Opinion poll says Sharon set for second term

I am a bit dubious about polls but this might be of interest

Ariel Sharon is set for a second term as Israeli prime minister at the head of a strengthened Likud party, according to the first opinion poll taken since his announcement this week of early elections.


With about three months to go until election day, Wednesday's poll in the daily Yedioth Ahronoth showed him six percentage points ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu, his rival for the Likud nomination, with the support of 44 per cent of party members.

The poll indicated Likud would increase its representation in the 120-seat Knesset to 33 from 19 to replace Labour as the single biggest party. Labour was predicted to drop from 26 seats to 19.

The snap poll of 550 people brought little comfort for the leader of the Labour party, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who sparked the crisis by withdrawing from Mr Sharon's broad-based coalition a week ago.

The poll showed him trailing Amram Mitzna, the mayor of Haifa and a newcomer to national politics, by 12 percentage points. Another challenger, Haim Ramon, was a poor third.

Political analysts believe that the Labour party will split if Mr Ben-Eliezer, former defence minister, recovers to win the party's primaries on November 19. They predict the left wing will split off to join other leftwing parties in forming a new social democratic party that may then replace Labour as the second largest grouping in the Knesset.

What promises to be a tough campaign, even by the abrasive standards of Israeli politics, has begun with Mr Netanyahu taking an uncompromising stand towards the Palestinians.

"I promise you one thing," he told Israeli television. "By the end of 2003 there will not be a PLO [Palestine Liberation Organisation] terror state created here."

Mr Netanyahu was sworn in on Wednesday as foreign minister in the caretaker
[....]

The return of the Auschwitz nightmare

No,this article is not about the Middle East conflict, nor is it even about the ME. But it is a sharp reminder of what Israel has meant to Jews and why the Jews needed a land of their own. So central to Jewish thinking is the notion Always Remember. But this gives another perspective on that mandate.

[....] "We're often perceived as the Jewish old-age home on Bathurst," said Mark Gryfe, president of the Baycrest foundation.

"But what's important is sharing what we know about Alzheimer's and dementia and aging with the world. The work we're doing is universal."

As a country of immigrants, Canada needs such research. Many newcomers have survived political oppression, extreme poverty, war and ethnic cleansing. Many could end up reverting to their mother tongues and reliving their traumas.

"It's not just an issue for Jewish Holocaust survivors," said Dr. Gordon, the gerontologist, whose first wife's family died in Germany and whose second wife's family are survivors. "Our experience can be used for others who have comparable genocidal experiences, people who have watched their brothers murdered or their sisters raped."

Researchers estimate that 40 per cent of people will develop some form of dementia by age 80. As the population ages, the numbers of Canadians with serious brain-related disorders will triple over the next 30 years. Even baby boomers with happy-go-lucky childhoods will need help.

Whenever Chaya Vilenski would spy a half-eaten bun on the sidewalk in Toronto, she always picked it up. Food, or the lack of it, indelibly marked her life.

After the Germans invaded Lithuania in 1941, her one-year-old daughter, Miriam, starved to death in the Kaunas ghetto. Her husband died there, too. But Mrs. Vilenski was too healthy, so the Nazis forced her into slave labour.

"She was chosen to stay alive because she was healthy. She said they were always looking at her legs. They looked healthy," said Batia Schaffer, 52, the daughter she had after the war, after she married the widower of a cousin who was also killed in the war.

Where once Mrs. Vilenski dug runways at the Kaunas airport, now her legs are weak. A few months ago, she fell and broke her hip. On this day, she is sitting in a wheelchair at Baycrest, elegantly dressed in a blue straw hat and white sweater. Her nails are manicured. She's wearing pink lipstick.

At 88, she suffers from dementia. After all the losses she has suffered, the burning question for her is one of life and death. And so she asks, over and over again, if her brothers and sisters and cousins are alive.

With one exception, every member of her family perished in the Holocaust, not just her husband and their daughter, but her parents, all her cousins and four of her five siblings. One brother was sent to Auschwitz, but managed to escape. He died in California a few years ago. Like him, Mrs. Vilenski was sent to a Polish concentration camp from 1943 to 1945. She nearly died of starvation.

She speaks Russian, Lithuanian, Yiddish and Hebrew, but not English. Through Ms. Schaffer, a retired chemist, who translated, Mrs. Vilenski was asked what the death camp was like for her. She stared at the pastel carpet, and then described the food. "They gave us soup from grass."

Her second husband died of leukemia when Ms. Schaffer, her only living child, was a toddler. After Lithuania became a Soviet republic, Mrs. Vilenski worked in a cigarette factory. Ms. Schaffer said her mother was once caught exchanging stolen cigarettes for food. "I was very scared because they could send you to Siberia."

Mrs. Vilenski stopped stealing for a month. "And then she started again, because we couldn't survive," Ms. Schaffer said. "Food was very important in my mother's life. My mom was always shovelling food into me."

After waiting years for an exit visa, mother and daughter emigrated to Israel. In the late 1970s, they came to Canada. Even after Ms. Schaffer married and had a daughter of her own, they always lived together until Mrs. Vilenski moved into Baycrest a year ago.

At lunch time, Ms. Schaffer wheeled her mother into a dining room bright with natural light. The daughter hovered, but her mother didn't appear to need help. Although Ms. Schaffer said Mrs. Vilenski's appetite was a bit off after she broke her hip, she ate steadily, wordlessly. First she polished off a green salad, then a bowl of potato soup, then a plate of gefilte fish. She left nothing on her plate. Dessert was a dish of peaches, washed down with a container of apple juice and a cup of hot tea.

"You can ask her what she ate five minutes ago, and she can't remember," Ms. Schaffer said. "But she likes to eat."

During the Second World War, Hitler killed off the very young and very old, saving the fittest, such as Mrs. Vilenski, for slave labour. Now, 60 years after the first Jews were shipped to concentration camps, the survivors are in their 70s, 80s and 90s. Baycrest has 13 centenarians, all female.

These Holocaust survivors, who lost immediate and extended families, never lived with aging parents themselves. Their adult children, who grew up without grandparents, are also experiencing aging for the first time. Like Batia Schaffer, these children are often especially devoted and protective. "But their kids can't protect them from old age," said Paula David, the Holocaust Research Project co-ordinator.
[....]

Palestinians Eager, Israel Reserved on U.S. Mission

Deconstructing the media. Note the headline. A quick read would suggest Israel not as interested in the peace plan as are the Palestinians. And yet when you read the article you learn that there is an reluctance on the part ofr Israel for a quick response because of internal political matters. Unlike the Palestinians, the Israel democracy must first resolve internal matters rather than have all issues decided by a central authority (Arafat) who has yet to make any significant reforms. As for the peace plan, how different from that which Barak had accepted and Arafat refused?

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian officials said on Friday they would formally respond to a U.S.-sponsored peace plan within days, but Israelis indicated their response would be delayed by the collapse of their coalition government.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield is due in the Middle East on Monday to renew Washington's efforts to calm a Palestinian independence uprising ahead of a possible U.S. war on Iraq.

Israeli government sources said there would be "very little movement" on the internationally backed "roadmap" to peace until the rightist Likud party of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had decided who would lead the party in coming elections.

"We are almost done with formulating our response," Palestinian Planning and International Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath told Reuters. "We might send it earlier so he (Satterfield) can come with an idea of our position."

During his week-long mission, Satterfield will travel to the Jordanian capital Amman for international talks on Palestinian reforms, a key element of the roadmap, U.S. officials said.

Other elements of the peace plan include an end to armed attacks, Israeli army withdrawals from occupied Palestinian cities, mutual efforts toward a final peace settlement, and a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by 2005.

Israel and the Palestinians have both expressed misgivings about the roadmap -- the former concerned that its security will not be sufficiently safeguarded, the latter irked at the lack of a strict timetable for implementation.

The "Quartet" of Middle East mediators -- the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia -- hopes to adopt a final version of the roadmap once Israel and the Palestinians give their official response.

LIKUD PRIMARY TAKES PRIORITY

A source in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said Israel was still formulating its response to the roadmap but that it would not be ready for submission to Satterfield
[....]

Fatah, Hamas to discuss halting attacks


Seems to be a showdown between Hamas and Fatah to resolve conflicts between them. But Hizbollah?

RAMALLAH, West Bank: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction and exiled leaders of the Islamic militant group Hamas meet in Cairo today to try to end tensions and discuss halting attacks in Israel, officials said.

The meeting will be the first between the exiled leadership of Hamas and Fatah since 1995 and coincides with a rise in tension between the rivals after the killing of a Palestinian Authority police commander by a Hamas militant.

Fatah officials said yesterday the Cairo meeting followed mediation by European states and Egypt, who want Hamas to agree to end bombings and gun ambushes, viewed by many Palestinians as harmful to the cause for statehood. Hamas officials said they expect the talks to ease tensions with Fatah and to reach an understanding on how to strengthen a two-year-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
[....]

Syria's Surprise Vote Could Be an Eye-Opener for Iraqi Leader


That Syria too supported the Security Council resolution against Iraq comes as a surpirse. What is behind this vote?

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Everyone was expecting a tough U.N. resolution on Iraqi weapons inspections to pass Friday, but the shock for Baghdad must have come when Syria, the only Arab country on the Security Council, signed on at the last minute to make the vote unanimous.

The surprise "yes" from Fayssal Mekdad, the Syrian envoy at the United Nations, sent a clear signal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that few--if any--Arab states will rally to his side if Iraq evades or defies the U.N. arms inspectors who plan to travel soon to Baghdad, observers said.

A long and intense decision-making process by Damascus, coupled with the high-level lobbying of Syrian President Bashar Assad by world leaders such as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and French President Jacques Chirac, persuaded Syria to back the resolution rather than abstain, as had been widely expected.

In the end, analysts and government officials here in the Syrian capital said, Syria decided that the resolution was balanced and that voting for it would help preserve the credibility of the Security Council. And, they said, Assad and his advisors realized that a symbolic abstention by their country wouldn't help Iraq much but would leave Syria seeming dangerously out of step with the world community.
[....]

Top Palestinian militant killed

Line up the virgins! Another killer terrorist sent on his way by Israel. For some 40 links to media reports of this event, see: top terrorist killed

Israeli Defense Forces were trying to arrest Iyad Swalaha, 27, when he opened fire from inside a house and threw a hand grenade, injuring two Israeli soldiers, according to Israeli military sources. The forces returned fire, killing him, according to the sources.

Palestinian security sources confirmed that Swalaha was killed by the IDF, and said he was the head of the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Jenin. Israel blames Swalaha for several suicide bombings.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a militant group dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel.

It was formed in the early 1980s by Fathi Shikaki, who was deported to Lebanon in 1988. Shikaki was assassinated in Malta in 1995.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad operates out of Gaza and carries out attacks in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel.

The group has carried out military operations against Israeli soldiers and Israeli civilians.

Red Cross Spending Money to Harbor Terrorists

An article concerning the status of the terrorists deported after taking over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem provides information as to who is housing them:

In September the Spanish government agreed to facilitate the family regrouping of the Palestinians. Ibrahim Abayat, who is single, and Aziz Abayat, who is married, were placed in separate Red Cross flats in Zaragoza, a place the three had thought of living because there is a sizable Palestinian community.

I bet there are some starving people in Africa who think that Arafat should use some of his billions to provide housing for terrorists instead of the Red Cross and that the Red Cross should use its money to help people truly in need. Remember this next time you donate.

Imagine if a concerned citizen went to Spain and popped these guys.

Suicide attacks are war crimes, targeted killings aren't

Since suicide bombings against Israeli civilians became emblematic of the current Palestinian offensive, many have attempted to equate the victims of these attacks with Palestinian civilians killed during Israeli military operations. Although this equation has been a mainstay of international criticism of Israel's tactics, it is utterly without foundation in international law.

The death of innocents is always to be regretted, but the law makes a clear distinction between attacks that deliberately target civilians (which are emphatically illegal) and civilian casualties that result from otherwise lawful attacks on proper military targets.

Israel's Leverage

It seems that everyone is confident that Israel will be attacked if the US attacks Iraq. Iraq's immediate threat to the US is less than Iraq's threat to Israel if Iraq is attacked. Therefore, it would seem that Israel should have a key say in whether or not the US attacks Iraq. If Israel began to express official doubts, the Europeans and NYT-like press would eat it up. Basically, Israel could use the potential opposition to blackmail the US. For all we do for Israel, we do pretty much the same or more for Egypt or Arabia when you take into account what these latter to countries have done to the US. Notice Israel does not use this tool.n Is Israel a better ally of the US than the US is of Israel?

"Detention camp," Mr. Ambassador?

A scathing rejoinder to the British ambassador's outrageous accusation about Israeli detention camps (concentration camps) in occupied territories

To the Honorable British Ambassador to Israel, Sherard Cowper-Coles:

Last week you said that the West Bank and Gaza were in danger of becoming "the largest detention camp in the world." The characterization was made in your private meeting with Major-General Amos Gilad, Israeli coordinator of activities in the territories. In remarks leaked to the Israeli press, you were quoted as telling the Israeli official: "You have reduced the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to two vast detention camps, you are imposing collective house arrest on hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and you are hunting down innocent people in the streets."

I understand that now you deny making the last statement, and I accept you at your word, as I do your contention that the Hebrew daily Yediot Aharonot mistranslated "concentration camps" when you said "detention camps." (I understand that the Wiesenthal Center is demanding your recall pending clarification of that semantic difference, although I am not impressed by the distinction.)

Yet asked the next day whether your remarks were quoted correctly, you told Ha'aretz that they were "broadly true" and that you were "proud" to have made them.

You accused the IDF of committing war crimes, being rude at checkpoints, and uprooting trees unnecessarily. You expressed anger at the source of the leak, although some pundits speculated that the indirect revelation of your "tough" stand would stand you in good stead in London, which has been seeking to pressure Israel and look "even-handed" to the Arab world.
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Palestinians represented at festival

I checked out the pro-Palestinian documentaries to be viewed. Pity none about training suicide bombers to slaugher civilians.

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

As a fitting gesture toward current circumstances, the Arab Film Festival, which continues today at Berkeley's Fine Arts Cinema, highlights films from and about the people of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and those Palestinians living elsewhere.

"This year we felt it important to show films from Palestine," says Dina Saba, the festival's founder and director. "Making a film is difficult. Making a film under occupation is that much more difficult. It's great that they continue to do so. So we focused on that."
[....]

International Biased Radio?

Syndicated writer Mona Charen argues about Leftist bias against Israel on NPR

[....] But let's not dwell on memories. NPR continues to serve as a reliable voice of the left, and in no area is this more glaring than in coverage of the Middle East. How so many American Jews can fail to notice that liberal equals anti-Israel these days remains a mystery.
A watchdog group called Camera (www.camera.org) has kept tabs on NPR. Here are some examples from the recent past:
On July 27, 2001, two stories from the Middle East bid for attention. The first concerned the funeral of Saleh Darwazeh, a Hamas leader responsible for the deaths of numerous innocent Israeli civilians. He had been killed by the Israelis. The second was the death of a 17-year-old Ronen Landau, an Israeli who was shot to death by Palestinian gunmen in front of his father and brother. A few minutes before the murder of Landau, the Palestinians had shot up an Israeli playground full of children.
In a 1,141-word story, NPR devoted just 26 words to Landau, and here is how reporter Linda Gradstein put it: "Israeli tanks shelled Palestinian security posts in the West Bank early today after Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli teen-ager at the entrance to a Jewish settlement." The rest of the story, 1,115 words, were devoted to Darwazeh.
Miss Grandstein quoted Hassan Ayoub, a "Palestinian activist" from Nablus, who described the killing of Darwazeh as an "act of aggression that produces more anger and more demands to take revenge for the people who have been killed by Israeli forces." Miss Gradstein also interviewed Mahmoud Aloul, the governor of Nablus, who told NPR's audience, "They are killing our children every day, so we have no choice but to resist and to struggle."
Ironic. Darwazeh was not a child. But Ronen Landau, whose death NPR did not even deign to dignify by mentioning his name, was.. . . .

'Bibi' Israel's New Foreign Minister and Wants More

Summary and links to today's political news from Israel.

Summary:
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has called early elections after failing to rebuild his crippled coalition government. Netanyahu, ousted as prime minister in May 1999, joined Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government but vowed to challenge him for the leadership of their right - wing Likud party and lead it into an early general election. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party is favored to emerge as Israel's strongest faction in an abbreviated election campaign, and Sharon holds a slim edge over his main rival for party leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, according to polls published Wednesday. Israel's former leader Benjamin Netanyahu became foreign minister on Wednesday, ending more than three years in the political wilderness with a pledge to be tough on the Palestinians and an eye on the top job.

Source Articles:
Mid-East concerns over Israel elections (BBC News 11/05/2002)
The poll Sharon didn't want (BBC News 11/05/2002)
Israel to hold crisis elections (BBC News 11/05/2002)
Israel gears up for elections (BBC News 11/06/2002)
Q&A: Israel's early elections (BBC News 11/05/2002)
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stunned his rivals yesterday by dissolving... (NY Post 11/06/2002)
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party is favored to emerge as Isra... (FOX News 11/06/2002)
Israel's ex-premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced Tuesday that he acc... (FOX News 11/05/2002)
Netanyahu Is Israeli Foreign Minister, Eyes Top Job (Reuters 11/06/2002)
'Bibi' Israel's New Foreign Minister and Wants More (Reuters 11/06/2002)
Israeli Foreign Minister Netanyahu Eyes Top Job (Reuters 11/06/2002)
May 17, 1999: Ariel Sharon takes over leadership of Likud Party as Ben... (FOX News 11/05/2002)
Analysis: Sharon government's collapse (BBC News 11/05/2002)
Profile: Binyamin Netanyahu (BBC News 11/05/2002)

Israel and Turkey relationship good and reliable

An excerpt from clubbeaux.blogspot.com/, in which he recounts his having lived in Turkey and gives some solid and useful information about Turkey and Israel

[...]The Turks – and Iranians – are not Arabic. Turks are Mongolian in origin and speak am Indo-European language, Turkish, linguistically related to Finnish, Hungarian and Korean. They’ve been “Islamic” only recently in world historical terms, and the vast – vast – majority do not consider Islam anything more than an official designation. They see religion as interchangeable with culture, and identify themselves as “Muslim” even though few have ever seen the inside of a mosque except to show Western tourists around. They’re genuinely baffled that Westerners consider them as having anything whatsoever to do with hard-core Islamic terrorist countries, such as Saudi Arabia.

Turkey does not consider itself a Middle Eastern country. It is aware it gets grouped in the Middle East by ignorant Western journalists and pundits, however. It considers itself a European country. It does not approve of, repudiates and does not support Islamic terrorism. Turkey wept at 9/11. Their closest friend in the Middle East, judging from the number of military alliances, cultural exchanges and the like is Israel.

So don’t worry.

All to say friends, do not worry about Turkey’s staunch reliability as an ally. Will they still maintain their ties with America in the wake of the nominally Islamic party’s triumph in the latest elections? Friends, the AKP, the new party in power, has announced that they’re maintaining their current ties with Israel. From The Jerusalem Post, November 6:

There will be no change in Turkish-Israeli ties, a senior member of Turkey's pro-Islamic AKP party, which swept into power this week, told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday, while harshly criticizing the policies of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

“I can easily say that Turkish-Israeli relations will not be affected by a Justice and Development Party AKP government,” said H. Murat Mercan, a founding member and one of its chief spokesmen.

And this isn’t just to curry favor with the West, I can tell you. I knew an American serviceman who was walking through Istanbul in uniform one day, and a Turkish hausfrau called to him from a basement window and beckoned him to come in her humble home. He did, and she served him tea and wonderful pasty, and chattered away in Turkish the whole time. He said he left and couldn’t figure out why she’d done it other than for the American uniform he wore. I can relate; being American has cut me more breaks in Turkey than God should ever have allowed.

This is the truth. From personal experience I can report that in the Turkish resorts of Bodrum, Antalya, et al the signs on tourist traps are written in four languages: Turkish, English, German and Hebrew.

Bottom line: If an American goes overseas he won’t find a more reliable, faithful friend in Europe than the Turk.

Israel shows off anti-missile system in attempt to discourage any Iraqi attack

Public showing as warning to Iraq. Make sure to view the slide show at this link

PALMACHIM AIR FORCE BASE, Israel - Israel's defense against a potential Iraqi missile attack was on full display Thursday: Arrow anti-missile batteries were pointed skyward amid the sand and scrub brush, confidently displayed to reporters as part of a public relations blitz aimed at discouraging Saddam Hussein from firing his Scuds.

Israel's Arrow system is the most advanced in the world currently deployed, and the air force expresses full faith that it has closed a window of vulnerability that allowed Iraq to rain 39 missiles on Israel during the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites).

"I'm sure we are better prepared today," said Brig. Gen. Yair Dori, head of the military's Air Defense Forces. "In 1991, we had almost nothing. Now we have a very active, robust defense."

Israel and the United States have spent upward of US$2 billion to develop the Arrow, first deployed two years ago at the Palmachim Air Force Base to protect nearby Tel Aviv and surrounding areas. [...]

German Red Cross official abducted by armed Palestinians in Gaza

Good, serves the Red Cross right for recognizing the Palestinians but not Israel.

Netanyahu Interviewed in Jerusalem Post

Speaking of bad PR, why do you think that the Israeli settlements in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza are such an explosive issue?

I don't think they are. They are presented as such. But it is a fact that when Barak was prime minister, when he offered practically the entire territory of Judea and Samaria, including the uprooting of dozens of settlements, Arafat merely pocketed the offer and proceeded to the real aim of the conflict, which is the eradication of the rest of pre-1967 Israel. The settlements are a smokescreen under which Palestinian and Arab propaganda tries to reverse causality. What they typically do is present the results of Arab aggression as the cause of the problem.

Now they are saying that the settlements or our being in the territories is the cause of the problem. But of course, when we were attacked from these very territories in 1967, there wasn't a single Israeli soldier or settlement there. That came about as a result of Arab aggression, not the cause of it. They did the same thing about 1948 in 1967. Then they said the cause of the conflict was the refugees, but there wasn't one refugee in the Middle East when five Arab armies attacked us. What they consistently do is turn the results of this aggression against us.

May I Have My Bomb Back?

Ian Rimell, a 52-year-old Brit, is an explosive-ordnance-disposal expert working with a Scandinavian-funded de-mining team that has cleared thousands of "improvised terrorist devices" from Jenin. "We found 4668 items, of which 804 were live," Ian says. Ian's team gets called all the time by "people who are not happy about things...like two-meter-long pipe bombs planted in the road near their houses." "And there were instances when guys with guns would show up and demand their bombs back," says Ian.

Maybe Amnesty International should read this article. Link from JCPA.

End this Terrible Paper

The crappy left wing, self-destructive rag Ha'aretz printed an editorial today which really show you the self hating nature of many Israelis. It is entitled The end of a terrible government.

The policy of force that Sharon applied in the occupied territories did not put an end to terrorism against Israeli citizens. The war he declared against the Palestinian Authority exacted the largest blood price that Israel has paid since the Lebanon War. Israel's relations with its neighbors, Egypt and Jordan, hit a new nadir. His evasion of every initiative for resuming diplomatic activity and the continued expansion of the settlements eroded Israel's status in Europe. The security deterioration and the diplomatic standstill raised the unemployment rate, reduced economic activity, impaired growth and also recently affected the country's international credit rating.

Despite the heavy price that a political crisis will exact and the problematic timing of the election, the collapse of the outgoing government can only be welcomed. It will be remembered as one of the worst governments in Israel's history. It must now be hoped that the upcoming election will produce a coalition wise enough to repair the damage and restore the country to the right path.

So the current situation is Sharon's fault - no mention of who was in office when all of this began or who led Israel down this Oh so SLOw road to destruction.

Israel's inability to take decisive action to secure it future is as a result of an over abundance of people like the writers of Ha'aretz who so easily see the evil of their country men but have such a hard time seeing any evil in people who openly state that they want to destroy Israel.

Lets hope there are no more suicide attacks but if there is one lets hope it is directed against the offices of Ha'aretz instead of against innocent civilians.

Suicide Bomber Stopped

Jpost reports: Elite troops from the Heruv unit killed a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt near the settlement of Kedumim in northern Samaria on Thursday night, Israel Radio reported.

Three Palestinians got out of a taxi at the Gaat junction , the troops called on them to stop and lift their shirts. One of them, wearing an explosive belt began to run towards the soldiers shouting Allah Wakbar (Allah is great). The troops then shot at the man who fell to the ground and exploded before exploding. . . .

Arafat Molds Tanzim, al Aqsa Brigades into Private Army of Suicides

Sure. The US is working with Egypt to have Hamas stop suicide bombings. And when not chatting the Egyptians show Hamas folks Protocols of Zion on Egyptian TV>

Egypt, with quiet American encouragement, is engaged in a complicated diplomatic maneuver to persuade the Hamas to halt its suicide-murder attacks on Israelis by setting up meetings in Cairo between PLO representatives and the Damascus-based leaders of the Hamas: Khaled Mash’al and Abu Marzuk. This initiative comes from officials in the US State Department and European Union, led by Colin Powell and Javier Solana.

DEBKAfile’s political analysts note that both these officials cling against all odds to their dream of persuading Yasser Arafat to one day give up terror. Their latest ploy addresses the Islamic extremes of the Palestinian movement, the Hamas and the Jihad Islami, the idea being that if they are induced to stop their suicidal terror practices, the Tanzim and al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades run by Arafat’s Fatah will follow suit.

The Damascus officials of the two Islamic groups, who collaborate closely with the Hizballah and the al Qaeda contingent in Lebanon, see no reason to forego the rare honor of a red carpet welcome in Cairo, engineered by no less than the mighty United States and Europe. They also know that any promise to their hosts to desist from suicide massacres will be worthless, given Yasser Arafat’s latest pursuit in the privacy of his Ramallah headquarters.

According to DEBKAfile’s Palestinian sources, while the Palestinian leader misses no opportunity of pointing to his “reforms”, he is in fact deeply engaged in welding the two deadliest arms of his Fatah, along with the remnants of numerous disbanded security services, into a single force. On the face of it, he is meeting Washington’s demand for a single security force.

But this force is not exactly what the Americans had in mind. Its backbone is composed, in fact, of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, declared a terrorist organization last month by President George W. Bush, and the Tanzim militia. The purpose of the merger is to improve the efficiency of Arafat’s mass-murder machine and tighten its links with the Iraqi military intelligence undercover base in Amman, as well as with Iraqi and Palestinian terror groups in Baghdad,

Israel weighs expanding navy to protect its nukes

One if by land; two if by sea.

TEL AVIV — Israel is reviewing proposals to deploy strategic military assets at sea to protect them against an Arab or Iranian missile strike or a Palestinian insurgency attack.

Officials have argued that the Israeli use of the Mediterranean Sea is vital because of the nation's limited territory, the emergence of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the vulnerability of Israeli military bases from Hizbullah rockets along the Lebanese border.

Officials said the Israeli assets being considered include everything from missile defense units to strategic weapons, Middle East Newsline reported. Israel is said to possess up to 200 nuclear weapons.

The discussions include whether Israel's military should focus on building a more powerful navy at the expense of the air force after the procurement of 102 F-16 Block 52 multi-role fighters. Proponents argue that Israel has exploited its air potential given its small air space and the improving capability of Arab and Iranian surface-to-surface missiles.

Yuval Steinetz, chairman of the parliament's subcommittee on military doctrine, has been discussing the issue with senior defense officials.

The parliamentary chairman has long called for the bolstering of Israel's navy as a strategic force. Steinetz said Israeli military and strategic facilities, particularly airports, are increasingly vulnerable to Palestinian insurgents, armed with short-range rockets.

"There is also a need to deploy in the sea," Steinetz said. "Then, these assets could not be silenced by primitive means."

Officials said at least one leading Defense Ministry official, Yisrael Tal, supports this concept. Tal is a senior adviser at the ministry and the designer of the Merkava main battle tank.

Steinetz said Israel would require a powerful navy with strategic assets to ensure superiority in the Mediterranean amid the emerging rivalries from Egypt. He said Israel's military would also require the drafting of a new concept for the use of naval platforms with cruise missiles and long-range artillery. Such artillery would have a range of up to 200 kilometers.

The naval platforms would contain helicopters, unmanned air vehicles, and air defense missiles.

"There is a need to establish an alternative to that of airports and ground facilities," Steinetz said. "In case they are under attack, Israel has another source of firepower."

Steinetz would not say how many naval platforms are required. But he stressed the expansion of the naval capability to deploy strategic assets would be expensive.

"It's not cheap," Steinetz said. "But it's much more expensive to keep buying squadrons of planes in the tiny expanse in Israel."

The discussion over the use of the sea as a strategic arena began in early 2000, officials said. They said the discussion now includes the use of the Mediterranean for deployment of Arrow-2 missile defense systems.

"At a certain point, Israel will not have enough space for additional Arrow batteries," a senior defense source said. "And it is clear that Israel needs at triple the number of batteries now deployed." Officials said that so far no decisions have been taken.

New Links

You you look at the column to the left closely, you will notioce we have added new links for Jpost Radio and for a new Israeli blog from Brian Blum, whose cousin was killed in the Hebrew U attack.

Update to Election Notes

I've amended and expanded some of the notes below on the political parties and upcoming election to be more precise.

The Amnesty Report Does Not Take Into Account The Israeli Side

Amesty report condemned Israel on the Defensive Shield incursion. Here the IDF response that indicates inaccuracy of numbers.

"The Amnesty report on IDF activities during operation "Defensive Shield", completely twists the facts in the field. This is due to the fact, that the compilers of this report did not wait for a proper response by the IDF and refers in it's report to fictional numbers and figures." This is what Colonel Daniel Raisner said in an interview this morning (November,4,2002) to the Voice of Israel Radio. The Colonel is assistant to the Military Advocate General on International Law.
On the subject of the Amnesty report, Colonel Daniel Reisner, assistant to the Military Advocate General on International Law said:

"In the report there is complete disregard from the fact that these houses were used as firing posts, from some of them explosive charges were planted, and the tanks had to reach some of them in order to harm the terrorists."

"This report converns April, I am trying to understand why 7 months later, a report comes out after the whole affair has pretty much finished itself on the international level as well as on other levels. When you begin to read the report itself you begin to think that it [the operation] is not the agenda. I have nothing against specific things that have already been pointed out by other organizations and we have been investigating them now for a couple of months, but they are essentially attacking the IDFs' method of operation. What do they say? That we inserted too large a force and we fought inside a city, and most of their complaints are about the destruction of houses and property.

[. . . ]

Nov. 7, 2002 IDF demolishes home of alleged Hamas terror mastermind

Daily deconstruction.

Soldiers on Thursday wrecked the home of a Hamas terrorist accused of masterminding two suicide bomb attacks in which 22 Israelis were killed.

The demolition came the morning after a Palestinian man linked to Hamas shot and killed two Israelis in the Gaza Strip, including the son of a former employer.

The house in the West Bank city of Nablus belonged to Firas Fidi, the alleged organizer of a mid-June bus bombing in Jerusalem that killed 19 people and wounded 50. He is also blamed for an attack in late October in which three Israelis died outside the Jewish settlement of Ariel, near Nablus.

Wednesday's victims at the Gaza Strip settlement of Pe'at Sadeh were Assaf Tsfira, 18 and Amos Sa'adah, 52.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the morning attack and identified the assailant, once employed by Tsfira's family, as Ismail Muhammad Ashour, 25, of Khan Yunis.

[. . .]

Vatican, urging Christians to stay in Holy Land, donates $400K

Let my people stay.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican is giving $400,000 to Roman Catholic causes in Israel and the West Bank to try to improve life for Christians there and persuade them not to flee the ongoing fighting.

Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes, head of Cor Unum, the Vatican's charity arm, will deliver the money and an appeal for Christians to remain in the region during a November 7-10 visit, the Vatican said Wednesday.

A statement from Cor Unum noted that religious tourism to the region had fallen precipitously in the past two years of fighting, particularly after a standoff earlier this year between IDF troops and Palestinian militants holed up in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

"It's understandable why there is a desire among many to leave the country," the statement said. "The safekeeping of holy sites, however, would be seriously put in danger if Christians abandoned them."

Cordes will deliver the $400,000, as well as an appeal from Pope John Paul II to "encourage Christians to remain in these tortured places, like so many missionaries already are doing in heroic fashion," the statement said.

[. . .]

Netanyahu Goes on Offensive in Bid Against Sharon

Back to the drawing board.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - New Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the offensive in his bid to become prime minister, said in an interview published Thursday that Ariel Sharon's leadership had left Israel in "dire straits."

Netanyahu, a hawkish former prime minister, became Sharon's subordinate Wednesday when he took up the foreign ministry post, ending three years in the political wilderness.

But his plans to challenge Sharon for the leadership of their right-wing Likud party and reclaim the prime minister's office in Israel's coming election heralded weeks of sniping between the two men and paralysis in Middle East peacemaking.

"I am running (for the Likud leadership) because the country is in dire straits and we have to get it out," Netanyahu told The Jerusalem Post.

[. . .]

U.S. May Punish Colleges Boycotting Israel, Jerusalem Post Says

You boycott Israel we boycott you.

Jerusalem, Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. may punish universities that sell holdings in Israel-linked securities, using a law against complying with the Arab boycott of Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing a U.S. official.

The government is monitoring protest movements on U.S. campuses to determine whether they are supported by Arab states and violate amendments to the 1977 Export Administration Act, Kenneth Juster, the undersecretary of commerce for industry and security, told the Post in an interview.

Students at Harvard, Princeton and other universities are demanding that holdings in companies that do business with Israel be sold off to protest Israeli military operations against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Among the companies are International Business Machines Corp., Lehman Brothers Inc. and McDonald's Corp.

The U.S. government is seeking to increase penalties for observing the anti-Israel boycott, which include fines of as much as $50,000 and 10 years in prison, Juster told the Post.

Egypt TV Series Sets Off Dispute Over Its Origins

The Protocols of Zion: The Egyptian government stll doesn't get it!

The holy month of Ramadan brings with it not only prayer and abstinence but the largest television audiences of the year as families break the daily fast with bountiful evening meals that last for hours and are eaten in front of TV sets.

Egypt's eight channels boost their advertising rates during Ramadan and vie for viewers by broadcasting soap operas and often-controversial series.

This year, the controversy has gone international, with censors allowing the broadcast of "Horseman Without a Horse," about an Egyptian journalist struggling against British imperialism and Zionism. The series, set in the Middle East of the 19th and 20th centuries and billed as a historical drama, premiered Wednesday.

"The series presents historical facts commenting on the beginning of Zionism," director Ahmed Badr Eddin said.

[. . .]

Sharon's Kitchen

By Uri Dan

Throughout his career Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has always taken on impossible assignments. He therefore succeeded in a task that also seemed impossible heading the national unity government of both the Right and the Left for 20 months, during the longest, most bitter war Israel has known, within its own borders.

The day will come when it will be possible to open up and reveal the secret documents related to this period, and the public will then be totally amazed. On the one hand Israeli citizens will learn about the terrible danger they were led into by Labor Party governments. On the other, they will learn how Sharon, by including the Labor Party in his government, succeeded in reducing as far as possible the terrible damage caused by this party to the nation through the Oslo agreements.
Sharon frequently could not explain his moves, which appeared contradictory. He also remained silent when people from the Right, either because of stupidity or simple malice, attacked him for "selling his soul to Shimon Peres" at the expense of his national principles.

Only by cooperation in the government with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shimon Peres could Sharon cause the delegitimization of that other Nobel winner, Yasser Arafat. The White House is now closed to Arafat, after Peres himself, in a terrible, historic mistake, opened its gates to Arafat, on September 13, 1993, during Bill Clinton's presidency.

Only together with Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Shimon Peres could Sharon restore freedom of action to the IDF and enable it to pursue the terrorists, arrest or kill them, leave the West Bank cities and return to them, raid the Gaza Strip in other words, wage a round-the-clock anti-terror campaign.

In the complex political-military situation in which Israel finds itself, Sharon could not, as prime minister, begin the rescue of his people without backing from those leaders of the Labor Party precisely because they were the ones who had brought the catastrophe on the Jewish state.
Ben-Eliezer, who will never again be defense minister and, of course, will never be prime minister, was right when he said this week in Sharon's kitchen cabinet: "I was the cook, Shimon was the waiter, and Sharon ate." It seems they enjoyed their roles in Sharon's kitchen, although Sharon threw their Oslo menu into the garbage can.

All Ben-Eliezer's boasts about preventing "irresponsible" moves by Sharon and when he impudently added that it was now necessary "to halt both Sharon and Shaul Mofaz" are simple nonsense. Sharon, with clenched teeth, minimized the damage that could have been caused by Ben-Eliezer, also by his chattering and conceit.

PERES, BY contrast, is intellectually far superior to Ben-Eliezer. He played a much more sophisticated game. He believed he could maneuver Sharon into the Oslo trap and handcuff him. The director-general of his ministry, Avi Gil, ceaselessly tried to sabotage Sharon's moves and aid his former patron, Yossi Beilin.

The opposite occurred. Sharon completely distanced Peres and his group from the direct channel he established with the White House. While Peres tried in vain to save Arafat, Sharon convinced the US president that Arafat was no longer relevant to real negotiations with the Palestinians.

When such negotiations do come to pass, they will be held without him.
In other words, Sharon, in the 20-month campaign he waged as the head of the national unity government, turned the Labor Party into a duster he used to erase the Oslo tragedy from the blackboard. I don't know of anyone else in the top ranks of Israeli government capable of managing this campaign with the tolerance, patience, and ability displayed by Sharon, both against the Palestinians and on the local and international scenes.

I have no doubt that the time will come when the subject of the 20 months in which Sharon waged the campaign will be taught in schools of political science but not by the new historians. Even if errors were made, they were few in number, and there were no cardinal mistakes.
Now once again Ariel Sharon faces what is for him another normal challenge, described by others as an impossible assignment: to be re-elected premier.

I have known him for 48 years, and I know he'll succeed once again.
Those who didn't want Sharon the first time will elect him prime minister second time around.

Massacres

Jenin is not the first massacre of Arabs by Israelis or Jews that never occured. There is a long history of this type of media event as In Context shows (via LGF). In Context also blogs about the non massacre of Der Yassin. The most in depth report on Der Yassin was done by the Zionist Organization of America and demonstrates that although there were casualties as is usual in a battle, there was no massacre.

The Der Yassin legend is so great, many Israelis even buy it. Since the attack was carried out by the Israeli Right (Irgun, Lehi although with the cooperation of the Left), allegations of a massacre were used by the Left to discredit the Right. The Left in Israel has a long history of attacks on the Right, including giving information on the Right to the British in order to help the British arrest members of right wing groups.

People like to speak of the added tragedy in the assassination of Rabin because he was killed by a Jew. These people though do not realize that Rabin led the attack on the Irgun weapons ship, the Altalena, killing about 15 Jews.

REAL MASSACRES
While, the Muslims, especially the pals, love to cry like babies that they are the most oppressed people in the world, etc., etc., etc., they in fact love oppressing others. While they scream continually about Sabra and Shatila, they forget to mention that they love to massacre people.

One such massacre took place in the Christian town of Damour in 1976:

In all, 582 people were killed in the storming of Damour. Father Labaky went back with the Red Cross to bury them. Many of the bodies had been dismembered, so they had to count the heads to number the dead. Three of the men they found had had their genitals cut off and stuffed into their mouths.

The horror did not end there, the old Christian cemetery was also destroyed, coffins were dug up, the dead robbed, vaults opened, and bodies and skeletons thrown across the grave yard. Damour was then transformed into a stronghold of Fatah and the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine). The ruined town became one of the main PLO centres for the promotion of international terrorism. The Church of St Elias was used as a repair garage for PLO vehicles and also as a range for shooting-practice with targets painted on the eastern wall of the nave.

Here is a description and here are pictures. Here is another description with photos.

Latest Polls on Election

Number of seats, out of 120, each party predicted to win, with explanatory notes:

RIGHT:

33 Likud (right; leadership contest between Sharon and Netanyahu)
8 National Union/Israel Beiteinu (often labelled "far right"; led by Avigdor Leiberman; includes Moledet, party of Rehavim Ze'evi, assassinated last year, now led by Benny Elon)
11 Shas (Sephardi and Orthodox, led by Eli Yishai, spiritual guidance from Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the former Sephardi chief rabbi)
5 National Religious Party ("dati leumi"--similar to American Modern Orthodox; led by war hero Effi Eitam, who participated in the raid on Entebbe)
5 Yisrael B'Aliyah (the Russian party, led by Natan Sharansky, former Soviet political prisoner, released and emigrated to Israel in 1986)
5 United Torah Judaism (Haredi, i.e.,"ultra-orthodox," altho' use of that term is strongly discouraged)

67 TOTAL

LEFT:

19 Labor (left; leadership contest among Ben-Elizer, Mitnza, and Ramon)
11 Arab parties--Hadash (Communist), United Arab List, National Arab Party, Ta-al (represented by Ahmed Tibi, advisor to Arafat); also Balad, formerly represented by Azmi Bishara, stripped of parliamentary immunity and soon to be on trial for inciting treason.
11 Shinui (bitterly anti-religous, led by Tommy Lapid)
9 Meretz (leftist, led by Yossi Sarid)
3 One Nation (party of the Histadrut, the labor union)

53 TOTAL

Several parties that are offshoots of others or revolve around individual personalities will likely not be represented b/c the member will not get reelected: Herut, Michael Kleiner's "far right" party; Gesher, the party of former foreign minister David Levy, a Sephardic offshoot of Likud; and the Democratic Change Movement, ultra-leftist offshoot from Yisrael B'Aliyah, led by Roman Bronfman. The Center Party's member, Nehama Ronen, will join Likud.
Thanks to my friend Avidog for advice on these notes.

The political landscape in Israel is pretty complicated, with many parties splitting, merging, resplitting, etc. over particular issues and personalities. Each party also has various factions revolving around personalities. A complete listing, with historical info is here
.

BBC's Panorama on SABRA AND SHATILA

A while back, but within the last year or so, these guys dredged up SS again trying to pin it on Sharon as usual. Christian Arabs kill Muslim Arabs after Muslim Arabs kill the Christian President -elect of Lebanon and who gets blamed - da Jews. I just came across Panorama's defense and there is a great line in it:

Another man with a lot of knowledge on the subject told us he wouldn't help because we weren't investigating the PLO as well. For the record Yasser Arafat has been the subject of a hard-hitting BBC investigation, which accused him of allowing corruption, abuse of free speech and torture.

Is it just me or does "allowing corruption, abuse of free speech and torture" seem like it is stopping a wee bit short?

“And there was light”

Benjamin Netanyahu has just began his tenure as foreign minister and already one hears a voice that is quite unequivocal as far as the ruinous “roadmap” is concerned. Ha’Aretz reports today as follows:

In his first statement as foreign minister, Benjamin Netanyahu announced Wednesday that the U.S.-sponsored roadmap for Middle East peace was "not on the agenda."

Netanyahu told Army Radio that a likely strike on Iraq has taken the roadmap, which includes steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005, "off the agenda."

Contrast that with Sharon’s acceptance of the “roadmap”!

UPI even added a glimmer of hope that Arafat may be expelled:

Israel's new Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu marked his own return to government by asserting the Bush administration's latest "roadmap for peace" was "not on the agenda." Netanyahu also told Israeli TV Wednesday he thought the attack on Saddam would be a good time to expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, despite earlier promises from Israeli premier Ariel Sharon to President Bush that Arafat "would not be harmed."

It’s been a long time since we’ve heard music as sweet as this.

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

Palestinian Hospital Endorses Palestinian Terrorists

One picture speaks a thousand words. See link for photos of terrorists' photos mounted on Jenin Hospital wall.

The official PA newspaper - Al-Hayat Al-Jadida published in it's October 26, 2002 edition, pictures taken in a Jenin hospital ward showing a Palestinian man identified as Ahmed Zayden who, according to the newspaper, was hurt during an IDF operation in Jenin. Another picture shows a man praying in the hospital ward's waiting room.

The newspaper chooses to ignore the fact that hanging on the walls of the ward are posters depicting Palestinian terrorists. These posters iconize dispatchers of suicide terrorists among other terror operatives involved in shooting and bombing attacks.

One of the pictures shows a poster of a terror operative identified as Alam Mohammed Qenieri, member of the Al -Aqsa Brigades, the Fatah military wing, which was recognized by Israel, the US and the EU as a terrorist organization.

Another poster depicts a man identified as Mahmud Twalbeh, the head of Palestine Islamic Jihad, a terror organization responsible for the death of numerous Israelis and a large number of terror attacks.

Sharon's Choice

This Slate article rounds up various perspectives on the political turmoil in Israel. There is this to be said, however, a democracy is often in political termoil but it sure beats an imposed governmental view and position.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dissolved the Israeli parliament Tuesday and called an early election, which is expected to take place Jan. 28, 2003. The Jerusalem Post observed, "The dramatic developments throw Israel into a turbulent election campaign at a time when the nation is facing severe problems—the 2-year-old conflict with the Palestinians, a deepening economic crisis and the possibility of an Iraqi attack on Israel in the event of US strike against Saddam Hussein." Ha'aretz welcomed "the end of a terrible government," declaring, "Despite the heavy price that a political crisis will exact and the problematic timing of the election, the collapse of the outgoing government can only be welcomed. It will be remembered as one of the worst governments in Israel's history."

Last Wednesday, the Labor Party withdrew from the government of national unity in part, according to commentators, to boost former Foreign Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer's chances in the party's leadership election, scheduled for Nov. 19. Sharon spent a week trying to form a narrow coalition with nationalist parties but in the end declared that he could not submit to the right-wingers' "blackmail." According to the Financial Times, the National Union-Yisrael Beitenu Party "had demanded that he ditch Washington's 'road map' towards Middle East peace and reject support for a Palestinian state." Sharon told a press conference Tuesday, "Elections are the last thing this country needs right now."

Ma'ariv praised Sharon for standing up to the right: "The prime minister will benefit on two counts: He will be remembered as someone who chose not to be dragged into a period of instability and repeated surrender to political blackmail; and as a result, it is very possible that he will enjoy renewed trust from Likud members in his ability to secure another term as Prime Minister." Still, the Israeli business daily Globes said that by calling a snap election, "Sharon set Israel's political agenda in accordance with his political needs." The op-ed claimed the election's timing presented "substantial political advantages" to the prime minister. If, as expected, one of Ben-Eliezer's dovish rivals becomes Labor Party leader, they will only have 90 days to reorganize the party and present a "worthy alternative program to the one Sharon has ready."

Palestinian students visit a re-enactment of the Aug. 19 Sbarro pizza restaurant suicide bombing in Jerusalem, replete with body parts and pizza slices strewn around the room, during the opening of an exhibition at Al Najah University in the West Bank town of Nablus, Sunday, Sept. 23, 2001. The exhibit on the suicide bombing, which killed 15 Israelis and the bomber, is part of an exhibition to mark the passing of a year since renewed violence broke out between Israelis and the Palestinians.
(AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh) - Sep 23 1:55 PM ET

The Palestinian Museum - at Al-Najah University in Shechem

For the Jews, there are museums to Remember the atrocities done to them. Imagine museums built by Nazis to recall the mass murders they had committed. No: they preferred to keep such things secret or at least as secret as was possible. But not so the Palestinians. Here, proud of killing innocent civilians, and a reminder to their youth and the average Palestinian, a museum to glorify brutality!

"So - what do "regular" Palestinians think?" - this is a usual question asked Israelis who try to explain the terror in our country. The question is already expecting a certain answer: something like, 'Well, not all Palestinains support suicide bombers' or 'The simple people want peace', or 'Religious leaders don't agree'...

We here at GAMLA, like the rest of Israel, saw these pictures in our newspapers this morning. We feel that they answer for themselves.

In order to give you the story "straight from the horses mouth" - we are publishing these pictures along with the original captions from AP - written by their Palestinian journalist, of course.

A distinction without a difference

Yesterday, I posted a short piece about the “alleged” US targeted killing of a terrorist in Yemen (see IsraPundit or DawsonSpeaks) . “MadMan”, who runs the site, The Wrath of Kahn, posted a comment which provided links to the official text of the State Department reaction, as given by Richard Boucher in a press conference, Nov 5, 2002. I am quoting the text below primarily for the record, but also as a fine example of how “the best and the brightest” can twist words and ideas into such a convoluted pretzel that one begins to doubt the integrity of the government that stands behind such twisting.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, let the State Department contortions begin:

MR. BOUCHER: Our policy on targeted killings in the Israeli-Palestinian context has not changed --

QUESTION: In other contexts?

MR. BOUCHER: -- and we've discussed that and explained that many times.

QUESTION: And in other contexts?

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not going to speculate.

QUESTION: Well, so you have one rule for one conflict and another rule for another conflict?

MR. BOUCHER: I would say that -- if you look back at what we have said about targeted killings in the Israeli-Palestinian context, you will find that the reasons we have given do not necessarily apply in other circumstances.

QUESTION: If I remember, your opposition, stated opposition at the targeted killings, has not been confined to instances where civilians were victims. I think, basically, it was a flat disapproval of targeted killings.

MR. BOUCHER: We have explained our opposition for a number of reasons. Sometimes all apply and sometimes some apply, but they are particular to those circumstances and I don't want to talk about any speculation about other events. But I think we all understand that the situation with regard to Israeli-Palestinian issues and the prospects of peace and the prospects of negotiation and the prospects of the need to create an atmosphere for progress -- a lot of different things come into play there.

QUESTION: And what's special about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that make targeted killings inadvisable?

MR. BOUCHER: All the things I just cited to your colleague.

QUESTION: I didn't hear those.

MR. BOUCHER: Well, you can look at the transcript.


QUESTION: When you draw a distinction between the Israeli-Palestinian context and other contexts, are you saying that targeted killing might be a legitimate practice in other contexts?

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not drawing a distinction between anything and anything else; I'm just saying that if you look carefully, if you look at what we have said about targeted killings in the question of the Israeli-Palestinian disputes, you will see, first of all, as I said today, that our position has not changed, and, second of all, that the factors that we cited for our opposition to targeted killings were particular to that set of circumstances.
...
QUESTION: So, in other circumstances, it might be legitimate? That's a natural corollary of what you're saying.

MR. BOUCHER: Well, I'm not comparing and contrasting; I'm just saying that we've made our position clear and we stick by it.

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland.

State's Burns Says U.S. Working to Finalize Action Plan for Mideast

If at first you don't succeed...

Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns says the Bush administration is pressing to finalize an international plan of action during the first half of December to resolve the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians within three years.
"The President wants us to get from the very difficult situation that the Palestinians and Israelis find themselves in right now, to the realization of the permanent two-state solution over the next three years, a goal that he laid down in his speech on June 24," Burns said in Bahrain October 29. "[W]e feel a strong sense of urgency about this."

During a recent trip to Europe, Burns conferred with representatives from the United Nations, the European Union, Russia in Paris, then visited numerous countries in the Middle East to develop what he called a "practical pathway" to peace.

"Both sides, the Israelis and the Palestinians, deserve security and we are committed to doing everything we can to help achieve that," Burns said.

Burns said the plan involves establishing trust between Israelis and Palestinians to stabilize the situation, creating a Palestinian state "with many of the attributes of sovereignty, but whose final borders are not yet determined," then moving to "permanent status" negotiations.

Burns praised Bahrain for holding its first national elections in 30 years and said the Bush administration is strongly committed to its "partnership" with Bahrain, "a major non-NATO ally" of the United States.

Burns said the United States supports Bahrain's political and economic reforms, saying the country sets "a very important standard for the rest of the region."

Lebanon's democracy under threat with annulment of poll result: opposition

I belive that there is a growing anti-Syrian movement that is growing in Lebanon, especially among the Christians in that country, and that, given time, there will be increasing militancy within Syria's client client state. How this will play out with Iranian support for Hizbollah, remains to be seen.

BEIRUT (AFP) - Lebanon's anti-Syrian Christian opposition condemned the annulment of a by-election victory by one its candidates as a step toward the scrapping of parliamentary democracy in the country.

The decision by Lebanon's top court showed that "the authorities fear public opinion and are trying to taint the democratic face of Lebanon," said the Qornet Shehwan gathering of Christian political and religious figures.

"It is the penultimate step before the annulment of parliamentary democracy in Lebanon and the establishment of a state of emergency like in dictatorships," the opposition said in a statement.

On Monday, the Constitutional Council annulled Gabriel Murr's victory on a petition by his defeated niece Myrna Murr, the government candidate, in the June 2 poll and handed victory to Ghassan Mkheiber, who was placed third.

Mkheiber met late Tuesday with Maronite Cardinal Nasrallah Butros Sfeir and told reporters he was leaving it up to the patriarch to decide whether he should resign.

Beirut newspapers denounced the court's annulment as a "masquerade" which discredited Lebanon's judicial system.

The by-election renewed tensions between supporters and opponents of Syria's dominant role in Lebanon and was followed by a government crackdown on anti-Syrian broadcast media owned by Gabriel Murr.

Why one should oppose a second Palestinian-Arab state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza - Part 12 of 23

This piece continues a series of which the first eleven parts were posted on September 8, 9, 11, 17, 20, 22, 23, and October 7, 24, 28, and 29, 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 Palestine that was originally to have been part of the Jewish National Home.


12. Creation of a second Palestinian-Arab state will obviate Israel's ability to defend herself in time of war. In fact, weakening Israel by creating the second Palestinian Arab state may precipitate another war against Israel.

If ever it was true that one picture is worth a thousand words, then surely the map of Israel speaks volumes. Any map showing the distance between Judea, Samaria and Gaza (“Yesha”) border, on the one hand, and major Israeli cities, on the other hand, is testimony to Israel’s special security problems. An exmaple may be seen in the map posted by IRIS. (IRIS, or Information Regarding Israel’s Seurity is “an independent organization dedicated to informing the public about the security needs of the State of Israel, especially vis-a-vis the current peace process”.) The map shows, for example, that Tel Aviv, Israel’s major urban center, is merely 18 km (11 Miles, for our US brethren) from the border of Yesha, while Netanya, the site of so many homicide bombings, is merely 15 km (9 miles). Haifa, a major port is 35 km (21 miles) and Jerusalem, the capital, is on the border itself.

I am no military expert and I cannot provide an original, detail analysis of the implications of these non-distances, beyond what common sense would indicate, but people like General Wheeler, formerly of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Benjamin Netanyahu, who served as an IDF officer, are fully qualified to enlighten us. This article, therefore, relies heavily on their testimony.

First, let us review what Gen. Earle G. Wheeler, U.S. Army, Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1964–1970, advised the US Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara concerning Israel’s security. The document is dated 29 June, 1967, and was declassified in 1984; it is available on the JINSA site (JINSA, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs is a “non-profit, non-partisan educational organization committed to explaining the need for a prudent national security policy for the United States, addressing the security requirements of both the United States and the State of Israel, and strengthening the strategic cooperation relationship between these two great democracies”).

1. Reference is made to your memorandum, dated 19 June 1967, subject as above, which requested the reviews of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, without regard to political factors, on the minimum territory, in addition to that held 4 June 1967, Israel might be justified in retaining in order to permit a more effective defense against possible conventional Arab attack and terrorist raids.

2. From a strictly military point of view, Israel would require the retention of some captured territory in order to provide militarily defensible borders. Determination of territory to be retained should be based on accepted tactical principles such as control of commanding terrain, use of natural obstacles, elimination of enemy-held salients, and provisions of defense in-depth for important facilities and installations. More detailed discussions of the key border areas mentioned in the reference are contained in the Appendix hereto. In summary, the views of the Joint Chiefs of Staff regarding these areas are as follows.

a. The Jordanian West Bank. Control of the prominent high ground running north-south through the middle of West Jordan generally east of the main north-south highway along the axis Jenin-Nablus-Bira-Jerusalem and the southeast to a junction with the Dead Sea at the Wadi el Daraja would provide Israel with a militarily defensible border. The envisioned defensive line would run just east of Jerusalem; however, provision could be made for internationalization of the city without significant detriment to Israel's defensive posture.

b. Syrian Territory Contiguous to Israel. Israel is particularly sensitive to the prevalence of terrorist raids and border incidents in this area. The presently occupied territory, the high ground running north-south on a line with Qnaitra about 15 miles inside the Syrian border, would give Israel control of the terrain which Syria has used effectively in harassing the border area.

c. The Jerusalem Latrun Area. See subparagraph 2a above.

d. The Gaza Strip. By occupying the Gaza Strip, Israel would trade approximately 45 miles of hostile border for eight. Configured as it is, the strip serves as a salient for introduction of Arab subversion and terrorism, and its retention would be to Israel's military advantage.

[Here and subsequently, bold font is added.]

When these requirements are drawn on a map, they take up practically all of Yesha.

Behind these consideration stands one basic tenet of Israeli security, as elucidated in an article posted by the Canada-Israel Committee:

Israel cannot afford to lose [even] one war to surrounding Arab/Moslem states that vastly outnumber Israelis in population, territory and quantitative weaponry. Even Israel's traditional qualitative military advantage is shrinking as Arab states acquire advanced military systems, including long range ballistic missiles capable of delivering non-conventional weapons.

With this in mind, let us now examine Benjamin Netanyahu’s analysis, as given in his book,

Netanyahu, Benjamin. Durable Peace. New York: Warner Books, 2000.

In the following paragraphs, the page number will be noted, as in BN 200, meaning, Benjamin Netanyahu’s book, p. 200.

Netanyahu’s analysis begins with the thesis that (BN 283)

Israel’s ability to deter aggression depends on three central factors: its military strength, relative to that of the Arabs; the warning time it has to mobilize its forces; and the minimum space that its army requires to deploy in the face of potential threats.

With regard to military strength, Israel simply cannot compete with the size of the Arab armies and their equipment. Worse still, for economic reasons Israel can only keep a small army on standby, depending on mobilization of reserves if attacked. Recall that the six million Israelis stand against 284 million Arabs (in 21 arab countries plus Yesha - 2000 data, according to the UN Arab Human Development Report, 2002).

Being dependent on reserves, Israel requires adequate warning time in order for Israel to survive; this is deemed to be a minimum of 48-72 hours. Also, the flight time from Arab air bases to Israel is so short, that without adequate warning time, the Israeli air force could be wiped out before it takes to the air.

At present, Israel has surveillance stations high on the mountains of Yesha, but without these early warning stations, Israel’s security is compromised. If Israel vacates these stations, she loses a key defence factor. Worse still, if these heights fall into hostile hands, a foreign power could conduct surveillance on Israel’s coastal plain, where most of the Israeli population is concentrated. Airborne surveillance is no substitute for ground-based early warning stations, because airborne surveillance is vulnerable to bad weather conditions and to enemy fire.

The third component in Israel’s security system is adequate space in which to deploy hardware and troops, or strategic depth. If Israel loses the depth she enjoys in Yesha, the narrow strip left for deployment is sure to come under disruptive enemy fire, obviating the planned deployment.

Yesha’s mountain range also ensures that an enemy attacking from the East (Iraq, for example) will have to scale this mountain range and travel for some time before reaching the Israeli population centers. Without this assurance, Israel is just too vulnerable.

In the age of missiles, Israeli control of Yesha is particularly significant, opines Netanyahu (BN 302). If Israel can be hit with missiles, short range or long range, then deployment in the narrow strip of the pre-1967 borders is all the more vulnerable to enemy fire, and the Israeli army’s ability to respond could be jeopardised even before Israel calls up her reserves. If Yesha’s mountain range is controlled by the Palestinian Arabs, then a missile barrage could well be initiated from these heights.

The idea of a demilitarized Palestinian-Arab state, which ostensibly would obviate the last danger mentioned, is unworkable. Who will prevent smuggling dismantled rockets into such a state, if Israel doesn’t control the borders? And who will enforce a creeping militarization? Prior to the 1967 War, the “international community” failed even to enforce Israel’s right to navigation in the international waters of the Straits of Tiran. The current situation with regard to Iraq’s treatment of the UN inspectors is yet further proof of the impotence of the “international community”. Should Israel retaliates for militarization by invading the new state, then one is assured of the UN invoking Chapter VII sanctions. With the Arab and Palestinian-Arab record of breaching agreements (recall, for example, Iraq with regard to the inspectors and the Palestinian Arabs with regard to the arms ship, Karine A), relying on their commitments is worse than building on a sand dune.

Another consideration raised by Netanyahu (BN 307) concerns the economic burden resulting from the new borders to be patrolled by the IDF, should a second Palestinian-Arab state come to pass. Because of the convoluted shape of Yesha, the border lines would be more than “3.5 times the length of the present straight border along the Jordan River”. It is doubtful that the fence could reduce this burden substantially.

In his book, Netanyahu also quotes from a 1988 petition by one hundred retired US generals and admirals to the US administration, in which they said (BN 298):

[Without the territories, a] dwarfed Israel would then be an irresistible target for Arab adventurism and terrorism, and ultimately for an all-out military assault which could end Israel's existence ....

If Israel were to relinquish the West Bank... it would have virtually no warning of attack... Virtually all the population would be subject to artillery bombardment. The Sharon Plain north of Tel Aviv could be riven by an armored salient within hours. The quick mobilization of its civilian army... would be disrupted easily and perhaps irreversibly.

Netanyahu proceeds to quote Lieutenant-General Thomas Kelly, who had served as the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War and who visited Israel in 1991:

It is impossible to defend Jerusalem unless you hold that high ground... [I] look onto the West Bank and say to myself, "If I'm chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, I cannot defend this land without that terrain."... I don't know about politics, but if you want me to defend this country, and you want me to defend Jerusalem, I’ve got to hold that ground”.

This statement is in line with a Jerusalem Post article by Bernard Smith, dated 7 April 1998, and entitled The buried memo . The author quotes Thomas Kelly as saying,

[T]he West Bank mountains, and especially their approaches, are the critical terrain. If an enemy secures these passes, Jerusalem and all of Israel becomes uncovered. Without the West Bank, Israel is only eight miles wide at its narrowest point. That makes it indefensible.

In his book, Netanyahu also refers to the water issue, yet another aspect pertaining to the question of a second Palestinian-Arab state; this principal issue will, however, be dealt with in a separate article.

When he was prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu presented his views in an unequivocal speech to the UN General Assembly (24 Sept 1998), as the folowing excerpt indicates:

I envision a permanent settlement based on a clear principle:

For such a peace to succeed, the Palestinians should have all the powers to govern their lives and none of the powers to threaten our lives.

They will have control of all aspects of their society, such as law, religion and education; industry, commerce and agriculture; tourism, health and welfare.

They can prosper and flourish.

What they cannot do is endanger our existence.

We have the right to ensure that the Palestinian entity does not become the base for hostile forces.

The territories we cede must not become a terrorist haven nor a base for foreign forces.

Nor can we accept the mortal threat of weapons such as anti aircraft missiles on the hills above our cities and airfields.

This is the great challenge of the permanent status negotiations:

To achieve a durable peace that will strike a balance between Palestinian self-rule and Israel's security. I repeat: This balance can only be achieved, not by unilateral declarations but by negotiations and negotiations alone.

Earlier this year, Netanyahu repeated his objection to a second Palestinian-Arab state in Yesha, citing security considerations. An AP piece that ran in the Jerusalem Post, January 17, 2002, and was entitled Netanyahu: Palestinian state would be terrorist state, informs as follows:

Netanyahu said if the Palestinians achieve independence, Israel will be unable to prevent them from bringing in arms, even if they sign an agreement prohibiting this.

He said the problem was highlighted by Israel's recent seizure of a ship with contraband weapons which Israel says were destined for the Palestinians.

"With its own independent port, such a state would receive shiploads of arms, day and night, and we would find ourselves facing a terrorist state, armed to the teeth," he told Israel Radio.

The only way to stop the current Palestinian attacks on Israelis is to bring down the PA and its leader, Netanyahu said. Expelling Arafat "would make clear to any future Palestinian leadership that if you resort to terrorism, your fate will be like that of the Taliban and Arafat," he said.

To review more of Netanyahu’s pronouncements on the topic, see interview dated May 15, 1998 (when Netanyahu acted as prime minister) with Elizabeth Farnsworth of PBS.

Four years ago, while Sharon acted as Israeli foreign minister, he declared in Paris (15 January, 1999), according to a document posted at the official site of the Israeli Government:

The concept I used to describe the future Palestinian entity is limited sovereignty. This entity, which will be more than what they have today but less than a full state, can only be reached through negotiations and an agreement with Israel, and never by a unilateral act or declaration.

This entity will be limited in terms of types and amounts of weapons it will be allowed to possess; Israel will maintain control of the borders and ports of entry and epartures; military agreements and defense treaties that threaten Israel will not be allowed; free flying zones for Israeli aircraft over that entity will have to be maintained as well as other specific measures - all of which are intended to limit and curb the danger and threats such an entity may pose in the future for the State of Israel. Even if relations are
normalized in the future Israel will have to monitor the development of such an entity and ensure that its security interests in the long-run are not hampered or compromised in any way.

In other words, Sharon too held the view that a sovereign Palestinian-Arab state in Yesha would pose a security threat to Israel.

But why do we in the West have to worry about Israel’s defence needs? The answer comes, inter alia, in a 1999 document entitled Palestinian State: Implications for Security & American Policy . Endoresed by JINSA, and focussing on the intrinsic self-interest of the the West, the document sates:

The United States should oppose the establishment of an independent Palestinian State owing to:

• The ability of the PA to provide safe haven to terrorists, as has already been demonstrated;
• The ability of the PA to import offensive weapons through an independent seaport and airport. Offensive weapons could make Israel’s international airport vulnerable to missile attack and could endanger the U.S. Sixth Fleet when it is anchored in Haifa;
• The ability of the PA to join with countries such as Iraq and Iran in military alliances which could include the acceptance of Iraqi or Iranian troops west of the Jordan River. Such agreements – and such troop movements – would have major implications for US policy regarding Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia;
• The fundamentally undemocratic, anti-Western thrust of Palestinian policies thus far and the likelihood that a newly independent state will continue those policies; and
• The threat posed by such a state to America’s democratic ally, Israel, and to other friendly states in the region.

The ability of a sovereign Palestinian state to serve as an anti-Western terrorist haven has also been emphasized in a Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) News Release, dated May 3, 2002. The ZOA document warns that a Palestinian-Arab state,

* Undermine the fight against terrorism by giving the Palestinian Arab terrorists a reward for their violence.

* Boost Bin Laden's allies --Osama Bin Laden's terrorists are closely allied with the terrorists of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and Fatah, who are attacking Israel and who would control a future Palestinian Arab state.

In the cynical world in which we live, this is a pivotal point. In September 1938, in Munich, Britain and France threw Czechoslovakia to the Nazi wolves and paid a hefty price for this madness. Let no one think that by installing a second Palestinian-Arab state in Yesha to Israel detriment, the only victim will be Israel. In fact, any of the Western democracies might be hit from Palestine-based terrorists, of the very same variety that has already claimed the WTC, the US Navy ship Cole, and the French tanker Limburg. Further elaboration is deferred to a separate, forthcoming article in this series.

The final word goes to Major General Dayan (Moshe Dayan’s nephew) who said in a 1999 interview with Ha’aretz correspondent:

[Question:] The necessity to be strong is very deeply ingrained in you.

[Gen. Dayan] Let me tell you a story. I have the sad honor of having two fathers, Zurik [Dayan] and [his brother, future IDF Chief of Staff] Moshe [Dayan]. Zurik was killed when I was exactly 100 days old, so I didn’t know him. He was killed at Ramat Yochanan at the start of the War of Independence, in a battle with the Druze. The deputy commander of the Druze forces in the battle was a guy named Ismail Kablan. A few days after my father fell, his brother Moshe made an alliance with the Druze, an alliance which eventually brought them into the Border Police. That very same Ismail Kablan was among the founders of the Border Police, and his son Jihad was one of our officers in Abraham’s tomb in Hebron when I was commander of Central Command. That gave me the feeling of victory. Not victory over someone else, but a feeling of joint victory, of victory over the reality of bloodshed. For me the lesson was that if you are sufficiently strong and you know what is essential, you can find a formula like Moshe Dayan found, one that preserves your interests but allows you to be generous at the same time.

The battle in which Zurik Dayan was slain was the only battle in which the Druze took up arms against Israel, and the battle ended with the defeat of the Druze forces. This episode represents the Middle East reality that Israel faces: if she is strong and if she prevails, alliances and peace are possible; if she is weakend, the predators will circle for the kill, and if she loses even one war, she will be annihilated. In view of the security considerations which were spelled out above, I fear that those who preach a "two state solution" may well be bringing upon Israel a Final Solution.

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland

Saudi Hand Behind Egypt’s Anti-Jewish TV Serial

Behind all forms of terror, hatred, anti-semitism and anti-Israel hapenings, there is, it seems, always Saudi Arabia.

This week, two Egyptian TV channels begin running an extravagantly-produced serial based on the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Jewish document fabricated by the Tsar’s secret police in the early 20th century and decisively judged a forgery by historians. It will be aired nightly during the peak viewing period of the Muslim Ramadan, by two Egyptian channels - Dream TV, a private satellite channel, and the state-run Channel 2.

DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report “The Horse without Horseman” was produced by Arab Radio and Television of Saudi Arabia as an epic that was written, directed and played by Egyptians. It portrays the fictional Elders, the purported blueprint for Jewish global domination, as historical fact and, in a mishmash of periods, makes it also the guiding principle of Israeli policy. A director of the program says the series “is based on the history of Zionism”.

Calls to cancel the Horse without Horseman, especially from the US government - on the grounds that it stokes hatred, bigotry and racism in a region that already suffers a surfeit of destructive emotions - were rebuffed by Cairo. So too were appeals to Arab leaders to condemn the anti-Semitism rife in the Egyptian media. A protest demonstration has been organized by Jewish organizations to take place outside the Egyptian embassy in Washington Monday, November 4.

But on Monday, too, an Arab League spokesman rejected Israeli charges that the series is a violation of the commitment Cairo undertook under the Egyptian-Israel peace accord to shun anti-Israel incitement. Egyptian information minister Safwat el-Sherif declared earlier he could not see what the fuss was about. He denied that “Horseman” had any anti-Semitic content at all. “Our media policy,” he says, “is to respect all monotheistic religions.”

This righteous assertion might be taken at face value were it not for the light shed by chance on the Egyptian minister’s language in a publication that accompanied last month’s seizure of 800 hostages at a Moscow theater by Chechen terrorists. The appalling loss of life – 118 hostages – during the Russian commando rescue operation overshadowed the aims and the ideology actuating the hostage-takers. Revealing their ideological rationale also tells us that the Egyptian minister was offer of respect for “monotheistic religions” was nothing but lip service aimed at a Western audience .

Unmasking the Real Israel

Don't be offended, read on, a touching story

Home Grown Hate

The Paterson 'Protocols'

By Daniel Pipes
New York Post
November 5, 2002
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/499
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/61312.htm

Arab Voice, an Arabic-language newspaper published weekly since 1993 from Main Street in Paterson, N.J., appears to be just another one of America's many ethnic publications.
Its news pages are replete with items about Palestinian travails and possible war with Iraq. Its featured columnist is James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. Its publisher, Walid Rabah, modestly describes himself as "an activist with the Palestinian Writer's Guild in the United States." Its pages are filled with ads hawking Arab-owned restaurants, travel agencies, real-estate offices, retail stores and doctors' offices.

It all appears achingly ordinary. But it is not.

For some weeks now, the Arab Voice has been serializing an Arabic-language version of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in its pages (but not - revealingly - on www.arabvoice.com, its Web site).

And "The Protocols" is no ordinary book.

It purports to be the secret transcription of a Zionist Congress that met in Switzerland in 1897, as taken down by a tsarist spy and first published in St. Petersburg in 1903.

At the meeting, Jewish leaders allegedly discussed their plans to establish Jewish "sovereignty over all the world." "The Protocols" includes their boasts of being "invincible" and plans to establish a "Super-Government Administration" that will "subdue all the nations."

In fact, "The Protocols" is a fabrication forged by the tsarist secret police, the Okhrana, in about 1898-99. This pseudo-document had limited impact until 20 years later, after World War I and the Russian Revolution, when a receptivity had developed for its message about a Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world. [. . .]

For the record: Targeted Killings Are OK (at least when done by the US)

AP reports:

Opening up a visible new front in the war on terror, U.S. forces launched a pinpoint missile strike in Yemen, killing a top al-Qaida operative in his car in the first such overt attack outside of Afghanistan (news - web sites), a U.S. official said.

The strike, believed to have been conducted by a CIA (news - web sites) aircraft, killed Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. U.S. counterterrorism officials say al-Harethi was al-Qaida's chief operative in Yemen and a suspect in the October 2000 bombing of the destroyer USS Cole (news - web sites).

Al-Harethi's car was struck by a Hellfire air-to-ground missile. The CIA launches Hellfires from pilotless Predator aircraft. Five other people, believed low-level al-Qaida operatives, also were killed.

Recall that when Israel used the very same anti-terrorism method, she was pilloried by one and all, including the US, for "targeted killing". Israel’s critics seem to believe, as the Romans used to say, that quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi (“what is permitted to Jupiter is not permitted to a cow”)...

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland

Reuters does not know who carried out 9-11

From a Reuters story:

"Washington blames al Qaeda, the radical Muslim group led by fugitive Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), for the hijacked airliner attacks on Nw York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites) on September 11, 2001, that killed 3,000 people. "

How to tell if your culture is morally bankrupt

Hamas has a new website for kids.

Islamic terror group Hamas has launched a new Web magazine for kids that praises martyrs while encouraging children to follow the example of committing suicide for the "cause."

Complete with cartoon characters and other pictures demonstrating the "heroism of Palestinian children," the online magazine, titled Al-Fateh, promises "pages discussing Jihad (holy war), scientific pages, the best stories, not be found elsewhere, and unequalled tales of heroism." The webzine's editor hopes it will be read by "our beloved youth, the leaders of the future."

Here's a link to the site. Lovely.

[cross posted to Rumination]

Amnesty International (“AI”) Report on Jenin and Nablus – Just an attempt to support AI’s earlier rush to judgment.

Amnesty International’s recent report looks at the event sin April in an asymmetric fashion, just looking tat Israel’s actions without presenting the context. It condemns Israel for demolishing houses without mentioning that the Arabs have themselves admitted to having had mined them. Israel is condemned for making prisoners strip to their underwear without speaking of the use of suicide bombs. AI does not seem to realize that Israel was in an armed conflict and reaches unfounded conclusions about military decisions:

"There is total devastation, no whole standing house, as though someone has bulldozed a whole community. If anyone was in a house they could not have survived… There is nothing but rubble and people walking around looking dazed. There is a smell of death under the rubble."

These are the words of an Amnesty International delegate who entered Jenin refugee camp minutes after the IDF lifted the blockade on 17 April 2002.

Amnesty International delegates witnessed the effects of the demolition of Palestinian homes, especially in Jenin, and concluded that had been no absolute military necessity in the wholesale destruction. IDF forces that entered Jenin and Nablus brought tanks or bulldozers through narrow roads, stripping off the fronts of houses. Sometimes the fronts of houses were stripped off in wider roads. ”

From the executive summary of the report. http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/recent/MDE151492002?OpenDocument

Why does AI report in this one sided manner. I could claim bias but perhaps we should also do a bit of deconstruction first and look what AI said previously about Israel’s actions in Jenin and Nablus. By analyzing these previous statements, perhaps we will see that unjustified statements were made by AI then which now need to be defended and justified, that in fact when AI cried wolf, there was a wolf. I went and looked at all of AI’s statements in the month of April on Israel’s actions covered by the report. It becomes evident that AI condemned Israel back in April for mass murder based on false evidence and now try to justify these lies by saying that Israel may not have massacred people but they did a lot of horrible things. Bold and brackets below are mine.

April 3, 2002
“it is becoming difficult to verify reports of possible extrajudicial executions including of people under arrest. However, it appears that five Palestinian policemen were extrajudicially executed. They were shot dead at close range after they had been wounded on Friday.”[This report was later shown to be untrue]
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE150302002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\ISRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES

April 5, 2002
“There are the Palestinians, including medical workers, who have been killed unlawfully by the Israeli Defence Forces.”
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE150332002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\ISRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES

April 10, 2002
“Reports suggest that 200 people may have been killed in Jenin. Wanton destruction of houses is continuing and ambulances are still not allowed to move freely in Jenin, Nablus and most areas of the West Bank.

"We fear that the gravest abuses against the Palestinian population are taking place behind closed doors as humanitarian agencies and the media are being barred access to most of the Occupied Territories," Amnesty International said.

"Families whose relatives have been arrested often do not know if they are alive or dead. Reports of human rights abuses including extrajudicial executions cannot be verified," the organization added, renewing its call for human rights monitors to be immediately deployed in the region. ”
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE150442002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\ISRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES

April 10, 2002
“Amnesty International renewed its call on the international community to take immediate action to stop horrific human rights abuses in Israel and the Occupied Territories.
"Reports keep coming in about unlawful killings, especially from Jenin and Nablus where the Israeli Defence Forces have reportedly killed scores of Palestinians using tank rounds and missiles from Apache helicopters," the organization said. ”
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE150402002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\ISRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES

April 10, 2002
“Amnesty International is concerned that scores of Palestinians who posed no evident threat to the lives of others have been killed during Israel's military incursions into towns and villages in the Occupied Territories since 27 February 2002.
. . . As one resident said to Amnesty International: "The camp smells of death. Bodies are buried under the rubble of houses; others were crushed by tanks and others still lie in the streets."”
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE150452002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\ISRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES

April 15, 2002
“"We fear that if investigations are not carried out at once to clarify the circumstances of the killings of hundreds of Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp, crucial evidence may be destroyed as Israel continues to impede access to the camp to the outside world," the organization's delegates said.”
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE150482002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\ISRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES

April 16, 2002
“The Amnesty International delegation had gone to Jenin because of reports that a major humanitarian and human rights disaster was occurring in the camp with thousands of people still trapped without food or water in an area flattened and littered with debris and decomposing bodies.”
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE150502002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\ISRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES

April 17, 2002
“Speaking from inside Jenin Refugee Camp, Amnesty International delegate Javier Zuniga said, "This is one of the worst scenes of devastation I have ever witnessed. It is almost impossible to conceive that what was once a town is now a lunar landscape. There is a real possibility that people are still alive under the rubble of their former homes, one of our colleagues from a local human rights organisation received a phone call from a family of 10 trapped below ground and asking for help, yet there is no evidence of concerted efforts to search for and rescue survivors. [phone call was not true]"

. . . Scores more bodies are believed to remain in the refugee camp, mainly in the rubble of bulldozed houses.”
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE150522002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\ISRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES

April 23, 2002
“Amnesty International's delegates have just returned from Jenin, and found credible evidence of serious breaches of human rights and humanitarian law. These include unlawful killings, excessive use of lethal force, and failure to give civilians warning before attacks by helicopters. . . .

Given the conflicting claims about the numbers and nature of killings [oh, the truth starts creeping in], the circumstances in which a range of human rights abuses occurred and the complexity of legal issues involved, the team should be provided with additional expert assistance to enable it to conduct an authoritative and thorough inquiry.”
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE150592002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\ISRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES

April 26, 2002
“Amnesty International estimates that since the start of the Intifada in September 2000, at least 1,200 Palestinian adults, 260 Palestinian children, 260 Israeli and foreign civilian adults and 52 Israeli children have been killed.” [This under reports the Israelis killed by more than a couple of hundred]
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE150622002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\ISRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES

April 29, 2002
“UN monitors should be put in place urgently in Jenin mandated to report on any tampering of evidence [no tampering by Israel ever shown. there was tampering by the Arabs which AI has not bothered to report]that might be needed by the fact-finding mission in carrying out its work.

She also clarified that there is no legal definition in international law of the word 'massacre' and that its use in the current circumstances is not helpful.[does not say there was no evidence for a massacre just that we should not use that word”
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE150712002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\ISRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES

April 29, 2002
“The dead and wounded remained in houses and on the streets. Part of the camp is now a vast compacted pile of rubble, more than 100 houses bulldozed, apparently after Palestinian armed groups had surrendered and ceased resistance.

There is no conceivable military reason which would justify such devastation - it appears to be a clear breach of international humanitarian law," commented Ms Khan [Secretary General of Amnesty International].[if AI had already reached this conclusion, what is the need for the report. It seems that in WWII there was a lot more devastation, I guess military expert Khan would say that there was no justification for that either]

"Victims of human rights abuses, Palestinians and Israelis, are entitled to justice. Establishing the truth is the first step to accountability and justice. Justice and respect for human rights, including the rule of law, are the cornerstones to any durable solution to the spiralling violence," said Ms Khan. [In AI’s report on suicide bombing, AI, which seems to think of itself as a quasi-judicial, investigatory agency, does not bother researching the links of the PA to suicide bombing]”
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE150632002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\ISRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES

April 29, 2002
”Having witnessed the devastation in Jenin refugee camp yesterday, Irene Khan said that she was very concerned about the safety of the people of Hebron and expressed fears of a repetition of Jenin.”
http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/MDE150642002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\ISRAEL/OCCUPIED+TERRITORIES

These false allegations were never retracted by AI. In the new report AI attempts to explain these falsehoods without referring to them directly:

"During the fighting Palestinian residents and Palestinian and foreign journalists and others outside the camp saw hundreds of missiles being fired into the houses of the camp from Apache helicopters flying sortie after sortie. The sight of the firepower being thrown at Jenin refugee camp led those who witnessed the air raids, including military experts and the media, to believe that scores, at least, of Palestinians had been killed. [He Arabs said thousands, which was reported, AI used the 200 number] The tight cordon round the refugee camp and the main hospital from 4-17 April meant that the outside world had no means of knowing what was going on inside the refugee camp; a few journalists were able to slip into the area at risk to their lives after 13 April, but only saw a small portion of the camp, including some dead bodies before leaving. Those within the camp reachable by telephone were confined to their homes and could not tell what was happening. It was in these circumstances that stories of a "massacre" spread. Even the IDF leadership appeared unclear as to how many Palestinians had died: General Ron Kitrey said on 12 April that hundreds had died in Jenin before correcting himself a few hours later saying that hundreds had died or been wounded. " http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/recent/MDE151432002?OpenDocument

In fact it was primarily as a result of lies spread by the Arabs and ought by people like AI who wanted to believe them that word of a 'massacre' spread not because of what outsiders saw. Perhaps these false reports fit in with what was seen but it was there false reports that people wanted to believe that were the key. The same people who told stories of massacres, now that no bodies have been found, are relied on by AI to show that grave human rights abuses occurred.

Speech By Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Announcing New Elections

(IMRA) Yesterday, a murderous terrorist attack occurred. A suicide bomber blew himself up in the center of a Kfar Saba shopping mall, with the intention of killing as many innocent civilians as possible. Infants, women and children - whose only sin is being Jewish. I take this opportunity to send my condolences to the families of the victims and my best wishes for a speedy recovery to the wounded.

The State of Israel is currently facing difficult and complex challenges - perhaps the most complex we have ever known. Since the establishment of the National Unity Government under my leadership, I have done everything in my power to lead this country and tackle the challenges with the most comprehensive national consensus as possible. It was not easy, but national responsibility demanded it.

Unity was vital then and it remains imperative today.

Last week, the Labor Party decided to dissolve the Unity Government over a political whim. This irresponsible behavior lead to the unnecessary collapse of a government which reflected - and continues to reflect - the people's will for unity.

I have said this before and I say it again today - an election at this time is not what the country needs.

I asked all members of this government to demonstrate responsibility and good judgment in managing the affairs of the country and its citizens. This call was also made in my speech to the Knesset last Wednesday, and was directed at each and every public representative, from the coalition and opposition alike.

I said that leadership is tested and judged by its ability to always favor the national interest over any other political interest.

Since the irresponsible departure of the Labor Party, I turned to various factions and personalities to stand with the government in the upcoming challenges.

Unfortunately, demands and conditions were made, to which I could not concede:


I will not deviate from the responsible policy of the Government.
I will not change the basic guidelines of this Government.
I will not undermine our strategic understandings with the United States.
I will not endanger the special relationship which my government formed with the White House.
I will not break the budgetary framework.
I will pass the budget in the second and third readings - as soon as possible - without deviating from the target of the deficit and goals of the budget. This is what the government decided.
I will not sacrifice the national judgment and the good of this country for the sake of narrow political interests - not in the political field and not in the economic field.

Yesterday we all heard the statements made in the Knesset by the Chairman of the Ihud Leumi-Israel Beitenu party. We heard him state clearly that his faction would not join the government. We heard him make a long list of demands, expressing absolute objection to the establishment of a national unity government - today and in the future.

From my first day as Prime Minister, I established a rule for myself. I will not surrender to political blackmail from any party. This is how I have acted in the past and it is how I will continue to act in the future.

I wanted this government to complete its full term. I wanted it also because I made a promise to my partners in the coalition that I would do my utmost to ensure that that happens.

However, the objection to the continuation of this government, which found expression in the unacceptable demands made by various political elements, together with the necessity to prepare for the difficult challenges ahead, brought me to the decision to favor the most responsible, and least objectionable, option - to dissolve the 15th Knesset.

This morning I met with the President and asked for his consent, in accordance with Article 22 to the Basic Law: the Government, to dissolve the Knesset and hold general elections within 90 days. The President, after due consideration, gave his consent and he will address the public shortly on this matter. This morning I also briefed the government ministers and heads of the factions about my decision, and a notification was also delivered to the Chairman of the Knesset.

Jerusalem, 5 November 2002

Ariel Sharon

Comparison of Jewish v. Muslim Nobel Prize Winners

The Nobel committee has done much recently to devalue the prizes it awards but some readers may find this interesting. I do not vouch for the methodology or accuracy (I think Camus was left off of the Islam side). Also, this probably has no meaning. Maybe it is a reason why the wishes of many in the world to wipe out the Jews is a bit shortsighted. (link from Steve Plaut)

There are a mere 12 Million Jews in the entire world yet they have received 151 Nobel Prizes. The Muslims number 1.4 Billion... or 117 times the number of Jews! Based upon this 117:1 Muslim-to-Jewish ratio, one might expect the Muslims to have 17,667 Nobel Laureates. They have SEVEN! (Allah Akbar, indeed!)

CALL AMIRA BARAKA AT HOME- 1-973-242-1346

Last night on Times Square, a representative of a spin off group from the JDL was handing out fliers that "declares war on Amira Baraka - enemy of the Jews & America. It says he will be punished soon as well as Sam Webb of the Communist Party (I do not know who Webb is). You will remember that Baraka is the poet who wrote a poem about how Jews were responsioble for 9-11 and had all been warned to get out of the world trade center ahead of time. The above number is listed as Amira's home number and does seem to work. Call him and tell him what you think about his poetry. When you call, if someone asks who is calling, be creative.

Sharon Announces Elections To Be Held Within 90 Days

(Jerusalem Post) Sharon told reporters elections will be held within 90 days.

President Katsav told reporters of the decision to disperse the Knesset at an unexpected news conference at his office Tuesday. He said elections will be held in early February. The conference followed an earlier meeting between the president and the PM, at which Sharon told the president he saw early elections as inevitable. As part of political protocol, Sharon had to inform the president of intentions to call early elections before making the announcement.

The decision came after the prime minister was rebuffed by the far-right National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu faction whose support he needed to restore his parliamentary majority.

Yesterday, Lieberman gave very fiery speeches to the Knesset and the press, during which he was critical of the government and showed there was no chance for NU-YB to join the government. Without NU-YB there was no chance of forming a narrow coalition.

Referring to Sharon, Lieberman told Israel Army Radio: "Why are you afraid to say that after the elections, we will form a nationalist (right-wing) government. Do you want to just use us, like gum that you can use and throw away?"

Sharon met with his advisors last night at midnight and they decided the talks to expand the coalition weren't going anywhere.

Sharon decided it wasn't worth trying to restore a minority government, especially with a no confidence vote scheduled for Wednesday in the Knesset. Analysts predicted Lieberman would back this vote, the fourth no confidence vote of the week.

After the departure of the moderate Labor Party last week, because of a dispute over funding for Jewish settlements, Sharon was left with the support of only 55 legislators in the 120-member parliament. [Read More]

New Kind of Terrorism Hits Israel

Nothing will change but techniques in terror till such time as Iraq, Iran, Syria (and its client Lebanon) are stopped from their support of Hezbollah.

For months now Israeli intelligence officials have suspected that Hezbollah terrorists from Lebanon have been planning to widen the conflict in the Middle East by financing, arming and training Palestinian militants.

As Palestinian resistance groups have struggled to survive a ferocious Israeli anti-terror campaign that began early this year with Israel's invasion and reoccupation of the West Bank, Hezbollah militants have been rumoured to infiltrate Israel and the occupied territories in order to pick up the slack.

By early May, there was a sudden shift in the pattern of bombing attacks being launched against Israel.

In addition to sending single suicide bombers against Israeli civilian targets, someone seemed to be planning more severe attacks, against a variety of strategic targets.

First there was a foiled plan to destroy twin 50- and 46-storey office towers in downtown Tel Aviv with a truck bomb, which the Israeli defence force said was uncovered and prevented by Israel's six-week invasion of the West Bank.

. . .

What’s in a street name? A lot, in post-Nazi Germany

Ok. It's my paranoia, right?

BERLIN, Nov. 4 (JTA) — The battle to overcome Germany’s Nazi past is being fought over many issues, including one that might at first blush seem innocuous — street names.

A recent street-naming ceremony here proved anything but innocuous, however.

During the Oct. 30 ceremony, at which a street was renamed Judenstrasse, protesters shouted, “Jews out” and “You crucified Jesus.”

The shouts interrupted the speech of Alexander Brenner, leader of Berlin’s Jewish community, who told the protesters, “Whether you like it or not, you have placed yourself alongside the Nazis.”

Brenner later told reporters that the protesters had opened old wounds, but added that thankfully such people are not in power today.

The street originally had been named Judenstrasse, German for “Jews’ Street.” But in 1938, Nazi officials — objecting to names that had a Jewish reference or glorified representatives of opposing ideologies — renamed the street Kinkelstrasse after Gottfried Kinkel, a 19th-century German revolutionary figure.

Wolfgang Huber, the Protestant bishop of Berlin, said this was the first time he had heard anti-Semitism erupting at a public event.

. . .

Holocaust memorial plan in Italy prompts an anti-Semitic diatribe

I didn't know anti-semitism continued even unto today.

ROME, Oct. 29 (JTA) — Officials in northern Italy have condemned a far-right political party for protesting a drive to erect a Holocaust memorial in the city of Bolzano.

In cooperation with the local Jewish community, local newspapers in the province of Alto Adige launched an effort last Friday to build a monument in Bolzano’s Jewish cemetery to honor Jews killed in a Nazi transit camp in the town.

Alto Adige, also known as the South Tyrol, is a largely German-speaking province on the border with Austria. Thousands of South Tyroleans were enrolled in the German Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS or Nazi police units.

The local Freiheitliche, or Freedom, Party, which is closely allied with Austrian right-wing extremist Jorg Haider, attacked the monument initiative in terms that mixed classic anti-Semitism with pro-Palestinian rhetoric.

“South Tyroleans have more important problems than continually listening to Jews,” party secretary Ulli Mair said over the weekend in a statement.

“One must stop attributing to new generations the sins of the past, in which always and only the Jews are represented as victims,” the statement said.

“Jews everywhere have positions of power, above all in the United States,” it added. “But have they at least learned something from history? Or is it always others who must learn? It’s enough to see what’s happening in Palestine. For this, we are against South Tyroleans giving their money for a Jewish monument.”

Santorini arms ship completed three smuggling trips before being intercepted by Israel

This was not your typical holiday cruise ship. Ah, busy Lebanon, serving the needs of its master, Syria, and just recently many nations pledged to help this beleaguered nation because of its economic difficulties.

Prior to its capture by the Israel Navy, the Santorini -- one of two arms-smuggling vessels stopped by Israel since the start of the intifada -- made three successful trips from Lebanon to the Gaza and the Sinai coast, The Jerusalem Report has learned. Only on its fourth mission, in May 2001, was the Santorini, loaded with Katyusha rockets, anti-tank missiles, mortars, small arms and ammunition, picked up in the Mediterranean; the Karine A, with a similar but larger cargo, was intercepted by Israeli naval commandos in the Red Sea in January 2002.

The Santorini’s first voyage, directed by Ahmed Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), was from Tripoli in November 2000. Its second and third voyages, both in April 2001, were run by Hizballah, and the fourth, failed attempt, again by the PFLP-GC. The arms cargoes in the "successful" trips were dropped along the Gaza coast and off Sinai, from where they could be smuggled into Palestinian territory through the maze of tunnels on the Egypt-Gaza frontier.

The case of the Santorini again underlines the close links between Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Palestinian terror operations, according to a senior military source, who adds that the ship, originally called the Abd Al-Hadi, was acquired for the PFLP-GC in the port of Arwad, a small island off the Syrian coast, and was registered as Syrian.

The arms smuggled during the first voyage were packed in Syria and transferred to Tripoli via the Damascus-Beirut highway in a Syrian bus, according to the documented interrogation of one of the captured Lebanese crew members. The man told Israeli interrogators that the third shipment of arms was loaded by 25 Hizballah men on the beach at Jiyah, south of Beirut.

Intelligence sources say that the arms smuggling is merely the tip of an iceberg of Syrian and Iranian support for terror activities. According to one document shown to The Report, Iranian and Syrian money is regularly funneled into the territories in order to "not allow a calming down of the situation," and directives for attacks are also transmitted directly from Damascus.

Sharon Faces No-Confidence Test in Israel Assembly

Summary and 15 news links on today's news from Israel.

Summary:
Mr Netanyahu has previously said he will challenge the prime minister for the leadership of the Likud Party, and it is not yet known if Mr Sharon accepted his rival's conditions during talks on Sunday. Israel's former army chief, General Shaul Mofaz, has accepted the post of defence minister, the prime minister's office has officially announced. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon courted coalition partners who could swing his government far to the right on Sunday and awaited political rival Benjamin Netanyahu's reply to his offer to be foreign minister. Sharon is expected to weather the vote after securing the support of an ultra - nationalist opposition party to bolster his minority government's 55 seats in the 120 - member assembly.

Source Articles:
Profile: Binyamin Netanyahu (BBC News 11/03/2002)
Israeli hardliner takes defence job (BBC News 11/02/2002)
Netanyahu 'accepts' Sharon offer (BBC News 11/03/2002)
Sharon woos rival for cabinet post (BBC News 11/01/2002)
Sharon Pursues Partners, Awaits Netanyahu Reply (Reuters 11/03/2002)
Netanyahu Says Accepts FM Post if Elections Held (Reuters 11/03/2002)
Sharon Faces No-Confidence Test in Israel Assembly (Reuters 11/03/2002)
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sought to keep his imperiled government af... (FOX News 11/03/2002)
Netanyahu Says Will Take FM Post if Elections Held (Reuters 11/03/2002)
Israel, U.S. Vow No Change In Policy (CBS News 11/02/2002)
Gaza Explosion Kills Three (CBS News 11/01/2002)
Israel's former army chief of staff accepted the job of defense minist... (FOX News 11/02/2002)
Former Israeli army chief Shaul Mofaz, known for harsh tactics against... (NY Post 11/03/2002)
Profile: Israeli defence chief Shaul Mofaz (BBC News 11/03/2002)
West Bank Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat warned Thursday against any... (FOX News 11/01/2002)

We just have to help our sister-democracy

The economic news coming from Israel is gloomy and we must do our best to help out.

Arutz 7 reports on poverty in Israel:

Another 81,000 people were added to Israel's poverty rolls in the year 2001. The total number of people living under the poverty level at the end of 2001 stood at 1,169,000 - including over a half-million children. Labor and Welfare Minister Eli Yeshai forecasts that the cuts in the budget soon to be passed in the Knesset will only increase the numbers.

Ha’Aretz elaborates further:

Nearly one in five Israelis is living below the poverty line, according to official statistics released Monday, which also revealed that more than half a million children - 27 percent of all children in the country -are among those living below the poverty line.
...
Departing from official custom, the report discussed the expected consequences of current plans to slash NIS 6 billion in NII benefits in the 2003 State Budget. NII researchers estimated that even after receiving social security supplements, the percentage of all Israeli families living under the poverty line will climb from 17.7 percent in 2001 to 19.1 percent in the period 2002-2003.

During the same period, the estimated number of Israeli individuals living under the poverty line is expected to climb to 1.29 million in 2002-2003 from 1.17 million, representing 21.7 percent of all Israelis. The percentage of poverty-stricken children is estimated to reach 605,000 in this period, or 30.6 percent of all children. This would mean one in every three children would be living below the poverty line.

And from the Jerusalem Post, these gloomy economic data:

The Bank of Israel expects the gross domestic product (GDP) to shrink by as much as 1 percent in 2003, according to an official forecast it released Sunday. If the gloomy worst-case-scenario prediction becomes a reality it will mean a third year of economic contraction and drop in living standards.
...
As the recession continues, Bank of Israel economists expect unemployment to worsen, increasing to 12%. But even in a more optimistic projection, the jobless rate is seen to reach 11.7% of the civilian population, meaning that over 300,000 Israelis would be out of work.

Currently, unemployment is at 10.3%, based on the latest Central Bureau of Statistics figures.
....
Other projections call for a 2% contraction in the business GDP. Private spending is seen to fall by 1.6%, while exports are expected to decrease 1% and imports by 0.5%.

The least we can do to help is to seek out Israeli products. Arutz 7 lists these relevant web sites:

In response to a recent report by Arutz-7 about a campaign to promote Israeli products in light of the country's financial troubles, many readers asked for a list of such products and where they can be purchased. The following websites are a partial list of sources for such products; more will be added in the future.
* www.jewishuniverse.net/israel/real_estate/realestate.htm
* WWW.FINEFOODSISRAEL.COM - a list of supermarkets and grocery stores that carry Israeli food and beverage products, sorted by U.S. zip code.
* www.judaicawebstore.com

IMRA reports on a Chicago initiative to help Israel’s economy:

Israel's loss of income from tourism and related industries is acute. In an effort to help small business owners, a group of north suburban temples, synagogues, and the JCC are co-sponsoring more than 35 merchants from all over Israel, who will travel to Chicago and bring their Israeli-produced
merchandise for sale.

This merchant fair will be held at North Shore Congregation Israel, 1185 Sheridan Road, Glencoe, on Sunday November 17 and Monday November 18, 2002.

Merchandise includes textiles, tapestries, jewelry, t-shirts, giftware, Judaica, ritual items, art and souvenirs in all price ranges. All proceeds from the event will directly help Israel.

As individuals, we’ll have a tough time matching our financial support for Israel's economy with the funds the PA receives from the EU-niks, from the oil sheiks and even from the US, but we just have to try our best.

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland

Canada Watch

Anyone who read the Ottawa Citizen on October 31, 2002, could be excused for asking, “exactly on whose side IS Canada?”. (The Ottawa Citizen is one of the principal dailies in Canada’s Capital).

The first shock came right on Page A1: the headline reads, “Canadian held as ‘mega-terror’ expert; Israel says Lebanese-born man worked for Hezbollah while living in Canada”. The story tells of a Canadian arrested in Israel who “carried out activities for the organization while living in Canada.” The story concludes with a reminder that Canada’s new anti-terrorist bill excludes Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and al Aqsa brigades; also, Hizbullah’s “charitable arm” is not on Canada’s list of UN-identified terrorist organization which are subject to financial counter-measures.

Turning to Page A3, one finds the stories about US measures to identify certain individuals who cross the border from Canada. “US terror law violates rights, Graham [Canada’s foreign minister] says” - that is the headline, followed by a second story, “Canadians ‘treated like criminals’ at border”. As an antidote, a leader of the right-wing Reform Party commented that “Canada could probably learn something from the security measures adopted by the US in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack”. Amen to that.

A third related story reports on a speech delivered by Israel Asper, the Canadian media executive who founded CanWest Global. Stating what most of us know all too well, Asper said that “pervasive and sustained anti-Israel bias in the media is a cancer that destroys much of the media credibility and erodes support for the Jewish state”. Asper singled out CBC-TV, NPR as well as British and US media. From personal experience, I can vouch that Asper was exactly right with regard to the CBC, which I have ceased watching because of its infuriating bias. Makes you wonder indeed whose side this government-supported outlet really backs up in the war on terrorism.

Asper’s speech can be read on the web at the canada.com site.

As one’s blood pressure rises, one encounters the fourth relevant story: “Caplan defends tax decision on Israel’s Red Cross”. The story informs:

Revenue Minister Elinor Caplan yesterday defended the federal government's decision to strip charitable status from a group that raises funds for Israel's version of the Red Cross. "I have a responsibility to ensure that Canadian law is enforced properly, fairly, and appropriately," said Ms. Caplan, who is Jewish..

An Internet petition has collected more than 12,000 names, while Jewish-groups are supporting the Canadian organization's appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, which seeks to overturn the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency ruling.

The Montreal-based charity has raised money since 1976 to buy ambulances and other supplies for the 52-year-old MDA in Israel.

Canadians, according to Canadian Jewish Congress president Keith Landy, may be familiar with MDA if they watch the nightly TV news. "They're the ones busy rushing to and from every terrorist bombing," Mr. Landy said yesterday.
...
When the MDA used funds to buy bulletproof vests for its drivers, Revenue Canada asked for a list of 10 instances during which drivers "had to encounter terrorist bullets." A judge later called that "unduly sarcastic."

Even the Letters-to-the-Editor section makes it’s contribution to opposing anti-terrorism, as a writer by the name of Tahereh Shahparaki complains about US border procedures concerning people born in certain Islamic countries.

The process treats you like a criminal. We had to answer a long list of questions, have our pictures taken and got finger-printed. It was so embarrassing a procedure that even the INS officer profusely apologized for putting us through this undignified process.

That anyone should complain about such procedures after 9-11 and 15-19 [15 out of the 19 hijackers were Saudi] is rather surprising. But Canadians do have a choice: inasmuch as the US is at last determined to defend herself, those who don’t like the US measures, can always stay home - the US is really under no obligation to let everyone in.

Back to the front page of the Citizen , one finds the lowest blow of all: “Arabs in Mideast, Africa love Canada”, says one of the headlines. The story continues to report on a recent Zogby poll among 3,200 Arabs in Israel and Arab countries. The poll asked the respondents how they felt about a selected list of 13 countries. France and Canada emerged as the Arabs’ favourites, thus placing these countries squarely in the Hall of Shame. Canada has been supporting the Palestinians for years, diplomatically as well as financially. But unlike most Arabs who “liked” Canada, the Palestinians had no good word for this country: “59% of the Palestinians said they had a negative impressions [sic] of Canada”. So much for Canada’s misplaced generousity.

With these six stories in mind, it was somewhat of a consolation to read the Citizen's editorial on the following day, November 1, under the title, “Charity toward whom - Canada shuns Israeli group but supports terrorist ‘good works’ “. The editorial reads:

Recently, the federal government won a court decision that would permit it to end the charitable tax status of a group raising money for Israel's equivalent of the Red Cross. At the same time, the government still grants charitable status to the political/social arm of the terrorist organization Hezbollah. This is a cruel -- and hypocritical -- situation for Canada to place itself in.
...
while the persecution of Canadian MDA has gone on, the Canadian government still grants charitable status to the political/social arm of terrorist Hezbollah. As recently as yesterday, Canada's foreign affairs minister was defending his government's decision not to ban this branch of Hezbollah, even though its military arm is banned. "We don't believe it would be appropriate to label as terrorists innocent doctors, teachers and other people who are seeking to do charitable and other good works in their communities," Bill Graham said.

Good works? Recent documents from Canada's security agency, CSIS, conclude that Hezbollah has been using Canada as an offshore base for raising funds and supplies for terrorist attacks on Israel, according to the National Post. A Canadian recently arrested by the Israeli government has been described as a high-ranking Hezbollah agent who has participated in several activities "including incidents with many civilian victims," according to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

As to the notion that Hezbollah's military and social wings are somehow separate, terrorism experts say they aren't. Further, "the social/political wing preaches terrorism; the military wing practises it," argues David Matas, senior legal counsel to B'Nai Brith Canada.

Squabbling over the charitable status of an Israeli charity while denying the bloodthirsty nature of Hezbollah is disgraceful public policy. It's time for Canada to set this right.

Like so many other countries, there are two sides to Canada, but at the moment the ugly side prevails.

P.S. Even as I was about to post this commentary, an additional noteworthy item appeared in today's [November 4] Citizen. It concerns an opinion poll according to which, "52% [of Canadians] disagreed with Canada actively participating in any war the US launches against Iraq. 33% agreed with the idea" (p. A5). I wonder if even Norway can sink nay lower.

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland

European Anti-Semitism

Atlantic Blog and Nick Denton dispute the meaning of the ADL poll on European anti-Semitism which was posted on Israpundit over the weekend.

Suicide bomber targets Israeli shopping mall

Please comment (below) on what you would suggest to bring this madness to and end.

Monday November 4, 2002

A suicide bomber blew himself up in an Israeli shopping mall today, killing a bystander and wounding 20 people, including two children, police and medics said.
The blast went off just after 6.15pm (4.15pm GMT) six miles north of Tel Aviv in the town of Kfar Saba, which is just across the border from the West Bank town of Qalqilia.

Israel's Channel 2 television reported that the bomber blew himself up between a restaurant and a shop for electrical appliances in the Arim mall.

One of the 20 injured is in a "serious" condition, medics said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas spokesman, said "the Palestinian people will not stop their resistance until the defeat of the occupation".

David Baker, an official in Ariel Sharon's office, said the attack was "proof that Palestinian terror knows no limits, specializes in cruelty and specifically targets the innocent".

Palestinian militants have frequently targeted the town during the past two years of fighting. A Palestinian gunman opened fire at a pizzeria in Kfar Saba on April 22, killing one Israeli.

SITES OF THE WEEK

The Sites of the Week this week once again features one information site and four blogs. On the left is a section linking to these sites. Visit them, they are worth the read.

The Peace Encyclopedia has loads of background information on the Middle East conflict organized by topic.

I like to refer to the blogs selected this week as BBB – the Big Boys of Blogging. “Boys”, of course is meant in a gender neutral way. If you have time after reading Israpundit, these are some of the sites you should be looking at. They are some of the most formative blogs out there with an abundance of information and opinion.

Little Green Footballs. The only thing flippant about this site is the name. It focuses on the War on Terror and shines a light on the nature of Islamic society, generally using their own words. There are a lot of posts on Israel. Charles Johnson is so good that he is attacked by Arab news sites (and others) including the Arab News. One day I hope Israpundit gets such recognition. LGF also features a very active comments section.

Instapundit. The Grand Daddy of Bloggers. Law school professor covering all issues and more – his volume is amazing. He must have cloned himself and uses the copies to post. Incisive and to the point. Now you know the origins of our name.

USS Clueless. Generally long thought pieces. Smart guy. Good stuff, anything but clueless.

Lileks – A real published dude – generally opinion type pieces.

Amnesty International’s Latest Blood Libel

In the spirit of Goebbels and Streicher, the vicious anti-Semites at Amnesty International continue to parrot the Jenin “Big Lie.” The essence of successful propaganda is to repeat the same baseless lies over and over again until they are accepted as fact despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This latest report will lie in the dung heap of history next to The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion and Der Sturmer. This is just another example of the anti-Jewish madness which has become epidemic amongst the ivory tower intellectuals of the radical left. While the European collaborators are busy burning synagogues and desecrating Jewish cemeteries, the deranged left is frothing at the mouth repeating in unison progressively more outrageous anti-Semitic libels. Meanwhile the commissars of Meretz are eagerly quoting this Orwellian masterpiece to try to smear Shaul Mofaz and prevent him from serving as Defense Minister. As the Cossaks are marching howling for Jewish blood, the self-haters gleefully grab onto any and every piece of vile anti-Semitic filth in a futile attempt to justify their own dementia.

(Jerusalem Post) Israel committed "war crimes," including unlawful killings, in Jenin and Nablus during a broad military offensive in those West Bank cities in April, the human rights group Amnesty International said Monday.

The Israeli military said the offensive was launched in self-defense, in response to Palestinian terror attacks on Israeli civilians.

Back in July, Amnesty issued a report that said the Palestinian suicide attacks were "crimes against humanity." Many of those bombers came from Jenin and Nablus.

In a latest report, titled "Israel and the Occupied Territories: Shielded from Scrutiny - IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus," Amnesty said there is "clear evidence that some of the act committed by the Israel Defense Forces ... were war crimes."

Israeli carried out "unlawful killings, torture and ill-treatment of prisoners, wanton destruction of hundreds of homes," according to Amnesty.

Soldiers also blocked access to ambulances and denied humanitarian assistance, leaving the wounded and dead lying in the streets for days, and used Palestinians as "human shields" while searching for suspected militants, Amnesty said.

"Up to now, the Israeli authorities have failed in their responsibility to bring to justice the perpetrators of serious human rights violations," the Amnesty report said. [Read More]

Israel reportedly helping with U.S. war preparation

It seemed conventional wisdom of late to assume that Israel would keep a low profile in order for the U.S. to get Arab support should Iraq be attcked. This article suggests otherwise.

WASHINGTON — Israel is secretly playing a key role in U.S. preparations for possible war with Iraq, helping to train soldiers and Marines for urban warfare, conducting clandestine surveillance missions in the western Iraqi desert and allowing the United States to place combat supplies in Israel, according to U.S. Defense and intelligence officials.

The activities are designed to help shorten any war with Iraq and keep Israel out of it. But working with Israel on the war effort is highly sensitive. It could undercut already shaky support for an invasion among friendly Arab states.

Because Israel's activities are classified, they have drawn little attention or criticism in the Middle East. "The Americans have asked us to keep a low profile, and we accept that," an Israeli official says.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, members of the Bush administration, intelligence officials and diplomats described Israel's involvement:

Israeli commandos, using their own satellite intelligence and imagery provided by U.S. intelligence services, have conducted clandestine surveillance missions of Scud missile sites in western Iraq, according to the intelligence official and a senior Pentagon official.
Missiles launched from western Iraq could reach Israel, potentially carrying chemical or biological weapons. That could prompt an Israeli response that would drive Arab nations to Saddam's side.

The teams have mapped concrete launch pads built by the Iraqis to improve the accuracy of their Scuds. They have also conducted reconnaissance that could help U.S. commandos attack the sites.

Israeli infantry units with experience in urban warfare during the Palestinian uprising helped train U.S. Army and Marine counterparts this summer and fall for possible urban battles in Iraq, a foreign defense official says. The Israelis have built two mock cities, complete with mosques, hanging laundry and even the odd donkey meandering down dusty streets. A defense official said the sites far surpass U.S. facilities. The location of the training centers is classified.

Kirkpatrick blasts UN's anti-Semitism

Former head of US mission to UN notes that UN was and remains anti-semitic

Reminiscing on her four-year tenure at the United Nations under Ronald Reagan, former US Ambassador to the UN Jeane Kirkpatrick said this week that while serving at the international body, "I felt for the first time in my life that I could understand how the Holocaust happened."

Kirkpatrick, who headed the US mission to the UN from 1981-85, criticized the UN's "nearly unbelievably insulting and outrageous" treatment of Israel during a keynote speech at the Zionist Organization of America 2002 Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award Dinner, held Sunday evening in New York.

"The United Nations hasn't really improved much in the years since I was there, and it hasn't really improved much at all with respect to Israel," said Kirkpatrick. She said that when she first began attending Security Council and General Assembly sessions as America's ambassador, "I was very deeply shocked by the simple anti-Semitism that pervaded the place." The anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment she was exposed to at the world body was "mysterious," and "very, very strange," she said.

"We need to speak out about the calumny spoken at the UN," she said, noting that in addition to condemning anti-Jewish hatred emanating from Arab countries, Western European nations, such as France, should be taken to task for failing to halt anti-Semitism at home.

Our friends the Saudis (with obeisance to James Taranto of Opinion Journal)

This piece was prompted by a comment made by the Saudi foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, as reported on Oct. 27, 2002, by the Associated Press:

The state of Israel ... has played a prominent role in poisoning the atmosphere between the two parties [Saudi Arabia and the US]," Prince Saud told the first meeting of the forum funded mostly by Saudi princes and businessmen.

Over the years, I have formed a very negative view about Saudi Arabia, and, committed to introspection any time a Saudi Prince makes pronouncements of this kind, I had to ask myself whether I too have been poisoned by Israel, or whether the facts support my view.

As the basis for my inquiry, I used a random array of recent news stories and commentaries, which found their way to my desk. I present them below under nine categories, each piece with the associated link (this is to enable readers to ensure that I am not “quoting out of context”).

On its own, each component may not add up to much, but I find the sum total of the entire array to be quite convincing.


1. Autocratic, theocratic regime

1.1 From Library of Congress/Country Studies:

Government: Absolute monarchy that based legitimacy on fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law... no written constitution or elected legislature. Crown prince deputy prime minister; other royal family members headed important ministries and agencies. Political system highly centralized; judiciary and local officials appointed by king through Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Interior.

Politics: Political parties, labor unions, and professional associations banned.

1.2 From the CIA Factbook:

Elections: none; the monarch is hereditary .
Cabinet: Council of Ministers is appointed by the monarch and includes many royal family members.

1.3 From the State Department:

Saudi Arabia is an Islamic monarchy without legal protection for freedom of religion, and such protection does not exist in practice.

1.4 From Victor David Hanson:

In an age of spreading consensual government, the House of Saud resembles an Ottoman sultanate staffed by some 7,000 privileged royal cousins.

2. Support for terrorists and terrorism

2.1 From the Washington Post:

U.S. intelligence has identified about a dozen of al Qaeda's principal financial backers, most of them wealthy Saudis.

2.2 From WSJ/Opinion Journal:

A former accountant who worked for members of the Saudi royal family, Mohammed Galeb Kalaje Zouaydi, arrested in Spain last April, is considered to be the "big financier" behind an al-Qaeda network in Europe.

2.3 From Arab News:

Prince Naif defended the aid extended by Riyadh to families of Palestinians killed in the two-year-old uprising against Israeli occupation. "Saudi Arabia helps Palestinian families who lose their children or breadwinners" in the conflict with Israel, said the minister, who heads a Saudi committee for the support of Al-Quds intifada.

2.4 From the World Tribune:

LONDON — Saudi Arabia is financing the relocation of thousands of Al Aqaida insurgents to the West Bank and Gaza strip, Western intelligence sources said.

2.5 From an article in WorldNetDaily:

Remember, only three nations maintained diplomatic relations with Afghanistan's terror sponsors. Saudi Arabia was one. The Saudis poured money into the madrassas in Pakistan that inspired the Taliban and created its leadership.

2.6 From a WSJ/Opinion Journal piece by Victor Davis Hanson:

Saudi government money has for years been funneled into madrassas to encourage radical anti-Americanism as well as to fund the al Qaeda terrorists.
...
Saudi Arabia's cash infusions to Muslim communities in America ensure that Wahhabi fundamentalism takes hold among Arab guests living in the United States.

2.7 From Arabic News - not only 15/19, but 125 too:

The Saudi deputy minister of the interior Prince Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz has unveiled that there are 125 Saudis arrested by the American base at Guantanamo, Cuba, stressing no charges have been addressed to any of them so far.

3. Obstructing US efforts regarding Iraq

3.1 From the Globe and Mail, via google archives:

The United States and Saudi Arabia tried to put a brave face on their roiled relationship yesterday, as the Saudis again rejected American hints at war with Iraq and other Arab countries warned of a dangerous backlash in the Middle East.

3.2 From Best on the Web:

Iraq neighbors like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria have been harshly critical of U.S. plans--but out of the fear that an enhanced U.S. presence in the region will threaten their hold on power

4. Freedom of the press, freedom of expression

4.1 From the Washington Post:

Saudi Arabian censors banned yesterday's editions of the London-based newspaper al Hayat because it printed an open letter from 67 American intellectuals defending the U.S. campaign against terrorism and calling on Saudi intellectuals to denounce "militant jihadism" as un-Islamic.

4.2 From the World Tribune:

Saudi authorities have arrested dissidents and warned newspapers that the kingdom will not tolerate criticism regarding the death of 15 schoolgirls and a teacher in a stampede blamed on religious police.

4.3 From Victor Davis Hanson:

Criticism of the royal family, Saudi government and religious leaders is legally forbidden and strictly monitored. The few dissident writers in the kingdom are jailed and blacklisted and sometimes have their books banned and driven off the Arab-language market.

4.4 From MSNBS, whose correspondent, Dr Bob Arnot was peronally harassed:

“After giving access, Saudis seize tapes of interviews, notes and a laptop” - Head ine of story by MSNBC’s international correspondent Dr Bob Arnot.

5. Freedom of religion

5.1 From Review and Outlook article, WSJ/Opinion Journal:

“Freedom of religion does not exist." The reference is to Saudi Arabia, and the sentence comes from the State Department's just-released index of religious freedom.
...
The country's Shiite Muslim minority also suffers discrimination, harassment and imprisonment.
...
[T]he U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom... has now, for the third straight year, asked the State Department to put Saudi Arabia on the official blacklist.

5.2 From the State Department:

Saudi Arabia is an Islamic monarchy without legal protection for freedom of religion, and such protection does not exist in practice.

Members of the Shi'a minority continued to face institutionalized political and economic discrimination.

The Government continued to detain non-Muslims engaged in worship services, although at times it was unclear whether the services constituted public or private worship.

6. Anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, anti-Western

6.1 Incitement in the state-controlled Al Jazirah Saudi paper, via MEMRI:

…Allah decreed that the Jews would be humiliated; he cursed them, and turned them into apes and pigs. Every time they ignite the fire of war, Allah extinguishes it. They disseminate corruption over the face of the earth, and fight the believers [i.e. the Muslims] only from fortified villages or from behind walls…"

6.2 From Arab News, without blushing:

“The most powerful nation in the world is hostile to Arabs and Muslims as a result of the influence the Zionist lobby wields in the United States," the prince [Naif] said.

6.3 As preached in mosques, via MEMRI:

The Jews and Christians are infidels, enemies of Allah, his Messenger, and the believers.

6.4 From Fox:

A television station backed by a Saudi prince has sparked outrage by broadcasting clips that show young children being taught to hate Jews — referring to them as "apes and pigs" — and embrace martyrdom.

6.5 From National Review:

Saudi Telethon Host Calls for Enslaving Jewish Women

The Saudi Information Agency has obtained a tape by prominent government official cleric Shaikh Saad Al-Buraik calling for enslaving Jewish women. The tape is called "a Monkey Desecrates Mosque," and was delivered in a Riyadh government mosque. The monkey refers to Jews.

6.6 From WorldNetDaily:

Saudi Arabian authorities have deported two Filipino Christians after the pair spent more than a month in prison for possession of a Bible and some Christian CDs.

6.7 Blood libel propagated by Saudi state-controlled press; from MEMRI:

I chose to [speak] about the Jewish holiday of Purim, because it is connected to the month of March. This holiday has some dangerous customs that will, no doubt, horrify you, and I apologize if any reader is harmed because of this.

During this holiday, the Jew must prepare very special pastries, the filling of which is not only costly and rare – it cannot be found at all on the local and international markets.

Unfortunately, this filling cannot be left out, or substituted with any alternative serving the same purpose. For this holiday, the Jewish people must obtain human blood so that their clerics can prepare the holiday pastries. In other words, the practice cannot be carried out as required if human blood is not spilled!!

Before I go into the details, I would like to clarify that the Jews' spilling human blood to prepare pastry for their holidays is a well-established fact, historically and legally, all throughout history. This was one of the main reasons for the persecution and exile that were their lot in Europe and Asia at various times.

7. Barbaric conduct and punitive system

7.1 From Yahoo-news:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A Palestinian man was beheaded Monday for killing his father, the Interior Ministry said.

7.2 From Yahoo-news, another story:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - A Saudi man and a woman were beheaded Monday for murdering a Saudi man and stealing his money and car, the Interior Ministry said.

7.3 From Best of the Web, concerning the fire that killed 15 Saudi girls:

The al-Eqtisadiah daily said firemen scuffled with members of the religious police, also known as "mutaween," after they tried to keep the girls inside the burning building because they did not wear head scarves and abayas (black robes) as required by the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islam.

7.4 From the Guardian, on torture:

[P]owerful evidence is being unearthed that we are allowing the regime in Saudi Arabia to torture innocent middle-aged [British] expatriates with impunity - without, indeed, a squeak of public protest.

7.5 From Victor Davis Hanson:

Presently the U.N. Committee Against Torture is asking the Saudis to curtail flogging and amputations; so far, they have answered that such punishments have been an integral part of Islamic law "for 1,400 years" and so simply "cannot be changed."

8. Unacceptable attitude towards women


8.1 Kidnapping of American women and girls - article in World Net Daily:

for the last 16 years, two American citizens have spent their childhood – and now their early adulthood – captive in Saudi Arabia without so much as a whimper of meaningful protest from U.S. officials, nor the attention of the media.

8.2 Kidnapping of American women and girls - article by William McGurn:

Even Prince Saud, says Mr. Burton, stated that Saudi Arabia did not recognize U.S. law on these issues, a statement endorsed by their actions over the years. In addition, on two of the highest-profile cases the congressmen were asking about--that of Alia and Aisha Gheshayan, daughters of Pat Roush, and of Amjad Radwan, Monica Stowers's daughter--huge snags materialized out of nowhere.

8.3 Practicing Polygamy, Victor Davis Hanson:

Polygamy is legal, and practiced, among the Saudi elite.

8.4 Justifying polygamy - Arab News:

Neither God nor the Prophet has told us the reason for permitting men to have up to four wives at the same time. Therefore we cannot attach this permission to any particular reason. We may say, however, that this ruling has certain benefits, providing solution to a number of social problems.

8.5 As preached in mosques, via MEMRI - oppression of women:

Permitting women to leave the home, so that they rub up against men in the marketplaces and talk with people other than their chaperones - with some even exposing parts of their bodies prohibited from exposure - are forbidden acts, a disgrace, and lead to destruction.

8.6 Oppression of wemen - Victor Davis Hanson:

women are veiled, secluded and subject to the harsh protocols of a sexual apartheid. A few female Saudi professionals who in 1991 drove cars as a sign of protest mostly ended up arrested and jailed. Women who have traveled to the West remain under the constant surveillance of the Committee for the Advancement of Virtue and Elimination of Sin.

9. Plain chutzpha

9.1 "Boycott USA" mevement, Arab News:

Calls for boycotting US products in the Kingdom and elsewhere in the Middle East are growing as many Muslims believe that it is an effective weapon to change America’s pro-Israeli policies.

9.2 Attempts to squelch freedom of speech in the US - Middle East Forum:

In 1977, a teenaged Saudi princess, convicted of adultery, was executed in a Jidda parking lot, along with her lover (she was shot; he was beheaded). The story became the subject of dramatic reenactment in a 1980 PBS documentary, Death of a Princess. The response? Mobil Oil ran ads against the film, and the State Department tried to discourage PBS from broadcasting it. In the face of massive pressure, PBS showed the film only once.

Yes, it was the State Department and Mobil who did the squelching, but who stood behind them?

9.3 On the 9-11 families who are suing Saudis, via ABC News:

This is an act to extort Saudi money deposited in the United States and a way of meddling in the region," an official at Al Rajhi Investment and Development Corp, one of several Saudi banks named in the lawsuit, told Reuters by telephone.

9.4 Counter-suing, via Arab News:

Suits galore against US govt on the way
By Mutlak Al-Baqami, Arab News Staff

RIYADH, 21 August - A Saudi lawyer is planning to file more than 15 lawsuits against the US government and other parties for causing physical and psychological damages to his clients, preventing them from completing their studies and damaging their reputation through the media.

As I noted above, this presentation is based on a random collection of recent clippings. If the picture emerging from a random collection is so dismal, imagine what thorough, systematic research could yield!

P.S. Even as I was posting this article, another item of interest was posted by Reuters (and AP too). As told by the Washington Post, November 3, 2002, under the heading Saudi Says It Will Not Help Any U.S. Strike on Iraq:

Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. regional ally, said on Sunday it would not allow the United States to use its facilities for any attack against neighboring Iraq even if a strike was sanctioned by the United Nations.

I rest my case.

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland

Survey: Anti-Semitic attitudes
are prevalent all across Europe

What goes around comes around and is very much at home in Europe.

NEW YORK, Oct. 29 (JTA) — More than one-third of the people in Belgium, Germany, France and Spain hold strongly anti-Semitic views, according to two surveys conducted for the Anti-Defamation League.
The figures show that “all of Europe is infected” with anti-Semitism, said Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national director.

Some 39 percent of Belgians and 37 percent of Germans harbor strongly anti-Semitic views, according to the ADL’s index of anti-Semitism.

In France, 35 percent were strongly anti-Semitic, and in Spain 34 percent. The figure fell to 23 percent in Italy, 22 percent in Switzerland, 21 percent in Denmark, 19 percent in Austria, 18 percent in the United Kingdom and 7 percent in the Netherlands.

The results of the surveys will be discussed later this week at an ADL conference on global anti-Semitism in New York.

Anti-Semitic attitudes in France, Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Belgium were surveyed in June 2002. Attitudes in Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands were measured in September and are being released this week.

The ADL calculates attitudes based on an “anti-Semitism index” that monitors responses to 11 statements deemed by University of California researchers in 1964 to indicate ani-Semitism. Respondents who agree with six or more of the statements are considered “most anti-Semitic.”

Statements included the canards that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to their home countries, use shady practices to get what they want, care only about other Jews and prattle too much about the Holocaust.

Five hundred interviews were conducted in each country.

The survey released this week found that, overall, 40 percent of respondents think Jews have too much power in international financial markets. That number was highest in Spain, with 71 percent, and lowest in the Netherlands, where 18 percent believed it.

A majority — 56 percent — of respondents in the five countries recently surveyed see Jews as more loyal to Israel than to their home countries. That number skyrockets to 72 percent in Spain.

Reserve force exposed a live explosive belt

A ready to use explosive belt was discovered yesterday morning (02/11/02) by a Reserve Unit during a routine check at Tapuach junction, near Nablus. The forces stopped a vehicle containing a ready to use explosive belt. Both passengers were taken for questioning while the explosive belt was detonated in a controlled manner. The vehicle presumabely came from Nablus.

A senior Islamic Jihad operative, Said Tubassi was arrested in a joint IDF- ISA (Israeli Security Agency) operation on 01/11/02. Tubassi, age 19 is considered to be a very close assistant of the head of the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Northern Samaria, Iyad Sawalhah. Tubassi was arrested in the village of Araka, North Samaria together with another five wanted suspects, and were taken for questioning. Tubassi was involved in the preparation and carrying out of several suicide bombings and attempts inside Israel. He is suspected among other things to be responsible for the suicide bombings that were carried out at Megido junction on 17/10/02 where 17 Israeli civilians were killed. Also he is responsible for the bombing which was carried out at Karkur junction on 21/10/02 where14 Israeli civilians were killed.

Netanyahu accepts Israeli FM's post in transitional gov't: report

In Israeli politics, expect the unexpected.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Former premier Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the position of Israeli foreign minister offered by his Likud leadership rival Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

However, the radio said he only signed up to the deal on condition that early elections are held. There was no official comment from the prime minister's office.

The two right-wing figures agreed after two hours of talks to hold elections before parliament's current term expires in October 2003, but without specifying a date, the radio said.

The rivals for the leadership of the Likud party met at Sharon's official Jerusalem residence, two days after Sharon first offered the job to Netanyahu in talks at his ranch in the Negev desert of southern Israel.

Netanyahu had been widely tipped to turn the job down, as the position he covets is Sharon's own.

The slick media-savvy politician has swung to the hard right since his defeat in 1999 elections by Labour leader Ehud Barak, who in turn was booted out by Sharon in February 2001 polls for the prime minister's office.

His surprise agreement to sign up could facilitate talks with the far-right National Union bloc, whose hardline leader Avigdor Lieberman is close to Netanyahu and managed his successful 1996 election campaign.

Sharon met representatives of the bloc earlier in the day to woo its seven members into his cabinet, which would give him a majority of 62 in the 120-seat parliament and also allow him to ward off a no-confidence motion in the assembly on Monday.

No concrete agreement was reached in the talks, to resume after the confidence motion, proposed by centre-left and Arab parties.

Netanyahu will replace former foreign minister Shimon Peres, whose Labour party stalked out Sharon's 20-month national unity coalition last week in protest at planned spending on controversial Jewish settlements in next year's austerity budget.

Netanyahu Unlikely to Serve in Sharon Gov't-Sources

22 articles (links) on Netanyahu and other Israeli news items, plus summary.

Summary:
A leading human rights group has condemned Palestinian suicide bombings as crimes against humanity. Following Mr Ben - Eliezer's resignation, Mr Sharon moved swiftly to appoint hawkish former chief - of - staff Shaul Mofaz as Israel's new defence minister on Thursday, an aide to Mr Sharon said. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon meets his Likud party rival Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday in fresh talks to build a new coalition after the resignation of Labour Party ministers last week. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon filled the key defense portfolio on Saturday in a new coalition he is trying to build after Labour Party ministers quit last week in a row over funding for Jewish settlements. Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to turn down the post of Israeli foreign minister, in what would be a blow to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's efforts to put together a narrow right - wing coalition.

Source Articles:
Israeli hardliner takes defence job (BBC News 11/02/2002)
Sharon opts for defence hardliner (BBC News 10/31/2002)
Sharon woos rival for cabinet post (BBC News 11/01/2002)
Sharon seeks new coalition backing (BBC News 10/31/2002)
Focus on Netanyahu as Sharon Builds New Government (Reuters 11/02/2002)
Sharon Fills Defense Job, Eyes Now on Netanyahu (Reuters 11/02/2002)
Netanyahu Unlikely to Serve in Sharon Gov't-Sources (Reuters 11/02/2002)
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made a surprise move t... (NY Post 11/02/2002)
Gaza Explosion Kills Three (CBS News 11/01/2002)
Israel's former army chief of staff accepted the job of defense minist... (FOX News 11/02/2002)
Israel, U.S. Vow No Change In Policy (CBS News 11/02/2002)
Israel's Odd Couple Splits Up (CBS News 10/31/2002)
Profile: Israel's kingmakers (BBC News 10/31/2002)
Country profile: Israel and Palestinian autonomous areas (BBC News 10/31/2002)
West Bank Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat warned Thursday against any... (FOX News 11/01/2002)
Profile: Israeli defence chief Shaul Mofaz (BBC News 10/31/2002)
Mofaz Accepts Israel Defense Post - Statement (Reuters 11/02/2002)
Palestinian Official Fears New Israeli Crackdown (Reuters 11/02/2002)
Profile: Israel's Labor leader (BBC News 10/31/2002)
Hopes and fears after government collapse (BBC News 10/31/2002)
Palestinians query viability of two states (BBC News 10/31/2002)
Palestinian suicide attacks condemned (BBC News 11/01/2002)

Hariri heads to US for talks on Lebanon aid conference

This is outrageous. Lebanon, occupied by Syria and hosting Hizbollah, a terror group that is one of the worst around, and which has vowed no end to their terror (see posts below), now wants the world to bail them out? Let Syria and Iran (paymasters to Hizbollah) do it.

BEIRUT (AFP) - Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri left for talks with international financial organizations on an upcoming donors conference in Paris to boost Lebanon's ailing economy.

Hariri will meet the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Horst Koehler, World Bank President James Wolfensohn, as well as US Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security advisor Condoleezza Rice, his office said Sunday.

He will be accompanied for the US trip by Finance Minister Fouad Siniora, Economy Minister Bassel Fleihan and central bank governor Riad Salameh to prepare the groundwork for the Paris II conference, to be held on November 23.

Beirut aims to raise five billion dollars in aid -- equal to what it hopes to gain from a planned privatization of public services -- through a combination of grants and loans at preferential interest rates.

Lebanon's public debt reached 30 billion dollars (30.5 billion euros) at the end of April, or 180 percent of gross domestic product. Beirut's staggering debt payments have undermined efforts to slash government spending.

In February 2001, Chirac hosted a so-called Paris I meeting of World Bank and European Union officials to avert a widespread financial crisis in Lebanon.

Besides France and Lebanon, 16 other countries have been invited to participate in the sequel, including Belgium, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Spain, the United States, Saudi Arabia and EU president Denmark, the French president's office said Friday.

The World Bank and IMF and a host of other international and regional financial institutions are also invited.

More than 100,000 converge on Tel Aviv for Rabin memorial

Remembering Rabin. But it takes much more than nice phrases to stop committed killers from their destruction

TEL AVIV (AFP) - More than 100,000 people flocked to Tev Aviv to attend an official memorial ceremony for prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was shot dead seven years ago by a religious fanatic.

The ceremony, entitled "Remembering together -- believing in peace", kicked off shortly after 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) in Rabin Square, the park where the champion of the peace process was assassinated on November 4, 1995 by Yigal Amir, a law student turned hardcore nationalist.

The demonstration took place under a heavy security presence which Tel Aviv police chief Yossi Sedbon said involved some 1,500 officers at the scene. A police spokesmen told local media the turnout was more than 100,000.

The rally brought to a close the nation's official period of remembrance for Rabin, which began on October 17, the Jewish lunar calendar's anniversary of the assassination which shocked the nation.

The crowds packed into the square, on one side of which was a large stage, flanked by a giant red banner bearing Rabin's picture and the words: "Seven years from the day".

People waved banners in English and Hebrew bearing an array of messages including, "Refuse the occupation," and "Enough of the silence of the left".

Addressing the crowd in a video message, Jordan's King Abdullah II said he believed Rabin would have been deeply dismayed by the ongoing violence in the region.

"If prime minister Rabin were with us today, I believe he would be dismayed, shocked, even angry at the bitter violence in our region. But I do not believe he would be discouraged because, as he recognised so many years ago, the vast majority on both sides want peace," he said.

"Now it is up to us to listen to the voices of peace or to bow to the obstructionists, the extremists, the opportunists. We can deliver on the promise of this century but only if we choose wisely. Let us choose peace."

Radical Palestinian groups scorn new Arafat cabinet

The split that had been gowing begins to open wider as militant terror groups condemn Arafat

DAMASCUS - Radical Palestinian groups dismissed on Wednesday the new Palestinian Authority cabinet as a mere reshuffling of a government they consider politically bankrupt and a threat to the Palestinian uprising against Israel.

"The Palestinian Authority has become addicted to ignoring the will of the people and the cries of the uprising," a statement from the Damascus-based Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) said.

"It blocked the path of political correction with the return of (much of) the old cabinet," it said.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat won the approval of his parliament on Tuesday for a new cabinet in a stormy session during which critics accused him of failing to make real changes to a government they view as tainted with corruption.

The United States and Israel have called for Palestinian democratic and security reforms as well as a new leadership U.S. President George W. Bush said must be "uncompromised by terror."

Washington, which wants Israeli-Palestinian tensions contained ahead of a possible war on Iraq, said it was "underwhelmed" by the line-up, which included many old faces and was seen as short on reformers.

Campus groups facilitate dialog between Israeli, Palestinian students

My guess is that it much easier to talk in a civil manner when terror groups are not blowing up things in your little patch of earth. Would that some Jewish leftist students begin to see things from an Israeli perspective.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The two Georgetown University freshmen - one pro-Israeli, the other pro-Palestinian - exchanged angry words the first time they met. But the next time, at an evening-long student forum, Ilya Breyman and Maher Bitar ended the night by embracing and making vows to keep talking.

Said Bitar, whose family roots trace back to Palestine: "I would say this is a start."

Activists concerned about the Middle East conflict say similar moments have been occurring at campuses across the nation.

Despite clashes at San Francisco State University and the University of California at Berkeley - and a letter signed by 300 academics decrying harassment of Jewish students - activists say, more often, pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian students are reaching out to each other.

"The people who are very vocal and visible get the attention. And those are the extremists," said Marisa Handler, a national organizer for the Tikkun Campus Network.

"The people in the middle are not as dramatic and they get less attention," said Handler, whose position has taken her to campuses around the country this year. Her group is an offshoot of Tikkun, the liberal Jewish magazine.

To be sure, unrest in the Middle East - along with other political and social issues - take a back seat for many college students to the rhythms of campus life: classes, exams and weekend parties or extracurricular activities.

When the subject of Palestine and Israel is raised, however, it is often in the spirit brought to the Georgetown discussion by Muhammed Alatar, a Palestinian-American who co-facilitated the forum there. The Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue Group also helped coordinate the meeting.

Doublespeak And Hysteria On The Israeli Left

By Ariel Natan Pasko

As I sit down to write this, I wonder, am I putting my life in danger?

According to an Arutz Sheva news item, "Left´s Hate Campaign Gaining Momentum", MKs and left wing notables "warn" that the actions aimed at preventing the dismantling of Yesha (Judea, Samaria, & Gaza) outposts are "setting the stage for another political assassination". ´Political Assassination´ those words ring out in my mind. Considering what several spokesman of the Left have said in the last few days, I too worry, that some crazed person from the ´Looney Left´ will try to murder a personage from the Right (according to the Jerusalem Post, October 25 edition, Minister Effi Eitam of the National Religious Party, received death treats by phone, e-mail, and fax Thursday, and his office blamed incitement by the Labor Party).

After Monday´s car bomb attack at Karkur Junction near Pardess Hanna, which killed 14 and wounded 65, unnamed officials close to Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) partially blamed the settlers at Gilad Farm for the terrorist attack. "If the soldiers are not busy removing outposts, they can be used to defend the country," one official said. The IDF (the Israeli Army) should be dealing with the crucial task of protecting the state and not wasting forces on marginal tasks it is forced into, like the outposts." (Jerusalem Post, Oct. 22). Well, who gave the order to waste the troops on a highly divisive political action? DM Ben-Eliezer seems to be pushing the issue, ahead of the November 2002 Labor party primaries. But more importantly, notice the not so subtle insinuation that the ´settlers´ are to blame for terrorism against Israel. It´s virtually a ´blood libel´.

Quoting from the Arutz Sheva story (Oct. 21), one of the most extreme statements came from Meretz Knesset member and opposition leader Yossi Sarid who said, "All of the settlements were created by law-breaking and violence and I hope the spread of this cancer will end quickly. The outposts are worse than suicide bomb belts." Jewish towns and villages are cancers? Well, you cut cancers out, don´t you? You kill cancers. Similar to MK Sarid´s remarks, Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg (Labor) called the people at Havat Gilad "Jewish Hamas." And what are we supposed to do if we see a suicide bomber about to explode himself? Shooting him might be a reasonable response. Are MK Sarid and Speaker Burg urging people to shoot settlers? “Worse than suicide bomb belts”, “Jewish Hamas” - really?

Ha´aretz (Oct. 21) reported that MK Yossi Sarid said the settlers´ militias had started a revolt over the weekend that the government had to destroy. "If the settlers´ revolt is not crushed, it will be the end of democracy and the beginning of chaos in which each man will attack the other," he said. Is he hinting that the Left will feel it necessary to attack people that don´t agree with them, people who exercise their free speech and assembly rights? People who peacefully protest government policy in a democratic society (even through ´civil disobedience´) don´t need to be crushed or destroyed. The beginning of chaos and the end of democracy has started, but through MK Sarid´s verbal assaults.

Similarly, Arutz Sheva reported (Oct. 21) that Agricultural Minister Shalom Simchon (Labor) said that the actions of the right wing "endanger the existence of the State of Israel." Really? Over 600 people killed and thousands injured from terrorist attacks in the last two-years – that doesn´t endanger the existence of the State of Israel? Arafat´s war, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Syria, Iraq, Iran - they don´t endanger the existence of the State of Israel? Only a bunch of idealistic kids on a barren hilltop somewhere in the middle of the historic Jewish homeland endanger the existence of the State of Israel.

In a cabinet dispute Sunday (as reported in the Jerusalem Post, Oct. 21), Environment Minister Tzahi Hanegbi (Likud) accused Industry Minister Dalia Itzik (Labor) and other Labor ministers of using the Rabin assassination as an excuse to attack the right. Hanegbi reacted to an angry outburst by Itzik about the settler violence at Gilad Farm: “‘The settlers are trying to kill Israeli democracy,’ I told Sharon, ‘You saw what happened to Rabin, this they will do to you,’” Itzik said. “The end of democracy,” “endanger the existence of the State of Israel,” “trying to kill Israeli democracy,” – kill Israeli democracy, kill Yitzchak Rabin, kill someone else - that´s the hysteria emanating from the Left today.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority and Arutz Sheva reported (Oct 21) that left wing activists on Sunday night demonstrated outside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, demanding additional Yesha outposts be dismantled. Demonstrators called on Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, not to give in to "terrorism by the settlers." Legitimate (and I might add, legally protected, when not violent) protest is terrorism now. Arutz Sheva adds, left wing politicians are calling on legal authorities, namely the State Attorney General, to declare the Yesha Council a rebellious illegal organization following its recent role in the resistance to the dismantling of Gilad Farm in the Shomron. Yet Arutz Sheva (Oct 22) reported that Yesha Council leaders on Monday reiterated their position, calling for passive resistance only, explaining once again that the council remains opposed to any and all violence against soldiers and police. Doesn´t sound like much of a rebellious illegal organization, does it? “Terrorism,” “rebellious illegal organization” - it sure sounds like ´Orwellian Doublespeak´, meant to confuse people and stifle free speech.

Are these leftists the same people who recently, during Rabin memorials (as they do constantly), reminded us that ´words can kill´, and constantly warn against incitement to violence? Is it real caution and concern for verbal violence and its side effects, or is it a methodical attempt at curbing discussion and opposition to their ´pipe dream´ of peace.

The Israeli Left, having seen its ´pipe-dream´ of peace with the Palestinians go up in smoke (from shootings, mortar attacks and suicide bombers, in Arafat´s war against Israel), is determined to use ´Orwellian Doublespeak´, false accusations and reinterpretation of events in order to fit their ideological views, their emotional needs, and to promote their false messianism. ´Soviet-style´ disinformation, otherwise known as outright lies, are being used to turn one part of the Israeli population against another part. Threats of ´civil war´, ´political assassination´, ´rebellion´ are used to frighten people from public and legal opposition to failed ´peace policies´ and stifle free speech.

Are you frightened?

I´m not.

Palestinian journalists boycott Hamas

Will wonders never cease? Palestinian media boycotting Hamas!

The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has decided on a boycott of Hamas following an attack on journalists who were covering a bomb explosion in Gaza City Thursday.

Three Hamas members were killed in the explosion in the Sabra neighborhood when a bomb they were apparently preparing exploded prematurely.

A large number of Hamas activists and supporters attacked the journalists who arrived at the scene, beating them and destroying their cameras. The attackers accused the journalists of collaboration with Israel and threatened to shoot them.

A statement issued by the syndicate said the attack took place in the presence of senior Hamas officials who showed up at the scene of the explosion. The bodyguard of Dr. Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas leader, threatened the cameramen, cocked his automatic rifle, and forced them to hand over their videotapes.

The statement said the journalists belonged to the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France Press, and Palestine TV. Some of them were stoned and roughed up by angry Hamas activists.

"We hold Hamas fully responsible for the assault on the journalists and for seriously jeopardizing their lives," said the strongly worded statement.

"We demand an open and public apology from Hamas for this attack." The statement called on journalists to boycott Hamas until further notice.

Ma'ariv: Israel announces the discovery of a second spying network

This story from an Arab paper.

The Israeli daily Ma'ariv unveiled that the Hizbullah party had also succeeded in organizing a second spy network inside Israel. It said that the Israeli central court in al-Nasera permitted issuing the details of the list of accusations addressed to two citizens of the Arab villages in northern Palestine and explained that the two involved individuals are 26 year old, each.

The list of accusations indicates that "the two men, with the support of other two Arabs handed information to the enemy at times of war, contacting a foreign hireling and trading with drugs."

The paper indicated that investigations in this case were made in collaboration between the investigation unit in the Israeli police and al-Shabak.

According to Ma'ariv, the attorney general Ya'il Koukhabi claimed that the two convicted persons used two other Arab-Israelis as middle men to distribute drugs and to convey security information to the Hizbullah Party. She said that the liaison man in this case is a Lebanese drug trader, the one who used to receive the security information from the two accused men and give them for that sums and drugs.

According to the list of the accusation, the two convicted men worked for a short time from May until July this year during the several times they went to Lebanon to provide sensitive security information. The court also permitted publishing news that the two men transported to Lebanon books about the mountains of Jerusalem and al-Khalil desert, tourist maps and signals for various roads in Israel. They had also sent to Lebanon a mobile phone, a computer, a printer and computer programs in return for thousands of dollars

News from Israel.

Seven newspaper articles follow summary.

Summary:
A strongly-worded report by the New York -based Human Rights Watch says those who plan such attacks - which have killed scores of Israeli citizens over the past two years - should face criminal investigation. (4) The group says that even during a time of conflict, all attacks against civilians are crimes against humanity and should be treated as such. (4) Its report - entitled Erased in a Moment - concludes that those who carry out suicide bombings are not "martyrs" but war criminals, as are people who plan such attacks. (4) An explosion of unknown origin killed at least three people Thursday at the home of a Hamas militant in Gaza, Palestinian sources said. (5) Spending on Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip had been a major bone of contention between Sharon's Likud Party and Labor. (2) A Palestinian man shot and killed three Israelis late Tuesday and wounded three others in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Hermesh before Israeli forces shot him dead, the Israel Defense Forces said. (7) The gunman fired at tractors near Kfar Zita on a highway along the mostly unmarked frontier with the West Bank, and was killed by guards. (3)

Source Articles:
Palestinians query viability of two states (BBC News 10/31/2002)
Israel's Odd Couple Splits Up (CBS News 10/31/2002)
A Palestinian gunman opened fire on an Israeli construction crew befor... (FOX News 10/30/2002)
Palestinian suicide attacks condemned (BBC News 11/01/2002)
Sources: Three dead in Gaza blast at militant's home (CNN 10/31/2002)
Israelis die in attack on settlement (BBC News 10/30/2002)
Gunman kills 3 Israelis, wounds 3 others (CNN 10/30/2002)

The Shterzer Peace Plan

On October 26, Gil Shterzer posted on the Israeli Guy site a proposal for the final settlement with the Palestinian Arabs, a proposal which I am reproducing below (Gil's proposal also incorporates intermediate steps, leading to the final settlement, but the present article concentrate on the final phase only). Please note that the Gil’s proposal is reproduced as posted, with no modifications whatever.

The Shterzer peace plan

The final solution will look similar to what Barak offered in Camp David. Most of the settlements will be dismantled. The big ones near the green line with total of around 80% of the settler’s population will be annexed and fenced out. In return the Palestinian should be given equal amount of land from Israel, my suggestions are to give the areas densely populated with Israeli Arabs near the Green line such as Umm el Fahem, Taybe, Tira and the villages around. This will reduce the number of Arabs inside the state of Israel and will help secure Israel’s future demographically.

The all border between Israel and the Palestinian state will be fenced and heavily secured, this is not Europe after all. There will be gates and inspections. If it will work there is no reason a controlled traffic shouldn’t be allowed. If it will resolve against Israel’s interests the border will be sealed the Palestinians will suffocate economically. The new Palestinian state would also have to be demilitarized and under strict international supervision for at least 20-30 years.

It will be made clear that any cheatings and lying will result in the end of the agreement and will lead to Israel recouping the Palestinian state.

The bottom line that maybe a lot of you not living in Israel are unaware off is that (as far As I believe and know) most Israelis prefer peace to land. Meaning we prefer to live peacefully without the West Bank and Gaza than to live in war with the land. We do not want and won’t agree to live without the land and without peace.

Let us examine the proposal item by item.

The final solution will look similar to what Barak offered in Camp David.

Objection. Even without going into the details of the Barak proposal, where is the justification for rewarding terrorists for two years of carnage by offering them exactly what they refused initially? Rewarding terrorists in this way is a danger to all democracies.

Most of the settlements will be dismantled.

Again I must ask: if Jews are allowed to live and purchase property in Toronto and New York, why are they not granted the same rights in Yesha?

The big ones near the green line with total of around 80% of the settler’s population will be annexed and fenced out. In return the Palestinian should be given equal amount of land from Israel, my suggestions are to give the areas densely populated with Israeli Arabs near the Green line such as Umm el Fahem, Taybe, Tira and the villages around. This will reduce the number of Arabs inside the state of Israel and will help secure Israel’s future demographically.

This land trading is predicated on an assumption that the land belongs to the Palestinian Arabs. In fact, it does not. The Jewish National Home has already been whittled down to a tiny fraction of what was initially agreed upon at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, and at the San Remo Conference, 1920. There is no justification to giving up any more land.

The all border between Israel and the Palestinian state will be fenced and heavily secured, this is not Europe after all. There will be gates and inspections. If it will work there is no reason a controlled traffic shouldn’t be allowed. If it will resolve against Israel’s interests the border will be sealed the Palestinians will suffocate economically. The new Palestinian state would also have to be demilitarized and under strict international supervision for at least 20-30 years.

This is the major problem with the Shterzer Peace Plan. After the 1956 War, Israel had demilitarized Sinai with “international supervision”, but when push came to shove, the “international supervision” walked out on Israel, leaving her to fend for herself on the eve of the 1967 War. Israel also had agreements with Egypt on the eve of the 1973 War, agrements which Egypt promptly ignored. Israel cannot rely on demilitarization agreements, nor on “international supervision”, especially when the UN and most (if not all) countries are either hostile to Israel or indifferent. And 20-30 years may sound like a lifetime to a person 30 years of age, but in the life of a nation that span is a mere dot in the timeline of history. What happens AFTER 30 years? And what happens if the demilitarization agreement is abrogated by the Palestinians, as they abrogated the Oslo Accords when they hatched the Karine A plot? Who will serve Israel’s interests then?

It will be made clear that any cheatings and lying will result in the end of the agreement and will lead to Israel recouping the Palestinian state.

By then, the “international supervision”, the heavy arms the Palestinian Arabs are sure to smuggle in, and whatever fortifications the Palestinian Arabs construct, will all add up to an insurmountable wall. “Reoccupying” will not be the simple solution implied in the Shterzer plan.

The bottom line that maybe a lot of you not living in Israel are unaware off is that (as far As I believe and know) most Israelis prefer peace to land. Meaning we prefer to live peacefully without the West Bank and Gaza than to live in war with the land. We do not want and won’t agree to live without the land and without peace.

If these were the two choices, we would be living in an ideal world. The real choice is between “no land and no peace” and “land with a chance of peace”. The reasons for this are as follows.

All indications are that the Palestinian Arabs and their clones in the Arab countries around Israel, are hell bent on destroying Israel - the leadership and the “street” are united in this objective (see evidence in my article of 28 October 2002).
If one is sufficiently aware of this fact, then one must conclude that unwitingly, Gil was correct when he called his proposal, “the final solution” (I really can’t understand how anyone with sensitivity could use such a term for a final settlement of a conflict!)

Giving up land will only improve the Arab strategic position and make the annihilation of Israel easier. It will take a minimum of two generations of intensive re-education to undo the anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli incitement to which the Arabs (Palestinians included) are treated daily. It is not a question of merely removing Arafat and his gang, it is a question of a radical re-appraisal of Arab goals by the Arabs themselves, and this is nowhere in sight.

The alternative is autonomy under Israeli sovereignty. In a better world, a more humane and compromising solution could have been forwarded, but we live in this world, not in “a better world”. If Israel wishes to survive, she has no choice but to stand her ground and oppose anything more than autonomy. This price that the Palestinian Arabs have to pay is small in comparison with what other terrorist states had to pay; Germany, for example, lost the huge area of East Prussia after WW II and nobody sheds tears over that loss - not even the Germans.

Prime Minister Sharon has indicated his willingness to accept a Palestinian-Arab state. Unfortunately, this acceptance is not accompanied by the qualifications that Sharon made previously. For example, according to the official Israel Government site, Ariel Sharon stated as follows, at the Press Club in Paris, January 15, 1999, as the Foreign Minister at that time:

Following repeated questions from the press here with regard to what I said about a Palestinian state, I wish to clarify what I said and what I meant.

The concept I used to describe the future Palestinian entity is limited sovereignty. This entity, which will be more than what they have today but less than a full state, can only be reached through negotiations and an agreement with Israel, and never by a unilateral act or declaration.

This entity will be limited in terms of types and amounts of weapons it will be allowed to possess; Israel will maintain control of the borders and ports of entry and departures; military agreements and defense treaties that threaten Israel will not be allowed; free flying zones for Israeli aircraft over that entity will have to be maintained as well as other specific measures - all of which are intended to limit and curb the danger and threats such an entity may pose in the future for the State of Israel. Even if relations are normalized in the future Israel will have to monitor the development of such an entity and ensure that its security interests in the long-run are not hampered or compromised in any way.

That we have heard nothing like these words since the Quartet started to gang up on our sister-democracy is a source of great worry. Perhaps the new coalition will be a wee more explicit.

May Israel have the courage and strength to protect herself, and may she flourish.

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland