Osama Bin Laden's son says dad is evil because he gasses dogs

Like wow! Osama Bin Laden gasses dogs. Is that the worst thing he ever did? I guess he's not dead after all. His son would know.

 

Osama Bin Laden's son, Omar, says dad is evil in new memoir

 

BY James Gordon Meek
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

 

Friday, July 10th 2009, 4:00 AM

 

 

OSAMA BIN LADEN'S son Omar first realized the depth of his father's evil when his beloved dogs were taken away and gassed in a chemical warfare experiment, he says in a new memoir.

 

Omar also confirms what U.S. officials have long believed - that his father was tipped off to a 1998 U.S. attempt to kill him.

 

He writes that Bin Laden got a secret communication and fled his Afghan camp two hours before cruise missiles struck it.

 

He does not identify the source of the tip, which the U.S. suspects was Pakistani intelligence.

 

Omar's book, "Growing Up Bin Laden," written with his mother, Najwa - the Al Qaeda leader's first wife - describes the ultimate dysfunctional family.

 

The Bin Ladens lived austerely as their father staked his horrific claim as the world's most wanted man. His son eventually concluded Bin Laden hated his enemies more than he loved his family.

 

Omar, 28, describes weeping as a teenager when told that Al Qaeda needed his pets to conduct chemical warfare tests.

 

"After I learned the truth about the puppies, I turned even further away from my father," whose jihad led only to death, Omar writes in the book set for release by St. Martin's Press later this year.

 

It has been widely reported that Bin Laden's goons tested nerve agents at the Derunta camp in Afghanistan. In 2002, CNN obtained and showed video of dogs - fully grown - being gassed by visible toxic fumes.

 

Bin Laden's fourth son admits he knew in advance of plots against targets like the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa, where 224 perished.

 

He called the 9/11 attacks "horrific." They occurred after he was told by his best friend - Al Qaeda operative Abu al-Haadi - that a "new mission" would be much bigger than the embassy bombings. Omar mourned al-Haadi's death in the resulting U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.

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Top US General on Iranian influence in Latin America

Considering that hundreds of thousands of Indians were converted to Shi'ite Islam and that Ciudad Del Este in Paraguay is a known Hezbollah base this article is a bit late in coming. Iran is not a potential threat, but an actual one. From Janes in 2001(!):

THERE has been a long-standing belief that the southern Lebanese Islamic militant group, Hezbollah, has established training camps located in or around the Isla de Margarita island off the northern coast of Venezuela, northwest Brazil, and in the Paraguayan-Brazilian-Argentine tri-border region in South America. While it has never been firmly established that these training camps exist, Hezbollah cell activity in Isla de Margarita and the town of Ciudad del Este in the tri-border region in Paraguay has been documented. More recently, the focus has been on Ciudad del Este, as Venezuela has been able to significantly reduce the activities of Hezbollah cells within its borders

Of course, since then, things have happened in Venezuela too. It is not really likely that President Chavez reduced the influence of Hezbollah there. That is not why he was elected.

It is late in coming, but better late than never - if only someone is listening.

Ami Isseroff

Top US commander warns of Iran influence in Lat Am

By Juan Castro Olivera

MIAMI (AFP) — Iran's growing influence in Latin America is a "potential risk" to the region, the newly-appointed head of the US Southern Command, General Douglas Fraser has warned.

Fraser, who on Thursday takes charge of US military operations in 31 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, expressed "real concern" about the Islamic Republic's links with "extremist organizations" in the region.

"The real concern is not a nation-to-nation interaction, it is the connection that Iran has with extremist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah and the potential risk that that could bring to this region," Fraser told journalists ahead of taking up the post.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has forged close ties with several leftist Latin American leaders in recent years, most notably Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Raul Castro.

Commenting on Iran's ties to extremist groups in the region, Fraser said: "it is a concern, and it is an issue we will continue to monitor for any increasing activity."

He cited Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which has links to Iran and is accused of being behind a suicide bombing that killed 200 US marines in Beirut in 1983 and the 1996 bombing of the Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia, which killed more than 20 people.

The group has denied playing a role in those attacks and the bombing of Israeli and Jewish targets in Buenos Aires.

Fraser, who was Deputy Commander at US Pacific Command, said the illicit trade in arms drugs and people was worrying, and indicated it would be the focus of his work.

"The major concern is the illicit trafficking and the impact that that is having in the security and the stability especially through the northern part of South America through Central America and the Caribbean and through Mexico and the United States."

He added the US needed to ensure links between narco-terrorism and illicit trafficking do not become more pronounced.

Fraser played down talk of a conventional threat in the hemisphere, but said Venezuela's military stance was concerning.

"I'm concern with the military build-up in Venezuela because I don't understand the threat that they see," he said.

"I don't see a conventional military threat in the region. So I don't see why they see a need to build their military to the point that they are pursuing."

Fraser, who lived in Colombia for three years as a teenager, said Southern Command would continue to help that country combat leftist guerillas like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- the FARC -- and nacro-terrorist groups.

"The FARC is not defeated and we need to continue that effort. That's been a focus for a very specific reason," he said.

"But Southern Command has been engaged with all the militaries within the region, with the exception of Cuba," he said.

"My intent is not to focus on one nation or the other because it is together that we build that capacity."

Fraser is the first US Air Force officer to take the helm of the Southern Command.

He replaces Admiral James Stavridis, who has been tapped to become the NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

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Senior Jihad man, 14 others die in IDF strikes

Senior Jihad man, 14 others die in IDF strikes

 

Ziad Abu Tir, fourteen people killed in strikes on northern Gaza; terror organizations prepare for ground incursion, vow to send out 'hundreds of car bombs and suicide bombers'. Over 60 rockets fired at Israel

 

Ali Waked
Latest Update:  12.29.08, 17:56 / Israel News

 

Gaza under fire: Palestinian source in the strip reported Monday evening of several IAF strikes across the strip.

 

Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck two targets in northern Gaza, both near the home of one of Hamas'  senior military wing operatives. News agencies reported that at least 20 people were killed and dozens were injured.

 

 Another strike in the Northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya hit the home of a senior member of the group's recruiting branch; and a third took out a truck carrying Grad rockets in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Jabalya. According to the IDF, the truck was either headed towards a hiding place or to launching pads.

According to the Palestinian, none of the Hamas operatives were in their homes during the strikes.

Eelier Monday, Ziad Abu-Tir (35) a senior member of the Islamic Jihad's military wing was among five people killed in an IAF strike in the Khan Younis area. His brother, nephew and two other people died in the attack as well. Five people were injured and the area sustained heavy damage.

A spokesman for the Islamic Jihad's military wing said that "this is another massacre and crime" and that Israel must wait for the organization's response.

A source in one of the organizations warned that gunmen in Gaza were well prepared for a ground offensive. "We'll kidnap soldiers, and it will equal all of this destruction," he told Ynet.

 

Meanwhile, the rocket fire continued Monday, with more than 60 rockets landing in southern Israel since the morning hours and one person killed in a construction site in the city of Ashkelon.

One of the rockets hit a house in Sderot, which was fortunately empty. Neighbors reported of complete devastation, as security forces evacuated the area fearing a gas leak. Several people suffered shock and were treated by Magen David Adom emergency services' paramedics.

 

'We still have ace up our sleeve'

 

The armed Palestinian organizations reported that they were completing their preparations for Israel's expected ground offensive. A Palestinian source told Ynet that "the Israeli side must wait for a united Strip under the ground and for hundreds of car bombs and hundreds of suicide bombers."

 

Another senior source in the groups said that all of the organizations were preparing to abduct soldiers. "If the kidnapping plan proves successful it will compare to all the destruction Israel had caused."

 

A Hamas source rejected the reports suggesting that the rocket fire at Ashdod, as well as the reports of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was hurt, are evident of the organization's distress. "We have sent messages that we can fire to longer distances that the Israelis are used to and that the Israeli soldier is held in the Strip," he said.

 

The source refused to elaborate on Shalit's condition.

 

According to Hamas, the rockets on Ashdod was fired from deep within the Strip and any launchings from its northern part would surely hit targets northerly in Israel, perhaps bringing them closer to central Israel.

 

"We have other aces up our sleeves and we will use them when the time and place are right," said the source; adding that while the number of Palestinian casualties' numbers in the hundreds, no more than 10 Hamas operatives have been killed.

 

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Mumbai terrorist: We were told to kill Israelis

So now it is clear that the terrorists were targeting Jews, if anyone had any doubt.

 

The article states:

 

 Sources said Kasab's colleagues killed in the operation had stayed at the Nariman House in the past.

 

"They have stayed in Nariman house on rental basis identifying themselves as Malaysian students.'' said a source. Police were trying to determine why Nariman House rooms were given to non-Jews, the Times of India reported.

You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes. They stayed, because they paid or because they needed a room, and the center had one. If non-Jews had not been allowed to stay at the house, Jews would have been accused of "racism" of course.

 

Ami Isseroff

 

Mumbai terrorist: We were told to kill Israelis

 

The only terrorist captured by Indian authorities following the Mumbai attacks told interrogators during questioning that he and his men were sent specifically to kill Israelis to avenge "atrocities" against the Palestinians, the Times of India reported Sunday.

 

Amir Kasab, 21, told investigators that this was why they targeted the Chabad House, also known as the Nariman House in Mumbai, an outreach center meant for local Jews and Jews touring India, including Israelis. Sources said Kasab's colleagues killed in the operation had stayed at the Nariman House in the past.

 

"They have stayed in Nariman house on rental basis identifying themselves as Malaysian students.'' said a source. Police were trying to determine why Nariman House rooms were given to non-Jews, the Times of India reported.

 

Kasab also revealed during questioning names and addresses of at least five people from the city who provided assistance to the terrorists in carrying out the attacks.

 

Joint commissioner of police Rakesh Maria said told the Times of India "we suspect there could be local assistants but it is subject to verification. It will be very premature to comment on this at this stage as our investigation is going on.''

 

Israeli embassy representatives and rescue personnel have identified six of the victims killed in the assault that began Wednesday night across India's financial capital, including its Chabad center.

 

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided on Saturday evening to dispatch an Israel Air Force plane with teams of medical and forensic experts to Mumbai on Sunday to aid in the identification of victims.

 

Authorities on Saturday named one of the Israeli victims as Yocheved Orpaz, 60, after her family identified her body on Saturday afternoon. Another woman was identified as a Jewish resident of Mexico, whose name has not yet been released.

 

The Chabad-Lubavitch movement confirmed Friday evening that an Israeli-born American rabbi, Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his wife Rivka, 28, were among the dead.

 

The Holtzbergs will be flown to Israel for burial, said Rivka Holtzberg's brother, Shmulik Rosenberg. A Chabad spokesman said they likely would be buried Monday.

 

Two other victims from the Chabad house who have also been positively identified are Bentzion Chroman, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, and Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, a U.S. citizen who lived in Jerusalem.  

 

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US Prosecutors: Holy Land Foundation was Hamas in USA

The case against the USA Holy Land Foundation "charity" seems pretty clear. This group worked on behalf of Hamas. But they got off once before and shall probably do so again.

Last update - 11:05 12/11/2008

Prosecutor: U.S. Muslim charity glorified Jihad and killing Jews By The Associated Press

Defense attorneys and prosecutors battled over allegations that a U.S. Muslim charity broke the law by funneling money to Hamas institutions, speaking in closing arguments at the Holy Land Foundation's second trial for allegedly financing terrorism.

"Look at all those videos. It seems like every song was about support of Hamas, about martyrdom, about jihad, about killing Jews," said prosecutor Jim Jacks.

He was reminding jurors of videos from the 1980s and early 1990s of Palestinian festivals where speakers and musicians openly praised Hamas and Holy Land raised money. Jacks made the comments in the government rebuttal Tuesday - the final word before deliberations begin.

"Can there be any doubt that these men were the leaders of Hamas in the United States, and that they were the fundraising mechanism?"

Last year's trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development ended in no convictions and a mistrial on most charges in the government's biggest terror-financing trial since Sept. 11, 2001.

Prosecutors say Holy Land funneled more than $12 million to Palestinian schools and charities controlled by the militant group Hamas after the U.S. government declared Hamas a terrorist group in 1995, which made supporting it illegal.

Holy Land was the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. before it was shut down in December 2001.

Defense attorneys, for their part, argued that the charity did not break the law by casting politics aside and aiding Palestinians under brutal Israeli occupation.

Elashi and former Holy Land chief executive Shukri Abu Baker are each charged with conspiracy, supporting a foreign terrorist organization, money laundering and filing false tax returns.

Tightening their case from the initial trial, prosecutors dropped most of nearly 30 counts against Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh. The men still face three conspiracy counts.

Mohammed El-Mezain, a former Holy Land chairman acquitted on most charges in the first trial, is charged with one conspiracy count.

Linda Moreno, attorney for former Holy Land co-founder Ghassan Elashi, stressed the former Richardson, Texas-based charity's humanitarian work Tuesday and lambasted government evidence as old and irrelevant.

"For those who have been impoverished by politics and history and failed leadership, for all those generations of refugees that he helped feed and clothe and educate, Ghassan Elashi does not apologize for serving them, she told jurors," The Dallas Morning News reported online. "He knew the work of the Holy Land Foundation attracted enemies."

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Arafat killed US diplomats, but US continued to negotiate with PLO

A story in Ha'aretz reveals that the CIA knew that Yasser Arafat had ordered the murder of the Ambassador and his deputy in Khartoum, Sudan, but Henry Kissinger  instructed the CIA to continue diplomatic contacts with Yasser Arafat's PLO before the Yom Kippur war. At the time, the US insisted it would not negotiate with the PLO. Later it claimed the negotiations concerned only security. In fact, there were secret diplomatic negotiations.

 

Diplomatic negotiations were held between Robert Ames of the CIA and the head of the Fatah's security apparatus, Ali Hassan Salameh, who was also the commander of the Fatah's Black September organization. Salameh was killed in Beirut in 1979 in an operation conducted by the Mossad and naval commandos.

Ames,  head of the CIA's Middle Eastern department, was killed in an Iranian-ordered attack on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983. 

Helms' documents reveal that Arafat sent Salameh to the talks without hiding his responsibility for killing American diplomats in Khartoum in March 1973. Ames also agreed to Salameh's requests and asked Washington about various diplomatic issues, such as the Nixon administration's intentions relating to Palestinian interests.

Salameh told Ames that the PLO was working to topple King Hussein and establish a Palestinian state in Jordan. Unperturbed, Washington responded that if the Palestinians want to negotiate a settlement, the U.S. would be happy to hear their proposals, but the toppling of existing governments through the use of force did not seem to be the most promising way.

Arafat threatened, via Ames, that he would burn Beirut if the Lebanese government acted against the PLO.

 

The newly-released material also describes the Egyptian initiative in the spring of 1973 to plead with the U.S., through Iranian channels, to reach an arrangement with Israel "on the basis of the Rogers plan," a withdrawal from the occupied territories captured in 1967 and placing them under international supervision. The Rogers plan did not promise, nor did Egypt offer, peace with Israel, though the Ha'aretz article mentions a "peace agreement."  

The documents also reveal that the US and others knew quite a bit about the planned Yom Kippur war well in advance. The Shah of Iran evidently knew of Egyptian attack plans, and recommended to Egyptian foreign minister Muhammad Hassan al-Zayyat that Egypt content itself with an artillery barrage against Israeli positions on the Suez Canal instead of an attack crossing the canal.

In a telegram Helms sent Kissinger - then Richard Nixon's National Security Advisor - on July 5, 1973, Helms reported that King Hussein of Jordan told him that Jordanian intelligence had learned of a Syrian attack to recapture the Golan Heights originally planned for June, that had been delayed but could take place at any time. One of the Jordanian intelligence sources was the commander of a Syrian armored brigade, and the Jordanians had obtained a copy of the battle plans, which had been coordinated with Egypt and Iraq.

 

Continued (Permanent Link)

Moderate Palestinian Leader Abbas congratulates Kuntar's family for killer's release

Is any comment really needed here? It speaks for itself.

Ami Isseroff

Abbas congratulates Kuntar's family for killer's release By News Agencies

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday congratulated the family of notorious Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar , who was freed on Wednesday with four Hezbollah guerillas as part of a prisoner exchange with Israel.

Abbas welcomed the swap between Israel and the Lebanon-based militant group, and in a statement congratulated the families of the "liberated prisoners," issued during a visit to Malta.

Kuntar has been imprisoned in Israel since 1979. He was convicted of one of the grisliest attacks in Israeli history - killing three people including, a man in front of his 4-year-old daughter, and then killing the girl herself by crushing her skull.
In Gaza, meanwhile, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday hailed Kuntar as "a great hero" and said Israel's decision to release him and four Hezbollah fighters had undermined Israel's policy of not freeing "prisoners with blood on their hands."

Haniyeh also branded the exchange of prisoners as "a victory" for Hezbollah and armed resistance against Israel.

"The Israelis should pay the price for the release of Gilad Shalit," Haniya said in a statement in central Gaza, referring to the Israel Defense Forces soldier kidnapped by Gaza militants in June, 2006 cross-border raid.

"It is hard to see thousands of prisoners still held in Israeli jails," He added.

People celebrated in the streets of the Hamas-controlled coastal territory, and handed out sweets in support of Hezbollah.

"Today is a great victory for the resistance movements and to Hezbollah, said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. "It shows that the only successful way to free the prisoners is by kidnapping soldiers."

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Arab News Op Ed against Suicide Bombing

New winds are blowing over the hot Saudi deserts. They have suddenly understood that suicide bombing is not all that wonderful after all.

Saudis who want to find the reasons for suicide bombing needn't look far. They need only examine the mounds of Saudi Fatwas and editorials praising "martyrs" and they need only check the huge subsidies paid by petrodollar millionaires to madrassas that crank out Mujahedin like those who did the 9-11 attack. It is good that Saudis are finally frightened of the Jihad genie they unleashed, but they won't solve the problem until they are honest with themselves.

It is not true, as stated below, that suicide bombings are increasingly being called martyrdom operations. They were called "martyrdom operations" from the start

Saudis financed the extremists on the premise (or excuse) that they could export their terrorists to other countries and keep peace at home. Saudis only became horrified at suicide bombings as it became clear that the targets could be themselves rather than Israelis or Americans. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.

Ami Isseroff

Suicide bombing? Perish the thought
Shafquat Ali, shafquat.ali@arabnews.com

Four-year-old Duha can barely hold back her tears as she watches her mother getting dressed to leave home. Knowing full well she will not be accompanying her, she implores: "Mommy, what are you carrying in your arms instead of me?"

There are no answers. Not until a day later. Just when teary-eyed Duha has all but given up questioning her mother's return with eyes transfixed on the door, the evening news tells it all. Her mother, it turns out, had blown herself up, killing four Israelis.

The little girl, inconsolable as she is, seeks solace in her mother's belongings. Rummaging through her dead mother's bedside table, Duha finds a hidden stick of dynamite. She picks it up.

And embraces it. By the looks of it, little Duha may well grow up to follow in her mother's footsteps.

That may not be a true a story — it was a macabre music video that appeared on a television show for Palestinian children — but there's no denying that it drew inspiration from any number of similar real-life stories circulating in the Arab street.

Take Reem Riyashi, a Palestinian mother of two who blew herself up in a suicide attack against Israeli soldiers at a Gaza border crossing in January 2004, for instance. A video statement released hours after her death showed her in battle fatigue, brandishing a semiautomatic rifle.

"I have always wished to knock at the door of heaven carrying skulls belonging to the sons of Zion," Riyashi said menacingly, with a scowl on her face.

Not surprising then that, four years after her bloody death, she continues to be hailed as a courageous resistance fighter throughout Gaza and the West Bank.

But, at the same time, one cannot help but wonder if people had noticed how she was also fighting to ensure that her tough talking did not betray her hidden emotion. The emotion of a mother who was going on a mission from which she would never return to embrace her two children. To take care of them, to caress them.

Never mind. The fact of the matter is: With the number of Riyashis growing everyday, it is not easy to sketch a picture of an archetypical suicide bomber. Not any more.

Today, a suicide bomber could be a weary old man in a wheelchair asking for help on the streets of Baghdad. An elderly lady holding out her palms for charity in a bazaar in Ramallah. Or it could be a zesty young lad cheering along with the crowd at a sporting event in Kandahar.

He could also be a brooding figure offering a hand as a dear one is laid to rest at a cemetery in Mingora town in Pakistan's Swat Valley or a trendy young lad standing outside the discotheque in Tel Aviv.

On the other hand, she could be a mentally handicapped woman nudging past in a Shiite shrine in Karbala or a pretty, young lady sitting next to you on a bus in Colombo.

But that's not all, if slain Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in a bomb-and-suicide attack in Rawalpindi last year, was to be believed, it could be also be an innocent baby.

In her memoirs, she raised suspicion that a baby a young man was holding out to her at a rally in Karachi was laden with explosives. Moments later, a suicide attack killed 180.

Yes, it is true, such pictures of suicide bombers are now etched in our recent memory.

It's worrisome enough that suicide bombers seem to be springing up everywhere. But, what's worse is the fear that they are no longer shadowy figures that were once described as the pride and joy of former PLO chief Yasser Arafat's arsenal.

Today, they are the most deadly weapons of mass destruction which have no known defense. And the reason for their very existence — and subsequent demise — ranges from political vendetta to social vengeance and from ideological differences to economic disparity.

To put it bluntly, suicide bombers today are furiously crawling out of the woodwork and could even be right next to you as you read this.

No, I am not trying to paint a scary picture and suggest suicide bombers have taken over the world in general and the Middle East in particular. Far from it, they exist in pockets. But those pockets are growing alarmingly deeper — and at a far greater pace than you and I had ever imagined.

What's more, the picture of the quintessential suicide bomber — if there was one — is being rapidly replaced by everyday faces.

But now, the question is: Why are people much like you and me dying to kill themselves, knowing only too well there will be no dignity in death?

Moments after they have pressed the trigger to blow themselves and others around them up, their bodies would be splattered into tiny pieces that may never see a funeral, let alone get recognized in the pool of blood and gore. Also, whatever it is that they choose to answer their Creator thereafter, one thing is clear: They will have to explain why they decided to play God.

And took it upon themselves to end the lives of their victims. It would certainly weaken their case if they have to account for innocent women and children in those numbers.

Without venturing into a debate on the merits or demerits of suicide bombings - given that the term is being increasingly replaced by martyrdom operation - the increase in attacks against civilians, as opposed to military targets, does raise alarm bells.

A Hamas training manual, for instance, apparently notes "It is foolish to hunt for the tiger when there are plenty of sheep around." And that's something we can ill afford to dismiss sheepishly.

(Next week: Socio-Economic Reasons.)

Continued (Permanent Link)

Hezbollah's Victory: The gift to Lebanon that keeps on giving

According to a recent survey, Hassan Nasrallah is the most popular figure in the Arab world, and with good reason. Hezbollah's great victory in the summer of 2006 has borne many fruit. Lebanese have buried over a thousand dead, though most were Hezbollah so that was not all bad news. Lebanese have not finished repairing billions of dollars worth of damage from the war. But the best fruit of victory is the gift that keeps on giving - the war scared the tourists away. Lebanese are very grateful to Hezbollah because, as the Daily Star headline tells us :

Hotel occupancy in Beirut nosedives in 2007, remains lowest in region
 

 

BEIRUT: The occupancy rate in Beirut hotels was 35 percent in 2007, down from 50 percent in 2006, said the benchmark annual survey of the Middle East hotel sector by Ernst & Young, as reported by Byblos Bank's Lebanon This Week. The occupancy rate in Beirut was the lowest among 19 markets in the region in 2007, as it was in the previous year, and Beirut posted the steepest annual drop in the region, the report said.

 

The survey said average rate per room at Beirut hotels was $140 last year, ranking the capital's hotels as the 12th-most expensive in the region ahead of Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Amman in Jordan and all markets in Egypt.

 

The average rate per room at Beirut hotels declined by 19 percent year-on-year and posted the second-steepest drop among all markets in the region after Amman, which declined by 28 percent year-on-year.

 

The average rate per room in Beirut came below the regional average of $196.5, which jumped by 17 percent from $168 in 2006.

 

Occupancy rates at Beirut hotels were 26.4 percent in January 2007 and 27.8 percent in February, and then rose to 41 percent in March and 56.2 percent in April before dropping to 47 percent in May and 21 percent in June. It increased to 41 percent in July and 47 percent in August, but remained below the normal rates during the peak summer months of June to August.

 

Occupancy dropped further to 37 percent in September and rose slightly to 40 percent in October before declining to 34 percent in November. But occupancy increased to 47 percent in December due to the peak holiday season, but still came below traditional rates for the time of the year.

 

Further, revenues per available room were $49 in Beirut in 2007, down from $87 in the previous year, ranking it in 17th place in the region, ahead of only Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. Beirut's revenues were down 43.8 percent from the previous year, posting the sharpest decline among the 19 regional markets, compared to a rise of 16.8 percent across the region.

 

Beirut, Amman, Doha and Medina were the only markets to report revenue-per-room declines last year. Dubai posted the highest occupancy rate in the Middle East at 88 percent in 2007, while Kuwait posted the region's highest average room rate at $535. - The Daily Star

 

Hezbollah is also responsible for the permanent deadlock in Lebanese politics, which has left Lebanon without a president. No wonder everyone in the Arab world loves Hassan Nasrallah!

 

Ami Isseroff

Continued (Permanent Link)

Rice: "Hamas is the main impediment to peace"

Good Ole Jimmy Carter is going to visit with Hamas, to learn more about the evil Zionists for his next book. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice notes:

"I find it hard to understand what is going to be gained by having discussions with Hamas about peace when Hamas is, in fact, the impediment to peace," Rice said at a press event with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The same question, "What is to be gained by having discussions with Hamas?" should be directed at those Israelis who favor talking to Hamas.

Ami Isseroff

---

Last update - 13:09 12/04/2008
Rice criticizes Carter over planned meeting with Meshal
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized former President Jimmy Carter on Friday for his reported plans to meet Hamas' political leader Khaled Meshal during a visit to Syria.

Carter has not confirmed the plans to meet Meshal but the Palestinian militant group has said the former Democratic president sent an envoy to Damascus, where the Hamas leader resides, requesting a meeting with the militant group's officials.

"I find it hard to understand what is going to be gained by having discussions with Hamas about peace when Hamas is, in fact, the impediment to peace," Rice said at a press event with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Rice was responding to a question about Carter's plans but did not mention him by name.

"Hamas is a terrorist organization," she said, repeating the Bush administration's explanation for why it will not meet with members of the group.

The State Department says it twice advised Carter against meeting any representative of Hamas. A Carter-Mashal meeting would be the first public contact in two years between a prominent American figure and Hamas officials.

A press release from the Carter Center said the former president was to lead a study mission to Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan as part of his ongoing effort to support peace, democracy and human rights in the region.

Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his decades of work in mediating conflicts and his humanitarian travels for the Carter Center since he was in office. One of his mediations was the 1978 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, for which Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin were awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize.

Earlier Friday, Rice said the U.S. will consider fresh incentives and sanctions to persuade Iran to rein in its nuclear program but major changes in either are unlikely now.

"We will always continue to consider refreshing both tracks but this is not the time, I think, to expect major changes,"

Rice told reporters. "We have just passed a (UN) Security Council resolution (imposing additional sanctions) and we will see how Iran responds."

Report: Secret Iranian missile site revealed in new spy photos
A series of recently released spy photos have uncovered the secret location where Iran has allegedly been developing long-range ballistic missiles capable of striking Europe, The Times reported on Friday.

The satellite pictures pinpoint the facility where Iran launched its Kavoshgar 1 "research" rocket in February, according to the report. Iran has claimed that rocket was tested as part of its space program.

Analysis of the Digital Globe QuickBird satellite taken just days after the launch show details indicating that the site of the research rocket is the same location where Iran is preparing a ballistic missile with a range of 6,000 kilometers, the report said.

The site is located about 230 kilometers southeast of Tehran. The connection between the research rocket and Iran's long-range program was exposed by Jane's Intelligence Review following an analysis of the photos by a former Iraqi weapons inspector, said The Times.

Analysis of the photos suggest that Iran is pursuing a space program similar to that being developed in North Korea, with a focus on long-range missile technology, according to the report.

An analyst at the Institute of Technology, Geoffrey Forden, said that a structure on the Iranian site - roughly 40 meters in length - closely resembled a Taepodong long-range missile assembly facility in North Korea, The Times reported.

The editor of Janes's Proliferation has said that based on examination of the Iranian site, Tehran may be just five years away from developing the long-range missile, according to the report.

Source

Continued (Permanent Link)

Better in Baghdad?

I am not saying it's true. It is this man's opinion.

 

Perseverance Pays Off in Baghdad
By MELIK KAYLAN
April 12, 2008; Page A9

Baghdad

 

The recent violence in Sadrist areas of Baghdad should not distract us from the big picture. The capital city of Iraq is immensely more at peace than it was a year ago.

 

This time last year, there were deep booms and the rattle of extended firefights from virtually all around the compass throughout the day and night. Such incidents are now a rare occurrence in a week.

 

Some of the reasons for this progress are better known than others. The surge, the Awakening Councils and the neighborhood-based counterinsurgency program have received solid credit.

 

But the condign effects of the Iraqis' own Baghdad Services Committee and Popular Mobilization Committee have garnered little attention outside Iraq, perhaps because they are led by Ahmed Chalabi, the returned exile who is far more controversial abroad than at home. Yet these days the committees' weekly government-level meetings are attended by ministers and American and Iraqi generals from David Petraeus on down.

 

Whatever some Americans in the U.S. may think of Mr. Chalabi, this much is certain: He has stayed in Baghdad throughout the troubles, living in the Red Zone, touring the neighborhoods more than any Iraqi politician, and routinely incurring considerable risks. He could have lived safely abroad on his family wealth.

 

Mr. Chalabi has made no effort to advertise that he helped the surge succeed by implementing the civilian arm of the Baghdad Security Plan through the work of the two committees. Arguably, he has, more than anyone in the country, evolved a detailed sense of what ails Baghdadis and how to fix things.

 

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appointed Mr. Chalabi to launch the committees last year, no doubt because Mr. Chalabi's unusual habit of direct contact with the populace made him the only realistic choice.

 

The Popular Mobilization Committee (PMC) was launched in February 2007. It now supervises the activity of some 3,000 volunteers around Baghdad. They, in turn, operate a localized system of 120 neighborhood watch committees. They provide intelligence, report trouble, help settle returnees to their homes and the like. They have been crucial in stabilizing the city neighborhood by neighborhood.

 

Mr. Chalabi estimates that a total of perhaps one million (mostly Sunni middle-class) refugees left Baghdad after 2003. Many of them left Iraq, while some 350,000 were internally displaced. A quarter have now returned, and more are coming back, chiefly because their money has run out. They routinely find squatters in their homes.

 

According to Mr. Chalabi, the situation is often delicate, but not as bad as it might be. "Everyone knows who actually lives where," he says. "People work out reasonable solutions. Baghdadis are very clear about ownership." (According to a Chalabi aide, real estate values in the city have actually gone up in the last year.) Since many of the refugees were forcibly purged, a deal of suspicion and anxiety attends the process, which the local committees help smooth out.

 

Meanwhile, the PMC takes Shiite leaders into Sunni areas and vice-versa. "We just did two reconciliation meetings where hostile tribal chieftains invited each other just because they heard we were coming," Mr. Chalabi told me.

 

Through the PMC, Sunni mosques are returned to Sunnis. Intersectarian prayers are held. The PMC also monitors the prisons, and provides legal help to citizens, as requested by the local committees. To avoid favoritism and the appearance of patronage, "we decided that whoever does the most work gets to lead the committees," says Mr. Chalabi. As a result, even the most hostile sectarian areas welcome his efforts as practical rather than political, and above all as efficacious.

 

This is especially true of the Baghdad Services Committee, which concentrates on water, electricity, infrastructure repair and the like. The BSC was launched in November 2007, with the immediate goal of reclaiming the circle of power plants deliberately positioned by Saddam Hussein around Baghdad in Baathist areas.

 

Much of the city's post-Saddam power supply was either hijacked or deliberately sabotaged, until the BSC identified the problem. It demanded a military presence to protect substations, while arranging for the railways to transport diesel into the city. Electricity supply today is three hours on, three off, up from one hour a day last year.

 

Mr. Chalabi complains that the U.S. does not do enough to help the power supply. "In Mahmoudiya [a suburb], we are asking the Russians to come back and complete a power station which they half-finished in Saddam's time," he says. "Electricity is crucial also for pumping water. Baghdad needs three million cubic meters of water a day. The most reliable source north of Baghdad can provide almost a half of that, but it needs power. We got . . . [from the US military] a massive generator of 60 megahertz, whereas all our system is designed for 50 megahertz – it's just sitting there."

 

Some Baghdad neighborhoods are improvised shantytowns with no access to water and no sewage system. Says Mr. Chalabi: "We must provide 1,000 tanker trucks quickly by this summer. But I'm not confident we'll get them. The real, long-term solution is to build housing with proper infrastructure – we are in desperate need of new housing."

 

The BSC has gained a considerable reputation around Baghdad for taking government ministers into neglected areas, television cameras in tow, to shame the government into action. Mr. Chalabi's political party, the Iraqi National Congress, also recently launched a weekly newspaper entirely about services, in which citizens get to sound off and government officials are asked to respond.

 

The practical projects of these committees aside, one could argue that their greatest service has been psychological: to show that the problems of Baghdad, and by implication Iraq, are not some bottomless pit of chaos. They can be dealt with concretely and overcome with perseverance.

 

Mr. Kaylan is a writer based in New York.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Palestinian Ma'an News: 2 Stories - one in Arabic, one in English

Netherlands and Denmark fund terror glorification, hate language of Palestinian news agency

By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

 

 

A Palestinian news agency that receives financial support from the governments of The Netherlands and Denmark glorifies terrorists, releases news stories using hate language and is a highly politicized, hate-promoting news organization. Paradoxically, Ma'an News claims to be "objective, accurate, balanced" and to "increase Palestinian media credibility," according to its web site.

1- Ma'an Honoring Terrorists and Murderers as Shahids

 

Ma'an has glorified the recent Palestinian murderer of eight Israeli yeshiva students, the Dimona suicide terrorist, the killers of the two Israeli hikers and the terrorists who attacked a boys' high school with the very highest Islamic status attainable, elevating them to the status of "Shahids" or "Martyrs for Allah." According to the accepted Palestinian interpretation of Islam, there is no higher status that a Muslim can achieve today than that of Shahid. In defining terrorist murderers as "Shahids," Ma'an is by definition sending its readers a straightforward message of honor for the killers, and approval for the many murders. Negative or dishonorable actions could not elevate an individual to Shahid status. (See below for full sources.)

 

In its English versions of these reports, Ma'an did not honor the terrorists  as "Shahids" or use the similar English term "Martyrs."Note, for example, the difference in Ma'an reporting on the murder of the two hikers:

 

Ma'an Arabic News	Ma'an English News
"Two of the operatives died as Shahids."  [Dec. 28, 2007]	"Two Israelis, two Palestinians killed by gunfire near Hebron."

 

The explanation for this and all other discrepancies between Ma'an's English and Arabic reporting is that this politically-charged Arabic terminology, together with the examples of Ma'an's use of hate-language (below), would readily expose Ma'an's lack of professionalism and messages of approval of terror if repeated in English. In addition, it must be assumed that the governments of The Netherlands and Denmark would be outraged to know they are funding terror glorification and hate journalism.

 

2 - Suicide Bombers: Ma'an uses term of higher honor: Shahada-Seekers

 

With regard to suicide terrorists Ma'an goes even further. According to Islam, someone who intentionally seeks Shahada - death for Allah - is greater than someone who achieves Shahada while not actively hoping to die. The Arabic term Istishhadi - Shahada- Seeker- is used by terror organizations to define and add a higher status of honor specifically to suicide terrorists .

 

Ma'an has followed this lead in its Arabic reporting of the Dimona suicide bombing that killed one Israeli woman and critically injured her husband. Note the apolitical report by Ma'an in English, where the suicide bomber is reported to be just that, "a bomber," followed by the Arabic Ma'an reports that use the term of highest honor, "Shahada-Seekers."

 

Ma'an Arabic News	Ma'an English News
"Ma'an - Senior military figure [Abu Al-Walid] of the Al-Aqsa Brigades in Gaza, rejected the suspicion that Israel aroused regarding the identity of the two Shahada-Seekers, who carried out the Dimona action... Pictures of the two Shahada-Seekers etc ..."  [February 5, 2008]	"Al-Aqsa Brigades dispel doubts about identity of second Dimona bomber... Speaking to Ma'an on Tuesday, Abu Al-Walid reiterated that the bombers were Luay Al-Ghawani and Mousa Arafat ... Israeli security officials had expressed doubt about the validity of the image of the second bomber."

 

 

Note also that under similar pictures of the mothers of the bombers, Ma'an uses the objective caption in English: "Mother of suspected bomber," and the honor caption in Arabic: "Mothers of the Shahada-Seekers".

Ma'an Arabic caption	Ma'an English caption
"Mothers of Shahada-Seekers"	"Mother of suspected bomber"

 

3- Ma'an denies Israel's right to exist- all Israel is "Occupation"

Ma'an uses very politicized hate language to routinely reject Israel's right to exist, and even to deny Israel's existence. For example, when reporting on Israeli Arab doctors who visited Gaza, Ma'an defined them in Arabic as "Palestinian doctors from inside 'Occupied Palestine'," Ma'an's term for Israel. In this case, Ma'an's English language report on this story followed similar hate language:

"Palestinian doctors from 1948 territories [another Ma'an euphemism for Israel] visit Gaza... A delegation of doctors from Palestinian territories occupied since 1948, from outside of the Green Line, visited the Gaza Strip."  [February 29, 2008]

 In this article to deny Israel's legitimacy on its land, Ma'an went out of its way to use a particularly awkward hate expression. Instead of using the simple, accurate and apolitical wording, "doctors from Israel," Ma'an used 13 cumbersome, politically-charged hate words to describe the doctors' origins:

Ma'an political language	Accurate apolitical language
"doctors from Palestinian territories occupied since 1948, from outside of the Green Line"	"doctors from Israel"

 

It is also important to note that later in the same article, Ma'an used the term "Israel" as follows: "...crippling siege led by Israel." The difference is striking. When referring to the land or location - Ma'an called Israel "Occupied Palestine."  In referring to the government of Israel or criticizing Israeli policy Ma'an used "Israel." (See other examples below.)

 

Finally, since Israel's very existence is presented by Ma'an as an "Occupation," the Israeli army in Arabic is referred to with hate language identical to that used by the terrorist organizations: "the occupation forces." Here, as in some of the cases above, Ma'an avoids the hate language in English. One example is a Ma'an report after Israel arrested three suspected terrorists.

 

Ma'an Arabic News	Ma'an English News
"Occupation forces arrest ..."  [March 25, 2008]	"Israeli forces raid ..."

 

See below a list of examples where Ma'an glorifies terrorists and uses hate language.

 

PMW comment:

Last year PMW documented that Ma'an used this politicized hate language after the suicide terror attack in the Israeli city of Eilat. [See PMW Bulletin]

In Arabic, Ma'an had reported that Eilat was "in the south of occupied Palestine," the mother of the terrorist was said to be from the "occupied city of Jaffa", though Jaffa is part of Tel Aviv, and Ma'an had honored the suicide bomber as a Shahid.

We find it surprising and unfortunate that the governments of The Netherlands and Denmark continue to fund this hate journalism without demanding a change. Hate incitement, including denial of Israel's existence and glorifying terror, is universally accepted as a paramount cause of continued Palestinian terror. These governments, together with governments who have blindly funded Palestinian schoolbooks, bear direct moral responsibility for the continued hatred that is being ingrained into future Palestinian generations, and bear a moral responsibility for the terror and its victims.

  

The following are additional examples of Ma'an using hate language and honoring terrorists.

Ma'an grants Shahid status to all terrorists in recent terror attacks. The following are in addition to examples above.

 

1. Jerusalem Yeshiva terror attack - 8 students killed:

Ma'an Arabic News:

"8 dead and two Shahids in the Jerusalem Operation. The operatives were from [village of] Jabal Mukbar..."  [Ma'an, Arabic news, March 6, 2008]

 

2. Terror attack in High School in Kfar Ezion:

Ma'an Arabic News:

"Ma'an discloses the identity of the two Shahids from the Ezion operation."  [Ma'an, Arabic news, January 24 , 2008]

 

3. Two hikers ambushed and murdered as they strolled on nature walk

Ma'an Arabic News:

"Two of the operatives died as Shahids, two more were injured and two Israeli soldiers were killed."  [Ma'an, Arabic news, December 28, 2007]

 

Ma'an English News:

"Two Israelis, two Palestinians killed by gunfire near Hebron."

[Ma'an, English news, December 28, 2007]

 

4. Suicide Terror attack in Dimona- one woman killed:

Ma'an Arabic News:

"Ma'an - Senior military figure [Abu Al-Walid] of the Al-Aqsa Brigades in Gaza, rejected the suspicion that Israel aroused regarding the identity of the two Shahada-Seekers, who carried out the Dimona action... Pictures of the two Shahada-Seekers etc ..."  

 

Ma'an English News:

"Speaking to Ma'an on Tuesday, Abu Al-Walid reiterated that the bombers were Luay Al-Ghawani and Mousa Arafat"    [ English news, February 5, 2008]

 

Ma'an news releases promote the hate message that Israel has no right to exist, calling Israel "Occupied Palestine" or "territories occupied after 1948," Israel's government the "Occupation Authority" and its soldiers the "Occupation forces." Note also when Israel is mentioned it is often put within quotation marks- a common linguistic method to express non-recognition.

 

1."The Occupation authorities [editor: replaces 'Israeli authorities'] have been enforcing severe restrictions since the morning hours on the entrance of residents to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and even on the entrance into the city of Jerusalem within the borders of the occupation municipality [editor: replaces 'Jerusalem']. They have prevented hundreds of the residents of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories occupied since 1948, [editor: replaces 'Israel'] who hold blue "Israeli" identity cards from..."

[Ma'an, Arabic news, February 29, 2008]

 

2."He said that 72 prisoners have died as Shahids during the al-Aqsa intifada, 58 of them from the West Bank, one from the territories occupied since 1948 [editor: replaces 'Israel'] and 13 from the Gaza Strip..."       [Ma'an, Arabic news, February 29, 2008]

 

3."In a research paper he published on the issue of the number of prisoners of Palestine which has been occupied since 1948 (The "inside" prisoners) [editor: replaces 'Israeli prisoners'], he emphasized that this number is an important number in the equation of the historical and cultural struggle against the Israeli occupier..."    [Ma'an, Arabic news, March 15, 2008]

 

Note in this previous example that instead of just writing the single word "Israel," Ma"an used a very long term: Palestine which has been occupied since 1948. However, Ma"an itself felt the need to further explain its own cumbersome usage by adding in parentheses, ("inside" prisoners) meaning 'Israeli Arab prisoners.'  It shows again that Ma"an is willing to burden its readers with linguistic contortions, rather than use simple and accurate language which would indicate recognition of Israel. In this case the language it avoided writing was "Arab prisoners from Israel."

 

4. "Dr. al-Asta did not compare the outlook... to one who lives in the racist Ghetto in Occupied Palestine..."   [Ma'an, Arabic news, February 24, 2008]

 

5. "A delegation of doctors from Palestinian territories occupied since 1948... visited the Gaza Strip." [Ma'an, Arabic news, March 17, 2008]

 

6. Discrepancies between English and Arabic reports:

Ma'an Arabic Report:

"The occupation forces" detained 3 residents in Bethlehem and al-Duha".    [Ma'an, Arabic news, March 25, 2008]

Ma'an English Report:

"Israeli forces raid Bethlehem and seize 3 Palestinians"

[Ma'an, English news, March 25, 2008]

Ma'an Arabic Report:

"The Israeli occupation army seized the town of Kafin afternoon today, Wednesday..."  [Ma'an, Arabic news, March 26, 2008]

Ma'an EnglishReport:

"Israeli forces stormed the town of Kafin in the West Bank Wednesday..."  [Ma'an, English news, March 26, 2008]

Continued (Permanent Link)

Khaled Mesh'al orders Hamas to deny role in Jerusalem terror attack

Mash'al To Hamas: Don't Take Responsibility For Jerusalem Seminary Attack

A senior Palestinian official close to Hamas said that Hamas political bureau head Khaled Mash'al had ordered the movements' leaders not to take responsibility for last week's Jerusalem seminary attack for fear of a harsh response by Israel.

Mash'al also ordered Hamas leaders to take maximum cautionary measures so as not to permit a retaliatory attack by Israel.

Source: Al-Jarida, Kuwait, March 10, 2008

Posted at: 2008-03-10

 

Continued (Permanent Link)

Yeshiva student: 'I shot the terrorist in the head'

[Dr. Ami Isseroff Mewnews: Confusion surrounds reports from the scene. Police claim that the IDF officer shot the terrorist after the IDF officer did, whereas the Yeshiva student explains that he shot first. The terrorist was not wearing a suicide bomber vest, but rather an ammunition belt. The weapon was a Kalatchnikov]

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Yeshiva student who shot attacker recounts moments of horror; 'I was studying when shots rang out'

[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: For some reason, Israel Radio is frequently not mentioning the role of Dadon in killing the terrorist and only mentions the IDF officer who lives near the yeshiva and joined Dadon.]

'I shot terrorist in head'
Yeshiva student who shot attacker recounts moments of horror; 'I was
studying when shots rang out'
Aviram Zino YNET Published: 03.06.08, 22:42 / Israel News

A yeshiva student who shot the Jerusalem terrorist says he was busy studying when suddenly shots rang out, prompting him to grab his gun and eventually kill the Palestinian attacker

"We realized something happened so I cocked my handgun," Yitzhak Dadon told Ynet Thursday evening.

"I went up on the roof and waited for the terrorist. Meanwhile, I saw blood and shattered glass," Dadon said. "The terrorist continue firing in the air, so I waited to see him again, and then I shot him twice in the head."

Dadon says the terrorist continued firing even after he was hurt.

"He kept on firing until an IDF officer arrived and shot him again," Dadon said.

The gunman infiltrated a rabbinical seminary at the entrance of Jerusalem and opened fire after nightfall Thursday, police said. The ZAKA emergency response service has confirmed at least eight people have been killed.

Paramedics said they treated several people for injuries - among them four in serious to critical condition.

Continued (Permanent Link)

To the people of Sderot and Ashkelon: Grim Restraint and Fierce determination

In these days, it is important to remember: Arab terror attacks are not new, and casualties are not new. We have seen much worse times in this country. This personal account of the Ben Yehuda Street Bombing of1948 reminds us of the essentials. In the bombing, over fifty people were buried in the wreckage and destruction wreaked by Arab terror.

The letter was not written by a spinmaster, a blowhard politico or a Zionist "Hasbara" master. It was written by an American young lady, a student in Jerusalem in 1948, who had joined the Haganah. She arrived on the scene of the bombing and set up a first aid station.

Zipporah Porath wrote:

I am becoming like the Jews who live here: every shock and sorrow nurtures you to grim restraint and fierce dedication.

That is something to think about for the frenzied op-ed writers, who tell us every day that the sky is falling. A 60 year old lesson in being an Israeli, 101, from a young student and new immigrant. This is what we do when the sky really does fall!

Ami Isseroff

Continued (Permanent Link)

Qassam rockets kill Israeli civilian; IDF kills Hamas terrorists

Qassam rockets kill, again. See Qassam rockets kill for background.

 

Israeli killed in massive Qassam barrage on Negev

By News Agencies

At least one person was killed, several were wounded and many were treated for shock Wednesday as least 30 Qassam rockets slammed into the western Negev town of Sderot and surrounding communities.

The 30-year-old student killed in the strike was apparently in a car, parked next to Sapir College on the outskirts of Sderot, which was hit by a Qassam. He suffered lethal shrapnel wounds to the chest.

The rocket barrage occurred hours after an Israel Air Force strike killed five Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip who were apparently planning a large scale terrorist attack against Israel after having been trained in Iran. The Shin Bet security service ventured a guess that the severity of the rocket attack against Israel Wednesday afternoon reflected the central role the dead Hamas men had played in the organization.

 

Palestinian officials said two more people, including a civilian, were killed in a second IAF airstrike carried out immediately after the Qassam attack against Sderot.

One of the Qassam rockets directly hit a home in Sderot, while another exploded in a factory mess hall shortly after the workers had exited.

Several people suffered shrapnel wounds in the attack, and seven people suffering light injuries and shock were evacuated to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.

Later, a Qassam rocket exploded near the Ashkelon hospital and several more people suffered from shock. Four rockets struck various sites in Ashkelon.

Hamas' military wing claimed responsiblity for firing the Qassams.

Israel frequently carries out airstrikes and brief ground incursions in Gaza to halt the rocket attacks, and it appeared likely that the deadly rocket barrage would draw a new Israeli reprisal.

Earlier Wednesday, at least six Palestinian militants, most from the extremist Hamas movement, were killed in operations by the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In southern Gaza, an Israel Air Force air strike destroyed a minivan carrying Hamas members, killing five. Hamas said that the dead included a senior engineer involved in the production of the Qassam rockets fired at southern Israel from Gaza on a daily basis, as well the commander of a local rocket-launching squad.

Two other Hamas members were wounded in the airstrike, according to Hamas and Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Gaza Health Ministry.

Minutes after the first explosion, an IAF missile struck another car nearby. Witnesses said the militants in the car had abandoned the vehicle for the white minivan shortly before the strike. There were no casualties in the second attack.

The IDF confirmed the strikes, which it said targeted vehicles transporting militants. Israel is targeting Palestinians responsible for the daily Qassam barrages.

Local residents who knew the men said some of them had undergone training in Syria or Iran and returned home after Hamas breached the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade of the territory of 1.5 million people.

Abu Ubaida, spokesman of Hamas's Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, denied they had traveled outside the Gaza Strip.

Also Wednesday, IDF elite troops operating in the center of the West Bank city of Nablus killed one Palestinian and wounded three others.

The IDF said that the commando patrol spotted a group of five men, one carrying a pistol. The group fled after they were asked to stop by the troops, who then opened fire. Four of the men were wounded, including the man who later died in an Israeli hospital. Another of the group was said to be in critical condition.

In the early hours of Wednesday, a gunman from Islamic Jihad was killed during clashes with IDF troops in central Gaza, the militant organization said. The man's body was taken to hospital in Gaza on Wednesday morning.

The IDF said a militant approached the Gaza-Israel border fence late Tuesday and that soldiers had seen an explosion, likely caused by explosives the militant was carrying.

Continued (Permanent Link)

You don't say: Open Gaza border is not good for Israel

Well OK, we knew this was bad news...

Jerusalem Issue Brief

Institute for Contemporary Affairs

founded jointly with the Wechsler Family Foundation


Vol. 7, No. 30 5 February 2008


Strategic Implications for Israel of the Gaza-Egypt Border Opening

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror and Dan Diker

Some had hoped that pressuring Hamas in Gaza via sanctions, while helping to create a stable and prosperous Palestinian society in the West Bank under Mahmoud Abbas, would trigger support for Abbas' leadership in Gaza. However, Hamas, via Gaza's new-found access to Egyptian materials, goods, and services, can now ease Gaza's depressed condition and diminish the differences between Gaza and the more prosperous West Bank.
For the first time in the history of the modern Middle East, Hamas - the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and the ideological cousin of al-Qaeda - has gained full control over contiguous territory and population, and has now effectively become a state government without real opponents.
In sharp contrast to Fatah's yet unfulfilled promises, the Palestinian public sees Hamas' dramatic opening of the Gaza-Egypt border as the latest in a series of successful actions. Others include Hamas' surprise January 2006 electoral victory over Fatah, its kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, the sustained rocketing of southern Israel, and Hamas' expulsion of Fatah forces from Gaza and the establishment of its control over the government there in June 2007.
Terrorist operatives and groups such as al-Qaeda, that have already used Egyptian Sinai as a rear base, can now reach Gaza without interference. Gaza has transformed from its prior status as part of the Palestinian Authority to its new role as a mini-state that is now an integral part of the Arab world. Hamas will now be able to obtain weapons, ammunition, explosives, and training more freely via Egyptian Sinai. Since the border opening, weapons have flowed unimpeded into Gaza, enabling the transfer of higher-grade weapons such as anti-aircraft missiles.
Al-Qaeda operatives already infiltrated the Gaza Strip from Egypt, Sudan, and Yemen back in 2006. After the breach of the Egyptian-Gaza border, many Palestinians trained in Syria and Iran easily returned to Gaza. With the open flow of Palestinians into Sinai, there are also increased prospects for attacks against Israeli targets by terrorists infiltrating across Israel's long border with Sinai. If Egypt is forced to take responsibility for Gaza, Israel will have to more carefully weigh its military responses to Hamas terror actions originating from the Strip.

The Recognized Government of the State of Gaza
Hamas' breaching of the 12-kilometer security fence separating Gaza from Egyptian Sinai on January 23, 2008, with the acquiescence of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, has triggered major shifts in the triangular relationship between Israel, Gaza, and Egypt.

Hamas' opening of Gaza's southern border to Egypt was a well-planned strategic move that has effectively knighted Hamas as the recognized government of a new state of Gaza. Previously, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and some Israelis had hoped that pressuring Hamas in Gaza via sanctions, while helping to create a stable and prosperous Palestinian society in the West Bank under Fatah leader and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, would trigger support for Abbas' leadership in Gaza.

However, recent events in Gaza have buried this possibility for the foreseeable future. Hamas, via Gaza's new-found access to Egyptian materials, goods, and services, can now ease Gaza's depressed economic condition, and thereby diminish the differences between Gaza and the more prosperous West Bank. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flooded the northeastern corner of the Sinai Peninsula after January 23, spending approximately $130 million in local Egyptian markets.1

The opening of the state of Gaza to Egypt reinforces Hamas control that no external pressure will be able to reverse at this juncture. The prospects of Mahmoud Abbas regaining control in Gaza are remote at best. Despite reports of an agreement with Egypt to include Abbas' Palestinian Presidential Guard at Gaza's Rafah border crossing, Hamas will not give up its achievement and allow forces loyal to Abbas to control the border, despite Egypt's preference for such an arrangement.2

The radical Hamas government, which is financed, trained, and armed by Iran, has proven itself as an effective military and political force. Hamas has upgraded its strategic posture by opening its southern border and forcing its Egyptian neighbor to allow free and largely unimpeded access for nearly two weeks for hundreds of thousands of Gazans who crossed Egypt's sovereign borders and returned to Gaza at will. Hamas' success in forcing Egypt to negotiate over the crisis has established Hamas' upgraded status.3 Hamas has agreed to cooperate with Egypt to close the breached border. However, the gesture is temporary and must also be considered in the context of stated intention to disengage completely from Israel, abandon the Israeli shekel and adopt an Arab currency, and seek fuel, utilities, trade, and a new open border regime with Egypt.4


A Territory Under Islamist Control
This crisis may also be seen in a much broader and far-reaching political and ideological context. For the first time in the history of the modern Middle East (other than the limited case of Hassan Turabi's Sudan5), Hamas - the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and the ideological precursor to al-Qaeda6 - has gained full control over contiguous territory and population, and has now effectively become a state government without real opponents or internal challenges for power.

Gaza's new open border with Egypt represents the fulfillment of a long-held dream by the Muslim Brotherhood across the region, and suggests far-reaching ramifications for neighboring Arab countries including Jordan, Syria, and Egypt. In fact, on January 27, 2008, a senior Muslim Brotherhood delegation from the Egyptian parliament paid an official visit to Hamas' government compound in Gaza.7A senior Hamas delegation headed by its political leader, Khaled Mashal, has also been invited to Saudi Arabia to discuss "developments" since the border was opened.8


The Sunset of Fatah
In the Palestinian-Israeli context, Hamas' success enhances its political power among Palestinians and further weakens Mahmoud Abbas' image as the leader of the Palestinian people. While Abbas is eager to return Fatah control to Gaza, recent events have ratcheted up Hamas' control.

In sharp contrast to Fatah's failed and corrupt government, the Palestinian public sees Hamas' dramatic opening of the Gaza-Egypt border as the latest in a series of successful actions. Others include Hamas' surprise January 2006 electoral victory over Fatah, its kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, the sustained rocketing of southern Israel, and Hamas' expulsion of Fatah forces from Gaza and the establishment of its control over the government there in June 2007. Hamas' border breach has also been a signal to Egypt of the Gaza government's strength.9

The events in Gaza may signal an historic change: the end of Fatah as the ruling political power in Palestinian society. Fatah's continued control in Palestinian areas of the West Bank today is the direct result of the Israel Defense Forces' control of the territory. Only the continuing IDF operations in the West Bank have prevented Hamas from staging a takeover similar to its military coup against Fatah in Gaza in 2007.


An Enemy State with an Open Door
Another strategic shift is reflected in Gaza's new status as an enemy state entity with open borders. Gaza has transformed from its prior status as part of the Palestinian Authority to its new role as a mini-state that is now an integral part of the Arab world. Hamas will now be able to more freely obtain weapons, ammunition, explosives, and training via Egyptian Sinai. Since the border opening, advanced weapons have flowed unimpeded into Gaza across the Egyptian border, enabling the transfer of higher-grade weapons than can be smuggled via underground tunnels.

The Israel Security Agency has confirmed that Hamas smuggled large amounts of long-range rockets, anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles into Gaza since the border was breached.10 This new weaponry will enable the continued upgrade of Hamas' highly disciplined army that is largely financed and trained by Iran and is modeled after the Iranian-backed Hizbullah in Lebanon.

Terrorist operatives and groups such as al-Qaeda, that have already used Egyptian Sinai as a rear base, are now able to reach Gaza more easily. Several al-Qaeda-affiliated operatives, some of whom infiltrated from Egypt, Sudan, and Yemen, have been active in Gaza since 2006. Over time, al-Qaeda-affiliated organizations have also emerged in Gaza, including Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) that was responsible for the kidnapping of BBC journalist Alan Johnston. Other groups were also formed like Jaish al-Umma (Army of the Nation), Al-Qaeda in Palestine, and Mujahidin Beit al-Makdes (Holy Warriors of Jerusalem), which attacked the American International School in Gaza in January 2008.11

Global jihadi leaders, such as Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Ansari of the Lebanese-based Fatah al-Islam, called for jihadi fighters around the world to exploit the breached Rafah crossing and enter Gaza.12 With the open flow of Palestinians into Sinai, there are also increased prospects for attacks against Israeli targets by terrorists infiltrating across Israel's long border with Sinai.

It must be understood that Hamas is no longer merely a well-trained guerilla terror force. Rather, Hamas must be confronted as a state army that uses guerilla tactics and terrorism while, simultaneously, it prepares for all-out war against Israel. With each passing day that Israel does not mobilize for a major ground operation in Gaza, it will be more difficult for the IDF to enter Gaza and destroy Hamas, whose growing Katyusha rocket arsenal has already reached Ashkelon and can strike major Israeli urban centers 20 kilometers north of Gaza, like Kiryat Gat and Ashdod.

At the same time, Hamas and other terror groups continue to fire shorter-range Kassam rockets at Sderot and other Israeli localities. Since January 1, 2008, alone, more than 420 rockets have been fired into southern Israel from Gaza.13


Completing Israel's Disengagement from Gaza

Following the opening of the Gaza-Sinai border, Israel can now complete the disengagement it undertook in September 2005 and seal its border with Gaza, prohibiting the entry or exit of persons and commercial goods, or, as has occurred recently, explosives disguised as commercial materials.14

Israel and Egypt had negotiated the administration of Gaza in the framework of the 1978 Camp David Accords. However, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat refused to take responsibility for the Strip. Instead, Sadat insisted only on establishing an Egyptian liaison office in Gaza. However, Prime Minister Menachem Begin rejected the Egyptian demand.15

Today, however, a newly-sealed Israel-Gaza border would force Egypt into the role of state custodian for the Gaza Strip. The opening of the Egypt-Gaza border has demonstrated that Egypt can play a key role as a supplier of goods and services to Gazans. Egypt can also supply utilities such as gas, electricity, and water, and raw materials such as cement.

Egypt sees itself as the Arab world's leading power, and will not stand idly by and allow Palestinians in Gaza to suffer shortages if Israel closes its border with Gaza. Egypt's humanitarian role has been the basis of Mubarak's justification for allowing the border to remain open and it is unlikely that Egypt will suddenly reverse this policy in the future.

While certain benefits may accrue to Israel as a result of a shift in Egypt-Gaza relations, there are also possible dangers for Israel-Egypt relations, which are a vital strategic asset for both Jerusalem and Cairo. If Egypt is forced to take responsibility for Gaza, Israel will have to more carefully weigh its military responses to Hamas terror actions originating from the Strip. Israel's strategic flexibility could be reduced due to any direct Egyptian role in Gaza. Israel may benefit if it is no longer the responsible party for the welfare of Gaza's citizens. But at the same time, Israel loses its ability to monitor what enters and exits over Gaza's border with Egypt.




The Iranian Role

The Iranian role is another troubling aspect of the new situation in Gaza. Iran's direct and robust backing of its Hamas proxy, via Khaled Mashal and the Damascus-based Hamas leadership, has essentially created a reinforced Gaza base to export Iranian terror and expand Iranian political control in the region. It is no small irony that now, Egyptian-assisted Gaza has become a second Iranian gateway to the Arab world, in addition to Syria, from which to subvert and assert control over Arab countries and territories, as part of Iran's grand strategy to achieve regional hegemony under a nuclear umbrella.


* * *
Notes


1. Ehud Yaari, "Egypt Working to Contain Gaza," Policy Watch #1337, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, February 1, 2008.
2. "Egypt Agrees to Abbas Control over Gaza Border, Palestinian Officials Say," Ynet News, January 27, 2008.
3. Khaled Abu Toameh, "Cairo Invites Hamas Representatives for Talks on Rafah Border Situation, Jerusalem Post, January 28, 2008.
4. "Egypt to Close Rafah Sunday; Hamas Says It Will Cooperate," Jerusalem Post, February 2, 2008. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya was quoted as saying, "We have said from the days of our election campaign that we want to move toward economic disengagement from the Israeli occupation. Egypt has a greater ability to meet the needs of Gaza." Haniya's senior advisor, Ahmad Youssef, added that "Hamas has already generated plans and proposals to unite economically with Egypt instead of Israel." According to Hamas, Egypt can serve as "Gaza's gateway" to the Arab and Muslim world and as its in-depth strategic partner. Roee Nahmias, "Hamas Considering Economic Disengagement from Israel," YNET News, February 2, 2008,

5. Lt.-Col. (res.) Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi, "The Muslim Brotherhood: A Moderate Islamic Alternative to al-Qaeda or a Partner in Global Jihad?" Jerusalem Viewpoints #558, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, November 1, 2007. "The links between the Muslim Brotherhood and global terrorism were also made evident by the reception Hassan al-Turabi, a high-ranking Muslim Brother and at that time one of the heads of Sudan, provided for al-Qaeda in the early 1990s. In 1991, accepting al-Turabi's personal invitation, Osama bin Laden moved from Saudi Arabia to Sudan and established a terrorist network there. In addition, al-Turabi founded the Popular Arab and Islamic Conference, some of whose members were the PLO, Hamas, Hizbullah, al-Qaeda, and the Egyptian Jihad. The Conference met in April 1991, December 1993, and March 1995. In August 1993, in the wake of the attack on the World Tra de Center, the United States included Sudan in its designated list of terrorism-sponsoring states." -Qaeda_or_a_Partner_in_Global_Jihad?
6. Dore Gold, "Ties between al-Qaeda and Hamas in Mideast Are Long and Frequent," San Francisco Chronicle, March 5, 2006,
7. Israeli Channel Two television news, January 27, 2008.
8. Avi Issacharoff and Barak Ravid, "Officials: Israel Won't Let Gaza Border Breach Threaten Security," Ha'aretz, January 28, 2008.
9. Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, January 29, 2008,
10. See terrorism Center brief here. See also "Diskin: Gaza Breach Allowed Influx of Advanced Armament," Jerusalem Post, February 3, 2008.
11. Lt.-Col. (res.) Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi, "The Growing Hamas/Al-Qaeda Connection, Jerusalem Issue Brief, v. 7, no. 1, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, May 17, 2007. See also "Leaflets of Al-Qaeda-Affiliate Found in Looted American School in Gaza," Ha'aretz, January 15, 2008.
12. See here
13. "Gaza: Why and What to Do About It," Jewish Institute for National Security Studies, Report #740, January 24, 2008.
14. An IDF force checking a truck carrying humanitarian aid (flour, sugar, etc.) about to go through the Kerem Shalom crossing into the Gaza Strip found two tons of dual-purpose fertilizer, also used in the manufacture of explosives for rockets and bombs. It was not the first time that the terrorist organizations had tried to smuggle explosives into the Gaza Strip by disguising them as humanitarian aid. See "News of the Israeli-Palestinian Confrontation," January 9-15, 2008, Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center,
15. According to Dr. Meir Rosenne, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, who was part of the Israeli negotiating team at the 1978 Camp David Accords, in a phone interview, February 4, 2008.
* * *

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, Chairman of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs, is former commander of the IDF's National Defense College and the IDF Staff and Command College. He is also former head of the IDF's Research and Assessment Division, with special responsibility for preparing the National Intelligence Assessment. Dan Diker is Director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs and foreign policy analyst of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.



This Jerusalem Issue Brief is available online at:

http://www.jcpa.org



Dore Gold, Publisher; Yaacov Amidror, ICA Chairman; Dan Diker, ICA Director; Mark Ami-El, Managing Editor. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (Registered Amuta), 13 Tel-Hai St., Jerusalem, Israel; Tel. 972-2-561-9281, Fax. 972-2-561-9112, Email: jcpa@netvision.net.il. In U.S.A.: Center for Jewish Community Studies, 5800 Park Heights Ave., Baltimore, MD 21215; Tel. 410-664-5222; Fax 410-664-1228. Website: www.jcpa.org. © Copyright. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the Board of Fellows of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.



The Institute for Contemporary Affairs (ICA) is dedicated

to providing a forum for Israeli policy discussion and debate.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Real reason for "breaking the siege" in Gaza?

Hamas worked for months to break open the Rafah border. Are we sure they did it for humanitarian reasons?

Egypt arrests 12 Hamas planning Sinai attack

Published: 02/01/2008
Egyptian authorities arrested 12 Hamas terrorists planning an attack on Israelis in the Sinai Desert.

Israeli reports quoted Egyptian media as saying on Friday that the men, from two separate terrorist cells, were arrested with weapons and explosives near Egypt's breached border with the Gaza Strip.

They were planning attacks on Israelis who flock to the Sinai's Red Sea shore.

Hamas gunmen blew open the border last week to allow Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza Strip to leave. Israel has blockaded Gaza in a bid to stop rocket attacks on Israel's south.

Soon after the breach, Israel issued its citizens a travel warning advising against Sinai travel.

Source

Continued (Permanent Link)

The Winograd report: a bigger failure than the Second Lebanon War

This is my take on the Winograd report at ZioNation Web log.

 

Ami Isseroff

The Winograd Report on the Second Lebanon War

30.01. 2008
http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000485.html
Original content copyright by the author
Zionism & Israel Center http://zionism-israel.com

The long awaited Winograd report on the Second Lebanon War (see text of press conference on Winograd findings) has finally arrived. The suspense, if there was any, has ended, not with a bang, but a whimper. The public part of the report noted strategic failures at the military and political levels, but the report is so vaguely worded that everyone can make any claim they wish.

We should put the failure of the Second Lebanon war in context and understand its significance. Failures of individual operations are nothing new and plague every army. IDF has never been immune from such failures, from the Israel War of Independence and throughout each campaign, successful or otherwise.The political decisions made after every war have always likewise not been uniformly optimal, and the decision to go to war has sometimes been questionable. However, never before has Israel seen such a combination of failures at every level, inflated expectations, incompetent military strategy, failure to protect civilians, low morale, failure of national purpose, decisions that disregarded the value of the lives of soldiers and diplomatic and public relations bungling. The Israel government tried to match the most powerful army in the Middle East against an enemy whose main weapon is his mouth, and the mouth won.

The report itself is a continuation of the failures of the Lebanon war and the political reaction to the report is a further continuation of those failures. The report was obviously tailored to serve political interests and protect those in power, at least in the public version. The politicians are each interpreting the report in terms of their own interests. Hassan Nasrallah of the Hezbollah joined forces with Likud and other Israeli opposition leaders in claiming that the report indicates Olmert is a failure and has lost all credibility. Kadima party members insist that the report exonerates Ehud Olmert.

Continued at The Winograd Report on the Second Lebanon War

 

Continued (Permanent Link)

Anti-terorist investigator assasinated in Lebanon - what it means

Free World: Rescue Lebanon before it is too late
By: Elias Bejjani
January

A Lebanese top anti-terrorism investigator was murdered along with his escort and three other civilians in a powerful car bombing that ripped through a neighborhood of Beirut on Friday January 25/08. Maj. Wissam Eid and Aspirant Officer Ousama Mireeb, of the Internal Security Forces (ISF), were killed along with three civilians, and forty two other people were wounded. Eid was a key member of the ISF and was involved in many investigations related to terrorist bombings in Lebanon in recent years. He was involved in sensitive probes and this is a major loss for Lebanon. Eid was on his way back from a meeting of the UN commission investigating the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri when he was killed. Those who decided to murder Eid obviously feared that he had information linking them to one, if not all nine, other assassinations of members of the anti-Syrian movement. Eid had already provided the international enquiry into Hariri's murder with valuable information and this was not the first attempt on his life; two years ago a grenade was thrown at his house.

From The Lebanese Canadian Coordination Council (LCCC), we extend our warmest heartfelt condolences to the victims' families and friends who lost their
beloved ones in Lebanon on Friday, January 25/08, in the "Chevrolet heinous crime" that led to the death of Maj. Wissam Eid and Aspirant Officer Ousama Mireeb and three innocent civilians pedestrians: Joe Sarkis, Elie Fares and Alan Sandouk.

We ask Almighty God to grant all those bereaved families the needed faith, patience and solace.
We pray that the souls of all the new innocent victims rest in peace in heaven alongside with the saints and the righteous.

The identity of the perpetrators who executed this new crime against the Lebanese people, (the "Axis of Evil") is well known, as well as their destructive goals. Syrian and Iranian officials alongside with their Lebanese mercenaries, fundamentalists, militias, and Mafiosi rudely announce their venomous intentions and threats on a daily basis. Meanwhile the role of the local Lebanese tools spearheaded by "Hezbollah" in targeting Lebanese pro freedom leaders and supporters of the "Cedars Revolution", ministers, members of Parliament, clergymen, journalists and intellectuals, is exposed and extremely prominent.

Eid was targeted by the "Axis of Evil", because he played major roles in analyzing mobile telephone and e-mail contacts related to the assassinations of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri in 2005, the twin bus bombings of Ein Alaq in 2007, and the assassination of Gen. Francois Hajj, the army's chief of military operations, on Jan. 12, 2007. His work, according to ranking security officials, also managed to detect "established links" between Fatah al-Islam terrorists and Syria's intelligence apparatus. Such evidences compiled by the late Eid could help implicate Syria in the serial killings that have targeted Lebanon since Oct. 1, 2004, when Minister of Communications Marwan Hamadeh suffered serious wounds in a car bomb assassination attempt.

Many Lebanese citizens and dignitaries believe that Hezbollah is playing a major role in executing most of the assassination crimes. The Sunni Muslim Mufti of
Mount Lebanon, Sheikh Mohammed Ali Jouzou, on Saturday January 26/08, blamed the Hezbollah-led opposition for "every drop of blood that has been shed." in Lebanon. Jouzou said in a statement: "The opposition is considered responsible for every drop of blood shed on the land of Lebanon. The opposition is responsible for the victims of serial assassinations. The opposition is responsible for bombing crimes here and there." Since March 8 (2005) and the declaration of loyalty to the Syrian regime, the opposition indirectly said it approves the assassination of martyr ex-premier Rafik Hariri," Jouzou added. He noted that "March 14 leaders have been targeted, one after the other, and the threats were made from here and there by spokesmen for Hezbollah and the opposition, only to be followed by implementation, implementation of the death sentence by blowing off March 14 men. "Jouzou said attacks targeting the Army and Internal Security Forces are "sort of terror that accompanies efforts to foil all international, Arab and Lebanese initiatives and the opposition is considered responsible for them." Should we charge the opposition with high treason?" he asked. Addressing the opposition, Jouzou said: "You are conspiring against the homeland under the slogan of partnership, consensus and dialogue. You don't want partnership, you do not want consensus, you do not want dialogue." He added: "You want to kill Lebanon and you want to destroy Lebanon … for the sake of the Syrian Regime." (Naharnet/January 25/08)

The irony in Lebanon lies in the sad fact and in the bizarre status quo: Hezbollah has its mini-state and cantons inside the state of Lebanon, with its own army
which has thirty thousand missiles, its finances, jails, institutions, etc. Syria is still in control of three military bases under the Palestinian disguise, one near the capital Beirut and two others in the Bekaa Valley, adjacent to its border with Lebanon. In addition, there are 13 Palestinian refugee camps scattered all over Lebanon. These are 13 cantons and mini-states over which the Lebanese authorities have no control.

Below are two verbatim quotes from the testimony of ex Prime Minister General Michel Aoun before the US House Subcommittee on International Relations/September 18/2003. They describe exactly the ongoing Syrian destructive, criminal and terrorist role in Lebanon.

1-"Following a Syrian withdrawal (from Lebanon), it is quite conceivable that the Syrian regime will leave behind many of its instruments of terror and destruction as well as its paramilitary/intelligence apparatus. Therefore, it is imperative that a Syrian withdrawal be accompanied by a complete disarmament of all armed elements. Only the legitimate armed forces of Lebanon can be entrusted with providing security to the Lebanese people. They are certainly capable of doing so when provided with a strong political leadership duly elected by the Lebanese themselves, rather than appointed by an occupying power as is the case today. Equally important, Lebanon will need certified tribunals to investigate and bring to justice all criminals who committed war atrocities and crimes against humanity."

2-Under Syrian occupation the human rights of the Lebanese people have been systematically violated. An exhaustive description of the crimes committed by the
Syrian Regime and its goons in Lebanon would take thousands of pages and dozens of hearings. Two Lebanese presidents - both of whom can be accurately
described as unwilling to take their orders from the Syrian intimidators - were assassinated immediately upon their elections. Ambassadors, elite journalists, and political and religious figures from all denominations who dared to oppose Syria were kidnapped, tortured, imprisoned, and/or assassinated. And this is in addition to the tens of thousands of Lebanese who perished in countless massacres, in months upon months of random Syrian artillery shelling of civilian areas, and in countless booby-trapped and bombed cars.

N.B: It so sad to learn that Aoun, who is now an MP and after his return to Lebanon from exile in 2005, has negated all his patriotic and pro Lebanese stances, and joined the Syrian-Iranian, Hezbollah axis of Evil.

Who stands behind all the crimes that Lebanon has been encountering for the last three years? With no shred of doubt, and without any kind of hesitation, one can freely say: Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and their Lebanese-Palestinian local armed tools-instruments are fully accountable for each and every assassination crime that took place in Lebanon since 2005.

We strongly believe that the Lebanese Government, Lebanon's security bodies, judicial authorities and all its other institutions are currently unable to either deter or abort the Axis of Evil's serial organized and systematic killings of Lebanese patriotic leaders, nor to put an end to its destructive scheme targeting the country's
institutions, freedoms, democracy, stability and peace.

The government's failure lies in the fact that Hezbollah and the other Lebanese-Palestinian armed mercenaries of Iran and Syria are hindering all local, regional and international peaceful initiatives, endeavors and civilized plans.

In the face of this organized and intentional evil deadlock that Lebanon and its people are facing alone, we call on the Free World democratic countries, the moderate Arab countries, the United Nations and the Arab League to step in militarily under a UN Security Council Chapter Seven mandate and take over Lebanon for a rehabilitation interval as was the situation in Afghanistan, East Timor, Kosovo and some African countries. It will be even more effective and deterrent if NATO forces can assume this mission and not the UN.

Meanwhile an international probe and court needs to be set as soon as possible to put on trial all countries, especially Syria and Iran, as well as Lebanese individuals and groups that are hindering through crime and murder the Lebanese government and the Lebanese people from reclaiming their peace, independence, security and sovereignty.

The whole world ought to be cautioned that letting Lebanon be an easy prey for the "Axis of Evil" and its armed tools to devour, simply means an astounding
defeat for all principles of freedom, democracy, human rights, peace and stability, not only in the Middle East, but all over the globe. We call on the
Free World to step in and rescue Lebanon and the Lebanese before it is too late.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Border policeman killed, 4 hurt in Jerusalem and W. Bank terror attacks.

Last update - 01:25 25/01/2008    

 

 Policeman killed, 4 hurt in two W. Bank terror attacks 
By Amos Harel, Yuval Azoulay, and Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondents

 

A Border Policeman was killed and a policewoman was seriously wounded in a terror shooting attack Thursday night as Palestinian gunmen fired toward the Ras Hamis checkpoint near the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem.

 

Magen David Adom emergency medical services rushed to the scene and attempted to treat the victims. The policeman was pronounced dead at the scene after efforts to resuscitate him were for naught. The policewoman was evacuated to Hadassah Hospital, Ein Karem for treatment.

 

The Palestinian news agency Maan reported that a previously unknown organization, the Return and Struggle Brigades, had claimed responsibility for the attack. The organization said it was affiliated with Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

 

 
 
In a separate incident in the Kfar Etzion settlement in the West Bank near Jerusalem, three civilians were hurt after Palestinian militants infiltrated a yeshiva in the community and began stabbing students.

 

The checkpoint at which the shooting took place served as a pedestrian crossing point between the refugee camp and the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood of Jerusalem. At the time of the shooting, the checkpoint was manned by two Border Police officers.

 

"This is a serious incident and we will do everything in order to capture the killers," Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen said. "The passages are a serious Achilles heel."

 

According to an initial report on the Kfar Etzion stabbing incident, the two assailants entered the yeshiva building, one armed with a gun and the other with a knife. They were met by a group of students and one counselor who tried to subdue the attackers. A struggle erupted at the scene and one man was moderately hurt while two others suffered light stab wounds.

 

The counselor shot and killed the two assailants.

 

Cohen added that there is no connection between the two attacks.

 

Large military forces under the command of Colonel Nir Salomon arrived on the scene to investigate the incidents. Authorities will try to piece together the sequence of events in order to figure out how two terrorists managed to enter the grounds of the yeshiva. Magen David Adom ambulances were also summoned to the area.

 

"Israel continues to wage an unending battle against Palestinian terror which is fueled by extremists and rejectionism," David Baker, an Israeli government spokesman, said in response.

 

Jerusalem District Police chief Aharon Franco announced prior to the attacks late Thursday that, in light of the escalation of hostilities along the Gaza front, security forces have raised the level of alert, particularly in the run-up to Friday prayers on the Temple Mount.

 

Franco said the circumstances of the shooting attack remain unclear, though he believes that one or more terrorists arrived at the checkpoint and opened fire in the direction of the two Border Policemen. Franco added that one of the policemen's weapons is missing.

 

The Jerusalem police chief said that the checkpoint is manned round the clock, "as required by a High Court decision in order to enable traffic to move from the Shuafat refugee camp."

 

Were the decision left to the police, Franco added, the checkpoint would not be manned at night, and pedestrian traffic would be re-routed through the Shuafat checkpoint, which is situated close to 200 meters from the checkpoint where the shooting took place.

 

According to Franco, the Ras Hamis checkpoint where the shooting occurred is more accomodating, people-friendly, and safer. Franco said dozens of people pass through the checkpoint each day.

 

"We respect all decisions made by the Supreme Court, and I have no doubt that if we need to change the way in which we man the checkpoints, we will change it," police chief Cohen said.

Source

Continued (Permanent Link)

Israel Consulate in N.Y. displays one balloon for each Qassam - 4,200 in all

Last update - 23:59 24/01/2008


Israeli mission in N.Y. displays 4,200 balloons for each Qassam

By Haaretz Service

As the United Nations Security Council deliberates over the crisis in Gaza, the Israeli Consulate in New York organized a display featuring 4,200 red balloons - each balloon symbolizing a Qassam rocket fired by Palestinians at Sderot and nearby communities since Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip - in front of UN headquarters on Thursday.

"The object of the display is to highlight the suffering of the residents of Sderot to the world," said David Saranga, the Media and Public Affairs Consul who introduced the idea. "To this day, all efforts at bringing this issue onto the U.S. media agenda have not succeeded. On the contrary, recently the coverage of the suffering of the people in Gaza has increased in the wake of Israel's measures."

Saranga said the purpose of the display is "to emphasize the incessant barrage of Qassam rockets and to call on the international community to stop ignoring what takes place in Israel."

Continued (Permanent Link)

Effect of the Gaza Breach - the point of the whole exercise

The Gaza breakout was planned by the Hamas for quite a while, and was the culmination of the entire exercise - it was the reason for the rocket attacks or one of them, and it succeeded handsomely.

 

Ami Isseroff

 

ANALYSIS: Gaza border breach shows Israel that Hamas is in charge 

By Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents

 

A few Israel Defense Forces Engineering Corps officers surely shed a tear yesterday while viewing the television reports from Rafah: The barrier built by the IDF with blood and sweat along the Philadelphi Route, on the Gaza Strip border with Egypt, was coming down.

 

It was, apparently, the final remnant of Israel's years of occupying the Strip. But Israel has better reasons to be worried by what happened yesterday. In destroying the wall separating the Palestinian and Egyptian sides of Rafah, Hamas chalked up a real coup. Not only did the organization demonstrate once again that it is a disciplined, determined entity, and an opponent that is exponentially more sophisticated than the Palestine Liberation Organization. It also took the sting out of the economic blockade plan devised by Israel's military establishment, an idea whose effectiveness was doubtful from the beginning but whose potential for international damage was not.

 

Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority are now forced to find a new joint border control arrangement, one that will probably depend on the good graces of Hamas. If the PA is indeed interested in taking responsibility for the border crossings, as Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has declared, it will have to negotiate with Hamas even though President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to avoid that at any cost. The other option - to leave the border untended - is even worse.

 

The Hamas action yesterday was anything but spontaneous. It was another stage in the campaign that began in Gaza's night of darkness on Sunday. As Gaza was plunged into widely televised blackness, Palestinian children armed with candles were brought out on a protest march and organized into prime-time demonstrations in support of the Egyptian and Jordanian branches of the Muslim Brotherhood.

 

On Tuesday, Hamas put together a violent demonstration that ended in a confrontation with Egyptian police officers at the border, and, as usual, broadcast live on Al-Jazeera. Apparently it was enough to make Egypt lose its appetite for confrontation.

 

Yesterday, tens of thousands of people burst through to the west. President Hosni Mubarak explained that he instructed his police officers not to block the hungry on their way to grocery stores in El-Arish and the Egyptian side of Rafah.

 

Mubarak also had to contend with domestic politics. The violent suppression of the Palestinian masses would have turned up the tension between him and the Muslim Brotherhood, or Al-Jazeera. More than a few Arab commentators now see the Qatar-based satellite channel as the superpower of the Arab world. In many cases its broadcasts clearly promote an Islamic agenda.

 

Explosions were set at 20 points along the border fence, clear evidence of a campaign that was planned and coordinated well in advance. Israeli intelligence officials will have to explain, to themselves and the country's leaders, whether and how the preparations took place without their knowledge - another Gaza goof, in the wake of the Hamas election victory in January 2006 and the rapid military drubbing it gave Fatah in the Strip last June.

 

Most of the Gazans who crossed into Egypt are expected to return home within a few days, after stocking up on staples and meeting with relatives they have not seen for years. Meanwhile, Egyptian security forces set up dozens of checkpoints to prevent the Gazans from spreading into other areas of Sinai.

 

Source

Continued (Permanent Link)

BESA: The Middle East Axis of Destabilization

BESA: The Mideast Axis of Destabilization

Ely Karmon

Perspectives Paper No. 36, December 26, 2007

"[T]he only vital and effective axis in the region is that between Tehran and Damascus. They are the two capitals which enjoy a degree of strength and a measure of independence that allows them to remain unaffected by direct political pressure." Hizballah Voice of the Oppressed (radio station), 27 April 1991.

The "Axis of Destabilization" in the Middle East

The Iran-Syria-Hizballah-Hamas alliance has acted during the last 15 years as an "axis of destabilization" in the Middle East, achieving major strategic victories at the expense of moderate Arab states, and US, European, and Israeli interests.

The Damascus regime, weakened by the withdrawal of its army from Lebanon and international pressure after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, still maintains a firm grip on the Sunni majority population at home, plays a strong hand in Lebanon, and supports radical Palestinian groups.

With Syrian support, Hizballah (Tehran's closest ally) has become a state-within-a-state potentially able to become Lebanon's arbiter if not actual ruler. Syria is actively involved in the destabilization of the Palestinian arena and has a growing role in supporting the Shi'a anti-American forces in Iraq. Iran also flexes its muscle in the Iraq arena, as most of Iraq's territory and major oil resources are controlled by Shi'a movements with historic and ideological links to the Tehran regime.

The "Axis" significantly influences Israel's relations with its neighbors. The inconclusive results of the Second Lebanon War of July-August 2006 and the continuous bombing of Israeli cities and villages from Gaza have diminished Israel's deterrence versus Hizballah, Hamas, Iran and Syria. Similarly, the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, despite the Annapolis gathering, is essentially paralyzed. Hamas is in control of the Gaza Strip, threatens the Fatah-controlled West Bank, and is able to derail any negotiation in the peace process by terrorist attacks.

An Unnatural Alliance: What Makes it Work?

The alliance should hardly function due to Sunni-Shi'a historical rivalries:

1. Iran's Shi'a theocratic regime allied with Syria's Baathist secular "socialist" regime, a country where some 80 percent of the population is Sunni.
2. Syria's Baathist secular regime cooperated with a Shi'a radical Islamist movement, Hizballah, while the natural ally of Syria in Lebanon is the Shi'a Amal secular organization.
3. The Palestinian Hamas, a branch of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is allied with Iran's Shi'a theocratic regime.
4. The Palestinian Hamas is allied with Syria's Baathist secular regime, which killed some 20,000 Syrian MB members in 1982.
5. The Sunni Palestinian Hamas cooperated with the Shi'a Hizballah (in the Palestinian Authority and in Lebanon, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live) while in Iraq the Sunni and Shi'a radicals fight each other ferociously.

This alliance works because of the strong religious ideologies that shape the strategy of three of the actors: Iran, Hizballah and Hamas. The Tehran regime, based on the revolutionary doctrine of Ayatollah Khomeini, has implemented its creed through an aggressive strategy after silencing all internal dissent. The apocalyptical overtone of Mahdism in its leadership circles makes this ideology even more dangerous. Hizballah, as proven by its covenant and the open declarations and deeds of its leaders, closely follows the religious ideology and the strategy of export of the Khomeini revolution. Hamas, as a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest Sunni Islamist movement, sees jihad as a general duty of all Muslims and is the only MB group involved in systematic warfare against Israel and "world Zionism." Different from the other three, Syria is still driven by Pan-Arabism and the concept of Greater Syria.

The alliance has a strong determined leader: Iran. The country serves as the conductor of the "quartet." Iran, a major regional power, has a leadership with a regional hegemonic vision, a huge oil resource, a large army, and an advanced military industry. Most importantly, Iran is to acquire a nuclear arsenal.

The alliance has succeeded in obtaining most of its objectives because its members have no moral constraints in using terrorism and subversion against their adversaries, challenging the same major enemies: the United States as a global and regional power but also as epitome of Western liberal values; Europe as a democratic bloc; Israel; and Iraq until Saddam Hussein's removal from power. At the same time they have displayed tactical pragmatism and skills of manipulating leaders of great powers and heads of international organizations.

The US, Europe and Israel Didn't Challenge the Alliance

However, the victories of this alliance are not only the result of the robust and durable cooperation between its four members, but also in great measure the consequence of the US, European and Israeli leaderships' lack of strategic vision and political courage.

The United States and France (the major European country challenged by the axis) did not inflict any serious damage on Iran and its operational arm Hizballah, for the long series of terrorist attacks against their citizens, soldiers and interests. Nor has Syria paid a real price for the direct and indirect support to Iranian and Hizballah anti-Western terrorism. Not only has Iran not suffered any consequences for 20 years of lying about its nuclear program, but the West is still willing to offer ever-greater incentives, strengthening Iran's leaders' sense of self-confidence that they can achieve nuclear military capability.

The West has forced Bashar al-Asad to withdraw the Syrian army from Lebanon, but it has stopped short of endangering his regime at home or curtailing his influence in Lebanon. The continuous political killings there are designed to intimidate those working courageously to end Syria's interference in Lebanon's internal affairs.

Since 1982, Israel has permitted Syria to support Hizballah attacks and Palestinian proxy against its territory. Israeli leaders did not have the courage to challenge Damascus. Even during the July-August 2006 War, when Hamas leader Khaled Mashal was running the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier from Damascus and Syria continued to provide heavy military hardware and ammunition to Hizballah, the Israeli government sent the message that it had no intention to bother Syria.

By giving Hizballah the credit for the Israeli disgraceful withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, by permitting its consolidation as a state-within-a-state and the building of a small modern guerrilla-army, the various Israeli governments have preferred tactical political gains at home to real strategic long-term interests. In the 2006 war in Lebanon, Israel paid a high price not only in human lives and material damage, but also in its regional standing and its deterrent power versus its enemies.

The Israeli leadership also failed to recognize the real long-term goals of Yasser Arafat when signing the Oslo agreements and did not challenge his double game, which led to the violent Second Intifada.

Moreover, the United States and the West permitted Hamas, a terrorist organization committed to the destruction of the Jewish state, to take over the government in the Palestinian Authority through democratic elections.

The Threat of a Nuclear Iran

The dangerous destabilizing effect of the Iran-Syria-Hizballah-Hamas alliance on the Middle East and beyond and the leadership role of the Tehran regime in this coalition place the prevention of the Iranian nuclear military program as first priority for the international community.

The US, the international community and Israel face a daunting challenge: how to prevent a nuclear Iran. After 20 years of futile diplomatic dialogue and a year of mild international sanctions, three options remain: severe economic sanctions, military operation against the Iranian nuclear facilities, or laissez faire tactics that allow the Iranians to achieve their goal and devise a deterrent strategy for the future.

As a global power, the Bush Administration needs to find a grand strategic compromise with Russia to display a common front against Iran and thus considerably enhance the success of the sanctions. Russia could have a crucial role in convincing the ayatollahs of the seriousness of their situation. Russia has redefined the limits of its nuclear cooperation with Iran: it has halted Russian work on the construction of the Bushehr nuclear reactor and is procrastinating in transferring the nuclear fuel required for its activation. However, in light of the growing tension between the US and Russia on important strategic issues, such as the building of the missile defense system in Poland and the radar station in the Czech Republic or the expansion of NATO into the old Eastern Bloc on Russia's western border, President Putin is less willing to cooperate on the Iranian file.

There is the possibility to isolate Tehran by breaking the alliance with Syria, which is key in isolating and disarming Hizballah and reducing the influence of radical Palestinians on the peace process with Israel. Israel cannot defeat Hizballah if it does not occupy most of Lebanon, which it is reluctant to do. Therefore, the best way to change the equation in Lebanon is to challenge Syria. The carrots the European leaders proposed President Bashar al-Asad have not convinced him to join the moderate Arab camp. These incentives should perhaps be improved, but the stick should be waved higher. Currently, there is no reasonable hope that negotiations or economic sanctions can turn Tehran's rulers away from the dream of great-power status and Islamic revolution.

Iran and the Alliances' Retaliation Capabilities

In the case of a US or Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, Iran and the alliance can retaliate in force. Iran could stage an immediate missile counterattack on Israel and on US bases in the Persian Gulf with its 500 Shihab ballistic missiles, with ranges varying from 300 to 2,000 kilometers and capable of carrying warheads of up to 1,000 kg.

Iran can also retaliate against energy targets in the Gulf and the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. Ayatollah Khamenei warned the US that "if the Americans make a wrong move toward Iran, the shipment of energy will definitely be in danger, and the Americans will not be able to protect energy supplies in the region." Consequently, oil prices would increase dramatically.

One of the strongest cards against the United States is Iran's capacity for wreaking havoc in Iraq and provoking a confrontation between US troops and the Shi'a majority. Tehran has already activated this option; currently it is on a low burner. The regime is also preparing an army of suicide bombers to be sent to Iraq, on the model of the Basij suicide soldiers used in the Iraq-Iran war.

Hizballah will be the main tool to attack Israeli territory with rockets and guerrilla commandos. Iran and Syria have rearmed the organization and Nasrallah boasted that Hizballah has 20,000 rockets. Iran can target Israeli and Jewish targets abroad, as it did in 1992 and 1994 in Buenos Aires. As for the Palestinians, Khaled Mashal declared that "if Israel attacks Iran, then Hamas will widen and increase its confrontation of Israelis inside Palestine."

A US or Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites could enhance the appeal of extremism in the Muslim world, at the expense of the moderates. It would be perceived by Muslims worldwide as another assault on Islam, as was the case in Iraq and in Lebanon. The promised retaliation by Iran must be taken very seriously.

A Nuclear Iran?

There is also no doubt that a nuclear Iran would provoke nuclear proliferation throughout the Middle East, as already hinted at by Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

A recent collective study by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy investigating the challenges posed by deterring a nuclear Iran in the case diplomacy might not succeed suggests that deterring Iran might prove much more difficult than deterring Russia during the Cold War, because of the nature of the regime in Tehran, the regional security environment, and the challenges of coalition formation. Moreover, Iran's nuclear weapons could be controlled by some of the most radical elements in the regime and some of these weapons might find their way into the hands of terrorists.

A nuclear Iran will strengthen the radicalization/Islamization process. In Iraq, at least in Shi'a-controlled areas, the potential for radicalization/Islamization could quickly materialize and result in a more bloody sectarian war involving neighboring Sunni countries. This could be a major step in the formation of the dreaded Shi'a Crescent. In Lebanon, Hizballah would have an influence on accelerating a more radical population. The process of radicalization/Islamization in Palestine, which begun by the takeover of Gaza by Hamas, would also be accelerated, with immediate influence on the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamist groups in Egypt and Jordan and even the Islamist movement in Israel.

A nuclear Iran, with Hizballah and Iraqi Shi'a radicals' support, could open a new front in the Gulf countries by inciting the Shi'as who live in the oil rich provinces in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, the UAE and Yemen, to revolt against their governments.

Similarly, a nuclear Tehran would be tempted to spread its revolutionary message towards the Muslim republics in Central Asia and in Turkey.

There is No Happy End in Sight!

President Bush said that the international community must keep pressuring Iran to give up its nuclear weapons program. To this end, the US is working with allies to send a consistent message to the Iranians. Bush has not ruled out the possible use of force against Iran, but believes it is still possible to resolve the dispute diplomatically. This is true even after the release of the recent US National Intelligence Estimate.

Israel's air raid on Syria on September 6, 2007 has broken the immunity of the Damascus regime without provoking a European or Arab outcry. Israel should decide on a more forceful Syrian strategy, based on the Turkish example of 1998 (and 2007), and seek US and European support for it. Israel's air raid also proved that if a country does act against a clear and present danger, the Muslim world will not erupt. Moreover, Iranian aspirations should be viewed in proper proportion. Iran is not an international superpower and it has its own domestic, economic and military vulnerabilities.

If the military option is the last resort, it is imperative to dissuade the Tehran regime from retaliation. Ex-French President Jacques Chirac gave the example when he said that France was prepared to launch a nuclear strike against any country that sponsors a terrorist attack against French interests. "The leaders of states who would use terrorist means against us, as well as those who would envision using . . . weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and fitting response on our part."

The US, the European Union and Israel have the duty to protect their citizens and interests, as well as those of their allies in the Middle East. They must stand firm against the "axis of destabilization" and the apocalyptic plans of the radicals in Tehran.

Dr. Ely Karmon is a Senior Research Scholar at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Policy and Strategy at IDC. He lectures at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya and at the National Security Seminar of the Galilee College. This article is a summary of a monograph under the title "Iran - Syria - Hizballah - Hamas: A Coalition against Nature. Why does it Work?" forthcoming in the Proteus Monograph Series Fellows Program, US War Academy, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Hamas in the peace process

We can't say the Hamas isn't participating in the peace process, right?

 

Militants increase attempts to stab Hebron Border Police in run-up to summit

By Haaretz Staff and Channel 10 

 

Haaretz.com/Channel 10 daily feature for November 22, 2007.

 
Hebron Border Police have reported a sharp rise in incidents of attempted, and successful, stabbing attacks by Palestinians on its forces in the last two weeks.

 

The security establishment believes the increased number of terror bids in Hebron, a city holy to both Jews and Muslims, comes from a desire to foil next week's Middle East peace summit at Annapolis

 

Video here

Continued (Permanent Link)

Peace with Justice for al-Andalus!

It is clear that the Spanish occupiers will need to recognize the legitimate rights of the oppressed Muslim peoples, allow the return of refugees and full compensation. A state of al-Andalus with its capital in Seville will be the foundation of a just peace.

Ami Isseroff

Jerusalem Issue Brief

Institute for Contemporary Affairs

founded jointly at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

with the Wechsler Family Foundation

Vol. 7, No. 16 11 October 2007

Al-Qaeda: The Next Goal Is to Liberate Spain from the Infidels

Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi

• Large parts of the Iberian Peninsula were under Islamic rule from 711
  until 1492, with the final eviction of the Moors from what they called
  al-Andalus, and the memory of Islamic rule in Spain has become increasingly
  part of the discourse in radical Islam.
• 
  Osama bin Laden has written: "We request of Allah...that the [Islamic]
  nation should regain its honor and prestige, should raise again the unique
  flag of Allah on all stolen Islamic land, from Palestine to Andalus." Bin
  Laden's mentor, Abdullah Azzam, established that the Islamic obligation to
  wage jihad in order to recover lost Islamic territories applies to Andalusia.
• 
  Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, the spiritual head of the Muslim Brotherhood, has
  written that while Islam was twice evicted from Europe - from al-Andalus and
  from Greece - it is now in the process of returning.
• 
  A children's magazine published by Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the
  Muslim Brotherhood, called on Palestinian children to restore the city of
  Seville to Islamic rule as well as the rest of what was once Islamic Spain.
  [...]

Al-Qaeda Recalls Islamic Rule in Spain

Historically, large parts of the Iberian Peninsula were under Islamic rule
from 711 until 1492, with the final eviction of the Moors from what they
called al-Andalus. Despite the passage of over five hundred years, the memory
of Islamic rule in Spain has become increasingly part of the discourse in
radical Islamic circles.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy of Osama bin Laden in the al-Qaeda leadership, in
a new tape publicized on 20 September 2007, referred to the global aspirations
of the Islamic Revolution:

O, our Muslim nation in the Maghreb [North Africa], zone of deployment for
battle and jihad! The return of Andalus [today's Spain] to Muslim hands is a
duty for the [Islamic] nation in general and for you in particular. You will
not be able to achieve this except by purifying the Islamic Maghreb of the
French and the Spanish who have once again returned, after your fathers and
grandfathers had expelled them unsparingly in the way of Allah.

Earlier, in December 2006, al-Zawahiri made a passing reference to "Spain's
occupation of Ceuta and Melilla," two small enclaves on the North African
coast that are under Spanish sovereignty.

This is not the first time al-Qaeda leaders have referred to the Iberian
Peninsula as occupied Muslim territory to which the commandment of jihad
applies until it is liberated and Islamic rule is imposed there. On 29
September 1994, Osama bin Laden wrote to Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Baz, the Grand
Mufti of Saudi Arabia: "All in all, we request of Allah...that the [Islamic]
nation should regain its honor and prestige, should raise again the unique
flag of Allah on all stolen Islamic land, from Palestine to Andalus, as well
as Islamic lands that were lost because of the treachery of leaders and the
helplessness of the Muslims."1

This view is deeply embedded in the thinking of those Islamist leaders who
served as an ideological wellspring for al-Qaeda. Bin Laden's mentor, Abdullah
Azzam, established that the Islamic obligation to wage jihad in order to
recover lost Islamic territories applies to al-Andalus.2

Sheikh Safar al-Hawali, who was one of the most powerful Islamist preachers
in Saudi Arabia, wrote a letter to President George W. Bush on October 15,
2001 - after the 9/11 attacks - in which he explained: "Imagine Mr. President,
we still weep over Andalusia and remember what Ferdinand and Isabella did
there to our religion, culture and honor! We dream of regaining it."3

It should not be surprising that these repeated references in jihadist
circles to al-Andalus have had an impact on how new al-Qaeda affiliates have
defined their long-term goals. These groups do not work in a vacuum; the Saudi
Gazette reported in March 2005 that there are four million descendents of
refugees from Muslim Spain currently living in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.
In Morocco, the fall of Granada and al-Andalus is commemorated by many of
these descendents.4

The theme of al-Andalus appears among jihadi organizations in a variety of
ways. In a January 2007 speech, Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, the commander of the
Algerian Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC), addressed Algerian
Muslims as the grandchildren of Tariq bin Ziyad, who crossed the Straits of
Gibraltar in 711 with an Islamic army and conquered most of the Iberian
Peninsula.5 GSPC cells have been known to have operated across Spain in the
last number of years.

More recently, in June 2007, Islamist websites announced the establishment
of "Ansar al-Islam in the Muslim Sahara, Land of the Veiled Ones."6 The
organization promised to win back al-Andalus, as well as declaring war on the
current North African regimes: "Our raids will not encompass just the Muslim
Sahara, but will go beyond it....Al-Andalus is before our eyes, and with
Allah's help we will take back the Land of Islam and what was plundered from
our forefathers, no matter how long this takes."7

One website announcing the formation of the group featured a map showing
"The Great Islamic Caliphate" which it sought to advance, stretching from
Spain across North Africa and the Middle East to India and Western China.

The Muslim Brotherhood Views Spain as Part of the Islamic Homeland

This view is also held by the Muslim Brotherhood, whose doctrine calls on
the Muslims of the world to rise up and unite in the struggle to liberate
parts of the "Islamic homeland" that have fallen into the hands of the
"infidels," "enemies of Allah," and "enemies of humanity." Sheikh Yusuf
Qaradawi, the spiritual head of the Muslim Brotherhood, has written that while
Islam was twice evicted from Europe - from al-Andalus and from Greece - it is
now in the process of returning.8

The fall of Andalus is mentioned in the speeches of Muslim Brotherhood
leader Muhammad Mahdi Akef in one breath with the loss of Palestine, Iraq, and
Afghanistan.9 Akef believes Islamic goals should be achieved through jihad and
armed struggle against any foreign rule that occupies Islamic land. In a
letter of 26 August 2004, Akef sets forth this strategy in detail under the
heading, "Liberating Parts of the Homeland Is an Obligation under Islamic
Law:"

[One must develop] the culture of resistance in dealing with the invasion
[of Muslim territory], and this is a culture of the occupied and oppressed
peoples, for whom Allah has permitted jihad and resistance as a means of
achieving liberation....The culture of resistance to occupation and invasion
exists on all levels: intellectual, military and economic. The experience in
Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan has proved to everyone that resistance is not
an imaginary strategy, a false option or impossible. It is a feasible option
when the will of the members of the nation is united, they reinforce each
other, and coordinate their words, weapons and faith to confront the occupier,
whether it comes with weapo ns or bombards us with its ideas, its values or
its invalid morality. 10

It should come as no surprise that two years ago a Hamas children's magazine
called on Palestinian children to restore the city of Seville to Islamic rule
as well as the rest of what was once Islamic Spain.11 According to its
charter, Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and,
therefore, reflects the parent organization's viewpoints on global issues,
like the recovery of al-Andalus.

[....]

Notes

1 http://www.alarabnews.com/alshaab/GIF/26-10-2001/Ben%20laden.htm

2 Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Radical Islam (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 2002), p. 222.

3 Patrick Sookhdeo, Understanding Islamic Terrorism (Wiltshire: Isaac
Publishing, 2004), p. 159.

4 "Saudi Daily: Andalusian Muslims Recall Mass Exodus," MEMRI Special
Dispatch Series, No. 873, March 4, 2005,

http://memri.org/bin/opener.cgi?Page=archives&ID=SP87305

5 "Speech by Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud, Commander of the Algerian Salafist
Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC)," Global Terroralert, January 3, 2007,

http://www.globalterroralert.com/pdf/0107/gspcwadoud0107.pdf

6 "The 'Ansar Al-Islam in the Muslim Sahara' Group Declares Jihad Against
the North African Regimes and Promises to Take Back Muslim Spain," MEMRI
Special Dispatch Series, No. 1653, Islamic Websites Monitor No. 118, July 3,
2007, http://memri.org/bin/opener.cgi?Page=archives&ID=SP164307

7 Ibid.

8 http://www.islamonline.net/fatwa/arabic/FatwaDisplay.asp?hFatwaID=2042

9 http://www.ikhwan.net/vb/showthread.php?+=21095

10 http://www.daawa-info.net/letter.php?id=8

11 http://www.al-fateh.net/arch/fa-66/ana.htm

12 Aaron Hanscom, "A Fatwa in Spain," FrontPageMagazine.com, September 4,
2006,
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID={715C1193-821F-47F0-8332-1FA10C86CEB6}

* * *

Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi is a senior researcher of the Middle East
and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He is a founder
of the Orient Research Group Ltd. and is a former advisor to the Policy
Planning Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This Jerusalem Issue Brief is available online at:

http://www.jcpa.org

Dore Gold, Publisher; Yaacov Amidror, ICA Chairman; Dan Diker, ICA Director;
Mark Ami-El, Managing Editor. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (Registered
Amuta), 13 Tel-Hai St., Jerusalem, Israel; Tel. 972-2-561-9281, Fax.
972-2-561-9112, Email: jcpa@netvision.net.il. In U.S.A.: Center for Jewish
Community Studies, 5800 Park Heights Ave., Baltimore, MD 21215; Tel.
410-664-5222; Fax 410-664-1228. Website: www.jcpa.org. © Copyright. The
opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the Board of
Fellows of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

The Institute for Contemporary Affairs (ICA) is dedicated

to providing a forum for Israeli policy discussion and debate.

To subscribe to the Jerusalem Issue Brief list, please send a blank email
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Continued (Permanent Link)

The Jewish worriers - Open letter to Larry Derfner & Maurice Ostroff about God's Warriors and their correspondence

Dear Larry and Maurice,
I have followed your correspondence regarding the now notorious CNN film as best I could, and tried to make sense of all of it.

Larry Derfner wrote:

But on the subject of the Israeli-Arab conflict, you are, according to my definition, a hardline right-winger. I say that because your view, or at least your stated view, of the conflict is that in 100% of the disputes between Israel and the Arabs, Israel is 100% and the Arabs are 100% wrong.

This is a continuation of the sort of argument you used in your article, is it not? "It is right wing, and therefore it is wrong." Serious analysts don't base arguments on calling names. Leave that to Stalin in the sessions of the Politburo. It doesn't matter if Maurice is an agent of the reactionary kulaks, a right-deviationist, a wrecker of the five year plan or a left deviationist. It doesn't matter if CAMERA is composed of third-temple fanatics or A.N.S.W.E.R. advocates. What matters is the logic of their criticism.

If Maurice is a hardline right-winger, then what might Benjamin Netanyahu be? You don't seem to have much gradation in your scale. Such distinctions are usually the mark of superficial minds that want to substitute labeling for analysis, and to dismiss uncomfortable and inconvenient facts by painting them with the stigma of "wrong opinion" or "not PC." Churchill was a "hard line right winger" but he was right about Nazism, and his opponents were wrong. They got away with discrediting him for many years just by using labels like "war monger."

There are some simple propositions that are central to our problems: Settlements are wrong, terrorism is wrong, and Jihadist fanaticism is a danger to civilization of all types. It is hard to make all three statements without being labeled a leftist self-hating Jew and a traitor by one group, an Islamophobic neocon by the other side, and a Zionist war monger to boot. I happen to hold all three beliefs. I don't know where that puts me on the Larry Derfner political scale, and I don't care either. Until we get all those self-serving fools and fanatics out of the room, we cannot have a real discussion.

Propositions have to be considered independently of who is saying them, and independently of other ideological baggage they might bring with them. You need to learn to stick to the issues, and to teach your readers to think rather than to lob labels at each other like grenades. If Aumann or Haniyeh say that the Sun is shining, then the way to prove if they are right or wrong is to look out the window, rather than arguing about whether they are right-wingers or left-wingers. Forgive me for saying that it is an embarrassing and juvenile sort of argument. It may sell newspapers. You are in business to do that. But it makes heat, and not light.

The gab-fest benefits the film itself, because any publicity is good publicity, and it benefits the organizations who are dumping on the film, and who will get more donations from their loyal followers. It does nothing to advance either truth or the cause of Israel, regardless of whether these are the same or different. No neutral or anti-Israel person is going to be convinced by CAMERA or Honest Reporting, and there is no way to ascertain the facts without seen the film and doing the research. Reading these reviews adds nothing. I know who Osama Bin Laden is and I know what he wants. I don't need Honest Reporting or Christianne Anampour to tell me. By now I suspect that only about three dozen people care about that film. It was just another bit of vacuous entertainment with no more truth value (maybe less) than an episode of The Shield or House, and less entertainment value. Discussing it gives it publicity.

The last time there was a similar dustup it was about Spielberg's film, Munich. Reading the criticism of Jewish organizations, I thought that Spielberg must have joined the PLO or maybe the Hamas. Then I saw the film, which was largely sympathetic to Israel and the Zionist cause, and portrayed humanistic and humanitarian Zionists tortured by the necessity of killing, contrasted with fanatic and one-dimensional Arabs. I have learned not to trust the moral standards and aesthetic and professional judgements of these organizations and to form my own judgement.

That said, any film that shows, at the same time, and as part of the same problem, the Jihadist threat along with Zionist and Christian extremists, is showing a lie. Nobody disputes that Amanpour does that. There is a difference between a movement that is morally wrong and theoretically a problem, and a political movement that is an active problem and a clear and present danger. Anti-abortionist fanatics and third temple builders are not my favorite people, but they haven't yet the power or the announced intention to destroy Western civilization. They are not a danger of the same order of magnitude as Al-Qaeda and other Jihadist extremists. There is no way to make Baruch Goldstein into Osama Bin Laden, or to turn Mr. Hagee into the equivalent of Ahmadinejad. Hagee doesn't run a state. He isn't building an atom bomb, and he hasn't declared the intention to make a world without anyone. Goldstein and his friends and supporters represent a morally reprehensible cause. Fortunately there are not a lot of them, and they have no power. They are not a threat to the United States, Western Civilization or Israel. Not yet. The proposition that Bin Laden has something to do with Israeli settlements is intellectual rubbish. Bin Laden's last message didn't even mention Israel. Some people don't want to admit what the real problem is. There is no reason to assist them in their self-delusion.

Larry wrote:

But the question she raises is, if the settlements are a bad thing (a point of view she supports with factual material), and every U.S. government has spoken against them to some degree, why doesn't the U.S. back up its sentiments with action - by pressuring Israel monetarily and politically to stop building settlements? And her answer is: because of the Israel lobby.

But the question I raise, is what do settlements have to do with Islamist fundamentalism in Afghanistan or the price of hay in China? Just because Bin Laden may say it is an issue, doesn't mean it is so. Bin Laden and his followers are not against settlements in the West Bank. They are against the existence of Israel. Just because Jack Kelley wrote that settlements are due to the activities of religious fanatics, doesn't make it so either. The evil of Jim Crow in the United States did not justify, and was not equivalent to, the evil of Stalinism in the USSR. Some people did equate them. It is clear now that they were as wrong as those who equated Stalin and Hitler and insisted that the US and Britain should stay out of World War II.

In any case, a lot of very unreligious people support those settlements. So what is the point? What is the connection to God's Warriors?

Bin Laden and his friends are also against loose morals in women, such as allowing divorce and parading about without a Hijab. So what? Why should this issue even be raised? Who cares what these people claim they support? Their "issues" are all just excuses for taking power by violent means.

And the other question I raise is, if the Israel Lobby is so all-powerful as you and Mearsheimer and Walt and Amanpour pretend, then why hasn't the US taken an unequivocally pro-Israel stance on so many critical issues for Israel, even when Israel is clearly in the right (that happens too sometimes)? How do they screw us? Let us count the ways:

- Boycott - United States continues to do business with Gulf and other countries that maintain primary boycotts of Israel, and the US keeps making believe it doesn't happen.

- Israel's right to exist - US does business with, and supports, numerous regimes that deny and have denied the right of Israel to exist.

- Refugee problem - the perpetuation of the Palestinian refugee problem and the entire mechanism of UNRWA is possible only because of the support of the United States and its allies. No other group of refugees is treated in the same way as Palestinian refugees. An entire mechanism, funded by generous contributions of US and European taxpayers, has been created solely to perpetuate the conflict and the misery of the refugees. The United States has never lifted a finger to change this reality, never threatened to cut off support to the UN, never tried to cajole allies into changing the status of UNRWA.

- Jerusalem - the United States, despite the efforts of the vaunted Israel lobby, does not recognize even West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Congressional resolutions, promises of Presidential candidates, all avail nothing.

It may not suit either AIPAC nor Mearsheimer and Walt and their friends to admit it, but the effectiveness of the Israel lobby is close to zero. The US government does what it sees fit to do, and then justifies it in terms of support for Israel, or not.

Concerning the legality or illegality of settlements, it is a red herring issue, Maurice. You have to decide whether you want to fight Islamism with clean hands or defend settlements. You cannot have both. By raising this issue, you are playing right into the hands of those who want to equate Israeli actions with those of Osama Bin Laden. The whole settlement issue simply didn't belong in a documentary of that type, and its presence there is bizarre. The Tal lawthat exempts Ultraorthodox Jews from the draft is also wrong, and it is religiously motivated, but that doesn't have much to do with Jihadism either.


Ami Isseroff
Posted at Israel News

Continued (Permanent Link)

An open letter to Christiane Amanpour

 

An open letter  to Christiane Amanpour From Maurice Ostroff

August 26, 2007

Dear Christiane Amanpour

God's Warriors

Your mammoth three-part documentary "God's Warriors" is certainly a magnum opus. And while I admire the sheer professionalism of your presentation, I do hope you will accept the following comments in the constructive manner intended.

Please correct me if I err, but the program creates the impression that you do not see Islamic fundamentalist violence as more serious a threat than enthusiastic, or even zealous devotion to Judaism or Christianity.

This impression is confirmed by your responses to comments posted on CNN web site. For example in response to Regina Bowling of Charleston, who said she believes we are watching the gathering up of energy worldwide in the form of religious intolerance for the "perfect storm" of global holy war, you replied that you don't see right now the potential for global holy war. This despite 9/11, the London bombings and attempted bombings and other glaring incidents including the world-wide violence that erupted in the Danish Cartoon episode

The program also creates the impression that you believe there is no difference between God's Jewish, Muslim and Christian Warriors and that the Moral Majority and Evangelists are as dangerous as Islamic Fundamentalists. This was confirmed when you replied to Ms. Bowling that as long as people believe that only their holy book [Koran, Torah or Bible] or only their holy word matters and is relevant, then there will be no solution. (Words in parenthesis are mine).

It was disappointing to find in a purportedly objective program that you injected your own views, demonstrating occasional lack of knowledge. For example when an Israeli settler said God says Jews must live in Hebron, you interjected that the West Bank was designated by the UN to be the largest part of an Arab state.  Not only is this statement factually incorrect, it is out of context. May I ask whether you are aware that all Arab states rejected UN partition resolution 181 and that the West Bank was included in the area designated for encouragement of Jewish settlement by the Balfour Declaration and even endorsed in article 6 of the British mandate.

In retrospect I hope you will agree that the use of the very few isolated incidents of Jewish terror attempts over the past 15 years, created the erroneous impression that a religious Jewish terror movement exists on a par with the violent worldwide jihadist phenomenon of indiscriminate death and destruction.  Objectivity would require that you draw attention to the enormous difference between Islamic states which encourage terror and Israel which acts vigorously against attempts to engage in terror and where those very few Jews who did make attempts have been severely punished.

The relevance of God's Warriors to the so-called Jewish lobby in the USA is flimsy indeed.  It is difficult to accept your objectivity when you allow Jimmy Carter and Professor Mearsheimer to promote their controversial books that have been criticized by experts for blatant inaccuracies, without offering a balanced viewpoint from someone like Alan Dershowitz.

Surely you, of all people know that the Jewish Lobby is but one of dozens of diverse influential lobbies, including the ACLU and the very powerful, well-funded Arab lobbies that are part of the Washington scene.

Your repeated references to settlements as illegal are open to valid criticism. Obviously the most reliable sources from whom to seek clarification are the persons who played key roles in drafting the relevant resolution 242, namely British Ambassador to the UN, Lord Caradon, American Ambassador, Arthur Goldberg and US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Eugene Rostow. All have agreed that settlements are legal. In an interview in the Beirut Daily Star on June 12, 1974, Lord Caradon stated:  "It would have been wrong to demand that Israel return to its positions of June 4, 1967 because these positions were undesirable and artificial".

Professor Julius Stone, one of the twentieth century's leading authorities on the Law of Nations concurred that the Jewish right of settlement in the territories is equivalent in every way to the right of the existing Palestinian population to live there.

What must deeply concern everyone interested in maintaining Western democracy is the danger that this widely advertised documentary diverts attention from the real threat of Jihad, by equating it with non-violent religious movements.

Sorely missing from the entire series is any mention of the basic motivator of Islamic violence, the incitement to hatred emanating from state media as well as openly from mosques, not only in Arab countries but under the noses of European and British governments. As human beings, can we be unperturbed by the indoctrination of infants to become suicidal Warriors as shown in an interview with a three-and-a-half year old girl broadcast on Iqra? See video clip at http://tinyurl.com/kz5of

It is sad that in your documentary which could serve to create a genuine better understanding of the violence generated by religious zealotry, the authoritative voices of many experts in the field were omitted.

Among the many who would have added authoritative insight into the subject are Brigitte Gabriel, who lectures nationally and internationally about terrorism and who has issued an Urgent Warning to the West, Professor Salim Mansur the Muslim writer and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario, Steven Emerson the internationally recognized expert on militant Islamic terrorism and national security and Dr. Khaleel Mohammed, the Islamic law specialist and professor of Religion at San Diego State University.

....

Your considered response would be appreciated.

Maurice Ostroff

Continued (Permanent Link)

Avram Burg: always interesting, not always right

A Chinese curse: "May you lead an interesting life." Avram Burg is always interesting, because he makes sure to be interesting. Let's face it, unless you make noisy and atrocious statements, you cannot attract much publicity for matters related to Judaism, Zionism, etc. B*O*R*I*N*G.

 

Therefore Burg tries not to bore us. Avram Burg is the P.T. Barnum of Jewish affairs, or he is trying to be. If he is not comparing Zionists to Nazis, he is comparing Ahmed Yassin to orthodox rabbis. In Time to attack he calls for war against fanatics essentially. "Death to all fanatics," quoth Burg, in particular orthodox fanatics of all different religions. He is willing to take a gratuitous swipe at evangelical Christians (or his idea of evangelical beliefs) as well as orthodox Jewish fanatics. The essence of his argument:

 

There is no theological difference between certain rabbis from Hebron, the former Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and the evangelical preacher hoping for Armageddon at the site of our Megiddo. Those who say that "God's law is first" are no different from one another, whether they wear a rabbi's skullcap, Hezbollah's turban or the cloak of a North American spiritual leader. They are all engaged in a cruel battle against me. They are the enemies of freedom and democracy, and are hostile to liberty, equality and the status of women.

It is remarkably like what I wrote in Soldiers who refuse orders. But Burg is also wrong. There are two or three differences between Ahmed Yassin and the hypothetical evangelical preacher hoping for Armageddon:

 

1- Ahmed Yassin was willing to use, and did use, violent methods to secure his goals. Thus far, only one or two deranged people tried to use violent methods to bring about the Christian Armageddon.

 

2- Yassin wanted to kill me. People like John Hagee want to defend me. From my subjective point of view, that is a very different goal.

 

2- Like many orthodox Jews, Burg has a stereotyped view of Christian supporters of Israel. He thinks, apparently, that all evangelicals are supporters of Israel, and he thinks that all people who believe in Armageddon want to bring it on actively by committing violent acts. These are all misconceptions about Christian Zionism.

 

Burg starts out to answer the same question that I answered in Soldiers who refuse orders:

 

The latest equation bridges between draft-dodgers and the soldiers who refuse to evacuate homes in Hebron. On the face of it, we have draft-dodgers - the left-wing bleeding hearts from greater Tel Aviv - and evacuation refuseniks - nationalistic and idealistic, but "a little" too extreme, too patriotic and too religious. And we are in the middle: We live outside Tel Aviv, but not in Hebron; we want peace but are not prepared to pay the Arabs the price. Instead of being flooded with concern over the fanatics and rabbis who have penetrated the fabric of Israeli statehood like cancerous cells, we have created an equation. We were furious for two days, we condemned them - and we went on our merry way. Everything is balanced, thank God.

But Burg has a different answer. He gives a free, blanket pass to all draft evaders, it seems, but a blanket condemnation of all right wing protest:

 

After the waves of demagoguery, spin and media opportunism have passed, it will become clear that this equation is extremely dangerous, because it releases us from dealing with this country's unruly elements. The more we ignore the cancer of rabbinical nationalism, the closer and more concrete the mortal danger is. The real equation is between the refuseniks of Hebron and their foundation in Torah - and Hamas, Hezbollah, Christian fundamentalists and their fanatic brethren.

And after that, he never mentions the leftist refuseniks again. I agree that protest that is not anchored in democracy is dangerous. But  protest that aims to destroy the state is equally dangerous, even if it claims to be "democratic." The Bilin protestors and the refuseniks (those who refuse to be drafted) are not against this or that policy of the Israeli government. They are against Israel as a state of the Jewish people. They are against the Zionist idea. They don't get a free pass under the rubric of "democratic protest." They should not pass Go. They don't collect $200 either.

 

On the other hand, the equally dangerous rabbis and refuseniks of the right do not get a free pass either. And neither do the anti-Zionist Haredi draft evaders. They should not pass "Go." But somehow, they manage to collect a great deal more than $200 from our tax money to finance activities that are subversive to democracy and to Zionism, and undermine the state as surely as the anti-Zionists of the left. Nobody should get a free pass just because we like their stand on a particular issue. That includes Burg and his immoral use of pensions and drivers granted him as ex-head of the Jewish Agency.

 

Ami Isseroff

 

 

Continued (Permanent Link)

Guardian uses "T" word for Terror

T is for terror and H is for hypocrisy. The Guardian has committed the unforgivable sin of referring to nice Al-Qaeda freedom fighters as a "terror cell." Shame on them. In their article  Race to break terror cell the Guardian fails to appreciate the struggle of the Islamic Umma against oppressive Western Zionist devices such as airplanes, which corrupt the souls of good Muslim youth.

 

But if the same attacks had occurred in Israel, the Guardian would write that the Israeli army is persecuting "militants."

 

Two men arrested after the Glasgow attack remained in custody yesterday. One of them, believed to be the driver, was critically ill in hospital with severe burns. He was under armed guard. Another man, 27, who had been in the vehicle, was in police custody.

Yesterday a car in the grounds of the hospital in which he was being treated was destroyed in a controlled explosion. Police said it was linked to the investigation.

Police declined to give details about those arrested, but Strathclyde's Assistant Chief Constable John Neilson revealed that those held in Glasgow were not Scottish. He told a public meeting at a city mosque: "The people we have in custody came to Scotland a short while ago to seek work. Other than that, I can't tell you - but I'm sure the community in Glasgow in particular will be reassured. These are not your young people." Security sources said later none of the five arrested was born in Britain.

 

These guys were just exercising the legitimate right of "resistance," weren't they? Obviously, Britain has the world's worst human rights record, and we should BOYCOTT BRITAIN.

 

Ami Isseroff 

Continued (Permanent Link)

Christian Zionism

What is Christian Zionism ?

 

"Christian Zionism" has been the subject of much controversy. Opponents of  Christian support for Israel apparently invented this name. They claim that all Christian Zionists are dispensationalists and that the movement was originated by J.N. Darby. At the same time, they mayclaim, paradoxically, that any Christian who supports Israel is a Christian Zionist. Supposedly, all such people are extremist fanatics who believe in imminent rapture, and try to hasten the apocalyptic battle of Armageddon. Supposedly, they are also all seeking to convert the Jews, and they all oppose territorial concessions by Israel on theological grounds. The Reverend Stephen Sizer in particular, has been active in propagating these views. His motives are transparently political beneath a theological veneer, as are the motives of most such critics.

 

Though some Christian Zionists do hold the above views in various forms, that is far from a veridical picture of Christian Zionism and Christian support for Israel. Among the most active and visible Christian Zionists, many are not dispensationalists and do not believe in rapture or hastening the battle of Armageddon, nor do they seek to convert Jews.  Christian supporters of Israel include Christians of many Protestant denominations and beliefs, as well as some Catholics.

 

Historically, Christian support for restoration of Israel preceded J.N. Darby by over two hundred years. It originated in the doctrines of the Puritans, which were transmitted from England to the United States. Support for restoration of Israel became much more than an article of faith. Just as previously anti-Semitism had taken hold and become an integral part of European culture, so in the United States, support for restoration of Israel became embedded in American culture. Christian support for restoration of Israel has a long and impressive history in practical as well as political Zionism and theology, that began long before the arrival of dispensationalism in the United States. We have prepared an extensive resource that discusses the theological issues, the critiques and the history of Christian support for Israel at http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/christian_zionism.htm Christian Zionism .

 

We hope you will find this resource of use in understanding the nature of Christian Zionism, and we will appreciate constructive comments, links and support. The work, large as it is, is a work in progress.

 

Cross posted: Israel News  Midde East Analysis  

Continued (Permanent Link)

Palestinian Critique: Prostitution and corruption in the Palestinian authority

A Palestinian writer tells us of life in the PA ( source: kawther.info/K20070108A.html). PA goombas prostitute their wives, control journalists.... Following are excerpts from the account of Kawther Salam:

...Some readers may have asked themselves why I waited so long before deciding to write anything about these crimes. Simply said, I had working engagements with Palestinian newspapers I was instructed to never write or say anything critical about the PA, never to criticize the Palestinian patriarchal system and the discrimination of women in my writings. At the same time, I experienced many troubles due my journalistic work because I am a woman. I have put my life and my family in big danger many times due to this work. For example, my mother, aged over 80, received a "friendly visit" due to this article....

Under the PA, social progress in Palestine has been turned back over 50 years. There is no real difference between the PA and Mafia gangs. The uncounted military systems established under the corrupt PA and financed by funds from the EU and other international agencies are in reality criminals, thieves (among other things of Israeli cars, with full connivance of officials on both sides), murderers, sexual perverts and gangsters. The proliferation of "military" systems established under the PA, which cannot be considered as a State, does not exist in the biggest countries in the world. All this and more contributed to last years election, in which the PA was voted out of power. While the Hamas are troubling in their own way, they are widely seen as less corrupt and much less likely to sell us out to the occupation. This was enough for assorted imbeciles in western state chanceries to declare them "terrorists" and subject all Palestinians to a genocidal embargo and continued incursions against civilians by the Israeli army.

Today I spoke with somebody from my homeland. As always, I asked about the situation. This call brought me some horrible news about another crime perpetrated by people from the military organizations of the PA. I am sure that the Palestinian newspapers and the Arab Media will not dare to publish such a story. The story, which was related to me, is just one example of the horrible things, which these people are doing.

Mr. Audeh (first name withheld for fear of retribution) is an officer with the National Security Forces of the PA in Bethlehem. He was a well-known criminal before the PA employed him as an officer. This criminal married three times. He divorced the first wife, she was his cousin. The second wife has a child; he stole the gold from her dowry on the first day of their marriage, during even the marriage festivities. The third marriage was without the knowledge of his second wife, a simple woman from a village near Hebron.

This criminal "National Security" officer proceeded to force his third wife to engage in prostitution, to render sexual favors to his "friends". He would film her during these encounters and spread the film to the public, taking money for copies. The family of this third wife, the victim of his criminal activities, received a copy of one of these films showing this shameless behavior. Consequently, they slaughtered the daughter, cut her head, and portrayed themselves as heroes. They were very proud of what they did. There is no law that protects the victims in such a case. Such crimes are always "justified". They call it "honor killing".

There were hundreds of Palestinian women killed by their families during the Al-Aqsa Intifada and since the time PA had the power to establish the military system. The PA employees are directly responsible for causing the honor killings of women in Palestine. The PA employees customarily abuse women sexually, especially women who work in the same offices, or women who come to ask for public services at the PA offices.

The PA always protects their criminals. Persons belonging to the military should be sentenced if they violate the military and civilian laws, but this never happens. In cases when Palestinian woman are abused sexually, the headquarters of the Palestinian military does nothing. The National Security officer from Bethlehem who forced his wife into prostitution and was thus the direct causant for her family killing her in order to clean the family honor, was not sentenced. He is currently in jail, but he still receives his full salary, which is financed by European countries. The PA will leave him free of any charges, as he has other relatives working with the PA, and these relative protect him from the consequences of his crime. The slaughtered wife who he forced to sell sexual favors to others should not be held responsible for what happened to her.

The second wife, who was left with a child and was betrayed by her husband, asked an Islamic Judge for a divorce on grounds that her husband had stolen her gold on the first day of her marriage, and also on grounds of his criminal behavior which caused the death for his third wife. However, she will not be free. While the Islamic law gives the husband the power of the divorce, there is no justice at the Islamic courts. The justice of Islam is just a rule written in the books, to which women seldom have access.

Under the PA, many military systems have been established; thousands of employees receive a salary at the end of the month, while in reality they do nothing more than posing the affluent class of Palestinian civil society. Here are the names of some of the military systems that were established under the PA:

The Presidential Forces Unit; The Presidential Security; The "Nobility Security"; The Intelligence Forces of the President; Military Intelligence; Military Police Unit; 17 Forces Unit; Marine Forces; The Special Forces; The National Security forces; The Alternative Security System; The Emergency Forces; The Military Tax Unit; The Disturbance Forces; The Quick Reaction Forces; The Border Police; The Public Security Forces; The Palestinian-Israeli Military Coordinating Unit which is a spy unit working in DCO building together with Israeli army. The Israelis use these officers as spies, and when the oppose, they are dismissed. It is important to keep in mind that this proliferation of "military" and "security" units goes on while there is no real, sovereign government, or President, in Palestine. All functionaries from all branches of the "government", from the President down, must get permission from Israel for every move they make, if they want to move between different Palestinian cities, if they want to travel, if they want to say anything in public.

No to the US Presence in Palestine !

In addition, the US, Israel and the PA are coordinating with the Jordanian military to get the "Bader" Brigades into Palestine. Before that, the U.S sent us a military coordinator and representative, the corrupt war criminal General Keith Dayton. Before that, they sent us an "economic coordinator", Mr. James Wolfensohn. Most Palestinians do not welcome these American criminals coordinating the destruction of their homeland. They strongly condemn the acceptance the PA has given these "coordinators".

General Keith Dayton was involved in crimes against humanity in Iraq, where is responsible for the widespread use of torture against civilians in Abu Ghraib and other places, for jumpstarting the activities of an array of death squads, and for the constant flow of giant car bombs which are detonated among civilians and are invariably labeled as attentates from either the Shia or Sunni groups against each other. He is now training the PA military units how to fight against Hamas and the Palestinian civil society. He has gained experience in organizing death squads and genocide in Iraq. Because of these criminal skills he was sent to "coordinate activities" in Palestine. He represents American tax dollars at work, paying for murder and crimes on a vast scale.

Since the establishment of the PA they have neglected building and organizing the civil society in Palestine. The PA neglects the creation of a functioning of justice system; they neglect the protection of human rights and the reconstruction of a system of civil laws. The Palestinian military systems are completely paralyzed and corrupt. Their main occupations (and duties) are to steal from and to make life impossible for Palestinian civilians. The work of the police officers is seen as a clear problem in the middle of the Palestinian cities. At the end of the month, they have to get their salary before the employees from the civilian organizations get their salaries. Worse of all, Palestinian security units, military and police alike, are never present to protect anybody from the incursions of the Israeli army and the crimes of the illegal jewish colonists. I remember not one instance when one of these jewish terrorists have been even warned for an acto of terrorism, for theft, for murder. The situation with the corruption of the "government" was the real reason behind the break-out of the second Intifada.

The Palestinian Police system is corrupt. Briberies have replaced the law. If someone wants to visit their relatives in jail, the wife of a prisoner is obliged to give sexual favors to police officers. Police officers lead gangs of drug pushers and thieves who steal cars from Israel. The former Police officer Gazi Al-Jabali was a very big corruptionist person. The Israeli military confiscated millions of his wealth, which they found in his house during a search by the military. These millions had been looted from poor Palestinians in Gaza. I wonder why we need these military systems...

The Composition of the PA military organizations

The Palestinian military organizations, paid by the European countries and other International funds, can be classified in these groups: The military groups that came ("returned") with Arafat, were brought from other Arab countries. These people are rabble recruited in other Arab countries and given some military training. They are lacking in intelligence, education or culture, and they integrate poorly into Palestinian society. They speak a different dialect of Arabic; some of them have other nationalities. These military groups often trained and served with the armies of other corrupt Arab dictatorships. They come to Palestine without their own families and they suffer of psychological problems because of that. These people often marry with Palestinian women in a second marriage, but most of these marriages end in divorce because of cultural differences or because of the psychological problems, which these men have to start with.

The career military officers who are from Palestine and loyal to Palestinians, who often have better education, are separated from there work or frozen in lower echelons as they considered a threat to the PA and the corrupt officers brought from outside. The same is valid for the civilian posts: the corrupt people, spies and criminals are given high positions, the honest people are left in low positions or pushed out by use of whatever pretexts.

The Palestinians who were jailed during the first Intifada or killed Israelis, were automatically engaged by the PA military and given officers rank. The Israelis had tortured most of these people during their stay in Israeli jails, they suffered different mental diseases as a consequence. Apart from that, the Israelis only released the people who agreed to spy for them.

All the criminals, the cars thieves, the unemployed, the illiterates were automatically engaged in the PA military and police. Mohammad Dahlan, who had been a small-time gangster in Gaza before the Israelis, Americans and Europeans discovered him as "somebody they could do business with", brought in many criminals to work under his command. He established death squads which have been involved in kidnappings and killings of civilians in Gaza. One recent murder attributed to Dahlan's death squads has been reported here and attributed to "unidentified gunmen".

Some of the PA officers were sent for training, but I know of no Palestinian officer who has attended a college military school. Some of them get some training by the USA, Britain, or in other Arab countries. Most of these officers do not speak a second language and have not finish school. To be an officer in the PA means to be a murderer, a criminal, or a relative of somebody who works in the PA.
...
Hamas is not a real alternative to the PA, but less corrupt.

Hat tip

Cross posted: Israel News Midde East Analysis

Continued (Permanent Link)

ADL: Methodist committee report on Israel 'borders on anti-Semitism'

Invest in Caterpillar, General Electric, Blockbuster, General Dynamics - firms that do business with Israel and are targetted for it.

 

"I argue that those who single out Israel for unique criticism not directed against countries with far worse human rights records are themselves guilty of international bigotry. So long as criticism is comparative, contextual, and fair, it should be encouraged, not disparaged. But when the Jewish nation is the only one criticized for faults that are far worse among other nations, such criticism crosses the line from fair to foul, from acceptable to anti-Semitic."

 - Professor Alan Dershowitz

New York Sun -- June 29, 2007 

 

Methodist Report `Borders on Anti-Semitism'

BY SETH GITELL - Special to the Sun
June 29, 2007
http://www.nysun.com/article/57560

A leading Jewish group said the United Methodist Church's call to divest from 20 companies that do business with Israel "borders on anti-Semitism," upping the pressure on President Bush and Senator Clinton — both Methodists — to distance themselves from the church's statement.

 

The report, which drew criticism from the Anti-Defamation League yesterday, was written by the Divestment Task Force of the church's New England Conference and targeted such companies as Blockbuster, General Dynamics, and General Electric.

 

"The urgency of the humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territories cannot be overstated," the report stated. "Palestinians face soaring unemployment, malnutrition, restrictions on movement, denial of medical care, denial of access to their agricultural lands, humiliation at checkpoints and extended lockdowns called curfews."

 

The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, said in a statement that the report "borders on anti-Semitism."

 

He added: "The authors of the report must be living in a bubble to ignore ongoing attacks on Israel and Hamas's violent takeover of Gaza to issue such an outrageous, biased report that focuses only on Israel."

 

Representatives for President Bush and Senator Clinton did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment on the Methodist divestment action.

 

The deputy director of the Jewish Community Relations Council in Boston, Alan Ronkin, said his group would be meeting with local Methodists on the issue. "We are going to try to educate and let them know where we're coming from," Mr. Ronkin said. Efforts such as the divestment push, "delegitimize Israel, damage any chance to make progress in the Middle East, and are morally offensive," he added.

 

The report also drew criticism from within the United Methodist Church. A senior minister at First United Methodist Church of Palo Alto, the Reverend Archer Summers, said he would work to get the next General Conference to reject a divestment move and to push the body to pass a resolution similar to the United Church of Christ's recent measure calling for "a balanced study" of the Middle East conflict.

 

"They're flat-out wrong. They went off the deep end this time," Rev. Summers said of the New England Conference. "The powers that be in the New England Methodist Church are clueless about how to bring about a just peace. The report would make it appear that there's some sort of animus on the part of the United Methodist Church toward the state of Israel, which undermines our credibility as an institution which preaches the good news of peace."

 

The Methodists' action comes as the United Church of Christ, another Protestant denomination, moved forward a resolution moderating its stance toward Israel. The UCC's "balanced study " measure is now being seen as a counter to the 2005 passage of both a "divestment" motion and a "tear down the wall" resolution, which urged the dismantling of Israel's security barrier.

 

Senator Obama — who is a member of the UCC and who addressed the church's national gathering in Hartford last Saturday — issued a statement saying he "strongly disagrees with the portrayal of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict presented by individual members of the church."

 

The Methodist report cited the following companies as targets for divestment: Alliant Tech Systems, Blockbuster, Boeing, Caterpillar, Cement Roadstone Holdings, General Dynamics, General Electric, Globecomm Systems Inc, ITT Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Magal Security Systems, Motorola, Northrop Grumman, Oshkosh Truck Corporation, Raytheon, Silicon Graphics, Terex, United Technologies, Veolia Environnement, and Volvo.

 

The Methodists' New England Conference is seen as a precursor to the church's General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, in April.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Terror in Sderot - First person accounts

The world ignores the plight of Sderot residents who are the victims of a fairly constant rocket barrage launched by Palestinian terrorists.  

Sderot residents come to D.C. to describe life under rocket fire 
Jennifer Weisbord
Aharon Polat, one of three Sderot residents on a U.S. tour, speaks at a news conference June 11 in Washington on how the Palestinian rocket barrage is affecting his city.

By Melissa Apter Published: 06/28/2007


WASHINGTON (JTA) – Stav Cohen, 21, has lived in the southern Israeli town of Sderot her whole life. Not long ago her house was struck by a Kassam rocket.

Cohen's family survived the attack, but living within range of the Palestinian rockets fired from the nearby Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip has taken its toll.

On a recent vacation in Switzerland her 3-year-old brother kept asking his parents, "Where is the safe room?" He couldn't believe it when he was informed that rockets would not be falling on his head.

"There is a whole generation growing up that does not know that rocket attacks are not normal," Cohen recently told JTA.

Cohen was one of three Sderot residents who toured the United States this month addressing Jewish groups and American political leaders about life in the face of Palestinian rocket fire.

Their tour was co-sponsored by Israel's Foreign Ministry and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Since May, Sderot has been bombarded daily by Kassam rockets painted yellow for the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade, black for Islamic Jihad and green for Hamas.

Cohen was joined on the speaking tour by Aharon Polat, 43, a social worker who works with young trauma victims and lives in nearby Kibbutz Carmi with his wife and two sons, and Michal Kakoon, 35, a science teacher in Sderot, where she has lived for 15 years with her husband and two daughters.
They were among several groups of Sderot residents touring the United States. This week, a group of Russian children from the town will spend a month near Boston, at a Chabad-Lubavitch camp and a math camp, before touring the East Coast and staging performances for other children. The plays will be performed in Russian with simultaneous English translation.

Polat was relocated to the kibbutz with his family as part of the 2005 evacuation of Jewish settlers from Gaza.

"There are children who will not come out from under the table, who hide in the bathroom, refuse to come out of the bathroom" because they are so afraid of the rocket attacks, he said.

Other children see the attacks as simply part of their everyday lives.

"They play a Kassam game," Polat said, in which a child yells out red alert and all the other children scramble to hide from pretend rockets.

Kakoon deals daily with the constant fears of her children and her students.

"We feel abandoned," she said.

Polat agreed, saying, "The people are exhausted and abandoned. The government needs to find a solution. There must be at least 10 things the government could do."

Israel has resisted a major re-entry into Gaza, as the prospect of reoccupation would be profoundly unpopular among Israelis and could scuttle emerging peace prospects with moderate Palestinians.

"We elect these people to protect us, they should find a solution," Cohen said. "Every house from which a rocket is launched should be destroyed. Any house that aids the Hamas terrorists should be demolished completely."

Cohen cautioned that innocent Palestinians should not be punished.

"Collective punishment is wrong," she said. "We know how it feels to be innocent and be attacked; we should not do that to others."

With Hamas now in control of Gaza after routing moderate forces earlier this month, Kakoon sees no end to the violence.

"We have no partner in peace," she said.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Israeli FM discusses release of Fateh prisoners

At a press conference with Australian FM Downer, Israeli Foreign minister Tzippi Livni was asked about prisoner release issues and the return of Gilad Shalit.

Q (translated from Hebrew): Madam Foreign Minister, do you support in principle the Prime Minister's declared intention to release 250 Palestinian prisoners? And, in a related issue, the PM is under enormous pressure, from the abductors, from the public, from the media, etc., to make progress in the case of Shalit. Are you in favor of relinquishing some of Israel's
preconditions in order to make this deal happen?

FM Livni: Regarding your first question, the release of Palestinian prisoners from the Fatah who "have no blood on their hands", the answer is yes. The Prime Minister consulted with me before he went to Sharm a-Sheikh, and this distinction - only Fatah detainees, only those who "have no blood on their hands" - also conveys a message to the Palestinians. The clear distinction between moderates and extremists, between Hamas and Fatah, has practical implications for the way the Israeli government relates to Abu Mazen as president as well as our working relations with the new Palestinian government, including what we are willing to do to strengthen the moderates who wish to live in peace, who want to advance the two-state process and who are prepared to reject terrorism. Fatah is the group that currently represents these principles and, therefore, the answer to your question is yes.

Obviously, we are not going to conduct the negotiations for the release of Gilad Shalit in the media. Gilad's voice is still echoing in our ears. I don't think there is a person in Israel, certainly not a minister, who isn't walking around today with Gilad's voice settled in his heart. But, there is no doubt that the Hamas is, in the cruelest way possible, exploiting the pain of the Shalit family and of the Israeli people in an attempt to impose its agenda and to try to torpedo the meeting in Sharm. They believe that their strategy is beginning to weaken him and it is important, after hearing Gilad, that the responsibility for his health and welfare is placed squarely on the Hamas. The government of Israel will continue to act to bring him home. As for the conditions, that is, of course, not a subject for public discourse.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Hamas media hi-jinx succeed because of our human frailty

Yesterday, the Hamas released a tape of Gilad Shalit, the captive Israeli soldier. Israeli newspapers and television stations reacted as if a hundred people had been killed in a  terror attack. The entire front page of Yediot Ahronot and Maariv were taken up with this nonsensical PR gesture of a terrorist group regarding a single soldier. A commentator on Israel TV Channel 1 explained in all sincerity that yesterday they had no time to evaluate the Sharm summit, because their time was taken up with the Gilad Shalit tape. The Hamas obviously manipulated the media, and the Israeli media obliged.

 

In this naive article, an "analyst" is quoted as suggesting that terrorist misuse of the media can be beaten as follows:

 

To attempt to fight this phenomenon, Liebes suggested wider cooperation between the TV channels, newspapers, and the radio stations, as well as their electronic counterparts. "If editors join forces in the coverage of events, such as rocket attacks or terrorist bombings, and stop being overly competitive, coverage may be less hysterical," she said

This view is offered by no less than Prof. Tamar Liebes, head of the Communications faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Indeed, if there were no greedy people, confidence games would not succeed. If men stopped being so interested in sex, naughty women would not have a chance, but journalists will be journalists and boys will be boys. The whole point of the terrorists' success, is that every channel feels the urge to broadcast news of a suicide bombing and give it priority over, say, a dialogue meeting, or even an automobile accident that might have more fatalities.

 

In a democracy, people get the media they are willing to pay for, unless the government intervenes. The Hezbollah rockets of last summer would not have been half as effective, if media had not broadcast, over and over, the same footage of the hysterical woman with the baby leaving the north of Israel in a taxi.

 

Of course, if the issue is sufficiently important, the government could censor the news. Of course, people might notice if the World Trade Center or the Azrieli building disappears and nobody writes about it. We are not suggesting that. But surely it is not necessary to dwell on every single incident in every detail,  to magnify every terror death well beyond the coverage given to other sorts of murders, and to publicize every terrorist video as though it were a second version of  Gone With the Wind. Or is it? Let's face it, if this blog was all about smelling the flowers in spring and our cat, would you you read it?

 

So Hamas, after all, is working the system, and it is time that our side learned to do the same thing, instead of simply watching Hamas and Hezbollah do it and then crying "foul."

 

Ami Isseroff

 

Continued (Permanent Link)

Iraq and Gaza A History Lesson Unleashed

Mikael Knighton reports on his visit to Israel, Lawlessness in Gaza and parallels to Iraq.


Iraq and Gaza A History Lesson Unleashed
by Mikael Knighton
Christians Standing with Israel


Lawlessness in Gaza

My apologies for the extended hiatus since my last entry. I have recently returned from Israel and jet-lag isn't exactly a writer's best friend. In walking the present-day streets of Jerusalem, one is hardly able to discern that just over the Judean Hills to the South, on the coastal sand dunes of the Gaza Strip, the essence of pure evil has manifested itself in the form of an isolated, radical Islamist state. Generally speaking, a visitor in Israel needs only to look at the faces of its everyday citizens in order to accurately discern the levels of safety and stability in the Holy Land. Quite literally, if they look worried, so should you.

Surprisingly, Israelis--or at least the ones I've encountered--have remained quite calm and collected despite Israel bearing witness to full-blown, Arab civil war within her borders. Israel has been here before. However, let us in no way be unclear: all hell has broken loose in the Gaza Strip, and the "flood waters" of chaos and anarchy have spilled over into the territories. Such is the case when the essence of pure evil is disengaged, allowed to multiply in numbers, and left to its own devices.

The manifestation of pure evil in the form of radical Islam in Gaza was left unchecked when Ariel Sharon ordered the complete, Israeli evacuation of the Gaza Strip in August of 2005.

Ever-willing to play the role of "control freak" in all things concerning Arab-Israeli relations, the foreign policy of the United States--specifically, the Bush administration's "vision" of a "two-state solution", ultimately cornered Sharon, applied the "chokehold" of international pressure on Israel to concede more land for nothing but death in return, and coercedthe Jewish state into taking yet another step toward demographic suicide.

Playing with Fire

Nearly five years ago to the day, President Bush, in an address outlining his "vision" for a new Middle East, stated, "I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders". Well documented, in the days leading up to the Gaza evacuation, was the Bush administration's staunch opposition to Israel's further expansion of settlements in Judea and Samaria. Of no secret are several meetings between Bush and Sharon in which Bush advised the Israeli Prime Minister not to expand settlements in Judea and Samaria, while praising him for his "courage" in dismantling and evacuating all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip. Such "courage" gave birth to democratic elections in Gaza in January of 2006 through which Hamas--a lawless band of Islamic, terrorist, Iranian-backed thugs sworn to Israel's destruction--emerged the more popular. While indescriminately capping off AK-47 rounds into the skies over southern Israel, the Arabs of Gaza rejoiced in the streets--certain the "new sheriff in town" would bring with them the economic and social reform they promised. They brought only death and destructon.

Continued here http://www.christiansstandingwithisrael.com/Gaza-Civil-War.html

Continued (Permanent Link)

IDF arrests founder of Hamas Izzedin al-Qassam armed wing

Last update - 15:04 23/06/2007

IDF arrests founder of Hamas armed wing in West Bank

By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies

Israel Defense Forces troops on Saturday arrested senior Hamas militant Saleh Aruri, who is considered the founder of Hamas' military wing in the West Bank, in a village near Ramallah.

The detainee, Saleh Aruri, was taken from his home before dawn, his wife said.

Aruri was described on a Hamas Web site as the founder of Iz a Din al-Kassam, its West Bank military wing.

Aruri had served 15 years in an Israeli prison and was released in March, the Web site said.

Hamas alleged in a statement that its political rival, the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, is coordinating with Israel in an attempt to crush Hamas in the West Bank.

IDF officials said Aruri resumed involvement in violent Hamas activity in recent months.

Earlier on Friday IDF soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man at a West Bank roadblock near the city of Hebron.

The man was later identified as Shadi Matoor, 25.

The IDF said Matoor had tried to enter a military outpost north of Kiryat Arba. When he did not respond to soldiers' calls to stop, the troops shot at him, the army said.

According to a preliminary investigation, Matoor was unarmed.

The man was seriously wounded and taken to a hospital in Hebron, where he later died of his wounds.

Sources in the IDF maintain that Matoor was wearing IDF army pants and high boots, and soldiers suspected he was attempting to infiltrate to the outpost.

Security forces nab 'Hezbollah-trained' suspect in W. Bank raid
IDF and Border Police troops early Friday morning arrested three suspected militants in an overnight raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Security forces said one of the suspects, Yusuf Abu Layla, is a senior member of the Fatah-affiliated Tanzim who had received training and instructions from Hezbollah to carry out terror attacks in Israel.

The two other suspects are Moeib Hoteri, also of Tanzim, and Yusuf Mabruk, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

During the operation, soldiers opened fire on a car with five suspects that fled the scene, wounding one of the passengers. The wounded man and another suspect escaped, while the three others barricaded themselves in a building.

Troops surrounded the structure and called on them to surrender. They were caught while trying to escape. No IDF soldiers were hurt in the firefight.

Abu layla is an explosives device expert who planned bombings in Israel, the army said. In addition, it claimed he was involved in manufacturing suicide belts for Tanzim in Nablus, as well as training others how to make bombs.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Arab journalist: Don't Rush to support Abbas, he is not in control

Conference Call with Journalist Khaled Abu Toameh

Ellen Schor sent us this account of a conference call with journalist Abu Toameh a few days ago.

Highlights:

Regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Abu Toameh has not heard about anyone starving in the Gaza strip and there is no shortage of water and fuel, Drinking water is supplied by Israel, which is continuing to send water.

"Abu Toameh warns the United States and Israel not to rush to support Abbas, since it is not sure that Abbas will be able to control the West Bank. He said Abbas has failed to take action and failed to reform his party. Money given to Abbas didn't go into the right hands. The conflict in the Gaza strip was over money and power. There were bad guys fighting bad guys."

...

His concern is that Abu Mazen will continue to fail as a leader, as he has not learned from the election nor from the military action in Gaza. He has to convince Palestinians that he can reform the party and get rid of corrupt leaders. He does not see this trend occurring.

He feels Abbas' position is that of "Give me more money or you will get Hamas".

In the future, the West Bank may accept Hamas, as they have enforced law and order. Fatah is not united now. It is still in turmoil and is still weak.

Ami Isseroff

Friends:

This morning I participated in a conference call with Khaled Abu Toameh in Jerusalem. I would like to share the words of this veteran outstanding journalist, who specializes in Palestinian Affairs.

He said the security level now is calm. There has been no fighting on the ground since Friday.

As we have heard, the United States and Israel will release the financial restrictions on the Fatah government in the West Bank. Currently, there is hope and optimism in the West Bank, The question is what will happen to the 1.4 million Palestinians living in Gaza. Will Abu Mazen, the head of Fatah succeed in controlling the West Bank? We do not know what will happen to Gaza. Will there be extreme isolation of Hamas resulting in shortages in food, medicine, fuel, etc.?

Regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Abu Toameh has not heard about anyone starving in the Gaza strip and there is no shortage of water and fuel, Drinking water is supplied by Israel, which is continuing to send water.

He feels that the West Bank will give aid to the Palestinians living in Gaza.

Regarding Gaza's financial situation, Hamas has been smuggling millions of dollars into Gaza for the last 1 1/2 years. This money comes from donations, the last donation is from Yemen. 50 million dollars has been raised for the Gaza strip.

Some questions that arise: Sharia law is one of the main points included in the constitution. Will Hamas impose a Taliban style in the Gaza Strip? The Palestinians there are very religious and conservative. If public beheadings are staged in public squares and hands are chopped off for thievery, Abu Toameh predicts they will lose the support of the people.

He does not believe that the emergence of an Islamic Republic between Egypt and Israel will become a military threat, so there shouldn't be a security problem for Israel. Hamas will want to show the world that they are capable of governing and establishing law and order.

Olmert is presently in the United State to consult with Bush. He said they will have to determine what can be done to contain Gaza and if they want to boost Abu Mazen in the West Bank. He thinks Israel might be safer now. The number of rockets aimed at Israel from Gaza has dramatically stopped. He says that Hamas wants to be in full control and they do not want to drag Israel into the conflict.

He tells us that Hamas has been confiscating arms from huge clans. Jordan is sending food and medicine that come through Egypt.

He reports that the Palestinians have mixed reactions to Hamas being in control. He hasn't seen any Palestinians shedding tears over Fatah's loss. Perhaps they don't really miss the Palestinian Authority or perhaps, they are afraid to talk. Abu Toameh states that they believe that United States' and Israel's backing of Mahmoud Abbas is really a conspiracy to pull down their democratically voted government.

A reporter from the Daily News asked whether the West Bank will join with Jordan. Abu Toameh responded that Jordan has 80% Palestinians in their Hashemite Kingdom and they don't feel they need any more.

Abu Toameh warns the United States and Israel not to rush to support Abbas, since it is not sure that Abbas will be able to control the West Bank. He said Abbas has failed to take action and failed to reform his party. Money given to Abbas didn't go into the right hands. The conflict in the Gaza strip was over money and power. There were bad guys fighting bad guys.

Now is the time to extract promises from Abbas, if he is given money. Abu Toameh says that he must get rid of Fatah's gangsters and reform his party. He needs a new list of people in the government and he must offer Palestinians a better authority.

Answering a questions about the fate of Christians in the Gaza strip, he said it was not clear if Hamas was behind the attack on a Latin church. Masked gunman were involved. He said there are less than 3000 Christians in the Gaza Strip. In April, a Christian Book Store was attacked. The Christians are not only being pressured to leave the Gaza Strip, but also the Christians in Bethlehem, Ramallah and other areas.

Answering a question about Hamas building up an army and attacking the West Bank, Abu Toameh said Hamas has many supports in that area. Instead of an army attacking, he thinks sleeping cells of Hamas will wake up in the West Bank.

His concern is that Abu Mazen will continue to fail as a leader, as he has not learned from the election nor from the military action in Gaza. He has to convince Palestinians that he can reform the party and get rid of corrupt leaders. He does not see this trend occurring.

He feels Abbas' position is that of "Give me more money or you will get Hamas".

In the future, the West Bank may accept Hamas, as they have enforced law and order. Fatah is not united now. It is still in turmoil and is still weak.

He said that in the Middle East, you go to sleep with one reality and wake up with a different reality.

Palestinians have never been so divided, Toameh noted. The dream of a Palestinian state is as remote as ever. He wonders how America and Israel will deal with the new reality. He asks can you really ignore Hamas now that it is in power? What to do about the 1.4 million people who live there?

Abu Toameh said the emerging government is composed of good guys, most of whom are technocrats who can run the affairs of their ministries.

He concluded by saying the firing that came from Lebanon is an attempt by certain Palestinians to provoke Israelis to return to Lebanon, so the attention will move away from the Gaza Strip.

Jennifer Lazlo Mizrahi of the Israel Project, which sponsored this conference call, concluded the conversation by bringing up the fortieth anniversary of the Six Day War, the consequences of which are still being faced. She said it is very hard to assess what this new "Six Day War" in Gaza will bring.

Ellen Schor

Continued (Permanent Link)

Hamas Hebrew Jingle: Lucky Hamas goes to war

This is the Middle East, where anything can happen. The Hamas takeover of Gaza has brought a brave new reality of militant Islamism.

There is nothing funny about the murderous fighting in Gaza, and the strange and tragic inaction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Human Rights Watch has condemned both Hamas and Hezbollah for "grave crimes." The crimes include killing civilians, invading hospitals and endangering journalists. People were thrown off the top of buildings, doctors were thrown out the window.

But there is a ligher side to everything, for those with a sufficiently macabre sense of humor. Hamas has been broadcasting victory jingles, including one in Hebrew. The propaganda technique is borrowed from the Hezbollah.

This was not invented by a satirist apparently, but actually broadcast on Hamas radio in Gaza. For those who cannot read Hebrew, the words are:

"Hamas my eyes (from "'Ayuni" in Arabic - which is big praise) destroyers of the Merkava (tank), a pigua (terror hit) every minute, scared soldiers in black bags, pieces of Jewish meat, we want the head of Sharon."

Or in English idiom,

"Hamas Cola Hits the spot,
Twelve dead Jews and that's a lot"

Islamism Lite, anyone?

Ami Isseroff

Continued (Permanent Link)

A good question: What if Israelis have abducted Alan Johnston of the BBC?

What if Israelis had abducted BBC man?

By Charles Moore
The (UK) Telegraph
03 June 2007


Watching the horrible video of Alan Johnston of the BBC broadcasting Palestinian propaganda under orders from his kidnappers, I found myself asking what it would have been like had he been kidnapped by Israelis, and made to do the same thing the other way round.

The first point is that it would never happen. There are no Israeli organisations - governmental or freelance - that would contemplate such a thing. That fact is itself
significant.

But just suppose that some fanatical Jews had grabbed Mr Johnston and forced him to spout their message, abusing his own country as he did so. What would the world have said?

There would have been none of the caution which has characterised the response of the BBC and of the Government since Mr Johnston was abducted on March 12. The Israeli government would immediately have been condemned for its readiness to harbour terrorists or its failure to track them down.

Loud would have been the denunciations of the extremist doctrines of Zionism which had given rise to this vile act. The world isolation of Israel, if it failed to get Mr Johnston freed, would have been complete.

If Mr Johnston had been forced to broadcast saying, for example, that Israel was entitled to all the territories held since the Six-Day War, and calling on the release of all Israeli soldiers held by Arab powers in return for his own release, his words would have been scorned. The cause of Israel in the world would have been irreparably damaged by thus torturing him on television. No one would have been shy of saying so.

But of course in real life it is Arabs holding Mr Johnston,and so everyone treads on tip-toe. Bridget Kendall of the BBC opined that Mr Johnston had been "asked" to say what he said in his video. Asked! If it were merely an "ask", why did he not say no?

Throughout Mr Johnston's captivity, the BBC has continually emphasised that he gave "a voice" to the Palestinian people, the implication being that he supported their cause, and should therefore be let out. One cannot imagine the equivalent being said if he had been held by Israelis.

Well, he is certainly giving a voice to the Palestinian people now. And the truth is that, although it is under horrible duress, what he says is not all that different from what the BBC says every day through the mouths of reporters who are not kidnapped and threatened, but are merely collecting their wages.

The language is more lurid in the Johnston video, but the narrative is essentially the same as we have heard over the years from Orla Guerin and Jeremy Bowen and virtually the whole pack of them.

It is that everything that is wrong in the Middle East and the wider Muslim world is the result of aggression or "heavy-handedness" (have you noticed how all actions by American or Israeli troops are "heavy-handed", just as surely as all racism is "unacceptable"?) by America or Israel or Britain.

Alan Johnston, under terrorist orders, spoke of the "absolute despair" of the Palestinians and attributed it to 40 years of Israeli occupation, "supported by the West". That is how it is presented, night after night, by the BBC.

The other side is almost unexamined. There is little to explain the internecine strife in the Arab world, particularly in Gaza, or the cynical motivations of Arab leaders for whom Palestinian miseries are politically convenient.

You get precious little investigation of the networks and mentalities of Islamist extremism - the methods and money of Hamas or Hizbollah and comparable groups - which produce acts of pure evil like that in which Mr Johnston is involuntarily complicit.

The spotlight is not shone on how the "militants" (the BBC does not even permit the word "terrorist" in the Middle East context) and the warlords maintain their corruption and ruleof fear, persecuting, among others, the Palestinians.

Instead it shines pitilessly on Blair and Bush and on Israel.

From the hellish to the ridiculous, the pattern is the same. Back at home, the Universities and Colleges Union has just voted for its members to "consider the moral implications of existing and proposed links with Israeli academic institutions".

Well, they could consider how work by scientists at the Technion in Haifa has led to the production of the drug Velcade, which treats multiple myeloma. Or they could look at the professor at Ben-Gurion University who discovered a bacteria that fights malaria and river blindness by killing mosquitoes and black fly.

Or they could study the co-operation between researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who have isolated the protein that triggers stress in order to try to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, and their equivalents at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.

The main universities of Israel are, in fact, everything that we in the West would recognise as proper universities. They have intellectual freedom. They do not require an ethnic or religious qualification for entry. They are not controlled by the government. They have world-class standards of research, often producing discoveries which benefit all humanity. In all this, they are virtually unique in the Middle East.

The silly dons are not alone. The National Union of Journalists, of which I am proud never to have been a member, has recently passed a comparable motion, brilliantly singling out the only country in the region with a free press for pariah treatment. Unison, which is a big, serious union, is being pressed to support a boycott of Israeli goods, products of the only country in the region with a free trade union movement.

The doctrine is that Israel practises "apartheid" and that it must therefore be boycotted.

All this is moral madness. It is not mad, of course, to criticise Israeli policy. In some respects, indeed, it would be mad not to. It is not mad - though I think it is mistaken - to see the presence of Israel as the main reason for the lack of peace in the region.

But it is mad or, perhaps one should rather say, bad to try to raid Western culture's reserves of moral indignation and expend them on a country that is part of that culture in favour of surrounding countries that aren't. How can we have got ourselves into a situation in which we half-excuse turbaned torturers for kidnapping our fellow-citizens while trying to exclude Jewish biochemists from lecturing to our students?

Nobody yet knows the precise motivations of Mr Johnston's captors, but it is surely not a coincidence that they held him in silence until the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War approached, and only then made him speak. They wanted him to give the world their historical explanation - Israeli oppression - for their cause.

Yet that war took place because President Nasser of Egypt led his country and his allies declaring "our basic aim will be to destroy Israel".

He failed, abjectly, and Egypt and Jordan later gave up theaspiration. But many others maintain it to this day, now with a pseudo-religious gloss added.

We keep giving sympathetic air-time to their death cult. In a way, Mr Johnston is paying the price: his captors are high on the oxygen of his corporation's publicity.

As for Israel, many sins can be laid to its charge. But it is morally serious in a way that we are not, because it has to be. Forty years after its greatest victory, it has to work out each morning how it can survive.

Continued (Permanent Link)

British ballsup over Israeli Entebbe Rescue

For once, it seems the BBC got it right. A declassified British government archive revealed that "sources" had informed HMG that the Israeli Mossad had colluded to bring about the hijacking in order to discredit the PLO. These are probably the same folks who believe that Hitler was Jewish, and that "the Zionists" brought about the Holocaust in order to make the world allow a Jewish state.

Apparently HMG took it seriously. The documents themselves can be read online, at no charge:

Click here for FCO 93/913
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7705218

Click here for 93/914
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7705219

When prompted for payment click on "Pay using Credit/Debit card." As there is no charge, the order is immediately processed without
actually requiring a credit card.

The Telegraph ( Telegraph [UK] Israeli agents 'helped Entebbe hijackers' ) comments about British government comportment with creditable reserve. It notes that:

Most of the file is taken up with Foreign Office attempts to distance itself from the Israeli raid while privately admitting that the Israelis were probably justified in sending their troops into President Idi Amin's Uganda.

The truth is stranger than "Yes, Minister." If it weren't sad, it would be funnier than Monty Python.

Ami Isseroff

Telegraph [UK] Israeli agents 'helped Entebbe hijackers'

By Peter Day Last Updated: 12:20am BST 01/06/2007

An extraordinary claim that Israeli intelligence may have had a hand in an airline hijacking before sending in commandos to rescue the hostages at Entebbe was made to the Foreign Office.

It came via David Colvin, the first secretary at the British embassy in Paris, according to a newly released National Archives file.

He heard it from a contact in the Euro-Arab Parliamentary Association three days after the Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris was seized in mid-air by Palestinians and German terrorists on June 27, 1976.

Mr Colvin told his superiors that his source suggested that the attack was carried out by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine with help from the Israeli Security Service, the Shin Bet.

It was designed to torpedo the rival Palestine Liberation Organisation's standing in France and to prevent what they saw as a growing rapprochement between the PLO and the Americans.

''My contact said that the PFLP had attracted all sorts of wild elements, some of whom had been planted by the Israelis,'' Mr Colvin added. The message was received without comment by the Foreign Office but later officials recorded that a journalist from the Liverpool Post, Leo Murray, had also told them that a splinter group of PFLP was planning a series of spectacular incidents to disrupt contacts between the PLO leader Yasser Arafat and the US.

An official noted: 'If, as Mr Murray's sources allege, the aim of the Entebbe hijacking was to prevent the development of relations between Arafat and the West, and Arafat knew this, it would provide another motive for Arafat's recent approach to the French in Cairo warning us of further attacks.''

Most of the file is taken up with Foreign Office attempts to distance itself from the Israeli raid while privately admitting that the Israelis were probably justified in sending their troops into President Idi Amin's Uganda.

Frank Wheeler, the first secretary, reported that there was abundant evidence of Ugandan collaboration with the hijackers. Palestinians had been brought from Mogadishu in President Amin's private jet to join the hijackers, according to the file.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Hezbollah: Dissent over the party of God

"Let's have a party" - Party of God that is. Intentional blindness about the declared genocidal intent of both Hezbollah and Hamas is amazing. They say "genocide" "right on the label, in their charter documents.

Goodheart takes London Review of Books to task for refusing to acknowledge anti-Semitic statements by Hassan Nasrallah. But Hezbollah program, like the Hamas Charter, openly proclaims their intent:

Our primary assumption in our fight against Israel states that the Zionist entity is aggressive from its inception, and built on lands wrested from their owners, at the expense of the rights of the Muslim people. Therefore our struggle will end only when this entity is obliterated. We recognize no treaty with it, no cease fire, and no peace agreements, whether separate or consolidated.

Allah hu Akbar!

Don't forget that Al Andalus (Spain) is also built on lands wrested from their Muslim owners -- with far less justice, and much more brutally. Anyhow, one doesn't need to scrutinize the sayings of Nasrallah to understand that Hezbollah is a genocidal organization, and it was so from its inception.

Ami Isseroff


The London Review of Hezbollah
By Eugene Goodheart
Dissent Magazine
Winter 2007
(excerpted)

Critics, mostly though not exclusively European, who hammer away at Israeli misbehavior often show no concern about the dangers that beset Israel. Their one-sided animus verges on scandal. Criticism of Israeli behavior may be justified, but it loses credit when it is not balanced by an unequivocal repudiation of the rhetoric and actions of Islamic fundamentalists: Holocaust denial, fantasies of genocidal anti-Semitism, the elimination of the state of Israel, suicide bombings, and indiscriminate killing of civilians.

The London Review of Books is an egregious instance of this one-sidedness. Almost every issue contains several articles devoted to attacks on Israel, and the target is not simply the governing party, but the whole spectrum of Israeli political life. Absent from the columns of the Review are the injustices and cruelties of political Islam. In an article by Charles Glass, Lebanon's Hezbollah is eulogized for its capacity to learn from mistakes, its decency in treating prisoners, "its refusal to murder collaborators," its intelligent use of "car bombs, ambushes, small rockets and suicide bombers." Glass speaks of Hezbollah's uncompromising political program, of which he apparently approves, without mentioning that at its core is the destruction of Israel...In a letter to LRB printed in the September 7, 2006, issue, I pointed out that Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, is not simply a resistance fighter, he is also an anti-Semite with genocidal fantasies. I cited the following statements attributed to him: "If they [the Jews] all gather in Israel it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide." "They [the Jews] are a cancer which is liable to spread at any moment." I also noted that the name "Party of God," should worry anyone of enlightened, democratic persuasion, but does not seem to bother Glass. (Would he be equally indulgent of the religious fanatics in Israel who assert their divine right to Greater Israel?) Parties of God, wherever they are to be found, mean tyranny should they ever acquire power. In the article, Glass mentions the fact that he had been kidnapped by Hezbollah at a Syrian checkpoint. Wanting to prove that the movement was independent of Syrian control, he writes that when "Syria insisted that I be released to show that Syrian control of Lebanon could not be flouted [1] Hezbollah, unfortunately, ignored the request." What virtue! In my letter, I wondered whether he had not succumbed to Stockholm syndrome.

His response, printed in the October 5, 2006, issue, focused on the anti-Semitic statements attributed to Nasrallah, which he dismissed as fabrications, "circulated widely on neo-conservative web sites." ...

I wrote back to the LRB, first noting that in invoking the nefarious neocons as the vehicles of fabrication, Glass reminded me of the apologists for the Soviet Union who denied the existence of anti-Semitism in their beloved country, because the reports of its existence came from the bourgeois press. I challenged the LRB to make a disinterested effort to determine whether these statements were fabrications. Its animus against Israel was clear and bad enough; a willingness to indulge anti-Semitism, a much more serious matter. If they are not fabrications, the journal has a moral obligation to say so and to repudiate the kind of article that Glass has written.

While waiting for a reply, I decided to look into the literature on Hezbollah, and what I found left no doubt about its view of the Jews. Here is Nasrallah in one of his diatribes against Israel: "If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice I do not say the Israeli." [1]
Quoted in Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Hizbu'llah: Politics and Religion, University of Michigan Press, 2001, p. 170. Original source, televised interview, Muhammad Fnayash. Wuhhat Nazar Future Television (FTV, July 2, 1997).

Naim Qassem, the deputy secretary general of Hezbollah, author of Inside Hezbollah, which Charles Glass cites for its humane view of how collaborators with Israel should be treated, has this to say: "The history of the Jews has proven that, regardless of the Zionist proposal, they are a people who are evil in their ideas" (Quoted in Saad-Ghorayeb, p. 174; original source, Abbas al-Mussawi, Amiru'l-Zakira, Dhu al-Hujja 1406). Hezbollah's denial of the existence of the Holocaust takes many forms. "The Jews have never been able to prove the existence of the infamous gas chambers." Only "160,000 civilians died [and this was] as a result of US bombing of Germany." Jews collaborated with the Nazis in killing their brethren: "From what we know about the Jews, their tricks and their deception, we do not think it unlikely that they partook in the planning of the Holocaust." Saad-Ghorayeb, the source of these quotes, is a Briton of Muslim Lebanese extraction, who is sympathetic to Hezbollah. "As a Lebanese, I was appalled by the apparent ease with which this movement was accused of sundry terrorist activities by Western journalists and policy-makers, and on their insistence on referring to its guerrilla fighters, who were practicing their legitimate right to resist a foreign occupation, as terrorists." She writes favorably of Hezbollah's political evolution in Lebanese society, so there is no reason to doubt the scholarly accuracy of her representation of the movement's unreconstructed view of Israel and the Jews. (As I write this, I am pleased to see a letter to the LRB from the distinguished lawyer and literary scholar Anthony Julius, citing Saad-Ghorayeb as evidence for Hezbollah's anti-Judaism. Julius invited Glass to confirm the implication of his response to my letter that I am wrong in attributing anti-Semitism to Hezbollah and to comment on the "material assembled by Saad-Ghorayeb." So far there has been no reply from Glass, nor any statement from the editors on the matter.)

Unlike Bernard Lewis, Saad-Ghorayeb characterizes Hezbollah's view of the Jews as anti-Judaism rather than anti-Semitism. She contends that unlike Christian anti-Semitism, the radical Islamic animus against Jews, which has its source in the Koran, is not racialist. And yet she speaks of the "scriptural basis" of Hezbollah's depiction of the Jews as a people "whose blood [a racialist trope] is full of enmity towards mankind." In any event, it is not clear to me that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism makes any practical difference. What is interesting is that Saad-Ghorayeb sees Hezbollah's animus against Jewry as not deriving from its anti-Zionism (Lewis's view), but from a deeper source: its inveterate hostility to Judaism. The enemies of the movement are Jews who adhere to Judaism and to Zionism, which, Hezbollah believes, has its source in Judaism, despite the existence of secular Zionists. Because they believe that Jews who have no commitment either to Judaism or Zionism are a negligible constituency, they have no inhibitions about demonizing Jewry as a whole. Saad-Ghorayeb cites passage after passage demonstrating Hezbollah's hatred of Judaism and its desire for its disappearance. The movement arose as a reaction to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, but its hostility is not confined to Israel and its supporters. Can we then take seriously Glass's benign view that the movement, in becoming "a sophisticated and successful political party . . . [has] jettisoned its early rhetoric about making Lebanon an Islamic Republic," and now speaks "of Christians, Muslims and Druze living in harmony"? Apparently the Jews, having no place in this harmony, will simply disappear.

Alas, Charles Glass appears to be either ignorant about his subject or writing in bad faith. He is an example of moral obtuseness or callousness (it is hard to find the right word for it) in what has become an influential view among a group of American and European intellectuals. The moral logic of this view goes something like this. Israel is militarily powerful, supported by the United States, the most powerful nation in the world. Its adversaries in the Islamic world are weak, and when one measures the relative devastations caused by confrontations between the powerful and the weak, the burden of guilt falls on the most powerful. Whatever violence or cruelties issue from the weak are then morally justified by weakness. Here is Glass again: "Like Israel's previous enemies, Hezbollah relies on the weapons of the weak: car bombs, ambushes, occasional flurries or small rockets and suicide bombers. The difference is that it uses them intelligently, in conjunction with an uncompromising programme." Glass says nothing about the devastation caused by weapons of the weak. He ignores the fact that the strength of "the weak" lies in elusiveness, in the capacity to hide behind the civilian population, and in the code of martyrdom. In placing a lower valuation on human life than does the adversary, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups have a distinct strategic advantage. How do you deter a person willing to die for his cause from committing an act of violence?

What, one might ask, is accomplished by the glib and unthinking support of the use of "the weapons of the weak"? Sympathy for terrorist groups only encourages war-perpetuating intransigence on both sides. Has Israel been guilty of the use of disproportionate use of military power? I believe it has and should be held to account. Israeli power has been a response to the provocations of "the weapons of the weak," and the response has too often been destructive and self-destructive in its excesses. In its recent incursion in Lebanon, it has achieved a result similar to our misadventure in Iraq: a large number of civilian casualties, widespread devastation of the land, burgeoning resentment from a large portion of the Lebanese population that had been angered by Hezbollah's provocations. Israel failed to achieve its aims at great cost to Lebanon and to itself.

But then the question arises, "What should be the appropriate response to suicide bombings and Katyusha rockets?" There is no easy answer to this. But it is a mark of callous indifference to the fate of a country, indeed of one's own country, when another contributor to the London Review of Books, Yitzhak Laor, chastises two of Israel's most prominent critics of their own government, Amos Oz and David Grossman, for asserting the right of Israel to respond to violence against it. Grossman, for example, writes, "There is no justification for the large-scale violence that Hezbollah unleashed this week, from Lebanese territory, on dozens of peaceful Israeli villages, towns and cities. No country in the world could remain silent and abandon its citizens when its neighbor strikes without provocation." To which Laor replies irrelevantly, "We can bomb, but if they respond they are responsible for both their suffering and ours" ( LRB, August 17, 2006, p. 11). What would Laor advise as a response to such an attack? He does not say. Apparently, all that is required is for Israel to flagellate itself for what it has inflicted on others.

Let us say that Israel did not respond to provocations. Would that change Hezbollah's behavior toward Israel? Not if, as Glass tells us, its program is uncompromising. Nothing that Israel can offer the Palestinians short of its self-eradication will satisfy Hezbollah. Indeed, it has even expressed a preference for a hard-line, Likud-led government to that of the Labor Party—for that would justify its intransigence. The movement has a long view. "Even if hundreds of years pass by, Israel's existence will continue to be an illegal existence" (Saad-Ghorayeb, p. 135). It is hard to fathom what sympathy for Hezbollah by critics of Israel like Glass and Laor can accomplish in the way of achieving a peaceful solution to the conflict. On the contrary, they would seem only to foster a hardening of attitudes on all sides. In all the talk about the asymmetry between powerful Israel and its weak adversaries, what is overlooked is the asymmetry that strongly favors its adversaries. Israel has only one war to lose for its existence to come to an end. Its adversaries, miserable as their condition is, can survive war after war. In its one-sided obsession with Israeli transgressions, the London Review of Books, offering no constructive advice for ending the conflict, contributes to its perpetuation by supporting one side of the intransigence. Its indulgence of a virulently anti-Semitic movement is simply shameful.



Eugene Goodheart is Edythe Macy Professor of Humanities Emeritus at Brandeis University. He is the author of many books of literary and cultural criticism as well as a memoir, Confessions of a Secular Jew .




Footnotes:

1.) Quoted in Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Hizbu'llah: Politics and Religion, University of Michigan Press, 2001, p. 170. Original source, televised interview, Muhammad Fnayash. Wuhhat Nazar Future Television (FTV, July 2, 1997).

Continued (Permanent Link)

Hamas blows up good, like a terrorist had oughta

Quoth the Hamas:

Abu Obayda: All options is open including martyrdom operations
"Hamas blows up good, like a terrorist had oughta"
"What do you want, good grammar or good terrorism?"

The "Zionist military escalation" was the result of an incessant rain of Qassam rockets. The "martyrs" are all terrorists launching Qassam rockets, which are duly listed in the article.

The rest of the headline is even more interesting:

"All options is open including the martyrdom operations in the occupied Palestinian land in 1948".

"The occupation" is in all of "Palestine" and can only be ended with the destruction of Israel. What is you thinking of that?

Ami Isseroff

---

Abu Obayda: All options is open including martyrdom operations
Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades Information Office website
May 18th, 2007
[Hamas Web site]

Palestinian sources reported that Five members of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, were martyred on Friday morning and several others were wounded in a series of raids by Zionist fighter jets. The strikes targeted several Palestinian military bases and metal workshops. The martyrs toll as a result of the Zionist military escalation in Gaza, Thursday morning, has now risen to nine, in addition to dozens of injuries.

Palestinian sources reported that the Zionist F-16 fighters launched three rockets at an Al-Qassam site east of Gaza City, a blacksmith's workshop and a group of Palestinian fighters east of Shija'aia on Friday morning. Five activists were martyred as a result and their bodies were torn to pieces and burnt.

According to the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Palestinian ministry of health, Mu'awya Hassanein, five dead bodies arrived at Al Shifa Hospital. Hassanein added that several injuries also arrived, all of them in critical conditions.

According to Mu'awya Hassanein, ambulances cannot reach the areas which have been bombarded because the Zionist fighter planes continue to dominate the skies and target every moving object. He added that coordination with the Red Cross is ongoing because there are reports of greater numbers of dead people in areas that have been struck.

On Thursday, four people were killed and at least 50 injured in five separate Zionist air strikes on Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in the Gaza Strip. In the first strike, the Zionist fighter jets bombarded a base of the Hamas loyalist Executive Force in Gaza City, killing one and injuring dozens, in addition to destroying the building. Another air raid killed one and injured at least eight. Later on Thursday, Zionist jets struck a vehicle owned by Rafah municipality killing two workers.

In the same context, and In an exclusive contact with Abu Obayda, the spokesman of the Qassam Brigades said " All options is open including the martyrdom operations in the occupied Palestinian land in 1948".

Ezzedeen Al Qassam continued its operations against the Zionist settlements and the military bases. The Brigades declared in a statement the operations statistic in Thursday and it was as the following:
Operation:10 mortars ~Target:"Sofa" site ~Time:03:15
Operation:2 Qassam rockets ~Target:"Nir Eshaq" settlement ~Time:03:30
Operation:5 Qassam rockets ~Target:"Sedrot" settlement ~Time:08:00, 08:30,
and 09:20
Operation:2 Qassam rockets ~Target:"Nahil Oz" settlement ~Time:17:00
Operation:One Qassam rocket ~Target:"Miftahim" settlement ~Time:18:10
Operation:One Qassam rocket ~Target:"Sedrot" settlement ~Time:18:50
Operation:One Qassam rocket ~Target:"Miftahim" settlement ~Time:18:50
Operation:One Qassam rocket ~Target:"Asqalan" settlement ~Time:19:33
Operation:2 Qassam rockets ~Target:"Biery" settlement ~Time:19:50
Operation:2 Qassam rockets ~Target:"Kfar Azza" settlement~Time:20:30
Operation:One Qassam rocket ~Target:"Kfar Mimon" settlement~Time:20:45
Operation:2 Qassam rockets ~Target:"Bad Murdakhai" settlement~Time:23:30
Operation:2 Qassam rockets ~Target:"Sedrot" settlement ~Time:00:00
Operation:One Qassam rocket ~Target:"Asqalan" settlement ~Time:00:00

Abu Obayda added" These operations are part of the responding campaign against the occupation assault on the Gaza Strip, and the continued targeting of innocent Palestinian civilians and their installations in the West Bank".

Continued (Permanent Link)

Hamas TV drops militant Mickey Mouse

Who's the little rodent, who's gonna blow up you and me?
Mickey Militant, Mickey Militant,
Forever may we hold your banners high high Hi Hi!

As Mickey says:
""You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists,""

M*i*c - See you in Hell, Zionist Dog

K*e*y - Why? 'Cause we hate you.

"Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs."

Well you won't have Militant Mouse to kick around for a while.
---
Update and PS: The Hamas TV drops militant Mickey Mouse

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

A program using a Mickey Mouse-like character to urge Palestinian children to fight Israel and the West and work for world Islamic domination has been pulled off Hamas's television station for "review," Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said Wednesday.

Barghouti said the use of the cartoon character in such a role represented a "mistaken approach" to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.

Opinion: Fine-tuning Arab television

Barghouti wrote that following a request from his ministry, the program was pulled from the Hamas-affiliated Al Aksa TV and "placed under review."

In the statement, Barghouti said his ministry "would continue to ensure freedom of expression and freedom of the press, but that media outlets breaking the law would be penalized."

Barghouti complained that the Mickey Mouse story continued to receive attention by "some American television stations" after it was resolved, and that media did not broadcast video of Israeli human rights violations supplied by his ministry in recent weeks.

Israel has long complained that the Palestinian airwaves are filled with incitement.

"You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists," the cartoon character squeaked on a recent episode of the show, which is titled "Tomorrow's Pioneers."

"We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers."

Children call in to the show, many singing Hamas anthems about fighting Israel.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Ban wants to Ban Israeli surveillance of Lebanon that uncovered smuggling

UN Secretary Ban notes that Israeli overflights have uncovered arms smuggling to Hezbollah:

 

UNITED NATIONS - Illegal arms traffic into Lebanon across the Syrian border, mainly to Hezbollah fighters, is reported to be taking place on a regular basis, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday.

In a report to the UN Security Council, Ban said news of arms shipments, including "detailed and substantial" reports from Israel, and other nations, showed the need for a team he was sending to propose ways of monitoring of the border.

But rather than banning the arms shipments, Ban has a different solution:

 

Ban also singled out Israel Air Force jets and unmanned aerial overflights and said again he had asked the government to "cease fully" these "violations of Lebanon sovereignty."

With no Israeli overflights, there will be no reports of smuggling. Problem solved, right?

 

Ami Isseroff

Cross posted: Israel News   Middle East Analysis

Continued (Permanent Link)

Torture - Bet'selem versus Israel Ministry of Justice: When will Hamas and Hezbollah issue a report like this?

The report below was issued by the Israel Ministry of Justice in reply to a Betselem challenge regarding allegations of torture and improper treatment by Israeli authorities of terror suspects.

Among other things it states:

The IDF has been striving to assimilate the judicial rules affecting both proper conduct in combat and in conjunction with the civilian population, among its soldiers by means of training and teaching. Officers of the Military Attorney General's Law School, who lead the training in this field, have held numerous lectures on the subject in recent years, in which thousands of soldiers took part. The training focuses, among other things, on the duty of IDF soldiers of all ranks to provide humane and proper treatment to detainees captured by the IDF, while maintaining their dignity as human beings.

Suppose you are interrogating a female would-be suicide bomber, who entered Israel with her underwear full of explosives, on the pretext of seeking urgent medical treatment in Soroka hospital. Her intention was to blow up the hospital, doctors and patients as well as herself. How do you maintain the "human dignity" of such a person, and what human dignity has she left to herself? It is a difficult problem, I would think.

The report below is certainly not perfect, and the use of torture is regrettable. It should be pointed out that Betselem is an Israeli organization. Accordinlgy, we are anxiously awaiting the protests of Lebanese and Palestinian human rights organizations concerning the treatment of Israeli soldiers detained in Gaza and Lebanon, and likewise the replies of the Hezbollah and the Hamas, and thespective Lebanese and Palestinian judicial authorities. Do you think we will have to wait a long time?

Ami Isseroff

State of Israel
Ministry of Justice
The Department for International Agreements and International Litigation The following is a translation of the Hebrew version, In case of divergence of interpretation, the Hebrew text shall prevail.

E-Mail: international@justice.gov.il
Date: 8 Iyar, 5767
28 April 2007
Re: 2752
Mr. Yechezkel Lein
B'tselem
8 HaTa'asiya St.,
Jerusalem 91531

Dear Sir,

Re: Reference to "B'tselem" Draft Report "Torture and Abuse towards
Palestinian Detainees"

Your letter regarding our reference to the abovementioned draft report was received by our office, and our response is as follows:

Methodology

1. The report was based upon a non representative sample that seems to have been deliberately chosen which distorts the reality prevailing in the course of arrest and interrogation of security prisoners.

2. Presenting a report which includes description of cases with no identifying details and without allowing the relevant authorities, headed by ISA and the IDF, to review those specific cases raised within, effectively denies these authorities the opportunity to examine the claims raised in the
report.

Claims regarding the Operational Rank

A. IDF soldiers

3. An enquiry held resulted with the following findings:

3.1. The admittance procedure in a detention facility:

3.1.1. The procedure, except for rare circumstances, is extremely short, and contrary to claims raised in the report, does not include undressing of detainees, except for strictly defined cases.

3.1.2. Includes a mandatory examination by either a medic or a physician, in order to determine aptness for arrest.

3.1.3. Includes an inquiry about injuries, if occurred, during the arrest and escort, and if the detainee claims that he was beaten or if signs of violence are found on his body, the details of the case are transferred to the Military Police for investigation.

3.2. A professional Escort squad has been established in order to insure proper conditions during transfer of detainees between facilities.

3.3. Every case of deviation from the rules of conduct, including such rare cases where cursing or beating occurs, is examined and treated. As aforesaid, additional information about the cases mentioned in the report would have allowed the IDF to check each such individual case.

4. The IDF has been striving to assimilate the judicial rules affecting both proper conduct in combat and in conjunction with the civilian population, among its soldiers by means of training and teaching. Officers of the Military Attorney General's Law School, who lead the training in this field, have held numerous lectures on the subject in recent years, in which thousands of soldiers took part. The training focuses, among other things, on the duty of IDF soldiers of all ranks to provide humane and proper treatment to detainees captured by the IDF, while maintaining their dignity as human beings. Lectures on these subjects are also incorporated as an integral part in the IDF basic training, including officers training and courses held in the IDF's Tactical Command Academy. The Military Law School also provides designated lectures focused on proper treatment of detainees.

5. In addition, the Military Law School produced various guidance materials, including educational computer programs in the aforesaid fields, which allow effective guidance for multiple populations. These programs, commonly used as vital guidance tools of IDF soldiers and officers, refer, inter alia, to proper treatment of detainees while emphasizing the strict prohibition of applying inhumane or degrading treatment to detainees captured by IDF forces.

B. Israeli Police Officers

6. Israeli police officers that operate in police detention facilities, in which ISA interrogators operate, comply with law and its frame, and the treatment of detainees held in these facilities, including security detainees, is compatible to the law as well as internal police regulations and is subject to continuous scrutiny by the Department for the Investigation of Police Officers in the Ministry of Justice and of the courts.

C. Interrogators of the ISA

7. The Israel Security Agency is responsible by law for the safeguarding of Israel's security, regime, and state institutions, from terror threats, espionage and other threats. In order to do so, it has the duty to foil and prevent any unlawful activity aiming to harm the aforesaid targets.

8. In order to fulfill its purpose, the Agency performs, among other things, investigations of suspects in terrorist activity. The main goal of such investigation is data gathering intended to foil and prevent terrorist acts.

9. The day by day fighting against terrorist infrastructure that seeks to carry out terrorist attacks and to spread death and destruction within the state of Israel, obligates the security services, including the interrogators of the Israel Security Agency, to make every effort to foil and disrupt such aspirations. The last few years saw many civilians' lives saved as a direct consequence of data originating from those investigations.

10. The report itself refers to a group which is named in the report as "ordinary" detainees, concerning interrogatees which were arrested between 13 - 17 of July 2005, when on the day of July 12, 2005 there was a terrorist attack in the city of Netanya, that caused the death of five people and the injury of many others. (The other group - mentioned in the report as "senior detainees" - includes Palestinians arrested between July 2005 and January 2006).

11. Following the abovementioned terrorist attack, suspects associated with the attack were arrested and interrogated, and as a result of the interrogations, the perpetrators of the attack, as well as the terror infrastructures that supported them, were exposed. In addition, more terrorist units were exposed and weapons that were to be put in use in future terrorist attacks were handed over.

12. Due to confidentiality reasons we can not address here, in details, the interrogation techniques mentioned in the report, and therefore may not address each and every claim raised in the report in this context. Furthermore, since the report does not mention specifically the names of the detainees who have initiated the complaints, the accuracy of the claims cannot be examined. We will state, however, that the report is fraught with mistakes, groundless claims and inaccuracies.

13. In order to illustrate the inaccuracy and the tendentiousness of the report, a few salient examples can be pointed out. The claims, for instance, as if the ISA uses measures intended to cause "detachment" of the interrogatees from the outside world, while instilling a feeling of uncertainty about their fate, are unfounded. In this matter we would like to point that persons interrogated by the ISA receive, at the beginning of the interrogation, a document that states their rights as interrogatees in a criminal investigation, stating their right to refrain from self incrimination, their right to see a lawyer', etc. All this in contrast to the claims in the report.

14. Another example in this context is found in the claim that the Israel Security Agency deals with "designing the appearance" of the food given to the detainees, "in order to create a deterring affect", which is supposed to create disgust and deterrence among the interrogatees. This bizarre claim is unfounded and is indicative of the lack of seriousness and tendentiousness of the person claiming it.

15. As a further example, we would like to point out that there in no basis for the claim that interrogators of the ISA routinely practice the habit of "cursing and swear wording the interrogatees callously and rudely".

16. The claim as if the Israel Security Agency is involved in the undressing of the detainees as part of the admittance procedure is unfounded as well. The ISA is not involved in the detainees' admittance procedure and certainly does not instruct that detainees will be completely undressed on their arrival to the facility, as claimed.

17. We shall reemphasize that these are only examples concerning the framework of the matters, and that it is impossible to refer to each and every claim that appears in the report.

18. Regarding the issue claimed in the report concerning the use of the term "military investigation", it should be pointed out that this term has a vague meaning, hence perceived differently by different people. Despite the above, it has been recently decided that ISA investigators shall avoid using this term in general.

19. It should be clarified that ISA investigations are performed in accordance with the law, procedures and instructions, while being regularly scrutinized by Israel Security Agency supervision bodies, the Ministers' Commission for Israel Security Agency Issues, the Subcommittee fo r Intelligence and Secret Services of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset, the Ministry of Justice, the State Comptroller's Office and the different legal instances of the courts.

Claims Regarding the Supervision Mechanisms

A. the Ministry of Justice

20. The ISA complaints inspector (hereinafter, "the Inspector") - an integral part of the ISA - operates independently, and no element within the ISA, including the head of the Agency, has the authority to interfere with his investigation manner or his findings and he performs a practical and comprehensive investigation which is not dependent on all other elements within the Agency.

21. The appointment of such Inspector is carefully carried out in order to avoid any conflict of interests emanating from any of the various positions held by the Inspector in the past or present, with his role as an Inspector. Accordingly, the present Inspector, as his predecessors, was not an investigator in his past career.

22. It should be emphasized that there are clear advantages for appointing an ISA member as an Inspector. Being familiar with the system, he is allowed access to all the relevant information, including highly sensitive materials, hence he is able to comprehend that information better than any external factor, since as a member of the ISA he is familiar with the organization's culture and the "organization's language".

23. The Inspector operates under the instruction and close guidance of the Ministry of Justice's specially designated supervisor, who is a high-ranking attorney in the Ministry of Justice. The Inspector is professionally guided by the supervisor which, in turn, approves the Inspector's decisions.

24. In addition, the supervisor of the Inspector is vested with the authority to initiate an examination of a complaint, whereas the ISA or the Inspector does not have the ability to prevent such examination from taking place.

25. Following completion of an Inspector's investigation, the investigation report is examined thoroughly by the supervisor. The investigation report is further examined by the Attorney General and the State Attorney when the issues mentioned in the report are sensitive or when the circumstances so necessitate

B. IDF

26. Complaints concerning harm to Palestinians or soldiers' behavior are solemnly inspected and examined. The Military Attorney's general policy is that complaints concerning violence of soldiers towards Palestinian residents - all the more so in abuse complaints - are investigated by the Investigating Military Police. Thus, in the year 2006, of the 71 complaints submitted regarding soldiers' violence in Judea and Samaria, 61 investigations were initiated. In the year 2005, 87 complaints of violence were submitted and 76 investigations initiated. It should be clarified that contrary to the information in the draft report, the opening of criminal investigation files against soldiers, including in such cases where unjustified violence was ostensibly involved amid arrests and holding detainees in custody, is not subject to the Military Attorney General's pre-affirmation. Military Police's investigation files are frequently opened immediately upon complaints' submission, with no instruction of the Military Attorney's Office.

27. Contrary to the claims, a special effort is devoted in order to severely judge those who abuse Palestinians or apply force unlawfully. Severe indictments are submitted in every case where sufficient evidence - gathered in full compatibility with criminal law requirements - is presented, alongside with prosecution's appeal for imposing ample imprisonment periods. In suitable cases, appeals were lodged by the prosecution to the Military Court of Appeals for aggravation of the punishments.

28. In addition, it should be pointed out that several meetings were held in the past between the Military Attorney's Office' senior officers and representatives of "B'tselem" organization. It was clarified to the "B'tselem" representatives in a number of occasions that every complaint concerning soldiers' violence communicated to the Military Attorney's Office will be seriously examined in accordance with the Military Attorney's Office policy.

29. Military Courts also pertain an uncompromising position in regard to violence offences committed by soldiers towards Palestinian detainees, as can be inferred from the following examples:

29.1. Cen/274/06 - A soldier was convicted of an offence of abuse for beating a handcuffed Palestinian detainee. Further to his demotion back to private, the soldier was sentenced to seven months of imprisonment, out of which four months were to be served in prison and the rest by a suspended imprisonment for two years, provided he would not commit any further offence involving threat or violence. The military court stated in its decision that:

"It is unnecessary to heap words as to the gravity of the act in which the defendant was convicted. The Military Court of Appeals expressed its opinion in the recent years about acts of this kind, the severe and serious fault attached to them and the severe harm to the IDF's reputation and the purity of its lines. Indeed, the defendant deserves an aggravated penalty for his acts which hold an element of harm to a helpless person, even if the person was regarded according to the defendant's point of view, as a terrorist and one who carried out shooting attacks against our forces. When the terrorist was arrested, handcuffed and could not react anymore, there is a grave prohibition to harming him in any manner and the fact that no injury or damage was caused to him can not reduce significantly the moral fault of the act".

29.2. Cen/472/05 - A soldier was convicted of an offence of abuse and a related offence of improper behavior for beating a handcuffed Palestinian detainee. The indictment was submitted against the soldier who already served a sentence of 28 days of imprisonment and had been suspended from serving as a combat soldier, following his conviction in a disciplinary court. As the military court was not satisfied with this punishment, it convicted the defendant as previously mentioned and sentenced him for an additional sentence of 45 days of imprisonment and 5 months of suspended imprisonment for two years if committing an offence concerning abuse, assault or act of violence against other person, thus in total, the soldier was sentenced to two and a half months of imprisonment. As well as demoted to private. One of the judges pointed out in his judgment that "the behavior of the defendant imposes disgrace on him, tarnishes his unit, damages the combat ethics of the IDF and reflects upon the image of the IDF on the whole and the image of its soldiers".

29.3. Cen/471/05 - A soldier was convicted of an offence of abuse and an offence of dishonorable behavior due to the beating of Palestinian detainees who were under his custody. The soldier was sentenced to a punishment of four months of imprisonment, three of which in prison and the rest by suspended imprisonment if committing an offence of abuse or violence against another person in a period of three years. In addition, the soldier was demoted back to private.

30. In accordance with the Supreme Court's recommendation in HCJ 3985/03 Bedawi et.al. v. the Commander of IDF forces in Judea and Samaria et. al, an advising committee to the Chief of Stuff was appointed, headed by a military-juristic judge, that carries out occasional inspections of the incarceration conditions in detention facilities under IDF responsibility. In addition, inspections of this matter are carried out by the Control and Supervision Unit which is subjected to the Deputy to the Chief of Stuff. Following recommendation submitted by the advising committee, several changes were recently applied in order to improve the incarceration conditions, including the transfer of authority over detention facilities to the Regional Military Police Commander, whereas authority over incarceration facilities was transferred to the Israeli Prisons Service, budgets of incarceration facilities were increased and a specialized task force responsible for escorting the detainees was established. Fully recognizing the importance of the subject, the IDF has continuously been striving to improve incarceration conditions in the few detention facilities that remain under its responsibility.

Sincerely yours,

Boaz Oren, Adv.

Deputy Director

C.c: Mr. Meni Mazuz, the Attorney General
Mr. Eran Shendar, the State Attorney
The legal advisor of Israel Security Agency
Brigadier General Avichai Mandelblit, Judge-Advocate General
Mr. Shai Nitzan, the Deputy to the State Attorney (Special Affairs)
Mr. Yoel Hadar, the legal advisor, the Ministry of Public Security
The Supervisor of the Inspector for the Complaints within ISA, the State
Attorney's Office


--------------------------------------------
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website: www.imra.org.il

Continued (Permanent Link)

Islamophobia and Londonistan: How Britain should fight terror

You know what sort of person would write something like this, right?

Britain teems with nests of serpents and scorpions of extremism who come from around the world: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Syria, Pakistan and other countries due to its flexible systems and the adoption of a policy to receive outcasts during the aftermath of World War II and the Soviet-Western conflict during which doors were opened to persecuted refugees who sought their rights....

I think they must do what other Muslim and non-Muslim countries have done before them--accept fighting extremists by cutting off the oxygen that sustains extremist groups: their newspapers, radio stations, televisions, forums, mosques and websites. Through publicity, they can raise funds, recruit volunteers and secure popular support within foreign communities. The question is: how can the codified British system allow that? The answer lies with the hesitant legislators who are practically on the brink of a terrorist war today. After all, pursuing extremist Muslims today is better than pursuing all Muslims tomorrow.

It must've been a neocon Zionist reactionary Islamophobe, right? Someone with a "Zionist" name like Goldstein or Perle perhaps. Or maybe it was a Christian Zionist zealot?

No, It was Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, who is general manager of Al Arabiya television.

This is the straight stuff. Blessings to you brother Al-Rashed. Salam Aleikum warahmatulahi.

Ami Isseroff

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Britain: On the Brink of A Terrorist War

04/05/2007

Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed

I believe that the recent court rulings against the British Muslims [linked to Al Qaeda] were the first strike in a tough war. Britain teems with nests of serpents and scorpions of extremism who come from around the world: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Syria, Pakistan and other countries due to its flexible systems and the adoption of a policy to receive outcasts during the aftermath of World War II and the Soviet-Western conflict during which doors were opened to persecuted refugees who sought their rights. The paradox is that it is in Britain, the object of hate for many fundamentalists, where these very people practice their full rights and enjoy what they were deprived of in their native countries.

Until four years ago, Britain's intellects had said that they were willing to tolerate what these people had to say out of protecting individual rights and the right to free speech and political opposition. We used to say to them that we all supported that right but that these people had no relation to freedom and unfortunately never respected the rights of others. They despised the regime that protected them and privately and publicly conspired against society. Unfortunately, these intellects turned a blind eye, believing that we pursued opponents, instead of examining the extremism phenomenon in the Arab and Muslim world to identify the nature of the problem. Several reports and articles appeared in the British media glorifying and supporting these groups both in their homelands and in Britain without realizing their extremist Fascist nature that compared to and even surpassed the capability of Nazism to destroy the social fabric.

Britain is faced with a very difficult problem, confronting a foreign enemy amid social sensitivity and slow-moving legal systems that limit its activity. A key to success is to know opponents and be capable of integrating with their community, which is possible in the Arab states because extremists share a similar background and these states have large law enforcement agencies that can detain and interrogate suspects and can even expel unwanted foreigners if it is believed that they are causing trouble. However, this is not possible to apply in Britain and therefore it will not be easy for British security to combat both the dangers of secret organizations and education provided in residential communities where extremists hide.

Unfortunately, we can only expect more terrorist operations in Britain because all indicators show that extremists have spent a number of years destroying the minds of young British Muslims under various religious and social claims, and it will not be easy to stop the waves of training or, firstly, ban extremist education.

What can the British authorities do?

I think they must do what other Muslim and non-Muslim countries have done before them—accept fighting extremists by cutting off the oxygen that sustains extremist groups: their newspapers, radio stations, televisions, forums, mosques and websites. Through publicity, they can raise funds, recruit volunteers and secure popular support within foreign communities. The question is: how can the codified British system allow that? The answer lies with the hesitant legislators who are practically on the brink of a terrorist war today. After all, pursuing extremist Muslims today is better than pursuing all Muslims tomorrow.

Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed
the general manager of Al -Arabiya television. Mr. Al Rashed is also the former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al- Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly magazine, Al Majalla. He is also a senior Columnist in the daily newspapers of Al Madina and Al Bilad. He is a US post-graduate degree in mass communications. He has been a guest on many TV current affairs programs. He is currently based in Dubai.

Continued (Permanent Link)

The pro-terrorism lobby PR campaign

An Anti-Israel ad campaign for Washington DC subways is being dismissed as ineffective by pro-Israel groups, but any propaganda is effective to some extent. It reaches someone. It helps to popularize a slogan and an attitude. It builds sentiment and a support group incrementally. It would be wrong to try to quash the campaign, but it would surely be right to spend some resources in presenting the case for Israel in the same way. Unfortunately, in the 1950s and 1960s nobody launched a campaign to end the illegal Jordanian occupation of Jerusalem, and in 1914, nobody thought of launching a campaign to end the longest occupation in history, the foreign occupation of the land of Israel. And today, nobody is thinking of effective advertising campaigns to present the truth about Israeli Palestinian conflict.

The ACLU insisted that this unfair advertising campaign had to be allowed in order to provide "freedom of speech." The ACLU is incorrect. The Washington DC subways are a public utility, and the municipality and the directors of the subways have an obligation to keep unseemly racist and political propaganda out of the subways. Advertisements in support of the racial inferiority of black people would not be allowed in the subways under the rubric of "freedom of speech." Moreover, ACLU does not champion "freedom of speech" for causes it does not like. The film Obsession, which documents anti-American and anti-Israel incitement by radical Muslims and Palestinian Arabs, was banned from mainstream American movie theaters and blocked on campuses. The ACLU did not not take up their cause. "Freedom of expression" is guaranteed only for messages that certain people like, and not for others, but nobody seems to mind.

As Snoopy the Goon points out, boycott campaigns and ad campaigns have a cumulative effect, even if they are really representative of a tiny minority at first. Giving them publicity by protesting or blocking them will back-fire, but pro-active publicity and initiatives to counter them are essential.

Here is the full story of the Anti-Israel ad campaign :

WASHINGTON, D.C. - area commuters will be inundated with a controversial poster-ad campaign when they take the city's subway system next month.

Starting May 13 for four weeks, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has ordered 20 of its subway stations to place posters advertising a June 10 rally to end "Israel's illegal military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem."

Initiated by a charity called the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, the 46-by-60-inch posters depict an imposing tank pointing its main firing turret at a child with a schoolbag walking along a dirt road.

"Imagine if this were your child's path to school. Palestinians don't have to imagine," the poster states, before continuing to call for an end to U.S. aid for "Israel's brutal military occupation. paid for by U.S. taxpayers like you."

CBS Outdoor, the New York-based firm that places in-station advertising for WMATA, at first refused to consider the poster, but eventually relented to pressure from WMATA and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

According to an April 4 report in the Washington Jewish Week online, the U.S. Campaign contacted the ACLU, which then advised WMATA to order CBS Outdoor to place the posters, citing freedom of speech rights.

Joanne Ferreira, a WMATA spokesperson, said, "We didn't have any problem with the ad. It was a First Amendment issue."

In the same report, Oren Segal, a spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League said, "If past events by this organization are any indication, it will make no attempt to present a balanced view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and this ad is a pure reflection of that."

Jodi Senese, CBS Outdoor's executive vice-president in charge of marketing, explained to The CJN last week why she first turned away the poster.

"I initially rejected it on grounds that I thought it was too inflammatory to children," she said over the phone from her Manhattan office.

Senese recalled that she told U.S. Campaign staff that if they wanted to raise awareness for their campaign, she was fine with it based on First Amendment rights, "but not like this," she said.

The U.S. Campaign claims 250 member organizations in the United States. Its website features a prominent logo with the slogan, "Apartheid: Wrong for South Africans. Wrong for Palestinians."

Senese, who is Jewish, indicated that though she was uneasy with the ad, her personal feelings were not a part of her initial decision to dismiss the ad.

"I'm very proud [of being a Jew]," Senese said. "I thought the image was inflammatory, but I also believe in our First Amendment rights. As Jews [in America], we thrive on that right as well."

Senese indicated at the time of the interview, that to her knowledge no other group had yet come forward with a counter-campaign for CBS Outdoor to run.

Arthur Spitzer, who is Jewish and the legal director for the ACLU in the National Capital Area, told the Washington Jewish Week it wasn't "a case about Judaism or Israel. but about establishing someone's right to freedom of speech, which I agree with regardless of whether I agree with their particular political position."

Jewish organizations in the D.C. area downplayed the seriousness of the upcoming campaign.

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, president of Washington-based pro-Israel think-tank, the Israel Project, said her organization didn't consider the ad campaign worth wasting resources to counter in the media and expected the ads to have a "minimum impact."

She said when the Israel Project and other prominent Jewish organizations in the area first learned about the ad, they worried about its "ominous" potential.

They discussed the matter at length and then conducted several focus group studies on the ad with dozens of "highly educated people" before concluding the ad wasn't worth combating actively.

In fact, Laszlo Mizrahi claimed that of the dozens who analyzed the ad in the focus groups, upon first glance most thought the tank was an American one surrounded by Iraqi children. And even when they read the poster's words, participants had little sympathy for the cause, she said.

"It's a poorly run... poorly executed campaign and the American people are onto [the U.S. Campaign's] game," Laszlo Mizrahi said. "There are real, legitimate threats to the U.S.-Israel relationship - this is just not one of
them.

"If these guys want to build support for their cause, they need to have something to sell that doesn't encourage children to blow themselves up."

Unfortunately, Laszlo Mizrahi is wrong. Our biggest enemy is complacency, based on the premise that "nobody will believe that crazy rubbish." People believe the darndest things, for reasons that have little to do with logic. The Hamas movement and Al-Qaeda have built their political empires based on the premise that one can encourage children and adults to blow themselves up. It seems crazy to the rest of us, but it works for them. And their "philosophy" is supported by political scientists who excuse terrorism and suicide bombing in different ways. Messages manage to make their way into people's minds in ways that defy logical analysis. If, for example, people at first mistake the tank for an American tank, they will link the Israeli occupation with the US war in Iraq, which most Americans now oppose. Rest assured, that if this campaign makes mistakes, the next ad campaign will learn from those mistakes. Where are our posters, showing the results of suicide bombings and the Muslim demonstrators carrying signs, "Europe is the Cancer, Islam is the answer?"

Ami Isseroff

Continued (Permanent Link)

Deja vu all over again: Hamas arming terrorists clandestinely

It states, "Hamas is emerging as the lynchpin of Palestinian terrorist activities against Israel. "

 

You don't say!

 

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Security sources: Hamas is arming Islamic Jihad with Qassams

 

By Ze'ev Schiff and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents

 

Security sources on Thursday said Hamas is supporting Islamic Jihad's rocket attacks against Israel with behind-the-scenes activities that include arming the organization's militants with Qassam rockets.

 

They said Hamas is emerging as the lynchpin of Palestinian terrorist activities against Israel.

 

While Hamas is maintaining a front of abiding by the cease-fire with Israel in the Gaza Strip, it is providing Qassam rockets to Islamic Jihad militants who are targeting Israeli towns in the south, the security sources said.

 

 

Meanwhile, for the first time on Thursday, Hamas extremists openly demonstrated against the leadership of the group.

 

A group of nearly 200 gunmen from the military wing of Hamas and the Executive Force demonstrated in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip against the unity government and declared that they will only abide by orders from the former foreign and interior ministers, Mahmoud Al-Zahar and Said Sayam.

 

Another reason for the mutiny revolves around disputes over the identity of the Palestinian prisoners on a list provided to Israel recently, for a possible exchange for the release of abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

 

Some of the demonstrators argued that the list of prisoners was prepared by those prisoners' relatives.

 

A meeting scheduled Wednesday between Nizar Riyan, a senior figure in the political leadership of Hamas, and members of the "rebels" ended with an exchange of gunfire near Riyan's home.

 

According to security sources, Hamas has adopted a strategy of duality, which will be maintained under all circumstances, including a situation of a general cease-fire. On the basis of this strategy, a Palestinian organization will continue violent activities against Israel notwithstanding a cease-fire.

 

This was a similar strategy used by Yasser Arafat, who committed the PLO in agreements to preserve cease-fires, but was always careful to retain his ties with extremist organizations that would continue their terrorist activities against Israel.

 

In the past, Israeli intelligence provided evidence exposing this strategy.

 

As such, so long as Hamas continues to cooperate with Islamic Jihad, sources say that the value and reliability of a cease-fire agreement is dubious.

 

The cooperation between Hamas and Islamic Jihad involves an agreement not only to turn a blind eye to the rocket attacks against Israel, but also to provide the militants with the hardware.

 

It is believed that Hamas had provided Islamic Jihad militants with Russian-made Grad rockets with a range of 16 kilometers, and which were used to target Ashkelon on June 18, 2006.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Hamas: Salvation will come only when we kill the Jews

What to do if the "democratically elected" government wans to democratically kill all the Jews.

 

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Hamas Spokesman: Genocide of Jews remains Hamas goal
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

 Introduction
As Hamas seeks international recognition by softening its tone in English, in Arabic it continues the calls for genocide of Jews. In a recent sermon on PA TV, Hamas spokesman Dr. Ismail Radwan made it clear that the classical Hamas ideology had not changed, including its continued incorporation of extremist Islamic beliefs into Hamas ideology and policy. He reiterated:

1. The Hour – the Islamic Resurrection and End of Time– is literally dependent on the killing of Jews by Muslims.
2. The remaining Jews will unsuccessfully attempt to hide, as the rocks and trees will expose them, calling out "there is a Jew behind me, kill him!"
3. "Palestine… will be liberated through the rifle," a euphemism meaning that Israel will be destroyed through violence.

The Hamas spokesman ended with prayers to Allah to "take" Israel and the USA.

The following is the text of the Hamas spokesman's call for genocide of Jews:

The Hamas spokesman, Dr. Ismail Radwan, PA TV, March 30, 2007 -

The Hour [Resurrection] will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims kill them, and the rock and the tree will say: "Oh, Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, kill him!"

We must remind our Arab and Muslim nation, its leaders and people, its scholars and students, remind them that Palestine and the Al Aqsa mosque will not be liberated through summits nor by international resolutions, but it will be liberated through the rifle. It will not be liberated through negotiations, but through the rifle, since this occupation knows no language but the language of force… O Allah, strengthen Islam and Muslims, and bring victory to your Jihad-fighting worshipers, in Palestine and everywhere… Allah take the oppressor Jews and Americans and their supporters!

Click here to see the video

 Please feel free to forward this bulletin, crediting Palestinian Media Wat

Continued (Permanent Link)

Egypt uncovers two tunnels on Gaza border, arrests Palestinian

There has to be a more efficient way to discover such tunnels. Someone should be spending money in finding it. It could be a capacitance bridge device, fiber optic cable, sonic or infrared device.

 

But it is nice to know that someone is trying and succeeding the good old way, and that that someone is our former enemies. Maybe peace really can work...

 

Ami Isseroff

 

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Last update - 09:28 09/04/2007   

Egypt uncovers two tunnels on Gaza border, arrests Palestinian

 

By The Associated Press

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/846663.html

Egyptian authorities arrested a Palestinian in the Sinai Peninsula on Sunday who allegedly crossed from Gaza to Egypt in one of two recently dug underground tunnels, a security official said.

 

The two tunnels were uncovered in the Egyptian border city of Rafah. The first tunnel was found by border guards and police in the area, who earlier arrested a Palestinian man in his early 20s as he tried to cross the border in the freshly dug tunnel, the official said.

 

Capt. Mohammed Badr of the North Sinai Peninsula police said after searching the tunnel, police also found water and food inside of it.

 

Badr added that security authorities were questioning the Palestinian man.

 

Another tunnel was discovered inside a residential area in the city of Rafah, Badr said.

 

Security forces did not seal off the second tunnel because they hope to arrest more people trying to sneak into or out of Egypt, he said.

 

Israel has long accused Egypt of not doing enough to stop the smuggling of weapons to Palestinian militants. Egypt has rejected the allegations but recently said it would make a greater effort to crack down on the trafficking.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Abbas asks for quiet, Palestinians disagree

From the horse's mouth, and requiring no further comment.

 

Military faction in Gaza says Abbas' comments are an insult to the
Palestinian resistance
Date: 08 / 04 / 2007  Time:  14:19

Gaza - Ma'an - The An-Nasser Salah Ad-Din brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), have criticized the statements made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in which he criticized the launching of projectiles at Israeli communities inside Israel from the Gaza Strip.

The brigades said they consider such statements as an insult to the Palestinian resistance. In a statement issued on Sunday, the brigades said that the projectiles are a "normal and natural retaliation for the Israeli crimes."

The statement added that the projectiles are "part of the strategic arsenal to protect the fighters and to defend themselves."

According to a Reuters report, on Saturday Abbas called on members of his presidential guards and national security forces to step up efforts to prevent the firing of projectiles so "that our people can lead a safe life".

Continued (Permanent Link)

The curse of Gaza

"Anyone who does not admit that there's a curse in the Gaza Strip does not know what he's talking about" - Mohamed Dahlan.

 

Vioence is the curse of Gaza. Violence induced by a culture of violence. The Palestinians have sown the wind of violence and terror, and in Gaza they are reaping the whirlwind of chaose and lawlessness.

 

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PA fears UN may order all aid workers out of lawless Gaza
Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST Apr. 5, 2007

Palestinian Authority officials on Thursday expressed fear that the United Nations may formally declare the Gaza Strip a dangerous zone - a move that would result in the evacuation of the remaining foreign nationals from the area and drastically hamper international humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

PA security sources told The Jerusalem Post that 25 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip last month in internal fighting. Another four were killed in the West Bank, the sources added.

"We're moving very quickly toward such a scenario," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, member of the PLO executive committee and a close aide to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. "The Gaza Strip is full of thugs and gangsters who are responsible for the ongoing anarchy. Soon the Gaza Strip may be declared a dangerous zone, which means that all international organizations would have to leave."

The UN has yet to issue any formal statement to such effect.

Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat warned that a "dangerous zone" declaration would increase the suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and called on the PA security forces to start working to end the state of lawlessness and anarchy.

"The Gaza Strip has become worse than Somalia," a prominent human rights activist in Gaza City told the Post. "Thousands of gunmen continue to roam the streets and the new government hasn't done anything to restore law and order. Every day you hear horror stories about people who are killed and wounded. The situation is really intolerable."

Muhammad Dahlan, who was recently appointed PA National Security Adviser, said it was time to admit that a "curse has hit" the Gaza Strip. "Anyone who does not admit that there's a curse in the Gaza Strip does not know what he's talking about," he said.

Dahlan expressed concern over the wave of kidnappings in Gaza, noting that a local engineer who was abducted several months ago was still being held by his captors. He said that the National Security Council was now preparing a security plan that would end the state of anarchy in the PA-controlled areas.

"The Palestinian security establishment needs to undergo major surgery," he added. "The situation is catastrophic and many young men prefer to work for clans and not the security forces."

Dahlan met earlier with the British consul-general in Jerusalem, Richard Makepeace, and briefed him on the PA's efforts to release kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, who was snatched by masked gunmen in Gaza City three weeks ago.

Hassan Khraisheh, deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said that the commanders of the PA security forces knew where Johnston was being held, but were doing nothing to release him. "What's the point in having 85,000 security officers if they can't free a foreign journalist who has been held in the Gaza Strip for three weeks?" he asked.

Dozens of Palestinian journalists demonstrated outside Abbas's office in Gaza City on Thursday to protest against the abduction of Johnston. Addressing the journalists, Abbas said he was doing his utmost to secure the release of the BBC corespondent.

"This case will be resolved very soon," he said without elaborating. "We will not allow such things to recur." Abbas's bodyguards fired into the air to prevent the protesters from approaching his office. No one was hurt.

Abbas and PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh agreed to form a joint "operations command" to follow up on the case of Johnston.

The new PA government is expected to hold an emergency meeting in Gaza City on Saturday to discuss ways of restoring law and order. But many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip expressed pessimism, saying it was too late
to talk about ending the state of chaos.

"There are too many gangs and weapons out there," said the human rights activist. "No government will be able to create a new situation."

He pointed out that at least 46 civilians had been kidnapped in the Gaza Strip in the past four weeks. The latest kidnappings took place on Thursday, when unidentified gunmen abducted three people, including one woman, in separate incidents.

Most of the kidnappings were related to family feuds and rivalries between political groups, particularly Fatah and Hamas.

 

Also Thursday, the bullet-riddled body of a Hamas security official, Muhammad Abu Hajileh, was discovered east of Gaza City. Abu Hajileh was a member of Hamas's "Executive Force" in the Gaza Strip.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Is the Gaza truce over?

It looks like the Gaza truce is over, sort of...

 

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Last update - 16:41 04/04/2007   

 

IDF troops enter northern Gaza to pursue Jihad gunmen, kill one

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/845048.html

By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and News Agencies

 

Israel Defence Forces troops on Tuesday afternoon entered the Gaza Strip in pursuit of Islamic Jihad militants, killing one, injuring another and arresting a third.

 

Infantry troops entered the area after spotting the militants planting explosives by the security fence along the Gaza Strip.

 

The militants detonated two explosive devices during the incident. No IDF soldiers were injured.

 

Palestinian officials speaking on condition of anonymity say the IDF initially prevented Palestinian ambulances from evacuating the wounded, which they said also included two farmers.

 

Islamic Jihad militants frequently fire Qassam rockets into Israel from the zone where the incident took place.

 

IDF soldier moderately wounded while on patrol in Jenin
An Israel Defense Forces soldier was moderately wounded predawn Wednesday while patrolling in the West Bank city of Jenin.

 

The soldier was wounded in the shoulder in an ambush by Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp. He was evacuated to Haemek Hospital in Afula.

 

On Tuesday, a wanted Fatah militant was seriously injured by IDF troops in the West Bank city of Nablus.

 

The incident occurred after soldiers from a patrol unit of the Golani Brigade noticed a group of five armed men approaching them.

 

In an exchange of fire, the wanted militant Ahmed Sanakra was badly wounded and taken to a nearby hospital in the city. He left behind his M-16 rifle.

 

The IDF reported no injuries in