Obama in Turkije: leg niet alle schuld bij Israël

Wijze woorden van Obama, maar het grote verschil is natuurlijk dat veel Israeli's al lang begrip hebben getoond voor het Palestijnse perspectief en daar ook ruimschoots aandacht voor is in de Israelische media. Iedere Israeli weet inmiddels wel wat de Nakba is en dat voor de stichting van Israel Palestijnse dorpen zijn verwoest en honderdduizenden Palestijnen gevlucht, overigens in reactie op een oorlogsverklaring in woord en daad van de Arabisch-Palestijnse gemeenschap in Palestina. Ondertussen weten veel Palestijnen niet eens wat de Holocaust is, wat zionisme inhoudt, dat de Joden een volk en niet alleen een religie zijn, etc. etc. Vooral aan Arabische kant is er enorm veel onwetendheid en zijn mensen bovendien gehersenspoeld door media die Israel werkelijk van alles de schuld geven.

 

RP

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The Jerusalem Post
Apr 7, 2009 17:02 | Updated Apr 7, 2009 20:36
Obama: Don't blame it all on Israel
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238562937508&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


At the end of his two-day visit to Turkey on Tuesday, US President Barack Obama met with Muslim, Christian and Jewish students, and urged Muslims to look at the "two sides" to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"In the Muslim world, the notion that somehow everything is the fault of the Israelis lacks balance because there are two sides to every question," AFP quoted the US president as telling university students in Istanbul.

To the Jewish members of the group Obama said, "I say the same thing to my Jewish friends - you have to see the perspective of the Palestinians. Learning to stand in someone else's shoes, to see through their eyes... this is how peace begins."

"The world will be what you make of it," Obama told the students. "You can choose to make new bridges instead of new walls."

He left Turkey shortly after the meeting, flying into Iraq on a trip shrouded in secrecy, for a brief look at a war he opposed as a candidate and now vows to end as commander in chief.

Obama arrived in the country hours after a car bomb exploded in a Shi'ite neighborhood of the capital city, a deadly reminder of the violence that has claimed the lives at least 4,266 members of the US military since March 2003.

Shortly before leaving Turkey, the US president had held out Iraq as an example of the change he seeks in policies inherited from former president George W. Bush.

"Moving the ship of state takes time," he told a group of students in Istanbul. He noted his long-standing opposition to the war, yet said, "Now that we're there," the US troop withdrawal has to be done "in a careful enough way that we don't see a collapse into violence."

Hamas zal Israel echt niet erkennen

Voor het geval dat het nog niet duidelijk was......

 

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Hamas: We will not recognize Israel-period
http://www.ptimes.org/main/default.aspx?xyz=BOgLkxlDHteZpYqykRlUuI1kx%2fVDUOFord5cX9Ig2AObQ6DCGkiZh0Z3dwEsZnekWR0zwTE8ShyzPq7m1p0tD8rbR9qO0PSRP7rpHecP8F5vd5oO7IchzSCijpErtQAy9aAVBeorZbI%3d
Published Date: 04/04/2009 - 12:01 PM
From Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank


The leadership of the Palestinian Islamic resistant movement, Hamas, has reasserted its principled refusal to recognize the Zionist entity ( Israel), saying that Israel is an illegitimate state based on ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

 

Ismael Haniya, the legitimate Palestinian Prime Minister, told foreign dignitaries visiting Gaza last month that Hamas wouldn't abandon its principles under pressure.
"We will not cave in to pressure, we will not betray our people's trust, we will not recognize the illegitimate Zionist entity. This has always been our stance, and it will never change."

 

Haniya suggested that when it comes to recognizing the evil Zionist entity, the PLO represented only itself, not the entire Palestinian people.

 

He pointed out that acknowledging the legitimacy of the Zionist regime effectively meant a tacit recognition of all the hideous crimes committed by Israel, including the expulsion and ethnic cleansing of millions of Palestinian refugees from their ancestral homeland.

 

No person under the sun, he said, has the right to compromise the right of the refugees to return to their homes and towns from which they were expelled at gunpoint.
"These people were expelled from their homes. This is the problem. And the solution is very clear. They must return to their homes."

 

The democratically-elected Palestinian Prime Minister said Israel wanted to destroy the Hamas movement in order to impose capitulation upon the Palestinian people.
Speaking during a reception in Gaza in honor of the Jordanian Medical Mission on Friday, 27 March, Haniya said the Palestinian people and its Arab and Muslim brothers thwarted Zionist efforts.

 

"We and you are facing the same enemy, it is the enemy of all Arabs and Muslims, we will not allow Israel to liquidate the paramount cause of the refugees. The refugees have only one destination, it is Palestine."

 

He said both Jordanians and Palestinians strongly rejected Zionist efforts and conspiracies to resettle Palestinian refugees in neighboring Arab countries.
Meanwhile, Hamas leaders both at home and in the Diaspora have rejected pressures from the American-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) and some Arab regimes to give tacit or indirect recognition of Israel in order to facilitate the formation of a Palestinian national reconciliation government that would be acceptable to the United States and the Zionist regime.

 

PA ex-president Mahmoud Abbas has been saying that the success of the Egyptian-mediated national reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas won't reach a breakthrough unless Hamas accepts "all PLO commitments."

 

This obviously includes the recognition of the apartheid Israeli state, although Israel doesn't recognize a Palestinian state and has actually killed all prospects for the creation of a viable Palestinian state on the West Bank.

 

Hamas's refusal to accept "all" PLO commitments has been praised by the leadership of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
In a statement leaked from his prison cell at the Askalan jail, PFLP leader Ahmed Saadat the PLO recognition of Israel and other unpopular agreements with the Zionist regime were the main cause of the present Palestinian rift.

 

He pointed out that the Zionist entity never really respected these agreements, saying that the opposite was true.

 

Meanwhile, Hamas leader Salah al Bardawil said the Islamic liberation movement would never ever even contemplate recognizing Israel.

 

In an interview published on 27 March, Bardawil argued strongly for national reconciliation, saying that Hamas wouldn't spare any efforts to reunite the Palestinian people.

 

"If we were to recognize Israel, then all problems would end, and the siege would end and the United States and Israel and Europe would embrace us. We would become the darling of the west and we wouldn't need reconciliation talks because we would be equal to the organizations that recognize Israel."

 

Bardawil, who is also head of the Hamas caucus in the Palestinian legislative council, said no prospective government of national unity would recognize Israel under any circumstances.

 

"Such a government would represent and reflect existing political forces."

 

Bardawil castigated as "cheap disinformation" claims by the Ramallah leadership that a government of national unity that doesn't recognize Israel will perpetuate the siege.

 

"This is nonsense and unrealistic because the platform of the national unity government was rejected first and foremost by those who are at America's beck and call, not by the world.

 

"If we press the world to recognize such a state, then the world will recognize it, but the problem is inside the Palestinian house, this is why we have to put our house in order but we should do so in a dignified manner."

 

Bardawil said a reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas was dependent on real trust between the two sides.

 

"Our problem is that we don't have mutual trust for true partnership."

 

As to the election law, Bardawil said there was a likelihood that all contentious issues will be overcome, adding that Hamas was favoring a mixed system based on a combination of local circuits and proportional representation.

 

He argued that having the entire country as one electoral circuit would be unfair for independents.

 

"The proportional system would serve Fatah and Hamas, but there are many Palestinians who are not affiliated with either movements, and that won't be fair to them."

 

Some leaders within Hamas have demanded that solid international guarantees be provided in order to enable transparent and free elections to take place.

 

(Israel and the United States interfered heavily in favor of the Fatah organization during and after the 2006 elections, with the CIA giving Fatah millions of dollars to finance its elections campaign.)

 

Bardawil said disagreements regarding the PLO can be resolved democratically. He asserted that the PLO needed revival, reactivation, reform and reconstruction, adding that "we have agreed to organize elections for the Palestinian National Council which would facilitate the formation of a more representative Central Council."

 

Bardawil said the "real problem with the PLO of today is that it doesn't truly represent all the Palestinian people because there are popular Palestinian groups that are not represented in the PLO bodies."

 

No precise date has been designated for the resumption of reconciliation talks in Cairo. However, it is widely expected that the talks will be resumed after the Arab summit conference which would take place in Qatar in April.

 

Arab and Palestinian observers suggest that the success of the Arab summit will reflect positively on the Egyptian-mediated Palestinian reconciliation talks.

 

 

 

Dokter uit Gaza genomineerd voor Nobelprijs vrede

 

Abuelaish is de Nobelprijs van harte gegund, al wordt hij nu wel erg doodgeknuffeld. Het zou in een echte prijs voor vrede veranderen als hij ook aan een Joods Israelische arts die Palestijnse kinderen in ziekenhuizen heeft behandeld, wordt uitgereikt. Er worden jaarlijks vele duizenden Palestijnen in Israel behandeld, en er zijn speciale projecten voor Palestijnse kinderen om hen gratis te behandelen. Hiervoor is helaas nauwelijks aandacht in de Westerse media.

 

RP

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The Jerusalem Post
Apr 6, 2009 14:41 | Updated Apr 6, 2009 14:51

Gaza doctor nominated for Nobel Prize
By JPOST.COM STAFF
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238562922093&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Palestinian doctor whose three daughters were accidentally killed by the IDF in January during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize during a recent visit to Belgium.

Speaking to Army Radio on Monday morning, the Tel Hashomer doctor quoted Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, saying he hoped his nomination for the prestigious prize would inspire people: "If you will it, it is no dream."

"The nomination is support for us all, proof that everyone has the possibility to be awarded the prize, that we're all humans and we can all succeed," he went on.

Abuelaish said that during his trip to Europe, he was awarded honorary Belgian citizenship, and given the opportunity to meet with the president of the EU parliament. "It made me happy," he said of the nomination. "The tragedy has been turned into something positive."

He said he saw the prize as something which could be "positive for the two nations… A Nobel Prize for the Israeli nation and the Palestinian nation to herald a new era of peace."

Striking a somber note, Abuelaish added, "There's nothing impossible in this world, apart from the fact that I can't get my girls back."

An IDF investigation carried out in the weeks following the end of the offensive found that the doctor's daughters were killed when his house was accidentally hit by Israeli tank shells on January 16.

Nevertheless, Abuelaish said he was not "looking to blame anyone, but rather to build bridges, and to work to save lives. Despite the pain, I decided to turn it into something positive."

 

Israelische veiligheidsdiensten waakzaam voor nieuwe aanslagen

"The IDF is everywhere in the West Bank and is provided with excellent intelligence by the Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency]," another official explained. "This doesn't leave the terrorist groups many opportunities to try to hit us."

We beseffen het hier niet, maar zonder de aanwezigheid van het leger op de Westoever zouden er vele aanslagen in Israel plaatsvinden, en zouden Palestijnse terroristen jaarlijks honderden, zo niet duizenden Israelische burgers doden. Alleen door de zeer goede organisatie en inlichtingen, de checkpoints en de afscheidingsbarriere is het aantal georganiseerde aanslagen tot bijna 0 teruggebracht. Laatst nog werd een grote aanslag in een winkelcentrum bij Haifa verijdeld. Wel doet zich nu een nieuw en moeilijker te bestrijden fenomeen voor: eenlingen die met een mes, een wapen of een tractor op mensen beginnen te schieten of inrijden. Het lijkt mij echter nogal voorbarig om van een nieuwe opstand te spreken.

RP
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Security forces fear new intifada
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST

Apr. 6, 2009

www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238562917451&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

 

 

The recent spate of terrorists attacks has security forces concerned that Israel may be facing a new popular uprising in the West Bank, defense officials said Sunday.

The officials cited the ax attack in the settlement of Bat Ayin on Thursday, in which a 13-year-old boy was killed, the failed shooting attack by a Beduin girl on Saturday against a Border Police station in the South, as well as the series of bulldozer attacks in Jerusalem in recent months.

All these attacks are believed to be the work of lone terrorists who did not work within a larger cell or network.

The officials also pointed to an increasing number of rocks and firebombs that have been thrown at Israeli cars in the West Bank since the beginning of the year.

"There is a major intelligence gap when we talk about lone attackers," explained one officer in the IDF Central Command on Sunday. "Intelligence is effective against cells and networks, but can rarely prevent what a lone attacker is plotting."

In contrast, the infiltration last month of a car loaded with explosives into a Haifa mall parking lot as well as the shooting attack that killed two policemen in the Jordan Valley are believed to have been the work of terrorist infrastructures.

Defense officials said that while some organized attacks succeeded, they were difficult to carry out.

"The IDF is everywhere in the West Bank and is provided with excellent intelligence by the Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency]," another official explained. "This doesn't leave the terrorist groups many opportunities to try to hit us."

Fearing that attacks will increase during Pessah, the IDF and Israel Police will raise their level of alert starting Wednesday and beef up forces across the country.

At the moment, the Shin Bet has recorded nine specific warnings on terrorist attacks in the planning stages in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, in addition to dozens of general warnings regarding a wide range of possible attacks.

 

 

Regering Netanjahoe heroverweegt Routekaart voor Vrede

Lieberman sprak dus op eigen titel afgelopen week, maar de assertieve toon is waarschijnlijk wel kenmerkend voor de nieuwe regering. Hopelijk is de conclusie van het onderzoek niet dat vrede niet mogelijk is met de Palestijnen no matter what, maar de nadruk zal zeker meer komen te liggen op wat de Palestijnen moeten doen dan op Israelische concessies. Israel heeft inderdaad de afgelopen tijd een aantal stappen gezet en voorstellen gedaan (Camp David, terugtrekking uit Libanon, terugtrekking uit Gaza, vredesvoorstellen van Olmert, opruimen checkpoints), en dat heeft de kritiek en veroordelingen van Israel, de raketaanvallen en pogingen tot aanslagen er niet minder op gemaakt. Anderzijds lukte het Israel in de regeerperiode van Olmert om zegge en schrijve 2,5 buitenposten te verwijderen, en werd telkens beloofd dat ontruiming van andere buitenposten zou volgen, liefst in overleg met de kolonisten.

 

Met alle kritiek op Netanjahoe, nog voordat hij überhaupt met een duidelijk regeringsstandpunt is gekomen, is het des te opvallender dat Abbas alom als gematigd en vredelievend wordt gezien, terwijl wat hij zegt zeker niet minder assertief is en hij ook niet ondubbelzinnig voor een tweestatenoplossing is.

 

RP

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Netanyahu gov't reconsidering road map

Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST

Apr. 6, 2009
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238562917445&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

 

The Netanyahu government is conducting a thorough policy review in which all diplomatic components - from the road map peace plan to the Annapolis process - are being reevaluated, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

It is for this reason that the Prime Minister's Office was unwilling to comment last week on Avigdor Lieberman's maiden speech as foreign minister, in which he trashed the Annapolis process but said Israel was obligated by the road map, a document whose final goal is a two-state solution.

The prime minister has no intention of addressing in detail issues such as whether his government is bound by the road map or the Annapolis process until the policy review is completed, the Post has learned.

Netanyahu's speech to the Knesset last week, in which he said his government was committed to peace and a three-pronged policy toward the Palestinians that would allow them to rule themselves without endangering Israel, was probably about as specific as he will get in public for the time being.

"Over the next few weeks, the government will undergo a policy review on a range of issues, and it is premature to speak of specific government positions," one senior government official said Sunday.

Referring to Lieberman's remarks, the official said that until the government adopted a policy, the comments of various ministers reflected their own positions, but not government's.

The degree to which Netanyahu's and Lieberman's policies seemed to differ became apparent during two internal meetings on Sunday.

At the first meeting Lieberman held with the Foreign Ministry's top echelon, he said it appeared to him that 90 percent of the ministry's time and energy was devoted to the Palestinian issue, something he said was a mistake.

Yet later in the day, at a meeting in the Prime Minister's Office where a draft of a document describing the government's guidelines was being discussed, one of the clauses stated that the government viewed resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as one of its central objectives and would work to do so.

One government source said there seemed to be a contradiction between what was said in the Foreign Ministry in the morning and at the Prime Minister's Office in the afternoon.

An official in that office said it was necessary to reevaluate the road map, which Lieberman said last week obligated Israel to the letter, because the status of that document had changed. For example, according to the road map, there was supposed to be a final-status agreement by 2005, the official said.

In the interim, the Annapolis process had short-circuited the road map, moving the third phase - the one calling for final-status negotiations - up to the beginning, the official said. As a result, the document had to be looked at anew before any sweeping policy statements could be made on it.

In this vein, it was not yet certain that Netanyahu would travel to Washington at the beginning of May - in time for the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference - for a meeting with US President Barack Obama, since it was unlikely he would want to hold that first meeting until Israel's position on these basic issues became clear.

"The fact that a minister says something does not obligate the government," the official said. "A lot of ministers have different viewpoints; policy is decided by the government, not individual ministers."

One draft version of talking points on the new government's diplomatic policies, to be circulated eventually to the relevant ministries, was discussed on Sunday but not yet approved. Among the points in the draft were the following:

Israel is obligated by international agreements.

The government will work to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, views this as one of its central objectives, and does not want to rule over the Palestinians.

The efforts to bring about peace must not start with Israeli concessions, which have not proven themselves in the past, but rather from building strong Palestinian governmental institutions, a strong Palestinian economy, and the Palestinian abandonment of terrorism.

The failure to reach an agreement in the past was because the Palestinians would not accept one, and because they have never recognized Israel as a Jewish state.

The government is just now formulating its polices, and the international community should withhold its criticism and judge the government by its actions.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that the new Israeli government would have to accept the creation of a Palestinian state, stop construction in West Bank settlements and remove roadblocks, "so that we can resume dialogue in order to reach a political solution."

Abbas was speaking during a visit to Baghdad, the first such visit to Iraq by a Palestinian leader since the 2003 US-led invasion.

 

AP contributed to this report.

Waarover valt met Hamas te praten?

Deze vraag wordt helaas genegeerd door de mensen die er zo voor zijn met Hamas te praten en bij een oplossing van het conflict te betrekken. Laten we inderdaad met Hamas praten, en duidelijk maken dat een partij/organisatie/guerrillaleger met dergelijke ideeën niet getolereerd kan worden.

 

RP

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What to speak with Hamas about

By Shlomo Avineri Haaretz 6 April 2006
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1076694.html


Recently, more and more voices have been heard saying that the only way to reach an Israeli-Palestinian accord is by talking to Hamas. These voices are not only in Europe but also in the United States. New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, for example, and Brent Sowcroft, who was national security adviser to the first president Bush, have said that without a dialogue with Hamas there will be no peace between Israel and the Palestinians. And if Israel refuses to do so, the Europeans or the Americans should begin a dialogue with Hamas.

Similar statements can also be heard in the margins of Israeli politics.

I believe they are right, but not for the reasons they cite. The question is what to talk to Hamas about. It is clear we have to talk with them - and Israel indeed does speak with them indirectly - about freeing kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit and achieving calm.

I believe we must talk to Hamas about other things too, like about what is written in their founding covenant. Most Israelis, as well as the Europeans and Americans, know that Hamas espouses the destruction of Israel. What most of them do not know is that Hamas' founding document includes a much more comprehensive attitude, not merely to Israel and Zionism, but to the Jews.

The prologue to the covenant states that Hamas' aim is a war - not against Israel or Zionism but against the Jewish people at large, since the Jews, and not merely Israel and Zionism, are the enemies of Islam.

And in order to remove any doubt, the entire chapter 22 is devoted to detailing the iniquities of the Jews.

According to Hamas, the Jews are responsible for all the ills of modern society - the French Revolution; the Communist revolution; the establishment of secret associations (Freemasons, Rotary and Lions clubs, B'nai B'rith) designed to help them gain control of the world by secret means. They control the economy, press and television; they are responsible for the outbreak of World War I, which they initiated in order to destroy the Muslim caliphates (the Ottoman empire), to get the Balfour Declaration and set up the League of Nations with the aim of establishing their state. They also initiated World War II in order to make a fortune from selling war materials; they use both capitalism and communism as their agents.

Sound familiar? Yes, some of it is taken directly from "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," and some, particularly the parts dealing with the world wars, is original.
Don't tell me that these are merely words and Hamas must not be judged only on the basis of its covenant. Would anyone dare say that if a similar movement were to arise in Europe or America and, in addition to statements like these, was busy killing Jews?

Compared with what is written in the Hamas covenant, Austria's Joerg Haider and Jean-Marie Le Pen in France are moderates.

It is clear that if a movement like this were to come out of Europe, no one would even imagine proposing that negotiations be held with it, or that it be asked to join a government. It would not merely be declared illegal but denounced by humankind. An abomination like that has no place in any political discourse.

But perhaps it is nevertheless worthwhile talking to Hamas - not about its contribution to peace but rather about what is stated in its covenant. Perhaps those who espouse the view that we must talk with Hamas will first talk with it about these subjects? Who knows, perhaps it will change its principles? I do not expect this to happen exactly, but I am certainly curious to know what those who think Hamas is the key to peace in the Middle East will say about these things.

And perhaps they are actually correct, perhaps Hamas is the key. If that's the case, it's difficult to expect that peace can be established in our region.

 

Israëliër voorzitter van VN commissie Bevolking en Ontwikkeling

Op ieder niveau en op iedere plaats in de VN wordt Israel tegengewerkt door de Arabische en islamitische landen. Gelukkig heeft dat niet altijd het beoogde effect.

 

RP

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A tiny victory for Israel at the UN: Envoy gets post he deserves

http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/04/tiny-victory-for-israel-at-un-envoy.html

 

The Arab attack on Israel at the UN is relentless. An appointment like the one below would be routine for just about any other country - even Sudan or Libya. Not Israel! So we have something tiny to celebrate. Israel has to be a member of the "Western European and others" group, because the Arabs will not even allow Israel to be a member of the Asia group. We do not exist.  From Israeli envoy gets UN post despite Arab opposition":

Israel's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Carmon, was elected chairman of the UN Commission on Population and Development Friday despite strong opposition from Arab states.

 

Carmon was elected by a total of 28 votes in favor and nine votes against. He was the candidate for the Western European and others group, of which Israel is an affiliate member.

 

Carmon told Haaretz on Friday that "Israel has proved once again to the international community that it has something to offer and contribute on social issues in which it specializes."

 

The committee, a part of the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is composed of 47 member states and convenes once a year. The new role means Carmon will have influence on social issues discussed at the UN, such as family planning.

 

Arab envoys were made aware several days earlier of the European bloc's intention to put forward Carmon as their candidate, leading led to intensive efforts on their part to foil the bid.

 

The Arab envoys sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in which they wrote of their objection to the representative of an "occupying state" being elected as the head of an important UN body.

 

Heads of UN committees are usually elected unanimously, although this time that was made impossible because of the Arab opposition.

 

The Syrian, Iranian, Lebanese and Qatari envoys delivered strongly-worded speeches against Carmon before the vote, leading Western diplomats to express their disappointment at the fact that a professional voting process had been turned into a political debate.

 

 

Hamas TV: 'Joden drinken moslim bloed'

 

In een uitzending op het Hamas TV station Al Aqsa TV, is een Joodse man te zien die zijn zoon leert dat hij alle moslims moet haten en hun bloed moet drinken. Ook moet de zoon voor het gebed zijn handen met moslimbloed wassen. Dit soort blood libels zijn eeuwenlang over Joden verkondigd door de christenen, vooral rond Pasen: Joden zouden het bloed van Christelijke kinderen gebruiken voor het bakken van matzes. De blood libel van Hamas past feilloos in deze traditie van het ontmenselijken van de Joden, om daarmee hun vervolging en dood te rechtvaardigen. Maar voor steeds meer mensen in het verlichte westen, vooral mensen ter linkerzijde, is Hamas een pragmatisch geworden en legitieme verzetsbeweging waar Israel en het Westen prima zaken mee kunnen doen. Gaat u het de Joden uitleggen?

 

RP

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Bulletin
Apr. 5, 2009

Palestinian Media Watch


Hamas Blood Libel: Jews drink Muslim blood

by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook


Jews drink the blood of Muslims and believe that God wants Jews to hate Muslims, according to a Hamas TV skit. Performed before a live audience at the Islamic University in Gaza, the segment features actors playing a father and son, in traditional Hasidic Jewish garb, discussing their God mandated hatred of Muslims.

The skit opens as the father instructs: "We Jews hate the Muslims, we want to kill the Muslims, we Jews want to drink the blood of Muslims." It is later explained that Jews wash their hands before prayer, not with water, but with Muslims' blood: "We have to wash our hands with the blood of Muslims."

Blood libels were a tragic part of Jewish history, as Jews were accused of using the blood of non-Jews for ritual purposes, especially the baking of Matzah for Passover. Blood libels created deep hatred and were an effective trigger for numerous pogroms and the murder of thousands. The Hamas accusation that Jews drink Muslim blood comes the week before Passover, the anniversary of many horrific blood libels.


Click here to view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8IV6ZnzoDY

Following is the full Transcript:

Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas) April 3, 2009


Father: "We Jews hate the Muslims, we want to kill the Muslims, we Jews want to drink the blood of Muslims and Arabs.
[Turns to the audience:] Are you Muslims and Arabs?
[The audience responds in the affirmative.]
I hate you, to please God."
...
Father: "Shimon, look, my son, I want to teach you a few things. You have to hate the Muslims."
Son: "[I don't] like them, I hate them."
Father: "You have to drink the blood of the Muslims."
...
Father: "I spoke with God, so that you will hate the Muslims, so that you will please God."
Son: "Don't worry, father."
Father: "Very well, my son. I repeat: You have to hate the Muslims."
Son: "But I [do] hate them."
Father: You have to drink the blood of the Muslims."
...
Father: "I tell you, you must stand next to me and pray, my son."
Son: "Okay, one moment and I'm coming."
Father: "Where are you going, my son?"
Son: "I am going to cleanse my body." [as Muslims do before prayer]
Father: "You're going to do WHAT?"
Son: "To cleanse my body. You said you want us to pray."
Father: "Muslims [do that], not us."
...
Father: "We have to wash our hands with the blood of Muslims."


==============================

Contact Palestinian Media Watch:

p:+972 2 625 4140e: pmw@pmw.org.il
f: +972 2 624 2803w: www.pmw.org.il

PMW | King George 59 | Jerusalem | Israel

 

Tel Aviv viert feest rond 100-jarig bestaan

 

Aanstaande zaterdag is Tel Aviv jarig, en bereikt de respectabele leeftijd van 100 jaar. Daarom zijn er deze maand tal van festiviteiten in de stad. Kijk voor meer informatie onder andere op:

 

Tel Aviv 100 Web site: http://tlv100.co.il/

 

Tel Aviv 100 booklet: http://digital.timeout.co.il/activemagazine/welcome/TLV_100ENG.asp

 

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Tel Aviv, Israel's unique Jewish city, turns 100 and parties through the crises surrounding it
ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-ml-israel-tel-aviv-100,1,649847,full.story
9:42 AM PDT, April 5, 2009

 

 

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Well past the Sabbath midnight, hours before the Mideast erupted once again into war, Tel Aviv was doing what it loves most — partying.

 

For a place founded a century ago to be the world's first Jewish city, the atmosphere was decidedly un-kosher. Christmas decorations lined the bars and the delis were open, selling pork. In the clubs, the dancers dripped sweat. Outside, tipsy women in revealing fashion stumbled in the streets, and at 2 a.m. drivers were hunting in vain for parking spots.

 

Inside the "Zizitripo" lounge, Omer Gershon downed a shot of vodka.

 

"The nightlife here is crazier than anywhere in the world. I've got people drinking here all night long," the 34-year-old owner yelled over the thumping electronic music. "There's a lot of escapism involved. Carpe diem (seize the day) takes on a whole new meaning here."

 

And there was plenty to escape from that night. An hour's drive south, Palestinian militants were firing missiles at Israeli communities, and Israel would shortly invade the Gaza Strip with air and land strikes to stop the barrages — an operation that ultimately claimed well over 1,000 lives by both sides' count.

 

It was hardly an auspicious prelude to a year in which Tel Aviv has begun celebrating its 100th birthday with art shows, outdoor concerts, a marathon and the inevitable all-night street party. But this is a city hardened to the shocks of Middle East conflict.

 

In the 1991 Gulf War it was hit by Saddam Hussein's Scud missiles. A decade later it suffered an onslaught of Palestinian suicide bombings. In the 2006 war against Hezbollah the fear loomed that Tel Aviv might be hit from Lebanon by Iranian-supplied missiles, and during the Gaza war similar fears were felt.

 

But whatever threats may loom, the party goes on.

 

Tel Aviv was founded on April 11, 1909, on deserted Mediterranean sand dunes north of the Arab port of Jaffa. Its name, which it took later, means "Hill of Spring," and is drawn from the writings of Theodor Herzl, modern Zionism's visionary founding father.

 

Its first inhabitants were Jews from Russia, Germany and Poland. Successive waves of European anti-Semitism culminating in the rise of Nazi Germany swelled the immigrant population. In 1934 it was declared a city. After World War II came Holocaust survivors and Jews from the Middle East.

 

The founders built theaters, museums, promenades and universities. The political and military bodies of the state-to-be were born here and today, nearly 61 years after Israel became a state, Tel Aviv is a world-class, high-tech metropolis and financial capital of 400,000 people. With its suburban sprawl, the population swells to 3 million, more than half the Jews in Israel.

 

Baruch Kipnis, a geography professor who recently published a book celebrating Tel Aviv's centennial, said the city "controls almost every aspect of life" in Israel and has become "an enormous head on a shriveled body."

 

Some critics say Tel Aviv's dominance has cut a wedge between it and the rest of the country. Some deride it as "the bubble," detached from the "other" Israel of religious purists, kibbutzniks, the communities under missile attack from Gaza and the military occupation of 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank, just 20 miles away.

 

Forty miles southeast in the mountains is Jerusalem, the capital recognized as such by no government but Israel itself, and divided among secular Jews, Orthodox Jews and Arabs.

 

While Jerusalem suffers from bouts of religious and Arab-Israeli strife, Tel Aviv's defenders counter that their city is leaping forward into the future.

 

"Tel Aviv is the model for what Israel needs to be," said Yael Dayan, chairwoman of the city council and daughter of the late war hero, Moshe Dayan. "Jerusalem is not a city, it's a symbol, it's a place people are leaving. We are the exact opposite. We are a city of live-and-let-live."

 

Tel Aviv has always prided itself on being both a bastion of secular Jewish life and a place where the religious live in peace alongside their bohemian neighbors. Trendy Sheinkin street has an unwritten agreement: On Fridays it's open to gay parades, tattoo parlors and fresh fruit juice stands; on Saturdays it shuts down to respect the Sabbath.

 

It's a city where young religious men on street corners beckon secular Jews to say a prayer to the beat of Techno music. It has separate beaches for religious women, religious men and gays.

 

Religion in Tel Aviv often comes with a touch of irony, like the elegant woman strolling on a small street wearing large sunglasses and a low-cut tank top that quotes from the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife."

 

It is a city of refuge for Arab homosexuals rejected by the conservative societies in which they have grown up. But while there is nothing to bar Arabs from living in Tel Aviv, only a few hundred do, city officials say. The Arab population is concentrated in Jaffa — Yafo in Hebrew — and the two are merged under the formal Hebrew name Tel Aviv-Yafo.

 

In last year's mayoral election, a third of the vote went to Dov Khenin, a Jewish member of a mixed Arab-Israeli party.

 

Seated on a motorcycle outside the cafe he runs, 31-year-old Oren Chen says "living in a bubble" is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

"People say 'bubble' in a negative context, but this is actually an island of sanity," he said. "It's a place of freedom, in the most Israeli way possible."

 

For all of Tel Aviv's desire for normalcy, it can never truly escape the troubles around it.

 

The Hassen Bek mosque, built by the last Turkish ruler in the Holy Land before World War I, is virtually unused today by Muslim worshippers. Wedged between Tel Aviv and Jaffa, lit up in green as part of the nighttime seaside skyline, it serves as a stark, mute reminder of the absence of Arabs in the neighborhood it stands in.

 

After Israel's independence, Tel Aviv spread to encompass several Arab villages whose inhabitants had fled or been driven out in the 1948 war. Still, having been founded as an entirely Jewish city on empty land purchased from its Arab owners, "In that regard it is not a Zionist city, because in no way was it based on the oppression of the Arabs," said Khenin, the mayoral runner-up.

 

Tel Aviv is where the young state of Israel nearly came to civil war in 1948, when its first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, ordered the army to fight the Jewish militant Irgun group unless it laid down its weapons. One of Ben-Gurion's officers was Yitzhak Rabin, the future prime minister, assassinated in 1995 by a Jewish extremist in front of City Hall.

 

Unlike biblical cities such as Jerusalem, where Jews resettled after thousands of years of exile, Tel Aviv was the first attempt to build a Jewish city from scratch, and Dan Karmon, a 33-year-old marketing manager, is glad of it.

 

"It's a place where you can live a secular life, without having to escape your Jewish past," he said. "Tel Aviv best represents the struggle to live a normal life in Israel."

 

But never completely normal. Paul McCartney recently gave a concert in Tel Aviv, joined by the audience in singing "Give Peace A Chance." Three months later the Gaza war broke out.

 

Even music can be a sensitive subject. The Tel Aviv-based Israel Philharmonic Orchestra doesn't perform music by Richard Wagner because of its associations with Nazi Germany.

 

However, the city has a powerful German heritage, on vivid display in the 1930s Bauhaus-style buildings designed by Jewish architects who fled Nazi Germany. The 4,000 boxy white structures have earned Tel Aviv a rare UNESCO designation as a World Heritage Site.

 

___

 

On the Net:

 

Tel Aviv 100 Web site: http://tlv100.co.il/

 

Tel Aviv 100 booklet: http://digital.timeout.co.il/activemagazine/welcome/TLV_100ENG.asp

 

Fatah zou terroristische aktiviteiten weer hebben opgepakt

Dit is slecht nieuws. Harel geeft als mogelijke verklaringen dat Abbas aan macht verliest en dat men weinig van de nieuwe rechtse regering verwacht. Wat hij niet vermeldt is het feit dat het verheerlijken van geweld door de PA en in PA media nooit is opgehouden, en leden van de aan Fatah gelieerde Al Aqsa Martelaren Brigades bijvoorbeeld zo altijd het signaal kregen dat wat zij deden in principe goed was en een belangrijk onderdeel van de nationale strijd.

 

Vanwege de verbeterde samenwerking heeft Israel het afgelopen jaar meer dan 100 checkpoints en roadblocks verwijderd. De vraag is wat de nieuwe regering gaat doen als blijkt dat daardoor makkelijker aanvallen kunnen worden uitgevoerd.

 

RP

-----------------

Security sources: Fatah has resumed terrorist activities
By Amos Harel - Haaretz

Last update - 08:03 05/04/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1076398.html

 

Defense officials said over the weekend they are concerned about the increased involvement of Fatah-affiliated militants in attacks against Jews in the West Bank over the past two months.

Fatah members stopped attacks against Israel around two years ago, but the involvement of Fatah members in the recent deadly attack in Bat Ayin and the murder of two policemen in the Jordan Valley is being investigated.

The investigation into these attacks and the attempted bombing at a mall in Haifa are under strict censorship restrictions, as requested by the Shin Bet security service.

Officers from the Israel Defense Forces' Central Command said they had a lead regarding last week's attack in Bat Ayin, in which a 13-year-old boy was killed with an ax. The assailant has not yet been caught.

Foreign elements are cooperating with Fatah militants, defense officials say. In 2003 and 2004, when Fatah was responsible for a considerable part of terrorist attacks in the West Bank and beyond the Green Line, most teams were handled by Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad operatives based in Beirut and Damascus, who supplied funds and leadership.

In addition to a possible Hezbollah connection, terrorist factions in the Gaza Strip appear to have also increased their involvement in the West Bank, the officials say.

As Israel and the Palestinian Authority have tightened security cooperation in the West Bank, Fatah members have gradually ceased to carry out attacks against Israelis. Members of the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades have also stopped targeting Israelis.

Moreover, hundreds of members of Fatah's military wing pledge, in agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, to have ceased terrorist activity in exchange for the Shin Bet's promise to stop pursuing them. Some of these men still enjoy a form of protective custody in the West Bank. Others became officials in the Palestinian Authority's security forces.

However, intelligence reports suggest that several Fatah militants have resumed planning and implementing attacks against Israel. Some of the militants who signed pledges are also thought to be in violation of the contracts.

This trend could indicate a loss of power by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad.

Alternately, political activists could be encouraging Fatah militants to carry out attacks to preserve a military option and out of the assumption that the relationship with Israel could severely deteriorate now that Benjamin Netanyahu is prime minister.

Israel en Palestijnen hervatten deze maand vredesoverleg?

Ik heb er mijn twijfels over, maar laten we het hopen. Overigens hebben zowel Netanjahoe als Lieberman aangegeven zich gebonden te achten aan de Routekaart en een tweestatenoplossing; alleen de manier waarop men die wil bereiken is anders dan het Annapolis vredesproces, waarin de eerste fases werden overgeslagen en direct begonnen met de final status onderhandelingen.

 

RP

-----------

Last update - 09:19 04/04/2009       
Report: Israel, Palestinians to renew peace talks 'this month'
By Haaretz Service
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1076291.html

 

 

London-based Arabic language newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported Saturday that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians will be renewed at the end of April, according to Israel Radio.

 

The report comes despite declarations by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday that Israel was changing its policies on the peace process and was not bound by commitments it made at a U.S.-sponsored conference to pursue creation of a Palestinian state.

 

Asharq al-Awsat also reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Egypt before the renewal of talks with the Palestinians.
 
Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hosem Zaki said he does not know about preparations for Netanyahu's visit.

 

 

New York Times toont meer interesse voor Israelische dan Amerikaanse soldaten

 

Een analyse van de berichtgeving in Nederlandse kranten zou waarschijnlijk een vergelijkbaar resultaat opleveren: de berichtgeving over vermeende oorlogsmisdaden door Israel wordt prominenter en onzorgvuldiger gebracht dan wanneer het onze jongens en meisjes in Afghanistan betreft, terwijl dat voor Nederlandse lezers toch meer van belang is.... 

 

RP

----------

 

New York Times: Unfair to Israel

NY Times' trigger happy on Israel

Apr. 1, 2009
GILEAD INI , THE JERUSALEM POST

 

In February 2009, a few veterans of the recently concluded Operation Cast Lead met to discuss what some of them felt was immoral conduct by the IDF. The soldiers exchanged war stories, including two specific allegations about unarmed civilians being killed in Gaza. Details of the now notorious meeting emerged the following month, when a transcript of the conversation was leaked to Israeli newspapers.

On March 20, just one day after the story broke in Israel, The New York Times covered the allegations in a front page, above the fold story. A follow-up piece the next day repeated the allegations. And a day later yet another piece dealt with the issue.

Almost exactly one year earlier, in March 2008, American veterans of the most recent Iraq war got together near Washington to publicly recollect their battlefield experiences. They told stories of indiscriminate fire, the killing of innocent civilians and systematic cover-ups of wrongful deaths.

Although these veterans' charges were clearly more relevant to American readers of The New York Times - they were, after all, about American soldiers, American policies and alleged American atrocities - the newspaper didn't cover it on its front page, as it did with the Israeli allegations. It didn't cover the Americans' accounts in three consecutive articles. It fact, although other mainstream news organizations covered the story, the Times didn't report on it at all.

THE TIMES isn't known for being soft on Americans. But this baffling discrepancy between the newspaper's handling of stories about Israeli soldiers and American soldiers is no fluke.

For example, when a US sniper testified before a military court in February 2008 that "he had ordered a subordinate to kill an unarmed Iraqi man who wandered into their hiding position near Iskandariya, then planted an AK-47 rifle near the body to support his false report about the shooting," The New York Times buried the story on page 8.

When the newspaper learned in August 2008 that two American soldiers confessed, in a signed statement to army investigators, to executing handcuffed and blindfolded Iraqi prisoners and dumping their bodies into a canal, the story ran on page 11. And when the soldiers were formally charged with murder a month later, it was noted on page 16.

Perhaps the most striking contrast is between the newspaper's treatment of the Gaza stories and its caution in dealing with allegations that American troops wrongfully killed civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha. While The New York Times put on its front page the news that, in Israel, "the military's chief advocate general ordered an investigation into" the alleged Gaza killings, it's early 2005 report that the US military was "investigating whether a Marine squad... near the Iraqi town of Haditha committed wrongdoing" amounted to three short paragraphs hidden at the end of a long article on page 12. In fact, it wasn't until more than 10 weeks after Time magazine first scandalized the country by suggesting there may have been a massacre in Haditha - and only after US officials said the military investigation was expected to find that the marines indeed "carried out extensive, unprovoked killings of civilians" - that The New York Times found the incident worth publishing on its front page.

It gets worse. Even before The New York Times published its three pieces about allegations of Israeli misconduct, those charges had been substantially discredited. Israel's Channel 2 television station reported that the source of one of the allegations admitted his story was based only on rumors. Yet none of the three Times articles mentioned this key point. On the contrary, they wrongly described the allegations as "testimony," "revelations" and "eyewitness accounts."

This unfair overemphasis on allegations of Israeli misdeeds relative to similar, and sometimes more credible, stories about Americans is, simply put, discrimination against the Jewish state.

It took more than a week for the Times to finally reveal, in a fourth article, that the core of what it reported in the three earlier pieces was nothing more than hearsay, and that Israeli investigators believe the charges are almost certainly false. But the damage was already done. The trigger happy The New York Times splashed dubious rumors on its front page, and in doing so caused irreversible harm not only to Israel's reputation, but also to the truth. (The newspaper's "retraction" - which was not described as a retraction - was published on page four.)

In prominently highlighting the false accusations, the newspaper seemed to be implying that IDF troops, in their fight against Hamas's guerrilla fighters, exhibited bad judgment and were too quick to kill Palestinians. But what the stories actually showed was that, when it comes to bad news from Israel, it is The New York Times that's guilty of bad judgment and being quick on the trigger.

The writer is a senior research analyst at CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.

Joodse rechter aangewezen om oorlogsmisdaden Gaza Oorlog te onderzoeken

 

De VN Mensenrechtenraad is zo'n genante vertoning dat serieuze mensenrechtenorganisaties haar het liefst negeren en doodzwijgen. Een kwart van alle landen is erin vertegenwoordigd, naast fatsoenlijke landen evengoed de grootste mensenrechtenschenders, die elkaar hier mooi de hand boven het hoofd kunnen houden en ter afleiding samen te keer gaan tegen Israël. Het is een soort chronische Durban-diarree.

 

Als de Joodse voorzitter van de onderzoeksmissie inderdaad met een gebalanceerd en genuanceerd rapport over de Gaza Oorlog naar de Raad komt, zal dit waarschijnlijk evengoed worden verdraaid om er Israël mee aan de schandpaal te nagelen.

 

Wouter

_____________

 

The Jerusalem Post
Apr 3, 2009 12:26 | Updated Apr 3, 2009 19:25
Jewish judge to probe 'Gaza war crimes'
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238562901063&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


The United Nations on Friday appointed a widely respected South African judge who is a trustee of Hebrew University to lead a high-level mission to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead.

Israel refused to say if it would cooperate.

Richard Goldstone, the former UN chief prosecutor for war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, was named to head the investigation ordered by the Human Rights Council in January.

According to the mandate, the investigation should focus on Palestinian victims of the three-week operation against Hamas earlier this year.

But Goldstone, a Jewish former judge of the South African constitutional court, said his team would investigate "all violations of international humanitarian law" before, during and after the conflict that ended Jan. 18.

"It's in the interest of the victims. It brings acknowledgment of what happened to them. It can assist the healing process," he told reporters in Geneva. "I would hope it's in the interests of all the political actors, too."

Martin Uhomoibhi, the council president, explained the apparent contradiction by saying the mission always intended to evaluate the proportionality of Israel's response, which requires that acts of both warring parties be examined.

"I am confident that the mission will be in a position to assess in an independent and impartial manner all human rights and humanitarian law violations committed in the context of the (Gaza) conflict," he said in a statement.

Israel has rejected any participation in previous council investigations, including one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, calling them biased.

It would not say Friday if it would cooperate with the delegation, which also includes British professor of international law Christine Chinkin, Pakistani lawyer Hina Jilani and retired Irish Army Col. Desmond Travers.

"This committee is instructed not to seek out the truth but to single out Israel for alleged crimes," said Yigal Palmor, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. He called the 47-nation body "discredited" and said it has no "practically credibility at all."

Goldstone said he was "shocked, as a Jew," to be invited to head the mission.

"It adds an additional dimension," said Gladstone, who is on the board of governors at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. "I've taken a deep interest in what happens in Israel. I'm associated with organizations that have worked in Israel. And I believe I can approach the daunting task that I have accepted in an evenhanded and impartial manner."

On Monday, Judge Advocate-General Brig.-Gen. Avichai Mandelblit exonerated the IDF and closed a Military Police investigation into accounts of alleged serious human rights violations during Operation Cast Lead.

Mandelblit launched the investigation last week after "testimonies" from soldiers, leaked to the media by head of the Rabin Pre-Military Academy, Danny Zamir, claimed that soldiers had deliberately shot and killed innocent Palestinians during the operation.

Yaakov Katz contributed to this report

Hasbara op het internet. Gezocht: ‘een Vlaams leger van bloggers’

 

Bij deze geven we een oproep door van een Vlaamse geestverwant op Verzet Blogspot.

 

_____________

Hasbara op het internet. Gezocht: 'een Vlaams leger van bloggers'

http://brabosh.com/2009/04/02/hasbara/

 

Hoe Israël de media oorlog verloor

Tijdens de voorbije Gaza crisis (27.12.2008-18.01.2009) is andermaal gebleken hoe belangrijk het was om onmiddellijk, adequaat en goed gedocumenteerde informatie te verstrekken als antwoord op de vele kritieken die Israël kreeg en door hierop te weinig, te vaag en te laat op te reageren, heeft het imago van Israël hierdoor veelvuldige en rake klappen gekregen. De oorzaak daarvan was niet door de feiten of acties van het IDF an sich, maar door de veelvuldige foute, verdraaide of onvolledige informatie die door de media over het conflict werd verspreid. Zie ook: Hoe Israël de media-oorlog verloor en Puzzled in Gaza van Yvonne Green en Think About This.

Westerse journalisten werden van bij het begin van het Gazaconflict niet toegelaten in het gebied, toch werd de media overspoeld met  honderden beelden van dode en gewonden en een veelvoud aan reportages. Het overgrote deel van die informatie, die via de internationale media werd losgelaten op de wereld, kwam achteraf gezien nagenoeg eenzijdig uit Palestijnse of Arabische bron. Deze informatie werd door westerse journalisten klakkeloos overgenomen zonder  noch de bronnen te checken noch op het terrein de werkelijke situatie en bestaande feiten te toetsen.

Met alle catastrofale gevolgen van dien: een sinds 1945 nooit meer geziene golf van Jodenhaat en anti-Zionisme overspoelde de wereld. De gevolgen zijn nog altijd zichtbaar en in het licht van de Antiracisme Conferentie Durban II die binnenkort van start gaat in Genève wordt - onder het mom van anti-Zionisme - een nieuwe golf van Jodenhaat verwacht tegenover de Joodse gemeenschappen in Israël en in de rest van de wereld.

Het Israëlisch Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken erkent de fout van het te weinig aan de verspreiden van informatie tav het grote publiek te hebben te gewerkt en is sinds februari een vernieuwde Hasbara gestart. Hasbara is een hebreeuws woord, met verschillende betekenissen en interpretaties. De huidige meest gehanteerde betekenis is die van 'publieke diplomatie' als 'advokaat voor Israël' met het doel het imago van Israël in het buitenland op te vijzelen. Hasbara streeft een positieve benadering na van elke informatie die toekomt, zonder daarbij de kritiek of gemaakte fouten uit de weg te gaan. Zij doet dat op een opvoedkundige wijze eerder dan door te confronteren, pro-actief eerder dan reactief.

Vlaamse Hasbara op het internet: slappe koffie

Tijdens het voorbije Gazaconflict is nogmaals de kracht van het internet gebleken en hoe weinig pro-Israël activisten daarvan gebruik hebben gemaakt. Wat de Lage Landen betreft, België en Nederland was het resultaat ronduit bedroevend. In Nederland, dat traditioneel een pak mondiger en politiek sociaal meer bewust actief is dan de de gemiddelde Vlaming in België, werd op verschillende websites en blogs verdienstelijk weerwerk verricht. Ook in Franstalig België, Wallonië en Brussel, werd flink gewerkt aan het aanscherpen van de pen, in de media en op het internet. Maar in Vlaanderen was de situatie ronduit dramatisch.

Dat heeft verschillende oorzaken. De dozijnen Joodse organisaties die actief zijn in Vlaanderen, zijn bijzonder weinig actief op het internet. Als ze al bekend zijn met het internet,  frequenteren zij voornamelijk de Franstalige websites en blogs. Hoewel de meeste Joden goed tot uitstekend de Nederlandse taal beheersen, worden de meeste Joden nog steeds opgevoed in de Franse taal. Hun huis- tuin- en keukentaal is nog steeds het Frans en ligt het ook voor de hand dat zij niet snel of veel minder geneigd zijn om te kijken wat er aan de hand is op het Internet in de Nederlandse taal. Mede aldus, hebben zij de langdurige haatcampagne op de vele honderden websites, blogs en forums over het hoofd gekeken.

En dan te beseffen dat tegenwoordig ruim tweeeneenhalf miljoen Vlaamse Belgen toegang hebben tot het internet, en enkel de honderden Vlaamse websites en blogs van de ontelbare pro-Palestijnse en anti-Zionistische organisaties actief zijn op het internet, ligt het voor de hand dat ook in Vlaanderen de mediaoorlog op het internet door pro-Israëlactivisten, bij voorbaat verloren werd nog vooraleer hij begonnen was. Voor wie op zoek was naar een denkbeeldige Joodse Lobby in België, was snel van een kale reis teruggekeerd. Welgeteld één keer werd er actief gedemonstreerd (Antwerpen, 11 januari 2009) - een half uur zacht grommen, zalven en lijmen en het was weer voorbij. Dat was het dan wat Vlaanderen betreft zowel publiek als op het internet!

Grote uitzondering [gelukkig maar] was Joods Actueel rondom Michael Freilich en zijn redactieraad, die op 31 december 2008, toch reeds vier dagen nadat het Gazaconflict was begonnen[!], een Blog opstartte. Blog die later compleet werd geïntegreerd in de website met dezelfde naam. Ook het Forum der Joodse Organisaties ontwaakte erg langzaam uit haar diepe slaap maar haar acties op het internet zijn sporadisch, te kort en beknopt en laten in het algemeen een erg passieve en gelaten indruk na. Pas halverwege het Gazaconflict, begon het FJO eindelijk iets aan haar website te doen, website waarnaar ik al 15 jaar tevergeefs op zoek was op het internet.

Op dit ogenblik zijn nog steeds enkel Joods Actueel en deze blog, Verzet Blogspot, de enige Vlaamse blog/websites die zich actief roeren op het internet. Voor het overige moet je uitwijken naar onze Noorderburen en de websites en blogs van Nederlandse origine raadplegen (zie rechts bij verwijzingen: Nederland). Het blijft allemaal hard vrijwilligerswerk door amateurs, die zonder de minste steun van overheid of ngo's, met primitieve middelen en een handvol mensen - blijven timmeren aan het imago van Israël en dat van de Joden in het algemeen. IJveren voor een gelijke en meer evenwichtige benadering van de Israëlische politiek en situatie, in vergelijking tot de landen in de rest van de wereld. blijft een weinig dankbare zaak te zijn maar wel absoluut noodzakelijk.

Het bescheiden succes van deze 'twee roependen in de woestijn' is in feite een gegeven om maar weinig trots op te zijn want het toont tegelijk de armoede aan van Joods en niet-Joods verzet aan tijdens deze goed georganiseerde anti-Israël campagne, door vele observanten reeds de pro-Palestijnse Lobby genoemd. Het echte PR-werk - pro-Israël - zou in feite moeten uitgevoerd worden door beroepsmensen, maar die laten het helaas nagenoeg compleet afweten. De toestand op het internet is echter onhoudbaar geworden en ronduit alarmerend. Er moet dringend wat aan gebeuren en een nieuwe versie van een Vlaamse Hasbara op het internet dringt zich op.

Gezocht: een Vlaams leger van bloggers

Met de kracht van het internet kan iedereen, jong en oud, geschoold en ongeschoold, op gelijk welk ogenblik en elk uur van de dag met de computer een activist zijn. Je kan zelfs een online activist zijn van op het werk of met een draagbare PC op een bank in het park of café. Het enige wat je nodig hebt is een PC en een aansluiting op het internet. Het internet is al lang geen eenrichtingsverkeer meer zoals websites dat in den beginne wèl waren, maar integendeel een interactieve weg om informatie uit te wisselen om alleen of in groep online informatie te ontvangen en door te geven.

Veel meer dan vroeger zijn op het internet erg gebruiksvriendelijke programma's gratis te downloaden en in een oogwenk te installeren. Vele van die programma's zijn eenvoudig te bedienen en laten je toe om met een vingerknip artikels, foto's en video's te downloaden. Erg populair zijn YouTube, waar iedereen eigengemaakte video's kan publiceren. Netwerken kan uitstekend via MySpace en Facebook. Vooral blogs (on line dagboeken en journaals) zijn bijzonder populair. Meer dan 65 miljoen mensen zijn lid van Facebook, meer dan 50 miljoen mensen bezoeken minstens één keer per maand YouTube en Wikipedia (online encyclopedie gemaakt door iedereen), en Technoratie, een blog traffic service, die meer dan 110 miljoen blogs telt.

Tweede belangrijkste gegeven: hoe aan correcte en objectieve informatie te geraken, hoe ze te gebruiken en online te zetten. Het Israëlisch Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken verspreid online complete pakketten voor de Israeli Webfriends, zoals u en ik. Beperkte tot zeer goed gedocumenteerde Q & A's (vraag en antwoord) worden kant en klaar toegeleverd. Overwegend in het Frans of het Engels, maar met goede vertaalprogramma's zoals bv Elan online en het vertaalprogramma van Microsoft, helpen u een eind op weg naar een Nederlandstalig antwoord. Je hoeft niet eens een blog op te starten om een online activist te worden. Neem gewoon deel (eerst registreren) aan de discussies  op de ontelbare politieke en sociale forums op het internet, blogs en interactieve mediasites van kranten en journaals. Korte compact geformuleerde antwoorden, kunnen in vele gevallen reeds het verschil maken.

Wie geïnteresseerd is om 'advokaat voor Israël' te worden kan mij emailen op brabosh - at - telenet.be.

Bronnen: Jerusalem Post van 18.01.2009: Latest hasbara weapon: 'Army of bloggers'; Haaretz van 19.01.2009: Israel recruits 'army of bloggers' to combat anti-Zionist Web sites; Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Hasbara

 

Kent Israël extremistische terroristen?

 

Zie tevens eerder bericht: 13-Jarige jongen gedood en kind van 7 jaar verwond in aanval op Westoever

 

Wouter

___________________

Kent Israel extremistische terroristen?

http://israel-in-de-media.blogspot.com/2009/04/kent-israel-extremistische-terroristen.html

 

Kent Israel extremistische terroristen?

 

Ja, in Israel komen soms ook extremisten voor die terrorisme uitvoeren.

Wat maakt het toch anders dan Palestijns terrorisme?

 

De moord op een Israelische jongen met een bijl gisteren 2 april maakt dat onbedoeld duidelijk.

Naar blijkt zijn de slachtoffers, de twee broers, zonen van een Israelische terrorist.

Hun vader had een bomaanslag op een Arabische school in Oost-Jerusalem gepland in 2003.

Voordat het onheil kon geschieden in 2003 werd de auto met explosieven ontdekt door de Israelische politie.

Die kon de explosieven onschadelijk maken en gelukkig bleef de school, met de meisjes, ongedeerd.

 

De vader van de broertjes werd als de dader opgespoord en, nu komt het enorme verschil met de Palestijnen,

Hij werd tot 15 jaar gevangenisstraf veroordeeld. Hij zit dan ook nu nog zijn straf uit.

Nog niet duidelijk is of deze broertjes van het begin af doelwit waren vanwege hun vader of dat het toeval is.

 

In beide gevallen is de dader een kille moordenaar, die kinderen afslacht met een bijl.

De broertjes kun je de daad van hun vader niet verwijten.

De echte dader van 2003 is door Israel op de juiste manier bestraft.

En van wraak kan al helemaal geen sprake zijn daar de daad van de vader verhinderd werd en er dus geen slachtoffers vielen noch schade werd aangericht.

 

MS

 

Wounded ax-attack boy is son of jailed Jewish bomb-plot cell member

By YAAKOV LAPPIN

Yair Gamliel, the seven-year-old boy whose skull was fractured by an ax-wielding terrorist in the settlement of Bat Ayin on Thursday, is the son of Ofer Gamliel, one of three men convicted in 2003 and sent to prison for 15 years for a failed bomb plot against a Arab girls school in east Jerusalem.

Shlomo Nativ z"l.
Photo: Courtesy

The Prisons Service said it would allow Gamliel to visit his son at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem for a few hours on Thursday.

Prisons Service spokesman Yaron Zamir told The Jerusalem Post the visit could only go ahead with an escort of Service staff. "We are preparing to accompany Gamliel to the hospital," Zamir said. "He [Gamliel] is choosing the time of the visit."

In 2003, the Jerusalem District Court convicted Gamliel, together with Yarden Morag and Shlomo Dvir, of attempted murder. The cell came to be known as the Bat Ayin Underground. It had planted an explosives-packed cart in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of A-Tur in 2002, between Mokassed Hospital and an Arab girls elementary school across the street.

The bomb was found by police officers passing through the area. A police bomb squad safely detonated the explosives and the police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) traced them back to the Jewish militant cell set on causing heavy Arab casualties.

At the end of the trial, the judges said the defendants had carefully planned the location of the attack, choosing an area that did not routinely have Israel Police or Border Police patrols, or any Israeli passersby.

The bomb was made up of two slabs of explosive material, two gas canisters, 100 liters of fuel and a large number of screws. The defendants were driven by a desire to revenge Palestinian terrorist attacks, the judges said.

 

 

Vrede tussen Israel en Palestijnen

Van Sittard Web Log:

Vrede tussen Israel en Palestijnen

http://sittard.blogspot.com/2009/04/dangerous-filename-vrede-tussen-israel.html

 

 

Uit een Israëlische opiniepeiling vorig jaar (zie hieronder):

 

The survey of 1,721 Israelis, both Arab and Jewish, also showed that 73 percent of the Jews and 94 percent of the Arabs want Israel to "be a society in which Arab and Jewish citizens have mutual respect and equal opportunities."

 

Goede wil is er dus voldoende in Israël, en de regering zou hier gebruik van moeten maken om een aktief beleid te voeren om de samenleving tussen Joden en Arabieren in Israël te verbeteren.

 

De Palestijnse Autoriteit op de Westelijke Jordaanoever doet intussen het tegenovergestelde en straft pogingen tot begrip en toenadering vanuit de bevolking genadeloos af.

 

Steun de One Voice Movement.

 

Wouter

______________

Strings of Peace

Yup. On Sunday, March 29, 2009, Palestinian officials in Jenin announced that they have disbanded a youth orchestra after it played for Holocaust survivors in Israel. The youth orchestra was founded three years ago and was called "The Strings of Peace". The group began their concert with an Arabic song called We Sing For Peace.

The story in the BBC is here. The NY Times report is here.

The Strings of Peace

-Dry Bones- Israel's Political Comic Strip Since 1973

 

Zie ook:

Palestijnse kinderen zingen voor overlevenden Holocaust

Palestijns jeugdorkest opgeheven na zingen voor Holocaust overlevenden

Palestijnse Autoriteit heeft geen boodschap aan vrede en begrip overbrengen

 

 

Lieberman acht Israel niet gebonden aan Annapolis proces

Lieberman is niet tegen een Palestijnse staat, maar tegen het principe van Annapolis om direct naar de fase van de final status onderhandelingen te gaan voordat een aantal andere zaken zijn opgelost. Bij de Routekaart wordt eerst naar een voorlopige Palestijnse staat toegewerkt, en is gedetailleerd uitgewerkt wat beide partijen moeten doen om daar te komen.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top aide to Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and his unofficial spokesman, said that no one could force the Palestinians to sit around the negotiating table with "a racist like Lieberman."

De Palestijnse Autoriteit is minstens zo racistisch: zij weigert het zelfbeschikkingsrecht van de Joden te erkennen, zij bestraft het verkopen van land aan Joden met de doodstraf en in door haar gecontroleerde media wordt geregeld opgeroepen tot geweld tegen Joden en Israeli's, wordt de Holocaust ontkend en antisemitisme verspreid.

 

RP

------------

Lieberman: 'Only one document obligates us, it's not Annapolis'
Apr. 1, 2009
Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST

 

 

New Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman entered his office with a bang on Wednesday afternoon, saying that while Israel is committed to every aspect of the Road Map; it is not obligated by the Annapolis process.

 

At a ceremony in the Foreign Ministry where he took the reigns from former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, Lieberman said, "There is one document that obligates us, and it is not the Annapolis document," in reference to the Road Map.

 

He said that the coalition agreements it was made clear that the government would accept all previous agreements, insisting, "There is Israeli governmental continuity." He added that while the government of Israel endorsed the Road Map in 2002, it did not do so to the 2007 Annapolis process.

 

Lieberman said that Israel would abide strictly by the Roap Map, as well as the two accompanying documents, including the Mitchell Report. "We will never agree to jump over all the clauses and go to the last one, which is negotiations over a final status agreement," he said. He noted that the agreement includes dismantling terrorist infrastructure and setting up a government that can govern.

 

The Road Map peace plan also calls on Israel to cease all settlement construction and dismantle illegal outposts.
In a speech that surprised many of the employees who were expecting generalities, Lieberman also made clear that he believed Egypt is a key strategic partner and an important factor for stability in the region.

 

"What is important is to maintain world and regional stability," he said, adding that he was being asked constantly, "What will be with Egypt?"

 

"Egypt existed in the time of our Patriarchs, and will apparently be in our time as well," he went on. "Egypt is certainly an important factor, and an important country in the Arab world, and a factor that stabilizes the regional situation, and perhaps beyond it."

 

His comments appeared to be an attempt to assuage concerns in Cairo following comments he made in the past about Egypt. Lieberman said that he would both like to visit Egypt, and would welcome their leaders here.

 

"I will definitely be happy to visit Egypt, and I would be happy for Egyptian leaders to visit us here, and for the Egyptian foreign minister to visit the Israeli Foreign Ministry. I certainly respect them, and I want them to respect us, on the basis of reciprocity," he said.

 

Late last year in a Knesset address, Lieberman slammed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's unwillingness to travel to Israel on an official visit, saying "If he wants to talk to us, he should come here; if he doesn't want to come here, he can go to hell."

 

Regarding Israel's difficult diplomatic standing in the world today, Lieberman noted that this came at a time when Israel was willing to make more concessions than ever before.

 

In relation to public opinion, he asked, "When was Israel most at its most popular in the world? After the Six Day War, not after Oslo A, B, C and D."

 

Lieberman added that in order to be respected in the world, you have to respect yourself.

 

Livni offered a brief but pointed reaction to Lieberman's speech.

 

"This speech proved that I did the right thing when I did not join the government," Livni said.

 

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top aide to Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and his unofficial spokesman, said that no one could force the Palestinians to sit around the negotiating table with "a racist like Lieberman."

 

Jpost.com staff contributed to this report

 

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