Israel to the UN: The Jewish People Are Not Foreign Conquerors in the Land of Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2009:
* Nearly 62 years ago, the United Nations recognized the right of the Jews, an ancient people 3,500-years-old, to a state of their own in their ancestral homeland. Yesterday, the man [Ahmadinejad] who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. To those who refused to come here and to those who left this room in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity and you brought honor to your countries.
* The Iranian regime is fueled by an extreme fundamentalism that burst onto the world scene three decades ago. The struggle against this fanaticism pits civilization against barbarism, the 21st century against the 9th century, those who sanctify life against those who glorify death. If the most primitive fanaticism can acquire the most deadly weapons, the march of history could be reversed. The greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction, and the most urgent challenge facing this body is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
* A recent UN report on Gaza falsely equated the terrorists with those they targeted. For eight long years, Hamas fired from Gaza thousands of missiles, mortars and rockets on nearby Israeli cities while not a single UN resolution was passed condemning those criminal attacks. In 2005, hoping to advance peace, Israel unilaterally withdrew from every inch of Gaza. We didn't get peace. Instead we got an Iranian-backed terror base fifty miles from Tel Aviv. Life in Israeli towns and cities next to Gaza became a nightmare.
* All of Israel wants peace. If the Palestinians truly want peace, I and my government, and the people of Israel, will make peace. But we want a genuine peace, a defensible peace, a permanent peace. In 1947, this body voted to establish two states for two peoples - a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted that resolution. The Arabs rejected it. We ask the Palestinians to finally do what they have refused to do for 62 years: Say yes to a Jewish state. The Jewish people are not foreign conquerors in the Land of Israel. This is the land of our forefathers.
* We recognize that the Palestinians also live there and want a home of their own. We want to live side by side with them, two free peoples living in peace, prosperity and dignity. But we don't want another Gaza, another Iranian-backed terror base, abutting Jerusalem and perched on the hills a few kilometers from Tel Aviv. The Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves except those handful of powers that could endanger Israel.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Palestinian Leaders Deny Jerusalem's Past
By BARI WEISS, Opinion Editorial, Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2009
Jews have no history in the city of Jerusalem: They have never lived there, the Temple never existed, and Israeli archaeologists have admitted as much. Those who deny this are simply liars. Or so says Sheik Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, chief Islamic judge of the Palestinian Authority.
His claims, made last month, would be laughable if they weren't so common among Palestinians. Sheik Tamimi is only the latest to insist that, in his words, Jerusalem is solely "an Arab and Islamic city and it has always been so." His comments come on the heels of those by Shamekh Alawneh, a lecturer in modern history at Al Quds University. On an Aug. 11 PA television program, "Jerusalem—History and Culture," Mr. Alawneh argued that the Jews invented their connection to Jerusalem. "It has no historical roots," he said, adding that the Jews are engaging in "an attack on history, theft of culture, falsification of facts, erasure of the truth, and Judaization of the place."
[weiss] Associated Press
The Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock
As President Barack Obama and his foreign-policy team gear up to propose yet another plan for Israeli-Arab peace, they would do well to focus less on important but secondary issues like settlement growth, and instead notice that top Palestinian intellectual and political leaders deny basic truths about the region's most important city.
For the record: Jerusalem is the holiest city in Judaism, mentioned more than 600 times in the Hebrew Bible. Three times a day, religious Jews face eastward toward the city when they pray. At Jewish weddings, the couple's joy is diminished as they shatter a glass to acknowledge Jerusalem's still unfulfilled redemption. It is a widespread custom then to recite the 137th psalm ("If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither, let my tongue cleave to my palate. . ." ).
According to Jewish tradition, Jerusalem's designation as Judaism's most sacred city made it the obvious place for King Solomon to build the Holy Temple following the death of his father, King David. After the temple's destruction by the Babylonians, it was rebuilt by King Herod before being destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70.
Earlier this month, archaeologists with the Israeli Antiquities Authority discovered a 3,700-year-old Jerusalem wall—the oldest and biggest ever uncovered in the region—that they believe was built by the Canaanites before the First Temple period. It's true: there is scant archaeological evidence of the First Temple. But not so for the Second Temple, which is accepted as historical fact by most archaeologists. From the Herodian period, aside from dozens of Jewish ritual baths surrounding the temple that have been uncovered, one retaining wall of the temple, the Western Wall, still stands.
But Sheik Tamimi doesn't need to take the Jews' word for any of this, or that of legions of world-class scholars. For proof of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, he need only look at writings from his own religious tradition.
The Koran, which references many biblical stories and claims figures like Abraham as Islamic prophets, also acknowledges the existence of the Jewish temples. The historian Karen Armstrong has written that the Koran refers to Solomon's Temple as a "great place of prayer" and that the first Muslims referred to Jerusalem as the "City of the Temple." Martin Kramer, a historian who has combed through Koranic references to the temples in Arabic, notes surra 34, verse 13, which discusses Solomon's building process: "They [jinn/spirits] worked for him as he desired, (making) arches, images, basins large as wells, and (cooking) cauldrons fixed (in their places)."
There is still more recent official Muslim acknowledgment of Jerusalem's Jewish history—a booklet put out in 1924 by the Supreme Muslim Council called "A brief guide to al-haram al-sharif." Al-haram al-sharif, the Arabic name for the Temple Mount, is currently the site of the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosque. It is, according to Islamic tradition, where Muhammad ascended to heaven.
Yet it is also, according to the council's booklet, a site of uncontested importance for the Jews. "The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest (perhaps from pre-historic) times. Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute." And the booklet quotes the book of Samuel: "This, too, is the spot, according to the universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offering and peace offerings.'" Later, the booklet says the underground structure known as King Solomon's Stables probably dates "as far back as the construction of Solomon's Temple." Citing the historian Flavius Josephus, it claims the stables were likely used as a "place of refuge by the Jews at the time of the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus in the year 70 A.D."
So why do those like Mr. Tamimi deny what their predecessors acknowledged? To undermine Israel, which earned statehood in 1948 and captured the Old City of Jerusalem during the Six Day War of 1967. Since then, Palestinian leaders have fought to erase any Jewish connection to sacred places, particularly the Temple Mount.
While Israel has never hesitated to acknowledge Jerusalem's holiness in Islam—albeit saying that it has less importance than Mecca—Palestinian leaders insist that Jews are transplants in the region, nothing more than white European colonialists. This denial has formed the foundation for their argument that Jerusalem should become Palestine's capital. This is why the previous mufti of the Palestinian Authority, Sheik Ikrama Sabri, dismisses the Western Wall as "just a fence." Yasser Arafat classified it, bizarrely, as "a Muslim shrine." As Saeb Erekat, Arafat's chief negotiator, said to President Clinton at Camp David in 2000: "I don't believe there was a temple on top of the Haram [holy site], I really don't."
These sentiments are echoed in Palestinian primary-school textbooks, preached at mosques, and printed in official newspapers. The Palestinian leadership isn't bellyaching over borders—it is stating, in full voice, that Israel has no right to its most basic historical and religious legacy.
This is no foundation for "peace talks."
—Ms. Weiss is an assistant editorial features editor at the Journal.
By BARI WEISS, Opinion Editorial, Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2009
Jews have no history in the city of Jerusalem: They have never lived there, the Temple never existed, and Israeli archaeologists have admitted as much. Those who deny this are simply liars. Or so says Sheik Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, chief Islamic judge of the Palestinian Authority.
His claims, made last month, would be laughable if they weren't so common among Palestinians. Sheik Tamimi is only the latest to insist that, in his words, Jerusalem is solely "an Arab and Islamic city and it has always been so." His comments come on the heels of those by Shamekh Alawneh, a lecturer in modern history at Al Quds University. On an Aug. 11 PA television program, "Jerusalem—History and Culture," Mr. Alawneh argued that the Jews invented their connection to Jerusalem. "It has no historical roots," he said, adding that the Jews are engaging in "an attack on history, theft of culture, falsification of facts, erasure of the truth, and Judaization of the place."
[weiss] Associated Press
The Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock
As President Barack Obama and his foreign-policy team gear up to propose yet another plan for Israeli-Arab peace, they would do well to focus less on important but secondary issues like settlement growth, and instead notice that top Palestinian intellectual and political leaders deny basic truths about the region's most important city.
For the record: Jerusalem is the holiest city in Judaism, mentioned more than 600 times in the Hebrew Bible. Three times a day, religious Jews face eastward toward the city when they pray. At Jewish weddings, the couple's joy is diminished as they shatter a glass to acknowledge Jerusalem's still unfulfilled redemption. It is a widespread custom then to recite the 137th psalm ("If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither, let my tongue cleave to my palate. . ." ).
According to Jewish tradition, Jerusalem's designation as Judaism's most sacred city made it the obvious place for King Solomon to build the Holy Temple following the death of his father, King David. After the temple's destruction by the Babylonians, it was rebuilt by King Herod before being destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70.
Earlier this month, archaeologists with the Israeli Antiquities Authority discovered a 3,700-year-old Jerusalem wall—the oldest and biggest ever uncovered in the region—that they believe was built by the Canaanites before the First Temple period. It's true: there is scant archaeological evidence of the First Temple. But not so for the Second Temple, which is accepted as historical fact by most archaeologists. From the Herodian period, aside from dozens of Jewish ritual baths surrounding the temple that have been uncovered, one retaining wall of the temple, the Western Wall, still stands.
But Sheik Tamimi doesn't need to take the Jews' word for any of this, or that of legions of world-class scholars. For proof of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, he need only look at writings from his own religious tradition.
The Koran, which references many biblical stories and claims figures like Abraham as Islamic prophets, also acknowledges the existence of the Jewish temples. The historian Karen Armstrong has written that the Koran refers to Solomon's Temple as a "great place of prayer" and that the first Muslims referred to Jerusalem as the "City of the Temple." Martin Kramer, a historian who has combed through Koranic references to the temples in Arabic, notes surra 34, verse 13, which discusses Solomon's building process: "They [jinn/spirits] worked for him as he desired, (making) arches, images, basins large as wells, and (cooking) cauldrons fixed (in their places)."
There is still more recent official Muslim acknowledgment of Jerusalem's Jewish history—a booklet put out in 1924 by the Supreme Muslim Council called "A brief guide to al-haram al-sharif." Al-haram al-sharif, the Arabic name for the Temple Mount, is currently the site of the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosque. It is, according to Islamic tradition, where Muhammad ascended to heaven.
Yet it is also, according to the council's booklet, a site of uncontested importance for the Jews. "The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest (perhaps from pre-historic) times. Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute." And the booklet quotes the book of Samuel: "This, too, is the spot, according to the universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offering and peace offerings.'" Later, the booklet says the underground structure known as King Solomon's Stables probably dates "as far back as the construction of Solomon's Temple." Citing the historian Flavius Josephus, it claims the stables were likely used as a "place of refuge by the Jews at the time of the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus in the year 70 A.D."
So why do those like Mr. Tamimi deny what their predecessors acknowledged? To undermine Israel, which earned statehood in 1948 and captured the Old City of Jerusalem during the Six Day War of 1967. Since then, Palestinian leaders have fought to erase any Jewish connection to sacred places, particularly the Temple Mount.
While Israel has never hesitated to acknowledge Jerusalem's holiness in Islam—albeit saying that it has less importance than Mecca—Palestinian leaders insist that Jews are transplants in the region, nothing more than white European colonialists. This denial has formed the foundation for their argument that Jerusalem should become Palestine's capital. This is why the previous mufti of the Palestinian Authority, Sheik Ikrama Sabri, dismisses the Western Wall as "just a fence." Yasser Arafat classified it, bizarrely, as "a Muslim shrine." As Saeb Erekat, Arafat's chief negotiator, said to President Clinton at Camp David in 2000: "I don't believe there was a temple on top of the Haram [holy site], I really don't."
These sentiments are echoed in Palestinian primary-school textbooks, preached at mosques, and printed in official newspapers. The Palestinian leadership isn't bellyaching over borders—it is stating, in full voice, that Israel has no right to its most basic historical and religious legacy.
This is no foundation for "peace talks."
—Ms. Weiss is an assistant editorial features editor at the Journal.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Illinois divests $133 million in anti-nuclear Iran initiative
By Jane CHARNEY, Staff Writer Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, 9/24/09
Illinois State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg and Rep. Lou Lang announced Sept. 24 the results of a significant state-level effort to curb Iran’s nuclear threat: the divestment of $133 million in state pension funds from foreign companies doing business with Iran’s energy sector.
Illinois has been at the forefront of efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear program. In fact, the state passed the nation’s second divestment bill in 2007. The Illinois bill also was the first to require foreign companies seeking business with the state to indicate if they are doing business with Iran’s energy sector.
“The law declares simply the state’s readiness not just to speak out against Iran’s recklessness but to act to curb it as well,” Shoenberg said at a press conference announcing the results of divestment (watch the video of the event). “As long as the Iranian leadership continues to pursue nuclear weapons in defiance of international law, we are absolutely compelled to withhold our public investments from this rogue country.”
State Reps. Will Davis, Linda Chapa LaVia, and Sid Mathias, all of whom co-sponsored the original bill in 2007, again showed their support for the anti-Iran initiative by attending the press conference.
JUF’s Jewish Community Relations Council and its Government Affairs Office in Springfield played a key role in securing support for the legislation. They also worked with business associations generally opposed to divestment to remain neutral on the Illinois law and with the state pension boards’ compliance and general counsel officers on implementation and reporting.
“While others are calling for action and talking about what to do, Illinois already has acted and has emerged as a leader in this area,” said JUF Executive Vice President Michael Kotzin, who also spoke at the press conference. Read his entire remarks.
Preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons has been the top focus of lobbying efforts by Jewish organizations nationwide. In early September, 20 Chicagoans joined about 300 Jewish community leaders from around the country to urge lawmakers on Capitol Hill to take a tougher stance on Iran as part of the National Jewish Leadership Advocacy Day on Iran, coordinated by the National Inter-Agency Task Force on Iran. Rallies also took place Sept. 24 in New York and several other cities in solidarity with Iran’s opposition movement, which stood up against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s rule.
Jewish and non-Jewish lay leaders, students, and JUF staff met with Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and Illinois Reps. Jerry Costello, Danny K. Davis, Luis Gutierrez, Bill Foster, Phil Hare, Debbie Halvorson, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Mark Kirk, Donald Manzullo, Mike Quigley, Peter Roskam, Aaron Schock and Jan Schakowsky to discuss upcoming House bills connected to Iran. Chicagoans comprised one of the largest groups at the fly-in.
The Illinois congressional delegation has been supportive of anti-nuclear Iran efforts. In particular, the entire delegation signed on as co-sponsors of the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act of 2009, which would strengthen the President’s authority to impose sanctions on any entity providing Iran with refined petroleum resources. Illinois legislators also are co-sponsoring the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act of 2009, which requires federal support for local and state governments’ and educational institutions’ divestment from entities investing more than $20 million in Iran’s energy sector.
By Jane CHARNEY, Staff Writer Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, 9/24/09
Illinois State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg and Rep. Lou Lang announced Sept. 24 the results of a significant state-level effort to curb Iran’s nuclear threat: the divestment of $133 million in state pension funds from foreign companies doing business with Iran’s energy sector.
Illinois has been at the forefront of efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear program. In fact, the state passed the nation’s second divestment bill in 2007. The Illinois bill also was the first to require foreign companies seeking business with the state to indicate if they are doing business with Iran’s energy sector.
“The law declares simply the state’s readiness not just to speak out against Iran’s recklessness but to act to curb it as well,” Shoenberg said at a press conference announcing the results of divestment (watch the video of the event). “As long as the Iranian leadership continues to pursue nuclear weapons in defiance of international law, we are absolutely compelled to withhold our public investments from this rogue country.”
State Reps. Will Davis, Linda Chapa LaVia, and Sid Mathias, all of whom co-sponsored the original bill in 2007, again showed their support for the anti-Iran initiative by attending the press conference.
JUF’s Jewish Community Relations Council and its Government Affairs Office in Springfield played a key role in securing support for the legislation. They also worked with business associations generally opposed to divestment to remain neutral on the Illinois law and with the state pension boards’ compliance and general counsel officers on implementation and reporting.
“While others are calling for action and talking about what to do, Illinois already has acted and has emerged as a leader in this area,” said JUF Executive Vice President Michael Kotzin, who also spoke at the press conference. Read his entire remarks.
Preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons has been the top focus of lobbying efforts by Jewish organizations nationwide. In early September, 20 Chicagoans joined about 300 Jewish community leaders from around the country to urge lawmakers on Capitol Hill to take a tougher stance on Iran as part of the National Jewish Leadership Advocacy Day on Iran, coordinated by the National Inter-Agency Task Force on Iran. Rallies also took place Sept. 24 in New York and several other cities in solidarity with Iran’s opposition movement, which stood up against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s rule.
Jewish and non-Jewish lay leaders, students, and JUF staff met with Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and Illinois Reps. Jerry Costello, Danny K. Davis, Luis Gutierrez, Bill Foster, Phil Hare, Debbie Halvorson, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Mark Kirk, Donald Manzullo, Mike Quigley, Peter Roskam, Aaron Schock and Jan Schakowsky to discuss upcoming House bills connected to Iran. Chicagoans comprised one of the largest groups at the fly-in.
The Illinois congressional delegation has been supportive of anti-nuclear Iran efforts. In particular, the entire delegation signed on as co-sponsors of the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act of 2009, which would strengthen the President’s authority to impose sanctions on any entity providing Iran with refined petroleum resources. Illinois legislators also are co-sponsoring the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act of 2009, which requires federal support for local and state governments’ and educational institutions’ divestment from entities investing more than $20 million in Iran’s energy sector.
President Obama: "The time has come to re-launch negotiations without preconditions that address the permanent status issues: security for Israelis and Palestinians, borders, refugees, and Jerusalem. And the goal is clear: Two states living side by side in peace and security - a Jewish state of Israel, with true security for all Israelis; and a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967, and realizes the potential of the Palestinian people." September 23, 2009, UN Speech
The lesson of Oslo, Camp David and Annapolis is clear-cut: Even the most moderate Palestinian leadership is not prepared to accept Israel's most far-reaching peace proposal. In 16 years of a painstaking and exhausting peace process, the Palestinians never agreed to a single concession on a core issue. Their refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, to agree to demilitarize a Palestinian state or to give up their demand for the return of refugees to Israel has blocked peace in the past, is blocking peace in the present and will continue doing so for the foreseeable future. As of now, there is no genuine Palestinian partner for the partition of the country. Obama's Palestinian problem can't be swept under a carpet of words. -- Avi Shavit , September 24, 2009 Ha'aretz
The lesson of Oslo, Camp David and Annapolis is clear-cut: Even the most moderate Palestinian leadership is not prepared to accept Israel's most far-reaching peace proposal. In 16 years of a painstaking and exhausting peace process, the Palestinians never agreed to a single concession on a core issue. Their refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, to agree to demilitarize a Palestinian state or to give up their demand for the return of refugees to Israel has blocked peace in the past, is blocking peace in the present and will continue doing so for the foreseeable future. As of now, there is no genuine Palestinian partner for the partition of the country. Obama's Palestinian problem can't be swept under a carpet of words. -- Avi Shavit , September 24, 2009 Ha'aretz
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Netanyahu on prospects for peace
If the leader of the Palestinian Authority genuinely steps forward and says, "We recognize the State of Israel, we're willing to make peace with the Jewish state, and it will be a peace of the recognition and security," then my government will make peace.
-- Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, September 22, 2009 CNN Interview
-- Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, September 22, 2009 CNN Interview
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
To move forward prospects for peace this week at the UN, President Obama will have the tall order of slaying pernicious “one-state” fantasies while advancing a truly even-handed approach that not only opposes new West Bank settlements but pressures Palestinians and the Arab and Muslim world to end anti-Israel incitement, accepts Israel’s “Jewish character,” and provides the Israeli people with the confidence that they'll never have to face another Yom Kippur War.
-- Cooper and Brackman, Simon Wiesenthal Center September 22, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Suspect in alleged NYC bomb plot admits ties to terrorism
Sept 18, 2009 2:44 pm US/Mountain
Zazi Admits Ties To Terrorism [reportedly Al Qaeda]
DENVER (CBS4/AP) ―
CBS News has learned that Najibullah Zazi, the man questioned by the FBI in a terrorism probe in New York and Colorado, has provided a partial confession to investigators. He has admitted ties to terrorism, but downplayed his involvement in any terrorist plot.
Zazi Admits Ties To Terrorism [reportedly Al Qaeda]
DENVER (CBS4/AP) ―
CBS News has learned that Najibullah Zazi, the man questioned by the FBI in a terrorism probe in New York and Colorado, has provided a partial confession to investigators. He has admitted ties to terrorism, but downplayed his involvement in any terrorist plot.
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