-
ISRAEL
- -----
- ISRAEL'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
- http://www.davidbengurion.com/documents/58.html#DEC
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- ISRAEL'S NETANYAHU VOWS TO SEEK PEACE WITH ARABS
- By STEVEN GUTKIN (AP Writer) - From Associated Press - March
31, 2009 EDT
JERUSALEM - Benjamin Netanyahu, taking office as Israel's new
leader Tuesday, promised to seek "full peace" with
the Arab and Muslim world, but refused to utter the words the
world was waiting to hear: "Palestinian state." The
well-spoken, U.S.-educated hawk took pains to portray himself
as a pragmatist, telling a packed parliament that Israel does
not want to rule the Palestinians.
- "Under the permanent status agreement, the Palestinians
will have all the authority to rule themselves," Netanyahu
said in comments that appeared to hark back to a decades-old
notion that peace could be achieved through limited Palestinian
autonomy. His words drew a sharp reaction from Palestinian negotiator
Saeb Erekat. "I want to say to Mr. Netanyahu that the only
way the Palestinians can rule themselves, by themselves, is through
ending the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 and establishing
an independent Palestinian state," Erekat said. Netanyahu's
refusal to embrace the idea of Palestinian statehood could put
him at odds with the Obama administration and much of the rest
of the world. So could his decision to appoint ultranationalist
politician Avigdor Lieberman as foreign minister.
- In recent days, however, Netanyahu has moved to soften his
image, welcoming the centrist Labor party into an otherwise markedly
right-wing coalition and announcing that he supports peace talks
with the Palestinians. The 59-year-old politician - the son of
a prominent historian and the brother of a war hero who died
commanding the daring 1976 hostage rescue at Entebbe, Uganda
- is returning to the premiership a decade after being forced
from it amid a string of failures. Continued: http://www.cephas-library.com/israel_3.31.2009_Netanyahu_gets_to_lead_Israel.html
- -----
- UNEXPECTED URGENT REFUGEE AND MIGRATION NEEDS RELATED TO
GAZA
- Federal Register: February 4, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 22)
- DOCID: fr04fe09-106 FR Doc E9-2488
Presidential Documents - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NOTICE: Part II http://www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2009-02-04-E9-2488
DOCID: fr04fe09-106 Document Summary: [[Page 6115]] - Presidential
Determination No. 2009-15 of January 27, 2009 - Memorandum for
the Secretary of State - By the authority vested in me by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section
2(c)(1) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 (the
``Act''), as amended (22 U.S.C. 2601), I hereby determine, pursuant
to section 2(c)(1) of the Act, that it is important to the
national interest to furnish assistance under the Act in an amount
not to exceed $20.3 million from the United States Emergency
Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for the purpose of meeting
unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs, including
by contributions to international, governmental, and nongovernmental
organizations and payment of administrative expenses of Bureau
of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State,
related to humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict
victims in Gaza. You are authorized and directed to publish this
memorandum in the Federal Register.
- (Presidential Sig.) - THE WHITE HOUSE, - Washington, January
27, 2009 - [FR Doc. E9-2488 - Filed 2-3-09; 8:45 am] - Billing
code 4710-10-P
- FINE PRINT:
- By executive order, President Barack Obama has ordered the
expenditure of $20.3 million in migration assistance to the Palestinian
refugees and conflict victims in Gaza. The "presidential
determination" which allows hundreds of thousands
of Palestinians with ties to Hamas to resettle in the United
States was signed on January 27 and appeared in the
Federal Register on February 4. President Obama's decision, according
to the Register, was necessitated by "the urgent refugee
and migration needs" of the "victims." Whole story:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2181149/posts
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- IN 2009 EUROPE, THE JEW REMAINS THE SCAPEGOAT
- By Stan Goodenough - February 10, 2009 - Jews are to blame
for the intensifying global financial crisis, are more loyal
to Israel than to the European nations where they live, and harp
far too much on the Holocaust. These classic and archaic antisemitic
views are entertained today by nearly a third of Europeans, according
to the results of a new study conducted by the Anti Defamation
League (ADL).
- ADL Director Abe Foxman was quoted on Ynetnews Tuesday as
saying that a poll carried out in seven European countries -
Austria, France, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Spain and the United
Kingdom - revealed that "antisemitism remains alive and
well in the minds of many Europeans."
- "It is distressing that there seems to be no movement
away from the constancy of antisemitic held views, with accusations
about Jews of disloyalty, control and responsibility for the
death of Jesus," he added.
- For nearly 2000 years, Europe's soil has been saturated with
the "longest hatred."
- Traditionally, almost eagerly, scapegoated for national ills
ranging from the Black Death to the Great Fire of London, Europe's
Jews only ended up in Hitler's death camps in such great numbers
because of the legacy of antisemitism that had for so long infested
society on the continent.
- The ADL Poll was carried out before and during Israel's Operation
Cast Lead against the terrorists firing missiles from Gaza last
month. Often skewed reports of that IDF action triggered waves
of antisemitism in countries around the world, including the
United States. http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2617
- -----
- ISRAEL'S ELECTIONS: PLEASE EXPLAIN TZIPI WON AND MAY LOSE,
BIBI LOST AND MAY WIN! WHY CAN'T ISRAELI ELECTIONS BE SMOOTH
AND SIMPLE - LIKE AMERICA'S?
- JERUSALEM WATCHMAN: 12 February 2009 - “Dad,” my
oldest son asked me a few minutes ago. “Who won the elections?”
- “Well, Tzipi won one more seat than Bibi, but there’s
a good chance Bibi will be the next prime minister.”
- “Huh?” He said quizzically, adding after a minute:
“I wish Israel’s elections were like America’s.
They were easy to understand.”
- Granted, my 14-year-old and I followed the 2008 US election
year pretty closely. And even though we are not Americans, we
didn’t need to be rocket scientists to understand what was
happening there:
- Two parties. Two sets of ideas - some overlapping but mostly
clear cut lines separating the two. One man (or woman) and his
elected vice presidential candidate ultimately representing each
party. You vote for the one you basically agree with, and the
one who gets most votes becomes president. Likewise with the
congressmen and senators – individuals run for election
under one of the two party banners and the winner goes to the
hill.
- It’s amazing how well that system works – and it
works for hundreds of millions of people.
- In Israel, barely five million voters need to be educated,
appealed to, and processed. Why can’t the process be as
straightforward and successful here? I want to answer the question,
which has also been asked by my readers “out there.”
My boy needs to understand how elections work in Israel because
next time – provided they are not early elections, as these
were – he will be old enough to vote.
- As importantly – in fact more so - I want him to understand
how Christian Zionists view Israel’s elections – what
are the issues those who share our faith believe to be important
when it comes to who governs Israel, how they do it, and what
the consequences are. But I will keep this second part for a
separate article and endeavor here to cover the first part in
as straightforward a way as I can: Tuesday morning, February
10, the polling booths opened and Israelis began voting to elect
a new government under the leadership of a new prime minister.
- At the same time, the first real storm of a winter that has
been all but non-existent blew in. Snow in the north, rain, hail
and gusting winds accompanied by thunder further south to Jerusalem;
the inclemency threatened to keep many of the 5.2 million eligible
voters home. Election watchers had forecast a lower turnout than
was hoped for even before the storm appeared. But those running
for office and Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, appealed
to the electorate to behave “maturely” and get out
and vote. Israel’s voters include all adults over the age
of 18 who are citizens of the State of Israel – whether
they be Jew, Muslim Arab, Christian Arab, Beduin, Druze or one
of the handful of gentiles from other lands who have been granted
citizenship here. By day’s end, fully 60 percent of voters
had done their duty – which while not a record certainly
was an improvement over the last general election, and handily
proved the pundits wrong. Of course this is the right and normal
way in a democracy. The people of the land enjoy the privilege
and practice the responsibility of choosing their leaders in
accordance with the criteria that are important to them as citizens.
They understand they have to live with their choice; and if they
should support a losing candidate, they will have to abide by
the choice of the majority until next election day. Continued:
http://www.stangoodenough.com/?p=206
- -----
- FINAL ELECTION RESULTS: KADIMA 28 SEATS, LIKUD 27, YISRAEL
BEITEINU 15
By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
02/12/2009 - Members of Israel's central elections committee
said on Thursday the apportionment of Knesset seats would remain
as is following the final tally of Israel Defense Forces soldiers'
ballots.
- Kadima led by Tzipi Livni captured the largest number
of Knesset seats - 28 - edging the Likud's 27 seats.
Yisrael Beiteinu made history on Tuesday, becoming the third-largest
party in the Knesset with 15 seats. The Labor Party finished
with a disappointing 13 seats; Shas with 11; United Torah Judaism
won five seats; the National Union captured four; United Arab
List - Ta'al - four; Hadash - three; Meretz - three; Balad -
three; and Bayit Hayehudi ("The Jewish Home") - three.
The results of Tuesday's election were finalized Thursday after
the votes of IDF soldiers were tallied. It was thought these
additional ballots could nab Yisrael Beiteinu or the Likud party
another Knesset seat, which would have put Likud and Kadima on
equal standing in terms of Knesset representation.
- Knesset seats are allocated after a party's votes are divided
by 120, the number of parliament seats. About 28,000 votes are
required per seat. Parties must garner at least 2 percent of
the vote to be represented in parliament. The party closest to
approaching the 2 percent minimum, the Green Movement-Meimad,
is not expected to make the cut, as it would need more than 40,000
additional votes.
- Excess voting arrangements allow parties with more than the
necessary minimum to enter parliament, but less than the votes
needed to nab an extra seat, to allocate "excess" votes
to an allied party.
- The military vote was not expected to nab Meretz a fourth
seat. Zahava Gal-On, one of the Knesset's most highly-regarded
lawmakers, is fourth on the Knesset list. President Shimon Peres
will not begin consulting with the parties over the formation
of a new coalition until next Wednesday, when the election results
are officially published.
- Kadima, Likud declare victory after final tally ... Kadima
repeated its call for Netanyahu to join a national unity government
with Tzipi Livni serving as prime minister. "With the completion
of the vote count Kadima won and it is the largest party,"
the party statement read. "Netanyahu must accede to Tzipi
Livni's call and join a centrist national unity government headed
by her."
- Likud officials responded to Kadima's statement with scorn.
"Kadima's statement is pathetic and shows that it continues
to spin some imagined reality instead of recognizing a political
reality in accordance with the voter's verdict," a Likud
communiqué read. "An absolute majority of Israelis
wants Netanyahu as prime minister and clearly rejected Kadima's
way which has failed." ttp://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1063744.html
- -----
- COMMENT ON THE ELECTION
Writing for The American Thinker, Michael M. Rosen said: "Indeed,
Netanyahu's chief peace process argument is that true physical
and political coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians
will come about only through financial well-being. Bibi believes
that further concessions by Israel at this moment would only
embolden the worst elements in Palestinian society, while steady,
mutual economic expansion will sap the lifeblood of Islamic extremism.
... So while in most ways, Netanyahu and Obama seem far less
well-suited for one another, ... a political partnership between
the two isn't out of the question. The American-Israeli relationship
is, in today's parlance, 'too big to fail,' and both leaders
will have little choice but to do all they can to preserve it."
The Jerusalem Connection says: "The American-Israeli relationship
... to big to fail?" Let's hope so. But that will only happen
if both pursue an agenda that is in sync with God's agenda. And
God's agenda has no place for a "Land for Peace" solution
or one which allows for the division of Jerusalem. While this
may happen due to the "infinite wisdom" of our leaders,
it will fail to pass muster with God. Indeed, God has spoken
and He has not stuttered. "On that day the LORD made a covenant
with Abram and said, 'To your descendants I give this land from
the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates.'"
(Genesis 15:18). Only as man's peace plans are in keeping with
God's, is there any hope of success.  http://www.jerusalemonline.com/specials10.asp
- -----
- RECENT COMMENT "WHOEVER FINISHES FIRST WITH NANOTECHNOLOGY
WILL BE THE MOST POWERFUL IN THE WORLD." IT WILL CHANGE
THE WAY WE LIVE
by Steven Shamrak - Feebraury 19, 2009 - Nanotechnology Conference
in Israel. The first International Nanotechnology Conference
held in Israel will open on March 30, 2009. The purpose of this
two-day conference is to showcase Israeli research and innovation
in nanotechnology and to bring together a group of world-class
experts who are working on the "hottest" technologies
in the field. (A few years ago it was biotechnology now Israel
is a world leader in Nanotechnology!) http://freeworldexpress.com/
- -----
- ISRAEL BORROWING A PAGE FROM PUTIN
16 February 2009 - By Alexei Bayer - Brighton Beach -- Brooklyn's
Russian-speaking, largely Jewish outpost -- provides an answer
to many political problems facing Russia and the Middle East.
- Jews from the former Soviet Union are probably the most successful
immigrant community in the United States. Highly educated and
urban, we came here in the 1970s and 1980s, when the number of
foreign-born Americans was near an all-time low and the country
still welcomed newcomers. We had the support of the U.S. Jewish
community. No less important, we were given refugee status, which
gave us access to additional benefits not available to other
immigrants. In the Soviet Union, we suffered the usual oppression
of the totalitarian state, but this was exacerbated in our case
by anti-Semitism -- both from the government and citizens at
large. You'd expect us to love freedom and treasure democracy,
protection for minority rights and other such niceties.
- Not in the least. The fact that former Soviet Jews cast almost
85 percent of their votes for former President George W. Bush
in 2004 and supported Senator John McCain by a substantial plurality
last year is not the real issue, of course. More troubling, our
community has begun to lean toward more racist, intolerant attitudes.
It tends to dislike all dissidents and troublemakers, admires
force and supports military solutions. And what I find most amazing,
the Russian Jewish community is showing increasing intolerance
and hatred toward immigrants who they fear are turning the civilized,
white United States into a Third World country.
- Does this sound familiar? It's those same post-Soviet attitudes
that have infected Russia. Even though Jews have been targets
of anti-Semitic forgeries like the infamous "Protocols of
the Elders of Zion," I received countless e-mails from Russian
Jews alleging that U.S. President Barack Obama is anything from
a Muslim to the antichrist. Only a bit more than 10 percent of
Russian speakers supported him. Continued: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1016/42/374565.htm
-----
ISRAEL LAUNCHES COVERT WAR AGAINST IRAN
Israel has launched a covert war against Iran as an alternative
to direct military strikes against Tehran's nuclear programme,
US intelligence sources have revealed. - By Philip Sherwell in
New York
Febraury 16, 2009 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4640052/Israel-launches-covert-war-against-Iran.html
-----
- TZIPI LIVNI GIVE UP HALF OF LAND OF ISRAEL
Tzipi Livni, who hopes to be appointed Israel's prime minister,
has said that her country needs to give up half of the biblical
Land of Israel to secure peace with the Palestinians. - By Our
Foreign Staff and Agencies in Jerusalem - 16 Feb 2009 - Drawing
clear water between her centrist Kadima party and the Right-wing
Likud party of her rival for the premiership, Benjamin Netanyahu,
she conceded that claims on the territory must be abandoned for
progress to be made. She told a convention of American Jewish
leaders that "we need to give up half of the Land of Israel",
using a term that refers to biblical borders that include today's
Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. She explained that such a withdrawal
would be for the good of Israel, to maintain it as a Jewish state.
Miss Livni said that Israel must take the initiative and come
forward with its own peace plan to head off international initiatives.
"Any plan put on the table will not be in our interest,"
she said.
- Mr Netanyahu opposes large-scale territorial concessions
in peace talks with the Palestinians. He believes negotiations
should concentrate instead on building up the Palestinian economy.
Efforts to secure a lasting ceasefire with Hamas took a step
forward when a leader of Gaza's Islamist rulers said that they
would consider opening negotiations over the fate of the captured
Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Ehud Olmert, the acting Israeli
prime minister, is to convene his security cabinet on Wednesday
to consider swapping Palestinian prisoners for Cpl Shalit. However,
another Hamas spokesman complained that "a clear agreement"
on a Gaza ceasefire had been reached before Mr Olmert insisted
at the weekend that the soldier be freed first. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4642371/Tzipi-Livni-give-up-half-of-Land-of-Israel.html
- -----
AN INVENTION CALLED 'THE JEWISH PEOPLE'
By Tom Segev - Israel's Declaration of Independence states that
the Jewish people arose in the Land of Israel and was exiled
from its homeland. Every Israeli schoolchild is taught that this
happened during the period of Roman rule, in 70 CE. The nation
remained loyal to its land, to which it began to return after
two millennia of exile. Wrong, says the historian Shlomo Zand,
in one of the most fascinating and challenging books published
here in a long time. There never was a Jewish people, only a
Jewish religion, and the exile also never happened - hence there
was no return. Zand rejects most of the stories of national-identity
formation in the Bible, including the exodus from Egypt and,
most satisfactorily, the horrors of the conquest under Joshua.
It's all fiction and myth that served as an excuse for the establishment
of the State of Israel, he asserts.
- According to Zand, the Romans did not generally exile whole
nations, and most of the Jews were permitted to remain in the
country. The number of those exiled was at most tens of thousands.
When the country was conquered by the Arabs, many of the Jews
converted to Islam and were assimilated among the conquerors.
It follows that the progenitors of the Palestinian Arabs were
Jews. Zand did not invent this thesis; 30 years before the Declaration
of Independence, it was espoused by David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak
Ben-Zvi and others. Continued: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/959229.html
- -----
AUSCHWITZ-THE SHRINKING NUMBERS
- A myth does not need evidence - IN THE BEGINNING, it was
proclaimed that 4 million of the
celebrated "Six Million" died at this famous wartime
campsite. Then, in the face of growing skepticism, that figure
was quietly reduced by 2.5 million to 1.5 million. Now, a final
tally by the International Tracing Service of the Red Cross estimates
reliably that the total number of deaths were less than 140,000—including
those who died of old age over a five-year period in a place
comparable in size to a city of a quarter million, where obituary
pages would normally be replete with the names of thousands who
had died during a similar time span!
- Others at the internment center died of wartime conditions,
aggravated by the outbreak of typhoid and Allied bombing, which
caused disruption to the delivery of food, medicine, and other
vital supplies.
- There were, however, no gassings—or gas-chamber facilities,
for that matter.
- Less than half of those who died were Jews. Their names are
carefully recorded in the 46-volume death books held in the Soviet
archives and released to the Red Cross in 1989. Besides the person's
full name, these volumes document his or her profession, religion,
date and place of birth, pre-Auschwitz residence, parents' names,
time of death, and cause of death, as determined by a camp physician.
Mass murderers do not keep such meticulous records! - This message
is brought to you in the interest of truth and historical accuracy
by the — NEW ORDER - Dept E - PO Box 270486 - Milwaukee
WI 53227 -
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- NETANYAHU, ONCE HAWKISH, NOW TOUTS PRAGMATISM
New York Times - Feb 22, 2009 - JERUSALEM — Benjamin
Netanyahu, the Likud Party leader chosen Friday to form Israel’s
next government, likes to tell a story about his meeting last
summer in Jerusalem with President
Obama, who was then still the Democratic candidate. As it
was ending Mr. Obama pulled Mr. Netanyahu aside from their aides
to a corner of the room in the King David Hotel.
“You and I have a lot in common,” Mr. Obama said, according
to Mr. Netanyahu’s account. “I started on the left
and moved to the center. You started on the right and moved to
the center. We are both pragmatists who like to get things done.”
- Whether that turns out to be an accurate assessment will
determine much of what happens in the American-Israeli relationship
in the next couple of years and in efforts to make progress on
Middle East peace.
- But what is almost as noteworthy is that Mr. Netanyahu tells
the story with pride and a kind of endorsement. Although he is
a hawkish man of the right and runs the largest conservative
party in Israel, he considers himself a pragmatist.
- He has long said that he hoped to form a centrist governing
coalition and he restated that ambition on Friday, calling on
the centrist Kadima Party, led by Tzipi
Livni, and the center-left Labor Party, led by Ehud
Barak, to join him in a unity government. Mr. Netanyahu and
Ms. Livni have agreed to meet Sunday, but the negotiations are
likely to be tough. Ms. Livni, his chief rival for the premiership,
has said she would rather go into opposition than serve as a
fig leaf for a coalition of the right.
- Mr. Barak, whose Labor Party fared badly in the elections,
has already said he would head into the opposition.
- To many here, it is increasingly likely that Mr. Netanyahu’s
government will consist exclusively of parties from the right,
which oppose a Palestinian
state and favor expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank,
making it much harder for him to exercise his pragmatic penchant.
- Mr. Netanyahu, 59, who earned a bachelor’s degree at
the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and speaks flawless English, is no
newcomer to Israeli politics or to claims of pragmatism. Raised
in Jerusalem and in a suburb of Philadelphia, where his father
was a history professor, he served in an elite Israeli military
unit under Mr. Barak, the current defense minister. The author
of several books, he has a daughter from a first wife and two
sons with his current wife, Sara.
- He was ambassador to the United
Nations while still in his 30s and has held numerous ministerial
posts. He was prime minister between 1996 and 1999, and although
he opposed the 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and the
Palestine
Liberation Organization, he then met with the Palestinian
leader Yasir
Arafat and forged an agreement with him to share the volatile
West Bank city of Hebron.
- That led ultimately to new elections (the Israeli right abandoned
him) and victory for Mr. Barak.
- Mr. Netanyahu remains a deep skeptic about the Muslim world’s
intentions toward Israel and tends to highlight fears more than
hopes for the region. He opposed Israel’s withdrawal in
2005 from Gaza, saying it would lead to Hamas
rockets on Israel, which it did. Like other dark predictions
of his, that has led Israelis to see him as a reliable guide
to the region.
- Today, he says stopping Iran from going nuclear is a much
more important issue than whether a Palestinian state is established.
He has made clear that the Iranian challenge is an existential
one that could well lead to military action.
- He believes that if Iran’s ambition for regional hegemony
is checked and its nuclear program stopped, then its clients,
Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah
in Lebanon, will be of less concern.
- Mr. Netanyahu does not plan to end negotiations with the
Palestinian
Authority, although he wants to refocus them on building
the Palestinian economy and its institutions in the West Bank
rather than on signing a comprehensive deal. The Palestinian
leadership has openly disdained that approach.
- Still, many of the steps that the departing prime minister,
Ehud
Olmert, and the Palestinians have agreed to regarding economic
development have stalled, and Mr. Netanyahu believes his ability
to cut through bureaucratic red tape could make a difference.
He has told the former British prime minister, Tony
Blair, who is the international representative to the Palestinians,
that he could more quickly build industrial zones, cut back on
checkpoints and generally improve life in the West Bank.
- Whether he would be willing to remove Israeli settlements,
however, or give up enough territory to satisfy the Palestinians
remain open questions, as does whether he could return the Golan
Heights to Syria in exchange for a peace accord. He has said
no a number of times, and again last week, arguing for Golan’s
strategic value.
- But when he was prime minister a decade ago he explored the
issue through an American intermediary. The Israeli election
campaign in recent weeks tilted rightward after the war in Gaza,
so he may have been campaigning rather than revealing his true
intentions. Those on the left who dislike Mr. Netanyahu say they
hope he is as personally ambitious as they suspect and that pressure
from Washington will produce results.
- “I don’t think he has much compunction in sacrificing
an ideological position as long as it keeps him in power,”
said Yaron Ezrahi, a liberal political scientist at Hebrew University.
“We either need a prime minister who is ideologically committed
to a two-state solution and has the power to move the country
in that direction, or a very flexible opportunist who appears
committed to the right but acts according to what is necessary.”
- But Mr. Netanyahu’s associates and fellow Likud activists
say that he remains committed to core principles and that his
flexibility reflects a change in his party’s position.
- “Likud as a party has made a major transformation in
the last 15 years from being rigidly committed to retaining all
the land of Israel to looking pragmatically at how to retain
for Israel defensible borders in a very uncertain Middle East,”
said Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations
and a close associate.
- For Mr. Netanyahu, that has meant accepting that much of
the West Bank will be part of a future Palestinian state, but
with Israel keeping control of the borders, airspace and electromagnetic
frequencies. The state would also have no military, by his reckoning.
- Whether such a deal would ever be acceptable to the Palestinians
is far from clear. Equally unclear is whether the government
he forms will allow him the freedom of action to go even that
far. End item
- Isabel Kershner contributed
- http://peace-in-jerusalem.cephasministry.com/monitoring_the_ongoing_peace_process_3.html
- -----
- HORST MAHLER RECEIVES SIX-YEAR SENTENCE
- Posted by JohninBasel - Zionism Is Destroying Civilization
- MUNICH - 25 February 2009 - German dissident Horst Mahler
has been sentenced to six years in prison for "Volksverhetzung"
(racial incitement). The symbolically significant number of years
imposed for "anti- Semitic hate speech" stemmed from
his refusal to recognize the Jewish Holocaust®, which he
described as "the biggest lie in world history."
- FACING LIFELONG IMPRISONMENT
- Dissident Horst Mahler is seen here with his wife Sylvia
Stolz, currently in prison for defending other dissidents. The
73-year-old defendant was accused, among other things, of repeated
dissemination of his views on the Internet as well as distribution
of a revisionist videotape and a CD and book by Holo-skeptic
Germar Rudolf, now serving time for "Holocaust® denial"
in a German prison. Immediately following sentencing, the 73-year-old
dissident was arrested and led away before astonished onlookers
in the courtroom, including many of his supporters. The former
attorney for the rightwing National Democratic Party (NPD) successfully
represented that organization when the German regime tried to
have it banned in the 1990s. He earlier received prison sentences
for thought-crimes on several occasions.
- 'I have resolved to call a lie a lie'
- In his concluding remarks before the court, Mahler noted
that with another case pending against him he faces a total of
over 12 years in prison - the equivalent of a life sentence,
given his advanced age. He would, however, stand by his views.
In setting a personal example, Mahler declared that it was incumbent
upon every German to "deal a deathblow to the Holocaust®
religion as martyrs for the truth."
- The dissident defendant concluded by saying: "I have
resolved to expose this Talmudic perfidy, that over and over
again I will call a lie a lie and oppose it with the truth. I
have sworn to my people never to give up in this fight against
the Holocaust® religion." Continued: http://northwestnationalists.blogspot.com/2009/02/horst-mahler-arrested-in-courtroom.html
- -----
- ASK THE POSSIBLE OF THE IMPOSSIBLE "WHERE IS YOUR DWELLING
PLACE?"
- Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD - A Bedouin in cyberspace, a villager
at home - From a Palestinian Perspective..
- Arrests last night throughout the West Bank including in
our area of Bethlehem.
- The reports on radio suggest that this was intended to apply
pressure on Hamas because Israel wanted a deal to free the captured
Israeli occupation soldier with minimal cost in terms of releasing
native Palestinian political prisoners.
- Later in the morning and after stopping by at the University
(again seeing the settlements on all around), I gave a talk to
a visiting group from the US. The group is from California and
they came under the auspices of the “Geneva Initiative”.
I was rather bluntly honest with them that this initiative cannot
make a basis for a durable peace because as Amnesty International
said about the Oslo process: it failed before it started because
it ignored human rights. To read more about the Geneva Initiative,
please see http://www.arabmediawatch.com/amw/CountryBackgrounds/Palestine/
- PeaceProposals/GenevaAccord/tabid/131/Default.aspx
- http://www.boykotisrael.dk/geneva_understandings_promote_a_.htm
- The meeting lasts much longer than expected because of significant
discussion. Having given hundreds of talks and engaged in lots
of fruitful dialogs with Israeli and International Zionists almost
daily, I believe that even when some individuals get emotional,
that such a discussion is better than no discussion. Later in
the day I mention to my wife that I am struck that some who support
political Zionism from outside have stronger views than Israeli
Jews who support political Zionism. For example, very few Israeli
Jews claim that the Palestinian refugees are not refugees or
claim that it is possible to reject their international rights
simply because "there is no space for them to return without
displacing Jews" (this simply is not true as social and
demographic studies show most of the places they left are not
being utilized). No, the only real objection Israeli Zionists
give me is the more honest (and more understandable) reason for
challenging the implementation of the right of return: that this
would change the nature of the Jewish state. This latter, and
more straight-forward opinion, can be dealt with; we can discuss
for example what is the nature of the Jewish state, we can discuss
the fact that there are already 5.5 million Palestinians within
the state (1.5 million if one counts areas only within the Green
Line). Anyway, it is possible to discuss these things and arrive
at a way forward that respects human rights while allaying the
fears of all people here (whether rational or irrational fears;
and Palestinians have far more to fear in this situation than
Israelis since 2/3rds of us are refugees and displaced people
and we lost tens of thousands of civilians over the past 60 years).
The late Professor Edward Said once said in the 1960s that Palestinians
are not allowed to tell their narratives. I think more and more
Palestinians are telling their narratives (conflicting as they
may be on political and other ideologies). I also think more
and more Israelis are telling different narratives than the one
dogmatic view of this conflict being tribal (the view of Zionism
that there are "two sides" to this story, Israeli and
Palestinian). I explained that certainly the conflict in South
Africa was not about "Whites vs Blacks" but those who
supported apartheid and those who did not (and there were blacks
and whites who supported apartheid as well as whites and blacks
who rejected it). It is the same here. But still, everytime I
give a talk, I think I could have done better relaying reality
on the ground here.
- I then went back to Bethlehem University and workd with some
students on projects then returned home. My small yard is now
set with fast growing beans, sunflower, and peas in addition
to all the trees. The trees are growing new leaves (on the lemons,
figs, olives, and almonds). The green almond fruits are delicious
and go well with salt and fresh lemons :-). Earlier this week
we planted the seeds of Faqoos (small endemic kind of cucumber
family) and Koosa (Like Zuchhini Squash). I got on the computer
briefly to check e-mails. I engaged in discussion with Israelis
and others on peace on mepeace.org. On e-mails, I noted that
the Pope is confirmed to visiting here in May and I received
an email asking me to sign to request that he visits Gaza. “As
in all times, the way of reconciliation exemplified by Jesus
calls us to initiate social healing by visiting, eating with,
listening to, and risking our safety in solidarity with the “least
among us” -- in this case the people of Gaza.” This
makes sense since Jesus asked his followers to consider that
the poorest and most destitute are God’s body!
- Our friend Dr. Haidar Eid from Gaza (the One Democratic State
Group) posted an excellent article titled “Who Said Nearly
50 Years Ago that Israel was an Apartheid State?” by Ronnie
Kasril, a Jewish South African and was minister of Intelligence
in the post Apartheid era.
http://www.odsg.org/co/index.php/Articles/27-one-state/1222-who-said-nearly-50-years-ago-that-israel-was-an-apartheid-state.html
Also see Address by Ronnie Kasrils at "Israel Apartheid
Week":
http://world.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/60684/
- The day ended on a sour note: Palestinian factions (with
very limited participation of 13 indepenedents) ended their scheduled
meetings in Cairo without really solving the most problematical
issue - the nature of the Palestinain interim authority that
will set the stage for new elections for us (the prisoners in
the ghettos/cantons of the West Bank and Gaza. I myself blame
everyone including myself for not pressing them enough to end
the bickering and get on with real unity based on a program of
struggle for freedom. I wonder in my mind how many of them read
this appeal for unity http://www.cipmo.org/1501-indice-rassegna/appeal-for-national-unity.html
and how many really understand what it means that in 2-4 weeks
we will have a Russian racist, who calls openly for ethnic cleansing,
as Israel’s foreign minister? (other Israeli leaders engage
in ethnic cleansing but have more clever and diplomatically covered
ways of doing it). I thought of the saying taht Fate/God does
not change what is to happen to a peopel unless they change what
is within themselves. Israelis and Palestinains (each one of
us) needs to look more in the mirror (as Jesus said not look
at the speck in our brothers eye but mind the log in our own
eyes). I wonder if we humans will rise to the challenge in the
next few weeks or sink further into posturing and slogans.
- Wednesday 18 March 2009
- Last night we saw a film produced by an Israeli on the nonviolent
resistance in Bilin. I had seen this film before but I was again
impressed by the extent of ingenuity of the villagers (supported
by Internationals and some Israelis). The apartheid (the term
used for it is Hafrada or Segregation in Hebrew) wall is built
on their village lands and behind the wall lies over half of
their best agricultural lands that were taken to expand an illegal
colonial Jewish settlement. Variations of forms of resistance
to the apartheid wall and land confiscation includes:
- - Tying themelves with chains to olive trees being uprooted
- Marching silently with English, Arabic, and Hebrew signs
- Marching loudly and telling soldiers to refuse service
- Cutting the fences built there
- Building a mock fence with Palestinians chained under it on
their land so that soldiers were forced to “dismantle”
the mock fence
- Putting a caravan on their land and staying in it (many settlements
buildings were built without even a permit from the Israeli occupation
forces so this tests selective law enforcement).
- When the caravan is destroyed, putting an actual permanent
structure overnight
- And on and on
- All these tactics are met with violent responses ranging
from using sonic booms, to high pressure water hoses, to stun
grenades, to tear gas (spiked with other chemicals), to salt
pellet guns, to rubber coated steel bullets, and to live ammunition.
Everything was tried. These weekly demonstrations happen in many
other villages with land loss. Many villagers were injured, some
killed, many imprisoned and bankrupted with large fines etc.
Yet, the world’s sleazy politicians hypocritically ignore
thousands of Palestinians killed and focus on any Israelis injured
or killed. But the people are by and large waking up to the nature
of this racist system of Apartheid.
- I woke up today and had a great and refreshing cup of Arabic
coffee and think to myself: life is still good. I checked emails;
hundreds with news and views and actions and from students and
from scientific colleagues and on and on. But I lingered on one
email from a British volunteer who was attacked in a peaceful
demonstration in Palestine and was beaten, detained, jailed and
then deported by the Israeli colonial state. Excerpt:
so im back in my home town, … it was a bit unexpected being
whisked away from all that i was absorbed in, stuck in jail for
4 days and then stuck on a plane back to the uk, but im getting
back into the swing of things…..the palestinians know how
to live and love. the folk here have been bombarded with wealth
for so long that they fail to see any other plausible way of
living and so take their luxury life style with a pinch of salt…give
me palestine any day….sadly i've got a ten year ban on coming
back so i cant even get into the west bank. i am gutted, but
i will return one day.….everyday i get anxious feelings
about the work i personally left uncompleted and the people i
left disappointed….all the people i never got the chance
to say a proper goodbye to. i never thought it would come to
deportation. after my second court appearance it seemed that
all would be fine if i could get a new visa, just an application
for a new visa by the time of my next bail date at kiriyat arba
police station in hebron. however, first the israel ministry
of the interior in jerusalem told me that as i was living in
bethlehem i must get a visa from the palestinian authority. so
i got an application in process in bethlehem only to be told
by the israeli police that this wasn’t good enough and that
the matter would be transferred to israeli immigration. so they
arrested and took 4 days to deport me during which time i was
moved around various jails ending up in ramle amongst african
refugees. this really was an eye opener. refugees held in prison,
some for 3 years without any notification as to how long they
might spend there. none of them had money for lawyers and none
of them had a country to return to. israel was threatening most
of them with deportation even though they were pleading political
assylum. i was told by a few that if they returned they would
likely be killed.. the lawyer that saw me told me that if i didnt
hire her services i was looking at spending 3 months in jail.
i knew she was lying just to make me panic and get my money.
i had already been told that the british consulate would get
me out in at most a week. so, you can imagine how much money
she must have swindled out of these captive refugees, those with
any money that is. i would love to hear from you all. take care
for now, much love…”
- I drove to Bethlehem University where I met a Dean in the
Parking lot who was angry that the Israelis at the checkpoint
delayed him for one hour demanding he dismantle the spare tire
on his car (he has a Jerusalem ID and thus a yellow license plate
so could drive his car unlike me with a West Bank white/green
license plate). He asked them to do it themselves and search
whatever they want but it is not his job to take things apart
for them! Acts of civil resistance like this are done by the
millions everyday in Palestine.
- In a Palestinian newspaper I read that the Israeli supreme
court (after delays of five years) refused a petition that requests
it to issue a ruling that Muslim Holy Sites should be treated
by the Israeli government just like Jewish Holy Sites (in terms
of maintenance, protection etc). The court claimed in this racist
ruling that it was due to difficulty for the Jewish state to
determine Muslim Holy Sites (obviously there is no “difficulty”
about deciding Jewish holy sites). Hundreds of mosques have already
been demolished in the past 60 years and others turned into things
like nightclubs and art galleries. The remaining Muslim ancient
sites are pillaged, buried, ignored, etc. while Israel spends
millions to maintain and build (and in some cases even fabricate)
Jewish Holy Sites.
- In the web version of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, I read
that Israeli leaders blamed Hamas for failure of prisoner swap
and have then taken more political prisoners to pressure Hamas.
A reader response caught my eyes: “This is insane what Zionists
keep indulging in, an exercise of unabashed narcissism. It`s
nothing more than a self-righteous sanctimonious orgy of self-gratification
and self-glorification. What are they drinking in Zion to be
so out there in the stratosphere? Israel murdered over 1,300
people just a month or so ago, injured over 5,000 - majority
civilians and kids, and bombed 100% civilian infrastructure (since
no military infrastructure exists) and Zionists got the chutzpah
to talk about 'blood on their hands'? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? To
top all of that, Israel has locked up and rounded up thousands
(over 11,000 to be exact) of Palestinians who today rot in prisons
somewhere in the desert and their only crime was to be born NOT
JEWISH. Only in Israel, POW exchanges are performed by bleeding
heart puritans. Give me a break, just because a slaughterhouse
is kosher doesn`t mean it`s any less bloody than non-kosher slaughterhouses.
Israel has more war criminals/terrorists than Las Vegas has gamblers.
It`s time for the holier than thou act to end”. Part of
me wants to think the worst is yet to come here with an extreme
right government in Israel. The other part of me sees the growing
chorus of Jews and non-Jews engaged in telling the reality and
challenging the stereotypes and racism.
- In the same newspaper website edition, we learn that “During
Operation Cast Lead (Gaza Invasion earlier this year), Israeli
forces killed Palestinian civilians under permissive rules of
engagement and intentionally destroyed their property, say soldiers
who fought in the offensive….The speakers included combat
pilots and infantry soldiers. Their testimony runs counter to
the Israel Defense Forces' claims that Israeli troops observed
a high level of moral behavior during the operation.”
- In the afternoon, we met with new people (Two US citizens
who are Fullbright fellows in Jordan and another US citizen visiting
on her own) and toured the apartheid wall and the settlements
that now ring Bethlehem area on all sides. I show new groups
or inividuals things here almost every day. Each time, I am always
amazed at how connected we are. How especially Jewish and non-Jewish
young people (19-28 year olds) catch on very quickly to what
is going on here even when they get no history background. But
we also have fun (eating Knaffa, wonderful Palestinian sweets)
and have good walks in abandoned military posts that get our
circulation going while watching a beautiful sunset over Bethlehem.
In the evening we watched “Walz With Bashir”, an Israeli
documentary using animation to relay experiences of Israeli soldiers
in Lebanon. These experiences include machine gun attacks on
civilian cars killing an entire family, and lighting the sky
and observing as Israeli trained and equipped Lebanese Phallange
Militias massacre hundreds of Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila
refugee camps (September, 1982).
- http://qumsiyeh.org
- Asks the Possible of the Impossible, "Where is your
dwelling-place?" "In the dreams of the Impotent,"
comes the answer. Rabindranth Tagore - Join us in Palestine for
the Palestine Summer Celebration - http://www.sirajcenter.org/
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