Gaza raid prompts speculation that Israel plans wider operation


JERUSALEM, Oct. 7 (JTA) — A new Israeli military operation has many wondering if the army now has the Gaza Strip in its sights.

Israeli forces for months have been engaged in a massive anti-terror operation in the West Bank, but have not carried out such operations in Gaza.

Several reasons were given, including the argument that an incursion into the densely populated area would exact heavy Israeli casualties.

Israeli officials also said a security fence between Israel and Gaza was preventing terrorists from attacking Israeli targets.

In recent weeks, however, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke of the inevitability of military action in Gaza to root out the terrorist infrastructure there.

Following a series of Palestinian mortar and rocket attacks from Gaza, the army carried out a strike in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, early Monday.

At least 13 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 injured in the raid on a Hamas stronghold. At least two civilians were among the dead.

The Israeli army denied Palestinian claims that a military helicopter fired a missile at a crowd of civilians outside a mosque. The army said the missile was fired at armed Palestinians who were shooting and throwing grenades at Israeli soldiers.

During the operation, Israeli troops detained a Palestinian with a bomb and blew up a bag containing three mortars, Army Radio reported.

Palestinian officials denounced the strike as a massacre and called for international protection.

During clashes later in the area, eight people were wounded by Israeli fire directed at a Palestinian hospital. The army said it targeted the hospital after Palestinians fired from the facility at a nearby Israeli settlement.

Shortly after the military operation ended, Palestinians fired three mortars at an Israeli settlement in southern Gaza, but caused no injuries. A senior Hamas official called for revenge and urged all Palestinian groups to attack Israel.

Brig. Gen. Yisrael Ziv, the army commander in Gaza, told Army Radio the operation was “very important” because it made “clear to the other side that there is no place that constitutes a fortress against the Israel Defense Forces.”

Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said Israel was trying to disrupt a mission to the region by E.U.’s top diplomat, Javier Solana.

“Every time we see efforts to get the peace process back on track, the government of Israel commits new war crimes against innocent civilians,” the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot quoted Erekat as saying.

With the threat of more violence in the offing, and the United States asking Israel to avoid flare-ups that could distract attention from the U.S. campaign against Iraq, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres defended the operation.

“Israel tries to employ restraint, but it is committed to acting to prevent terrorist activity,” Peres told Army Radio.

source: [url]

Unfortunetely, these people are still breathing, Part II - The Magic Button

The other day I posted the below info on professors at Israeli universities who had signed the Harvard/MIT petition calling for a renewal of the Arab boycott of Israel - something Larry Summers, the president of Harvard, has labelled anti-Semitic in effect if not intention.

Well - if you click on the magic button, below, you can send them an email (well, only 4 out of 5, one seems to have changed his email (Farjoun)). Be creative with the text and expressing your views of their actions.

The Magic Button - Click and send mail now


Again, here is a list of professors in Israel who have signed the Harvard MIT petition to boycott Israel

Emmanuel Farjoun, MIT PhD in Math, now professor at Hebrew University
Yosef Grodzinsky, MIT Postdoc in Linguistics, now profssor at Tel Aviv University
Idan Landau, MIT PhD in Linguistics, now lecturer at Ben Gurion University
Tanya Reinhart, MIT PhD in Linguistics, now professor at Tel-Aviv University
Nomi Shir, MIT PhD in Linguistics, now professor at Ben Gurion University

Here is the petition they signed.

Ari Fleischer Is Mistaken--There Is Evidence Of Saudis Funding Palestinian Arab Terror

NEW YORK - Contrary to the recent claim by White House spokesman Ari Fleischer that there is no evidence of Saudi Arabian financial support for Palestinian Arab terrorism, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) points out that there is, in fact, considerable evidence that the Saudis are doing so.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: "The Bush administration's position is yet another example of its policy of appeasing regimes that harbor or sponsor terrorists, such as Syria, the Palestinian Authority, and Saudi Arabia."



* State Department condemned Saudis for rewarding terrorists' families:

The Saudi Arabian government provides cash payments of $5,333 to each family of any "martyr" who is killed while trying to murder Israelis, and a telethon on Saudi Arabian government-controlled television in April 2002 has been "raising money for the Palestinian uprising"--and it has raised $92-million so far. (New York Post, April 12, 2002; Washington Times, April 24, 2002.)

A press release posted on the official web site of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington reported that the Saudi government had provided financial support to "1,000 families of Palestinian martyrs" in the year 2000, and in March 2001, according to the web site, $33-million was set aside for this purpose. State Department spokesman Greg Sullivan told the Forward (March 22, 2002): "This is not going for assistance of an humanitarian nature. That's clearly in the avenue of encouraging terrorism...We've seen the same thing from Iran and Iraq, though I don't like putting the Saudis with those two."

On February 18, 2002, the Saudi Interior Minister, Nayef bin Abdul-aziz, published a notice in the official Palestinian Authority newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, offering instructions to the families on how to apply for their Saudi rewards. Documents captured by the Israeli forces from PA offices include a list of one group of beneficiaries-- "the relatives of eight Palestinian terrorist bombers, all of them specifically and explicitly singled out by Saudi bookkeepers for their participation in amaliah istishadiah: 'suicide operations'." (The Weekly Standard, May 20, 2002)

Additional documents captured by the Israelis include correspondence between PA officials and Saudi officials, in which Yasir Arafat complains about that Saudi aid "does not reach the Fatah, but is given to Hamas and radical Islamic groups associated with Hamas." (The Weekly Standard, May 27, 2002)



* Powell called Saudi subsidies to terrorists' families "a real problem":

On July 3, 2002, the official Saudi Press Agency "reported that the kingdom has transferred more than $500,000 to the PLO. The agency said this was the second remittance by the government-sponsored People's Committee for Assistance of Palestinian Fighters this year." Asked about the report, Secretary of State Colin Powell "did not deny Saudi financing to Palestinian insurgents...'With respect to payments to organizations such as Hamas and similar organizations, we have spoken to our Arab friends, and the president has made reference to this in his speech, that this kind of payment should stop,' Powell said. 'The Saudis would say that they are not giving it to an organization, they're giving it to individuals in need,' Powell said. 'Nevertheless, I think it's a real problem when you incentivize in any way suicide bombings.'" (Middle East Newsline, July 4, 2002)



* "Saudi Arabia supports Palestinian resistance":

"Saudi, Iraqi Money Relieve Palestinian Suffering" was the headline of an article in the July 4, 2002 edition of the pro-Arafat newspaper Jerusalem Times. It described how the Palestinian Authority channels funds from the Iraqi and Saudi Arabian governments to "the families of martyrs, whether they were armed fighters or civilians." The money is also given to families of imprisoned terrorists. The article reported that Ahmed Bahr, "president of the largest charitable organization in Gaza," as saying that he receives money from abroad, "including some from Saudi Arabia, and distributes it to orphans, the injured, prisoners, and needy families." The article also quoted Ahmed Al-Kurd, director of another such 'charity', the Islamic Rapprochement Organization, as saying that "Saudi Arabia has supported the Palestinian resistance for 54 years."


* Jaffee Center: Saudis support Hamas:

According to a study by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, at Tel Aviv University, "Hamas's organizational infrastructure is dependent on external sources of financing, mainly contributions to local Islamic associations from the Gulf states, primarily Saudi Arabia." No such associations could operate in Saudi Arabia without the approval of the Saudi government. (Anat Kurz and Nahman Tal, "Hamas: Radical Islam in a National Struggle," Jaffee Center Memorandum No. 48, July 1997, p. 20)



* Saudis fund Hamas missiles:

In the spring of 2002, U.S. troops in Sarajevo found, in the office of the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia and Herzegovina, "documents that proved Saudi funding of the Hamas terrorist group to enable it to produce a short-range missile called the 'Qassam.'" (New York Post, April 15, 2002)


* Saudis financed PLO terrorism:

During the peak of PLO terrorism, in the 1970s and 1980s, the Saudi Arabian government provided the PLO with over $100-million in annual aid. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 18, 1981)



* Saudis gave U.S. weapons to PLO:

The Saudis also provided weapons to PLO terrorists. For example, the terrorists who massacred 38 Israeli civilians on the Tel Aviv highway in March 1978 were found to have been armed with U.S.-made M-16 automatic rifles and standard U.S. Army explosives, bearing Saudi Army markings and serial numbers. These armaments had been provided by the U.S. to Saudi Arabia, and were then given by the Saudis to the PLO. (Jerusalem Post, April 4, 1978.)

source: url

This excerpt from The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler



A Dozen Palis Killed In Raid
Seems the IDF finally had it with the Palis firing rockets into Israeli settlements and decided to go clean out Gaza a little.

As the IDF withdrew after the raid, armed gunmen assembled in the streets and fired at the IDF, according to Israeli Brig.Gen. Israel Ziff. Helicopters were called in and opened fire on the groups of armed men, killing 12 (as of this time)

What does, say, the Roto-Reuters "news" agency have to say about this?

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed 12 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip Monday, including 10 who died when a helicopter missile hit a crowd, in a raid that battered a new international peace effort.
Yep, that's the IDF for ya, firing willy-nilly at non-specific "crowds" so's to batter the "peace efforts" that have met with so much success in the past.

But what about The Children™?

Don't worry, the Roto-Reuters are right on it:

They said a child of about 12 was among those killed in Israel's helicopter-backed tank incursion into Khan Younis when the missile hit a group of people who had come out of their homes and gathered outside a mosque thinking the raid was over.
...gathering peacefully by the mosque with absolutely NO weapons anywhere, nosirree...

But why, oh omniscient "news" agency, why?

The Israeli army said the aim of Monday's incursion was to hit the "terrorist infrastructure" of Hamas, which has spearheaded a two-year-old Palestinian uprising for independence and carried out a wave of suicide bombings.
Thank you so much for the sneer quotes. We wouldn't want anybody to think that there were actually any terrorists nearby, would we? Oh no we wouldn't. It's only an "uprising for independence", after all.

Reuters, one man's news agency is another man's case of third stage syphilis.

source: [url]

There is something disingenuous about today's anti-Israel sentiment


Of course Israel is a big problem in the Middle East, particularly for the beleaguered Palestinians. But today, there is sometimes something disingenuous about anti-Israel sentiment. Many disparate groups - from British Muslim organisations to the anti-capitalist movement - have oriented themselves around the Palestinian question, taking every opportunity to have a go at Israel.


Often this is driven by an understandable sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians. But the strength of feeling against Israel among so many diverse groups in the West, and the sudden sentiment that we're all Palestinians now, reveals more about us in Europe and America than it does about events in the Middle East. Sympathising with the Palestinian cause seems to be more the result of the widespread politics of victimhood, with many in the West wishing to empathise and emote with the world's 'ultimate victims'.


This kind of anti-Israel rhetoric is cheap - with protesters challenging Israel's unapologetic violence against the Palestinians, rather than asking awkward questions of Blair's foreign policy or the confused and confusing war on terror. Ariel Sharon has become the punchbag of the anti-war movement - the easy target 'mass murderer' who everybody loves to hate.


And often, criticising Israel for being vulgar and violent sits perfectly well with calling for further intervention in Middle Eastern affairs - which is the last thing either Israelis or Palestinians need, after decades of British and US meddling.


'If we need a war against anyone, it's Israel', said one speaker. Others pointed out that Israel has ignored every UN resolution going, that it has far more weapons of mass destruction than Iraq, and that Ariel Sharon has killed more Palestinians than Saddam has killed Kurds. 'We should focus on Israel, not on a piss-poor country like Iraq', said James from Liverpool. 'We should weapons inspect the Israelis, not the Iraqis - though we'd find the same in both cases: weapons from America.'


Anti-Israel sentiment has little to do with demanding freedom and democracy in the Middle East, and more to do with calling for Britain and America to 'sort out Sharon'. Many seemed keen to convince Bush and Blair that they should focus their efforts on 'stopping Israeli violence' and 'ending the Israeli occupation', instead of bombing Baghdad

Note: this is an extract from an article about the anti-war protests recently held in Great Brittain. I have put the Israeli portion of the article at this site. For the full article and source, see url

Morris on Transfer.

Controversial historian Benny Morris reviews the history of the idea of transfering the Arabs out of Israel and concludes:

One wonders what Ben-Gurion - who probably could have engineered a comprehensive rather than a partial transfer [of Arabs] in 1948, but refrained - would have made of all this, were he somehow resurrected. Perhaps he would now regret his restraint. Perhaps, had he gone the whole hog, today's Middle East would be a healthier, less violent place, with a Jewish state between Jordan and the Mediterranean and a Palestinian Arab state in Transjordan. Alternatively, Arab success in the 1948 war, with the Jews driven into the sea, would have obtained the same, historically calming result. Perhaps it was the very indecisiveness of the geographical and demographic outcome of 1948 that underlies the persisting tragedy of Palestine.

.

Bush Asks Sharon Not to Respond to an Iraqi Attack, say Israeli Papers

Listen to Ross Dunn's Report from Jerusalem (RealAudio)
Dunn Report - Download 243k (RealAudio)

Israeli newspapers say that when President Bush meets Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington later this month, he will address Israeli concerns about possible military action against Iraq.

Mr. Sharon and Mr. Bush are scheduled to meet at the White House on October 16 to discuss America's plans for possible military action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Israeli media report that one of the aims of the meeting will be to allay Israel's concerns about the possibility of Saddam Hussein launching an attack against the Jewish State in the event of an American strike against Iraq.

The Hebrew daily Ma'ariv says Mr. Bush wants to reassure Mr. Sharon that the United States has Israel's interests in mind, and there is no need to be drawn into the conflict. The newspaper says Mr. Bush is expected to tell Mr. Sharon that, from the first day of any American military action, the U.S. forces will focus on the western part of Iraq to prevent the positioning of mobile missile launchers or Iraqi jets flying out to bomb Israel.

In exchange, Ma'ariv says, Mr. Bush will insist that Israel pledge not to retaliate, even if an Iraqi missile succeeds in hitting Israeli territory, for fear this could spark a wider regional conflict.

Mr. Bush also reportedly wants assurances from Mr. Sharon that he will not escalate the conflict with the Palestinians or against the Hezbollah guerrilla fighters in southern Lebanon.

Another Hebrew newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, says that, in order to encourage compliance with the U.S. plan, Mr. Bush intends to give Israel 72 hours notice of any initial American attack and put American satellites capable of identifying missiles launched from Iraq at Israel's disposal. In addition, the United States reportedly will provide Israel with more Patriot missiles to target any incoming Iraq missiles.

source: [url]

U.S. approves $32 million aid to Lebanon

Let's see if I understand this one. Syrian has some 30 thousand troops occupying Lebanon. Syria and Lebanon allow Hizbollah to commit terror acts against Israel. Those who dislike Israel complain about money given yearly to help Israel but remain silent about the 2 billion going to Egypt. And this money?

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- The U.S. Embassy in Beirut said Tuesday that Washington has authorized $32 million in aid to Lebanon, denying reports that assistance had been suspended because of tensions between the two countries.

An Embassy statement said the sum was authorized Sunday for the fiscal year 2002.

The statement explained that the U.S. Agency for International Development could spend the approved money any time between October 2001 and October 2003 for "creating economic opportunities, strengthening municipalities, managing water resources and promoting democracy."

"There has been no shortfall in funding to our USAID projects in Lebanon," it said.

The statement said the U.S. Congress was considering the 2003 budget, including assistance to Lebanon. If approved, these funds will be spent between October 2002 and October 2004.

The Embassy confirmation came after Lebanon's As Safir newspaper quoted U.S. sources as saying Monday that Washington had suspended financial assistance to Lebanon over tensions between the two countries. The newspaper said U.S. officials were annoyed with the militant Hezbollah's continued "activities against the Israeli forces" in the disputed border Shabaa farms. The U.S. State Department considers Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization.

A water dispute between Lebanon and Israel over the Wazzani River and the "Syria Accountability Act" tabled before U.S. Congress added to the tension. Lebanon reportedly angered U.S. State Department officials by threatening to punish some Christian opposition leaders for supporting the act that calls for sanctions on Syria.

Washington also says the Beirut government could have notified the United Nations or Washington of its plans to pump more water from the Wazzani river, which Lebanon shares with Israel.

source: url

Terrorist Fire Leads to Death of Arab Civilians


Here is an Israeli appraisal of the article below: note that in the one article, Israel is doing what it must to prevent terror but in the second article (the one below this one), non-military civilians were killed. Now, I have been in the army twice, and I have been in a war zone, but from my experiences, a military person usually was wearing a uniform that marked him off has being on one or the other side. By contrast, the Palestinians, be they terrorists (militants) or civilians, wear "street clothes," civilian non-military outfits. Do you wait for what seems a civilian to shoot at you to yell out: Hey! a soldier without a uniform! Get him.

Thirteen Arabs, many of them armed terrorists, were killed over the night in an Israeli offensive in Gaza. The raid followed yet another Kassam rocket attack on a Gush Katif community last night, which injured no one. Despite IDF explanations that the forces fired at terrorists shooting at them, condemnations of Israel are coming fast and furious. Hamas vows to avenge the act, and says that Israeli civilians must be killed in retaliation.

The anti-terror offensive began shortly after midnight, when IDF troops, armor, and engineering corps, backed by combat helicopters, entered a Khan Yunis neighborhood - a Hamas terrorist stronghold - near the Jewish community of Ganei Tal. The Israeli forces arrested a man carrying a bomb in his coat pocket and blew up a small arsenal of mortar shells. The forces were fired upon and were greeted with some explosions, but no one was hurt. They left in the early morning hours. Arab sources report, however, that "Hamas activists" and civilians went out to the streets, and "some of them" conducted gunbattles with the IDF forces - at which point, a helicopter fired a missile into the mob. The world media are full of Arab "eye-witnesses" describing the incident as a "massacre," but fail to emphasize that the mob was engaged in attacking Israelis when they were fired upon.

PA spokesmen were quick to take advantage of the situation. Saeb Erekat, ignoring the defensive nature of Israel's raid, called upon the international community to "protect the Palestinians," and said that Israel was carrying out "war crimes" in order to thwart the European Union's "efforts to revive the peace process." The EU's Javier Solana is to meet with Yasser Arafat today in Ramallah, despite Israel's objections; it is not clear how this could "revive the peace process," as Arafat is not considered a negotiating partner by Israel.

source: url

Ten Palestinians killed as Israeli tanks enter southern Gaza city: Palestinian officials.


GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Ten Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded Monday during an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, officials and doctors said, most when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile that exploded in a crowd.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the missile explosion. Israeli military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the operation in Khan Younis was limited and not a large-scale invasion. It came a few hours after Palestinians fired a mortar shell at a Jewish settlement in another part of the Gaza Strip, the military said.

The Israeli missile strike came at the end of the four-hour incursion. It wasn't clear what the target was. Residents said people came out into the streets around 4:30 a.m. when they heard the tanks pulling out, but two Israeli helicopters remained overhead, and one of them fired the missile.

Doctors said 10 people were killed in the raid, including eight in the missile attack. They said at least 65 people were wounded by the missile blast.

Abed Ouda, 29, said he was parking his car when the missile struck. "I heard a huge explosion," he said, "and people were wounded and bleeding on the ground in front of my car."

Dr. Mohammed Abu Dalal of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis appealed for more doctors and supplies to help treat the large numbers of casualties.

After midnight, about 40 Israeli tanks, backed by helicopters, had entered the Khan Younis and shelled houses on the main street, witnesses said.

Israeli armored columns have frequently moved into Palestinian-controlled areas in recent weeks, destroying workshops where Israel says weapons are made and arresting terror suspects.

On Sunday, two Palestinian men were shot dead in the northern West Bank, one in a gunbattle with Israeli troops, the other allegedly shot by a Jewish settler in an olive grove.

Palestinians accused Jewish settlers of killing Hani Yousef, 22, as he was harvesting olives near his village, Aqraba. Another Palestinian farmer was shot and wounded by the settlers, who came from the nearby settlement of Itamar, according to the Palestinian mayor, Ghaled Mayadme.

Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said the farmer's death was being investigated, but no arrests had been made. The farmer had been shot in the back, he said.

In the Jenin Refugee Camp, also in the northern West Bank, Israeli troops killed Samer Jalamneh, a 22-year-old member of the radical Islamic Jihad movement, after he opened fire at them with an assault rifle, witnesses and the military said.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, speaking from the remnants of his Ramallah compound, accused the Israeli army of covering up settlers' actions.

"The army is protecting their daily crimes against Palestinian residents in their homes and against Palestinian farmers," Arafat said after a meeting with Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of Red Cross, who is touring Israel and Palestinian areas this week.

Also, the Palestine Legislative Council gave Arafat another four weeks to appoint a new Cabinet, following the resignation of his previous Cabinet last month, Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Qureia said.

Arafat asked the legislature for an extension on his original two-week deadline to name a new Cabinet after Israeli troops besieged his Ramallah compound, destroying several buildings. Palestinian reform plans were put on hold during the siege.

In Jerusalem, four Arab residents of the city's traditionally Arab eastern sector, accused of helping bombers carry out three attacks that killed 35 people and wounded almost 200, went on trial amid a flood of insults from relatives of the Israeli victims.

Relatives shouted obscenities and insults at the accused. "You should all be strung up on a crane," said Gila Arazi, aunt of Danit Dagan, who was killed with her fiancee, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the Cafe Moment in Jerusalem on March 9.

In addition to that attack, which killed 11, the group is accused of helping to arrange a suicide bombing that killed 15 at a pool hall in Rishon Letzion, near Tel Aviv, and planting a bomb at a cafeteria in Jerusalem's Hebrew University that killed five Americans and four Israelis.

Inside the courtroom, the four accused and their families were protected by riot police, who stood in a row facing the angry relatives of the victims. The accused, Wael Qassem, Wissam Abassi, Ala Abassi and Muhammed Oudeh, sat handcuffed to prison guards. The prisoners' legs were also shackled.

source: url

Why one should oppose a second Palestinian-Arab state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza - Part 8 of 23

This piece continues a series of which the first seven parts were posted on September 8, 9, 11, 17, 19, 22, and 23, 2002. The object of the series is to provide a database that is not only reliable and well-documented but also one for which documents are easily accessible, preferably from web resources.

8. The Palestinian Arabs had at least three opportunities to establish their own sovereign state by peaceful means: the Peel commission plan of 1937 which the Arabs rejected; the UN partition plan of 1948 to which the Arabs reacted by engaging in war; and the Barak/Clinton offer of July 2000/January 2001, to which the Palestinian Arabs reacted by igniting Intifada II. (The Oslo Accords of 1993, stipulated self government, i.e., autonomy, and not sovereignty.) By their actions, the Palestinian Arabs have forfeited any right they might have had to a sovereign state in Palestine.

It is common knowledge that the Palestinian Arabs had an opportunity to establish an independent state in Palestine both in 1937, when the Peel Commission recommended the partition solution, and in 1947, when the UN General Assembly reached the same conclusion by a 33-13 majority (with 10 abstentions, including Bevin’s UK); in both cases, the Palestinian Arabs rejected the proposals that would have given them a sovereign state. Since these facts are common knowledge, they warrant only a brief discussion.

To substantiate that the Palestinian Arabs rejected the Peel Commission’s partition plan, suffice it to quote any of the relevant Palestinian-Arab web sites. For example, the Islamic Association for Palestine informs us that:

At the height of the 1936-39 disturbances, a royal commission of inquiry came to Palestine from London to investigate the roots of the Arab-Jewish conflict and to propose solutions. The commission, headed by Lord Robert Peel, heard a great deal of testimony in Palestine, and in July 1937 issued its recommendations: to abolish the Mandate and partition the country between the two peoples. Only a zone between Jaffa and Jerusalem would remain under the British mandate and international supervision.

The Jewish state would include the coastal strip stretching from Mount Carmel to south of Be’er Tuvia, as well as the Jezreel Valley and the Galilee. The Arab state was to include the hill regions, Judea and Samaria, and the Negev. Until the establishment of the two states, the commission recommended, Jews should be prohibited from purchasing land in the area allocated to the Arab state.
...
[T]he Arabs rejected the proposal and refused to regard it as a solution. The plan was ultimately shelved.

Considering the tiny sliver of land that would have been assigned to the Jewish state under the Peel plan, one has to marvel at the malevolence and pettiness of the Palestinian Arabs; it would appear that they adopted the most bizarre version of a “dog in the manger” in order to frustrate the Jewish national aspiration even at the cost of depriving themselves of a sovereign state.

Turning to the Palestinian Arabs’ rejection of the UN partition plan of 29 November 1947, the following quotation is from Encyclopedia.com:

The struggle by Jews for a Jewish state in Palestine had begun in the late 19th cent[ury] and had become quite active by the 1930s and 40s. The militant opposition of the Arabs to such a state and the inability of the British to solve the problem eventually led to the establishment (1947) of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, which devised a plan to divide Palestine into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and a small internationally administered zone including Jerusalem. The General Assembly adopted the recommendations on Nov. 29, 1947. The Jews accepted the plan; the Arabs rejected it.

The events surrounding the Barak/Clinton offer to the Palestinians at Camp David (July 2000) and in the negotiations that followed (to January 2001), were common knowledge during the first year after Arafat walked away from the negotiating table, but subsequently, the Palestinian-Arabs activated their disinformation machine to the point that some of Arafat’s apologists summoned the audacity to deny the details of the offer as they were known at the time. For this reason, it may be useful to deal with this chapter in greater detail, in order to substantiate the statement that the PA did, indeed, walk away from a most generous offer, and opt instead for the violence that still continues.

An authoritative account comes from Clinton’s Middle East envoy, Dennis Ross, who participated in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks personally. In an interview with Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard and with Brit Hume of Fox news, dated April 23, 2002, Dennis Ross said:

ROSS: The ideas were presented on December 23 by the president, and they basically said the following: On borders, there would be about a 5 percent annexation in the West Bank for the Israelis and a 2 percent swap. So there would be a net 97 percent of the territory that would go to the Palestinians.

On Jerusalem, the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem would become the capitol of the Palestinian state.

On the issue of refugees, there would be a right of return for the refugees to their own state, not to Israel, but there would also be a fund of $30 billion internationally that would be put together for either compensation or to cover repatriation, resettlement, rehabilitation costs.

And when it came to security, there would be a international presence, in place of the Israelis, in the Jordan Valley.

These were ideas that were comprehensive, unprecedented, stretched very far, represented a culmination of an effort in our best judgment as to what each side could accept after thousands of hours of debate, discussion with each side.

FRED BARNES, WEEKLY STANDARD: Now, Palestinian officials say to this day that Arafat said yes.

ROSS: Arafat came to the White House on January 2. Met with the president, and I was there in the Oval Office. He said yes, and then he added reservations that basically meant he rejected every single one of the things he was supposed to give.

HUME: What was he supposed to give?

ROSS: He supposed to give, on Jerusalem, the idea that there would be for the Israelis sovereignty over the Western Wall, which would cover the areas that are of religious significance to Israel. He rejected that.

HUME: He rejected their being able to have that?

ROSS: He rejected that.

He rejected the idea on the refugees. He said we need a whole new formula, as if what we had presented was non-existent.

He rejected the basic ideas on security. He wouldn't even countenance the idea that the Israelis would be able to operate in Palestinian airspace.

You know when you fly into Israel today you go to Ben Gurion. You fly in over the West Bank because you can't -- there's no space through otherwise. He rejected that.

So every single one of the ideas that was asked of him he rejected.

HUME: Now, let's take a look at the map. Now, this is what -- how the Israelis had created a map based on the president's ideas. And...

ROSS: Right.

HUME: ... what can we -- that situation shows that the territory at least is contiguous. What about Gaza on that map?

ROSS: The Israelis would have gotten completely out of Gaza.

ROSS: And what you see also in this line, they show an area of temporary Israeli control along the border.

HUME: Right.

ROSS: Now, that was an Israeli desire. That was not what we presented. But we presented something that did point out that it would take six years before the Israelis would be totally out of the Jordan Valley.

So that map there that you see, which shows a very narrow green space along the border, would become part of the orange. So the Palestinians would have in the West Bank an area that was contiguous. Those who say there were cantons, completely untrue. It was contiguous.

HUME: Cantons being ghettos, in effect...

ROSS: Right.

HUME: ... that would be cut off from other parts of the Palestinian state.

ROSS: Completely untrue.

And to connect Gaza with the West Bank, there would have been an elevated highway, an elevated railroad, to ensure that there would be not just safe passage for the Palestinians, but free passage.

...

HUME: What, in your view, was the reason that Arafat, in effect, said no?

ROSS: Because fundamentally I do not believe he can end the conflict. We had one critical clause in this agreement, and that clause was, this is the end of the conflict.

Arafat's whole life has been governed by struggle and a cause. Everything he has done as leader of the Palestinians is to always leave his options open, never close a door. He was being asked here, you've got to close the door. For him to end the conflict is to end himself.

This account has been confirmed numerous times. For example, in January, 2002, Clinton visited Israel. According to a report in Ha’Aretz, dated January 21, 2002:

Former U.S president Bill Clinton said that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat had missed a "golden opportunity" for peace and called on Israelis and Palestinians to be prepared to compromise in order to achieve the dream of peace. Clinton was speaking at a ceremony at the Tel Aviv University after receiving an honorary degree Sunday.
...
Referring to the failed Camp David peace talks held just before the outbreak of violence in October 2000, Clinton said "I think we have the outlines of a reasonable settlement, last year I believe Chairman Arafat missed a golden opportunity to make that agreement, I think the violence and terrorism which followed were not inevitable and have been a terrible mistake."

Another relevant document is the so called EU description of the outcome of permanent status talks at Taba. As a staunch supporter of the Arabs, the EU can hardly be accused of upholding the Israeli line; still, the "EU description” is consistent with that given by Dennis Ross.

Occasionally, it appears that the truth, as presented above, is even penetrating the minds of some of the Palestinian-Arab supporters. For example, on Thursday November 15, 2001, Reuters reported:

Palestinian political analyst Ghassan al-Khatib said ... Israel and the Palestinians would have reached a deal during U.S.-sponsored talks in July 2000 if the Palestinian Authority had agreed to compromise on the rights of refugees.

The peace summit at the Camp David presidential retreat collapsed due to disagreements on refugees and the final status of Jerusalem. The Palestinian uprising erupted two months later.

By and large, however, the Palestinian-Arab apologists prefer to indulge in misinformation rather than face the facts. They have even found a junior pro-Arab US official, Robert Malley, to support their case (see, for example, Malley's comments and response by Dennis Ross).

In my opinion, any fair-minded observer would have to conclude that the acts and behaviour of the Palestinian Arabs prove that they were not interested in a sovereign state; rather, their interest has concentrated on acts of spite against the Palestinian Jews, rejecting at least three opportunities to have a sovereign state.

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland

Roundup of news items in Middle East

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli troops yesterday killed a Palestinian youth during clashes in the West Bank's most populous city, the fifth such death in two weeks. Israel's military intelligence chief, meanwhile, said Yasser Arafat's followers are trying to prevent terror attacks inside Israel.

In Washington, a Bush administration official said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will meet with President Bush on Oct. 16. Israeli news media said the talks would deal with the Israel-Palestinian conflict and possible U.S. action in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Arafat yesterday signed Palestinian legislation defining Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Qureia said.

Qureia said Arafat decided to sign the two-year-old bill now in response to a demand by the U.S. congress that Jerusalem be recognized as Israel's capital.

Israel proclaimed Jerusalem as its capital in 1950, but most countries, including the United States, have their embassies in Tel Aviv. Eastern Jerusalem was captured by Israel from Jordanian rule in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed afterward.

The new Palestinian law is symbolic since Israel has full control over both parts of the city and Sharon has pledged not to redivide it.

In the West Bank, the shooting of Amer Hashem, 15, came during the sort of confrontation that has become common in the Nablus area, where youths often defy the nearly continuous curfew Israel has imposed since mid-June in response to two suicide bombings by Palestinian militants.

The army said soldiers fired in self defense after they were attacked with stones and at least one bomb, but they were not aware of any casualties.

Foreign governments and aid organizations have increasingly expressed concern about the deaths of children during the two-year Palestinian uprising against Israel. More than 230 children or teenagers are among the more than 1,800 Palestinians who have died during the uprising.

Many Nablus residents routinely skirt the curfew, emerging from their homes when they don't see soldiers in the area. Many children attend school and troops often ignore them.

But there have also been clashes, often when children and teenagers throw stones at tanks and draw a response of tear gas, rubber bullets and live rounds.

Four other Palestinians aged 10 to 15 had been shot to death in Nablus and nearby refugee camps over the past two weeks and a 12-year-old was in critical condition after being shot in the head. An Israeli soldier and two Palestinian adults also have been killed.

Masked men firing rifles carried Hashem's still-bloody body on an angry funeral procession through the Al Ein refugee camp bordering Nablus following the death.

Meanwhile, Israel's military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, appeared to contradict Sharon and other senior politicians yesterday when he said that the Yasser Arafat-led Palestinian Authority was trying to halt terror attacks inside Israel.

Farkash said that Arafat's Fatah movement and its affiliated Tanzim militia were not carrying out attacks beyond the West Bank and Gaza Strip, occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, and were pressuring militant Islamic groups to follow their example.

"Not only are Fatah and the Tanzim not doing this," Farkash said. "Senior people in the Palestinian Authority are starting to take up the issue with Hamas and Islamic Jihad to stop their operations."

Arafat himself denounced such attacks in an interview published on Saturday by the London-based Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat.

"We are the ones who decide as a leadership," Arafat said. "Neither my military honor nor our Islamic religion accept the killing of a woman in the street or at a cafe, or a civilian man or a child, or in a university."

But he denied having condemned attacks on soldiers or settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In other events:

Jakob Kellenberger, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, arrived for a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories to highlight the organization's concern at "a steadily worsening situation, characterized by disregard for the principles of international humanitarian law." It is the first trip to Israel in seven years by an ICRC president.

Four Palestinians from the village of Aqraba near Nablus were hospitalized with severe cuts, saying they had been attacked while picking olives by Israelis from the West Bank settlement of Itamar. Settlers there have often clashed with villagers over plans to expand their settlement into now-Palestinian lands. On June 20, a Palestinian infiltrated Itamar and killed five settlers. The army said it had no information on the incident.

In the Gaza Strip, the Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for explosives that went off in the path of an Israeli military patrol yesterday. Israel's military said no one was hurt in the blast near the Israeli settlement of Nisanit. Hamas said the explosion was "the first in a series of attacks" meant to avenge Israel's unsuccessful Sept. 26 attempt to kill Hamas bomb maker Mohammed Deif.

(Published: October 6, 2002)
source: URL

Syria on Brink of Conflict Over Lebanon

Oct. 6 — One of the last satellite nations in the world is pushing for independence.
Syrian forces have occupied Lebanon since the country’s civil war began in 1975, and an estimated 35,000 Syrian soldiers remain stationed there. But now Lebanese religious and political leaders from across the political spectrum are calling for the withdrawal of those troops.
Although the calls aren’t new, developments both within and without Lebanon will make them impossible to ignore. Most importantly, the growing anti-Syrian sentiment opens the door for another player — Iran — to undercut Syria’s influence in Lebanon. Increased tension within the Levant could spark conflict between the two Middle East nations.
Although anti-Syrian factions have always criticized Lebanon’s occupation by Syrian troops, two major developments recently brought the issue into the spotlight: the pullout of Israeli troops from South Lebanon in May, and the death of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in July.
Syria is strategically and economically important to Lebanon. Controlling Lebanon allowed Damascus to threaten Israel without directly challenging the Jewish state.
Changes in the Region
Damascus had long used the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon to deflect criticism of its own deployments in the country. But now the withdrawal of Israeli forces has undermined Syria’s reasons for occupying Lebanon.
Additionally, President Hafez al-Assad dealt severely with dissent and thus enjoyed cooperation from many of Lebanon’s religious and political leaders. The new Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, hasn’t yet established a similar reputation for ruthlessness.
The fallout from the Israeli withdrawal and the elder Assad’s death came to the forefront in campaigns for Lebanese parliamentary elections in August and September.

A United Opposition to Syria
For the first time, competing factions found themselves united against the Syrian presence. On Sept. 25, the Council of Maronite Bishops issued a call for the withdrawal of Syria’s troops.
A few weeks earlier, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt called for the redeployment of the troops in accordance with the 1989 Taif accords.
In fact, all of Lebanon’s main political groups issued statements criticizing the presence of Syrian forces in the country and the continued influence of Damascus in Lebanon’s internal politics.
The apparent unity won’t last long. Jumblatt has already backtracked on his earlier statements after traveling to Damascus to meet with Assad. Nonetheless, anti-Syrian sentiment among the nation’s citizens has clearly strengthened and could create an opportunity for another outside power, namely Iran.

Iran Exerts Influence
Iran also exerts political and economic influence in Lebanon. It has provided financial and military support to the Islamic group Hezbollah for years.
Now, it may offer support to the emerging independence movement. Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon recently expressed his government’s support for Lebanese “territorial integrity,” according to a Sept. 27 report by the Iranian news agency IRNA.
Although Iran has made similar statements before, the context has changed. Previous statements were directed against the Israeli occupation; now they can only refer to the Syrian presence.
By stoking anti-Syrian sentiment, even indirectly, Tehran may strain its already tenuous relations with Damascus.
And if Damascus doesn’t quell the movement, the reign of Syria’s new president could be threatened. Bashar is not his father. The changing of the guard has prompted all those Syria once controlled with an iron fist to redefine that relationship.
Even Syrian-backed Lebanese politicians like Jumblatt used protests against Syria’s occupation as a campaign issue.
The next step could be violence against Syrian forces.
Already, an unknown Lebanese group calling itself the Citizens for a Free and Sovereign Lebanon are attacking Syrian nationals living in Lebanon, according to a Sept. 26 report in the Lebanese newspaper Al-Safir.
Bashar will have to act. So far, the new president has appeared content to let Lebanon’s competing factions undermine each other. But threats to Syrian nationals and Syria’s continued hold on the Levant cannot go unanswered.


Jamie Etheridge is an analyst covering the Middle East and Africa for Stratfor.com, an Internet provider of global intelligence.
source: [URL]

Pilger Pilfers the Truth


A British documentary is a veritable encyclopedia of every anti-Israel canard in existence today

On Sept. 16, while most of British Jewry was celebrating the Yom Kippur break-fast, Britain's most popular television channel, ITV1, aired a ferociously anti-Israel documentary entitled, "Palestine is Still the Issue." The program was produced by Australian-born John Pilger, a columnist for the UK Daily Mirror with a 25-year record of anti-Israel activism.

Scant effort was made to provide context, Israeli perspective or even explanation, with Prof. Ilan Pappe used as a token academic Israeli historian. However, Pappe is far from objective, having run for the Knesset on the radical Communist Party ticket, and is disgraced and discredited in Israel for falsifying historical evidence. Coupled with his post-Modernist perspective and active engagement with Palestinians in an attempt to discredit Zionism, it is unsurprising that Pappe supports Pilger's thesis concerning Israel's fault.

HonestReporting questions not only the biased content of the program (detailed below), but also the decision to broadcast -- on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar –- such a clear affront to the Jewish community. Furthermore, Pilger's discussion of the program on the Gloria Hunniford chat show (carried on British TV Channel 5) was aired on Yom Kippur afternoon, when few Jews were available to participate.

To accompany the documentary, Pilger also published an article in The Mirror, one of Europe's leading dailies with several million readers. Entitled "Israel's Routine Terrorism," Pilger's article mirrors the gross violations of media objectivity seen in his TV documentary.

Read the Mirror article at:
http://pilger.carlton.com/print/116732

Read info on Pilger's documentary at:
http://www.johnpilger.com/palestine

The chairman of Carlton Television, Michael Green, strongly criticized his own company's documentary, John Pilger's "Palestine Is Still The Issue." Green said the program was "factually incorrect, historically incorrect," and a "tragedy for Israel so far as accuracy is concerned."
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=334942

In the meantime, Pilger himself bellyached against HR members in a column in the UK Guardian, saying that critics are "orchestrating an email campaign against my film; curiously, many of the emails are coming from America, where it has not been shown."

===== CRITIQUE OF THE DOCUMENTARY ====

From start to finish, Pilger's documentary is a veritable encyclopedia of every anti-Israel canard in existence today:

- Referring to Israel's War of Independence (following Arab refusal to accept the UN partition plan), Pilger's documentary simply stated: "In 1948 the Arab world rose up, when Palestinians were forced to flee from their homes in a blitz of fear and terror." Read carefully: Pilger suggests that the 5-nation Arab attack was in response to Israeli aggression.

- The Six Day War is described similarly: "In 1967 Palestinians were forced to flee again when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, describing it as an act of self defense." Pilger insists that 1967 was simply an Israeli fantasy about Arabs wanting to destroy it.

- Operation Defensive Shield is portrayed as a deliberate attempt to vandalize and destroy Palestinian culture; no mention is made of the wave of suicide bombings that forced Israel to defend itself.

- Pilger suggests that Israel systematically murders Palestinians, claiming that 90% of Palestinians killed are civilians. In fact, scholarly studies show that in the last two years of violence, 39% of Palestinian deaths are "non-combatant" -- versus 79% of Israeli deaths are "non-combatant." (See study at
http://www.ict.org.il/researchreport/projectsummary.htm)

- Pilger suggests that the victims of terror are morally equivalent to the terrorist, and asserts that killing a terrorist before he can murder is also "terrorism."

- Pilger decries the inconvenience of IDF checkpoints, but fails to mention that the checkpoints were set up as a response to terrorism. Nor does he mention how the editor of the notoriously anti-Israel Guardian found that the average wait was 20 seconds to pass a checkpoint, with the soldiers being polite to the Arabs.

- Pilger claims that checkpoints have destroyed the Palestinian economy, while ignoring the fact that violence against Israelis forced the loss of tens of thousands of Palestinian jobs. Pilger also omits mention of the severe damage to the Palestinian economy due to corruption of Palestinian Authority officials; Arafat's personal wealth has been estimated at $1.3 billion.

- Pilger interviews an Arab couple who claim that their newborn baby died due to alleged IDF harassment at a checkpoint. The woman says: "This is how they treat all Palestinians. I'm sorry to say this, but they would rather help an animal than an Arab." Pilger offers no counter-claim, and declares that such a story is "typical of the everyday treatment of the Palestinians."

- Pilger characterizes the 1948 refugee issue as "ethnic cleansing." However, it is a historical fact that most Arabs were persuaded to leave by Arab leaders who promised to invade and destroy Israel. Time Magazine (May 3, 1948) reported that "The mass evacuation, prompted partly by fear, partly by orders of Arab leaders, left the Arab quarter of Haifa a ghost city... By withdrawing Arab workers, their leaders hoped to paralyze Haifa."

Pilger of course selectively omits mentioning the equal number of Jewish refugees who fled from Arab countries, and settled in Israel. He also omits that in the 1880s there was no native Palestinian population to displace (as the journal of Mark Twain and other contemporary sources confirm), except in about 5% of "Palestine." In fact, as is thoroughly documented in Joan Peters' classic work, "From Time Immemorial" (available at http://www.amazon.com), most Arabs immigrated into "Palestine" after the Zionist pioneers had worked hard to cultivate land that they had legally bought from absentee Arab landlords, bringing commerce to the region.

- Pilger compares Israel's treatment of Arabs like that of apartheid South Africa. He fails to note, however, that Arabs living under Israeli rule enjoy a far greater freedom of speech and freedom of the press than do Arabs living under the PA, and that the first Middle East country to grant Arab women the right to vote was Israel -- not Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, or any of the 20 other Arab Middle East states. Nor does Pilger mention how in much of the Arab world, Jews and other non-Muslims are treated as second-class citizens (the despised Dhimmi).

- Pilger categorizes at least 3 Israeli prime ministers as "terrorists."

- Pilger claims that "For much of their resistance, the Palestinians have fought back courageously with slingshots." However, he omits reference to the Hebron riots of 1929 when 67 Jews were slaughtered. Or the period of 1951-55, when more than 3,000 armed attacks were launched against Israeli civilians, resulting in the deaths of 922 Israelis and foreign tourists. Or the Oslo period (1993-2000), when 300 Israelis were murdered by Palestinian terrorists. (To cite a few of the many historical examples.)

- Pilger accuses the Jewish world of carrying out a conspiracy to manipulate the non-Jewish world into believing that any criticism of Israel is “anti-Semitic.”

- Pilger complains that Israel is being heavily supplied by America, but he selectively omits mention that America gives billions of dollars annually to Arab countries such as Egypt and Jordan.

- For his final thrust, Pilger employs the classic canard of suggesting that Israel's battle against Palestinian terror is akin to Hitler's treatment of the Jews. The conclusion of the documentary, to paraphrase Pilger, is that the world stood silent during the Holocaust -- "will they stay silent again?"

If you believe that Pilger's documentary is biased, write to:

Email: dutyoffice@carltontv.co.uk
Phone: 020-7240-4000
Fax: 020-7615-1775

Write to:
Carlton Television
101 St Martin's Lane
London WC2N 4AZ

Source: HonestReporting at URL

Remember Rehavam (Gandhi) Ze'evi HY"D

Today marks the one year anniversary of the murder of Gandhi, may G-d avange his blood, by the savages. Meanwhile the Oslo criminals who are responsible for his death remain in power and continue to actively support the murderers. Let us remember on this sad day the price of their treachery and cowardice and say to ourselves "Never Again." Let Arik Sharon remember the words spoken by Ze'evi's son at his funeral:

"You did not merit, beloved son of this land, to be accepted when you were alive. You took upon yourself to be loyal to Eretz Yisrael, even when everyone blared in your ear that a 'New Middle East is shining.' 'You are hallucinating!,' you answered them."

"And to you, you who murdered my father, you temporary residents of Canaan, I am telling you that we are staying here, because this is ours!"

"And to you, Arik, a friend who was so close at the beginning of the way: Take revenge, the way that Gandhi would have done after you, and go back to leading the country the way we knew you."

"And you, dear residents of Yesha, and the rest of Israel: We are burying Gandhi today, but he asked me to charge you to be strong and continue to be loyal to the path."

Let us also remember the wise words spoken by Nadia Matar a week after Ze'evi's death.

We must remember, and not forget, that Oslo murdered Gandhi. Or, to be more precise, the "Oslo conception" murdered Gandhi.

That same terrible conception that says that we must surrender to terror. Gandhi's murder, like the other murders of Jews since Oslo, is a direct result of capitulation and surrender to terror. All the architects- criminals-supporters-continuers of Oslo cannot say, "Our hands did not shed this blood." Just as they cannot say this about the other victims of the Oslo war. We must recall that Shimon Peres and the other Oslo criminals gave the enemy guns, and ammunition, and cities of refuge. These guns are murdering us every day. These guns also murdered Gandhi.

The war today in Israel is between the "Oslo conception" and the "Gandhi heritage." A war between the post-Zionists and the Zionists. A war between the Israelis who are willing to concede Eretz Israel and hand it over to the enemy, and the Jews, such as Gandhi, who love the land, love the people, and are willing to give their lives for a continued Jewish existence in all of Eretz Israel.

In the last elections the people chose the Gandhi heritage. A heritage of love of the people of Israel, the Land of Israel, and the Torah of Israel.

We thought, in our innocence, that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would represent that heritage. But in recent weeks we were stunned by Ariel Sharon's statements in favor of the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of Eretz Israel. At every occasion - even at Gandhi's memorial ceremony in the Knesset - Sharon repeats that he is willing to make "painful concessions." In the last few days, the "Ha'aretz" newspaper has leaked that Sharon has already presented President George Bush with a clear plan for the creation of a Palestinian state in Yesha. When Bush asked Sharon what will happen to the many settlements in those areas that are supposed to be handed over to the Palestinians, Sharon is quoted as saying: "Don't worry. I know how to deal with them". Remembering that it was Sharon who was in charge of uprooting and destroying Yamit, we know what he means when he says he will "deal with the settlements." In fact, people surrounding PM Sharon have told and warned Yesha people that Sharon often repeats that "only he is capable of uprooting settlements."

With his statement in favor of a PA terror state, Sharon thus joined the small band of "Oslo conception" supporters who are struggling against the Jewish "Gandhi heritage." Such an announcement is a betrayal of the mandate that the people gave Sharon. Agreeing to the establishment of a Palestinian state is also a betrayal of the Likud platform, a platform that Sharon is supposed to represent, that states explicitly that "no Arab state will be established to the west of the Jordan." Consent to the establishment of a Palestinian state is a slap in the face of thousands of years of Jewish history in Eretz Israel. It is also a slap in the face to Gandhi's family, to the family of the victims of Oslo, and to the family of all the terror victims and the families of the soldiers who fell in the war for the establishment of the State of Israel.

Throughout our people's entire history, despite all the persecutions, despite the Inquisition, despite the pogroms, despite the Holocaust - no leader could conceive of foregoing a single bit of Eretz Israel. By what right does Ariel Sharon now surrender our land and homeland? Did we establish the State of Israel and sacrifice more than 20,000 of our sons in Israel's wars, in order to give over our land to a foreign people? We call upon Ariel Sharon to retract immediately, publicly, his shameful proclamations of assent to the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of Israel.

Ariel Sharon received a mandate from the people to continue the "Gandhi heritage." A deviation from this mandate will compel us to bring down the government and to find other leaders.

We pledge to Rehavam Ze'evi - Gandhi, may the Lord avenge him, that we will neither be silent nor still. We will continue his will with greater vigor: the struggle for the people of Israel, the Land of Israel, and the Torah of Israel.

Security Council machinations over Iraq are concealing a much broader UN power grab in the Middle East


For years, U.S. policy has been to keep the United Nations at bay and to insist on bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians as the only way forward to a durable peace. Negotiation would test recognition of Israel's permanency. It was the necessary alternative to violence, and it meant compromises that the parties determined they could and would live with.

The UN, on the other hand, with its automatic majorities favouring the Arab side of the equation, has continually pushed an imposed international solution. UN right answers, with resolutions galore, include Jerusalem as the capital city of a Palestinian state, and entitlements of massive numbers of refugees to return.

Then along came the Middle East "quartet": the UN, the United States, the European Union and Russia. On April 10 in Madrid, with Secretary of State Colin Powell representing Washington, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared that the quartet was "going to remain consistently seized of the problem."

Along with the quartet came U.S. reluctance to exercise its Security Council veto to save Israel from the usual one-sided resolutions on Palestinian suffering at the hands of Israeli aggressors, in the midst of a terrorist campaign directed at the viability of the Jewish state. Four Security Council resolutions were adopted between March 12 and April 19. U.S. strategists somehow believed that the insatiable appetite of UN members would be satisfied by a few Security Council resolutions.

The Arab group lasted two weeks before seeking the next Security Council resolution. With the U.S. in retreat over the falsely inspired hysteria over Jenin and the accompanying resolution, the Arab group reconvened an emergency session of the General Assembly in May, taunted the U.S. to vote against (which it did with a minute number of other countries), and then characterized America as anti-Arab once again. In all, more than 10 Israel-directed resolutions have been passed by various UN bodies since the quartet's April blossoming.

With Mr. Annan's foot firmly in the door, U.S. control over Middle East processes and outcomes has been steadily slipping away. Last Nov. 19, Mr. Powell said in a Louisville speech: "Palestinians must accept that they can only achieve their goals through negotiation. That was the essence of the agreements made between Israelis and Palestinians in Madrid and again in Oslo in 1993. There is no other way but direct negotiation in an atmosphere of stability and non-violence."

On April 24, Mr. Powell told a Senate subcommittee: "First, security and freedom from terror and violence . . .; second, serious accelerated negotiations; and third, economic humanitarian assistance."

On July 16, Mr. Annan and the EU's Danish president insisted that progress on all tracks be "side by side."

On Sept. 17, Mr. Annan, with Mr. Powell at his side, declared a three-phase program: "The first phase will see Palestinian security reform, Israeli withdrawals and . . . Palestinian elections; . . . the second phase . . . the option of creating a Palestinian state with provisional borders . . .; the third phase . . . Israeli-Palestinian negotiations."

The process has made a similar shift. The focus in late 2001 was American-Russian statements as "co-sponsors of the Middle East peace process." By April 29, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was insisting that the quartet "stick together." Mr. Powell was calling for an international conference at the beginning of May. The summer has seen a proliferation of UN bureaucrats in working groups and task forces. And on Sept. 17, EU president Per Stig Moeller announced, while issuing the latest quartet communiqué, that "the quartet has to be the focal point."

Mr. Annan (along with the Europeans, who had been salivating on the sidelines for years) was on the move.

On Sept. 23 and 24, the UN played host to a conference at New York headquarters called "End the Occupation." It opened with a statement read on behalf of Mr. Annan by Undersecretary-General Kieran Prendergast, declaring that the purpose of the meeting was to "garner support for the Palestinian people." Israeli "non-Zionists" were invited to contribute papers, along with Arab League representatives who distributed literature -- pre-approved by the UN secretariat -- talking about Israeli "concentration camps."

At the same time this conference was going on downstairs, the U.S. fell back into the familiar trap of trying to mollify the Arab group by failing to veto another one-sided Security Council resolution (1435), adopted on Sept. 24.

Ceding control to the UN over the Middle East is a dangerous game.

Surely, efforts to obtain a Security Council resolution on Iraq provide an immediate lesson. U.S. negotiators obviously thought that serving up Israel via Resolution 1435 would smooth the way on Iraq. A week later, they are still bargaining, while clammering for the next condemnation of Israel over non-compliance with 1435 has only just begun.

When the Iraq issue is over, Mr. Annan's quartet will be a long way out of the starting block. Stage two and the declaration of a "provisional" Palestinian state, before serious negotiations get under way between the parties, is guaranteed to be followed by a rush to pile on the sovereign rewards of control over borders (and hence arms flow). It will be a reality before anyone in Washington has time to say "Oops."

The UN is not an honest broker in the Middle East, and never has been. Even after Sept. 11, it is unable to define terrorism. The Arab bloc, along with Russia, France and China from the permanent five on the Security Council, think blowing up Israelis is legitimate -- according to the UN Human Rights Commission resolution of April 15.

Multilateralism is not an end in itself. The UN does not deserve the responsibilities of peacemaking and democratization when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict. It should be shown the door before it's too late.

Anne Bayefsky is an international lawyer and professor of political science at York University. She is a member of the governing board of the Geneva-based UN Watch.

--Distributed by MidEastTruth

Nascent Nonviolence
Will Palestinians embrace an end to terror? And will anyone pay attention if they do?


Please note: When I post this or other articles, I do not necessarily endorse positions taken by the writers. . I post because it offers a glimpse of the wide variety of views on matters of concern for our readers. If you disagree with this or any other posting, express your convictions in the Comment section, beneath the article.

Eli Kintisch


Would someone please give this message to American Jews: We're seeing glimpses of a Palestinian partner these days. Don't screw it up.

Reassessment and nonviolence are in the air in the occupied territories. Recent protests in Nablus, Ramallah and Tulkarm have been largely peaceful -- whole cities openly disobeying curfews with candlelight vigils, pot banging and nighttime parades. A spate of surveys in the last month in the occupied territories, as well as Israel proper, have shown a surprising openness among Arabs toward embracing nonviolent means of resistance. And a number of influential mainstream leaders have criticized violence in the last month, opening an honest dialogue within Palestinian society about the state of the intifada, two years on.

There can be no doubt that, ironically enough, this opening is at least partially the result of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's strategy. By refusing to negotiate while violence raged, he has gambled that he could force the Palestinians to say "enough" before Israelis did -- therefore ensuring that whatever political situation eventually emerged out of the second intifada would come about on Israeli terms. In one respect, at least, the strategy is working: The increasing skepticism among Palestinians about suicide bombing has to be at least partially attributed to the realization that violence isn't getting them anywhere with Israel's hard-line prime minister, or the public who elected him. But if Sharon deserves some credit for prompting this reassessment, it must also be acknowledged that some of the questioning is arising organically from within Palestinian society -- much of it sparked by the courageous pronouncements of Sari Nusseibeh, the Palestinian Authority's representative in Jerusalem and the most prominent Palestinian moderate.

To see how Nusseibeh's thinking has gained a foothold, one need only compare recent statements by influential Palestinians to the saber rattling of the past two years: Nabil Amer, the former Palestinian Authority official and former editor of Al-Hayat Al-Jadedah -- the Palestinian Authority's official publication -- wrote in early September that the Palestinians, led by Yasir Arafat, had "failed in the management of the historical process," by choosing violence in the fall of 2000. Abdel Razek Yehiyeh, the moderate Palestinian interior minister, told a Reuters reporter that a new approach to the uprising was needed. "I am not saying this side is to blame, or that," Yehiyeh said. "I'm saying there is occupation, and dealing with occupation in this manner has harmed us. Therefore we have to find other ways to deal with it." Nusseibeh himself has been on a speaking tour in the United States during the last month to push for a new kind of Palestinian resistance. In March, Nusseibeh wrote in the London-based Al-Quds that "resorting to the strategy of nonviolence and its weapons by a primarily unarmed people can directly deprive the Israelis of the advantage of being the stronger military power."

Polls have provided another welcome surprise of late. In a recent survey of 600 Palestinians by the international peace organization Search for Common Ground, 80 percent of respondents said they would support a large-scale civil-disobedience movement. Administered in the territories by the Palestinian Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, the poll showed six out of 10 Palestinians agreeing that there is "a need to try some new approaches" to the intifada. Roughly the same percentage of Israeli Jewish respondents said they would "approve" of a nonviolent Palestinian movement. Arab Israelis in the northern areas of Israel -- long feared to harbor simmering resentment that could easily boil over into extremism -- have also shown moderate attitudes of late. A recent poll conducted by the Yafa Research Institute in Nazareth showed that among Arab Israelis respondents in the so-called Triangle area of northern Israel, more than 80 percent wanted to see the violence of the intifada come to an end.

Israeli officials, rightly, don't put much credence in polls or statements -- they want action, usually toward halting suicide attacks against civilians. But the actions that Palestinians have taken in the last two weeks show that there might be something to the poll statistics. First, on Sept. 20, tanks laid siege to Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah and troops declared curfews in other Palestinian cities after two suicide bombings left six dead in 24 hours. The Palestinian response? Almost completely nonviolent protests in five Palestinian cities. In several places, residents banged pots and pans. Throughout the West Bank, school officials kept their classrooms open in defiance of curfew orders -- a further means of nonviolent resistance. Daoud Kuttab, director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Quds University, calls the movement the third intifada.

"It's about time," says Mubarak Awad, a nonviolent activist who organized tax strikes and civil disobedience during the first intifada. (Awad, who recently said it was "impossible" for a Jewish state to exist in the Middle East, was expelled from Israel in 1998 on charges that he broke Israeli law by organizing large-scale civil disobedience.)

To be sure, no one believes that the conflict is nearing a close. There can be little doubt that the work of the Israeli Defense Forces -- and not a newfound Palestinian introspection -- is the most important factor contributing to the recent decline in suicide bombings. And the polls could certainly be misleading. "So a guy named Abdullah comes to your house, maybe he's a member of Hamas, maybe a member of Islamic Jihad, and he tells you what to say . . . The whole notion that you would take seriously a poll coming out of a nondemocratic society is crazy," says Yoram Ettinger, a longtime activist on the Israeli right. Ettinger does have a point: Polls aren't necessarily reliable, and it's no doubt more difficult to get an accurate read of popular opinion in a highly disorganized, authoritarian society. Nevertheless, when taken together with the dramatic drop-off in suicide bombings of the last several months and the increasing boldness of Palestinian peaceniks, the poll results may mean something indeed.

And how has the Jewish world stateside reacted to these glimmers of hope? For the most part, disappointingly. The big story in the American Jewish community this week was a protest last night against a speech by Nusseibeh at B'nai Jeshurun, a Reform synagogue known for its left-leaning, Zabar's-shopping congregants. The protests, which aimed to prevent Nusseibeh from speaking, were organized by the Zionist Organization of America and Americans For a Safe Israel, two of the most hawkish players in an pro-Israel movement that has, of course, moved far to the right during the last two years. "He's a very evil person," Helen Freedman, executive director of AFSI, told me when asked about Nusseibeh, adding that he should be "sentenced to death maybe." (Officials at Americans for Peace Now, which organized the event, said that the protestors were for the most part peaceful and that Nusseibeh received a standing ovation.)

This link provides a typical attack on Nusseibeh from the Israeli right. The most serious of the charges -- these days, especially -- is that Nusseibeh gave information to the Iraqis in 1991 to help them direct missile attacks at Israel. But it's a charge that has been proven false by efforts such as this one.

Nusseibeh historically has been one of the most outspoken proponents of a two-state solution, and his calls for Palestinians to give up their claim to a "right of return" to Israel have drawn ire throughout the Arab world. In fact it is Nusseibeh's moderation that truly scares his detractors. Nusseibeh's main foil in Israel has been right-wing Knesset stalwart Uzi Landau, who has repeatedly shut down his offices in Jerusalem and accused him of being a "Trojan horse" for Palestinian extremists.

To their credit, the large Jewish groups that carry the most weight in Washington -- the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, to name a few -- are staying out of the B'nai Jeshurun embarrassment. "We didn't invite them. The mainstream Jewish organizations are too politically correct and they never take strong positions anyway," Freedman told me contemptuously. (The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, a national Jewish umbrella group, has criticized some of Nusseibeh's more aggressive quotes in the past, but wasn't behind last night's protests.)

In a period of so much uncertainty for Israel, and with a U.S. war against Iraq looming, it's time American Jews recognized the few glimmers of hope that are out there. A handful of terrorists got through, but September was a quiet month for the most part in Israel. Along with the polls and some new nonviolent approaches, the Palestinian people recently called on Arafat to overhaul his government -- a modest exercise of democratic muscle unprecedented in any Arab nation. And, warts and all, Nusseibeh remains the kind of Palestinian whom Israel can deal with -- a man who has sparred with Israel's most dangerous enemies for years in the pursuit of peace. Maybe for some American Jews, when the enemy of their enemy happens to be Palestinian, it's difficult to see him for the potential partner that he is. But if American Jews and Israelis can't talk to Nusseibeh, then the glimmers of hope are for nothing at all.

source: [link[

UN panel faults Israel for treatment of minority, Palestinian children


But for all the complaints, this article notes that the UN is at long last beginning to realize that suicide bombers are not nice people!

GENEVA - UN human rights experts said Friday that Israel must stop discrimination against minority children within the country.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child said it also was concerned about Israeli treatment of Palestinian children in the occupied territories even though it recognizes there is a "climate of fear" resulting from "continuing acts of terror."

Israeli Ambassador Ya'akov Levy said he had objections to some of the committee's findings, but he praised the panel for being the first UN body to use the term "Palestinian suicide bombers" in its condemnation of terrorism.

The committee of 10 independent experts was commenting after its review of Israel's compliance with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. The panel periodically reviews the performance of all 191 countries that have signed the treaty.

It said it was concerned that Israel lacks a constitutional guarantee of nondiscrimination, and urged the government to carry out public education campaigns "to ensure that all children enjoy all the rights set out in the convention without discrimination."

It said it was concerned about "inequalities" in access to education, health care and social services for Israeli Arabs, Bedouins, Ethiopians and other minorities as well as disabled and foreign children.

The committee urged Israel "to take all possible measures to reconcile the interpretation of religious laws with fundamental human rights" to make sure boys and girls are treated equally.

It noted Israel's efforts to address the rights and special needs of children with disabilities. "However, it remains concerned at the large gap between the needs and services provided, and the gap between services provided to Jewish and Israeli-Arab children."

In presenting Israel's report, Levy had told the panel that the Israeli government had undertaken a number of reforms in children's rights and was still trying to raise public awareness to enhance their well-being, irrespective of their ethnic, geographic or religious background.

The panel said it "deeply regrets" that Israel failed to provide any information about the situation of children in occupied Palestinian territories. The Israeli government says it has transferred the responsibility for reporting on the territories to the Palestinian authority, but the panel rejected this argument.

"It's the opinion of this committee that the State of Israel is responsible for all children within its jurisdiction and 'within its jurisdiction' means including the Palestinian territory," said Committee Chairman Jacob Doek of the Netherlands.

Doek said the panel objected to the way the Israeli government defines children in the occupied territories as being under 16 while children in Israel are defined as under 18.

"This is discriminatory" because it leads to such results as the jailing of 16-year-old Palestinian stone throwers with adult inmates, Doek said.

The committee said it "deeply regrets the killings and injuries of all children" in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and urged all responsible to end the violence.

The climate of fear results from "acts of terror on both sides, especially the deliberate and indiscriminate targeting and killing of Israeli civilians, including children, by Palestinian suicide-bombers," it said.

It said it recognized Israel's right to live in peace and security, but that "the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, the bombing of civilian areas (and) extrajudicial killings ... continue to contribute to the cycle of violence."

It said it was "seriously concerned" about the allegations of "inhuman and degrading practices, torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian children by police officers during arrest, interrogation and in detention."

Levy said the Israeli government disagreed with the committees "characterizations of Israeli defensive action against terror, definitions that are not within the purview of the committees mandate."

source: LINK

P.A. Birth Rate Down

The Oslo War has had far-ranging demographic effects on the Arab population of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The Palestinian Authority Statistical Office shows that the birth rate has dropped 18% in the past two years - from 7 births per woman in the previous decade to 5.75 births since the beginning of 2001. Marriage rates, too, have dropped almost 4%. Some 3.3 million Arabs live in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and 60% of them have lost half their income over the past two years.

source: url

Israeli police enter al-Aqsa compound


The Temple Mount is often a scene of tension

Israeli police entered the Muslim mosque compound on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem - known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif.
The police threw stun grenades

Israeli police entered the Muslim mosque compound on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem - known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif.
The police threw stun grenades at Palestinian youths after rocks hit Jewish worshippers at the Western or Wailing Wall below the compound. Jewish worshippers were briefly evacuated.

There are no immediate reports of injuries or damage at the compound. The situation seems to have calmed and police have withdrawn.


Police officials said they acted after Palestinian youths began throwing rocks at Israeli officers at an entrance to the mosque compound and some rocks fell on Jewish worshippers.

"It was thought they were intending to throw rocks into the plaza where [Jewish] worshippers were, so police entered the compound and fired a few stun grenades," a police spokesman said.

"People were told to leave the Wall plaza below, and the Waqf [Islamic religious authority] then helped calmed the situation down."

The incident occurred at the end of Friday prayers at the two mosques at the Haram al-Sharif - often a tense time in East Jerusalem.

The Western Wall is the most sacred site in Judaism, while the al-Aqsa mosque above is the third holiest site in Islam.

The Temple Mount has been a flashpoint for tensions in the past.

A visit there by the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, two years ago - when he was opposition leader - is widely seen as one of the sparks that ignited the current Palestinian uprising.

source: url

A bulldozer works to clear rubble in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Oct. 1 as two Palestinian men inspect damaged buildings.



Israeli bulldozer is more feared than tanks

ZIF, West Bank -- Hamad Shatat knew what was coming the moment he heard the deafening roar of the engines. Moments later, he saw two bulldozers operated by the Israeli army maneuver past a herd of goats and crash into the walls of his house.
These were not ordinary bulldozers. The mammoth machines nicknamed "the Beast" are only slightly smaller than a tank but are more feared. The smallest of their interchangeable blades is taller than the average adult and wide enough to clear a two-lane highway with one swipe.
"In a matter of hours," Shatat said, ãthey destroyed our dreams in front of our eyes."
For Palestinians, the American-made Caterpillar D9 bulldozers -- and their even larger cousins, the D10 and D11 -- have become hated symbols of Israel's military might and further evidence of U.S. complicity in Israeli's actions.
On the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinians talk of the 104,000-pound D9 in the same angry breath as an F-16 warplane and an Apache helicopter gunship. Children who throw stones at Israeli tanks run from the D9.
The Israeli army has used bulldozers to demolish homes of militants and suicide bombers, uproot olive groves, clear land for roads to Jewish settlements and pile rocks to block roads used by Palestinians. It has also deployed the machines as offensive weapons. When soldiers were pinned down last April in the Jenin refugee camp, army D9s leveled homes in an area the size of two football fields and quickly brought the battle to an end.
And in Ramallah, the bulldozers played a prominent role in laying siege to and destroying most of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound, reducing the symbol of Palestinian self-rule into little more than a rock quarry. Buildings erected by Great Britain during the 1930s tumbled under the weight of the D9s, which shoved stories-high piles of concrete into evenly spaced mounds with efficient ease.
The walls of the one building occupied by Arafat and his aides cracked and shook. A tank barrel was pointed at Arafat's window, but his aides feared the demolition signaled the true end.
An Israeli army commander stood amid the ruins 100 yards from Arafat's office and concurred that guns would not force anyone inside to surrender. "The real pressure," he said, "comes from bulldozers."
Each bulky, snub-nosed D9 is 13 feet high and has a blade 6 feet, 4 inches high and 14 feet long. The machine costs $500,000, and the Israeli army spends another $120,000 to add armor and a bulletproof cage for the driver, who has to climb a ladder to reach the seat. The blade on the newer D11s, which cost $1.1 million, is 11 feet high and 24 feet wide.
Representatives from Caterpillar, the world's largest supplier of heavy construction and mining equipment, acknowledge that the Israeli's unusual use of the machines has created controversy for the company.
"Caterpillar shares the world's concern over unrest in the Middle East, and we certainly have compassion for all those affected by the political strife," company spokesman Benjamin S. Cordani said, reading from a prepared statement. "However, more than 2 million Caterpillar machines and engines are at work in virtually every country and region of the world each day.
"We have neither the legal right nor the means to police individual use of that equipment."
Army spokesmen declined to say how many bulldozers the army owns and how many it uses under contract from private companies. Nor would the army allow interviews of any drivers.
Israeli newspapers have written about the commander of the bulldozing unit at Arafat's compound, a 23-year-old female lieutenant identified only as Talia. Depicted as a small, smiling girl, she described the work as a model of precise engineering, and not wanton destruction.
But the lore of the D9 was solidified, at least in the minds of human-rights groups and the Palestinians, when Army reservist Moshe Nissim spoke to the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper in May and told of driving the bulldozer in Jenin, with only two hours of training.
"For three days, I just erased and erased," the 40-year-old told the paper, describing how he downed whiskey to stay awake for 75 hours. "I entered Jenin driven by madness, by desperation. I didn't give a damn about demolishing all the houses I've demolished, and I have demolished plenty. I made them a stadium in the middle of the camp. If I'm sorry for anything, it is for not tearing the whole camp down."
The army dismisses Nissim's story as the exaggerated bravado of a drunkard and poor soldier. But for military critics, his widely circulated account typifies the type of personality recruited to sit atop a D9.
Hamad Shatat could see the man driving the D9 that destroyed his home. He was wearing civilian clothes but was protected in a bulletproof cage high above the ground.
Shatat and his brother, Musa, 42, saved for 30 years to build the house, in an area south of Hebron under Israeli control. They didn't obtain a construction permit -- which they said would be nearly impossible to get because of travel restrictions -- but also said that Israeli authorities didn't warn them that their home was to be demolished, and thus they had no chance to appeal in court.
The bulldozers came the morning of Sept. 2, accompanied by dozens of soldiers. What remains are the concrete outlines of the foundations, a pile of metal connecting rods and the decorative slabs of limestone that used to surround the front door.
"We felt very handicapped, very weak," said Musa, wearing a baseball cap adorned with the American flag, and walking on the ground where his house once stood. "The D9 is more frightening than the tank. When it comes, you know it's coming to destroy you."

source: URL

Anti-Semitism now couched in Israel bashing




A few months ago at San Francisco State University, Jewish students, holding a peace rally, were attacked by an angry mob of Palestinians. Many of the Jewish students were wearing yellow T-shirts embossed with the words ''Peace, Shalom, Sallam.'' The Palestinians threatened and taunted the Jewish students shouting, ''Get out or we'll kill you'' and ``Hitler did not finish the job.''

Professor Laurie Zoloth, Director of the Jewish Studies Department and the Director of Hillel were the only faculty members to come to aid the Jewish students.

Zoloth said, ``Not one administrator came to stand with us. I knew if a crowd of Palestinians or black students had been there, surrounded by a crowd of white racists screaming racist threats shielded by police, the faculty and staff would have no trouble deciding which side to stand on.''

What happened at San Francisco State is not an isolated incident. Jews on campuses all over this country are frightened to express pro-Israel views. What is happening on American campuses is part of a worldwide campaign to criminalize and isolate Israel. However, this anti-Israel campaign has deeper and more sinister implications for the Jewish people as a whole. It is a new and virulent form of anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitism is now acceptable in Europe, as long as it is couched in anti-Israel rhetoric. The day after the deadly Palestinian attack at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, The Guardian, a left-leaning British newspaper, published an editorial criticizing Israel for what it called ''random, vengeful acts of terror'' against Palestinians in the West Bank town of Jenin last spring. This after a U.N. report had dismissed Palestinian claims that the Israelis had carried out a massacre there.

Anti-Semitism after World War II was driven underground of the European subconscious. But it has resurfaced in the form of anti-Zionism.

European intellectuals who have not come to terms with anti-Semitic feelings pour their anti-Jewish venom into anti-Israel diatribes. Responsibility for the growing number of attacks on synagogues and Jewish institutions all over Europe can be traced to the anti-Israel hysteria in academic and media circles.

The link between anti-Israel rhetoric and anti-Semitism was made abundantly clear at the UN sponsored conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, where Israeli delegates were denied credentials and participation on key committees. Israelis and also Americans representing Jewish organizations were denied participation on the basis that they could not be objective about Israeli policies. Syrian, Palestinian and Saudi representatives, however, were considered objective and allowed to participate.

Jews were harassed, insulted and even threatened with physical harm throughout the conference. A resolution calling Holocaust denial a form of anti-Semitism, was overwhelmingly voted down.

The time has come to confront the anti-Israel anti-Semitism in American academia. The time has come to hold European intellectuals responsible for creating an atmosphere in which people are frightened to be identified as Jews in the streets of Paris, Oslo and Frankfurt. The time has come to root out anti-Semitism in the UN. Anti-Semitism is nothing new. What is new, however, are anti-Semites who hide behind the veil of anti-Zionism. The time has come to unmask these artful dodgers and reveal them for the anti-Semites they are.

RABBI ALLAN C. TUFFS

Temple Beth El
Hollywood [Florida]

source: link

Barghouthi rejects Israel's right to try him



Marwan Barghouthi, the imprisoned West Bank chief of President Yasser Arafat's Fateh movement, raises his handcuffed hands as he enters a Tel Aviv courtroom. Barghouthi's trial reopened Thursday (Photo by Eitan Hess Ashkenazi/AP)

UPRISING LEADER Marwan Barghouthi was back in court Thursday on “terrorism” charges, rejecting in a turbulent hearing the Israeli occupation authorities' right to try him, and backed by a Jewish lawyer who compared him to Moses.

An Israeli source, meanwhile, confirmed that occupation army commandos have practised expelling Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and the military is ready to spirit the Palestinian leader out of the country if the government gives the green light.

Meanwhile, an Israeli tank in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin fired at a vegetable market where Palestinians were breaking the curfew on Thursday, killing a 45-year-old vendor with machinegun fire, witnesses said.

In Tel Aviv, Barghouthi used his trial to attack Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, setting off fistfights among spectators as his team distributed a mock indictment of Israel.

Barghouthi, a key West Bank leader of Arafat's Fateh movement, is the highest-ranking Palestinian figure to be put on trial in Israel. His third court appearance was light on legal content but heavy with staging, tension and drama.

Israel accuses Barghouthi of orchestrating “terror” attacks that killed 26 Israelis. Barghouthi insists that he is a politician and is not connected with anti-occupation attacks.

In the legal proceedings, the judge gave the two sides six weeks to prepare arguments about the court's jurisdiction — which Barghouthi has challenged — and set the next court session for Nov. 21.

Defying howls of derision from relatives of Israelis killed in Palestinian attacks, Barghouthi made clenched fist and V-for-Victory signs as he entered the courtroom, shackled and handcuffed.

“Murderer,” one of the protesters shouted. “You killed my son,” shouted another.

“I am a freedom fighter,” Barghouthi retorted. “Peace will win.”

Outside, Barghouthi's aide distributed a document presented as a 54-count “indictment,” listing Israeli crimes against humanity in general and the Palestinians in particular, as Israelis and Palestinians scuffled.

Barghouthi's newest lawyer, Shamai Leibowitz, told the court that the prosecution of Barghouthi is a violation of Jewish law and morality. Leibowitz, an Israeli Orthodox Jew, is a grandson of Yeshayahu Leibowitz, the famous Torah scholar who spoke out stridently against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

He submitted in evidence a page from the book of Exodus and told the judge that Barghouthi was acting like Moses, when the biblical figure killed an Egyptian because he was beating a Jewish slave. This was an act of resistance to the Egyptian occupation, Leibowitz said.

“Yes, but Moses didn't kill two other Egyptians,” said Judge Zvi Gurfinkel, alluding to Palestinian bombing and shooting attacks on Jewish “civilians.”

While Barghouthi is the defendant, the Israeli indictment charges that Arafat was aware of his activities, setting Arafat up as the real Israeli target.

Security sources confirmed for the first time Thursday that the Israeli military has practised expelling Arafat to a neighbouring country, a move the Israeli government believes would encourage emergence of what they call “a moderate leadership,” but critics warn would set off violence, hand power to Palestinian resistance fighters, cause chaos in the West Bank and Gaza and diplomatically isolate Israel.

The security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said commando units practised a scenario of bursting into Arafat's office, abducting him, stuffing him into a helicopter and whisking him off to a remote part of an unnamed Arab country.

Arafat has pledged to resist deportation, even if he is killed in battle.

In a 10-day siege that ended Sunday under intense US pressure, Israeli bulldozers knocked down many of the buildings in the city block-sized compound, trapping Arafat inside part of his office. Though the security sources did not make the connection, the destruction of the other buildings would make it easier for Israeli commandos to find Arafat and spirit him away.

The sources said the commando unit had been placed on standby three times in recent months, including after a suicide bombing attack that killed 29 people celebrating the Jewish holiday of Passover in March, triggering a large-scale Israeli aggression on the West Bank.

Sharon is said to support expelling Arafat, but would be hesitant to move while the United States is trying to focus attention on Iraq. Israeli officials said that was the reason the US forced Israel to back away from Arafat's office on Sunday.

Also Thursday, a Palestinian vendor was shot and killed in the West Bank town of Jenin by Israeli troops enforcing a curfew, and in Gaza, soldiers tore down the house of a Palestinian activist who carried out a shooting attack on a Jewish settlement several months ago.

In the Jenin incident, Israeli military sources alleged an occupation army patrol came under fire from Palestinian freedom fighters and fired back towards the source of the shooting. The occupation army was investigating, they claimed.

Palestinian witnesses and medics said Ahmed Hassan Steiti, 45, was shot in the head when the outdoor market in Jenin came under machinegun fire from a tank, and died in a local hospital.

They said there was no fighting in the district when the vendor was shot and that people had gone to the market in the morning assuming the curfew would be eased during the day. An army spokesman said the curfew remained in place.

Israel has lifted curfews during daytime hours or relaxed its enforcement of them in some of the six West Bank cities it has reoccupied since June in response to Palestinian suicide bombings.

Israel says the curfews help stop suicide bombers. Palestinians complain of collective punishment because hundreds of thousands of people have been confined to their homes for long periods, unable to work or get essential supplies.

Curfew violations, born of desperation or defiance, have been frequent. Two Palestinian boys and a Palestinian municipal official were killed in Jenin in June when tanks fired towards a crowd on a downtown street during curfew.

An army spokesman said troops rounded up 35 more suspected Palestinian resistance fighters in overnight raids across the West Bank.

In Washington meanwhile, the US administration tried to calm Arab tempers after a congressional funding bill signed into law by US President George W. Bush this week demanded that the US embassy in Tel Aviv be transferred to the occupied Palestinian city of Jerusalem.

The move would implicitly recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, whose 1967 annexation of the Arab eastern sector of the disputed city holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians has never been acknowledged by the international community.

Most states have their embassies in Tel Aviv to avoid adding weight to Israel's declaration of Jerusalem as its undivided capital, which clashes directly with the Palestinians' aspirations to have the capital of their future state in the eastern part.

The move caused a storm of protest across the region, while Israel itself has kept quiet on the issue.

Worried that the furore could further hamper efforts to build an anti-Iraqi coalition in the region, the State Department insisted US policy on Jerusalem was unchanged and Washington still believed its status should be settled between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Our policy on Jerusalem has not changed,” department spokesman Philip Reeker said. “I can't make it any plainer than that.”

But Arafat called on Christians to join Muslims in rejecting Congress's demand.

“No one can touch Jerusalem,” he said in Ramallah.

Source: URL

Palestinians Stone Police Guarding Western Wall




JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinians threw stones on Friday at Israeli police guarding Jerusalem's Western Wall plaza which is holy to Jews, and worshippers there had to be temporarily evacuated, police and witnesses said.

The incident occurred after Palestinians finished Friday prayers on the Temple Mount, the site of two mosques holy to Islam that looms above the Western Wall.

Israeli police said about 30 Palestinian youths began throwing stones at police stationed at the entrance of a pathway leading from the side of the plaza up to the Temple Mount compound. "It was thought they were intending to throw rocks into the plaza where (Jewish) worshippers were, so police entered the (Temple Mount) compound and fired a few stun grenades," a spokesman said.

"People were told to leave the Wall plaza below, and the Waqf (Islamic religious authority) then helped calmed the situation down. It is quiet now. Worshippers have returned."

Police had withdrawn from the Temple Mount compound, he added.

Source: LINK

America between Chomsky and Friedman

This Saudi article thinks Chomsky=Good. He is against Israel. Friedman=Bad and Jewish because he does not hate Israel:

Saudi Arabia is currently the target of a bitter media campaign in the United States. The campaign is as powerful and effective as if it were official. It betrays the US intention to Americanize, or impose America’s will upon, the rest of the world. For the past sixty years, the Kingdom has been a strategic partner of the US while, at the same time, holding fast to its own views on Palestine and other regional, Arab and Muslim issues.

When approaching the present problem we should try to begin from within ourselves. It is, however, becoming increasingly evident that we are facing an America very different from what we have known in the past. It has changed totally. It is looking for an enemy and is behaving like a wounded lion. The Americans now believe that “whoever is not with us is against us.”

There are nonetheless two strong currents of thought struggling to dominate American politics. One is espoused by Noam Chomsky, a remarkable US political thinker. He demands radical changes in US foreign policy or the country will face a “revolution from within.” He has advised successive US governments since the Carter administration of the need to change the colonialist and supercilious approach to the rest of the world.

Chomsky’s views are not as strong as those represented by Thomas Friedman, who is firmly rooted in both his Americanism and Jewishness. Disagreeing with Chomsky, he argues that the US has always been in the right. When I asked Friedman during a recent visit to the Kingdom about his differences with Chomsky, he replied, “Just as you regard Osama Bin Laden as an extremist, we in the US regard Chomsky as an extremist.”

Source: url

Canada Customs detains pro-Israel papers


Canada Customs and Revenue Agency was accused of censorship last night after confiscating newsletters defending "Israel's moral right to exist" that were destined for the University of Toronto.

The agency said the goods were being detained to determine whether they constitute hate propaganda.

"I think it's a clear case of censorship. It is Canada censoring intellectual material. It is harmful to free speech," said Dr. Yaron Brook, president of the California-based Ayn Rand Institute, which published the newsletter.

Copies of the 10-page newsletter, In Moral Defense of Israel, were being delivered to the University of Toronto Objectivist Club so they could be handed out at a meeting on Sunday at which Dr. Brook is speaking.

for full article, click here: [url]

Unfortunetely, these people are still breathing

Here is a list of professors in Israel who have signed the Harvard MIT petition to boycott Israel

Emmanuel Farjoun, MIT PhD in Math, now professor at Hebrew University
Yosef Grodzinsky, MIT Postdoc in Linguistics, now profssor at Tel Aviv University
Idan Landau, MIT PhD in Linguistics, now lecturer at Ben Gurion University
Tanya Reinhart, MIT PhD in Linguistics, now professor at Tel-Aviv University
Nomi Shir, MIT PhD in Linguistics, now professor at Ben Gurion University

I hope we have some readers in Israel who see this.

Divestiture From Israel.

As many have pointed out, it smacks of anti-Semitism when Israel is singled out for divestiture. In good things (rights, voting, etc.), Israel surpasses almost all countries in the world including every Arab and Muslim country. In terms of bad things (violation of rights, inequality, etc.) it is surpassed by almost all countries in the world including every Arab and Muslim country.

Besides fighting these biased proposals directly, I think another tact to take might be to start mirror divestiture drives replacing the word Israel with the word "undemocratic". We should start a drive to have the universities divest themselves of all investments in and in companies that do business with undemocratic countries - i.e., all Muslim and Arab countries.

Chomsky at UPenn - as if West Philly isn't dirty enough

The Insta and constant pundit points us to this article in the U Penn newspaper explaining why Chomsky is a scumbag.

Rumor has it that Instapundit has undergone surgery top allow his eyes to move independently. This ability, along with advanced intelligence, allows him to read two computer screens at once thereby doubling his posts.

The Shark

The Shark has a good post on some criticisms of CampusWatch.org, the group set up to monitor apologists for islamo Fascism and anti-Israel bias on America's campuses.

I'm Shocked, Shocked...

JTA reports on a biased NPR series about Zionism.

Read or listen to the series here

The CAMERA reports on the series are here, here, and here.

I'll post my thoughts on the series on Sunday.

On the dark side: The fear factor

Nations once feared to oppose Soviet might. Today they fear opposing Islamic might. They fear opposing terrorism. They fear opposing Iraq. So George W. Bush had to try to shame the United Nations into doing so.

Which makes him contemptible to them. For he exposes their cowardice. Every day that he shows no fear, he highlights theirs.

Evil always seems more formidable than does good. Some even scoff at the very notion of its existence, subconsciously preempting accusations that they might be enabling or siding with any such thing. If one doesn't delineate the world in terms of good and evil, one never has to admit that he is supporting the wrong camp, or why. Fear is masked, and the hunt to collect moral justification for one's position commences.

Why Doesn't He Keep His Mouth Shut

Labor party head and aspiring (and perspiring) prime minster candidate and current defense minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer aannounced that the US will attack Irack before the end of November.

Speaking at a meeting of Labor Party ministers on Thursday, Defense Minister and Party Chairman Benjamin Ben-Eliezer estimated that a U.S. military attack against Iraq would begin at the end of November.

Sources close to Ben-Eliezer said that the initial assessment of the defense ministry was that an assault on Iraq would commence in the middle of December. They said that the defense minister's remarks Thursday were based on new information received by the intelligence establishment.

Steven Plaut's Thoughts - emailed to me (and many others, I assume).


1. The Far Leftist shyster representing arch-terrorist Marwan Barghout,
Shammai Leibovitch - grandson of Yeshayahu Leibovitch, thinks his client
is the moral equivalent of Moses, or so he said in court yesterday. I
mean, did not Moses kill the Egyptian oppressor and occupier as a
statement about social justice? Barghouti ordered the murders of hundreds
of people including many children.

Meanwhile Barghouti's court strategy is to declare the court itself
illegitimate - I guess because all of Israel is illegal. And other
Palestinian terrorists are following his lead and basing their "defense"
on the illegality of the Israeli courts.

I have a modest suggestion to make. Whenever a Palestinian terrorist
challenges the legality of an Israeli court, Israel should just agree to
accept his position and then take him out back to face a firing squad.

Meanwhile, if Moses had a grave anyone could locate, I bet we'd see him
rolling over in it.

2. Meanwhile, the latest on Ilan Pappe. Pappe is a political scientist
at the University of Haifa and a vintage anti-Jewish "New Historian". He
is Israel's most extremist anti-Semitic tenured red. His academic record
consists mostly of Israel-bashing tirades published in the PLO's own
"Journal of Palestine Studies", and on that basis the University saw fit
to grant him tenure, a matter you should bring to the attention of any
potential donor to the school. He has openly called for Israel to be
destroyed. He fabricated the "Tantura Massacre", a make-believe massacre
of Arabs by the Hagana in 1948 that never took place. His anti-Jewish
ravings appear on Islamist fundamentalist papers and web sites, and
neonazi ones as well. And he appears at anti-Israel and anti-Jewish
rallies all over the world. He will be the star at the upcoming Nuremberg
Rally at the University of Michigan.

All of which will make you enjoy the following take on Pappe even more
so. I think it might even make your whole week:

3. Leftist McCarthyism in Israel is still alive and doing quite well
under the Sharon government. The Attorney General has just decided to
prosecute the Chief Rabbi of Safed, Shmuel Eliyahu, for "incitement to
racism". The Rabbi had denounced some of the anti-Jewish Arab Knesset
Members and had said of Arab students studying in Safed that they are an
"alien element who endanger the town's people from both a security and a
moral perspective." He said this right after a wave of suicide bombings.
He also said he favors population transfers that involve emigration of
Arabs.

Now whether or not you happen to agree with the Rabbi's opinions,
surely nothing he has said comes anywhere near the dozens of calls by Arab
leaders in Israel to murder Jews and destroy Israel, nor the countless
cheers from Israeli leftists every time a "settler" is murdered, nor the
comparison of a mass murdering terrorist to Moses by a leftist shyster,
nor a Haifa University faculty member promoting anti-Semitism at the
University of Michigan. But of course all of THESE would be protected
speech in post-democratic Israel.


In another act of Sharonite democracy, the government just put out an
writ of "administrative arrest", ordinarily used against Palestinian
terrorists, but this time against Kahanist activist Noam Federman.
Federman will be under indefinite house arrest. Federman is not charged
with any actual crime, although without a doubt is guilty of political
incorrectness and unruly behavior and possibly even graffiti composition.
It is not clear if Federman's brother, a national hero who killed a
terrorist trying to ram a pickup truck into a dance club, will be able to
go visit the inciter.

. . .6. A Hebrew University Arab teaching assistant in the Department of
Statistics, one Wisam Abu-Ahmed, had an interesting grading policy. He
automatically raised all the grades for all the Arabs in his class
sections. As a protest against mistreatment of Arabs by Jews. Some
unhappy racist insensitive Jews however complained about this affirmative
action policy to the police. The university authorities are not amused.

But this is all the height of hypocrisy. Abu-Ahmed is not doing
anything that Israel's entire university system did not decide to do long
ago. Israeli universities ALL have affirmative action preferences for
Arab students and admit them with dumbed-down standards or with none at
all. And most also have a long policy of exempting Arab students from
inconvenient things like having to obey the law on campus or university
rules. SO what is any different about Abu-Ahmed's actions? He is just
following the lead of the Ivory Cartel. I know I would testify in his
defense.

Some Headlines from JCPA

Anti-Israel Voices Muted In New Congress
Several leading anti-Israel voices no longer will be heard in the Capitol’s halls because a number of representatives whom Jewish activists have deemed anything from “not a friend of Israel” to “anti-Israel” are not returning to their jobs. Some lost primaries and some are aiming at higher office, but the departure of these lawmakers - together with the expected victory this fall of dozens of strong supporters of Israel - signals the advent of a particularly pro-Israel Congress for the next two years.

U.S. Rejects Comparisons between Iraq and Israel
The U.S. Thursday rejected every comparison between Iraq and Israel, in regard to weapons of mass destruction, reports Israel Radio. Senior State Department official Richard Haass, visiting in Cairo, said one cannot draw a comparison between Iraq and Israel, because Iraq has used weapons of mass destruction twice - once against Iran and once against its own people [Iraqi Kurds]. Haass said that Iraq is a violent nation that cannot be permitted to possess such weapons.

Scuffles Mar Opening of Barghouti Trial
A Tel Aviv District Court hearing about whether the State of Israel has the legal authority to put Marwan Barghouti on trial descended into an outright riot before and after the court session. With masses of foreign press on the scene, both the angry relatives of terror victims and peace activists jockeyed for media attention.
The West Bank Fatah movement's secretary general and leader of the Tanzim, Barghouti is accused of murder and attempted murder. In a new public opinion poll by east Jerusalem's Jerusalem Media Institute, only three percent of Palestinians regard Barghouti as the best possible leader. Yasser Arafat won 26.7% support, and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin of Hamas won 10.3%.

Palestinian Homicide Bombers Plotted to Strike Druze Holy Site
A Palestinian terrorist cell plotted to send homicide bombers to Nebi Shuweib, a site holy to Druze near the Kinneret, according to an indictment presented at Salam Junction Military Court.

Poll: 60% of Israelis Say They are Fighting for their Survival
Sixty percent of Israelis believe Israel is fighting for its existence in the now two-year-old Palestinian war, according to a poll conducted by Smith Research and Consulting. Only 11% of Israelis believe that the war is being fought over the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

President Bush to Push Palestinian Reforms (second part of the story)
Officials in Washington believe that the strengthening of Arafat's status as a result of the Muqata siege is a transient phenomenon. They believe the IDF withdrawal from Arafat's Ramallah compound created a "window of opportunity" for the resumption of PA reforms. The U.S. wants Egypt, Syria, and Jordan to lobby for the appointment of a Palestinian prime minister.

Iran: Shihab Missile Designed to Target Israel
Ahmed Wahid, head of Iran's missile development program, revealed Thursday in an interview with the London-based Al-Hayat that the Shihab rocket had been developed to have a range of 1,500 km. because the primary aim was to "hit Israeli targets in the event that Israel fires missiles at Iran." He also revealed that Iran intends to soon conduct an experimental launch of a satellite, using the Shihab rocket, which would be used for civilian as well as military intelligence purposes.

Hamas Trying to Set Up Bomb Labs Inside Israel

Hamas has been actively trying to set up weapons labs in Arab villages inside Israel in recent months, security sources say.


A Dangerous UN Game - Anne Bayefsky

U.S. negotiators at the UN thought that serving up Israel via Resolution 1435 would smooth the way on Iraq. A week later, they are still bargaining, while the clamoring for condemnation of Israel over non-compliance with 1435 has only just begun.
When the Iraq issue is over, stage two - the declaration of a "provisional" Palestinian state, before serious negotiations get under way between the parties - is guaranteed to follow.
    The UN is not an honest broker in the Middle East, and never has been. The Arab bloc, along with Russia, France, and China, think blowing up Israelis is legitimate - according to the UN Human Rights Commission resolution of April 15.


A New Synagogue in the Old City

The Hurva synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City is the story of modern Israel in microcosm. In 1948, when Israel declared independence, the Hurva, built in 1864, was the main synagogue in the Old City. The Jordanians kicked out all the Jews and blew up the Hurva synagogue, just for the hell of it. When the Israelis recovered Jerusalem in 1967, they rebuilt a single arch in the ruins of the Hurva, intending it as a temporary memorial. Now, at last, they have plans in hand to rebuild the synagogue itself.

North Americans in the IDF


According to Jewish Agency official Akiva Werber, North Americans in the IDF are "a highly motivated group." Yehuda Weinraub of the Jewish Agency and former lieutenant colonel at the IDF Spokesman's unit, concurs: "In my personal experience with North American soldiers, they were highly motivated, many were highly educated, and many made a positive contribution."

And I thought the Amish were pacifists.

Amish Tech Support gives it to Edverd Said for saying that Arafat is a holocaust victim.

Sharon unwavering in his determination to oust Arafat, Israeli army practices for expelling Arafat


Ariel Sharon's troops are practicing bundling Yasser Arafat into a helicopter and whisking him into exile, a drill that underscores the Israeli leader's determination to get rid of his longtime nemesis.

Thus far, Sharon has been restrained by opposition from his own security advisers and political pressure from the United States. Still, Sharon's systematic campaign to sideline the Palestinian leader is unlikely to abate even though such moves boost Arafat's popularity.

Sharon's latest assault on Arafat -- a tank siege of his compound, abandoned this week under U.S. pressure -- is widely viewed in Israel as a fiasco. Critics note that the siege restored some of Arafat's luster by again making him the symbol of Palestinian suffering and aborted efforts by Palestinians to get Arafat to cede some powers.

In a recurring scenario, Palestinian suicide bombings have prompted Sharon to blame Arafat for failing to stop the attacks, and the Israeli leader has sent troops to the doorsteps of Arafat's sandbagged office building three times in six months.

In heated Cabinet debates, Sharon has favored expelling Arafat, or in lieu of that, making his presence in the region as uncomfortable as possible.

Israeli security sources, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said troops who would carry out an order to expel Arafat have been placed on standby three times in recent months, including after a Passover suicide attack that killed 29 people in March and triggered a major Israeli offensive against Palestinian militants.

The Maariv newspaper said that as part of the preparations, commandos scouted locations where Arafat could be dumped. It did not name the country, but Israeli television said several weeks ago that Libya was chosen as the place of exile.

Israeli government spokesman Raanan Gissin declined to comment on the report.

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and security officials -- including the heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet spy agencies -- have argued against Arafat's expulsion, saying he is confined and isolated at present, and would cause greater problems for Israel if he were abroad, jetting among capitals to promote the Palestinian quest for statehood.

The United States, while strongly backing Israel in the 2-year-old conflict, has criticized Israel's chokehold on Arafat and stepped in at key moments to demand that Sharon ease up.

About a week into the most recent siege, Sharon's top aide Dov Weisglass was in Washington, where he received an earful about the Bush administration's displeasure, according to Infrastructure Minister Effie Eitam. U.S. officials complained it was interfering with the campaign to get Arab backing for a U.S. move on Iraq.

Israeli troops pulled back the next day.

"It's true that Israel miscalculated. We were doing what we thought the United States had given us permission to do, but it wasn't the case," said Efraim Inbar, head of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and a Sharon supporter.

With the United States preparing for possible military action against Iraq, Washington doesn't want to be distracted by new eruptions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that is likely to keep on hold any Israeli plans to expel Arafat.

Since coming to power 20 months ago, Sharon has greatly eroded Arafat's power, though each time the Palestinian leader emerges from his shell-scorched office to flash the victory sign, he enjoys a brief surge in his otherwise flagging popularity.

Any Israeli move against Arafat is seen by Palestinians as an attack on the man who symbolizes their quest for statehood, and even Palestinians who are critical of Arafat tend to rally around him when he is besieged by the Israelis.

The latest siege appears to have sidelined a serious effort by Arafat's Fatah Party to persuade him to share some powers by appointing his longtime No. 2, Mahmoud Abbas, as prime minister to handle day-to-day affairs. In a sign of how badly Arafat's authority had eroded, the Palestinian Parliament forced the resignation of his entire Cabinet about a week before the siege.

But the crisis put the internal Palestinian debate on hold. If the Palestinians go ahead with elections in January as planned, Arafat will be the overwhelming favorite, bolstered in part because the Israelis have tried so hard to oust him.

But Inbar said the upswing in Arafat's popularity is likely to be temporary, and Sharon was taking a longer-term view.

"The endgame is to try to get a new Palestinian leadership that can tackle the extremists," said Inbar. "We are afraid of a backlash if we expel Arafat now. But it's a cautious game, and it hasn't ended."

Sharon's personal battle with Arafat goes back to Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, when Sharon was defense minister and Arafat was using Lebanon as a base for his PLO. Sharon's army drove Arafat and his guerrillas from Lebanon and scattered them in the Mideast.

Sharon opposed the Israel-PLO accords of 1993, and Palestinians are convinced his goal today is to reverse their results by destroying the Palestinian Authority and perpetuating a heavy Israeli military presence in the Palestinian areas.

They say Sharon has called on the Palestinian government to reform, but has smashed institutions capable of carrying out such changes.

Sharon "couldn't care less about reform, or anything that goes on in Palestinian society," said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator.

Referring to the latest siege, Erekat said, "Sharon thought he could get away with it, and he could not. It was a misjudgment of the international reaction. He couldn't care less if the Palestinians are ruled by the Boy Scouts or Atilla the Hun."

[ZB- Reporter forgot to give the Israeli's equal time on this point. Normally the reporter would at least quote a left wing self-hating Israeli like Yossi Sarid agreeing with Erakat's lies. The reporter also forgot to mention that Sharon has not repudiated Oslo and has repeatedly and publicly supported the eventual creation of a Palestinian and stated that he is willing to make painful compromises for peace]

Sharon's approach has been to steadily turn up the heat on Arafat, occasionally pulling back when he encounters too much resistance from the United States or the international community.

Sharon himself noted that when Israeli troops first advanced several hundred yards into Palestinian-controlled fields in the Gaza Strip in April 2001, there was an international outcry. Now, after dozens of Israeli incursions into Palestinian cities and towns, they have become routine.

"Therefore, this gradual approach in my view is the proper one," Sharon told the Jerusalem Post
source: [url]

Falwell on 60 Minutes this Sunday to call Mohammed a terrorist. Warns Bush of not supporting Israel


Falwell sent a personal protest to President Bush, and the White House received 100,000 e-mail protests from Christians when Bush urged Israel to remove its forces from Palestinian towns earlier this year. Falwell believes Bush is well aware of the Christian constituency. “There are 70 million of us…[and] there’s nothing that would bring the wrath of the Christian public in this country down on this government like abandoning or opposing Israel on a critical matter,” Falwell tells Simon.

Falwell and conservative Christians support the Israelis and condemn their enemies because they believe the triumph of Israel is God’s will. The Jews’ return to their ancient homeland – and sole ownership of the territories Arabs and Israelis both lay claim to -- is a precondition for the second coming of Christ, according to the Fundamentalist Evangelical Christians’ interpretation of the Bible. The Biblical scenario is not a savory one for many Jews, however. “God save us from these people,” says Israeli political analyst Yossi Alpher. “When you see what these people are encouraging Israel and the U.S. to do…ignore the Palestinians, kick them out…they are leading us into a scenario of out-and-out disaster,” he tells Simon.

But disaster is part of the scenario. Many Fundamentalist Evangelicals believe there will be catastrophic events on earth, some occurring already, including the turmoil in the Middle East, culminating in the Battle of Armageddon in which Christ will triumph and begin ruling the earth. At this point, they believe, non-believers will be destroyed, good Christians saved and any remaining Jews converted to Christianity.

Says Ed McAteer, a founder of the Moral Majority and known as the godfather of the Christian Right, “I believe that we are seeing prophecy unfold so rapidly and dramatically and wonderfully, and, without exaggeration, [it] makes me breathless.”

Source: note: story unfolding at this time atURL

Pals Helping Iraq?
Zbarbera links to an article about the Pal's embassy in Iraq being a storage facility for weapons of mass destruction.

The Temple Mount
Israeli Blogger Tal G [who does not link to us] quotes an Arab engineer admitting that the wall of the Temple Mount (said also to be holy to Muslims) is in danger of collapse, although, of course he blames it on the hymies.

The Next Threat - Iran's nuclear pursuit
Iranian leaders have said that once they have the bomb they will use it on Israel.

The forthcoming war to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction has diverted international attention from Iran, which is actively pursuing nuclear arms. Russia has elected to honor the nuclear deals it signed with the Iranian regime, rebuffing calls from the United States and Israel to shut down the technological pipeline. The Putin government has tightened up relations with the Bush administration, and in many areas has toed the American line. Only on the Iranian file are the Russians adamant about retaining freedom of action.

Jewish group angry over bookstore's button policy

TORONTO - A feminist bookstore has angered the Canadian Jewish Congress by refusing to distribute buttons calling for an end to suicide bombings in Israel, even as it sells buttons protesting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

''We're trying to digest the information that the Toronto Women's Bookstore is somehow averse to a button that says Stop the killings or Stop the bombings. I would think that no Canadians want to see suicide bombings killing innocent civilians,'' said Ed Morgan, chair of the CJC for the Ontario region.

The CJC was told this summer that the bookstore was selling $2 buttons bearing slogans such as Free Palestine -- Time for Peace Time for Women and End the Occupation Now.

In response, the CJC offered to produce buttons for free distribution featuring the slogan Stop the Homicide Bombings superimposed on an image of the Star of David. The CJC approached the bookstore on Thursday with the buttons, but the store declined to accept them. According to Mr. Morgan, no explanation was given.

''Everybody's allowed to come up with whatever political slogan they want and give away whatever buttons they want, but an honest and evenhanded approach to peace in the region would require them to give away our buttons as well,'' he said.

A spokeswoman for the Toronto Women's Bookstore declined to comment on the decision not to carry the CJC buttons. However, in a previous statement, the store's staff and board said selling the pro-Palestinian buttons is ''consistent with our mandate.''

''The mandate of the Toronto Women's Bookstore includes working in an anti-oppression framework that supports liberation struggles, anti-racist movements, struggles against anti-Semitism and human rights work.''

The statement also detailed the bookstore's position on the Middle East.

''We work with individuals and groups within the Jewish, Palestinian, and social activist communities, such as Women Against the Occupation, Jewish Women's Committee to End the Occupation, Creative Response and the Coalition for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine. We support the right to self-determination for Palestinians, and we support the right for Jews and Palestinians to live in peace. We believe that ending the occupation is the first step in order to realize that goal.''

The statement also criticized its critics.

''We are dismayed by the attempts to silence dissent in this issue in Toronto. Those criticizing the bookstore have equated criticism of Israel with being anti-Jewish. We believe an end to the occupation is part of the struggle against anti-Semitism.''

Mr. Morgan suggested carrying the CJC's buttons should fall within the written mandate of the bookstore.

''They purport to be advocates of peace as a matter of principle. As a matter of principle our view is they should be against the bombings,'' he said.

He said the CJC is not currently planning to call for a boycott of the store or other similar actions.

SOURCE: [URL]

Israel 'disturbed' by Blair speech


Blair's comments came in a speech to his party

Israeli cabinet ministers have expressed concern at a speech by British Prime Minister Tony Blair in which he said that the obligation to observe United Nations resolutions applies to Israel "as much as it does to Iraq".


Negotiations must have explicitly as their aims: an Israeli state free from terror, recognised by the Arab world, and a viable Palestinian state based on the boundaries of 1967
In an address to his ruling Labour party, Mr Blair also said that he supported a viable Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, alongside a secure and recognised Israeli state.

Israeli cabinet minister Danny Naveh, a member of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's right-wing Likud party, said Wednesday that he was "disturbed" by the speech.

Shimon Peres, the Israeli foreign minister, said Mr Blair's remarks had to be understood in their context - an attempt to gain support within his party for his policy on Iraq.

Tony Blair was speaking to the annual meeting of the Labour Party, which refuses to support his policy toward Iraq

Another minister, Dan Meridor, said Israel was ready to abide by all UN resolutions as long as they established the "secure and recognised borders of Israel before proceeding to a withdrawal".

Senior Palestinian minister Saeb Erekat criticised the UK prime minister's words as too vague.

"I think it's good for Prime Minister Blair to say that even Israel needs to implement Security Council resolutions," Mr Erekat said.

"What we need to see from Mr Blair is to specify the mechanism and timeline [for an Israeli withdrawal]."

Reviving talks

At the British Labour Party's annual conference, Mr Blair said: "I agree UN resolutions should apply here [to Israel] as much as to Iraq. But they don't just apply to Israel, they apply to all parties."

Mr Blair committed his government to trying to revive final-status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians by the end of this year.

"What is happening in the Middle East now is ugly and wrong - the Palestinians living in increasingly abject conditions, humiliated and hopeless, and Israeli civilians brutally murdered.

"[The negotiations] must have explicitly as their aims: an Israeli state free from terror, recognised by the Arab world, and a viable Palestinian state based on the boundaries of 1967," the prime minister said.

The UK Government's current position is that any Mid-East talks would take place under the auspices of "the quartet" - officials from US, the EU, Russia and the UN - which meets regularly and recently proposed a "road map" for peace.

However, there is speculation in the British press that Mr Blair is ready to take a far more prominent role in the search for Middle East peace and that he might even try to host a conference

source: [url]

The booming field of online education
Here in the civilized world, thousands of people are pursuing their higher education via internet courses. I don't think I could possibly emphasize our differences with the uncivilized any more clearly. We pursue our MBAs, they sign up for classes on suicide bombing.

The Hamas organization has launched an Internet course in the production and assembly of explosives.

Israeli and Palestinian sources said Hamas, which claims responsibility for the lion's share of Palestinian suicide bombing attacks, has established an Internet site that offers Muslims instructions in the production of bombs, rockets and light aircraft. They said the news of the site has spread throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The instructions can be found on the web site of Hamas's Izzedin Kassam military wing, Middle East Newsline reported. The site, called "Military Academy," offers 14 lessons in bomb-making as part of what the Islamic group said is a campaign to expand the pool of bomb-makers.

The courses include lessons on the production of a belt filled with explosives that can be worn by a suicide bomber. Other courses demonstrated how to manufacture RDX plastic explosives, material that is said to be difficult to detect. The Hamas online course also provides instructions on preparing regular bombs as well as methods to identify targets.

Gee, I wonder why their society is a complete failure.
[cross posted to Rumination]

Another Adam Shapiro

The Jerusalem Post reported that a Jew is representing Barghouti at trial, one Shamai Leibowitz, grandson of Yeshayahu Liebowitz, the leftist who coined the phrase "Judeo-Nazis." It runs in the family, apparently.

But Shamai is also giving the "closing lecture" at the University of Michigan Israel divestment conference (listed under "speakers" on the left of the screen), along with Ilan Pappe, of course.

The conference supports:

a. the full decolonization of all Palestinian land, including settlements, which are illegal under international law;
b. the end of the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem and all Arab lands;
c. the recognition and implementation of the right of return and repatriation for all Palestinian refugees to their original homes and properties; and
d. an end to the Israeli system of Apartheid and discrimination against the indigenous Palestinian population.
...
condemns the racism and discrimination inherent in Zionism underlying the policies and laws of the state of Israel

and says that

As a solidarity movement, it is not our place to dictate the strategies or tactics adopted by the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation.

i.e., terrorism is okay by them.

Arafat calls on Bush to block attempts to move U.S. Embassy


JERUSALEM (AP) -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat appealed Wednesday to one of his toughest critics -- President Bush -- to block a U.S. law that calls for moving the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to disputed Jerusalem.

"It is a catastrophe. We can't stay silent," Arafat said of the measure passed by the U.S. Congress.

Bush signed the bill into law, but views it as advisory rather than mandatory, and says he has no plans to move the embassy to Jerusalem, where Palestinians seek to establish a capital in the eastern part of the city.

In another development, Arafat's Fatah movement has dropped the idea of prodding the Palestinian leader to relinquish some power by appointing a prime minister. The Fatah campaign had been the most serious political challenge to Arafat in years, but the effort was sidetracked during Israel's 10-day siege of Arafat's compound, which ended earlier this week.

Fatah had been pushing for a prime minister who would run the day-to-day affairs of government.

Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath, a senior Fatah member, said that at a Tuesday meeting of the Fatah Central Committee "the consensus of the members is that the prime minister should be appointed after the establishment of a Palestinian state and drafting a constitution."

The sensitive issue of moving the U.S. embassy arises periodically, invariably drawing a sharp Palestinian response.

If the United States relocated the embassy to Jerusalem, it would be seen as recognition of Israel's claim to the entire city and would challenge Palestinian aspirations to set up the capital in the Arab part of the city as part of a future state.

"It can't be accepted at all, for the Christians and for all the Muslims," Arafat said at his battered compound in Ramallah, just a few miles north of Jerusalem.

Bush has been consistently critical of Arafat, saying he has failed to show leadership and crack down on Palestinian militants over two years of violence. However, Bush said he would maintain the long-standing U.S. policy on Jerusalem.

The United States, like most of the international community, has never recognized Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem, which it captured from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast War. The United States says Jerusalem's ultimate status should be determined in peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

But the Jerusalem clause in the U.S. spending bill signed by Bush states that no money could be spent on official U.S. documents that listed Israel without identifying Jerusalem as the capital.

Also Wednesday, Israeli officials dismissed a rebuke by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said U.N. resolutions have to be respected, whether they apply to Iraq or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinians have long complained about Israel's refusal to comply with resolutions calling on it to withdraw from land captured in the 1967 war. Blair on Tuesday expressed support for the creation of a Palestinian state "based on the boundaries of 1967."

Responding to Blair, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said that while Palestinian statehood is inevitable, only negotiations will lead to its creation. "No amount of international pressure will bring about the formation of a Palestinian state," Ben-Eliezer said.

source: [url]

Rabbi Meir Kahane

A new Kach movement seems to be forming in the U.S., called appropriately New Kach. I believe the old one, at the instigation of Israel, is listed by the State Department as a terrorist group. The new group says that it does not support violence. It does have a section defending Dr. Baruch Goldstein who it says only acted to prevent a massacre of Jews by Arabs (and not just to kill people). There are local chapters in NY, NY and Teaneck, NJ among other places.

Israel and the Laws of Armed Conflict

Take a look at this report from the Federalist Society, A Legal Analysis of the Attacks on Civilians and Infliction of Collateral Damage in the Middle East Conflict.

It's a good primer on the basic principles of the laws of armed conflict and shows how Israel has respected them--trying to minimize civilian deaths--while the Palestinians have violated them--i.e., intentionally attacking civilians. It points out that there is no justification in international law for distinguishing the validity of attacking civilians based on the alleged justness of the cause, a claim that the Palestinians and their supporters have made, such as saying that the Palestinians have no other way of "resisting occupation" except deliberately killing civilians. It also points out that Israel has applied the basic principles of distinction (attacking only military targets intentionally) and proportionality (try to avoid killing more civilians unintentionally than the military target is worth), even in the case of Shahedah, the HAMAS terrorist whose apartment was hit by a heavy bomb dropped by an IAF F-16. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it establishes that Israel's targetted killings are entirely legal under international law b/c any military target is fair game at all times during a war, and, in fact, targetted killings are far more discriminate and proportional than any other action.

Also, along the way, the report gets in a few good digs at NGOs such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch for presenting "international law" as what they want it to be, not what it actually is.

A must read.

The Battle of Jerusalem - Editorial (New York Sun), summary from JCPA

Blair's speech calling for Israel to return to the 1967 boundaries is all the more ironic in light of the fact that it was Lord Caradon, envoy of Mr. Blair's own Labor Party, who drafted Security Council Resolution 242 which specifically did not require such a move. Caradon explained later, "It would have been wrong to demand that Israel return to its positions of June 4, 1967, because those positions were undesirable and artificial."

The Jewish connection to Jerusalem goes back 3,000 years. Israel has administered the city since 1967 in a way that has allowed free access to holy sites to people of all faiths. This stands in marked contrast to the last time the Arabs held the city, from 1948 to 1967, during which time synagogues were leveled and Jewish tombstones were used for Jordanian army latrines.

The American Congress has overwhelmingly and repeatedly recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and recognized the need to maintain it as an undivided city. This is enshrined in the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995.

While a presidential waiver applies to the financial penalties for not moving the American embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, the requirement to move the embassy and the policy on Jerusalem as Israel's capital are not subject to waiver.

Dividing a free and democratic country's capital and handing half of it to the terrorists is no way for a great nation like America to treat its friends or to do anything other than whet the appetite of the terrorists whose defeat we seek.

Senior Palestinian leader arrives in Moscow after Sharon visit



MOSCOW (AP) -- A top Palestinian leader arrived in Moscow on Wednesday, a day after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wrapped up a visit to the Russian capital.

Mahmoud Abbas, the deputy head of the Palestine Liberation Organization and a leading peace negotiator, said he had come to exchange opinions on the settlement of the conflict in the Middle East, according to the Interfax news agency.

Abbas was to meet with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and other ministry officials.

A Russian news report quoted Abbas as denying he had held secret talks with the Israeli leadership in the Gulf state of Qatar. However, he said Palestinians would welcome such talks, according to the Interfax news agency.

An Israeli government official said on condition of anonymity Wednesday that Sharon adviser Ephraim Halevy had met with a senior Palestinian leader in Qatar. Abbas was in Qatar a few days ago and one Israeli newspaper said he was the official who met with Halevy.

Sharon met with Russian officials Monday and Tuesday. An aide said he presented his view of a phased approach to ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, calling for Palestinians first to stop attacks on Israelis then reform their political system before negotiating for a final settlement.

Meanwhile, Russia's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that U.S. legislation encouraging recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital could complicate peace efforts.

"We call on all sides to refrain from unilateral moves that anticipate the results of talks on the final status" of Jerusalem, the Foreign Ministry said.

Jerusalem is claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians, and Moscow said the city's final status "must be resolved in the framework of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations" and on the basis of U.N. resolutions.

Moscow noted, however, that President Bush had also expressed strong reservations when he signed the spending bill from Congress that urged his administration to shift the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Bush said the clauses calling for the shift had no force because they violate his constitutional authority to conduct foreign policy.

Russia is part of the so-called quartet of Middle East peacemakers, which also includes the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.

source: url

How to bomb thy neighbor: Hamas offers on-line course

RAMALLAH — The Hamas organization has launched an Internet course in the production and assembly of explosives.

Israeli and Palestinian sources said Hamas, which claims responsibility for the lion's share of Palestinian suicide bombing attacks, has established an Internet site that offers Muslims instructions in the production of bombs, rockets and light aircraft. They said the news of the site has spread throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The instructions can be found on the web site of Hamas's Izzedin Kassam military wing, Middle East Newsline reported. The site, called "Military Academy," offers 14 lessons in bomb-making as part of what the Islamic group said is a campaign to expand the pool of bomb-makers.
The courses include lessons on the production of a belt filled with explosives that can be worn by a suicide bomber. Other courses demonstrated how to manufacture RDX plastic explosives, material that is said to be difficult to detect.
The Hamas online course also provides instructions on preparing regular bombs as well as methods to identify targets.

Izzedin Kassam said the process of producing suicide bombs requires three people. They are a bomb expert, an electrician and a tailor to sew the belt to the proportions of the suicide attacker.

The Hamas site is interactive and those taking the course can correspond with the movement's bomb instructors. But the military wing warned that those who miss one lesson will not be allowed to continue the course.

The site said those who ask a question about a lesson that already was given would be removed from the course. Those taking the course would also be required to take tests after each stage.

Hamas has made extensive use of the Internet to relay instructions and transfer funds.
Last month, Israeli authorities arrested three Palestinians who had been corresponding with Hamas in their attempt to poison patrols of a popular Jerusalem cafe. Officials said the Palestinian recruits failed to understand the instructions relayed over the Internet.

Israeli sources said Hamas has used the Internet as part of its drive to restore its infrastructure in the West Bank. They said some 100 Hamas agents have been arrested in the West Bank since April.

Hamas and the Lebanese-based Hizbullah have cooperated in recruiting suicide bombers. The mothers of some of the Hamas suicide bombers have appeared on Hizbullah's Al Manar television, widely viewed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and praised the decision of their children to kill themselves in attacks on Israel.

But one would-be suicide bomber surrendered to Israeli military authorities outside the northern West Bank of Nablus on Tuesday. Palestinian sources said the young man had been pressured by his mother to abandon plans for a suicide mission.

source: [url]

FOREVER YOUNG

Here's a collection of articles written about Sgt. Ari Weiss, a close friend of my brother's, who was killed Monday in Shechem (Nablus) while serving his people. Please take a little time to read about this hero.

NY Rally Backing Israel's War On Terrorism October 6th, At 1:00 PM

Please join us in showing your support for Israel.

Thousands upon thousands will be joining together on
Sunday, October 6th, at 1:00 PM
Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
(47th Street at Second Ave)

* Voice your support for the Israeli Soldiers

* Urge the White House to pursue Saudi and Palestinian links to Al Qaeda

* Tell the Media: There is no moral equivalency between cold-blooded murder and self defense

* America & Israel have the right to defend their citizens

* Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism on the campus and around the world


Sponsored by the Interdenominational Rabbinic Committee for Israel

Rabbi Bruce Block
Rabbi Neal Borovitz
Rabbi Bruce Ginsburg
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin
Rabbi David Kalb
Rabbi Norman Patz
Rabbi Harlan Wechsler
Rabbi Avi Weiss

Organizational Co-sponsors:
Anti-Defamation League-Long Island Regional Chapter,
Americans for a Safe Israel, Five Towns Jewish Council,
JCRC of the UJA Federation of Bergen County & North Hudson,
Long Island Board of Rabbis, New York Board of Rabbis,
Northeast Queens Jewish Community Council, Mothers Against Terrorism,
Rockland Jewish Community Relations Council,
Tagar Zionist Student Organization, Union for Traditional Judaism
-Organizational committees in formation-

Please join us with your friends & family
For additional information please call:
(718) 796 4730.

A veiled Palestinian woman holds a green Hamas flag during funeral processions

May the next funeral be hers!

Reports link Iraq, Iran and Syria to Palestinian terror

In its season premiere Sunday, CBS's "60 Minutes" news-documentary show reported that Iraq and Iran are secretly financing and directing acts of terrorism against Israel. The report was based on documents seized by the IDF during Operation Defensive Shield and the army's interrogation of thousands of prisoners. Le Figaro reported this week that Syria was cooperating with Iran and providing training bases for terrorists.

Hosting the CBS program, Lesley Stahl reported that tens of thousands of documents were seized by the IDF when the army entered Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Mukata government compound in Ramallah during Operation Defensive Shield at the end of March.

Senior IDF Intelligence Officer Col. Miri Eisen, who served as the army's spokesperson for Operation Defensive Shield, told Stahl, "We went into what is the equivalent of the Palestinian CIA, the Palestinian FBI, the Bureau of Education, the Treasury. We've taken their database."

Months of translating, reading and interpreting the seized documents provided Israel with the proof that Iraq has been infiltrating teams of operatives and weapons into Israel to prepare for attacks considered by intelligence officials as "mega-terrorism."

A senior Israeli intelligence official identified as Ido Hecht told CBS that the captured members of a Palestinian terrorist cell admitted they were trained in an Iraqi base near Tikrit by Iraqis.

"They were trained by people from the Iraqi intelligence. So this was an operation that had full Iraqi backing," Hecht said. The cell was operating in the Ramallah area, and while Israel didn't know their specific instructions, it was assumed by security officials that the Iraqi-trained cell was planning an attack on Ben-Gurion International Airport.

CBS reported that documents seized by the IDF proved that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was using the Palestinian Authority as a middleman in his illegal selling of oil. The Palestinians used "kickback money" received from Iraq to purchase weapons. Many of these weapons were purchased from Iran and were included on the Karine A shipment that was captured by Israel in January.

Iranian patrols seen in southern Lebanon
Additional documents seized by the IDF showed how Iran was helping to finance terrorist organizations operating inside Israel. "We have been interrogating hundreds, thousands of Palestinians from April of this year, and talking to them," Eisen said. "We've found some that have been trained in Iran."

In addition, Iran has been providing Hizbullah forces based in southern Lebanon with weapons and training. IDF Northern Command OC Maj.-Gen. Benny Gantz told CBS that Iran funds, equips and trains Hizbullah and tells it what to do. Gantz added that Iranian patrols, possibly supervisors or experts, were seen along the entire Lebanese border.

Eisen showed Stahl documents from Arafat's files about meetings of terrorist groups in late October 2001, just six weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Iran sent a message telling the groups, 'You must not allow a calming down at this period. Carry out suicide attacks against Israeli targets in Gaza, in the West Bank and inside Israel.'

"Israeli intelligence continues to mine their treasure of Arafat's database and to keep the Bush administration informed," Stahl reported. "In fact, Israeli intelligence officers were at the White House just this week to brief the administration."

Le Figaro: Iran and Syria supporting Palestinian terror
The French newspaper Le Figaro reported yesterday that Iran and Syria have a deep involvement in Palestinian terror, and the two countries are financing and training terror cells. According to the newspaper report, which was based on information provided by Israeli intelligence sources, Iran has been providing the terrorists with money and weapons, as well as the ideological infrastructure to continue with their "struggle," whereas Syria has provided training bases and a banking system to help channel funds.

The organizations being funded and trained by Iran and Syria, Le Figaro reported, include Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Hizbullah.

One of the incidents documented in the Le Figaro report was that of two PFLP terrorists arrested at the Allenby Bridge on August 7, 2001. During their interrogation, the terrorists said that they had been recruited in Nablus and sent to Syria for military training. In Syria they were met by senior intelligence officials, and they were trained at a base 45 minutes away from Damascus. The two terrorists were reportedly trained for mortar attacks, ambushes on IDF patrols and a suicide bombing "mega-attack" at Tel Aviv's Azrieli Towers.

At least seven terrorist organizations have headquarters in Damascus, and many terrorists reportedly receive their instructions to carry out attacks from "political leaders" based there.

Media reports have previously shown that Iraq and Saudi Arabia have transferred large sums of money to the Palestinians for "supporting the Intifada." These funds were given to the families of suicide terrorists, as well as to Hamas.
source: [url]

You can see right through this thug!

Palestinians and Israel said in secret talks


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli spymaster Ephraim Halevy has held secret talks in Qatar with a senior Palestinian official who is seen as a possible successor to President Yasser Arafat, an Israeli newspaper has reported.
Both Palestinian and Qatari officials denied the report.

An Israeli diplomatic source however said outgoing Mossad chief Halevy had met unidentified Palestinian officials in the Gulf Arab state two months ago.

According to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Halevy met Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, at the urging of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on efforts to reform the Palestinian Authority.

The report cited Palestinian officials and said the talks also included the possible appointment of Abu Mazen as a Palestinian prime minister, a move that could weaken Arafat's political powers.

Palestinian cabinet minister Nabil Shaath said the report was "completely untrue", adding that "none of the Palestinian leaders held meetings with Halevy".

The diplomatic source said Halevy "met with several Palestinian officials two months ago, apparently in Qatar, to discuss the Palestinian issue." The source said Abu Mazen was not among them.

A Qatari Foreign Ministry official in Doha denied that his country had hosted any meetings between Halevy and Palestinian officials.

"No such meeting has ever taken place in Qatar," the official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

Abu Mazen, due to meet Russian officials in Moscow on Wednesday, was not immediately available for comment.

Reforms of Arafat's Palestinian Authority are an Israeli condition for resuming peace talks which froze two years ago before the start of a Palestinian uprising.

Palestinian politicians from Arafat's Fatah faction rejected on Tuesday the appointment of a prime minister before a Palestinian state is established.

The idea of creating that post in the Palestinian Authority has met with hostility by officials who believe it amounts to an Israeli attempt to sideline Arafat.

Qatar has maintained relations with Israel despite Arab calls for a freeze of all diplomatic ties with the country due to its military action to crush the Palestinian uprising.

source: link

Arafat heads off call for prime minister




Yassir Arafat, Palestinian Authority president, has succeeded in heading off pressure from reformists to appoint a prime minister who would have assumed many of his executive powers.

Having emerged victorious from his battered Ramallah compound at the weekend, after Israel unconditionally lifted a 10-day siege, Mr Arafat persuaded his dominant Fatah movement to shelve the plan until such time as there is a Palestinian state.

The Ramallah siege, which the government of Ariel Sharon called off under intense US pressure, generated a surge of popular support for the Palestinian leader just as it appeared the reformists were about to succeed.

The Fatah central committee, a majority of whose members was believed to have backed the immediate appointment of a prime minister, decided at a meeting on Tuesday to drop the idea.

The appointment was among US and Israeli demands for wide-ranging reform of the PA that must be carried out before talks could resume. Palestinian officials said there was resistance within the central committee to appear to be bowing to US and Israeli pressure.

Mr Arafat has also asked for a three-week extension before naming a cabinet to replace the one that resigned on September 11. The ministers quit in the face of an anticipated no-confidence vote in the Palestinian parliament.

Mr Arafat was to have announced a new team, more acceptable to the reformists, on September 26. But that date coincided with the height of the siege.

Shimon Peres, Israeli foreign minister and a critic of the Ramallah siege, said: "The whole thing was superfluous. It delayed [reform] processes and it mobilised support for Arafat."

He did not go along, however, with the claim of Palestinian reformists that Mr Sharon had deliberately ordered the siege to scupper Palestinian reform. "I'm not that cynical," Mr Peres said.

In Ramallah on Wednesday, reformist politicians were putting a brave face on the setback, insisting that the broad reform programme would continue. But they accused Mr Sharon of acting to prevent the emergence of a more democratic PA which he would be under international pressure to negotiate with.

source: [link]

IDF Strongly Denies Amnesty's Report

In a strongly worded statement, the IDF SPokesperson's office rejected the conclusions of the recent Amnesty International report, "Killing the Future: Children in the Line of Fire" which accused the IDF of encouraging the murders of Arab children. The IDF Spokesperson said in part: "All IDF operations adhere to international humanitarian law, in strict
compliance with the highest moral and legal standards. In glaring contrast,
Palestinian terrorist factions defy all norms, be they moral or legal,
deliberately attacking civilians only because they are Israeli..."

"The Palestinian terrorists are solely and unequivocally responsible for the
injuries caused to Palestinian children. Since the beginning of the conflict
two years ago, the Palestinian terrorist factions have cynically exploited
children in terrorist activity, in violation of international law. Children
are groomed and dispatched to carry out suicide attacks in the centers of
the Israeli civilian population; positioned at the front lines of
demonstrations to hide snipers behind them; and used to plant explosives and deliver weapons. Moreover, the terrorist factions have transformed
Palestinian civilian population centers into terrorist activity
headquarters."

"Authors of the Amnesty report compare IDF operations in which Palestinian
children were killed to Palestinian terror attacks in which Israeli children
were killed. This comparison is unjustified and baseless. Palestinian terror
attacks, especially suicide bombings, are designated to cause the death of
Israeli civilians, including children: this is ruthless, unprecedented,
inhuman terror. On the other hand, IDF activity is conducted in accordance
with the laws of war and is not aimed at injuring civilians. Injuries are
occasionally sustained only because the Palestinian terrorists act from
within centers of Palestinian civilian population. Hence, any comparison
between the two is groundless, and indicates a fundamental lack of balance
among authors of the report."

source: [click here]

Statistics on recent terror attempts against Israelis


Click Here For Larger Graph: IDF

HAmish Tech has a good post on Congress's new bill trying to force the U.S to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's Capital.

From me - Given the history of the city, anyone who does not think that Jerusalem should be recognized as Israel's capital is an ANTI-SEMITE.

Columbia Professor Edward Said Compares the Situation of the Palestinians with those of the Holocaust.

Please call up Columbia to tell them what you think of their professor:
Presidential Affairs Office at (212) 854-9970 (tell them you will stop your donations)
Office of the Dean: (212) 854-2441

From Al Ahram via Memri

"Quite apart from his actual history of mistakes and misrule, Yasser Arafat is now being made to feel like a hunted Jew by the state of the Jews. There is no gainsaying the fact that the greatest irony of his siege by the Israeli army in his ruined Ramallah compound, is that his ordeal has been planned and carried out by a psychopathic leader who claims to represent the Jewish people. I do not want to press the analogy too far, but it is true to say that Palestinians under Israeli occupation today are as powerless as Jews were in the 1940s. "

". . . Arafat is being murdered. And with him, according to Sharon, will die the aspirations of the Palestinians. This is an exercise short of complete genocide . . . "

Said forgets that the Palestinians were offered a state out of historic Jewish territory, they initiated a war, and they have a frequently stated goal of destroying Israel. They also have most of the oil money in the world backing them up and have undertaken and in fact specialize in barbaric attacks on civilians. Not only that but the Arabs have the support of Neo Nazis, to the extent available, employ former Nazis and supported Hitler when he was in power.

Are you ready for WWIV?

This very odd piece of writing offers an easy solution to the problems confronting Israel.

Neoconservatives are preparing the groundwork for far-reaching and interminable U.S. involvement in the Middle East. Neoconservative leader Norman Podhoretz makes the case in the current issue of Commentary, the influential magazine of the American Jewish Committee, that it is not enough for the United States to attack only Afghanistan and Iraq. Podhoretz argues that "changes of regime are the sine qua non throughout the region."

The challenge that President Bush faces, says Podhoretz, is "to fight World War IV -- the war against militant Islam." He identifies the enemies: "The regimes that richly deserve to be overthrown and replaced are not confined to the three singled-out members of the axis of evil" (Iraq, Iran, North Korea). At a minimum, the axis should extend to Syria and Lebanon and Libya, as well as 'friends' of America like the Saudi royal family and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, along with the Palestinian Authority."

Unlike the Bush administration, Podhoretz realizes that to overthrow the Taliban and Saddam Hussein is merely to stir a hornets' nest, while leaving in place multitudes of anti-Israeli and anti-American militants. Bush must own up to the true task, says Podhoretz, and find "the stomach to impose a new political culture on the defeated" Middle East, just as we did unapologetically to Germany and Japan.

There is logic to Podhoretz's argument. But do Bush and the American people understand that the imposition of secular democracy on Afghanistan and Iraq are merely beginning steps in the forceful political reconstruction of the entire Middle East by U.S. might?

Americans are indebted to Podhoretz for making it clear that a U.S. invasion of Iraq is the beginning of World War IV. President Bush and his strategic thinkers should ponder this carefully and be upfront with the American people. Getting rid of Saddam Hussein will not solve the Israeli-American conflict with militant Islam. On the contrary, it will widen the conflict.

How many sons, husbands, fathers, brothers, grandsons, uncles, cousins and friends are Americans willing to give to a war, the object of which is the social and political reconstruction of the Middle East?

Are the American people prepared to bear the tax and economic burden of such a prodigious undertaking? Indeed, with significant portions of its manufacturing and high-tech capability now located offshore, can the U.S. economy bear the burden?

Would such a struggle leave us exhausted, unable to confront the rising power of an ambitious China?

A more critical question is whether open borders have turned "the American people" into an abstraction. The Washington Post has always favored massive immigration because it builds Democratic voting rolls. But on Sept. 15, the newspaper called the United States a "Tower of Babel" whose sense of community has been shattered by the rise of ethnic media.

The Post reports that the penetration of what we are accustomed to call the major media is down to 43 percent of the U.S. population and dropping. Increasingly, "people in key metropolitan areas now get their news from ethnic newspaper and broadcast outlets."

California has 500 ethnic newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, and online publications. The Post reports that there are "15 Thai-language newspapers in Los Angeles, several 24-hour radio stations for Pashto and Dari Speakers." Orange County has 30 Vietnamese publications, and California has 7 major ethnic dailies and flourishing Spanish-language TV networks.

The Post asks: "If you can't understand what your fellow subway rider is reading, if you can't follow the opinions he or she listens to each night, how can you hope to hold a discussion about national politics? Aren't our opinions and national discourse likely to become ever more Balkanized?"

Bush should ponder this question before he undertakes to reconstruct the Middle East. He must face the fact that his own country has been reconstructed by massive immigration from the Third World. Are these legions of hyphenated-Americans in sympathy with the neoconservative goals that control U.S. foreign policy?

Before the United Staets finds itself embroiled in a Middle East conflict for which it lacks both economic means and popular support, I propose a different solution: Terminate the Middle Eastern conflict by inviting the 5 million Jews in Israel to settle in the United States.

The entire population of Israel amounts to no more than two years of illegal Mexican immigration. The Jews can function here, if they wish, as an autonomous ethnic enclave just like all the other enclaves created by our short-sighted immigration policy.

Despite extreme measures, Israel is unable to defend itself from Palestinian terrorists. The United States will not be able to defend Israel or itself from one billion Muslims.

Trying to create a small Jewish state in a sea of Muslims was a 20th century mistake. Trying to reconstruct the Middle East would be a bigger mistake. Why not recognize the mistake, evacuate the Jews, leave the Muslims to themselves and focus on saving our own country?


Contact Paul Craig Roberts | Read his biography

See how easy it is to take care of Israel's problems?

source: URL

Threat of Attack Against Iraq May Increase Terror Threats in Israel

On September 12, Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech to the House Committee on Government Reform, which was reported on this site a few weeks ago. One subject he discussed is the necessity of removing Saddam Hussein.

I speak here today as a citizen of the country that is most endangered by a preemptive strike. For in the last gasps of his dying regime, Saddam may well attempt to launch his remaining missiles, with their biological and chemical warheads, at the Jewish State.

Though I am today a private citizen, I believe I speak for the overwhelming majority of Israelis in supporting a preemptive strike against Sadaam’s regime. We support this preemptive American action even though we stand on the frontlines, while others criticize it as they sit comfortably on the sidelines. But we know that their sense of comfort is an illusion. For if action is not taken now, we will all be threatened by a much greater peril.

The threat to Israel is even greater than Netanyahu describes. There is now a fear that, in the event of a US attack on Iraq, the Palestinians, who both support and are supported by numerous terrorist regimes including Iraq, will unleash a series of suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.

Israel is concerned that the Palestinians will try to "set the ground ablaze" before a US attack on Iraq in an attempt to provoke an Israeli response and make it more difficult for the government to act, a senior official said.

"The concern now is not about a few Scud missiles, but suicide bombers everywhere," the official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's entourage said Tuesday. He said there is also heightened concern about infiltration attempts from Lebanon and Jordan.

In other news, Fox News is reporting that Israel has arrested Rakad Salem, the leader of a pro-Iraqi Palestinian group, who is in charge of distributing the payments to the families of suicide bombers from Saddam Hussein.

Israel Updates

Headlines:
1. Closing the Barn Door...
2. Police: "We Had a Miracle"
3. Suicide Terrorist Gives Himself Up
4. Book-Loan Program in Danger
5. Israel Steps Up Preparations for Iraqi Attack
6. IDF Report Tells of Heroism, Mistakes
7. What to Do About Hizbullah
8. PM's Office Rejects Blair's Statement

1. Closing the Barn Door...
The Israel Defense Forces has put up two new positions near the sole remaining building of Arafat's Mukata ex-compound. Of the 40-50 terrorists who were holed up together with Arafat in the Mukata for the last few months and during the recent siege, an unknown number managed to escape while the IDF was withdrawing earlier this week. This led to some rancorous words between Prime Minister Sharon and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, with Sharon blaming Ben-Eliezer. Ben-Eliezer's aides quoted high-ranking IDF intelligence figures as saying that the "heaviest" terrorists were afraid to escape, knowing that Israeli forces would catch them.

Six more Palestinian terrorists were arrested over the night, in various areas: Ramallah, north of Hevron, and Baka a-Sharkiye.



2. Police: "We Had a Miracle"
Two alert IDF soldiers prevented a mega-terrorist attack in the city of Afula early this morning. The soldiers pulled into a gas station at around 2AM on their way southeastwards to Beit She'an, when they noticed a suspicious bag near one of the pumps. Upon inspecting the bag and discovering a bomb-like device inside, they alerted police, who then called sappers to the scene to investigate. The soldiers’ suspicions were validated when the device was found to be a bomb containing several kilograms of explosives. The sappers dismantled the device without incident. Police describe the early find as a "miracle," saying that an explosion at the gas station could have caused scores of casualties. Security forces are searching the area for potential suspects.



3. Suicide Terrorist Gives Himself Up
An Arab youth, aged 17, turned himself in last night to Israeli forces, saying that he is the suicide terrorist they have been pursuing for the last couple of days. Accompanied by his mother, he gave himself up to soldiers in Shechem. An IDF force destroyed the home of another terrorist in the northern Jordan Valley last night, and it is assumed that the fear of similar punishment is what led the family to turn in their son.

Three bombs were found and safely neutralized last night near the greenhouses of Morag in Gush Katif, on Israel's southern Mediterranean Coast. Israeli forces were led to the bombs by a young Arab who apparently served as the guide and scout for the cell of bomb-placers.



4. Book-Loan Program in Danger
A win-win arrangement for parents and schools is in danger of falling apart, for lack of funds. The Cultural Centers Company has been running a program wherein parents can borrow their child's required schoolbooks for the duration of the school year, at a nominal cost of 250 shekels - instead of having them to purchase them for possibly three times that amount. However, the recent cuts in the Education Ministry's budget may signal the end of the arrangement. The result: Half a million students may have to buy their own books. Knesset Education Committee Chairman Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party) said that he "would not take it lying down."

The arrangement, about ten years old, provides books for about 1,300 schools countrywide, and costs some 5 million shekels annually. In the wake of the 20-million shekel education budget cut, highly-placed Culture Center Company figures plan to recommend that the book-loan program be dropped. "Our first priority is to run our 150 cultural centers," they say. Parent groups say that some 350,000 households would be affected by the cancellation - "mostly the weaker classes, as usual." MK Orlev said that it would be a mistake to cancel the book loan arrangement, which is a "social program of the first degree."


5. Israel Steps Up Preparations for Iraqi Attack
"According to my understanding," Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee yesterday, "the Americans have decided to attack Iraq, and the countdown has begun." Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will convene a strategic meeting today with Ben-Eliezer and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres today to discuss Israel's special deterrent means. There has been tension between Sharon and the two others of late, and Sharon breakfasted with Peres this morning in an attempt to bandage the sores.



6. IDF Report Tells of Heroism, Mistakes
An internal IDF report on the Jenin battles of a few months ago, in which 13 soldiers were killed in an ambush attack, was submitted to the parents of the fallen soldiers today. The report shows that the ill-fated unit strayed from its mission path and found itself in an area surrounded on three sides by terrorists. The latter opened fire, killing three soldiers - not more, as originally thought - and most of the rest were killed as they tried to rescue and evacuate their comrades. The battle took a turn when one of the soldiers, Yigal Iluz, saw two terrorists dragging the bodies of two of his friends. He stormed them and killed both, and then other soldiers killed three more terrorists, leading the remaining Arabs to run away. The report also had criticism of the planning and commanding of the mission, including mistaken evaluations of the expected resistance; the battalion commander entered his post in the middle of the battles; problematic intelligence, including a shortage of aerial photos; and more.



7. What to Do About Hizbullah
Lebanese citizens are demanding that Hizbullah expedite its negotiations with Israel. Family members of Lebanese imprisoned in Israel, they are well aware that their loved ones will be released as part of a deal with Israel for the return of Israelis being held in Lebanon - three of whom may be dead. The U.S. Congress is holding a session on the topic of Israeli captives in Lebanon, and members of the Tenenbaum, Avraham, Avitan, and Souad families have been invited to take part.



8. PM's Office Rejects Blair's Statement
Prime Minister Sharon's staffers dismissed a call by British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the establishment of a Palestinian state on all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza by the end of the year. They say that Blair was merely trying to appease the Arab world in anticipation of an attack on Iraq. Israel has not officially ruled out a Palestinian state, however, and is still willing to abide by U.S. President George Bush's major speech of June 24 in which he called for one.

source: link

Obstacles For Magen David Adom

Please donate to Magen David Adom and sign the petition below to protest Canadian anti-Semitism (Canada is attempting to shut down CMDA because it saves lives in Yesha).

Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency medical organization, has given the communities of Yesha - Judea, Samaria, and Gaza - a two-day reprieve before it sharply curtails its service in those areas. MDA says that the government has not forwarded some four million shekels it promised for special costs in these areas - but after an urgent plea by Yesha leaders, it will put off the harsh decision for 48 hours in the hope that the problem will be solved.

At the same time, MDA faces a threat from across the Atlantic Ocean: The CCRA (Canada Customs and Revenue Agency) has announced plans to shut down Canadian Magen David Adom. This will close off an important avenue by which Canadians can donate ambulances and medical equipment/supplies directly to the MDA. "At a time when Israel is in dire need of ambulances and medical supplies," concerned citizens have started a campaign to lobby the Canadian government not to close the CMDA. An online petition can be signed at www.PetitionOnline.com/savemda/petition.html

US pressure was central to Israel's decision to halt its siege of Arafat's compound this week.


JERUSALEM - Last April, as Israeli troops reoccupied Palestinian cities and laid siege to Yasser Arafat's compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah, President Bush and other US officials repeatedly demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdraw. He all but ignored them.

This past weekend, the US again insisted that Mr. Sharon had to end another siege of Arafat's offices. This time, the Israeli leader obeyed. His forces withdrew on Sunday.

The difference? Iraq.

As is clear to any reader of American newspapers, the US is focusing on Iraq with an almost obsessive intensity. Apparently the Israelis were late to catch on. "We [messed] up," says a senior Israeli government official, and overlooked the Bush administration's new emphasis on "getting the world united against Iraq."

When it became clear that Israel's actions were an impediment to this process, the official says, speaking on condition of anonymity, "The Americans said, 'Don't get us in trouble now, you people. We are your friends, now do as you're told.' "

This episode demonstrates that the administration can indeed engage itself in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, something it has been accused of avoiding since the beginning of the president's term. It also underscores Mr. Bush's determination to move ahead on Iraq.

Israel's withdrawal became urgent to the US, in part, because of a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for it. The US is in the midst of assembling Security Council support for an effort to force Iraq's compliance with weapons inspections – it may have seemed awkward that a US ally was disregarding a UN demand.

The siege also grated on Arab sensibilities at a time when the US is trying to muster Arab support for a move against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Perhaps as a result of these factors, US pressure on Israel was more coordinated, more subtle, and more effective than it has been in the past. "It was a rather impressive operation," says a Western diplomatic source in Tel Aviv, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Americans first communicated their wishes privately, then ratcheted up the level of pressure to include public denunciations of Israel's actions and a message from Bush to Sharon. Most important, this time all of the US's diplomatic players were on the same page.

In April, Bush and the State Department issued demands for an Israeli pullback, but Vice President Dick Cheney and others sent more accommodating signals, creating the impression that the administration was divided on the issue.

Not so in the current episode. Sharon "presumably got the message that this is from everybody," says Joseph Alpher, an Israeli strategic analyst who served as an adviser to former Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Although Sharon is being criticized in the Israeli media for a massive fumble, Israel's larger interests are served in smoothing the way toward US or allied military action against Mr. Hussein.

"Israel does indeed want the US to deal with the strategic threat embodied in the Iraqi regime and its aims and its weapons development program," says Mr. Alpher.

"An Iraq that will toe the American line and that will not be interested in Iraqi hegemony in the Gulf is a very good idea," adds the senior Israeli official.

The American focus on Iraq may tamp down the violence between Israel and the Palestinians, since both sides will see the dangers of getting in the way of an angry elephant. "Until the war on Iraq begins and ends – and it won't be overnight – Israel's hands are tied," commentator Yoel Marcus wrote in yesterday's edition of Israel's Ha'aretz daily newspaper. "It can forget about big-time operations like conquering Gaza or deporting leaders.

"We won't be seeing Palestinian militants dancing on the rooftops either, from the look of things. Presumably, the [Palestinian Authority] also wants to get through [the period] on the side of the good guys."

"From here on in," Alpher says, "I assume our decisionmakers will be a bit more aware of the primacy of Iraq in US thinking."

But if the Israelis have been reined in, it may only be a temporary curtailment. Concludes the senior official: "In the absence of Iraq, we can do with the Palestinians what we will, within limits,

source: [click here]

Fatah leader denounces 'corrupt' Arafat rule

Yasser Arafat was denounced yesterday by a senior figure in his own Fatah movement who accused the Palestinian leader of sheltering corrupt officials and setting his people on a path to 'hell'.

Hossam Khader, a populist member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, told Israeli Radio that Mr Arafat was trying to hoodwink the world with his claims to be implementing reforms by announcing a streamlined cabinet.

Mr Khader, a Fatah leader based in Balata refugee camp, near Nablus, is an outspoken and fearless critic of the Palestinian leadership, but even by his standards this was an unusually strident outburst.

"What [Mr Arafat] achieved actually is nonsense because he kept all of the collaborators and corrupt people among the cabinet," he said.

"He reduced the number of the cabinet from 34 to 23 - and he considers this reform? No. This is a catastrophe which will lead the Palestinian people to hell."

Asked if he believed Mr Arafat's claims to want reform, Mr Khader responded: "No, I don't think his mentality accepts these types of reforms.

"I don't care if [Arafat] continues or not," he added. "I care if the Palestinian people will re-elect him or not." Mr Arafat was fighting to stay in power, he said.

His criticism coincided with a meeting between the Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, and the new Palestinian interior minister, Abdel Razik Yehiyeh, to discuss Mr Arafat's planned security reforms.

At the same time, Israeli police raided the Palestinian Al-Quds University in Jerusalem and shut the office of its president, Sari Nusseibeh, the city's Palestinian representative and a widely respected moderate. Police took documents and computers from the office. The raid was denounced by Palestinians
source: [URL]

Arab Maternal Instincts

Palestinian mother helps daughter into new fall outfit.

I remember Hanan Ashrawi, I believe, on one of the news shows asking the rhetorical question "Do you think we do not love our children as much as other people?". The answer to the question she did not really want to hear answered is yes, it is a fair statement to say that many palestinians (if not the majority, since the majority supports suicide bombings, sometimes carried out by minors) (also, see report below about pals trying to increase children casualties) and arabs do not 'love' their children as much as western people. Also, to some extent children are looked at as objects in these countries and children, relatives and spouses are generally not related to with Western concepts of 'love'.

K K K

K(oran) K(oran) K(oran)

These guys look strangely familiar. Is David Duke giving out fashion tips between assignments for the Arab News?




Books for Sale - three for a dollar.

There are three morons but four right hands in the picture.

Baby Wipes
Little Green Footballs tracks evidence of Arafat's love of baby wipes (here is is with wipes and UN envoy Terje Larsen on 9/29. Perhaps Larsen is inspecting the wipes):


Notice how everyone seems to be looking in a different direction.

Sharon, Arafat under pressure as Blair calls for renewed talks


JERUSALEM (AFP) - Both Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat faced mounting domestic pressure after the end of Israel's siege of the Palestinian leader, as British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for renewed talks by the end of this year.

Sharon was struggling to save face two days after US pressure forced the army to pull out from the battered compound, letting Arafat emerge triumphant from yet another siege.

Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer admitted that the tanks had only withdrawn to please the United States and remove an obstacle in Washington's preparations for a war against Iraq.

"We left the Muqataa because the United States, our most important ally thought our continued presence (there) was becoming the main obstacle to its goal (of disarming Iraq) which is also in our interest," he told public radio.

The Israeli press described the siege and its abrupt end as a farce, as Israel took its usual hard line and then buckled without achieving its stated goals, which some commentators saw as a dangerous sign of weakness in a hostile region.

Sharon, returning from a visit to Moscow which has given him a slight breathing space after the Ramallah debacle, telephoned Ben Eliezer to express his fury that some of the wanted Palestinians who had been trapped inside Arafat's compound had managed to escape, the press said.





His hawkish coalition also faced increasing strains after his main government partner, Ben Eliezer's centre-left Labour party, held a rowdy congress late Monday in which the defence minister's leadership rivals called for a pullout from the hardline government.

The defence minister faced down the calls but analysts said they were likely to multiply as the security and economic crisis drags on.

Arafat's celebrations at braving out the siege meanwhile gave way to marathon talks with various elements of the Palestinian leadership and renewed pressure for democratic reforms.

Arafat asked parliament for an extra two weeks to name a new cabinet, after the siege of his base delayed a pledged reshuffle, top official Nabil Abu Rudeina said.

"We are asking for two more weeks. This is the time we lost under siege," said Shaath, one of the ministers forced to resign by parliament, in a stormy session on September 11.

The assembly, dominated by Arafat's own Fatah faction, threatened to vote down the cabinet -- which Arafat first reformed in June under pressure to shape up his much-criticised administration -- because members believed the reshuffle did not go far enough.

The cabinet resigned en masse rather than face a public snub, and Arafat was given two weeks to present a new list of ministers.





The blow to the cabinet, accused by foreign and domestic critics of incompetence and corruption, was seen by many observers as a revolt by the Palestinian lawmakers, largely sidelined in Arafat's autocratic rule.

And both sides were likely to face more international criticism after continuing violence -- which swept away Arafat's renewed calls for a ceasefire Sunday -- claimed the lives of two Palestinian boys Monday, the same day as an Amnesty International report saying children were bearing the brunt of the conflict.

Into the deadlock of suspicion and violence British premier Blair threw a call for renewed negotiations before the end of this year to discuss the establishment of a Palestinian state, based on the boundaries in place before the 1967 war and Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

And United Nations resolutions on the Middle East "should apply as much as to Iraq," Blair said in a keynote speech to his Labour Party.

"By the end of the year, we must have revived final-status negotiations, and they must have explicitly as their aims: an Israeli state free from terror, recognised by the Arab world, and a viable Palestinian state based on the boundaries of 1967."

Blair added: "What is happening in the Middle East now is ugly and wrong ... the Palestinians living in increasingly abject conditions, humiliated and hopeless; Israeli civilians brutally murdered."





The Palestinian leadership welcomed Blair's call and urged him to pressure Israel.

"This is a very important statement from Blair. We ask him to push Israel to immediately implement UN Security Council Resolution 1435 and withdraw its tanks from all occupied Palestinian territories," said Nabil Abu Rudeina, a senior Arafat aide.

The UN Security Council last week passed Resolution 1435 calling for an Israeli withdrawal from Arafat's compound, which the army invaded on September 19 following back-to-back Palestinian suicide attacks, and all
URL
source: URL

Iraq, its neighbors, and Israel

If the United States invades Iraq and leaves troops there for a number of years, as they have done, for example, in Korea (35 thousand troops), then by looking at this map you will note that the so-called Axis of Evil is totally boxed in. Turkey to the North, our ally, Iran to the one side; Syria and its client state Lebanon, on the other side; Jordan and Saudi Arabia. similarly close to Iraqi borders. This to me suggests that Israel will have a strong friend (the U.S.) in the middle of a hot spot, a friend able to launch an offensive with ease from Iraq if the need should arise, and perhaps being so stationed, cause a cooling down of the Arab hostility toward Israel.
For map (it is interactive) see: Iraq and its neighbors

The Liberty Incident: The 1967 Attack on the U.S. Navy Spy Ship
by A. Jay Cristol


This book discusses the USS Liberty incident in which a US ship, monitoring the coast during the '67 war, was attacked by Israeli forces. The incident has been used by anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish groups to point to the "cover up" that American Jewish "lobby" groups brought to bear on American politicians. The new book by Michael Oren, Six Days of War (the 1967 war) also absolves Israel of sinking the Liberty on purpose. But the myths persists among those who see conspiracies perpetrated by Jews.

Draws on newly declassified documents and high-level interviews with numerous officials from the United States and Israel, including the late prime minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, that resolve lingering questions
A former naval aviator provides a page-turning, minute-by-minute account of the battering suffered by the U.S. Navy’s intelligence ship, USS Liberty

Includes diagrams, maps, and photographs, including images taken by the gun cameras of participating Israeli aircraft

On June 8, 1967, at the height of the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Israeli air and naval forces attacked the USS Liberty, an intelligence-collection ship in the service of Israel’s closest ally, while that vessel steamed in international waters off the Sinai Peninsula. The Israelis killed 34 Americans, wounded 171, and nearly sank the ship. Dozens of theories exist about what happened that day. Official inquiries conducted in both the United States and Israel attributed the event to faulty communications and tragic error, but survivors remain outspoken and not alone in their belief that the Israelis acted deliberately.

Federal judge and former naval aviator A. Jay Cristol places the incident in its proper context. The Israeli strike, he argues, can only be understood in light of the Cold War, the outbreak of war in the Middle East, interservice rivalry within the Israeli Defense Forces, and the chaos of an operational environment. That both the United States and Israel kept much of the data concerning the incident classified for more than ten years served only to fuel the fires of intrigue and charges of conspiracy to cover up the truth, but since the incident significant portions of most of the official inquiries have now been declassified. Cristol draws on these, documents recently obtained by him through the Freedom of Information Act, and extensive oral history interviews to deliver the most comprehensive treatment of the episode that threatened to ruin Israel’s relations with the United States and has served as a nagging source of suspicion for so many years.

About the Author
A. Jay Cristol, J.D., Ph.D., is a federal judge serving the southern district of Florida. An aviation enthusiast, he spent eighteen years as a naval aviator and twenty in the Navy’s Judge Advocate General Corps. He retired as a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve and lives in Miami, Florida.
Source for materials above: link

Lessons from two years of conflict

Two Palestinians and two Israelis express opinions in 4 essays.

For the essays, click at url

Bush won't budge on Jerusalem

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush rejected on Monday a congressional effort to force his administration to take tentative steps toward moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Accepting Jerusalem as Israel's capital, which has been avoided by a succession of U.S. administrations, would reinforce Israel's claim but would anger Arabs who want to make part of the city into the capital of a Palestinian state. Almost all countries still have their diplomatic missions in Tel Aviv.

"U.S. policy regarding Jerusalem has not changed," Bush wrote in a statement as he signed an $8.6 billion spending bill for State Department programs around the world.

He criticized the provision that recommended recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, saying it "impermissibly interferes with the president's constitutional authority to conduct the nation's foreign affairs."

The measure would, "if construed as mandatory rather than advisory, impermissibly interfere with the president's constitutional authority to formulate the position of the United States, speak for the nation in international affairs and determine the terms on which recognition is given to foreign states."

Secretary of State Colin Powell believes Israel and the Arabs must decide the city's future through negotiations, department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

What Congress did last week on the Middle East as it authorized spending for State Department programs around the world hinders "advancing our interests in the region and promoting a just and lasting peace," Boucher said.

Israel considers Jerusalem the eternal capital of the Jewish people. In the 1967 Six Day War, Israel ousted Jordan from the eastern part of the city after 19 years of occupation and later annexation and united it with the western portion, which Israel already held.

The Arabs intend to regain control of east Jerusalem and make it the capital of a Palestinian state.

President Bush declared his support for Israel's position on Jerusalem in his 2000 election campaign. Once in the White House, however, he fell back on the State Department's longtime argument that the Arabs must have a voice in determining the city's future.

The United States maintains a consulate in Jerusalem but uses it mainly to deal with Palestinians.

Congress specified that no money may be used for the consulate unless it is under the supervision of the American ambassador rather than reporting directly to Washington as now.

Another provision told Congress to spend no money for publication of official documents that list Israel without identifying Jerusalem as the capital.

As Congress considered the actions, Boucher said, "The State Department made consistently clear that it was opposed to this position."

"Our view on Jerusalem is unchanged," he said. "Jerusalem is a permanent status issue that must be negotiated between the parties."

He also registered objections to a move by Congress to withhold $10 million in U.S. economic aid to Lebanon for failing to assert its authority against Hezbollah guerrillas that have attacked Israel from southern Lebanon.

Iran has been supplying the guerrillas with thousands of missiles for an attack on Israel that apparently would be timed to disrupt a possible U.S. strike against Iraq, a senior Israeli official said Friday in Jerusalem.

The missiles, as well as several hundred Iranian Revolutionary Guards, have reached Hezbollah, which the State Department lists as a terrorist group, through Syria, according to Israel.

The State Department has taken no action against Lebanon, Syria or Iran, confining itself to appealing to all three countries to curb violence.

Criticizing Congress, Boucher said Powell was opposed to the cut in U.S. aid. In fact, Boucher said, the $32 million in assistance Lebanon is to receive this year is going to Beirut without interruption.

The spokesman said the money is used to strengthen the country's economy, improve water resources and promote democracy.

source: [click here for URL]

Palestinians renew efforts to have children die in confrontations.

Palestinian Media Watch via IMRA:

PMW has documented in the past the Palestinian Authority's [PA's] tactic of
encouraging children to seek heroic Shahada - death for Allah, and then
using the numbers of dead children in their PR war against Israel.

A PMW bulletin last week noted the PA's recent attempts to brings crowds of
violent demonstrators into the streets, in an attempt to change the image of
the terrorist war to that of a popular uprising.

Now the PA has combined the two tactics, once again encouraging children to
die as part of the "popular uprising", as they have renewed the broadcasting
of one of the most odious PA video clips, the "Farewell letter" clip. In
the clip a child writes a farewell letter to his parents, glorifying his
desire to die, and then places himself in front of Israeli soldiers during a
violent riot where he is shot and dies, achieving his goal. As he falls his
words are sung: "How sweet is Shahada [death for Allah] when I embrace you my land."

Iraq Supports Terror.

Attached from IMRA is the transcript of the 60 minutes report on Iranian and Iraqi links to terror in Israel (and Iraq).

Per the President's speeches on the war on terror, this should justify attacking both countries, although in my view just the threat of weapons of mass destruction justifies an attack. But in terms of people who want to see links to terror, here they are. Not linked to terror against the U.S.? If that is the criteria, how are we ever going to form the coalition theses same people want to see before an attack if we are just looking out at our self interest.

If, indeed, we really are only looking to go to war to stop threats to the U.S., and the truth is that this is probably what most Americans support, then this whole coalition stuff is nonsense. If we would not go to war to defend Sri Lanka, why should se expect them to support us.

The New York Times Sucks, Part 2.

Today the NYT published an article by someone named David Grossman entitled Fictions Embraced by an Israel at War. It seems that mister Grossman writes novels in Hebrew and this op ed was in fact written in Hebrew and translated by someone else. Already this seems to be a dubious basis on which to publish an article in a major publication like the New York Times.

Why would they publish such an article given its shoddy origins? Because they like what it says obviously. And what is that - you can guess. It bashes Israel.

Grossman (or the translator) criticizes Israel because:

The story that now reigns nearly unchallenged in the media and political discourse [in Israel] obliterates more than 33 years of roadblocks, thousands of prisoners, deportations, and killings of innocent people. It's as if there were never long months of closures in cities and villages, as if there had been no humiliations, no incessant harassment, no searches of houses, no bulldozing of hundreds of homes, no uprooting of vineyards and olive groves, no filling up of wells and, especially, no construction of tens of thousands of housing units in settlements and large-scale confiscation of land, in violation of international law.

To cut to the chase, Grossman argues that Israel needs to remember these things in order to justify palestinian arab atrocities. As a result, Israel will be able to ignore what the current violence and propaganda, etc. says about their palestinian arab opponents and Israel will be able to imagine that the pals are really peace loving people.

The result of these fictions Grossman would like to create will be of course the killing of more Jews.

Grossman is a shining example of the self delusion Israelis are capable of, a self delusion which threatens Israel's very existence.

A Lonely Campaign Against Intolerance In Saudi Arabia


A Middle Eastern-looking man riding on the Metro while reading a green-covered book about Islam is bound to get more than his share of stares these days. A Saudi man who reads in the paper that the INS has ordered immigration inspectors to start registering Saudi men ages 16 to 45 could be expected to bristle.

Ali al-Ahmed laughs at the stares and welcomes the attention from the feds. Al-Ahmed considers his life in a one-bedroom Fairfax apartment such a relief from what he suffered back home in Saudi Arabia that he has given up a career in finance to campaign for reform in his native land.

Al-Ahmed's Saudi Institute, a one-man operation subsisting on donations from Saudi emigres, seeks to spread the word that Saudi Arabia is so deeply intolerant and repressive a society that, as al-Ahmed says, "America must come and force reform on us, because we are incapable of it."

Al-Ahmed is a reviled figure at the Saudi Embassy. But for a 35-year-old who has spent most of his decade in this country studying political science and finance at small colleges in Minnesota, al-Ahmed has created quite a stir.

His most recent product is a research paper that details numerous incendiary statements in books and pamphlets distributed to Muslim students by two Saudi educational institutes in Northern Virginia. The books call Christianity and Judaism "deviant religions," urge Muslims to "create barriers" between themselves and non-Muslims, and argue that Muslims are forbidden to have Christians or Jews as friends, "with no consideration as to whether they are at war with Islam or not." Al-Ahmed asked officials of the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in Fairfax County and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth in Alexandria why they used these books. "They said, 'Oh, you're just working for the Christians and the Jews,' " al-Ahmed says.

Al-Ahmed's next project is a Web site that will allow Saudis to get uncensored news out to their neighbors and the world. "People will be able to write to us, using pseudonyms, with what happens in their neighborhood," al-Ahmed says. "This can help create a new generation of activists."

He is under no illusion that change will come easily. When he was 14, al-Ahmed, who had been active in a group of Shiite Muslims protesting Saudi restrictions on followers of that branch of Islam, was imprisoned for a month with his father and two brothers. According to Amnesty International, Ali's youngest brother, Kamil, has twice been held in a Saudi prison without trial. Ali believes Kamil's latest arrest was retaliation against Ali's activities in Washington. But al-Ahmed says he will not be deterred: "What worse can happen to my family? They have already ruined my brother's life. My mother cries every night because I cannot go see her. I want to go home, but I cannot until we can breathe freedom there."

A Saudi official who insisted on anonymity says al-Ahmed is free to go home, that his family is not being punished, that al-Ahmed's claims about Saudi repression are "nonsense," that offensive works distributed by the Saudi schools "were revised after 9/11," and that "he is funded by people with political agendas in this country."

Who might that be, I asked. The official named two groups: the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), which the Saudi said was "essentially the same group of Jews."

Al-Ahmed and JINSA have never heard of each other, let alone exchanged money or work, say al-Ahmed and institute spokesman Jim Colbert. FDD did pay al-Ahmed $2,500 for his "hate literature" research. Foundation President Clifford May says his group, created after 9/11 to "provide intellectual ammunition for the war against terrorism," is about as Jewish as its directors and advisers, who include former House speaker Newt Gingrich, Clinton CIA director James Woolsey and Al Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile. "It's high time the Saudis got over their incessant and relentless anti-Semitism," May says.

Al-Ahmed plans to plow ahead. "We don't have a Washington or Jefferson in my country," he says. "We have these decadent rulers who think they own the country. They attack me and say I make things up. Well, I'm not very smart, but I am determined, and I know this is the right time in history. I will go back to my country, I know it."

E-mail: marcfisher@washpost.com
Source: click here

LEFTISM AS ANTISEMITISM ALERT

I) The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is slated to play host to a national student conference late next week, one of whose "guiding principles" is that it "condemns the racism and discrimination inherent in Zionism", the Jerusalem Post has learned.

In the conference's promotional material, organizers refer to "apartheid Israel", and refuse to condemn Palestinian terrorism, stating, "As a solidarity movement, it is not our place to dictate the strategies or tactics adopted by the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation."

II) New Jersey's poet laureate Amiri Baraka, who wrote a poem blaming Israel for the September 11 attack, is refusing to resign despite calls from the governor, James McGreevey, and charges of "anti-New Jersey, anti-American and anti-Semitic venom" by the local Anti-Defamation League.

The 226-line poem reads, in part, "Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed/ Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers/To stay home that day/ Why did Sharon stay away?"

Another stanza reads, "Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion/ And cracking they sides at the notion."

As a citizen of New Jersey I am appalled that this guy was appointed in the first place. This is hardly his first anti-Semitic poem, according to a comment by Josh Chafetz to this post at PejmanPundit:

Smile, jew. Dance, jew. Tell me you
love me, jew. I got
something for you now though. I got
something for you, like you dig,
I got. I got this thing, goes pulsating
through black everything
universal meaning. I got the
extermination blues, jewboys. I got
the hitler syndrome figured.

Josh also points to this article about Baraka from TNR. What was the person in charge of appointing him smoking?

Also posted at BIUblog.
yoshi78 [at] yahoo [dot] com

A close childhood friend of my brother's was killed yesterday in Shechem, Nablus, while defending his people. He always had a smile on his face. He was 21.

Chaval al d'avdin v'lo mishtakchin.
Woe for those who are lost, and are not to be forgotten.

Also posted at BIUblog.
yoshi78 [at] yahoo [dot] com

PA Gen. Masri: We Can Stop Hamas, But Won't

At this point the PLO murderers are no longer even pretending to oppose their terrorist brothers in Hamas.

(Jerusalem Post) The Palestinian Authority has the strength but not the will to smash terrorist groups and their support networks in the Gaza Strip, a top PA security official said yesterday.

In an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post, Brig.-Gen. Muhammad Masri, head of the Political Security Department at the Palestinian General Intelligence Service, said the long-awaited crackdown on Hamas promised by former PA interior minister Abdel Razek Yahya will likely never happen.

As part of a sweeping set of reforms that began in late June, the PA has sought both to centralize its myriad security services and to rein in Hamas, a group responsible for more than half of all Israeli deaths due to terrorist attacks in the past two years of conflict.

"We have enough men and arms, but not political horizon and no incentive, to enter into bloody conflict with other Palestinians," said Masri from his office at the PA's GIS building just north of Gaza City. [Read More]

Amnesty Report Compares Murder And Self-Defense

In yet another example of the systematic anti-Semitism that runs rampant in the so-called "human rights" groups, Amnesty International has announced that Jewish self-defense is morally equivalent to PLO suicide bombings.

(Arutz Sheva) Amnesty International released its latest report last night, comparing the deaths of Israeli children at the hands of terrorist murderers and those of Arab children in the course of Israeli self-defense measures. The report, entitled "Burying the Future," condemns both. It states that 72 Israeli children were killed in Palestinian terror attacks, while 250 from the PA were killed by “IDF soldiers and armed settlers” over the past two years. Arutz-7 records show that at least 87 Israeli children 18 years and under were murdered in pre-meditated Arab terror attacks, while “armed settlers” killed no children at all.

The Amnesty report states that most of the Arab children were killed because of “excessive and disproportionate use of fatal force by IDF soldiers against demonstrators and stone-throwers, indiscriminate shooting, and bombings of residential areas.” MK Rabbi Chaim Druckman (National Religious Party) commented that the report was based on lies, and that the IDF is exceedingly careful not to use excessive force:

“If anything, the Israeli army does not use enough force - and it's at our own expense. Just a few days ago, our helicopters shot missiles at arch-terrorist Muhammed Def’s car, but did not kill him - all because they were afraid to use more force, in order not to hit ‘innocent’ bystanders. This is not right: Is their blood redder than those of the Israelis that, because we were afraid to use stronger force, Def can now go on planning to kill?”