I just signed the petition at: Teach Kids Peace http://www.teachkidspeace.com the web site of an international human rights organization dedicated to ending the Culture of Hatred that is being taught to children in conflict zones, though raising public awareness and calling on world leaders to take the required action to prevent this form of child abuse.
This is for anyone who's concerned about the rights and future of children in the Middle East. For anyone who believes that all children deserve happy dreams -- and not dreams of becoming suicide bombers.
The petition calls on the US and Canadian Governments, European Union, Arab League, and United Nations:
* To demand a stop to the training of children for combat and conducting warfare in areas with children.
* To promote values of democracy, and the teaching of peace curricula in schools.
* In particular, to stop the Palestinian Authority from promoting a culture of hatred, encouraging violence, and glorifying suicide bombing.
It takes less than 10 seconds to sign the petition.
LET'S MAKE OUR VOICE HEARD!
Don't let today's children become tomorrow's terrorists.
SIGN THE PETITION:
http://www.teachkidspeace.com
and pass the message on...
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Monday, May 23, 2005
Video of a megalomaniacal Islamic cleric
We recently posted a brief summary of the genocidal "sermon" that was broadcast on official Palestinian Authority TV on Friday 13th May (see "Hitler would be proud of him").
For a video of parts of the sermon follow this link to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) web site.
For a video of parts of the sermon follow this link to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) web site.
Democracy's not a devil for Islamists
Extract from...
The Australian: Democracy's not a devil for Islamists [May 23, 2005] by Saad Eddin Ibrahim, May 23, 2005
ELECTION results around the Middle East mark a new trend: Islamist political parties those that base their platforms on Islamic law are highly popular.
Where elections are held, Islamists do well: Hamas among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza; the religiously oriented Shi'ite coalition in Iraq; a parliamentary faction in Morocco; and, most significantly, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey.
Democracy movements in Lebanon, Egypt and elsewhere in the region must face the challenge of incorporating Islamist parties into democratic systems.
But can the Islamists be trusted? If they rise to power, will they respect the rights of minorities and women and leave office when voted out? Will they tolerate dissent? Or will such elections be based on 'one man, one vote, one time?' "
....The late King Hussein (in Jordan) took up this challenge in 1989.... The Islamists signed on, pledging their respect for the rules of the game. In the four ministries the Islamists ran, they imposed restrictions on female staff members, triggering widespread protests that ultimately forced the four ministers to resign. Their share of the vote in subsequent elections declined sharply.
.....political reform ought to include them under the following conditions:
* Respect for the national constitution, the rule of law, and the independence of the judiciary.
* Acceptance of the rotation of power, based on free, fair and internationally monitored elections.
* Guaranteed equal rights and full political participation for non-Muslim minorities.
* Full and equal participation by women in public life.
Whatever one thinks of American military intervention, one must concede that it has altered the region's dynamics. Domestic opposition forces, while distancing themselves from the US, have been markedly emboldened in Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere. We are all watching for signs of opening among our neighbours.
Something about the past few months feels new and irreversible. Too many people in too many places are defying their oppressors and taking risks for freedom.
Saad Eddin Ibrahim, an Egyptian pro-democracy and peace activist, is Professor of Political Sociology at the American University in Cairo and heads the Ibn Khaldun Centre.
The Australian: Democracy's not a devil for Islamists [May 23, 2005] by Saad Eddin Ibrahim, May 23, 2005
ELECTION results around the Middle East mark a new trend: Islamist political parties those that base their platforms on Islamic law are highly popular.
Where elections are held, Islamists do well: Hamas among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza; the religiously oriented Shi'ite coalition in Iraq; a parliamentary faction in Morocco; and, most significantly, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey.
Democracy movements in Lebanon, Egypt and elsewhere in the region must face the challenge of incorporating Islamist parties into democratic systems.
But can the Islamists be trusted? If they rise to power, will they respect the rights of minorities and women and leave office when voted out? Will they tolerate dissent? Or will such elections be based on 'one man, one vote, one time?' "
....The late King Hussein (in Jordan) took up this challenge in 1989.... The Islamists signed on, pledging their respect for the rules of the game. In the four ministries the Islamists ran, they imposed restrictions on female staff members, triggering widespread protests that ultimately forced the four ministers to resign. Their share of the vote in subsequent elections declined sharply.
.....political reform ought to include them under the following conditions:
* Respect for the national constitution, the rule of law, and the independence of the judiciary.
* Acceptance of the rotation of power, based on free, fair and internationally monitored elections.
* Guaranteed equal rights and full political participation for non-Muslim minorities.
* Full and equal participation by women in public life.
Whatever one thinks of American military intervention, one must concede that it has altered the region's dynamics. Domestic opposition forces, while distancing themselves from the US, have been markedly emboldened in Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere. We are all watching for signs of opening among our neighbours.
Something about the past few months feels new and irreversible. Too many people in too many places are defying their oppressors and taking risks for freedom.
Saad Eddin Ibrahim, an Egyptian pro-democracy and peace activist, is Professor of Political Sociology at the American University in Cairo and heads the Ibn Khaldun Centre.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Calls for Israel's destruction in London
The monster hatred that engulfed the world 70 years ago is alive and growing...
Extracts from an article by YAAKOV LAPPIN
Jerusalem Post Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World
May. 22, 2005 1:42 Updated May. 22, 2005 1:48
LONDON
A central London rally ... on Saturday heard ...MP George Galloway advocate a general boycott of Israel, as well as other speeches calling for Israel's destruction.
Dark gray clouds poured heavy rain on London's Trafalgar Square, as a crowd waving Palestine flags and anti-Israel banners filled the square to hear speakers shout vitriolic anti-Israel speeches. Demonstrators chanted Islamic slogans and flags calling for 'victory to the intifada' were waved.
Andrew Birgin, of the Stop the War Coalition, urged the destruction of the State of Israel. "Israel is a racist state...When there is real democracy, there will be no more Israel!" "Allahu Akbar!" yelled several men repeatedly in response.
The Palestinian representative to the UK, Husam Zomlot, also addressed the rally. "As we speak today, the Israelis are continuing the ethnic cleansing campaign they started in 1948...there will absolutely be no peace without the right of return...(which) is non-negotiable! ...!" exclaimed Zomlot.
"We urge our government to cease all trade with Israel," said Jeremy Corbyn, a backbench Labor MP, who went on to express support for nuclear spy Mordechai Vanunu.
Former Labor MP Tony Benn said that "the apartheid wall should be removed..." Calling American president George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon the "two most dangerous men in the world," Benn condemned America's military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Israel's anti-terrorism measures.
Paul Mackney, president of Britain's second largest university teachers' union, NATPHE, also spoke to the rally. "We stand in solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters...We are calling on all unions to join us," he added. There has been speculation that NATPHE may hold a vote in its upcoming meeting to join the AUT's boycott of Israeli universities.
Galloway, the newly elected MP for the anti-Iraq war Respect Party, used the rally as an attempt to launch an international boycott of Israel. "It's about time that the British government made some reparations for the Balfour declaration... We will join (the Palestinians), by boycotting Israel..." he said to cheers and applause.
Azzam Tamimi, head of the Muslim Association of Britain: "I want Jaffa free, I want Haifa free, I want every inch of Palestine free!...the most racist form of nationalism is Zionism... the most racist on the face of the earth."
Stuart Pexley, a former Catholic bishop, and a member of Pax Christi, said: "Jesus Christ attempted to create a new humanity without divisions. As a Christian I am opposed to the apartheid wall."
For more (if you want more...) go to the whole article on the Jerusalem Post web site.
Extracts from an article by YAAKOV LAPPIN
Jerusalem Post Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World
May. 22, 2005 1:42 Updated May. 22, 2005 1:48
LONDON
A central London rally ... on Saturday heard ...MP George Galloway advocate a general boycott of Israel, as well as other speeches calling for Israel's destruction.
Dark gray clouds poured heavy rain on London's Trafalgar Square, as a crowd waving Palestine flags and anti-Israel banners filled the square to hear speakers shout vitriolic anti-Israel speeches. Demonstrators chanted Islamic slogans and flags calling for 'victory to the intifada' were waved.
Andrew Birgin, of the Stop the War Coalition, urged the destruction of the State of Israel. "Israel is a racist state...When there is real democracy, there will be no more Israel!" "Allahu Akbar!" yelled several men repeatedly in response.
The Palestinian representative to the UK, Husam Zomlot, also addressed the rally. "As we speak today, the Israelis are continuing the ethnic cleansing campaign they started in 1948...there will absolutely be no peace without the right of return...(which) is non-negotiable! ...!" exclaimed Zomlot.
"We urge our government to cease all trade with Israel," said Jeremy Corbyn, a backbench Labor MP, who went on to express support for nuclear spy Mordechai Vanunu.
Former Labor MP Tony Benn said that "the apartheid wall should be removed..." Calling American president George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon the "two most dangerous men in the world," Benn condemned America's military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Israel's anti-terrorism measures.
Paul Mackney, president of Britain's second largest university teachers' union, NATPHE, also spoke to the rally. "We stand in solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters...We are calling on all unions to join us," he added. There has been speculation that NATPHE may hold a vote in its upcoming meeting to join the AUT's boycott of Israeli universities.
Galloway, the newly elected MP for the anti-Iraq war Respect Party, used the rally as an attempt to launch an international boycott of Israel. "It's about time that the British government made some reparations for the Balfour declaration... We will join (the Palestinians), by boycotting Israel..." he said to cheers and applause.
Azzam Tamimi, head of the Muslim Association of Britain: "I want Jaffa free, I want Haifa free, I want every inch of Palestine free!...the most racist form of nationalism is Zionism... the most racist on the face of the earth."
Stuart Pexley, a former Catholic bishop, and a member of Pax Christi, said: "Jesus Christ attempted to create a new humanity without divisions. As a Christian I am opposed to the apartheid wall."
For more (if you want more...) go to the whole article on the Jerusalem Post web site.
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Why?
Thanks Andrew for this one ....
(Jewish Chronicle-UK, 18May05) UK Chief Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks writes...
"Why...
If there were justice in the world, Israel, a tiny country of indomitable courage, would be seen as a role model among the nations, not as a pariah among the nations. "
Access the The Jewish Chronicle on-line (a subscription is required for full access)
(Jewish Chronicle-UK, 18May05) UK Chief Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks writes...
"Why...
- Why, after 57 years and more of seeking peace, is Israel still seen as the aggressor?
- Why, after 10 years of negotiation, in which the Palestinians were offered their own state in all of Gaza, 97% of the West Bank, with a capital in east Jerusalem, is Israel still seen as the sole obstacle to peace?
- Why, in a world in which there are 57 Islamic states and something like 100 Christian ones, is the desire of the Jewish people to have just one state of its own seen as racist, exclusionary, retrograde?
- Why, when Israel occupies a quarter of 1% of the land mass of the Arab world, is it seen to be Goliath against David?
- Why, alone among the almost 200 nations that comprise the UN, is Israel the only one whose very right to be is still called into question?
- Why do we still - after 60 years of Holocaust education, anti-racist legislation, and interfaith activity - have to defend the right of the Jewish people to be?
If there were justice in the world, Israel, a tiny country of indomitable courage, would be seen as a role model among the nations, not as a pariah among the nations. "
Access the The Jewish Chronicle on-line (a subscription is required for full access)
The Middle East's Forgotten Refugees
Thanks to Sion for alerting us to this excellent article originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle, and then on 10th April on http://www.aish.com/....
I was born in Iraq and my family survived the Farhud, the Arabic pogrom of 1941.
The Middle East's Forgotten Refugees was written by Semha Alwaya is an attorney in the San Francisco Bay Area and a founding member of Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa (JIMENA).
"In discussions about refugees in the Middle East, a major piece of the narrative is routinely omitted...I am a Jew, and I, too, am a refugee. Some of my childhood was spent in a refugee camp in Israel (yes, Israel). And I am far from being alone."
"This experience is shared by hundreds of thousands of other indigenous Jewish Middle Easterners ... However, unlike the Palestinian Arabs, our narrative is largely ignored by the world because our story -- that of some 900,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries dispossessed by Arab governments -- is an inconvenience for those who seek to blame Israel for all the problems in the Middle East."
"Our lives in the Israel of the 1950s were difficult. We had no money, no property; there were food shortages, few employment prospects. Israel was a new and poor country ...It absorbed not only hundreds of thousands of us, but also an equal number of survivors of Hitler's genocide. We lived in dusty tents in "transit camps," their official name since these were to be temporary, not permanent."
"Housing was eventually built for us, we became Israeli citizens, and we ceased being refugees. The refugee camps in Israel that I knew as a child were phased out, and no trace of them remains. Israel did this without receiving a single cent from the international community, relying instead on the resourcefulness of its citizens, and donations from Diaspora Jewish communities. Today, many of Israel's top leaders are from families that were forced to flee Arab countries, and we make up more than half of Israel's Jewish population."
"...There once was a vibrant presence of nearly one million Jews residing in ten Arab countries. ...Today, however, fewer than 12,000 Jews remain in these lands ... What happened to us, the indigenous Jews of the Arab world? Why were 150,000 Iraqi Jews -- my family included -- forced out of Iraq? Why were another 800,000 Jews from nine other Arab countries also compelled to leave after 1948?"
Alwaya goes on to describe the period before and during WW2, including the Arab Palestinian support of the Nazis and brutal atrocities against their Jewish populations.
"...Since 1949, the United Nations has passed over 100 resolutions on Palestinian refugees. Yet, for Jewish refugees from Arab countries not a single UN resolution has been introduced recognizing our mistreatment or calling for justice for the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees forced out of our homes. This imbalance of the world's concern is itself an injustice.
Arab governments instituted policies that led to some 900,000 Middle Eastern Jews becoming stateless refugees. Those same governments forced some 750,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants to remain in impoverished refugee camps refusing them citizenship and denying them hope."
"Peace between Israel and the Arab world requires a solution that recognizes that there were two refugee populations. Acknowledging and redressing the legitimate rights of Jewish refugees from Arab countries will promote the cause of justice, peace and a true reconciliation."
I was born in Iraq and my family survived the Farhud, the Arabic pogrom of 1941.
The Middle East's Forgotten Refugees was written by Semha Alwaya is an attorney in the San Francisco Bay Area and a founding member of Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa (JIMENA).
"In discussions about refugees in the Middle East, a major piece of the narrative is routinely omitted...I am a Jew, and I, too, am a refugee. Some of my childhood was spent in a refugee camp in Israel (yes, Israel). And I am far from being alone."
"This experience is shared by hundreds of thousands of other indigenous Jewish Middle Easterners ... However, unlike the Palestinian Arabs, our narrative is largely ignored by the world because our story -- that of some 900,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries dispossessed by Arab governments -- is an inconvenience for those who seek to blame Israel for all the problems in the Middle East."
"Our lives in the Israel of the 1950s were difficult. We had no money, no property; there were food shortages, few employment prospects. Israel was a new and poor country ...It absorbed not only hundreds of thousands of us, but also an equal number of survivors of Hitler's genocide. We lived in dusty tents in "transit camps," their official name since these were to be temporary, not permanent."
"Housing was eventually built for us, we became Israeli citizens, and we ceased being refugees. The refugee camps in Israel that I knew as a child were phased out, and no trace of them remains. Israel did this without receiving a single cent from the international community, relying instead on the resourcefulness of its citizens, and donations from Diaspora Jewish communities. Today, many of Israel's top leaders are from families that were forced to flee Arab countries, and we make up more than half of Israel's Jewish population."
"...There once was a vibrant presence of nearly one million Jews residing in ten Arab countries. ...Today, however, fewer than 12,000 Jews remain in these lands ... What happened to us, the indigenous Jews of the Arab world? Why were 150,000 Iraqi Jews -- my family included -- forced out of Iraq? Why were another 800,000 Jews from nine other Arab countries also compelled to leave after 1948?"
Alwaya goes on to describe the period before and during WW2, including the Arab Palestinian support of the Nazis and brutal atrocities against their Jewish populations.
"...Since 1949, the United Nations has passed over 100 resolutions on Palestinian refugees. Yet, for Jewish refugees from Arab countries not a single UN resolution has been introduced recognizing our mistreatment or calling for justice for the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees forced out of our homes. This imbalance of the world's concern is itself an injustice.
Arab governments instituted policies that led to some 900,000 Middle Eastern Jews becoming stateless refugees. Those same governments forced some 750,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants to remain in impoverished refugee camps refusing them citizenship and denying them hope."
"Peace between Israel and the Arab world requires a solution that recognizes that there were two refugee populations. Acknowledging and redressing the legitimate rights of Jewish refugees from Arab countries will promote the cause of justice, peace and a true reconciliation."
Friday, May 20, 2005
Return Address
Abbreviating Efraim Karsh's recent article in The New Republic Online....
Palestinians have rewritten their national narrative over the last 56 years, into an unblemished story of victimhood that makes Israel, rather than Arab states, the sole culprit of their "nakba", the catastrophe of the 1948 war.
In a televised speech last Sunday Abbas described the proclamation of the State of Israel as an unprecedented historic crime and vowed his unwavering refusal to ever "accept this injustice." Accompanied by a virulent anti-Israel media campaign, the events reached their peak at midday, when sirens were sounded throughout the Palestinian controlled territories and people observed a minute of silence to mourn Israel's creation. In some areas, gunmen opened fire into the air as a sign of mourning.
...Abbas's statement in the wake of Arafat's death was then excused as posturing for the January 2005 elections for the PA chairmanship, but the incontrovertible fact is that it was fully commensurate with his and the PLO's statements and actions during the 1990s, not to mention those of the more militant religious groups.
All of which leaves little doubt that the right of return is not a bargaining chip but rather the heart of the Palestinian grievance against Israel.
One therefore hopes that in his upcoming meeting with Abbas (slated for the end of May) George W. Bush will inform the Palestinian leader in no uncertain terms of his unequivocal and non-negotiable rejection of the right of return--which, after all, negates the vision of two states living side by side in peace. But until Palestinian leaders renounce the right of return, there is every reason to believe that it is a one-state solution they have in mind - and it's not a Jewish state.....
Efraim Karsh is the head of the Mediterranean Studies Programme at King's College, University of London.
For the full article see the Updates page of the AIJAC site
Palestinians have rewritten their national narrative over the last 56 years, into an unblemished story of victimhood that makes Israel, rather than Arab states, the sole culprit of their "nakba", the catastrophe of the 1948 war.
In a televised speech last Sunday Abbas described the proclamation of the State of Israel as an unprecedented historic crime and vowed his unwavering refusal to ever "accept this injustice." Accompanied by a virulent anti-Israel media campaign, the events reached their peak at midday, when sirens were sounded throughout the Palestinian controlled territories and people observed a minute of silence to mourn Israel's creation. In some areas, gunmen opened fire into the air as a sign of mourning.
...Abbas's statement in the wake of Arafat's death was then excused as posturing for the January 2005 elections for the PA chairmanship, but the incontrovertible fact is that it was fully commensurate with his and the PLO's statements and actions during the 1990s, not to mention those of the more militant religious groups.
All of which leaves little doubt that the right of return is not a bargaining chip but rather the heart of the Palestinian grievance against Israel.
One therefore hopes that in his upcoming meeting with Abbas (slated for the end of May) George W. Bush will inform the Palestinian leader in no uncertain terms of his unequivocal and non-negotiable rejection of the right of return--which, after all, negates the vision of two states living side by side in peace. But until Palestinian leaders renounce the right of return, there is every reason to believe that it is a one-state solution they have in mind - and it's not a Jewish state.....
Efraim Karsh is the head of the Mediterranean Studies Programme at King's College, University of London.
For the full article see the Updates page of the AIJAC site
Israel may resume targeted attacks
Jerusalem Post Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World
By HERB KEINON AND MARGOT DUDKEVITCH
A Palestinian terrorist prepares his mortar
Photo: Channel 2
Israeli officials threatened to step up hits on Hamas terrorists firing mortars and rockets at settlements, warning the Palestinian Authority that the cease-fire declared in February was on the brink of collapse.
A senior official in the Prime Minister's Office, speaking Thursday after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and senior defense establishment officials, said Israel would not tolerate continued mortar and Kassam rocket fire. "
More...
By HERB KEINON AND MARGOT DUDKEVITCH
A Palestinian terrorist prepares his mortar
Photo: Channel 2
Israeli officials threatened to step up hits on Hamas terrorists firing mortars and rockets at settlements, warning the Palestinian Authority that the cease-fire declared in February was on the brink of collapse.
A senior official in the Prime Minister's Office, speaking Thursday after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and senior defense establishment officials, said Israel would not tolerate continued mortar and Kassam rocket fire. "
More...
PA: Al-Qaida-linked terrorists active in Gaza
Jerusalem Post Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
"A new Muslim terrorist group linked to al-Qaida has started operating in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority security officials told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. "
Jundallah, or "Allah's Brigades," consists mostly of scores of former Hamas and Islamic Jihad members, the officials disclosed. They ..launched their first attack ...near Rafah earlier this week...four soldiers were lightly wounded .... "
"They believe that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have become too moderate," the official said... "... the attack near Rafah...was the first in a series of operations that (t)his group was planning against Israel."
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
"A new Muslim terrorist group linked to al-Qaida has started operating in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority security officials told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. "
Jundallah, or "Allah's Brigades," consists mostly of scores of former Hamas and Islamic Jihad members, the officials disclosed. They ..launched their first attack ...near Rafah earlier this week...four soldiers were lightly wounded .... "
"They believe that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have become too moderate," the official said... "... the attack near Rafah...was the first in a series of operations that (t)his group was planning against Israel."
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Distorting Israeli Arab Reality
HonestReporting.com published an excellent Communique today Distorting Israeli Arab Reality, refuting often-heard claims in AFP, LA Times and Christian Science Monitor that Israeli Arabs are
- treated as "second class citizens",
- as a "fifth column", and
- suffer from discrimination like African-Americans did in the US in the 1950s
The refutation includes
- While Arab Israelis are not required to serve in the IDF, many (especially from the Druze and Bedouin communities) proudly volunteer to do so, and have served with great distinction.
- a recent study indicated that the number of Arab volunteers to the IDF ― including Muslim Arabs ― is growing.
- Though the government of Israel has officially recognized some policy shortcomings toward its Arab minority, it's ludicrous to compare that to the discrimination suffered by African-Americans during that period in American history.
- As opposed to the U.S., the foundational document of the State of Israel upheld the principle of civil equality ― despite the fact it was drafted during a state of war with surrounding Arabs:
"[The State of Israel] will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex... We appeal, in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the building of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions. (Israeli Declaration of Independence, 1948) - Eleven Israeli Arabs currently serve in Israel's Knesset, including two in the dominant Likud party.
- An Arab Justice, Salim Joubran, holds a seat on the Israeli Supreme Court.
- The Israeli government is currently implementing a 4-year, 4 billion shekel plan to develop infrastructures in the Arab sector.
- Israeli Arabs attend and lecture in every Israeli university. In fact, prominent Arab Israeli academics such as Sari Nusseibeh were outspoken against the recent boycott of Israeli universities by the UK's Association of University Teachers.
- Even diplomatic positions are open to Israeli Arabs, who have held key posts in Atlanta (Consul-General), South America, Finland (Ambassador) and elsewhere.
- Israeli Arabs consistently state that they'd prefer to remain in Israel rather than join a future Palestinian state. A May 2001 survey found that just 30 percent of Israel's Arab population would agree to the Galilee Triangle being annexed to a future Palestinian state. By February 2004, according to the Haifa-based Arab Center for Applied Social Research, that figure had reached 90 percent preferring to remain in Israel.
Go to the full article for detail.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Gaza retreat will be followed by Palestinian war
Extracts from Daniel Pipes http://www.JewishWorldReview.com
18 May 2005:
Yasir Arafat's demise in November excited great hopes ...But those of us who saw the problem as larger than Arafat ...expected little change...
...Specifically, Abbas is unambiguously leading the Palestinians to war after the Israeli retreat from Gaza in August 2005. Consider some recent developments.
- Hiring terrorists as soldiers...
- Arming terrorists...
- Inciting the population...
- Pretend arrests of terrorists...
...The planned Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in August is likely to precipitate new rounds of violence. One could come in July, as the Israel Defense Forces engages in a massive sweep of Gaza to ensure that the forthcoming retreat takes place not under Palestinian fire.
...More violence will likely follow in September, as the Palestinians, Gaza now under their belt, begin a new assault on Israel. That round presumably will feature the substantial rocket arsenal that Hamas has been amassing.
...Ironically, the one thing that might prevent this scenario from playing out would be a Hamas victory in the Palestinian council elections scheduled for mid-July. Increasing numbers of Israeli voices are calling for the Gaza withdrawal to be postponed or even annulled should Hamas do well, as seems likely
...So, there are many possibilities in the next four months. Their common element is that by September, the Arab-Israeli theater will be in yet worse shape than it is today.
Wiesenthal Center calls for Abbas to dismiss TV chief
Ynetnews - News - 'A blatant anti-Semitic broadcast':
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has called on Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to fire the Head of Palestinian TV, after a televised sermon called Jews 'a spreading cancer.'
In a stinging press release, the center's Dean Rabbi Marvin Hier and Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper said the broadcast came days before Abbas's scheduled meeting with President Bush and during the week commemorating 60 years since the Nazis' defeat.
'Even in the days of Arafat, we did not see such a blatant anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denying canard broadcast on Palestinian TV, whose current chief was personally appointed by Abu Mazen (Abbas),' the two said in a press release following the incident.
Both Cooper and Hier have demanded Abbas inform Bush that the head of the Palestinian Broadcasting Company, and all those associated with the broadcast of this 'big lie,' have been fired in their upcoming meeting.
'Is this genocidal sermon the kind of peace dividend that the people of Israel can look forward to?' they said"
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has called on Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to fire the Head of Palestinian TV, after a televised sermon called Jews 'a spreading cancer.'
In a stinging press release, the center's Dean Rabbi Marvin Hier and Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper said the broadcast came days before Abbas's scheduled meeting with President Bush and during the week commemorating 60 years since the Nazis' defeat.
'Even in the days of Arafat, we did not see such a blatant anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denying canard broadcast on Palestinian TV, whose current chief was personally appointed by Abu Mazen (Abbas),' the two said in a press release following the incident.
Both Cooper and Hier have demanded Abbas inform Bush that the head of the Palestinian Broadcasting Company, and all those associated with the broadcast of this 'big lie,' have been fired in their upcoming meeting.
'Is this genocidal sermon the kind of peace dividend that the people of Israel can look forward to?' they said"
Hitler would be proud of him
Palestinian Media Watch reports on the Friday sermon by Ibrahim Mudayris broadcast on official Palestinian Authority TV on May 13, 2005:
"...With the establishment of the State of Israel, the entire Muslim nation was lost because Israel is a cancer that spread in the body of the Islamic nation; because the Jews are a virus similar to AIDS, from which the entire world is suffering. This has been proven in history. Read the history! ..."
"...the Jews are the ones who provoked the Nazis so the world would go to war against it. On the day the Jews provoked ... the nations of the world to fight Germany ... the anger of the Germans toward the Jews increased significantly, and what happened, happened ... "
"...For they are doing worse things than what was done to them in the era of the Nazi war. It is likely some of them were killed, and it is likely some of them were burned, but they're exaggerating the description [of the Holocaust] in order to gain [the attention of] world media, and world sympathy..."
"...We [Muslims] have ruled the world [in the past] and a day will come, by Allah, and we shall rule the world [again]. The day will come and we shall rule America, Britain, we shall rule the entire world, except the Jews. The Jews will not live under our rule agreeably permanently, since they have been treacherous in nature throughout history. A day will come when all shall rest from the Jews, even the tree and the stone, which have suffered from them. Listen to your Beloved [Muhammad], who tells you about the most dire end awaiting the Jews. The tree and the stone want the Muslim to bring every Jew to his end. You all know the Hadith."
Mudayris here is referring to following Hadith:
"The Hour [Resurrection] will not come until the Muslims make war against the Jews and kill them, and until a Jew hiding behind a rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!"
He explains that the fulfillment of the often-preached Hadith means the extermination of every last Jew is Allah's will and is, thus, inevitable.
Follow the link to the Palestinian Media Watch
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