zaterdag 27 september 2008

Paul McCartney met OneVoice button

Foto: Reuters
 
Tegen de komst van Paul McCartney naar Israël werd luid geprotesteerd door radicale moslims en boycotactivisten. De echte vredesactivisten konden op de steun van Sir Paul rekenen. Fab!
 
 
Wouter
________________
 

Yesterday in Tel Aviv, amidst all the commotion in preparation for his concert, Sir Paul McCartney sat down with staff and youth leaders from OneVoice Israel.

At the meeting, McCartney said, "My father told me that regular people don't like wars and don't want conflict. I'm not a politician – I just want to bring a message of peace. In every place I perform I see that people want the same thing" -- echoing OneVoice's stance that the majority of Israelis and Palestinians are moderates who simply wish to live their lives in peace and prosperity, free from violence, conflict, and occupation.

In support of the movement's mission – to empower ordinary Israelis and Palestinians to push for peace and a two state solutionMcCartney and members of his band wore the OneVoice pin at last night's concert.

McCartney spent the day before in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, bringing his message of peace to Palestine as well. We are thrilled to have his support.

OV in the MEDIA: United Press International - E! Online - Bloomberg News

__ 
For more information and to tell us what you think, please visit our blog:
http://blog.onevoicemovement.org

 

 


Analyse aanslag op Peace Now lid Zeev Sternhell

 
Voor de aanslag op Zeev Sternhell zie:
Ynetnews - klik hier
Haaretz - klik hier
Verklaring Peace Now - klik hier
Een recente oproep van een 'kolonistenrabbi' tot geweld tegen Peace Now - klik hier (Ynet)
 
Politie en rechtbanken zouden hard optreden tegen Palestijns geweld, terwijl tegen geweld door kolonisten nauwelijks zou worden opgetreden, zo betoogt Amos Harel hieronder. Kolonisten klagen over het omgekeerde: dat tegen Palestijns geweld vaak niets wordt ondernomen en zijzelf juist hard worden aangepakt door het hooggerechtshof en politie en leger, en dat de media hen ook voortdurend zwartmaken. Het beeld ligt zeker genuanceerder dan vaak uit de berichtgeving blijkt. Er zijn zowel geweldadige incidenten van beide kanten als voorbeelden van vreedzaam samenleven en zelfs samenwerken op de Westoever. De complexe rechtssituatie en vaak moeizame samenwerking tussen IDF en Palestijnse veiligheidsdienst maken het extra lastig om de orde te handhaven.
 
Maar dat alles ter zijde: De aanval op Prof. Sternhell vond niet op de Westoever plaats maar in Israël zelf. De rabbi die vond dat Peace Now activisten de doodstraf verdienden wegens verraad (zie link hierboven), zei erbij dat deze alleen kon worden uitgesproken door een (religieuze) rechtbank. De Joden hebben geen religieuze rechtbanken die hiertoe bevoegd zijn, en de Israëlische seculiere rechtbanken gaan niet over de halacha. Wat resteert is ophitsing tot geweld, want voor een groepje heethoofden is het na zo'n uitspraken nog maar een kleine stap verder om het 'recht' in eigen hand te nemen. Zo hebben dit soort lieden zich ook medeplichtig gemaakt aan de moord op Rabin.
 
Wouter
__________________

Last update - 08:02 26/09/2008

ANALYSIS / Why did the attack on a well-known leftist professor happen now?
 
By Amos Harel
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1024687.html


Having devoted much of his academic work to studying fascist movements, Prof. Zeev Sternhell will probably not be surprised by the identity of those who placed the pipe bomb at his door Thursday. Quasi-fascist groups exist on the fringes of Israel's right, and it seems likely that Sternhell's assailants came from these circles.

This attack returns us to darker days: From the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, right-wing attacks on leftists were more frequent. The worrisome question - beyond the identity of the attackers, which will apparently soon be clear - is why now.

The pamphlets found outside Sternhell's home link the attack to his activities in Peace Now and threaten the movement's leaders. But Peace Now, in its 2008 version, is barely a shadow of its former self. This is not the movement that brought tens of thousands into the streets to protest the First Lebanon War and the settlements. What pressed the right's buttons now, of all times, and why was Peace Now a target?

An analysis by the Shin Bet security service, which was presented to the government and reported in Haaretz last December, predicted a steep rise in right-wing violence - against Palestinians, the security forces and, to a lesser extent, the Israel left - if a rise in Palestinian terror against West Bank settlers combined with fear of an evacuation of settlements. Yet neither factor is currently evident. Palestinian terror may be rising, but not in the West Bank; Jerusalem has been far more dangerous recently. And all the talk of shelf agreements has not yet removed one outpost.

Nevertheless, recent weeks have seen an increase in both the number and severity of violent incidents by right-wing extremists. The attack on Sternhell follows Yitzhar residents' rampage through Asira al-Kabaliya and attacks by settlers on soldiers at the Yad Yair outpost and in Hebron.

Why now? This may be an attempt to intimidate the government as Tzipi Livni replaces Ehud Olmert, for fear that the new premier will try to reach an agreement with the Palestinians quickly. Another explanation is the transformation the extreme right has undergone following the disengagement and the evacuation of Amona: It now has far fewer inhibitions about using violence.

The security forces' struggle against violent zealots on the right has suffered in the past from two main problems: restrictions on investigating Israelis (as opposed to the great freedom these forces have in investigating Palestinians), and leniency by the courts. In 2001-02, a Jewish terror group murdered at least seven Palestinians in the West Bank, but no one was prosecuted. The Bat Ayin cell, which placed explosives near Palestinian schools, was arrested, but the murderers who operated on the roads are still at large. The Shin Bet still believes it had the culprits in its interrogation rooms, but their refusal to talk saved them from indictment.

This time, the nut may prove easier to crack. Experts do not use pipe bombs; the goal seems to have been to intimidate and create a media stir. If so, the law may find it easier to nab the culprits.

But clemency on the part of judges is a thornier problem, one that will make this month especially difficult: The olive harvest is starting in the West Bank, and numerous incidents between settlers and Palestinian farmers are likely.
 
 

vrijdag 26 september 2008

Rotterdam voor Hamas?

 
Ik gun de bevolking van Gaza de vriendschap van Rotterdam, maar zo'n stedenband loopt nou eenmaal via de bestuurders van beide steden/regio's, zij nodigen elkaar uit en alle activiteiten en hulp verloopt via hun. Zoals we ook geen stedenband aangaan met plaatsen in Birma, Noord-Korea of Wit-Rusland, hoezeer de bevolking daar dat ook kan gebruiken, moeten we dat ook niet doen met gebieden die onder de controle staan van Hamas. Het racistische Hamas is vorig jaar door middel van een illegale coup aan de macht gekomen, en roept op tot de vernietiging van een VN lidstaat en bondgenoot van Nederland, dus ook van Rotterdam.
 
RP
------------
 
Trouw, 24 september 2008

En dan valt het met Hamas heus wel mee?

 

Jumelages – nooit geweten dat Rotterdammers er zo dol op zijn. Met liefst 29 steden onderhoudt de gemeente jumelages. Ter vergelijking: Utrecht en Den Haag zijn beide aan twéé steden geparenteerd, mijn eigen Amsterdam is bevriend met drie.

Maar links Rotterdam vindt dat er nog wel een bij kan. Opmerkelijk genoeg kiest het niet voor Konya (Turkije), Bouake (Ivoorkust) of Shiloh (Zambia) – steden die stuk voor stuk hebben laten weten op zoek te zijn naar een partner. Nee, de Rotterdammers lieten hun begerig oog vallen op de Gazastrook.

Dinsdag werd er een hele avond aan de kwestie gewijd, op initiatief van de SP. De actie 'Rotterdam voor Gaza' heeft de hartelijke steun van GroenLinks én van enkele PvdA'ers die in januari het manifest 'Doorbreek de Stilte' publiceerden.

De Stilte? Jawel. Die was u als mediaconsument wellicht niet opgevallen – het volk van pakweg Darfur, Noord-Korea of Somalië mocht per slot willen dat hun lot wereldwijd zoveel aandacht trok als dat van de Palestijnen. Maar dat ziet u helemaal verkeerd.

Ook meende u wellicht dat lokale politici wel wat anders aan het hoofd hebben dan de internationale politiek. De verloedering van de oude wijken, bijvoorbeeld. Of de opvolging van burgemeester Ivo Opstelten. Alweer mis.

De Rotterdamse sociaal-democraten waarschuwen in hun manifest Israël voor de laatste maal. Het land dient, kort en goed, een einde te maken aan „de bezetting van Palestijns gebied". En Nederland moet eindelijk eens moed tonen. „Als wij Israël niet durven aanspreken, gegijzeld als we zijn door een historisch schuldgevoel, zijn we ook bezig alle Joden over de hele wereld in dit conflict te gijzelen."

Interessante redenering. Maar hoezo zou je dit nobele doel bereiken door uitgerekend met Gaza zusterbanden aan te gaan? Zelf motiveren de initiatiefnemers het zo: „De Gazastrook in Palestina telt ruim 1,3 miljoen inwoners – ongeveer evenveel als de regio Rijnmond. Gaza heeft een vergelijkbaar oppervlak. Gaza verkeert echter in een onvergelijkbare positie. De gevolgen van een jarenlange oorlogssituatie zijn overal zichtbaar. Daarom willen wij dat Gaza zusterstad wordt van Rotterdam. Zodat de gemeente Rotterdam én de Rotterdammers zelf de mensen in Gaza kunnen helpen."

Nu is daar, zoals bekend, sinds enige tijd Hamas aan de macht. En wie banden aanknoopt met 'de mensen in Gaza', knoopt onherroepelijk banden aan met Hamas. De actievoerders zien er blijkbaar geen been in.

Ik weet het, zelfs de Wetenschappelijke Raad voor het Regeringsbeleid had in 2006 warme woorden voor Hamas. Nederland, vond de WRR, moet gewoon spreken met de club. En ook elders wint de partij aan Salonfähigkeit. Akkoord, haar Handvest bevat weinig vredelievende passages. En haar blazoen is evenmin vlekkeloos. Maar terreurbeweging? Wij moeten, luidt de boodschap, niet zo wantrouwend zijn. In de praktijk valt het heus mee met Hamas.

Zou het? Vorige week berichtte deze krant over het onderwijs in de Gazastrook. Geheel conform voornoemd Handvest leren schoolkinderen dat ze alle Israëliërs uit Palestina moeten verdrijven „want er bestaat niet zoiets als Israël".

In de reportage komt ook een schoolhoofd aan het woord. „We moeten het denken en de mentaliteit van de mensen veranderen, door het islamitische gedachtengoed te verspreiden, in alle rust en met volharding."

Intussen neemt de druk op schoolmeisjes en studentes om het hoofd te bedekken met de dag toe. En krijgen docenten die niet zuiver genoeg zijn in de leer de wacht aangezegd.

Wie vriendschappelijke banden wenst aan te knopen met zo'n bewind, is op z'n minst stekeblind.

 

Politieke overwegingen voor Egypte belangrijker dan gezondheid burgers


Hoewel Egypte 30 jaar geleden vrede sloot met Israël, weigert de Egyptische regering een belangrijk medicijn uit Israël te importeren.

_______________________

Egypt: Politics outweigh citizens' health

Father of Egyptian boy suffering from cystic fibrosis slams Ministry of Health in al-Ahram newspaper for inaccessibility to Israeli drug Creon 1000.
'A little boy is suffering every day, and everyone is evading responsibility'

 
Roee Nahmias - YNET
 

Sometimes the lofty rhetoric preventing any semblance of normalization with Israel pushes people into impossible situations.

Such is the case of an Egyptian father whose young son suffers from cystic fibrosis. Over the pages of the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper, he has decided to wage war against the Egyptian Ministry of Health for its refusal to cooperate with Israel to help his ailing son.

In his letter to the newspaper, which was published last Saturday, the boy's father slammed the Egyptian Ministry of Health for putting politics above welfare.

According to the father, Israel is the only country in the world that produces a drug called Creon 1000 which serves as a substitute for one of the enzymes missing in those suffering from cystic fibrosis.

But even though doctors recommended he obtain the medicine for his son, the father writes, he was turned away by the Health Ministry on the grounds that the drug cannot be imported from Israel as there is no direct cooperation between the two countries.

"When I heard this, it seemed crazy, not only because we actually do cooperate with Israel in different fields but rather because this involves the life of a little boy, who suffers every day, and everyone is evading responsibility," wrote the father.

He criticized the Egyptian Ministry of Health and the man heading it, and demanded a solution to his son's problem.

"My numerous appeals to the health minister in light of the shortage of this drug go unanswered. The current treatment offered to my son is not helping him and he is suffering from side effects."

'How can I save my son?'

The article revealed that the father has managed to obtain the medicine through an alternative channel, but the cost is overwhelming. "I get the medicine in roundabout, tortuous ways and the price is much higher than the original cost," said the outraged father.

"My son needs four packages of this medicine a month, and I am a state employee who makes a monthly salary of a few hundred Egyptian pounds. How can I save my son? Please advise me?"

The Al-Ahram newspaper did not remain indifferent and published its response to the letter: "We don't know whether or not the drug in question is indeed manufactured solely in Israel, as you noted or if there are other sources. We need to clarify this point with the Ministry of Health."

However, the paper emphasized, "one thing is for certain and that is that your son and other ailing people have a right to receive medical assistance.
We call upon those with the authority to assist in acquiring the drug to enlist for his sake. We are still awaiting an answer from the Ministry of Health," said the letter.

This is not the only incident proving the aperiodic Egyptian opposition to normalization with Israel. Another problematic situation occurred when the bird flu broke out in Israel.

One of the first birds checked was diagnosed with an Egyptian-originated virus.

The relevant officials in Israel asked to call and update their Egyptian counterparts but no one agreed to pick up the phone and receive the call.

Icy relations

The overall tone in Egypt does not support the normalization of ties with Israel, even regarding issues which can assist the suffering local economy.
 
 


Peace Now veroordeelt moordpoging op prominent lid

 
Dit doet sterk denken aan de eerste jaren van het Oslo vredesproces, en de moord op Rabin. Deze moord werd voorafgegaan door bedreigingen, opruiing en demonstraties van woedende tegenstanders van ieder compromis.
 
Je kunt er je vraagtekens bij zetten of al die bustours naar Hebron zoveel nut hebben, en Peace Now lijkt van een brede vredesbeweging steeds meer in een radikale actiegroep te veranderen, maar dat rechtvaardigt op geen enkele manier geweld tegen haar leden.
 
Israel moet niet alleen hard optreden tegen geweld van rechts maar ook de agitatie en oproepen tot geweld aan banden leggen.
 
RP
----------

Peace Now Condemns Attempted Murder Attack on its Member
 
25/09/2008
 
 
`Those who don't enforce the law on violent settlers in the territories will find himself with a Jewish terror organization in the heart of Israel"

Today Israel Prize winner Professor Zeev Sternhell was lightly wounded by a pipe bomb suspected to have been planted by rightists.

Sternhell is a veteran supporter of Peace Now, most recently addressing the audience at an event marking 30 years of Peace Now and only last month attended a Peace Now tour to Hebron that was denied entry by police due to settler violence and threats.

Peace Now activists are not surprised by this new wave of threats and violence, in particular the recent fliers, being distributed among the rightist population, promising a 1million shekel prize to anyone who murders a Peace Now member.

Since the murder of Peace Now activist Emil Grunzweig in 1983, Peace Now has been warning the police and the IDF that law enforcement authorities must abandon their lenient policy when it comes to law-breakers from within the settler community and their supporter. It is clear that those who don't enforce the law on violent settlers in the territories will find himself with a Jewish terror organization in the heart of Israel.

Today yet again we see that there are extreme factions amongst the right wing that are willing to use any means to reach their goals. The settlers that yesterday attacked Palestinians and Israeli soldiers serving in the West Bank, are those today attacking Israeli citizens within Israel.
These extremists have already established websites of hate threatening Peace Now members, and Peace Now demands that the Interior Minister commands the police force to cut this phenomena at its roots, and begin to immediately arrest and punish those who actions pose a serious threat to the very fabric of Israeli democracy.
 
 

Neturei Karta: "Achmadinejad wil vrede"


Volgens de religieus-extremistische groep Naturei Karteh wil Achmadinejad vrede. Oordeel zelf:
 
The dignity, integrity and rights of the American and European people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are a miniscule minority, they have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the US in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner. It is deeply disastrous to witness that some presidential or premiere nominees in some big countries have to visit these people, take part in their gatherings, swear their allegiance and commitment to their interests in order to attain financial or media support.
 
This means that the great people of America and various nations of Europe need to obey the demands and wishes of a small number of acquisitive and invasive people. These nations are spending their dignity and resources on the crimes and occupations and the threats of the Zionist network against their will.
 
Today, the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse, and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters. The Islamic Republic of Iran, while fully respecting the resistance of the oppressed people of Palestine and expressing its all-out support for it, submits its humane solution based on a free referendum in Palestine for determining and establishing the type of state in the entire Palestinian lands to the distinguished Secretary General of the UN
 
The lives, properties and rights of the people of Georgia and Ossetia and Abkhazia are victims of the tendencies and provocations of NATO and certain western powers, and the underhanded actions of the Zionists.
 
[Uit Achmadinejad's speech voor de VN algemene vergadering: http://mathaba.net/news/?x=607091]
 
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Neturei Karta: Ahmadinejad wants peace
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3602030,00.html
 
Fringe ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist group meets with Iranian president following his controversial UN speech. Delegation's Rabbi Weiss: 'We know he is not an enemy to the Jews, he has a Jewish community in his country that he honors, defends and supports'
 
Neta Sela
Published:  09.25.08, 13:08
 
 
 
After his virulently an anti-Zionist speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday drew reactions the world over, a group of Neturei Karta rabbis met in Manhattan on Wednesday with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
 
Neturei Karta is a fringe ultra-Orthodox group formally created in 1935, that opposes Zionism and calls for the dismantling of the State of Israel on the grounds that they believe Jews are forbidden to have their own state until the coming of the Messiah

During the meeting members of the delegation presented the Iranian president with a $700 silver trophy as a sign of friendship.
Rabbi Yisroel David Weiss, who took part in the meeting, told Ynet the encounter was "very successful" and was conducted in a warm and friendly environment.

Not against Jews, against Zionists
 
Rabbi Weiss said the delegation thanked Ahmadinejad for his positive treatment of Iran's Jewish community.
"We know he is not an enemy to the Jews, he has a Jewish community in his country that he honors, defends and supports."
The rabbis added that Ahmadinejad "is not against the Jews, but against the Zionist regime."

The difference between Zionism and Judaism was discussed in the meeting as well.
Explaining the common thread between Neturei Karta and Ahmadinejad, Rabbi Weiss said, "The Iranian President understands the difference and understands that not everyone bears the Zionist outlook.
"Not everyone wants to see the destruction of Judaism and participate in the Zionist infidelity but rather solely to pray and hope for the end of the State of Israel," he said.
 
According to the rabbi, the Iranian president does not deny the Jewish Holocaust, but rather resists what he calls Zionist invasion and occupation of the land of Israel and the suffering caused to the Palestinians. "The Zionists use the Holocaust as an excuse for their crimes," said Weiss.
 
Close ties

According to him, there are also Jews who are loyal to the Torah and against Zionism for its denial of God.
"Ahmadinejad, like us, understands the difference between Judaism and Zionism," claimed Rabbi Weiss who emphasized that the Iranian president is not looking for ways to bomb Israel.
"It is the complete opposite; he wants peace and not to destroy the Jewish nation, that's what he explained to us. He is against the difficulties generated by the Zionist nation against the Palestinians," he said.

The Neturei Karta representative responded to President Shimon Peres' comments, "Throughout the generations, God told us that the Torah is our protection.
 
"Due to the Zionist leadership's denial of the Torah and diversion from its path, the warnings written in it are being ignored. This is likely to bring the Jewish nation to catastrophic outcomes as we see today and this is what we are fighting against," said Rabbi Weiss.
 
 

De kandelaar brandt achter prikkeldraad

 
Dergelijke kritische boekbesprekingen van anti-Israël boeken ontbreken helaas in de grotere kranten. Daar lijkt alles wat pro-Palestijns is voor waar te worden aangenomen, zonder dat men zich genoodzaakt voelt één en ander eens kritisch tegen het licht te houden. Ach ja, misschien hebben de NRC en de Volkskrant geen geld voor goede journalisten?
 
RP
 
NB: André Diepenbroek maakt hieronder ook een foutje. Ilan Pappe was niet de begeleider van student Theodore Katz, maar nam het voor hem op toen de controverse rond zijn scriptie losbarstte.
---------------------

De kandelaar brandt achter prikkeldraad

 
24-09-2008 07:14 | André Diepenbroek

De avond is gevallen over het kleine vissersdorp aan de kust van de Middellandse Zee. In het nachtelijk duister van 22 op 23 mei 1948 begint de aanval. Joodse soldaten scheiden de mannen van de vrouwen. De laatsten worden afgevoerd naar een ander dorp. Van de mannen wordt een aantal groepen naar het strand gebracht en daar geëxecuteerd. Van de 1700 bewoners komen ten minste 200 mensen om het leven. De overlevenden worden weggevoerd.

Zowel "De etnische zuivering van Palestina" van de Israëlische historicus Ilan Pappe, als "Israël, een onherstelbare vergissing" van zijn Nederlandse collega Chris van der Heijden heeft als centraal thema de ontstaansjaren van de Joodse staat, ruwweg de periode van 1945 tot 1949. Van der Heijden schetst in zijn boek ook de komst van de Britten in Palestina (aan het einde van de Eerste Wereldoorlog) en de opkomst van de zionistische beweging die de Joden een eigen staat wilde geven (de eerste twintig jaar van de vorige eeuw). Maar ook bij hem ligt het zwaartepunt van zijn betoog bij de geboorte van Israël op 14 mei 1948. Toen, in 1948, ging iets fout wat tot op de huidige dag gevolgen heeft.

Wat ging er dan precies fout? Het heeft te maken met de aanval op het vissersdorp. Het dorp heette Tantura en op de plek waar het ooit lag, is nu een park aangelegd. Ilan Pappe heeft vaker boeken geschreven over wat er tijdens de periode 1945-1949 is voorgevallen in wat eerst Brits-Palestina was en later Israël. Wat er voorviel, was niet de geboorte van de Joodse staat. Ook niet een Joods-Arabische strijd. Wat er in zijn optiek plaatshad, was een georganiseerde operatie van de kant van de zionisten om het land te zuiveren van Arabische bewoners, zodat het een Joodse staat (zonder Arabieren) zou kunnen worden. In Pappes eigen woorden: „Het is het eenvoudige maar afschuwwekkende verhaal van de etnische zuivering van Palestina, een misdrijf tegen de menselijkheid dat Israël wilde ontkennen en door de wereld wilde doen vergeten." Dat gebeurde dus in Tantura - aldus Pappe.

Ramp
Van der Heijden begint zijn boek met een haast bloemrijke schets van een ongerept mediterraan land. Een paar kleine steden, verder dorpen, een eenvoudige plattelandssamenleving. Pappe doet precies hetzelfde, ook in eerdere boeken. Alles wat Palestijns is, wordt verheerlijkt. Dan gaat bij beiden de zionistische invasie van start, de internationale politiek komt erbij, de oorlog begint. Overigens: die Palestijnen woonden er al sinds mensenheugenis, zij zijn de inheemse bevolking. Joden geloven in mythes, zoals dat eeuwenoude verlangen naar Zion.

Van der Heijden vergelijkt voortdurend de ramp die de Palestijnse Arabieren in 1948 trof met de Holocaust die de Joden meemaakten in de jaren van de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Heel storend eindigt die vergelijking vaak met de conclusie: de Joden zouden beter moeten weten en anders moeten handelen. Maar waarom zou dat eigenlijk moeten? Waarom vraagt men zich zoiets nooit af bij de (mis)daden van Serviërs of Polen?

Het is jammer voor Van der Heijden, maar het gaat hier om een oud gegeven uit de historie van het antisemitisme. In de inleiding schrijft hij zelf dat hij de verwijten van antisemitisme al voelt aankomen, maar hij wil die naast zich neerleggen en dit „belangrijke boek" toch schrijven. De waarheid moet naar buiten. Helaas, die waarheid is dat Joden een andere mensensoort zijn, een soort waarvoor andere normen gelden, Joden staan apart. En omdat ze zich niet aan die hogere normen houden, kun je schrijven dat de Joodse staat een vergissing is. Treurig genoeg doet Van der Heijdens essay nauwelijks stof opwaaien.

Lichtpuntje
Ilan Pappe hoort bij een groep Israëlische geschiedschrijvers, de "nieuwe historici", die zich erop toeleggen de zionistische mythen van Israël te ontmaskeren en te ontkrachten. Voor Van der Heijden zijn deze historici het lichtpuntje aan een donkere hemel: zij durven de waarheid aan het licht te brengen. Pappe is een communist en staat bekend als een academicus die Israël en het zionisme haat en geen kans voorbij laat gaan om zijn afkeer te ventileren, meestal in gezelschap van gelijkgezinde Palestijnse historici. Als marxist kiest hij volledig voor het internationalisme, de klassenstrijd. Zoiets als Joods nationaal gevoel verafschuwt hij. Daarmee kunnen we het eens zijn of niet, maar dit gegeven wordt problematisch als hij het moeiteloos verwerkt in zijn geschiedenisboeken.

Pappe gaat daarbij heel ver en verhaalt van geheime bijeenkomsten van Israëls eerste premier, David Ben Gurion, met een "raad", een wat vage groep vertrouwelingen, om de zuiveringsacties te bespreken en te organiseren. Zijn boek heeft de opbouw van een complotthriller. Zionisten bedenken dat een zuivere Joodse staat de oplossing is voor het Joodse vraagstuk. Ze bewerken de Verenigde Naties en misbruiken de erfenis van de Holocaust. Er komt een verdelingsplan voor Palestina. De zionisten vergaderen en bedenken een zuiveringsplan in fasen. De voorbereidende fase wordt succesvol afgesloten. De hoofdfase volgt. Het plan slaagt uiteindelijk ten dele. De aanval op Tantura past hier feilloos in, zegt Pappe, en Van der Heijden beaamt het.

Feiten
Pappe en andere "nieuwe historici" hebben, zo is eerder aangetoond, bewust gebeurtenissen en documenten buiten beschouwing gelaten of onjuist geïnterpreteerd. Weer gaat Pappe het verst: hij ziet geschiedschrijving niet als een zoektocht naar feitelijke waarheden, maar historici schrijven vanwege ideologische redenen. In zijn ogen is er geen waarheid, alleen een verzameling verhalen. Zo refereert hij aan bijeenkomsten die nooit plaatshadden, noemt hij verkeerde jaartallen, citeert hij mensen zonder bronvermelding en zonder dat die citaten ergens teruggevonden werden. Het gaat immers om de indruk die een verhaal achterlaat, om het totaalbeeld.

Dit moge allemaal waar zijn, maar feiten zijn feiten. En een slachting in een vissersdorp is een slachting, niets anders. Of zijn de feiten niet precies feiten in de werken van Pappe en (het op zijn werk gebaseerde boek van) Van der Heijden?

De Joodse geschiedenisstudent Theodore Katz stuitte op verhalen van de slachting bij onderzoek voor zijn afstudeerscriptie in januari 2000. Onder begeleiding van Ilan Pappe ging hij met de zaak aan het werk. Later dat jaar presenteerde hij zijn onderzoek en zocht hij contact met de media om zijn verhaal landelijke bekendheid te geven, waarschijnlijk om zich de status van "nieuw historicus" aan te meten. Er ontstond een nationale rel, die leidde tot een rechtszaak en een officieel onderzoek naar (het bronmateriaal van) zijn scriptie.

Katz' werk bleek voornamelijk gebaseerd op interviews met Arabische overlevenden. En verder: de bandopnames van de interviews bleken op geen enkele manier Katz' verhaal over een slachtpartij te ondersteunen. De scriptie werd afgewezen, maar Pappe, Van der Heijden en tal van Palestijnse auteurs voeren "Tantura" aan als onderdeel van het plan van de zionisten om Palestina van Arabieren te ontdoen. En dat is het kwalijke van dit soort historiografie: het blijft rondzingen, nagalmen - vooral op internet. Een kwalijk boek kan een vergissing zijn, maar die vergissing wordt onherstelbaar als de inhoud voortdurend als waarheid opduikt.

Hoop
Als het verhaal van het zionistische plan om Palestina etnisch te zuiveren niet gebaseerd is op documenten en op feitelijke gebeurtenissen, dan is Israël eerder het land van die oma uit "Jardena. Dagboek uit Jeruzalem" van beeldend kunstenaar Hannah Yakin. Oma Jardena (de auteur verplaatst zich overduidelijk in haar) leeft haar hectische leven met haar hardhorende echtgenoot in Jeruzalem. Ze gaat naar de markt, bezoekt culturele avonden, maakt zich zorgen over haar kleinkinderen in het leger, leest over aanslagen, bereidt zich voor op de feestdagen, hoort van misstanden die veroorzaakt worden door Israëlische soldaten bij de checkpoints in de Westbank.

Zij is daarover bezorgd of boos, maar nooit cynisch. Steeds hoopt ze op betere dagen en probeert daar op haar manier aan bij te dragen. En met enige ironie zegt ze: „...al is Israël zeker niet het licht onder de volken, toch schijnt het als een dapper semidemocratisch sterretje in de ondoordringbare duisternis van het Midden-Oosten."

Chanoekia
Op de kaft van "Israël, een onherstelbare vergissing" is het dak van een Israëlisch gebouw afgebeeld waarop een grote chanoekiakandelaar staat. Eromheen cirkelt prikkeldraad. Van der Heijden wil zeggen: Israël is een fort, een bunker, die niet normaal zal kunnen overleven. Hij kan zich niet voorstellen dat iemand ontspannen het chanoekafeest in Israël kan vieren. De opstand van de Makkabeeën en de tempelreiniging eindigden immers in uiteindelijke verwoesting door de Romeinen. Van die tempel rest slechts een Klaagmuur.

Maar hij heeft het mis. Ieder jaar ontsteken rabbijnen de chanoekia's bij synagogen, ouders ontsteken de kandelaar thuis in bijzijn van de kinderen, soldaten ontsteken de chanoekia's op de plaatsen waar zij noodgedwongen gelegerd zijn. Soms staat die kandelaar dus achter prikkeldraad. Maar hij brandt wel. Ieder jaar opnieuw.

 

N.a.v. "De etnische zuivering van Palestina", door Ilan Pappe; uitg. Kok, Kampen, 2008;
"Israël, een onherstelbare vergissing", door Chris van der Heijden; uitg. Contact, Amsterdam, 2008;
"Jardena. Dagboek uit Jeruzalem", door Hannah Yakin; uitg. Atlas, Amsterdam, 2008.

Amerikanen leren op school dat Jezus een Palestijn was

 
Among the "outrageous misrepresentations" the study found was "a denial of the Jewish roots of Jesus," as when the textbook The World relates that "Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus."
"Textbooks include negative stereotypes of Jews, Judaism and Israel," the authors write. "For example, textbooks tend to discredit the ties between Jews and the land of Israel."
According to Tobin, "you're much more likely to learn about Jewish terrorism before the founding of Israel [in the textbooks] than about terrorism against Israel since that time."
 
Over welk land gaat dit? De Palestijnse gebieden? Iran? Syrië? Nee. Amerika. Zo machtig zijn de zionisten dus blijkbaar niet, en het zijn juist Arabische belangengroepen die een grote invloed hebben op de Amerikaanse schoolboeken.
 
"Arab and Muslim interest groups... promote a pro-Arab, pro-Palestinian agenda in textbooks' lessons on the Middle East," the study finds. "For example, the Council on Islamic Education has weighed in during adoption processes to oppose the direct and unconditional use of the term 'Israel' for the Israelite monarchy in textbooks, lest anyone make the connection between modern Jews' claims to Israel and the kingdom that existed in the same location 3,000 years ago."
 
Onthou dit voor de volgende keer dat mensen weer eens over de machtige Joodse lobby in de VS uitwijden.

Voor een samenvatting van de studie zie:
www.jewishresearch.org/PDFs/TWT.pdf
 
RP
-------------

Study says US textbooks misrepresent Jews and Israel
 
Haviv Rettig , THE JERUSALEM POST
 
American elementary and high school textbooks contain many "gross misrepresentations" of Judaism, Christianity and Israel, according to a book-length study released this week by the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish and Community Research.

"It is shocking to discover that history and geography textbooks widely used in America's elementary and secondary classrooms contain some of the very same inaccuracies about Christianity, Judaism and the Middle East as those [used] in Iran," the IJCR said in a summary of the findings of the five-year study.

In examining the 28 most widely-used history, geography and social studies textbooks in America, researchers Dr. Gary Tobin and Dennis Ybarra found some 500 instances of "errors, inaccuracies and even propaganda" on these issues. Tens of millions of schoolchildren in all 50 states use the textbooks, according to Tobin.

Among the "outrageous misrepresentations" the study found was "a denial of the Jewish roots of Jesus," as when the textbook The World relates that "Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus."

"Textbooks include negative stereotypes of Jews, Judaism and Israel," the authors write. "For example, textbooks tend to discredit the ties between Jews and the land of Israel."

According to Tobin, "you're much more likely to learn about Jewish terrorism before the founding of Israel [in the textbooks] than about terrorism against Israel since that time."

Among the claims made about Israel in some of the textbooks are that Arab countries never initiated wars against Israel, Arab nations desire peace while Israel does not and that it was Israel that placed Palestinians in refugee camps in Arab lands, not Arab governments. No mention whatsoever was found relating to the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries who were forced out after the establishment of Israel.

In their treatment of Judaism, too, the textbooks showed a negative bias, according to the study. They often expressed a view that "Jews and Judaism are legalistic," and that "Jews care only about the letter of the law and ignore its spirit," the study found. The Jewish God is presented as "stern and warlike," and not compassionate, as is highlighted in other religions. In some instances, Jews are charged with deicide in the killing of Jesus.

The study also found that 18 textbooks used "unscholarly and disparaging 'Old Testament' terminology for the Jewish scriptures when discussing the origins of Judaism."

The study compared language used in describing Jewish and Christian belief with that describing Muslim belief. "The textbooks tend to be critical of Jews and Israel, disrespectful about Christianity, and rather than represent Islam in an objective way, tend to glorify it," says Ybarra.

"Textbook publishers often defer completely to Muslim groups for their content [on Islam] because they want to be sensitive to Muslim concerns," he explained. "So they write that Mohammed is a prophet of God, without the qualifier you should have in a public school that shows you're teaching about religion, rather than teaching religion."

One example among the many cited in the study is in World History: Continuity and Change, in which a glossary entry on the Ten Commandments describes them as "Moral laws Moses claimed to have received from the Hebrew God Yahweh on Mount Sinai."

The same glossary describes the Koran as a "Holy Book of Islam containing revelations received by Muhammad from God" - without a conditional qualifier.

"Islam is treated with a devotional tone in some textbooks, less detached and analytical than it ought to be," the study finds. "Muslim beliefs are described in several instances as fact, without any clear qualifier such as 'Muslims believe... .'

"No religion should be presented in history textbooks as absolute truth, either on its own or compared to any other, or they all should be."

"All in all, there are repeated misrepresentations that cross the line into bigotry," the authors write.

The textbooks examined in the study are published by some of the largest publishers in America, including Pearson, an $8 billion dollar company which is one of America's largest textbook publishers, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, a global corporation with revenues totaling some $2.5 billion.

The publishers, however, are not bigots, Tobin emphasizes. "I learned in graduate school that you should never try to explain something with conspiracy when you can account for it with incompetence," he says. "That's what you've got here. The fact that publishers don't use scholars to write the textbooks, but amateurs," is a major source of the bias in the texts.

"If the person writing about the founding of Israel isn't an expert in the field - and he's not - he'll go to whatever sources he can find, such as Google. Any misinformation he finds can get into the textbooks."

The lack of expertise among the writers is only one of the many "systemic ills" the study found in the textbook publishing process. "Developing a textbook and getting it adopted in the major states of Texas and California is so expensive that only those competitors with the deepest pockets stand a chance of succeeding. Only three mega-publishers (down from nine in less than twenty years) control the K-12 textbook market, meaning that more and more titles are concentrated in fewer hands. Errors in one book now stand a greater chance of replicating themselves across other books because they may originate from the same source."

These structural weaknesses leave the textbook industry susceptible to pressure from certain groups. "We do not believe that textbook publishers are 'out to get' anybody or any group," the authors note in the study. Rather, "they are subject to all kinds of external pressures so that the higher pursuit of truth and accuracy can be sacrificed to narrow interests."

"Arab and Muslim interest groups... promote a pro-Arab, pro-Palestinian agenda in textbooks' lessons on the Middle East," the study finds. "For example, the Council on Islamic Education has weighed in during adoption processes to oppose the direct and unconditional use of the term 'Israel' for the Israelite monarchy in textbooks, lest anyone make the connection between modern Jews' claims to Israel and the kingdom that existed in the same location 3,000 years ago."

Says Tobin: "If the president of Iran wants to blast Israel at the UN, he can use American textbooks to do so."
 
 

Betselem buigt de feiten


Onterecht wordt Betselem door velen als een objectieve en betrouwbare bron beschouwd. Zo beweert men van meerdere Palestijnen dat zij zijn gedood 'terwijl zij niet aan vijandelijkheden deelnamen', en dat 35% van de Palestijnse doden uit 2007 onschuldige burgers betrof. Onderzoek door Camera wijst echter uit dat verschillende van deze Palestijnen wel degelijk bij gevechten of ander geweld betrokken waren. De fouten die Betselem maakt blijken bovendien altijd in Israels nadeel. Camera baseert zich in haar onderzoek ook op Palestijnse bronnen.
 
RP
-----------
 
Bending the truth

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3601691,00.html

Human rights group B'Tselem's statistics are far from being trustworthy

Tamar Sternthal

Published: 09.24.08, 19:42

 

On Jan. 17, 2002 Abdul Salaam Sadek Hassouneh of Nablus burst into a bat mitzvah celebration  at a Hadera reception hall, shooting dead six and injuring 35 before Israeli security forces ended the bloodbath by killing him.

But Hassouneh has another, lesser known claim to notoriety. He was the first of several Palestinian terrorists killed while attacking Israelis to appear that year in B'Tselem's list of "Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli security forces." He was followed by numerous other so-called Palestinian "civilians" in 2002, including Omar Mahmoud Abu Rub and Yusef Muhammad Abu Rub, killed by border police gunfire after they murdered six Israeli civilians in Beit She'an. Both attacks were claimed by Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

In the wake of CAMERA's criticism of this grossly deceptive practice, B'Tselem revamped its methodology for tracking Palestinian casualties of the intifada. In more recent years, the self-described human rights organization has dropped the "civilian" label as pertaining to Palestinians and describes most - but not all - Palestinians fatalities as either "killed when participating in hostilities" or "did not participate in hostilities when killed."

Nevertheless, the organization's current detailed data on all Palestinians killed by Israelis since Sept. 29, 2000 - cited widely by Western news organizations - are no less problematic for a number of reasons. Most importantly, B'Tselem's research is as shoddy and unreliable as ever. Take for instance, the case of 11-year-old Muhammad Ali Abu al-Wafa, killed Dec. 31, 2007 in Khan Younis. B'Tselem lists him as one of those killed by Israeli security forces, although he actually died in Hamas-Fatah clashes, a fact undisputed by Palestinian sources such as the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Ma'an News Agency.

Even more shocking, perhaps, is that B'Tselem continues to blame Israeli security forces for the Sept. 30, 2000 death of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Dura, despite the fact that a number of independent investigations have definitively ruled out that possibility.

And, as it turns out, B'Tselem's newer system distinguishing between those who were and were not participating in hostilities when killed is no more trustworthy than its earlier false identification of "civilians." Thus, B'Tselem reports that Muhammad Zaki Jum'ah al-Najar, killed Nov. 20, 2007 in Khan Younis, "did not participate in hostilities when killed." Yet, Hamas' English website boasts that "today, al-Qassam Brigades mourn the death of the mujahim (fighter): Mohammed Zaki al Najjar. The mujahid was martyred during a clash with the Zionist occupation forces. . . "

 

Terrorists' affiliations ignored

An examination of this year's data is just as disheartening. B'Tselem carries an unusually brief  listing for Fahmi Abd al-Jawad Hussein a-Darduk, 15, of Nablus, killed May 19, 2008 "by gunfire." B'Tselem does not specify that he was "killed while participating in hostilities" even though he was carrying explosives and ignored soldiers orders to stop and raise his hands at a checkpoint when he was killed.

Another serious flaw in B'Tselem's current data is that terrorists' affiliations are virtually always ignored. Thus, one would have no idea that Bilal Hamuda Muhammad Saleh, supposedly "killed while sleeping in a car" April 17, 2008 was the head of Islamic Jihad in Qabatiya, or that Muhammad Shhadeh Abed Shhadeh (a-Ta'amari), killed March 12, 2008 in the Tulkarm district, headed Islamic Jihad in Bethlehem.

Making this omission yet more deceptive, B'Tselem's end-of-the-year press release on Palestinian casualties specifically claims that the organization has tallied civilian Palestinian casualties. For instance, the press release from Dec. 31, 2007 misleads, stating that in 2007 Israeli security forces killed 373 Palestinians and that "about 35 percent of those killed were civilians who were not taking part in the hostilities when killed."

Yet, Islamic Jihad leaders from Bethlehem or Qabatiya, even if they weren't murdering anyone at the moment they were killed, are no more civilians than the man who shot dead six people celebrating at a bat mitzvah.

Unfortunately, journalists are time-strapped, and most are unlikely to look past B'Tselem's user-friendly press release to discover the inconsistencies and blatant falsehoods that stand behind it.

This leaves yet one more casualty of the conflict - the truth.

 

Tamar Sternthal is director of the Israel office of CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America),  www.camera.org .

 

Beter bezetting dan gedeeltelijke vrede


Terwijl Israel met voorlopige voorstellen komt voor een Palestijnse staat, waarna, als alles goed gaat, lastige zaken als Jeruzalem en de vluchtelingen kunnen worden geregeld, eisen de Palestijnen Israelische instemming met een totaalpakket. Voor hen is het alles of niets.
Hieronder een interessante inkijk in het verschil van inzicht dat hierachter schuilgaat. 
 
The gap between Olmert's and Abbas' statements in recent days do not result from a lack of truthfulness, but rather a profound gap between two fundamental viewpoints. One is from Mars, the other from Venus. What one side presents as a concession, the other views as an insult or trick to avoid making a decision. That is how it has been since the very first days of the negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
 
Dat is helemaal waar, maar de Israelische weigering om met een totaalpakket in te stemmen heeft met hele concrete veiligheidsbelangen en -problemen te maken. Pas wanneer er meer vertrouwen is, een betere samenwerking en Hamas niet meer de macht in Gaza heeft, is het wellicht mogelijk tot overeenstemming over ware Palestijnse soevereiniteit, Jeruzalem en de vluchtelingen te komen, en zelfs dan zal dat heel moeilijk zijn. Dat vertrouwen moet gewonnen worden door samenwerking op de grond, doordat de Palestijnse Autoriteit steeds meer het gezag in Palestijnse steden en het omland overneemt en daarbij ook tegen de 'gewapende strijders'/terroristen optreedt, door een einde aan de opruiing tegen Israel in de media en doordat Palestijnen zich vrijer kunnen bewegen. Pas wanneer een meerderheid aan beide kanten ziet dat de ander geen duivel is, en niet uit op je vernietiging of continue overheersing, is het mogelijk te praten over deling van Jeruzalem en een regeling voor de vluchtelingen.
 
RP
------------

Last update - 01:25 25/09/2008       
Better occupation than a partial peace
 
 
 
"It is possible to reach understandings with the Palestinians by the end of the year," says Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and proposes that the deal be hurried up and closed.
 
"The proposals of my Israeli counterparts are a partial peace, and that is not the way to progress," replied Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Which of the two is telling the truth, and who is lying? Is a historic agreement to establish a Palestinian state in reach, or is it still far away? And how can it be that both leaders describe such different realities after all their meetings?
 
The gap between Olmert's and Abbas' statements in recent days do not result from a lack of truthfulness, but rather a profound gap between two fundamental viewpoints. One is from Mars, the other from Venus. What one side presents as a concession, the other views as an insult or trick to avoid making a decision. That is how it has been since the very first days of the negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
 
The Israeli approach, rooted in the beginnings of Jewish settlement in Israel, espouses progress through creating facts on the ground. That is how the state was founded and built. To paraphrase A. D. Gordon, another dunam, another goat, another kibbutz and another settlement; another tank and another Phantom, and then all of the land is in our hands. That is what Israel is offering the Palestinians. When we offer you something, take it, and then we will see how we progress further. Start with a small state, demilitarized and surrounded by fences and Israeli soldiers, and then we can see what comes later.
 
The Palestinians have different ideas. They insist on the recognition of their "rights" as anchored in UN decisions, and then they will talk about details. First Israel should recognize the principles of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, without any security constraints and with East Jerusalem as its capital; Israel should also recognize the refugees' right of return and compensation payments for the occupation, and then we will see how to implement it.
 
Like Yasser Arafat eight years ago, Abbas rejects the Israeli proposal and insists that occupation is preferable to a partial peace. Either the Palestinians receive full sovereignty over their state, or they will continue to wait at the roadblocks. Israelis find it hard to understand this maximalist approach. After all, Abbas is complaining about the expansion of the settlements and the theft of Palestinian land: Why doesn't he settle for less than his full aspirations, and in the meantime force Israel to stop construction in the settlements and start the retreat from the West Bank?
 
The Palestinians reply that they have already given up 78 percent of their historic homeland, and are not willing to compromise on less than the remaining 22 percent in the West Bank and Gaza. They present their case using maps of the Land of Israel showing how Palestinian territory has gradually shrunk from the entire country during the British Mandate to today's enclaves, closed off by fences and roadblocks. They have forgotten that between the various maps, their leadership turned down offers of partition and decided to go to war - and lost. "The shelf agreement" Olmert is offering them is not as good as the "permanent agreement" prime minister Ehud Barak offered them in 2000, mostly because in the meantime the Palestinians lost the second intifada, and Fatah lost Gaza to Hamas. That is the price of failure.
 
The Palestinians are using as their model the end of British colonial rule in India, Asia and Africa: full independence and a complete withdrawal of the foreign presence. But that is not the only model for ending an occupation. In Ireland a religious and nationalistic dispute has been going on for hundreds of years. After the Irish revolt during World War I, the British offered to end their rule of the neighboring island. The agreement, reached finally in 1921, promised the Irish approximately what Olmert is offering Abbas today. The British kept their "settlement blocs" in Northern Ireland, and Irish sovereignty in the south remained under the auspices of the empire based in London. The British fleet continued to control Irish ports.
 
The compromise produced a civil war in which the Irish leader, Michael Collins, was murdered after he signed the agreement with Britain. His great rival, Eamon de Valera, the Irish Ben-Gurion, retreated from his maximalist position. After gaining power, de Valera gradually freed himself from the remaining signs of British control in the southern part of Ireland and brought it to complete independence. The north remained in British hands and the strife reawakened, until only a few years ago it ended in a tense peace. In the meantime, the Republic of Ireland has enjoyed its freedom and prosperity. If it had stuck to the approach of "everything or nothing" of Arafat and Abbas, it would have remained under British occupation until now.
 
Israel learned the lesson of "revealing Arafat's true face" at Camp David, and out of fear of destroying the negotiations, Israel is not portraying Abbas as a devious peace rejectionist - even though his positions are the same as those of his predecessor. This way it is possible to keep on talking, but that is not enough to reach an agreement. For a breakthrough, we have to understand the basic differences between the sides - and try to bridge the gap between Mars and Venus.
 

donderdag 25 september 2008

Bradley Burston veegt Achmadinejad van de kaart

 
Bradley Burston weet het altijd scherp te stellen.
 
Klik hier voor een landkaart van Israël, met daaronder onder meer een kaartje van het Midden-Oosten. Daarop zie je ook hoe groot Iran is, en hoe klein het landje waardoor hij helemaal geobsedeerd schijnt te zijn...
 
 
Wouter
_________________

Erasing Ahmadinejad from the map
 
By Bradley Burston 
 
 
The wager of the year goes something like this: A year from now, which is more likely to remain on the map of the world - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or the state of Israel?

The call is no cinch, since:

  • Two weeks ago, the head of Atomstroiexport, the state-run Russian company building Iran's first nuclear plant, said that work on the project was in its final stage, and that by the end of the year the company would take steps that will make the launch of the Bushehr plant "irreversible" by February next year.
  • In a wide-ranging report issued last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency declared that it was "gravely concerned" over Iran's stonewalling inspectors seeking to evaluate its uranium enrichment projects, and its refusal to answer questions about 20 years of past research into designing a nuclear weapon. The IAEA revealed indications that Iran may have received foreign expertise in experiments on a detonator that could be used in the implosion of a nuclear weapon.
  • Russia has been providing advanced anti-aircraft systems and upgrading Iran's air defenses to protect nuclear facilities against possible Israeli and/or American aerial offensives. Reports have said the system is slated to be operable by January. At the same time, the IAEA believes Iran has acted to modify Shehab-3 missiles, whose range includes Israel, to carry nuclear warheads.
  • The U.S.-Russian-Chinese-French-British-German initiative to persuade Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program in return for a package of political, economic and technological incentives appears to be deadlocked for good, with Iran insisting that it will never give up the project. On Saturday, Russia went on record as strongly opposing western pressure for tougher UN sanctions against Iran.
  • Iran has markedly increased the efficiency of the centrifuges at the heart of the enrichment program. The chief of IDF Intelligence' research division said Sunday that Tehran had produced about 480 kilograms of low-level enriched uranium, up to one-half of the amount of fissionable material needed to create an atomic bomb.

    Perhaps most troubling of all, media reports have said that 50-60 tons of uranium, which if enriched to weapons grade level would be sufficient to produce five or six atom bombs, have gone missing from the Isfahan complex, which enriches raw uranium "yellow cake" into material that can be used for either nuclear power or atomic weapons.

    Before you resolve to put your money on Mahmoud, however, you might note and factor in the following:
  • Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporting nation, is a society in growing economic distress. There are mounting and potentially incendiary discrepancies between rich and poor. Despite, and to an extent because of, its energy resources and the high price of oil, the inflation rate is fast passing an annual rate of 25 percent. Merchants in the open market of Tehran have complained that electric power to the bazaar is often cut off six to eight hours a day. While consumption of fuel is rising, output of oil is falling. If European states cut fuel imports further, the government will be in a very vulnerable position.
  • Ahmadinejad faces re-election on June 12, 2009. Analysts believe that the election will center on economic issues, particularly inflation, and not on foreign relations, the nuclear issues, or conflict with Israel.
  • The Islamic Revolution of 1979 is increasingly showing its age. It is the nature of revolutions to turn pathetic as they gray. Yet they often surprise us when they do. Next year will mark three decades since Iran's Islamic Revolution and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power.

    It bears consideration that it was the Soviet Union, not Ronald Reagan, that in the end toppled the Soviet Union. Iranians are not unaware of the freedoms and the prosperity of their brethren in the west.

    It is true that failing revolutions often turn especially dangerous toward the end, and the bottom-line risk implied by a nuclear Iran is world war.

    But if the Iranian people, pragmatic and perceptive as they are, can see their way past Ahmadinejad and the excesses of radical rule, a new Middle East could be the true result.

    After all, this month marks the 30th anniversary of an impossibility, an event which at the time beggared all belief.

    Israel's largest, most implacable and powerful foe, a Muslim nation which had threatened the Jewish state with annihilation and had sought to acquire nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them, agreed in writing to a permanent state of peace.

    There is no small irony, then, in the timing of Ahmadinejad's annual field trip to Manhattan this week, a spectacle which makes the 1979 Camp David peace treaty between Israel and Egypt seem all the more distant, and, sadly, all the more singular, all the more unrepeatable.

    It may be said that it is the nature of aging revolutions to repeat themselves, first as tragedy, later as farce. The 10-year Iran-Iraq war was the tragedy, a million lives lost senselessly, needlessly, in what was called the The March to Jerusalem.

    Herewith the farce:

    This week, Ahmadinejad will headline a series of events in Manhattan, beginning with a Tuesday address to the UN General Assembly and a toast and ceremonial dinner from General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, the Los Angeles-born, Sandanista-raised friar of radical chic.

    Two days later, in what may prove a perverse echo of his appearance at Columbia University exactly a year ago ["In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like in your country."], Ahmadinejad is to take part in a Religions for Peace dialogue with church leaders. Perhaps, in full farce, he'll try his hand at comedy again, as he did at Columbia a year ago ["So let me just joke -- try to tell a joke here. I think the politicians who are after atomic bombs or are testing them, making them, politically, they are backward, retarded."]

    Ahmadinejad may well be having the time of his life over all of this. He may be tickled 12 shades of pink over the Hillary Clinton-Sarah Palin debacle. He may believe he has Israel, the EU, Washington, the UN, even his Russian creditors, exactly where he wants them. Just a matter of time, he must be humming to himself, before the stinking corpse disappears.

    For the record, though, I'd put my money on Israel.

    In fact, as dark as these days certainly are for Israel and the west, if I were Ahmadinejad and the ayatollahs, I'd begin to worry. Not so much about an aerial onslaught and the attendant World War III. I'd worry more about the society they've created. And about the cost-benefit analysis which ordinary Iranians are increasingly forced to draw. How Ahmadinejad has benefited the Iranian people by his exploitation of - and damage to - the Palestinian cause, by turning Iran into a pariah state, by his Holocaust denial and smirking disingenuous death threats to Israel, by the billions dumped in pursuit of the bomb, by a fortune wasted on funding suicide terror half a world away, by a fortune wasted on colonizing and arming south Lebanon and destabilizing the north.

    This coming year, Iran will celebrate three decades of a terrible social experiment. The lessons learned may not be kind to Ahmadinejad, nor to radical Islam. Age and folly and the brutality of self-righteousness are beginning to catch up with both of them.

    Never trust a revolution over 30.
     
     

    Beatle eindelijk welkom in Israël - Paul McCartney concert in Tel Aviv

     
    Sir Paul McCartney treedt vandaag eindelijk op in Israël, nadat de Beatles in de jaren '60 niet welkom waren. Het ook recentelijk weer vaak herhaalde verhaal dat de Israëlische regering destijds van oordeel was dat de Fab Four een verderfelijke invloed op de jeugd zouden hebben, is volgens Ad Bloemendaal hieronder een broodje aap. Aangezien elke uitspraak met betrekking tot Israël controversieel is en tot felle debatten leidt, had hij wel een bron hiervoor dienen te vermelden.
     
     
    Wouter
    ______________

    Beatle eindelijk welkom in Israël

     
    Paul McCartney in zijn thuisstad Liverpool in 2003. FOTO EPA/Phil Noble


    TEL AVIV - Er zijn nog Israëliërs die toegangskaarten hebben voor een Beatles-concert in de jaren zestig. Die kaarten zijn verzamelobjecten geworden, want het concert is nooit uitgevoerd. Meer dan veertig jaar later, en lang na de opheffing van de groep, krijgen de teleurgestelden van toen alsnog de kans een deel van de schade in te halen. Sir Paul McCartney, de laatste van de Fab Four die nog kan zingen, treedt donderdagavond op in Tel Aviv. Ondanks protesten van anti-Israëlische actiegroepen in Groot-Brittannië en ondanks een dreigement islamitische doodseskaders op hem af te sturen.

    McCartney geeft geen krimp. ''Ze willen dat ik boycot, maar ik kom!", schreeuwt de kop boven een interview in het dagblad Yediot Acharonot. De scepsis die lange tijd zijn Israëlische fans beheerste, heeft plaatsgemaakt voor blijde verwachting.

    De voorbereidingen zijn in volle gang. Achter het podium in het Yarkon Park bieden twintig luxe tenten onderdak aan de productiestaf. Volgens strikte orders van Sir Paul mag er op het terrein alleen vegetarisch voedsel worden geserveerd en lederen zitmeubilair is taboe. Hij heeft ook bepaald dat iedereen hem goed moet kunnen zien en horen. Daarvoor heeft de Israëlische promotor, Dudu Zarzevsky, peperdure geluidssystemen en videoschermen uit Europa laten overvliegen. De VIP-loge, die aanvankelijk pal voor het podium was gesitueerd, is op Pauls verzoek naar de zijlijn verbannen. Wegens de interactie. ''Paul vindt het contact met het gewone publiek heel belangrijk", zegt Zarzevsky.

    De ex-Beatle treedt nog maar weinig op. Eerder dit jaar was hij te zien en te horen in het Anfield stadion van Liverpool, de stad waar het succesverhaal begon. En paar weken later gaf hij in Kiev een gratis concert voor 350.000 fans, het grootste in de Oekraïnse geschiedenis. Hij trad dit jaar ook op ter gelegenheid van Quebecs 400ste verjaardag en verzorgde samen met Billy Joel het historische laatste concert in New Yorks Shea Stadion. In 1965 verzorgden de Beatles daar het eerste stadionconcert in de geschiedenis.

    McCartneys optreden in Tel Aviv wordt geadverteerd als onderdeel van Israëls 60-jarig bestaan. Een extra reden voor anti-Israëlische groepen in Groot-Brittannië een protestgeluid te laten horen. ''Optreden in Israël in deze tijd staat moreel gezien gelijk aan een optreden in Zuid-Afrika op het hoogtepunt van de apartheid'', klaagt de Palestijnse PACBI-lobby. Een simpel protest was niet genoeg voor de Britse sjeik Omar Bakri, die in Libanon resideert nu hij in eigen land niet meer welkom is. ''Paul McCartney is de vijand van alle moslims'', vertelde hij de Sunday Express. Hij waarschuwt dat hij mensen naar Tel Aviv zal sturen die bereid zijn tot 'zelfopoffering' en die 'niet werkloos zullen toekijken' als McCartney deelneemt aan 'een feest van hun onderdrukkers'.

    Of Bakri het wel goed vindt dat moslims popconcerten bijwonen van artiesten die niet in Israël willen optreden, valt te betwijfelen. Waarschijnlijk verschilt zijn oordeel weinig van dat van de Israëlische regering in de jaren zestig, die het geplande concert van de Beatles torpedeerde omdat de vier langharigen uit Liverpool de onbedorven Israëlische jeugd zouden verpesten. Althans, zo wil een hardnekkig Broodje Aap verhaal. De werkelijkheid was prozaïscher. Impresario Giora Godik kreeg in 1962 een aanbod van de moeder van Brian Epstein, de joodse manager van de Beatles, om de groep naar Israël te sturen. Maar hij gaf de voorkeur aan de toen nog populairdere zanger Cliff Richard. Een paar jaar later bemachtigde zijn grootste concurrent, Yacov Uri, de rechten voor een optreden van de Beatles in Tel Aviv. Dat kostte buitenlandse deviezen en daarvoor was destijds een vergunning nodig van de overheid. De jaloerse Godik wist de parlementscommissie voor financiën ervan te overtuigen dat een optreden van de Beatles het verlies aan deviezen niet waard was. De Israëlische jeugd was dus niet het slachtoffer van censuur, maar van ordinaire broodnijd.
     
    (AD BLOEMENDAAL)
     
     

    woensdag 24 september 2008

    De waarheid achter de belegering van Gaza

     
    Geregeld vergelijken zogenaamde mensenrechten- en vredesactivisten de Gazastrook met een concentratiekamp, een gevangenis of het getto van Warschau. Voor het geval dat nog niet duidelijk is, laat Ami Isseroff de absurditeit zien van dergelijke vergelijkingen. Er is een andere vergelijking die meer van toepassing is op de situatie in Gaza, maar die we maar zeer zelden horen....
     
    RP
    -------------
     
     

    The progressive fighters for Truth and Justice do not rest in their campaign to legitimize the rule of the unjustly persecuted Hamas. They have stepped up the campaign to expose the evil Zionist siege of Gaza. Lauren Booth, sister-in-law of Tony Blair, interviewed on Iran's Press TV by the progressive friend of humanity, former British MP George Galloway, stated that Gaza is a concentration camp. Press TV, which features holocaust deniers on a regular basis, is an imitation free news outlet that occasionally allows "daring" critiques of the Iranian regime, because it is published only in English. Progressive opposition to Israel is the more usual Press TV fare.

    The interview featured this enlightening exchange:

    "Why are they keeping you cooped up in the concentration camp called Gaza?" [Galloway] asked her.

    "I want to say thank you for using the word concentration camp because the word prison has been applied in the last few years and that's a lie. In a prison you get three meals a day, a nourishing diet, visits from outsiders and some hobbies and rehabilitation and a date for your release," she said.



    We all know what a concentration camp is. Especially Jews. Here's a picture to remind you of what concentration camp inmates look like, in case you forgot.

    Concentration camp Dachau inmates



    Here, for comparison, is a picture of Lauren Booth, evidently in a Gaza grocery. It is precisely the same, right? No difference at all.


    Lauren Booth Gaza Concentration Camp



    Here are several of the many articles and blog entries that insist that the Gaza strip is just like the Warsaw Ghetto:

    peoplesgeography.com/2008/01/22/warsaw-ghetto-1941-gaza-2008/
    guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/jun/19/foreignpolicy.israel
    glennkachmar.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-warsaw-ghetto-gaza.html
    arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=107394&d=2&m=3&y=2008
    morris108.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/gaza-tunnels-the-details-and-warsaw-ghetto-

    Some differences between Gaza and Warsaw Ghetto that occur to me:

    Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto did not declare that they wanted to murder all the Germans .
    Jews did not fire rockets and mortars into surrounding civilian areas.
    Jews did not take power in a bloody coup and murder opponents.
    Arabs in Gaza are not being rounded up for transport to death camp.
    Most of the Arabs in Gaza are alive and unharmed and evidently well nourished.
    Almost every Jew in the Warsaw Ghetto was murdered in a concentration camp, killed in the revolt, starved to death or died of disease.


    We also know what a siege means. In Jerusalem, in 1948, the Arabs imposed a siege. There was no practically food other than Hubeiza weed for a while and water was rationed. People really did die of starvation and disease.

    Pro-Palestinian propagandists are shameless about their obscene comparisons between the Holocaust and Gaza. Of course, anything filmed from the right angle can be made to look like some photo of Nazi brutality, and anyone can say that anything reminds them of "Nazis" - including a cop subduing a drunk in front of a bar. But the proper comparison for the suffering of Gaza is the equally real and terrible suffering of the German population in World War II, who were deprived of essentials by the blockade imposed by the British navy. It was "collective punishment." How could it be the fault of baby Fritz in Hamburg, who had to go without butter, that Fritz senior, his father, was out in a Waffen SS tank unit in Stalingrad? Unfair! Collective punishment! But that is what war is all about.

    Ami Isseroff



    Original content is Copyright by the author 2008. Posted at ZioNation-Zionism and Israel Web Log, http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000604.html where your intelligent and constructive comments are welcome. Disributed by ZNN list. Subscribe by sending a message to ZNN-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Please forward by e-mail with this notice, cite this article and link to it. Other uses by permission only.

     

    VN verdeeld over Darfoer vredesmacht


    Onlangs beschuldigde Desmond Tutu Israel van oorlogsmisdaden, en eerder noemde hij het land een apartheidsstaat. Ook zou de internationale gemeenschap zwijgen over het lijden van de Palestijnen vanwege de holocaust. Hij is niet de enige Zuid-Afrikaan die grote woorden gebruikt tegen Israel. Een paar maanden geleden nog was een Zuid-Afrikaanse delegatie op de Westoever om daar met eigen ogen te aanschouwen hoe erg de Palestijnen wel niet worden onderdrukt door de blanke Israeli's .
     
    Wat betreft Soedan zijn Zuid-Afrikanen heel wat terughoudender, en Zuid-Afrika pleit, net als de Afrikaanse Unie en de Arabische Liga, tegen een mogelijk arrestatiebevel van president Bashir, en maakt gebruik van zijn huidige zetel in de VN Veiligheidsraad om een clausule hiertegen opgenomen te krijgen bij de verlenging van het VN-mandaat voor Darfur. De laatste vijf jaar zijn in Darfur naar schatting 300.000 mensen omgekomen en meer dan 2 miljoen op de vlucht geslagen.
     
     
    RP
    ------------------

    UN split over Darfur peace force

    Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir (r) stands with General Martin Luther Agwai (l) in Fasher, Darfur, 23 July 2008
    Mr Bashir visited UN peacekeepers in Darfur last week

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7530501.stm

    South Africa and Libya are pushing the UN to suspend accusations against Sudan's president, linking the issue to a Darfur peacekeeping mandate.

    Divisions emerged as the Security Council discussed extending the mandate of a joint African Union-UN mission to Darfur, which expires on Thursday.

    South Africa and Libya want to include a clause delaying any charges against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

    The International Criminal Court has accused Mr Bashir of war crimes.

    "We have a division in the council at this point," US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters at the UN.

    South Africa and Libya are backed by China and Russia in seeking a 12-month delay to the moves against Mr Bashir.

    Under the Rome Statute setting up the ICC, the UN Security Council has the powers to defer charges by 12 months.

    map

    But EU countries have said they have not seen anything in the behaviour of Khartoum that would warrant such a move.

    Mr Khalilzad said linking the mandate to the ICC accusations was "premature" and "unwarranted".

    The BBC's Vikou Bessan at the UN said a failure to renew the peacekeeping mandate would result in a legal vacuum, and one possibility would be to extend the mandate for a month while negotiations over the ICC accusations continue.

    'Politically motivated'

    ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo sought an arrest warrant against Mr Bashir earlier this month, over his alleged role in Sudan's western Darfur region.

    He accused Sudan's leader of running a campaign of genocide that killed 35,000 people outright, at least another 100,000 through a "slow death" and forced 2.5 million to flee their homes in Darfur.

    Mr Bashir has said he is not worried by the accusations.

    His government has denied mobilising the Janjaweed militias, accused of widespread atrocities against Darfur's black African population.

    The Sudanese ambassador to the UN, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, said a suspension of the possible charges would not entirely satisfy Sudan.

    "Our feeling is to do away once and for all with this unfair, unjust and politically motivated decision," he said.

    Mr Mohamad called the accusations against Mr Bashir an "affront to Africa" and said Sudan was being unfairly singled out by Mr Moreno-Ocampo.

    "He is a screwdriver in the workshop of double standards," he said.

    Judges are expected to make a decision on Mr Moreno-Ocampo arrest warrant request in the coming months.

    The African Union has called for the UN Security Council to suspend the accusations, while the Arab League has warned they set a dangerous precedent.

    On Monday, a group of mainly African relief and advocacy groups said the AU-UN force in Darfur was failing to protect civilians because it was too small and inadequately funded.

    Only about a third of the intended 26,000 peacekeepers have been deployed.

    The UN estimates that five years of conflict in Darfur have left 300,000 people dead and more than 2 million people homeless.
     

    Livni kwaad op Qureia wegens dreigen met 'alle vormen van verzet'

     
    "The Palestinians will continue to negotiate. But, if the talks reached a dead end, what do we do? Capitulate? Resistance in all its forms is a legitimate right," Qureia said.
     
    Livni belde Qureia daarop boos op, waarop Qureia zei dat zijn woorden uit hun verband waren gehaald en hij het slechts over politiek verzet had. Dat is een wat vreemde vertaling van 'resistance in all its forms', en bovendien herhaalde hij zijn dreigement later nog eens in andere woorden:
     
    If they lost hope in negotiations and became convinced Israel was not prepared to end its occupation, renewed attacks against Israelis were possible.
    Asked whether he was saying the Palestinians might resume suicide bombings and attacks inside Israel, Qurie responded: "All forms of resistance."
     
    Is de heer Qureia dus wat we in gewoon Nederlands een leugenaar noemen?
    Ik heb wel eens vaker op de ietwat ongewone situatie gewezen dat de Palestijnen zich enerzijds continu als weerloos slachtoffer van de wrede en oppermachtige Israeli's voorstellen, en anderzijds menen als overwinnaars de voorwaarden voor vredesbesprekingen te kunnen dicteren.
     
    Speaking in the wake of their meeting Tuesday, Qureia also warned that violence could erupt again if the talks collapsed.
     
    Misschien moet Qureia eens overwegen wat de Palestijnen zelf kunnen doen om de onderhandelingen te doen slagen, wat hun aandeel is in het feit dat niet meer is bereikt tot nu toe. Zou het gehamer op het zogenaamde 'recht op terugkeer' van de vluchtelingen en het opeisen van heel Oost-Jeruzalem er misschien iets mee te maken kunnen hebben?   
     
    RP
    ----------------
     

    Livni to Qureia: Israel will respond with force to Palestinian terror
     
    By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, and Reuters
    Last update - 00:02   24/09/2008
    www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1023758.html
     
     
    Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia Tuesday evening to express her objection to his comments in an interview to news agencies earlier in the day.

    Qureia had said that Palestinians are prepared to choose resistance again if negotiations break down.
    "Violence and terror will never be legitimate and they will not achieve for the Palestinians any national aim. Israel is managing negotiations and will respond with force to violence and terror," Livni said.
    Qureia said his words were taken out of context and that he meant only political resistance, rather than resistance involving violence.

    Earlier Tuesday, Qureia said that he has won an assurance from Livni that peace talks will not stall while she tries to form a new coalition government.

    Livni beat close rival Shaul Mofaz to replace the outgoing prime minister, Ehud Olmert, as leader of the ruling party. President Shimon Peres on Monday invited her to form the next coalition government.

    Speaking in the wake of their meeting Tuesday, Qureia also warned that violence could erupt again if the talks collapsed.
    "The Palestinians will continue to negotiate. But, if the talks reached a dead end, what do we do? Capitulate? Resistance in all its forms is a legitimate right," Qureia said.
    He said the meeting with Livni had been positive.
    "It was a good meeting. Livni reassured me she would continue the peace process without accepting any conditions."
    Israeli officials confirmed the meeting had taken place but gave no details.

    Referring to the goal set by U.S. President George W. Bush last November, Qureia said he had "great doubts about finalizing a deal this year."
    He said Palestinian leaders were considering their options if talks failed to produce a deal that would lead to independence.
    If they lost hope in negotiations and became convinced Israel was not prepared to end its occupation, renewed attacks against Israelis were possible.
    Asked whether he was saying the Palestinians might resume suicide bombings and attacks inside Israel, Qurie responded: "All forms of resistance."

    Livni, now trying to form a new coalition government to carry on peace talks that have so far produced little progress, made a similar warning in August.

    Qureia said talks on sensitive final status issues such as the fate of Jerusalem, refugees, and borders have been marred by continued Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank.
    The change of government in Israel following the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "makes it difficult for Israel to make decisions under such conditions, and time is running out", he added.
    The Palestinians were also unable to make decisions, as their attention was diverted by "internal divisions as a result of Hamas' coup in Gaza, and power struggles", Qureia said.

    Israel has said it would not implement any deal it signs with the Palestinians until the government of President Mahmoud Abbas re-establishes control of the Gaza Strip, which the Islamist Hamas group seized in June 2007.

    Qureia said Palestinian options include abandoning the proposed two-state deal for a one-state solution absorbing Jews and Arabs into a single country - something few Jews are willing to countenance.
    Olmert has proposed a partial deal that would set aside the most intractable issue - divided Jerusalem. Qureia said partial deals only brought disasters in the past.
    "We want a detailed, comprehensive accord that would end occupation," he said.

    Meanwhile, President Shimon Peres cast strong doubt on Tuesday over whether Israel and the Palestinians could reach a peace deal by the end of the year as hoped.
    Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Peres said there was progress in the talks, which have been stalled by political uncertainty in Israel, but a deal may only be possible over the next year.
    "We had hoped to conclude it by the end of the year, apparently we shall not conclude it by the end of the year," said Peres when asked whether the U.S.-mediated Palestinian statehood talks could result in an agreement by year-end.
    "I do believe that there remains real progress and there is a very fair chance of concluding it during the next year."