INTERNATIONAL PULSE Period: July 2006 6666666 End-Time Church / Pluralism Global Politics Israel

ISRAEL ----- LEBANON / ISRAEL 48 HOURS NOT ENOUGH AS WAR CRIMES CONTINUE July 31, 2006 - Amnesty International - LEBANON - July 31 - The devastating attack on Qana makes clear that an immediate and full ceasefire is urgently needed. Measures taken by Israel to temporarily suspend airstrikes over southern Lebanon are insufficient. Both sides to this conflict have shown a blatant disregard for the laws of war and civilians on both sides are paying the price as war crimes abound, Amnesty International said today. "In view of the defiant disregard for fundamental humanitarian principles by both parties, it would appear that only an immediate, full and effective cease-fire will protect civilians on both sides of this conflict," said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International. "It is utterly shameful that governments who have influence over Israel and Hizbollah and who could help end this crisis, continue to prioritize political and military interests over innocent lives of civilians." Amnesty International is calling on the international community to urgently negotiate an immediate and full ceasefire, and to convene a meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to ensure that attacks such as Qana are independently and impartially investigated and those suspected of war crimes brought to justice. Amnesty International researchers in Lebanon who went to Qana shortly after the bombing found rescue workers pulling children's bodies from the rubble and digging furiously in search of survivors. At Tyre hospital, Mohamed Qasem Shalhoub, whose wife, elderly mother and five children aged from two to 11 were killed, said that he had been in a room in the basement and that 17 children were sleeping close by him, only one of whom survived. Another survivor, whose sister and brother were killed, told Amnesty International that she and her family had been sheltering in the house for the past 10 days, emerging during the day to wash, and that their presence must have been known to Israeli forces whose surveillance drones frequently flew over the village. "Calls for the warring parties to obey the laws of war and protect civilians have fallen on deaf ears. Israel is carrying out disproportionate and targeted attacks on civilians and humanitarian workers, while Hizbullah continues to launch rockets at Israeli civilian population centres," said Irene Khan. Israeli authorities have claimed that Hizbullah intentionally used civilians in Qana as "human shields". International humanitarian law expressly prohibits the use of tactics such as "human shields" to prevent an attack on military targets. However, international humanitarian law also makes it clear that even if one side is shielding itself behind civilians, such an abuse does not "...release the Parties to the conflict from their legal obligations with respect to the civilian population and civilians." Reports that Israel has warned all civilians living south of the Litani River to leave the area demonstrates how the concept of effective warning is being distorted. If anything, such a warning to over 400,000 people seems only to spread panic among the civilian population, rather than enhance their safety. Many fear they are more likely to be attacked on the road. Some simply are not able to leave. In several cases where Israeli forces gave warning to residents of certain towns or villages in southern Lebanon, they then attacked those trying to flee. Israel's relentless bombing of roads and bridges has also made it extremely difficult for civilians in south Lebanon to flee north following warnings from Israel. Under customary international law, intentionally launching a disproportionate or indiscriminate attack or intentionally directing attacks at civilians or civilian objects is a war crime. “The concept of ‘free-fire’ zones is incompatible with international humanitarian law. The attack in Qana is sypmtomatic of the way in which this conflict has been fought to date and indicates either that Israel is failing to take necessary precautions to spare civilians or that it has intentionally launched a disproportionate attack on civilians,” said Irene Khan. http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0731-03.htm ----- CASUALTIES OF WAR: LEBANON'S TREES, AIR, AND SEA July 29, 2006 by the New York Times by Hassan M. Fattah -Smoke billowed and a fuel tank continued to burn in Jiyeh, just south of Beirut, where at least 10,000 tons of oil have spilled into the sea since Israeli airstrikes hit a fuel storage depot there on July 13 and 15. (Joao Silva / The New York Times) JIYEH, Lebanon, July 28 — As Israel continues the bombing campaign that has turned parts of Lebanon into rubble, environmentalists are warning of widespread and lasting damage. Spilled and burning oil, along with forest fires, toxic waste flows and growing garbage heaps have gone from nuisances to threats to people and wildlife, they say, marring a country traditionally known for its clean air and scenic greenery. Many of Lebanon’s once pristine beaches and much of its coastline have been coated with a thick sludge that threatens marine life. As smoke billowed overhead on Friday, turning day into dusk, Ali Saeed, a resident, recounted how war has changed this small industrial town about 15 miles south of Beirut. Most people have left, he said. It is virtually impossible to drive on the roads, and almost everyone hides behind sealed windows. “There’s nowhere to run,” Mr. Saeed said, showing off the black speckles on his skin that have turned everything white here into gray. “It’s dripping fuel from the sky.” A large oil spill and fire caused by Israeli bombing have sent an oil slick traveling up the coast of Lebanon to Syria, threatening to become the worst environmental disaster in the country’s history and engulfing this town in smoke. “The escalating Israeli attacks on Lebanon did not only kill its civilians and destroy its infrastructure, but they are also annihilating its environment,” warned Green Line, a Lebanese environmental group, in a statement issued Thursday. “This is one of the worst environmental crises in Lebanese history.” The most significant damage has come from airstrikes on an oil storage depot at the edge of Jiyeh on July 13 and 15. Oil spewed into the Mediterranean Sea and a fire erupted that has been burning ever since. Four of the plant’s six oil storage containers have burned completely, spilling at least 10,000 tons of thick fuel oil into the sea initially, and possibly up to 15,000 more in the weeks since. A fifth tank burst into flames on Thursday, residents said, adding to a smoke cloud that has spewed soot and debris miles away. The fire is so hot that it has melted rail cars into blobs and turned the sand below into glass. Full story: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0729-05.htm ----- PROFOUND PROPHECY http://www.profoundprophecy.com/ ------ ISRAELIS ACCUSED OF USING ILLEGAL WEAPONS July 28, 2006 by Inter Press Service - by Dahr Jamail - BEIRUT- The Israeli military is using illegal weapons against civilians in southern Lebanon, according to several reports. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said this week that Israel had used cluster bombs in civilian areas of Lebanon, in clear violation of international law. The group said cluster bombs killed a civilian and injured 12 others in Blida village in the south of Lebanon last week. Cluster bombs disperse hundreds of tiny shrapnel-filled 'bomblets' that are "unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable", and should not be used in civilian areas, HRW said. Lebanese doctors, aid workers and refugees are reporting that the Israeli military has used the incendiary weapon white phosphorous in civilian areas, also in violation of the Geneva Conventions. Dr. Bachir el-Sham at the Complex Hospital in Sidon in the south of Lebanon told IPS in a telephone interview that he has received civilian patients injured by incendiary weapons. "We are seeing people that are all blackened, with charred flesh that is not burned by normal bombs and flames," he said. "I am sure this is a special bomb. They are using incendiary weapons on civilians in the south. We are seeing these patients." The doctor also told IPS that the Israelis are again using suction bombs, which they used heavily during the Lebanese civil war. "They are using suction bombs that implode our buildings," he added, "With implosive bombs...instead of the glass blasted out, it is inside the building. These kill everyone inside the building. There are rarely survivors when they use these bombs." Bilal Masri, assistant director of the Beirut Government University Hospital (BGUH) had told IPS earlier that "many of the injured in the south are suffering from the impact of incendiary white phosphorous." Wafaa el-Yassir, Beirut representative of the non-governmental organisation Norwegian People's Aid, told IPS that several of her relief workers in the south had reported assisting people hit by incendiary weapons. "The most important thing is that we have an investigation for the Israelis' use of banned weapons," she said. "They have used phosphorous in Nabatiyeh and cluster bombs in Dahaya district of Beirut." She also told IPS that a doctor at the Bint Jbail hospital, in the small city near the southern border of Lebanon where much of the fierce fighting has taken place, had told her agency that he was certain that white phosphorous had been used against civilians there. Zacharia al-Amedin, an 18-year-old refugee being treated for lacerations from bomb shrapnel told IPS, "I was in a village near Tyre, and the Israelis were dropping incendiary bombs all around us, even though there weren't fighters near us. So many civilians were hit by these weapons." The Lebanese ministry of interior has officially said that the Israeli military has used this weapon. President Emile Lahoud said recently on French radio: "According to the Geneva Conventions, when they use phosphorous bombs and laser bombs, is that allowed against civilians and children?" An Israeli military spokesman told Reuters news agency, "Everything the Israeli defence forces are using is legitimate." International law requires that the military distinguish between combatants and civilians. Incendiary weapons and cluster bombs when used in areas where there may be civilians contravene international humanitarian law. "We are a country of humans, not animals," Sham told IPS. "Real people are dying here. You must ask this of the world, to please help." Full story: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0728-05.htm ----- UN SLAMS ISRAEL OVER LEBANON STIKES AS KILLING RAGES ON July 24, 2006 by Agence France Presse - The UN relief chief condemned Israel for "violating humanitarian law" over its blistering raids on Lebanon as the Jewish state and Hezbollah killed more civilians in another wave of attacks. As Israel tightened its grip on a strategic border village seized in south Lebanon, Syria fuelled fears the fighting could spread by issuing a warning that it would intervene if Israel dared launch a full-out invasion of Lebanon. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was also heading to the Middle East with Washington increasingly estranged from European and Arab allies over a conflict that has killed close to 400 people in just 12 days and triggered a major humanitarian crisis. UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland, in Beirut to launch a urgent appeal for funds for half a million people made homeless by the conflict, made no attempt to hide his fury as he toured bombed-out areas. "This is destruction of block after block of mainly residential areas. I would say it seems to be an excessive use of force in an area with so many citizens," he told reporters in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold. Asked if the Israeli raid that destroyed the burned-out buildings before him constituted a war crime, he replied: "It makes it a violation of humanitarian law." His comments came as at least twelve civilians, including a Lebanese press photographer, were killed in new Israeli air strikes across Lebanon on the 12th day of Israel's punishing war on Hezbollah. The Shiite militant group said three of its fighters had also been killed. Shiite guerrillas responded with a new hail of rocket fire on Israel's third city of Haifa, killing one person in his car and a second as he worked in a warehouse. Streams of people, many waving white flags, are making a desperate trek from southern Lebanon after Israel ordered them to leave their homes, raising fears it was planning a largescale ground invasion. Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said the aim of the offensive was to keep Hezbollah -- which controls southern Lebanon in the absence of the regular Lebanese army -- at least 20 kilometres (13 miles) from the frontier. Full story: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0724-04.htm ----- UNITED STATES TO ISRAEL YOU HAVE ONE MORE WEEK TO BLAST HIZBULLAH July 19, 2006 by the Guardian / UK United States to Israel: You Have One More Week to Blast Hizbullah Bush 'gave green light' for limited attack, say Israeli and UK sources by Ewen MacAskill, Simon Tisdall and Patrick Wintour - The US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to British, European and Israeli sources. An Israeli gunner rests on top of a artillery piece near Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, next to the Lebanese border. Photograph: Sebastian Scheiner/AP The Bush administration, backed by Britain, has blocked efforts for an immediate halt to the fighting initiated at the UN security council, the G8 summit in St Petersburg and the European foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels. "It's clear the Americans have given the Israelis the green light. They [the Israeli attacks] will be allowed to go on longer, perhaps for another week," a senior European official said yesterday. Diplomatic sources said there was a clear time limit, partly dictated by fears that a prolonged conflict could spin out of control. US strategy in allowing Israel this freedom for a limited period has several objectives, one of which is delivering a slap to Iran and Syria, who Washington claims are directing Hizbullah and Hamas militants from behind the scenes. George Bush last night said that he suspected Syria was trying to reassert its influence in Lebanon. Speaking in Washington, he said: "It's in our interest for Syria to stay out of Lebanon and for this government in Lebanon to succeed and survive. The root cause of the problem is Hizbullah and that problem needs to be addressed." Tony Blair yesterday swung behind the US position that Israel need not end the bombing until Hizbullah hands over captured prisoners and ends its rocket attacks. During a Commons statement, he resisted backbench demands that he call for a ceasefire. Echoing the US position, he told MPs: "Of course we all want violence to stop and stop immediately, but we recognise the only realistic way to achieve such a ceasefire is to address the underlying reasons why this violence has broken out." He also indicated it might take many months to agree the terms of a UN stabilisation force on the Lebanese border. Full story: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0719-09.htm ----- BLINDED BY A CONCEPT Originally published in the Boston Globe - By George Soros - THE FAILURE OF Israel to subdue Hezbollah demonstrates the many weaknesses of the war-on-terror concept. One of those weaknesses is that even if the targets are terrorists, the victims are often innocent civilians, and their suffering reinforces the terrorist cause. In response to Hezbollah's attacks, Israel was justified in attacking Hezbollah to protect itself against the threat of missiles on its border. However, Israel should have taken greater care to minimize collateral damage. The civilian casualties and material damage inflicted on Lebanon inflamed Muslims and world opinion against Israel and converted Hezbollah from aggressors to heroes of resistance for many. Weakening Lebanon has also made it more difficult to rein in Hezbollah. Another weakness of the war-on-terror concept is that it relies on military action and rules out political approaches. Israel previously withdrew from Lebanon and then from Gaza unilaterally, rather than negotiating political settlements with the Lebanese government and the Palestinian authority. The strengthening of Hezbollah and Hamas was a direct consequence of that approach. The war-on-terror concept stands in the way of recognizing this fact because it separates "us" from "them" and denies that our actions help shape their behavior. A third weakness is that the war-on-terror concept lumps together different political movements that use terrorist tactics. It fails to distinguish among Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, or the Sunni insurrection and the Mahdi militia in Iraq. Yet all these terrorist manifestations, being different, require different responses. Neither Hamas nor Hezbollah can be treated merely as targets in the war on terror because both have deep roots in their societies; yet there are profound differences between them. Looking back, it is easy to see where Israeli policy went wrong. When Mahmoud Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority, Israel should have gone out of its way to strengthen him and his reformist team. When Israel withdrew from Gaza, the former head of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, negotiated a six-point plan on behalf of the Quartet for the Middle East (Russia, the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations). It included opening crossings between Gaza and the West Bank, allowing an airport and seaport in Gaza, opening the border with Egypt; and transferring the greenhouses abandoned by Israeli settlers into Arab hands. None of the six points was implemented. This contributed to Hamas's electoral victory. The Bush administration, having pushed Israel to allow the Palestinians to hold elections, then backed Israel's refusal to deal with a Hamas government. The effect was to impose further hardship on the Palestinians. Nevertheless, Abbas was able to forge an agreement with the political arm of Hamas for the formation of a unity government. It was to foil this agreement that the military branch of Hamas, run from Damascus, engaged in the provocation that brought a heavy-handed response from Israel -- which in turn incited Hezbollah to further provocation, opening a second front. That is how extremists play off against each other to destroy any chance of political progress. Israel has been a participant in this game, and President Bush bought into this flawed policy, uncritically supporting Israel. Events have shown that this policy leads to the escalation of violence. The process has advanced to the point where Israel's unquestioned military superiority is no longer sufficient to overcome the negative consequences of its policy. Israel is now more endangered in its existence than it was at the time of the Oslo Agreement on peace. Similarly, the United States has become less safe since Bush declared war on terror. The time has come to realize that the present policies are counterproductive. There will be no end to the vicious circle of escalating violence without a political settlement of the Palestine question. In fact, the prospects for engaging in negotiations are better now than they were a few months ago. The Israelis must realize that a military deterrent is not sufficient on its own. And Arabs, having redeemed themselves on the battlefield, may be more willing to entertain a compromise. There are strong voices arguing that Israel must never negotiate from a position of weakness. They are wrong. Israel's position is liable to become weaker the longer it persists on its present course. Similarly Hezbollah, having tasted the sense but not the reality of victory (and egged on by Syria and Iran) may prove recalcitrant. But that is where the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas comes into play. The Palestinian people yearn for peace and relief from suffering. The political -- as distinct from the military -- wing of Hamas must be responsive to their desires. It is not too late for Israel to encourage and deal with an Abbas-led Palestinian unity government as the first step toward a better-balanced approach. Given how strong the US-Israeli relationship is, it would help Israel to achieve its own legitimate aims if the US government were not blinded by the war-on-terror concept. George Soros, a financier and philanthropist, is author of "The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror." Source: http://www.georgesoros.com/article-blinded-8-31-06?gclid=COCb3ZH4vYcCFQwGUAodxgl7Kw ----- FOR THOSE WHO ALWAYS WANTED TO PLACE A NOTE IN THE WESTERN WALL HERE IS YOUR CHANCE TO DO IT FROM YOUR COMPUTER: CLICK ON: Place a Note in the Wall It is a centuries-old tradition to place a note with a prayer or request in the Western Wall. Type in your prayer. It will be printed out in the Old City of Jerusalem where it will be placed in the Wall by a student of Aish HaTorah. service note "Window on the Wall" offers a special Internet service for people who are not in Jerusalem who wish to place a note in the Wall. Your privacy is guaranteed. http://www.aish.com/wallcam/Place_a_Note_in_the_Wall.asp ----- H1ZBALLAH VS ISRAEL [Ednote the hand signals on both of the following graphics.] A Five-Part Recipe for Hitting the Israeli Army July 28, 2006 - Nasrallah and his Iranian sponsors made a thorough study of Israel’s tactics in the Defensive Shield Campaign in Jenin – and built a counter-plan. Behind 12,000 visible rockets, they concealed a fortified bunker system. Hizballah’s Superior Tools of Terror - III - Islamic Terror Groups Agog: Rockets Are the Stuff of Victory - August 11, 2006 - Nasrallah is hailed as a Muslim hero for destroying Israel’s northern towns, his rocket strategy worth emulating against other Western armies and nations. Full story: http://www.debka-net-weekly.com/?ref=001 -----     PARIS DITCHES WASHINGTON ON LEBANON France Has Instead Teamed up with Iran - August 04, 2006 France has jumped onto Iran’s anti-American wagon. Chirac is maneuvering for a slice of influence in Lebanon after grabbing the diplomatic initiative for a Lebanon solution from Washington. ----- A PETITION TO ISRAEL TO TAKE THE WALL DOWN The Separation Wall in the occupied territories is illegal and perpetuates the Conflict! The State of Israel is erecting the Separation Wall on Palestinian land out of "security considerations," while the true objective is to annex land west of the Wall into Israel. This provocative act is being conducted against the ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, as well as the resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations which accepted the ruling of the Court. This act is being carried out with all the oppressive and violent means at the disposal of the occupying IDF forces - through shooting and killing, serious injury, beating and threats, closures and curfews, and fear and intimidation tactics. This aggression is currently faced by a growing non-violent opposition to this land grab and denial of Palestinians' human rights to exist and live freely on their native land. Israeli and international activists for peace and human rights are expressing their opposition to this act through joint demonstrations and protest campaigns. Up until now the State of Israel has built 180km of the planned 620km of the Separation Wall, appropriating tens of thousands of acres of private land, uprooting tens of thousands of olive and fruit trees, and destroying the entire fabric of life of hundreds of thousands of people in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The village of Bil'in is a small and peaceful village near Ramallah, whose 1,700 residents gain their livelihood through agriculture and occasional external employment. The Separation Wall is appropriating 50% of the village lands and about 70% of its cultivated area. The real objective of the Wall's route in this area, as in others, is the expansion of the massive settlement of Upper Modi'in Illit. This settlement has already 35,000 residents, and according to the plans of the Ministry of Housing, will number, in 2020, 150,000 people. The expansion of Modi'in Illit has been, and is being, done at the expense of the seized lands of Bil'in and neighboring villages. We are launching the petition campaign with the intent that the Israeli government will retrace its illegal land grab practices and restore the annexed land to it's proper owners, the Palestinian residents of Bil'in. http://www.petitiononline.com/Bilin/petition.html ----- PALESTINIAN PROPERTY INTO ISRAEL'S STATE LAND Akiva Eldar - Ha'aretz - December 27, 2006 - Ehud Barak likes to compare the State of Israel to a villa in a jungle. It would be interesting to know whether he means that the areas of the settlements in the territories are a legal veranda of the villa or part of the jungle. Right under the noses, in the best case, of prime ministers, chiefs of staff and GOCs of the Central Command, who are responsible for "Judea and Samaria" (the West Bank), among them Barak himself, the State of Israel has imposed the law of the jungle on those territories. The Civil Administration, with the blessing of the State Prosecutor's Office, has been a key partner in a system of real estate deals, of which the description "dubious" would be complimentary. Building companies owned and managed by settler leaders and land dealers acquire lands from Palestinian crooks and transfer them to the Custodian of Government Property in the Israel Lands Administration. The custodian "converts" the lands to "state lands," leases them back to settler associations that then sell them to building companies. In this way it has been ensured that the Palestinians (under the law in the territories, the onus of proof is on them) will never demand their lands back. A year and a half ago, when this became known to him, Brigadier General Ilan Paz, then the commander of the Judea and Samaria district, issued a written order to shut down the lands laundry. He reasoned that even if this was legally correct, it smelled bad. These lands have already served for the establishment of dozens of Jewish settlements and others are awaiting purchasers. Some of these lands, for example the lands of the village of Bil'in - now known thanks to the determined struggle against the separation fence - are adjacent to the 1967 border. The Defense Ministry has seen to it that the route of the fence will "annex" them to the "Israeli" side and the entrepreneurs are hastening to establish facts in concrete. Two weeks ago it was first published here that adjacent to Bil'in, in the Jewish settlement of Matityahu East, a new neighborhood of Upper Modi'in, hundreds of apartments are going up without a permit. The lawyer for the inhabitants of Bil'in, attorney Michael Sfard, sent the State Prosecutor's Office a copy of a letter that Gilad Rogel, the lawyer for the Upper Modi'in local council, wrote to the council's engineer. Rogel warned that entrepreneurs are building "entire buildings without a permit, and all this with your full knowledge and with planning and legal irresponsibility that I cannot find words to describe." In a report that he sent to the Interior Ministry, the council's internal comptroller, Shmuel Heisler, wrote that the construction in the new project was being carried out contrary to the approved urban construction plan and deviates from it "extensively." The Justice Ministry has confirmed that "apparently illegal construction is underway in the jurisdiction of the locale Upper Modi'in, and that the Civil Administration in the area of Judea and Samaria has been asked to send its statement on the matter." Full story: http://www.israelimperialnews.org/iin07.htm ----- US PRESIDENT BUSH SAYS IRAN MUST TAKE THE CONSEQUENCES FOR DEFIANCE OF UN DEADLINE AND NEVER BE ALLOWED TO ATTAIN NUCLEAR WEAPONS September 2, 2006 - Bush was speaking about the war on terror in Salt Lake City, Thursday, Aug. 31, hours before the deadline expired for Iran to give up uranium enrichment and face a Security Council debate on possible sanctions.We offered to negotiate for an agreed solution to the problem, but all we got from Iran was delays and defiance, said the US president. He went on to say: Lebanon was controlled by a Syrian dictator and when we forced the Syrians to withdraw and let Lebanon establish a democratic government, Hizballah decided to attack Israel in order to derail the democratic process in Beirut. The Lebanon war showed us we are facing a great danger from the Iranian regime which supports and supplies weapons to Hizballah and sends weapons and explosives to Iraqi terrorists. That should show everyone how dangerous it would be for Iran to have nuclear weapons. The US president declared: We will not leave Iraq until victory is achieved. http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=3206 ----- TOWNHALL: AMERICAN HIROSHIMA By Mark M. Alexander - September 1, 2006 - Last week, this column commended President George W. Bush for calling our jihadist foes as he sees them: Islamic fascists. We then asked, "Will the real Islam please stand up?". Once again, it has. On Tuesday, 29-year-old Omeed Aziz Popal, recently returned to the U.S. from Afghanistan, went on a rampage in his SUV in a heavily Jewish area of San Francisco, killing one man and sending 14 other victims to the hospital, seven in critical condition. According to one eyewitness, "The SUV struck two people in front of the Jewish Community Center ... on California Street, a few blocks from where the rampage ended. Blood covered the sidewalk in front of the center's gift store entrance…." This undated photo provided by Tessie Ferrer shows Stephen Jay Wilson, who was killed Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006, by a hit-and-run driver in Fremont, Calif. Omeed A. Popal, 29, was arrested in San Francisco following a bloody 20-minute spree through the city in which witnesses said Popal intentionally tried to hit pedestrians and bicyclists. The rampage appeared to have started in Fremont, where investigators believe he hit and killed Wilson as he walked home. (AP Photo /T essie Ferrer via the San Francisco Chronicle) Last month in Seattle, you may recall, Naveed Afzal Haq shot six Jews, killing one, at a Jewish Federation office. On 3 March, at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, a 22-year-old Iranian, Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, went on a killing spree in his SUV to "punish the government of the United States" and "avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world." When making his initial statement in court, Taheri-azar expressed gratitude "for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah." Now, contrary to what the apologists on the cut-and-run Left would have us believe, the common thread in these three murderous onslaughts is not Jews, it's not SUVs, and it's not the difficulties of Muslims coping with life in America. The common thread is Islamic fascism, an ideology that is dead set on our destruction. One of the foremost of these Islamic fascists, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad, recently claimed that the Holocaust was a hoax dreamed up by the Allies and their Zionist cohorts. In addition, he blames the state of Israel for all that's wrong in the Arab world: "The peoples of the Middle East have also borne the brunt of the Holocaust. By raising the necessity of settling the survivors of the Holocaust in the land of Palestine, they have created a permanent threat in the Middle East in order to rob the people of the region of the opportunities to achieve progress. ... The collective conscience of the world is indignant over the daily atrocities by the Zionist occupiers, destruction of homes and farms, killing of children, assassinations and bombardments." Thus, as far as the Islamists are concerned, Zionists and the West are in the same boat. "God willing, with the force of God behind it," Ahmadi-Nejad has said, "we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism." Now, as Thursday's United Nations-imposed deadline for Iran to halt its nuclear fuel production has come and gone, the rogue state remains defiant. "[The West] should know the Iranian nation will not yield to pressure and not accept any violation of its rights," said Ahmadi-Nejad. "Arrogant powers are against Iran's peaceful nuclear progress." Anticipating Iran's response, the Bush administration has come out swinging and -- we are pleased to say -- building on the President's Islamic fascist theme. Speaking at the annual convention of the American Legion, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recounted the history of World War II and the Cold War, warning against those who counsel appeasement and retreat today: "I recount that history because, once again, we face similar challenges in efforts to confront the rising threat of a new type of fascism, but some seem not to have learned history's lessons," the Secretary said. Indeed, just as Adolf Hitler would not be appeased as he pressed his grand plan for war, so also today's fascists will find only encouragement in the West's accommodations. "With the growing lethality and the increasing availability of weapons," Rumsfeld went on to ask, "can we truly afford to believe that somehow, some way, vicious extremists can be appeased?" http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/MarkMAlexander/2006/09/01/american_hiroshima ----- THE END OF THE LEGENDS By Wolfgang Strauss - Alexander Solschenitsyn, "200 Jahre zusammen." Die russisch-juedische Geschichte 1795-1916 (200 Years Together. The Russian-Jewish History 1795-1916), Herbig, Munich 2002, 560 pp., 34.90; "Zweihundert Jahre zusammen," Die Juden in der Sowjetunion (200 Years Together. The Jews in the Soviet Union), ibidem, 2003, 608 pp., 39.90. It may be said without hesitation that Alexander Solzhenitsyn's 200 Years Together. The Jews in the Soviet Union is one of the most important books on the Russian Revolution and the early Bolshevik period ever to appear. After publication of this work with its many revelations about the role of the Jews during the Leninist period, the history of the Bolshevik October putsch will have to be rewritten, if not completely, then with substantial additions. The book title might have been even more appropriately called "The End of the Legends." For example, the legend that there ever existed an independent "Russian" Social Democracy Party is questioned. Founded in Minsk in 1898, the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party (RSDWP) derived, with respect to personnel and organization, from the Allgemeine jüdische Arbeiterbund in Lithuania, Poland, and Russia. It might be said that the Jewish Arbeiterbund midwife service officiated at the birth of the Russian Social Democracy Party. Legends without number are examined. Solzhenitsyn emphasizes, "Many more Jewish voices than Russian are heard in this book". Jewish voices, not Russian, speak of Jewish dominance in the anti-monarchial movements in the period before the war. In an article entitled "The Jewish Revolution" in the 10 December 1919 issue of the Neue Juedischen Monatsheften, published in Berlin, was the sentence: "Regardless of how extremely the anti-Semites exaggerate it, and how so nervously the Jewish bourgeoisie deny it, the large Jewish contingent in today's revolutionary movement stands fast." The writer, whom the publicist Sonia Margolina calls a "patriarch" in the tradition of Dostoyevsky, the last Russian prophet, rejects decisively, almost passionately, all theses of collective guilt. The chronicler of the Gulag holds that neither the Russians nor the Jews can be held separately responsible for the emergence of the reign of terror. He characterizes the relationship between Russian and Jews as a "burning wedge." In his book he tries to see the wedge from both sides. In so doing, the legends dissolve. Perhaps the most persistent legend, now dissolved, used to go like this: Long before the last Tsar left the throne, the old Russian Empire was in decline, the revolution was coming, the apocalypses of February and October 1917 could not have been prevented. They were determined as if by a world court. Only a legend, Solzhenitsyn says, and this chapter in his book, a noir-thriller, illuminates 18 September 1911 '– a day that heralded the approach of the Great Terror in that it dimmed the last opportunity to prevent it. They had tried to assassinate Petr Stolypin eight times. Various terrorist groups had attempted to murder Stolypin and his family, but they had never succeeded in killing the man who had set governmental direction in the decade before the war nor in tarnishing his reputation and charisma. The "Russian Bismarck," as he was called, had, as an unassuming Christian and self-confident first servant of the Russian Empire, led his country into the modern age by introducing agrarian reforms and representative self-government that made individual enterprising farmers out of the backward villagers. The eighth attempt, however, on 18 September 1911 in the Kiev Opera, succeeded in ending the life of the great reformer who had served his country as minister president and minister of the internal affairs. Ninety years later Solzhenitsyn was to write: "The first Russian premier minister, who had honorably set the task of establishing equal rights for Jews and had even opposed the Tsar in attempting to realize it, was killed at the hands of a Jew. Was it an irony of history?" (p. 431) Full Story http://www.vho.org/tr/2004/3/Strauss342-351.html -----  NEWSLETTERS  NEWS INDEX  MAIN INDEX