1. Two hi-power rockets, Grad rockets, were launched by Hamas from Gaza today a short distance into Netivot, Israel.
2. IDF Spokesperson: despite rocket fire @ #Israel last night, 115 aid trucks + supply of gas sched to cross into #Gaza [Friday.]
3. IDF Spokesperson: : nearly 285 rockets fired from #Gaza in 2009
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Israel's Right in the 'Disputed' Territories
Israel's Right in the 'Disputed' Territories
The recent statements by the European Union's new foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton criticizing Israel have once again brought international attention to Jerusalem and the settlements. However, little appears to be truly understood about Israel's rights to what are generally called the "occupied territories" but what really are "disputed territories."
That's because the land now known as the West Bank cannot be considered "occupied" in the legal sense of the word as it had not attained recognized sovereignty before Israel's conquest. Contrary to some beliefs there has never been a Palestinian state, and no other nation has ever established Jerusalem as its capital despite it being under Islamic control for hundreds of years.
The name "West Bank" was first used in 1950 by the Jordanians when they annexed the land to differentiate it from the rest of the country, which is on the east bank of the river Jordan. The boundaries of this territory were set only one year before during the armistice agreement between Israel and Jordan that ended the war that began in 1948 when five Arab armies invaded the nascent Jewish State. It was at Jordan's insistence that the 1949 armistice line became not a recognized international border but only a line separating armies. The Armistice Agreement specifically stated: "No provision of this Agreement shall in any way prejudice the rights, claims, and positions of either Party hereto in the peaceful settlement of the Palestine questions, the provisions of this Agreement being dictated exclusively by military considerations." (Italics added.) This boundary became the famous "Green Line," so named because the military officials during the armistice talks used a green pen to draw the line on the map.
After the Six Day War, when once again Arab armies sought to destroy Israel and the Jewish state subsequently captured the West Bank and other territory, the United Nations sought to create an enduring solution to the conflict. U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 is probably one of the most misunderstood documents in the international arena. While many, especially the Palestinians, push the idea that the document demands that Israel return everything captured over the Green Line, nothing could be further from the truth. The resolution calls for "peace within secure and recognized boundaries," but nowhere does it mention where those boundaries should be.
It is best to understand the intentions of the drafters of the resolution before considering other interpretations. Eugene V. Rostow, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs in 1967 and a drafter of the resolution, stated in 1990: "Security Council Resolution 242 and (subsequent U.N. Security Council Resolution) 338... rest on two principles, Israel may administer the territory until its Arab neighbors make peace; and when peace is made, Israel should withdraw to "secure and recognized borders," which need not be the same as the Armistice Demarcation Lines of 194."
Lord Caradon, the British U.N. Ambassador at the time and the resolution's main drafter who introduced it to the Council, said in 1974 unequivocally that, "It would have been wrong to demand that Israel return to its positions of June 4, 1967, because those positions were undesirable and artificial."
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. at the time, former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, made the issue even clearer when he stated in 1973 that, "the resolution speaks of withdrawal from occupied territories without defining the extent of withdrawal." This would encompass "less than a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied territory, inasmuch as Israel's prior frontiers had proven to be notably insecure."
Even the Soviet delegate to the U.N., Vasily Kuznetsov, who fought against the final text, conceded that the resolution gave Israel the right to "withdraw its forces only to those lines it considers appropriate."
After the war in 1967, when Jews started returning to their historic heartland in the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria, as the territory had been known around the world for 2,000 years until the Jordanians renamed it, the issue of settlements arose. However, Rostow found no legal impediment to Jewish settlement in these territories. He maintained that the original British Mandate of Palestine still applies to the West Bank. He said "the Jewish right of settlement in Palestine west of the Jordan River, that is, in Israel, the West Bank, Jerusalem, was made unassailable. That right has never been terminated and cannot be terminated except by a recognized peace between Israel and its neighbors." There is no internationally binding document pertaining to this territory that has nullified this right of Jewish settlement since.
And yet, there is this perception that Israel is occupying stolen land and that the Palestinians are the only party with national, legal and historic rights to it. Not only is this morally and factually incorrect, but the more this narrative is being accepted, the less likely the Palestinians feel the need to come to the negotiating table. Statements like those of Lady Ashton's are not only incorrect; they push a negotiated solution further away.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Rubin: The Danger of Revolutionary Islamism
Scholar and political analyst Barry Rubin provides some useful information and offers some advice, in his latest article, about what he terms Revolutionary Islamism:
The following should be instructive to those who (a) want either to blame all Muslims or Islam itself for the behavior of jihadi Islamists; or (b) who chose to believe that the concept of military jihad is not present in the sacred Islamic texts. -- MF
The Obama Administration should acknowledge that the United States confronts a huge—but not united--revolutionary movement [Revolutionary Islamism] which has major assets. Elements control Iran, Syria (not Islamist but allied with it), Sudan, the Gaza Strip, and now in part Lebanon, too. There are major elements in the Pakistani and Turkish governments that lend it aid and comfort. It is also fueled by Saudi Wahabi Islam and money.
[Revolutionary Islamism] is fighting in two dozen countries, from Indonesia, the Philippines, China, and Thailand in the east, to Morocco and even within Europe on the western flank. That movement is also challenging for authority in every Arabic-speaking country and trying to destroy Israel.
The following should be instructive to those who (a) want either to blame all Muslims or Islam itself for the behavior of jihadi Islamists; or (b) who chose to believe that the concept of military jihad is not present in the sacred Islamic texts. -- MF
[T]raditional Islam in most places was socially reactionary but also relatively moderate. While jihad was part of the sacred texts, no one was advocating that it be carried out. Suicide attacks were viewed as a heretical activity. ... [R]evolutionary Islamism reinterpreted conservative traditional Islam. ...[Revolutionary Islamism] used deep-seated beliefs and values ...[and] made them into something quite different.
JPost: Netanyahu has good meeting with Mubarak
1. Egypt's Foreign Minister: Netanyahu seems to genuinely want to try to resume negotiations with the Palestinians.
2. US envoy George Mitchell expected to bring documents setting the basis for restarting diplomatic discussions.
3. Netanyahu, in a speech Monday to 140 Israeli ambassadors and heads of delegations currently in Jerusalem for a series of high-level briefings, emphasized the importance in his mind of Palestinian acceptance of Israel as a Jewish state, and said that demilitarization was Israel's key security requirement for any future Palestinian state.
Recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, Netanyahu said, was necessary for any agreement with the Palestinians that would lead to an end to the conflict.
"We want an end to the conflict," he said. "That means the Palestinians must stop attempts to use a Palestinian state as jumping-off point for further claims against Israel. No claim to flood Israel with refugees, which would mean the end of theJewish state; and no irredentist claims to the Negev, Galilee or Israeli citizens, which would mean the dissolution of the Jewish state."
Regarding Israel's demands that any future Palestinian state be demilitarized, Netanyahu said this would necessitate preventing the import of rockets and missiles that could be fired into Israel, as was currently the situation in Gaza and Lebanon.
He said the situation in Lebanon, and the rearming of Hizbullah despite Security Council Resolution 1701 prohibiting just that, proved that agreements on paper were ineffective.
"I am doubtful that anyone can do this except a real Israeli presence, Israeli forces," he said, intimating that in any future agreement with the Palestinians, Israeli forces - not international ones - would have to be on the eastern border of a future Palestinian state to prevent it from importing arms and staging attacks against Israel.
1. Egypt's Foreign Minister: Netanyahu seems to genuinely want to try to resume negotiations with the Palestinians.
2. US envoy George Mitchell expected to bring documents setting the basis for restarting diplomatic discussions.
3. Netanyahu, in a speech Monday to 140 Israeli ambassadors and heads of delegations currently in Jerusalem for a series of high-level briefings, emphasized the importance in his mind of Palestinian acceptance of Israel as a Jewish state, and said that demilitarization was Israel's key security requirement for any future Palestinian state.
Recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, Netanyahu said, was necessary for any agreement with the Palestinians that would lead to an end to the conflict.
"We want an end to the conflict," he said. "That means the Palestinians must stop attempts to use a Palestinian state as jumping-off point for further claims against Israel. No claim to flood Israel with refugees, which would mean the end of theJewish state; and no irredentist claims to the Negev, Galilee or Israeli citizens, which would mean the dissolution of the Jewish state."
Regarding Israel's demands that any future Palestinian state be demilitarized, Netanyahu said this would necessitate preventing the import of rockets and missiles that could be fired into Israel, as was currently the situation in Gaza and Lebanon.
He said the situation in Lebanon, and the rearming of Hizbullah despite Security Council Resolution 1701 prohibiting just that, proved that agreements on paper were ineffective.
"I am doubtful that anyone can do this except a real Israeli presence, Israeli forces," he said, intimating that in any future agreement with the Palestinians, Israeli forces - not international ones - would have to be on the eastern border of a future Palestinian state to prevent it from importing arms and staging attacks against Israel.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Arabs and Jews Get New Housing Starts in East Jerusalem
From The Israel Project www.theisraelproject.org
Today (Dec. 28) the Israeli government announced it has approved the construction of 1,192 new housing units for both Arab and Jewish residents of East Jerusalem; 500 housing units have been authorized in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan for the Arab population, and 692 housing units have been authorized for the mostly Jewish neighborhoods of Har Homa, Neve Yaakov and Pisgat Zeev.[1]
The Israeli government has stated that Israel’s 10-month freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank excludes the East Jerusalem neighborhoods.[2]
Said Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Nov. 17, "Israeli law does not discriminate between Jews, Muslims, and Christians or between eastern and western Jerusalem. The demand to halt construction by religion is not legal in the United States or in any other free place in the world. I do not presume that any government would demand to freeze construction in the United States based on race, religion or gender and the attempt to demand it from Jerusalem is a double standard and inconceivable."[3]
On Nov. 25, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the 10-month construction freeze on West Bank settlements - a gesture to the Palestinian Authority to build confidence between the two sides and restart peace negotiations.[4] Despite significant political and public opposition in Israel, the freeze is currently in effect and is being enforced by government agencies and security services.[5]
The majority of the land on which the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Neve Yaakov and Har Homa are built was purchased by Jewish organizations or individuals before the State of Israel was established in 1948, or was legally acquired by the Israeli government post-1967.
Contact: Marcus Sheff: marcuss@theisraelproject.org
Today (Dec. 28) the Israeli government announced it has approved the construction of 1,192 new housing units for both Arab and Jewish residents of East Jerusalem; 500 housing units have been authorized in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan for the Arab population, and 692 housing units have been authorized for the mostly Jewish neighborhoods of Har Homa, Neve Yaakov and Pisgat Zeev.[1]
The Israeli government has stated that Israel’s 10-month freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank excludes the East Jerusalem neighborhoods.[2]
Said Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Nov. 17, "Israeli law does not discriminate between Jews, Muslims, and Christians or between eastern and western Jerusalem. The demand to halt construction by religion is not legal in the United States or in any other free place in the world. I do not presume that any government would demand to freeze construction in the United States based on race, religion or gender and the attempt to demand it from Jerusalem is a double standard and inconceivable."[3]
On Nov. 25, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the 10-month construction freeze on West Bank settlements - a gesture to the Palestinian Authority to build confidence between the two sides and restart peace negotiations.[4] Despite significant political and public opposition in Israel, the freeze is currently in effect and is being enforced by government agencies and security services.[5]
The majority of the land on which the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Neve Yaakov and Har Homa are built was purchased by Jewish organizations or individuals before the State of Israel was established in 1948, or was legally acquired by the Israeli government post-1967.
In more news, tomorrow (Dec. 29), Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. The meeting between the two leaders will focus on ways to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.[11]
--------------------------
The full article is found online at
http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=hsJPK0PIJpH&b=689705&ct=7790991
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Manji rallies Muslim expression against anti-Semitism
(JTA) -- Muslims placed personal messages against anti-Semitism on the Facebook page of a Muslim reformist and author.The hundreds of personal messages on Irshad Manji's Facebook fan page were a thank you to the European Union of Jewish Students, for their statement earlier in the month condemning the Swiss vote to ban minarets in the country.
Following the Dec. 2 EUJS statement, Manji, the author of “The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith” and the producer of the Emmy-nominated film, "Faith Without Fear," asked her Muslim fans to post personal statements against anti-Semitism.
"The move by Irshad Manji and EUJS has shown how successful and meaningful the Jewish and Muslim connection can be on a grassroots level. We hope that this connection is only the beginning of a springboard for further dialogue, cooperation and collaboration between Jewish and Muslim groups," read a statement from EUJS in its December newsletter.
IDF kills Fatah terrorists and Gaza infiltrators
Fatah officials in the West Bank demanded on Saturday [December 26, 2009] that the Palestinian Authority put an end to security coordination with Israel, after the IDF killed three Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades operatives who were behind the Thursday shooting attack that killed [an Israeli, ] Meir Chai.
[Note: According to Ma'an, the Palestinian news service, "On Thursday, the Mughniya faction [of Fatah's Aksa Martyrs Brigade] said its members killed an Israeli settler near Nablus. In an emailed message, the organization also warned of "a series of attacks to come."" ]
Fayyad and commanders of the PA security forces visited the families of the three Fatah gunmen to offer condolences.
Nabil Abu Rudaineh, a spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said that the Nablus raid, as well as the killing of three Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who tried to cross the border into Israel, showed that Israel "does not want peace."
[From report, "PA urged to end cooperation with Israel," by Khaled Abu Toameh, Dec. 26 and 27, 2009. The article also notes that the IDF had also intercepted and killed three Palestinians trying to enter Israel from Gaza.]
----------
IDF identifies the Aksa Martyrs Brigade/Fatah terrorists:
Nader/Raed A-Gabar Machmad Surkajy, a 40 year old resident of Nablus, is a Nablus Fatah Tanzim activist and has been imprisoned in Israel in the past. Prior to his arrest in 2002, Surkajy was a senior member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and was involved in multiple terror attacks. Surkajy was also involved with the manufacturing of explosives and the establishment of an explosives-manufacturing laboratory in Nablus. Surkajy was arrested in April 2002 and was released earlier this year in January 2009.
Assan Fatachi Naif Abu Sharach, a 40 year old Nablus resident, has also been previosly imprisoned in Israel. He is the brother of Naif Abu Sharach, the former head of the Fatah Tanzim in Nablus, who was responsible for planning multiple terror attacks until he was killed by IDF soldiers in 2004.
Annan Saliman Mustafa Tzubach, a 36 year old Nablus resident, a Shahad Al-Aqsa activist and was involved in widespread militant activity within the framework of the Nablus Fatah Tanzim. The group was led by Naif Abu Sharach until his death. Annan served as an arms dealer and supplier. During an attempt to arrest him tonight, Annan was killed after an exchange of fire with the IDF while he was found in a hiding place along with weapons and ammunition. Annan was included in an agreement in which wanted terror suspects were granted amnesty in exchange for a cease and desist in all terror involvement.
[Note: According to Ma'an, the Palestinian news service, "On Thursday, the Mughniya faction [of Fatah's Aksa Martyrs Brigade] said its members killed an Israeli settler near Nablus. In an emailed message, the organization also warned of "a series of attacks to come."" ]
Fayyad and commanders of the PA security forces visited the families of the three Fatah gunmen to offer condolences.
Nabil Abu Rudaineh, a spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said that the Nablus raid, as well as the killing of three Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who tried to cross the border into Israel, showed that Israel "does not want peace."
[From report, "PA urged to end cooperation with Israel," by Khaled Abu Toameh, Dec. 26 and 27, 2009. The article also notes that the IDF had also intercepted and killed three Palestinians trying to enter Israel from Gaza.]
----------
IDF identifies the Aksa Martyrs Brigade/Fatah terrorists:
Nader/Raed A-Gabar Machmad Surkajy, a 40 year old resident of Nablus, is a Nablus Fatah Tanzim activist and has been imprisoned in Israel in the past. Prior to his arrest in 2002, Surkajy was a senior member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and was involved in multiple terror attacks. Surkajy was also involved with the manufacturing of explosives and the establishment of an explosives-manufacturing laboratory in Nablus. Surkajy was arrested in April 2002 and was released earlier this year in January 2009.
Assan Fatachi Naif Abu Sharach, a 40 year old Nablus resident, has also been previosly imprisoned in Israel. He is the brother of Naif Abu Sharach, the former head of the Fatah Tanzim in Nablus, who was responsible for planning multiple terror attacks until he was killed by IDF soldiers in 2004.
Annan Saliman Mustafa Tzubach, a 36 year old Nablus resident, a Shahad Al-Aqsa activist and was involved in widespread militant activity within the framework of the Nablus Fatah Tanzim. The group was led by Naif Abu Sharach until his death. Annan served as an arms dealer and supplier. During an attempt to arrest him tonight, Annan was killed after an exchange of fire with the IDF while he was found in a hiding place along with weapons and ammunition. Annan was included in an agreement in which wanted terror suspects were granted amnesty in exchange for a cease and desist in all terror involvement.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Egypt "concerned" about Iranian regional ambitions
Want to know what's really happening in the Middle East? Read the following carefully. //Mark Finkelstein, jcrc@dmjfed.org
Al-Ahram Weekly 17-23 Dec'09: ["Little chance of Egyptian] Rapprochement with Iran" excerpts
During a tour of the Arab Gulf last week, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit renewed his country's concern over Iran's mounting influence in the region and reiterated that Egypt will stand by its brethren in the Gulf against any threats to their security.
... [I]n recent months Egypt has repeatedly accused Iran of attempts to expand in areas such as the Gulf, Iraq, Yemen and the Horn of Africa, all considered by Egypt as vital to its national security.
....
Mustafa El-Feki, head of the Egyptian parliament's Foreign Relations Committee, described Iranian-Arab relations in general as "unsound", attributing this to an Iranian "tendency for hegemony" and "Persian national aspirations".
Yet El-Feki rejected an Arab school of thought that equates what it calls the "Iranian threat" to that posed by Israel. "It is true that Iran poses a danger, but this cannot be compared to the danger implanted in the heart of the Arab world," he said, referring to Israel.
....
Many participants [in the conference] warned that Iran was increasingly interfering in Arab affairs, and that the Arabs should not restore full ties before Iran dropped its current policy of regional expansion and interference in Arab affairs.
....
To Iran, Egypt's efforts to bring about peace in the region, and its encouragement of the Palestinians and other Arab countries to follow its path with Israel, threaten to deprive Tehran of the single most potent regional issue that it can exploit to further its radical agenda.
Therefore, Iran seeks to undermine prospects for peace, and, along with its clients such as Hamas and Hizbullah, it believes the way to do this is by undermining Egypt.
....
The battle for competing regional influence also extends to Iraq and Lebanon, where Iran has been building a power base among the Shias in these two Arab countries.
....
Like many other Arab countries, Egypt is worried about Iran's interference in Lebanon, which Tehran is using to bolster its regional influence. Similarly, Egypt's security interests in the Gulf, and its traditional role as a force for regional stability, present a clear obstacle to Iran's wider regional ambitions.
Also like other Arab countries, Egypt is concerned that any US rapprochement with Iran could ultimately lead to a nuclear-armed, non- Arab, and Shia superpower expanding its influence further in the region.
Egypt fears that the offer of an improvement in US-Iran ties held out by US President Barack Obama could go too far, offering concessions to a powerful regional player long regarded with suspicion.
Al-Ahram Weekly 17-23 Dec'09: ["Little chance of Egyptian] Rapprochement with Iran" excerpts
Egypt and Iran have not been able to normalise relations, and Iranian regional ambitions may mean that they will not be able to do so, writes Salah Hemeid
During a tour of the Arab Gulf last week, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit renewed his country's concern over Iran's mounting influence in the region and reiterated that Egypt will stand by its brethren in the Gulf against any threats to their security.
... [I]n recent months Egypt has repeatedly accused Iran of attempts to expand in areas such as the Gulf, Iraq, Yemen and the Horn of Africa, all considered by Egypt as vital to its national security.
....
Mustafa El-Feki, head of the Egyptian parliament's Foreign Relations Committee, described Iranian-Arab relations in general as "unsound", attributing this to an Iranian "tendency for hegemony" and "Persian national aspirations".
Yet El-Feki rejected an Arab school of thought that equates what it calls the "Iranian threat" to that posed by Israel. "It is true that Iran poses a danger, but this cannot be compared to the danger implanted in the heart of the Arab world," he said, referring to Israel.
....
Many participants [in the conference] warned that Iran was increasingly interfering in Arab affairs, and that the Arabs should not restore full ties before Iran dropped its current policy of regional expansion and interference in Arab affairs.
....
To Iran, Egypt's efforts to bring about peace in the region, and its encouragement of the Palestinians and other Arab countries to follow its path with Israel, threaten to deprive Tehran of the single most potent regional issue that it can exploit to further its radical agenda.
Therefore, Iran seeks to undermine prospects for peace, and, along with its clients such as Hamas and Hizbullah, it believes the way to do this is by undermining Egypt.
....
The battle for competing regional influence also extends to Iraq and Lebanon, where Iran has been building a power base among the Shias in these two Arab countries.
....
Like many other Arab countries, Egypt is worried about Iran's interference in Lebanon, which Tehran is using to bolster its regional influence. Similarly, Egypt's security interests in the Gulf, and its traditional role as a force for regional stability, present a clear obstacle to Iran's wider regional ambitions.
Also like other Arab countries, Egypt is concerned that any US rapprochement with Iran could ultimately lead to a nuclear-armed, non- Arab, and Shia superpower expanding its influence further in the region.
Egypt fears that the offer of an improvement in US-Iran ties held out by US President Barack Obama could go too far, offering concessions to a powerful regional player long regarded with suspicion.
JTA: Jewish organizations 'tweeting' their way to new kinds of communications
Scores of Jewish organizations are now using Twitter ( http://twitter.com ) to send their members short, cell phone-based, text messages. See: http://digg.com/u1IKrc
The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines has two Twitter networks to keep community members informed. One mirrors the JCRC InfoBlog at twitter.com/jewishnewsblog
A new network that we are still developing is to update information about Federation programming. It will be especially useful to convey any last minute changes to time/date/location or content of programs. The network is called Update J and its messages are displayed online at twitter.com/updatej and on the Federation's website: http://jewishdesmoines.org.
The easiest way to sign-on to receive Tweets is to send a text message to 40404 and ask to: follow updatej or follow jewishnewsblog (or any other of the many Tweeters) . Standard text messaging charges apply, as determined by your cellphone company.
Consult your synagogue or temple for information about the Tweet networks they operate!
On the Internet, there is an extensive listing of Jewish organizations that Tweet. Below, for example, is just the very beginning of the directory available at http://listorious.com/MASA__Israel/jewish-organizations
For additional information, contact jcrc@dmjfed.org
Now, from the listorious.com list of Jewish organizations that Tweet:
Israeli Consulate
The official twitter for the Consulate General of Israel in New York7,860 followers | Follow
US Holocaust Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is a living memorial, inspiring citizens to confront hatred, promote human dignity and prevent genocide.7,727 followers | Follow
92YTribeca
Non profit / Art Space / Music Venue / Cafe / Screening Room / Classes / Comedy / More4,527 followers | Follow
92nd Street Y
The 92nd Street Y is an arts, educational and community center serving people of all ages, races, faiths and backgrounds.3,832 followers | Follow
United With Israel
Organizing people of all faiths to unite and show their unwavering support for Israel.3,481 followers | Follow
The Jewish Week
The Jewish Week, an independent community newspaper, is recognized widely as the largest and most respected Jewish newspaper in America.2,759 followers | Follow
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Jacoby: The 4 reasons why Americans are so pro-Israel
Why are Americans so pro-Israel?
by Jeff Jacoby MetroWest Jewish Reporter December 2009
Of all the ways in which the United States marches to the beat of its own drummer, few are more striking than the American people's consistent and deep-rooted support for the Jewish state.
In a recent nationwide survey, the Gallup organization asked Americans: "In the Middle East situation, are your sympathies more with the Israelis or more with the Palestinians?" For the fourth year in a row, 59 percent -- nearly 6 in 10 -- said their sympathies were with Israel, while just 18 percent sided with the Palestinians.
When respondents were asked for their opinion of various countries, 63 percent said they had a favorable view of Israel (21 percent said very favorable), compared with just 15 percent who thought highly of the Palestinian Authority.
Conversely, only 29 percent of Americans told Gallup that their opinion of Israel was negative, even as a whopping 73 percent expressed a negative attitude toward the Palestinians.This overwhelmingly positive feeling for Israel is normal for the United States, but it puts Americans sharply at odds with the rest of the world. At the United Nations, for example, nothing is more routine than the castigation of Israel. Similarly, any time Israel is forced to use its military power in self-defense, it comes under the harsh glare of the international media, which subject it to a scrutiny far more unforgiving than any other country receives. It was only a few years ago that a poll commissioned by the European Union found that a plurality of Europeans regarded Israel as the greatest threat to world peace -- more menacing than even North Korea or Iran.
So what makes Americans different?
Foreign policy "realists" could certainly suggest reasons why close friendship with Israel is not in America's interest, beginning with the fact that most of the world doesn't share it. There are 300 million or more Arabs in the world, and they sit atop a vast share of the world's oil supply. Why endanger American access to that oil by maintaining such close ties to a nation with only 6 million people and no petroleum to export? Why risk incurring the wrath of Islamic terrorists by supporting Israel, a nation most of them detest? Surely it would make more sense -- so a "realist" might argue -- for Americans to distance themselves from the world's lone Jewish state, and tilt instead toward the much greater number of nations and governments that are hostile to Israel.
Yet most Americans instinctively reject such advice. The national consensus in support of Israel is longstanding and durable, and it isn't grounded in economics, energy policy, or a quest for diplomatic popularity. Nor, as some conspiracy-minded critics have claimed, is it because a "Zionist lobby" in Washington routinely hijacks US foreign policy, manipulating America into serving Israel's ends.
The roots of America's bond with Israel lie elsewhere.
First, Americans stand with Israel because in it they recognize a liberal democracy much like their own: a nation in which elections are lively, fair, and democratic; in which freedom of speech and the press are core values; in which the political rights of minorities are respected; and in which a commitment to civil liberties and justice is woven into the very fabric of society.
Second, Americans know that Israel is a stable ally in one of the world's most critical and volatile regions. Its intelligence service is perhaps the world's finest, its military is the best in the Middle East, and its painfully acquired expertise in counterterrorism is invaluable -- all the more so as we wage our own war against jihadi terrorists.
Third, Americans sympathize with Israel because they understand that the enemies of Israel hate the United States as well. The suicide bombers who revel in the death of innocent Jews, the fanatics who chant "Death to Israel," the Iranian- and Syrian-backed forces that launch rockets from Gaza or Lebanon with the aim of shedding Israeli blood -- they are steeped in the same murderous ideology as Osama bin Laden and the Islamists who slaughtered so many Americans on Sept. 11, 2001.
And fourth, there is a deep religious bond between American Christians and the Jewish people, a bond that stretches back to the earliest era of American history. More than a century before the Revolutionary War, the Puritan leader Increase Mather taught his followers to anticipate the day when the Jews would return to their homeland and establish "the most glorious nation in the whole world." In 1819, former President John Adams wrote of his wish to see "the Jews again in Judea an independent nation." Today, tens of millions of American evangelicals passionately support -- even love -- the Jewish state, and consider it nothing less than their duty as Christians to stand with Israel and her people.
Why are Americans so pro-Israel? For reasons practical and idealistic, religious and strategic. They are linked by the kinship of common values -- an affinity of strength and decency that reflects the best of both nations, and sets them apart from the other nations of the world.
(Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.)
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Besser: Why Carter still doesn't get it
JW Political Insider: Political Talk from James Besser in Washington ( NY Jewish Week, 12/22/09)
I was intrigued by Jimmy Carter’s Chanukah message to the Jewish community, delivered via JTA, which provided a real insight into what makes him a decent human being – and made him a wretched failure as a president and Middle East policy analyst, which he fancies himself to be.
I never bought the idea that Carter, author of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid as well as a Camp David agreement that brought peace between Israel and what was once its most dangerous enemy, is an anti-Semite or an Israel hater, despite his vehement opposition to many Israeli policies and his dislike of some of the country’s leaders.
I do buy the argument that he somehow expects the world to conform to his deep religious belief in turning the other cheek and loving your enemy, which is fine for a pastor but a disaster for a president who has to deal with a real world where those values are rare – and where those who subscribe to them tend to get victimized by those who don’t.
In his message to JTA, Carter wrote: “I have the hope and a prayer that the State of Israel will flourish as a Jewish state within secure and recognized borders in peaceful co-existence with its neighbors and with all the Moslem States, and that this peaceful co-existence will bring security, prosperity and happiness to the people of Israel and to the people of the Middle East of all faiths.”
Well, yeah? Who can argue with that?
He goes on: “I have the hope and a prayer that the bloodshed and hatred will change to mutual respect and cooperation, fulfilling the prophetic aspiration that the lion shall lie down with the lamb in harmony and peace. I likewise hope that violent attacks against all civilians will end, which will help set a better framework for commencing negotiations. I further hope that peace negotiations can soon commence, with all issues on the negotiating table.”
Great hopes; we all share them, or at least most of us.
The problem is, you can’t create policy out of hope. And lying down with lions doesn’t work when the lions aren’t reading from the same Gospels.
The Chanukah message – in which he asks forgiveness from the Jewish community for “words or deeds of mine” that may have stigmatized Israel - makes it clear that Carter still sees the world in absolute black and white terms; for all his experience during his presidency and in the decades since, he hasn’t noticed that there are few real lambs in the world. He also hasn’t figured out that just because a country is strong – a lion, maybe like Israel – its adversaries aren’t automatically innocent lambs.
Presidents – and those who seek to influence policy, as Carter has done since he left the White House – have to look at the world as it is, not as they want it to be. Carter looks at the Middle East and just sees lions and lambs, all-powerful occupiers and their innocent victims – which means he’s never going to get it right.
This blog has raised questions about pro-Israel evangelical Christians who support Israeli hardliners because of a prophetic perspective relating to their view of the Second Coming. Carter brings to the issue a different kind of prophetic message, but one that is no less out of touch with the vastly complex and difficult environment in which Israel has to find its way.
There’s a place for religious moralists who dream of a day when we can all just get along and who reduce agonizingly complex dilemmas into simple lessons. That place isn’t in the White House.
REPORTS ABOUT ISRAEL ORGAN HARVESTING NOT RELATED TO RECENT ACCUSATIONS MADE BY SWEDISH AFTONBLADET
New York, December 21, 2009 … Recent press reports rehashing an interview from 10 years ago regarding the practices at Abu Kabir forensic institute have no relation to the false accusations that appeared this past August in the Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet. In the 2000 interview, Dr. Yehuda Hiss, then head of the Abu Kabir facility, acknowledged that body parts were removed for medical purposes only from the bodies of Israeli soldiers and civilians as well as Palestinians and others. Following the revelation, the Segelson Commission was appointed and completely forbade organ removal from deceased persons without family permission. The Commission established these rules governing practice for all Israeli institutions, stating that, in accordance with Israeli and Jewish law, consent from families must be obtained.
The report in the Aftonbladet that accused Israelis of killing Palestinians to harvest organs has been completely repudiated and has no connection to the decade-old report about the Abu Kabir forensic institute. Further, the practice at Abu Kabir was not directed at any group and was immediately addressed by Israeli officials once it became known. The Conference of Presidents decries the practice but notes the immediate steps taken to remediate and establish permanent standards, which are universally enforced in Israel.
“This reprinting of old information must not be allowed to become the occasion for mischief, blasphemous lies or distortions. The media must exercise care to correctly portray the re-release of this nine-year old interview which does not relate to the recent baseless charges. The author of the story in the Aftonbladet admitted that he needed to revisit his own report and that his article contained no substantiation beyond allegations of reports from Palestinians. It provided no evidence to indicate that any Palestinian was killed to ‘harvest organs.’ Such accusations can inflame the region, incite violence and undermine the chances of peace,” said Conference of Presidents Chairman Alan Solow and Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
ADL_National: Arbeit Macht Frei sign at Auschwitz entrance found after being stolen on Friday - http://www.adl.org/PresRele/HolNa_52/5
Mullen: Clock now running on White House dialogue with Iran
Dec. 20, 2009 Associated Press
The top US military officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, said on Sunday that he is not assuming that Iran's brief seizure of an Iraqi oil well is part of an orchestrated plan in Teheran.Mullen also said he was worried about "the clock now running" on the Obama administration's efforts at trying to keep the lines of communication open with Iran.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff also said Sunday while flying from Germany to the US that "signals are very clearly in the air" about more international penalties against Iran over its nuclear program.
Friday, December 18, 2009
The sign, which means "Work Will Set You Free", has become a symbol of the horror of the camp where about 1.1 million mainly Jewish prisoners died during World War II, most in the notorious gas chambers.
An Israeli deputy prime minister called the theft "an abominable act" while a leading Israeli holocaust memorial group said it was "a declaration of war."
Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum spokesman Jaroslaw Mensfelt told AFP that thieves carried out an expert operation to take the metal sign just before dawn on Friday. "It's a profanation of the place where more than a million people were murdered. It's shameful," he said. The five-metre (16-foot) long sign was forged by prisoners on the orders of the Nazis, who set up the camp after invading Poland in 1939. It was not hard to unhook from above the entrance gate "but you needed to know how," Mensfelt said.
A police dog team tracked the thieves while detectives combed through video surveillance footage from the site and neighbouring areas.
Poland's ex-president Lech Walesa called the theft "unthinkable". "I hope this turns out to be a sick joke by scrap-metal thieves who didn't know what they were doing," the Nobel prize winner told the TVN24 news channel.
In Israel, Avner Shalev, director of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial said "this act constitutes a true declaration of war." "We don't know the identity of the perpetrators but I assume they are neo-Nazis," Shalev said in a statement."I am certain the Polish government will do everything possible to track down those criminals and put them on trial," he said.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
JFNA Hails Conviction of Seattle Gunman
The Jewish Federations of North America Hails Conviction of
Naveed Haq was convicted on Tuesday for the shooting spree at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle on July 28, 2006, where he injured five individuals and killed one, Pamela Waechter. Another of Naveed Haq’s targets was 17 weeks pregnant. Today’s verdict came at the conclusion of his second trial after the first ended in a mistrial.
“Today, a jury served justice for the families and victims of this tragic attack,” said Jerry Silverman, president and CEO of The Jewish Federations of North America. “Although this decision does not erase the past, it does bring to close a sad chapter for the Jewish Federation movement.”
Since 2005, The Jewish Federations of North America has led program and funding efforts behind the Department of Homeland Security Nonprofit Security Grant Program initiative. The program has provided resources to bolster the physical security and preparedness training of hundreds of Jewish and other nonprofits organizations around the country.
The Jewish Federations of
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
US House passes Iran sanctions legislation
All five of the Iowa congressmen voted for this legislation. They deserve our thanks.
House passes Iran sanctions legislation
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed sanctions against Iran's energy sector.The Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act was approved Tuesday by a vote of 412-12, with four voting present.
The bill will strengthen the president's authority to sanction companies that help Iran import or produce refined petroleum, which is seen as potentially having a large impact on Iran's economy because the country imports 40 percent of its refined petroleum. The measure also requires the White House to report 90 days after passage, and every six months thereafter, on any person who has provided Iran with refined petroleum or engaged in any activity that would assist them in acquiring it.
A Senate version of the bill is unlikely to pass before the beginning of next year, after the Obama administration urged the body to slow down progress on the legislation as it attempts to garner backing for multilateral sanctions. The Obama administration also wants to see some changes to the measure.
The House bill's sponsor, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), noted that the Senate bill is more expansive in its provisions and said he was "always open" to changes in a conference committee that would make the legislation "equally effective."
"The big question is how soon will the international community conclude that without rigorous sanctions, the diplomatic approach gets nowhere," he said.
Virtually every major Jewish organization backed the legislation; Americans for Peace Now appears to be the only organization that opposed it.
"This measure sends a strong message to Iran, and to our friends in the international community, that the United States has the will to act to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability," AIPAC said in a statement.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Israel op ed calling for Arab world to join in defeating extremism printed in Arab daily.
Today, 15th December, Asharq Alawsat, one of the largest pan-Arab daily newspapers printed an op-ed in Arabic by the Deputy Foreign Minister of the State of Israel, Danny Ayalon. The op-ed was titled "An Open Letter to the Arab World".
The Deputy Foreign Minister calls on the Arab world to step forward and join with Israel to defeat the forces of extremism and destruction in the Middle East.
An Open Letter to the Arab World
By Danny Ayalon excerpt
Since the reestablishment of our state, Israeli leaders have sought peace with their Arab neighbors. Our Declaration of Independence, Israel’s founding document that expressed our hopes and dreams reads, “We extend our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help.” These words are as true today as when they were first written in 1948. Sadly, 61 years later, only two nations, Jordan and Egypt, have accepted these principles and made peace with the Jewish State.
Recently the Israeli government has made significant steps to restart negotiations with the Palestinians and reach out to the Arab world. In his Bar-Ilan speech in June, Prime Minister Netanyahu clearly stated his acceptance of a Palestinians state living side by side in peace and security with the State of Israel. My government has removed hundreds of roadblocks to improve access and movement for Palestinians and has assisted the facilitation of economic developments in the West Bank, through close cooperation with international parties to expedite projects and remove bottlenecks.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Secret document exposes Iran’s nuclear trigger
Catherine Philp in Washington. The Times [London] December 14, 2009
Confidential intelligence documents obtained by The Times show that Iran is working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb.
The notes, from Iran’s most sensitive military nuclear project, describe a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion. Foreign intelligence agencies date them to early 2007, four years after Iran was thought to have suspended its weapons programme.
An Asian intelligence source last week confirmed to The Times that his country also believed that weapons work was being carried out as recently as 2007 — specifically, work on a neutron initiator.
The technical document describes the use of a neutron source, uranium deuteride, which independent experts confirm has no possible civilian or military use other than in a nuclear weapon. Uranium deuteride is the material used in Pakistan’s bomb, from where Iran obtained its blueprint.
“Although Iran might claim that this work is for civil purposes, there is no civil application,” said David Albright, a physicist and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, which has analysed hundreds of pages of documents related to the Iranian programme. “This is a very strong indicator of weapons work.”
The documents have been seen by intelligence agencies from several Western countries, including Britain. A senior source at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that they had been passed to the UN’s nuclear watchdog.
A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokeswoman said yesterday: “We do not comment on intelligence, but our concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme are clear. Obviously this document, if authentic, raises serious questions about Iran’s intentions.”
Responding to The Times’ findings, an Israeli government spokesperson said: “Israel is increasingly concerned about the state of the Iranian nuclear programme and the real intentions that may lie behind it.”
Catherine Philp in Washington. The Times [London] December 14, 2009
Confidential intelligence documents obtained by The Times show that Iran is working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb.
The notes, from Iran’s most sensitive military nuclear project, describe a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion. Foreign intelligence agencies date them to early 2007, four years after Iran was thought to have suspended its weapons programme.
An Asian intelligence source last week confirmed to The Times that his country also believed that weapons work was being carried out as recently as 2007 — specifically, work on a neutron initiator.
The technical document describes the use of a neutron source, uranium deuteride, which independent experts confirm has no possible civilian or military use other than in a nuclear weapon. Uranium deuteride is the material used in Pakistan’s bomb, from where Iran obtained its blueprint.
“Although Iran might claim that this work is for civil purposes, there is no civil application,” said David Albright, a physicist and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, which has analysed hundreds of pages of documents related to the Iranian programme. “This is a very strong indicator of weapons work.”
The documents have been seen by intelligence agencies from several Western countries, including Britain. A senior source at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that they had been passed to the UN’s nuclear watchdog.
A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokeswoman said yesterday: “We do not comment on intelligence, but our concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme are clear. Obviously this document, if authentic, raises serious questions about Iran’s intentions.”
Responding to The Times’ findings, an Israeli government spokesperson said: “Israel is increasingly concerned about the state of the Iranian nuclear programme and the real intentions that may lie behind it.”
In France: antisemitic incidents double over last year
As reported in Le Figaro, 12/ 13/09
Forte hausse des actes antisémites en France [links via israelmatzav.blogspot.com]
Selon Brice Hortefeux, 704 faits ont été recensés sur les neuf premiers mois de 2009 contre 350 à la même période en 2008. Un préfet chargé de la lutte contre le racisme et l'antisémitisme va être nommé.
704 incidents were registered during the first 9 months of 2009 compared to 350 during the same period of 2008. The government appointed a special envoy (or Czar, if you will) to combat Antisemitism specifically.
Le ministre de l'Intérieur, Brice Hortefeux, a annoncé dimanche soir à Paris une forte hausse des actes antisémites au cours des neuf premiers mois de l'année 2009. «704 faits ont été recensés : 123 'actions' et 581 menaces, qu'il s'agisse d'agressions verbales, de dégradations de bâtiments ou d'inscriptions», a souligné Brice Hortefeux qui s'exprimait devant l'Union des patrons et des professionnels juifs de France (UPJF).
According to the Interior Minister, there were 123 acts of antisemitism and 581 threats (adding up to 704).
Cela représente plus du double des manifestations d'antisémitisme recensées lors des neuf premiers mois de 2008: «350, dont 99 actions et 251 menaces», selon les chiffres communiqués par le ministère de l'Intérieur.
This represents a more than double the figure of manifested antisemitism from the first 9 months of 2008 when there were 99 acts and 251 threats, again reported by the Interior Ministry.
Forte hausse des actes antisémites en France [links via israelmatzav.blogspot.com]
Selon Brice Hortefeux, 704 faits ont été recensés sur les neuf premiers mois de 2009 contre 350 à la même période en 2008. Un préfet chargé de la lutte contre le racisme et l'antisémitisme va être nommé.
704 incidents were registered during the first 9 months of 2009 compared to 350 during the same period of 2008. The government appointed a special envoy (or Czar, if you will) to combat Antisemitism specifically.
Le ministre de l'Intérieur, Brice Hortefeux, a annoncé dimanche soir à Paris une forte hausse des actes antisémites au cours des neuf premiers mois de l'année 2009. «704 faits ont été recensés : 123 'actions' et 581 menaces, qu'il s'agisse d'agressions verbales, de dégradations de bâtiments ou d'inscriptions», a souligné Brice Hortefeux qui s'exprimait devant l'Union des patrons et des professionnels juifs de France (UPJF).
According to the Interior Minister, there were 123 acts of antisemitism and 581 threats (adding up to 704).
Cela représente plus du double des manifestations d'antisémitisme recensées lors des neuf premiers mois de 2008: «350, dont 99 actions et 251 menaces», selon les chiffres communiqués par le ministère de l'Intérieur.
This represents a more than double the figure of manifested antisemitism from the first 9 months of 2008 when there were 99 acts and 251 threats, again reported by the Interior Ministry.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Zionist Israeli rabbis condemn vandalization of WB mosque.
Rabbi of Tekoa Menachem Froman said halacha prohibits doing harm to religious sites. "This deed was a serious religious crime," he said, adding that mutual respect between Jews and Muslims could bring peace. "If we keep hiding our heads in the sand and denying that the conflict (with the Palestinians) is religious, we will never get anywhere," Froman said. (Ynetnews, 12/13/09)
Rabbi of Tekoa Menachem Froman said halacha prohibits doing harm to religious sites. "This deed was a serious religious crime," he said, adding that mutual respect between Jews and Muslims could bring peace. "If we keep hiding our heads in the sand and denying that the conflict (with the Palestinians) is religious, we will never get anywhere," Froman said. (Ynetnews, 12/13/09)
Saturday, December 12, 2009
White House unhappy with Iranian nuke proposal
The White House is expressing unhappiness over Iran's announcement that it is ready to exchange uranium for nuclear fuel.
Such a deal would meet a key demand of a UN-sponsored effort to defuse fears over Iran's nuclear ambitions. But instead of shipping most of its uranium abroad for processing before it is returned to Tehran, Iran's foreign minister said Saturday that the material instead would be exchanged in batches. (AP) 12/12/09
The White House is expressing unhappiness over Iran's announcement that it is ready to exchange uranium for nuclear fuel.
Such a deal would meet a key demand of a UN-sponsored effort to defuse fears over Iran's nuclear ambitions. But instead of shipping most of its uranium abroad for processing before it is returned to Tehran, Iran's foreign minister said Saturday that the material instead would be exchanged in batches. (AP) 12/12/09
Rosner: Current Israeli gov't represents will of Israel's majority
It is true that the Left/liberal American critics of Israel (those particularly who tend to literally express hatred of Netanyahu) would rather Israel move to the Left to facilitate maximal concessions to what they perceive as moderate Palestinian leadership. What columnist Shmuel Rosner implies, however, is that at least 58% of Israelis don't want to go there, for reasons involving Israeli security.
Rosner says that it is inaccurate, in Israeli terms, to paint the Israeli electorate as right-wing and at the same time over-estimate the constituency of the Israeli left. Most Israelis are centrists, whose political will is reflected in the current national-unity government. //Mark Finkelstein
[Based on its most recent poll, discussed by Rosner in his column, ]the [left-liberal US] pollsters have concluded that in Israel 43% belong to the "right" and 20% to the "left". I think their way of breaking down the numbers does not reflect Israeli reality.
In the US, where there are only two parties, one has to be on the right, the left, of in the center - namely, the independent voter. But a parliamentary system like the one Israel has requires a more nuanced understanding of the numbers at hand.
I'd argue that all those on the "somewhat right" (22%), "center" (26%), and "somewhat left" (10%) should be counted as supporters of the Israeli broad consensus.
That is 58% of all Israelis - Arabs included - belonging to camps that can easily join a broader coalition of national unity, not unlike the one Israel now has.
It really leaves an inch more than 20% on the "right" and less than 10% on the "left".
All others, being most Labor, Likud, Kadima and Israel Beiteinu voters agree more than they disagree.
Rosner says that it is inaccurate, in Israeli terms, to paint the Israeli electorate as right-wing and at the same time over-estimate the constituency of the Israeli left. Most Israelis are centrists, whose political will is reflected in the current national-unity government. //Mark Finkelstein
[Based on its most recent poll, discussed by Rosner in his column, ]the [left-liberal US] pollsters have concluded that in Israel 43% belong to the "right" and 20% to the "left". I think their way of breaking down the numbers does not reflect Israeli reality.
In the US, where there are only two parties, one has to be on the right, the left, of in the center - namely, the independent voter. But a parliamentary system like the one Israel has requires a more nuanced understanding of the numbers at hand.
I'd argue that all those on the "somewhat right" (22%), "center" (26%), and "somewhat left" (10%) should be counted as supporters of the Israeli broad consensus.
That is 58% of all Israelis - Arabs included - belonging to camps that can easily join a broader coalition of national unity, not unlike the one Israel now has.
It really leaves an inch more than 20% on the "right" and less than 10% on the "left".
All others, being most Labor, Likud, Kadima and Israel Beiteinu voters agree more than they disagree.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Palestinians try to smuggle bombs past checkpoints
December 9, 2009
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A Palestinian man was stopped at a checkpoint north of Jerusalem after he tried to smuggle in six pipe bombs.
The man, 20, was arrested Wednesday at the Kalandiya checkpoint after he was caught carrying the homemade bombs.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers on Wednesday arrested three Palestinians carrying homemade grenades at an army checkpoint east of Nablus.
The same day, a Palestinian man was discovered to be carrying two pipe bombs at a checkpoint south of Ramallah.
All of the explosives were detonated by army sappers.
December 9, 2009
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A Palestinian man was stopped at a checkpoint north of Jerusalem after he tried to smuggle in six pipe bombs.
The man, 20, was arrested Wednesday at the Kalandiya checkpoint after he was caught carrying the homemade bombs.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers on Wednesday arrested three Palestinians carrying homemade grenades at an army checkpoint east of Nablus.
The same day, a Palestinian man was discovered to be carrying two pipe bombs at a checkpoint south of Ramallah.
All of the explosives were detonated by army sappers.
Wanted: A Palestinian "Peace Now" Movement - Khaled Abu Toameh
Where are all the American, European and local non-governmental organizations that are supposed to use U.S. and EU taxpayers' money to promote peace, moderation and coexistence?
When the Strings of Freedom Orchestra returned home to the refugee camp of Jenin in the northern West Bank, the musical director, Wafa Yunis, was fired and her studio apartment in the camp was sealed. The Palestinian Authority, whose leaders have been talking to Israel for more than fifteen years, accused Yunis of "exploiting the children for the purpose of normalizing ties with Israel."
Those who are passionate about the Israeli-Arab conflict and would like to see an end to the violence and hatred should start searching for ways to encourage the emergence of a serious peace camp in the West Bank and Gaza - one whose leaders and members would be able to stand up to both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. (Hudson Institute New York)
Where are all the American, European and local non-governmental organizations that are supposed to use U.S. and EU taxpayers' money to promote peace, moderation and coexistence?
When the Strings of Freedom Orchestra returned home to the refugee camp of Jenin in the northern West Bank, the musical director, Wafa Yunis, was fired and her studio apartment in the camp was sealed. The Palestinian Authority, whose leaders have been talking to Israel for more than fifteen years, accused Yunis of "exploiting the children for the purpose of normalizing ties with Israel."
Those who are passionate about the Israeli-Arab conflict and would like to see an end to the violence and hatred should start searching for ways to encourage the emergence of a serious peace camp in the West Bank and Gaza - one whose leaders and members would be able to stand up to both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. (Hudson Institute New York)
Monday, December 7, 2009
U.S. sees homegrown Muslim extremism as rising threat
This may have been the most dangerous year since 9/11, anti-terrorism experts say.
By Sebastian Rotella December 7, 2009 The Los Angeles Times
The Obama administration, grappling with a spate of recent Islamic terrorism cases on U.S. soil, has concluded that the country confronts a rising threat from homegrown extremism.
Anti-terrorism officials and experts see signs of accelerated radicalization among American Muslims, driven by a wave of English-language online propaganda and reflected in aspiring fighters' trips to hot spots such as Pakistan and Somalia.
Europe had been the front line, the target of successive attacks and major plots, while the U.S. remained relatively calm. But the number, variety and scale of recent U.S. cases suggest 2009 has been the most dangerous year domestically since 2001, anti-terrorism experts said:
* There were major arrests of Americans accused of plotting with Al Qaeda and its allies, including an Afghan American charged in a New York bomb plot described as the most serious threat in this country since the Sept. 11 attacks.
* Authorities tracked other extremism suspects joining foreign networks, including Somali Americans going to the battlegrounds of their ancestral homeland and an Albanian American from Brooklyn who was arrested in Kosovo.
* The FBI rounded up homegrown terrorism suspects in Dallas, Detroit and Raleigh, N.C., saying that it had broken up plots targeting a synagogue, government buildings and military facilities.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issued her strongest public comments yet on the homegrown threat.
"We've seen an increased number of arrests here in the U.S. of individuals suspected of plotting terrorist attacks, or supporting terror groups abroad such as Al Qaeda," Napolitano said in a speech in New York. "Home-based terrorism is here. And, like violent extremism abroad, it will be part of the threat picture that we must now confront."
Officials acknowledged that her tone had changed, though they said terrorism has been her focus since becoming Homeland Security chief.
In some of the 2009 cases, extremist leanings are suspected but motives are not known.
Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan -- accused of killing 13 people in a Ft. Hood, Texas, shooting rampage last month -- has apparently suffered emotional problems. But in interviews, officials and experts have also raised his Muslim beliefs as an alleged motive.
A previous attack on the U.S. military, a shooting in June by an American convert who killed a soldier and wounded another at an Arkansas recruiting center, was apparently a case of a lone wolf radicalized in Yemen, according to Homeland Security officials.
"You are seeing the full spectrum of the threats you face in terrorism," former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.
"Radicalization is clearly happening in the U.S.," said Mitchell Silber, director of analysis for the Intelligence Division of the New York Police Department. "In years past, you couldn't say that about the U.S. You could say it about Europe."
Europe has suffered a militant onslaught: transport bombings in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005, an assassination in the Netherlands in 2004, and close calls such as the fiery failed attack on the Glasgow airport in 2007.
Hard borders have helped the U.S. ward off the threat. But experts also said that Islamic radicalization is more widespread in Europe. Crime, alienation and extremism roil Muslim immigrant communities in places like tiny Denmark and the vast slums of France.
In contrast, American Muslims are wealthier, better educated and better integrated because the United States does a good job of absorbing immigrants and fostering tolerance, experts said. During the last decade, Americans have been a rare presence in the Al Qaeda-connected camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan that have trained hundreds of Westerners and thousands of recruits from Muslim-majority nations.
Nonetheless, recent investigations have run across Americans suspected of being operatives of Al Qaeda and its allies who were trained overseas and, in several cases, allegedly conspired with top terrorism bosses. They include a convert from Long Island, N.Y, who was captured in Pakistan late last year; a Chicago businessman accused of scouting foreign targets for a Pakistani network; and at least 15 Somali American youths from Minneapolis who returned to fight in their ancestral homeland.
"A larger trend has emerged that is not surprising, but is disturbing," Chertoff said. "You are beginning to see the fruits of the pipeline that Al Qaeda built to train Westerners and send them back to their homelands. . . . This underscores the central significance of disrupting the pipeline at its source."
A campaign of U.S. airstrikes launched last year has pounded Al Qaeda hide-outs in Pakistan. But the flow of trainees gathered momentum in 2007 when Pakistani security forces ceded turf to militant groups, officials said. The suspect in the New York plot, Najibullah Zazi, and the Long Island convert, Bryant Neal Vinas, allegedly met in Pakistan in 2008 and discussed attacks on U.S. targets with Al Qaeda chiefs.
Vinas and Zazi are the first Americans to be accused of joining Al Qaeda in several years.
Meanwhile, Silber said in recent congressional testimony: "There have been a half-dozen cases of individuals who, instead of traveling abroad to carry out violence, have elected to attempt to do it here. This is substantially greater than what we have seen in the past, and may reflect an emerging pattern."
Some feel radicalization in the United States has been worse than authorities thought for some time.
"People focused on the idea that we're different, we're better at integrating Muslims than Europe is," said Zeyno Baran, a scholar at the Hudson Institute, a think tank in Washington. "But there's radicalization -- especially among converts [and] newcomers, such as the Somali case shows. I think young U.S. Muslims today are as prone to radicalization as Muslims in Europe."
In proportion to population, extremism still appears less intense in the United States. But the Internet functions as the global engine of extremism. Websites expose Americans to a wave of slick, English-language propaganda from ideologues such as Anwar Awlaki, the Yemeni American described as a spiritual guide for the accused Ft. Hood shooter and other Westerners.
And socioeconomic success will not necessarily prevent Americans' radicalization. Studies suggest that a quest for identity and the bonding process among small groups often drive militants more than personal hardship does.
"The profile in Europe is in general quite different [from U.S. extremists]: more working-class or even underclass," said a European intelligence official who requested anonymity for security reasons. "But it's a bit simplistic to make assumptions. We have seen everything in Europe -- educated people, doctors involved in terrorism. The underclass argument is not enough."
The Obama administration began the year with gestures to the Muslim world. President Obama promised to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and made a historic speech in Cairo.
The Homeland Security Department leads the administration's counter-radicalization effort. The Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which works with Muslim leaders, held summit meetings with Somali communities this year in Minnesota and Ohio, said David Heyman, assistant Homeland Security secretary for policy.
But that office still lacks a director, critics point out, and the department has yet to fill other key posts as well.
"We don't do enough about fostering a counter-narrative," said Matthew Levitt, a former anti-terrorism official for the Treasury Department now with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Competing for space with the radicalizers and challenging their radical ideologies is the key."
In contrast to the heightened extremist activity in the United States, Europe has remained relatively calm this year. But the West needs to keep up its guard on both sides of the Atlantic, said Farhad Khosrokhavar, an Iranian French scholar who interviewed jailed extremists for his book "Inside Jihadism."
"You can be middle-class and have bright prospects but become a jihadist," he said. "We have to broaden the analysis. This idea of American exceptionalism, the comparison with Europe, should not blind us to the fact that we are going toward a broader participation in jihad."
This may have been the most dangerous year since 9/11, anti-terrorism experts say.
By Sebastian Rotella December 7, 2009 The Los Angeles Times
The Obama administration, grappling with a spate of recent Islamic terrorism cases on U.S. soil, has concluded that the country confronts a rising threat from homegrown extremism.
Anti-terrorism officials and experts see signs of accelerated radicalization among American Muslims, driven by a wave of English-language online propaganda and reflected in aspiring fighters' trips to hot spots such as Pakistan and Somalia.
Europe had been the front line, the target of successive attacks and major plots, while the U.S. remained relatively calm. But the number, variety and scale of recent U.S. cases suggest 2009 has been the most dangerous year domestically since 2001, anti-terrorism experts said:
* There were major arrests of Americans accused of plotting with Al Qaeda and its allies, including an Afghan American charged in a New York bomb plot described as the most serious threat in this country since the Sept. 11 attacks.
* Authorities tracked other extremism suspects joining foreign networks, including Somali Americans going to the battlegrounds of their ancestral homeland and an Albanian American from Brooklyn who was arrested in Kosovo.
* The FBI rounded up homegrown terrorism suspects in Dallas, Detroit and Raleigh, N.C., saying that it had broken up plots targeting a synagogue, government buildings and military facilities.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issued her strongest public comments yet on the homegrown threat.
"We've seen an increased number of arrests here in the U.S. of individuals suspected of plotting terrorist attacks, or supporting terror groups abroad such as Al Qaeda," Napolitano said in a speech in New York. "Home-based terrorism is here. And, like violent extremism abroad, it will be part of the threat picture that we must now confront."
Officials acknowledged that her tone had changed, though they said terrorism has been her focus since becoming Homeland Security chief.
In some of the 2009 cases, extremist leanings are suspected but motives are not known.
Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan -- accused of killing 13 people in a Ft. Hood, Texas, shooting rampage last month -- has apparently suffered emotional problems. But in interviews, officials and experts have also raised his Muslim beliefs as an alleged motive.
A previous attack on the U.S. military, a shooting in June by an American convert who killed a soldier and wounded another at an Arkansas recruiting center, was apparently a case of a lone wolf radicalized in Yemen, according to Homeland Security officials.
"You are seeing the full spectrum of the threats you face in terrorism," former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.
"Radicalization is clearly happening in the U.S.," said Mitchell Silber, director of analysis for the Intelligence Division of the New York Police Department. "In years past, you couldn't say that about the U.S. You could say it about Europe."
Europe has suffered a militant onslaught: transport bombings in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005, an assassination in the Netherlands in 2004, and close calls such as the fiery failed attack on the Glasgow airport in 2007.
Hard borders have helped the U.S. ward off the threat. But experts also said that Islamic radicalization is more widespread in Europe. Crime, alienation and extremism roil Muslim immigrant communities in places like tiny Denmark and the vast slums of France.
In contrast, American Muslims are wealthier, better educated and better integrated because the United States does a good job of absorbing immigrants and fostering tolerance, experts said. During the last decade, Americans have been a rare presence in the Al Qaeda-connected camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan that have trained hundreds of Westerners and thousands of recruits from Muslim-majority nations.
Nonetheless, recent investigations have run across Americans suspected of being operatives of Al Qaeda and its allies who were trained overseas and, in several cases, allegedly conspired with top terrorism bosses. They include a convert from Long Island, N.Y, who was captured in Pakistan late last year; a Chicago businessman accused of scouting foreign targets for a Pakistani network; and at least 15 Somali American youths from Minneapolis who returned to fight in their ancestral homeland.
"A larger trend has emerged that is not surprising, but is disturbing," Chertoff said. "You are beginning to see the fruits of the pipeline that Al Qaeda built to train Westerners and send them back to their homelands. . . . This underscores the central significance of disrupting the pipeline at its source."
A campaign of U.S. airstrikes launched last year has pounded Al Qaeda hide-outs in Pakistan. But the flow of trainees gathered momentum in 2007 when Pakistani security forces ceded turf to militant groups, officials said. The suspect in the New York plot, Najibullah Zazi, and the Long Island convert, Bryant Neal Vinas, allegedly met in Pakistan in 2008 and discussed attacks on U.S. targets with Al Qaeda chiefs.
Vinas and Zazi are the first Americans to be accused of joining Al Qaeda in several years.
Meanwhile, Silber said in recent congressional testimony: "There have been a half-dozen cases of individuals who, instead of traveling abroad to carry out violence, have elected to attempt to do it here. This is substantially greater than what we have seen in the past, and may reflect an emerging pattern."
Some feel radicalization in the United States has been worse than authorities thought for some time.
"People focused on the idea that we're different, we're better at integrating Muslims than Europe is," said Zeyno Baran, a scholar at the Hudson Institute, a think tank in Washington. "But there's radicalization -- especially among converts [and] newcomers, such as the Somali case shows. I think young U.S. Muslims today are as prone to radicalization as Muslims in Europe."
In proportion to population, extremism still appears less intense in the United States. But the Internet functions as the global engine of extremism. Websites expose Americans to a wave of slick, English-language propaganda from ideologues such as Anwar Awlaki, the Yemeni American described as a spiritual guide for the accused Ft. Hood shooter and other Westerners.
And socioeconomic success will not necessarily prevent Americans' radicalization. Studies suggest that a quest for identity and the bonding process among small groups often drive militants more than personal hardship does.
"The profile in Europe is in general quite different [from U.S. extremists]: more working-class or even underclass," said a European intelligence official who requested anonymity for security reasons. "But it's a bit simplistic to make assumptions. We have seen everything in Europe -- educated people, doctors involved in terrorism. The underclass argument is not enough."
The Obama administration began the year with gestures to the Muslim world. President Obama promised to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and made a historic speech in Cairo.
The Homeland Security Department leads the administration's counter-radicalization effort. The Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which works with Muslim leaders, held summit meetings with Somali communities this year in Minnesota and Ohio, said David Heyman, assistant Homeland Security secretary for policy.
But that office still lacks a director, critics point out, and the department has yet to fill other key posts as well.
"We don't do enough about fostering a counter-narrative," said Matthew Levitt, a former anti-terrorism official for the Treasury Department now with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Competing for space with the radicalizers and challenging their radical ideologies is the key."
In contrast to the heightened extremist activity in the United States, Europe has remained relatively calm this year. But the West needs to keep up its guard on both sides of the Atlantic, said Farhad Khosrokhavar, an Iranian French scholar who interviewed jailed extremists for his book "Inside Jihadism."
"You can be middle-class and have bright prospects but become a jihadist," he said. "We have to broaden the analysis. This idea of American exceptionalism, the comparison with Europe, should not blind us to the fact that we are going toward a broader participation in jihad."
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Study finds rise in European anti-semitism, anti-semitic attitudes varies across Europe
Europe: Anti-Semitism up, Islamophobia down
Study on 'group-focused enmity' conducted by researchers from University of Bielefeld in Germany finds hatred of Muslims decreased over past year, while hatred of Jews and homosexuals growing. Poland defined as most racist country
For the last eight years, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence at the University of Bielefeld has been running an annual study called "German Conditions" to learn about "group focused enmity“ such as xenophobia, sexism, racism, anti-Semitism, and prejudices against unemployed, disabled, homeless or homosexual people in Germany.
Due to the financial crisis and the fears of the future, poverty and unemployment that are being stoked by that, the researchers expected a rise this year.
But compared to last year's results (as well as those of 2002), the level of resentment against most minorities declined – sexism and racism even considerably, Islamophobia slightly. There were only two exceptions: Homophobia and anti-Semitism.
Hatred of both groups is on the rise as they are considered to be found also among people of a high status.
Beate Küpper, one of the study's main researchers, believes that the financial crisis may in fact be a possible explanation for that. Küpper said that although in comparison to other European countries Germany was on average, it was staggering that in the light of German history, 48% still agreed with anti-Semitic statements.
For the first time, the study also compared xenophobia among European countries like Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Poland, and Hungary. According to their findings, the level of prejudices against minorities in Europe is alarming.
About 50.4% of the population agreed that “there are too many immigrants” in their country, 54.4% believe that “the Islam is a religion of intolerance.” Interestingly enough, the percentage of people who believe “that there are too many Muslims” in their country is especially high in those countries that actually have a low percentage of Muslims living in them.
Nearly one-third (31.3%) of the Europeans somewhat or strongly agree that “there is a natural hierarchy between black and white people”. A majority of 60.2% stick to traditional gender roles, demanding that “women should take their role as wives and mothers more seriously.” Some 42.6% deny equal value of gay men and lesbian women and judge homosexuality as "immoral".
Hiding behind criticism of Israel
Anti-Semitism is also still widely spread in Europe. The team of scientists from the universities of Amsterdam, Bielefeld, Budapest, Grenoble, Lisbon, Marburg, Oxford, Padua, Paris, and Warsaw found that 41.2% of Europeans believe that “Jews try to take advantage of having been victims during the Nazi era”. The highest degree of affirmation was in Poland - 72%, and the lowest in the Netherlands – 5.6%.
One-quarter of Europeans (24.5%) believe that “Jews have too much influence“, and nearly one-third (31%) agree that “Jews in general do not care about anything or anyone but their own kind."
On the other hand, 61.9% say that Jews “enrich our culture”, especially in the Netherlands, Britain and Germany.
They study also measured the degree of anti-Semitism hidden behind a specific criticism of Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians that uses anti-Semitic terms such as “war of persecution” and a generalization to “all Jews”.
Some 45.7% of the Europeans (apart for France, where this facet of anti-Semitism was not measured) somewhat or strongly agree that “Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians.” About 37.4% agree with the following statement: “Considering Israel’s policy, I can understand why people do not like Jews.”
Overall, the level of anti-Semitic attitudes varies quite a lot across Europe with comparably lower levels of anti-Semitic attitudes in Britain and the Netherlands and significantly higher levels in Portugal, and especially Poland and Hungary.
Overall, the level of anti-Semitic attitudes varies quite a lot across Europe with comparably lower levels of anti-Semitic attitudes in Britain and the Netherlands and significantly higher levels in Portugal, and especially Poland and Hungary.Europe: Anti-Semitism up, Islamophobia down [Ynetnews.com December 6, 2009]
Study on 'group-focused enmity' conducted by researchers from University of Bielefeld in Germany finds hatred of Muslims decreased over past year, while hatred of Jews and homosexuals growing. Poland defined as most racist country
For the last eight years, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence at the University of Bielefeld has been running an annual study called "German Conditions" to learn about "group focused enmity“ such as xenophobia, sexism, racism, anti-Semitism, and prejudices against unemployed, disabled, homeless or homosexual people in Germany.
Due to the financial crisis and the fears of the future, poverty and unemployment that are being stoked by that, the researchers expected a rise this year.
But compared to last year's results (as well as those of 2002), the level of resentment against most minorities declined – sexism and racism even considerably, Islamophobia slightly. There were only two exceptions: Homophobia and anti-Semitism.
Hatred of both groups is on the rise as they are considered to be found also among people of a high status.
Beate Küpper, one of the study's main researchers, believes that the financial crisis may in fact be a possible explanation for that. Küpper said that although in comparison to other European countries Germany was on average, it was staggering that in the light of German history, 48% still agreed with anti-Semitic statements.
For the first time, the study also compared xenophobia among European countries like Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Poland, and Hungary. According to their findings, the level of prejudices against minorities in Europe is alarming.
About 50.4% of the population agreed that “there are too many immigrants” in their country, 54.4% believe that “the Islam is a religion of intolerance.” Interestingly enough, the percentage of people who believe “that there are too many Muslims” in their country is especially high in those countries that actually have a low percentage of Muslims living in them.
Nearly one-third (31.3%) of the Europeans somewhat or strongly agree that “there is a natural hierarchy between black and white people”. A majority of 60.2% stick to traditional gender roles, demanding that “women should take their role as wives and mothers more seriously.” Some 42.6% deny equal value of gay men and lesbian women and judge homosexuality as "immoral".
Hiding behind criticism of Israel
Anti-Semitism is also still widely spread in Europe. The team of scientists from the universities of Amsterdam, Bielefeld, Budapest, Grenoble, Lisbon, Marburg, Oxford, Padua, Paris, and Warsaw found that 41.2% of Europeans believe that “Jews try to take advantage of having been victims during the Nazi era”. The highest degree of affirmation was in Poland - 72%, and the lowest in the Netherlands – 5.6%.
One-quarter of Europeans (24.5%) believe that “Jews have too much influence“, and nearly one-third (31%) agree that “Jews in general do not care about anything or anyone but their own kind."
On the other hand, 61.9% say that Jews “enrich our culture”, especially in the Netherlands, Britain and Germany.
They study also measured the degree of anti-Semitism hidden behind a specific criticism of Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians that uses anti-Semitic terms such as “war of persecution” and a generalization to “all Jews”.
Some 45.7% of the Europeans (apart for France, where this facet of anti-Semitism was not measured) somewhat or strongly agree that “Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians.” About 37.4% agree with the following statement: “Considering Israel’s policy, I can understand why people do not like Jews.”
Overall, the level of anti-Semitic attitudes varies quite a lot across Europe with comparably lower levels of anti-Semitic attitudes in Britain and the Netherlands and significantly higher levels in Portugal, and especially Poland and Hungary.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Federation's Leadership Forum trip to Israel pictured in the DM Register
The Des Moines Register graciously printed this picture in its 12/4/09 edition as part of its continuing series showing Des Moiners displaying copies of the Register in places all over the world.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
The Mythical Peace That is Just Out of Reach
By Ami Isseroff 11/29/09 Abridged.
By Ami Isseroff 11/29/09 Abridged.
The conventional wisdom in much of the world holds that there is an Israeli-Arab peace settlement that is just out of reach - so near yet so far, frustrated only by tactical accidents. We all know what the peace settlement must look like, says the myth. If only Israel wasn't so stubborn about building in Jerusalem or (under Ehud Olmert) not negotiating at all about Jerusalem, there could be peace in a week. But somehow peace...remains beyond reach.... [because the Palestinian leadership -- as demonstrated by the existing documents of their statements to date -- insist on terms that are designed to destroy Israel as a Jewish state.]
[It is a myth] that the Palestinian leaders have really agreed or are secretly ready to agree to all the [supposedly 'everyone knows what peace will look like'] proposals and/or that polls show that the Palestinian people back these [everyone-knows-to-be reasonable] concessions.
There cannot be peace until...the Palestinian position changes from demands that amount to destruction of Israel to requirements that can be considered a legitimate and serious bargaining position.
[The article documents Palestinian opinion on the so-termed "Right of Return"]
Ahmandinejad: Israel can’t stop Iranian nukes
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel cannot do a "damn thing" to stop his country's nuclear program.Ahmadinejad made the statement Wednesday in a televised speech, Reuters reported.
He called the International Atomic Energy Agency's resolution approved last week censuring the country's nuclear activity "illegal" and said it came "under pressure of a few superficially powerful countries."
The IAEA resolution called on Iran to halt construction of a recently disclosed underground nuclear enrichment facility. In response, Iran's parliament on Sunday approved the construction of 10 new uranium enrichment sites.
Israel's U.N. Quagmire
Excerpt from Israel's U.N. QuagmireAn important article by Uriel Heilman. An Uphill struggle: Israel's U.N. Quagmire. Bloc voting cobbles together the 56 votes of the Arab and Muslim states. Members of the Non-Aligned Movement usually vote with the Arab/Muslim states -- as does the E.U. Israel - 1 vote.
"A lot of what goes on at the U.N. is about evening the score between the developing world and the developed world, and that puts Israel in a very difficult spot." -- Jeff Helmreich, an expert on international law and a former staffer at Israel's U.N. mission
The United Nations does not reflect the reality of what's going on in the world today because there is no political will to call attention to that reality. Sudan, Myanmar, and North Korea usually escape condemnation simply because not enough members are interested in confronting powerful blocs over massacres, conflicts, and human-rights violations.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
92ST Y Debate over American policy in the Middle East
Moderated by Eliot Spitzer, Dershowitz and Jeremy Ben-Ami debated over American policy in the Middle East on Sat, Nov 21, 2009.
Should military solutions or diplomatic ones be favored? What is the role of pro-Israel advocacy at a time of changing relationships between the U.S. and Israel? Has J Street helped or hurt the prospects for peace? Does the traditional lobby speak for all, or even most, American Jews? highlights in the video of Alan Dershowitz, who has been called Israels top defender in the court of public opinion, and Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founder and director of J Street, wrestling with these and other issues.
Moderated by Eliot Spitzer, Dershowitz and Jeremy Ben-Ami debated over American policy in the Middle East on Sat, Nov 21, 2009.
Should military solutions or diplomatic ones be favored? What is the role of pro-Israel advocacy at a time of changing relationships between the U.S. and Israel? Has J Street helped or hurt the prospects for peace? Does the traditional lobby speak for all, or even most, American Jews? highlights in the video of Alan Dershowitz, who has been called Israels top defender in the court of public opinion, and Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founder and director of J Street, wrestling with these and other issues.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Tom Friedman: Hasan just another jihadist
America vs. The Narrative
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN New York Times Op Ed, November 29, 2009
What should we make of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who apparently killed 13 innocent people at Fort Hood?
Here’s my take: Major Hasan may have been mentally unbalanced — I assume anyone who shoots up innocent people is. But the more you read about his support for Muslim suicide bombers, about how he showed up at a public-health seminar with a PowerPoint presentation titled “Why the War on Terror Is a War on Islam,” and about his contacts with Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni cleric famous for using the Web to support jihadist violence against America — the more it seems that Major Hasan was just another angry jihadist spurred to action by “The Narrative.”
What is scary is that even though he was born, raised and educated in America, The Narrative still got to him.
The Narrative is the cocktail of half-truths, propaganda and outright lies about America that have taken hold in the Arab-Muslim world since 9/11. Propagated by jihadist Web sites, mosque preachers, Arab intellectuals, satellite news stations and books — and tacitly endorsed by some Arab regimes — this narrative posits that America has declared war on Islam, as part of a grand “American-Crusader-Zionist conspiracy” to keep Muslims down.
Yes, after two decades in which U.S. foreign policy has been largely dedicated to rescuing Muslims or trying to help free them from tyranny — in Bosnia, Darfur, Kuwait, Somalia, Lebanon, Kurdistan, post-earthquake Pakistan, post-tsunami Indonesia, Iraq and Afghanistan — a narrative that says America is dedicated to keeping Muslims down is thriving.
Although most of the Muslims being killed today are being killed by jihadist suicide bombers in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Indonesia, you’d never know it from listening to their world. The dominant narrative there is that 9/11 was a kind of fraud: America’s unprovoked onslaught on Islam is the real story, and the Muslims are the real victims — of U.S. perfidy.
Have no doubt: we punched a fist into the Arab/Muslim world after 9/11, partly to send a message of deterrence, but primarily to destroy two tyrannical regimes — the Taliban and the Baathists — and to work with Afghans and Iraqis to build a different kind of politics. In the process, we did some stupid and bad things. But for every Abu Ghraib, our soldiers and diplomats perpetrated a million acts of kindness aimed at giving Arabs and Muslims a better chance to succeed with modernity and to elect their own leaders.
The Narrative was concocted by jihadists to obscure that.
It’s working. As a Jordanian-born counterterrorism expert, who asked to remain anonymous, said to me: “This narrative is now omnipresent in Arab and Muslim communities in the region and in migrant communities around the world. These communities are bombarded with this narrative in huge doses and on a daily basis. [It says] the West, and right now mostly the U.S. and Israel, is single-handedly and completely responsible for all the grievances of the Arab and the Muslim worlds. Ironically, the vast majority of the media outlets targeting these communities are Arab-government owned — mostly from the Gulf.”
This narrative suits Arab governments. It allows them to deflect onto America all of their people’s grievances over why their countries are falling behind. And it suits Al Qaeda, which doesn’t need much organization anymore — just push out The Narrative over the Web and satellite TV, let it heat up humiliated, frustrated or socially alienated Muslim males, and one or two will open fire on their own. See: Major Hasan.
“Liberal Arabs like me are as angry as a terrorist and as determined to change the status quo,” said my Jordanian friend. The only difference “is that while we choose education, knowledge and success to bring about change, a terrorist, having bought into the narrative, has a sense of powerlessness and helplessness, which are inculcated in us from childhood, that lead him to believe that there is only one way, and that is violence.”
What to do? Many Arab Muslims know that what ails their societies is more than the West, and that The Narrative is just an escape from looking honestly at themselves. But none of their leaders dare or care to open that discussion. In his Cairo speech last June, President Obama effectively built a connection with the Muslim mainstream. Maybe he could spark the debate by asking that same audience this question:
“Whenever something like Fort Hood happens you say, ‘This is not Islam.’ I believe that. But you keep telling us what Islam isn’t. You need to tell us what it is and show us how its positive interpretations are being promoted in your schools and mosques. If this is not Islam, then why is it that a million Muslims will pour into the streets to protest Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, but not one will take to the streets to protest Muslim suicide bombers who blow up other Muslims, real people, created in the image of God? You need to explain that to us — and to yourselves.”
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN New York Times Op Ed, November 29, 2009
What should we make of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who apparently killed 13 innocent people at Fort Hood?
Here’s my take: Major Hasan may have been mentally unbalanced — I assume anyone who shoots up innocent people is. But the more you read about his support for Muslim suicide bombers, about how he showed up at a public-health seminar with a PowerPoint presentation titled “Why the War on Terror Is a War on Islam,” and about his contacts with Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni cleric famous for using the Web to support jihadist violence against America — the more it seems that Major Hasan was just another angry jihadist spurred to action by “The Narrative.”
What is scary is that even though he was born, raised and educated in America, The Narrative still got to him.
The Narrative is the cocktail of half-truths, propaganda and outright lies about America that have taken hold in the Arab-Muslim world since 9/11. Propagated by jihadist Web sites, mosque preachers, Arab intellectuals, satellite news stations and books — and tacitly endorsed by some Arab regimes — this narrative posits that America has declared war on Islam, as part of a grand “American-Crusader-Zionist conspiracy” to keep Muslims down.
Yes, after two decades in which U.S. foreign policy has been largely dedicated to rescuing Muslims or trying to help free them from tyranny — in Bosnia, Darfur, Kuwait, Somalia, Lebanon, Kurdistan, post-earthquake Pakistan, post-tsunami Indonesia, Iraq and Afghanistan — a narrative that says America is dedicated to keeping Muslims down is thriving.
Although most of the Muslims being killed today are being killed by jihadist suicide bombers in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Indonesia, you’d never know it from listening to their world. The dominant narrative there is that 9/11 was a kind of fraud: America’s unprovoked onslaught on Islam is the real story, and the Muslims are the real victims — of U.S. perfidy.
Have no doubt: we punched a fist into the Arab/Muslim world after 9/11, partly to send a message of deterrence, but primarily to destroy two tyrannical regimes — the Taliban and the Baathists — and to work with Afghans and Iraqis to build a different kind of politics. In the process, we did some stupid and bad things. But for every Abu Ghraib, our soldiers and diplomats perpetrated a million acts of kindness aimed at giving Arabs and Muslims a better chance to succeed with modernity and to elect their own leaders.
The Narrative was concocted by jihadists to obscure that.
It’s working. As a Jordanian-born counterterrorism expert, who asked to remain anonymous, said to me: “This narrative is now omnipresent in Arab and Muslim communities in the region and in migrant communities around the world. These communities are bombarded with this narrative in huge doses and on a daily basis. [It says] the West, and right now mostly the U.S. and Israel, is single-handedly and completely responsible for all the grievances of the Arab and the Muslim worlds. Ironically, the vast majority of the media outlets targeting these communities are Arab-government owned — mostly from the Gulf.”
This narrative suits Arab governments. It allows them to deflect onto America all of their people’s grievances over why their countries are falling behind. And it suits Al Qaeda, which doesn’t need much organization anymore — just push out The Narrative over the Web and satellite TV, let it heat up humiliated, frustrated or socially alienated Muslim males, and one or two will open fire on their own. See: Major Hasan.
“Liberal Arabs like me are as angry as a terrorist and as determined to change the status quo,” said my Jordanian friend. The only difference “is that while we choose education, knowledge and success to bring about change, a terrorist, having bought into the narrative, has a sense of powerlessness and helplessness, which are inculcated in us from childhood, that lead him to believe that there is only one way, and that is violence.”
What to do? Many Arab Muslims know that what ails their societies is more than the West, and that The Narrative is just an escape from looking honestly at themselves. But none of their leaders dare or care to open that discussion. In his Cairo speech last June, President Obama effectively built a connection with the Muslim mainstream. Maybe he could spark the debate by asking that same audience this question:
“Whenever something like Fort Hood happens you say, ‘This is not Islam.’ I believe that. But you keep telling us what Islam isn’t. You need to tell us what it is and show us how its positive interpretations are being promoted in your schools and mosques. If this is not Islam, then why is it that a million Muslims will pour into the streets to protest Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, but not one will take to the streets to protest Muslim suicide bombers who blow up other Muslims, real people, created in the image of God? You need to explain that to us — and to yourselves.”
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Palestinian freeze demand - emblematic and a red herring
For over decades, Israeli concessions have never been "enough." The Jerusalem Post editorial, below, defines the conflict to hinge on the refusal of the Palestinian leadership to accept Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people and thus questions if Israeli concessions, short of national suicide, will ever be "enough" for the Arabs
"It's not enough"
Editorial in the Jerusalem Post, Nov. 26, 2009
With the patience of a taxi driver at a red light about to turn green, the Palestinian leadership responded to Wednesday's announcement of an Israeli moratorium on new settlement building with: "It's not enough!"
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's unprecedented moratorium is both substantive and symbolic - the appropriate response to a Palestinian settlement freeze demand that is both emblematic and a red-herring.
THE DISPUTE between Palestinians and Israelis is not about settlements. It hinges on whether the Arabs are willing to recognize the legitimacy of Israel as the state of the Jewish people within any boundaries.
Some find it convenient to imagine that the clash between the Zionist and Arab causes has transitioned to a non-zero sum game. That is hardly the dominant view in Israel.
In 1920, the international community gave Britain the responsibility of establishing a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. But a year later London turned over eastern Palestine to Emir Abdullah and Transjordan was born. The Arab response? "It's not enough."
In 1937, the Peel Commission recommended dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The Zionists consented. The Arabs... said no.
In 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. Again, the Jews agreed. The Arab response was: "It's not enough" and they tried to throttle the newborn Jewish state. Israel survived while the Arabs took the West Bank and Gaza. Did they then form a Palestinian state? Of course not, because these territories alone were "not enough."
In 1967, the Arabs failed to push an Israel living within the 1949 Armistice Lines into the sea and the West Bank came into Israeli possession. Magnanimous in victory, Israel offered peace. The Arab response? "No peace, no recognition, no negotiations."
In 1977, Egypt's Anwar Sadat courageously embarked on the path of peace. Israel withdrew from all territory claimed by Egypt, and Menachem Begin, moreover, offered the Palestinians something they had never enjoyed - autonomy. Israeli forces would have been re-deployed as a prelude to final status negotiations. The Arab response? "It's not enough."
As a result of the 1993 Oslo Accords, the PLO leadership was invited to return from Tunis and set up a Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza. But a double-dealing Yasser Arafat never genuinely embraced this historic opportunity for reconciliation. Hamas intensified its terror campaign which claimed dozens of Israeli lives (well before the Baruch Goldstein Hebron massacre in February 1994). Ehud Barak twice - at Camp David (July 2000) and at Taba (January 2001) - offered Arafat a Palestinian state accompanied by extraordinary territorial and political concessions. The Arab response? "It's not enough."
When Israel unilaterally pulled its settlers and soldiers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, the Arabs again said: "It's not enough."
In 2008, Ehud Olmert offered Mahmoud Abbas 93 percent of the West Bank, plus additional territory from Israel proper. Abbas did not even deign to say "It's not enough" - he just walked away.
Then in June of this year Netanyahu, following in the footsteps of his predecessors, unequivocally accepted a demilitarized Palestinian state. The Arab response? "It's not enough."
Generation after generation, decade after decade, Israeli concession after concession, the Palestinians have never missed an opportunity to say, "It's not enough."
SO now the question is what will America do? Special Envoy George Mitchell reacted with sparing approval to Netanyahu's moratorium. "It falls short of a full settlement freeze, but it is more than any Israeli government has done before…" He then diluted this faint praise by coldly reiterating: "America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements."
A slightly more positive reaction came from Secretary of State Clinton who acknowledged that "agreed swaps" should be part of negotiations based on the 1967 lines.
To take additional risks for peace, Israelis must feel secure that the Obama administration wholly backs the 1967-plus formula. Washington needs to cajole Mahmoud Abbas back to the table to bargain in good faith, and it [the U.S. administration] should extract diplomatic gestures from its Arab allies in reciprocity for the premier's concessions.
Otherwise, the discouraging message that comes across to Israelis who want an agreement is that no matter what we do it will always "fall short" with this administration and never be "enough" for the Arabs.
"It's not enough"
Editorial in the Jerusalem Post, Nov. 26, 2009
With the patience of a taxi driver at a red light about to turn green, the Palestinian leadership responded to Wednesday's announcement of an Israeli moratorium on new settlement building with: "It's not enough!"
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's unprecedented moratorium is both substantive and symbolic - the appropriate response to a Palestinian settlement freeze demand that is both emblematic and a red-herring.
THE DISPUTE between Palestinians and Israelis is not about settlements. It hinges on whether the Arabs are willing to recognize the legitimacy of Israel as the state of the Jewish people within any boundaries.
Some find it convenient to imagine that the clash between the Zionist and Arab causes has transitioned to a non-zero sum game. That is hardly the dominant view in Israel.
In 1920, the international community gave Britain the responsibility of establishing a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. But a year later London turned over eastern Palestine to Emir Abdullah and Transjordan was born. The Arab response? "It's not enough."
In 1937, the Peel Commission recommended dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The Zionists consented. The Arabs... said no.
In 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. Again, the Jews agreed. The Arab response was: "It's not enough" and they tried to throttle the newborn Jewish state. Israel survived while the Arabs took the West Bank and Gaza. Did they then form a Palestinian state? Of course not, because these territories alone were "not enough."
In 1967, the Arabs failed to push an Israel living within the 1949 Armistice Lines into the sea and the West Bank came into Israeli possession. Magnanimous in victory, Israel offered peace. The Arab response? "No peace, no recognition, no negotiations."
In 1977, Egypt's Anwar Sadat courageously embarked on the path of peace. Israel withdrew from all territory claimed by Egypt, and Menachem Begin, moreover, offered the Palestinians something they had never enjoyed - autonomy. Israeli forces would have been re-deployed as a prelude to final status negotiations. The Arab response? "It's not enough."
As a result of the 1993 Oslo Accords, the PLO leadership was invited to return from Tunis and set up a Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza. But a double-dealing Yasser Arafat never genuinely embraced this historic opportunity for reconciliation. Hamas intensified its terror campaign which claimed dozens of Israeli lives (well before the Baruch Goldstein Hebron massacre in February 1994). Ehud Barak twice - at Camp David (July 2000) and at Taba (January 2001) - offered Arafat a Palestinian state accompanied by extraordinary territorial and political concessions. The Arab response? "It's not enough."
When Israel unilaterally pulled its settlers and soldiers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, the Arabs again said: "It's not enough."
In 2008, Ehud Olmert offered Mahmoud Abbas 93 percent of the West Bank, plus additional territory from Israel proper. Abbas did not even deign to say "It's not enough" - he just walked away.
Then in June of this year Netanyahu, following in the footsteps of his predecessors, unequivocally accepted a demilitarized Palestinian state. The Arab response? "It's not enough."
Generation after generation, decade after decade, Israeli concession after concession, the Palestinians have never missed an opportunity to say, "It's not enough."
SO now the question is what will America do? Special Envoy George Mitchell reacted with sparing approval to Netanyahu's moratorium. "It falls short of a full settlement freeze, but it is more than any Israeli government has done before…" He then diluted this faint praise by coldly reiterating: "America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements."
A slightly more positive reaction came from Secretary of State Clinton who acknowledged that "agreed swaps" should be part of negotiations based on the 1967 lines.
To take additional risks for peace, Israelis must feel secure that the Obama administration wholly backs the 1967-plus formula. Washington needs to cajole Mahmoud Abbas back to the table to bargain in good faith, and it [the U.S. administration] should extract diplomatic gestures from its Arab allies in reciprocity for the premier's concessions.
Otherwise, the discouraging message that comes across to Israelis who want an agreement is that no matter what we do it will always "fall short" with this administration and never be "enough" for the Arabs.
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