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Hamas isn't open to compromise

Urging talks with Hamas only encourages it to continue its strategy of dictatorship within Gaza and its war against Israel

• Barry Rubin
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 February 2009 11.59 GMT
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/27/hamas-palestinian-territories-gaza

Perhaps it is true that peace can only be made with enemies, but this is only true regarding those who no longer want to be enemies. This does not apply in the case of Hamas. In fact, the stronger Hamas becomes – empowered by well-meaning, but no less destructive bystanders such as the signatories to this week's letter in the Times, urging talks with Hamas – the further away will be any chance for peace in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

These points should not be so difficult to understand. Yet a large part of the problem is that when this particular issue becomes the topic of conversation, many seem to lose their most basic common sense and their understanding of how politics and international affairs work.

Consider the basic facts. Hamas's main goal is the physical destruction of Israel and its people. In its pronouncements in Arabic, the organisation makes no secret of this fact. That is commonly called genocide. It routinely uses historic anti-Jewish myths and incites hatred of Jews. This is commonly called antisemitism.

Hamas's historic military tactic was the maximum murder of Israeli civilians. This is commonly called genocide. It is ruthless in killing those among the Palestinians who disagree with it. This – recently documented at length by Amnesty International and reported on by the Guardian – is commonly called ferocious repression. It indoctrinates children with the ambition to be suicide bombers. This is commonly called – well, it is so unprecedented that there is no proper name for this behaviour.

Did Hamas win the Palestinian elections? It certainly came in first. But then, after making a deal with its Fatah rival, Hamas launched a military coup and seized power in Gaza by force. Thus, it can have no democratic pretensions for its rule. The Nazis in Germany and the Bolsheviks in Russia also won elections, then grabbed dictatorial power also, yet no one had any illusions about what they did.

During a ceasefire, Hamas continually either launched attacks itself – on the ground and using mortars and rockets – or worked with smaller groups to do so. This is commonly called aggression. It then ended the ceasefire and launched a large-scale attack. That is commonly called declaring war. Then, it used the civilian populace as human shields and committed other actions, which is commonly called war crimes.

Was it productive for the cause of peace or the welfare of Gaza's population for many people in the west to, in effect, support Hamas? Not at all. For this only encourages Hamas to continue its strategy of total dictatorship within Gaza and permanent war against Israel. Keeping Hamas in power, much less providing it with hundreds of millions of pounds of aid – no matter what safeguards are put in, Hamas will end up with lots of the money – is a guarantee of future war, terrorism, instability, and no peace.

And this brings us to the key argument which basically ignores all the evidence of this specific case: that Hamas must be negotiated with and brought into negotiations.

There is a reason why groups are put into two categories: the IRA or Fatah, for instance, in one; the Taliban, al-Qaida, or the Nazis into another. The question is whether an organisation is so extreme, so ideologically intent on conquest and murder, that its goals cannot possibly be satisfied through negotiations.

If the goal of Hamas is not a two-state solution but Israel's destruction, the repression of all other Palestinian forces, and the establishment of an Islamist dictatorship, how is any compromise outcome possible? And remember that this goal is built into the organisation's fabric, ideology, and claim that it is sanctioned by Allah?

There is, however, another issue, which is all the more important for being practical. Adding a large quantity of deadly acid to water will not make a palatable drink. To empower Hamas, in practice, is to undermine the Palestinian Authority (PA). And to add Hamas to the PA, under present conditions, would not make a more moderate Hamas, but a more radical PA.

It would, in fact, destroy any possibility for peace whatsoever. Any time the PA thought of making any necessary compromise, it would be discredited by Hamas's outbidding, which would also appeal to many people within Fatah. Instead of an end to conflict with the Gaza Strip, there would soon emerge a war with both that area and the West Bank.

Hamas would continue to try, aided and strengthened by western assistance, and might well succeed in wiping out the more moderate – and consequently less ruthless – forces altogether. And, of course, it would condemn Palestinians both to Hamas's rule, endless war, and no chance of getting a state of their own. A strange way to behave by those who claim to be concerned about their welfare.

As for arguing that Hamas is not going away and must be propitiated, there are always factors in the world that are extremist, terrorist, repressive and dictatorial. Hamas is not going to be changed by any soft-line approach, no matter how much people wish that were the case. The answer – especially when they are so relatively weak – is to defeat them by supporting their would-be victims; to show that moderation pays and fanaticism costs dearly.

We will be watching closely, looking for any signs of genuine change in Hamas. The door remains open. But until then, the world must stand firm and speak to Hamas with one voice. Unwillingness to take this course has been a key factor in the spread of violence and extremism throughout the Middle East and beyond.

"Today, the most dangerous anti-Semites might be those who want to make the world Judenstaatrein, 'free of a Jewish state.'" -- Irwin Cotler, advocate of human rights.

In the following column, Cotler describes the surging ideological and legal push to rid the world of Israel and identifies this movement as the goal of the most recent phase of anti-Semitism -- popularly termed the New anti-Semitism. Cotler, former Canadian Minister of Justice, offers herein the clearest, brief description of this phenomenon. Well worth reading. //Mark Finkelstein jcrc@dmjfed.org


The New Anti-Semitism: Making the world 'Judenstaatrein'

Feb. 22, 2009 The Jerusalem Post

IRWIN COTLER

Some 125 parliamentarians gathered together last week for the historic founding conference of the Interparliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism (ICCA), brought together by a new sophisticated, globalizing, virulent and even lethal anti-Semitism reminiscent of the atmospherics of the 1930s, and without parallel or precedent since the end of World War II.

The new anti-Jewishness overlaps with classical anti-Semitism but is distinguishable from it. It found early juridical, and even institutional, expression in the UN's "Zionism is racism" resolution - which the late US senator Daniel Moynihan said "gave the abomination of anti-Semitism the appearance of international legal sanction" - but has gone dramatically beyond it. This new anti-Semitism almost needs a new vocabulary to define it; however, it can best be identified using a rights-based juridical perspective.

In a word, classical or traditional anti-Semitism is the discrimination against, denial of or assault upon the rights of Jews to live as equal members of whatever host society they inhabit. The new anti-Semitism involves the discrimination against the right of the Jewish people to live as an equal member of the family of nations - the denial of and assault upon the Jewish people's right even to live - with Israel as the "collective Jew among the nations."

As the closing "London Declaration" of the ICCA conference affirmed: "We are alarmed at the resurrection of the old language of prejudice and its modern manifestations - in rhetoric and political action - against Jews, Jewish belief and practice and the State of Israel."

Observing the complex intersections between the old and the new anti-Semitism, and the impact of the new on the old, Per Ahlmark, former leader of the Swedish Liberal Party and deputy prime minister of Sweden, pithily concluded: "Compared to most previous anti-Jewish outbreaks, this [new anti-Semitism] is often less directed against individual Jews. It attacks primarily the collective Jews, the State of Israel. And then such attacks start a chain reaction of assaults on individual Jews and Jewish institutions... In the past, the most dangerous anti-Semites were those who wanted to make the world Judenrein, 'free of Jews.' Today, the most dangerous anti-Semites might be those who want to make the world Judenstaatrein, 'free of a Jewish state.'"

Genocidal Anti-Semitism

The first modality of the new anti-Semitism - and the most lethal type - is what I would call genocidal anti-Semitism. This is not a term that I use lightly or easily. In particular, I am referring to the Genocide Convention's prohibition against the "direct and public incitement to genocide." If anti-Semitism is the most enduring of hatreds and genocide is the most horrific of crimes, then the convergence of this genocidal intent embedded in anti-Semitic ideology is the most toxic of combinations.

There are three manifestations of this genocidal anti-Semitism. The first is the state-sanctioned - indeed state-orchestrated - genocidal anti-Semitism of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran, dramatized by the parading in the streets of Teheran of a Shihab-3 missile draped in the emblem "wipe Israel off the Map," while demonizing both the State of Israel as a "cancerous tumor to be excised" and the Jewish people as "evil incarnate."

A second manifestation of this genocidal anti-Semitism is in the covenants and charters, platforms and policies of such terrorist movements and militias as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizbullah and al-Qaida, which not only call for the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews wherever they may be, but also for the perpetration of acts of terror in furtherance of that objective.

The third manifestation of this genocidal anti-Semitism is the religious fatwas or execution writs, where these genocidal calls in mosques and media are held out as religious obligations - where Jews and Judaism are characterized as the perfidious enemy of Islam, and Israel becomes the Salmon Rushdie of the nations.

In a word, Israel is the only state in the world - and the Jews the only people in the world - that are the object of a standing set of threats by governmental, religious and terrorist bodies seeking their destruction. The London Declaration - again in a significant clarion call - recognized that "where there is incitement to genocide signatories [to the Genocide Convention] automatically have an obligation to act." This promise must now be acted upon.

Ideological Anti-Semitism

Ideological anti-Semitism is a much more sophisticated and arguably a more pernicious expression of the new anti-Semitism. It finds expression not in any genocidal incitement against Jews and Israel, or overt racist denial of the Jewish people and Israel's right to be; rather, ideological anti-Semitism disguises itself as part of the struggle against racism.

The first manifestation of this ideological anti-Semitism was its institutional and juridical anchorage in the "Zionism is racism" resolution at the UN. Notwithstanding the fact that the there was a formal repeal of this resolution, Zionism as racism remains alive and well in the global arena, particularly in the campus cultures of North America and Europe, as confirmed by the recent British All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism.

The second manifestation is the indictment of Israel as an apartheid state. This involves more than the simple indictment; it also involves the call for the dismantling of Israel as an apartheid state as evidenced by the events at the 2001 UN World Conference against Racism in Durban.

The third manifestation of ideological anti-Semitism involves the characterization of Israel not only as an apartheid state - and one that must be dismantled as part of the struggle against racism - but as a Nazi one.

And so it is then that Israel is delegitimized, if not demonized, by the ascription to it of the two most scurrilous indictments of 20th-century racism - Nazism and apartheid - the embodiment of all evil. These very labels of Zionism and Israel as "racist, apartheid and Nazi" supply the criminal indictment. No further debate is required. The conviction that this triple racism warrants the dismantling of Israel as a moral obligation has been secured. For who would deny that a "racist, apartheid, Nazi" state should not have any right to exist today? What is more, this characterization allows for terrorist "resistance" to be deemed justifiable - after all, such a situation is portrayed as nothing other than occupation et résistance, where resistance against a racist, apartheid, Nazi occupying state is legitimate, if not mandatory.

Legalized Anti-Semitism

If ideological anti-Semitism seeks to mask itself under the banner of anti-racism, legalized anti-Semitism is even more sophisticated and insidious. Here, anti-Semitism simultaneously seeks to mask itself under the banner of human rights, to invoke the authority of international law and to operate under the protective cover of the UN. In a word - and in an inversion of human rights, language and law - the singling out of Israel and the Jewish people for differential and discriminatory treatment in the international arena is "legalized."

But one example of legalized anti-Semitism occurred annually for more than 35 years at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. This influential body consistently began its annual session with Israel being the only country singled out for country-specific indictment - even before the deliberations started - the whole in breach of the UN's own procedures and principles. In this Alice in Wonderland situation, the conviction and sentence were pronounced even before the hearings commenced. Some 30 percent of all the resolutions passed at the commission were indictments of Israel.

After the commission was replaced in June 2006 by the UN Human Rights Council, the new body proceeded to condemn one member state - Israel - in 80% of its 25 country-specific resolutions, while the major human rights violators of our time enjoyed exculpatory immunity. Indeed, five special sessions, two fact-finding missions and a high level commission of inquiry have been devoted to a single purpose: the singling out of Israel.

This week's ICCA conference and London Declaration unequivocally condemned this "legalized" anti-Semitism, calling out that "governments and the UN should resolve that never again will the institutions of the international community and the dialogue of nations states be abused to try to establish any legitimacy for anti-Semitism, including the singling out of Israel for discriminatory treatment in the international arena, and we will never witness - or be party to - another gathering like Durban in 2001."

The Resurgence
of Global Anti-Semitism: Evidentiary Data

The data unsurprisingly confirm that anti-Semitic incidents are very much on the rise. Still, the available figures only show half the picture - they demonstrate an increase in this old/new anti-Semitism by concentrating on the traditional anti-Semitic paradigm targeting individual Jews and Jewish institutions, while failing to consider the new anti-Semitic paradigm targeting Israel as the Jew among nations and the fallout from it for traditional anti-Semitism. But the rise in traditional anti-Semitism is bound up with the rise in the new anti-Semitism, insidiously buoyed by a climate receptive to attacks on Jews because of the attacks on the Jewish state. Indeed, reports illustrate both an upsurge in violence and related anti-Semitic crimes corresponding with the 2006 Second Lebanon War and the recent Israel-Hamas war, which delegates to the ICCA conference characterized as a "pandemic."

Conclusion

It is this global escalation and intensification of anti-Semitism that underpins - indeed, necessitates - the establishment of the ICCA to confront and combat this oldest and most enduring of hatreds. Silence is not an option. The time has come not only to sound the alarm - but to act. For as history has taught us only too well: While it may begin with Jews, it does not end with Jews. Anti-Semitism is the canary in the mine shaft of evil, and it threatens us all.

The writer is a Canadian MP and former minister of justice and attorney-general. He is professor of law (on leave) at McGill University who has written extensively on matters of hate, racism and human rights. He is a co-founder of the Interparliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism with UK MP John Mann.

This article can be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304849224&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

Leading terrorism expert Brigitte Gabriel to speak Monday, March 30 presented by Jewish Federation and JCRC

The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines and The Jewish Community Relations Commission invite you to a public presentation with Brigitte Gabriel, one of the leading terrorism experts in the world.

Brigitte Gabriel, a Christian Arab who survived the Lebanese Civil War, speaks out.



“The Untold Story”

Monday, March 30, 7:00 pm
Tifereth Israel Synagogue, 924 Polk Boulevard, Des Moines.


Author of New York Times best-selling books “Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terrorism Warns America” and “They Must Be Stopped: Why WE Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It," Brigitte Gabriel provides information and analysis on Global Islamic terrorism. Among her activities, Gabriel is a regular guest analyst on Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, ABC and various radio stations daily across America.

This program is made possible through the generosity of Stanley and Gail Richards.

Join us for this thought-provoking presentation and discussion. Free of charge. No reservations necessary. Book signing to follow. For more information contact jcrc@dmjfed.org.


Brigitte Gabriel has become one of the leading terrorism experts in the world providing information and analysis on Global Islamic terrorism. She is a member of the board of Advisors of the Intelligence Summit and lectures nationally and internationally about terrorism and current affairs. Her expertise are sought after by world and business leaders. She has addressed the Australian Prime Minister John Howard, members of The British Parliament/House of Commons, members of the United States Congress, The Joint Forces Staff College, The US Special Operations Command, the FBI and many others. In addition, Gabriel is a regular guest analyst on Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, ABC and various radio stations daily across America.

Gabriel began her career as news anchor for "World News," an evening Arabic news broadcast for Middle East Television seen throughout Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Cyprus and Lebanon. She covered the Israeli security zone in Lebanon and the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank. Her work is of international scope having brought her in contact with world figures such as Margaret Thatcher, George H. Bush, Queen Nour El Hussein, Itzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres.

With a passion and vigor hailing directly from profound experience -- the opening salvos of Islamic jihad towards the Western world in the Middle East -- Gabriel offers a poignant account of a remarkable upbringing. A native of South Lebanon, as a pre-teen she survived the first attack of the Lebanese civil war in 1975: a barrage of Muslim rockets that exploded in her house and left her wounded and buried under the rubble. Gabriel and her family then spent the next seven years in subterranean hiding while Lebanon was under Islamic attack.

Fiercely articulate and passionately committed, Gabriel outlines mistakes the West has made in underestimating the single-mindedness with which radical Islamists have pursued their goals for the past 30 years. A political hawk on international policy, she discusses the threat of radical Islam to world peace and national security in her New York Times best-selling memoir, Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terrorism Warns America (St. Martin’s Press, 2006). Gabriel's second book, They Must Be Stopped (St. Martin's Press, 2008), continues her mission to - in her words - "challenge our western and politically-correct notions about Islam, demonstrating why radical Islam is so deadly and how we can halt its progress."

Gabriel took up residence in Israel in 1984 and while there rose quickly to an anchor position with Middle East Television's "World News" -- an evening-news program broadcast in Israel, Lebanon, Syria and beyond. Relocating to the United States in 1989, she created a TV production and advertising company, with a client roster that included ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX News, CNN, Discovery, TLC and the History Channel.

From the war-torn bomb shelters of Lebanon to the boardrooms of America, Gabriel is a startling illustration of the American Dream. An inspiration for women throughout the world, she has balanced the demands of a successful career with the equally challenging duties of motherhood. Her passionate lectures emit a positive and empowering message to act on one's beliefs.

Ms. Gabriel is represented exclusively by Greater Talent Network, Inc.

Controversy over the agenda of the UN's World Conference Against Racism, April 2009

What is the controversy over the UN World Conference Against Racism ( Durban II) all about?

 

Here is a brief examination of the topic by Mitchell Bard, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths2/Israelsroots.html#a7

 

Bard informs readers that the UN's 2001 Conference Against Racism did not address the very real and important cases of racial oppression around the world but crudely and hatefully aimed to brand Israel as a racist state.  The present concern is that the April 2009 Conference in Durban, South Africa, not simply repeat the prior outpouring of blatant attempts to delegitimize Israel, in preparation for its destruction.  //Mark Finkelstein

-----------------------

In 2001, Arab nations again were seeking to delegitimize Israel by trying to equate Zionism with racism at the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. The United States joined Israel in boycotting the conference when it became clear that rather than focus on the evils of racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia that were supposed to be the subject of the event, the conference had turned into a forum for bashing Israel.

The United States withdrew its delegation “to send a signal to the freedom loving nations of the world that we will not stand by if the world tries to describe Zionism as racism. That is as wrong as wrong can be.” White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer added the President is proud to stand by Israel and by the Jewish community and send a signal that no group around the world will meet with international acceptance and respect if its purpose is to equate Zionism with racism.²⁰

The UN's Durban Review Conference, dubbed “Durban II, ” has been scheduled for April 2009. Though the conference is intended to target racism, many fear the agenda will again be hijacked and turned into another hate fest directed at Israel. The Obama Administration has declared its intention to participate in the planning for Durban II to try to prevent Iran, Cuba, Libya, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (all gross violators of human rights) and hostile nongovernmental organizations from again promoting Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism and the demonization of Israel. The United States is determined to see the conference play a positive role in combatting global racism and supporting human rights.^20a Israel has nevertheless declared its intention to boycott the event and has publicly asked the ‘free world’ to do the same.^20b The expectation is that the United States will again join the boycott if the agenda is not consistent with its expectations.

Israeli journalist Yossi Klein HaLevi interviews ilndividuals from what he terms the ultra-nationalist Jewish and Arab political parties.  The location:  Akko, which is in our Des Moines/Israel Partnership region.

 

 

Postcards from the Edge

Ground Zero Of Israel's New Ultra-Nationalism.

Yossi Klein Halevi ,  The New Republic  Published: February 13, 2009

Adham Jamal, head of the local branch of the fundamentalist Islamic Movement, and Ze'ev Noiman, head of the local branch of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu ("Israel is Our Home") party, call themselves friends. Both men are deputy mayors of this mixed Arab-Jewish city near Haifa, and their offices are on the same floor of the municipality. "Adham is a great guy," says Noiman, a retired career army officer. "He's condemned terrorism. True, I don't know what he says when he's speaking among Arabs, but to us he says the right things." Jamal: "Ze'ev isn't a racist like Lieberman," referring to Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman. "He grew up here in Acre. He lives with us." Both men say they keep disagreements over national issues separate from cooperation on local issues.

Acre has always been an unlikely home for co-existence. Many of its 35,000 Jews are children of immigrants from Arab countries, or recent immigrants from the Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. And many of Acre's 17,000 Arabs are poor and traditionalist. But somehow it's worked. The security guard who checks the bags at the municipality is an Arab--a gesture of trust in the Arab minority I've never seen in Israel. The town's Arab restaurants are filled with Jews. In Sa'id, one of the best hummus restaurants in the country, Jews and Arabs share tables; one recent afternoon there, I ate with a young Bedouin man named Ali, who had volunteered for the Israeli army and was voting for Kadima.

But the balance is becoming increasingly hard for Acre to manage. Last Yom Kippur, hundreds of Arabs and Jews fought in the streets. Jewish store windows were smashed, Arab homes firebombed. The riot was set off by an Arab man who drove into a Jewish neighborhood, violating the unwritten law against traffic in Jewish areas on the fast day. The driver, who Jews say was loudly playing Arabic music, publicly apologized, religious leaders from both communities met for a sulha, or peace accord, and Acre tried to return to normal.

The atmosphere of mutual distrust never quite dissipated, however, and now it has been coopted by two extremist parties. In the recent elections, Yisrael Beiteinu, which regards Israel's Arab minority as a fifth column and wants to revoke the citizenship of those who won't take a loyalty oath to the Jewish state, won as many votes in Acre as the more mainstream Likud party, according to local party officials. And a plurality of Acre's Arabs voted for the nationalist Balad, or "Homeland," which rejects a Jewish state and insists Arabs be recognized as a national minority. For Lieberman's supporters, Balad founder Azmi Bishara--who fled Israel after being accused of spying for Hezbollah--embodies Arab treason. One ad by Yisrael Beiteinu declared it's a "shame and disgrace" that former Knesset member Bishara "is still getting a pension of 8,000 shekels a month from the Israeli government."

I've come to Acre because promoting Arab Israeli equality and Arab-Jewish co-existence is my civic passion. I know how hard it is to separate the Arab Israeli issue from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Israel's Arabs are a unique minority: second-class within a Jewish majority, yet part of a regional majority hostile to Israel. But Israel's dilemma is unique as well. To be true to itself, Israel must remain a Jewish state responsible for Jews around the world, and a democratic state responsible for all its citizens, Jews and non-Jews.

What's breaking down in Acre is the habit of decency that makes these insoluble paradoxes possible. Acre offers a scenario for the unraveling of Israeli society. Between Lieberman and Bishara there can be no shared identity. If Yisrael Beiteinu and Balad are our future, then Lieberman is right: The greatest threat to Israel's existence comes from within.

 

Acre's walled Old City, one of the country's leading tourist sites, has an Arab market, an ancient port, and a vast underground Crusader-era fortress of tunnels and vaulted hallways. Acre was the last capital of the Crusaders before they were expelled from the Holy Land. And that past intrudes on Acre's politics. Jews say Arabs see them as Crusaders, conquerors who will one day be expelled. "They say it half-jokingly," says Yisrael Beiteinu's Noiman, "but it isn't a joke."

I have the fate of the Crusaders in mind when I visit the headquarters of Balad, a one-room storefront at the edge of the Old City, facing Ottoman walls built against the sea. "National Identity and Full Citizenship" reads the Arabic banner hanging out front. The citizenship is Israeli, but the national identity is Palestinian.

Balad's posters and leaflets are only in Arabic; unlike Hadash, the mostly Arab Communist Party, Balad doesn't even bother trying to appeal to Jews. On the wall is a large framed photograph of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the late Egyptian leader revered here for his pan-Arabism. Beside it hangs a poster warning young Arabs against doing alternative national service--" A Step Toward Military Service."

I ask Maryam Wishahie, an English teacher and a Balad activist, whether she thinks the Jews will end up being expelled like the Crusaders. "That depends on Israel's behavior," she says. "The Crusaders surrounded themselves with forts, just like Israel's security wall. If Israel doesn't become part of this region, it will have no future."

The more immediate possibility, she fears, is that her Jewish neighbors will build a wall around Arab neighborhoods, or try to force Acre's Arabs out. "The house next door to mine was recently bought by a Jew. I'm used to seeing the other: In my apartment building there are Muslims and Christians and a Jewish-owned restaurant. But this was done through an organization that wants to settle Jews in the Old City. What is this, the West Bank?"

For me, I say, the presence of Arab citzens in a Jewish state is an opportunity. You're the only part of the Middle East I can still talk to.

"We're not a bridge," she counters. "A bridge means that you belong to both sides. We are Palestinians. But if Israel will make real efforts for peace, we can help draw hearts together."

For Balad, peace can only happen when Israel abandons its Jewish identity--and its Jewish majority. "There is no solution between Zionism and Palestinian nationalism," says Maryam.

The Acre headquarters for Yisrael Beiteinu is a ten-minute walk from the Old City, and it is located in the Histadrut labor union building, once a bastion of the left. A group of young activists sit at a recruiting booth outside. They are all secular; one young man has a ponytail, a young woman multiple piercings. Posters taped to the booth show Lieberman's brooding bearded face, and the words, "Lieberman, I believe him."

As the leading parties blur into each other, and peace and security become more elusive, Lieberman promises clarity. He breaks the rules, not only of civility but of Israel's political categories. He combines left and right in a brutal pragmatism that speaks to a post-ideological generation. Lieberman is the only right-wing leader to support a Palestinian state. And he goes farther than the left in his willingness to concede territory, though for right-wing reasons: He wants to withdraw from areas within pre-1967 Israel that are overwhelmingly Arab, to reduce the number of Israel's Arab citizens--to eliminate the internal enemy.

Lieberman's young activists are eager to talk.

Itamar: "They say they're discriminated against? I'm discriminated against. I have to do three years in the army; they don't. Okay, I don't want them in the army. But what about national service? When I get out of the army at twenty-one, an Arab young man is already a lawyer. I want them to contribute. Also the ultra-Orthodox."

But whenever you target a specific group, I say, you're on a dangerous road. Lieberman doesn't target the ultra-Orthodox for avoiding military service, just the Arabs.

"It's not like that," says Itamar. "This is a life and death issue for the state. The ultra-Orthodox don't call for the destruction of Israel. In another twenty years, we will lose this country if something isn't done."

Yotam: "We're not motivated by hatred, but by love for our country. From the moment this state was born, the Arabs have tried to destroy us."

Chen: "A minority anywhere has to respect the country."

Yossi: "I see my future here in Acre with a Jewish majority, and with Arabs who respect the country. They want to be Palestinian? Then go to Palestine. This is the state of Israel.

Yotam: "This party [Yisrael Beiteinu] is my hope for staying in Acre."

Yael: "For staying in the country."

A car loudly playing Arab music drives by.

"You'll see," says Yael, "he'll come back."

He does. Twice.

Yossi Klein Halevi is a contributing editor at The New Republic and a senior fellow at the Adelson Center for Strategic Studies of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-fg-usiran12-2009feb12,0,3478184.story

From the Los Angeles Times

U.S. now sees Iran as pursuing nuclear bomb

In a reversal since a 2007 report, U.S. officials expect the Islamic Republic to reach development milestones this year.

By Greg Miller

February 12, 2009

Reporting from Washington — Little more than a year after U.S. spy agencies concluded that Iran had halted work on a nuclear weapon, the Obama administration has made it clear that it believes there is no question that Tehran is seeking the bomb.

In his news conference this week, President Obama went so far as to describe Iran's "development of a nuclear weapon" before correcting himself to refer to its "pursuit" of weapons capability.

Obama's nominee to serve as CIA director, Leon E. Panetta, left little doubt about his view last week when he testified on Capitol Hill. "From all the information I've seen," Panetta said, "I think there is no question that they are seeking that capability."

The language reflects the extent to which senior U.S. officials now discount a National Intelligence Estimate issued in November 2007 that was instrumental in derailing U.S. and European efforts to pressure Iran to shut down its nuclear program.

As the administration moves toward talks with Iran, Obama appears to be sending a signal that the United States will not be drawn into a debate over Iran's intent.

"When you're talking about negotiations in Iran, it is dangerous to appear weak or naive," said Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear weapons expert and president of the Ploughshares Fund, an anti-proliferation organization based in Washington.

Cirincione said the unequivocal language also worked to Obama's political advantage. "It guards against criticism from the right that the administration is underestimating Iran," he said.

Iran has long maintained that it aims to generate electricity, not build bombs, with nuclear power. But Western intelligence officials and nuclear experts increasingly view those claims as implausible.

U.S. officials said that although no new evidence had surfaced to undercut the findings of the 2007 estimate, there was growing consensus that it provided a misleading picture and that the country was poised to reach crucial bomb-making milestones this year.

Obama's top intelligence official, Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, is expected to address mounting concerns over Iran's nuclear program in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee today.

When it was issued, the NIE stunned the international community. It declared that U.S. spy agencies judged "with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program."

U.S. intelligence officials later said the conclusion was based on evidence that Iran had stopped secret efforts to design a nuclear warhead around the time of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Often overlooked in the NIE, officials said, was that Iran had not stopped its work on other crucial fronts, including missile design and uranium enrichment. Many experts contend that these are more difficult than building a bomb.

Iran's advances on enrichment have become a growing source of alarm. Since 2004, the country has gone from operating a few dozen centrifuges -- cylindrical machines used to enrich uranium -- to nearly 6,000, weapons experts agree.

By November, Iran had produced an estimated 1,400 pounds of low-enriched uranium, not nearly enough to fuel a nuclear energy reactor, but perilously close to the quantity needed to make a bomb.

A report issued last month by the Institute for Science and International Security concluded that "Iran is moving steadily toward a breakout capability and is expected to reach that milestone during the first half of 2009." That means it would have enough low-enriched uranium to be able to quickly convert it to weapons-grade material.

Tehran's progress has come despite CIA efforts to sabotage shipments of centrifuge components on their way into Iran and entice the country's nuclear scientists to leave.

Iran still faces considerable hurdles. The country touted its launch of a 60-pound satellite into orbit this month. Experts said Iran's rockets would need to be able to carry more than 2,000 pounds to deliver a first-generation nuclear bomb.

And there are indications that the U.S. and Iran are interested in holding serious diplomatic discussions for the first time in three decades. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said this week that his nation was "ready to hold talks based on mutual respect," and Obama indicated that his administration would look for opportunities "in the coming months."

Hassan Qashqavi, spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, on Wednesday warned the U.S. not to wait for Iranian presidential elections this year, because ultimate authority rests with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

He also said Iran would be patient.

"Since a new administration came to power in the U.S., we do not want to burn the opportunity of President Obama and give him time to change the reality on the ground," Qashqavi said.

But experts said Iran was now close enough to nuclear weapons capability that it may be less susceptible to international pressure.

"They've made more progress in the last five years than in the previous 10," Cirincione said.

Attitudes. The two following items are related. The first, from London, hatefully characterizes Jews as taking joy in the death of Arab children. The second documents the extremist Islamic glee in having their children pursue death for Allah.
Unbelievable. //Mark Finkelstein jcrc@dmjfed.org


New anti-semitic play in London

Commentary by blogger Elder of Ziyon.

[There is]a new ten-minute play called "Seven Jewish Children" where Jewish parents and grandparents teach their unseen charges to hate Arabs.

The climax of the play is where unfeeling Jewish parents literally cheer the deaths of Gaza children:

" Tell her about the family of dead girls, tell her their names why not, tell her the whole world knows, why shouldn’t she know? tell her there’s dead babies, did she see babies? Tell her she’s got nothing to be ashamed of. Tell her they did it to themselves. Tell her they want their children killed to make people sorry for them, tell her I’m not sorry for them, tell her not to be sorry for them, tell her we’re the ones to be sorry for, tell her they can’t talk suffering to us. Tell her we’re the iron fist now, tell her it’s the fog of war, tell her we won’t stop killing them till we’re safe, tell her I laughed when I saw the dead policeman, tell her I wouldn’t care if we wiped them out, the world would hate us is the only thing, tell her I don’t care if the world hates us, tell her we’re better haters, tell her we’re chosen people, tell her I look at one of their children covered in blood and what do I feel? Tell her all I feel is happy it’s not her.


Commentary by Elder of Ziyon: It is pointless to argue that Jews and Israelis don't feel anything like the words spoken here. It is a waste of time to explain that Jews are not happy to see dead Palestinian Arab civilians. And it is beyond the comprehension of the playwright to mention that the only population that unabashedly and joyously celebrates the deaths of innocents are the Arabs that the author of the play is so sympathetic to.

But it is important to point out that the playwright, who pretends to be a liberal, is displaying the worst kind of bigotry possible.

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Palestinian Women Urged To Sacrifice Their Children.


Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas/Gaza), Al-Quds TV (Lebanon) -Granddaughter and Wife of Giants of Terrorism, 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam and Abdallah 'Azzam, Urge Palestinian Women to Sacrifice Their Children

Israeli election returns, according to TV channels



All credit to Aussie Dave, http://www.israellycool.com

Remarkable collection of 300 original Holocaust-era letters from major camps and ghettos on display in Cedar Rapids this weekend only.
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The exhibit will be on display at Coe College on February 14 and Temple Judah (Cedar Rapids)on Sunday, February 15. 10:00 am - 3 pm at each venue.
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A one-of-a-kind, award-winning exhibit of hundreds of pieces of World War II era mail and documents related to the Nazi’s attempted extermination of Jews and others will be publicly displayed at Coe College on Feb. 14. The exhibit will be shown from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Perrine Gallery of Stewart Memorial Library. It is free and open to the public. For information about the exhibit's display at Coe College, contact rpritcha@coe.edu.

For information about the exhibit's display at Temple Judah, contact Prof. Steve Feller at sfeller@coe.edu. Temple Judah is located at 3221 Lindsay Ln SE in Cedar Rapids, IA 52403.

The collection is owned by the Deerfield, Illinois-based Florence and Laurence Spungen Family Foundation, which acquired the extraordinary items to preserve and offer them for public use at Holocaust and genocide educational venues around the world.

“The insured value of the collection is $1 million, but the educational value to future generations is incalculable,” said Daniel Spungen, a member of the board of the Spungen Family Foundation.

“One of the most heartbreaking artifacts and historical evidence of Nazi desecration is a torn fragment of a hand-written Hebrew parchment from a Bible scroll (Tanakh). A German soldier used the holy scripture to wrap a parcel he mailed from Russia to Austria in 1942,” explained Spungen. “The sacred parchment was pillaged from a Russian synagogue. Ironically, the portion that was used as wrapping paper has passages from the first book of Samuel about the story of David and Goliath.”

George J. Kramer, chairman of the New York-based Philatelic Foundation, described the scroll fragment as “one of the most important items of Judaic postal history.”
This is only the third public exhibition since the acquisition of the historic items from a private collector was formally announced by the Spungen charitable foundation last September.

Steve Feller, a Coe professor of physics and co-author of the book, “Silent Witness: Civilian Camp Money of World War II,” will present an educational program about Holocaust-related money in conjunction with the exhibit of the collection.

The postal artifacts in the collection are evidence of the torments, ravages and terror of war and genocide in Europe from 1933 to 1945. They also show that many prisoners never lost hope, and the human spirit survived.

“We will be giving educational institutions and museums around the world the opportunity to use the exhibit materials for displays, lectures and research,” said Florence Spungen, Founder of the Foundation. “This is a permanent educational tool for all generations to document this important period of time that cannot be forgotten.”

The Holocaust exhibit was acquired intact from noted researcher, writer and collector, Ken Lawrence, of Bellefonte, Pa., a former vice president of the American Philatelic Society, who began assembling the material in 1978.

Including items contributed by Spungen, the foundation now will be the guardian of the more than 250 envelopes, post cards, letters, and specially-designated postage stamps used exclusively by concentration camp inmates, Jewish ghetto residents and prisoners of war. In addition, the collection includes counterfeit Bank of England paper money created by slave laborers during “Operation Bernhard,” the Nazis’ failed plot to undermine England’s economy and the subject of the recent motion picture, "The Counterfeiters."

Frequently exhibited by Lawrence, the display won awards and medals at stamp shows including an international exhibition in Washington, D.C. in 2006.

“The scroll page that was used for mailing a parcel is the most viscerally disturbing item. Some scholars have told me it is among the most important surviving evidence of Nazi desecration,” said Lawrence. “Chronic, flagrant desecration exemplified by violating that sacred scripture imbued the cultured German nation and historically honor-bound German army with an inhuman attitude toward Jews that made the Holocaust both possible, and given the opportunity, inevitable.”

Some of the ghetto and concentration camp letters have coded or hidden messages about the plight of the senders. Research about the postal materials has led to discovery of a previously unreported undercover address in Lisbon, Portugal, used by Jewish resistance fighters, and the location of two camps in Romania for slave laborers and political detainees.

In addition to the Bible scroll fragment used to wrapping a package, the collection includes:
• Rare examples of mail sent to prisoners and mail sent between inmates at different camps;
• A card sent by an inmate at Dachau soon after it opened in 1933 is the earliest known prisoner mail from any Nazi concentration camp;
• An October 3, 1943 letter to his parents in Rzeszów, Poland from Eduard Pys, a 21-year-old who arrived on the first transport at the Auschwitz concentration camp in May 1940;
• The only known surviving piece of mail sent by Rabbi Leo Baeck, the leader of German Jewry (Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden), while he was confined to the Theresienstadt ghetto;
• A postal checking account receipt imprinted with a crude anti-Semitic caricature denoting payment for a subscription to a Nazi propaganda newspaper, Der Stűrmer;
• Mail secretly carried by children through the sewers of Warsaw during the 1944 uprising;
• Mail clandestinely carried from Nazi-occupied Poland to the exhibit Polish Navy headquarters in London and to a Jewish resistance leader in Switzerland; and,
• A December 1945 postal card addressed to Dr. Eugen von Haagen, a Nazi war criminal on trial after the war at Nuremberg, that is the only recorded example of the censor mark of the International Military Tribunal.

Arrangements are being worked out for the entire collection to be housed at the new facilities of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center that will open in April in Skokie, Ill.

“We are genuinely excited about the prospect of being the central repository for this remarkable collection,” said Richard Hirschhaut, Executive Director of the museum.

The Florence and Laurence Spungen Family Foundation was established in 2006 to
support charitable and educational causes. Many of the historic artifacts now can be viewed online at the foundation’s Web site, www.SpungenFoundation.org.

Lubin, Baltzer, and Libels

A Modern-Day Anti- Jewish Libel

 

Rabbi David Jay Kaufman's commentary helps inform readers as to the nature and context of some of the accusations being leveled against Israel. 

 

 

The following is Rabbi  Kaufman's commentary on one current attempt to demonize Jewish Israelis in the Israel Defense Forces and Israel, by extension, by painting a picture of Israelis as Nazis.   Rabbi Kaufman addresses  the current worldwide dissemination of a libelous accusation that an Israeli solder forced a Gazan mother to choose which of her children should be killed --  a projection of the "Sophie's Choice" Holocaust scenario upon Israel. 

 

Summary:

" The sickening nature of this story and of dozens of other equally false and demonizing lies that have been revealed as lies that have come from Gaza over the past weeks should put anyone who cares about the truth on red alert for more. ... It is inconceivable to me, short of reporting [Israeli Jewish soldiers]  drinking the blood of the children or using [blood] for making Matzah, [how anyone ] could have relayed a ...story ...portraying Jews in a more classically anti-Jewish light....  [This story] can only incite hatred and [was] likely created to do just that "  --David J. Kaufman 

 

This is an important commentary on a topic that should be of concern to all who abhore the sowing of hate and the reinforcement of millenia-old hateful stereotypes.  Unfortunately, the damage is likely irreparable.  There is a ready market of individuals to buy the story, however fallacious -- as there is a coterie of  'equivocationists' who will disavow the veracity of the story but will 'understand' how such stories can possibly be believed due to Israel's alleged evils.  In either case, such hateful or hypocritical reactions must be opposed.  Rabbi Kaufman's commentary is a contribution to that effort.

                                                     //Mark Finkelstein, JCRC Des Moines Jewish Federation.  jcrc@dmjfed.org

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Shalom,

 

As I tend to monitor the hatred being spewed against Israel, I came across I nice ditty from Anna Baltzer quoting Barbara Lubin in what amounts to a Blood Libel, but really is more a Palestinian re-creation of a famous story from the NAZI period. In the version from Baltzer that I saw, she herself compared the story with one from the Nazi period. The story is one in which a mother is forced to choose which of her children should be killed.

 

While I find it sickening, I find it more sickening and disturbing that what is almost assuredly demonizing propaganda was sent around the world wherein it will become fact regardless of its veracity. I have seen this multiple times already in this recent conflict. The UN itself was guilty of this in recent weeks, only finally "correcting" its accusation that Israel had deliberately struck a school and killed those sheltered in it. What I am finding is that the "Peace Community" is sending out all accusations of horrific actions by Israel as if they were true. I'm sure that you will have seen Anna Baltzer's statements from one source or another.

 

I found Baltzer's apology for sending out the blood libel (as if apologizing for linking Jews to Nazis because her friend did it first should somehow be acceptable) at http://www.google-way.com/Palestine-Witness.html. Of course, Baltzer didn't really apologize at all, but instead said something along the lines of "I might have believed it too and haven't written it off as false yet." This, in my mind puts her so far across the line of demonizing Israel that I have no problem calling her a Jewish Jew-hater. Why? Because she is chomping at the bit to declare it true or at least reasonable. Even if it actually happened, it wouldn't be reasonable. It would be one or two very sick soldiers. Yet she acts as if somehow these two would legitimately represent Israel. That thought process alone is enough to cross the line for me.

 

Why not just call her just a critic of Israel? Because she uses her status as a child of Holocaust survivors to directly connect her Judaism to her criticisms of Israel and specifically to connect the NAZIs to the Israelis. Her contention that she is cautious in publicly making connections between the Israelis and NAZIs is laughable and frankly false. Her defense of circulating the modern blood libel was obscene itself.

 

Baltzer wrote:

 

"The truth is that everyday people of any background in any place are capable of unthinkable crimes. Germans were not born Nazis. Palestinians were not born suicide bombers. When you give 18-year-old boys big guns and tanks and send them into an area full of people they fear (and consequently hate), the result is predictable. It doesn't matter where you come from. The story is not anti-Semitic; it's just one story of many, all testimonies to the dangerous power-dynamic created by unmonitored occupation and ethnocentric nationalism.. And it's a call for us to change the circumstances that can lead to the repetition of history.

Comparing Israel's actions to anything done by the Nazis is something I almost never do, because it is rarely accurate or useful. However, I am tired of pretending that similarities do not exist. Obviously there is no comparison between systematically exterminating 6 million Jews and dispossessing or imprisoning 10 million Palestinians (and killing tens of thousands more). Still, the ghettoizing, the massacres, the humiliation tactics, the torture, the religious and ethnic profiling… they all feel so horribly familiar. I might add that the official definition of genocide extends also to the destruction of a cultural or national identity, something of which Israel is surely guilty. "

 

I continue:

 

Not having the time to deal with the multitude of accusations in the paragraph above or the misrepresentations, I simply put forth her statement just to point out that she specifically notes that "The story is not anti-Semtiic.." Are you kidding? The story is a classic Jew-hatred filled libel. It is Israelis, Jews, as Nazis. It is the worst possible demonization of Israelis and could easily push someone who already is filled with hatred against Jews to act upon that hatred. To circulate it and to defend it is beyond explanation. Lubin and Baltzer's minds must be so full of hatred for Israel that they do not care what impact the spreading of demonization of Israel could have on Jews around the world.

 

Meanwhile, her friend and her friend's organization, MECA whose unconscionable distribution of this libel also belies explanation, now has posted a disclaimer on their website at http://pulsemedia.org/2009/01/24/letter-from-gaza-barbara-lubin/

 

The posting by Lubin now includes the following disclaimer:

"Barbara Lubin and all of us at the Middle East Children’s Alliance believe that we should have confirmed the story about the Gaza woman who was told by an Israeli soldier to choose which five of her ten children should die, and then witnessed their murder. We are doing everything we can now to verify the story, but have been unable to do so. We ask that you do not publish or post this story on the Internet. If you have already done so, please post this statement, as well.

Barbara Lubin went to Gaza to deliver four tons of medicine and other aid to the people there. When she arrived in the immediate aftermath of the Israeli assault the scene she encountered was chaotic and the people traumatized. She heard and retold many horrifying accounts, and saw for herself the devastation to homes, schools, businesses, land and lives.

In these catastrophic circumstances, it’s not difficult to see how Barbara would find this story credible. Unfortunately, we sent it out before taking the time to verify it. "

[I continue...]

 

I must say that I appreciate MECA's follow up. Perhaps, they figured that distributing material full of libelous Jew-hatred might belie their appearance as an organization that cares about all human beings and not just all human beings who are not Israelis. My bet is that someone called them on it.

 

My belief is that Barbara Lubin, like Anna Baltzer, believes that Israelis are hate filled murderers, or at least many are, and therefore was perfectly willing to believe this story. Already seeing Israelis as Nazis who speak Hebrew, it does not take much to make them Nazi murderers who speak Hebrew. I'm sorry, but the sickening nature of this story and of dozens of other equally false and demonizing lies that have been revealed as lies that have come from Gaza over the past weeks should put anyone who cares about the truth on red alert for more.

 

The only path to peace being paved by the work of Lubin and Baltzer in distributing this libel and other propaganda created by Hamas is one that leads through crematoria designed for those who survived the Holocaust. It is inconceivable to me how, short of reporting [Israeli Jews] drinking the blood of the children or using their blood for making Matzah, Lubin could have relayed a more damning story or one portraying Jews in a more classically anti-Jewish light. It frightens me that she did. It frightens me more that Anna Baltzer did. She should know better.

 

I certainly hope that our local peace communities are smart enough to treat such accusations with an understanding that stories such as this can only incite hatred and were likely created to do just that.

 

 

David Jay Kaufman
Rabbi,  Temple B'nai Jeshurun
Des Moines, IA
515-274-4679

Overview: Understanding Israel on the eve of its election

An interpretation of Israel's domestic situation on the eve of the Israeli elections to be held February 10, 2009 by a respected analyst.

Israel’s Election in International Perspective

by Barry Rubin, GLORIA, Feb. 8, 2009

Prof. Barry Rubin, GLORIA

Many people don’t understand what’s happening now in Israeli politics, so here’s a brief, and non-partisan, appreciation. Compared to the past, there’s far less difference between the three main parties. This is largely due to the objective situation, which is rather inflexible.

It is easy to characterize some as rabid right-wingers who throw away chances for peace and others as rabid left-wingers who are ready to make too many concessions. Neither argument is correct except for the fringes, which are not going to shape Israeli policy. I am tempted to add that abroad, the left thinks we’re evil, while the right thinks we’re stupid. All of this has little to do with reality.

The dominant theme in international media coverage is to say Israelis are moving toward the right. Yet this is both misleading and misinterpreted. On the first aspect, the real Israeli move has been toward the center, which is represented not only by Kadima and Likud but also by Labor. The great majority of Israelis are about to vote for parties close to centrist positions than at any time in history.

The left-wing mantra is peace, though how we can reach peace with Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Hizballah is rather hard to see. With the PA the situation is a more complex but, briefly, it doesn’t control Gaza, is still full of radical elements, and has weak leadership.

The PA is nowhere near being able to make peace on a realistic basis. Everyone in the PA and in Israel’s leadership knows this; few in the Western media and academia seems close to comprehending it. A lot of governments understand the situation privately but talk quite different in public.

The right-wing mantra is victory, though how Israel is going to replace the Iranian and Syrian governments, or destroy Hamas and Hizballah is equally hard to see. Israel has minimal to no international support for these goals and lacks great alternatives to what exists at present.

What have Israelis learned over the last decade that shapes their thinking?

We discovered that Palestinians and Syrians are unwilling and unable to make peace.

We saw that Fatah is still full of extremism and its leadership is too weak and too hardline itself to make a comprehensive peace agreement.

We viewed the rise of Hamas as a group dedicated to permanent war with Israel and its seizure of one-half of the Palestinian-ruled territories, using land from which Israel withdrew as a base for attacks.

We experienced the continuing hatred of the Arab world and Muslim world toward Israel, largely undiminished by Israeli concessions.

We observed Iran’s rise as a power, potentially nuclear armed, whose regime explicitly seeks Israel’s extinction.

We noted the world didn’t reward Israel for making concessions and taking risks. Indeed, the more Israel gave, the higher the degree of slander and hostility rose in many sectors.

As a result of this, there has arisen in Israel a national consensus around the following points:

–Israel wants peace and will make real concessions for true lasting, stable peace and a two-state solution

–Few think the Palestinian leadership—PA, Fatah—is willing or able to make such an agreement for decades. The same applies to Syria.

–As a result, any real changes on Jerusalem, the Golan Heights or West Bank settlements are far off.

–No deal can be made with Hamas. But Hamas isn’t going to disappear either. The same applies to Hizballah.

–The key point is to defend Israel and its citizens so they pursue their normal lives.

–Iran is a real danger and when it appears about to get nuclear weapons, a big decision will have to be made on attacking these facilities.

As a result of this national consensus—accepted by Labor, Likud, and Kadima, along with many others—the next government can be a national unity government. Whoever becomes prime minister would do well to bring in one or both of the other two main parties. What is Israel’s consensus policy for the next government?

–To stress that we want peace, are ready for a Palestinian state, aren’t responsible for the conflict and violence continuing.

–To maintain deterrence and defend ourselves.

–To preserve the best possible relations with the United States, Europe, and other countries as long as it does not involve risks to Israeli national interests and citizens.

–Security cooperation with the PA to prevent terrorist attacks on Israel in exchange for helping them economically and against Hamas to ensure that it doesn’t take over the West Bank. Without illusions regarding Fatah and the PA, this effort seems to be working.

–To decide when to strike back at Hamas—and potentially Hizballah—based on any attacks on us. Precise response depends on timing, opportunity, and their behavior.

–To work for the isolation of Iran, Hizballah and Hamas.

Where are the main differences among the leading parties? They are more atmospherics than real: offering small concessions; making small demands. If much of the election revolves around personalities that is because strategy and policy are not hugely different among them. Bibi isn’t going to embark on a settlement-building campaign; Tzipi isn’t going to give away east Jerusalem.

And that’s a good thing for whatever faults they have, this trio is basically making appropriate responses to the situation.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), with Walter Laqueur (Viking-Penguin); the paperback edition of The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan); A Chronological History of Terrorism, with Judy Colp Rubin, (Sharpe); and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley). To subscribe to Gloria Center publications for free, write profbarryrubin@yahoo.com.

Sign at peace protest didn't convey peace

Peace groups that tolerate calls to destroy Israel don't seek peace! 

 

This message is to the sponsors of the January 16 peace rally at Nollen Plaza:    Middle East Peace Education Project -- AFSC, Catholic Peace Ministry; DMCW; Veterans for Peace –DM; Methodistfederation for social action— DM chapter; DM Palestine group; Islamic Center of DM; Socialist Workers Party; Students Activist Against War—Drake University; International League for Peace and Freedom -- DM

 

Sponsors: Work for a permanent, two-state solution for a Jewish Israel and an Arab Palestine. Repudiate those groups -- including Hamas -- whose stated goal is to destroy Israel.  Theirs is not the road to peace.   Do not tolerate signs calling for Israel's destruction in your rallies.  Repudiate those signs now!  Publicly.

 

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Here's what the  peace groups  tell the media ......

 

But does the following match their message?

 

If not, the sponsors of the rally must repudiate the blatent rejection of peace that is part of their message.   http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090206/OPINION04/902060341/1038/Opinion   February 6, 2009  Letter to the Editor, Des Moines Register Sign at peace protest didn't convey peace  The peace groups that regularly hold demonstrations in Nollen Plaza should be ashamed of tolerating in their Jan. 16 rally a sign that implicitly called for the destruction of Israel. The homemade sign read: "Gaza will never die. But Israel will." The triumphalism expressed by that sign, carried apparently by a student from the West Bank, should repel all who desire a real, lasting and honorable peace to be reached by the current adversaries, based on mutual, and enforceable, acceptance. One would hope peace groups would support the making of peace in which both parties may live in peace (a goal supported by the Jewish Federation), and not turn a blind eye in rallies to those whose ultimate goal is to expect the other party to be obliterated . That's not peacemaking. For peace groups to align themselves with this ideology, siding politically with Hamas, is abhorrent. Demonstrations are scrutinized by the public to discern underlying motivations. Whatever the reasons for their tolerating the sign's display, the sponsors have an opportunity to repudiate the anti-peace sentiment expressed on the sign. To maintain their integrity, they should take that opportunity. - Mark S. Finkelstein, community relations director, Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, Des Moines    comments to jcrc@dmjfed.org ----------------------------- If your  e-mail does not display the photos, view the photos online at http://jcommunitynews.blogspot.com

Hamas remains an identified terrorist organization, and for good reasons.

Facts About Hamas
by Ricki Hollander, CAMERA.org

Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) is considered a terrorist organization by much of the non-Arab international community including Israel, the U.S., Canada, Japan, the U.K., Australia and the European Union. Its declared goal is to destroy the Jewish state and replace it with an Islamic one. But ever since the group's overwhelming victory in Palestinian elections, political figures, like former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former UK Ambassador to the UN Sir Jeremy Greenstock, and Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group, have tried to whitewash Hamas, arguing that it must be recognized and legitimized.

Even while Hamas deliberately targets civilians, endangers the welfare of Palestinians, brutally attacks its opponents, and proclaims its ultimate commitment to Israel's destruction, there are those who continue to suggest it is merely fighting for its "freedom" alongside Israel. This is false, belied by Hamas' governing charter, its actions, and its representatives' own proclamations.

Below are seven essential, unarguable facts about Hamas.
1) Hamas completely rejects a Jewish state.

Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims. (Hamas Charter, Article 28)

2) Hamas's ultimate mission–"no matter how long it takes"-- is to "fight the Jews and kill them"and to replace the Jewish state with an Islamic caliphate.

...the Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to realize the promise of Allah, no matter how long it takes. The Prophet, Allah's prayer and peace be upon him, says: "The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,' except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews." (Hamas Charter, Article 7)

As for the goals, they are to fight falsehood, vanquish it and defeat it so that righteousness shall rule, the homeland shall return [to its rightful owner], and from the top of its mosques, the [Muslim] call for prayer will ring out announcing the rise of the rule of Islam, so that people and things shall all return to their proper place. (Hamas Charter, Article 9)

3) Hamas' enmity is not directed against Israel alone but against the Jewish people as a whole. Jews are demonized repeatedly in Hamas' governing document.

...our fight with the Jews is very extensive and very grave, and it requires all the sincere efforts. It is a step that must be followed by further steps;...(Hamas Charter, Preamble)

The Prophet, Allah's prayer and peace be upon him, says: "The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,' except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews." [Recorded in the Hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim]. (Hamas Charter, Article Seven)

With money they have taken control of the world media - news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting services, etc. With money they sparked revolutions in various countries around the world in order to serve their interests and to reap profits. They were behind the French Revolution and the Communist Revolution and [they are behind] most of the revolutions about which we hear from time to time here and there. With money they have formed secret organizations, all over the world, in order to destroy [those countries'] societies and to serve the Zionists' interests, such as the Freemasons, the Rotary Clubs, the Lions, the Sons of the Covenant [i.e. B'nei B'rith], etc. All of these are organizations of espionage and sabotage. With money they were able to take control of the colonialist countries, and [they] urged them to colonize many countries so that they could exploit their resources and spread moral corruption there...They were behind World War I...obtained the Balfour Declaration, and established the League of the United Nations [sic] so as to rule the world through this organization. They were [also] behind World War II, through which they reaped enormous profits from commerce in war materials and paved the way for the establishment of their state. They [also] suggested the formation of the United Nations and the Security Council to replace the League of the United Nations [sic] and to rule the world through this [new organization]. Wherever there is war in the world, it is they who are pulling the strings behind the scenes. "Whenever they ignite the fire of war, Allah extinguishes it. They strive to spread evil in the land, but Allah does not love those who do evil." [Koran, 5:64] (Hamas Charter, Article 22)

It now remains for steps to be taken by the Arab and Islamic world. [The Islamic Resistance Movement] is well qualified for the upcoming stage [of the struggle] with the Jews, the warmongers. (Hamas Charter, Article 32)

(See full Hamas Charter )
4) Hamas rejects compromise, peace negotiations or a diplomatic end to the conflict.

[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement.

For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion; the nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its faith, the movement educates its members to adhere to its principles and to raise the banner of Allah over their homeland as they fight their Jihad...

...There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. (Hamas Charter, Article 15)

5) No Hamas representative has ever renounced the charter; Hamas leaders not only reiterate the charter's precepts calling for an Islamic caliphate in all of Israel, but view it as the first step to worldwide Islamic rule.

Five recent examples evidencing how Hamas adheres to its charter:

1.
"The Zionists – I swear to you, by God, by the world... We will not recognize Israel. If you want security or peace, you should go back to where you came from."
(Hamas "message" to the Israeli people: Broadcast Jan. 11, 2009).

2.
"Our goal is to liberate all of Palestine, from the river to the sea, from Rosh Hanikra to Umm Al-Rashrash [Eilat]. We do not want a state 364 square kilometers in size, nor do we want a state which we had to beg for at the negotiating table. Such a state will never come to be. What we want is a free state, which maintains its dignity, 27,000 square kilometers in size – the size of Palestine in its entirety."
(Hamas representative Osama Hamdan at press conference, Hamas Al Aqsa TV, Dec. 2008).

3.
"The day will come, within several years, when this world will change, submitting to the Arab Islamic will, Allah willing."
(Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, Al Jazeera TV, October 12, 2008).

4.
"The approaching victory, about which we are talking, is not limited to Palestine. You are creating the ethos of victory for all Arabs and Muslims, and Allah willing, even on the global level. Why? Because Allah has chosen you to fight the people He hates most – the Jews. Allah said: "You shall find the worst enemies of the believers to be the Jews and the polytheists." In other words, the Jews, who number 15 million all over the world, are equivalent to 4.5 billion infidels in their corruption and their struggle against the religion of Islam. Therefore, our heroic prisoners who were arrested for killing Jews should know that by the grace of Allah, killing a single Jew is the same as killing 30 million Jews. Therefore, the reward of our martyrs is great, and your reward is also great."
(Hamas MP Fathi Hammad, Hamas Al Aqsa TV, Sept. 8, 2008).

5.
"The annihilation of the Jews here in Palestine is one of the most splendid blessings for Palestine. This will be followed by a greater blessing, Allah be praised, with the establishment of a Caliphate that will rule the land and will be pleasing to men and God."
(Hamas cleric Muhsen Abu 'Ita, Hamas Al-Aqsa TV, July 13, 2008).

6) Hamas' targeting of Jewish civilians is part and parcel of its mission to kill Jews, destroy the Jewish State and wage jihad against civilians. Any claim that Hamas is fighting Israel's "occupation" is belied by the continued targeting of Jews well within Israel's pre-67 borders, even after Israel's complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Since September 2000, Hamas has carried out hundreds of attacks targeting civilians. Foreign residents, workers and students, as well as Israeli citizens have been among Hamas's victims. Even after Israel's disengagement from Gaza in August 2005, Hamas has continued to use the Gaza Strip as a launching pad to escalate rocket and mortar attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel's sovereign territory. Hamas also took responsibility for a suicide bombing and abduction and murder of an Israeli businessman following Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. In addition to the attacks for which Hamas publicly claims responsibility are those attacks which it encourages and facilitates from the territory it controls. For a list Hamas' more notorious attacks, see "Hamas Essentials". Hamas is also responsible for the following assaults on civilians:

*

Port: Ashdod Port, March 14, 2004: Hamas, together with Fatah, took credit for a double suicide bombing at Ashdod Port which killed 10 people and wounded 16.
*

City buses: Hamas has carried out numerous atacks on Israeli commuters. Schoolchildren and travellers of all ages on intra- and inter-city buses throughout Israel have been targeted in Netanya, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, Hadera, Meron, and elsewhere. Since September 2000, Hamas perpetrated more than 18 attacks on or near civilian buses, bus stops, train stations and taxis.

For example:

Egged Bus 19, Jan. 29, 2004: Hamas, together with Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing of Bus 19 in the center of Jerusalem which took the lives of 11 civilians and wounded 50 more, 13 of them seriously. The blast tore apart the bus, turning it into a twisted wreck.

Be'ersheva Buses 6 and 12, Aug. 31, 2004: Hamas claimed responsibility for two suicide attacks targeting city buses on Be'ersheva's main street, killing 16 and wounding over 100 people.

Attacks for which Hamas claimed responsibility after Israel's complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip:

*

Bus Station: Be'er Sheva Central Bus Station, Aug. 28, 2005: A Hamas suicide bomber detonated himself outside the Beersheba Central Bus Station. Two security guards stopped the bomber, but were severely wounded in the process. Fifty other people were wounded or treated for shock.
*

Abduction: September 21, 2005: Hamas claimed responsibility for the abduction and murder of Israeli businessman Sasson Nuriel.
*

Shopping mall: Dimona shopping mall, Feb. 4, 2008: Hamas claimed responsibility for and hailed a suicide bombing at a shopping mall which killed one woman and critically wounded her husband, as well as 38 more people. A Hamas statement following the event urged more such attacks.
*

Rocket and mortar attacks: Hamas consolidated its control over the Gaza Strip and enabled Palestinian terrorist organizations both to expand the facilities that manufacture rockets inside the Gaza Strip and to smuggle rockets into Gaza from Egypt. Rocket and mortar attacks soon became the main method of attack emanating from Hamas-controlled Gaza.

*Since Israel's disengagement 5,700 rockets and mortars were fired into Israel (more than 3,500 rockets and 2,200 mortars), killing 14 civilians and one soldier. In addition, hundreds of people were wounded, and thousands were treated for shock of minor injuries.

*In 2008 alone, 3,500 rockets and mortar shells landed in Israeli territory (almost 2000 rockets and 1,642 mortar shells) and put almost 1 million Israelis (i.e. 15% population) into rocket range. (See: Intelligence & Information Center report.)

(For more statistics and details about Hamas's terrorist attacks, see the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Web site and the the Intelligence & Terrorism Information Center.)
7) Hamas' brutality and disdain for civilian life extends to its own Palestinian population.

Brutality Following Election Win (2006)

After winning the Palestinian elections 2006, Hamas sent its militia into the street, attacking opponents with assault rifles and grenades, and assassinating and torturing Fatah rivals. Hamas gunmen killed women, children and foreign diplomats. Examples:

*

Jordanian diplomat Khaled Radaida, was killed when a Hamas gunmen shot through the windshield of his car despite the fact that the car bore a diplomatic license plate. (AP, May 22, 2006)
*

Hamas gunmen ambushed and opened fire on the car of a Fatah loyalist, Baha Balousheh, killing his three young children, ages 9, 7, and 4 and their driver on their way to school. Six other children were also wounded in the attack. (AP, Dec. 12, 2006; Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights [PICHR] Annual Report for 2006)

Bloody Coup in Gaza Strip (June 11-15, 2007)

In mid-June 2007, as Hamas waged a bloody coup against Fatah, and took over the Gaza Strip. Hamas gunmen paid little heed to bystanders. In just a two weeks of fighting, more than 160 people were killed, including 39 uninvolved bystanders. Of these, 11 were women and 14 were children. (PICHR, 2007 Report).

According to PICHR's report, the number of children killed as a result of internal fighting and chaos in Palestinian-controlled territories numbered 87—14 of whom were killed in mid-June.

Examples (AP, Telegraph, The Age, Guardian, New York Times):

*

In one attack, Hamas gunmen stormed the home of a Fatah security officer, killing his 14-year-old son and three women inside the house.
*

In another incident, Hamas and Fatah gunmen squared off near a hospital, placing kindergarten children in the direct line of fire.
*

Hamas death squads took over the streets, executing Fatah loyalists and alleged collaborators gangland-style, hurling some off rooftops. For example, Fatah member Mohammed Sweirki, was thrown off a 15-story building. (Note: Fatah members were equally brutal to Hamas members. For example, Hamas fighter Abu Kainas was thrown off a 12-story building.)
*

During an attack on the large Hilles family clan on October 20, 2007, Hamas took over the neighborhood, cutting electricity and telecommunications. Using machine guns, they stationed snipers on rooftops and killed several members of the clan, as well as 13-year-old Muhammad a-Susi who walking on the street. On that same day, during Hamas clashes with Islamic Jihad in Rafah, a 51-year-old female bystander, Hiyam Ahmad Ibrahim Saqer, was shot dead in Rafah.
*

Hamas gunmen shot into a crowd of Fatah demonstrators commemorating Yasir Arafat's death on Nov. 12, 2007. They killed seven people including 12-year-old Ibrahim Ahmad.

Human Rights Violations in 2007

After Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip, the number of human rights violations skyrocketed.

*

The Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights 2007 report records almost five times as many complaints about human rights violations made by Gaza residents in the half year following Hamas' takeover of Gaza in mid-June than in the half year preceding it (513 vs. 113).
*

A comparison of the number of rights violated showed a nearly 10-fold increase for the six months of 2007 following the Hamas takeover (1487 vs. 151).
*

Arrests without warrant increased 30-fold (175 vs. 5).
*

Complaints about torture increased almost 70-fold (743 vs. 11).

Recent Torture, Executions, and Seizing of Humanitarian Aid (2009)

More recently, during and following Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, Hamas gunmen beat, tortured, and executed members of their rival secular Fatah party and others accused of being collaborators. They also seized shipments of food and humanitarian aid.

*

Fatah published the names of 181 people executed, shot, or maimed by Hamas members. ( Ma'an News, Feb. 2, 2009)
*

PA Minister of Social Affairs Dr Mahmud al-Habbash Hamas gunmen of seizing 63 aid trucks, which were headed for UNRWA. (WAFA, Jan. 21, 2009)
*

Al-Habbash also accused Hamas gunmen of executing 19 citizens in cold blood during the aggression against Gaza and opening fire at the legs of 61 others. He said that some of those people are receiving treatment at Egyptian hospitals. He also accused Hamas of deliberately leaving people behind in places from which it was operating, to be bombed by Israel. (WAFA, Jan. 21, 2009)
*
Al Habbash accused Hamas of terrorizing journalists and citizens by not allowing them to speak independently and forcing them to say only what Hamas wanted and for pursuing those trying to list the losses in the Gaza Strip. (WAFA, Jan. 21, 2009)

*
Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters captured during the IDF operation further attested to Hamas' atrocities.


Examples (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 1, 2009):

1.
Nuaf Atar testified that Hamas government officials seized humanitarian aid allowed in by Israel and sold it for profit, that Hamas launched rockets from inside school compounds and private homes and land. They stored weapons in private homes. Those who protested were shot in the legs.
2.
Raji Abed Rabo testified Hamas built a large bunker under Gaza's Shifa Hospital where senior Hamas operatives hid out during Israel's military campaign.
3.
Hamad Zalah testified that he and his brother were whipped and beaten with electrical cords at Hamas' Jabaliya headquarters because of their affiliation with Fatah and that his brother was subsequently killed. He also testified that Hamas seized humanitarian aid sent into Gaza, refusing to distribute it to Fatah members.
4.
Amad Hamed, who was trained for a suicide bombing mission, testified that Hamas used private homes to store explosives, rockets and launchers.

Use of Palestinian Civilians as Human Shields

There is ample evidence that Hamas intermingled its fighters among Palestinian civilians, using school compounds and private homes, and civilian centers to launch attacks against Israel. For more details, see "Hamas's Palestinian Victims: Human Shields."