Cordoba Project Imam on Israel: Favors one-state solution in comments made in 2005

Again, whether you support or oppose placement of an Islamic Center near Ground Zero, 

you should know that  Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the leader of the project ( The Cordoba Initiative,)

 appears to favor positions that can be characterized as anti-Israel. 

 

A win-win solution to the Palestinian/Israel conflict requires a two-state solution:  A safe and secure Jewish state and a safe and secure Palestinian Arab state.

 

 In 2005,  Imam Rauf  publicly advocated for a one-state solution, in which no separate State of Israel will exist.   

 

 Rauf said he does not favor the plan to establish a Palestinian state along with Israel.

 

 "The differences, perhaps, may lie on whether the solution lies in the two-state solution or in a one-state solution. I believe that you had someone here recently who spoke about having a one land and two people's solution to Israel. And I personally - my own personal analysis tells me that a one-state solution is a more coherent one than a two-state solution. So if we address the underlying issue, if we figure out a way to create condominiums, to condominiamise Israel and Palestine so you have two peoples co-existing on one state, then we have a different paradigm which will allow us to move forward."

 

Source:  http://www.investigativeproject.org/2121/rauf-lecture-reveals-radicalism  ( Steve Emerson)   Audio documentation  

 

 

 As you may already know, Imam Rauf declines to repudiate the terrorist organization Hamas.

 

 When asked to acknowledge Hamas as a terrorist organization, Imam Rauf refused, saying, in part:

"I am a peace builder. I will not allow anybody to put me in a position where I am seen by any party in the world as an adversary or as an enemy." 

Souce : http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/imam_terror_error_efmizkHuBUaVnfuQcrcabL 

In writings translated from Arabic, Imam Rauf states that he sees Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad -- organizations identifed by the U.S. State Department as terrorist organizations -- as organizations seeking 'justice."  

Source: http://redcounty.com/content/walid-shoebat-translation-ground-zero-mosque-imam-faisal-abdel-rauf-%E2%80%9Cafter-911-%E2%80%9Chamas-hezbol

 

//Mark Finkelstein    jcrc@dmjfed.org

 

Imam should have no role in Cordoba Project because of his support for Hamas

 

Whatever your opinion about the Islamic Center proposed for construction near Ground Zero in Manhattan, you should be aware that the imam of the Cordoba Project, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf has refused to acknowledge Hamas as a terrorist organization.  

 

 In my opinion, this is unacceptable, no matter the rationalization.   If the imam cannot clearly repudiate Hamas, the imam should have no role in the project.

 

 Hamas is listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization.  Hamas regularly and intentionally targets Israeli civilians.  Hamas both conducts and plans military attacks while embedded among Palestinian civilians, and its Charter embraces the hope that Jews will be subjected to genocide.

 

When asked to acknowledge Hamas as a terrorist organization, Imam Rauf refused, saying, in part:

"I am a peace builder. I will not allow anybody to put me in a position where I am seen by any party in the world as an adversary or as an enemy." 

Souce : http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/imam_terror_error_efmizkHuBUaVnfuQcrcabL

Given the deeds and intentions of Hamas it is surely in American interests, in Israel's interests, and in Jewish interests to stand against Hamas as an adversary. 

 

To go further into the matter,  go beyond what individuals, such as Imam Rauf, say in English and attend to what they say in Arabic.

 

The following is from Walid Shoebat, an anti-Islamist [ not anti-Muslim, but anti-Islamist] activist.  The text suggests that Imam Rauf is not 'neutral' towards Hamas ( as he would claim) but indeed embraces Hamas.

 

//Mark Finkelstein    jcrc@dmjfed.org

 

 

Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf. In his translation  from the Arabic in an article “Sharing The Essence Of Our Beliefs” by Feisal Abdul Rauf, published in the  Al-Ghad Newspaper in Jordan, 5/9/2009, Shoebat noted:

In it, Imam Rauf reveals his views to Muslims right after the 9/11 attacks that Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad were born as a result of the Muslim hunger for Islamic law and justice. 

The words of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf:

(Translated from the Arabic by Walid Shoebat)

If someone in the Middle East cries out, “where is the law”, he knows that the law exists. The only law that the Muslim needs exists already in the Koran and the Hadith. People asked me right after the 9/11 attack as to why do movements with political agendas carry [Islamic] religious names? Why call it ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ or ‘Hezbollah (Party of Allah)’ or ‘Hamas’ or ‘Islamic Resistance Movement’? I answer them this—that the trend towards Islamic law and justice begins in religious movements, because secularism had failed to deliver what the Muslim wants, which is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

Source: http://redcounty.com/content/walid-shoebat-translation-ground-zero-mosque-imam-faisal-abdel-rauf-%E2%80%9Cafter-911-%E2%80%9Chamas-hezbol

Peace Cannot Be a One-Way Street - Micky Boyden

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

---

From: DKaufman@aol.com

Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 09:09:04 EDT

To: <DKaufman@aol.com>

Subject: Peace Cannot Be a One-Way Street - Micky Boyden

Peace Cannot Be a One-Way Street

I have friends, who today are supporters of J-Street, and were involved in Peace Now back in the 1960's. I was there too, back in the old days. I voted for Yitzhak Rabin z"l and remember him saying: "We shall fight terror as though there were no peace, and make peace as though there were no terror".

I still have a bag bearing the stickers "Peace Now" and "A Whole Generation Seeks Peace". But then came the 2nd Intifada, Intifada Al- Aqsa, which claimed the lives of over 1,100 Israelis and left many thousands more wounded, some of whom still bear the physical and mental scars of their injuries to this day.

None of us will forget how the Palestinians danced on their rooftops as Scud missiles fell on Tel Aviv, and rejoiced as the Hizbollah rockets pounded our northern towns and villages.

I understand them. They are weary of an Israeli occupation, which they have had to endure for over forty years. Not that they had ever enjoyed independence. Prior to 1967, the Jordanians were their masters, while prior to 1948, the British had held the reins of power, which they in turn had wrested in 1917 from the Ottoman Empire, who had conquered Palestine four hundred years earlier..

But today the Palestinians want a state of their own, although there are few signs that they are able to work together, or that such a state will be democratic. When and if it is ever established, it will most likely join the ranks of the dictatorships and the theocracies in our region. Nevertheless, most Israelis support them in their quest for independence.

However, statehood comes at a price. The Palestinians will have to forgo their ambitions to destroy Israel. They will need to recognize that no Israeli government will allow the Jewish state to be swamped with hundreds of thousands, if not millions of the grandchildren of those who claim to have been displaced by the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

One year earlier, in 1947, the United Nations had presented its Partition Plan for the division of the territories west of the river Jordan between a Jewish and an Arab state. We reluctantly accepted the plan in spite of all of its disadvantages and limitations. After all, half a cake is better than none. However, the Palestine Arab Higher Committee, supported by the Arab League, rejected it.

More than 60 years later, the Palestinians are faced with the same dilemma: Compromise and accept less than what you want, or remain where you are.

As the US Administration tirelessly works to cajole Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) into direct negotiations with Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is to be hoped that the President of the Palestinian National Authority will be more pragmatic than his predecessors. Were we seeing Palestinian moderates calling upon him to compromise for the sake of peace, then the chances of success would be greater. But I don't hear them.

Micky Boyden
Rabbis For Israel
WeAreForIsrael.org

 

David Jay Kaufman
Rabbi
Temple B'nai Jeshurun
Des Moines, Iowa
www.templebnaijeshurun.org
www.rabbikaufman.blogspot.com
515-274-4679
dkaufman@aol.com

Netanyahu welcomes Clinton's invitation - Israel News, Ynetnews

http://www.google.com/gwt/x?source=reader&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ynetnews.com%2Farticles%2F0%2C7340%2CL-3940607%2C00.html

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Op-Ed: Palestinian leaders must foster hope, not hate | JTA - Jewish & Israel News

http://m.jta.org/news/article/jta/2010/08/16/2740494/op-ed-palestinian-leaders-must-foster-hope-not-hate

Erekat: 'We will educate for peace when there is peace.'

Palestinians deserve better from their leaders.
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U.S. State Dept: Lebanese army's fire on IDF "totally unjustified, deliberate"

 

US State Department spokesman condemns incident of Lebanese fire on IDF troops

AFP and Ahiya Raved

 

The Lebanese army's fire on IDF troops working on Israel's northern border was "totally unjustified and deliberate," US State Department Spokesman Philip Crowley said Wednesday.

 

Crowley spoke after a statement released by the UN Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) declared that the trees troops were uprooting Tuesday, before shots fired by Lebanese soldiers killed Lieutenant Colonel Dov Harari and wounded Captain Ezra Lakia, were located the "Israeli side".

 

"UNIFIL has established... that trees chopped down by the Israeli army are located south of the Blue Line, the Israeli side," UNIFIL said Wednesday in a statement.

 

The Blue Line was drawn by the UN following the withdrawal of the IDF in May 2000 from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation to act as a border.

 

 

Iran denies Ahmadinejad assassination attempt

Iran television denies reports of attempt on Ahmadinejad's life

Published:  08.04.10, 13:14 / Israel News

Iranian television denied reports of an assassination attempt on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

 

At the same time, the Iranian website that first reported the incident noted that the president's vehicle was some 100 meters from the minibus which absorbed the hand grenade explosion. (Dudi Cohen)