More Gaza terror attempts

IDFSpokesperson

IDF thwarts 2nd terrorist attack along Gaza Strip security fence in less than 72 hours- http://ow.ly/3viFC

Anti-Israel bias and the start of the 2008 Gaza War

It is pure bias against Israel to contend that Israel had no right to defend itself against the thousands of rockets launched into Israel by Hamas. 

 

 It is pure bias to hold Israel responsible for the 2008 Gaza War, when, in fact,  Hamas -- at the time -- even claimed to have started the war.  -- Mark Finkelstein

 

As explained by Elder of Ziyon:

 

Today is the second anniversary of the beginning of [Israel's] Operation Cast Lead - but it is not the anniversary of the beginning of the Gaza War.

On the very first day of OCL, I pointed out something that has been all but ignored by the media (but that I had mentioned earlier): Hamas declared war on Israel on December 24th, a full three days before Cast Lead.

Gaza - Ma'an - The military wing affiliated to Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades released a statement on Thursday morning [ 2008- December 25 ] briefing the group's military activities over the first twenty four hours of an operation they called "Oil Stain" which started Wednesday morning.

According to the statement, a total of 87 shells have been fired at Israeli targets bordering the Gaza Strip including 54 mortar shells, 31 homemade projectiles which Hamas calls "Qassam", and two Soviet-made Grad missiles.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=207221 

 

 Amnesty's history of the war starts on December 27th.  [Amnesty International] 

HRW   [Human Rights Watch]  characterizes the entire war as "Israel’s three-week-long military offensive in Gaza that began on December 27." It isn't even a war - it is simply framed as Israeli aggression. And this is in a report about Hamas rocket fire!

Goldstone's chapter headings  [ in Judge Goldstone's report , adopted by the U.N. ]  show this false framework as well:

III. EVENTS OCCURRING BETWEEN THE “CEASEFIRE” OF 18 JUNE 2008 BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE GAZA AUTHORITIES AND THE START OF ISRAEL’S MILITARY OPERATIONS IN GAZA ON 27 DECEMBER 2008

VI. OVERVIEW OF MILITARY OPERATIONS  CONDUCTED BY ISRAEL IN GAZA BETWEEN 27 DECEMBER 2008 AND 18 JANUARY 2009 AND DATA ON CASUALTIES

When the very framework of the issue is biased to begin with, anyone trying to take Israel's aide is already handicapped. It loads the dice before the game even starts, and it takes an effort to re-frame the argument - something that Israeli spokespeople have little opportunity to do when giving statements to the press or when answering questions about NGO accusations.

Even though Hamas wants to be known as a masculine defender of Arab rights in Arabic, and it was proud to take credit for starting the war back in 2008, it has realized the immense value of the false framework provided by Goldstone and HRW and Amnesty and the mainstream media. So it has adopted that framework simply because it puts Israel at a disadvantage.

This is one of the biggest issues that Israel faces when speaking to the world. The idea of Israel as aggressor is so ingrained in the fabric of the discussion that it is not easy for even Israel's defenders to recognize it when they see it. It is especially difficult in the heat of a debate to be able to step back and challenge the questioner as to their implicit assumptions.

One fact is clear - Hamas started the war, and they bragged about it. Any narrative of the Gaza War that does not recognize that simple fact is inherently biased from the outset. No mater how prestigious the NGO or media outlet that promulgates this lie - it is still a lie, and that lie must be corrected.

 

Source:  http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/12/false-framework-of-gaza-war.html    12/ 27/2010

Escalation of attacks from Gaza

Escalation belies Hamas claim of truce. Arutz 7: IDF Foils Gaza Terrorist Attack; 'Cast Lead 2' Nears http://bit.ly/gWY2up


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SWU: Metro Transit rejects anti-Israel ad campaign in Seattle

Breaking News.  Stand With Us reports tonight that the anti-Israel "Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign" group's bus billboard ad campaign  that was supposed to begin next Monday, December 27, was rejected today.

Citing the potential for disruption to transit service, King County Executive Dow Constantine today approved an interim policy from Metro Transit that calls for a halt to the acceptance of any new non-commercial advertising on King County buses.

Also, and most importantly, under provisions of the previous policy, Metro officials today rejected the proposed ad from the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign.

This decision came following yesterday's meeting of Jewish community leaders with senior members of the King County Executive's office and Metro Transit management about the potential threat to the Seattle-area Jewish community, after over 2,000 emails, and after numerous organizations, including StandWithUs, announced plans to run ads either countering this ad and/or promoting the positives of Israel.

Stand With Us offered thanks to....

AJC, Federation, ADL and various other organizations and individuals for their work on the Anti-BDS Task Force.

The metropolitan Seattle community's rabbis, synagogues and organizations for sending out to their members and supporters our alert this week.

And the thousands of community members who have written, called, and created the political pressure that has led to the County and Metro's reject the anti-Israel ad.

Stand With Us, a pro-Israel organization is online at http://www.standwithus.org

(hat tip: Jill Marks)

CUFI: Stop anti-Israel incitement!

From:   Christians United for Israel

 Stop Anti-Israel Incitement:

Incitement?  In Gaza? No.  In Seattle.

Anti-Israel ads are scheduled to run on Seattle buses next week. Join us in speaking out against anti-Israel Incitement by emailing King County officials to stop these ads.

The following is the text of the message that Christians United For Israel encourages you to endorse.

Stop Anti-Israel Incitement.

Dear [Decision Maker],

I understand that on Monday, December 27th, an advertisement accusing Israel of war crimes is scheduled to run on Seattle buses.

I believe that this advertisement is more than a mere political statement. It is an ugly slander of Israel. And it's dangerous. While I support the First Amendment right to free speech, I believe that this ad clearly violates your own policy against running ads that "insult specific groups to the point that a riot could be incited, vandalism could occur or public safety could be threatened."

Please remember that it was only four years ago that Naveed Afzal Haq walked into the Jewish Federation building in Seattle and shot six women, one fatally. Witnesses reported that Haq began shouting "I'm a Muslim American; I'm angry at Israel" before he began his shooting spree.

I believe that peace and reconciliation between Arabs and Israelis will not be furthered by screaming advertisements. Peace will come only by sitting together, building bridges, and reaching mutual understanding.

I therefore ask that you do everything in your power to block an advertisement that clearly violates your own policy, and which presents a danger to safety here at home and peace in the Middle East.
--------

For more information and to send an electronic message in opposition to the content of the incendiary and anti-Israel ads, click here:  http://www.cufi.org/site/R?i=vDLl5vwWceJ-7GHSxWGUYg

Christians United For Israel is online at http://www.cufi.org

ADL: Reconsider allowing anti-Israel bus ads

ADL Urges King County Metro to Reconsider Allowing Anti-Israel Ads on Seattle Area Buses

Seattle, WA, December 23, 2010 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today urged King County Metro Transit to reconsider its decision to allow anti-Israel advertisements to be affixed to the outside of the city’s public buses.

 

The advertisements, due to run for one month on the sides of 12 King County Metro Transit buses starting December 27, allege that U.S. tax dollars support Israeli “war crimes.” Purchased by the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign, the ads are intended to coincide with the 2-year anniversary of Israel’s operation in Gaza.

 

Hilary Bernstein, ADL Pacific Northwest Community Director, issued the following statement:

Using city run buses to propagate dangerous anti-Israel propaganda is an abuse of the free speech rights we all hold so dear.  Calling the state of Israel war criminals is not mere criticism of Israel but, as demonstrated around the world in recent years, it is incitement against the Jewish community.

 

While the community is not of one mind on the subject of Israel, and serious debate takes place over Israeli policy, the messages of the bus ads are not within the parameters of that debate.  In fact, they are a lot closer to racist ads which we believe should be rejected as inappropriate for public buses.

 

Extreme anti-Israel activity and rhetoric have become the new anti-Semitism, sometimes with intent, but if not, at least in terms of the consequences.  Only a few years ago an individual forced his way into the Seattle Jewish Federation building and murdered an employee on the grounds that he was “angry at Israel” and blamed Jewish people for all these problems.

 

In Europe, virulent propaganda flourished against Israel during the war in Gaza in 2008 and led to 220 anti-Semitic incidents in a three week period in the United Kingdom and 113 anti-Semitic incidents in France.

 

King County Metro Transit already has a policy banning ads “so insulting, degrading or offensive” that they can lead to a “breach of public safety, peace and order.”

 

We believe that is reason enough for the county to reconsider its placement of these ads on metro buses.

J Federation of Seattle's response to anti-Israel bus ads

Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle's  Response to Anti-Israel Bus Ads
Posted on Monday Dec 20, 2010 5:40 PM

As you may be aware, an anti-Israel ad campaign is scheduled to begin on Dec. 27. The ads, which accuse Israel of war crimes and purport that $30 billion is given each year to Israel in foreign aid, will run on twelve Seattle-area buses for the next month.

We believe that this campaign must be stopped.

The campaign features a photo of alleged war crimes and contains a strong anti-Israel message. The clear intent is to incite an emotional response by attacking Israelis. While we respect and support the first amendment right to free speech, we feel that this particular ad violates Metro Transit's own policy against running ads that "insult specific groups to the point that a riot could be incited, vandalism could occur or public safety could be threatened." The ad in question is clearly meant as a strong insult to the almost 50,000 members of the Seattle Jewish community, including the thousands of Israelis who call Seattle home. Additionally, this ad is not even accurate in its claims. Israel has never been tried or convicted of war crimes, and to claim that taxpayers fund these alleged crimes is an insult both to Americans and to our government.

We encourage Metro Transit, King County and Seattle officials to refuse to run these ads, based on a violation of their own policy.

We also encourage those who feel strongly to speak up and contact local officials by phone or email today stating your position. To send your message to King County Executive Dow Constantine and the King County Council, Metro Transit management and the local manager of transit advertising, click here.

The Jewish Federation firmly believes this type of inflammatory campaign is destructive to the peace process and undermines efforts to build positive relationships both in the Middle East and within our local community. This kind of demonization of Israel is contrary to reconciliation and does not contribute to furthering the peace process. Our core values mean we seek ways to build bridges, not to destroy them.

All parties in the Middle East want, need and deserve a peaceful cooperative coexistence. We encourage the public to become educated on all aspects of the Middle East conflict and to work for a peaceful resolution through which all parties can find a way to live and work together with respect and in peace.

Source: http://www.jewishinseattle.org/news-events/news/federation-response-anti-israel-bus-ads
 

Jasser: CAIR in denial

Jasser: CAIR "In Denial That There Is No Islamic Threat"- Counterterrorism Training On Political Islam "Very Relevant" http://wapo.st/esnpsM


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Morris: Palestinian leaders unwilling to compromise; they want it all.

Palestine: Tergiversation Nation

Historian Benny Morris:  Palestinian leaders are not interested in a two-state settlement.  But also: "Successive Israeli governments, since 1967, should never have bowed to right-wing messianic pressures and launched the settlement enterprise in the core, hill country of the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. The enterprise has served the Palestinians well."


Benny Morris | December 9, 2010

The Americans still don't get it: the Palestinian leadership, Fatah and Hamas, are not interested in a two-state settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; they want all of Palestine, and are willing to shadowbox and dissemble and feint and bamboozle in order to defer the moment in which they must say "no,” for they will say "no,” to a realistic, historic compromise.

President Obama foolishly played into Palestinian hands when, early in his administration, he demanded that Israel freeze its settlement activity in order to shoe in a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations (in abeyance since 2008, when former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas a generous two-state package and he rejected it). Abbas jumped on the gift horse and fell into step—no talks until there was a complete settlement freeze.

And when at last the Netanyahu government agreed to a one-year freeze, the Palestinians tergiversated and hemmed and hawed until the year was almost up before actually deigning to start talking. Naturally, no progress was achieved. And then the bell rang, the year was over, and Netanyahu refused to renew the freeze, despite a generous American package in return for a mere 90-day freeze.

Now the White House has announced that it has given up on persuading Israel to renew the freeze, throwing the ball back into the Israeli-Palestinian court—and the Palestinians will continue to link a resumption of the talks to a settlement freeze. Meaning, no talks anytime soon and Israel pilloried by the international community. Which, on both counts, is what the Palestinian leadership wants.

Successive Israeli governments, since 1967, should never have bowed to right-wing messianic pressures and launched the settlement enterprise in the core, hill country of the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. The enterprise has served the Palestinians well: It has tarnished Israel's image, framing the Jewish state as an expansionist, land-grabbing "imperial" power (no matter that the settlements were physically constructed by Palestinian laborers). And, more recently, it has served the Palestinians as an excuse for not joining a peace process that they feared might channel them toward a two-state settlement which they utterly reject.

And how do we know that they reject such a compromise? Because they say so, loudly and clearly to their own audiences, in Arabic, and occasionally, but more obliquely, to Westerners, who prefer not to hear what they are being told.

Hamas, the fundamentalist terrorist organization based in the Gaza Strip, has the virtue of relative honesty: the organization's constitution, or charter, of 1988 says that Israel must die and Islam, through jihad, will bring this about. Last month, Hamas's number two, Mahmoud al-Zahar, interviewed on Hamas's TV station, repeated the (anti-Semitic) credo: The Jews, because of their evil character, have been kicked out of every country hosting them, beginning with medieval Britain and France and ending, more recently, with Germany, and this is the fate that awaits them in Palestine as well.

And the supposedly secular Fatah party (note: captured failed suicide bombers from Fatah often spoke about the seventy-two virgins they hoped to meet up with in heaven), the main constituent of the PLO and of the Palestine Authority "government,” says the same thing but more subtly.

The Fatah's constitution from the 1960s, to be found on its website, is anything but subtle. It frankly calls for Israel's "disestablishment." And the PLO's "National Charter" of the 1960s, which the previous Palestinian national leader, Yassir Arafat, promised in the 1990s to amend and replace with a new charter, one which does not call for Israel's destruction, remains on the books—unreplaced. And Mahmoud Abbas, while saying "yes, yes" to two states, continues flatly to oppose the Clintonian formula of "two states for two peoples,” one for the Arabs and one for the Jews. Instead, he says, one for the Arabs, and the other for whoever lives in the territory of pre-1967 Israeli territory, while unwaveringly demanding that Israel accept the refugees' "right of return" and allow the return to Israel of the 1948 refugees and their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. These number 4.7–7.5 million, depends who's counting. Such a return would mean that the territory of pre-1967 Israel would swiftly or gradually acquire an Arab majority. Meaning, no Jewish state. Not really a "two-state solution.”

So Abbas, like Arafat—who in December 2000 rejected President Clinton's formula for a two-state solution—focuses on, and deploys the red herring of, "settlements,” knowing that such a focus will indefinitely postpone discussion of the real issue, an agreement to establish a Palestinian state alongside a Jewish Israel. And the Netanyahu government, rejecting a settlement freeze, falls into the Palestinian PR trap—and the Obama administration is left with the equivalent of diplomatic scorched earth.

But not all is necessarily lost. Perhaps the time has come for Washington to put on the table an outline of a fair peace plan or how it envisions a final settlement, which will be, to be sure, no different in principle from the Clinton proposals (or "parameters") of 2000. If America applies the thumbscrews, perhaps the two sides will even respond, and the world will be a little wiser about what Abbas (and Netanyahu) really wants.

Source:  http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/palestine-tergiversation-nation-4538

YouTube closes down site exposing Palestinian hate speech

YouTube closes down PMW account

[From Palwatch.org ]

PMW needs your help. YouTube has closed down PMW's main video account - PALWATCH - for "violating YouTube terms of use", by supposedly propagating hate speech. Of course PMW does not promote hate speech, but exposes the hate speech of the PA and the Hamas, in order to bring about its elimination.



YouTube stated that the account was henceforth terminated "due to repeated or severe violations of our Terms of Use" and they specified the following PMW videos from Palestinian sources, promoting the killing of Jews:



1. "Hamas TV teaches kids to kill Jews" formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwN2M6ZIIRU
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 10/02/2009.



2. "Jews are a virus like Aids" formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYaGl3KjPUw
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 01/18/2010.



3. "Farewell video before suicide attack of Hamas suicide bomber Adham Ahmad Hujyla Abu Jandal" formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYdTudQhWM4
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 06/10/2010.



4. "Hamas suicide farewell video: Jews monkeys and pigs; Maidens reward for killing Jews" formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryc7RqXlVdE 
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 08/14/2010.



5. "PA cleric: Kill Jews, Allah will make Muslims masters over Jews" formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjuDTO8fgqM
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 12/12/2010.


6. "Hamas suicide terrorist farewell video: Palestinians drink the blood of Jews" formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSftYIGH6-w
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 12/15/2010.



PMW urgently seeks to have this account reopened, since some of these videos have accumulated hundreds of thousands of viewings and the exposure is critical to our ongoing work.


 

Abu Toameh: WH and State hear 'yes' when the Palestinians are saying 'NO.'

"Americans need to listen to what the Palestinians are saying not only in English, but also in Arabic. And in Arabic, the message coming out of Ramallah remains no and no and no -- no to resumption of peace talks unconditionally, no to accepting Israel as a Jewish state, no to any solution that does not include all the territories captured by Israel in 1967. These no's are apparently being translated by the White House and State Department as one big yes."

--Khaled Abu Toameh     source: http://bit.ly/ftbJor

TIP: U.S. Supports Israel's Pursuit of Peace Negotiations

U.S. Supports Israel's Pursuit of Peace Negotiations

• Netanyahu prepared to discuss all core issues 
• House: PA unilateral actions detract from peace process
  
  http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=hsJPK0PIJpH&b=689705&ct=8972585  The Israel Project.org

Secretary of State Clinton meets with Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu at the beginning of peace talks, September, 2010

Washington, Dec. 16 - The United States House of Representatives has passed a resolution (Dec. 15) affirming the importance of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and rejecting unitaleral moves by the Palestinians to declare statehood.

Israel says a Palestinian unilateral declaration of independence would be meaningless since it avoids direct negotiations as a means to lasting peace, delaying the possibility of agreement on critical issues. Several countries in Latin America have recognized a Palestinian state that would occupy all territory captured by Israel in 1967 - but the United States and the European Union have rejected the move.

The House resolution supports a "negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" and condemns "unilateral measures to declare or recognize a Palestinian state."

A negotiated solution, it says, is the only way to create two democratic states living side by side in "peace, security and mutual recognition."

Palestinians abandoned directed talks with Israel in September after a 10-month Israeli moratorium on building in the territories expired. The United States is now trying to get indirect negotiations going between the parties - but the Palestinians are resisting even that.

Key questions between the Israelis and Palestingians regarding security, borders, refugees and Jerusalem are still unresolved.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu committed the U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell on Tuesday (Sec. 14) that he is ready to discuss all the core issues in American-led indirect talks.

"The expectation is that borders and security arrangements will be the first two issues to be tackled," according to Haaretz, an Israeli daily.

Mitchell proposed bilateral talks on Wednesday (Dec. 15) - meaning parallel but separate American-led talks with the Israelis and Palestinians - as a means of restoring the negotiations.

Arab nations came out against any talks between Israel and the PA, "direct or indirect," unless the U.S. delineates what the future borders of a Palestinian state would be.

House passes resolution opposing unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state

The House passed a resolution tonight calling on the PA leadership to return to direct talks with Israel and to stop circumventing the peace process by lobbying for support for a unilaterally declared Palestinian state. No Member spoke in opposition to the resolution. The resolution was brought to the floor by Reps. Berman (D-CA), Poe (R-TX), Berkley (D-NV), Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ackerman (D-NY) and Burton (R-IN).

NYT: Declassified papers detail how Nazi anti-Semitism was transmitted to the Arab world after WW II

According to the New York Times, declassified papers detail "how [ after WW II ] high-ranking Nazis escaped from Germany to become advisers to anti-Israeli Arab leaders and “were able to carry on and transmit to others Nazi racial-ideological anti-Semitism.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/us/12holocaust.html?_r=1&_r

 The NY Times article is based on a U.S. government report published Friday, December 10, 2010 by the National Archives  http://www.archives.gov/iwg/reports/hitlers-shadow.pdf

From the NYT article:

In chilling detail, the report also elaborates on the close working relationship between Nazi leaders and the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who later claimed that he sought refuge in wartime Germany only to avoid arrest by the British.

In fact, the report says, the Muslim leader was paid “an absolute fortune” of 50,000 marks a month (when a German field marshal was making 25,000 marks a year). It also said he energetically recruited Muslims for the SS, the Nazi Party’s elite military command, and was promised that he would be installed as the leader of Palestine after German troops drove out the British and exterminated more than 350,000 Jews there.

On Nov. 28, 1941, the authors say, Hitler told Mr. Husseini that the Afrika Corps and German troops deployed from the Caucasus region would liberate Arabs in the Middle East and that “Germany’s only objective there would be the destruction of the Jews.”

The report details ... how high-ranking Nazis escaped from Germany to become advisers to anti-Israeli Arab leaders and “were able to carry on and transmit to others Nazi racial-ideological anti-Semitism.”

“You have an actual contract between officials of the Nazi Foreign Ministry with Arab leaders, including Husseini, extending after the war because they saw a cause they believed in,” Dr. Breitman said. “And after the war, you have real Nazi war criminals — Wilhelm Beisner, Franz Rademacher and Alois Brunner — who were quite influential in Arab countries.”

Abu Toameh: Arab incitement must stop

The Palestinians: What Is Really Destroying the Chance for Peace

by Khaled Abu Toameh
December 7, 2010 at 5:00 am

http://www.hudson-ny.org/1715/palestinians-peace

It is sad and abhorrent to see how many Arabs have rejoiced over the big forest fire in Northern Israel, calling it a "divine punishment" for Israelis and wishing that the blaze would spread to destroy all Jews.

The messages of hate are the result of decades of incitement against Israel and Jews in the Arab media and mosques throughout the Arab and Islamic world.

The comments serve as a reminder that many people in the Arab and Islamic countries still have not come to terms with Israel's right to exist in this part of the world. Even worse, many of the talkbacks show that many Arabs and Muslims would welcome another Holocaust.

These reactions were posted on Web sites of major Arab media outlets, such as the popular Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya TV networks, and the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

What is troubling is that these repugnant comments appeared on Web sites that are not necessarily associated with radical Islam.

Al-Arabiya and Asharq Al-Awsat are owned by members of the Saudi royal family, which, ironically, has been frequently targeted by Muslim fundamentalist groups like Al-Qaeda.

The overwhelming majority of talkbacks that appeared on the Web sites of these three powerful media organizations in the past few days showed how many Arabs and Muslim continue to dream about the destruction of Israel.

True, some readers and viewers did not join in the "celebration" of the fire that killed more than 40 people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of trees. Some even expressed sympathy with Israel, and some even criticized Arabs and Muslims who rejoiced over the fire.

But these "positive" comments reflected the opinion of a tiny minority. For example, out of 123 comments posted on one of the Web sites, less than 15 seemed to be rational.

The hateful postings did not only come from Arab and Islamic countries and the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories, but also from Arabs living in North America, Australia, Sweden and Europe.

Ahmed Abdallah from Australia wrote the following comment on Al-Jazeera's Web site: "O' God, how generous you are! Bring happiness to the heart of every Palestinian mother who lost her son or whose son is in prison."

Writing from Berlin, Germany, a reader who identified himself as Sarrawi commented: "Thank God and 1,000 congratulations [for the death of 42 Israelis]. O' God, give us more!"

From the UK, Zuheir Dabbagh wrote: "Thank God, we bring the good news to the Muslims that the land has gotten rid of 40 criminals."

Arabs who agreed to help Israel put out the fire also came under attack. The Palestinian Authority leadership and the Egyptian and Jordanian governments were strongly denounced as "traitors" for sending firefighters to Israel.

What is also worrying about the thousands of comments is that many Arabs and Muslims see Israel's appeal for international assistance in putting out the fire as a sign of weakness.

Many of those who expressed joy over the fire urged Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas to seize the "golden opportunity" and try to eliminate Israel for once and for all. Others wrote that if Israel cannot handle a fire, there is no reason to believe that it could win in any war.

There is good reason to believe that the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish attitudes expressed in these comments reflect the views of many Arabs and Muslims. With attitudes like these, it is hard to see how real peace can be achieved in the Middle East in the near future. Unless this incitement stops, the prospects of moving forward with the "peace process" between Israelis and Arabs are as bleak as ever.

Donate online to Israel Forest Fire Disaster Relief Funds

Here are two examples of Israel Relief Funds to which one may donate online:

The Jewish Federations of North America  http://www.bit.ly/israelfiredonate

ARZA and the Union of Reform Judaism:   http://www.arza.org/news/israel/fund/

Arson suspects apprehended rekindling forest fire in Israel

Coastal District Police Commander Roni Attia said Friday that two arson suspects were apprehended in the North, near Kiryat Bialik.

The suspects were allegedly attempting to rekindle a fire in the forest with the use of Molotov cocktails. Police are not connecting the arsonists at this stage to the massive fires in the Carmel and Atlit but rather to the fire which broke out earlier at the Tzur Shalom area of Kiryat Bialik


Attia added that arson is suspected in a number of separate fires, including Kiryat Bialik and Kiryat Tivon.

Earlier on Friday, police found a bike, a bag, and a wig inside near a fire center in Tzur Shalom, leading them to believe that the fire was caused by an arsonist or arsonists.

Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the Post that there are 3 fire centers - Tzur Shalom, the Atlit - Tirat Hacarmel area, and the Carmel hillsides. In one, Tzur Shalom, north of Haifa, "we located suspicious items pointing to arson. As for the other two major fires, it is too early and the incidents are to large in scale to know their causes at this stage." The death toll in the fires rose to 42 on Friday, according to Army Radio.

Galillee police were spread out over the area searching for suspects.

 

Source: Jerusalem Post,  12.3.2010   http://www.jpost.com/VideoArticles/Article.aspx?id=197845

Anniversary of U.N.'s authorization of a Jewish state and an Arab state

On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted to fulfill part of the promise made by the League of Nations: to authorize the creation of a Jewish homeland in the ancestral home of the Jewish people.

As U.N. Resolution 181, the U.N. accepted the majority plan to partition the land. AS part of the Partition Plan, the U.N. also authorized an Arab state in Palestine, in addition to a Jewish state in Palestine, both states within the boundaries of the truncated territory, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea.  ( The territory now known as Jordan was severed off unilaterally by Britain from what was originally the entirety of Mandatory Palestine.  No Jewish settlement was permitted in Jordan. But Jewish settlement anywhere within the truncated Palestine -- including the West Bank -- was authorized by the League of Nations.)

U.N. Resolution 181, which used the term "Jewish state" about 30 times in the text,  was passed.   The Jews accepted the Partition Plan.  The Arabs rejected the Partition Plan and immediately set out to prevent the Jewish state from coming into existence.  Had the Arabs of Palestine accepted the plan, or had accepted plans offered them since, there would already be a State of Palestine next to the State of Israel.  Had the Arabs of Palestine accepted U.N. Resolution 181, there would have been either no Palestinian refugee problem or a far less severe refugee problem, for all concerned.  But the Palestinian Arabs, because they were unable to accept anything less than total sovereignty over all of  Mandatory Palestine, because they refused -- and still refuse -- to accept the reality of a Jewish state in Palestine,  have perpetuated the suffering of their own people. // Mark Finkelstein jcrc@dmjfed.org

Here, now, is a brief video that provides insight into the U.N. vote on November 29, 1947... the vote that paved the way for the proclamation of Israel's independence on May 14, 1948.



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrIjzUK0FKg&feature=player_embedded#!

Red Crescent ran weapons

@davidhazony: WikiLeaks: Red Crescent ambulances smuggled weapons for Iran. http://bit.ly/g5Vn0v


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Arab leaders pushed U.S. to attack Iran

@frontporchlight: Iran 'must be stopped': Arab leaders pushed U.S. to attack, WikiLeaks disclosures show http://ow.ly/1acAIG

Link to LA Times article
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Open message to Rev. Chet Guinn about Iranian hatred of U.S.

An open message to Rev. Chet Guinn. 

Just what about "Death to America" don't you understand?

 ( In reply to his DMR letter in which Rev. Guinn belittles US concern about the Iranian government's hegemonic, abusive intentions.) (http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20101128/OPINION04/11280312/1038/A-lesson-in-D.M.-executives-adventure)

Nov. 4, 2010. Anti-US students chanted 'death to America' and predicted the fall of the 'great Satan' to mark the seizure 31 years ago of the US Embassy. Iran and Western powers are slated to resume nuclear talks later this month.

• 

A head-to-toe veiled Iranian woman walks past a satirized drawing of the Statue of Liberty, painted on the wall of the former US Embassy in Tehran, on Nov. 4, in an annual state-backed rally, marking the anniversary of the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Vahid Salemi/AP

PA endorses study denying Jewish claims to the Western Wall. Israel is stunned at falsification of history

Israel to PA: Reject ‘findings’ on claims to Kotel
By BY HERB KEINON,  GIL HOFFMAN AND KHALED ABU TOAM
11/24/2010 03:29

Israeli peace activist [Gershon Baskin] calls Palestinian Authority’s denial of Jewish ties to site a "stain" and a "serious mistake."


Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev called on the Palestinian leadership Tuesday to publicly disassociate itself from the Palestinian Authority “study” denying Jewish claims to the Western Wall, saying “this is not the sort of statement to be expected from a partner in peace.”

“Denying the Jewish connection to the Western Wall is to deny reality. If you deny the Jewish connection to the Western Wall you are in fact denying the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the land of Israel itself,” Regev said. “When they deny the Jewish connection, they are unfortunately raising very serious questions as to their true commitment to reconciliation.”

Regev said this type of statement was to be expected from “Ahmadinejad’s Iran, Hizbullah or Hamas, but to deny the Jewish connection to the Western Wall is something that we wouldn’t expect from a partner in peace, and I call upon the Palestinian leadership – President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad – to publicly disassociate themselves from it.”

Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely said the government must fight to prevent the world from adopting the libels spread by the PA against the Jewish people. She warned that the “study” could be endorsed by UNESCO, which recently declared that Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem was a Muslim holy site and not a Jewish one.

“We must declare war on the culture of lies circulated by the Palestinians before the world starts believing them,” she said. “One can only hope that the more the Palestinians talk about the lack of a connection between the Jewish people to their land, the less people will take seriously whatever claims they make.”

Meanwhile, the PA officially endorsed the “study.”

The PA’s Ministry of Information posted the results on its official website, and these findings were first published in The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

The project was prepared by al-Mutawakel Taha, a senior official with the PA Ministry of Information. He is also a prominent Palestinian poet and writer.

Taha’s “study” concluded that the Western Wall was never a Jewish site, but had always belonged to Muslims. He wrote that the Western Wall, known to Muslims as Al-Buraq Wall, is actually the western wall of the Al-Aksa Mosque.

Gershon Baskin, the joint CEO of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, sent a letter to the Palestinian leadership in the wake of the Post article, calling the findings “a serious mistake” and “a stain on the Palestinian Authority.”

“If the content of the article is correct, you should take immediate action against the author of the report in question (if he is in fact employed by the PA or by the PLO) because his baseless claims are a serious blow to the legitimacy of Palestinian claims and make a mockery of the idea of peace between the Palestinians and the Jews,” Baskin wrote. “This is a most serious mistake, similar to the one of the late President Arafat when he denied any Jewish connection to the Holy Temple Mount (Haram Al-Sharif) in Jerusalem.

“Any observer, even a non-professional archeologist, can discern that the stones used to construct the Western Wall (the Kotel) are from the era of Solomon’s Temple and the Temple rebuilt by King Herod which was hundreds of years before Islam appeared on the world stage.

“The falsification of history, as done in the report by the Palestinian poet Al- Mutawakel Taha, a senior official with the Ministry of Information, is a serious stain on the Palestinian Authority.”

Condolences on the passing of Harold Goldman

The Jewish Federation conveys with sadness and with its condolences the news as reported by Rabbi David Kaufman of Temple B'nai Jeshurun

Harold Goldman, beloved father and grandfather, passed away this morning. May his name be forever remembered for a blessing. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time. May his soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life.

In fulfillment of Harold's often repeated requests, there will be no funeral or memorial service.

DMARC: Need for food at record levels

@KCCINews: Need For Food Hits Record Level For DSM Food Pantries
http://bit.ly/gxI9ta

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Des Moines' emergency food pantry network is seeing
demand up 20 percent over last year. Need for food is at record levels.

New numbers specifically from October show a 15 percent spike in
individuals served compared to numbers from last October, which were
also high. In October 2010, the Des Moines Area Religious Council
provided food for 3,602 families.

"At this rate, we are on pace to provide over 1.62 million meals during
2010," said the Rev. Sarai Schnucker Rice, DMARC executive director.

KCCI visited one of DMARC's 12 busy pantries Tuesday. Constance Jones,
who has received food from the pantry for more than a year, said she has
seen the pantry get busier.

"Times are really hard and people really need the help," Jones said.

"People with limited income are making difficult choices, such as
selecting medicine over food or food instead of clean diapers," said
Rice. "DMARC is able to serve families in need thanks to generous
in-kind donations of food items and thanks to cash gifts. Cash is
especially important because we can use it to purchase food from the
Food Bank or wholesale, allowing us to buy about 2/3 more food for every
dollar that a food donor might spend."

Lynnette Thornton made her first stop at the pantry Tuesday. She told
the workers how grateful she was for the food.

"If it weren't for places like this, I don't know what people would do.
They would probably starve. There is a lot of starving out in the world
now so I think it's really nice. I really do," Thornton said.

How To Help

DMARC is asking for additional cash and donations:

# Cash donations may be donated online at the DMARC website:
www.dmreligious.org
# Cash donations may also be mailed or dropped off at the DMARC central
office: 3816 36th Street, Suite 202, Des Moines, Iowa 50310.
# Food donations may be dropped off at the DMARC central warehouse: 3816
36th Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50310. For a complete listing of the most
needed items, please click here.

Federal Judge agrees: CAIR tied to Hamas

Federal Judge Agrees: CAIR Tied to Hamas

November 22, 2010

http://www.investigativeproject.org/2340/federal-judge-agrees-cair-tied-to-hamas

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been connected to the terrorist organization Hamas, a federal judge said in a July 2009 ruling unsealed last week.

"The government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA, NAIT, with NAIT, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and with Hamas," U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis said in the July 1, 2009, ruling.

CAIR, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) had protested to Solis that they were incorrectly named as unindicted co-conspirators in the 2008 trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. Among the allegations, HLF was accused of having provided more than $12 million to Hamas. After a 2007 mistrial, five former HLF officials convicted on 108 counts, ranging from money laundering to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

Following the trial, CAIR, ISNA, and NAIT have argued that their inclusion on the list injured their standing in the community, and their image. They wanted their ties to Hamas removed from the trial records and the list sealed.

Solis agreed the list should not have been made public, saying that doing so violated the Fifth Amendment rights of the listed individuals and organizations. Criticizing the decision to publish the list, the judge explained that CAIR has been subjected to "annoyance, ridicule, scorn, and a loss of reputation in the community." (see the IPTs earlier coverage of the decision to publish the list here).

However, Solis refused to remove references to CAIR and the other groups from the trial record. That's because the government introduced extensive evidence tying CAIR to Hamas. "The public," he wrote, "may make its own judgment from evidence presented at trial."

 

http://www.investigativeproject.org/2340/federal-judge-agrees-cair-tied-to-hamas

Poll: Most Palestinians reject idea of a Jewish state, seek eventual single-state

"According to the poll[conducted in October by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and sponsored by The Israel Project], most Palestinians refuse to reconcile with the idea of Israel as a Jewish state. While 23% accept the statement that “Israel has a permanent right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people,” two-thirds prefer the alternative statement that “over time Palestinians must work to get back all the land for a Palestinian state.”


Moreover, the Palestinians perceive the two-state solution as a precursor to this entirely Palestinian state. When presented with the statement that “the best goal is for a two-state solution that keeps two states living side by side,” 30% agreed, while 60% opted for the alternative statement that “the real goal should be to start with two states but then move it to all being one Palestinian state."

Source:  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3987277,00.html

TIP: 11 Rockets Launched from Gaza Hit Israel in 24 Hours

11 Rockets Launched from Gaza Hit Israel in 24 Hours     

• Israel Strikes Back at Terror Bases, including Iran-backed Islamic Jihad training base
• 4 Mortars Contained White Phosphorous
• Grad Rocket among others fired; first since July

Israel, Nov. 19 – Southern Israel was hit by 11 rockets and mortars fired from Gaza from Thursday to Friday, including four white phosphorous-filled mortars shot by an Iran-backed terror group. That brings to almost 200 the number of rockets, missiles and mortars fired from Gaza at Israel since the beginning of 2010.

 

Excerpted from www.theisraelproject.org

 

PM Harper: Expose the new anti-Semitism for what it is.

Prime Minister of Canada: Expose the new anti-Semitism for what it is!

 “Harnessing disparate anti-Semitic, anti-American and anti-Western ideologies, hate targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, Israel, as the source of injustice and conflict in the world, and uses, perversely, the language of human rights to do so.” – Stephen Harper


On November 8, 2010, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the following remarks at the Ottawa Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism:

“Members of the Steering Committee, fellow parliamentarians, ladies and gentlemen, let me begin by saying how delighted I am to see so many of you from around the world, gathered here in Ottawa for the second annual conference of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism.

“It is a sign, not only of your commitment to our common cause, but also of the momentum established at the London Conference last year.  It is, therefore, a great sign of hope.

“History teaches us that anti-Semitism is a tenacious and particularly dangerous form of hatred.  And recent events are demonstrating that this hatred is now in resurgence throughout the world.  That is why the work of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism has never been so important or timely as it is now.

“On behalf of the Government of Canada and all Canadians, I commend you and support you in the great and important work that you are doing.


“Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, two weeks ago I visited Ukraine for the first time.

“In Kiev I laid a wreath at Babi Yar, the site of one of the numerous atrocities of the Holocaust. I was left there with much the same impression as I had in Auschwitz in 2008 — that such horrors defy all comprehension.

“At the killing grounds of Babyn Yar, I knew I was standing in a place where evil — evil at its most cruel, obscene, and grotesque — had been unleashed.  But while evil of this magnitude may be unfathomable, it is nonetheless a fact.

“It is a fact of history.  And it is a fact of our nature — that humans can choose to be inhuman.  This is the paradox of freedom.  That awesome power, that grave responsibility — to choose between good and evil.

“Let us not forget that even in the darkest hours of the Holocaust, men were free to choose good.  And some did.  That is the eternal witness of the Righteous Among the Nations.  And let us not forget that even now, there are those who would choose evil and would launch another Holocaust, if left unchecked.  That is the challenge before us today.

“The horror of the Holocaust is unique, but it is just one chapter in the long and unbroken history of anti-Semitism.  Yet, in contemporary debates that influence the fate of the Jewish homeland, unfortunately, there are those who reject the language of good and evil.  They say that the situation is not black and white, that we mustn’t choose sides.

“In response to this resurgence of moral ambivalence on these issues, we must speak clearly.  Remembering the Holocaust is not merely an act of historical recognition.

“It must also be an understanding and an undertaking.  An understanding that the same threats exist today.  And an undertaking of a solemn responsibility to fight those threats.

“Jews today in many parts of the world and many different settings are increasingly subjected to vandalism, threats, slurs, and just plain, old-fashioned lies.

“Let me draw your attention to some particularly disturbing trends.  Anti-Semitism has gained a place at our universities, where at times it is not the mob who are removed, but the Jewish students under attack.  And, under the shadow of a hateful ideology with global ambitions, one which targets the Jewish homeland as a scapegoat, Jews are savagely attacked around the world, such as, most appallingly, in Mumbai in 2008.

“One ruthless champion of that ideology brazenly threatens to ‘wipe Israel off the map,’ and time and again flouts the obligations that his country has taken under international treaties.  I could go on, but I know that you will agree on one point: that this is all too familiar.

“We have seen all this before.  And we have no excuse to be complacent.  In fact we have a duty to take action.  And for all of us, that starts at home.

“In Canada, we have taken a number of steps to assess and combat anti-Semitism in our own country.  You will no doubt hear from my Canadian colleagues about the measures we have taken to date.

“I will mention for the time being that, for the first time, we are dealing with Canada’s own record of officially sanctioned anti-Semitism.  We have created a fund for education about our country’s deliberate rejection of Jewish refugees before and during the Second World War.

“But of course we must also combat anti-Semitism beyond our borders, an evolving, global phenomenon.  And we must recognize, that while its substance is as crude as ever, its method is now more sophisticated.

“Harnessing disparate anti-Semitic, anti-American and anti-Western ideologies, it targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, Israel, as the source of injustice and conflict in the world, and uses, perversely, the language of human rights to do so.

“We must be relentless in exposing this new anti-Semitism for what it is.  Of course, like any country, Israel may be subjected to fair criticism.  And like any free country, Israel subjects itself to such criticism — healthy, necessary, democratic debate.  But when Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack — is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand.  Demonization, double standards, delegitimization, the three D’s, it is the responsibility of us all to stand up to them.

“And I know, by the way, because I have the bruises to show for it, that whether it is at the United Nations, or any other international forum, the easy thing to do is simply to just get along and go along with this anti-Israeli rhetoric, to pretend it is just being even-handed, and to excuse oneself with the label of ‘honest broker.’  There are, after all, a lot more votes, a lot more, in being anti-Israeli than in taking a stand.  But, as long as I am Prime Minister, whether it is at the UN or the Francophonie or anywhere else, Canada will take that stand, whatever the cost.    And friends, I say this not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the anti-Israeli mob tells us all too well if we listen to it, that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people are a threat to all of us.

“Earlier I noted the paradox of freedom.  It is freedom that makes us human.  Whether it leads to heroism or depravity depends on how we use it.

“As the spectre of anti-Semitism spreads, our responsibility becomes increasingly clear.  We are citizens of free countries.  We have the right, and therefore the obligation, to speak out and to act.  We are free citizens, but also the elected representatives of free peoples.  We have a solemn duty to defend the vulnerable, to challenge the aggressor, to protect and promote human rights, human dignity, at home and abroad.  None of us really knows whether we would choose to do good, in the extreme circumstances of the Righteous.  But we do know there are those today who would choose to do evil, if they are so permitted.  Thus, we must use our freedom now, and confront them and their anti-Semitism at every turn.

“That, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the purpose of our intervention today: our shared determination to confront this terrible hatred.  The work we have undertaken, in our own countries and in cooperation with one another, is a sign of hope.

“Our work together is a sign of hope, just as the existence and persistence of the Jewish homeland is a sign of hope.  And it is here that history serves not to warn but to inspire.

“As I said on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, Israel appeared as a light, in a world emerging from deep darkness.  Against all odds, that light has not been extinguished. It burns bright, upheld by the universal principles of all civilized nations — freedom, democracy and justice.

“By working together more closely in the family of civilized nations, we affirm and strengthen those principles.  And we declare our faith in humanity’s future in the power of good over evil.

Source:  http://pm.gc.ca/

Levy: What about recognition?

Recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people can't simply be left to the end of negotiations, unless the participants know it will be the deal-breaker. But since it will unlikely be the deal-breaker, it has to be dealt with up front. And the president of the United States should know this -- and advocate for unequivocal Palestinian recognition of Israel.

As put by the author of the op ed, below,  recognition is not a precondition for negotiations but a 'required element' for attaining a win-win end of the conflict.

 -- Mark Finkelstein

 

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985354,00.html

What about recognition?

Op-ed: Without Palestinian recognition of Jewish state, what’s the point of negotiations?

Benny Levy   11/16/2010  [ excerpt]

The commotion around the extended settlement freeze diverts attention away from the additional price Israel is apparently required to pay for the benefit package promised to Netanyahu: Renouncing the demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state before entering talks. The prime minister, who presented this demand a few weeks ago, has gone silent as of late; yet without such initial recognition, it’s unclear what will be discussed in the talks.

 

Starting with discussion on borders and security arrangements, as the Palestinians and Americans demand, is akin to conducting negotiations where the sides are discussing the price, number of installments, their date etc., without first agreeing whether they are selling or leasing the asset. If it’s a sale, the seller will no longer have any rights for the asset. In a lease, the lessee is expected to, and entitled to, demand the asset again in the future.

 

This is the point of introductory clauses in contracts. There, the sides present their joint interests, which come before the negotiations. For example, as side A is interested in offering an apartment for rent, and side B is interested in renting an apartment, the sides agree to…(and here come the contract clauses to be decided on during negotiations.)

 

The introduction to the “dream agreement” with the Palestinians should say that as the sides are interested in ending the conflict, and as they view the State of Israel as the Jewish people’s state, and the future state to be established as the Palestinian people’s state, they agree to the following (borders, security, Jerusalem, refugees, etc.) Yet the Palestinians say they will refuse to such introduction. Abbas and Erekat truly disparage such possibility, and Yasser Abed Rabbo, who seemingly presented a different position, has no authority anyway.

 

U.S., Israel may make a deal for a 90-day building moratorium

US asks Israel for 90-day settlement building moratorium By T. LAZAROFF, K. ABU TOAMEH, H.L. KRIEGER   14/11/2010  Jerusalem Post PM discusses possibility of halting building with septet; in exchange, US would support Israel in the UN and give 20 fighter jets.

The US asked Israel to freeze all new settlement construction begun after September 26th for a 90-day period in exchange for support in the United Nations and 20 additional advanced fighter planes worth $3 billion, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The principles of this agreement designed to restart peace talks with the Palestinians, were relayed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to his inner cabinet, a forum of seven ministers, on Saturday night and will be explained to the full cabinet on Sunday. The US said that if the deal was accepted it would not request an additional settlement freeze. The request does not include east Jerusalem. The date for the new freeze has not been set, but it would be retroactive to the September 26th date, when the previous 10-month moratorium on such activity expired. The details of the deal were worked out Thursday during a seven-hour meeting in New York between Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and members of their staff. Should Israel accept the offer, the US in turn has pledged in the next year to veto any efforts by the UN Security Council to impose on Israel a non-negotiated solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict, as the Palestinians have requested. It would further veto any resolutions that deny Israel the right to self-defense or seek to de-legitimize Israel. The US would also oppose such efforts in other UN bodies and forums. The US administration would ask Congress to approve the supply of 20 additional advanced fighter planes to Israel worth $3 billion so that Israel can keep its qualitative edge. This defense assistance will be added into Israel's security agreement with the US, so that Israel's safety can be assured. Talks about these defense understanding will begin in the coming weeks. Netanyahu learned of the details of this deal during his trip to the US.

Rennert: A willful disregard for Jewish ownership of land in Jerusalem

Har Homa was built on Jewish-owned land                                                            

 

[Comments by Israel Matzav on an article by Leo Rennert]

 

Lost in the argument over building in Jerusalem, writes Leo Rennert, is the fact that Har Homa, where most of the new apartments are being built, is built entirely on land that has been owned by Jews for nearly a century.

What is utterly ludicrous about this concocted tempest in a Jerusalem teacup is that the bulk of the new apartment units are to go up in Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood of some 12,000 residents in southeast Jerusalem. Two thirds of Har Homa is on land purchased by Jews after the First World War. The other third is owned by Arabs. The entire existing Harm Homa neighborhood was built on Jewish-owned land and plans for additional housing units also are confined to this part of Har Homa. None of this appeared in media reports or in the criticism leveled by Obama, the State Department and the European Union.

Nor did they bother to point out that, under any realistic scenario for a two-state solution, even with a division of Jerusalem, Har Homa will remain on the Israeli side.

With typical historical amnesia, these Israel-bashers also failed to point out that, during Israel's War of Independence, Jordanian forces attempting to eliminate the Jewish state used Har Homa as a vantage point from which to fire on the Old City of Jerusalem and other neighborhoods of the city.

In their cramped and selective sense of history, none of this matters. Their historical perspective begins with the last day of the Six-Day War in 1967 when Israel prevailed over Jordanian and other Arab armies intent on destroying it, and in the process reunified Jerusalem.

Thus, Washington Post correspondent Joel Greenberg describes Har Homas as an "area of the West Bank annexed to Jerusalem." New York Times correspondent Isabel Kershner, in similar vein, calls it a "Jewish residential development in southern Jerusalem in territory that Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war, and then annexed."

So never mind that Har Homa has been on Jewish owned land from well before Jordan illegally occupied it in 1948, in clear violation of the 1947 UN two-state partition plan.

All that history is brushed aside. ...

 

Source: http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/    11/11/10

Rubin: Demonization of Israel charading as 'ordinary criticism.'

The Hour of the Hanging Judges: Demonizing Israel and Pretending It Is Ordinary Criticism

By Barry Rubin  http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2010/11/hour-of-hanging-judges-demonizing.htm  11/10/10

This is getting to be a pretty common kind of story. The mayor of Frankfurt invites a Jewish intellectual whose family left Germany in 1932 to speak on the anniversary of Kristallnacht. The problem is that this man, Alfred Grosser, is a ferocious critic of Israel.

Grosser claims the Gaza Strip is a concentration camp (possibly true, but if so it is a concentration camp owned and run by Hamas); calls for ending Israel as a Jewish state; urges Germany to be more critical of Israel; and blames Israeli policies (rather than the deliberate lies about them) are responsible for increasing antisemitism (isn't that what George Soros said?)

All of this is interpreted by the Christian Science Monitor, and many others, as merely rejecting:

"…the notion that criticism of Israel is synonymous with anti-Semitism. If Germans want to criticize the blockade of Gaza or treatment of Palestinians, they should be able to without guilt, many say."

This is the usual absurd response.

But one can criticize Israel's "blockade" of Gaza (I won't explain here why it is needed and, no doubt, the people who criticize it have never read these reasons) without calling it a "concentration camp," which implies deliberate mass murder.

But it is possible to criticize Israel without calling for its extinction—since that is, in fact, what abolishing the existence of a Jewish state means.

But one can say that Israeli policy is an element in growing antisemitism while also listing other elements, including the lying demonization of Israel so prevalent today. Of course, one would then have to talk about all the concessions and risks Israel has taken on behalf of peace in the last twenty years.

And when someone systematically uses such exaggeration, obsessively promotes such hatred, seeks such extreme solutions, sympathizes with those using violence to murder Jews, and leaves out so many facts…it is possible to speak of antisemitism as an element in that overall approach, isn't it?

At times, I reflect, one hears echoes in such rhetoric and activity of a brave, new slogan: Kill the Jews! They really deserve it this time!

Often, however, this kind of talk is actually a result of naiveté and ignorance. This is equally true for Jews who say such things. Being Jewish doesn't make them experts on Israel. But there is also a strong element of opportunism in taking such highly rewarded positions. No Jew need ever starve since he can always make a career bashing Israel.

Yet there is also a remarkable detachment from the facts on the ground.

In an interview, Grosser explains:

"The Palestinians are despised, are occupied and I think that the majority of Israel's citizens despise Palestinians….The central theme of my book [is] that any human being should be respected….As a Jewish boy in a Frankfurt school, I was despised, and even beaten. I can't understand how Jews can scorn others."

But does this have anything much to do with the way Israelis think and behave? Israelis don't "despise" Palestinians in the way Grosser means. Nor are Palestinian (Israeli Arab) students set on and beaten in school or insulted in the streets. On the contrary, such an idea wouldn't even occur to any Israeli but the tiniest minority of most extreme people, who are themselves pretty despised by other Israelis.

What is happening here is that Grosser (and many others) imagine how Israelis behave, then attribute that behavior to them. Often, this means imagining that Israelis behave like Nazis, even though there is no evidence that this is true.

Obviously, there is a decades-long war between them and most Israelis don't love Palestinians (though a remarkable percentage goes out of their way to seek peace and conciliation). Yet compared to other countries at war with each other, Israelis sentiments are definitely at the lowest part of the spectrum concerning hatred or despising.

Anyone can easily ascertain that there is no despising or hating being taught in Israeli media—TV, radio, newspapers, films—or in schools, or in government statements or in the armed forces. Such statements can be found from individuals or at the political extremes, sometimes by radical rabbis, yet it is far less common than the level of despising in a country like Germany against immigrants there or racism in America, or many other such cases. And when incidents of hatred do appear they are widely and officially denounced.

Of course, people like Grosser never consider the behavior of the other side, the relentless, official hatred and despising of Israel (and often Jews) which appears in almost all the media, all the statements of politicians, all the sermons.

Speaking of Gaza as a "concentration camp" this is an appropriate place to mention how the relentlessly anti-Israel Sydney Morning Herald in Australia pubished an article about how wonderful the Hamas regime is in Gaza and extolling its new luxury prison. But buried in it is the following passage about a prison there that the author just let slide by:

"[Prison director Naser] Suleiman is quick to absolve his own institution of such practices. `'We do not practice any torture here,'' he says. `That takes place at the interrogation centre, before people are convicted.'''

Moreover, the one-sided focus on Israel worsens real oppression, hatred, and bloodshed by giving the terrorists and extremists an excuse. The above-mentioned article's author actually blames any mistreatment in Hamas prisons on Israel:

"Just as Hamas struggles to keep order in this restive strip of land of 1.5 million people, Mr Suleiman is trying to do the same inside Gaza's prisons. And just as Israel's blockade of Gaza stunts economic growth and curtails the ambitions of everyday Gazans, it also impairs Mr Suleiman's ability to operate prisons."

Talking about how the terrible nature of the opposition (in Hamas's case, openly antisemitic and preaching genocide against Jews; practicing terrorism; deliberately targeting civilians, etc.) isn't intended to excuse any shortcomings in Israel, but one has to have some way to measure the potential level of hatred and despising going on.

If your enemy is intent on using civilians as human shields and massacring all of yours, this sometimes requires different measures for self-defense. And if the other side is projecting 90 percent hate and Israel 5 percent—the numbers are somewhat arbitrary but also reasonable—that conveys something important. It's funny that Israel is accused of "excessive force" but not credited for its proportionately low level of hatred.

When, for example, two Israeli reservists lose their way on the West Bank and are torn apart (literally) by a Palestinian mob and there is not a single case of retaliation or incitement to violence among Israelis that tells something. Now multiply that by ten thousand incidents.

Western media, academics, and activists often act as if even a single incident by a single Israelis (even if denounced by other Israelis and punished) somehow "proves" that Israel is demonic and worthy of execution. Even the deity only demanded that ten good people out of many hundreds need be found to spare wicked Sodom and Gomorrah. Israel's critics reverse the equation and think finding ten bad ones condemns seven million others.

Of course this doesn't mean Israel is perfect but that's precisely the point: it is unreasonable to expect perfection and once that standard is jettisoned Israel's record can be seen to be remarkably good given the conditions it has faced or even how other democracies have responded to far lower levels of threat.

Come to think of it, when it comes to being "despised" and "scorned," Israel and Israelis aren't the perpetrators, they are on the receiving end.