SPRINGTIME FLOWERS IN ISRAEL AND IN AMERICA

Lupine Hill in the Ela Valley (Yehoshua Halevi) Cherry Blossom, Washington DC (Carrie Devorah) Yehoshua HaLevi writes: "One of my favorite spring haunts is Tel Socho, also known as Givat Hathermosim or, in English, Lupine Hill, off route 375 in the Ela Valley near Beit Shemesh. A popular hiking spot for families, the hill is an easy 10-minute ascent to one of the richest concentrations of wildflowers I have discovered in Israel. Although there are at least two dozen varieties growing there, the dominant flower is the purple lupine, seen here, which grows primarily on the top and southern slope. This photo is another example of how I try to merge land and sky into a unified composition. I love dramatic cloud formations as complements to the main subject. The position and length of the clouds in this image forced the vertical composition, and I chose a low camera angle which follows the slope of the hill down to the left, thereby creating a sweeping, almost circular motion from the stems and flowers up through the clouds. The low angle of view, as opposed to the angle most often used by photographers -- shooting down from a standing position –– offers a more detailed and engaging look at the flowers. By crouching down and shooting up, I was able to extend the tops of the uppermost flowers above the horizon line and into the sky, which brings together the two main elements of the photo." Contact him at smile@goldenlightimages.com. Carrie Devorah is a professional photographer based in Washington D.C. Her beat is the White House, special events, meetings, conferences and –– when in bloom –– cherry blossoms. Contact her at editor@carrieon.com To Go To Top

THE PROCESSION –– A PERSONAL REPORT Posted by Patricia Berlyn, March 31, 2008.

Those living far from Israel may think of life here mostly in terms of reports in the standard new media. That means an impression of tension, apprehension, peril and murderous attacks that carry with them grief and horror. That is why I would like to share with you this account of doings Tuesday evening in the small town where I live. Just after dark, as I was sitting at my computer slogging away at a book I am writing, I heard very loud music and singing near my house. At first I thought it came from a neighboring residence, and that a television set was on much too loud. Then I found it that it came from the street outside my house, and went out to check the reason for the commotion. It was a procession on the way to install a new Torah in a yeshiva a few blocks away. I at once joined the procession. The population in this town is about 12,000, and I would take a guess that several thousand of them were in the procession. First came a van that carried the music-making apparatus, and it was very lively and joyful music. On top of the van was an emblem shaped like a Torah Crown, flashing in colored lights. Next came the Torah itself, carried by Yeshiva boys, under a red velvet canopy embroidered in gold and trimmed with gold fringe –– like the huppah under which the bride and groom stand at a wedding. Next came the procession that escorted it; men, women, and children –– all vigorously singing and clapping and occasionally stopping to dance, while fireworks flashed glittered above us. When we reached the street outside of the Yeshiva the celebration reached its peak, with dancers from young students to aged greybeards, all virtually ecstatic with happiness. It is likely that all of those in the procession –– except for the babies snug in their prams –– must have been thinking of our blessed lost boys. But this was the Israeli response to that hideous cruelty –– to treasure and celebrate our heritage. It was a privilege to have been part of it. I wish you could all have seen it. Patricia Patricia Berlyn is an essayist, an American who made aliyah. She authors the A Time to Speak columns at http:www.israel.net/timetospeak. To subscribe, write ATTS@actcom.co.il To Go To Top

3/4 OF ISRAELIS SEE AT LEAST PARTIAL TRANSFER OUT OF ARABS Posted by Sergio Tessa (Hadar), March 31, 2008.

In spite of media propaganda, reflecting a small percentage of the Israeli public, it's not Peace Now's ideas that have made deep inroads among Israelis in the last 20 years The following are data on the ever growing support among Israeli Jews for the transfer of hostile elements, support that was certainly smaller by 80% 20 years ago. It is even more interesting to notice that such suport has grown IN SPITE of an ever growing and uninterrupted MEDIA campaign, accompanied by judicial activism, supporting just the opposite. This was written by Hillel Fendel and it appeared in Arutz-Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125745

(IsraelNN.com) A survey carried out the Panels Research Institute finds that more than 75% of Israelis see partial or total transfer for Israeli-Arabs out of Israel in any final-status agreement that includes a Palestinian state. The poll asked whether it would be justified, in the framework of an agreement for the establishment of a Palestinian state, to demand the transfer out of Israel of all Arabs. Nearly 30% said yes with no reservations, while 28% said only Arabs who did not express loyalty to Israel should be expelled. In addition, another 19% said that Arabs who lived in areas bordering the PA-controlled areas, such as Wadi Area and the southern Galilee, should be transferred out. The remainder, just under 25%, said no Arabs should be transferred out. The survey encompassed 668 respondents, taking part in a series of Panel4All internet surveys. The Panels Institute says the respondents are a representative sampling of the adult population in Israel, and that the margin of error is 3.7%. Another finding of the survey shows that 43% of Israelis feel Arabs in Israel are discriminated against. In addition, 40% feel that Israeli-Arabs have an exclusively Palestinian national identity, while 50% feel they have both Palestinian and Israeli national identities, with the former taking precedence. Sergio Tessa can be reached at Hadar-Israel@verizon.net. To Go To Top

AL-QAIDA WANING ON 10TH BIRTHDAY Posted by Olivier Guitta, March 31, 2008.

Under the banner of the World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders, Osama Bin Laden issued a fatwa, or religious edict, in February 1998, calling it a religious duty of Muslims "to kill the Americans and their allies –– civilians and military –– in any country it is possible." This statement marked, for most experts, the birth of what was later called al-Qaida. Now, 10 years after its birth, some experts, in particular in the Arab world, estimate that al-Qaida is thriving. Coincidentally, some of the same analysts are actually blaming the United States for this, insisting that the U.S. is using the terrorism excuse to dominate the world. For instance, Egyptian analyst Diaa Rashwan said that it is only when the U.S. gives up its plans to dominate the world that al-Qaida will start getting weaker and lose ground. In the same vein, Muhammad Darif, a Moroccan expert on radical Islam, told the Egyptian daily Al Fagr: "?terrorism has become the whip the United States uses against any country that doesn't follow the superpower in the new world order." These are two very questionable assessments, to say the least. In fact, it is quite telling that the responsibilities are reversed and that, in a way, al-Qaida and the United States are on the same level. Working on that assumption that the U.S. is trying to dominate the world and also wage a war against Islam, let's take a look at the pre-9/11 time period. Incidentally, al-Qaida's argument dating back to 1998 is totally flawed because the United States has actually a recent history of intervening to save Muslims in the world, from helping the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, to Lebanon, to Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Even the first Iraq war was fought with the help and the support of most Muslim countries. In a post 9/11 world, it is very questionable to deem that the United States is using terrorism to build an "empire." It is also vital to underline that al-Qaida's war is not aimed at just the U.S. but rather against the West in its whole. Viewing it just as a dichotomist war between al-Qaida and the U.S. is clearly ignoring the facts. In a previous assessment of al-Qaida, Darif also said: "Al-Qaida has suffered tremendously from the Western propaganda, and [also] from the regimes that succeeded in tarnishing its image ? by presenting it as an organization targeting civilians." The facts prove him wrong: first, it was not Western propaganda that tarnished al-Qaida's reputation but rather its actions; second, al-Qaida has a long history of almost exclusively targeting civilians (from the bombings against the U.S. embassies in east Africa in 1998 to 9/11, to Bali, Casablanca, Madrid, Amman, London and Iraq). Interestingly, one of the proofs of al-Qaida's declining influence is that by targeting civilians in Muslim countries, it has lost tremendous popularity in the Muslim world. But more than anything, it is al-Qaida's failure in Iraq that has clearly inflicted the maximum damage to Bin Laden's organization. Indeed, there, al-Qaida failed to mobilize the masses mostly because it killed gruesomely scores of civilians and also because it lost its charismatic emir, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by U.S. forces in June 2006. Al-Qaida suffered another blow when a drone killed one of his most senior operatives, Abu Laith al-Libi, in January 2008 in Afghanistan. Another sign of al-Qaida's recent decline includes the fact that they reached out to groups that they previously shunned: for example, the Algerian GSPC (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) was brought into the fold and changed its name in January 2007 to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). And finally the recent public dissension within the movement, proven by the recent spat between Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida's No. 2, and its former mentor Sayed Imam al-Sherif (aka Dr. Fadl), is clearly pointing to a deterioration of the internal situation. Incidentally, CIA Director Michael Hayden told The Washington Times on March 11 that internal divisions between Saudi and Egyptian leaders of al-Qaida are producing "fissures" within the terrorist group. While al-Qaida still clearly represents a forceful threat (especially with its recent regrouping in Afghanistan and Pakistan), it has witnessed serious setbacks. Olivier Guitta, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a foreign affairs and counterterrorism consultant, is the founder of the newsletter The Croissant (www.thecroissant.com). This appeared in Middle East Times http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/03/31/ al-qaida_waning_on_10th_birthday/4324/ To Go To Top

MANDATE FOR PALESTINE: THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF JEWISH RIGHTS TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL Posted by Doris Wise Montrose, March 31, 2008.

This material is excerpted from the Myths and Facts website run by Eli E. Hertz. Visit the website at www.MythsandFacts.com for accurate and important information on the Arab-Israeli conflict such as "The U.S. Congress in 1922," http://www.mythsandfacts.com/article_view.asp?articleID=100

The "Mandate for Palestine" granted Jews the irrevocable right to settle anywhere in Palestine, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, a right unaltered in international law and valid to this day. Jewish settlements in Judea, Samaria (i.e., the West Bank), Gaza and the whole of Jerusalem are legal. This material is provided to enhance the understanding of the Jewish people's legal rights as granted by the international community in 1922 –– the right to live in peace and security in its designated Jewish National Home. This is not a question of right or left, for or against ... These are Jewish rights that should be recognized by the world communty before any negotiation is aimed at resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. Contact Doris Wise Montrose at doris@cjhsla.org To Go To Top

WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT THE CRISIS FACING ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE? Posted by Rachel Neuwirth, March 31, 2008.

More and more people have been saying to me, "I realize that Jews are facing a major crisis in Israel, here in America, in Europe, and everywhere in the world. But what can I do about it? I am just one person. Vast forces are threatening Israel. Can I stop anti-Israelism and anti-Judaism on my own? I feel helpless in the face of the vast forces that are arrayed against us." These are natural and normal human feelings. I have felt them at times myself. The confluence of international forces that has gathered against the Jewish people and faith, including the spiritual and intellectual fifth column amongst us, is indeed a formidable adversary. Nevertheless, there are things we can do if we are willing to work together to protect our rights and stand up to the massive defamation campaign waged against us. One very important thing that all of us can do is to counter the endless lies and distortions of Israel's history and character that appear in the press, mass media, on the Internet, and even in scholarly journals. These distortions and outright falsehoods are a major reason why Israel is in such deep trouble, and in danger of "going under." Because the entire world has been led to believe an inaccurate, grossly distorted "narrative" of the conflict, the government of Israel feels it has no choice but to make concessions to the demands of its enemies, in order to appease world opinion. But these concessions imperil Israel's existence. Each of us can help to correct this appalling situation by acting immediately, whenever we encounter such a distortion in the press or mass media, to correct it with a letter to the editor or news manager. We can also actively monitor the mass media on the Internet in order to locate as many distortions as we can and correct them. Further, we can speak up to counter distortions in public lectures and meetings about the Arab-Israel conflict, and even in private conversations. All of this requires work and time, but it really does help. Each of us should devote as much time and energy to these tasks as we possibly can. But in order to counter the endless flow of lies and distortions about Israel, we must first learn what the true facts of Israel's history are. Before we can answer the chorus of unfair criticisms leveled against Israel and her supporters in the United States and elsewhere, we must first educate ourselves. What are the facts about the conflict over "Palestine" that Arab and other anti-Israel propagandists have distorted, misrepresented and covered up? The following are some, although by no means all, of the most important ones: The Israelis are not colonialists or alien "settlers" in the Land of Israel with no past connection or relationship to the country; on the contrary, we Jews have lived in Israel for at least 3,200 years if not longer. This is far longer than most peoples have lived in their present national homelands. Our two glorious temples, wonders of the ancient world, were there for a thousand years. King David's kingdom endured for more than four hundred years; later, there was the independent Jewish state of the Maccabees. Jews had lived in the Land of Israel in large numbers for at least 1,800 years before the Arabs conquered it in 635 C.E. Moreover, while hundreds of thousands of Jews were expelled from their land or put to death in it by foreign conquerors, there have been at least some Jews living there almost continuously for 3,200 years. There has never been a distinctive "Palestinian" Arab people or an Arab "Palestine" state or nation; while it is true that some Arabs have lived in the Land of Israel for many centuries, they have never been ethnically or culturally distinct or different from the Arabs who live in other lands, including the original Arab homeland, the Arabian Peninsula. The Jews, however, are a people who originated in the Land of Israel and never had any other national homeland. During over a thousand years of Muslim rule, "Palestine" was rarely the name even of an administrative district, let alone a nation. Arabs referred to the entire land that now comprises Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and the "occupied territories" as "al-Shams" (Syria), which they regarded as one country. While the Land of Israel, also called "Palestine" by Romans and Europeans, was densely populated in ancient times, its population steadily declined during over 1,000 years of Muslim rule. In the nineteenth century, Israel/Palestine was very thinly settled. There was very little agriculture, and extensive abandoned and uninhabited "waste" lands. Most of the population, such as it was, lived in dire poverty. Brigandage was such an established and accepted way of life that it was impossible to travel on the roads without the payment of large bribes to the leading men of each village along the way. The roads themselves were no more than unpaved footpaths. Villages fought wars with each other. Nomadic Bedouin tribes frequently raided villages and even larger towns. The inhabitants of the few larger towns (there were no real cities) had to cower behind thick walls and locked gates every night for security. The Arab population of Israel/Palestine only began to grow in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, at the same time that Jews began to resettle the land. Jewish immigrants brought with them modernized agriculture, including the growing of oranges, which had been previously unknown; a market for Arab agricultural goods; employment at Jewish farms and factories; modern hospitals and medicine that saved thousands of Arab lives; the draining of swamps that had caused thousands of deaths from malaria and other insect-born diseases; and vastly expanded Arab education funded by Jewish taxes. The Arab population of Palestine has grown extensively, from under 500,000 in 1891 to over 3,600,000 today, partly because of increased life expectancy brought about by the economic and scientific progress introduced by Jewish immigrants/settlers, but also in part because of extensive immigration to Palestine from many Arab countries. As a result, many of the Arabs who call themselves, or who are called by other Arabs "Palestinians," have ancestors who originated in Egypt, Syria, what are now Saudi Arabia, the Sudan and other Arab countries. These Arab countries ought rightfully to give these "Palestinians" citizenship, but refuse to do so. The Arabs, including and especially the Palestinian Arabs, have been the aggressors throughout the nearly 100 years of the Arab-Israel conflict. This "one long war" began with the communal violence that convulsed Palestine between 1920 and 1948, even before Israel was founded. Palestinian and other Arabs organized and carried out massive pogroms against the Jews of Palestine in 1920, 1921 and 1929, waged a sustained terrorist campaign against them from 1936 through 1939, and a full-scale jihad against them in 1947-48. Thousands of Palestinian terrorist/guerillas, the regular armies of six Arab states, and "volunteers" from throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds all participated in this aggressive war. Before the 1947-48 Arab attack against the Palestinian/Israeli Jews there had been few if any displaced Palestinian Arabs. The Palestinian Arabs were not innocent bystanders in the war that made them refugees. They initiated the war in which some, although not all, of them fled from parts of Israel in 1948. They killed over two thousand Jews in that war. The six invading Arab states killed over 4,300 more Jews. The Israelis defended themselves as best they could against these unprovoked attacks. But they did not expel the Palestinian Arabs. Many Arab leaders as well as ordinary Palestinian Arabs have admitted that Arab leaders urged the Arabs living in Palestine to flee, promising them that Arab armies would soon defeat the Jews and allow them to return to their homes. Despite this bad advice, many Palestinian Arabs never left Israel, and became Israeli citizens, with full rights of citizenship. Today there are over one million Arab citizens and residents of Israel –– more than there were in 1947, before Israel was established. Following this first major Arab-Israel war, the Arab states induced the United Nations to keep the Palestinian Arabs refugees and their descendants in "refugee camps" (actually segregated towns) for generations. All of the Arab states except Jordan denied the Palestinian Arabs citizenship and equal rights. Arab governments and the refugee camp administrations taught the Palestinians that it was their Arab duty to wage war against Israel in order to gain back the homes in what is now Israel where (some) of their ancestors had lived before 1948. This segregation and indoctrination of the Palestinian refugees, as well as their descendants to the third, fourth and all later generations, is the true origin of Palestinian terrorism, not Israeli "oppression" or "occupation." Also following the Arab-Israel war of 1947-49, the Arab nations refused to sign peace treaties with Israel, sponsored Palestinian Arab terrorist raids into Israel in which hundreds of Israelis were killed, and waged war by economic boycott and propaganda as well. Last but not least, Egypt waged war by blockading Israeli shipping in the Suez Canal and in the Gulf of Aqaba (also called the Gulf of Eilat by Israelis). These acts of war severely damaged the Israeli economy in addition to causing widespread loss of life and injury to Israel's citizens. Palestinian Arab terrorist attacks on, and raids into, Israel have been continuous since 1949. Whatever reprisal raids and counterterrorist operations Israel has conducted over these years against the Palestinian terrorists have been reluctant responses to aggression against Israeli civilians and soldiers--not deliberate attacks on Arab civilians, as Arab spokesman and much of the press in the West have misrepresented them. Israel only "occupied" the so-called "occupied territories" in 1967 as a necessary act of self-defense, in response to a whole series of acts of aggression by the Arab world: two and a half years of Palestinian Arab terrorist raids sponsored by Syria; decades of Syrian shelling of Israeli border villages from artillery positions on the Golan Heights, the forced removal of United Nations peacekeepers from the Sinai by Egypt's President Nasser: a reinstatement of the Egyptian blockade of Israeli shipping in the Gulf of Eilat/Aqaba: the mobilization of the Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian armies along Israel's three borders, and public declarations of war on Israel by Egypt's Nasser, the government of Syria and other Arab regimes. Israel "occupied" these territories only as a means of forestalling the publicly proclaimed, imminent Arab invasion, and to stop the Jordanian shelling of Israeli Jerusalem. This Jordanian barrage had killed 17 Israelis and wounded many more before Israel moved to occupy the "West Bank," (more accurately known as Judea and Samaria). Israel has now withdrawn from 90% of the territories that it occupied in 1967, including all of the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza region, large parts of Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank"), and part of the Golan Heights. But these very substantial concessions have failed to persuade the Arab world to make peace with Israel. All of the other Arab-Israeli wars were also initiated or heavily provoked by Arab states, usually working in tandem with the Palestinian Arab terrorist groups whom they sponsored. Egypt forced a war with Israel in 1956 by sponsoring Palestinian terrorist raids deep into Israeli territory for more than two years, and by blockading Israeli shipping in the Suez Canal and Gulf of Aqaba. In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched an unprovoked surprise attack on Israel on the holiest day of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur (the timing was surely no coincidence). Israel invaded Lebanon in 1981 only after years of Palestinian Arab terrorist attacks originating in that country; Israel withdrew completely from Lebanon in 2000, but was forced in 2006 to deal with renewed terrorist attacks into its territory from Lebanon -this time, by a Lebanese, not a Palestinian, terrorist organization, Hezbollah. Israel quickly withdrew from Lebanon again following a ceasefire. Jewish settlements established since 1967 outside the pre-Six Day War ceasefire lines are not "illegal." The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, issued in 1922 with the unanimous support of the League member states and with the additional support of the United States (although it was not a member of the League), requires that the administration of Palestine "shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency . . . close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes" (article 6). The International Court of Justice has ruled in a similar case (that of Southwest Africa) that the Mandate documents issued by the League of Nations remain international law, even though the League itself was disbanded in 1946, and its responsibilities transferred to the United Nations. The United Nations Charter (Article 80) states that the "rights of peoples" in the League of Nations Mandate documents remain in force, as well as the documents themselves. The Israel "occupation" of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza is also legal according to international law, for three reasons: 1) Israel only occupied these territories in a defensive war; 2) her enemies continue to wage an aggressive war of terror from these territories, requiring a continued Israel military presence in them for self-defense. 3) Israel has a better title to these territories than any other nation, since the League of Nations Mandate document for Palestine, which has never been rescinded, specifies that the administration of these territories "shall be responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home," The British Mandatory power ceased when the State of Israel was born but the rights of the Jewish people to the land remain intact, since they are a "sacred trust of civilization," as defined by the Covenant of the League of Nations, Art. 22. These permanent rights are enshrined in the Trusteeship Chapter of the UN Charter [Chapter XII, Art. 80] There are many, many additional salient facts about the conflict that supporters of Israel should learn in order to combat the campaign of defamation and slander waged against her throughout the world. Here we have had space only to summarize a few of the most important points. But learning even these few important facts makes a useful start for those who wish to be activists in correcting the lies and distortions about Israel's history and character. They make important "talking points" for responding to these lies and distortions, whether in the mass media, on the Internet, at lectures and public meetings, or in private conversations. We need to remember Benjamin Franklin's observation during the American Revolution: "if we don't hang together, then most assuredly we shall hang separately." We Americans, whether Jewish, Christian and even Muslim, cannot separate our own freedom and security from that of Israel. Documentation For the history of the Palestinian refugee problem, as well as good general introductions to the history of the Arab-Israel dispute, see Big Lies: Demolishing The Myths of the Propaganda War Against Israel by David Meir-Levi, Introduction by David Horowitz, and Arab and Jewish Refugees –– The Contrast, by Eli E. Hertz For see Carta's Historical Atlas of Israel, the Jewish History Atlas, by Martin Gilbert, present the long and continuous history of the Jewish habitation of Israel/Palestine in clear, easy-to-follow language with visual aids. Also very helpful for this purpose is " Israel 's Story in Maps," produced by www.Israelinsider.com. For the condition of Palestine under Islamic rule before Jewish resettlement, see Joan Peters, From Time Immemorial, also Arnold Blumberg, Zion Before Zionism 1838-1880, and Saul S. Friedman, Land of Dust: Palestine at the Turn of the Century, Ms. Peters' book also contains documentation of the extensive Arab immigration to Palestine that went on at the same time as the Jewish resettlement. For the history of the Arab-Israel wars and Arab terrorism in Palestine, the best source is Neaten Lorch, One Long War: Arab versus Jew Since 1920, also excellent on this subject is Martin Gilbert, The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Its History in Maps. Another book by Netanel Lorch, The Edge of the Sword: Israel's War of Independence 1947-49, gives the best account of the Palestinian and other Arab aggression in which the Palestinian Arab refugee "exodus" occurred. Also useful guides to these events are Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, O Jerusalem; and Jon and David Kimche, Both Sides of the Hill, also published also under the alternative title A Clash of Destinies. For the legality of the Israeli settlements in Judea, Samaria and Gaza and the legality of the Israeli administration of these areas, see Eli E. Hertz, "This land is My Land: Mandate for Palestine; The Legal Aspects of Jewish Rights; and Eugene V. Rostow, "Resolved: are the Settlements Legal?" Professor Meir-Levi's pamphlet Big Lies can be downloaded from the www.frontpage.com web site, and can also be ordered in "hard copy" from that site. All of Mr. Eli E. Hertz's articles can all be downloaded from his www.mythsandfacts.org web site. Eugene V. Rostow's article can be found on the http://middleeastfacts.org web site and elsewhere on the web; it was originally published in the Oct. 21, 1991 issue of The New Republic. " Israel 's Story in Maps," is available for downloading on the www.Israelinsider.com web site, and can also be ordered on DVD. Carta's Historical Atlas of Israel can be ordered from eisenbrauns.com, TomFolio.com, Biblio-com, and Israel-catalog.com. Martin Gilbert's Jewish History Atlas and The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Its History in Maps can be ordered from Amazon.com. Joan Peters' From Time Immemorial can be ordered from http://shop.wnd.com/store, www.eretzyisroel.org, amazon.com, and other sites on the web. Professor Blumberg's Zion Before Zionism 1838-1880 can be ordered from amazon.com and antiqbook.com. Professor Friedman's Land of Dust can be obtained from www.Nowandtherebooks.com. Netanel Lorch's books One Long War and The Edge of the Sword can be ordered from Amazon.com and antiqbook.com. Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre's O Jerusalem are available through amazon.com and centuryone.com. Jon and David Kimche's Both Sides of the Hill can be ordered through amazon.com, AmericanaExchange.com, BookNet.com, and alibris.com. Pro-Israel activists wishing to counter the constant misrepresentations of Israel's history and actions should obtain, and read, as many of these or similar books and articles as possible. Contact Rachel Neuwirth at rachterry@earthlink.com This article appeared in the American Thinker http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/03/but_what_can_i_do_about_the_cr.html John Landau contributed to it. To Go To Top

SHARE YOUR BAS-MITZVAH WITH A GIRL IN ISRAEL Posted by Heart to Heart, March 31, 2008.

All donations are tax-deductible Heart to Heart helps disadvanted Israeli girls. Contact them at http://www.levlalev.com/contact.htm. To Go To Top

A TECHNIQUE OF PROPAGANDA CALLED "TURNSPEAK" Posted by Samuel Katz, March 31, 2008.

The Arab League makes use of a cognitive technique of propaganda called "turnspeak", where you attack someone and then turn it around 180 degrees and claim they attacked you. Because the truth is the exact opposite of the information being disseminated it is psychologically difficult to counter and leads to confusion. Turnspeak leads to psychological confusion and a feeling of being "burned-out" or "overwhelmed" with too much information, effectively creating a blanket of "white noise" which makes clarity difficult to achieve. Joan Peters, former White House consultant on the Middle East writes: The term was first used by journalists to describe German propaganda after it invaded Czechoslovakia in March of 1939. To win sympathy for their invasion, the Germans practiced what has become known as "turnspeak". They turned the blame back on the Czechs for trying to precipitate an all-out war in the region. In other words, the Czechs in their attempt to hang onto their land were ready to plunge all of Europe into war. How did the rest of Europe respond to this lie? They believed it. World leaders decided that something had to be done to preserve peace at any cost. Author William Shirer, who was a reporter in Europe at the time, distilled the truth simply when he wrote, "Thus the plight of the German minority in Czechoslovakia was merely a pretext...for cooking up a stew in a land he [Hitler] coveted, undermining it, confusing and misleading its friends and concealing his real purpose...to destroy the Czechoslovak state and grab its territories..." [1] The Arab claim that Jews are "Nazis" is not without motive. They are trying to obscure their own close connection with the Nazis. During World War II leading Muslims including Haj Amin al-Husseini worked for the Nazis in Germany and called for a intifada against Britain. Haji Amin al-Husseini was the grand mufti of Jerusalem, as well as Yasser Arafat's close relative and mentor The Arabs, especially Iraq, sided with Germany during W.W.II. In May 1941, Haj Amin al-Husseini issued a fatwa –– "summons to a holy war against Britain". The Mufti's widely heralded proclamation against Britain was declared in Iraq, and was instrumental in his 1941 pro-Nazi intifada in Iraqi. The Mufti also requested Arab-Americans not to support FDR. Yasser Arafat's actual name is Abd al-Rahman abd al-Rauf Arafat al-Qud al-Husseini. He shortened it to obscure his kinship with the notorious Nazi and Mufti of Jerusalem.[2] Saddam Hussein was raised in the house of his uncle Khayrallah Tulfah, who was a leader in the Mufti's pro-Nazi coup in Iraq in May 1941. Both Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein were greatly influenced by the Mufti during their time in Cairo during the 1950s. Side-by-side comparison of "turnspeak" Many examples of "turnspeak" abound in today's news media. For example a article in a leading Western news service reported "The settlers are a roaming the west bank with guns and randomly shooting at Palestinian civilians... making Palestinians prisoners in their own villages", or another article that said "They [the settlers] are hunters... They go into jail through one door and out the other." An even more obvious example is Arafat's claims that Israel is stopping the peace process. Footnotes 1."From Time Immemorial" by Joan Peters, 1984 2.The Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini was later the notorious Nazi who mixed Nazi propaganda and Islam. He was wanted for war crimes in Bosnia by Yugoslavia. His mix of militant propagandizing Islam was an inspiration for both Yasser Arafat and Saddam Husein: He was also a close relative of Yasser Arafat and grandfather of the current Temple Mount Mufti. "Arafat's actual name was Abd al-Rahman abd al-Bauf Arafat al-Qud al-Husseini. He shortened it to obscure his kinship with the notorious Nazi and ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini." Howard M. Sachar, A HISTORY OF ISRAEL (New York: Knopf, 1976). The Bet Agron International Center in Jerusalem interviewed Arafat's brother and sister, who described the Mufti as a cousin (family member) with tremendous influence on young Yassir after the Mufti returned from Berlin to Cairo. Yasser Arafat himself keeps his exact lineage and birthplace secret. Saddam Hussein was raised in the house of his uncle Khayrallah Tulfah, who was a leader in the Mufti's pro-Nazi coup in Iraq in May 1941. See also History of Fedayeen, PLO, Fatah, PFLP, PFLP-GC, DFLP, etc Militant Palestinian Groups and Yasser Arafat worthy successor to Haj Muhammad Amin al Husseini [NOTE: This was published on www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/turnspeak.html The original article contains live links to additional material and a comparison of "what's said" and "what is". Read it by clicking here.] Joseph E Katz is a Middle Eastern political and religious history analyst. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Contact him at jkatz@eretzyisroel.org To Go To Top

RESEARCHERS INVESTIGATE IDF PRE-'DISENGAGEMENT' MENTAL TRAINING Posted by Stern, Daisy, March 31, 2008.

This was written by Maayana Miskin and was in the March 31, 2008 Arutz-Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125751

(IsraelNN.com) The Jabotinsky Heritage House in Tel Aviv recently completed a study on the psychological training given to IDF soldiers before the 2005 "Disengagement" and its effect on subsequent IDF operations. The psychological training given to soldiers had a serious impact on soldiers' performance in later conflicts, researchers found. Dr. Gadi Eshel said the research team managed to collect a vast amount of material on the mental preparation for the eviction and the eviction itself. The material showed that the army put a great deal of effort into creating terms that would help soldiers to feel that they were doing the right thing, said researcher Ruthie Isakovich. Isakovich labeled the training given to soldiers to mentally prepare them to evict Jews "brainwashing." NOTE: The original article embeds a video in which the researchers, Eshel and Isakovich, explain their research and the connection they found between the pre-Disengagement training and the army's difficulties during the Second Lebanon War. Contact Daisy Stern by email at daisystern1@gmail.com To Go To Top

THE SUNNI-SHIITE TERROR NETWORK Posted by Daily Alert, March 31, 2008.

This was written by Amir Taheri and it appeared March 29, 2008 as an Opinion Piece in the Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120675195927473485.html Mr. Taheri's new book, "The Persian Night: Iran and the Khomeinist Revolution," will be published later this year by Encounter Books.

The American presidential election campaign took a bizarre theological turn recently when Barack Obama accused John McCain of not being able to distinguish Sunnis from Shiites. The exchange started when Sen. McCain suggested that the Islamic Republic in Iran, a Shiite power, may be helping al Qaeda, a Sunni outfit, in its murderous campaign in Iraq and elsewhere. Basing its position on received wisdom, the Obama camp implied that Sunnis and Shiites, divided as they are by deep doctrinal differences, could not come together to fight the United States and its allies. The truth is that Sunni and Shiite extremists have always been united in their hatred of the U.S., and in their desire to "bring it to destruction," in the words of Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar. The majority of Muslims does not share that hatred and have no particular problem with the U.S. It is the country most visited by Muslim tourists and it attracts the largest number of Muslim students studying abroad. But to understand the problem with extremists, it is important to set aside the Sunni-Shiite divide and focus on their common hatred of America. Theology is useless here. What we are dealing with is politics. For Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, the slogan "Death to America" was as important as the traditional device of Islam "Allah Is The Greatest" –– hence his insistence that it be chanted at all public meetings and repeated after each session of the daily prayers. And to that end, Khomeinists have worked with anyone, including brother-enemy Sunnis or even Marxist atheists. The suicide attacks that claimed the lives of over 300 Americans, including 241 Marines, in Lebanon in 1983, were joint operations of the Khomeinist Hezbollah and the Marxist Arab Socialist Party, which was linked to the Syrian intelligence services. The Syrian regime is Iran's closest ally, despite the fact that Iranian mullahs regard the Alawite minority that dominates it as heretics or worse. Today in Lebanon, Tehran's surrogate, Hezbollah, is in league with a Maronite Christian faction, led by ex-Gen. Michel Aoun, in opposition to a majority bloc that favors close ties with the U.S. For more than a quarter century, Tehran has been host to the offices of more than three dozen terrorists organizations, from the Colombian FARC to the Palestinian Hamas and passing by half a dozen Trotskyite and Leninist outfits. It also finances many anti-American groups and parties of both extreme right and extreme left in Europe and the Americas. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has bestowed the Muslim title of "brother" on Cuba's Fidel Castro, Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, Bolivia's Evo Morales and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega. Communist North Korea is the only country with which the Islamic Republic maintains close military-industrial ties and holds joint annual staff sessions. George Ibrahim Abdallah, the Lebanese maverick who led a campaign of terror in Paris in the 1980s on behalf of Tehran, was a Christian. So was Anis Naqqache, who led several hit-teams sent to kill Iranian exile opposition leaders. For years, and until a recent change of policy, Tehran financed and offered shelter to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a Marxist movement fighting to overthrow the Turkish Republic. Why? Tehran's displeasure with Turkish membership of NATO and friendship with the U.S. Yes, Mr. Obama might ask, but what about Sunni-Shiite cooperation? The Islamic Republic has financed and armed the Afghan Sunni Hizb Islami (Islamic Party) since the 1990s. It's also financed the Front for Islamic Salvation (FIS), a Sunni political-terrorist outfit in Algeria between 1992 and 2005. In 1993, a senior Iranian delegation, led by the then Islamic Parliament Speaker Ayatollah Mehdi Karrubi, attended the Arab-Muslim Popular Congress organized by Hassan al-Turabi, nicknamed "The Pope of Islamist Terror," in Khartoum. At the end of this anti-American jamboree a nine-man "Coordinating Committee" was announced. Karrubi was a member, along with such Sunni eminences as Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mr. Turabi and the Algerian Abdallah Jaballah. The fact that Karrubi was a Shiite mullah did not prevent him from sitting alongside Sunni sheikhs. In 1996, a suicide attack claimed the lives of 19 American servicemen in Al Khobar, eastern Saudi Arabia. The operation was carried out by the Hezbollah in Hejaz, an Iranian-financed outfit, with the help of the Sunni militant group "Sword of the Peninsula." In 2000, Sunni groups linked to al Qaeda killed 17 U.S. servicemen in a suicide attack on USS Cole off the coast of Yemen. This time, a Shiite militant group led by Sheikh al-Houti, Tehran's man in Yemen, played second fiddle in the operation. In Central Asia's Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Tehran has for years supported two Sunni movements, the Rastakhiz Islami (Islamic Awakening) and Hizb Tahrir Islami (Islamic Liberation Party). In Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, Tehran supports the Sunni Taleshi groups against the Azeri Shiite majority. The reason? The Taleshi Sunnis are pro-Russian and anti-American, while the Shiite Azeris are pro-American and anti-Russian. There are no Palestinian Shiites, yet Tehran has become the principal source of funding for radical Palestinian Sunni groups, notably Hamas, Islamic Jihad and half a dozen leftist-atheist minigroups. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh refuses to pray alongside his Iranian hosts during his visits to Tehran. But when it comes to joining Khomeinist crowds in shouting "Death to America" he is in the forefront. With Arab oil kingdoms no longer as generous as before, Iran has emerged as the chief source of funding for Hamas. The new Iranian budget, coming into effect on March 21, allocates over $2 billion to the promotion of "revolutionary causes." Much of the money will go to Hamas and the Lebanese branch of Hezbollah. In Pakistan, the Iran-financed Shiite Tehrik Jaafari joined a coalition of Sunni parties to govern the Northwest Frontier Province, until they all suffered a crushing defeat at last month's parliamentary elections. The fact that the Sunnis and Shiites in other provinces of Pakistan continued to kill each other did not prevent them from developing a joint, anti-U.S. strategy that included the revival of the Afghan Taliban and protection for the remnants of al Qaeda. Almost all self-styled "holy warriors" who go to Iraq on a mission of murder and mayhem are Sunnis. And, yet most pass through Syria, a country that, as already noted, is dominated by a sect with a militant anti-Sunni religious doctrine. Next month, Tehran will host what is billed as "The Islamic Convergence Conference," bringing together hundreds of Shiite and Sunni militants from all over the world. The man in charge, Ayatollah Ali-Muhammad Taskhiri, has described the goal of the gathering to be delivering "a punch in the face of the American Great Satan." Still, Mr. Obama might ask: what about al Qaeda and Iran? The 9/11 Commission report states that Tehran was in contact with al Qaeda at various levels before the 2001 attacks. Tehran has admitted the presence of al Qaeda figures in Iran on a number of occasions, and has arranged for the repatriation of at least 13 Saudi members in the past five years. The Bin Laden family tells us that at least one of Osama's sons, Sa'ad, has lived in Iran since 2002. Reports from Iran claim that scores of Taliban leaders and several al Qaeda figures spend part of the year in a compound-style housing estate near the village of Dost Muhammad on the Iranian frontier with Afghanistan. One way to verify these claims is to allow the world media access to the area. But Tehran has declared large segments of eastern Iran a "no-go" area, even for its own state-owned media. In short, the claim that al Qaeda and the Khomeinists, not to mention other terrorist groups operating in the name of Islam, would not work together simply because they have theological differences is both naive and dangerous. Messrs. McCain and Obama do not need to know about doctrinal differences between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. The problem they face is not theological but political. All they need to know is that there are deadly and determined groups dedicated to destruction of the U.S. in the name of a perverted version of Islam, and that they need to be resisted, fought and ultimately defeated. The Daily Alert is sponsored by Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and prepared by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA). To subscribe to their free daily alerts, send an email to daily@www.dailyalert.jcpa.org To Go To Top

NEW TERRORIST TRAPS ATTEMPT TO FOOL TROOPS Posted by Daily Alert, March 31, 2008.

Terrorists deploy new booby-traps: Bombs meant to explode in soldiers' hands hidden in books, canteens, shampoo bottles. IDF special task force: 'There is no room for error' This was written by Yossi Yehoshua and it was published in YNET news http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0%2c7340%2cL-3524720%2c00.html

'Yahalom', a special task force of the Engineering Corps, is battling a revolution in the world of terrorism these days. A few months ago a unit of troops from the force was doing a routine scan of a seemingly ordinary tunnel dug by Hamas militants near the Karni Crossing in Gaza, when they discovered that the hen-house blocking the entrance was actually a ticking time bomb. This is one of the many examples of sophisticated terrorist plots the task force has come in contact with lately, in which Palestinians hid bombs inside of mundane objects. Recently Yahalom soldiers have seen booby-trapped books, egg trays, canteens, and even baby shampoo bottles. On the eve of perhaps yet another operation in Gaza, this is worrying news for the IDF. Deputy commander of the force, Major Eran Davidi, warned that the plots' ingenuity lies in setting the bombs to respond to touch. Thus, if an IDF soldier opens the booby-trapped book or picks up the army-issue canteen from the ground, the bomb explodes in his hands. Another way terrorists have chosen to disguise bombs is inside of plastic rocks. The troops nicknamed these faux rocks skirts, because they must be lifted in order to recognize the trap. "Recognizing a 'skirt' in open territory full of rocks that all look exactly the same is a real mission impossible," Davidi remarked. Dealing with the threat well The task force distinguishes between operations performed in Gaza and those performed in other territories, such as the north of Israel. Davidi explained that the controlled detonation of bombs should ideally be performed in open territory, but in Gaza the heavy population makes controlled detonation very difficult. "The operations almost require tweezers," he said. The good news is that during the last three years Yahalom has been recognized as deserving of more funds, and new technology has been made available to the force. For example, recently they received a new light-weight robot that has the added bonus of a deployment arm. Use of the robot quickly replaced the presence of soldiers in dangerous areas, such as tunnels and other enclosed spaces. Even so, the IDF continues to invest in the competence of the Yahalom troops. "It is crucial that they stay on their toes. There is no room for error," said Davidi. "The enemy has had a few successes, but when compared to the amount of failures they point to an overall conclusion, that the IDF is managing to deal with the threat quite well." The Daily Alert is sponsored by Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and prepared by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA). To subscribe to their free daily alerts, send an email to daily@www.dailyalert.jcpa.org To Go To Top

ISRAELI CRIMES IN HUMSA AND HADIDIYA –– AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HOAX Posted by Simon McIlwaine, March 31, 2008.

This article was written by Ami Isseroff and comes from his March 25, 2008 article on the ZioNation-Zionism and Israel website http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000515.html

Amnesty International is sending out letters to the faithful asking them to protest an Israeli crime: Israel is denying water and electricity to Arab Palestinians, destroying their villages that have existed since time immemorial and driving them off their land -- another Nakba. If it were true it would be truly frightening and shameful. From what I can learn, this circular letter ought to be listed in Snopes and Urban legends. The letter reads: "Dear Ehud Olmert –– Prime Minister, I am concerned to learn that house demolitions are continuing and that currently the residents of Humsa and Hadidiya face the demolition of their homes and expulsion from their area. I call for the demolition and expulsion orders to be rescinded, for harassment to end, and for confiscated property to be returned. Another grave concern is the restrictions placed on the residents living in the area and the failure to be allowed access to essential resources such as water and electricity. I urge you to remove any hindrance to the residents' access to water, electricity and other basics needed to survive. Please allow the Palestinian villagers in the Jordan Valley to move freely within the Jordan Valley, and between the valley and the rest of the West Bank. I ask that you impose a moratorium on house demolitions and forced evictions in the occupied West Bank until the law is amended to bring it into line with international standards. Finally, I would also like to take this opportunity to urge you to remove the responsibility for planning and building regulations in the Jordan Valley and elsewhere in the Occupied Palestinian Territories from the Israeli military authorities and to transfer it solely to the local Palestinian communities. Many thanks for your attention to this serious matter. I look forward to receiving your response." Note that this supposed humanitarian protest has included a number of political demands that add up to "end the occupation now, unconditionally." The letter is not intended to really influence PM Olmert, who is no doubt informed about the actual nature of activities in the Jordan valley. However it does influence the Amnesty International recipients and donors who get the letter. Any reasonable person would infer from the letter, that Israel is uprooting thousands of Arab Palestinians from a verdant paradise where they have lived since the time of Goliath, tending their flocks like the patriarchs of old. Evil Zionists driving Caterpillar bulldozers demolished the picturesque stone houses of the Palestinian Arabs, which have stood for hundreds, maybe thousands of years in Filastin. Fat Nazi-like IDF officers cutting the electric wires and settler fanatics poisoning the wells. Veritably a second Nakba. Worse than the Holocaust without a doubt. Here is a picture of the "verdant paradise" and the great metropolises that Israel is destroying, from a pro-Palestinian source, POICA: Verdant Arab Palestinian village "destroyed by Israel" (source: poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=1123 ) A picture is worth 10,000 words. The light brown stuff is called sand. This type of region is generally called desert. The villages that have stood from time immemorial turn out to be tents and tar paper and sheet metal shacks. This is freely admitted by the POICA: ...the local people who confirmed that all the dwellings are of primitive nature built of animal hair tents and barracks which are very easy to dismantle at any time.... The population of Al Hadidiya and Humsa derived from the families of Basharat and Bani Odeh from Tamun village to the east of Tubas city. Before the occupation of 1967, a portion of Tamun people moved to settle in a place called Al Hadidiya in the Buqei'a valley which is about 10 km to the eat of Tubas, and began to rear animal due to the availability of rich soil, pastures and water... ...the supreme court issued a decision confining them to stay in 91 dunums which are un enough for the livelihood of their cattle whose number is estimated at 10000. [English errors reproduced as in the original] POICA's map shows that the real name of Humsa is Khirbet Humsa, which means ruin of Humsa –– a village that was abandoned a very long time ago. Some of the people in question are from the Bani Odeh "family." Bani Odeh is probably the name of a Bedouin tribe. Amnesty International tells us, under the scare headline, "Evictions crisis deepens for Palestinian villagers" (source: amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/Evictions-crisis-deepens-for- Palestinian-villagers-20070820") More than 100 villagers, most of them children, risk losing their homes and being forced out of the area."(emphasis added) That is the entire crisis that demands world attention, and requires that the Israeli government immediately end the occupation. "More than 100" people have violated a court order and pitched tents in the desert, and they "risk" losing their homes. Well yes, if you pitch your tent on public land, you are trespassing, and and you risk losing your home, if home is where the tent is. But one suspects that these people have adequate permanent housing in town. Imagine if you pitched your tent in Yucca flats, and the evil US Army arrived and said, "You can't stay here, it's a closed military area." You call amnesty, and next thing you know Amnesty International and the United Nations are condemning the US government and demanding that they stop the "house demolitions," and run water pipes and electric lines to your house. It is interesting that this story has gotten little mention in the Israeli press. There are no articles presenting the Israeli point of view and no mention of the court decisions. There is only one article by Gideon Levy in Ha'aretz (Source: haaretz.com/hasen/spages/903676.html) that paints the same fictitious atrocity story that Amnesty International does, with a bit of additional embroidery and a small "improvement." Levy insists that these are not "Bedouin" but "Palestinians: In the summer everyone is together; in the winter the women and children are in Tamun and the men remain with the flocks. We sit in the shade of used flour sacks stretched between wooden poles, a substitute for the tents that were destroyed. The women crowd together on the ground behind a curtain made from another sack of flour. There is no electricity, no water, no sewer, no school. Nothing. Despite their lifestyle, these people are not Bedouin but rather Palestinian shepherds –– even if the documents of the omniscient Civil Administration sometimes indicate otherwise. Abu Saker says his father was born here, too. For decades they have been shepherds in these deserted areas. How does Levy decide they are not Bedouin? It is not Israeli documents, but anti-Israeli articles that claim they are Bedouin. They live as Bedouin live. Somehow it is supposed to be the fault of the Israeli government that there is no water, no sewage and no electricity in the middle of the desert. Does illegal "possession" for decades grant right of ownership? But the most important revelation of Gideon Levy is that this is just a summer encampment of people who live in Tamun, and decided to expropriate some land for their flocks. If some Jerusalemites erect tents in a park, is that OK because they lived in the area for decades? If I decide to set up a sheep farm in Arizona, is the US government obliged to supply water and sewage and electricity? Of course, the argument that Levy and others are trying to make is that these are just "temporary" encampments. But if the "Palestinians" (Bedouin or otherwise) had built stone houses there, would Amnesty International or Gideon Levy or POICA or the UN (which also publicized this hoax) be any less upset? If settlers put up an outpost next to Efrat or Ariel, will Gideon Levy say that they have a right to be there, because they have been "in the area" for decades? Will Amnesty international uphold the right of Palestinian Jews to these illegal outposts? Will they ask people to petition Ehud Olmert to stop destroying the settlements? It must take a special mentality for Amnesty International donors to pay money to an organization in order for them to receive hoax letters from that organization, which they are asked to forward to the Israeli government. I get my hoax letters for free and put them in the deleted folder. But if someone wants to pay for such letters, I will gladly supply all they want. In Britain they stopped teaching the Holocaust, Germany is boycotting Israel, the French are encouraging anti-Semitism, Barak Obama is a Muslim, Bill Gates is giving away $200 to each person who forwards the e-mail and this inexpensive preparation will make any 80 year old great grandmother look like Beyonce. (I should not have to add that these are all hoaxes and not true –– but based on some responses I got, it seems I need to add it. –– A.I.) If you want to contact Amnesty International about their hoax letter, you can do at the addresses listed in this contact form (or send email through the form) AI Contact on http://www.amnesty.org. Remember the one hundred people in their summer tents the next time you read about Israeli "atrocities" –– "expropriation," "house demolitions," and "war crimes" from a "reliable" source like Amnesty International or Ha'aretz newspaper. Simon McIlwaine is with Anglican Friends of Israel (www.anglicanfriendsofisrael.com). Contact him at Simon.McIlwaine@ormerods.co.uk To Go To Top

IT IS ABOUT TIME PEOPLE BEGAN TO PUSH BACK Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, March 31, 2008.

It is about time people began to push back. However once you begin to push back, you can not turn back. The next encounter will deliberately be violent to test the extent of people's resolve and how far they are willing to fight. Those organizing this resistance effort, please take that into account. If you are prepared to meet violence with violence and go beyond civil disobedience to active rebellion, fine. Just understand exactly what you are doing. Furthermore, please be sure you are in the front of the group and not in the back being interviewed by CNN in preparation for your next speaking tour. Leading people into a dangerous situation is an enormous responsibility. This news item is called "Police Retreat From Har Bracha" and it comes from today's Arutz-Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/144197 Stop complaining and fight back! Here's how: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/7702 http://www.nfc.co.il/Archive/003-D-27449-00.html?tag=04-32-31

(IsraelNN.com) The Police force and Civil Administration members have retreated from Har Bracha after worries that clashes with hundreds of protesters could break out. Police claimed they retreated in order to try and restore calm. The police planned to halt the placement of new caravan homes in the community on Monday morning. The decision is part of the Olmert administration's policy to not allow any new buildings in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. 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

NAZISM, COMMUNISM, ISLAMISM; CHENEY REPEATS THE MANTRA; RICE & EGYPT SAVE HAMAS Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 31, 2008.

HOW TO STOP THE ROCKETS An Israeli built his own rocket. His announcement alerted police, who confiscated it. This gave him the opportunity to advise other Israelis to make their own and discourage Gazans from firing at Israel (Prof. Steven Plaut, 3/5). MOTHERHOOD Motherhood. Wonderful? It isn't the same everywhere. Western mothers want their children to become distinguished professionals and benefactor of mankind. Many Muslim mothers in the P.A. want their sons to become suicide bombers. (Their notion of honor seems paramount, and "martyrs" honor their families and would lead the good life after death. Their families would be paid off.) International law bans such "martyrdom" by differentiating between combatants and civilians, who may not deliberately be attacked. Islamists who turn civilians into bombs, and who use human shields, don't follow those rules. They exploit their civilian appearance to kill civilians. If law enforcement personnel hesitate to shoot terrorists, they and civilians may get killed. Islamic terrorists make law enforcement more likely to shoot innocent civilians by mistake, and then they blame the law enforcement officials. The officials don't deserve the blame, but not everyone understands that. We must consider those who promote suicide bombing as terrorists –– criminals. This would include preachers of the death cult, people who lend or rent their houses for firing rockets (or smuggling arms), civilians who willingly become human shields. Then there are those who donate money for terrorism. We need new rules of warfare to allow us to fight effectively against those who don't follow the old rules (Alan Dershowitz in Plaut, 3/5). Why let barbarians abuse our humanitarianism to murder us? The US is somewhat sensible about this. Israel is particularly unwise about this, while praising itself for being moral. I think its government is immoral to allow its people to be murdered. I disapprove of journalists and critics of Pres. Bush who seize upon inadvertent civilian casualties as indicators of US brutality. The fact that the casualties are low should still their criticism. They simply call those casualties high, though they pale by comparison with earlier wars in my lifetime. DUTCH FILM DEPICTS ISLAM AS WORLD THREAT Internet sites tried to censor the film, but millions saw it and the UNO immediately condemned what, as it is described, was an accurate depiction. There were films of Islamist violence and the Islamists quoting Koranic authorization. Arutz-7 (3/28) noted that there were no riots. But agitators need time to rile up crowds. V.P. CHENEY REPEATS THE MANTRA He said that if the Palestinian Arabs want to qualify for their "long overdue" state west of the Jordan R., they should eradicate terrorism. Terrorism not only is wrongful, he explained, but it impedes the "legitimate hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people. He encouraged "the advocates of peace and reconciliation" (NY Sun, 3/25). What "legitimate hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people?" They are not a nationality, but pretend to be, in order to claim Jewish territory. Their aspiration is to take Israel away from the Jewish people and murder them. Not legitimate! I wonder whether Cheney knows that there already is a Palestinian Arab state –– Jordan –– and it is several times the size of Israel. What Muslim Arab "advocates of peace and reconciliation?" If there are any, they don't speak up. He doesn't name them. If named, they would be assassinated. Then they lack power. Who is supposed to eradicate terrorism? Abbas, who said he'd resume the "armed struggle," i.e., terrorism (not that he ever abandoned it, and his forces commit terrorism), if he doesn't get what he wants by negotiation. Negotiation and terrorism both are means to the same end, Islamic triumph over infidels, in this case, Israel. Why don't they eradicate terrorism, after all these years? Simple. It's how they fight, and it's what they deem legitimate, doesn't he know? Why "overdue" or even due? Because they long have been demanding that step towards the conquest of Israel? What have they done to deserve anything but mass-imprisonment? If he took 9/11 seriously, he would not support jihadists. Terrorism doesn't just impede formation of another Palestinian Arab state. It also hastens it. It is in response to terrorism that appeasement-minded people urge statehood for the terrorists. I wonder whether Cheney knows that the P.A. is anti-American and that its terrorist organizations are allied with Iran. ABBAS' FURTHER SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM Abbas said he will not sign a final peace agreement with Israel unless it releases all Palestinian Arab prisoners (IMRA, 3/9). Israel is holding thousands of terrorists in prison, convicted of murder or attempt/conspiracy to murder. They did not fight by the rules of warfare, and therefore are not prisoners of war but the worst of criminals. His advocacy of their release supports their terrorism. He has called them heroes. HOLLOW BOAST THAT ISRAEL DETERS HIZBULLAH? Investigation found that the murderer of the yeshiva students was taking orders from Hizbullah (IMRA, 3/9). Ha0mas said that hundreds of its troops were trained by Iran and that more are in process of being trained (IMRA, 3/10). PM Olmert has boasted that his war on Hizbullah (which ended inconclusively) deters Hizbullah from attacking Israel. In any case, Hizbullah has found another way. Its way is to work with Arabs in Israel. It recruited one from Jerusalem whose non-citizen residents are allowed to travel freely throughout Israel. Israeli Arab agitation, terrorism, and grip on the country keeps expanding. I think it is a serious mistake to allow a couple of hundred thousand enemy citizens to live in the capital of Israel, and to allow more than a million Arab Muslims to live in the country. Isn't that an obvious security problem? POLICE ARREST ARAB STONE-THROWERS They arrested ten who attacked Israeli cars (IMRA, 3/9). I report this, because often Israel does not arrest Arabs for attacking Jews and sometimes arrest Jews for resisting attack. CORRECTION Years ago I reported that half the 3.5 million people of Muslim Mauritania were slaves. The NY Sun of 3/24 reports that half a million are slaves. RICE & EGYPT SAVE HAMAS Just as it seemed that PM Olmert had run out of excuses for not invading Gaza and destroying Hamas, Sec. Rice brought an Egyptian formula for a truce. Although the week before, the Cabinet of Israel had voted to maintain pressure on Hamas, now the government has restrained the IDF, while Hamas has held off on most rocket attacks. The agreement is informal (relayed indirectly by Rice). The agreement does not advance the Cabinet's goals. Indeed, it gives Hamas latitude to accumulate more rockets for a greater, future bombardment. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com To Go To Top

SLEEPWALKERS IN DANGEROUS TIMES Posted by Phyllis Chesler, March 31, 2008.

I am intimately surrounded by enemy propaganda and I've only myself to blame. For example, I have been reading Publishers Weekly (PW) for a very long time. I don't have to but I won't give it up. Yes, I have noted the leftward drift of their reviews but, like the New York Times, whose editors and book reviewers have drifted similarly left-ward, PW remains a "must" for all those who want to read reviews of upcoming book titles and who want to know what publishing deals are in the works. In their March 10th issue (I am behind this month), there is an image on page 66 and a glowing review on page 74. The photograph is titled "Palestinians waiting to be processed at an Israeli checkpoint, West Bank." Yes, another image, another work. The book is titled Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation. The anonymous reviewer finds the book "urgent," and focuses on how many Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli military operations-as if Israelis planned to kill the children. This image, this idea, this reality has been burned into Western and Eastern brains. The Chinese Occupation of Tibet, the Sudanese genocide, the thousands of Muslim on Muslim atrocities and Islamist acts of terrorism all pale by comparison. The "Israeli checkpoints" was an accusation hurled at me when I spoke at Barnard in 2003. As I described the features of Islamic gender and religious apartheid, (honor killings, arranged marriage, polygamy, forced veiling, female genital mutilation, etc.) the assembled feminist crowd kept yelling at me to "admit" or to "focus on" the checkpoints. No matter what I said, they shouted back: "What about the humiliation at the checkpoints?" They were very noisy for "sleepwalkers." Here is how one of Doris Lessing's characters in the novel The Four Gated City viewed others going about their daily lives: "They all looked half drugged or half asleep, dull, as if the creatures had been hypnotized or poisoned as if they were not conscious of their existence here, were somewhere else. But the most frightening thing about them was this: that they walked and moved and went about their lives in a condition of sleepwalking: they were not aware of themselves, of other people, of what went on around them, they were essentially isolated, shut in." Ah, yes. But today, our "sleepwalkers" have more of an edge. If anyone interrupts their "sleepwalking" they angrily turn on them, call them "racists," "alarmists," "provocateurs." Dutch politicians blame and wish to hold only Geert Wilders liable in case his film, "Fitna," leads to riots or to any boycotts of Dutch goods. They do not condemn Muslim acts of violence in the name of Islam. Left European groups blame the Danish cartoons and Ayaan Hirsi Ali for unecessarily "provoking" Muslim rage and endangering both Holland and Denmark. Those Americans who are voting for Obama honestly hope that his shadow, blended Christian-Muslim and person-of-color identity will usher in a diplomatic love affair between Obama's America and the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al-Qaeda. Those Americans who are (Just Make My Day) waiting to vote for McCain, believe that it is World War Two again and that a John Wayne war hero will win the day for America and the West. I am no longer sure what Hilary Clintons' people dare to fantasize, All attempts to explain the precise way in which Islam is different from other religions-that it is not just a religion but is, rather, a political ideology or at least, it is not only a religion-falls on absolutely deaf ears. Document the genocidal history of Muslims towards non-Muslims (and towards each other); document Islamic gender apartheid and the tragic fate of Muslim women-and it is as if nothing has been said. More: It is as if one has spoken out of turn, with malice aforethought. In response to the Islamist death-eaters of today, the "sleepwalkers" say: "But we have also had Crusaders, (but they were trying to take back Christian lands from Arab Muslim invaders-but why quibble?), a Christian Inquisition, an American genocidal extermination of native-Indians, ancient Israel was commanded to murder all the pagans in the Holy Land, (but they did not do so-again, why quibble), etc." Others say: "America is the New Crusader, 9/11 was our own fault-hey, that's what Obama's Pastor, Jeremiah Wright, said and it is deemed uncivilized, unfair, boring, and racist to harp upon this. One might as well howl right into the wind. Let me try to say this in World War Two terms one more time. But please remember that we live in far more dangerous times. The rise of Islamist suicide terrorism and Big Lie propaganda is equivalent to Hitler's rise. At the end of the day, it did not matter that individual Germans were very polite, or personally peaceful, or that they loved music. Their refusal to stop Hitler led to eleven million deaths and great suffering. But this knowledge demands that one gird up one's loins and Do Something, even something educational and non-violent. And our "sleepwalkers" have been too heavily propagandized or are too busy dreaming of peace. And I have a nasty virus and face surgery and can but write this fevered column, my daily note-in-a-bottle, meant for you. Dr. Phyllis Chesler is an Emerita Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies at City University of New York. She is an author and lecturer and co-founder of the still ongoing Association for Women in Psychology (1969). Visit her website at http://pajamasmedia.com/xpress/phyllischesler/ To Go To Top

WRONG AGAIN! BY RABBI "A" Posted by Emanuel A. Winston, March 31, 2008.

People make a big mistake. They think that the evacuation from Gaza was in order to advance the "peace process" –– and that the Jewish settlers in Gush Katif/Gaza just happened to get hurt in the process. Wrong. The purpose of the Gush Katif/Gaza evacuation was to hurt the settlers –– and the "peace process" was just an excuse. People think that putative attempts by the world, abetted by Quisling-style Israeli government to make Judea and Samaria Judenrein (Jew-free), is in order to advance the "peace process". Wrong again. Their goal is to make Judea, Samaria (and Jerusalem and Tel Aviv) Judenrein. The "peace process" is just a flimsy excuse. We have all been imagining that the "peace process" was real. Yet, we couldn't understand how any moderately rational individual would be so stupid, or so delusional, to imagine that anybody at all on the Muslim-Arab/Palestinian side wanted to make peace. The insanity of it all was driving people to literally "pull their hair out" in frustration. You see, they really weren't all that dumb, or locked up in their own fantasy world. They all know that this so-called "peace process" has absolutely no chance whatsoever. They know that it will leave what is left of Israel in a vulnerable position. That is exactly what they want! Ever hear the expression: "Crazy like a fox"? What did you think, that anti-Semitism had disappeared? They want to destroy the Jewish people and the Jewish Land because we carry the G-d given message of morality to the world. They don't want to be moral. So what should we do? Taking on the whole world is not an easy thing. We see how the nations of the world failed to stop the Holocaust –– some even assisted. They didn't even let fleeing refugees in. We've tried rallies and reason –– they didn't seem to have much of an effect. There is one hope. It takes a bit of effort. If we simply return to following G-d, completely –– He has offered to do miracles for us. Or we can keep trying to do things "our" way. Most of the world will actually be destroyed or damaged –– largely for the sin of collaborating to harm G-d's Chosen People and for trying to silence G-d's messengers. Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at gwinston@gwinston.interaccess.com To Go To Top

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES GROW BY 'DEVIOUS' METHODS, CHARGE ANTI-MISSIONARIES Posted by Shoshanna Walker, March 30, 2008.

This was written by Daphna Berman and it appeared in Haaretz http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/ PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=969459

Recent success by controversial religious group Jehovah's Witnesses to bring in local Israelis has anti-missionary activists accusing the group of using devious recruitment methods. The Witnesses, as they are known, have had a presence here since the state's founding but say their active missionary work –– an obligation for members –– has gained traction in recent years, bringing in several hundred additional members. They now number an estimated 2,500 in Israel. Missionary work is not illegal here, though the law forbids proselytizing to minors or proselytizing with promises of financial or material gain. Still, missionary attempts rile up many Israeli Jews. Last week, a teenager from Ariel whose family is part of the city's small Messianic Jewish community was seriously injured after a bomb, disguised as a Purim package, went off in his apartment. The incident marks what some onlookers are calling an escalation in tension between religious groups that proselytize and the ultra-Orthodox Jews who actively oppose them. Meir Cohen, coordinator of the anti-missionary department at Yad L'Achim, says his ultra-Orthodox organization receives about a dozen calls a day from people complaining about Jehovah's Witnesses who come to their door. Accusing the Witnesses of targeting society's weaker elements, including new immigrants, the poor and the handicapped, critics blast what they call the group's devious recruitment methods. "They've mapped out all of Israeli society and then target segments that don't get attention elsewhere," said Cohen. "They introduce themselves, they smile, they are nice and they are successful. They cynically abuse people in distress and like other cults in Israel are growing." Cohen asserted they've actively proselytized in group homes for the deaf-mute, adding, "Jehovah's Witnesses, messianic Jews, scientologists all thrive here because there is no public awareness to counter them." "They target the less educated people and not the university professors," said Ruth Cohen, a former member who returned to Judaism in 2002. "In Tel Aviv, they go building to building, but in Jerusalem, they are more careful because they are terrified of the ultra-Orthodox. They target Russians, foreign workers and Arabs –– but not Muslims, because that is considered too dangerous." David Namer, head of the group's non-profit organization, countered in a recent interview that most of its members are Israeli and that their movement cuts across ethnic and socioeconomic lines –– rejecting claims of honing in on the weak. "We go to Ramat Aviv," added spokesperson Eran Katri, referring to the affluent north Tel Aviv neighborhood. Both representatives denied charges their movement is a cult. The movement –– called "the Chabad of the Christian world" by Cohen –– has a national office off the Nachalat Binyamin pedestrian mall in Tel Aviv, but claims to have a presence in most major cities, including Haifa, Beer Sheva, Jerusalem and Ashdod. The work of Jehovah's Witnesses is hardly new to Israelis who have spent significant time abroad. In the U.S., home to the movement's international headquarters, they have about one million active members who go door to door to spread their message. Here, small numbers make their evangelizing less noticeable. Methods, however, are similar: believers canvass neighborhoods, stand on street corners and approach strangers on places like the Tel Aviv beach promenade. "We believe that sharing our faith is an obligation," Katri said. "We spread a message and if someone becomes a Jehovah's Witness, it is his choice." According to Jehovah's Witnesses officials, some 1,300 active members in Israel engage in spreading the message. "We are seeing an increase in the numbers of people who come to us," said Namer. "But relatively speaking, we are still quite small." The group, which is active in some 230 countries, is known for their refusal to take blood infusions as well as for their persecution during World War II by the Nazis. Claiming to have nearly 7,000,000 practicing members, they are especially controversial for the way they treat those who leave the flock. A Jehovah's Witness who behaves in a way that the community deems immoral is completely excommunicated, or "disfellowshipped," in the parlance of the congregation –– an experience Ruth Cohen had to live through. Jehovah's Witnesses do not consider themselves part of Christianity –– which they see as idolatrous –– despite their belief in Jesus as the messiah. They also do not accept the Trinity or use the cross as a religious symbol. Members of the group dress modestly and meet some three times a week at their local "Kingdom Halls" to worship, study, pray and sing. They say they are firm adherents of the Bible. Namer referenced verses from Genesis and Leviticus during the interview to prove a point. "To be a Witness doesn't just mean to be a believer," explained Penina Taylor, director of the Jerusalem offices of Jews for Judaism, an international anti-missionary group. "Their raison d'etre is to share their faith." Ruth Cohen, who was a member for 30 years, believes that "Jews don't realize how serious the threat is and how much money and effort is being put into missionizing here." Namer, for his part, rejects criticism of the group. "It's a shame that [these people] don't respect other people's beliefs," he said. Contact Shoshanna Walker at rosewalk@concentric.net To Go To Top

THE WORLD WILL NOT ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS Posted by Dave Nathan, March 30, 2008.

This is by Mort Zuckerman, editor-in-chief and publisher of U.S. News and World Report.

The world applauded when Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, forcibly removing Jewish settlers. At last, the Palestinians were free to show how they could build their own society. But what did they do with their freedom? They elected the terrorist organization Hamas in 2006. First Fatah and now Hamas have rained 4,000 rockets on Israel, killed 24, and wounded 620 –– the equivalent of killing 1,200 Americans and wounding 31,000. The citizens of Sderot and Ashkelon have suffered a collective trauma; children fear that when parents leave for work, they will never see them again. And what does the world do? It criticizes Israel –– Israel! –– for a "disproportionate" response. Israel is discriminating in trying to defend its people. It attacks Gaza's rocket launchers, weapons factories, and terrorists, all hidden in civilian areas. What is a proportionate response? None at all, it seems. Hamas kills indiscriminately. It makes no distinction between civilians and combatants. But it is Israel that earns the opprobrium. The moral equivalency was evident in a New York Times headline: "Hamas and Israelis Trade Attacks, Killing at Least Nine." Nor did TV broadcast pictures of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza celebrating the news that eight teenagers had been shot dead and many more injured in the library of a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem. Would Paris, London, Bonn, or New York sit back quietly if terrorists attacked from sanctuaries somewhere just off their borders? Silent voices. Where is the world's outrage against these Palestinian war crimes? Twelve resolutions have passed the United Nations Human Rights Council on the conflict, but not one has made even a passing reference to the terrorism against Israel. Where is the appreciation that while under attack, Israel has continued to supply its enemies with electricity and with 2,500 tons of food and medicines every day? Last year, 14,000 Gazan Palestinians were treated in Israeli medical facilities. But Palestinians continue to get away with their confidence trick of persuading the world that they are the victims. The death of every Arab woman and child is a propaganda victory for Hamas, so it uses women and children as human shields and then exaggerates the casualties. The distortion foisted on the world is manifest in the celebrated case of the death of Mohammed al-Dura, who was alleged to have been shot by the Israelis in Gaza on the first day of the intifada. Now an independent French ballistic expert reports that he could not have died from Israeli gunfire. The technical analysis shows the shots could have come only from Palestinian positions. And what of the Palestinian leader supposed to be leading the peace effort? Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas says, "What is happening now in Gaza is more than a Holocaust." Absurd? This from the "peacemaker" whose doctoral dissertation included the theory that European Zionists conspired with the Nazis to push for the Holocaust so that it could ultimately result in the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. According to Abbas's writings, 6 million Jews were not sent to the gas chambers to be killed but were among corpses cremated for sanitation reasons. Some suggest Israel should deal with Hamas; there is talk of Egypt negotiating a truce. But why negotiate with an enemy dedicated to Israel's destruction? Recognition of Hamas would prove that terrorism, not diplomacy, is the way to gain Israeli concessions –– not to speak of international support –– and would strengthen Hamas in the West Bank. Any truce would protect the smuggling of arms and munitions until Hamas can attack again, with missiles that can reach Tel Aviv. This current turmoil is a direct outcome of Bush administration misjudgments. We forced the Israelis and the Palestinians to include Hamas in the 2006 election. Later, we caused the removal of Israeli control of the Philadelphi road, a crucial barrier in the protection against the smuggling of arms, insisting it be left to the Palestinians under Egyptian and European supervision. Israeli protests that foreign troops would not stop either terrorists or arms from making their way into Gaza went unheeded. America has an extra moral obligation to defuse this crisis. We should pressure Egypt by both political and economic means to stop the smuggling. Hamas must be contained. In the meantime, we have a war of attrition with Hamas determined to show Fatah's Abbas that terrorism is the only path. In the process, Hamas has made a mockery of President Bush and the Annapolis process. It has made it clear in blood that it will not permit Abbas to conduct real diplomatic negotiations. The entire Arab world watches to see if Israel can find can find a way to deter Hamas –– or if terrorism, with the acquiescence of the hand-wringers, can win. Contact Dave Nathan at DaveNathan@aol.com To Go To Top

1945 TO 2008: A LESSON FROM DRESDEN –– EXISTENTIAL WARS HAVE ONLY MILITARY SOLUTIONS Posted by Sergio Tessa (HaDaR), March 30, 2008.

This was written by Eliav Bar-Hai. He has a degree in International Relations from UCLA, is a 30-year resident of YESHA and the Golan; and works in high tech manufacturing. It appeared March 28, 2008 in Arutz-Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/7868

Existential wars have only military solutions. Sixty-three years ago, the Allied air forces bombed the German city of Dresden into oblivion, accelerating the final defeat of the Nazi regime and bringing a rapid end to the Second World War just four months later. Today's Islamofascist Jihad is gaining ground against the non-Islamic world and the Islamists are on the threshold of obtaining nuclear weapons. The failure of the West, including the USA, Europe and Israel, to recognize and deal seriously with this existential threat could have catastrophic ramifications for the future of mankind. It is therefore educationally imperative to review the concluding events of World War II and thus gain a better perspective of how fascist national cults have been successfully dealt with in the past. By Spring of 1945, the war in Europe and Asia against the fascists had been won militarily, yet the two primary Axis powers were still defiant and determined to fight to the end, in the hope of causing the maximum number of American and British casualties. The large task that remained for the Allies was the invasion and occupation of Germany and Japan. To this end, the US and Great Britain intensified their aerial bombardment of Germany in preparation for the final assault. The allies decided to "upgrade" their tactics to achieve the maximum psychological impact on the enemy, to teach him the folly of further resistance. This new campaign reached its peak in a massive bombardment of the city of Dresden on the night of February 13, 1945. The RAF dispatched some 200 heavily-laden aircraft during the night that were followed the next day by 400 bombers of the US 8th Air Force, followed by three more waves of bombings in March and April. The aircraft dropped incendiary bombs on one of Europe's oldest and most beautiful architectural monuments, built from wood to a large extent, and succeeded in obliterating virtually the entire city. Some 100,000 German civilians were incinerated (some estimates range as high as 135,000) –– as many people as were killed in the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima six months later. Dresden had no military installations or strategic value other than being a communications center. The primary purpose of the bombing was to assist the advance of the Red Army and to demoralize the German population. The "success" of the attack on Dresden inspired a change of tactics on the Japanese front, as well. Instead of high altitude bombing runs in daylight that caused little damage, low-level night-time napalm strikes were initiated with impressive results. The first, on the night of March 9-10, destroyed 25% of Tokyo's flimsy wood buildings, killing more than 80,000 people –– twice the number killed in Nagasaki in the second atomic bomb attack –– and made more than one million homeless. Similar raids followed against Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka and Yokohama. This phenomenal carnage was not "collateral damage" (a euphemism for inadvertent killing of civilians), but targeted mass annihilation of civilian populations for its morale-weakening contribution to a military effort. The ultimate political goal of the above military effort was to destroy Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan –– two nations whose organized national purpose, supported by their civilian populations, was willful imperialism by force and large-scale killing. What is the significance of these last-century events for Israel and the West in the context of the ongoing ruthless Islamic war against "global non-belief" (a Wahabi Islamic term for all non-Muslims)? First, the Allies in World War II recognized that total existential war is fought between peoples or nations. This is decidedly different from today's politically correct and militarily impotent "War On Terror." The German and Japanese people wholeheartedly supported an aggressive, genocidal war effort and willingly sent their sons and husbands to fight and butcher in the name of Emperor and Fuhrer. The British lost 93,000 civilians in German air raids, the Chinese are estimated to have lost 20 million at the hands of the Japanese, the Russians suffered five million civilians killed, and the Jewish people suffered six million murdered in history's worst ethnic genocide. Israel and the USA are not facing a band of independent terrorists, but rather a national and religious movement supported by an international grouping of Islamofascist societies. This same jihadist warfare is being practiced by non-Arab converts to Islam in the US, Britain, Holland and other non-Arab, non-Muslim countries. These terrorists are not poor, downtrodden "desperate victims of occupation who have no other choice," as many in the Western press portray suicide murderers. Non-Arab converts in America who go out and shoot passersby because they are not Muslim or try to blow up an airliner with explosives in their shoes have joined the same jihadist Satanic cult that has declared war on the non-Islamic world. Second, the Allies in World War II ultimately realized –– in contrast to another modern mantra: "There is no military solution –– only a political solution" –– that existential wars have only military solutions, which dictate the political reshuffling that follows. In the wake of the "political solutions" early on in Hitler's methodical push to take over Europe, which strengthened Germany with Austria, the Sudetenland and Czechoslavakia, and Japan with southeast Asia, the Allies belatedly focused on military victory. When treated to a taste of their own tactics, and crushed with overwhelming force, both the Nazi and Japanese fascist regimes disintegrated, as did their popular national support. The defeat of the fascists in World War II was so complete that there was virtually no violent resistance in Germany and Japan from the end of the war until this day, even though the US maintains large military forces in both countries. Inadvertent civilian casualties will result from military action –– that is the price the Palestinian population must pay for supporting a war of genocide against the state of Israel. The reluctance by Israel to use force and the recurring one-sided retreat from territory (Oslo Accord retreats in the mid-1990s; the flight from Lebanon in May 2000; the destruction of all Jewish presence in Gush Katif and northern Samaria; the promise by Ehud Olmert of more retreats to come; the hesitancy to use force to stop the ongoing rocket and missile attacks against Sderot and Ashkelon) are an open admission of defeat in Islamic eyes. The immediate result of Israel's head-long flight from Lebanon in May 2000 was the Palestinians' war on Israel launched four months later and now in its eighth year. And Israel's decline is encouraging increasing numbers of Israeli Arabs and Druze citizens to participate in terrorist activities against the state, as they perceive a shifting of power and fluctuating long-term interests. Over 1,600 Israeli citizens have been murdered in the 10 years since the Oslo Accords were signed. Open warfare has been conducted by the Palestinians in the past eight years, with 1,200 victims on the Israeli side (compared with 679 casualties in the full-scale Six Day War against three regular armies). This is a long-term national and religious struggle that will either be won or lost; there will be no middle ground. And this war is not only Israel's, but of the West as a whole; the eyes of Islam are watching, from Egypt to Saudi Arabia to Iran. The Islamic jihad in all of its forms is measuring Israel's national will, and that of America, to fight. Sergio Tessa can be reached at Hadar-Israel@verizon.net. To Go To Top

FROM ISRAEL: DEPLORABLE Posted by Arlene Kushner, March 30, 2008.

Well, it was unlikely that Rice, who is here, would have readily walked away without further concessions from Israel for the sake of the "peace process." Some concessions, of some sort, from our craven, appeasing government. But what has taken place is above and beyond. After Rice met with Defense Minister Barak and PA Prime Minister Fayyad here in Jerusalem, she actually said she was "amazed" by the gestures being advanced by Israel. I don't wonder at her amazement, as this sort of one-sided, tushy-kissing effort to be nice to an entity that in fact wishes us gone is quite breath-taking. But, rather than being "amazed," I'm just plain shocked. And outraged. Rice announced that a number of concrete actions will be taken to improve the situation. ~~~~~~~~~~ Take a deep breath before reading this list of Barak's major offers: [] The establishment of a Palestinian city (or series of neighborhoods) north of the town of al-Bireh, outside of Ramallah, to be paid for by a Jordanian businessman, to alleviate housing shortages in the Ramallah area. It would house tens of thousands of Palestinians. This strikes me as most offensive of all. After the PA screams bloody murder about building a few hundred units in existing communities, and just one day after Abbas lied about this and said we were doing unprecedented building, we make this offer? [] Increasing the number of laborers allowed into Israel to 5,000. [] Taking down one checkpoint and 50 roadblocks, in order to ease the movement of Palestinians between the cities of Jenin, Tulkarm, Kalkilya and Ramallah. As I remember, these roadblocks went up because easy movement between these cities allowed weapons to be transported. [] Easing of restrictions on Palestinian public figures. But just about a week ago that a Palestinian official was caught smuggling large numbers of phones from Jordan. [] Easing security checks for Palestinian businessmen. Of course, a businessman would never aid a terrorist. Barak further suggested: [] Upgrading the infrastructure for aiding the Palestinians waiting at the crossings, the cost of which is estimated at NIS 8.3 million. [] Transferring 325 cars and logistic equipment from the IDF to the Palestinian security organizations, including generators, blankets and first aid kits. ~~~~~~~~~~ I have on occasion commented that our leaders who take such actions are crazy. But I've been cautioned by some readers to avoid saying that, because truly crazy people are absolved of responsibility for their actions –– and the comment is on the mark. What I will say, instead, is that this is very sick, but that Barak remains fully responsible for his decisions. ~~~~~~~~~~ You may be wondering what the PA will be offering in all of this. After all, Fayyad and Barak met together to put forward suggests to improve the situation. Well, it was agreed that the Palestinians security forces must assume "greater responsibility." I did not note a precise delineation of responsibility for what. They also agreed to step up efforts to "prevent terror." Again, that vagueness. Nothing that could be quantified or measured –– the way Barak's promises on taking down 50 roadblocks or allowing 5,000 laborers into Israel can be measured. I heard tonight, by the way, from a very reliable source that Rice said today that the US would be watching Israel closely to see that these commitments were honored. But the Palestinians? Hey, they can say they made an effort to prevent terror, they gave it their best. ~~~~~~~~~~ And Fayyad? This particular son of a bitch refused to make a public statement with Olmert and Rice. Take all that's offered, but not be seen to be too close to Israeli leader, who is an enemy of Palestine, after all. The photo op would not have served him in the street, which admires Hamas. ~~~~~~~~~~ And as if this is not bad enough, Barak and Olmert are making gestures to Syria regarding resuming peace negotiations. From a military perspective this is a disaster. I heard Maj. Gen (res) Yaakov Amidror –– former Commander of the IDF's National Defense College and currently with the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs –– speak on a panel sponsored by Likud Anglo tonight. As Syria's demand for peace is return of the Golan Heights, his assessment was that negotiating peace with Syria might mean we would ultimately find ourselves fighting Iranians in the Galil. Another panel member, Dan Diker –– Director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs and a Senior Foreign Policy Analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs –– made this incisive observation: Timing is everything. We have just seen that heads of major Arab countries are snubbing Syria by not participating in the conference in Damascus. And now? Now is the time we pick to undercut that message and confer legitimacy on Syria by reaching out to Assad? A theme of this panel was the recognition that concessions don't work. Israel, in 1993, had the notion that the more we gave the more the world would respect us. But the reverse has happened, as the world has lost respect for us and has stopped understanding that we have legitimate rights in this land. As we fail to stand up for ourselves, it is the Palestinian narrative that is being internalized internationally. ~~~~~~~~~~ One last comment before closing: I heard it tonight from an American with major contacts (as I've hard it before from an international lawyer here with Washington DC connections): Rice is running the show, and she's doing the work of Saudi Arabia. But Bush's attitude towards Israel is not the same as Rice's. He is being seriously misled: By Rice, whom he trusts, and by the PA leaders, whose lovely words of peace he trusts, and by the Israeli leaders, who tell him how much we're willing to give up. It may be futile. But it must be attempted at every juncture, calling on every possible political contact, sending every possible message: Bush needs to be provided with the realities. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info To Go To Top

OLMERT/LIVNI/BARAK WILLINGLY SACRIFICE ISRAEL FOR RICE'S FUTURE NOBEL AWARD Posted by Bryna Berch, March 30, 2008.

"Barak says will allow establishment of Palestinian city. Israeli source says US Secretary of State Rice was 'amazed' by Israeli gestures to Palestinians presented during three-way meeting with defense minister, Palestinian prime minister" The first item below is by Roni Sofer and appeared today in Ynet News. The second item by Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA is a list of "concessions" agreed to by Israel. Does this mean Israeli leaders are just weak? No, they are typical bullies –– they put Israel in jeopardy because they don't resist Rice's pressure but when they have the upper hand, they are despicable –– they put teenagers in jail for legal civil disobedience and place Israelis at risk of losing their lives. Likely Rice can handle them because she's also a craven bully but she's better at it –– she pushes where she can without mercy and caves when she encounters an alpha-er bitch or dog. The comments to the original article are interesting –– they note that Israel doesn't have the sheckels to improve medical care or help the Jewish poor or for job training, but they have the money to evict Jews from their homes. Why not give money to compensate Arabs to move back to Arabland? Others note that while Arabs live in Israel as citizens that vote, no Jews are allowed in Arab countries –– and nobody complains about that.

Condoleezza Rice was amazed by the Israeli gestures to the Palestinians, an Israeli source reported Sunday following a three-way meeting between the US secretary of state, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The Palestinian leader refused to issue a joint Palestinian-Israeli-American statement, which was supported by Barak due to the Israeli gestures to the Palestinians presented during the meeting. Rice eventually delivered a short statement, and the three officials were photographed and bid farewell. During the meeting, the US secretary of state received a 35-page booklet in English, prepared by Barak's assistants in three days. Barak demanded that the booklet include a series of real gesturers, which would manifest Israel's seriousness without harming the security of Israel's citizens. Ynet has learned that the series of gestures include the establishment of a city or several neighborhoods near the West Bank city of Ramallah, which would be financed by a Jordanian businessman. The project would be built north of the town of al-Bireh and is aimed to be inhabited by tens of thousands of Palestinians in a bid to ease the housing shortage in the Ramallah area. The city will be connected by a road in the Birzeit area, approved by the IDF. The plan is currently subject to the approval of the Civil Administration, in coordination with the Palestinians. 35 pages of restrictions to be eased Rice told Barak during the three-way meeting that she welcomed the serious work she was presented with. During her meetings Sunday with Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the US secretary of state said that such actions were the only way for the process to move forward. Fayyad, Rice and Barak in Jerusalem (Photo: AFP) The defense minister said during the meeting that Israel planned to remove the Mevo Horon outpost, in addition to two other outposts already removed. Barak also announced that 700 Palestinian police officers would be allowed to enter Jenin, and that a checkpoint and 50 dirt roadblocks would also be removed, easing the Palestinians' movement between the West Bank cities of Jenin, Tulkarm, Qalqilya and Ramallah. Additional gestures presented in the meeting include: * The establishment of a Palestinian police station in the B areas. * The transfer of 25 armored vehicles to the Palestinians. * Ease of restriction on Palestinian public figures. * Building two intersections for the Palestinians in the Hebron area. * Advancing the establishment of industrial zones in Jericho and hebron. * Increasing the number of laborers allowed to work in Israel to 5,000. In addition, Palestinian businesspeople passing through the crossing will undergo easier security checks, and the daily quota of people allowed to pass will be increased from 500 to 1,500. Barak also suggested upgrading the infrastructure for aiding the Palestinians waiting at the crossings, the cost of which is estimated at NIS 8.3 million, transferring 325 cars and logistic equipment from the IDF to the Palestinian security organizations, including generators, blankets and first aid kits, and looking into the possibility of handing bullet-proof vests to the police officers subject to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as building a sewage purification device in the Beit Hanoun area. As she left the meeting Sunday, Rice said that the parties discussed the need to improve reality in accordance with the route suggested at the Annapolis peace conference. She added that Barak and Fayyad told her they had met before her arrival and would continue to meet in the future. Rice's previous visit to the region took place only three weeks ago, and her recent remarks testify to Washington's dissatisfaction with the progress made. The US is concerned about the continued Israeli construction in the territories, the failure to evacuate illegal outposts and the presence of roadblocks across the West Bank. Dr. Aaron Lerner commented: Stop the presses! The following is an exhaustive list of concrete security achievements that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced the PA would be setting as its goals in order to enhance the security in the area and in order to insure that the Israeli security concessions would not be exploited by terrorists: (left intentionally blank) Question: Why is it that when the Olmert team sat down with the others to negotiate this announcement that they did not demand that the Palestinians also bring something concrete to the table? Yes –– the Palestinians are going to deploy more gunmen –– aka policemen. And they said that they are going to make an effort. But while Israel has measurable performance requirements (the number of roadblocks dismantles, for example) the goals for the Palestinians are extremely vague. How about a goal for the number of weapons that they cease and hand over for destruction by a third party? How about a goal for the number of terrorists arrested, prosecuted and sent to prison? (not just stopped for a moment and then sent on their way) ] "DM Barak Meets Us Secy. Of State Rice & Palestinian Authority Pm Fayyad" (Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser) Defense Minister Ehud Barak today (Sunday), 30.3.08, met with US Secretary of state Dr. Condoleeza Rice, at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. The two first met privately; later, they were joined by their delegations. Following the meeting, Defense Minister Barak held a three-way meeting with Secy. of State Rice and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, at which the three discussed various regional, diplomatic and security issues. Defense Minister also presented a package regarding the easing of various restrictions on the Palestinians, which he approved last week. The package is as follows: Easing of Security Restrictions (fabric of life, law and order) 1. Approximately 50 dirt roadblocks will be removed thus enabling vehicular traffic between Jenin, Tulkarm, Kalkilya and Ramallah. 2. The opening of the permanent checkpoint in the Rimonim area. 3. Approval for the establishment of Palestinian police stations in B and B+ areas in order to promote law and order, after a comprehensive picture of deployments in Judea and Samaria will have been presented. 4. The deployment of 700 police personnel in the Jenin area (following their return from training in Jordan). Ultimate security responsibility will remain in Israel's hands. 5. Mechanisms for issuing action permits for Palestinian forces for movement to B areas and for movement across brigade areas, in order to better deal with law and order, will be improved. 6. An inquiry into lifting additional roadblocks and checkpoints in Judea and Samaria will be carried out in the coming weeks, with the intention of completion by mid-May. 7. The delivery of 25 APC's –– out of 50 –– was approved. 8. The delivery of 125 vehicles and pieces of logistical equipment for the Palestinian security forces has been approved 9. Approval of non-lethal equipment for the Presidential Guard is under consideration. 10. Various restrictions on the movement of public figures have been eased. 11. Various restrictions on the movement of businessmen have been eased. 12. Maximum assistance will be rendered vis-a-vis the 21-23.5.08 business conference in Bethlehem. 13. A senior Coordinator of Activities in the Territories officer has been appointed to deal with all issues involving the conference. Increase of Employment in Israel 14. An additional 5,000 permits will be issued for construction work in Israel (the current quota is approximately 18,500). Easing of Restrictions at Crossings (fabric of life) 15. Opening of the Sha'ar Ephraim Crossing for commercial activity on Fridays (immediate implementation). 16. Easing of pressure at the Kalandia and Rachel crossings by diverting prisoners' visits to the Beituniya Crossing. 17. Upgrading biometric procedures. 18. Upgrading the humanitarian infrastructure at crossings. 21-23.5.08 Bethlehem Economic Conference for Investors A. To allow the passage of businessmen from Arab countries, the United Kingdom, Turkey, the Palestinian Authority and Israel on a VIP footing (without checks) at Ben-Gurion International Airport, the Allenby Bridge, the internal crossings (especially in the Jerusalem area), as per the lists and pre-screening. B. Israeli businessmen will be allowed to enter Bethlehem for the conference. C. Approval has been given for the organized movement of businessmen in Judea and Samaria cities and into Israel (including Jerusalem and Nazareth). D. Hours at the Allenby Crossing will be extended to 24:00 on 20.5.08 and 24.5.08. Advancing the Establishment of Industrial Zones in Jericho, Hebron and Mukibla A. The Tarkumiya Industrial Zone in the Hebron District –– the goal is to move the "Ankara idea" from the Erez Industrial Zone to Judea and Samaria. The zone will receive Turkish financing. B. An industrial zone will be established for the processing and marketing abroad of Palestinian agricultural produce. The Japanese industrial zone in Jericho will be established close to the city. Japan, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency and Jordan will be involved. To Go To Top

EU RELEASES 300 MILLION EUROS IN AID FOR PALESTINIANS Posted by Daisy Stern, March 30, 2008.

This news item comes from Agence France Presse.

The European Commission released 300 million euros (467 million dollars) in aid for the Palestinian Territories Tuesday, from the 440 million euros the EU executive has pledged for this year. Of the total, 71 million euros is earmarked to go to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), a commission spokeswoman said. The rest is to go to a new EU mechanism –– dubbed PEGASE –– intended to channel aid to help build a Palestinian state, with 176 million euros destined for supporting public services. At the Paris donors' conference last December, Europe pledged more than half of the total 7.481 billion dollars (4.8 billion euros) in aid commitments to support the Palestinian Authority and recently revived peace talks. At the time, the commission pledged 440 million euros in aid for the Palestinians this year. Last Wednesday, the United States granted 150 million dollars to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's West Bank government in a first installment of the 555 million dollars Washington pledged at the donors' conference. Contact Daisy Stern by email at daisystern1@gmail.com To Go To Top

FROM OUR EVER-EXPANDING YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP FILE: U.K. MUSLIM BUS DRIVER HALTS BUS TO PRAY Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, March 30, 2008.

This was posted by Marisol on the Jihad Watch website: http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/020496.php It was written by Alex Peake and Andy Crick for the Sun http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article976258.ece.

A MUSLIM bus driver told stunned passengers to get off so he could PRAY. The white Islamic convert rolled out his prayer mat in the aisle and knelt on the floor facing Mecca. Passengers watched in amazement as he held out his palms towards the sky, bowed his head and began to chant. One, who filmed the man on his mobile phone, said: "He was clearly praying and chanting in Arabic. "We thought it was a wind-up at first, like Jeremy Beadle." The 21-year-old plumber added: "He looked English and had a London accent. He looked like a Muslim convert, with a big, bushy beard. "Eventually everyone started complaining. One woman said, 'What the hell are you doing? I'm going to be late for work'." After a few minutes the driver calmly got up, opened the doors and asked everyone back on board. But they saw a rucksack lying on the floor of the red single-decker and feared he might be a fanatic. So they all refused. The passenger added: "One chap said, 'I'm not getting on there now'. "An elderly couple also looked really confused and worried. "After seeing that no-one wanted to get on he drove off and we all waited until the next bus came about 20 minutes later. I was left totally stunned. It made me not want to get on a bus again." The bizarre event unfolded on the number 81 in Langley, Berkshire, at around 1.30pm on Thursday. The passenger said he rang the bus firm to complain but claimed it did not believe him. He said: "They asked me, 'Are you sure?'. Then they said they would get back to me, but they weren't taking me seriously at all." Yesterday the driver, who said his name was Hrun, told The Sun: "I asked everyone to get off because I needed to pray. I was running late and had not had time. "I pray five times a day as a Muslim –– but I don't normally ask people to get off the bus to do it." Muslims pray at pre-dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset and evening. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com To Go To Top

Part 1: CAIR EXPOSED –– AS IAP OFFSHOOT, CAIR FOLLOWED PRO-HAMAS AGENDA FROM THE START Posted by Boris Celser, March 30, 2008.

This was written by Steven Emerson; it appeared March 24, 2008 in IPT News http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/621

(The following story summarizes our first dossier installment on CAIR which can be found at http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/109.pdf) From the Hamas ties of its founders in 1994 to its solicitous stance toward accused terrorists today, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has demonstrated that its actual mission is far removed from the civil rights advocacy it claims to pursue. Still standing as perhaps the clearest evidence of CAIR's insidious role, two key leaders of the group attended a 1993 meeting in Philadelphia called by Hamas members and supporters to devise a strategy for torpedoing the Oslo Accords aimed at Middle East peace. An analysis of secret recordings of the meeting led the FBI to conclude that the gathering was held "to determine... [the participants'] course of action in support of Hamas' opposition to the [Oslo] peace plan and to decide how to conceal their activities from the scrutiny of the United States government." Coupled with their support for the jihad in the Middle East, the attendees recognized the critical importance of domestic lobbying in the United States. One discussed encouraging the Islamic community "to be involved in the political life of this country," adding, "We should assist them in this task. This will be an entrance for us to put, through the Islamic community, pressure on the Congress and the decision makers in America." That's where CAIR came in. Participants in that 1993 meeting discussed tailoring their message to an American audience, speaking of outright deception at times and of softening their rhetoric at others, as the following exchange between CAIR founders Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad shows: Awad: What is important is that the language of the address is there even for the American. But, the issue is how to use it. ... Omar Ahmad: There is a difference between you saying "I want to restore the '48 land" and when you say "I want to destroy Israel". .... Awad: Yes, there are different but parallel types of address. There shouldn't be contradiction. Address people according to their minds. When I speak with the American, I speak with someone who doesn't know anything. As for the Palestinian who has a martyr brother or something, I know how to address him, you see? This context helps explain why federal authorities have tied the CAIR to Hamas in three separate court filings in the past year. Prosecutors place CAIR on the Muslim Brotherhood's "Palestine Committee." An internal Palestine Committee document in 1994 lists CAIR as one of its "working organizations" along with IAP. Other records show that committee was created to advance the Hamas agenda within the United States. Among the highlights in today's report: CAIR was incorporated less than a year after the Philadelphia meeting by three officials of the now-defunct Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), long a central player in Hamas' U.S. support network and a group that the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service deemed in a 2001 memo to be "part of Hamas' propaganda apparatus." As recently as the summer of 2007, the Dallas trial charging the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) with providing material support for Hamas produced extensive evidence that IAP –– CAIR's parent –– played a central role in the Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee. Much of that evidence relates to Mousa Abu Marzook, now deputy political chief of Hamas, who served on the board of directors of IAP in 1989. The trial exhibits included a memo taken from the home of Ismail Elbarrasse, a former assistant to Marzook, which defines in chilling fashion the role the Muslim Brothers play in North America: The process of settlement is a "Civilization-Jihadist Process" with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions. Without this level of understanding, we are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourselves for Jihad yet. It is a Muslim's destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes, and there is no escape from that destiny except for those who chose to slack.... CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial. While the group contested that designation in court papers, it may have to live with it through a second trial scheduled for August. A mistrial was declared Oct. 22 after jurors could not reach unanimous verdicts on HLF and four individual defendants. A fifth defendant was acquitted on all but one count against him, that of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. IAP clearly subscribed to a Jihadist view of what was needed in the Middle East. The December 1988 edition of Ila Filastin, the group's Arabic-language publication, carried this statement: "The call for Jihad in the name of Allah is the only path for liberation of Palestine and all the Muslim lands ... We (Hamas) promise Allah, in continuing the Jihad way and with the martyrdom's way." Meanwhile, IAP's English-language Muslim World Monitor and Arabic periodical Al-Zaitounah, frequently praised Hamas terror attacks. An October 1994 Al-Zaitounah headline, for example, blared, "In Its Greatest Operation, Hamas Takes Credit for the Bombing of an Israeli Bus in the Center of Tel Aviv." IAP promoted the Hamas agenda at its annual conferences, with members of the terrorist group making frequent appearances. It raised substantial funds at these conferences for HLF, then Hamas' primary fundraising arm in the United States. All proceeds from IAP's convention in 1996, for example, went to HLF. Rafeeq Jaber, one of CAIR's founders, had become IAP president earlier that year. In a 2003 civil deposition, Jaber acknowledged IAP's contract with HLF required them "to promote [HLF] in every way we can." Declining an opportunity to distance CAIR from IAP in September 2003 Senate testimony, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad opted instead to defend the group as "a grassroots organization which continues to function legally and has only been 'linked' through allusion and no charge of criminality has been brought against the organization." It was Awad and CAIR founding chairman Omar Ahmad who had attended the Hamas-organized Philadelphia session in 1993 –– though proof of their participation was not revealed publicly until years later. Both men insisted, as late as 2003, that they could not recall having attended. The Investigative Project on Terrorism has assembled a thorough dossier on CAIR's origins and activities which we present in installments during the next two weeks. You can read today's segment by clicking on this address: http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/109.pdf. Boris Celser is a Canadian. Contact him at celser@telusplanet.net To Go To Top

A YID IN IRAQ –– MY PURIM EXPERIENCE Posted by Avodah, March 30, 2008.

This was a guest posting on the A Simple Jew website: http://www.asimplejew.blogspot.com/. A Yid in Iraq is just that –– a Jewish soldier serving in Iraq.

I have been in Iraq now since December 2007 and I will be leaving in March 2009. It is not getting any easier since the heat is starting to cap out at 100 degrees at 12:00 in the afternoon. Attacks on coalition forces are not letting up either. As a matter of fact they are getting worse, turn on CNN if you want to see what I am talking about. I believe everything comes from Hashem and I have had two experiences when I was going to leave for a combat logistical patrol that confirmed this belief in my mind. On both occasions, I had a strong feeling as if I was being told not to go and there was going to be mortar attack on the route. The first time I did not go on the patrol and as soon as the patrol left, they we mortared and they had to go the bomb shelter on the other forward operating base were they were to pick up supplies. They had to wait for six hours in the bomb shelter to all clear was called. On the second occasion, I did not listen to this feeling and soon as I was stepping in the vehicle, mortars started to hit the route that we were going to travel on. I went and immediately davened and thanked Hashem for warning me. A couple days before Purim, I was walking from our barracks and had three mortars land 150 to 200 meters in front me. I felt the ground shake. I just shook my head since it was only 0900, and thought to myself that it was not such a good way to start the day off. I thanked Hashem that these terrorists aim was off that morning. Despite all of this, I had an outstanding Purim. It really made think of how our people are always being targeted and the strength our forefathers how they had to persevere in hard times. I had a vegetable kosher MRE (meal ready to eat), crackers, pomegranate juice (POM), and some dried mangos for dessert. It really hit the spot. I did not get to hear the Megillah, but I did read it. Haman's descendants were also present with me on Purim and they fired three mortar rounds into our forward operating base. Luckily no one was hurt. I know this sounds cynical but I am used to it now, at first I was a little nerve racked about it but I got used to it. Regardless of where you are, you can still perform a mitzvah in any situation. On a daily basis I am assisting these war torn Arabs with food and water and trying speak English better. Today, I received a complement that I am the first Jew they have seen and I am representing my people well. That felt really good to hear, and I told him there are good people in all groups. I always do my best to keep my head covered out of respect of Hashem and also because I want everyone to see that there is a Jew assisting them –– so there is no confusion on who I am and what I represent. I also do not want to be confused with one of the Gentile soldiers. The reason I am writing to the world is that as a Jewish soldier I want our people of Israel to be proud! My intent behind all of this is I want to break the stereotype of Jews. A lot of times Jews are not presented correctly as if we are weaker or softer than other groups especially in the military. We are a nation of holy people, we are also warriors and we all have a fighting spirit! I am very excited because next month is Pesach, I have put in a request for two days off to travel to another base where a rabbi will be leading a seder. G-d willing, things will go as planned. Contact Avodah by email at Avodah15@aol.com To Go To Top

EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS REMAIN FRIENDS OF ISRAEL Posted by Lawrence Uniglicht, March 30, 2008.

Truth is sometimes difficult to accept, especially concerning friends when they hit you with a gratuitous two by four, presumably for your own good. The two edged sword of some friendships indeed must be carefully contemplated, partially sheathing the sharper perilous edge with an impenetrable cover. The 03/28/2008 edition of the New York Times features a full page advertisement, within the International section, entitled 'The Gospel And The Jewish People An Evangelical Statement', endorsed by many prominent evangelists including clergymen. That prominent costly ad is such a two edged sword, affirming genuine friendship as well as an inferred fervent desire to save Judaism from itself, injecting a closing statement "....we believe that salvation is only found in Jesus, the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the World." No doubt, Israel, a nation with few friends, cannot afford to lose her most proactive and influential non-Jewish religious ally, even if that ally is motivated by an seemingly unalterable obsession to eventually morph the Jewish homeland and in fact all Jews into followers of the Christian gospel. Indeed, it is imperative that adherents of both faiths act in tandem to defeat an ever metastasizing Islamo-fascism, thus not be sidetracked by divisive conversion issues at this time. Still, it is quite troubling to witness arguably one of the world's most prominent newspapers sell marquee space to the WEA (World Evangelical Alliance) so it might direct its controversial message specifically at Jews. Statements such as "If Jesus is not the Messiah of the Jewish people, He cannot be the Savior of the World (Acts 4:12) and "....we reject the notion that it is deceptive for followers of Jesus Christ who were born Jewish to continue to identify as Jews (Romans 11:1)" are surely unsettling to both secular and religious Jews. Tolerance and respect for all reasonable non hate-filled belief systems, including Judaism, Christianity and a wide variety of world religions, is imperative if we are to maintain planet wide civil order. Hopefully, that principle might someday be ingested by those with extreme viewpoints, yet wishful thinking cannot rule the day, so perhaps it would be appropriate for prominent Jews to respond with a similar full page advertisement, extolling the generosity of a vital friend, but in no uncertain terms stating 'thanks but no thanks' to the evangelical proselytizers, having lost their way when it comes to understanding that Jewish culture is vibrant, not in need of spiritual advice, coercive or subtle. Belief systems should be highly personal, indeed spiritually uplifting. Alas, sects of fundamentalist Islam, prone to jihadist inclinations, have degenerated into intolerant, misogynist, hate-filled, anti-secular in effect cults, devoid of personal tolerance or enlightening spirit. Jews, Christians, including Evangelical Christians, as well as moderate Muslims have vested interests in preserving Israel, currently threatened by those adhering to degenerate Islam. Thus Jews, especially those residing within the Jewish homeland, at such a perilous juncture in time, for one, must remain solid allies with Evangelical Christians, despite their tendencies to proselytize. Indeed, the enemy of her sworn enemy must remain a friend of Israel, especially when so few friends are available. Furthermore, a Judeo-Christian alliance with moderate Muslims would surely make sense, isolating those who besmirch the tenets of peaceful Islam. Might the Israeli Knesset consider organizing a conference to discuss such matters? No doubt Jerusalem, Israel's capital and holiest city, would be a perfect venue for Jews, Christians, and moderate Muslims to gather. Why not call it the Tolerance Conference, denoting the overriding principle of a sensible world. Lawrence Uniglicht is a career civil servant. He advocates for the State of Israel with an American perspective. He writes, "Advocating for the disrespected underdog has been my passion, no doubt Israel falls into that category." Contact him by email at larose@snip.net To Go To Top

WHY ISN'T ABBAS SLAMMED FOR ABSURD "ETHNIC CLEANSING" CHARGES AGAINST ISRAEL? Posted by Shoshanna Walker, March 29, 2008.

This is called "Civil Fights: Meet the world's most incompetent ethnic cleansers" by Evelyn Gordon, and it appeared March 19, 2008 in The Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1205420731816&pagename= JPos t%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

It is hard to decide which aspect of Mahmoud Abbas's recent "ethnic cleansing" accusation is more worrying: what it reveals about him, or what it reveals about the world's willingness to tolerate even the vilest and most obviously nonsensical slanders against Israel. Addressing the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Dakar last Thursday, the Palestinian Authority chairman declared: "Our people in the city [of Jerusalem] are facing an ethnic cleansing campaign through a set of Israeli decisions such as imposing heavy taxes, banning construction and closing Palestinian institutions, in addition to separating the city from the West Bank by the racist separation wall." If Jerusalem's Arabs are facing ethnic cleansing, then Israelis are surely the most incompetent ethnic cleansers in human history. After all, ethnic cleansing usually aims at removing an unwanted population and substituting your own nationals. But according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies, Jerusalem's Arab population skyrocketed 266 percent between 1967, when Israel annexed east Jerusalem, and 2006 (the last year for which figures are available). That is almost double the Jewish population's growth during those years (143 percent); consequently, the city's ratio of Jews to Arabs shrank from 74:26 in 1967 to 66:34 in 2006. Even during the intifada, which prompted the fence and the closed institutions that Abbas decries, the Arab population continued ballooning: It rose from 208,700 at the end of 2000 to 252,400 at the end of 2006, an increase of 21 percent in six years, or 3.5 percent a year. Jerusalem's Jewish population grew by only 4.7 percent during those years, or less than 1 percent a year. In absolute terms, the Arab increase (43,700 people) was double the Jewish increase (21,100). Nor was the Arab growth solely due to natural increase: Ziad al-Hamouri, who heads the Jerusalem Center for Economic Rights, estimates that some 30,000 Arabs have moved to Jerusalem since construction of the fence began; others put the figure even higher.   IF ABBAS is truly unaware of these very well-publicized facts, this casts doubt on his viability as a negotiating partner. Since any deal must be rooted in reality, it is hard to negotiate with someone who remains determinedly ignorant even about "core issues" such as Jerusalem. But more importantly, how can you trust the good faith of someone who has no qualms about accusing you of one of the most heinous crimes in the modern lexicon without even bothering to check his facts? Almost certainly, however, Abbas does know the facts. After all, both Palestinians and Israelis frequently cite east Jerusalem's Arab majority to support Palestinian claims to part of the city. But in that case, the question becomes even more troubling –– because how can you trust the moderation, good faith and peaceful intentions of someone who has no qualms about publicly accusing you of such a heinous crime even knowing that it is false? Bluntly, this was nothing less than deliberate incitement against Israel, in a forum guaranteed to receive maximum coverage in the Arab world. Nor was this a one-time aberration. Just last month, for instance, Abbas told the Jordanian daily Al Dustour: "At this time, I object to the armed struggle, since we are unable to conduct it; however, in future stages things may change." Yet if his only reason for opposing armed struggle is that he currently believes he cannot wage it successfully, that is hardly reassuring, as this reason would disappear following a peace agreement: With the IDF gone from the West Bank and Jordan border, Palestinians could easily import quantities of sophisticated arms and plan attacks unhindered.   THEN THERE was the PA's rejection in December of a French proposal, backed by senior UN officials, for a UN resolution mandating educational activitieto support the peace process. The proposal would have amended an existing resolution that requires teaching about alleged Israeli crimes against the Palestinians, thereby fostering hatred rather than reconciliation. Yet Abbas evidently prefers fostering hatred. It is hard to imagine anything more innocuous, or more vital to the success of the process, than peace education. If Abbas cannot even agree to that, one has to wonder about his commitment to peace. There are numerous similar examples, such as his June 2006 charge that Israel was seeking to "eliminate the Palestinian people." Never mind that, by the PA's own figures, the Palestinian population of the territories has quadrupled under Israeli rule –– including a 34 percent increase in the past decade alone. But perhaps even more worrying than Abbas's statements is the world's response. Not a single international leader bothered to condemn last week's ethnic cleansing accusation. Nor did anyone condemn his Al-Dustour remarks, his rejection of the peace education resolution, or any of his other less-than-moderate statements and actions. Given the world's fixation with resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, its reluctance to acknowledge that Abbas may be miscast as a peacemaker is understandable. Yet by tolerating such blatant incitement, the international community further undermines the prospects for peace. First, such remarks scarcely encourage Israelis to believe that Abbas is acting in good faith, which is an obvious prerequisite for Israeli consent to any agreement. For that reason alone, the world should be interested in condemning such remarks. Far more important, however, is the message this sends to Palestinians. If Abbas can hurl such vicious and patently false accusations at Israel without even a pro forma protest from world leaders, that tells Palestinians that willingness to live in peace with Israel is not necessary to retain international support. If the world has no objection to even the most vicious Palestinian incitement –– despite knowing that such incitement routinely leads to actual violence –– then it clearly cares nothing about peace; what it cares about is satisfying Palestinian demands. That, in turn, encourages Palestinians to believe that eventually, the world will force Israel to accede to these demands even without peace –– thereby obviating any need to stop the violence or make the kind of concessions negotiated agreements always entail. And as long as they believe this, peace will remain a distant dream. Contact Shoshanna Walker at rosewalk@concentric.net To Go To Top

'BIAS AND HYPOCRISY' DISPLAYED AT UN RIGHTS COUNCIL, SAY CRITICS Posted by Shoshanna Walker, March 29, 2008.

This was written by Patrick Goodenough, CNSNews.com International Editor.

(CNSNews.com) –– The United Nations' Human Rights Council has elected onto a panel of special advisors a left-wing Swiss sociologist with a record of sympathizing with the Castro and Mugabe regimes and criticizing the United States and Israel. And in another move that drew fire, the U.N.'s top rights body also appointed an American academic strongly critical of Israel to a post dealing with Israel's conduct in the territories claimed by the Palestinians. During its less than two years in existence, the Human Rights Council has itself been criticized –– by Western governments and two U.N. secretary-generals among others –– for focusing disproportionately on Israel, while paying relatively little attention to pressing rights issues elsewhere. Meeting in Geneva on Wednesday, the council elected Swiss national Jean Ziegler as one of 18 members of an expert "advisory committee" that functions as the body's think tank. Forty of the council's 47 members voted in favor of Ziegler, who for the past eight years has served as a U.N. "special rapporteur on the right to food." (The U.N. has around 20 such reporter-investigators, each focused on a particular country situation or on a theme such as racism or extreme poverty.) Advisory committee members serve three-year terms and are eligible for re-election once. According to U.N. documents, requirements for the posts include "recognized competence and experience in the field of human rights; high moral standing; and independence and impartiality." Among those who urged the Swiss government to rescind its nomination of Ziegler was U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In a letter sent earlier this week, Ros-Lehtinen accused Ziegler of "unyielding support of many of the world's most vicious dictators," and noted that a 2005 comment comparing Israelis to concentration camp guards had brought a reprimand from then U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan. Others who called on the Swiss government to withdraw the nomination included a group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Canadian lawmaker and human rights advocate professor Irwin Cotler, and former Cuban political prisoner Angel De Fana, who now heads a U.S.-based organization focusing on political prisoners in his homeland. 'US must demand reform' In another decision on Wednesday, the council appointed Princeton international law scholar Richard Falk as the U.N.'s new "special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967." He reportedly was picked from more than 180 potential candidates. Falk, a critic of Bush administration foreign policies who has written approvingly of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, provoked controversy last summer with an article that compared Israeli treatment of Palestinians to Nazi atrocities against European Jews. Israeli ambassador Itzhak Levanon, whose country is not a member of the council, told the body that a man who had accused Israel of "genocidal tendencies" could not possibly be considered impartial, a job requirement stipulated in reform documents adopted by the council last year. Canadian envoy Marius Grinius dissociated his country from the decision, saying Canada doubted that Falk would meet the required standard of impartiality. In a statement reacting to both developments, Ros-Lehtinen said the election of Ziegler and appointment of Falk "again demonstrate the bias and hypocrisy of the U.N.'s human rights organizations." The Florida Republican called Ziegler "an avowed defender of dictators and apologist for Islamist extremist groups," pointing to his statements defending Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, as well as remarks interpreted as sympathetic towards Hizballah, the anti-U.S., anti-Israel radical Shiite group in Lebanon. "Mr. Ziegler's consistent anti-Israel rhetoric adds yet another voice to the chorus of U.N. representatives who would rather denounce Israel than condemn Islamist extremism," she said. Ros-Lehtinen also decried Falk's appointment, and said the council appeared to be "intent on marginalizing voices of reason and moderation." "This sad occasion reinforces the need for the United States and other responsible nations to demand fundamental reform of the United Nations." 'Immense independence' Ziegler previously has been criticized by Washington. When in 2003 the Human Rights Council's predecessor, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), considered a motion to extend his "right to food" role, the U.S. alone voted against it, accusing him of irresponsible statements and of abusing his mandate. U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based NGO, has been a longstanding critic of Ziegler, noting among other things his support for French author Roger Garaudy, a convert to Islam who has denied the Holocaust. U.N. Watch monitored Wednesday's proceedings, and the group's executive director, Hillel Neuer, commented afterwards that "even within the benighted U.N. Human Rights council, today was a dark day for human rights." Invited to respond to the allegations of partiality, Falk –– who is professor emeritus of international law and practice at Princeton –– said that during his long professional career he had done his best to be objective when dealing with relating international law to foreign policy and human rights disputes. "This has produced some controversial assessments of sensitive issues, but I believe that their publication has helped give some voice to neglected views. I have often felt that the Palestinian side of the story is told in a manner that is biased and misleading." Falk stressed that he has never supported "violence against civilian targets, regardless of provocation." "I have expressed views on the future of Israel and Palestine that are motivated by beliefs in the conditions that will bring peace between the two peoples," he said. "I do not believe that a one-sided and unbalanced endorsement of Israel's approach to peace and security is in the interest of either the United States or Israel itself." Attempts to reach Ziegler for comment were unsuccessful. Ziegler has previously accused Neuer and U.N. Watch of mounting "a campaign of defamation" against him, and said allegations of anti-Semitism were ironic, given his past efforts to expose Swiss banks' financial cooperation with the Nazis. Swiss foreign ministry spokesman Guillaume Scheurer was quoted by Swiss national radio Wednesday as saying Ziegler had "an excellent knowledge of all economic, social and cultural rights" and "immense independence." In one of his last acts under his "right to food" mandate, Ziegler earlier this month delivered a report to the Human Rights Council on a visit he paid to Cuba last October. He said the U.S. "illegal blockade" of the island was the main obstacle to Cubans getting access to food. As part of a broader process aimed at reforming the U.N., the Human Rights Council was established in 2006 to replace the widely discredited UNCHR, whose sessions frequently saw rights-abusing nations close ranks to block Western criticism. Since then the council, whose current members include China, Russia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, has held seven regular and six special sessions, with a large proportion of its deliberations dedicated to Israel. Last year, it controversially decided to end mandates for special rapporteurs on human rights situations in Cuba as well as Belarus. This week, China, backed by its allies, succeeded in blocking efforts to have the council debate the recent clampdown on dissent in Tibet where around 140 people have been killed since March 10, according to Tibet's government-in-exile. Addressing the U.N. General Assembly last November, U.S. envoy Robert Hagen criticized the council for what he called a "relentless focus on Israel," the elimination of the mandates relating to Cuba and Belarus, and a "reluctance to address principal violators and violations of human rights." The U.S. decided against standing for council membership in 2006 and again last year. See Also: Islamic States Chide UN Head for Criticizing Human Rights Body (July 26, 2007) In Rebuke to UN, US Will Not Seek Seat on Rights Council (March 7, 2007) African and Islamic Nations Shield Sudan at UN Rights Meeting (Dec. 13, 2006) UN Rights Expert Has Controversial Track Record (April 26, 2006) Contact Shoshanna Walker at rosewalk@concentric.net To Go To Top

ABUSING DEMOCRACY Posted by Shoshanna Walker, March 29, 2008.

This was written by Avigdor Lieberman and it appeared in Haaretz (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/ PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=969540). MK Avigdor Lieberman is chair of the Yisrael Beiteinu party. /hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=969540

In an opinion piece published in Haaretz on March 24, "The Vision of an Arab-free Knesset," Shahar Ilan wrote: "Those who seek to cast them [representatives of the Arab public] out will engender a process which, in a short period of time, could lead to the formation of an Israeli Arab parliament, calling for autonomy or an uprising in Israel." Unfortunately, aspirations for the creation of an Israeli Arab parliament, and for Arab autonomy in Israel, have been harbored for years by the leaders of Israel's Arab community. In a document entitled "The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel," drawn up by the National Committee for the Heads of the Arab Local Authorities in Israel, the manner in which this process would unfold is presented in detail. It should be added that making statements like "We will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state"; participating in the funerals of, and memorial services for, mass murderers; burning the Israeli flag; hurling rocks at vehicles; perpetrating near-lynches of Jerusalem municipal inspectors; and defining Israel Defense Forces operations intended to protect Sderot's residents as "crimes against humanity" –– all contribute to the continued escalation exacerbated and supported by the Arab leadership in Israel. I know of no other state that would allow its citizens such freedom of action. During the Falklands War, Argentinean soccer players on English teams were forced to return to Argentina. Only two weeks ago, in Spain, in a soccer match between Athletic de Bilbao and Valladolid, during a minute of silence for the member of a local council who had been assassinated two days earlier, fans shouted slogans supporting the Basque underground, ETA. Spain's state prosecutor's office immediately launched an investigation to identify those who had shown lack of respect for the murdered official's memory and his family; such disrespectful behavior in Spain is a crime punishable by a prison sentence. Only in Israel can citizens take the law into their own hands; only in Israel is lawlessness the law of the land. Article 5 of the National Flag, Symbol and Hymn Law specifies that "those who dishonor the national flag or national symbol ... or who employ the national flag or national symbol in a manner dishonoring the flag or symbol, are liable to a prison sentence of up to one year ..." Nonetheless, burning and otherwise dishonoring the Israeli flag have become routine actions. Every week assemblies are held in Arab towns throughout Israel; they are attended by members of the Arab leadership and include the burning of the Israeli flag. Yet the law that exists in our lawbooks is never enforced. Article 144, Section D(2) of Israel's penal code specifies that "those who issue a call to perpetrate an act of violence or terror, or who express praise for, sympathy with, or encouragement for an act of violence or terror, or who voice support for, or solidarity with, such an act ... are liable to a prison sentence of up to five years." There is no need to remind ourselves of the events of October 2000, nor of the Or Commission that investigated them, which concluded that, "there are solid grounds for asserting that the messages [of the Arab leadership] ... contributed substantially to the events that occurred in October 2000, through the encouragement and incitement of the public to adopt an aggressive, confrontational stand against the state and the police force acting on its behalf to maintain law and order." Is the law enforced? Of course not. The attempt to assign the Yisrael Beiteinu party negative labels and to represent our position on the Jewish people's rights to this land as racism and as incitement against the Arab population is a distortion of reality. I see no difference between the actions of Tali Fahima [who served a prison sentence for aiding Palestinian militants] and those of former Knesset member Azmi Bishara. The same holds true for Neturei Karta's Rabbi Moshe Hirsch and Sheikh Ra'ad Salah, leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement. Naturally, I do not support the violent struggle that the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee is promoting against young Israeli Arabs interested in volunteering for national service, who are turned into pariahs in Arab society. The only demand that can and should be made of Israel's citizens –– whether Jewish, Muslim or Christian –– is that they be loyal to the state and its values as a Jewish state. Just as the Jews of Morocco are loyal to its king, Israel's minority groups must be loyal to the state they live in. I am not advocating the silencing of protest or any infringement of freedom of expression; however, legitimate protest must be distinguished from the abuse of democracy. Contact Shoshanna Walker at rosewalk@concentric.net To Go To Top

FROM ISRAEL: REGARDING ABBAS Posted by Arlene Kushner, March 29, 2008.

Motzei Shabbat (after Shabbat) An Arab summit is being held in Damascus this weekend, but is being boycotted by several Arab nations: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon. The refusal to come was meant clearly to send a message of displeasure to Syria for its association with Iran, and its support of Hamas and Hezbollah. According to an AP report that ran in the Post: "'There are now two axes –– Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah are on one side and the rest are on the other,' said Wahid Abdel-Meguid of the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "Arab summits are all about protocol and symbolism, and in that language, the show of disdain from top US-allies Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan could not be more clear. "In an unprecedented move, they are sending minor officials rather than their heads of state –– or even their prime ministers or foreign ministers. "Even Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh decided Friday not to come, sending his vice president in his place...'Syria is losing friends, one after the other,' said Mansour Hayal, a Yemeni political analyst." ~~~~~~~~~~ Uh huh... But guess who didn't shun the conference? Our "moderate peace partner," Mahmoud Abbas. Tells us a great deal about which side he's on. And let me share with you what he said at the conference: "The coming couple of months are decisive. If we don't reach a solution by the end of this year, it means the whole region will be on the verge of a new era of tension and loss of confidence in peace. "The last few months have witnessed unprecedented Israeli escalation in settlement expansion in Jerusalem and the West Bank. It has become clear that the Israeli government is imposing on the ground the political solution that it wants. "Negotiations cannot continue under the Israeli bulldozers swallowing our land and building settlements and under the daily Israeli military operations." He spoke of Israel "brutally" killing innocent Palestinians in Gaza, and he asked those present to "think seriously of Arab...protection for our people," by which he meant troops. ~~~~~~~~~~ You'll forgive my absolutely undiplomatic and impolitic response. This son of a bitch lies through his teeth. "Unprecedented Israeli escalation in settlement expansion"? Olmert had--- most regrettably –– caved completely and put a freeze on any building in eastern Jerusalem or Judea and Samaria. That freeze was lifted minimally, and only in line with what had been approved well prior to Annapolis, because of Olmert's fear of losing his coalition. I do not believe for a second that Abbas doesn't know this. He is inciting. ~~~~~~~~~~ But this charge allows me to return briefly here to the issue of settlements and why they do not constitute a stumbling block to peace. First, it must be noted that the underlying assumption here –– which is outrageous –– is that everything outside the Green Line "belongs" to the PA, and is thus area upon which we have no right to build. That I've recently exposed as fallacious in terms of history and international law. Israel's final borders have yet to be negotiated. What I want to advance here are a few other perspectives, which the world would do well to consider. -- When Sharon decided to withdraw from Gaza in 2005, he pulled out all of the settlements of Gush Katif. I am not applauding this; I, in fact, deplore what happened. But it did happen, and it provides evidence for the fact that if there is Israeli intent withdrawals are possible. My own position most strongly is that there should be no withdrawals and we should stand on our rights to the land. But the international community should begin to realize that stopping all construction is not necessary for peace negotiations to continue. Instead of making the "settlements" the whipping boy, let there first be a total elimination of terrorism, and let there be sincere negotiations with genuine desire on the other side for a two-state solution. Then let Israel and her genuine peace partner work out what should be relinquished by Israel and what not. Before that day comes (and we're talking more than a generation from now at a minimum), to demand of Israel that there be no building to accommodate natural growth in existing communities is nonsense. And natural growth in existing communities is all that has been sanctioned. Then too, there is this thought: Why is it assumed by the international community that the PA has a right to a territory that is Judenrein? They charge us with apartheid, but this demand, which truly reflects apartheid thinking, elicits no reproach. It is a given: They want the land, and so Jews can't live there. Why is it that there would be hell to pay if we tried to move out all Arabs living in Israel, but that the same standard doesn't apply to the PA? Why cannot it be said that those Jews who remain in areas that would be going to the PA would be offered the option of remaining? I feel driven to clarify again that I am not advocating any of this. I am merely pointing out the double standard that is at work and the unreasonable approach that is being taken with regard to this matter. -- I will add here that while there is screaming about our building in eastern Jerusalem, Arabs are doing a huge amount of illegal building to which scant attention is paid. Double standard indeed! ~~~~~~~~~~ Let's return to Abbas for just a moment. With everything else, according to Khaled Abu Toameh, reporting in yesterday's Post, Abbas's Fatah is contending with an unprecedented rash of scandals that further weakens it. "Remarked [a] Fatah representative: 'Fatah has lost much of what's left of its credibility. If we hold a free election in the West Bank tomorrow, it's almost certain that Hamas will win.'" The scandals include accusations that Ahmed Qurei, who heads the PA negotiating team, deposited $3 million of PLO money in his accounts. Additionally, large shipments of expired medicine that had been illegally smuggled into the West Bank have been confiscated, with "dozens of physicians, pharmacists and officials from the PA's Ministry of Health are currently being interrogated for their alleged role in the medicine scandal, which is believed to have resulted in the death of many patients." For details on these scandals and others see: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1206632349492&pagename= JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info To Go To Top

REMOVAL OF THE FITNA MOVIE Posted by Boris Celser, March 29, 2008.

[UPDATE: If you go to where Fitna was shown on LiveLeak (http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d9_1206624103), LiveLeak now reads: This media item has been removed by the uploader! Reason from user 'Geert_Wilders': "deleted due to copyright issues... will upload edited version shortly..." For alternative viewing sites: click here.] You can well imagine that these threats came from radical Muslims, which only goes to prove the point of the movie that there is a connection between Islam and violence in the world. For those passingly familiar with the subject matter of the Fitna movie, the content is shocking. For those who are more familiar with the subject, the movie did not cover all the bases. Read what Fitna left out on http://canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages: e.g., 29530-29588. This is an excerpt:

Geert Wilders lives with 24 hour security and has for the past few years when he began to raise his voice as a Dutch parliamentarian to speak out against the dhimmification of the Netherlands which was seeing Dutch society being transformed by Islamification, which was being accomplished by the more radical Dutch Muslims whose demands were being appeased because the demands were all accompanied by express or veiled threats of violence if the Dutch government did not accede to their demands. Recall that Hyrsan Ali, a Somali born Dutch Parliamentarian was forced to emigrate from the Netherlands to America for having spoken out against Muslim radicalism in her nation. She lives with 24 hour security because the threats to her life are as dire today as they were before. Recall Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch journalist and film maker who was outspoken against radical Islam and he was murdered by a Dutch radical Muslim and left on the street with a note stabbed into his chest warning that Van Gogh's fate would be that of anyone who insulted Islam. Recall Salomon Rushdie who continues to live with 24 hour security because of death threats by radical Muslims. And consider our own Canadian Irshad Manji, an outspoken critic of Islam and the author of the book, 'The Trouble with Islam'. Manji is a Muslim who advocates reforming Islam to rid itself of the fundamentalist teachings that inspire hatred and intolerance of non-Muslims and Jihad to achieve Muslim goals through violence against non-Muslims. She too lives with 24 hour security because of the ongoing death threats against her. It is not enough to say Islamofacism is unacceptable in our world today and within our society. It is not just unacceptable, it is an outrage. It is going to take a lot of Westerners to rage against those Islamofacists who are seeking to transform the world to their ways. Sad to say, in a number of ways these fundamentalist Muslims are succeeding because of Western policies that are driven by fear of Muslim violence and false hopes that by appeasing the demands of radical Muslims, at some point satisfy the radical Muslim appetite for transforming Western society further will be satisfied and they will abandon their violence as their means to their ends. Dream on. Fat chance of that happening. Bill Boris Celser is a Canadian. Contact him at celser@telusplanet.net To Go To Top

MUSLIMS DEMAND BAN ON ANTI-KORAN FILM Posted by Kannan Devan, March 28, 2008.

Muslims resort to all available strategies including judicial recourse available in democratic countries to promote terror policies of Islamo fascists. Islamic states refuse to provide any opportunity for non believers for freedom, opportunity, religious practice or decent living conditions. The history of Islam is replete with terror and violence to advance their deadly policies. It is time for civilized nations to join together and fight vigorously against Islamic invasion and its terror policies. The Dutch government made a terrible mistake in banning the film that gives us a clear, correct and comprehensive picture of true Islam. How far are we going to tolerate Islamic threat, intimidation and violence? For the sake of freedom, peace democracy and coexistence, we need to join together and fight against thess Islamic monsters. View Fitna at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=791_1206693522 [UPDATE: It has been removed and a "revised" version will be shown –– because of "copyright issues." Yeah, right.] For alternative viewing sites: click here. The article below is called "Muslims Demand Ban On Anti-Koran Film." (ttp://www.euronews.net/index.php?page=info&article=477501&lng=1&option=1)

Islamic leaders in the Netherlands will ask a court later today to ban a film which accuses the Koran of inciting violence. Dutch MP Geert Wilders launched his film on the internet after local distributors refused to release it. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende added his criticism of the film, saying it was offensive to Muslims. "The film shows images of violent acts, and holds Islam and the Koran responsible for them. The government condemns such acts and those who commit them. The film equates Islam with violence, and we reject this interpretation. The vast majority of Muslims reject extremism and violence. In fact the victims are often also Muslims." The film is called "Fitna", a Koranic term sometimes translated as "strife." It intersperses shots of the 9/11 attacks in New York City, and other bombings blamed on Islamic radicals, with quotations from the Koran. There have already been widespread protests against the film, and the governments of Pakistan and Iran have made their displeasure very clear. NATO fears an explosion of Muslim anger could threaten the security of foreign forces in Afghanistan, which include some 1,600 Dutch troops. Contact Kannan Devan at kannanivmn@yahoo.com To Go To Top

FITNA –– FILM EXPOSING VIOLENCE OF ISLAM, ON LINE Posted by Shoshanna Walker, March 28, 2008.

From http://europenews.dk/en/node/8787 Fitna is a film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom in the Dutch parliament. The movie offers a critical view of Islam and the Koran. The name comes from the Arabic word Fitna which is used to describe "disagreement and division among people", or a "test of faith in times of trial". "Movie Portrays Islam as Violent and Bloodthirsty" by Hillel Fendel of Arutz-Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125719 (IsraelNN.com) The long-awaited and controversial movie Fitna, which graphically portrays Islam as a religion seeking to dominate the world and slaughter non-believers, finally debuted on the internet on Thursday night. Within two hours of the film's release on Britain's LiveLeak.com video site, close to two million people had seen it. More than half of them were from Holland, home to the film's producer, Dutch politician Geert Wilders. The screening of the movie had been in doubt after the world's largest website name registrar, Network Solutions, decided to block the movie's home site. The decision to censor the film bolstered concerns that the extent of the fear of Islamic violence has even affected WWW content. On Thursday, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution against the movie. Proposed by Islamic countries, the resolutiion passed by a 21-10 vote, over the opposition of Europe and Canada. Despite all, LiveLeak stepped in to film the movie, at www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d9_1206624103, explaining, "There was no legal reason to refuse Geert Wilders the right to post his film on LiveLeak.com, and it is not our place to censor people based on an emotive response." Many websites feared even to list the URL at which the movie could be seen. The video has English subtitles. [UPDATE: LiveLeak took down the original and will be showing an edited version sometime in the future. For alternative viewing sites: click here.] Response to the film has not been as intense as feared –– though Dutch police had upped security precautions to near-top levels. The movie was condemned by Iran, Indonesia, and the Netherlands, but no rioting or other reactions like those that followed the publication in Denmark of anti-Mohammed cartoons have broken out. Fitna includes graphic footage of Moslem terror attacks around the world, including beheadings, disfigured bodies, destroyed buses, and the like. The scenes are accompanied by the relevant verses in the Koran, such as, "Prepare for them whatever force and cavalry ye are able of gathering to strike terror, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah and your enemies." This particular verse is followed by clips of a plane slamming into the World Trade Center and setting the building afire, and imams calling for the annihilation of all infidels. One Moslem cleric is seen calling for the murder of Jews; he unsheathes a sword and cries out in nearly uncontrollable frenzy, "By Allah, we shall cut off the Jew's head! Allah is great! Allah is great! Jihad for the sake of Allah!" The audience, in a similar frenzy, cheers him on. The film ends with the sound of a page being torn out of a book, followed by stark sentences on the screen reading, "It is not up to me, but up to Moslems themselves to tear out the hateful verses from the Koran. Muslims want you to make way for Islam, but Islam does not make way for you. The government insists that you respect Islam, but Islam has no respect for you. Islam wants to rule, submit, and seeks to destroy our Western civilization. In 1945, Nazism was defeated in Europe. In 1989, Communism was defeated in Europe. Now, the Islamic ideology has to be defeated." The video is also viewable at: http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Fitna_anti-islam_movie_by_Geert_Wilders http://www.fitnamovie.net/tag/fitna-youtube/ The Movie Fitna is now available on youtube : Part 1 : http://youtube.com/watch?v=5kcev1K-NOc Part 2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=TdLMFs4fv4E http://www.themoviefitna.com http://europenews.dk/en/node/8787 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQc4eh2AQ3g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0jUuzdfqfc http://dinahlord.blogspot.com http://am-yisrael.spaces.live.com/default.aspx?customize=true Contact Shoshanna Walker at rosewalk@concentric.net To Go To Top

EXPOSED: ISRAEL IS NEGOTIATING JERUSALEM Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, March 28, 2008.

This was written by Aaron Klein for World Net Daily www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=60049

PM Olmert repeatedly denied holy city discussed with Palestinians Illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem (WND) JERUSALEM –– Israel is negotiating with the Palestinian Authority regarding "all core issues," including the status of Jerusalem, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday. "[Talks deal with] all the core issues without exception: Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, borders and security. We hope to achieve a settlement in 2008; there are many obstacles but we hope they will be removed. We are all pressing to reach a settlement by the target date," Abbas said. His statements fly in the face of recent claims by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who repeatedly has denied Jerusalem is being discussed. The ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a key member of Olmert's coalition, has pledged to bolt the government if Jerusalem is negotiated. Shas has denied Jerusalem is being discussed during regular weekly Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which commenced after last November's U.S.-sponsored Annapolis summit. "Nobody is talking about Jerusalem. The moment Jerusalem is being discussed, Shas will leave the government –– period," Shas spokesman Roi Lachmanovitch told Israel National News. Abbas' statement yesterday was specifically referring to the weekly meetings between chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. The PA leader's comments are sure to result in increased pressure against Shas to leave the government, a move that likely would send Olmert's government into crisis and could result in the prime minister's downfall. Last week, WND reported the son of the Shas spiritual leader demanded his father's party immediately bolt the government amid rampant media reports Jerusalem is up for negotiations. Rabbi Jacob Yosef accused the Shas party of "selling Jerusalem" for 478 million Israeli shekels, or $138 million. Yosef's father, Rabbi Ovadye Yosef, serves as the spiritual leader of Shas, where he is also considered the party's most important and revered figure. Earlier this month, the Knesset's Finance Committee approved $138 million in government funds to Shas' educational institutions as part of the party's coalition agreement with Olmert. "How dare you sell out Jerusalem for 478 million shekels. Jerusalem is worth more than all monies in the world," said Jacob Yosef, rabbi of the Givat Mordechai neighborhood in Jerusalem, addressing his father's party. Jacob Yosef is also a member of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace, a coalition of more than 350 Israeli rabbinic leaders and pulpit rabbis. Yosef accused his father's party of staying in the government until a formal announcement regarding dividing Jerusalem is made, by which time, the rabbi said, it will be too late. "When someone brings a rope to hang your child, will you say, 'Oh, it's nothing, he only brought a rope?' Or if a killer is only sharpening the knife, will you say, 'It's nothing, he's only sharpening the knife?' You will stop him right at the beginning, because by the time the knife is on the throat it will be too late. What is Shas waiting for? It must leave the government right now," Yosef exclaimed. Olmert's government has hinted a number of times it will divide Jerusalem and reportedly has halted all Jewish construction permits for eastern sections of the city. In December, Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon said the country "must" give up sections of Jerusalem for a future Palestinian state, even conceding the Palestinians can rename Jerusalem "to whatever they want." "We must come today and say, friends, the Jewish neighborhoods, including Har Homa, will remain under Israeli sovereignty, and the Arab neighborhoods will be the Palestinian capital, which they will call Jerusalem or whatever they want," said Ramon during an interview. Positions held by Ramon, a ranking member of Olmert's Kadima party, are largely considered to be reflective of Israeli government policy. Olmert himself recently questioned whether it was "really necessary" to retain Arab-majority eastern sections of Jerusalem. Israel recaptured eastern Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount –– Judaism's holiest site –– during the 1967 Six Day War. The Palestinians have claimed eastern Jerusalem as a future capital; the area has large Arab neighborhoods, a significant Jewish population and sites holy to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. About 231,000 Arabs live in Jerusalem, mostly in eastern neighborhoods, and many reside in illegally constructed complexes. The city has an estimated total population of 724,000. Olmert to blame for dividing Jerusalem? Ramon listed population statistics as the reason Olmert's government finds it necessary to split Jerusalem. But WND broke the story that according to Jerusalem municipal employees, during 10 years as mayor of Jerusalem, Olmert instructed city workers not to take action against hundreds of illicit Arab building projects throughout eastern sections of Jerusalem housing over 100,000 Arabs squatting in the city illegally. The workers and some former employees claim Olmert even instructed city officials to delete files documenting illegal Arab construction of housing units in eastern Jerusalem. Olmert was Jerusalem mayor from 1993 to 2003. As mayor, he made repeated public statements calling Jerusalem the "eternal and undivided capital" of Israel. Jerusalem municipal employees and former workers, though, paint a starkly contrasting picture of the prime minister. "He did nothing about rampant illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem while the government cracked down on illegal Jewish construction in the West Bank," said one municipal employee who worked under Olmert. She spoke on condition of anonymity, because she still works for the municipality. One former municipal worker during Olmert's mayoral tenure told WND he was moved in 1999 to a new government posting after he tried to highlight the illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem. He also spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his current job. Aryeh King, chairman of the Jerusalem Forum, which promotes Jewish construction in Jerusalem, told WND an investigation by his group found Olmert's city hall deleted files documenting hundreds of illegal Arab building projects throughout eastern sections of Jerusalem. He said he forwarded his findings to Israel's state comptroller for investigation. King also claims Olmert told senior municipal workers not to enforce a ban on illegal Arab buildings. "Ehud Olmert gave the order not to deal with the problem and not to put Israeli security forces to the duty of taking down the illegal Arab complexes," said King. "Senior municipal workers told me Olmert said not to bother with the illegal Arab homes, because eventually eastern Jerusalem would be given to the Palestinian Authority." King's report alleges Jerusalem municipal officials erased the files, which detail over 300 cases of Arab construction in eastern Jerusalem deemed illegal starting from 1999. The illegal buildings reportedly were constructed without permits and are still standing. According to law, they must be demolished. Local media reports investigating King's charges alleged the files were erased by Ofir May, the head of Jerusalem's Department of Building Permits, with the specific intention of allowing the statute of limitation on enforcing the demolition of the illegal construction to run out. The Jerusalem municipality released a statement in response to the allegations claiming the threat of Arab violence kept it from bulldozing the illegal Arab homes. "During the years of the intifada, the municipality had difficulty carrying out the necessary level of enforcement in the neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem due to security constraints," the statement read. King said the hundreds of buildings allegedly detailed in the deleted municipal files house more than 20,000 illegal units. "We're talking about perhaps 100,000 or more Arabs in eastern Jerusalem living in illegal homes with the government doing nothing about it," King said. Aryeh Zelasko lives in Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. He is Director of Sales and Marketing of Israel Visit (www.israelvisit.co.il) which provides information and an internet buying facility for American visitors to Israel. To Go To Top

THE BBC'S ARABIC SERVICE Posted by Crystal, March 28, 2008.

This was written by Melanie Phillips and it appeared yesterday in The Spectator

Trevor Asserson is a British lawyer (who now lives in Israel) who for years has campaigned against the BBC's bias against Israel. He has now produced an even more serious charge against the BBC –– that during the 2006 Lebanon war, the BBC's Arabic service provided a platform for the campaign by Hezbollah and Iran to delegitimise and demonise both the USA and Israel in the eyes of the Arabic speaking world. With Deena Pinson, he recorded, translated and transcribed the BBC's principal news analysis programme, Hadeeth Al-Sa'a, for a period of four weeks from 19 July to 20 August 2006. Their report (you can down load the pdf at number 6) says that during that period the programme put on 17 spokespeople for Hizbollah and Iran amongst programme guests but only 5 for Israel. It comments: Many programme guests expressed blatantly and viciously anti American positions... In addition we came across a number of quite extreme statements. For example we were told that the bombing of an electricity station was a 'crime' which is 'unprecedented historically' and we learn that it is US policy 'to crush the Palestinians completely and to take all of their lands.' When comments as extreme as this go uncorrected and unchallenged, the BBC appears to have tossed its moral compass into the waves and completely to have lost its bearings... The BBC Arabic gives little indication of the destruction, the evacuations and the deaths (often of Israeli Arabs), caused by the thousands of Hizbollah rockets fired into Israel. By contrast some of the language used to describe Israel is hysterical in tone and the translated transcript reads like an Islamist extremist tract. The implications of such findings are clearly far more serious than merely transgressing the BBC's own impartiality guidelines. When such propaganda is transmitted back into the Arabic-speaking world –– and with the kite-mark of BBC journalistic integrity, no less –– this is bound to incite yet more violence and aggression, turning the BBC effectively into an accomplice of Iran against America and Israel. As the report comments: It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the BBC has in fact become detached from democratic principles and has become a proactive participant in the war of ideas, reflecting back to the Arabic speaking world some if its nastiest views. Furthermore, since the Arabic service is funded by the Foreign Office it is the British taxpayer who is being turned by the BBC into an unwitting accomplice of Iran in its war against the free world –– and because this is an Arabic service, no-one knows about it. One would have thought that the British government would be using every means possible to broadcast truth into the Arabic-speaking world in order to combat the lies that are inciting the masses against the west. Instead, its principal organ appears to be transmitting to that Arabic-speaking world exactly the same lies and incitement. Given the current state of world affairs –– and with the BBC just having launched an Arabic TV service to rival al Jazeera –– surely these revelations should now be raised in the House of Commons as a matter of urgency? Crystal is moderator of EUROPEANS_WHO_SUPPORT_ISRAEL@yahoogroups.com. Contact her at k_hallal@yahoo.com To Go To Top

ISRAEL'S ACCOUNTABILITY PROBLEM Posted by Shoshanna Walker, March 28, 2008.

This was written by Caroline Glick and it appeared today in the Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/

On April 10 two brothers are scheduled to begin serving prison sentences for a crime they never committed. Yitzhak and Daniel Halamish were convicted of aggravated assault and were sentenced respectively, to seven and eight months in jail. The two men, who live in Ma'aleh Rehavam south of Bethlehem, were arrested on February 22, 2004. The day before their arrest, the brothers were serving as IDF-trained and armed security guards in their community. They were called by Baruch Feldbaum, the head of security at the neighboring Sde Bar community, to assist him in dispersing an illegal gathering of Beduin in land adjacent to Sde Bar. Feldbaum's concern over the gathering was heightened because Beduin shepherds are suspected of having carried out a number of unsolved terrorist murders in the area. These include the murder by stoning of 14-year-olds Kobi Mandell and Yosef Ish-Ran on May 8, 2001. Feldbaum feared that the Beduin were conducting surveillance of the community ahead of a future attack. Armed with their IDF-issued M-16 rifles, augmented in Yitzhak's case by a handgun, the Halamish brothers rushed to the scene. Once they arrived the two were surrounded by some 20 rock and club-wielding Beduin. In an attempt to disperse the hostile crowd, and enable the Halamish brothers to escape unharmed, Feldbaum shot a warning shot into the ground. Yitzhak Halamish similarly shot a warning shot in the air with his handgun. The two brothers then pushed their way out of the crowd. Later in the day, the Beduin filed a complaint with the police against the three guards. They alleged that Feldbaum and the Halamish brothers all shot at them with their rifles and beat them with their fists. The issue of who was telling the truth was not a purely subjective question of whom to believe. When the police arrested the Halamish brothers, they also seized their rifles. The Halamish brothers had both denied ever shooting their rifles at the scene. Had the police wished to objectively weigh the credibility of the two sides, they could have conducted ballistic tests of the rifles to determine whether or not they had been used. But they did no such thing. Rather, they indicted Feldbaum and the Halamish brothers for aggravated assault and sent them to trial. Feldbaum was found guilty based on his admission that he shot his rifle. He was sentenced to nine months in prison. His sentence was later reduced to six months community service by then president Moshe Katsav. Given their denials of ever shooting their rifles, the Halamish brothers were convicted based on the Magistrate Court judge's decision to believe the Beduins' accusations and reject their defense. In his ruling, Judge Amnon Cohen did not take the police's decision not to conduct ballistic tests of their weapons into consideration. His convictions were upheld on appeal to the Jerusalem District Court. The Supreme Court refused to consider the case. Attorney Yoram Sheftel, who represented the brothers on appeal, focused his arguments on the police's refusal to conduct ballistic tests of their rifles. According to Sheftel, in standard criminal cases, police refusal to examine potentially exculpatory evidence is grounds for an automatic dismissal of charges. In convicting the Halamish brothers and upholding their convictions, Sheftel argues that the courts ignored standard criminal procedures. Today, with the courts closed to them, the Halamishs' only hope for avoiding prison is a presidential pardon. Supporters of the Halamish brothers have launched an interesting campaign to lobby for clemency. They have asked for US citizens to call the office of Israel's military attaché at the Israeli Embassy in Washington and demand that the IDF advance their pardon requests with the Justice Ministry and Beit Hanassi. Since the Halamish brothers were effectively acting as soldiers while performing their security responsibilities, their supporters contend that the IDF is honor-bound to defend them. But the campaign doesn't stop there. Supporters have also asked US citizens to contact their Congressmen and ask them to send inquiries about the case to the embassy. Finally, they have asked US citizens to contact the State Department and complain that the State Department's Human Rights report on Israel is silent on the government's abuse of Jewish civil rights.   THE NOTION of running a campaign for an Israeli presidential pardon of Israeli citizens in the US is alarming for what it says about the Halamish supporters' perception of Israeli democracy. Specifically, as Datya Yitzhaki from Pidyon Shevuim who has spearheaded the campaign argues, they believe that domestic pressure will have no impact on either Israeli political leaders or on the justice system because in their view the Olmert-Livni-Barak government feels no need to account for its actions to Israeli citizens. Indeed, they contend that the only force that can hold the government and the legal system accountable is international pressure and fear of international condemnation. Organizations like Women in Green and Pidyon Shevuim who are running the campaign cite as precedent the case of Tzvia Sariel. Sariel, 18, was arrested last December on assault charges. She was accused of attacking Arabs who entered her community of Eilon Moreh on December 4. Sariel was incarcerated for three and a half months. On March 5, the allegedly assaulted Arabs appeared in Kfar Saba Magistrate Court and recanted their accusations against Sariel. One claimed that since he is illiterate, he had no idea what he was signing when he signed his complaint against her. Yet, despite the fact that the prosecution's case fell apart in front of her, trial judge Nava Bechor ordered a continuance until April 4 and sent Sariel back to prison for another month. An outcry ensued and activists in the US began calling the embassy and the State Department. On March 19, Bechor dismissed charges against Sariel and sent her home. Her supporters believe that without their US campaign, Sariel would still be sitting in prison for a crime that she didn't commit. Depressingly, activists fighting against civil rights abuses of right-wing opponents of government policies are probably on to something. Through their own actions, Israel's leaders show daily that they are willing to ignore strategic imperatives and their domestic political opponents. Their actions show that indeed, the only pressure that seems to get them to change course is international pressure. Take Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni for example. Since assuming office two years ago, Livni has repeated at countless public appearances that Israel supports a "two-state solution." By couching her government's support for the establishment of a Palestinian state in these terms, Livni implicitly (and often explicitly) argues that Israel –– which has existed for 60 years and whose legitimacy is rationally inarguable –– can only exist legitimately if a Palestinian state is established. By making this assertion Livni effectively places Israel's right to exist on the negotiating table. And yet, for his part, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly repudiated Israel's right to exist. By agreeing to negotiate the "two-state solution" with a man who rejects Israel's right to exist, Livni, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and their colleagues are effectively saying that what reality exposes, and Israel's citizenry supports, is irrelevant. The Palestinians alone can confer legitimacy on Israel. And of course, as Abbas has made clear repeatedly, they never will. In a speech this week to the foreign press corps, Olmert similarly demonstrated that the only support he is interested in securing is foreign support. During his remarks, Olmert claimed that he wishes to conduct negotiations with the Syrian regime towards the surrender of the Golan Heights to Syria. Olmert's statement came just days after President Shimon Peres publicly opposed such negotiations on strategic grounds. In remarks Sunday during a joint press appearance with visiting US Vice President Richard Cheney, Peres explained that Israel has no interest in conducting negotiations with Syria because, "If the Golan is given back, it will boost Iran's influence in Lebanon and the territory will effectively be under Iranian-Syrian control." But when he spoke approvingly of talks aimed at surrendering the Golan Heights to Iranian-Syrian control, Olmert was not concerned with strategic realities. He was similarly unconcerned with what the Israeli public –– which opposes such negotiations –– believes is in Israel's national interest. When Olmert made that statement he was interested in what the international, overwhelmingly anti-Israel media would think and write about him personally. And so he went on record supporting an initiative that undercuts Israel's national interests. Finally, there is Barak's behavior in advance of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's arrival in Israel on Saturday night. When Rice was in Israel on March 4, she pressured the Olmert-Livni-Barak government to abandon efforts to secure southern Israel from Hamas's missile campaign in favor of a cease-fire with the Iranian proxy movement. Eager to please her, the government ordered IDF units to beat a speedy retreat from Gaza. Today, although the government continues to restrain the IDF, the cease-fire is a joke. Over the past two weeks alone, the Palestinians have launched more than a hundred rockets and mortar shells at Israel. They have further augmented their attacks with sniper fire against Israeli farmers tending fields along the border with Gaza. Hamas is openly using the respite to replenish its arsenals and expand its control over the lives of Gaza's citizens. Moreover, unopposed by Israel, Hamas has succeeded in forcing Egypt to release Hamas terror masters from jail, and has convinced Fatah to negotiate the reestablishment of a unity government with Hamas. Rice is expected to continue pressuring Israel to let Hamas continue to attack at will. She is also expected to attack Olmert, Livni and Barak for the IDF's counter-terror operations in Judea and Samaria. In an effort to preempt her assault, Barak announced this week that Israel will allow the PA to import some 600 armored personnel carriers from Russia and deploy hundreds of Fatah forces in terror-infested Jenin. He also agreed to ease travel restrictions on Palestinians in Judea and Samaria. Barak knows full well that these actions will imperil Israel's security. His own people refer to the moves as "calculated risks." He knows full well that opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu was right when he warned on Wednesday that "those weapons will be turned against IDF soldiers." He knows that by curbing counter-terror operations he will imperil Israeli civilians. But here too, Israel's inherent right to self-defense and the government's sovereign duty to secure the country and its citizens is ignored by the government in order to win points with foreigners whose interests are far from identical to Israel's.   THE HALAMISH brothers' supporters are not people who reject Israel's legitimacy. They certainly would never deny its right to defend itself. Indeed, they are among the most vocal opponents of foreign onslaughts against Israel. It is a sad commentary on the state of Israeli democracy that patriotic Israelis have come to the disheartening view that their only chance of receiving justice in Israel is to take their campaign to foreign governments. By inducing them to feel this way, the Olmert-Livni-Barak government is taking another step towards the delegitimization of Israeli sovereignty. From: Nadia & David Matar [mailto:nmatar@netvision.net.il] Subject: Petition for Halamish brothers PETITION FOR ITZIK & DANNY HALAMISH Please sign and forward to all your lists Petition on the web: English: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Halamish Hebrew: http://www.atzuma.co.il/petition/halamish/ Contact Shoshanna Walker at rosewalk@concentric.net To Go To Top

THE INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION'S UPCOMING ANTI-ISRAEL CONFERENCE Posted by Stand With Us, March 28, 2008.

The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) will be holding a meeting at the Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies (RCHRS), March 31 to April 2, 2008: "Libraries from a Human Rights Perspective." Despite its name and stated mission, the RCHRS is not a human rights group. It is a political organization that promotes anti-Israel distortions and propaganda, incites intolerance, and praises terrorists. Furthermore, the RCHRS is silent about the Palestinians' destruction of libraries, book stores and internet cafes in Gaza, and about the censorship in the PA, which should be a central IFLA concern. The IFLA should not affiliate with a group that runs counter to its own mission and violates its founding purpose: to "promote high standards of provision and delivery of library and information services." In holding this conference with RCHRS, the IFLA is dragging its members into a highly charged, anti- Israel propaganda campaign, endorsing extremist positions, and implicitly supporting the suppression of information services.   Please write a protest letter to: Claudia Lux, President International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) P.O. Box 95312 2509 CH The Hague Netherlands E-mail: IFLA@ifla.org Additional information for your letter: The following information is contained in NGO Monitor's recent analysis of the Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies: "NGO Monitor's analysis demonstrates that, despite its stated mission to develop internal norms of Palestinian democracy and respect for human rights, some of its statements focus on condemnations of Israel, and its activities often contribute to conflict and fail to condemn violence. For example, RCHRS has often referred to Palestinian terrorists as 'martyrs'. Following the March 2002 suicide bombing attacks and the Israeli response, RCHRS issued a statement promoting the false claim that Israel committed "massacres" in Jenin and Nablus. RCHRS has also accused Israel of 'terrirorist [sic] crimes,' and making children the 'sacrifice for the racial hatred [sic].' As a political organization, RCHRS consistently calls for ' pressure on the Israeli Government' to 'deter it from violating the international law,' and has stated that ' all world countries should adhere to their ethical and political responsibilities in putting an end to the Israeli racial aggression.' Such rhetoric clearly reflects an extreme anti-Israel political position, which ignores RCHRS' mandate to promote 'a culture of tolerance and respect for human rights,' and does not contribute to mutual understanding and conflict resolution. In addition, RCHRS is an active member of the the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO), which plays a major role in promoting campaigns to delegitimize and demonize Israel. These activities include the NGO Forum of the 2001 Durban conference, which promoted demonization and boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel, and has been widely renounced as a form of political warfare." Contact StandWithUs by email at info@standwithus.com and visit their website: web: http://www.standwithus.com/ To Go To Top

THE PRICE OF BUSH'S COMMITMENT TO PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD Posted by Elan Journo, March 28, 2008.

On his recent visit to the Middle East, Vice President Cheney voiced the Bush administration's belief that a Palestinian state is "long overdue" and vowed to help make that goal a reality. Many conservatives and liberals agree with the administration that America should help fulfill the long-deferred Palestinian aspirations to statehood. The idea is that in doing so we would go a long way toward dousing the flames of Islamist terrorism. But does U.S. backing for Palestinian statehood advance our security? Only if you think we're better off fostering a new terrorist state. That may seem excessively harsh given President Bush's mantra that Palestinians just want "the opportunity to use [their talents and] gifts to better their own lives and build a future for their children." The Bush line we keep hearing is that the terrorists and their supporters are but a fringe element that will be marginalized under the new state, which will coexist "side by side in peace" with Israel and the Western world. But listen to Palestinian clerics at Friday sermons, calling for violent attacks on Israel. Look at the lurid posters in the homes and shops of ordinary Palestinians, passionately glorifying "martyrs" and terrorist kingpins. Look at their coordinated digging of tunnels to smuggle in weapons and explosives. Look at the popular collusion with Islamist militants and their stream of recruits. Recall the years of ferocious attacks against Israeli towns. If the mass of Palestinians just want peace and a better life, they would not despise and war against the only state in the region, Israel, that protects individual rights and that offers a standard of living far superior to (even the richest) Arab regimes. They would be far better off, freer and safer, if they put away their rocks, bullets and dynamite belts and sought to live and work in Israel (as some once did). Instead, they flood the streets to protest negotiations about peaceful co-existence with Israel. Ideologically, their dominant factions are the Islamic totalitarians of Hamas and the nationalist terrorists of Fatah. These differ only in their form of dictatorship –– religious or ethnic. Both promise their followers, one way or another, to wipe out Israel. That hostility to Israel, the only free nation in the Middle East, should make any U.S. president stand firmly against the Palestinian cause. Particularly in a post-9/11 world, Washington should recognize that U.S. security is strengthened by preventing Islamist terrorists from securing another stronghold and training ground. Given the overwhelming evidence that it would undermine U.S. security, what explains the Bush administration's come-hell-or-high-water promise to do "everything we can" to back a Palestinian state? It is the administration's belief that America has a duty to ease the suffering of the world's wretched, regardless of the cost in lives to us. That's why, after Palestinians brought Hamas to power in a landslide, Washington responded with "compassion" for their "humanitarian" needs. Of course the United States and its European allies felt compelled to "isolate" the Hamas regime by cutting off direct aid to the Palestinian Authority. But they refused to believe the Palestinians themselves should be held responsible for how they voted, because they're already dirt poor. This meant suspending our judgment and absolving Palestinians of culpability for choosing murderers to lead them. So, despite the embargo on aid to the Hamas-led government, in 2006 U.S. aid to Palestinians increased by 17 percent to $468 million, propping up their terrorist proto-state. This policy's result is to endorse, facilitate, and vitalize Palestinian aggression. We've seen the unleashing of a popularly supported Hamas-Hezbollah war against Israel in 2006 and ongoing attacks springing from Gaza. Al Qaeda has reportedly already set up shop alongside other jihadists in the Palestinian territories. Just imagine the mushrooming of terrorist training camps and explosives factories under a sovereign Palestinian state. Imagine how emboldened jihadists will feel operating under a regime that Washington has created and blessed. This is the price of a policy based not on furthering U.S. security, but on undeserved pity. This is the price of willfully ignoring the vile nature of Palestinian goals, treating these hostile people as above reproach and rewarding their irrationality. Isn't it time we demand a policy that puts our security first? Elan Journo is a resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute (http://www.aynrand.org/) in Irvine, CA. The Institute promotes the ideas of Ayn Rand –– best-selling author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead and originator of the philosophy of Objectivism. Contact the writer at media@aynrand.org. To Go To Top

WHEN THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY EMPLOYED ONE OF THE WORST NEO-NAZIS ON EARTH Posted by Steven Plaut, March 28, 2008.

This was written by Paul Bogdanor and it appeared on the IsraCampus website http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/Editorial %20-%20Paul%20Bogdanor%20-%20Israel%20Shahak.htm. The original article has live links to additional material. Paul Bogdanor is the editor, with Edward Alexander, of The Jewish Divide Over Israel, due in paperback later this month.

"And then they come, 80 million worthy Germans, and each one has his decent Jew. Of course the others are vermin, but this one is an A-1 Jew." –– Henrich Himmler "My book is dedicated to Israel Shahak, who is in fact a Jewish person." –– David Duke In the late Israel Shahak, the political heirs of Heinrich Himmler discovered their very own A-1 Jew. They elevated him to that status over three decades, while he served on the faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Israel Shahak was a professor of organic chemistry. In his spare time he was a disseminator of antisemitic lies. Almost every falsehood invoked by the Nazis to justify the Holocaust was eventually ratified by this tenured academic at one of Israel's most prestigious institutions. According to Shahak, the Jews think of nothing but making money for the benefit of the Jewish state ("The force of Jewish devotion in assembling money is thought to be infinite"). According to Shahak, the Jews plan to dominate much of the world through an Israeli empire ("extending from 'Algeria or Morocco' from the west to China in the east, and from Kenya or even South Africa in the south to the USSR in the north"). According to Shahak, the Jews facilitate the spread of vice in order to enslave the masses ("Part of the motivation" must be "encouraging drug addiction and thus promoting political apathy"). Shahak openly collaborated with the Israeli Communist Party and its Frankenstein product, Matzpen. The Communist Party was, of course, a tool of the genocidal Soviet dictatorship, while Matzpen was even more bloodthirsty: If the Israeli Jewish masses are not split from Zionism...then there will be another Holocaust. Eventually, the Arab revolution is going to win; if the masses of the Israeli Jews are not incorporated in it, they will necessarily be consumed by it. Shahak not only raised no objection to this Hitlerian outburst; he joined its author in usurping control of the once-respectable Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights. Shahak was the first Israeli Jew to be published by an organ of the PLO. He was a constant contributor to the PLO's main English-language journal. There he disgorged a stream of antisemitic poison. He claimed that all Zionists believe in "the rightness of biblically justified genocide," which he called "the other Holocaust." He vilified Jewish "Holocaust-mongers" who believe that "killing many children is just if it is done for Jewish benefit." He announced that "Israeli Jews, and with them most Jews throughout the world, are undergoing a process of Nazification." He asserted that the Nuremberg Laws "are infinitely more moderate than the 'Gentile' regulations in Talmudic Law." And he defamed "the Jewish establishment in the USA and its intellectual slaves," adding that "Jewish terror is very kosher in the USA!" Throughout his second career as an antisemitic propagandist for the would-be destroyers of his country, Israel Shahak was protected by officials at the Hebrew University. The excuses continued in the face of mounting public outrage. Yediot Ahronot asked why "someone like Israel Shahak is employed by our national university" when his conduct was "tantamount to treason." In Ha'aretz, the Dean of Tel Aviv University's Law School, Amnon Rubinstein, found "plenty of evidence" for treason charges. He noted that Shahak "does not even support those who want a simple war against Israel, but rather those who want the annihilation of its people." Rubinstein stressed that Shahak's employers were also his accomplices: In my mind, the most serious aspect in the Shahak affair concerns his high-ranking position at the Hebrew University...A tenured job at the university does not mean that it is possible to join with murderers while retaining one's job... The Hebrew University does not act as one should expect of an academic institution. Worse still: it promoted Shahak to the rank of associate professor at the beginning of this year in the midst of his hate campaign. But the campus bureaucrats were unmoved. The sole issue was "freedom of speech," declared the Rector of the University. Academics could not be disciplined for inciting ethnic hatred and the destruction of their country. As for Shahak's recent promotion, this merely reflected the merits of his chemistry classes. Shahak delivered his own response in the newspaper of the Communist Party: "The majority of the Jewish public in Israel (and also out of it) believes that only Jews are human beings...according to Jewish Talmudic law, legally valid in Israel today, any Gentile woman is considered as impure, slave, Gentile and whore." As this example illustrates, Shahak saw no need to pretend, for the benefit of Western audiences, that the target of his hatred was "Zionism." He always insisted that Israel was evil because it was Jewish. In his scurrilous tract Jewish History, Jewish Religion, he warned that Israel's Jewish character was a danger to "all other peoples and states in the Middle East and beyond." Judaism was the focus of evil on earth: not only had it created "one of the most totalitarian societies in the whole history of mankind," even its beliefs were "motivated by the spirit of profit." So malevolent are the Jews, wrote Shahak, that they secretly worship the Devil: both before and after a meal, a pious Jew ritually washes his hands, uttering a special blessing. On one of these two occasions he is worshipping God, by promoting the divine union of Son and Daughter; but on the other he is worshipping Satan... Shahak also found excuses for the near-genocidal Chmielnicki pogroms, which he classified as a "revolt of the oppressed." According to Shahak, when the typical pogromist decided to murder Jews, it was because "Jews profited from his state of slavery and exploitation." Needless to say, Jewish History, Jewish Religion was endorsed by Jew-haters everywhere. "I urge all of you to forego a movie or a dinner and treat yourself to this book" (Ingrid Rimland). "It is a volume which belongs in the library of every informed student of the world's affairs" (Russ Granata). But it would be wrong to assume that admirers of the Third Reich have only just discovered Shahak. His services to these Nazis began decades ago. Ernst Zundel is the author of The Hitler We Loved and Why. He has been described as one of the largest distributors of Nazi literature on the planet. After deportation from Canada to his native Germany, he is now serving a prison sentence on multiple counts of incitement to racial hatred. Ernst Zundel proclaims that Israel Shahak was one of his idols from the late 1960s. Meetings with Shahak and other anti-Zionist Jews "opened up an entirely new world for me, the young German immigrant to Canada." At a public lecture in the late 1970s, "Ernst and his friends demonstrated with signs outside the hall in support of Shahak." According to Zundel, "We had a personal chat before the meeting." On Shahak's death his affection was undiminished: Israel Shahak was quietly heroic. Decent people owe him a debt of gratitude. He was a voice of reason and decency in a country where "the people of the lie" live and hold sway –– and, sadly, also govern. We will sorely miss him and his honesty. Shahak is applauded scores of times on the hatemongering Zundelsite. To my knowledge, the Hebrew University never investigated the links between one of its most prominent professors and one of the world's most notorious Nazis. The story is by no means unique. "Dr. Israel Shahak risked all to bring what he calls 'decent humanity' to Judaism and the Zionist State," declaimed the American racist David Duke, paying tribute to his hero for unmasking "hateful Judaic laws...that permit Jews to cheat, to steal, to rob, to kill, to rape, to lie, even to enslave Christians." Shahak received pride of place, alongside Chomsky and Finkelstein, in Duke's pantheon of Jews who "expose the truth about Zionism and Jewish supremacism." Duke's collected antisemitic ravings gave further evidence of his esteem: I will be the first to acknowledge that not all Jews support or share in this supremacism. In fact, a number of courageous Jews suffer greatly for opposing it. This book is dedicated to the memory of one of them: an Israeli Professor, Dr. Israel Shahak...He persuasively argued that unless both Jews and Gentiles courageously stand up against this supremacist agenda and its power, it will continue to pose a severe danger to Jews and Gentiles alike. In other words, an academic employed for thirty years by the Hebrew University had inspired a former commander of the Ku Klux Klan to pen the English-language sequel to Mein Kampf. Today the Blood Libels of Israel Shahak are available on almost any page on almost any Nazi website: AAARGH, Rense.com, Ziopedia, Jewish Tribal Review, Jew Watch, and others too numerous to count. Shahak has received hundreds of accolades from the aspiring death camp guards of Stormfront. He has been praised to the skies by the frustrated death camp deniers at the Journal of Historical Review. Supporters of the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust can consult Shahak on The Laws Against Non-Jews. Elsewhere antisemites can read the full text of Shahak's Jewish History, Jewish Religion ("Israel Shahak Speaks the Truth!") or they can sample Shahak's views about The Jewish Hatred Towards Christianity ("anti-Christian feelings are literally exploding in Israel"), The Jewish Laundry of Drug Money ("New York Jews" play "the predominant part") and The Jews Who Run USA ("these 'Holocaust memories' are a fake"). In light of the above, the Hebrew University may want to reconsider its assessment that the memory of Israel Shahak's chemistry lessons will outlast his legacy to international Nazism. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments –– both seriously and satirically –– on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il To Go To Top

ABBAS STILL NO LEADER OR REFORMER; GETTING THE NEWS WRONG; BBC CAUGHT IN FALSE REPORTING AGAIN Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 28, 2008.

THE MILITARY COST OF POLITICIANS The Olmert regime toys with its public to win approval, for a time. It gears the IDF up for a major offensive. Before the offensive gets far along, the regime orders the Army to reduce forces and return. "'Every time we embark on such a campaign, at whose conclusion the previous situation is restored, our deterrence is eroded a little further,' admits a senior officer." (IMRA, 3/7.) MIDEAST POWER GRID Some Mideastern countries have been setting up a joint power grid. The Jordanian parliament voted to reject energy cooperation with Israel (IMRA, 3/7). Jordan is cited as one of the countries that made peace with Israel. Don't count on Jordanian restraint if Israel were having a difficult time in a war. AMNESTY INTL. (A.I.) ASSISTS TERRORISM A.I. condemned a terrorist murder of eight Jerusalem civilians. It described the deliberate assault on them as a flagrant violation of international law. Then it asserted that any Israel counter-attack must not endanger Arab civilians. That, too, it described as an abuse of international law (IMRA, 3/7). A.I. is misrepresenting international law. International law forbids targeting of civilians or launching an assault on an enemy force that would kill civilians disproportionately in relation to the military objective. It does not forbid combat that incidentally would endanger civilians but a small number in relation to the military objective. Israeli counter-attacks do not inflict many civilian casualties. Israel takes precautions not to. When it does injure civilians, responsibility lies with Hamas, which endangers those civilians by keeping its forces among them. The logic of international law is clear. Since there is no ambiguity, A.I.'s false statement about the IDF must be due to bias. Its operating principle is that Islamists may get away with abusing international law and kill Israelis. ABBAS KNEW GAZA WOULD FALL Abbas had a good analysis of Hamas' potential for seizing Gaza, but took no steps to stop it. His lieutenants were mutual rivals over jobs and money, subversive, without ideology. Still are (IMRA, 3/7). His P.A. has made some economic reform but no political or military reform. No wonder Israeli experts reckon that Hamas would take over the P.A. if the IDF left! GETTING THE NEWS WRONG Robert Murdoch owns Sky News. Its Israel correspondent was observed by a Jerusalem Post editor mis-reporting an Israeli counter-attack in Gaza. The attack caused about a hundred deaths. The original news sources indicated that many and probably most were gunmen. The correspondent saw those sources! The P.A. claimed, as usual, that half were civilians. (It mislabels members of terrorist bands as civilians. The P.A. lies for psychological warfare.) Murdoch's man posted it as a hundred civilians. He gave no figures terrorist casualties. That makes the assault seem totally against civilians and illegal. The assault was aimed at crews bombarding Siderot and Ashkelon in the Negev portion of Israel. Sky News emphasized a false notion that those cities, although populated by Israelis, are not in the recognized bounds of Israel. His focus on their allegedly being outside the State minimizes impression of injustice being done to Israel. His mistake was surprising, in view of the common knowledge that Hamas has been committing aggression against Israeli cities The Israeli editor suggested to Sky News' foreign and home desks that their later edition correct their earlier one. Sky News did not do so. Familiar with Sky News, the editor does not find it biased. Misperceptions, however, the media is full of. These misperceptions favor the Arabs and undermines Israel's moral case. Abbas supports the Hamas line. Israel's moral case is excellent, not that the news services present it. Israel withdrew from Gaza, to let the Arabs live in peace, bring in investors, and show that they could manage a state and could be entrusted with other territories. (PM Olmert is eager to relinquish them. That is not moral, but it is innocent of intent to harm the Arabs.). Instead, the people voted for Hamas, which killed many Arab rivals and attacks Israel, claiming it must acquire more territory by force. Israel let supplies into Gaza, but Hamas smuggled in weapons and built a terrorist army. When Israel took some counter-measures, the Arabs complained that Gaza is a big prison. Hamas fired upon Israeli civilians and used its own civilians as human shields. They celebrated when they killed civilians and complained when they lost civilians. A competent, accurate, and fair media would present the war as an Israeli defense that strives to minimize casualties against jihadi aggression that strives to maximize civilian casualties on both sides, not just show bloody footage that rouses indignation against Israel. The answer is for Israel to offer a reliable news service with explanations. Israeli politicians, who make Israel sound bad, should learn how to present the issues. It is time to challenge the Islamist narrative. The lack of challenge helps Hamas and Hizbullah recruit! (IMRA, 3/8.) Israelis lack self-respect. DEMOCRACY'S DISADVANTAGE Israel has a life-and-death struggle over foreign policy and critical domestic issues. Instead of giving those issues full attention, Israeli politicians use their government to distribute revenues for the support of interest groups. "The Olmert team would rather stay in power for an extra month than entertain action for the Jewish State's survival for years to come." They don't want to think about the real issues (IMRA, 3/8). It is not just a lust for power and the concomitant power. It's also Olmert's means of evading imprisonment for corruption. It's not just that. Olmert and his associates are post-Zionists. They don't care about Jewish rights, duties, people, and state, and they lack scruples. The use of government to maintain political power is galloping along in the US presidential election, too. Although faced with large deficits, New York State politicians want greatly to increase instead of to decrease spending. REACTIONS TO MURDER OF 8 YESHIVA STUDENTS The P.A. daily accorded the murderer its highest accolade, that of martyr (IMRA, 3/9). The family of the slain murderer wanted to celebrate in Jordan and in Jerusalem, as a "brave" martyrdom, their relative's shooting unarmed students, during which he eventually got slain. They set up a tent from which they raised banners of Hamas and Hizbullah. Authorities in Jordan took down banners and tent. No recognition or advocacy of of terrorist organizations there. Israeli authorities let the enemy banners wave for days, until protests prompted them to follow Jordan's example (IMRA, 3/6). The Israeli government prides itself on decency, but how decent was it to let enemy banners rise in its capital to celebrate the murder of innocent Israelis? That is the shame of appeasement. It also is further indication that the regime is maneuvering to get at least that part of its capital into enemy hands. SECOND BBC APOLOGY FOR FALSE REPORTING The first time, it had taken a UNO statement out of context, so Israel would seem specifically to have attacked civilians. The current apology came after CAMERA caught BBC falsely claiming that right after the Jerusalem Arab murdered eight yeshiva students, Israel bulldozed his house. Israel didn't. The BBC used an eight-year-old photo of some other house being bulldozed (Arutz-7, 3/24). Israel's Security Min. suggests deporting the families of terrorists (Arutz-7, 3/9) who celebrate the terrorism. BBC no longer deserves its reputation. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com To Go To Top

ECONOMIC INCENTIVES HAVE LITTLE EFFECT ON PALESTINIAN ATTITUDES TOWARD ISRAEL Posted by Avodah, March 28, 2008.

This was written by Yossi Alpher and it appeared on the bitterlemons.org website.

Economic Incentives Have Little Effect on Palestinian Attitudes Toward Israel –– Yossi Alpher (bitterlemons.org) Since 1967 virtually all Israeli governments have implemented a broad spectrum of economic carrots and sticks with the objective of manipulating the Palestinian political will –– with little or no effect on the overall attitude of Palestinians toward Israelis and the conflict. Since 1994, the international community has invested huge sums in developing a Palestinian infrastructure and security services and propping up the governing bureaucracy of the PA. But the benefits for the political process are at best debatable. Indeed, arguably the huge sums of international aid showered upon the Palestinian leadership over the past decade and a half have been an important factor in generating the corruption that caused Palestinians to install a Hamas leadership two years ago. To be sure, economic prosperity is as good for Palestinians as it is for everyone else. But there is no positive and demonstrable cause-and-effect connection between prosperity and a reduction in the inclination to engage in terrorism: witness the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000 at a time of relative Palestinian economic prosperity. Contact Avodah by email at Avodah15@aol.com To Go To Top

FROM ISRAEL: DANGEROUS STUPIDITY Posted by Arlene Kushner, March 28, 2008.

The stupidity alluded to here pertains both to US and Israeli policy. And it is with regard to the practice of continuing to arm and train Fatah forces in Judea and Samaria. There is some very irrational notion that it is necessary to "strengthen" Fatah so it can prevent a Hamas takeover. However, the evidence from the recent past provides absolutely no reason to believe that giving Fatah more weapons and more training is going to turn them into a fighting machine that will keep Hamas at bay and that will help to keep Israel safe from terrorists. In fact, the opposite is glaringly obvious to anyone who wishes to pay attention. Repeatedly over the years since the PA was established, there have been incidents in which weapons and training provided by the US with Israeli sanction were turned against Israel. The very first time this happened was in 1996 and the severity of such situations increased with the second intifada starting in 2000. ~~~~~~~~~~ But that's just one factor of concern. The other is the vast likelihood that these weapons will end up in Hamas hands. That's precisely what happened in Gaza. Fatah was heavily armed by the US so that it might stand against Hamas. When Hamas routed Fatah, they acquired these weapons, which are now being utilized against Israel, and which will make that eventual major operation in Gaza more difficult than it otherwise would have been. Hamas is now in possession of such Fatah equipment as machine guns, thousands of assault rifles, personnel carriers and night vision goggles. ~~~~~~~~~~ What must be understood here –– what is of MAJOR concern –– is the fact that Fatah was not defeated in Gaza because of Hamas superiority. Fatah had better training, better equipment, and a larger number of troops in the field. What they lacked was the will to fight Hamas. Consider this information from my report on Fatah from in January: After the rout, The Observer interviewed Abu Obieda, head of the military wing of Hamas, who said, "I expected it to take one month. That is what we planned for and trained for. But then at the beginning all of the Fatah commanders escaped their compounds in ambulances and left for Egypt. They left their men to die. Who could do that?" Amir Tahiri, reporting in the NY Post, confirmed this, saying that even the four chief bases, claimed to be impregnable, fell within hours as the defenders fled, leaving their equipment behind. While according to the Economist, Abbas did not declare a state of emergency until his own Gaza house (very large and elaborate, it should be noted) was being ransacked. Middle level officers complained about a lack of leadership: "We had no orders to fight except in self defense." ~~~~~~~~~~ That was in Gaza. Now in Judea and Samaria, even US generals have begun to complain about the lack of effort on the part of the PA to take on terrorism. This is something I've been writing about for months: the reports that security officers say they aren't given orders to shoot at terrorists, etc. This pattern persists because Fatah (the PA) has no stomach for this fight. As they see it, Hamas and Fatah are all part of the Palestinian people, and there is at heart no disapproval of Hamas terrorism within the ranks of Fatah. The goals are the same, it is only the methods that vary, like a "good cop, bad cop" routine. Months ago the assessment of Israeli intelligence was that Hamas was as strong as Fatah in Judea and Samaria. Since then, Hamas has strengthened further and it is clearly understood that only the IDF stands between the PA and a Hamas takeover. ~~~~~~~~~~ Yet, in spite of this, the US, which saw its policy fail so badly in Gaza, and which is in possession of information regarding Hamas strength in Judea and Samaria, and PA failure to fight terrorism... the US decides to adopt precisely the same policy that backfired in Gaza and to back the same losers all over again. The US is funding weapon supplies and training for the PA. Where are the brains of Rice and company? Where is Bush in all of this? They are setting themselves up for a situation that is doomed to fail. They are making it possible for Hamas to secure better weapons than they would otherwise have had, and ultimately they –– US officials! –– are going to be responsible for Israeli deaths. And those who head the Israeli government? They behave like US lackeys, instead of officials of a sovereign state. They give statements about how Israeli security must be their first concern, but they don't act in accord with these statements. ~~~~~~~~~~ Now it is in the news that Defense Minister Barak has expressed to the US concern that Hamas may take over Judea and Samaria, and that Israeli gestures to the US may backfire. Well, good morning! But why didn't he register this concern BEFORE making the gestures. Why didn't he flatly refuse to make the gestures (which are blatantly said to be gestures to the US) because his first responsibility is to protect Israel? Yet Israel has signed on to allowing the PA to have armored personnel carriers, night vision goggles and a whole lot more. All in the interests of peace, you understand. ~~~~~~~~~~ Rice is due here tomorrow night. She is coming to push that moribund "peace process." And we must ask, here too, why she thinks Fatah is a viable peace partner for Israel, given the parameters outlined above. What is particularly infuriating is that she is being "even handed," criticizing both Israel and the PA for "failures" to live up to their commitments. But what she criticizes Israel for are such things as not taking down "illegal outposts," while with the PA the criticism is not fighting terrorism. These are not parallel issues. The bottom line is that without an elimination of terrorist infrastructure there will be no peace here. Everything else must be on hold until that is accomplished. As to the issues of communities established beyond the Green Line being an "obstacle to peace," I will discuss this further in the next posting. Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info To Go To Top

MORE ABUSE OF YESHA RESIDENTS Posted by Lee Caplan, March 27, 2008.

MK Ariel Slams Barak's Decision on Yesha Cars This comes from Arutz-Sheva

(IsraelNN.com) MK Uri Ariel (NU/NRP) slammed Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday for his ministry's refusal to help cover the cost of reinforced windows for private vehicles belonging to Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria. The decision to stop assisting residents who wish to reinforce their windows was made despite the fact that attacks on Israeli drivers have increased dramatically in recent months, and have occasionally resulted in serious injury. "With one hand the Defense Minister gives weapons to the terrorists known as Palestinian policemen, and with the other he chokes every possibility of minimal protection," Ariel said. Ariel called on the government to immediately make money available to cover the cost of protecting Jews in Judea and Samaria. Govt. Stops Funding Protection for Yesha Drivers (IsraelNN.com) The government has stopped providing financial assistance for Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria who wish to protect their vehicles from rock and Molotov cocktail attacks, residents reported Thursday. Several residents who planned to purchase or repair special reinforced windows on their vehicles in recent days were surprised to discover that they were expected to cover the entire cost of the repair work. A repairman from Jerusalem said he had asked the Defense Ministry if he could forward his customers the government's share of the funding with the knowledge that he would be reimbursed. Officials refused his offer, he said, and said they could not promise that the funding would ever arrive. Residents pointed out that the apparent change in policy came as terrorist groups in Judea and Samaria were increasing the number of attacks on Israeli drivers in the area. One driver accused the government of deliberately failing to protect Jewish drivers in hopes that Jewish residents would begin to leave Judea and Samaria by choice. YESHA Council Chair: 'MK Vilan's Demand is Plain Evil' (IsraelNN.com) Chairman of the Judea, Samaria and Gaza (YESHA) Council, Dani Dayan, called the demand voiced by some far-left Knesset members to evict former residents of Gush Katif from their new homes "evil for evil's sake." Defense Minister Ehud Barak issued orders allowing five Jewish families from the demolished town of Morag to live in prefab homes in the town of Teneh-Omarim, near Hevron. The governmental permits, issued nearly three years after the families were taken from their Gaza homes, were harshly criticized by the left-wing Meretz party on Monday. Reacting to MK Vilan's demand that the government reverse itself again, and thus expel the families from the new homes, Dayan said, "How much evil can one put up with? MK Vilan's demand to again expel families that were already expelled from their homes once is not a legitimate political position, it is rather hardheartedness and evilness for their own sake." Daisy Stern commented: "Stone-proof windows on cars is an EXPENSIVE and ESSENTIAL item. I had mine replaced last year. They have to be replaced about every 3 years, because they are made of plastic and they get dull after a while, and then you stop being able to see through them, which is obviously hazardous on the road. So it is a necessity, not a luxury: without this stone proofing, every stone thrown on a car can result in severe injuries, be they from glass shards, cuts, blindness, head injuries from the rock itself, and of course, loss of control of the vehicle. To withhold this from residents of Yesha is clearly criminal and shows evil intent." Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com To Go To Top

SIX-MONTH SENTENCE FOR ASKING: SHOULD WE EXPEL ARABS OR JEWS? Posted by Steven Plaut, March 27, 2008.

This was written by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz and it appeared in Arutz-Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125685 Yekutiel Ben-Yaakov, formerly known as Mike Guzofsky, moved to Israel from New York. He ran the Hatikva Jewish Identity Center for one of the Jewish Defense League branches in New York City.

(IsraelNN.com) Yekutiel Ben-Yaakov, convicted over a private referendum he conducted, was sentenced on Tuesday to 200 hours of community service, along with a suspended sentence of six months in jail. Ben-Yaakov's parole period is to last for three years. About 50 demonstrators, including some musicians playing protest songs, showed up outside the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, where sentencing took place. Ben-Yaakov, of Kfar Tapuach, was convicted for "incitement to racism" as a result of a street referendum he designed prior to Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. His referendum asked which was preferable: then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Disengagement Plan, which would expel Jews from Gaza and Samaria, or an alternate plan to expel hostile Arabs from Israel. More than 100,000 people from Israel's major cities participated in the referendum, with over 90 percent saying they would rather expel hostile Arabs. "It's outrageous that a country that calls itself a democracy can put someone on trial for making a referendum," Ben-Yakov told the press before sentencing. "A referendum is the purest form of democracy." Ben-Yaakov believes he was charged with incitement not because of the nature of the referendum, but because it demonstrated to the government to what extent the Disengagement Plan went against the will of the majority. Participants in Ben-Yaakov's referendum were given a ballot card asking if they "prefer the 'Sharon/Peres Disengagement Plan,' which includes transferring Gaza and parts of the West Bank to Palestinian control and expulsion of all Jews who live there. Or do you prefer the 'Jewish Alternative Disengagement Plan,' which includes annexing these territories and expulsion of the Arabs living there to an area outside Israel, deep beyond a safe security buffer zone?" Jerusalem-based Human rights activist Attorney Irving Gendelman calls into question the validity of the incitement law and asks, "Would a person be culpable if his alleged act of incitement was intended only to express an opinion on political issues inherent in a democratic country?" Gendelman says that use of the law at the expense of basic human rights inclusive of the right to democratically oppose governmental political policies "is an anathema." He concludes, "In Israel, it is debatable whether full freedom of expression within democratic norms is permitted by the Israeli Government." Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments –– both seriously and satirically –– on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il To Go To Top

MORE VIDEOS FOR EVERY JEWISH MOM! Posted by Jenny Weisberg, March 27, 2008.

Shalom Everybody! Enjoy this week's 2-minute Real Jewish Moms videos! Don't forget to pass them on to another Jewish mom today to make her smile... Thank G-d, over the past two weeks over 8000 women have viewed "What am I Living For?" and hundreds more women are watching it every day. I want to thank each and every one of you who took the time to forward the video to your friends for helping to spread the video's message to Jewish moms all over the world. You made my dream a reality. (Didn't see "What am I Living For?" Go to http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3665075616927452778&hl=en) Enjoy! Chana/Jenny Weisberg, www.JewishMom.com Video #1 –– Real Jewish Moms: The Goal Description: Real Jewish Moms: The Goal Description: "When you wake up at 3 AM to care for a child who has just wet his bed, you ask yourself, "'Where is the meaning?'" This is the question that Ricka Van Leeuwen asks and answers in this inspiring video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4491123842801182415&pr=goog-sl Video #2 –– Real Jewish Moms: The Goal Description: Pregnant? Jewish? You must watch this movie. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2362103731407741419&pr=goog-sl The Jewish Press on Real Jewish Moms: "Motherhood is undoubtedly a holy task: this is the secret revealed in Chana Jenny Weisberg's work. Besides her unique book, her series of two-minute films called "The Real Jewish Moms Film Series" on her website www.JewishMom.com, help mothers sense spiritual bliss in the midst of their demanding, all-absorbing and often difficult responsibilities." –– Professor Livia Bitton-Jackson Chana Jenny Weisberg is author of One Baby Step at a Time: Seven Secrets of Jewish Motherhood (Urim), Expecting Miracles: Finding Meaning and Spirituality in Pregnancy through Judaism (Urim), and creator of the popular website JewishMom.com Contact her at jenny_weisberg@yahoo.com To Go To Top

NO MORE EMPTY STATEMENTS OF CONDOLENCES, PLEASE Posted by Emmanuel A. Winston, March 27, 2008.

When the 8 Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva students were murdered on March 6th by an Israeli Arab Muslim, the pro-forma condolences poured in from many nations. For all they meant, they could have pre-printed a form with blank areas for the dates of future massacres with a blank for when and where it happened. I am sick to death of the phony expressions of sorrow from President Bush, Secretary Rice and the other nations –– while they send a king's treasure to the Terrorists, in addition to arming and training them. The first television coverage on March 6th (which was quickly terminated) showed the riotous celebrations in Gaza, with firing of weapons that sounded like firecrackers and handing out of candy (made with the sugar supplied in humanitarian shipments from Israel). Even the be-suited Terrorist Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) condemned the "successful" Terrorist while his Fatah has major Terrorists operating under his banner –– including Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigade, Tanzim, PFLP, Islamic Jihad –– with significant input by Hezb'Allah, Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, among others. I expect Fatah and Hamas to re-united soon in their joint goal to wipe out the Jewish State. But, Bush must have looked into Abu Mazen's eyes and seen his soul –– as he did with Putin, and saw nothing but good in his "Moderate" soul. Condi's condolences are not worth the price of an Email, given her deep antipathy for the Jewish nation, Israel, and her people. Condi says (she is still reliving her childhood) where the southern whites were savaging her black brethren. With all that bile souring her stomach, she had to regurgitate somewhere, so she picked on the Jews. In her warped psychology, Jews looked like her southern whites and the Muslim Terrorists became her blacks. Condi, you had better keep your condolence babble inside your head rather than pretend you care about Jews being murdered by Islamic Arab Palestinians. AS fo the nations who haunt the U.N., better they also keep their condolences for the newspapers and TV. Their knee-jerk, pro-forma condolence cards have become like a Hallmark holiday greeting card because the Terror, Rocket and Missile attacks happen so often. As for Israel, she should return their phony expressions of condolence, marked: "Return to Sender" and ask: "What are you going to do to stop the killings?". Emanuel Winston is a commentator and Middle East analyst. His articles appear often on Think-Israel and Gamla. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a research associate of the Freeman Center For Strategic Studies (http://www.freeman.org/online.htm). Contact him at gwinston@gwinston.interaccess.com To Go To Top

THE NEW YORK (ISLAMIC) TIMES. HOW PROPAGANDA WORKS TO ENSURE THE SUBORDINATION OF WOMEN Posted by Phyllis Chesler, March 27, 2008.

How do we cut down on honor murders in the West? According to some people, you do whatever it takes to keep the girls from dishonoring their families so that their families do not have to honor-murder them. According to the New York Times, (www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/us/26muslim.html) "home schooling" the girls in America, re-creating a feudal, rural, parallel universe in California in which girls and women are kept hidden and apart, is the sensible, merciful alternative to honor murders in The New World. At a time when Islamists are at full jihadic throttle, The New York Times features a mild and lovely –– a truly non-judgmental article about the proliferation of home schooling among Muslim communities in America. How can anyone criticize home schooling? It's a venerable, Super-American Back-to-the-Land and Back-to-the-Bible custom. Well, according to the article, this folksy custom might be under serious advisement since Osama Bin Laden's American mouthpiece, Adam Gadahn, was himself home schooled in rural California. But really: How can I criticize the tendency of immigrants to cling to their customs and their faiths? Isn't America's history one in which successive waves of immigrants retained their ethnic and religious identities –– while their children and grand-children became integrated into American culture? And, don't we still allow religious communities to keep themselves apart and to train their women to be docile, modest, family-oriented servants of both men and God? Well yes, but I have always protested keeping women down in the name of religion, and have been quick to applaud the accomplishments of religious (and anti-religious) women who enter the modern professions, wage feminist battles against violence against women within their communities, and who also become leaders and authorities in their various faiths, both secular and religious. So, why is the New York Times making so subtle and so powerful an alliance with Islamists against women? The way propaganda works is through persistence, subtlety, and images. Every week, sometimes every day, the Times has a Muslim- or Islamist-friendly article, usually with positive color photos. The Paper of Record knows how to cover its considerable derriere. Thus, it is careful to have comments from "both sides of the aisle" as long as the critical comments are buried-in-the-balance and do not deflect from the bottom line propaganda having its way with us. Karima Tung, 12, one of three girls home-schooled by their mother, Fawzia Mai Tung. An important part of the school day: reading the Koran. (Photo: Neil MacFarquhar) Ian Buruma writes an article that is so cleverly cobbled together than most readers do not understand that it is meant as a devastating attack on the heroic Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Tariq Ramadan, the genetic and intellectual heir to the man who founded the Muslim Brotherhood is, again and again, glowingly profiled, reviewed, published, and shown wearing trendy western dress. Noah Feldman continues to condemn Orthodox Judaism and to extol the virtues of Muslim religious (Shari'a) law, not only for Turkey but for an unsuspecting West. Young, attractive women wearing headscarves are shown and they are quoted saying sophisticated, friendly things. Steadily, slowly, inexorably, Western readers are being softened for the "kill," seasoned and habituated to accept the subordination of women as an inviolate cultural and religious reality. Take a look at the March 26th edition of the New York Times. Titled "Resolute or Fearful, Many Muslims Turn to Home Schooling," the article was five columns wide and featured two sympathetic color photos. Both show female teenagers wearing head-and-shoulder hijab. The larger photo resonates for Westerners who may have seen similar images in great paintings of the Middle Ages; the photo somewhat resembles a Vermeer. The domestic intimacy, symmetry, harmony is all there. We are meant to "like" the young and smiling girl in hijab who, according to the caption, is reading the Koran. The article explains that many Muslim families in California have opted for home schooling for their daughters; forty percent of Pakistani and southeast Asian families "in the district" have done so. Why? Many possible reasons are given: So that Muslim children will not be teased or mocked; exposed to pork; "corrupted" by American influences –– but mainly, so that their girls do not engage in behaviors that would "dishonor" their families and require that they be honor murdered. For example, Hajra Bibi stopped attending public school and began home schooling when she reached puberty. "Her family wanted her to clean and cook for her male relative, 'Some men don't like it when you wear American clothes –– they don't think it is a good thing for girls. We don't want anyone to point a finger at us, to say that we are bad." Because that might render them unmarriageable and as candidates to be honor murdered. The smiling, Vermeer-like photo and the additional photo of three girls wearing heavy hijab and playing with their yo-yos, soften the blow that this information might otherwise elicit. Why should American citizens or future American citizens, in California or elsewhere, be taught that girls must wear hijab or even niqab (face covering); that boys and men are entitled to boss girls around; that a minimal education and an arranged marriage to your cousin is all that an American female citizen needs? Why live in America if what you want to do is keep the girls culturally illiterate and down on the farm? The Orthodox Judaism that Noah Feldman spurns, does not practice honor murders. If a woman marries outside her fundamentalist faith, she may indeed be ex-communicated but then again, she may not. If a Christian woman marries outside her faith, but you get my point. The countless successive immigrant waves to America did not practice honor murders. Perhaps ugly, agonizing breaks took place; killing to enforce religious norms did not. Can we just give it some time, wait and see, give the new-immigrant-on-the block a break? Well sure, but let's remember that some third generation immigrants in the UK have become radical Islamists. Given British racism and the rise of the radical, global mullahs, the expected integration did not "take." There might be something different about contemporary Islam that does not lend itself to integration. Why is the New York Times engaged in disinformation about such an important topic? Dr. Phyllis Chesler is an Emerita Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies at City University of New York. She is an author and lecturer and co-founder of the still ongoing Association for Women in Psychology (1969). Visit her website at http://pajamasmedia.com/xpress/phyllischesler/ This article is archived at http://pajamasmedia.com/xpress/phyllischesler/2008/03/27/ the_new_york_islamic_times_how.php To Go To Top

IF HUMANITARIAN CRISIS, WHOSE FAULT?; OLMERT REGIME KNOWS WHAT IT'S DOING IS WRONG Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 27, 2008.

LATEST P.A. DEFAMATION OF JEWS A recently made Gaza film depicts Israel burning Arab children alive, in crematoria. Now it claims that there was a Holocaust, but it was of Arab children and was perpetrated by Israel (IMRA, 3/20 from Palestinian Media Watch). Meanwhile, Hamas uses children as human shields and hires them to retrieve targeted rocket launchers while Israel bends over backwards to minimize civilian Arab casualties. The IDF has aborted missions when children entered the scene, whereas the objective of some PLO missions was to seek out children as targets. Which side do you sppose the world thinks acts excessively? IDF ETHICS In a recent offensive, Hamas fugitives took refuge in people's houses. The IDF opened fire without first ascertaining whether civilians live there. Since the presence of the Hamas military made those houses legitimate military targets, the IDF acted within international law. They preserved their own lives (from Hamas violation of international law, the violation being to invest civilian areas). A weapon lay between Hamas forces and the IDF raiders. A Hamas gunman was killed trying to retrieve it. Hamas then sent a 10-year-old boy to retrieve it. The IDF commander ordered his troops to withhold fire. The boy was able to turn the weapon over to Hamas. It is not known whether that weapon was used to kill Israeli soldiers (IMRA, 3/5). It would not be for lack of trying. I think the IDF was not being ethical. Why is that boy's life worth more than their own, in a war of genocide that the boy's people are waging? IF A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN GAZA, WHOSE FAULT? Now that Hamas seized Gaza, it is responsible for the people, though "humanitarian organizations" hold Israel to account for results of Hamas sabotage. Israel keeps records of goods entering Gaza from Israel. Israel opens special humanitarian crossings, but Hamas attacks Israelis there and the crossings themselves. Israel has barred no medical shipment, but Hamas keeps much of it from hospitals. Cement and pipes for sewage facilities have been hurried through, but Hamas diverts them to make rockets. Israel did not reduce electricity to Gaza, it facilitated the repair and building of transformers in Gaza, under sniper fire from Hamas. Hamas also fires on some fuel trucks, and does not allocate them to ambulances and other vital services but for its own purposes (perhaps to its own charities, to get credit with the people). Israel lets Gaza Arabs into Israeli hospitals, though Hamas tries to get them to commit terrorism (IMRA, 3/6). Why not blame Hamas for any problems? If being humane helps an inhumane people wage war on it and Israel get condemned for it, why do it? WHAT TO MAKE OF TERRORISM IN JERUSALEM An Israeli official explained that the murder of the eight yeshiva students in Jerusalem by an Arab resident was not related to the strife in Gaza. He said that Arabs constantly attempt terrorism against Israelis wherever they can. If it weren't for security services' vigilance, more attacks would succeed and be reported (IMRA, 3/6). Jihadists tend to relate their latest attack to some other event, so as to garner more propaganda out of it. They pretend justification that way. U.S. SUPPORTS GAZA CEASEFIRE Although the US does not consider Hamas legitimate, it does support getting it into a ceasefire with Israel, as an improvement over combat. Sec. Rice accused Hamas of fighting in order to undermine "peace" negotiations (IMRA, 3/6). Nonsense. Hamas isn't concerned with negotiations, it is making war. A ceasefire would help it build up for war, so that is no improvement over combat. OLMERT REGIME KNOWS WHAT IT IS DOING WRONG! Foreign Min. Livni told Sec. Rice, "But we cannot afford a situation in which, on the surface, there may be some quiet days, but simultaneously, the terrorists are acquiring more and more weapons and will decide when to use it... We cannot afford a terrorist state in Gaza. We cannot afford a failed state as part of the future Palestinian state or an extreme Islamic terrorist state as Gaza seem to be right now. So we need to give an answer both to the missiles coming from Gaza Strip and to the buildup of Hamas, the tunnels, and Egypt." That means Israel realizes that a ceasefire with Hamas and allocating sovereignty to the P.A. are not acceptable. On the same day, however, PM Olmert said, "Israelis don't wake up every morning thinking of how to strike Gaza next. If we are not attacked, we won't attack either." That means Israel would accept a ceasefire with Hamas. Since the government knows that a ceasefire is no good, why does it pursue one instead of consistently explaining the fallacy behind it? (Dr. Aaron Miller, IMRA, 3/6.) Since it knows that P.A. statehood means losing the opportunity to eradicate terrorism there, why does the Olmert regime promote P.A. statehood? P.A. statehood means ending Jewish claims to the area. It also means temporary praise for the regime and that the leftist justice system would not indict or at least would not convict Olmert of all his corruption and certainly not for his betrayal of his country. FOREIGN ARABS NO MORE ETHICAL THAN P.A. ONES The Lebanon Star made remarked that "resistance" is enshrined in international law and the P.A. Arabs have a right to retaliate against "atrocities" Israel committed in Gaza. Then it made its main point that it was wrong of that Jerusalem Arab to shoot the eight yeshiva students. Why? Because attacking civilians hinders rather than helps the Palestinian Arab cause (IMRA, 3/8). The criticism of terrorism is the same one made by Abbas. He does not call it immoral, he calls it impractical. To me, that makes Abbas and the Star immoral, themselves. Why is it impractical? Because they know that attacking civilians violates international law, and that international law bans that because it is uncivilized. Israel attacked terrorists. Atrocities? No, that is its duty under international law. AMNESTY DEAL FOUND TO BE PHONY Five terrorists supposedly were held in P.A. prison preparatory to Israel's granting them amnesty in return for their ending their terrorism. Israel found that they had been let out and were committing terrorism. Israeli forces set out to recapture them. The Israelis wounded four and killed the fifth (IMRA, 3/8). As stated before, it is unwise to leave terrorists in the tender custody of the P.A.. To eradicate terrorism, eradicate terrorists. HOW WOULD OLMERT IMPOSE DETERRENCE? PM Olmert acknowledges that Hizbullah has fully rearmed, but takes comfort from his failed Lebanon offensive from the fact that Hizbullah has not fired rockets at Israel since the war. He claims it is because of Israeli deterrence. He now claims he is going to obtain Israeli deterrence with the P.A. Apparently that means he is going to let them build up a rocket arsenal, too. He doesn't realize that the reasons for present Hizbullah forbearance may be temporary. Then Hizbullah and the P.A. could saturate Israel with rockets (IMRA, 3/8). How would he gain deterrence over the P.A.? He won't mount a major offensive, which would destroy the terrorist forces. His little forays and tiny raids do not stop the P.A. from bombarding Israel. Working without public approval somewhat restrains Olmert. Otherwise, his actions are the same as if he set out to undermine Israeli national security. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com To Go To Top

OBAMA THE OBFUSCATOR Posted by Steven D. Zak, March 26, 2008.

He believes... whatever you believe. (IsraelNN.com) If one were to sum up the campaign strategy of Barack Obama in a word, it would be "obfuscation." Obama's well-known empty platitudes, of course, serve to hide the man behind them by revealing no detail. His underlying "black rage" –– expressed more openly by his less politically-cunning wife –– is hidden beneath well-crafted loftiness. Now that he has been exposed as a fellow traveler of the America-loathing anti-Semite Jeremiah Wright, Obama's attempt at damage control relies once again on obfuscation. First, through an attempt to minimize the scope of Wright's hateful rants through such carefully chosen words as "occasionally" (as in "an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy"; and "occasionally" black anger "finds voice in the church on Sunday morning") and "snippets" (as in "snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television"). In truth, as America saw for itself, Wright's church was a cesspool of bile. Obama also obscures his true sympathies by condemning unnamed "statements" of Wright while embracing the man as "part of me"; just as, when pressed, he "denounced" unspecified "comments" of Louis Farrakhan while referring to the man reverentially as "Minister Farrakhan." The pretense is at nuance; the strategy is obfuscation. If you're offended by Wright's or Farrakhan's rhetoric, then Obama is with you. If you admire such men, then he's with you too. He believes... whatever you believe. But behind the obfuscation lies a real person with real views. It defies credibility that the man who spent two decades listening to the bile-filled rants of Jeremiah Wright was drawn to him despite the filth that poured from his mouth rather than because of it; or that he took Wright as his friend and spiritual advisor notwithstanding the radical positions Wright quite clearly embraced. Imagine a white candidate who had spent the last twenty years worth of Sundays soaking in the rants of a David Duke, but who now –– just now, during a presidential campaign –– wants you to believe that, while he disagrees with some of Duke's "occasional" and "controversial" thoughts, he still seeks Duke's spiritual counsel because Duke represents "the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up [a segment of the white] experience in America." You'd think the man an obfuscater of astonishing proportions. But obfuscation is what you fall back on when your views are so radical that you can't present them openly to the nation. Consider an earlier radical Democratic contender for the nation's highest office who tried, and failed, to hide his true self and intentions. That man was John Kerry, both for and against the war, the candidate who posed as the combat-hardened prospective commander-in-chief who was in reality intensely hostile to the military. This wasn't nuance; it was obfuscation. Obama, whose views are informed by perceived "disparities that exist in the African-American community" and "the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow," poses as the man beyond race. He is the divider posing as the uniter. The Palestinian sympathizer posing as a friend of the Jews. The slippery Chicago politician posing as the man above politics. Yet another candidate who doesn't want you to know who he is until it's too late. Some of his admirers are the first to admit the deception. "If avoiding me would help him to become president, I'd be glad to stay in the background," Louis Farrakhan told Nightline, in a candid admission that Obama's best hope is obfuscation. Likewise, black Chicago columnist and Obama supporter Mary Mitchell, angered by her candidate's offense of "denigrating Farrakhan's legacy" at a February debate, forgave him his "denunciation" because it was strategic, not sincere. "Fortunately for Obama," she wrote, "most black people understand the game." Thanks to Jeremiah Wright, so do we all –– proving that, in America, even an anti-Semitic hate-monger may accomplish something worthwhile. Steven D. Zak is a lawyer and writer, living in California. Contact him by email at SDZ@aol.com This article appeared in Arutz-Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/7861 To Go To Top

POLLARD: I HAVEN'T RECEIVED A PENNY FROM THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT Posted by Justice For Jonathan Pollard, March 26, 2008.

This was written by Sharon Roffe-Ofir and it appeared today in YNet News http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/ 1,2506,L-3523953,00.html

"As you are well aware, in the 23 years that I have been in captivity, I have never received one cent from the Government of Israel. Even though, as an officially recognized Israeli agent, I am entitled to full government support and financial compensation, I have received nothing," Jonathan Pollard said this week in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "Similarly, my wife Esther has never received a single cent from the Government of Israel, nor any kind of support, even when she was seriously ill with cancer," wrote Pollard who has been jailed in the US since 1985 after being convicted of spying for Israel. "Yet your office continues to lie and to disseminate official government statements declaring that my wife and I and my 'close associates' are receiving 'full support in every possible respect' from the Government of Israel," Pollard said in the letter, which was sent to Israel via certified mail. "If, as you insist, your Government is allocating resources for me and my wife, but we are not receiving them, then who is getting the money? Are the funds (which you claim are intended for us) being misappropriated by your office and used illegally elsewhere? While we do not know for certain what kind of corruption is going on, we do know that something smells very bad." A few months ago Pollard's attorney, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, sent Olmert a letter demanding that the PM substantiate the government's claims that it was supporting the Pollards financially. Olmert's legal counsel, Shulamit Barnea Fargo, wrote in response that "the claims in your letter are for the most part, baseless, and the style in which they are written is offensive. I do not see any place for providing the information which you requested, out of fear that this will damage Mr. Pollard's welfare and the efforts of the State of Israel to assist him. 'Expose the truth' Fargo continued to say that "the government has acted in the past and is currently working to assist Jonathan Pollard and his associates." Similar responses were provided by the government to several letters sent by Israeli citizens asking why the State refused to support Esther Pollard, whose financial situation, according to them, was dire. Pollard for his part said in his letter "Mr. Prime Minister, that if the Government had any proof to substantiate the lies your office is disseminating about support for me and my wife, you would have no need to evade the questions my attorney asked." His wife told Ynet, "If I were indeed receiving support from the Government of Israel, would I be living this way, in dire straits financially? Would I be forced to live in a little room in the apartment of a kindly Jerusalem widow who heard of our financial distress and offered to take me in?" Meanwhile, Esther Pollard refuted recent claims made by senior defense officials and politicians according to which a comprehensive inquiry recently launched by the State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss may compromise "sensitive efforts" to bring about her husband's release. Lindenstrauss was ordered by the Knesset's State Control Committee to investigate actions taken by Israel's governments over the years to release Pollard. All the "hysteria" surrounding the State Comptroller's investigation, she explained, has nothing to do with fear of damaging efforts to secure Pollard's release. "There are no efforts to free Pollard," Esther Pollard said. She continued to say that "I was recently told by a senior American official with close ties to the the Bush Administration, there is only one man who can free your husband –– Bush; and there is only one man who has to ask for your husband's release –– Olmert. So what are these Israeli defense officials afraid of? How can they be afraid of damaging initiatives to secure his release, when there are no initiatives for Jonathan's release? "In point of fact, what they are really afraid of is that the investigation will reveal who has been misappropriating all the money intended for Pollard for the last 23 years, and that the truth will come to light that this is not just about monetary corruption, but about trafficking in the blood of an Israeli agent," Esther Pollard said. Reach Justice for Jonathan Pollard by sending an email to justice4jp@gmail.com To Go To Top

ISRAEL CONDUCTS WARFARE AS IF A GAME; POLICE STATE & PROUD JEW; ULTIMATE TEST OF HUMAN SHIELDS Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 26, 2008.

ISRAEL CONDUCTS WARFARE AS IF A GAME Foreign Min. Livni told foreign ambassadors, "More than that, we decided to avoid civilian casualties by sending a warning message to a place from which we knew the terrorists act. They, on the other hand, called on civilians to live there because we were going to attack. We prefer to attack an empty building which is being used to manufacture rockets, even taking into consideration that the terrorists will leave the place. So you know what happened. All the children gathered on the roof. Since they know that the strike usually comes from the air, they send the children to the roof to prevent us from targeting that building." As a result, the IDF halts many such bombings at the last moment. Dr. Aaron Lerner commented, "One of the things Israeli decision makers continually fail to understand is that when you apply false morality in a situation that no one give you credit for it. They just think you are stupid." (It is stupid or worse.) Among Livni's statements was, "In the West Bank we have another government, which is supported by the international community and Israel as well, which is a legitimate government because it accepts the parameters of the international community to get legitimacy. I refer to the parameters of the Quartet requirements. They represent the national aspirations of the Palestinians to live in a state of their own, in peace and security, I hope, with Israel. We have a conflict with them, but we also have a mutual interest. We see this as a mutual interest to live in peace and security in two different states, two different homelands for two different peoples." (IMRA, 3/4/08.) The ambassadors asked the usual questions about whether Israel is inflicting collective punishment (Livni said the Muslim rocket attacks on Israeli cities do), is it fighting disproportionately, and should it negotiate with Hamas. At this late date, to ask questions like that which have been answered long ago makes them as stupid as Livni. Ambassadors should not rely on ignorant reporters for notions of "disproportionate" but on their experts in international law. Livni's statements about Abbas' regime accepting Quartet requirements, his Arabs having national aspirations, a mutual interest with Israel such as wanting peace, and their being entitled to a state disgust me. An Israeli Foreign Minister should not be lying to promote genocidal jihadists. How dare she want to give away Jewish territory! How can she claim Abbas accepts Quartet requirements, when he and Arafat have been violating their agreements since 1993? The P.A. doesn't want a state, it wants to destroy a state, Israel. What mutual interest? Abbas honors terrorists. Foreign Minister, and she doesn't know who the enemy is. In a way, that makes Olmert and her enemies of Israel. Israel's main problem is a disloyal Left and fools for leaders. My friends don't know how anti-Israel those leaders are. ISLAMIST ORGANIZATION APOLOGIZES TO PIPES For the second time, an Islamist organization has apologized to Daniel Pipes. Both times, the apologies were made under Pipes' threat of suit for defamation. Pipes set up a legal group to defend against Muslim slander (Pipes, 841, 3/4/8). MUSLIMS COVET SPAIN Muslims increasingly mourn the loss of conquered Spain hundreds of years ago. OBSESSED SEC. RICE Sec. Rice said she is devoting all her remaining tenure to establishing another Palestinian Arab state. She is consulting former US leaders Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, former U.S. negotiator Dennis Ross, and ex-secretaries of state James Baker, Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright. They all were failures in foreign policy. "Even allowing for exaggeration, don't Venezuela, Russia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, China, and North Korea, for starters, matter any more?" (Op. Cit..) What is driving Rice? It isn't sane. Nor is it good for the US to foster another terrorist state. If Israel had sane leaders, itself, it would tell her to stay home. They are determined to seize it, again (Ibid). Appeasement doesn't help. WHAT THE P.A. SAYS ABOUT THE U.S. A member of the PLO governing committee said on P.A. TV, controlled by Abbas, that the US and Britain are the natural enemies of the Arab nation and should be fought by it in Iraq (Sorry, lost citation). The US helps the P.A. against Israel. Does that make sense? POLICE STATE & PROUD JEW Israel's Civil Administration brought some Arabs into Elon Moreh, either to pick olives (why in a town of Jews?) or to claim town land. Jews asked them to leave. They claim that one pushed one of them. A Hebrew speaking cop asked one, who reads only a little Arabic, to sign a statement in Arabic he didn't understand. Every day the Civil Administration called him demanding he testify. He swore that the accused young woman was not the one who pushed him. She spent three months in unheated solitary confinement for refusal to recognize a court that persecutes its own people. Although exonerated, the girl was remanded for another month, to punish her for her non-cooperation (IMRA, 3/5). The government is trying to push the Jews out, however valid their claims and however invalid the Arabs' claims. When Arabs attack Jews in the Territories, it almost always is the Jews who get arrested, especially if defending themselves. CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM IS ILLUSORY I used to belong to Common Cause, because its primary goal was campaign finance reform. Money is a major factor in winning elections. A minimum amount is needed to maintain a campaign. That minimum is high. Sen. McCain sponsored a reform statute. It was not up to the job. Society is too complex. When he prohibited certain forms of excessive campaign spending, candidates devised other forms, safe within the law. Ironically, the banned forms are what McCain could raise more money from, whereas labor unions and liberal organizations such as Soros' and Planned Parenthood expect to raise half a billion dollars against McCain. We can't control this without censorship. ULTIMATE TEST OF HUMAN SHIELDS The first major test of the use of human shields came when Hamas threatened to send a wave of people to cross the Gaza-Israel line. Hamas dared Israel to shoot down thousands of people. Israel publicly prepared to use force to stop the mass invasion. Hamas did not risk finding out whether Israel were bluffing. I imagine that if masses of Arab invaders were shot, lawyers would sue Israel. Foreign governments would condemn Israel and not Hamas for putting its people in jeopardy. If Israeli police stood aside, the Muslims would slaughter them and the civilians in Israeli cities. The world wouldn't mind that. So much for letting gentiles set humanitarian policy for Israel. Now we may come to the ultimate test of human shields. Defense Min. Barak is checking his legal options on it. He threatens to warn a neighborhood of Gaza to evacuate from it, each time that Gazans fire rockets at Israel, so the next day their lives are spared as Israeli artillery flattens the neighborhood. Probably even before he were to carry out such a policy, the US would demand he stop and the Security Council would call an emergency meeting. When Israelis are bombarded, they hardly bestir themselves. Let's suppose Barak got started. The first time, judging by past actions, Hamas is likely to call upon, and to enforce its call, for the residents to stay put. Then Israel would be in the position of killing thousands of supposed non-combatants. That would arouse the US and the Security Council. It also would arouse people of conscience, not just leftists. How long would the policy last? On the other hand, if the Security Council were slow to act, and three neighborhoods and their inhabitants were devastated, Hamas might cease to fire rockets at Israel. I would not mourn those residents, for they are part of jihad. Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com To Go To Top

SHOW SOME BACKBONE, EU; PROTESTING THE NOMINATION OF JEAN ZIEGLER Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, March 26, 2008.

These are articles on what's happening at the U.N. and they come from UN Watch.

Show some backbone, EU by Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch in Geneva. Jerusalem Post. The UN Human Rights Council's preoccupation with Israel will surge to a new intensity this week with the expected election of two officials who describe the Jewish state in Nazi terminology, along with three more resolutions indicting it for a litany of alleged crimes. Unless the European Union starts showing backbone, the UN's other powerful voting blocs will continue scapegoating the Middle East's only democracy in order to divert attention from situations of gross human rights abuses in places like Tibet, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe, which target peaceful protesters, women and dissidents. The council was created in June 2006 to reform the discredited Commission on Human Rights, criticized by many for its regular focus on Israel to the exclusion of the world's worst human rights violators. However, apart from some passing attention to Burma, the supposedly reformed body has devoted all of its condemnatory resolutions to the Jewish state –– 16 to date. Even still, the upcoming week, wrapping up the council's main annual session, will stand out as particularly egregious. First, the 47-nation council will vote on three separate resolutions, introduced by the Arab and Islamic states, slamming Israel for alleged human rights violations in the Golan Heights, concerning the settlements, and for "severely impeding the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination." There is not a word about recent Palestinian rocket and shooting attacks targeting civilians. As it happens, the council already condemned Israel during the first week of this session –– over events in Gaza –– after Arab and Islamic states pushed the panel to rearrange its schedule and open with Agenda Item 7, "the Human Rights situation in Palestine and other Occupied Arab Territories," before anything else.   BY CONTRAST, the council has maintained strict silence on the bloody shootings and mass arrests taking place in Tibet. Its resolutions have been equally silent about abuses in 190 other countries. Second, the Arab and Islamic states applied massive pressure on the council leadership to list Richard Falk as the only nominee to be the next Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, to replace John Dugard, whose six-year term ends soon. The terms of the mandate, unchanged from February 1993, are to investigate "Israel's violations of the principles and bases of international law." Actions by Palestinians and other Middle East regimes –– rocket attacks, suicide bombings, state sponsorship of terror –– are excluded from the investigator's purview. Falk, an emeritus professor at Princeton, is a veteran figure on the international scene of radical Left and pro-Palestinian politics. "It is especially painful for me, as an American Jew," he wrote in a recent article, "to feel compelled to portray the ongoing and intensifying abuse of the Palestinian people by Israel through a reliance on such an inflammatory metaphor as 'holocaust.'" After describing the Nazi horrors, he asked, "Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not." Falk's article concluded by warning of a "Palestinian holocaust in the making." If appointed, Falk will be a ubiquitous voice undermining the balanced approach of the road map for peace.   THIRD, THE council is expected to elect Jean Ziegler, a radical Geneva politician, to its 18-member advisory committee. As the UN expert on the right to food for the past seven years, Ziegler ignored many of the world's most starving populations, instead launching polemics against the West, the US and Israel. In 2005, Ziegler compared Israeli soldiers to concentration camp guards. During a 2006 interview, he said, "I refuse to describe Hizbullah as a terrorist organization. It is a national resistance movement. I can understand Hizbullah when they kidnap soldiers." As documented by a new UN Watch documentary available on YouTube, Ziegler also has an odd affinity for dictators. In 1989, shortly after Libyan agents blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, he went to Libya to co-found the "Moammar Khaddafi Human Rights Prize," and served as its spokesman. The prize has since been awarded to anti-Western dictators such as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, as well as racists and anti-Semites such as Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, and Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Muhammad. In 2002, the award went to Roger Garaudy, a French Holocaust denier –– in the same year that Ziegler won it himself. Bizarrely, although he once boasted of it –– in five different newspapers, including Time magazine –– Ziegler now denies any involvement with the prize. Can anything be done? Yes. On the resolutions, the Arab and Islamic states rely on an automatic majority of non-democratic countries. Yet the key battle is one of legitimacy, won or lost by how the democratic European Union votes. If the EU would announce a new stand of opposing the endless one-sided resolutions –– instead of abstaining or even voting in favor –– they might actually end. Regarding Richard Falk, the appointment tomorrow will be by consensus between the council president and the 47 member states. If Canada and the EU publicly declare their opposition to his nomination, there will be no consensus. Though Falk could be elected by the Arab-backed majority, it is considered embarrassing for any expert to begin a mandate without the support of key democratic countries. The US, while not a voting member, must also publicly declare that they do not support this US national. Finally, Ziegler's election, also for tomorrow, will be decided by the 47 council members. His victory is virtually assured –– unless Switzerland withdraws his nomination. Human rights activists from Darfur, Cuba, the US and Europe have appealed to Swiss President Pascal Couchepin to act now, as have many hundreds of individuals through a petition on www.unwatch.org. There's only one day left. This week more than ever, the very credibility of the UN human rights system is at stake. "Human Rights Activists Urge Swiss to Suspend Tomorrow's UN Nomination of Khaddafi Ally Pending Independent Inquiry" Jean Ziegler Supported Robert Mugabe and Fidel Castro, Co-Founded "Muammar Khaddafi Human Rights Prize" Geneva, March 25, 2008 –– One day before the UN Human Rights Council votes to elect its 18 expert advisors, an activist for Darfur victims, a former political prisoner from Cuba, the former deputy prime minister of Sweden, and Canada's leading human rights advocate have joined to urge Swiss President Pascal Couchepin and Foreign Minister Calmy-Rey to suspend their nomination of Jean Ziegler, 1989 co-founder of the "Muammar Khaddadi Human Rights Prize," pending an independent and impartial inquiry into his record. (See full text of appeal below.) Under the direction of Mrs. Calmy-Rey, who has close political ties with Ziegler, the Swiss Foreign Ministry has been engaged in an intense campaign of UN vote-trading in order to elect the former socialist politician from Geneva in tomorrow's vote. A glossy Swiss campaign brochure, sent to capitals around the world, describes Ziegler as a highly qualified champion of human rights. However, Ziegler's qualifications for the UN human rights post are challenged by activists Angel De Fana, a former political prisoner who spent 20 years in a Cuban jail, Gibreil Hamid, who heads the Darfur Peace and Development Center and often testifies for Darfur victims before the UN Human Rights Council, former Swedish deputy prime minister and leading pro-democracy activist Per Ahlmark, and McGill University law professor Irwin Cotler, a Canadian parliamentarian and former justice minister who served as counsel to political prisoners Nelson Mandela and Andrei Sakharov. Supported by an international coalition of more than 20 non-governmental organizations, the activists point to Ziegler's long record of support for serial human rights violators including Libya's Khaddafi, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, and Ethiopian strongman Colonel Mengistu. In 1962, Fidel Castro's police threw Angel De Fana in jail for being a member of a pro-democracy group named after José Martí, the Cuban writer and national hero. ''We had to hide to assemble,'' said De Fana, who languished in prison from 1962 to 1983, adding that he and fellow prisoners had to endure years of forced labor. "I was forced to cut stone in a quarry." However, as UN expert on the right to food, Ziegler recently visited Cuba and hailed the Castro regime as a model government, and refused to meet with dissidents. In the past five days, the Swiss president and foreign minister have also been flooded with hundreds of email appeals from around the world urging the suspension of the Ziegler nomination. UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights monitoring organization, published a new video last week together with extensive documentation on Ziegler's questionable record, and urged NGO activists to take action through a campaign on its website See: http://blog.unwatch.org/?p=129. "Urgent Letter to Swiss President and Foreign Minister on Jean Ziegler's Nomination to UN Human Rights Council" Dear President Couchepin and Foreign Minister Calmy-Rey, We urge you to withdraw your government's nomination of Jean Ziegler to the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, the election for which is scheduled on March 26, 2008. If elected, Mr. Ziegler would occupy one of the only three seats allotted to Western countries. The official criteria for the position are expertise in human rights, high moral standing, independence and impartiality. An analysis of Mr. Ziegler's record raises serious questions as to his satisfaction of these requirements. Concerns include: * Mr. Ziegler's abuse of his current UN Mandate. As UN special rapporteur on the right to food for the past seven years, Mr. Ziegler ignored many of the world's most starving populations, instead focusing attention on his personal political agenda. As documented in the UN Watch report "Blind to Burundi," during 2000 to 2004, Mr. Ziegler systematically failed to speak out for numerous food emergencies, in Burundi, the Central African Republic, Sierra Leone and elsewhere. * Mr. Zieger's support for serial violators of human rights. In 1986, Mr. Ziegler served as advisor to Ethiopian dictator Colonel Mengistu on a constitution instituting one-party rule. In 2002 he praised the Zimbabwean dictator, saying, "Mugabe has history and morality with him." He paid visits to Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Kim Il-Sung in North Korea. Mr. Ziegler is also a long-time supporter of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, whose regime Mr. Ziegler hailed during an official visit in October, while he refused to meet Cuban dissidents. Also this year, during an interview in Lebanon, Mr. Ziegler said, "I refuse to describe Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. It is a national resistance movement. I can understand Hezbollah when they kidnap soldiers..." * Mr. Ziegler's involvement with Libyan propaganda. In 1989, shortly after Libyan agents blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, Mr. Ziegler went to Libya to co-found the "Moammar Khaddafi Human Rights Prize," and served as its Geneva spokesman. The prize has since been awarded to anti-Western dictators such as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. It has also been awarded to notorious racists and anti-Semites such as Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, and Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Muhammad. Bizarrely, although he once boasted of it, Mr. Ziegler now denies any involvement with the prize. All of this was documented in a front-page story in your country's leading newspaper. (M. Haefliger, "Ziegler's Libyen Connection," Neue Zurcher Zeitung, June 25, 2006.) * Mr. Ziegler's support for Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy. In 1996, Mr. Ziegler publicly defended Roger Garaudy, a French Stalinist whose book The Founding Myths of Modern Israel denies the Holocaust. "All your work as a writer and philosopher," Mr. Ziegler wrote on April 1, 1996, "attests to the rigor of your analysis and the unwavering honesty of your intentions. It makes you one of the leading thinkers of our time." In 2002, Mr. Garaudy was awarded the Khaddafi Prize –– the same year that Mr. Ziegler received it as well. Many of the world's leading authorities have objected to Mr. Ziegler's practices. In 2005, both UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and High Commissioner Louise Arbour publicly denounced Mr. Ziegler for having compared Israeli soldiers to concentration camp guards. He is the only UN expert to have been so reprimanded. Seventy U.S. congressmen wrote to the UN, citing Mr. Ziegler for anti-Semitism, while the Canadian government filed an official protest. In April 2006, an international coalition of 15 non-governmental organizations, including victims of Cuban and Libyan abuses, protested Mr. Ziegler's nomination as a UN expert, citing his disturbing record. Similarly, many scholars have questioned Mr. Ziegler's academic credentials. For example, when he was made professor at the University of Geneva, eminent historian Herbert Luthy returned his honorary doctorate in protest. We note that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez nominated Mr. Ziegler for the same post in 2004, but that he failed to win election. In order to protect the credibility of the world's highest intergovernmental human rights body –– with which Switzerland is heavily involved –– we urge you to withdraw this nomination. At a minimum, it should be suspended pending the results of an independent and impartial inquiry into Mr. Ziegler's record. Thank you. Sincerely, Professor Irwin Cotler, M.P. Human Rights Advocate Member of Canadian Parliament & Opposition Critic on Human Rights Former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General Canada Gibreil Hamid Darfur Survivor President, Darfur Peace and Development Center Switzerland Per Ahlmark Human Rights and Democracy Activist Former Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Sweden Angel De Fana Ex-political prisoner Director of political prisoners' organization Plantados Hasta la Libertad y la Democracia USA Additional Signatories: more than 20 non-governmental organizations –– go to http://blog.unwatch.org/?p=130 for expanded list. ___________________ Senior U.S. and European Lawmakers Protest Jean Ziegler Nomination * Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the European Parliament's Head of Delegation for UN Relations, sent a strong protest today to the Swiss ambassador to the European Parliament concerning the Swiss nomination of Jean Ziegler to a UN human rights post. Click for full letter (in German). * Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, ranking Republican of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, also today expressed "great concern" over the possible election of Swiss national Jean Ziegler as an advisor to the United Nations Human Rights Council. In a letter to Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, Ros-Lehtinen urged the Swiss Government to rescind its support of Ziegler, whose "anti-Semitic statements and links to vicious human rights violators make him an unsuitable candidate to advise the Council." Go to http://blog.unwatch.org/?p=131 for more. Join the conversation: visit our new UN Watch blog. www.unwatch.org Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com To Go To Top

YOU CAN HELP A JEWISH HERO Posted by Aryeh Zelasko, March 26, 2008.

When I lived in Maale Amos, I met Miro Cohen a number of times. He was highly respected by the Jews in the area. He often had to earn that respect the hard way by saving some endangered Jew from an Arab attack. It does not surprise me that he was targeted by the GOI for harassment. He is fluent in Arabic and at the beginning of the Arab revolt was able to establish a sort of working arrangement with certain Arab families that they would keep him informed of events in the area and help any Jews that might fall into problems while near them. The Army of course did everything they could to destroy that arrangement. He, like so many other patriot, is now in great financial and physical danger. If you can help, please do so. Received this email before Purim from David Morris, the Founder and Chairman of the Board of the Chessed organization Lema'an Achai** in Ramat Beit Shemesh which provides social services and help for hundreds of needy Ramat Beit Shemesh families.

David Morris wrote: It is particularly important, as Oslo War shows every sign of heating up again, to set a firm precedent that Jews can be relied upon to aid our fellow Jews, who are punished for defending themselves from Arab attacks. I spoke today with Yaniv Cohen, the son of Miro Cohen, Security Officer for Tekoa, and a Jewish Hero. Sixteen years ago, during the First Oslo War, in the course of Miro's security duties, he was attacked by Arabs with rocks and boulders on the road to Tekoa. When Miro fired back in order to defend himself and other Jewish drivers, an Arab attacker was seriously injured and died of his wounds two years later. As an inevitable consequence of a policy of successive Israeli governments which hold as suspicious and which brings court litigation against almost any Jew who defends himself or his family against Arab terrorist attacks, for the past sixteen years, Miro has been pursued and harassed by an extremist left wing group, Yedidei Beit Sachor, through both criminal and civil courts. To cut a long and harrowing story short, Miro was found innocent in the Criminal Court which found that the rock attack by the Arabs posed an imminent threat to his life. Later, he fined 600,000 NIS by the Civil Court which deemed that there was no threat to Miro's life. Subsequently, Miro pleaded that he is does not have and is unable to pay 600,000 NIS. The court then reduced his fine. Miro now must now pay legal fees to the Judge of Civil Court, some 90,000 NIS ($25,000) to close the file. He has three months to pay. Miro does not have the means on his own to pay. If the fine is not paid within three months, the court will seize or attach his pension until it is paid. Miro is a family man, father of ten children of which four, ages ranging from 13 to 20 years, are still at home. He needs both the pay he earns as Tekoa's head of security and his monthly pension in order to live. Yaniv Cohen lives in Ramat Bet Shemesh, and is working hard to collect the money for his father, who is aged 62 and worn out after years of struggle. Yaniv speaks very little English and has virtually no contacts abroad. I invite you to help: 1/ By donating funds in order for Miro Cohen to pay the fine assessed and close the file. 2/ To set up a quick and effective local fundraising campaign for Miro, a Jewish Hero. 3/ Please email me if you are: a. willing to give some of your time to this important and urgent cause. b. If you would be able to donate money for Miro's fine (or know people who might). Tizku L'Mitzvot! ***************************************** Donors in Israel can make donations to: Amutah "Bet Tzomet" Yishuv Tekoa d.n. Tzafon Yehuda 90908 Attn: Ayal Levi (Miro Cohen Yishuv Tekoa) and by clearly specifying that the donation goes to: "Miro Cohen Yishuv Tekoa" and marking same on the bottom left side of the envelope. The Seif 46 # for Bet Tzomet is: #580373512. In America, checks can either be sent to: Tomche Yisrael 369 Crown Street Brooklyn, NY 11225 USA 501(c)(3)# 141290002 Memo Line on check should read: "Miro Cohen Yishuv Tekoa" Attention line on the envelope: "Miro Cohen Yishuv Tekoa" ************************************** **Lema'an Achai received universal praise as being one of the first Chessed organizations to arrive at the Jerusalem Hotels on the days of the expulsion of our brethren from Gush Katif to provide aid, comfort and strength to them in the hours, days and weeks after they were evicted by the government from their homes and land in Gush Katif. In the summer of 2006, Lema'an Achai played a leading role in facilitating temporary living accommodations for hundreds of residents of the north who came to Beit Shemesh and Ramat Beit Shemesh to get away from the onslaught of Katyusha and Grad rockets and mortars during the Lebanon conflict. [Editor's Note: Lee Caplan writes," I have spoken to both Miro Cohen's son Yaniv and to the Ayal Levi, the head of the Amutah Bet Tzomet in Tekoa and can attest to the accuracy of the facts and to the seriousness of Miro Cohen's need."] 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. Zelasko writes, "Stop complaining and fight back! Here's how: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/7702 http://www.nfc.co.il/Archive/003-D-27449-00.html?tag=04-32-31 To Go To Top

FOLLOWING US WIN, TERROR VICTIM SEEKS TO SET PRECEDENT IN ISRAEL Posted by Daisy Stern, March 26, 2008.

This was written by Ezra HaLevi, a writer for Arutz-Sheva. It appeared today

(IsraelNN.com) A Gush Katif expellee and terror victim who won a US court battle against the Palestinian Authority (PA) says the battle has only begun. Moshe Saperstein and his wife, Rachel, have just returned from America, where they attended the proceedings that ended in a ruling awarding them $16 million in damages from the PLO and its current manifestation, the PA. That figure was tripled by a congressional act aimed at punishing terror groups. The court ruled that the Fatah-run PA was liable for the attack that left US citizen Saperstein wounded due to its funding of the Al-Aksa Brigades terror group, which dispatched the terrorist. The Sapersteins say they will turn down any settlement offer short of the ruled amount –– even if it is in the millions of dollars and despite the fact that, as Gaza expellees, they could certainly use the funds. "Terrorists must be made to pay a steeper price," Rachel Saperstein told Arutz-7. "There are millions in international aid that pour into the PA, including from Israel. Those funds should go to piece together the shattered lives of the victims and not to the coffers of those who dispatched the murderers." The Sapersteins say that the real battle is for a verdict in Israel's courts that would then open the door for all of Israel's thousands of terror victims' families to sue terrorist groups. Israel also has the ability to retain customs taxes collected for the PA in order to pay the authority's debts to its victims. They also hope Israel's Supreme Court will work with the US Judiciary to enforce Congress's decision to hold terror groups accountable for attacks on US citizens. The congressional act grants federal courts jurisdiction in cases related to international terrorism, giving every US national affected by an act of international terrorism the right to sue in US district courts and be assisted by court-ordered subpoenas and the tools necessary to locate and confiscate terrorists' assets. Contact Daisy Stern by email at daisystern1@gmail.com To Go To Top

FROM ISRAEL: ONGOING Posted by Arlene Kushner, March 26, 2008.

The number of concessions we are apparently willing to make in order to "strengthen" Abbas. The latest is an Israeli decision to allow the PA to purchase armored vehicles from Russia for use by security forces in Nablus. The decision had been held up because the PA wanted machine guns mounted on these vehicle, and at this Israel balked. Twenty-five vehicles will be delivered soon via Jordan, and another 25 will be held in Jordan pending a further Israeli decision. MK Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud), speaking at a conference of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs today, had it exactly right: "The idea of entrusting the PA with our security has failed in the past in Gaza and it will also fail in Judea and Samaria. The notion that we will provide the PA with weapons in its present state and believe that those weapons will protect us is a nonsensical one. "Those weapons will be turned against IDF soldiers much faster than we think. This is exactly what happened in Gaza." ~~~~~~~~~~ But let's take yet another look at exactly whom we're arming: The US generals responsible for monitoring the compliance with the roadmap of Israel and the PA have expressed concern about Palestinian anti-terrorism efforts. If the PA were truly serious about eradicating terrorist infrastructure, it would be arresting suspected terrorists, doing interrogations, and holding trials. But that is not what's happening. Rather, according to the US monitors, the PA is content with "containing terror," stopping specific attacks and attempting to prevent Hamas from getting strong enough to take over. When terrorists are arrested, they are brought to trial only if there is outside pressure. ~~~~~~~~~~ It took us six years but we did it! Israel has now apprehended Omar Jaber, top Hamas commander in Tulkarm. Jaber was the mastermind of the infamous 2002 Park Hotel seder massacre, in which 30 people sitting at seder in the hotel were killed and another 140 wounded. It was this horrific attack that precipitated the Defensive Shield Operation. We have a reputation for getting those who commit these horrendous acts, no matter how long it takes. ~~~~~~~~~~ See David Weinberg's piece, "Shelve the Shelf Agreement," on how foolish and dangerous is the notion of a signed agreement that presumably provides a political horizon but would not be activated yet: http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/perspectives40.html [and home page, Think-Israel, March-April 2008.] Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info To Go To Top

MASTERMIND OF PESACH BOMBING IN NETANYA'S PARK HOUSE HOTEL ARRESTED Posted by Shoshanna Walker, March 26, 2008.

This is a news item from The Yeshiva World http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=16036

In a joint IDF and ISA arrest operation overnight at the Bal'a village near Tulkarm, Omar Jabar, head of the Hamas terror organization in Tulkarm area, was arrested. Jabar has been sought since 2002 for his direct responsibility in carrying out the suicide attack at the "Park Hotel" in Netanya in Pesach, March 27th 2002, in which 30 Israeli civilians were R"L killed and 143 were injured. "The implementation of this kind of operation during the Purim holiday is not symbolic; it only shows that the IDF and ISA do not rest nor relax for a moment when it comes to the defense of Israel's security," said Lieutenant Colonel Nir Bar-On. "The combat soldiers will continue to carry out operations so that Israeli civilians will be able to celebrate their holidays in peace and security." Omar Jabar has been sought since 2002 for his direct responsibility in carrying out the suicide attack during Pesach in the "Park Hotel" in Netanya on March of the same year. Jabar was responsible for recruiting the contact that dispatched the suicide bomber, introducing him to the head of the Hamas in Tulkarm at the time, Abed Sayad. Sayad admitted in his investigation that the connection with Jabar had already begun in 1994, when the two were imprisoned together. Since 2002, Jabar was directly involved in recruiting militants to Hamas secrete terror cells and in the past year was involved in their combat training. In recent years, whilst hiding in the Tulkarm area villages, Jabar used his own family members to transfer encrypted messages to Hamas terror operatives, in order to lead the Hamas terror organization in Tulkarm, finance his and other militants' terrorist activity and purchase weapons. Following clashes between Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip in January 2007, Jabar worked to establish and finance a Hamas operational cell in Tulkarm. He purchased weapons and recruited terror operatives, intended for the establishment of a Hamas cell similar to operational cells active in Gaza. [Editor's Note: See also the video of Aviva Lee from Fori24six on Omar Jabar's arrest at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDM510Sstgw&feature=email ] Contact Shoshanna Walker at rosewalk@concentric.net To Go To Top

ANTI-SEMITISM AND ALTERNATIVE HISTORY Posted by Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI), March 26, 2008.

This was written by Moshe Sharon and it appeared in the AFSI publication OUTPOST http://www.afsi.org/OUTPOST/2008/Outpost_2008_03.pdf and html http://mideastoutpost.com/ formats. Moshe Sharon is Professor Emeritus of Islamic History at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem

Hatred of Judaism and the Jews is an intellectual creation. Its foundations were laid in ancient times by historians, writers, poets, philosophers and artists long before Christianity added the theological dimension. Since then it has been the one permanent feature that has accompanied the Jews throughout their history. Born in Hellenistic Egypt, in the third century BCE, intellectual anti-Semitism has two main features which go hand in hand; one is the invention of an alternative (or counter) history for the Jews; the other describing them as inferior human beings, filthy, bearers of disease and haters of humanity and of the gods. Alternative history declares the historical records of its target people as false, and presents its own version as the truth. It has passed through certain major stations on its way, such as the writings of some of the Church Fathers, a number of Moslem historians and theologians in the Middle Ages, Voltaire's (1694-1778) essay on the Jews in the Dictionaire Philosophique, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and Hitler's Mein Kampf, until it became commonplace in Arab text books, in multitudes of internet sites, and in numerous publications. The denial of the Holocaust is the most recent and most arrogant example of alternative history. The Holocaust deniers know the truth, for there is hardly a case in history that is more documented than the Holocaust. Nevertheless they are out to absolve the Nazis, and blame the victims, presenting the extermination of 6,000,000 Jews as a Jewish conspiracy. Mahmud 'Abbas (nom de guerre: "Abu Mazen"), the current PA President of whom the West is so enamored, is one of them. In 1982 he received a PhD from Lumumba University in Moscow for his thesis on the "Secret Relations between the Nazis and Zionism," which included all the elements of Holocaust denial. The first known alternative history of the Jews was written in Alexandria by the Egyptian priest Manetho, who felt the need to supply his Greek readers with a reply to the Biblical story of the Exodus, with the explicit aim of denigrating the Jews. According to Manetho's alternative history, the Jews were a group of 80,000 lepers who rebelled, took over Egypt and, ruling it for more than a decade, spread death and horror in the country. Their leader was Osarseph, a priest from Heliopolis. After thirteen years in exile the Egyptian king returned to Egypt, killed most of them and drove the rest out of the country. Manetho's "history" was designed to negate everything positive about the Jews. The Jews described Joseph as a wise governor who saved Egypt from disaster. Menetho replied by making him an apostate Egyptian priest of Osiris (hence his name Osarseph) who ruined Egypt. The Jews regarded themselves as a people; Manetho described them as a horrifying mob of lepers. The Jews claimed that God had brought them out of Egypt; Manetho asserted that they had been expelled. Manetho's fiction and the abundance of horror stories about the Jews, spread by his copiers and successors, exemplify a mixture of hatred and fear. Later, Moslem classical historians created their own versions of Jewish alternative history. But unlike their predecessors, their hatred of the Jews was based on contempt rather than on fear. However, once the Moslems became acquainted with European anti-Semitism, they embraced the Western description of the Jew as the embodiment of pure evil, and Judaism as a bloodthirsty religion whose followers planned to subdue the world with the help of Satan. Thus the hatred felt by the Moslems towards the Jews now comprised both fear and contempt. The blood libel, the gruesome lie of Christian Europe against the Jews, assumed immediate prominence in Islamic anti-Semitic thought and practice. The first blood libel case under Islamic rule in modern times was the "Damascus Affair". In 1840, the Jews of Damascus were accused of the ritual murder of a Capuchin friar. Far from immediately opposing the false accusation, Ratti Menton, the French consul in Damascus gave it credibility. Supported by the French government, he himself conducted the "investigation" of the case together with the Moslem Governor. The entire Jewish community was held to ransom and its leaders were arrested, some tortured to death, before a general outcry in the world put an end to the affair. Ratti Menton, however, was never convinced of the innocence of the Jews. The attribution of ritual murder to the Jews was popular among Moslem intellectuals and became the staple of anti-Semitic Moslem propaganda. The Damascus Affair has never died, still presented as proof of ritual murder anchored in the Jewish religion. Mustafa Tlas, the Syrian minister of war, wrote his PhD on the subject and published it in a book called The Unleavened Bread of Zion which by 2002 had sold out eight editions. He described the Damascus Affair in great detail as "evidence" of the Jewish practice of ritual murder. Ratti Menton is his proof for the truth of the information. Arab readers now comprise an enthusiastic market for anti-Semitic literature whether written originally in Arabic or translated from other languages. Among the latter, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a crude, primitive anti-Semitic Russian forgery and Adolph Hitler's Mein Kampf are best sellers, and compulsory reading for the military. The infamous book of Canon August Rohling Der Talmudjude is the modern Moslem historian's bible. In the early 1880s Rohling, a professor at the Imperial University of Prague, published a worthless anti-Semitic book, which he claimed was based on the Talmud. In 1885, European scholars exposed Rohling as a fake, a liar, and an ignoramus. As a result he was obliged to resign his university post. Moslem writers do not let such minor facts confuse them. For them Rohling, the Protocols, Hitler, Tlas, Abu Mazen and writings by similar authors constitute the authentic library on the Jews and Judaism. Other sources fall under the headline of the "Jewish (Zionist) conspiracy." Having enthusiastically adopted the accusation of Jewish ritual murder as an absolute truth, Moslem writers have become ever more creative. They widened the scope of the victims from Christian to Palestinian and other children, and added the cakes of Purim to Passover unleavened bread. The establishment of the State of Israel and the repeated defeats of the Arab armies needed an immediate, plausible, and face-saving explanation. This was readily provided by the Protocols and Mein Kampf which exposed the Jewish conspiracy to control the world. These books confirm Moslem fears and explain their shortcomings. Moslems do not feel alone any more, they belong to the large body of global victims, exposed to the danger posed to humanity by international Jewry, the enemies of God. Like European anti-Semitic literature, its Moslem counterpart has very little variety. Hundreds of books repeat the same slogans, and cartoonists, directly influenced by the Nazi cartoons, repeat the same drawings of the ugly, inhuman, vicious Jew. Out of the vast literature the following examples chosen at random will suffice. Anis Mansur, an Egyptian author and close adviser of Egyptian presidents, describing the treacherous "Jewish character" shamelessly gave the impression he was relying on Jewish sources for the "truth" of the blood libel: "The famous Jewish historian Josephus was the first to have revealed to the whole world that the Jews need the blood of other people to make matzot for their holidays. The Jews usually do not butcher the person. They only pierce the skull and then the heart, and drink the blood of the head and the heart together; then they discard the corpse anywhere." Josephus said exactly the opposite, defending Judaism against the Greek anti-Semites. But Mansur knows that his audience is thirsty for his words, the authority of which nobody questions. During the Second World War, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, supported by other Moslem leaders, went to Berlin to serve the Nazi propaganda machine and prepare a military force to participate in the "Final Solution." Moslem anti-Semites turn these facts upside down. The comparison of the Jews to the Nazis has become a staple of Islamic alternative history, a major topic in talk shows and a frequent subject of the crude Arab cartoon. In the book Oh Moslems, the Jews are Coming Muhammad 'Abd al-'Aziz Mansur claims that the Jews are no different from the Nazis, ascribing horrendous atrocities to them: the slaughter of babies, the stabbing of pregnant women, the torture and rape of non-Jewish women and so on. In 1985 King Fahd of Saudi Arabia published the following observations about Israel and the Jews in the popular weekly aI-Musawwar: "Israel has had malicious intentions since ancient times. Its objective is the destruction of all other religions. It is proven from history that they are the ones who ignited the Crusades at the time of Saladin so that war would lead to the weakening of both Moslems and Christians. They regard other religions as lower than their own, and other peoples as inferior to their level. And on the subject of vengeance –– they have a certain day on which they mix the blood of non-Jews into their bread and eat it. It happened two years ago, while I was in Paris on a visit, that the police discovered five murdered children. Their blood had been drained and it turned out that some Jews had murdered them in order to take their blood and mix it with the bread that they ate on this day. This shows you the extent of their hatred and malice towards non-Jewish peoples." Dr. 'Abd al-Halim Mahmud, the rector of the famous al-Azhar University, wrote in his book Holy War and Victory: "The Jews have laid down a programme for the destruction of humanity, through subverting religion and ethics. They have already begun to implement the programme with their money, their control of the mass media and their propaganda. They have falsified knowledge, violated standards of literary truth and unscrupulously sought to break down and destroy humanity." Dr. Salah 'Abd al-Fattah al-Khalidi, in his book The Jewish Personality on the basis of the Koran concludes that "the Jews are liars, corrupt, envious, cunning, fraudulent, treacherous, stupid, despicable, cowards, and misers; they break agreements and treaties, and cause injustice in the world..." Even medieval Christian anti-Semitic literature, as bad as it was, does not match the viciousness of Arab-Islamic, anti-Semitic literature and the alternative history of the Jews that is based on it. The voluminous, Arab anti-Semitic literature, fills a demand and answers a need. It depicts the Jews as a demonic entity and therefore makes their extermination legitimate. As such, modern Islamic anti-Semitism is at least as vicious as that of the Nazis. 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. Barry Freedman is Executive Director. To Go To Top

WAKE-UP CALL Posted by Dr. Asher Eder, March 26, 2008.

This is in response to the article entitled "In the Diaspora: Wake-up call" by Samuel Freedman, which appeared March 21, 2008 in the Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1205420740916&pagename= JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Dear Sir, Your "Wake-up Call", in JerPost of March 21, is quite timely, and to the point. You wrote therein "To move the masses requires ... an "emotional trigger", and then conclude the article by writing: "For the rest,I can only shudder to think what kind of carnage will be required for the next wake-up call". Why the "disengagement" of the masses both in Israel and in the USA? I feel that "disengagement", or rather lethargy, is a "natural" outcome of our government's attitudes toward the conflict itself, and toward the public: 1) "Oslo", presented to the public as hope and road to peace, turned out to be an awful illusion –– and those who recognized it as such right from the beginning were silenced, and branded as chauvinists; 2) Generals who foresaw, and forecast, that the "disengagement from Gaza would "explode right into our face", were ousted; 3) Hopes were nourished that the PLO would be the proper peace partner –– in complete negligence that the conflict is not an Israel/Palestine one, but rather is an Arab/Islamic war against Israel (since the attacks of 7 Arab armies in 1947/48 –– which had its background in the hostile attitude of the Arab League since the 30ies). In that war of the Arabs against us, the locals –– Palestinians –– were made their vanguard. 4) Yet, our –– nonelected –– PM hugs frequently Holocaust-denier and PLO-Chairman (and head of El-Fatch), and presents him as only and true peace partner, while Israel bashing and excitement to Jihad goes on unhindered in the PA territory; 5) That same PM tells us that "Israel is tired of winning wars" –– and proved that attitude in the 2nd Lebanon War; 6) He also tells the peoples of Sederot and of Ashkelon that they will have to suffer more Kassam attacks as there is no other solution –– quite encouraging words for Hamas, and at the same time eroding Israel's will to stem those rocket attacks. (Compare that attitude to Churchill, in 1940 under the German "Blitz". He could then offer the British people only "blood, sweat, and tears" as necessary attitude for winning the war –– instead of "getting tired of winning" as per our PM); 7) I saw him in TV hugging all kind of foreigners, incl. PLO-Chief Abu Mazen, but did not see him hugging victims of rocket attacks –– not in Kiryat Shmonah; nor in Haifa; nor in Sederot. 8) Vinograd seems to get turned into a big show without personal consequences. Even the latter would not be of much advantage unless they manifest also in a decisive change of attitude to the conflict. All these points, as well as some more in that line, are not very conducive to bolster Israel's morale, nor the engagement of American Jews. Either we'll get soon a new and more competent government –– or else sorry to say we'll need that awful "next wake-up call" you mentioned. Sincerely, Dr. Asher Eder Contact Asher Eder at avrason@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

A TALE OF TWO PEOPLES Posted by Steven Plaut, March 26, 2008.

This was written by Dennis Prager and it appeared today on Front Page Magazine http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID= A2DBDBAC-3D26-4348-9E70-37242532C88F Dennis Prager hosts a nationally syndicated radio talk show and is the author of four books, most recently Happiness is a Serious Problem (HarperCollins). His website is www.dennisprager.com.

The long-suffering Tibetans have been in the news. This happens perhaps once or twice a decade. In a more moral world, however, public opinion would be far more preoccupied with Tibetans than with Palestinians, would be as harsh on China as it is on Israel, and would be as fawning on Israel as it now is on China. But, alas, the world is, as it has always been, a largely mean-spirited and morally insensitive place, where might is far more highly regarded than right. Consider the facts: Tibet, at least 1,400 years old, is one of the world's oldest nations, has its own language, its own religion and even its own ethnicity. Over 1 million of its people have been killed by the Chinese, its culture has been systematically obliterated, 6,000 of its 6,200 monasteries have been looted and destroyed, and most of its monks have been tortured, murdered or exiled. Palestinians have none of these characteristics. There has never been a Palestinian country, never been a Palestinian language, never been a Palestinian ethnicity, never been a Palestinian religion in any way distinct from Islam elsewhere. Indeed, "Palestinian" had always meant any individual living in the geographic area called Palestine. For most of the first half of the 20th century, "Palestinian" and "Palestine" almost always referred to the Jews of Palestine. The United Jewish Appeal, the worldwide Jewish charity that provided the nascent Jewish state with much of its money, was actually known as the United Palestine Appeal. Compared to Tibetans, few Palestinians have been killed, its culture has not been destroyed nor its mosques looted or plundered, and Palestinians have received billions of dollars from the international community. Unlike the dying Tibetan nation, there are far more Palestinians today than when Israel was created. None of this means that a distinct Palestinian national identity does not now exist. Since Israel's creation such an identity has arisen and does indeed exist. Nor does any of this deny that many Palestinians suffered as a result of the creation of the third Jewish state in the area, known –– since the Romans renamed Judea –– as "Palestine." But it does mean that of all the causes the world could have adopted, the Palestinians' deserved to be near the bottom and the Tibetans' near the top. This is especially so since the Palestinians could have had a state of their own from 1947 on, and they have caused great suffering in the world, while the far more persecuted Tibetans have been characterized by a morally rigorous doctrine of nonviolence. So, the question is, why? Why have the Palestinians received such undeserved attention and support, and the far more aggrieved and persecuted and moral Tibetans given virtually no support or attention? The first reason is terror. Some time ago, the Palestinian leadership decided, with the overwhelming support of the Palestinian people, that murdering as many innocent people –– first Jews, and then anyone else –– was the fastest way to garner world attention. They were right. On the other hand, as The Economist notes in its March 28, 2008 issue, "Tibetan nationalists have hardly ever resorted to terrorist tactics..." It is interesting to speculate how the world would have reacted had Tibetans hijacked international flights, slaughtered Chinese citizens in Chinese restaurants and temples, on Chinese buses and trains, and massacred Chinese schoolchildren. The second reason is oil and support from powerful fellow Arabs. The Palestinians have rich friends who control the world's most needed commodity, oil. The Palestinians have the unqualified support of all Middle Eastern oil-producing nations and the support of the Muslim world beyond the Middle East. The Tibetans are poor and have the support of no nations, let alone oil-producing ones. The third reason is Israel. To deny that pro-Palestinian activism in the world is sometimes related to hostility toward Jews is to deny the obvious. It is not possible that the unearned preoccupation with the Palestinians is unrelated to the fact that their enemy is the one Jewish state in the world. Israel's Jewishness is a major part of the Muslim world's hatred of Israel. It is also part of Europe's hostility toward Israel: Portraying Israel as oppressors assuages some of Europe's guilt about the Holocaust –– "see, the Jews act no better than we did." Hence the ubiquitous comparisons of Israel to Nazis. A fourth reason is China. If Tibet had been crushed by a white European nation, the Tibetans would have elicited far more sympathy. But, alas, their near-genocidal oppressor is not white. And the world does not take mass murder committed by non-whites nearly as seriously as it takes anything done by Westerners against non-Westerners. Furthermore, China is far more powerful and frightening than Israel. Israel has a great army and nuclear weapons, but it is pro-West, it is a free and democratic society, and it has seven million people in a piece of land as small as Belize. China has nuclear weapons, has a trillion U.S. dollars, an increasingly mighty army and navy, is neither free nor democratic, is anti-Western, and has 1.2 billion people in a country that dominates the Asian continent. A fifth reason is the world's Left. As a general rule, the Left demonizes Israel and has loved China since it became Communist in 1948. And given the power of the Left in the world's media, in the political life of so many nations, and in the universities and the arts, it is no wonder vicious China has been idolized and humane Israel demonized. The sixth reason is the United Nations, where Israel has been condemned in more General Assembly and Security Council resolutions than any other country in the world. At the same time, the UN has voted China onto its Security Council and has never condemned it. China's sponsoring of Sudan and its genocidal acts against its non-Arab black population, as in Darfur, goes largely unremarked on at the UN, let alone condemned, just as is the case with its cultural genocide, ethnic cleansing and military occupation of Tibet. The seventh reason is television news, the primary source of news for much of mankind. Aside from its leftist tilt, television news reports only what it can video. And almost no country is televised as much as Israel, while video reports in Tibet are forbidden, as they are almost anywhere in China except where strictly monitored by the Chinese authorities. No video, no TV news. And no TV, no concern. So while grieving Palestinians and the accidental killings of Palestinians during morally necessary Israeli retaliations against terrorists are routinely televised, the slaughter of over a million Tibetans and the extinguishing of Tibetan Buddhism and culture are non-events as far as television news is concerned. The world is unfair, unjust and morally twisted. And rarely more so than in its support for the Palestinians –– no matter how many innocents they target for murder and no matter how much Nazi-like anti-Semitism permeates their media –– and its neglect of the cruelly treated, humane Tibetans. Steven Plaut is an American-trained economist, a professor of business administration at Haifa University and author of "The Scout." He frequently comments –– both seriously and satirically –– on Israeli politics and the left wing academic community. His website address is http://www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com. Or write him at splaut@econ.haifa.ac.il To Go To Top

SHIKAKI POLL: MAJORITY OF PALESTINIAN ARABS WANT MORE ATTACKS ON ISRAEL Posted by David Meir-Levi, March 25, 2008.

This poll, done by the foremost Palestinian polling agency, demonstrates the misguided nature of the Bush/Rice mid-East policy. When a significant plurality of Palestinians voted Hamas in to power, and then supported Hamas after the Hamas take-over in Gaza, and now supports Hamas broadly in the West Bank (some commentators contend that Abbas would not last a minute in Ramallah without the support of the IDF –– and his replacement would be Hamas)....I suggest that our State Department and foreign policy advisors should present to our president the obvious and ineluctable conclusion that there can be no negotiated peace with the Palestinians. This poll tells us that it is NOT merely a group of psychotic leaders and some tiny minority of hate-filled followers who seek the destruction of Israel and the genocide of its Jews. Significant pluralities, majorities, and in some cases significant majorities of Palestinians enthusiastically support the long term goal and vision of Hamas (and Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad, and PFLP and DFLP and PFLP-GC and Tanzim and force 17 and Fatah and el-Aqsa Martrys' Brigade and resistance committees and ansar al-Islam and Jayyish Allah and Sayyif el-Jihad and Hizb-ut-tahrir, inter alia) –– the destruction of Israel, the genocide of its Jews, and the ultimate genocide of all Jews world-wide. It is therefore irrational to assert that Israel should be pressured to make concessions (any concessions, territorial, economic, humanitarian, etc.) to mollify Hamas or redress some wrongs (real or imagined) against the Palestinians. When you are dealing with an enemy who tells you quite unequivocally: "we are not fighting you because we want something from you. We are fighting you because we want to destroy you" (Abbas Massawi, former leader of Hezbollah), where do you think you can begin negotiations? –– "destroy half of us"? How's that for an opener to negotiations? The only way to achieve a temporary solution to the Israel-Arab conflict now is to support Israel in its natural and moral and legal right of self-defense; so that Israel can launch a major offensive against Hamas (and perhaps Hezbollah) and destroy these terrorist armies' abilities to destroy Israel.   HOWEVER, that will be only a temporary victory. Because Iran and Arabia will re-constitute Hamas within a few months or years, and will be able to re-deploy these terror armies in order to continue the endless war which they have been supporting since before the State of Israel was created. But, at least with a temporary victory, Israel and the USA and the UK can have time to pursue political programs with Iran and Arabia; programs which may be able to defuse and redirect the Iranian quest for WMDs, and shunt Saudi support for world-wide jihad and anti-Israel terrorism into some internal reformation. The only hope we have for a permanent victory for Israel, and for western civilization, in our war against the Jihadist Imperialist supremacist totalitarian triumphalist tyrannical theocratic terrorist Islamic (JISTTTTI) fascist regimes that are arraigned against us, is the invention or discovery of a low-cost renewable clean substitute for petroleum. Such a substitute, once in wide-spread use as an energy source that obviates our need for arab oil, will bankrupt the Saudis and Iranians....and without the billions of dollars that these Islamo-fascist jihadist countries sink in to international terrorism and anti-Israel terrorism each year, the JISTTTTI terror war against Western civilization would grind to a halt....like a car running out of gas. This is available at IMRA –– Independent Media Review and Analysis (Website: www.imra.org.il).

PSR Poll No. 27 13-15 March 2008 www.pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2008/p27e1.html PSR –– Survey Research Unit: Public Opinion Poll # 27 24 March 2008 Palestinian Public Opinion Poll No (27) These are the results of the latest poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip between 13 and 15 March 2008. Total size of the sample is 1270 adults, 830 in the West Bank and 440 in the Gaza Strip, interviewed face to face in 127 randomly selected locations. Margin of error is 3%. For further details, contact PSR director, Dr. Khalil Shikaki, or Walid Ladadweh at tel 02-296 4933 or email pcpsr@pcpsr.org. 00) From among the following satellite news stations, which one you watched most during the last two months? 1) Al Arabia6.1% 2) Al Jazeera54.2% 3) Al Hurra0.3% 4) Al Manar3.6% 5) Palestine TV11.2% 6) Al-Aqsa TV18.3% 7) Do not watch TV3.0% 8) Others1.1% 9) Do not have a dish2.2% 10) No Opinion/Don't know0.1% EL JAZEERA, BY A WIDE MARGIN –– THE CHANNEL WHICH BROADCASTS AND RE-BROADCASTS OSAMA'S JEREMIADS AGAINST "GLOBAL NON-BELIEF", AND WHICH RUNS AN ENDLESS SERIES OF SCENES OF "ISRAELI CARNAGE" AGAINST PALESTINIANS. 01) Are you satisfied or not satisfied with the performance of Mahmud Abbas since his election as president of the PA? 1) Very satisfied5.5% 2) Satisfied 35.0% 3) Not satisfied 36.3% 4) not satisfied at all 19.6% 5) DK/NA3.6% 02) If new presidential elections are to take place today, and Mahmud Abbas was nominated by Fateh and Ismail Haniyeh was nominated by Hamas, whom would you vote for? 1) Mahmoud Abbas46.4% 2) Ismael Haneyyeh47.0% 3 DK/NA6.6% HALF OF THE PALESTINIANS WANT HAMAS. THEY KNOW HAMAS' AGENDA, WHICH INCLUDES THE GENOCIDE OF WORLD JEWRY, AND THEY APPROVE. 03) And if the competition was between Marwan Barghouti representing Fateh and Ismael Haneyyeh representing Hams, whom would you vote for? 1) Marwan Barghouti56.7% 2) Ismael Haneyyeh38.2% 3) No Opinion/ Don't know 5.1% AH. IF ONLY ISRAEL WERE TO LET BARGHOUTI OUT OF JAIL, HE COULD COMPETE WITH HAMAS. (I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO QUESTION #4) 05) If new elections agreed to by all factions are held today and the same lists that took part in the last PLC elections were nominated, for whom would you vote? 1) alternative1.5% 2) independent Palestine3.5% 3) Abu Ali Mustafa4.0% 4) Abu al Abbas 5) freedom and social justice0.6% 6) change and reform34.8% 7) national coalition for justice and democracy 0.4% 8) third way1.5% 9) freedom and independence0.4% 10) Palestinian justice0.2% 11) Fateh41.6% 12) none of the above/ DK/NA11.4% NOTICE THAT THE ANSWERS TO THIS QUESTION CONTRADICT THE ANSWERS TO QUESTION #2 06) Hamas carried out a military step in mid June against security headquarters belonging to the PA in the Gaza Strip and succeeded after that in controlling the Strip. Do you approve or disapprove of what Hamas did? 1) Strongly approve7.6% 2) Approve18.8% 3) Disapprove45.3% 4) Strongly disapprove22.2% 5) DK/NA6.1% THIS ANSWER TOO CONTRADICTS #2 07) President Mahmud Abbas dismissed the government of Ismail Haniyeh after the Gaza events about Nine months ago. But the prime minister of the dismissed government remained in his position in the Gaza Strip. Do you approve or disapprove of his decision to stay in his position? 1) Strongly approve12.1% 2) Approve36.8% 3) Disapprove34.7% 4) Strongly disapprove10.2% 5) DK/NA6.3% SUPPORT FOR HAMAS' COUP IS GREATER THAN OPPOSITION, BUT ONLY SLIGHTLY. 08) Moreover, President Abbas appointed an emergency government headed by Salam Fayyad. After the ending of the emergency period and due to the inability of the PLC to convene, the government of Fayyad became a care taker one. Do you approve or disapprove of the continued functioning of this government? 1) Strongly approve4.7% 2) Approve32.9% 3) Disapprove42.2% 4) Strongly disapprove13.1% 5) DK/NA7.0% THIS DISAPPROVAL OF THE PA GOV'T LED BY FAYYAD AND ABBAS IS CONSISTENT WITH #1 & #2. 09) After the separation between Gaza and the West Bank, Hamas and the government of Ismail Haniyeh remained in power in Gaza and considered itself the legitimate government while president Abu Mazin formed a new government headed by Salam Fayyad and it too considered itself legitimate. What about you, which of the two government you consider legitimate, the government of Haniyeh or the government of Abu Mazin and Fayyad? 1) Haniyehs' government is the legitimate one34.0% 2) Abu Mazin's and Fayyad government is the legitimate one28.8% 3) Both governments are legitimate9.3% 4) Both governments are not legitimate24.4% 5) DK/NA3.4% SUPPORT FOR HAMAS IS GREATER THAN SUPPORT FOR ABBAS. 10) As an exit strategy for the current crisis between Fateh and Hamas and the split of authority, Hamas's position is to call for an unconditional dialogue with Abu Mazin based on the current status quo. Abu Mazin's and Fateh's position is that he would agree to such a dialogue but under one condition; Hamas must first transfer control of the PA Gaza headquarters to him and return to the status quo ante. Which of the two positions is closer to your view? 1) Hamas's position36.8% 2) Abu Mazin's and Fateh's position 38.7% 3) I disagree with both positions21.9% 4) DK/NA2.7% THIS ANSWER, WHICH SHOWS MORE SUPPORT FOR ABBAS, CONTRADICTS #s 1 & 2. 11) Tell us how do you evaluate the performance of the dismissed government of Ismail Haniyeh in the Gaza Strip? Is it good or bad? 1) Very Good 14.7% 2) Good 24.7% 3) Neither good nor bad 20.4% 4) Bad19.7% 5) Very Bad14.0% 6) No Opinion/Don't know6.6% ALMOST 60% APPROVE OR AT LEAST DO NOT DISAPPROVE OF HAMAS. 12) Tell us how do you evaluate the performance of the government headed by Salam Fayyad? Is it good or bad? 1) Very Good 4.3% 2) Good 25.7% 3) Neither good nor bad22.0% 4) Bad24.9% 5) Very Bad 16.8% 6) No Opinion/Don't know6.3% MORE THAN 60% CONDEMN THE ABBAS/FAYYAM GOVERNMENT. 13) In general, how would you describe conditions of the Palestinians in the Palestinian areas in Gaza Strip these days? 1) Very good0.9% 2) Good4.4% 3) So so 6.8% 4) Bad30.1% 5) Very bad 56.8% 6) DK/NA1.0% 14) In general, how would you describe conditions of the Palestinians in the Palestinian areas in the West Bank these days? 1) Very good2.2% 2) Good18.9% 3) So so 24.9% 4) Bad33.3% 5) Very bad 18.3% 6) DK/NA2.4% 15) Generally, do you see yourself as: 1) Religious 48.4% 2) Somewhat religious47.9% 3) Not religious3.4% 4) DK/NA0.3% THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY SEE THEMSELVES AS RELIGIOUS. THIS MAY EXPLAIN THE SUPPORT FOR HAMAS EVEN THOUGH HAMAS HAS DEMONSTRATED THAT IT IS OPPRESSIVE AND REPRESSIVE AND TOTALITARIAN....ITS CORE VALUES AND CORNERSTONE TENETS ARE COMPLETELY CONSISTENT WITH TRADITIONAL ISLAMIC PRIORITIES. 16)Generally, do you see yourself as: 1) Supportive of the peace process66.5% 2) Opposed to the peace process17.6% 3) Between support and opposition 15.0% 4) DK/NA0.9% THIS ANSWER WOULD GIVE ONE HOPE, WERE IT NOT FOR THE CONTRADICTORY ANSWERS BELOW. 17) Would you say that these days your security and safety, and that of your family, is assured or not assured? 1) Completely assured 6.8% 2) Assured 30.2% 3) Not assured 48.0% 4) Not assured at all 15.0% 23) With regard to meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and PA President Mahmud Abbas, do you see them beneficial and should be continued or do you see them unbeneficial and should be stopped? 1) Beneficial, and should continue 21.4% 2) Unbeneficial and should stop 74.9% 3) NO/DK3.7% THIS CONTRADICTS #16. 24) Do you support or oppose the launching of rockets from the Gaza Strip against towns and cities inside Israel, such as Sderot and Ashkelon? 1) Certainly support24.3% 2) Support 39.3% 3) Oppose 26.2% 4) Certainly oppose 6.4% 5) NA/DK 3.9% ALMOST 65% WANT ROCKETS TO CONTINUE. THIS CONTRADICTS #16. 25) Who, in your views, is responsible for the continued split in the PA between Gaza and the West Bank? Fateh or Hamas? 1) Hamas 17.0% 2) Fateh 20.8% 3) Both of them 53.8% 4) No one 4.1% 5) Other 2.5% 6) No Opinion/ Don't know1.9% 26) What do you expect to happen now between Palestinians and Israelis, after increase in the level of violence and number of Palestinian and Israeli causalities and at the time the two sides started final status negotiations launched by the Annapolis Conference? 1) Negotiations will resume soon enough and armed confrontations will stop12.9% 2) Negotiations will resume but some armed attacks will continue47.8% 3) Armed confrontations will not stop and the two sides will not return to negotiations34.5% 4) DK/NA4.9% 82% EXPECT ARMED CONFRONTATIONS TO CONTINUE. THIS CONTRADICTS #16. 27) According to the Saudi plan, Israel will retreat from all territories occupied in 1967 including Gaza the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, and a Palestinian state will be established. The refugees problem will be resolved through negotiation in a just and agreed upon manner and in accordance with UN resolution 194 which allows return of refugees to Israel and compensation. In return, all Arab states will recognize Israel and its right to secure borders, will sign peace treaties with her and establish normal diplomatic relations. Do you agree or disagree to this plan? 1) Certainly agree8.2% 2) agree57.5% 3) disagree24.8% 4) Certainly disagree6.8% 5) DK/NA2.7% MORE THAN 65% AGREE WITH SAUDI PLAN. BUT ALMOST 32% DISAGREE. IT IS HARD TO MAKE PEACE WITH 2/3 OF THE PEOPLE WHEN THE OTHER 1/3 IS OPPOSED TO PEACE. 28A) There is a proposal that after the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and the settlement of all issues in dispute, including the refugees and Jerusalem issues, there will be a mutual recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people and Palestine as the state of the Palestinians people. Do you agree or disagree to this proposal? 1) Definitely agree5.3% 2) agree51.8% 3) disagree29.8% 4) definitely disagree11.8% 5) DK/NA1.3% 57% AGREE IS GOOD. BUT 41% DISAGREE. SAME QUESTION AS IN #27. 28B) There is a proposal that as part of an Israeli Palestinian final status agreement there will be a mutual recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people and Palestine as the state of the Palestinian people. Do you agree or disagree to this proposal? 1) Certainly agree5.5% 2) Agree47.9% 3) Disagree33.3% 4) Certainly disagree12.3% 5) DK/NA0.9% 53% AGREE = GOOD SIGN. BUT ALMOST 46% DISAGREE...BAD SIGN. 29) And what is the Palestinian majority opinion on this issue? Do most Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza support or oppose the recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people and Palestine as the state of the Palestinian people at the end of the peace process? 1) Majority supports46.7% 2) Majority opposes41.3% 3) DK/NA12.0% 30) And what is the Israeli majority opinion on this issue? Do most Israelis support or oppose the recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people and Palestine as the state of the Palestinian people at the end of the peace process? 1) Majority supports40.1% 2) Majority opposes47.8% 5) DK/NA12.2% 33) Now 40 years after the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, what in your view are the chances for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state next to the state of Israel in the next five years? Are they high, medium, low, or none existent? 1) None existent31.1% 2) Low 37.2% 3) Medium24.2% 4) High5.3% 5) DK/NA2.2% 34) And what are your expectations regarding the chances for the success or failure of the negotiations launched by Annapolis conference? Will it succeed or fail in ending Israeli occupation? 1) Certainly will succeed0.4% 2) Will succeed13.3% 3) Will fail49.1% 4) Certainly will fail30.8% 5) DK/NA6.4% 35) Concerning armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel, I.. 1) Strongly support 27.9% 2) Support 38.6% 3) Oppose 28.2% 4) Strongly oppose 2.7% 5) DK/NA2.7% 66% FAVOR MORE TERRORISM. THAT PRETTY MUCH ENDS ANY CREDIBILITY TO #16. 36) And what about the bombing attack in the religious school in Jerusalem inside Israel in the first week of the current month of March in which eight Israeli students were killed in addition to the Palestinian attacker, do you support or oppose this attack? 1) Certainly support 41.9% 2) Support 41.6% 3) Oppose 12.0% 4) Certainly oppose 1.4% 5) DK/NA3.2% ALMOST 84% SUPPORT THE MURDER OF TEEN-AGED JEWISH KIDS. THERE MUST BE SOME SORT OF MIS-UNDERSTANDING AMONG THE POLLED PALESTINIANS AS TO WHAT "SUPPORTIVE OF THE PEACE PROCESS" (#16) MEANS. ON THE OTHER HAND, LET'S RECALL THAT HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MUSLIMS WORLD-WIDE BELIEVE THAT THE MOSSAD DID 9/11; YET OSAMA IS THE MOST REVERED AND ADULATED ARAB LEADER IN THE WORLD BECAUSE HE DID 9/11. SO AT LEAST SOME ARABS CAN ENTERTAIN AS EQUALLY VALID MUTUALLY CONTRADICTORY CONCEPTS. 37) And what about the bombing attack in Dimona in Israel in early February of this year in which one Israeli woman was killed in addition to the two bombers, do you support or oppose this attack? 1) Certainly support 34.8% 2) Support 42.6% 3) Oppose 16.9% 4) Certainly oppose 1.6% 5) DK/NA4.1% ALMOST 78% SUPPORT MURDER OF JEWISH WOMEN –– SAME COMMENT AS #36. 38) Which of the following political parties do you support? 1) PPP0.6% 2) PFLP3.3% 3) Fateh30.9% 4) Hamas24.7% 5) DFLP0.3% 6) Islamic Jihad2.5% 7) Fida0.1% 8) National Initiative (Mubadara)1.8% 9) Independent Islamists4.7% 10) Independent Nationalists4.5% 11) None of the above26.1% 12) Other, specify0.6% THE SUPPOSEDLY MODERATE FATAH GETS 31%. BUT IF YOU COMBINE HAMAS WITH THE OTHER TERROR GROUPS THAT SHARE ITS AGENDA AND ARE IN FACT EVEN MORE VIRULENT THAN HAMAS, THE PALESTINIAN POPULAR SUPPORT FOR GENOCIDAL TERROR WAR AGAINST ISRAEL (PFLP, DFLP, ISLAMIC JIHAD, INDEPENDENT ISLAMISTS) IS MORE THAN 36%. AND WHEN YOU RECALL THAT FATAH TOO IS TERRORIST AND HAS AS ONE OF ITS CORNERSTONE PLANKS IN ITS POLITICAL PLATFORM THE UTTER DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL....THEN SUPPORT FOR TERROR PARTIES JUMPS TO 67%. ONLY A BIT MORE THAN 10% SUPPORT NON-TERRORIST/NON-GENOCIDAL PALESTINIAN PARTIES. MORE THAN 2/3 OF THE POLLED PALESTINIANS WANT ISRAEL DESTROYED. URGING ISRAEL TO MAKE MORE CONCESSIONS, CEDE MORE TERRITORY, ASSIST IN ARMING AND TRAINING THE PA POLICE (MANY OF WHOM MOONLIGHT FOR HAMAS) ETC...MERELY HELPS THE GENOCIDAL TERRORISTS ACCOMPLISH THEIR GOALS MORE EFFECTIVELY. From Ethan Bronner, "Poll Shows Most Palestinians Favor Violence Over Talks," New York Times, March 19, 2008. The pollster, Khalil Shikaki, said he was shocked because the survey, taken last week, showed greater support for violence than any other he had conducted over the past 15 years in the Palestinian areas. Never before, he said, had a majority favored an end to negotiations or the shooting of rockets at Israel. "There is real reason to be concerned," Mr. Shikaki said in an interview at his West Bank office. His Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, which conducts a survey every three months, is widely viewed as among the few independent and reliable gauges of Palestinian public opinion. According to the poll, of 1,270 Palestinians in face-to-face interviews, 84 percent supported the March 6 attack on the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, one of Israel's most prominent centers of religious Zionism and ideological wellspring of the settler movement in the West Bank. Mr. Shikaki said that result was the single highest support for an act of violence in his 15 years of polling here. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. See "Gaza celebrates after killing of 8 Yeshiva teens"; Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKfwcMIlvpo From Morton Klein, President of Zionist Organization of America: Referring to the most recent poll, Zionist Organization of America President Morton Klein said the results were not surprising. "This poll, unfortunately, merely confirms the results of innumerable earlier polls, showing Palestinians to approve of terrorism that targets innocent Jewish men, women and children and rejecting peace or co-existence with Israel as a Jewish state. In these circumstances, it is clear that a Palestinian state would be nothing more that the world's newest terrorist state. It would be folly for either Israel or the United States to support the establishment of a Palestinian state under such conditions and it noteworthy that the former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, former CIA director R. James Woolsey and pre-eminent Middle East historian Bernard Lewis have all come out in opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state." From Arutz-Sheva, March 21, 2008, "Israelis Tired of Withdrawals" A poll commissioned by SOS-Israel phrased the question about future withdrawals: "In light of the results of the Disengagement plan from the Gaza Strip, are you in favor of a continued withdrawal from Judea and Samaria?" 64.9 percent answered that they oppose further withdrawals and 23.9 percent said are in favor. The others would not answer the question. Divided into religious demographics, 95 percent of Hareidi-religious opposed withdrawals, followed by 90.9 of the national religious and 57 percent of the non-observant public. David Meir-Levi is an American-born Israeli, currently living in Palo Alto. His expertise is in Near Eastern studies and the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is Director of Peace and Education at Israel Peace Initiative (www.ipi-usa.org). Contact him at david_meirlevi@hotmail.com To Go To Top

THE FUTURE OF JEWISH ANTI-ZIONISM –– A ZIONIST ANALYSIS Posted by Israel Academia Monitor, March 25, 2008.

This was written by Ami Isseroff and it appeared in ZioNation –– Progressive Zionism and Israel Web Log (http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000514.html).

Retrospective introduction –– This article was not written to condemn anti-Zionist Jews, but to point out that they will eventually find themselves isolated by the people whose cause they are championing. This is already happening. Arguably, the most vociferous and effective opponents of the existence of the state of Israel today are anti-Zionist Jews. Who has done more to advance the myth of Zionist "ethnic cleansing" than Ilan Pappe? Who has done more to combat the "Holocaust Myth" than Norman Finkelstein?? Who has been at the forefront at spreading the libel of "Apartheid Israel," if not our own 'dear' Jeff Halper? Who has made hatred of Israel respectable in US Academia if not Joel Beinin? Who has done more to advance the image of Israel as a tool of the colonialist imperialist warmongers than Noam Chomsky? Who has been the ideological soul of the British boycott campaigns, if not Jacqueline Rose? Who has done more to discredit the IDF than Dorothy Naor with her "New Profile" movement? It is the Golden Age of anti-Zionist Jews. All over the world, the watchword is "Just Peace in Palestine." Jews are leading the fight to brainwash the world into thinking that genocide is justice. Anti-Semitism was abandoned by the respectable right; now it is the Jews who must lead the anti-Zionist fight, the struggle to deny the rights of the Jewish people. Surely it is absurd that Jews lead the anti-Zionist movement! This development, which may seem bizarre, is predictable from the classical Zionist analysis of history. Jews have always been pioneers, going where nobody else wanted to go or could go, and developing fields of endeavor that were neglected by others for lack of motivation or qualifications. In many lands, as the Middle Ages waned, Jews were the only people who had the education to engage in commerce, and the motivation to do it because they were barred from other occupations. Baruch Espinoza pioneered aspects of modern philosophy that other Europeans could not dare to touch. He was only excommunicated. Christians who dabbled in these matters would have been burned at the stake. In comparatively large numbers, Jews engaged in obscure and nonlucrative pursuits such as theoretical physics, and in the USA, Jews took advantage of the new and risky field opened by the invention of motion pictures. Jews have been at the forefront of movements of social change as well, places where imaginative and bold leaders could gain an audience, while they were shut out of the respectable political movements by non-Jews. Jews, likewise, were at the forefront of the US civil rights movement and the South African anti-apartheid movement. Not surprisingly, Jews took up the Palestinian Arab cause. Jews bring a special "qualification" to the business of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Only Jews, after all, can advocate the destruction of the Jewish state in liberal circles without risking the charge of racism and advocating genocide. Only Jews can spread nonsense about the "Holocaust industry" without being labeled anti-Semites and neo-Nazis. Only Jews can recycle the tired Nazi accusation that the Jews control the media and the governments of the world without risking the anger of "liberals." In large part, the Arab Palestinian anti-Israel movement is led not by Palestinian Arabs or anti-Semites, but by Jews. Halper. Beinin, Rose, Pappe, Chomsky. Finkelstein and Klug, rather than Alloush, Abunimah, Fayyad Husseini, Qaukji and abu Youssef, are the intellectual mainstays of the movement to wipe out the Jewish state. Their English is much better, and they can cast their ideas in slogans acceptable to western culture. "Secular Democratic State" sounds so much better than "Drive the Jews into the Sea" to a good progressive, doesn't it? It is hard to label them as "anti-Semites." It is hard to discredit their lies. If a Jew and an Israeli says that Zionists commit war crimes, it must be true.Their appearances and their books and articles are lauded in the Arab world, and reprinted in Al-Ahram and Roz el Youssef alongside the latest "proofs" of the authenticity of the blood libel and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Not since al-Andalus (Moorish Spain) have Jews enjoyed such a Golden Age. Alas for the anti-Zionist Jews, their fate is sealed, like that of the Jews of Spain and Germany. Zionist analysis can equally well predict the denouement of Jewish anti-Zionism. The same drama has been enacted many times before. The father of Marxist Zionism called it a "Stychic process." Eventually, the new field pioneered by Jews becomes a success. It becomes attractive to non-Jews. The Jews are forced out of commerce or the Communist party of the Soviet Union, or the US civil rights movement or whatever other field they have pioneered. The Jewish department stores and the Jewish industries are "Aryanized." Lenin and Stalin take over from Trotsky and Kaganovich and Babel, and Farrakhan and Obama take over from Spingarn and Goodman. In the case of the Palestinian quest to destroy Israel, there is a special intrinsic problem with Jewish leadership, especially Israeli Jewish leadership. As Marxists would possibly phrase it, there is a contradiction between the means of social organization (Jews), and the goals (wiping out Jews). The goal of the Palestinian movement, as was made quite clear by its founder, Grand Mufti Hajj Amin al Husseini, was the physical annihilation of the Jews of Palestine, as his mentor, Adolf Hitler, had accomplished regarding the Jews of Europe. Under the influence of Soviet mentors, this goal was modified slightly by the PLO, which originally planned that the "Secular Democratic State" would "only" expel those Jews who had arrived after 1917. From that point of view, the Halpers and the other Jewish helpers constitute a subversive fifth column. In their mad delusion, they think that the Palestinian Arabs are only against "those other Jews." They seriously intend that the Secular Democratic State will give rights to Jews and allow Jews to live in "Palestine." Of course, there would be no point to the Palestinian "struggle" if that is how it ends, as the Hamas make abundantly clear. Still worse, perhaps, are those Jews who insist that there should be two states, one Palestinian Arab, and the other "Secular Democratic." Perhaps Jeff Halper, or Ilan Pappe or Dorothy Naor even have the dangerous illusion that they might hold some government post in the Palestinian utopia, as they are so central to the movement right now. Certainly, they may object to getting on the boat or the train when the time comes. After all, they see themselves as part of the "revolution." They are not like those other Jews. If they ever achieve their goal of destroying the Jewish state, it is clear that their fate will be the same as that of the Left Poalei Tzion and the Yesektzia who were purged by Stalin, of Pfeffer and Mayakovsky and all the leading lights of the Soviet Revolution. For Jews, as the Hamas Charter notes, have always been trouble makers. Dorothy Naor and Tali Fahima will no doubt protest against polygamy, wife beating, female circumcision or honor killings, and the democratic Hamas will do to them what the democratic Hamas must do. Perhaps, on the other hand, they will meet their fate believing in the revolution to the bitter end. The end is already in sight. The stalwart Ibrahim Alloush, who has the courage to say what other Arabs only think, has spelled it out (see freearabvoice.org/articles/SolidarityfromPro-PalestinianJewsRevisited.htm): There are plenty of people out there who claim to be 'pro-Palestinian', or to support 'Palestinian rights'... Nevertheless, not everyone who claims to support us is actually a supporter. Many such supporters actually oppose some of the most crucial things we stand for, except they dislike some of the human rights violations that the Zionists are visiting upon us. That is, they: 1) recognize the right of "Israel" to exist and the alleged right of Jews to settle in Palestine, 2) they oppose our strategy to liberate Palestine, and 3) they especially oppose the armed struggle of Palestinian organizations. Such 'supporters' are not actually supporting us, but simply trying to make themselves feel better... In some cases, you find Jews claiming to support the Palestinian cause. But when you scrutinize carefully what they stand for, you'll find they simply want what amounts to a 'nice occupation', as opposed to a brutal one. In reality they just wish there could be an occupation without administrative detentions, targeted assassinations, land confiscations, house demolitions, and all the rest. Otherwise, those same 'supporters' try as hard as they could to convince Palestinians to present their case 'in a civilized manner' without resorting to human bombs and military operations, especially against what they call "Israeli civilians". One such Jewish 'supporter' is Noam Chomsky who says that it would be immoral for Palestinians to target even an off-duty "Israeli" soldier! This makes one wonder whether these Jewish "supporters" are just trying to whitewash the occupation with their own professed guilt, as Jews, or whether they're simply out to present another 'positive' side of Zionism! Brother Alloush had some good teachers, or perhaps there is only a parallelism induced by the merciless operation of the processes of history and social dynamics. "Not everyone who claims to support us is really a supporter," writes Alloush. There are right-deviationists and left-deviationists hiding in our midst. Agents of imperialism in sheep's clothing –– rootless cosmopolitans. Presently, it will be discovered that Dorothy Naor is unwilling to wear the Dhimmi star, and that Noam Chomsky actually was, as he freely admits, a Zionist, a card-carrying member of the international Zionist conspiracy. Likewise, it will be revealed that Joel Beinin, leader of the anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist camp as former head of MESA (Middle East Studies Association) was likewise a card-carrying Zionist. Perhaps all these people are still agents of the Mossad, who have infiltrated and subverted the Arab Palestinian movement? After all, the clever Elders of Zion have a contingency for every exigency. If they can't control the Palestinians one way, they will do it another way. If the "Jew Zionists" cannot control the American government, they will put forward the Jewish anti-Zionists to do it instead. There is no getting around the problem. Anti-Zionist Jews are still Jews. What is the point of getting rid of one type of Jew, if at the end of the day, the Arab Palestinians are to be controlled by a different type of Jew? The problem is highlighted by the rise (or rather the recrudescence) of Islamist ideology among Arab Palestinians. As the Hadith observes, before the end of days, the Muslims will kill all the Jews. It doesn't exempt anti-Zionist Jews. A Jew is a Jew and remains a Jew. A Jew is liable to support outlandish and evil notions like the right of Jews to settle in Palestine, or to oppose time honored customs like wife beating or honorable pursuits like suicide bombing. The Jews will try to hide behind trees. But no tree will shelter Tali Fahima or Ilan Pappe or Jeff Halper. Alloush is an extremist, in the vanguard of the Arab Palestinian movement. He is a Holocaust denier, but no more so than say, Norman Finkelstein, or the Neturei Karteh Jews. Alloush dares to say what others are only thinking. His ideas will achieve popularity first with the "anti-Zionists" like the Stormfront people, but inevitably, they must percolate down to every Arab Palestinian and every anti-Semite who rightly feels that the Jews have not only dispossessed the Arabs from Palestine, but have now dispossessed them from their own genocidal movement. It wouldn't do at all if Eichmann or Himmler or Heydrich had been Jewish. The Jewish anti-Zionist movement must inevitably fall victim to the nemesis of of the historical dialectic. If the Arab Palestinian movement to destroy Israel succeeds, the Jews who are leading it now will certainly be redundant and undesirable. What use will Tali Fahima or Ilan Pappe or Jeff Halper be in an Arab Palestinian state? If it fails, they will be blamed for its failure. A specter is haunting over the anti-Zionist movement. It is the specter of anti-Semitism. As day follows night, the social contradictions of the Palestinian movement must lead to the exclusion, if not the annihilation, of the anti-Zionist Jews. It is far better for them if it happens sooner, rather than later. Contact the Israel Academia Monitor organization by email at email@israel-academia-monitor.com To Go To Top

HUNDREDS OF MUSLIMS WHO HAVE FLED DARFUR ARE REBUILDING THEIR LIVES IN ISRAEL Posted by Canadian International Peace Project (CIPP), March 25, 2008.

This is from Seth Freedman, Guardian Unlimited, March 24, 2008.

"Even though we're Muslim, the Islamic world has done nothing to protect us", said Yassin, a refugee whose tortured flight from Darfur finally brought him to Israel three years ago. He was one of the first Darfurians to make it into Israel across the border from Egypt, and has dedicated his life to helping hundreds of his fellow countrymen who have made the same perilous journey. Yassin, a genial 30-year-old former architect, is now director of Bnei Darfur [Sons of Darfur], an organisation which assists Sudanese refugees to integrate into Israeli society, and which last week was finally granted non-profit status by the Israeli government. Sitting in his office in downtown Tel Aviv, Yassin painted a harrowing picture of the way in which Darfurian refugees are mistreated by the uncaring and unsympathetic authorities in Egypt, which is the first port of call of many fleeing the violence in Sudan. Darfuri children are scared to set foot outside in Egypt for fear of attack, Yassin said, citing the slaying of dozens of refugees after a protest outside the UNHCR headquarters in 2005. "It's not that Egypt doesn't look after refugees in general," he said, "after all, they treat the Somalians very well. However, when it comes to us, they are different. It's racism [that motivates the Egyptian mistreatment]." It doesn't help that the Darfurians are accusing fellow Muslims of genocide, said Yassin, noting that the Muslim states who support the Sudanese government in turn claim that the refugees are collaborating with enemy states in the West. "All of the Arab countries support the government of Sudan –– our problem is with the Arab League," Yassin stated with a shake of his head at his people's plight. Having watched most of his family slaughtered in a militia attack on his village, he fled the region hoping to find shelter in Egypt, but was soon forced to move on. After the cold and often violent reception the refugees received at the hands of the Egyptians, Yassin decided that things couldn't be worse on the Israeli side of the border –– despite the anti-Israeli indoctrination he'd been spoon-fed when growing up in Sudan. "The government controlled all of the media back home," he said. "The television stations, the radio, the newspapers... and all of them were very hostile towards Israel. They described it as an enemy state full of killers, and the cause of all of the world's problems." He smiled at the irony of Israel turning out to be the first country where he and his fellow refugees could finally find sanctuary –– although it was hardly plain sailing at first. "When the army picked me up, I spent five days on their base in a tiny room with five Egyptian men. The conditions were awful, and one of the judges was very cruel, threatening to deport me back to Egypt. She told me that I was I wasn't welcome in Israel because I was from an 'enemy country' –– but in the end I was transferred to a larger prison in the south." He spent 14 months in jail, where he banded together with other Darfurian refugees and founded an informal support group to assist one another, teaching English, Arabic and Hebrew to those who required educating. After a few months, the Israeli press started picking up the story of the refugee crisis, and soon several NGOs and welfare organisations began campaigning for their release. The UN got involved, and eventually many of the refugees were let out of jail and sent to work on local kibbutzim. However, once free they faced large-scale exploitation by employers who took advantage of their lack of proper permits and rights, forcing them to work for a pittance and in dreadful conditions. Again, intervention from the UN and local NGOs caused a change of heart on the part of the government, who granted 600 of the 750 refugees with 'A5' temporary residency status, with the remainder receiving protection as asylum seekers. And the rest is recent history. Yassin and his friends formed Bnei Darfur, and have been stunningly successful in their mission to create a self-sufficient community "that isn't a drain on Israeli society". Every one of the refugees has a job, a house, and access to medical care –– "the only ones without jobs are the ones who've just arrived, and we soon take care of them", he said. The children have been found places at Israeli schools, where they learn Hebrew and befriend their locally-born peers, and the future appears bright for those who have managed to make it into Israel. Many Israelis took up the Darfurians' cause on the basis that Jews have been denied refuge by indifferent countries throughout history, and that Israeli Jews should remember their own troubled past when dealing with the victims of today. However, whilst the way in which Israel (eventually) received the refugees is to be admired, there is of course the accusation of double standards to be dealt with regarding Palestinian refugees being denied the chance to relocate to the Promised Land. But the unresolved issue of the Palestinian right of return is not something Yassin wished to be drawn on. As far as he's concerned, Israel has provided for his people in a way that no Arab country would –– and for that he's eternally grateful. And in terms of Israel's image in the eyes of the refugees as well as the outside world, accepting the unwanted Darfurians was both an astute and an admirable move to make. Contact CIPP at cipp@rogers.com. To Go To Top

MULTICULTURALISM IS A SEDATIVE Posted by Dave Nathan, March 25, 2008.

This was written by Salim Mansur for the Toronto Sun

Perhaps the most apt manner to describe multiculturalism as anideology and government policy in western liberal democracies would be what the incomparable English writer, journalist and non-conformist, Malcolm Muggeridge, wrote in his 1970 essay, The Great Liberal Death Wish. Perhaps also no contemporary of Muggeridge (1903-90), nor anyone after him, made as incisive a dissection of the deepening liberal malaise in the 20th century as he provided. He also exposed apologists of liberalism and their untiring efforts to discredit and dissolve the West as a uniquely gifted civilization. In every culture there are to be found some dissidents or skeptics questioning its legitimacy and moral authority as those in the former Soviet Union –– Andrei Sakharov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn and others not as well known –– did. They exposed the lies of a system that rationalized the organized effort of tyranny to extinguish freedom, and their sacrifice eventually contributed to its demise. But the oddity about skeptics in the West, as Muggeridge wrote about them and their liberalism, is the death wish to undo a culture where freedom, having sunk deep roots, thrives. They would replace this culture with a pale shadow of one negating all that is noble, life affirming, uplifting and founded on the values celebrated by the Christian church. This is the great liberal death wish, a twisted psychology of that intellectual class which willingly goes out to buy the lies of a culture that entombs freedom, as was done in the Soviet Union –– and continues in places such as China and Saudi Arabia –– and fashion these lies as a cure for manufactured ills in the West, with the purpose of undermining it. Muggeridge wrote, the "great liberal death wish arises out of a historical, or maybe biological, necessity, rather than out of any rational, or even irrational, considerations. Civilizations, like classes and families and regimes, degenerate, and so must be wound up." The strength of the West measured in terms of freedom –– of Prometheus unbound and its creative spirit unleashed soaring upwards despite risks –– resides in its assimilative capacity and openness to share its freedom with those beyond its cultural boundaries seeking the same. Yet keeping the West strong requires perseverance and vigilance. The spirit that soars also can sag through fatigue, the creative can begin to lose fecundity, freedom can become corrupted in time, and decay can loom over that culture ever larger. It is in these circumstances that false hope readily may be planted and false remedy readily sold. The curative unthinkingly bought turns out to be medicine hastening the end. Muggeridge again: "Previous civilizations have been overthrown from without by the incursion of barbarian hordes; ours has dreamed up its own dissolution in the minds of its own intellectual elite." Multiculturalism is in appearance the most pleasing of liberal barbiturates offered to stave off the West's demographic decline through immigration. For it to work the requirement demanded is suspension of critical and discriminating thinking replaced by politically correct speech that must offend none except, if need be, the patient (the West) requiring the cure. And so Muggeridge would have said that multiculturalism being one big swindle it is a "sedative rather than a stimulant, a slough rather than a precipice; blurring the edges of truth, the definition of virtue, the shape of beauty; a cracked bell, a mist, a death wish." To Go To Top

ISRAELI MILITARY TRAINING CAMP. UPSTATE NEW YORK, SUMMER '08 Posted by Daisy Stern, March 25, 2008.

Dear friends, Kitat Konenut New York will once again be holding our summer training camp. The dates this year will be Friday July 25 through Sunday August 3rd. Since our successful training camps last summer and in 2006, our membership has increased and our activities have expanded far beyond New York. We now have an active Kita in Los Angeles and other cities are in the planning stages. The terrible attack on Merkaz Harav has increased awareness to the need for active response units worldwide and many more people are volunteering for our training from all over the US as well as Israel, Canada, Australia and other countries. This year's training camp will include several new Mefakdim (commanders) all veterans of IDF combat units as well as several mid level and high ranking officers. Our training will include basic rifle handling and use, advanced rifle handling, pistol shooting, sniper course, long range rifle, urban warfare techniques, riot control, knife fighting and edged weapons course, pepper spray, batons and other non lethal weapons use, fighting from a vehicle, counter terror techniques, identifying and dismantling IED's, intelligence techniques, paintball battles, krav maga and much much more!!! Weapons used will be M-4, AR-15, AK-47, M1 Carbine, Mauser 98k, Lee Enfield, Gibbs Jungle Carbine, Ruger 10/22, and others. There will be 2 Shabbatons which will include shiurim from Rav Chayim Shimon Wharman and other visiting rabbis. There will also be a lecture by an intelligence analyst working with the FBI and NSA to track and monitor Muslim terrorist groups in the United States. There will be discussions on relevant topics such as Zionism, Yishuv Eretz Yisrael, antisemitism, terrorist threats to America, assimilation, intermarriage, kiruv, the second amendment and many other topics. Who can attend camp? Any Jew who is over 18 years old, physically fit and mentally sound, with no criminal record. Most campers will be between ages 18 and 26 but Jews of all ages are welcome to join. This will be our second coed year and we will be having girls at camp. Sleeping quarters will be separate but all training will be coed. We expect all campers to behave in a kosher manner and follow basic principles of tzniut. What you should bring to camp: Flashlight, hiking or combat boots, underwear, undershirts, socks, Kippa, Tzitzit, Tefillin, Tallit, Siddur, knife, tent, sleeping bag, pillow, white shirt and dark pressed pants for Shabbat, bathing suit, sandals, towel, sun tan lotion, bug spray, toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, soap, shampoo, camera, pen, small paper pad, water canteen, etc. If you own any firearms please contact us as to whether or not to bring them to camp. What you may not bring to camp: Banned items are: illegal guns, switchblade knives, brass knuckles etc, alcohol, drugs (including marijuana), pornography condoms and other inappropriate paraphernalia, non kosher food, pets, unauthorised individuals, etc. Anyone caught with banned items will have the items confiscated and destroyed. Anyone caught bringing drugs, illegal guns or non kosher food to camp will be expelled immediately and your payment will not be refunded. How much does camp cost? The cost of camp will be $400 per person. This will include all food, accommodation, gear and ammunition. In general we expect all campers to attend the entire training session. If for some relevant reason an individual can't be present for all the days we might consider giving a partial discount based on the time not spent in camp. How do I register? All those wishing to register should do so as soon as possible. If you have served in the IDF or US military we will consider you for an instructors position. Even if you do not plan on attending camp please forward this email to anyone you think might be interested. To register please contact me or Zerach the Mefaked Kita at zerach@kitatkonenutnewyork.org. For more information log on to our website at www.kitatkonenutnewyork.org *Note. Mefakdim will be periodically filming the training sessions through out camp. This is for future reference, community relations, and advertising of the activities of the Kita as well as to compare before and after shots of the training to see how campers have improved their fighting skills. If you for any reason do not want us to use your photos for our public relations please let us know and we will digitally blot out your face from all photos before uploading them on our website, publishing them in a brochure or sending them to anyone. If for any reason you categorically refuse to have your picture taken at camp despite our respecting your wish to not advertise your picture online then please do not bother coming to camp. This has caused a disturbance in the past and we do not wish to waste our time arguing with people over which pictures of the training to take or not take. Beahavat Yisrael KKNY Contact Daisy Stern by email at daisystern1@gmail.com To Go To Top

TWO JEWISH BROTHERS SENT TO PRISON FOR PROTECTING JEWISH COMMUNITY Posted by Lee Caplan, March 25, 2008.

Pidion Shvuim Alert: No. 5 Two Jewish Brothers Sent to Prison for Protecting Jewish Community!

Danny and Yitzhak Halamish are two quiet young men who under any other circumstances would be regarded as the pride of the Jewish people. They both served in top Israeli combat units, and when they finished the military they fought for Jews under threat of expulsion from the Gaza Strip. They also founded the community of Maalei Rehavam in the Judean Desert. Today, the brothers await the start of their jail sentence, convicted of aggravated assault by a corrupt police force and a lackadaisical judge. Their appeals of innocence have been rejected by the judiciary. Are the Halamishes guilty of a crime? Absolutely not. Indeed, the only crime committed was by an army that abandoned the two brothers and an Israeli court system that convicted them without evidence. But the brothers are lovers of Zion and builders of Jewish life in Judea and Samaria. And that makes them dangerous to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who pressured by Washington plans to destroy Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem over the next year. The Halamishes, as part of their reserve military service, were members of a security response team organized, equipped and trained by the Israeli Army to help protect their community and surrounding region from Arab attack. On Feb. 21, 2004, the brothers were summoned by another security officer, Baruch Feldbaum, to help expel Bedouins who trespassed into the Jewish community of Sdei Bar and were encamped near a student dormitory. Bedouin tribes in the area had been deemed responsible for the killing of several Jews in the area in previous years. Under the direction of Feldbaum, the Halamish brothers ordered the Bedouin squatters to leave. The Bedouins refused, and about 20 of them approached the Jewish security officers with sticks and rocks. Feldbaum [NOT the brothers] shot toward the ground when the Bedouins continued to move closer. The response team later said that it shot in self-defense. An army medic who arrived at the scene determined that nobody was struck by the gunfire, an assertion disputed by the Bedouins. At that point, the military abandoned its own security team and allowed a police investigation. Feldbaum was sentenced to nine months in prison, but later was pardoned by President Moshe Katsav. The Halamishes weren't as lucky. Although police refused to conduct ballistic tests or even a lineup of suspects, the brothers were convicted of shooting toward the Bedouins. Danny was sentenced to seven months in prison; Yitzhak, to eight months. An Israeli appeals court said ballistic tests or a lineup weren't necessary. The word of the Bedouins –– who refused to show up to police headquarters to identify their purported assailants –– was enough. The court also rejected a recommendation by the probation officer for community service. The three-judge panel said it wanted the Halamish brothers to go to jail to serve as a lesson to others. Unless we act, the Halamish brothers will be sent to jail on April 10 and their tiny community of Maalei Rehavam, would be seriously harmed. As we see it, the Halamishes have been abandoned by the army and railroaded by the police and judiciary. Therefore, we urge you to act as you did so valiantly for Tzvia Sariel. Call, rather than e-mail, the Israel Embassy in Washington [telephone 202-364-5500] and demand to speak to the military attache. Tell him or his aide that you are outraged by the abdication of military responsibility of its own soldiers, who will go to jail because they helped protect Jews. Say that as an American citizen who contributes to the $2.4 billion of U.S. military aid to Israel, you demand the immediate release of the Halamish brothers. Say that you also plan to discuss this case with your member of Congress. The Olmert government, with an approval rating of near zero, has refused any accountability to the Israeli people and fears only the Bush administration. Unless we act now, there will be many more young Jews in jail. If you agree with this, please act quickly. What could be more important than saving the lives of our fellow Jews? With Love of Israel, Datya Itzhaki [Editor's Note: Update, March 27, 2008, Lee Caplan citing Women in Green: "Danny and Itzik are supposed to go to jail on April 10th (in less than two weeks) for a period of 8 months. Their "crime" –– defending themselves against Arab attackers. "Many Women in Green leaders and members know Itzik and Danny personally for many years. Two Israel loving Zionist pioneers, sons of parents who founded the community of Ofrah, they are the salt of the earth. Itzik, 28, is single. He is a carpenter. Danny, 37, is a computer programmer. He is married to Limor, and is the father of Naama, two and a half years old and Yirel, half a year old. "The very thought that those two youngsters would go to jail instead of the Arabs who attacked them, is simply unbearable."] Contact Lee Caplan at leescaplan@yahoo.com To Go To Top

DRUZE & CIRCASSIANS IN ISRAEL; WHO'S POPULAR IN THE P.A.?; SPARSE RAIN & ARAB WATER PROFLIGACY Posted by Richard H. Shulman, March 25, 2008.

DRUZE & CIRCASSIANS IN ISRAEL PM Olmert met with Druze and Circassian leaders to discuss their integration into Israeli society. He was full of plans to help them (IMRA, 3/4/08). There was nothing about demanding that the Druze stop driving Jews out of a mixed town, stop burning down their houses, and stop ganging up on Israeli police come to arrest suspects. If he didn't mention it, there will be more of it. They are developing the Arab mentality of all entitlement and no obligation and the gentile mind-set that the Jews may be pushed around. The leftist false sense of Jewish guilt is bad enough. The obsequiousness of multiculturalism, attempting with futility to appease the Muslims while the Muslims attempt to gain control over the country, hobbles Israeli defense. TEMPORARILY CEDE CONTROL? Rafi Eitan, in Israel's Security Cabinet, finds the P.A. losing further control of internal security and therefore receding from eligibility for sovereignty. He thinks that Egypt and Jordan may have to take over, there, temporarily, to restore order. Would that mean that Egypt and Jordan could move heavy armors and weapons into the Territories? (IMRA, 3/4/08). What does he mean temporary? How would he propose getting Egypt and Jordan to move their armies out, if they were not of a mind to? War? Plea? What does he think would induce them to move their armies in? An opportunity to fight the terrorists? Most countries don't look forward to that. EU forces solve that problem by accommodating the terrorists, as in Serbia, Kosovo, Syria, and Lebanon. Either Egypt and Jordan fight and crush the terrorists, or the terrorists lie low until Israel claims the area is "calm," but as soon as the armies withdraw, the terrorists take over again. Why ask other countries to police Territories part of the Jewish homeland. Here is what may induce those countries to move their armies in. The Olmert regime may suppose that the foreigners would want to make the P.A. fit for sovereignty before Israelis throw Olmert out and assert the primacy of the Jewish claim to the Territories. I think the foreigners would find it an opportunity to gain intelligence not already provided them by the P.A., Peace Now, and the US embassy. They could place agents in position to impede Israeli defense when Egypt finally invades Israel. They could arm P.A. Arabs and train them to facilitate that invasion. THE DENIAL OF FREEDOM TACTIC "At the University of Haifa: Professor of Psychology Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, in addition to his pro-Arab views, proclaimed that the rights to free speech, freedom of association and freedom of religion do not exist in Israel. In this case, why is he is not in jail? Could he tell us how many Arab or Muslim organizations he knows that are able to make similar anti-government statements in their own countries?" (Prof. Steven Plaut, 3/4/08.) Some of the leftist professors did not agitate much for Arab claims in the Land of Israel against Jewish claims, and did not express so much sympathy for Muslim terrorists, until the EU, foundations, and S. Arabia subsidized such speeches. It is a tactic of the Left that to seek sympathy by pretending to be repressed, even while they are dominant. Right-wingers and other patriots find it difficult to get their views broadcast or in the major newspapers. They face discrimination applying for jobs in college social science departments. Their demonstrations are broken up by police violently; many Arab riots are not restrained by police. The tactic is employed by pro-Arabs and by antisemites in the US. WHO'S POPULAR IN THE P.A.? The Bush administration polls the Arabs about matters bearing on US policy. After a few months of violence and negotiations, a survey found that the Hamas leader edged out the Fatah leader, 47% to 46%. Only last December, Abbas led, 56% to 37% (NY Sun, 3/18, p.6). Those results, furnished by the L.A. Times, are not subdivided for Gaza and for Judea-Samaria. Do they represent rising popularity for Hamas or falling popularity for Abbas? What accounts for the change? It does seem futile for the West to back Abbas, not that this means they should back Hamas. Back neither. Neither are decent. SPARSE RAIN & ARAB WATER PROFLIGACY Rain has insufficiently filled Lake Kinneret, one of Israel's three main sources of water, this winter. Another source is the mountain aquifer of Judea-Samaria. In the ten years of autonomy there, the Arabs have drawn too much water up, thereby leaving some of the rest unfit for drinking (IMRA, 3/18/08). This shows what appeasement does to Israel and what is in store for Israel if it relinquishes more control over land. Remember: water is a strategic asset there. DISSECTING AN ANTI-BUSH ESSAY Former Sec. of State Madeline Albright wrote what she hopes the next President will change. Primarily she wants "an end to the politics of fear." She admits we sometimes should fear danger more, as from Nazism. She admits danger from Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, N. Korea, Pakistan, and al-Qaida, which says it wants to kill us, but feels we fear too much. (What is fearing "too much" from fanatics with "nukes?") Why are we told to be afraid? Albright says it is "so that we might be less protective of our Constitution, less mindful of international law, less respectful toward allies, less discerning in our search for truth and less rigorous in questioning what our leaders tell us. We have been exhorted by the White House to embrace a culture of fear that has driven and narrowed our foreign policy while poisoning our ability to communicate effectively with others." She thinks we are afraid to consider alternatives. (She didn't suggest any. Is she afraid? Sounds silly, doesn't it?) We became hypocritical, telling others not to possess nuclear bombs, but have many, ourselves. We demand respect for international law, but disregard it. "Hands off Iraq, we warn, while our troops occupy Baghdad." We warn about China's growing military, but spend the most on arms. We talk about the future but ignore climate changes' effect upon it. Why should we, "with all our wealth and power, seem so afraid of terrorists, rogue states, illegal immigrants and foreign economic competition." Instead of being afraid, we should debate and respect others, and help tackle global problems (Greenwich Times). She wrote more, but just generalized sentiment. Politics of fear? Doesn't exist. Problem is her politics of head-in-the-sand. Pres. Bush has acted, giving Americans less reason to fear, while his critics ignore the new world war. She makes believe that debating fanatics can somehow cause them to stop wanting to take over the world in the name of their faith. Unrealistic! She does us a disservice to the point that we could get conquered. As for not tackling global problems, what other problem is greater than the Islamist drive against civilization? Why doesn't she and other critics tackle it? I think Bush did too little, failing to drive home the full danger we face and call for a greater ideological effort and military preparedness. He tried to minimize fear by falsely calling Islam a religion of peace. Who perceives our country negatively is not shown. Immigrants keep applying and countries hope the US helps free them, as Bush did for Ukraine. Britain, France, and Germany are with us. China and Russia are against us, but for empire or ego. That Islamists oppose us is not our fault. They have been waging jihad more and more, ignored by Bush's predecessor. Let Bush's critics condemn the rogue states for making trouble, not the US for trying to stanch it! We don't tell all others not to have nuclear bombs, only rogue states that developed them illegally and that are likely to initiate their use and sometimes have threatened to do so when they get them. Shall we not discourage Iran from developing nuclear weapons? Governments that didn't propose strong sanctions are derelict in their duty. She asks why we are afraid of terrorists, rogue states, and illegal immigrants. Because they bombed us, want to bomb us more, and are striving for weapons of mass-destruction. Is that hard to understand? As for foreign economic competition, let her chide fellow Democrats about that, for they are becoming protectionist, wanting to rescind NAFTA, etc.. Pres. Bush has been seeking to retard legislation and programs against pollution. Unfortunately, his opponents mostly ignore it. What use are they? Albright accuses the US of violating international law, but gives no examples (and omits jihadi violations). I can. One was Clinton's bombing the civilians of Serbia. Another is the US and NATO detaching Kosovo from Serbia. We warned other countries not to take over Iraq. We are trying to help liberated Iraq keep its oil and not be turned into a Taliban state. That's bad? As for the growing military build-up of China –– it protects rogue states with Sec. Council vetoes, threatens war over Taiwan, and is a dictatorship that has murdered as many people as the Nazis and Soviets combined. Since most countries don't preserve international order, the job of world policeman falls on the US by default, not that we always do it. We've rescued Europe repeatedly. The complaint that Bush promotes fear in order to degrade our Constitution and international law would be paranoid, so I attribute it to poor writing. I think she means that Bush's anti-terrorism infringes on civil liberties. Perhaps, but presidents usually request more power, and this is a new and confused legal area lacking standards. What did his critics do? They were partisan. They neither defined standards nor national security. Instead they denied any national security problem, despite the jihads breaking out in a score of countries, the Islamic drive to take over Western Europe, and the many attacks on the US. Why doesn't Albright rebuke Bush for supporting Abbas, whose regime glorifies terrorism and is anti-American and whose police, commit terrorism? We don't debate or negotiate? We have and do. Now Iran is close to acquiring nuclear weapons, leaving us more reliant upon the military option. What does Albright think we should say, and what does she think we should do? If not now, when do we act? If others won't join us, do we wait to be atom-bombed? Richard Shulman is a veteran defender of Israel on several web-based forums. His comments and analyses appear often on Think-Israel. He provides cool information and right-on-target overviews. He distributes his essays by email. To subscribe, write him at richardshulman5@aol.com To Go To Top

THE MEANING OF ASSURANCES GIVEN TO ISRAEL BY EUROPEAN LEADERS Posted by Gabrielle Goldwater, March 25, 2008.

This was written by John Vinocur and it appeared in the today in International Herald Tribune www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/24/europe/politicus.php

PARIS: Just before Easter, Osama bin Laden said Palestine could not be won back through "negotiations and dialogue" between Arabs and Israelis, but only by "iron and fire." Coupled with a threat to Europe, he warned the Palestinians to keep their distance from "blasphemous democracy" and count instead on the power of arms. Earlier last week, in Jerusalem, Angela Merkel, told Israelis, "Threats to you are threats to us." She reaffirmed that Israel's security was Germany's responsibility and a German "reason of state." In "the hour of proof," Merkel said, these would not be "empty words." There was much the same tonality in Paris the week before. Receiving the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, at a state dinner, Nicolas Sarkozy pledged, "France will always be on Israel's side when its existence is in question." This came from a president who had accused the French Foreign Ministry in the past of making a tradition of "demonizing Israel." Where does all this point? Easy answer: to a greater willingness on the part of Europe's leaders –– you can probably count in Gordon Brown –– to state their backing for Israel at a time of a gathering Iranian nuclear threat, warnings to Europe by Al Qaeda, and the possibility of a bloodier Israeli conflict with Hamas. At minimum, if anything, it is an attempt to seek Israeli moderation by means of public assurances with this tacit subtext: these days, the European Union is not, or is no longer, its reflexive antagonist. The remarks also embody large measures of personal and emotional commitment from both Merkel and Sarkozy. But what's their practical effect? That answer is harder to define. A German official insisted to me that Merkel's remarks went beyond "merely verbal" comforting. At the same time, Le Monde, a newspaper which consistently suspects Sarkozy's capacity to do or mean what he says, wrote, "At bottom, French Middle East policy hasn't fundamentally changed since Sarkozy's election." But it conceded the climate between Israel and France had improved. More specifically, you might ask: Since Sarkozy is tying France's return to the unified NATO command to its acknowledgment of the need for greater autonomy of action by a still notional European defense force, could this mean direct European military intervention in the Middle East? Not if you look at the polls in France and Germany. The fact is the Merkel and Sarkozy promises, particularly when concerning Iran's threats or the Israel-Palestinian conflict, are well in advance of their voters' opinions. In a Europe-wide canvass last year by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, these attitudes emerged: For the Germans and French, if Iran gets nuclear weapons, clear majorities think it's likely the mullahs will attack other countries in the Middle East and supply terrorists with nukes. But majorities in the two countries insist this wouldn't personally affect them. And if the European Union takes greater responsibility for dealing with international threats –– after all, that's the premise behind a real European military capability –– then the polling says strong majorities in Germany (83 percent) and France (71 percent) oppose committing more troops for combat actions. And this: According to the weekly newspaper Die Zeit, when it comes to Israeli-Palestinian conflict, only 3 percent of the Germans are on Israel's side, and 91 percent are in favor of strict neutrality. How's that for "boundless solidarity" of the kind Gerhard Schröder pledged the United States in the war on terrorism after 9/11? Actually, Germany since then has been tough and active on Islamic fundamentalist terror. In her speech before the Knesset last week, after condemning what she called Hamas's "terror attacks," Merkel went directly at the disconnect between the polls and her view of how to respond to Iran's call to eradicate Israel: "What do we do when a clear majority of people polled in Europe say the biggest threat to the world comes from Israel and not from Iran? Out of fear in the face of public opinion, do we politicians in Europe retreat from further sanctions pushing Iran to halt its nuclear programs?" "No," she said. "As uncomfortable as it may be, that's exactly what we must not do. If we did we'd have neither understood our historical responsibility nor have been conscious of the challenges of our time. And that would be fatal." Merkel went on to promise that if Iran didn't bend, Germany would press for new sanctions and said that she would work for a "clear position" from the EU. Yet, in a ringing speech, that was far from saying she'd press for EU-only sanctions that would escape Russia and China's watering down of measures coming out of the United Nations Security Council. Germany, in fact, was never mentioned last year by the United States when it talked about putting together an ad hoc coalition of countries willing to levy truly punitive sanctions. The group included France, Britain, Japan, Korea and Dubai. So what's left in terms of action? When Merkel was asked in Israel to further define what she now calls (in addition to that of Germany) Europe's responsibility in the Middle East, her answer came up a bit short of the rest of the rhetoric. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that she said, "On that score, we musn't overreach." France, on board earlier as an advocate of tough, new ad hoc sanctions in 2007, has not publicly come back to them since. Neither have the French, after an announcement last year, said anything more about installing a small naval base, facing Iran, in Abu Dhabi. It's a curious aspect of a relationship often described as contradictory, that Merkel and Sarkozy, if unspoken rivals for leadership in Europe, are offering verbal guarantees to Israel almost in concert. In these exceptional circumstances –– existential promises given by France and Germany to the Jewish state without obvious caveats allowing for tactical retreat –– it's probably reasonable for the world to regard them with seriousness. The problem is not knowing just how much. Gabrielle Goldwater lives in Switzerland. Contact her at III44@aol.com To Go To Top

PICTURES OF JERUSALEM IN 1912 Posted by Avodah, March 25, 2008.

This appeared today on the IsraellyCool.com website (http://www.israellycool.com/2008/03/25/weeds/) and was called "Weeds." It was cross-posted on the Elder of Ziyon website (http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2008/03/weeds.html).

In 1901, Dwight L. Elmendorf set out to visit Palestine and document it with photographs (his "only weapon," as he put it.) He published the pictures in a 1912 book called A Camera Crusade Through the Holy Land. The photographs are quite good, but two are of particular interest. The first is of the "Mosque of Omar," the Dome of the Rock: And another is of the "Wailing Place of the Jews": Notice the huge amount of weeds poking through the stones in the "third holiest place in Islam." It is desolate, and it looks like it was rarely visited. Compare the floor of the Temple Mount –– where Jews wouldn't visit because of its holiness –– with the smooth floor in front of the Kotel. In 1901, it was clear which people venerated Jerusalem and which people ignored it. To Go To Top

OBAMA'S "TYPICAL WHITE PERSON" –– OUGHT OH! Posted by Sharon Hughes, March 25, 2008.

Obama wants a serious discussion on race, so let's talk about it.

Has Barack Obama been caught showing a prejudiced mentality? Just how much has his controversial pastor impacted him after all? Obama's 'typical white person' slip, which has the internet and media buzzing, came when he 'clarified' his comments to a Philadelphia radio host on Thursday regarding the following statement he made earlier this week, during his national press conference which was called to 'clarify' his pastor's racist and other inflammatory comments: "I can no more disown [Pastor Jeremiah Wright] than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother –– a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe." Ought Oh! So he tried to clarify his own statement to 610 WIP host Angelo Cataldi yesterday: "The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person, who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, you know, there's a reaction that's been bred in our experiences that don't go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way, and that's just the nature of race in our society." Double Ought Oh! So then he sat down on the Larry King Live show last night to 'clarify' himself again: "What I meant really was that some of the fears of street crime and some of the stereotypes that go along with that, you know, were responses that I think many people feel. She's not extraordinary in that regard. She's somebody who I love as much as anybody. I mean, she has literally helped to raise me. But those are fears that are embedded in our culture and embedded in our society. And, you know, even within our own families, even within a family like mine that is diverse, you know, there are those gaps in understanding or the stereotypes that are fed by the news media and fed by what we see around us and, you know, in our popular culture." Okay, so there may be a family member in our families who is prejudiced in some manner. But, as someone running for the President of the United States –– as a 'uniter' not divider –– someone who is trying to dodge the racist, anti-Semetic, anti-American statements of his controversial pastor...do his 'clarifiying' statements show good judgement? The kind a wise President would make? Are they prejudice-free? Imagine John McCain or Hillary Clinton saying "typical black person". You know, there are alot of 'typical white' people who are color-blind who would love to see an African-American as president. I would. But, not one who hasn't got their own racist issues settled. The President of the U.S. has to be the president of all the people, without prejudice, period. I'd love to see a woman as President also. But, whether male or female, white or black, red or yellow, or polka-dot...more than anything I want to see a true American patriot...one who loves this country, who believes in our Constitution and founding principles, and esteems all people equally regardless of race, color, religion...for President of the United States. It's possible. We've had them before. And I believe we can have them again. What do you use to scrutinize candidates –– How they make you feel? Or what they truly stand for? Editor's Note: Ted Belman, editor of Israpundit (tedbel1@israpundit.com) has also compiled facts about Senator Obama at http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=579, including this one: On Feb 15/08, Usama K. Dakdok, President of The Straight Way of Grace Ministry called Obama's Church and reported the conversation: "I then asked the person who answered what I needed to do to join. She told me that I needed to attend two Sunday School classes in a row and then I would walk the aisle. I replied, "That sounds easy. One last question please. If I am Muslim and i believe in Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him and i also believe in Jesus, peace be upon him, do i have to give up my Islamic Faith to be a member in your Church?" She answered, "No. We have many Muslim members in our Church." "Your church has done great harm to this country by covering a wolf in sheep's clothing and that wolf is Senator Barak Hussein Obama." Sharon Hughes is Founder and President of The Center for Changing Worldviews and a radio talk show host on KDIA in San Francisco, NPLR, RIGHTALK.com, and online at Salem Web Network's Oneplace.com. Her articles appear in many recognized news sites. Contact: sharon@changingworldviews.com To Go To Top

MANUFACTURING MYTHS Posted by Yuval Zaliouk, March 25, 2008.

Dear friends, There are two myths perpetrated on Israelis and the world by defeatist elements in the Israeli society: 1) Israelis are tired of fighting for their defense. BACK IN June 2005, then vice premier Ehud Olmert gave an American audience his opinion of the Israeli people. "We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies," he whined. 2) Arabs have the demographic edge over Israel's Jewish population. Both are either wrong or grossly misleading and contain more leftist propaganda than factual reality. Anyone suggesting that Jews are doomed to become a minority west of the Jordan River is either grossly mistaken or outrageously misleading. Demography constitutes a strategic asset, not a liability. Demographic concerns should be countered by demographic means such as birth incentives and Aliya (immigration), not by withdrawals from lands belonging to us. Following, the "Tired of Fighting" myth is rebutted by Caroline Glick in an article called "The New Guardians of Israel". It appeared in today's Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1205420766461&pagename= JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull. [The article by Zimmerman and Wise rebutting the demography falsehood is in the blog item just below this one.] Your Truth Provider, Yuval.

Moshav Tzipori, in the Lower Galilee, is a microcosm of the history of the Land of Israel. A regional capital under King Herod, Tzipori was the seat of Jewish learning and the preservation of the Torah through some of the most tumultuous periods of Jewish history. After the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, refugees from Jerusalem fled to the Galilean town. Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi, who presided over the writing of the Mishna, or oral law, moved to Tzipori from Beit Shearim, and it was there that he codified the six books of the Mishna and died. The Jews of Tzipori revolted against the Roman Emperor Constantine, refusing to accept Christianity and the city was destroyed. The Jews later returned during the Islamic period. On and off, for the next millennia, Jews settled, were forcibly removed and resettled the city several times under various conquerors of Israel. During the 1948 War of Independence, the ancient city was the site of a major battle between the new Israel Defense Force and the neighboring Arab villages assisted by invading forces from Syria and Lebanon. The Arabs were routed. In 1949, Moshav Tzipori was founded.   LAST FRIDAY afternoon, the struggle for Jewish control of Tzipori, the Galilee and the Land of Israel as a whole continued on the ancient ground. On that quiet afternoon of Purim, under the blistering sun, three horses stood happily grazing in a field of shrubs and grasses. The only problem with the otherwise pastoral scene was that the horses belong to Arab squatters from the Kablawi clan. In recent years, the Kablawis have built themselves an illegal village of some 20 houses masquerading as storage containers on stolen Jewish National Fund land adjacent to Tzipori's fields. The horses, who entered through a hole cut into the field's fence, pranced about and ate, destroying the field that was painstakingly cultivated for the moshav's cattle herds. The farmers and ranchers of the Galilee, like their counterparts in the Negev are at wits' end. Fearing Arab riots or political condemnation by the Israeli Left, Arab leaders, the Islamic Movement and their allies abroad, the police and the state prosecutors have simply stopped enforcing the laws against the Galilee and Negev Arabs. Surrounded by increasingly hostile and lawless Arab and Beduin villages, local Jews' livestock and crops are continuously plundered. They are faced with three equally unacceptable options for contending with this state of affairs. They can do nothing and let their livelihood and lives' work be destroyed. They can pay protection money to Arab criminal gangs, who in exchange agree not to rob them. Or they can try to sell off their lands and abandon agriculture altogether. The obvious recourse –– filing a complaint with the police –– is an exercise in futility. Thousands of complaints are filed each year. Almost none of them end in indictments or trials. Most of the files are closed by the police due to "lack of public interest."   ON FRIDAY, the field in question belonged to a cattle rancher named Haim Z. Over the past few years, Haim has filed more than 250 complaints against local Arabs from the Kablawi family and from neighboring Arab villages like the Islamist stronghold Mashad with the police. None have ever gone anywhere. Last year, a helpful police officer recommended that Haim simply start paying protection money. Last year Haim told his son that he had had it. The son of the moshav's founding generation, Haim said that he just couldn't go on anymore. The state's refusal to protect Jewish property rights had forced him to devote all of his energies to playing cat and mouse games with Arab poachers. He couldn't invest in his herd. He couldn't develop his land. All he could do was sit by and watch as year in and year out, his lands were plundered, his cattle stolen and the work of his life and his father's life was destroyed.   HIS SON, a 23 year old soldier in one of the IDF's elite commando units decided that it was up to him not only to save his father's farm, but to stem the tide of Arab infringement on Jewish land and property rights. Due to his position in the IDF, his name is classified. We'll call him J –– for Jew. In response to his father's desperation, J. took a storage container to a hilltop that overlooks Tzipori's fields, the surrounding Arab villages and the access routes to the moshav's fields. He placed a sofa, a bookshelf full of Jewish history books, religious texts and philosophy classics, and canned food inside and moved in during his furloughs from the army. Rather than hang out with his friends, he began standing guard. He confronted every Arab he caught infiltrating the moshav's fields, and both filed complaints with the police and chased them away. Given his impossible schedule, J. enlisted his friends to help out. The sons of other desperate farmers, who also serve in combat units, they joined him enthusiastically. Within months, J. had set up an organization of more than a hundred young volunteers –– soldiers, college students, and high school students from his moshav, other moshavim in the lower Galilee and surrounding non-agricultural communities. He called the organization, Hashomer Hayisraeli Hahadash –– or the New Israeli Guardsmen. The original Hashomer, or Guardsmen was established in the Galilee in 1909 for the same purpose –– protecting Jewish farming communities from Arab marauders who demanded protection money from the farmers. It was the progenitor of the Haganah, which in turn, became the Israel Defense Force. As J. puts it, "We're not simply a security service. We see ourselves as a new movement. Our activities rest on three foundations: securing the land, expanding our operations throughout the Galilee and the Negev, and teaching Zionist and Jewish values to our members, our communities and the general public."   TZIPORI, ONE of the stops of the Cross Israel Hiking Trail, is a popular destination for school groups, youth groups and just regular hikers. J. has organized visits to his guard post for thousands of hikers over the past year. During their visits the hikers listen to lectures about the New Guardsmen, about the Jewish history of the Galilee and the development of agriculture in the area, and topics of general interest provided by local residents, politicians and professors. Friday afternoon, after noticing another encroachment on his father's field, J. called the police at the Nazareth police station. Joined by two of his fellow guardsmen, who are also sons of farmers and soldiers in commando units, they waited in the sun for over an hour for the police to arrive and planned their moves. They approached the horses with reins and bits. "We will seize the horses and bring them back to our stable. If the Kablawis pay the damages, then I'll give them back, if not, I'll sell them," J. explained. As the young men approached the horses, Yasser Kablawi, the head of the clan appeared. According to Haim, over the past year, the Kablawis have trampled his fields with their animals on more than 20 occasions. Haim, who arrived at the scene some 10 minutes before the police made their grand appearance turned toward Kablawi and said, "Why are you doing this?" "This land belongs to the JNF, not to you," Kablawi said. "Why are you lying? I sat in your home with the JNF inspector months ago, and he told you straight that this is my land. You know you are stealing from me, and you're doing it while you're illegally squatting on JNF land. You've caused me tens of thousands of shekels in damages by trampling my fields today alone, and you know it." By the time the police arrived, J. and his friends had roped one of the horses. Kablawi was joined by three grandsons and four sons. J. was joined by another seven Guardsmen. It was a standoff.   THE POLICE, who were informed of the presence of a journalist at the scene, acted with some resolution. After speaking with the JNF inspector, they explained to Kablawi that he could either sign a statement acknowledging that the land belongs to Haim and that he would be arrested if he trespassed again, or they would allow Haim to seize his horses. Kablawi signed. J.'s activism is not just a personal quest to save his father from economic ruin. "If it were just about me and my family, my brother and I could take care of the thieves. They'd leave us alone. But then they'd just move on to our neighbors. It isn't about one family. This is a question of control over the land of Israel. The state is weak. We need to be strong if we want to remain here." Last month, J. registered the Guardsman as a non-profit organization. He has a grand vision for the future. "In the space of just a few months, I have brought in thousands of people, exposed them to our mission. I have more than a 100 volunteer guards. We have reduced theft by 80 percent. "I want to raise money to buy night vision goggles and some all terrain vehicles to do proper patrols. I'd like to be able to give students scholarships so that they can guard and study at the same time. I've been in touch with farmers and ranchers in the Negev and they are anxious for us to expand to the south. I believe that within five years, the Guardsmen can end the protection rackets."   BACK IN June 2005, then vice premier Ehud Olmert gave an American audience his opinion of the Israeli people. "We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies," he whined. Young people like J. and his colleagues, secular, yet deeply rooted Jewish sons and daughters of Galilee and Negev farmers, like their religious friends prove everyday that Olmert was not speaking for his countrymen. Whatever messes Olmert and his colleagues in the government still manage to make before they are finally thrown from office, it is absolutely clear that these young people and millions like them are willing and able to clean them up for themselves, their countrymen, and for the next generation of Jews in the land of Israel. [Editor's Note: Emanuel Winston writes: "Many have written to ask how to send money for The New Guardians of Israel. The best way to contribute to any of the many deserving and needy groups who are trying to defend themselves and other Jews who are being persecuted or attacked in Israel is to Send a 501-C3 tax-deductible contribution to: THE CENTRAL FUND FOR ISRAEL, attn: Hadassah Marcus, 980 6th Avenue 3rd Floor, New York, NY. 10018. MEMO INFO: for "Hashomer Hayisraeli Hahadash" –– or the "New Israeli Guardsmen". BE SURE TO MARK IN THE MEMO the name of the organization. There are many other urgent needs in Israel. When you are so moved, send your contribution to THE CENTRAL FUND FOR ISRAEL, and mark the memo for the NEED you wish to assist. All monies –– every penny –– is sent quickly & efficiently to those in need.] Yuval Zaliouk writes the Truth Provider columns. To subscribe, send an email to ynz@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

458,000 PALESTINIAN IMMIGRANTS HAVE NEVER ARRIVED, BUT ARE COUNTED! Posted by Yoram Ettinger, March 25, 2008.

"Over an 11-year period the Palestinian Census Bureau estimated 560,000 more births than recorded by the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health. Furthermore, a simple fact check at the United Nations website revealed that fertility rates ranked 20th for the Gaza Strip and 50th for the West Bank." Enclosed you'll find a Spring 2008 OpEd, by Bennett Zimmerman and Michael Wise, published by "inFocus" quarterly of the Washington, DC-based "Jewish Policy Center" (http://www.jewishpo licycenter. org/article/ 111). Bennett and Michael are members of the Zimmerman-led the "American-Israel Demographic Research Group" (AIDRG), which has published a groundbreaking study on Jewish and Arab demography. The study documents a shift from Arab to Jewish demographic momentum. It replaces groundless fatalism with reality-based optimism, contributing to Israel's national security, Aliya, tourism and overseas investments, and upgrading the state of mind of Israel's supporters (http://www.biu. ac.il/SOC/ besa/MSPS65. pdf). Anyone suggesting that Jews are doomed to become a minority west of the Jordan River is either grossly mistaken or outrageously misleading. Demography constitutes a strategic asset, not a liability.

In an historic and pivotal speech before the Knesset in May 2003, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon shocked his nation by announcing that Israel would withdraw from the Gaza Strip and large parts of the West Bank to demographically defendable lines in light of forecasts that Israeli Jews would soon lose their majority west of the Jordan River. This was a striking turnabout for Sharon, who had established his reputation as a security hawk, and was widely considered to be the father of Israel's settlement movement. After decades of backing the settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the former general was convinced that Israeli control in the disputed territories would soon force Israel to choose between its Jewish character and its vibrant democracy. Subsequent Israeli policy has been built upon the same premise. Israel's current Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, continues to believe that Jews will soon be outnumbered in their own land. This has been an important rationale for the renewed land-for-peace negotiations with the Fatah-backed Palestinian Authority in which Israel is considering painful concessions that may impact its long-term security. However, the forecasts, based largely upon numbers provided by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), are wrong. The New Palestinian Census of 2007 The newest Palestinian census, released in February 2008, reported that there are now 3.71 million persons living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. However, this figure includes persons living overseas, persons twice counted, and projections that have spooked successive Israeli governments in recent years. According to corroborative reports gathered from the PCBS, other Palestinian Agencies, Israeli authorities, and third parties, the recent Palestinian census numbers themselves are still inflated by as many as 1 million persons. After removing twice-counted persons and individuals not currently living in the territories, the population of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip totals no more than 2.7 million people. Original Sin: The Palestinian Census of 1997 The current PCBS data is wrong because it does it not reflect corrections the PCBS itself noted in its original census of 1997. That census included Palestinians who had left over the years, but who were issued identification cards during Israel's Civil Administration. According to the Oslo Accords, these persons had preferential rights to return to the territories. However, the PCBS included these individuals in their figures even if they were absent for decades. Using this data, the PCBS arrived at a faulty estimate for the West Bank and Gaza population totaling 2.8 million persons. International supervision, however, required the PCBS to define the methodology that helped it arrive at its final numbers. Once it was understood that the PCBS augmented its numbers by including 325,258 residents living abroad, and 210,000 Jerusalem Arabs already counted by Israel, it was clear that the PCBS 1997 Census should have totaled 2.2 million persons. This number essentially confirmed Israel's estimated figure of 2.1 million persons living in the territories, based upon school records, the re-issuance of identification cards, and Israel Border Police records. Curiously, the Israeli government did not adopt the adjusted figures. Rather, successive Israeli governments worked with the faulty data first provided by the PCBS. Projecting an Expanded Population Successive Israeli governments also accepted at face value other faulty data produced by the PCBS, including projections for a rapidly-expanding population base. Not only were the projections based upon the incorrect numbers furnished in the 1997 PCBS census, but they were also based upon inaccurate projections of growth for non-residents, as well. For one, the PCBS harbored incorrect assumptions about population projection. The overall growth projections became so great that the West Bank and Gaza Strip were commonly described as experiencing "the highest birth rates in the world." However, a recent World Bank report noted declining student enrollment, as did annual reports of the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Education. These, in turn, confirmed lower birth levels as recorded by the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health. Over an 11-year period, however, the Palestinian Census Bureau estimated 560,000 more births than recorded by the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health. Furthermore, a simple fact check at the United Nations website revealed that fertility rates ranked 20th for the Gaza Strip and 50th for the West Bank. An American University of Beirut study also corroborates a significant decline in Palestinian fertility levels, especially in the West Bank, based on extensive and large-scale household interviews and registration records of births (including overseas residents). There were also wrong projections for immigration. While Israeli border records indicated that the territories were experiencing net emigration between 10,000 and 20,000 persons each year, the PCBS figures included a 1.5 percent growth rate each year for non-existent immigration. In fact, over an 11-year period, the PCBS included in their projections 458,000 immigrants who did not arrive, and failed to remove from the PCBS projection 170,000 emigrants. Nor did the PCBS remove the 105,000 Palestinians who officially moved to Israel. The PCBS defended these faulty numbers with arguments about the "right of return" for those who had been abroad for years. This only underscored the lack of professional standards employed. Israel, for example, regularly subtracts residents who leave the country for a period of one year from its population count. It only adds them again when they reestablish residency. The most recent Palestinian census also raised a red flag when it counted 208,000 Arabs living in Jerusalem. Israel currently reports that 254,000 Arabs live in Jerusalem. The discrepancy suggests that the PCBS calculated 46,000 Jerusalem Arabs living in adjacent West Bank suburbs. If so, those residents may have been counted twice; once by the PCBS census excluding Jerusalem and once by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS). Shifting Demographic Momentum Today, in Israel, there are 5.7 million Jews and 1.45 million Arabs, with another 1.5 million Arabs living in the West Bank. With the Gaza Strip fenced off and separated from Israel, Jews now enjoy a 2 to 1 majority in Israel and the West Bank. The demographic momentum has also recently shifted. Since 2000, Jewish fertility and immigration have been above, and Israel Arab fertility has plummeted below, all scenarios considered by Israel's demographers and the ICBS. Specifically, Jewish births have grown by 40 percent since 1995, while total Arab births have fallen back to decade-ago levels throughout Israel and the West Bank. Large segments of the Orthodox Jewish population display the highest fertility rate at 4.8 births per woman, followed by Arab groups at 3.5 births per woman, while the large secular and traditional Jewish majority displays rising fertility rates of 2.2 births per woman. The latter group has become the determinant factor propelling Jews beyond the modest expectations set by Israeli demographers. Moderate but persistent net Aliyah (new Jewish immigration minus emigration plus returning Israelis) at current levels of 20,000 per year are sufficient to keep Israel's Jewish majority steady until 2025, when the current Jewish baby boomers begin to have children. The bottom-line shows Jews holding a strong demographic advantage today in Israel and the West Bank, exclusive of the Gaza Strip. Establishing Defendable Political Borders Israel's strong Jewish majority should be considered an historic 120-year achievement of modern Zionism, and not an advantage to be traded away. Only one scenario exists by which Jews can lose their strong position: open Arab migration into the West Bank. Israel must not allow a situation whereby West Bank Arabs link up politically with Arab populations beyond the Jordan River. In this scenario, Israel could face a renewed demographic challenge. West Bank Arabs currently encompass only 16 percent of the total population in Israel and the West Bank. The Jewish state can thus weigh its options on how to deal with this territory. It need not tolerate strategic Arab threats against her democracy based on false projections. Armed with false figures, Israel's political leaders could make needless concessions while negotiating Israel's final borders. Armed with correct ones, Israel has an opportunity to confirm and protect the strategic demographic advantage it enjoys today in Israel and the West Bank. The correct numbers, and not dramatic claims of a "demographic time bomb" that have so thoroughly terrified Israeli leaders for more than a decade, should provide a firm foundation for Israel to create solutions for peace and security from a position of strength. Ambassador Yoram Ettinger is a consultant on US-Israel relations as well as the Chairman of Special Projects at the Ariel Center for Policy Research. Formerly the Minister for Congressional Affairs to Israel's Embassy in Washington, DC, Ettinger also served as Consul General of Israel to the Southwestern US. He is a former editor of Contemporary Mideast Backgrounder, and is the author of the Jerusalem Cloakroom series of reports. Contact him at yoramtex@netvision.net.il To Go To Top

FROM ISRAEL: CONCESSIONS FOR CONDI Posted by Arlene Kushner, March 25, 2008.

Yesterday I wrote about concessions to the PA that Barak was eager to make before the arrival of Secretary of State Rice next week. Today we have news of more of the same. Barak has now decided that he will permit 600 PA police officers into Jenin. They will be responsible for maintaining law and order during the day, while the IDF will retain security control and will operate at night. Barak explained that "It is clear to us all that we must exhaust all possible ways of assisting the negotiations with the Palestinians. We must ease restrictions on the Palestinians whenever it does not conflict with defense, even at the price of a calculated risk." Responded MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud), "The defense minister, who is being guarded and secured 24 hours a day, is putting the citizens' safety at risk." His point is well taken: it's easy for Barak to talk about risks to others. In truth I'm not certain how much risk this entails. Not if the IDF is still on the scene, still responsible for security, and able to operate against terrorists every night. The Palestinian police, who are being trained in Jordan, will be responsible for stopping hooligans from harassing people on the street, preventing the illegal shooting of guns, and the like. What MK Edelstein is referring to, however, is not the failure of PA police to stop terrorism, but their complicity in terrorism: "...one can ask the Zoldan family, the Rubin family and the Amichai family, which turned into victims following the murders of their sons in recent months by PA policemen." What infuriates me is the entire notion that we "must" do everything possible to assist the negotiations, even if it comes with a risk to Israeli citizens. Says who? ~~~~~~~~~~ A little bit more "wait and see" may be necessary, but right now the prospects for that reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah is looking dim. The stumbling block is Hamas's unwillingness to give back Gaza. Whatever happens, however, I wish to make one exceedingly important point: Abbas was willing. His stipulation involved a matter only of his party's power and control. Be aware that he never stipulated that Hamas had to agree to negotiations, to a two-state solution, or to a renunciation of terrorism. He is on the record as saying he has never asked Hamas to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Had Abbas gotten Gaza, he would have merged both government agencies and security forces with Hamas. And this tells us a great deal about Abbas. ~~~~~~~~~~ The Syrians were supposed to be holding a major Arab summit in Damascus next week. But the Saudis have announced that they won't be attending, and several other Arab states are likely to follow his example. Syria now finds itself out of favor with many Arab leaders because of its ties to a much feared Iran. There is speculation that the summit may even be called off. ~~~~~~~~~~ At the same time, Abdullah, the very same Saudi king who decided to stay away from Damascus, has also decided to hold an interfaith conference that would have the theme of "respect among the religions." "I invite representatives of all the monotheistic religions to meet with their brothers in faith," he said. "With God's help we will meet our brethren from other religions, including those who believe in the Torah and in the Gospel, in order to find ways to defend humanity." Huh? Please understand: Saudi Arabia is one of the most religiously repressive and intolerant of nations. Jews aren't allowed in, and there has been a ban on the building of churches. The report of this announcement explains that Abdullah is concerned with decreasing morality, and problems such as the disintegration of the family. But I wonder how there might be "disintegration of the family" in a country where women are not allowed out of the house except in the company of a male relative. Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi may have enthused that "Our hands are extended to any peace initiative and to any dialogue that will bring about an end to terrorism and violence. I have said on numerous occasions that the true path to the peace that we long for is through interfaith dialogue." But I'm not ready to go there yet, and can only wonder what the hidden agenda is. ~~~~~~~~~~ I strongly recommend "U.S. Aid for Terror," by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen: "The CIA has apparently assumed the Palestinian terrorist-training role previously held by the former Soviet Union. Since 1994, the CIA armed and trained thousands of Palestinian 'security forces,' who subsequently joined every Palestinian terrorist organization. "CIA Palestinian training success is best described by a member of the PA's Chairman own security unit, Force 17, officer Abu Yusef: 'The operations of the Palestinian resistance would [not] have been so successful and 'would not have killed more than 1,000 Israelis since 2000, and defeated the Israelis in Gaza without [American military] trainings,' he boasted in August 2007... The PA received 'the highest per capita aid transfer in the history of foreign aid anywhere,' according to former World Bank country director for Gaza and the West Bank, Nigel Roberts. Not surprisingly, hundreds of thousands of Gazans spent more than $300 million in less than two weeks shopping spree, after Hamas blew up the border with Egypt. Yet, the Palestinian economy is in ruins, Why? In March 2007, PA Prime Minister and former World Bank official Salam Fayyad, told London's Daily Telegraph : 'No one can give donors that assurance' that funds reach their designated destinations. 'Where is all of the transparency in all of this? It's gone.' Controlling Palestinian finances, Fayyad concluded, is 'virtually impossible.' Palestinian violence has escalated since the 1994 PA establishment and PA officials have produced an unbroken record of unfulfilled promises and outright deception. Yet President George W. Bush in his January 28 State of the Union Address, reassured the Palestinians that 'America will do, and I will do, everything we can to help them achieve...a Palestinian state by the end of this year.'" http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID= 1F448DBE-1921-4399-AE0D-686FCD4C378F Americans, are you really furious yet? Contact Arlene Kushner at akushner@netvision.net.il and visit her website: www.ArlenefromIsrael.info To Go To Top

POLICE AND PRISON AUTHORITIES MISTREAT YOUNG JEWISH GIRLS Posted by Avodah, March 25, 2008.

"Police later admitted to a Jerusalem magistrate that there was no reason for the arrest of the girls." This article was written by Elli Rodan, editor of IsraeliJustice.com; it appeared today in http://www.israeljustice.com/news2.asp?key=116

JERUSALEM –– For the young Jewish girl, Z., her night in jail was an experience she never learned in school. Arrested at an anti-government demonstration, the Jewish teenager learned first-hand that the harsh policy of the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert against Jewish dissent. In treatment that jurists deemed harsher than that for alleged violent criminals, Z. and her friends were denied food, water and medical treatment and thrown into horrible conditions. "They [police] took me to the jail in the Russian Compound [in Jerusalem] and I waited with the other two girls in a very small room with bars on the window," Z. said. "After a long wait, they took me for a body search." Z. recounted that she spent much of the night being shunted back and forth between the police station and the jail. "Then they put me in a room while they looked for a holding cell with an old blanket and a mattress," Z. said. "Then they put me in a cell with two other girls and an old woman. She smoked all the time and I couldn't breathe." Z.'s account has been verified by the Israel Bar Association. In a report by the Prisons Service Committee of the Israel Bar Association, the conditions in which Z. and four girls arrested with her were held were deemed "inhumane." The conditions of their imprisonment are "harsh, inhumane and illegal," the report said. The report said that police and prison guards had conditioned food, water and medical attention on the minors agreeing to identify themselves. "Medical attention and food and water were conditioned on the disclosure of the girls' identities," the report said. "Such conditions are baseless and are a serious violation of their rights." The report also detailed how the girls were given "stinky, soiled, military blankets" and they shared a cell with an adult woman who was a chain smoke. The cell "was full of cigarette smoke and had no ventilation aperture," the report said. The five girls, ranging in age from 14 to 17, were arrested on March 16 at the end of a demonstration on Jerusalem's Promenade, located in the East Talpiot neighborhood. The demonstration was in protest against the government's refusal to destroy the home in the adjoining neighborhood of Jabal Mukhaber of the Arab attacker, Ala Abu Dheim, who killed eight Jewish teenagers on March 6 in the Mercaz Harav seminary in Jerusalem. Witnesses said that most of the 22 people arrested at the demonstration were minors and were simply grabbed by police. Z. said they were given some bread and water during the night but prison wardens and police threatened them that food and water and medical attention would be withheld if they didn't identify themselves. "Early in the morning they woke us up to stand to attention and told us that we had to go to court," Z. said. "I sat there waiting for them but they didn't come and at 10.00 am they gave us two slices of bread and a cucumber." Z., who had sustained injuries during the demonstration, complained to prison guards that she was feeling sick but was denied medical treatment. "I was sick so I asked for tea from the prison guard, Z. said. "He told me there weren't any cups so he gave me tea in the cup belonging to the old woman in the cell and she was angry with me." Z. said that prison guards assured her that she would be able to see the doctor but then said he was unavailable. . "We were supposed to see the doctor and he would be able to get me a cup of tea," Z. said, "but they [prison wardens] told me that he wasn't available." Z. said that they were given stale pasta but later forced to eat with their hands. "Then they [prison guards] gave us some old yellow spaghetti to eat," Z. said. "Then a female prison guard said that if we didn't identify ourselves, we wouldn't get any more food to eat. After we finished eating we threw out our plastic spoons." Z. said that the situation improved after two attorneys from the Israel Bar Association spoke with the girls. "Then the two lawyers came and they [prison guards] gave us some more food," Z. said. "We asked for more spoons but the prison warden told us that we had thrown out our spoons and now would have to eat with our hands." Police can hold people for up to 24 hours before bringing them before a judge to extend their remand and Z. was released 20 hours after her arrest. "Then they called me to sign the agreement and put me in a closed room and shut the window slit," Z. said. "I waited for hours for someone to get me out." Police later admitted to a Jerusalem magistrate that there was no reason for the arrest of the girls. The Prison Services Committee, headed by attorney Michael Attiya, has recommended submitting the report to Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to correct the civil rights violations. Contact Avodah by email at Avodah15@aol.com To Go To Top

THE CHENEY MODEL Posted by UCI, March 25, 2008.

This was written by the Jerusalem Post staff and it appeared yesterday as an editorial.

US Vice President Richard Cheney is not known for making flamboyant speeches, but sometimes less is more. If the US had limited itself to the gist of what Cheney said in Jerusalem on Saturday night, and to elaborating in this same spirit, it is likely that the prospects for peace and moderation in this region would be substantially greater. Standing with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Cheney opened by noting Israel's 60th anniversary and calling "the state of Israel's rise out of the ashes of World War II... one of history's great miracles." He also found it remarkable that "Israel has survived these six decades, despite often violent assaults against its very existence." Then, in what was perhaps his key observation, Cheney noted that: "History has clearly shown that when encountered by Arab partners like Anwar Sadat and the late King Hussein of Jordan, who accepted Israel's permanence, and are willing and capable of delivering on their commitments, Israelis are prepared to make wrenching national sacrifices on behalf of peace. I have no doubt this is equally the case with Palestinians." Much of this may seem so basic as to be banal. But the pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace is not really built on these basic premises, even as practiced most of the time by the US, let alone Europe and the United Nations. There are, it should be understood, two basic models for looking at the conflict, each of which leads to different policy approaches. The standard model is that Arabs and Israelis have been fighting for years and that blame for perpetuation of the conflict lies with both sides, or perhaps mainly with Israel, since Israel is the "occupying power" and the Palestinians are seeking independence within land held by Israel. The second model is almost nonexistent in diplomatic circles but was instinctively expressed by Cheney and is taken as axiomatic by the many Americans who sympathize with Israel. This model holds that the Arab world opposed Israel's creation, tried many times to destroy Israel, and still has not come to terms with Israel's right to exist. It is this Arab rejection of Israel, not a supposed Israeli refusal to allow the creation of a Palestinian state, that is the true obstacle to peace. At first glance it may not seem like there is much practical difference between the two models. Both seem to be built on the idea that there should be two states in the sliver of land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The issue of how to apportion blame for the status quo can seem petty, or academic, or an irresolvable matter of opinion. But there is a greater practical difference than meets the eye. Indeed, a peace process built on the second model would look substantially different.   THE QUESTION, ESSENTIALLY, IS WHETHER THE CONFLICT IS ABOUT BORDERS OR EXISTENCE. If it is about borders, then it is a matter of pressing "both sides" to negotiate a deal. But if the heart of the matter is an Arab refusal to accept Israel in any borders, than the focus must be on compelling the Arab world to take that fundamental step. A peace process designed to produce Arab acceptance of Israel would start with simple statements of the problem. The US might state that: "Israel has accepted and seeks to implement the two-state solution. So the principal obstacle to peace is the remaining rejection among many Palestinians and within much of the Arab world of the legitimate national rights of the Jewish people to their own state, the State of Israel." The next important step would be to demand that the Arab states lead by example, rather than waiting for the divided and radicalized Palestinians to move first. Indeed, the Arab states are behind, in that Mahmoud Abbas routinely meets Israeli leaders, but the leaders of Saudi Arabia and other Arab states will not. The US could also start routinely stating that the demand of a "right of return" to Israel, rather than to a future state of Palestine alongside Israel, is tantamount to rejecting Israel's right to exist. This would help expose the double game of those who claim to accept Israel, yet push for Israel's demographic destruction with greater fervor in Arabic to their own people. American reticence on this may seem to help Abbas in the short run, but it is harmful to the cause of peace. UCI –– 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

LEARN ABOUT SHARIAH LAW, THE LAW WHICH MANDATED THE MURDER OF OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY ON 9-11 Posted by Hope Winters, March 24, 2008.

Dear Friends and Colleagues: I'm working in partnership with Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy on an important new campaign to alert Congress and the public about the rapid adoption of Sharia Law in the United States and Europe in the name of political correctness and petrodollar diplomacy. The 9-11 Jihadists who flew planes into towers were driven by Shariah Law and the mandate to kill "infidels who have invaded Arab lands". The violent reaction and embassy fires in response to the "Mohammad cartoons" are justified 100% by Shariah Law. Under Shariah law, a British schoolteacher who allowed her young students to name a teddy bear "Mohammad" was recently sentenced to 200 lashes. Muslims and non-Muslims all over the globe who do not submit to Shariah Law are facing intimidation and threats. Muslim women especially face terrible oppression under Shariah Law, the law imposed by the Taliban, the Saudis and Iran. In the name of "religious freedom", Shariah Law, a political doctrine in which state and church are one, is creeping across America. Prayer rooms and foot baths have been installed on several U.S. university campuses, in airports, even as nativity scenes or other Judeo-Christian symbols remain forbidden. There have been many incidents of Muslim taxi drivers throughout the U.S. refusing passengers carrying alcohol, and blind persons accompanied by Seeing Eye dogs. Calls of domestic violence by American Muslim girls and women are not being pursued with rigor because U.S. authorities feel trapped in a religious freedom quagmire. (Shariah Law allows for the beating, and even honor killing of disobedient wives and daughters.) British Common Law too is bending to Shariah law when 4 weeks ago, it was announced that multiple wives of polygamists can now receive social benefits. And now, Shariah Law is being embraced by Wall Street as a savior to its liquidity woes. Poor disclosure, weak transparency, donating profits to Islamic charities: Shariah Finance is sure to be the next sub-prime market disaster, but with a terror financing twist and threat to our very existence. We can accept Shariah law or we can resist it, but we can't sit this out. This Shariah Law Risk Due Diligence Newsletter provides free weekly summaries of important news on Shariah Law and Shariah-Compliant Finance. Take a stand. Please read this newsletter and pass it on to your friends. Please GO HERE to sign up to receive the free Sharia Law Risk Due Diligence Newsletter.

WHAT IS SHARIAH LAW? Understanding Shariah law is integral to understanding the dangers of Shariah-compliant finance. Shariah law is Islamic law dating back to the 9th century and is today the law of the land in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan and the law under which the Taliban operates. Recent polls reveal that only 10-15% of Muslims worldwide want to live under this all-encompassing system of Islamic jurisprudence that covers all aspects of a Muslim's life including religious, social, political, and military obligations. However, with a current population of 1.5 billion Muslims, this translates to a huge pool of Jihadist recruits and supporters –– a base of approximately 150-225 million Muslims. Shariah law authorities, some of whom are now being paid handsomely by Barclays, Dow Jones, Standard & Poors, HSBC, Citibank, Merrill Lynch, Deutschebank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Credit Suisse and others have the power to dictate Shariah compliance as deemed by "scholarly consensus" on matters of finance, family, penal law, apostasy, and war. Examples of authoritarian Shariah law include: requirement of women to obtain permission from husbands for daily freedoms; beating of disobedient woman and girls; execution of homosexuals; engagement of polygamy and forced child marriages; the testimony of four male witnesses to prove rape; honor killings of those, principally women, who have dishonored the family; death to apostate Muslims who chose to leave Islam; inferior status of non-Muslims, and capital punishment for those "slander Islam." FAQs –– ISLAMIC FINANCE –– WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: National Security and Financial Risks: Islamists are attempting to impose Shariah Compliant Finance (SCF) on Western institutions to use our own financial strengths against us. The most serious problem with SCF is that it legitimates and institutionalizes Shariah law (i.e., Islamic law), a theo-political-legal doctrine violently opposed to Western values. With $1-$2 trillion petrodollars annually looking for an investment home, blind exuberance is driving financial institutions to adopt SCF, without even a minimal baseline for legal compliance. This willful blindness, and lack of both transparency and due diligence may cause SCF to be the next sub-prime crisis, but this time with deadly consequences. Legal Risks: Western financial institutions which adopt SCF may have criminal and civil exposure to claims of aiding and abetting sedition and the material support of terrorism, securities fraud, consumer fraud, racketeering, and antitrust violations, as well as exposure to tort claims for sedition and terrorism, and for the violation of internationally recognized norms of the law of nations. Terror Financing Mechanism: SCF as monitored by paid Shariah law advisors to U.S. banking institutions must "purify" certain return on investment (ROI) dollars that do not meet Shariah law standards. This money must be donated to Islamic charities –– including some that promote Jihad and support suicide bombing. Investment disclosures state that these profits can be as high as 6% of profits of investments. With $800 billion already in SCF assets, the potential for billions of dollars to be siphoned off for terrorism is real. This would be a serious criminal violation of U.S. law. Consider this example: Shariah Mutual Funds promote themselves as "ethical funds." To be Shariah-compliant, they donate "tainted" revenues to Shariah-compliant "charities." A post 9-11 U.S. investor in a Shariah-compliant "ethical investment" is not told that Shariah law also requires imposing Shariah as U.S. law, execution of gays and female apartheid. Is he a victim of consumer fraud? Is this same post 9-11 investor unwittingly funding terror? The government has shut down the three largest Shariah-compliant charities in the U.S. –– the Holy Land Foundation, Benevolence International Foundation, and the Global Relief Foundation –– after proving they funded terrorist organizations. The American taxpayer deserves answers to these questions. The Center for Security Policy (CSP) is meeting directly with members of Congress, U.S. regulatory agencies and Wall Street financial institutions in order to ensure the enforcement of existing U.S. laws on sedition, disclosure, material support of terrorism, and money-laundering. CSP is committed to revealing the civil liability and criminal exposure of Shariah law and Shariah-compliant finance. These Frequently Asked Questions about SCF are updated monthly by the research team at the Shariah Risk Due Diligence Program. FAQ sources, detailed research papers and legal briefs are available on request. Contact Hope Winters at shariah@centerforsecuritypolicy.org t To Go To Top

STOP BUSH AND RICE. SAVE ISRAEL Posted by Doris Wise Montrose, March 24, 2008.

This was written by Anne Lieberman and posted on her website: http://bokertov.typepad.com/btb/

You never expected to see those words here, did you? Well I didn't either. I voted for George Bush and I thought he was the "best friend Israel ever had in the White House." I still think he is basically a decent man and I appreciate his efforts in the WVT –– war on various terrorists (not including the Palestinian ones). But today the Bush administration went too far in the wrong direction and I must oppose it somehow, with all my being. In his speech today, President Bush said, "Because we acted, Saddam's regime is no longer paying the families of suicide bombers in the Holy Land." Thank Gd and President Bush, he's right: Saddam is no longer paying the families of Palestinian Jew-murderers for killing Jews. But the United States IS. Thirteen days ago, Palestinians viciously slaughtered eight of our innocent sons inside the Merkaz HaRav yeshiva in the heart of what Bush calls "The Holy Land." And today President Bush is writing the Palestinians a check for $150 million dollars. Is this not terribly clear? Add in the fact that, when asked if they supported the murders of the yeshiva boys in particular, 84 %of Palestinians said yes. It's in the New York Times today. So let's get this completely straight. When Palestinians killed Jews, Saddam would pay their families as much as $25,000. We considered this to be evil and America opposed it... militarily. And Now? Less than two weeks ago, the Palestinians killed eight Jews –– with the support of 84% of their populace –– and today George Bush and Condi Rice and our Congress are giving them a gift? 150 million of our tax dollars? What is that, almost $20 million per dead Jewish boy? Or is it $250,000 per round of ammunition used? Western-backed Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said it was "the largest sum of assistance of any kind to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority by any donor in one trench since the Palestinian Authority's inception." Fayyad, who signed the agreement with U.S. Consul General Jake Walles, told reporters the U.S. contribution "was coming to us at a time of great need and it will help our efforts..." Walles said the United States had pledged $550 million at a donors' conference in Paris in December last year that would be allocated for budgetary support, development projects and humanitarian assistance. "We're going to continue to implement the other aspects of our pledge," Walles said. They're going to "continue to implement" this travesty? With 550 MILLION of our tax dollars? Oh no they're not. Jake Walles and Condi Rice and Salam Fayyad and Abu Mazen can call it whatever they like; Saddam probably thought he was in the business of "humanitarian assistance" too. But if it goes to the Palestinians while they're killing Jews in Israel, to me it's blood money, pure and simple. There is no question: I'd sooner let Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid divvy up the money for earmarks in America any day, than bear responsibility for further enabling the Palestinians to kill and maim our families and our children. With impunity. With American money, our money. I cannot imagine anything more horrific. If anyone can tell me how the U.S. is different from Saddam Hussein in this instance, speak now, because I'm ready to join with the opposition, the liberals who want to impeach Bush for their own reasons, in a desperate bid to bring attention to my own outrage, alarm and despair. I have cried, I have blogged, I have emailed and I have faxed... and nothing changes. Completely contrary to the majority's pro-Israel sentiment in this country, our federal government is barreling ahead, pouring money into Jew killers and trying to award them with a sovereign state. For WHAT? The buck stops here, boys and girls. What're you going to do about it? What CAN we do about it? Stop Bush and Rice Save Israel President George W. Bush Fax number: (202) 456-2461 Comment line: (202) 456-1111 Condoleezza Rice Fax number: (202) 647-2283 Comment line: (202) 647-6575 Doris Wise Montrose is a member of the Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, Los Angeles. Contact her at doris@cjhsla.org To Go To Top

FROM ISRAEL: FATAH AND HAMAS Posted by Arlene Kushner, March 24, 2008.

Well, here we are in the midst of an ever-changing scenario that has yet to play itself out. Officially, neither the US nor Israel has comment on the agreement signed by Fatah and Hamas yesterday in Yemen that commits them to working out their differences. I determined as much via calls to the US Embassy and US Consulate in Jerusalem, and to spokespersons for the prime minister and ministry of foreign affairs. But unofficially, it's another story. Most nauseating (and I use the word advisedly) was the reaction of Defense Minister Barak, as reported by Abu Toameh and others in the Post. Barak is said to be considering some "good will gestures" to show the PA that if they get too close to Hamas they risk "losing everything." What the Post article said was that: "[Israeli government] officials, who were skeptical that a declaration agreed upon in Yemen by Fatah and Hamas would actually bear any fruit, said that by agreeing to re-start a dialogue with Hamas, PA President Mahmoud Abbas might be signaling to Israel that if it didn't start acting to shore up his position, he had 'other options.'" If we didn't "start acting to shore up his position"??? Does this mean we are expected to cave on matters that impinge on Israeli security, in order to make Abbas look good, out of fear of what he might do if we fail to respond? There is a word for what Barak is contemplating: appeasement. The more the PA officials act perversely, the more we think we must provide for them. In such a scenario, the PA is calling the shots and we make ourselves fools. There is no notion of requiring demonstrable good faith of the PA before restrictions are relaxed. All of this, you understand, is being done with an eye towards Rice's arrival here next week. For it's not only the PA that our government rushes to appease, but also (and perhaps even more so) the US government. Barak is considering such things as a VIP lane at checkpoints and exempting businessmen who have received security clearances from getting checked at these points. A risky business in my opinion. Suffice it to say that there have been several occasions on which persons who have been deemed trustworthy turned out to be accomplices to terror activity. In fairness to Barak, he did say it's too soon to consider actually taking down checkpoints. ~~~~~~~~~~ Olmert for his part, is reported to have told Cheney that "the understandings between Hamas and Fatah are not the kind that requires any Israeli response." We will continue to negotiate with the PA, he said, but implementation of any agreement will depend on its ability to fight terror. Also perhaps words designed to satisfy the Americans. ~~~~~~~~~~ With all of this, at a different level, the message has also been passed to Abbas that if he returns to a unity government, negotiations are over. An Israeli official, speaking without authorization and thus anonymously, said, "The Fatah leadership has to make a choice. They can have a peace process and dialogue with Israel or a coalition with Hamas. But it's clear that you can't have them both." Unofficial messages from the US have been similar. ~~~~~~~~~~ And will there be a new Palestinian unity government? Well.. according to PA chief negotiator Ahmed Qurei, the agreement was signed as the result of a mix-up. He says that Azzam al-Ahmed, who headed the PA negotiating team in Yemen tried to call Abbas to get a final OK before signing, but Abbas was busy meeting with Cheney, so he went ahead and signed. A foolish and simplistic interpretation that perhaps signals a deeper disagreement or quandry. Al Jazeera reports that some Abbas advisors are claiming that al-Ahmed kept Abbas in the dark regarding the details of what he signed, but al-Ahmed insists that he didn't exceed his brief and had coordinated with Abbas's office before signing. So what is this about? We might say that Abbas is getting cold feet. But I would suggest another interpretation: that he's playing both ends against the middle, preparing to get into bed with Hamas while he acts as if this is not his intention at all. ~~~~~~~~~~ There is considerable indication that this agreement, while it is based on specific items, simply commits the parties to further talk. According to a PA statement, "Resumption of dialogue in the future must be to implement the Yemeni initiative in all its items and not to deal with the initiative as a framework for dialogue, because this will not yield an outcome." "The initiative in all its items" includes return to the situation in Gaza before the Hamas takeover. But then, the PA is not ready to change its situation in Judea and Samaria. While Hamas's position is that the agreement simply represents a guideline for talks, not pre-conditions at all. ~~~~~~~~~~ Let me here recommend a new piece by Barry Rubin, "Palestinian Politics: Onward and Downward." It provides a solid dose of much-needed realism. Says Rubin, Palestinian politics continues to reject moderation. (Emphasis added below) "Three factors fuel this trend. "First, Fatah and the PA continue to be corrupt, incompetent and incapable of self-reform. "Second, given the cult of violence and total victory dominating Palestinian political culture, Hamas is inevitably seen as heroic because it fights and rejects compromise... "Compromise is treason; moderation is cowardice. This is the daily fare of Palestinian ideology and politics, purveyed by leaders, clerics, media and schools... "Third, due to its own weakness and the strong political culture it never challenges, the current leadership cannot make peace. It knows, contrary to Western claims, that negotiating a political solution would destroy it, and acts accordingly... "Even so, Fatah is undergoing a radicalization process which may not displace Abbas, but will install his successor. Public opinion is also more extreme, with support for terrorism zooming upward. Fatah both heeds and feeds the trend... "We are now seeing the birth of a new Fatah all right, but not the one heralded by such people as former British prime minister Tony Blair or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It is rather an even more extremist version, coming from those who wield guns, not pens, namely the Aksa Brigades. Contrary to much reportage, this is not an 'offshoot' but an essential part of Fatah... "The Brigades demand Fayyad's firing and replacement by 'a new government that would not abandon the armed struggle.' Like others in the Fatah leadership, its strategy is not to fight but ally with Hamas. Despite Hamas's bloody expulsion of Fatah from Gaza, killing Israelis wipes out all sins in Palestinian politics... "The main thing keeping Fayyad in office is not honesty or moderation, but the fact that removing him would kiss good-bye to almost $7 billion in Western aid... "One reason why many W