Arabisch-islamitisch Egypte is tegen idee Joodse staat Israel

Het is niet aan Moebarak om op te geven over Egyptes goede behandeling van minderheden. Naast vele klachten van onderdrukking van de koptische christenen, heeft Egypte op een handvol na alle Joden het land uitgepest, verjaagd en verdreven, met achterlating van al hun bezittingen. Lees hier een persoonlijk verslag van een Joodse vluchteling uit Egypte: My Personal Exodus

 

RP

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[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

"Don't you have Arab citizens in Israel?" he asks. "You want to turn Israel into a Jewish state only? That's very bad. I'm telling you, it's a serious mistake which will harm you. A Jewish state will become the target of all terrorists. An open state, on the other hand, is a different matter. Look at us in Egypt: We have Muslims, Christians, Copts and Jews."

And what is Egypt?

Take a look at this translation of their constitution as provided by the Egypt State Information Service (SIS):

Constitution of The Arab Republic of Egypt

 

PART ONE: THE STATE
Article 1
The Arab Republic of Egypt is a democratic state based on citizenship. The Egyptian people are part of the Arab nation and work for the realization of its comprehensive unity.
Article 2
Islam is the religion of the state and Arabic its official language. Principles of Islamic law (Shari'a) are the principal source of legislation.

Oops. ]

 

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Mubarak: Israel canceled Shalit deal at last minute
In exclusive Yedioth Ahronoth interview, Egyptian president blames Jewish state for failure of talks at end of Olmert's tenure as prime minister, which he says led Hamas to toughen its demands. He expresses his confidence, however, that matter will be resolved soon
Ynet

Published: 07.10.09, 07:24
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3744430,00.html

 

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak believes Gilad Shalit will return home soon. Speaking in an exclusive interview to Yedioth Ahronoth correspondent Smadar Peri, published Friday, he blames Israel for the failure of the talks aimed at securing the kidnapped soldier's release which were held at the end of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's tenure.

"You could have finalized the Shalit deal four or five months ago," the Egyptian president says. "A number of conditions were set for a deal and we were already on the verge of finalizing and executing the first stage, but at the last minute you changed your mind at once, and the whole thing died. You caused the other side to toughen its stand and demand more prisoners."

According to Mubarak, whose country is the chief negotiators in Israel's indirect negotiations with Hamas for a prisoner exchange deal, "I really believe the matter is about to be resolved soon, but I cannot commit to an exact date."

And what about Shalit's condition? "As far as I know," the Egyptian president says, "Gilad Shalit's condition is good, he is treated well and is safe and sound. The moment a deal is reached he will be handed over to us in Egypt, until Israel releases all the Palestinian prisoners. When this happens, Shalit will return home."

In the interview, Mubarak also warns Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he will not accept a compromise on a Palestinian recognition of a Jewish state.

"Don't you have Arab citizens in Israel?" he asks. "You want to turn Israel into a Jewish state only? That's very bad. I'm telling you, it's a serious mistake which will harm you.

"A Jewish state will become the target of all terrorists. An open state, on the other hand, is a different matter. Look at us in Egypt: We have Muslims, Christians, Copts and Jews."

Willen de Palestijnen een staat?

Dit artikel gaat vreemdgenoeg niet in op de positie van president Abbas en zijn regering op de Westoever. In mijn ogen heeft ook hij geen afstand genomen van 'de revolutionaire droom van de bevrijding van het gehele land.' Vandaar dat hij weigert om Israel als het nationale thuis van het Joodse volk te erkennen, en vandaar dat hij ieder compromis afwijst en vasthoudt aan het 'recht op terugkeer' van alle nakomelingen van de Palestijnse vluchtelingen, en vandaar dat in door de PA gecontroleerde media geweld tegen Israel wordt verheerlijkt, en ook Abbas dit alleen om taktische redenen zegt af te wijzen.

 

RP
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Ynetnews / July 8, 2009
They don't want a state
Researchers increasingly argue that Palestinians uninterested in statehood

 

by Sever Plocker
Published: 07.08.09, 17:54
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3743297,00.html

 

Do the Palestinians want a state? This question sounds like a provocative one. Isn't it patently clear that the Palestinian national movement aspires to realize its goals by establishing a Palestinian state? Isn't it patently clear that the ethos of political sovereignty has guided the dreams and struggles of the Palestinian people for ages?

  Well, no. It's not patently clear.

More and more Mideast affairs researchers are today willing to respond to the question about whether the Palestinians want a state with a "no."Some of them offer a hesitant "no," while others offer a resounding "no."

In a June 11 New York Review of Books article, written by Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, they two prominent experts argue the following: "Unlike Zionism, for whom statehood was the central objective, the Palestinian fight was primarily about other matters… Today, the idea of Palestinian statehood is alive, but mainly outside of Palestine… A small fraction of Palestinians, mainly members of the Palestinian Authority's elite, saw the point of building state institutions, had an interest in doing so, and went to work. For the majority, this kind of project could not have strayed further from their original political concerns…"

The two experts sum up by arguing that the notion of a Palestinian state is perceived as a foreign import, and as a convenient outlet for foreign elements who interfere with the Palestinian people's independent wishes. They point to the "transformation of the concept of Palestinian statehood from among the more revolutionary to the more conservative."

Moreover, Agha and Malley argue that in the past, when Yasser Arafat seemingly endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state and even threatened to declare its establishment, he did not adopt an unequivocal stance and did not make his intentions clear. Since Arafat's death, the notion of statehood lost the remaining popular support it enjoyed.

The message conveyed in the article is greatly commensurate with the argument presented in the new book published by Benny Morris, the leading historian of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The book, titled One State, Two States (Yale University Press, 2009,) details the notion of "two states for two people" starting with the early stages of Zionism and until today. The conclusion is as follows: The Palestinians never adopted the notion of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state existing alongside Israel, regardless of its borders; similarly, the Palestinians have rejected the notion of a joint bi-national state.

After analyzing the official documents of Fatah, the PLO, and the Palestinian Authority, as well as statements made by Palestinian leaders, Professor Morris concludes that from the very beginning, the Palestinian national movement views Palestine as an Arab and Muslim state in its entirety.

Arafat was the only prominent Palesitnian leader who appeared to modify his original position and aspire for the "two-state solution." In his letter to Yitzhak Rabin dated September 9, 1993, Chairman Arafat recognized the State of Israel's right to exist in peace and security. However, argues Morris, those were empty words, written solely for the pupose of signing the Oslo Accords.

In practice, Arafat's position on the issue of Palestine's partition remained vague and kept on oscillating, while he rejected any practical partition deal, including the format proposed by former President Clinton at Camp David. This could be interpreted (and this is indeed how Prof. Morris interprets it) as the Palestinians reluctance to realize their sovereignty in any acceptable form. By now, this has been complemented by Hamas' complete rejection of Israel and of a Jewish presence in Palestine.

The article written by Agha and Malley, associated with the Left, and Morris' book, on the Right, convey deep pessimism. The Palestinians will not agree to either divide or share the country. They continue to cling to the revolutionary dream of "national liberation," and until this unrealistic liberation materializes, they prefer to exist as a national rather than political entity; one that has no obligations and is always seen as a victim, in its own eyes and in the eyes of the world.

We, who live here within a troublesome reality absent of solutions, can only hope that the learned experts are wrong.

Focus op nederzettingenbouw leidt aandacht af van Hamasbewind in Gaza

Tensions between Obama and Netanyahu have left many Palestinian Authority leaders very happy and hopeful. Their optimism is based on the hope that Obama will force Israel to withdraw to the 1967 borders, including the eastern part of Jerusalem, and expel all the Jewish settlers from the West Bank.

 

Some Palestinian officials in Ramallah seriously believe that Israel will eventually succumb to Obama's demands. As such, they explain, why return to the negotiating table with Israel when the Obama Administration has actually endorsed the Palestinian position and is negotiating with the Netanyahu government on behalf of the Palestinian Authority?

 

Wat de Israelisch-Arabische journalist Khaled Abu Toameh vergeet te noemen is het zogenaamde 'recht op terugkeer' van miljoenen tweede en derde generatie nakomelingen van de Palestijnse vluchtelingen uit 1948. Dit is iets waar Obama het niet mee eens is, al is hij daarover een heel stuk minder duidelijk dan over de nederzettingen.

Het is niet zo vreemd dat sommige Palestijnse leiders zo optimistisch zijn en denken achterover te kunnen leunen totdat Israel aan een serie eisen heeft voldaan. Als Obama echt vooruitgang wil in het vredesproces, zal hij duidelijk moeten maken ook van de Palestijnen een en ander te verwachten.

 

RP

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July 7, 2009 6:30 AM
by Khaled Abu Toameh
Journalist
As Hamas Tightens Its Grip
http://www.hudsonny.org/2009/07/as-hamas-tightens-its-grip.php


As the row between the Obama Administration and the Israeli government over the settlements continues, Hamas is gradually turning the Gaza Strip into a Taliban-style Islamic entity that poses a threat not only to Israel, but also to the Americans, Europeans and moderate Arabs and Muslims.

Both Hamas and its rivals in the Palestinian Authority appear to be satisfied with the fact that the Obama Administration has turned the issue of the settlements into the major problem, shifting attention from the incompetence and corruption in the West Bank and the emergence of the new Islamic state in the Gaza Strip.

The high-profile controversy over Israel's policy of building new homes for Jewish settlements has in fact facilitated Hamas's mission.

Thanks to the Obama Administration's new strategy regarding the Middle East, the entire world now seems to be obsessed with the issue of the settlements as if they were just now being established.

The foreign media is no longer interested in what's happening in the Gaza Strip. Nor are Western governments and international organizations dealing with the Israeli-Arab conflict.

As far as most decision-makers in the US and Europe are concerned, the "natural growth" of the settlements is much more dangerous that the rise of another radical Islamic state in the Middle East.

Hamas feels confident to do whatever it wishes in the Gaza Strip because the Obama Administration and its allies in France, Germany and Britain are too busy arguing with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu whether settlers should be permitted to build new homes or not.

So what if young women in the Gaza Strip are being harassed and arrested by Hamas's "morality police" for laughing in public or leaving their homes without hijabs?

So what if young Palestinian women are banned from swimming unless they are covered from top to bottom? And so what if women are being banned from entering coffee shops and restaurants and other public places unless they are escorted by male relatives?

So what if young men are banned from swimming in the sea topless? And so what if Hamas is now operating a secret police whose job is to separate males from females in public places?

A Palestinian journalist in the Gaza Strip remarked: "The Americans and Europeans are fighting against Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan while Hamas is building a new fundamentalist entity here. The settlements may be an obstacle to peace, but Hamastan will soon become a major threat to stability in the region."

The Palestinian Authority also appears to be happy about the West's obsessions with the settlements.

The Palestinian leadership's handling of the issue of the settlements is extremely hypocritical: Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister, Salaam Fayad, insist on boycotting peace talks with Israel in protest against the ongoing construction in the settlements. But the two did not stay away from the talks when former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni were also building in the settlements.

The construction in the settlements has increased since the signing of the Oslo Accords more than 15 years ago, but that did not stop the Palestinian Authority from pursuing the peace talks with Israel.

Yasser Arafat negotiated with former Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon even while the bulldozers were continuing to build new homes in the settlements.

So what is behind the Palestinian Authority's decision to suspend peace talks with Israel? Have Abbas and Fayad suddenly discovered that the settlements are expanding? The two are waiting for the Obama Administration to deliver.

Tensions between Obama and Netanyahu have left many Palestinian Authority leaders very happy and hopeful. Their optimism is based on the hope that Obama will force Israel to withdraw to the 1967 borders, including the eastern part of Jerusalem, and expel all the Jewish settlers from the West Bank.

Some Palestinian officials in Ramallah seriously believe that Israel will eventually succumb to Obama's demands. As such, they explain, why return to the negotiating table with Israel when the Obama Administration has actually endorsed the Palestinian position and is negotiating with the Netanyahu government on behalf of the Palestinian Authority?

 

 

EU trekt harde uitspraak over nederzettingen in

"An EU official's statement earlier this week that settlements are strangling the Palestinian economy and costing the EU taxpayers money by fostering PA dependency on European aid does not reflect the opinion of the European Commission and was not issued with Brussels' approval, Israel's envoy to the EU was told Wednesday."

 

Opvallend dat men daar pas achterkwam toen de Israelische vertegenwoordiger bij de EU protesteerde.

 

RP

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EU retracts statement on settlements
Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST

Jul. 8, 2009
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443758258&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

 

An EU official's statement earlier this week that settlements are strangling the Palestinian economy and costing the EU taxpayers money by fostering PA dependency on European aid does not reflect the opinion of the European Commission and was not issued with Brussels' approval, Israel's envoy to the EU was told Wednesday.

The envoy, Ran Curiel, met Wednesday in Brussels with a senior European Commission official who distanced himself from the statement, saying it was the initiative of Roy Dickinson, the No. 2 official at the European Commissions Technical Assistance Office in east Jerusalem.

According to the Foreign Ministry, and confirmed by a senior EU diplomat, Curiel was told Dickinson acted on his own initiative, and not according to directives emanating from Brussels.

The positions articulated in the statement do not reflect the position of EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferraro-Waldner, Curiel was told. The European Commission has given instruction to take the statement off of all official EU Web sites.

Wednesday's meeting in Brussels came a day after Foreign Ministry senior deputy director-general Rafi Barak summonsed EU Ambassador Ramiro Cibrian Uzal to the ministry to protest the statement.

According to the senior European Commission official, the unauthorized statement was part of the Technical Assistance Office's attempt to raise its profile and not only deal with aid and technical issues, but also with political ones, something Jerusalem wants to prevent.

Overeenkomst VS en Israel over nederzettingenbouw in de maak

Het zou mooi zijn als er inderdaad binnenkort overeenstemming over is, want dan kunnen zowel de VS als de media hun aandacht op een van de andere obstakels van het Midden-Oosten conflict richten. Of is dergelijke brainwashing van de jonge kindergeest geen probleem? Ook de gematigde Palestijnse Autoriteit van de gematigde president Abbas verheerlijkt nog steeds zelfmoordaanslagen, sorry, 'martelaren operaties'.

 

RP
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The Jerusalem Post
Jul 8, 2009 20:59 | Updated Jul 9, 2009 17:56
US, Israel settlement deal emerging
By HERB KEINON AND GIL HOFFMAN
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443757019&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Israel and the US are moving toward a compromise solution on the settlement issue that might allow both sides to claim "victory," The Jerusalem Post has learned.

According to senior government officials, under this type of solution, Israel would declare a moratorium of a few months on the settlement issue, possibly half a year, while the US would give Israel a green light to complete a still-to-be-determined number of housing units in the settlements that are in advanced stages of construction.

Officials in the Prime Minister's Office would not confirm media reports that work on some 2,500 housing units in the settlements would continue.

Under this type of arrangement, US President Barack Obama would be able to claim a victory in getting Israel to agree to a moratorium on any new housing starts in the settlements, while Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu could claim that he did not agree to a complete freeze, and that housing construction would continue.

In addition, US Mideast envoy George Mitchell would continue efforts to extract normalization gestures from at least some countries in the Arab world.

A State Department spokesman on Wednesday night denied the media reports on the 2,500 housing units.

Israeli officials said that Obama was continuing pushing hard on the settlement issue because of a feeling he needed some breakthrough here to be able to go to the Arab world and build coalitions to help the US deal with mounting problems in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran.

Once agreement is reached on the settlement issue, and the US gets some gestures from the Arab world, the next step would possibly be an event - likely an international conference - where a "to do" list would be presented regarding what needed to be done to move the diplomatic process forward.

This "to do" list, according to one well-placed source, was shaping up as a revamped edition of the road map, with sequential phases and a stronger regional component, meaning that the Arab states would be asked to become involved in the normalization of ties in the early stages, rather than at the end, of the process.

In addition, any new road map would have take into consideration - and deal with in detail - something that did not exist when the original road map was launched in 2003: Hamas control of the Gaza Strip.

Diplomatic sources said that the US, interested in shoring up its relations with Russia, is now much more amenable than in the past to the idea of an international conference in Moscow to launch the new initiative.

The sources said the issue was discussed during Obama's recent visit to Moscow, and that it will also be raised at the G8 meeting that opened Wednesday in Italy.

According to National Security Adviser Uzi Arad, speaking at a Knesset press conference marking Netanyahu's 100th day in office, Netanyahu expects Obama to honor the agreements reached with the Bush administration on West Bank construction,

Arad revealed that ahead of Netanyahu's meeting with Obama in May, the National Security Council prepared reports that articulated the American commitments in great detail. Netanyahu also quizzed his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, in a meeting on Friday about the agreements he had reached with president George W. Bush behind the scenes.

"The problem is that Americans saw the situation from a different perspective than we did and it required convergence that we are working on now," Arad said in response to a question from The Jerusalem Post.

"The US didn't see itself obligated by the agreements. Our demand to respect previous standpoints has necessitated the dialogue with the US continuing to this very day. Israel expects agreements to be honored."

Arad said the policy review period that the Netanyahu and Obama administrations embarked on when the two new leaders took over did not end when they met in Washington and would continue until a framework is agreed on how to proceed on the diplomatic front.

Oplossing Israelisch-Palestijns conflict geen sleutel tot vrede in Midden-Oosten

Ook in Nederland is deze theorie erg in de mode: als het Israelisch-Palestijns conflict is opgelost, haalt dat de angel uit een hoop problemen met moslims, zowel in het Westen als in het Midden-Oosten. Er is weinig echt bewijs voor deze theorie, buiten het feit dat de 'Palesitjnse kwestie' altijd veel woede en emotie oproept bij moslims, meer dan andere conflicten waarin moslims betrokken zijn. Dat betekent echter geenszins dat als het opgelost zou zijn er niet genoeg andere grieven zijn tegenover het Westen.

 

Het Israelisch-Palestijns conflict wordt bovendien door Arabische leiders bewust gebruikt om de woede van binnenlandse problemen af te leiden, en zij zullen zeker naar andere zaken zoeken mocht het opgelost zijn. Ook wordt vergeten dat iedere oplossing die niet de verdwijning van Israel inhoudt (in naam of essentie, namelijk als het nationale thuis voor het Joodse volk), voor veel Arabieren niet bevredigend is. Het bestaan van Israel zelf is een bron van vernedering en frustratie voor velen in de Arabische wereld, enerzijds omdat het laat zien hoe incompetent en achtergebleven de Arabische landen zijn, anderzijds omdat de Arabieren het altijd weg wilden hebben en dat nooit is gelukt - nog een blijk van onvermogen.

 

Het is daarom veeleer andersom: wanneer het zelfvertrouwen in de Arabische wereld toeneemt, men met succes voor vrijheid en meer democratie strijdt, men meer gaat produceren, ook op cultureel gebied, dan zal de haat en nijd tegen Israel afnemen en wordt een oplossing van het conflict met haar een stuk makkelijker.

 

RP

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Dennis Ross debunks the Saunders doctrine: Solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not bring eternal bliss

http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/07/dennis-ross-debunks-saunders-doctrine.html

If this were a policy statement, it would be earth shaking. Keep in mind that Dennis Ross is now in a fairly senior position in the U.S. National Security Council. In this book excerpt, Ross is denouncing the dogma that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will inevitably and magically entrain an end to all problems in the Middle East. The centrality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Middle East peace and stability has been the holy cow of United States policy in the Middle East since 1975, when Harold Saunders enunciated the doctrine. American officials have since been convinced that upon solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is equivalent to the second coming, and will solve all earthly problems in the Middle East. Surprisingly, Ross doesn't mention Sauders.

A declaration like this in a serving U.S. official, would be equivalent to an important rabbi declaring that ham is kosher after all. Of course, this excerpt was written a while ago, and ideas change once you get into office. The fact that Ross is quite correct will make no difference. The doctrine, otherwise known in shorthand as "it's all the fault of the Jews" has an intuitive attractiveness and convenience that make it irresistable. U.S. officials will not be disabused of this notion unless Israel is finally vanquished. Then they will be quite surprised to learn that Arab economies remain backward, that Muslims frown on sexual equality and that the Middle East has no more water than it did before. At present, many US officials are evidently convinced, along with their Arab friends, that all the water in the Middle East is siphoned into West Bank Settlements, where hundreds of thousands of Jews (all from Brooklyn) use it to water their lawns, and that Al-Qaeda is really only angry at the US because of the tiny territory occupied by Israel.

[A.I.]

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

July 8, 2009

Excerpt

'Myths, Illusions, and Peace'

By DENNIS ROSS and DAVID MAKOVSKY

Linkage: The Mother of all Myths

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/books/excerpt-myths-illusions-peace.html

 

Of all the policy myths that have kept us from making real progress in the Middle East, one stands out for its impact and longevity: the idea that if only the Palestinian conflict were solved, all the other Middle East conflicts would melt away. This is the argument of "linkage." Neoconservatives have always rejected it, given their skepticism about Arab intentions and their related belief that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be resolved. While realists have been the most determined purveyors, this myth transcends all others and has had amazing staying power here, internationally, and in the Middle East. In fact, few ideas have been as consistently and forcefully promoted – by laymen, policymakers, and leaders alike.

One need not look too far for examples of linkage's pervasiveness. Note the words of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in early 2008 when, standing next to George W. Bush at a joint press conference following their talks in the Sinai resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh, he recounted their conversation: "I emphasize that the Palestinian question, of course, is the core of problems and conflict in the Middle East, and it is the entry to contain the crisis and tension in the region, and the best means to face what's going on in the world, our region – I mean by that, the escalation of violence, extremism and terrorism."

King Abdullah of Jordan made much the same argument during an interview with an American television network in 2006: "I keep saying Palestine is the core. It is linked to the extent of what's going on in Iraq. It is linked to what's going on in Lebanon."

Not only Middle Eastern leaders see the Palestinian issue at the heart of all other regional problems. Brent Scowcroft, former national security advisor to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, echoed this basic point of view in an essay published in early 2007:

A Vigorously renewed effort to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict could fundamentally change both the dynamics in the region and the strategic calculus of key leaders. Real progress would push Iran into a more defensive posture. Hezbollah and Hamas would lose their rallying principle. American allies like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf states would be liberated to assist in stabilizing Iraq. And Iraq would finally be seen by all as a key country that had to be set right in the pursuit of regional security.

Similarly, the Iraq Study Group, cochaired by James Baker and Lee Hamilton, placed special emphasis on the idea of linkage: "To put it simply, all key issues in the Middle East – the Arab-Israeli conflict, Iraq, Iran, the need for political and economic reforms, and extremism and terrorism – are inextricably linked.

Such bold statements are rarely qualified. In effect, they are guided by a central premise: that ending the Arab-Israeli conflict is prerequisite to addressing the maladies of the Middle East. Solve it, and in doing so conclude all other conflicts. Fail, and instability – even war – will engulf the entire region.

The major problem with this premise is that it is not true. There have been dozens of conflicts and countless coups in the Middle East since Israel's birth in 1948, and most were completely unrelated to the Arab-Israeli conflict. For example, the Iraqi coup of 1958, the Lebanon crisis of 1958, the Yemini civil war of 1962-68 (including subsequent civil wars in the 1980s and '90s), the Iraqi Kurdish revolt of 1974, the Egyptian-Libyan Border War of 1977, the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88, the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91 (including Iraqi Kurdish and Iraqi Shiite revolts of the same year), the Yemeni-Eritrean and Saudi-Yemeni border conflicts of the mid-1990s, and the US-Iraq War, begun in 2003.

Many of these conflicts were long, bloody, and very costly. The Iran-Iraq War alone lasted eight and a half years, cost in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and took between six hundred thousand and one million lives. Yet this conflict, like the others listed above, would have taken place even if the Arab-Israeli conflict had been resolved.

Since the origins of so many regional tensions and rivalries are not connected to the Arab-Israeli conflict, it is hard to see how resolving it would unlock other regional stalemates or sources of instability. Iran, for example, is not pursuing its nuclear ambitions because there is an Arab-Israeli conflict. Sectarian groups in Iraq would not suddenly put aside their internal struggles if the Palestinian issue were resolved. Like so many conflicts in the region, these struggles have their own dynamic.

In addition, as tragic as the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has become, it has not spilled over to destabilize the Middle East. There have been two Palestinian Intifadas, or uprisings, including one that lasted from 2000 to 2005 and claimed the lives of 4,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis – but not a single Arab leader had been toppled or a single regime destabilized as a result. It has remained a local conflict, contained in a small geographical area. Yet the argument of linkage endures to this day, and with powerful promoters. Why does it persist? And why has it been accepted among top policymakers as if it is factually correct?

Reprinted by arrangement with Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from "Myths, Illusions, and Peace" by Dennis Ross and David Makovsky. Copyright © 2009 by Dennis Ross and David Makovsky. 

Oeigoeren zijn geen Tibetanen en geen Palestijnen

De Tibetanen hebben op zijn minst meer aandacht en sympathie dan de Oeigoeren, maar Ami Isseroff heeft gelijk dat dat het nog niet haalt bij de Palestijnen.

Bijna iedereen is het er tegenwoordig over eens dat zij recht hebben op een staat (Waarom hebben zij daar eigenlijk meer recht op dan de Koerden, Tibetanen of Tsjetsjenen?), dat daar ook Oost Jeruzalem toe behoort, een stad die nooit Palestijns is geweest en vanaf eind 19e eeuw al een Joodse meerderheid had, en dat het feit dat ze die staat nog niet hebben de oorzaak is van tal van problemen, variërend van aanslagen wereldwijd en spanningen tussen moslims en het Westen, de populariteit van extremistische groeperingen in het Midden-Oosten, de weigering van veel regimes aldaar om te democratiseren, de steun van sommige regimes aan de opstandelingen in Irak, enz.

 

We vinden het sneu dat de Tibetanen zo worden onderdrukt, maar niemand ervaart ook maar enige urgentie bij het oplossen van dat probleem. De Dalai Lama is sympathiek, maar dan vooral als geestelijk leider die alle geduld van de wereld heeft en altijd verzoenende taal spreekt. Dus daar zouden de Oeigoeren niet zo gek veel mee opschieten. Nee, pas als hun onderdrukking de woede van hun moslimbroeders wereldwijd gaat oproepen kunnen ze misschien iets bereiken.    

 

RP

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Someone else finally noticed the double standard

http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/07/someone-else-finally-noticed-double.html

 

Mona Elthaway got it almost right, but not quite. If the Uighurs were Buddhist they would be in the same sinkhole as a the Tibetans, whom she mistakenly enviews - their land occupied since 1949 with no recourse and no international backing, not UN Department of Tibetan Rights, no Tibet Day, no "Chinesism is Racism" resolution, no Boycott China and Divest from China (are you kidding?) movements. 

 

If only the Palestinians were Uighurs and Israel was China. Or if only Israel was Sudan and the Palestinians were Darfurians. Or if only the Palestinians were Basques and Israel was Spain, or if only the Palestinians were native Americans and Israel was the United States...

 

[A.I.]

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

 

If Only the Uighurs were Buddhist and China was Israel

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mona-eltahawy/if-only-the-uighurs-were_b_228125.html

 

 

NEW YORK - Pity the Uighurs - the wrong kind of minority, the wrong kind of Muslims, fighting the wrong kind of enemy.

 

For years, Uighurs - a Turkic people who are largely Muslim - complained of economic, cultural and religious discrimination under the harsh fist of Beijing. The latter made sure the Uighurs were outnumbered in the western Xinxiang province by Han Chinese migrants.

 

In the worst ethnic unrest in China in years, Uighurs took to the streets of the provincial capital Urumqi on Sunday, apparently after a protest at government handling of a June clash between Han Chinese and Uighur factory workers in southern China, where two Uighurs died.

 

At least 156 people died in weekend riots.

 

The Chinese government quickly blamed exiled separatists and Muslim militant groups, arrested dozens and tried to curb information by stifling the internet. On Tuesday, Han Chinese armed with iron bars and machetes went looking for revenge on Uighurs.

 

Following the news that did make it out of Xinxiang, I thought if only the Uighurs were Buddhists like the Tibetans with whom the Uighurs share almost mirror grievances against Beijing.

 

If they were Buddhists, Bjork, Sting, Bono and all those other one-named saviors of the world's poor and oppressed would have held "Free Xinxiang" concerts already. But the West continues to largely ignore the Uighurs. Maybe they're not as cuddly as the Tibetans or their leader the Dalai Lama.

 

Perhaps the U.S. State Department would issue stronger words in their defense if only the Uighurs weren't the wrong kind of minority in a country that produces half the goods we use and which currently lends the wobbly global economy enough money to keep it just this side of total collapse.

 

The Uighurs aren't Buddhists but are instead Muslims and us Muslims don't get much love these days. You'd think the U.S. at least would be paying a bit more attention to Uighurs after locking up four of their brethren at the prison camp at Guantanamo without charge for seven years. They were released earlier this year to Bermuda.

 

If the West seems deaf to Uighur complaints, then where are their fellow Muslims? Surely this is a chance for Muslims across the world to march in protest at the stranglehold the godless Communist Chinese keep over the Uighurs?

 

Think again.

 

The Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas put it bluntly on the micro-blogging site Twitter - where thousands follow him - when he asked why no one was paying attention to the Uighur "intifada", the Arabic word for uprising that is usually associated with Palestinians fighting back against Israeli occupation.

 

That's precisely the problem - the Uighurs are no Palestinians and the Chinese are not Israel. Many Muslims - Arab Muslims especially - pay attention only when the U.S. and Israel are behaving badly. Palestine followed by Iraq always take precedence leaving little room for other Muslim grievances.

 

Look at Darfur, where the suffering goes ignored because those who are creating the misery are neither Americans nor Israelis but instead fellow Arab Muslim Sudanese.

 

China is coincidentally one of Sudan's biggest trade partners and sells Khartoum plenty of weapons which Darfuris complain are used against them. So it's unlikely Sudanese President Omar Bashir, who declared himself the guardian of Islam in 2007 by putting on trial a British teacher for insulting Muslims when she named a class teddy bear "Mohammed", will condemn Chinese oppression of Uighurs.

 

Perhaps Israel can save the day and invade Xinxiang.

 

Xinxiang and its Muslim inhabitants are almost complete unknowns in the Arab world, much to China's relief, I'm sure. During a visit in 1995 to attend the United Nations conference on women in Beijing, I tried to visit Xinxiang. But not a singly airline office would sell a ticket to a "radical lesbians", as conference attendees were seen. No "restive regions" for us.

 

Further afield from the Arab world, Shaaz Mahboob, a British Muslim friend of Pakistani descent, wondered on Facebook "Where are the Pakistani emotions which rage whenever there is an issue to do with Muslims anywhere on this planet (thank God there aren't Muslims being persecuted on the Moon or Mars - yet!)?"

 

He asked Imran Khan, the former Pakistani cricket superstar, and other Pakistanis who have supported militant groups why "they would not even support the militant Uighur groups who have allegedly initiated this chain of violence?

 

"They remain mysteriously silent over the plight of Chinese fellow Muslim.. Or is it that the "friendship" with China takes precedence over helping fellow Muslims this time?"

 

As I said - wrong enemy.

 

The Chinese government quickly boosted security to crush Sunday's Uighur uprising and arrested dozens of men, leaving many women to demonstrate on Tuesday, waving their the identity cards of male relatives they say were arbitrarily detained.

 

Those women just might be the Uighurs' best hope of getting the world's attention. Or at least one of them and no, I don't mean Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled Uighur businesswoman and activist whom Beijing blames for orchestrating the violence from her home in the U.S.

 

Reuters' photographer David Gray took a picture of a lone Uighur woman in a headscarf leaning on a crutch and facing off with two Chinese security vehicles behind which stood dozens of security personnel.

 

It was reminiscent both of the picture of the lone Chinese student facing off with the tanks in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and of the ubiquitous images of Iranian women from that country's recent demonstrations,

 

So now they have an iconic image, here's hoping the Uighurs start to register on our radar.

 

 

Tomorrow's Pioneers (Hamas TV) indoctrineert kinderen van zelfmoordterroriste

Hamas TV heeft weer een mooie wijze les voor de kleintjes, en in plaats van mee te leven met het feit dat deze kinderen hun moeder zo jong hebben verloren, worden ze gedwongen naar een video te kijken waarop de dood van hun moeder wordt nagespeeld en verheerlijkt.
Daarna geeft de presentatrice het volgende commentaar voor de jonge kijkertjes:

"These are the children of the Shahida [Martyr], the heroic Jihad fighter who sacrificed all that she had for the sake of her homeland. She cared less about her own flesh and blood, and for their sake, she sacrificed [herself] for Allah...
We say to the occupier, that we will continue in the footsteps of the Shahida, the Jihad fighter Reem Riyashi, until we liberate our homeland from your hands, usurper."

RP

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

 

Bulletin
July 9, 2009

Palestinian Media Watch

Suicide bomber's children shown re-enactment of mother's death on Hamas TV kids' show
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik


The Hamas TV children's program Tomorrow's Pioneers produced a special broadcast in which the two young children of a female suicide terrorist were invited to the TV studio to watch a video re-enactment of their mother's suicide bombing. The terrorist, Reem Riyashi, killed four Israelis in a suicide bombing in 2004.

Click here to view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XELcNMhkKCo

Calling the terrorist a "Martyr," the bear puppet and star of the program, Nassur, introduces Riyashi's children to the other children in the studio:
"[Our guests are] the children of the Shahida [Martyr] Reem Riyashi."
Then Muhammad and Duha, the young son and daughter of Riyashi, together with the children in the studio, watch a music video re-enactment of their mother's suicide bombing. While the video is shown, the TV camera shows close-ups of Riyashi's children as they stare at the screen images of their mother's bombing and death.

 

The re-enactment:
An actress representing Riyashi is shown preparing a bomb in front of a child actress representing her daughter. The daughter follows her mother around and sings:
   "Mommy, what are you carrying in your arms instead of me? A toy or a present for me?"
Mother Riyashi does not answer and soon is seen leaving home while the daughter sings:
   "Come back quickly, Mommy."
The actress-daughter then sees the TV report of her mother's suicide bombing, and sings to her dead mother:
   "Instead of me you carried a bomb in your hands. Only now I know what was more precious than us."
As the daughter sings this revelation in the re-enactment video, the TV camera in the studio shifts for a moment to a close-up of Riyashi's son staring at the video of his mother. Then the camera goes back to the video, showing his mother with the Israeli soldiers, who all suddenly disappear in the smoke of the massive explosion of her bomb.
The broadcast of the video re-enactment stops before the end of the full music video, and the camera returns to the children in the studio.
 
Child hostess Saraa summarizes for the children and viewers:

 

"These are the children of the Shahida [Martyr], the heroic Jihad fighter who sacrificed all that she had for the sake of her homeland. She cared less about her own flesh and blood, and for their sake, she sacrificed [herself] for Allah...
We say to the occupier, that we will continue in the footsteps of the Shahida, the Jihad fighter Reem Riyashi, until we liberate our homeland from your hands, usurper."

 

Click here to view this Hamas children's show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XELcNMhkKCo

 

PMW note: In the full music video re-enactment, the daughter promises to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a suicide terrorist, and the video ends as the daughter opens her mother's drawer and picks up a stick of dynamite. The full video has been broadcast regularly on Hamas TV from 2007 through 2009.

Click here to view the complete Hamas music video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy8fbkOHMKU

Two years ago, Hamas TV interviewed terrorist Reem Riyashi's two children about their mother's suicide attack, discussing with the children how many Jews their mother had killed.

Click here to view the interview with Riyashi's children:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdG3PZndV_4

The following is the transcript of the 2007 interview with Riyashi's children on Hamas TV:

 

Interviewer: "We are now going to the two children of Reem Riyashi, the Martyrdom-seeker, and Jihad fighter [mother of] Duha and Muhammad. Duha, do you love Mommy? Where did Mommy go?"
Duha: "To Paradise"
Interviewer: "What did Mommy do?"
Duha: "Became a Shahida [Martyr]."
Interviewer: "She killed Jews, right?
How many did she kill, Muhammad?"
Muhammad: "What?"
Interviewer: "How many Jews did she kill?"
Muhammad: "Five."
[Al Aqsa TV (Hamas), March 8, 2007]

 

============================= 
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

 

Hoe tijdelijk is bevriezing nederzettingenbouw?

 

Onderstaande analyse van Aaron Lerner bevat zeker een kern van waarheid, maar de vraag is hoe erg dat is. Als de bevriezing van de nederzettingen leidt tot Arabische/Palestijnse concessies, zal het inderdaad moeilijk worden om de bouw weer te hervatten. Als het echter slechts tot verharding leidt, en Abbas achterover leunt totdat Israel aan alle Palestijnse eisen heeft voldaan, dan kan de regering Netanjahoe met enig recht de bouw hervatten. En dat weten de Palestijnen ook. Vandaar dat het niet persé oneerlijk is van een 'tijdelijke bevriezing' te spreken, ook al wordt die misschien wel permanent.
Er was overigens een afspraak tussen Israel en de VS, waarin Israel onder bepaalde voorwaarden op beperkte schaal mocht blijven bouwen.

 

Niet alleen Begin stemde toe in een tijdelijke bevriezing van de bouw in de nederzettingen, ook Rabin deed dat, met uitzondering van Jeruzalem. Het is niet duidelijk of Oost-Jeruzalem ook nu uitgezonderd zal blijven. Voor de Israelische wet staat het los van de Westoever, maar volgens de VN en ook de VS heeft het dezelfde status, en zij hebben Israels annexatie ervan nooit erkend.

RP

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

Weekly Commentary:

No confidence a temporary freeze would be temporary

Dr. Aaron Lerner

Date: 9 July 2009

 

In the absence of an official written statement released by U.S. President Obama setting a clear unconditional time limit to a "temporary" settlement freeze it is reasonable to expect that any "temporary" freeze the Netanyahu team agrees to could very well become permanent.

There is every reason to expect the Obama team, given their track record to date, to insist that conditions have been met to extend the freeze.

And if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu feels that the pressure today forces him to agree to a "temporary" freeze there is every reason in the world to expect the White House to turn the screws even tighter to extend it.

And then the very same "senior Israeli officials" who no doubt will swear in background briefings that the freeze is temporary will then dutifully explain the decision to extend the freeze.

After all, once the freeze is in place there will always be more than enough reasons to justify extending it:

- Relations are good with the Obama administration, why harm them by renewing construction?

- Relations are strained with the Obama administration, why make things worse by renewing construction?

[The above two arguments have been used for years, by the way, by prime ministers explaining why they decline to seriously act for Jonathan Pollard's release - relations are either too good or too bad.]

- Progress is being made with the Palestinians, why undermine them by renewing construction?

- The impasse with the Palestinians would be exacerbated by a renewal of construction, plunging the area into crisis and conflict as "moderate" Abbas would be forced by the move to support "resistance" in order to maintain his "legitimacy".

And the list goes on.


Yes, PM Menachem Begin agreed to a temporary freeze.

But, then again, confusion over its details lead to a crisis with Washington.

And while no U.S. administration has ever accepted the legitimacy of settlement construction, this one has apparently decided that of all the problems in the world - from nuclear Korea and Iran to Darfur and beyond - the greatest international problem facing the United States today is settlement construction.

Yes, the pressure is great.

But please don't insult our intelligence with assurances that a freeze is "temporary".

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

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il

Enquete over regering Netanjahoe na 100 dagen

Het Israëlische publiek is (als altijd) sterk verdeeld, en de nieuwe coalitie is niet erg populair. Ook Livni's prestaties als oppositieleider worden nogal negatief beoordeeld.

 

RP

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

 

Shvakim Panorama Poll: Rating Netanyahu Administration after 100 days
Dr. Aaron Lerner

Date 9 July 2009

Telephone poll of a representative sample

of 516 adult Israelis (including Arab Israelis)

carried out by Shvakim Panorama

for Israel Radio's Hakol Diburim (It's All Talk)

on 8 July and broadcast on 9 July 2009.
www.iba.org.il/bet/Doc/DOC485249.pdf

 

After 100 days for the Netanyahu administration what grade from 1 to 10 do you give for:
Government's performance: 5.4
PM Netanyahu's performance 5.6
Livni's performance as leader of the opposition: 4.9
DM Barak 6.0
FM Lieberman 5.4
Finance Minister Steinitz 4.5

How do you feel towards Binyamin Netanyahu?
Very favorable 6.3% Favorable 33.9% Middle 22.6%
unfavorable 15.5% Very unfavorable 20.6%
Don't know/No Reply 1.1%

How do you feel about the Likud party?
Very favorable 6.7% Favorable 29.2% Middle 27.6%
Unfavorable 17.0% Very unfavorable 18.2%
DK/NR 1.3%

How do you feel about Livni?
Very favorable 4.6% Favorable 30.6% Middle 29.0%
Unfavorable 17.0% Very unfavorable 16.0%
DK/NR 2.9%

How do you feel about the Kadima Party?
Very favorable 2.6% Favorable 23.3% Middle 27.2%
Unfavorable 24.3% Very unfavorable 20.9%
DK/NR 1.6%

How do you feel about Ehud Barak?
Very favorable 3.4% Favorable 34.2% Middle 31.0%
Unfavorable 14.5% Very unfavorable 13.1%
DK/NR 3.9%

How do you feel about the Labor Party?
Very favorable 0.6% Favorable 16.6% Middle 24.8%
Unfavorable 21.7% Very unfavorable 30.3%
DK/NR 6.0%

How do you feel about Avigdor Lieberman?
Very favorable 9.7% Favorable 28.6% Middle 19.2%
Unfavorable 13.6% Very unfavorable 25.8%
DK/NR 3.1%

How do you feel about the Yisrael Beiteinu Party?
Very favorable 7.7% Favorable 28.3% Middle 22.3%
Unfavorable 11.7% Very unfavorable 24.6%
DK/NR 5.4%

Summary Favorable:Negative
40%:36% Netanyahu
36%:35% Likud
35%:33% Livni
26%:45% Kadima
38%:28% Barak
17%:52% Labor
38%:39% Lieberman
36%:36% Yisrael Beiteinu

==================
Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il

Israel neemt maatregelen om reisbeperkingen op Westoever te verminderen

 

Over de checkpoints en roadblocks doen veel cijfers de ronde. In het Acht Uur Journaal van gisteren beweerde Sander van Hoorn dat er volgens Israel nog 16 checkpoints zijn binnen de Westoever, maar volgens de VN zijn dat er vier keer zoveel. Uiteraard legde hij daarna heel 'objectief' uit waarom de cijfers van de VN de juiste zijn. Volgens onderstaand bericht zijn er echter nog maar 14 checkpoints over op de Westoever, en 504 'dirt roadblocks'. Israel heeft zo'n 140 roadblocks weggehaald en '422 crossings' ten oosten van Qalqilya. Het zou handig zijn als men een precieze definitie van een en ander zou geven. Checkpoints zijn bemand, maar sommige controleren ieder voertuig en passagier en andere doen alleen incidentele controles, sommige zijn permanent open en andere niet, etc. Roadblocks sluiten een weg af voor autoverkeer, maar soms zijn daar zijpaden ontstaan. Wat met de crossings bij Qalqilya wordt bedoeld is me niet duidelijk; zijn dat ook roadblocks? Waarom staat dat er dan niet? En waar staan die 14 checkpoints? Een paar worden bij naam genoemd, maar waar staan de andere?

Overigens zijn checkpoints in oorlogsgebied doodnormaal; het blad van de Nederlandse veteranen heet meen ik zelfs 'Checkpoint'. In Afghanistan, in Irak, in Pakistan en vele andere gebieden heeft het leger checkpoints ingericht om de bewegingsvrijheid van gewapende strijders en terroristen te hinderen. In gebied dat door de rebellen wordt gecontroleerd hebben zij checkpoints opgericht.

 

RP

 

Eerder bericht: Israel en VN oneens over aantal checkpoints

 

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

Easing of Restrictions in Judea and Samaria in 2009

9 July 2009

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/Behind+the+Headlines/Easing-of-Restrictions-in-Judea-and-Samaria-in-2009-09-Jul-2009

 

The government of Israel recently decided to take measures aimed at easing restrictions in Judea and Samaria, which, it is hoped, will have a positive influence on the daily lives and routines of the Palestinian population and invigorate the Palestinian economy.

Some of the measures taken to ease restrictions on the Palestinian population were implemented over the past two years. However, they have been accelerated during the past three months, since the new government took office.

Within the framework of the easing of security measures, the scope of activity of the Palestinian security forces was expanded. Permission was granted to open twelve new Palestinian police stations in Area B, and the scope of activity of the existing police stations was also increased. This is in addition to the permission to open 20 new Palestinian police stations that was granted last year.

In the civil-humanitarian realm, improvements include the extension of entry permits to Israel for chronic patients and their escorts for the purpose of medical treatment, as well as for medical students doing their internship in Israeli hospitals, from three months to six months.

During the last two years, but increasingly during the past three months, two thirds out of the forty-one check points have been removed. Currently, only fourteen remain in operation. For example, the A-ram checkpoint, located south of Ramallah has been removed, thus permitting free movement of vehicles and pedestrians; the Beit Iba checkpoint in Samaria was removed in March 2009. To prevent the passage of potential terrorists from Nablus, a new vehicular checkpoint was set up near Dir Sharaf village, northwest of Nablus, where only spot checks are carried out; two roadblocks, one next to Ras Karkar village, and the second near Eyn Yabrud village, were removed. The removal of these roadblocks allows free passage of vehicles between Ramallah and the villages to the east and west. The removal of the Rimonim checkpoint, located to the east of Ramallah, allows movement between Ramallah and the Jordan Valley, and the removal of the Bir-Zeyt checkpoint, located north of Ramallah, allows swift passage between Ramallah and the villages to the north. The removal of the Hableh roadblock south of Qalqilya, allowing movement between the city and the villages to the south;

Additional measures adopted include the opening of 422 crossings east of Qalqilya, to free movement of Palestinian vehicles between Qalqilya and the villages to the east, extending the working hours of the Haviot checkpoint, northwest of Nablus, to 24 hours a day, to improve the movement of Nablus area residents, extending the working hours of the Asira a-Shamalya checkpoint, north of Nablus, to 24 hours a day, opening of the Vered Yericho crossing, north of Jericho, which will allows free movement between the Jericho vicinity and the Jordan Valley for both vehicles and pedestrians, and the extension of the working hours of the Hawara checkpoint, south of Nablus, to 24 hours a day, with vehicular spot checks. The Hawara checkpoint is the main one in the Nablus vicinity and the easing of restrictions there allows swift passage from the city to all parts of Judea and Samaria.

An additional major measure adopted was aimed at improving the passage of Palestinian public figures and businessmen. Fifteen hundred permits have been issued to public officials, allowing them to pass through the Israeli crossings into Israel. This is a very significant move aimed at improving the quality of life of these individuals, who are the prime movers of the Palestinian economy in Judea and Samaria.

The aforementioned roadblock removals are in addition to about 140 roadblocks that were opened to traffic in the past year in order to increase the civilian Palestinian population's freedom of movement throughout Judea and Samaria. The decision to open checkpoints was made following an assessment of the situation by Central Command and as part of the plan to ease restrictions that was approved by the political echelon.

Today, in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley, there are 504 dirt roadblocks and 14 checkpoints. IDF will continue to act according to decisions made by the political echelon, in accordance with security assessments.  These actions are meant to further ease the routine life of the Palestinian population in Judea and Samaria, while continuously fighting terror and maintaining the safety of the citizens of the State of Israel.

PA president Abbas was niet Palestina (Israel) uitgezet in 1948

Mahmoud Abbas werd geboren in 1935 in Safed, een van de 4 heilige steden in het jodendom, waar van oudsher ook Joden hebben gewoond voor zover ze niet verdreven waren, zoals tijdens verschillende pogroms. Abbas vluchtte met zijn familie en andere Arabieren tijdens de Israëlische onafhankelijkheidsoorlog toen Safed door de Haganah werd belegerd. Hij kan dus wel als vluchteling gelden maar niet als verdrevene.

Vanaf de jaren '50 was hij aktief betrokken bij Fatah en andere Palestijnse strijdgroepen en later de PLO. Er was toen nog geen bezetting, ze vochten tegen het Israël binnen de grenzen van 1949.

 

De bron van onderstaand bericht is Arutz7, een behoorlijk rechtse Israelische omroep die zich beroept op een Palestijnse zender. Vooral de verwijzing naar Joan Peters op het eind is dubieus. Haar boek over de bevolking van Israel/Palestina in vroeger eeuwen geeft een -zacht uitgedrukt- vertekend beeld. Dat neemt niet weg dat de voorouders van Abbas best van elders gekomen kunnen zijn: het was een komen en gaan van mensen op dit kruispunt tussen 3 continenten.

 

Wouter

_______________

 

 

PA President Mahmoud Abbas was not expelled from Palestine in 1948

http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/07/pa-president-mahmoud-abbas-was-not.html

 

The fact that the family of Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority was never expelled from Safed or Palestine must be obvious, though it is interesting that he admits it. It must be true because during the Israel War of Independence, when Safed was captured by the Haganah on the night of May 10, 1948, all the Arabs fled, and none were there when the Haganah forces entered in the morning. The Arabs of Safed had harbored soldiers of the Arab Liberation Army of Fawzi el Kaukji, and had a long history of pogroms against the Jews, dating back to 1834. (see Safed Plunder -1834, Palestine riots and Massacres of 1929 , Arab Uprising). Of course, that does not mean he was not a refugee. Sudetens Germans who were expelled from Czechoslovakia in 1945 for their role in the German conquest of Czechoslovakia were also "refugees." But belligerents who are expelled for belligerent activities do not have much of a claim as refugees.  (A.I.)

 

 

PA Chief Abbas: We Left Galilee on Our Own

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/132257

by Hillel Fendel

 

(IsraelNN.com) Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas says the Arabs of the Galilee city of Tzfat left in 1948 not because they were driven out, but on their own volition.

 

Many biographies of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas imply that his family became "refugees" because of the War of Independence in 1948. For instance, a BBC profile on Abbas when he succeeded Yasser Arafat as PLO chairman in 2005 writes, "In the light of his origins in Safed in Galilee - in what is now northern Israel - he is said to hold strong views about the right of return of Palestinian refugees." Answers.com states, "As a result of the Arab-Israel War of 1948, he became a refugee." Wikipedia articles on the topic say the same – all giving the impression that the Abbas family was driven out and became homeless.
It is notable that the Abbas family moved back to Damascus, as that is likely the place where it had originated less than 90 years earlier.

 

However, Abbas himself – co-founder of Fatah with Arafat, and known as Abu Mazen - now tells a different story. Speaking with Al-Palestinia TV on Monday, Abbas admitted that his family was not expelled or driven out, but rather left for fear that the Jews might take revenge for the slaughter of 20 Jews in the city during the Arab pogroms of 19 years earlier.

 

In the words of Abbas:

 

"I am among those who were born in the city of Tzfat (Safed). We were a family of means. I studied in elementary school, and then came the naqba [calamity, namely, the founding of the State of Israel – ed.]. At night, we left by foot from Tzfat, to the Jordan River, where we remained for a month. Then we went to Damascus, and then to our relatives in Jordan, and then we settled in Damascus.

 

"My father had money, and he spent his money systematically, and after a year, the money ran out and we began to work.

 

"The people's basic motives brought them to run away for their lives and with their property. These [motives] were very important, for they feared the violence of the Zionist terrorist organizations – and especially those of us from Tzfat felt that there was an old desire for revenge from the rebellion of 1929, and this was in the memory of our families and parents."

 

The "rebellion" Abbas referred to was a series of brutal Arab attacks on Jewish towns in the summer of 1929. Nearly 70 Jews were slaughtered in their homes in Hevron, 20 in Tzfat, 17 in Jerusalem, and others were murdered in Motza, Kfar Uriah and Tel Aviv.

 

The memory of the slaughter, Abbas said, "brought [our families] to understand that the military balance had changed, and that [we] no longer had military forces in their real meaning. There were only young people who fought, and there was an initial action. They felt that the balance of power had collapsed and they therefore decided to leave. The entire city was abandoned based on this thought – the thought of their property and saving themselves."

Return to Roots - in Damascus
It is notable that the Abbas family moved back to Damascus, as that is likely the place where it had originated less than 90 years earlier. Joan Peters, in her scholarly work "From Time Immemorial" on the Arab population of Israel, writes that in 1860, "Algerian tribes moved from Damascus en masse to Safed." She notes that the Muslims in the city were mostly descended from Moorish settlers and from Kurds – more evidence negating the claim that the Arabs in the Land of Israel had been there "from time immemorial."

PA veiligheidstroepen waren ruggegraad van Intifada terreur

 

De nu door de VS getrainde Palestijnse veiligheidstroepen waren de 'helden' van de Palestijnse terreur tegen Israelische burgers tijdens de tweede intifada. Dat zeggen niet rechtse haviken uit Israel, maar een minister van de Palestijnse Autoriteit, nou ja, niet in die woorden maar het komt erop neer. Een mooi voorbeeld van geslaagde reclassering of een bedreiging voor de toekomst?

 

Wouter
___________________

Bulletin July 7, 2009

Palestinian Media Watch
PA boasts of past terror attacks by security forces currently being trained by the US
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik


This week Israel approved the transfer of 1,000 AK-47 rifles to the Palestinian Authority security forces that are being trained by American Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton. This comes at the same time as former PA Minister of Prisoners, Ashraf al-Ajrami, is honoring these very same PA security forces for being the backbone of Palestinian terror during the five-year Terror War (Intifada).

Defending these soldiers, whom Hamas mockingly calls "Dayton Forces," the PA minister gloated that they carried out "the greatest and most important operations [terror attacks]" in the war. Moreover, he also taunted Hamas for not immediately joining the Fatah forces in their war in 2000.

The PA takes pride in its "Intifada" in which more than 1,000 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed by the PA (Fatah) and Hamas from 2000-2005. Depicting murder and suicide terror by the PA security forces as a sign of honor sends a clear signal to Palestinians: These PA forces, currently being trained by the US, are not to be mocked because they could be the backbone of the next war against Israel.

The following are the words of the former PA Minister of Prisoners Ashraf al-Ajrami:

"Now they [Hamas] are speaking [disparagingly] about the [PA's security forces, calling them] 'Dayton Forces.' These [security] forces paid the heavy price in the second Intifada, both as Shahids [Martyrs] and as prisoners. The greatest number of prisoners is from the security forces sector. They are the ones who bore arms and carried out the greatest and most important operations [terror attacks] against the Israeli occupation - and especially against soldiers, and some of the most famous operations [terror attacks] in the West Bank - Ein-Arik, Wadi Al-Haramiyeh, Sorda, and others. These were carried out by the heroes of the Palestinian security forces, who protected the homeland and the national interest, while Hamas merely looked on for many months before embarking [on terrorist attacks]."
[PA TV, June 29, 2009]

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

Palestinian Media Watch:
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Obama is streng tegen Israel maar soft tegen Egypte

Ik ben het grotendeels wel eens met onderstaand betoog, al vind ik het niet geheel onterecht dat Obama zo op de nederzettingen hamert. Hij zou daarnaast vooral ook meer en fellere kritiek op de opruiing, 'recht op terugkeer' etc. moeten uiten.

 

RP

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The Jerusalem Post
Jul 6, 2009 7:58 | Updated Jul 6, 2009 16:02
Obama: Hard on Israel, soft on Egypt
By MICHAEL M. ROSEN
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443728807&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Quick, name the two largest recipients of American foreign aid.

If you guessed Israel and Egypt, you'd be correct. Since 1997, the US has provided between $2 billion and $3 billion dollars annually to Israel and between $1b. and $2b. to Egypt, accounting for about a third of its total foreign aid budget.

But while the US enjoys a friendly relationship with both countries, a yawning gap has opened recently between the treatment President Barack Obama's administration has bestowed on Jerusalem and its advances to Cairo.

Much has already been written about Obama's general tendency to express forceful disagreement with American allies while reserving judgment about (some would say coddling) bona fide enemies, like the tyrannical Iranian regime or Hugo Chavez's virtual dictatorship in Venezuela.

But nowhere is the contrast clearer between the State Department's pressure on democratic governments and its timidity around despotic ones than in its respective approaches to Israel and Egypt.

Jerusalem Post readers need little reminder of the slights, both petty and large, that the American administration has inflicted on the Jewish state in the five months it has been in power.

From preventing media coverage of President Shimon Peres's White House visit, to grudgingly sending Vice President Joseph Biden to deliver a lukewarm address at the AIPAC conference, to demanding Israel's recognition of a Palestinian state (with nothing in return), to insisting on a complete, immediate freeze to settlement growth, the contrast with president George W. Bush's staunchly pro-Israel positions is self evident.

IN FACT, on the settlements, even earnest peace processors like Aaron David Miller have criticized Obama for overemphasizing them, calling them a "distraction." At a recent forum in a Washington-area synagogue, Miller, who participated in the 2000 Camp David negotiations, argued that "given the stakes and reality, we are going to need a relationship with Israel of great intimacy in order to do this. We need to think very carefully about how we're going about it."

And James Kirchick, an assistant editor of the (liberal) New Republic, observed that during Obama's much-ballyhooed Cairo speech to "the Muslim world," the president "only criticized one state by name, earning him more applause than any other part of his remarks. What was it? A critique of Israel's settlements policy."

So it's hardly surprising, given Washington's current obsession with preventing the addition of guest-rooms in Ma'aleh Adumim, that only 6 percent of Jewish Israelis consider Obama "pro-Israel." But what's surely more surprising is Obama's outright abandonment of human rights and democracy concerns when it comes to Israel's neighbor to the south.

EGYPT HAS CONSISTENTLY earned dismal rankings from Freedom House, the independent NGO that annually evaluates every county's level of freedom. Calling Egypt "not free" and awarding it political rights and civil liberties scores of six and five out of 10, respectively, Freedom House derided President Hosni Mubarak's "suppression of journalists' freedom of expression, repression of opposition groups and the passage of constitutional amendments that hinder the judiciary's ability to balance against executive excess." (By contrast, Israel earned a "free" ranking and political rights and civil liberties scores of one and two, respectively.)

Bush, like his predecessors, considered making foreign aid to Egypt contingent on liberal reforms to Mubarak's largely illiberal regime - a step urged by Egyptian democracy activists. While the US never formally withheld aid on these grounds, the threat alone likely prevented further human rights abuses and gave succor to brave Egyptians standing up for reforms.

But within months of assuming her position, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an Egyptian television anchor that "conditionality is not our policy." The US ambassador to Egypt also announced an end to funding of civil-society groups in Egypt in an effort to curry favor with Mubarak.

During a May press conference with Egyptian democracy activists in Washington (presumably, meeting with them in Cairo would have proven too "controversial"), Clinton paid brief lip service to the importance of democracy and human rights, then swiftly moved to discussing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and Egyptian economic development.

This was followed shortly thereafter by Obama's Cairo speech, in which he did, to his credit, mention the universal desire for freedom, but then, it typical Obaman fashion, applied an important caveat: "Each nation gives life to this principle in its own way, grounded in the traditions of its own people. America does not presume to know what is best for everyone." While this bromide sounds innocent enough, it sends a clear signal to Mubarak, and all authoritarian rulers, that the US will not press them, even gently, to liberalize further.

And as Joshua Muravchik observes in the July/August issue of Commentary, these words were delivered in an auditorium at Cairo's Al-Azhar University, which admits into its precincts no non-Muslims, including the nearly 20% of the Egyptian population that is Christian. So much for promoting religious tolerance.

Thus, despite Israel's and Egypt's geographical proximity and comparable consumption of US foreign aid, the Obama administration has strongly pressured the former while indulging the latter. Pity the reverse isn't true.

 

The writer is an attorney in San Diego, California.

 

Palestijnse aanvallen tegen Israel gedaald tot 38 in Juni

Positief nieuws!
Of dit het gevolg is van de Gaza Oorlog of toeval of stilte voor de storm of een teken van matiging aan Palestijnse kant of nog een andere reden, is anyone's guess. Of dit lang zal duren is natuurlijk zeer de vraag, maar het kan helpen om het vastgelopen vredesproces weer op te starten.

RP
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Drop in terror attacks continues, 38 in June from 580 in January
Shin Bet figures indicate volume of attacks is continuing to drop in months after Operation Cast Lead. Only 38 incidents recorded in June compared to 580 in January. Military acknowledges achievement, but warns against complacency

 

Hanan Greenberg - YNET

Published: 07.06.09, 22:28
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3742449,00.html

 

Not a single Israeli citizen was wounded in a terror attack within Israel or the territories over the course of the past month, a first for 2009. According to data released by the Shin Bet, the decline in terror incidents in the West Bank and the Gaza border is the lowest it's been since Operation Cast Lead.

According to the figures, January (the month of the IDF's extensive operation against Hamas in Gaza) saw no less than 580 terror-related attacks. In February and March the numbers dropped to around 120 a month.

Most of the incidents in the West Bank were less elaborate than those on the Gaza border, youths hurling Molotov cocktails or rocks at vehicles rather than organized terror groups launching Qassam rockets and mortar shells, planting explosive devices near the border, anti-tank fire, and small-arms fire.

In April there were 69 terror-related incidents, and in May there were 51. During these months there was an average of 10-20 Qassam rocket attacks from Gaza.

In June the numbers dropped even further, with a record-low of 38 incidents - 22 in the West Bank and 16 in Gaza. Furthermore, not a single Israeli citizen was wounded during this month.

"We see this as an achievement," a military official told Ynet, "particularly the fact that there were no casualties on our side, but we must not succumb to complacency because the terror groups are still highly motivated to carry out attacks. So the troops' efforts must continue."

The official said that terror groups in Gaza have an interest in only lowering the volume of attacks rather than stopping them completely. In the West Bank he attributed to the drop to the IDF's activity as well as the calm in Palestinian areas.

Syrië wil Golan op een gouden schaal krijgen

De gehele Golanhoogte is maar 19 jaar in Syrische handen geweest, van 1948 tot 1967. In 1919 is een deel nogal toevallig bij Syrië gevoegd, en in 1948 heeft zij zich de rest illegaal via agressie toegeëigend. Dus een en ander ligt wat minder zwart-wit dan Assad beweert.

 

Het is natuurlijk absoluut niet logisch dat hij de Golan terugkrijgt maar ondertussen bewegingen blijft steunen die Israel willen vernietigen en daartoe duizenden raketten op haar gericht hebben. Israel heeft de Golan veroverd in de Zesdaagse Oorlog na 19 jaar vanaf daar te zijn beschoten, dus enig teken dat Syrië bereid is tot daadwerkelijke vrede met Israel, is niet teveel gevraagd.

 

RP

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'We want the Golan on a gold platter'
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Jul. 7, 2009
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443744038&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

 

A day after President Shimon Peres said Syria could not expect to receive the Golan Heights from Israel on a silver platter, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said the country actually wanted the territory back on a "gold platter."

"Let's face it - it's our land and our right to have it back is the most normal thing in the world," he added after a meeting Tuesday with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to AFP

On Monday, Peres had asked Steinmeier to made it clear that Assad must understand he could not expect to receive the Golan on a silver platter while he continued to strengthen Hizbullah and maintain contact with Iran.

At Tuesday's joint press conference, Steinmeier called on Syria to "do its part" in promoting the success of the Middle East peace process, noting the need to restrict Hizbullah and Hamas, which had shown "no interest in the success of the peace talks."

"The peace process can only proceed when destructive elements in the region are reined in," the German foreign minister said.

Moallem rejected the notion of breaking ties with the terror groups.

"As for the issue of our relations with Hizbullah or Iran, that's a precondition," he said, dismissing the Israeli demands for a clean break as part of a normalization of ties under any peace deal with the Jewish state.

"You have to join negotiations to know what will happen afterward," he added, cautiously putting the ball in Israel's court. "We think a resumption of indirect contacts with Israel through Turkish go-betweens is the best way of getting to direct negotiations, but first and foremost, we have to be confident that there is a political will in Israel to achieve peace."

Welke concessies moeten Arabische landen doen voor een bevriezing van de nederzettingenbouw?

Hieronder een aantal voorstellen. Dergelijke stappen van de Arabische staten, een bevriezing van de bouw in alle nederzettingen met uitzondering van Oost Jeruzalem, en een Palestijnse erkenning van Israel als het Joodse nationale thuis. Dat zou een mooi begin zijn van hernieuwde onderhandelingen en hoop bieden voor de toekomst. Yes we can?

 

RP

 

Zie ook: Saoedi-Arabië weigert concrete vredesgebaren naar Israël

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

What would Arab states have to give in exchange for a settlement freeze?
By Reuters

Last update - 17:50 07/07/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1098430.html

 

U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell is pressing for a halt to Israeli settlement activity, holding out the prospect of reciprocal steps by Arab states towards normalizing relations with Israel.

Talks in London on Monday between Mitchell and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on a package that could include a settlement freeze and normalization ended inconclusively.

Further discussions are planned between Mitchell and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as early as next week.

Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab states that have diplomatic relations with Israel. Below are the regional normalization steps U.S. and Western officials say Washington is seeking:

- Arab countries in the Gulf would allow Israeli passenger and civilian cargo aircraft to fly over their territory. The move would save long detours on flights to Asia, a popular destination for Israeli travelers.

- Israel would be able to open interest sections in other states' embassies in Arab capitals, such as Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. Israel had interest sections in several Arab countries but they were closed after the start in 2000 of a Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

- Arab countries would lift bans on the entry of tourists and other visitors whose passports carry Israeli visas or entry stamps. Such a step would facilitate regional travel for tourists and business executives.

- Arab states would allow Israeli-registered mobile phones to operate on Arab networks, a move that could foster economic contacts.

- Israel and Arab states would hold cultural exchanges. Arab countries would ease restrictions that prevent their officials from meeting with Israeli counterparts at international events.

A senior Israeli official familiar with Mitchell's talks said Israel was skeptical the envoy would be able to coax Arab states to make concrete normalization commitments if only a temporary settlement freeze was declared.

"Even if the Americans can bring a serious settlement freeze, the normalization steps will be implemented only gradually and based on performance by Israel," the official said

Religieuze Kulturkampf in Israel

De toenemende religieuze invloed en dwang, en de spanningen die dat oproept met de seculiere Joden, is een van de grote problemen van Israel. Religieuze partijen, vaak nodig om een coalitie aan een meerderheid te helpen, dwingen grote geldbedragen af voor religieuze scholen en andere instituties, uitzonderingsbepalingen voor het leger, geen openbaar vervoer en andere zaken op sabbath etc. en dat botst soms met het democratische karakter van de staat en de scheiding van synagoge en staat. Ook excessen als speciale buslijnen waarin vrouwen en mannen apart moeten zitten komen voor, al is dat alleen in bepaalde ultra-orthodoxe wijken. Er zijn overigens grote verschillen binnen de orthodoxe Joodse gemeenschap, en onderstaand artikel is dan ook zeker niet anti-religieus.

RP
----------------

The Jerusalem Post
Jul 6, 2009 9:50 | Updated Jul 6, 2009 15:25
Candidly Speaking: The religious kulturkampf
By ISI LEIBLER
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443729260&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


The intense political and economic challenges confronting us divert attention from a festering kulturkampf within the religious arena the outcome of which will impact heavily on the future of Israeli society.

Orthodox Jews were never a monolithic group. Over the past century major divisions separated Zionists and anti-Zionists; those favoring stringent applications of Halacha versus those seeking more liberal interpretations; those rejecting secular studies beyond religious learning versus those seeking to synthesize learning Torah with worldly knowledge.

Current trends display a strengthening in the power of the non-Zionist and more extreme religious elements. This is reflected in the extraordinary growth of the haredi school network with almost 25 percent of Jewish first graders currently estimated to be enrolled in the haredi Ashkenazi or Sephardi educational streams. If the high haredi birthrate (a major asset in maintaining Jewish demographic levels) is sustained, the proportion of haredi schoolchildren in the general population will further increase.

In most developed countries, haredim are not exempt from mandatory government requirements that all children receive a minimal secular education. However here, to obtain haredi political support, the Olmert government agreed to extend state funding to the haredi educational network while simultaneously granting it complete autonomy from the government educational network, thus effectively legitimizing the exclusion of core secular curriculum subjects. The current government has also been pressured into providing additional funds exclusively to the independent haredi school system.

The social, economic and political repercussions of these developments will impact over the next few decades. In an approach without precedent in Jewish tradition, most haredi schoolchildren are being encouraged to disdain the virtues of earning a livelihood. One of our great sages, Maimonides (who would doubtlessly be disqualified from teaching in a typical haredi school because of his secular education) wrote in Mishna Torah, "Whoever thinks he can study Torah and not work, and relies on charity, profanes God's name."

In addition, during these difficult times, graduates from haredi schools obliged to seek employment are discovering that having been denied a secular education and lacking professional skills, they are doomed to a life of poverty and reliance on welfare.

An additional offshoot of this system is an accelerating increase in haredi youngsters evading the draft. It is surely bizarre for religious Zionists to be proportionately overrepresented in IDF combat units, willing to fight and die for their country, while their haredi counterparts, without any genuine halachic justification, as evidenced by the tiny but admirable haredi IDF unit, are directed by their rabbis to shirk their national obligations.

THE HAREDI HIJACKING of state rabbinical instrumentalities and courts is also having major negative social repercussions. A substantial proportion of the newly appointed haredi rabbis, chosen on the basis of cronyism, are utterly unsuited for their roles. Many are also unreconstructed anti-Zionists, refusing to recognize the flag, the national anthem, Independence Day and other obligations of living in a Jewish state.

Even the Chief Rabbinate, once the bastion of religious Zionism, has been transformed into an haredi fiefdom, despite undisguised haredi contempt for the institution. Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger is universally regarded as a mere puppet of the zealots.

The displacement of Zionist rabbis by extremists paves the way for further problems, such as efforts to undermine the heter mechira (sale of land) introduced nearly a century ago by chief rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook to enable farmers to maintain their produce and livelihood during the shmita year.

The most disastrous impact of the haredi dominated rabbinical courts applies to conversion, where fanatical zealots like Rabbi Avraham Sherman are striving to impose unprecedentedly extreme and cruel halachic interpretations.

Sherman went so far as to retroactively annul conversions on grounds of alleged laxity in ritual observance. More outrageously, he accused highly venerated Zionist Rabbi Haim Druckman of expediting fraudulent conversions. He proclaimed that over the past 15 years, thousands of conversions approved by the government Conversion Authority headed by Druckman must be considered invalid unless endorsed by one of his haredi rabbis. Metzger, whose own beit din had supervised these conversions, created a furor after endorsing Sherman's approach and was even called upon to resign.

Every individual is entitled to impose upon himself the most rigorous application of Halacha. Besides there are many positive aspects to the haredi lifestyle that Israelis could emulate to their advantage and a constructive haredi presence should be an important element in the tapestry of Israeli life.

But when zealots leverage their political positions to intrude on personal lives or impose extreme standards on the entire nation, it only serves to alienate people from religion. Even Israelis who support the strengthening of Jewish values within the framework of the state, are angered and frustrated when haredi political zealots leverage their positions to extort sectional concessions which frequently conflict with the national interest.

There are enlightened Orthodox groups sensitive to these tensions which endeavor to promote religious precepts in a nonconfrontational manner. They also encourage a review of Halacha, which has evolved over thousands of years of exile, to relate to the needs of a modern democratic Jewish state. They include organizations like Eretz Hemda, Beit Morasha, Tzohar, Bar-Ilan University and many others who cultivate the shvil hazahav, Maimonides's designated golden path of moderation and tolerance.

THERE IS a need for religious Zionist rabbis and laymen to become more assertive. Religious Zionist parliamentarians scattered among Knesset political parties should insist that state funds for religious functionaries serving in rabbinical courts be channeled toward Zionist rabbis who send their children to the army, embrace modernity and can communicate with university-educated youngsters. While endeavoring to strengthen the Jewish character of the state, they must act on behalf of the nation as a whole and demand an end to shady deals with haredi parties promoting narrow sectional interests. The neutralization of haredi power to extort or veto reform is an additional reason why Kadima should act in the national interest and join the government.

There are ticking time bombs waiting to explode. The aggressiveness of extremist groups, like the Eda Haredit in Jerusalem, which over the past weeks threatened "to set the country on fire" if a proposed Jerusalem parking lot remained open on Shabbat, must be dealt with firmly or the anti-Zionist zealots will achieve a new lease of life.

The time to confront burning issues such as the haredi school system, military service, conversions and Shabbat legislation is now.

 

Shoah slachtoffers waren gereincarneerder zondaars volgens leider Shas

 

In 'alternatieve kringen' is het niet ongebruikelijk om te geloven dat wat mensen overkomt, op een of andere wijze door henzelf is veroorzaakt of zelfs gekozen, in dit leven of een vorig leven. Ik ken zelf verschillende mensen die dat in meerdere of mindere mate geloven, en ook menen dat alles wat mensen overkomt een diepere betekenis heeft of 'moest' gebeuren. Op mijn vraag of dat dan ook geldt als mensen ernstig ziek worden of een zwaar ongeluk krijgen, antwoordde een vrouw die in een Indiase spirituele gemeenschap heeft gewoond en meditatielessen geeft, bevestigend. Ontkennen van toeval en overal een diepere zin of betekenis achter zoeken is iets dat alle religies verbindt, maar juist het feit dat dit tot extreme conclusies kan leiden als onderstaande is voor mij een reden om het bij de wetenschap, de evolutie en het toeval te houden, hoe kil dat soms ook lijkt.

 

RP

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The Jerusalem Post
Jul 5, 2009 9:53 | Updated Jul 6, 2009 5:56
Ovadia Yosef: Shoah victims - reincarnated sinners
By JPOST.COM STAFF
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443718416&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has argued that those murdered in the Holocaust were a reincarnation of sinners from past generations, Ma'ariv reported on Sunday.

In his weekly Saturday evening sermon, whose subject was the period between the 17th of Tamuz and Tisha Be'av fasts, the rabbi explained that on Tamuz 17, a number of calamities had occurred, including the breaching of Jerusalem's walls which led to the destruction of the Temple on Tisha Be'av, as well as the sin of the golden calf which led to the shattering of the Tablets of Stone.

"There is no calamity that the people of Israel suffer that isn't part of [the punishment for] the sin of the golden calf. The tragedies we've endured throughout generations - the Inquisition, the Holocaust - they are all part of the sin of the golden calf," Rabbi Yosef explained.

"After all, people are upset and ask why was there a Holocaust? Woe to us, for we have sinned. Woe to us, for there is nothing we can say to justify it," he said.

"It goes without saying that we believe in reincarnation," continued Yosef. "It is a reincarnation of those souls. Our teacher The Ari said that there are no new souls in our generation…all the souls were once in the world and have returned.

"All those poor people in the Holocaust…we wonder why it was done. There were righteous people among them. Still, they were punished because of sins of past generations."

 

Gaza smokkeltunnels gaan tot 60 meter diep

Als alle voedsel- en luxeproducten weer gewoon geimporteerd kunnen worden in de Gazastrook, zal dat de smokkel via tunnels een stuk minder aantrekkelijk maken, en is het wellicht makkelijker de wapensmokkel via de tunnels te bestrijden. Ik begrijp wel dat Israel de grenzen niet geheel wil openen zolang Shalit nog vast zit en zolang Hamas de grenzen controleert, maar daardoor is de smokkel een bloeiende business geworden waar tienduizenden Gazanen, misschien zelfs meer, van leven.

 

RP

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The Jerusalem Post
Jul 3, 2009 8:54 | Updated Jul 4, 2009 19:29
US engineers: 'Gaza tunnels now 60m deep'
By YAAKOV KATZ

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443709998&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


American engineers who serve as consultants for the Egyptian military have recently informed Israel that Hamas has succeeded in digging 60-meter deep smuggling tunnels to avoid detection and destruction by the IDF, defense officials said on Thursday.

The American engineers, deployed as consultants along the Philadelphi Corridor in Egyptian Rafah, have been using technology that can detect seismic movements to uncover tunnels. But it is more difficult to detect them once they have reached the 60-meter depth, the engineers told their Israeli counterparts.

According to IDF assessments, Hamas now has several hundred active tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor, even though close to 300 were reportedly bombed by the Israel Air Force during Operation Cast Lead in December and January.

Digging to the new depths required special techniques, one official said.

"The Palestinians are experts at digging tunnels," the official said. "They reach 60 meters, pump out the groundwater, and pump in air so they can continue digging."

Defense officials said that since Cast Lead, Cairo had increased its efforts to uncover and destroy smuggling tunnels. The Egyptian efforts have also focused on stopping weapons before they reach the Philadelphi Corridor and as they make their way to the border with Sinai.

A senior IDF officer said the army was reassessing the effectiveness of bombing tunnels from the air. "We found that it takes the Palestinians just a few days to rebuild the tunnels after we bomb them," the officer said.

According to a recent report on Al-Arabiya TV, the tunnel-smuggling industry in Gaza is valued at $200 million annually, yielding huge profits for the Palestinian and Egyptian owners of the tunnels. There are 800 tunnels along the Gaza-Egyptian border, Al-Arabiya said.

"These tunnels are the lifeline of the Gaza Strip. This is the only place where you don't feel you are in a besieged city. All products are available - electronic appliances, flour, sugar and all other food products - and even diapers and Viagra pills," according to a transcript of the TV report provided by MEMRI: The Middle East Media Research Institute.

 

War and Peace Index: 60% Joodse Israëli's tegen Palestijnse staat volgens grenzen 1967

 

De antwoorden hangen altijd in hoge mate af van hoe de vraag is gesteld. 'Verdienen de Palestijnen een staat?' Ik zou zeggen, in principe wel, maar niet ten koste van Israels veiligheid, en daar zit hem het probleem, want volgens veel Israeli's zal dat wel zo zijn, of is het op z'n minst onzeker. Het hangt er vanaf hoe je de toekomst inschat. Wat zou tot meer onveiligheid en problemen leiden: de voortdurende bezetting of een Palestijnse staat? Ook is de vraag onder wat voor voorwaarden een Palestijnse staat er komt, of er een landruil komt en wat er met Jeruzalem gebeurt, maar daar wordt in deze enquete niet op ingegaan.

Opvallend is dat zelfs onder Likoedstemmers een ruime meerderheid erkent dat de Palestijnen een volk zijn, en van de mensen die dat erkent is 80% voor een Palestijnse staat.

RP
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War and Peace Index-June 2009

Prof. Ephraim Yaar and Prof. Tamar Hermann


The position of Prime Minister Netanyahu, which includes agreeing that Israel will not establish new settlements but stands by its right to expand existing ones according to natural growth, is endorsed today by most of the Israeli Jewish public: 61% support it while 31% oppose it (the rest have no position). The support for Netanyahu's position is shared by voters for all the parties except Meretz, only 7% of whose voters support it, and Labor, whose voters are evenly split between supporters and opponents.

However, the broad support for Netanyahu's position erodes considerably, and the gap between the two camps narrows, when one mentions to the interviewees the possibility that implementing Netanyahu's position could cause a worsening of relations with the U.S. government. Under that scenario, only 40% still support Netanyahu's position while a slightly higher rate (48%) oppose it. In other words, more than one-third of those who, in principle, support Netanyahu's policy on the settlements issue would oppose, in this context, risking a deterioration of relations with the Obama administration.

Positions on the settlements issue are linked, of course, not only to U.S.-Israeli relations but primarily to the public's positions regarding the Palestinians. This time we checked a few basic questions in this context, and we found that a clear majority- 62%-of the Israeli Jewish public today recognizes the existence of a Palestinian people (32% oppose this and the rest do not know). A segmentation by voting for the Knesset reveals that only among voters for Shas, the Jewish Home, and the National Union does the majority claim there is no such thing as a Palestinian people. Among those who recognize that the Palestinians are a people, an overwhelming majority of 80.5% also supports the right of the Palestinian people to an independent state. Even among those who do recognize the Palestinian people, however, there are still about one-fifth who do not recognize its right to a state or have no position on the matter. In the total Jewish sector today, then, only a small majority of 50% say the Palestinians deserve an independent state of their own, 43% do not think so and the rest do not know.

The smallness of the majority that recognizes the Palestinians' right to an independent state can be explained in terms of the prevailing view in the Jewish public (71%) that most of the Palestinians do not recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people. This position is common to voters for all the parties although, not surprisingly, among Labor and Meretz voters the proportion of those who think most of the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people is considerable-42% and 35%, respectively. The widespread public position on this question is significant in light of Prime Minister Netanyahu's claim that the Palestinians should publicly recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people. It also points-again-to the great convergence we have found recently between the positions of the current government and those of most of the public on questions concerning Israeli policy on the Palestinian issue.

Moreover, we also found in this survey that even recognition by the Palestinians of Israel as the state of the Jewish people would not necessarily strengthen the Jewish public's willingness for a territorial compromise. Indeed, some 60% say they would oppose a Palestinian state that would include all the territories conquered in 1967, even if there was official Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people. The exceptions on this issue are voters for Meretz and Kadima, a majority of whom supports a withdrawal to the 1967 borders if there is Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people. A majority of the Jewish public (56%) also opposes Israel taking even partial responsibility for the suffering caused to the Palestinians by the 1948 war, including, for example, the creation of the refugee problem, even if the Palestinians were to officially take part of the responsibility for the Naqba. Only among Meretz voters is a majority-78%-prepared to accept partial responsibility if the Palestinians take partial responsibility as well.

In contrast to the convergence between the public and the government on the Palestinian question, on the question of Gilad Shalit a clear majority of the Jewish public is currently critical of the government's policy. Fifty-nine percent think the government's approach is neither effective nor wise while 31% take the opposite view (10% do not know). The dissent from the government's policy on this issue is shared by voters for all the parties except the Jewish Home, without disparities of age, gender, religiosity, education, or income. Not surprisingly, then, a majority (58%) recommends to the Shalit family that they intensify their protest activity. This position is common to a majority of the public without party, age, economic, or other disparities, with one notable exception that raises questions on the influence of gender regarding issues connected to parenthood: a full 70% of women support intensifying the protest while among men the supporters and opponents are evenly split. This gap is all the more significant considering that generally women tend less than men to support protest, let alone intense protest.

 

The War and Peace Index is funded by the Evens Program in Mediation and Conflict Resolution of Tel Aviv University. The telephone interviews were conducted by the B. I. Cohen Institute of Tel Aviv University on June 30-July 1, 2009 and included 503 interviewees who represent the adult population of Israel (including the territories and the kibbutzim). The sampling error for a sample of this size is 4.5%.


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IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website: www.imra.org.il
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Joden van Koerdistan in de knel

 

Afkomstig van: Point of no return (Information and links about the Middle East's forgotten Jewish refugees)

 

Voor ons eigen artikel over Joodse vluchtelingen uit de Arabische wereld, zie hier.

 

Wouter

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Saturday, July 04, 2009

Kurdistan won't expel Jews, but can't secure them

http://jewishrefugees.blogspot.com/2009/07/kurdistan-wont-expel-jews-but-cant.html

 

There are no cats in America. Or are there? The embarrassing question of whether there are still Jews in Kurdistan - and what to do with them - has reared its ugly head again, according to a Kurdish reporter whose name we are withholding for his own safety (With thanks: Ami).

The government of Kurdistan is being urged by hard-line officials publically to declare that there are no Jews in Iraqi Kurdistan. Yet is is common knowledge that a number of Jewish families still remain there.

A Kurdish reporter quoted a senior source as saying: " the government will not expel any remaining Jews but equally we can't guarantee full security for them. At the same time we will not prevent the state of Israel (from acting) if they want to take them back".

The reporter told how last year on (Israeli) Channel 10, a program showed a Kurdish family from Shtula (sic) returning to Irbil to find their relatives. The TV program upset some Kurdish officials. The reporter tried to interview the Jewish family in question. But they were not ready to comment on the program because they were afraid of being attacked by Jihadist groups in Iraq.

In addition, there have been many reports of a few Jews still living in Baghdad, Irbil and Suleymania, but the Kurdish government does not recognize any Jewish community in the region. Central government has always overriden the Kurdish regional government on Jewish issues. Some politicians think that relations between the state of Israel and the Kurdistan Regional government - there are reports of Israeli contractors working in Kurdistan - have worsened as a result.

The remaining Jews in Kurdistan do not want to abide by Muslim religious rules (religion is passed down by the father). They believe that are Jewish through the maternal line. A few Jews from Kurdistan have contacted the Jewish Agency (with a view to moving to Israel), their 'phone calls having been recorded by the Iraqi telecommunications intelligence office.

Point of No Return adds: although almost the entire Jewish community of 18,000 left for Israel in 1950 - 51, a few mixed Jewish-Muslim families stayed on. After the 1991 Gulf war some of these moved to Israel, but there have since been instances of members of these families moving back to Kurdistan.

 

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Hat tip: Jews of Kurdistan in trouble

http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/07/jews-of-kurdistan-in-trouble.html

Note: I know there are still Jews in Kurdistan and probably in Baghdad, as they have written to me. -- Ami Isseroff

 

Israelische regering stimuleert nog steeds nederzettingen met hypotheken

 

"Kadima" betekent "vooruit", en dat kan op vanalles slaan, zoals: "vooruit met die nederzettingenbouw!" Olmert verkondigde luid en duidelijk dat Israel vooruit moest met het vredesproces, en zo ook Livni. Ze hebben vooral in het laatste jaar van hun regeerperiode naar mijn indruk vrij stevig ingezet op het diplomatieke proces en de vredesonderhandelingen, maar nagelaten om duidelijke stappen te nemen om bijv. de buitenposten te ontruimen of de nederzettingengroei een halt toe te roepen. Dat zal best aan de moeizame coalitieverhoudingen hebben gelegen en aan stropige bureaucratie en aan een bestel waarin - weer naar mijn indruk - veel instanties hun eigen agenda uitvoeren en daar te veel ruimte voor krijgen. Bij Netanjahoe heb ik vooral het idee dat hij zo veel mogelijk op de rem wil trappen als het om concessies doen gaat, net zoals tijdens zijn vorige regering eind jaren '90. Kadima, Bibi, Kadima! De tijd werkt niet echt in jullie voordeel...

 

Wouter
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Gov't still offering settlers incentives
Tovah Lazaroff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Jul. 6, 2009
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443727809&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

 

First-time home buyers can receive a bigger mortgage if they move to settlements such as Itamar and Eilon Moreh than to the city of Ashkelon, according to the Construction and Housing Ministry Web site.

Banks use the ministry's formula to calculate how much money can be lent to a family, based on the number of children, the time the parents spent in the army, their immigration status and the region where the home is located.

This means, for example, that a family of five can receive a mortgage of NIS 244,020 in the Itamar settlement, located southeast of Nablus and some 28 km. over the 1949-1967 armistice line, but in Ashkelon the formula awards the family a mortgage of NIS 223,620.

The additional NIS 20,400 is one of the last vestiges of a system of grants and tax breaks eliminated under prime minister Ariel Sharon, through which the state encouraged people to choose homes in the settlements over those in the center of the country.

But while grants and tax breaks for settlements are no longer available, some settlements remain on the preferential status lists within different ministries. As a result their residents, along with those of any community on the preferential status list, are eligible for a special loan conditions.

Peace Now, in its June report on the 2009-2010 draft state budget, took issue with the practice. Hagit Ofran said a better loan deal for purchasing a home in the settlements was a type of incentive.
She noted that money was set aside in the Construction and Housing Ministry's budget to guarantee the loans.
"It helps people move to settlements," and in this way the government was hindering a two-state solution, Ofran said.

The ministry could not be reached for comment.

It was unclear if the practice of offering larger loans to residents of some settlements would be eliminated after a Knesset Finance Committee vote Sunday to approve the Areas of National Priority Bill, which would drastically broaden the criteria that determine which communities are entitled to the wide away of perks granted under "national priority" status, which until now had been based primarily on their location. Legislation setting forth this criteria will be included in the 2009-2010 economic arrangements bill.

The change has nothing to do with the fact that settlements are still on a number of lists, some of which, such as the one for the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry, expire this year, but rather with the desire of legislators to change the definition of special-status communities.

It was unclear even to members of the committee and the committee spokesman whether settlements would be included in the list of preferred-status communities under the new criteria.

MK Uri Ariel (National Union) noted that the word "state" was removed from the bill, under the assumption that the list could in fact include settlements in Judea and Samaria.

But Pinchas Wallerstein, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, said he believed most of the settlements would be written out of the preferential-status lists once they were completed.

Ultimately, the cabinet, not the Finance Committee, will generate the final list, based on the criteria approved as part of the 2009-2010 economic arrangements bill.

Sunday's Finance Committee vote expanded what had been the solely geographic criteria to include other parameters such as the security situation, the socioeconomic status of the community, the preferred distribution of Israel's population and the relative strength of the community in relation to neighboring communities.

In addition, clause six of the law allows for "additional considerations that relate to the population's needs in the area" - a clause that MK Shai Hermesh (Kadima) accuses of "leaving the law wide open to accommodate any community in Israel."

Rather than dividing the more than NIS 700 million budget for enhanced mortgages among the 240 communities on the list, Hermesh said, the new law would allow the government to compose a list including any communities that it wants.

With the Finance Ministry unwilling to raise the budget for the law, Hermesh said that many periphery communities that previously enjoyed national priority benefits would now have to make do with less.

"The government wants freedom of action to reward communities on an individual level," Hermesh said. "This is a law against national priority areas, not one that supports them."

Hermesh said that despite his reservations, he voted in favor of the bill, which is now expected to pass its plenum readings as part of the economic arrangements bill, because if he didn't, the High Court of Justice had threatened to do away with the entire status - a situation, he said, that would lead to the collapse of social services in many periphery towns.

 

Rebecca Anna Stoil contributed to this report.

Voor Amerikanen die Jood worden gesubsidiëerde huizen in zonnig land?

 

Dit is het soort onzin dat hier door mensen als Thomas von der Dunk, Dries van Agt, Gretta Duisenberg en Anton van Hooff wordt beweerd, en door vele tientallen reaguurders op de Volkskrant online. Joden worden bevoordeeld, en op kosten van de belastigbetaler in de VS kunnen Joden goedkoop, ja zelfs gratis, wonen in Israel.

 

RP

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Fiction about Jewish aliyah to Israel at Daily Kos

http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/07/fiction-about-jewish-aliyah-to-israel.html

 

 

A person named Jane Stillwater has posted a fictional rant about Aliya to Israel entitled "New foreclosure remedy: Become Jewish & move to Israel!" The article alleges that American taxpayers pay for the grant that is given by Nefesh beNefesh for new immigrants from North America, that Americans pay for their housing, which is supposedly all in the settlements ("East Jerusalem high rises" and that it is easy to become a Jew and go to Israel at the expense of the American taxpayer. Here's a sample of this wicked concoction:

Our American government is currently financing and maintaining a fabulous all-comprehensive housing program that can provide you with modern newly-constructed state-of-the-art housing at either subsidized prices -- or free!  And talk about location location location.  This wonderful model housing program isn't located in undesirable places like the grungy old Boston inner city or shabby run-down parts of L.A.  And, unlike those tacky bankrupt schools in California and Mississippi, this place has outstanding schools too.  And its healthcare services, shopping centers and freeways are also top-of-the-line.

These fabulous new housing programs are located in a place that is sunny, modern, upscale and family-friendly -- Israel!

According to USA Today, "Nefesh B'Nefesh, a non-profit organization, provides grants of $3,000 to $10,000 as an incentive for Jews to move [to Israel].  Nefesh B'Nefesh, which means 'Soul to Soul,' also helps arrange housing, jobs and schools for immigrants' children."

"But what do I have to do to be eligible for all this wonderful subsidized housing?" you might ask.  That's easy.  Just become Jewish.  And apply.  It's your birthright.  You're in!

"But if America is sponsoring a housing program that is available to only one religious group, isn't that against our Constitution and civil rights?  Doesn't this program have to be available to ALL Americans to be legal?  And doesn't it go against the separation of church and state?"  Nah.  Not a problem.  There are no churches involved.

None of the allegations are true. The United States does not pay for or subsidize housing in the West Bank or East Jerusalem. The United States underwrites loan guarantees for Israel, but it deducts the sum it estimates that Israel spends on settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The U.S. tax payer does not pay for the loans, just the guarantees, which make it possible for Israel to get money at lower interest rates.  The United States government does not pay for Nefesh Benefesh, which is financed by the Israeli government, individual private donors and a foundation. It is rather difficult, as everyone knows to undergo the orthodox conversion that is needed in order to be recognized as a Jew by the orthodox establishment.. This bizarre rant has to be seen to be believed. It shows what happens when the hysteria over settlements is carried to an absurd extreme.  

 

Ami Isseroff

 

 

Journaliste mag niet lachen met vrienden op Gaza strand

 

Vaak wordt gezegd dat Hamas geen islamitische leefregels wil opleggen, maar in de praktijk gebeurt dat wel degelijk.

RP

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The Jerusalem Post
Jul 4, 2009 23:04 | Updated Jul 5, 2009 13:17
'They accused me of laughing in public'
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443716574&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


A Palestinian female journalist complained over the weekend that Hamas policemen attempted to arrest her under the pretext that she came to a Gaza beach dressed immodestly and was seen laughing in public.

The journalist, Asma al-Ghul, said that the policemen instead confiscated her passport. Since the incident, she added, she has been afraid to leave her home, especially after receiving death threats from anonymous callers.

"They accused me of laughing loudly while swimming with my friend and failing to wear a hijab," Ghul told a human rights organization in the Gaza Strip. "They also wanted to know the identity of the people who were with me at the beach and whether they were relatives of mine."

In a phone interview with the Dubai-based Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news Web site, the journalist said that the policemen who stopped her belonged to the Hamas government's Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice security force.
 
The special force reports directly to the Ministry of Waqf Affairs and is said to be a copy of units that have long been operating in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

The Hamas government, according to local reporters, has refrained from publicly admitting that the force exists out of fear of being branded fundamentalist.

The Hamas force consists of dozens of plainclothes police officers who patrol beaches, public gardens, restaurants, hair salons and coffee shops to make sure that males and females are not mixing together and that the women are dressed modestly.

Ghul said that many Palestinian women have noticed the presence of the police officers at the beaches and other sites. She said that the talk in the Gaza Strip these days was about Hamas's intention to impose the hijab on all female school children from first to 12th grade.

She said she was astonished by the fact that the Hamas security forces were providing security to hotels that are frequented by women wearing miniskirts while at the same time targeting "common people" who go to the beaches and public parks.

Ghul said that Hamas has banned men in the Gaza Strip from swimming topless. "And as in my case, Hamas has banned women from laughing while swimming," she added.

She and her friends were stopped by Hamas policemen while swimming in the sea. She said that the policemen confiscated her passport and laptop after accusing her of laughing loudly and appearing in immodest clothes in a public place.

Two of her male friends were detained for questioning for three hours. They said the police officers beat them and abused them verbally before releasing them.

Hamas security commanders initially said that the journalist and her friends were stopped because they were having a mixed party at the beach. Later, one of the commanders said that Ghul was stopped because she was not wearing a hijab while swimming. Another commander claimed that the journalist and her friends were stopped because they had been seeing smoking nargilas and partying in a public place.

Islam Shahwan, spokesman for the Hamas security forces, said that policemen have been deployed at the beaches at the request of the Ministry for Waqf Affairs. He said the policemen's task is to impose law and order and prevent harassment of families picnicking and swimming at the beaches.

"We are there for the safety of the people," he said. "We operate there to prevent men from harassing women. We've received many complaints about these negative practices."

Shahwan said that Hamas does not interfere with the way women want to dress. However, he stressed, "we must preserve our Islamic culture and traditions. If there's a woman who wants to dress as she wishes, she must go to a private swimming pool and not to a public place."

 

Avigdor Lieberman irrelevant geworden als minister BuZa Israel

Dit was te verwachten, en daarom is het zo moeilijk te begrijpen waarom Netanjahoe Lieberman als minister van buitenlandse zaken heeft geaccepteerd. Lieberman is niet de duivel die Israel haters van hem maken, maar hij is erg ontaktvol en ziet niet dat hij niet alleen zijn eigen positie, maar ook zijn eigen land hiermee in gevaar brengt. Overigens vind ik de reacties van Sarkozy en Kouchner ook niet erg diplomatiek. Hopelijk gebeurt er iets waardoor Netanjahoe een excuus heeft hem te ontslaan zodat aan deze tragedie een einde komt.

 

"The Yisrael Beiteinu chairman keeps saying the Foreign Ministry needs to return to its roots and focus on advocacy."

 

Daar heb ik weinig van gemerkt. In reactie op het lijvige en zeer kritische rapport dat Amnesty vorige week uitbracht over de Gaza Oorlog, kwam het ministerie met de voorspelbare reactie dat men te weinig aandacht had voor de duizenden raketten van Hamas. Dat is waar, maar waarom niet ingegaan op de vele concrete beschuldigingen van oorlogsmisdaden en informatie geleverd die een en ander in een ander licht zet? En waarom heeft Israel zich niet wat coöperatiever opgesteld naar Amnesty toe? Het is waar dat Amnesty vaak niet evenwichtig is in haar oordeel over Israel, maar je kunt beter praten en informatie leveren dan de deur dicht slaan.

 

RP

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Lieberman has become irrelevant
By Barak Ravid - Haaretz

6 July 2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1098031.html

 

It's been 100 days since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government was sworn-in, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's impact on foreign policy has been negligible. Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have been handling ties with the U.S.; President Shimon Peres has been in charge of dealing with the Arab world and Lieberman and his office have faded into irrelevance.

Whereas, in the coalition agreement, Lieberman demanded to be made responsible for ties with the U.S., Barak is in fact in charge of negotiations over construction in West Bank settlements. Meanwhile, there's no end in sight to Egypt's and Jordan's boycott of Lieberman. In an effort to fill the void, Peres will travel to Jordan's capital Amman to meet with King Abdullah on Tuesday. And Lieberman? In two weeks' time he will tour Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Colombia to counter Iran's influence in Latin America.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's critical remarks about Israel's hawkish foreign minister, during his recent meeting with Netanyahu, are just the tip of the iceberg. Many diplomats who have met Lieberman got the feeling that there was no one to talk to and that he has no influence over the Israeli decision-making process.

The fact that Lieberman has left a bad impression is evident from a story he himself told Moscow's Jewish community about his meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. Lieberman told his counterpart that the "natural growth" of West Bank settlements required continued construction, citing the shortage of kindergartens in his hometown of Nokdim as an example. Kouchner cynically retorted that faced with a shortage, the children of Nokdim could always attend Palestinian kindergartens. "I'm not sure they have kindergartens," was what Lieberman told his Moscow audience he replied. "And even if they did, our kids wouldn't make it back alive."

The French foreign minister was not amused.

Lieberman's visit to Washington constitutes further evidence of his problematic image. Ahead of his arrival, Israeli diplomats had tried to present him as someone pragmatic and reasonable. When he arrived in the U.S. capital, he was not given an audience with U.S. President Barack Obama - even though Peres, Barak and Netanyahu, who had visited before him, had met with the president. Lieberman's aides said in response that they had not asked to meet with Obama.

But the worst was still to come. His meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was described as a disaster. Clinton was reportedly offended by Lieberman's comments during the press conference and when she later accidently fell and hurt her hand, Washington diplomatic circles joked that "she was pushed down the stairs by Yvet," according to a senior U.S. official, who referred to Lieberman by his nickname.

Surprisingly, none other than Barak has come to Lieberman's aid. He tells every foreign leader he meets that he has to run any policy issue past the foreign minister.

Meanwhile, Lieberman's vision of closer cooperation with Moscow is at an impasse. The Kremlin isn't particularly enthused by the idea and Russia's policies toward Israel have stiffened.

Foreign Ministry officials are trying their utmost to protect Lieberman and say every foreign policy decision is made jointly by him, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and the ministry's director general, Yossi Gal. "It's all coordinated," Lieberman's office insists. "Any attempt to portray a different picture is false."

Other Foreign Ministry officials believe Lieberman isn't interested in being involved in every decision the way former foreign minister Tzipi Livni was. "Foreign policy issues just aren't his flesh and blood," they say. "Perhaps he doesn't want the responsibility of making decisions on such charged political issues as the settlements."

The Yisrael Beiteinu chairman keeps saying the Foreign Ministry needs to return to its roots and focus on advocacy. But what exactly does that mean? Last week Lieberman told a joke to Israeli diplomats being sent abroad - it sheds light on his idea of diplomacy. "A tourist went to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo and saw a lamb and a wolf together in a cage," Lieberman said. "He asked the zoo keeper, 'How do you get a lamb and a wolf to live together peacefully?' The zoo keeper responded: 'We put a new lamb in the cage every morning.'"

Buitenpost Migron heeft nog een jaar tijd

Na veel getouwtrek en mitsen en maren is er een overeenkomst dat de bewoners van de buitenpost Migron binnen een jaar zullen verhuizen naar de nederzetting Adam. Big deal. De vervangende huizen voor de mensen in de buitenposten hadden natuurlijk al lang klaar kunnen zijn, en hadden natuurlijk in Israel zelf gebouwd moeten worden, anders is het een sigaar uit eigen doos. Barak heeft Mitchell beloofd dat de illegale buitenposten binnen weken of hooguit maanden zullen zijn geëvacueerd. Dat klopt dus niet met de overeenkomst die over Migron is bereikt.

 

RP

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'Migron would have one year of grace'
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Jul. 6, 2009
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443733459&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

 

The residents of Migron, an illegal outpost in the West Bank, should have a year to voluntarily evacuate, and if they refuse, at the end of that time they should be evacuated by force, the state said during a High Court of Justice hearing Monday.

During the discussion on the illegal outpost, which following a petition submitted by the left-wing Peace Now group, the state's representative said it would take a year until housing units in Adam are ready to absorb the people currently living in Migron.

Attorney Aner Hellman, the state's representative, emphasized that the understanding between the government and the settlers on evacuating Migron voluntarily was an important achievement, but, "If the residents of Migron do not buy the lots which will be ready in a year, there will be no escaping evacuating them by force."

Attorney Michael Sfard, representing Palestinians who say the lands where Migron is built belong to them, said the estimate of a year was optimistic, and that it would take longer until the plan could be implemented.

He further stated that resettling Migron's residents to Adam, a large settlement which is also beyond the Green Line, would harm the basic rights of Palestinian residents.
"It would be better to leave Migron standing than to approve a construction plan in Adam," he said.

Migron residents reacted with fury to the hearing.
"The fate of Judea and Samaria neighborhoods cannot be decided upon in a hearing in this or any other court," they were quoted by Army Radio as saying, adding that they were not prepared to accept any evacuation agreement.

They further stated that "we were sent to this place 10 years ago by the country in order to settle the rocky and empty hill which had never been worked upon, and we didn't expel any people from their land."

Ben-Eliezer ziet Obama als kans voor vredesakkoord met Palestijnen

Ook dit is een geluid uit de volgens Martijn van Dam 'ultrarechtse' Israelische regering.

 

RP

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'US appeasement toward Iran is worrying'
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Jul. 4, 2009
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443714783&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

 

In the first Israeli response to North Korea's belligerent test-launching of missiles over the weekend, Industry Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Saturday he was "very troubled by the American reaction to North Korea's actions," adding he was "not at all calm regarding the American appeasement towards Iran."

Ben-Eliezer was speaking in a casual cultural event in Ramat Gan and his statements did not constitute the official position of the government.

"As far as I'm concerned, the estimates regarding the date that Iran will have nuclear weapons do not matter. For me, an Iranian nuclear bomb is a fait accompli but the world continues to play a double game with Iran, with statements and UN resolutions by day and more than 1,000 European companies still trading with Iran by night. [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad sees through the West's weakness and giggles when he knows everyone needs Iranian oil and money," Ben-Eliezer said.

Tying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Iran, Ben-Eliezer said that the Iranian nuclear threat had created a shared interest between Israel, the United States and the moderate states of the Arab world. "Stopping Iran's nuclearization," he said, "is a main issue for us, the Americans and the moderate Arab world. We must take this opportunity and lead towards separation from the Palestinians and immediate resumption of negotiations. We must move towards a solution as fast as we can, with sponsorship and involvement by Arab leaders. We have been in the territories for 42 years and our situation is worsening by the day. We must sit and reach a diplomatic solution. As a former defense minister and current member of the cabinet I say - Israel is one of the strongest countries I know. We should work towards an agreement and not be afraid."

He said Israel must never cut a deal with the Palestinians only in the West Bank, rather than tying it to the Gaza Strip. "Otherwise," he said, "we will have three states for two peoples. I safely say that when the moderate Arab world, led by Egypt, knows we are serious and determined and indeed plan to take the course of diplomacy - they will cooperate with us and give their full backing to our diplomatic actions."

Ben-Eliezer also spoke of Israel's relations with the United States following the election of US President Barack Obama. "He's no [George W.] Bush and no [Bill] Clinton, but he's certainly not a [Jimmy] Carter. He sees the world differently and I think maybe this is a chance for us to overcome psychological hang-ups and 'flow' with the diplomacy he leads. Israel is in agreement and understanding with the Americans, [and has] strategic understandings I cannot imagine living without. A strong Israel is also an American interest, but strengthening settlements is not. I look at the full half of the glass - let's leverage US pressure for our benefit. Maybe in five years we will be able to say we gave a great present to our children and grandchildren."

VS dwingt Israelische concurrent uit competitie voor gevechtsvliegtuigen te stappen

Sympathisanten van de Palestijnen halen altijd graag de miljarden aan die Israel van de VS ontvangt, maar vergeten dat daaraan allerlei voorwaarden zijn verbonden die gunstig zijn voor de VS, en die Israels wapenindustrie steeds afhankelijker van de VS hebben gemaakt. Ondertussen wordt Israel geregeld gedwongen zich uit deals terug te trekken omdat dit 'slecht is voor de relatie met de VS.' Het is vreemd en tegenstrijdig met het principe van nationale soevereiniteit dat Israel niet op eigen gelegenheid met bondgenoten van de VS deals op defensiegebied kan sluiten.

 

RP

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IAF forced out of Indian fighter jet bid
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST

Jul. 5, 2009
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443717576&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

 

Under pressure from the Pentagon, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has been forced to back out of a joint partnership with a Swedish aerospace company to compete in a multi-billion dollar tender to sell new multi-role fighter jets to the Indian Air Force.

The deal, estimated at a whopping $12 billion for over 120 new aircraft, is being fought over by Lockheed Martin's F-16, Boeing's F-18/Hornet, Russia's MiG-35 and BAE's Eurofighter. IAI was asked by Saab, manufacturer of the Gripen, to jointly develop an advanced model which would compete for the deal.

The Defense Ministry ordered IAI to back out of the deal after the Pentagon expressed concern that American technology, used by Israel, would be integrated into the Gripen offered to the Indians.

"The stated concern was that Western technology in Israeli hands would make its way to the Indians," one Israeli official said.

What was strange with the American request was that Boeing and Lockheed Martin - the two largest US defense contractors - are also competing for the Indian deal. For this reason, Israeli officials said it was more likely that the Americans were concerned that if IAI competed for the deal with Saab, it would force the American companies to lower their prices.

A multi-role fighter, the Gripen is in service in Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary and South Africa. IAI was supposed to provide the electronic systems - radar, communications and electronic-warfare - for the plane.

This is not the first time that an Israeli company has been forced out of a deal due to concerns that competing with American companies would endanger Israeli-US relations.

Last summer, the MoD ordered Israel Military Industries (IMI) to back down from submitting a bid for a half-a-billion dollar deal to develop and manufacture a new tank for the Turkish Armed Forces.

At the time, Turkey had informed the MoD of its interest in developing a new tank and asked if IMI would want to submit a bid. SIBAT - the MOD's Foreign Defense Assistance and Defense Export Organization - decided not to submit an Israeli offer so not to compete with the Americans and endanger Israeli-US defense relations.

Israël, Hamas en het leren van fouten (Nederlands Dagblad)

Hieronder een genuanceerd opiniestuk van Jan van Benthem, redacteur bij het christelijke Nederlands Dagblad.

 

Ik heb zelf het rapport van Amnesty gelezen, en vind het eerlijk gezegd nogal eenzijdig. De veroordeling van Hamas is in veel mildere bewoordingen dan die van Israel gesteld, bovendien beschuldigt men Israel ervan expres en zonder enig militair doel op burgers te schieten en huizen en andere gebouwen te hebben gebombardeerd, iets wat zeer moeilijk hard te maken is, vooral zonder gedetailleerde informatie van Israels kant.

 

Het rapport geeft verder absoluut geen context voor de oorlog en haar oorzaken, en de grootschalige wapensmokkel en duizenden raketten van de afgelopen jaren, de vele (pogingen tot) aanslagen en de ontvoering van Shalit blijven alle onvermeld. Het rapport is grotendeels gebaseerd op aangrijpende ooggetuigenverslagen over Israelische wreedheden, zonder dat Amnesty enige afstand van deze bronnen neemt, of enig vraagteken zet. Het is niet meer te controleren of alles ook precies zo gebeurd is, want, hoe cynisch dat misschien ook klinkt, ooggetuigenverslagen kloppen niet altijd 100% zoals ze zijn verteld.

 

Ook wat betreft het aantal slachtoffers en het aantal burgers onder hen baseert Amnesty zich op Palestijnse bronnen. Het is verkeerd en vooral ook vreselijk stom dat Israel niet heeft meegewerkt met het onderzoek en vragen van Amnesty niet heeft beantwoord, maar dat geeft Amnesty niet het recht op grond van Palestijnse bronnen Israel van de meeste verschrikkelijke oorlogsmisdaden te beschuldigen, op te roepen tot een wapenembargo en tot vervolging van verschillende Israelische militairen en politici.

 

RP

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Israël, Hamas en het leren van fouten

http://www.nd.nl/artikelen/2009/juli/04/israel-hamas-en-het-leren-van-fouten

Geplaatst: 04 juli 2009 06:13, laatste wijziging: 03 juli 2009 20:15

door Jan van Benthem

 

 

Drie dingen heeft Amnesty International bereikt met zijn rapport over de Gazaoorlog.

Laten we bij het begin beginnen: het Israëlische leger is het meest morele leger ter wereld en de zaak van Hamas is de meest rechtvaardige van alle volken. Zeggen ze zelf. En ze zijn zo overtuigd van hun zaak dat of nu de VN of Human Rights Watch of zoals deze week Amnesty International een rapport uitbrengt waarin wordt gesproken over 'oorlogsmisdaden', het protest uit zowel Tel Aviv als de Gazastrook zo hevig is dat de argumenten uit deze rapporten niet tot hen doordringen.

Precies dat onderstreept waarom die rapporten er zijn gekomen. Want het gaat daarin over de vraag, hoe er met het leven van anderen is omgesprongen. Roekeloos en onverschillig, is de herhaalde conclusie.

En dat mag geen enkele regering of beweging negeren, door bij voorbaat luid te protesteren. Alleen door de eigen fouten onder ogen te zien, kan daar lering uit worden getrokken en herhaling worden voorkomen.

Heilig doel
Nu zijn de in de eerste regel geciteerde aannames meteen fikse blokkades. Wie zichzelf beschouwt als de beste of denkt te strijden voor een heilig doel, heeft niet direct de neiging te luisteren naar kritiek op het eigen handelen.

Toch is er wel een essentieel verschil dat ook weer uit het Amnestyrapport van deze week [blijkt]. Israël heeft in het geval van de Gazaoorlog gehandeld uit verdediging tegen de duizenden Qassamraketten die uit de Gazastrook zijn afgevuurd. Dat is niet alleen een recht van een regering, het is zelfs een plicht om de eigen burgers te beschermen.

Hamas en andere gewapende Palestijnse groepen, zoals Amnesty ze noemt, schenden volgens Amnesty per definitie al het internationale recht door het afvuren van Qassamraketten op burgerdoelen in Israël. ,,Iedere raket is potentieel dodelijk en de intensieve barrage van zulke raketten veroorzaakte paniek onder de burgerbevolking van Zuid-Israël. Duizenden gezinnen vluchtten naar andere delen van het land en wie wel bleef moest iedere keer hollen om dekking te zoeken als het alarm waarschuwde voor een naderende raket''. Hamas en zijn soortgenoten kreeg ook de volle laag als het gaat om het gedrag in de Gazastrook zelf door midden tussen de burgers aanvallen op Israëlische doelen te plegen.

Dat Hamas hier lering uit zal trekken is volstrekt onwaarschijnlijk. De terreurbeweging ziet de eigen strijd als een heilige jihad en mochten burgers daar het slachtoffer van worden, wel, dan zijn dat martelaren die Allah wel rijk zal belonen. Deze houding is in de Arabische pers vorige maand fel veroordeeld, waarbij Hamas verantwoordelijk werd gesteld voor iedere druppel bloed die in de Gazastrook is vergoten. ,,De waarheid is dat de leiders van Hamas als enigen verantwoordelijk zijn voor het bloedbad in Gaza. Zij alleen waren de heersers in Gaza, zij besloten de de-escalatie te beëindigen, wat het begin van een oorlog met Israël betekende.''

Er is overal over gesproken en zowel Hamas als Israël roepen om het hardst dat het rapport 'ongebalanceerd en oneerlijk is' (Hamas) en 'geen verband houdt met de werkelijkheid' (Israël). Maar omwille van de verloren levens van honderden burgers moet er naar geluisterd worden.

Aan de kant schuiven
Betekent dit nu dat Israël het Amnestyrapport dus aan de kant kan schuiven omdat het toch allemaal de schuld van Hamas is? De reactie uit Tel Aviv duidt daar wel op. Een van de meest inhoudelijke argumenten is dat Amnesty heeft verzuimd Hamas te betitelen als een terroristische beweging maar het omschreef als een 'bewapende groep'. Bovendien zouden veel van de feiten die Amnesty naar voren brengt niet kloppen. ,,De getuigen in het rapport zijn betrokkenen en staan onder druk van Hamas, zoals is aangetoond door onafhankelijke onderzoeken in de internationale media'', aldus het Israëlische ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken in een reactie. Die 'internationale media' zullen wel verbaasd hebben opgekeken: tot nu toe werden zij door Israël juist beticht van een bevooroordeelde eenzijdigheid en nu hebben ze ineens het gelijk van Israël bevestigd?

In sommige gevallen is dit wel het geval. Eerdere berichten als zou Israël een VN-school doelbewust hebben beschoten zijn inderdaad ontzenuwd door nauwkeurig onderzoek van 'de media'. Er wordt nauwkeurig gelet op evenwichtigheid in de berichtgeving over Israël en de Palestijnen, soms zelfs door een speciale commissie zoals de BBC voor heeft ingesteld, soms door een ombudsman als bij de NOS. Ook nu is bijvoorbeeld op Radio1 het bericht over het Amnnestyrapport bijna per woord gewogen: evenveel voor de volgens Amnesty door het Israëlische leger begane oorlogsmisdaden als voor die van Hamas.

Het zou erg wenselijk zijn als Israël dat zelf ook deed. Want hoewel de acties in de Gazastrook tegen de voordurende rakettenregen in beginsel terecht waren, zijn er bij de uitvoering wel honderden burgers omgekomen. Dat de cijfers daarover bij Amnesty sterk verschillen van die van Israël heeft onder meer te maken met de vraag, hoe bijvoorbeeld agenten in opleiding van de Hamas burgerwacht worden gezien - als terroristen want verbonden aan Hamas als Israël doet of primair als burgers.

Maar los van dit soort verschillen zijn er wel naar schatting driehonderd kinderen en ruim honderd vrouwen omgekomen door Israëlische kogels, granaten, raketten of bommen. Israël zegt voortdurend er alles aan te doen dit te voorkomen en dat deze slachtoffers vooral worden veroorzaakt door het feit dat Hamas tussen de burgers opereert. Amnesty wijst er daartegenover op dat veel van de slachtoffers zijn gevallen door precisiewapens waarbij degenen die ze gebruikten het kennelijk voor lief namen dat er ook burgers of zelfs soms alleen burgers door zouden omkomen, eenzelfde conclusie als die van een VN-onderzoekscommissie twee maand geleden.

'Recht - niets mee te maken'
Is het onachtzaamheid geweest, of speelde er meer? Israël zelf zegt dat zijn leger uiterst nauwkeurig heeft gehandeld en er alles aan heeft gedaan om volgens internbationaal recht te handelen. Maar een persoonlijk gesprek met een oudere kolonel, die recht en moraal altijd hoog heeft, aan het begin van de acties in de Gazastrook duidde toen al op iets anders. ,,Kom niet bij me aan met dat internationaal recht'', zei hij toen, ,,daar hebben we niets mee te maken. Waar was dat toen Hamas al die duizenden raketten op ons afschoot? Wie protesteerde toen? We gaan nu met ze afrekenen, op onze manier.''

Een manier die te vaak is ontspoort, zegt Amnesty nu. Israël wilde niet meewerken aan het rapport, wil er ook nu eigenlijk geen kennis van nemen, wil ook niet meewerken met de onafhankelijke onderzoekscommissie die de Raad voor de Mensenrechten van de VN heeft ingesteld en wordt geleid door rechter Richard Goldstone. Het zou dat ondanks alle kritiek die het op deze onderzoeken heeft toch wel moeten doen. Het vergroot de eigen geloofwaardigheid en het geeft de kans er lessen uit te leren. Want Hamas bereidt zich voor op het volgende conflict. De tunnels bij Rafah werken al weer volop, nu zelfs tot zestig meter diep onder de grond zoals de Jerusalem Post gisteren berichtte. Hoe omvangrijk het goederen en wapentransport door die tunnels is, kan worden afgeleid uit een schatting van de zender Al-Arabiya, die er onderzoek naar heeft gedaan en tot een aantal van achthonderd tunnels komt. Zo'n enorm netwerk valt door bombardementen vrijwel niet meer uit te schakelen, citeert de JP een hoge Israëlische officier. Kortom, er moet worden nagedacht over nieuwe tactieken. En omwille van het leven van die omgekomen kinderen en hun moeders: léés daarbij wat er in de eerste Gazaoorlog is fout gegaan.

 

Religieuze leider PA verkondigt antisemitische leugens

Dit soort opruiing en geschiedvervalsing is schering en inslag binnen de 'gematigde' Palestijnse Autoriteit van Machmoud Abbas, en is net zo'n groot obstakel voor de vrede als de voortgaande bouw in de nederzettingen. Toch hoor je er zelden over buiten 'zionistische' kringen; de media negeren het, Obama negeert het, de EU negeert het, de VN en Amnesty International negeren het, en al die zogenaamde vredesactivisten negeren het ook. Toch is de verspreiding van haat vaak een effectieve manier om volken tegen elkaar op te zetten en leidt het meestal tot geweld.

 

RP

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Bulletin July 5, 2009 - Palestinian Media Watch

Senior PA religious official repeats incendiary lies and libels about Israel, Jews and Jewish history
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik


In a single TV interview, one of the Palestinian Authority's most senior religious officials has reiterated several of the many fundamental lies, libels and defamations about Israel, Jews and Jewish history that play a central role in PA ideology and hate propaganda. Tayseer Tamimi, the PA's Chief Religious Justice, regularly appears as a religious authority in the official PA media and at public events.

In this recent interview, Tamimi teaches that the Quran says that Jews have inherently negative traits and have been evil throughout history; that Jerusalem has no Jewish holy sites; that Israel is destroying the foundation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is now "hanging in midair;" that Orthodox Jews deny the Western Wall is part of the Jewish Temple; and that Jesus was not a Jew but a Palestinian.

 

Tamimi's recent libels, lies and defamations, PATV (Fatah), June 9, 2009:

#1. The Quran says Jews have inherently negative characteristics
#2. Jews have no connection to Jerusalem
#3. Israel is acting to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque
#4. Orthodox Jews deny the Western Wall is part of the Temple
#5. Jesus was not a Jew but a Palestinian prophet of Islam

==========

#1. The Quran says Jews have inherently negative characteristics
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DnL-X8fCH4

Tayseer Tamimi, PA Chief Religious Justice:
"Concerning the Jews, the Holy Quran says that they lack understanding, are void of wisdom, know nothing, violate agreements, etc. However, the Jews were known - it was known about them throughout history- that they make false claims, lies, forgery, slander, and fabrications, in order to justify their aggression, land theft, defilement of holy sites, appropriation of land, destruction of homes, murder of children, women, and the elderly."

#2. Jews have no connection to Jerusalem
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xO6AiYMxe4

Tayseer Tamimi, PA Chief Religious Justice:
"I know of Muslim and Christian holy sites in [Jerusalem]. I don't know of any Jewish holy sites in it... Israel has been excavating since 1967 in search of remains of their Temple or their fictitious Jewish history."

#3. Israel is acting to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_WA6uWWKqs

Tayseer Tamimi, PA Chief Religious Justice:
"The [Israeli] excavations' purpose is to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque. In fact, its foundations have been removed. Chemical acids were injected into the rocks to dissolve them. The soil and the pillars [were moved] so the mosque is hanging in midair. There is an Israeli plan to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to build the Temple."

#4. Orthodox Jews deny the Western Wall is part of the Temple
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BySsBVrbaDs

Tayseer Tamimi, PA Chief Religious Justice:
"When the Prophet [Muhammad] entered Jerusalem, after landing with his 'riding animal' in the Night Journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, he tied it to the western wall, which is known today [by Muslims] as the al-Buraq Wall, and which the Jews usurped by falsification and deception [saying it is the Western Wall of the Temple]. Orthodox Jewish groups, such as Neturei Karta, denounce all the actions of the Israeli government and the Zionist movement in Jerusalem. They, more than us, say these claims are false and a distortion of the Jewish faith."

#5. Jesus was not a Jew but a Palestinian prophet of Islam
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGoDhj7nRwU

Archbishop Atallah Hanna (speaking humorously): "We [Christians] are local stock, 100% Palestinian and Arab produce."
Tayseer Tamimi, PA Chief Religious Justice: "Jesus is the only Palestinian prophet."

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

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

 

Palestijnse Autoriteit neemt wapens en explosieven van Hamas in beslag

 

Meer aanwijzingen dat Hamas probeert om een coup te plegen op de Westoever. Eerder al bleek dat Hamas probeerde aanslagen op PA functionarissen te plegen.
Het feit dat Fatah, en niet Israel, deze coup en aanslagen verijdelt is een goed teken, maar de vraag is wel of Fatah daar zonder Israelische aanwezigheid op de Westoever toe in staat was geweest.

RP

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PA: Arms, explosives and cash seized from Hamas
Date: 05 / 07 / 2009  Time:  11:56
www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=39031


Nablus - Ma'an Exclusive - The Palestinian Authority has in recent months seized arms, explosives and millions of dollars in cash from Hamas, a PA official said on Sunday.

The official, security forces spokesperson Adnan Ad-Damiry, told Ma'an that its West Bank officers have discovered "large amounts of explosives and bombs in the districts of Nablus, Hebron and Qalqiliya."

He also alleged that Hamas intended to use the weapons "heinously" against PA forces.

"PA forces discovered apartments, which Hamas purchased to use as operating centers between the West Bank and Gaza Strip to implement orders to kidnap officials," he said, adding that the movement intended to "implement other plans that threaten Palestinian security and safety."

The official claimed the Fatah-allied PA had also "seized large amounts of money [8.5 million US dollars] entering the Palestinian territories illegally," cash he said would be used to maintain Hamas' own military forces in the West Bank.

Ad-Damiry also dismissed the frequent Hamas accusations that PA forces participate in politically motivated arrest campaigns, saying that "if a tsunami hit the West Bank, Hamas would accuse the PA of being responsible for it." He said PA forces only arrest Hamas affiliates on suspicion of smuggling weapons or money.

"We will continue our work until Hamas stops planning and implementing its coup" in the West Bank, "as it did in the Gaza Strip," the spokesperson insisted, calling the PA's ongoing operations against the Islamic movement a "duty to fight all illegal phenomena and maintain Palestinians' security and safety."

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority security forces detained four Hamas affiliates in the West Bank on Saturday evening, according to the Islamic movement.

In a statement received by Ma'an, Hamas said that the detentions took place in Qalqiliya, Tulkarem and Nablus, pointing out that a woman was also among those arrested.

Hamas accused PA forces of detaining and torturing women in the West Bank, calling on the PA to release the women at a minimum, and to put an end to the issue of political arrests once and for all.

A Hamas spokesperson called on human rights organizations, Egyptian officials and party leaders to halt this "manipulation of the Palestinians' fate," and urged relevant parties to expose "the truth of the detaining of women and political arrests in the West Bank."

Geinfiltreerde terrorist uit Gazastrook opgepakt

Israel verijdelt nog geregeld aanslagen en verhindert de opbouw van nieuwe terroristische cellen op de Westelijke Jordaanoever.

RP

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Terrorist Infiltrator from Gaza Arrested and Charged

(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Office)

 

 

In a joint Israel Security Agency-Israel Police operation, Abd El-Rahman Talalkeh, was arrested in the Negev, in the early morning hours of 1.6.09, after having left the Gaza Strip and infiltrated into Israel via the Sinai Peninsula.  He admitted to having undergone extensive military training in the Gaza Strip, on behalf of the Popular Resistance Committees, in order to establish a terrorism infrastructure inside Israel.  The aforesaid training included small arms; preparing various chemicals, car-bombs, explosive belts and bags; the use of explosives; use of GPS devices; map-reading; and intelligence gathering.

 

Talalkeh, born in 1984 and a resident the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, was dispatched to Israel in order to recruit terrorists and establish a terrorism infrastructure in Judea and Samaria in order to perpetrate various attacks including suicide attacks and the abduction and murder of soldiers in order to use them as bargaining chips.

 

Talalkeh was indicted today (Sunday), 5.7.09, in Be'er Sheva Magistrates Court.

 

 

Mensenrechten op de Westoever: Hoe de Palestijnen te helpen

 

De prijs van de relatieve rust en veiligheid op de Westelijke Jordaanoever is een soms bruut en willekeurig optredend politieapparaat dat ook de persvrijheid beknot en onschuldige slachtoffers maakt. Hervorming en samenvoeging van de vele veiligheidsdiensten van de PA staat al jaren op het verlanglijstje van de sponsors, maar men durft blijkbaar niet te dreigen om de geldkraan dicht te draaien als er niets verbetert. Wellicht is er de afgelopen jaren ook wel wat verbeterd, je leest er weinig over, of is beter niet haalbaar in die situatie en omgeving? De Arabische buurlanden doen het doorgaans ook niet beter, dus het ligt beslist niet alleen aan de Israëlische bezetting die zo makkelijk van alles de schuld krijgt.

 

Wouter

________________

 

How To Help the Palestinians
by Khaled Abu Toameh

Wednesday, Jul. 01, 2009 at 10:36 AM

http://www.hudsonny.org/2009/06/how-to-help-the-palestinian-people.php

 

 

The leaders of the Palestinian Authority do not want the international community to hear anything about massive abuse of human rights and intimidation of journalists that its security forces are practicing almost on a daily basis in the West Bank.

They do not want the world to see that, with the help of the Americans and some Europeans, they are building more prisons and security forces than hospitals and housing projects for the needy.

They want the US and the rest of the world to continue believing that peace will prevail tomorrow morning only if Israel stops construction in the settlements and removes a number of empty caravans from remote and isolated hilltops in the West Bank.

The Palestinians do not need a dictatorship that harasses and terrorizes journalists, and that is responsible for the death of detainees in its prisons. In the Arab world we already have enough dictatorships.

The Palestinians do not need additional security forces, militias and armed gangs. In fact, there are too many of them, both in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

American and European taxpayers' money should be invested in building hospitals, schools and housing projects. Investing billions of dollars in training thousands of policemen and establishing new security forces and prisons will not advance the cause of peace and coexistence.

There is no doubt that many Palestinians would love to abandon the culture of uniform and weapons in favor of improved infrastructure and medical care.

As for the international media, it's time to abandon the policy of double standards in covering the Israeli-Arab conflict. For many years, the mainstream media in the US and Europe turned a blind eye to stories about financial corruption under Yasser Arafat. The result was that Arafat and his cronies got away with stealing billions of dollars that had been donated to the Palestinians by the Americans and Europeans.

Back then, many foreign journalists said they believed that the stories about financial corruption in the Palestinian areas were "Zionist propaganda." Other journalists said they would rather file an anti-Israel story because this way they would become more popular with their editors and publishers.

Recently, a Palestinian TV crew was stopped at a checkpoint in the West Bank, where soldiers confiscated a tape and erased its content.

This incident, hardly received any coverage in the mainstream media in the US and Europe.

The reason? The perpetrators were not IDF soldiers, but Palestinian Authority security officers. And the checkpoint did not belong to the IDF; it was, in fact, a Palestinian checkpoint.

The story of the detention of the TV crew -- which, by the way, belonged to Al-Jazeera and the erasure of the footage did not make it to the mainstream media even after Reporters Without Borders, an organization that defends journalists worldwide, issued a statement strongly condemning the assault on the freedom of the media.

"Journalists must be able to work freely," Reporters Without Borders said. "The erasure of this video footage proves that the Palestinian security forces try to cover up their human rights violations. This incident should be the subject of an enquiry by the Palestinian Authority."

Walid Omari, the head of the Qatar-based satellite TV station's operations in the West Bank, told Reporters Without Borders that his crew was preparing a report on the death of a detainee at the Palestinian Authority detention center in Hebron that might have been the result of torture.

"We were the only ones to investigate this case and we did it despite strong pressure from the Palestinian Authority," Omari said.

Al Jazeera's Hebron correspondent went with a cameraman to the victim's home in the village of Dura, where they interviewed the family and filmed the body.

As they were returning to Hebron in a vehicle displaying the word "Press," they were detained by Palestinian Authority security forces at a checkpoint and taken to a police station, where the video footage they had just recorded was erased. They were allowed to go after an hour.

One can only imagine the international media's reaction had the TV crew been detained by Israeli security forces. Anti-Israel groups and individuals would have cited the incident as further proof of the "occupation's brutal measures" against the freedom of the media.

Moreover, it is highly likely that Israeli human rights organizations like Betselem would have dispatched researchers to the field to investigate the incident had IDF soldiers been involved.

Yet foreign journalists and human rights activists working in Israel and the Palestinian territories either chose to ignore the story or never heard about it simply because it was lacking in an anti-Israel angle.

One can also imagine how the media and human rights organizations would have reacted had a Palestinian died in Israeli prison after allegedly being tortured.

Haitham Amr, a male nurse, was detained by the Palestinian Authority's US-backed and trained General Intelligence Force on suspicion of being affiliated with Hamas. He was one of more than 700 Palestinians who are being held without trial in West Bank prisons that are run by security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

These security forces, which are being referred to by many Palestinians as the Dayton Forces [a reference to ret. US general and security coordinator Keith Dayton], claimed that Amr was killed after he jumped from the second floor of a building where he was being held in Hebron. The family and human rights organizations insist that Amr died as a result of severe torture.

If the Palestinian Authority really had nothing to fear, why did it send its police officers to detain the TV crew and confiscate the tape? Is the Palestinian Authority trying to hide something?

True, Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salaam Fayad hold more moderate views than Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal.

But Abbas and Fayad do not enjoy enough credibility among their own people, largely due to their open ties with Israel and the West. The security and financial support that the Americans and Europeans are giving to the Palestinian Authority is nothing but a bear hug.

That is perhaps why they chose to ignore the story about the male nurse whose family says was tortured to death by security officers who receive their salaries from US and European taxpayers' money.

 

Israel overweegt verzachten Gaza blokkade om Shalit vrij te krijgen

 

Ik vind het niet gerechtvaardigd om de hele bevolking van de Gazastrook onder druk te zetten door de levering van etenswaren, kleding en allerlei gebruiksvoorwerpen te beperken vanwege de gijzeling van één soldaat. Anderzijds IS Gaza een vijandig gebied waarmee Israel op voet van oorlog verkeerd en wiens regime haar vernietiging nastreeft. Juist de apologeten die beweren dat Hamas de legitieme, gekozen regering van deze Palestijnen is, hebben geen recht van klagen: deze democratische regering hoeft alleen één soldaat vrij te laten -in ruil voor vele Palestijnse gevangenen- om het lijden van haar onderdanen aanzienlijk te verzachten.

 

Wouter

_____________

 

 

Last update - 08:03 04/07/2009
Report: Israel mulling easing Gaza siege
By The Associated Press 
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097645.html


The Defense Ministry has recommended a partial lifting of the embargo on the Gaza Strip as a goodwill gesture toward the Palestinians to spur talks to free a long-held captive soldier, Israeli media reported Friday.

Israel has been linking the opening of Gaza's borders to the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held by Hamas militants for more than three years. Hamas has been pushing for a deal to trade him for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners currently held in Israeli jails.

Israel imposed a near-total embargo of the Gaza Strip in 2007 after Hamas militants violently took control of the territory.

According to the new plan, reported by the news Web site Ynet, Israel would increase supplies of coffee, tea, soup, meat, fish and canned goods into Gaza ahead of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which begins in August, to promote a deal for Shalit.

Israel would also renew shipments of fuel, clothing, kitchenware and egg-laying chickens as part of the package.

Ynet reported that the proposal had been drafted by defense officials and awaits the approval of Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

The Defense Ministry would not officially comment on the report.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Friday that if there was any truth to the report, it would represent a righting of a previous wrong.

"The Palestinian people have one single, clear demand - the siege must be lifted and all the crossings have to be open and life to get back to normal in the Gaza Strip," he told reporters outside a Gaza mosque after Friday prayers.

The idea behind the plan, according to Ynet, was to lift the embargo gradually and link it to progress on Egyptian-mediated talks aimed at releasing Shalit from captivity. The plan does not include transferring products such as steel and concrete, which are needed to rebuild the battered territory but could also help Hamas improve its military capabilities.

Hamas and other militants have fired thousands of missiles at Israeli border towns and communities in recent years.

Israel has come under heavy pressure from the international community - including the Obama administration - to lift its embargo, which has crippled the Gaza economy. Gaza has survived largely thanks to a booming underground smuggling trade between Gaza and Egypt.