement of the wicked judges and corrupt politicians will not cause them to have sympathy and mercy over him. He will fall prey to those who he seeks to impress and appease. As the Talmud explains, "Hamachnif LeRasha Sofo Lipol Beyado" - Those who appease the wicked fall prey into their hands." Measure for measure Sharon thinks he will save his skin by evolving into a clone of Shimone Peres. In the end, it is these very policies that will cause his downfall as he loses power, without any friends; not even within his own Likud party. 2. Free Federman Demonstration on Thursday (IsraelNN.com) Tomorrow at 16:30, at the Supreme Court Building in Jerusalem, a demonstration will be held demanding the release of Noam Federman from administrative detention. In a number of days, the Hevron resident and right wing activist will have been in incarceration for six months, the result of an administrative detention order. Federman supporters are demanding that if he perpetrated a crime he be charged and placed on trial and if not, he should immediately be released.Another protest is already being planned to be held two weeks later, on March 23, at Zion Square. The Sharon government will soon learn that the Federman issue will not disappear. More and more Israelis wish to abolish the undemocratic Administrative Detention debacle. 3. ISRAEL ENCOURAGES MORE ARAB TERROR? An Israeli army commander was found guilty of killing a  Palestinian" when shooting to disperse a violent Arab riot in the terrorist town of Shechem. The artillery corps captain has condemned the system for turning their back on an officer with an outstanding record who did exactly what any office is supposed to do when experiencing life-threatening situation. Voice of Judea Commentary: The Arab media and Arab terrorist organizations continue to openly share their plans to step up attacks against Israel, in view of Israel showing signs of weakness and defeat, as is the case with the new Sharon proposal to implement a unilateral surrender of more Jewish Land. The government has dissolved the last remnant of detterent. From the Arab perspective "Hizbulah terror won and Israel ran away from Lebanon with their tail between their legs." Now, Gaza terror is working. Moreover, Israel punishes their best officers and do not give them backing when they are forced to respond to life threatening attacks. Could there be any greater encouragement offered to Arab terrorists? 4. MORE FENCE FRAUD Israel continues to pour billions into the fence that is supposed to bring security to Israel. In the meantime, defense officials continue to expose the naked fence. Tuesday, Israel's Chief of Staff conceded that Arabs will simply dig tunnels under the fence and shoot rockets over the fence. Voice of Judea Commentary: Duh? The only solution is to pound and smash all terrorist population centers and to drive them far enough away from Jews so that they will not be able to shoot rockets or rifles at Jews. The Arabs need to be pushed back east, over the Jordan and towards Iraq, with a wide enough buffer zone that could bring peace and domestic security to the citizens of Israel. Let the Arabs know that their continued support for terror and violence will not gain them their intended goal of annihilating Israel, by forcing Israel to surrender more land and retreat. Let them learn that they risk losing their lives and the ground from which they launch their attacks. Israel must not capitulate. Israel must move forward and drive away the source of threat. No fences for Israel. No weakness. No fear. Let the Arabs build fences and live in fear! 5. SHALOM REASSURES: WE WILL NOT IMPLEMENT UNILATERAL SEPERATION PLANS WITHOUT AMERICAN APPROVAL As if anyone had any doubt, Foreign Minister Shalom conceded that Israel will remain a "pawn" of America and that Israel would not make any unilateral moves without first clearing the details with their "handlers" in Washington. 6. ISRAEL STILL VIEWS ITSELF LIKE GRASSHOPPERS AND DENIES ITS ROLE? Media reports confirm that Israel has cornered close to 15 percent of the total international weapons market. Israel has been one of the world's big arms sellers for more than a decade, yet it really joined the major leagues this week when the government approved the $1.1 billion sale of the Phalcon command-and-control radar system to India. Israel's annual sales of weaponry worldwide total more than $3 billion. Figures released by the Defense Ministry during the Phalcon presentation to the Cabinet on Sunday show that with about 10 percent to 14 percent of the world market, Israel is the fifth-largest exporter of weapons systems after the United States, the European Union, Russia and Japan. Voice of Judea Commentary: Israel, the strongest army in the Middle East, continues to capitulate and surrender to Arab terrorists and to cave into international pressure. The time has come for the emergence of an independent Jewish state that places its faith in G-d and that uses Jewish power and Jewish common sense to defend itself. Israel must stop implementing self-destructive policies due to fear of international sanctions. Israel must stand tall and proud and do whatever it takes to save Jewish lives. The one lessen we can learn from the Holocaust and our blood stained Jewish history: Jews can't rely on the nations of the world to save us. Faith in G-d and Jewish power! The website address of Voice of Judea is http://www.voiceofjudea.com. Subscribe by writing listmaster@voiceofjudea.com To Go To Top

CHOOSE LIFE Posted by Shalom Kantor, March 4, 2004.

This was written by Shalom Kantor from Jerusalem. "I call heaven and earth to witness for you this day; I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your offspring shall live." - Genesis: 30:19 Living in Jerusalem is usually a great blessing, but every so often there are great challenges thrown at us. There exists true holiness, and at the same time the most dreadful destruction that I could or would ever want to imagine. In the span of about 48 hours I went through everything that this amazing country has to offer. As I am living and studying in Israel this year I felt it necessary to give something back to this amazing country and to the people who have made this land their home. I am serving as a volunteer medic on an ambulance once a week with Magen David Adom (MADA - the Emergency Medical Services here in Israel), and through it I have had some amazing insights into Israel and the people that live here. Amazingly, about 80% of the Emergency medical services in this entire country are provided by volunteers. Many people, ranging from doctors to school teachers, offer one shift a week or a month to help out. I thought that it would be a great opportunity for me to give something back as well. Through a program run jointly with the Jewish Agency and MADA, foreign volunteers can come to Israel and go through training in Basic Emergency Medicine. We are then set up to work with an ambulance station at different locations through out the country. It is an amazing program that can be done on its own for two or three months, or, as I am doing it, as part of a year long study program. For more information on this program, go to http://www.magendavidadom.org/jafi.asp My normal weekly shift begins at the main Jerusalem Ambulance station every Thursday at 7:00 AM and I am assigned to an ambulance for the day. In the past the majority of calls have involved taking elderly people, the "help I've fallen and I can't get up" type, to the hospital. But Thursday, January 29th was a whole different story!!! I arrived at the Magen David Adom station at 6:45a.m as I do every Thursday. There was the usual morning shuffle of figuring out who is going to work with whom, and the changing of the shift. The tired night shift grabs their personal bags out of the ambulances and we go on to check over all of the equipment and re-supply the ambulances for a new day. My first call was at about 7:30 when a man fell from a 4 meter ladder. When we arrived at the scene, we were led down to a garage where we found the man, lying on his back... smoking a cigarette. I could not help but chuckle to myself at the irony, that this man could be lying there with a broken neck or back, and none the less had the cigarette going. The short story is that we immobilized the man and took him to the hospital trauma unit and made our way back to the base to finish restocking the ambulance and wash it from the previous night's rains. Usually when there is a call to go out to a certain situation, the dispatcher comes on the loud speaker at the base and says, "Driver X, to your ambulance." If you are working with driver X, that is your cue to go to the ambulance. We were just getting ready to wash the ambulance, (for all I know we may have even left the water running) when at 9:02 a loud siren went off at the base. The dispatcher came on the loud speaker and said, "Autobus mitpotzetz b'Rechov Aza, Kulam l'ambulancim, A bus has blown up on Aza Street, everyone to their ambulances, Autobus mitpotzetz b'Rechov Aza, Kulam l'ambulancim." With a combination of the efficiency of a country that has done this many times before, and still retaining a little of the chaos of New Years Eve in Time Square, everyone went to their ambulances. Each screamed out of the parking lot, one at a time reporting back to the dispatcher, "Ambulance #66, on its way." At 9:00 AM a Palestinian terrorist blew himself up and 11 innocent civilians with him on the #19 bus in the residential neighborhood of Rehavia in Jerusalem. At 9:02 the alarm went off at the Ambulance Station, and by 9:12 I was in the third ambulance on the scene of a living hell on earth. What I saw, heard and smelled can not be described in any words that exist in any human language. Nor do I want to recall or describe what I experienced as I attempted to save lives and tend to the wounded. With out going into details, which you can read if so inclined at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/388657.html, let me say that on Thursday the 29th of January I took part in life saving measures for several casualties of this tragic incident. Even though I was the third ambulance to arrive on the scene there were already 15 or more MADA personnel there due to the amazing system of instant responders in the State of Israel to deal with whatever threat to life is brought upon the country. After getting out of the Ambulance with bullet proof vests on, in case there might have been a secondary bomb intended to kill the medical personnel; we began to care for the worst of the victims. Within a few minutes of our arrival we loaded two victims into our ambulance and sped away to get them to the hospital. For better or for worse, the hospitals in Israel, and especially in Jerusalem, are very well equipped for this type of crisis. First, I should note, even though we were speeding into the hospital with our lights blaring we had to stop at the security check point to make sure that we were actually not another terrorist attempting to take advantage of the situation and blow up the hospital! The ambulance unloading area was like nothing I had ever seen. Normally, when we pull in to unload a patient, no one is there waiting for us. We pull in and park, and then unload the patient and bring them into the ER. When we pulled in this time, there was a row of beds lined up outside. Around each bed was a full operating team including several doctors, already in scrubs, and nurses all ready for "what ever came out of the ambulances." They did not know what would come out of each ambulance, yet no matter what we brought them, they were ready to do anything to save lives. It kind of reminded me of the scene from Gladiator, when the gladiators were in the middle of the Coliseum and Russell Crowe said, "what ever comes out of those doors, we must be ready and work together." Before we could even get out of the ambulance to unload the patients, the hospital crews had already unloaded them, closed our doors and were told to pull out so there would be room for the next ambulance. They did this with the efficiency of a country that had rehearsed this routine over and over. While it is a beautiful thing to know that there was such a desire to save lives, it is also sad that in this country's short history they have become such experts at this. Judaism is a religion of life. What I witnessed that day, both at the site of the bombing, and throughout the aftermath is a true testimony to the strong desire to live, succeed, and defeat those who want to annihilate us. After the dropping off our first set of patients at the hospital, the weight of what happened hit me. I needed to be with my friends. I spent the rest of the day taking care of myself, or at least letting friends take care of me, and going to a debriefing about the bombing at the MADA headquarters. Knowing that it would not be good to stay alone in my apartment, I asked close friends if I could stay with them for Thursday and Friday nights. Getting to the point, these friends were expecting twins in the next few weeks. As I was finally falling asleep after a nice Shabbos dinner, at about 1:30 AM, my friend knocked on my door and said, "Shalom, It's time, the twins are coming..." I immediately thought of my co-workers at MADA. Whenever a MADA team helps with a birth, even by transporting the mother, the talk is rather joyful at the station, as it is rare to get a positive call in an ambulance. So, even though my friends started to call a cab, I knew that both for their health and safety, and the spiritual morale of the MADA crew, calling an ambulance was the right move. I sent my friends to the hospital and realized that I was alone. Considering everything that had happened in the last two days, I didn't want to be alone. So, at 1:30 AM I woke up my friend Mark. We decided that Judaism was definitely about living, and we would be darned if there was going to be new life with out us there to give our support to our friends, "The New Parents." Since it was Shabbos and we could not take a car, Mark and I set off at 2:00 AM, Talmuds and Tallitot in hand (the new dad forgot his so we figured we had to bring it to him), to walk across Jerusalem from Rehavia to Haddasah Ein Kerem. We arrived at the hospital at 4:30 AM to find our friends in the surgical recovery room, after an emergency C-Section. They are the proud new parents of two beautiful baby boys. We stayed and spent all of Shabbos with our friends at the Haddassah Hospital. We were blessed to be able to daven under the Chagall windows, eat cholent and kugel with all of the hasids who were also in the hospital, and attend a Seudat Shlisheet tisch in the late afternoon. Sitting and watching my friend as she held her newborn child, it really began to dawn on me what had happened to me in the previous 60 hours- from seeing total death and destruction, to witnessing the absolute miracle of new life. Just when we were getting up to leave, a voice announced over the loudspeaker, "All mothers who have not yet heard Havdallah, Please proceed to the Nurses station." It was then I knew that I was a part of an amazing people who indeed were given a choice, and choose life. Shalom Kantor is one of the group of Israelis who are recording what it is like living today in Israel. "Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times" (Gefen) by Judy Lash Balint is available for purchase from http://www.israelbooks.com To Go To Top

FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS COMMIT SUICIDE Posted by Bryna Berch, March 3, 2004.

First Gaza  Then Judea   Then Samaria    Then the Golan     Then the Jordan Valley      Then Jerusalem is cut in half       Then ...... FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS COMMIT SUICIDE Call your congressman. Write the White House. Write the Knesset members. STOP THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF THE JEWS OF GAZA TRANSFER THE ARAB OUT - IT IS NOT THEIR LAND DO IT NOW.  OR WE WILL END UP ON THE BEACH IN TEL AVIV, DRINKING BOTTLED SELTZER WATER... FOR A WHILE To Go To Top

SURRENDER TO TERROR MEANS THE DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL Posted by George K. Bernstein, March 3, 2004.

The Prime Minister was elected to fight Arab terrorism, not surrender Israel to her enemies. I sent the following letter to members of the Knesset. May I urgently ask that you send this or a similar letter to these Knesset members. pm_heb@pmo.gov.il,   ysteinitz@knesset.gov.il, sshalom@knesset.gov.il,   osharon@knesset.gov.il, mratzon@knesset.gov.il,   akara@knesset.gov.il, rrivlin@knesset.gov.il,   zlivni@knesset.gov.il, llivnat@knesset.gov.il,   david_levi@knesset.gov.il, ulandau@knesset.gov.il,   dnaveh@knesset.gov.il, lnes@knesset.gov.il,   bnetanyahoo@knesset.gov.il, msolodkin@knesset.gov.il,   gsaar@knesset.gov.il, gezra@knesset.gov.il,   hanegbi@knesset.gov.il, eyatom@knesset.gov.il,   mwahaba@knesset.gov.il, yiskatz@knesset.gov.il,   hkatz@knesset.gov.il, mcachlon@knesset.gov.il,   ahirshzon@knesset.gov.il, yhazan@knesset.gov.il,   mgorlovski@knesset.gov.il, eaflalo@knesset.gov.il,   ravraham@knesset.gov.il, rbaron@knesset.gov.il,   dbenlulu@knesset.gov.il, nblumentl@knesset.gov.il,   zaevb@knesset.gov.il, yedelstein@knesset.gov.il,   yedri@knesset.gov.il, mikieitn@netvision.net.il,   gerdan@knesset.gov.il, ggamliel@knesset.gov.il,   egavrieli@knesset.gov.il As a life-long Zionist, I am in despair. If Prime Minister Sharon's plan to surrender Gaza and parts of Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Arab enemies goes through, he will have set in motion the third destruction of the Jewish State. Oslo was just a step in the Arab plan to accomplish that destruction. Events following Oslo confirmed that it is not borders, but the extinction of the Jewish people that motivates the Arabs, and that our so-called friends will betray their commitments to Israel. The past forty-five years have shown that as far as Israel is concerned, even the United States is prepared to sacrifice the Jewish State for oil. The current surge of world-wide anti-Semitism should be no surprise to anyone with even a basic understanding of history. The Holocaust proved that Jews have no allies who will defend them when their lives are at stake. Another Holocaust could occur tomorrow and the only response would be the subsequent construction of museums to commemorate the event and assuage what little guilt might follow. It is tragic that the Prime Minister ignores these lessons. Since the re-creation of the Jewish State in 1948, it is evident that Israel's survival has depended on its own strength, rather than the good will and promises of those it considers its allies. Syria, Egypt and other Arab nations have not attacked since 1973 because of Israel's military might and territorial defenses rather than because of any treaties or agreements. Israel's enemies have rightly concluded that the Madrid, Oslo, Hebron, Wye River, Lebanon and other retreats, and the failures to respond adequately to the slaughter of innocent Jews represented Israeli weakness and was an invitation to more intimidation and murder. If Prime Minister Sharon thinks that he can count on commitments from the United States or any nation to compensate for the surrender of strategic land, he is ignoring history and inviting national suicide. He is betraying those who gave their lives to protect the Jewish State as well as those who perished in the Holocaust because it wasn't there. As members of the Knesset, you represent not just the Jewish people as embodied in the State of Israel, but all those who may someday need refuge there. You have an obligation to stop the Prime Minister from imperiling the Jewish State by cutting backroom deals with professed allies and then presenting the nation with a fait accompli. Every day that passes with your silence or acquiescence in his surrender increases the likelihood that Israel will not survive. Israel can lose only one war before it ceases to exist. For two thousand years, Jews have prayed daily for a return to Jerusalem and the restoration of the Jewish State. Now that those prayers have been answered, do not be complicit in the destruction of the new Jewish homeland. Do not allow Prime Minister Sharon to accomplish what the Arabs so far could not. George K. Bernstein is a prominent lawyer, President of the Brandeis District of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and a member of the National Board of Directors of ZOA. To Go To Top

HEZBOLLAH EMERGING AS THE TERRORIST A-TEAM Posted by IsrAlert, March 3, 2004.

This was written by Ralph de Toledano and appeared in Insight Magazine, The Last Word, March 16, 2004. Ralph de Toledano is the dean of Washington columnists and a contributing writer for Insight magazine. Isralert's source for this item: http://www.mideastweb.org To read the public prints - or the blasts that come from the Defense Department - the leaders of international Islamic terrorism are al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden. But is this factually correct, or have we been gulled by astute propaganda? True, the disaster at the World Trade Center on 9/11 and other depredations were the work of al-Qaeda. But why has Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage stated that Hezbollah, not al-Qaeda, "may well be the A-team of international terrorism"? The evidence is incontrovertible that this is an understatement. Rachel Ehrenfeld's Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed And How to Stop It brings together chapter and verse from the public record to make an overwhelming case. What is significant is that this record has been so signally ignored. Consider that in March 2003 Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah could threaten: "When the Marines were in Beirut, we screamed, 'Death to America!' Today, when the region is being filled with hundreds of thousands of American soldiers, 'Death to America!' is still, and will always be, our slogan." Yet the Arabist wing of the State Department insists that Hezbollah's target is only Israel and that its threat to America is "insignificant." Intelligence assessments, firsthand reportage and think-tank studies are all at hand. Hezbollah operates worldwide, with an annual budget estimated at $500 million. The intifida, launched in collaboration with Yasser Arafat, and its terrorist attacks on Israel from Lebanon, are but one of Hezbollah's activities. Founded in 1982, Hezbollah pulled together smaller terrorist groups and operates under a variety of names. Its program calls for the destruction of the United States, Israel and any government standing in its way; worldwide resumption of the Holocaust; and the liberation of "occupied Arab lands" such as Jordan and Morocco. Its camps in Lebanon's Beka valley have trained al-Qaeda terrorists, Chechen rebels, the Medellin drug cartel, Hamas, the Japanese Red Army, Muslim "insurgents" in the Balkans, and the Irish Republican Army. It has organized "cultural" and "religious" groups worldwide - actually for recruitment and fund raising - in the United States. Hezbollah has more than 5,000 trained terrorists in Lebanon and Syria alone, armed with some 10,000 missiles, tanks and antiaircraft artillery, according to European Union intelligence sources. In addition, Hezbollah has another 15,000 to 20,000 members in the United States, Latin America, Europe and East Asia. Its TV station broadcasts its death-to-America message to an estimated 10 million Muslims. And its leaders have the affection of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Hezbollah's operational budget is $500 million. Its reserves reportedly are greater than bin Laden's fortune or what he collected from the Saudi royal family. Since 9/11, less and less comes from Arab governments. Ditto from Islamic "charitable" organizations - a result of U.S. restrictions on financial transfers and the USA PATRIOT Act. One example of how Hezbollah works: Its operatives bought with cash thousands of cartons of cigarettes from tobacco companies in North Carolina. The tax in that state is 5 cents. The cigarettes were smuggled to Michigan, where the tax is 70 cents per pack, and sold illegally at less than the regular price. Until Hezbollah operatives, led by Muhammed Yussef Hammoud, were apprehended and convicted, they had made many millions for Hezbollah. This money buys radar, mine-detection devices, laser range finders, naval equipment and other supplies hardly needed for Hezbollah's terrorist war against Israel. Hezbollah also has been involved in merchandise counterfeiting, forging driver's licenses and green cards, and looting Social Security funds. The loss so far to financial institutions in credit-card fraud alone has been more than $17 million. The U.S. Treasury Department in 2002 seized some $16 million in currency and cashier's checks that were being sent illegally to Lebanon. Hezbollah coordinates the traffic of drug-smuggling networks, facilitating operations for cash on the barrelhead. Under Imad Mugniyah, Hezbollah's external security head, the group has been involved in the Balkan fighting, an area that serves as the route for 40 percent of the heroin trade in the United States and 80 percent to Europe. With al-Qaeda, it is a dominant factor in the Latin American drug trade. And it has set up terrorist-training and teen-age indoctrination camps in the Latin American jungles - as well as "making fortunes" in the forgery of passports, counterfeiting, trafficking in human beings, smuggling stolen vehicles, and running export/import businesses with Indian and Hong Kong traders. While al-Qaeda licks its wounds, with many of its leaders captured or killed, Hezbollah is actively taking over the business of destroying America and the West. But who would have known this from listening to the TV news? IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is hosted by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

SETTLEMENTS: LURE TO PEACE? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 3, 2004.

- Settlements, more than diplomats, have promoted peace because they tipped the balance of time against Arab rejectionism. The core image of Arab rejectionism is of Israel as a "Crusader state," a foreign implant that can simply be waited out and demographically overwhelmed. The message of settlements to the Palestinians (Arabs) has been, if you wait you may think you are gaining, but in fact you are losing." (Jewish Political Chronicle, 1/2004, p.44 from Saul Singer, Jer. Post, 12/11.) That is a valid point about how to undermine Arab morale, not how to make peace. The point carries the assumption that getting the Arabs to negotiate what the West calls a "final settlement  of the conflict would result in peace. The fallacy in that assumption is that Arabs don't negotiate to make peace. They don't believe in peace; jihadists don't believe in compromise. They negotiate to strengthen their position for the next war. Once they absorb the other side's concessions, they lose respect for their treaties and start agitating for more concessions. Arab morale is strengthened, I believe, when PM Sharon advocates permanently withdrawing from parts of Yesha and then hoping eventually to negotiate the rest. PM Sharon is showing the Arabs that settlements are temporary, like the Crusaders. He is showing that he does not consider the territory as sacred and integral to the Jewish homeland. You might laugh when someone refers to the Land of Israel as sacred to the Jews. Do you laugh when someone refers to the area as sacred to the Muslims or as the Holy Land to Christians? To Go To Top

A PURIM STORY: Is Kofi Annan Missing? Posted by Jeff Dunetz, March 3, 2004.

Sometimes my wife make fun of me, she says that I am such a worrier. Usually my concern surrounds my kids, family or a close friend or my job never a public figure. Lately my worry is causing me to lose sleep and it's not even someone I know personally. I am very concerned about Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations. Annan is a great moral man, even won the Nobel Peace Prize. He is always the first to speak out when there is even the slightest perception of nation doing wrong. Remember, how he took a stand in the Mideast, saying how can Israel be right and the whole world wrong? Remember how quick he was to raise awareness and condemn Israel about Jenin even before the evidence showed that there was no massacre. This guy really cares. He's a peacemaker with very high moral standards. Over the last few years the Palestinian government has been refusing to fight terror, Palestinian Terrorists have been targeting Israeli children and other civilians, they have been using their own people as human shields leading to the death of their own children (which is against the Geneva Convention). Yet, in throughout this Kofi has been strangely silent. And the longer he is silent, the more I am concerned for his well-being. About two years ago when Israel captured all those documents directly linking Arafat and the Palestinian Authority to terrorist acts, I just knew that Kofi would indignantly challenge Arafat to clean up his act. Yet this man who is a fighter for world morality was strangely silent. That's when I began to suspect that something was up. I scanned the newspapers every day looking for his comments - Nothing. First I thought he must be ill so I called all the hospitals near the United Nations building in New York, but thank goodness he wasn't there. My worrying about Kofi's safety increased this past September when a Palestinian terrorist blew apart Dr. David Appelbaum, and his daughter Nava. They were at Cafe Hillel having a father daughter talk, the night before her wedding. Being such a man of peace I am sure that the Secretary General would be affected by this tragedy and speak out. I raced to the newspapers to read our great Nobel Peace Prize winner vent his outrage, but I couldn't find his comments anywhere. At first I thought that the may be buying school supplies for his kids, after all it was September, Mr. Annan is a regular guy. Like the rest of us he must searching for the right number two pencils or the Spiderman notebook. He could be stuck on-line at a Wal-Mart somewhere. That thought calmed my fears a little. A month later when twenty-one people were killed in Maxim restaurant in Haifa when a female terrorist blew herself up, I scanned the news channels, but nowhere could I find our U.N. leader speaking out against it. That's when I became convinced Kofi Annan had disappeared. Any man who is such a fighter against immorality would have been totally outraged at this horrible act of terror. Then I thought maybe he was away on vacation - that had to be it! Kofi works hard he deserves a vacation. "I am doing all this worrying for nothing", I thought, "Who knows, he may be up at Kutcher's for a long Columbus Day Weekend. Who likes to work when they are on vacation with the kids? That's why he can't speak out against these senseless murders. In November, Israel introduced a UN Resolution designed to protect Israeli children, it had the same wording of one introduced to by Arab nations to protect Palestinian children. While the Palestinian one passed, the Israeli one was blocked, This time I knew that Kofi would speak out after all Mr. Annan is not only a great neutral peacemaker, but he is a big shot in the U.N. This is his turf. He would not stand idly by and let bias overtake the organization he runs But there was nothing, no comment no outrage. Why wouldn't he speak out about the unfair way Israel is treated in the UN? Then in a serendipitous moment it came to me, Lord of the Rings ! The third installment was coming out - Kofi Annan was with thousands of other people waiting online to be one of the first people to see the new movie. I bet he is even wearing the costume of his favorite character (Gimley, I reckon). That's why he hasn't spoken out, he doesn't want to lose his place on line. A few weeks ago a Palestinian Policeman blew himself up on a bus in Jerusalem, killing ten and injuring another fifty. Mr. Annan's office released a tepid statement about the bombing, no moral indignation... nothing. Israel's Ambassador to the UN Danny Gillerman criticized that note, saying "No mention is made of the Israeli victims slaughtered in the bombing. In fact, no specific reference is made to the attack at all, or to a condemnation, in any terms of the terrorist perpetrators." To be honest I think that the Ambassador is out of line. Lets face it Kofi is a man of justice. He is a Nobel Prize winner. His office must have issued the statement without his knowledge. If he was aware it was going out it would be stronger, condemning the killing of innocents. THAT'S IT! Of course why didn't I think of it before, Koffi Annan is a man of justice. He must be working with O.J. Simpson to help find the real killer of his ex wife. I knew that the O.J. search had moved to the South Florida golf courses, so I began to call them. "Have you seen O.J.? Is Kofi with him?" I turned up nothing. One guy I spoke with named Manny who works on a golf course in Del Rey Beach, Florida, told me that I was crazy. "Don't you get it?" He said to me, "It's just like the 1940's. Some people are killing Jews, others are just watching and doing nothing. Kofi Annan just doesn't care about Jewish blood. Remember those three kidnapped soldiers whose bodies were returned to Israel last week? They were taken by Hezbollah right in front of UN Observers. The UN Guys even had it on tape. Not only did they not turn the tape over they denied having it until it was way too late." Manny can't be right. Kofi is a man who has won the Nobel Peace Prize. He must have been kidnapped or something. This past Friday Eitan Kukoi and Rima Novikov were driving to a birthday Party when they were ambushed and shot in cold blood car by a member of Arafat's Fatah terrorist group, Michelle Kukoi, their two year old daughter, is now an orphan. Yet no indignation from the Secretary General of the United Nations the great man of peace. He must be missing. I am running out of ideas for places to look. As you go about your day, please keep an eye out for him. Let me know if you see him. Tell him to call me (or his mother). We are so worried. Jeff Dunetz is a 20-year marketing veteran, and a freelance writer. He can be reached at http://www.jeffdunetz.com This Purim spiel appeared today in the Jewish World Review (http://www.jewishworldreview.com). To Go To Top

VICTIM'S DRESS BECOMES TORAH COVER Posted by Arieh Zaritsky, March 3, 2004.

This letter was sent by Year5764@zahav.net.il The wedding dress that an Israeli terror victim never got to wear was remade into a curtain for a Torah ark. A ceremony Thursday will mark the transformation of Nava Applebaum's dress, which will be used at Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem At the ceremony, the Kever Rachel Fund will establish a fund for Israeli couples who are having trouble paying for a wedding and the costs of setting up a house. Applebaum was killed on the eve of her wedding, along with her father and 5 others, in a Sept 2003 suicide bombing at a Jerusalem cafe Checks for the fund can be sent to Kever Rachel Fund, PO Box 1181, Teaneck, NJ, 07666. USA [Addendum from another email: "One more thing - the boys chose to donate a portion of their gifts to, as well as collect more for, is the Kever Rachel Fund. Kever Rachel is in danger of being lost to us as a haven, sanctuary and place of refuge and prayer. This organization is doing everything in their power to maintain a Jewish presence in the center of a hotbed of terrorism, and provide a safe and comfortable environment. Furthermore, they provide food and basic necessities to the soldiers stationed there to help make their jobs easier, and they provide Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebrations for boys and girls from non-religious homes and victims of terror, among many other worthy projects.] To Go To Top

THE MEMORIAL BOOK: The Hebron Massacre Reexamined Posted by Sergio Tezza (HaDaR), March 3, 2004.

The Memorial Book, edited by Michael Ben-Chorin, is a rememberance and a reexamination of the life of Baruch Goldstein and the massacre in Hebron. It delves into the security situation in YESHA and the general Arab-Jewish conflict in Hebron. If you want to know more than just "The Official Story", make yourself a tea or coffee and click on the following link: http://web.archive.org/web/20010312175621/kach.addr.com/special/baruch/07.htm It was translated from the Hebrew by David Cohen. To Go To Top

SUDAN CRIES RAPE: Former Captives Recount the Crime of Boy Rape in Sudan Posted by Maria Sliwa, March 3, 2004.

As he began speaking, Majok lowered his small coca-colored eyes and stared intensely at the ground. It was the summer of 2002 and I had just flown thousands of miles deep into the war zone of Sudan, the largest country in Africa, to interview former slaves. Majok, then 12, tightly hugged his long, bony legs, as we sat on the parched termite-infested ground. His ragged black shorts and ripped oversized tee-shirt hung loosely on his spindly, dust covered body. He spoke of the way he was repeatedly raped and sodomized by gangs of government soldiers, as I watched a continuous flow of tears pour down his precious adolescent face. Sudan is an Islamic Fundamentalist government. "They raped me," Majok cried. "And when I tried to refuse they beat me." After he worked all day taking care of his master's cattle, Majok said he was often raped at night. He told me that his rapes were very painful and he would rarely get a full night's sleep. He also spoke about the other slave boys he saw who suffered his same fate. "I saw with my eyes other boys get raped," Majok said. "He [the master] went to collect the other boys and took them to that special place. [1] I saw them get raped." Yal, another adolescent, had multiple scars on his arms and legs that he said came from the numerous bamboo beatings he received while in captivity. He told me he saw three slaves killed and one whose arm was hacked off at the elbow because he tried to run away. Yal also said he saw other boys raped by his master at his master's house. "At the time they were raped they were crying the whole day," Yal said. He then told me that he, too, was raped. Since 1989, Sudan's extremist government, which is seated in the North, has been waging war against its diverse populace. The battle is over land, oil, power and religion, by a government that is made up of some of Africa's most aggressive Arab Islamists, says Jesper Strudsholm, Africa correspondent for Politiken. Animist and Christian black Africans in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, have paid a price for refusing to submit to the North. Over 2 million have died as a result of this war, according to the U.S. Committee for Refugees. Often trapped in the fray, are surviving victims the government soldiers capture as slaves. Human rights and local tribal groups estimate the number of enslaved ranges from 14,000 to 200,000. Though thousands still remain enslaved in the North, since 2003, the genocide and slave raiding in South Sudan and the Nuba Mountains has been suspended because of a ceasefire. Amnesty International, however, reports that the government continues to attack black African Muslims in Darfur, Western Sudan. According to Sudan expert, Eric Reeves, more than 1,000 people are dying every week in Darfur because of government attacks, and "the numbers are sure to rise." Amnesty also reports that surviving victims have been raped and abducted by government soldiers during these raids. International law recognizes both slavery and rape in the context of armed conflict as "crimes against humanity." As I questioned the former slaves, village leaders, my translators, and many Sudanese immigrants living in the United States, it became apparent that the tribal society in which Majok and the other slaves were born has strict taboos about sex - especially male-to-male sex. I was told that although many villagers are aware that young male slaves are raped while in captivity, it isn't discussed because of the cultural prohibitions on all forms of male-to-male sex - including rape. In fact, male-to-male sex is considered such an egregious act in South Sudan that if two males are found guilty of having consensual sex with each other they are killed by a firing squad, according to Aleu Akechak Jok, an appellate court judge for the South. If a male is found guilty of raping a male or female, only the perpetrator is shot to death, Jok said. Jok's description of Southern Sudan's punishment for consensual male-to-male sex is not too different from Sharia law in Northern Sudan, which imposes a death penalty on those found guilty of homosexuality. Village leaders told me that male rape victims, who are able to escape slavery in the North and return to their villages, often consign themselves to a life filled with guilt, while suffering silently and alone. "This affects their minds badly," Nhial Chan Nhial, a chief of one of the villages in Gogrial County said with anger. "When they return to us, many of these boys have fits of crying, mental problems, and are unable to marry later on in life." I worried about Majok and the other boys I had interviewed. These boys were all adolescent and pre-adolescent ages. Many of them told me that their violent experience of rape was their very first introduction to sex. When captured, Ayiel, 14, said he was forced to watch the gang-rape of his two sisters and says he too was raped numerous times. He described his experience as "very painful," and said he never saw his sisters again after that incident. Perhaps the most graphic account of male rape was given by Aleek. "I watched my master and four Murahaleen [soldiers] violently gang-rape a young Dinka slave boy," Aleek said. "The boy was screaming and crying a lot. He was bleeding heavily, as he was raped repeatedly. I watched his stomach expand with air with each violent penetration. The boy kept screaming. I was very frightened, and knew I was likely next. Suddenly the boy's screams stopped as he went completely unconscious. My master took him to the hospital. I never saw him again." Many of the boys told me that in order to avoid rape some of the male slaves tried to escape, but were quickly hunted down by their captors. They said that the punishment for resisting rape is severe beatings, limb amputation or death. Mohammed, a Bagarra nomad, who has helped to free slaves, broke down in tears as he spoke. "What they are doing in the North is against the Koran," he explained. "Allah says that no man should be a slave to another man, but all should be a slave to Allah." Mohammed said that as a Muslim he was heartbroken the extremists have perverted his religion into a political weapon to torture and oppress people. When I arrived in Sudan, Ngong - one in a group of five former female slaves that I interviewed - told me that children were raped while in captivity. "Yes, I saw with my eyes them raped, boys and girls," Ngong said. Though I knew about the rape of slave girls, I did not know this could also be happening to boys. I decided to investigate this further when two females from the same group said they had seen slave boys taken away at night to the "special place" for rape. I interviewed a total of 15 male slaves, for one to two hours each. Six of the boys interviewed said they were raped and the majority of these six said they were eyewitnesses to other boys being raped. Most of these six boys said they were raped numerous times, by more than one perpetrator. Some of the boys gave the full names and the home towns of the men they said had raped them. Though five in this group of 15 boys said they were not raped, they did say they were either sexually harassed or were eyewitnesses to other slave boys being raped. Only four of the 15 boys interviewed said they were not raped or sexually harassed, and were not eyewitnesses to the rape of other boys. All of the boys said they were never sexually abused or raped prior to their enslavement. In 2004, the rape of boy slaves is not unique to young Sudanese males, as recently exposed in a "CNN Presents" documentary "Easy Prey: Inside the Child Sex Trade." Sadly, the ugly arm of slavery reaches far beyond Sudan and shockingly touches every continent except Antarctica. Slavery expert Kevin Bales of Free the Slaves (FreeTheSlaves.net) says there are approximately 27 million slaves worldwide. To date, however, there has been no comprehensive report on how many male slaves have been traumatized by rape. [1] The "special place" was described to me by former slaves as a clearing in the bush where slaves were usually taken by their captors for rape. Maria Sliwa, founder of Freedom Now News (FreeWorldNow.com), often lectures on slavery and has compiled recorded interviews on slave boy rape, which she conducted while in Sudan and is preparing for publication. To Go To Top

PURGE AT SAN FRANCISCO STATE Posted by Yashiko Sagamori, March 3, 2004.

This article was written by Lee Kaplan and appeared on the Front Page Magazine (http://www.frontpagemagazine.com) February 26, 2004. Tatiana Menaker is a Russian emigre who knows first-hand about persecution and indoctrination. She was a journalist in her native Russia, and she came to America in 1986, a divorcee with two small children and only $90 in her pocket. A Jewish refusenik against the old Soviet Communist regime, she continued as a journalist writing for the Russian-Jewish community. Later, she bought a small tour van and began giving tours of San Francisco to supplement her income. Three years ago she enrolled at San Francisco State University to better her English. To her dismay, she found the same anti-Semitism and Marxist dogmas prevalent in her previous homeland right here in the U.S.A. at San Francisco State. She frequently found herself arguing with professors who extolled the glories of Marxism and she spoke out frequently at anti-Semitic rallies on campus. One night her tour van was torched which crippled her business. While she could not prove it, she suspected it was those same people with whom she had had heated debates on the Bay Area campus many times. San Francisco State University is the stomping grounds of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS). The GUPS are extremely organized on campus. For the last fifteen years, they have been the only student group, out of 206 clubs, to have a permanently assigned office in the Student Union building that boasts a bigger-than-life PLO flag painted onto and covering the entire door. Other campus groups may rotate in or out of offices designated for student activities, but not the GUPS. Many of the Palestinian leadership, such as Saeb Erekat, Yasser Arafat's chief negotiator, are graduates of SFSU. Tatiana has written some articles here at Frontpagemag.com about the Marxist and anti-U.S. indoctrination in classes as well as the anti-Semitism she has experienced at SF State. One of her experiences was taking a class in English as a second language with many international students visiting the campus from around the world and having a professor who required every assignment to be written about how U.S. imperialism and terrorism were responsible for the attacks on 9/11. Tatiana once relayed to me how foreign exchange students received a daily barrage of how horrible America is and how it is the cause of all the problems in the world. And her grades suffered as her assignments went against the grain and praised American freedom. Tatiana has also told me about posters on campus with a picture of a dead baby and the words "Palestinian baby meat canned by the USA and Israel" being hung all over campus, and of Palestinian and Muslim students openly exhorting to kill Jews during demonstrations. Being from Russia and knowing what it is to live in a real totalitarian state, Tatiana has no qualms about supporting the United States and Israel in a place where to do so can make many other students fearful to speak out. Last year when some of the Jewish students on campus sought to stage a peaceful pro-Israel rally advocating peace in the Middle East, the GUPS and their Marxist allies on campus counter-demonstrated, many of whom screamed out statements like "Kill the Jews" and "Hitler should have finished the job." The situation was so bad that the former Professor of Jewish Studies on campus described it as being like Germany in the 1930's. The administration actually had to call in 25 San Francisco city police officers to escort the Jewish students off campus when the campus police could not protect them from the mob. And it was at this event that Tatiana's problems first started. Being a tough cookie, she hurled some vituperation back at them, urging some to have sexual relations with a camel. She admits now that her response was a bit unnecessary, but nowhere near the threats of genocide and murder she heard from the other side. After the demonstrations, Tatiana learned how things operate at SF State: she was ordered in for a "disciplinary hearing" by Donna Cunningham, the Officer of Judicial Student Affairs at SF State. She was told she could not bring an attorney and was to appear for judgment and punishment if found she had broken university rules. Ms. Cunningham, who is Black, and a friend Leila Qutami, one of the student leaders of the GUPS, claimed that Ms. Qutami and others had accused Tatiana of calling Palestinian students "sand n------s," using a variation of the "n" word. Subsequent tape recordings and videos of the event revealed that Tatiana uttered no such slur. Her accuser did not even attend the hearing claiming she was "too afraid" to attend even though a campus police officer was present at the hearing and Tatiana is a 53 year-old mother of three children who hardly poses a threat to anyone. Also present at the hearing were a Black Muslim advisor to the Muslim groups on campus and other members of the GUPS. Some might call this a stacked deck. After 8 hours, the "hearing" was concluded with Tatiana being told she must do 40 hours of "community service" with the stipulation that none of those hours could be to aid or contribute to any "Jewish, Israeli or Russian groups." That this was anti-Semitic and discriminatory to please the GUPS made no difference to Ms. Cunningham or the administration at SF State. Not one to take things lying down, Tatiana began writing about her experiences of facing the same Marxism and anti-Semitism at San Francisco State that she had in the former Soviet Union. She wrote one article about a Palestinian film festival where the film "Jenin, Jenin" and other propaganda films were shown to the student body further denigrating Jews, Israel and the United States. And she wrote about a professor who had disrupted the festival, a social studies professor at SF State named Deborah Gerson, who is a member of a front group for the Palestinians claiming to be made up of Jews in the Bay Area called Jewish Voice For Peace. The activities and writings of this group have in the past even claimed it doubtful that Jews ever lived in the Holy Land at all in biblical times. In short, Professor Gerson identifies herself as a "Jewish Marxist." She and Jewish Voice For Peace frequently demonstrate on the SF State campus where calls to dismantle Israel are standard fare. Tatiana described how this professor refers to her colleagues as "comrade" in the old Soviet style and how she educates students on the glories of the Communist system of government that Tatiana as a Soviet Jew risked her life to escape. Tatiana continued to write about the political climate at SF State. Her articles were good and appeared in the campus newspaper and on Frontpagemag.com. Then she made her next mistake. She approached Professor Gerson and asked her for an interview so she could inquiry why Gerson, as a professor of Jewish heritage, supported those who sought to murder of Jews. Professor Gerson was very curt and rude and said she didn't wish to talk to Tatiana who then responded that she had been through real persecution as a Jew in Russia and told Gerson: "If you think that when they start to kill the Jews, they will spare you, you will still be killed as any other Jew two hours later." Tatiana immediately received yet another letter calling her into a disciplinary meeting with Ms. Cunningham. She was accused of making death threats! The meeting was scheduled for February 5th but then postponed to the 23rd. During the meantime, Tatiana published two more revealing articles about the Marxist and anti-U.S. indoctrination on the SF State campus. And on the 23rd, her best work yet appeared about a poetry class she had attended where the central theme was damning the United States. The same day that article broke she met with Ms. Cunningham who handed her a form to sign saying she would waive all her rights allowing Ms. Cunningham to mete out any punishment she saw fit to carry out. Tatiana refused and, when she did, Cunningham informed her she was expelled from the University until the year 2009 and had her escorted off campus by a uniformed police officer. The officer informed her that, if she steps foot on campus, she will be arrested for trespassing. Tatiana maintains that Cunningham and Leila Qutami are close friends. She also maintains the administration, to keep peace with the GUPS and to avoid negative publicity about the political climate at SF State, simply wanted to get rid of her because she is outspoken in favor of the U.S. and democracy and because she is a Jew who isn't afraid to speak out against anti-Semitism on campus. And in that regard she is not alone. The SFSU campus chapter of Students For Academic Freedom, the Jewish Anti-defamation League, the Jewish Community Relations Council, DAFKA, and other civil rights groups along with the Russian Jewish community have all stepped up to support Tatiana in her time of need by providing her written support as well as free legal services. All of these groups understand how important it is to back her up in her fight against political indoctrination and anti-Semitism on a campus where leftist ideological groups turn their opponents into outlaws in order to subjugate and silence them. If you would like to be a part of or assist the Committee to Defend Tatiana Menaker, please send e-mail to: menakerdefensecommittee@studentsforacademicfreedom.org. To Go To Top

MAJOR ART MUSEUM PROMOTES ANTI-ISRAEL PROPAGANDA Posted by Laurel Anchors, March 3, 2004.

This was distributed by the Jewish Action Team (JAT). To receive their emails, send an email to JAT.Action-subscribe@topica.com Their members receive informational emails such as this one to enable them to response with appropriate letters as needed . As part of a film festival, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) is showing a documentary that its catalog describes as illustrating how "Israeli public relations strategies exercise a powerful influence over news reporting about the Middle East conflict" and "distort U.S. media coverage and, in turn, American public opinion." We have reproduced the material below and given an Internet reference. The MFA should not be a forum for one-sided political propaganda films, especially ones that evoke stereotypes of Jews and power. Moreover, the MFA catalog description of the film presents opinion as fact, so the MFA effectively endorses the idea that Israel is responsible for distorting media coverage in the U.S. There is no counter-balance to the film or its post-screening discussion - and the Museum demonstrates further insensitivity by scheduling the screening for Saturday at noon, the precise time when many Jews cannot attend. ACTION Write to the MFA demanding that they: correct their catalog description of the event; apologize to the Jewish community and pledge greater sensitivity when tackling Israel and the Middle East conflict in the future; and provide balance by hosting a screening and discussion of the movie "Relentless", so MFA members can see a different take on how the conflict has been distorted by the media. CAMERA and other non-profits should be invited to participate. JAT members may want to consider threatening to cancel their memberships and to withhold contributions. In addition, the MFA film festival is co-sponsored by Fleet and the Boston Phoenix. JAT members can complain to these companies as well (but the main target should be the MFA). It is our understanding that Stephen Mindich of The Boston Phoenix is, himself, quite upset that the MFA is showing a film of this kind, so your letters to him should reinforce his position, not attack him. CONTACT INFO Museum of Fine Arts 465 Huntington Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02115-5597 Malcolm Rogers, Director, MFA Fax: 617-369-3064 Tel: 617-267-9300 ext. 3200 (dial the extension when voicemail starts up) Email: MRogers@mfa.org (include cc to his secretary at CEast@mfa.org Mr. Bo Smith, Film Administrator, MFA Fax: 617-437-0293 Email: friendsoffilm@mfa.org (organizational address) BSmith@mfa.org (personal address) Fleet Ms. Anne M. Finucane, Executive Vice President Corporate Marketing and Communications FleetBoston Financial Corporation 100 Federal Street Boston, MA 02110 Tel: 866-826-8989 Ms. Finucane serves on the Board of Overseers of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The Boston Phoenix Stephen M. Mindich, Publisher The Boston Phoenix 126 Brookline Ave Boston, MA 02215 Tel: 617-536-5390 Fax: 617-536-1463 DETAILS Listings: http://www.mfa.org/cgi-bin/webevent.pl Title: Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land: U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinain Conflict Date: Saturday, March 20, 2004 at 12:15 p.m. Contact: Film Administrator (friendsoffilm@mfa.org) Event Series: New England Film Artists Present Complete Description: "Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land: U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" by Bathsheba Ratzkoff and Sut Jhally (2003, 80 min., video). This pivotal video exposes how American foreign policy - working in combination with Israeli public relations strategies - exercise a powerful influence over news reporting about the Middle East conflict. Combining American and British TV news clips with observations of analysts, journalists, and political activists, "Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land" provides an historical overview, a striking media comparison, and an examination of factors that distort U.S. media coverage and, in turn, American public opinion. Co-presented by the Media Education Foundation. Co-presented by Grassroots International. To Go To Top

ISRAEL FRENZY Posted by IsrAlert, March 3, 2004.

This article is by William F. Buckley, Jr. and appeared today in the Sacramento Bee It is being claimed, ever more widely, that neoconservative policies are determined by the advantages they bring, manifest or putative, to the state of Israel. Patrick Buchanan, in the current issue of American Conservative, believes this ardently, while the most quoted advocates of neocon militancy, Richard Perle and David Frum, go further than merely to deny that neoconservatism is an Israel First worldview. They insist that criticism of neocon policies is, at heart, anti-Semitic. Richard Perle, co-author with Frum of "The End of Evil," old acquaintances remember as being for many years on the public scene as an adamant opponent of Soviet wiles and analyst of the perils of complacent coexistence. Perle's specialty was national defense, and he was there year after year to point out, for instance, that the disarmament fetishists played into the hands of Soviet opportunists. If we unilaterally stopped testing nuclear weapons, we risked Soviet technical advantage. If we stopped deploying theater weapons in Europe, we were threatened by the Soviets' development of their SS-20 missiles and the corresponding advantages in leverage over Western Europe. It is reasonable to say that Perle's focus on the communist threat was central to his devising of corollary policies. It is charged now, by e.g. Buchanan, that that focus is now on Israel - that Perle and co-author David Frum rise in the morning with a map of Israel in front of them and decide what ideas, people, countries to encourage, which to discourage, based on their bearing on Israel. Now these acts of analytical reductionism are in part owing to political realities. Pat Buchanan, who has an ear for the trenchant way of saying things, wrote 10 years ago that Congress had become the "Amen corner" for pro-Israel policies. In this space, I once jocularly proposed that Israel be annexed as the 51st state, which would give us the advantage of participating in the formulation of Israeli policies, which we would then automatically endorse. Nobody who knows his way around questions the political leverage of the Jewish vote in critical states or denies the importance of Jewish patronage of favored candidates and officeholders. But the transposition of this into the position that U.S. policies are formulated because they bear directly on Israeli interests is invention. The proposal to go to war against Iraq was, concertedly, advocated in one form or another by Richard Perle. But that policy proceeded from the loins of Donald Rumsfeld and George Bush after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, and was animated by the reiterated U.S. interest in the stability of the Near East. The Bush administration arrived at the conviction that the sepsis of which the 9/11 attack was a single, lethal thrust was a variant of the Islamic fundamentalism that had taken over the country of Afghanistan and almost certainly was festering in Iraq. And the latter was governed by a totalist dictator who had already used weapons of mass destruction and was accumulating an inventory for strikes against his neighbors and nations of the West. Israel, by geographical proximity, would have been an obvious target of Saddam Hussein's belligerence, but not necessarily the exclusive target of it. Saddam Hussein, in the past, had attacked not Israel but Kuwait, and before that, Iran. The hostility to Israel on the part of the Muslim community is a fact of life, but to say that the war against Iraq bolstered Israel's security is not to say that we went to war in Iraq in order to bolster Israel's security. There was no distinctive pressure, in 2003, to send U.S. Marines to Iraq in order to destroy a regime hostile to the state of Israel. And associates of the administration would probably confess, if out of earshot, that they would not have recommended the war on Iraq except for their conviction that it was becoming a storehouse of weaponry that Saddam was entirely capable of using, whether against Kurds, Kuwaitis, Iranians or Israelis. The neocon movement, it is being suggested, is motivated by concern for Israel, but more by its affinity for the Likud Party of Gen. Ariel Sharon, which represents militant and, many believe, shortsighted policies, contrasting with policies advocated by many Israelis, including past Israeli leaders, Ehud Barak prominent among them. It's an unreasonable polarization of opinion: (1) everything a neocon advocates is animated by a concern for Israel, and (2) every criticism of neocon policy is animated by anti-Semitism. That is straitened thought, and should be resisted. IsrAlert, a Jewish advocacy network, is run by Harv Weiner. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com The original article on Front Page Magazine has direct links to additional details. To Go To Top

VANUNU AND TENNENBAUM, YES - FEDERMAN, NO? Posted by David Wilder, March 3, 2004.

In a few weeks atomic weapon's spy Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli equivalent of the American Rosenberg couple, is due to be released from prison after serving an eighteen year sentence. Vanunu, it might be recalled, was convicted of publicizing Israel's nuclear secrets, having been employed at the atomic power plant in Dimona. Vanunu's statements and secretly-photographed pictures caused Israel irreparable security damage. Yet he will not be left in prison to rot for the rest of his life. Shortly he will be set free. This despite Vanunu's overt threats to continue revealing State secrets. During a high-level meeting concerning Vanunu a couple of weeks ago, a meeting which included Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, it was decided not to keep Vanunu in jail via an administrative detention order. According to media reports, Sharon himself made this decision. We are told that Vanunu will have a "permanent shadow" and at the first "slip of this tongue" he will be immediately incarcerated. But, until then, the traitor will be a free man. Another big-time criminal has also been making headlines: Elhanan Tennenbaum. According to a Knesset subcommittee for security and defense, the Tennenbaum case is one of the most damaging affairs Israel has ever known. It is still unclear whether Tennenbaum's escapades were strictly criminal, i.e., drug marketing, leading to his abduction by Hezbollah, or whether his original intent was to sell State secrets to our enemies. However, Tennenbaum, whose freedom from captivity cost Israel the release of dozens of terrorists, was offered, and signed, a plea-bargain deal, allowing him to escape further punishment. The only condition is that his initiated activities were not security- related. It makes no difference whether or not Tennenbaum's criminal offences were, or were not security-connected. The fact is that the State of Israel is willing to allow a first-class gangster to walk freely on the streets, despite the damage he inflicted on his people. Conversely, one Israeli citizen has been rotting in an Israeli prison for almost six months, without having been indicted, without having been tried, and without having been convicted. He is the only Israeli in jail due to an administrative detention order, signed by Defense Minister Shaul Mufaz. He has been stripped of all legal due process. His wife and seven children remain virtually fatherless. His name is Noam Federman. This is not the first time I've written about Hebron resident Noam Federman. At least twice before (Free Federman - Oct. 5, 2003 and Federman's Twilight Zone - July 22, 2002) I have posted articles concerning Federman's appalling case. First, an update. Noam Federman was placed under house arrest in the summer of 2002, for ostensibly belonging to the "Bat Ayin" group, three of whom were convicted and jailed. The difference between Federman and the others was that Noam was not put on trial. He was told that his trial would commence only after the trials of the others were concluded. Six months ago, in the middle of an appeal to the Supreme Court, he was arrested while presenting his petition to the judges. The police appeared in the courtroom, handcuffed Federman, and led him away. He was placed in one of the highest security jails in Israel, in a solitary confinement cell, in the same wing with Arab criminals and others, such as Lebanese terrorists Mustepha Dirani and Shech Obeid (who were freed in return for Tennenbaum and the three murdered Israeli soldiers). He was denied kosher food, minimal conditions to allow normal prayer, etc. Following a lengthy hunger strike lasting months, and due to a tremendous public outcry, which included MKs and others, Federman was moved to a jail in Ashkelon and promised better conditions. Presently, he is incarcerated in a wing with Israeli criminals who have no respect for religious Judaism, he cannot properly maintain Shabbat observances or eat normal hot food on that sacred day, and is allowed to see his family only 45 minutes a week, with a guard sitting next to them to record everything said. Other prisoners in the same jail are also allowed a three-day vacation at their home every month, which Noam is denied. In addition, on the first of every "new month", other prisoners are allowed a three hour family visit. This too is forbidden to Federman. In short, without having been charged with any crime, Federman's conditions are abysmal, especially compared to others in the same prison. In a few weeks, the six month detention order will expire. In order to keep Noam Federman in jail, another order must be issued. People in Israel and around the world, Jews and gentiles alike, are working to bring about Federman's release from prison. There are several avenues open to public action: # Tomorrow, (Thursday, March 4 - Ta'anit Esther) at 4:00 in the afternoon, a public demonstration will take place outside the Supreme Court building in Jerusalem. At the conclusion of the fast refreshments will be served. All people are urged to attend. Information concerning transportation is available at: http://www.jewsite.org/uploads/noamTanitEsther.jpg # An internet petition calling for Civil Rights for Noam Federman [http://www.petitiononline.com/federman/petition.html] contains some 2,000 signatures. It will be presented to Defense Minister Shaul Mufaz in a couple of weeks, a short time before the detention order expires. Organizers have expressed a desire to see that petition reach 5,000 signatures. If you haven't signed already, please do so, today. And pass the petition link to all your friends and family, requesting that they do the same. # View the new movie about Noam Federman (in Hebrew) and watch the web for other activities. (www.noamfederman.org and www.hebron.com/news/noamfederman.htm # Read Noam Federman's pamphlet: Know Your Legal Rights: A guide to protecting Jewish civil liberties in the land of Israel (It is suspected that Noam's authoring of this booklet was one of the primary reasons for his arrest!) # Bombard ministers with faxes, emails, and phone calls calling for full civil rights for Noam Federman and his release from administrative detention. * Minister of Communications Ehud Olmert - fax 02-666.2909 eulmert@knesset.gov.il * Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - 02-566.4838 pm_heb@pmo.gov.il * Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz - 03-697.6218 * Public Security Minister Tzachi HaNegbi - 02-530.8039 zhanegbi@knesset.gov.il * Minister Meir Sheetrit 02-531.7697 mshitrit@knesset.gov.il * Education Minister Limor Livnat - 02-560.2246 llivnat@knesset.gov.il * Justice Minister Tommy Lapid - 02-628.5438 ylapid@knesset.gov.il Also call to PM (direct tel 02-670.5527) and the DM 03-697.5750 Demand that Federman be immediately freed from jail! Ask them: Why do Vanunu and Tennenbaum deserve legal consideration, while Noam Federman is denied even the most basic civil rights? Try to understand why: Vanunu and Tennenbaum, Yes; and Noam Federman, NO. With blessings for a Happy Purim from Hebron. David Wilder is spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron (http://www.hebron.org.il). You can contribute funds to help the Community by going to http://www.hebron.org.il/contrib.htm. Or contact The Hebron Fund, 1760 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11230, hebronfund@aol.com, 718-677-6886. To Go To Top

THE REAL THREAT TO EUROPE'S JEWS Posted by Michael Freund, March 3, 2004.

This is an article of mine from today's Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com). The Jews of Europe are once again in grave danger, but the real threat to their future is not quite what you might think. While the wave of anti-Semitism sweeping the Continent is indeed disturbing, there is a far more destructive force at work these days, one that places the continued existence of European Jewry in doubt. It is the ailment of assimilation and the malady of intermarriage which are truly wreaking havoc in Jewish communities across Europe. And though they may not receive as much attention as an assault on a rabbi in the streets of Paris, or the desecration of a cemetery outside Berlin, the blows which they strike are nevertheless more lasting and more painful, as well as more difficult to repair. The fact of the matter is that with only a few exceptions, the Jewish communities of Europe are gradually shrinking in size, contracting quantitatively as a result of declining birthrates, aging populations and increasing numbers of young people who marry out of the fold. According to demographer Prof. Sergio Della Pergola of the Hebrew University, there were slightly more than 1 million Jews living in western Europe at the start of 2002. Of these, nearly 80 percent could be found in France and the United Kingdom, home to Europe's largest and strongest Jewish populations. Yet, despite a wealth of Jewish communal institutions and a plethora of Jewish organizations, both French and British Jewry have been steadily in decline. A December 2002 study by the Jewish Agency's Institute for Jewish People Policy Planning found that the number of Jews in France fell from 535,000 in 1980 to some 500,000 in just two decades, a loss of over 6 percent. British Jewry fared even worse. According to the Board of Deputies, the representative body for Jews in the UK, there were 430,000 Jews living in Great Britain in 1950, but just 283,000 in 1996. Or, as an item on their website puts it, "Since the 1950s there has been a steady decrease in numbers so that by the 1990s British Jewry was approximately one-third smaller than it had been in 1950". If anything, these trends are only likely to accelerate, as the negative factors behind the demographic crisis continue to consolidate. Indeed, in both England and France, the annual number of deaths in the Jewish community already exceeds the number of births. It is therefore hardly surprising that in a lengthy article appearing in the 2002 edition of the American Jewish Year Book, Prof. Della Pergola estimated that, "French Jewry will experience a slow but steady decline from 520,000 in 2000, to 480,000 in 2020, to 380,000 in 2050, and 300,000 in 2080." Meanwhile, across the Channel, he wrote, "The Jewish population in the United Kingdom will decline to 240,000 in 2020, 180,00 in 2050, and 140,000 in 2080." In effect, this means that within just 75 years or so, French and English Jewry will only be half their current size. In smaller Jewish communities in Europe, the retrenchment rates have been even more pronounced. Take, for example, Ireland, where the 1991 census found there to be 1,581 Jews. Today, the number is said to be approximately 1,000, marking a decline of over 50 percent in just a decade. Soaring intermarriage rates have taken a toll as well, in some cases reaching as high as 80 percent or more, raising further questions about the viability of some European Jewish communities. And even in countries where the numbers have remained fairly stable, such as Spain or Italy, or which have experienced growth, such as Germany, it is primarily due to an influx of immigrants from the former Soviet states, and not because of any inherent vitality within the local community itself. This disastrous situation should be raising alarm bells throughout the Jewish world. European Jewry is slowly but surely disappearing before our eyes, melting away through a combination of ignorance, assimilation and intermarriage. Inexplicably, though, Israel and American Jewish leaders prefer to focus on combating anti-Semitism, rather than Jewish ignorance, even as its victims are increasingly facing religious and ethnic extinction. The result, of course, is catastrophic, as attention and resources are shifted to fighting a question of bigotry, rather than of survival. Soon enough, there may not be any Jews in Europe left to hate. Now don't get me wrong - I am not trying to downplay the severity of European anti-Semitism. But when compared to the threat posed by assimilation, should it really be placed at the top of the agenda? Instead of worrying so much about educating Europeans to like their Jews, we need to start educating their Jews to better appreciate their Judaism. There is so much that can and should be done in this regard, from sending more rabbis to serve European Jewish communities, to translating more material on Judaism into the various European languages. But all this takes funds and energy and commitment, and there is a limited amount of these to go around. Only by acknowledging the extent of the problem, and deciding to act, can world Jewry and Israel possibly salvage the situation. And the first step in doing so is to recognize that as crucial as it might be to fight Europe's anti-Semites, it pales in comparison with engaging its Jews. Michael Freund served as Deputy Director of Communications & Policy Planning in the Prime Minister's Office under former premier Binyamin Netanyahu. He is currently Director of Amishav, which reaches out and assists "lost Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people. To Go To Top

ONE TOUGH CHICKEN Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, March 3, 2004.

"....who gives the rooster understanding to distinguish between day and night." Got this off the BBC yesterday: Figures released by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics show that new building in Jewish settlements increased last year by 35%. Human rights organisations say that there are around 400,000 settlers in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza living in more than 120 settlements. Under international law, the settlements are considered illegal... The increase, in what is known here as 'settlement activity', confirms what everyone here already knows: that in this particular area, Israel has ignored its obligations as set out in the international peace plan, the roadmap. Settlement is up 35%. The world may lament those statistics, but I believe it's cause for celebration. In spite of international censure, incessant terror, and a perplexed government, the Jews of Israel continue to increase, thrive and live on their land. That's Purim for you! Things are not always as they appear. I learned this lesson when I first made aliyah back in 1986. We were staying at an Absorption Center in Kfar Chabad, which housed immigrants primarily from from Russia, Syria, and North America. An immigrant family from Georgia (as in Caucasus, not Dixie) owned a chicken which in turn owned the common grounds around the housing facilities. It was bizarre how people would stray off the path in order to avoid this rather assertive foul. I mean, this was one mean bird and I am sure that Colonel Sanders himself would not want to tangle with it. One afternoon, I heard my 15 month-old daughter shriek. I opened the door and saw the big bird aggressively pecking at my child and the cookie in her hand. I ran out screaming, "I'm gonna kill that damn chicken!" A six foot tall, 250 pound immigrant from America, who had been nonchalantly leaning against a concrete pillar and witnessing the assault from a safe distance, remarked, "That ain't no damn chicken. That thar's a damn rooster." Yep, the big hillbilly from Brooklyn and a few bewigged women watched from the relative safety of their homes as this fairly mild-mannered immigrant from the Midwest cursed and drop-kicked "the blankety, blank, blank chicken from Hell." I rescued my daughter and even managed to retrieve the Osem biscuit. When it comes to my children, no chicken is too great for me. The Georgian family felt pretty bad about the whole incident, so a few hours later a distinct aroma of barbecued rooster permeated the air. When they knocked on the door with the generous offering, I politely refused. That was almost eighteen years ago, but the incident still sticks with me. So when my husband exchanged one of our baby goats for several young chickens, I wasn't happy about the deal. I wasn't happy that my youngest son opened the boxes and released the birds in my house. I just wasn't happy. There was something about their strut. It was a bit butch. I said, "They look like roosters to me." My eldest son, the budding zoologist, said, "Go back to your computer, Mom. What do you know about chickens!" Well, in these dark times I may not always be able to distinguish day from night, but I do know my chickens from my roosters. At two in the morning, we heard a crow that made the Golan jackals' fur stand on end. Alarmed, but still groggy, I mumbled, "That ain't no chicken. That thar's a damn rooster." My husband found the noisy culprit in the morning and asked for a chicken in exchange. Only the following night, it happened again. This routine went on for two weeks until my husband finally conceded that most of the original chickens were indeed roosters. We now have a few chickens and one rooster. The chickens even lay ridiculously small eggs. Around here, I can use 12 eggs to make an omelette with far less cholesterol than one made with 3 store-bought eggs. The only problem left is that the rooster can't distinguish between day and night. It crows any time from late in the morning through a good part of the night. It's often asleep at day-break. I thought that it might be blind or perhaps, like a lot of us, it has insomnia or a mixed-up biological clock. Maybe it's just plain stupid. Then it dawned on me. In spite of the chaos and confusion around us, I've got a rooster that can see through the darkness. It sings praises and is ready for action anytime of day or night. That's one smart bird. So here's my Purim prayer: May those of us who are chicken turn into roosters so that we no longer have to behave like sitting ducks. If you didn't understand that, take a couple shots of good whiskey and read it again. Purim Sameach from the Golan. Ellen Horowitz lives in the Golan Heights, Israel with her husband and six children. She is a painter, columnist for Israelnationalnews,com and co-founder of helpingisrael.com. She can be contacted through her website http://www.artfromzion.com To Go To Top

TREASON CHIC AT HAARETZ Posted by Steven Plaut, March 3, 2004.

This article was written by Shalom Freedman and entitled "The Haaretz Fifth Columnists At It Again." It appeared today as an opinion piece on Arutz Sheva (http://www.IsraelNationNews.com). March 02, 2004 In a brilliant article published earlier this year, the Jerusalem writer P. David Hornik carefully examined the opinion writing in Haaretz over a one-week period. He demonstrated and gave proof to what many people in Israel intuitively knew: that Haaretz is a radically biased extreme left-wing, often anti-Israel, newspaper. Yet another example of this, more infuriating than most, was given in the February 27 edition of the paper. One of the worst Israel-bashers, Yoel Marcus, condemned the Israeli Foreign Office and the terror victims' families who demonstrated outside the International Court of Justice in The Hague against the Palestinian demand to halt the building of the security fence. The proceedings in The Hague are, by their very existence, discriminatory and prejudicial against Israel. This does not concern Marcus. Nor does the evil of the suicide-bomber people in indiscriminately targeting Israeli civilians. These are the kind of realities the fifth-columnists always choose to ignore. Instead, what worries Marcus is that the Israelis, in demonstrating, show themselves to be "pathetic" when, in fact, Israel is the "strongest state in the Middle East." What one thing has to do with another is, of course, one side of the absurdity of Marcus' remark. But there is something else even more important. He has no sympathy for the Israeli families. He doesn't understand that they emotionally need to be there to cry out their pain and outrage at these inhumane murderers of their loved ones. He demonstrates in spades the real sin of the radical left in Israel - that they really do not care for the injuries, the hurt, the suffering of their own people. Any one of the terror victims murdered this past month in Jerusalem is, in my opinion, worth more than the whole Palestinian army of immortal terrorists taken together (including Israeli Knesset members, Tibi, Barakeh and Bishara; ah, the hypocrisy of it all). I would remind Marcus that more than eighty percent of the Palestinian Arabs support suicide-bombings. The wonderful, humane Palestinians were again passing out sweets last week, as they do whenever Jews are murdered. Marcus, of course, had praise for the Palestinians because they presented their case on the basis of what he regards as realistic parameters: the 'occupation', the inconvenience of roadblocks, the expropriation of land. He does not consider the possibility that the people of Israel might have some legitimate claim to the land of Israel. He also does not understand that Palestinian Arab cry-babying has succeeded in creating the greatest wave of anti-Semitism in the post-war era; and that those Israeli demonstrators were there to counter it. He also neglects to mention that demonstrating with the Palestinians were European anti-Semites, neo-Nazi skinheads and the same people who at Durban, when Israelis did not demonstrate, won a great propaganda victory. He also does not seem to understand what any three-year old by this time understands - that the Palestinian aim is to destroy Israel and that the opposition to the security-fence is their opposition to something that will make this more difficult for them. What Marcus wrote was both insensitive and hypercritical of Israel. It perfectly fits the line Amos Schocken has dictated through the years, condemning Israel for being, in his words, "an apartheid state". It is a line that the new Haaretz editor David Landau has promised to continue. Woe to the people whose "most important paper" is run by those who show more sympathy for enemies than they do for their own people. Shalom Freedman is a freelance writer in Jerusalem, whose work has appeared in a wide variety of Jewish publications. To Go To Top

FROM TANNENBAUM TO GAZA Posted by Women In Green, March 2, 2004.

This article was written by Evelyn Gordon and appeared yesterday in the Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com). Evelyn Gordon is a veteran journalist and commentator. The plea bargain reached between the state and Elhanan Tannenbaum last week has understandably generated considerable public anger. Yet offensive though it is, this deal is no more than a sideshow. The real issue is the earlier deal that secured Tannenbaum's release from Hizbullah - and what, in light of the new information revealed by the plea bargain, that exchange says about the judgment of the people running our country. Tannenbaum, a civilian who holds the rank of colonel in the army reserves, was kidnapped by Hizbullah in October 2000 and freed in a prisoner exchange this January. Under the deal, Israel released 400 Palestinians, 23 Lebanese and 13 citizens of other countries, mostly Arab, who had been jailed for hostile activity against Israel; it also returned the bodies of 60 Lebanese killed in clashes with the IDF. In exchange, Israel received Tannenbaum plus the bodies of three Israeli soldiers killed by Hizbullah. This was clearly a terrible deal for Israel. Not only did it encourage further terrorist kidnappings by proving that they pay off handsomely (Hizbullah itself started threatening new kidnappings the very day of the exchange), it also greatly expanded the circle of potential Israeli targets. Previously, all terrorist kidnap attempts had targeted soldiers since the government felt obliged to pay ransom only for soldiers captured in the line of duty. In the Tannenbaum deal Israel paid an exorbitant price for a civilian - turning Israeli civilians anywhere on the globe into attractive targets. The deal also made Hizbullah - one of the leading financiers and organizers of terrorist attacks against Israel, and therefore an organization that Israel has every interest in discrediting - into a pan-Arab hero, allowing it to claim credit for "liberating" prisoners from throughout the Arab world. And finally, it put 400 Palestinian terrorists back on the streets - of whom, based on Shin Bet statistics from previous prisoner exchanges, some 50 percent will probably resume terrorist activity. For all these reasons, the deal seemed wildly irresponsible. Yet at the time, it was possible to argue that perhaps the government knew something the rest of us did not - something that somehow justified the transaction. This weekend, however, all the hidden details were revealed: As part of the plea bargain Tannenbaum gave his Israeli interrogators the full story of his capture in exchange for a promise that he will not do jail time. And it turns out that he was kidnapped from Dubai while trying to conclude a drug deal with a man Israel's security services have fingered as a top Hizbullah agent. In other words, our government endangered all our lives, in all the ways enumerated above, to rescue a drug dealer who is buddy-buddy with Hizbullah operatives. Moreover, the cabinet knew this when it approved the exchange: The whole story had been published in the media, attributed to government sources. Yet the government brazenly declared those reports to be unsubstantiated rumor. A POSSIBLE clue to the government's motives can be found in another bit of information revealed by the media this weekend: Throughout the three years of Tannenbaum's captivity the army paid his family the salary of a full colonel, even though Tannenbaum was not on active reserve duty at the time of his capture. This is the same army that has spent the last three years claiming that it lacks the funds to buy bulletproof vests for all its soldiers - a shortage that has caused untold needless deaths in Palestinian attacks. Yet somehow it found the money to pay three years of a colonel's salary - a sum sufficient to buy hundreds of flak jackets - to someone who had no claim to it at all, just because he was "one of the boys." It is admittedly outrageous that Tannenbaum, whose confessed crimes are enough to put him behind bars for years, will do no jail time at all under the plea bargain unless he proves to have also spied for Hizbullah. Yet even if he spent the rest of his life behind bars it would do nothing to ameliorate the enormous damage caused by the deal that bought his freedom from Hizbullah. Thus to fret about the plea bargain is to fret about a triviality. Instead, the focus should be on learning lessons for the future - because Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz are already trying to sell us another dubious deal, which needs to be evaluated in light of what the Tannenbaum affair tells us about their judgment. That deal is called unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Under Sharon's withdrawal plan, Israel would give the Palestinians every inch of Gaza while receiving nothing at all in exchange. It would even uproot settlements - a key Palestinian demand, to which Israel has hitherto refused to accede outside the context of a permanent agreement. Not surprisingly, every armed Palestinian organization has declared this a major victory for terrorist tactics, and even moderates have been forced to concur that terrorism has won for nothing what negotiations would only have achieved at a substantial price. Thus the withdrawal plan, like the Tannenbaum deal, appears to provide a major incentive for more terrorism. And Sharon, just as in the Tannenbaum deal, is trying to counter this charge by claiming that ordinary citizens lack the complete picture available to the prime minister. Unfortunately, that "complete picture" is now available in Tannenbaum's case - and it is a picture of a prime minister willing to sacrifice vital national security interests for the sake of a drug dealer who happens to be "one of the boys." With the Tannenbaum deal, Sharon forfeited any claim to the nation's trust. He deserves no benefit of the doubt on Gaza. Ruth and Nadia Matar established Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), an activist group of women based in Jerusalem. Their website address is http://www.womeningreen.org To Go To Top

FORGET ABOUT A PALESTINIAN STATE Posted by IsrAlert, March 2, 2004.

This are written by Efraim Inbar and appeared on February 29, 2004 on the Jerusalem Post website ( http://www.jpost.com) Sharon's proposal for unilateral withdrawal from Gaza challenges the widespread conventional wisdom favoring a negotiated two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Despite the fact that a large majority of Israelis favor partition, they are also quite aware that the Palestinians are incapable of establishing a political entity living peacefully next to the Jewish state. Moreover, it has become increasingly clear that a two-state settlement is elusive because of the Palestinian national movement's inability to establish a state and maintain it. Next to Israel lies a sick society led by a pathological national movement. It is a society that produces suicide bombers that have become a role model in kindergartens and schools. Recent pronouncements by Yasser Arafat on the occasion of Fatah Day, as well as statements from many other nationalist figures in the Fatah camp, laud those "shaheeds" while clinging ferociously to the ethos of "the right of return" for the refugees. Palestinian Islamists, drawing the support of about a third of the Palestinian people, do not, of course, foresee any coexistence with a Jewish state. Official Palestinian incitement against the Jews, who are blamed for all Palestinian misfortunes, will inevitably turn a Palestinian state into an irredentist one, that is, a state dissatisfied with its borders and intent on using force to achieve territorial aggrandizement. The liberal belief that replacing poverty with affluence would moderate the Palestinian political agenda is unlikely to be tested. It is doubtful that the corrupt economic system established by Arafat could produce widespread economic benefits. Massive foreign aid rendered in the previous decade generally failed to filter down to the masses. Moreover, the high rates of economic growth needed to match the high fertility rate of the Palestinians (among the highest in the world) are very improbable, and will actually doom the Palestinians to even greater poverty in the near future. Thus the impoverishment of Palestinian society, coupled with a very high level of hatred toward the Jewish state, would guarantee the continuous existence of a very hostile community. The proposition that statehood inevitably produces responsible behavior - a doubtful belief, considering the number of leaders who have led their states into the abyss - will also remain untested because the Palestinians have already proven their inability to build a state. GIVEN THE opportunity of self-rule in 1993, the Palestinians have established a corrupt, inefficient, lawless and authoritarian political system. Its main failure has been in the area most critical to state-building - monopoly over the use of force. The existence of many armed militias defies central authority and preserves a fractured Palestinian community. What we see in the territories is another example of a failed state. Even with the best intentions and much territorial largesse there is nothing Israel could do to bring about a Palestinian state any time soon. Unfortunately, then, Israel is left with only one option: unilateral measures to minimize the repercussions of living next to a rather young and poor population indoctrinated to hate their Jewish neighbors and with relatively easy access to weapons. Nothing Israel can do will spare it the need to deal with extremely hostile neighbors ready to pay a high price for acting on their hatred. Israelis have to get used to the idea that there is no peaceful solution in sight - only interim measures to manage the conflict. If they want to have a state, there is no choice but to continue to fight Palestinian terrorism for decades. Unilateral withdrawal involves inevitable risks. It will obviously not remedy the basic situation - perennial terror. It may even encourage it since Israeli withdrawals are seen by the Palestinians as capitulation. On the other hand, the removal of several settlements may minimize friction between Israelis and Palestinians. It may bring greater Egyptian involvement in Gaza because of the daunting prospects of a Hamas-ruled territory. Moreover, it may buy Israel some good will in the international community (whatever that is worth), as unilateral withdrawal will demonstrate that Israel is serious about partition. Such a demonstration may also be necessary to maintain social cohesion at home, an important precondition to withstanding the tests of protracted conflict. The Herculean attempt to remove several settlements in Gaza will clearly show Israelis the political costs and tragic circumstances of implementing such a decision, thereby strengthening popular determination to avoid or minimize such steps in other parts of the land of Israel. The writer is professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University and director of the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies. To Go To Top

PM SHARON DECLARE WAR AGAINST THE JEWS Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 2, 2004.

I think the following disclosure by Deputy Education Knesset Minister Tzvi Hendel will explain what I mean when I say "Sharon Declares War Against the Jews". It comes from Arutz Sheva News Service March 1, 2004/Adar 8, 5764, arutz-7@IsraelNationalNews.com DEPUTY MINISTER REVEALS SINISTER EXPULSION PLAN Deputy Education Minister Tzvi Hendel (National Union) says there are "secret plans" in the Prime Minister's Office to suppress the Israeli residents in Gaza during their planned evacuation. Hendel told Voice of Israel today that the secret plans include shutting off electricity and all communications (telephone, cellular phones, radio) so that the residents will not able to coordinate with each other during the eviction. Every building evacuated is to be immediately destroyed - either via bulldozer or explosives. Hendel also noted that the plan provides for the evacuating forces to act forcefully against the expelled settlers - while at the same time making sure not to clash with the Arabs standing at the community gates and celebrating their victory. Hamas leaders have indicated that they will make sure that the world understands that they forced the Israelis out - and to this end will fire weapons at the departing buses and trucks. Sources in the Prime Minister's Office denied that such a document exists or was prepared. [However, whatever Sharon learned in driving the Jews from Yamit will, no doubt, be used and improved upon as stated in the Hendel Report to the Nation.] Leaders of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza continue their sit-in strike today outside the Knesset. They demand that the National Religious Party and National Union resign from the government before the unilateral withdrawal plan from Gaza proceeds any further. Binyamin Regional Council head Pinchas Wallerstein told Arutz-7 last week that to talk about the "unilateral withdrawal from Gaza" is to "fall into a trap," as the plan is not "merely" to withdraw from Gaza. Sharon plans to uproot, in stages, most of the Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza... He will start with the smaller ones, and will then continue, when the public has gotten used to it, then, on to the others. All this will be in unilateral steps that will not bring an end to terrorism. He talks about a withdrawal from Gush Katif - but "the threat hanging over Judea and Samaria is no smaller than that hanging over Gush Katif." [I remind the reader that Sharon is following Arafat's stated plan to cut Israel into slices with his 'ethnic cleansing' plan.] Deputy Minister Hendel seconded this point today: "When Menachem Begin came to Yamit in 1978 to explain why he was giving away of all of Sinai, he said, "'Kinderlach [children], I'm doing this so that we can save all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.' Now again Sharon is explaining that he's giving away Gaza so that he can save half of Yesha. Soon they will say that they're giving away northern Shomron in order to salvage Gush Etzion. This has to stop!" [Some may recall how PM Barak "saved" Northern Israel by abandoning the Lebanon Security Zone and had earlier recommended quickly evacuating the Golan Heights lest Syrian troops overrun civilians and the Israeli Army on the Golan - an absurd concept.] Despite the significant domestic opposition to the plan, Sharon's aides are on their way to Washington to meet with Administration officials and present them with the plan. Atty. Dov Weisglass is scheduled to meet, among others, with U.S. National Security Advisor Condeleeza Rice. Sharon staffers say that at this stage, the plan does not include names of communities designated for destruction or dates. [This presumes that, once President Bush and the U.S. State Department put their stamp of approval on the Gaza evacuation, no one in the Cabinet or the Knesset would dare oppose it.] Prime Minister Sharon has always been a remarkable General when he was fighting the Arabs. Now that he is fighting his own Jews, he still shows his brilliant planning like a Golem set into motion who can no longer distinguish friend from foe. Sharon as a "Golem" run amok, has a new master whose wishes are to be obeyed no matter how many Jews are to be made expendable. The plan by President George W. Bush will make good use of Israel as cannon fodder for his great "Middle East Plan", but the surviving comrades of the Bush consortium will be Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran - assuming they can be democratically pacified. But, even that does not matter very much to President Bush as long as the oil nations keep pumping oil and the spoiler nations of Syria and Egypt get their share of the loot through military equipment sales - or rather "free gifts of American tax-payers" money called "Grants". Egypt has received at least $60 Billion in free armaments with American technology. Bush is negotiating the same deal with Syria out of American tax-payers' dollars. Will the people of Israel revolt one day and send her government into exile? Will the Prime Minister be rushed to the airport to jet off to any nation that will have him? Will the Leftist Supreme Court doff their robes of office and seek anonymity in the crowds of furious citizens? Will the nation feel betrayed by a Prime Minister who like Aristide (formerly) of Haiti, ruled by degree, lying to both the elected Knesset and the people while hiding behind the word "Democracy"? I fear the day when a democratic government, elected to serve the needs of the people but instead, appears to serve foreign interests will be driven out of office by a people who has suffered too much and been protected too little. The Leftist activist Court, in deference to the rights of a dedicated enemy ignores the legal rights of the Israelis to stay alive while the Palestinians declare a direct war of terrorism and explode themselves. Will those of the Radical Left who secretly and undemocratically undercut the rightful deliberations of Israel's elected government to create a diplomatic coup in secret negotiation with foreign governments be forced to leave the country to avoid prosecution? Will the non-Jewish Jews flee from righteous and deserving wrath from the victims of Oslo they helped to create? Can a nation dedicated to Democracy and the rule of law revolt against a government who assumes the role of a dictatorial "I know best" rule? What is a "Democracy - really? The first requirement in setting up this world's oldest Democracy, America, was to overthrow the tyrannical rule of England. The Declaration of American Independence states firstly that: "When it becomes necessary in the course of human events for the people to dissolve the Political Bonds...that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government....to effect their Safety... While Evils are sufferble.....when a long train of Abuses and Usurpations..reduce them to absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government and to provide new Guards for their future Security." But who will take in Jewish officials who flee their nation, with victims of their weak self-serving governance hard on their heels. Saddam had to hide in what the Americans call a rat-hole. Granted, the Israeli leadership can hardly be compared to Saddam's regime. BUT, the release of thousands of arrested, indicted and sentenced terrorists to continue their terror, demonstrated that the people had no voice in what their government sacrificed - with no benefit. Victims of terror include almost every Israeli citizen who has a friend or family member who has been hit by Palestinian Terrorists. They weep and rage against an impotent Prime Minister. Clearly, we do not wish to see the Prime Minister and Supreme Court Judges dragged through the streets like common criminals by a citizenry driven beyond regard for the niceties of strict law that heretofore only protect terrorists. I fear, however, that the citizens of Israel who comprise the most law-abiding Democracy in the world may soon reach its limit of human tolerance for the evil intended by the Arab Palestinian Muslims with terrorism and outright war with WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) by the Arab Muslim states surrounding Israel. I recall a movie about a frustrated man in New York who reached his capacity to take the inequities of life. He leaned out of his window and screamed: "I'm mad as Hell and I won't take it anymore!" His neighbors picked up the shout of anguish and soon the whole city was shouting: "I'm mad as Hell and I won't take it anymore!" How much more do the Israeli people feel like shouting as a weakened and possibly corrupt government, in defense of foreign interests, refuse to release the full force of her army that she emasculated to please other countries. I think that Prime Minister Sharon, his Cabinet, his Leftist roaming diplomat, Shimon Peres - his poodle, Yossi Beilin had best take notice of a citizenry who is "Mad as Hell and will not take it anymore!" I cannot wonder which nation will open its borders to fleeing Israeli government officials who are non-Jewish Jews. Idi Amin was welcomed in Saudi Arabia, the German Alois Brunner was given sanctuary in Syria. Who will take Sharon? I suppose the French will welcome Peres and Beilin to Norway, etc. I wonder when the Jews will tell Prime Minister Arik Sharon, America's President Bush, the United Nations, the European Union, the Arab League, the Court in the Hague and the whole world: "I'm Mad as Hell and I'm Not Going to Take It Anymore!!" ### There will be a Part 2 to follow which speaks to the obligation of the elect to its citizens in a Democracy - without hiding behind the word. "Democracy" is not "holy writ" but a compact of transparent honesty between government and the people. "Democracy" is not the coronation of a King or a benevolent dictator. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel, Gamla (http://gamla.org.il/english) and the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm) To Go To Top

FINDING FAMILY Posted by Barry Chamish, March 2, 2004.

It was early summer, 1975 and I was about to move to Israel. My zeide, grandfather, came over to my parents' home to say goodbye to me. Since, for all I knew, I might never see him again, I decided to make some inquiries that were long overdue. He never spoke of his family and as far as anyone knew, our little family in the middle of Canada were the only Chamishes in the world. I asked him if he knew of anyone else named Chamish. He said that 60 years ago, he heard that a cousin had made it to Baltimore. I dialed long distance information (give me Baltimore, MD) and asked if there was anyone named Chamish in the directory. There were two entries, Benjamin and Donald. I assumed there were no Donalds roaming the European shtetls and took Benjamin's number and called it. He answered the phone. "Good evening sir. I'm calling from Canada." "Yes." "Do you know anyone named Shlomi Chamish?" "He was my cousin." "Wait, I'll get him for you." My grandfather took the receiver and immediately he began a smiling, spirited conversation in Yiddish. For the first time in 60 years, he spoke with family from the Old Country. The rest of my family was astounded. Why hadn't anyone been curious enough in all these years to ask him such a simple question? Within days, my grandfather was flying to Baltimore where a joyous reunion took place. My father told me, "They toasted you for two days. Benjamin announced that you were the one Chamish who remembered what it is to be a Jew." And it was Benjamin who broke the big news. One of my grandfather's brothers, David, made it to New York before the War. He had died but his two sons were living there. Suddenly, my father had two first cousins. My sister was living in New York at the time and I had already moved to Israel when she called cousin Paul for the first time. He was not easy to persuade to meet. He was a trader and limited partner at Bear Stearns and adopted the tough cynicism of Wall Street. However, he relented and once he understood this wasn't some sort of scam to part money from him, was, like everyone else, astounded. He later introduced my sister to his brother and their two kids, and she instantly had two new first cousins, once removed. When my sister got married in Ramat Gan, Paul flew in for the ceremony. We hit it off from the first moment. He, like me, was single with a wild streak and we loved each other's company. While serving in the IDF, I received an invitation to his niece Amy Chamish's wedding, and requested a furlough to attend. For the first of many times, Paul put me up at his mid-town apartment. Meanwhile, my parents, brother, and Canadian cousin all flew in for the wedding. Two Canadian and American branches of the Chamish family were reunited after six decades. Shortly after arriving in Israel, I decided to investigate if there were relatives here as well. I went to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem and asked the librarian to find me any records of a family named Chamish. Efficiently, she brought me a folder with fifteen names. I photocopied the batch and studied the documents at home. The records were compiled voluntarily over the years. Survivors of the maelstrom filled out the forms: name, spouse's name, approximate date of birth, occupation, number of children and names: and where and when murdered. The names and addresses of those who had filled out the forms was at the bottom. These were the people I would try to contact. I stared at the names of all these people with my name and looked away from the names of the death camps they were sent to. I mailed the forms to my father and requested that he gently go over them with my grandfather. A letter arrived two weeks later, "Okay Columbo, your zeide found his brother. He, his wife Pearl and their two children were lost." Now it was time to do some leg work. For no other reason than the name seemed most likely, I called Avraham Chamish in Rehovot. I arranged a time to meet when my grandfather would accept a long distance call. My first impression of him was his resemblance to my grandfather and this impression never stopped: all Chamish males had the same build and features. But alas, after a few moments on the phone with my grandfather, they knew no one in common. But I learned a lesson. This family was more spread out than I knew, and next time I would ask the older members to make a list of EVERYONE they could recall and what their work was. And that rule proved wise about six months later when I met Yaacov Chamish in his moshav near Rehovot. Yaacov took to me immediately and stated simply, "I'll believe we're family. You don't have to prove it." But, short of DNA testing, I wanted an answer. I asked him to make a list of everyone he remembered, and I asked my grandfather to do the same. The challenge was this: I had found three branches of the family, all living within forty miles of each other, just south of Lvov. Their towns were Horochow, where my branch originated, Stervich and Berestichko. And there seemed to be no interaction between the communities. The first exchange between Yaacov and my grandfather bore no fruit. Each went over his list of the perished but not a name in common could be found. Yaacov put down the phone and announced, "Well, that's that. We don't know the same people." I pleaded for one last opportunity and asked he and my grandfather to squeeze the last names from their memories. Yaacov made a list of just five names. One of them was Lazar Hirsch, a butcher. My grandfather made a similar list. On it was a second cousin he vaguely recalled, a butcher named Lazar Hirsch. And that's all it took to reunite the Horochow and Berestichko branches of the Chamish family. There was one other branch, they left for the Russian town of Kozin, and a strong branch settled in Vineland, New Jersey. Over the years I have met the dispersed Chamishes and been delighted by the success of just about every member. Gideon was the junior table tennis champion of Israel, a career cut short by losing much of his hand in the Yom Kippur War. Leah was the junior show jumping champion of California. Leanna is an actress whose genre is horror films. But two people stood out for me because they had inherited my soul. Rene Chamish, of the New Jersey branch, was a writer and a good one. She contributed to the Jewish Press in New York and sent me a lovely piece about her memories of her father. She was a rarity in the Chamish world, an Orthodox Jew. And cousin Paul kept coming back to Israel. He couldn't stay away. He finally gave up his handsome Wall Street salary to become Orthodox, finally settling with his new family in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem. His journey began barely a decade before when I asked my grandfather this most obvious question: are we alone in this world? We were not. But how much richer we would have been were it not for the Germans and the forces which promoted and funded Nazism. Back to Israel and I visited a family from the Horochow branch in Haifa. Sadly, the husband, Mordechai had died in the army so no memories could be tapped. But he did leave a prize behind: a memorial book to the Jews of Horochow. There were once 80,000 Jews in Horochow. A few hundred, at most, survived the Holocaust. And within were their pictures. Here is the Horochow Betar football team looking like winners, there is the theatre group. Here are the community leaders, there are the rabbis. All dead and gone. Existing in our sickened world is a growing phenomenon called Holocaust denial. The believers of this idiocy have reached the conclusion that all the Horochows of Europe weren't wiped out. That the soccer teams are still on the pitch, the actors still reciting their lines, the community leaders still raising their funds and the rabbis still studying their tracts. It's time someone put an end to their delusions, as much for their own dignity as those they claim weren't slaughtered by the millions. To Go To Top

IDF: ARAFAT UNFROZE TERRORIST ACCOUNTS WORTH MILLIONS Posted by Leo Rennert, March 2, 2004.

This article was written by Gil Hoffman and appeared today as a news item in the online edition of the Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com) Tens of millions of shekels intended to fund Palestinian terrorism that the IDF confiscated from banks in Ramallah and El-Bireh last week were taken from accounts recently unfrozen by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, a senior IDF officer told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday. Shlomo Mofaz, the deputy head of the Intelligence Corps research and assessment branch and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz's brother, told the committee former PA prime minister Mahmoud Abbas froze the accounts, but Arafat unfroze them in November. He said the IDF decided to confiscate the funds after Arafat's move. Mofaz said security officials examined hundreds of bank accounts and seized money that originated in Europe, the US, Iran, Syria, and Jordan, which was intended to fund Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas. In meetings in Washington with Sharon's bureau chief, Dov Weisglass, US officials reportedly criticized the raids, warning that they could destabilize the Palestinian banking system and undermine PA Finance Minister Salaam Fayed. Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon justified the raids, telling the committee that the IDF learned from interrogations that terrorists are paid as much as NIS 40,000 for each attack. "We are trying to stop money from reaching terrorists," he said. "The money is funneled to Fatah activists' bank accounts in Ramallah from Iran via Lebanon or Damascus." Ya'alon said the IDF is also working to prevent Saudi Arabian and European funding from reaching Hamas-affiliated charities. He said the US has blocked private funds from being transferred to Hamas, but Europe has not. Ya'alon said that in the past two weeks the IDF stopped three attempts by terrorist groups to send suicide bombers from Nablus to attack Israelis. He said the IDF has made dozens of arrests in Bethlehem since re-entering the city following last Sunday's bus bombing in Jerusalem. Ya'alon also reported success in blocking the flow of weapons over the Egyptian border to Palestinians. He said the IDF is in contact with the Egyptians, but they are still not doing enough to prevent arms smuggling. To Go To Top

A SENSE OF REALITY Posted by Moshe Feiglin, March 2, 2004.

Fifty-six years ago the Jews decided to establish a state. America, which initially supported the idea, sensed the Arab opposition and retracted its support. The entire world stood aside and left the tiny Jewish country to its fate. They all waited to see how seven Arab armies would continue from the point where Rommel was halted in El Alamein, and add to the six million Jews murdered in Europe another six hundred thousand Jews in Eretz Israel. An embargo was imposed on the sales of arms to the new Jewish State which attempted to defend itself. Weapons purchased by Jews in the US (from Second World War surplus stocks) were confiscated in the port of New Jersey before they could be sent to Eretz Israel. There had never before been such a desperate, dangerous, and hopeless attempt to establish a state. Only a few of the 600 Jews taken prisoner by the Arabs in the War of Independence remained alive. The Arabs made no effort to hide their intentions regarding the fate of the Jews during that war (or during the wars that followed it). They were sentenced to death with terrible cruelty. The leader of the Arabs in Eretz Israel, Haj Amin el Husseini (the same family) received training in German concentration camps for the construction of gas chambers. An area had already been allocated for the death camps to be constructed in Eretz Israel, in a special place in the Dotan Valley, not far from my home in Karnei Shomron where I am writing this. Against all the odds, the State of Israel arose and became a well-established and strong country in the region. Over the last ten years the entire world, led by Israel itself, has been attempting to establish another state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, an Arab state for the same Husseinis. However, in contrast to the case of the Jews, this time the entire world is enthusiastically supporting the idea. Not merely supporting, but raising funds for the Arabs, and supplying weapons. The CIA is training the terrorists in special camps. They are given well equipped military bases, international recognition, support from the media, and ports and airports are being built for them. Never before has an ethnic group of any kind received a country on such a red carpet. But, amazingly, the Arab state in Eretz Israel is not being established. It seems that reality in Eretz Israel has its own rules: it is directly linked to the wishes of the Creator. Whatever matches His wishes is realistic, even if the entire world is recruited in order to do the opposite. This is of course true at all times, but in our time, in Eretz Israel, the Holy Land, it is felt immediately. Again and again the apparently "realistic" people are hitting our heads against the wall. They think that their brand of logic matches reality. For them the country is only a piece of real estate (as Rabin said about the Golan Heights), a bargaining counter for negotiations. Those who do not take the Creator's wishes into account, are denying reality, and the price of the denial by our leaders is unbearable. We know that there is always hope for Israel. We know that our Father in Heaven has not returned us to our country for the third time in order to destroy the renewed Jewish presence in the land of the Patriarchs. The latest version of the Return to Zion is not a macabre joke of the Creator. So why do we need Manhigut Yehudit? After all, everything will turn out all right anyway. It is possible to regard belief as something divorced from reality. Such a religious attitude characterized the Jewish people through the exile until the appearance of Zionism, and it still characterizes important sections of it. This disconnected attitude is not a real Jewish one, and it led entire Jewish communities to destruction during the period of the Holocaust. Those Jews who believed that the Jewish people would return to their country in a miraculous way were right, but what a terrible price was paid for belief divorced from reality. Authentic Jewish belief is not divorced from reality. On the contrary, it defines reality and obligates us to act in order to realize it. Reality is the wishes of the Creator in His world. The reality is that there is G-d, that there is a nation indicating Him by its very existence, and that there is a country chosen by G-d for His nation only, and that only in it and from it the sons of the Creator can carry out their universal mission. This is the reality, and our task is to expose it and realize it. There is at the moment only one political body acting in coordination with this reality. This is Manhigut Yehudit. This correlation with reality is becoming clear even to those who were opposed to the movement in the beginning. Like a surfer who rides the wave instead of fighting it, Manhigut Yehudit correctly understands the reality and is advancing Israel and the Jewish people towards a safe shore. Join in the wonderful challenge of Manhigut Yehudit and avoid unnecessary suffering for our people. Be realistic, and join Manhigut Yehudit. Moshe Feiglin established Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership), a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. Feiglin has emphatically said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. The Manhigut Yehudit website address is http://www.manhigut.org. To Go To Top

FROM RUSSIA WITH TERROR Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, March 2, 2004.

This article was written by Jamie Glazov and appeared on the Front Page Magazine website and is archived at (http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=12387 Frontpage Interview's guest today is Ion Mihai Pacepa, former acting chief of Communist Romania's espionage service. In 1987 he published Red Horizons (Regnery Gateway), reprinted in 24 countries. In 1999 Mr. Pacepa authored The Black Book of the Securitate, reportedly an all time bestseller in Romania. He is now finishing a book on the origins of current anti-Americanism. Frontpage Magazine: Welcome to Frontpage Interview, Mr. Pacepa. Let's begin. As a former Romanian spy chief who used to take direct orders from the Soviet KGB, you are obviously armed with a wealth of information. You have written about how the Soviets armed Hussein with WMDs, and also taught him how to eliminate any trace of them. Can you talk a bit about this and tell us its connection to the "missing WMDs" in Iraq today? Pacepa: Contemporary political memory seems to be conveniently afflicted with some kind of Alzheimer's disease. Not long ago, every Western leader, starting with President Clinton, fumed against Saddam's WMD. Now almost no one remembers that after General Hussein Kamel, Saddam's son-in-law, defected to Jordan in 1995, he helped us find "more than one hundred metal trunks and boxes" containing documentation "dealing with all categories of weapons, including nuclear." He also aided UNSCOM to fish out of the Tigris River high-grade missile components prohibited to Iraq. That was exactly what my old Soviet-made "Sarindar" plan stated he should do in case of emergency: destroy the weapons, hide the equipment, and preserve the documentation. No wonder Saddam hastened to lure Kamel back to Iraq, where three days later he was killed together with over 40 of his relatives in what the Baghdad official press described as a "spontaneous administration of tribal justice." Once that was done, Saddam slammed the door shut to any UNSCOM inspection. FP: So was any Sarindar plan activated? Pacepa: Certainly. The minimal version of the Sarindar plan I made for Libya's Gaddafi. Soon after I was granted political asylum in the US, Gaddafi staged a fire at the secret chemical weapons facility I knew about (the cellar underneath the Rabta chemical complex). To be sure the CIA satellites would notice that fire and cross that target off its list, he created a huge cloud of black smoke by burning truckloads of tires and painting scorch marks on the facility. That was written in the Sarindar plan. To be on the safe side, Gaddafi also built a second production facility, this time placed some 100 feet underground in the hollowed-out Tarhunah Mountain, south of Tripoli. That was not in the Sarindar plan. FP: It is undeniable, therefore, that Saddam had WMDs, right? Pacepa: In the early 1970s, the Kremlin established a "socialist division of labor" for persuading the governments of Iraq and Libya to join the terrorist war against the US. KGB chairman Yury Andropov (who would later become the leader of the Soviet Union), told me that either of those two countries could inflict more damage on the Americans than could the Red Brigades, the Baader-Meinhof group and all other terrorist organizations taken together. The governments of those Arab countries, Andropov explained, not only had inexhaustible financial resources (read: oil), but they also had huge intelligence services that were being run by "our razvedka advisers" and could extend their tentacles to every corner of the earth. There was one major danger, though: by raising terrorism to the state level we risked American reprisal. Washington would never dispatch its airplanes and rockets to exterminate the Baader-Meinhof, but it might well deploy them to destroy a terrorist state. We therefore were also tasked to provide those countries secretly with weapons of mass destruction, because Andropov concluded that the Yankees would never attack a country that could retaliate with such deadly weapons. Libya was Romania's main client in that socialist division of labor, because of Ceausescu's close association with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Moscow kept Iraq. Andropov told me that, if our Iraq and Libyan experiment proved successful, the same strategy would be extended to Syria. Recently, Libya's Gaddafi admitted to having WMD, and the CIA inspectors found them. Why should we believe that the almighty Soviet Union, which had proliferated WMD all over the world, was not able to do the same thing in Iraq? Every piece of armament Iraq had came from the former Soviet Union - from the Katyusha launchers to the T72 tanks, BMP-1 fighting vehicles and MiG fighter planes. In the spring of 2002, just a couple of weeks after Russia took its place at the NATO table, President Putin and his ex-KGB officers who are now running Russia concluded another $40 billion trade deal with Saddam Hussein's tyrannical regime in Iraq. That was not for grain or beans - Russia has to import them from elsewhere. FP: Tell us about the PLO and its connection to the Soviet regime. Pacepa: The PLO was dreamt up by the KGB, which had a penchant for "Liberation" organizations. There was the National Liberation Army of Bolivia, created by the KGB in 1964 with help from Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Then there was the National Liberation Army of Colombia, created by the KGB in 1965 with help from Fidel Castro, which was soon deeply involved in kidnappings, hijackings, bombings and guerrilla warfare. In later years the KGB also created the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which carried out numerous bombing attacks on the "Palestinian territories" occupied by Israel, and the "Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia," created by the KGB in 1975, which organized numerous bombing attacks against US airline offices in Western Europe. In 1964 the first PLO Council, consisting of 422 Palestinian representatives handpicked by the KGB, approved the Palestinian National Charter - a document that had been drafted in Moscow. The Palestinian National Covenant and the Palestinian Constitution were also born in Moscow, with the help of Ahmed Shuqairy, a KGB influence agent who became the first PLO chairman. (During the Six-Day War he escaped from Jerusalem disguised as a woman, thereafter becoming such a symbol within the bloc intelligence community that one of its later influence operations - aimed at making the West consider Arafat a moderate - was given the codename "Shuqairy.") This new PLO was headed by a Soviet-style Executive Committee made up of 15 members who, like their comrades in Moscow, also headed departments. As in Moscow - and Bucharest - the chairman of the Executive Committee became the general commander of the armed forces as well. The new PLO also had a General Assembly, which was the Soviet-inspired name given to all East European parliaments after World War II. Based on another "socialist division of labor," the Romanian espionage service (DIE) was responsible for providing the PLO with logistical support. Except for the arms, which were supplied by the KGB and the East German Stasi, everything else came from Bucharest. Even the PLO uniforms and the PLO stationery were manufactured in Romania free of charge, as a "comradely help." During those years, two Romanian cargo planes filled with goodies for the PLO landed in Beirut every week, and were unloaded by Arafat's men. FP: You have discussed your personal knowledge of how Arafat was created and cultivated by the KGB and how the Soviets actually designed him to be the future leader of the PLO. Illuminate this picture for us please. Pacepa: "Tovarish Mohammed Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, nom de guerre Abu Ammar," was built into a Palestinian leader by the KGB in the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day Arab-Israeli War. In that war Israel humiliated two of the Soviet Union's most important allies in the Arab world of that time, Egypt and Syria, and the Kremlin thought that Arafat could help repair the Soviet prestige. Arafat had begun his political career as leader of the Palestinian terrorist organization al-Fatah, whose fedayeen were being secretly trained in the Soviet Union. In 1969, the KGB managed to catapult him up as chairman of the PLO executive committee. Egyptian ruler Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was also a Soviet puppet, publicly proposed the appointment. Soon after that, the KGB tasked Arafat to declare war on American "imperial-Zionism" during the first summit of the Black International, an organization that was also financed by the KGB. Arafat claimed to have coined the word "imperial-Zionism," but in fact Moscow had invented this battle cry many years earlier, combining the traditionally Russian anti-Semitism with the new Marxist anti-Americanism. FP: Why has the American and Israeli leadership been deceived so long about Arafat's criminal and terrorist activities? Pacepa: Because Arafat is a master of deceit - and I unfortunately contributed to that. In March 1978, for instance, I secretly brought Arafat to Bucharest to involve him in a long-planned Soviet/Romanian disinformation plot. Its goal was to get the United States to establish diplomatic relations with him, by having him pretend to transform the terrorist PLO into a government-in-exile that was willing to renounce terrorism. Soviet president Leonid Brezhnev believed that newly elected US president Jimmy Carter would swallow the bait. Therefore, he told the Romanian dictator that conditions were ripe for introducing Arafat into the White House. Moscow gave Ceausescu the job because by 1978 my boss had become Washington's most favored tyrant. "The only thing people in the West care about is our leaders," the KGB chairman said, when he enrolled me in the effort of making Arafat popular in Washington. "The more they come to love them, the better they will like us." "But we are a revolution," Arafat exploded, after Ceausescu explained what the Kremlin wanted from him. "We were born as a revolution, and we should remain an unfettered revolution." Arafat expostulated that the Palestinians lacked the tradition, unity, and discipline to become a formal state. That statehood was only something for a future generation. That all governments, even Communist ones, were limited by laws and international agreements, and he was not willing to put any laws or other obstacles in the way of the Palestinian struggle to eradicate the state of Israel. My former boss was able to persuade Arafat into tricking President Carter only by resorting to dialectical materialism, for both were fanatical Stalinists who knew their Marxism by heart. Ceausescu sympathetically agreed that "a war of terror is your only realistic weapon," but he also told his guest that, if he would transform the PLO into a government-in-exile and would pretend to break with terrorism, the West would shower him with money and glory. "But you have to keep on pretending, over and over," my boss emphasized. Ceausescu pointed out that political influence, like dialectical materialism, was built upon the same basic tenet that quantitative accumulation generates qualitative transformation. Both work like cocaine, let's say. If you sniff it once or twice, it may not change your life. If you use it day after day, though, it will make you into an addict, a different man. That's the qualitative transformation. And in the shadow of your government-in-exile you can keep as many terrorist groups as you want, as long as they are not publicly connected with your name. In April 1978 I accompanied Ceausescu to Washington, where he convinced President Jimmy Carter that he could persuade Arafat to transform his PLO into a law-abiding government-in-exile, if the United States would establish official relations with him. Thereupon, President Carter publicly hailed Ceausescu as a "great national and international leader" who had "taken on a role of leadership in the entire international community." Three months later I was granted political asylum by the United States, and Romania's tyrant lost his dream of getting the Nobel Peace Prize. A quarter of a century later, however, Arafat remains in place as the PLO chairman and seems to still be on track with the Kremlin's game of deception. In 1994, Arafat was granted the Nobel Peace Prize because he agreed to transform his terrorist organization into a kind of government-in-exile (the Palestinian Authority) and pretended, over and over, that he would abolish the articles in the 1964 PLO Covenant that call for the destruction of the state of Israel and would eradicate Palestinian terrorism. At the end of the 1998-99 Palestinian school year, however, all one hundred and fifty new schoolbooks used by Arafat's Palestinian Authority described Israel as the "Zionist enemy" and equated Zionism with Nazism. Two years after the Oslo Accords were signed, the number of Israelis killed by Palestinian terrorists rose by 73% compared to the two year period preceding the agreement. FP: There simply can't be any kind of peace in the Middle East with Arafat at the helm. What advice would you give to American and Israeli diplomats now? Pacepa: To expose Arafat's lies and condemn his bloody terrorism, but to avoid being implicated in physical reprisals against him - that would certainly make him a hero with the Palestinians. I strongly suggest the Ceausescu solution. In November 1989, when he was loudly reelected president of Romania, Ceausescu was as popular there as Arafat is now with the Palestinians. A month later, however, Ceausescu was tried for genocide by his own people and executed by his own people. From one day to the next Ceausescu became the symbol of tyranny. Romania turned into a free country, and twelve years later it was invited to join NATO. FP: Tell us a bit about what you think about the state of the KGB in Russia today. Some say it is experiencing a resurrection. Is this true? Pacepa: It certainly is. In the last dozen years, Russia has been transformed for the better in unprecedented ways. Nevertheless, that country has a long way to go until it will tear down the legacy of Soviet Communism. As of June 2003, some 6,000 former KGB officers were reportedly holding important positions in Russia's central and regional governments. Three months later, nearly half of the top governmental positions were also held by former KGB. It is like putting the old, supposedly defeated Gestapo in charge of rebuilding Germany. Since the fall of Communism the Russians have been faced with an indigenous form of capitalism run by old Communist bureaucrats, speculators and ruthless mafiosi that has widened social inequities and created a decline in industrial production. Therefore, after a period of upheaval, the Russians have gradually - and perhaps thankfully - slipped back into their historical form of government, the traditional Russian samoderzhaviye (autocracy) traceable to the 14th century's Ivan the Terrible, in which a feudal lord ruled the country with the help of his personal political police. Good or bad, the historically Russian political police may appear to most people in that country as their only defense against the rapacity of the new capitalists at home and the greediness of grasping foreign neighbors. Russia will never return to Communism - too many Russians perished at the hands of that heresy. But it seems that Russia will not truly turn westward either, at least not under this generation. If history - including that of the last 14 years - is any guide, the Russians, who are now enjoying their regained nationalism, will struggle to rebuild a kind of an Old Russian Empire by inspiring themselves from old Russian traditions and by using old Russian ways and means. FP: So is Russia a friend or a foe of the United States in the present international environment? Pacepa: After the Berlin Wall was torn down, I hurried over there to have a look around. The dreaded East German political police was abolished from one day to the next, and its archives were opened to the public. One year later, the Stasi's outrageous activity was laid bare in a large, impressive museum of freedom. A member of the Berlin parliament told me that the Germans wanted to provide the world with the certitude that the past would never be repeated. To be on the safe side, the German government sold off all the Stasi's buildings to private companies. After the Soviet Union collapsed, the new rulers in the Kremlin did not open the archives of the Soviet Union's political police, but in 1992 they did create their own kind of KGB museum in Moscow, in a dreary gray building behind the Lubyanka. The upper floors remain KGB offices, but the rooms on the ground floor are used for conferences and as a club for retired KGB officers - complete with disco. On September 11, 2002, numerous former KGB officers gathered at the KGB museum. They had not congregated in order to sympathize with us on the date of our national tragedy, but to celebrate the 125th birthday of Feliks Dzerzhinsky - the man who created one of the most criminal institutions in contemporary history. A few days later, Moscow's mayor, Yury Lushkov, one of Russia's most influential politicians, reversed his previous opposition and now said he wanted to restore Dzerzhinsky's bronze statue to its former place of honor on Lubyanka Square. Just before that, the new Russian president ordered that the statue of Yury Andropov be reinstated at the Lubyanka, from where it had been removed after the KGB coup in 1991. Andropov is indeed the only other KGB officer to have been enthroned in the Kremlin, and it was therefore normal for Putin to pay homage to him. For all his life, Andropov indoctrinated his subordinates to believe that American Imperialism was the main enemy of their country. Now these subordinates are running Russia. It may take another generation until the visceral hatred for the US cultivated by Andropov disappears. FP: How does Russia fit in the War on Terror? Isn't there at least a common interest in fighting Islamic terrorism? Pacepa: September 11, 2001 was directly rooted in a joint Soviet/Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) operation conceived in the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day Arab-Israeli War. The object of this joint operation was to repair Moscow's prestige by turning the Islamic world against Israel and by creating a rabid and violent hatred for its main supporter, the United States. The strategy was to portray the US, this land of freedom, as a Nazi-style "imperial-Zionist country" financed by Jewish money and run by a rapacious "Council of the Elders of Zion" (the Kremlin's epithet for the US Congress), the aim of which was allegedly to transform the rest of the world into a Jewish fiefdom. In other words, the heart of the joint plan was to convert the historical Arab and Islamic hatred of the Jews into a new hatred of the United States. We threw many millions of dollars at this gigantic task, which involved whole armies of intelligence officers. In the late 1960s, a new element was added to the Soviet/PLO war against Israel and American imperial-Zionism: international terrorism. Before 1969 came to an end, the KGB's Thirteenth Department-known in our intelligence jargon as the Department for Wet Affairs, wet being a euphemism for bloody-invented airplane hijacking. The KGB constantly lectured at us that no one within the American/Zionist sphere of influence should feel safe anymore. The hijacked airplane became an instrument of Soviet foreign policy-and eventually the weapon of choice for September 11, 2001. During those years of intensive airplane hijackings, I became amazed at the almost identical pride both Arafat and KGB General Sakharovsky exhibited over their prowess as terrorists. "I invented the hijacking of [passenger] airplanes," Arafat bragged to me in the early 1970s, when I first met him. A few months later I met with Sakharovsky at his Lubyanka office. He pointed to the red flags pinned onto a world map hanging on his wall. "Look at that," he said. Each flag represented a plane that had been downed. "Airplane hijacking is my own invention," he boasted. Sakharovsky's subordinates are now reigning in the Kremlin. Until they fully disclose their involvement in creating anti-American terrorism and condemn Arafat's terrorism, there is no reason to believe they have changed. FP: Mr. Pacepa. thank you. We are out of time. It was a great honor to speak with you. I hope you will return and join us again. Pacepa: It was a great pleasure to be with you, and I would be delighted to return. Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel. To Go To Top

COMING TO A CALIFORNIA SCHOOL SOON? - Commemorating the Death of Imam Hussein Posted by Tamar Rush, March 2, 2004.

Ever get the feeling that you are being misled by the Media (and Government)? Here's how Americans are learning about the beautiful traditions of what George Bush has christened "The Religion of Peace", Islam. This is an Associated Press news item "Shiites freely observe holiday. Public celebrations of the Ashoura are the first in 30 years" It appeared in the Kansas City Star and is archived at http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/8073953.htm Seattle's King 5 TV (www.king5.com) also gets into the festivities, but neglects to mention that it is the slicing and dicing of the Shiite males heads with swords, daggers, and straight-razors that is the pivotal ritual of the Ashoura festival of bloodletting. I wonder how long it will take for California's schools to make student participation in this "colourful" celebration mandatory? KARBALA, Iraq - Hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims walked, rode bikes and drove cars to this holy city Sunday for religious rituals once banned by Saddam Hussein. Men, women and children beat their chests and chanted prayers in unison in a ceremony marking Ashoura, the most important holiday in the Shiite Muslim calendar. The 10-day festival commemorates the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad. Imam Hussein, killed in a power struggle in 680, is buried in a gold-domed shrine in Karbala. His death was part of a dispute over leadership of the faith. It also was a key event in Islam's split into the Sunni and Shiite branches. This is the first time in more than three decades that Iraq's Shiites have been free to publicly celebrate the holiday. "We have been waiting for this ceremony for 30 years. I can't begin to describe my feelings. This is total freedom," said Saad al-Masoudi, a 40-year-old Karbala resident, as he walked in a colorful procession. Under Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime, Shiite celebrations were tightly controlled and self-flagellation was banned. "This is a blessing from God. I have been coming here for more than 20 years. The difference between now and last year is the same as the difference between the earth and the sky," said Baghdad resident Abed Hasan Hussein al-Ataby. Next to the shrine, boys as young as 6 beat their backs with chains in a show of remorse for Imam Hussein's death. Behind them, rows of men pounded their chests in unison. The ceremony culminates on Tuesday, when more than 2 million people, including at least 100,000 Iranians, are expected to gather in the city. "Finally I'm here. After years of preventing us from coming, he (Saddam Hussein) is gone and we are free to visit and pray," said Anwar Sabah Jaafar, 21, of Isfahan, Iran. To Go To Top

JEWISH HEROS Posted by Shoshana Tsivya, March 1, 2004.

I am sending this email to everyone I know and then some. I would really appreciate it if you would forward it to those you know as well and so on. The other night I had the privilege to sit on the Kiryat Arba bus with Sarah Nachshon. Sarah Nachshon is a lovely, humble lady to whom anyone who appreciates that we are able to pray at Maarat HaMachpellah with our fathers and mothers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rifka, and Leah, owes a debt of gratitude. Hebron was practically given back to the Jewish people through the heroics of this lady. I will share with you 2 famous stories about Sarah. However, I am told there are endless stories in which she selflessly fought for Hebron to be returned to the Jewish people. After the Hebron massacre in 1929, the Jewish cemetery in Hebron was closed. Arabs used the holy cemetery where many great Rabbis are buried as a vegetable garden. In 1975, Sarah and her family were living in Kiryat Arba since no Jews were permitted to live in Hebron. Tragedy struck and her 3 month old son, Avraham, suddenly died. She decided that her son would be buried in the Hebron cemetery. An entourage of cars made there way through Hebron towards the cemetery. The soldiers stationed in Hebron asked what to do and they were told to stop these people. When they tried to stop the group, Sarah got out of the car while holding her dead child. She said that if they couldn't drive they would walk to the cemetery. Everyone began following her. The soldiers were so moved by the sight of this Jewish mother with her child, that they too joined Sarah to the cemetery. The group dug the grave for her son and, as she buried her child, she stated, "Four thousand years ago our Patriarch Abraham purchased Hebron for the Jewish People by burying his wife Sarah here. Tonight Sarah is repurchasing Hebron for the Jewish People by burying her son Avraham here." This heroic act resurrected the ancient and holy cemetery of Hebron. As Sarah told me this story personally (I had only heard it 3rd person before this bus ride) she explained that there is a Gemara about someone looking for a city. He asks, "How will I know when I have arrived at the city?" The answer was, "When you see a cemetery, you will know you are near a city. Where there is a cemetery, there is a city." In 1979, Sarah participated in another tremendously heroic act. And, as she told me this story (again, I had heard this story 3rd person, however, hearing it from her directly was really something special) she stated that she believes in the merit of re-establishing the Hebron cemetery. Hebron was once again able to become a city for the Jewish people. This is the story of Beit Hadassah. Up until 1929, Beit Hadassah was the only hospital in the area. It catered to both the Jewish and arab populations. There was considered "shalom" between the Jews and arabs. Rumor had it that the arabs were planning a massacre but the Jews refused to believe such a thing and refused to accept fire arms fearing this would "incite" the arabs. Unfortunately, the Jews were terribly mistaken and a horrific massacre occurred in Hebron, including the destruction of the Beit Hadassah hospital and the Jews who were hiding there. After that, no Jews were permitted to live in Hebron. In 1979, a group of women and children, 50 in all, including Sarah Nachshon and her children, snuck into Beit Hadassah in the middle of the night. There was no water or electricity and the arabs had destroyed all the windows and doors. As one can imagine, it was a total mess. In the morning, the army heard singing from the building. When they went to check what was going on they found the women and children. The army asked Begin what to do. At that time, the army wouldn't touch women and children. The army was told the women can stay but no one can go in or out. They were hoping that eventually all would tire. Well, the women and children didn't tire and, to make a fascinating story very short, the women remained in Beit Hadassah for 10 months, without their husbands, with no running water and no electricity. On Friday nights, men would come to sing for the women and make kiddush. Unfortunately, one Friday night 6 Jewish men were murdered by arab monsters. After that, the government permitted Jews to permanently move into Beit Hadassah. Today, Hebron has about 800 Jews living there and Maarat HaMachpellah is available to all of us to pray for ourselves and those we love. All this is greatly in part to Sarah Nachshon heroic acts. I am telling you this because after she shared these stories with me, at my request, she happened to mention that she was quite tired because last week her apartment burned down. She has no insurance and no money to properly fix the place up. Sarah's husband is a famous artist named Baruch Nachshon. His artwork is truly magnificent. I told her I would see what I could do to raise funds to help her. She stated in her whole life she has refused to accept charity. However, if people would purchase her husbands' artwork, that would be a great help to the family. Then, both her family would benefit and the buyer would greatly benefit by receiving a truly beautiful piece of artwork. Many of her husbands' lithographs and original paintings were destroyed in the fire. However, by going to www.Chabad-Hebron.com and clicking on the top right where it says "The art of Baruch Nachshon from Hebron" and then clicking in the middle of the page "to enter click here" you can view his beautiful pictures. I don't know the cost of original paintings. However, Baruch asked me to tell people that they now have a special way of printing his oil paintings on canvas which costs $350 and look almost like an original. He has some lithographs left as well. There is an email address at the bottom of the page which displays his artwork. Please write to that address to inquire about any picture you might be interested in purchasing. All purchases can be shipped. These pictures will make very special Pesach or wedding gifts or, perhaps a group of people can join together to purchase a picture of their shul or school. It truly is a very big mitzvah to help this family to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude. Sincere thanks and best wishes, Tsivya This was distributed to the Communaute-Juive-France. Their website address is http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/Communaute-Jeuve-France To Go To Top

'SHOCKING' OMISSION BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Posted by Honest Reportng, March 1, 2004.

On Feb. 26, the IDF arrested three Palestinian boys - aged 12, 13, and 15 - armed with homemade weapons and attempting to infiltrate Israel from the West Bank. The boys told police that they were trying to reach the Israeli town of Afula, where they were planning to open fire on civilians, then die as "martyrs." No observer of Palestinian society could be surprised by this event. Besides being regularly used as guinea pigs by terrorist groups, Palestinian children are raised in a culture that gloamorizes violence at every turn, encouraging active participation in suicide terror from the youngest age. Yet in covering the arrest of these three young boys, Associated Press includes no reference whatsoever to Palestinian cultural encouragement of child terrorism - and actually goes a step further, describing the boys' act as "sparking horror" and "shock" among Palestinians that such a thing could occur: In an article headlined "Use of Young Recruits Upsets Palestinians," AP reports that [13-year old] Tarek's parents were outraged and criticized Islamic Jihad for recruiting youngsters for an attack that would likely lead to their deaths... the ages of the Tubas youths was especially shocking for many... [they] found it hard to reconcile their image of their children with that of militants. Then AP quotes the official PA position: "That's absolutely unacceptable," said Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat. "Our children should have hope and a future and should not be suicide bombers. We want them to be doctors and engineers." Does AP seriously believe that an intelligent reader is convinced that Palestinian parents and officials are "shocked" by child violence? While American kids collect baseball cards, Palestinian kids eagerly collect "terrorist cards." MEMRI documents regular PA sermons urging children to blow themselves up while "plunging into the midst of the Jews." And Itamar Marcus recently testified to the US Senate on the systematic indoctrination of young Palestinian children - through official PA schoolbooks, public events, television, and even music videos - to become suicide terrorists "for the sake of Allah." What conclusion can be drawn? Perhaps AP is woefully ignorant of the constant brainwashing of Palestinian children to seek religious "martyrdom" through suicide terror. Alternatively, AP's complete omission of key context - while presenting the child violence as a shocking surprise for Palestinian parents and officials - is a blatant violation of media objectivity, effectively covering up for Palestinian society's appalling mistreatment of children. Honest Reporting monitors the media for inaccuracy and unfairness in how they report the news about ISrael. Ther website address is http://www.honestreporting.com To Go To Top

THOSE WHO CRY WITH ONE EYE Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, March 1, 2004.

Dear friends, Those of you who are disturbed by the morality of targeted pre-emptive killings, should read the following article by Asa Kasher, which appeared on the Haaretz website (http://www.com). As my friend Linda writes: "We are in an unenviable position for any people, in that entire nations that are our neighbors make no bones about wanting us (Israel) dead and gone. We are in the unenviable position for a moral people in having to chose between our own deaths and the deaths of others." As I mentioned many times in my own bulletins, the Arab side is not devoting too much energy and efforts on morality questions. The writer, Asa Kasher, is the Laura Schwartz-Kipp Chair in Professional Ethics and Philosophy of Practice at Tel Aviv University. Here's the problem. You tell me what its moral solution is. A person is busy making practical preparations to perpetrate a terrorist attack in Israel. Dozens of Israelis are liable to be murdered in such an attack. If the person preparing the attack is not preempted, it is almost certain the murder will take place. There is definite information that the person is now in a certain house in a town near Gaza City. It's known without a doubt that several of his accomplices are with him, as are some members of his family. It's possible to try to apprehend the person alive. For that, it will be necessary to capture a large part of the town. In such an action, both soldiers and townspeople are liable to be killed. The very attempt to seize the area reduces the prospect of arresting the person. It's possible to strike at him from the air, without risking soldiers, by hitting the house with one heavy bomb. Using this method, there is an almost certain prospect of hitting the person. By the same token, the other people in the house are also almost certain to be hit. There is a low probability that people outside the house will be hurt. The house can be attacked from the air, without putting soldiers at risk, by means of a series of strikes on the house, using a number of small bombs. With this method, the prospect of hitting the person is reduced. The chance that the other people in the house will be hurt is also correspondingly reduced. The possibility that people outside the house will be hurt is greater. This is a tragic situation. Every solution involves the death of innocent people. Therefore, the moral solution also creates a queasy feeling. In light of the problem, many responses are in the nature of evasive sophistry. Some will say, "this is not the problem," that the problem is completely different, and will absolve themselves irresponsibly of the need to supply an answer. Others will utter the cliche, "The end of the occupation will be the end of terrorism." What does that say to us about the mortal danger facing us from the terrorist at this moment? And, as we know, Hamas leaders, such as Abdel Aziz Rantisi and his ilk, promise us terrorism as long as we are here. Fatuous remarks will not make the problem go away. There are also self-righteous reactions, from both the left and the right, which focus solely on the victims of one method of action. The self-righteous reaction from the left sees only innocent Palestinians who are being hurt; the self-righteous reaction from the right sees only Israelis being murdered in terrorist attacks. Neither reaction is moral. The moral person observes the totality of the dangers in the situation. The moral person does not observe with one eye and does not cry with one eye. A case in point is the journalist Reuven Pedatzur, who in this paper (February 24) attacked an article co-written by Major General Amos Yadlin and me entitled "Moral Combat Against Terror" (in the journal National Security). Pedatzur hurls incorrect allegations about my work and my positions on various issues but this is not the place to correct them. Pedatzur is concerned about the fate of Palestinian "infants, women and the elderly." That's fine. Yadlin and I are also concerned about the fate of children, men and the non-elderly, as well as about the fate of Israelis, Jews and Arabs, who are murdered in terrorist attacks. For Pedatzur there is no terrorism, no murder of Israelis, no obligation of the state to protect the lives of its citizens against terrorists. One eye is closed, one eye is not crying. The moral response is by its nature neither evasive nor self-righteous. The State of Israel, as a democracy, has the duty to provide its citizens with effective protection of their lives and must give expression to human dignity of all human beings, even if they are strangers or hostile. In light of this tragic dilemma, it is the duty of the State of Israel to eliminate the danger to the life of its citizens while making every effort to minimize the harm to Palestinians who are not involved in terrorism. That is how we resolve every dilemma morally, including the tragic dilemma before us. A democratic state must strive sincerely and resolutely to protect its citizens, not only in the immediate range, which requires preemptive operations, but in longer ranges, as well, which oblige political efforts to diminish the conflict. I will conclude on a personal note. I have been lecturing in the Israel Defense Forces's colleges and in other units - too many to count - for decades. The commanding officers have always given me the feeling that they want to hear my unadulterated opinion, freely, professionally and responsibly. They are under no obligation to agree with it, and I am under no obligation to defend them. When my view is accepted, I am pleased. When my position is not accepted and I am not convinced by an alternative position, I continue to express my opinion in every proper forum. In contrast to those who feel a sacred duty to identify with the Palestinian narrative, with every bombast and every bomb blast, I am free to work out my opinion on the basis of the steadfast principles of morality, on the basis of the steadfast principles of military ethics. Yuval Zaliouk write the Truth Provider essays. To subscribe, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

BARUCH GOLDSTEIN AND HEBRON - TEN YEARS LATER Posted by Ariel Natan Pasko, March 1, 2004.

What really happened ten years ago, in Hebron, at the Cave of Machpela - the Tomb of the Patriarchs - or as the Arabs call it - the Ibrahimi Mosque? The short answer everyone "knows," is that Dr. Baruch Goldstein carried out a massacre on the Jewish Holiday of Purim, Feb. 25, 1994. But a new study by Rabbi Dr. Chaim Simons, entitled, "Did or Did Not Dr. Baruch Goldstein Massacre 29 Arabs?" has just appeared on the Internet, at: http://www.geocities.com/chaimsimons/baruchgoldstein, for the tenth anniversary of the event. In it, he questions the "common knowledge" and raises some serious issues that need to be addressed. Lest one think that Rabbi Dr. Simons is some right-wing crackpot, his thoroughly researched work of about 150 pages, includes 714 footnotes and a bibliography of over 150 books, journal and newspaper articles, interviews, archival records, and quotations from legal sources from Israel, England, America, Canada, Australia, and Jewish Law. According to the biographical information on his website, Rabbi Dr. Simons holds a Bachelor of Science degree with First Class Honors in Chemistry and Physics from the University of London and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Chemistry from the same University. He also holds a Bachelors degree in Educational Technology. He possesses a Rabbinical Diploma and is a qualified teacher with decades of experience in education, which includes the setting and marking of matriculation exams in Israel. Rabbi Dr. Simons has written a number of books and booklets on a variety of subjects, including "International Proposals to Transfer Arabs from Palestine 1895-1947: A Historical Survey" published by KTAV (1988), probably the most thorough academic review of the issue and also available on his site. So, he's a serious scholar. Rabbi Dr. Simons, states in the book's dedication, "In the interests of truth and justice, a Commission of Inquiry should be established - the composition of which to be acceptable both to the Israeli authorities and to the Goldstein family - whose sole function would be to determine whether the killings by Dr. Baruch Goldstein should be classed as a massacre of Arabs or a pre-emptive strike to prevent a massacre of Jews." Rabbi Dr. Simons reviews the events leading up to Goldstein's attack. He raises the issue of Goldstein's prior knowledge of intelligence warnings that Arabs planned a massacre of Jews - Goldstein was an emergency doctor for the Kiryat Arba Terrorist Attack Response Team - to take place that Purim morning in the Cave of Machpela. He Discusses whether Goldstein "planned" an attack on Arabs or "responded" to what he saw as the Israeli Army's indifference to an impending attack on Jews. He questions, "What if a Government Fails to Act?" and then analyzes the legal status of "Killings Sanctioned By Law," discussing "killing as an act of self-defense," "killing due to necessity," and "killing during a war". Rabbi Dr. Simons concludes that, "The killings by Baruch Goldstein could possibly come under one of these headings or a combination of two or even all three." But then stresses "that I do not offer any conclusions on this question." Some of the more interesting points Rabbi Dr. Simons makes in his book include his description of the near "lynch" atmosphere in the media and by Israeli government officials just after the incident, describing it with the value-laden term "massacre," before a full inquiry of the events could take place. Rabbi Dr. Simons prefers to use the more neutral term "killing" throughout his work. Rabbi Dr. Simons works on the assumption that Baruch Goldstein went out to kill that morning, as did the Shamgar Commission, which shows the slanted nature of commission's investigation. Several other theories of what took place that morning exist: that Goldstein was in fact attacked first and responded in self-defense - the only eyewitnesses are the Arabs that were involved in the event; that the Israeli Army passively let him carry out the killings, to avoid the tragedy of an attack on the Jews of Hebron; or as the Arabs claim, the Israeli Army was involved in the attack itself. None of these alternatives were investigated by the commission. Rabbi Dr. Simons takes issue with the workings of the Shamgar Commission - the commission of inquiry set up to investigate the event - itself. He points out their refusal to take testimony in multiple instances. He then shows the biased composition of the commission including a known left-wing activist and "Peace Now" supporter, Professor Menachem Ya'ari, and an Arab Judge, Abed el-Rahman Zouabi. Rabbi Dr. Simons states, "if we study the minutes of the proceedings of the Shamgar Commission, we can see that three of its five members - Judge Abed el-Rahman Zouabi, Lieutenant General (res.) Moshe Levy, and Professor Menachem Ya'ari - were describing Baruch Goldstein as a "murderer" even before they had heard all the evidence...It was not just a stray remark by one of the members of the Shamgar Commission. Baruch Goldstein was called a "murderer" no fewer than 17 times by Judge Zouabi, 6 times by Moshe Levi and twice by Menachem Ya'ari [at the beginning stages of the hearings]...It is a cardinal principle of law that a person is innocent until proved guilty. If a majority of the Commission had already decided that Baruch Goldstein was a murderer before hearing all of the evidence, then the objectivity of the section of the Report dealing with Baruch Goldstein is surely put in doubt!" The Shamgar Commission's Report was only published in Hebrew and to help facilitate the international media's reporting on it, the Israeli Foreign Ministry translated selected excerpts. Rabbi Dr. Simons also refers to Haggai Segal's article, entitled "A failure to inform", which appeared in the Israeli newspaper the Jerusalem Post on July 11, 1994. Segal wrote about the commission's findings, pointing out facts that the media conveniently ignored. Segal wrote, "The public doesn't know that the commission charged a key witness from the Wakf [Islamic Trust] with giving false testimony, expressed an understanding of the motivations of the Jews in Hebron, indirectly rebuked Yitzchak Rabin, and even mentioned the purchase of the Cave of the Patriarchs by Abraham from a local merchant...[The Commission considered that] 'the release of the terrorists [over 1000 in May 1985] raised tension between the Jewish residents and the Arab population of the area. Oddly, we didn't hear this quote on the radio. And, wonder of wonders: it didn't appear in the press. For some reason, but apparently not by chance, the media have failed to mention the astounding statistics for Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] collected by the commission [regarding the countless attacks by Arabs against Jews]...An additional section, as yet uncited, verifies the claim of the residents of Kiryat Arba that Goldstein acted fearing a massacre from the other side...Not even one reporter quoted the commission's sensational recommendation that the intifada be crushed." Rabbi Dr. Simons brings another interesting fact to light. Besides the voluminous testimony of over nine officers from the defense establishment - to the Shamgar Commission - on their intelligence reports for two and a half weeks prior to Purim about a planned Arab attack on the Jews of Hebron, and the numerous other sources he quotes that corroborate that even the mainstream Israeli media reported on the impending danger. A leaflet was being circulated in Hebron by Hamas, saying that on the 25th or 26th of February - the 25th being Purim - a terrorist attack would take place in Hebron. This leaflet was referred to in an article in the newspaper Yediot Aharonot, the morning of February 25th - note, this was printed before Goldstein's act - which said that the Arab residents of Hebron were notified by means of leaflets, loudspeakers and inscriptions on walls to stock up with food in anticipation of a long curfew which would follow a gigantic attack against the Jews by Hamas. The existence of this leaflet, which had been circulated in Hebron by Hamas, was also reported in the Shamgar Commission Report. Rabbi Dr. Simons informs us that in the week prior to that Purim morning, there were several incidents of Arab mobs at the Cave of Machpela shouting "Itbach al-Yahood - Slaughter the Jews!" This included threats to the Jews there, being spat upon, and struck. Rabbi Dr. Simons describes an incident that happened five days before Purim, when a group of 120 Americans went to visit the Cave of Machpela. Although the soldiers had insisted that Arabs not go into the courtyard of the Cave whilst the Jews were there, a group of Arabs - between 50 and 100 - succeeded in bursting into the courtyard screaming "Itbach al-Yahood". At that time, the Jews were peacefully praying the evening service. One of the Americans present, referred to three other occasions during the days before Purim - twice on the Sabbath and once on the following Wednesday - when he visited the Cave of Machpela and was subjected to Arab rioting, insults and, on two of these occasions, the yelling of "Itbach al-Yahood." He added that on each visit he was personally threatened and struck by Arabs. He wrote a letter to the Jerusalem Post about his experiences - that was published - and a Bar-Ilan University professor submitted the "letter to the editor" in a letter to the commission. The Shamgar Commission did not invite the American who was attacked to give evidence. Other elements of the picture that Rabbi Dr. Simons informs us about include, that the metal detector at the East Gate where most of the Arabs entered that Friday Purim morning, was damaged the night before. That an unusually large number of Arabs came to the Machpela that Friday - some 500 men and 300 women - only a handful of the men were searched, but not one of the women. And that after the Goldstein incident, three automatic weapons were found in the Machpela - other than Goldstein's weapon - including one wrapped in an Arab Keffiya (scarf). All these elements, point to a planned attack on the Jews at the Cave of Machpela that Purim morning. Rabbi Dr. Simons also raises the issues of how Baruch Goldstein died and asks why haven't the Arabs involved in his murder been prosecuted. He points out that the pathologist's report says that numerous blows to the head, from all directions - from long blunt instruments - caused Goldstein's death. It also speaks of a smashed in skull, damage to the brain, broken ribs and a broken left arm. In her evidence to the Shamgar Commission, Goldstein's widow, Miriam, said that the face was so mutilated that even Baruch's brother had difficulty in identifying him. Rabbi Dr. Simons then asks, "Why was the body in such a state? Did the Arabs have to do all this as an act of self-defense?" He states "the answer can be found in statements made by Arabs who were in the Isaac Hall at the time." According to Rabbi Dr. Simons, a Muslim worshipper, Awad Abu-S'nina, present in the Machpela, testified to B'Tzelem - an organization that describes itself as "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories" - that while Goldstein was changing the magazine in his rifle, Awad grabbed the weapon and immediately his father, Ayub Abu-S'nina, took the weapon from him and threw it aside. B'Tzelem's report was handed over to the Shamgar Commission Rabbi Dr. Simons continues, when questioned by the police, another Muslim worshipper, Al-Mutlab Natshe, described how about ten Arabs then fell on Goldstein, knocked him onto the ground and beat him to death with metal poles. A 12-year-old boy, Ala S'eid Ali Ashur, stated that a large number of Arabs beat Goldstein with a fire extinguisher and the metal poles from the room dividers. Another Muslim worshipper, Ashraf Karaki told the police that he saw Baruch Goldstein lying dead on the floor with a lot of blood on his neck and head and he also saw a large metal pole on his body and a large number of similar type poles around him. Testimony also comes from Israeli Army Private Avihai Zahala, who saw over the closed-circuit television system operating in the Cave of Machpela, that after the shooting ended, about three Arabs with metal poles going towards the area of the Hall where Goldstein was killed. Rabbi Dr. Simons then concludes, "From all this we can see that Baruch Goldstein was beaten to death after his rifle had been taken from him. This fact is confirmed in two places in the Shamgar Report, and this Report specifically states that this was done by Moslem worshippers. Furthermore, the official death certificate issued by the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, states the cause of death as murder." The police investigated the murder of Baruch Goldstein and by December 1994, they reached the conclusion that he had been murdered in cold blood by Muslim worshippers after his weapon had been taken away. One of the Arabs present that Purim in the cave of Machpela was a collaborator with the Israeli authorities. This collaborator knows the names of the Arabs who murdered Baruch Goldstein and also to which organization they belong. But State Attorney Dorit Benish - later appointed a judge to the Israeli Supreme Court - decided not to open criminal proceedings against the Arabs who were accused of murdering Baruch Goldstein. In June 1995, the Legal Adviser to the Government, Michael Ben-Yair, endorsed Benish's decision. Rabbi Dr. Simons points out that, "To date, no Arab has been charged with Baruch Goldstein's murder. This can be contrasted with the case of a Jewish settler, Yoram Skolnik, who killed an Arab terrorist after he had been disarmed. Skolnik was immediately arrested, charged, brought to trial and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. Later, President Ezer Weizman reduced Skolnik's sentence first to 15 years and then to 11 years. After serving 7 years, a parole board followed standard practice and took off one third of his remaining sentence for good behavior. This did not find favor with Meretz Knesset Member Zahava Galon who challenged the parole board's decision in the High Court, who then ruled that this decision was unacceptable. Yoram Skolnik thus remained in jail. To the best of my knowledge, Zahava Galon has never challenged the fact that the Arabs who murdered Baruch Goldstein have never been brought to trial!" Why haven't they? In a democracy, the law should be applied equally. As with most good research, Rabbi Dr. Simons raises many more questions than he answers. Although, I must tell you, he does quite a job of informing one of the facts, relating to before, during, and after the Goldstein incident. With the rise of vicious, unrelenting Arab terror against Jews in Israel these last few years, the events of the past take on new shades of meaning. I feel Rabbi Dr. Simons' book sheds new light on the Goldstein incident, and is well worth reading for those who seek the truth about what really happened and it's surrounding circumstances. In conclusion, I want to point out that Rabbi Dr. Simons states, "I myself wish to stress that I strongly deplore and condemn any form of killing of innocent people whether Jewish or non-Jewish, not sanctioned by law, or indeed any form of injury or harassment of such people not sanctioned by law. However, I can pass no judgment on Dr. Baruch Goldstein since the incident has never been adjudicated. As was quite rightly repeatedly pointed out when a number of prominent people were being accused of various crimes, one can criticize or condemn their actions only after a court of law has found them guilty..." Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst and consultant. He has a Master's Degree in International Relations and Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites, in newspapers, and can be read at: www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko [Ed note: Sergio Tezza (HaDaR) writes about Rav Dr. Simon's article: "I personally became acquainted with many other details, including about the weapons found in Mearat Ha-Makhpela after the fact; and the "top secret" info (published in the US and forbidden in Israel) that among the Arabs killed by Dr. Goldstein, ZTUQ"L, HI"D, there were 12 wanted Hamas terrorists NOT from Hebron; and a long Shabbath discussion he had with his friend Mordechai Lapid, ZTUQ"L, HI"D, before Mordechai was murdered with his son Shalom, ZTUQ"L, HI"D, about the need to "hit the Arabs hard, now, before they kill us all like sheep", which Mordechai said, contrary to Baruch's analysis, was not the time yet, because the people would not understand, but Baruch said that the chillul Hashem was too big to just stand idle...and MANY more things..."] To Go To Top

UNQUALIFIED ZIONIST ADVOCATES Posted by Steve Klein, March 1, 2004.

I've given this a little thought over the years and I've had to come to some kind of a definition to suit myself and my own conscience. I suspect that few will agree with me. On the 'World Zionist Organization' web site under the heading "Who is a Zionist?" they write: 'A definition such as "the right of the Jewish people to all of Eretz Israel" would place someone like Ben-Gurion outside the bounds of Zionism, for he was prepared to relinquish those parts of Eretz Israel taken in the Six-Day War.' So that makes things simple. Almost every Jew who supports Israel to one degree or another, considers himself or herself a Zionist. When Ben-Gurion changed his once deeply held moral belief in "the right of the Jewish people to all of Eretz Israel," by his own admission he was no longer within the bounds of authentic Zionism. Am I wrong? For me an authentic Zionist would uphold the right of the Jewish people to all of Eretz Israel. And that is that. ----- Original Message ----- SELF-CRIPPLING ZIONIST ADVOCACY An American Jew complained to the "Jerusalem Post" that in defending Zionism to audiences in the San Francisco area, he feels undermined when Israel allocates funds for settlements in Judea-Samaria and the audience asks him about "a land grab from the Palestinians" (i.e., Arabs). He should tell them that there never was a Palestinian people or state. The territories are part of the Jewish homeland. The word "settler" was mistranslated and should be "inheritor," referring to the Jewish heritage there. It behooves defenders of Zionism to learn what Zionism is and what was its history. Perhaps his notion of it is too politically correct. If he really understood it, he might prefer his modern Western values to his ancient Jewish ones. When those values clash, I find the Jewish ones more just and profound. The Western ones are less ethical. To Go To Top

POLL: PALESTINIAN CHILDREN FAVOR DISCRIMINATING AGAINST WOMEN AND MINORITIES Posted by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, March 1, 2004.

A poll of Palestinian high school students' attitudes towards women and minorities has revealed "alarming" opinions, according to the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam. The poll revealed a strong rejection of equality for women in society, with as many as 73 per cent of the students feeling that women should be limited to "traditional occupations." Opinions regarding political involvement are also problematic. A full 52 per cent reject a woman's right to "have position on a Municipal Local Council," while 23 per cent would deny women the right to vote in elections. Limiting women's freedom is likewise seen as acceptable by significant numbers of children. A third of Palestinian children surveyed believe that hitting a woman is "permissible under specified circumstances," and 23 per cent reject a woman's right to chose a husband "freely." Attitudes to minorities are also discriminatory. Sixty per cent of the students polled are unwilling to have a friend from a different religion, while 24 per cent do not want a friend with a different skin color. The poll was conducted by the ALPHA Institute for Research and Statistics, and was distributed by the Center for Women's Affairs in Gaza. The following are the results of the poll: [Al-Ayyam, Feb. 19, 2004] Palestinian Children's attitudes to women and minorities: Limiting Women's Occupations "73% [Grades 9 and 12] agree to limit women's work to traditional occupations." "16% [Grade 12] support women's right to work as taxi drivers." Limiting Women's Freedom "33% [Grade 12] believe that hitting a woman is permissible under specified circumstances." "23% [Grade 9] do not accept a woman has the right to chose a life companion freely." "32% [Grade 9] do not accept a woman's right to chose her own clothes." Limiting Women's Political Involvement "52% [Grade 9] do not accept that women can have positions on a Municipal Local Council." "37% [Grade 9] do not accept women's right to vote in elections." Children's attitudes to different races, religion, sex and handicapped "60% [Grade 12] expressed unwillingness to choose a friend who is not of their religion." "24% [Grade 12] do not welcome the idea of friendship with others, who have a different skin color." "51% [Grade 12] are not willing to choose a friend who is not of their sex." "9% [Grade 12] do not welcome the idea of friendship with people from other countries." "No more than 60% [Grade 9 and 12] favor handicapped rights in the areas of occupation, education, and presenting candidacy for elections." Itamar Marcus is director of PMW -Palestinian Media Watch - (http://www.pmw.org.il). Barbara Crook, a writer and university lecturer based in Ottawa, Canada, is PMW's North American representative. To subscribe to PMW's reports, send an empty e-mail to reports-subscribe@pmw.org.il To Go To Top

EVEN MOST ZIONISTS ARE ANTI-ZIONIST Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 1, 2004.

Very few of us still believe that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people. Most Zionists want to share it with the Arabs. They don't realize that that negates morally Jewish claims to the area. They overlook the Arab refusal to share anything with anybody they cannot dominate. As one example, an American Jew complained to the Jerusalem Post that in defending Zionism to audiences in the San Francisco area, he feels undermined when Israel allocates funds for settlements in Judea-Samaria and the audience asks him about "a land grab from the Palestinians." (i.e., Arabs). He should tell them that there never was a Palestinian people or state. The territories are part of the Jewish homeland. The word "settler" was mistranslated and should be "inheritor," referring to the Jewish heritage there. It behooves defenders of Zionism to learn what Zionism is and what was its history. Perhaps his notion of it is too politically correct. If he really understood it, he might prefer his modern Western values to his ancient Jewish ones. When those values clash, I find the Jewish ones more just and profound. The Western ones are less ethical. In the Mideast, the Arabs are in jihad against the Christians, too, and act as overlords towards non-Arab Muslim minorities such as the Berbers and the Kurds. The Arabs are undemocratic, deceitful, intolerant, and terrorist in particular and violent in general. To suggest sharing the country as soon as the Arabs cease merely their terrorism, invites continued strife. A willingness to share keeps Israel from asserting and implementing its territorial claim and settling much of the Arab-Israel conflict aside from jihad, which cannot be settled territorially. This willingness bolsters talk of "Arab land." "Arab land" is a clever term that confuses legal and illegal individual possession of land with national claims to THE Land. The US policy of not recognizing Jewish historical claims to Yesha and even Jerusalem, a policy contrary to the Mandate that the UN had adopted, calls Yesha "Arab land," because the US would like it to become a land only for Arabs. A territory's legal status IS NOT BASED on what foreigners WOULD LIKE IT TO BE. It is improper for them to condemn Israeli defensive measures and exercise of legal territorial claims that prevent formation or reduce the size of a "future" PLO state that currently has no rights. Mr. Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top