Speaking of Warren...

Steve DenBeste reacts to Warren's article, which I have not read yet, but which allegedly posits that Muslims everywhere are experiencing a crisis in their faith. Warren is a Christian, thus his conclusion from this is pessimistic. Steve is an Atheist, and thus his conclusion is quite the opposite.

The problem I have with this whole discussion, is that it is based on the common assumption that the current confrontation between the West and the Muslim world has most of its roots in religion, i.e. Islam. Although many people, including Steve, are well aware of the socioeconomic aspect of the conflict (“they hate us because we are more successful”), still, I think that too much emphasis is being put on religion, and too little on something called “culture”. Although culture and religion in the Arab world are so closely knit together, that it is impossible to discuss them separately, they still are two different things.

There are certain phenomena in Arab culture that can be historically traced to the pre-Islamic period. One of them is the “blood feud”, which is really the most idiotic interpretation of the “eye for an eye” principle.
Anyone familiar with the Arab world witnessed this: families, clans and entire tribes are killing each other off one by one. Sometimes it can go on for years, with no one left who even remembers what started it in the first place.

Steve thinks that if the West defeats the Islamists, or Islam, physically and culturally conclusively enough, the West will also win conclusively. I am not so sure. For one thing, they were defeated physically long ago several times, and they are being defeated culturally every day, when they compare our living conditions to theirs. Why would next time be different? Moreover, I suspect that one of the many underlying reasons for their hatred of the West is that they have a score to settle with us. It is demonstrated very clearly in the Israeli-Arab part of the larger conflict: they were defeated, and defeated, and defeated, and they still keep trying.

Although I am not an atheist like Steve (more of an agnostic), my approach to this is just as utilitarian as his. But I am afraid I do not share his optimism on the subject.

(Crossposted here).

Analyst claims that Economic decay in Middle East root cause of terrorism.

HUGE BLAST DESTROYS LEBANESE MOSQUE

This is a breakthrough! The "Zionist entity" is not blamed! But note that Syria, occupying Lebanon, is working jointly with Lebanon to investigate, and the cleric worries about Lebanon's unity and security.

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Lebanese and Syrian authorities are investigating an explosion that destroyed a mosque in the Bekaa Valley.

Officials said 50 kilograms of TNT exploded in the 800-year-old Al Azeer mosque in the first such attack in years. They said the bombing in the town of Majdal Anjar appeared to connected to a land dispute between local Muslims and Armenians. Nobody was hurt in blast.

Muslim clerics convened on Wednesday, the night after the explosion, and termed it a provocative and unprecedented attack. They called on authorities to arrest those responsible and suggested that those behind the attack have been identified.

"The goal of the attack was to threaten the political, security and social unity of Lebanon," Sheik Khalil Miss, the chief cleric of the Bekaa area, said.

Palestinians: Israel Faked Gaza Al Qaeda Presence

A fun activity when the weather is bad and you stay at home: Compile a list of all the denials and odd claims made by the Palestinians that are later shown to be total nonsense. Do these guys use peyote for some ritualistic purposes?

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinian Authority accused Israel's Mossad spy agency on Saturday of setting up a fake al Qaeda cell in Gaza so that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could justify Israeli attacks in Palestinian areas.

A spokesman for Sharon called the allegation "sheer nonsense."

The Israeli leader said on Thursday that Osama bin Laden's organization had established a presence in Palestinian-ruled areas of Gaza and in Lebanon, aiming to attack Israel. He gave no further details in his comments at an Israeli media lunch.

"It is a big, big, big lie to cover (Sharon's) attacks and his crimes against our people everywhere," Palestinian President Yasser Arafat told reporters at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo pointed to an alleged Israeli plot.

"There are certain elements who were instructed by the Mossad to form a cell under the name of Al Qaeda in the Gaza Strip in order to justify the assault and the military campaigns of the Israeli occupation army against Gaza," Abed Rabbo said.
[more]
And this is how they "prove" their claim:Palestinians arrest 'collaborators' posing as Al Qaeda operatives

Palestinian security forces have arrested a group of Palestinians for collaborating with Israel and posing as operatives of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network, a senior official says.

The arrests come two days after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon charged that Al Qaeda militants were operating in Gaza and in Lebanon.

"The Palestinian Authority arrested a group of collaborators who confessed they were working for Israel, posing as Al Qaeda operatives in the Palestinian territories," the official said, on condition of anonymity.

He said the alleged collaborators sought to "discredit the Palestinian people, justify every Israeli crime and provide reasons to carry out a new [military] aggression in the Gaza Strip."

Somehow, you just know that those "arrested" are now free and counting the extra pay they got for "confessing."

Got a rally? Get some flyers

It's easy. Just Check out the files below. If you need a closer look, click to enlarge the image.
Print copies of the flyers you want. (Everything is in PDF.)

Photocopy as many as you need.

Flyers & Signs

source (StandWithUsCampus)

We will just have to hit back harder

The unyielding anti-Israeli obsession of the Palestinian-Arabs and their supporters has a thousand and one faces. One of the pettier facets is of the type reported the other day on SF Gate:

Rainbow Grocery's ban on carrying certain Israeli-made goods has angered some customers and prompted the Jewish Community Relations Council in San Francisco to demand that the Mission District co-op reverse its boycott immediately.

The worker-owned store is losing business over its decision to remove Israeli products from two of its largest departments, packaged foods and bulk foods, a Rainbow spokesman said.

Israel’s supporters have little choice other than to hit back at every turn. When it smarts enough, they’ll get smart.

Current news items about Israel/Palestinians: 13 links
Source Articles:
Sharon outlines his peace vision (BBC News 12/05/2002)
Israel says al-Qaeda active in Gaza (BBC News 12/05/2002)
Members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network have infiltrated the Gaz... (NY Post 12/06/2002)
Al Qaeda May Be Moving In On Israel (CBS News 12/05/2002)
Israel Several members of Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network have infi... (FOX News 12/05/2002)
Gaza killings prompt Palestinian rage (BBC News 12/06/2002)
Ten dead in Gaza shelling (BBC News 12/06/2002)
BUREIJ, Gaza Strip - Israeli troops, backed by tanks and helicopters, ... (NY Post 12/06/2002)
Israeli tanks and troops raided a Gaza refugee camp in the dead of nig... (CBS News 12/06/2002)
Gaza Strip Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships hunt... (FOX News 12/06/2002)
Israel's Top General Denies Remarks (CBS News 12/04/2002)
Israel investigates Arafat funding (BBC News 12/05/2002)
JERUSALEM - An Israeli businessman who said he couldn't live with the ... (NY Post 12/06/2002)

Al-Qaeda vows to aim its terrorism at Israelis

Dukakis to moderate Mideast seminar at Florida Atlantic University

Saudi minister blames Jews for Sept. 11 attacks

The Numbers Tell The Story: The Myth of Zionist Colonialism

The following, a lesson in history, puts the lie to the notion that Israel was created out of land occupied by Palestinians, who were forced to flee in order for the newly UN sanctioned state to become a reality.

One of the most powerful and widespread arguments against Zionism and the State of Israel has been the claim that Jewish settlement in Palestine led directly to the displacement and exploitation of the land`s long-established Arab population. In 1939, on the eve of the Holocaust and at the height of British attempts to divide the region into separate Arab and Jewish states, Jamal Husayni, spokesman for the effective government of Palestinian Arabs, forcefully raised this very argument against the Jewish national home:

``Is it in any way just, that the Arabs, who have lived on this land uninterruptedly for 1300 years, and whose lives are rooted in its soil, should be dispossessed by force, should be pushed aside, and should be blackmailed to enable the Zionist Jews to fashion a Jewish National Home on this land? That`s the problem...``

This was also the claim made by five Arab states to justify war against the State of Israel in 1948, just one day after it had declared its independence. According to this view, Jews had been absent from the land of Israel for too long to claim their right to return. In their absence, another group of people had come to occupy the land, and thus the Zionist movement could succeed only at this people`s expense. The West, embarrassed by the horrors of the Holocaust, had founded the State of Israel to clear its conscience, and the Arab residents of Palestine were forced to pay the price. The creation of the Jewish state was thus an outrage, according to this argument, because the very settlement of the land by Jews was illegitimate.

Yet the argument rests on an inaccurate description of the country`s history; namely, a mischaracterization of the demographics of Palestine before 1948.
click here

Canadian Jews target Hezbollah

If Hezbollah is not a terrorist group, then there is no such thing as terror groups. But it must be proven in court, it seems.

TORONTO, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Under the spotlight of a well-publicized lawsuit, Canadian leaders are accelerating their examination into whether fundraising by the Hezbollah should be allowed to continue or be banned.

The issue came to a head last week when Canada placed six groups, including the Palestinian-based Hamas on its list of banned terrorist organizations, but excluded Hezbollah.

That prompted a lawsuit against the government by the Jewish organization B'nai Brith, claiming that parliament was acting in contravention of its own anti-terrorism act.

Adding to the acrimony between Canadian Arabs and Jews, a registered Jewish charity, Magen David Alom, also came under government scrutiny. The group's charter states its purpose as raising funds to supply medical equipment and ambulances to Israel.

Although the organization has not been banned, Jewish groups worldwide posted protests on Web sites and with an e-mail campaign.

The Lebanese-based Hezbollah has two primary arms, the first being a humanitarian operation that funds and runs schools and hospitals in southern Lebanon, and the second being both political and military in nature, including the "External Security Organization," known for terrorist acts.

The United States has banned all fundraising by groups associated with Hezbollah, while Canada and Britain have only banned the military wing. The United Nations includes all of Hezbollah on its list of 200 known terrorist operations.

Until now, the Canadian government's position has been that apart from its humanitarian work, Hezbollah is a valid political party in Lebanon, with 12 elected members in its National Assembly. But Frank Dimant, executive vice president of B'nai Brith told the Globe and Mail that position is absurd.

"The Nazis were also elected and had social services and a youth wing," he said.
[more]

Israeli hunt for suspect leaves 10 dead in camp
Two U.N. workers killed as Palestinians fight back; alleged militant not found

I am sure we will hear about the 10 killed but little about the armed Palestinians protecting the Hamas operatives.

BUREIJ REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip - The Israeli army had clear goals for its attack here yesterday: Hunt down a fugitive Palestinian militant and blow up his house. But nothing is straightforward in this camp's tangle of alleys.
Palestinians armed with machine guns and hand grenades tried for three hours to stave off the soldiers' attack, which was backed by two dozen tanks and an Apache helicopter. In the end, 10 Palestinians were killed, and the army pulled out after destroying the two-story home it had targeted but without capturing the man it sought.

It was difficult to determine how many of the dead, nine of them men and all between 20 and 35, were gunmen. The army said that most of those killed were armed and that at least five were militants with the radical Hamas group. Palestinian doctors said several civilians were among the dead, including two United Nations two United Nations school workers.

Later yesterday, a mass funeral procession wound its way along the streets of this camp of about 30,000 people. The bodies were held aloft as militants, their faces covered with black ski masks, fired guns into the air and vowed revenge.

Hardly a tear was shed, and that seemed another product of the long, violent conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Aisha Bahar, 60, sat on the cold stone floor of her one-room house, its makeshift roof a piece of corrugated tin. She last saw her 30-year-old son, Abdel Menem Bahar, as he raced outside and into the battle, where he met his death.

"I said, 'Thank God my son is a martyr,'" Bahar recalled. She said Abdel, a street vendor, was simply curious about what was happening.

The dead man's wife, Rola Bahar, 29, cradled their newborn daughter and gazed at her three young sons. "I am proud of him, and I hope that my sons will follow their father," she said.
[more]

Bid to oust Arafat takes back seat
Policy on new leadership softened in 'roadmap' for Mideast peace process

A policy shift that had not been announced, it seems.

WASHINGTON - Five months after President Bush called for new Palestinian leadership untainted by terror - a clear signal that perennial survivor Yasser Arafat had to go - U.S. officials are now playing down that demand in a bid to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

American officials insist that their determination to see Arafat stripped of power has never flagged and say that they recognize the peace process is likely to go nowhere while he controls the Palestinian Authority.

But they say that making him a target could merely boost his popularity and prevent the emergence of the kind of reform-minded leaders that both Americans and Israelis are demanding - leaders who could quell violence against Israelis and become credible negotiating partners for Israel.

"When you target Arafat, you reinforce him," a State Department official said. "He's been synonymous with the Palestinian cause for 30 years. By making him the center of debate, you render impotent the people who could work for a new dynamic" among Palestinians.
[more]

U.S.: Palestinians have violated accords

Does this report, critical of the Palestinians, mean anything?

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 (JTA) -- For the first time, the White House has officially determined that the Palestinians are not in compliance with the agreements it has signed with the United States and Israel.

But despite the determination, President Bush immediately waived any sanctions required by law, invoking national security as the reason.

The president's findings coincide with the release of the State Department's semiannual report on Palestinian compliance.

The report, obtained by JTA on Tuesday, says the Palestinians have not complied with several elements of its agreements, including recognizing the right of Israel to exist in peace and security, solving all disputes through negotiation and peaceful means and renouncing the use of violence.

Because of the sanction waiver, Monday's actions have no concrete effect.

Some American Jewish organizational officials and lawmakers are nonetheless praising the symbolic gesture of chastising the Palestinians for their noncompliance, but are criticizing the president's waiver of the sanctions.
[more]

Bush names Iran-Contra figure his Mideast chief
Abrams' rise thrills Israel's supporters

This appontment sends a signal that is loud and clear to Israeli supporters.

Washington -- Elliott Abrams, a pugnacious conservative and passionate advocate of Israel, is no stranger to Washington's policy wars.

But Abrams' selection this week as President Bush's director of Middle Eastern affairs at the White House plunged him into one of the sharpest disputes in the nation's capital -- the one within the administration over how to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Abrams' appointment thrilled those who had criticized the administration for being too tough on Israel and too deferential to the Palestinians. But it dismayed those, especially at the State Department, who want Israel to ease its crackdown in the West Bank and Gaza.

An administration official said that Abrams' ascension has created "serious consternation" at the State Department. It is seen there, he said, as likely to impede the efforts of Secretary of State Colin Powell to work with European nations to press Israel and the Palestinians to adopt a staged timetable leading to creation of a Palestinian state in three years.

The timetable, known as a road map, has been criticized by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, though he endorsed it in principle this week. Supporters of Israel in Congress, who have also criticized the road map approach, welcomed the appointment of Abrams'.

"There are two foreign policy teams in this administration on a lot of issues," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who went to Harvard with Abrams in the 1960s. "Clearly Elliott is coming out of the hard-line team. But that is where Bush's heart is."
[more]

Many Palestinians Rethinking Violence

It's hard to see how the current intifada can be characterized as anything other than a complete failure. Aside from upping their kill ratio -- and destroying whatever moral credibility they might have had by embracing suicide bombing -- they're no closer to having a Palestinian state than they were two years ago. Indeed, they're farther from the goal because a peace plan was on the table two years ago and now there's only a "road map" which President Bush has shown little interest in lately. He still hasn't met with Arafat and likely never will.

After more than two years of silence, a slowly swelling chorus of Palestinian leaders and opinion-makers says taking up arms against Israel was a mistake and must stop.

The latest voice is that of Jibril Rajoub, once the most powerful security chief in the West Bank. Rajoub now says he warned Yasser Arafat in a strategy session 10 days after the start of the uprising that allowing armed gangs to take over would lead to disaster.

Rajoub's forecast has proven chillingly accurate: 26 months later, nearly 2,000 Palestinians and nearly 700 Israelis are dead, the Palestinian economy is crushed, Israel has reoccupied the West Bank and Israeli travel bans have turned many Palestinian towns into virtual prison camps.

The most surprising apsect of this whole mess is that Arafat and the assorted terrorist groups thought it would work in the first place.

I don't know. Maybe rational thought isn't taught in madrassas -- in fact, it isn't -- but there is no way any sensible opponent would allow tactics such as suicide bombings and targeting civilians to succeed because we would never see the end of it if it did. The only choice once those tactics are embraced is how to fight, not whether.

Even Colin Powell, who has been entirely too keen on negotiations when military action is appropriate, is calling the intifada a mistake:

Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday he believes the current Palestinian uprising against Israel is "a mistake."

"It has not brought the Palestinian people any closer to a state of their own or to peace, and I think the sooner that terrorism and violence of this nature is ended, the more likely we are to move forward on the vision that President Bush laid out in his 24 June speech for two states living side by side in peace with each other," said Powell in a press conference with Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou in Washington.

If there's to be a Palestinian state, the circumstances have to be such that Israel can feel secure within its own borders and acts of terror are not tolerated by the new state, much less encouraged.

Cross-posted on NNP.

Israeli related sites

Profile: Mustafa Sabah, senior "Popular Resistance Committees" operative

Al Qaeda operative expelled from Israel

Anti-Semtism Watch

Hundreds of skinheads disrupted a public candle-lighting and Chanukah celebration of the Jewish community in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday night. The skinheads, members of the Hungarian Revisionist Party, menacingly gathered near the dias where the ceremony was taking place and chanted, "Hungary is ours!" Hungarian police did not intervene, as both groups had been issued permits for use of the public square. Police later apologized for the oversight in issuing the permits to both groups for the same night and location.

German neo-Nazis have vowed to stage a demonstration when Israeli President Moshe Katzav arrives in the country next Tuesday on a state visit. The neo-Nazis are demanding that Germany cease supplying military equipment to Israel, and have paraded in the past under the banner, "Get Their Hands Out of Palestine." The city of Berlin issued a permit for the Tuesday demonstration, and the tiny Jewish community of Berlin has promised a counter-demonstration.

source

Judeophobia in Europe

In a very important interview, Pilar Rahola explains what drives the pro-Palestinian hysteria of the European Left.

She is the second Oriani Falacci. Three cheers for both of them.

A former parliamentarian, Pilar Rahola sat in the national legislature in Madrid for eight years, first as part of the republican left, then as the founder of the Independence Party.

She decided to step forward to denounce the flagrant imbalance in the handling of information from the Middle East. Her most recent piece, “In Favor of Israel,” is to be published in a book in which fifteen Spanish intellectuals, including Jon Juaristi, president of the Cervantes Institute, and Gabriel Alviac, a well-known journalist with El Mundo [translator’s note: a Spanish daily newspaper], seek to reestablish the facts.

If you want to understand where the European Left is coming from, this interview is a good place to start.

Ted Belman tedbel@rogers.com

Discordia at Concordia

For information on the Concordia campaign against Hillel (the Jewish student group), see Sari's site.

Think about it...

Two missiles were fired at an Israeli jet in Mombasa and everyone was shocked, appalled etc like it was the first time.

Wasn't an Siberian passenger jet filled with Israelis shot down in the Ukraine by an alleged Ukrainian missile.

Wasn't there some evidence, quickly denied, of a missile when the TWA passenger jet went down off Long Island.

Think about it.

Ted Belman, tedbel@rogers.com

SITES OF THE WEEK

The Sites of the Week this week features one information site and five blogs all from the Holy Land. On the left is a section linking to these sites. Visit them, they are worth the read.

Independent Media Review Analysis from Israel. Puts up ten to twenty Israel related stories a day. You can have them emailed to you.

Here are some very good and popular blogs all from Israel. They tend to be a bit to the left of many of the contributers to Israpundit. If you have time after reading Israpundit these are some sites you may like.

Balagan - A Brazilian woman who recently moved to Israel

The Israeli Guy Gil Shterzer

Not A Fish Nor Gefilte Fish

Ribbity Frog Blog

Tal G. in Jerusalem

Elliot Abrams, Mr Rice Guy

Back to the Bush's "vision" speech of June. Sharon's recent speech also embraced these concepts and not the hated "road map".

SOMETIMES the Washington
presscorps reports a story, but entirely misses its significance. This was the case with last week's naming of Elliott Abrams to the position of senior director for Near East and North African affairs on the National Security Council staff at the White House. The job makes Abrams a major player in setting policy on Israel and the Palestinians. And Abrams's view of the right policy is quite different--more pro-Israel, less solicitous of Palestinians--from that of Secretary of State Colin Powell and the permanent cast of characters at the State Department.

Abrams's job is to make certain that the conditions and guidelines laid down by President Bush in his speech last June 24 are not watered down or ignored by the Powell forces.

The appointment of Abrams, 54, is an important statement by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice--and by Bush--that the White House will not cede control of Middle East policy to Powell.

At the moment, the White House plans to implement the Bush guidelines from his speech last June. Among these are the easing aside of Arafat, the end of Palestinian terrorism against Israel, and reform of the Palestinian Authority.

Joseph Alexander Norland can relax. All is not lost.

Editorial: Mideast mixed signals

Worthwhile editorial wonders who represents the Palestinians and their views.

Who speaks for Palestinians? Yasser Arafat and his moderate-sounding aides, or the terrorists who murdered innocent Israelis this past week in Israel and Kenya? The 56 per cent of Palestinians who shrink from attacks inside Israel or the large minority who still cheer them?

The world needs to know.

Brutal attacks on Israeli voters, holiday-goers and air travellers a few days ago coincided with news reports that Arafat's top deputy Mahmoud Abbas has denounced the two-year Palestinian campaign of violence as a tragic error and a dead end. "We should ... ask ourselves where we are headed," he told Fatah party activists at a closed-door meeting. "What happened in these two years ... is a complete destruction of everything we built."

Yes it is. Some 2,700 people have died, Arafat's credibility has been shattered, his Palestinian Authority all but destroyed, statehood has been put on hold and tens of thousands have sunk into poverty.

A rethinking of Palestinian strategy is overdue. But Arafat himself, not an aide, should have shouted this message from the rooftops. Then fewer ordinary people might still cling to the contemptible fiction that terror is justified.

If Arafat cannot bring himself to challenge this view, publicly and forcefully, he should bow out. To be credible peace partners Palestinian leaders must make themselves heard for peace above the noise of rockets, bombs and guns. They haven't yet.
[more]

Sharon breaks with political allies, backs 'Bush formula'

HERZLIYA, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has endorsed the U.S. plan for an interim Palestinian state. The so-called "roadmap," sets a timetable for an interim Palestinian state in 2003 and a country with permanent borders in 2005.

Sharon said he will obtain formal approval for the plan drafted by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia should he win parliamentary elections on Jan. 28.

It was the first time he has publicly detailed his views on the plan which differ significantly from those of the Palestinian Authority and are opposed by his own political allies in the current government, Middle East Newsline reported

"It is a logical, wise plan that can be implemented," Sharon said. "We accepted in principle the Bush formula. Israel will not return to control territories from which we withdrew in political settlements."

Sharon said the Palestinian state would be demilitarized and be ruled by a democratic regime. He said this would involve the removal of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat from decision-making and Palestinian elections.

At the same time, Sharon said, the Palestinians would be forced to dismantle what the prime minister termed all of their security organizations. They would be replaced by two or three new agencies, which will be comprised of a police force and security bodies and cooperate with Israel. Sharon said terrorism would be outlawed and a new Palestinian interior minister would be responsible for collecting illegal weapons and transferring them to a third party. At that point, the weapons would be removed from Palestinian areas and destroyed.

After this process, Sharon said, an interim Palestinian state will be completed and contain at least 40 percent of the West Bank. He said Israel would control passages to the Palestinian state as well as control its air space. The new Palestinian state will not be allowed to form alliances with Israel's enemies.

"No progress will be made from one phase to the next until such time as quiet has been restored, Palestinian rule has undergone fundamental changes, and coexistence is ensured," Sharon said.

In the first stage, Israel will agree to contiguity between areas within the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But Israel will not allow contiguity between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Sharon's vision differed sharply with those of his allies in his current right-wing government. National Infrastructure Minister Effie Eitam said, head of the National Religious Party, said Israel would quickly lose all control of the process of establishing a Palestinian state. He expressed skepticism whether Israel could ensure that a Palestinian state would be demilitarized or democratic.

"The minute that Israel utters the word 'Palestinian state' the international community and the Palestinians will understand that the conflict has been decided." Eitam said. "He [Sharon] is saying that historically and strategically you have won."
[more]

Middle East angst erupts again in Concordia's halls

The school with the most pro- and anti-Israeli clashes amongst it students does it again. But look who leads the anti-Israeli students!

MONTREAL -- Concordia University's student union has voted to suspend privileges of the campus's main Jewish club, sparking renewed turmoil at the university days after administrators lifted a ban on activities related to the Middle East.

The student body passed a motion this week demanding that Concordia Hillel apologize for placing pamphlets on an information table that sought volunteers for the Israel Defence Forces.

The Concordia Student Union, known for its pro-Palestinian positions in the past, said the Jewish group broke federal law because it was recruiting Canadians to join a foreign army.

"We treat one group just like we treat another group," Sameer Zuberi, a member of the student executive, said yesterday. "Had it been . . . people recruiting for the Iraqi army or the Saudi Arabian army, they would have been treated in a similar fashion."

The continued conflict at Concordia reflects increased tension at several university campuses.
[more]

Ten dead in Gaza shelling

There would seem to be some oldfashioned notion that an army seeking its enemies ought not to go into any area that may house civilians who are not directly involved in killing activies, despite the fact that the killers do not wear uniforms, hide among civilians, and amidst the non-involved. Thus, when innocents get killed, it is the "fault" of soldiers in uniform carrying out their duties who are denounced by those allowing killers to hide out.

Palestinian homes were targeted in the raid.

At least 10 Palestinians have been killed in a gun battle triggered by an Israeli armoured incursion into a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian witnesses said the Israeli troops entered al-Bureij camp in about 40 tanks and other armoured vehicles, triggering heavy exchanges of fire with Palestinian gunmen.

It was as if the doors of hell were opened in our camp by the helicopters and the tanks

Witness Mohammed Al-Maqadama

They accused the Israelis of firing indiscriminately, and said that some of the casualties were caused when a tank shell hit a house, but Israel has strongly denied this.

The Israeli army said all of the victims were militants - at least five of them from the Islamic group Hamas - but Palestinians say all but two were civilians.

Local hospital officials said another 10 people - including a family of five - were wounded before the Israeli troops pulled out.

The Israeli Defence Force said its troops - who were backed up by helicopter gunships - came under intense fire from close quarters during the operation against "terrorist targets and infrastructure" in the area.

The incursion came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that militants from Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network were active in Gaza - a claim derided by Palestinians.

'Continuation of massacres'

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat described the incursion as "Israeli terrorism".
[more]

PA Reforms and The Arab Tradition of Out-manoeuvring the West

On June 24, 2002, Bush made the famous speech in which he demanded that the PA reform, spelling out specific steps to be taken:

My vision is two states, living side by side in peace and security.
...
I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror. I call upon them to build a practising democracy, based on tolerance and liberty. If the Palestinian people actively pursue these goals, America and the world will actively support their efforts.
...
True reform will require entirely new political and economic institutions, based on democracy, market economics and action against terrorism.
...
A Palestinian state can only serve its citizens with a new constitution which separates the powers of government.
...
And the United States will not support the establishment of a Palestinian state until its leaders engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure.
...
I've said in the past that nations are either with us or against us in the war on terror. To be counted on the side of peace, nations must act. Every leader actually committed to peace will end incitement to violence in official media, and publicly denounce homicide bombings.

Since the “vision thing” speech was made, the ZOA has been keeping tabs on the progress made with regard to the four point highlighted above; the weekly reports are reproduced by IMRA on a regular basis. The last of these reports was posted by IMRA on December 3, 2002. It concludes as follows:

[On dismantling terrorist infrastructure]: No Terrorists Arrested...No Terrorists Extradited...No Terror Groups Outlawed...No Terrorists' Weapons Seized...No Closing of Bomb Factories...No Punishing of PLO Terror Factions...

New Terrorist Attacks ...during Nov.16-Dec.1, 2002, there were at least 48 terrorist attacks or attempted attacks, in which 17 people were murdered and
93 wounded...
...
[Re End Incitement:] The PA's official newspapers, television, and radio continued to broadcast a steady stream of anti-Israel, anti-American, and pro-violence incitement, and PA officials continued to make inciting statements.

[Re Elect New Leaders Not Compromised by Terror]: The PA has announced that it will hold elections for chairman of the PA and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council on January 20, 2003, if Israel withdraws from various parts of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.

[Re Build Democracy Based on Tolerance and Liberty]: The PA continues to claim that it is in the process of implementing what it describes as its "reform plan," but experts doubt that the reforms will be genuine. Robert Satloff of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said of the plan: "While it offers promising elements of change, the plan is only likely to strengthen the unacceptable status quo." On October 29, 2002, Arafat announced the appointment of a new cabinet; however, 16 of the 19 cabinet members had likewise been members of the outgoing cabinet.

Furthermore, on October 29, 2002, the PA announced it had condemned to death an Arab human-rights worker (Heidar Mahmoud Hussein Ghanim, an employee of the leftwing Israeli group Btselem) for "spying for Israel."

It is hardly surprising that no progress is made, since the EU and the US continue to subsidize and support the Palestinians anyway. Indeed, just the other day we learnt that Bush declined to apply sanctions for PA non-compliance, as reported by Ha’Aretz on December 5, 2002:

President George Bush decided Monday to impose sanctions on the Palestinian Authority for not fulfilling its obligations to fight terror, but the president has frozen their implementation for the time being.
...
The complicated wording of the White House decision is meant to convey dissatisfaction with the Palestinians, but without imposing any kind of punishment that would be problematic for the administration.

One has to conclude that the PA has succeeded once again in manipulating the West into supporting it without giving up anything in return: Teflon-Arafat is firmly placed at the head of the PA, terrorism against Israel continues on a daily basis, and the Gang of Four (“Quartet”) continues its unrelenting effort to “destroy Israel by other means”.

Horror of horrors, Sharon himself has endorsed the creation of a second Palestinian-Arab state, as documented by an IMRA report, December 4, 2002, quoting Sharon’s words:

As I have promised in the past, President Bush's sequence will be discussed and approved by the National Unity Government which I intend to establish after the elections, and I will do my utmost to establish as broad a National Unity Government as possible.

Anyone who believes that in the end, Sharon will out-smart Arafat and will not permit a second Palestinian-Arab state without adequate guaranties, indeed, anyone who believes that in the end, the West will see the light and out-manouevre the Palestinians, should look into history to learn about the phenomenal success of the Arabs in turning the tables and out-manoeuvring the West. Let me cite but one example which concerns the way in which King Abdullah outwitted Churchill and the British government in the 1920's.

If one reads popular versions of Jordanian history, as presented, for example, on the Focus site, one is led to believe that Jordan (formerly, Tansjordan) came into being like Athene out of the head of Zeus:

Transjordan was incorporated into Britain's League of Nations' mandate of Palestine. Transjordan was treated separately from Palestine, however, and its residents were assured that it would not be affected by the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the future. His majesty king Abdullah, Faisal's brother, was chosen to rule over Transjordan in 1921. He cooperated closely with the British, who helped create the Arab Legion, a small army later commanded by Sir John Glubb. In 1928 a treaty with Britain made Transjordan a constitutional monarchy. A second treaty with the British on Mar. 22, 1946, created the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan.

But quite a different picture emerges from detailed, scholarly works, such as:

Fromkin, David. A Peace to End All Peace. New York: Avon Books, 1989.

Fromkin's research, together with material culled from additional sources, indicates the following chain of events.

In March, 1920, the Emir Feisal, son of Hussein king of Hejaz, was crowned King of Syria, Feisal having marched into Syria with his armed followers. In April, 1920, the San Remo conference confirmed the mandates allocation, according to which Britain would receive the mandate over Palestine (which would include both banks of the Jordan), and France would received the mandate over Syria/Lebanon. To France, the latter decision was incompatible with Feisal ruling as Syria’s king; the French solution was to occupy Syria/Lebanon and expel Hussein (July 1920).

But Arab attacks on the French continued, and Britain was concerned that France would use the hostilities as a pretext to invade Palestine. This issue was one of many Middle East problems that Churchill (as colonial secretary, 1921-1922) had to deal with. To discuss these issues, Churchill called the “Cairo Conference” for 12-22 March, 1921. While the Conference was ongoing, news arrived that Abdullah, brother of the deposed King Hussein of Syria, arrived in Transjordan at the head of two hundred Bedouin warriors. It was believed that Abdullah intended to go to war on the French and reinstate his brother as king of Syria. Alarmed, Churchill proposed to offer Abdullah the following deal: in return for Abdullah agreeing not to attack French Syria, Churchill would appoint Abdullah as temporary ruler of eastern Palestine, with the express mandate of establishing order and preventing attacks on the French in Syria/Lebanon.

Herbert Samuel and Wyndham Deedes, respectively, the High Commissioner and the Chief Secretary for Palestine, objected to this proposal on the grounds that Eastern Paelstine was included in the League of Nations mandate for Palestine, and that Churchill could not change the terms unilaterally. But Churchill argued that Abdullah’s position would be temporary, for a few months only, and with this argument succeeded in persuading the British cabinet.

As the Cairo Conference closed on March 22, 1921, Churchill travelled to Jerusalem and met Abdullah in person. In these meetings, Abdullah agreed to govern Transjordan for six months, with the advice of a British chief political officer and with a British financial subsidy.

Within weeks it became clear that Abdullah was unable to either quell the internal fighting among the local tribes or to prevent attacks on the French in Syria. But when summer turned to fall and the British doubts about Abdullah became clear, he simply made it know to his British handlers (especially to TE Lawrence “of Arabia”) that he would not leave. Abdullah knew that the Arabists in the British Colonial Office would prefer to see him installed permanently under their tutelage, rather than eject him by force of arms, and he was right: Abdullah had succeeded to out-manoeuver Churchill. Faced with this reality, Britain used her clout to redraft the San Remo terms, so that the mandate given to Britain by the League of Nations in July 1922 did indeed permit Britain to exclude Eastern Palestine from the Jewish National home.

Fromkin summarizes the subsequent developments thus:

[T]he Colonial Office's temporary and merely administrative set of arrangements for Transjordan in time hardened into an enduring political reality. The Arabian prince with his foreign retinue settled in Amman and became a permanent new factor in the complex politics of the Palestine Mandatory regime... The newly created province of Transjordan, later to become the independent state of Jordan, gradually drifted into existence as an entity separate from the rest of Palestine; indeed, today it is often forgotten that Jordan was ever part of Palestine.

There are numerous examples that demonstrate the same trend, such as Egypt’s success in garnering the support of the West at the same time as she was firmly in the Soviet camp during the Cold War era. But if the story of Abdullah and the other historical examples are not enough of a warning, consider how effectively the Arab propaganda machine is succeeding in turning governments and public opinion in Europe against our sister-republic, Israel, to this very day. One has to marvel how a collection of autocracies with hands dripping with blood can subvert the minds of educated, freedom-loving people, inducing them to regard a vibrant sister-democracy as the devil incarnate - and yet the Arabs are doing so continually. Arab propaganda has out-manoeuvred reason and facts, using little more than petro-dollars and terrorism.

Which is why I cringe when I hear leaders from Bush to Sharon accept the notion of a second Palestinian Arab state, and the more I hear about imposing conditions of “reform” and “demilitarization”, the more I cringe: I've seen "conditions" before.

Another obvious example of how Arab countries outwit the West is Iraq, a topic which warrants a separate article. I mention this point in closing only to call attention to a recent article by David Warren, an article which should be read in its entirety. To whet one’s appetite, I quote but one paragraph that encapsulates much of the story:

The Iraqis had found the previous U.N. inspector, the distressingly competent Richard Butler, much too confrontational, and found the American's proposed compromise candidate, another Swede, Rolf Ekeus, also too confrontational. Mr. Blix was the sort of sap they were looking for, and in 1998 the Clinton administration was persuaded to accept him as the head of the newly watered-down UNMOVIC after long nights of filibuster by the Russians, French, and Kofi Annan.

Is there any wonder the Arabs laugh at us?

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland. This piece is cross-posted on IsraPundit and Dawson Speaks.

Israel investigates Arafat funding

The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has ordered a full investigation into allegations that an Israeli envoy was involved in setting up a Swiss bank account for the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, and his financial adviser.

The former Shin Bet official, Yossi Ginossar, is alleged to have transferred money to an unknown destination.

He has denied any wrongdoing. He said all his business activities had been legal and he had not engaged in business while on government missions.

The Palestinian senior negotiator, Saeb Erekat, rejected the allegations, which he said were part of an Israeli smear campaign against the Palestinian Authority.

Synagogue vandalized in western France

Vandals broke into a synagogue in southwestern France, ransacking the main prayer hall and destroying holy books, police and Jewish leaders said Thursday.

The attack on the synagogue of Perigueux, in the Dordogne region, took place before dawn Wednesday after worshippers and officials had already left. It came during the eight-day Jewish celebration of Hanukkah, which ends Friday at sundown.

source

Islam's Nazi Connections

One of the good things one can truthfully say about Islam is that there has never been any love lost between Moslems and Marxists. Sadly, the opposite end of the totalitarian political spectrum is quite another matter. SS chief Heinrich Himmler was known to remark that he regretted that Germany had adopted Christianity, rather than "warlike" Islam, as its religion, and there is a disturbing amount of twisted but very real logic in his remark.

source

Al-Qaeda's Global Jihad

IDF document presents world-wide plan of terror group.

During the month of the Ramadan (which ended this week), an announcement was published by an active Al-Qaeda cell on a website connected to the Al-Qaeda Islamic terror network. The announcement called for Muslim nations to unite around the "common goal", and that the solution to the Islamic nation's problems, was to follow the path of Allah and Jihad.

The announcement requests that Muslims not remain silent in the face of the injustices caused to Islam since the fall of the Caliphs dynasty. It talks of the loss of "Andalusia" to the "Christian occupation" of Spain in 1492, the loss of Palestine, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, The Balkans, the Caucases, Kashmir, Burma and Sudan.

The article in the Al-Ansar newspaper (volume 21) Nov. 20, 2002

Thanks to the Al-Qaeda leadership [Al-Qaeda is headed by Mullah Omar and Iman Al-Zawahari], Jihad warriors have managed to break through the boundaries and spread their Jihad activities through many countries. These include Afghanistan, Chechnia, The Balkans, Kashmir, China, the Philippines, Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Eritrea, Sudan, Egypt, Algiers, Libya, Tunis, Morocco, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. They also include several other countries in Africa, Scandinavia, South and North America and Australia". Said the announcement.

The role of the Muslims in the realization of Islam's goals:

The role of religious scholars and teachers:
click here

For the Record

Arabs anti-Semitic? Never!

Here is a report not from IMRA, not from MEMRI, not from the JPost, but straight from the AP's mouth, under the unequivocal heading, Saudi Minister: Jews Behind 9/11 Attacks :

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The Saudi police minister has claimed Jews were behind the Sept. 11 attacks because they have benefited from subsequent criticism of Islam and Arabs, according to media reports.

Interior Minister Prince Nayef made the remarks in the Arabic-language Kuwaiti daily Assyasah last month. The latest edition of Ain al-Yaqeen, a weekly Internet magazine devoted to Saudi issues, posted the Assyasah interview and its own English translation.

Add this one to The Protocols, the Blood Libels and "Jews behind maligning Saudi Arabia".

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland. This piece is cross-posted on IsraPundit and Dawson Speaks

Very interesting..

From DEBKAfile's

In a corner of the hall in Herzliya sat a small group of individuals who listened quietly to Sharon’s address with growing astonishment. DEBKAfile’s military sources identified them as a US Pentagon delegation on an unofficial, unannounced visit. Its members failed to understand how Sharon could ignore the new threats menacing Israel on every hand and was sufficiently out of tune with the realities of Washington policies to offer his Palestinian treatise at this time.

It is an open secret in Washington that the White House has no time for the “road map” devised by Secretary of State Colin Powell and the Quartet, any more than it has for Arafat, whom Bush does not want to see anywhere near government, however “symbolic” the role assigned him. In any case, Israel faces untold dangers until the end of January and by then the Middle East is likely to be a different place.

The appointment of Elliott Abrams as head of the National Security Council’s Middle East section is important in the context of Powell’s initiatives in concert with European governments and the UN secretariat – and therefore Sharon’s newfound Palestinian concepts. Announcing the appointment, Dr. Rice made it clear that Abrams will take charge of the White House’s peace initiatives and its policies on Israel-Arab relations, thereby reducing if not cutting out the secretary of state’s powers on these issues.

Ted Belman tedbel@rogers.com

Anti-US anger grows among Arab moderates

Just don't call it a clash of civilizations.

BEIRUT - If the United States wants to gauge the extent of anti-American sentiment in Lebanon, it needs look no further than its embassy's efforts in the past few weeks to host iftars, the evening fast-breaking meal during the Muslim month of Ramadan. Just nine of 80 invitees attended a Monday-night iftar. Most observed a boycott of the event in protest of US Middle East policies.

As a possible US-led invasion of Iraq inches closer, and the bloodshed in the occupied Palestinian territories increases, anger toward America in this comparatively Western-friendly nation has grown more violent.

Several American fast-food restaurants have been bombed recently - three in one day last month. Then, two weeks ago, an American missionary was shot dead in her office in Sidon, the first killing of a US citizen on Lebanese soil since the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. It is still unclear whether she was murdered because of her nationality or because of her alleged attempts to convert local Muslims.

In Lebanon, as in the rest of the Middle East, public expressions of opposition to Washington's Mideast policies had until recent months been confined mainly to organized and peaceful campaigns to boycott American goods.

The killing last month of a USAID official in Jordan and attacks on US troops based
[more]

Missiles to Israel's north: Syria has been trucking Iranian missiles into Lebanon to the forces of Hezbullah. Craig Hines of the Houston Chronicle (Dec. 3) says Israel might have to pre-empt the problem.

Why one should oppose a second Palestinian-Arab state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza - Part 14 of 23

This piece continues a series of which the first 13 parts were posted on September 8, 9, 11, 17, 20, 22, 23; October 7, 24, 28, 29; and November 6, and 26 2002. (Alternatively, the previous articles may be found in the IsraPundit archives as follows: September 8, 9, 11, 17, 20, 22, 23; October 7, 24, 28, 29; and November 6 and 26, 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. The term "second Palestinian-Arab state" is used in order to underscore that one Palestinian-Arab state already exists: it's called Jordan, and it is located in that part of Eastern Paletsine that was originally to have been part of the Jewish National Home.


14. Recalling the PLO’s connections with international terrorism, one may well suspect that in the future, the West is in danger of coming under attack by Bin Laden-like terrorists trained in a sovereign Palestinian Arab state.

To begin with, the PLO is a terrorist organization and its transformation into the PA has not changed its character. To this day, a host of terrorist organizations such as al Aqsa, Force 17 and Tanzim constitute an integral part of Arafat’s own organization, Fatah.

But the terrorist connection is much broader, and well known. Consider, for example, the following excerpt from the official 1994 US report, Patterns of Global Terrorism :

In the 1960s and the 1970s, Fatah offered training to a wide range of European, Middle Eastern, Asian, and African terrorist and insurgent groups.

And what happened after "the 1970"? Did the PLO cease offering “training to a wide range” of terrorist groups? To a great extend the PLO did cease, but only because Israel ejected the PLO from Lebanon in 1982, again, rendering the West an invaluable service and being cursed in return. But the PLO connection with global terrorism did not cease, as shown in the following excerpt from the US Congressional Record, which in turn cites comments made in the US House of Representatives by Robert K. Dorman on July 27, 1990 (the comments, based on a research paper, refer specifically to the PLO terrorist links in connection with the narcotics trade):

European police first stumbled on this trade when Scotland Yard special units, in cooperation with the Dutch Narcotics Squad, unearthed a haul of 300,000,000 pounds' worth of top-grade ‘Lebanese Gold’ transported from Lebanon in two freighters chartered by the PLO. Earlier, a six-man PLO squad led by one of Arafat's chief aides, Ali Mahmoud Buro, was arrested at Heathrow Airport after customs men found a 150-kilogram cache of Bekaa Valley cannabis in their luggage.

Following up on these leads as well as information from Western intelligence services operating in the Middle East, Scotland Yard detectives recently cracked down on a vast IRA-PLO money-laundering operation. The IRA was using British banks and other financial organizations to purchase arms with their drug profits for terrorist operations in Ireland, Britain, Germany, and France.

The connection with the IRA is also recorded by the State Department document, Patterns of Global Terrorism, 1999 . Referring to the IRA, the document states:

[R]eceived aid from a vareity of groups and countries and considerable training and arms from Libya and, at one time, the PLO.

It is most doubtful that the IRA-PLO connection ceased. Feeding these doubts are findings from Israel’s operation in Jenin in early 2002. On August 21, 2002, the NRO posted an article by By Rachel Ehrenfeld which reported:

Following the Israeli incursion into Jenin earlier this year, Paul Collinson, a British explosives expert working with the Red Cross, identified hundreds of explosive devices found there and noted that "the pipe bombs I found in Jenin are exact replicas of ones I found in Northern Ireland." The Daily Telegraph quoted a U.S. government official as saying in response: "If there was clear and convincing evidence that the IRA has been training Palestinians in bomb-making techniques, then we are facing a grave and grievous situation for the IRA — it would surely lead to a reassessment of whether the IRA should be put on the designated list of terrorist organizations with a global reach."

The incident came on the heels of a shooting spree of ten Israelis with a bolt-action rifle, perpetrated by a single sniper who left his rifle behind. This technique was also identified as a Irish Republican Army (IRA) trademark.

Another of the many organizations with connections to the PLO was the Italian Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse – BR). An article exploring this collaboration was released by ICT (Institue for Counter-Terror; the “ICT is a research institute and think tank dedicated to developing innovative public policy solutions to international terrorism.”). Authored by Ely Karmon, the article informs, inter alia:

Initial contacts between the BR and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) were established immediately after the kidnapping of Aldo Moro, in May or June 1978. The initiative came from the Palestinians through a French organization based in Paris offering international assistance to guerrilla movements worldwide. The link was established through Italian revolutionaries in exile who belonged to this organization, comrades of Mario Moretti, leader of the BR at the time. Moretti himself established initial contact in France.
...
As the Palestinian representative explained in talks with Moretti, the initiative for contacts came from a faction within the PLO that opposed abandoning the armed struggle against Israel. This faction was interested in setting up a militant anti-Israel front, with the help of the BR and German Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion – RAF), which were supposed to carry[ing] out attacks against “Zionists” in their countries. The French organization, for its part, asked Moretti to step up support for the Palestinian national liberation struggle. A meeting was arranged between Moretti and “the Palestinian Minister of the Interior” (later identified as Salah Khalaf/Abu Iyyad), who introduced himself as leader of a Marxist faction within the PLO interested in extending its influence within the PLO through alliances with European guerrilla organizations. In a subsequent meeting between Moretti and Abu-Iyyad, the following cooperation agreement was drawn up with Arafat’s approval.

The PLO would deliver weapons to the BR.
BR members would be allowed to train in Palestinian camps in the Middle East.
The PLO would offer assistance to BR fugitives.
The BR would store weapons in Italy for use by the PLO.
The BR would participate in attacks against Israeli personalities in Italy.

As if more proof is needed concerning the PLO as an integral part of global terrorism, consider a letter sent by Nagi N. Najjar, Director of the Lebanon Foundation for Peace, to Human Rights Watch. In this letter, Mr Najjar writes:

Sabra and Chatilla were one of the largest training centers for international terrorism. Most of the terrorists of the world visited the Sabra and Chatilla Camps in Beirut, received extensive training in terrorism, ranging from the use of plastic explosives to booby trapping cars, and special, assassination techniques given by well experienced followers of Yasser Arafat.

For example, the terrorist Red Brigades from Italy trained there, the terrorist Basque ETA movement, Carlos, Islamist mercenaries from Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Egypt, all came to those camps to be taught how to hijack planes, prepare bombs for use in Europe and elsewhere against US and Israeli embassies and missions. Sabra and Chatilla became known as the terror center in Beirut, whose mission was to export terror and subversion to the world. Many Lebanese were kidnaped to these camps and never returned alive.

All this evidence corroborates the summary given by Benjamin Netanyahu in his recent book:

From the early 1970s until Israel ousted it from Lebanon in June 1982, the PLO's de facto state in Lebanon was a veritable factory of terror, providing a safe haven and a launching ground for terrorist groups the world over. Who didn't come to the PLO bases in Beirut and Sidon? The Italian Red Brigades, the German Baader-Meinhof gang, the IRA, the Japanese Red Army, the French Action Directe, the Turkish Liberation Army, the Armenian Asala group, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and terrorists from all over Latin America as well as neo-Nazis from Germany - all were there. They came to Lebanon, were trained there, then set off to murder their victims elsewhere. From this unpoliced PLO playground of horrors, the virus of terror was spread throughout the Western world, often with the aid of Arab governments and, until the exposure of its complicity in terror proved too embarrassing, with the aid of the Soviet bloc as well.

[Quoted from p. 222 of
Netanyahu, Benjamin. Durable Peace. New York: Warner Books, 2000.]

The Gang of Four, aka “Quartet”, would do well to heed the Chinese warning, “Beware, lest your wishes come true”: their relentless pressure on a the tiny republic of Israel, stuggling to survive, may well result in the creation of a second Palestinian-Arab state in western Palestine.

And then the international terrorists, trained in this state, will come for the Quartet itself.

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland. This piece is cross-posted on IsraPundit and Dawson Speaks.

United States: Friend or Foe of Israel

Usually this question is asked of Saudi Arabia towards the US. So why ask it in this case. Isn’t it the case that the US is the only friend Israel has? But for the US, Israel could not survive. All true. All true. So what is this question all about?

When you look back over the last half-century you will note that the US, while supporting Israel, also restrained it.

Starting in the Sinai Campaign when Israel, France and Great Britain, invaded the Sinai after Nasser took over the Suez Canal, it was President Eisenhower who forced Israel to retreat.

The ’67 war (Six Day War) was made necessary because the US and other guarantors of Israel’s access to international waterways was not acted upon when Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran. When Israel attacked in self-defence, President Johnson sent the spy ship, USS Liberty, up the coast of Israel to spy on it and to supply intelligence to Nasser. In response, Israel sunk the ship.

In the ’73 war (Yom Kippur War), in which Israel was caught napping and almost overcome, the US withheld supplies from Israel so that Israel would learn how dependant they were on the US. When supplies started to flow at the last minute, Ariel Sharon in a brilliant move surrounded the Egyptian Third Army and had a clear road to Cairo, the US insisted that Israel desist and that they release said army. A ceasefire was worked out.

When Israel wanted to destroy the PLO in Lebanon in the eighties, it was America that saved Arafat’s skin and arranged for him and his cohorts to be exiled to Tunisia.

In the early nineties President Bush Sr. declared the settlements to be illegal when they are clearly not and withheld financial guarantees from Israel when they sorely needed them to resettle the Russian Jews in order to make further concessions to the Arabs.

Even President George W Bush, who clearly has affinity with Israel, is constantly criticizing and hectoring Israel about withdrawal from the territories and about the need to show restraint. Lip service only is paid to defending their citizens. Israeli practices such as pre-emptive strikes and targeted assassination while condemned by the US are precisely the practices the US is adopting in their war on terror. God forbid, and the US too, that Israel should bomb the Palestinians as opposed to using hand to hand combat in the streets. But it is okay for the US to bomb cities in Afghanistan to avoid military casualties.

The State Department is the leading apologist for Arafat and the PA. They refuse to acknowledge what they know to be true. The same goes for their attitude to Saudi Arabia. While the Arab institutions are calling for blood, literally, of both Israelis and Americans and supporting terror, anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism all over the world, Bush is embracing them and calling Islam a religion of peace and Powell is calling for more Muslim immigrants. The enemy of Israel and the US is clearly these Islamic power brokers who have declared war on them in word and in deed. But the US is unwilling to acknowledge that they are the enemy and prefers to identify the enemy as a tactic namely “terror” rather then a people defined by their religion and in whose name the war is declared.

And now Israel must contend with the “Road Map” and having a second Palestinian State rammed down their throat. Rather than protecting Israel, the US is endangering their existence. No one can assure Israel that such a state will live in peace with Israel or that the Arab countries will live in peace with Israel but that doesn’t stop the US from pursuing this option.

A true friend would not be a power broker or care about being even handed. This only emboldens the Arabs to go for broke. A true friend would stand squarely and unabashedly behind Israel in word and in deed thereby making it clear that the Arabs cannot shake their alliance or their resolve to stand firm.

Ted Belman/tedbel@rogers.com

Report cites rising anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Greece, according to a new report.

The Greek Helsinki Monitor, a nongovernmental organization affiliated with the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, said in the report that since the start of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more than two years ago, "blatant anti-Semitism" has been expressed in the Greek media "by a spectrum of influential personalities in politics, labor, education and culture."

The Sept. 11 attacks in the United States also contributed to the rise of anti-Semitism here, according to the 64-page report that was issued last week.

source

Edward Said CRASSHes.

Enough Said. Wherein the clever professor is exposed as fakir

Edward Said, celebrity professor and advocate for Palestine, has just ended a stretch at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities—acronym CRASSH—at Cambridge University in England. Between his lectures on "The Example of Auerbach's Mimesis" and "Return to Philology" (serious people never left it), Said huddled in his rooms to settle an old score with the Iraqi dissident Kanan Makiya. The result is an emission that is truly breathtaking for its sheer hypocrisy.

The Said-Makiya feud is more than a decade old, and it's not easy to map all its labyrinthine passages. So here is a crib note. Makiya, an Iraqi who first found politics in the bosom of the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, later went into exile and set about exposing the regime of Saddam Hussein. His book, Republic of Fear, shattered the complacency surrounding the Iraqi regime, bringing evidence that situated Saddam and his gangs outside civilization. A subsequent book, Cruelty and Silence, brought more evidence of Saddam's crimes, and also served an indictment against Arab writers who either swooned before the Iraqi dictator, or didn't see his misdeeds as sufficient cause for America to act. (For more, see my review of the book.)

Palestinian "intellectuals" beat loud drums for Saddam; some of them played shrill flutes against American intervention. Edward Said was the first flautist. In the fray, Makiya accused Said of sacrificing the Iraqi people to the unappeasable god of "Palestine first." Said in turn denounced Makiya as a traitor to the mother of all Arab causes. The feud later subsided, but the current U.S.-led drive for "regime change" in Iraq, coming as it does in the midst of yet another Palestinian drama, has gotten Said stirred up again—and against Makiya. That's because it's hard to read a major newspaper, or listen to National Public Radio, or even thumb your favorite magazine, without bumping into Kanan Makiya. One reason: Makiya is prominent in the "Democratic Principles Working Group," composed of some 30 Iraqis who belong to the State Department’s "Future of Iraq Project." This has enraged Said to the boiling point; in his column in the Ahram Weekly, he boils over. Take a deep breath, and read it.

Makiya doesn't need me to defend him, and I won't. I'm more interested in the patent hypocrisy of Said's charges. He hardly makes an accusation against Makiya that couldn't be made—usually with more justification—against himself. I'd describe it as a suicide character-bombing.

For example, Said tells us that that before Makiya went into exile, he was "an associate of his father's architectural firm in Iraq." That firm did business with the regime. In the next paragraph, Said steals second base: Makiya was a "beneficiary of the Iraqi regime's munificence." By the end of that paragraph, Said has stolen home plate: "Makiya himself had worked for Saddam." It's a crude spin on a typical case of son-works-for-dad. And the irony here is that Said's own father, a Cairene businessman, also kept his son in the office, and compromised him. In fact, according to Said's own memoirs (p. 289), he signed a business contract for his father that criminalized him. "For the next fifteen years," writes Said, "I was unable to return to Egypt because that particular contract, and I as its unsuspecting signatory, were ruled to be in contravention of the exchange-control law." So shall we visit the sins of businessmen fathers on their sons? If we were to apply Said's severe judgment of Makiya to himself, we would have to include money laundering among his past occupations. (On Makiya's tortured relations with his father, see the chapter "Oedipus in Samara" in Lawrence Weschler's Calamities of Exile.)

Said then announces that Makiya "never wrote in an Arab country...whatever meager writing he produced had been written behind a pseudonym and a prosperous, risk-free life in the West." And just where in the Arab world would it have been safe for Makiya to have written and published Republic of Fear under his own name? Come to think of it, has Said ever written in an Arab country? Said told an interviewer in 1989 that even were a Palestinian state created, he wouldn't live in it. "It's too late for me," he said. "I'm past the point of uprooting myself again." "I could have gotten a job at Bir Zeit," he later said. "But I realized this is something I cannot do. My fate is to remain in New York.
[more]

Sharon outlines his peace vision

The Sharon proposal for peace is on the table. Though it may not be deemed acceptable, it is an offer that ought to be negotiated. There are of course other issues that also need to be discussed, but a flat rejection is perhaps even worse than the status quo.

The Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has set out, for the first time, his proposals for the creation of a Palestinian state.

The plans, he said, correspond to a framework outlined earlier this year by US President George W Bush which said that a Palestinian state would follow Palestinian reforms.

They call for a Palestinian state within parts of the West Bank and Gaza, with provisional borders by next year and definitive ones by 2005.

The Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has set out, for the first time, his proposals for the creation of a Palestinian state.

The plans, he said, correspond to a framework outlined earlier this year by US President George W Bush which said that a Palestinian state would follow Palestinian reforms.

They call for a Palestinian state within parts of the West Bank and Gaza, with provisional borders by next year and definitive ones by 2005.

However, the plans, Mr Sharon stressed, were conditional on "an absolute end to terror" and, "above all else, all the Palestinian security organisations must be disbanded."

He also demanded the replacement of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
[more]

Here are DEBKA headlines on the Sharon speech:

Sharon’s advocacy of a Palestinian state causes uproar on both sides of Israeli political spectrum. In White House, Adviser Rice slams Sharon speech

Wednesday, he came out in favor of fully demilitarized Palestinian state (after terror ends and reforms begin) with provisional borders on current A and B zones, except for security zones

Israel will control all passage points and air space and not allow alliances with its enemies.

Arafat will be relegated to a “symbolic role”

Right-wing leaders: Statehood would reward Palestinian terror. Left-wing: Likud leader is angling for centrist vote in January 28 election.

A Misreading Of Reality

This fine op-ed speaks to American leftists who feel their vision of a PLO terrorist state has been vindicated by the election of Arik Sharon. Nothing could be further from the truth of course, as the Lion of Judah has an impeccable record of never capitulating to the murderers despite the desperate suicidal pleadings of the hysterical anti-Israel left to do so.

By Ruth and Nadia Matar

The recent choice of Arik Sharon over Binyamin Netanyahu to head the Likud Party in the upcoming election scheduled for January 28, 2003, is in no way an endorsement of a Palestinian State. This is true despite the fact that Mr. Sharon has recently stated publicly on several occasions that a Palestinian State was inevitable, and was in fact already in existence. As part of his campaign for leadership of the Likud, Netanyahu opposed the creation of such a state. Since Sharon triumphed in the contest with Netanyahu, one might conclude that the voters in Likud agreed with Mr. Sharon, and endorsed an Arab State west of the Jordan River.

Nothing is further from the truth!

First of all, the representative Central Committee of Likud, which has 2000 members, had unanimously heretofore voted in opposition to a Palestinian State - specifically rejecting the Sharon approach. In addition, polls in Israel were in accord, and clearly showed that a large majority were opposed to another Arab State in our midst. Moreover, the 56% of Likud that elected Sharon as their leader did not thereby endorse a Palestinian State. Women In Green know this as a fact by reason of their activities throughout the Land of Israel. We have already gathered over 350,000 signatures, clearly demonstrating the public´s opposition to such an Arab State. Since we fax these signed Petitions to Sharon daily, Mr. Sharon is personally aware of the public´s strong opposition on this crucial question.

Sharon was chosen as the Likud leader mainly on the basis of his splendid past record in solving Arab insurrections against Israel. Sharon has an image of being a forceful and decisive leader with vast army experience, including the strategic and daring surrounding of the Egyptian army during the Six-Day War. It is only natural that the Jewish public would choose him over Netanyahu, in the wake of the widespread Arab terrorism and suicide bombings throughout Israel today. The public did not feel that Netanyahu had any real answers to Arab violence and therefore stayed with Sharon as their leader. Nothing More.

Moreover, there were those who voted for Sharon who did not believe what Sharon seemed to be saying about supporting a Palestinian State. These people point to the fact that Sharon had written many articles in the past violently opposed to another Arab state west of the Jordan River. In those articles, Sharon spelled out the real threat and danger of such a state to the existence of Israel. This is especially true in view of the cruel Arab terrorism over the last two years, and taking into consideration Sharon´s strong national feelings. It is not conceivable to these voters that Sharon would change his mind on this vital question of a Palestinian State.

It is more likely, they contend - taking into consideration the upcoming Iraqi war, the known positions of President Bush and the US Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as the rest of the "Holy Four" - that Sharon decided not to openly oppose those views endorsing a Palestinian State. Since the Arabs are constantly depicting Sharon as a war criminal and oppressor of Palestinian rights, it would appear to be a tactical maneuver on Sharon´s part to appear to go along with the creation of an Arab Palestinian State. Moreover, Sharon has never spelled out the actual conditions under which he would allow such a State to exist, other than saying: "All terrorism must stop first." In reality, the conditions which Sharon requires would never be acceptable to the Arabs. Sharon´s favoring a Palestinian State, they argue, is therefore tantamount to a non-endorsement.

However, it is disturbing that Jewish organizations and others in America are misreading the full extent of Sharon´s position. They are interpreting and believing that Sharon´s victory over Netanyahu demonstrates that the majority of Jews in Israel are supporting the creation of another Arab state west of the Jordan River. This is utter nonsense. The overwhelming majority of Jews here in Israel are fiercely opposed to the creation of another Arab state. You would think that our Jewish leaders in America would be better informed and more sophisticated.

Ballots Under Bullets

By Uri Dan

That last week's day of terror occurred during the Likud primaries was further proof that Arafat means to destroy Israeli democracy prior to dismantling the Jewish state

Ariel Sharon's real achievement in the Likud primaries was not his victory over Binyamin Netanyahu, but the knockout blow he delivered to Yasser Arafat and his supporters.

Netanyahu had made a personal and political mistake in forcing Sharon to take part in a democratically justifiable but unnecessary political struggle whose results were known in advance while a real war was under way against Arafat's terrorist offensive.

That last week's day of bloody terror occurred during the primaries was not by chance. The murderous Palestinian attack on the Likud branch in Beit She'an at least was deliberately timed. And if those missiles had hit the Arkia airliner full of passengers as it was taking off from Mombasa, it is hard to believe anyone would have dared to go ahead with the primaries. The pain and shock felt over the six people murdered in Beit She'an and the many wounded, including three of MK David Levy's sons, threatened to affect the major democratic process taking place that day.

It was further proof that Arafat's intention remains the destruction of Israeli democracy, on the way to the implementation of his plan to destroy the Jewish state.

Israel's act of bringing Arafat to the gates of Jerusalem in the winter of 1994 was what led to Sharon's election, in February 2001, as Israel's fifth prime minister in less than seven years. Arafat had succeeded in getting Shimon Peres, Binyamin Netanyahu, and Ehud Barak ousted from their posts.

All of them had warmly shaken the PLO leader's hand; Sharon was the only one who listened to the voice of his conscience, rejected the advice of political idiots, and forcefully refused to extend his hand to the terrorist leader.

It was therefore hardly surprising that the smile returned to Arafat's face when Binyamin Ben-Eliezer broke up the national-unity government. Arafat and his accomplices began speaking openly, in declarations, articles and interviews, about the "window of opportunity" that had opened up for them to get rid of Sharon.

Over the course of the last 20 months they discovered the bad bargain they had made by helping bring Sharon to power in the hope that he would be a new Milosevic who, aided by international pressure, could be thrown out "in six months" (a consolation offered them by Yossi Beilin and his supporters).

The precise opposite occurred. Arafat was the one who became illegitimate, not only in US eyes, but also for some of the European countries. To the IDF and the Shin Bet Sharon returned their freedom of action in area A so as to minimize as far as possible losses caused by Palestinian terror. After first besieging Arafat in the Mukata and eventually sending in bulldozers to flatten the whole complex, Sharon turned Arafat into the world's best-known homeless person. [Read More]

Israel, the violator:

The December edition of Harper's Index leads with something juicy. "Rank of Israel and Turkey among nations in violation of the largest number of U.N. Security Council resolutions: 1, 2" Smarter Harpers Index helpfully points out why this reflects badly on the UN, not Israel.

Sharon supports Palestinian state

Sharon spoke at a conference in Hertzlia. He said that Israel supports the plan Bush put forward in his speech in June. Sharon said that there will be a Palestinian state, which will be disarmed, except for light weapons for internal law enforcement use. It will also be barred from forming strategic and military alliances with other states in the region. Sharon stressed that "we will not return to territories that we gave up under international agreements". He also expressed support for a continuing construction of a security fence between Israel and the territories.

(Crossposted here).

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Just the Facts, Maam

After reading a US journalist's argument against transfer, I wrote to him to challenge on his "fundamental facts" as he put it.

Your first "fundamental fact" is that there was ethnic cleansing of 700,000 Palestinians in '48.

While all wars result in movement of refugees to other countries voluntary or otherwise and while there is some truth to the fact that in some cases "Palestinians" were frightened into fleeing as a result of the death and destruction occasioned by the fighting as in all cases of war, there was no forced marches or buses etc used to ensure that they went. In addition it is also well known as a fact that the Arab countries around them encouraged them to leave arguing that they could come back with the victorious armies and share the spoils. There is context that should also be considered .. The Arabs had shown by words and deeds that not only would they not live in peace with the Jews but that also they would not acquiesce in a state being created for the Jews. Realistically it made sense to carve out defensible borders and deport the Arabs who were sworn to kill them. You will argue that that is not nice to transfer populations but the act of killing Jews is also not nice.

At the same time, Jews in Arab lands were expelled and their property confiscated. These refugees totaled at least 700,000 most of whom settled in Israel. They were not Europeans as the Arabs like to portray the Israelis but local Semites no different racially from the Arabs and they constituted a majority of the population in Israel. You might say there was a population exchange. Quite common historically.

I wonder what you have written about other refugees who had to settle elsewhere. Is this a cause that vexes you or only when the Jews are involved as the"cleansers".

Finally it sometimes makes more sense to separate groups into separate countries with some transfer rather than to keep fighting each other over who gets the land. Why not do the rational thing as opposed to the emotional thing. Transfer has always been an alternative to killing and a rational way to end the conflict.

Your second "fundamental fact" is Israel's "illegal occupation" and [the violation of] international law. I believe that their presence there is neither illegal nor an occupation in the strict meaning of the word nor contrary to international law.

Resolution 242 of the Security Council sanctioned Israel's presence in the territories until such time as they could withdraw to secure and recognized borders. This required agreement between the warring parties namely Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. The Palestinians as an idea did not exist at that time. International law requires the occupying force after a war to maintain law and order. That is their duty.

In 1971, the Arabs voted at the Khartoum conference the three famous "no"s; no recognition, no negotiation, no peace. Obviously no agreement could be worked out so Israel remained in control. Therefore this "occupation" was certainly not illegal.

Now for "occupation". In international law the word occupation refers to occupying the lands of another country. Since the West Bank is not and never was in the last 500 years another country there is no real occupation in a legal sense. These territories are disputed not occupied. This dispute will remain until there is agreement. Israel also has a claim to these territories.

Oslo was entered into with the hope of achieving such agreement. There was no obligation to return all the lands but Israel was entitled to secure borders. There is much in the records of the UN to support that everyone expected changes to the border. That's why the resolution didn't refer to all territories to be given back for peace. If the Palestinians want to end the occupation they could at any time make a deal that Israel finds acceptable. This they refuse to do so the war goes on.

I'm sure you will argue that why should they have to make a deal that they didn't like. Assuming that there is some deal short of destroying Israel, that they would find acceptable, why should they be forced to settle for less than they want. I would argue that that is the real world, or to end the occupation, or because they agreed in Oslo to settle all disputes by negotiations and to stop all violence and incitement.

Now what is this "international law " you talk about. I'll be happy to show you that you are wrong but you have to quote the sections of whatever you quote from so that we can deal with the law and not a psuedo law.

Needless to say, he never wrote back.

Ted Belman/ tedbel@rogers.com

Mitzna Is The Candidate Of Choice For All Terrorists, Spies, Suicide Bombers, And Convicted Traitors

By Steven Plaut

It is fascinating watching the list of cheerleaders for Amram Mitzna grow. Nearly every PLO terrorist available for an interview, the Syrians, the Egyptians, the Eurotrash, all have come out firmly for a Mitzna election victory. There are voices from within the PLO's Reichlet even calling for a temporary halt to the murders of Jewish children to help Mitzna get elected and then destroy Israel. There are even reports that the Hamas and Jihad are considering a "ceasefire" to get Mitzna into office and so save them the costs of dry cleaning of the clothes of suicide bombers, since Mitzna will do their job for them. A Palestinian-American terrorist named Imad a-Din Fritach has an Op-Ed in Haaretz suggesting that the mass murders of Jews be stopped for a few weeks to get the desired results.

But my favorite is the Op-Ed piece endorsing Mitzna in Haaretz Dec 4, 02 by none other than Udi Adiv. Adiv is a convicted terrorist and spy for the Syrians, who did a long period of hard time in prison for organizing an espionage-terrorist ring and for undergoing training by Syria in the 1970s. He was convicted and jailed by the Labor Party governments of the 1970s back in the time when the Labor Party jailed people serving the enemies of Israel rather than running them for office.

A product of a kibbutz, Adiv is now out of prison, where he reigns as a local hero for Israel's Satanic Left and spokesman for "peace-ing" Israel into oblivion. He also is on the faculty of the taxpayer-financed Open University, a nice example of treason financed by the public's purse under a Likud administration. In his Op-Ed, he calls for all true peace supporters in the Hadash communist party to help get Mitzna elected so that Israel can be annihilated faster, even though the Labor Party under Mitzna is still - in his view - a criminal "Zionist" party and guilty of having created the Zionist entity Israel in its original sinful birth.

So Mitzna is now the candidate of choice for all terrorists, spies, suicide bombers, and convicted traitors. Guaranteeing that his campaign cup coffers will be runneth overflowing.

Israel Arrests U.S. Citizen Linked to Al Qaeda

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli security forces have arrested a U.S. citizen suspected of helping distribute funds to Palestinian militants on behalf of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said Wednesday.
It said Khaled Nazem Diab, a U.S. citizen who had recently been living in Qatar, had been arrested in the past month after entering Israel to allegedly "distribute funds to groups linked to terror groups in general and al Qaeda in particular."

Sharon's office, which is in charge of the Shin Bet internal security service, said Diab would be deported from Israel once his interrogation was completed. It did not say why it was releasing the information of the arrest only now.

It said Diab, who was born in 1968, had previously been in Afghanistan where he was in contact with people connected to the Taliban and was also known for his involvement with activists in the militant Islamic group Hamas.

Israel has said it suspects al Qaeda was behind a suicide bombing last week at an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa that killed 16 people and a failed missile attack on an Israeli airliner that was taking off nearby.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Monday that the al Qaeda network had tried without success to infiltrate the Jewish state, but he gave no details.

Islam's Outdated Domination Theology

An article that suggests there is much good and decency in Islam but that the notion of domination is a hangover from the past that must be changed. Reg req'd but simple and free.

JERUSALEM -- With the globalization of Islamic terrorism and mob violence, it is becoming increasingly absurd to ascribe the threat to a fanatic fringe. Yet between those who dismiss the growing Islamic assault on the West as marginal and those agitating for a war of civilizations, a third way exists: offering Islam the respect it deserves as one of the world's great faiths while insisting that it confront its outmoded theology of domination.

Muslims who note that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance are right, but only in a medieval sense. Muslim law does indeed permit freedom of religion for Jews and Christians, who are cited in the Koran as "peoples of the book." But the prerequisite for Muslim tolerance is Muslim rule. Even Muslim Spain, the medieval world's most inspiring example of religious coexistence, was premised on the primacy of Islamic dominance.
[more]

Kurdish Militia Battles Al Qaeda-Linked Group in Northern Iraq

"Kurdish militiamen battled Islamic militants believed to be linked to Al Qaeda in northern Iraq early Wednesday, and as many as 30 militiamen were killed or wounded, Kurdish military officials said.

Militants from the Ansar al-Islam seized two hilltop positions of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) near the city of Halabja, said Sheik Jaffar Mustafa of the PUK, the Kurdish militia that is the de facto authority in the area."

“If Amr Sabry didn’t exist, one would have had to invent him” (with obeisance to Voltaire)

Readers of this site are probably aware of the e-discussion that is going on between Prof Amr Sabri and me (see my article and The Prof's response). Not only do I find The Prof’s responses to be illuminating, as they highlight the tactics of Palestinian-Arab propaganda, but they also provide me with the opportunity to discuss and document certain issues that otherwise might not have come to the fore.

Take the Sabra/Shatila issue for example. This incident has resulted in the Palestinian-Arab propaganda creating the mantra, “Sharon is a war criminal”. Regardless of how many times the pertinent arguments are rebutted, the propaganda machine persists and The Prof is not one to miss out on a mantra. The Palestinian Arabs failed to sue Sharon even in Arab-friendly Belgium (see, for example this news report or the British Guardian); but even that failure has not muted the mantra.

I believe the main reasons for the Arab persistence to be three: (1) the hope that at least for some people, a lie mutates into truth by repetition; (2) what I call “the Arab cultural problem of hearing only oneself”, a point I documented in a separate article, which shows the manifestations of this phenomenon in the 1920's; and (3) what Prof Ajami (himself a Lebanese, Shia Muslim) described as the Arab “culture [being] susceptible to legend” (quoted from p. 178 of:
Ajami, Fouad. The Dream Palace of the Arabs. NY: Phantom Books, 1998.)
Whatever the reasons, the fact remains that The Prof’s response provides a good example of the tactic: ignore the interlocutor, repeat your line.

As to The Prof providing an opportunity to bring to fore material that otherwise would lie dormant, I am quoting below the full text of a letter sent by Nagi N. Najjar, Director of the Lebanon Foundation for Peace to Human Rights Watch. The letter highlight the background to the retribution taken by Lebanon’s Phalange on their Palestinian oppressors, and calls our attention to the oft forgotten problem of the real occupation in the Middle East - the occupation of Lebanon by Syria. I must thank The Prof for the opportunity to air this letter - otherwise, it might have laid dormant for years. As Voltaire would probably have written, had he been blogging, “If Amr Sabry didn’t exist, one would have had to invent him”.

The following letter is cited in full from the Free Lebanon site, but the bold font has been added:

An Open Letter to Human Rights Watch
We Have Hundreds of Eye Witnesses to the Events at Sabra and Chatilla, Will You Call Them?


Mr Hanny Megally
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, New York, 10118 USA
Telephone: (212) 216 1230
Facsimile: (212) 736 1300

Dear Mr Megally,

I feel it's my moral obligation to address your latest remarks on the Sabra & Chatilla affair asking President Bush to urge Prime Minister Sharon to cooperate with any investigation against him. I must take issue with your accusations that there is abundant evidence that war crimes and that crimes against humanity were committed at the Sabra and Chatilla Palestinian camps. You should know better, for as one of Egyptian origin who is expert in Arabic you realize the problem within the Islamic world of the problem in seeing events, truths, that have no significance to Islam and of the Islamic world ignoring other crimes of larger gravity that are not significant to the Muslim world.

Did you really assume that the Palestinians were attacked for no reason or that groups of civilian Christians suddenly developed a blood lust for Palestinians? Why did the Christians attack only Palestinians and not the Lebanese Muslims with whom they lived peaceably for centuries? The Christians have historically been a peaceful people who preferred to live in Lebanon in a historical balance with their Muslim neighbors, a friendly and respectable balance that existed until Yasir Arafat and his killers entered Lebanon.

Your myopic vision of the Sabra and Chatilla massacres ignores the massacres perpetrated by Yasser Arafat and his murderers against the Christian Lebanese. Let me remind you of some of Arafat's actions (I am an eye witness):

The distribution of arms and money to the Islamists in Lebanon for the express purpose of subjecting the Christian Lebanese to ethnic cleansing.

The massacre of the town of Chekka, in northern Lebanon, by Arafat forces, dozens of civilians, mostly Christians, were murdered and tortured by Arafat's hoodlums.

In the massacre of the town of Damour, South of Beirut, dozens of Christians civilians were slaughtered, along with numerous rapes of young girls, were done by forces that came from those same Palestinian camps that you are defending.

The massacre of the towns of Aintoura and Mtein, where groups of Palestinians murdered innocent Christian civilians solely because they were Christians .

The daily assaults by the PLO forces against the Christian towns of Hadath, Ain-el Remmaneh, Jisr el Bacha, Dekaouneh, Beirut, and the Southern Metn, that resulted in hundred of Christian casualties murdered for defending their hometowns and existence. This was at a time when the Lebanese Government was paralyzed and could not send the Lebanese Army to halt the Palestinian atrocities due to Arab intervention in internal Lebanese affairs by the "Cairo" accords.

No, Mr Megally, Palestine's path to the submission of Lebanon does not begin at the Lebanese Christian Port of Junieh as stated in the famous phrase of Abu Ayad, Yasser Arafat second in command. There were no Israelis in Mount Lebanon to murder, they were all innocent Christian civilians massacred in hundreds of low intensity incidents (as in Israel today) just because they were Christians. The barbarism in Lebanon was an Arafat speciality. Christians were decapitated, girls were raped, parents and kids were murdered in the streets due to Palestinian military attacks against the Christians areas, as they refused to distinguish between adult men and women and children. All Christians, despite age or sex, were Palestinian targets. These were the same Palestinians we welcomed with open arms in 1948 with charity and our reward was death and torture.

Sabra and Chatilla was not a peaceful area where strangers entered for no reason and murdered innocent civilians. Sabra and Chatilla were one of the largest training centers for international terrorism. Most of the terrorists of the world visited the Sabra and Chatilla Camps in Beirut, received extensive training in terrorism, ranging from the use of plastic explosives to booby trapping cars, and special, assassination techniques given by well experienced followers of Yasser Arafat.

For example, the terrorist Red Brigades from Italy trained there, the terrorist Basque ETA movement, Carlos, Islamist mercenaries from Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Egypt, all came to those camps to be taught how to hijack planes, prepare bombs for use in Europe and elsewhere against US and Israeli embassies and missions. Sabra and Chatilla became known as the terror center in Beirut, whose mission was to export terror and subversion to the world. Many Lebanese were kidnaped to these camps and never returned alive.

The Christian Kataeb militias are no murderers Mr. Megally. They realized that the destruction of Lebanon by Palestinian hands could not continue and Lebanon could not be a training ground for international terror and murder. There was no proportionality in the two events as Sabra & Chatilla experienced about 800 executions, yet the Palestinians murdered 200,000 Lebanese on different occasions and places. Could you help open an investigation into the matter? Lebanese families, eye witnesses, will thank you and are eager to get their rights back in court from Arafat murderers if they have the chance. Can you arrange in the interests of justice to hear in the court in Belgium from hundreds of cases of Lebanese victims of Palestinian terrorism? Will you call as a witness Elias Hobeika a known Lebanese traitor and Syrian operative who incited the event without the knowledge or consent of Ariel Sharon in order to embarrass and blacken Ariel's Sharon's name?

Additional information you should be aware of is that sensitive information from Lebanese intelligence army sources show that Brigadier General Ghazi Kanaan, head of the Syrian Secret Service in Lebanon, is now pursuing a path of intimidation and threats through many channels against former Lebanese forces leaders to force them to testify in Lebanese courts against Ariel Sharon so as to relieve the pressure on Elias Hobeika.

No Christian Lebanese will apologize for the deaths of assassins and murders as their continued existence was at stake, and the Palestinian executions occurred with a deep revulsion for the taking of lives; however, these Palestinians were the victims of Yasir Arafat who precipitated the killings by supporting an existential evil that threatened the world. No Palestinian ever apologized for the destruction of Lebanon a country that hosted them with a friendly and open hands.

Sabra and Chatilla was no mistake, it was the Christian Community's inability to continue to suffer their extinction and their planned genocide that forced them to decide to halt once and for all Palestinian terrorism in Lebanon, a country that has suffered terribly from PLO terror while the world ignored us, making them willing accomplices. Don't blame the Christians or General Sharon. The Palestinians under Yasir Arafat and Elias Hobeika are responsible as well as a world that doesn't care.

Sabra and Chatilla is a nothing more than a political attempt by Yasser Arafat, backed by Hosni Mubarak and Saudi Arabia, to undermine and weaken Israel's Prime Minister Sharon. By doing so, they hope to force Israel to return to the concessions given by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, an inexperienced, political player as compared to Prime Minister Sharon. This is a failed tactic that will lead nowhere as Sharon's political position is to encourage a meaningful peace in the Middle East and is much stronger than these failed maneuvers and lost attempts.

Mr Megally, your call to President Bush was inappropriate, as you failed to present the full picture of the past events by inappropriately judging one side and disregarding the offenses of the other party involved in the events, not to mention that Arafat who succeeded through the weakness of the Israeli left to import the chaos and revolution from his Tunisian exile to the heart of Israel.

Thank you,

Nagi N. Najjar
Director of the Lebanon Foundation for Peace
Email: najjar@free-lebanon.com

You can find additional pertinent material by searching Google under "Free Lebanon".

More material in response to The Prof's arguments will be posted in future articles.

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland This piece is cross-posted on IsraPundit and Dawson Speaks.

Report: Growing anti-Semitism in Greece

As I recall it, Greece was the only non-Arab, non-Muslim country to vote AGAINST the establishment of a Jewish state--Israel--in 1947 UN vote. Whatever goes around comes around.

ATHENS, Dec. 2 (JTA) -- Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Greece, according to a new report.

The Greek Helsinki Monitor, a nongovernmental organization affiliated with the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, said in the report that since the start of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more than two years ago, ``blatant anti-Semitism" has been expressed in the Greek media ``by a spectrum of influential personalities in politics, labor, education and culture."

The Sept. 11 attacks in the United States also contributed to the rise of anti-Semitism here, according to the 64-page report that was issued last week.

The report cited a sharp increase in anti-Semitism in the media after Israel launched a large-scale military operation last spring to uproot the Palestinian terror infrastructure in the West Bank.

At that time, according to the report, mainstream Greek newspapers were ``deluged" with anti-Semitic editorials and cartoons drawing parallels between the Israeli military operation and the Holocaust, and comparing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to Hitler.

Indeed, expressions of anti-Semitism through Holocaust imagery were so harsh in the Greek media and political circles at the time that Hronika, the official magazine of the Central Board of Greek Jewish Communities, spoke of a climate of ``hysteria and anti-Semitism" that was masquerading as mere criticism of the State of Israel.
[more]

Al Qaeda attack on Israel football team foiled

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group is suspected of planning an attack last October against Israel's national soccer team which was foiled by last-minute arrests, an Israeli newspaper has reported.

The mass circulation Yedioth Ahronoth said on Wednesday the planned attack during a European Championship qualifier in Malta on October 12 was prevented when a Tunisian national was arrested in the Mediterranean island.

National soccer coach Avraham Grant told Israeli Army radio the team managers were warned by Israeli security officials that a Tunisian citizen connected to al Qaeda had been arrested.

"I think a day before the game, they arrested a person connected to al Qaeda," Grant said. "(At the time) we didn't understand that there was a specific warning. We did not realise they planned an attack."

Days before the soccer match, Italian police dismantled a suspected al Qaeda cell and arrested four Tunisians planning an attack on unspecified targets in Europe. A fifth member of the cell was arrested in Malta.

Yedioth Ahronoth quoted a "security source in Rome" as saying that Italian officials were investigating the possibility the suspected al Qaeda operatives had been planning an attack against the Israeli soccer team in Malta.

The newspaper said the Italian secret service was tipped off about the impending attack after overhearing a telephone conversation in which one suspect said: "Everything is ready for the game. The ground is ready. We will win".
[more]

Israel 'to increase settlements'

THE Israeli housing ministry and the Settlers Council have drawn up a plan for increased settlement activity in the West Bank over the next three months, the Israeli daily Maariv has reported.

The plan reportedly provides for dozens of new houses to be built in 14 different settlements.
The newspaper says the plan was drawn up during a meeting between Settlers Council chairman Bentzi Lieberman and Avi Moz, the director general of the housing ministry.

But a spokeswoman for Housing Minister Nathan Sharansky denied that such a scheme had been agreed.

"The ministry does not plan any stepped up development ahead of the elections (in January)," she said.

However, she confirmed a tender for the construction of 150 new houses in the large settlements of Ariel and Efrat, northeast of Tel Aviv and south of Jerusalem respectively, had been issued two months ago.

According to Maariv, the housing ministry has initiated the construction of a record 1,894 new housing units in the West Bank, more than twice the 2001 figure.

Some 210,000 Jewish settlers live in 160 settlements across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while another 200,000 live in the 12 settlements in occupied and annexed east Jerusalem.
[more]

Israeli generals ponder future war

HERZLIYA, Israel, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Israel has developed an offensive and defensive capability to cope with threats from distant countries and is "well prepared," military Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon said Tuesday.

Its capabilities are "varied and advanced," Ya'alon told the Third Herzliya Conference on The Balance of Israel's National Security.

The Israeli army has been exceptionally secretive about its long-range capabilities, except the fact it has received F-15I's from the U.S. and three Dolphin class submarines from Germany.

However, Ya'alon and other generals' remarks at the conference, north of Tel Aviv gave an inkling of their thinking.

They were clearly concerned about attacks from Iraq and Iran that have recently threatened Israel. Libya was a source of concern as it was reportedly developing a nuclear capability.

They were deeply concerned that a mega-terror attack would lead to deterioration. "We are on the verge of sliding from a low intensity conflict to a total war," said the air force's former commander, Eitan Ben-Eliyahu.

Last Thursday terrorists attacked a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, popular with Israelis and fired two shoulder-launched missiles at an Israeli passenger plane taking off from Mombasa Airport with 272 passengers and crew. "The desire, organization, funding, implementation, and the weapons used lead us to conclude it was a mega-terror attack that was prevented miraculously," Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz noted.

The Israeli defense establishment believes that al Qaida, or one of the organizations associated with it, was responsible for the attacks in Kenya, Ya'alon said.

Terrorist groups, or a state with an extremist regime or ideology, might use non-conventional weapons, the conference members were told.
[more]

Hezbollah calls for global attacks

I guess this means we have to stop ignoring what Hezbollah is doing about Israel and recognize that this gang of Iranian and Syrian supported killers represents a threat to all decent people.

LONDON — The leader of the Lebanese Muslim group Hezbollah is urging a global suicide bombing campaign, increasing the prospect that the regional conflict between Arabs and Israelis will expand to mimic or even merge with al Qaeda's war against the West.

Two recent speeches by the Lebanon-based Hezbollah leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, have raised the specter of attacks outside the region by a powerful and well-organized military force — a force that successfully pushed the Israeli army out of southern Lebanon two years ago. "By Allah, if they touch Al Aqsa we will act everywhere around the world," Sheik Nasrallah told an estimated 10,000 gun-toting, bearded fighters in southern Lebanon on Friday. Several hundred "suicide commandos" also took part. Al Aqsa refers to a sacred Muslim site in Jerusalem that, although under Israeli military control, is in practice administered by Palestinian Muslim authorities. The site, holy to both Jews and Muslims, is a flash point for tension and outbreaks of violence. Taken alone, Sheik Nasrallah's remarks might be interpreted as no more than a warning to Israel not to alter the status quo. But earlier in the week, at a rally in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, Sheik Nasrallah issued a far more ominous threat. "Martyrdom operations — suicide bombings — should be exported outside Palestine," he said. "I encourage Palestinians to take suicide bombings worldwide. Don't be shy about it," he added. Both speeches were broadcast by a Hezbollah-owned TV station in Lebanon.
[more]

The State Department Appeasment Cabal

More deranged rantings from the appeasement obsessed cowards in the State Department. Kurtzer can't seem to open his mouth without spewing some vile filth that comes straight from the latest PLO press release. Perhaps the State Department should officially merge with the UN and the EU so they can stop the needless duplication of their efforts. With the anti-Semites howling for blood, Jewish traitors like Kurtzer seem to be trying to outdo one another to see who can throw themselves into the sea with the most enthusiasm.

(Ha'aretz) The Yesha Council called comments made Tuesday by U.S. Ambassador Dan Kurtzer - that settlers "do not represent a national consensus in Israel" - as those of the extreme left in Israel and not representing the current positions of the American Congress.

"U.S. Ambassador Dan Kurtzer consistently expresses positions identified with the extreme left in Israel," Yesha Council Director-General Adi Mintz told Israel Radio. "If Dan Kurtzer wants to interfere in Israeli politics so much, as a Jew he can request Israeli citizenship, and I'm sure that the extreme left movement, such as Meretz, will be happy to help."

"He began attacking Yesha settlers from the beginning," Mintz said. "It is possible that he represents the positions of the Clinton administration, but he certainly doesn't represent the current consensus in the Congress and the Senate."

"I demand that he immediately stop, and if he is incapable of shutting up, I will request that the government return him home," he added.

On Tuesday, Kurtzer told the third annual Herzliya Conference on National Security "Settlers represent a particular point of view in Israel about the future of the occupied territories; they do not represent a national consensus."

"The settlements movement today is not about the future existence of the state. Israel needs to make choices and define priorities," said the ambassador.

He reiterated Secretary of State Colin Powell's statements, quoting directly from Powell that the "Israeli settlement activity has severely undermined Palestinian trust and hope. It preempts and prejudges the outcome of negotiations and in doing so cripples chances for real peace and security. The U.S. has long opposed settlement activity, and consistent with the report of the Mitchell Committee, settlement activity must stop." During the delivery of his speech, he paused with the phrase "settlement activity must stop," emphasizing the point. [Read More]

The PLO Votes For Mitzna

The duplicity and crass politicking of the Labor Party continues as they are now actively courting support from the terrorists and the terrorist supporting states. They are essentially encouraging the murderers to kill as many Jews as possible before the election in a futile attempt to salvage their doomed vision of a second holocaust.

(Israel Insider) Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accused the Palestinians and Arab nations of interfering with the Israeli election campaign. Sharon strongly hinted that Palestinian terror was being orchestrated to support the chances of Amram Mitzna and the Labor Party. "They know that only a government in which the Likud is the central player will be able to stand up to (Palestinian) demands from which nothing will be given in return," Sharon said.

Speaking to an assembly of supporters in Tel Aviv Monday night, Sharon said that an Israeli government led by the Likud wanted "to reach a political arrangement that will bring security and peace, but we will know how to withstand this political battle without endangering Israel's future."

For the first time, Sharon stated that Palestinian terror was also playing a factor in the Israeli elections, Yediot Aharonot reported. "Terror has become part of the battle to change the regime in Israel by assisting political parties to form a government that will bring far-reaching concessions. We will never allow this."

Without mentioning names, Sharon criticized his political rivals in the Labor Party for running to Arab nations for their endorsements, efforts which could only cause Israel damage. "Only the elected government oversees the policy of the State of Israel," Sharon said. "I hope that our political rivals will not be dragged into acts that will likely cause political damage to the state of Israel and the steadfastness of its citizens."

Sharon was referring to Labor MK Yossi Katz, who traveled to Cairo this week and met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and President Hosni Mubarak's personal aide, Osama el-Baz. Katz relayed a message of thanks from Mitzna after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak congratulated him on his election as party chairman. [Read More]

Bush Refuses To Enforce Congressionally Mandated Sanctions Against The PA

Just the latest display of stunning hypocrisy and double dealing from the White House.

(Ha'aretz) President George Bush decided Monday to impose sanctions on the Palestinian Authority for not fulfilling its obligations to fight terror, but the president has frozen their implementation for the time being.

The decision marks the first the first time the U.S. has imposed official sanctions on the PA, even if in this case they are only formal in nature.

In a letter addressed to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Bush wrote that he has decided to impose sanctions on the PA, in accordance with the law passed by Congress requiring the president to determine once every six months whether the PA is actually fighting terror. Bush wrote Powell that he has decided to reduce the diplomatic ranking of the PLO office in Washington because the PA has not proven that it is fighting terror. But in the next section of the letter, Bush tells Powell that he has decided to use his presidential authority to prevent the sanctions from being carried out, due to considerations of U.S. national security.

The complicated wording of the White House decision is meant to convey dissatisfaction with the Palestinians, but without imposing any kind of punishment that would be problematic for the administration.

Eight years ago the Congress passed legislation requiring the president to impose punitive sanctions on the Palestinians if they do not fight against terror as they are obligated under the Oslo Accords. The law, however, allows the president to refrain from carrying out the sanctions, based on national security considerations, which is what Bush did Monday. (Emphasis added)

Mubarak Seeks Coexistence with Islamic Terrorists

With what ease did so many people dismiss the notion of a Clash of Civilizations, and yet here is Egypt, considered relatively progressive and with a peace treaty with Israel.

Every few weeks, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak tells Israel it must resume negotiations with the Palestinians that will lead them to a state. But on Sunday, December 1, he went a lot further. Addressing a Muslim clerical group in Cairo at an occasion marking the final prayer of the Ramadan holy month, he declared that international terror is not religious; nor is it the fault of Muslims or Arabs, but their reaction to political injustices meted out by the “international community”.

The Egyptian leader thus became the first Arab leader to say out loud what every Arab and Muslim ruler believes - that Islamic terror, including suicide homicides, is a justified means of venting their sense of injustice towards the non-Muslim world.

Mubarak is not just talking. He is in the middle of political action, hauling out the Israeli-Palestinian issue and providing his auspices for a so-called attempt to draw Arafat’s Fatah and the fundamentalist Hamas into an accord for ceasing their campaign of murder inside Israel, the pre-requisite for renewed Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.

Under cover of this internationally lauded initiative, Mubarak has a quite different – if not opposite – agenda, as revealed in the latest DEBKA-Net-Weekly . To subscribe to DNW, click HERE .

The terror-ridden Palestinian Gaza Strip shares a border with Egyptian northern Sinai. Although the border crossing is under Israeli security control by agreement, Palestinians move easily between the two territories through a warren of tunnels they have dug to smuggle people and arms and drugs back and forth. Palestinian extremist groups dominating the 140-sq mile Gaza Strip are therefore more than doubling the area of their enclave by gradually absorbing a 160-sq. m stretch of Egyptian Sinai that curves to the southwest along the Mediterranean and centers on the desert town of el Arish.

Last month, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s top strategists, his chief political adviser, Osama el-Baz, and General Omar Suleiman, the head of Egypt’s intelligence services, warned him that north Sinai’s creeping takeover by the radical Palestinian Muslims of the Gaza Strip posed an immediate threat to regime stability in Cairo.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s counter-terrorism sources, after accessing portions of that report, reveal the decision by Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat, whose control over Gaza and the West Bank is in a state of collapse, to hand the lead position in the confrontation with Israel over to his supposed rival - the fundamentalist Muslim terror group, Hamas.

Arafat took note of the group’s rising popularity in the increasingly radicalized Palestinian street – not for the local Hamas leaders – its wheelchair-bound founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and spokesman Abdelaziz al-Rantissi - but the real power behind the Gaza center - “external Hamas”, based in Damascus, headed by the implacable Khaled Mashal and Mussa Abu Marzook.

According to the intelligence briefing to Mubarak, the authority of the local Hamas leaders has been eroded by local “Irisa”, i.e. “salvation” committees run from Hamas-Damascus.

Similar salvation committees are strewn across the Muslim world, but only the Gaza Strip outfit has been given an international umbrella, a new Muslim organization calling itself Itlaf al Kheir – “the axis of good”. It is believed to be a pilot venture destined to be repeated at other Muslim terror centers as the Islamic fundamentalist answer to US President George W. Bush’s axis of evil.
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What idiot lets a woman this age drive? Palestinian Woman, 95, Killed by Israeli Gunfire

JERUSALEM, Dec. 3 — A 95-year-old Palestinian woman was fatally shot by Israeli troops today as a car in which she was riding sped down a West Bank highway closed to Palestinian vehicles, hospital officials said. She was the oldest known victim in the current 26 months of fighting.

The woman, Fattier Mohammed Hassan, died from a bullet wound in the back, according to an official in a Ramallah hospital quoted by The Associated Press. A second woman in the car, 41-year-old Kifaya Rafat, was wounded in one leg.

Israeli and Palestinian spokesmen gave markedly different explanations of how the shooting occurred. From her hospital bed, Ms. Rafat told the news agency that Israeli troops approached the car as it neared a checkpoint outside Ramallah, broke its windows and then retreated and began firing at it from a distance.

An Israeli military spokesman said that troops tried to stop an automobile traveling on a road barred to Palestinian vehicles for security reasons, then fired into the air when the driver refused to stop. When the car continued down the road, the Israeli official said, troops fired at its wheels in an effort to stop it.

Patricia Smith, the head of Palestine Monitor, an organization that keeps a record of casualties in the conflict, said in a telephone interview that Ms. Hassan appeared to be the oldest victim on record of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

"There are a couple of 85-year-olds, but she's definitely the oldest" Palestinian casualty, she said. "I don't think there have been any older Israeli casualties."
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Another boycott:

IBA radio reported today that the Cambridge University's equivalent of an American student association is discussing tonight a proposition for an economic and academic boycott of Israel. Such propositions have been recently brought in several British schools of higher education, and have had mixed success. Of course, if this is accepted in such an important university as Cambridge, it will have a much greater impact. A representative of an organization of Israeli students in Britain said that this proposition includes, among other things, an equation between Israel's policies in the territories and apartheid, and a differentiation between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. He says that his organization has joined British Jewish organizations (a rare kind of cooperation) in trying to prevent the resolution from passing. He also added that prof. Edward Said of Columbia University will attend the discussion, and lend his support for the passage of this resolution. I was unable to find anything on this issue on the web - please let me know if you do.

Update 12/4: It did not pass.

(Crossposted here).

The Real Road Map

As Fred Lapides reports below Friday was a day for the crazies to take to the streets in the Middle East. Prominently mentioned is a demonstration in Iran. Indeed, the dateline of the story indicates that it is from Tehran, Iran. It should be noted that not everybody in Iran is supportive of such demonstrations. The leaders of the democratic movement in Iran have expressed their opposition to these displays of support for terrorism.

The rulers of the Islamic Republic are incapable of understanding the simple fact that in a political environment where more than ever opposing forces are gathering against one another, such that on one side exist the pro-war forces and the supporters of the culture of terror and violence, and on the other, exist the forces that desire a peaceful and constructive resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, the act of observing a day of ‘Ghods’ in support of violence is a lunacy that is neither advantageous to the Palestinian nation nor does it coincide with the national interests of the people of Iran. The defense of peace and calm in the Middle East is not attainable through the support for terrorists and war-mongering groups; rather, it is to be attained through the pursuit of political dialog between the two sides while simultaneously removing the roots of fundamentalism, terror, and violence.

The Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran is of the belief that in accordance with international charters, both nations of Israel and Palestine have the right and the capability to live alongside one another as two free and independent states. This committee, while condemning the agitating acts of the Islamic Republic, requests that the freedom-loving and struggling nation of Iran, especially the youth and the students, deliver a crushing response to the promoters of anti-Semitism and terrorism by boycotting the sham and mandatory demonstration of the so-called World-wide Day of Ghods.

This may seem to be a bit off-topic and not everyone may agree with the end-game these students espouse but it indicates a larger point. Autocracies require scapegoats to explain their inability to provide for their people. Democracies are, by their nature, introspective. A peaceful Middle East is impossible until the nations of the region are democratic governments who respect the rule of law and basic human rights. At present this describes only Israel.

If It's Tuesday...

This is a revised version of last Tuesday's posting. Following the "Invitation" posted last week, IsraPundit has expanded to include several new contributors - I welcome them all. Flush with the initial success, the "Invitation" is re-posted, and will probably be re-posted on Tuesdays in the future.

If you’ve been reading IsraPundit for any length of time, then you probably already know that IsraPundit, the vehicle of Bloggers In Support of Israel (BISI) provides a platform for anyone who wishes to post regularly or occasionally (or even rarely), provided only that the articles in question fall within the purview of “pro-Israel advocacy”, broadly defined. We do prefer articles that are short on adjectives and rhetoric, and long on nouns, facts, arguments. Let the facts do the convincing.

If you wish to post, you may join BISI and enjoy the privilege of posting your own articles. There is no commitment whatsoever, except for remaining within the limits of “pro-Israel advocacy”. In response to questions asked, I underscore that there are no charges, fees etc. No traps, honestly.

Of course, you may also cross-post articles you post elsewhere: if you run your own blog site, then copying articles to IsraPundit takes but 5 extra minutes. Trust me, I cross-post all the time.

Advantages of joining BISI and posting on IsraPundit include the fact that you need not feel beholden to post continually; many bloggers feel the pressure to post daily in an acute way (just check out how many blogs are being discontinued every week!) With IsraPundit, you post when you can spare the time, knowing that others ensure that the site is never without new material.

Above all else, the main advantage in joining BISI is the knowledge that you are supporting our sister-democracy, Israel, at a very tough time.

The technicalities of joining are as easy as sending me an e-mail - dt804@yahoo.ca - indicating willingness to join. I then send an "official invitation" and you're on your way to posting. When you write to me, please enclose name, e-mail address, and the URL of your site. If you don't have a site, please send a sample article. If you have questions, send them to me.

I also invite all readers to send critical comments about the site: what do you like (if anything), what do you dislike ("everythging" is not a sufficient answer), what would you like the site to change? As we enter our fourth month, and as we are confident that IsraPundit is here to stay, we are about to assess these points and your feedback is most welcome. Don't hesitate to be harsh - our hide competes with that of a rhino. You can post your views as comments or e-mail them to me (dt804@yahoo.ca).

BISI is more than just IsraPundit, though currently the effort is concentrated on IsraPundit alone. We do intend to consider what more we can do help our sister-republic, but we can only move one step at a time. In particular, we'd like to engage in a dialogue with "neutrals" or foes; preaching to the converted is comfortable, but it does not further the cause.

We are having difficulties with our archives, as you can see by checking out the right-hand column. If you can lend a hand to fix this problem, please contact me.

Thank you for reading this post, and if you join - a double thank you.

A special thanks to Fred for suggesting this posting.

Joseph Alexander Norland

Remembering the victims of terror.

I invite you to check out Enough is Enough, a website dedicated to remembering Israel's victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks since September 2000.

This site is one of many that remembers the people, not just the statistics. There are videos and presentations, and on the righthand side, there is a list of Israeli victims of terror. Each name is a link to a page about the person, including a photograph and brief details about the victim's life, age, home, family, and the circumstances of his or her death.

They had hopes and dreams, families and friends and communities who cared about them and miss them. They were people who, just like you and I, just wanted to live their lives. And all of them had their lives cut tragically short. Media reports tend to quote the death tolls as crisp statistics, and few of the victims are truly remembered outside of their home communities.

It is far too easy to get caught up in the numbers game and to reduce victims to mere statistics. It's harder to remember them as the living, breathing people that they were. But we must try, because if it could be one of them, it could just as easily be one of us.

Contributed by Sari S.

The crazies take to the streets

TEHRAN, Iran — Tens of thousands of people demonstrated Friday across the Middle East in a day of solidarity with Palestinians.
Some called for trying Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a war criminal and punishing the United States for supporting his country.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami joined the estimated 10,000 people who converged on Tehran's Enqelab Square in the annual protest for Jerusalem Day.

Surrounded by bodyguards, Khatami walked with the crowd to the nearby Tehran University where he took part in Friday prayers.

The protesters called for Sharon to stand trial for "crimes against humanity." "Sharon is a war criminal and must be punished!" they shouted.

Similar demonstrations took place in Bahrain, Egypt, Syria and southern Lebanon.

The demonstrations occurred on the anniversary of the 1947 decision by the United Nations to partition Palestine and allow creation of a Jewish state.

In Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, thousands of Hezbollah supporters turned out in heavy rain to hear Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah vow ongoing support for the Palestinian uprising and suicide attacks against Israel.

"On Al-Quds Day, we affirm that our choice is clear: Resistance which will regain (Arab) rights and holy sites (in Jerusalem)," Nasrallah told the crowd.

Al-Quds, meaning "the holy," is the Arabic name for Jerusalem. It's held on the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The annual protest was created by the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to honor Jerusalem as an Islamic city.

In Tehran, former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani delivered a Friday prayers sermon accusing the West of indifference toward the suffering of Palestinians in the ongoing fighting with Israel "despite pictures and (television) films showing Israeli brutality."

He also warned Israel, "Don't think the war will be over if you expel Palestinians from their homes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

"We saw an example of that in Kenya on Thursday," Rafsanjani said, referring to the suicide bomb attack outside Mombasa that killed 16 people, including three bombers, at an Israeli-owned hotel.

Elsewhere, some 3,000 people in Damascus, Syria, marched in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, walking behind posters showing Khomeini and Syrian President Bashar Assad.

In Bahrain, about 9,000 people marched through a town outside the capital, Manama.

Egyptian demonstrators at the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo called on their government to cut ties with Israel and the United States.

Updates on ME conflict, selected articles

Summary:

- Four Palestinians, including a teenager, died Monday in violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while a U.N. aid group charged that Israeli forces destroyed a warehouse of food for needy Palestinians in Gaza.

- Palestinians in a car near Gaza City Sunday narrowly escaped an Israeli helicopter missile attack on their vehicle, blasted into a heap of smoldering metal seconds after they jumped out, witnesses said.

- Late Saturday, about 30 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles backed by two Apache helicopters moved into a Gaza town, firing machine guns and tank shells that knocked out the town's power transformer, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said.

- A Palestinian gunman opened fire on a Jewish settlement in southern Gaza early Friday, wounding two Thai workers and an Israeli soldier, Israeli military sources said.

- A 16 -year-old boy who is said to have been bird-hunting on a road used exclusively by Israeli vehicles was shot and killed Saturday by soldiers, according to Palestinian security sources.

- Israeli forces used tanks, armored personnel carriers and helicopters to conduct a search operation late Saturday in the northern Gaza town of El Beit Lahiya, Palestinian security sources said.

[Note: Many articles begin with a dramatic announcement that a Palestinian youth has been killed. Further into the article we get some mitigating facts that helps us to understand what really is taking place, as in Palestinian youth killed

One Palestinian Dies After Palestinian Terrorists Launch Failed Mortar Attack

A short while ago, two mortar bombs were fired from Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip towards Palestinian territory, south of Erez industrial area where Palestinian laborers were making their way back from Israel to Palestinian territory. The mortar bombs hit a Palestinian transport vehicle. As a result, 1 Palestinian was killed and 9 were injured.

A District Coordination Office in the area, sent ambulances to the area, where the injured were immediately taken to a hospital in the Gaza Strip.

The incident aforementioned is one of many incidents where Palestinian terrorists have fired from within densely populated areas, endangering the lives of the many residents living in the area.


Official Palestinian announcements regarding the firing of mortar bombs from within densely Palestinian populated areas:

Palestinians admit: "Mortar bombs are being fired from densely populated areas"
[note: see link for admission}.

The Doghouse and the Double Standard

Is there anyone between Plant Earth and Alpha Centauri who hasn’t heard about Iain Hook, the UNRWA employee who died during an Israeli operation in Jenin? Probably not. (See, for example, Jerusalem Post.) Reuters, always happy to cloak news in an anti-Israeli habit, ran the story under the title, “U.N. Angry at Israel Over Killing of Official” (Reuters, in a story by Megan Goldin, 24 November, 2002). Other media outlets were just as charitable: “UN to probe Israeli killing of official” - UK’s Financial Times, 24 November; “Israel shoots UN official” - Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia, 24 Nov 2002.

Israel launched an investigation and it is quite clear from a recorded phone conversation with Iain Hook that terrorists had broken into the UNRWA compound and probably shot at Israeli troops. But when it comes to the UN and its affiliates, facts don’t matter: the object is, and has been for decades, to ensure that Israel is in the doghouse (remember the Zionism=Racism resolution?).

There are apologists for the UN sewer who maintain that in attacking Israel because of the Iain Hook affair, the UN is merely doing what any good employer would do: try to protect its employees and back them up when trouble strikes.

Let us examine this point a little more closely. On March 28, 2002,IMRA reported:

On Tuesday evening, March 26, 2002, two international observers, from the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), were killed in Hebron, another observer was injured. The victims were traveling in a TIPH marked vehicle on bypass road 35, which is used by Israeli settlers and which passes south west Halhoul on the northern outskirts of the West Bank town of Hebron.

Information gathered by LAW reveals that on Tuesday evening at 8.10pm, Israeli forces positioned on road 35 opened tank and machinegun fire on Palestinian homes on the northern part of Hebron. The three observers, who were wearing civilian clothes and who were not on duty, were traveling in a TIPH marked car at the time of the shelling. The observers came under fire as they crossed the Beit Kahil Bridge. Major Turtuq Cengiz Toytunc (38) from Turkey and deputy head of operations and Katrine Berruex (25), a Swiss citizen, were killed. The third, also from Turkey, was injured and admitted to Hadassa Hospital in Jerusalem. The bodies of the two observers were taken to al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron whose sources stated that they were shot in the head.

This raises to questions: who dunnit, and what was the UN’s reaction.

As to the first question, an interview with the wounded Turkish officer, Capt. Huseyin Ozaslah was reported by the IMRA article cited above, and revealed as follows:

Ozalslah: There were three people and we were driving in an Opel Corsa. I was sitting in the back seat and one colleague was driving and one female colleague was sitting in the front seat and we were just getting out of Hebron. Then we heard some shooting towards our car. We were very fast - 90 kilometers per hour - and this Palestinian was just standing in the middle of this road.

Reporter: Could you see him?

Ozalslah: Yes. Yes. The lights were on and we saw him. He was in a PPF uniform, a Palestinian Police Force uniform. He was carrying a Kalashnikov and we shouted towards him that "we are from the TIPH - don't shoot at us". We could hardly stop the car. There were only 5 or 6 meters from the man and our car. And he didn't stop.

Reporter: You told him that you were from TIPH and he continued to shoot?

Ozalslah: Yes. We told him that we were from TIPH and he didn't care. He kept shooting towards us. My colleagues sitting in the front seat were shot dead. The driver's blood splashed on my face and I was also injured. He finished his magazine and he didn't check if all of us were dead or not and he escaped.

But I saw him. That he had a Palestinian police force uniform and was carrying a Kalashnikov and he finished his whole magazine - thirty bullets at least. He was about 30 years old.

And what was the UN reaction in the face of a terrorist assault by Palestinian-Arabs? Did the UN demand an immediate investigation or express anger, as in the case of Iain Hook? Nah! Outrage is reserved for Israel only. This is what the UN double standard is all about!

For eight months the “International Community” (TM) was silent. Recently the issue came back to life but it was ISRAEL that caught the murderer who now awaits trial. This last piece of information was reported by the IDF, in a news release dated November 23, 2002:

Head of the Islamic Jihad military wing in Hebron, Diab Shawachi, is responsible for carrying out a number of fatal shooting attacks. On March 26, 2002 he brutally murdered two international inspectors.

Abbed Al-Jabar, an Al-Aqsa Brigade operative of the Fatah military wing, was involved in several attempts to carry out suicide bombings and other terror attacks on Israeli targets. Al Jabar was recruited to the ranks of the Islamic Jihad by Head of Hebron military wing- Diab Abbed Al-Rahim Al-Rahman Shawachi.

An indictment against the aforementioned, recently submitted to the military court in Adorayim, accuses Abbed Al-Jabar of instignating a number of fatal shooting attacks on Israeli targets. He is also accused of causing the death of two international inspectors in Hebron (TIPH) Gangis Twintok, from Turkey and Katherine Brokes from Switzerland. Also causing the injury of another foreign inspector, Hussein Asraslan from Turkey.

Anyone who expects Israel to be thanked for bringing the murderers to justice, should recall how Israel was thanked for knocking out the Iraqi WMD facility in Osiraq, in June 1981.

On the other hand, if the West expects thanks from the Palestinian Arabs for supporting them with such zeal for decades, the Iain Hook incident provides a glimpse into that too. After Iain Hook's death, the UN investigators sealed the compound where he was killed; on November 26, 2002, the Palestine Chronicle reported the story under the headline, UN Delegation Mistreat Local Palestinians in Jenin...Several foreign guards reportedly sealed the UN compound and refused entry to Palestinian officials, and all Palestinian UN workers. There is no appeasing terrorists.

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland. This article is cross-posted at IsraPundit and DawsonSpeaks.

S. African march glorifies suicide bombings

CAPE TOWN, Dec. 1 (JTA) -- The South African Jewish Board of Deputies is considering filing charges against the organizers of a march here that included boys dressed as Muslim suicide bombers, some even wearing mock dynamite sticks strapped to their chests.

Last Friday's march, arranged by the radical Muslim group Kibla to show solidarity with Palestinians, has shocked the Jewish community.

The march coincided with the 55th anniversary of the 1947 United Nations partition resolution, which led to the establishment of the State of Israel -- an event also marked an hour earlier by a pro-Israel Christian group demonstrating outside Parliament.

Two youths marching in support of the Palestinian cause wore Hezbollah headbands, followed by eight other young people carrying mock weapons. They led more than 300 demonstrators from a mosque close to downtown Cape Town to the U.S. Consulate, about a mile away.

The marching children, some as young as seven, carried placards stating: ``Death to America, death to Israel." Marchers shouted, ``One American, one bullet," echoing a slogan using during the apartheid years to refer to white South Africans -- one settler, one bullet.

The march organizers asked the protesters to stop chanting these slogans.

The children also staged a mock attack on a model of an Israeli tank and ripped apart an Israeli flag.

Outside the U.S. Consulate, an Israeli flag was burned amid chants of ``Death to Israel, death to Sharon."

Russell Gaddin, national chairman of the Jewish Board of Deputies, told JTA that the board respected the constitutional right to freedom of speech.

``But this goes beyond freedom of speech. It was a disgraceful display of hate speech, incitement and anti-Semitism," he said. ``It glorifies terrorism, which has been condemned by the South African government itself."

Another strong condemnation of the events came from Mervyn Smith, president of the African Jewish Congress and a former national chairman of the board.

Smith said, ``It is scandalous that murderous thugs should be portrayed as heroes to young children. The sense of values seems to have been totally lost."
[more]

Palestine: The Arab dilemma Restraint's reward - Israel's ceasefire?

A three- to-six-month genuine moratorium on violent anti-Israeli acts will show the discipline among Palestinian militants... reflect the strength and unity of the Palestinians, writes Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab ...and ease the misery of innocent Palestinians terrorised by Israeli policies of closure, siege, curfew, house destruction, tree-uprooting and apartheid-like travel restrictions.
Palestinians might differ considerably over what is the best way to resist the Israeli occupation. Some might argue for non-violent resistance while others insist that only violent resistance will eventually lead to the exit of the occupation forces.

Some Palestinians argue that anti-Israeli attacks must be limited to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip while others say that since Palestinian civilians are not immune to Israeli attacks, Israeli civilians can't expect any different treatment.

But while Palestinians differ on the type and target of the resistance, there seems to be near consensus about the importance of timing. A badly timed attack, most would, backfires to its initiators. An attack after the Labour Party left the national unity government in Israel has produced an illegal Israeli expansion of the Jewish presence in the heart of predominately Palestinian Hebron.

If the majority of Palestinians agree on the importance of timing, it is logic to discuss the wisdom of anti-Israeli attacks at this particular time?

For the next three to six months, important changes are expected in the region. These changes ought to persuade any sincere Palestinian to stop and consider the benefits or lack thereof of their actions. Israelis are preoccupied with their internal matters and general elections so their external policy will not be changed as a result of attacks.

If anything, such attacks might play into the hands of one group on the account of a more forthcoming group.

Any violent action on the part of the Palestinians will certainly have an effect on the Israeli elections. By carrying out any attacks during this period, those carrying them out are throwing their weight behind the more radical group of candidates.
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Hamas, Abbas were close to truce — Israeli army chief

TEL AVIV (AFP) — The Islamist resistance group Hamas made significant concessions and was close to an agreement on a halt to suicide attacks inside Israel a few months ago, the Israeli daily Haaretz said Monday, quoting Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon.

Haaretz was reporting remarks Yaalon made during a closed session last week at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Yaalon said talks were held between Hamas on one hand and the Palestine Liberation Organisation's number two Mahmoud Abbas, also former head of preventive security in the Gaza Strip, on the other.

He added that Hamas had made far-reaching concessions in the negotiations towards a three-month ceasefire, agreeing to demand only the end of Israel's policy of assassinating resistance activists, or what the Jewish state calls “targeted killings,” as a condition, rather than a withdrawal back to pre-Intifada lines or the 1967 border.

According to Haaretz, Yaalon described the effort by Dahlan and Abbas a few months ago as a “silent coup” against President Yasser Arafat and blamed the Palestinian leader for trying to sabotage the talks and eventually the Damascus leadership of Hamas for nixing it altogether.

The newspaper did not say exactly when the discussions took place.

Israel has repeatedly accused Syrian and Iranian backers of Palestinian resistance groups of imposing a tough line on the local branches and creating obstacles to any negotiations.

Hamas officially rejects the very existence of the state of Israel.

Fateh and Hamas have since held further talks in Egypt, but Abbas — also known as Abu Mazen — did not take part in those negotiations.

He has since publicly voiced support for a total halt to Palestinian attacks against Israeli targerts.

Abu Mazen has been perceived as possible candidate for the position of Palestinian prime minister advocated by the United States but so far ruled out by Arafat and his mainstream Fateh.

Europe's new face of anti-Semitism, 5 countries now ban production of kosher meat

One of the first steps in Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic drive in the creation of his Third Reich was instituting a ban on the kosher slaughter of animals.

Today, as a new wave of ugly, and sometimes violent, anti-Semitism sweeps through the European continent, at least five countries have banned kosher food production, and one of them is considering halting all import of kosher meat.

The latest nation to join the movement is Holland, where the move was guised in concern for cruelty to animals.

"They simply don't want foreigners and they don't want Jews," said Rabbi Michael Melchior, former chief rabbi of Norway, another European nation that bans kosher meat production. "I won't say this is the only motivation, but it's certainly no coincidence that one of the first things Nazi Germany forbade was kosher slaughter. I also know that during the original debate on this issue in Norway, where shechitah has been banned since 1930, one of the parliamentarians said straight out, 'If they don't like it, let them go live somewhere else.'"

While animal-rights activists have indeed been at the forefront of the recent efforts to ban kosher slaughter, there is growing concern on the part of people like Melchior, now an Israeli official, that initiatives spreading through Europe are gaining popularity because of deep-seated anti-Semitism manifesting itself in many other ways, from Belgium to Germany to France and Switzerland.
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ARAB TERRORISTS: SHARON'S MOST FERVENT BACKERS

Ariel Sharon's most zealous campaigners left nothing to chance.

Between sunrise and mid-afternoon last Thursday, Nov. 28, they racked up a death toll of 18 people and narrowly missed murdering 271 passengers and crew on a jumbo jet bound from Kenya to Tel Aviv.

All told, they murdered nine Israelis in Kenya and Israel, including two pre-teen brothers. Exactly one week earlier, they killed 11 people in a bus bombing in Jerusalem, the youngest victim being an 8-year-old boy.

Not content with killing, wounding and terrorizing Israelis, Sharon's loyal supporters accomplished the murders of nine Kenyans in the African attacks. In past weeks, they have snuffed out the lives of nearly 200 tourists, half of them Australian, in Bali, and shot to death an American missionary nurse, 31-year-old Bonnie Penner, for allegedly preaching the Gospel of Jesus to Lebanese Muslims. And 200 people died in riots in Nigeria because a Muslim official was offended by a passage in a newspaper article.

I have a mixed record for political predictions, but more than two years ago I accurately projected that should the Arabs persist in violence in response to Sharon's Sept. 28, 2000, Temple Mount visit, then Israelis would replace Ehud Barak with a more repressive prime minister. I am even on public record making this prediction in a letter published in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Oct. 2, 2000.

The rest is history. Sharon himself was elected prime minister on Feb. 4, 2001, and swiftly went to work in fighting Arab terrorism his way.

Here was a new leader of Israel who is universally despised by Arabs and was never especially beloved by his fellow Israelis. As a military commander, he helped save Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur war but has had a lifetime reputation for treating Arabs with brutality. Some military colleagues tried to prevent his rise through the ranks.

Yet as the Arabs continued their campaign of violence, Sharon was elected with the highest vote margin in Israeli history less than seven months after their former duly elected leader strived to hammer out a deal which would have given the Arabs more than 90 percent of the territories.

Israelis were not about to respond to Arab terrorism by re-electing a leader they regarded as ineffectual. With Sharon as their sole electoral alternative, Israelis sent the Arabs a message that they were mad as hell and not going to take it any more, to borrow from a line from the movie Network

As a rough comparison, Arab terrorists did for Sharon what Vietnam did for Nixon, Watergate for Carter, the Iran hostage crisis for Reagan and the Bush recession for Clinton.

On Israel's street, only 500 reservists have refused to serve so long as they could be sent to the West Bank or Gaza. Though retention and expansion of many of the territorial settlements is a legitimate concern, most Israeli servicemen and servicewomen continue to answer the call and put their lives on the line.

Of course, Arab extremists want hostilities to continue until the day they can - so they think - push all the Jews into the sea, and Sharon is certainly the perfect foil. There are certainly reasonable Arabs who want to live in peace with Israel, but their numbers are impossible to quantify.

Sharon was renominated as Likud Party leader on the day of the Kenya tragedy despite a questionable record for protecting Israel - most of the 650 Jewish fatalities occurred on his watch - and twice squandering Israel's positive image on the world stage.

He didn't have to work hard to be renominated and, if current terrorist patterns persist, he will probably crush Labor Party standard-bearer Amram Mitzna in the Jan. 28 elections.

We can only cringe in wondering about the terrorists' campaign strategy for the ensuing two months.

contributed by BY BRUCE S. TICKER, Philadelphia, Brucetic@aol.com

Israel warns of response to mass terror

-- The head of Israel's National Security Council said Monday that a "mega-terror attack" threatening Israel's existence would open options for retaliation that hitherto "were unacceptable to public opinion."

Ephraim Halevy, who recently stepped down as head of the Mossad spy service, warned that Israel has "a broad and varied range of capabilities (to cope with a threat to its existence) that better not be exposed prematurely."

In an address to the Third Herzliya Conference on the Balance of Israel's Security, Halevy said Israel must examine the new reality created by last week's attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner taking off from Mombassa, Kenya.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz Sunday told the Cabinet there were increasing signs that al Qaida was behind Thursday's attacks in Mombassa. Three suicide bombers attacked a hotel frequented by Israelis killing themselves, 10 Kenyans and three Israelis. At the same time two shoulder-launched missiles were fired at an Israeli Boeing 757-300 taking off from Mombassa International Airport with 272 passengers and crew. The missiles barely missed the plane.

Military chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, said Monday the Israel Defense Forces have already foiled many al Qaida attacks in Israel. Al Qaida has Palestinian operatives in the occupied territories and "has declared war on ... infidels, making Israel one of its main targets," he said.

At the Herzliya conference Halevy said, "The emergence of a mega-terror attack by the world Jihad or by another terror organization changes rules of the game, changes the national mood and creates an international dynamic that opens options that so far have been unacceptable to public opinion."

One must assume that a successful mega-terror incident would "at once changes rules of conduct and behavior. The emerging threat (to Israel) is a threat of genocide -- destroying a state and its institutions," he added.

The new National Security Council chief said the campaign the world Jihad is waging has no boundary lines, regular forces and the attackers violate "all rules of war."

No one can remain neutral, he continued. "Whoever gives the terrorists any aide whatsoever -- identifies with terror. It is possible that due to temporary conditions ... not all those aiding terror will be taken care of simultaneously ... But it is clear that at the end of the day whoever fails to clarify his positions here and now and back them with deeds, will be marked as an accessory to terror and will pay the full price for it."
[more]

The New Road Map

As you have read, Israel is not expected to respond to it until after the elections but the work on redefining it goes on. Sharon has given a qualified yes with reservations. or Israel to participate in such a road map would rival in stupidity its entering the Oslo Accords.

The actual text is set out below with my comments in bold, interspersed.

Communiqué issued by the Quartet

New York, 17 September 2002

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, High Representative for European Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, and European Commissioner for External Affairs Chris Patten met today in New York.

Reaffirming their previous statements, the Quartet members reviewed developments since their last meeting, on July 16, 2002.They deplored and condemned the orally repugnant violence and terror, which must end. They agreed to intensify their efforts in support of their shared goal of achieving a final Israeli-Palestinian settlement based on their common vision, as inter alia expressed by President Bush, of two states, Israel and an independent, viable and democratic Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.

Resolution 242 sanctioned Israel remaining in occupation until there was agreement as to secure and recognized borders. Oslo endorsed this resolution and created a political entity Palestinian Authority with whom to negotiate, but still no mention of a Palestinian State. After two years of Arab induced violence in breach of their commitments at Oslo, the New Road Map purports to grant them not only a state but an "independent, viable and democratic" state. "independent" means no limits to their sovereignty including no restrictions on their militarization or defense pacts with other Arab countries. "viable" means that their land must be contiguous and they must have water rights and full access to the Israeli economy. "Democratic" means whatever you want it to mean. We can't tell them how to govern themselves. It seems to me that the outcome has been predetermined by this innocuous preamble. Who says terrorism doesn't pay.

The Quartet will continue to encourage all parties to step up to their responsibilities to seek a just and comprehensive settlement to the conflict based on UN ecurity Council resolutions 242, 338, and 1397, the Madrid terms of reference, the principle of land for peace, and implementation of all existing agreements between the parties. The Quartet reaffirms the continuing importance of the initiative of Saudi Arabia, endorsed at the Arab League Beirut Summit, which is a vital part of the foundation of international efforts to ppromote a comprehensive peace on all tracks, including the Syrian-Israeli and Lebanese-Israeli tracks.

The Quartet is working closely with the parties and consulting key regional actors on a concrete, three-phase implementation roadmap that could achieve a final settlement within three years.

This will only happen if Israel is forced to capitulate and give the Arabs the '67 borders at a minimum and probably allow a token right of return.

Comprehensive security performance is essential. The plan will not succeed unless it addresses political,economic, humanitarian, and institutional dimensions and should spell out reciprocal steps to be taken by the parties in each of itsphases. In this approach, pprogress between the three phases would be strictly based on the parties' compliance with specific performance benchmarks to be monitored and assessed by the Quartet.

If it is performance based how can you have a meaningful timetable. Besides we can't trust the State Department to stand in judgement much less the Quartet.

The Quartet also supports, in preparation for establishment of a Palestinian state, efforts by the Palestinians to develop a constitution which ensures separation of power, transparency, accountability, and the vibrant political system which Palestinians deserve.

They may support it but what are they going to do about it.

The plan will contain in its initial phase (2002-first half of 2003) performance-based criteria for comprehensive security reform, Israeli withdrawals to their positions of September 28, 2000 as the security situation improves, and support for the Palestinians holding of free, fair, and credible elections early in 2003, based on recommendations established by the Quartet's International Task Force on Palestinian Reform. The first phase should include a ministerial-level meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHL) to review the humanitarian situation and prospects for economic development in the West Bank and Gaza and identify priority areas for donor assistance, including to the reform process, before the end of the year. The Quartet Principals will meet alongside the AHLC ministerial.

This is ass backwards. Until such time as the Arabs actually suppress the terror even if it takes a civil war Israel shouldn't be asked to make concessions. This plan requires Israeli concessions if there is a temporary reduction of terror. It does not provide for consequences if there is a breach. Essentially it tolerates terror and lawlessness because nobody can end it. All this in six months.

In the plan's second phase (2003), our efforts should focus on the option of creating a Palestinian state with provisional borders based upon a new constitution, as a way station to a permanent status settlement.

What the hell is a provisional state.

In its final phase (2004-5), the plan envisages Israeli-Palestinian negotiations aimed at a permanent status solution in 2005.

How can you mandate when an agreement will be reached?

Consistent with the vision expressed by President Bush, this means that the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 will be ended through a settlement negotiated between the parties and based on U.N. resolutions 242 and 338, with Israeli withdrawal to secure and recognized borders.

This is good but it has to compete with all the principles stated above. That's a huge reduction in its value.

The Quartet welcomes the Task Force's report on the progress of the seven Reform Support Groups, and notes that a number of significant achievements, especially in the area of financial reform, have been realized in a short period of time under very difficult circumstances. Under the aegis of the Quartet, the Task Force will continue its work of supporting the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority as they establish and prioritize reform benchmarks, particularly on the issues of elections, judicial reform, and the role of civil society.

Isn't that nice. They are going to work with them.

Both the reform effort and the political process must include Israeli measures, consistent with Israel's legitimate security concerns, to improve the lives of Palestinians, including allowing the resumption of normal economic activity, facilitating the movement of goods, people, and essential services and to lift curfew and closures.

Israel's "legitimate" security concerns are incompatible with "improving the lives of Palestinians." It should have put the onus on the Palestinians to address Israel's security needs before progress on the Palestinian improvement.

Consistent with transparent and accountable Palestinian budget arrangements, the Quartet welcomes Israel's decision to transfer part of the Palestinian VAT and customs revenue that has been withheld since September 2000, and calls on Israel to continue this process and re-establish regular monthly revenue transfers to the Palestinian Ministry of Finance. And consistent with the recommendations of the Mitchell Commission, Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories must stop.

The Quartet welcomes the report of UN Secretary-General's Personal Humanitarian Envoy Catherine Bertini as well as the latest UNSCO report on the impact of closures. It calls on Israel and the Palestinians to recognize and act upon their respective responsibilities and to move quickly to ameliorate the sharply deteriorating humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza. In particular, Israel must ensure full, safe and unfettered access for international and humanitarian personnel.

Reiterating the critical importance of restoring lasting calm through comprehensive performance on security, the Quartet calls on the Palestinians to work with the U.S. and regional partners to reform the Palestinian security services, strengthen policing and law and order for the civilian population, and fight the terror that has severely undermined the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians. Israelis and Palestinians should re-establish security cooperation and reciprocal steps should be taken by Israel as the Palestinians work to combat terrorism in all its forms.

The methodologies used in this document are to have separate paragraphs that address what Israel needs and what the Palestinians want. Both of these things are incompatible and must be fought over. This document brings us no closer to a settlement but what it does do is enshrine additional principles in favour of the Arabs and at the expense of the Israelis. Mitchell gave more rights to the Palestinians then Oslo did. Now the road map is going much further still. It offers nothing to Israel. It just reiterates what Israel has long been entitled to, but it gives the Palestinians all kinds of new rights. It should be resisted in totality.

The Quartet will continue to discuss the timing and modalities of an international conference.

The Quartet also met and discussed these issues with the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, as representatives of the Arab League Follow-up Committee, and with representatives of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The Quartet looks forward to continuing consultations.

Pursuant to this road map which has yet to be agreed upon Israel is being asked or forced to turn over PA money and to concern itself with the poor Palestinians rather than their own security

Contributed by Ted Belman tedbel@rogers.com

Battle of the Wombs

Another type of battle is being silently waged, and, says this writer, it is important for Israel and it policies to keep this demographic battle in mind.

JAFFA—My husband is bugging me to clean out our shelter. That's the thick-walled concrete room you'll find in just about every house in Israel. If Saddam Hussein lets loose with biological weapons or worse, we are supposed to huddle inside wearing gas masks and listening for the all clear on the radio.
I rolled up my sleeves the other day to tackle the chore, but after opening the shelter door I lost heart and went back to playing Freecell. The shelter is packed, floor to ceiling, with suitcases, old lamps, dusty wedding presents, and boxes stuffed with memorabilia from my first-grade report card to my abandoned Ph.D. dissertation.

I haven't seen the gas masks in five years and have no idea where I stuck them.

I wouldn't wear mine, anyway. They are really uncomfortable, especially if you try to smoke with one on. Actually, I consider myself prepared, having stocked up on diet cola and several cartons of chocolate chip cookies.

Anyway, the "biological bomb" that Israelis are biting their fingernails over these days does not belong to Saddam. It belongs to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasir Arafat. He boasts about it all the time.

"The womb of the Arab woman," Arafat says smugly, promising ultimate victory over the Jews, "is my strongest weapon."
[more]

Hamas' "Popular Army": Struggle with Israel is part of struggle with the West

But you knew all this, right? Here are some details.

"Popular Army" was founded by Hamas in mid 2002 and dozens of youths have been recruited to it in order to integrate them to the fighting ranks of the Hamas leading up to a possible IDF operation in Gaza. Hamas' spiritual leader Sheik Yassin has said that the organization follows the Jihad way, and is part of Islamic organization's legitimate struggle against the West. Another of the spiritual founders, Sheikh Yussuf Kradawi, further endorsed this outlook.

On November 29, 2002, the Hamas held a huge rally in the Sabra neighborhood in Gaza. Throngs of Palestinians joined in to mark the day that the Prophet Muhammad conquered Mecca. Mahmud A-Zahar, one of the senior Hamas leaders, spoke at the rally and said:

- "The era in which Jihad warriors have had their weapons confiscated, have been arrested and sent to prison is long gone. The circumstances have changed, and especially so in light of the establishment of the Hamas' new "Popular Army".

- "The Hamas will never lay down its weapons. It will continue on the path of Jihad, and struggle. The Hamas will not listen to the disturbing voices of those who call for an end to the Intifada".

- "The path of struggle has become the path of the entire Palestinian population and can therefore not be silenced".

The Hamas website described how, at the end of the rally, dozens of armed masked fighters of the "Iz Al Din Al Qassam Brigades" (the military wing of the Hamas) and the "Popular Army" (the new branch of Hamas) took part in a military style march.

Salah Shehadeh (late head of the Hamas' military wing) established the Hamas' "Popular Army" in mid 2002. Shehadeh was killed in an IDF operation in July 2002. Dozens of young Palestinians were drafted to this new organization, where they were given military training for when they would later join the fighting ranks of the Hamas. This was done in preparation for the possible upcoming IDF operation in Gaza. The "Popular Army" operatives were given small arms, machine guns, hand grenades, anti tank missile launchers, mortar bombs, Qassam rockets and different kinds of explosives, some of which weighed up to 200kg and were intended for use against Israeli tanks.

The establishment of the "Popular Army" is part of the Hamas organization's interest in becoming the leading movement in Palestinian politics. In the Hamas' view, the conflict between the Hamas and the Fatah movement over the control of the Palestinian public has already been determined in Hamas' favor. It is a conclusion that can easily be reached by looking at the Palestinian population's ever growing adherence to the way of "the struggle" and the "Jihad" against Israel.
[more]

DEBKA Headlines

HEADLINES

Al Qaeda takes responsibility for terrorist attacks on Israelis in Mombasa, its “belated Ramadan greeting” to all Muslims.

Internet message published Monday afternoon by organization’s “political office” threatens every Israeli man, woman, child with “siege of fear”, promises to fight “Jewish-Crusader Front.

Earlier Monday, Israeli army chief Yaalon reported al Qaeda operatives in Israel attempted to mount terror attacks and were foiled. Al Qaeda also known to activate Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In April 2002, DEBKAfile revealed al Qaeda presence in Israel and Palestinian areas.

An interesting report this morning in Haaretz:

It summarizes the QA session which the Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon gave at the Middle East research institute in Washington. However, the headline and the first few lines of the report caused quite a stir in Israel:

Ya'alon: Most of the settlements will have to be removed.

WASHINGTON - Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon has told a closed session of a Washington-based Middle East research institute that both the Israelis and Palestinians know that "at the end of the day, most of the settlements will be evacuated.

Arutz7 and YNet say Yaalon denies the report, and say that he was misquoted. One of his associates who was present at the QA session said the same on IBA radio. This is totally consistent with the views Yaalon had expressed in the past.

(Crossposted here).

Mossad agents sent in to kill

It is at best difficult to know how much credence to give to this article. You decide.

AS soon as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon learned of last Thursday's terrorist attacks in Kenya, he summoned Mossad chief Meir Dagan to a meeting that promises to have momentous consequences for the conduct of the US-led war on terror.

War had been declared on the state of Israel by the global Islamic terror syndicate, Mr Sharon told Israel's top anti-terrorist expert. Change your priorities and get the enemy one by one.
Mr Sharon's blunt order on the day of his re-election to the leadership of his right-wing Likud party will compel Mossad – Israel's secret service for intelligence and special operations – to resort to the kind of measures it has not taken for 30 years.

According to a well-informed source, the service has alerted sleeper agents in Saudi Arabia and Yemen to hunt down the planners of the attacks on the Israeli-owned tourist hotel and Israeli passenger plane at Mombasa.

Codenamed Warriors, these highly trained agents who volunteer to live under cover in Arab countries normally remain dormant except in wartime, when their mission is to undermine Arab preparations for strikes against Israel.

The last time such a serious order was given was in 1972. The then prime minister, Golda Meir, ordered Mossad to kill the Palestinians involved in the murder of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. All but one were eliminated over six years.

Mr Dagan is a veteran of such operations and is reputed to have killed more than 30 Palestinian terror suspects in Gaza during the 1970s.

Mr Sharon's forceful reaction last week illustrates how seriously he views the twin terror attacks in Mombasa.

"This is a wake-up call from hell by al-Qa'ida," said Gilad Milo, an Israeli government official sent to Kenya to fly out survivors of the attack and bodies of the victims.

The Israelis have little doubt the attacks are the first by Osama bin Laden's organisation against the Jewish state. An unknown group, the Army of Palestine, claimed responsibility, and a possible link to a fundamentalist organisation such as Hezbollah has not been ruled out in Washington.

But in the absence of any clear evidence to the contrary, Israel and Kenya both blame al-Qa'ida for the Mombasa attacks. Mr Milo said a direct line connected the September 11 terror attacks on the US to the Bali bombings and the strikes in Mombasa.
[more]

Left vs. Right

The other week, I attended a lecture by a brilliant political commentator on the Israeli scene. The commentator is a strong supporter of Labour and accommodation with the Palestinians. What struck me was how much she drew attention to the road blocks, the humiliation, the desire for independence, the horrible conditions, the desire on the part of the silent majority of Palestinians for peace, the adverse consequences of alienating the Palestinians etc etc. No where did she make an argument on behalf of the poor suffering Israelis other than to say that accommodating the Palestinians is the best way to achieve security for the Israelis.

It seems that a basic dividing line between the Left and the Right in Israel is that the Left are trying to get justice for the Palestinians and the Right is trying to get Justice and security for the Israelis.

She repeated many times that there is no military solution. The only thing the Left has learned from Oslo is that the Palestinians can't be trusted and that terror will continue after a deal is cut but they believe that is no reason not to do a deal because we would be gaining the moral highground. And here all along, I thought that was what we obtained in Oslo. A lot of good it did us.

With respect to a military solution, two ideas are being mooted now namely transfer and/or a devastating military defeat of the Palestinians. Both of these options would certainly not get us the "moral highground" but they would, if we could pull it off, give us a new reality much more to our liking. Is this wishful thinking on the part of the Right which is a waste of time or is there a real possibility that facts could be changed in a meaningful way. From my point of view, we may not be able to see the light at the end of the military tunnel but that doesn't mean that we should abandon the option. Particularly when we believe that the prospect of getting the Arabs to accept us is also wishful thinking.

Assuming for the moment that both Left and the Right are deluding themselves, what's to be done. The Left argues for some form of unilateral withdrawal i.e. abandon small settlements, build a fence etc. The Right argues for unilateral expansion, if you allow me to coin a phrase, i.e. push the green line, build settlements destroy the terror infrastructure, expel Arafat etc.

We often are cautioned when going to war of the law of unintended consequences, as though they are more likely to occur than the intended consequences. No body raises the possibility of the unintended consequences being fortuitous.

Sharon has followed a policy of containment rather than ending the terror. Many in Israel have no stomach for the kind of killing that the war will bring on the Arabs but they appear to have the stomach to absorb an average of 10 Israeli deaths per week, Sharon included. It is argued that the big picture being coordinated with the US takes precedence over the short term goal putting a stop to the killing once and for all whatever it takes. It better because this is a high price to pay.

Hopefully the Iraqi war will create a "new Middle East" that will be more hospitable to Israel. In the meantime the new Road Map should be road blocked and opposition to a second Palestinian State should come out of the closet and put on the table with all competing ideas. IsraPundit is doing a fine job in this respect as are the Women in Green.

Contributed by Ted Belman, Canada, tedbel@rogers.com.

America twitchy as Israel weighs response to attacks

Cross border retaliations possible. Australia announces it will attack terrorists beyond its borders. The US to do so too. The new attitude seems to be: You house them then we will delouse them.

Israel is planning cross-border military strikes and preparing for a long hunt to track down those responsible for the twin terrorist attacks in Kenya once its intelligence agency Mossad delivers its verdict on the culprits.

Intelligence sources say the most likely targets in retaliation for Thursday's attacks, which cost 16 lives but came close to killing hundreds, are in Lebanon and possibly Somalia and Yemen.

Such a projection of Israeli military power beyond its borders would provoke further anti-Western sentiment in the Arab world and suspicions that Tel Aviv will use the Kenyan attacks to take harsher action against Palestinian militant groups and the Palestinian Authority.

The United States would be particularly nervous over such action, because it could undermine Washington's attempts to win Arab support for any war on Iraq.

"Our long arm will get those who carried out the terror attacks. No one will be forgiven," said the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon.
[more]

Antisemitism Egyptian-Style The true face of the "honest broker"

Report from World Jewish Congress, as found at Gabrielle Goldwater's Reports.

Egypt has attempted to present itself as an honest broker in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and has sought legitimacy for its
diplomatic efforts in Washington and European capitals. Egypt, of course, is manifestly unsuited to play the role of mediator in the conflict. While Egypt and Israel maintain diplomatic relations, one can at best speak of a cold peace between the two countries. The state-controlled Egyptian media and Egyptian institutions of higher learning are hotbeds of antisemitic invective that transcend more than mere opposition to Israel's current policies. In both tone and substance they are reminiscent of Nazi-era
antisemitic publications. The Jewish world cannot remain silent in the face of this vicious and unremitting agitation.

An antisemitic "honest broker"?

The unprecedented wave of antisemitism that swept Western Europe in the wake of the outbreak of the latest Intifada some two years ago has diverted attention away from Egypt - which for decades has been one of the world's leading centers of antisemitic propaganda. But despite the fact that Jews have turned their eyes from happenings in Cairo and Alexandria, the situation in that country - the largest and most powerful member of the Arab League - remains unchanged. Egypt's government controlled press continues to feed millions of Egyptian readers a steady diet of antisemitic vitriol.

Those who believed that the peace accords between Egypt and Israel would bring an end to the antisemitic invective in the Egyptian press were sadly mistaken. Any visitor to Egypt cannot help but notice that the newsstands openly display items, including leading daily newspapers, that are as vile as Der Stuermer. The fact is that some Egyptian publications even draw upon that sinister German paper for inspiration.

In recent years, Egypt has offered itself as a potential mediator between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, claiming that it can could act as an honest broker. Clearly, given its unabashed support for the Palestinian side, which extends to expressions of understanding and sympathy for the deeds of suicide bombers, Egypt is manifestly unsuited for that role. Even if this were that not the case, how could Egypt's leaders expect that an outstanding purveyor of state-sponsored antisemitism would be accepted by anyone other than antisemites, as an impartial arbiter?
[more]

A SINGLE WAR

The Kenya attack shows that terrorism knows no boundaries and that the entire world must combat it.

December 2, 2002 -- THERE is at least one silver lining in the ghastly carnage in Mombasa, Kenya: The homicidal swine who turned the Paradise Hotel into an inferno blew away the illusion that Israels war on terrorism can be separated from America's.
This is a myth treasured by many in the U.S. government, especially at the State Department, who believe that America is right to use overwhelming force against its enemies, but that Israel should show "restraint" no matter the provocation. While America roots out the source of our terrorist problems in Afghanistan, Washington sternly admonishes Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that he must not touch a hair of Yasser Arafat's head - even though Arafat is at least as much responsible for terrorism as Mullah Omar once was.

This attitude reached new heights of absurdity after the targeted killing of six al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen by a CIA-operated Predator unmanned aerial vehicle. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher took pains to argue that there was absolutely no comparison between this action and Israel's targeted killings of terrorists, which the U.S. government continues to condemn.

But what if the people attacking America are also the people attacking Israel? If it turns out that al Qaeda was responsible for the Kenya attack, as now appears likely, this conclusion will be inescapable. Yet the evidence already strongly pointed in that direction long before last week's bombing.

One only has to think back to 9/11: The suicidal attacks on America caused great grief in Israel - and undisguised joy in the Palestinian territories.
[more]

Kenya, Israel and probe: little cooperation

This link provides many articles on current proble of terror attack in Kenya.

And this article "The undeclared war" suggests why American and Israeli targets turning up in Muslim countries and why Kenya not cooperating very much with Western investigation of terror attack.

Additionally, intelligence reports from the U.S. and Germany warning of potential attacks seem not to have been given to Israel. See"Warnings not sent to Israel?"

Palestinians Barely Escape Missile Strike

This link provides 5 articles on recent Israeli retaliatory strikes.

Israeli troops shot dead one Palestinian and a second Palestinian man died under the rubble of one of the three homes the soldiers demolished in an overnight operation in the Gaza Strip. A 16 - year - old Palestinian was shot and killed Saturday in the Gaza Strip and another one was wounded as they neared a border fence on the way home from school, witnesses and hospital officials said. Palestinians in a car near Gaza City Sunday narrowly escaped an Israeli helicopter missile attack on their vehicle, blasted into a heap of smoldering metal seconds after they jumped out, witnesses said. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won re - election as the Likud Party leader, defeating his hawkish foreign minister by positioning himself as a centrist in a tactic that could help him in January elections against the Labor Party's dovish Amram Mitzna.

Initial findings of International Mombasa Probe

Investigating the terror attack in Kenya.

The combined US-Israeli-Kenyan investigation team has reached initial conclusions two days after the deadly al Qaeda twin assault on Israeli targets at the Kenyan resort town of Mombasa:

A. Backup teams were posted at both scenes of attack – the hotel and the airport - to take over if the first teams failed to carry the operation through. This is evident from the testimony of witnesses present at the Mombasa Paradise Hotel assault, in which 13 people were killed, three of them Israelis. They reported that, first, one of the bombers leapt forward to blow up the hotel lobby; next, the vehicle that brought him to the hotel crashed into a wall and exploded; then, a light plane flew overhead and dropped explosives on the buildings left standing.

This may have been al Qaeda’s first air raid.

Findings around the airport indicate two missile teams, one posted near one end of the runway and the second, some 5 km from the other end, to cover the eventuality of a change of wind altering the Arkia flight’s direction of takeoff. When they saw the plane sending out flares to deflect the heat-seeking missiles and flying out of reach with all 260 passengers safe, the two teams made off.
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"They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing" (with obeisance to Talleyrand)

In an article dated November 26, I cited a Palestinian opinion poll released in July, according to which a majority of Palestinian Arabs strongly supported Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Recent data, released by the Palestinian organization PCPO, were posted on November 21, 2002, and indicate that the Palestinain Arabs have not changed one iota. The data are posted on the Palestinian Indymedia site, which summarized the results of Poll No. 106, taken during November 11-16, 2002, in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and East Jerusalem; the sample comprised 1041 persons 18+.

Selected annotated findings:

The first point to be noted is the extent to which the Palestinian Arabs support Saddam Hussein:

16. To what degree do you agree with the notion that some people say “Palestinians ought to support Iraq as they did in 1991, if the United States of American strikes it again”?

1. Strongly agree.......36.8%
2. Somewhat agree ......24.4%
3. Somewhat disagree ....9.2%
4. Strongly disagree ...14.3%
5. No opinion ..........15.3%

Thus, over two thirds of respondents with an opinion on the matter would support Iraq (“strongly’ or “somewhat”) against the US. And this is the population for whom Bush is so hard at work in the sacred task of providing them with a sovereign state. What happened to the doctrine of “with us or against us”?

And if anyone doubts the dedication of the Palestinian Arabs to terrorism, the following series of questions should provide the definitive answer.

4. Do you believe that the Intifada is still going on and heading towards achieving its goals?

1. Yes.........38.6%
2. No..........36.2%
3. No Opinion..25.2%

Thus, well over half of the respondents with an opinion still believe that the failed Intifada is “heading towards achieving its goals” - since we know what the “goal” is, why then would the Palestinian-Arabs wish for a peace agreement?

7. Twenty five months back, to the time when the current Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out, do you believe that it served or harmed the Palestinian interests?

1. Considerably served...13.3%
2. Somewhat served.......28.4%
3. Somewhat harmed ......15.8%
4. Considerably harmed...25.1%
5. No opinion............17.4%

Again, among those with an opinion on the matter, a majority belive that the Intifada “served” (“considerably” or “somewhat”) Palestinian-Arab interests. And again: is a population with this mindset ready to make peace?

11. If Al-Aqsa Intifada continued in a way that further aggravated your financial conditions, would you still support it or demand that it stop?

1. Would still support..........37.6%
2. Would demand that it stop ...25.3%
3. Do not know .................37.1%

The responses to this question are further proof of the intransigent nature of the hatred the Palestinian-Arabs harbour towards Israel: the vast majority of respondents with an opinion in the matter would support the Intifada even if it “further aggravated your financial conditions”. Is this population a candidate for peace? And the amazing thing is, that the dedication to the terrorist campaign is unshaken even though the majority of respondents agree that Israel is “serious and sincere” in its attempts to alleviate the conditions of the Palestinian-Arabs. This is indicated by the findings for the following question:

9. Do you or not [sic] believe that if the Israeli government’s taking serious and sincere measures to lift the siege and security belt on the Palestinian territories will alleviate violence?

1. Yes ............28.7%
2. To some extent .35.8%
3. No .............25.8%
4. Do not know .....9.7%

Even further proof of the intransigent position of the Palestinian-Arabs comes from a question on possible disarming of the terrorists:

13. If the Palestinian Authority orders “Fatah Tanzim” and other organizations indirectly linked to the PA’s security services to hand over their weapons for confiscation or destruction. What do you believe that “Fatah Tanzim” and other organization should do?

1. Hand over their weapons for confiscation and Destruction ....18.7%
2. Hide their weapons ..........................................48.6%
3. Do nothing ..................................................32.7%

This point warrants underscoring: even in the face of an explicit PA order to disarm, 4 of every 5 Palestinian Arabs would oppose such disarming. How can you possibly have peace with such a population?

Would someone please provide Bush with a copy of PCPO Poll #106?

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland. This article is cross-posted at IsraPundit and DawsonSpeaks.

Palestinian sources: Teen shot dead by Israeli soldiers

Six links give updates on most recent events.

Summary:
A 16 -year-old Palestinian was shot and killed Saturday in the Gaza Strip and another one was wounded as they neared a border fence on the way home from school, witnesses and hospital officials said. (3) Later Saturday, about 30 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles backed by two Apache helicopters moved into a Gaza town, firing machine guns and tank shells that knocked out the town's power transformer, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said. (4) There were no reports of injuries from the shooting in Beit Lahiya, about three miles north of Gaza City, which began as residents were emerging from evening prayers, security officials said. (4) The soldiers surrounded a mosque as well as the local headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and blocked the main road leading north, witnesses said. (4) A 16 -year-old boy who is said to have been bird-hunting on a road used exclusively by Israeli vehicles was shot and killed Saturday by soldiers, according to Palestinian security sources. (5) The troops surrounded and searched the home of suspected Islamic Jihad commander Hisham Salim but he was not immediately found, the sources said. (6)
[click link title for urls to articles]

Palestinian official lauds Mubarak's message to UN

This very brief piece notable for slipping in the idea that peace will only come through Arab negotiations and oh, yes, Christians, forget Christmas in Bethlehem. We'll show those Israelis that they should not respond to terror attacks.

A senior Palestinian official yesterday praised President Mubarak's message to the United Nations marking the International Day for Solidarity with the Palestinian People on 29 November.
Minister for Jerusalem Affairs in the PLO's Palestinian Authority, Samir Ghosheh said in a telephone interview with Radio Cairo that President Mubarak has voiced the stance of the Egyptian people and government on solidarity with the Palestinian people by supporting the Palestinian cause.
Ghosheh called on the international community and the US to enforce the UN resolutions concerning the Palestinian issue.
On the other hand, Bethlehem Governor Mohamed Al Madanni stressed in another telephone interview with Voice of Arabs Radio that ending the Israeli occupation and settling the Arab-Israeli conflict through restoring negotiations is the only way to achieve peace and secure stability in the region.
Madani described the situation in Bethlehem as 'tragic,' noting that the Palestinian Authority has cancelled Christmas celebrations this year in response to the Israeli reoccupation of the city.

PA Preventive Security Apparatus: Mass Production of Explosives

IDF keeps turning up hard evidence that PLO working in with terror groups. See link for captured documents.

The PA Preventive Security Apparatus, under the guidance and the direction of senior officials in the PA has planned to establish a factory to produce large quantities of acid in the territories. This chemical material is used to produce explosives and is used in terror activities.

A secret document of the Preventive Security, dated October 21, 2002, was captured in the preventive security compound in the Gaza Strip on November 18, 2001. The document exposes the PA's plan to produce large quantities of acid in the territories. According to the document, the plan is to produce 15 tons of acid per year, with an option of expanding the quantity.

According to the document, two senior Preventive Security operatives from the Gaza Strip are involved in the approval of the technical specifications and the project's financing mode. The two are Rashid Abu Shabak, acting head of the Preventive Security, and Samir Mashrawi, the Preventive Security general director. The proposal for starting the project is signed by Abu Hisham - a senior official in the Palestinian Agriculture Ministry.

Following the capture of the document, a security official said that the intention of the Preventive security apparatus, which was designed to prevent terrorism, to establish a factory to produce explosives for terror attacks, exposes the true intentions of the Palestinian Authority and the person heading it.

Hizbollah urges more Palestinian suicide attacks

This speaks for itself. Until such time as those countries making accomodations for terror organizations cease and desist, terrorism will prevent any possible Palestinian state.

NABATIYEH, Lebanon — Lebanon's Hizbollah leader urged Palestinians on Friday to ignore international criticism of suicide attacks and keep up armed struggle against Israeli occupation as the best way to liberate their land.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah also told the Jerusalem Day rally, which coincides with the anniversary of a 1947 United Nations resolution partitioning Palestine between Arabs and Jews, should learn from Lebanon's experience that no political solution would end Israeli occupation.

“What will protect Jerusalem, its holy places, and get it and Palestine back is the path of the Palestinian people, through martyrdom seekers who astonish the world, each day and night... and rattle the Zionist entity and the security of its settlers,” he said.

The Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hizbollah was the driving force behind ending Israel's 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in 2000. Its freedom fighters have since clashed with Israeli troops in an occupied border area.

Scores of Israelis have been killed in Palestinian suicide attacks since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in 2000.

Thousands of people lined the streets of Nabatiyeh, a stronghold of the resistance group, to watch a Hizbollah military exhibition and a parade of armed units named after Lebanese and Palestinians killed by Israel.

Hundreds joined similar rallies near Palestinian refugee camps throughout Lebanon, while in Damascus over a 1,000 people marched carrying Palestinian, Hizbollah and Syrian flags.

Reistance is a 'case of self-defence'

Nasrallah compared the Palestinian uprising to his group's struggle to end Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon.

“Today the resistance in Palestine is also a case of self-defence. The Palestinians do not attack others. They did not go to Russia to kill Russian Jews, Ukraine to kill the Ukrainian ones, Poland to kill Polish Jews, or to Ethiopia to kill the Falasha...” Nasrallah said.

“The Zionists are the ones who came from all over the world to usurp the land, holy places, cities and villages of others,” he told crowds gathered despite icy rain. “What the Palestinians are doing with the martyrdom operations is legitimate, legal, Islamic and moral because they seek to end injustice.”

Nasrallah warned Israel against harming Muslim holy places like Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam's holiest shrines.

“The Zionists and those behind them must understand that if they touch Al Aqsa Mosque the entire region will explode,” Nasrallah said. “If they want to destroy the mosque, then its nation (Muslims) will destroy this oppressive entity (Israel) through the blood of its martyrdom attackers,” he added.

Attacks follow Israelis abroad

The globalization of the terror war against Israel means no respite for Jews anywhere. But then non-Israelis also to be victims of these murderers.

Brian Hendler / Associated Press

Mickey Adler, right, is comforted at a Tel Aviv airport after a plane delivered the bodies of her nephews, Dvir and Noy Anter, killed in the Kenyan hotel bombing.

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JERUSALEM -- On Thursday, Rahamim and Ora Anter and their three children left Israel on their first trip out of the country, a vacation they had spent months anticipating, planning and scrimping to finance.
Minutes after the family arrived at the Paradise Hotel near Mombasa, Kenya, their dream vacation evaporated in the kind of nightmare scenario they had flown hundreds of miles to escape: yet another suicide bombing attack.
Today, Dvir Anter, 14, and Noy Anter, 12, returned home in coffins. Their mother, Ora, was flown to Israel hooked up to a respirator, struggling to live. Rahamim and his daughter, 8-year-old Edva, were on the same plane, nursing minor physical injuries and incomprehensible grief. "Why don't they fight soldiers?" the boys' embittered aunt, Mickey Yitzhakov, 48, asked as she awaited the arrival of the shattered family aboard an Israeli Air Force Hercules C-130 this afternoon at a military terminal in the Ben-Gurion International Airport complex near Tel Aviv. "They fight children. They took two pure souls. I want to ask, What have they achieved from killing these two children?' "
Three Israelis and 10 Kenyans were killed in the attack after three suicide bombers in an explosive-laden vehicle crashed into the hotel and detonated their explosives. The assailants also died.
Noy Anter had just celebrated his birthday at a party last Saturday, the family's clownish antics captured on a home video shown on Israeli television news channels throughout the day. The family lived in Ariel, one of the largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank, where the father worked in a rope-making factory and the mother was a clerk in another factory.
For Israelis who have come to view a flight out of Israel as respite from the relentless violence that has traumatized this nation during more than two years of war with Palestinian militants, the car bombing at the beachfront hotel in Mombasa robbed a beleaguered people of yet another avenue of escape.
"We live in Jerusalem," said Daphna Ozeri, 38, as she waited anxiously for her husband and 13-year-old son to return from the scene of the attack. They had gone to Kenya on a bar mitzvah trip. "They thought it would be fun to get away a bit from Israel, to escape the suicide attacks."
Instead, Israelis like Michel Vaknin, 30, who operated a shop in the Paradise Hotel, found themselves recounting to reporters the kind of gruesome scenes that have become a part of daily life in Israel.
"I saw burned people," said Vaknin, whose shop near the hotel's reception area exploded in slivers of broken glass. "I saw people with cuts and big, open wounds. The sights I saw were horrific. It was awful. It was everywhere, the whole reception area was on fire."
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In case you missed these two items

(1) Super Hipocirtes!

An unbelievable headline in the Jerusalem Post, December 10, 2002: “Russia calls on Israel to avoid using heavy weapons in Palestinian areas”.

Have they never heard of Chechnya?


(2) An unflinching friend

Joseph Farah, a Lebanese Christian and columnist for WorldNetDaily, has been posting pro-Israel articles "since forever". His recent chock-full-of-information article deals with the PLO and a second Palestinian-Arab state. Don’t miss it.

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland. This piece is cross-posted on IsraPundit and Dawson Speaks.

Mary McGrory On The Middle East

This week Mary McGrory has written a column filled with substance and without malicious attacks and character assassination. That's a step up, a big one. The column is a bit weepy and she's still wrong on the substance.

She profiles three women from the Middle East -- one Christian (Quaker), one Jew and one Muslim -- and a tour they are taking around the U.S. trying to drum up support for a Palestinian state and for the U.S. to turn its focus back to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rather than Iraq. Frankly, I don't see the point in doing so.

Short of a military intervention we can't stop that conflict and most Israelis want us to remove Saddam Hussein from power so they'll have one less enemy to worry about. The women also advocate removing all of the settlements in both Gaza and the West Bank.

A few months ago I thought removing the settlements would eventually be necessary and a Palestinian state would be created. Now I'm not so sure. Right now there are Arabs living in Israel and there are even Arab members of their parliament. Why couldn't Jews live peacefully in a Palestinian state if one is ever created? I do think the Israeli government should quit subsidizing the settlements, but if Jews want to move into the West Bank or Gaza by their own means, let them. And if a Palestinian state is created they should be allowed to live there. If the resulting state is going to be so tyrannical that it won't tolerate Jews living there, perhaps that state shouldn't be created.

Another problem is Gaza. The current plans call for an elevated road to connect the West Bank and Gaza. To me this is sheer stupidity. That road would be an unending source of tension between Israel and any Palestinian state. Both states should be contiguous on land and in the air.

In her column, McGrory refers to "transfers", without providing any specifics, and says they are actually ethnic cleansing. If the Palestinians have their way, at a minimum, Jews will be "transferred" out of the settlements. Is this ethnic cleansing too? More unsubstantiated trash from McGrory in an otherwise substantive column.

As for the U.S., we need to keep our eye on the ball. We can't solve the Israeli conflict but we can remove a murderous regime from the area. That's what we should be doing.

Cross-posted on NNP.

The Long History of Palestinian-Arab Intransigence

On November 28, 2002, the New York Post (as well as other media outlets) informed us that conflict.

Yasser Arafat's top deputy said the violent uprising against Israel has been a disaster for the Palestinians and must be stopped.

"What happened in these two years, as we see it now, is a complete destruction of everything we built," Abu Mazen told members of Arafat's Fatah faction.

The comments from Mazen - a possible successor to Arafat - are the strongest denunciation by a senior Palestinian official of the uprising that has resulted in the deaths of more than 2,000 Palestinians and Israelis since it began in September 2000.

In a sane world, denouncing terrorism would have been classified as “dog bites man”, since even casual observers can see the self-destructive nature of Palestinian-Arab terrorism. What propels this item to the “man bites dog” category, is the fact that it negates what most Palestinian Arabs believe, and it represents a departure from the habitual intransigence of the Palestinian-Arab leadership.

With regard to the beliefs of the Palestinian-Arab street, an article scheduled for posting on this site tomorrow (December 2) will show that the majority of Palestinian-Arabs with an opinion on the matter (i.e., excluding those who are classified as “no opinion”), believe that the Intifada is “heading towards achieving its goals” and that the Intifada “considerably served” or “somewhat served” “the Palestinian interests”.

But the main point I wish to make is the long-standing Palestinian approach of intransigence. Ever since I began researching the Arab/Israeli conflict, I have been struck by this unyielding, unbending approach. I have learnt that it was manifest in its full glory even in the 1920's, when Churchill was the British minister responsible for the Middle-East affairs. To corroborate this statement, I quote below from David Fromkin’s extensive research, as presented in:

Fromkin, David L. A Peace to end all peace. New York: Avon books, 1989.

Churchill approached the complex, emotion-laden and muddled question of Palestine with a simple, rational, and clear program...

Churchill was not unmindful of the opposition to Zionism among Palestinian Arabs, but he believed that it could be overcome by a program that combined basic firmness with attractive inducements and compromises. As Colonial Minister, he attempted to appease Palestinian Arab sentiment by scaling down Britain's support of Zionism...

Churchill further attempted to allay Arab suspicions by demonstrating that their economic fears were groundless. Jewish immigrants, he argued repeatedly, would not seize Arab jobs or Arab land. On the contrary, he said, Jewish immigrants would create new jobs and new wealth that would benefit the whole community...

In August he repeated to an Arab delegation that had come to London that

I have told you again and again that the Jews will not be allowed to come into the country except insofar as they build up the means for their livelihood ... They cannot take any man's lands. They cannot dispossess any man of his rights or his property . .. If they like to buy people's land and people like to sell it to them, and if they like to develop and cultivate regions now barren and make them fertile, then they have the right . .. [to do so].

In the same statement he complained to the Arabs that it was not fair of them to refuse to negotiate: "it is not fair to come to a discussion thinking that one side has to give nothing and the other side has to give large and important concessions, and without any security that these concessions will be a means of peace."

Churchill had spent a lifetime immersed in the political culture of Europe, in which it was normal when putting forth a proposal to take account of the needs and desires of all interested parties, including adversaries.

This was the sort of statesmanship to which Churchill was accustomed; but he did not find it in the Palestinian Arab delegation in London, which did no more than repeat its demands. Palestine was and is an area of complex and competing claims, but the Arab delegation took account of no claims, fears, needs, or dreams other than its own. Unlike the Zionist leaders, who sought to compensate Arab nationalism by supporting Arab versus French claims to Syria, who envisaged areas of Arab autonomy within Palestine, and who planned economic and other benefits for Arabs who chose to live within the confines of the Jewish homeland, the Arab leaders made no effort to accommodate Jewish aspirations or to take account of Jewish needs.
...
In Churchill's eyes, the members of the Arab delegation were not doing what politicians are supposed to do: they were not aiming to reach an agreement--any agreement. Apparently unwilling to offer even 1 percent in order to get 99 percent, they offered no incentive to the other side to make concessions. Churchill remonstrated with the Arab leaders--to no effect.

The Arab delegation to London, which was headed by Musa Kazim Pasha al-Husseini, president of the Arab Executive, apparently refused to understand what Churchill was saying. Members of the delegation would ask a question, and then when Churchill had answered it, would ask the same question again, as though they had not heard Churchill's reply. Churchill showed signs of frustration and anger at this tactic, but continued to repeat his answers in the evident hope of finally making himself understood. It was in this spirit that he repeated that land was not being taken away from Arabs; that Arabs sold land to Jews only if they chose to do so.

[Quoted from pp. 518-524. Bold font added.]

The reasons for this intransigence provide a topic for yet another article, though I have come to believe that the reasons boil down to a single unfortunate cause: the Arab Dhimmi complex. For the moment, however, suffice it to note that what Churchill saw in 1921 is the same attitude that has persisted until this very day; it is the real reason behind the failure of Barak’s Camp David negotiations in July 2000, and it is the real reason behind the current Intifada. If my analysis is as correct as I believe it to be, then the current “Roadmap” that is being shoved down Israel’s throat will bring no peace. On the contrary, as I am attempting to show in a 23-part article, it will bring disaster on Israel and all democracies.

Alas, I am forever reminded of the words of my history teacher. Many decades ago, in a class discussion on the reasons for studying history, one student suggested, “to see what we can learn from history”, to which the teacher opined, “you mean, to see that we never learn a damn thing from history”. If the “Roadmap” materializes, I fear that Israel will provide yet another example of how right my history teacher was. And then the terrorists will come for us.

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland. This article is cross-posted at IsraPundit and DawsonSpeaks.