Facts about "Palestine"

From cjhsla.org by Daniel Pinner (Israelnationalnews.com) 10 January 2010:

The Koran never mentions Palestine

Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Koran.

Moslems pray on the Temple Mount: kneeling facing Mecca, their backsides towards the Dome of the Rock.

Moses – the Jewish national leader – is quoted as saying: “O my people! Remember the bounty of God upon you…and gave you that which had not been given to anyone before you amongst the nations. O my people! Enter the Holy Land which God has decreed for you”. This speech of Moses is recorded in: the Koran (Sura 5:20-21).

In popular literature, historical discussions, political debates, and other forums, the Palestinians’ claim that they are:
a) the descendants of the Biblical Philistines (a European tribe originating in Crete, who invaded the Holy Land in the early Biblical period);
b) the continuation of the Biblical Canaanites (a Hamatic tribe, in perpetual warfare against the Philistines);
c) the descendents of the earliest Christians (i.e. Jews);
d) an integral part of the Arab nation (a Semitic nation originating in Arabia, and entirely unconnected to the Philistines, the Canaanites, and the Jews)
(all of the above)

There was never in history an independent country called Palestine.

The earliest mention of a place called Palestine in history is: in the year 135 CE, after the European Roman invaders defeated the Jewish revolt in Judea, and re-named the province Palestine.

Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, a local Arab leader, addressing the British Peel Commission, 1937 said: “There is no such country ! ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. ‘Palestine’ is alien to us.”

Zahir Muhsein, executive member of the PLO, in an interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw, March 1977 said: “The ‘Palestinian People’ does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the State of Israel.”

On the eve of Israel’s independence in May 1948, approximately 600,000 Arabs lived in the areas that would soon become the State of Israel. When the War of Independence was over (March 1949), 150,000 Arabs were still there. This is why the UNRWA (United Nations Relief Works Agency) officially recognized that the number of Arab refugees was: 1,300,000.

In June 1982, the Israel Defence Forces entered south Lebanon to fight against the PLO, which had invaded Lebanon in 1975. The total population in southern Lebanon was about 400,000, of whom vast numbers – perhaps as many as 10% – fled northwards to escape the fighting. UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) officially estimated the number of refugees as: 600,000.

The Palestine National Covenant (the constitution of the PLO) states that “Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit” (Article 2). 77% of this “indivisible territorial unit” is today: The Kingdom of Jordan, and the remaining 23% is Israel (including Judea, Samaria, and Gaza).

As its name suggests, the raison d’etre of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) is to liberate Palestine. Accordingly, the PLO has fought to establish its independent state in:
a) the whole of Israel, starting with Judea, Samaria, and Gaza (the “occupied territories”);
b) sovereign Israel alone, rejecting any claim to Judea, Samaria, and Gaza (prior to the Six Day War);
c) Jordan (in the late 1960s and early 1970s)
d) Lebanon (from the mid-1970s until 1982);
(All of the above.)

The PLO’s purpose, as they and their supporters make clear, is to liberate the “occupied territories” which Israel captured in the Six Day War (5th-10th June 1967). This claim is proven by the historical fact that the PLO was founded: 3½ years before the Six Day War, on 1st January 1964, in Cairo (the capital of Egypt).

In the 25-year period 1950-1974, the Arab countries (including Iran) donated a total of $26,476,750 in aid to Palestinian refugees, representing 0.04% (i.e. $1 out of every $2,500) of their combined oil revenue for 1974 alone. The only country in the entire Middle East which gave no aid at all to Palestinian refugees was: Algeria.

Israel has often been accused of “ethnic cleansing” of the Arabs in the “occupied territories”. The demography bears this out, because the Arab population of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza has: increased from about 750,000 in 1967 to an estimated 3,700,000 in 2009, a population growth of nearly 500% in barely more than a generation, which is one of the highest rates of increase anywhere in the world.

Israel has also been accused of “ethnic cleansing” of Arabs who are citizens of the state, and deliberately enforcing policies designed to keep the Arab population small. This, too, is shown by the demography, in that the Israeli Arab population has: increased from 150,000 (15% of the overall population) in 1948 to about 1,420,000 (22% of the overall population) in 2009.

As of 2009, there are five universities (the Islamic University of Hebron; Bir Zeit University; Bethlehem University; Al-Najah University in Shechem ; and Al-Ahzar in Gaza), and five religious higher education academies, throughout the “occupied territories”. These institutes are: all founded since the Israeli “occupation” of 1967, under Israeli auspices, the oldest one being the Islamic University of Hebron, founded in 1971.

Since the Israeli “occupation” of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza in 1967, nine Palestinians have been sentenced to death by the courts and judicially executed, and scores – probably hundreds – more have been executed in extra-judicial killings. All of them, without exception, were executed: since September 1993 by the Palestinian Authority in the autonomous zones, because Israel, alone in the Middle East, does not use the death penalty.


In early October 2005, an estimated 650 people charged the security fence/separation barrier, and an estimated 350 succeeded in crossing it. Security forces responded with bayonets, shotguns, and rubber bullets, killing between ten and fifteen people and injuring dozens more. This incident was given minimal media attention, and has been entirely forgotten, because: the incident occurred along the security fence in Morocco, separating sovereign Morocco from the Spanish Sahara, and the security forces in question were Spanish.

The West is fed up with Iran's bullshit

From the JERUSALEM POST, 7 Feb 2010, by BENJAMIN WEINTHAL:

BERLIN – Top Western diplomats and defense secretaries see Iran as exploiting the negotiating process to ward off new sanctions, while allowing its scientists to further develop highly enriched uranium, which can be used for nuclear weapons.

US and European officials at a gathering of the world’s top defense officials in Munich rejected statements from Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki late on Friday that Teheran was “approaching a final agreement.”

Mottaki attempted to revive a UN proposal in which Iran would swap enriched uranium for fuel rods to be used in its nuclear power plants, but with new Iranian conditions added to the plan.

German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said Iran’s tactics were a “transparent play for time.” And German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said he saw Teheran’s latest offer to settle the ongoing nuclear dispute as another sign of bad-faith bargaining.

Westerwelle said on Saturday at the security conference in the Bavarian capital that “our hand is still reaching out toward them. But so far it’s reaching out into nothingness. And I’ve seen nothing since yesterday that makes me want to change that view.”

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates sharply criticized the Iranians during a visit to Ankara, suggesting that Washington was losing its patience. “The reality is they’ve done nothing to assure the international community” or “to stop their progress toward [building] a nuclear weapon,” Gates said, “and therefore various nations need to think about whether it is time for a different tack.”

“Iran is the only country in the region that has publicly declared its intent to destroy another country in the region,” Gates told reporters in Turkey, in reference to Iran’s threats to Israel. If Iran proceeds with this program “unrestrained,” there is a “real danger of proliferation” that would destabilize the region.

US National Security Adviser Gen. (ret.) James Jones spoke of Iran’s continued “puzzling defiance” of Western demands that it freeze uranium enrichment. “We have not seen indications that it is willing to do so at this time,” he said.

US Sen. Joe Lieberman, the influential Connecticut independent, said the time for talk was over and that the international community should pursue “tough economic sanctions to make diplomacy work.” He called Mottaki’s comments “laughable” and “intellectually dishonest.”

“He came here to talk, talk, talk and not to walk the walk,” Lieberman said.

On the sidelines of the Munich conference, Mottaki met with International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Yukiya Amano behind closed doors on Saturday...

...The icy response of Germany’s top diplomat to Mottaki comes in the wake of a report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung daily that a high-level scientist from a former Soviet Union nuclear laboratory is in Iran developing a construction plan for functioning atomic warheads.

... The disclosure about the Russian scientist and the blueprint for atomic warheads stems from an International Atomic Energy Agency document obtained by Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Writing in Die Welt, Richard Herzinger, a prominent commentator on Iran, urged in a front page Saturday editorial that the “West must, in the meantime, rapidly make the transition to intensified sanctions,” even if China fails to join a new round of penalties. “Iran must be diplomatically isolated and that Iran’s foreign minister Mottaki was fawned over at the Munich Security Conference is not a good beginning,” Herzinger wrote.

While Russia has sent a lukewarm signal that it is prepared to move forward with a fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions, China has vehemently rejected new sanctions and insisted on diplomacy and the negotiating process...

US and Israeli Navies active in the Persian Gulf - Egypt assists

From Ynet News, 6 Feb 2010, by Roee Nahmias:

Two Israeli missile boats pass through Egypt's Suez Canal en route to Red Sea, according to Arab media reports; Cairo adopts strict security measures to ensure ships' safety. Egyptian sources estimate vessels headed to Persian Gulf.

...The sail through the Suez Canal was coordinated with Egyptian authorities, which reportedly adopted strict security arrangements to ensure the safe passage of the two Israeli ships. According to Arab media, Egyptian forces prevented any vessels from passing through the Canal and also stopped the vehicular traffic on the road leading to it.

According to the reports, one Israeli missile boat already passed through the Suez Canal in June and July of last year. In one case, the Israeli ship was said to have been accompanied by an Israeli submarine.

Last week, Egyptian newspaper al-Shuruq reported that the US has been holding extensive maneuvers in the Persian Gulf, including some across Iran's shores. The report was based on information provided by senior Egyptian sources.

In addition, the newspaper reported that Israeli vessels have been mapping the Persian Gulf's waters in the past six months in cooperation with American forces belonging to the Fifth Fleet. However, it appears the report regarding Israel was baseless, and that it was leaked in an attempt to gauge Jerusalem's response.

Syria threatens Israeli population

From The JPost, 6 Feb 2010, by HERB KEINON:

[Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman] ...said ... “It needs to be understood that we are not looking for either confrontation or friction with Syria, but when the Syrian foreign minister says that they will attack population centers in Israel, that is crossing a red line.”

[Earlier] ...Wednesday, Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem warned that Israel “should not test Syria’s determination” and added that Israel “should know that a war will move to Israeli cities.” Lieberman said that Assad, the same day, delivered a similar message.

“A red line was crossed like we have never seen before,” Lieberman said. “A direct threat to attack population centers."

...Lieberman said he was opposed to a withdrawal from the Golan Heights. “I think that the Golan Heights need to remain a part of Israel,” he said. “Just as Syria gave up on its dream of Greater Syria and opened an embassy in Lebanon, there is no reason why that can’t happen in our case as well.”

...Reacting to Lieberman’s comments on Thursday, [Syria’s official newspaper Tishreen said in an editorial on Saturday] wrote, “The path to destruction could lead to the moment that Israel will comply with its leaders, who have criminality flowing through their veins... Whichever path Israel chooses, it will find Syria ready for either peace or war.”

Australia to investigate Al-Manar TV

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...

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.

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]

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.

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.

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...