COME TO THE ANTI-DISENGAGEMENT PROTEST RALLY IN CRAWFORD TX APRIL 11, 2005 Posted by Unity Coalition for Israel, March 31, 2005.

YOU ARE INVITED and URGED TO ATTEND AN ANTI-DISENGAGEMENT PROTEST RALLY Monday, April 11th, 2005, 1:00pm - 3:30pm Crawford, Texas Guests from Israel include: Victims of terror, think-tank members, college professors, and other outstanding spokesmen who will be flying to Crawford direct from Israel Join them in an effort to save the 8,500 Jewish residents who are being dispossessed in Gaza and Northern Samaria. Rally busses are available from Colorado, Oklahoma, Tyler, Texas, the Dallas airport and several other locations. For further information, call Pastor Vineyard at 405-943-3326 or email: whbc@windsorhills.org to RSVP By following an inconsistent strategy against terror in Israel, the U.S faces military defeat at the very frontline of the global war on terrorism. A TWO STATE SOLUTION IS NO SOLUTION!!! Download the "UCI Declaration of Concerns: Road Blocks to Arab/Israeli Peace" from http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/aboutUs/doc.pdf The Unity Coalition for Israel (http://www.israelunitycoalition.org) is "the largest worldwide coalition of Jewish and Christian organizations, with more than 200 groups representing millions of people dedicated to Israel. Though we have many different backgrounds, we have one common goal: A Safe and Secure Israel." "Israel is not just a Jewish issue. Millions of Christians resolutely endorse the principle of peace with security for the state of Israel. Because we work closely together and speak with a united voice, our message is being heard!" To Go To Top

AFSI/ZOA CHIZUK MISSION TO ISRAEL - MAY 29-JUNE 7, 2005 Posted by AFSI, March 31, 2005.

Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI and the Zionist Organization of America/ZOA are pleased to announce that spaces are almost completely filled for their Spring mission to Israel which will be held from May 29-June 7, 2005. We will depart from JFK & Newark airports at 2:30 PM on Sunday, May 29, arriving in Ben Gurion airport at 8 AM. Our armored bus will meet us, driven by our trusty driver, Ami, and Israel Danziger, leader of Mishmeret Yesha, who will be our guide. We will head directly to the northern Shomron, visiting the endangered communities of Sanur, Mevo Dotan, Kadim and Ganim. We;ll stay overnight at the beautiful Ashel HaShomron hotel in Ariel where we can enjoy a swim in the beautiful outdoor pool. The next day, Tuesday, May 31, Izzy Danziger will take us to sites in Itamar and Yitzhar where we can witness the training of the rapid response teams that serve the individual communities, in coordination with the IDF. We will try to include as many of the Shomron communities as possible in this visit. Overnight again at Ashel HaShomron, and then on Wednesday, June 1, we will travel to Gush Katif /Gaza for two nights at the Midreshet HaDarom. It is our intention to visit all the communities within the bloc, in order to show our strong opposition to the Sharon expulsion plans. If we discover that we absolutely cannot get into the Gush because of military closures, we will activate our back-up plan. On Friday, June 3, we will visit the holy city of Hebron and its surrounding communities, pray in Kever Rachel in Bethlehem, and then head to Jerusalem, where we will enjoy a beautiful Shabbat. The Kings Hotel in Jerusalem will be our headquarters for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. During our time in Jerusalem we will have tours of east Jerusalem with Dan Luria of Ateret Cohanim, Chaim Silberstein of Uvneh Yerushalayim, and Arye King of Maaley Hazaytim. We will also arrange for early morning visits to the Temple Mount for those who are interested. The Yom Yerushalayim ceremonies begin on Sunday night, June 5, to commemorate the reunification of Jerusalem. We will participate in the parade and continue with the ceremonies and celebrations on June 6. As always, a host of distinguished speakers will be included in the AFSI/ZOA program. On our November trip, some of the speakers we heard were: Itamar Marcus, Moshe Feiglin, David Wilder, Daniella Weiss, Ruth Matar, Dror Vanunu, Moshe Saperstein, MK Benny Elon, MK Dr. Arieh Eldad, and Josh Reinstein, spokesman for MK Yuri Shtern. Once again, Rabbi Bruce Rudolph will be making the flight and hotel arrangements for the group, and also consulting on the itinerary plans with Helen Freedman, Glenn Richter, and Charlotte Wahle, the tour planners. The cost of the trip, including flight and hotels, all breakfasts, most dinners and some lunches, is $2000 per person, double occupancy, plus airport taxes ($77). Single occupancy additional cost is $200. Non-AFSI members will be charged an additional $100, unless they prefer to join the organization for the annual cost of $50 per family. Those who wish to make their own travel arrangements, and simply join us for the land part of the trip, are welcome to do so. The cost for the land only is $1000. Israelis, too, are invited to meet us at the airport when we arrive at Ben Gurion and join us for this important solidarity mission. But we must, of course, know about their participation in advance, and they will be charged the land costs. Participants may also extend their trips, or meet us in Israel. It is very important that we know of any deviations from the group travel plans. Please notify Bruce of your specific travel needs, including your preference for JFK or Newark departures and arrivals. His email is: brudolph@health.nyc.gov. Also, let us remind you that passports must have a six month leeway in order to be accepted. If your passport will expire within the next six months, you must renew before departing with us. Please be sure to give us your exact name as it appears on your passport. Another request is that you keep your luggage to a minimum. One bag and one carry-on per person is most desirable, since the bullet-proof buses have less luggage room than regular touring buses. Those interested in joining can learn more about our past missions by going to the AFSI website, www.afsi.org, and looking at the article and photos from the November, 2004 trip. Call AFSI at 212-828-2424 to make your reservation with a non-refundable $100 deposit no later than April 13, or email us at: afsi@rcn.com. Full payment will be required by May 2. Members may charge their costs on VISA or Mastercard. There are very few spaces left. We advise interested parties to sign up as soon as possible. There are those who have also expressed an interest in going with us and remaining in Gush Katif through June and July. Arrangements can be made for this extended stay. Please let us know if you wish to be included in the group that remains. Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI is a pro-active pro-Israel advocacy group. AFSI may be contacted by mail at 1623 Third Ave., Suite 205, New York, N.Y. 10128 (Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717); by email at afsi@rcn.com; or by accessing its website: www.afsi.org. Helen Freedman is Executive Director. To Go To Top

SAUDI ARABIA'S MOSLEM TERROR IS BEING IMPORTED INTO THE UNITED STATES! Posted by Women in Green, March 31, 2005.

What happened on 9/11 is going to happen in the United States again, unless steps are taken by the present government to prevent such re-occurrence. Saudi Arabia is one of the main sources of monies to build Moslem mosques throughout America. It also exports into the Moslem congregations in the United States the Saudi philosophy of a gradual takeover of America. The Bush family has close oil ties with the Saudis and that is indeed worrisome. Moreover, the former Secretary of State James Baker's able law firm represents the Saudis in the United States, and serves as a protective shield for the plans and ideas of that wealthy Arab Country. The Road Map Plan is essentially the Saudi Plan, and represents a threat to Israel's and the Holy Land's continued existence. Nevertheless, President George W. Bush has appointed James Baker to head a committee, without bothering to have Israel in any way consulted, in order to pressure Israel, not to obstruct Arafat's confidant Abu Mazen in any way. Abu Mazen, who is no different from Arafat except in appearance, is the co-founder of the PLO, whose Charter calls for the elimination of Israel. That is why it is so very important that you drop everything and come to the Protest Rally in Crawford Texas, on April 11, 2005, led by Pastor Jim Vineyard. (Tel. 405 943 3326) (email: whbc@windsorhills.org). President Bush will be meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Arik Sharon at his Ranch near Crawford on that day, and it is vital that there be a massive turnout protesting the American supported Plan of Ethnic Cleansing of Jews from their Biblical Promised Land. The Evangelical Christians were the decisive factor in electing George W. Bush to a second term. It is they, and only they, who can convince U.S President George W. Bush to change the State Department's and Baker's present policies with regard to Israel. The Holy Land should not, and must not, be taken over by the Moslems. The threat to the values of Western Civilization, nursed by anti-Bible Saudi Arabia, must be fought by anyone who wants the moral values of the Bible to survive. Arab terror and the anti-democratic values of Saudi Arabia must not be allowed to triumph. By having a mass turnout in Crawford, Texas, you will insure that the religious values of the Holy Bible will survive, and that there will be no ethnic cleansing of Jews from their Promised Land. 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

THE "CONTIGUITY DOUBLE STANDARD Posted by Bryna Berch, March 31, 2005.

This was written by Ricki Hollander and Gilead Ini, Senior Research Analysts, www.CAMERA.org After Israel approved building a new neighborhood in Ma'aleh Adumim, a few miles east of Jerusalem, many news reports indicated that such building is objectionable because it would prevent Palestinians from controlling "contiguous territory" in the West Bank, both cutting them off from Arab neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem and bisecting the northern and southern areas of the West Bank. These charges -- an extension of the accusation that Israel is trying to separate the Palestinians into "cantons" or "bantustans" -- are false. Moreover, they demonstrate a double standard in that they advocate contiguity for Palestinians by cutting off contiguity for Israelis. A striking double standard was demonstrated by a March 29, 2005 Ha'aretz editorial entitled "Provocation in Ma'aleh Adumim." The editorialist posited: "...it is difficult to accept the revelation that the government plans to build another 3,500 housing units in the area known as E-1, between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim, and thus obstruct the territorial contiguity needed for a Palestinian state." Acknowledging that "the chance that [Ma'aleh Adumim] will be evacuated is nil," he/she asserted that: "Logic says the area [between Ma'aleh Adumim and Jerusalem] should be preserved for Palestinian construction." In other words, Ma'aleh Adumim should be "cantonized" to allow the Palestinians more convenient passage through the West Bank and Jerusalem. The Ha'aretz editorial is clearly spelling out what others in the media only imply -- that Palestinian contiguity (in fact, not contiguity but convenience) should be preserved at the expense of Israeli contiguity. But even the question of contiguity for Palestinians is contrived. Palestinian contiguity in the West Bank would be no more cut off with the so-called E-1 corridor than would Israeli contiguity if Israel were to withdraw to its pre-1967 borders, even with slight modifications. As for Palestinian access to Jerusalem, it would not be precluded by Israel building in a corridor between Ma'aleh Adumim and Jerusalem. North-South Contiguity Laura King of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "The building project, [Palestinians] say, will not only cut East Jerusalem off from Palestinian communities in the West Bank, but will place a wide wedge of Jewish homes between the northern and southern West Bank.. That would be a blow to Palestinian hopes for controlling contiguous territory to form a nation." (3/22/05) [emphasis added] The Boston Globe's Dan Ephron asserted: "Critics of settlement expansion said the extension of Maaleh Adumim would nearly bisect the West Bank and seriously set back the Palestinian goal of establishing a contiguous independent state - an aim also articulated by President Bush." (3/22/05) [emphasis added] Greg Myre also touched on the idea in the New York Times, writing that "an expanded Maale Adumim would serve as a barrier between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank. Palestinians traveling between the two parts would face a lengthy detour..." (3/22/05) [emphasis added] The American Heritage Dictionary defines contiguous as continuous without a break or a continuous connection. Regarding Israel and the West Bank, the concept and interpretation of contiguity can best be understood by examining the map of the area. The black X marks the approximate location of the new neighborhood near Ma'aleh Adumim. To the west of the X is Jerusalem. The red line around the X is the planned route of the security barrier, which will include Ma'aleh Adumim and Jerusalem on the Israeli side. Those who charge that Israeli building in Ma'aleh Adumim, and the construction of the Israeli security barrier around the town, severs north-south contiguity disregard the fact that Palestinian-controlled areas would be connected by land east of Ma'aleh Adumim (marked on the map) that is at its narrowest point ~15 km wide. Again, the issue is convenience, not actual connection of the northern and southern areas, since the areas are not actually severed from each other. Moreover, Israel proposes to build tunnels or overpasses to obviate the need for Palestinians to detour to the east around Ma'aleh Adumim. Ironically, many of those who argue for greater contiguity between Palestinian areas, at the same time promote Israeli withdrawal to its pre-1967 boundaries, which (even with minor modifications) would confine Israel to a far less contiguous territory than that of the West Bank. As shown on the map above, the route necessary to travel between northern and southern Israel (e.g. from Arad to Beit Shean) is even more circuitous and at its narrowest, there is also a roughly 15 km wide strip of land between the Green Line (and the Security Fence) and the Mediterranean Sea (near Herzliya). Palestinians Are Not Cut Off From Eastern Jerusalem The Washington Post's John Ward Anderson has reported that building around Ma'aleh Adumim is, according to anti-settlement activists, "the final step in sealing off north and east Jerusalem from Palestinians living in the West Bank." (Feb. 7, 2005) This claim is also untrue. Access to Jerusalem through Abu Dis, Eizariya, Hizma and Anata is not prevented by the proposed neighborhood, nor would it be precluded even if there were a string of future neighborhoods that actually connected Ma'aleh Adumim to Jerusalem. Lee Green is with The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), which monitors the news and TV media for how fair they are in reporting on Israel. The website address is www.camera.org. To Go To Top

IDEAS, IDEAS, IDEAS Posted by Arieh Zaritsky, March 31, 2005.

From the Free Pollard organization (www.FreePollard.org): Tip to Sharon, who's about to visit Prez Bush: DO NOT RETURN WITHOUT POLLARD. Bring Pollard with you. From Dror Vanunu, Gush Katif (a)   Consider moving to Gush Katif: MK Uri Ariel is joining Eitam and Eldad and is moving with his family to the Gush - http://www.a7.org/news.php?id=107660 (H) (b)   Jewish Supporter all around the world - please follow suit. To live in Gush Katif: Call (972) 08-6847.048 of fax 08-6845.128 (with your full name ID#, current address, children ages, preferred settlement, tel #). (c)    PLEASE, make efforts to fly to Israel before (IF!) the evil "Jews' Expulsion Project" starts (around July 25) and join the crowds who would come to bodily block it. (d)   If you are unable to come in person, PLEASE HELP otherwise: * Use the English website for Katif - www.katifund.org - for news etc, and contribute online donations * Tell us about any activities going on in your community for Gush Katif * Forward this message to your friends and add a link to our website. from tsvi november (tsvinovember@hotmail.com) Please consider taking every red cent ear-marked as foreign aid to Israel, the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA and use these monies to create a fund for the humane re-settlement and rehabilitation (i.e. education and training) of Arab Palestinian refugees, especially those residing in Gaza refugee camps. In addition, link foreign aid to Arab countries to the absorption of these refugees in Arab League states. This program will (1) not cost a penny more to US taxpayers than is currently being expended, (2) courageously tackle the most difficult Palestinian-Israeli issue, (3) have a direct positive impact on Israel's security and (4) defuse the demographic time bomb that constitutes the terror groups' (i.e. Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hizbullah) primary source of strength. Obviously, the entire Arab political leadership from Morocco to the Arabian Peninsula will strongly object to this initiative but going over their royal heads so as to directly help the common people (i.e. the refugees) will do wonders to advance (by example) the concept of democracy in the Arab world at the grassroots level. from Walter James O'Brien (w_obrien@earthlink.net): ...What is needed is an organized crime task force to root out all the "big fixes" and "easy money" deals in place between Arab terrorists and the Peresites which will kick in when the Frankenstinian state occurs. - Jimmy Hoffa did not die, his spirit of kickback and corruption lives on in the REAL Oslo Treaty. From Eliezar Abrahms (abrams32@telus.net): Read "Kick Your Victim Addiction. 12 Steps to Restoring Courage and Freedom" by Aaron Zelman & Claire Wolfe at http://jpfo.org/victimaddiction.htm Arieh Zaritsky is a professor in the Life Sciences Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (http://www.bgu.ac.il/life/Faculty/Zaritsky/index.htm). To Go To Top

IS AMERICA THE SS TITANIC? Posted by Joe Marzal, March 31, 2005.

Too many see the U.S. as Israel's last hope, its sole guarantor of security and survival. This is utterly foolishness and a deadly mistake. The warning signs are everywhere to see, that the unsinkable U.S. Superpower is slowly sinking. Have faith in G-d, ALONE. America has hit the Iceberg called 'Dividing up the Land of Israel.' This essay was written by Douglas Herman and appeared March 28, 2005 on the Strike The Root website. It is archived at http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/herman/herman8.html History's Enduring Morality Tale In 1912 the steamship Titanic was an enormous floating palace with many levels of society enclosed in a single vessel. The upper levels of the ship housed the wealthy and powerful. Below the richly furnished staterooms of the elite, the corresponding levels of society descended to the very bottom of the ship, where the lowest classes lived and worked. "At her launching in May 1911, the British press hailed the White Star Line's 46,000-ton superliner Titanic as "the Wonder Ship," the most stupendous, the most luxurious, the safest ship afloat," wrote Sir James Bisset. Despite the media rapture that heralded the Titanic as the most marvelous ship afloat, several of her crew deserted. "The rumor had started several days before the Titanic left Southampton," said then second mate Bisset. "Newspapers for months had been printing articles extolling her wonderful qualities, but on the morning when she was due to leave Southampton, twenty two men who had signed on in her crew were missing." Despite the media rapture that presently heralds America as the sole remaining superpower, an unsinkable republic and an unassailable democracy, the country appears to be cruising as comfortably into unsafe waters laced with icebergs. The warnings have been forthcoming for a long time now. Similar to the enduring morality tale of the Titanic, where "not one, but many errors brought her to disaster," little hints of disaster indicating a larger tragedy to come have been sent - and ignored - by friendly ships of state all around. Aboard the SS Titanic on her maiden voyage a helmsman firmly took the wheel. Behind him stood two powerful figures, the ship's Captain, Edward John Smith, and Bruce Ismay, the Chairman of the White Star Line. Behind them stood the prestige and power of the owner of the White Star Line, Ismay's father. "There is testimony that Ismay urged the captain to maintain maximum speed," said Bisset, one of the first men on the rescue scene after the sinking. Thus the helmsman aboard the Titanic actually wielded little power, exercised little judgment, aside from spinning the wheel. Those who stood behind him in the shadows set the course and determined the speed (and were wholly responsible for the ship). A New Atlantic Speed Record for her maiden voyage became an enviable goal. All that was required was an increase in power, and thus, speed for the entire voyage. Aboard the SS America, nearly a hundred years later, the helmsman stands at the wheel, looking self-important, nominally in charge. Although the hands of the helmsman certainly grasp the wheel, the course and speed of SS America have been set by others. In the shadows, the power elite plot the new course, having increased power and speed, irregardless of the safety of the vessel. To the privileged class striding the upper decks of the most powerful vessel afloat, there is little cause for alarm, however. After all, capable men control this enormous ship of state and so the leisure class promenade proudly past the stout lifeboats of their diversified investment portfolios, and calmly tell themselves the vessel is unsinkable. Ice warnings arrived throughout the entire voyage, 21 warnings altogether, including seven that Sunday. The Titanic continued steaming at top speed towards the pack ice - growlers and bergs - drifting down from Greenland. The two radiomen aboard the Titanic, Harold McBride and Jack Phillips, passed the warnings to the officers on the bridge throughout the day, but were mostly kept busy sending stock market messages from the wealthy businessmen on board and relaying stock quotes from New York. Aboard the SS Carpathia, steaming east towards the Titanic, Captain Rostron remarked about the great ship on her maiden voyage. "She must be a wonderful ship, but all their newspaper bragging seems a kind of blasphemy, claiming that she's 'unsinkable' and all that kind of thing." The Carpathia would be the first ship on the scene after the disaster. Ironically, Captain Smith of the Titanic had remarked, on an earlier occasion, "I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that." On Sunday evening aboard the Titanic, the upper classes continued to dine in opulent splendor before retiring. In the lower levels of the ship, particularly steerage, the common folk passed the time, reassured by the throb of the powerful engines and the stoutness of the steel hull, the swishing of seawater against the steel plates almost reassuring. The prospect of a bright new future, a new American century, appeared almost within their reach. Unknown to anyone aboard the Titanic, whether passenger or crew, a critical design flaw had been built into the construction of the vessel. Inexplicably, Titanic's bulkheads and watertight compartments, did not reach all the way to the top of the overhead ceiling. Should the ship ever be flooded suddenly, her pumps might not keep the seawater from topping the bulkheads. The "unsinkable" Titanic would then quickly sink. Aboard the SS America, the bulkheads and watertight doors likewise did not go all the way to the top. An intentional yet critical design flaw, ignored by passengers and crew alike, revealed that, in an emergency, nothing stood behind the US dollar but mere paper, empty promises, and the weight of massive debt. Still the ship of state sped onward, into uncharted waters incurring mountainous debt while the helmsman swung the wheel according to the dictates of the rich and powerful men behind him. Despite ample and repeated warnings of hazards ahead, from writers and radiomen with foresight, another foolhardy speed record beckoned those in control. Called the Project for New American Century, all that was required was an irrational increase in power and speed to achieve their goal. That and considerable luck. AT 11 PM, the Titanic steamed west at her maximum speed of 22.5 knots, her radioman still sending and receiving stock market directives. A message arrived from the steamship Californian, ten miles to the northwest, that she was stopped for the night by ice blocking her way. Aboard the Titanic, the harried radioman, Jack Phillips, cut him short with the terse reply in code, "Shut up old man I'm busy." The SS Titanic, the largest ship afloat, where "not one but many errors brought her to disaster," was only minutes away from her doom. Aboard the opulent luxury liner, however, neither the passengers nor the crew realized their immediate danger. Indeed, most slept soundly even when the Titanic struck the iceberg at 11:40 PM and had to be aroused thirty minutes later. By then, at 12:15 AM, the frantic radioman Phillips tapped out his first distress signal - CQD - to be followed ten minutes later by this desperate message to the reply of the Carpathia: "CQD CQD SOS SOS CQD SOS. Come at once. We have struck a berg..." The score of ice warning repeatedly ignored by those who set the speed and course aboard the Titanic had finally caught up to the "unsinkable" liner. "The fact that the Titanic had struck a berg in calm weather on a clear night meant one of three things," observed second mate, James Bisset, of the Carpathia: "insufficient lookout; responses too slow from her bridge; or that the big vessel at her full speed had not quickly enough answered her helm to avoid collision."Full view picture of an iceberg Within two hours the largest ship afloat would be foundering, her engine rooms flooded, her radios failing. Untrained crewmen struggled to launch lifeboats and board hundreds of stunned, reluctant or disbelieving passengers. If the ship was so unsinkable, they wondered, why were they being forced into lifeboats? Many wealthy passengers - and almost all of those in steerage - would drown when the ship sank; there simply were not enough lifeboats. By 1:45 AM, when Phillips tapped his last message, "Come as quickly as possible. Engine room filling up to the boilers," the last lifeboat pulled away from the sinking ship. Bruce Ismay, however, would survive the sinking of the Titanic. "According to evidence," remarked Bisset, "he had jumped into a boat that was being lowered." Like many of those now in command of this ship of state, the SS America, the Ismays of the world always survive. Indeed they thrive, even prosper, whether in disaster or success. Whether Neocon, Bilderberger, Wall Street insider or architect of the New World Order, they're the first ones into the lifeboats with a money belt firmly around their waist. When the collision of the SS America occurs, with a mountainous iceberg of foreign debt amid an ice pack of foolhardy foreign adventures, the ablest survivors will be those least clinging to the notion that the vessel is unsinkable. Indeed, many of the foremost survivors will resemble the 22 crewmen who abandoned the Titanic before she sailed, aware that those who command our beautiful vessel are woefully incompetent or criminally insane. Postscript: Then as now, New York newspapers were pretty unreliable for accuracy: "ALL Saved From Titanic After Collision," blared the New York Evening Sun, of April 15, 1912. The Carpathia arrived at 4 AM, Monday, April 15, almost two hours after the Titanic had sunk. "The increasing daylight revealed dozens of icebergs within our horizon," observed Bisset. "Among them were four or five big bergs, towering up to two hundred feet above water level. One of these was the one that the Titanic had struck." The Carpathia's crew spent the morning rescuing 703 survivors and hoisted 13 lifeboats aboard. Neither the Titanic's captain or her first officer were among the survivors. Captain Smith, aware of the enormity of his error in judgment, had gone down with his ship. One final irony: sometime this spring the vessel USS America will be sunk, somewhere in the Atlantic. Joe Marzal can be reached by email at marzal@myway.com To Go To Top

WHY SHOULD I SHUT UP? Posted by IsrAlert, March 31, 2005.

This essay was written by Leslie White. I'm a Jew, I don't live in Israel, I'm not Israeli, do I have the right to criticize Israel's government or defend it? After all, I'm not affected by what Israel's government does - or am I? We Jews were without Israel for nearly 2000 years. Sometimes things went well, other times not, and lately not well at all. After doing not much to keep us from being wiped out, the nations let us have Israel back - part of it anyway. For the two millennia before that, we couldn't point to a real country of origin. Yes, we hailed from most, if not all, countries around the globe, but those weren't really our countries. At any time, we could be told to leave. With the return of our land, there were now two kinds of Jews: Israelis and the rest of us. Before that, we all lived in foreign lands. The Jews that lived in what the Romans had renamed "Palestine" were not living in their own country either, but under foreign rule. Some Jews think as Jews, others as citizens of the country where they happen to live. These latter can of a sudden face reality. The yellow hate can be as subtle as a non-Jew mocking us with a put-on Yiddish accent. Not all Israelis think as Jews. I'm talking of Israeli Jews when I refer to Israelis. Arabs that were handed Israeli citizenship cannot be considered as Israelis. Some might be loyal to Israel, others consider themselves "Palestinian" and side with the PLO and its malignant outgrowths. There are Israelis who have forgotten the lessons learned by their forbears. They no longer believe in Israel as a Jewish State, a Jewish homeland, a refuge for all persecuted Jews, They want an Israel that is the state of its citizens, be they Israeli-hating Arabs, non-Jewish hooligans - some outspoken anti-Semites from the former Soviet Union - as well as Israelis (Jews) who see nothing wrong in giving more and more of Eretz Yisroel to the Muslim Arabs who want to kill all Jews and turn Israel into an Arab Islamic "Palestine". These anti-Israel Israelis want to see Israel not as a Jewish state, because they dream of a peace where Arab Muslims and Jews embrace as they celebrate their common humanity. Chances of that? As good as that of Muslims expurgating all anti-Jewish rhetoric from their Koran. The Jews who already lived in the reborn Israel, or streamed back there, faced challenges and hardships different from those the rest of us had encountered. From agricultural achievements through Arab massacres, British persecution, to constant Arab murderous harassment, the experience and history of the Jews that built, held, and today defend Israel is unique. The rest of us were on the outside, looking in. Sure, we visited Israel, sent our children to stay in a kibbutz, bought Israel bonds, and otherwise financially supported our land. But most of us weren't on the frontlines, defending the land. All Jews living outside of Israel do not share a history. We have one thing in common though: our ancestors were exiled from what is now Israel. Many of us prayed and hoped for a return of the land and its capital Jerusalem. Not all approve of what the government of Israel does, some even do not want an Israel at all, others see Israel as the only solution to the nations' "Jewish problem." To the Jews in Israel, those of us, who live outside, are "away from home". I want a strong Israel and am exasperated at the contortions for "Peace" at any cost from successive Israeli governments. Some Israeli Jews say, "Come to Israel, make aliyah, only then can you tell us what to do". There are Jews in Israel who feel as I do. On the other hand, there are Jews both outside and inside Israel who "feel the pain of the 'Palestinians'". The Israelis who feel compassion only for the "Palestinians" and not for their own people also want more Jews to come to Israel - to help them hold what they believe to be the moral high ground - giving the "Palestinian" Arabs everything they want (which, in the end, is all of Israel). When we "outside" Jews start to see blood in the eyes of the inhabitants of the nations among whom we live, coming to Israel appears as our only out. That's why we have a stake in the land and what becomes of it. How can we have a right to the land of Israel, if we don't live there? Before and since its rebirth, we have supported Israel with money, words, and by political action among the nations. Doesn't that give us at least some right to have a say about Israel? I know, I know, you Israelis want us all to go there now, to fill the land with Jews, bring our expertise, etc. I don't think that having all Jews in the world in one place is such a good idea. There are those around eager for an opportunity to take out all the world's Jews at one time. Also, if all of us Jews were to leave the United States, who do you think would jump in and with lobbies and voting blocks to pressure the government to squeeze Israel out of existence? Here in America I can say and publish what's on my mind: how Israel should be a Jewish state, not a state of its citizens - many of whom side with the enemies of Israel - and what should be done with these external and internal enemies. If I were to say or publish that in Israel, I could be charged with racism and incitement(1). We Jews outside of Israel do not all feel the same about Israel. There are those of us, and I am one of them, who support Israel, but do not always agree with the actions of the Israeli government. Then, there are Jews on the outside who do not want an Israel at all. There are those who criticize any of Israel's acts unless it is on the road to turning it over to the Arabs. Do they think that Jews will be allowed to live in an Islamic state as fellow citizens of Muslim Arabs? If they look at how many Jews live in the "territories" occupied by the "Palestinians" and how many live in such Islamic Arab countries as Jordan and Saudi Arabia, they can see the chance of that. The acts of the government of Israel do affect Jews living outside of Israel. The Jew wearing a kippa on the way from or to shul is beaten up by Muslims for the sake of "Palestine". Synagogues are defaced with graffiti and firebombed because Israel exists(2). If you are the type of Jew - male or female - who puts on an Arab headdress to march in an anti-Israel demonstration, carrying a sign with the words "Free Palestine!" among a throng shouting "Death to the Zionists!" you probably believe you are fighting for "human rights". As the rally heats up, you pretend not to hear the shouts of "Itbach al Yahud!" (slaughter the Jews) as emotions reach the boiling point, but shout "End the occupation!" hoping that the louder you protest against Israel, the more you show these enemies of Israel with whom you are marching that you're on their side. You don't worry whether you have the right to criticize Israel, you feel it your duty. But say now you have returned the Arab head-dress to your "Palestinian" friends and you're alone, walking home from the demonstration, not carrying your sign. You look - well - Jewish. A bunch of Jew-hating hoodlums spot you. To them you're a Jew, and they blame you for what Israel does. What happens next, I leave to your imagination. That brings us back to the question: Is it proper for you, who do not live in Israel, to speak out for or against the government of Israel? A while back, I said, "the return of our land to us" - to us, not to them, not only to the Israeli Jews. Israel belongs to all of us. You don't want it? Or you feel it isn't yours because you're not Israeli, or you don't agree with how the Arabs are being treated? Think of it, Israel is the only land that will let us in, when there is no other country that will have us. There are Israeli Jews who would disagree that Israel belongs to all Jews. To us they say: "You haven't fought for Israel, you haven't bled for Israel. You do not live there as an Israeli." But we do have a right to it. Our ancestors were dispersed from there, scattered among the nations by the world power of the day. For millennia many of us have prayed for a return of the land to us, the descendants of these ancient Jews that stood up to the world power and paid a terrible price for it. The land is ours - it is the land of all Jews: The Israeli Jews that hold it today and defend it from its enemies and we on the outside who back them up with financial, moral, and political support to keep Israel a Jewish land. I'd say we have every right to voice our opinion. As Israel goes so go the Jews. Without Israel, we are a people without a land again, a people living at the sufferance and mercy of the nations. So when some Israeli Jews say, "Either come home to Israel or keep your mouth shut," I say, "No, not until we have a safe and secure Israel, independent, able to determine its own destiny." The way things are going, looks like I'll be making lots of noise for some time. NOTES: 1. "Section 144B of the anti-racism law states that 'one who publishes a matter for the purpose of incitement to racism, may be incarcerated for five years'; and that 'it does not matter if the publication led to racism or not, and if it contained truth or not.' This means that one may be imprisoned for five years for publishing words which, whether true or not, hurts no one! This is a remarkable infringement on freedom of expression." Professor Paul Eidelberg, "The David Haivri Case," http://foundation1.org/papers-articles/democracy/haivri-freedom-speech.htm 2. "The key issue which divides the British Jewish and Muslim communities is the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. 'Jews are confronted with a rigid Islamist standpoint which concedes no legitimacy to the State of Israel and which justifies terrorist violence against Jews in the name of Palestine, regardless of whether the victims carry Israeli passports. Ben Cohen, "Evaluating Muslim-Jewish Relations in Britain" Jerusalem Viewpoints, No. 527, 22 Shevat - 6 Adar I 5765 / 1-15 February 2005, http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp527.htm Harv Weiner, a businessman in Dallas, Texas, is the founder and moderator of Isralert. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

THE REAL DANGER TO THE ARMY AND TO SOCIETY Posted by Dr. Ron Breiman, March 31, 2005.

The plan to use the IDF for political ends, to expel Jewish residents from their homes in their homeland, will do severe damage to the morale of officers and soldiers. It will rend the fabric of the army and of society and endanger the future of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Professors for a Strong Israel cautions against using the army and the security apparatus for purposes that have nothing to do with Israel's defense. The transfer will not pass!!! Dr. Ron Breiman, is Chairman of Professors for A Strong Israel (PSI). He can be reached by telephone at 050-5-518 940 in Israel. To Go To Top

GUSH SHALOM TAKES PART IN PRO-PALESTINIAN PARLEY Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, March 31, 2005.

Dear Jewish friends, Here is an extreme example of people and organization without shame. Many would call them traitors if not worst. In stark contrast, you will never read about a conference convened in support of Israel and its policies, in which Palestinians participate. What a very sad state of affairs. If instead of maligning and discrediting the brave Zionist citizens and builders of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, PM Sharon and his government spent 5% of the time to curb the activities of this fifth column inside Israel, things would look a lot better. In times of war, should Peace Now (Gush Shalom) be banned? Boycotted? I wonder... This article was written by Herb Keinon and appeared in today's Jerusalem Post and is archived at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/ JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1112152826237 A three-day "Peace in Palestine" conference in Malaysia concluded Wednesday with a call for a boycott of Israeli products. More than 300 people from 34 countries attended the conference, including five representatives from Israel's extreme-left Gush Shalom and representatives from the extreme anti-Zionist haredi Neturei Karta group. An action plan was released at the end of the conference calling for a center to be established in Malaysia to coordinate the proposed boycott. The Israelis who attended reportedly had to receive special permission from the Malyasian government to enter the country. The center will study how to "organize a selective boycott of Israeli goods and divestment from that country in order to pressure Tel Aviv to withdraw completely from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," the joint action plan said. Other proposals by the activists included urging governments to end military dealings with Israel and encouraging direct aid to the Palestinians and the import of Palestinian products. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said, "These sort of one-sided extreme and anachronistic resolutions do no one any good, neither do they serve the cause of peace. Those who are truly interested in peace should not be conducting boycotts, rather they should be encouraging dialogue." Regev, who would not comment on the participation of Israelis in the conference, said: "If people in Malaysia want to play a positive role in support of peace and reconciliation, it would be effective that instead of just speaking to one side, they chose to speak to both sides." Malaysia has no diplomatic ties with Israel. In 2003, then Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad told a summit of Islamic leaders that "Jews rule the world by proxy" and the world's 1.3 billion Muslims should unite, using nonviolent means for a "final victory." "The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy, they get others to fight and die for them," he said at the time. On Wednesday, Chandra Muzafar, president of the Malaysian-based International Movement for a Just World, said groups in the United States and Europe were also attempting a boycott of Israeli products. He did not say when the boycott would be launched and what kind of goods might be affected. "We will not rush into such an action," Chandra told a news conference. "We want to study the various dimensions of this issue before making a move." The conference was organized by the People's Alliance for Peace Malaysia, a coalition of 1,100 nongovernmental associations, religious groups and political parties. Yuval Zaliouk writes the Truth Provider columns. To subscribe, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

DAVID PROJECT RESPONDS TO COLUMBIA REPORT ON STUDENT HARASSMENT Posted by Sliwa News, March 31, 2005.

For more information, contact: Dr. Charles Jacobs of the David Project, 617-835-3584 or cj@davidproject.org Biased Committee Ignores Facts, Protects Its Own NEW YORK, March 31 - Responding to the just-released report of Columbia University's Grievance Committee headed by Vice President of Arts and Sciences Nicholas Dirks, Charles Jacobs, President of the David Project in Boston, issued the following statement: This is a biased report by a biased committee, which ignored the facts to protect its own. We expected an unfair report from a committee composed of friends and colleagues - and even a thesis advisor - of the professors it was supposed to investigate. But the report is disgraceful, beyond our expectation. The Dirks Committee failed President Bollinger, who only a few days ago told the press that Columbia professors cannot "use the podium as an ideological platform to indoctrinate a captive audience." The Committee considered only three incidents of professors harassing students worthy of investigation. We know there were many more. It projected blame for the problems on outside forces. While the Committee judged the testimony of Professor Joseph Massad not truthful - he was charged with shouting at a student, "If you're going to deny the atrocities being committed against Palestinians, then you can get out of my classroom!" - the report so gently chided him ("...his rhetorical response to her query exceeded commonly accepted bounds...") that his wrist may not register the slap. The Dirks Committee report tries to silence dissenting professors, upbraiding whistleblowers on the faculty who help students report abuse by other professors. The report admits the University Administration was insensitive, inconsiderate, and even antagonistic to students who complained that anti-Israel professors harassed them. And it admits that students had no effective means to register complaints. But it reduced a major academic scandal to only these narrow bureaucratic foul-ups. Most importantly, the Dirks Committee evades the main issue: the teaching of lies and propaganda by Arabist professors who so demonize Israel that defenders of the Jewish state find themselves in a hostile environment in their classes. The report evades this issue by referring to incidents of biased, dishonest teaching in pedagogical and psychological terms. It classes them as "rhetorically combative" methods or as expressions of "uncongenial views" that - and the issue is reduced to this - make some students "uncomfortable." But the committee never considers the possibility that these "teachings" are lies and propaganda. When Professor Massad teaches that the word "Zion" means "penis" and therefore Zionism is a macho movement, this is not an uncongenial view, but a lie. When at Columbia it is taught that the Jews are Nazis and the Palestinians are the new Jews, and that the Jews slaughtered Arabs in Jenin, these are not "rhetorically combative" modes of teaching; they are blood libels, anti-Semitic provocations, deceptions, and Arabist propaganda. These issues will only fester if "investigated" by friends of the offending professors, many themselves anti-Israel activists, circling the wagons. The only question is: What will Lee Bollinger do to restore academic integrity? The David Project, which promotes a fair and honest discussion of the Middle East Conflict, produced the film, "Columbia Unbecoming." To Go To Top

CHIEF RABBINATE RECOGNIZES BNEI MENASHE Posted by Michael Freund, March 31, 2005.

This is a news item from today's Arutz 7 (www.Israel National News) and is entitled "Rabbinate Recognizes Bnei Menashe as 'Descendants of Israel'" (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=79370). In a historic decision yesterday, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar decided to formally recognize the Bnei Menashe of northeastern India as "descendants of Israel." The Chief Rabbinate has also agreed to send a beit din (rabbinical court) from the Chief Rabbinate to the region to convert them. The Bnei Menashe claim descent from the tribe of Manasseh, one of the ten tribes exiled from the Land of Israel by the Assyrian empire over 2,700 years ago. They reside primarily in the two Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, along the border with Burma and Bangladesh. In recent years, over 800 members of the community have made aliyah thanks largely to the efforts of Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org), a Jerusalem-based group that reaches out and assists "lost Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people. Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund, who took part in yesterday's meeting with the Chief Rabbi, praised the decision. "This is a momentous day, and we are very grateful to the Chief Rabbinate for the openness and sensitivity that they have demonstrated in addressing the issue of the Bnei Menashe. This is the breakthrough that we have all been waiting for, and thank G-d, the remaining 6,000 members of the community still in India will at last be able to come home to Zion." In June 2003, then-Interior Minister Avraham Poraz of the Shinui Party decided to halt the Bnei Menashe aliyah, reportedly because he objected to the fact that they were all religiously-observant and many chose to live in Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. After Poraz' decision was announced, Freund turned to the Chief Rabbinate, and began lobbying to receive official rabbinical recognition of the Bnei Menashe as a means of circumventing the Interior Minister's decision. Yesterday's meeting with the Chief Rabbi marked the culmination of those efforts. Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, a dayan (rabbinical court judge) and spokesman for Rabbi Amar, said that the decision had come after careful consideration and study of the issue. "The Chief Rabbi sent a delegation of two dayanim to India last year to conduct a thorough investigation of the community and its origins. After a thorough review of their findings, it was decided that the Bnei Menashe are in fact descendants of Israel and should be drawn closer to the Jewish people." Rabbi Birnbaum added that once various conditions laid down by the Chief Rabbi are fulfilled, such as the construction of mikvaot (ritual baths) in India, and the dispatch of additional teachers, then the Chief Rabbinate would send a beit din of its own to the area to convert members of the community to Judaism, thereby allowing them to make aliyah to Israel. Michael Freund served as an aide in the Prime Minister's Office to former premier Binyamin Netanyahu. He is Chairman of Shavei Israel, an organization that assists "lost Jews" seeking to return to Judaism. To Go To Top

SAGACITY Posted by Evelyn Hayes, March 31, 2005.

The most sagacious testament of the Jews is the Torah. Its important commandments are: Thou Shalt Not Kill, Steal or Bear False Witness. Using these measures of wisdom for civilization would denounce dubious handshakes, peace frauds and unilateral disengagements for the compensation of jihad suicide killers and rocket smugglers and shooters, stealing and the Big Lie. As it was a custom to scapegoat and blood libel the innocent Jew rather than the terrorist, some Jews who want to be like the masses are bullying their own Jewish brethren, sacrificing them to appease the beast that reformed terrorists also acknowledge as beastly. Would King Solomon give the Land to pan-Jihad a la Iraq and Taliban which destroys Jews who love, plant and have the longest legitimate lease? There are no excuses for eliminating Torah truths and divesting from all that is the Land of Israel, the Commandments for Civilization, the Jewish midos that makes deserts bloom. Muzzling the message fails G-d, goodness, the Jews and their inherited estate of Israel. Compromising with disengagers is not to stand upright for truth, justice and life itself, but to bow and surrender to false idols and death. It is to reward Jihad instead of demanding Torah truth and standards. It is to accomodate evil and sacrifice all that is highly civilized for destructive "anti-dhimmism" and to put the whole world at risk. Evelyn Hayes is author of "The Eleventh Plague, Twins, because their hearts were softened to accept the unacceptable" and "The Twelfth Plague, Generations, because the lion wears stripes." Contact her at haze@rcn.com. To Go To Top

ATTENTION LIBERALS; ABBAS FINANCES HAMAS; PIPES' DANGEROUS DOUBLE STANDARD Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 31, 2005.

ATTENTION LIBERALS P.A. television's most quoted Quranic phrase about the Jews is, "come let us kill them." Would Jews who derive their views about Israel from the liberal press favor P.A. statehood, if the press publicized the fact that incitement to pogroms is P.A. policy? Or would they seek a new source of news? MISSING FROM ISRAELI ARGUMENT The P.A. and its sympathizers constantly claim that the security fence imposes hardships on them. They don't say how many Arabs are involved per month or what financial burden the fence poses for them. To make their case, they should have to. Mountain out of a molehill? Israel's sympathizers reply that the complainers fail to acknowledge that the fence is intended to prevent terrorism and save lives. By reducing raids and counter-attacks, it spares the Arab population much trouble, so that it actually is good for many of the Arabs. Also, since terrorism is illegal and heinous, the Arabs bear responsibility for the fence's cost to them in money and convenience. They should address their complaints to the P.A.. This argument is unanswerable. It should be put with more self-assurance than it is, so as to prevail. I find it put weakly. Nor am I satisfied with it. Why don't Israel's sympathizers assess how much difficulty the fence does make and for what proportion of the Arab population? Without apologizing, why don't they discuss what steps were taken to reduce the hardships from it? Such a discussion would put the problem in perspective. It might turn out not to be extensive. I don't see how Arab hardship could be extensive. The fence is close to the Green Line. It leaves 93% of Judea-Samaria in the P.A., along with most Jewish communities of that province. What about those now isolated Jewish communities? Have they no hardship, being less protected from Arab terrorism? Where is the sympathy for them? ANOTHER THOUGHT ABOUT "OCCUPATION" We've already explained that: (1) Israel is the legitimate heir to the Territories, under the Mandate; (2) Israel is not an occupier because the Territories were not part of a sovereign state; (3) if they were, Israel would have a right to occupy them after having taken them in self-defense; and (4) Israel would have a right to annex them for security against further aggression from them. The more one thinks about the subject, the more one realizes the malicious falsity of the charge that Israel occupies Judea-Samaria and Gaza. Not having been sovereign, the Territories' are the unallocated portion of the Mandate. The biased world acts as if the Arabs are entitled to them. Part of this act is sincere, being confused by the UN's 1947 recommendation that they be given to the Arabs and the Jews' foolish perceiving in that partition plan validity for Israel's existence. The Mandate already had recognized the Jews' pre-existing entitlement. The UN has little legitimacy to confer or withhold, it being a place of corruption and evil, whose own legitimacy is being challenged. To falsely call Israel an "occupier" implies that Israel has no business there. Do the users of that false term not know that Judea-Samaria and Gaza are key parts of the Jewish homeland? Do they not know that the Mandate's provisions envisioned and mandated Jewish settlement there? What we are seeing is antisemites misusing terms in order to overturn legitimate Jewish claims. Joint report: by Medecins Du Monde, Physicians for Human Rights - Israel, and the Palestine Red Crescent Society, against Israel's security fence. One-sided: The report fails to acknowledge the barrier's purpose and evidence of its success, to reduce Arab terrorist attacks. The report referred to the barrier as "the Wall," although little of it is a wall. Since the image of a wall is starker, the Arabs and their supporters conjure it for propaganda. Essentially the report is an unscrupulous anti-Zionist propaganda piece against Israel, as one has come to expect from NGOs. Testimony: From several dozen complainants, but anonymous. What credibility has it? The report also relies on certain Arab and Israeli organizations, such as Palestinian Environmental NGO Network and "the highly ideological Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions," known for demonizing Israel, not for factual objectivity. Complaint: "The Wall deprives Palestinians (i.e., Arabs in the P.A.) of adequate access to basic services such as water and education, as well as sources of income such as agriculture and other forms of employment. The Wall has steadily added another layer of obstacles isolating, fragmenting and therefore weakening the already fragile Palestinian healthcare system." Denunciation of: "... all other factors and tactics of occupation which restrict the Palestinians' right to live and move freely in the Palestinian territories. It violates both international human rights and ... humanitarian law." "Relying on the biased advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the security barrier, the criticism of Israeli measures to restrict Palestinian freedom of movement again ignores Palestinian terrorism." It "... criticizes IDF searches of ambulances, ignoring the documented abuse of medical facilities and vehicles in Palestinian terror attacks. Assertions: "By annexing the West Bank's water resources and most fertile land and separating the Palestinians from their work in Israel, the Wall also reinforces unemployment and poverty". NGO Monitor explains, "These claims are not backed by reliable evidence and are outside the claimed purview of the NGOs." (IMRA, 2/15.) The assertions are false. Israel did not annex land in Judea-Samaria except for the normal municipal expansion of Jerusalem, but is entitled to annex the whole province. It didn't annex water resources, but is entitled to share them under riparian rights to joint aquifers. It boosted Arab access to water. Note that the biased group takes reinforcement from another, the Intl. Court of Justice. What a lack of humanitarian concern for the Jewish victims of Arab terrorism! One never hears those "humanitarian organizations" condemn Arab terrorism, supported y the Palestinian Arabs as a whole, for hampering Jewish travel and even for mass-murder. ABBAS FINANCES HAMAS Exhorted by the US, the P.A. had frozen Hamas bank accounts. This brought Hamas to a financial crisis, according to Abbas. To induce them to agree to a ceasefire, he unfroze their funds (IMRA, 2/15). So much for the Great White Hope, Abu Mazen who still is financing terrorism! During the ceasefire, Hamas would spend some of the funds to purchase arms, so that afterwards, it would be ready to fight. The rest would be spent on building up popular support for the war. Freezing of funds is an over-rated, almost phony measure. It has but temporary effect, for its hold usually relaxes. Then the culprits get their money back, to do mischief with. Confiscate, instead! "METHODS MATTER LESS THAN GOALS" Daniel Pipes challenges the Administration's invitation to Hizbullah and Hamas to eschew terrorism for politics. The Bush-Rice operative theory hopes that domestic concerns for constituents would mellow the terrorists. Mr. Pipes asks rhetorically whether a Nazi renunciation of violence would have rendered Hitler acceptable; no, because Nazi goals were more important than their tactics. Same for Hizbullah, which seeks global totalitarian domination for Islamism. Bush's hope naively overlooks the record. Totalitarians can meet constituents' needs, along the way to consolidating power over them. Totalitarians use democratic methods, when that is the path to power, but once entrenched, they destroy rival political parties and influences. Totalitarians would not be legitimate participants in democracy, but would exploit it to destroy democracy. Democrats must ban totalitarian parties (NY Sun, 3/22, p.6). Let us clarify this. Fanatics lie about their intentions. Their job is to promise, ours is to disbelieve. So of course Pres. Bush and Sec. Rice are ridiculous in their hopes for goodwill from fanatics. Fixing potholes, what Bush said would preoccupy them, does not disabuse them of their ideology. It certainly did not in Iran, Germany, or the USSR. Let us be careful of our wording and our prohibitions. Totalitarians fail the test of decency and acceptability regardless of some compromises on means and promises on ends. Nevertheless, we should beware of a loose prohibition of totalitarians and "racists," such as Israel's unjustified banning of political rival Rabbi Meir Kahane's political party. They called him a racist as the excuse to ban. What he warned about has occurred. His persecutors now are picking on fellow Jews. Why doesn't Mr. Pipes apply the same criticism, that fanatical terrorists such as Hizbullah, who cannot be trusted with a militia certainly cannot be trusted to rule a state, to the Administration's invitation to the PLO, who are fanatical jihadists with equal determination to destroy Israel and equal hatred of the West? Because Pipes takes the Council on Foreign Relations position of pretending that there are no security and ethical problems in turning Jewish territory over to the Arab common enemies of Israel and the US. MISUNDERSTANDING THE ARABS "The Jerusalem Post writes: '"On Wednesday, the EU is expected to consider whether to add Hizbullah to its list of terrorist organizations. If it does not, it will plainly be a slap in the face to Israel. It will also be a slap in the face to newly-elected P.A. Chairman Mahmoud Abbas... In any case, a policy of support for Israeli-Palestinian peace and for the new PA government cannot be taken seriously when there is a refusal to even recognize, let alone confront, a terrorist group that is openly committed to destroying both." (Foreign Ministry, 2/15). The "Jerusalem Post" misunderstands what the P.A. is about and what it is for. It is about terrorist jihad and it is supported by the EU to destroy Israel. Yes, the EU would be condoning terrorism. However, EU support for the P.A. condones terrorism, whose leader is Abbas. He does not seek peace but conquest, partly by diplomacy and partly by war, just as Hitler once did to many countries now in the EU. Why doesn't the "Jerusalem Post" confront that truth? Hint: Its new editor is a leftist. Leftists don't confront truth anymore, they misunderstand it or they distort it. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

RAV MOSHE TENDLER: THE PIKUACH NEFESH  PRINCIPLE Posted by Menachem Kovacs, March 31, 2005.

Even before the government voted to destroy the communities of the Gaza Region, most people were feeling helpless - clueless about how they could personally help change the terrible decree facing the Jewish people. As the Jerusalem protest tent was folding last month, Voices Editor (moi) and Publisher had the opportunity to chat with the respected Yeshiva University rosh yeshiva and Jewish leader Rabbi Moshe David Tendler, shlita. Here are some excerpts of our talk: Many years ago, a talmid of mine married and lived on a kibbutz. After nine years of married life, which included visits to the biggest fertility specialists in Israel, G-d did not strengthen with them with children. He was appointed as a shaliach to America, where the couple consulted with experts in fertility management. None of the doctors they met had the key that the Ribono Shel Olam keeps in His pocket. After almost two years, and no children, they prepared to return to Eretz Yisrael. He asked me if he could see my father-in-law [the great sage of the previous generation HaRav Moshe Feinstein] ztz'l. Like a good Litvak, my father-in-law said to him, 'Did you try everything? The best in Israel? The best in America? You gave up? There's nothing else? Well, now the Ribono Shel Olam will help.' As long as you think you have a better idea, one that the Ribono Shel Olam didn't think of, He waits until you finish. Once you make up your mind that there's nothing to do, then you come to the conclusion, Ein lanu al mi le'hisha'en elah al Aveinu She'BaShamayim.(We have no one to rely on, except our Father in Heaven.) On the way home, they took a side trip to France and to Italy, and by the time they landed home in Israel, she was expecting. They have nine children today, bli ayin hara. I use this story for myself and for others. The trick is to give up. We haven't given up enough. Surely, we have to do everything. Lemaan yevarechecha H' Elokecha bechol ma'asecha asher ta'aseh... (So that Hashem will bless you in everything you do. If you do, Hashem will bless you, and if you don't, He won't bless you.) So you did everything you could possibly do, and you have to have confidence that it will work out fine. The question is, 'Did we do all we could possibly do?' That's the whole shayala (question). Give up when there are some obvious important things to do yet, and then HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not yet involved. Did we do everything possible? I think there is more to do: We must contact the American money men, who support Sharon and the city of Jerusalem. Money talks and money men talk. They should be told that we cannot have confidence in Sharon when military men, Shabak and the secret service all say we're increasing the danger to the lives of Israelis with this act [the Sharon Plan]." We must get the cooperation of the OU (Orthodox Union), the RCA (Rabbinical Council of America) and the Young Israel to organize a march on Washington with very simple signs, 'Bush, would you let this happen in America?' 'Bush, where is your biblical integrity?' We must bring out 50,000 people, as we did for the march on Washington a few years ago. If we do, I am convinced that the Senate will become stronger in its support of Israel. Pikuach Nefesh "There's a klal gadol baTorah. In the gemora, sometimes discussions or controversies end up with the word teiku. What's teiku? Tishbi yetaretz kushiyot ubaayot (Eliyahu HaTishbi will answer the questions we have when he comes). But in halacha, there's no such thing as no answer. When there's no specific answer in halacha for this case, you fall back on principles. Safeik de'oreita le chumra. Safeik derabanan lekulah. (If you have something you're not sure of, if it's from the Torah, you take the stringent approach. If the question is from the rabbis, you take the more lenient option.) There's no specific answer to the problems facing Am Yisrael today. There's no quick answer to the Kassam rockets. But we have a base halacha which says, when in doubt, pasken the halacha as it is written. And what's written, Pikuach nefesh is docheh kol mitzvah she baTorah. (Where there's a life at stake, you can transgress the mitzvoth in the Torah [note: except three]). Therefore, analyze the situation. Am I endangering the life of a Jew by the 'disengagement'? Am I improving their security by doing that? That will be my decision. Pikuach nefesh is docheh kol mitzvah she baTorah. So I ask myself a question, 'Is pikuach nefesh involved here?' The generals say it is. The Shabak says it is. The rabbanim in the hitnachluyot say it is. The people are yelling, 'You're killing me.' So, the 'disengagement' is forbidden. Not because of ahavat haaretz (love of the land), Eretz Shelaimah (wholeness of the land). That confuses the situation. It causes the opposition to demean the machloket (disagreement) into whether we want more territory or less territory. That's not the issue. We want our children not to be killed. Period. On the big issue of what's good for the Jews or bad for the Jews, we've reached an impasse - teiku. When you have a teiku, you go back to principles. The key principle here is pikuach nefesh. That's the big error that's being made now in this whole battle. They [the organizations fighting the dismantling of Gush Katif] are putting too much Zionism into the picture. When in doubt, go with the halacha. And the halacha says clearly, 'This act is endangering the life of Jews.' Oslo was isur me'doreita (forbidden from the Torah) for one reason - not because you felt it was going to fail, but because the signing of Oslo and the reincarnation of Arafat that followed, led to more Jews being killed. That was foreseen by the little rabbanim in the hitnachlayut (Yesha communities). It wasn't seen by the big rabbanim who had trouble deciding whether they do or do not vote with the government. A shayala was asked, Is Oslo good for the Jews or bad for the Jews al pi halacha? They didn't know, so they decided to support the government. That wasn't the issue. If they didn't know, they should have gone back to principles. The first principle, 'pikuach nefesh.' The Infinite Jew What do the proponents say? Will [disengagement] increase or decrease security? 'Well...it will decrease security now. But in the future, it will be good.' There's no such halacha that you kill somebody now because in the future you'll save more lives. That's against the halacha. We don't have that concept of sacrificing a few Jews so you can save a lot more Jews, because to wax mathematical and poetic, a Jew is of infinite worth, and ten infinities are no more than one infinity. Infinity is infinity. What should regular people do? Push this one point. Don't talk about anything else. Don't talk about how much effort [people of Gush Katif] put into building their hot houses, and what a terrible thing it is to uproot someone, or that it is reminiscent of the Shoah. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about one simple thing, 'You're killing our children.' Period. Not here. Not in Gush Katif. You're killing our children in Tel Aviv. The Kassam rockets are getting better. Israel is so small. Add a few more grains of powder to a kassam rocket. If you're not interested in accuracy, and just want blind terror, it will hit Tel Aviv also. If it hits Tel Aviv, then you'll get a reaction. If the first rocket landed in Tel Aviv, they would have wiped out swaths of enemy territory in order to prevent it. Endangering Ourselves I have big investments in Eretz Yisrael - 43 grandchildren and great-grandchildren living here, bli ayin hara. So I'm not exactly an outsider. It cannot be that while I was not looking Israel became a fascist dictatorship country with one man calling all the shots. The fact that Sharon is so resistant to a Mishaal Am (referendum), indicates that he knows he is not presenting a popular plan. If he could have a mandate and a decent majority voting with him, he'd have it his way. We are surrounded by enemies. They're killing our children. Which nation has ever suffered this thing of arbitrary missiles - 'I'll just send out a missile and see whom I can kill' - and it doesn't lead to a declaration of war! It boils down to: we have to do what we have to do. And no one's asking me. [Speaking after the deadly Kassam missiles hit Sderot, Rav Tendler said] Right now, Sharon doesn't understand that he can do whatever he pleases against the Arab terrorists with full support of the people of America. Bush will yell that it wasn't a measured response, and so on. But the majority of Americans today, as anti-Semitic as they are, are pro-Israel, because they hate the Arabs more. It's not from Ahavat Mordechai, but from Sinat Haman. If I were Sharon, I'd make an announcement on the radio today, 'If one more Kassam rocket lands, this geographic area consisting of ten blocks will be destroyed in the morning by bombers. You have 24 hours to take your belongings and leave. Next Kassam rocket, 20 blocks get destroyed. Next, 30 blocks get destroyed.' They'll stop. This is like what Yehoshua did when he came into Eretz Yisrael. 'I will leave you an escape hatch, and you can go out.' The halacha is clear. Pekuach nefesh must be the motivating factor." 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

REVEALING WORD CHOICE AT THE WASHINGTON POST Posted by Eric Rozenman, March 31, 2005.

We think in words, especially regarding abstract concepts like those related to law, diplomacy, and politics. So the words we use reveal much about what we think. That being so, "Budget Vote Clears Way for Israeli Pullout," (Washington Post, March 30), by correspondent John Ward Anderson, is revealing. Tilted, in one direction Reporting on Knesset (parliament) approval of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposed budget - which keeps the government in power and withdrawal of Israeli residents from the Gaza Strip on schedule - Anderson writes: " ... Sharon has made what senior aides describe as a strategic trade-off, winning broad international support for the Gaza withdrawal while consolidating Israel's control over the West Bank and expanding settlements there [emphasis added]." The "settlement blocks" that Sharon insists will become part of Israel in any eventual agreement with the Palestinian Authority comprise no more than eight percent of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). The anti-terrorism security barrier Israel is constructing in the West Bank takes in roughly six percent of the area. Six to eight percent is unlikely to be what a reasonable reader understands by "consolidating Israel's control over the West Bank." Likewise, "expanding settlements there" in The Post's context implies expanding them in all the West Bank, rather than in six to eight percent of it. At best, such writing is unacceptably sloppy. The existence of "unauthorized settlement outposts" is noted, but not Israel's promise to remove them. Israel's commitment under the U.S., E.U., U.N., and Russian "road map" to freeze new settlement growth goes unmentioned. Editorializing by adjectives The Post's Anderson writes that "Israeli security officials have warned of a backlash and reported death threats against the prime minister from conservative religious and ultranationalist groups [emphasis added]." Neither the groups nor their threats are identified, so "conservative religious" and "ultranationalist" groups become synonymous, on the basis of no specifically attributed information, with extremists and potential terrorists. The New York Times' March 30 article on approval of the budget was much more specific: "The Yesha council, which represents most settlers, has been torn between obeying the law and resisting it, with some advocating violent resistance but most urging nonviolent opposition to the evacuation ... Israeli security agencies are also concerned about the Palestinians firing on troops evacuating settlers or the settlers themselves, which could bring down a harsh Israeli response and a reinvasion of Gaza to provide a cordon sanitaire for the operation ... Israeli officials are also deeply concerned about what they call 'Jewish terrorism' - specific threats, officials say, aimed at Mr. Sharon and other ministers. Mindful of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by an angry Jew who hoped to stop the peace effort, security around Mr. Sharon is suffocatingly tight, even when he walks through Parliament." The Times provided readers with more specific, relevant information, including a potential Palestinian Arab threat of violence absent in The Post's account. The Post's use of "ultranationalist," without further detail, is useless - especially when not long ago it was Sharon and his government who were described, without specificity, as "right-wing," "far-right," "hard-line" and "nationalist." Its description of Israeli "conservative religious" groups as potentially deadly resembles the newspaper's references to the Muslim clerics dominating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Republic as "conservative," rather than extremist, reactionary, or even medieval. But in Israel, Sharon's own Likud is a center-right, populist-conservative party. The Masorti religious group - the Israeli arm of Conservative Judaism - is, in religious-cultural terms, relatively liberal. Some Israeli Orthodox Jewish movements are relatively moderate, others "fervently" or "ultra-"Orthodox. But Anderson does not specify to whom or what he is referring, instead tarring all. Unequal time The Post quotes an Israeli political analyst as saying that the Gaza withdrawal is "the first time in 35 years that the right wing has lost ..." The mainstream right, and the separate "right wing" have lost many times since 1970, including over complete evacuation of the Sinai, Yitzhak Rabin's 1992 election, Knesset approval of the Oslo I and II agreements, and Ehud Barak's election in 1999. Yet, Anderson includes this erroneous quote without qualification. Correct Anderson writes "opponents of the pullout argue that it rewards Palestinian terrorism because it was planned as a unilateral initiative and gives Israel nothing in return. Palestinian militant groups have hailed the withdrawal [from Gaza] as a major achievement of their 4 1/2-year uprising against Israel [emphasis added]." By proximity, The Post equates "Palestinian terrorism" with "Palestinian militant groups." That is, it tacitly acknowledges that "Palestinian militant groups" commit "Palestinian terrorism." Readers deserve specificity. Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade of Fatah, etc. ought to be directly named and described as terrorist groups, but here at least The Post does not ignore Palestinian terrorism. Anderson correctly describes the Palestinian anti-Israel violence of the past 4 1/2-years as "against Israel" - not, as Post revisionism often has it - an "uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip." As CAMERA often has pointed out to The Post, the "second intifada" began after the Palestinians rejected a West Bank and Gaza Strip state, so the violence could not been a response to "continued Israeli occupation" of those areas. Sloppy writing - in this case broad labels unsupported by specific details - easily becomes misleading writing. Anderson's article is below. "Budget Vote Clears Way for Israeli Pullout" by John Ward Anderson (http://tinyurl.com/4q7vj). JERUSALEM, March 29 - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to pull troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip this year cleared its final legislative hurdle Tuesday when Israel's parliament approved the government's 2005 budget, which opponents had hoped would block the withdrawal or, alternatively, bring down the government. The lawmakers voted 58 to 36 to approve the budget one day after they rejected a proposal to submit the Gaza pullout to a national referendum. Sharon has said he hopes to begin evacuation of the 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza in mid-July and finish in about four weeks. Under Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, first proposed in December 2003, about 8,250 Jewish settlers would leave Gaza, along with the thousands of Israeli soldiers who protect them. The plan also calls for the evacuation of four isolated settlements in the northern West Bank with about 500 settlers. The withdrawal, if it proceeds as planned, would mark the first time Israel has relinquished territory seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war since 1989, when the handover of the resort town of Taba to Egypt completed Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula under the Camp David peace agreement. "Sharon had this vision, for whatever reason, and he managed to maneuver it through every stage, even in spite of setbacks in his own party. It's really an amazing feat," said Asher Arian, a senior fellow with the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem. "It's the first time in the last 35 years that the right wing has lost, and they're not used to it, and that's why there's so much anguish and hand-wringing in the country." Opponents of the disengagement plan said they would move their fight from parliament to the streets, and the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization of Jewish settlements, warned that settlers might fight what it termed the "expulsion of Jews" from Gaza. Opponents of the pullout argue that it rewards Palestinian terrorism because it was planned as a unilateral initiative and gives Israel nothing in return. Palestinian militant groups have hailed the withdrawal as a major achievement of their 4 1/2-year uprising against Israel. Sharon argues that Israel has wasted too much money and too many lives protecting settlers in Gaza, who are surrounded by about 1.3 million Palestinians. Public opinion polls show that most Israelis agree, with about two-thirds favoring the pullout. In addition, Sharon has made what senior aides describe as a strategic trade-off, winning broad international support for the Gaza withdrawal while consolidating Israel's control over the West Bank and expanding settlements there. In the four years since Sharon took office, the number of settlers in the West Bank has increased by more than 25 percent, from about 193,000 in early 2001 to more than 243,000, according to Interior Ministry statistics. They live in about 120 settlements and 100 unauthorized settlement outposts, amid about 2.2 million Palestinians. Sharon has long been one of the architects of Israel's settlement expansion, and many settlers consider his dogged pursuit of a Gaza pullout to be a betrayal. Israeli security officials have warned of a backlash and reported death threats against the prime minister from conservative religious and ultranationalist groups. The plan cost Sharon his parliamentary majority last year, forcing him to form a new government. In the process, his pro-settlement Likud Party - with 40 members, the largest group in parliament - has effectively split in half. At the same time, some of Sharon's oldest political enemies have lent him their support in recent months, voting in parliament to avert dozens of no-confidence motions and other key votes to keep the government - and with it, the disengagement plan - from falling. Such was the case in Tuesday's budget vote, and the victory did not come cheap. Unable to win a majority in December to pass Sharon's $62 billion spending plan for 2005, the government has been running at 2004 spending levels. If a budget had not been passed by Thursday, the government would have automatically fallen. In the end, Sharon won by luring pro-disengagement parties into his camp, even though some did not like his budget proposal, by agreeing to fund their pet projects and threatening to blame them for killing the Gaza withdrawal if the government collapsed. The United Torah Judaism Party received about $67 million for religious schools in exchange for its five votes; the Labor Party got about $140 million for 19 of its 21 votes; and the secular Shinui Party, the final holdout, agreed over the weekend that its 14 members would vote for the budget in exchange for $163 million in additional funding for universities, reserve soldiers and other projects. The budget sets aside about $510 million to pay for disengagement, including compensation packages of up to $750,000 for each family evacuated. The plan is expected to cost about another $1 billion to complete. Eric Rozenman is the Camera's Washington Director. His essay on the two-state proposal is a classic; see "Anatomy of an Illusion: The Israeli-Palestinian Two-State Solution," http://www.think-israel.org/rozenmanillusion.html The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) monitors the news and TV media for how fair they are in reporting on Israel. The website address is www.camera.org. To Go To Top

THE COMBAT BRAIN Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 30, 2005.

The military has yet to look into the physiological status of the Combat Brain of soldiers. (1) & (2) The brain of the Combat Soldier is molded in training to be aggressive, ready to kill, to react swiftly - very swiftly. The Trigger mechanism is instilled by the military during training because this is the necessary role of an aggressive/defensive army. Cool in combat does not mean your adrenal glands hasn't shifted into high gear and your brain has not transferred into its highest state of aggression. Those physiological changes are necessary to fight efficiently and not get killed. In the pre-combat training phase soldiers are taught to "think:kill" and react instinctively as a matter of survival and completion of the assigned mission. Granted, not everyone is alike nor suited for combat roles. Those with passive personalities are generally weeded out or put in positions where their buddies do not have to rely upon them for backup. A weak soldier becomes as great a threat as his adversary. For those in frequent combat, there is a brain change. Certain parts of their brain becomes more functional, even enlarged. Other parts of their brain, not needed for combat, become more recessive, even disappearing as functional sections. They appear as if they are dissolving when seen during Thermal Imaging of the brain. This research is first coming on stream as Thermal Imaging is used on mind-impaired soldiers, coming back from combat. Aggressive bursts make some returning vets susceptible to unpredictable surges of anger in civilian life. The soldier in actual combat becomes a killing machine because that is what the army bought, taught and expects. Sweet, passive soldiers end up as dead soldiers or compromising the lives of fellow soldiers. The Army cannot expect Combat Soldiers to at one moment be a spontaneous killer of the enemy and, in the next moment turn to being a quasi-civilian with all the characteristics of compassion and civility. A schizophrenic soldier (made to order) produces a confused soldier not one thing or the other. Such a soldier is designed to please non-combat lawyers who wish to preserve the image of the military and please politicians. Such officers in military tribunals sit in judgement, quoting from text called "Rules of Engagement" which does not match the adrenalin loaded facts of the moment in battle. Granted, an un-motivated, passive soldier may give the media desired sound bytes and photo ops, but it only extends the length of wars and increase combat fatalities. When soldiers go to war more concerned with being court martialed or complying with a book of rules as thick as the tax code, his instinctive reactions are dumbed down. Restraint first means he shoots last and comes home to honors in a body bag. The heat of battle does not stop in the mind of a combat soldier just because the shooting has stopped for the moment. The level of being alert is still high. The man machine which the Army has designed and built continue to run, day and night. The average soldier/officer probably cannot explain his mind-set in terms of brain function and what controls his actions. The combat directives developed out of wars past do not prepare for the Unconventional wars of the present. We no longer face great armies but rather Terrorists who fade into the civilian population. Everyone becomes the "possible enemy" and often they are. Often the so-called civilians drift in and out of combat mode which, to the trained soldiers makes everyone suspect. American soldiers are being asked to live up to media and political standards which do not match up with fighting UN-conventional wars against Terrorists who fade into the civilian population. In unconventional warfare the book or rules or "rules of engagement" no longer apply - even when a court-martial court does not factor the Combat Brain syndrome into its deliberations. If we don't want them to fight full out as taught, then don't send them into battle. The weight of battle is sufficient pressure without action out scenarios that will be pleasing to the media or politicians back home. The Present Court Martial Hearing for Captain Roger Maynulet in Weisbaden, Germany for what was clearly a mercy killing of an Iraqi is a case in point. While there is testimony of extenuating circumstances, the factor of the "Combat Brain" will likely not be examined as an overriding factor. While Captain Magnulet was known to be a disciplined soldier with an enviable reputation among his men and fellow officers, that admiration came from the fact that he was a good to excellent soldier, trusted by his men to take care of them. That translates into being a forceful, quick-acting combat soldier. Combat is killing when on a mission and cannot, in the leisure of a court room, be quantified - unless you were there from the beginning to end of the mission. A photo or video is not sufficient evidence because it captures only moments of a mission and does not absorb the hours before, the minutes of compressed thinking with a full rush of adrenalin and the Combat Brain in full charge. Nations such as Syria, Iran, Egypt, North Korea and others do not overload their soldiers with unworkable rules of engagement. Only America and Israel has their soldiers hesitating in combat lest they end up in front of a court martial because they couldn't recall all the variables in a book of the rules of engagement which keep changing. Regrettably, the Free West has not come to grips with unconventional warfare which plays by its own rules of engagement - meaning there are no rules. ### 1. "IRAQ SOLDIER A ROGUE OR MERCY KILLER? Court Martial will decide captain's fate" by Carlos Sadovi CHICAGO TRIBUNE March 28, 2005. 2. "ARMY MEDIC ADMITS HE LED HIS CAPTAIN TO KILL WOUNDED MAN" by Carlos Sadovi CHICAGO TRIBUNE March 30, 2005 Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

"PALESTINE" TO ISRAEL: SEND MONEY Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 30, 2005.

When the responsible U.S. Defense News begins to sound like the New York Times on matters dealing with Israel, it's worth a deeper look. When U.S. Defense News reports on military matters, it's excellent, accurate and dispassionate. When it slips over to political matters, one perceives chatty cocktail discussions with a considerable amount of lubricant lathered on. For example, in its March 7th issue, the article "Palestine" To Israel: Send Money: $300 Million Requested For Security Forces, Gear" (1) by Barbara Opall-Rome, she quotes the well-known and notorious Terrorist, Mohammed Dahlan, making the case that the Palestinian Authority (he) needs $300 million over three years for equipment, gasoline, salaries, cars, food and insurance for the Soldier/Police (Terrorists) when they fall in the line of duty. Noteworthy, it is expected that a large percentage of these funds will end up in Dahlan's pocket (secret bank accounts) because Baksheesh is the way business is done in the Arab Muslim Middle East. What Ms. Opall-Rome's story omits is that Dahlan has a well-established record of being a major Terrorist, a planner and organizer of Terror attacks and on-off sidekick of Yassir Arafat. Also absent from Ms. Opall-Rome's story is that Arafat's well-developed conduit for distributing donor money to all sorts of Terrorist organizations remains in place. Should the money stop coming, the new head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) would be history. Dahlan says he wants to establish law and order, dismantle and stop the export of Terror attacks into Israel and foster the disheveled economy (gimme a break!). Abbas has already declared that he will NOT confront Terrorists or disarm them but, rather 'talk' them into peace. He sent PLO troops into Gaza but, they refuse to stop the Terrorists and spend a lot of time drinking sweetened tea and coffee with them. Dahlan complains he must communicate through open phone lines (meaning he wants secure cell phones) and doesn't have tear gas against demonstrators (his or others). He complains that he is forced to release criminals (cum) Terrorists, due to lack of forensic evidence. Terrorists, whether theatrically held by one organization or another, are not really locked up but, rather enjoy the privilege of home until they opt to leave. This is called the "Revolving Door". Note! He has received lists of wanted Terrorists and charges by Israeli Intelligence which has NOT been acted upon. The few who are caught by Palestinians receive the "revolving door" treatment and are out on the street within a few days. Dahlan cannot risk really arresting them because his Terrorist friends would assassinate Dahlah in a heart beat. Dahlan has himself done the same. This report speaks of the PA trying to quell violence and destroying smuggling tunnels from a compliant Egypt. Strangely, they were able to locate these tunnels within days of the deployment of the PA troops to Gaza - which served not only as a media demo but demonstrated that they knew exactly where the tunnels were all along. The report says "unnamed" Israeli officers believe that Abu Mazen sincerely desires to put an end to Terror and violence. This disregards the fact that a suicide bomber from Tulkarem killed 5 young people in Tel Aviv on February 25th. Few Israeli sources believe in Abu Mazen other than Shimon Peres, Sharon's spokesman and a few Left-wing apparachniks. Dahlan is quoted as saying that Israel has to ease restrictions and the International Community has to support a re-building of the Palestinian Security Forces and the Palestinian economy which may take unending years of funding. Some may recall that CIA Director George Tenet did indeed train the PA Security Forces at Camp America and Langley in sniper shooting and electronic interception both of which were then used against Israelis from the Oslo take-over of the 7 cities through today. That, of course is being done again where Arafat's 9 to 12 separate Security Services are to be combined by America's Gen. Ward into two or three more efficiently organized forces. Didn't we do that before when we trained Osama Bin Laden and the Mujahadeen to fight the Soviets, who then attacked America in 9/11 and in Iraq and that is called "Blow-back". Opall-Rome correctly reports that the PA has 62,000 security forces, paid monthly from foreign donors the E.U. (European Union) and tax monies collected by Israel and paid over to this well-oiled distributing system. Unknown to many the reason why donor money keeps pouring in is because the Europeans fear that if they stop then Terror will start. Regrettably, the U.S. shares this attitude. Opell-Rome quotes Ephraim Sneh, a former Israeli Defense Minister, who now chairs Israel's Knesset Committee of Foreign Affairs and Defense who said Israel should be more accommodating to the PA needs. (Yawn) Who really listens to political party hacks who are not regarded as experts in anything, let alone how to deal with Terrorists. Sneh is merely an apologist for the PA, Abbas and Dahlan - and certainly not worth quoting. He goes on to say that PM Sharon must be more understanding and patient - and that the process is political, cultural, economic and then military. He tells the reporter that Abu Mazen and Dahlan needs to gain more popularity, thereby requiring more Israeli support. (Better get the really high boots on because the B.S. is rising higher.) So much for that report. Let's turn to Pg. 34 and the Defense News Editorial of March 7th: "Treat The Disease". (2) Here is the worst cut of all as the Editor weighs in to tell us" "Nowhere is economic renewal a more pressing need than in the Middle East. Whoever, tells us about the poverty in the Gaza Strip and thus reasoning that this is the engine of seething rage may be eating hallucinogenic mushrooms. (The Editor forgets that the Arab Muslim Palestinians' poverty came as a result of unremitting Terror and in so doing, cut themselves off from employment in Israel to include the farms and factories developed by the Jews of Gaza.) Here one sees the pressure by the Bush Administration to force Israel to open her borders to Palestinian workers who, in the past, either sabotaged the work or killed their Jewish employers. (Bush wishes another State of Palestine but, doesn't want to pay for his legacy - He wants Israel the permanent employer of the Arab Muslim Palestinians.) The Editor is accurate in reporting that pledged Arab donor money has yet to arrive. The Editor perhaps doesn't know that the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, and the Gulf State Arabs hate the Palestinians and consider them dangerous to their governments and highly untrustworthy. Some will recall that it was Arafat and the PA working with Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait resulting in 350,000 Palestinians being evicted to Jordan while Saudi Arabia booted out another 325,000 as untrustworthy and all were deported to Jordan. The Editor goes on to speak about Israel investing money in the territories only to have it disappear into official pockets and thus Tel Aviv (Jerusalem) is wary of investing more. Whose pockets is the Editor referring to? Does he/she mean the settlers or the money flowing into Arafat's old conduits? Who in the hell told this Editor that decisions are made in Tel Aviv rather than Jerusalem where the Israeli government offices and Knesset (Parliament) sit - unless he/she is referring to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv? This would mean that Israel's decisions are being made by the U.S. pro-Arab State Department. Very likely! Why is Defense News departing from its area of expertise in weapons and front for Washington's political PR? It's really a shame on the American government. Barbara Opall-Rome is excellent when she reports on military matters but, she leaves a lot to be desired when she is used by Israeli political hacks or Terrorists like Dahlan or Abu Mazen (Arafat's co-hort for 40 years in the T business). One can only be reminded of the international journalists parked at the Commodore Hotel in Beirut, Lebanon, being handed news releases by Arafat's brother which they had better print as is. They were terrified to go out on the street because they would either be kidnaped or assassinated. As I recall, some ten journalists were killed during that 12 year Civil War Arafat created in Lebanon where 100,000 Christians and Muslims were killed. Getting the news from Arab Muslim sources is merely a trip to LaLa Land. What the professional journalists in the Middle East don't know, they make up and then they believe their own tales. ### 1. "Palestine To Israel: Send Money - $300 Million Requested For Security Forces, Gear" by Barbara Opall-Rome, Gaza City, Gaza US Defense News March 7, 2005 2. "International Aid: Treat The Disease" Editorial Us Defense News March 7, 2005 Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

ISRAEL ACADEMIA MONITOR TARGETS ANTI-ISRAEL ACADEMIC JEWS Posted by Yoram Shifftan, March 30, 2005.

Israel Academia Monitor (http://www.israel-academia-monitor.com/) provides us with a typical example of how Marxist Jews in Academia ignore that 78% of Palestine was illegally split off from Palestine and became Jordan. They define the 22% of Palestine that remained for the Jews as ALL of "Palestine." They then talk of Gaza and Samaria and Judea as 22% of Palestine - when, actually, it is 22% of 22% of the land intended under the British Mandate as a Jewish State. In this, they follow Peres, the writer Eli Amir and the Palestinians themselves. Note that Schwartz says that Israel military forces overran the bulk of Palestine. What a way to describe the unsuccessful Arab invasion of the brand-new State of Israel! "Is Israel a Democracy? An Interview with Yossi Schwartz" Israel is a racist state that came into being as a colonial project through an alliance of the European Jewish Zionists and the Western imperialist powers. The Zionists sought European support in settling Palestine, and in return the state to be established there would be a regional base for Western imperialism. The US supported the creation of a Zionist state. In 1948, Israeli military forces overran the bulk (78%) of Palestine. The remainder came under occupation in the course of the war of 1967. Dr. Yoram Shifftan has published many articles on Israeli hasbara, in publications such as Ha'aretz, Ma'ariv, Hatzofeh, Hamodia and Ha'Uma, Think-Israel and Jewish Internet Association. To Go To Top

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH FROM JIM VINEYARD Posted by Women in Green, March 30, 2005.

Christian-Zionist greetings to you, sir, from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Normally, sir, even as a Christian, I don't cry much. But, today, as I read from Israel, Arutz Sheva, the following, I could not help weeping: "A senior official in Israeli intelligence estimates that at least 100 Jewish residents will be killed in the expulsion process, since these residents have no intention of leaving their homes and farms voluntarily, and since the IDF has every intention of using live ammunition to facilitate the expulsion of Jews from Katif and Northern Samaria, while razing their homes, farms, and synagogues." Why does a fellow Texan, and a fellow Christian weep, sir? Last week, our President MOVED A MOUNTAIN to get legislation passed in an effort to try to save the life of a POOR LITTLE VEGETATIVE LADY IN FLORIDA [WHICH, LET ME BE CLEAR, I'M VERY MUCH IN SUPPORT OF SAVING HER LIFE], but now, we are 'complicit' in the plan to forcefully expel JEWS FROM THEIR HOMES, SYNAGOGUES, AND CEMETERIES, in which the Israeli Government plans on "killing" at least 100 Jews. Sir, cannot someone of your advisors see the inconsistency of these two different positions and remind you that you, sir, profess to be a born-again Christian? Or, Sir, is the ARAB OIL so important to us that we give up ALL OUR CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES? HOW, SIR, DOES THE MESSIAH, WHOM YOU AND I BOTH PROFESS TO BELIEVE IN, LOOK AT THIS SORT OF "DOUBLE DEALING?" In the last few days, sir, at a demonstration of "pro-disengagement LEFTISTS" in Israel, THOSE IN FAVOR OF WHAT THE USA GOV'T IS PUSHING], they sang two anthems. First, they sang "Hatikva", the Israeli National Anthem. Fine, that's good. But, second, sir, they sang John Lennon's song "Imagine" WHICH speaks of if only 'THERE WERE NO RELIGION, NO HEAVEN, NO GOD, ETC." DR. ANITA TUCKER, WHO IS AN AMERICAN-ISRAEL DUAL CITIZEN, LIVING IN THE GUSH, wrote me: "This statement that the Pro Disengagement people made in Tel Aviv tells clearly what this is all about. For this goal of no Religion, no heaven, and NO GOD, they are willing to sacrifice freedom, democracy, and allow the terrorists to re-arm themselves to take over the world against Christians and Jews." Now, sir, Dr. Tucker is one of those Jews who will be deported from her MAGNIFICENT FARM there in the Gush Katif. And, sir, I have no idea what her position might be as far as wanting to stay on her farm, but God forbid, maybe this dear friend of many Christian Zionists like you and I are, sir she might, God forbid, be one of the 100 Jews the Israeli government is planning to bump off. Mr. President [my Israeli friend Colonel (ret.) Yoash Tsiddon-Chatto will dump ice water on me at my boldness], HOW DOES THIS 'DEPORTATION SCHEME - PLANNED MURDER OF 100 JEWS' SQUARE, SIR, WITH THE "MOUNTAIN MOVING" PLAN TO SAVE THE LIFE OF "JUST ONE FLORIDA WOMAN?" Sir, does Terri Shaivo, living in the state your brother governs, have more value than the life of 100 [unfortunate] Jews living in the land that the Arabs (who have the oil we must have) want? Sir, "LAND FOR PEACE" with the Arabs has never worked. God gave that land to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God did not give it to Ishmael, Arafat and Abu Mazen! Sir, in Disengaging from so-called "Palestine," we will be 'DISEMBOWELING ISRAEL." WHOSE SIDE ARE WE ON? Sir, the Palestinians have a Great P.R. machine. But, what they lack is the TRUTH. Let's not fall for the often repeated lie, but let us stand up for what is right and what is Scriptural! Sir, the Palestinians have great P.R., but it is really B.S. (Pardon my poor boy from the panhandle of your Texas' French.) Let's not be PC and incur God Almighty's wrath upon US. Sir, the sanctity of Israel and God's continued blessing on America are more important than the favor of the Arabs with their oil. Sir, I would rather walk with GOD'S BLESSINGS than drive IN A LAND GOD HAS FORSAKEN. Your friend and servant, Jim Vineyard, Baptist Pastor, Oklahoma City, OK, March 29, 2005 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

THE REAL PROBLEM THAT AFFLICTS THE U.N. Posted by Randy Tate, March 30, 2005.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has just released a plan to enhance his organization's credibility and influence. Before assessing the specifics of that proposal, it makes sense to reflect on what the U.N. has become and what mission the U.N. now serves. It is obviously true that the U.N. is an embattled and broken institution. From the Iraq "oil-for-food" program to unspeakable acts of abuse perpetrated by U.N. employees, the global body finds itself in serious difficulty. But the flaws of the U.N. that are most troubling are not the weaknesses of a particular Secretary General or the inadequacy of certain oversight procedures. The U.N.'s real problem flows directly from this simple fact: a large number of the countries that compose the membership of the U.N. General Assembly have little interest in encouraging and expanding freedom. To the contrary, many of the nations of the General Assembly are actively thwarting the cause of liberty. Even the U.N. Security Council, which possesses the most influence within the U.N. system, includes Russia and China - hardly allies of democracy and the rule of law. Consequently, the composition and operating rules of the U.N. have made the institution incapable of embracing even the most basic human rights. For example, the U.N. has yet to accept a universal definition of terrorism that includes the targeting of innocent civilians. That's absurd and shameful. And it makes the U.N. nearly worthless in a world confronting the likes of al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad. So, the U.N.'s problems are about much more than any given scandal or misstep. The true crisis at the U.N. resides in the very nature of the U.N. itself. And that means the U.N. must not be allowed to supercede the authority of free nations committed to representative government. Kofi Annan can propose all of the reforms he wants. But right now the U.N.'s problems are much bigger than anything he or any of his supporters have even begun to address in a serious and meaningful way. Former Congressman Randy Tate is President of Free Nations United. Contact the group by email at info@freenationsunited.com or go to the website: http://www.freenationsunited.com To Go To Top

LORD BYRON'S "THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB" Posted by Rachel Neuwirth, March 30, 2005.

This poem was first published in 1815. It can be found on the web at www.underthesun.cc/Classics/Byron/PoemsOfGeorgeGordonLordByron/ PoemsOfGeorgeGordonLordByron2.html The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, That host with their banners at sunset were seen: Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay withered and strown. For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still! And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride; And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, And cold as the spray of the rock - beating surf. And there lay the rider distorted and pale, With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail: And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown. And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord! Rahel 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

DUTCH BAN OWN FLAG; ISRAELI DOUBLE STANDARD AGAINST JEWS; WHO INCITES AGAINST WHOM Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 30, 2005.

ARAFAT'S LIAISONS Foreign countries may think that some Arab faction is working with them, when that faction is working more against them. Arafat's balancing act included simultaneous ties with the KGB, CIA, radical Egyptians, and conservative Saudis. (Saudi "conservatism" means conservative about creed, not about its export of radical Islamic ideology.) Based on an agreement of mutual non-aggression, the CIA felt that the PLO was providing security for its agents in Beirut, but terrorism killed its main agent there. (It is believed that Syria played a role in that Syrian-backed truck-bombing.) Officially, the US maintained that it was above negotiating with terrorists. Unofficially, it had ties with the world's leading terrorist, as Arafat then was (MEPF, 11/25 from Miriam Gardner of American Yated Neeman, 11/25). MUSLIM SUES CANADA A Muslim from Kenya was observed video-filming a subway station and a tower in a suspicious manner. The police interrogated him about possible ties to terrorism. He is suing the federal government for $1 million (Op. Cit.). The brief does not state whether he is a citizen. I think that the lawsuit is frivolous. The suspect was acting the same way as terrorists staking out targets (and may even have been doing that). The police took a reasonable precaution. It would adversely affect public safety if police were inhibited from intervening. We Americans wish that people had been more suspicious about the 9/11 perpetrators. NATIONAL FLAG BANNED FROM DUTCH SCHOOLS The Dutch government has decided that the Dutch flag provokes its Muslim immigrants. Accordingly, students wearing the national flag will be suspended. Muslims call Dutch whose cars have the flag on bumper-stickers "racist." "Most schools also ban certain clothing like the Lonsdale brand and combat boots with white or red laces. This is also considered a sign of racism." Immigrants may wear what they wish (MEPF, 3/1 from Miriam Gardner of American Yated Neeman,2/18). Is it because the flag contains a cross? If the immigrants don't like the national flag, they should be invited to go elsewhere. The majority has a peculiar sense of tolerance to cater so profoundly to minority tastes, and let the minority insist on changing the culture of the majority. The majority should ask the minority to defer to it on such fundamentals. It is doubly perverted that the non-Muslim majority kowtows to Muslims who hate them and intend to dominate them in oppressive ways. Muslims claim "sensitivity" as a means of gradually displacing the existing culture. W. Europeans are oversensitive to others' "sensitivity," when they should have some of their own. That would be called self-preservation. NEWS OR PROPAGANDA Al Jazeera often features beheadings. In Islamic cultures, such publicity is considered favorable mention. Thus the TV station is making propaganda in favor of beheadings. The news dispatches are anti-American and anti-Israel. "American troops are portrayed by al-Jazeera as wantonly attacking Iraqi civilians and holy sites." US troops don't, but the insurgents fire from holy sites and therefore draw fire. Their complaint is hypocritical. The station is investing $7 million in facilities in Washington, DC., and anticipates opening others in Canada. Instead of declaring the station a component of the Islamist war on the US, American officials are worried about being accused of cramping freedom of the press. Enemy propaganda should not be allowed in wartime. (Op. Cit.) IRANIAN TV SERIES An Iranian TV series claims that "the Zionists" keep on a ship unwanted children whom they raise in good health and harvest their organs when needed (IMRA, 2/12 from MEMRI). Why doesn't Iran name the ship? Did the Nazis have worse slander? The Iranians are the ones with whom the EU has "constructive dialogue!" Why doesn't the EU evaluate "constructive dialogue?" ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE ON THE IRAQ INSURGENCY The insurgents take refuge in Syria and patronage from S. Arabia. This war is not a local one reinforced by foreign volunteers. The war was planned by Iran, Iraq, Syria, and S. Arabia. They admit it. The US still does not realize how much cooperation diverse enemies of the US are capable of. If the US is finally to win this war, it must get to the source of it in those several countries. One way is to encourage movements for democracy in them. Our hope would be that they would undermine the regimes and abandon the war (Jewish Political Chronicle, 1/2005, p.23 from Paul Richter, L.A. Times, 1/21). The risk is that the Islamists would win elections and impose harsher regimes dedicated more fully to constant war. Mr. Richter makes other points that time will judge. He predicts that the Iraqi Shiites would neither cooperate with the Iranian Shiites nor emulate them. He thinks that insurgent attacks on holy places result from desperation rather than strength. He contendss that the people of those countries seek American support for internal freedom. In Iran, one supposes they do. In the other countries? ANOTHER UNDEMOCRATIC ASPECT OF ABANDONMENT The Vice-President of the Israeli Bar informed the Knesset that the abandonment law seriously violates civil liberties. Referring "to Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz: "I told him that he's been applying a double-standard when, on the one hand, he determines that the redemption of land by the Jewish National Fund violates the right to property and civil rights, because you have to allow Arabs to purchase such property; and also preserves the rights of absentee land holders [regarding Arabs who have abandoned their property in Jerusalem]. But in relation to the rights of other citizens, the residents of Gush Katif and northern Samaria, suddenly there are no property rights, no human rights, no civil rights, no nothing." (Arutz-7, 2/14.) Mazuz also ruled against Jewish owners whose property was usurped by the Arabs. That is a double standard. He always bases his decision on assertion of some righteous principle, but the result always turns out to be anti-Zionist HIZBULLAH RECRUITING FATAH AS HUMAN BOMBS Hizbullah has increased the compensation to families of human bombs from $20,000 to $100,000. It has recruited dozens of cells in the Territories. It finances their activities, too (Op. Cit.). This is serious money. It gets results. But Israel sits on its side of the border letting Hizbullah get away with it and on its side of the Green Line, letting the recruits operate. Oh how the withdrawal from Lebanon was a mistake! On the other hand, if Israel had withdrawn its force as soon as the Lebanon war was over and it lost the chance to remake the country when its ally, the President of Lebanon, was assassinated, it is possible that the Shiites might not have been roused to terrorism. At least Israel's losses would have been reduced. SYRIAN MOVEMENT The UNO says Syrian military "movement" confirmed that Syria is complying with the Security Council Resolution to evacuate from Lebanon (Benny Avni, NY Sun, 3/18, p.7). Why doesn't the UNO wait for proof? Movement is not necessarily evacuation. Syria has moved its troops around before, hoping that observers would think that it is evacuating. But it doesn't. U.S. STILL CODDLES SYRIA Syria has committed much terrorism, some against the US. The US never took action against it. It didn't react when Syria helped Hizbullah murder hundreds of Marines. It didn't react when Syria let Iraqi insurgents take refuge in its territory and when ready pass back in to strike at US troops. Neither did it do anything about the truckloads of contraband, probably weapons of mass-destruction, that came from Iraq and Syria buried in the Bekaa Valley. It committed other crimes against the US. In 2003, Congress passed the Syria Accountability Act. It never was enforced. Apparently it just was or show, to silence Jewish (and other American popular) objections to Syria. US officials who are protecting Syrian during wartime are committing high treason. They protect S. Arabia, too. The US seems to have a secret government directing its foreign policy, a policy that lets its citizens get killed with impunity (Winston Mid East Analysis, 2/14). I thought the US would reveal Iraq's weapons of mass destruction under Syrian control, to justify the are and Rush's re-election. Apparently, the secret junta running US foreign policy has more important goals. What they are is not known. SAUDI NEWS MORE TRUTHFUL THAN P.A. NEWS The P.A. reported that an Israeli soldier shot a P.A. youth for nothing. Arab News reported that Israeli soldiers shot that Arab, who had attacked one of them (IMRA, 2/14). MISTAKING THE FUNCTION OF THE PRIME MINISTER "Haaretz" complains that Israel's Foreign Ministry does not tout PM Sharon's abandonment plan. It suggests that Foreign Minister Shalom resign, so that PM Sharon can replace him with someone who would support that policy (Foreign Ministry, 2/14). What would the Ministry's touting the plan add to the proponents' lack of explanation, analysis, and truth-telling? What "Haaretz" wants is uniformity within the government. That is appropriate for a presidential government, not for a coalition government elected on a platform not to abandon territory. Sharon should resign before he wrecks the country. WHO INCITES AGAINST WHOM The "Jerusalem Post" complains about a high level of violence committed and threatened against government officials and incitement against such officials, as by calling PM Sharon a dictator. The "Post" suggests shunning the inciters (Foreign Ministry, 2/14). Min. of Internal Security Ezra wants administrative detention for Israelis who yell at government Ministers and he wants to free Arabs convicted of murdering Israelis (IMRA, 2/14). Hypocrisy. Sharon acts like a dictator. Then he must expect to be accused of being dictatorial. I recognize some of the examples cited by the "Post" as stories already exposed as phony. Therefore, the most incitement is by the Left against the right. Let us shun or shame the Left. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

AN OPPORTUNITY SQUANDERED - ISRAEL AND A NATIONAL REFERENDUM Posted by Michael Freund, March 30, 2005.

Following is an article of mine from today's Jerusalem Post regarding the Knesset's rejection of a national referendum on the proposed withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria, and why this was a missed opportunity to heal the divisions within Israel. He has stared down Israel's most implacable foes, stormed tenacious enemy strongholds and commanded some of the country's most audacious military maneuvers. But when it comes to consulting with the Israeli public, Ariel Sharon is suddenly running scared. While Monday's vote in the Knesset rejecting a bill for a national referendum may have been an important victory for the Prime Minister, it was in fact a dreadful blow to the cause of Israel's national unity. It is hard to recall a situation as politically volatile or socially precarious as the current ideological divide gripping the country. After months of bitter rancor and debate, after all the heated arguments on television and in the media, Israeli society finds itself on the cusp of an excruciatingly painful and wrenching act: the expulsion of thousands of innocent civilians from their homes. This isn't just another political issue, such as privatization of government firms, tuition hikes at national universities or the public sector's level of fiscal responsibility. It is something that goes to the very core of Israel's being, impacting upon its identity as a Jewish and Zionist state. And that is why, as problematic and imperfect as referendums might be, the Prime Minister's opposition to holding one is so unfortunate. It would have been costly and no doubt inconvenient, but there is no question that a national referendum would have served to calm the agitation and still the troubled waters that are rising all around us. I'm not talking about the childish and inane graffiti one sees scrawled on buildings or placards, or even the pungent slogans that are occasionally heard on the radio. The venom being hurled is reaching new lows, fueling the danger of an ongoing and deepening split within the nation. Take, for example, veteran Israeli journalist Yaron London, who wrote last week in Yediot Aharonot: "the kippa is no longer an innocent head covering, but a warning sign, presumably because it identifies the wearer as a potential danger." A Jew wearing a traditional head-covering out of respect for his Maker or as a symbol of national pride or religious commitment is now viewed as a "potential danger" by one of Israel's more prominent commentators? Had the same sentence appeared in a French, a Russian or an American newspaper, it would have been labeled anti-Semitic, and rightly so. But London didn't stop there. "What would I do," he asked rhetorically, "if I saw a group of young kippa-wearers, tzizit flying, grouped together at the side of the freeway on a day when right-wing leaders have promised to bring the country to a standstill?" Take a look at what his answer was: "If my grandson were in the car with me, I'd turn around and find an alternate way home. If I'm alone, I'll prepare to trade blows." "Prepare to trade blows"? Is this what Israel's civic debate has deteriorated to? Sadly, the answer appears to be yes. The hot-headed rhetoric is taking on an increasingly menacing tone, and it should be of concern to us all. Worse yet, because of the manner in which the Gaza withdrawal plan has been pushed forward, huge portions of the public feel disenfranchised and ignored, as though they and their opinions have not been taken into account at all. Many are left to wonder: if the Prime Minister is so sure that the country backs his plan, then why is he afraid to put it to the test of public opinion? And if a majority actually opposes the withdrawal, then how legitimate would it be? These questions and concerns could have been laid to rest. They could so easily have been swept aside, one way or the other, by giving the people a voice through a national referendum. The growing split within the country could have been forestalled because the outcome of the balloting would necessarily have resulted in the bulk of the Israeli public accepting whatever the majority would have decided. But this precious opportunity, like so many before it, has now been wasted. Instead, we face the possibility of a withdrawal that will leave an open wound on the Israeli psyche, one that will fester and rankle for decades to come. The originators of modern democratic thought foresaw the perils inherent in such an approach. Take out your De Tocqueville or your Federalist papers, and see the extent to which the great political theorists of democracy sought to tackle the tricky questions raised by the necessity to balance differing and competing lines of thought in a free society. They bent over backwards to caution against trampling on the feelings and interests of various sectors, noting that to do so would inevitably lead to a tear in the very fabric of the social order. For a country as diverse as Israel, that challenge is even more pronounced, making it all the more regrettable that the government is unwilling to give the people a say. Deep down, I think that Prime Minister Sharon knows this, but he is so insistent on moving ahead with the disengagement, that he does not wish to risk an embarrassing defeat at the polls. In doing so, however, he has chosen to take an even more perilous gamble, the results of which could divide the nation as never before. Let's just hope that does not come to pass. Michael Freund served as an aide in the Prime Minister's Office to former premier Binyamin Netanyahu. To Go To Top

A DELEGATE OF ISRAEL FOR MODEL UN Posted by Celia Xin, March 29, 2005.

Hi. I seem to remember someone replied back to me (from Think-Israel) when I asked for help on my Model UN project. Thank you, it was helpful. Model UN was great. It was.... so stressful it was fun. I must honestly say I never had such a good time yelling at various countries. I made friends with many other "countries", and even drafted a resolution with my school's mortal enemies: East Brunswick (China, I think). Unluckily, my committee (WIPO) was not able to vote on it before the deadline, though we (a temporary alliance of Venezuela, Sweden, Italy, etc.) did manage to vote down a resolution that disallowed pharmaceuticals to use generic medicines. Sound stupid? Yes. But it was the most interesting of all the resolutions because it also wanted the creation of the FOC, the Farmer's Ordinance Council. It was very popular and hard to vote down. I am proud to say my little town of Highland Park did fairly well. We clapped for a full 5 minutes when one of our delegate won Best Delegate for some random committee. He (the delegate), if I remember correctly, talks extremely fast and stuffs so many facts and figures into his speeches that by the time you realized what he was REALLY talking about, you've already voted for whatever he was saying. Unfortunately, I made no contributions to the awards given to Highland Park. DPRK and Germany, as I remember, won the Best Delegate and Outstanding Delegate for the WIPO committee. My position paper (though it was the best I had ever written) did not get the Best Position Paper. I did enjoy myself however. I have never eaten so much Burger King, (drunken so much) Starbucks coffee, and ramen in one weekend before. Did you know you can cook ramen with a coffee maker? It astounds me how much I learned in that one weekend. Many thanks for reading (or skimming) my babbling, sincerely, Celia Xin, a Delegate of Israel for Model UN PS. I managed to keep Israel's placard. My partner wanted it, but I managed to trade for it with some well chosen words and a few illustrations I made of various other countries. To Go To Top

YOU NEVER HAD THE RIGHT!! Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 29, 2005.

Those who voted for the displacement of other Jews and those Israelis of the Left who cheered this ruling have regrettably signed their own displacement. While these people may not believe in retribution delivered by a superior Higher Authority, nevertheless, there will be payback. Never was it the right of even a million Jews to displace even one Jew. We believe that the life of one Jew is the whole world and others cannot make us expendable to serve a so-called majority. You never had the right - even through selfish motivation to dismember the Jewish State nor to displace settled Jews. You have gifted land that was never yours to a pagan people who irrevocably hate the Jewish people - by their own words. Your right to the Land was as only a small share but, even that fragment was not yours to abandon. This is a sin so monstrous that you will pay by having yourself or your loved ones thrown into the garbage heap of history. There will always be a remnant of proud Jews who remain and who remember but, you and yours will not be part of those who survive - unless you change your ways. Whether it is the enemy Islamists who will set cities on fire or whether it comes as rolling earthquakes, it will come. You who hate your brother Jews and wish them gone will be dealt with in the same way you wished for displacement upon your brothers. Why must you repeat the crime of Cain killing Abel - time and again?! I have been reminded that we must always end up on an encouraging note. Therefore, I hope and pray that you who wish ill upon your brothers and sisters will come to your senses and beg forgiveness (Tzvuvah) of all those whom you have already hurt and all those whom you will hurt. I hope and pray that, before the crime of deporting Jews and the dismemberment of the Land of Israel takes place, a sign will jar you into thinking and re-thinking what you are trying to do. I can only hope and pray that you throw those twisted characters, called "leaders" out of office and select people who are not thieves and corrupters. Those who hated and sold out the Jewish People, not for principles but for money - even if some of them wear a Kippah - should be abandoned as hopelessly corrupt. Having worked so diligently at the evil task of condemning Jews to deportation, you have, by your own hand, assigned yourself and your loved ones your own punishment. (Unless, of course, you reverse yourself.) You never had the Right!! Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

STAGES Posted by Evelyn Hayes, March 29, 2005.

All of Oslo is a stage, waging another war against the Jews, and many of the Jews are actors in this folly, planning uncivil war against their fellow Jews, using German horses, being jihad's mules, bulldozing settlements for those who would destroy them, diplunatics, quoting Plato for one world order, no religion, all the same, no heaven, totally disengaged, disunited, voting against themselves, while suffering disorder and hating those who believe in Gd, settlement and the land, legacy, fighting against their ancestors, portraits on their walls, hating who they are, working for those who hate them who are using a diplomacy of stages and a toppling by jihad. All of Oslo is a stage to suffer the Jews to solve the Jewish problem, and Hamas and Fatah, Tanzeem militia and the "Aqsa Martyrs Brigades," all Hizb'allah, suicide bombers are united in a "strategic choice", "khayar istrateeji", the strategy of the late Yasser Arafat al Husseini the Egyptian and his partner, successor Dr. Mahmoud Abbas, Holocaust Denier. United, using Mohammed's Big Lie to defy the Jewish dhimmi, so stoned to reality, so confused by what's happening again, numb to the pain, paining patriots who will win, but at what cost, if Stage One and Two have undone land and security and Stage Three is blackmailing democracy. All of Oslo is a stage: Jews are crying, threatened; misleaders disunited, retreating. PLO are laughing, uniting, spreading Gaza to Jenin, smuggling SAM-7 "Strella" anti-aircraft missiles into Palestinian-ruled areas. Watch out, Tel Aviv. All of Oslo is a stage and major Jewish leaders are playing against themselves, so political as they call theirs citizens the same. All of Oslo is a stage and minor Jihad is planning a major preying against the Jews. Bless those Jews who are not actors; keep protesting the real threat; maintaining the eternal chain. Let truth's strength gain a victory. I never saw a human chain like that from Gush Katif to Jerusalem; Strange, the losers are still on the stage when Klal Yisrael won. Why a staged peace between identity deniers and identity snatchers? Will Jihad play with Jews, with infidels? All of Oslo is a stage; let's stop the playing. The danger is real, spreading, getting worse. Evelyn Hayes is author of "The Eleventh Plague, Twins, because their hearts were softened to accept the unacceptable" and "The Twelfth Plague, Generations, because the lion wears stripes." Contact her at haze@rcn.com. To Go To Top

GIVE THEM CAUSE TO WORRY: APRIL 11 PROTEST RALLY IN CRAWFORD, TEXAS Posted by Ruth Matar, March 29, 2005.

Dear Friends, In today's Jerusalem Post, Tuesday March 29, 2005, there was an article entitled, "PM's OFFICE WORRIES ABOUT PROTESTS DURING U.S. VISIT." "Officials in the Prime Minister's office said they have received intelligence information that Disengagement opponents here would try to disrupt Sharon's visit, in order to move the camera lens from what is expected to be a friendly Bush-Sharon meeting to the very unfriendly strife the plan is causing in Israel. " It is essential that you not only give Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a reason to worry, but that you also give President George W. Bush a cause to re-examine United States' policy toward Israel. It is a matter of life or death, not only for tiny Israel, but also for the mighty United States. And I speak here as a concerned American citizen, as well as someone who enjoys her spiritual home in Jerusalem. Ariel Sharon's plan of Disengagement from Biblical Gaza and Biblical northern Samaria may seem unstoppable. To many people, it may seem as if this is just a minor blip on the radar screen of history. "Israel may surely survive without Gush Katif and northern Samaria," they say. "After all, we are only talking about approximately 9,000 people. If it's for the common good, it behooves them to give up their homes." Prime Minister Sharon has never even attempted to show that his Disengagement-Deportation of Jews by Jews is for the common good. It is, of course, simply giving in to Arab Islamic terror and pressure from the United States. Ever since Israel regained its Biblical heartland - Judea, Samaria and Gaza - in a defensive war in 1967, the United States' policy has been not to allow Jews to re-establish communities in the Land promised to them by G-d as an everlasting inheritance. Even though the League of Nations and the Balfour Declaration declared the whole area of Mandate Palestine - including what is now Jordan - as a Jewish Homeland, Winston Churchill, with great "generosity" toward the Arabs, chopped off a piece to placate one of the feuding sheiks (the other sheik got Iraq as his prize!). All this happened not too long ago, just at the beginning of the twentieth century. But now the United Nations, the European Union, Russia and the United States have decided that the Holy Land needs to have some more parts amputated. They call this the Road Map to Peace! Why is this amputation not only dangerous to Israel, but also to the United States and the rest of Western civilization, which are all based on the Judeo-Christian heritage? Isn't this an incredible victory for Arab Islamic terror? The unmistakable message which radical Islam understands perfectly is that TERROR PAYS, AND INCREASING TERROR WILL BRING EVEN GREATER DIVIDENDS! I may be severely criticized for what I am going to say. 9/11 may well have happened because the United States for years ignored the terror directed toward Israel, as well as toward itself, by the Father of Modern Terrorism, Yasser Arafat. It probably seemed to the United States and to the European countries that Arafat's terror was directed only at Israel and, hence, was only a local problem. "The obstacle to peace" between Jews and Arabs was perceived by the World to be the Jews building communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Even when the United States Ambassador Cleo Noel and his assistant, G. Curtis Moore, were machine-gunned on Arafat's orders in Khartoum, Sudan, in February of 1973, the United States did not find it politically expedient to react as it should have. (The dirty little secret of the U.S. State Department is that they have for many years hidden a recording where Arafat's voice has been clearly identified as ordering the torture and murder of U.S. diplomats.) Yasser Arafat supplied the weapons used by the terrorists who killed 241 American Marines in Beirut in 1983. A National Security Agency phone-tap recorded a September 24, 1983 call from the Iranian ambassador to Abu-Haidr to "undertake an extraordinary operation against the U.S. Marines in Beirut." The attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut took place shortly thereafter. Two hundred forty one Americans were killed! (This information was revealed by Newsweek Magazine in its November 1999 issue.) Yasser Arafat was also involved in the planning of the first World Trade Center bombing in New York in February, 1993, where six people died and thousands were injured. (Moshe Peled, Israel's Deputy Minister of Education in the Netanyahu government, told CIA representatives in early 1997 that Israeli intelligence had complete evidence about Yasser Arafat's involvement. The official Iranian government newspaper, E-Kirhan, as well, accused Arafat of responsibility for the first World Trade Center bombing.) And what was the reaction of the U.S. State Department? To hide the evidence of Arafat's continual perfidy. These are just a few examples of terror perpetrated by Arafat and his henchmen against the United States. The rest of the world has likewise not been immune from Arafat-sponsored terrorism. And what was the reaction of the United States' government and the World at large? A year after the first World Trade Center bombing in February 1993, Arafat was rewarded in 1994 with the Nobel Prize for Peace. Arafat must have found this very humorous indeed. However, the "joke" is on all of us. 9/11 and the train bombing in Spain, etc., was a direct result of giving radical Islam the feeling that they can literally get away with murder. For U.S. President George W. Bush to stand by, no, even encourage the dictator of Israel, Ariel Sharon, to give parts of the Holy Land to Arafat's political successor, Abu-Mazen, the terrorist who planned and funded the Munich Olympic Massacre, is to say the least, misguided, and not in the interest of the security of the United States. Islamic terror is continually promising the World another 9/11. For Ariel Sharon to violently drag Jews out of their homes, people who have lived there for three generations, and to order the disinterment of their beloved Jewish relatives, is downright evil. Sharon's Disengagement-Deportation of Jews by Jews Plan is tearing the Jewish State of Israel apart! Dear Friends, it is a privilege for all of us to make our voices heard in America, which is the bastion of world democracy. The Jewish People in Israel, however, no longer have that privilege under Sharon's undemocratic regime. I am sure that President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will appreciate learning how the American people really feel about the future of the Holy Land. I, myself, hope, G-d willing, to be in Crawford, Texas on April 11, 2005. I implore you, dear friends, to come. If it is difficult for some of you to take this trip, contact Pastor Vineyard, who is a passionate defender of Israel's Biblical inheritance, and he might find a way to help you with logistic arrangements, so that you can attend this important protest rally. Now - for practical information: PROTEST RALLY IN CRAWFORD, TEXAS, APRIL 11, 2005 We pray to have 500 buses with at least 30 people in each bus, which will give us 15,000 protestors. (Of course, double or triple that amount will be even more effective!) Will you come? Will you get a car-load to come? Will you get a van-load to come? Will you get a bus-load to come? Will you get a plane-load to come? Make up signs on orange poster board, the color of Gush Katif resistance, such as: "SHARON IS ASKING PRESIDENT BUSH TO FINANCE THE DEPORTATION OF JEWS WITH MY TAXPAYER'S MONEY!" Let Pastor Jim Vineyard know how many of you are coming. Write him at: whbc@windsorhills.org or call him at 405 943 3326. WHEN YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN WILL ASK YOU, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO SAVE THE HOLY LAND?" YOU CAN THEN TELL THEM: "I WAS THERE IN CRAWFORD, TEXAS, ON APRIL 11, 2005." I am looking forward to meeting you there. With Blessings and Love for Israel, Ruth Matar P.S. Please pass this article on to as many people as you can think of. 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

SHARON AND THE BUSH DOCTRINE Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 29, 2005.

The following article was written by Caroline Glick and it appeared in the Jerusalem Post, March 24, 2005 (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/ JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111634309167&p=1006953079897). As I read Glick's analysis, it reinforced my prior conclusion that Sharon's Disengagement will follow the failed Oslo Accords with almost identical results. I use the proviso almost because the failure this time will bring a much broader and deeper attack on Israel's inner cities. The shock to those who thought they could sacrifice the settlers for what they hoped would be their own safety will be considerable. The Oslo Accords gifted such cities as Jenin, Tulkarem Ramallah, Gaza and Kalkilya, etc. which turned the cities into unconnected terrorist cities. Now the Sharon and Bush Disengagement will connect these cities from Gaza to the Golan Heights into one contiguous Terrorist State which, when it becomes fully operational, will destroy Israel. Then it will reach out for Saudi Arabia, Jordan and link up with the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt and Syria. The shock waves will make those who accepted the Road Map and Phase One (called the "Disengagement") feel terrified as to what they have done. I imagine that those who brought this catastrophe upon the Israeli people will have reason to be terrified. Last June, during a NATO summit in Istanbul, US President George W. Bush blamed the dictatorial rulers of the Arab world and their supporters for the culture of extremism that engenders terrorism and hatred of the West. Bush said, "In the last 60 years, many in the West have added to this [state of affairs] by excusing tyranny in the region, hoping to purchase stability at the price of liberty. But it did not serve the people of the Middle East to betray their hope of freedom and it has not made Western nations more secure to ignore the cycle of dictatorship and extremism." The fact that, in the midst of a reelection campaign in which he was being pilloried for alienating Europe and Turkey by invading Iraq, Bush stood in front of his erstwhile NATO allies and essentially told them they were advancing the cause of terror, speaks volumes for the president's seriousness in pursuing his strategy of victory through the democratization of the Arab world. The European reactions to Bush's speech were highly suggestive. French President Jacques Chirac sent his new foreign minister, Michel Barnier, to pay his first visit to PLO chieftain Yasser Arafat and spend the night in his Ramallah compound. British Prime Minister Tony Blair stood next to Bush at a news conference and conflated Bush's Greater Middle East Initiative of spreading democracy regionally with establishing a Palestinian state. The question of how Palestinian statehood fits into the Bush Doctrine of democratization has always been a nagging one. The president's central premise is that the endemic wars and terrorism in the region are the consequence of repressive regimes that prefer their people be raised on a diet of extremism and hatred under tyrannical governments than be educated in moderation and modernity under free governments. Rejection of Israel's right to exist by the Arabs who need Israel (and America) as their external enemy in order to justify the failure of their own leaders to advance their peoples is, by the reasoning of the Bush Doctrine, the central cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict. On the other hand, the idea that there must be a "two-state solution" in which a Palestinian state - empty of Jews at its inception - is created in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem comes in response to a completely different set of operating assumptions. These assumptions are not American, but European. According to them, the cause of wars and Arab terrorism is not Arab tyranny and religious extremism but a lack of Palestinian sovereignty. The Arab conflict with Israel, according to this view, will be resolved when a "viable and contiguous Palestinian state" is founded in a Jew-free Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem. Today the Bush Administration, together with the Sharon-Peres government, is pushing the view that Sharon's withdrawal and expulsion plan for Gaza and northern Samaria is aligned with the Bush Doctrine. Among the Palestinians and the Israelis, however, it is becoming increasingly clear with each passing day that not only is there no connection between the two, but that there is a glaring contradiction. This week, MK Azmi Bishara's Web site, www.Arabs1948.com, published an interview with Hamas spokesman Ahmed al-Bahar in which he discussed the significance of Sharon's plan. Bahar claimed, "The painful and qualitative blows which the Palestinian resistance dealt to the Jews and their soldiers over the past four and a half years led to the decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip." "All indications show that since its establishment, Israel has never been in such a state of retreat and weakness as it is today, following more than four years of the intifada," he continued. "Hamas's heroic attacks exposed the weakness and volatility of the impotent Zionist security establishment. The withdrawal marks the end of the Zionist dream and is a sign of the moral and psychological decline of the Jewish state. We believe that the resistance is the only way to pressure the Jews." There can be no clearer exposition of the Palestinian view that Israel's plan to hand over strategic assets to its enemy in the midst of war and receive nothing in return is a victory for terror than Bahar's statement. From the political developments of the past couple of weeks inside of Israel it is clear that the overwhelming majority of Israelis also view Sharon's plan as a victory for terrorism. So it is that without exception, the entire left wing of the political spectrum, with the support of the anti-Zionist Arab MKs and the post-Zionist Yahad faction, supports Sharon's plan. And almost without exception, every member of the right wing of the Israeli political spectrum - which does not include Sharon loyalists like Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni - either opposes Sharon's plan or demands that a national referendum on the plan be held before any withdrawal of forces or expulsion of Israeli citizens is carried out in Gaza and northern Samaria. It took a while for the significance of Sharon's plan to become clarified for Israelis. As recently as last month, many voices on the Left were still questioning whether Sharon had something up his sleeve that they didn't know about. Yet as time passed, and Sharon became increasingly shrill in his defense of his policies - while demonizing and firing anyone who voiced opposition to or doubt about the wisdom of his plans - its significance sunk in for everyone. As a result, today it is well nigh impossible to find an Israeli or a Palestinian who will argue that Sharon's withdrawal plan can in any way be linked to, or made to agree with, the Bush Doctrine. Given the total disconnect between the Bush Doctrine, which places the onus for change on the Arabs by calling for their democratization and eschewal of terrorism, and the Sharon plan, which makes no demands whatsoever on the Palestinians, it was interesting to see an attempt to conflate the two undertaken by as remarkable an intellectual and as heroic a figure as Norman Podhoretz. In the April issue of Commentary magazine, Podhoretz, who has been a towering intellectual model for me throughout my career, argues that there is a way to view the Sharon plan as part of the Bush Doctrine. He claims that after Israel removes the Jewish communities from Gaza and northern Samaria, the Palestinians will be held to the Bush Doctrine's policy of democratization - and that Israel won't be forced to make any additional concessions until the Palestinians reform. He argues that if the Palestinians continue to attack Israel after the IDF evacuates the Jewish communities and withdraws from the areas, Israel will be free to take any action it deems necessary to secure itself. He claims that because of Bush's commitment to the Bush Doctrine, the Arab world will now be forced to enact reforms that will transform the Palestinians' operating environment in a manner that will force them to give up terror. While it is possible to debate the merits of each of the points he made in favor of the plan, what is most interesting about Podhoretz's analysis of Sharon's plan is the point he does not address. Podhoretz never discusses what Israel is actually accomplishing - for itself - by going forward with Sharon's withdrawal and expulsion plan. Again, as is now clear to all Israelis and Palestinians, the reason it is impossible to discuss what Israel is actually gaining from Sharon's plan is because Israel is gaining nothing from it. MK Uzi Landau, who leads Sharon's opposition in Likud, flew to the US last week to speak to American Jewish audiences. He spoke mainly to local groups, as he explains that the main Jewish organizations - the United Jewish Communities and AIPAC - have refused to allow any opponents of Sharon's plan to address their audiences. This, he says, is the result of pressure on the groups by Sharon's office. "What I found every time that I spoke," Landau relates, "is that the American Jews had absolutely no knowledge of the problems with Sharon's plan. No one has ever discussed them. No one has ever been afforded the opportunity to discuss what will happen the day after Israeli forces pull out of Gaza. No one has ever been able to talk to them about the financial and security and political costs of the plan. No one has ever been allowed to discuss with them the ecological consequences of the plan." Given the fact that in Israel it took time before the significance of Sharon's plan was fully understood, it makes sense that in the US it could take a bit longer for the strategic logic - or irrationality - of Sharon's plan to become clear. When the Rabin-Peres government announced the Oslo process 12 years ago, giving the PLO land, legitimacy and arms in exchange for intangible promises of peace, American supporters of Israel - both Jewish and non-Jewish - were quick to declare either their support for or opposition to Oslo. The vast majority supported it. Once they had publicly declared their support for the policy, even when it literally began blowing up in Israel's face, they refused to countenance that they were wrong to have done so. The fact that the current policy of expulsion and retreat is being enacted by Sharon - the great general and right-wing tactician - is a source of confusion for many who are looking for a catch that will explain and justify his adoption of a radical, left-wing plan. Hopefully, once the supporters of Israel - who, like Podhoretz, were brave enough to ignore the conformist pressures and oppose Oslo - come to accept the fact that Sharon's policy involves many risks but provides no opportunities, they will not hesitate to disavow it. And again, hopefully, at that point they will demand that the US policy toward the Palestinians be brought into line with the Bush Doctrine. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

POLICE BRUTALITY AT WOMEN'S WALK Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 29, 2005.

Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has turned some of the Israeli Police into the same type of storm troopers and Cossacks as Jews have been escaping from for decades. Sharon has managed to dredge up the darkest and most ugly feelings in the Police which normal people try to suppress. Clearly, the Police have been given orders to build up to an acceptable level of "police riots" where beating and possibly even shooting the people will seem normal as part of their assignment. Did anyone ever believe that Israel would become a Police State run by Jews? This news item is from yesterday's Arutz-7 (www.IsraelNationalNews.com) is entitled "Police Brutality at Women's Walk Inside Israel." The accompanying pictures are from Sunday, Day 1 of the march. An eyewitness said that police last night assaulted an ambulance doctor and his three daughters at a solidarity march from Netanya to northern Samaria. Police stopped the marchers again today. The two-day march began Sunday morning when some dozen women set off from the center of Netanya to two northern Samarian communities slated to be dismantled this summer under the disengagement plan. The march was to be a successor to last week's two-day peaceful walk from Sderot in the Negev to Gush Katif. The organizers said the marches are not political demonstrations. "We didn't ask for a permit because we simply were hiking," explained Penina Moati, a resident of the established Shomron community Elkanah, east of Tel Aviv. But she reacted with shock at what she said was unjustified police brutality against people who had not committed any offense. At one point, police met the women and told them they could not walk together without a permit. The women began to disperse. At that point, Haifa resident Dr. Shai Gross, an MDA doctor, arrived on the scene, and heard a policeman insult one of the women. Dr. Gross criticized the policemen, and was promptly assaulted and arrested by four policemen, Moati said. In addition, she said, the police threw his three teenage daughters to the ground. Another woman, Esther Eliezer of Netanya, said that when she went to the police station to testify in the doctor's behalf, a policeman threatened to arrest her if she didn't leave immediately. The police also said they would arrest all of the women if they continue their walk this morning - which the women said they would do. At the a police officer immediately stopped them and took the organizer, Ruthie Ben Chaim, to the police station for investigation and possibly to receive a permit. Moati said he insisted everything would be OK. By now, the number of women had grown to about 30. "We continued walking," Moati said, "but we kept a distance between each group so it would not look like a demonstration. We got to the Kfar HaRoeh intersection around 3:30 PM and stopped at the intersection so drivers would see us. We were on the island and did not block traffic." "After an hour or an hour and a half," she continued, "a police vehicle came. The officer who had told us that everything would be OK now said we had to disperse. By that time, we were only about 12 women - and then Dr. Gross arrived. The police told us to disperse, and he asked the police for identification as we walked away." "Suddenly a policeman called one of the woman 'stupid.' Dr. Gross criticized the policeman for using such language. The police then claimed several women had crossed the street against a red light and had no permit. As they threatened to arrest one of the women, Dr. Gross shouted at them. Four policemen jumped on him and beat him terribly. The more he resisted, the more they beat him. He had not done anything wrong, but they forced him into a paddywagon while his three teen age girls were shouting and crying. The police threw them mercilessly on the ground and took him away." Moati said the women stayed at residents' houses at Kfar HaRoeh, where the teenagers' grandparents also live. "The police said if we set foot on the road tomorrow, they will arrest us. We intend to continue to walk," she stated. At 6 PM today (Monday), the police halted the women as they reached the Arab-populated town of Baka Al-Sharkiya, which is essentially the Palestinian Authority half of the Israeli-Arab Baka Al-Gharbiya. The police demanded that the marchers board an armored bus to take them a roundabout way to northern Samaria, rather than directly through Baka Al-Sharkiya. The police stated "concern for Arab sensitivities" by way of explanation. As of this report, the marchers have refused to board the buses. ***** Netanya Marchers Arrive in Endangered Shomron Communities Inside Israel Among the marchers were people from Hevron, south of Jerusalem, as well as from Alonei HaBashan in the Golan; religious and secular residents of the Shomron and elsewhere in Israel; grandmothers, five nursing babies and their mothers - and more. [Note: The marchers did make it to their destination Sa-Nur and Homesh today, Tuesday March 29th - despite further arrest threats. Apparently, the publicity and inquiries by Knesset members made another attack against them too hot to handle. -- E. Winston] ### Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

SHARON IS IMPLEMENTING MITZNA INAUGURATION SPEECH Posted by Steven Plaut, March 29, 2005.

Two years ago I penned a sarcastic article about what Amram Mitzna's inaugural speech would be if he won the election trhat was soon to take place in Israel. The article originally appeared in http://www.acpr.org.il/NATIV/2003-1/2003-plaut-xs.htm In light of this week's vote by the Knesset to implement Sharon's Disengagement Plan for the Gaza Strip, we thought it timely to repost it now: Amram Mitzna's Inauguration Address Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for electing me as Prime Minister of Israel. As you know, I ran on a platform of peace and it is now my intention of keeping my promises to you and my backers and financiers from around the world and I shall be fulfilling what I have pledged to do. In my election campaign, I ran on a platform that you voted for through me. I promised that I would conduct negotiations with Arafat and the PLO no matter how many Jews the PLO was murdering during the talks, with the intention of reaching an agreement for a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip within six months. I also promised that if the PLO refused to strike a deal with me in that time, then I would withdraw from the Gaza Strip unilaterally and without any agreement on the part of the Palestinian Authority for anything. I confirm tonight that this is my solemn intention. In addition, within a year, I will reach an agreement with the Palestinian Authority for a complete withdrawal by Israel from the entire West Bank and the eviction of all Jewish settlers living there. And if the PLO refuses to reach a deal or agree to my terms, then Israel will simply pick up and withdraw from the West Bank anyway, whether or not the PLO agrees to it. Any settlers who refuse to cooperate with the withdrawal will simply be left for the PLO and the Hamas to deal with. So as you see, I refuse to abandon my principles and my struggle for a just and lasting peace. And just as I intend to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, whether or not the PLO agrees to my terms or agrees to any compromise, so I intend to resolve the Palestinian refugee question. I intend to turn the Negev into a large resettlement district for all those people around the world claiming to be Palestinian refugees. They will be settled in the Northern Negev and in the area around Beer Sheba, and Israel will withdraw from these areas of Palestinian resettlement whether Arafat and the PLO like it or not. We will negotiate with the PLO in good faith for 18 months, but if the PLO refuses to agree to our terms, we will withdraw from Beersheba unilaterally. The next stage in my peace program will consist of settling Israel's conflict with the Hizbullah and Syria once and for all. I pledge that Israel will enter into serious full-hearted negotiations with the Hizbullah and Syria and I hope they will produce a peace accord. I am willing to wait for 24 months for these talks to yield results. If at the end of this two year period there is as yet no accord, then Israel will solve the problem unilaterally, whether the Syrians like it or not. I will order a complete withdrawal from the Golan Heights, whether Bashar Asad has agreed to my terms or not, and I will order a 20 mile zone created along the Lebanese border within Israeli territory in which no Jews will be permitted to live and in which Lebanese Shi`ites may exercise their own sovereign self-rule. As the next step in my problem, I hereby pledge that I will allow no longer than 30 months for talks with Israeli Galilee Arabs to produce a peace accord. As you know, my party and I are committed to granting equal national rights to Israel.s Palestinian nationals, which is what we now call the Israeli Arabs. So, if by the end of these 30 months no peace accord has been reached in the talks, then I intend to solve the matter unilaterally by withdrawing Israel from all of the Galilee, whether the Galilee Arabs like it or not, and will order all Israeli troops and civilians to withdraw behind the new secure borders stretching along the Kishon Creek next to Haifa. Yes, I am aware of the fact that I will have to order my own parents to abandon their homes in the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Haim, but I am sure they are willing to make sacrifices for peace. Next, I intend to resolve once and for all the conflict between the Jews and the Arabs in the central parts of Israel, in Nazareth and the Wadi Ara district. I will conduct good faith negotiations with their representatives from the communist parties and the Islamic fundamentalist movement. I will give these talks no longer than 36 months. If by that time there is no accord reached, then I will order Israel to withdraw from all areas outside of the greater Tel Aviv-Gush Dan district. Israel will have peace, while maintaining its heritage and historic control of both banks of the Yarkon River. Naturally, I expect the Jews of Jerusalem to relocate there. I will try to obtain permission from the President of Palestine for them to visit their old homes in Jerusalem al-Quds every once in a while, but if he refuses, then we will take the matter into our own hands and not allow any Jews to go to Jerusalem any more, whether the PLO likes it or not. Finally, as my fallback plan, I intend to conduct serious round-the-clock negotiations with all of our neighbors, including the President of Palestine in al-Quds. I will allot a maximum of 48 months for the talks to succeed, that is, the period before the next elections in Israel will be called and voting conducted at the Yarkon voting booth. But if those negotiations do not succeed, I intend to take things into my own hands and end the conflict once and for all. The Yarkon colonists will be ordered onto the nearby American cruise ships, and Israel will be converted into a website, whether or not the Arabs approve, and peace shall reign in the Middle East once and for all, for ever and ever and ever. You have my solemn oath! 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 MAP TO THE ROADMAP; AL-QAEDA PROPAGANDA; COLUMBIA CONTROVERSY UPSIDE DOWN Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 29, 2005.

THE MAP TO THE ROAD MAP The detailed explanation of the Road Map that Sec. Rice took to the Mideast with her, written by James Baker and "... senior policy makers from the US, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Canada and the World Bank. The US was represented by current Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns as well as by Norman Olsen, the political counselor at the US embassy in Israel. The PA was represented by security strongman Jibril Rajoub and by senior aides to Mahmoud Abbas, Yasser Arafat and Ahmed Qurei. Egypt was represented by Dictator Hosni Mubarak's senior adviser Osama El Baz and by General Hossam Khair Allah." "Israel had no official representation. Rather, the Jewish state was represented by none other than Yossi Beilin's Geneva Accord crowd. Amnon Lipkin Shahak and Shlomo Brom, signatories to that subversive agreement where private citizens tried to abscond with the government's sovereign power to determine foreign policy by negotiating the scandalously anti-Israel "accord," participated. They were joined by members of Beilin's EU-financed think tank, the Economic Cooperation Foundation." "Not surprisingly, the product this team produced and delivered to Rice is soft on Palestinian (i.e., Arab) terrorism, soft on Palestinian democratization, and relentlessly harsh toward Israel - its sovereignty, its right to defend itself, and its ability to claim any right to retain any of the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria." "The document makes no clear statement on the need for the Palestinians to dismantle terrorist organizations. Indeed, the term "terror organizations" is absent from the report. Instead, the Palestinian requirement to combat terrorism is reduced to demands on Israel to facilitate the training, arming and operation of the "reformed" Palestinian security services while not interfering with them in any way." "While the report pays lip service to the need for the PA to reform its governing institutions, its only clear statement on the end-product of reform is unabashedly authoritarian. The aim of all the reforms must be the 'consolidat[ion of] Fatah as the main political player in Palestinian society.'" "While the report makes no call for the destruction of Palestinian terror organizations and bucks up the authoritarian, corrupt PA, it calls for Israel to be treated with hostility and suspicion." "The paper calls for the establishment of a multinational force that will implement the agreements. Implicit in this statement is the assumption that Israel will be prevented by the presence of this force from taking any measures to defend itself against attacks. International border crossings in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, including the weapons smuggling hub at the Philadephi Corridor which separates Gaza from Egypt, are to be controlled by the Palestinians. The report gives Egyptian forces a more prominent role in implementing the agreements than the IDF." "WHERE THE report's anti-Israel bias is most blatant is in its discussion of the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. The authors refer to their desire to see 'The Palestinian people establish a viable state in the W. Bank and Gaza" and make it clear that a precondition for the state's viability is that it be racially pure - entirely cleansed of Jewish communities. At the same time, they express their desire to 'assure that Israel will continue to exist as the democratic homeland of the Jewish people and its other citizens." So in the authors' view, Israel is to be a state of all of its citizens while "Palestine" is to be Judenrein." "The report calls for the institution of a draconian regime in the Defense Ministry and the Justice Ministry to effectively prevent any building activities whatsoever from being conducted in the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. This regime, "The Special Office on SettlementActivities," will be obliged not simply to act as the enforcer of the attrition of these communities. The report determines that this body will be subordinate to the US embassy in Israel - effectively ceding Israeli sovereignty to the US." "The study even dares to dictate what propaganda moves must be made by the Israeli government to force the Israeli public to accept this policy. A close reading makes it clear that the result of this policy will be the expulsion of more than 400,000 Israeli Jews from their homes. This is so because the destruction of Israeli neighborhoods in Jerusalem is implicit in the section's opening paragraph, which mendaciously claims: "The US government policy has been based on the principle that there can be no acquisition of territory by war." (What about Puerto Rico, Guam, and parts of Mexico, acquired by the US via war?" "Not only does this sweeping and totally false statement necessarily include Jerusalem; it can easily be interpreted as saying that the only borders Israel can legitimately claim are the UN partition borders from 1947 since much of the land that makes up the 1949 armistice lines was acquired in war." "Perhaps it is reasonable that officials pushing a plan that would cause Israel to effectively become the ward of the international community should not feel limited by the positions of the Israeli government as it makes its plans - sufficing instead to have Israel 'represented' by radical free agents with Israeli citizenship." "But two questions still arise: Why is the US government sending its officials to participate in a "working group" which works to undermine the sovereignty of a US ally; and why is the Israeli government not taking legal action against private citizens who travel the world 'negotiating' away the sovereign rights of the state while undermining the prerogatives of the Israeli government?" (IMRA, 2/13 from Carolyn Glick, Jer. Post, 213/.) The plan is a blueprint for the triumph of Palestinian terrorism and for the destruction of Israel. It makes plain the traditional State Dept. hostility to Israel. Obviously Pres. Bush agrees with it, or he wouldn't have let his Sec. of State work with it. The plan also would fulfill the recommendations of the Council on Foreign Relations, which Barry Chamish long has warned guides US foreign policy towards Israel. Israel needs a patriotic government to deal with this development. Its Quisling government cannot. RUSSIA DIVERSIFIES ITS ARMS CUSTOMERS China and India account for 80% of Russian arms sale. In order to diversify its customer-base, Russia has signed arms contracts with Morocco, UAE, Kuwait, Yemen, Iran (Syria), and Algeria. It hopes to do so with S. Arabia, and thereby gain entr?e to still more Mideastern clients. NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION CONTINUES The US is disappointed that despite its warnings to China, China continues to furnish nuclear materials and technology to rogue states (IMRA, 2/13). What does the US think China is? AL-QAEDA OPPORTUNISTIC IN PROPAGANDA What upset Al-Qaeda about the US? It is that American society has broken down the religious, gender, and ethnic dominances that the Islamists like. The Islamists hate our modernism (which, I admit, has its faults). The US also is catching on to the evil of Islamism. Therefore, their objection to the US is not wrong actions against them, but resistance to their way of life and to conquest and temptations to their people to adopt the American way. The Islamists cite grievances against the US, so as to blame it for their aggressions and in the hope that leftists will take the bait and offer them concessions. The list of grievances constantly changes, because it is propagandistic and political warfare, not genuine. Al Qaeda distorts history. It excuses mass slaughter among its own people. It gives the US no credit for saving Kuwaitis and Bosnians, aiding Egypt, and feeding Somalis. They don't hate it because its incumbent President has particularly alienated them. They have been murdering Americans for decades. They cite reasons as pretexts. Thus they blamed the US for the "loss of Jerusalem (with which the US had nothing to do and agrees with them on); for US troops in their holy land, S. Arabia (but hate the US even after it withdrew the troops); and for the UNO embargo of Iraq, since which the US has spent billions on infrastructure Saddam neglected. The Islamists are hypocritical about complaints. One complaint is of US "petrol imperialism." But China is ruthless about securing foreign oil supplies and is militarily imperialistic. It calls Israel an occupier of Arab territory, but accepted Syrian occupation of another Arab country. They hate the West for recovering Spain from Islamic conquest centuries ago. They hate W. Europe despite its being appeasement-minded towards them and censorious of the US. Spain withdrew troops from Iraq, but still is subject to Islamist plots. There is no logic or fact to those liars' complaints (Jewish Political Chronicle, 1/2005, p.25 from Victor Davis Hanson, Mercury News, 1/13). Mr. Hanson caught on. Of course, he is knowledgeable and perceptive about it. The question is why the American people do not reach more of the same conclusions. Why, if our government represents us, does it not draw those conclusions for us? (Unofficially, it represents Big Oil.) Can the Left overcome its doctrinal blinders and fight Islamism instead of Zionism? EGYPTIAN CRITICIZES EGYPTIAN REGIME An Egyptian who wants to run for the Presidency told an Israeli Arab newspaper that Egypt is afraid that peace and stability would lead to democracy. To thwart this, it heightens tensions (IMRA, 2/14). Egypt also favors jihad, and wants the lead role in the Mideast, and is jealous of Israel. COLUMBIA U. CONTROVERSY UPSIDE-DOWN Playwright Tony Kushner accused the N.Y. City Schools Chancellor of acceding to "right-wing smear artists," in barring Columbia U. Middle Eastern Studies Prof. Khalidi from a program to inform teachers about the Mideast. Mr. Kushner called Prof. Khalidi a scholar whose views should be included but were misrepresented by the press. He implied that since Chancellor Klein did not explain much about his decision, then it must have been due to bigotry. This action, said Kusher, is McCarthyism: "censoriousness, fear-mongering, bigotry, and irrationality." The ACLU agreed with him, as did Arab-American groups. They claim the firing violates freedom of speech and academic freedom. The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee accused the Chancellor of trying to "silence criticism of Israel." Prof. Khalidi had accused Israel of being racist. He contends that the Palestinian Arabs may fight against Israeli soldiers in Judea-Samaria. He claimed that the media portrays Arab human bombing hysterically. He defended professors at Columbia who were accused of intimidating Jewish students. The Chancellor's office denies that academic freedom or freedom of speech is involved. It considers this a matter of professional development for teachers (Jacob Gershman, NY Sun, 3/22). A former Provost of Columbia asserted that the University, which set up a committee (largely of anti-Zionists) to investigate the complaints against the professors, was not doing enough to defend professors from accusations of bullying Jewish students. It must defend professors whose views are impugned, he said. These dissenting professors are the victims of anti-intellectualism, intolerance, and repression. The University claims it is trying to distinguish between teaching and political activism. Students have complained that the accused professors cross that line and suppress pro-Israel opinions (Op. Cit., 3/24). This controversy, like many, is misrepresented by both sides. Kushner did not take up the key issue here. The issue is whether Khalidi is an objective scholar or a deceitful propagandist. I find that the Arabs tend to ignore the issues, lest they be bested, and instead pretend to be persecuted. What smear of Prof. Khalidi? Which of his views were misrepresented by the media, and how? No examples cited; no evidence given. To accuse people of bigotry, as Kushner did, without evidence, may itself be a smear. Now that is McCarthyism, since Sen. Mc Carthy was notorious for accusing people, without evidence. Leftists routinely accuse critics of McCarthyism, either to intimidate them or as a reflex. Does Kushner know what McCarthyism is? Trying to "silence criticism of Israel?" The City isn't trying to do that, and couldn't stop the crescendo. It is trying not to inflict a one-sided and distorted version of history and current events, concocted by the enemy. What Khalidi says about Israel is not opinion but slander. A test of one-sidedness may be to survey how many members of university Middle Eastern institutes who defend Israel are hired or promoted? Precious few. That is an attempt to mould public opinion. The Arabists, however, call their critics one-sided. The Arabists fail to criticize the Arab side for bigotry, incitement to murder, risking children's lives, terrorism, other war crimes, and breaking all their peace agreements. If they can't condemn that terrorism, then they favor terrorism, are our enemies, and don't belong on an American campus, especially while their fellow Islamists are ambushing American troops in Iraq. By the way, the Oslo agreements forbid the P.A. from fighting any Israeli troops, contrary to Khalidi's assertion that the Arabs have a right to fight them in Judea-Samaria. The professor is lying about the rights of P.A. gunmen. Should a liar instruct City teachers about the Arab-Israel conflict? Further defamation is in calling Israel "racist." A million Arabs are Israeli citizens, but Jews may not be P.A. citizens. Sell Jews land, and a P.A. Arab is subject to capital punishment. The Arab world depicts the Jews as inherently evil "sons of pigs." Who, then, is racist? (There is a difference in land sales between the two groups. The Jews present no threat to the Arabs. The Arabs, however, plan to take over Israel and dispossess or murder the Jews. Therefore, Israel would be wise to forbid the sale of land to Arabs. That would be in self-defense, not bigotry. Besides, Israel has a right to keep itself a Jewish state, and its small population is insufficient to do that under pressure of a rapidly growing Arab population.) The firing of Khalidi violates "academic freedom?" When a school system finds out the program it contracted out for is biased, it has the right to cancel. Otherwise, it would not have academic freedom. The Arab side is wrong. It is championed by the usual far leftists. They make a mockery both of education, when they indoctrinate contrary to the facts, and of free speech, which they strive to deny their critics. They are intolerant in faculty hiring, and make classrooms ideological rather than scholarly. The Far Left calls any criticism of it McCarthyist, as if other people do not have a right to criticize them. The Arab side is championed by Arab-American groups that always uphold their fellow Arabs, as those Arabs pursue jihad in America. Being Islamist, those groups should be treated as terrorist organizations, not consulted. The Islamist way they defend does not believe in academic freedom or freedom of speech, which they hypocritically claim to be upholding here. They use the freedom we have here to subvert our freedom. The question is not one of disliking the Arabist professors' views. It is one of the professors not being scholars but enemy propagandists. They distort the facts or lie about them. This is proved. Unfortunately, the Chancellor failed to make that claim. The City did put its objections in terms of Khalidi's opinions, without stating what is wrong with them. What is wrong is that he is unfair and unjustified. He would use his position to indoctrinate, rather than to enlighten, and to indoctrinate against Israel and the West. What has not been proved and remains to be seen is whether the students' complaint are valid. They do not complain about the professors' views, but that the professors stifle their own, are insulting about it, and use the classroom to make war on this country. Let a fair investigation ascertain the situation. Is Columbia like numerous American colleges that suffer from serious subversion and intimidation of students to conform to their professors' opinions? It may not be appreciated that Arab professors are intemperate towards dissent. That attitude is not appropriate for our culture, if for theirs. In conclusion, there are two key points here: (1) If the student complaints are valid, then it would be the Arabist professors who stifle dissent; and (2) The Arabists try to turn everything into a matter of opinion, just as the moral relativists try to turn every ethical question into a matter of opinion. The Arabists ignore, distort, and contradict the facts. That lack of academic integrity should disqualify them. under. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

GOOD NEWS FROM THE NORTH Posted by Barry Rubin, March 29, 2005.

Syria is in trouble, or is it? Just recounting the difficulties currently faced by the Damascus regime makes the situation sound desperate: --An inexperienced dictator of questionable judgment. --Long-term economic stagnation due to statist Soviet-style policies. --Clear military inferiority to its neighbors with no reliable source of high-quality arms or superpower strategic backing. --An adventurous policy of backing a terrorist war against two neighbors, Israel and Iraq. --Further incurring American wrath by concealing wanted Iraqi officials, Weapons of Mass Destruction materials, and sponsoring terrorist attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. --Pressure from both the Lebanese themselves and a U.S.-European alliance to end Syria's highly profitable domination of Lebanon, starting with a withdrawal of its troops promised 16 years ago. --Facing a growing domestic Islamist challenge seeking to take the leadership of the some 70 percent of Syria's population who are Sunni Muslims. In demographic terms, the situation of Syria's ruling Alawite minority is far worse than that of the Sunni Muslims who used to rule in neighboring Iraq. --Only Iran, itself internationally isolated, can be considered a reliable ally by Syria. And the list goes on. If this weren't the Middle East, one might give the Syrian regime only six more months in power. Of course, even the Middle East is not quite what it used to be. While the trends should not be over-estimated, the old appeals to Arab nationalism, supporting one's local dictatorship, and blaming all problems on the United States and Israel are not as effective as they used to be. There is more talk of reform and democracy in the air. The USSR, Syria's reliable ally for so many decades, has been out of business for 15 years. While a visit from President Vladimir Putin shows that Moscow still takes an interest in Damascus, that connection is of limited usefulness. And Bashar al-Asad is only a pale shadow of his old man, the late dictator Hafiz al-Asad. What we don't know is whether the older-generation elite of generals and Ba'th party bosses feel that Bashar has gotten them into a mess and they should get rid of him. The regime, though, still has plenty of assets. It controls the military and just about every other aspect of society. Other Arab states are showing solidarity in general, though both Iraq and Jordan are both angry at Syrian-backed subversion. In the 1990s, Syria faced some - though fewer - of these same problems. But Hafiz al-Asad escaped from the trap by pretending to be moderate, supporting the international coalition against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and negotiating with Israel. Bashar, however, has maneuvered himself into a corner by acting openly radical. He now opposes the international coalition over Iraq, supports the Lebanese Hizballah in its militant and terrorist activities. As for Israel, he hints that he wants to talk again but he is not trying very hard and no one believes he seriously intends to make peace. Bashar's strategy mainly boils down to toughing it out, though the chances for this unsophisticated approach to succeed should not be underestimated. As long as no one attacks him directly, in the way the United States overthrew Saddam (which is extremely unlikely), his odds for survival are good. After all, in financial terms, a withdrawal from Lebanon does hurt many Syrians and he can use the age-old excuse of rallying Syrian patriotism by claiming the country is under assault by the United States and Israel. He can easily suppress liberal critics while finding new allies in the Islamists - with whom he cooperates on subverting Iraq - though this is a dangerous precedent for the future. From Israel's standpoint and in terms of the prospects for Israel-Palestinian peace, a weaker Syria is a positive development. After all, Syria is the only Arab state that can actively aid Palestinian radicals and press the new leadership toward more radical policies. This shift also further reduces the conventional military threat to Israel and makes it harder for Syria to veto steps by other Arab states to develop relations with Israel. The same basic point applies to Lebanon. While electoral politics may strengthen Hizballah, which has a lot of popularity among Shia Muslims, the largest group in the country, the new movement hardly wants a confrontation with Israel. Most Lebanese politicians understand that tension, much less violence, on the Lebanon-Israel border will undermine attempts at economic development or obtaining foreign investment. They are not bold enough to make peace with Israel or suppress Hizballah's control in the south, but they do not want their country used for aggression by other Arab states or forces. This is why Walid Jumblatt, the Druze warlord considered the most important single leader of the opposition, has now stated that the Shaba Farms area - used by Hizballah as a pretext to attack Israel - actually belongs to Syria, as Israel claims. Any cross-border attacks are going to make Hizballah more unpopular, reinforcing the criticism that it supports continuing Syrian presence in Lebanon. There is not much for Israel to do directly regarding these issues other than to avoid involvement. In future, though, the blame for terrorist attacks should be put squarely on Syria or Iran when appropriate, even if they are operating through Lebanese territory. Reprisals against Lebanese targets should be avoided except for those focused on any attacking Hizballah forces. Nor should Israel help Syria escape from its current problems by letting Damascus pretend to talk peace when it has no intention of reaching an agreement. Even if there is not much to do, it is welcome that, for once, the news from the north is good. Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC), and co-author of "Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography and Hating America: A History" (Oxford University Press, August 2004). Prof. Rubin's columns can now be read online at http://gloria.idc.ac.il/columns/column.html. To Go To Top

MR. ED WAS NOT GERMAN BRED Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, March 29, 2005.

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." - Tom Waits I'm a little reluctant to let go of Purim. I think it's a combination of the excessive wine and sugar stuck to my guts and the disastrous decrees still hanging over our heads. There was no closure for us this Purim, at least not in a revealed sense. Under the circumstances it's essential that we Jews maintain our sense of humor, so while we're waiting for and working towards a positive outcome to this megilla, let's poke some fun at a sobering reality. The government continued with their psychological terror campaign against those citizens opposed to national suicide. It seems that the 5000-6000 strong, specially trained expulsion forces will be adding 50-60 German-bred horses to their ranks. http://www.arutzsheva.com/news.php3?id=78844 Forgive my ignorance, but outside of Mr. Ed, I had always thought that " a horse is a horse, of course, of course...". For all I know a German-bred horse is one raised on barrels of fermented hay. But I guess like sauerkraut and the last can of that Purim six pack, German shepherds, German horses and Prince Harry have a tendency to bring up some bad memories for some of us. According to Asst.-Cmdr. Amos Carmeli of the police's Technological and Logistics Department, each horse is "the equivalent of 100 policemen." This is not much of a compliment to those German-bred steeds especially when you take into account the overall intelligence quotient and mentality of certain Israeli policemen. But what the police department should take into account is that 100 YESHA-bred youth are the equivalent to 10,000 of their Tel Aviv-bred counterparts and to about 1000 policemen (and if we include the Hebron-bred youth, then the statistics are far more staggering). The report also mentioned that new 4x4 Israeli-made Tomcar vehicles that can climb stairs will be deployed. Sounds like Sharon is preparing a full-scale invasion just a few tanks shy of Rommel's Panzer Division (but remember, they were eventually stopped too). I must interject here with a good word for Israeli-bred horses. Those animals can climb steps far better than I can (actually considering the kind of shape I'm in, that's not saying much either). Eleven years ago I was participating in an anti-Oslo demonstration outside of then President Ezer Weizman's residence. When I arrived at the protest, all of my posters were abruptly confiscated by the police. I don't know why. All that was written on them was, 'President Weizman, We Want To Live!' At the end of the demo, I found them strewn on the ground in front of an apartment building. I proceeded to collect the placards, as why waste good poster board, when a mounted policeman yells "Don't touch those" and his mare from hell (that would make her a nightmare) starts galloping after me. This was surely a Bat Yam-bred horse. Posters in hand, I quickly entered the building, ran up two short flights of steps and started frantically banging my fists on the door to the first apartment. As the horse charged through the entrance way and took the first flight with ease, a rather shocked, young couple opened the door and quickly let me in (yes, by that time it occurred to me that I should let go of the posters). I waited ten minutes for the dreaded knock at the door, but it never came. I thanked my gracious but startled hosts, and headed home. "Some with chariots and some with horses; but we - in the name of Hashem, our G-d - call out." That being said, allow me to hold your hand as we descend several flights down to the subterranean corridors of the Knesset, where a different breed of terrifying creature resides. But be careful,as you don't want to step in any...horsefeathers - and there were plenty flying yesterday. It seems that the former Justice Minister and present head of the Shinui faction of the Knesset, Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, had a bit of a budgetary tiff with Yahad MK Zahava Gal-On over what some say was a 700 million shekel bribe used to buy the votes which would save the government from possible collapse. (Note: Any resemblance to the case where the price of a Mitsubishi van was allegedly used to buy former Knesset Member and recently convicted drug trafficker Gonen Segev's Oslo 2 vote is purely coincidental.) But all's well that ends well as Lapid, the self -professed European-bred gentleman, told Israel Radio: "If she didn't mean we are sons of whores, then neither did I mean to call her a whore. And if she did mean it, so did I." That, my friends, is known as a Knesset apology, and Gal On took it in stride. She called Tommy a "sexist, chauvinist, racist woman-hater." I dunno about that label for Lapid, but a portion of it could certainly apply to the Knesset's veteran horse trader ( try saying that term three times fast and I promise you that you'll pronounce it horse traitor), Shimon Peres. If you want to know how that man truly feels about this nation and his people, just look at how he treats his wife. But first some background... Last October Shimon Peres was responsible for causing international headlines from ABC to Al Jazeera which screamed: "Israel's Peres: Very Fearful Extremists Could Try to Assassinate Sharon Due to Gaza Plan." A few months later the Jerusalem Post reported that Shimon Peres was accusing Knesset members of "getting hysterical" unnecessarily. "No one in this country has gotten more death threats than me," Peres said. "People have thrown sticks at me, they have thrown stones at me and they even put a bomb under my wife Sonia's car and I never made a big deal out of it." One short, revealing paragraph about the man, his ego, priorities and intentions. He must love his wife a lot (for what it's worth, Sonia, I would have made a big deal about it). But did anyone every hear about such an incident? Who is the "they" that purportedly placed a bomb? Is this loaded, subliminal incitement or an outright lie? If "they" implies opponents to Oslo and all that it wrought (including the current Disengagement Plan and Roadmap), then I would ask Mr. Peres or the Israeli Police to produce some documentation on the incident. So much for our home-grown horses, Knesset whores and horse traders. As for the foreign elements among us, well, German-bred horses are the least of my worries. I'm more concerned about the Trojan kind. I'm not referring to the big wooden one of ancient days nor of the little unseen cyber viruses that can wreak havoc on your personal computer. No, I'm talking about the ones that enter Israel via America in an official US government capacity. I call them boychiks from the White house. They have Jewish last names and feign pro-Zionism, but their agenda is hardly in Israel's best interests, as they pledge allegiance to a different flag. Go ask U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer. He oughta know. Or else you can review a pre-election article I once wrote, which made a few waves at the time. It's called John, George or Judah and can be viewed at http://israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=3995 There is another breed of horse that's neither here nor there and in danger of real extinction. You've heard of horses that jump the fence, well this type ride the fence. AIPAC and their dual loyalty strategy should have been put out to pasture long ago, but now it looks like they could be headed for the glue factory. And it's ironic because they tried so long and so hard to avoid the sticky issues. It seems that one lesson derived from this Purim is that The Jews in the Diaspora and Israel share a common destiny, whether we like it or not. "Do not imagine that you will be able to escape in the King's palace any more than the rest of the Jews." (Megillat Esther 4:13) Ellen Horowitz and her family live on the Golan Heights. She is a painter, columnist and author of the upcoming book, "The Oslo Years - a mother's journal." To Go To Top

PUSHING JEWS INTO THE SEA - LITERALLY Posted by Marlene Young, March 28, 2005.

The silence of the Jewish community to the Disengagement Plan has brought the following Shocking developments: The Israeli Navy held an exercise on Monday in broad daylight in which they practiced the forced evacuation of Jewish Settlers by Sea from Gush Katif. What happens when the Radical Left seizes control of the government, courts, and police? They can be sold down the River with World Bank bribes to carry out the will of the EU, UN, and Quartet, but most of all the PA, to literally push the Jews, not the terrorist murderers, into the sea. THEY CONVINCE ORGANIZATIONS SUCH AS THE OU TO BE QUIET IN THE FACE OF SUCH BLATANT ANTI-JEWISH IMMORAL PRO-ISLAMIC ACTIVITY, BY TELLING THEM THEY HAD BETTER NOT SPEAK OUT AGAINST ISRAELI "LEADERS" WHO THEY HAVE PROPPED UP TO CARRY OUT THEIR AIMS. How is it possible that the same Left Peres controlled government that outlawed the "Extreme Right" Kahane Movement for suggesting the paid transfer of non-peaceful Arab terrorists, is the very same government bribing and manipulating and planning the forced transfer of innocent Jewish citizens property owners from Israel, and increased police brutality and detainment without trial of those who oppose them. NOW OUR SILENCE IN THE FACE OF SUCH IMMORAL, ILLEGAL, UNDEMOCRATIC ACTIONS HAS LED FROM BAD TO THE ABSURD TO THE FASCIST. I BEG EVERY JEW TO ACT IN THE FACE OF THIS OUTRAGE OF THE OUT OF CONTROL LEFT, LED BY THE OSLO CRIMINAL SHIMON PERES AND HIS GANG OF FASCIST HUDLUMS. This article is entitled "Navy holds Gaza Strip seaward evacuation exercise" and was written by the Haaretz Staff, and appeared in today's Haaretz. It is archived at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/558010.html The navy on Monday held an exercise to examine the possibility of evacuating settlers via the sea. This would be an option to evacuation by bus in case the roads are blocked by settlers, or for security reasons. The exercise took place in broad daylight, opposite the Gaza seashore and close to the settlements of Kfar Yam and Shirat Hayam. However, the exercise underscored potential difficulties such as settlers jumping into the water or overturning small vessels. Military sources said, nevertheless, that reinforcements to the ground forces could be brought to the area via the sea. Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon instructed the officers of units involved in the exercise to discuss the evacuation with their soldiers and to encourage them to raise any dilemmas. Marlene Young is vice-president of TODA - Torah Organization for Disability Access, as well as an advocate for Israel. To Go To Top

IT'S NOT OVER UNTIL THE FAT LADY SINGS Posted by Ruth Matar, March 28, 2005.

Dear Friends, The situation in the Holy Land is worsening daily. Ariel Sharon is driving his "Disengagement-Deportation of Jews Plan" with frightening speed toward the precipice. He is now suppressing any vestiges of Israeli democracy! Israel has become a virtual police state! Opponents to the Disengagement Plan are arrested and put in Administrative Detention, which means that they are not entitled to a trial, and are not allowed to face their accusers. Young opponents of Disengagement, who engaged in non-violent demonstrations, are locked up in the newly-constructed "disengagement ward" in Ma'asiyahu Prison, without being brought before a judge. Last Thursday night there was a shocking occurrence. These young detainees, some of whom are religious, who asked to be allowed to hold a prayer service and to read the Purim Megillah, were refused permission. Claiming they were denied their basic rights, the prisoners announced they would not return to their cells unless they were allowed to pray. Large prison service forces were alerted to the scene and, according to the prisoners' families, the young inmates were beaten with clubs and were pushed and kicked until they returned to their cells. One of the prisoners required medical attention. The Disengagement Authority has received its long awaited budget supplement, and is using these funds (tax payers' involuntary contributions) for Sharon's immoral and illegal war against the Jews of Gush Katif and northern Samaria. Five thousand policemen will take part in what police have called the "inner circle" where they will "evacuate" settlers. In addition, sixty GERMAN-BRED HORSES are to be used by the police cavalry department! "Horses will play a fundamental role in the evacuation from Gaza," said Assistant Commander Amos Carmeli. "One horse is the equivalent to one-hundred policemen," the Assistant Commander explained. What will these German-bred horses be used for? To trample little Jewish children? To trample old grandmothers? Another innovation in Sharon's war against the Jews is a tear-gas rifle with the ability to hold five canisters of tear-gas instead of only one. This will be used for "unruly" demonstrations. In Sharon's lexicon, any public disagreement with his Disengagement Plan is an "unruly" demonstration. What happened to Israeli democracy? The election of Ariel Sharon, who turned out to be the consummate con-artist, that is what happened to Israeli democracy. Sharon is fighting tooth and nail against a national referendum, where the Jewish People could voice their opinion on Disengagement, which might topple him from his position as Prime Minister. The Israeli government was in danger of falling if Sharon's Budget would not have been passed by March 31, 2005. Sharon, the skillful general and tactician, leaves nothing to chance. On Saturday night, March 26, he invited the anti-religious Shinui leader, Yosef Lapid, to his Negev ranch. Yosef Lapid caved in to enormous pressure and agreed to allow his 14 Members of Knesset to vote in favor of a 700 million shekel bribe, thus rescuing Sharon's Government. The Shinui leader promised to vote for every clause in the budget, except for one allocating NIS 290 million for religious kindergartens. Yosef Lapid does hate religious kids, especially little boys with yarmulkes. Former National Religious Party Chairman Effi Eitam said: "Sharon, the father of corruption, stole the votes of the Right, and now is robbing the public coffers to buy his political survival and prevent the public from having its say." The Israeli Knesset (Parliament) which was chosen in a democratic election on January 23, 2003, gave the Likud Party and its leader Ariel Sharon a landslide victory. The Likud Party increased to 40 seats and the Labor Party decreased to 19 seats. The Knesset was voted in with a mandate NOT to remove Jews from Gaza, which had been the specific platform of Amram Mitzna, the Labor Party candidate. The Knesset in place now bears no resemblance to the one elected in 2003. This Knesset has been hi-jacked and rebuilt by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has a strange and distorted view of democracy. He has fired every one of his government ministers who dared to disagree with him. He has removed the I.D.F. Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon from his position, because Yaalon had previously given his opinion that withdrawal from Gaza was dangerous, and "might blow up in Israel's face." The most evil thing the Sharon Government has accomplished is to divide the Jews of Israel between "left" and "right," between "religious" and "anti-religious," and between those who have become extremely wealthy (such as the Sharon family) and the Israeli poor, whose children literally don't have enough to eat. Sharon has also completely ignored the very platform of the Likud Party, which he led in the last election. This platform stated unequivocally: "NO to a Palestinian state, and NO to Jewish Land to be given away to the enemy." In order to try to understand the enormity of the betrayal of the Jewish People by Ariel Sharon, it is essential to read his autobiography WARRIOR, which was republished by Simon & Schuster, as recently as 2001. In a new foreword, his life-long friend Uri Dan remarks that Ariel Sharon fully realizes that as Prime Minister of the Jewish state he assumed responsibility for the entire Jewish people, who have finally achieved their 2,000-year-old dream of reestablishing their homeland. What happened to Ariel Sharon? There are many theories as to why his outlook changed so radically, such as, for example, his and his sons' legal problems in connection with financial misdeeds. He may feel that he needs to abandon his erstwhile support base, those who believe in the necessity to reestablish Jewish communities in the historical Jewish homeland of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. His complete 180-degree turnaround may have been to placate his opponents on the Left, and thereby avoid their clamor for his legal prosecution. There is no doubt, however, that what he professed to believe in his autobiography, republished in 2001, is radically at odds with his actions today. p. 553: And we must say very clearly that concern for our own survival does not permit the establishment of a second Palestinian state on the West Bank. p. 554: Withdrawal form the territories is, unfortunately, an easy answer that may satisfy a certain number of people initially but which will inevitably create more violence and a greater threat to our survival than we have faced since the first part of the War of Independence. p. 554: Gaza at this point is our southern security belt. What will we do once we withdraw from Gaza and find, as we inevitably will, that Arafat or his successors have stepped in and that squads of terrorists are again operating from there into Israel, murdering and destroying? What will we do when the Katyusha fire starts hitting Sderot, four miles from the Gaza district, and Ashkelon, nine miles from Gaza, and Kiryat Gat, fourteen miles from Gaza? A Katyusha is nothing more than a metal tube seven feet long, easily transportable, virtually undetectable. p. 556: The great question of our day is whether we, the Jewish people of Israel, can find within us the will to survive as nation that is necessary to solve the problems confronting us. Ariel Sharon, who once was considered a courageous defender of Israel, is now intent on dividing our Promised Land, the Land which G-d gave the Jewish People as an everlasting inheritance. He has unfortunately lost his will! Another factor has entered the discussion. Both U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have implied that Sharon's understanding of President Bush's declarations of April 14, 2004, is faulty and "at odds with American policy" and could threaten peace with the Palestinians. Wow! Then Ariel Sharon fooled the Jewish People by convincing them that President Bush had promised him all kinds of wonderful things at that meeting, if he disengaged from Gaza and gave it to the Arabs as a confidence-building measure, and for them to enjoy a better lifestyle. Knesset Member Aryeh Eldad was absolutely correct when he recently said that you can read President Bush's letter of April 14, 2004, to Prime Minister Sharon one-thousand times, but you won't find those President Bush "promises" that Sharon continually boasts of. Can you imagine a greater immorality than dragging the Cohen family and their children out of their home in Gush Katif? Three children of the Cohen family lost four limbs between them in a terrorist school-bus bombing, ordered by the U.S. State Department's "moderate darling" and Abu-Mazen's security chief, Muhammad Dahlan. And in addition, is their lovely home with all its beautiful memories to be given over to the very terrorists who maimed the Cohen children for life? Have we lost the battle already? No way! IT'S NOT OVER UNTIL THE FAT LADY SINGS! We desperately need to unite and to fight the immoral, illegal Disengagement-Deportation of Jews Plan. Time is running short. THAT IS WHY WE ARE CANCELING THE MAY 19, 2005, RALLY IN WASHINGTON, D.C., and we are instead organizing a protest rally in CRAWFORD, TEXAS, which is as near as you can get to President Bush's ranch. The new protest date is APRIL 11, THE DATE WHEN ARIEL SHARON HAS BEEN HONORED BY PRESIDENT BUSH WITH A PERSONAL INVITATION TO HIS HOME, AN HONOR WHICH IS NOT LIGHTLY BESTOWED, BUT GIVEN ONLY TO REALLY IMPORTANT PEOPLE SUCH AS TONY BLAIR AND THE KING OF SAUDI ARABIA. The April 11 visit will be Sharon's first to Bush's ranch in Crawford after nearly ten visits to the White House since taking office in 2001. Israeli officials had said earlier that the meeting would take place in Washington. The change in venue can be seen as a move by Bush to bolster a close ally who is under fire from settlers at home over a U.S.-backed Gaza pullout plan, and by Christian Zionists in the United States. The Jewish community, both in Israel and in the United States, has found a wonderful, powerful ally in Baptist Pastor Jim Vineyard of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He is sincere and passionate in his defense of the Jewish State of Israel. He told me that his reason for his involvement is a simple one. He believes that the Tanach (Bible) is truly the word of G-d, and that G-d has promised the Holy Land to the Jews as an everlasting inheritance - no ifs, ands, or buts. Now for the particulars: PROTEST RALLY IN CRAWFORD, TEXAS, APRIL 11, 2005 We pray to have 500 buses with at least 30 people in each bus, which will give us 15,000 protestors. (Of course, double or triple that amount will be even more effective!) Will you come? Will you get a car-load to come? Will you get a van-load to come? Will you get a bus-load to come? Will you get a plane-load to come? Make up signs on orange poster board, the color of Gush Katif resistance, such as: "SHARON IS ASKING PRESIDENT BUSH TO FINANCE THE DEPORTATION OF JEWS WITH MY TAXPAYER'S MONEY!" Let Pastor Jim Vineyard know how many of you have coming. Write him at: whbc@windsorhills.org or call him at 405 943 3326. WHEN YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN WILL ASK YOU, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO SAVE THE HOLY LAND?" YOU CAN THEN TELL THEM: "I WAS THERE IN CRAWFORD, TEXAS, ON APRIL 11, 2005." I am looking forward to meeting you there. With Blessings and Love for Israel, Ruth Matar P.S. Please pass this article on to as many people as you can think of. 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

HAMAS DEFEATS ISRAEL - TERRIBLE, ALL FOR LESS THAN NOTHING! Posted by Unity Coalition for Israel, March 28, 2005.

This article was written by Jan Willem van der Hoeven and is archived at http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/home/link.php?file=.. /html/article.html?id=5425. Jan Willem van der Hoeven is Director of the International Christian Zionist Center in Jerusalem. He can be reached by email at iczc@iczc.org.il or visit his website: www.israelmybeloved.com Jerusalem Newswire (www.jnewswire.com), in the last two communications, alarmingly reports: Israel's plan to retreat from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria proves unrelenting Islamic terrorism has weakened the Jewish state in a way five full-scale wars failed to do, a senior Hamas official said Thursday. "The painful and qualitative blows which the Palestinian resistance dealt to the Jews and their soldiers over the past four-and-a-half years led to the decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip," Ahmed al-Bahar, a top Hamas leader, was quoted by The Jerusalem Post as saying. "The suicide attacks have taken their tolls on the Jews, both psychologically and economically, in addition to the high number of casualties," he continued. Bahar said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "disengagement" plan was a sign Israel had been morally defeated by its Arab Islamic foes. "All indications show that since its establishment, Israel has never been in such a state of retreat and weakness as it is today following more than four years of the intifada," he told reporters. "The withdrawal marks the end of the Zionist dream and is a sign of the moral and psychological decline of the Jewish state. We believe that [terrorism] is the only way to pressure the Jews." When Sharon first announced his plan last year, he insisted Israel would retreat from a position of strength and that quitting Gaza would increase security for the nation's Jewish population. Sharon also claimed the disengagement would help Israel to retain sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria. One of the primary justifications put forward by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when selling his "disengagement" plan to the Israeli public was that quitting the Gaza Strip would result in US support for continued sovereignty over "West Bank" settlement blocs. But American officials have for months been hinting that Washington would never publicly support such an outcome. They say Sharon misunderstood a letter from US President George W. Bush that supposedly lent support for annexation of large Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Last week, US Ambassador Dan Kurtzer stopped hinting and got frank with his Israeli hosts. There is no deal between Bush and Sharon regarding the future of Jewish towns such as Ma'aleh Adumim, Ariel and the Etzion Bloc, Israel's Yediot Ahronot quoted Kurtzer as telling Foreign Ministry cadets during a closed-door meeting. The belief that there is such an agreement is based on a letter Bush sent to Sharon in 2004, which the Israeli prime minister interpreted as the president's support for continued Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria in return for the Gaza pullout. In the letter, Bush seemed to suggest that current realities on the ground would preclude a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders. "In the agreement between Bush and myself we [received] tremendous achievements that Israel never had since its establishment," WorldNetDaily quoted Sharon as saying in his annual address to the foreign press corps last month. "Sometimes, an American will end a conversation with the words 'I understand', and an Israeli will mistakenly take that as an formal Declaration of Understanding," Kurtzer said, attributing the error to poor Israeli knowledge of American English nuances. "But I can assure you that no such understandings were reached. I have discussed the matter with Washington, and I have received full support on this matter." Kurtzer predicted "the current government won't make it to the next elections (scheduled for 2006)" after it becomes clear Israel will be receiving no diplomatic rewards for its surrender. To this I may add what former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once said about the danger that all these, U.S. and Quartet pressured, withdrawals will finally lead to, namely: A Palestinian State. To those who think that the establishment of a Palestinian state will bring peace, I say it will bring the exact opposite. It will be a base for large-scale terror in the heart of our country. It will import tanks, missiles, cannons and people. A flood of refugees and also soldiers, from Iraq and Iran and Syria. Soldiers from countries with which bi-lateral agreements are going to be signed. This is within the rights of a sovereign state, even if it is bound by international agreements not to do it. Such a state will implement the "Doctrine of Stages" (a recipe for the destruction and conquest of Israel stage after stage, accepted by the PLO as their official policy). A Palestinian state will be a threat to our very existence. (Makor Rishon (Hebrew), March 31, 1999) May his words be heard at least by his own party. The Unity Coalition for Israel (http://www.israelunitycoalition.org) is "the largest worldwide coalition of Jewish and Christian organizations, with more than 200 groups representing millions of people dedicated to Israel. Though we have many different backgrounds, we have one common goal: A Safe and Secure Israel." "Israel is not just a Jewish issue. Millions of Christians resolutely endorse the principle of peace with security for the state of Israel. Because we work closely together and speak with a united voice, our message is being heard!" To Go To Top

AGENT PROVOCATEUR EXPOSED, GAG ORDER IMPOSED Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 28, 2005.

It all starts in the office of the Prime Minister of Israel. >From there it flows downhill through the hands of his advisors and then into the offices of the high-ranking Police Commanders and the Israeli Intelligence Services. Once the Police Force and the Shabak were admired protectors of the Israeli people. When such politicians as Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Ariel Sharon got their hands on these public institutions, they used them as their private Mafia. Police and Intelligence, once proud and honorable professions, have been badly stained by both the politicians who have misused them and those who agreed to be used. Hopefully one of the higher ranking officers or intelligence agents tasked to be an "agent provocateur" will come forward and expose these corrupt politicians. Speaking of gagging, I watch with disgust the politicians of the Knesset who vote their pockets instead of for the sovereignty and security of the country. Shinui and Shas are not different from each other in this act. Comments by Emanuel Winston [Editor's note: Aryeh Zelasko also contributed this article. He commented, "What next? Maybe some one will burn down the Knesset or discover a plot of Yeshah doctors to poison Sharon?"] This is a news item from today's Arutz Sheva (www.IsraelNationalNews.com). It is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=79150 An agent provocateur seems to have been discovered attempting to entrap members of the Yesha Council by offering them explosives. The episode includes police complicity and use of a gag order. The episode began Wednesday when a student who had been volunteering for the Yesha Council was asked to return the vehicle he had been using to distribute anti-disengagement literature. The "volunteer" handled logistical tasks such as distributing flyers and hanging banners and was therefore loaned a vehicle by the Yesha Council to use for the work. Ohad Bart, the council's logistical director contacted the volunteer, told him they no longer needed his services and requested that he return the vehicle. The volunteer gave various reasons why he could not return the vehicle and in the end Bart agreed to send a Yesha Council employee to pick up the car from the volunteer's home in Lod. When the Yesha Council employee spoke with the volunteer a few days before the Purim holiday, the volunteer asked him, "Do you maybe need grenades for the struggle? I could sell you grenades." The Yesha Council employee responded that that was not the way the struggle would be waged. The disturbing offer was relayed to Bart who immediately contacted MK Uri Ariel. The two became suspicious that the whole affair was a frame-up and that even though they had refused the explosives, once they picked up the vehicle from the agent provocateur they would be stopped by Police and grenades would suddenly be "found" hidden in the car - resulting in a "exposé" of Yesha Council involvement in violence and illegal activity. Bart and the Yesha Council worker decided to call the police instead of picking up the vehicle themselves - asking that they arrest the volunteer/provocateur. The police then made a strange request of the two Council workers. They asked them to go to the volunteer's house "with an undercover officer disguised as a settler." They instructed them to tell the volunteer that they were in fact interested in procuring explosives, and buy them - in order to catch him in the act. Bart, familiar with the Shabak (GSS) tactic of using agents provocateur to delegitimize the right-wing, immediately refused, suspecting the police would then arrest everyone, accuse them of buying explosives - and result in headlines about the Yesha Council in the next day's papers aimed at torpedoing the anti-expulsion movement. He told the police to go alone, saying he would come afterward to recover the Yesha Council's vehicle. When the two men arrived to collect the vehicle, police refused to inform them whether the volunteer was in fact arrested or not and whether grenades were found. When Yesha Council spokesman Emily Amrousi called a press conference to expose the incident to the media, police slapped a gag order on the entire episode. Yesha Council member Bentzy Lieberman took the initiative of publishing the name of the volunteer and the fact that he was a student at Yeshivat Ateret Kohanim in Jerusalem's Old City. Lieberman signed the letter with a request that security forces refrain from "planting provocateurs like Avishai Raviv." Raviv was the Shabak agent responsible for several fictional swearing-in ceremonies as well as the distribution of posters prior to the murder of Yitzhak Rabin often cited as examples of right-wing incitement (such as the poster of Rabin dressed a Nazi). Raviv, in fact, sent out a beeper message to reporters minutes after Rabin was reported shot, reading, "We missed this time but next time we won't." Raviv even founded a fictional "extremist" group called Eyal which consisted of youths he paid to pose for reporters, some of whom were in on the ruse. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

TRUST AND INSECURITY Posted by Batya Medad, March 28, 2005.

Part of the terrorist war we're fighting is the one for our souls. Our hearts are being raped by agent provocateurs abusing our innocence. We are being forced to lose our trust in our friends, neighbors and even family. It is impossible to know if someone is sincerely concerned and enthusiastic, or just acting a role to tempt and trap us. Avishai Raviv was neither the first nor the last Jew to earn his living destroying Jewish lives. Reliable sources keep telling us that there are "Avishai Raviv's" in every yishuv and every high school, yeshiva, women's seminary, hilltop, university etc. The Shabbak is probably the second biggest employer after the Ministry of Education. Is it true? There's no way for ordinary people like me to know. What are the implications of this? It's very simple. We can't trust anybody. Even married couples have discovered that one was an agent. http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=67853 Avishai was married and divorced during his decade working for the Shabbak. Yes, he was active in a wide variety of nationalist political groups, which attracted youth, from the mid 1980's until he was finally exposed after the Rabin assassination. He always had the money the kids needed to cover expenses, and who looks a gift-horse in the mouth? The students on limited budgets were easily trapped by his looks and generosity. And how can an average person like myself know whom not to trust? Can the agent be the neighbor always available to help, lend a hand or an ear? Could it be someone who's always complaining? Maybe it's the unemployed neighbor? Or could it possibly be the one who has a job in the community or in a position of authority? Is it the one who always knows what's going on? Or maybe it's someone with radical ideas, or the one who seems so quiet? Or is it someone in high office making decisions that seem, not the wisest? Just the fact that we've reached the stage that we take for granted that there are spies in our midst, like lice in the kids' hair and viruses in the computer? There's an inherent danger in all of this. It causes serious cracks in our social structure, and I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't one of the primary aims. All the government has to do is plant rumors, laced with a few true tidbits, and human nature will do the rest. What's the truth? Honestly, I don't know. Whom can I really trust? Just G-d, but we mustn't live alone, without support and companionship. As it says in Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Fathers, Chapter 1, Mishnah 6: "Yehoshua Ben Perachya said: 'Provide yourself with a rabbi (teacher); acquire a companion; and judge every person with merit.'" We must find ourselves someone from whom we can learn Torah, which encompasses every facet of life. "Acquiring" a companion requires an investment; true friendship isn't superficial and fleeting. And lastly, judge others, as you would wish to be judged. None of us are perfect; we all make mistakes. And if we've made mistakes, there's tshuva, repentance. That's one of the beauties of Judaism; it's aware of human frailties. We must constantly improve ourselves; focus on what we must do in both the personal and public parts of our lives. These are very difficult and frightening times, and we mustn't lose our trust in our friends and family. I have absolutely no idea if any of my friends and neighbors are employed as agent provocateurs. I must focus on what I believe is right and not let myself be drawn off the track, because the final responsibility for my actions lies here with me. May G-d give us the strength to know what's right. This is Musing #107. Batya Medad lives in Shiloh. She can be reached by email at Shilohmuse@yahoo.com or visit her website http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/ or go to http://www.shilo.org.il To Go To Top

THE KNESSET TURNS DOWN THE PEOPLE'S DEMAND FOR A REFERENDUM Posted by Rachel Saperstein, March 28, 2005.

The Knesset has voted to turn down the people's demand for a referendum on the expulsion plan of Ariel Sharon. Sharon, using the government purse springs to shower largesse or penury on each political party has b(r)ought the Knesset to its knees. The promise of huge sums of money to those who vote for his plan made this vote a foregone conclusion. Another window, another door closes on the people of Gush Katif. People ask me time and time again - no, they don't ask, they weep - "How do you take this pressure, knowing that for the first time in history a Jewish government has decided to eradicate the presence of Jews on it's holy land?" This holy land is to be given to its enemies. "Rachel, how do you manage to survive each day, awaiting your expulsion?" I listen to the sadness, the bewilderment, the fear, the despondency in the voices of callers. How do you comfort the people, those people who wanted their voices heard, and the Knesset of Israel forbade it? The voices will not be heard. No referendum. But yesterday we celebrated the bringing of a Torah scroll to the beautiful new synagogue, "Beit Shimrit Zohar", named in memory of a young girl who died of a rare blood ailment. Three busloads of young English-speaking families from Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem, joined the people of Neve Dekalim in this communal celebration. Under a canopy of prayer shawls the Torah, covered in blue velvet and silver filigree, was brought to its new home accompanied by joyful singing and dancing. Our friend Moshe Burt, who has devoted himself to finding Torah scrolls for needy congregations, had worked long and hard to bring this particular scroll to our new synagogue in a community which has just been voted out of existence. Am I in denial? Am I not facing facts? Should I pack my bags as another door is closed on me? Should I be realistic and see that the struggle is over? After all, a Jewish Knesset has voted to throw me out of my home. Yesterday I looked at my friends and at their smiles and their joy as we shared in the celebration of a new Torah scroll. We will remain on G-d's land. I am so certain of this I can dance with joy! To Go To Top

ISLAM'S GOALS - IN ITS OWN WORDS Posted by A. Koltov, March 28, 2005.

These are Islam's global aims - the text below is the way the Nineteen Twenty Four organization puts it. No surprise here, but it's reassuring (well, kinda) to see it spelled out so clearly. I found the following site by backing up from one of many oy vey sites listed on the World of Islam (http://www.worldofislam.info). I urge you to also review the site: http://www.humiliateamerica.com/ OUR VISION (www.1924.org/index.php?id=1394_0_1_0_C) Our vision is to cultivate a Muslim community that lives by Islam in thought and deed, adhering to the Shari'ah rules and nurturing a strong identity as Muslims. Our vision is this community stands as a model and an example to the wider society, making the basis of this relationship the carrying of the Islamic da'wa. Furthermore, our community needs to be aware of her destiny as an integral part of the global ummah, taking up the call for the return of the Khilafah and the unification of this ummah internationally (emphasis added). We must work intelligently in the west, by not compromising Islam, but rather presenting a convincing argument in the west against western imperialism and interference in the Muslim world. Raising the call for the Muslims to own their political destiny and in turn building a support base in the west for the return of the Khilafah state. If our community puts our resources together then we can change attitudes, inspire the society and contribute to the return of Islam internationally. To Go To Top

UN ON HUMAN RIGHTS Posted by Israel Zwick, March 28, 2005.

According to the UN, evicting 8000 peaceful Jews from their homes promotes human rights and is a good thing. The eviction of 416 Hamas terrorists to Lebanon in 1992 was a violation of human rights, and a bad thing to do. In a report to the UN Human Rights Commission, which is holding its annual meeting in Geneva, Dugard singled out the disengagement plan as a positive and brave move on the part of Israel. He emphasised that the human rights problem is a long-term issue, and that Israel needs to act quickly before Palestinian terrorists renew attacks. The report also emphasised that the PA must do more to control terrorist groups responsible for suicide bombings and attacks on settlers and the IDF. This article is entitled "The Hamas Class of 1992: The Force and Farce of International Law." It was written by Michael Shurkin, Associate Editor of Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture and it is archived at http://www.zeek.net/politics_0405.shtml The year is 1992. Iran has just blown up the Israeli Embassy in Argentina, an event little remembered today. Algeria - which last month sponsored the U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as a violation of international law - has cancelled a democratic election that was about to be won by an Islamicist Party, declared martial law, and has sunk into what would become a ten-year civil war against Islamic radicals that featured heinous acts of terrorism, torture, mass executions, and so many "disappearances" that just last year Human Rights Watch declared Algeria to be the world leader in them. And, in the final months of the year, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has rounded up 416 Hamas leaders and activists and deported them to Lebanon, dumping them on a hilltop in the no-man's land between Israeli and Lebanese lines. The world howled. Israel was accused - in countless newspaper editorials as well as by United Nations Resolution 799 (with America's vote) - of violating international law and due process. Israel had no right to round up these men and deport them without a trial. Worse, since Lebanon refused to admit them, they were left to survive on their windswept hill in makeshift tents, thereby creating a humanitarian crisis as well as a public relations fiasco. Major newspapers all of the world featured images such as one that graced the pages of Libération of a shivering Hamas exile reaching out to the viewer in a supplication reminiscent of Goya's moving May 3rd, 1808. Accompanying the Hamas pieta was an article that echoed so many of the editorials current at the time; it spoke not just of the basic injustice of the deportation but the fact that the Hamas members in question were all educated university types, suggesting, implicitly, that Israel's fear of them was out of proportion. (Libération and many French papers also referred to the Hamas exiles as déportés, which in contemporary usage refers to Jewish victims of the Holocaust; an analogy is when people refer to Guantanamo Bay as a "concentration camp.") Meanwhile, French papers from that time also noted, invariably without comment, in small articles buried somewhere toward the back, that Algerian security forces were rounding up militants and shooting them. Extrajudicially. Needless to say, no global outrage. Time passed. Under intense international pressure, Rabin let more and more of the Hamas exiles back into Israel, eventually bringing them all back as part of the Oslo Accord in September 1993. What's become of these men, these university-educated victims of Israeli aggression? Let's check in with the Class of 1992, to see how they're doing. First, although the first Hamas suicide bomb attack dates to April, 1993, the campaign only began in earnest after the militants had all returned, in 1994. (This was the same year that Iran, via Hezbollah and with the complicity of the Argentinean police, bombed the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 87, and the same year that the radical Algerian GIA, which many have linked to the Algerian government, hijacked an Air France plane with the intention of flying it into the Eiffel Tower. French commandos successfully raided the jet and killed the terrorists.) This coincidence of timing bore out Israel's rationale for the deportation in the first place: that Hamas was now a ticking time bomb. A terrorist group of the first order. Does anyone remember this rationale today? (The photo here is of Hamad after an Israeli sniper killed him in late 2001.) It is impossible to know what happened to all 416 alumni of the Lebanese exile. Perhaps many of them have spent the past twelve years at home, tending their gardens. What is clear, however, is that they have had a prominent place in the suicide bombing campaign; they are not the "martyrs" themselves who carry the bombs, but the commanders, managers, and organizers of the attacks. Rahman Hamad is a typical example. He organized the bombing of the No. 5 bus in Tel Aviv in 1994, which killed 24 people. Under Israeli pressure, the Palestinian Authority arrested him but then let him go. He then planned and dispatched the bomber in the attack on the Dolphinarium disco, and he killed two boys at a gas station in Neve Yamim in 2001. Another alumnus, Jamal Mansour, ran suicide bomb operations in the northern West Bank, where he oversaw its implementation, targeting, and infrastructure. Jamal Dmouni became Hamas commander in Samaria, where he oversaw Mansour. Israel Zwick can be reached at israel.zwick@earthlink.net To Go To Top

AL-AZHAR'S INTERFAITH DIALOGUE COMMITTEE: JEWS HAVE NO RIGHTS IN AL-QUDS Posted by Israel Zwick, March 28, 2005.

This is what Jerusalem would be like under Arab control. This was written by Subhi Mejahid, IOL Correspondent, Islam Online (www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-03/27/article04.shtml). CAIRO, March 27, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - Denying participation in a talked-about conference of the three monotheistic religions on sacred rights in Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem), Al-Azhar said on Sunday, March 27, that Jews have no religious rights whatsoever in the holy city. "There is nothing called sacred rights in Al-Quds," Sheikh Fawzi El-Zefzaf, chairman of Al-Azhar's Interfaith Dialogue Committee, told reporters. "Al-Quds is a Palestinian right that should be given back to the Palestinians," he stressed. Mohammad Abu Ghadir, professor of Hebrew in Al-Azhar University, agreed. "Excavations and geological research have proved that Jews didn't have any right to claim sacred places in Al-Quds," he said. "Israeli archeologists didn't even manage to prove that the 'wailing wall' is part of the so-called Temple of Solomon," Abu Ghadir added. "Unfortunately, the world mistakenly believes that Jews do have sacred sites in Al-Quds like Muslims and Christians because of Israel's heavy media campaigns that distorted historical facts." No Meetings Al-Azhar, the highest Sunni authority in the Muslim world, categorically denied that it will take part in the reported conference. "Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohammad Sayed Tantawi has not received any invitation of that kind," an official source said. He underlined that Al-Azhar's stance remains unchanged as it rejects talks with Jews over Al-Quds "because it is a very thorny issue that has not been yet resolved" on the political arena. Sheikh El-Zefzaf said his committee has not got the faintest idea of such a meeting. Some media reports suggested that preparations were underway to organize a conference grouping Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders on the religious rights of each faith in the holy city. No to Dialogue Zefzaf further said that Muslims cannot engage in a dialogue with Jews in view of the ongoing Israeli aggressions on the Palestinians. "If you want to sit and talk religion you should stop aggressions first against sacred sites, which is not the case with the Israelis, who frequently attack Al-Aqsa Mosque," he said. Manei Abdel Halim, the dean of Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence College in Al-Azhar University, said no one can deny the Jews their religious rights as long as they are not trespassing the rights of the other. "But Israel is trying now to claim rights at the expense of Al-Aqsa Mosque," Islam's third holiest site, Abdel Halim added. "Muslims should step in and protect their mosque and have the lead in Al-Quds." On Wednesday, March 16, Israel's Channel Two television showed a video of Jewish rabbis and far-right extremists discussing ways to occupy the Aqsa compound at a secret meeting in the Old City in Al-Quds. In recent months, sources in the Israeli Shin Bet security service have expressed concern regarding possible missile or air bombing attack by individuals or groups on the compound. Several times before, Israeli occupation forces had stormed the mosque's esplanade and clashed with Muslim worshipers. Archeologists have also warned that ongoing Israeli excavations weakened the foundations of Al-Aqsa mosque, cautioning it would not stand a powerful earthquake. A part of the road leading to one of the mosque's main gates collapsed in February, 2004, due to the destructive Israeli digging work. Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which includes Al-Aqsa Mosque, represents the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict because of its religious significance for Muslims. Jews claim that their alleged Haykal (Temple of Solomon) exists underneath Al Haram Al Sharif. Al-Haram Al-Sharif was the first Qibla (direction Muslims take during prayers) and is the third holiest shrine after Al Ka'ba in Makkah and Prophet Mhuhammad's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia. Its significance has been reinforced by the incident of Al Isra'a and Al Mi'raj (the night journey from Makkah to Al-Quds and the ascent to the Heavens by Prophet Muhammad). Contact Israel Zwick by email at israel.zwick@earthlink.net To Go To Top

ISRAEL PLANNING A CONSTITUTION; ANOTHER DEADLY CONCESSION; DEFAMING THE SETTLERS Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 28, 2005.

Israel has engaged the constitutional lawyers of the American Jewish Congress to bring people and viewpoints together, in preparation for drafting a constitution for the Jewish state (if it still is to be one). It is a serious effort, neglected when the State was established under fire. It may be too late for the task. There is too much bitterness by the secular against the religious, by the Left against the Right, and by the appeasers against the patriots (and hardly the reverse). Vested interests would oppose switching to a representative Knesset. The result is likely to entrench the Arab fifth column and not to curb the Supreme Court from usurping power over the other branches and to curb the other branches' excessive power and discretion. WHAT DO P.A. CHANGES IN POLICE COMMAND PORTEND? The Western press interpreted Abbas' dismissal of some police commanders as an intent to repress terrorism. It is guessing. It could be simply the traditional means whereby a new official gains personal control over bureaucracies. His appointment of a coordinator of the separate police forces would give him much control. Since he arms rather than disarms terrorists (by recruiting them into the P.A. police), any lull in terrorism would be temporary. Actually, there is no lull, if one counts, in addition to attacks, preparation for attacks that the truce makes possible. His so-called ceasefire, which doesn't totally cease, is a cynical phase of his war. It should not be chalked up to his credit. IS ARAB "PROTECTION" TOLERANCE On tour in Morocco, a friend was told that traditionally, Jews and Muslims got along well. I asked who told her that. The guide." I asked his religion. "Muslim." Dictators' guides are not a reliable source of judgmental information. "Getting along" is a relative term. Periodically, when Jews prospered, Muslims grew envious or felt it necessary to put the infidels in their place. (Many white Americans used to have that feeling about blacks.) They launched pogroms. Moroccan kings, having the Jews under their protection, mitigated the effects of the pogroms. The late King Hassan used to boast about his protecting the Jews. He did fulfill that duty. However, the question is, protect from what. From Muslim mobs. A country whose minority has to fear mob assault, and must pray that the ruler's protection arrives swiftly and effectively, is not tolerant. Protection is not the same as tolerance. The Jews of Christian Europe found that true, too. Sometimes the Pope, bishop, or lord protected them, but sometimes a mob was too strong. DEMOCRATS INCONSISTENT TOWARDS BUSH Many Democrats were skeptical about Pres. Bush's stated explanations for warring upon Iraq. Some went so far as to call him a liar. Those same Democrats were credulous about his explanations about setting up a PLO state at Israel's expense. They brought skepticism to one policy but not to his other policy. Most curious! I found him reasonable about Iraq and a liar about his assurances to Israel and his stated reasons for advancing the "national aspirations of the Palestinians," which aspirations are to destroy the Jewish state and probably the Jewish people. They failed to see that his aid to the P.A. terrorists contradicts his supposed war on terrorism. The "NY Times" did not enlighten them about that. ANOTHER DEADLY ISRAELI CONCESSION In addition to the ceasefire agreement, Israel has agreed to allow several dozen deported terrorists to return to the P.A. or from Gaza to Judea-Samaria. Some had hostage the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, one of Christianity's holiest sites. They just have to promise to abstain from terrorism, and submit to probation under P.A. supervision (IMRA, 2/12). They had defecated on its altar, stolen its gold, and murdered a US citizen. US complicity in their return contrasts with US demands for punishment of the murderers of three Americans in Gaza. Should Israel accept the promise of the lying jihadists of the P.A. to monitor the lying fanatics released, after the P.A. has broken all promises and we find that half the released terrorists resume terrorism? WHAT THE OIL FOR FOOD PROGRAM MADE POSSIBLE A CIA official has calculated that the illegal oil sales and kickbacks allowed Saddam to increase spending on his Military Industrial Commission "a hundredfold." Had the US not intervened militarily, such sums would have enabled Saddam to finance illegal weapons of mass destruction. The UNO cannot be trusted with peace and security (Jewish Political Chronicle, 1/2005, p.35 from Dore Gold, Jer. Post, 12/30). HOW P.A. DENIES TERRORISM "Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), guarding the nearby illegal Jewish settlement of Aztmona, opened sporadic gunfire killing 20-year-old Fathi Abu Jazar from the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza Strip on Thursday." IMRA explains that the man was killed while attacking the community. The P.A. will not admit that its people commit terrorism or that the Israelis merely exercised the right to self-defense (IMRA, 2/12). There is no such thing as "Israeli Occupation Forces." But there are "P.A. terrorists." JAMES BAKER BEHIND BUSH'S ISRAEL POLICY James Baker was the Sec. of State for Pres. Bush Sr.. Sec. Baker gained notoriety for not disguising his hostility towards Israel. Now Mr. Baker runs the Institute for Public Policy, at Rice U.. That Institute devised the well-known Road Map. That same Institute has fleshed out the Map for the current Sec. of State, Condoleezza Rice. The Map includes yielding territory that the US Joint Chiefs of Staff called essential to Israeli security. By abandoning Gaza, PM Sharon would make it possible for the P.A. to fire rockets at every coastal Israeli city and at Ben-Gurion Intl. Airport. When the first airliner is shot down (if not sooner in anticipation of it), the airport would have to close. While taking off or landing, airliners have no protection against rockets. Only Israel equips its planes with protection against rockets, effective only during high-speed cruising. The foreign airlines claim such protection is too costly (Winston Mid East Analysis, 2/13). The US would say that the P.A. is "not trying hard enough" to stop terrorism. Small comfort, those words! The US also would warn Israel not to move in and try, itself, to stop that terrorism that victimizes its people. DEMAGOGUERY AGAINST SETTLERS One of the chief pieces of witnessed evidence of violence against Israeli officials for upholding PM Sharon's abandonment plan was an altercation against Min. Netanyahu at a religious affair. Min. Netanyahu's tire was low on air, so the media reported that his tires were slashed. It turned out that a journalist had put two youngsters up to yelling at Netanyahu, "You are a bunny, Jewish blood isn't valueless." The government is using dirty tricks as in Rabin's time, to set up an atmosphere of fear by the Right and to enable the government to take undemocratic measures against it (IMRA & Arutz-7, 2/13). The Min. of Internal Security pointed out that no violence was committed against Min. Livnat, as earlier reported. She, too, merely was yelled at. The media nevertheless continued to accuse the Right of "attacking" the pair, without indicating that the assault was verbal and to the issue, not threatening (Dr. Aaron Lerner, IMRA, 2/13). Actually, her guards assaulted hecklers. What was called violence was verbal and not physical. Now the verbal abuse turns out to have been minor. I am not sure it was out of place. It is very difficult for citizens in what are supposed to be democracies to present their grievances to public officials or to the public. SHARON CAMPAIGN OF SETTLER DEFAMATION "Anyone who worked against his (Sharon's) "idea" of "Disengagement" became the Jungian classic example of blaming your victim before you attacked the victim so you could claim your own innocence." "Sharon made himself "a liar, a cheat and a fully fledged Dictator. He betrayed every principle of democracy and still called it Democracy. Sharon attacked a peaceful community and called them aggressors. He unleashed a full propaganda assault against a quiet, resourceful people whose only offense was to grow crops in barren, sandy soil, live a quiet, productive life. No discos, no political ambition, no power trips, no ego trips. Sharon once called them "the Best of Israel" - until he turned against them." "But, if you are sufficiently ruthless, have the levers of Government control in you hands and have a Media so acutely twisted to the Left then it isn't hard to turn one side of the population against another. Which puts a criminal dictatorial government regime against that part of the people who does not wish to be forced from their homes." "Despite multi-page treatment by the written media, and hours of radio talk, the GSS (Shabak) has stated categorically: There is no increase of threats on PM Sharon or other leaders." But government officials then ask why aren't the right-wingers arrested. This government and leftist demagoguery is anti-democratic (Winston Mid East Analysis, 2/13). Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, March 28, 2005.

About fifteen years ago a friend of mine was in Poland. At the time there were maybe four or five thousand Jews living there. Most of them elderly war survivors. When my friend was in Warsaw he saw a large demonstration being addressed by a priest. He asked his guide what was happening and was told that the local bishop was leading a demonstration against the Jewish control of Poland. His Polish guide informed him that the Jews were much too powerful in Poland and that Polish independence was threatened, no less. When my friend asked him if he had ever met a Jew in Poland or could name any of these powerful Jews who ran Poland, his answer was: "Of course not. They keep themselves well hidden. Nobody knows who they really are." There is no way to argue with insanity. This article is called "Ban Sought on Jewish Organizations." It's by Anatoly Medetsky, Staff Writer, The Moscow Times, and appeared on monday, March 28, 2005, page 3 (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/03/28/012.html). About 5,000 people, including former world chess champion Boris Spassky, have signed a letter asking prosecutors to ban Jewish organizations because they believe one of the basic Judaic books professes religious hatred, said a center that monitors religious freedom. The group sent the letter to the Prosecutor General's Office last Monday, the Sova center said last week. The signatories claim that "Kizur Shulkhan Arukh," an abbreviated version of a 16th-century book that lays out daily rules for Jews, teaches hatred toward non-Jews, Sova said. Moscow sculptor and head of the obscure nationalist All-Russian Cathedral Movement Vyacheslav Klykov, a signatory of the petition, confirmed the report, Interfax said. A Prosecutor General's Office spokeswoman could not immediately confirm Friday that the the petition had been received. One of Russia's two chief rabbis, Adolf Shayevich, condemned the letter as a way for "a number of ambitious politicians" to "earn cheap popularity." Boruch Gorin, a spokesman for the Russian Federation of Jewish Communities, called for an investigation into manifestations of anti-Semitism. "People who have achieved success in life and have certain authority in society must understand that they cover their names with indelible shame by signing such documents," he said, in an apparent reference to Spassky, Interfax reported. Shakhmatnaya Nedelya, or Chess Week, of which Spassky is editor, said Friday that he was in France and was not available for comment. The letter came two months after 20 State Duma deputies sent a similar letter to the Prosecutor General's Office. 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

TRUTH ABOUT SHOMROM DISENGAGEMENT Posted by Marlene Young, March 28, 2005.

URGENT: PLEASE DO NOT REMAIN SILENT- LEARN THE FACTS OF SHOMRON DISENGAGEMENT: * SHOMRON JEWISH COMMUNITIES TO BE HANDED OVER TO HAMAS AND FATAH!! * SHOMRON'S HOMESH COMMUNITY OVERLOOKS BEN GURION AIRPORT * SHOMRON'S HOMESH COMMUNITY OVERLOOKS THE HADERA POWER PLANT * SHOMRON DISENGAGEMENT IS LAND AREA FIVE TIMES GREATER THAN GAZA- FROM AFULAH TO NETANYAH! * SHOMRON IS THE ENTIRE BELLY OF ISRAEL- HANDED TO FATAH AND HAMAS! * SHOMRON WITHDRAWAL ENDANGERS ISRAEL'S WATER SUPPLY * NABLUS TERROR NEXUS HAS NOT BEEN DISARMED AND CAN FREELY SPREAD ACROSS SHOMRON * HAMAS, AL AQSA MARTYRS/FATAH AND ISLAMIC JIHAD ARE RECRUITED INTO PA SECURITY FORCES * IN TWO WEEKS SHOMRON WILL BE DECLARED A CLOSED MILITARY ZONE * WHY IS THIS INFORMATION NOT BEING TOLD TO JEWISH COMMUNITIES AND SHULS? * SOME OF THOSE JEWS MURDERED SINCE 2000 IN SHOMRON INCLUDE: * Harav Hillel Lieberman, 36, from Elon Moreh murdered near Nablus * Rabbi Binyamin Herling murdered in Kedumim * Midhat Yusuf murdered in Joseph's Tomb Nablus * St.-Sgt. Yaakov Krenchel, 23, murdered between Itamar and Elon Moreh * Arieh Arnaldo Leon Agranionic, 48, murdered in Itamar * Gilad Zar, 41, murdered in Itamar * Sarah Blaustein, 53, from Efrat, murdered en route to Zar's funeral * Esther Alon, 20, from Efrat, murdered en route to Zar's funeral * Yair Har-Sinai, 51, father of nine, near Sussia * Meir Lixenberg, 36, father of five, murdered between Itamar and Nablus * Rochel Gavish, murdered first day Passover 2002, Elon Moreh * David Gavish, murdered first day Passover 2002, Elon Moreh * Avraham Gavish, Rachel and David's son, murdered first day Passover 2002, Elon Moreh * Yitzhak Caner, Rachel Gavish's father, murdered first day Passover 2002, Elon Moreh * Avi Siton, 17, yeshiva student murdered near Itamar * Nati Riachi, 17, yeshiva student murdered near Itamar * Gilad Steiglitz, 14, yeshiva student murdered near Itamar * Rachel Shabo, 40, murdered in Itamar * Neriyah Shabo,15, murdered in Itamar * Tzvika Shabo, 12, murdered in Itamar * Avishai Shabo, 5, murdered in Itamar * Yossi Tuito, 40, murdered in Itamar * Shlomo Miller, 50, father of seven murdered in Itamar August 2004, The murderer, Yusef Ahmad Hassan Hanany, was a member of the Palestinian Authority's Preventative Security Force that is responsible for preventing terror attacks. * THE TERROR GROUPS RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE MURDERS HAVE NOT BEEN DISMANTLED NOR DISARMED. * WHAT CAN YOU DO? * PUT A LIST OF THE NAMES OF THE MURDERED JEWS OF SHOMRON ON YOUR SHUL BULLETIN BOARD. * CALL YOUR RABBI OF YOUR SHUL. CALL YOUR SENATOR. CALL THE WHITE HOUSE. DEMAND ACTION AGAINST THE PA TERROR GROUPS. DEMAND THE IMMEDIATE HALT OF FUNDING TO THE PA. FORM OR JOIN A LOBBYING GROUP TO WASHINGTON,DC, SUCH AS AFSI, ZOA and CIPAC. "Happy is the Nation - Visit to Homesh," By Israel Harel, Haaretz.com Feb 25, 2005. On Monday morning, the day after the government decided to uproot the communities of Gush Katif and northern Samaria, a delegation of American Likud leaders arrived in Homesh, a settlement in Samaria slated for destruction under the disengagement plan. At about the same time, Alice Ziman, a young woman in her twenties, arrived in the settlement to prepare the house that her family would be living in from now on. The visitors that expressed their amazement about the timing of the move ("After all, just yesterday-") were told that Alice, a student of industrial design, and her husband, Re'i, an engineering student, were part of a trend documented in a film made by Menorah Hazani, another resident of Homesh. That trend involves young couples coming to live specifically in northern Samara because of the security related and "political" circumstances. They have come to fill the settlements that have been abandoned by many of their original residents as a result of the tribulations of the war. At the high point of the terror war, three people living in Homesh were killed within a span of 10 days, and 25 families picked up and left. Now, in recognition of the courageous few that remained and did not leave, the government has decided to completely and finally uproot them. From another spot in the settlement, the chimneys of the Hadera power station and planes taking off and landing at Ben-Gurion Airport can be clearly seen - without binoculars - from Homesh. All that is needed is one salvo of Katyusha rockets aimed at these strategic targets to paralyze the entire country. Ariel Sharon said these exact words, at exactly this spot - but at a different time - to the many visitors he used to bring to this observation point in Homesh, including foreign heads of state and generals. Marlene Young is vice-president of TODA - Torah Organization for Disability Access, as well as an advocate for Israel. To Go To Top

NUCLEAR IRAN Posted by TheRaphi, March 28, 2005.

This article was written by Rahel Neuwirth, 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. The Iranian mullahs are intractable in their all-out push to achieve nuclear weapons as soon as possible. They cunningly toy with the West, while cynically insisting that their nuclear program is intended to only produce peaceful nuclear energy. Meanwhile, they prevent full inspection, and disperse and hide their facilities in underground sites protected by ground-to-air missiles. They are repeatedly caught lying about their nuclear preparations and respond with more lies. They openly acquire offensive missiles with increasing capability to deliver nuclear payloads ever further and more accurately. They vow to exterminate Israel as soon as they achieve nuclear capability. The brazenness of the mullahs suggests a deep contempt for the West, and especially America, as they confidently flaunt their hatred and provocation and then dare us to do something about it. The Bush Administration faces a grim dilemma while the mullahs pour out their invective and contempt towards us. Our so-called European 'allies' are insisting on a diplomatic solution, which means that we cannot count on them for much more than talk. Our government says that we are prepared to bring the matter before the Security Council, as if that is supposed to impress Iran. Such empty talk actually makes us look foolish and weak, because China, France and Russia will likely veto any UN sanctions, and even Britain is edging away from support for the US. China just signed a seventy-billion-dollar deal to buy Iranian oil and Russia is proceeding to supply Iran with nuclear fuel to start up their 'peaceful reactor', despite urgings by the Bush administration to refrain from doing so. There are also reports that Iran was having difficulty processing uranium to weapons-grade concentration and may be opting to simply purchase it from cash-strapped North Korea. Yet, even suggesting a serious economic embargo at this time might be asking too much of our so-called allies, because it could raise the high price of oil still further and damage Western economies. Ultimately, they may even be prepared to live with a nuclear-armed Iran while retreating into their own world of denial and engaging in business-as-usual with Iran's mullahs, offering endless rationalizations. Having stated repeatedly that a nuclear Iran is unacceptable, President George Bush, who heads the world's presumed superpower, has raised the stakes and he must now deliver soon. If he doesn't, he will lose credibility, which would then further embolden our enemies. Iran and the world will smell fear and hesitation coming from the Bush administration. The United States faces daunting choices. Unilateral military action to disarm Iran would entail great difficulty and high risk. We would be limited to air strikes against many dispersed and highly protected sites. A ground invasion is unlikely because our all-volunteer army is already deployed in Iraq, and Iran is strong on the ground. Iran's military has substantial firepower and could react fiercely if attacked, including missile strikes on US bases in the region. They could also attack Israel, which by now has no reason to heed any more US urgings about 'showing restraint' while their people are being blown up. An Israeli response could be massive, which could generate widespread Muslim rage against America. Having waited far too long to confront Iran, we are now virtually without allies while facing a powerful enemy who cannot be knocked out in a quick air strike, and who is totally ruthless. Another daunting scenario is that Israel might be compelled to preempt to avoid facing nuclear annihilation. That would embarrass us with the Muslims, who would naturally blame America for anything done by Israel. George Bush and Bill Clinton both ignored long-standing and repeated Israeli warnings about Iran's nuclear weapons program and its public threats to exterminate Israel. But our government did express concern over Israel's possible preemptive action to neutralize the Iranian threat and how that would complicate our relations with the Arabs. Another unspoken consideration may also be guiding US thinking. In World War II, we fought a schizophrenic war against Nazi Germany. On the one hand we fought the Germans fiercely and also aided our allies and various victims of the Nazis as well - but with one glaring exception. The US carefully avoided any action that would interfere with the extermination of European Jewry. For example, we bombed German rail lines, but never those leading directly to the death camps, even when asked to do so. Even then, were we pandering to the Arabs, who supported the Nazis and who opposed any help for the Jews? In 1981, US intelligence had to know that Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor at Osiraq was nearing completion and intended to provide nuclear weapons to attack Israel. And yet, the US allowed France to build that reactor, perhaps assuming that if Israel were the only target then 'we could live with that'. Also note the very harsh response of the US administration against Israel following its air strike on Osiraq. Instead of deserved congratulations, there was a suspension of American support as punishment and Vice President Bush was reported to have demanded that we bomb the Israeli air base that launched the strike. Yet, even Iraq's neighboring Arab countries felt relieved and safer after the Israeli action. Today, the US and even the Europeans rightly fear a nuclear Iran under the extremist mullahs. But given the Jewish experience of World War II and of seeing the West allow Saddam Hussein to seek nuclear weapons - not once, but twice - we can now pose an 'ugly' question, however hypothetical. If the West could be assured that only Israel, and not the US or Europe, would be threatened by a nuclear Iran, would that then be acceptable? History suggests that the 'ugly' answer is probably "yes". But the problem now is that, unlike during World War II, those 'troublesome' Jews may refuse to die quietly for our convenience. Israel may realize that the US is an unreliable ally and decide to preempt. In a worst case scenario they can deliver a massive nuclear punch of their own with huge consequences. It seems that our problem is more to hold Israel back than to disarm Iran. In all of this, our government seems reluctant to openly discuss other ramifications of a nuclear Iran. Iran's launching nuclear missiles directly at the West is not likely because that would obviously reveal their origin and bring immediate and awesome retaliation. The Iranians could easily intimidate the Europeans by merely issuing credible threats to 'play ball or else'. With Europe neutralized, they could then distribute easily smuggled small-size nuclear weapons and dirty bomb devices to Al-Qaeda for use inside the US while claiming plausible deniability. We cannot retaliate against an unknown enemy and Al-Qaeda has long sought, and may now have acquired, such weapons on their own. It would be very difficult to strike Iran without proof of culpability, which may prove elusive to obtain. A further problem for the Bush administration is that we have failed to prevent North Korea from going nuclear, and our earlier bribe under the Clinton Administration with Jimmy Carter as negotiator was a total failure. Those opposed to military measures will argue that after our having 'allowed' North Korea and Pakistan to go nuclear, we cannot now make an 'exception' for Iran, which would then insult and enrage the entire Muslim world. Will the Bush administration act in time to use necessary military force to disarm Iran? Only a revolution against the mullahs would derail the apocalyptic scenario we now face. It may not take long to find out. TheRaphi (http://www.theraphi.com/index.html) is a pro-Israel and pro-Zionist site; it provides news articles and essays. To Go To Top

RICE SAYS U.S. OPPOSES ISRAELI PLAN FOR SETTLEMENT EXPANSION Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 27, 2005.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lies to his own Likud Party; lies to the Knesset and gets his Cabinet to attest to his lies. On the other side, we have the pro-Arab Bush Dynasty tied to the Arab oil nations. Here we find one of James Baker's Jew-boys, Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer working like a rodent to gnaw at the pillars that support the Israeli nation. President George Bush, using American tax-payers' dollars believes he has bought and paid for Israeli obedience in his policy to appease Arab Muslims. I personally think that the Jihadists will still attack America - no matter if America continues betraying Israel. You just can't bribe a Terrorist and expect them to stay bribed. This is from Israeli & Global News. It was written by Steven Erlanger and it appeared in yesterday's New York Times. JERUSALEM, March 25 - The United States' displeasure with Israel's intention to expand a West Bank settlement grew Friday, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice condemning the plan as "at odds with American policy." In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Ms. Rice said the Israeli response to American concerns was "not really a satisfactory response." Israeli officials say the announcement about adding 3,500 homes to Maale Adumim, near Jerusalem, is just a bureaucratic step, and point out that the houses will not be built for a few years. But Palestinian officials have complained that the Israeli intention is to cut off Jerusalem from the West Bank and destroy the contiguity of any future Palestinian state, and they reject any Israeli or American efforts to predetermine the outcome of negotiations. The ambiguities surrounding American policy were underlined Friday when a diplomatic furor erupted over remarks reportedly made by the American ambassador to Israel, Daniel C. Kurtzer, in an off-the-record session nearly a month ago with new Israeli Foreign Ministry employees. According to the newspaper Yediot Aharonot, which was leaked a copy of notes taken at the meeting, Mr. Kurtzer said Washington had never reached an understanding with Israel that would let it keep its large settlement blocks in the West Bank. The newspaper also quoted him as saying he expected Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government to fall before completing its term in November 2006. Mr. Kurtzer angrily denied the Yediot story on Friday, saying he was misquoted and misunderstood. "What I tried to explain to them is exactly what U.S. policy is," he told Israeli radio and television on Friday. "And U.S. policy is the support that the president has given for the retention by Israel of major Israeli population centers as an outcome of negotiations." Mr. Sharon's office said it believed that Mr. Kurtzer had been misquoted. American officials said they believed that the leak was an effort by the foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, to boost his standing in Mr. Sharon's right-wing Likud Party and undermine him just before a crucial budget vote next week that could bring down the government. A senior Sharon adviser said the leak was intended to undermine an important political accomplishment: understandings on the settlements that Mr. Sharon reached with President Bush last April. Mr. Sharon has justified his plan to pull all 21 Israeli settlements out of Gaza (as well as four small ones on the West Bank) to his own party on the basis of his belief that Washington will support Israel's intention to keep its main settlement blocks around Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in peace negotiations with the Palestinians. One key Likud member, Education Minister Limor Livnat, said Friday that she would not have agreed to support the Gaza withdrawal plan in the absence of Mr. Bush's commitments. Arye Eldad, a legislator from the right-wing National Union, said that "the prime minister's great fraud has been uncovered; Israel is not getting a thing in exchange for the transfer" of the Gaza settlers. Diplomatic ambiguities are becoming more exposed, officials from both countries conceded. Washington has agreed that Israel can keep major population centers in the West Bank, presumably like Maale Adumim, and yet also insists that Israel do nothing to "prejudice the rights of other parties or the outcome of final-status negotiations" with the Palestinians. Mr. Sharon, for his part, prefers to emphasize the first part and play down the second. And no matter how annoyed Washington may be, the Americans do not want Mr. Sharon's government to fall and his Gaza plan to fail. Mr. Sharon has promised Mr. Bush, in the peace plan called the road map, to dismantle illegal outposts erected by settlers after March 2001 and to freeze settlement construction and expansion. But the Israelis also say they have tacit understandings with Mr. Bush that a settlement freeze would allow for "natural growth" of the existing population and new building within the existing boundaries of settlements. American officials do not officially confirm such understandings, but even if they exist, the proposed new housing in Maale Adumim, the largest settlement in the West Bank, with about 30,000 people, would not represent merely "natural growth." The Israeli announcement "embarrassed the Americans," an Israeli official conceded, one reason why Ms. Rice reacted so strongly. Washington is also eager to support the new Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, whose own position is undermined by the Israeli announcement. "What was acceptable to the Americans under Yasir Arafat is not acceptable today," the official said. In a letter last April 14, Mr. Bush acknowledged that a final peace deal with the Palestinians would not be made on the basis of Israel's 1967 boundaries, but would reflect the "new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers." For Israel, one key reality is Maale Adumim, which looks like a Jerusalem suburb and which no Israeli government is likely to be willing to negotiate away. But Washington has never been willing to identify what it means by "demographic realities," let alone give its approval to specific settlements. Speaking for the European Union, its foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said Friday that the Israeli plan to expand Maale Adumim "runs counter to the commitment by parties involved to abstain from any unilateral action that could affect a final solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiator, said: "The United States can't decide on behalf of the Palestinians and can't decide final-status negotiation issues by itself. We urge the United States to have Israel stop settlement activity." Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

FBI HELPED SAUDIS LEAVE U.S. AFTER 9/11 Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 27, 2005.

New York Times News Service To The Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2005: (1) The full story (or rather the 'untold' story begins) begins long before 9/11/01. The U.S. Congress has gone along with the cover-up just as they did the Iran/Contra Affair using national security to obscure what should be defined as Treason. The Story begins with the pro-Arab State Department accommodating such nations as Saudi Arabia and Egypt. (The hijacking suicide bombers of 9/11 were 15 Saudis and 4 Egyptians.) The FBI and the CIA, while not wholly innocent of protecting Saudis nevertheless ensured that our investigating Intelligence Agencies would not track, expel or prohibit the influx of Arab Muslims whom they knew to be dangerous to America. The 9/11 Commission under fire, Senator Lee Hamilton insured that the U.S. State Department would not be deeply investigated with the blame thrown on the FBI and the other U.S. Intel Agencies. Avoiding interference with Arabs coming into this country became a culture of avoidance for the FBI. Any agent who went too far in tracking Arab Muslims soon found themselves either transferred or received advisories to cease and desist. The Players were such people as George Herbert Walker Bush, first as Director of the CIA, then as Vice President - then President, always with the able assistance of James Baker III - who was Treasury Secretary before he was Papa Bush's Secretary of State. Their influence on the State Department was deep and overpowering. This was a Shadow Government that controlled American foreign policy, particularly that connected with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, et al. The American Congress, at least some of them, understood and went along with the controlling power of the Shadow Government, particularly when it came to oil. Here we find Arab funds making their way to political war chests. The recipients took the money and kept quiet. It wasn't just the Bush Dynasty and their oil cronies both in Congress plus the multi-national corporations. Take a hard look at the Clintons while Bill was in office and their buddy system with the Arab oil sheiks. For years the FBI were the escorts of Arab Muslims as they roamed Washington even brought into our most secret facilities. Some of the most well known Terrorists were given the royal tour of Washington, courtesy of the State Department and FBI as the tour guides. When a high-ranking Egyptian General laid his hands on the re-entry cone technology for missiles, called carbon-carbon, he tried to leave the country. He was stopped at the airport. Instead of bringing him to trial the State Department slipped in and had him released and sent back to Egypt. We never did find out if the plan was to give Egypt this material or the technology to make it - or if he was sent home without the technology. This would be consistent with the on-going policies such as when Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger transferred the technology and manufacturing capability of the new M1A1 Abrams tank to Egypt without notifying Congress nor seeking legal appropriations' funding before he went on his secret venture. The 9/11 Commission knew that the FBI had secretly hustled the Saudi royal families out of America but, the Commission deliberately chose to ignore it. Later Lee Hamilton said on TV that we must seek the friendship of the Arabs (specifically the Saudis). No one questioned him about the artful avoidance of the 9/11 Commission to question the fast assisted escape of the Saudis nor the role of the State Department in authorizing the FBI to assist the escape of the Saudi royal family. Even now the Bush Administration has launched a well funded Public Relations campaign to win the heart and minds of the Arab Muslim world (especially the Saudis) using Karen Hughes as the apologist for daring to attack Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11. Add to that the effort to dismember Israel as the Bush family's gesture of sacrificing an ally to appease the Arabs. Loop around and find the earliest connections to the Bush Administration and associates oil arrangement. Just prior to Bush's first successful election to office there was a huge oil play. In the late 1990s, there was a super glut of oil offshore in foreign oil farms and super-tankers with their holds full of oil. Yet the multi-national corporations played as if there was no glut nor was there an investigation why they had not ordered the crude into their storage reserves. Nor did Congress want to investigate why the U.S. based cracking plants were not producing refined oil product. At the same time that the false reports of an oil shortage were being pumped out of Washington, there was pressure to open up the Alaskan fields, the off-shore drilling in Florida and California. The artful shortage was to be the pressure needed to break through the conservation and ecology laws protecting tender habitats. If there was a national crisis then Congress could be persuaded to over-ride the conservation laws designed to protect sensitive areas. So, the oil companies manufactured a crisis and the Bush Administration went along with the scheme. There was also the value in rising crude oil prices that allowed U.S. oil prices to also be artificially raised. The excess profits to U.S. oil companies topped out in the billions of dollars, perhaps trillions. That is all being replayed as the crude oil shoots up to $55 per barrel and the Saudis and multinational oil corporations are rolling in money. The rest of the world is suffering. The Congress refused to pass on excess profits tax as the oil companies swindled the American consumer. The Bush Administration played its role in ushering in this flagrant embezzlement to move smoothly. The oil and power industry poured in substantial donor monies for the Bush campaign and he delivered profits and a pollution safety net. What the government hasn't told us would fill volumes. Regrettably, we cannot count on Congress to intercede because they too have their hand-out for donor monies. ### 1. "New Records: FBI Helped Saudis Leave U.S. After 9/11" by Eric Lichtblau, New York Times News Service, Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2005. New Details on F.B.I. Aid for Saudis After 9/11 By Eric Lichtblau, New York Times, March 27, 2005 WASHINGTON, March 26 - The episode has been retold so many times in the last three and a half years that it has become the stuff of political legend: in the frenzied days after Sept. 11, 2001, when some flights were still grounded, dozens of well-connected Saudis, including relatives of Osama bin Laden, managed to leave the United States on specially chartered flights. Now, newly released government records show previously undisclosed flights from Las Vegas and elsewhere and point to a more active role by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in aiding some of the Saudis in their departure. The F.B.I. gave personal airport escorts to two prominent Saudi families who fled the United States, and several other Saudis were allowed to leave the country without first being interviewed, the documents show. The Saudi families, in Los Angeles and Orlando, requested the F.B.I. escorts because they said they were concerned for their safety in the wake of the attacks, and the F.B.I. - which was then beginning the biggest criminal investigation in its history - arranged to have agents escort them to their local airports, the documents show. But F.B.I. officials reacted angrily, both internally and publicly, to the suggestion that any Saudis had received preferential treatment in leaving the country. "I say baloney to any inference we red-carpeted any of this entourage," an F.B.I. official said in a 2003 internal note. Another F.B.I. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said this week regarding the airport escorts that "we'd do that for anybody if they felt they were threatened - we wouldn't characterize that as special treatment." The documents were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Justice Department by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, which provided copies to The New York Times. The material sheds new light on the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, and it provides details about the F.B.I.'s interaction with at least 160 Saudis who were living in or visiting the United States and were allowed to leave the country. Some of the departing Saudis were related to Osama bin Laden. The Saudis' chartered flights, arranged in the days after the attacks when many flights in the United States were still grounded, have proved frequent fodder for critics of the Bush administration who accuse it of coddling the Saudis. The debate was heightened by the filmmaker Michael Moore, who scrutinized the issue in "Fahrenheit 9/11," but White House officials have adamantly denied any special treatment for the Saudis, calling such charges irresponsible and politically motivated. The Sept. 11 commission examined the Saudi flights in its final report last year, and it found that no Saudis had been allowed to leave before national airspace was reopened on Sept. 13, 2001; that there was no evidence of "political intervention" by the White House; and that the F.B.I. had done a "satisfactory screening" of the departing Saudis to ensure they did not have information relevant to the attacks. The documents obtained by Judicial Watch, with major passages heavily deleted, do not appear to contradict directly any of those central findings, but they raise some new questions about the episode. The F.B.I. records show, for instance, that prominent Saudi citizens left the United States on several flights that had not been previously disclosed in public accounts, including a chartered flight from Providence, R.I., on Sept. 14, 2001, that included at least one member of the Saudi royal family, and three flights from Las Vegas between Sept. 19 and Sept. 24, also carrying members of the Saudi royal family. The government began reopening airspace on Sept. 13, but many flights remained grounded for days afterward. The three Las Vegas flights, with a total of more than 100 passengers, ferried members of the Saudi royal family and staff members who had been staying at Caesar's Palace and the Four Seasons hotels. The group had tried unsuccessfully to charter flights back to Saudi Arabia between Sept. 13 and Sept. 17 because they said they feared for their safety as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks, the F.B.I. documents say. Once the group managed to arrange chartered flights out of the country, an unidentified prince in the Las Vegas group "thanked the F.B.I. for their assistance," according to one internal report. The F.B.I. had interviewed many members of the group and searched their planes before allowing them to leave, but it nonetheless went back to the Las Vegas hotels with subpoenas five days after the initial flight had departed to collect further information on the Saudi royal guests, the documents show. In several other cases, Saudi travelers were not interviewed before departing the country, and F.B.I. officials sought to determine how what seemed to be lapses had occurred, the documents show. The F.B.I. documents left open the possibility that some departing Saudis had information relevant to the Sept. 11 investigation. "Although the F.B.I. took all possible steps to prevent any individuals who were involved in or had knowledge of the 9/11/2001 attacks from leaving the U.S. before they could be interviewed," a 2003 memo said, "it is not possible to state conclusively that no such individuals left the U.S. without F.B.I. knowledge." The documents also show that F.B.I. officials were clearly riled by public speculation stirred by news media accounts of the Saudi flights. They were particularly bothered by a lengthy article in the October 2003 issue of Vanity Fair, which included charges that the bureau considered unfair and led to an internal F.B.I. investigation that the agency named "Vanitybom." Internal F.B.I. correspondence during the review was addressed to "fellow Vanitybom victims." Critics said the newly released documents left them with more questions than answers. "From these documents, these look like they were courtesy chats, without the time that would have been needed for thorough debriefings," said Christopher J. Farrell, who is director of investigations for Judicial Watch and a former counterintelligence interrogator for the Army. "It seems as if the F.B.I. was more interested in achieving diplomatic success than investigative success." Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, called for further investigation. "This lends credence to the theory that the administration was not coming fully clean about their involvement with the Saudis," he said, "and we still haven't gotten to the bottom of this whole affair." Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

MARATHON MASS PROTEST AT THE KNESSET TOMORROW Posted by Evelyn Hayes, March 27, 2005.

HELP SAVE BIBLICAL ISRAEL phone the White House at 202-456-1111 fax the White House at 202-456-2461 send an e-mail to president@whitehouse.gov phone Ariel Sharon at 972-2- 670-5555 fax Ariel Sharon at 972-2-670-5475 send an e-mail to pm_eng@pmo.gov.il "It is possible to halt the disaster. In Kiev, Ukraine, it worked. In Beirut, a government fell due to mass protest. It can also happen in the only democracy in the Middle East." Thus opens the notice calling for mass participation in a marathon 36-hour protest against Disengagement and for a national referendum at the Knesset tomorrow. The demonstration - organized by the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Council and grassroots activist organizations - is scheduled to coincide with deliberations on two critical votes in the Knesset that impact the implementation of the Disengagement Plan. The rally will begin on Monday at 10:00am, several hours ahead of the Knesset vote on the proposal for a referendum on the government's plans for Gush Katif and northern Samaria. On Wednesday, the morning after the demonstration is to conclude, the Knesset will begin a marathon of voting on the budget and its accompanying Arrangements Bill. Judea, Samaria and Gaza Council organizers of the 36-hour protest say that approval of the national budget presented by what they termed "the expulsion government" is tantamount to approval of the Disengagement Plan itself. If the budget bill does not pass, new elections must be held within 90 days. "We will show that it is truly the will of the people to be able to have their say on such an important issue as the future of Gaza and the northern Shomron," say the organizers of the mass rally. Labor party leaders have already stated that if the Knesset approves a referendum, then they will act to bring down the government and move for new elections. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is also said to prefer elections to a referendum on Disengagement. Former Chief Rabbis Mordechai Eliyahu and Avraham Shapira are two of over 60 rabbis appearing as signatories to the announcement that was printed in the nation's newspapers over the weekend calling for the public to join the demonstration. The rabbis' statement concludes, "We will take part." Participants will circle the Knesset, as the promotional literature says, "to protect democracy", as well as attending Torah lectures and hearing speeches by rabbis, Knesset members and other VIPs. When Ariel Sharon was in the opposition and advising protest against the Oslo Accords, he advocated lengthy, silent mass protests against the government, rather than the noisy demonstrations that were common in the early days of the negotiations with the PLO. Organizers of tomorrow's protest have billed it as a "Demonstration of Silence". Evelyn Hayes lives in Brooklyn, New York and can be reached by email at "haze@rcn.com To Go To Top

GADDAFI HITS THE NAIL ON THE HEAD Posted by Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff, March 27, 2005.

JERUSALEM - Muamar Gaddafi, the always flamboyant Libyan leader, did not fail to deliver his usual dose of blunt views and wild theories when the leaders of the Arab world met in Algiers, Algeria last week. But when addressing the issue of the Israeli-Arab conflict, Gaddafi managed to point out some glaring discrepancies typically glossed over by the media and those involved in the "peace" process. "The Palestinians and the Israelis are stupid. Why? I'll convince you, and explain to you why they are stupid," Gaddafi said from the podium on the closing day of the Arab League summit. The Palestinian Arabs "are stupid because [Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip] were theirs. They were in their hands for 20 years. Why didn't they establish a state there?" "The 'West Bank' was Jordan's, and Gaza belonged to Egypt since 1948. Why didn't you establish a Palestinian state then? Where was this problem until 1967?" the Libyan asked. The so-called "Palestinian" Arab nation did not begin clamoring for sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha) until those areas came under Israeli control as a result of the 1967 Six Day War. [Ed. Note - It should be noted that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded in 1964, a full three years prior to the Six Day War. The cornerstone of its existence was and remains the annihilation of the entire Jewish state.] Turning to the Israelis, Gaddafi said they were fools for not pressing their claim to Yesha from the very beginning. "The Israelis paid no attention to the 'West Bank' and the Gaza Strip for 20 years, and showed no interest in them. They declared statehood and called it Israel in 1948, and put aside the West Bank and the Gaza Strip." Apparently Israel "considered [these areas] dispensable and unimportant," Gaddafi stated, and asked, "Why are they fighting for them now?" These facts lead to a "moral, fundamental, and legal problem." Gaddafi said the only real solution was a single Jewish-Arab state he had previously dubbed Israstine. Gaddafi went on to refute assertions that Ariel Sharon was an enemy of the Arab world, and said the Israeli prime minister was really an enemy of his own people. Sharon "commits acts that lead to the murder of dozens and hundreds of Israelis," the dictator said. "Someone who brings upon his people such tragedies and massacres is an enemy of his people. His actions have negative consequences for the Israelis," concluded Gaddafi. The Jerusalem Newswire is an independent Christian-operated source for daily Israel-centered news. This article is archived at http://www.jnewswire.com/library/article.php?articleid=473 To Go To Top

THE GOONS AT WORK Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, March 27, 2005.

No comment is really necessary about this. Not only is this a common practice in all tyrannical regimes but has been quite common in Israel. This was how the Sephardim were treated in the 50s and 60s, the Yemenites when they demanded information about their missing children and how the Haredim have been treated through out the years. As the desperate rulers of Israel become even more frantic, the brutality will increase and spread. Now it is confined to active demonstrators, in the near future there will be attacks against "Right wing" neighborhoods or towns as well. The Leftists are determined to have their civil war come what may. This is a news item from today's Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com. It is called "Police Break Up March, Beat Doctor, 3 Teenage Girls" and it is stored at http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=79129 (IsraelNN.com) An eyewitness Sunday night said that police assaulted a Magen David Ambulance (MDA) doctor and his three daughters who joined a women's solidarity march from Netanya to northern Samaria. One witness, Esther Eliezer of Netanya, said that when she went to the police station to testify in the doctor's behalf, a policeman threatened to arrest her if she didn't leave immediately. The police also said they would arrest all of the women if they continue their walk Monday morning. Penina Moati, a resident of Elkana, a Samaria community east of Tel Aviv, reacted with shock at what she said was unjustified police brutality against people who had not committed any offense. She said that a dozen women began to disperse after police said they could not walk together without a permit. When Haifa resident Dr. Shai Gross, an MDA doctor, arrived and a policeman insulted one of the women, Dr. Gross criticized the policemen. Four officers assaulted and arrested him while throwing his three teenage daughters to the ground, Moati asserted. Moati said that on Monday the women will continue their walk, which she said is not a demonstration. 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

A POLITICAL TSUNAMI - HAMAS: "END OF THE ZIONIST DREAM" Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, March 27, 2005.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said on Sunday that despite attempts by the Palestinian Authority to uncover weapons smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egyptian border, Strella anti-aircraft missiles were smuggled across the border. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/ JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111634309442&p=1101615860782 Dear friends, A great disaster is about to happen and nobody seems to be able to stop it, or PM Sharon for bringing it about. It is a national catastrophe for Israel and the Jewish people. Please read the following Hamas spokesman Bahar statement very carefully: Bahar said the disengagement plan should be seen as a major and strategic victory for the Palestinians "due to Israel's regression on all levels." He said the planned pullout was a sign that Israel had been morally defeated despite the full backing it enjoys from the US. "All indications show that since its establishment, Israel has never been in such a state of retreat and weakness as it is today following more than four years of the intifada," Bahar told reporters. "Hamas's heroic attacks exposed the weakness and volatility of the impotent Zionist security establishment. The withdrawal marks the end of the Zionist dream and is a sign of the moral and psychological decline of the Jewish state. We believe that the resistance is the only way to pressure the Jews." Here are two articles for your consideration. Your Truth Provider, Yuval. [Editor's note: Also see: "Agents Involved In Arms Smuggling Into Gaza" below.] Anti-aircraft missile, Jerusalem Post This article is called "Israel weaker now than ever, say terrorists" and was written by Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff and appeared on their website, http://www.jnewswire.com/ March 25th, 2005. JERUSALEM - Israel's plan to retreat from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria proves unrelenting Islamic terrorism has weakened the Jewish state in a way five full-scale wars failed to do, a senior Hamas official said Thursday. "The painful and qualitative blows which the Palestinian resistance dealt to the Jews and their soldiers over the past four-and-a-half years led to the decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip," Ahmed al-Bahar, a top Hamas leader, was quoted by The Jerusalem Post as saying. "The suicide attacks ... have taken their tolls on the Jews, both psychologically and economically, in addition to the high number of casualties," he continued. Bahar said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "disengagement" plan was a sign Israel had been morally defeated by its Arab Islamic foes. "All indications show that since its establishment, Israel has never been in such a state of retreat and weakness as it is today following more than four years of the intifada," he told reporters. "The withdrawal marks the end of the Zionist dream and is a sign of the moral and psychological decline of the Jewish state. We believe that [terrorism] is the only way to pressure the Jews." When Sharon first announced his plan last year, he insisted Israel would retreat from a position of strength and that quitting Gaza would increase security for the nation's Jewish population. Sharon also claimed the disengagement would help Israel to retain sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria. But many Israelis fear the Arabs will use the precedent set by the pullout to press their advantage. Former Sharon aide Ra'anan Levy wrote last month that Israel was sending the disastrous message that "We are giving the Palestinians what is theirs and we are taking out our own people who settled on Arab territory." Sharon, Levy noted, "will further harm the Jewish claim of historic rights to the land, and he will cement even further the international claim that only Jews moving in one direction, over the rubble of their own homes, can be the foundation for peace." "Hamas: Gaza pullout is victory for intifada" was written by Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, and appeared Mar. 24, 2005 Israel's decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip is the biggest achievement for the Palestinian resistance as the heavy casualties it inflicted on Jews through suicide attacks and other operations was the direct cause of the pullout, according to a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip. "The painful and qualitative blows which the Palestinian resistance dealt to the Jews and their soldiers over the past four-and-a-half years led to the decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip," Ahmed al-Bahar, a top Hamas leader, said. "The suicide attacks and the [booby-trapped] underground tunnels have taken their tolls on the Jews, both psychologically and economically, in addition to the high number of casualties." Bahar said the disengagement plan should be seen as a major and strategic victory for the Palestinians "due to Israel's regression on all levels." He said the planned pullout was a sign that Israel had been morally defeated despite the full backing it enjoys from the US. "All indications show that since its establishment, Israel has never been in such a state of retreat and weakness as it is today following more than four years of the intifada," Bahar told reporters. "Hamas's heroic attacks exposed the weakness and volatility of the impotent Zionist security establishment. The withdrawal marks the end of the Zionist dream and is a sign of the moral and psychological decline of the Jewish state. We believe that the resistance is the only way to pressure the Jews." The Hamas leader said the current period of calm could evolve into a full cease-fire if Israel released all the security prisoners and halted its military raids in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "Islam does not forbid a hudna (temporary truce) as long as it's in the interest of the Palestinian people and the Muslim nation," he explained, dismissing reports that Hamas had agreed to stop its terror attacks for fear that its leaders would be targeted by Israel. "There's no doubt that Hamas suffered painful strikes with the killing of its leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi, but despite this loss Hamas has retained its power. The martyrdom of these leaders and others has served as a resurrection for the Palestinian people and the Muslim nation." Bahar said Hamas did not see any difference between Yasser Arafat and his successor, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). "We have dealt with President Arafat in the past and today we are dealing with Abu Mazen with the same fixed positions of Hamas," he said. "When Sheikh Yassin said that we are partners in blood and decision-making, this had a great impact on the Palestinian street." He expressed doubt that Abbas would be able to fight corruption in the PA as long as he's surrounded by the same people who belonged to the former regime. He also noted that the ongoing power struggle in the ruling Fatah faction was hindering reforms in the PA. Yuval Zaliouk writes the Truth Provider columns. To subscribe, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

PA AGENTS INVOLVED IN ARMS SMUGGLING INTO GAZA Posted by Marlene Young, March 27, 2005.

This is how Abbas and the Arabs keep their word. It's time to call your Senators and representatives and the White House. We do need a rest period - a period where for once we WAIT until the Arabs PROVE they want peace and, for once, Israel isn't pressured to weaken its security. This article was written by Gideon Alon, Haaretz correspondent and appeared in Haaretz. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Sunday that Palestinian Authority military intelligence agents were involved in recent attempts to smuggle anti-aircraft missiles into Gaza. Mofaz was speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, and said Strela missiles may have been smuggled into the Gaza Strip from Egypt through tunnels, despite the fact that the PA has recently acted against such infrastructure and exposed about 20 tunnels. Mofaz said the Palestinians had crossed a red line, adding that Israel demanded the PA work to prevent such efforts and locate any missiles that may already be in the Gaza Strip. The minister did not disclose when the alleged smuggling took place. "There is still a gap between the PA's intention to fight terror and the situation on the ground," Mofaz said, adding that there were still not enough reforms in the structure of Palestinian security services. Mofaz also addressed recent changes in Palestinian public opinion, which he stated was more supportive of new PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and less sympathetic of terror. He noted, however, that there were Palestinian political leaders who were trying to undermine Abbas' authority. To Go To Top

A VIABLE ARAB STATE TRUMPS SECURE BORDERS FOR A JEWISH STATE Posted by Ted Belman, March 27, 2005.

RICE: Plan to expand settlement 'at odds' with U.S. policy U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Israel's plans to expand a West Bank settlement was "at odds with American policy" and could threaten peace with the Palestinians, marking her sharpest attack of Israel since taking office, according to a newspaper report Friday. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Rice said the plan to add 3,500 housing units to the Ma'aleh Adumim settlement east of Jerusalem was "not really a satisfactory response." I commented on this American position in my article "Making a Silk Purse out of Sow's Ear." (www.israpundit.com/archives/2005/03/making_a_silk_p.php) "Israel must also take no actions that prejudice a final settlement, and must help ensure that a new Palestinian state is truly viable. A state of scattered territories will not work." -- Condi Rice Unfortunately, no surprise there. It has been the US policy since the Six Day War to prevent Israel from acquiring territory by force. No doubt this position was cooked up in the "Oil Cabinet". As a result, UNSC Res. 242 emphasized "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war" even though this was not then and is not now, a recognized principal of international law. True that the words "all" or "the" were not included when it required "that Israeli armed forces withdraw from territories occupied as a result of the recent conflict", resulting in what diplomats call "constructive ambiguity". The resolution also required the establishment of "just and lasting peace in the Middle East" and "a just settlement of the refugee problem ..." For the next twenty-five years Israel kept talking about what would constitute secure borders. During the years that Labour was in power settlements were constructed that were deemed for security purposes and it was generally accepted that Israel must retain the high ground including the Golan and must retain the Jordan Rift. During this period of time the US maintained the position that the settlements were illegal or at least an obstacle to peace. In addition the US when not referring to the settlements also emphasized the need for secure borders. No longer. Israel can blame no one but its own leaders for the Oslo Debacle. That was its first big mistake. This process lead to the negotiations at Camp David in which Barak offered from 93% to 97% of Yesha to the PA to reach a final agreement. Everyone thought that this was a very generous offer including President Clinton. Everyone except the Arabs. the US State Department and the EU. Arafat rejected it saying that among other things that it left his future state with enclaves rather than contiguous territory. He then launched the murderous Intafadah II. As a result Israel was not in the mood to better the offer and instead wanted to offer less next time around. Terrorism must have consequences, negative ones for the perpetrators, that is. The EU for its part started to say that the Palestinians needed "hope" which was a a code word for a state preparing the way for Bush to make his June '02 speech in which he called for a peaceful Palestinian state. The State Department started working with the Arabs and Great Britain to get support for the invasion of Iraq. To accomplish this they engineered the Roadmap that was said to be under the auspices of the Quartet. Not only did that document promise the Palestinians a state but "a viable state". It also required a settlement freeze. Thus Arafat came out the winner once again. Strangely, and regretably, Israel accepted it. That was its second big mistake. Now the whole debate is about Israel's obligation to create a viable state rather than the Palestinian's obligation to concede land to make the border secure. This shift in focus changes the paradigm which existed since Res 242. No one talks about secure borders anymore. Its all about what it takes to make Palestine viable. (See the Debka article at (http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=97) as to the meaning of "viable"). Arafat, supported by the world, has won. As a result of Israel accepting the Roadmap, Rice can now say to Israel that it is bound to freeze settlement activity because it accepted the Roadmap. Otherwise Israel could still be arguing for secure borders. To accept a settlement freeze is tantamount to accepting that Israel has no right to the land itself, The talk has also progressed to the point where the Armistice lines of '48 has become the point of reference rather than the '67 borders. The State Department recently created a diverse coalition of forces to force Syria to end its occupation of Lebanon. The quid pro quo was the American promise to get Israel to end the occupation of Yesha. In fact, if you step back and view events since the failure of the Camp David talks, the State Department has been engineering a substitute for the failed offer together with Saudi Arabia and the EU. It accepted the position of the Arabs that the offer was not enough and more had to be offerred. First came the Saudi Peace Plan which had America's blessing in advance of its release and the Plan was then enshrined in the Roadmap with the added idea that there must be a settlement freeze. The US continues to value Saudi Arabia as its indespensible ally. Diplomatically S. Arabia supported the invasion of Iraq and the demand that Syria get out of Lebanon. In exchange, The US has accepted the Saudi Plan and is committed to getting Israel out of Yesha. This plan requires all Arab countries to make real peace with Israel. So far the US has given Saudi Arabia a pass on its support for terrorism and incitement all over the world. Oil is very important. When will Israel ever learn? Ted Belman is co-host of IsraPundit, a pro-Israel activist website (http://www.israpundit.com). To Go To Top

REFUSAL TO OBEY ORDERS - A PHONE CONVERSATION JUST BEFORE PURIM Posted by Moshe Feiglin, March 27, 2005.

The caller sounded authentic. "I'm a Manhigut Yehudit activist," he introduced himself, "and I've read the booklet, The Obligation to Refuse to Obey Orders. Now I've received a call-up notice for reserve duty - to guard sttlements in Northern Shomron. I told my battalion commander that I don't wish to participate in the activities of an army making preparations to evict Jews from their homes, and that I don't intend to appear. The commander explained to me that there is no connection between our assignment and the disengagement plan, that other soldiers will guard the Jews in Northern Shomron while I sit in jail. What do you advise me to do?" my caller asked. "First of all," I replied, "I don't advise you to do anything. It's your decision. I can only think together with you and say how I think I would act. Obviously, if my service would facilitate the active participation of other forces during the actual eviction, then I would even refuse to wash dishes on a remote army base." "That's not the situation," he explained. "The activity is planned for Pesach. My task would be to guard Jews in settlements." "OK," I replied. "It's now clear that we are not talking about refusal with the intention of interfering with the implementation of the eviction order, but refusal in a far broader context." "First of all, the true struggle for Gush Katif is not a tactical struggle. It is important to demonstrate at road junctions, to establish a mass physical presence in Gush Katif, and we encourage such activities. However, in the final analysis we aren't stronger than the State itself. All the acts of protest and struggle are based on the assumption that the government does not reflect the wishes of the nation; accordingly, its decisions are not legitimate." "As long as we fail to prove that the disengagement plan is contrary to the nation's wishes, Sharon will find the tactical solution for all the forms the struggle takes. The disengagement plan will be finally discarded only when it becomes crystal clear that the nation is opposed to it. The solution will take the form of a decision by the nation." "For precisely this reason, Sharon and the Left are afraid of a referendum. They know that a referendum campaign will recreate the direct link between the belief-based public and the national public that we saw in the Likud referendum. Thus will be revealed the natural, healthy inclination of the majority of the nation towards its Jewish identity and beliefs and towards the public that represents these values." "Of all the activities aimed at thwarting the disengagement plan, refusal to obey orders is the most important, not because it will necessarily halt the eviction, but because large-scale refusal is in fact an alternative form of referendum! The IDF is still the army of the people. If the majority of the soldiers refuse to carry out the order, it will be an unambiguous vote by the nation against the disengagement plan." "You have to make up your own mind, but if I were to receive a call-up notice today, I would refuse to appear for reserve duty. The army's main assignment at the moment is to evict the Jews of Gush Katif. As long as the IDF prepares and trains for the execution of this crime - I shall refuse to wear its uniform." "Refusal today - is referendum, and is the only possible way to vote against the disengagement plan." There was silence on the line. "So what do I reply to my battalion commander when he says that what I am actually doing is abandoning the security of Jews living in Northern Shomron?" he then asked. "In my opinion this is a far simpler question," I replied. "Until Rabin shook hands with Arafat, a single company of the Border Guards could maintain security in the entire region. You are required to do reserve duty because of the Oslo process. The danger to the settlements and to the entire country does not come from the Arabs, but from the Left that brought the murder organizations here and gave them hope of victory. The soldiers guarding the settlements are carrying out a very important task, but they are dealing with symptoms not with the illness. In contrast, soldiers who will now refuse to serve, and will consequently be jailed, are carrying out a far more important task, since they are attacking the root of the matter, and because of their efforts we won't need guards at all in the future." "It's important to realize that the problem doesn't lie with the Arabs but with the Jews. The IDF is, therefore, no longer the ultimate tool for the realization of our national objectives. We must continue to stand in the vanguard of the Israeli army, but education, settlement, and concern for the weaker sections of the population are currently more important. An Air Force cadet who evicts Jews - because if he refuses we won't have a religious pilot - is in my opinion a person whose values have become totally confused." "Thank you for talking to me," said the voice on the other end of the line. "With G-d's help, the situation will be turned upside down, just as in Megilat Esther," I replied. "Happy Purim." Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) is a group of people inside the Likud party who want to see Israel adopt a more Jewish character. Moshe Feiglin, its cofounder, has emphatically said he does not want a theocracy, but he does want a State based on Jewish values. The Manhigut Yehudit website address is http://www.manhigut.org. To Go To Top

MEMORIAL HILL DOESN'T ANSWER Posted by TheRaphi, March 27, 2005.

This was written by Faigie Heiman. She is a native of Brooklyn, who made aliyah with her husband in 1960. The Heimans live in Jerusalem. On March 15, Memorial Hill in Jerusalem witnessed an unusual ceremony. The large outdoor plaza at the entrance to the new Yad Vashem Memorial Museum was filled with hundreds of foreign dignitaries seated on plastic chairs. European delegates led by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, representatives of North and South America, Holocaust survivors, Knesset members, and important visiting personalities from Germany, France, Poland, Russia, Denmark and elsewhere came for the opening festivities. The dignitaries had identical plastic faces. They bowed their heads in memory of six million Jews annihilated by the parents and grandparents of their fellow citizens. The temperature was low enough to cause physical discomfort, yet not a single frozen tear was perceived on any cheek. The opening address, delivered by President Moshe Katsav, was eloquent, as were all the addresses that followed. Nevertheless, cold mountain air permeated the atmosphere. Israeli commentators described the ceremony, along with the museum itself, as "stately." One of them explained the difference between the Holocaust museum in Washington and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem: "The Washington museum was created for the purpose of evoking emotional reaction. Yad Vashem is for the stoic and brave. Statesmen do not shed tears." "We are all paratroopers," the commentator remarked. "Paratroopers do not cry." A long wailing shofar blast and Hatikva, sung by Dudu Fisher, opened the ceremony. Next came speakers, musical interludes by children, songs interspersed with poetry readings, and short film clips of European Jewish life before and during the Holocaust. Eli Wiesel, the last and most impressive speaker, stood at the podium without a piece of paper. When he addressed the audience his words increased the impact of the large banner in the background - Zachor et asher asa lecha Amalek?. "Where was the rage when we discovered the magnitude of the killing?" Weisel thundered. "Was this man`s inhumanity to man? No! It was man`s inhumanity to Jews!" "Why should there be suicide bombers?" he asked. He was the only speaker to suggest that the killing of Jews continues to this day. In the stately presence of presidents and prime ministers, his purpose was clear: "Messengers have to deliver messages. We have to become the messengers." Two weeks ago, Orthodox Jews held ceremonies all over the globe honoring completion of the seven-and-a-half year Daf Yomi learning cycle. In cities throughout Europe, America and Israel, from Lublin to Melbourne to Sao Paolo, in stadiums, community centers and synagogues, hundreds of thousands of Jews celebrated the completion of one cycle and then immediately began the next one. Last week, Jewish men, women, and children attended services on Shabbat parshat Vayikra to read and hear the words of zachor: "Zachor et asher asa lecha Amalek..." They listened to the reading of parshat Zachor as they do every year on the Shabbat before Purim, for it is a mitzvah in the Torah to hear and "never forget" what Amalek did to the downtrodden Jews after they left Egypt. The Jewish people have thousands of years of experience in collective memories. Through their daily learning programs, Jews heroically maintain their faith and they remember. Torah-loving Jews are a non-stop learning community. There is no museum anywhere in the world that has been receiving visitors continuously for 2,000 years. Only in Israel, at the Kotel, the last remnant of the Beit Hamikdash, can one find thousands of visitors throughout the day and night, praying all year long. Yeshivot and Jewish educational institutions are the answer to the requirements of the living. They are living testimony to faith through Torah study for Jews worldwide. New members have joined the Daf Yomi club, and, in seven-and-a-half-years, please God, their memories will be sharper, their level of understanding broader, the celebrations even greater. Amalek is remembered in all the various masks and costumes he's donned through the ages - and, yes, Jews are proud to shed warm, salty tears. Tears express the pain, bitterness, hardship, and martyrdom of our people throughout the centuries, from the time we left Egypt all the way to our own era. Memorial Hill in Jerusalem is considered today`s answer for Holocaust remembrance. It does not, however, answer the anti-Semitism, the hate, the desire to murder Jews for being Jews. Moments after the ceremony at Yad Vashem, newscasts switched their focus to the White House where President Bush was saying, "Israel will have to sacrifice and Palestinians need to work hard." For the nations of the world, and even for some of our own brethren, we are not yet done sacrificing. Six million Jews in the years 1939 - 1945 were not enough. Thousands have been sacrificed to the present-day Amalek on the altar of the State of Israel since 1948, and that, too, is not enough. Inhumanity against Jews hasn`t had the last word yet. Now we are being called upon to add homes, businesses, and our land - in the world's one and only Jewish state in - in order to help create yet another Arab state. Yes, a Palestinian state will cause the Arabs to, in President Bush`s words, "work hard." They will work hard looking for ways to kill us - while European and American heads bow reverently, their faces tearless on the frozen exterior of a Memorial Hill that doesn`t answer the timeless desire to murder Jews for being Jews. TheRaphi (http://www.theraphi.com/index.html) is a pro-Israel and pro-Zionist site; it provides news articles and essays. To Go To Top

PLANTED SHABBAK AGENTS Posted by Yaacov Ben-Yehudah, March 27, 2005.

So - there are no 'agent provocateurs,' just agents seeking credibility. As ...? This comes from IMRA and was written by Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis). It is archived at http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=24681 It should be noted that while the Israeli security services are adamant that there is no plan to use Shabak (ISS) agents to defame opponents of the Sharon administration, agents are expected to be planted in protest groups to monitor them. These agents need to establish their credibility in the groups. The question thus is at what point a Shabak agent is acting in order to establish credibility and when he is acting as an "agent provocateur". To Go To Top

PRISONER RELEASES FROM HELL Posted by Israel Zwick, March 26, 2005.

In this article by Ariel Natan Pasko, the author reminds us how Israel was condemned in 1992 for exiling 400 terrorists to Lebanon. Yet, today, Israel is being praised for plans to evict 8000 peaceful Jews from their homes. No one seems to be concerned about the humanitarian rights of Jews. The article appeared as an opinion piece in Our Jerusalem (www.ourjerusalem.com/opinion/story/opinion20030819.html) as a reprint from the Jewish Press, August 13, 2003. There`s a well-known story the late Rabbi Meir Kahane used to relish telling: In 1985, Israel's Shamir government carried out a prisoner exchange with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, releasing 1,150 Arabs incarcerated for terrorist activities against Israelis in exchange for three Israeli soldiers. All the "Palestinian revolutionaries" had signed agreements before their release foreswearing any future violent activity. Three days after release, one of these "repentant activists" was brought into an Israeli hospital`s emergency room; he had blown himself up - what is commonly called a "work accident" these days - preparing a bomb for his next "revolutionary act" of murdering innocent Israeli shoppers. Kahane, at the time a member of Knesset, had received a phone call from one of the doctors involved and tried to publicize the incident in the Israeli media. He spoke to several journalists, giving them full details. After a couple of days went by and nothing appeared in the newspapers or on radio or television, he again contacted the journalists and was told that the military censor had blocked the story. Kahane tried several more journalists, waited, and got the same response. He then contacted the censor`s office itself, and was told that the government didn`t want the public to know that the released terrorists were returning to "work." Rather than warn the public to be on heightened alert - and by implication admit to a failed policy - the Israeli government chose a media blackout. Later, after the first intifada "broke out" in December 1987, many among the leadership were traced back to that prisoner release. Zoom ahead to December 1992. Yitzhak Rabin is now prime minister, and he "exiles" 400 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists to Marj az-Zuhour in Southern Lebanon. The international media portray their daily struggles against hunger, cold weather, etc., when in fact they get hold of cell phones, make contact with Hizbullah operatives, and for months receive continuous Jihadist indoctrination, bomb-making lessons, and practice in guerrilla warfare techniques. In an interview on Israel Television the night of the expulsions, Rabin explained his decision to temporarily deport the Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists, saying, "I was motivated, on the one hand, by the reality of the situation. The reality in recent months has been a worsening of murderous terrorist activities by fundamentalist Islamic organizations such as Hamas, such as the Islamic Jihad...At the same time, I considered the political and legal ramifications." Rabin said that in his view, the action was not a deportation, even if it was described as such by legal terminology: "This is the temporary removal of inciters and abettors to inciters of repugnant acts of murder. Some of them for two years, some temporarily removed for one year." He added that a great deal of thought had been given to what means were necessary to fight terrorism. "...Let`s not forget," he said, "what alternatives did we have? Capital punishment, destruction of houses?" Interestingly, an Israeli poll conducted right after the deportation showed that 91 percent of the public supported the government`s decision to deport the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists. Those surveyed were also asked how they thought this act would influence terrorism. Fifty-five percent answered that it would reduce terrorism; 26 percent thought it would intensify terrorism; and 18 percent said it would have no influence. The UN Security Council strongly condemned Israel for these temporary expulsions and threatened sanctions. Under mounting international criticism and wishing to avoid such sanctions, the Rabin government offered to take back more than a hundred of the exiled terrorists and to cut in half the time of exile for the remaining terrorists. By September 1993, half of the deportees had returned to Israel and the remainder - with the exception of eighteen who decided to remain in Lebanon to avoid arrest - returned in December 1993. Not coincidentally, terror by Hamas and Islamic Jihad has grown exponentially since the mid- 1990`s. Fast forward to late July 2003. The Israeli cabinet decides, by a 14-9 vote prior to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon`s trip to Washington, to release 540 Palestinian prisoners, including more than 400 Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah terrorists. These include relatively senior officials in Hamas`s civilian leadership in the West Bank, as well as activists who served as liaisons with Hamas` s leadership overseas - people involved in arranging the transfer of funds to Hamas institutions in the territories or military training for Hamas members. All this is being done as a "confidence building measure" to convince the Palestinians and Americans that Israel wants to move forward on the road map peace plan. But Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has consistently said this is not enough, flatly stating that Israel "must release 6,000 prisoners in order to push the road map forward." It's true that President George W. Bush, after meeting with Abbas at the White House, said, "We ought to look at the prisoner issue on a case-by-case basis...Surely nobody wants to let a cold-blooded killer out of prison....I would never ask anybody in any society to let a prisoner out who would then commit terrorist actions." And it's true that Sharon, with Bush in Washington a few days later, said that he and the president agreed there would be no release of Palestinian prisoners "with blood on their hands" or those likely to return to terrorism or prisoners who, when released in the past, resumed terror activities. But how can we be guaranteed that isn`t exactly what will happen, since it keeps happening? Sensing the weakening of Israeli resolve, Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah Nasrallah called upon Germany to send an emissary for a final attempt at reaching a mutually agreeable deal for a prisoner exchange with Israel. Nasrallah threatened that if a deal were not reached, Hizbullah would resume the abduction of Israelis. Hizbullah, which taught Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror techniques and set the example of how to drive the mighty Israeli army out of a field of operations, is now learning from the Palestinian prime minister, who, in violation of the road map, has publicly refused to disarm and dismantle Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the other terror groups, all the while demanding the release of thousands more terrorists. Israeli government policy regarding terrorist prisoner releases may not have changed much over the last two decades, but there are some signs of improvement among the Israeli people. A telephone poll, which included Israeli Arabs, conducted for Israel Radio in early July asked: Do you support or oppose the release of Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners who are labeled as being "without blood on their hands" within the framework of the negotiations with the Palestinians? Only 43.4 percent supported it, 48.5 percent opposed, and 8.1 percent held no opinion. In another Israel Radio poll taken at the end of July (also including Israeli Arabs), respondents were asked, Do you support the decision of the government to release Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners who do not have "blood on their hands"? Opposition to the release had risen to 80 percent while only 14 percent supported it. (Six percent gave no reply.) Clearly, Israelis today don`t believe in the "ostrich" approach - the hope that by ignoring terror it will somehow go away. Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon told reporters at the Tel HaShomer Army Base recently that the IDF is preparing for a renewal of terrorism, "as the Palestinian Authority is currently not dismantling the terror infrastructures....There could be an interim period of quiet, maybe even a long one, but I`m starting to count the days until the next outbreak of violence." Yaalon explained that the terrorists are taking advantage of the hudna - the temporary cease-fire - to manufacture combat materials. How much will this latest prisoner release bolster their forces and abilities? To Go To Top

TWO WEEKS UNTIL CLOSE-OUT OF SHOMRON COMMUNITIES Posted by Marlene Young, March 26, 2005.

URGENT: PLEASE DO NOT REMAIN SILENT: * SHOMRON JEWISH COMMUNITIES TO BE HANDED OVER TO HAMAS AND FATAH!! * SHOMRON DISENGAGEMENT IS LAND AREA FIVE TIMES GREATER THAN GAZA- FROM AFULAH TO NETANYAH! * SHOMRON IS THE ENTIRE BELLY OF ISRAEL- HANDED TO FATAH AND HAMAS! * WHY IS THIS INFORMATION NOT BEING TOLD TO JEWISH COMMUNITIES AND SHULS? This is a news item from Arutz-7 (www.IsraelNationalNews.com) of March 24, 2005. While all attention is turned to Gush Katif, plans are proceeding to expel the Jewish residents of northern Shomron, demolish the buildings, and station soldiers there to make sure no one returns. O.C. Central Command Maj.-Gen. Ya'ir Naveh met with the residents of the four towns slated for oblivion yesterday, and calmly told them what the army is planning for them. In two weeks, he said, Prime Minister Sharon will declare the area a "closed military zone," such that relatives, friends, and service-providers will not be able to arrive. In addition, Naveh said, the houses and all the buildings in the communities will be destroyed - at least according to his recommendation - so that "Hamas will not be able to wave their flags in victory from the rooftops." He said that the army will build outposts in each of the former communities, which they will man at least until the end of the year. A Yediot Acharonot reporter was present at the meeting, and reported that Naveh said, "You will have a difficult period until the actual disengagement. We will try to make your lives tolerable, but I advise you to leave before that." A young resident of Kadim responded, "Over my dead body." The Four Towns in Danger The four yishuvim (communities) slated for destruction are Ganim, Kadim, Sa-Nur and Chomesh. The first two are secular towns, while the others are currently populated by recently-arrived religious families. Ganim and Kadim are twin communities founded in the early 1980's, and each with 25-30 families. They are located just southeast of the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Jenin, around which a bypass road was built to allow free access to Afula and the Jezre'el Valley. Planned to house a total of 500 families altogether, they were established as part of what was to be a string of Jewish communities in the northeast Shomron leading to the Gilboa area. The residents of Ganim and Kadim are largely prepared to leave without a struggle, with the exception of the above-quoted individual and possibly a few others. Sa-Nur and Chomesh are located five kilometers from each other along the road leading from Jenin southwards to Shavei Shomron. Sa-Nur has undergone several changes since it was first built - in the modern period - in 1977. Originally called Dotan, its core group of pioneer settlers resided in the old British police building and in caravans until receiving permission to move to their permanent home. The group moved to Mevo Dotan, some 15 kilometers to the north, in 1979. A secular group then moved in, which later divided into two groups and founded Kadim and Ganim. Next to arrive were a group of artists and families, mostly new immigrants from Russia, and Sa-Nur became known as an artists' colony. When the Olso War started in 2000, the residents began to leave, and Chabad Hassidim began to take their place. In the second half of 2004, Sa-Nur's population grew by more than 50%, and more than 100 people now live there. Chomesh began in 1980 as a mixed religious-secular community, and now houses some 30 families. It was founded for security reasons, as it oversees the entire area from its height of 650 meters above sea level. The Shomron area, Samaria, was formerly the capital and residence of the kings of Israel, commencing with King Omri. Jerusalem was the capital of the State of Judea. Being "Kicked Around Like Dogs" Most of the residents do not yet know where they will live next year, and have not begun to make plans. Yesha Council chief Bentzy Lieberman told Gen. Naveh, "You'll see hundreds of people with suitcases and with nowhere to go. You're kicking these people around as if they were dogs." Gen. Naveh said that the residents would be housed in a hotel in Zikhron Yaakov, receiving full room and board until they "get organized." He added, however, that those who remain in the area after the day of the disengagement - scheduled to begin July 20 - will "find themselves in prison instead of a hotel." Naveh said that the army presence will prevent both Israeli and Arab infiltration into the areas to be evacuated. "It's different than in Gaza," he said, "where we are leaving and closing the gates behind us. We have no intention of leaving Judea and Samaria. We will remain here in one way or another for hundreds and thousands of years." The residents were angered at the decision to close their areas even before the Passover holiday, "when all the rest of the country will be traveling and hiking freely." Naveh said he would dispatch the IDF musicians' band to play for them, and that IDF female teachers would arrive to entertain the children during the vacation. "If we have to, we'll send reinforced buses and cars in order to bring your guests over." The residents of Sa-Nur informed Gen. Naveh that they refuse to meet with "the man who will destroy our houses." The Security Dangers The northern Shomron area, if Israel in fact withdraws its forces and residents, is liable to become a "second Gaza," security sources warn. Jenin and Shechem will become cities of refuge for terrorists, and Kassam rockets could be fired at Israeli towns and cities bordering the area. Hizbullah has built a foundation of terrorism in this area over the past few months, mainly with the Islamic Jihad, but has not scored much "success" due to the IDF activities in the area. With the departure of the IDF - whenever it occurs - Hizbullah and the Islamic Jihad are expected to increase their terror activities. Terrorist activity is currently dammed by IDF measures such as isolating villages, encircling areas, checkpoints, and nonstop local activity by the army and GSS. A senior officer said, "It's no coincidence that though there are explosives, labs, lathes and the know-how - there have not been Kassams in the Shomron. Our control doesn't allow the translation of these resources into rockets. But when Israel leaves, the situation will change, and it will just be a matter of time until the first Kassam lands. The Beit She'an and Gilboa communities will come within rocket range." The municipal leaders in these areas have already been warned of the dangers awaiting them. The withdrawal is also expected to endanger Israel's water supply from the area. PA elements currently dig illegally, and are expected to intensify this activity once Israel leaves - depleting and salinating the water supply used for agriculture in the Gilboa region and possibly wiping out regional farming. Marlene Young is vice-president of TODA - Torah Organization for Disability Access, as well as an advocate for Israel. To Go To Top

AN ANTI-SEMITIC WEBSITE Posted by Israel Zwick, March 26, 2005.

This is important information from a web expert about an anti-semitic website. It was sent to me by Brent Sims (brent@webokay.net). Hi Israel, Check out this anti-semitic website, it's astonishing http://www.public-action.com/ The person behind this is obviously quite skillful. The site is owned by a Carol Valentine out of Virginia and some searching on google.com shows her commentary to be on many many web sites and almost as many web sites have commented on her comments and activities. The scariest thing, in my opinion, I once had a well meaning Jew send me to a Talmud site that turns out to be owned by this same person. Something didn't seem quite right so I bailed out and stayed away but that sums things up pretty well in my opinion. If you do a search for "talmud" (without the quotes) on google.com her Talmud site is listing number 14 and if you follow the link you end up at what looks to be a valid site to learn Talmud on. Listing 10 (and I can tell you with some authority that getting into the top 10 listings on Google for a single word, popular search term, such as 'talmud', is no easy feat) is also an anti-Semitic site. Good Shabbos, Brent To Go To Top

JEWS AGAINST ISRAEL Posted by Israel Academia Monitor, March 25, 2005.

Citing Manfred Gerstenfeld: Anti-Semitic Jews have also become an important tool in the anti-Israeli campaigns of Western media. On the British media, Robert Wistrich observes: "Only those Jews who smash Israel appear in the media, and Israel is routinely represented as an ethnic-cleansing rogue state - when not compared to Nazi Germany and South Africa - and at the same time is held to a higher standard than other countries." ...One also finds anti-Israeli Jews in various human rights organizations and other NGOs. Jews with a strong anti-Israel bias in the media are another group requiring in-depth research. For this article and others see: http://www.israel-academia-monitor.com/ Contact Israel Academia Monitor by email at e-mail@israel-academia-monitor.com To Go To Top

CONGRESS, WILL YOU BE A STANDBY OBSERVER TO ANOTHER HOLOCAUST? Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 25, 2005.

Something is happening in Israel that warrants a penetrating look by Congress. President Bush wanted a process which is turning out to be more of a political slogan than a process of any practical value for Israel. The recent Bush initiative to start a public relations campaign through the employment of Karen Hughes and others, to seek the good will of the Arabs by using suicidal concessions by the State of Israel as part of the payment is un-American. While the idea of democracy can be stirred into the Arab-Israel conflict, the fact is that they are totally separate events. Voting in Iraq has nothing to do with their statements of hostility to the Jewish State. The voting illusion in Saudi Arabia has not lessened their hostility toward Israel. Egypt's gesture to allow one other candidate to run against current President Hosni Mubarak has not changed the state-run media to continue its condemnation of Israel. Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) was elected as the new President of the Palestinian Authority after Yasir Arafat's death. Abu Mazen was Arafat's co-partner in Terrorism from the beginning of the formation of the PLO in 1964. Mazen has repeatedly stated that he has no intention of disarming the many Arab Muslim Terrorist organizations - other than to verbally ask them to cease Terror. The election of Abu Mazen meant very little to Hamas (the most virulent of Arab Muslim Palestinian Terrorist organizations), Hebz'Allah (Party of god - Sponsored by Syria and Iran), Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigade (Terrorist branch of Fatah and Abu Mazen's direct organization), or any of the other Terrorist organizations who have pledged to eliminate the Jewish State from the Jordan River to the Sea. In Iran, the same statements of eliminating Israel continue, despite the media wave to portray Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza as the great wave of peace to come. Whatever vague form of democracy that could be adopted grudgingly, over many years to come, will not diminish the centuries-old taught-hatred against Jews by Muslims. No doubt, the American Congress has been informed that the Arab Muslim Palestinian Terrorist organizations have used the so-called cessation of violence to arrange for a tonnage of new armaments to flow into Gaza from Egypt. The assessment of Israel's Intelligence is that a far greater military thrust will be made by the Arabs during and after the deportation of Jews from Gaza. Why should Congress take a closer look beyond the political benefits to the Bush Administration and the reality that a slogan, the Road Map (portrayed like a hopeful road sign that we are going someplace with peace) is merely an imposition of a future opportunity for the Arab Muslims' pledged Genocide of the Jewish State? Equating Democracy in the Arab nations with the media harangue that "they will live in peace with the Jewish State" is wholly false and exceedingly dangerous for Israel. This is not a theory or quibbling over words, phrase and slogans. We already have prima facie evidence from the case history when Adolph Hitler declared his intentions in "Mein Kampf" - much the same as the Arab Muslim nations have pledged a similar Genocide based upon Wahhabist Koranic law and what the radical Islamists wish to achieve. And we have the very current evidence since Oslo was signed September 13, 1993 - of Arab Muslim Palestinian unremitting, ongoing Terrorism (low-intensity warfare) who murdered more than 1700 Jews, many Americans, wounded tens of thousands, many maimed for life. Arab Muslim nations are achieving very little in either the short range or even the long range that looks like free Western democracy. Whatever happens in their respective nations that imitates democracy will not change the immutable force of religious diktats which they adhere to faithfully - zealously. Islam for them means that no other religion or non-Islamic people can be tolerated on soil that was occupied at any time in history by Muslims. Infidels (non-Muslims) could be tolerated only as Dhimmis (second-class citizens or slaves to the Muslims). This includes Jews, Christians and any other religion that does not follow Shariah law (strict laws of Islam) and the other tenets of Islam. While such nations as Iran, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, Egypt and even Saudi Arabia may have achieved internal changes, even insurrections against dictatorial rulers but, these changes will never alter their basic attitudes toward the Jews and the Jewish State. DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO America is spending Billions of Dollars to tighten her borders against (Yes!) Muslim Arab Terrorists - even as it tells Israel to bring Terrorist borders close enough to its own civilian population for Terrorists to successfully hit its cities, towns, villages, airfields within a rifle shot. In some cases the supposedly protective Israeli fence is smack up against the houses of Jewish civilians. What good does that do? Are the women and children supposed to wait for the Arab Muslim Terrorists to climb over or shoot rockets over the Fence at them (G-d Forbid) before they are allowed to defend themselves? Congress and President Bush have already seen Israel hit by more than 6000 Kassem Rockets, mortars and Katyusha rockets with a range of 5 miles. The new, improved rocket called "The Arafat" can fly 11 miles - accurately. Other missiles being shipped and smuggled in from Iran through Egypt can fly 10 to 20 miles. The U.S. is protecting herself from suitcase nukes, biological spray and chemical releases such as the Sarin gas that was used in Japan's subways with devastating results while insisting that Israel make herself vulnerable. Bush, acting like a Roman Caesar, tells Israel to evacuate 9,000 Jewish men, women and children who live peaceful, fruitful lives, building industry, tilling farms and creating the innovative insect-free produce grown on formerly barren sand dunes in miles of greenhouses. Condoleezza Rich, the U.S. Secretary of State, orders Israel not to build new housing near Jerusalem because it "disturbs" the Palestinians. But, neither Bush nor any other American government official has even suggested how to pay for this mass evacuation and how to build new homes, schools, synagogues, farms, jobs for the 9,000 people who will shortly be transferred from homes they built and lived in for 30 years, 3 generations. Bush and the U.S. State Department have been fully informed about what the Palestinians will do next - and it is NOT making peace with the Jewish State of Israel. All the words and moves by the Arab leaders and States are merely to sucker the Free West into forcing Israel into a compliant, vulnerable position by reducing her minuscule size even further. Israel today is only 300 miles long and 50 miles wide. With the reductions insisted upon by the U.S. State Department, she will then be only 9 miles wide at her center - an irresistible temptation for attack by any coalition of Arab Forces. The scheduled new tenants are hostile Arab Muslim Palestinians including its so-called civilians who are polled and agree that their Terrorists should continue bombing and teaching their children to be Shahids (Martyrs for Islam) Clearly, it is time for Israel to thank America for her past support and ignore further dictates, given that this bear-hug of affection is killing us. Congress has virtually ignored this reality - with the exception of providing funds to the Palestinians or an occasional piece of politically theatrical legislation wherein they threaten to cut of funds (as in the Syrian Accountability Act) which they and the President never do. Congress is casually presiding over another Holocaust of the Jewish people IF the Arabs and President Bush have their way. Bush's way is the Highway called "The Road Map". You ignored those of us when we warned you that Hitler was implementing his pre-planned and advertised Genocide. During those horrific years, everything possible was done to avoid interfering with Hitler's "Final Solution to his Jewish Question". Once again, this time well before the full assault, we are alerting you that the Arab Mein Kampf to assault Israel has been written and is already underway. You can stop it IF you stop President Bush from appeasing the Arabs by using Israel for bait. We do not need more Holocaust Museums nor gatherings of nations to offer crocodile tears for what their nations caused - even as anti-Semitism ramps up in their nations. It is time for you of the American Congress to stop the dismantling of the State of Israel. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

DEATH TO "DIPLOMACY" WITH IRAN Posted by Elan Journo, March 25, 2005.

European "diplomacy" with Iran - now supported by Washington - is self-destructive. The widely hailed diplomatic effort led by Britain, France and Germany is touted as a reasonable way to settle the dispute over Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program without any losers. By enticing Iran to the negotiating table, we are told, the West can avoid a military confrontation, while Iran gains "economic incentives" that can help build its economy. But this deal - now backed also by the Bush Administration - can only strengthen Iran and turn it into a greater menace. The European deal - which is said to include the sale of civilian aircraft and membership for Iran in the World Trade Organization - rests on the notion that no one would put abstract goals or principles ahead of gaining a steady flow of economic loot. And so, if only we could negotiate a deal that gives Iran a sufficiently juicy carrot, it would forgo its ambitions. But to believe that Iran really hungers for nuclear energy (as it claims) is sheer fantasy. Possessing abundant oil and gas reserves, Iran is the second-largest oil producer in OPEC. To believe that it values prosperity at all is equally fantastic; Iran is a theocracy that systematically violates its citizens' right to political and economic liberty. What Iran desires is a nuclear weapon - the better to threaten and annihilate the impious in the West and in Iran's neighborhood. Iran declares its anti-Western ambitions stridently. At an official parade in 2003, Iran flaunted a Shihab-3 missile draped with a banner announcing: "Israel must be wiped out." A missile paraded last year declared another of Iran's targets: "We will crush America under our feet." A committed enemy of the West, Iran is the ideological wellspring of Islamic terrorism, and the "world's most active sponsor of terrorism" (according to the U.S. government). A totalitarian regime that viciously punishes "un-Islamic" behavior among its own citizens, Iran actively exports its contempt for freedom and human life throughout the infidel world. For years it has been fomenting and underwriting savage attacks on Western and American interests, using such proxies as Hezbollah. Like several of the 9/11 hijackers before them, many senior Al Qaida leaders, fugitives of the Afghanistan war, have found refuge in Iran. And lately Iran has funneled millions of dollars, arms and ammunition to insurgents in Iraq. It's absurd to think that by offering Iran rewards to halt its aggression, we will deflect it from its goal. The only consequence of engaging such a vociferously hostile regime in negotiations is the whitewashing of its crimes and the granting of undeserved legitimacy. The attempt to conciliate Iran with "incentives" further inflames the boldness of Iran's mullahs. What it teaches them is that the West lacks the intellectual self-confidence to name its enemies and deal with them accordingly. It vindicates the mullahs' view that their religious worldview can bring a scientific, technologically advanced West to its knees. Far from converting Iran into a non-threat, the "incentives" would sustain its economy, prop up its dictatorial government and perpetuate its terrorist war against the West. Whether Iran accepts the European deal or merely prolongs "negotiations" indefinitely, so long as the "diplomatic" approach continues Iran gains time enough to engage in covert nuclear-weapons research. Iran's flouting of a previous agreement to stop enriching uranium (which prompted the current talks) and its documented attempts to acquire nuclear-bomb technology erase any doubts about how it will behave under any future deal. This approach of diplomacy-with-anyone-at-any-cost necessarily results in nourishing one's enemy and sharpening its fangs. That is what happened under a 1994 deal with communist North Korea. In return for boatloads of aid and oil from the United States, Japan and other nations, North Korea promised not to develop nuclear weapons. Despite U.N. inspections, North Korea flouted the agreement repeatedly. When caught cheating, it promised anew to end its nuclear program in return for more "incentives." In February 2005 North Korea declared (plausibly) that it had succeeded in building nuclear weapons. Another, older attempt to buy peace by giving "incentives" to an enemy was a cataclysmic failure. In 1938 the Europeans pretended that Hitler's intentions were not really hostile, and insisted that "peace in our time" could be attained by allowing him to walk into Czechoslovakia. Instead, he was emboldened to launch World War II. Ignoring the lessons of history, the Europeans are advocating a deal with Iran that likewise purchases the reckless pretence of peace today, at the cost of unleashing catastrophic dangers tomorrow. To protect American (and European) lives, we must learn the life-or-death importance of passing objective moral judgment. We must recognize the character of Iran and act accordingly. By any rational standard, Iran should be condemned and its nuclear ambition thwarted, now. The brazenly amoral European gambit can only aid its quest - and necessitate a future confrontation with a bolder, stronger Iran. Elan Journo is a junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute (http://www.aynrand.org/) in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes the ideas of Ayn Rand - best-selling author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" and originator of the philosophy of Objectivism. To Go To Top

TERRORISTS AGREE TO CEASEFIRE "IF"; EXCHANGE OF IDEAS OR RACIST RALLY? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 25, 2005.

TERRORISTS AGREE TO CEASEFIRE "IF" Arabs routinely make demands as agreements with one-sided conditions. If the enemy accepts and implements the conditions, the Arabs tack on another condition, before actually agreeing. Gradually they get more than originally agreed, and the enemy gets less than promised. Deceit is the trademark of Arab culture. Since the Arabs make that a practice, Israeli leaders who make new agreements with the Arabs apparently lack loyalty, sanity, knowledge, and/or intelligence. Arab doctrine favors truces upon conditions that set the stage for a more aggressive Arab resumption of jihad. It is a doctrine whose existence the State Dept. studiously ignores, lest it become too obvious to Israelis that truces are worse than pointless for them. Nor is a P.A. truce a genuine ceasefire. The Associated Press and the newspapers that use its news briefs go along with the diplomats' pretense that the ceasefire is working, except for some blatant violation. (The violations are by the Arabs.) They ignore the constant shelling of Jewish towns by the Arabs, unless sensational. Then they excuse the P.A. leadership as having tried to stem the attacks but lacking the political power to do so, and as needing more Israeli concessions to gain sufficient popular standing to control the terrorists. That the P.A. leadership is condoning or promoting those attacks while denying responsibility does not come out in the mainstream press. Arafat utilized that ruse. He knew that the world is divided up into the naíve and the devious. The Jewish and American masses are naíve. The media plays along with the charade. Journalists, such as those in the Associated Press, may not identify the terrorist organizations that supposedly agreed to a truce. They just indicate "Palestinian terrorist Factions." Some of the terrorist organizations then may deny having agreed; they make further demands upon Israel. So long as Israel is pliant, the Arabs will pursue that practice as productive for their jihad against Israel. Israel doesn't see that such concessions advance jihad. The rest of the West probably does but prefers it that way. In mid-March, the Associated Pres phrased the condition as Israel halting violence against P.A. Arabs and freeing prisoners. The media often fails to define "violence," which the Arabs afterwards define more loosely than its true English meaning, and "freeing prisoners." Hamas may mean all the terrorist prisoners, while the Israel public is considering a portion of them. The total capitulation that PM Sharon is thought to be contemplating is frightening. He, his media, and the US media do not analyze the consequences. Only dissidents do. Israeli patriots are trying to get out the news that half the freed terrorists return to terrorism. Since a ceasefire at best is temporary, then freeing terrorists in return for a (spotty and) temporary ceasefire guarantees worse terrorism when it resumes. Freeing such prisoners is just as foolish as would be supplying the terrorists with arms and training (which the US and other countries are doing, with connivance by the Sharon regime, for the terrorist forces known as the P.A. police, but which recruit known terrorists. Israel cannot win the war that way. Sharon doesn't want to win. He just doesn't want it to seem as if he were being forced by the Arabs, when he abandons traditional Jewish Territory, lest his criminal negligence turn public opinion against him. The implications of Israel "halting violence" also are dire. Israel fights back when attacked and by pursuing wanted terrorists whose locations it learns of and intercedes against imminent terrorist raids. If the terrorists hewed to the "hudna" (temporary ceasefire), there would be no need to fight back or intercede with terrorist plots. Since these terrorist activities violate the truce, they void it. A genuine truce document would put Israeli reaction as conditional upon terrorist restraint. But the world does not want Israel to defend itself even when the Arabs are violating the truce. They make a fraud of the truce and corpses of Jews. Is it any less dishonest than Nazi assurances that they were not shipping Jews to their deaths? Thus a truce primarily has advantages for jihad and disadvantages for Israel. Why does Israel agree to it? If Sharon is not a puppet of the Left and the US, he acts the part well. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VS. NGO MONITOR In a sarcastic rejoinder to criticism of HRW by Gerald Steinberg of NGO Monitor, Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle E. Director of HRW New York made these points: (1) HRW repeatedly condemns terrorism and authored the definitive study of human bombs in Israel, but Mr. Steinberg claims that "contributed to incitement to terrorism"; (2) "Our strong and widely publicized rejection of unjustified criticisms of Israel at the 2001 nongovernmental conference on racism in Durban, South Africa become a 'contribution of NGOs to incitement in the Palestinian (i.e., P.A.) territories'"; (3) "Mr. Steinberg dismisses human-rights criticisms of Israeli war crimes and other violations simply because Palestinians have also condemned them. For him, there is no difference between 'Israeli defensive actions' and blatant violations of the Geneva Conventions, which seek to spare civilians from government excesses even in time of war or serious security threat. Israeli abuses are fueling radicals in Muslim countries and eroding Western sympathy for the embattled country, but criticizing those abuses somehow 'boosts the most radical Palestinians and undermines moderate voices'"; (4) He omits from his books' biographical sketch his role as an Israeli government security consultant. Steinberg rebutted HRW's attempt to discredit his criticism: (1) "While Ms. Whitson highlights HRW's single 'definitive' study of suicide bombing, she does not explain why they buried all the evidence of Arafat's role"; (2) "As Anne Bayefsky, Shimon Samuels and other delegates to the 2001 Durban conference have testified, HRW's representatives were parties to shifting the conference's focus from battling racism to attacking Israel; (3) "... her claim that the defense of Israeli lives against terror constitutes the source of radical Islam (abetted by HRW's accusations of 'Israeli war crimes') is... foolish"; and (4) Many academics' views are elicited by governments, including those of the head of HRW. It does not necessarily disqualify them all (IMRA, 2/12). HRW is like the New Israel Fund, in claiming it is constructive. The New Israel Fund cites its good work with battered women, but omits its much greater funding of far leftists groups that seek to undermine Israeli defense against foreign Arab attacks and internal subversion. So, too, HRW cites one study but not its much greater, biased effort against Israel. The notion that what Israel does erodes Western sympathy assumes much Western sympathy. There is little of it. Large Muslim immigration and a loss of fidelity to Western society has, in concert with rampant pacifism and mercantilism, turned W. Europe against Israel. Israel can't help it if what it must do is distorted by the media. One wonders what "moderate" Palestinian Arab voices HRW is referring to. The media would love to amplify them, if it came across any. What it does is substitute Abbas' pretense at ending the war, while he continues to support it substantively. HRW misstates NGO Monitor's view of the Israeli military. Whitman's sarcasm takes for granted that NGO Monitor understands that the IDF is abusive, but does not care. That assumption either is careless or deceitful. In either case, it is defamatory, because Monitor does not find the IDF abusive. Accusations against the IDF so often are baseless. They propaganda, a war tactic. HRW still suffers from its own failure to acknowledge that the entire P.A. jihad is illegal, fought by means of war crimes, and is responsible for whatever harm results. Shame on HRW for not glorifying Israel for what I think Israel does to excess, which is to minimize Arab casualties at risk to its own soldiers' and civilians' lives. I don't think the bigoted Arabs are worth the risk to innocent Israelis. There is a need still unfulfilled for major human rights organizations. Fortunes go to organizations that often side with enemies of human rights, probably out of leftist antisemitism. Their pro-Arab bias encourages the Arabs to commit the crimes that get Israel condemned for. HRW is too ideological and insufficiently humane. We need to get the word out, and the money flowing elsewhere. The trouble with the charitable impulse is its misdirection. LOW-CRIME SOCIETY REALLY HIGH-CRIME Most people think that S. Arabia has a low crime rate, because its severe criminal code calls for amputation for theft. However, shoplifting is pervasive there. Store detectives do not apprehend most shoplifters. Perhaps the detectives, themselves, are too busy pilfering. Dishonest employees start thieving about three weeks after having been hired. By then they have learned the flaws in the security system, and improve their technique. People rip the tags off clothing, and mend the swag at home. Others come with a lighter and a drill and try to melt tags off. "'Most people we catch shoplifting are women, though men do it too,'" one security guard in Jeddah told Arab News. 'For the women it is easier because they are wearing abayas which help them conceal things and they carry big bags. The male security guards don't like to watch them or confront them because they are women. They almost always start yelling and screaming that they were being sexually harassed. No one likes to be in that situation,' he continued. 'All one has to do to see the lack of awareness in theft prevention is walk around any mall or chain of stores. There are very few operating camera surveillance systems in place and very few stores use inventory alarm systems to protect their wares. Stores that train their employees in spotting and reporting shoplifters are non-existent'" (IMRA, 2/12 from Arab News.) Note: it was not indicated whether the shoplifters are Arabs or the millions of foreign workers. The story reminds one of the Jordanian families that steal and sell manhole covers as scrap. The USSR also was thought to be relatively crime-free, because little crime was reported there, in contrast to US media focus on sensationalism. Actually, Soviet crime was rampant. Neither was large-scale unemployment there known in the West, because it was concealed by the regime's hiring many more people than needed. They worked half the time, and spent the other half on lines at stores that lacked sufficient goods to engender confidence of availability unless customers came early and waited on queue. P.A. terrorists utilize women to transport weapons through checkpoints, because the world's pro-Arab bias intimidates Israeli troops, actually chivalrous, from thorough enough searches. WHAT ARE CANADIAN UNIVERSITIES FOR? The Arab Students' Collective of the U. of Toronto organized a lecture program on what it calls Israel's ethnic cleansing and segregation of Arabs. (Israel is about to ethnically cleanse Jews.) In defense against accusations of prejudice, it claims it merely is opposed to Israeli "oppression" and with it participate some Jewish students and Israeli historian Ilan Pappe. Unfortunately, Jews can be antisemitic, too. (Mr. Pappe is an anti-Israel, Communist official, who falsifies history.) Canada has the fifth highest rate of antisemitic incidents. "Is the U. of Toronto hosting a free and scholarly exchange of ideas, or a racist rally masquerading as an academic conference?" (Jewish Political Chronicle, 1/2005, p.41 from Beth Duff-Brown, AP, 1/31.) What exchange of ideas? These programs are formatted by people who do not allow an exchange of ideas, if one calls jihadist false propaganda "ideas". They shout down dissidents. Did you think they bring Western tolerance from the Arab world? Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

AMERICANS LIVING IN ISRAEL FACING EVICTION SUE THE STATE DEPARTMENT Posted by Professor Ya'akov Golbert, March 25, 2005.

This was writen by Yael Bauer. While American soldiers risk their lives to wage a war on terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq to protect US citizens from further attacks, the US State Department, under the direction of James Baker, via Condoleezza Rice, is legitimizing the PLO that continues to murder US citizens living in Israel. The question is why? Why did Colin Powell, former Secretary of State say on January 6th "Abu Mazen is a good man; we know him well?" Of course we know him well. He was the PLO terrorist who financed the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre. Are we so superficial and dim-witted that all we care about is image? Arafat wore a kafiya, but Abu Mazen wears a suit and this is all it takes to transform the PLO terrorist to a man of "peace" and the new darling of the State Department. The State Department suddenly is asking the American taxpayers to give more money to a terrorist organization that continues to pursue a policy of murdering Jews, many of whom are American citizens. In a landmark declaration on Sept. 20, 2001 President Bush proclaimed: "We will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism ... Any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime." Why then is the American taxpayer once again asked to turn a blind eye to the PLO even though the definition of terrorism as spelled out in Bush's Executive Order 13224 of September 23, 2001, Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions With Persons Who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism, clearly defines the Palestinian Authority as a terrorist organization? In addition, Clinton's Executive Order 12958 prohibits funding to terrorist groups that impair the peace process. Executive Orders are law after publication in the Congressional Register unless modified by Congress. Congress has not modified these Orders. There are no exceptions to these orders and no immunity for employees of the federal government. It makes no difference if it is Condoleezza Rice, Eliot Abrams or any employee or appointee of the State Department that violates the executive order. All employees are held accountable to uphold the law. Condoleezza Rice wants to train Palestinian police, ignoring that the Ramallah lynch was in the police station and numerous attacks were by Palestinian police and ex-police. The new security force will include 150 Hamas members. She has offered money and training, both prohibited under executive orders 13224 and 12958 as they are a terrorist organization. In addition to supporting a terrorist organization in violation of the above Executive Orders and Federal Law, Ms. Rice now illegally demands that Jews be removed from Judea, Samaria and Gaza to satisfy the insatiable hatred of the PLO. The United States State Department has taken the position that it is only "illegal" for Israeli or American Jews to remain in Gaza, Samaria or Judea, but legal for American or Israeli citizens of the Moslem or Christian faiths to remain. The State Department actions are blatantly racist, violate fundamental Constitutional rights of Jewish American citizens and patently illegal. So why does the State Department continue to pursue its own racist agenda? In addition to Baker's and other Department of State employees anti-Semitism, there is a hidden agenda. The US consumer demands cheap oil. However, environmental policies have made the domestic drilling of oil a political hot potato. After all, why should the US destroy its land and environment, when we can import cheap oil from the Middle East? Until now, the US oil-wolves were kept at bay by Israel's military power to inflict huge losses on its enemies. While oil supplies were plentiful, US policy - through its consumers - had the upper hand. But, demand for oil has changed in recent years. There is no longer a glut on the market as the rise of China's and Russia's economies have put pressure on existing oil supplies. The Muslim nations in control of the world's oil supply have become more Anti-American and they no longer need the security of the American markets. At the same time, with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, US support for Israel has become a liability rather than an advantage. The question for the State Department is how to "gracefully" back out of support of Israel without seeming to antagonize the Christian right electorate? Abu Mazen, the monster in a business suit, serves this purpose. Today the Jews, tomorrow the Christians. By creating another terrorist dominated country, we add more danger not only to Israel, but to America. By appeasing the financial brokers of terrorism, we increase the likelihood that the free world will become hostage to a nuclear threat vastly more dangerous than we could have ever imagined from the Soviet Union - namely that these people are willing to kill themselves in order to promote their agenda of a Muslim Empire. Do you really want to leave your children a world in which the safety and innocence of childhood is no longer a reality - where going to the mall or to a movie means a substantial risk that they may never come back alive? Want to do something positive to help, something more than talking with your friends or demonstrating? Want to really fight to stop terrorism? Then join us in our fight against the State Department's Anti Semitism and the creation of a new terrorist state within the Middle East. American Jews residing in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria are welcome to join the class action suit. It will not cost anything and those that join stand to recover compensatory and punitive damages. To view the complaint and for more details, browse http://www.yesha.homestead.com/classaction.html or contact us at yeshahomestead@hotpop.com. We need lawyers to refine the complaint and to appear for motions and become part of the team and we need to raise a modest sum for costs of suit. The attorney fees will be collected only if they win. We are not naive Don Quixote's tilting at windmills, but Americans who believe in the American justice system and the war on terrorism. Ya'akov-Perez Golbert is a practicing lawyer in Jerusalem and co-founder of Netzah Yisrael Lo Yishaqer (http://www.netzahyisrael.org). To Go To Top

THE LEFT'S FIRST AMENDMENT STRIKES THE WEIZMANN INSTITUTE Posted by Steven Plaut, March 25, 2005.

Igor Pecharsky: No intention of removing the patch. Eyal Warshavsky / Ba Israeli universities are as crowded with left-wing moonbats and tenured traitors as are American campuses. These are documented and exposed by Israel Academia Monitor, which is the Israeli cousin watchdog group to Campus Watch in the US. Ordinarily, Weizmann Institute is not the main target on anyone's radar screen for political correctness and suppression of academic freedom. It is usually the least politicized of Israel's academic institutions and has the smallest number of leftist faculty moonbats. But today's headline is an exception. Weizmann is becoming a new battleground for the Left's 'First Amendment', which holds that free speech is an important protected right for leftists only. All others can get stuffed. Igor Pecherksi is a Russian-born (St. Petersberg) Israeli computer programmer, who works in the molecular genetics department at Weizmann. The administration at Weizmann Institute is threatening to fire poor Doctor Igor. His grievous sin? He expressed his political opinions quietly by wearing a small pin shirt. The pin is about the size of one of those little lapel flag pins. But it shows a small orange Jewish star. It is the symbol of the movement to support the Jewish "settlers" in the Gaza Strip and oppose their expulsion under the Sharon-Mitzna "disengagement plan". You can see poor Doctor Igor wearing his illegal pin in this photo! Doctor Igor wears the pin when he comes to work. Some leftist busybodies on campus complained that the pin is interfering with their ability to do THEIR work. Now Igor is a mild-mannered skinny little guy, not exactly a Hulk Hogan threatening the leftist secretaries, as you can see in the above photo link. The pin in his lapel is tiny, the size of an AIDS ribbon. THAT is what the lefties on campus claim is interfering with their work. Leftists at Weizmann of course always park their cars with the "Expel the Settlers" bumper stickers in campus parking lots, but THAT is protected academic free speech! Doctor Igor is now under threat of expulsion and dismissal from his job for quietly expressing an opinion. If you would like to tell the chiefs at Weizmann what you think of all this, go to http://www.weizmann.ac.il/homepage/pages/pres.shtml and http://www.weizmann.ac.il/homepage/pages/leaders.shtml http://www.weizmann.ac.il/committees/ 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. This appeared on the Moonbat Central - Hunting the Radical Snark website. It is archived at http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/moonbatcentral/2005/03/ lefts-first-amendment-strikes-weizmann.html To Go To Top

A TRIAL BALLOON - FOR A MILITARY JUNTA TO OCCUPY ISRAEL Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, March 25, 2005.

This is the first trial balloon to see what the reaction would be if the Junta were to formally dissolve the State of Israel and replace it with a military dictatorship. The Negev is already slated for martial law and no one seems to have really noticed that Yeshah has always been under martial law, so why not try for the whole country? Of course, Sharon will give his solemn promise that it will all just be temporary and "in the very near future" there will be new elections and the restoration of civilian rule. However, in the mean time "in order to preserve DeMockracy" martial law will remain. Get ready for it. This is a news item from Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews.com and is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=79030 "Barak Wants Military Gov't During Evacuation" Friday, March 25, 2005 / 14 Adar 5765 (IsraelNN.com) Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak has told a publication that Israel should become a military state during the planned evacuation this summer of residents of 25 Jewish communities in northern Samaria and Gaza. Speaking with "The Left" newspaper, Barak that the army should erect road blocks and check points not only in the northern Negev, as planned, but also further north. He said the government should "shut down the country" and limit travel and work in order to prevent disturbances. 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

PURIM-SHPIEL 2005 Posted by TheRaphi, March 25, 2005.

This essay was written by Shifra Hoffman, founder of the Victims of Arab Terror International organization (VAT). She is a noted journalist and executive director of Shuva (Return), the Israel Emergency Aliyah Movement. For generations, Jews have marked this festive day by attending either professional or amateur productions in which reality becomes topsy-turvy, and everything is considered fair game in pursuit of mirth and levity. Of all the jovial events with which the holiday of Purim is identified, perhaps the most popular is a satiric theatrical play known as the Purim-shpiel. For generations, Jews have marked this festive day by attending either professional or amateur productions in which reality becomes topsy-turvy, and everything is considered fair game in pursuit of mirth and levity. Yet, if one considers what has transpired in the Middle East since the start of the Oslo Accords, it is not the Jews, but rather the Arab world that has staged an unparalleled Purim-shpiel. Artfully masking their true intentions by masquerading as Israel's 'peace partners', Arab leaders have succeeded in convincing a majority of the nations (and the obtuse prime minister of Israel) that they no longer wish to annihilate the Jewish State. Led by their star performer, the late and unlamented PLO chief terrorist Yasser Arafat (let us give the devil his due, as his performance earned him a Nobel Peace Prize), one after another of Israel's sworn Arab enemies have suddenly became baalei t'shuva (penitents). They agree to live 'side by side' with Israel if - and here's the rub - the so-called 'Palestinians' will be given a state. Not just any state, mind you, but one with contiguous territory. That means Israeli retreat to the l967 borders. (Other players in this bizarre production, such as Hamas and their compatriot murderous ilk, demand a retreat to pre-l948 borders.) Of course, this peaceful (sic) "Palestinian State" must have Jerusalem as its capital. One can only imagine the incredulous look on the face of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak when the wily Arafat related that Israel would be willing to make insane concessions, if only he and all the other Arab leaders would continue to play the part of peacemakers. Thus, Egypt (which, thanks to divine intervention and our heroic IDF, was not able to "drive the Jews into the sea") has become the 'peace negotiator' between Israel and the 'Palestinians'. Mubarak's acting talents have even persuaded Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the fearless warrior, to allow (among other suicidal concessions he is making) Egyptian soldiers to patrol strategic areas vital to the security of our Jewish State. The Arab Purim-shpiel, however, does not end there. The script calls for a "two-state solution", as ordered by US President George Bush, Director of this Theatre of the Absurd. Furthermore, the script says, in order for peace to flourish between Jews and Arabs, thus creating a 'happy ending' in the Middle East, other demands by our so-called 'peace partners' must be met: Israel must release all Arab terrorist prisoners; Israel must uproot all the Jews from Gaza, Judea and Samaria from their homes, and leave all their property for the 'Palestinians'; and Israel must allow the return of all of the so-called 'Palestinian refugees' (albeit, there was no Arab state of Palestine from which they were made refugees). In the Megillah of Esther, which is read in synagogues throughout the world since the original Purim centuries ago, it is recorded that the evil plans of Haman, the arch-Jew-hater, were miraculously overturned and, instead, descended upon him. Today, too, we pray that the Almighty, blessed be His holy name, will cause the evil designs of Israel's Arab enemies (disguised as they are in a Purim-shpiel) to be overturned - and instead, descend upon them. TheRaphi (http://www.theraphi.com/index.html) is a pro-Israel and pro-Zionist site; it provides news articles and essays. To Go To Top

LET'S CREATE ANOTHER MIDDLE EASTERN STATE! Posted by Gerald A. Honigman, March 24, 2005.

Well, the day has finally arrived. I now find myself in agreement with the Secretary General of the Arab League. Recently, at the end of the Arab League Summit, Amr Mussa declared that peace could not arrive until there was withdrawal from occupied territories, the creation of another state, and the return of refugees. He's basically correct. So what if he got a few details mixed up. Native Copts in Egypt - millions of them - had their country overrun by conquering, settling, and subjugating Arabs. To this day, they never know when the next murder will occur, the next church will be burned down, and have learned that to survive they must consent to the forced Arabization process. Their leaders have even written that for Israel to "get along," then it too must consent to a variation of this. Pretty pathetic...Uncle Butros instead of Uncle Tom...but the same breed, if you know what I mean. Just imagine the world-wide outcry if Israel did this to Israeli Arabs. The majority Berber population of North Africa saw its lands overrun as well over the past centuries by conquering, settling, and subjugating Arab hordes creating Arab empires. Imperialsim is evidently only nasty when non-Arabs so indulge. Berbers who dared to insist on keeping their own pre-Arab language and culture have been murdered for trying to do so. A look on any number of websites dealing with Berbers in these regards will be revealing indeed. In 1968, Ismet Cherif Vanly wrote The Syrian Mein Kampf Against The Kurds (Amsterdam). A Kurdish nationalist, he described the murderous and brutal Arabization policies Syrian settling, conquering, and occupying Arabs employed against Kurds who predated them in the land by thousands of years. Settling, conquering, and occupying Iraqi Arabs did likewise to Mesopotamia's ancient native Kurds (the Hurrians, Guti, Kassites, and Medes of old), Assyrians, and other non-Arab peoples as well - Jews included. Literally millions of native African Blacks have been butchered, maimed, enslaved, turned into refugees (all of this still going on today), seen their lands forcibly Arabized, and such. And not just in the Sudan. Half of Israel's almost six million Jews originated in the "Arab"/Muslim World. They too predated the Arabs in many of those lands that they were forced to flee as refugees, leaving far more property and valuables behind than Arabs who fled in the opposite direction after the latter's brethren invaded a reborn Israel in 1948. Alexandria Egypt's famous Jewish community was prominent centuries before Jesus. The Jews of Iraq had been there at least since the days of the Babylonian Captivity and Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews of Yemen were on the Arabian Peninsula before Muhammad was born, and the latter Prophet of Islam fled Mecca to Medina, a Jewish date palm oasis on that peninsula where the Jews were still prominent when Muhammad sought refuge there during the Hijra. When they would not convert to his new faith (based largely on their own) nor accept his religio-political leadership, he butchered and enslaved them. Jews also took part in the resistance against the Arab imperial invasions of North Africa in the 7th century C.E. Etc., etc., and so forth. So, considering Amr Mussa's above demands... It's time that the Africans of southern Sudan gain independence from the Arabs who have butchered, subjugated, and enslaved them over the centuries - long before the hypocrites in the United Nations only recently first started to mutter anything at all about this. It's time for thirty million truly stateless people - the Kurds - to finally get their sole state. They were promised one after World War I but saw it sacrificed on the altar of British petroleum politics and Arab nationalism. An Arab Iraq was pieced together in its stead. Trusting Arabs - whether Shi'a or Sunni - is probably not a wise decision (regardless of what Foggy Bottom says) - given the track records of Arabs of any stripe towards these people. While Arabs - with almost two dozen states already, including one carved out of almost 80% of the original 1920 borders of "Palestine" and today called Jordan - have an American-sponsored roadmap to help create yet another for themselves, somehow those same folks demanding justice for Arabs seem deaf, dumb, and blind regarding Kurds. And it's time for the subjugation of North Africa's huge Berber populations to come to an end and for those folks to be able to decide if they want to remain forcibly tied to Arabs or not. If not, then why should they not get territory to create a Berber State if Arabs can get to have yet a second one carved out for themselves in "Palestine?" You see, Mr. Musa, justice should not be exclusively for Arabs. Unfortunately, for the Copts, not too much to offer here...So many more will become refugees. And the above Arabs' victims' list is by no means complete. Just ask native Christian, Semitic but pre-Arab Lebanese - as just one other example. The hypocrisy of the conquering, racist, and subjugating Arab League is nauseating enough. That the latter, however, is widely supported in its demands on Israel by much of the rest of the world should be appalling to anyone with any semblance of fair play. I thought Dubya knew better. Unfortunately, despite his comments last April to the contrary, it now looks like I was wrong...a cruel April Fool's joke, indeed, played on Mr. Sharon and his tiny, vulnerable country as well. Despite all of the international pressure on it to consent to becoming a reincarnated 1938 Czechoslovakia, ready to sacrifice itself for another "peace for all time," Israel must now muster the strength to do what it must do. The only appropriate response of Israel to all of this should be to counter offer the Arab League peace for peace - not consent to slowly being eroded via the Arabs' openly admitted "Trojan Horse" destruction in stages plans. And it must free itself from the belief that it must allow Arabs to determine the rules of the road if widespread violence erupts again. Abbas' folks have said that they would support quiet only as long as Israel continues to cave in to all of their demands. And they're the "moderates." Millions upon millions of non-Arabs became refugees because of the Arabs. Many of these people fled to America, Great Britain, Germany, and elsewhere. They're not returning to those "Arab" lands. Likewise, Arabs will have to take care of their own refugees - created in a war that they started and far fewer in number - in the same manner. The occupied territories Amr Musa mostly speaks of are disputed lands - not purely "Arab." Jews had as much or more rights to be on those lands as Arabs had. Much has been written about this, UN Resolution 242 indirectly addressed this, and leading experts such as Eugene Rostow, William O'Brien, Arthur Goldberg, Lord Caradon, and others have been quite vocal on these matters as well. Jews have a word describing demands such as those made by Amr Musa. It's called chutzpah. Israel must have leaders who will respond to such so-called Arab prerequisites for "peace" by telling them where to stuff them. Gerald A. Honigman, a Florida educator, has created and conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly debated Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been published in both the print media and on websites. To Go To Top

WASH-POST'S TUNNEL VISION ON JERUSALEM Posted by Eric Rozenman, March 24, 2005.

The Washington Post's March 22 article, "Israeli Settlement To Reach Jerusalem; Palestinians Say Plan Violates 'Road Map,'" by correspondent Molly Moore, continues the newspaper's one-sided, negative reporting about construction of housing for Jews in and near the capital. Palestinians' megaphone Moore writes that "the expansion of Maleh Adumim - the West Bank's largest Jewish settlement with 30,000 residents - is part of an Israeli government plan known as E-1, which anti-settlement activists have called the final step in sealing off Palestinians living in the West Bank from north and east Jerusalem. The development is also part of a plan to cordon off Jerusalem's Old City and its disputed holy sites." 1) Moore quotes critics of the plan. She does not quote supporters or experts who are not critical. One of them, former Jerusalem city planner Israel Kimhi, now at the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, specializes in Jewish and Arab growth in the municipality. He calls allegations that Israeli construction around the capital, including the E-1 area (about 4 square miles), will isolate Arabs in Jerusalem from the West Bank "quite exaggerated." Kimhi adds that the E-1 property is state land, not private property, and no Arabs will be displaced. In fact, according to Kimhi, without such building in E-1, Arab construction might "cordon off" Jewish neighborhoods on the northern and eastern arc of the city from western Jerusalem and the rest of Israel. 2) Moore writes that "construction of 3,500 new homes [in E-1 adjacent to Ma'ale Adumim] for Jewish settlers ... would link the largest settlement in the West Bank to Jerusalem." Ma'ale Adumim, a bedroom suburb just three miles east of the Old City, already is linked to the capital functionally, many residents commuting between the two each day. E-1 development is to prevent it from being separated physically. 3) The viewpoint of Moore's dispatch is unbalanced. It's overwhelmingly that of unnamed "anti-settlement activists" - perhaps the same two Israeli sources relied on for previous Post "exposes" about Jewish residential growth around Jerusalem - and Palestinians. Former Arafat spokesman and chief negotiator Saeb Erekat is quoted charging that "If they carry out this scheme, they're going to be shutting the door for peace" and that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is "abandoning negotiation" for "facts on the ground." Except for a generality by Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin terming E-1 expansion necessary "for strategic importance," the development is not explained from an official Israeli perspective. 4) Moore asserts that "the final status of Jerusalem and access to its holy sites are among the most contentious issues dividing Palestinians and Israelis, who both claim the city as their capital." Israel has assured access to Christian and Muslim, as well as Jewish holy sites, in Jerusalem ever since reuniting the city in 1967. So access to holy sites is not an issue; Arab-Islamic denial of Jewish religious and historical ties to Jerusalem is, but goes unmentioned. Israel does not claim Jerusalem as its capital, Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish state. The president, prime minister, legislature, supreme court and most government agencies are headquartered there. Palestinian Arabs demand some or all of the city as the capital of a state they hope to establish. Israeli and Arab positions on Jerusalem are not equivalent claims. Biased by omission Key facts missing from "Israeli Settlement To Reach Jerusalem" include: * Arabs are engaged in large-scale building in eastern Jerusalem, both legal and illegal. Arab construction has actually occurred at a faster rate than Jewish building since 1967. Kimhi, in "Arab Building in Jerusalem: 1967 - 1997," noted that Arab housing construction in Jerusalem grew at a rate of 122 percent, compared to 113.5 percent for Jewish construction. Justus Reid Weiner of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (author of "Illegal Construction in Jerusalem; A Variation on an Alarming Phenomenon" ), has documented a wave of illegal Arab building in the city, subsidized by the Palestinian Authority and other Arab governments, despite the fact that Israeli authorities have issued housing permits to more than meet the Arabs' housing needs. This frantic pace of illegal construction continues despite the fact that the city has authorized more than 36,000 permits for new housing units in the Arab sector, more than enough to meet the needs of Arab residents through legal construction until 2020. * Illegal [Arab] construction has reached epidemic proportions. A senior Palestinian official boasted that they have built 6,000 homes without permits during the last 4 years, of which less than 200 were demolished by the city. * During the last few years, the great majority of illegal structures demolished by the Jerusalem Municipality were in the Jewish sector. * The Palestinian Authority and Arab governments have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in an intentional campaign to subsidize and encourage massive illegal construction in the Arab sector, seeing this as part of their "demographic war" against Israel. Eric Rozenman is the Camera's Washington office representative. His essay on the two-state proposal is a classic; see "Anatomy of an Illusion: The Israeli-Palestinian Two-State Solution", http://www.think-israel.org/rozenmanillusion.html The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) monitors the news and TV media for how fair they are in reporting on Israel. The website address is www.camera.org. To Go To Top

A FAREWELL TO ZIONISM Posted by Yashiko Sagamori, March 24, 2005.

My readers know what a totally peaceful person I am. Whenever a conflict allows a non-violent solution, at least in theory, I am all for it. My older brother is a different kind of a guy. That's why I find it difficult to explain the phenomenon he told me about when we were both still attending junior high. According to my brother, if you beat someone up, he will keep trying to greet you first every time he happens to run into you, even if you never respond to his greetings. It doesn't matter whether the beaten deserved the beating or whether the beater defended a righteous cause. Regardless of all accompanying circumstances, the beating instills a great respect for the beater both in the beaten and the witnesses. This could be a manifestation of the Stockholm syndrome. It's very important to remember that the winner, along with all the other spoils, wins the admiration of the public, while the loser's lot is utter contempt, which will inevitably only become stronger if, in all fairness, the loser should have won. Older Russian immigrants, who during the Six Day War still lived in their old country, told me how that war was reflected in the Soviet media. During the weeks leading to the war, the papers wrote of the righteous wrath of the Arab masses against the malignant Zionist entity. Without details (loose lips sink ships), they informed their readers of the movement of Egyptian and Syrian armies towards the Israeli borders. Every commentator impatiently predicted the imminent demise of the odious country. During the first couple of days after the war finally began, it looked like it was progressing as planned. The papers described unstoppable advances of the Arab armies and hasty, cowardly retreat of the Zionists. Israel's collapse was imminent. Then the war suddenly disappeared from the front pages, replaced by more urgent matters, mostly the unprecedented successes of Soviet agriculture and heavy industry. Any day now, the Soviet Union was expected to produce more milk and meat per capita than the United States, and that, of course, was more important news than whatever Arabs were at the moment doing to Israel. Meanwhile, the Voice of America and BBC painted a very different picture of current events in the Middle East. Poisoned by enemy propaganda, some Soviet citizens were passing along vicious rumors of the devastating defeat that was dealt to the Arabs. Eventually, the papers had to admit that the enemy voices had told the truth that time. The Soviet people learned that Israel treacherously, without reason or warning, attacked peaceful, defenseless Arab farmers and dispatched them like a national hockey team would dispatch the varsity team of a boarding school for the blind. Sudden funerel notes suddenly penetrated the perennial optimism of the offivial news. Commentators solemnly promised that sooner or later the Jewish Nazis would have to pay a terrible price for their crimes. In the meantime, however, Tel Aviv and Haifa temporarily remained in the possession of the Zionist aggressors. It was unheard of: Israel, a totally unnecessary country the size of a sparrow's beak, populated with people famous for their cowardice and trickery in commerce, defeated an enemy that not only outnumbered it many times over, but was brainwashed, armed, and trained by the invincible Soviet Union. Cases had been reported where representatives of ethnic majorities with nothing but pure Slavic blood and a tad of alcohol in their veins approached Jewish strangers in grocery stores and other public places to express their admiration for the Israeli victory. And even though most of them didn't use the words victory or admiration, referring instead to kicking those curly-haired butts, their meaning nevertheless was perfectly clear. As always, even those who disliked the winners were showing their sincere respect. The beginning of the mass exodus of Jews from the USSR was yet another unprecedented phenomenon in the Soviet history, and it was not synchronized with the Six Day War by sheer coincidence. The Soviet policy towards Soviet Jewry had always vacillated between cultural genocide and physical genocide. Most of the time it was almost entirely cultural, but as we can see from the Doctor's Case and the mysterious transformation of Birobijan into the Jewish Autonomous Region, physical genocide was never entirely off the table. Hebrew, the oldest still viable language on the planet, was declared officially dead. According to the definition concocted by Lenin (whose maternal grandfather was a rabbi), Jews constituted not a nation, but an unnecessary ethnicity. Soviet Jews themselves perceived Israel as a foreign country that had absolutely nothing to do with them, like Togo or French Guiana. Israel's victory in the Six Day War demonstrated to Soviet Jews that they had a very good reason to be proud of their Jewishness; that no matter where they lived, Israel was their native land; and, gradually, they came to the realization that they were not some obscure tribe, but a great, even if not numerous, ancient nation that had an inalienable right to self-determination. And the understanding of the Jews' inalienable right to self-determination constitutes the very basis of Zionism, regardless of the opinions on that subject held by Herzl, Jabotinsky, and even the UN. Future historians may disagree with my conclusion that Israel's victory in the Six Day War put the first crack in the cast-iron monolith of the Soviet Union. Of course, the aftereffects of the arms race and personal contribution by President Reagan shouldn't be underestimated. And yet, don't forget how it started: the Russians armed the Arabs against the Jews, and the Jews refused to yield; thirty years later, Israel was still there, but the Soviet Union was no more. Ironically, the very first thing Israel did after winning the war with the Arabs was to lay the foundation of its future defeat by them. That was easy: instead of reclaiming Gaza, Judea, and Samaria and removing their hostile population, Israel turned them into a festering wound that could never be healed. There is no doubt that decisive, righteous actions by Israel would have inevitably caused an international outcry. Israel would have been accused of illegal occupation of foreign territories and eviction of billions of innocent Arabs from the land where their ancestors had lived millions of years before 1948 when the word Israel was first invented by the worst enemies of humanity, the Zionists. Frankly, even I find it difficult to judge Israeli leaders for such a decision. Gas chambers and crematoriums had been rusting unused for more than two decades. The Holocaust had become a thing of the past, more and more distant with every passing day. Burning shame for the senseless murder of millions of Jews had forever cured all civilized nations of anti-Semitism. If only Jews behaved, all the people of the world, thanks to the innate goodness of every human being, would feel nothing but love and well-deserved respect for the Jews. Wolves and lambs would peacefully, although for no apparent reason, lie together, and there would be peace on earth and good will in all men - pardon me! - persons. And as you all know, this was exactly what Jews had been dreaming about ever since Moses herded them out of Mizraim. And Israel, almost breathless from its own noble generosity, allowed its mortal enemy to stay on its land. Putting myself in the shoes of the Israeli leaders of that time, I understand how difficult it was then to imagine that this sacrifice would prove to be in vain; that it would not prevent fellow humans from wrathful protests against the illegal Israeli occupation of the lands that used to belong to Arabs long before the last dinosaur disappeared from the face of the earth. It was hard to see that, unlike the dinosaurs, anti-Semitism has not disappeared and will not disappear as long as at least one Jew and one goy remain alive; that peace-loving humanity will continue to suffer terribly from the unresolved Jewish problem until the final solution is finally found and implemented. And yet, they were elected to lead. They should have known. In our times, every commentator writing about the Middle East considered it his or her sacred duty to refer to Arafat's death as the beginning of a new era in the "peace process". This is such a terrible nonsense! Today, anyone can predict the future of the "peace process". Led by Mahmud Abbas, the "Palestinians" will matter-of-factly, without thanks, accept everything Sharon, hoping to delay the demise of his country, offers to them. Then they will say they want more and produce another list of demandslist. And another. And another. If Israel tries to object, a new intifada will follow, and Zionist atrocities against the defenseless "Palestinians" will stoke the usual wrath of the international community against the Jewish state, while blown-up busses and Jewish kids and pregnant women shot point-blank by Arabs will fail to provoke even mild interest. Determined to live in peace, the planet will once again stand behind the Arabs. The choice Israel is facing - to destroy the enemy or be destroyed - will become even more obvious. In theory, there is a possibility that this desperate situation will produce a courageous leader who will say that after six decades of unsuccessful attempts to achieve peace with the Arabs, Israel is implementing a policy of uncompromising self-defense. There is a clear chance that the international community will, in response, try to kill Israel for its refusal to lie down and die. I don't think, however, that is the most likely scenario. The world will be choking on its hatred of Jews, and the stench will reach the sky, but their hatred will be diluted by the inevitable and well-deserved respect for the winner. Of course, I hope that Israel will survive as a country, even if the rest of the species will treat Israel the Polish peasants treated Jewish innkeepers. This is much better than the exhibition of trophies of yet another global pogrom in the museums of the future Holocaust. And yet, if Israel is not destined to survive, I hope it dies the way the Jews of Warsaw did rather than the rest of the six million victims of the last Holocaust. I will not attempt to predict what will happen after the land given by God to the Jews is surrendered to their enemies. Probably, the United States and Europe will decide to punish the Arabs for the new Holocaust, and Israel will continue to exist in the same form in which it existed from the destruction of the Second Temple until 1948 - as an amorphous community of people united by universal hatred towards them, the Torah, and the impractical dream of Jerusalem. It's also possible that the death of Israel will accelerate the Islamization of the planet, and, within a couple of generations, space explorations, beaches, antibiotics, good wine, particle physics, and other things Muslims have no use for will survive only in China. In any case, it's perfectly obvious that God, as He always does, will curse those who curse us; but, also as always, it won't help us. Yashiko Sagamori is a New York-based Information Technology consultant. To read other articles by the author, go to http://www.middleeastfacts.com/yashiko/ or email ysagamori@hotmail.com To Go To Top

MOTHER RACHEL WEEPS. WOMEN PRAY Posted by Rachel Saperstein, March 24, 2005.

Four Rachels sat in one row in the synagogue. I was one of them. Once again "mother Rachel weeps for her children." Today is the Fast of Esther, the day before Purim. Purim is the day of miracles. The day the evil decree to kill the Jews of Persia by Prime Minister Haman was annulled. How fitting that the women of Gush Katif gathered together to beg the Almighty to annul the evil decree of expulsion by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Charged with emotion, we were told that the same prayers were being said at that hour by women in Israel and abroad. The prayers were simple: "Please G-d, save not only Gush Katif but the whole of Israel. For as we see, if Gush Katif falls so will Judea and Samaria fall." We read the special prayer for Gush Katif by the former Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rav Mordechai Eliyahu. We read Psalms reminding us that it is the Lord who makes decrees, and not mortals. One theme seemed to permeate each prayer: this year, with the threat of expulsion of Jews from Eretz Yisrael, an amazing phenomenon occurred. Suddenly, we grew in stature, we the people of Gush Katif. Instead of us being torn apart we brought all of Israel together. We realized we cannot take our beloved land for granted. We must never fail in our commitment to our Land. We heard the shofar blown long and loud. We wept with emotion because we had never heard the shofar blown on the Fast of Esther. Only in times of deep distress is the shofar blown. Today we blew the shofar. Then, woman came up individually to recite personal prayers that they had composed. Speaking through tears and sobs, one after another reminded the Almighty that we had obeyed His command to settle the land of Israel. We had planted each tree, flower and vegetable to bring glory to His holy land. We beseeched him to remember us and to show His rachamim, His mercy, so that we could continue to stay here and carry out His mitzvoth on His sacred land. There are several places in the Bible where it is said the Almighty was prepared to destroy the Jews, but spared them because of the merit of the women of Israel." May that merit again be invoked. May the Almighty grant us our wish. Rachel Saperstein and her husband Moshe live in Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif, Gaza, Israel. She is a teacher at the Neve Dekalim ulpana and a spokeswoman for the Katif Regional Council. To Go To Top

WHY SYRIA LOVES LEBANON Posted by IsrAlert, March 24, 2005.

This appeared in http://www.geostrategy-direct.com, an organization that provides "cutting edge intelligence." Why Syria loves Lebanon: Billions in skimmed revenues, Bekaa Valley's drug paradise, top-secret WMD tunnels President Bashar Assad loves little Lebanon because he and his cronies have been sucking their neighbor dry for years. Lebanon feeds billions of dollars into Assad's coffers that allows him to resist Western sanctions and maintain power. Assad inherited this revenue stream, U.S. officials said. His late father, Hafez, created the system. First, Lebanon has been a drug paradise for the Assad regime. The Bekaa Valley, heavily guarded by Iranian and Syrian troops, contains one of the largest drug operations in the world. Laboratories in Baalbek and other towns in the Bekaa take opium from Afghanistan and convert it into heroin. From there, the cut-grade heroin is shipped to Europe and Africa. Assad junior also runs one of the largest counterfeiting operations in the world. Want a fake dollar bill? The Bekaa makes the best $50 and $100 bills - perfect for crime syndicates and governments that can't afford real U.S. currency. Lebanon has also been the haven for Arab investment, particularly from Saudi Arabia. For the Saudis, Lebanon represents a summer haven where they can rest on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean and live a secret Western lifestyle. Assad provides the security for the Saudis and he is handsomely rewarded. Assad takes a hefty cut of virtually every government project in Lebanon. The cut involves cash for government concessions as well as guarantees that Syrian labor will be used. Assad also obtains a cut of the salary of each of the more than 1 million Syrians working in Lebanon. The Syrian president also rents space in Lebanon to Iran and terrorist groups. Those needing to train in Lebanon or Syria, of course, pay a fee to use Lebanon for exercises - whether in southern Lebanon or the Bekaa Valley. The result is that everybody from Chechens, Algerians and even Al Qaida operatives use this terrorist resort. The Bekaa Valley also contains the darkest of Syria's secrets, including Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. More than a few U.S. officials are convinced that Iraq brought convoys of medium-range missiles and WMD warheads to Syria at the end of 2002 and early 2003 - on the eve of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Some of the WMD stayed in Syria. Most were regarded as too hot to handle, even for Assad. The material was stored in tunnels in the Bekaa Valley. Given this, it is clear why Syria wants advanced SA-18 anti-aircraft system from Russia. Syria wants low-signature surface-to-air missiles to prevent any Israeli or U.S. air raid over the Bekaa Valley. Damascus has heavy anti-aircraft systems for inside Syria. But to bring these Soviet-origin weapons into Lebanon would present a juicy target for any Western military. Harv Weiner, a businessman in Dallas, Texas, is the founder and moderator of Isralert. To subscribe to IsrAlert, send an email to isralert@aol.com To Go To Top

DON'T TRUST SHARON'S PROMISES Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 24, 2005.

It has been reported that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised the so-called Likud rebels not to carry out additional withdrawals after Gaza and North Samaria deportations - unless in a framework of peace talks with Palestinians. This statement comes from a quintessential liar who even exceeds Shimon Peres in "double-speak". Clearly, his reply had the deft touch of Dov Weisglass in drafting this twisty promise with all those drafty, back door escape clauses. As he has done before, Sharon simply ignores his promises and does as he pleases. He ran his election and won 60% to 40% on positions totally opposite what he is now doing. He totally ignored the 60-40 vote in the Likud Party Central Committee against uprooting 9000 Jewish men, women and children. He fired two Cabinet members to get a vote passed for the evacuations. Sharon is undemocratically manipulating the IDF so there will be fewer soldiers imbued with religious dedication to the Land. Sharon is trying to reconfigure the IDF to change the higher percent of Orthodox (40%) to secular (30%) - with 60% Orthodox soldiers in elite units. Now, one in every two soldiers enrolled in the officers training program is said to wear a Kipah. Sharon has proposed withdrawing funding for the hesder Yeshiva programs where a soldier serves five years while learning in Yeshiva. On March 20 men wearing Kipahs were not allowed to attend the ceremony where Sharon spoke commemorating the 56 years since Eilat became part of the State of Israel. As he has done before, Sharon simply ignores his promises, the votes of his own Party and Cabinet. He just does as he pleases. Perhaps he will start the evacuations and/or purge under the guise of negotiating with Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) while accepting the marching orders most recently dictated to him by Elliott Abrams, an official of the U.S. National Security Council and David Welch, Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East. Saeb Erekat, a PA negotiator, is pressuring Abrams and Welch to officially deny Israel the right to build 3,500 new housing units in Ma'ale Adumim, the eastern most suburb of Jerusalem. This plan was initiated by PM Rabin after Oslo in 1993, to ensure Israeli control over the eastern slopes of Jerusalem up to Ma'aleh Adumim, 5 kilometers east of the capital. Sharon, I would not trust you with any promise or the family's silverware. That you are an inveterate liar, you have proven beyond any shadow of doubt. That your are untrustworthy in keeping commitments or contracts with your own people, that too you have made abundantly obvious. If any of those you call Likud Rebels take your word for anything, then they too are too inexperienced in dealing with you or in running the nation. If they have not come to understand that you are a creature or a Golem, manipulated by foreign masters, then they are too gullible to lead the opposition. As for those illegally ordered by the Sharon government to carry out the expulsions and who do not outright refuse such illegal orders, they should be notified as follows: In a document each officer should be advised that accepting and carrying out illegal orders, they will under another government in the future, be prosecuted for crimes against the Jewish people. That accepting prior orders (by you PM Sharon or Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz) will not be mitigating. They will be charged, indicted and imprisoned for their specific roles under the return to prior law. Punishment would vary from imprisonment to loss of rank, loss of retirement benefits and other specific punishments. Politicians who failed to protect their people and succumbed to threats in order to keep their political seats, perks and privileges would be dismissed and would thereafter be barred from any public office with forfeit of retirement benefits. These notices would be either hand-delivered in the field and mailed in duplicate. If possible, a Public Notice would be displayed on billboards and posted in the newspapers. Since Sharon has notified the residents of Gush Katif and Northern Samaria (as well as the rest of YESHA) of his intentions, it is only proper that he and all Military officers, Police officers should be similarly notified as to the risks they are taking in fulfilling illegal orders. Sharon has exceeded the authority that any Prime Minister or other Government official has. The authority vested in all such officials is only temporary custody of the Land and People of Israel - to protect them both. A new government can and must reverse Sharon's draconian decisions and punish those who acted to carry them out. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

RESTORING DEMOCRACY TO ISRAEL Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 24, 2005.

Many of us watch in horror as the Government of Israel launches into a self-destruct mode. Only the outer wrap of democracy remains of what can only be described as Jewish fascists in the Sharon Government eat away any semblance of law or respect for the people of Israel. Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon's dictatorial plan of forced "Disengagement" will engender a hatred by disenfranchised Jews for decades. Those who use the true, honored methods of protest are being treated by the Sharon regime as enemies of the Jewish State. Some already have been arrested under false pretenses; some beaten with serious injuries by their fellow Jews, called Police. Their hospital records were mysteriously "mislaid". We observe a hand picked Attorney General Menachem (Mendi) Mazuz, not only protecting Sharon from criminal charges on several issues but Mazuz has been used as point man as a political shill for Sharon and foreign interests. If a Peoples' Court were convened, there would be a veritable parade of politicians, appointees, black-robed judges of the activist Supreme Court and more on trial. These people have eviscerated honest government and abused their power of office. Attorney General Mofaz in collaboration with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, has issued orders to punish - in the extreme - any soldiers and/or officers who have refused what they believed are illegal orders to forcibly remove Jews from their homes. Worse yet, they have turned half of the people of Israel against the other half, using the warped idea that, by selling out their brothers, they will be made safer. We all recall the defense offered by German soldiers and officers: "I was just following orders." Would these Germans only have refused what they knew to be illegal orders, we would not have suffered a genocide. Sharon has approved the removal of name tags on Police and Special Military Units (an illegal act) to avoid charges of Police/Military brutality. The Media, even private photographers and videographers, will be barred as Sharon unleashes his Transfer Legions. Is this the decency of a Jewish nation? I think not. A JEWISH AND DEMOCRATIC STATE Are these orders to uproot, evict, transfer Jewish men, women and children from their homes, schools, farms, land, synagogues, businesses and even their cemeteries acceptable in any written or verbal Jewish statement of laws for the Jewish and Democratic State? Obviously not. Our Torah scholars must publicize the complete list of Jewish laws about to be broken, but anyone who reads the Bible will know that the Land was promised to the Jewish people by G-d as far back as Abraham and repeated often within the Tanach. G-d's order to King Saul to kill all the Amalekites was broken by him and, therefore, he lost his King's crown. Why is Sharon attacking Jews and not the Amalekites who have attached themselves to the Jewish Land? Gaza had a strong Jewish history back into Biblical times and forward into modern times. Gaza was never a Muslim or Arab inheritance. RESTORING DEMOCRACY AND UNALTERED LAW Is it not time for honest Likudniks and yes, even Labor Left in its earliest form to say "Stop, Mr. Sharon!"?...That your draconian policies are those of a dictator misusing the office of Prime Minister and the Courts. Why haven't those whom Sharon called "Rebels of Likud" stated plainly that they are ready to replace the Sharon government and return to basic democracy and even decency? That upon replacing Sharon, Ehud Olmert, Shaul Mafuz, Shimon Peres, among others - they will reverse the dictatorial and onerous ruling of the Army under Defense Secretary Shaul Mofaz and the activist Supreme Court under Aharon Barak. All those punished for standing up for the peoples' rights would be exonerated and their status returned to them. Public servants, soldiers, those engaged in legal civil disobedience would be reinstated to whatever position lost under Sharon's heavy handed regime. This should be one of the political contracts the new government should pledge to the people in new elections. I would also remind public servants, namely the Police and Military that, using excessive and brutal force would be considered a criminal act under any new Government and return to democratic sanity. This is a remarkable opportunity to separate from Sharon's "Disengagement" policies of bringing a Terrorist nation within easy firing range of every city and person in Israel. The Jewish nation was supposed to be a "Light Unto the Nations" of the world - not another dark sub-culture, driven by one man. ### "IDF ISSUES FIRST DIRECT ORDERS REGARDING REFUSENIKS" by Ha'aretz Staff March 16, 2005 The Israel Defense Forces has, for the first time, issued direct orders regarding officers and soldiers who refuse to evacuate settlements under the disengagement plan, Army Radio said Tuesday. Head of the Personnel Directorate, Major General Elazar Stern sent out a letter to senior commanders in the IDF, stating explicitly how to deal with refuseniks. According to Stern's letter, a soldier who announces he intends to refuse orders will be given the chance to renounce his refusal and report to his officers that he has changed his stance. Soldiers who fail to do so will lose their position in the army. Any soldier who directly refuses orders or calls for others to refuse, risks being ousted from a commanding position, and may be stripped of his ranks under the new orders. "Refusal on the right and left threatens the very existence of the IDF and the existence of Israel as Jewish and Democratic state," Stern writes in his letter. "We must remember that we are brother, before the disengagement, during it and after it," Stern says. Military officials said in an interview with Army Radio that the letter must not be interpreted as a sign that there is a widespread problem of refusal in the ranks of the IDF. ***** A PERSONAL COMMENT by E. Winston on Ha'aretz article above When Stern uses or rather misuses the term, that we are brothers, he ignores having the Left programmed to demonize the settlers who indeed are their brothers. When their true brothers at the front lines are forced to withdraw and the Kassem rockets, mortars, and Katyusha rockets start to fall on Tel Aviv from their closer firing position, only then will the Left in Tel Aviv regret their self-serving bias. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). To Go To Top

JEWISH CAMPAIGNER'S POSTER IN MOSQUES Posted by David Ha'ivri, March 24, 2005.

This is a news item from the Jerusalem Post Online: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/ JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111634308199 Arabic posters have been erected on the Temple Mount and in various mosques with the picture of an ultra-nationalist Israeli activist who is trying to bring thousands of Jews to the bitterly-contested holy site in protest over the unilateral withdrawal plan from Gaza, eyewitnesses said Thursday. The pictures of David Ha'Ivri, which went up earlier this week but were subsequently taken down, have also appeared in several mosques in east Jerusalem as well as in Israeli-Arab towns, the eyewitnesses said. Both Jerusalem Police and the Wakf director Adnan Husseini said Thursday that they were unaware of any such posters, and it was not immediately clear who erected them. Earlier this week, Jerusalem Police announced that they would bar a massive Jewish pilgrimage to the Temple Mount by a group of ultra-nationalists opposed to the planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Palestinians officials have denounced the campaign as a provocation, and have warned that such a visit could lead to a renewal of violence at the Temple Mount. Police said they had notified Islamic Wakf officials of their stance, and that the site would only be open to regular visits of smaller groups and individuals, all of whom undergo a security screening check before entry. The campaign, which is being organized by Ha'Ivri and is slated to be launched on April 10 to coincide with the eve of the Hebrew month of Nissan? ============================================================= "We're talking about our civil and religious right to have access to the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount is the single holiest place in the world for Jews. It's time the Israeli government restores control to the rightful owners - the Jewish people." David Ha'ivri "Israel bans Temple Mount ascent of 10,000 Jews Says it would allow thousands of Muslims," http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43426 "Jewish group plans al-Aqsa march," http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/650D32A1-B701-4132-9830-65AA1DB1C4ED.htm Contact David Ha'ivri at haivri@hameir.org or by phone in U.S. at 212-561-5924 and in Israel at 03-906-0875. Revava English website: http://revava.org/index.php To Go To Top

REGARDING ACADEMIC TRUTH AND FREEDOM AT DEPAUL UNIVERSITY Posted by Avraham Weissman, March 24, 2005.

John B. Simon President DePaul University Trustees - and - Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, President, DePaul University Gentlemen: I urge you direct your attention to the issue of academic freedom with regard to Professor Thomas Klocek's right to freedom of speech. In Professor Klocek's case he is in fact expressing views that - while factually accurate are unacceptable because they are considered politically incorrect in your academic environment, influenced as it is by an assortment of anti-Semitic, "pro-Palestinian Arab," Palestinian elements and social tendencies. The same ignorance of facts and lack of historical accuracy can also often be found in media reporting about the Middle East, - some examples of which I cite and quote below - taken from two letters that I wrote recently. I think they are very pertinent in this particular case. The first - "I am in agreement with what your Samuel Katz's article (printed in the Jerusalem Post,) had to say. However, he might have made his case more strongly had he reminded the public that "jihad" (with the exception of Sufi Islam) is an acknowledged major religious obligation of the mainstream branches of Islam - and to which historians who have written about Islam attest. For example, in his book The Holy Sword (Collier Books), by Robert Payne, Payne writes - "For the Muhamadan the jihad, or "holy war" has become an essential element of the faith; all of Islam would have to be turned upside down if the doctrine were eliminated." (Page 102, second paragraph from the bottom). No wonder then that Moslems are unable to accept a non-Moslem state in the heart of the Middle East where Islam was born. Islam divides the world into two areas - "Dar al-Islam" or the area where Islam dominates; the other (remaining) areas where Islam does not hold "sway," are referred to as "Dar al-harb," the arena of (holy) war. "... I wonder if the government of Israel really have the right to place the lives of its citizens at risk for nothing more than the "hudna" or temporary cease fire that they are being offered - while Abu Mazen insists that he will not take up arms against the various dissident terrorist organizations (including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al Aksa Martyr's Brigades) that operate in the areas of Gaza and the "West Bank." A quick look at some relatively recent past history - will show that the Saddam Hussein's Iraqi war vs. Moslem Mullah run Iran featured the extensive use of 14, 15 and 16 year olds by both sides and the media reported that approximately 1 and 1/2 million of them were killed in that war! So, anyone really interested enough to do some basic research would realize - that the use of teen age children is part of Moslem jihadi culture. In addition, one must remember that the typical Palestinian (armed) terrorists are civilians themselves. The second - "Not long ago AP published an article by Lara Sukhtian and Josef Federman headlined - "Count shows Mideast fighting has killed 514 Palestinians and 97 Israelis aged 16 or under." the article implies that the Israelis are at least "mostly" at fault - and offers as evidence the fact that many more Palestinian Arab civilians and children have been killed, than Israeli civilians and children.. "The important point that both the AP article (and Arnold Roth's reply) fails to mention however is - that using children and civilians for terrorism has been part and parcel of the Palestinian Authority's 'modus operandi" - their deliberate policy, - and therefore there should be little if any surprise that Palestinian children are killed when Israel fights Palestinian terrorism (more accurately known as "jihad," which is a part and parcel of much of mainstream Moslem culture and religious values)..For that very reason the AP's comparison, its "equivalency formula" between Palestinian and Israeli casualties is totally false, misleading and harmful to all those interested in living in peace - whether Palestinian Arab or Israeli..Palestinian Arab militants, or to use a more straight forward term - "terrorists" - often fire from behind teenage stone throwers - hoping for some propaganda advantage when 1 or more of their teen age pals is killed in the "return fire." Furthermore, the stone throwers also often throw Molotov cocktails or firebombs - lethal weapons in anyone's book - but the newsmen rarely tell you about that. I have in fact seen them do it. In addition AP and other news reporters and stringers in the Arab areas are often Arab Palestinians themselves, some of them even members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or the Al Aksa Brigades, from whom no fair news reporting can really be expected. "The perpetrator-terrorists that fired the mortars or rockets aimed at Israeli civilian targets may very well have been teen agers themselves who had been brainwashed into believing that terrorism and murder are admirable activities. Certainly a regular armed force made up of uniformed, disciplined personnel - could and would have prevented the presence of civilians and children within a field they were operating from - or they would not have been there in the first place. And what about parental responsibility. What responsible parent allows their children to play in fields from which mortars or rockets have been fired a few minutes or even a 1/2 hour or so earlier. "The Palestinian Authority's permitting civilian armed groups to circulate and operate unhindered in areas under their control - is in fact, a very large part of the problem!" In any case, your treatment of Professor Klocek and his political opinions are hardly worthy of an academic institution such as yours - and are more of what one would expect in the dictatorships and news managing governments invariably common in the Arab world. Very truly, Avraham Weissman 33 Degel Reuven Petach Tiqvah, 49551 Israel Avraham Weissman can be reached by email at avna@bezeqint.net To Go To Top

WANTED: MODERN DAY MORDECHAIS AND ESTHERS Posted by Voice of Judea, March 23, 2005.

The Israeli army reportedly wants to off-set the preponderance of religious troops in its combat units. Maariv said Thursday that the top brass are seeking ways of boosting the number of secular youths conscripted into the ground forces, whose ranks are now 30 percent to 40 percent Orthodox. The religious representation is even higher in elite units - 60 percent in the Givati Brigades reconnaisance company, which is very active in the Gaza Strip - while one in every two soldiers enrolled in the combat officer program is said to wear a yarmulke. According to Maariv, the new recruiting initiative is a matter of bringing the ranks more into line with the demographic breakdown of Israel as a whole, rather than an expression of concern over the political leanings of religious troops. The army declined comment. Voice of Judea Commentary: What fraud! Kibbutznikim represent a tiny percentage of the population and yet have always represented a disproportionate percentage of the IDF combat units and pilots. This smells and sounds like anti-Semitism. Does one need to hide their Yarmulke to advance in certain units? If this is how high-ranking officers speak openly, then what do they say and how do they act privately? Unfortunately, a very ugly form of racism and discrimination is promoted and encouraged not only by high-ranking IDF officers but also by the general Israeli media, Israeli courts and other bastions of the Israeli leftist elite. Last week, people wearing yarmulkes were not permitted to attend a lecture given by Sharon in Eilat. Ministers and Knesset members who to not bow to the party line 200 percent are replaced and smeared by the media. Bogee Yaalon, Israel's Chief of Staff testified before the Knesset Foreign and Defense Affairs Committee earlier this week saying that he was fired because of his political views. Moufaz, Israel's Defense Minister told Yaalon that he was releaving him of his duties because he did not think he fully supported the disengagement plan. Moufaz conceded that Yaalon was one of the finest Chief of Staffs Israel ever had and said that he has not one complaint against Yaalon other than the fact that he once voiced doubt about the disengagement plan. Ironically, Yaalon has given full backing to Sharon and has since showed complete loyalty to the plan. A successful Chief of Staff is being thrown out of the army, in spite of his support for the disengagement plan, because he once commented that he had his doubts about the plan. 2- WANTED: MODERN DAY MORDECHAIS AND ESTHERS PURIM IS NOT OVER JOIN THE MODERN DAY MORDECHAIS AND ESTHERS While it is incumbent upon every Jew to celebrate the festive holiday of Purim to commemorate the great and miraculous victory of the Jews over their enemies in ancient Persia, the battle for Jewish survival is not quite over. We would like to suggest to our readers, this Purim, to do more than just read the Book of Esther in the past tense but rather to address it as a guide for the present and the future. Our sages teach us that Purim is one of the few holidays that will remain, when Moshiach comes. No doubt, there is an absolute need to internalize the story of Purim and to learn the lessons to help us in our modern battle for Jewish survival. Where does one find modern day Mordechais? Where does one look for them? One can start looking for such heroes on the hills of Judea and Samaria and Gaza. There we can see regular, ordinary people just like you and I, who risk their lives to settle the holy land of Eretz Israel. It is on these beautiful hills where we can find the purist youth farming and building the land, in complete defiance of world opinion. These G-d fearing noble Jews could care less if their refusal to bow provokes or upsets the modern day Achashverosh - world leaders who seek to appease the modern day Hamans. We urge our readers to make a generous contribution now to the heroic volunteers of the Jewish Legion who have come to Israel from all over the world to defend these hills and "settlements". The canine unit of the Jewish Legion continues to provide service dogs and volunteers to needy towns in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. These guards dedicate their lives to protecting fellow Jews. Purim is a wonderful time to show them that we appreciate and support their vital life-saving endeavor. Please send a generous contribution to the Jewish Legion..Kfar Tapuach D.N. Efrayim, Israel, 44829. A 500 dollar contribution can help sponsor a volunteer and a specially trained canine service dog for 1 month. Volunteers are also needed. This Purim, would also be a great time to join the Jewish Legion for a year of voluntary service in Israel. The Jewish Legion offers housing, food, and the highest standard of canine defense training. The Jewish Legion also operates a yeshiva program for those who are interested in learning Hebrew and Torah. Visit www.defendisrael.net Donate now at http://www.defendisrael.net/donate.shtml 3- Fast of Esther Prayer Service to be Held at Prison Where Anti-Expulsion Activists Being Held 11:55 Mar 24, '05 / 13 Adar 5765 (IsraelNN.com) In a show of support for the youths still imprisoned for blocking roads an afternoon prayer service will be held at 2:30 PM opposite the prison where they are being held. The anti-expulsion activists are being held for at least six more days as part of an ongoing police investigation to try to identify the organizers of the road-blockings. The disruptions have repeatedly embarrassed police and security forces who say they "can't be everywhere at once." They are being held at Maasyahu Prison in Ramle. The prayer service is open to the public. Voice of Judea Commentary: How obscene and unjust to hold Jewish children in jail over the holidays, for days, without trial, for the minor offence of peaceful civil disobedience. What an outrage! There is more madness in a land that is rapidly turning into a Cookoo Land: The authorities went as far as to arrest the bus drivers who drove the kids to the protest. There is more. The Israeli Attorney General is pushing for a 20 year maximum sentence for political protesters who peacefully block traffic. In any democratic country in the world such criminals are given a slap on the wrist and a 50 dollar fine. Laws have been passed that could punish Jews who travel to Gush Katif to protest the expulsion of the Jews there, with grotesque 5 year prison terms. There is talk of stripping MK Eitam of his diplomatic immunity for the crime of moving to Gaza. Last week, a 53-year-old accountant from Netanya was arrested and had his legal weapon confiscated because he sent a fax to Sharon, condemning him for the disengagement plan and for writing that Sharon would burn in hell with Arafat for his treasonous behavior. Sharon is not only betraying Jewish and Zionist values, he is making a complete mockery out of the claim that Israel is a democracy. Israeli leaders are openly claiming that they plan on rounding up right wing activists to hold them without trial and without any charges under emergency administrative detention. Those arrested can be held for up to 5 months without ever being charged with any wrong doing other than holding the wrong political and religious views. We urge our readers to call Gideon Ezra, Israel's Minister of Police and Internal Affairs. Demand of him not to arrest good Jews under administrative detention: In Israel: 02 530 8500. From US 011-972-2-530-8500. 4- Group seeks to reclaim Israeli control of holy site JERUSALEM -- On Sunday April 10, 2005, the first day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, Revava-a grassroots Jewish organization-plans to bring 10,000 Jews to the heavily restricted Temple Mount to spark Israeli dialogue about reclaiming the holy site from its Muslim custodians. "We're talking about our civil and religious right to have access to the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount is the single holiest place in the world for Jews. It's time the Israeli government restores control to the rightful owners-the Jewish people." David Ha'ivri, Chairman of Revava www.revava.com for more info Subscribe to Voice of Judea emails by sending an email request to jsid@dorsai.org To Go To Top

SETTLERS DEFAMED; DECLARE THE STATE DEPT TERRORIST; WHY NOT RETALIATE? Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 24, 2005.

EUROPE'S "CONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE" The previous Spanish regime led the EU to assist the democratic opposition to Fidel Castro. Castro complained. One of his power plays is to refuse to repay his billion-dollar loans as to Spain, unless Spain appeases him. The new Spanish regime agreed to ignore Castro's opposition. It got the EU to switch to a policy of "constructive dialogue." The Czech republic prefers the EU to be forceful with Castro, a major violator of human rights. US policy on Cuba, once forceful, had been greatly compromised (Meghan Clyne, NY Sun, 3/18, p.7). The EU is for "constructive dialogue" with Saddam, Iran, and probably N. Korea. I don't know why it calls the dialogue "constructive." Nothing constructive has come out of it. By staving off forceful action, the EU lets certain dictators harm more people, increase their threat to other countries, and entrench themselves further. If the EU joined with the US in forceful policy, they could achieve much reform for the world. PRO-SYRIAN VIEW OF SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION The Grand Mufti of Lebanon asserted that Syria-Lebanon agreements take precedence over the Security Council Resolution mandating Syrian troop withdrawal from Lebanon (IMRA, 2/11). The Arabs constantly accuse Israel of violating UN resolutions, and claim it therefore is an outlaw state. The accusers fail to distinguish between resolutions that have the force of law and ones that are advisory. Israel does not violate the former. The Arabs do. In this case, the Grand Mufti is claiming that the Security Council Resolution does not bind Lebanon and Syria, when it is supposed to. There isn't the usual indignation in this case as there is in the charges against Israel of violating UNO resolutions. DEFAMATION OF SETTLERS The commander of IDF troops attempting to remove an unauthorized outpost claimed that the settlers tried to run him over. Israel radio later reported that an investigation determined that the officer had lied; the settlers drove away from him (IMRA, 2/11). Running over people and ramming into cars is an Arab tactic. Martin Peretz of "The New Republic" claimed that settlers tore down Arabs' olive trees, and lamented how terrible that was. He gave no specifics. Usually such claims either are fabricated by the Arab for Western suckers who believe Arab defamation of the settlers, or the trees are pruned to remove cover used by terrorists, or the Arabs illegally planted them on the Jews' property in order to claim the land for themselves. Peretz should be lamenting the murders by Arabs of Jews. The murders indeed are terrible. There is much defamation of settlers, because they represent genuine Judaism, Jewish nationalism, and Israeli defense against the world's inclination to put Israel down. LIFE IN FATAH-LAND Armed Arabs broke into a P.A. prison, and murdered three prisoners against whom death sentences had not been carried out. This is getting to be routine. Some of the attackers were arrested. Terrorists also shell Jewish communities extensively, despite the supposed ceasefire. Israeli residents of the targeted towns complained that PM Sharon's concessions to the Arabs made the shelling possible. (One such concessions is to stop examining cars for contraband. Hence rockets can be distributed to the launching squads.) Abbas fired about 20 police officials, apparently in reaction (IMRA, 2/11). One wonders who are the raiders? Are they part of Abbas' own gang? Are they subsidized by him, as they were by Arafat? DECLARE THE STATE DEPT. TERRORIST The State Dept. has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to the terrorist P.A., which teaches children to become human bombs. Therefore, the State Dept. is one of the main sponsors of terrorism. It should insert its own name on its list of state-sponsors of terrorism. Congress passes standards to rule out terrorism, but the Dept. falsely claims that the P.A. meets those standards. How unfortunate that the Dept. gets the US taxpayers to pay that bill! In its new scheme, it would unify the terrorist organizations in the P.A. into 2-3 efficient units. They would become a powerful terrorist force. This is not the first time that the US subsidized terrorists. The US trained bin Laden. The State Dept. long has been pro-Arab, to suit the oil companies. Before and even during WWII, some US companies were pro-Axis. The State Dept. and especially the CIA cooperated with Nazis. The new hundreds of millions of dollars that the US is short of but which Pres. Bush proposes to send the P.A., are likely to further help the terrorists. The P.A. has not shut off funding of them. The US claimed that the money went for infrastructure, not terrorism. However (as with Iraq over the UNO's oil for food program), the P.A. found ways to skim off large sums and charge taxes and fees that went for terrorism. Every ordinary business was assigned a terrorist partner without his investing in it. The State Dept. knew that much of the US aid went to employ terrorists or insure their families, but it did not inform Congress (Winston Mid East Analysis, 2/11). U.S. DOUBLE STANDARD ON PRISONERS? Sec. Rice asks Israel to be flexible (like a dishrag) about convicted Arab prisoners. Meanwhile, the US is rigidly inflexible about Pollard, who has served much longer for his sort of crime, which did the US no harm and saved many lives. One US official claimed that Pollard was being kept in prison so long as a bargaining chip with Israel. Then let Israel call in that chip and at least demand his release before it would free terrorists (IMRA, 2/10). Now that crime carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Pollard is in his 20th. WHY SHARON OPPOSES A REFERENDUM He says it would delay the abandonment plan by a year and it would engender hatred. He gave no evidence for either notion (IMRA, 2/10) nor why he was in a hurry for a plan he never justified. Even if a referendum took half a year, it would be warranted by the gravity of the subject. SHALL ARABS DECIDE ISRAEL'S FATE? The Right objected when the abandonment plan passed a crucial Knesset vote by one vote, that one coming from an Arab who previously had abstained. "Haaretz" thought that indicates that the Right, which complains that PM Sharon is not proceeding democratically, itself is not democratic in objecting to equal weight to an Arab's vote in Knesset (Foreign Ministry, 2/10). It does seem an anomaly to let the fate of thousands of Jews, perhaps of all of them, be sealed by the vote of the Arab fifth column that seeks to destroy any democracy there. THE CAIRO INTL. BOOK FAIR Egypt barred books and speakers calling for domestic democratic reform and books from Israel (IMRA, 2/11). US pundits included Egypt among the democratizing countries, because Pres. Mubarak said he might let somebody else (his son?) run for President, this time. Big deal! CAUSE-AND-EFFECT The leftist Yesh Gvul organization protests against the Israeli Army for killing some children, when it returns fire. The organization does not understand that international law holds the terrorists responsible for those deaths. It is simple logic. If the terrorists did not open fire from amidst the children, which is criminal, the children would be spared (Prof. Steven Plaut, 2/11, e-mail). If the Left criticized the criminal Arab tactics, the Arabs would find no advantage to risking their children. By not criticizing it, but in fact criticizing Israel when the Arabs utilize that tactic, the Left indirectly encourages terrorism. The Yesh Gvul logic must be that Israelis do not have the right to self-defense, but terrorists have the right to attack. It isn't children that Yesh Gvul cares about, or it would lament P.A. murders of Israeli children, often deliberate. It is that they hate fellow Israelis more. Pathetic, those far-leftists, self-imagined idealists! UNO ANTISEMITISM HARMS GENTILES The UNO long ago abandoned its mission to protect persecuted people, and instead has become a branch of jihad persecution of Israel. For example, a UNO headquarters display in December exaggerated the problems for Arabs of Israeli self-defense measures such as checkpoints. It omitted the problems that Arab terrorism, which is unacceptable, causes Israelis. There also was a display about AIDS, but it had only a fraction of the space devoted to the Arabs' false claims. The UNO has one division devoted to a single group, the UN Division for Palestinian Rights. The UNO has one website devoted to a single group's claim, the UN Info. System on the Question of Palestine. The UNO has one refugee agency, UNRWA, dedicated to a single group, the Palestinian Arabs. The only day set aside to commemorate a specific people is the Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. There was "'a minute of silence?for all those who have given their lives for the cause of the Palestinian people?' which would include suicide bombers." One of the UNO's six committees of the whole devotes 30% of its time to (unfairly) condemning Israel. UN Human Rights Commission resolutions are 30% against Israel and 0% against China, which oppresses a billion people. The emergency sessions are devoted mostly in behalf of the Arabs against Israel. No emergency session was held for the millions murdered in Rwanda and Sudan. No definition of terrorism was established within the UN. Beware when one is! The Islamic states control and ruin the UNO. Other groups' needs are neglected (Jewish Political Chronicle, 1/2005, p.34 from Anne Bayefsky, National Review, 12/13). Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at ricshulman@aol.com. To Go To Top

RECYCLING TORAH SCROLLS Posted by Judy Lash Balint, March 23, 2005.

Like many successful projects, Moshe Burt's Sefer Torah Recycling Network (STRN) was born by accident. In December 1994, the Philadelphia native went looking for his beshert at a Jewish singles event in Brooklyn. Instead of finding his match there, Burt became a matchmaker between a Torah scroll and a small Jewish community in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem when a couple he met at the event told him that Bat Ayin was looking for a Torah and could not afford the $25-30,000 cost of a new one. Back in Philadelphia, Burt discovered that his rabbi, Mordechai Young of Congregation Young Israel of Wynnefield, had a Torah in storage waiting for a home. With the pro bono help of a sofer in Brooklyn, Burt had the Torah restored to perfect condition and five months after his initial meeting, the grateful community of Bat Ayin was using the scroll. To his surprise, Burt, an observant Jew, learned that many small and new communities in Israel had no sefer Torah. "It is said that one is truly connected to a place only when that place is a Makom Torah (a place of Torah) and that's accomplished through ownership of a Sefer Torah," Burt says, as he explains why he conceived of the idea of starting the STRN. The organization now has tax-deductible status in the U.S, and Canada and is run by Burt on a volunteer basis from his home in Ramat Beit Shemesh. Burt feels a particularly urgent need to help communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza establish themselves as Makom Torah, and over the past 10 years his Sefer Torah Recycling Network has matched eight YESHA communities with donated Torah scrolls. Burt has received strong endorsements for the STRN from a number of prominent rabbis including Dov Brisman and Shmuel Kamenetsky of Philadelphia and Zev Leff, Menachem Shapira and Chaim Soloveichik in Israel. On Shushan Purim, March 27, Burt and his supporters will dedicate their second Torah donated to a community in the Gush Katif region, slated for destruction by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan this summer. Last July, the tiny beachfront village of Shirat Hayam in Gush Katif received a Sephardic style Torah scroll for its 15 families. The newest Torah will be dedicated in the Chasdei Shimrit community center at the nearby town of Neve Dekalim. The Center was named after Shimrit Bonfeld, a young resident who died of a rare blood disease several years ago. Her father, David Bonfeld, is a postman in Gush Katif who has been active with youth in Neve Dekalim. The Torah scroll was donated by a group of donors from Beit Shemesh to show their support for the threatened communities in the south. Future STRN plans call for the restoration of a Torah donated by a Baltimore family, that will find a new home next July in The Rachel's Children Reclamation Foundation Beit Midrash (adjacent to Rachel's Tomb) and another scroll that will be used by a new Yeshiva High School, Knesset Yisrael when it opens in Beit Shemesh in September. As word of his unique project spreads, Burt receives constant requests from communities without a Torah. "I'm constantly on the lookout for additional used Sifrei Torah," he says. "I'm currently searching for Sifrei Torah to be placed in Yishuv Adura, near Hebron, as well as two locations in Ramat Beit Shemesh and Russian-speaking synagogues in Beitar Illit and in Ma'alei Adumim. There's a third Gush Katif town, Kerem Atzmona, that's in need of a Torah too." Burt explains that Adura suffered a deadly terror attack in May 2002, when five residents were killed in their homes as terrorists dressed as Israeli soldiers broke into the village. "The people of Adura seek a Sefer Torah to memorialize those who lost their lives in that attack," Burt says. Another benefit of the project is that it helps provide employment for Israeli Torah scribes, Burt adds. For further information and details on this Sunday's dedication, visit: http://www.sefer-torah.com/ Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times by Judy Lash Balint (Gefen) is available for purchase from www.israelbooks.com To Go To Top

DEMOCRACY WITH A COMMUNAL FACE Posted by Barry Rubin, March 23, 2005.

Those most likely to support democracy in the Arab world are the ones convinced that they would win fair elections. And large groups holding such ideas are most likely to arise among already existing ethnic religious communities rather than from diverse parties built up gradually from individuals' conversion to a liberal world view. Lebanon is the only Arab state where these groups have always been legitimate political actors. Paradoxically, it is also the sole Arab country where local patriotism has also openly existed. Among other things, Lebanon was loved because it let these groups flourish rather than subordinated them to a powerful central government. Lebanon thus represented freedom and pluralism, something worth protecting from subordination to a Sunni Muslim-dominated regional empire operating in the name of Arab nationalism. Of course, there were always those, intoxicated on ideology or seeking their own advantage - especially Sunni Muslims historically - who were ready to align with the outsiders. In the end, though, the outsider which took over was Syria. Now, Lebanese patriotism has been reborn on a broad basis bringing together three communities - Christians, Druze, and Sunni Muslims - against a Syrian domination which is seen as benefiting none of them. Hizballah, the most important single Shia Muslim group (but not the only one) is a Syrian client and has pushed its community to support a continuing Syrian presence. But even among the Shia, there are elements of Lebanese patriotism as well. Getting rid of Syria and too traumatized by a long, bloody civil war to let disputes get out of hand would let Lebanon get back to "normal," which means that politics would revolve around communal parties making deals to divide power and resources. But in other Arab states there are three problems which Lebanon does not share. First, communal-based parties are rising with no precedent for such a system. Arab nationalist regimes were ruthlessly centralizing, stamping out expressions of communal interests or differences in the name of Arab nationalism. Second, they have not yet had their ethnic civil war to teach the futility of such a struggle. And third, unlike Lebanon, where there are too many communities for anyone to win, somebody just might emerge triumphant. Take Iraq, for example, where almost 80 percent of parliamentary seats were won by communal parties - and it would have been more if the Sunni Muslims had not virtually boycotted the elections. The elections succeeded so greatly not because of any doctrinal loyalty to liberal democracy but because the Kurdish and Shia leaders - including clerics - ordered their people to vote. And they did so because they knew they would win. In a sense, this makes democracy more secure. For, given the demographics they know they will go on winning every election in the future. And if these two communities can make a deal, it is the beginning of pluralism. This is not a democracy based on individual preferences, purely national loyalties or liberal values but on communal ties. There is no strong liberal parties which can appeal to national patriotism, transcending communal loyalties and winning support on the basis of issues. Yet that system also builds an Iraqi patriotism because only a sovereign Iraq can preserve this deal, even if each communal group is tempted to look across the border for allies. Perhaps this is the best that can be expected. It sounds rather like historic Lebanon. Syria potentially faces a rougher future. There are Kurds and Christians but in political terms only two communities matter: the ruling Alawites and the big majority of Sunni Muslims. There is certainly a liberal Sunni opposition but if the masses are going to be mobilized it is probable they will do so behind the clerics. What is the Islamist attitude toward democracy? Much publicity was given to a January statement by the al-Qaida leader in Iraq - who it should be remembered is not an Iraqi - Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi - who condemned democracy as intrinsically heretical by giving authority to the people instead of to the deity, to human law instead of to divine law. Yet this is not inevitably the Islamist position. After all, Zarqawi's Sunni Muslims knew they could not win elections. Meanwhile, their Shia counterparts were telling their people that it was a sin not to vote. When Islamists put themselves at the head of communities which can gain a majority they quickly change their tune. Syrian Islamists already know this fact. The Palestinian Hamas has no ethnic community to lead but it can try to capture control of the anti-Israel national struggle, the way Communist parties tried, and sometimes succeeded, in doing. After a good performance in the Gaza Strip local council races, Hamas suddenly changed its decade-long policy of boycotting Palestinian Authority elections to announce it would run in the June elections. Jordanian and Egyptian Islamists are now also starting to catch the "democratic" bug as they calculate their chances of winning if elections were ever fair. The point is that while the intellectual advocates of democracy are individual liberals, the fruits are likely to be reaped by large communal-based parties and Islamist movements, which have a much easier time organizing large groups of people. The outcome will vary according to the specific situation. In some places, like Lebanon and Iraq, the results may be good. In others, the existing regimes will have far more appeal as people fear the potential for civil war or an Islamist takeover. Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC), and co-author of Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography and Hating America: A History (Oxford University Press, August 2004). Prof. Rubin's columns can now be read online at http://gloria.idc.ac.il/columns/column.html To Go To Top

"HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH (HRW) NEEDS WATCHING" Posted by Gerald M. Steinberg, March 23, 2005.

The principle that basic human rights must be safeguarded internationally, and that traditional rules of national sovereignty should not be allowed to interfere, is a direct consequence of the Holocaust. A United Nations commission and powerful nongovernmental organizations were created to promote this code, and they did it successfully. This framework played a key part in gaining the freedom of political prisoners in the Soviet Union, exposing torture by the military dictatorships of Latin America and other accomplishments. Jews were very instrumental in this process, particularly through the work of Helsinki Watch, which became Human Rights Watch. But in the past decade, the norms of universal human rights have been replaced by a narrow and particularistic political agenda. The UN Human Rights Commission, which is meeting again this month in Geneva, became a leader in the campaign to demonize Israel as an "apartheid state." It has been aided and abetted by the NGO community, including HRW. The NGO forum of the UN Human Rights Commission's 2001 Durban conference on "racism and xenophobia" was a focus for vicious Israel bashing while suicide bombings were killing hundreds. New York-based HRW, led by a former prosecutor named Ken Roth, has focused an inordinate portion of its energies and resources against Israel. Roth brought in Joe Stork, a major figure in the radical political group that publishes MERIP, which took a consistent pro-PLO and anti-Israel position. Additional funding was used to employ Sarah Leah Whitson and, more recently, Lucy Mair. Whitson had been associated with an extremist group known as MADRE, and Mair's credentials include writing for the Electronic Intifada, an explicitly pro-Palestinian political and ideological Web site. Mair's publications are studded with stereotypes of innocent Palestinian victims and brutal Israeli soldiers, with no mention of terrorism. These Durban-style political biases are reflected in HRW's consistent stream of reports, press conferences, letters, e-mails and other activities that condemn Israeli policies. These reports, more than 100 in the past four years, far exceed HRW's declarations on the mass killings in Sudan and other areas where human rights are being systematically violated. This has created two standards of conduct - one for Israel, and one for everyone else. HRW reports on Israel mix a clear political position against the "occupation" with the bald assertion that Israeli anti-terror policies are illegal. Its report on the 2002 Israeli army operation in Jenin, while noting that there was no massacre, unjustly accused Israeli soldiers of "war crimes." Similarly, a 135-page report titled "Razing Rafah," accompanied by a public relations campaign led by Roth, is filled with unverified Palestinian "eyewitness" reports alleging Israeli violations of international law. Using this indictment, HRW's current campaign focuses on firms selling protected machines used by the Israel Defense Forces to destroy buildings in which terrorists are hiding, or where weapons and explosives are prepared. (The alternative would be to use aircraft to bomb these targets, or simply allow Palestinian terrorists to kill Israeli civilians.) In this way, HRW is abetting the "boycott Israel" campaign that recently received the endorsement of the Presbyterians and the World Council of Churches and is the core of the Durban strategy of delegitimizing Israel as a "racist apartheid state." HRW's obsession, which is common to many NGOs that reflect an anti-American, anti-Israel and post-colonial ideology, has totally distorted the human rights agenda. The objectives of the authors of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights are entirely inconsistent with demonizing the efforts of Israeli Jews to protect themselves against war and terror. And when the Israeli government and military do make mistakes in judgment, the coinage of human rights rhetoric has been so debased and politicized as to strip it of any impact. In order to rectify this situation and restore the universality of human rights principles, HRW and other NGOs with multimillion-dollar budgets need a system of independent checks and balances on their power. The NGO superpowers that preach political ethics to others are among the most secretive and closed organizations. Transparency should be the norm in their decision-making processes, including budgets and priorities for public relations and political campaigns, as well as critical employment procedures. And it is time to remove the "halo effect," which has allowed Roth and other individuals in the NGO network to act without consultation and approval, even from board members and donors. In a democratic society, all government organizations are subject to such controls, and the same is true for other sources of power. The major news organizations recognize the need for an ombudsman or "public editor" to challenge and often criticize the prejudices and lack of professional conduct of senior journalists and editors. Even the prickly BBC has created a review process to consider complaints about its biased coverage of the Middle East in order to try and restore its shattered credibility. Political NGO superpowers such as HRW must now be brought into a similar framework, including transparency and the creation of independent and active review mechanism. This would require an allocation of at least 5 percent of available funds, and the appointment of a professional staff whose power, salaries and advancement are not subject to the control of Roth or his inner group. To restore the principles of truly universal human rights, protected from private ideologies and obsessions, it is necessary to "watch the watchers." Gerald M. Steinberg is the editor of www.ngo-monitor.org and directs the program on conflict management at Bar Ilan University in Israel. This article appeared in the current Jewish Week as "Checks and Balances for NGO Superpowers." It is archived at http://www.thejewishweek.com/top/editletcontent.php3?artid=4055 To Go To Top

SHARON'S TOOTH FAIRY COMES AT PESACH - TO PULL TEETH Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, March 23, 2005.

Right and the tooth fairy will leave you a quarter under your pillow as well. Sharon's pogrom is scheduled for Pesach, the interment camps have been built, the Negev will be under martial law and it will take 12 to 18 months under the best of conditions to build 500 housing units of even substandard quality and that is from the day they actually start something. Here they a just beginning to talk about it!! What about the factories, the farms, the schools, the religious institution and everything else? This is all a bluff and a poorly presented one. Only a total fool could believe that Sharon intends anything other than the extermination of these communities. THERE WILL BE NO COMPENSATION. There will, however, be murder, brutality, interment camps and massive persecution. Expel Sharon, not Jews! This is from today's Arutz-7 (www.IsraelNationalNews.com). It is archived at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=78887 "Government to Build Homes for Gaza Residents in the Negev," Wednesday, March 23, 2005 / 12 Adar 5765 (IsraelNN.com) The Housing Ministry plans to construct 500 new homes in 15 communities in the Negev for Jews uprooted from their homes in Gaza and northern Samaria. According to Israel Radio, the communities in question belong to the Eshkol, Ashkelon Coast, and Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council. 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

HITLER'S MEIN KAMPF A BEST-SELLER IN TURKEY Posted by Mordechai Ben-Menachem, March 23, 2005.

Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, a bestseller in many sectors of the Muslim world, has become a best seller in Turkey - traditionally considered a moderate country. Tens of thousands of Arabic-language copies of Hitler's book - the English title of which is My Struggle - have been snatched off the shelves ever since they were reprinted in Turkey several months ago. The book outlines Hitler's plans for world domination and his intense hatred of Jews. Muslim apologists attribute the book's popularity to its cheap price. It was printed in paperback form with out the permission of the German state of Bavaria, which owns the rights to the book. "The book Mein Kampf should not be reprinted," Bavarian Finance Minister Kurt Faltlhauser said in an official statement. "The state of Bavaria administers the copyright very restrictively to prevent an increase of Nazi ideas." Lina Filiba, executive vice president of Turkey's Jewish Community, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the popularity of Hitler's book is "disturbing." She said it was part of a "worrying trend" that includes the sale of anti-Semitic publications such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion at popular local department stores. Since January, the book has sold more than 50,000 copies and is #4 on the bestseller list drawn up by the D&R bookstore chain. Traditionally priced at about $20 a copy, it now sells for about $5.50 and less. Turkish political scientist Dogu Ergil sees the book's rise in popularity as evidence of anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, and Nazism. "Buried in the dustbin of history in Europe, Nazims is beginning to re-emerge in Turkey," he warned. This is not the first time the book has been translated into Arabic and become a best seller in the Arab-Muslim world. Sami al-Jundi, one of the first leaders of Syria 's ruling Baath party, writes in his autobiography of Syrian admiration for Mein Kampf and Nazi ideology in the 1930s: "We were racists, admiring Nazism, reading its books and the source of its thought - We were the first who thought of translating Mein Kampf." Mein Kampf has been translated into Arabic several times and distributed widely in Lebanon and Syria. The book was also distributed in the PA-administered regions of Israel by Al-Shuruq, a Ramallah-based printing press. The book became a best-seller in the PA in 1999. Adolf Hitler had close ties with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin Al Husseini. Husseini supported the Nazis and especially admired their program for the mass murder of the Jews, visiting numerous death camps and encouraging Hitler to extend the "Final Solution" to the Jews of North Africa and pre-state Israel. Husseini was the uncle of the late PA representative in Jerusalem Feisal Husseini and a commander and mentor of terror chief Yasser Arafat. Mordechai Ben-Menachem is at Ben-Gurion University. He can be reached by email at quality@computer.org To Go To Top

ISRAEL TURNS A BLIND EYE TO 500 FUGITIVE PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS' PRIVATE ARSENALS Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 23, 2005.

If there was any doubt before that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's mind has stopped, the following should remove all doubt. Not only has Sharon negotiated a unilateral immunity for the top 500 Terrorists but agreed to legitimize their carrying weapons as if they were honorable members of Israel's Shin Bet (Secret Services). Laughably, they refused Sharon's plea to become legitimate Terrorists. Sharon has become a laughable bloated punching bag for Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) and President Bush. Resign old man, with whatever honors from the past you can take with you. You are a tragic stumbling figure and have become quite dangerous for the nation. DEBKAfile - We start where the media stop Israel Turns Blind Eye to 500 Fugitive Palestinian Terrorists' Private Arsenals DEBKAfile Exclusive Counter-Terrorism Report March 23, 2005, 3:18 PM (GMT+02:00) Attended by a flock of legal advisers, senior Shin Bet security service officers have been engaged in talks with a prominent member of the Fatah young guard in Gaza, Abdel Fatah Hamail, on rules regulating weapons licenses for 500 Palestinian terrorist fugitives. These fugitives, including some of Yasser Arafat's most notorious terrorist masterminds, have already won an Israeli pledge to stop pursuing them, a reprieve made to further peace efforts. Now, on behalf of Palestinian chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and interior minister Nasser Yousef, Hamail working with Israeli security officials has drawn up a set of new Palestinian Authority criteria governing their "right" to stay armed. DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources stress that this under-the-counter deal flies blatantly in the face of the US-backed Middle East roadmap to peace and reiterated demands by President George W. Bush, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz, that the Palestinian Authority disarm terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure. Yet Israeli officials and Hamail have just hammered out a 10-point pledge for Nasser to present to the terrorists for their signature: DEBKAfile's informants saw the document and reveal it here for the first time: 1. I, the undersigned, pledge to respect the Palestinian Weapons Law of 1998 and its annexes. (DEBKAfile: Palestinian terrorists never bothered with the law for seven years and have no intention of honoring it now.) 2. I promise to be bound by all parts of the accords signed between the Palestinian Authority and international governments or organizations. (DEBKAfile: "Israel" is conspicuously omitted here. Palestinian suicide bombers and their controllers are hardly up to speed on international accords that even many Palestinian Authority officials have never heard of.) 3. Weapons and ammunition may not be transferred to second parties. 4. The bearer of the licensed weapon undertakes to renew his license on the date stipulated. (DEBKAfile: No licenses were ever issued to the terrorists.) 5. The bearer of the gun license undertakes to possess no more than one weapon. (DEBKAfile: The document does not stipulate who is to enforce this restriction. A terrorist could have 10 concealed weapons and no one would be wiser.) 6. Guns may not be carried in public places, at rallies or at celebrations. (DEBKAfile: There is no bar to using weapons in terrorist attacks; nor do Israeli civilians or soldiers rate mention as banned targets.) 7. Weapons and ammunition must be insured against loss, damage and fire. It is forbidden to sell them. 8. The serial numbers of weapons may not be altered. (DEBKAfile: Israel issued side-arms to Palestinian "security officers" under the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords. Their serial numbers have been changed long since by those officers in their capacity as terrorists. Palestinian-fabricated guns are not imprinted with serial numbers.) 9. The bearer of a licensed weapon promises to defer to the authority of the Palestinian interior minister. (DEBKAfile: This clause is a general one referring to all orders handed down by the minister.) 10. Offenders against the above provisions will be subject to criminal or civil charges. Israeli and Palestinian officials assumed that the fugitive terrorist chiefs wo