03.31.04 (10:00 pm) [edit]
[i][b]By MICHAEL FREUND, the Jerusalem Post[/b][/i]
A devout Muslim college student in Canada known for her pro-Israel views on campus has received death threats after expressing support for the Jewish state's right to exist.
"As a result of my pro-Israel views, I have received a lot of verbal assault, and a few threats to my life," Sarah Nasser, a third-year student at the University of Toronto, told The Jerusalem Post.
"I received some violent resentment from the pro-Palestinian left-wing majority on campus. Most of my Muslim friends do not respect my views," she said.
Born in Canada to parents who migrated from Tanzania, Nasser is a religious Muslim who covers her head with a veil and lives according to the rules of the Koran. She recently returned from a visit to Israel, and signed a petition to the United Nations denouncing suicide bombings.
"Being a supporter of the existence of Israel does not conflict with Islam, it complements Islam," she said. "The Koran does not have any verses that do not allow for the Jews to return to the Land of Israel." Nasser says that the North American media fails to portray the "severity" of the Palestinian uprising, and says that the armed uprising is proof that "Yasser Arafat and his followers will do whatever it takes and cause as much bloodshed as is necessary to overtake all of Israel."
Active in campus political groups, Nasser urges the Jewish State to do more to improve its image abroad, saying that pro-Israel Muslims should be brought here to "show them what Israel is like, and to equip them with the knowledge to speak out in their communities about how sweet a country Israel is."
"I love Jews as I love true Muslims," she said. "Therefore, I believe Jews should have a right to live legitimately in their homeland."
[i][b]By MICHAEL FREUND, the Jerusalem Post[/b][/i]
A devout Muslim college student in Canada known for her pro-Israel views on campus has received death threats after expressing support for the Jewish state's right to exist.
"As a result of my pro-Israel views, I have received a lot of verbal assault, and a few threats to my life," Sarah Nasser, a third-year student at the University of Toronto, told The Jerusalem Post.
"I received some violent resentment from the pro-Palestinian left-wing majority on campus. Most of my Muslim friends do not respect my views," she said.
Born in Canada to parents who migrated from Tanzania, Nasser is a religious Muslim who covers her head with a veil and lives according to the rules of the Koran. She recently returned from a visit to Israel, and signed a petition to the United Nations denouncing suicide bombings.
"Being a supporter of the existence of Israel does not conflict with Islam, it complements Islam," she said. "The Koran does not have any verses that do not allow for the Jews to return to the Land of Israel." Nasser says that the North American media fails to portray the "severity" of the Palestinian uprising, and says that the armed uprising is proof that "Yasser Arafat and his followers will do whatever it takes and cause as much bloodshed as is necessary to overtake all of Israel."
Active in campus political groups, Nasser urges the Jewish State to do more to improve its image abroad, saying that pro-Israel Muslims should be brought here to "show them what Israel is like, and to equip them with the knowledge to speak out in their communities about how sweet a country Israel is."
"I love Jews as I love true Muslims," she said. "Therefore, I believe Jews should have a right to live legitimately in their homeland."
More Quizzes!
03.31.04 (9:40 pm) [edit]
You better believe it, busta'!
Garage rock! I like you... I like you alot! You
and indie are on the same plane for me! You
bring rock'n'roll down to its dirty roots,
whether being minimalist like The White Stripes
or retro like The Strokes. You keep on doing
what you're doing! Oh...and did I mention I
like you alot?
What genre of rock are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Take the quiz: "ARE YOU A HIPPY"
You are a true american
Thank god your not one of them!
Dark shadow. Something has drawn you into darkness
in the past, and you're now trying to get out
of it. The darkness is already inside you, and
getting it out will be hard, but if you try,
maybe one day you can be who you want to be
again. Don't give in!!!
Please rate ^^
What kind of dark person are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
HAMAS 'PASSION' PLOY: PROOF OF PALESTINIAN GENOCIDAL INTENTIONS AGAINST JEWS!
03.31.04 (5:41 pm) [edit]
I hope that Christians are angry over this, I hope that Palestinians are angry over this and I hope that everyone who reads this is angry over this and understands that this, right here, is [b]proof of the genocidal intentions against the Jews by Islamic whack-jobs! [/b]
[line]
Special message/shout-out:
[b]Hey, CheckItOut/PatriotActs/Sp ymaster!
Did I find your secret identity?? Read this and tell me how you can support it! Tell me how THIS is A-OK with you! Or are you gonna call me a "hitlarian, zionist bitch-whore" again and avoid the topic entirely?! You make me sick! Defend yourself and your alleged intentions! I extend this challenge unto you [as I did the other challenges that you declined] to see what you are REALLY made of![/b]
[line]
[i][b]The new leader of the radical Islamic group Hamas, Abdelaziz Rantissi, speaks to supporters during a memorial rally at the Islamic University in Gaza City.(AFP/Mahmud Hams) [/b][/i]
[b]Mon Mar 29, 4:02 AM ET
[i]By ANDREA PEYSER, The New York Post[/b][/i]
THE new leader of the Hamas terror network offers this twisted rationale for sending children to their deaths as homicide bombers:
[b]He compares the baby bombers to Jesus Christ. [/b]
The bizarre words are offered as flatly as you'd order a pizza in a rare, sit-down interview made in August with Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the man who stepped up last week to terror's top spot after Israeli forces assassinated Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
I got to view the raw footage from the as-yet unreleased film by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Isadore Rosmarin, to be titled "Hope and Fear."
He's got the "fear" part right.
Rantisi sits on a floral-print sofa in a Gaza home, his voice strangely calm. Wearing shirtsleeves and a ragged beard, he peeks out from thick spectacles that make him look more like a scruffy tradesman than Public Enemy No. 1.
Asked about the proposal for Israel to retreat to its pre-1967 borders, [b]Rantisi says he will be satisfied only when Jews leave the region entirely. [/b]
"We have to continue in our resistance until the Islamic army liberates the Islamic land from the Zionists who came to occupy it," he says.
Rantisi insists the suffering of Palestinians makes Jews "happy." And Jews, he claims, view Christians and Muslims as "animals." He says that view is contained in the Torah.
Rantisi is given two opportunities by his interviewer to explain, or perhaps renounce, the practice of sending children to their deaths in order to murder Israelis - such as the 14-year-old boy seen around the world last week cutting a bomb belt off his body. Instead, Rantisi reaches into the Bible to make a sickening justification:
"You know that Europeans believe that Jesus, peace be with him, sacrificed for human beings. And so we are under occupation, as I said.
"Our people are facing Israeli terror and so Palestinian youth are ready to sacrifice for the sake of our people, for the sake of their holy cause, and it's not strange for them to do that."
He calls them "martyrdom bombers," and he compares these humans to inanimate weapons.
"By martyrdom bombers . . . we use a weapon which they [Israelis] couldn't defend themselves [against] in front of their people," he says.
Rantisi scoffs at a notion included in the so-called road map for peace, that eliminating Hamas is the way to achieve stability in the Middle East.
"Believe me," he says, "no one can dismantle Hamas."
Documentary About Jew Accused of Passover Murder
03.31.04 (5:25 pm) [edit]
[b]Albert Maysles in Production on Documentary About Jew Accused of Passover Murder
Tuesday March 30, 11:28 am ET [/b]
NEW YORK, March 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Albert Maysles, the critically- acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated documentarian, is two years into production on The Jew on Trial -- an account of the trial and eventual acquittal of Mendel Beilis, who was falsely accused of using a Christian child's blood to make matzo. Mr. Maysles expects to finish shooting in the next five months.
In 1911, Menachem "Mendel" Beilis, a Jewish factory manager, was arrested in Kiev by the Czar's police for the ritual murder of Andrei Yushchinsky, a Christian boy. According to the indictment, the boy's blood was an ingredient in Beilis's Passover matzo. The trial attracted international attention including scientists, political leaders, artists, leading intellectuals and clergy throughout Europe and the United States. In 1913, Beilis was acquitted by an all-Christian jury.
The Jew on Trial will feature an interview with 92-year old Raya Beilis, Mendel Beilis's only surviving daughter; rarely-viewed news coverage of the trial; and footage of a 1917 one-hour play, based on the Beilis case, staged in St. Petersburg.
According to Mr. Maysles, "As my research for this film has progressed -- and each of the many haunting details is uncovered -- I have become more and more taken by the way in which this man was consigned to his fate simply because he was a Jew." He noted that the trial was a cause celebre in its day, but has largely been forgotten, even by historians.
Mr. Maysles continued, "If the Beilis trial shows us anything, it's that what drives anti-Semitism has varied little during the last hundred years, if at all." The Jew on Trial contains recently shot footage that reveals the persistency of the blood libel legend in, among other places, the Middle East and Europe.
Mr. Maysles, who has spent nearly fifty years as a documentary film maker, has chosen a wide variety of subjects including The Rolling Stones (Gimme Shelter), a Boston Bible salesman (Salesman), a reclusive couple (Grey Gardens), The Beatles (What's Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A.), hospice care (Letting Go), Truman Capote (With Love From Truman), abortion (Abortion: Desperate Choices), and the Getty Art Center (Concert of Wills).
[line]
Source: Maysles Films
03.31.04 (5:20 pm) [edit]
[b]Tue Mar 30, 4:14 PM ET
[i]By RICHARD PYLE, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]
NEW YORK - Nearly 16,000 Holocaust survivors and heirs will receive $1,000 checks as "token payments" on insurance policies that vanished in the chaos of World War II, an international commission on postwar claims said Tuesday.
The $16 million will go to recipients in 62 countries based on anecdotal evidence that they once held life insurance policies issued by European companies. The checks were mailed Tuesday.
The payments were announced by the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, established in 1998 to investigate and resolve survivors' claims of lost or unpaid policies. The commission has a fund of $500 million for insurance claims and other humanitarian purposes.
The 15,890 claims include 5,061 people in Israel, 4,867 in the United States and the rest in countries ranging from Argentina to Zimbabwe.
Jewish leaders said the announcement was bittersweet because insurers had refused for so long to settle claims from the Nazi era.
"Late justice is faulty justice," said Israel Singer, chairman of the World Jewish Congress.
ICHEIC chairman Lawrence Eagleburger said the group sought to "morally address the wrongs done to Holocaust victims." He addeds: "These payments are only a token, but they represent efforts to attain a small measure of justice."
Insurers in the settlement include AXA of France, the Swiss companies Winterthur and Zurich, Alliance of Germany and Generali of Italy, which either issued such policies or have ties to now-defunct firms that did.
In all, ICHEIC has reviewed some 40,000 claims and paid out $66 million prior to the latest batch, which brings the total to $82 million, said Mara Rudman, the commission's chief operating officer.
[line]
On the Net:
[url=http://www.icheic.org
]International Commission of Holocaust Era Insurance Claims [/url]
[b]Tue Mar 30, 4:14 PM ET
[i]By RICHARD PYLE, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]
NEW YORK - Nearly 16,000 Holocaust survivors and heirs will receive $1,000 checks as "token payments" on insurance policies that vanished in the chaos of World War II, an international commission on postwar claims said Tuesday.
The $16 million will go to recipients in 62 countries based on anecdotal evidence that they once held life insurance policies issued by European companies. The checks were mailed Tuesday.
The payments were announced by the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, established in 1998 to investigate and resolve survivors' claims of lost or unpaid policies. The commission has a fund of $500 million for insurance claims and other humanitarian purposes.
The 15,890 claims include 5,061 people in Israel, 4,867 in the United States and the rest in countries ranging from Argentina to Zimbabwe.
Jewish leaders said the announcement was bittersweet because insurers had refused for so long to settle claims from the Nazi era.
"Late justice is faulty justice," said Israel Singer, chairman of the World Jewish Congress.
ICHEIC chairman Lawrence Eagleburger said the group sought to "morally address the wrongs done to Holocaust victims." He addeds: "These payments are only a token, but they represent efforts to attain a small measure of justice."
Insurers in the settlement include AXA of France, the Swiss companies Winterthur and Zurich, Alliance of Germany and Generali of Italy, which either issued such policies or have ties to now-defunct firms that did.
In all, ICHEIC has reviewed some 40,000 claims and paid out $66 million prior to the latest batch, which brings the total to $82 million, said Mara Rudman, the commission's chief operating officer.
[line]
On the Net:
[url=http://www.icheic.org
]International Commission of Holocaust Era Insurance Claims [/url]
AP's Australian Kangaroo Court
03.31.04 (4:56 pm) [edit]
[i]The ostensibly neutral news agency indicts Israel for "brutal murder," while letting terrorist Yassin off the hook. [/i]
[url=http://story.news.yahoo.com/n...]Associated Press[/url] released this picture and caption while reporting on a Sydney, Australia rally (March 28 - emphasis added):
[i]Members of Sydney's Muslim community hold posters of [b]murdered[/b] Palestinian Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as they pray before marching through the center of Sydney to condemn the killing, in Sydney, Sunday, March 28, 2004. The peaceful march was also to voice their anger at [b]the brutal murder of Yassin [/b]and to call for ongoing and a peaceful resolution to the situation in the Middle East.
(AP Photo/Mark Baker) [/i]
The Associated Press accepts as fact the protestors' partisan claim that Yassin was "brutally murdered." But when Israel made [url=http://story.news.yahoo.com/n...]a statement [/url] regarding [i]Yassin's[/i] acts, AP was careful to attribute the claims and add quotation marks:
[i][b]Sharon called Yassin the "mastermind of Palestinian terror" and a "mass murderer who was among Israel's greatest enemies."[/b][/i]
Killing is an act, while murder is a crime. In the court of AP, it seems Israel has been tried in absentia and found guilty of murder, while Yassin's been spared that verdict. It's all the more disturbing given Yassin's [url=http://www.idf.il/newsite/eng...]proven record[/url] of directing dozens of deadly terror acts.
Comments to:
The Associated Press
50 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, N.Y. 10020
Tel: 212-621-1500
Email: info@ap.org
[i][b]Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media bias.
HONESTreporting.com[/b][/i]
Great Mitzvah on Passover!
03.31.04 (4:36 pm) [edit]
Came accross this at the [url=http://www.jpost.com]Jerusalem Post[/url]:
You can send...
Make life a little easier by sending a beautiful straw basket filled with various goodies for ailing children in Israeli Hospitals. $12.95
[url=http://www.israel-catalog.com...]Soldier Holiday Straw Basket Passover Gift
Regular Basket[/url]
Support Israel and send a straw basket packed with a selection of Kosher-for-Passover treats, beautifully wrapped and sprinkled with dried flowers for an on-duty soldier at the front. $19.95
[url=http://www.israel-catalog.com...]Set of 2 Children in Hospital Passover Gift[/url]
Make life a little easier by sending a beautiful straw basket filled with various goodies for ailing children in Israeli Hospitals. $19.95
[url=http://www.israel-catalog.com...]Set of 3 Children in Hospital Passover Gift[/url]
Make life a little easier by sending a beautiful straw basket filled with various goodies for ailing children in Israeli Hospitals. $27.95
[url=http://www.israel-catalog.com...]Soldier Holiday Straw Basket Passover Gift
Big Basket[/url]
Support Israel and send a straw basket packed with a selection of Kosher-for-Passover treats, beautifully wrapped and sprinkled with dried flowers for an on-duty soldier at the front. $29.95
When you send these, you are supporting Israel and helping those in need to brighten their days on Pesach!
Arab reform now!
03.31.04 (4:25 pm) [edit]
Mar. 30, 2004 21:33
Updated Mar. 31, 2004 12:14
The Jerusalem Post
It's remarkable how often simplistic solutions work.On crime, it was said that incarcerating felons for longer terms was no solution to the problem; "root causes," such as discrimination and poverty, had to be addressed first. On unemployment, it was said that lowering taxes and regulatory barriers would never work; elaborate welfare and retraining schemes were advocated instead. On terrorism, military action is seen as likelier to provoke further terrorism than it is to deter it.
But evidence and experience tend to prove conventionally sophisticated thinking wrong. In the United States, longer jail terms correlate closely to sharp declines in crime. Around the world, governments have discovered that only a largely unfettered private sector can create sustainable employment. In Israel, terrorist attacks declined sharply after the IDF went on the offensive.
Now we come to the subject of Arab reform, which was to have been the focus of the cancelled Arab League summit in Tunis. The summit fell apart when it became clear that, between those Arab states that wish to pay lip service to reform and those that would rather talk only about Israel, there lay an unbridgeable divide.
As with crime, employment, and terrorism, Arab reform is often treated as a task requiring infinite delicacy and circumspection – a sophisticated approach. "If we open the door completely before the people," says Egyptian President-for-life Hosni Mubarak, "there will be chaos."
A more comprehensive analysis was recently offered in a New York Times op-ed by Zbigniew Brzezinski, formerly national security adviser to Jimmy Carter. Although an ostensible advocate of reform, Brzezinski fears that "democracy, impatiently imposed, can lead to unintended consequences." He urges the Bush administration to devise a reform program "with Arab countries," one that would pay appropriate respect to Arab "religious and cultural sensitivities." Above all, he insists, no progress can be made "without political dignity derived from self-determination." In other words, a Palestinian state.
It strikes us as strange, to say the least, that the establishment of an effective and representative legislature in, say, Yemen, hinges on developments in Israel. It is said that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict provides Arab regimes with an alibi not to reform. Perhaps, but that would seem to suggest an interest among Arab despots in perpetuating the conflict, not resolving it. At any rate, why should the political freedoms of Arab peoples be captive to what arch-enemy Israel does or does not do?
Then there's Brzezinski's fear of unintended consequences. Here he probably has as his model the Algerian elections of 1991, which would have brought an Islamist government to power had the military not intervened. But while there certainly can be unintended consequences to any election, there are consequences, too, for proceeding too slowly with reform. Democratization at a snail's pace is tantamount to no democratization at all.
Working for reform with existing Arab regimes is another dubious proposition. After all, it is these regimes that have generally been most resistant to reform. As for paying heed to religious and cultural sensitivities, this would be appropriate were it not for the fact that so many of these so-called sensitivities are inherently undemocratic and antediluvian.
Then, too, working with the regimes would be a betrayal of the brave Arab reform advocates working independently. In Egypt, a conference of scholars and NGOs organized in Alexandria this month has called for an elected legislature, an independent judiciary, and a free press. In Syria, pro-reform demonstrators have marched through the streets of Damascus, only to be arrested by the secret police. Aren't these the people, and not the governments that oppress them, with whom Western governments should stand in solidarity?
Among the conclusions the Bush administration drew from September 11 was that the risks of inaction outweighed the risks of action; that advocating stability above freedom in the Middle East was counterproductive, hypocritical, and unworthy of the United States; and that reforming the Arab world was a sine qua non for defeating terrorism. We believe these conclusions are correct. The more forcefully the Bush administration advocates them, the more it will put repressive Arab regimes on the defensive, and the more courage it will give to the best elements in Arab society. As policy goes, this may be simplistic, but it's the only approach that's likely to succeed.
03.31.04 (3:58 pm) [edit]
[b]Mar. 31, 2004 18:04
Updated Mar. 31, 2004 23:37
[i]By TOVAH LAZAROFF[/b][/i]
As soon as the European Union released its long-awaited report showing a rise in European anti-Semitism on Wednesday, Jewish organizations condemned it for downplaying the role of Muslim extremists.
"The authors should live in France for a week as a Jew with a skullcap and beard before drawing conclusions about anti-Semitism," said Secretary-General of the European Jewish Congress (EJC) Serge Cwajgenbaum.
The report, released in Strasbourg, France, shows that hatred of Jews is on the increase in countries such as France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain and Germany, is the largest ever done on anti-Semitism in Europe, according to its authors, the European Union's Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia.
European Parliament President Pat Cox said it demonstrated that Europe had a lot of work to do in eliminating anti-Semitism. "The documented rise in anti-Semitic attacks flies the face of the fundamental principles on which the EU is founded," he said, after the report was presented to the parliament.
Beate Winkler, director EUMC, said the report's conclusions "are enough to cause fear and great distress" among Europe's 1.2 million Jews.
"Incidents [against Jews] range from graffiti and vandalism through incitement on the street and hate speech on the Internet to serious physical assaults and arson," Winkler said.
While the European Jewish Congress welcomes the recognition that anti-Semitism is growing, it criticized many of the report's conclusions by authors Alexander Pollack and Alexander Joskowicz. It said that the report misrepresented the threat from extremist Muslims. The EJC plans to write a letter to the EUMC asking that mistakes in the report be corrected.
"Some elements are inadequate and wrong," said Cwajgenbaum, particularly when it represented the source of the problem and defined the new anti-Semitism.
The report concludes that attacks on Jews were being carried out mainly by "young white men influenced by extreme Right ideas." Other perpetrators were young Muslims and "people of North African origin," the report said.
The statement differs from the first study shelved by the EUMC in December, which stated that "anti-Semitic incidents were committed above all either by right-wing extremists or radical or young Muslims, mostly of Arab descent, who are often themselves potential victims of exclusion and racism." The shelved report also stated that anti-Semitic statements came from pro-Palestinian groups.
The EUMC found that such statements were inflammatory. It withheld the initial report, compiled by the Center for Research on Anti-Semitism at Berlin's Technical University, explaining it was of "poor quality and lacking in empirical evidence." It commissioned a second one, released Wednesday.
The European Jewish Congress, which had initially asked for the report to be compiled, made headlines in December when it accused the EUMC of downplaying the rising threat of Muslim extremism against Jews for political reasons. At the time it published the draft report on its Web site in anger over the EUMC's failure to publish it.
Cwajgenbaum said that he had mixed feelings about the new report.
How can we effectively fight anti-Semitism when we refuse to identify the true perpetrators?" said Cwajgenbaum. The head of the French Jewish community, CRIF president Roger Cukierman, reiterated that "young Muslims" are behind the majority of anti-Semitic attacks in France.
"What we have is half a report," said the executive director of the World Jewish Congress, Elan Steinberg. Calling the report "intellectually dishonest," Steinberg said that while the report identifies the perpetrators, "one would get the impression that equally at fault are the young men of the extreme Right. This is in contradiction to the report that has been suppressed," he said.
In looking at the question of of whether anti-Israel or anti-Zionist sentiments are considered anti-Semitism, the report said that such a conclusion can only be reached "if it is based on an underlying perception of Israel as 'the Jew.'
"If this is not the case, then we would have to consider hostility toward Jews as "Israelis" as not anti-Semitic, because this hostility is not based on the anti-Semitic stereotyping of Jews. However, this does not mean that such a hostility towards Jews should be excluded from monitoring."
The report's authors added that this was particularly true when criticism of Israel caused attacks against Jews.
The report, based in incidents in 2002 and through 2003 called for better compilation of data on anti-Semitism. It argued that lack of consistent data collection made it hard to fully assess the problem of anti-Semitism. It called for better interfaith dialogue, diversity training for police and educators. School books should be checked for bias, the report suggested.
It urged states to work toward a common criminal-law approach to racism and xenophobia and for political parties to implement the Charter of European Political Parties for a Non Racist Society, which sets out a clear code of conduct for the fight against all forms of racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism.
The report pointed to France as being the most affected by anti-Jewish attacks and hatred. It pointed to a "significant rise in anti-Semitic violent incidents and threats in 2002 ... six times more than in 2001."
The report said that of the 313 racist or anti-foreigner incidents reported in 2002, 193 were directed at the Jewish community.
"There were many incidents of Jewish people assaulted and insulted, attacks against synagogues, cemeteries and other Jewish property, and arson against a Jewish school," the report said.
The report found that anti-Semitism was on the rise in Britain. The first three months of last year saw a 75 percent increase in incidents over the same period in 2002. The report said there were two cases of suspected arson and several attacks on Jewish cemeteries.
In Germany, anti-Semitic acts increased by 69 percent from 1999 to 2000 but has started to decline recently and involve lesser incidents like anti-Jewish Web sites and mailings.
Incidents in the Netherlands and Belgium both "significantly increased" in 2002, and involved the spread of hate literature on the Internet, arson against Jewish properties and physical assaults.
The report found that Sweden too had reported several incidents, while Ireland and Portugal had only a few.
Anti-Semitic incidents were found to be "relatively rare" in Greece, Italy, Spain and Austria, the report concluded, but added that there existed a "popular anti-Semitism" in everyday language including "conspiracy theories of Jewish world domination."
[i]Michel Zlotowski, Melissa Radler and AP contributed to this report.[/i]
[b]Mar. 31, 2004 18:04
Updated Mar. 31, 2004 23:37
[i]By TOVAH LAZAROFF[/b][/i]
As soon as the European Union released its long-awaited report showing a rise in European anti-Semitism on Wednesday, Jewish organizations condemned it for downplaying the role of Muslim extremists.
"The authors should live in France for a week as a Jew with a skullcap and beard before drawing conclusions about anti-Semitism," said Secretary-General of the European Jewish Congress (EJC) Serge Cwajgenbaum.
The report, released in Strasbourg, France, shows that hatred of Jews is on the increase in countries such as France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain and Germany, is the largest ever done on anti-Semitism in Europe, according to its authors, the European Union's Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia.
European Parliament President Pat Cox said it demonstrated that Europe had a lot of work to do in eliminating anti-Semitism. "The documented rise in anti-Semitic attacks flies the face of the fundamental principles on which the EU is founded," he said, after the report was presented to the parliament.
Beate Winkler, director EUMC, said the report's conclusions "are enough to cause fear and great distress" among Europe's 1.2 million Jews.
"Incidents [against Jews] range from graffiti and vandalism through incitement on the street and hate speech on the Internet to serious physical assaults and arson," Winkler said.
While the European Jewish Congress welcomes the recognition that anti-Semitism is growing, it criticized many of the report's conclusions by authors Alexander Pollack and Alexander Joskowicz. It said that the report misrepresented the threat from extremist Muslims. The EJC plans to write a letter to the EUMC asking that mistakes in the report be corrected.
"Some elements are inadequate and wrong," said Cwajgenbaum, particularly when it represented the source of the problem and defined the new anti-Semitism.
The report concludes that attacks on Jews were being carried out mainly by "young white men influenced by extreme Right ideas." Other perpetrators were young Muslims and "people of North African origin," the report said.
The statement differs from the first study shelved by the EUMC in December, which stated that "anti-Semitic incidents were committed above all either by right-wing extremists or radical or young Muslims, mostly of Arab descent, who are often themselves potential victims of exclusion and racism." The shelved report also stated that anti-Semitic statements came from pro-Palestinian groups.
The EUMC found that such statements were inflammatory. It withheld the initial report, compiled by the Center for Research on Anti-Semitism at Berlin's Technical University, explaining it was of "poor quality and lacking in empirical evidence." It commissioned a second one, released Wednesday.
The European Jewish Congress, which had initially asked for the report to be compiled, made headlines in December when it accused the EUMC of downplaying the rising threat of Muslim extremism against Jews for political reasons. At the time it published the draft report on its Web site in anger over the EUMC's failure to publish it.
Cwajgenbaum said that he had mixed feelings about the new report.
How can we effectively fight anti-Semitism when we refuse to identify the true perpetrators?" said Cwajgenbaum. The head of the French Jewish community, CRIF president Roger Cukierman, reiterated that "young Muslims" are behind the majority of anti-Semitic attacks in France.
"What we have is half a report," said the executive director of the World Jewish Congress, Elan Steinberg. Calling the report "intellectually dishonest," Steinberg said that while the report identifies the perpetrators, "one would get the impression that equally at fault are the young men of the extreme Right. This is in contradiction to the report that has been suppressed," he said.
In looking at the question of of whether anti-Israel or anti-Zionist sentiments are considered anti-Semitism, the report said that such a conclusion can only be reached "if it is based on an underlying perception of Israel as 'the Jew.'
"If this is not the case, then we would have to consider hostility toward Jews as "Israelis" as not anti-Semitic, because this hostility is not based on the anti-Semitic stereotyping of Jews. However, this does not mean that such a hostility towards Jews should be excluded from monitoring."
The report's authors added that this was particularly true when criticism of Israel caused attacks against Jews.
The report, based in incidents in 2002 and through 2003 called for better compilation of data on anti-Semitism. It argued that lack of consistent data collection made it hard to fully assess the problem of anti-Semitism. It called for better interfaith dialogue, diversity training for police and educators. School books should be checked for bias, the report suggested.
It urged states to work toward a common criminal-law approach to racism and xenophobia and for political parties to implement the Charter of European Political Parties for a Non Racist Society, which sets out a clear code of conduct for the fight against all forms of racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism.
The report pointed to France as being the most affected by anti-Jewish attacks and hatred. It pointed to a "significant rise in anti-Semitic violent incidents and threats in 2002 ... six times more than in 2001."
The report said that of the 313 racist or anti-foreigner incidents reported in 2002, 193 were directed at the Jewish community.
"There were many incidents of Jewish people assaulted and insulted, attacks against synagogues, cemeteries and other Jewish property, and arson against a Jewish school," the report said.
The report found that anti-Semitism was on the rise in Britain. The first three months of last year saw a 75 percent increase in incidents over the same period in 2002. The report said there were two cases of suspected arson and several attacks on Jewish cemeteries.
In Germany, anti-Semitic acts increased by 69 percent from 1999 to 2000 but has started to decline recently and involve lesser incidents like anti-Jewish Web sites and mailings.
Incidents in the Netherlands and Belgium both "significantly increased" in 2002, and involved the spread of hate literature on the Internet, arson against Jewish properties and physical assaults.
The report found that Sweden too had reported several incidents, while Ireland and Portugal had only a few.
Anti-Semitic incidents were found to be "relatively rare" in Greece, Italy, Spain and Austria, the report concluded, but added that there existed a "popular anti-Semitism" in everyday language including "conspiracy theories of Jewish world domination."
[i]Michel Zlotowski, Melissa Radler and AP contributed to this report.[/i]
03.31.04 (3:55 pm) [edit]
[b]From DEBKA-Net-Weekly 150 Updated by [url=http://www.debka.com]DEBKAfile[/url]
March 31, 2004, 10:27 PM (GMT+02:00)[/b]
Nine Americans died in and around Fallujah 30 miles west of Baghdad in a particularly horrendous spasm of blood-letting Wednesday, March 31. Exactly one week after assuming responsibility for the most intractable town in Iraq in a troop rotation, the California-based 1st Marine Expeditionary Force suffered the loss of five men in a single attack: a bomb exploded under their vehicle in a village near Fallujah. Inside the city, gunmen attacked two civilian cars carrying four US civilian contractors. The cars were torched by a dancing lynch mob which screaming Islamic slogans dragged the bodies through the city, dismembered and decapitated them and hanged them by their feet.
This was a calculatedly vicious action executed by al Qaeda to remind the Americans of their Mogadishu debacle October 1993.
Fallujah is the most extreme Sunni Muslim city in Iraq. Some of the medressas closed down in Afghanistan and Pakistan ended up in Fallujah and Damascus.
It is the obvious launching pad for the threatened al Qaeda spring offensive against the US presence in Iraq. Since the Marines landed, insurgents have been testing their mettle in running attacks, killing 8 US servicemen in two weeks. The four-day blockade on the city for house to house raids was finally lifted Wednesday, March 31 with dreadful results.
On March 19, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 150 reported from its exclusive counter-terror sources that the Moroccan psychiatrist Dr. Abu Hafiza, member of the tight Osama bin Laden-Ayman Zuwahiri elite that rules al Qaeda and tactical mastermind of the Madrid rail bombings, compiled a strategic blueprint to govern the network’s steps in 2004. He predicted that the Madrid rail attacks would scar the Spanish psyche sufficiently to turn the electorate away from the government and set off a domino effect that would rebound on Britain’s Tony Blair, Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi and eventually US President George W. Bush.
”After knocking over one domino after another,” Hafiza wrote, “We will stand face to face with the key domino, the United States.”
Iraq, he said, will be al Qaeda’s main battle arena and its direct confrontation with the United States is ordained to take place on Iraqi soil.
In April or May 2003, Dr Hafiza, according to DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s exclusive sources, slipped undetected between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, where he collected a contingent of Saudi Al Qaeda combatants and brought them to Fallujah.
There, he put together the first part of his report by answering the questions put to him by Bin Laden and Zuwahiri on the following subjects:
1. The US political and military situation in Iraq.
2. The standing of coalition forces in Iraq.
3. The condition of the Iraqi Ba’ath party and Iraqi guerrilla fighters.
4. Where the Shiites stand in relation to the fast-moving events in Iraq.
5. The quickest way to push US forces out of Iraq.
6. The most expedient method of toppling Bush and Blair.
Hafiza spent nearly four months posing as a teacher at a religious school or madressa, on the outskirts of Fallujah. He traveled the length and breadth of Iraq, returning occasionally to Fallujah to draft reports for the two al Qaeda leaders.
In mid- or late August, Hafiza returned to Pakistan the same way he came, meeting bin Laden and Zuwahiri at a rendezvous in the mountains of Waziristan on the Pakistani-Afghani frontier to deliver his recommendations.
The document was published by a body which no one has ever heard of called “The Information Institution for the Salvation of the Iraqi People, Center for Services to Combatants.”
It is packed full of an astonishing amount of intelligence data, especially on the Americans, which the author draws on freely for his situation evaluations. He determines the weak points of the US military and civil administration in Iraq, sketching psychological profiles of policy-makers running institutions al Qaeda has targeted and for simple and clear operational recommendations.
Two examples are instructive:
One, Hafiza calculated the cost of maintaining US forces in Iraq and the dollar losses al Qaeda is capable of inflicting on the Americans through terror attacks. Two, before recommending the attack in Madrid, he analyzed the results of all Spain’s elections since 1982, one by one and drew lessons. He noted that the 9/11 attacks in America gave Spain its first chance ever to distance itself from the dominant European axis of France and Germany and align with the United States.
He did not recommend action against the Polish force, which attracts little international notice and whose presence in Iraq plays no role in domestic politics in Warsaw. However, once the Spanish and Italian forces are gone, he foresaw Tony Blair coming under heavy pressure at home to remove the British contingent from Iraq too. Aside from the British stake in the oil resources of southern Iraq, the writers found that the UK derives little benefit from its military presence in the country. Blair, confronted with a choice between oil and staying in office, will undoubtedly opt for the latter, removing the last prop holding up the US presence and strategy in Iraq.
The Moroccan psychiatrist conceded that America is very strong and al Qaeda’s resources relatively puny. He therefore recommended following the strategic doctrine laid down by the Saudi Sheikh Yusuf Avivi, one of al Qaeda’s most outstanding commanders in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Avivi refuted the “conventional al Qaeda strategy” of striking large-scale enemy concentrations to prevent them from settling in one place, like the Americans in Iraq or the Russians in Chechnya. He propounded a reverse strategy, guerrilla forays to harass large enemy forces and drive them to shelter in their bases where they become easy prey for terrorist attack. In Iraq, he recommended propelling American troops into the cities, where terrorist strikes can inflict the largest number of enemy casualties.
Hafiza advised al Qaeda to adopt the following steps in Iraq:
1. Pinning the US army down in the main Iraqi cities after security is turned over to Iraqi forces. This increases its vulnerability to terror. The car bomb attack that destroyed Mount Lebanon Hotel in downtown Baghdad on Wednesday, March 17, was one of the most savage Iraq has known. A whole block of apartments was gutted by flames that burned for several hours.
Al Qaeda agents in the Iraqi capital were aware that US forces are in the middle of redeploying in eight bases outside the city having delegated security in the town to Iraqi forces. They know that as long as terror attacks are rampant, US forces are in no position to hand security over to the Iraqis. This prevents them from pulling back to perimeter bases and keeps them confined en masse inside Baghdad, so falling into the positions prescribed by Sheikh Avivi.
2. Refraining from interfering with essential utilities such as water, electricity, bridges and food supply centers so as not to upset the tenor of everyday life in the country and make enemies of the people.
3. Counting on the shortcomings of Iraqi recruits to the new army and security services as dedicated and efficient operational barriers to al Qaeda’s campaign. These shortcomings will not be overcome by massive US investments in money, equipment and logistical resources.
4. Establishing a dense network of terrorist cells in the main Shiite cities of Karbala, Najef, Basra and parts of Baghdad as well as the medium sized towns, al Amara, Naseriyah, Hilla, Baquba and Dawaniya. Abu Hafiza proposed bypassing the existing Shiite parties and militias which follow Muqtada Sadr and the Ayatollahs Hakim and Sistani, and creating a new Shiite Islamic party under al Qaeda’s guidance.
5. Reporting on his findings in Iraq, the Moroccan psychiatrist judged that US forces after quitting the cities planned to focus on protecting the oil fields, installations and pipelines, and securing the highway network linking the cities and airfields – all soft targets for al Qaeda.
[b]From DEBKA-Net-Weekly 150 Updated by [url=http://www.debka.com]DEBKAfile[/url]
March 31, 2004, 10:27 PM (GMT+02:00)[/b]
Nine Americans died in and around Fallujah 30 miles west of Baghdad in a particularly horrendous spasm of blood-letting Wednesday, March 31. Exactly one week after assuming responsibility for the most intractable town in Iraq in a troop rotation, the California-based 1st Marine Expeditionary Force suffered the loss of five men in a single attack: a bomb exploded under their vehicle in a village near Fallujah. Inside the city, gunmen attacked two civilian cars carrying four US civilian contractors. The cars were torched by a dancing lynch mob which screaming Islamic slogans dragged the bodies through the city, dismembered and decapitated them and hanged them by their feet.
This was a calculatedly vicious action executed by al Qaeda to remind the Americans of their Mogadishu debacle October 1993.
Fallujah is the most extreme Sunni Muslim city in Iraq. Some of the medressas closed down in Afghanistan and Pakistan ended up in Fallujah and Damascus.
It is the obvious launching pad for the threatened al Qaeda spring offensive against the US presence in Iraq. Since the Marines landed, insurgents have been testing their mettle in running attacks, killing 8 US servicemen in two weeks. The four-day blockade on the city for house to house raids was finally lifted Wednesday, March 31 with dreadful results.
On March 19, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 150 reported from its exclusive counter-terror sources that the Moroccan psychiatrist Dr. Abu Hafiza, member of the tight Osama bin Laden-Ayman Zuwahiri elite that rules al Qaeda and tactical mastermind of the Madrid rail bombings, compiled a strategic blueprint to govern the network’s steps in 2004. He predicted that the Madrid rail attacks would scar the Spanish psyche sufficiently to turn the electorate away from the government and set off a domino effect that would rebound on Britain’s Tony Blair, Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi and eventually US President George W. Bush.
”After knocking over one domino after another,” Hafiza wrote, “We will stand face to face with the key domino, the United States.”
Iraq, he said, will be al Qaeda’s main battle arena and its direct confrontation with the United States is ordained to take place on Iraqi soil.
In April or May 2003, Dr Hafiza, according to DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s exclusive sources, slipped undetected between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, where he collected a contingent of Saudi Al Qaeda combatants and brought them to Fallujah.
There, he put together the first part of his report by answering the questions put to him by Bin Laden and Zuwahiri on the following subjects:
1. The US political and military situation in Iraq.
2. The standing of coalition forces in Iraq.
3. The condition of the Iraqi Ba’ath party and Iraqi guerrilla fighters.
4. Where the Shiites stand in relation to the fast-moving events in Iraq.
5. The quickest way to push US forces out of Iraq.
6. The most expedient method of toppling Bush and Blair.
Hafiza spent nearly four months posing as a teacher at a religious school or madressa, on the outskirts of Fallujah. He traveled the length and breadth of Iraq, returning occasionally to Fallujah to draft reports for the two al Qaeda leaders.
In mid- or late August, Hafiza returned to Pakistan the same way he came, meeting bin Laden and Zuwahiri at a rendezvous in the mountains of Waziristan on the Pakistani-Afghani frontier to deliver his recommendations.
The document was published by a body which no one has ever heard of called “The Information Institution for the Salvation of the Iraqi People, Center for Services to Combatants.”
It is packed full of an astonishing amount of intelligence data, especially on the Americans, which the author draws on freely for his situation evaluations. He determines the weak points of the US military and civil administration in Iraq, sketching psychological profiles of policy-makers running institutions al Qaeda has targeted and for simple and clear operational recommendations.
Two examples are instructive:
One, Hafiza calculated the cost of maintaining US forces in Iraq and the dollar losses al Qaeda is capable of inflicting on the Americans through terror attacks. Two, before recommending the attack in Madrid, he analyzed the results of all Spain’s elections since 1982, one by one and drew lessons. He noted that the 9/11 attacks in America gave Spain its first chance ever to distance itself from the dominant European axis of France and Germany and align with the United States.
He did not recommend action against the Polish force, which attracts little international notice and whose presence in Iraq plays no role in domestic politics in Warsaw. However, once the Spanish and Italian forces are gone, he foresaw Tony Blair coming under heavy pressure at home to remove the British contingent from Iraq too. Aside from the British stake in the oil resources of southern Iraq, the writers found that the UK derives little benefit from its military presence in the country. Blair, confronted with a choice between oil and staying in office, will undoubtedly opt for the latter, removing the last prop holding up the US presence and strategy in Iraq.
The Moroccan psychiatrist conceded that America is very strong and al Qaeda’s resources relatively puny. He therefore recommended following the strategic doctrine laid down by the Saudi Sheikh Yusuf Avivi, one of al Qaeda’s most outstanding commanders in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Avivi refuted the “conventional al Qaeda strategy” of striking large-scale enemy concentrations to prevent them from settling in one place, like the Americans in Iraq or the Russians in Chechnya. He propounded a reverse strategy, guerrilla forays to harass large enemy forces and drive them to shelter in their bases where they become easy prey for terrorist attack. In Iraq, he recommended propelling American troops into the cities, where terrorist strikes can inflict the largest number of enemy casualties.
Hafiza advised al Qaeda to adopt the following steps in Iraq:
1. Pinning the US army down in the main Iraqi cities after security is turned over to Iraqi forces. This increases its vulnerability to terror. The car bomb attack that destroyed Mount Lebanon Hotel in downtown Baghdad on Wednesday, March 17, was one of the most savage Iraq has known. A whole block of apartments was gutted by flames that burned for several hours.
Al Qaeda agents in the Iraqi capital were aware that US forces are in the middle of redeploying in eight bases outside the city having delegated security in the town to Iraqi forces. They know that as long as terror attacks are rampant, US forces are in no position to hand security over to the Iraqis. This prevents them from pulling back to perimeter bases and keeps them confined en masse inside Baghdad, so falling into the positions prescribed by Sheikh Avivi.
2. Refraining from interfering with essential utilities such as water, electricity, bridges and food supply centers so as not to upset the tenor of everyday life in the country and make enemies of the people.
3. Counting on the shortcomings of Iraqi recruits to the new army and security services as dedicated and efficient operational barriers to al Qaeda’s campaign. These shortcomings will not be overcome by massive US investments in money, equipment and logistical resources.
4. Establishing a dense network of terrorist cells in the main Shiite cities of Karbala, Najef, Basra and parts of Baghdad as well as the medium sized towns, al Amara, Naseriyah, Hilla, Baquba and Dawaniya. Abu Hafiza proposed bypassing the existing Shiite parties and militias which follow Muqtada Sadr and the Ayatollahs Hakim and Sistani, and creating a new Shiite Islamic party under al Qaeda’s guidance.
5. Reporting on his findings in Iraq, the Moroccan psychiatrist judged that US forces after quitting the cities planned to focus on protecting the oil fields, installations and pipelines, and securing the highway network linking the cities and airfields – all soft targets for al Qaeda.
03.31.04 (3:43 pm) [edit]
[b]Qorei calls bombings an 'obstacle to peace'
Wednesday, March 31, 2004 Posted: 12:48 PM EST (1748 GMT) [/b]
RAMALLAH, West Bank (CNN) -- Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei denounced suicide bombings as "morally wrong" and an "obstacle to peace" Wednesday in an address to the Palestinian parliament.
He warned Palestinians not to carry out suicide attacks in response to Israel's March 22 killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, leader of the Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas.
"These bombings are used by the Israeli government as an excuse to continue its aggression and collective punishment against the Palestinian people," Qorei said.
Israeli security has been increased, fearing terrorist attacks in retaliation for Yassin's death. The Hamas leader was was fired on in an Israeli airstrike as he left a mosque in his wheelchair. Israel said Yassin had overseen operations that killed hundreds of civilians.
The U.S. State Department has labeled Hamas a terrorist organization. The group's military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, has claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians as well as attacks against the Israeli military.
Qorei denounced Yassin's killing as "state terrorism," saying Israel is trying to add fuel to the fire of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
However, he called Palestinian bombing operations an "obstacle to peace."
"We have condemned these attacks, which are morally wrong, and today from this podium we reiterate our rejection of such attacks because they harm our national struggle, create tension with the world community, destroy our economy and give a cover for the Israeli government to pursue settlement plans and build the expansion and annexation wall," he said.
Israel and the United States have long called on the Palestinian Authority to force terrorists to end their attacks.
Palestinian Authority leaders have accused Israel of impeding their ability to strengthen and overhaul their security forces
Qorei also blamed infighting in the security forces divisions for impeding the reform process.
"Our results have been limited for internal reasons," he said, pointing to quarrels "between the Palestinian security apparatus and their leaders in addition to the continuing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian security forces."
Qorei cited a "desperate need" to restructure the security apparatus, saying it was a top issue for the Palestinian government.
The attack on Yassin followed weeks of Israel's military operations into Gaza to counter possible terrorist attacks. Several Palestinians, including civilians, have died in the operations.
Israel began the raids after a terrorist bus bombing killed eight people February 22 in Jerusalem. Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a military offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The U.S. State Department designated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades as a foreign terrorist organization.
On March 14, twin suicide bombings in Israel -- jointly claimed by Hamas and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -- killed 10 people and derailed scheduled talks between Qorei and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on the "road map" to Mideast peace.
The road map, backed by the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia, calls for steps by both sides aimed at ending the conflict and establishing an independent Palestinian state by 2005.
Qorei's address also focused Wednesday on preventing construction of Israel's barrier separating it from the West Bank. "The resistance to the separation and expansion wall [is] at the top of the priority list," Qorei said.
Israel calls the long, winding barrier, which juts into sections of the West Bank, a necessity to protect its citizens from attackers.
The Palestinian Authority says the barrier amounts to a land grab because it cuts off access to large areas of Palestinian territory.
Qorei hailed the Palestinian government's success in convincing the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands, to consider whether Israel is violating international law with the barrier.
Referring to Israel's plan to withdraw from Gaza, Qorei said, "There are many questions that need answers."
He urged Israel to withdraw "from every piece of soil from Palestinian land, including Gaza."
"The Gaza withdrawal plan can be a chance for all Palestinians to cooperate and benefit from ... or it could be a trap that we should all be aware and make sure we do not fall into," he said.
[b]Qorei calls bombings an 'obstacle to peace'
Wednesday, March 31, 2004 Posted: 12:48 PM EST (1748 GMT) [/b]
RAMALLAH, West Bank (CNN) -- Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei denounced suicide bombings as "morally wrong" and an "obstacle to peace" Wednesday in an address to the Palestinian parliament.
He warned Palestinians not to carry out suicide attacks in response to Israel's March 22 killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, leader of the Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas.
"These bombings are used by the Israeli government as an excuse to continue its aggression and collective punishment against the Palestinian people," Qorei said.
Israeli security has been increased, fearing terrorist attacks in retaliation for Yassin's death. The Hamas leader was was fired on in an Israeli airstrike as he left a mosque in his wheelchair. Israel said Yassin had overseen operations that killed hundreds of civilians.
The U.S. State Department has labeled Hamas a terrorist organization. The group's military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, has claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians as well as attacks against the Israeli military.
Qorei denounced Yassin's killing as "state terrorism," saying Israel is trying to add fuel to the fire of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
However, he called Palestinian bombing operations an "obstacle to peace."
"We have condemned these attacks, which are morally wrong, and today from this podium we reiterate our rejection of such attacks because they harm our national struggle, create tension with the world community, destroy our economy and give a cover for the Israeli government to pursue settlement plans and build the expansion and annexation wall," he said.
Israel and the United States have long called on the Palestinian Authority to force terrorists to end their attacks.
Palestinian Authority leaders have accused Israel of impeding their ability to strengthen and overhaul their security forces
Qorei also blamed infighting in the security forces divisions for impeding the reform process.
"Our results have been limited for internal reasons," he said, pointing to quarrels "between the Palestinian security apparatus and their leaders in addition to the continuing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian security forces."
Qorei cited a "desperate need" to restructure the security apparatus, saying it was a top issue for the Palestinian government.
The attack on Yassin followed weeks of Israel's military operations into Gaza to counter possible terrorist attacks. Several Palestinians, including civilians, have died in the operations.
Israel began the raids after a terrorist bus bombing killed eight people February 22 in Jerusalem. Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a military offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The U.S. State Department designated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades as a foreign terrorist organization.
On March 14, twin suicide bombings in Israel -- jointly claimed by Hamas and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -- killed 10 people and derailed scheduled talks between Qorei and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on the "road map" to Mideast peace.
The road map, backed by the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia, calls for steps by both sides aimed at ending the conflict and establishing an independent Palestinian state by 2005.
Qorei's address also focused Wednesday on preventing construction of Israel's barrier separating it from the West Bank. "The resistance to the separation and expansion wall [is] at the top of the priority list," Qorei said.
Israel calls the long, winding barrier, which juts into sections of the West Bank, a necessity to protect its citizens from attackers.
The Palestinian Authority says the barrier amounts to a land grab because it cuts off access to large areas of Palestinian territory.
Qorei hailed the Palestinian government's success in convincing the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands, to consider whether Israel is violating international law with the barrier.
Referring to Israel's plan to withdraw from Gaza, Qorei said, "There are many questions that need answers."
He urged Israel to withdraw "from every piece of soil from Palestinian land, including Gaza."
"The Gaza withdrawal plan can be a chance for all Palestinians to cooperate and benefit from ... or it could be a trap that we should all be aware and make sure we do not fall into," he said.
Suicide bomber recruit, 15, promised clothes, 72 virgins in paradise
03.30.04 (8:48 pm) [edit]
The following news story is very unsettling (to say the least) to western readers. It is unsettling to me. What is unsettling about it is not only that this goes on, but how the rest of the Palestinian people do not take up any action to stop this. I hear how they are 'shocked' at these goings on and how they think it's 'terrible.' But you never hear about Palestinian protesters trying to stop the child abuse that Hamas and other terror organizations commit by louring in children to do their dirty work. It is disgusting. It is shameful. These acts not only should stop, they should be widely condemned accross the Palestinian board and, in turn, halted!
The whole of Palestinians bear the responsibility for these gross misconducts by their refusal to truly do anything about this.
Some may say, "oh it's because of fear." You know what? Then provide Israel with information about these killers so that they may be taken away from harming your children!
If it is truly the majority of Palestinians that want peace and an end to violence, then they have the power to stop these murderous goons. But they don't. Why?
You wanna know what I think? I think they're lying. Plain and simple. If they were to engadge in a sort of civil war to try and put a stop to Hamas and the Fatah and all of those, that would deminish from the real goal: distroying Israel and taking the entire region for 'Palestine.' That simply wouldn't do, would it?
These people obviously support terrorist organizations and/or at the very least, their cause: to distroy the Jews. Textbooks are filled with hatred for Israel as well as accusations of blood libels by Jews. They allow terrorist organizations to, not only 'kidnap' their children, but carry out attacks on innocent people. This, in turn, only makes their lives harder and causes even more resentment for the Jewish state when the reason is simple and right in front of them: take some fucking self responsibility!
If Palestinians were RESPONSIBLE ADULTS and took civilized control over themselves, these things would cease! There would be a Palestinian state by now and Yassin wouldn't have needed to be assasinated by Israel! The Palestinian living conditions would be better and their lives would flourish in peace!
But all of that is less important than sacrificing the lives of themselves, their children, and every single innocent human being in the region; as well as their own freedom and prosperity.
Message for the people of 'Palestine': Rise up. Take back your streets in Gaza and the West Bank. Flush out the evil TERRORISTS. Work hand-in-hand with Israel on a solution for peace. PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR CHILDREN FROM THE TERRORIST GOONS! You can do it. All it takes is YOU!
Enjoy the article...
[line]
[i]Family photo
Paradise and 72 virgins are assured for any bomber, a Palestinian sheik told 15-year-old Tamer Khweirah.[/i]
[b][i]by Associated Press[/i]
Mar. 30, 2004 12:40 PM[/b]
NABLUS, West Bank - Islamic militants tried to recruit a 15-year-old as a suicide bomber, at one point locking him in a dark room, but also luring him with clothes, a cell phone and promises of a paradise featuring 72 virgins, his family said Tuesday.
The story of ninth-grader Tamer Khweirah, who was rescued by an alert older brother, underscores the growing use of children by militant groups and has stoked debate over what is permissible in the fight against Israel.
Tamer is one of four teens arrested by the Israeli military in Nablus in the past week on suspicion they were recruited by militants. One of them, Hussam Abdo, 16, was caught at an Israeli checkpoint with 18 pounds of explosives strapped to his body.
The youths - who all remain in custody - knew each other, relatives told The Associated Press. Tamer, Hussam and a third youngster attended the same high school.
The Israeli military said Palestinian militants are increasingly targeting youngsters, in part because they arouse less suspicion at Israeli checkpoints.
The use of youngsters has drawn criticism from some Palestinian intellectuals and educators, who said the militants are harming the Palestinian cause.
The Al Ayyam daily, which often reflects the views of the Palestinian Authority, ran a story Tuesday on Tamer, including his parents' demand that the recruiters be prosecuted. Palestinian security officials said their forces have become so ineffective, largely due to Israeli restrictions, that they cannot rein in the militants.
Tamer was approached by the Islamic Jihad group at a Nablus mosque last week, after Israel assassinated Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, said the boy's 26-year-old brother, Raed Khweirah.
In the mosque, Tamer and other worshippers were expressing their anger over the assassination, and a 19-year-old Islamic Jihad activist asked the youth whether he wanted to meet a religious leader, or sheik, from the group, Raed Khweirah said his brother told him.
Tamer was taken to a home in Nablus' old city, where he met the sheik, who introduced himself only as Ibrahim, Khweirah said. In the first session, the sheik spoke to Tamer about the need to avenge Yassin, whose group Israel blames for suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis.
In a second encounter, the sheik tried to persuade Tamer to carry out a suicide bombing. He locked Tamer in a dark room for a while, then took him to a well-lit room, saying this illustrated the difference between eternal damnation and paradise.
Paradise and 72 virgins are assured for any bomber, the sheik told Tamer, who is from a well-to-do family and, according to his relatives, had a sheltered upbringing.
When the youngster expressed concern that his family home would be demolished - standard Israeli reprisal - the sheik said Islamic Jihad would pay $35,000 to make up for the loss.
When the boy protested that he'd like to be around for the weddings of his two sisters, the sheik told him, "you will go to paradise and meet them there," according to the older brother.
Islamic Jihad members gave Tamer about $45, a cell phone, new jeans and a new shirt, his brother said.
Khweirah said he became concerned about his brother when he skipped school twice last week and was seen loitering downtown, smoking and talking on a cell phone.
Khweirah said he sought help from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed group with ties to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
Al Aqsa itself has carried out suicide bombings, and its militants say they have no qualms about recruiting teens, provided they understand their missions. Still, Khweirah hoped they would agree his brother was not an appropriate candidate.
Later that day, a tearful Tamer returned home and confessed to his family, his brother said.
Hashem Abu Hamdan, an Al Aqsa leader in Nablus wanted by Israel, said he was involved in getting Tamer home but gave no further details.
Abu Hamdan said Hussam Abdo, last week's would-be suicide bomber, and his friends acted on their initiative and were not dispatched by Al Aqsa. "They were looking for an explosives vest, and they could find it easily in Nablus," Abu Hamdan said.
But the Israeli military said the militants are increasingly preying on the young.
"We've seen the accelerated efforts of this consortium of terror from Nablus to dispatch young children and turn them into human bombs," said Maj. Sharon Feingold.
Tamer was arrested by Israeli soldiers at his home on Friday. Feingold said Hussam, Tamer and the other two youngsters are still being questioned by the Shin Bet security service, which turned down requests by The Associated Press to interview Tamer.
Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi said there have been only isolated attempts to recruit youngsters. She said Palestinian society, which has largely supported suicide bombings, would have to do some soul-searching, but the causes of despair - Israel's occupation and military strikes - must not be overlooked.
"It's horrifying, because we are paying the price as a nation," she said.
Palestinian Incitement to Violence between 1993-1997
03.30.04 (7:35 pm) [edit]
All throughout times of 'peace' & 'negotiation' at Oslo, Palestinian leaders were calling for violence against innocent PEOPLE, spreading lies about Jews and en masse hatred.
[Bonus..]
* A November 7, 1998 article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, said, "Corruption is part of the nature of the Jews... the Jews were subjected to losses and expulsion as a result of their wickedness and their despicable acts."
You can find the entire log of quotes and refference here -- [url=http://www.israel-wat.com/p4a...]Israel-wat.com[/url]
Car Mezuzah
03.30.04 (7:00 pm) [edit]
So if anyone is interested in this kinda thing...
I heard about Car Mezuzah's a few years ago. What they are is a prayer written on parchment and encased in a [sometimes] pretty "capsule" (much like regular Mezuzah's we place on our doorways in our homes). Usually, for house Mezuzah's, the Sh'ma prayer is placed inside the container. These Car Mezuzah's have the traveler's prayer in it.
The word “mezuzah” actually means “doorpost,” meaning that a mezuzah scroll goes on every discernable, regularly used doorframe (except “The Facilities"): the front door, the back door, and dining room, living room, bedroom and den doors. Even if it’s just a doorway with no door, like between the kitchen and dining room, it should have a mezuzah. Note: if you’re not ready to mezuzafy your whole house just yet, start with the front door.
The mezuzah is to the Jewish abode what a helmet is to a soldier — it provides spiritual protection, fortification and reinforcement to the home and the souls of all who dwell therein. It’s the original home security system.
So why not provide spiritual protection for your car?
Here are some nice ones that I'm looking to buy....
From [url=http://jewishbazaar.com/BAZAA...]Jewish Bazaar[/url]:
Contains a removable tefilat haderech - traveler's prayer in Hebrew and English. Hang one in your car as a constant reminder of the higher things as you travel life's highways.
Solid brass end caps.
Measures under 4 inch
$19.99
From [url=http://www.israelshop1.com/pd...]Israel Shop[/url]:
Small Pewter Mezzuzah specially designed for cars
Length: 6.5 cm
Width: 0.8 cm.
Name: Pewter Mezzuzah. Your Price: $9.95
Serial Number: MZ-TK2662
Stock Status: In Stock
[NOTE: This shop makes donations to charities in Israel when you make a purchase!!! :)]
From [url=http://www.shofarjudaica.com/...]Shofar Judaica[/url]
MEZUZAH BEAUTIFUL GOLDPLATED SMALL BUT NOT NECESSARILY FOR CAR
Availability: USUALLY SHIPS WITHIN 24 HOURS
MEZCAR1-GOLDpadRegular: $15.00 padSale Price: $8.95pad
[NOTE: I really like the looks of this one!]
From [url=http://shop.store.yahoo.com/j...]Judy's Judaica[/url]:
2" gold plated car mezuzah with traveler's prayer.
Made in Israel.
Availability: Usually ships the next business day.
Car Mezuzah - MEZCAR3 MEZCAR3pad
$10.00pad
[NOTE: Unfortunatly out of stock :cry:]
You like? Anyone have any suggestions on which one I should choose? Anyone have other sources and online store to find more choices at?
03.30.04 (6:31 pm) [edit]
[i][b]By HERB KEINON, The Jerusalem Post[/i][/b]
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's bureau chief, Dov Weisglass, will travel to Washington on Monday knowing that, to secure Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's crucial support for the disengagement plan, he needs to win US agreement to building the security fence around the major settlement blocs.
Netanyahu, whose support is considered key in swaying some of the uncommitted Likud ministers, laid out three conditions for accepting Sharon's disengagement plan at Sunday's meeting between Sharon and the Likud ministers.
These conditions are:
~ All of the points of entry to the Gaza Strip – by land, air, and sea – must remain in Israeli hands. This condition was recommended last week by the Defense Ministry as well.
~ A public and detailed US rejection of the Palestinian demand for the right of refugees to return to Israel. The US's rejection of the "right of return" was strongly implied in comments by presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
~ Completion of the security fence before withdrawal from Gaza begins, including building the fence around the Ariel, Gush Etzion, and Ma'aleh Adumim settlement blocs, as well as around Route 443 from Modi'in to Jerusalem. This will be the most difficult commitment to secure, since the US has objected to the route of the fence dipping deep into the West Bank.
Not all the ministers who wanted to speak on the plan had a chance, and the meeting will continue next Sunday, following Weisglass's return from Washington.
Netanyahu's conditions, according to political sources, are consistent with his long-held belief in reciprocity – that if Israel gives something up, it needs to get something in return.
"If you let terrorism win, it only gets stronger, just as the withdrawal from Lebanon contributed to the outbreak of the intifada," Netanyahu reportedly told the Likud ministers.
He said that a unilateral withdrawal is likely to increase the motivation of the terrorists, especially in Judea and Samaria, and therefore "we cannot be made suckers by this process, and implement it without any political compensation."
Netanyahu prefaced his conditional acceptance by saying he would not have launched this initiative, but now that it has been launched, the Likud ministers need to support Sharon when he goes to Washington to discuss the plan with Bush.
Sharon presented two options for disengagement.
The first calls for a complete withdrawal from Gaza, except for the strategic "Philadelphia Corridor" on the Egyptian border; the second for a withdrawal from Gaza and four West Bank settlements if the US provides certain guarantees.
A spokesman for Health Minister Dan Naveh said after the meeting that Naveh is now clearly opposed to the plan, joining Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, Internal Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi, and Ministers-without-Portfol io Uzi Landau and Natan Sharansky.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Ehud Olmert both spoke out in favor of the plan. Minister-without-Portfoli o Gideon Ezra also has come out in favor of the plan.
This leaves Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Education Minister Limor Livnat, Immigration Absorption Minister Tzipi Livni, and Minister-without-Portfoli o Meir Sheetrit still wavering.
Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said Sunday night that Netanyahu's conditional support will likely tip the scales for at least two of these ministers, enabling the program to pass in the cabinet.
Netanyahu publicly explained his position later in the day at a Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce meeting in Tel Aviv. The first thing he emphasized was that his three conditions are a package deal.
"It will be impossible to pass one or two of the conditions; we need all three," he said, adding that in light of the magnitude of the disengagement and the difficulty involved, "this is the minimal package."
Netanyahu further stressed that these conditions must not be "diluted or softened, it is one complete package. If these three conditions are not met, I can't support the initiative; if they are met, I certainly could consider it positively."
He said he believes a majority of the public accepts the notion of conditioning withdrawal on getting something real in return. "Most of the public understands that we must not come out this looking like suckers, getting [more] terrorism in exchange for withdrawal. Most of the public understands that there should not be a withdrawal without receiving reasonable compensation."
The Philadelphia-raised Netanyahu, who said "I know the US a little bit," predicted that it will be possible to get American agreement to these conditions.
Just as the US would like to leave Iraq, but knows it can't without setting conditions necessary to overcome the terror there, so Washington also understands that Israel cannot withdraw from Gaza without "establishing the conditions that will enable us to overcome the terrorist forces here," he said.
Israel, Netanyahu said, "must not be seen as a country that folds or runs under fire or gives a prize to terrorism. If this course, which the prime minister initiated, is carried out in the wrong manner, it will weaken our security and endanger our future. If done properly, I believe it will be possible to stop the dangers and meet the challenges before us."
Sources close to Sharon said his disengagement plan placed Netanyahu in a political dilemma.
While he has real problems with the plan, he understands the public sentiment in favor of withdrawal, and he is looking beyond the plan to the next election.
"Bibi did what they taught him in the commandos," one official said, "he left himself an escape route. If the plan succeeds, he can take credit; if it doesn't, he can say that it failed because his conditions were not met."
The official said that the Americans will weigh Netanyahu's proposals against Bush's vision of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state living alongside with Israel. "The question will be whether these conditions can be met while still ensuring a contiguous and viable Palestinian state," he said.
He said he believes Netanyahu's conditions can be finessed.
"The fine details can be worked out," he said. "If the Americans say that the Ariel bloc can be retained under Israeli control, but that a fence cannot be built around it so as not to infringe on the Palestinians, I think that is something Netanyahu will be able to live with." Sunday's meeting was punctuated by a number of sharp exchanges.
At one point, Sharon censured Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman (National Union) and Construction and Housing Minister Effi Eitam (National Religious Party) for taking their criticism of the plan to US officials, and said if this type of "scorn" does not end, he can form a different coalition.
Livnat demurred, saying that Sharon needs the Right and a religious party in the coalition.
"Who told you we can't have a religious party in the cabinet [without the NRP]?" Sharon shot back, in a reference to the possibility of bringing Shas or United Torah Judaism into the government if the NRP and the National Union quit.
[i][b]By HERB KEINON, The Jerusalem Post[/i][/b]
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's bureau chief, Dov Weisglass, will travel to Washington on Monday knowing that, to secure Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's crucial support for the disengagement plan, he needs to win US agreement to building the security fence around the major settlement blocs.
Netanyahu, whose support is considered key in swaying some of the uncommitted Likud ministers, laid out three conditions for accepting Sharon's disengagement plan at Sunday's meeting between Sharon and the Likud ministers.
These conditions are:
~ All of the points of entry to the Gaza Strip – by land, air, and sea – must remain in Israeli hands. This condition was recommended last week by the Defense Ministry as well.
~ A public and detailed US rejection of the Palestinian demand for the right of refugees to return to Israel. The US's rejection of the "right of return" was strongly implied in comments by presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
~ Completion of the security fence before withdrawal from Gaza begins, including building the fence around the Ariel, Gush Etzion, and Ma'aleh Adumim settlement blocs, as well as around Route 443 from Modi'in to Jerusalem. This will be the most difficult commitment to secure, since the US has objected to the route of the fence dipping deep into the West Bank.
Not all the ministers who wanted to speak on the plan had a chance, and the meeting will continue next Sunday, following Weisglass's return from Washington.
Netanyahu's conditions, according to political sources, are consistent with his long-held belief in reciprocity – that if Israel gives something up, it needs to get something in return.
"If you let terrorism win, it only gets stronger, just as the withdrawal from Lebanon contributed to the outbreak of the intifada," Netanyahu reportedly told the Likud ministers.
He said that a unilateral withdrawal is likely to increase the motivation of the terrorists, especially in Judea and Samaria, and therefore "we cannot be made suckers by this process, and implement it without any political compensation."
Netanyahu prefaced his conditional acceptance by saying he would not have launched this initiative, but now that it has been launched, the Likud ministers need to support Sharon when he goes to Washington to discuss the plan with Bush.
Sharon presented two options for disengagement.
The first calls for a complete withdrawal from Gaza, except for the strategic "Philadelphia Corridor" on the Egyptian border; the second for a withdrawal from Gaza and four West Bank settlements if the US provides certain guarantees.
A spokesman for Health Minister Dan Naveh said after the meeting that Naveh is now clearly opposed to the plan, joining Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, Internal Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi, and Ministers-without-Portfol io Uzi Landau and Natan Sharansky.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Ehud Olmert both spoke out in favor of the plan. Minister-without-Portfoli o Gideon Ezra also has come out in favor of the plan.
This leaves Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Education Minister Limor Livnat, Immigration Absorption Minister Tzipi Livni, and Minister-without-Portfoli o Meir Sheetrit still wavering.
Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said Sunday night that Netanyahu's conditional support will likely tip the scales for at least two of these ministers, enabling the program to pass in the cabinet.
Netanyahu publicly explained his position later in the day at a Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce meeting in Tel Aviv. The first thing he emphasized was that his three conditions are a package deal.
"It will be impossible to pass one or two of the conditions; we need all three," he said, adding that in light of the magnitude of the disengagement and the difficulty involved, "this is the minimal package."
Netanyahu further stressed that these conditions must not be "diluted or softened, it is one complete package. If these three conditions are not met, I can't support the initiative; if they are met, I certainly could consider it positively."
He said he believes a majority of the public accepts the notion of conditioning withdrawal on getting something real in return. "Most of the public understands that we must not come out this looking like suckers, getting [more] terrorism in exchange for withdrawal. Most of the public understands that there should not be a withdrawal without receiving reasonable compensation."
The Philadelphia-raised Netanyahu, who said "I know the US a little bit," predicted that it will be possible to get American agreement to these conditions.
Just as the US would like to leave Iraq, but knows it can't without setting conditions necessary to overcome the terror there, so Washington also understands that Israel cannot withdraw from Gaza without "establishing the conditions that will enable us to overcome the terrorist forces here," he said.
Israel, Netanyahu said, "must not be seen as a country that folds or runs under fire or gives a prize to terrorism. If this course, which the prime minister initiated, is carried out in the wrong manner, it will weaken our security and endanger our future. If done properly, I believe it will be possible to stop the dangers and meet the challenges before us."
Sources close to Sharon said his disengagement plan placed Netanyahu in a political dilemma.
While he has real problems with the plan, he understands the public sentiment in favor of withdrawal, and he is looking beyond the plan to the next election.
"Bibi did what they taught him in the commandos," one official said, "he left himself an escape route. If the plan succeeds, he can take credit; if it doesn't, he can say that it failed because his conditions were not met."
The official said that the Americans will weigh Netanyahu's proposals against Bush's vision of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state living alongside with Israel. "The question will be whether these conditions can be met while still ensuring a contiguous and viable Palestinian state," he said.
He said he believes Netanyahu's conditions can be finessed.
"The fine details can be worked out," he said. "If the Americans say that the Ariel bloc can be retained under Israeli control, but that a fence cannot be built around it so as not to infringe on the Palestinians, I think that is something Netanyahu will be able to live with." Sunday's meeting was punctuated by a number of sharp exchanges.
At one point, Sharon censured Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman (National Union) and Construction and Housing Minister Effi Eitam (National Religious Party) for taking their criticism of the plan to US officials, and said if this type of "scorn" does not end, he can form a different coalition.
Livnat demurred, saying that Sharon needs the Right and a religious party in the coalition.
"Who told you we can't have a religious party in the cabinet [without the NRP]?" Sharon shot back, in a reference to the possibility of bringing Shas or United Torah Judaism into the government if the NRP and the National Union quit.
When Should the US Stop Supporting Israel?
03.30.04 (6:23 pm) [edit]
[b]When Should We No Longer Support Israel?
[i]By Victor Davis Hanson[/i]
VictorHanson.com
March 30, 2004[/b]
The recent assassination of Sheik Saruman raises among some Americans the question—at what point should we reconsider our rather blanket support for the Israelis and show a more even-handed attitude toward the Palestinians? The answer, it seems to me, should be assessed in cultural, economic, political, and social terms.
Well, we should no longer support Israel, when…
Mr. Sharon suspends all elections and plans a decade of unquestioned rule.
Mr. Sharon suspends all investigation about fiscal impropriety as his family members spend millions of Israeli aid money in Paris.
All Israeli television and newspapers are censored by the Likud party.
Israeli hit teams enter the West Bank with the precise intention of targeting and blowing up Arab women and children.
Preteen Israeli children are apprehended with bombs under their shirts on their way to the West Bank to murder Palestinian families.
Israeli crowds rush into the street to dip their hands into the blood of their dead and march en masse chanting mass murder to the Palestinians.
Rabbis give public sermons in which they characterize Palestinians as the children of pigs and monkeys.
Israeli school textbooks state that Arabs engage in blood sacrifice and ritual murders.
Mainstream Israeli politicians, without public rebuke, call for the destruction of Palestinians on the West Bank and the end to Arab society there.
Likud party members routinely lynch and execute their opponents without trial.
jewish fundamentalists execute with impunity women found guilty of adultery on grounds that they are impugning the “honor” of the family.
Israeli mobs with impunity tear apart Palestinian policemen held in detention.
Israeli television broadcasts—to the tune of patriotic music—the last taped messages of jewish suicide bombers who have slaughtered dozens of Arabs.
jewish marchers parade in the streets with their children dressed up as suicide bombers, replete with plastic suicide-bombing vests.
New Yorkers post $25,000 bounties for every Palestinian blown up by Israeli murderers.
Israeli militants murder a jew by accident and then apologize on grounds that they though he was an Arab—to the silence of Israeli society.
jews enter Arab villages in Israel to machine gun women and children.
Israeli public figures routinely threaten the United States with terror attacks.
Bin Laden is a folk hero in Tel Aviv.
jewish assassins murder American diplomats and are given de facto sanctuary by Israeli society.
Israeli citizens celebrate on news that 3,000 Americans have been murdered.
Israeli citizens express support for Saddam Hussein’s supporters in Iraq in their efforts to kill Americans.
So until then, I think most Americans can see the moral differences in the present struggle.
If the Palestinians wish to hold periodic and open elections, establish an independent judiciary, create a free press, arrest murderers, subject their treasury to public scrutiny, eschew suicide murdering, censure religious leaders who call for mass murder, embrace non-violent dissidents, extend equal rights to women, end honor killings, raise funds in the Arab world earmarked only to build water, sewer, transportation, and education infrastructure, and pledge that any jews who choose to live in the West Bank will enjoy the same rights as Arabs in Israel, then they might find Americans equally divided over questions of land and peace.
But all that is a lot of ifs. And so for the present, Palestinian leaders shouldn’t be too surprised that Americans increasingly find very little in their society that has much appeal to either our values or sympathy. If they continually assure us publicly that they are furious at Americans, then they should at least pause, reflect, and ask themselves why an overwhelming number of Americans—not jewish, not residents of New York, not influenced by the media—are growing far more furious with them.
[i]Victor Davis Hanson is a respected author and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. His most recent book, Between War and Peace: Lessons in Afgahnistan and Iraq, is available from the FrontPage Magazine Bookstore for $13.95.[/i]
A glance at the state of democracy in the Arab world
03.30.04 (1:49 pm) [edit]
[b][i]By ASSOCIATED PRESS[/i][/b]
ALGERIA: Multiparty state with elected parliament and president. National Liberation Front, dominant party since independence from France 40 years ago, won 2002 parliamentary elections marred by violence. In 1991, fearing fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front would be elected, army aborted final round of election and sparked bloody insurgency.
BAHRAIN: Declared constitutional monarchy in 2002 as part of reforms that paved way for first legislative elections in 30 years. Women voted and ran in October election, which secularists narrowly won. Final authority on all matters still resides with king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
EGYPT: President Hosni Mubarak took over from assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981. His security apparatus and National Democratic Party have almost absolute control over elected parliament. Mubarak stands every five years as only presidential candidate in yes-no referendums that always produce yes vote of more than 90 percent. Speculation persists Mubarak is grooming his son to replace him.
IRAQ: U.S.-led coalition to run country through June 30, when new Iraqi-run government replaces Saddam Hussein's 35-year dictatorship. Washington promises Iraq will be democracy, but history of repression and deep divisions in society will make that difficult.
JORDAN: King Abdullah II, who succeeded late father, King Hussein, has virtually absolute power but has pledged to transform kingdom into the "model of a democratic Arab Islamic state" that can serve as an example to other Middle East nations. He has abolished the Information Ministry that enforced censorship and put more women into government, but broader public freedoms are lacking. Political elite, conservative tribal leaders, would-be reformers and Islamic fundamentalists argue over direction of reform.
KUWAIT: Politics controlled by emir, Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah, and family. Kuwait pioneer among Arabs in electing parliament, in 1963, but emir regularly dismisses national assemblies. Women barred from voting or running for office.
LEBANON: Elections regular and lively, but not open because of power-sharing agreement meant to prevent resurgence of 1975-90 sectarian civil war. Legislative seats apportioned equally to Christians and Muslims; prime minister must be Sunni Muslim, president Christian. Syria, a dictatorship, wields great influence over Lebanese politics.
LIBYA: Moammar Gadhafi in absolute power since 1969 military coup.
MOROCCO: King Mohammed VI appoints prime minister and members of government following legislative elections; can fire any minister, dissolve parliament, call for new elections, or rule by decree. Incumbent socialist party won September 2002 parliamentary elections praised as clean and fair. Conservative Islamic parties did well.
OMAN: Sultan Qaboos became ruler by overthrowing father in 1970. Family has ruled for about 250 years. In October 2003, the country held its first elections open to all citizens for an advisory council. No political parties or elected legislature.
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: Yasser Arafat, under growing pressure to share power, appointed a prime minister in 2003 but Mahmoud Abbas' government collapsed in a dispute with Arafat over security control. The same disagreement nearly sank Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia's government, appointed in September, until Qureia gave in. Arafat essentially retains indirect control in many areas, including security.
QATAR: Promising parliamentary elections after holding first municipal elections in 1999, with women fully participating. Famous as home of al-Jazeera satellite TV station, lambasted by Arab and Western governments for shows critical of governments. Qataris overwhelmingly voted in April 2003 for a new constitution that guarantees freedom of expression, religion, assembly and association. It also provides for a 45-member parliament, two-thirds of which will be elected and the rest appointed by the emir.
SAUDI ARABIA: Crown Prince Abdullah rules on behalf of ailing King Fahd; no elected legislature. In sign royal family feeling pressure to reform, the Cabinet announced in October that Saudis will be able to vote in municipal elections. Government also recently set up a national human rights commission and let international rights monitors visit for first time.
SYRIA: President Bashar Assad wields near-absolute power, disappointing those who expected the young, Western-educated doctor to open up politics. Succeeded father, longtime dictator Hafez Assad, who died in 2000.
SUDAN: President Omar el-Bashir in power since 1989 coup. Recently moved to lessen influence of fundamentalist Islamic leaders, but democratic reform not on agenda.
TUNISIA: Republic dominated by single party, Constitutional Democratic Assembly, since independence from France in 1956. Opposition parties allowed since 1981.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Federation of states, each controlled by own emir and family.
YEMEN: President Ali Abdullah Saleh presides over largely feudal society. Despite constitution, elected parliament and lively press, power rests with military and tribes.
A self-defeating ideological rigidity
03.30.04 (1:44 pm) [edit]
[i][b]By JONATHAN S. TOBIN[/b][/i]
The first time I heard Rabbi Daniel Lapin speak, he told a story that struck me as odd.
The setting was the 1995 Washington, D.C., conference that launched Lapin's Toward Tradition organization. The event attracted an array of luminaries whose presence seemed to emphasize the seriousness of this effort to create a politically conservative Jewish group.
Rising to address a gala luncheon, Lapin sounded the message that all people of faith had more in common with each other than with their nominal co-religionists. To reinforce this point, Lapin confided that he and his wife had chosen for their children to be born in a Catholic hospital that had a cross on the wall of every room rather than at Cedars-Sinai, a Jewish hospital in Los Angeles where he then lived.
Why? Because abortions were conducted at Cedars-Sinai, a practice the Lapins could not countenance.
The Lapins are entitled to choose their own health-care options.They also have a right to their opinions on abortion. But I thought it odd that someone seeking to bring his political message to a wider Jewish audience would think that most Jews would share his sensibilities.
Not so much about abortion, mind you, but about the crosses – a symbol of faith and love for Christians, but one that history has left most Jews viewing differently.
I was reminded of this by Lapin's recent spurt of public visibility during the dispute over Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.
A month after its opening, the film is still packing theaters, making Gibson a fortune. Worries that this cinematic version of the crucifixion would undermine dialogue between Christians and Jews were probably exaggerated. Fears of pogroms breaking out at the cineplexes were downright silly.
But the reaction of most American Jewish viewers of the movie is still puzzlement at why most Christians, including many film critics who didn't like it, failed to see why Jews viewed it as dangerous.
The reason is that Jews and Christians see different things when they view Passion plays. Accounts of the crucifixion, which to Jews seem to incite hatred, are viewed by Christians as having nothing to do with the Jews as a group.
The Passion provides the same contradictory experience.
In the end, the film is simply awful, filled with virtually nothing but the most gratuitous violence. And it's difficult to believe that anyone who did not share its theological premise could view it without being troubled by Gibson's treatment of the Jews. He emphasized passages from the Gospels that put the blame for Jesus' demise on the Jews – and added to them.
It isn't my place or anyone else's to tell Christians what they should believe, nor would I question a Christian viewer's positive feelings about the film. But it's hard to believe that any Jew, even those least inclined to view Christianity with fear or hostility, could view the film in anything other than horror.
But that would not be taking Daniel Lapin into account. Lapin has spent the last year piggybacking on the controversy in a vain attempt to pump some life back into his long-expired attempt to make Toward Tradition into something other than a marginal group with virtually no influence among Jews.
From his new base in Washington state, where he hosts a radio talk show, and on venues such as the Rev. Pat Robertson's popular Christian television show The 700 Club, Lapin has been seizing every opportunity to blast the Anti-Defamation League for expressing concerns about the movie, accusing it of fomenting controversy for the sake of raising funds.
While it can be argued that ADL was an unwitting foil for Gibson's clever promotion strategy, the willingness of Lapin to tirelessly shill for Gibson is nothing less than appalling.
Is there anything to be said in the man's defense?
Lapin's friend, film critic Michael Medved, who also hosts a radio talk show, has said that anger over The Passion is a distraction from the more pressing threat of anti-Semitism from the Islamic world and leftists in Europe. He's right, though that shouldn't obligate us to be silent about anti-Semitism when it crops up in the US.
And Lapin is right when he points out that Jewish groups have been reluctant to listen to the concerns of conservative Christians, who are ardent supporters of Israel, when they complain that much of our popular culture treats their religion with disdain, if not outright contempt.
But Lapin's key point seems to be that Jewish complaints about The Passion will inspire anti-Semitism. Lapin himself has repeatedly stated in the past that he believed Jewish liberals are the cause of anti-Semitism, a view that rationalizes hatred and seeks to unfairly stigmatize a segment of the Jewish community. Anti-Semites cause anti-Semitism; nothing liberals, or any other Jews do causes it.
As it happened, Lapin's popularity among some Christians put him in a position to do some good during this dust-up. He could have used his standing in that sector to educate others about the history of Passion plays and the dangers of anti-Semitism. He might have pointed out that Gibson's film will be used differently in places other than the United States, where Jew-hatred is growing.
Instead, he and some of his followers wound up propping up precisely those forces that have worked against the historic shift away from the Christ-killer myth.
Lapin's indefensible descent into attacks on his fellow Jews provides an example of what happens when we allow political ideology to cloud our reasoning.
Like those on the other end of the spectrum who sometimes prioritize liberal alliances at the expense of the defense of Israel, Lapin has got it backward when he treats a Jew-baiter as off-limits for criticism because it suits his political agenda. The man who set out to defeat Jewish liberalism has become an unwitting parody of its worst excesses.
[i]The writer is executive editor of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia.[/i]
'Dear God' letters get delivered to Wall
03.30.04 (1:39 pm) [edit]
[b][i]By ABIGAIL RADOSZKOWICZ, the Jerusalem Post[/i][/b]
Jerusalem still is God's address on Earth, if post offices around the world are any indication.
Hundreds of letters addressed to God, written in a host of languages from around the world, are forwarded to Israel's capital every year.
On Tuesday, the Postal Authority's center for undeliverable mail in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul commercial zone did its own Pessah cleaning. Employees gathered three piles of letters into a tefillin bag and a small cardboard box for the semi-annual trek to the Western Wall.
There the letters are placed among its crevices, alongside the notes traditionally stuck there by worshipers.
Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch accepted the letters and inserted some in the Wall himself. At the same time, postal workers could be seen industriously sticking more of the letters – sans envelopes – among the massive stones.
Female postal workers took a bundle whose authors had been identified as women over to the women's section of the wall.
Jewish and Christian holidays – especially Yom Kippur and Christmas – are the peak seasons for heavenly correspondence. Yet every morning the post office gets mail addressed to God, Jesus, the Seventh Heaven, and even Santa Claus. Many of the hundreds of letters received yearly come from within Israel, while the rest are from far off as Russia, India, Hong Kong, and New Zealand.
A typical letter was an aerogram addressed simply "To God, Israel."
Eight workers at the center for undeliverable mail are the only ones authorized to open letters, in an attempt to discover the sender's actual location.
Postal Authority spokesman Yitzhak Rabihiya said that letters to God are sent by both youngsters and adults. Some ask for help in their studies, others for more love. Many senders are in states of despair.
One letter writer asked God to free her from the urge to steal, and another sent in money in reparation for past thefts.
Another, in a mix of Spanish and Hebrew, asked for peace for Israel and the rest of the world.
For Avi Yaniv, head of the undeliverable mail department, the most touching request to God was by a widow in America, who asked to dream of the husband she missed, so as to be able to see him once more.
03.30.04 (1:33 pm) [edit]
[b]The Associated Press
JERUSALEM[/b]
Dozens of Jewish settlers scuffled with Israeli troops Tuesday in an attempt to prevent the dismantling of an unauthorized synagogue on a West Bank hilltop, settlers said.
More than 200 Jewish settlers arrived at the one-trailer outpost, Hazon David, to block troops, Rachel Klein, a settler spokeswoman said.
The resistance, Klein said, would not be violent. "But we're not going to give up our struggle," Klein said. "They're determined to do it and we're determined they won't."
Israeli security sources said Hazon David is one of several outposts to be dismantled ahead of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's trip to the United States in mid-April.
The army said it had removed three tents from the site earlier Tuesday, but declined to say whether there were plans to dismantle the outpost itself.
Israel is to dismantle dozens of illegal outposts as part of the stalled U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan. The Palestinians are required to crack down on militant groups.
[b]The Associated Press
JERUSALEM[/b]
Dozens of Jewish settlers scuffled with Israeli troops Tuesday in an attempt to prevent the dismantling of an unauthorized synagogue on a West Bank hilltop, settlers said.
More than 200 Jewish settlers arrived at the one-trailer outpost, Hazon David, to block troops, Rachel Klein, a settler spokeswoman said.
The resistance, Klein said, would not be violent. "But we're not going to give up our struggle," Klein said. "They're determined to do it and we're determined they won't."
Israeli security sources said Hazon David is one of several outposts to be dismantled ahead of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's trip to the United States in mid-April.
The army said it had removed three tents from the site earlier Tuesday, but declined to say whether there were plans to dismantle the outpost itself.
Israel is to dismantle dozens of illegal outposts as part of the stalled U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan. The Palestinians are required to crack down on militant groups.
Ahavat Yisrael
03.29.04 (7:24 pm) [edit]
A. “Ahavat Yisrael” means “love of Israel”—but who’s Israel? We don’t mean the country here. Israel is you. Israel is me. Israel is all of us. All Jews alive today together comprise this massive thing called “Israel.” And that’s why Israel the country has that name—because it’s the place that is home to “Israel”: all Jews. So, “love of Israel” means love of fellow Jew.
B. Love of fellow Jew is based on the Torah, where it says, “Love your fellow as yourself.” It’s an attitude—a friendly, helpful attitude towards fellow Jews, and everyone else, too.
C. Ahavat Yisrael is a spiritual approach to life that produces physical results—friendship, kindness and unity amongst Jewish people. This spiritual approach says we are all little sections of the same cosmic entity, kind of like how those little robots on those TV cartoons all merge to form one giant robot. We are all part of each other, and if we hurt each other, we’re really hurting ourselves.
How do I express Ahavat Yisrael?
1. Love is connection
Don’t forget the first half of the phrase: love. What’s love? Connection. When you love someone or something, you feel connected to him/her/it. So express that connection to other Jews. Lend a hand, or a buck. Avoid arguing. Apologize. Do favors. Treat ‘em all like family—after all, we are family. Don’t speak negatively about fellow Jews; do speak positively. Want for them all those good things you want for yourself, and whatever you wouldn’t want for yourself, hope they don’t wind up with those things, either.
2. Don’t do it!
If you wouldn’t want it done to you, don’t do it to others. Whatever it may be. Simple. Ahavat Yisrael basically means we are in the business of being nice and forgiving to each other at all times, the same way we’re always nice and forgiving to ourselves.
3. Ahavat Yisrael is not for Grandma
It’s easy to show love to someone you love—Mom, Dad, spouse, sibling. Now take that love, and apply it to a fellow Jew you disagree with, or really can’t stand. Or worse. That’s where true Ahavat Yisrael begins. Hey, it ain’t easy. But it’s real Ahavat Yisrael. Hating a fellow Jew in your heart is Torah-illegal—it’s Negative Mitzvah #302. Hating him openly, though technically not a violation of 302, ‘cause at least now he knows it, is also Torah-illegal: the Torah prohibits bearing a grudge or taking revenge. So we’re back to Square One: Ahavat Yisroel—grueling, but infinitely rewarding—is the only way to go.
World Turned Upside Down
03.29.04 (6:33 pm) [edit]
[i]Worldwide media outlets castigate Israel for removing a terrorist leader responsible for hundreds of murders.[/i]
In the aftermath of Israel's targeted killing of terrorist mastermind Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, media outlets across the globe castigated Israel for committing a 'crime,' while presenting Yassin and Hamas as heroic martyrs. A sampling:
● [b]South America[/b]: The Brazilian cartoonist Osmani Simanca rehashed the crucifixion canard against the Jewish people:
The insult here to Christians (comparing a sadistic terrorist to Jesus) is at least as great as the insult to Jews. And Simanca is no small-time journalist: MSNBC'S [url=http://cagle.slate.msn.com/ne...]Daryl Cagle[/url] deemed him 'Brazil's top editorial cartoonist.'
[With anti-Israel media bias a persistent problem in Brazil, HonestReporting Brazil (in Portuguese) is presently being formed. If you are interested in getting involved, email hrbrazil@honestreporting.com.]
● [b]Australia:[/b] At Melbourne's largest daily, [url=http://www.theage.com.au/arti...]The Age,[/url] international editor Tony Parkinson makes his own outrageous Yassin comparison:
[b][i]The grim spectacle of an ageing, wheelchair-bound invalid being slaughtered in cold blood is not new to the world of terrorism.
Almost 20 years ago, four heavily armed Palestinian terrorists hijacked an Italian cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, in the Mediterranean, taking hostage its 400 passengers and crew....they chose a sacrificial victim, 69-year-old Leon Klinghoffer. They shot him, and then pushed his body overboard, wheelchair and all.[/i][/b]
The Age likens the mass murderer Yassin to a completely [url=http://www.specialoperations....]innocent American tourist[/url]. Down Under, has the world turned upside down?!
Comments to: tparkinson@theage.com.au
● [b]Europe:[/b] UK's [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/isr...,2763,1176431,00.html]The Guardian[/url] lambasted Israel's
[b][i]recklessness that seems bent on turning what was a national dispute over land between Israelis and Palestinians into a religious war between Jews and Muslims: what other outcome can there be from killing a leader in a mosque?[/b][/i]
First of all, Yassin was not killed 'in a mosque' ― he was killed on the street. And The Guardian claims that this will render it a 'religious war' for radical Islamic Palestinian terrorists?! The conflict has always been understood by Hamas et al. to be between Muslim faithful and Jewish 'infidels.'
Comments to: letters@guardian.co.uk
● [b]United States[/b]:
It's truly remarkable that on the very same day that US officials [url=http://www.nytimes.com/auth/l...://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/24/politics/2 4PANE.html]were being grilled[/url] for not eliminating Bin Laden before 9/11, Israel's elimination of a Hamas leader was broadly criticized. Cartoonist [url=http://news.mywebpal.com/part...]Mike Lester[/url] of the Rome (GA) News-Tribune captured this double standard:
Some examples of the American media getting it all wrong:
● [url=http://http//www.latimes.com/...,1,6391773.story?coll=la-home-headli nes]LA Times:[/url]
The Hamas cleric had a moral authority that motivated many to give their lives to kill others.
One shudders to consider the Times' sense of 'morality.'
● [url=http://www.denverpost.com/Sto...,1413,36~11676~2035192,00 .html]Knight-Ridder[/url] (printed in all their papers, nationwide):
[b][i]The elderly, partially blind quadriplegic was the beloved leader of a popular movement to create an Islamic Palestinian state.[/i][/b]
Knight-Ridder, while fawning over this 'beloved' man, should be reminded of Hamas' idea of a Palestinian state (from the [url=http://www.fas.org/irp/world/...]Hamas Covenant[/url]): "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." And as [url=http://honestreporting.com/ar...]Yassin[/url] said in 2001, "All of Israel, Tel Aviv included, is occupied Palestine. So we're not actually targeting civilians."
Comments to Knight-Ridder: Snelson@krwashington.com
Comments to: letters@latimes.com
● Newark (NJ) [url=http://www.nj.com/opinion/led...]Star-Ledger[/url] cartoonist Drew Sheneman illustrated the claim of many print editorials that Israel's strike against Yassin will unleash Islamic terrorism against America:
Like other Islamists, Hamas carries a fundamental animosity toward the US and western civilization. The notion that the US previously enjoyed a quiet day in the park vis-a-vis Islamic terrorists is simply absurd. Indeed, soon after 9/11, under the headline "US Turns Against Hamas," [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/isr...,2763,612323,00.html]the Guardian [/url]reported on the US government crackdown on the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation, a funnel for Hamas funds. This, they reported, "served to blur the distinction between the Bush administration's 'war on terrorism' and Israel's military retaliation in Gaza and the West Bank."
And note that over the past decade, [url=http://www.zoa.org/pressrel20...]Hamas[/url] has been responsible for the murder of 38 Americans. The Hamas hornets have been stinging Americans for some time.
Comments to Star-Ledger: raregood@starledger.com
On the other hand, numerous editorials came out in favor of Israel's action:
● [url=http://www.detnews.com/2004/e...]Detroit News:[/url]
[b][i]Israel scored a victory in the global war on terrorism Monday by finally dispatching Sheik Ahmed Yassin...This man was as evil as they come, a spiritual brother of Osama bin Laden. He worked to subvert every attempt to bring peace to the region and had openly committed himself to the destruction of the Jewish state. Yassin was not a political leader; he headed a terrorist organization. There is no distinction between what Hamas does in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and what al-Qaeda did in New York on September 11 and is suspected of doing in Madrid earlier this month. Yassin got exactly what was coming to him. Israel owes no apologies for his death.[/i][/b]
● UK's [url=http://www.thesun.co.uk/artic...,,2004132154,00.html]Sun:[/url]
[i][b]Being "spiritual leader" of Hamas is not like being the Archbishop of Canterbury. Ahmed Yassin was a Godfather of Terror, the man who founded the Palestinian killing machine and the inspiration for more than 50 suicide bomb attacks on Israel. Critics of Israel say that country has aborted the peace process. They're wrong. Over the years Palestinian bombers have repeatedly blasted peace hopes to smithereens - taking hundreds of innocent Israeli men, women, and children with them. Why did Foreign Secretary Jack Straw go weak at the knees over Yassin's death? He said Israel's action was "very unlikely to achieve its objectives." Wrong: it has achieved its objective because one more terrorist mastermind is dead.[/i][/b]
● [url=http://www.nypost.com/postopi...]New York Post:[/url]
[i][b]Sheikh Yassin was up to his eyeballs in blood. It's hard to see how his removal from the equation is anything but a step forward for peace in the Middle East, at least in the long term. And a step forward for the rest of the world, as it will serve to remind would-be terrorists that some of their enemies fight back. Prime Minister Sharon had little choice but to take the action he took.[/i][/b]
● [url=http://signin.projo.com/reg_s...://www.projo.com/opinion/editorials/co ntent/projo_20040324_24ed pal.1b99a5.html]Providence Journal:[/url]
[i][b]Sheikh Yassin's expressed mission was to destroy Israel and replace it with a fascist Islamic state - a paradise for those who enjoy stoning people for adultery, where women are discouraged from reading or writing, where there are few political or social liberties, and where the media are largely a propaganda machine, rife with exhortations to kill the Jews. Welcome to the Dark Ages. When one side's aim is the destruction of an entire state, and the other side has the effrontery to try to defend itself, mayhem is inevitable, but appeasement makes matters worse.[/i][/b]
● [url=http://www.nationalreview.com...]National Review[/url]'s Joel Rosenber
[i][b]Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin was the Osama bin Laden of Palestinian terrorism. By assassinating Yassin, the Israelis just applied the Bush Doctrine to one of the most deadly terrorist leaders on the planet. In the winner-take-all war on terror, countries are either with us or against us. They either take decisive action - even preemptive military action - to bring terrorists to justice, or they are guilty of aiding and abetting the enemy.[/i][/b]
● Canada's [url=http://www.canada.com/nationa...]National Post:[/url]
[i][b]No one need shed a tear for the sheikh. No major Hamas bombing or missile attack on Israel was carried out without his personal approval. And there have been many. Sheikh Yassin was an enemy combatant, a man who has marked himself as fair military game through his decision to dispatch dozens of killers into Israel. What is "excessive" about dispatching an arch-terrorist along with three aides and bodyguards? No one outside Yassin's entourage was killed. To us, this sounds surgical rather than "disproportionate." Few terrorists deserved "martyrdom" more than Yassin. In the long run, his death will make the Middle East a safer place.[/i][/b]
● [url=http://www.theaustralian.news...,5744,9055890%5E7583,00.html]The Australian:[/url]
[i][b]While there is little chance that the killing of Yassin will end the terror, the brutal reality is that Israel has nothing to lose. His death will demonstrate Israel is not an inert target and that it will do more than try to catch the suicide bombers before they strike. Despite the denunciations of Israel's action, practical Palestinian politicians who know the Jewish state cannot be destroyed will not regret the death of Sheikh Yassin. His death is one small step along the path away from perpetual war.[/i][/b]
(Hat tip: [url=http://www.dailyalert.org/arc...]COP Daily Alert[/url])
HonestReporting subscribers are encouraged to use the above as talking points for responding to unfair coverage in your local papers.
See also the first [url=http://www.honestreporting.co...]HonestReporting communique[/url] on the Yassin strike, which is now updated and debunks the four most common media myths on this event.
[i]Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media bias.
HonestReporting[/i]
Palestinian Reactions to Death of Abu Al-Abbas-'The Great National Leader'
03.29.04 (6:02 pm) [edit]
[b][i]by MEMRI[/i][/b]
Following the death of Palestine Liberation Front secretary-general Muhammad Abbas (Abu Al-Abbas) [1] in a U.S. prison in Baghdad where he was being held, the Palestinian media featured tributes to him, depicting him as a "great national fighter." Some of these tributes, particularly those by PLF members, accused the Americans of killing him, and expressed their desire for revenge, including one call for the assassination of President Bush. According to an official of the Palestinian representative's office in Baghdad, Abbas' body arrived in Syria for burial on March 23, 2004. [2] The following are excerpts from Palestinian reactions to Abu Al-Abbas' death:
The Palestinian Leadership
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat mourned Abu Al-Abbas in an announcement by him and the Palestinian leadership: "The Palestinian leadership bids farewell to a unique fighter; a national leader who devoted his life to serving his people and his homeland." [3] The Palestinian media also reported that Arafat received condolences on Abu Al-Abbas's death in his presidential office in Ramallah. [4]
A communiqué issued by the Fatah movement read: "Fatah announces the death of the great national leader, the Shahid [martyr] Muhammad Abbas – Abu Al-Abbas – the Palestine Liberation Front secretary-general who died a martyr in an American prison in Baghdad under unclear circumstances. Fatah calls for an urgent investigation under international supervision, particularly since Abu Al-Abbas was being held in dangerous and inhumane conditions that directly harmed his life…
"[Our] commitment remains unchanged, and [our] vow remains in force. We continue marching on the path of revolution and of just national struggle until victory is realized and an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital is established. To eternal Paradise, our hero Shahid – Abu Al-Abbas!" [5]
Death notices were published by several top Palestinian officials, among them Rashid Abu Shbak who heads the Preventive Security Apparatus in Gaza. Shbak expressed his deep sorrow "on the death of the great national fighter." [6]
PA Information Ministry Director-General Sa'ad Tawfiq Bsisso demanded that an international committee be established to investigate the circumstances of Abu Al-Abbas's death. [7]
Other Palestinian Organizations
The National and Islamic Forces also published a communiqué, promising to follow in the path of Abu Al-Abbas: "The martyrdom of Abu Al-Abbas will only add to our people and to its national and Islamic determination to continue the struggle in the same path [as he], and to cling to the same goals for which the great commander was martyred." [8]
Abbas's organization, the Palestine Liberation Front, had a similar demand, calling for the establishment of a medical committee "to expose the circumstances of the martyrdom" of its secretary general, adding: "We bid farewell today to our commander and secretary general, the Shahid Abu Al-Abbas, who played a prominent role in the history of the Palestinian struggle for 40 years, from his youth to his martyrdom. He took part in the various stations [along the way] of the national struggle, by establishing the fighting front and heading it…
"Abu Al-Abbas defended the right of the struggle of our people and [the right] to demand its rights and sovereignty on its land and homeland. We promise the Shahid commander to continue in his path, and we promise to remain faithful to his [acts of] sacrifice. Our positions, which will remain living in our conscience and in the conscience of all sons of our people, will be a torch illuminating the way of the path, until the goals of our people are achieved: return, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital." [9]
Palestine Liberation Front spokesman and political bureau member Dr. Wasel Abu Yousef said: "Our front is proud to present its secretary general and its great founding commander as a martyr on the altar of freedom, unity, and common conscience."
Abu Yousef blamed the Bush administration for Abu Al-Abbas's death: "The Bush administration and its aggressive policy against our people and our faith … which identifies with the aggression and the oppression of the occupation – bear all the responsibility for the martyrdom of Abu Al-Abbas in the prison where he was held hostage with no reason or pretext, without being accused of any charge and without being tried." [10]
In an interview with the Israeli Arab weekly Kul Al-Arab, Abu Yousefagain blamed the Americans for the death of Abu Al-Abbas, and said that three days before his martyrdom, Abu Al-Abbas had sent him a letter via the Red Cross with the message that his health was good. This, he said, "makes us think that the Americans have committed some foul crime and killed him…"
Abu Yousef added: "This foul crime is in keeping with the all-out war waged by the occupation forces against our people and its leadership, while many of our leaders have been assassinated and others detained, and while Chairman Arafat and his Palestinian people are besieged in isolated ghettoes." [11]
Muhammad Zeidan, who told the London –based Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that he had been the personal companion and confidant of Abu Al-Abbas,expressed his hopes that the response to his "assassination" would be the assassination of President George Bush: "Abu Al-Abbas was dearer to me than my home and my wife. I spent the most beautiful days of my struggle for Palestine with him, and from him I learned about resistance and patience." According to the paper, he expressed his personal hopes that the response to the assassination of Abu Al-Abbas would be the killing of President Bush, saying: "If I am charged with carrying out this mission, I will not hesitate. Since I did not succeed in redeeming Abu Al-Abbas during his life, I will redeem him in his death." [12]
Palestinian Columnists
Columnists in the Palestinian press also wrote about the death of Abu Al-Abbas. The director-general of the Culture Ministry office, Ahmad Dahbour, wrote in his column in the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida: "Abu Al-Abbas chose original and extraordinary means to reach Palestine, such as a hang-glider, a balloon, and [rubber] boats, [and using these carried out] quality operations. Finally it came – his crazy idea that took the world by storm: To hijack a big Italian ship – the Achille Lauro – that was en route to Haifa… [13]
In a tribute to Abu Al-Abbas in the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida,the intellectual Muhammad 'Aloush wrote: "… With Abu Al-Abbas's death, we have lost one of the symbols of the Palestinian struggle who does not accept dictates and remains faithful to the liberation [of Palestine] and resistance to the occupation. Abu Al-Abbas remains one of the national Palestinian [vital] foundations and one of the prominent roots of the dream that will ultimately be realized, sooner or later – the establishment of an independent sovereign Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem, and the finding of a just solution to the matter of the refugees which will include the promise of the right of return…" [14]
03.29.04 (5:55 pm) [edit]
[b]U.S. Resists Israel's Gaza Pullout Plan
Bush Administration Resists Israel on Gaza Withdrawal Plan, Awaits Discussion With Sharon, Arabs
[i]The Associated Press[/i][/b]
WASHINGTON March 29 — Bush administration officials said Monday they are refusing, for now, to approve an Israeli plan to withdraw from parts of Gaza and the West Bank, but are leaving the door open to a change of mind after upcoming intensive discussions with both Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Arab leaders.
As three senior American officials left for a third round of talks in Jerusalem and on the West Bank, the State Department spokesman said a "back-and-forth process" was under way, to be capped by Sharon's scheduled meeting with President Bush at the White House on April 14.
"We are asking questions, looking for answers on a lot of questions that we've had," spokesman Richard Boucher said as he announced that Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns, National Security Council Deputy Director Stephen J. Hadley and the council's Mideast specialist, Elliott Abrams, were beginning their third trip to the area since mid-Feburary.
They plan to meet with Palestinian leaders as well as Sharon and other Israeli officials, and intend to stop in Brussels, Belgium, to see European ministers, as well.
It was unclear how a mounting corruption probe of Sharon might affect the situation. A Sharon confidant said in Jerusalem that the prime minister was determined to withdraw Israeli troops and civilians from much of Gaza despite the inquiry and would seek Cabinet approval for the plan after he met with Bush.
With progress stalled on fulfilling Bush's goal of establishing a Palestinian state next year, Sharon has offered an interim proposal to withdraw in Gaza and parts of the West Bank and to move from there to implement a U.S.-backed road map for peacemaking with the Palestinians.
Sharon's initiative has drawn skepticism but also some tentative support from the Bush administration. For Bush, who is campaigning for re-election, accepting the proposal could earn him points for a measure of peacemaking.
Sharon's proposal does not call for Palestinian approval. Israel insists it would like to deal with the Palestinians but has no negotiating partner among the Palestinians. The Sharon proposal also does not address two key Arab demands: to control part of Jerusalem and to be able to resettle in Israel the families of Palestinians who were forced out with the establishment of the nation 56 years ago.
Sharon's plan calls for Israel to retain two large Jewish settlements outside Jerusalem, Maale Adumim and Gush Etzion, which the Palestinians claim as part of the West Bank; as well as settlements like Ariel, near Tel Aviv.
Alternatively, Sharon has informed the administration he is willing to undertake a smaller unilateral pullback.
Boucher, saying the administration was also in touch with Arab governments, made clear that a U.S. verdict on the Sharon proposal depended largely on whether "other steps can be taken to further proceed down the path outlined by the president, of two states living side by side in peace."
"We are not at the point yet to render some kind of judgment," Boucher said of Sharon's plan.
Bush is to receive additional Arab comment in White House meetings April 12 with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and April 21 with King Abdullah II of Jordan.
Meanwhile, Bush's call for democratic reform in the Arab world suffered a setback when a summit of Arab leaders in Tunisia was postponed. Mubarak said Monday that the postponement was unwarranted and the summit should be held within three weeks.
The summit was seen as a forum for discussing Bush's democracy hopes.
Boucher said the administration had hoped a summit meeting would take place, but its cancellation or postponement "doesn't change in the least our commitment that we have to support home-grown reform and modernization in the Middle East."
[i]Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.[/i]
[b]U.S. Resists Israel's Gaza Pullout Plan
Bush Administration Resists Israel on Gaza Withdrawal Plan, Awaits Discussion With Sharon, Arabs
[i]The Associated Press[/i][/b]
WASHINGTON March 29 — Bush administration officials said Monday they are refusing, for now, to approve an Israeli plan to withdraw from parts of Gaza and the West Bank, but are leaving the door open to a change of mind after upcoming intensive discussions with both Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Arab leaders.
As three senior American officials left for a third round of talks in Jerusalem and on the West Bank, the State Department spokesman said a "back-and-forth process" was under way, to be capped by Sharon's scheduled meeting with President Bush at the White House on April 14.
"We are asking questions, looking for answers on a lot of questions that we've had," spokesman Richard Boucher said as he announced that Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns, National Security Council Deputy Director Stephen J. Hadley and the council's Mideast specialist, Elliott Abrams, were beginning their third trip to the area since mid-Feburary.
They plan to meet with Palestinian leaders as well as Sharon and other Israeli officials, and intend to stop in Brussels, Belgium, to see European ministers, as well.
It was unclear how a mounting corruption probe of Sharon might affect the situation. A Sharon confidant said in Jerusalem that the prime minister was determined to withdraw Israeli troops and civilians from much of Gaza despite the inquiry and would seek Cabinet approval for the plan after he met with Bush.
With progress stalled on fulfilling Bush's goal of establishing a Palestinian state next year, Sharon has offered an interim proposal to withdraw in Gaza and parts of the West Bank and to move from there to implement a U.S.-backed road map for peacemaking with the Palestinians.
Sharon's initiative has drawn skepticism but also some tentative support from the Bush administration. For Bush, who is campaigning for re-election, accepting the proposal could earn him points for a measure of peacemaking.
Sharon's proposal does not call for Palestinian approval. Israel insists it would like to deal with the Palestinians but has no negotiating partner among the Palestinians. The Sharon proposal also does not address two key Arab demands: to control part of Jerusalem and to be able to resettle in Israel the families of Palestinians who were forced out with the establishment of the nation 56 years ago.
Sharon's plan calls for Israel to retain two large Jewish settlements outside Jerusalem, Maale Adumim and Gush Etzion, which the Palestinians claim as part of the West Bank; as well as settlements like Ariel, near Tel Aviv.
Alternatively, Sharon has informed the administration he is willing to undertake a smaller unilateral pullback.
Boucher, saying the administration was also in touch with Arab governments, made clear that a U.S. verdict on the Sharon proposal depended largely on whether "other steps can be taken to further proceed down the path outlined by the president, of two states living side by side in peace."
"We are not at the point yet to render some kind of judgment," Boucher said of Sharon's plan.
Bush is to receive additional Arab comment in White House meetings April 12 with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and April 21 with King Abdullah II of Jordan.
Meanwhile, Bush's call for democratic reform in the Arab world suffered a setback when a summit of Arab leaders in Tunisia was postponed. Mubarak said Monday that the postponement was unwarranted and the summit should be held within three weeks.
The summit was seen as a forum for discussing Bush's democracy hopes.
Boucher said the administration had hoped a summit meeting would take place, but its cancellation or postponement "doesn't change in the least our commitment that we have to support home-grown reform and modernization in the Middle East."
[i]Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.[/i]
Spielberg's Answer to Gibson's Passion
03.29.04 (12:18 pm) [edit]
Not sure if this is for real. Anyone with info?
[line]
Spielberg's Answer to Gibson's Passion: I'm filming The Crusades
I'm told that hollywood mega-hit producer and director Steven Spielberg has decided to fight fire with fire. He's announced that, since Mel Gibson is fueling the fires of anti-semitism in the world with his movie about the last hours of . . . , Spielberg will make a graphic movie about the crusades."
"In order to get Jews and moslems to convert to christianity," Spielberg commented, "christians went through europe and into the middle east forcing conversions on non-believers. Along the way they raped, beat, bludgeoned, maimed, tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children. I will show christian brutality in a realistic and most graphic and gory way."
Spielberg went on to add that "the movie will have a well-deserved anti-christian tone. Lets face it, Gibson wants to blame the Jews for the death of one person we didnt even kill. I will show the inhuman brutality of thousands of christians against hundreds of thousands of people of other faiths, about which historically there is no ambiguity as to who is to blame."
Spielberg said that if this movie is successful, he is likely to follow it up with The Spanish Inquisition, a historical film on the torture and murder of the Jews of Spain by the catholic church.
To complete the trilogy, Spielberg announced, in 2006 I will be filming: Hitler and the Pope: A Team Formed in Hell. That should generate some heated debate.
Sheikh Yassin's 'Happiest Day'
03.29.04 (11:50 am) [edit]
[i]Media outlets perpetuate four myths about the late Hamas leader.[/i]
Early Monday morning, the IDF struck and killed Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the founder and leader of Hamas. Since early media reports misrepresented the IDF strike in a number of fundamental ways, HonestReporting encourages subscribers to be on the lookout for these four myths, and to respond appropriately with the facts:
[b][u]Myth 1:[/u] [i]The Yassin strike will escalate the violence[/i][/b]
Nearly all news reports claimed within the first two sentences that the IDF strike is "likely to escalate violence," and constitutes "an enormous gamble by Sharon" that "risks triggering a dramatic escalation in bloodshed." ([url=http://news.independent.co.uk...]Associated Press[/url] )
This claim ― which belongs on the editorial page, not in the same breath as the actual news report of the event ― was so widespread that one almost forgets that it represents only the Palestinian position: [url=http://edition.cnn.com/2004/W...]The official PA statement[/url] characterized the Israeli strike as inviting "more violence and further escalation."
The absent Israeli position: Though terrorist efforts may increase temporarily, in the long run the elimination of Yassin will upset Hamas' leadership and violent capabilities, and serve as an essential deterrent to ongoing Palestinian terror. As Israeli spokesman [url=http://www.jpost.com/servlet/...]Avi Pazner[/url] said:
[b][i]His elimination will serve peace in the long run. He is personally responsible for all the most dreadful attacks in Israel. He was a dangerous extremist Islamic ideologist. He was danger to the entire region. By eliminating this threat to peace we will improve chances for a better Middle East. [/i][/b]
Moreover, the Palestinian terrorist threat was [i]already[/i] running at full-throttle before the Yassin strike (with at least 50 daily terror warnings). So the actual short-term escalation in terrorist efforts will be minimal, and make little tactical difference to Israeli security teams. As the head of Israeli military intelligence [url=http://www.nytimes.com/auth/l...://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/24/internatio nal/middleeast/24HAMA.html]stated[/url] , "they have done their maximum to attack us until now, and will do their maximum to attack us from now on."
Responsible news reports should either convey both positions, or neither.
[b][u]Myth 2:[/u] [i]Yassin was an impotent old man[/i][/b]
[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in...]BBC[/url] profiled Yassin as "a frail man who could barely see. His voice was thin and quavering." The [url=http://www.thisislondon.com/n...]Evening Standard[/url] prominently quoted the UK Foreign Secretary, who said "he did not believe that Israel would benefit from the killing of an old man in a wheelchair."
Actually, Yassin was in a wheelchair since age 12, when a sporting accident left him paralyzed. It's self-evident, therefore, that being wheelchair-bound[i] never [/i]hampered Yassin's ability to orchestrate unprecedented terror ― he founded Hamas in 1987 and proved perfectly capable of building the organization to its current strength from a sitting position.
Moreover, Yassin has had enough wherewithal in the recent years to direct dozens of heinous terrorist attacks, leaving Yassin's hands drenched in Israeli blood. After his death, the [url=http://www.nytimes.com/auth/l...://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/24/internatio nal/middleeast/24HAMA.html]New York Times[/url] recognized Yassin's "towering stature" ― despite his physical handicap.
HonestReporting encourages readers to check that articles present this essential information on Yassin's terror record. [url=http://www.washingtonpost.com...://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1377 1-2004Mar21.html]AP[/url] completely omitted any reference to Yassin's connection to terrorism until the final sentence of their report, and then only referred to Israel "blaming" Yassin for "inspiring" Hamas bombers.
[b][u]Myth 3:[/u] [i]Yassin was a 'spiritual leader' who deserved immunity[/b][/i]
[url=http://news.yahoo.com/news?tm...]AFP[/url] , like most agencies, described Yassin as "the Islamist movement's spiritual guide," which suggests to a western audience that Yassin operated in a peaceful, contemplative realm aside from the violence, and was therefore unfairly targeted by the IDF. [url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in...]BBC[/url] went so far to say Yassin was "a powerful inspiration for young Palestinians disillusioned with the collapse of peace hopes," and BBC correspondent Zubeida Malik described Sheikh Yassin as "polite, charming and witty, a deeply religious man." (as reported in the London Times, March 23, 2004).
[url=http://edition.cnn.com/2004/W...]CNN[/url] calls Yassin a spiritual leader (unquoted), but then puts scare quotes around Israel's reference to him as a "terrorist."
Actually, Yassin's brand of 'spirituality' is the very ideological and emotional fuel that drives Palestinian (and worldwide Islamic) terrorism, the plague of our age. Yassin continually called for suicide terrorism as a [i]religious obligation[/i], and even said about himself that "the day in which I will die as a shahid [martyr] will be the happiest day of my life." ([url=http://memri.org/bin/articles...]Al-Quds[/url] , July 26, 1998)
As Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Sofer said:
[b][i][Yassin] was not a spiritual leader. This term does injustice to the term 'spiritual leader' and an insult to real spiritual leaders. He was a terrorist mastermind.[/i][/b]
[b][u]Myth 4:[/u] [i]Israel's strike creates a western threat of Islamic terror[/b][/i]
[i][b]American flag burning at Hamas rally, 2001[/b][/i]
After Hamas released a statement that threatened radical Islamic retaliation beyond Israel's borders, [url