05.23.04 (11:18 am) [edit]
Couple things I'd like to say about this. First off, it's terrible that this happened, even if I couldn't disagree with the position of this organization any more than I already do. They have a right to say what they want, no matter how wrong they may be and likewise anyone else with differing opinion.
Secondly, I really don't think this serves as a hate crime. Yes, it's terrible, yes it's a crime, but it's purely political, from where I can see. Maybe I'm wrong but, I heard no mention of slurs or anti-Muslim sentaments in this incident. All that has been recorded here is arson of a political opinion. It may or may not have anything to do with who made the statement with this display.
I think it has more to do with what the statement said. But none the less, it should be investigated to find out if it was or was not a hate crime. It shouldn't be assuemd it was or was not a hate crime.
Lastly, I'd just like to point out that in their beloved Palestinian area, if something like this happened to squash someone's right to free speech, the speaker who was squashed would have no recourse. It's just kind of ironic, don't you think? The thing they are defending and using the tools of democracy for wouldn't upheld them in a similar situation had they been there. That is the saddest irony of ironies.
I wish them luck in finding who did that. As I've said before, I'm all for protesting and counter protesting (I do it myself all the time) but the second you distroy another person's property you have now violated the law and moral codes, not to mention a loss of creidbility. While I don't completely agree with the position of the creators of this display, I do feel their frustration and I hope justice is served for them.
[line]
ANAHEIM, Calif., May 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The Southern California office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today called on local and national law enforcement authorities to treat an arson attack on a pro-Palestinian university display as a possible hate crime.
University of California-Irvine (UCI) students reported to CAIR-LA that the display challenging the wall Israel is building on Palestinian land was torched late Thursday or early Friday morning. The display, made of cardboard boxes and built by the Society of Arab Students (SAS), was a replica of Israel's new wall.
Display sponsors say the symbolic wall was built to demonstrate the negative impact Israel's barrier has on the daily live of Palestinians and on prospects for peace in the Middle East. The display was one of a number of activities during a Palestine awareness week organized by the Muslim Student Union (MSU).
"Because of the ethnic and religious nature of the display and its sponsors, we urge campus police and the FBI to investigate this attack as a possible hate crime," said CAIR-LA Public Relations Director Ra'id Faraj. "Muslim and Arab students should feel safe in exercising their First Amendment rights, free of intimidation or harassment."
On Thursday, the Orange County Human Relations Commission released its 2003 annual report that showed a 50 percent increase in hate incidents directed at members of the Muslim and Arab-American community. (UCI is located in Orange County.) In April, CAIR's own annual report on the status of American Muslim civil rights showed a 70 percent increase in anti-Muslim incidents nationwide in 2003.
There are an estimated 600,000 Muslims in Southern California. CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has 26 regional offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a journalist's window to the American Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called ISLAM-INFONET, receive news releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to ISLAM-INFONET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/islam...
[line]
Source: Council on American-Islamic Relations
Couple things I'd like to say about this. First off, it's terrible that this happened, even if I couldn't disagree with the position of this organization any more than I already do. They have a right to say what they want, no matter how wrong they may be and likewise anyone else with differing opinion.
Secondly, I really don't think this serves as a hate crime. Yes, it's terrible, yes it's a crime, but it's purely political, from where I can see. Maybe I'm wrong but, I heard no mention of slurs or anti-Muslim sentaments in this incident. All that has been recorded here is arson of a political opinion. It may or may not have anything to do with who made the statement with this display.
I think it has more to do with what the statement said. But none the less, it should be investigated to find out if it was or was not a hate crime. It shouldn't be assuemd it was or was not a hate crime.
Lastly, I'd just like to point out that in their beloved Palestinian area, if something like this happened to squash someone's right to free speech, the speaker who was squashed would have no recourse. It's just kind of ironic, don't you think? The thing they are defending and using the tools of democracy for wouldn't upheld them in a similar situation had they been there. That is the saddest irony of ironies.
I wish them luck in finding who did that. As I've said before, I'm all for protesting and counter protesting (I do it myself all the time) but the second you distroy another person's property you have now violated the law and moral codes, not to mention a loss of creidbility. While I don't completely agree with the position of the creators of this display, I do feel their frustration and I hope justice is served for them.
[line]
ANAHEIM, Calif., May 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The Southern California office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today called on local and national law enforcement authorities to treat an arson attack on a pro-Palestinian university display as a possible hate crime.
University of California-Irvine (UCI) students reported to CAIR-LA that the display challenging the wall Israel is building on Palestinian land was torched late Thursday or early Friday morning. The display, made of cardboard boxes and built by the Society of Arab Students (SAS), was a replica of Israel's new wall.
Display sponsors say the symbolic wall was built to demonstrate the negative impact Israel's barrier has on the daily live of Palestinians and on prospects for peace in the Middle East. The display was one of a number of activities during a Palestine awareness week organized by the Muslim Student Union (MSU).
"Because of the ethnic and religious nature of the display and its sponsors, we urge campus police and the FBI to investigate this attack as a possible hate crime," said CAIR-LA Public Relations Director Ra'id Faraj. "Muslim and Arab students should feel safe in exercising their First Amendment rights, free of intimidation or harassment."
On Thursday, the Orange County Human Relations Commission released its 2003 annual report that showed a 50 percent increase in hate incidents directed at members of the Muslim and Arab-American community. (UCI is located in Orange County.) In April, CAIR's own annual report on the status of American Muslim civil rights showed a 70 percent increase in anti-Muslim incidents nationwide in 2003.
There are an estimated 600,000 Muslims in Southern California. CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has 26 regional offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a journalist's window to the American Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called ISLAM-INFONET, receive news releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to ISLAM-INFONET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/islam...
[line]
Source: Council on American-Islamic Relations
05.23.04 (11:07 am) [edit]
[b]Sat May 22, 6:24 AM ET
[i]By ERIK STETSON, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]
RICHMOND, Virginia - A painting Nazis stole from an Austrian Jew more than a half-century ago soon will be returned to its original owner's sole heir.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is giving back "Portrait of Jean d'Albon" to art collector Julius Priester's sole heir and the manager of his estate, 78-year-old Kurt H. Schindler of Hampshire, England.
The 16th Century, French School painting is attributed to the Dutch-born Corneille de Lyon.
Schindler said he has been fighting courts, police, museums and collectors around the world since 1953 to secure the return of more than 20 paintings that rightfully were Priester's.
"We're just not making much headway," he said Friday. "This is the first one we've really recovered."
Schindler first called the museum three months ago.
"It was clear from the nature of his information that his claim was serious," said Kathleen Morris, an associate curator at the museum in Richmond. "It's our policy to respond to those kinds of claims as quickly as possible."
Morris said it was the first artwork stolen from Jewish owners during that time period the museum has been asked to return. She said the museum is investigating the history of all its artwork with gaps in ownership records between the years of 1933 and 1945.
She said Schindler's evidence, which included a photograph of the painting and a 1950s European police report, was critical to proving his claim. Eight versions of the painting are known to exist. Morris credited art historians for their research of the artist and the Internet for providing information about Jewish-owned art stolen during World War II.
"It's a shame because we're so many generations out from the people who lost their property," she said. "It's only now, as the children of these people are dying, that the information has become available."
The oil-on-wood-panel painting has been at the museum since 1950, when museum benefactor Wilkins Williams bought it from a gallery in New York. It has lain in storage since 1985, when the museum began an expansion project. Morris said the museum is certain the Wilkins family did not knowingly buy stolen art.
"They would have been as shocked as we were to find out this was stolen," she said.
Museum officials plan to display the painting for two weeks while they arrange to ship it to Schindler, Morris said.
"I was delighted," Schindler said. "I've had so many, sort of, disasters that until I actually see the thing, I won't believe it."
Schindler said he plans to keep fighting to have his estate's remaining paintings returned.
"As long as I can keep going, I'll keep going," he said.
[line]
On the Net:
The Nazi Era Provenance Internet Project: www.nepip.org.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts: http://www.vmfa.state.va.us
[b]Sat May 22, 6:24 AM ET
[i]By ERIK STETSON, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]
RICHMOND, Virginia - A painting Nazis stole from an Austrian Jew more than a half-century ago soon will be returned to its original owner's sole heir.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is giving back "Portrait of Jean d'Albon" to art collector Julius Priester's sole heir and the manager of his estate, 78-year-old Kurt H. Schindler of Hampshire, England.
The 16th Century, French School painting is attributed to the Dutch-born Corneille de Lyon.
Schindler said he has been fighting courts, police, museums and collectors around the world since 1953 to secure the return of more than 20 paintings that rightfully were Priester's.
"We're just not making much headway," he said Friday. "This is the first one we've really recovered."
Schindler first called the museum three months ago.
"It was clear from the nature of his information that his claim was serious," said Kathleen Morris, an associate curator at the museum in Richmond. "It's our policy to respond to those kinds of claims as quickly as possible."
Morris said it was the first artwork stolen from Jewish owners during that time period the museum has been asked to return. She said the museum is investigating the history of all its artwork with gaps in ownership records between the years of 1933 and 1945.
She said Schindler's evidence, which included a photograph of the painting and a 1950s European police report, was critical to proving his claim. Eight versions of the painting are known to exist. Morris credited art historians for their research of the artist and the Internet for providing information about Jewish-owned art stolen during World War II.
"It's a shame because we're so many generations out from the people who lost their property," she said. "It's only now, as the children of these people are dying, that the information has become available."
The oil-on-wood-panel painting has been at the museum since 1950, when museum benefactor Wilkins Williams bought it from a gallery in New York. It has lain in storage since 1985, when the museum began an expansion project. Morris said the museum is certain the Wilkins family did not knowingly buy stolen art.
"They would have been as shocked as we were to find out this was stolen," she said.
Museum officials plan to display the painting for two weeks while they arrange to ship it to Schindler, Morris said.
"I was delighted," Schindler said. "I've had so many, sort of, disasters that until I actually see the thing, I won't believe it."
Schindler said he plans to keep fighting to have his estate's remaining paintings returned.
"As long as I can keep going, I'll keep going," he said.
[line]
On the Net:
The Nazi Era Provenance Internet Project: www.nepip.org.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts: http://www.vmfa.state.va.us
05.23.04 (11:03 am) [edit]
[b]Saturday May 22, 5:47 pm ET
[i]Mofaz Says Israeli Pull-Out From Gaza is 'Crucial' for the State of Israel [/b][/i]
NEW YORK, May 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz tells Newsweek that disengagement from Gaza is "crucial" for the state of Israel. "If we had a partner on the other side, we could do it by agreement. If not, we should do it unilaterally," he tells Special Diplomatic Correspondent Lally Weymouth in the May 31 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, May 24).
"We cannot wait. The disengagement plan is a historic move because it is the first time we have spoken of relocating settlements. The prime minister intends to bring a new plan [to his cabinet]. Disengagement is crucial for the state of Israel," he says.
The defense minister says withdrawing from Gaza should be the first step and that it will take a year to implement the plan. A second step, he says, would require a peace partner on the Palestinian side. "It is very dangerous to mention names on the Palestinian side. As long as [Palestinian leader Yasir] Arafat is there, he will not let Prime Minister Abu Ala implement the vision of President [George W.] Bush-dismembering the terrorist infrastructure and reforming the Palestinian Authority. I believe that other pragmatic [Palestinian] leaders will change things step by step."
On the topic of the U.S.'s war in Iraq, Mofaz says the United States "has no other choice than to fight against Al Qaeda and opposition groups."
(Read Newsweek's news releases at http://www.Newsweek.com. Click "Pressroom.")
[b]Saturday May 22, 5:47 pm ET
[i]Mofaz Says Israeli Pull-Out From Gaza is 'Crucial' for the State of Israel [/b][/i]
NEW YORK, May 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz tells Newsweek that disengagement from Gaza is "crucial" for the state of Israel. "If we had a partner on the other side, we could do it by agreement. If not, we should do it unilaterally," he tells Special Diplomatic Correspondent Lally Weymouth in the May 31 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, May 24).
"We cannot wait. The disengagement plan is a historic move because it is the first time we have spoken of relocating settlements. The prime minister intends to bring a new plan [to his cabinet]. Disengagement is crucial for the state of Israel," he says.
The defense minister says withdrawing from Gaza should be the first step and that it will take a year to implement the plan. A second step, he says, would require a peace partner on the Palestinian side. "It is very dangerous to mention names on the Palestinian side. As long as [Palestinian leader Yasir] Arafat is there, he will not let Prime Minister Abu Ala implement the vision of President [George W.] Bush-dismembering the terrorist infrastructure and reforming the Palestinian Authority. I believe that other pragmatic [Palestinian] leaders will change things step by step."
On the topic of the U.S.'s war in Iraq, Mofaz says the United States "has no other choice than to fight against Al Qaeda and opposition groups."
IDF SPOKESPERSON'S ANNOUNCEMENT
05.21.04 (3:28 pm) [edit]
The following is the IDF SPOKESPERSON'S ANNOUNCEMENT...
[line]
Today's incident in Rafah is a very grave incident and the IDF expresses deep sorrow over the loss of civilian lives.
At no point in this incident was intentional fire opened in the direction of civilians.
A large procession of several hundreds demonstrators, among them gunmen, organized by the Palestinian Authority, left central Rafah along the main road towards IDF forces in Tel-Sultan.
As the crowd, with the gunmen among them, drew near IDF forces, a warning fire of a single missile was fired from a helicopter into an open area, not towards the demonstrators. In addition, flares were fired in the air to deter the crowd and to prevent endangering the demonstrators.
As this did not deter the crowd and they continued to converge on the troops, machine gun fire was opened towards a wall of an abandoned structure along the side of the road and then four tank shells were fired at this abandoned structure. It is possible that the causalities were a result of the tank fire on the abandoned structure.
The details of the incident continue to be investigated. It should be mentioned that the scene of the incident is an area of combat and an area of frequent exchanges of fire. The road has been rigged with explosive charges planted by the Palestinians. The IDF has not yet cleared the road of these explosives. At this stage it is difficult to determine the cause of the civilian casualties.
The incident is being investigated thoroughly at this time. The IDF has approached the Palestinians and offered medical assistance, including the evacuation of the casualties to Israeli hospitals.
[line]
Take a look [url=http://reducto.tblog.com]here[/url] for some good articles that go along with it, as well as some well said commentary on this issue.
D'var Torah for Bamidbar
05.21.04 (3:04 pm) [edit]
Parshat Bamidbar's first Passuk (verse) says that God spoke to Moshe in Midbar Sinai (Sinai Desert). The Midrash (1:6) derives from here that the Torah is compared to three elements: Water, fire and sand.
Rabbi Elizezer Kahan wonders how we can learn all three things from this one verse? Also, why would we need to compare the Torah to three elements?
Couldn't we think of one that would sum it all up?
A possible explanation could be that while water nurtures everything around it, it always moves to the lowest point, thus teaching us humility. While fire illuminates everything around it, its flames are always reaching higher, thus teaching us aspiration. Although those two elements are essential to the Torah, it's critical to BOTH reach high AND stay grounded, which is what sand does. You can't build a castle with water, and you'll never stay low with fire. But without the positive elements of fire and water, we wouldn't necessarily realize the qualities of sand. That's why we need each of them.
As well in our own lives, we have people around us that are very fiery (fire), and people that are very grounded (water). If we remain firmly grounded within our own limitations, while absorbing a "fiery will" to reach higher, we'll grow our own "Sinai", thereby nurturing and illuminating all that's around us!
39 melachot
05.20.04 (1:11 pm) [edit]
A. The Torah says, "Do not perform melachah on Shabbat." Melachah means work. But what's "work?" The melachot, plural for labors in Hebrew, are the 39 categories of action that the Torah interprets as work that may not be performed on Shabbat.
B. When the Torah was given, our ancestors were a large pack of nomadic desert denizens--the original Wandering Jews. It was less than two months after the Exodus when Moses--that's me--came down Mt. Sinai with the Torah, containing the charge to keep Shabbat. "Don't work on Shabbat!" charged the Torah. "But we don't work anyway," rejoined the Jews. "This is the desert, remember? Nobody has a job here!" At that point, I stepped in and pointed out that work was done: the multifaceted efforts made to construct the Mishkan--the portable, collapsible temple that moved with the camp from place to place. I explained that work associated with Mishkan-making was what the Torah meant by "work," and that these things should not be done on Shabbat from then till eternity. And so it remained.
C. Each of the 39 melachot break down into subcategories called tuldot (pronounced TOOL-dote), which means offspring. Because of their "children," the 39 melachot are also referred to as av melachot, meaning father categories.
OK, but what are they?
1. Don't eat your Wheaties®
The first 11 of the 39 concern that indispensable staple of life--bread, since bread was baked on a weekly basis in the Mishkan. Since the bread tree has yet to be genetically engineered, various things must be done to bring forth bread from dirt: planting wheat, plowing the field, reaping grown wheat stalks, binding sheaves of wheat, threshing, winnowing, sifting kernels, grinding, sifting flour, kneading dough, and finally, baking. Any and all of the above are Shabbat no-nos. But since most of us are not farmers, it's unlikely that you'll find yourself doing any of these over the weekend. However, there are many tuldot that originate in these 11 prohibitions.
2. Man makes the clothes...
In the Miskhan, richly colored, ornately decorated and intricately woven materials were the fabric of daily life: the priests' uniforms, the exquisite cloth partitions, and the giant leather and cloth sheets that served as a multi-layer roof. Preparing these textiles involved the next 13 melachot: shearing, bleaching, combing and dyeing wool; spinning and weaving thread/yarn, making two loops (as an anchor on which to base material); sewing two threads together, separating two threads, tying a knot, loosening a knot, sewing two stitches (to attach sections of material), and tearing (other threads or material) in order to sew two stitches. Though stupendous be thy sartorial skills, sorry, they'll have to sit Shabbat out.
3. ...and the leather too
Our textual tour through the creation of the Mishkan takes us to the Desert Leather Factory, where the Jews of old created portions of the Mishkan's roof out of animal hides. Making leather and parchment entails seven steps, which make up Melachot Nos. 25-31: trapping deer, slaughtering it; and flaying, salting, curing, scraping and cutting its hides. Today, this translates into no weekend deer or duck huntin' out in them thar backwoods, and no leatherworking, on the Day of Rest.
4. Work? Out
The remaining eight Melachot comprise the bulk manual labors that manual labor is comprised of--when you're a working person, you can't avoid the following, and neither could the Mishkan-makers: writing two letters, erasing (old text) in order to write two letters, extinguishing a flame, igniting a flame, striking with a hammer, and carrying (an object) from one domain to another. Today, you can't avoid these either; the tuldot originating from these eight have been interpreted by halachic authorities to prohibit much of work as we know it. Among the most prominent tuldot issuing from this block of melachot are the prohibitions of using a writing instrument (source: "writing two letters"), driving (source: "igniting a flame," as in your car's combustion engine), and carrying your briefcase out your front door and down the street (source: "carrying from one domain to another").
Remarks by President Bush to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
05.20.04 (12:42 pm) [edit]
[b]Tuesday May 18, 3:33 pm ET [/b]
WASHINGTON, May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Following are remarks by President Bush to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee:
Washington Convention Center
Washington, D.C.
8:53 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. Finally, AIPAC elected a President I can kiss. (Laughter and applause.)
I'm honored to be here at AIPAC; thank you for such a warm welcome. It's good to be with so many friends -- friends of mine and friends of Israel. (Applause.) For more than 50 years, the United States and Israel have been steadfast allies. AIPAC is one of the reasons why. (Applause.) You've worked tirelessly to strengthen the ties that bind our nations -- our shared values, our strong commitment to freedom. (Applause.)
By defending the freedom and prosperity and security of Israel, you're also serving the cause of America. (Applause.) Our nation is stronger and safer because we have a true and dependable ally in Israel. (Applause.) I appreciate -- (applause) -- I'm just getting warmed up. (Laughter and applause.)
I want to thank Amy for her leadership. (Applause.) I appreciate you taking time to serve a cause that -- in which you believe deeply. I want to thank Bernice for her willingness to serve, as well. (Applause.) I've known Howard for a long time. He's effective. (Laughter and applause.) I want to thank the AIPAC board -- AIPAC board members for their friendship and leadership. I'm honored to be in the presence of my friend, the Ambassador from Israel, Danny Ayalon. I appreciate you being here, Danny. (Applause.)
Ehud Olmert is with us. Ehud, it's good to see you again. Thank you, sir. (Applause.) I remember the first time we visited in 1998. I had just been re- elected as the Governor of Texas. I went to Israel, and Ehud welcomed me and three over governors to, I guess, your office. You were the Mayor, if I'm not mistaken, at that point in time. And you were focused on filling potholes and emptying the garbage of the people -- (laughter.) But we struck up a good relationship then, and it's great to see you again.
I appreciate the other ministers who are here, some of whom I have met before, some of whom I have had not the honor of meeting. I know I met Tommy before. Appreciate you all being here. Welcome to America. Thank you, Tommy. (Applause.)
I'd like to also recognize many people this morning who are learning to participate in democracy. I'm told there are over 850 students here from 50 states. (Applause.) Make sure the Texas students behave well. (Laughter.) Your mothers are watching. (Laughter.) I know there are buses outside waiting to take you to Capitol Hill. I'm told -- Howard told me there's over 500 meetings scheduled with members of the Senate and the House. That is good news. I'm sure you're going to pass this message on to them: A free, prosperous and secure Israel is in this nation's national interest. (Applause.)
AIPAC is doing important work. I hope you know that. In Washington and beyond, AIPAC is calling attention to the great security challenges of our time. You're educating Congress and the American people on the growing dangers of proliferation. You've spoken out on the threat posed by Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. You've always understood and warned against the evil ambition of terrorism and their networks. In a dangerous new century, your work is more vital than ever. I thank you for doing your part in the cause of freedom. (Applause.)
Our nation, and the nation of Israel, have much in common. We're both relatively young nations, born of struggle and sacrifice. We're both founded by immigrants escaping religious persecution in other lands. We have both built vibrant democracies, built on the rule of law and market economies. And we're both countries founded on certain basic beliefs: that God watches over the affairs of men, and values every life. (Applause.)
These ties have made us natural allies, and these ties will never be broken. (Applause.) In the past, however, there was one great difference in the experience of our two nations: The United States, through most of our history, has been protected by vast oceans to our east and west, and blessed with friendly neighbors to our north and south. Israel has faced a different situation as a small country in a tough neighborhood. The Israeli people have always had enemies at their borders and terrorists close at hand. Again and again, Israel has defended itself with skill and heroism. And as a result of the courage of the Israeli people, Israel has earned the respect of the American people. (Applause.)
On September the 11th, 2001, Americans saw that we are no longer protected by geography from the dangers of the world. We experienced the horror of being attacked in our homeland, on our streets, and in places of work. And from that experience came an even stronger determination, a fierce determination to defeat terrorism and to eliminate the threat it poses to free people everywhere. (Applause.)
Not all terrorist networks answer to the same orders and same leaders, but all terrorists burn with the same hatred. They hate all who reject their grim vision of tyranny. They hate people who love freedom. They kill without mercy. They kill without shame. And they count their victories in the death of the innocent.
We saw the nature of this enemy again in recent days when terrorists in Iraq beheaded an American citizen, Nicholas Berg. The message that accompanied the videotape of this brutal slaying promised more such atrocities. Here's what the killer said, "We will send you coffin after coffin, box after box, slaughtered in this way." The faces of the terrorists were cloaked, but we have seen their kind before.
Followers of the terrorist ideology executed an elderly man in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer, and pushed his body off the side of a ship into the sea. They kidnapped the journalist, Daniel Pearl, and cut his throat, because he was a Jew. This enemy has left blood on the streets of Jakarta and Jerusalem, Casablanca and Riyadh, Mombasa and Istanbul, Bali, Baghdad and Madrid. They have declared war on the civilized world -- and war is what they got. (Applause.)
Freedom-loving people did not seek this conflict. It has come to us by the choices of violent men, hateful men. See, we seek peace. We long for peace. Israel longs for peace. America longs for peace. Yet, there can be no peace without defending our security. (Applause.) There is only one path to peace and safety. America will use every resource we have to fight and defeat these enemies of freedom. (Applause.)
The lesson of September the 11th is clear and must never be forgotten. Emerging terrorist threats must be confronted before they can reach our country and harm our people. Every terrorist is at war with civilization, and every group or nation that aids them is equally responsible for the murders that the terrorists commit. (Applause.)
So America has led a relentless global campaign against terrorists and their supporters. We're chasing them down one by one in caves, and in shadows where they try to hide. (Applause.) We have uncovered -- we have uncovered terrorist cells on several continents. We've prevented a number of terrorist attacks. We've removed the Taliban regime, which sheltered the plotters of September the 11th. (Applause.) We have stopped shipments -- we have stopped shipments of chemical precursors and nuclear-related -- weapons-related components bound for states that sponsor terror. By speaking clearly, and by meaning what we say, countries like Libya have gotten the message and have renounced their weapons programs. (Applause.)
And for the sake of peace and security, we ended the regime of Saddam Hussein. (Applause.) That regime cast a shadow, a dark shadow of aggression over the Middle East for decades. They invaded both Iran and Kuwait. The regime built and used weapons of mass destruction against its neighbors, and its own people. The regime sponsored terror; it paid rewards of up to $25,000 to the families of Palestinian homicide bombers. That regime filled mass graves with innocent men, innocent women, and innocent children. That regime defied the demands of the free world, and America, for more than a decade. And America is more secure, and the world is better off, because that regime is no more. (Applause.)
America is on the offensive, and we will stay on the offensive until the terrorists are stopped and our people are safe. (Applause.) I will use every asset at our disposal to do our most important job, which is to protect the American people. (Applause.) And that includes the United States military. We have come to know the skill and the courage of the men and women of the United States military. (Applause.) They have fulfilled every mission their country has given to them. They and their families have endured long deployments and uncertainty. Our men and women in uniform have fought in mountain passes and desert sands in the remotest part of the world. They've lost brave friends and comrades, who will always be remembered and honored by a grateful nation. (Applause.)
They have done all this to defend our country and to advance the cause of freedom and peace. And their loved ones, and those who wear our uniform, must know that America is very grateful to their service. (Applause.)
The peace we seek depends on defeating the violent. Yet, we also have a larger mission in the world. In the long-term, we must end terrorist violence at its source by undermining the terrorist ideology of hatred and fear. Terrorists find influence and recruits in societies where bitterness and resentment are common, and hope and opportunity are rare. The world's best hope for lasting security and stability across the Middle East is the establishment of just and free societies.
And so across that vital region, America is standing for the expansion of human liberty. This historic task is not easy in a part of the world that has known so much oppression and stagnation and violence. It's hard work. Yet, we must be strong in our firm belief that every human heart desires to be free. We must be strong in our belief that free societies are hopeful societies and peaceful societies. (Applause.)
We have made progress that few would have predicted or expected just three years ago. In Afghanistan, our coalition is working with President Karzai to help the people of Afghanistan build a modern, peaceful and democratic government. In January, Afghans approved a new constitution that protects the rights of all Afghan citizens, including women. (Applause.) Through weeks of negotiation and compromise, they agreed upon a fundamental law that respects tradition and establishes a foundation of modern political rights, including free speech, due process, and a vote for every citizen. We're making progress.
In Iraq, Saddam's brutal dictatorship is gone, and in its place an Iraqi democracy is emerging. Iraqi leaders have signed a transitional administrative law that will guarantee basic freedoms. Iraq now has an independent judiciary, a free market, a new currency, more than 200 newspapers in circulation, and schools free of hateful propaganda. (Applause.)
It's hard work in Iraq. Our efforts are approaching a crucial moment. On June 30th, our coalition will transfer its authority to a sovereign Iraqi government. With the assistance of the United Nations and our coalition, Iraqi citizens are currently making important decisions about the nature and scope of the interim government. In time, Iraq will be a free and democratic nation, at the heart of the Middle East. This will send a message, a powerful message, from Damascus to Tehran, that democracy can bring hope to lives in every culture. (Applause.) And this advance of freedom will bring greater security to America and to the world. These are historic times, it's an historic opportunity. (Applause.)
Yet, as June 30th approaches, the enemies of freedom grow even more desperate to prevent a rise of democracy in Iraq. That's what you're seeing on your TV screens: desperation by a hateful few, people who cannot stand the thought of free societies in their midst. They're targeting brave Iraqis who are leaning toward democracy, such as Izzedine Salim, who was assassinated in Baghdad yesterday. They're murdering Iraqi policemen who stand as symbols of order. They're killing foreign aid workers who are helping to rebuild Iraq. They're attacking our military. Their goal is to undermine the will of our coalition and the will of America, and to drive us out before our mission is complete. They're not going to succeed. They will not shake the will of America. (Applause.)
My resolve is firm. (Applause.) The resolve of the American people is solid. Our military is skilled, spirits are high. They are determined to succeed. We understand the stakes are high for America and for the world. We will not be intimidated by thugs and assassins. We will win this essential important victory in the war on terror. (Applause.)
This is an historic moment. The world watches for weakness in our resolve. They will see no weakness. We will answer every challenge. U.S. Army soldiers and Iraqi security forces are systematically destroying the illegal militia in the south of Iraq. (Applause.) Coalition forces are working with Iraqis in Fallujah to end control by Saddam loyalists and foreign fighters. (Applause.) We're building up Iraqi security forces so they can safeguard their own country. We're flexible in our methods, but our goal is unchanging: Iraq will be free, and Iraq will be a democratic nation. (Applause.)
Freedom is also at the heart of our approach to bringing peace between Israel and the Palestinian people. The United States is strongly committed, and I am strongly committed, to the security of Israel as a vibrant Jewish state. (Applause.) Israel is a democracy and a friend, and has every right to defend itself from terror. (Applause.)
For the sake of peace, this country is committed to helping the Palestinian people establish a democratic and viable state of their own. (Applause.) Israel needs a truly responsible partner in achieving peace. (Applause.) The Palestinian people deserve democratic institutions and responsible leaders. (Applause.) Progress towards this vision creates responsibilities for Israel, the Palestinian people, and Arab nations. Before these two states -- before there can be two states, all parties must renounce violence and fight terror. (Applause.)
Security is the foundation for peace. (Applause.) All parties must embrace democracy and reform and take the necessary steps for peace. The unfolding violence in the Gaza Strip is troubling and underscores the need for all parties to seize every opportunity for peace. I supported the plan announced by Prime Minister Sharon to withdraw military installations and settlements from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. (Applause.) As I said in my statement on April 14, 2004, the Prime Minister's plan is a bold, courageous step, that can bring us closer to the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side- by-side in peace and security. (Applause.)
The Prime Minister's decision has given the Palestinian people and the free world a chance to take bold steps of their own toward peace. First, the Palestinian people must reject corrupt and failed leaders, and insist on a leadership committed to reform and progress and peace. (Applause.) Second, they must renounce terror and violence that frustrate their aspirations and take so many innocent lives. (Applause.) And, finally, by taking these steps, they will have an opportunity, a fantastic opportunity to build a modern economy and create the institutions and habits of liberty. The Palestinian people deserve a better future. (Applause.) And that future -- and that future can be achieved through democracy. (Applause.)
Many in this room have worked and waited a lifetime for peace in the Holy Land. I hear that deep concern for peace. Our vision is a Middle East where young Israelis and Palestinians can play and learn and grow without living in the shadow of death. (Applause.) Our vision is a Middle East where borders are crossed for purposes of trade and commerce, not crossed for the purposes of murder and war. (Applause.) This vision is within our grasp if we have the faith and the courage and the resolve to achieve it. (Applause.)
Perhaps the deepest obstacle to peace is found in the hearts of men and women. The Jewish people have seen, over the years and over the centuries, that hate prepares the way for violence. The refusal to expose and confront intolerance can lead to crimes beyond imagining. So we have a duty to expose and confront anti-Semitism, wherever it is found. (Applause.)
Some of you attended a very important event in Berlin last month, the International Conference on Anti-Semitism. You understand that anti-Semitism is not a problem of the past; the hatred of Jews did not die in a Berlin bunker. In its cruder forms, it can be found in some Arab media, and this government will continue to call upon Arab governments to end libels and incitements. (Applause.) Such hatred can also take subtler forms. The demonization of Israel, the most extreme anti-Zionist rhetoric can be a flimsy cover for anti-Semitism, and contribute to an atmosphere of fear in which synagogues are desecrated, people are slandered, folks are threatened. I will continue to call upon our friends in Europe to renounce and fight any sign of anti-Semitism in their midst. (Applause.)
We are living through historic times. We are called to do important work in the world. We will stand together against bigotry in every land and every language. We will answer violent men with patient, determined justice. We will expand human freedom and the peace that freedom brings. And by our resolve, and by our courage, we will prevail. (Applause.)
I want to thank you -- I want to thank you for your dedication to the security of America and to the safety of Israel. I want to thank you for your warm hospitality today. May God bless America. May God bless Israel. Thank you for coming. Thank you all for your time. Thank you all. (Applause.)
END 9:32 A.M. EDT
Source: White House Press Office
05.20.04 (12:40 pm) [edit]
[b]Wed May 19, 1:46 PM ET [/b]
PERTH, Australia - The alleged Southeast Asian operations chief of an al-Qaida-linked terror group expressed interest in attacking the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, according to notes by a British-born terror suspect.
But ranking al-Qaida members suggested that the group, Jemaah Islamiyah, instead attack a prominent Jewish-linked target — either the Israeli embassy or well-known Australian Jewish businessman Joe Gutnick, said the notes taken by Islamic convert Jack Roche.
Details of the notes emerged Wednesday during the third day of Roche's trial for allegedly plotting to blow up the Israeli embassy in Canberra. Roche, who has pleaded innocent, faces a maximum 25-year sentence if convicted.
Gutnick, a Melbourne mining magnate and rabbi who is one of Australia's richest men, is an outspoken supporter of Israel and known for large donations to the Israeli government.
In a notebook shown to Perth District Court by prosecutors, Roche wrote about meeting Jemaah Islamiyah's Southeast Asian operations chief, known as Hambali, and senior al-Qaida officials.
Roche wrote that Hambali, the alleged mastermind of the October 2002 bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, was interested in "doing something" at the Sydney Olympics (news - web sites). The notes did not elaborate.
Roche, writing in Indonesian, detailed how he was to be paid, how he was to recruit three Australian Muslims to help him carry out the plot, and that he received 10 days of explosives training with al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, prosecutors said Indonesian terror suspect Hambali, whose name is Tiduan Isamuddin, paid Roche $80,000 to carry out an Olympics bombing to draw attention to the plight of Palestinians.
Hambali, who also is accused of masterminding the August bombing of the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 and other deadly attacks, was captured in Thailand in August and now is being held by U.S. authorities at an undisclosed location
[b]Wed May 19, 1:46 PM ET [/b]
PERTH, Australia - The alleged Southeast Asian operations chief of an al-Qaida-linked terror group expressed interest in attacking the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, according to notes by a British-born terror suspect.
But ranking al-Qaida members suggested that the group, Jemaah Islamiyah, instead attack a prominent Jewish-linked target — either the Israeli embassy or well-known Australian Jewish businessman Joe Gutnick, said the notes taken by Islamic convert Jack Roche.
Details of the notes emerged Wednesday during the third day of Roche's trial for allegedly plotting to blow up the Israeli embassy in Canberra. Roche, who has pleaded innocent, faces a maximum 25-year sentence if convicted.
Gutnick, a Melbourne mining magnate and rabbi who is one of Australia's richest men, is an outspoken supporter of Israel and known for large donations to the Israeli government.
In a notebook shown to Perth District Court by prosecutors, Roche wrote about meeting Jemaah Islamiyah's Southeast Asian operations chief, known as Hambali, and senior al-Qaida officials.
Roche wrote that Hambali, the alleged mastermind of the October 2002 bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, was interested in "doing something" at the Sydney Olympics (news - web sites). The notes did not elaborate.
Roche, writing in Indonesian, detailed how he was to be paid, how he was to recruit three Australian Muslims to help him carry out the plot, and that he received 10 days of explosives training with al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, prosecutors said Indonesian terror suspect Hambali, whose name is Tiduan Isamuddin, paid Roche $80,000 to carry out an Olympics bombing to draw attention to the plight of Palestinians.
Hambali, who also is accused of masterminding the August bombing of the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 and other deadly attacks, was captured in Thailand in August and now is being held by U.S. authorities at an undisclosed location
05.20.04 (12:38 pm) [edit]
[b]Wed May 19, 5:04 PM ET
[i]By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer [/b][/i]
WASHINGTON - Democrat John Kerry said Wednesday he's open to nominating anti-abortion judges as long as that doesn't lead to the Supreme Court overturning the landmark 1973 ruling that made abortion legal.
Kerry, the presumptive nominee of a party that overwhelmingly favors a woman's right to abortion, struck a moderate note as he lashed out at one of the high court's most conservative justices, telling The Associated Press he regrets his 1986 vote to confirm Antonin Scalia.
"If you're looking for me to admit that I made a mistake in my years in the Senate, there you go — there's one," said the four-term Massachusetts senator.
In a 60-minute interview with AP reporters and editors, Kerry covered a range of issues, from the economy, gun rights and his differences with President Bush to Mideast violence and the mounting death toll in Iraq.
If elected, Kerry promised that virtually all U.S. combat troops will be out of Iraq — away from "the death zone" — by the end of his first term.
He grudgingly gave Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress credit for the creation of 900,000 jobs this year, echoed the administration's views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and seconded Bush's decision to nominate Alan Greenspan for a fifth term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
But those were fleeting passes at bipartisanship as Kerry spent the bulk of the session criticizing Bush and fleshing out his own political vision, which critics have called muddled.
"I've heard some people say, well, what's the message? What's he doing? The message is clear, folks: We're going to make America stronger at home by being fiscally responsible, investing in health care and education, becoming energy independent, and we're going to make ourselves stronger in the world by restoring America's respect and influence with a better foreign policy. It's that simple."
Kerry said Bush has damaged relations with allies to the point that only a new president can repair them. The problem is evident in Iraq, said the decorated Vietnam War veteran who promised to avert a quagmire.
"It will not be like Vietnam," Kerry said. "I will get our troops home from Iraq with honor and with the interests of our country properly protected."
How soon? "It will not take long to do what is necessary. I'm not going to give you a specific date, but I'll tell you that I have a plan and I will put that plan in place." Republican Richard M. Nixon used similar language during the 1968 presidential race, but the war dragged on for years after his election.
Saying his goal would be achieved in his first term, Kerry explained, "Look, you may have some deployments of people for a long period of time in the Middle East depending on what the overall approach to the Middle East is. I'm not going to tell you we won't shift deployments from one place to another, but we're not going to be engaged in an active kind of death zone the way we are today."
Discussing the Supreme Court and abortion, Kerry ventured into one of the nation's most sensitive political subjects at the risk of alienating powerful Democratic interests groups fighting to maintain abortion rights secured in the Roe v. Wade case.
Court observers contend the justices are split 5-4 on the issue, and the next president may be able to help tilt the balance.
Calling himself a strict constructionist, a phrase Bush has used to describe himself, Kerry paraphrased former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart and said: "A good justice is somebody that when you read their decisions you can't tell if they are Republican or Democratic or liberal or conservative, a Christian or a Jew, a Muslim, male or female. You just know you're reading a good judicial opinion."
Stewart, an Eisenhower appointee, served from 1958-1981.
Kerry said he has voted in favor of "any number of judges who are pro-life or pro-something else that I may not agree with," some of whom were nominated by Republican presidents. "But I'm going to make sure we uphold what I believe are Constitutional rights and I'm not going to pick somebody who's going to undermine those rights."
"Do they have to agree with me on everything? No," Kerry said. Asked if they must agree with his abortion-rights views, he quickly added, "I will not appoint somebody with a 5-4 Court who's about to undue Roe v. Wade. I've said that before."
"But that doesn't mean that if that's not the balance of the court I wouldn't be prepared ultimately to appoint somebody to some court who has a different point of view. I've already voted for people like that. I voted for Judge Scalia."
Presidents nominate a wide variety of federal judges, including the Supreme Court.
Asked if he regretted that vote, Kerry said, "Yes. Given what he has done on a number of cases." Kerry said he didn't see at the time "such a level of ideology and partisanship" he now sees in Scalia.
Kerry also said:
_ Bush and the GOP-led Congress deserve "some credit" for jobs created this year, but he said the new employment doesn't pay nearly as much as jobs lost overseas.
_ Israel has a right to defend itself with a "proper measure of restraint." Bush has used a similar two-sided approach to the issue.
_ In Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, the United States should live by the tenets of the Geneva Conventions — even in instances when the treaty may not technically apply.
_ he would defend the Second Amendment's protections for gun owners.
_ has no intention of asking pro-Democratic groups spending millions in unlimited donations in the presidential election to stay out of the race
[b]Wed May 19, 5:04 PM ET
[i]By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer [/b][/i]
WASHINGTON - Democrat John Kerry said Wednesday he's open to nominating anti-abortion judges as long as that doesn't lead to the Supreme Court overturning the landmark 1973 ruling that made abortion legal.
Kerry, the presumptive nominee of a party that overwhelmingly favors a woman's right to abortion, struck a moderate note as he lashed out at one of the high court's most conservative justices, telling The Associated Press he regrets his 1986 vote to confirm Antonin Scalia.
"If you're looking for me to admit that I made a mistake in my years in the Senate, there you go — there's one," said the four-term Massachusetts senator.
In a 60-minute interview with AP reporters and editors, Kerry covered a range of issues, from the economy, gun rights and his differences with President Bush to Mideast violence and the mounting death toll in Iraq.
If elected, Kerry promised that virtually all U.S. combat troops will be out of Iraq — away from "the death zone" — by the end of his first term.
He grudgingly gave Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress credit for the creation of 900,000 jobs this year, echoed the administration's views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and seconded Bush's decision to nominate Alan Greenspan for a fifth term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
But those were fleeting passes at bipartisanship as Kerry spent the bulk of the session criticizing Bush and fleshing out his own political vision, which critics have called muddled.
"I've heard some people say, well, what's the message? What's he doing? The message is clear, folks: We're going to make America stronger at home by being fiscally responsible, investing in health care and education, becoming energy independent, and we're going to make ourselves stronger in the world by restoring America's respect and influence with a better foreign policy. It's that simple."
Kerry said Bush has damaged relations with allies to the point that only a new president can repair them. The problem is evident in Iraq, said the decorated Vietnam War veteran who promised to avert a quagmire.
"It will not be like Vietnam," Kerry said. "I will get our troops home from Iraq with honor and with the interests of our country properly protected."
How soon? "It will not take long to do what is necessary. I'm not going to give you a specific date, but I'll tell you that I have a plan and I will put that plan in place." Republican Richard M. Nixon used similar language during the 1968 presidential race, but the war dragged on for years after his election.
Saying his goal would be achieved in his first term, Kerry explained, "Look, you may have some deployments of people for a long period of time in the Middle East depending on what the overall approach to the Middle East is. I'm not going to tell you we won't shift deployments from one place to another, but we're not going to be engaged in an active kind of death zone the way we are today."
Discussing the Supreme Court and abortion, Kerry ventured into one of the nation's most sensitive political subjects at the risk of alienating powerful Democratic interests groups fighting to maintain abortion rights secured in the Roe v. Wade case.
Court observers contend the justices are split 5-4 on the issue, and the next president may be able to help tilt the balance.
Calling himself a strict constructionist, a phrase Bush has used to describe himself, Kerry paraphrased former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart and said: "A good justice is somebody that when you read their decisions you can't tell if they are Republican or Democratic or liberal or conservative, a Christian or a Jew, a Muslim, male or female. You just know you're reading a good judicial opinion."
Stewart, an Eisenhower appointee, served from 1958-1981.
Kerry said he has voted in favor of "any number of judges who are pro-life or pro-something else that I may not agree with," some of whom were nominated by Republican presidents. "But I'm going to make sure we uphold what I believe are Constitutional rights and I'm not going to pick somebody who's going to undermine those rights."
"Do they have to agree with me on everything? No," Kerry said. Asked if they must agree with his abortion-rights views, he quickly added, "I will not appoint somebody with a 5-4 Court who's about to undue Roe v. Wade. I've said that before."
"But that doesn't mean that if that's not the balance of the court I wouldn't be prepared ultimately to appoint somebody to some court who has a different point of view. I've already voted for people like that. I voted for Judge Scalia."
Presidents nominate a wide variety of federal judges, including the Supreme Court.
Asked if he regretted that vote, Kerry said, "Yes. Given what he has done on a number of cases." Kerry said he didn't see at the time "such a level of ideology and partisanship" he now sees in Scalia.
Kerry also said:
_ Bush and the GOP-led Congress deserve "some credit" for jobs created this year, but he said the new employment doesn't pay nearly as much as jobs lost overseas.
_ Israel has a right to defend itself with a "proper measure of restraint." Bush has used a similar two-sided approach to the issue.
_ In Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, the United States should live by the tenets of the Geneva Conventions — even in instances when the treaty may not technically apply.
_ he would defend the Second Amendment's protections for gun owners.
_ has no intention of asking pro-Democratic groups spending millions in unlimited donations in the presidential election to stay out of the race
05.20.04 (12:31 pm) [edit]
[b]Thu May 20,12:18 PM ET
[i]GAVIN RABINOWITZ [/b][/i]
TEL AVIV, Israel (CP) - Marwan Barghouti, a popular Palestinian uprising leader, was convicted Thursday of ordering shootings that killed four Israelis and a Greek monk and supplying funds and arms for other attacks.
Also Thursday, Israeli troops deepened their three-day-old offensive in a Gaza Strip refugee camp, killing seven Palestinians, most of them armed, and demolishing several buildings. In the West Bank, three Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy, were killed by army fire.
Prime Minister Paul Martin said the Canadian government finds the violence "deeply disturbing."
"We are deeply troubled by the recent violence and destruction in the Gaza Strip, particularly the deaths of demonstrators, including children," Martin said in a statement released Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Tel Aviv District Court convicted Barghouti, widely seen as a potential successor of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, of five counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of membership in a terrorist organization. The prosecution asked the court for five consecutive life terms.
Sentencing is set for June 6.
However, the panel of three judges cleared Barghouti of responsibility for 21 other deaths, ruling there was no evidence directly connecting him to those attacks carried out by militants linked to his organization.
At the time of his arrest in April 2002, Barghouti headed Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank. Israel said Barghouti also played a leading role in Fatah's violent offshoot, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which has carried out scores of shooting and bombing attacks on Israelis during more than three years of fighting.
The court said that Arafat looked to Barghouti to carry out his wishes, including attacks, giving legal weight for the first time to the long-held Israeli government position that Arafat has been orchestrating violence.
"Yasser Arafat did not give clear and precise instructions, but he made sure that those under him understood fully when he was interested in a ceasefire and when he was interested in attacks against Israel," the ruling said.
Arafat and his aides have denied the Israeli allegations.
In response to Barghouti's conviction, Al Aqsa leaders in the Gaza Strip threatened to kidnap Israelis as a bargaining chip for their jailed leader.
Barghouti, who flashed V-signs with shackled hands as he entered the courtroom, reiterated that he does not accept the court's authority. However, the longtime advocate of a Palestinian state alongside Israel also said he believes there will be peace if Israel withdraws from the West Bank and Gaza.
"I call on the Israeli public, 'Don't believe for one moment that you can overcome the Palestinians with force,' " he said. "Palestinians have no power, but they have justice on their side."
"One day, the Palestinians will gain their liberty and freedom and Marwan, too, will be free," said Barghouti's wife Fadwa, who was not given permission to enter Israel to attend the trial.
Meanwhile, in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza, Israel continued its offensive despite withering international condemnation over a deadly tank attack that killed eight Palestinian protesters, most of them children, on Wednesday. Israel apologized for the shooting, that also left 50 people wounded.
Among the leaders expressing concern about Israel's offensive was Martin.
"These recent military actions by the Israeli Defence Forces and the widespread destruction of civilian property are deeply disturbing," his statement said.
"While we have consistently condemned all acts of terrorism and supported Israel's right to defend its citizens, we hold that any actions pursued by Israel must be consistent with international law and with international efforts to improve the already dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
By Thursday, the army had moved into five neighbourhoods in the camp, which is home to about 90,000 Palestinians. Light exchanges of fire were reported, and Israel helicopter gunships flew overhead.
Seven Palestinians were killed Thursday when helicopters and tanks targeted groups of militants.
Residents said troops demolished eight homes overnight, and said bulldozers moved into a street in the Brazil area of the camp Thursday, knocking down two homes and a shop in their path.
The army has no immediate comment. It has said it only targets homes that provide cover for weapons smuggling tunnels or gunmen.
Israel raided the refugee camp less than a week after Palestinian militants killed 13 soldiers in Gaza, seven of them along the Egyptian border.
In the West Bank, troops shot and killed three Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy and a local Hamas leader, in separate clashes. In the incident involving the boy, the army said soldiers opened fire at someone throwing a firebomb.
[b]Thu May 20,12:18 PM ET
[i]GAVIN RABINOWITZ [/b][/i]
TEL AVIV, Israel (CP) - Marwan Barghouti, a popular Palestinian uprising leader, was convicted Thursday of ordering shootings that killed four Israelis and a Greek monk and supplying funds and arms for other attacks.
Also Thursday, Israeli troops deepened their three-day-old offensive in a Gaza Strip refugee camp, killing seven Palestinians, most of them armed, and demolishing several buildings. In the West Bank, three Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy, were killed by army fire.
Prime Minister Paul Martin said the Canadian government finds the violence "deeply disturbing."
"We are deeply troubled by the recent violence and destruction in the Gaza Strip, particularly the deaths of demonstrators, including children," Martin said in a statement released Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Tel Aviv District Court convicted Barghouti, widely seen as a potential successor of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, of five counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of membership in a terrorist organization. The prosecution asked the court for five consecutive life terms.
Sentencing is set for June 6.
However, the panel of three judges cleared Barghouti of responsibility for 21 other deaths, ruling there was no evidence directly connecting him to those attacks carried out by militants linked to his organization.
At the time of his arrest in April 2002, Barghouti headed Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank. Israel said Barghouti also played a leading role in Fatah's violent offshoot, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which has carried out scores of shooting and bombing attacks on Israelis during more than three years of fighting.
The court said that Arafat looked to Barghouti to carry out his wishes, including attacks, giving legal weight for the first time to the long-held Israeli government position that Arafat has been orchestrating violence.
"Yasser Arafat did not give clear and precise instructions, but he made sure that those under him understood fully when he was interested in a ceasefire and when he was interested in attacks against Israel," the ruling said.
Arafat and his aides have denied the Israeli allegations.
In response to Barghouti's conviction, Al Aqsa leaders in the Gaza Strip threatened to kidnap Israelis as a bargaining chip for their jailed leader.
Barghouti, who flashed V-signs with shackled hands as he entered the courtroom, reiterated that he does not accept the court's authority. However, the longtime advocate of a Palestinian state alongside Israel also said he believes there will be peace if Israel withdraws from the West Bank and Gaza.
"I call on the Israeli public, 'Don't believe for one moment that you can overcome the Palestinians with force,' " he said. "Palestinians have no power, but they have justice on their side."
"One day, the Palestinians will gain their liberty and freedom and Marwan, too, will be free," said Barghouti's wife Fadwa, who was not given permission to enter Israel to attend the trial.
Meanwhile, in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza, Israel continued its offensive despite withering international condemnation over a deadly tank attack that killed eight Palestinian protesters, most of them children, on Wednesday. Israel apologized for the shooting, that also left 50 people wounded.
Among the leaders expressing concern about Israel's offensive was Martin.
"These recent military actions by the Israeli Defence Forces and the widespread destruction of civilian property are deeply disturbing," his statement said.
"While we have consistently condemned all acts of terrorism and supported Israel's right to defend its citizens, we hold that any actions pursued by Israel must be consistent with international law and with international efforts to improve the already dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
By Thursday, the army had moved into five neighbourhoods in the camp, which is home to about 90,000 Palestinians. Light exchanges of fire were reported, and Israel helicopter gunships flew overhead.
Seven Palestinians were killed Thursday when helicopters and tanks targeted groups of militants.
Residents said troops demolished eight homes overnight, and said bulldozers moved into a street in the Brazil area of the camp Thursday, knocking down two homes and a shop in their path.
The army has no immediate comment. It has said it only targets homes that provide cover for weapons smuggling tunnels or gunmen.
Israel raided the refugee camp less than a week after Palestinian militants killed 13 soldiers in Gaza, seven of them along the Egyptian border.
In the West Bank, troops shot and killed three Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy and a local Hamas leader, in separate clashes. In the incident involving the boy, the army said soldiers opened fire at someone throwing a firebomb.
Who does Powell think he's kidding?
05.18.04 (4:18 pm) [edit]
[i][b]By MICHAEL FREUND[/b][/i]
Colin Powell has got some nerve. After a week in which 13 young Israeli soldiers had been killed by Palestinian terrorists, who then paraded the body parts of their victims through the streets of Gaza, the US secretary of state could find nothing better to do than to cozy up to the Palestinians and criticize Israel.
Shortly after arriving in Jordan this past Saturday, Powell met with the Palestinian leadership. Afterwards, he told reporters that he was pleased to have had a "constructive talk" with Palestinian premier Ahmed Qurei, along with "my colleague Nabil Shaath and so many other of my good friends from the Palestinian Authority."
His "good friends"?
This is the same Palestinian Authority that has been waging a terrorist war against Israel since September 2000 and which is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent men, women, and children. It is the same entity that Powell's own State Department, in its recently released report on Patterns of Global Terrorism, has linked to acts of terror against the Jewish state.
And this is whom Powell considers to be his "good friends"?
Not only that, but in his remarks to the press, with a smiling Qurei standing at his side, Powell did not even bother to mention the horrific events of the preceding week. He did not see fit to condemn the Palestinians' vile desecration of Israel's dead, nor did he denounce their ongoing efforts to carry out attacks against the Jewish state.
Indeed, not once did Powell even mention the word "terrorism."
As if that weren't bad enough, Powell followed up this appalling performance with an even more shameful one the next day.
Speaking Sunday at a news conference at the World Economic Forum on Jordan's Dead Sea coast, Powell slammed Israel for demolishing Palestinian structures in Gaza that have been used to stage attacks on Israel's soldiers.
"We know that Israel has a right for self-defense," Powell said, "but the kind of action they are taking in Rafah with the destruction of Palestinian homes, we oppose. We don't think that that is productive," he added.
That Palestinian terrorists use these very same houses to attack and kill Jews doesn't seem to move Powell one whit, nor does he seem troubled by the fact that his "good friends" in the Palestinian Authority utilize the area to smuggle in weapons from Egypt. On those issues, he is strangely silent.
And yet when Israel seeks to thwart such efforts by expanding the Philadelphi Route, as the area between Rafah and the Egyptian border is known, Powell suddenly finds his voice and lambasts the Jewish state for daring to defend itself.
NEEDLESS TO say, this is hardly the first time that Powell has chosen to denigrate Israel.
Two years ago, while testifying before Congress, he outrageously accused Israel of trying to solve the Mideast conflict by killing as many Palestinians as possible. "Prime Minister Sharon has to take a hard look at his policies to see whether they will work," Powell said. "If you declare war against the Palestinians thinking that you can solve the problem by seeing how many Palestinians can be killed, I don't think that leads us anywhere" (New York Times, March 7, 2002).
In April 2001, after IDF troops entered Gaza to stop Palestinian mortar attacks against Sderot, Powell responded by rebuking Israel, saying that its actions were "excessive and disproportionate" as if there was something wrong in Israel's attempting to protect itself.
But what is truly remarkable about Powell's latest broadside over Israel's destruction of Palestinian homes in Gaza is its sheer unvarnished hypocrisy.
After all, it was just 15 short years ago that a certain American general named Colin Powell oversaw the US invasion of Panama in late December 1989. In the initial days of the war, US forces bombarded the El Chorrillo neighborhood of Panama City, where the headquarters of the Panamanian Defense Forces were located alongside the homes of thousands of innocent civilians.
According to a report prepared by the UN Economic and Social Council, the result of the US attack on El Chorrillo was that "several blocks of apartments were totally destroyed, as a result of which their inhabitants were forced to seek alternative accommodation, often at a great distance from their former dwelling. Other buildings suffered severe damage."
By the UN's estimate, the homes of at least 2,723 Panamanian families, totaling approximately 13,500 people, were affected.
An April 7, 1991, the Human Rights Watch report was even more blunt, referring to "the devastation" of El Chorrillo and asserting that Powell's forces had "violated the rule of proportionality, which mandates that the risk of harm to impermissible targets be weighed against the military necessity of the objective pursued."
Now, isn't that ironic. The same Colin Powell who blasted Panamanians out of their homes 15 years ago to protect American troops now chooses to criticize Israel for doing the very same thing. Who does he think he's kidding?
But let Powell complain all he wants. Israel has no choice but to safeguard its citizens, regardless of what the secretary of state and his "good friends" the Palestinians might think.
The writer served as deputy director of communications & policy planning under premier Binyamin Netanyahu.
Disengagement or Zionism?
05.18.04 (4:11 pm) [edit]
[i][b]By ELI POLLAK[/b][/i]
'Disengagement operates on the principle that Israel must suit its own convenience first, withdrawing from territory that has become a strategic liability, while consolidating control over territory that remains an asset" is Bret Stephens's reasoned, if at times tortuous, description of why he changed his mind and today supports withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
The Jerusalem Post's editor explains, in two long articles, that he did not reach this conclusion easily. "I'd rather Israel seize its chances, on its own terms, than wait for winds to blow fair in Ramallah or Iraq or Brussels or Turtle Bay."
Stephens has lost hope in the Palestinians and the world at large but trusts the Israeli Left "to hold some nationally agreed line in the sand." He concludes, "Land may be a form of security, but a Zionist consensus that won't crack under moral stress is a better one."
Stephens demands a Zionist consensus but does not define its meaning. A consensus definition was coined by Chaim Weizmann, who spoke about "synthetic Zionism," a synthesis of political and settlement activity.
For Stephens, Zionism is only political; settlement per se is not of value. He chides the Jewish residents in Gaza: "The settlers must also take into account the sacrifices the rest of Israel have made on their behalf – the soldiers who defend them, the tax money that subsidizes them."
It doesn't occur to him that many people in "the rest of Israel" laid their lives on the line knowingly for securing the settlements. Destroying settlements would be sacrilege to their memory. He does not consider that many of us would be extremely upset if our tax money were wasted on dismantling settlements instead of affirming the right of Jews to live in Eretz Yisrael.
Stephens, as many others, including President George W. Bush, believe "that Palestinians are entitled to live under a government of their own choosing – provided they respect the rights of their Israeli neighbors to the same."
How will we know that the Palestinians "respect the rights of their Israeli neighbors"?
Jews lived in Gaza for centuries until expelled in the 1929 riots and in 1948; Kfar Darom was overrun by the Egyptian army. We have a moral and legal right to live there. Abandoning Kfar Darom is a major step toward allowing the Palestinians the luxury of having their own state without respecting our rights. The right of Jews to live wherever they please (legally, without usurping that which belongs to others) is the litmus test of Palestinian and Arab intentions. Israeli initiatives implying that parts of this world are Judenrein are a sure sign of the hostility of the Palestinian state-to-be.
BUT LAND is not mere security, it is the affirmation that the Jewish people have the same rights as any other people in this world. Taking the land away from the Jews is the antithesis of Zionism, for it implies that we will never be a normal people. Even when territory becomes a strategic liability (which the Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip is not), the utmost effort should be made to keep it.
Stephens is for disengagement because "I want to have as little to do with the Palestinians as possible."
He wants Israel to retain control over borders but concedes that Israel "might be pressured into relinquishing control over the (Gaza) Strip's ports of entry."
But then logic is replaced by wishful thinking. He claims that "withdrawal would mean Palestinians could no longer wage war against Israeli civilians at which they're so expert. If they chose to fight, it would be on terms that overwhelmingly favor Israel."
How will Israel defend itself against an onslaught of missiles from Gaza to Ashkelon and Sderot? Only by reentering Gaza as it did tragically last week. But by then, this Gaza would be armed with sophisticated weapons and more deadly land mines. The cost we paid last week for defending Green Line Israel would be a relative pittance.
A short review of the danger of a Palestinian state is also in order. Stephens writes, "I have zero confidence there's a light at the end of the international tunnel."
I concur. Today's deep enmity implies that a Palestinian state would be hostile to Israel, ruled by an oppressive dictatorial regime that will allow the "right of return" to "Palestine" (as conceded by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in his talks in Washington).
The difficult demographic problems of today will worsen. The Palestinian state will be densely populated, impoverished, and angry. Its leadership will blame Israel for all the misery it inflicts on its own population. The Arab world will mount an international campaign, fueled by oil, against the rich Israeli state that has usurped Arab homes in Jaffa, Ramle, and Jerusalem. Israel will remain a pariah state in the world, having lost not only the esteem of righteous gentiles for its folly but worse, it will have lost its self-esteem. This will not be the "Zionist consensus that won't crack under moral stress."
The only way we can "disengage" is by dismantling Israel. Nay, with present anti-Semitic levels in the world, the only possible real disengagement is to abandon our Jewishness.
As long as the world is dependent on Arab oil, and as long as immoral, corrupt Arab regimes are tolerated, Israel will be engaged by a hostile Muslim Arab world. As explained by Hebrew University's Islamist expert Prof. Moshe Sharon, Israel's very existence is an intolerable affront to Islam.
These are the facts of life, and disengagement won't change them. What distinguishes the believer from the atheist is not the messianic belief in a Greater Israel cited by Stephens, but humility. The believer acknowledges that only God is master of the universe; we are not masters of our destiny, personal or national.
I remain an optimist. It is up to us to stay true to our Zionist and Jewish ideals, to be steadfast in the face of cruel adversaries, and continue to do what is right and moral. With the help of the Almighty, this path will lead to a normal Jewish State of Israel.
[i][b]The writer is a former chairman of Professors for a Strong Israel.[/i][/b]
Hit squads and sleeper cells
05.18.04 (4:07 pm) [edit]
[i][b]By DANIEL PIPES[/i][/b]
Whence comes the main danger to homeland security in North America and Western Europe? With the single exception of the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995, notes al-Qaida authority Rohan Gunaratna, all major terrorist attacks of the past decade in the West have been carried out by immigrants. A closer look finds that these were not just any immigrants but invariably from a specific background: of the 212 suspected and convicted terrorist perpetrators during 1993-2003, some 86% were Muslim immigrants and the remainder mainly converts to Islam.
"In Western countries jihad has grown mainly via Muslim immigration," concludes Robert S. Leiken, a specialist on immigration and national security issues, in an important new monograph, Bearers of Global Jihad: Immigration and National Security after 9/11 (published by the Washington-based Nixon Center, where Leiken is employed). Leiken's research offers valuable insights.
Violent acts against the West, he finds, "have been carried out largely through two methods of terrorist attack: the sleeper cell and the hit squad."
Hit squads – foreign nationals who enter the country with a specific mission (such as the 9/11 hijackers) – threaten from without. Sleeper cells consist of elements quietly embedded in immigrant communities. Pierre de Bousquet, head of France's counterintelligence service, says "They do not seem suspicious. They work. They have kids. They have fixed addresses. They pay the rent."
Sleepers either run terrorism support networks of "Muslim charities, foundations, conferences, academic groups, NGOs, and private corporations" (prime example: Sami Al-Arian of the University of South Florida) or initiate violence on a signal (like the Moroccans who killed 191 persons in Madrid this March).
That said, Muslim life in Western Europe and in North America is strikingly different. The former has seen the emergence of a culturally alienated, socially marginalized, and economically unemployed Muslim second generation whose pathologies have led to "a surge of gang rapes, anti-Semitic attacks, and anti-American violence," not to speak of raging radical ideologies and terrorism.
North American Muslims are not as alienated, marginalized, and economically stressed.
Accordingly, Leiken finds, they show less inclination to anti-social behavior, including Islamist violence. Those of them supporting jihad usually fund terrorism rather than personally engage in it. Therefore, most jihadist violence in North America is carried out by hit squads from abroad.
And, contrary to expectation, these come predominantly not from countries such as Iran or Syria, or even Saudi Arabia and Egypt, for the simple reason that their nationals undergo extra scrutiny.
Islamist terrorists are not dumb; they note this special attention and now recruit intensively from citizens of the 27 countries – mostly European – who, thanks to the Visa Waiver Program, can enter the United States for 90 days without a visa.
But even so, there are Frenchmen and there are Frenchmen. One named Zacarias Moussaoui, an Algerian immigrant, attracts more attention than one named Michael Christian Ganczarski, a Polish immigrant of German extraction – making a convert like Ganczarski the more potent jihadist.
Indeed, he is now sitting in a French jail, charged with a major role in the April 2002 bombing of a synagogue in Tunisia that killed 19 people.
To a lesser extent, the same pattern applies to Israel. Hizbullah has made a concerted effort to recruit Europeans like German convert Steven Smyrek, caught before he could strap on a bomb. Hamas deployed Britons Asif Muhammad Hanif and Omar Khan Sharif, who murdered three people at a Tel Aviv bar. The same pattern also applies to Australia – such as the case of French convert and would-be jihadist Willie Brigitte.
Leiken's insights lead to important conclusions for counterterrorism.
Assimilating indigenous Muslim populations is critical to the West's long-term security.
Given that the Islamist threat in the West "emanates principally from Europe," European and North American security services should recognize that they face basically different problems: one primarily internal, the other mainly external.
Constructing immigration systems that keep out sleepers and hit squads while allowing normal business and pleasure travel should be a priority for Washington and Ottawa.
For Americans, adjusting the Visa Waiver Program and controlling land borders with Canada and Mexico are higher priorities than worrying about Iranians and Syrians.
Leiken's research guides Westerners to real homeland security. But achieving this will be a challenge, for acknowledging the European Islamist source of violence means giving up today's easy reliance on euphemisms.
[i][b]The writer is director of the Middle East Forum (www.DanielPipes.org).[/b][/i]
Revive Jerusalem
05.18.04 (4:04 pm) [edit]
Thirty-seven years after Jerusalem's reunification, the liberation of the Western Wall remains its most enduring visual symbol. Yet the capital's most significant benefit following Israel's victory was the opportunity to transform from backwater to metropolis.
Pre-1967 Jerusalem consisted mainly of poor, cramped neighborhoods of crumbling old houses or jerry-built apartment blocks hastily built in the 1950s to accommodate waves of new immigrants. The proximity of the Jordanian border with its barbed wire, land mines, and snipers obstructed commercial growth and turned the low-paying government, municipality, and Hebrew University into the city's main employers.
After the war, opportunity beckoned, and in many ways was exploited. Three decades of expansion saw new suburbs ring the city, and not only across the Green Line. Business also boomed, as did industrial areas. And in the 1990s, hi-tech parks and shopping malls sprang up from Malha to Har Hotzvim. Millions of tourists filled new hotels and restaurants. Satellite towns like Mevaseret Zion, Ma'ale Adumim, Givat Ze'ev, and Efrat blossomed, and the city seemed set to become a Greater Jerusalem of over a million inhabitants, rivaling in its vitality not only Tel Aviv but also major European cities.
In recent years, however, these accomplishments seem to be at risk. In fact, Jerusalem seems in the midst of a period of stagnation of the sort that plagued it before the 1960s. If drastic measures are not taken soon, the decline might prove irreversible.
Many new sections that were supposed to offer reasonable housing to young families, like Neveh Ya'aov and Gilo, are fast emerging as poverty pockets. Efforts to improve conditions in poor southern neighborhoods in recent decades have on the whole failed.
Other areas which had a diverse population, like Mekor Baruch, Romema, Sanhedria, and Ma'alot Dafna have become haredi, and as such discouraged business growth. Ramot and Ramot Eshkol are undergoing a similar transformation.
The younger generation, especially the secular and modern-Orthodox, is leaving in droves. Since the beginning of the 1990s, over 200,000 Jerusalemites have left. Every year another public school is closed. This year, 60 percent of the Jewish students in the education system are haredi.
The haredim of course have the same rights as any other community, but there is no question the capital's delicate balance between tradition and openness, piety and productivity, has been severely disrupted.
The city's Arab population has also grown steadily, and now stands at 33 percent. If in the past a neighborhood like French Hill was considered affluent and desirable, it now is seen as the last secular enclave sandwiched between predominantly Arab and haredi areas.
These demographics have a direct effect on the city's economy. Jerusalem is the poorest city in the country. Over 40 percent of its children live beneath the official poverty line. Businesses and industries have been fleeing it for a decade. The only growth sector in the city's decrepit center is in the anti-trendy, cut-price bazaars. The hotels are largely empty and many tourists who do brave the security situation skip Jerusalem in favor of Tel Aviv and Eilat.
It's hard to blame them. The city is so filthy that last year's State Comptroller Report featured color photographs of the piles of garbage in its streets.
All this is before anyone has taken into account the effect on the city of the security fence being built on its outskirts, and the consequent prospect that the reunited Jerusalem may very soon give way to Jerusalem the redivided. In short, if we don't do something soon, the golden era of post-'67 Jerusalem may soon become a distant memory.
Sadly, City Hall is the last organization prepared to deal with the crisis. Under haredi control for more than year by now, it seems pointless to expect from it long-term vision and concern for the interests of each the city's varied populations. It is also crippled by a deficit of NIS 600 million and an overall debt of over NIS 2 billion. Theoretically, Jerusalem has its own cabinet minister, but Natan Sharansky is powerless to do anything for the city.
Jerusalem's future is not only a national emergency, it concerns the entire Jewish world. The government should immediately assign a high-profile task force, including Diaspora representatives, with producing a comprehensive plan to revitalize the capital economically and demographically.
[i][b]The Jerusalem Post[/i][/b]
05.18.04 (2:42 pm) [edit]
BERLIN (Reuters) - National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Monday the killing of the head of Iraq's Governing Council must not stop the transition of power to the Iraqis in six weeks.
Speaking in Berlin, Rice said the death of Izzedin Salim was "really unfortunate and sad," but such attacks were hard to prevent.
"We have known for a long time, particularly in the run-up to June 30, that there were going to be people who would try to derail the political process and the political transition," she said. "You have to keep the political transition on track."
"But the solution to this is ultimately political and Iraqi," said Rice. "It is clearly time for the occupation to end, it is clearly time for the Iraqis to be in control of their own political future."
Salim, a Shi'ite who edited several newspapers, was in a convoy waiting to enter the coalition headquarters when a bomb exploded at a checkpoint, killing six people.
Rice's comments echoed those of White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who said the "enemies of freedom" would not prevail.
He said Salim died "working to build a free, democratic and prosperous Iraq."
"The Iraqi people will continue his work and see to it that such a vision becomes a reality. The enemies of a free democratic and peaceful Iraq will not prevail. Democracy and freedom are taking root and these cowardly terrorist acts only make us more determined to finish our work," he said.
In Berlin, Rice met officials from Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Denmark and the Netherlands to discuss Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East peace process.
Rice said she hoped the United Nations would adopt a resolution on Iraq "in the near future." "We are not at the text stage yet, and obviously the devil is always in the details. But I think we are on a good course to get a good resolution."
BERLIN (Reuters) - National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Monday the killing of the head of Iraq's Governing Council must not stop the transition of power to the Iraqis in six weeks.
Speaking in Berlin, Rice said the death of Izzedin Salim was "really unfortunate and sad," but such attacks were hard to prevent.
"We have known for a long time, particularly in the run-up to June 30, that there were going to be people who would try to derail the political process and the political transition," she said. "You have to keep the political transition on track."
"But the solution to this is ultimately political and Iraqi," said Rice. "It is clearly time for the occupation to end, it is clearly time for the Iraqis to be in control of their own political future."
Salim, a Shi'ite who edited several newspapers, was in a convoy waiting to enter the coalition headquarters when a bomb exploded at a checkpoint, killing six people.
Rice's comments echoed those of White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who said the "enemies of freedom" would not prevail.
He said Salim died "working to build a free, democratic and prosperous Iraq."
"The Iraqi people will continue his work and see to it that such a vision becomes a reality. The enemies of a free democratic and peaceful Iraq will not prevail. Democracy and freedom are taking root and these cowardly terrorist acts only make us more determined to finish our work," he said.
In Berlin, Rice met officials from Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Denmark and the Netherlands to discuss Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East peace process.
Rice said she hoped the United Nations would adopt a resolution on Iraq "in the near future." "We are not at the text stage yet, and obviously the devil is always in the details. But I think we are on a good course to get a good resolution."
05.18.04 (2:37 pm) [edit]
Mon May 17,11:15 AM ET[/b]
To: National Desk
Contact: Maggie Goldberg of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, 973-379-2690 or media@crpf.org
SPRINGFIELD, N.J., May 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation (CRPF) announced today the results of its first research funding cycle of 2004 and one of the exceptional grantees is at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel. This is the first time CRPF has funded spinal cord injury research in the state of Israel.
Only 15 neuroscientists were awarded funding in CRPF's first grant cycle of 2004, including the Weizmann Institute's Mike Fainzilber, Ph.D. Fainzilber will receive a two-year grant of $149,600 USD to further his work on investigating changes in gene expression after injury to a nerve.
"CRPF has proudly supported the work of many of the most accomplished neuroscientists in the world," said Christopher Reeve, CRPF's Chairman of the Board. ""The Weizmann Institute, as I saw first-hand when I visited Israel last year, has established preeminence in the field of paralysis research." Dr. Fainzilber will identify changes in genes that are activated very early in the regenerative process, and attempt to modulate the injury- induced changes with the application of a unique peptide. Peptides are compounds made of two or more amino acids that combine to make proteins. The data generated using this model has the potential to identify new molecules important for regenerative growth and the potential to move the field forward in an innovative and significant way. Identification of such genes will hopefully allow their future exploitation in new clinical approaches to enhance regeneration in patients with nerve injuries.
"We were very glad to learn that CRPF decided to support this project, since we hope that once we know the full complement of these genes, researchers will find ways to bypass the system and activate them in nerves which cannot normally regenerate," said Dr. Fainzilber. He added, "CRPF support is crucial to us for two reasons, firstly because without this financial support we simply would not be able to carry out the project, and secondly because it is very encouraging to know that we have the attention and hopefully future input and support from some of the best people in the field of nerve regeneration."
Dr. Fainzilber's inspiration to pursue a cure for paralysis was motivated by the 1976 Israeli commando operation at Entebbe (Uganda) which successfully freed 104 hostages, the passengers and crew of Air France Flight 139, which had been hijacked by PFLP terrorists. Israeli soldier Sorin Hershko was wounded in the neck during the operation and became completely paralyzed. Dr. Fainzilber, who was a young teenager working on a summer biology project on regeneration in marine invertebrates at the time, recalls, "It seemed to me to be the height of painful irony that a starfish I was studying could be cut into six different pieces and each piece would regenerate, while a small wound in the wrong place could forever paralyze a human being in the prime of his life."
Dr. Fainzilber says of his work, "Every nation and every generation in human history has had its own Christopher Reeve and Sorin Hershko. We hope that with the help of the CRPF we can make our own small contribution to the chance that the coming generations will be spared this scourge."
Every research application submitted to CRPF is reviewed by the Foundation's Science Advisory Council, a panel of accomplished neuroscientists who volunteer their time and expertise to evaluate proposals based on scientific merit, relevance to CRPF's research priorities, and promise for clinical application. This rigorous process ensures that CRPF funds only the most meritorious science that is targeted at developing effective therapies for paralysis and dysfunctions caused by spinal cord injury and other central nervous system disorders.
CRPF's Individual Research Grants are awarded twice yearly with application deadlines in June and December of each year. For a complete list of grantees or more information on CRPF's research programs and the research projects that are funded, visit: http://www.christopherreeve.o...
The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation (CRPF) is committed to funding research that develops treatments and cures for paralysis caused by spinal cord injury and other central nervous system disorders. The Foundation also vigorously works to improve the quality of life for people living with disabilities through its grants program, paralysis resource center, and advocacy efforts. For more information, please call 973-379-2690 or visit http://www.ChristopherReeve.o...
http://www.usnewswire.com/" title="http://www.usnewswire.com/" target="_blank"http://www.usnewswire.com/
© 2004 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
Mon May 17,11:15 AM ET[/b]
To: National Desk
Contact: Maggie Goldberg of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, 973-379-2690 or media@crpf.org
SPRINGFIELD, N.J., May 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation (CRPF) announced today the results of its first research funding cycle of 2004 and one of the exceptional grantees is at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel. This is the first time CRPF has funded spinal cord injury research in the state of Israel.
Only 15 neuroscientists were awarded funding in CRPF's first grant cycle of 2004, including the Weizmann Institute's Mike Fainzilber, Ph.D. Fainzilber will receive a two-year grant of $149,600 USD to further his work on investigating changes in gene expression after injury to a nerve.
"CRPF has proudly supported the work of many of the most accomplished neuroscientists in the world," said Christopher Reeve, CRPF's Chairman of the Board. ""The Weizmann Institute, as I saw first-hand when I visited Israel last year, has established preeminence in the field of paralysis research." Dr. Fainzilber will identify changes in genes that are activated very early in the regenerative process, and attempt to modulate the injury- induced changes with the application of a unique peptide. Peptides are compounds made of two or more amino acids that combine to make proteins. The data generated using this model has the potential to identify new molecules important for regenerative growth and the potential to move the field forward in an innovative and significant way. Identification of such genes will hopefully allow their future exploitation in new clinical approaches to enhance regeneration in patients with nerve injuries.
"We were very glad to learn that CRPF decided to support this project, since we hope that once we know the full complement of these genes, researchers will find ways to bypass the system and activate them in nerves which cannot normally regenerate," said Dr. Fainzilber. He added, "CRPF support is crucial to us for two reasons, firstly because without this financial support we simply would not be able to carry out the project, and secondly because it is very encouraging to know that we have the attention and hopefully future input and support from some of the best people in the field of nerve regeneration."
Dr. Fainzilber's inspiration to pursue a cure for paralysis was motivated by the 1976 Israeli commando operation at Entebbe (Uganda) which successfully freed 104 hostages, the passengers and crew of Air France Flight 139, which had been hijacked by PFLP terrorists. Israeli soldier Sorin Hershko was wounded in the neck during the operation and became completely paralyzed. Dr. Fainzilber, who was a young teenager working on a summer biology project on regeneration in marine invertebrates at the time, recalls, "It seemed to me to be the height of painful irony that a starfish I was studying could be cut into six different pieces and each piece would regenerate, while a small wound in the wrong place could forever paralyze a human being in the prime of his life."
Dr. Fainzilber says of his work, "Every nation and every generation in human history has had its own Christopher Reeve and Sorin Hershko. We hope that with the help of the CRPF we can make our own small contribution to the chance that the coming generations will be spared this scourge."
Every research application submitted to CRPF is reviewed by the Foundation's Science Advisory Council, a panel of accomplished neuroscientists who volunteer their time and expertise to evaluate proposals based on scientific merit, relevance to CRPF's research priorities, and promise for clinical application. This rigorous process ensures that CRPF funds only the most meritorious science that is targeted at developing effective therapies for paralysis and dysfunctions caused by spinal cord injury and other central nervous system disorders.
CRPF's Individual Research Grants are awarded twice yearly with application deadlines in June and December of each year. For a complete list of grantees or more information on CRPF's research programs and the research projects that are funded, visit: http://www.christopherreeve.o...
The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation (CRPF) is committed to funding research that develops treatments and cures for paralysis caused by spinal cord injury and other central nervous system disorders. The Foundation also vigorously works to improve the quality of life for people living with disabilities through its grants program, paralysis resource center, and advocacy efforts. For more information, please call 973-379-2690 or visit http://www.ChristopherReeve.o...
http://www.usnewswire.com/" title="http://www.usnewswire.com/" target="_blank"http://www.usnewswire.com/
© 2004 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
NEWSWEEK: 'The End Of Dreams'
05.16.04 (4:34 pm) [edit]
[i][b]by Joshua Hammer, Newsweek (Apr. 26 issue)
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4767254/" title="http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4767254/" target="_blank"http://msnbc.msn.com/id/47672...[/b][/i]
Maj. Gen. Yisrael Ziv first tried to kill Sheik Ahmed Yassin last September. He remembers the day well, and with some regret. As Israel's chief of military operations, Ziv had ordered an airstrike on the three-story building in Gaza City where the Hamas spiritual leader was meeting with his inner circle. Huddled with other Israeli commanders around a screen that displayed real-time satellite imagery, Ziv watched as an F-16 jet unloaded a 250-kilogram bomb on the target. Ziv was worried; at the last minute he had reduced the size of the bomb by half, hoping to lower the chance of civilian deaths. "We saw in a few seconds that people were pouring out through the smoke," Ziv told NEWSWEEK, still rueful that he hadn't used a bigger bomb. "We learned very soon that Yassin had survived." Six months after that, an Israeli missile blew Yassin apart as he left a mosque following dawn prayers, and Ziv was one of the first to be informed.
Last Saturday, Ziv and his colleagues were back in action. Hours after a suicide bomber killed himself and an Israeli policeman near the Gaza border, Israel moved to eliminate Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, the new Hamas leader in the area. An Israeli helicopter fired two missiles at Rantisi's car, destroying it; he was later pronounced dead at a hospital. Even some prominent Israeli doves supported the hit. "Whoever deals with murder will pay the price and it will lead to his own death," former prime minister Shimon Peres told Israeli TV. Hamas quickly vowed revenge.
Ziv, 47, has become a point man in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stark new approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Having judged that a negotiated peace with the Palestinians is impossible, Sharon now seems intent on achieving a different goal: a manageable war. As he's outlined in recent weeks, Sharon plans to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip and four isolated West Bank settlements. He'll keep six major settlement blocs, sealing off both Israel and those enclaves behind security fences—and use Israel's assassination squads to strike out against the leaders of any lingering resistance. Last week, in a stunning departure from U.S. policy, President George W. Bush endorsed the broad outlines of Sharon's initiative, declaring that that it was "unrealistic" to expect that Israel would withdraw to its 1967 boundaries and agreeing with Sharon that Palestinian refugees be resettled only in a Palestinian state. Bush called Sharon's limited withdrawals "historic and courageous actions" that "can put an end to one of the world's longest-running conflicts."
The Sharon-Bush deal could also achieve the opposite. The two leaders have taken a big detour from the "Roadmap," a three-stage plan drafted by the United States and three partners—Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. The new initiative effectively cuts the Palestinians out of the negotiations, and it deprives them of future bargaining chips such as the "right of return" for refugees. For the foreseeable future, the Palestinians will be left with control over Gaza—but not its borders or airspace—and isolated patches of territory in the occupied West Bank.
U.S. administration officials insisted that the new plan was only a step toward a permanent peace, still to be negotiated. But Palestinian leaders called Bush's endorsement a betrayal, and Sharon seemed to agree that it could only be regarded as an Israeli triumph. "The Palestinians understand that this plan is ... the end of their dreams," Sharon told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz before traveling to Washington. In another candid interview with the newspaper Yediot Ahronot, he said, "In the unilateral plan, there is no Palestinian state. This situation could continue for many years."
Sharon believes that he can keep a lid on Palestinian violence. The 375-mile line of fences and walls that Israel is building inside the West Bank has made it increasingly difficult for would-be suicide bombers to cross the Green Line. Since January there have been only four successful suicide bombings inside Israel. (By contrast, 19 suicide bombers struck Israel during March 2002, the worst month of the intifada.) Sharon's targeted killings of Palestinians—"surgical operations," as Israel commanders prefer to call them—have also impaired the militants' capabilities. "Hamas is really under siege," says a Palestinian journalist in regular contact with Hamas's military wing. "Israel is terrifying them, paralyzing the leadership."
Sharon's war is now in the hands of men such as Ziv, an affable, veteran paratrooper and the former head of Israel's Gaza Division. Ziv is one of a handful of major generals who debate moral, logistical and legal issues before each targeted killing. Every assassination must be approved by military Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon—and, if the target is considered important enough, by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Sharon himself. Ziv insists that targeted killings are carried out only as a "last resort." Last June, Ziv and his team set their sights on Abdullah Kawasmeh, commander of Hamas's military wing in Hebron, who had recruited a half dozen young men to kill more than 10 Israelis in suicide attacks. The Israeli Army initially hoped to seize and interrogate Kawasmeh, says Ziv, "but we learned [through informants] that Kawasmeh always wore an explosive belt, so we couldn't arrest him." An Israeli elite unit shot him dead as he left evening prayers at a neighborhood mosque.
Israeli critics of the relentless killing campaign worry that Hamas is preparing a "spectacular" attack, and believe the long- term effect of such an assassination policy will be counterproductive. "If you're doing [these killings] without a political solution, without creating an alternative vision or a sense of hope, you are going to lose," says Ami Ayalon, a former director of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency. In the short term, anyway, the Palestinians have been deprived of hope—and Ariel Sharon has emerged as the clear winner.
[i]With Joanna Chen in Jerusalem
© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.[/i]
05.16.04 (4:20 pm) [edit]
:cry:
[line]
[b]Fri May 14, 3:08 PM ET
[i]By AARON KEITH HARRIS, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]
TEL AVIV, Israel - Israel's bitter argument over its military presence in the Gaza Strip cut through a bereaved family who on Friday buried a young soldier killed in Gaza this week.
The father of 20-year-old Sgt. Lior Vishinsky says his son died needlessly, while his stepfather says he was a hero who gave his life for his country.
Israel's presence in the Gaza Strip has been the subject of intense public debate in recent months. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presented a plan to pull the settlements and the military out, but hard-liners in his Likud Party rejected the plan on May 2.
Shlomo Vishinsky, 60, an Israeli stage actor, blamed Likud hard-liners for his son's death and said he was "a patsy for the Likud."
But Lior's stepfather, Moti Giladi, 57, said his stepson was "a Zionist at heart" who took pride in his army service and who believed that his work destroying Palestinian weapons-smuggling tunnels in Gaza was saving Israeli lives.
Sharon and his supporters argue that leaving Gaza — where 7,500 heavily guarded Jewish settlers live among some 1.2 million Palestinians — would improve Israel's security. Opponents say a pullout would be a reward for Palestinian violence.
On Friday, Shlomo Vishinsky told the Haaretz daily newspaper hid son volunteered for the Gaza unit because he didn't want "the army to be controlled" by hard-liners and that Lior "couldn't understand what Israel was doing in the Gaza Strip."
But his stepfather said Lior's military service in the Gaza Strip was heroic.
"We learned today that he was a hero," Giladi said, describing the crowds of people who lined Tel Aviv streets to salute and blow kisses as Lior's funeral motorcade passed by on the way to the Kiryat Shaul military cemetery.
Giladi married Lior Vishinksy's mother Osnat eight years ago. They are both actors.
Lior completed an officers training course two months ago before volunteering for the special engineering unit that patrols arms smuggling in Gaza.
He was killed Wednesday in southern Gaza, along with four other soldiers, when their explosives-laden armored personnel carrier was hit by a makeshift Palestinian rocket. The blast scattered the soldiers' remains over a nearly half-mile radius.
As the truck bearing his son's Israeli flag-draped wooden casket stopped at the cemetery's edge, Shlomo Vishinsky nervously stood by until a white-bearded rabbi came to comfort him.
Several hundred mourners trailed the casket as six of Lior's comrades carried it to the grave.
Fighting back tears, Shlomo Vishinsky recited "kaddish," the Jewish prayer for the dead. After the service he sat talking with a group of soldiers, one of whom leaned over to embrace him.
[line]
[b]Fri May 14, 3:08 PM ET
[i]By AARON KEITH HARRIS, Associated Press Writer [/b][/i]
TEL AVIV, Israel - Israel's bitter argument over its military presence in the Gaza Strip cut through a bereaved family who on Friday buried a young soldier killed in Gaza this week.
The father of 20-year-old Sgt. Lior Vishinsky says his son died needlessly, while his stepfather says he was a hero who gave his life for his country.
Israel's presence in the Gaza Strip has been the subject of intense public debate in recent months. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presented a plan to pull the settlements and the military out, but hard-liners in his Likud Party rejected the plan on May 2.
Shlomo Vishinsky, 60, an Israeli stage actor, blamed Likud hard-liners for his son's death and said he was "a patsy for the Likud."
But Lior's stepfather, Moti Giladi, 57, said his stepson was "a Zionist at heart" who took pride in his army service and who believed that his work destroying Palestinian weapons-smuggling tunnels in Gaza was saving Israeli lives.
Sharon and his supporters argue that leaving Gaza — where 7,500 heavily guarded Jewish settlers live among some 1.2 million Palestinians — would improve Israel's security. Opponents say a pullout would be a reward for Palestinian violence.
On Friday, Shlomo Vishinsky told the Haaretz daily newspaper hid son volunteered for the Gaza unit because he didn't want "the army to be controlled" by hard-liners and that Lior "couldn't understand what Israel was doing in the Gaza Strip."
But his stepfather said Lior's military service in the Gaza Strip was heroic.
"We learned today that he was a hero," Giladi said, describing the crowds of people who lined Tel Aviv streets to salute and blow kisses as Lior's funeral motorcade passed by on the way to the Kiryat Shaul military cemetery.
Giladi married Lior Vishinksy's mother Osnat eight years ago. They are both actors.
Lior completed an officers training course two months ago before volunteering for the special engineering unit that patrols arms smuggling in Gaza.
He was killed Wednesday in southern Gaza, along with four other soldiers, when their explosives-laden armored personnel carrier was hit by a makeshift Palestinian rocket. The blast scattered the soldiers' remains over a nearly half-mile radius.
As the truck bearing his son's Israeli flag-draped wooden casket stopped at the cemetery's edge, Shlomo Vishinsky nervously stood by until a white-bearded rabbi came to comfort him.
Several hundred mourners trailed the casket as six of Lior's comrades carried it to the grave.
Fighting back tears, Shlomo Vishinsky recited "kaddish," the Jewish prayer for the dead. After the service he sat talking with a group of soldiers, one of whom leaned over to embrace him.
Arafat Finally Speaks Out On His Genocidal Intentions ... It still falls on def ears?
05.16.04 (4:16 pm) [edit]
Sat May 15, 6:21 AM ET [/b]
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat urged his people Saturday to "terrorize your enemy," as he bitterly marked the 56-year anniversary of the establishment of Israel.
In a speech broadcast live on Palestinian television, Arafat repeatedly called on his people to be steadfast in their struggle against Israeli occupation.
He ended the speech with a quote from the Koran. "Find what strength you have to terrorize your enemy and the enemy of God," he said.
The phrase in the Koran refers to Muslims' wars against pagans. It is followed by a phrase saying "if they want peace, then let's have peace."
[LINE]
So lemme get this straight. Arafat said that the Jews are the enemy of God and [basically, due to the quote from the koran's context] that Jews are pegans. Arafat also said that the Palestinians should "terrorize" their enemy, the Jews. Now, this is just conjecture here, but doesn't that mean innocents as well? If I am led to believe that, how many more Palestinians are led to believe that by their LEADER, Mr. Arafat?
So then, is that enough proof for you? I'm just taking the facts. Is this not logical?
05.16.04 (4:09 pm) [edit]
Any Christians out there who are insulted by this? Just curious. Any Christians who are not insulted by this? Thoughts?
[line]
[b]Sat May 15,11:16 PM ET[/b]
BEIRUT, Lebanon - The Islamic guerrilla group Hezbollah is airing a promotional TV spot comparing the abuse of Iraqi prisoners to the suffering of Jesus, based on a trailer for Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ."
The 40-second spot, made by Hezbollah's satellite TV station, Al-Manar, shows images of a coalition soldier kicking an Iraqi prisoner and a man and woman cowering in terror as troops burst into their home. The words "no mercy" and "no compassion" flash on the screen.
The soundtrack for Gibson's film plays in the background as the title, "The Passion of the Iraqis," appears next to the infamous photo of a hooded Iraqi prisoner standing on a box with wires attached to his outstretched arms.
The clip started airing a few days ago.
"The suffering of Jesus Christ is a universal theme. It is something everyone, including us as Muslims, believes in," Ibrahim Mousawi, who heads Al-Manar's political programs, told The Associated Press on Saturday.
"We are simply using a universal theme to get an important message across: that the pain of the Iraqi people is deep, the level of torture appalling," Mousawi said.
Muslims revere Jesus Christ as a prophet but not as the messiah. They believe someone else was crucified in his place.
"The Passion of the Christ" received an exceptionally warm welcome and drew large audiences in the Arab world, which usually bans movies depicting any of the prophets recognized by Islam.
Al-Manar, known for its diatribes against Israel, has aired controversial programming in the past. A miniseries it showed last year about the founding of Israel, "Al-Shatat," was denounced by Washington and the Jewish state as anti-Semitic propaganda.
Israel and the United States regard Hezbollah, based in south Lebanon, as a terrorist group. Lebanon regards it as a legitimate resistance movement against Israeli occupation of Arab lands.
[line]
I'll tell you right now, I'm insulted by it. I feel like this is a plea to Christians that basically says, "Hey, don't punish us! We're like Jesus! Jesus was also killed by the Jews! We at least believe in Jesus as a prophet. The Jews do not. Come help us kill the Jews! (under their breaths) Then we'll kill you. (big grin)"
Perhaps I'm being overly sensative. But I am insulted by this.
Any Christians out there who are insulted by this? Just curious. Any Christians who are not insulted by this? Thoughts?
[line]
[b]Sat May 15,11:16 PM ET[/b]
BEIRUT, Lebanon - The Islamic guerrilla group Hezbollah is airing a promotional TV spot comparing the abuse of Iraqi prisoners to the suffering of Jesus, based on a trailer for Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ."
The 40-second spot, made by Hezbollah's satellite TV station, Al-Manar, shows images of a coalition soldier kicking an Iraqi prisoner and a man and woman cowering in terror as troops burst into their home. The words "no mercy" and "no compassion" flash on the screen.
The soundtrack for Gibson's film plays in the background as the title, "The Passion of the Iraqis," appears next to the infamous photo of a hooded Iraqi prisoner standing on a box with wires attached to his outstretched arms.
The clip started airing a few days ago.
"The suffering of Jesus Christ is a universal theme. It is something everyone, including us as Muslims, believes in," Ibrahim Mousawi, who heads Al-Manar's political programs, told The Associated Press on Saturday.
"We are simply using a universal theme to get an important message across: that the pain of the Iraqi people is deep, the level of torture appalling," Mousawi said.
Muslims revere Jesus Christ as a prophet but not as the messiah. They believe someone else was crucified in his place.
"The Passion of the Christ" received an exceptionally warm welcome and drew large audiences in the Arab world, which usually bans movies depicting any of the prophets recognized by Islam.
Al-Manar, known for its diatribes against Israel, has aired controversial programming in the past. A miniseries it showed last year about the founding of Israel, "Al-Shatat," was denounced by Washington and the Jewish state as anti-Semitic propaganda.
Israel and the United States regard Hezbollah, based in south Lebanon, as a terrorist group. Lebanon regards it as a legitimate resistance movement against Israeli occupation of Arab lands.
[line]
I'll tell you right now, I'm insulted by it. I feel like this is a plea to Christians that basically says, "Hey, don't punish us! We're like Jesus! Jesus was also killed by the Jews! We at least believe in Jesus as a prophet. The Jews do not. Come help us kill the Jews! (under their breaths) Then we'll kill you. (big grin)"
Perhaps I'm being overly sensative. But I am insulted by this.
Real Points From The Source
05.16.04 (3:50 pm) [edit]
I am now going to outline some of my own personal views and positions on various issues. If there was any question before, hopefully these would answer them. I think they are completely consistant with everything in my archives that I have written about my personal politics.
*I do not agree with Israeli PM Ariel Sharon on everything. I do not think he is a good PM. I was happy when Benjamin Nitanyahu was in office because he did better for Israel. Ariel Sharon was elected on the principle that he would keep Israel safe and not bend to the violent actions against the Jewish state. I feel that he hasn't done this as promised. That is the wonderful thing about democracy. He can be elected out of office. I do not think he is a bad man nor an evil man. I feel that he is not right for this position. His Gaza Settlement plan that was on the table is wrong. There is so much I disagree with and a little that I agree. I am ever critical because I want what is best for my country. Ariel Sharon in office is not what is best.
*Palestinians have every right to exist just as the Jews do. This does not mean they are allowed to murder Jews. I am fine with them having their own state. I encourage it. The Jews are allowed to have their's. The Palestinians need to stop and crack down on terrorism and work on their own people's building up. If they were to concentrate on their own perfection, rather than the destruction of someone else, they would be living not only in peace, but in prosperity. I wish those who feel the same the best. Anyone who kills or sponsers the killing of innocents is marked for death. In society, we make sure to keep citizens safe from danger. Those who seek to murder anyone, and are successful, are dangerous. These are the people that should be brought to justice.
*There is a difference between being critical of Israel, and the downright hatred for it and it's Jewish residents. There is no crime in being critical of Israel and it's policies. I myself have been known to be critical of Israel. The line is drawn when the conclusion is that Israel should not exist and give in completely to it's enemies. Anyone who says, "I love Jews, it's Zionists that deserve to be blown up" is a closet antisemite. Israel is the Jewish state. Zionism (not just the modern movement) is part of Judaism. Even if a religous Jew does not support the modern state of Israel, like a small sect does, they still believe that Zion (Israel) is the homeland of the Jews. The only difference between that miniscual sect of religous Jews and the rest of Jewry is that they disagree on how Jewish ownership of Israel should manefest. "Jews against Zionism" et all, think that when the redeemer comes to Zion, that the Jews will be gathered into Israel. The prodominant view of most of religous Jewry is that the state of Israel is the first flowering of our redemption. Any way you slice it, Jews believe in a claim to Israel. And, the "Jews against Zionism", many of them live in Israel. My view is that God gave Israel to the Jews. For over 3,000 years it has belonged to the Jewish people and throught the whole of that time, Jews have live there. The Arabs can have whatever they like in the rest of the Middle East. The teenie-tiny territory of Israel is all we wish to retain. If I were any kind of diplomat, if I could speak for my people, this is what I would say. Do whatever you like to the rest of it. Allow us to exist with our place and we won't bother you and you won't bother us. Fair? It is what I believe.
*I am a religous Jew. For anyone to tell me that I am wrong for holding my views or I am evil has a serious problem. You don't have to agree with me. I don't care. I can respectfully disagree with someone. That's all it is, really. All it comes down to is people holding different views. In the end, rather than argue, we can simply respectfully disagree. No one's views will be changed, so why bother? Let the Jews live in peace and you can live in peace too. I hold my principles near and dear. For having my dogmatic principles, to be chastized and villifyed is wrong, anti-Jewish, and worse than anything my thoughts could ever do. My ideals are that of peace and live and let live. I have every right to defend myself when attacked. No one has the right to be attacked.
*When you chastize someone and call them evil or whatever rotten name of your choosing because of their beliefs that are harmless to all; that is evil. When you do not listen to what someone has to say and accuse instead of asking questions and listening to better understand where someone is coming from, that is horribly wrong and highly immoral. Questioning something is how we all learn. If you never raised your hand in school and asked a question, where would you be? Think on that. If you, instead of asking a teacher or a friend, just made up your own "fact", would that be right?
These are all just musings that I wanted to get off my chest so I posted them on my web log. If you have any questions about what I have said here, please ask me. I am receptive to kind conversation. Accusations rather than breaking the walls of misunderstanding help no one. I posted this for me and who ever needs to hear it. Please don't make up your own assumptions about anyone else's feelings. Base your ideas off of what people have to say, not what you think they think.
I will write more installments of this as more thoughts come to me.
05.16.04 (3:12 pm) [edit]
[b][i]MICHELLE DARDASHTI[/i]
Jewish Telegraphic Agency[/b]
NEW YORK -- A new survey speaks volumes about Saudi Arabian attitudes toward Jews, Christians and the West.
The survey, which examined 93 state-sponsored textbooks, found that Saudi students are being taught that "Jews are wickedness in its very essence," "Zionism is a nationalist, racist and aggressive movement," and the West "is the source of the past and present misfortunes in the Muslim world."
"This report is a smoking gun," said David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, which conducted the survey in cooperation with the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace.
"Despite Saudi government statements to the West promoting unity, friendship and tolerance, the report clearly demonstrates a disturbing pattern of hateful language."
For Arnon Groiss, director of the Voice of Israel's Arabic news division and the man responsible for compiling and translating the data in the study, the most compelling finding was "the extent of the paranoia the Saudis are trying to instill in their children regarding the West, beyond the expected anti-Semitism and anti- Zionism."
This is the fourth report Groiss has issued for the center, following two on Palestinian and one on Israeli textbooks.
In many ways, it could be the most significant.
The study comes as increasing attention is being paid to anti-Semitism in Saudi Arabia, a long-time U.S. ally. The Saudis also have come in for criticism since it was found that 15 of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 terror attacks were Saudi citizens, and that Saudi money helps fund Palestinian terrorist groups.
Andre Marcus, the founding chairman of the center, which has offices in both New York and Jerusalem, said the educational system is key, since decisions taken at an autocratic political level don't necessarily make it down to the street.
Elsewhere in the Arab world, that disconnect -- for example, between the Palestinian Authority's peace agreements with Israel and the anti-Israel messages in Palestinian textbooks and official media -- makes it much more difficult for peace to succeed, Marcus added.
"Textbooks are a powerful tool. I would say even more than the media, more than TV."
Attitudes toward the Jewish people and Israel -- which doesn't even exist on Saudi maps -- are particularly noteworthy in light of the plan for Mideast peace that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah proposed last year.
Marcus points to another reason why a study on the Saudis is so critical: In the cradle of Islam, Saudi Arabia's educational system exerts an influence on curricula in other Muslim countries.
The textbooks promulgate the Saudi belief that Islam is the only true religion and followers of other religions can't be trusted or befriended.
Marcus characterized the books' sentiments as "very much against peace and an education of peace."
The study also illustrates the Saudi position on the legal standing and duties of women and children, as well as notions of government and society.
Given the tight controls on information in Saudi Arabia, information for the study was gathered with great difficulty, from Saudis who want to see the educational system revamped.
These are people "who are tired of seeing education used as propaganda, and would like to see some changes in their own country," Marcus said.
The report has two objectives, he said: The first is to promote greater awareness of the "brainwashing" taking place in Saudi Arabia and the second is the construction of an educational system "that is more democratic and allows children to think freely."
Harris said the study is "creating quite a buzz on Capitol Hill," with senators asking for copies. The report also was presented to the State Department on Feb. 4, the day of its release.
"Our goal in the end is not to embarrass the Saudis," Harris said. "Our goal is to get the textbooks changed."
Yet the report's backers don't expect the report to produce major changes any time soon.
Groiss, who has spent 30 years monitoring Middle Eastern affairs, says he recognizes that entrenched interests in the Muslim world will work to forestall change.
One of the few "Western-friendly" excerpts Groiss found was the Saudi denunciation of terrorism. The catch, of course, lies in how the Saudis define terrorism.
According to Groiss, "everything that falls within the category of jihad or martyrdom is not terror." If violence can be justified as "for the sake of God" then it is considered permissible, and even is encouraged, he said.
Students are given examples of what constitutes legitimate examples of jihad -- including the struggles over Kashmir and "occupied Palestine."
Members of the American Jewish community met with the Saudi foreign minister in September and spoke with him about initial findings in the survey, which was already under way.
"They admit that there's some problematic material," said Ken Bandler, a spokesman for the AJCommittee. "But they don't seem to be doing much about it.''
[i]
For more JTA stories, go to http://www.jta.org[/i]
[b][i]MICHELLE DARDASHTI[/i]
Jewish Telegraphic Agency[/b]
NEW YORK -- A new survey speaks volumes about Saudi Arabian attitudes toward Jews, Christians and the West.
The survey, which examined 93 state-sponsored textbooks, found that Saudi students are being taught that "Jews are wickedness in its very essence," "Zionism is a nationalist, racist and aggressive movement," and the West "is the source of the past and present misfortunes in the Muslim world."
"This report is a smoking gun," said David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, which conducted the survey in cooperation with the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace.
"Despite Saudi government statements to the West promoting unity, friendship and tolerance, the report clearly demonstrates a disturbing pattern of hateful language."
For Arnon Groiss, director of the Voice of Israel's Arabic news division and the man responsible for compiling and translating the data in the study, the most compelling finding was "the extent of the paranoia the Saudis are trying to instill in their children regarding the West, beyond the expected anti-Semitism and anti- Zionism."
This is the fourth report Groiss has issued for the center, following two on Palestinian and one on Israeli textbooks.
In many ways, it could be the most significant.
The study comes as increasing attention is being paid to anti-Semitism in Saudi Arabia, a long-time U.S. ally. The Saudis also have come in for criticism since it was found that 15 of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 terror attacks were Saudi citizens, and that Saudi money helps fund Palestinian terrorist groups.
Andre Marcus, the founding chairman of the center, which has offices in both New York and Jerusalem, said the educational system is key, since decisions taken at an autocratic political level don't necessarily make it down to the street.
Elsewhere in the Arab world, that disconnect -- for example, between the Palestinian Authority's peace agreements with Israel and the anti-Israel messages in Palestinian textbooks and official media -- makes it much more difficult for peace to succeed, Marcus added.
"Textbooks are a powerful tool. I would say even more than the media, more than TV."
Attitudes toward the Jewish people and Israel -- which doesn't even exist on Saudi maps -- are particularly noteworthy in light of the plan for Mideast peace that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah proposed last year.
Marcus points to another reason why a study on the Saudis is so critical: In the cradle of Islam, Saudi Arabia's educational system exerts an influence on curricula in other Muslim countries.
The textbooks promulgate the Saudi belief that Islam is the only true religion and followers of other religions can't be trusted or befriended.
Marcus characterized the books' sentiments as "very much against peace and an education of peace."
The study also illustrates the Saudi position on the legal standing and duties of women and children, as well as notions of government and society.
Given the tight controls on information in Saudi Arabia, information for the study was gathered with great difficulty, from Saudis who want to see the educational system revamped.
These are people "who are tired of seeing education used as propaganda, and would like to see some changes in their own country," Marcus said.
The report has two objectives, he said: The first is to promote greater awareness of the "brainwashing" taking place in Saudi Arabia and the second is the construction of an educational system "that is more democratic and allows children to think freely."
Harris said the study is "creating quite a buzz on Capitol Hill," with senators asking for copies. The report also was presented to the State Department on Feb. 4, the day of its release.
"Our goal in the end is not to embarrass the Saudis," Harris said. "Our goal is to get the textbooks changed."
Yet the report's backers don't expect the report to produce major changes any time soon.
Groiss, who has spent 30 years monitoring Middle Eastern affairs, says he recognizes that entrenched interests in the Muslim world will work to forestall change.
One of the few "Western-friendly" excerpts Groiss found was the Saudi denunciation of terrorism. The catch, of course, lies in how the Saudis define terrorism.
According to Groiss, "everything that falls within the category of jihad or martyrdom is not terror." If violence can be justified as "for the sake of God" then it is considered permissible, and even is encouraged, he said.
Students are given examples of what constitutes legitimate examples of jihad -- including the struggles over Kashmir and "occupied Palestine."
Members of the American Jewish community met with the Saudi foreign minister in September and spoke with him about initial findings in the survey, which was already under way.
"They admit that there's some problematic material," said Ken Bandler, a spokesman for the AJCommittee. "But they don't seem to be doing much about it.''
[i]
For more JTA stories, go to http://www.jta.org[/i]
D'var Torah for Behar/Bechukotai
05.14.04 (4:34 pm) [edit]
In the middle of Parshat Behar, the Torah implores us to "perform the laws without logical explanations, the laws with logical explanations we should keep, and we should also perform them" (25:18, loose translation).
The Torat Kohanim, which is brought down in Rashi (26:3), clarifies the reason why the verse uses different terms by explaining that it's not enough to just perform the commandments (Mitzvot), but we have to LIVE them. It goes on to explain that if a person just performs the Mitzvot without learning more about them, they will end up performing less, and resenting those that perform more. It would then make sense that we're commanded to keep (learn about the reasons) the commandments that have reasons, as well as performing those that we don't understand.
But if we turn ahead to the very first verse of Parshat Bechukotai, the Torah adds a new requirement that we "walk in God's laws". What does it mean, and how does walking fit into our understanding?
Rav Nachum Zev explains that when a group of people is sitting, you can't tell when one of those people can't walk. It's only when they get up and walk away that you can tell. The same is true with Jews keeping the Torah's laws. The way to really tell if someone is keeping the commandments properly is by observing them as they "walk" in the world.
It's critically important to follow the Torah's rules, and to understand them. But the final challenge is that when we're faced with everyday trials and tribulations, we don't give in to temptations, maintain those Torah standards, and walk the TRUE walk of life!
How to run a military prison
05.14.04 (4:27 pm) [edit]
[i][b]By DAVID BRINN, The Jerusalem Post[/i][/b]
When I first joined the ranks of the IDF in the summer of 1990 as a 30-year-old reservist corporal in the Military Police, it wasn't the thought of being stationed in a military prison among hardened Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists that was terribly scary.
My fear was the possibility that I might witness scenes of horrifying torture and humiliation of prisoners by my colleagues and superiors. How would I react in such a situation? Would I possess the internal strength to stand up and resist such basic violations of human rights, or would I sit still and passively accept those atrocities? Such thoughts chilled me as I entered my first IDF prison 14 years ago to serve as a jailer, the fear that the Israeli soldier, a fellow Jew, could be capable of inhumane treatment of prisoners.
Seeing the pictures of abuses of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers at the Abu Ghraib facility near Baghdad reminded me of my own trepidations back then. Whether this inexcusable affront to Western, democratic sensibilities could have been prevented will take a thorough investigation of the US military to determine. Could such a travesty occur at an Israeli military prison? Almost certainly not.
A senior Pentagon official has said that the US military units responsible for prisoners in Iraq were not given specifics on permissible techniques for questioning.
In the IDF, there was no such ambiguity. In fact, the entire reasoning behind sending a raw yet comparatively aged recruit like me to serve in military prisons was part of a carefully conceived and implemented plan by the IDF to ensure that such dehumanizing practices would never occur.
When I was inducted for shlav bet army service in the summer of 1990, it was still the height of the Palestinian intifada that had begun in 1987. The IDF had been forced to open up numerous facilities to house all the Palestinians who were being detained daily for rock-throwing, tossing Molotov cocktails, and worse offenses. These prisons - such as Ketziot, Ofer, Dahariya and Megiddo - were being run predominantly by conscript soldiers between 18 and 21, young men who were not necessarily capable of reigning in their feelings about the people in their charge.
Out of the 95 fellow conscripts I was inducted with, 90 were assigned to the Military Police. "We need you to go to these prisons and be in charge of the hour-by-hour contact with the prisoners," an officer told us during basic training. "We need mature, thoughtful people who aren't going to blow up and let their emotions dictate their actions. There are certain rules that have to be abided by, and you are the best people to ensure they are observed."
So for the next 14 years, I joined conscripts, officers, and other reservists down on the ground with Palestinian detainees, making things run. Huge shipments of food delivered daily had to be dispersed, prisoners had to be taken to doctors and to dentists. Others had appointments with their attorneys, and every day there were staggered visits from family members. All of this required coordination, cooperation, and mutual respect.
Our group of reservists received daily instructions from the young officers who were permanently stationed at the prison. Reservist officers accompanied us everywhere to make sure the different activities were carried out in the most efficient and businesslike manner.
There was a rigid order of checks and balances at work for every activity. For any abuse of prisoners to be carried out, there would have to be a huge conspiracy of silence to which dozens, if not hundreds, of soldiers would have to be part of. The block commander - generally a 20-year-old officer - reported directly to the prison commander, a career army officer.
Our reserve officers came from all walks of life but, to a man, their underlying credo was "Follow the rules." In no corner would have there been any tolerance or simply turning the other way in the event of anything remotely resembling abusive or humiliating behavior.
I WON'T deny that there was no love lost between the soldiers and the prisoners. And even among the "cooler heads" of the reservists, there was plenty of talk about the "Palestinian dogs" that we were in charge of.
But a telling example describes how such racist talk stayed within the ranks and was not allowed to spread. A reservist guard whose job was to watch us military police from one of the many towers surrounding Machane Ofer was walking through our block on the way to his position. He made eye contact with a prisoner on the other side of the fence. The prisoner didn't back down, and the soldier began yelling unprintable things about the prisoner's mother and started to cock his weapon in the prisoner's direction. Within five seconds, the soldier was surrounded by military cops who herded him out of the block.
Justice was quick. Within minutes, the prison commander personally apologized to the prisoner and his block leader, and the soldier had his next leave from the base rescinded.
After spending more than a year of my life in such situations, I can say that the above incident was the closest I came to witnessing any type of prisoner abuse in the IDF.
I make no claims of knowing what goes on when the Shabak takes a prisoner away for interrogation, but I can say that prisoners I saw who returned from such interrogation walked under their own direction and looked no different than when they were taken.
I'm proud of my service in the army and the high moral standard that I saw enacted day after day by ordinary Israelis put into difficult circumstances. Of course, the IDF certainly isn't perfect, and I can remember cringing more times than I would like at some uncivilized or hurtful behavior by soldiers toward prisoners.
These incidents fostered hate and served the interest of neither side in the conflict. But senseless macho posturing is far different than deliberate humiliation. And just as the IDF realized this years ago when they were forced to deal with the dilemma of soldiers guarding civilians, the US military will have to grapple with its mistakes and draw its own conclusions. The question is not why the atrocities at Abu Ghraib took place but how the Americans can stop it from happening again.
[i]The writer, a former news editor of The Jerusalem Post, is the editorial director of ISRAEL21c (www.israel21c.org). He retired from active IDF duty in 2003.[/i]
The Palestinian winners and losers
05.14.04 (4:19 pm) [edit]
[i][b]By MATTHEW GUTMAN, The Jerusalem Post[/b][/i]
As Israel tallied the death toll from what pundits have called "the armored personnel carrier disasters" in the Gaza Strip this week, the Palestinians tallied their own winners and losers.
Islamic Jihad has crowned itself the winner. Millions of viewers across the Arab world witnessed the "redemption" of Islamic Jihad on Arab satellite stations like al-Jazeera when it paraded the remains of the six soldiers killed Tuesday after their explosives-laden APC virtually disintegrated when it ran over a mine. Within 24 hours, the terrorists managed to blow up another APC, this time killing five soldiers.
According to Khalid al-Batch, an Islamic Jihad spokesman, the group also created the impression that it negotiated with Israel over the bodies. "The agreement states that the body parts will be returned to their families. In exchange, Israel will withdraw and will discuss the repatriation of martyrs," in this case suicide bombers, he told The Jerusalem Post.
Israel would also discuss the repatriation to the West Bank of Palestinian fighters deported to Gaza following the resolution of the May 2002 standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Batch said.
Israeli officials from Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon on down vehemently denied that Israel "negotiated with terrorists."
An IDF spokesman denied any negotiations, calling the possible transfer of deported Palestinians back to the West Bank "entirely baseless. Israel left [the Gaza City neighborhood of] Zeitun entirely on its own accord."
05.14.04 (4:16 pm) [edit]
[b][i]By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH[/i][/b]
Two IDF soldiers were killed and two moderately wounded when Palestinians opened fire at soldiers deployed in the Rafah refugee camp near the border with Egypt, late Friday afternoon.
The soldiers were part of forces deployed in the camp to safeguard other troops searching for the remains of two other soldiers that were killed on the Philadelphia Route, Wednesday evening, when their armored personnel carrier was hit by an anti-tank missile.
One of the soldiers went to give an elderly Palestinian woman food the troops had received, when Palestinians opened fire killing him. Other soldiers who reached the site to assist and rescue the soldier were also shot at and in the gunfire one soldier was killed and two others were wounded.
OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen Dan Harel together with the senior IFD echelon are currently assessing the situation regarding a possible response to the attack.
Intensive exchanges of gunfire were reported between Palestinians and IDF forces in the Rafah refugee camp on Friday night hours after the soldiers were killed.
Two Palestinians were killed in the fighting, Israel Radio reported.
Several times IAF helicopters were deployed to fire missiles at groups of armed Palestinians who have been shooting with light weapons, grenades, rockets and sniper fire at troops deployed in the area.
Dr Yair Ben-David, deputy head of the Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva, said that two IDF casualties arrived at the hospital suffering from gunshot wounds. He described their injuries as moderate but stable
Earlier, combat helicopters fired missiles at an open area to deter groups of armed Palestinians spotted approaching troops.
Bulldozers have destroyed a number of buildings at the edge of the town since operations began Friday to widen the Philadelphia corridor.
On Friday morning, Defense minister Shaul Mofaz told reporters that Palestinians had used United Nations and Red Cross ambulances to transport body remains to areas under their control. Visiting soldiers at an army base in the southern Gaza Strip, Mofaz said he expected UN Sec.-Gen Kofi Annan to address the issue.
UNWRA spokesman Paul Mccann replied that his organization has no information on the use of its ambulances to transport body remains. "We will be pleased to receive more concrete information and proof."
Israeli bulldozers Friday started smashing buildings in a Palestinian refugee camp close to a military patrol road where five soldiers were killed in a Palestinian attack two days earlier.
Palestinians are protesting the act and calling for international intervention.
Associated Press described frantic residents waving white flags, removing valuables in cartons and plastic bags, and carting away furniture, doors and window frames.
Helicopters fired three missiles, wounding six Palestinians. Early Friday, a Palestinian attempting to plant a bomb alongside a Jewish settlement near Rafah was killed when the device exploded prematurely, the army said.
Israel Radio said the military planned to demolish hundreds of buildings in the camp, adjacent to the road where Wednesday's attack on an Israeli armored vehicle took place, to remove possible Palestinian vantage points or cover for potential attackers. The move is also expected to make it more difficult for Palestinians to dig arms-smuggling tunnels from the Palestinian side of the city to the Egyptian side.
Chief of staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon said, "There's a process whereby the first row of houses is abandoned and used for digging tunnels for smuggling weapons and cover for shooting," he said. "We've been forced to destroy houses here in the past and apparently we'll have to destroy more houses in the future."
The Israeli military said that so far, it has demolished only one house used as cover by gunmen, and several other buildings were damaged unintentionally by wide armored vehicles moving through narrow alleys.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat called for American intervention to halt the destruction.
"This is a catastrophe. At a time when the Israelis are speaking of disengaging from Gaza this is really re-engaging," he told The Associated Press. "I hope that President Bush, who says he is encouraged by disengagement, will interfere to stop the demolitions."
The Israel Defense Forces decided to widen the Philadelphia Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border in order to allow troops greater operational flexibility in that strategic area. The decision came about after consultations between Prime Minister Sharon, Defense Minister Mofaz and top security officials.
The work required to widen the corridor was originally planned to begin just as soon as all the remains of the soldiers killed Wednesday have been found and the searches can be called off, according to a senior official.
Widening the corridor, scene of round-the-clock battles between IDF forces and Palestinian gunmen, will require demolishing abandoned as well as populated dwellings of the locals living adjacent to the border area on the Palestinian side. Some of the buildings have been used by Palestinians as bases of operation. Many of the buildings have been commandeered by Palestinian gunmen from ordinary Palestinian civilians.
The work will not be conducted along the entire route but will concentrate mainly in the area where the attack on the APC occurred. "The aim is to distance the threat of any rocket or mortar fire at the soldiers who patrol the route," one official told the 'Post. The official noted that if and when the disengagement plan will be put into action, Israel will maintain control of the area.
The IDF said that widening the corridor will also make it harder for Palestinians to launch longer-range missiles at soldiers, settlements and Israeli communities inside the Green Line. It will also make it harder for Palestinians to lay mines against IDF vehicles in the area. Eleven soldiers died in two days on attacks on their APC's in Gaza.
Just as importantly, the army says, widening the corridor between Egyptian Rafah and Palestinian Rafah will disrupt Palestinian weapons tunnels activity. The tunnels are used to smuggle weapons, ammunition and drugs from the Egyptian side of the border into the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority on Friday called Israel's plans to widen the Philadelphia Corridor a "huge catastrophe" and urged international intervention to avert the IDF's plans.
MK Yossi Sarid (Meretz) claims that the widening of the Philadelphia route entails the destruction of "half of the city of Rafah" in a matter of days. He warned that this would be considered a war crime, and "even though Israel has received the White House's approval, Bush's unbrella will do us no good," he said.
[i]with the Associated Press[/i]
[b][i]By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH[/i][/b]
Two IDF soldiers were killed and two moderately wounded when Palestinians opened fire at soldiers deployed in the Rafah refugee camp near the border with Egypt, late Friday afternoon.
The soldiers were part of forces deployed in the camp to safeguard other troops searching for the remains of two other soldiers that were killed on the Philadelphia Route, Wednesday evening, when their armored personnel carrier was hit by an anti-tank missile.
One of the soldiers went to give an elderly Palestinian woman food the troops had received, when Palestinians opened fire killing him. Other soldiers who reached the site to assist and rescue the soldier were also shot at and in the gunfire one soldier was killed and two others were wounded.
OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen Dan Harel together with the senior IFD echelon are currently assessing the situation regarding a possible response to the attack.
Intensive exchanges of gunfire were reported between Palestinians and IDF forces in the Rafah refugee camp on Friday night hours after the soldiers were killed.
Two Palestinians were killed in the fighting, Israel Radio reported.
Several times IAF helicopters were deployed to fire missiles at groups of armed Palestinians who have been shooting with light weapons, grenades, rockets and sniper fire at troops deployed in the area.
Dr Yair Ben-David, deputy head of the Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva, said that two IDF casualties arrived at the hospital suffering from gunshot wounds. He described their injuries as moderate but stable
Earlier, combat helicopters fired missiles at an open area to deter groups of armed Palestinians spotted approaching troops.
Bulldozers have destroyed a number of buildings at the edge of the town since operations began Friday to widen the Philadelphia corridor.
On Friday morning, Defense minister Shaul Mofaz told reporters that Palestinians had used United Nations and Red Cross ambulances to transport body remains to areas under their control. Visiting soldiers at an army base in the southern Gaza Strip, Mofaz said he expected UN Sec.-Gen Kofi Annan to address the issue.
UNWRA spokesman Paul Mccann replied that his organization has no information on the use of its ambulances to transport body remains. "We will be pleased to receive more concrete information and proof."
Israeli bulldozers Friday started smashing buildings in a Palestinian refugee camp close to a military patrol road where five soldiers were killed in a Palestinian attack two days earlier.
Palestinians are protesting the act and calling for international intervention.
Associated Press described frantic residents waving white flags, removing valuables in cartons and plastic bags, and carting away furniture, doors and window frames.
Helicopters fired three missiles, wounding six Palestinians. Early Friday, a Palestinian attempting to plant a bomb alongside a Jewish settlement near Rafah was killed when the device exploded prematurely, the army said.
Israel Radio said the military planned to demolish hundreds of buildings in the camp, adjacent to the road where Wednesday's attack on an Israeli armored vehicle took place, to remove possible Palestinian vantage points or cover for potential attackers. The move is also expected to make it more difficult for Palestinians to dig arms-smuggling tunnels from the Palestinian side of the city to the Egyptian side.
Chief of staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon said, "There's a process whereby the first row of houses is abandoned and used for digging tunnels for smuggling weapons and cover for shooting," he said. "We've been forced to destroy houses here in the past and apparently we'll have to destroy more houses in the future."
The Israeli military said that so far, it has demolished only one house used as cover by gunmen, and several other buildings were damaged unintentionally by wide armored vehicles moving through narrow alleys.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat called for American intervention to halt the destruction.
"This is a catastrophe. At a time when the Israelis are speaking of disengaging from Gaza this is really re-engaging," he told The Associated Press. "I hope that President Bush, who says he is encouraged by disengagement, will interfere to stop the demolitions."
The Israel Defense Forces decided to widen the Philadelphia Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border in order to allow troops greater operational flexibility in that strategic area. The decision came about after consultations between Prime Minister Sharon, Defense Minister Mofaz and top security officials.
The work required to widen the corridor was originally planned to begin just as soon as all the remains of the soldiers killed Wednesday have been found and the searches can be called off, according to a senior official.
Widening the corridor, scene of round-the-clock battles between IDF forces and Palestinian gunmen, will require demolishing abandoned as well as populated dwellings of the locals living adjacent to the border area on the Palestinian side. Some of the buildings have been used by Palestinians as bases of operation. Many of the buildings have been commandeered by Palestinian gunmen from ordinary Palestinian civilians.
The work will not be conducted along the entire route but will concentrate mainly in the area where the attack on the APC occurred. "The aim is to distance the threat of any rocket or mortar fire at the soldiers who patrol the route," one official told the 'Post. The official noted that if and when the disengagement plan will be put into action, Israel will maintain control of the area.
The IDF said that widening the corridor will also make it harder for Palestinians to launch longer-range missiles at soldiers, settlements and Israeli communities inside the Green Line. It will also make it harder for Palestinians to lay mines against IDF vehicles in the area. Eleven soldiers died in two days on attacks on their APC's in Gaza.
Just as importantly, the army says, widening the corridor between Egyptian Rafah and Palestinian Rafah will disrupt Palestinian weapons tunnels activity. The tunnels are used to smuggle weapons, ammunition and drugs from the Egyptian side of the border into the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority on Friday called Israel's plans to widen the Philadelphia Corridor a "huge catastrophe" and urged international intervention to avert the IDF's plans.
MK Yossi Sarid (Meretz) claims that the widening of the Philadelphia route entails the destruction of "half of the city of Rafah" in a matter of days. He warned that this would be considered a war crime, and "even though Israel has received the White House's approval, Bush's unbrella will do us no good," he said.
[i]with the Associated Press[/i]
Islam has lost its way
05.13.04 (6:15 pm) [edit]
[b][i]By SHMULEY BOTEACH[/i][/b]
Supporters and opponents of the war in Iraq finally have something to agree on. Both are justifiably sickened by the abusive photographs coming out of Abu Ghraib prison. Both argue that American credibility has been eroded in the Arab world and that the photographs have inflamed Islamic hatred of America.
Get real. The Arabs hate America with or without these photographs. They detested the United States before these pictures were published, and they would detest the US had these pictures never been taken. They hate us when we liberate them, and they hate us when we are wicked enough to abuse them. In short, they hate us no matter what.
Indeed, many Arabs have reached a point of such implacable hatred toward America and Israel that it has become positively self-destructive. They are even incapable of identifying their own interests. When Abraham Lincoln humbly sauntered through the conquered Confederate capital of Richmond on April 2, 1865, he was mobbed by ecstatic crowds of newly freed slaves who held their children up to see the great emancipator. But President George W. Bush had to sneak into Baghdad last Thanksgiving in absolute secrecy. The Arabs hate their own liberators. Bullets, rather than gratitude, currently welcome the soldiers who freed them from the butcher of Baghdad. But the Arab world is incapable of offering a thank you because that sense of indebtedness would only increase t