From an Australian Communications and Media Authority press release, 4 February 2010:
The Australian Communications and Media Authority will further investigate Al-Manar TV program content to ascertain its compliance with regulatory obligations relating to terrorist-related content, as well as racial vilification and hate speech.
The ACMA is conscious of some public concern [notably from AIJAC - SL] about the content of Al-Manar TV. In response to these concerns, a broad-ranging investigation will be undertaken which would incorporate consideration of any specific complaints about content that are referred to the ACMA.
Al-Manar TV is an open narrowcasting television service which is reported to have links to the Hezbollah organisation. Al-Manar TV is currently re-transmitted into Australia via satellite.
...If members of the public are aware of specific content on the Al Manar service that they consider is terrorist-related or includes racial vilification and hate speech, they can refer this content to the ACMA for consideration as part of the investigation...
Friday, February 05, 2010
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Judeophobia, Replacement Doctrine, and the seeds of Europe's demise
From a 20-minute talk by Bat Yeor, extracted by Kitman TV, 31/1/10, from a Hebrew University symposium held 5/11/09:
Excerpts from the transcription, kindly provided by an Atlas Shrugged reader:
I want to say first that the statistics of current Judeophobia in Europe is very different from what we know from the past times. ...I would call it a Euro Arab Political and Theological Replacement Doctrine of Genocidal character who propose to replace the state of Israel by Palestine.
Certainly, the European State have never ceased to assure Israel that it is safe and recognise borders as if the 1949 Armistice Lines were safe, and as if the European Community have not funded and supported Arafat and the PLO and legitimise them since 1974.
The aim of the European was of course peace, but peace with Arafat since Palestinian territories had already struck Europe at the end of the 1960s and peace with Arafat meant probably without Israel.
It is Europe that has justified and sanctified the Palestinian cause that is the vilification of Israel, in other words the European Community used an Orwellian doublespeak, reminiscent of the Auschwitz saying: "work Makes Free"
In fact the proposals of the European Community/Arab Policy, followed later by the European Union was to delegitimise Israel and neutralise its self defense, especially since the last five years and through [incitement] to hate and defamation.
...anti-Semitism is closely linked to the strategic political and economical contingency of Europe's Arab and Muslim policies. So, whatever else we do, we wont have an impact on Europe anti-Semitists, because this is linked to the European relationship with the Muslim world.
...present Judeophobia is ...a political and cultural strategy that embraces all countries of the European Union. ...This new Judeophobia is not aimed at individual Jews ...It is expressed through an implacable and disdainful hate for the State of Israel for what it represents and stands for and by the glorification of Palestinianism which is an ideology for the elimination of the Jews as in former days of Nazism.
This position of the European Union is anonymous, cynical, secretive and deceitful. In other words, one does not express anti-Jewish racism, one celebrates by leftism and jihadist ideology. ... it is a coldly calculated program.
You had anti-Israel strategy initiated in the 1970s, that will not change. It will continue. It is too late to change. It will continue to its conclusion ...[the] destruction of Europe. ...
This new Judeophobia is in fact inseparable from Europe’s long term policy of vision with the Arab world, which includes the mass immigration from Muslim countries, with a demographic, sociological, political and religious changes, that come with it. Such changes are not a result of chance, this is a planned and intended strategy whose unfolding can be followed in the text of the numerous Europe-Arab conferences.
I have called this transformation of Europe, Eurabia. Eurabia is not Europe, it is its enemy, it does not represent the majority of Europeans, nor all its Politicians.
When I speak of Eurabia, I refer to an ideology, like one would speak of Communism, of Socialism. It is an ideology which is supported by the main European Politicians. It is a strategy, a policy and a culture, whose nerve centre, a way of working are exemplified by the Anna Lind Foundation in Alexandria, linked to the Swedish Consulate.
... this strategy is also explained in a document called the European Common Strategy in the Mediterranean Region which was adopted by the European Council on 19th June 2000 and was published months later in the Official Journal of the European Communities.
In the 1970s the European Communities and Arabic went into this association with different but converging aims.
Anti-Semitism and Anti-Americanism always exists in Europe, in the communist parties, in the fascist and the Nazi parties which represents quite a big population and this population, this historical background provided a favourable ground for anti-Semitic and anti-American Arab propaganda.
So these forces forged this alliance with the Arab world. Europe thought that by aligning itself with the EU Community so that this alliance, this commotion of the Palestinians, would protect Europe from Palestinian terrorism, would guarantee its own needs, open Arab market and Arab Jihadist against Israel and the USA, and that the internationalisation of the Palestinian cause would provoke Israel to wither away in a heap of infamy.
The twining of Judeophobia and anti-Americanism fitted well into this strategy of the Euro-Arab alliance and is one of its pillars, of course, the second one is the destruction of the State of Israel, but this is just a smokescreen hiding the islamisation of Christian theology and the subversion of Western values.
...to conclude I would like to say that the new anti-Semitism is situated at the Jewish educative level in the Euro-Arab world against Israel. Its themes belong to traditional European Judeophobia but they have integrated into a context of an ideology of Islamic Jihad, and that is why the new Judeophobia bears within it the destruction of the West, of its Institution, its culture, and its soul.
Excerpts from the transcription, kindly provided by an Atlas Shrugged reader:
I want to say first that the statistics of current Judeophobia in Europe is very different from what we know from the past times. ...I would call it a Euro Arab Political and Theological Replacement Doctrine of Genocidal character who propose to replace the state of Israel by Palestine.
Certainly, the European State have never ceased to assure Israel that it is safe and recognise borders as if the 1949 Armistice Lines were safe, and as if the European Community have not funded and supported Arafat and the PLO and legitimise them since 1974.
The aim of the European was of course peace, but peace with Arafat since Palestinian territories had already struck Europe at the end of the 1960s and peace with Arafat meant probably without Israel.
It is Europe that has justified and sanctified the Palestinian cause that is the vilification of Israel, in other words the European Community used an Orwellian doublespeak, reminiscent of the Auschwitz saying: "work Makes Free"
In fact the proposals of the European Community/Arab Policy, followed later by the European Union was to delegitimise Israel and neutralise its self defense, especially since the last five years and through [incitement] to hate and defamation.
...anti-Semitism is closely linked to the strategic political and economical contingency of Europe's Arab and Muslim policies. So, whatever else we do, we wont have an impact on Europe anti-Semitists, because this is linked to the European relationship with the Muslim world.
...present Judeophobia is ...a political and cultural strategy that embraces all countries of the European Union. ...This new Judeophobia is not aimed at individual Jews ...It is expressed through an implacable and disdainful hate for the State of Israel for what it represents and stands for and by the glorification of Palestinianism which is an ideology for the elimination of the Jews as in former days of Nazism.
This position of the European Union is anonymous, cynical, secretive and deceitful. In other words, one does not express anti-Jewish racism, one celebrates by leftism and jihadist ideology. ... it is a coldly calculated program.
You had anti-Israel strategy initiated in the 1970s, that will not change. It will continue. It is too late to change. It will continue to its conclusion ...[the] destruction of Europe. ...
This new Judeophobia is in fact inseparable from Europe’s long term policy of vision with the Arab world, which includes the mass immigration from Muslim countries, with a demographic, sociological, political and religious changes, that come with it. Such changes are not a result of chance, this is a planned and intended strategy whose unfolding can be followed in the text of the numerous Europe-Arab conferences.
I have called this transformation of Europe, Eurabia. Eurabia is not Europe, it is its enemy, it does not represent the majority of Europeans, nor all its Politicians.
When I speak of Eurabia, I refer to an ideology, like one would speak of Communism, of Socialism. It is an ideology which is supported by the main European Politicians. It is a strategy, a policy and a culture, whose nerve centre, a way of working are exemplified by the Anna Lind Foundation in Alexandria, linked to the Swedish Consulate.
... this strategy is also explained in a document called the European Common Strategy in the Mediterranean Region which was adopted by the European Council on 19th June 2000 and was published months later in the Official Journal of the European Communities.
In the 1970s the European Communities and Arabic went into this association with different but converging aims.
Anti-Semitism and Anti-Americanism always exists in Europe, in the communist parties, in the fascist and the Nazi parties which represents quite a big population and this population, this historical background provided a favourable ground for anti-Semitic and anti-American Arab propaganda.
So these forces forged this alliance with the Arab world. Europe thought that by aligning itself with the EU Community so that this alliance, this commotion of the Palestinians, would protect Europe from Palestinian terrorism, would guarantee its own needs, open Arab market and Arab Jihadist against Israel and the USA, and that the internationalisation of the Palestinian cause would provoke Israel to wither away in a heap of infamy.
The twining of Judeophobia and anti-Americanism fitted well into this strategy of the Euro-Arab alliance and is one of its pillars, of course, the second one is the destruction of the State of Israel, but this is just a smokescreen hiding the islamisation of Christian theology and the subversion of Western values.
...to conclude I would like to say that the new anti-Semitism is situated at the Jewish educative level in the Euro-Arab world against Israel. Its themes belong to traditional European Judeophobia but they have integrated into a context of an ideology of Islamic Jihad, and that is why the new Judeophobia bears within it the destruction of the West, of its Institution, its culture, and its soul.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
PA TV sermon: "Jews are enemies of Allah and humanity - Kill them"
From PMW, Feb. 1, 2010, by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik:
A sermon calling for the genocide of Jews was broadcast Friday by PA TV, which is under the control of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The speech called the Jews the enemies of God and humanity, and compared Jews to Nazis.
In a recent interview ...Abbas proudly declared that there is no more incitement in the mosques...
...excerpts of the hate speech in a mosque broadcast on PA TV:
"The loathsome occupation in Palestine - its land and its holy places - by these new Mongols and what they are perpetrating upon this holy, blessed and pure land - killing, assassination, destruction, confiscation, Judaization, harassment and splitting the homeland - are clear proof of [unintelligible word - Ed.] hostility, of incomparable racism, and of Nazism of the 20th century. The Jews, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger! Enemies of humanity in general, and of Palestinians in particular...
"Oh Muslims! The Jews are the Jews. The Jews are the Jews. Even if donkeys would cease to bray, dogs cease to bark, wolves cease to howl and snakes to bite, the Jews would not cease to harbor hatred towards Muslims. The Prophet said that if two Jews would be alone with a Muslim, they would think only of killing him.
Oh Muslims!...The Prophet says: 'You shall fight the Jews and kill them, until the tree and the stone will speak and say: '...there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.' ...this land will be liberated only by means of Jihad..."
[PA TV (Fatah), Jan. 29, 2010]
A sermon calling for the genocide of Jews was broadcast Friday by PA TV, which is under the control of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The speech called the Jews the enemies of God and humanity, and compared Jews to Nazis.
In a recent interview ...Abbas proudly declared that there is no more incitement in the mosques...
...excerpts of the hate speech in a mosque broadcast on PA TV:
"The loathsome occupation in Palestine - its land and its holy places - by these new Mongols and what they are perpetrating upon this holy, blessed and pure land - killing, assassination, destruction, confiscation, Judaization, harassment and splitting the homeland - are clear proof of [unintelligible word - Ed.] hostility, of incomparable racism, and of Nazism of the 20th century. The Jews, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger! Enemies of humanity in general, and of Palestinians in particular...
"Oh Muslims! The Jews are the Jews. The Jews are the Jews. Even if donkeys would cease to bray, dogs cease to bark, wolves cease to howl and snakes to bite, the Jews would not cease to harbor hatred towards Muslims. The Prophet said that if two Jews would be alone with a Muslim, they would think only of killing him.
Oh Muslims!...The Prophet says: 'You shall fight the Jews and kill them, until the tree and the stone will speak and say: '...there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.' ...this land will be liberated only by means of Jihad..."
[PA TV (Fatah), Jan. 29, 2010]
Arab mythology on Jerusalem
From the New York Sun, June 20, 2006, by Daniel Pipes:
Historically, the religious standing of Jerusalem for Muslims waxed and waned with political circumstances. In a consistent and predictable cycle repeated six times through 14 centuries, Muslims focused on the city when it served their needs and ignored it when it did not.
This contrast was especially obvious during the past century. British rule over the city, in 1917-48, galvanized a passion for Jerusalem that had been absent during the 400 years of Ottoman control. Throughout the Jordanian control of the walled city, in 1948-67, however, Arabs largely ignored it. ...The Palestine Liberation Organization's founding document, the Palestinian National Covenant, which dates from 1964, contains no mention of Jerusalem.
Muslim interest in the city revived only with the Israeli conquest of Jerusalem in 1967. Jerusalem then became the focal point of Arab politics, serving to unify fractious elements. In 1968, the PLO amended its covenant to call Jerusalem "the seat of the Palestine Liberation Organization." The king of Saudi Arabia himself declared the city religiously "just like" Mecca – a novel, if not a blasphemous idea.
By 1990, the Islamic focus on Jerusalem reached such a surreal intensity that Palestinian Arabs evolved from celebrating Jerusalem to denying the city's sacred and historical importance to Jews. The Palestinian Arab establishment – scholars, clerics, and politicians – promoted this unlikely claim by constructing a revisionist edifice made up in equal parts of fabrication, falsehood, fiction, and fraud. It erases all Jewish connections to the land of Israel, replacing them with a specious Palestinian-Arab connection.
Palestinian Arabs now claim that Canaanites built Solomon's Temple, that the ancient Hebrews were Bedouin tribesmen, the Bible came from Arabia, the Jewish Temple "was in Nablus or perhaps Bethlehem," the Jewish presence in Palestine ended in 70 C.E., and today's Jews are descendants of the Khazar Turks. Yasser Arafat himself created a non-existent Canaanite king, Salem, out of thin air, speaking movingly about this fantasy Palestinian Arab "forefather."
Palestinian Media Watch sums up this process: By turning Canaanites and Israelites into Arabs and the Judaism of ancient Israel into Islam, the Palestinian Authority "takes authentic Jewish history, documented by thousands of years of continuous literature, and crosses out the word ‘Jewish' and replaces it with the word ‘Arab'." [in other words: "Replacement Theology" (an Islamic version of the Christian source for millenia of anti-Semitism) - SL]
The political implication is clear: Jews lack any rights to Jerusalem. As a street banner puts it: "Jerusalem is Arab." Jews are unwelcome.
Three key events, Yitzhak Reiter of the Hebrew University argues, transformed this self-indulgent mythology into official ideology:
•The Temple Mount Faithful incident of October 1990 saw a Jewish group's unsuccessful effort to lay the cornerstone for the Third Temple leading to a Muslim riot in which 17 rioters lost their lives. This episode increased Palestinian Arab apprehensions about the demolishing of Islamic sanctities, prompting a drive to prove that Jerusalem has always been a Muslim and Palestinian Arab city.
•The Oslo accord of September 1993 placed Jerusalem, for the first time, on the table for negotiation. Palestinian Arabs responded by attempting to discredit Jewish connections to the city.
•The Camp David summit of July 2000 saw the Israeli government, again for the first time, put forward its demands for sovereignty over parts of the Temple Mount. As Dennis Ross, an American diplomat present at the summit, astringently put it, Arafat "never offered any substantive ideas, not once" at the talks. However, "He did offer one new idea, which was that the Temple didn't exist in Jerusalem, that it was in Nablus." With this, Jerusalem's pseudo-history became formal Palestinian Authority policy.
Palestinian Arab denial of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem has two likely long-term implications. First, it suggests that the Palestinian Arab focus on Jerusalem has reached such a fervor that it might now sustain itself regardless of politics, thereby breaking a 14-century pattern. Jerusalem appears to have developed into an abiding Muslim interest, one generating feelings of entitlement no longer related to utilitarian considerations.
Second, this denial severely diminishes the prospect of a diplomatic resolution. The Palestinian Arabs' self-evidently false history alienates their Israeli interlocutors even as it lays claim to sole rights over the entire city. As a result, future negotiations over Jerusalem are bound to be yet more emotional, askew, and difficult than past ones.
Also see Constructing a Counterfeit History of Jerusalem.
Follow this link to access Daniel Pipes' writings on Jerusalem.
Historically, the religious standing of Jerusalem for Muslims waxed and waned with political circumstances. In a consistent and predictable cycle repeated six times through 14 centuries, Muslims focused on the city when it served their needs and ignored it when it did not.
This contrast was especially obvious during the past century. British rule over the city, in 1917-48, galvanized a passion for Jerusalem that had been absent during the 400 years of Ottoman control. Throughout the Jordanian control of the walled city, in 1948-67, however, Arabs largely ignored it. ...The Palestine Liberation Organization's founding document, the Palestinian National Covenant, which dates from 1964, contains no mention of Jerusalem.
Muslim interest in the city revived only with the Israeli conquest of Jerusalem in 1967. Jerusalem then became the focal point of Arab politics, serving to unify fractious elements. In 1968, the PLO amended its covenant to call Jerusalem "the seat of the Palestine Liberation Organization." The king of Saudi Arabia himself declared the city religiously "just like" Mecca – a novel, if not a blasphemous idea.
By 1990, the Islamic focus on Jerusalem reached such a surreal intensity that Palestinian Arabs evolved from celebrating Jerusalem to denying the city's sacred and historical importance to Jews. The Palestinian Arab establishment – scholars, clerics, and politicians – promoted this unlikely claim by constructing a revisionist edifice made up in equal parts of fabrication, falsehood, fiction, and fraud. It erases all Jewish connections to the land of Israel, replacing them with a specious Palestinian-Arab connection.
Palestinian Arabs now claim that Canaanites built Solomon's Temple, that the ancient Hebrews were Bedouin tribesmen, the Bible came from Arabia, the Jewish Temple "was in Nablus or perhaps Bethlehem," the Jewish presence in Palestine ended in 70 C.E., and today's Jews are descendants of the Khazar Turks. Yasser Arafat himself created a non-existent Canaanite king, Salem, out of thin air, speaking movingly about this fantasy Palestinian Arab "forefather."
Palestinian Media Watch sums up this process: By turning Canaanites and Israelites into Arabs and the Judaism of ancient Israel into Islam, the Palestinian Authority "takes authentic Jewish history, documented by thousands of years of continuous literature, and crosses out the word ‘Jewish' and replaces it with the word ‘Arab'." [in other words: "Replacement Theology" (an Islamic version of the Christian source for millenia of anti-Semitism) - SL]
The political implication is clear: Jews lack any rights to Jerusalem. As a street banner puts it: "Jerusalem is Arab." Jews are unwelcome.
Three key events, Yitzhak Reiter of the Hebrew University argues, transformed this self-indulgent mythology into official ideology:
•The Temple Mount Faithful incident of October 1990 saw a Jewish group's unsuccessful effort to lay the cornerstone for the Third Temple leading to a Muslim riot in which 17 rioters lost their lives. This episode increased Palestinian Arab apprehensions about the demolishing of Islamic sanctities, prompting a drive to prove that Jerusalem has always been a Muslim and Palestinian Arab city.
•The Oslo accord of September 1993 placed Jerusalem, for the first time, on the table for negotiation. Palestinian Arabs responded by attempting to discredit Jewish connections to the city.
•The Camp David summit of July 2000 saw the Israeli government, again for the first time, put forward its demands for sovereignty over parts of the Temple Mount. As Dennis Ross, an American diplomat present at the summit, astringently put it, Arafat "never offered any substantive ideas, not once" at the talks. However, "He did offer one new idea, which was that the Temple didn't exist in Jerusalem, that it was in Nablus." With this, Jerusalem's pseudo-history became formal Palestinian Authority policy.
Palestinian Arab denial of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem has two likely long-term implications. First, it suggests that the Palestinian Arab focus on Jerusalem has reached such a fervor that it might now sustain itself regardless of politics, thereby breaking a 14-century pattern. Jerusalem appears to have developed into an abiding Muslim interest, one generating feelings of entitlement no longer related to utilitarian considerations.
Second, this denial severely diminishes the prospect of a diplomatic resolution. The Palestinian Arabs' self-evidently false history alienates their Israeli interlocutors even as it lays claim to sole rights over the entire city. As a result, future negotiations over Jerusalem are bound to be yet more emotional, askew, and difficult than past ones.
Also see Constructing a Counterfeit History of Jerusalem.
Follow this link to access Daniel Pipes' writings on Jerusalem.
One small step for Israel (in the UN) ...
From an Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) press release, February 1, 2010:
... Israel has moved closer to receiving fairer treatment within the United Nations. Israel last week was admitted to the Human Rights Council's JUSCANZ grouping, a sub-group of the UN regional Western Europe and Others Group, allowing it to vote (and be voted) for membership in the Human Rights Council.
AIJAC's Executive Director Dr. Colin Rubenstein said, "Australia should be congratulated for its role in facilitating Israel's membership of this subgroup. I hope this means Israel will finally be allowed to take part in all UN activities. For too long, Israel has been denied equal treatment at the UN. This is a small, albeit much delayed, step toward an end to the anti-Israel ground rules and hostile sentiment that has long prevailed in the halls of the UN."
...Israel is the only country in the UN not allowed full membership in any of the world body's regional groups. Although the Asian Group is Israel's natural geographical regional group, the Arab and Islamic states have blocked Israel's membership.
...In 2000, Israel was granted temporary membership of the Western Europe and Others Group (WEOG). ...However, Israel remained excluded from membership of a regional group for UN activities in Geneva, including the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.
This is despite the Human Rights Council being seemingly fixated on Israel, passing more resolutions against Israel than all other countries combined. It has also designated a permanent investigator of alleged Israeli human rights abuses, but not of Palestinian human rights abuses.
WEOG includes states that are not in Western Europe, including Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada. It is subdivided into two consultative groups, made up of EU and non-EU member states, respectively. The second subgroup is called JUSCANZ, after its original five members, Japan, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It is has since expanded and includes other non-EU democracies, such as Norway, Switzerland and South Korea.
By allowing Israel to become a full member of the JUSCANZ group in the Human Rights Council, these democracies have recognised Israel for being "like-minded" and helped correct some of the UN discrimination against Israel.
Despite the improvements...Israel still faces the automatic majority of the Non-Aligned Movement and Organisation of the Islamic Conference countries, which produce regular one-sided anti-Israel resolutions in the General Assembly, Human Rights Council and related bodies.
... Israel has moved closer to receiving fairer treatment within the United Nations. Israel last week was admitted to the Human Rights Council's JUSCANZ grouping, a sub-group of the UN regional Western Europe and Others Group, allowing it to vote (and be voted) for membership in the Human Rights Council.
AIJAC's Executive Director Dr. Colin Rubenstein said, "Australia should be congratulated for its role in facilitating Israel's membership of this subgroup. I hope this means Israel will finally be allowed to take part in all UN activities. For too long, Israel has been denied equal treatment at the UN. This is a small, albeit much delayed, step toward an end to the anti-Israel ground rules and hostile sentiment that has long prevailed in the halls of the UN."
...Israel is the only country in the UN not allowed full membership in any of the world body's regional groups. Although the Asian Group is Israel's natural geographical regional group, the Arab and Islamic states have blocked Israel's membership.
...In 2000, Israel was granted temporary membership of the Western Europe and Others Group (WEOG). ...However, Israel remained excluded from membership of a regional group for UN activities in Geneva, including the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.
This is despite the Human Rights Council being seemingly fixated on Israel, passing more resolutions against Israel than all other countries combined. It has also designated a permanent investigator of alleged Israeli human rights abuses, but not of Palestinian human rights abuses.
WEOG includes states that are not in Western Europe, including Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada. It is subdivided into two consultative groups, made up of EU and non-EU member states, respectively. The second subgroup is called JUSCANZ, after its original five members, Japan, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It is has since expanded and includes other non-EU democracies, such as Norway, Switzerland and South Korea.
By allowing Israel to become a full member of the JUSCANZ group in the Human Rights Council, these democracies have recognised Israel for being "like-minded" and helped correct some of the UN discrimination against Israel.
Despite the improvements...Israel still faces the automatic majority of the Non-Aligned Movement and Organisation of the Islamic Conference countries, which produce regular one-sided anti-Israel resolutions in the General Assembly, Human Rights Council and related bodies.
Monday, February 01, 2010
Arabs block Canberra's UN push
From: The Australian February 02, 2010 by Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor:
KEVIN Rudd's bid for a UN Security Council seat has been dealt a severe blow after a warning from the Arab League that it is less likely to succeed because of Australia's support for Israel.
Hashem Yousseff, chief of cabinet for Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa...[said] Australia's support for Israel...was "one of the elements that will be taken into consideration" by the 22-member Arab League in deciding whether to support Australia's bid for a seat on the UN Security Council for the 2013-14 term...
...Mr Yousseff's comments indicate it will be difficult for Australia to out-poll the European nations, which are regularly more critical of Israel.
...The Security Council seat will be voted on by all 192 UN members. Although the Arab League represents only 22 of them, it often votes at the UN in alliances with the African Union and with the Non-Aligned Movement.
Determined opposition from any of these blocs makes an Australian bid unlikely to succeed. It was to avoid blackmail on policy issues such as this that the Howard government abandoned its attempt to win a seat in 1996.
Further evidence of Arab opposition to Australia's bid emerges in an extravagantly worded letter from the Syrian ambassador in Canberra, Tamman Sulaiman, to Mr Rudd.
The letter, dated November 26 last year...makes the link between Canberra's support of Israel and Arab opposition to its Security Council bid ...
...But the ambassador goes on to express appreciation for Australia changing its vote on two resolutions to be more critical of Israel. Under the Rudd government, Canberra has changed its position on several resolutions from one supportive of Israel to one critical....
...However, Australia still supports Israel in the overwhelming majority of resolutions. In a January letter from Mr Sulaiman to Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, Damascus complains bitterly of Australia voting alone with the US, Canada, Israel itself and four Pacific island states against two anti-Israel resolutions...
KEVIN Rudd's bid for a UN Security Council seat has been dealt a severe blow after a warning from the Arab League that it is less likely to succeed because of Australia's support for Israel.
Hashem Yousseff, chief of cabinet for Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa...[said] Australia's support for Israel...was "one of the elements that will be taken into consideration" by the 22-member Arab League in deciding whether to support Australia's bid for a seat on the UN Security Council for the 2013-14 term...
...Mr Yousseff's comments indicate it will be difficult for Australia to out-poll the European nations, which are regularly more critical of Israel.
...The Security Council seat will be voted on by all 192 UN members. Although the Arab League represents only 22 of them, it often votes at the UN in alliances with the African Union and with the Non-Aligned Movement.
Determined opposition from any of these blocs makes an Australian bid unlikely to succeed. It was to avoid blackmail on policy issues such as this that the Howard government abandoned its attempt to win a seat in 1996.
Further evidence of Arab opposition to Australia's bid emerges in an extravagantly worded letter from the Syrian ambassador in Canberra, Tamman Sulaiman, to Mr Rudd.
The letter, dated November 26 last year...makes the link between Canberra's support of Israel and Arab opposition to its Security Council bid ...
...But the ambassador goes on to express appreciation for Australia changing its vote on two resolutions to be more critical of Israel. Under the Rudd government, Canberra has changed its position on several resolutions from one supportive of Israel to one critical....
...However, Australia still supports Israel in the overwhelming majority of resolutions. In a January letter from Mr Sulaiman to Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, Damascus complains bitterly of Australia voting alone with the US, Canada, Israel itself and four Pacific island states against two anti-Israel resolutions...
Sunday, January 31, 2010
"We Don't Want to be Forgotten Anymore"
From Israel national News, 16/11/09, by Hillel Fendel:
Peace Talks Must Include Jewish Refugee Demands
Hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab countries made Aliyah [immigration] to Israel in its early years, after being banished and forced to leave behind property and asset worth billions of dollars. A legislative proposal on the issue by Knesset Member Nissim Zev (Shas) ...stipulates that in any negotiations with the Palestinian Authority on the rights of Arabs who left Israel in 1948, the government of Israel would be required to present its own demands for reparations for the Jews of Arab countries.
MK Zev says his proposal is anchored in both a United Nations resolution and the U.S. Congress. “The Jews from Arab countries are defined as refugees by the United Nations,” he emphasized. “It’s not something we made up, but rather a U.N. definition. In addition, the American Congress itself resolved, in 2008, that the rights of these Jewish refugees must be recognized in the course of the negotiations.”
The resolution, passed by the House of Representatives in April 2008, recognized Jewish refugees from Arab countries who were forced to flee their homes in the aftermath of the creation of the State of Israel. It requires U.S. officials involved in any Middle East peace negotiations that deal with the Arab refugees to "also include a similarly explicit reference to the resolution of the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries."
More Jewish Refugees than Arabs
One Congressional co-sponsor said at the time that “it’s not just the Arabs and Palestinians in the Middle East, but also Jewish people who themselves were dispossessed of their possessions and their homes, and were victims of terrorist acts.” Another said there were more Jewish refugees than Palestinian refugees, and “their forced exile from Arab lands must not be omitted from public discussion on the peace process."
The American Sephardi Federation reports as follows:
“The expulsion and exodus of over 850,000 Jews from Arab countries is among the most significant yet little known injustices against humanity of the past century… Between the 1940s and 1980s, the Jews of Arab countries endured humiliation, discrimination, human rights abuses, organized persecution and expulsion by the governments of the countries of their origin. During this time, Jewish property was seized without compensation, Jewish quarters were sacked and looted, and cemeteries were desecrated. Synagogues, Jewish shops, schools and houses were ransacked, burned and destroyed, and hundreds of Jews were murdered in anti-Semitic riots and pogroms. Of the over 850,000 Jewish refugees who left Arab countries, approximately 600,000 sought refuge in the State of Israel and were resettled there at great expense. Arab states have refused to acknowledge these human rights violations and provide relief to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were forced to abandon their homes, businesses and possessions as they fled those countries.”
MK Zev said that his mother remembers that in 1941, “180 Jews were slaughtered in Baghdad, and the Jews, including my uncles and other relatives, left behind property worth millions. So it has just disappeared? In many countries, their citizenship was revoked, their bank accounts confiscated, and the money used to finance the war against Israel. Other laws stipulated that Zionism was a crime and the property of activist Zionists was confiscated.”...
Zionism's promise
From The Jerusalem Post, 29/01/2010, by CAROLINE GLICK:
..."Never again!”
So declared Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as he spoke at Auschwitz-Birkenau on Wednesday, the 65th anniversary of its liberation.
Netanyahu used his speech at the notorious death camp to nudge what he referred to as “the enlightened nations of the world” to recognize that “murderous evil” has to be stopped as early as possible to prevent it from achieving its aims. Unfortunately, the events of the past week show clearly that evil is on the march, and “the enlightened nations of the world” are on a coffee break from enlightenment.
As Netanyahu addressed the world from the site of the most prolific genocide factory in human history, at the place where over a million Jews were gassed, starved, beaten, raped, frozen, shot and hanged and then burned in ovens, Iran’s leaders were declaring loudly that they intend to finish what the Nazis started. They will destroy the Jewish people.
Iran’s dictator supremo Ali Khamenei used a photo-op with Mauritania’s President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz – who cut his own country’s diplomatic ties with Israel last January – to renew his pledge to commit yet another Holocaust. As he put it, “Surely, the day will come when the nations of the region will witness the destruction of the Zionist regime... When the destruction happens will depend on how the Islamic nations approach the issue.”
And as he spoke ...Germany’s Der Speigel reported that evidence gleaned from document intercepts and from the testimony of two senior Iranian defectors who were involved in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Iran’s nuclear program is not a peaceful one. The Iranians are designing and building nuclear warheads for their Shihab-3 ballistic missiles. According to a summary of the findings now circulating through the halls of power, Teheran will have the wherewithal to build nuclear warheads by 2012.
So the Der Spiegel report showed that Iran is developing the capacity to carry out a second Holocaust in under a hundred years. And yet, in the face of their sure knowledge that evil is on the march, as they did 70 years ago, the “enlightened nations” of Europe are siding with evil against its would-be victims.
On a popular level, as Sunday’s release of the Jewish Agency’s annual report on global anti-Semitism documented, there were more anti-Semitic attacks in Europe in 2009 than there had been in any single year since the Holocaust. The report stated that the attacks were carried out by Jew-haters on both the Left and the Right.
....Since the Holocaust, old-style right-wing anti-Semites in Europe have had a hard time getting political traction for their desire to see Jews suffer. But by conflating Jews with Israel, their colleagues on the Left have made sticking it to the Jews, our state and our supporters the easiest way to score political points. So it was that in her first speech as the EU’s new foreign policy chief, Britain’s Catherine Ashton went out of her way to condemn Israel for building in Jerusalem, closing its border with Hamas-controlled Gaza and defending itself from Palestinian terrorists in Judea and Samaria.
....Against the backdrop of the persistence of right-wing Jew hatred, and the politically ascendant Red-Green alliance of anti-Semites, it makes sense that Europe will not raise a finger to prevent another Holocaust.
And so, not surprisingly, in the wake of the Der Spiegel report, the EU’s foreign ministers got together and decided not to support any new sanctions against Iran – unless they are passed by the UN Security Council. Since Europe’s foreign ministers all know full well the Security Council will not pass sanctions against Iran because China has announced that it will veto any sanctions against Iran, this week the EU’s foreign ministers got together and essentially said they’re okay with another Holocaust.
With Europe out, and with “enlightened” Asian, African and South American countries never really in the game, the only “enlightened” country that might be expected to stop murderous evil before it can carry out its aims is the United States. But unfortunately, like the Europeans, the Americans don’t feel like being responsible. President Barack Obama, his administration and many of his fellow Democrats would rather take on Israel.
This week 54 Democratic members of Congress wrote Obama a letter asking him to apply pressure on Israel to remove its restrictions on the import of goods – including dual use goods like construction materials – to Hamas-controlled Gaza. Never mind that under US law it is legally problematic to provide any aid, (including the $300 million Obama has pledged) to Gaza in light of the fact that it is controlled by a terrorist organization....
...This week [Obama’s Middle East envoy George] Mitchell asked Israel to stop all of its counterterror operations in Judea and Samaria, and allow Palestinian forces to operate not only in the Palestinian areas, but in predominantly Israeli areas as well. Specifically, Mitchell asked Israel to allow Palestinian forces to deploy in what the arguably defunct Oslo agreements refer to as Area C, where the Palestinian Authority has no security authority whatsoever.
When it comes to Iran ... in his State of the Union address on Wednesday, Obama himself made clear that the US will do nothing to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. As far as Obama is concerned, the nuclear arsenal in most urgent need of evisceration is the US’s nuclear arsenal.
ALL OF this just goes to show that at the end of the day, now when the chips are down, there is only one “enlightened” nation in the world that may actually do something to prevent the advance of murderous evil. And Israel unfortunately is of two minds on the issue.
On the one hand, we have Netanyahu, who is clearly focused on preventing another Holocaust of Jewry. But on the other hand, we have Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who on Tuesday claimed that the absence of peace with the Palestinians – not Iran – is the greatest threat that Israel faces today. As he put it, “The lack of defined boundaries within Israel, and not an Iranian bomb, is the greatest threat to our future.”
Barak’s outrageous pronouncement is a succinct encapsulation of the great aspiration of the Israeli Left. If he could only be right, then Israel would be able to singlehandedly solve all the problems of the region and be immediately adored by the likes of the EU and the Obama administration just by making itself smaller.
So with the scourge of moral and strategic blindness rampant not only in Europe and America, but within his own government, Netanyahu rapidly approaches his moment of truth ...he will have to decide whether Iran will become a nuclear power, or whether Israel, standing alone, will prevent it from becoming a nuclear power.
Was his declaration of “Never Again,” ...a solemn vow that Zionism’s promise will be kept?
..."Never again!”
So declared Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as he spoke at Auschwitz-Birkenau on Wednesday, the 65th anniversary of its liberation.
Netanyahu used his speech at the notorious death camp to nudge what he referred to as “the enlightened nations of the world” to recognize that “murderous evil” has to be stopped as early as possible to prevent it from achieving its aims. Unfortunately, the events of the past week show clearly that evil is on the march, and “the enlightened nations of the world” are on a coffee break from enlightenment.
As Netanyahu addressed the world from the site of the most prolific genocide factory in human history, at the place where over a million Jews were gassed, starved, beaten, raped, frozen, shot and hanged and then burned in ovens, Iran’s leaders were declaring loudly that they intend to finish what the Nazis started. They will destroy the Jewish people.
Iran’s dictator supremo Ali Khamenei used a photo-op with Mauritania’s President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz – who cut his own country’s diplomatic ties with Israel last January – to renew his pledge to commit yet another Holocaust. As he put it, “Surely, the day will come when the nations of the region will witness the destruction of the Zionist regime... When the destruction happens will depend on how the Islamic nations approach the issue.”
And as he spoke ...Germany’s Der Speigel reported that evidence gleaned from document intercepts and from the testimony of two senior Iranian defectors who were involved in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Iran’s nuclear program is not a peaceful one. The Iranians are designing and building nuclear warheads for their Shihab-3 ballistic missiles. According to a summary of the findings now circulating through the halls of power, Teheran will have the wherewithal to build nuclear warheads by 2012.
So the Der Spiegel report showed that Iran is developing the capacity to carry out a second Holocaust in under a hundred years. And yet, in the face of their sure knowledge that evil is on the march, as they did 70 years ago, the “enlightened nations” of Europe are siding with evil against its would-be victims.
On a popular level, as Sunday’s release of the Jewish Agency’s annual report on global anti-Semitism documented, there were more anti-Semitic attacks in Europe in 2009 than there had been in any single year since the Holocaust. The report stated that the attacks were carried out by Jew-haters on both the Left and the Right.
....Since the Holocaust, old-style right-wing anti-Semites in Europe have had a hard time getting political traction for their desire to see Jews suffer. But by conflating Jews with Israel, their colleagues on the Left have made sticking it to the Jews, our state and our supporters the easiest way to score political points. So it was that in her first speech as the EU’s new foreign policy chief, Britain’s Catherine Ashton went out of her way to condemn Israel for building in Jerusalem, closing its border with Hamas-controlled Gaza and defending itself from Palestinian terrorists in Judea and Samaria.
....Against the backdrop of the persistence of right-wing Jew hatred, and the politically ascendant Red-Green alliance of anti-Semites, it makes sense that Europe will not raise a finger to prevent another Holocaust.
And so, not surprisingly, in the wake of the Der Spiegel report, the EU’s foreign ministers got together and decided not to support any new sanctions against Iran – unless they are passed by the UN Security Council. Since Europe’s foreign ministers all know full well the Security Council will not pass sanctions against Iran because China has announced that it will veto any sanctions against Iran, this week the EU’s foreign ministers got together and essentially said they’re okay with another Holocaust.
With Europe out, and with “enlightened” Asian, African and South American countries never really in the game, the only “enlightened” country that might be expected to stop murderous evil before it can carry out its aims is the United States. But unfortunately, like the Europeans, the Americans don’t feel like being responsible. President Barack Obama, his administration and many of his fellow Democrats would rather take on Israel.
This week 54 Democratic members of Congress wrote Obama a letter asking him to apply pressure on Israel to remove its restrictions on the import of goods – including dual use goods like construction materials – to Hamas-controlled Gaza. Never mind that under US law it is legally problematic to provide any aid, (including the $300 million Obama has pledged) to Gaza in light of the fact that it is controlled by a terrorist organization....
...This week [Obama’s Middle East envoy George] Mitchell asked Israel to stop all of its counterterror operations in Judea and Samaria, and allow Palestinian forces to operate not only in the Palestinian areas, but in predominantly Israeli areas as well. Specifically, Mitchell asked Israel to allow Palestinian forces to deploy in what the arguably defunct Oslo agreements refer to as Area C, where the Palestinian Authority has no security authority whatsoever.
When it comes to Iran ... in his State of the Union address on Wednesday, Obama himself made clear that the US will do nothing to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. As far as Obama is concerned, the nuclear arsenal in most urgent need of evisceration is the US’s nuclear arsenal.
ALL OF this just goes to show that at the end of the day, now when the chips are down, there is only one “enlightened” nation in the world that may actually do something to prevent the advance of murderous evil. And Israel unfortunately is of two minds on the issue.
On the one hand, we have Netanyahu, who is clearly focused on preventing another Holocaust of Jewry. But on the other hand, we have Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who on Tuesday claimed that the absence of peace with the Palestinians – not Iran – is the greatest threat that Israel faces today. As he put it, “The lack of defined boundaries within Israel, and not an Iranian bomb, is the greatest threat to our future.”
Barak’s outrageous pronouncement is a succinct encapsulation of the great aspiration of the Israeli Left. If he could only be right, then Israel would be able to singlehandedly solve all the problems of the region and be immediately adored by the likes of the EU and the Obama administration just by making itself smaller.
So with the scourge of moral and strategic blindness rampant not only in Europe and America, but within his own government, Netanyahu rapidly approaches his moment of truth ...he will have to decide whether Iran will become a nuclear power, or whether Israel, standing alone, will prevent it from becoming a nuclear power.
Was his declaration of “Never Again,” ...a solemn vow that Zionism’s promise will be kept?
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