Komende week indirecte onderhandelingen tussen Israel en PA

 

Komende week zouden via Amerikaanse bemiddeling indirect vredesbesprekingen tussen Israel en de PA eindelijk hervat worden, na een stilstand van meer dan een jaar. Ik moet het nog zien gebeuren, daar de opvattingen uiteen liggen over zelfs waarmee de onderhandelingen zouden moeten beginnen.

 

Wouter

_______________

The Jerusalem Post
Talks won't start where they left off
By HERB KEINON - 05/03/2010 06:14
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=170269

On eve of Biden visit, J'lem says Iran may use Hizbullah to distract from nukes.


The indirect "proximity talks" between Israel and the Palestinians likely to begin next week will not pick up where the discussions between then-prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas broke off in late 2008, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

This issue has been a key sticking point for months, with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu rejecting the Palestinian demand that the talks begin from the point where they ended with Olmert.

Olmert offered the Palestinians nearly 94 percent of the West Bank, a land swap to compensate for most of the rest, an arrangement on Jerusalem, and the return of a small number of refugees into Israel as a "humanitarian gesture."

Abbas rejected the offer, telling The Washington Post in May that the gaps were "too wide."

The Post has also learned that the proximity talks will not immediately focus primarily on borders, another Palestinian demand, with Israel saying there can be no credible discussion of borders without first knowing what security arrangements will be in place.

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is expected to arrive in the region on Saturday evening, kicking off an extremely busy diplomatic period. US Vice President Joe Biden is expected two days later.

The PA – which received the go-ahead from the Arab League on Wednesday to enter into proximity talks – is expected to give a final okay over the weekend after holding internal deliberations.

Once that green light is received, the talks are expected to begin next week, with Mitchell shuttling between Netanyahu's envoy on the Palestinian issue Yitzhak Molcho in Jerusalem, and the PA's chief negotiator Sa'eb Erekat in Ramallah.

Netanyahu, at the start of a cabinet meeting on Thursday, said he "welcomed the developments" that he said he hoped would lead to the start of talks next week.

Praising Mitchell, Netanyahu said he was "doing very important work, which we appreciate. We welcome the start of talks, even if they are proximity talks.

"In the end, our goal is to try and reach a peace agreement with our Palestinian neighbors via direct talks, but we have always said that we do not necessarily insist on this format," the prime minister said. "If this is what is necessary to start the process – Israel is ready. I think that there is international recognition that this government wants to start a peace process, and I tell you that we also want to complete it."

Netanyahu also welcomed the upcoming visit of Biden, saying he has "been a friend of Israel for many years," and a personal friend for almost three decades.

"I am convinced that this important visit to our region will contribute to advancing the diplomatic process, and there are indications to this effect."

Biden is expected to spend about two days in Israel, and a half day in Ramallah, with the focus of his talks in Jerusalem expected to be both on the Palestinian issue and on Iran.

One of the Iranian-related issues to be discussed is the growing sense in Jerusalem that Syria is increasingly being coopted by Iran, and, in turn, is once again turning Lebanon into a client state.

According to assessments in Jerusalem, Iran – which in the aftermath of the Second Lebanon War in 2006 was not interested in another confrontation between its proxy Hizbullah and Israel – is now increasingly interested in just such a conflict, to divert attention from its nuclear march and take the pressure off regarding sanctions.

As a result, and despite calming messages that Jerusalem has sent to Syria and Lebanon, the situation in the north is "heating up," with Syria hosting Hizbullah training camps and sending weapons across the border that it never sent before.

Israel is expected to press Biden for crippling sanctions now against Iran's energy sector, something the US administration – because it wants to get as many countries as possible behind UN Security Council sanctions – has not as yet advocated.

China said on Thursday it would continue to push for a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear standoff, rebuffing efforts by the US to introduce a new set of sanctions.

"We've been making diplomatic efforts and we believe they have not been exhausted, and we will continue to work with other parties to push for a settlement to this issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.

The proposed sanctions would target Iran's Revolutionary Guard and toughen existing measures against its shipping, banking and insurance sectors, well-informed UN diplomats said on Wednesday.

The US, Britain and France support such new sanctions, and Russia – which is normally opposed – appears to be moving closer to that view. That leaves China – which depends on Iran for much of its energy needs – the only permanent member of the Security Council with a veto opposed to new sanctions at this time.

At the same time, the widespread assessment in Jerusalem is that China would not veto a resolution, but might very well abstain in a vote.

The non-permanent members of the Security Council who are either wavering or opposed are Lebanon, Turkey and Brazil. A new sanctions resolution needs 9 of 15 votes on the Security Council to pass.

 

AP contributed to this report.

Eurabia is een stad in Zweden: antisemitisme in Malmö

 

Daniel Schammenthal maakt aan het einde van zijn artikel een interessante vergelijking. In oude tijden was bekering tot het christendom een manier om uit de joodse ghetto's weg te komen; wie zich heden ten dage bekeert tot een vijand van Israel, weet zich eveneens verzekerd van de genegenheid van de heersende klasse.

 

In Zweden is het antizionisme nog wat extremer en salonfähiger dan hier. De burgemeester van Malmo zei in een interview dat de Joden van zijn stad gedeeltelijk zelf schuld waren aan antisemitisme omdat ze voor Israel hadden gedemonstreerd. Kopstukken uit de sociaaldemocratische partij liepen mee in een anti-Israel demonstratie waar Israelische vlaggen werden verbrand en die van Hamas en Hezbollah wapperden.

De kleine Joodse gemeenschap in Malmo voelt zich bedreigd, en pas recentelijk heeft de burgemeester toegegeven dat hij misschien wat voorzichtiger had moeten zijn.

Zie ook: Hass: Juden flüchten aus Malmö

 

Ook in Nederland voelen Joden zich onveilig en zijn bang om het publiekelijk voor Israel op te nemen. En nee, zij hebben geen machtige lobby achter zich staan. Terwijl Joden die zich kritisch over Israel uitlaten algemeen als moedig gelden en door de media worden omarmd, zijn in feite juist Joden die het voor Israel opnemen moedig.

 

RP

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

 

Eurabia is een stad in Zweden

http://welingelichtekringen.nl/eurabia-is-een-stad-in-zweden.html

Geplaatst op: vrijdag 5 maart 2010
Door: Henk Steenhuis
Categorie: Opinie
Bron: The Wall Street Journal

Meer dan eens hoorde je de laatste jaren het woord 'Eurabia' opduiken en The Wall Street Journal is er nu eindelijk achter gekomen waar dit ligt: Eurabia ligt in Zweden, toevallig op dezelfde plek waar ook de stad Malmö is gesitueerd.

"In this city what has been called "Eurabia" is slowly becoming reality," schrijft de altijd uitgeslapen krant bij monde van Daniel Schwammenthal. Zo'n 20 procent van de bevolking, groot 290.000 man, is moslim en al die Arabieren vormen samen met de lokale sociaal-democraten en hun linkse anti-Israel-retoriek een gevaarlijke cocktail.

Toen een groepje joden vreedzaam door de stad demonstreerde voor Israel, kregen ze stenen en flessen naar hun hoofd geslingerd en ook scheldwoorden als 'Sieg Heil' en 'Hitler Hitler.' Ook kinderen onderweg naar de synagoge werden uitgescholden en vorig jaar moest de tennismatch (Davis Cup) Zweden - Israel achter gesloten deuren worden gespeeld om niemand te provoceren.

Als de plaatstelijke burgemeester, sociaal-democraat, voor de voeten wordt geworpen dat het leven in zijn stad geen pretje is voor joden, antwoordt hij: dan moeten ze zich maar distantieren van Israel en het Israelische optreden in Gaza. Zionisme is hier net zoiets als antisemitisme.
"Ik ben bang voor de Derde Wereldoorlog," zegt hij tegen The Wall Street Journal en blijkbaar is de laffe houding jegens joden een garantie om niet de toorn van grote groepen moslims op te wekken. Nog niet zo lang geleden liepen toonaangevende linkse politici in Zweden mee in een demonstratie waar de vlag van Israel werd verbrand, terwijl vlaggen van Hamas en Hezbollah vrolijk doorwapperden. 

Steeds meer wordt Israel als een paria-staat gezien en joden die blijk geven van hun verbondenheid met het oude land, worden zo ook paria's.
Daniel Schammenthal maakt aan het einde van zijn artikel een interessante vergelijking. In oude tijden was bekering tot het christendom een manier om uit de joodse ghetto's weg te komen; wie zich heden ten dage bekeert tot een vijand van Israel, weet zich eveneens verzekerd van de genegenheid van de heersende klasse.

Bron: The Wall Street Journal

04-03-2010
Eurabia Is a Place in Sweden

The Continent's post-Christian baptism of Jews: Convert to Israel-bashing and you'll be safe.

Malmö, Sweden

In this city—just across a narrow stretch of water that separates Sweden from Denmark—what has been called "Eurabia" is slowly becoming reality. Roughly 20% of Malmö's 290,000 residents are of Muslim, mostly Arab, origin. Their widespread hatred of Israel together with traditional Swedish anti-Zionism—the result of the left's ideological supremacy here—form an explosive cocktail.

Screaming "Sieg Heil" and "Hitler, Hitler," a mostly Muslim mob threw bottles and stones at a small group of Jews peacefully demonstrating for Israel at this town's central square last year. Worshipers on their way to synagogue and Jewish kids in schools are routinely accosted as "Dirty Jews." Last year's Davis Cup tennis match against Israel, which pro-Palestinian activists had sought to cancel, was held behind closed doors. The official reason was to avoid disruption by anti-Israeli protesters. But roughly 6,000 of them clashed with the police during the event anyway. Notwithstanding the official explanation, the closed-door match left the impression that Israel is a pariah state that needs to be quarantined. Not surprisingly, Malmö's small Jewish community of roughly 700 is getting smaller as families leave town.

Faced with these attacks on the city's Jewish population, Malmö's mayor, Ilmar Reepalu, seems curiously unperturbed by, if not sympathetic to, the attackers. Asked to condemn anti-Semitism in his city, the Social Democrat suggested in a January interview to Skånska Dagbladet—published on International Holocaust Memorial Day, no less—that it's partly the Jews' own fault. Their crime? They didn't "distance" themselves from Israel and the Gaza war. "The community chose to hold a pro-Israel demonstration," Mr. Reepalu said, a move that "may convey the wrong message." Besides, Zionism is just as bad as anti-Semitism, the mayor added. Both are "extremists who want to set themselves over other groups."

In an interview last week, the mayor tells me that Skånska Dagbladet didn't quote him in his entirety. Mr. Reepalu didn't mean to criticize Zionism as such, he says, but what he called "revisionist" Zionism, which has led to the "occupation of territory."

But even if this were true, I asked, why did he find it necessary to attack Israel when he had simply been urged to oppose anti-Semitism? In lieu of an answer, the mayor recited the familiar laundry list of alleged Israeli crimes, such as "disproportionate attacks" and "destroying" peace. "I fear a Third World War," the mayor muttered darkly.

Steering the interview back to Malmö, I asked whether he was worried that his denunciations of Israel might fuel and legitimize anti-Semitic violence in his city, leaving his Jewish constituents to feel abandoned by him? He conceded that "I understand now that this is how they feel and that I have to be more cautious."

But Mr. Reepalu has been slow to reach out to the city's Jewish minority, meeting with its representatives recently only after the national head of his own party, Mona Sahlin, had talked to Malmö's Jewish community. Even more worrisome is that while the party leadership may have been embarrassed by Mr. Reepalu's comments about local Jews, his comments about those in Israel are pretty mainstream in Sweden.

Many leading Social Democrats attended last year's anti-Israel rallies—where the Jewish state's flag was burned while those of Hamas and Hezbollah were waved. Among the demonstrators was Ms. Sahlin, likely to become Sweden's next prime minister after September's general elections. "I think Gaza is comparable to the Warsaw Ghetto," said Ingalill Bjartén, the vice chair for the Social Democratic Women's organization in southern Sweden. And according to the Left Party's Hans Linde, Israel is a "racist apartheid state."

This sort of demonization of Israel and Israelis—which meets the European Union's own definition of anti-Semitism—is increasingly common across the Continent. Wherever Israel is delegitimized as a pariah state, local Jews are inevitably condemned to pariah status as well. In the streets of Malmö, one can hear "Kill the Jews," while at "peace" rallies in Amsterdam and Berlin, the chanted instructions are somewhat more specific: "Hamas, Hamas, Jews into the Gas."

These are not idle words. Anti-Semitic attacks in Malmö doubled last year to 79, while in London they hit a record of 924. And as some Swedish Jews are contemplating emigration, thousands of their French co-religionists have already moved to Israel to escape harassment.

Mr. Reepalu's suggested solution for Europe's Jews is a sort of post-Christian baptism. If conversion to Christianity was the ticket out of the ghetto in earlier times, conversion to Israel-bashing may do the trick today. If Jews "distance" themselves from the Jewish state, they will be safe, maybe even accepted in polite company. This would truly be a Eurabian night falling on the Continent.

Volgens Arabieren zit Joodse lobby in VS achter veroordeling Armeense genocide

De 'Joodse lobby' is eerder verweten dat ze zich niet hard maakt voor de Armeense zaak vanwege de Israelische banden met Turkije, om opportunistische redenen dus. Nu krijgt ze het verwijt achter een resolutie van het Amerikaanse congres te zitten waarin de Armeense genocide juist wel hard wordt veroordeeld. Daarmee zou ze bewust de relatie tussen de VS en Turkije willen schaden, nadat de relatie tussen Israel en Turkije flink is bekoeld.

Kortom: wat de 'Joodse lobby' ook doet, het is altijd verkeerd en uit oneigenlijke motieven.

 

Overigens steunden zowel Clinton als Obama een dergelijke resolutie nog voor de Amerikaanse verkiezingen, dus voordat de relatie tussen Israel en Turkije zo slecht werd. De relatie tussen Israel en Turkije is op een dieptepunt beland omdat Turkije Israel continu de les las over vermeende oorlogsmisdaden tegenover de Palestijnen, terwijl Israel netjes zweeg over de vele mensenrechtenschendingen van Turkije zelf en haar niet altijd even goede behandeling van minderheden en dissidenten. Een populaire televisieserie waarin Israeli's als schurken werden neergezet was de druppel, en toen heeft Israel Turkije even willen laten voelen dat er een grens was bereikt.

 

RP & WB
----------------------

Last update - 16:45 06/03/2010
'Jewish lobby behind U.S. Armenia genocide vote'

By Haaretz Service
Pro-Israel activists manipulated Congress to damage Turkey, says London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1154423.html


Jewish lobbyists contrived a U.S. congressional vote that labeled the World War One-era massacre of Armenians by Turkish forces as genocide, a London-based Arabic-language newspaper claimed on Saturday.

Pro-Israel lobbyists had previously backed Turkey on the issue - but changed tack in retaliation for Turkish condemnation of Israel's policies in the Gaza Strip, the Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily said in an editorial, according to Israel Radio reports.

Israel and Turkey are traditional allies but ties took a downturn in 2009 when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Israel's offensive in Gaza, in which some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.

A crisis in diplomatic relations came to a head in January when when Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon publicly humiliated Turkey's ambassador in front of press cameras.

In his leading article, Al-Quds Al-Arabi editor Abd al-Bari Atwan curged Erdogan not to give in to the Jewish lobby's "extortion" tactics.

Erdogan on Thursday recalled Turkey's ambassador to Washington after the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee voted 23-22 to approve the non-binding resolution, clearing it for consideration by the full House.

"The decision of the Foreign Affairs Committee will not hurt Turkey, but it will greatly harm bilateral relations, interests and vision. Turkey will not be the one who loses," said Erdogan, speaking at a summit of Turkish businessmen.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said the vote was a boost for human rights.

The vote calls on President Barack Obama to ensure U.S. policy formally refers to the massacre as genocide, putting him in a tight spot.

In a telephone call with Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Wednesday, Obama emphasized his administration had urged lawmakers to consider the potential damage to efforts to normalize Armenian-Turkish ties, a senior administration official said.

At a news conference in Costa Rica on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she and Obama, who both supported proposed Armenia genocide resolutions as presidential candidates, had changed their minds because they believed the drive to normalize relations between Turkey and Armenia was bearing fruit.

Turkey, a Muslim secular democracy that plays a vital role for U.S. interests from Iraq to Iran and in Afghanistan and the Middle East, accepts that many Armenians were killed by Ottoman forces but denies that up to 1.5 million died and that it amounted to genocide - a term employed by many Western historians and some foreign parliaments.

Turkey regards such accusations as an affront to its national honor.

Hamas politie druk met gevecht tegen Salafisten en tegen onkuisheid

Terwijl de gewone media blijven benadrukken dat Hamas van Gaza geen islamitische dictatuur maakt en zo pragmatisch geworden is, meldt Israned een serie 'kuisheidsmaatregelen' die door de Hamas politie worden afgedwongen: mannelijke kappers mogen geen vrouwen meer knippen, vrouwen mogen geen motor meer rijden, en mannen mogen hun overhemd of Tshirt niet meer uittrekken op het strand. Ondertussen heeft het Hamasleiderschap te kampen met 'Al Qaida achtige groepen' die aanslagen op haar leiderschap proberen te plegen.

 

RP

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

 

Hamas 'security' slachtoffers

http://www.israned.com/2010/03/hamas-security-slachtoffers.html

 

 

Ook Gaza heeft een 'security force'. Het Palestijnse persbureau Ma'an berichtte er deze week over. Donderdag verwondde een 'security officer' in het Al-Bureij vluchtelingenkamp in Gaza drie leden van een familie - het leek om een vendetta te gaan. Volgens de Palestijnse mensenrechten- organisatie PCHR beschoot een bodyguard van een Hamasleider de familie bij hun huis.

Vrijdag verklaarde de Al-Qassam Brigades van de Islamitische Jihad dat een 22-jarige jongeman was omgekomen tijdens een missie voor de brigades. Over de doodsoorzaak en de aard van de missie werd niets bekend gemaakt.

De Hamaspolitie houdt zich onder meer bezig met het afdwingen van een serie kuisheidsmaatregelen: een verbod op mannelijke kappers in vrouwenkapsalons is het nieuwste. De laatste maanden kwam er ook een verbod op motorrijden door vrouwen en mogen mannen hun overhemd of t-shirt niet meer uittrekken op het strand, meldt Ma'an. De politie heeft ook ernstiger zaken om aan te pakken.

De laatste tijd voeren al-Qaida-achtige groepen aanslagen uit op de 'security force' en op Hamasleiders, meldt Reuters. Salafistische extremisten zouden drie bommen hebben laten exploderen bij het zwaarbewaakte huis van Hamaspremier Haniyeh, om hem te waarschuwen dat hij moet stoppen met het arresteren van hun leden; de daders zouden sympatisanten zijn onder Haniyeh's bewakers.

Maandag brachten onbekenden een bom tot ontploffing onder de auto van een Hamasofficier. Hetzelfde gebeurde in januari. Vorige maand ontkwam een andere Hamascommandant aan een bomaanslag. Volgens Salafistische bronnen 'doden en martelen' deze twee Hamasmannen Islamistische 'strijders'.

 

 

Koerdisch TV station in België gesloten en medewerkers opgepakt

 

Ami Isseroff meent een belangrijk verschil te ontwaren in hoe in Europa tegen Israelisch geweld tegen Palestijnen en Turkse onderdrukking van Koerden wordt aangekeken. België bijvoorbeeld heeft eerder arrestatiebevelen tegen Ariel Sharon uitgevaardigd en neemt een zeer eenzijdig standpunt in het Israelisch-Palestijns conflict in, maar ziet er blijkbaar geen been in Koerdische activisten voor hun zaak op te pakken. Hebben de Koerden minder recht op een staat en gelijke behandeling dan Palestijnen? Waarom zet Europa zich eigenlijk niet net zo hard in voor een onafhankelijk Koerdistan als voor een onafhankelijke Palestijnse staat? Vanwaar die speciale aandacht en sympathie voor de Palestijnen? De Koerdische cultuur en geschiedenis is ouder dan de Palestijnse, ze zijn al eeuwenlang een volk en worden al net zo lang door de landen waar ze leven onderdrukt.

Hecht men net iets meer waarde aan goede relaties met Turkije dan met Israel? Of heeft het ook iets met Joden te maken?

 

RP

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Arrests of Kurds in Belgium: What happened to human rights in Europe?

European concern for human rights ends as soon as it is a matter of human rights and freedom of expression in Europe. European concern for people under occupation seems to end as soon as it is politically inconvenient for European politicians. Europe seems to be more than anxious to collaborate in the apartheid genocidal policies of certain countries regarding the legitimate rights of the Kurdish people.

 

Ami Isseroff

 

 

Mass arrests of Kurds in Belgium causes great concern across Europe

http://www.english.rojhelat.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70:rojhelat&catid=1:worldnews

Thursday, 04 March 2010 17:41

Press Release: Mass arrests of Kurds in Belgium causes great concern across Europe

At 5am this morning, the offices of ROJ TV were raided by the Belgium along with several other addresses in Belgium. 30 people were arrested including Mr Remzi Kartal, Mr Zubeyir Aydar and Mr Eyep Duru. Though we understand that ROJ TV has not been closed down none of the journalists have yet been allowed back into the building and transmission has ceased for the time being. ROJ TV is the mouthpiece of the Kurdish community in Europe and is seen as a beacon of hope for all those who seek the resolution of the Kurdish Question.

Remzi Kartal is particularly well known and respected across Europe and in the UK for his diplomatic activities on behalf of his people. Like many Kurds, Mr Kartal regarded Europe as a safe haven when he had to flee repression in his homeland. Mr Kartal had been elected to the Turkish Parliament as a Democratic Party (DEP) member along with Mr Aydar. They were prevented from playing their part in the democratic political process and were quickly attacked and detained with Ms Leyla Zana later serving a long prison sentence. Fearing incarceration and torture, they fled to Europe where they were granted asylum.

In 2002 the European Court of Human Rights, ruled against Turkey and in favour of Mr Kartal and 12 others, under Article 3 of Protocol 1. The systematic torture of dissidents by Turkey was yet again proved beyond doubt and Mr Kartal received 50,000 Euros compensation.

Undeterred Mr Kartal started to campaign in exile for the Kurdish cause and became well known in diplomatic and government circles all over the UK and Europe for his lobbying work and advocacy of a democratic and peaceful solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey.

All three men have been working constructively in the search for a peaceful settlement based on justice and respect for everyone's rights inside Turkey. For their diplomatic efforts they should be honoured not incarcerated. Their vision of a just, free, peaceful and democratic Turkey is one that we all share and as such we demand that their freedom is returned to them to allow them to continue in their chosen and much valued roles.

Mr Kartal and Mr Duru were arrested in Spain in 2009 but subsequently released without charge. We fully expect the same to happen again and already many of those arrested have been released but these tactics of intimidation against those working peacefully to further the Kurdish cause are of great concern, particularly in the lead up to the International Women's Day on 8 March and the Kurdish New Year, Newroz which is celebrated on 21 March.

An emergency demonstration is being held in the UK to protest the arrests at midday tomorrow, Friday 5 March outside the Belgian Embassy, 17 Grosvener Crescent, London.

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

For further information contact: Peace in Kurdistan

Rachel Bird: 020 7272 4161 / 07952 145854; knklondon@gn.apc.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Estella Schmid: 020 7586 5892; estella24@tiscali.co.uk

 

Peres wil Kadima in coalitieregering - Netanjahoe probeert Kadima te splijten

Peres has expressed concern over the prospect of a sharp decline in Israel's international standing if the current diplomatic stalemate continues. He says bringing Kadima into the coalition will enable the prime minister to achieve a breakthrough in the peace process, which will improve Israel's standing in the world.

The president has said Netanyahu must make a serious offer to Kadima "with respectable terms." He is not supportive of Netanyahu's attempts at splitting Kadima and bringing seven or more of its members into his coalition.

 

Het is je moeilijk voor te stellen in Nederland dat bijvoorbeeld het CDA zou proberen de PvdA te splitsen, en de helft van de leden zover te krijgen mee te doen aan een coalitie maar te weigeren met de partij als geheel in zee te gaan. In Israel wordt het politieke spel nog wat harder gespeeld dan hier, is de machtsstrijd, ook binnen partijen nog openlijker en het vertrouwen binnen de coalitie geringer.

 

Peres heeft natuurlijk gelijk wat betreft Israels imago, maar dat ligt helaas niet alleen aan deze regering of ueberhaupt aan Israels beleid. De regering maakt veel fouten, vooral ook in haar contacten met het buitenland, maar die worden door de media ook nog eens allemaal uitvergroot en alleen aan Israel toegeschreven. Harde woorden of eigenlijk een ordinaire scheldkannonade van Turkije tegen Israel tijdens de Gaza oorlog van vorig jaar heet dat Turkije Israel eens de waarheid vertelde, een scherpe reactie van Israel is een diplomatieke blunder van de extreemrechtse Lieberman. De AK partij heet gematigd islamitisch, en in het ene na het andere artikel is dit gematigde karakter benadrukt, terwijl Israels regering als gevaarlijk nationalistisch en rechts-religieus wordt afgeschilderd.

 

RP

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Peres: Netanyahu's peace moves restricted by the right wing
By Yossi Verter, Mazal Mualem and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent

Last update - 09:53 04/03/2010
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1153820.html

 

In private conversations Peres has had over the past few weeks with senior political figures and party leaders, he has been making statements to the effect that Prime Minister Netanyahu cannot advance the peace process with the present coalition government controlled by the right wing. To move forward, the president has been saying, Netanyahu will have to bring Kadima into his coalition and broaden the base of his government with moderates.

Peres has noted in these conversations that he is still convinced that Netanyahu is interested in taking historic steps vis-a-vis the Palestinians. The president says he has faith in the intentions and capabilities of the prime minister, with whom Peres has excellent relations. The president has also said, however, that Netanyahu is restricted by the right wing, that he wants to move forward but his right flank is not permitting it, and that the prime minister is concerned about his government's longevity. In order to make history, Peres says, the prime minister has to bring in Kadima.

Peres has expressed concern over the prospect of a sharp decline in Israel's international standing if the current diplomatic stalemate continues. He says bringing Kadima into the coalition will enable the prime minister to achieve a breakthrough in the peace process, which will improve Israel's standing in the world.

The president has said Netanyahu must make a serious offer to Kadima "with respectable terms." He is not supportive of Netanyahu's attempts at splitting Kadima and bringing seven or more of its members into his coalition.

Peres has also made comments along these lines directly to Netanyahu and to Kadima leader Tzipi Livni in face-to-face meetings in his office at the President's Residence. Up to now, Peres' efforts have not shown results. Relations between Netanyahu and Livni are extremely strained and lack trust or mutual respect, as was seen again this week at a meeting of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday, where the two openly sparred and then on Tuesday in the Knesset plenum, when Livni launched a scathing attack on Netanyahu, among other grounds, for his ceaseless attempts to split Kadima.

'PM won't replace Lieberman even if he's forced to resign'

"Even if [Avigdor] Lieberman is forced to resign, Bibi won't name a replacement as foreign minister," one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's associates said Wednesday, referring to the premier by his nickname.

This comment follows the latest allegations of criminal conduct tied to Foreign Minister Lieberman.

Still, anyone looking for cracks in the coalition will be hard-pressed to find them. Sources close to Netanyahu say that even if Lieberman is indicted, the matter will last for months, during which Lieberman is expected to invoke his right to a hearing.

The foreign minister is not expected to put the coalition in any danger for the duration of that period either. Lieberman committed in the past to resign from the ministry if he is indicted, and he is expected to make good on the commitment, but not to pull other ministers from his Yisrael Beiteinu party from the government.

Netanyahu is aware of this situation, and in return intends to keep the foreign minister's portfolio for himself.

"Lieberman has no reason to pull his ministers out of the government," a senior Likud minister said Wednesday, "and in addition, he would prefer to leave a measure of control over the Public Security Ministry and the Constitution [Law and Justice] Committee." In conversations with Yisrael Beiteinu officials it was apparent that Lieberman remained the party's boss, without whom it is doubtful the party would maintain its power.

It is thought that if Lieberman resigned, he would appoint MK Fania Kirshenbaum to fill in for him as party leader.

Sources close to Netanyahu say he has not shifted his strategy since the last election. He remains committed to cooperation with the ultra-Orthodox parties and with Lieberman.

A senior Likud official said: "Netanyahu knows that if he breaks up [that] bloc, he's finished."

Still trying to break up Kadima

At this point, the prime minister is continuing his efforts to break up the Kadima party. His associates say he has managed to convince six Kadima MKs to leave and the moment that he has a seventh, which is only a matter of time, the split will occur.

Such a break-up would constitute a kind of insurance policy for Netanyahu if things get complicated with Yisrael Beiteinu.

Kadima leader Tzipi Livni attacked Lieberman and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch as well as Netanyahu himself Wednesday, claiming they were not backing the police in the Lieberman investigation.

Aharonovitch's office responded by saying that the minister had in fact issued an official statement in support of the police.

Apartheid is er wel in het Midden-Oosten

Van Israel bashers mogen we het nooit hebben over de veel ergere mensenrechtenschendingen en discriminatie in Arabische landen, want dat maakt wat Israel doet nog niet goed. Maar is het niet logisch dat je je het meest opwindt over de ergste misstanden? Men stelt aan Israel hogere eisen omdat het een Westers land is, is vaak de smoes. Maar daarmee discrimineert men eigenlijk zelf, want van Arabieren kun je blijkbaar minder verwachten.

Het is een gotspe het over 'apartheid' in Israel te hebben, de enige democratie in de regio, en de veel ergere vormen van discriminatie in de omliggende landen te negeren. In Israel kan zeker nog het nodige verbeterd, maar daar zijn tientallen organisaties in Israel zelf druk mee en journalisten zorgen ervoor dat iedereen op de hoogte is van misstanden, terwijl in bijvoorbeeld Iran onlangs de laatste oppositiekrant werd verboden.

 

RP

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

How about a real Apartheid Week?

From "Minding the Campus:"

 

How About A Real Campaign Against Abuses?*

http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2010/03/by_alan_m_dershowitz_every.html/

 

By Alan M. Dershowitz

 

Every year at about this time, radical Islamic students---aided by radical anti-Israel professors---hold an event they call "Israel Apartheid Week." During this week, they try to persuade students on campuses around the world to demonize Israel as an apartheid regime. Most students seem to ignore the rantings of these extremists, but some naive students seem to take them seriously. Some pro-Israel and Jewish students claim that they are intimidated when they try to respond to these untruths. As one who strongly opposes any censorship, my solution is to fight bad speech with good speech, lies with truth and educational malpractice with real education.

 

Accordingly, I support a "Middle East Apartheid Education Week" to be held at universities throughout the world. It would be based on the universally accepted human rights principle of "the worst first." In other words, the worst forms of apartheid being practiced by Middle East nations and entities would be studied and exposed first. Then the apartheid practices of other countries would be studied in order of their seriousness and impact on vulnerable minorities.

 

Under this principle, the first country studied would be Saudi Arabia. That tyrannical kingdom practices gender apartheid to an extreme, relegating women to an extremely low status. Indeed, a prominent Saudi Imam recently issued a fatwa declaring that anyone who advocates women working alongside men or otherwise compromises with absolute gender apartheid is subject to execution. The Saudis also practice apartheid based on sexual orientation, executing and imprisoning gay and lesbian Saudis. Finally, Saudi Arabia openly practices religious apartheid. It has special roads for "Muslims only." It discriminates against Christians, refusing them the right to practice their religion openly. And needless to say, it doesn't allow Jews the right to live in Saudi Arabia, to own property or even (with limited exceptions) to enter the country. Now that's apartheid with a vengeance.

 

The second entity on any apartheid list would be Hamas, which is the de facto government of the Gaza Strip. Hamas too discriminates openly against women, gays, Christians. It permits no dissent, no free speech, and no freedom of religion.

 

Every single Middle East country practices these forms of apartheid to one degree or another. Consider the most "liberal" and pro-American nation in the area, namely Jordan. The Kingdom of Jordan, which the King himself admits is not a democracy, has a law on its books forbidding Jews from becoming citizens or owning land. Despite the efforts of its progressive Queen, women are still de facto subordinate in virtually all aspects of Jordanian life.

 

Iran, of course, practices no discrimination against gays, because its President has assured us that there are no gays in Iran. In Pakistan, Sikhs have been executed for refusing to convert to Islam, and throughout the Middle East, honor killings of women are practiced, often with a wink and a nod from the religious and secular authorities.

 

Every Muslim country in the Middle East has a single, established religion, namely Islam, and makes no pretense of affording religious equality to members of other faiths. That is a brief review of some, but certainly not all, apartheid practices in the Middle East.

 

Now let's turn to Israel. The secular Jewish state of Israel recognizes fully the rights of Christians and Muslims and prohibits any discrimination based on religion (except against Conservative and Reform Jews, but that's another story!) Muslim and Christian citizens of Israel (of which there are more than a million) have the right to vote and have elected members of the Knesset, some of whom even oppose Israel's right to exist. There is an Arab member of the Supreme Court, an Arab member of the Cabinet and numerous Israeli Arabs in important positions in businesses, universities and the cultural life of the nation. A couple of years ago I attended a concert at the Jerusalem YMCA at which Daniel Barrenboim conducted a mixed orchestra of Israeli and Palestinian musicians. There was a mixed audience of Israelis and Palestinians, and the man sitting next to me was an Israeli Arab, who is the culture minister of the State of Israel. Can anyone imagine that kind of concert having taking place in apartheid South Africa, or in apartheid Saudi Arabia?

 

There is complete freedom of dissent in Israel and it is practiced vigorously by Muslims, Christians and Jews alike. And Israel is a vibrant democracy.

 

What is true of Israel proper, including Israeli Arab areas, is not true of the occupied territories. Israel ended its occupation of the Gaza several years ago, only to be attacked by Hamas rockets. Israel maintains its occupation of the West Bank only because the Palestinians walked away from a generous offer of statehood on 97% of the West Bank, with its capital in Jerusalem and with a $35 billion compensation package for refugees. Had it accepted that offer by President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Ehud Barak, there would be a Palestinian state in the West Bank. There would be no separation barrier. There would be no roads restricted to Israeli citizens (Jews, Arabs and Christians.) And there would be no civilian settlements. I have long opposed civilian settlements in the West Bank, as many, perhaps most Israelis, do. But to call an occupation, which continues because of the refusal of the Palestinians to accept the two-state solution, "Apartheid" is to misuse that word. As those of us who fought in the actual struggle of apartheid well understand, there is no comparison between what happened in South Africa and what is now taking place on the West Bank. As Congressman John Conyers, who helped found the congressional Black caucus, well put it:

 

"[Applying the word "Apartheid" to Israel] does not serve the cause of peace, and the use of it against the Jewish people in particular, who have been victims of the worst kind of discrimination, discrimination resulting in death, is offensive and wrong."

The current "Israel Apartheid Week" on universities around the world, by focusing only on the imperfections of the Middle East's sole democracy, is carefully designed to cover up far more serious problems of real apartheid in Arab and Muslim nations. The question is why do so many students identify with regimes that denigrate women, gays, non-Muslims, dissenters, environmentalists and human rights advocates, while demonizing a democratic regime that grants equal rights to women (the chief justice and speaker of the Parliament of Israel are women), gays (there are openly gay generals in the Israeli Army), non-Jews (Muslims and Christians serve in high positions in Israel) and dissenters, (virtually all Israelis dissent about something). Israel has the best environmental record in the Middle East, it exports more life saving medical technology than any country in the region and it has sacrificed more for peace than any country in the Middle East. Yet on many college campuses democratic, egalitarian Israel is a pariah, while sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, terrorist Hamas is a champion. There is something very wrong with this picture.

 

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

 

Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard University.

Mensenrechten in Israel en de Arabische wereld

Palestinian children participate in lynching, parading and hanging of a 'brother'

 

 

Verre van volmaakt, steekt Israel op het gebied van mensenrechten en burgerrechten toch met kop en schouders uit boven de Arabische buurlanden, inclusief de Palestijnse Autoriteit.

 

Wouter

 

IN A NUTSHELL

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1948 champions the right to "life, liberty and security of person"; "freedom of thought, conscience and religion"; "freedom of opinion and expression"; "equal protection of the law"; freedom from "arbitrary arrest"; and "inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment."
• Despite rhetoric which paints Israel as a human rights oppressor, the facts and even the testimony of Palestinian human rights activists demonstrate that the Arab world flagrantly and systematically violates the human rights of its own people.
• For Arabs and Jews in the Middle East, genuine respect for one's person, privacy, property, gender, beliefs, right of expression; protection from arbitrary arrest, and from cruel and unusual punishment exist only in Israel. Many regimes in the Arab world have no qualms about terrorizing their own citizenry, using cruel and unusual punishments and engaging in murderous attacks on opponents to keep their citizenry in line.
• Discrimination against women in the Arab world is widespread. It ranges from restrictions on their autonomy to laws that legitimize honor killings for breaching modesty customs.
• The Palestinian Authority has not only turned the machinery of government into a police state in two opportunities for self-rule – the 1987 Intifada, and a decade of self-rule under the Palestinian Authority – but is responsible for the disintegration of Palestinian society into a lawless reign of terror which threatens Palestinians as well as Israelis.
• Palestinian leaders think nothing about victimizing both their own children and Jewish Israeli children for political gain.

___________________________

Let's talk about human rights - during Israel apartheid week

"Right thinking" university students are observing Israel Apartheid Week (two weeks actually) - this week and next. Israel is in the position of the lamb who was invited to dinner. It is good to be the guest of honor at dinner, but not if you are the main course.

 

While you are observing Israel "apartheid" week, you might give some thought to human rights in neighboring regimes in the Middle East. See Human Rights in the Middle East. And below are some facts about human rights in the Palestinian Authority and the Middle East, compiled by Myths and Facts Web site.

 

Human Rights

Eli E. Hertz

A Record Incompatible with the Civilized World

http://www.mythsandfacts.org/Conflict/13/human_rights.htm

 

"Violence does not and cannot exist by itself; it is invariably intertwined with the lie."

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Arab countries attack Israel on trumped-up charges of human rights violations to cover up their own systemic human rights violations. Not only does the Arab world ignore the rule of international human rights law, many of its violations – from sanctioning honor killings of women to cross-amputations for criminals – are enshrined in the legal system of most Muslim countries. Palestinian self-rule is no different.

---

Arab Nations' Actions Fail to Put Human Rights Commitments Into Practice

In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was the first document considered to hold universal principles of behavior that was agreed upon by an international body. It recognized the fundamental rights of every person to life, liberty, and security; to freedom of speech, religion, and education; and to the right of freedom from torture and degrading treatment. Forty-five years later at the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993, 171 countries reiterated the universality, indivisibility, and interdependence of human rights.

Most Arab countries have constitutions that champion human rights on paper. They also have signed a number of joint declarations of high principles: The 1981 Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the Islamic Council, the 1994 draft of the Arab Charter on Human Rights approved by the Arab League, the 1999 Casablanca Declaration that purported to establish an Arab Human Rights Movement, and the 1999 Beirut Declaration touted as the First Arab Conference on Justice. Yet despite the documents' lofty principles, the record shows the Arab world is one of the worst offenders in the field of human rights.

In its 2001 report, Amnesty International found:

"[g]ross human rights violations took place throughout much of the Middle East and North Africa. They ranged from extra judicial executions to widespread use of torture and unfair trials, harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders. Freedom of expression and association continued to be curtailed; the climate of impunity remained and the victims were still awaiting steps to bring those responsible for past human rights violations to justice."

In Algeria, for instance, the report cites that more than 2,500 people were killed in 2001 in "individual attacks, massacres, bomb explosions and armed confrontations, and hundreds of civilians killed by armed groups."

In Iraq, dozens of women accused of prostitution were beheaded without any judicial process, as was a woman obstetrician who actually was silenced for being critical of corruption in the health system. Iran reported 75 executions, and Saudi Arabia recorded 34 amputations as punishment.

By contrast, most of Amnesty's report on Israel focused on unwarranted or "excessive use of force" that led to casualties among Palestinians in response to "political violence." It also criticized Israel for arrest, detention, and trial procedures against Palestinians.

Despite Amnesty's criticism of Israel, what is most revealing is how the Arab world responds not to its own human rights violations, but to Israel's. Arab leaders go out of their way to exaggerate and spread lies about Israel's behavior, not only to demonize Israel, but also to create a smoke screen that covers up Arab nations' own deplorable human rights record.

It is a profound irony that the Arab world, which charges Israel with "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide," destroyed once-thriving Jewish communities in Arab lands, which today are all but void of Jews. Even in areas of the West Bank and Gaza administered by the Palestinian Authority, Israeli Jews who visit there put their lives in jeopardy. That picture contrasts sharply from the status of the more than one million Israeli Arabs who enjoy full citizenship and human rights, and can visit and work in Jewish cities unmolested. Nevertheless, Arab and Palestinian charges against Israel persist. Among them are claims that Israeli security procedures such as roadblocks, closures, and searches established to fight terrorism purposely humiliate Palestinians.

The purpose of the smear campaign is not only to criminalize the State of Israel and the Jewish people, but also to attract additional sympathizers from the Western world. Yet those fallacious and often rabidly antisemitic diatribes are also designed to deflect attention away from the deeds of the accusers, and serve to protect genuine abusers of human rights both in the Arab world and elsewhere. Tit-for-tat arrangements among genuinely guilty nations have turned the UN's human rights apparatus into what one critic labeled "an abusers' caucus."

In fact, independent monitoring bodies in the West say that Israel is the only genuine democracy in the Middle East with separation of powers, due process, and respect for minority rights. And it is the only country in the North Africa and West Asia region that was ranked free in a survey of religious freedom conducted by the Center for Religious Freedom.

---

Arab Violations: A Daily Affair

By contrast, human rights violations throughout the Arab world are a daily affair, using any objective yardstick.

The absence of basic human rights is reflected not only in the actions of regimes, but also in their social values and attitudes, which are rife with intolerance for the Other. The Arab Middle East suffers from intolerance toward non-Muslims, suppression of ethnic minorities, gross gender bias, and discrimination and persecution of people who are different in virtually every realm of life – from political views to sexual orientation.

Incredibly, suppression of freedom of expression can extend even to the reporting of public opinion. Two Iranian pollsters were sentenced to eight - and nine - year prison terms after their survey found strong public support for contact with the United States. Authorities accused the two of selling secrets to groups linked to the CIA. Among the groups cited was the Gallup organization, which had paid for the poll to find out opinions of people in the Islamic world toward America after the September 11th attacks.

Possibly the greatest threat from outside the Arab world, and perhaps rightly so, is the Internet. That is why many Arab nations have employed methods for restricting the flow of information from the Web. Proxy servers filter access to content in Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. Indeed, the Saudi government-controlled server banned at least 400,000 Websites, including sites about religion, politics, women, health, pop culture and more, a Harvard study found. Many Arab governments read their citizens' e-mail, just as they tap phones and restrict free speech. One Bahraini spent over a year in jail for e-mailing allegedly political information to dissidents abroad. In Jordan, taxation and monthly Internet fees are priced so high – $70 a month for moderate usage – that only an estimated 20,000 Jordanians out of five million could afford access to the Web in 1999. By comparison, among Israel's 6.4 million residents, 600,000 subscribed to Internet providers in 1999, and moderate usage ran an affordable $22 a month. Astoundingly, out of 880,000 subscribers in the entire Middle East in May 1999, more than 600,000 were from Israel, where no restrictions on Internet usage exist. Israel's Business Arena reported in November 2001 that there were 1.93 million people with Internet access in Israel. The number of active home Internet users totaled 956,000.

Other sharp splits over human rights divide Israel from its neighbors. One such realm centers on homosexuality, where the lives of Palestinian gays are so jeopardized that some have fled to Israel, where tolerance is the law of the land, where workplace discrimination is prohibited, where single-sex couples are eligible for spousal benefits and pensions in the civil service, and declared homosexuals serve in the army and participate in all aspects of public life.

 

Read the rest here: A Record Incompatible with the Civilized World

 

 

Gretta Duisenberg mag je gerust een antisemiet noemen

 

Ik ben daar zelf nogal terughoudend in, maar als Elma het zegt....

 

Wouter

_______________

Meer over deze onfrisse kwestie:

Gretta Duisenberg op Islamonline haalt de Haaretz met haar krasse uitspraken

Woede over uitspraken Gretta Duisenberg 'Zionistische joden domineren regering'

Deel van Tweede Kamer boos over uitspraken Gretta Duisenberg met subsidie SdB

En over Gretta's onfrisse club:

Leugens over Joden (Nausicaa Marbe)

Stop de Bezetting en "10 redenen om niet naar Israel te gaan"

_______________

 

http://www.trouw.nl/opinie/columnisten/drayer/article3004367.ece/Gretta_Duisenberg_mag_je_gerust_een__antisemiet_noemen__.html

Gretta Duisenberg mag je gerust een antisemiet noemen

Trouw - 4 maart 2010

Elma Drayer

 

 

Eind januari wist de voorzitter van actiegroep Stop de Bezetting weer eens de aandacht te trekken. Gretta Duisenberg gaf een interview aan Islamonline, waarin ze uitweidde over een vertrouwd thema: de Joodse lobby.

Die is, zoals wij allen weten, in Nederland 'very strong and powerful' en speelt nog steeds handig in op onze schuldgevoelens over de Holocaust „hoewel die al 63 jaar [sic] voorbij is". Ook meldt ze dat de Nederlandse regering bestaat uit 'radicale christenen' en wordt gedomineerd door 'radicale Joden'. Of zoiets.

Verkeerd geciteerd? Nee hoor. Een paar dagen later herhaalde ze in dagblad De Pers haar messcherpe analyse, waarbij ze alleen dat 'radicale Joden' corrigeerde in 'zionistische Joden'. Zij zitten, verduidelijkte ze, „in alle geledingen van de politieke partijen". Wie en waar dan? Dat kon ze niet zeggen, schreef de krant fijntjes.

Zo'n groot denker, dachten ze bij Nieuwwij.nl, die moeten wij ook 'ns aan het woord laten. Dit nog jonge digitale initiatief hunkert naar 'verbinding', naar een samenleving „waarin alle Nederlanders zich thuis kunnen voelen, ongeacht hun verschil in afkomst en levensovertuiging". Behalve blijkbaar de Joden, want die krijgen er flink van langs.

In een vraaggesprek, deze week gepubliceerd op de website, afficheert Gretta Duisenberg zichzelf als de dappere strijdster die toch maar mooi 'de waarheid' durft te zeggen. De interviewster – nogal onder de indruk van Duisenbergs „voortdurende drang naar onafhankelijkheid, vrijheid en rechtvaardigheid" – tekent haar woorden eerbiedig op.

Ze heeft 'nergens' spijt van, zeg ze. Dat ze destijds hoopte 'zes miljoen' handtekeningen op te halen voor de goede zaak was 'te flap uit, te spontaan'. Het enige wat ze betreurt is dat haar die uitspraak sindsdien wordt nagedragen. „Ik moet ontzettend oppassen", klaagt ze. „Als ik zeg dat Joodse mensen in Amsterdam-Zuid restaurants annexeren, krijg ik weer een golf kritiek over me heen, maar het is wel waar. Als ik binnenkom, gaan zij weg. Ik zie er niets verkeerds in om dat te zeggen." Ruimhartig voegt ze eraan toe dat het „niet de Joden zijn die niet deugen" – een hele geruststelling. Het is alleen 'de zionistische ideologie' die niet deugt.

En o ja, dat ze antisemitisch wordt genoemd, is ook alweer 'een tactiek' van de Joodse lobby – om haar de mond te snoeren. ,,Ik vind antisemiet bijna een eretitel worden." Waarna ze zionisten losjes vergelijkt met nazi's, de situatie in de Palestijnse gebieden met de Holocaust, de moslims in Nederland nu met de Joden 'vroeger'.

Onschuldige prietpraat? Dat staat te bezien. Gretta Duisenberg verwoordt op emotionele wijze een standpunt dat met de dag aan salonfähigkeit wint. Niet alleen sympathisanten van Stop de Bezetting zijn overtuigd van een Joods complot ('Ik denk', schrijft ene Karim op de website, 'dat zeer machtige Zionisten de Holocaust hebben georganiseerd, in plaats van de Duitsers'). Ook nette burgers hoor ik de laatste tijd onbekommerd beweren dat wij beducht moeten zijn voor de Joodse lobby en dat Israël een betreurenswaardige vergissing is. Daar kijken ze dan steevast héél triomfantelijk bij.

Ongemakkelijk genoeg is er in dit klimaat één personage dat openlijk en onverkort blijft vasthouden aan Israëls bestaansrecht: de partijleider die zo scoort in de peilingen. Het is voor de spraakmakende gemeente een reden temeer zich er nuffig vanaf te wenden.

Van mij mogen ze. Maar dat 'antisemiet' anno 2010 weer een benaming is waarop je je trots kunt laten voorstaan – het is op z'n minst net zo ongemakkelijk.

 

Heel Israel is bezet Palestijns gebied volgens PA televisie

De officiële TV zender van de 'gematigde' Palestijnse Autoriteit leert niet alleen Palestijnse kinderen dat vrede met Israel niet mogelijk is en terroristen 'martelaren' en helden zijn, maar zet nu ook Arabische kinderen in Israel op tegen dit land. Hoe zat dat ook alweer met de verplichtingen van de PA volgens de routekaart? Daar hoorde toch ook een einde aan de opruiing en verheerlijking van geweld bij? De PA had Israel toch erkend en wil er vrede mee sluiten?

 

Host addressing Israeli Arab children: "Soon, if it works out, we will be among you [Israeli Arabs] in the 1948 territories [PA euphemism for Israel] - the occupied territories...
Our friends from the 1948 territories - the occupied territories - they write wanting us to [broadcast] there with them. Many of them have come here, Bissu [name of co-host, in cat costume], trying to be friends [of the program] and they are truly dear friends and regular [viewers]...
There are also [children] from Lod [Israeli city] and also Ahmad from Nazareth [Israeli city] and there are so many. There's Adnan from Be'er Sheva [Israeli city]. Dear children [Israeli Arabs]: we will definitely always remain in contact with you, because you have the right, and this program is definitely yours too, just as it belongs to every Palestinian child, since you are part of occupied Palestine."

 

RP

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

Bulletin / March 4, 2010
Palestinian Media Watch

Click here to view PMW's new web site

PA TV teaches children
that all of Israel is "occupied Palestine"
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=1695

by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

 

Official Palestinian Authority TV continues to teach children that all of Israel is "occupied Palestine."

On the latest episode of The Best Home, a PA TV program for young children, the host says that Israeli Arab children living in the Israeli cities Lod, Nazareth and Be'er Sheva are living under occupation. She addresses Israeli Arab viewers: "Dear children... we will always remain in contact with you, because you have the right, and this program is certainly yours too, just as it belongs to every Palestinian child, since you are part of occupied Palestine."
 
The host repeatedly avoids using the name "Israel" on the program, referring to the land of the State of Israel alternately as "the occupied territories," "the 1948 territories" or "occupied Palestine."
 
Palestinian Media Watch has repeatedly documented the Palestinian Authority policy of depicting a world in which Israel does not exist.
 
Click to view this excerpt from the PA TV program.
 
The following is the transcript from the TV program:

Host addressing Israeli Arab children: "Soon, if it works out, we will be among you [Israeli Arabs] in the 1948 territories [PA euphemism for Israel] - the occupied territories...
Our friends from the 1948 territories - the occupied territories - they write wanting us to [broadcast] there with them. Many of them have come here, Bissu [name of co-host, in cat costume], trying to be friends [of the program] and they are truly dear friends and regular [viewers]...
There are also [children] from Lod [Israeli city] and also Ahmad from Nazareth [Israeli city] and there are so many. There's Adnan from Be'er Sheva [Israeli city]. Dear children [Israeli Arabs]: we will definitely always remain in contact with you, because you have the right, and this program is definitely yours too, just as it belongs to every Palestinian child, since you are part of occupied Palestine."

[PA TV (Fatah), Feb. 26, 2010]

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

 

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

PMW | King George 59 | Jerusalem | Israel

Pilar Rahola over Israel-Palestina, Spanje en links

 

Hieronder nog een toespraak van Pilar Rahola, waarin ze enkele droevige voorbeelden noemt van de anti-Israel stemming in Spanje. Zo verving een socialistische burgemeester Shoah-dag voor Nakba-dag en nodigde de Palestijnse terroriste Leila Khaled als spreekster uit.

 

Met dank aan Portal of Ideas.

 

Wouter

_______________

 

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Pilar Rahola

Pilar Rahola

Pilar Rahola is a Spanish politician, journalist and activist. She is a passionate defender of the United States and Israel and an indefatigable fighter against anti-Semitism. All these despite being ideologically from the left. Her articles are published in Spain and throughout some of the most important newspapers in Latin America. She is the recipient of major awards by Jewish organizations.

I came across this speech and felt that it was worthwhile placing it in my blog. I translated it and assume full responsibility for any errors. If you want to visit her blog, you can do so by clicking here: Pilar Rahola. Some of her articles translated into English.

Why don't we see demonstrations against Islamic dictatorships in London, Paris, Barcelona? Or demonstrations against the Burmese dictatorship? Why aren't there demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of women who live without any legal protection? Why aren't there demonstrations against the use of children as human bombs where there is conflict with Islam? Why has there been no leadership in support of the victims of Islamic dictatorship in Sudan? Why is there never any outrage against the acts of terrorism committed against Israel? Why is there no outcry by the European left against Islamic fanaticism? Why don't they defend Israel's right to exist? Why confuse support of the Palestinian cause with the defense of Palestinian terrorism? An finally, the million dollar question:Why is the left in Europe and around the world obsessed with the two most solid democracies, the United States and Israel, and not with the worst dictatorships on the planet? The two most solid democracies, who have suffered the bloodiest attacks of terrorism, and the left doesn't care.

And then, to the concept of freedom. In every pro Palestinian European forum I hear the left yelling with fervor: "We want freedom for the people!" Not true. They are never concerned with freedom for the people of Syria or Yemen or Iran or Sudan, or other such nations. And they are never preoccupied when Hammas destroys freedom for the Palestinians. They are only concerned with using the concept of Palestinian freedom as a weapon against Israeli freedom. The resulting consequence of these ideological pathologies is the manipulation of the press.

The international press does major damage when reporting on the question of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. On this topic they don't inform, they propagandize. When reporting about Israel the majority of journalists forget the reporter code of ethics. And so, any Israeli act of self-defense becomes a massacre, and any confrontation, genocide. So many stupid things have been written about Israel, that there aren't any accusations left to level against her. At the same time, this press never discusses Syrian and Iranian interference in propagating violence against Israel; the indoctrination of children and the corruption of the Palestinians. And when reporting about victims, every Palestinian casualty is reported as tragedy and every Israeli victim is camouflaged, hidden or reported about with disdain.

And let me add on the topic of the Spanish left. Many are the examples that illustrate the anti-Americanism and anti-Israeli sentiments that define the Spanish left. For example, one of the leftist parties in Spain has just expelled one of its members for creating a pro-Israel website. I quote from the expulsion document: "Our friends are the people of Iran, Libya and Venezuela, oppressed by imperialism, and not a Nazi state like Israel."

In another example, the socialist mayor of Campozuelos changed Shoah Day, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, with Palestinian Nabka Day, which mourns the establishment of the State of Israel, thus showing contempt for the six million European Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Or in my native city of Barcelona, the city council decided to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel, by having a week of solidarity with the Palestinian people. Thus, they invited Leila Khaled, a noted terrorist from the 70's and current leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization so described by the European Union, which promotes the use of bombs against Israel. And so on and so on.

This politically correct way of thinking has even polluted the speeches of president Zapatero. His foreign policy falls within the lunatic left, and on issues of the Middle East he is unequivocally pro Arab. I can assure you that in private, Zapatero places on Israel the blame for the conflict in the Middle East, and the policies of foreign minister Moratinos reflect this. The fact that Zapatero chose to wear a kafiah in the midst of the Lebanon conflict is no coincidence; it's a symbol.

Spain has suffered the worst terrorist attack in Europe and it is in the crosshairs of every Islamic terrorist organization. As I wrote before, they kill us will cell phones hooked to satellites connected to the Middle Ages. An yet the Spanish left is the most anti Israeli in the world.

And then it says it is anti Israeli because of solidarity. This is the madness I want to denounce in this conference.

Conclusion:

I am not Jewish. Ideologically I am left and by profession a journalist. Why am I not as anti Israeli as my colleagues? Because as a non-Jew I have the historical responsibility to fight against Jewish hatred and currently against the hatred for their historic homeland, Israel. To fight against anti-Semitism is not the duty of the Jews, it is the duty of the non-Jews.

As a journalist it is my duty to search for the truth beyond prejudice, lies and manipulations. The truth about Israel is not told. As a person from the left who loves progress, I am obligated to defend liberty, culture, civic education for children, coexistence and the laws that the Tablets of the Covenant made into universal principles. Principles that Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. That is to say that as a non-Jew, journalist and lefty I have a triple moral duty with Israel, because if Israel is destroyed, liberty, modernity and culture will be destroyed too.

The struggle of Israel, even if the world doesn't want to accept it, is the struggle of the world.

 

 

Joden met zes armen - speech Pilar Rahola over antisemitisme en Israel

 

De linkse journaliste Pilar Rahola uit Spanje luidde onlangs met onderstaande speech de noodklok over het hedendaagse antisemitisme en hoe zich dat op Israel richt onder de vermomming van antizionisme.

"Waarom veranderen intelligente mensen in idioten zodra het om Israel gaat?", vraagt zij zich af. Islamitisch fundamentalisme, de VN, de media en haar eigen linkse beweging krijgen er van langs in haar toespraak.

 

Wouter

____________

 

Jews with six arms
This is my Conference in the Global forum for Combating Antisemitism.
Jerusalem. 16/12/2009

For more information, the website is:
http://www.gfantisemitism.org/Pages/default.aspx

Jews with six arms

Meeting in Barcelona with a hundred lawyers a month ago. They have come together to hear my opinions on the Middle-Eastern conflict. They know I am a heterodoxal vessel, in the shipwreck of "single thinking", regarding Israel, which rules in my country. They want to listen to me, because they ask themselves why, if Pilar is a serious journalist, does she risk losing her credibility by defending the bad guys, the guilty? I answer provocatively – You all believe that you are experts in international politics, when you talk about Israel, but you really know nothing. Would you dare talk about the conflict in Ruanda? In Chechnya? – No. They are jurists, their turf is not geopolitics.. But against Israel, they dare, as does everybody. Why? Because Israel is under the permanent media magnifying glass and its distorted image pollutes the world's brains. And, because it is part of what is politically correct, it seems solidary, because talking against Israel is free. And so, cultured people when they read about Israel, are ready to believe that Jews have six arms, in the same way that during the Middle Ages people believed all sorts of outrageous things.

The first question, then, is why so many intelligent people, when talking about Israel, suddenly become idiots. The problem that those of us who do not demonize Israel, have, is that there exists no debate on the conflict. All that exists is the banner; there's no exchange of ideas, we throw slogans at each other; we don't have serious information, we suffer from the "burger journalism", fast food, full of prejudices, propaganda and simplism. Intellectual thinkers and International journalists have resigned in Israel. They don't exist. That is why, when someone tries to go beyond "single thinking", he becomes a suspect and unsolidary, and is immediately segregated. Why?

I've been trying to answer this question for years: why? Why, of all the World's conflicts, only this one interests them? Why a tiny country which struggles to survive is criminalized? Why does the manipulated information triumph so easily? Why are all the people of Israel, reduced to a simple mass of murderous imperialists? Why is there no Palestinian guilt? Why is Arafat a hero and Sharon a monster? Finally, why when it is the only country in the World which is threatened with destruction, it is the only one that nobody considers a victim?

I don't believe that there is a single answer to these questions. Just as it is impossible to completely explain the historical evil of antisemitism, it is also not possible to totally explain the present-day imbecility of anti-Israelism. Both drink from the fountain of intolerance and lie. If, also, we accept that anti-Israelism is the new form of antisemitism, we conclude that contingencies may have changed, but the deepest myths, both of the Medieval Christian antisemitism and of the modern political antisemitism, are still intact. Those myths are part of the chronicle of Israel. For example, the Medieval Jew who killed Christian children to drink their blood, connects directly with the Israeli Jew who kills Palestinian children to steal their land. Always they are innocent children and dark Jews. Similarly, the Jewish bankers who wanted to dominate the world through the European banks, according to the myth of the Protocols, connect directly with the idea that the Wall Street Jews want to dominate the World through the White House. Control of the Press, control of Finances, the Universal Conspiracy, all that which created the historical hatred against the Jews, is found today in hatred of the Israelis. In the subconscious, then, beats the western antisemite DNA, which produces an efficient culture medium. But, what beats in the conscious? Why, today a renewed intolerance surges with such virulence, centred now, not against the Jewish people, but against the Jewish state? From my point of view, this has historical and geopolitical motives, among others, the bloody Soviet rôle during decades, the European Antiamericanism, the West's energy dependency and the growing Islamist phenomenon.

But it also emerges from a set of defeats which we suffer as free societies, leading to a strong ethical relativism.

The moral defeat of the left. For decades, the left raised the flag of freedom, wherever there was injustice. It was the depositary of the utopic hopes of society. It was the great builder of future. Despite the murderous evil of Stalinism's sinking the utopias, the left has preserved intact its aura of struggle, and still pretends to point out the good and the evil in the world. Even those who would never vote for leftist options, grant great prestige to leftist intellectuals, and allow them to be the ones who monopolize the concept of solidarity. As they have always done. Thus, those who struggled against Pinochet were freedom-fighters, but Castro's victims, are expelled from the heroes' paradise, and converted into undercover fascists.

This historic treason to freedom, is reproduced nowadays, with mathematical precision. For example, the leaders of Hezbollah are considered resistance heroes, while pacifists like Noa, the singer, are insulted in the streets of Barcelona. Today too, as yesterday, that left is hawking totalitarian ideologies, falls in love with dictators and, in its offensive against Israel, ignores the destruction of fundamental rights. It hates rabbis, but falls in love with imams; shouts against the Tsahal, but applauds Hamas' terrorists; weeps for the Palestinian victims, but scorns the Jewish victims, and when it is touched by Palestinian children, it does it only if it can blame the Israelis. It will never denounce the culture of hatred, or its preparation for murder. A year ago, at AIPAC's conference in Washington, I asked the following questions: Why don't we see demonstrations in Europe against the Islamic dictatorships? Why are there no demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of muslim women? Why don't they declare against the use of bomb-carrying children in the conflicts in which Islam is involved? Why is the left only obsessed with fighting against two of the most solid democracies of the planet, those which have suffered the bloodiest terrorist attacks, the United States and Israel? ... Because the left no longer has any ideas, only slogans. It no longer defends rights, but prejudices. And the greatest prejudice of all, is the one it has against Israel. I accuse, then, in a formal manner: the main responsability of the new antisemite hatred, disguised as anti-zionism, comes from those who should have to defend freedom, solidarity and progress. Far from it, they defend despots, forget their victims and remain silent before medieval ideologies which aim at the destruction of free societies. The treason of the left is an authentic treason against modernity.

Defeat of Journalism. We have, a more informed world than ever before, but we do not have a better informed world. Quite the contrary, the information superhighway connects us with anywhere in the planet, but it does not connect us with the truth. Today's journalists do not need maps, since they have Google Earth, they do not need to know History, since they have Wikipedia. The historical journalists who knew the roots of a conflict, still exist, but they are an endangered species, devoured by that hamburger journalism which offers fast-food news, to readers who want fast-food information. Israel is the world's most watched place, but despite that, it is the world's least understood place. Of course, one must keep in mind the pressure of the great petrodollar lobbies, whose influence upon journalism is subtle but deep. Any mass media knows that if it speaks against Israel, it will have no problems. But what would happen if it criticised an Islamic country? Without doubt, it would complicate its existence. Certainly part of the Press that writes against Israel, would see themselves mirrored in Mark Twain's ironical sentence: " Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please".

Defeat of critical thinking. To all this, one must add the ethical relativism which defines the present times: it is based not on denying the values of civilization, but rather in their most extreme banalization. What is modernity? Personally, I explain it with this little tale: If I were to be lost in an uncharted island, and would want to found a democratic society, I would only need three written documents: The Ten Commandments (which established the first code of modernity. "Thou shalt not murder", founded modern civilization.); The Roman Penal Code; and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And with these three texts we would start again. These principles, are relativized daily, even by those who claim to be defending them. "Thou shalt not murder" ... depending who is the target..., must think those who, like the demonstrators in Europe, shouted in favour of Hamas. "Hurray for Freedom of Speech!"..... , or not. For example, several Spanish left-wing organizations tried to take me to court, accusing me of being a negationist, like a Nazi, because I deny the "Palestinian Holocaust".They were pretending to prohibit me from writing articles and to send me to prison. And so on... The social critical mass has lost weight and, at the same time, ideological dogmatism has gained weight. In this double turn of events, the strong values of modernity have been substituted by a "weak thinking", vulnerable to manipulation and manicheism.

Defeat of the United Nations. And with it, a sound defeat of the international organizations which should look after Human Rights. Instead they have become broken puppets in the hands of despots. The United Nations is only useful so that Islamofascists like Ahmadineyad, or dangerous demagogues like Hugo Chavez have a planetary loudspeaker where they can spit their hatred. And, of course, to systematically attack Israel. The UN, too lives better against Israel.

Finally, defeat of Islam. The Islam of tolerance and culture suffers today the violent attack of a totalitarian virus which tries to stop its ethical development. This virus uses the name of God to perpetrate the most terrible horrors: lapidate women, enslave them, use youths as human bombs. Let's not forget : They kill us with cellular phones connected to the Middle Ages. If Stalinism destroyed the left, and Nazism destroyed Europe, islamic fundamentalism is destroying Islam. And it also has, an antisemite DNA. Perhaps islamic antisemitism is the most serious intolerant phenomenon of our times, indeed , it contaminates more than 1,400 million people, who are educated, massively, in hatred towards the Jew.

In the crossroads of these defeats, is Israel. Orphan of a reasonable left, orphan of serious journalism, orphan of a decent UN, and orphan of a tolerant Islam, Israel suffers the paradigm of the 21st Century: the lack of a solid commitment with the values of liberty. Nothing seems strange. Jewish culture represents, as no other does, the metaphor of a concept of civilization which suffers today attacks on all flanks. You are the thermometer of the world's health. Whenever the World has had totalitarian fever, you have suffered. In the Spanish Middle Ages, in Christian persecutions, in Russian pogroms, in European Fascism, in Islamic fundamentalism. Always, the first enemy of totalitarianism has been the Jew. And, in these times of energy dependency and social uncertainty, Israel embodies, in its own flesh, the eternal Jew.

A pariah nation among nations, for a pariah people among peoples. That is why the antisemitism of the 21st Century has dressed itself with the efficient disguise of anti-Israelism, or its synonym, anti-Zionism. All criticism against Israel is antisemitism? NO. But all present-day antisemitism has turned into prejudice and the demonization of the Jewsih State. New clothes for an old hatred.

Benjamin Franklin said: " Where liberty is, there is my country." And Albert Einstein added: "The World is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don't do anything about it". This is the double commitment, here and now; never remain inactive in front of evil in action and defend the countries of liberty.

Thankyou.

 

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Pilar Rahola
16/12/2009