Except where Israel is concerned...

The war against terrorism continues, and the US will take no half-measures. So says the vice president of the US, as reported today [May 31] in a Reuters dispatch entitled, "No Deterrents in U.S. War on Terror - Cheney":

WEST POINT (Reuters) - The United States will not pursue deterrence or containment policies in its so-called war on terrorism but would instead seek to utterly destroy its enemies, Vice President Dick Cheney said on Saturday.

In a speech to the 2003 graduating class of the U.S. Military Academy, Cheney also warned that the United States remained willing to use its military might against any nation supporting terrorists.

Ah, brave words indeed! But Cheney forgot to mention the exception: "Israelis need not apply". When it comes to Israel's security, half-measures, quarter-measures, smoke and mirrors, words in lieu of deeds - any of those will suffice. Here is one proof, one of all too many, as cited from today's AP report, "Palestinians, U.S. Discuss Declarations":

JERUSALEM (AP) - The United States accepts a Palestinian plan to persuade militant groups to halt anti-Israeli attacks rather than launch an immediate crackdown, the Palestinians said Saturday ahead of a three-way summit with President Bush.
...
Israel has said that for now it would accept a cease-fire from the militants, though it wants Palestinian officials to act to disarm and disband the groups as soon as possible.

If you are a US citizen, then the next time Bush/Cheney solicit your vote, ask yourself: in the face of such blatant discrimination against Israel, do they merit your vote?

On a personal note, I should add that the consistent, systematic unfairness with which Israel has been treated by her supposed friends - including the US and Canada - was one of the top 36 reasons why I found myself compelled to actively support Israel.

Such Good Friends

Syria signs oil deal with U.S. firms

Hat tip to Instapundit Is memory failing? Isn't Syria one member of the Axis of Nogoodnicks? I guess Syria needs the income to help fund their occupation of Lebanon (30 thousand troops) and Hizbullah.

DAMASCUS, Syria, May 31 (UPI) -- Syria signed an accord Saturday with two U.S. petroleum companies to explore for oil in an area close to the border with Iraq, a move that analysts said suggested improved ties between the two countries after strained relations over the war on Iraq.

Syrian Oil Minister Ibrahim Haddad and representatives from Golf Sandz Petroleum and Devon Energy Corp signed the agreement. According to the agreement, the Syrian government grants both U.S. companies the exclusive right to explore, develop and produce oil in a region of 11,000 square kilometers, or 4,300 square miles, in northeast Syria on its border with Iraq.

The preliminary exploration phase extends for four years at a cost of $20 million and allows for an increase to hundreds of million of U.S. dollars should oil be discovered. At that point, a joint Syrian-U.S. oil firm would be established.

Based in Oklahoma City, Okla., Devon Energy indicated that the contract could be extended to 25 years from the date oil production starts and will be also allow for another 10-year extension.

"This partnership enhances Devon's presence in the Middle East," said James T. Hackett, Devon's president and chief operating officer, in a statement. "The Syrian partnership focuses on exploration around areas with proven reserves."

Hackett said such a joint project would lead to a better understanding between Syria and the United States. He added the Bush administration had not told the U.S. companies they couldn't invest in Syria.

On the contrary, said Hackett, elements within the Bush administration, especially the State Department, was encouraging the U.S. firms to invest and operate in Syria. He noted that the Syria Accountability Act does not reflect Washington's policy towards Syria but rather "democracy within the Congress." The act calls for Syria to withdraw its influence from Lebanon and for imposing punitive measures if it does not.[more]

Ah, yes. The State Department is all for this to create wonderful relationships. And recognizing Israel's right to exist?

Lawsuit Exposes Federal Cover-Up of Saudi-funded Terrorist Net in Florida

John Loftus writes

The Saudi relationship is so sensitive that, for more than a decade, federal prosecutors and counter-terrorist agents have been ordered to shut down their investigations for reasons of foreign policy.

[..] The Saudi purpose was twofold: the destruction of the State of Israel and the prevention of the formation of an independent Palestinian State.

Two particular terrorist groups, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, were specifically chosen and funded by the Saudis for their willingness to undermine Arafat’s Palestinian Authority. The secret Saudi goal was to create such animosity between Israel and the Palestinian Authority that it would wreck any chance for the creation of an independent Palestinian State. Their tactics specifically called for the intimidation or murder of those Palestinians who were willing to work with Israel for peace.

[..] Whatever harm the Israelis may have done, they did build an excellent public education system, including several universities, for the benefit of their Palestinian neighbors. That was the problem.

While literacy in the Arab world is below 50%, in Israel it is 97%.Israel is the only place in the Middle East where an Arab woman can vote. After 50 years, Israel has created the first Arab class exposed to democracy, literacy and western values.

To the Saudis, a democratic Palestinian nation would be a cancer in the Arab world, a destabilizing example of freedom that would threaten Arab dictators everywhere. As King Fahd said, “next to the Jews, we hate the Palestinians the most.” The harder the Israelis and Palestinians worked for peace, the more money King Fahd poured into his murder for hire program.

[..] The reason for this deafening silence is simple, most Mosques in the world are impoverished and depend upon Saudi subsidies for their operation. In return, however, the Saudis have gained a foothold for proselytizing and radicalizing the Muslim youth through religious education in the form of militant Wahabbism. Children learn to hate because they are being taught that way.

Year after year, members of the intelligence community warned that a rising wave of terror was coming. Oliver North wrote in his autobiography that every time he tried to do something about terrorism, he was told to stop because it would embarrass the Saudi Government. John O’Neill quit his job as head of FBI counter-terrorism for the same reason. Jonathan Pollard went to jail.

Federal agents in Tampa, who had known about the Saudi-Sami Al Arian connection since 1990, were ordered to drop the investigation in 1995. The Saudi influence buying machine had effectively shut down any threat of criminal prosecution. Those Americans, including a former President, who lobbied for the Saudis have a lot to answer for. So do the Saudis.

My clients are betting that the American influence peddlers hired by the Saudis will succeed once again in derailing a federal investigation. They came to me for help in exposing the cover-up. That is why I am filing this lawsuit.

[..] The orders were not to embarrass the Saudi Government. Year after years, the cover-up orders came from the State Department and the White House. The CIA, the FBI, and the Justice Department just did what they were told.

We are not alone in our grief and anger. Saudi money sabotaged every Israeli initiative to make peace. The bewildered Palestinians may finally realize that they have been stabbed in the back by an Arab brother. The rules have changed after September 11, but the bottom line remains the same: if we want to stop terrorism, we have to tell the Saudis to stop funding it. MORE

Bush vows to reach peace deal

Haaretz reports that Bush determined on a two-state solution and follow-up to regional meetings he attends

U.S. President George W. Bush vowed Saturday to make every effort to push ahead the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, declaring that, he would "do all that I can to help the parties reach an agreement and then to see that that agreement is enforced."

Speaking in Krakow, following a visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau, Bush welcomed the "the emergence of a new Palestinian leadership, which has condemned terror" as "a hopeful sign that the parties can agree to two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security." [...]Bush said he would tell Middle East leaders that the United States needs help to achieve peace. "And we need countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Jordan and others to work together to cut off funding for terrorist groups, to prevent the killers from moving around, to help provide security."

As a Palestinian state emerges, Arab nations will have to support Abbas with development aid as well as advice, the president said. "I am going to hold people accountable for their commitments," Bush said.

What can be done?

In her column yesterday [May 30, 2003], Gabrielle Goldwater asked,

Is there nothing that can be done when the President of the United State's team threatens the sovereign State of Israel that they will cut off the supply of arms and aid to Israel if Sharon doesn't march to Bush's drum?

For suggestions on what can and should be done, especially if you are a citizen of either Israel or the US, read GG's article.

Separation Wall goes unreported

How Come?

The building of the wall could be a very explosive issue both in Israel and the territories. The story can't seem to get traction and not for lack of some groups trying.

In Israel, B'Tselem and Gush Shalom keep monitoring progress and reports every deviation of the Wall from the green line. Their reports focus on the effects on the "Palestinians". The Guardian has written extensively as has the Palestine Monitor. All complain about the confiscation of land. Even an international group have issued a report on the impact on the ground. Israel stands widely condemned.

But I bet you are hardly aware of what's going on. It is almost a non story. Many think that the President determines what is news. If he refers to the settlements, everyone reports on it. If he doesn't refer to the separation wall, no one reports on it.

Although the wall was to stay very close to the green line and was to be temporary and was needed for security, something else seems to be happening. It is carving out a path to include as much land and Israelis living in the territories as possible or practicable. The land on the west side of it is being taken over in one way or another by Israel. And the State Department and Bush are silent. At a time when they are demanding that Israel make gestures, dismantle settlements and institute a freeze even on natural growth, they have nothing to say about the wall. I don't know about you, but it strikes me as surprising to say the least.

We also hear that Sharon is thinking about a Palestinian state on only 50% of the territories. This has always astounded me. With all the pressure he is under, how does he think such a state would be acceptable.

Perhaps the wall is the answer. Has the US tacitly approved?

Rewarding terrorists

You don't have to believe me that Israel is rewarding terrorists - read it at the official site of the PM of Israel. Digesting the distilled and skewed version of journalists just doesn't cut it; it's only the complete, official version that lays out the stark reality.

Below, extracted from the official statement, are three paragraphs concerning the concessions that the Israeli government has made, is making and offers to make.

The Prime Minister repeated his offer from the previous meeting, and suggested that he would direct the security forces to redeploy immediately in the Gaza Strip and in Judea and Samaria in such a way that would make it easier for the Palestinians to take responsibility for security in these areas, and act in a genuine and real manner to stop terror. The significance of this step would be a different deployment of our troops, and in the framework of this change pulling out of city centers in Judea and Samaria, and the reduction of the Israeli military presence there would be included.

In addition, the Prime Minister announced a comprehensive review of Palestinian prisoner lists, in order to assess if there are any who could be released. The Prime Minister also announced a long list of steps, the purpose of which is to ease the living conditions of the Palestinians, foster trade and encourage the Palestinian economy.

Some of the steps the Prime Minister detailed include:
- Removing the closure of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.
- Granting permanent transit permits to senior Palestinian officials according to the lists which were submitted.
- Israel would undertake a comprehensive review of prisoner lists, and would examine which prisoners could be released. Israel would release 100 administrative detainees.
Furthermore, in response to a Palestinian request, it was decided to release the prisoners Tiysar Chaled and Abu Sukar. Every prisoner would be required to sign a document, which obliges him or her from engaging in terror.
- It was decided to increase the transfers of Israeli-held Palestinian tax funds to the amount of NIS 150 million per month.
- A quota of 25 thousand workers will be allocated to work in Israel, 15,000 from Gaza and 10,000 from Judea and Samaria.
- Overnight stays will be approved for 2,000 Palestinian workers in Israel.
- The travel permits for Palestinian businesspeople travelling within Palestinian Authority areas and into Israel was increased to 8,000.
- The series of measures easing operation of humanitarian organizations operating in the territories was expanded.

I searched in vain for any concession offered by Abu Mazen - the only PM on this planet with a nom de guerre - but I was able to find not one item.

This has placed me on the horns of a dilemma.

On the one hand, Israel is a democratic country, and the concession are made by a democratically-elected government. Who am I to second guess the Israeli moves or challenge them? It would be the height of hubris if I did so, when I am neither a citizen nor a resident of Israel, nor likely to ever be either of these. To add to this "on the one hand" facet of the dilemma, a poll reported today [30 May 2003] by JPost revealed the following:

59 percent of Israelis support a freeze on settlement building in the territories, while 57 percent support establishing a temporary Palestinian state - key measures in the first and second phases, respectively, of the internationally backed "road map" to peace.

The poll also showed that 62 percent of Israelis support an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza while 32 percent opposed it.

On the other hand, I am utterly convinced that Israel is falling into a trap out of which it may never emerge. Torrents of articles alluded to in this blog and elsewhere agree with this view, and confirmation of the validity of this view is available daily. For example, today [30 May 2003], one day after the foregoing concessions were offered, one reads about a new string of terrorist acts perpetrated by the Arabs in Yesha; see, Ha'Aretz story that includes the following, among the numerous incidents listed:

Also Friday night, Palestinians fired an anti-tank rocket at an IDF position next to Rafah Yam in the southern Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported. They also fired light weapons. There were no injuries.

Palestinians also opened fire on IDF troops next to the Gaza Strip settlement of Neve Dekalim. Again, there were no injuries.

Overnight Friday, IDF troops killed an armed Palestinian overnight [sic] trying to cross into Israel from the Gaza Strip, south of the Katif crossing.

In the past, this was Sharon's article of faith: there would be no negotiations unless the terrorist acts ceased; and here he is, negotiating and offering concessions even as terrorism proceeds unhindered!

I feel like one who observes that his sibling is about to take a very, very imprudent step, but is unable to stop him. I do fear for your safety, Israel.

Action: Another anti-Roadmap petition to Bush

JAT has sent around an e-mail urging US citizens to sign a petition, the text of which is given below. Note that the petition sates expressly, "The undersigned Americans", so it would be inappropriate for non-US citizens to sign.

The petition URL is http://www.petitiononline.com/amcha503 (click to sign).

Petition text

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President George W. Bush,

We support and commend your courageous leadership in the Middle East and are sincerely grateful for your further deepening of the strong ties between America and Israel.

Mr. President, on June 24, 2002 you presented your vision for achieving peace in the region. You concluded by saying,

this moment is both an opportunity and a test for all parties in the Middle East – an opportunity to lay the foundations for future peace, a test to show who's serious about peace and who is not. The choice here is stark and simple. The Bible says, "I have set before you life and death, therefore choose life." The time has arrived for everyone in this conflict to choose peace and hope and life.

The undersigned Americans, representing the entire religious and political spectrum of the country, are united in the belief that to fulfill your vision, the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) must be governed by the following principles:

1) The PA must renounce the notion of a Palestinian "Right of Return" to the Jewish State. This ostensible "right" is a ploy to destroy the State of Israel. Were the millions of Palestinians currently living throughout the world actually resettled in Israel, the Jewish State would cease to exist.

2) The PA must dismantle the existing terrorist infrastructure and end its anti-Semitic incitement to violence before the Road Map is implemented. Additional obligations on the parties must be introduced sequentially, not simultaneously.

3) Road Map advancement must be based on performance, not on arbitrary timetables that encourage noncompliance.

Adherence to these principles offers the best prospect of "peace and hope and life" that we all pray for daily.

Sincerely,

I urge readers who are US citizens to sign this petition.

Roadmap to nowhere revisited

This is part II (see link within for part I) from Khilafah.com and is an indication of an anti-road map position that Muslim relious leaders preach (“Indeed, the Imam is a shield, behind whom you fight, and are protected”.). However, the opposition to the road map is based on the fact that Israel exists! I excerpt and cut to what I believe is central in this rant

[...]As Muslims we must reject all of these various proposals and initiatives that are marked ‘Made in the US/UK/EU’. The same nations that are advocating these proposals were responsible for handing the keys to Palestine in 1948. It was the British who supported the establishment of a ‘Jewish national home’ in Palestine in the shape of the Balfour declaration. It was US President Harry S. Truman who recognised its existence in 1948. Should we beg these same vultures for redress? Surely it is only the sick or insane who would turn to the accomplice for help against the perpetrator. The US/UK/EU and Russia use the political situation in the Islamic lands as political footballs to kick around when they see fit. The rulers of our countries allow them to do this. We must be the ones to stand firm against this treachery.

The intervention of kaafir states; America, Britain and the rest of the European nations in our affairs will give the Kuffar authority over the Muslims. This is Haram due to the saying of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) said:

“And never will Allah grant to the disbelievers a way over the believers” [TMQ 4: 141].

Therefore, it is obligatory on every Muslim to work to put a stop to these intrusions. The Muslim is obliged to restrain the hand of the hypocrites and agents, through whom the kaafir enters our lands. It is obligatory to confront the rulers who bring new solutions from the kaafir states to solve the problems of our Ummah. He (subhanahu wa ta’ala) said:

“O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as Awliya (friends, protectors, helpers)” [TMQ 5: 51].[more]

Poll finds Israeli support for peace moves


If a majority accepts a "temorary Palestinian state," why not a temporary removal of settlements?

A majority of Israelis support a temporary Palestinian state, a freeze on settlement construction and an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza, according to a poll published Friday, a day after Palestinian and Israeli leaders met to discuss a new peace plan for the Mideast.

The Ma'ariv-Gal Hehadash poll in the Ma'ariv daily newspaper showed that 59 percent of Israelis support a freeze on settlement building in the territories, while 57 percent support establishing a temporary Palestinian state.

These are key measures in the first and second phases, respectively, of the internationally backed ''road map'' to peace.

The poll also showed that 62 percent of Israelis support an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza while 32 percent opposed it.

The poll was published a day after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas held their second meeting in two weeks to discuss the peace plan.

The first phase of the plan requires declarations by each side recognizing the rights of the other to statehood and security. The plan also begins with a halt to the violence; it leads to a full-fledged Palestinian state in 2005.

Last week, Sharon shocked members of his right-wing Likud party when he declared that Israel needs to end its ''occupation'' of Palestinians, a word that angers Israeli hawks who believe Israel has a legitimate claim -- whether through biblical roots or strategic need -- to the West Bank and Gaza.

According to the poll, most Israelis don't believe Sharon has had a change of heart.

When asked if Sharon's statement about ending the ''occupation'' reflects his true position, only 25 percent of those polled said yes, while 67 percent said he made the statement for public-relations reasons.

Auschwitz visit opens Bush trip

[...]As he and his wife walked through the camps, Bush periodically wiped tears from his eyes, exhaling deeply at one point as if to compose himself and later pulling out a handkerchief.

During the tour, Bush was shown tiny shoes that had belonged to babies, hair taken from Jewish women, suitcases of some of those brought to the camps to die and the cell once occupied by Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel.

"So sad," he remarked, spokesman Ari Fleischer told The Associated Press.

"Thank you sincerely for the deeply moving tour," Bush wrote in the guestbook, AP reported.

"In dedicating your lives to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and the martyrdom of Poles, you honor all who are victims here. May your work inspire future generations to stand ever vigilant against the return of such unspeakable evil to our world. Never forget."

Bush is only the second U.S. president to visit Auschwitz. President Gerald Ford toured the camp in 1975 while Poland was under communist rule.

Later Saturday Bush made a speech to the Polish people and met with President Aleksander Kwasniewski to thank the Polish leader for his strong support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

This is Bush's second trip to Poland since becoming president, and his first stop of a week-long tour of Europe and the Middle East.[more]

Israel Says Hamas Cease-Fire Is Not Enough

Disarming viewed as merely a pause in terror

Israeli officials Friday rejected an offer by the Palestinian leadership to reach a cease-fire deal with the militant group Hamas, saying only a "permanent cessation of terrorism" would satisfy them.

"The Palestinians must take concrete action to eradicate terrorism," Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told foreign ambassadors. "A cease-fire is not enough. Israel wants a permanent cessation of terrorism, not a cease-fire." [more]

News from and about Israel:

Some 25 news articles available through links.

Likud makes a historic U-turn

Likud, argues this piece in the Miami Herald, has been pragmatic and knows that a Palestinian state is the only way to prevent a demographic swamping of the Israeli state. Therefore it accepts Sharon's acceptance of the road map (Bush plan), but it is also incumbent upon the arabs to alter their past positions.

[...]
But -- whatever the reasons motivating the government's adoption of the peace plan, its endorsement of a Palestinian state and the premier's controversial statements -- the consequences of these developments cannot be underestimated. For they may have damaged, perhaps irreparably, Israel's case -- historically, legally and morally -- and will have a profound impact on the country's future[...]
Sharon's problematic wording likely intended to imply that the Israeli army cannot stay indefinitely in Ramallah and did not try to sever the Jewish tie to the Land (''We are not occupiers. This is the homeland of the Jewish people,'' Sharon would later clarify). Yet Israel's historic right to the land has been called into question, its legal standing has been tarnished and the moral ground has been ceded to the Palestinians. All in one stroke by none other than Sharon. Unbelievable.

As to Palestinian statehood, some see it as the solution to Israel's demographic predicament, which is real and calls for sober answers. The Sharon administration understands this and seems to have grudgingly acquiesced to Palestinian independence. Naturally, it conditioned it on a complete and final rejection by the Palestinians of their so-called right of return.

The logic is simple. If the rationale to withdraw from the disputed areas is to prevent a demographic nightmare, then it would be evidently useless (not to say suicidal) for Israel, which is smaller than New Jersey, to grant Palestinian statehood and then accept millions of Palestinian refugees within its shrunken borders. Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas' insistence on realizing this ''right'' of return, as he told the Israeli daily Ha'aretz this week after the cabinet approval of the road map, is not auspicious, to say the least.

With its historic decision, the Likud-led Israeli government has shown impressive ideological flexibility. Now it is up to the Palestinian leadership to respond in kind.[more]

Let's hear talk of peace in Arabic, too

Charles Krauthammer suggests that the arabs must do more than merely talk about peace. Hate in their press must stop; actions should replace rhetoric.

[...]Moreover, the road map for peace, which the Palestinians say they have accepted, explicitly demands of the Palestinian leadership "sustained, targeted, and effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure."

Abbas is talking very differently. His objective, he says, is to persuade the suicide bombing specialists -- Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -- to accept a temporary cease-fire. This would be a disaster for any prospect of peace. It means that the terrorists who have been hunted down by Israel ever since it finally decided to strike back after the Passover Massacre of 2002 would receive immediate sanctuary -- time to rebuild, regroup, rearm and prepare for the next, more deadly orgy of violence.

If what Abbas means by peace is that the terrorists just lay low for a while, then it is not a peace of the brave but a peace of the knave. If that is what President Bush accepts as "peace," he not only will have betrayed Israel, he will have doomed American policy because he will have ratified a prescription for continued and much more bloody violence.

The requirements of a successful summit are clear. Abbas has to take real steps to curb terror. Let him begin in just one city. Israel will withdraw, but only if Abbas asserts authority and actually goes after the terrorists in that town. No revolving-door arrests. No temporary cease-fire. Nothing less than "sustained ... operations aimed at ... dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure."

And Abbas has to do something even simpler. Stop official Palestinian media from extolling suicide bombers. Stop official Palestinian media from referring to Israel as occupied territory. Talk about peace -- in Arabic, not just in English -- the way Anwar Sadat did 25 years ago. Israel reciprocated then; it will reciprocate now. Without such elemental steps by Abbas, however, no peace is possible -- and the new Bush peace initiative will amount to nothing more than Oslo redux.[more]

More Muslim hate crime myths


Writer out to expose the cries of "anti-Muslim hate crimes" as often fraudulent. Fairly anecdotal and there is clearly a bias against Muslims here.

[...]Five months after Maad was "victimized," a jury convicted him of federal fraud charges. During the hate crime investigation, agents discovered that Maad had lied on bank loan applications and federal forms about his business finances and prior criminal convictions. Nevertheless, Maad received a reduced sentence of six months' prison time.

The FBI dropped its hate crime investigation; Maad and his wife remain the prime suspects in the languishing property damage case.

In Nashville, Tenn., Iraqi-American Aqil Yassom Al-Timimi claimed someone set his Chevy truck on fire after the Sept. 11 attacks because he was of Arab descent. Although local TV stations ate up the hate crime angle, one keen reporter remained skeptical and raised the strong possibility of an insurance fraud scheme. Writing in the Nashville Scene, Matt Pulle reported that no notes or graffiti were left at the crime scene. Emergency personnel were immediately suspicious of Al-Timimi, who reportedly pressed them to alert the media as soon as they arrived at Al-Timimi's home.

Sources said they suspected Al-Timimi was the perpetrator all along, but more than a year and a half after the fire, the case has languished. Al-Timimi, the supposed victim of hateful wrongdoing, hasn't been heard from since. "If he was playing us," Pulle told me, "he did a perfect job."

The FBI and Justice Department have vociferously condemned and aggressively prosecuted a string of anthrax hoaxes that followed the Sept. 11 attacks. But when it comes to cracking down on hate crime hoaxes by Arabs and Muslims, the feds -- too busy conducting politically correct "outreach" with Muslim leaders who pooh-pooh hate crime fraud -- have been appallingly negligent. There is no way of knowing whether fake hate crimes outnumber real anti-Muslim crimes because no law enforcement agency keeps track. (Note to frustrated cops: Send me your suspected hoax cases and let's get started.)

Hoax crimes waste precious investigative resources, exacerbate racial tension, create terror and corrode goodwill. It's a shame so many in the media are more concerned with protecting the twisted cult of victimhood than with exposing hard truths.[more]

[br]

India, Israel, US Alliance

Asia Times reports

[...] WASHINGTON - Immediately after the September 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal featured an article arguing that Israel, India and Turkey were Washington's only "allies for the long haul" in the coming war against terrorism.

After mentioning the recently announce Phalcon deal between Israel and India, it suggested that an even bigger deal involving the Arrow was in the works.

Both moves highlight the burgeoning alliance between the two most potent non-Islamic militaries in the Middle East and South Asia, a trend that has the enthusiastic support of Bush administration hawks, particularly in the Pentagon and Vice President Dick Cheney's office. That alliance will again be spotlighted with next month's scheduled visit to India by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

While Israel sees India as a comrade in the fight against Islamic militants, the US has a somewhat broader agenda to pursue with New Delhi, particularly its possible role as a counter-balance to China, which US hawks see as Washington's strategic competitor in Asia. "India is the most overlooked of our potential allies in a strategy to contain China," according to Lloyd Richardson of the Hudson Institute, a think tank very close to the administration

[...] India is already the biggest customer for Israel's sophisticated military industry, which last year ranked fifth in the world among all arms exporters, after the US, the European Union, Russia and Japan. The Phalcon and Arrow deals are likely to propel Israel even higher in the rankings over the next two years, arms experts say. Almost one half of Israel's total military sales last year of $4.2 billion went to India.

But the deal also moves the relationship between Israel and India closer to the vision set out by the Journal back in September, 2001, of an alliance of three non-Muslim states (now, perhaps, minus Turkey) and the US in an existential battle against "Islamic terrorism" and the governments (including, presumably, Pakistan's) that support it.

America's Vital Interests.

Iraq war waged due to economic not military threat.
Asia Times reports on the lifting of sanctions

[...] Further threatening to this "US vital interest" were Saddam's ongoing promises to grant foreign oil contracts to Russian and French corporations, which would edge out US companies. This is to say, if Saddam Hussein posed any sort of threat to the United States, it was economic, not military.

[...] Such a contradiction (Iraq represented economic benefits to France and Russia and a threat to US oil interests and security interests) across the Atlantic had hung over the United States for some time, but two major external events coincided to prompt the administration of President George W Bush to transform a sanctions/containment policy into a policy of forcible, unilateral regime replacement: 1) France and Russia threatened to make the sanctions irrelevant by closing oil deals with Iraq outside the Oil for Food Program; 2) Iraq's production capacity was approaching pre-Gulf War levels, and cash from oil smuggling to Turkey, Syria and Jordan constituted a perceived threat to regional balance of power - economically, politically and eventually militarily.

Missing Mideast Momentum

Wall Street Journal editorialized, The Bush administration needs an assertive policy.

In the wake of the U.S. victory in Iraq, the Bush Administration's transformation agenda for the Middle East gained new credibility. The "momentum of freedom is growing," President Bush said in a speech in South Carolina this month outlining his vision of a free Mideast. The U.S. "will seize the moment."

So what's stopping us? The announcement last month that the U.S. would withdraw its combat troops from Saudi Arabia and the tough talk on Syria and Iran were good starts. The region's dictators were put on notice that their behavior had to change, and that the U.S. is determined to support the aspirations of more Muslims to live in freedom.

But now the momentum seems to be faltering, if not yet slipping away. Seven weeks after the fall of Baghdad, a State Department that largely opposed the war is beginning to set the agenda again--and the new Mideast is in danger of becoming the old Mideast. The last thing the region needs is a reversion to the pre-Bush status quo, with the U.S. pursuing the French agenda of supporting the region's dictators and assuming the road to stability goes through Palestine.

The deja vu begins with the President's decision to invest his personal prestige in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. If the President thinks he can accomplish the hitherto impossible, he's certainly earned the right to try. And unlike the cynics in Europe and on the American left, we think Mr. Bush is genuinely committed to the effort.

But we also hope he won't fall for the State Department-Saudi line that peace will occur once Israel makes enough concessions. Palestinians have to recognize Israel's right to exist, and at a minimum that means abandoning the "right of return," which is really the right to drive the Jewish state into the sea.

Our other main concern is the continued presence of Yasser Arafat as a major player behind the scenes. Mr. Bush once promised he'd never again do business with the old terrorist, and it's true that Arafat has been partly marginalized in favor new leader Abu Mazen. But it isn't clear he's totally out of the picture, and he may yet succeed in scuttling talks next week among Mr. Bush, Abu Mazen and Israeli leader Ariel Sharon.

Syria policy is another case of deja vu all over again. "We haven't changed their behavior much," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the Journal editorial board this week. It's still harboring fugitive Iraqi officials. It's still helping Iran with Hezbollah. It's still sending arms to terrorists in Israel. It's still occupying Lebanon. Just what, we wonder, was the purpose of Secretary of State Colin Powell's recent visit to Damascus if there's little or no progress on any of these scores?

Iran poses a similar threat. "They are clearly attempting to influence what's taking place [in Iraq], especially among the Shia population," Mr. Rumsfeld told us, and "we don't intend to let them do it." The country is also harboring al Qaeda members.

Mr. Bush clearly needs to line up all of his advisers behind a single Iran policy. That means dropping the illusion that "engagement" with Tehran's mullahs, or with some illusory "moderates," will cause Iran to drop its nuclear program. That is going to require consistent U.S. and world pressure on the regime, including vocal Presidential support for the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people. As of now, the State Department and Pentagon have been sending mixed messages that the mullahs understandably think they can ignore.

We're not suggesting the U.S. has to go to war in any of these places. The demonstration effect of Iraq ought to help U.S. diplomacy achieve its goals without resorting to force. But that means a consistent U.S. policy that makes clear that the old Mideast habits of supporting terrorism won't be tolerated. Maybe someone at the White House should tell Foggy Bottom to read Mr. Bush's speeches.

US reportedly offering deal to neutralize Hizbullah '$500m on table’ if Beirut complies


Article at Lebanon Wire, with hat tip to The Agonist, who says: remain suspicious till this verified.

The United States is reportedly making a fresh attempt to strike a behind-the-scenes deal to neutralize Hizbullah, offering the government half a billion dollars if the resistance is dismantled and Syria pulls its troops out of Lebanon.

The offer is reportedly being conveyed by Darryl Issa, a Republican congressman for California, and Democrat Robert Wexler during a visit to Beirut Friday, the daily As-Safir said Thursday. The two congressmen will also travel to Damascus to discuss the offer with Syrian officials, the paper said. The daily quoted sources in the US Congress as saying the deal is being sold as a counterweight to the Syria Accountability Act which seeks to impose political and economic sanctions against Damascus. As-Safir said the $500 million would be delivered in phases as Lebanon fulfilled a number of demands. An initial $100 million would be disbursed if Lebanon agreed to settle its water disputes with Israel, namely the allocation of water from the Hasbani River.

A further $250 million would be handed over for development projects in the border district if Hizbullah’s military wing is dismantled and the army deployed along the UN-delineated Blue Line. The remaining $150 million would be allocated to water and agricultural projects in the South. There was no immediate official comment on the offer, but few believe that Lebanon and Syria will accept the alleged deal.

If the report is true, it would not be the first time that the US attempted to cut a deal to curb Hizbullah’s military activities. After Sept. 11, 2001, Issa reportedly delivered a message to Hizbullah’s leadership on behalf of the US administration, asking the party to withdraw from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, publicly distinguish between Islam and terrorism and share information it has on groups the US considers terrorist organizations. In return, the US administration would forgive Hizbullah’s alleged past involvement in anti-Western attacks. The deal was rejected by Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who described it as a “political hand grenade hurled to finish us off.”

Nasrallah also said that the US attempted to buy off Hizbullah in early 2000, offering millions of dollars, a guaranteed political role in Lebanon and international recognition if it abandoned the struggle against Israel after the Israeli Army withdrew from the South.

Meanwhile, the daily Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Thursday that Iranian Revolutionary Guards have been removing weapons from the border district around Marjayoun. The newspaper also said that Iran has stopped training Hizbullah pilots, apparently hang-glider pilots trained to carry out suicide operations inside Israel. Timur Goksel, UNIFIL’s spokesman and senior adviser, said that Indian peacekeeping troops deployed in the Marjayoun area had seen no unusual movement. He also said no hang-gliders had been seen in south Lebanon. “The only things flying around here bigger than a bird are Israeli jets,” Goksel said. The only known incident of a hang-glider being used in an attack on Israel happened in November 1987.

ACTION IN SUPPORT ISRAEL

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Why I find it difficult to shed a tear

Commentary on three of today's news stories.

1. AP reports:

3 Killed in Bus Station Blast in Chechnya

A radio-controlled land mine exploded at a bus station Friday in the Chechen capital Grozny, killing at least three people, officials said.
...
Earlier this month, two separate suicide attacks in Chechnya killed at least 78 people.
...
For much of its 3 1/2-year duration, the latest Chechen war has been marked by near-daily reports of rebels killing Russian soldiers and the army hammering rebel positions with bombs and heavy guns, with neither side appearing to gain strategic advantage.

If Russia believed that her persistent anti-Israeli position would reduce the terrorist campaing against her, then Russia must be sorely disappointed. But Russia is part of the Quartet, the Roadmap Experts [TM]. I'm sure that Russia can marshal the Quartet expertise to draft a Roadmap out of Chechnya. And I'm sure that Russia will accept Powell's advice to "show restraint" in Russia's actions against Chechen "militants". And who knows, perhaps the chechns are engaged in an Intifadah to achieve self-determination. So perhaps I should save my tears for the next stroy.

2. A second AP story informs:

Car Bomb Kills Two in Northern Spain
A car bomb allegedly placed by Basque separatists exploded in northern Spain on Friday, killing two police officers and prompting the prime minister to cancel plans to attend a summit in Russia.
...
The explosion came five days after Basque local elections that excluded hundreds of pro-independence candidates allegedly linked to ETA's outlawed political wing.

Now, be fair: The Spaniards exclude Basque candidates from the democratic process because of the Basques' political views, and then the Spaniards complain about militant Basques resorting to violence to achieve self-determination? And are not the Spaniards the driving force of the EU against Israel, second only to the Brits? And didn't Solana visit Arafat just the other day? No, Can't find tears for Spain. Besides, the State Department, the author of "show restraint" when it comes to Israel, has already shed all the requisite tears for Spain, as reported in the following excerpt from the foregoing link:

U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker issued a statement condemning the attacks.
...
"We deplore ETA s long-running, senseless campaign to terrorize and kill innocent people," Reeker said. "We continue to support Spain in its vigorous efforts to combat terrorism and bring the perpetrators of this despicable attack to justice."

So, perhaps I should reserve my tears for the next story.

3. A third story from AP reports:

Americans in Gaza Warned of Kidnap Threats
The U.S. Embassy has received "credible reports" of plans to kidnap U.S. citizens in Gaza, the Embassy announced on its Web site Friday.

Americans in Gaza? Like Rachel Corrie's friends? No, this story, too, merits no tears.

"Who are you going to believe, your eyes or what I tell you?"

Bush used to demand "deeds not words" from the Palestinians. Its time for Israel to demand favourable "deeds not words" from the US.

We must not take comfort in the notion that surely the US won't create another terrorist state, or that the US is our friend and wouldn't hurt us, or Sharon would never have agreed without a secret deal.

The facts will have to stand for the truth and so they should.

The facts are that since the high water mark of Bush's June 24th speech, the US descended rapidly with concession after concession. Even after insisting that Mazen had to have real power and Dahlan total control of security and that they must wage a war on terror, we find that all these red lines have been abandoned by the US. What is left is its determination to create a Palestinian state. Bush is committed.

Even after I was emboldened by Israel's non-acceptance of the Roadmap, I find that this nuance and Israel's 14 red lines are being ignored.

Rather than the Palestinians having to fight terror, for Israel to give concessions, we see a different process, Israel giving concessions for the Pals to fight terror.

I am convinced that a Palestinian state will be based on Israeli concessions rather than Palestinian concessions. And I take no comfort in the words of the Roadmap that "final issues are to be freely negotiated between the parties." I have no doubt that Bush's determination will not permit Israel to refuse a final deal on Palestinian terms.

There is a lot of rhetoric about changes in Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, but until I see real and permanent changes, I will not take heart.

I see no facts that would give me hope. I believe what I see and not what I hear or hope.

Protesting Israel in New York City, Again and Again

For those of the readers who live in the tristate area or New York City, prepare for a big week of anti-Israel protests. The anti-Zionists are seizing the moment to organize two major anti-Israel protests, the first during the annual Salute to Israel parade, called Peace Begins with Justice, calls for people to "Come tell Israel's supporter that peace begins where oppression, racism, theft and discrimination end. Come tell the U.S. government to stop funding Israel's state violence. Come tell the U.S. government to support real peace with justice in the Middle East." What, exactly would be real peace in their eyes? They don't say, but I would assume it has something to do with the absence of Israel.

The second anti-Israel carnival marks "the thirty-sixth anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza," and, as the email states "United for Peace and Justice call for linked actions by Palestinian, international, and Israeli peace groups to protest the escalating violence against the Palestinian community and international human rights workers in the occupied territories. We demand protection for Palestinian civilians and for internationals, a moratorium on construction of the apartheid wall and its associated land confiscations and home demolitions, and an end to the occupation." It will be marked with city-wide protests, beginning with an Edward Said speech at the UN, and ending with a concert at night. More information: http://www.peacejusticestudies.org/palestine.php.

For the full text of the emails circulating the anti-Zionist corners of the internet, and emails and phone numbers to call and express your feelings, see my weblog. Maybe, if enough people are willing, we could protest the protestors at the UN.

How did we get here?

What happened to June 24 by Saul Singer

Misreading the map by Herb keinon

Washington's Betrayal by Caroline Glick


The above from JPOST are a triple must-read, in conjunction. Togather, they deal with the question: What caused the terrible collapse in moral uprightness since June 24? That such a collapse did occcur is demonstrated by Singer. Glick and keinon answer quite differently the question of how this happened . For Glick it is a clear-cut (and not the first) case of betrayal. For keinon it is in great part caused by the ineptitude of Israel's diplomacy on the approach of the calamity. Read this trilogy if you are trying to clarify for yourself your own answer to this to-be-or-not-to-be question .

Is Bush betraying Israel?

Read Caroline Glick's essay, "Washington's Betrayal" and you will have little doubt that the answer to that question is in the affirmative. Not nearly as bleak, but still disappointing (in its assessment of the President) is Charles Krauthammer's "No Phony 'Cease-Fires' With Terrorism." Krauthammer allows that the president can still extricate himself. I don't believe President Bush to be as frivolous as his predecessor. Still, it's disturbing that he's had nothing to say as the PA flouts his basic premises.

The problem of course is that President Bush has made a Palestinian state the centerpiece of his Middle East policy. Thus all actions must be evaluated by how they work toward that end. Peace should have been the centerpiece, with statehood for the Palestinians the reward for peace. (Not that I think that Palestinian statehood is in any way a good thing. But I'm arguing from Bush's perspective.

Oh and in case anyone tells you that Peace Now is pro-Israel. Tell them that they are lying.

Cross posted on Israpundit and David's Israel Blog.

Washington's Betrayal

Caroline B. Glick let's loose with all guns blazing

After listing all the terrorism that Israel has been subjected to in the last few months and all the rationales offered for Israel';s acceptence of the Roadmap she notes,

[...] Top administration officials are now here busily working to ensure that Sharon will be forthcoming with concrete concessions at the Akaba summit to ensure the meeting's "success." So if Sharon thought accepting the road map would decrease US pressure, he was dead wrong. Far from lessening the pressure, Sharon's decision to accept the road map has only increased US pressure on him tenfold.

Since assuming office, Bush has been viewed by many Israelis, including by this writer, as the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House.

In his June 24 speech last year about the Palestinian war against the Jewish state, he made quite clear that the Palestinians are the aggressor.

And yet, in light of the recent actions by the administration, actions that are quite simply hostile to the State of Israel, the president's credibility as a friend and an ally of the state is necessarily placed in doubt.

Parallel to his calls for democratization of the PA and demands for PA action against terrorism, Bush has distinguished himself as the most outspoken champion of Palestinian statehood to have ever occupied the Oval Office. Bush is the first US president to have ever adopted the establishment of a Palestinian state as an aim of US foreign policy.

Bush first made this statement in a letter to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah on August 29, 2001. The announcement came 36 hours after Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar delivered a breathtakingly hostile message from Abdullah to the White House that amounted to little less than a declaration of war against the US. According to press accounts, Bandar informed National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that because of the administration's support for Israel, "the crown prince feels that he cannot continue dealing with the United States."

Subsequently, the Bush administration sponsored UN Security Council Resolution 1397 that for the first time gave Security Council support for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Bush, while acknowledging Israel's right to self-defense, has never allowed Israel to take decisive action against the Palestinian war machine.

And now, today, all that remains of the contents of Bush's historic address last June, all that has survived the events of the past year, is an unwavering demand from Israel to accept Palestinian statehood immediately. however, the largest problem with this policy is the one with which we never imagined having to contend.

This problem is that when judged solely on its actions, the Bush administration has shown that while in the past it could be relied on for at least a modicum of support, today it no longer views such support as concordant with its interests. Therefore we can no longer blindly trust its intentions.

Whether the current, openly hostile US policy toward Israel is the result of the president's own preferences or of bad advice he has received from his advisers is impossible to know. But whatever the case, this crushing and heartbreaking reality cannot be swept under the rug. The threats arrayed against us are too foreboding.

We must accept the truth. As presently constituted, the Bush administration's Middle East policy is hostile to the national security interests of the State of Israel.

PM Sharon on Jerusalem

(From Arutz-7/Israel National News)--Last night PM Sharon gave a Yom Yerushalaim (Jerusalem Day) speech atop Ammunition Hill, where he stated that: "Jerusalem would never be compromised and the capital would remain undivided and under Israeli control, forever"

Yom Yerushalaim commemorates the re-unification of Jersualem by Israel during the Six Day War in 1967.

The translation of the PM's speech is as follows:

"It has been thirty-six years since there were barbed-wire fences in Jerusalem. The city is no longer strewn with minefields. No longer does the enemy watch us and spew fire from behind the city's walls and towers. Rather than a threatened and divided city, Jerusalem is a united, splendidly built, lively and vibrant metropolis, which has regained its glory. The State of Israel owes this all to its heroic warriors. The price was heavy and extremely painful. However, the Jewish people can marvel at the wondrous fulfillment of the prophetic vision - dream and prayer - yearned for, for generations.

"This fortified hill on which we stand is soaked with blood. In the late hours of that terrible night, the ditches and crevices of this battlefield were engraved into the glorious history of Israel. Ever since then, and forevermore, shall this place be a blossoming garden, an oasis of memory. Never again shall it know fire. Never again shall the enemy set foot in it.

"The State of Israel had no desire for war. The Government of Israel spared no effort in attempting to resolve the crisis by political means. The Arabs' fervor, arrogance and inflamed passions prevented any such resolution. Israel's destruction was their heart's desire. Israel was forced into an inescapable war - a war of salvation.

"The liberation and unification of Jerusalem was the historic, crowning achievement of the entire campaign. On that day, the signal was given. The paratroopers and soldiers of the Jerusalem Brigade stormed the Old City, scaled the Temple Mount and placed their hands on the stones of the Kotel. It was a time of release and elation, almost unparalleled in the history of Israel, and resonated in every Jewish heart. It was a time which will never be forgotten. [more]

Bigotry and the Mideast road map

Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe, takes some shots at the Roadmap in his latest editorial: "Bigotry and the ME Roadmap"

Salute to Israel Parade/ Protest against the anti Israel protestors.

Sunday June 1 in NYC is the annual Israel Day Parade. It is up fifth avenue from 59th or so up till 80 or so from around noon to 3 or 4 (boy some exact info.

Last year there was an anti Israel protest of a few hundred people (the NYTimes gave this protest more coverage than the parade which had about 3000 times more people (NYT later retracted). The protestors were directly on the parade route at Grand Army Plaza (SW corner 59th and Fifth). The bulk of the parade marchers are elementary children. I have been told by a couple of their teachers that they were shocked by these protestors screaming at them. If you were in the crowd of the parade though you could get no where near the protestors to yell at them.

A friend of mine has spoken to the police to express concern about the placement of the protestors (they only have to be within sight and sound, not touch) and has filed a permit to protest against the protestors. He will invite all members of the audience to come and help out. He has not heard from the police about where this will take place but you can assume that it will be at the SW corner of 59th and fifth during the parade. I will be there, come and help out.

Action: Pro-Israel demonstrations in Montreal - Weekly

I received the following e-mail from Edmond Silber:

Please attend B’nai Brith’s weekly demonstrations every friday from noon to 1:00 pm, on Peel and corner Lévesque.

Let us not get used to terror.

FRIDAY DEMONSTRATIONS, from 12 to 1pm - come to show your support for Israel.

You can subscrite to Edmond Silber's e-mail list by contacting him at:

esilber@sympatico.ca

E-mail should note, "Subscribe".

Israeli peace gesture delayed

There is no reason given for the change of plans, according to this BBC report, on releasing arab 100 prisoners, but the folliowing excerpt is an interesting comment from Hamas

[...]A top Hamas official downplayed the significance of the meeting between Abu Mazen and Mr Sharon when he spoke to French news agency AFP on Friday.

Palestinians "have not made all these sacrifices to obtain the liberation of one or two prisoners and the right for some workers to be allowed" to go back to Israel, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, said.

He said Hamas would only stop its suicide attacks if Israel halted all "aggression".

In an interview published on Thursday, Abu Mazen said he expected to reach an agreement with Hamas, to halt attacks on Israelis.

But earlier Mr Rantissi was quoted saying he was not aware any such agreement was planned.

Despite the postponement of the prisoner release, measures to ease the blockade on the West Bank and Gaza Strip should go ahead as planned on Saturday night.

If so, Palestinians over the age of 28 will be able to move out of their towns, says BBC correspondent Richard Galpin.

It is also expected that thousands more Palestinians will be able to return to their jobs in Israel, our correspondent adds.

What Palestinians Can Learn From a Turning Point in Zionist History


This op-ed piece in the New York Times (reg req'd) points to an ending of terrorism in the early days of Israel as an example for the Palestinian. Not sure if there really is this sort of parallel but it is an interesting notion

he Palestinians have often been called the Jews of the Arab world: a stateless people dispersed in a diaspora, living by their wits, pining for a return to their historic homeland. This is not a comparison either side likes. It implies an equivalency that both reject.

Yet the comparison remains common, even among Israelis and Palestinians themselves. Palestinians study the milestones of the Zionist movement for guidance and often speak about the Israeli political system, with its freewheeling debate, as a model for their own.

There is one milestone in particular that bears study today — David Ben-Gurion's fateful decision in 1948 to end Jewish terrorist activities and bring armed splinter groups under government control. When Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers, met last night and prepared to see President Bush next week, one of the biggest issues they discussed was ending the terrorism of renegade Palestinian groups. Mr. Abbas said that by next week he hoped to have a pact with Hamas, the main Palestinian Islamic party, to halt violence against Israelis.

Mr. Sharon and his aides say a cease-fire pact is not enough, however, that what is needed is to arrest and disarm the militants. What Israelis increasingly say is that the Palestinians need "their own Altalena." Little known to the outside world, the Altalena episode is frequently invoked because without some equivalent, the Palestinian state may never come to be. [more]

Israel's Republicans warn Bush of election fallout over roadmap

In an unprecedented move, the official Israeli branch of Republicans Abroad has sent a letter to US President George W. Bush warning that his support for the road map threatens to drive potential voters away from the party, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by the 'Post, was sent to the White House on Wednesday, and cautioned that "pressing ahead with this plan will only serve to alienate American Jews and the Christian right."

"We are aware of increasing numbers of American citizens, both here in Israel and in the United States, who are now considering abandoning the Republican party as a result of your Administration's pursuit of the 'Road Map'," the letter said.

In unusually strong language, the letter's signatories, which included the president of Republicans Abroad Israel, Eliyahu Weinstein, and the group's Co-Chair Bob Lang, further stated that, "pressuring Israel to negotiate with terrorists at the same time that America is waging war on terror is both morally untenable and intellectually inconsistent."

"It blurs the clarity of vision which you have repeatedly enunciated since the September 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington, and sends the wrong message to terrorists around the world, namely, that violence can and does pay," Weinstein and Lang wrote to Bush.

According to the Republicans Abroad website, the group "is the international arm of the Republican Party" and "helps the Republican Party develop policy and campaign strategy at the highest levels."

New York Times Refuses to Report the Straight Facts

CAMERA got in touch with the Times to register a complaint. The NY Times stood by its coverage. But CAMERA here explains why they believe the Times is incorrect and hence presenting a biased story.

Despite dramatic public exposure of the New York Times' questionable policies in handling repeated deceptions by one of its reporters, the newspaper has again misled its readers, this time about the terms of the "Road Map." Instead of reporting the actual terms of the peace plan drawn up by the "Quartet" (United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia), the Times has injected its own language.

In his May 12, 2003 article about Colin Powell's meetings with Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas ("Powell Consults 2 Premiers on Mideast Peace"), correspondent Steven Weisman misrepresented the terms of the road map proposed by the "Quartet." Weisman wrote:

Among the other issues discussed today was the future of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. The peace plan calls for their dismantling, a point reiterated in recent days by Mr. Powell.

The road map does not call for the "dismantling" of the settlements (developed towns, villages and communities.) It calls only for the dismantling of outposts established since March 2001, and a freeze on new building. According to the text of the roadmap released by the U.S. State Department on April 30, 2003, the requirements of the Government of Israel vis-a-vis settlements are as follows:

-GOI (Government of Israel) immediately dismantles settlement outposts erected since March 2001.

-Consistent with the Mitchell Report, GOI freezes all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements).

The premise of Weisman’s article — that the Israeli prime minister would not comply — was based on the erroneous assumption that complete settlement dismantlement is required by the road map.[more]

Yourish on anti-semitism

Yourish.com has this (excepted from her blog) on anti-semitism See text for links

Judith Weiss posted links to the anti-Semitism conference she attended, and on one of them I found this:

This [anti-Zionism] is, I think, the most dangerous anti-Semitism of them all. It is not the case, of course, that every criticism of the Jewish state is an instance of anti-Semitism; but it is certainly the case that every instance of anti-Semitism is a criticism of the Jewish state, a fundamental criticism, since it denies the legitimacy of the ideal of a normal life for Jews, who are consigned by anti-Semites of one kind or another to an endless abnormality of one kind or another. If Israel cannot be above criticism, neither can Israel’s critics be above criticism; and the anxiety that many critics of Israeli policy are at bottom critics of Israeli reality, that the opposition to Israeli actions in Jenin or Gaza is sometimes motivated by a prior historical or religious dogma, is not an outlandish anxiety. A prejudice is not a criticism. Those of us who are not reluctant to criticize Israeli policies must be particularly careful not to be fooled. . . .

Anti-Semitism should be the occasion for an international conference at a center for non-Jewish history. Let me explain. The hatred of the Jews is a matter of urgent concern to Jews because of the injury that they may suffer as a result of it. The Jewish investigation of anti-Semitism is plainly a requirement of self-interest, and also a requirement of dignity, because defending oneself against one’s enemy is an ethical duty of the most elementary sort. The search for security has a foundation in morality. Still, the solution to the problem of anti-Semitism is not to be sought in the Jewish struggle against it. It is indecent to ask the victims to make themselves responsible for an end to their victimization. After all, they are not doing this to themselves. This is being done to them. If anti-Semitism will ever vanish from the earth, it will be the consequence of a transformation not in the mentality of Jews, but in the mentality of non-Jews.

In this sense, anti-Semitism is not a Jewish problem at all. I have two reasons for insisting upon such a paradoxical formulation. The first reason has to do with the nature of prejudice. The second reason has to do with the course of modern Jewish history.

Perhaps the most significant fact for the proper comprehension of prejudice is that its object is not its cause. If you wish to understand racism, study whites, not blacks. If you wish to understand misogyny, study men, not women. If you wish to understand anti-Semitism, study non-Jews, not Jews. Indeed, the view that the explanation of prejudice is to be sought in its object is itself an expression of prejudice. It justifies prejudice, insofar as it attributes to it a basis in reality.

For it is the distinguishing mark of prejudice that it leaves the actual behind, so as to arrive at a generalization about a group that cannot be affected by anything that a member of the group might say or do. There is no evidence against such a generalization, because the evidence for it seems to be everywhere; and where evidence is everywhere, evidence is nowhere. Prejudice is not a mistake; it is a fiction. Mistakes can be corrected, but prejudice can only be fought. Anti-Semitic beliefs about the Jews are not merely false; they are also, for those who believe them, unfalsifiable. For the anti-Semite, everything that a Jew thinks or does is regarded as a Jewish thought or a Jewish deed. Such a generalization is most accurately described as a fantasy. Anti-Semitism is a tradition of fantasy that non-Jews have of Jews. . .
. Though I've had my differences with Leon Wieseltier, this speech is magnificent. You know the cliché; read the whole piece.

Hamas ceasefire (maybe)

Martin Kimel has two items worth a reading

First, as this story reports, people within Hamas have different ideas of what it is they might agree to -- conditionally ceasing attacks only within Israel proper, within both Israel and the territories, trying to avoid targeting civilians (meaning they would still kill Israelis soldiers), etc. Second, given Hamas and Islamic Jiahd's goals of erecting an Islamic state over Israel's grave, nothing less than the disarmament and disbandment of these groups should be considered an appropriate basis for the creation of a Palestinian state. It's interesting to hear Sheik Yassin suggest that Hamas might disarm upon the creation of a Palestinian state, but there's little reason to believe that Hamas has suddenly given up its rasion d'etre.


And this quote by Abbas demonstrates a complete lack of will to confront the terrorists of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade:


Asked whether the Palestinian Authority would resort to using force against Hamas, as it did in 1996, should the understandings be violated, Mr. Abbas, said: "We are not going backward. A civil war never."
* * *
JTA has a fascinating piece on anti-Semitism in Holland. The reaction of the Jewish mayor of Amsterdam cited in the article is shameful. [note: see link in article for this second piece]

News from a wide variety of papers on Israel/arab negotiations

Cherry pick from over 30 articles in papers from around the world on issues relating to the talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israel pledges a Palestinian state after crackdown on terror

Crunch time. My guess is that the Palestinian PM will not be able to disarm the terror groups, or, at best, they will for s brief period cease terrorism as a tool to see what might be gained for them before starting up again. An additonal prospect is of course an all-out war between the would-be peace makers and the terror groups to decide who is going to run the arab cause. And Arafat? Doubless he will be pulling strings behind the scenes and playing a double game.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told his Palestinian counterpart he would negotiate the creation of a state for the Palestinians if they fight terrorism, setting a guarded but optimistic tone for next week's three-way summit with President Bush.
Though statements from both sides early Friday, following Sharon's meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, were couched in positive terms, in the end, they maintained their basic positions.

The Palestinians demanded implementation of the U.S.-backed "road map" plan leading to a Palestinian state, and the Israelis conditioned all additional steps on a crackdown against violent groups responsible for attacks against Israelis.

Abbas prefers stopping violence through dialogue and told an Israeli newspaper that an agreement with the largest militant group, Hamas, could be completed next week. Hamas has been responsible for most of the suicide bombing attacks that have killed more than 300 Israelis in 32 months of violence.

The three-hour meeting Thursday night between Sharon and Abbas, their second in two weeks, came ahead of a summit between the two leaders and Bush planned for the Jordanian resort of Aqaba next Wednesday.[more]

The right of return - of property

Gabirelle Goldwater posts this interesting piece. The loss to those Jews who fled or were forced from arab lands is immense, yet this is seldom if ever discussed when there is talk of The Right of Return and compensation.

Israel should raise the issue of property belonging to Jews from Arab countries in its negotiations with the Palestinians.

The settlements, East Jerusalem, water, the war on terrorism are all vital subjects in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. However, there is another crucial subject that will make or break any future settlement between the sides: the right of return. And financial and economic matters will play a key role on this subject.

For the Palestinians, at least at the declarative level, it is their cassus belli since 1948: the right of the refugees, whether voluntary or forced, from Israel1s War of Independence to return to their homes.

For Israel, both at the declaratory and practical levels, it is a matter of existence: the return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to Israeli territory would undermine the country1s demographic balance to the point of threatening its Jewish majority within a generation or two.

Is there a way to bridge such a chasm?

On the face of it, the only solution would be Israeli financial compensation for the Palestinians1 conceding the physical right of return.

On this point, Israel must stand up and state categorically: We too have claims for compensation in exchange for conceding the right of return - those of the Jews from Arab countries.

But Israel does almost nothing to prepare for this critical point in the negotiations.

There is what to talk about. 3Globes2 investigations have found that private Jewish property in four Arab countries - Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon - amounts to $10 billion. [more]

Israel Steps Up “Settlement Roadmap”: Israeli Paper

The source for this piece is Turks.USA, not, I think, a pro-Western or pro-Israeli organization. But they cite Yediot Aharonot, the Israeli daily, for the story. Read with caution

JERUSALEM, May 29 – Only hours after adopting the “roadmap” which calls for freezing the settlement activity on occupied Palestinian lands, the Israeli Housing Minister prepared a project to build new 12,000 units in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, an Israeli paper reported Thursday, May 29.

The Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot said that the Israeli Housing Ministry “justified the project as a natural growth of the already existing settlements”. The paper called the move “the settlement roadmap,” in a clear mocking of the U.S.-backed roadmap for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israeli Housing Ministry announced Friday, May 23, it has invited bidders to construct a new residential district in the largest Jewish settlement in the West Bank. The plan to build 502 apartments in Maale Adumim settlement, near (occupied) Jerusalem, is Israel's largest expansion project for a single settlement announced so far this year.

Under the roadmap for peace handed to the Israelis and Palestinians on April 30, Israel is required in the first phase to freeze all settlement building activities on occupied Palestinian lands.

The Israeli paper, for its part, considered the Israeli government’s clear “contradiction” as an evidence to the effect that “it (the Israeli government) applies double standards in dealing with the future of Palestinian territories”. [more]

Just your typical day

May 29,2003

21:18 An Um El-Phahem resident who assisted a suicide bomber was arrested
It is allowed to publish the the security forces arrested an Israeli Arab who was a resident of Um-El-Phahem. He was mobilized to the Hamas and planned to drive a suicide bomber to a mall in Hadera. The Israeli Arab was arrested due to an invesigation of the suicide bomber who was arrested a day before the suicide attack.

13:55 Bush will receive 20 thousands of postcards: Free Polard. In the coming days, the mail box in the White House would be floated by postcards, this time without any connection to the Road Map. Thousands of Israeli pupils participated in this year`s campaign, "There is hope in the heart". As a part of the operation, pupils dealt with prisoners of war and missing soldiers and with the prisoner Jonathan Polard, who is imprisoned in the US for espionage.

13:49 Summary of terrorists arrested tonight
3 terrorists were arrested in Dura, west to Hebron.

3 terrorists were arrested in Bethlehem, Tul-Karem and Qalqilya.

A wanted terrorist was arrested in the Atil village, north to Tul-Karem.

13:48 During an IDF opeartion in Jenin a Tanzim terrorist was killed
The IDF forces operated tonight in Jenin. During the operation, an armed Tanzim terrorist was killed. A soldier was lightly injured.

Next Year in Al-Quds
by Yashiko Sagamori
May 28, 2003
(You would never want to miss Yashiko Sagamori again):

Having said yes, do not cry rape.

The Israeli cabinet has agreed to follow the “roadmap”. In practical terms, it means that the “Palestinian” state has already been created, even if there are still some formalities to be taken care of.

Of course, Ariel Sharon’s consent to the rape is conditional on the Arab terrorist Abbas’ fight against Arab terrorism. However, the terms “fight” and “terrorism” remain to be defined and, therefore, are open to interpretation. The interpretation, most likely, will come from the US State Department. The US State Department, most likely, will heed to the Arab rhetoric, as it has always done, and take the side of Arab terrorists saying they are fighting Arab terrorism. Or would have fought it had Israel not been an obstacle, or will fight it as soon as Israel meets some very important conditions. This is perfectly consistent: Arabs have been saying all along that their terrorism against Israel is Israel’s own fault. Besides, nobody expects them to go for an A plus; C minus is still a passing grade, and, considering that even after they become a full-fledged member of the United Nations they will still remain a terrorist organization, any excuse, no matter how flimsy, will be enough for them to avoid an F. Of course, a few Jews will be blown to bits now and then by an Arab who hates Jews so much that he’ll gladly blow himself to bits in order to kill them, but if such is the price of peace in the Middle East, then Israel, no questions about it, will have to pay it.

Don’t forget that had Israel shown the proper restraint and abstained from resisting the Arab fight against the Israeli occupation of Israel’s land, the Middle East would’ve been perfectly peaceful now — as peaceful as it had been before 1948, when Israel returned to a tiny portion of its not-too-vast land.

According to every commentary I have read, the main stumbling block on the road to peace, except for the very existence of Israel of course, is the so-called “right of return” of Arabs to the Jewish land. Simple, but elegant: If Israel agrees, it will cease being a Jewish state; if it doesn’t, the Arabs, with the support of the peace-loving international community, will have a perfectly legitimate reason to continue fighting Israel.

Today, the material support of the “Palestinians” by countries of the still free world remains mostly humanitarian. Humanitarian support is a great invention. For example, if I only have enough money to buy either bread or ammunition, and your humanitarian assistance provides me with bread, then I will be able to afford the ammo as well. As a result, you, with perfectly clear conscience, will be rightfully proud of your good deeds, while I, no longer hungry, can continue killing Jews. Therefore, the only difference between you and Saddam Hussein, when it comes to the support of Arab terrorism against Israel, is that Saddam Hussein no longer supports anything. When “Palestine” - which has never existed in any shape or form - will be commonly recognized as a country, then the necessity to restrict the support of Arab terrorism to humanitarian assistance will disappear, and the peace-loving international community will acquire new, efficient methods of pressuring Israel as long as it ruthlessly refuses to accept a few million Arabs suffering from their homesickness for the Jewish home.

I heard that criminals often have an irresistible urge to return to the scene of the crime. Such urge is the only actual basis for the “Palestinian” “right of return”. However, the very fact that this problem is deemed to become central at the upcoming talks means that the Israeli government is prepared to surrender the formerly indivisible Jerusalem to the enemy. It makes perfect sense. While Israel is building a fence, as if it were possible to hide behind it from terror, the terror receives a mandate to live in the very heart of Israel. It’s not just that the Western Wall might one day get painted green, like Joseph’s Tomb, it’s the fact that, under such arrangement, the Temple Mount will inevitably become the source of future bloody conflicts. Thus, the “roadmap” is rapidly becoming a milestone on the road to Israel’s destruction and new Holocaust.

Where is Bar Kochba, when he is so badly needed?

A Roadtrap for America too

Frank Gaffny writes:

(...) Americans should be under no illusion: What might more accurately be called the "road trap" will probably have dire consequences for this country's vital interests, as well. Specifically, if a new, sovereign safe-haven for terrorism called "Palestine" emerges, the road map will prove to be at cross-purposes with practically everything the Bush Administration has been trying to do since September 11, 2001 to destroy terrorist organizations and the rogue- state regimes that sponsor them.

Such a Palestinian state would have at least three adverse repercussions for us in the United States:

1) It would be the most tangible refutation to date of the Bush Administration's claim to have terrorists on the run around the world. In fact, Yasser Arafat and his chief lieutenant and hand- picked Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, would be rewarded for the intifada they unleashed against Israel after abandoning the last phase of what is euphemistically called the Israeli- Palestinian "peace process." The message would be clear: Terrorism pays.

One of the Administration's most knowledgeable Mideast hands, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, has observed that -- contrary to conventional wisdom -- terrorism is not born of despair, but of hope; hope that murder, mayhem and "martyrdom" will produce desired political and strategic results. While the Palestinian terrorists seek, first and foremost, the destruction of the State of Israel, make no mistake: They and their comrades-in- terror around the globe will be emboldened by even piecemeal progress toward that end and encouraged to seek to take on (if not take down) others who share Israel's civilization, democratic form of government and values. That would inevitably include us.

Far from securing the favor of active or passive (for the moment, at least) enemies of Israel, our willingness to urge an ally to make possibly fatal concessions -- in the face of nothing more than diplomatic pressure and negative public attitudes in the Arab world -- will breed contempt for America's power and our will to use it. We thus risk squandering the opportunity afforded by the recent demonstration of both in Afghanistan and Iraq.

2) It would weaken one of this country's most important allies in the war on terror. In 1967, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff determined that Israel needed the West Bank and Golan Heights to assure its security from conventional threats. The effect of compelling Israel to relinquish such territory risks transforming Israel from a strong, self-reliant and independent actor into one whose strategic posture is seriously degraded -- possibly to such a degree that it will find itself increasingly preoccupied with existential threats, and more and more dependent (foolishly so) on U.S. security guarantees and assistance. The end result could be a net-drain on our defense resources at a time when we are overstretched and need all the help we can get.

3) It would undermine the moral imperative behind this war: Nations that are the targets of terror are not morally equivalent to the terrorists. President Bush clearly understands that free people and their governments are entitled to use force to protect themselves. When they do so, it is not part of a "cycle of violence"; it is a legitimate defensive action -- even when used preemptively -- to counter and defeat murderous enemies bent on destruction. To accept that this is untrue for Israel will ultimately make it untenable for the United States, as well.

On June 24, 2002, President Bush enunciated his "vision" for Mideast peace. One of its central tenets was the unequivocal statement that "The United States will not support the establishment of a Palestinian state until its leaders engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure." This was the correct principle then, and it remains so today.
(All emphases added)

Bleg: Who wrote the Roadmap?

Can anyone shed some light on the above question? I don't mean "The US, EU, UN, and Russia, but actually who?
Was it Boucher at the state department? Who from the EU and UN?
Anyone know anything about this - like who insisted and succeeded on the ridiculous timetable?

Road Map Torn by Ambiguity

There is something intellectually dishonest about a "peace process" that tacitly promises mutually exclusive demands to the Israelis and Palestinians by papering over their differences until they inevitably collide. In the parlance of diplomacy, this is called "creative ambiguity." It formed the basis of the failed Oslo accords in the 1990s, and it will surely spell the demise of the current "road map" for peace.

The Oslo accords, agreed upon by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993, was an exercise in creative ambiguity. At the signing ceremony, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin called Jerusalem the "ancient and eternal capital of the Jewish people" and said it "must remain united and be our capital forever." Conversely, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat interpreted Oslo to mean "the Palestinian flag will soon fly over Jerusalem."

Rabin would later show signs he was willing to trade parts of East Jerusalem for peace, but contrary to common opinion, Arafat never pledged to crack down on the rejectionist Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Why were these issues not explicitly addressed in the Oslo accords? "The reason for this silence is not hard to understand," one Oxford professor noted at the time. "If these issues had been addressed, there would have been no accord."

The seeds of conflict were there from the start, but the so-called "interim period" belied this fact. It addressed the easy questions while putting off the thorny "final status" issues. The theory was that the two sides would begin with confidence-building measures, and by the time compromises were needed, both sides would be ready. Israel would begin withdrawing from Gaza and the West Bank town of Jericho. Simultaneously, elsewhere in the Palestinian-dominated West Bank, Israel would transfer authority over education, health, social welfare, direct taxation and tourism. Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank would then hold elections to create their own government, the Palestinian Authority.

Unfortunately, it was a honeymoon built on false pretenses. What were the issues on which the 1993 agreement was mute? None other than the core components of the conflict itself — not just the future status of Jerusalem and Arafat's strategy to clamp down on terrorists but also the borders of any Palestinian state, limitations on Israeli settlements and the so-called Palestinian right of return. On the crux of the conflict, Oslo said nothing at all. Both the Israelis and Palestinians believed that the empty vessel of Oslo would ultimately be filled with their dueling visions of Palestine.[more]

Iran, allies sit out U.N. conference with Israel at helm

A further demonstration of the uselessness of the UN, the arab refusal to seek normalization of relationship with Israel, and the hatred of Israel as the glue holding terrible arab regimes in "brotherhood."

GENEVA — Arab and Islamic countries led by Iran have decided to snub Israel's presidency of the U.N.-sponsored conference on disarmament, senior diplomats said.
The move comes at a sensitive moment in Arab-Israeli relations, with intense international efforts to jump-start the stalled peace process, and at a period of renewed tensions between the United States and Iran.

Israeli diplomatic sources were critical of the decision by Arab and Islamic nations not to participate in the conference during Israel's one-month presidency.

"In today's world, which places a premium on acceptance and dialogue, a policy of exclusion conflicts and is in stark contrast to the spirit and principles of the U.N. which we should all uphold and cherish," an Israeli source said.

Ambassador Yaakov Levy of Israel, in his speech as incoming president of the conference, called on all delegates to the 66-member body to think creatively and open-mindedly.

But the boycott of Israel, a close U.S. ally, had been anticipated by disarmament diplomats in light of the heavy public pressure the Bush administration put earlier this year on Iran and Iraq respectively not to assume the rotating presidency.

Washington considered both as unacceptable to hold the top post. Subsequently, both Baghdad and Tehran turned down the presidency.

But on Friday, Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Reza Alborzi, as coordinator of delegates to the conference from member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), circulated a letter saying that OIC nations would not participate in the conference during Israel's tenure. [more]

WaPo Blatantly Rewrites Recent History

Matin Kimel again nails The Washington Post

WaPo Blatantly Rewrites Recent History. The paper's coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been biased for a long time, as readers of this site know, but this example of historical revisionism from a Page One story is about as bad as any I've ever seen:

Efforts to push the process ended in disappointment for President Bill Clinton, who traveled to the region six times and presided over four Middle East summits. After intensive talks in his final weeks in office, Clinton neared agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, but both backed away amid renewed violence. (Emphasis added.)

Say what? Arafat and the Palestinians rejected Israel's offer, broke off talks and launched the initifada. This is moral equivalence run amok, on the part of the Post.

A Very Mixed Marriage

"Evangelical Christians lining up to fight for Israel may be an unmovable obstacle to Bush’s ‘road map’ "

MIXING CHURCHILL AND THE BIBLE, DeLay talked of a destiny shared by America and Israel. He asked for “divine assistance” in protecting both. In closing, to the astonishment of his audience, he recited—in Hebrew—the last lines of the Jewish prayer for the dead. The crowd, many in tears, joined in. (DeLay had been coached by a Jewish former staffer.) “It was quite a moment,” said Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist.
Quite an understatement. Though they welcomed him as an ardent supporter of Israel, many in the audience at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference were wary of DeLay’s view on a host of social issues—he’s pro-life, anti-gay-rights, pro-voucher, pro-gun, pro-school-prayer. Nor are they fond of his occasional declaration that what America needs most is more Christians in office. “Some would argue that it’s a mistake for Jews to get into bed with the religious right,” said Jess Hordes of the Anti-Defamation League.
Too late. Indeed, these bedfellows aren’t strangers anymore, which presents George W. Bush with a new opportunity—and a new risk. Opening another front in his war on terror, the president has launched an effort to coax Israelis and Palestinians toward peace. As Bush prepares for his trip to the G8 summit in France, there is talk he’ll tack on a trip to the Middle East. But the “Roadmap” he wants to pursue there runs not only through the Byzantine byways of the Levant, but along the political freeways of America. If he is at all serious, Bush eventually will hit a potentially impenetrable roadblock at home: the deepening alliance between Jewish supporters of Israel and the growing ranks of Christian Zionists.
Simply put, the administration won’t be able to lean hard on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon without being attacked by two blocs it cares very much about as the 2004 election approaches. Eager to capitalize on Bush’s standing as a war commander and a friend of Israel’s, White House strategists hope to double the size of Bush’s Jewish vote. Still, the numbers there, however pivotal in places such as Florida, are small. Much more is at stake among the nation’s 50 million evangelicals. Pressuring the Israelis also risks incurring the wrath—perhaps expressed in thundering, Biblical terms—of activists who claim to speak for that constituency, which the White House hopes will turn out in record numbers next year. “We are going to watch the Road-map very carefully,” Jerry Falwell told NEWSWEEK.
In April 2002, Christian Zionists were infuriated when the president, in a Rose Garden speech after a particularly heinous suicide bombing in Israel, seemed to equate Palestinian terrorism with the Israeli Army’s actions on the West Bank. Not only did he not call for the ouster of Yasir Arafat (a goal of hard-liners for years), Bush sent Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region to meet with the Palestinian. “That was more than those of us who support Israel could take,” said Gary Bauer, a leading Christian Zionist [more]

Palestinians seek explicit Israeli recognition of statehood at meeting

This is a summary. There are links to over 25 articles from multiple countries. Hit title link for article links

President George Bush plans to hold his first summit with the leaders of Israel and the Palestinians in Jordan next week, putting his personal prestige on the line in hopes of an elusive peace deal. (4) Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas will ask Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at their upcoming meeting for an explicit declaration accepting the Palestinians' right to statehood, Palestinian officials said Wednesday. (6) With Middle East diplomacy gathering momentum, the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers are planning to hold a crucial meeting on Thursday, with both sides saying it is time to move forward on an international peace plan. (11) In a historic vote cast under intense U.S. pressure, Israel's government approved an internationally backed '' road map '' to peace Sunday and for the first time recognized the Palestinians' right to statehood. (23) The Israeli government for the first time officially accepted a Palestinian claim to eventual statehood today, as Sharon persuaded his right-wing government to endorse the steps of a new American-backed peace plan, known as the road map. (24) The Israeli action opens the way for a second meeting between Mr. Sharon and Mr. Abbas this week, officials said, and for a three-way summit meeting with President Bush early next month. (24) [more]

Action: Israel Day Concert in Central Park, June 1

25,000 PEOPLE EXPECTED TO GATHER IN CENTRAL PARK TO OPPOSE PLO TERRORIST STATE -- ISRAEL DAY CONCERT FEATURING LEADING SINGERS AND AMERICAN JEWISH LEADERS TO BE HELD ON JUNE 1

May 27, 2003, NEW YORK, NY - The Israel Concert in The Park Committee, in association with the National Council of Young Israel announced today they would host the 10th annual Israel Day Concert in Central Park, at the East Meadow, located at 97th Street and 5th Avenue, on Sunday, June 1, 2003 from 3-6 PM, rain or shine.

Over 25,000 people are expected to gather at this year's event, which is dedicated to urging President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon to "Say No to a PLO terror state."

Additionally, the program will be dedicated to the Jewish communities located in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (The West Bank), the more than 1100 victims of Oslo who have been killed since the signing of the Oslo "peace" accords, the more than 700 murdered since the outbreak of the latest War against Israel which began on September 28, 2000, and the 55th Anniversary of The State of Israel.

Honorary guests will include a number of New York elected officials, leaders of the American Jewish community, including Rabbis and major organizational heads.

The event is organized by Dr. Joseph Frager, was founded by Carl & Sylvia Freyer and the concert chairman will be Sam Domb.

The concert, which is a memorial to Dr. Manfred R. Lehmann will feature leading Jewish performers, including Avraham Rosenblum and Diaspora, Ira Heller, Soulfarm and a variety of other leading performers.

"As New Yorkers, we feel the need to stand up and let the world know on the 55th year of the Anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel that we will not sit silent as the Jewish homeland is in danger. We will gather to rejoice at Israel's independence, but also in fear as the potential creation of a PLO terror state is a grave dangers to Israel," said Dr. Joseph Frager, organizer of The Israel Concert in the Park. "We will not sit silent, and expect tens of thousands to join us to publicly say "No to a PLO terrorist State."

Further information on the event is available by calling Ronn Torossian at 212-999-5585.

Obscuring Our Vision

Recent events have made it blatantly clear that some of the most prominent members of the media repeatedly omit essential details in regards to the Middle East.
Reporters paint the world in easy-to-understand moral colors. Instead of challenging and uncovering the truth, the press has been seeking out and publicizing stories that fit a simplified worldview.

The most glaring example of this poor reporting, which, if intentional, could be construed as bias, is that of America's supposed newspaper of record, The New York Times. Take reporter James Bennet's articles from the past week. In the May 18 Week In Review, in an article entitled "Crossing Jordan; The Exit That Isn't On Bush's 'Road Map,'" Bennet tells the international community about a proposition being floated by members of the Israeli government--the minister of tourism, no less: that "the new Palestinian state must be Jordan." Bennet writes that this proposition "makes explicit" what many perceive as the "real subtext of the war on terrorism: that it is a battle between Judeo-Christian and Islamic values, beliefs and territorial ambitions." The article continues to describe this plan of Minister Benyamin Elon without once addressing the amount of support such a proposition has within Israeli society...

[For the full article, either go to my weblog, Middle East and Morality, or to the slightly flawed original in the Columbia Spectator]

Nothing new, but needs to be repeated

from the JTA

Three years after Israeli withdrawal, Lebanese refuse to keep border quiet

Will the Mideast Buy the Road Map?

With the Israeli government having conditionally approved the Palestinian-Israeli "road map" on Sunday, the Arabic press focused on the Bush administration's efforts to gather more support for the plan.

Slate great compilation of the reaction in various Arab countries to the Plan.

Here it is from the "Palestinian PM"

Mazen says: "We understood from the Americans that there are no changes in the road map. This is an historic opportunity to return to a track of normalcy. We are saying to the Israelis, follow the map and don't waste time haggling over details.' We must get into the implementation phase. It is vital the two peoples feel something is changing on the ground. In any case nobody will pay attention to this or that reservation Read the rest here:

FrontPageMag Symposium on Roadmap

In the excellent Symposiium on the lessons learned from Oslo in the drafting of the Roadmap, Khalid Turaani, executive director of American Muslims for Jerusalem made some outrages statements. My comments are in bold

What the road map failed to do is acknowledge the major asymmetry of power between Palestinians and Israelis - the occupied and the occupiers.

Facts are facts. Why should there be symmetry. Negotiations always reflect the relative strength of parties.

[...] has resulted in a road map that demands of the occupied Palestinians something Israel itself hasn't been able to do since its illegal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, reign in militant groups.

The Palestinians have never tried nor will they try. So its bogus to say they have been unable to do so. Futhermore, Israels presence in the territories is not illegal as he says. It is there as a result of a war of aggression started by the Arabs and because the UN said they could stay there until they had secure and recognized borders.

(Although the Roadmap provides for a viable state)But that emphasis is almost stripped of meaning when the conditions that would make the emergence of a viable Palestinian state possible are lacking.

I wish it were that simple. Israel has to worry that the Quartet will insist on it nevertheless, with the threat of sanctions.

The road map doesn't even take us back to the situation of Oslo. It accommodates Israeli demands for the final Palestinian state to be much smaller than the West Bank and Gaza - which is 22 percent of historic Palestine. And this is very dangerous, since Sharon's idea of a Palestinian state is disconnected Bantustans in no more than 42 percent of the West Bank and Gaza.

I have searched the Roadmap for hints of this "accomodation" but couldn't find any. It is true that Sharon is on record of working toward that end but I have no idea how he hopes to acheive it. The Roadmap doesn't provide for it. It does say that the final stage has to be freely negotiated between the parties. Nice talk. But I think Israel will not be permitted to insist on such borders.

The road map does not provide at all for reversing Israeli policy of a frenzied settlement drive during Oslo. [..]. It increased because of an Israeli policy designed to hinder any possibility of the emergence of a viable Palestinian state.

At least he didn't claim that settlements were illegal but he implied it. If his only complaint is that it was "frienzied", I can live with that. The faster the better. As for hindering the emergence of a viable state, Israel never had an obligation to agree to a state much less that it be viable. The Arabs always describe Israels demands or activities as hindering a solution but they leave themselves free to demand anything and everthing and to commit terrorist outrages and to vilify Israelis and Jews without that being considered as a hinderance.

One other issue that needs to be resolved if there is going to be peace between Israelis and Palestinians is the issue of the refugees. [..] It is only reasonable that Palestinians who were driven from their homes be allowed to return. If the Quartet wants to see real peace between Palestinians and Israelis, they should allow international law and human rights to play a bigger role in peace negotiations. Israel's "might is right" attitude is too destructive.

There it is again, without a return, no real peace.

CIA training PA antiterror force

Hat tip to Agonist for pointing to this Jerusalem Post artlcle. The bad news: it won't work. The good news: might ignite civil war within Palestinian areas and their "friends" in supporting countries.

A team of CIA monitors and advisers on security have arrived in Cairo, and will soon move to the Gaza Strip, senior Palestinian Authority sources told The Jerusalem Post. The team will advise the PA in reorganizing its security, and is part of the team that will monitor both sides' implementation of the road map.

The CIA operatives are training a new PA antiterror force ahead of a possible confrontation with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, according to the sources.

The new force, which consists of several hundred agents, will operate under the direct command of Security Minister Muhammad Dahlan.

PA officials said they are preparing to start implementing their obligations under the road map, soon after a planned meeting between Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas a meeting that could come within 48 hours, according to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat.

Meanwhile, talks between Palestinian factions on suspending terrorist attacks Israel might be resumed in the Gaza Strip and not in Cairo, PA Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said Monday.
He said Abbas was awaiting a response from Hamas to his demand that the movement accept a temporary cessation of terrorist attacks now that Sharon's cabinet has accepted the road map.

Abbas met in Gaza City last Thursday with several leaders of Hamas and urged them to agree to a one-year cessation of terrorist attacks. But the Hamas officials, including Abdel Aziz Rantisi, Mahmoud Zahar, and Ismail Haniyeh, vowed to continue attacks against Israel. [more]

Stories for May 28, 2003

YeshaNews roundup of terror items for ONE DAY--and that is how the PA is clamping down!

Can the suicide genie be put back in the bottle?

So asks the Alt.muslim site, and implies that it may be too late

When put into the context of warfare in human history, suicide attacks are not new or particular to the Islamic faith. Indeed, most of the suicide attacks in the last 20 years have been inflicted by the Tamil Tigers in their quest for an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka. But in this same timeframe, we have seen suicide bombers invoke Islam in a variety of attacks against non-Muslim and Muslim alike, with a passion not seen since the hashashin. Of course, nearly every Muslim scholar in the world condemned the 9/11 attacks on the grounds that civilian life is sacred even in times of war. But the power that suicide bombing brings with it is intoxicating, and as recent attacks in Morocco, Chechnya, and Saudi Arabia have shown, the line between civilian and combatant, Muslim and non-Muslim, has been all but obliterated. (Even Muslims celebrating the Prophet's birthday in Chechnya found themselves a target.) Now that the carnage of suicide bombing is claiming more Muslim than Western lives, scholars who were silent about (or even approved of) the use of suicide attacks are trying to put the genie back in the bottle. "Bin Laden's war is not with the US," said Abdulmuhsin Akkas, a member of the advisory Shura Council. "It is against the Muslims and the Arabs. Bin Laden's form of Islam is a violent way of life, and the Riyadh bombings showed us that." Open debates about Wahabbi schools that "breed extremists" appeared in the Arab press. Even jailed leaders of the Egyptian Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya (Muslim Brotherhood) called the recent terror attacks "religious mistakes." But even a march of hundreds of thousands of Muslims against suicide bombing might not be enough to halt the bloodshed, as the tactic is spreading to new countries, genders, and targets. (So what did Norway do to piss off al-Qaida, anyway?)

Terrorism Pays
Cal Thomas puts it succintly:

In accepting for the first time a timetable for the creation of an independent Palestinian state, the Israeli cabinet may have sealed the fate of modern Israel. If Israel dismantles so-called "settlements" while Yasser Arafat and his crony, Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, add to their long list of broken promises the promise to end terrorism, the establishment of a Palestinian state will serve as a launching pad for the final assault on Israel and the elimination of that nation as a Jewish homeland and a beacon of democracy in the region.

Some cabinet members who voted for the plan, including Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, explained that while they had serious reservations about the "road map," they did not want to anger the United States.

The "road map" contains what should be unacceptable concessions by Israel in exchange for meaningless assurances by the Palestinian side. These concessions include Israeli withdrawal from land it captured for its own security in the 1967 war, which was started by Israel's neighbors with the express intention of wiping Israel off any road map (a goal that remains unchanged). These concessions would put Israel in grave peril from her enemies, which now possess more sophisticated and lethal weapons than they used in each of the previous wars.

In the past, Israel has said it would start implementing the "road map" only after Palestinians crack down on the militias. Terror got the Palestinians to the brink of their objective, so why would they give it up now when total victory seems so close? Hamas has said it intends to continue killing Israeli civilians, regardless of any agreements.

Many on the right in Israel and the United States hope the acceptance of the "road map" is merely a feint by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who should know better, given his experience in war and in politics. He has seen and heard the sermons, editorials from the Arab press, television programs, Palestinian textbooks and classroom videos, all of which express hatred of all things Jewish, Christian, Israeli and Western and uphold "martyrdom" as the highest "calling" of any and all Palestinians. Given such a history, why would any reasonable person not believe them?

A dangerous game is being played by the U.S. State Department, extending over several administrations. Ignoring, or downplaying, Palestinians terrorist acts and choosing to pressure Israel into making dangerous concessions (while accepting empty and unfulfilled promises from Israel's mortal enemies), American officials have laid the groundwork for Israel's destruction on the installment plan.

In his memoir, The White House Years, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger reveals how Washington ignores or minimizes evidence of Arab violations of peace agreements: "Israel, with her survival at stake, cannot afford to take chances . The nature of the Israelis' situation is bound to influence their interpretation of ambiguous events. We, on the other hand, have an incentive to minimize such evidence, since the consequences of finding violations are so unpleasant (emphasis mine).Violations force us to choose between doing something about them and thus risk the blowup of our initiative; or doing nothing and thus renege on our promises to Israel, posing the threat of her taking military action. Accordingly, we tend to lean over backwards to avoid the conclusion that the Arabs are violating the cease-fire unless the evidence is unambiguous." (p. 587)

That philosophy continues to be practiced and believed in this State Department.

In his autobiography Warrior, Ariel Sharon writes about peace: "A widely acceptable formula must somehow be found so that Israel can take the initiative in the peace process rather than be relegated to responding to the demands of others. Then, after we had the most nearly bipartisan approach that we could come up with, we should if possible attempt to get American support on substance. At that point, when our house is in order and our allies are with us, then we can approach the Arab nations" (p. 547-48)

Sharon adds that two prerequisites must be in place before progress can be made: "The first is that peace must be equally important to both sides, to Arabs as well as Jews .. The second prerequisite is that the peace process cannot be rushed." Sharon wrote that in 1989. Nothing has changed, except the "peace process" is being rushed and the "road map" has not been widely accepted. Other than that .. (All emphases added)

The Bloodied Map

The New Republic has this editorial, about which I imagine few would disagree except for many of us, Arafat has not really been sidelined

Of course there were five suicide bombings in Israel in two days. The danger of progress toward peace was in the air, and for the murderous maximalists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade there is no more terrifying danger. The political violence followed the "road map" as the night follows the day. And it is precisely the choice between night and day, between the darkness of their stateless and self-righteous misery and the light of their agreement to accept a Palestinian state that would live calmly alongside Israel, that the Palestinians now face. It is finally their choice—and not any decision that Ariel Sharon or George W. Bush may make—that will determine the political direction of their region and the life prospects of its inhabitants.

The decisive fact about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the "obstacle to peace" that is greater even than the settlement policy of Israel or the inconstant attention of the United States, is the internecine struggle in the Palestinian community, the civil war that has been raging for years between the jihadists and the secularists. What sort of society do the Palestinians wish for themselves and for their children? As a people, do they dream of going to Mecca or to Brussels? The so-called Al Aqsa intifada has been, to a considerable extent, the revolt of the jihadists against the secularists; and since the spineless and unprincipled Yasir Arafat was the apparent leader of the secularists, the jihadists have not met with significant resistance. Quite the contrary. Arafat had political uses for the crimes against Israeli civilians that he routinely condemned. He pandered not only to the mortal enemies of Israel, but also to the mortal enemies of a modern Palestine. Those enemies are the same holy and homicidal people.[...]The Sharon government can hardly be blamed for taking a bloodied view of the renewal of a peace process. If Abu Mazen cannot restrain the terrorists in his community, then his rise does not really amount to Palestinian reform after all. If the Palestinian prime minister and his security chief are ever going to prove that they care enough about the creation of a Palestinian state to use force against the Palestinians who are preventing it, if they are ever going to demonstrate that their community will choose historical responsibility over ideological purity, they must do so now. Israel's skepticism is not based on nothing.

And yet Israel must not allow the provocations of the Palestinian jihadists to become all that it cares to know about the present circumstances of the conflict. With the elimination of Saddam Hussein and the neutralization of Yasir Arafat (if indeed he has been neutralized), the United States has fulfilled two of Israel's most cherished security fantasies. There may be elements of the "road map" that the Israelis cannot abide—and the sponsorship of the United Nations and the European Union is not the smartest way of assuring Israel that its understanding of its own safety will genuinely be honored—but sometimes one gets the impression that the rejection of peace plans has become an unexamined reflex, a cognitive habit, of Likud governments. This would be a terrible mistake. Thinking about security means thinking concretely, exploring every turn of events for the possibility of a way out of all these torments. There is a difference between vigilance and despair.[more: reg req'd]

Abbas to Haaretz: We won't relinquish the right of return

Exclusive interview by Abbas to Haaretz

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (AbuMazen) said in an exclusive interview with Haaretz that the Palestinians will not relinquish the
"right of return" they claim, but that the issue should only be discussed in permanent-status talks.

Abu Mazen also said he would not be satisfied with merely a hudna, or Islamic truce, but wants "absolute calm" from Hamas. As to what he thinks of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's recent pro-road map comments, Abu Mazen will just say that he's withholding judgment until he sees some action. "Implementation," he said, "is the only test as far as I'm concerned."

The sensitive refugee issue is known to be particularly close to the heart of Abu Mazen, himself a refugee from Safed. "We cannot accept relinquishing the right of return," he said. "The Arab League initiative refers to a just and agreed solution, based on UN decisions. That is a very clear statement."

But then he added immediately, "this does not mean we want to destroy the state of Israel - we recognize it in the borders drawn by [Resolution] 242."

Abu Mazen also said that agreement on the right of return is not a condition for negotiations. The "refugee problem is a subject for discussion in the permanent-status negotiations and should not be brought up as a precondition," he said.[more]

Israel news: 20 articles/links

U.S. MULLED SERIES OF SANCTIONS AGAINST ISRAEL


I found this item at agonist and, as is their custom from time to time, they note that they are skeptical of this Middle East Newsline piece but will continue to moniter for more evidence

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The Bush administration has prepared a list of sanctions against Israel should it refuse to comply with a plan for a Palestinian state by the end of the year.

U.S. government and congressional sources said the list was prepared by the State Department and relayed to the National Security Council in April amid the administration's effort to press Israel to agree to the so-called roadmap. The roadmap, drafted by Washington as well as the European Union, United Nations and Russia, calls for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian war and the establishment of an interim state in 2003.

The sources said the State Department's proposed list of sanctions included an examination of the use of U.S. weapons in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel has employed such platforms as the AH-64A Apache helicopter, the AH-1G Cobra helicopter and the F-16 fighter-jet in air attacks on Palestinian insurgents.

"It's hard to overestimate the anger within the administration toward Israel regarding the delays in the roadmap," a congressional source close to the administration said. "The White House doesn't regard the roadmap merely as foreign policy. It sees the roadmap as a major element toward the reelection of the president."

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NOTE: The above is not the full item. Sub. required.

A letter to the Australian foreign Minister - a call for action

Regarding my anti suicide bombing petition submitted to the Australian government, the reply received has consistently been that adequate conventions exist at the UN. Specifically the convention against terrorist bombing. It seems clear that a new tack is required, particularly while the current government is in power, as it is sympathetic to Israel. In particular, the Prime and foreign ministers. Just yesterday, as was reported in the J Post, our Attorney general wants the power to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organisation here (a move incidentally supported in principle by the opposition). We are constrained from doing so because that organisation has not been so declared by the Security council (which makes no sense in a sovereign state). Accordingly, and with Australia's profile greatly enhanced with the USA following the war in Iraq, we are in a good position to influence matters far more than our population (20 odd million) would suggest. Consequently I have submitted the following letter to the Foreign minister and also to the executive Council of Australian Jewry, the latter being the political power for the community listened to by the government. ECAJ address is ecaj@tig.com.au The CEO is addressed as the president, Mr Jeremy Jones.

Dear Mr Downer,

I recognise that you and your office consider the current conventions of the UN sufficient in terms of terrorist bombing. This being the case, I call on you and your department to ensure, by means of a resolution, that terror against Israeli civilians is treated identically to terror acts perpetrated everywhere else in the world. If this resolution is not carried, and the current conventions in fact demand that it should be carried basically without debate, then Australia should withhold it's financial contributions to the UN until the organisation does recognise that mass murder is just that and cannot under ANY circumstance be justified. It is clear that at present there is NO equivalency, with the media referring to these atrocious acts as carried out by "militants" and similar attacks, such as Bali, Morocco or Riyadh being perpetrated by "terrorists". Terminology in this context is everything.

Regarding the "road map to peace" in the Middle East, I formally request that Australia use it's influence with the United States, and to lobby whomever (The Quartet in particular), one and all, that the following two preliminary steps need to be added to the "map", or else I will guarantee that it is doomed to fail, with hundreds or even thousands more dead than the failures of Oslo has delivered. In it's current form, the road map is a prescription for the suicide of the State of Israel.

!) that the first step has to be a formal acceptance of Israel's right to exist, and this needs to be ratified by the entire Arab/Muslim (Iran and the far East included) bloc.

2) Then a declaration of peace or at least an armistice on the Arab side. Then perhaps we can pick up where the current map begins.

 What we are up against

Even though IsraPundit articles reach a huge readership, the audience seem to consist mainly of the already converterd. Letter to the editors of mainstream papers, on the other hand, have the advantage of reaching people who are not yet entirely supportive of Israel. For this reason I attach great importance to getting letters to the editor published, and I try to do my share.

The object of this piece is to present an exchange of letter to the editor of the Ottawa Citizen (a leading daily in Canada's capital), in which I was involved. The first item, is an anti-Israel letter by Stuart Ross, published on May 21, 2003. Upon reading it, I immediately sent a reply, which was published in today's [27 May 2003] Citizen; next to this letter, the Citizen ran an anti-Israel letter by Christopher Leadbeater [I'm not making this name up], of Hailey, England. Trust the Brits to find one of theirs to send an anti-Israel letter to the Ottawa Citizen, thousands of miles away - now, that's dedication!

In drafting my letter I was constrained not only by the word count (300 words, max), but also by the need to focus on only one or two issues, rather than provide a broad rebuttal. It seems to me that it was prudent to underscore that the Arabs in Yesha want neither a state nor peace - they want to see Israel destroyed. Since I was able to add one more point, I selected to ridicule the myth of the “weak Palestinians”, a myth which seems to appeal to Westerners.

The set of all three letters is posted at IsraPundit2; the abridged version posted here shows my letter only.

Note that the letter heading, given below in bold font, is assigned by the Citizen’s editors, not by the author.

Palestinian have no interest in peace with Israel

Re. Mideest road map will fail because it leaves Israel in driver's seat, May 21.

Letter-writer Stuart Ross predicts the failure of the "road map,"
and blames Israel.

This view ignores that within a 48-hour period starting on May
17, Arab terrorists murdered 12 Israelis in five attacks. The
terrorist actions began even as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
was meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, the new Palestinian prime minister.
Is that how the Palestinians intend to set the stage for the. mad
map to succeed?

Mr. Abbas has rejected calls to disarm the armed terrorist gangs,
including Hamas, This explicitly negates the speech by U.S.
President George W. Bush of June 24 2002, upon which the road map
is predicated. And Mr. Abbas has rejected Israel's demand to
renounce the "right of return", which is a coded term for the
destruction of Israel.

The Palestinians have had numerous opportunities to create a
state by peaceful means, but have rejected all proposals because
their true aim is the destruction of Israel.

SpecifiCally, in July 2000, then-Israli premier Ehud Barak made
the most generous offer possible, but PLO leader
Yasser Arafat walked away from the offer.

It was this fact that jolted me personally into researching the
Mideast conundrum; two years after I began my research, I found
myself converted into a staunch supporter of Israel.

Mr. Ross is also wrong that the Palestinlans "are so weak". How
can anyone perceive of the Palestinians as "weak" when 280 million
Arabs stand solidly behind them, together with an endless sea of
petrodollars, and the unqualifled support of most of the 1.2 billion
Muslims, the Europeal Union, Russia, China and the United Nations?

The. Palestinian "weaknes" is another myth perpetrated by Arab
propaganda and swallowed by gullible westerners.

Joseph Alexander Norland, Ottawa

Symposium: "Ariel Sharon – Ending the 'Occupation'"

Part one of a two part symposium from FrontPage Magazine.

The participants in the symposium are:
Norman Spector, former Chief of Staff to former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, former Publisher of the Jerusalem Post and former Ambassador of Canada to Israel. He is currently a columnist for The Globe and Mail and Le Devoir; Bassam Haddad, an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and Editor of the Arab Studies Journal; Stephen Plaut, a professor at the University of Haifa and the author of The Scout (Gefen Publishing House); and Khalid Turaani, executive director of American Muslims for Jerusalem.

PR Wars

In its editorials, the Ottawa Citizen (a major daily in Canada's capital) is strongly supportive of Israel, even if this support is often obviated by reproducing news stories from Reuters and AP. I find it very instructive to read the paper’s editorials because they represent the brainchild of people who should know the PR world inside out.

Here is a good example. On Saturday, May 24, 2003, the Citizen ran an editorial entitled, “A starting point for peace”. In spelling out the hurdles facing the Roadmap, the editorial underscores the fact that the real objective of the “Palestinians” is the destruction of Israel. Indeed, of all the arguments (i) against implementing the Roadmap now, (ii) against the Roadmap in general, and (iii) against the creation of a sovereign “Palestine”, I find this argument to be the most compelling. The PR-savvy Citizen puts it thus:

The Roadmap will lead nowhere so long as the destruction of one party remains a non-negotiable objective of the other.

Simple, straightforward and worthy of being emulated.

In tomorrow’s post I will reproduce an exchange of letter to the editor, in which I was involved. Like the Citizen, I chose to concentrate on this one argument, selected from among scores of others. My point is, that we should learn from the pros and try to get out the most essential message in plain, forceful terms, even if we know that our quiver includes many, many more arguments.

Chafets recommends not to go

President Bush is said to be pondering a peacemaking trip to the Middle East. I have two words of advice: Don't go.

Let's start with the most pressing reason: If Bush gets anywhere near the Middle East right now, there's an excellent chance that someone will kill him.

Saddam Hussein is still on the loose, armed and dangerous. The deposed Iraqi dictator tried to whack Bush's father, and he's got an even better reason to go after the son. Saddam also has several billion dollars in cash. In the Middle East, you can hire an assassin for $50. Saddam can send an army.

Unless somebody beats him to it. Osama Bin Laden's guys would love to kill Bush. So would Hamas or Islamic Jihad or Yasser Arafat's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Not to mention Iran's Hezbollah proxies or the Egyptian Muslim underground that murdered their nation's President Anwar Sadat.

Bush is a macho guy. Nobody doubts his personal courage. But this isn't throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium. Right now, the Middle East is full of men and women who would be honored to martyr themselves in the blood of the Satan from Crawford, Tex.

The trip might be worth the risk if there were any chance that personal diplomacy could accomplish something. But it can't. A trip to the Middle East right now is a recipe for failure. To see that, all Bush needs to do is take a look at the crowd cheering him on. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is the only one who could plausibly be considered a friend. All the others - French President Jacques Chirac, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the heads of the Arab League and aspiring Democratic candidates - want to see Bush fall flat on his face.

He will, too. Given the state of enmity between Israel and the Arabs, the nature of the international road map for peace and Bush's own inclinations, failure is inevitable. And it would be Bush's fault.

Let me put this bluntly: In the Arab-Israeli dispute, the international community is on the Arab side. The road map it has concocted - and expects Bush to force on Israel - is nothing more than a demand for a Palestinian state. Period. If that state is governed by reasonable leaders who accept Israel's right to exist, fine. If not, tough.

Bush ostensibly favors the road map, too. But not at any price. His reservations stem from the fact that, unlike the world community, Bush is deeply pro-Israel. Why? Good question. It can't be his background. His father was notably cold to Jerusalem. Politics? Bush got a small fraction of the Jewish vote in 2000, and even Republican optimists don't think he'll win a majority in 2004. A Jewish cabal in the White House? Despite fevered attempts to paint Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and various second-tier functionaries as members of a diabolical cell of the Elders of Zion, this administration is notable for the paucity of Jews at its most senior levels.

Even Bush's born-again Christianity doesn't explain things. After all, Jimmy Carter was born again, too, and there has never been an American President so instinctively hostile to the Jewish state.

Actually, the root of Bush's affinity for Israel isn't mysterious. He's a Texan. When he looks at Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, he sees his hero, Sam Houston; when he looks at Yasser Arafat, he sees Pancho Villa.

Nor is this simply a matter of sentiment. In a region of anti-American countries, Israel is uniquely pro-American. And with the U.S. engaged in a for-us-or-against-us war in the Middle East, that's not a small thing.

Some American foreign policy sophisticates in the State Department, the oil business and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party disagree. They regard American support for Israel as a valid Arab grievance. They want Bush to appease it by ramming the road map down Israel's throat, not so much for the sake of the Palestinians, but to demonstrate evenhandedness to the Arab world.

But Bush won't do this. He won't play make-believe with his demand that Arafat relinquish power. He won't insist that Israel withdraw its troops from the West Bank and Gaza before the Palestinian Authority makes a good-faith effort to stop terrorism. And he won't pressure Sharon into agreeing to a Palestinian state as long as the Palestinians are demanding the right of return for refugees, the practical consequence of which would be the end of Israel's Jewish majority.

Bush won't do these things because if he were in Sharon's place, he wouldn't agree to them. The most Bush will ask for is a freeze on settlements and a partial withdrawal. Sharon won't turn down these requests and blow up the talks. He won't have to. The Palestinians will beat him to it.

Even if Bush survives his road trip to the Middle East, he is doomed to fail - which is what the "Go, George, go" crowd really wants. The Arab League dictators will once more be able to consolidate power by exploiting indignation at America's latest treachery. France and Russia will use it as an opportunity to increase their influence in the Islamic world at the expense of the U.S. Meanwhile, at home, Bush's Democratic rivals can blame him for a diplomatic fiasco.

Under the circumstances, it's hard to think of a worse presidential trip to make. If I were Bush, I'd fire the travel agent who tried to talk me into it.

Petition: Follow Bible, not quartet's map!

Tell U.S. leaders: Don't force Israel to travel wrong road

The so-called Road Map not only doesn't lead to peace between Israel and Palestine, it invites God's judgment on the United States of America. Here's why:

The road map document -- sponsored by the "quartet" of Russia, the U.N., the European Union and the United States -- is a non-negotiable plan that will be the framework for a fast-track Middle East peace conference. The quarter are using the road map to create a Palestinian state by forcing Israel to give up all lands regained in the 1967 war and ultimately to divide Jerusalem. East Jerusalem would then become the capital of the Palestinian state.

Its anybody's guess

Arutz 7 has some very compelling pieces of why the "acceptance" is still a disaster.

Steven Plaut argues the following rational offered for signing is dead wrong.

The current explanation for this behavior and for approval of this abomination is that Israel has added so many caveats and conditions to the Road Map that it cannot do Israel any real harm. After all, the PLO can be relied upon to mess it up and cause the Map to be abandoned. The Map requires the PLO to end all terror before any of the rest of it is implemented. So, Israel has succeeded in tricking the PLO, maneuvering the PLO into a corner, while extracting good will and PR blessings for Israel. No long-term harm will result, because the PLO will get the blame for the failure of the Map, right?

Ya'akov-Perez Golbert is a practicing lawyer in Jerusalem. He was a full professor of law in Los Angeles until his aliyah in 1984. He argues that the fourteen added reservations have no legal effect. (I tend to disagree but must see the actual document first to determine if the acceptance of the steps was conditional on the reservations or if the reservations were just attached.)

Netanyahu made a point of attaching Sharon’s 14 points of objection to the plan, as if that made any difference, given the fact that the cabinet approved the plan by a vote of 12 to 7, with 4 abstentions. Of course, the American government had given assurance that Israel’s objections would receive “due consideration” when it comes to implementation. It cannot be lost on any intelligent person, not even an Israeli cabinet minister, that the phrase is utterly meaningless blather, given the fact that the objections are entirely contrary to the plan, which the Israeli government voted to accept by a decisive majority.

Rachel Neuwirth on the other hand ignores the "acceptance" and argues against the inviability of a Palestinian State.

As recent history has painfully taught us, Israel and Palestinian Arabs can never live peacefully together. Most Palestinian Arabs declare day and night that their goal is to destroy Israel. And many Israeli Arabs living in Israel have proven themselves to be disloyal to the Jewish state. However, since the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan, Israel and Jordan have lived side by side in relative peace. Only two states — the Jewish "Palestinian" state and Jordan, the Arab "Palestinian" state — are truly capable of finding a resolution to the so-called Palestinian dispute.

The separation of Arab and Jew is imperative for regional stability.

Who's to say anyone of them are wrong. We don't know what's really going on. Only time will tell.

ULTIMATUM

One things Israel needs to do is give an ultimatum. There needs to be some stick not just carrot. Israeli Prime Minister Sharon should once again announce his support for a Palestinian state but with a caveat. The caveat is that this is the last time the Palestinians will be offered a state. The right of Israel (and other people in the area) trying to live in peace trumps the Palestinian’s right to another Arab state. Sharon should make his support of the ‘Road Map” contingent on the provision that if the Palestinians do not comply with it the will not be given another chance, they will not be given another carrot. This time they will be given a stick. If they do not comply with the ‘Road Map’, the Palestinians will lose their ‘right’ to a state. They (along with their supporters from Israel proper) would be deported from Gaza and the West Bank if they do not follow through with the road map. To where should they be shipped. The most logical place would be Jordan. But also, there is an opportunity to ship them to Iraq or perhaps the Sinai. Egypt participated in all wars against Israel and occupied the Gaza in 1948. Iraq materially supported most of the wars with Israel by sending troops. Both these countries should have to pay for their aggression by helping to solve the results of Arab aggression.

Justice for all

IMRA has an article from Palestine Media Center which reported on some of Foreign Minister DeVillepin’s statements when he was in the territories. It is quite obvious that the Palestinians have his full support. But I wanted to focus on only one statement of his.

I know that the duties are difficult and demanding, but the Palestinian leadership can rely on France and Europe … to bring justice to the Palestinian people and security to the Israeli people.”

Don’t buy it, on either account. It should be the other way around. But this statement implies that the two are related. Israel can’t have security unless the Palestinians get justice.

It is time to bring justice to Israel and security for the Palestinian people. It is true that Israel and Sharon keep demanding security. When they do so they are on the defensive.

Israel should take the offensive. It has right’s and entitlements. It is entitled to realize them. It should assert their right to all the land to the Jordan. It earned it. Not only does it possess the lands, it has possessed the lands. For the last 35 years it has settled the land and made it, its own. It is entitled to compemnsation for economic loss due to the intafada and the wars. It is entitled to have the terrorists, Arafat and Mazen included, brought to justice. It should demand justice for Jewish refugees from Arab lands.

The Arabs lost all right to it as a result of attacking Israel on numerous occasions. They have lost the land as a result of breaking the Oslo Accords. They have lost the land for having started the intafada. In fact, the only justice they are entitled to, is for their crimes.

As soon as Israel receives justice, the Arabs will have security.

Pop Diva Meets Israeli Leader Sharon

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Whitney Houston on Tuesday visited Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who took time out from preparations for a summit with his Palestinian counterpart and President Bush to meet the pop diva.

"It's home. It's a friendship I've never had with any other country," Houston, dressed in a long red robe with white embroidery, told Sharon.

Houston was in Israel with her husband, rhythm and blues singer Bobby Brown, to visit "friends and family" among the Black Hebrews, an African-American community that moved to Israel in 1969 and settled in the southern town of Dimona.

On Monday, Houston told reporters in Israel's southern resort of Eilat that she was on "spiritual retreat" during which she would visit family and friends in Dimona.

Bob Dylan Sings on the Middle East

Here are the first few verses of Dylan's Neighborhood Bully:

"Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man,
His enemies say he's on their land.
They got him outnumbered about a million to one,
He got no place to escape to, no place to run.
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,
He's criticized and condemned for being alive.
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin,
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land,
He's wandered the earth an exiled man.
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn,
He's always on trial for just being born.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized,
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad.
The bombs were meant for him.
He was supposed to feel bad.
He's the neighborhood bully."

Read more or sing more.

Why the road map doesn't scare us

Too long to quote, but here, a few excerpts that will, I hope, get you to read the piece in full

...Meanwhile, the U.S. administration and Israel's government are clearly in synch on the war on terror, and its ramifications both in the Middle East and globally. We think that the free world must win the War on Terror, and that it is a good thing that America and Israel are natural allies.

We do not lose sleep at night when we realize who it is that governs the Jewish nation. Ariel Sharon and Shaul Mofaz handing Israel's security, Bibi Netanyahu handling the dismantling of Israel's monopolies and 'combina' culture, and Silvan Shalom handling foreign relations.

Israel has put forward a management team capable of handling a combination of security and economy crises.

And it is Israel's center-right "dream team". If anyone can cut a deal that the people can support, this is the team, and everyone knows it
[...]In other words, Israel will most likely keep navigating as best as possible along the road to peace. Now it is just up to the Palestinians to decide whether they want to end up as a footnote in history or as a nation.

Top Palestinian: We won't fight terror before Israel ends 'occupation'

Do note the Syrian intrusion (see link for full text), and the statement that since the Palestinians did not surrender, they do not have to concede anything but instead negotiate. But how would they "surrender" \when they were not even one of the nations trying to destroy Israel in the '67 war? Of course the various terror groups have maintained for some time that ending the "occupation" means ending Israel and not just getting out of land taken in the '67 war. Isn't it, after all, much easier to stop bombing and shooting than to dismantle settlements only to put them back up if negotiations fail?

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said ending Israel's "occupation" of Palestinian land rather than a halt to Palestinian violence must top the agenda of peace talks between Israel and his government.

He also praised US President George W. Bush Tuesday for planning a Mideast summit next week, saying his personal engagement was a welcome break from US preoccupation with Iraq in recent months.

"The Israeli occupation is still ravaging our territory and ravaging our people," Shaath said outside a two-day meeting of the 15 EU nations with Israel and its neighbors.

'"I don't think anybody can expect the Palestinians to be effective (in making peace) without first taking the occupation off their homes." The term "occupation" is anathema to the Israeli right, which believes Israel has a legitimate claim to the West Bank and Gaza Strip for religious and security reasons.

Plans were afoot for a summit bringing together Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, the new Palestinian prime minister, in either Jordan or Egypt.

Shaath hailed Bush for showing a "greater American involvement" in Mideast peace making. "I think his personal engagement is important," he said. "It is something he did not do before. He was so busy doing other things." [more]

Jewish World Review

This delightful piece of news--is it good for the Jews?--should get you to posting some catchy Comments. Note: This brief piece was deleted from JWR but found via Google cache and posted at Metafilter.com

Mazel tov to 59-year-old Fox News star Geraldo Rivera -- who will wed his 28-year-old girlfriend, Erica Levy, at New York's historic Central Synagogue on Aug. 10. "You can't be my age and getting married and not be an optimist," said four-time loser Rivera, the son of a Jewish mother and Puerto Rican father. He added that Bill and Hillary Clinton, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a top Palestinian official, the foreign minister of Afghanistan and various U.S. military commanders from Iraq have been invited to the Reform Jewish ceremony and the reception at the posh Four Seasons restaurant. "I'm making a conscious decision to take this whole Judaism thing seriously," Rivera told us. "I think the Jews need me right now."

Moroccans Turn Out Against Terrorism


This piece pointed out to me via Instapundit and is a good illustration that when fellow believers kill in their own back yard, then there is an awakening as to the outrageousness of the killings taking place

Tens of thousands of demonstrators chanting "no to terrorism" thronged the streets of Casablanca today, nine days after 43 people were killed in coordinated suicide attacks in the city.

"I am here for myself and for them, the next generation," said Abdellatif Ghanam, an unemployed night watchman, gesturing to his 6-year-old son. "The people who did those attacks are not followers of Islam in its true sense."

Morocco's largest opposition party, the Justice and Development Party (PJD), was banned along with other Islamic groups from taking part in the march, which was led by Prime Minister Driss Jettou.

The PJD has condemned the five almost simultaneous bombings that are believed to have been carried out by a small, ultra-conservative Islamic group, Assirat al-Moustaquim (the Righteous Path).

At a similar demonstration a week ago in Rabat, the Moroccan capital, young men threw tomatoes at PJD marchers.

Several Islamic activists attempted to join the protest in Casablanca but were stopped by Interior Ministry units. "We wanted to show that we, the Islamists of Morocco, are against terrorism," said would-be marcher Rachid Amar. [more]

Debka Headlines

Sharon Retreats

Sharon retracts reference to “occupation” in relation to Palestinians. ("Maintaining three and a half million Palestinians under occupation is a bad thing and must end”). Responding to widespread furor and advice from Likud faction leader, prime minister said he meant control and was misunderstood.

DEBKAfile pointed Monday to potential legal damage to Israel’s cause in international forums and tribunals. Full article with Tuesday’s update appears below

Legal circles urge Israeli prime minister to publish a formal retraction formulated with help of competent legal advisers to avoid bringing government, citizens on both sides of Green Line, counter-terror combat personnel into unwarranted legal jeopardy

White House holds decisive consultation Tuesday on tough measures against Iran’s nuclear program including action to destabilize regime. Armed Forces chief Myers accuses Iran of harboring al Qaeda terrorists

see title/link for article listed by DEBKA

No Glory for Corrie

Links for this delightful and clever posting from James Taranto within text

Call it the Karine C: The Israeli Defense Forces have seized another boat carrying weapons intended for Palestinian Arab terrorists. The New York Times reports Israeli officials believe the boat, which carried Hezbollah "explosives expert" Hamad Abu Amar, was bound for Egypt. "From there, Mr. Abu Amar could have tried to infiltrate the Gaza Strip through one of the tunnels the Palestinians have dug under the border, to smuggle weapons and other contraband from Egypt into southern Gaza."

As we noted in March, Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old terror advocate from Olympia, Wash., was trying to protect such tunnels when she caused her own death in an unsuccessful attempt to obstruct an Israeli bulldozer. Corrie's outfit, the International Solidarity Movement, is seeking new recruits: "We particularly invite Jewish people to join the movement," says an announcement on the Palestine Monitor Web site. "Already, about 25% of our activists come from Jewish backgrounds. It is much more easy for Jewish people to enter Israel and more embarrassing for the Israeli government to deport Jews, making our Jewish contingent extremely valuable to the movement." Jews for genocide?

Israel Imitates 'The Godfather'

"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer"--Michael Corleone

"Israel Weighing EU Membership"--headline, United Press International, May 21

THE OSTRICHES OF ARABIA

I seem to recall a post at this site which suggested that Assad of Syria also downplayed Al Qaeda as a significant force. [note: found it at ASSAD Ostriches of a feather etc, I guess, as the saying has it

That must have come as news to the hundreds of people who were injured and the families of the more than 30 people who were murdered days later by al Qaeda suicide bombers in three foreign compounds in Riyadh.

Just as we paid the price - in injuries and the loss of our loved ones - more than 18 months ago, now Saudi Arabia is starting to suffer the consequences of its ostrich approach to terrorism. This was brought into even starker relief by revelations that the Saudis failed to respond to an urgent request by the U.S. ambassador to beef up security at the targeted compounds.

Saudi Arabia will never be the partner in the war on terrorism it claims to be until it stops being in denial and confronts its responsibility for the atrocities of 9/11 and the creation of the still-alive and kicking global monstrosity known as al Qaeda.

It is no accident that 15 of the 19 hijackers of 9/11 were Saudi Arabians. It is no coincidence that most of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners are from Saudi Arabia. It is not happenstance that the governmentally sanctioned Wahhabi sect preaches hatred of Westerners and gives religious legitimacy to mass murder in mosques and schools throughout the country.

And it is no fluke that most of the money that financed the murders of our loved ones and our injuries came from Saudi Arabia.[more]

Who is Victor Davis Hanson?

Laura Secor writing in the Boston Globe tells us.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON leads a double life. A fifth-generation raisin farmer in California's fertile Central Valley, Hanson is also a historian of ancient Greece, a lyrical defender of American agrarianism, and a prolific contributor to conservative opinion magazines. His columns so caught the fancy of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney that he has enjoyed audiences with both. It's hard to say which is stranger: that a raisin farmer should exert such influence, or that a classics scholar should.

It helps that one of Hanson's areas of academic expertise coincides with the national agenda: war.

''Carnage and Culture,'' his recent book arguing that the West has produced a uniquely effective military culture thanks to inherited Greek values, was a New York Times bestseller and a particular favorite of Vice President Cheney.

These are confusing times, and Hanson wields a few simple ideas with blunt force. Western culture, in his view, emanates from ancient Greece and prizes consensual government, private markets, self-criticism, and rational inquiry. Where such values are found, political, economic, and military preeminence follow. The non-Western world lags behind the West because it does not share in the Greek cultural legacy, having opted instead for despotism, theocracy, illiberal markets, and the plain old laziness that has men whiling away afternoons playing backgammon in the cafes of the Middle East. MORE

If you love his work, and who doesn't, you'll enjoy reading about his ideas and background.

Anti-Semitism, Misinformation, and the Whitewashing of the Palestinian Leadership

Francisco J. Gil-White is Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and a Fellow at the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict (SACSEC), at the University of Pennsylvania. Like Joseph A. Norland, he takes us on his voyage of discovery.

Until last spring, I held what people call a pro-Palestinian position.

Like many intellectuals, I had adopted Arafat’s cause, taking what I believed was a principled stand that blamed Israel for the conflict in the Middle East, and especially for the suffering of Palestinians. Because I come from a Catholic background, and because there is a long and violent history of Catholic anti-Semitism (though not in my family), I always made clear that I supported the right of the State of Israel to exist, and that my position had nothing to do with animosity against Jews.

In April 2002, I noticed that media coverage of the fighting in Jenin was manifestly one-sided (against Israel). I began to look into this and also into the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This work made me realize that my sympathy for Mr. Arafat was based on false information.

Here is what I used to believe about the Middle East (all of these beliefs are quite popular):

1) That the media (at least the American media) has a uniformly pro-Israel bias;
2) That Arafat’s Fatah is a secular nationalist organization trying to combat the fundamentalist influences of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Islamist terrorists;
3) That Palestinian terrorism is not anti-Semitic, but aims at national liberation;
4) That the Palestinian leadership has attempted to implement the Oslo accords in good faith, but the Israelis have sabotaged the process;
5) That Israel is a state overwhelmingly made up of European and American Jews who moved into Palestine and displaced Middle Eastern natives;
6) That historically, Jews were well-treated in the Arab world, and that current Arab hostility therefore stems from the current conflict.

Now, having spent time studying the historical record, I believe I was wrong about all six points.

He then goes on to debunk all these myths by scholarly arguments with all sources quoted. Recommended

Analysis / A one-way street

Even if Joseph Norland doesn't agree with me, Akiva Eldar, does. Yesterday I said that the reservations "gutted" the roadmap. Today , writing in Ha'aretz, Eldar agrees.

Israel's reservations on the road map plan that were attached to the government's decision, turn the document from a diplomatic initiative into an Israeli diktat of a Palestinian surrender agreement.

In one fell swoop the reservations do away with long months of negotiations during which the Quartet, and then the U.S., rejected most of them. The authors of the document apparently assumed that President George Bush was only asking for the formal approval of the Sharon government to the road map, and to hell with the implementation.

In the document, not the slightest effort at moderating the reservations is made, nor is an effort made to hide the intention of neutering the road map. This is like thumbing one's nose at the U.S., the European Union, Russia and the UN. Not surprising, the Palestinians flared up yesterday when they heard the reservations. More

Unfortunately Eldar thinks the worst of Sharon for doing so (he must be a leftist). I on the other hand, am thrilled. See my comments yesterday.

Bold Bush can secure Mideast peace

An article for the Orlando Sentinel suggests that Pres. Bush may have a chance for a place in history by bringing about, through direct actions and his presence, a peace in the ME after all these years. But the post beneath this one suggests the time not yet right.

As repeated bombings and retaliation obscure peace prospects between Israelis and Palestinians, many Americans naturally wonder if hoping for a settlement is realistic.

The answer is yes -- unequivocally. Combatants can tire of fighting or recognize the futility of their actions. Costs can grow out of control. And, even in a region known for contentiousness, such as the Middle East, good sense and statesmanship can prevail.

For example, after the devastating 1973 Arab-Israeli war, which threatened to bring the United States and the former Soviet Union to blows, pessimism about peace abounded.

Yet, in just a few years, a series of developments was propelling Egypt and Israel toward a peace accord. That the peace has remained cold is far less significant than the absence of military conflict.[more]

Abbas pulls out of 'road map' meeting

With the possibility that Bush might meet with both sides, this move may be construed as an insult

The Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, has pulled out of Israeli-Palestinian talks on the US-driven "road map" announced earlier today by his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon. Mr Abbas cited "scheduling difficulties", but the cancellation of the meeting, which was to be held tomorrow, was interpreted as an indication that the Palestinian leader does not see any value in meeting Mr Sharon.

"As far as Mr Abbas is concerned, Sharon does not deliver anything," the Guardian's Middle East correspondent, Chris McGreal, told Guardian Unlimited. "The Palestinians think Sharon uses them for propaganda, then all he does is harangue them about terror."

The talks would have been the second meeting between the two men in a fortnight. Their announcement followed remarks yesterday by Mr Sharon referring to the "occupation" of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the first time he had used the word. [more]

Neo-Nazi youths murdered boy, 17, for looking like a Jew

No need to comment.

Mike's Place Toronto Benefit Concert

"Through his bravery, we mourn 3 and not 30....."
www.mikesplacebars.com
May 1, 2003

On April 30, 2003 there was a homicide bombing at Mike's Place, a popular Tel Aviv blues bar, killing three and wounding over fifty. Mike's Place is an establishment that is very dear to many Canadians who have spent time in Israel. Upon hearing the news and picturing the crowded bar, many of us were surprised to hear that the death toll was 3 and not 30. The carnage would have been much greater if not for the heroic actions of Avi Taviv, the security guard whose brave and selfless actions prevented the terrorists from penetrating further inside.

Avi, miraculously survived the attack, and is currently making a speedy recovery in a Tel Aviv hospital. We would like to send him a message to express our gratitude and indebtedness for saving our friends, family and loved ones from harm.

ANNOUNCING..............


"Mike's Place Toronto"


A benefit concert for Avi Taviv


WHAT: GOOD FRIENDS, TASTY BEVERAGES AND GREAT LIVE MUSIC BY TALENTED LOCAL MUSICIANS IN THE MIKE'S PLACE SPIRIT

WHERE: SILVER DOLLAR ROOM - 486 Spadina Ave, just north of COLLEGE ST.

WHEN: Monday, June 9. 2003 - Doors open at 9 pm

$12 IN ADVANCE - CONTACT: devorsteven@rogers.com
$15 at the door


WHY: OUR GOAL IS TO RAISE ENOUGH MONEY TO SEND AVI ON A VACATION TO THE GREEK ISLANDS, AND TO HELP WITH HIS RECOVERY AND TUITION(his reason for taking the Mike's Place security job)

About Mike's Place

Mike's Place started in Jerusalem where it was the bar of choice amongst a generation of North American kids spending their junior year abroad at the Hebrew University. Mike's was one of the only bars to have survived the horrible blow that the Jerusalem (and Israeli) hospitality industry has encountered since the intifada started. Their decision to expand to a second Tel Aviv location on the beach at a time when there were almost no new bar openings defied conventional wisdom, but was a natural one, as many of us find ourselves spending time in Tel Aviv.

We hope that you will come out and show your support for Israel and for a true hero whose bravery has touched our community. This event will send the message that we will not let Israel's enemies take away our little slice of heaven on earth.

For further information or donations contact: eyesoftheworld03@hotmail.com

Action: Petitions

I received an action call from Ziad Abdelnour of the US Committee for a Free Lebanon, USCFL; the e-mail in question asserts the USCFL support for the follwing ongoing petitions, and calls on the public to sign these petitions:

Confirm Daniel Pipes to the US Institute of Peace

Help Liberate Lebanon

Syria is as dangerous as Iraq

Petition demanding war against all governments that sponsor terrorism

Blogging is not enough; we must leave no stone unturned.

Sharon Defends Endorsement of Peace Deal

By now you know most of this story. But here an interesting take by Agonist

Ariel Sharon told his stunned country Monday he was determined to reach a peace deal and end 36 years of rule over the Palestinians - the strongest sign yet that the prime minister's endorsement of a Mideast peace plan may have been more than a ploy to deflect international pressure.

"To keep 3.5 million people under occupation is bad for us and them," Sharon told angry conservatives in his Likud Party in remarks broadcast on Israel Radio.

Officials began preparing for a meeting in the coming days between Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, their second in 10 days. That could clear the way for a summit with President Bush as early as next week.

One more injustice -- One more outrage

IsraPundit received this letter.

I and other Israel subscribers to Bezeqint. our largest Internet Service provider have found ourselves banned from sending e-mails to an increasingly large segment of the world's internet subscribers.

Beginning last month, my mail to Australian friends began to bounce, and I received the following message;

The Bezeq International SMTP out Mail Server program

Friend@acenet.com.au : host mail1.acenet.com.au[203.202.60.5] said: 554
Service unavailable; Client host [192.115.106.37] blocked using
spews.relays.osirusoft.com; [1] MARIN, see http://spews.org/ask.cgi?S373
(in reply to RCPT TO command)

Using another "free" e-mail account I made enquiries as to why my mail was being blocked. The representative "Acenet" ISP in Australia refused to reply to an Israeli address, but he replied to his Australian client (My friend) saying that "Bezeqint" (Israel's largest ISP) is the world's largest source of spam, and therefore, all mail from Bezeq. is now blocked. (Interestingly---Israeli "Spam" being in Hebrew, would be unreadable by anyone without Hebrew fonts ontheir machine)

Under United States Law & Antiboycott Regulations this is illegal. I urge anyone and everyone to contact the US government about the boycott of Israeli ISP's---using bogus criteria.

It is also Criminal:
The penalties imposed for each "knowing" violation can be a fine of up to $50,000 or five times the value of the exports involved, whichever is greater, and imprisonment of up to five years. During periods when the EAR are continued in effect by an Executive Order issued pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the criminal penalties for each "willful" violation can be a fine of up to $50,000 and imprisonment for up to ten years.

And Administrative:
For each violation of the EAR any or all of the following may be imposed:
General denial of export privileges;
The imposition of fines of up to $12,000 per violation; and/or

Exclusion from practice.
Boycott agreements under the TRA involve the denial of all or part of the foreign tax benefits discussed about

This boycott has now extended to Excite, and Netscape------both responding that Bezeqint. (Our National server) is being blocked because of "Complaints"------Not one of the US or Australian ISP's are willing to provide examples of these "Complaints"----and they certainly are not about me!

I am a private Israeli citizen, and certainly not a mass-mailing "Spammer"-----Remember, that this boycott will effect newsletters and announcements originating from Israel, and will serve to isolate this tiny country from the rest of the world.

Please help stop this boycott by lodging a complaint with the U.S. Government "Office of Antiboycott Compliance"

Thank you and Shalom from Israel, Tamar

Playing Offense

The inside story of how U.S. terrorist hunters are going after al Qaeda

"After 9/11, the gloves come off." –COFER BLACK, former director, CIA Counterterrorism Center

David E. Kaplan, has a major report in U.S. News

And the brass knuckles came on. America's frontline agents in the war on terror have hacked into foreign banks, used secret prisons overseas, and spent over $20 million bankrolling friendly Muslim intelligence services. They have assassinated al Qaeda leaders, spirited prisoners to nations with brutal human-rights records, and amassed files equal to a thousand encyclopedias.

This is a major report and it makes for fascinating reading. They certainly have taken a leaf out of Mossad's notebook. Fascinating reading.

Here they go again

The LA Times, Anti-Israel Boycott Watch advises that

The LA Times calls Sharon "uncompromising" under a photo of him on its front page today, the day after Sharon accepted the biggest political compromise in the history of Modern Israel - acceptance of the flawed Road Map.

"A war veteran famously ruthless in battle, a man they call the Bulldozer and the father of the Jewish settlement enterprise, the uncompromising Sharon is an improbable peace broker" writes the LA Times. Inciting rhetoric.

Abu Mazen, who does not yet appear to have lifted a finger to stop the terrorism, is not labeled uncompromising. The LA Times also criticizes Israel for setting out objections to the Road Map "that could complicate the plan's implementation".

This rhetoric is reminiscent of the general media attitude towards then Prime Minister Menachem Begin who ceded the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt and yet was labeled the "intransigent" one. It is incorrect too. Sharon is not "the father of the settlement enterprise". The Labor Government started the settlements in the early '70s to bolster Israel's security.

This noxiously hard-line anti-Israel paper is determined to keep pushing and pressuring Israel on behalf of the PLO. It is a shame and a disgrace that supporters of Israel continue to buy it.

If you wish to join the Boycott visit here.

So Many Documents. So Little Security

DEBKA policial analysis notes the contentiousness of the ministerial meeting to discuss The Road Map and A. Sharon

The forty-member Likud parliamentary party hurled bitter complaints against prime minister Ariel Sharon Monday, May 26, for failing to consult the party before he presented the Middle East road map to the cabinet for endorsement on Sunday, May 25. It was carried by a narrow majority of 12 to 7 ministers and four abstentions. None of the Likud ministers voted against the document. Even the nay-saying coalition hawks did not walk out of the Sharon coalition.

Former foreign minister David Levy attacked the government for accepting a Palestinian state. For a much lower price, he said, “the left” would have got us full peace. Why did the ministers who publicly decried the road map as dangerous and bad fail to vote against it? he asked. Pointing at finance minister Binyamin Netanyahu, he said: Fence-sitting is not an option when the Land of Israel is at stake. There is no longer any difference between Likud and the left-wing parties.

One MK accused the Sharon government of accepting “Oslo C” – a reference to the 1993 Oslo accords signed by a Labor government, long anathema for Likud and nationalist parties.

Sharon was unmoved by his critics. He demanded that the party line up as one man behind his policies. When a MK ventured to remark: Consult with us and we’ll support you, the prime minister retorted: You will support me whether or not I consult with you.”

The road map, Sharon emphasized, is not an accord but a framework. Nothing has been negotiated or agreed. A political accord will be brought before the Knesset. [...]

Asked what would happen if the Palestinians continued to wage a war of terror, he said thumping on the table: We will continue to fight terror day and night as we do now and the Palestinians will get nothing. Without our consent, nothing can go forward. [...]

DEBKAfile’s political analysts note that Sharon is the first Israeli prime minister to use the term “occupation” in reference to Israel’s presence on lands captured in the 1967 all-out war launched by its Arab neighbors.[more]

Politics vs. the roadmap

Robert Novak, who is not my favourite pundit, wrote an interesting piece in which he reports "that the times, they are a changing" as the Republicans and Jews get closer together.

An unpublicized Israel Bond dinner .... conveyed good news for the expanding Republican majority and bad news for the endangered roadmap that supposedly leads to a Palestinian state.

What made it politically significant was that six politicians were among the approximately 250 people in attendance, and all six were conservative Southern Republicans. Five were Alabamans, led by Gov. Bob Riley, and the sixth was former Republican National Chairman Haley Barbour, who is running for governor of Mississippi this year.

An all-Republican political roster for such an event signified progress for serious GOP efforts to end absolute Democratic domination over the small but important Jewish constituency. The question is whether that constrains President Bush's pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace. The private assessment by important Republicans is that it should and that it does.

[...]Their presence reflects George W. Bush's post-2000 popularity in the Jewish community, thanks mostly to his staunch support for Israel. While a small minority nationally, Jews are disproportionately influential. That is partly true because of fund-raising, but what is really important is their potentially decisive role in Florida, New York, California, Illinois, Michigan and Maryland. They conceivably could spell the difference between victory and defeat in the 2004 presidential election.

Palestinian victims of terror

The View from Here in Israel informs us

Kifiya al-Tawil is a 34 year old widow with eight children. She lives in the Shuafat refugee camp near Jerusalem. Her husband, Ghaleb, was riding the Egged number 6 bus to work in Jerusalem when a fellow Palestinian boarded the bus, detonated his explosive belt, and blew Ghaleb and six Israelis to their deaths.

If one of these Palestinians went to paradise it was Ghaleb, not the fanatic murderer, dreaming of Islamic glory and virgins. Ghaleb al-Tawil was not the only Arab victim of Palestinian terror. The very next day Hassan Tuatha was killed by yet another suicide bombing in Afula.

Ghaleb al-Tawil had been given a cleaning job in Israel's Hadassah Hospital. He wanted to work there to be close to his 13 year old daughter, Iman, who has Downs syndrome, and is being treated at the Jerusalem hospital for leukemia. After work he would often sleep by her bed.

From his salary Ghaleb was not only supporting his wife and eight children, but also his mother, a niece, and a child from a previous marriage.

Ghaleb had supported his extended family from the salary earned by being allowed to work in Israel. His sick daughter enjoys the finest medical treatment in Israel. And now his widow and children will benefit from the generous financial, housing, and educational dispensations given by Israel's National Insurance to the victims of Palestinian terror.

I am also attaching a chart prepared by the IDF on the reduction and prevention of Palestinian suicide attacks against Israelis since the commencement of 'Operation Defensive Shield' in April, 2002.

Two facts become remarkably clear.

1. The sharp decrease in attacks implemented by Palestinians as a direct result of 'Operation Defensive Sheild'.
1. The huge increase in the number of suicide attacks foiled by the actions of Israeli intelligence
units and the IDF since the start of 'Operation Defensive Shield'.

Please note. There were 135 Israelis killed in suicide attacks in March, just prior to Israel taking action to search out and seal terror-based towns and villages. Despite the deadly results of suicide bombers that manage to reach their target, Israel has not suffered those monthly number of killed.

Closures, patrols, security road blocks may be unpleasant for Palestinians, but they have certainly saved hundreds of Israeli lives. The facts of the IDF suicide attack chart speak for themselves. Use it in answer to the accusation that Israeli actions in the territories are unjust.

DEBKA news update

First report: Palestinian terrorists infiltrated Israel through Gaza Strip border fence opposite Kibbutz Erez Monday evening. One is killed in shootout, second surrounded. No Israeli casualties.

Men at Work: A special note to contributors

Blogger.com is moving its database to a new server. Several bloggers have attributed the slow loading and other problems to this factor. IsraPundit has experienced its share of these problems by the truckload.

Blogger.com contribution to the load-time problem notwithstanding, we have pared down our template (with the generous help of our colleague, Michael Glazer), reduced the number of posts displayed, and taken an additional step to deal with long articles. Accordingly, we request that annotated citations from news stories or published articles be limited to a maximum of five quoted paragraphs. As to long "original articles", we ask that contributors post a precis on IsraPundit and the full article on IsraPundit2. You can see an example below, "Adding insult to injury". Contributors who require an "invite" to IsraPundit2 are requested to contact me. Of course, there will always be exceptions, as in the case of Fisking, to which these guidelines cannot be easily applied.

IsraPundit2 and the other measures are being implemented on an experimental basis, pending receipt of feedback from readers. In the final analysis, this site is maintained for the benefit of readers, not authors, and therefore it is important that we receive feedback, especially critical comments. Please contact me at dt804@yahoo.ca, or contact the official IsraPundit mailbox, Israpundit@ureach.com.

Thank you.

More links re Israel's acceptance of the RoachMap

Following-up on Fred's meta-link post (below), note that Israel National News, or Arutz7, compiled a series of links relevant to Israel's decision of Black Sunday, 25 May 2003. The articles and news stories cover the period May 15-May 26.

Road map discussions and articles

Numerous articles/links concerning the road map. This set of links differs in that it presents international media

Oh. THAT refugee problem. Seldom hear about it

Iraqi Jews Seeking Claims

Though the world seldom hears anything but the fires of anguish concerning the displaced arab refugee problem, an equal number of Jews were displaced with the creation of the State of Israel. This article in The Jewish Week discusses Iraqui Jews, Jews from but one arab country where Jews were hounded out of their homelands.

The overthrow of Saddam Hussein has touched off a scramble among Jewish groups seeking compensation for Jewish refugees from Iraq as well as other Arab countries. In many cases the groups are competing against each other.

At stake potentially are billions of dollars from individual and communal claims.

The push for reparations comes at a time when Palestinians are demanding the right of return to their former homes in Israel.

The World Jewish Congress and the American Sephardi Federation have been focusing attention on the claims of displaced Jews for more than a year. The WJC has held five conferences on what it calls “the forgotten exodus,” including one this week in Jerusalem.

Avi Beker, the WJC’s secretary general, said he hopes the testimony presented by displaced Jews will be enough to warrant the issue’s inclusion in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

“This is the strongest moral case Israel has against the Palestinian right of return, which has proved to be a major stumbling block in the peace process,” Beker said.

But Dr. Heskel Haddad, a Manhattan ophthalmologist who heads the American Committee for the Rescue and Resettlement of Iraqi Jews, brushed aside that effort as a “publicity stunt.”

“It is of no financial value to the Jews,” Haddad argued. “We plan to file a class-action lawsuit like the one filed against the Swiss [banks].” [more]

Sharon, Trusting Bush


Wiliam Safire has this to say about the Israeli cabinet session discussing the Road Map

In the midst of yesterday's stormy six-hour meeting of Israel's cabinet, assembled to reluctantly affirm or angrily reject Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to accede to White House pressure to sign on to a lopsided "road map," a beeper went off in the pocket of an aide.

A message was passed to Sharon: in anticipation that his trust-Bush argument would prevail, the stock market in Tel Aviv had rocketed up nearly 7 percent (equivalent to a 600-point rise in our Dow Jones industrial average).

The former general, who had been relying on his defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, to assuage the cabinet's security concerns, promptly launched a second front: "Hope is important," Sharon (in a Sunday midnight telephone interview) recalls saying. "Cuts in the budget alone won't help us. What we need is, first, quiet, and the start of the political process."

That may have made the difference. Although 11 members voted no or abstained, 12 were willing to gamble on Sharon's trust in Bush. "It was not an easy meeting," he says. "I decided not to postpone until we could be sure of the vote, but to take the risk because Israel must not be looked upon as an obstacle to the search for peace. What President Bush said the other day affected me — that he was fully committed for the security of the state of Israel. Maybe now there is a possibility to move forward."

As the vote showed, hard-liners are worried about "Arik": He had insisted on "quiet" — an end to terror attacks — before negotiating, but then changed that to "100 percent effort" by new Palestinian leaders. Sharon had also insisted on evidence beforehand of a campaign to disarm and pacify Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but he was willing to hold private talks during a spate of suicide bombings. Sharon had spurned negotiation as long as Palestinians asserted claims to return en masse to Israel, but even as they kept putting forward that non-starter, he met with the new prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas [more]

Adding insult to injury

Synopsis

The US is preparing to stab Israel in the back - again.

Following brutal US pressure, Israel was forced to accept the Roadmap on Black Sunday, May 25, 2003. This handed the terrorists in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha) a triple victory: (i) Israel recognized the creation of a sovereign "Palestine" by 2005, without getting anything in return, not even renunciation of the "right of return"; (ii) the framework for creating "Palestine" was internationalized and utterly ignored Israel's concerns; and (iii) the procedures for creating "Palestine" were set in motion without the "Palestinians" having stopped the continual violence.

And now, to add insult to injury, the US is preparing an international conference in which Israel will most assuredly be isolated, even as the Arab terrorists in Yesha continue their terrorist attacks, Arafat tightens his grip over the PA, and Syria continues to back Hizbullah.


...And now, the details

The detailed examination of the foregoing statements and the corroborating documentation are given in the complete article, posted on IsraPundit2 (click the link).

"Acceptance" is all appearance and not binding

Except for an acceptance of a democratic peaceful Palestinian state

On Sunday, along with the full Israeli resolutions and fourteen red lines, I posted these comments on the "acceptance".

This "acceptance" is taking "yes, but" to a new level. Not only does the Cabinet accept the "steps" as opposed to the whole Roadmap, it totally gutted the Roadmap itself, by attaching Sharon's red lines. Each stage or step is conditional of satisfactory performance of the earlier stage. In essence, all they have accepted are the three stages leading to a peaceful demilitarized Palestinian State. If you can live with this it is a great deal.

I also understand from Debka the the American monitors being sent are really a shadow government who will direct all the Palestinian moves. In effect the US will be governing the Palestinians just like they are governing the Iraqis.

Ha'aretz reports as follows

Mofaz, who voted for the road map in the Sunday session, but has consistently warned that it poses dangers for Israel, said in comments broadcast on Army Radio:

We did not vote on an international agreement. In fact, this is not a legal document, there is no sort of commitment here, rather this is a declaration of diplomatic intentions.

In my view, this is a reality in which we are saying 'yes' to the process, even though the chances are not necessarily high - certainly not [in view of the] period of time that has transpired since the Abu Mazen government was established - but we are prepared to go into the process positively.

The Americans stated that they are relating to all of Israel's comments 'fully and seriously,' and from this it can be understood that there is very profound commitment with respect to Israel's comments.

More, of this will become evident in the days to come.

For those for whom a Palestinian state is an anathema under any conditions, then you can still have hope that Arafat can fulfill your dreams. But I think he, and terrorism, are on the wrong side of history.

I have been a vociferous opponent of the Roadmap and would prefer that no state be created that would be a threat to Israel. Israel's "acceptance", I believe works in their interest. The US has been given the opportunity to deliver the Arabs and produce a terror free Palestine. I think they will succeed. Mazen knows that he must defeat terrorism if the Palestinians are to have a state. He is committed to doing so with America's assistance. This assistance will become evident as we move forward.

One other thing of great interest and value. The fact that the US and Mazen accepted this very limited acceptance, says volumes. At first they said that acceptance wasn't necessary as long as the process started. Then for political reasons, they asked Sharon to do this phoney acceptance so that the US would have better cover for what they needed to do with respect to subduing terror. They also forced Mazen to accept this weak Israeli "acceptance". In the real world it would never pass for acceptance.

Assad Doubts Existence of al-Qaida

And, says Internet Haganah where I found this post, "the earth is flat."

KUWAIT CITY -- Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview published Sunday that he doubts the existence of al-Qaida, the terror group blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks and recent strikes in Saudi Arabia and Morocco.

"Is there really an entity called al-Qaida? Was it in Afghanistan? Does it exist now?" Assad asked, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anba.

Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born Islamic extremist who heads al-Qaida, "cannot talk on the phone or use the Internet, but he can direct communications to the four corners of the world?" Assad said. "This is illogical."

Such speculation is popular among some in the Arab world who say Washington has manufactured or exaggerated the threat posed by al-Qaida in order to paint Muslims as dangerous.

On Mideast matters, Assad complained that the United States put Israel at the center of its dealings with Arab states.

"America is happy with Syria and the Arab countries when Israel is happy with them," he said. "Israel is a state that occupies our land and we are required to take its interests into account? What logic is that? We say America is the effective power, our relationship should be direct with it."

Washington has long accused Syria of backing international terrorists, including militant Palestinian groups opposed to Israel. The United States stepped up pressure on Damascus during the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Threatening sanctions, U.S. officials accused Syria of harboring terrorists and fleeing members of Iraq's ousted regime, possessing weapons of mass destruction and providing Iraq with military equipment. Syria denied the accusations.

Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinian refugee camps

Beirutcalling offers a few interesting observations about what is taking place within Lebanon. It seems the Lebanese government is constrained from making peace among conflicting factions in the Palestinian camps, and the Syrian occupiers impose constraints upon the Lebanese government. Will this growing antagonism foment somne sort of internal explosion?

Disarm Ain al-Hilweh
It is intriguing to see that a government willing to dispatch agents to hassle Lebanese Forces sympathizers at a funeral in far off Bsharri cannot care a hoot about a Palestinian state-within-a-state in Ain al-Hilweh.

Interior Minister Elias Murr had this to say on his return from a recent trip: "We are against fighting in the camp and strongly deplore the killing of innocent people. As to the gangs inside the camps, such as Esbat al-Ansar and others, we will not permit them to foment disorder in territory under state control, and these people will face justice one day."

The statement was laudable in its intent and bizarre in its context. It begged the obvious question: Why can't the Lebanese Army simply disarm the camps and arrest those fomenting disorder in territory verifiably not under state control? After all, most of us have spent a decade paying a tithe to ensure the army receives a lion's share of budget spending, and have utter faith that it can prevail. [Continued]
24.5.03

[Resume] Perhaps military doctrine dictates otherwise. In much the same way as the army cannot be deployed on the border with Israel, our officers have possibly deemed entry into Ain al-Hilweh (which incidentally harbor the killers of several of their military intelligence comrades) as strategically imprudent. Or, there could be other reasons that are more complicated.

For elucidation we should look at the perennial rivalry between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Syria. Though such things aren’t publicized, it is Syria’s yearning to deliver Lebanon’s Palestinians to an overall regional settlement. As Damascus contemplates its depleted hand, it still has some cards to play in Lebanon, one of them its control over the refugee camps in Beirut, Tripoli and the Biqaa. With the Rashidiyyeh camp in Tyre under Arafat’s influence, Ain al-Hilweh has become the main battleground between Syria and the Palestinian leader.[more]

Saudis Re-Examine an Islamic Doctrine Cited by Militants

This The New York Times article recounts a Jihadist's change of heart and how he came to reject the terror promulgated by Wahhabi doctrine

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 24 — When he was a teenager issuing his own fatwas, Mansour al-Nogaidan ordered his followers to blow up a video store in downtown Riyadh because it was spreading Western corruption. Now, years later, a completely changed man has dropped a philosophical bombshell in the fervent national discussion swirling around the suicide attacks this month against residential compounds here.

Mr. Nogaidan said in print that the Wahhabi doctrine prevalent in Saudi Arabia was the root cause of the violence fomented in the name of Islam here and around the world.

"The main problem is that these radical groups draw their justification from Wahhabi thoughts," Mr. Nogaidan, now 33 and a newspaper columnist, said in an interview this week, referring to the teachings of Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab, which have been prevalent for over 200 years.

"They think the only religiously sanctioned way to spread Islam is through jihad," he said, using the term in the sense of "holy war." "It's a huge problem. It's an octopus with its arms everywhere, building these thoughts in everyone's mind." [more]

Israel Adds Detours To Road Map, Impose 14 Conditions

Israel imposing some 14 conditions to acceptance of Road Map. The 14 condition are herein listed (click link aboive). At the same time (date) this same news service, noting that conditions had been imposed for acceptance carried this terse message (extract)

[...]
The government would not say what are those 14 points. The United States knows them, the Palestinians are believed to know them as well, but the government decided not to publish them.

Asked why the Israeli public can't have that information, an Israeli official said curtly: "Kacha," (Because!).

Here are the 14 Israeli qualifications. and here a Palestinian response. What are your views on this?

News from Israel: ten articles

Most deal with Road Map. A good chance for some comparative journalism.

Racism in the War Against Islam

Whether the PC crowd likes it or not we in fact are in a war against Islam, because Islam calls for the destruction or enslavement of all un-believers.

But Muslims like to claim this is a "racist" war, because doing so, especially in America, scores emotional points for them. After all, we're still recovering from Black slavery – which we also have Muslims to thank for. So we don't like hearing that "R" word, especially when it is aimed in our direction. We can't stand that some outside entity, the rest of the world for instance, might think us racist any longer. So we tend to back away, heads hung in shame, any time the word is used against us (rightly or wrongly).

As Ann over at Spiced Sass has pointed out, people of myriad ethnic backgrounds embrace Islam – just as the same is true of Christianity or any other major religion. So the race angle here is really just a emotional ploy, a red herring, right?

But what if, during the pursuit of this war, we say things like, "Let's nuke the Middle East!", or "Kill all rag heads!" or some such nonsense, because the majority of Muslims are indeed Arab. Is that racist? Is it racist to acknowledge, after much study on the subject, that the majority of all Islamic hatred against us does actually come from one specific racial group? Is it racist to then hate that group in return for their own racism and their hatred against us? After all, America is largely White and Christianity is considered the same – and damn the fact of our melting-pot origins.

I'm not sure that can even be taken as a sign of this being a racist war, at least not on our part. Because Black Muslims have shown no hesitation to attack America, either through propaganda or through violence. Yet I hear not a single person saying, "Let's carpet-bomb the inner cities and college campuses!" or "Let's kill the niggers!".

In fact, we hate our own extremists, those who hate for hate's sake alone, who preach insanity and bask in ignorance. Groups such as the KKK. We don't consider them a part of "us", or a part of "our cause". They are outcasts. We scorn them at every turn. We push them away. Laugh at them. Mock them. Tear apart their "arguments". Send them off to wallow in their stupidity alone. We do lots of things in their regard. But we don't listen to them, we don't take them seriously, we don't include them in our circle of influence, we don't give them any power or authority, we don't look up to them as role models and we certainly don't consider them heros.

But our Muslim enemies don't think this way. If they find a Wahabist among them they embrace him, they encourage him, they hide him, they feed him, they give him money, they admire him to the point of sainthood and to the world they pretend that they have only marginal sympathies for him, that they don't really care for his inflammatory notions and his zealous hatred of all things non-Islamic, his unthinking, anti-Semitic, anti-West rage.

But that's all part of the War. Keep us off balance, make us unsure of where exactly the hatred is coming from, hope we fail to recognize those who will unleash violence against us.

Whether we like it or not, racism is an element of this War. It has to be, because our enemy is sworn to wipe out not only White Christians and Westerners, but every Jew upon the face of the planet.

Is this War against Islam a racist war? Not at all, though some fighting with us may indeed be racists. We would return their hatred to them no matter what their race. We don't hate them because they are Arab or because they are Black. We hate them because they would kill us, destroy all we hold dear, rape our women, molest our children and justify it all with the Quran. That they are Black or Arab or Green or tall or short or bearded or bald or what have you, is incidental.

We did not and do not want this war. We'd be perfectly happy to not only end our fight but to embrace those who have made themselves our enemies, if only they would end their aggression and set aside their mythology-based desire to murder not only us, but our culture. We'd help them pull themselves up out of the Middle Ages. We'd share our prosperity with them. We'd feed their starving, heal their sick, educate their ignorant. So calling our righteous anger, our need to defend our children and ensure the continuation of our freedom, hatred, is really to use a misnomer. Hatred is not so rational. Hatred, while a real a valid human emotion, cannot be turned of so conveniently.

We don't really hate our enemy, though it often feels like we do. But we can't and won't tolerate the threat he poses to us, to our children, to our country, to our values and to our way of life. If we need to act hatefully in order to protect ourselves then so be it. We will get no pleasure from it, but we will not allow politically correct niceties to place us in a position of weakness, where we are forced to watch as 3,000 or so more of our friends, family and countrymen are slaughtered by our Muslim foes.

Crossposted to Yankee Jihad

"Acceptance" of Roadmap

Ted Belman's comment. This "acceptance" is taking "yes, but" to a new level. Not only does the Cabinet accept the "steps" as opposed to the whole Roadmap, it totally gutted the Roadmap itself, by attaching Sharon's red lines. Each stage or step is conditional of satisfactory performance of the earlier stage. In essence, all they have accepted are the three stages leading to a peaceful demilitarized Palestinian State. If you can live with this it is a great deal.

I also understand from Debka the the American monitors being sent are really a shadow government who will direct all the Palestinian moves. In effect the US will be governing the Palestinians just like they are governing the Iraqis.

STATEMENT FROM PM'S BUREAU

A. The Government of Israel, today (Sunday), 25.5.03, considered the Prime Minister's statement on the Roadmap, as well as Israel's comments on its implementation. Following its deliberations, the Government, by a majority vote, resolved:

Based on the 23 May 2003 statement of the United States Government, in which the United States committed to fully and seriously address Israel's comments to the Roadmap during the implementation phase, the Prime Minister announced on 23 May 2003 that Israel has agreed to accept the steps set out in the Roadmap.

The Government of Israel affirms the Prime Minister's announcement, and resolves that all of Israel's comments, as addressed in the Administration's statement, will be implemented in full during the implementation phase of the Roadmap.

A list of the comments forwarded by Israel for the review of the Administration in the United States has been attached to this decision.

B. The Government also resolved, concerning the issue of the refugees, as follows:

The Government of Israel today accepted the steps set out in the Roadmap. The Government of Israel expresses its hope that the political process that will commence, in accordance with the 24 June 2002 speech of President Bush, will bring security, peace and reconciliation between Israel and the
Palestinians.

The Government of Israel further clarifies that, both during and subsequent to the political process, the resolution of the issue of the refugees will not include their entry into or settlement within the State of Israel.

====
The Roadmap: Primary Themes of Israel's Remarks

1. Both at the commencement of and during the process, and as a condition to its continuance. calm will be maintained. The Palestinians will dismantle the existing security organizations and implement security reforms during the course of which new organizations will be formed and act to combat terror, violence and incitement (incitement must cease immediately and the Palestinian Authority must educate for peace). These organizations will engage in genuine prevention of terror and violence through arrests, iterrogations, prevention and the enforcement of the legal groundwork for investigations, prosecution and punishment. In the first phase of the plan and as a condition for progress to the second phase, the Palestinians will complete the dismantling of terrorist organizations (Hamas. Islamic Jihad. the Popular Front, the Democratic Front Al-Aqsa Brigades and other apparatuses) and their infrastructure, collection of all illegal weapons and their transfer to a third party for the sake of being removed from the area and destroyed., cessation of weapons smuggling and weapons production inside the Palestinian Authority, activation of the full prevention apparatus and cessation of incitement. There will be no progress to the second phase without the fulfillment of all above-mentioned conditions relating to the war against terror. The security plans to be implemented are the Tenet and Zinni plans. [As in the other mutual frameworks. the Roadmap will not state that Israel must cease violence and incitement against the Palestinians].

2. Full performance will be a condition for progress between phases and for progress within phases. The first condition for progress will be the complete cessation of terror, violence and incitement. Progress between phases will come only following the full implementation of the preceding phase. Attention will be paid not to timelines, but to performance benchmarks (timelines will serve only as reference points).

3. The emergence of a new and different leadership in the Palestinian Authority within the framework of governmental reform. The formation of a new leadership constitutes a condition for progress to the second phase of the plan. In this framework, elections will be conducted for the Palestinian Legislative Council following coordination with Israel.

4. The Monitoring mechanism will be under American management. The chief verification activity will concentrate upon the creation of another Palestinian entity and progress in the civil reform process within the Palestinian Authority. Verification will be performed exclusively on a professional basis and per issue (economic, legal, financial) without the existence of a combined or unified mechanism. Substantive decisions will remain in the hands of both parties.

5. The character of the provisional Palestinian state will be determined through negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. The provisional state will have provisional borders and certain aspects of overeignty, be fully demilitarized with no military forces, but only with police and internal security forces of limited scope and armaments, be without the authority to undertake defense alliances or military cooperation, and Israeli control over the entry and exit of all persons and cargo, as well as of its air space and electromagnetic spectrum.

6. In connection to both the introductory statements and the final settlement, declared references must be made to Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and to the waiver of any right of return for Palestinian refugees to the State of Israel.

7. End of the process will lead to the end of all claims and not only the end of the conflict.

8. The future settlement will be reached through agreement and direct negotiations between the two parties, in accordance with the vision outlined by President Bush in his 24 June address.

9. There will be no involvement with issues pertaining to the final settlement. Among issues not to be discussed: settlement in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (excluding a settlement freeze and illegal outposts), the status of the Palestinian Authority and its institutions in Jerusalem, and all other matters whose substance relates to the final settlement.

10. The removal of references other than 242 and 338 (1397, the Saudi Initiative and the Arab Initiative adopted in Beirut). A settlement based upon the Roadmap will be an autonomous settlement that derives its validity therefrom. The only possible reference should be to Resolutions 242 and 338, and then only as an outline for the conduct of future negotiations on a permanent settlement.

11. Promotion of the reform process in the Palestinian Authority: a transitional Palestinian constitution will be composed, a Palestinian legal infrastructure will be constructed and cooperation with Israel in this field will be renewed. In the economic sphere: international efforts to rehabilitate the Palestinian economy will continue. In the financial sphere: the American-Israeli-Palestinian agreement will be implemented in full as a condition for the continued transfer of tax revenues.

12. The deployment of IDF forces along the September 2000 lines will be subject to the stipulation of Article 4 (absolute quiet) and will be carried out in keeping with changes to be required by the nature of the new circumstances and needs created thereby. Emphasis will be placed on the division of responsibilities and civilian authority as in September 2000, and not on the position of forces on the ground at that time.

13. Subject to security conditions, Israel will work to restore Palestinian life to normal: promote the economic situation, cultivation of commercial connections, encouragement and assistance for the activities of recognized humanitarian agencies. No reference will be made to the Bertini Report as
a binding source document within the framework of the humanitarian issue.

14. Arab states will assist the process through the condemnation of terrorist activity. No link will be established between the Palestinian track and other tracks (Syrian-Lebanese).

The Radical Bean Counter

Here is a long piece in this week's New York Times Magazine section. When you get some time, read it because Salam Fayyad , the bean counter, may well become a key figure in the very near future in working with the finances of the Palestinian Authority. Here is a snippet

This is a story about fighting Palestinian chaos and corruption, about seeking to throw off Israeli occupation and build a democratic state of Palestine. It is about these things, because it is about one man's lonely pursuit of direct deposit.

The man is Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian minister of finance, the kind of Palestinian you rarely hear about, an economist trained in Texas who has never fired a gun, sent men into battle or served time in prison or exile. He met recently in Gaza City with half a dozen men who had done these things -- who do some of them still -- the chiefs of Yasir Arafat's Gaza security services, the most hardened of Palestinian warriors. It was Fayyad's intention to intimidate them.

As the chiefs arrived at the Saraya, the military headquarters in Gaza, some of them wore fatigues and were trailed by men carrying guns. Fayyad, as usual, arrived alone, carrying his black satchel and wearing his nice blue jacket, red-and-blue tie and spectacles.

Fayyad did not tell these men everything he thought: that he was horrified by the system, if it could be called that, for paying the 53,000 security officers from the dozen independent security agencies in the West Bank and Gaza; that he thought it was morally wrong to dole out $20 million in cash monthly, in plastic bank bags, to the security chiefs, to be handed out to their men, one by one; that he worried that some of the money, ''paying'' for ghost employees, might be lining the wrong people's pockets, perhaps even financing the kind of violence the security agencies were supposed to stop.

He did not make a point obvious to everyone in the room: that the power of the purse is power, period, and that his reform would help shift control of the officers from these chiefs, and from Yasir Arafat, to the first Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas. In theory, Fayyad now reports to Abbas; in practice, he checks in with both him and Arafat, the president of the Palestinian Authority, who appointed him last June; in reality, he is choosing his battles for himself.

Fayyad presented his idea as a common-sense change that anyone who favored efficiency and clean government -- as security officers naturally did -- would support. He had already divided the chiefs by previously persuading two of them. Now he, the economist, not any of the military men, began pounding the table. Unless the chiefs switched to direct deposit of paychecks, he said, he could not guarantee that their salaries would be paid. Foreign donors would cut them off. Did they want to be forced by outsiders to change, or to act with a sense of pride?

Later, with the matter undecided, I rode with Fayyad from Gaza back to Ramallah, in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority is headquartered. He wondered whether he would have to use the weapon he held in reserve, a bean counter's laser-guided bomb: publicly naming the recalcitrant chiefs and declaring loud enough for the 124,000 Palestinian civil servants to hear that, if every agency switched to direct deposit, he would cancel the so-called intifada tax of 7 to 12 percent levied on paychecks by the Palestinian Authority during the uprising. He said he hoped that would turn the civil servants against the security leaders.
[more]

Tom Friedman: tell it like it is.

Hummers Here, Hummers There

It seems that now that buildings are being attacked in The Kingdom by terrorists, Saudi Arabia might just have to begin doing something about its home-grown and home financed terrorism. And America will have to be more forthright in placing more blame upon its "friends" in Saudi Arabia.

In the wake of the recent terrorist bombings in Riyadh, Saudi officials seem to have — pardon the expression — gotten religion. They say they now understand that suicide terrorism in the name of Islam is as much a threat to them as it is to the open societies of the West. This time, they insist, they're going to crack down on their extremists. I hope so, but I fear we have a deeper problem with Saudi Arabia. I fear it is the Soviet Union. I fear it is unreformable.

I fear that the ruling brothers of Saudi Arabia are like the Soviet Politburo. I fear the 6,000 Saudi princes are like the Communist Party Central Committee. I fear that Riyadh is Red Square. I fear the Al-Sauds used Islamism to unite 40 fractious tribes in Arabia the way Lenin used Communism to unite 100 fractious nationalities across Russia. And I fear that Osama bin Laden is just the evil version of Andrei Sakharov — the dissident Soviet scientist who exposed the system from within. Sakharov was exiled to Gorky. Bin Laden was exiled to Kabul. And both systems meet their end where? In Afghanistan.

Even if this parallel is off, and the Saudi system could be reformed without collapsing, I fear that the Saudi ruling family has become too dysfunctional, divided and insecure to undertake this task. Surely one test is whether Saudi officials and spiritual leaders can condemn Islamic suicide terrorism, not just when it is against them, but when it is against people of other faiths — no matter what the context. Saudi Arabia's neighbors — Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman — are experimenting with elections, a freer press, women's rights and free trade with America. Saudi Arabia, by contrast, has been drifting under an ailing king, trying to buy a different perception of itself with better advertising rather than with deeper reform.

Frankly, I have a soft spot for the de facto Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah, who is a man of decency and moderation. But he's too nice for his own good. He needs to break heads at home, force some sustained reforms on his religious establishment, revive his own peace initiative and begin to empower his women — because women's empowerment is the best antidote to extremism.

The problem with Saudi Arabia is not that it has too little democracy. It's that it has too much. The ruling family is so insecure, it feels it has to consult every faction, tribe and senior cleric before making any decision. This makes Saudi Arabia a very strange autocracy: it's a country where one man makes no decisions.[more]

The Big Picture

The US is recreating the Middle East

A few weeks ago I took an optimistic line on what was going on in the Middle East and beyond. DebkaFile has now come out with a very important progress report on the US moves with respect to Syria and Iran. To my mind it is only a matter of time (months) for the US to bring these two to heel. This would be great news for Israel and America.

The Bush administration is engaged in one of the most sensitive and ambitious geo-strategic projects ever undertaken by any US presidency - comparable to landmark events like the termination of the Cold War, the opening up of Communist China to the world back in the 1970s and détente with the Communist bloc.

In the short term, the US president hopes to lay the dividends of the Iraq War before the American voter in November 2004. He will want to demonstrate his success in bringing to fruition an ambitious agenda for sweeping regime change and improvement in the volatile Persian Gulf and Middle East and the United States’ elevation to kingpin of these regions in control of its oil resources. At the same time he will be undertaking a similar objective in Central Asia and the Caucasus for the sake of building a strong overarching bridge linking the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent and China.

With Saddam Hussein gone, the United States can assemble the modular bricks of its policies, building them on the bedrock of the victory in Iraq.

The main stumbling block in the Bush administration’s postwar path is Iran.

In keeping with its star role in Bush’s axis of evil, Iran is pressing ahead with a not so hush-hush nuclear weapons program. It is also conducting undercover negotiations with fellow axis-member, North Korea, for the purchase of one or two off-the-shelf nuclear bombs (as first revealed in DEBKA-Net-Weekly No. 82, October 25, 2002). Teheran’s support for such terrorist gangs as Al Qaeda, Hizballah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is just shy of blatant and it is sparing no effort to set up terrorist and subversive networks among Iraq’s Shiites.

Nonetheless, this year, the Bush administration managed to negotiate a series of secret agreements, mostly on military and terrorism issues. Under those deals, Iran agreed to keep its forces out of northern Iraq before, during and after the U.S.-led war. After the fighting began, Iranian Revolutionary Guards helped US and British forces take the Faw peninsula and the southern city of Basra. During the war, Iranian naval and air forces prevented Iraqi terrorist attacks in Gulf waters. After initial attempts at subversion, Iran helped the Americans calm a jittery Shiite populace and persuade their Iraqi coreligionists to accept limited cooperation with US forces in Najaf, Karbala and Baghdad.

In Lebanon, Iran barred the Hizballah from carrying out cross-border terrorist raids.

All these concessions boiled down to a message to the United States: Look what we are prepared to do for you – it would be worth your while for us to talk.

I urge you to read the whole article. It is very important.

Israel: It's Still Safe to Come


Alison Kaplan Sommers posts this funny piece, found by her at Jewish Bulletin of Northern California

Fabulous strategy for pro-Israel activism in oh-so-liberal California, in my opinion...

A condom giveaway on the campus of U.C. San Diego has gotten plenty of people hot and bothered.

As the highlight of an on-campus campaign entitled "Got Israel?" pro-Israel students at UCSD recently handed out condoms and T-shirts emblazoned with an anthropomorphic condom cartoon and the catchphrase, "Israel: It's still safe to come."

In addition to spouting a double entendre lewd enough to make Benny Hill blush, the condoms proved the point that Israel is the only country in the Middle East in which women and homosexuals are entitled to equal rights, according to the giveaway's student organizers.

The condoms came equipped with a card discussing "sexual freedoms and women's rights in different Mideastern countries and Israel. It showed the literacy rates of women, the percentage of women employed, whether homosexuality is legal. On that basis, people could make their own decisions on how free and democratic Israel is," said co-organizer Eddie Cohen.

But apparently, some of the more traditional members of the San Diego Jewish Community are a bit uncomfortable with this campaign. Too bad for them. This is a great way to try to win over the hearts and minds (and other organs) of the 20-somethings in SoCal. Next stop should be Berkeley.

WJC to publicize Jewish exodus from Arab lands


Israel's refugee problem. Yes. The arabs had a refugee problem that was the result of their attempt to wipe out the newly-born State of Israel in 1948. They play this problem to the hilt and the world ignores or forgets the Jewish refugee problem. Fortunately, Jews exiled from their homelands had a place willing to take them in, to nourish them and provide new homes among fellow Jews.

Raising international awareness of the forgotten Jewish exodus from Arab lands is high on the agenda of the World Jewish Congress, WJC secretary-general Avi Beker told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday at the conclusion of a two-day meeting of the WJC Executive in Jerusalem.

In the light of Palestinian insistence on the "right of return" and in the aftermath of the war in Iraq, the WJC believes it has become imperative to increase international awareness that 900,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries, where they had lived for over 2,000 years, after the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. They left the oldest Jewish Diaspora, said Beker, and 650,000 of them settled in Israel.

The difference between Jewish refugees from Arab lands and Palestinian refugees, said Beker, is that while the Jewish refugees integrated into mainstream Israel and the Diaspora societies in which they live, the Palestinians deliberately kept their refugees in camps and did not allow them to integrate into the countries in which they live.

When Jews fled the persecution they had endured in Arab lands, they left behind them untold amounts of property and other assets for which they were never compensated.

Many of them kept their stories locked up inside them, said Beker, but over the past few years, they have started to talk and to tell tales of horror and torture.

Beker, who has worked closely with Holocaust survivors, said that there is a similar syndrome of "belated remembering." People who lost status and economic stability and suffered humiliation and betrayal are realizing, as they age and see their generation begin to die off, that this may be the last opportunity to let the world know what happened.

In December 2001, the European Jewish Congress organized an international conference in Paris to explore the history of Jews from Arab lands. Since then the WJC has organized similar conferences in Montreal, San Francisco, Washington and Los Angeles the last three during and immediately after the war in Iraq.

People are more ready in the Diaspora to be recruited into the subject than their Israeli counterparts, said Beker.

"In the Diaspora they're ready to go on record and ask for justice for Jews from Arab countries." All the conferences draw huge attendances, he said, with prominent political figures and other influential people sitting in the audience.
People come forward to tell stories of what happened to them in Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Algeria. Sometimes the reliving of the experience is so painful that they need to have a relative stand with them to hold their hands, he said.

These stories best illustrate that there was a population exchange in the Middle East and give Israel her best case of rebuttal against the Palestinian demand for the right of return, he said.

Beker believes that the Jewish refugee issue in terms of population transfer is the missing component in the road map. "You can't deal with all the proposals in the road map and think that this will solve the refugee problem," he said. If Israel is ready to make painful concessions, he added, then the international community must start solving the problems of Palestinian refugees by making them citizens of all their host countries.

Beker also called on the international community to reform UNRWA and change its mandate so that it will become part of the peace process instead of perpetuating the refugee problem, as it has to date. The annual UNRWA budget is $400 million dollars he said, and nearly all of money is provided by Western countries a third by the American taxpayer.

Jews are the victims. Abbas is the target

This National Post article is another confirmation for those who believe that Arafat must be removed, that he is in cahoots with terrorist groups, and that at this point there is nothing to lose by exiling him

The clear message of the suicide bombers who struck Israel this past week is that there will be no deal on Israeli-Palestinian peace without Yasser Arafat's participation. Israel and the United States have tried to push Mr. Arafat into irrelevance, and prefer to deal directly with newly appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. But Arafat, the PA Chairman, has retained control of much of the Palestinian security apparatus. And as the power struggle between Arafat and Abbas develops, there is increasing evidence that the radical Islamic group Hamas and elements of Arafat's own Fatah movement are co-ordinating their attacks on Israel. Indeed, the funding and infrastructure of the radical secular and Islamic groups appears not to be as separate as was previously presumed.

Once sworn enemies, Arafat and Hamas have found common ground as they both struggle to remain relevant in Palestinian society. While Arafat has been weakened by his international isolation, Hamas is threatened both by Israel's assassination of its key leaders, and by George W. Bush's war on terror, which has reduced the flow of funding from wealthy Saudi donors.

As the lines of Palestinian politics are redrawn, both Arafat and Hamas need to remind the world that they still command popular support among key segments of the Palestinian population. Thus, though both groups say they are fighting for a Palestinian state, they will both do everything in their power to prevent Mahmoud Abbas from securing one.

The Israeli government is aware of these developments. In recent weeks, the Israeli army's deployments in the West Bank have taken on a more permanent look. Bases once thought temporary are being reinforced, as are supply and communication channels. Hebrew road signs torn down when the army left back in the mid-1990s are slowly starting to reappear. The very unsubtle message that the Israeli government is sending Arafat and the Palestinian leadership is that it will not allow anarchy to break out in the West Bank.

The major debate within Israeli security and political circles, however, has centred on the question of Arafat's future. Given his new strategy -- which amounts to a declaration of war on Israel -- should he be sent into exile, left to roam the West Bank or placed under what would effectively be house arrest in Ramallah? There appears little appetite in Israel at this stage to put him on trial in Jerusalem -- although with the increasingly transparent linkage between himself and the bombers, this policy may change.[more]

Articles focus mainly on Road map

Israel News: 10 articles

U.S. Eyes Pressing Uprising In Iran

See, too, the DEBKA article beneath this post. Whereas DEBKA suggests that there might be an attack to take out the nuclear facilities, WaPo, more conservative perhaps, does not suggest this.

The Bush administration, alarmed by intelligence suggesting that al Qaeda operatives in Iran had a role in the May 12 suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia, has suspended once-promising contacts with Iran and appears ready to embrace an aggressive policy of trying to destabilize the Iranian government, administration officials said.

Senior Bush administration officials will meet Tuesday at the White House to discuss the evolving strategy toward the Islamic republic, with Pentagon officials pressing hard for public and private actions that they believe could lead to the toppling of the government through a popular uprising, officials said.

The State Department, which had encouraged some form of engagement with the Iranians, appears inclined to accept such a policy, especially if Iran does not take any visible steps to deal with the suspected al Qaeda operatives before Tuesday, officials said. But State Department officials are concerned that the level of popular discontent there is much lower than Pentagon officials believe, leading to the possibility that U.S. efforts could ultimately discredit reformers in Iran.

In any case, the Saudi Arabia bombings have ended the tentative signs of engagement between Iran and the United States that had emerged during the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq.

U.S. and Iranian officials had met periodically to discuss issues of mutual concern, including search-and-rescue missions and the tracking down of al Qaeda operatives. But, after the suicide bombings at three residential compounds in Riyadh, the Bush administration canceled the next planned meeting.more

Iran – A Jagged Edge on US Postwar Atlas


Israel has long recognized and openly stated that of all the countries in the region they considered Iran the biggest threat. The US, it seems, now is willing to recognize Iran's threat since it is clear that Iran is developing nuclear capability and is having internal problems which seem to mount daily

The Bush administration is engaged in one of the most sensitive and ambitious geo-strategic projects ever undertaken by any US presidency - comparable to landmark events like the termination of the Cold War, the opening up of Communist China to the world back in the 1970s and détente with the Communist bloc.

In the short term, the US president hopes to lay the dividends of the Iraq War before the American voter in November 2004. He will want to demonstrate his success in bringing to fruition an ambitious agenda for sweeping regime change and improvement in the volatile Persian Gulf and Middle East and the United States’ elevation to kingpin of these regions in control of its oil resources. At the same time he will be undertaking a similar objective in Central Asia and the Caucasus for the sake of building a strong overarching bridge linking the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent and China.

With Saddam Hussein gone, the United States can assemble the modular bricks of its policies, building them on the bedrock of the victory in Iraq.

The main stumbling block in the Bush administration’s postwar path is Iran.

In keeping with its star role in Bush’s axis of evil, Iran is pressing ahead with a not so hush-hush nuclear weapons program. It is also conducting undercover negotiations with fellow axis-member, North Korea, for the purchase of one or two off-the-shelf nuclear bombs (as first revealed in DEBKA-Net-Weekly No. 82, October 25, 2002). Teheran’s support for such terrorist gangs as Al Qaeda, Hizballah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is just shy of blatant and it is sparing no effort to set up terrorist and subversive networks among Iraq’s Shiites.